EcoIQ Magazine Opinions

Archived Opinion Articles

Calling The US' Bluff On Kyoto
By Christopher Flavin

President Bush has breathed new life into the global effort to combat climate change. In Europe, shock has turned to anger over Bush's hasty rejection of the Kyoto protocol. His rejection has also fostered a new determination to bring the protocol into force - without the US if necessary. More...

Dissatisfaction Guaranteed
By Dave Wann

It's like going into a room and forgetting what you came for, except in this case it's the whole culture, forgetting. We forget to ask, "What's an economy for?" En route to a brand new American millennium, we got detoured. Price tags and bar codes began to coat the surfaces of our lives, as every single activity became a transaction. Eating, entertainment, socializing, health, even religion - all became marketable commodities. More...

From Wastes To Resources: It’s Time for a Paradigm Shift
By Richard Gertman

We need to return to the goal -- sensible diversion programs that recover materials and maintain their value. Resources should be recovered for their value, not just to keep them out of a landfill. We need to change the focus, but to do so will require a paradigm shift. More...

The Color Asphalt
By Hartmut Gerdes

I trust you are as pleased as I am to hear about the "hybrid" electric-gas powered smart car. In the future, we’ll likely have cars powered by fuel cells. Hybrids produce far less environmentally or atmospherically damaging exhaust, and fuel cell powered cars will produce almost none. More...

Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future
By Duane Elgin

How grown up do you think humanity is? When you look at human behavior around the world and then imagine our species as one individual, how old would that person be? A toddler? A teenager? A young adult? An elder? More...

Damn the Torpedoes & Torpedo the Dams
By Robert "Birdlegs" Caughlan

Four hundred miles of California’s fabulous beaches are starving for sand, but surfers and other beach lovers have the muscle to bring them back. We know why they’re starving and shrinking, and we know how to rescue them. More...

Preparing to Live in the Next Millennium
By Denis Hayes

We tend to think of eras with great leadership as eras that have great challenges, and that different people if placed in different circumstances might have moved from mediocrity to greatness. More...

How Profit Shapes Urban Space
By Jeffery J. Smith

Like the rest of the universe, US cities keep expanding. Some time before the universe begins to contract, American metro regions may, too. What counterpart to gravity might suck suburbia back into the hole of our doughnut cities? More...

Environmental Stewardship Vs. Economic Development
By Walter McGuire

In the long term, the economy and the environment are inextricably linked. Today's economy depends heavily on the availability and cost of resources. Yet, we have built an economy that values resource consumption rather than stewardship. More...

Petroleum: Once Blessing, Now Curse
By Rod Diridon, Sr.

Henry Ford's dream of mobility has had a staggering impact. The Nation has been provided mobility, jobs, exports, and an auto-worship that carries us physically and mentally from puberty to the grave. More...

Beyond Ecomilitarism: A New Path For Environmental Activism
By Bill Shireman

This was a war-based strategy, a military-modeled strategy that used as its motto the credo of the Spanish Civil War: "Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." This is the model on which we developed the first wave of environmental activism. The military model. More...

Present Value, Future Value: Intergenerational Ethics In Water Supply Planning
By Eric Rosenblum

In 1746 Benjamin Franklin warned, "When the Well's dry, we know the Worth of Water." As difficult as it is to anticipate thirst in the midst of rain, it is even harder to appreciate today the needs of generations yet unborn, and to provide for them. More...

Plastic Bottles A Waste: Coke's Broken Promise To Recycle
By the GrassRoots Recycling Network

Coca-Cola's Chairman and CEO M. Douglas Ivester is responsible for wasting billions of plastic Coke bottles every year, according to a nonprofit group in the first of a series of paid advertisements appearing on the Op Ed Page of the New York Times. More...

Earth Day Clean Energy Agenda
By the Earth Day Network

As we approach the 21st century, Earth Day Network is launching a global campaign to bring about a swift transition to clean, renewable energy sources and a giant leap forward in energy efficiency. More...

Act Now ... Or Wastewater Infrastructure Costs Will Swamp America’s Communities
By The Association Of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies & the Water Environment Federation

The "Cost of Clean" is rising sharply. To focus national attention on skyrocketing wastewater infrastructure costs, two leading national water quality organizations have released startling findings on massive funding gaps facing local governments across the country. More...

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Tax Incentives Overwhelmingly Popular
By Edward Osann

What do GenX-ers and Seniors, Blacks and Whites, Southerners and Westerners, Republicans and Democrats, and city dwellers and rural residents all have in common? Based on the latest poll results, they all overwhelmingly support the encouragement of energy efficiency and renewable energy through tax incentives. More...

Does Congress Get It???
By the American Council for an Energy-Efficient-Economy

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient-Economy (ACEEE) supports the Administration's request for energy efficiency R&D and deployment programs at the Department of Energy (DOE) in FY 2000 as well as the proposed tax incentives for purchasing extra-efficient new vehicles, equipment, and homes. More...

Doubling Co-Generation A Productive Idea
By the American Council for an Energy-Efficient-Economy

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) applauds the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for its new commitment to double the use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems in commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings throughout the United States by 2010. More...

Utilities Shouldn't Abandon Programs
By the American Council for an Energy-Efficient-Economy

"Too many electric utilities are abandoning programs to help their consumers save energy and save money," said Howard Geller, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Commenting on a new study, Geller called for actions to reverse the slide in investment in energy-saving programs and technologies. More...

Urban Living in the New Millennium
By Jerry T. Estruth

The leaders of our cities are struggling to build transportation systems and to create communities that are livable and provide an environment friendly to people and animals. Slowly, awareness is growing and methods are being developed to enable us to build self-sufficient places to live in the future. More...

New Auto Fuel Economy Standards Needed
By the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Actions by the OPEC cartel and the resulting oil price shocks of 1973 and 1979 threw our economy into recession, costing millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of lost economic growth. We are headed for another oil price shock and more economic hardship if we don't reverse current trends. More...

Will History Repeat Itself?
By the Alliance to Save Energy

Without further development of energy-efficiency technologies and products, the United States will miss an opportunity to increase its energy productivity and to give itself a cushion should events take an unexpected turn just as they did 25 years ago. More...

The U.S. Must Lead On Greenhouse Gases
By the World Resources Institute

Developed countries have added much more to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide on a per capita basis, and their population-adjusted stock contribution is likely to remain far above that of developing countries throughout the coming century. More...

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