SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line

Dispatches from the environmental battlefield.

Two new ways to recycle clothes in San Francisco 3 Sep 2010, 6:02 pm

If you’re planning on doing some housecleaning this long weekend, be sure not to toss any clothes or sheets. Coming soon to the Bay Area are 100 clothing recycling bins from USAgain (cleverly pronounced “use again”). The bins accept all kinds of textiles — and shoes, too. USAgain works…



Recycling – San Francisco Bay Area – Textile – Business – Waste management

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

Another BP spill 2 Sep 2010, 6:31 pm

You may already have heard about an oil rig explosion that occurred this morning near the site of the fateful Deepwater Horizon explosion in April. But you probably haven’t heard that even BP’s rig spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf this summer, a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas,…



Texas City – Deepwater Horizon – BP – Oil spill – Oil

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

Early humans were cannibals 1 Sep 2010, 6:36 pm

New anthropologic research suggests that early humans — those living about 800,000 years ago in Europe — ate their young. Or the young of their enemies, anyway. Among the remains of bison, sheep and other animals in a cave in northern Spain, researchers found the “butchered…



Spain – Homo – Research – Domestic sheep – Business

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

Research predicts major mental health effects of Gulf oil spill 31 Aug 2010, 6:25 pm

The Gulf of Mexico, as the recent oil spill reminded us, is a landscape, a way of life, and an entire economy . So what happens what all of that is threatened? Researcher Deborah Du Nann Winter, professor of psychology at Whitman College, predicts a significant uptick in depression and…



Gulf of Mexico – Oil spill – Whitman College – Mental health – Environment

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

Is Burning Man’s Black Rock City a model sustainable city? 30 Aug 2010, 7:16 pm

The theme of this year’s Burning Man gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert is Metropolis, a fancy way of saying city planning. The festival seems an interesting forum for such a consideration since every year its Black Rock City rises up out of the desert and disappears, as mandated by the…



Nevada – Burning Man – Black Rock Desert – United States – Arts and Entertainment

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

California doubles its solar capacity 27 Aug 2010, 7:38 pm

In the last two days, California has approved two large-scale solar projects that will double the state’s sun power. Final approval for the two projects, Blythe Solar Energy Project in Riverside County and Beacon Solar Energy Project in Kern County , ends a long stalemate over the …



California – Kern County California – Energy – Renewable – Riverside County California

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

iPhone drops the call for environmental ratings 26 Aug 2010, 6:49 pm

Apple refused to include the iPhone in a far-reaching green ranking system for mobile phones in the UK. The rankings convert manufacturers’ answers to a 63-question survey into a ranking of 1-5 for each device, factoring in energy use and materials among other things. Apple has refused…



iPhone – Apple – Mobile phone – Energy – Handhelds

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

Dude, where’s my cannabis car? 24 Aug 2010, 7:41 pm

Here’s one way to get college students to go to class: Assign them to build things with cannabis. Several Canadian companies are teaming up with polytechnic schools in Alberta, Quebec and Toronto to make an electric vehicle out of hemp. The cars will hold up to three passengers, reach 55 miles an…



Cannabis – Alberta – Electric vehicle – List of companies of Canada – Quebec

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

60-mile traffic jam in China takes 3 days to navigate 23 Aug 2010, 7:25 pm

While I’m sure your morning commute is no fun, it could definitely be worse: A 62-mile traffic standstill on a road leading to Beijing is now in its ninth day , with individual drivers caught in it for as long as three days. The cause of the jam — beyond the skyrocketing number of drivers in…



Beijing – Traffic congestion – China – Asia – Traffic Control

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |

Bill would tell state how much of its water goes to bottlers 23 Aug 2010, 6:32 pm

Does the state have a right to know where its water is going? TGL has reported on the scandal that is bottled water: Companies suck up millions of gallons of public water, then they sell it back to us at a huge markup in plastic bottles that cause serious environmental problems. A state …



Water – Bottled water – Plastic bottle – Drinking water – Environment

Source: SFGate: Dispatches from the environmental battlefield. : The Thin Green Line |