Sep 7, 08

From The Book

Planet: Introduction

Today, we are a planet on the move. According to the Population Resource Center, hundreds of millions of us have left the countries where we were born to start new lives abroad. Hundreds of millions more travel long distances for recreation and business. Jet contrails crisscross the skies, signals flash through fiber-optic cables, and the planet seems to shrink every day.

With all this travel, we've lost our connection to the land around us. Few of us could match the local ecological knowledge of our most ignorant ancestors. On the other hand, we've gained a greater understanding of the wider workings of nature.

image from NASA


The Fate of BC's Carbon Tax

by Eric de Place What Canada's tax shift means for the U.S. British Columbia's recent carbon tax made waves in the US. (more here, here, and here.) But it's not terribly popular in BC, as economist Marc Lee of the Canadian Centre...

Planet

How Europe Does It

Cap and Trade from the Continent by Eric de Place World Wildlife Fund has a helpful eight-page position statement that outlines the key features of the European Union's cap and trade program (called the Emissions Trading Scheme, or ETS for...


Seeing Climate Change Through the Trees

You've probably never heard of the whitebark pine, much less the tiny mountain pine beetle, but the story they tell together may be one of the clearest windows we have on how climate change is already affecting ecosystems around...

Planet

Return of the Plains Grizzly

By WorldChanging Canada writer Rod Edwards. The Grizzly bear's Latin name captures its place in popular culture: fierce symbol of untamed wilderness, Ursus arctos horribilis. Among carnivorous North American land mammals, the grizzly is second in size only to...

Stuff

When appropriate design meets sustainable livelihoods

In many parts of rural South Asia young women are often left with little option in gaining an income. Unfortunately thousands, some younger than 12, are being trafficked and lost into prostitution every year. In July I was in Bangkok...


NRDC Tour of Yellowstone's Whitebark Pine Ecosystem

Last night, I touched down just north of Jackson Hole, Wyo., in the Grand Tetons. The landing strip -- the only airport inside of a national park -- lies just within the shadow of the jagged mountain range. I...


Inside WCI: Federal Pre-emption

What happens with a new president? by Eric de Place This is the eigth in a short series of posts that explain some important but often overlooked policy issues in the Western Climate Initiative -- the West's regional cap-and-trade system...

Planet

DNA Forensics May Prevent Elephant Poaching

A shipment of forest timber traveled around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean before it arrived at the Hong Kong dockyards two years ago. During a routine X-ray examination, customs officials discovered an even more...

Planet

Can the Dead Sea Be Brought to Life?

by Hannah Doherty The Dead Sea has been a religious and cultural landmark of the Middle East for thousands of years. Saltier than the oceans, the lake is like none other in the world. But in the past 30 years...

Planet

Carbon Share

by Eric de Place A new spin on cap and dividend. Here's an intriguing idea from California: Carbon Share. It's basically a version of Cap and Dividend (aka Skytrust) but with a twist. Instead of auctioning carbon allowances to polluters...

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