The Footprint Blog

Heat seeking camera used to assess home energy use

The quality of your home's insulation can be hard to assess without tearing into walls or poking a hole in the roof to see what's underneath. But a group of municipalities in Belgium have taken a creative approach to helping people learn about their roof insulation: they hired an airplane-mounted thermal imaging camera to photograph neighborhoods over a four-night period… read more →

Climate bill officially dead

The climate bill is officially dead in the Senate, and I'm still wading through the numerous eulogies to figure out how I feel about that fact. I'm not surprised, even though we've recently used these pages to buffer ourselves with hopes that something could work out. But I am extremely disappointed. I think Dave Roberts has the best angle when… read more →

Losing a climate leader

The world lost an influential and effective communicator and scientist last week when Dr. Stephen Schneider, founder of the scientific journal *Climatic Change* and Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford died of a heart attack while returning from a conference on climate change. The list of awards, honors, and academic positions that Prof. Schneider held over his life represent… read more →

The green (10,000) mile adventure

  • July 8, 2010
  • Society
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In just 2 weeks, intrepid travelers/adventurists from across the world will embark on the Mongol Rally, a 10,000 mile drive that starts in London, England and ends in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. The rules are simple: raise money for charity and get to the end (however you choose). One team was adamant about making their adventure as sustainable as possible. Baatar… read more →

Save the whales! Save the planet!

It turns out sperm whales are every bit as good for the atmosphere as they are awesome to look at. Scientists from Australia have calculated that the whales may in fact be responsible for the removal of 200,000 tonnes of carbon every year, approximately the same as taking 40,000 cars off the road. Large mammals are generally considered to be… read more →

Encouraging people to drive to the bar

I get funny looks when the subject of zoning ordinances comes up, mostly because I end up hijacking the conversation to talk about the insanity of our parking laws. But if other people are talking about it on their blogs, it's only fair that I get to mention it here: >[D]id you know that American cities usually require off-street parking… read more →

The experts have it… TerraPass is #1 again!

We are thrilled to announce that TerraPass has claimed the top spot in Greenopia's rankings of carbon offset companies for the 2nd straight year. In fact, we are the only provider to receive Greenopia's coveted four-leaf ranking. Greenopia's overall verdict: > TerraPass is head and shoulders above the rest of the industry in terms of transparency, project selection, and usability,… read more →

EPA analysis of Kerry-Lieberman released

The EPA released its analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman bill - aka the American Power Act - earlier this week and the results are in: this bill, much like the ACES legislation already passed by the House, will have a nonexistent to negligible effect on the longterm prosperity of the USA. Detailed analysis here(pdf), and bullet-pointed summary by Dave Roberts over… read more →

What’s holding up China’s oldest buildings?

Scientists, reporting in an issue of *Accounts of Chemical Research*, have discovered the secret organic ingredient added to building mortar in China to create super strong walls that withstood even earthquakes: sticky rice. In creating what amounts to the first organic-inorganic composite material, construction workers circa 1500 years ago utilized a unique feature of a polysaccharide chain from the sticky… read more →

Cash for caulkers coming

The House passed the "Cash for Caulkers" legislation earlier this year and (maybe? hopefully? probably?) the Senate will soon follow suit. The legislation provides incentives for energy efficiency improvements by rebating to homeowners some $6 billion dollars for window retrofits, water heater upgrades, and insulation installations, among other things. I don't want to go into a ton of detail about… read more →
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