Big Think

If RFK Jr. Gave Birth Today, His Child Would Have Diminished IQ: The Link Between Coal And Mercury

“Would you please turn the lights up,” Robert F Kennedy Jr. asked the stage crew as he took the floor of New York’s Town Hall in Times Square, about to deliver an environmental lecture to a roaring full house this Tuesday. “I want to be able to see if people are leaving.” It was a joke, just the first of many for the evening, but the fact is that RFK, America’s most prominent environmental lawyer, Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Riverkeeper and Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, does have a hawk eye on us all—on polluters, on lobbyists, on fake think tanks funded by oil and coal, on corporations, on Jane and Joe Shmoe, and on the government. … Read More

November 19, 2009   |  In Environment

Give a Little: Green Microgiving

Spare some change? This past Thursday, the New York Times ran a special section on giving, the big front page story of which was all about giving small. You know, small giving? Like little-ish donations in the $1 to $200 range, that people who aren’t Bill or Melinda Gates can make without breaking the bank. “After years in the shadows,” writes NYT’s Stephanie Strom, “the everyday donor is emerging as philanthropy’s newest hero, the driver of a more down-to-earth approach to charity. Sure, Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Bono and other celebrity mega-donors still have their place, but now high-profile charities are homing in on smaller donations, while new charities are being organized around the principle of modest giving.” Even Fidelity Investments, notes Strom, is hip to the small-gift trend; the company dropped the minimum for donor-advised funds from $100 to $50 in October 2008. … Read More

November 17, 2009   |  In Environment

Waterless Clothes Washing. Almost.

What if you could clean a load of dirty clothes and linens with just a spoonful of laundry detergent and a single cup of water? As soon as late 2010, commercial laundry rooms in hotels, hospitals, and the like may have the option to save massive amounts of (increasingly expensive) water by switching over to a revolutionary new washing technology. A nearly waterless washing machine designed by a company called Xeros (Greek for “dry”) purportedly uses only 10% of the water sucked up by conventional machines. The rest of the dirty work is done by little “rice-sized nylon beads,” according to BusinessWeeks’ Adam Aston, which “act like chemical magnets, absorbing grime and soap as they tumble over fabric.” Aston writes that the Xeros venture has already been backed by “some $3 million in public and venture capital funds,” and is slated to hit the market, well, relatively soon. … Read More

November 13, 2009   |  In Environment

Carole King's Crusade To Protect The Rockies

Grammy-award winning singer Carole King has been raising her voice on the radio lately—not in song, this time, but in a plea for the Rocky Mountains. King hails from the mountains of Idaho; at the apex of her career, the Brooklyn native went looking for a place with fewer people and more space, and settled on a county in the center of the Gem State. She’s been active in the fight to preserve American northern wilderness ever since. Back in February of this year, King announced her support of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA, or H.R. 980), a new bill introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). In May, King testified before Congress on NREPA, and just last week she traveled again to Washington, to talk with several Representatives about the economic, cultural, and environmental impacts it could have. … Read More

November 5, 2009   |  In Environment

UNFCCC Secretary De Boer Declares No Chance Of International Treaty At COP15

Just about a month remains before December’s culminating UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen (COP15) – the last five days of pre-COP15 talks are taking place this week in Barcelona. The hope, once, was that the over 190 participating nations would be ready by December to nail down the details of an international climate treaty (read:  individual nations’ carbon cut targets, plus an agreement as to how much financial support developed nations will give developing nations for climate change adaptation). But Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), now says that’s just not in the cards. … Read More

November 4, 2009   |  In Environment