Green-News: Tuesday 7.15.08
- Friday the U.S. appeals court rejected new air-pollution regulations—shocking environmental groups. Jeff Tollefson of ENN reports:
The ruling, which one environmentalist called "the legal equivalent of a dirty bomb," threatened to overshadow a separate decision Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay potential regulations for carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.
Though many had expected the carbon dioxide non-decision, environmentalists were blindsided by the court's decision to throw out the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), a programme designed to reduce East Coast air pollution by cleaning up coal-fired power plants in the Midwest.
"It is without a doubt the worst news of the year when it comes to air pollution," says Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an environmental group based in Washington DC.
- A small town in Japan plans to recycle and compost EVERYTHING. Sea Stachura of GreenDaily has more:
The decision by Kamikatsu's mayor is partly economic. It costs the city less money to recycle and compost thoroughly than it does to incinerate the waste for energy.
But full responsibility for garbage falls on residents shoulders. The styrofoam trays used to hold meat have to be washed before being recycled; labels must be removed. Residents sort polyethylene teraphthalate bottles from other types of plastic containers because PET are more valuable. Pens and razors have boxes of their own.
Residents say composting and sorting does take more time, but they are more aware of what they throw out, what they use and how. The mayor of Kamikatsu says every community should follow his lead.
I’m not sure how to react to this, but apparently high gas prices curb the number of automobile deaths. Via Lloyd Alter of TreeHugger:
A new study indicates that high gas prices could reduce auto deaths by nearly a third, and even more among price-sensitive teenage drivers.
According to LiveScience, "Professors Michael Morrisey of the University of Alabama-Birmingham and David Grabowski of Harvard Medical School found that for every 10 percent increase in gas prices there was a 2.3 percent decline in auto deaths. For drivers ages 15 to 17, the decline was 6 percent, and for ages 18 to 21, it was 3.2 percent....
"I think there is some silver lining here in higher gas taxes in that we will see a public health gain," Grabowski said. But he cautioned that their estimate of a decline of 1,000 deaths a month could be offset somewhat by the shift under way to smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient cars and the increase in motorcycle and scooter driving."
