The Footprint Blog

Telling it like it is… but differently

A study (.pdf) published in Climatic Change this summer didn’t seem to catch much attention from the climate blogging community (some exceptions here and here but certainly nowhere near the excitement of this week’s “Atlasgate”). Titled “Personality type differences between Ph.D. climate researchers and the general public: implications for effective communication,” the study at first seems to state the obvious:… read more →

What do climate deniers and the Olympics have in common?

  • September 14, 2011
  • Politics
  • Comments Disabled
For one thing, they seem to have their science wrong (or at the very least, need to hire a better publicist). A couple of weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that the London 2012 Organizing Committee (LOCOG) is “dropping” its carbon offset scheme, which it had formally pledged as part of its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. I don’t know that… read more →

Climate Reality Project launches tonight

Founder of the project, former Vice-President Gore, remarked earlier this year: It’s urgent to rendezvous with reality in order to take the appropriate steps to save the future of civilization as we know it. Tune in tonight (and throughout tomorrow) to The Climate Reality Project, where 24 speakers, one from each time zone, will showcase the effects of climate change… read more →

Don’t scrap your food scraps!

We’ve written posts before about how cooking in large quantities can help you save energy. This time, we’ve decided to look into what to do with leftover food scraps. From infused vodka (see, greening doesn’t have to be a fun killer!) to bath soaks, reuse anything from peels to meat scraps to make economical and environmentally conscience use of any… read more →

Dear Reader: your input needed on recycling!

We asked for readers to raise topics that they’ve been struggling with, and this week, the focus is on recycling, particularly on improving recycling programs in certain states. Footprint reader Katie wrote: >I'm in Pennsylvania and I want to read some discussion about ideas to fire people up about taking the time to recycle -- and for companies and hotels… read more →

The transparency of plastics

  • August 17, 2011
  • Politics
  • Comments Disabled
I was going to take a break from the plastics talk, since I just blogged about Styrofoam, but it seems like other plastics have surfaced in the news this week. The Plastic Disclosure Project (PDP) is expected to officially launch this September. Modeled after the Carbon Disclosure Project, the PDP is an effort supported by a group of investors, who… read more →

Dear Reader: we’d like your input!

A few weeks ago, Erin highlighted an Eco-Driving Index that the University of Michigan created to track the emissions profile of new cars for sale. It seemed like it caught some of readers’ attention... until we realized that there was a rather informative discussion taking place on lawn mowers (see comments if you’ve been thinking about making the switch to… read more →

Clean tech goes east

On the environmental front, we generally hear much bad news coming out of China. China has experienced extraordinary economic growth (annual increases in GDP of 8-9%), much of it at the expense of the environment. The stats are real and bleak. Just to highlight a few from a previous World Bank report (pdf): - Between 2000 and 2005, energy consumption… read more →

Sorry, we’re all full (at this landfill)

I found this piece in this week’s NYT to be cool and inspiring (what? we really like to read about trash). Singapore’s land scarcity — the city-state is smaller than Rhode Island — has led the government to develop innovative waste disposal techniques. Among them is an island off the southern part of the mainland that opened after Singapore’s last… read more →

This is the (styro)foam that never ends…

I’ve had an aversion to Styrofoam for a long time. Many years ago at a summer camp, I went on a nature conservancy walk in Pennsylvania (about 20 minutes outside of State College) where the main lesson of the day was that trash doesn’t just disappear - it stays around for a very, very long time. On this particular walk,… read more →
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