Carbon Offsets: the New Racket?
Sheville Staff
Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones has observed that the whole carbon-offsets business is not working as well as the original intention. Briefly, the carbon offset industry was established to allow polluting companies to buy carbon offsets for their emissions: something environmentally bad would be offset by something environmentally good. What Harkinson points out is that this area has been growing fast and has become politically strong - with the result that environmentally questionable
projects are being funded.
At Sheville.org, we would ask a second question. It's wonderful to find ways to fund meaningful attempts to recycle, reuse, and create the infrastructure for alternate energy sources. But isn't the point that it is rampant consumerism that is producing our environmental mess, and that only when we realize that we cannot solve our problems through consumption that we can tackle them? Buying a carbon offset is simply another form of consumption, even if it's a "better" one than many.
Rethinking the Tragedy of the Commons
Sheville Staff
One of the classic pieces of the beginnings of Earth Day and the environmental movement was Garrett Hardin's 'The Tragedy of the Commons,' published in Science in 1968. Ian Angus has recently reconsidered the evidence - or lack of it - for Hardin's thesis in Monthly Review Zine.
Sheville Staff
The price of gasoline has sent SUV's into a free fall on car lots, but this sea change raises all sorts of questions for people who already own them. more...
J. Lee Lehman
This is a listing of books about energy conservation. Please feel free to suggest additions or changes to the author more...
J. Lee Lehman
This is a listing of books about green building. Please feel free to suggest additions or changes to the author more...
Tom Miller
Most of us, we will spend $1500 to $1800 on energy costs in a year’s time, normally the third largest expense line in our budget. Of this amount, the largest cost is for heating and cooling your home. more...
Gray Water
Sheville Staff
Many of you residents no doubt received the mailing from the state about conserving water. In the midst of the worst drought in 30 years, it also came out that the use of gray water in North Carolina is mostly illegal. Unbelievable?
Here are two websites of interest on this issue:
Click
here for the article text in the News Observer.
Click
here for the Carolina Gardening Forum on gray water
Sheville Staff
It is important for us to continue to find ways in which we can recycle products in order to do our part to help preserves our earth. Below are some tips that might help; try them! If you have some tips to add to the list please send them to shevilleva@sheville.org. Share what you know. more...
Michael Blate
With the I-40 and I-85 corridors slated to see some of the fastest growth ever in America's history over the next several decades, the issue of saving family farms and other "green space" in western NC is truly a pressing issue. more...
Robin Cape
Please join me this year in my pledge to play a role in encouraging Asheville to change 1000 light bulbs as part of the ENERGY STAR Change a Light, Change the World Campaign . more...
