Well, telling us something we should have learned in high school, a new study by researchers from the University of California shows why it is so difficult for the US to move forward on critical environmental issues.

The basics of it is that there is a severe misrepresentation of rural interests in the US political system. When you get into the details, you see how unbalanced this actually is and how this results in the US being an environmental laggard in the global community.

Nike has been one green company lately — in the last year, it has pushed for a strong clean energy and climate bill in Congress on its own and in concert with others and it has helped to reduce deforestation of the Amazon. Now, Nike has also just reported that it reduced its own carbon footprint last year while still growing economically. In fact, it has tremendously reduced greenhouse gas pollution over the last decade and 2009 just kept the ball rolling.

On top of all of that, Nike announced today that along with nine other organizations — Yahoo!, Best Buy, Creative Commons, IDEO, Mountain Equipment Co-op, nGenera, Outdoor Industry Association, salesforce.com, and 2degrees — Nike will “collaborate and share intellectual property (IP) which can lead to new sustainability business models and innovation.” This “Web-based marketplace” — GreenXchange (GX) — was announced at a CEO breakfast at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this morning.

GE and coal power plant operator Shenhua Group are among three pairs of companies who have inked deals to create joint ventures to build cleaner coal technology plants in China.

The $150 million joint venture will be shared between the two biggest carbon emitters in the world under a low carbon energy initiative agreed to this month between President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China, as part of a deal to reduce carbon emissions.

GE will contribute in-situ underground coal gasification or UCG technology. GE pioneered integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants in California and Florida that helped demonstrate the commercial feasibility of IGCC, and supplied the technology for Duke Energy for the world’s largest IGCC facility now being built in Indiana.

Media release

Berlin, 23rd November 2009 – The world’s diverse regions and ecosystems are close to reaching temperature thresholds – or “tipping points” – that can unleash devastating environmental, social and economic changes, according to a new report by WWF and Allianz.

Often global warming is seen as a process similar to a steady flow of water in our bathrooms and kitchens, where temperature goes up gradually, controlled by a turn of the tap.

It seems that the more time that goes on, the more we see poop being converted into a useful energy source. The latest nation to jump on board this new green trend in alternative energy is the Netherlands with the opening of a cow dung powered plant this Friday.
 
The plant is located in a more rural area where there is a big farming industry, including a dairy plant which is already making its own contribution to local sustainability. Now, it’s really making a contribution to the community, since the dairy cows’ dung is being converted into biogas that will provide heat to approximately 1,100 homes in the area. The manure, which will be fermented with grass, will also fuel the new thermal plant’s wind turbines.

Mercury pollution is next on the list of global health threats to face concentrated action with the goal of elimination.  According to Zero Mercury Working Group, yesterday the first significant steps toward a binding treaty to control mercury pollution were announced at a United Nations Environmental Program meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, in advance of negotiations that will take place in Stockholm next summer.

The global nature of mercury pollution lies in its ability to travel long distances from its point of emission through the food chain.  In fish it accumulates in its most toxic form, methylmercury.  Zero Mercury hopes to achieve a treaty by 2013 that promotes more sustainable alternatives to mercury in products and industrial processes, with the broad goal of addressing all controllable emissions of mercury in the environment.

Every industry is taking steps to adopt greener methods, and it’s become particularly important in businesses that provide transportation services to consumers because this is what people are looking for. Even if they can’t take big steps to make their own homes and businesses cleaner, they can help reduce their carbon footprint by making wiser environmental decisions. In order to address this shift in environmental perception and need, companies like the Green Tomato Cars Taxi Service in the UK are marketing their businesses to the more environmentally conscientious.

Following action by Nike, the nation’s leading utility company, and others, Apple resigned from the US Chamber of Commerce this week, and in force.

Apple vice president Catherine A. Novelli wrote to the US Chamber of Commerce president, Thomas J. Donahue: “We strongly object to the Chamber’s recent comments opposing the EPA’s effort to limit greenhouse gases.” She went on to mention that Apple is doing many things to try to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and develop energy efficient products. Then, she pointed out that Apple is doing this all voluntarily but believes others who do not do so voluntarily should be required to do so by government legislation.

Nike just announced that it is leaving its position on the US Chamber of Commerce board of directors because of the business organization’s opposition to climate action.

Nike doesn’t beat around the bush on why it is leaving the board.

Nike says: “Nike believes US businesses must advocate for aggressive climate change legislation and that the United States needs to move rapidly into a sustainable economy to remain competitive and ensure continued economic growth.”

Nike is not the first major company to take up action against the organization. The nation’s largest utility company and other major utilities actually resigned from the Chamber of Commerce altogether recently over this issue.

The demise of retail giant Filene’s Basement may have a positive effect on proponents of vertical urban farming and algae biofuels alike. Since 2007, the developers of a Filene’s site in downtown Boston have been unable to find funding to move the project forward. But now Höweler + Yoon Architecture and their partner Squared have put forth a proposal to erect a temporary vertical, modular, algae bioreactor high-rise in its place.

Called the Eco-Pod (pdf), the project leaders intend it to immediately stimulate “the economy and the ecology” of downtown Boston simultaneously. Eco-pod is a temporary modular structure made of individual pods that can be disassembled if and when the Filene’s project actually gets funded. According to the developers of Eco-Pod, each pod will produce biofuel and act as an incubator for scientists and companies to do research on growing algae and producing biofuel. The structure will also have open common areas to form a network of public parks and gardens.

Park authorities have arrested a dozen people in connection to the recent Chitwan National Park rhino killings.

The good news: Multiple arrests have been made in connection to the recent rhino poaching incidents inside Nepal’s Chitwan National Park.

The bad news: It turns out that three - not two - rhino were killed by poachers over the last two weeks. Two of the rhino were females.

Syntroleum Corporation and Tyson Foods have partnered in a 50/50 venture called Dynamic Fuels to produce a new high-grade renewable diesel fuel. Using a proprietary Bio-Synfining process and a feedstock of animal fats, greases, and vegetable oils supplied from Tyson, Dynamic Fuels will produce diesel fuel with the lowest greenhouse gas emission levels of any transportation fuel available today.

Last month Dynamic Fuel chose Emerson Process Management to provide the digital automation and process management systems to help operate a new $138 million renewable diesel facility in Geismar, Louisiana, the largest such plant in North America. Scheduled to begin operation in 2010, the plant will produce 75 million gallons per year of of the fuel.