Rating the SRI Funds

October 12, 2007 12:33 PM - Michael Kramer, M.Ed, AIF

Investors face a persistent challenge in understanding the varied criteria used by socially responsible mutual funds to select portfolio holdings. As there are no universal standards for the industry, a fund that excludes only tobacco from consideration, or that has a specific religious or other focus, is grouped in the socially responsible investment (SRI) category with dozens of other funds which apply a broader range of ethical criteria to the selection of companies. Like the concept of sustainability, social responsibility can address a combination of variables, such as avoidance and affirmative screens, shareholder advocacy, and community development investing. Fund companies may address industries, corporate practices across sectors, and numerous international issues, by conducting social research using internal and external resources in unique ways.

Full Sail Ahead For Wind Energy

October 11, 2007 01:34 PM - Bruce Mulliken

Find a site. Buy’em. Plant’em. Plug’em in. Aside from the growing worldwide demand for clean power, it’s relatively easy to build wind energy capacity. Why would anyone consider building a nuclear power plant of say 1000 megawatts - which can take years to build - when power developers can buy off-the-shelf products (those megawatt-class wind turbines) and plant them in the soil for the same amount of power as the nuke in a very short period of time?

(Given recent announcements of record, ten-years-ahead-predictions, greenhouse gas emissions along with record Arctic ice melt, we might not have enough time to build nukes or develop mythical clean coal power plants.)

The announcement of plans from German renewable provider Conergy for a 1000 megawatt wind farm in the Australian Outback serves as a reminder as to how big and how smart and how much potential the wind energy industry still has. The wind is not only still in the sails of the wind energy industry, the wind is getting stronger as well.

Full Sail Ahead For Wind Energy

October 11, 2007 01:34 PM - Bruce Mulliken

Find a site. Buy’em. Plant’em. Plug’em in. Aside from the growing worldwide demand for clean power, it’s relatively easy to build wind energy capacity. Why would anyone consider building a nuclear power plant of say 1000 megawatts - which can take years to build - when power developers can buy off-the-shelf products (those megawatt-class wind turbines) and plant them in the soil for the same amount of power as the nuke in a very short period of time?

(Given recent announcements of record, ten-years-ahead-predictions, greenhouse gas emissions along with record Arctic ice melt, we might not have enough time to build nukes or develop mythical clean coal power plants.)

The announcement of plans from German renewable provider Conergy for a 1000 megawatt wind farm in the Australian Outback serves as a reminder as to how big and how smart and how much potential the wind energy industry still has. The wind is not only still in the sails of the wind energy industry, the wind is getting stronger as well.

Rave Reviews: Emily Katz - Portland Fashion Week

October 9, 2007 08:27 AM -

With all of Portland Fashion Week's exciting eco-events less than two weeks away, we are amped to have more of Emily Katz' intelligently simply line in our store again. Dedicated to using sustainable fabrics; such as soy jersey, hemp/recycled poly denim, water resistant fleece and organic cotton fleece; Portland-based Katz is a perfect example of modern, stylish, versatile clothing that is also "green".

ENN Correspondent from the Congo: Pretty but not that nice

October 9, 2007 08:09 AM - Vanessa Woods

BLOGPOST: This is my pic of the day. It’s Semendwa and her baby Elikia. She’s having a sweet moment in the photo but don’t let it fool you. She is like Cleopatra, an alpha female since she was 2 years old. About 3 minutes after I caught her looking so sweet and motherly in the photo, she ran after one of the juvenile males, Bolobo and bit him really hard. This is Bolobo screaming in the bushes.

Book Review: Climate Change and Can We Stop It?

October 9, 2007 08:01 AM - Bill McKibben

A review of controversial books on climate change and the environmental movement by Bjørn Lomborg and Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger.

During the last year, momentum has finally begun to build for taking action against global warming by putting limits on carbon emissions and then reducing them. Driven by ever-more-dire scientific reports, Congress has, for the first time, begun debating ambitious targets for carbon reduction. Al Gore, in his recent Live Earth concerts, announced that he will work to see an international treaty signed by the end of 2009. Even President Bush has recently reversed his previous opposition and summoned the leaders of all the top carbon-emitting countries to a series of conferences designed to yield some form of limits on CO2.

Should Organics be Tested for GMOs?

October 4, 2007 07:18 PM - Ken Roseboro

Iowa - A recent disturbing incident of GMO contamination of organic soybeans raises the question of whether organic foods should be tested for genetically modified material. The US National Organic Program rules prohibit GMOs in organics but don't require methods to prohibit GMO contamination or establish thresholds for adventitious GM presence. The Organic & Non-GMO Report surveyed organic industry experts to obtain their thoughts on the question of testing.

According to Billy Hunter, an Iowa-based organic inspector, many organic food companies are ignoring the genetically modified food threat. "Many companies have their heads in the sand about the issue," says Hunter, who conducts organic inspections for certifiers such as Quality Assurance International and Oregon Tilth, as well as audits for a non-GMO certification firm.

"Heads in the sand doesn't solve the problem"

The Nature Of The New World

October 4, 2007 03:02 PM - Lester R. Brown

We recently entered a new century, but we are also entering a new world, one where the collisions between our demands and the earth’s capacity to satisfy them are becoming daily events. It may be another crop-withering heat wave, another village abandoned because of invading sand dunes, or another aquifer pumped dry. If we do not act quickly to reverse the trends, these seemingly isolated events will occur more and more frequently, accumulating and combining to determine our future.
Resources that accumulated over eons of geological time are being consumed in a single human lifespan.

Long road to recovery for housing market: Greenspan

October 1, 2007 02:40 PM - Matt Falloon

LONDON (Reuters) - The housing market has a long way to go before stabilizing after the subprime crisis, spelling bad news for consumers in the world's biggest economy, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said on Monday.

Greenspan, who has been outspoken throughout the credit crunch, said more house price declines were likely given a surfeit of supply but pointed to signs the lending crisis could be coming to end as demand for more risky assets grows.

However, he warned any speculative market fever must be allowed to run its course to enable a full recovery.

In Depth: A Very Green Environmental Ruling, From The Green State

September 28, 2007 06:21 PM - Richard M. Frank, UC Berkeley, Professor of Law

On September 17, 2007, Judge William Sessions of the U.S. District Court in Vermont issued a landmark decision in the roiling legal and political debate over climate change.  Aside from the U.S. Supreme Court’s pioneering, April 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. USEPA, Judge Sessions’ decision last week in Green Mountain Chrysler v. Crombie is the most important court ruling in the still-nascent history of climate change litigation.  

Like the Supreme Court’s earlier Massachusetts decision, Green Mountain Chrysler is noteworthy not simply as an important legal development, but also for its impact on the broader policy debate surrounding climate change policy generally.