Sara and her mom discovering the great outdoors.

I think, and I think you’ll agree, that our days of decadence are done. I mean, who can afford a $5 daily coffee fix everyday anymore? Who can afford the bottomless tank of yesteryear’s monster SUVs? Who can afford to travel? Or heat and cool their McMansion? It seems that we have been living in a time of decadence; a time of $100 burgers and $12.5 million bras. Key words: have been. Is it safe to say that those times have come, or are coming to, a close? So what now? Well, times like this, there’s only one thing to do. Simplify!

Image credit: Stephen Fung – a typical high-speed train in Taiwan

UK Conservative’s Plan for Trains No Planes – Green or Not?
We TreeHuggers tend to be big advocates of the environmental benefits of trains vs. planes, so we should all be overjoyed that the UK Conservative Party, who are currently riding high in the polls, have announced plans to scrap a third runway at Heathrow and to instead build a £20bn (US$36bn) rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. And according to The Guardian, the Conservatives’ radical rethink of transport policy has certainly received a welcome response from some environmentalists, including John Stewart, the chairman of Heathrow anti-expansion group Hacan:

Recent Comment by BenSchiendelman : "Even without a change in generation, you're still more efficient at the plant level tha..." [read]

photo: Stanley Johnson

Leave it to James Howard Kunstler to remind us of how bad things can still get...With all the volatility on the stock market today, and the dismal U.S. financial news, I thought it appropriate to turn to the post-peak oil apocalypse sage for some words of wisdom. In today’s installment of Clusterf**k Nation , Kunstler continued his ongoing harangue against what he sees as essentially a ponzi scheme writ large on Wall Street, with a slight bit of ‘I told you so’. He then addressed the ‘unseen tsunami’ of energy scarcity looming large behind the financial crisis:

Image:Construction workers work on the site of the residential complex of the Commonwealth Village being constructed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in partnership with private builder Emaar MGF (Getty)

Whether it’s Beijing or Vancouver, it seems that big-ticket developments for “the big games” can be smoke-and-mirrors operations for shipping out ‘undesirable’ populations (the poor, mentally ill or homeless persons) or conveniently sidestepping public accountability (sure, the 2010 Vancouver are going green, but take a look at some of the accusations of “corporate welfare” being leveled against the massive project).

In the case with Delhi’s 2010 Commonwealth Games, there is a lot at stake here: it is India’s first time to host the games, and expectations for a big debut are running high as more sponsorships and funding are being funneled toward athletes and development alike. There have been promises to make it green. But as with other Games, the "green" promise may be a diversion from the ground realities: to banish any unseeming poverty, evictions have begun and on top of that, there is concern that the planned games infrastructure may actually have a negative environmental impact, focusing on the intended site of the Games Village.

Recent Comment by Rob_ : "I don't think there can be any reasonable claim made that Vancouver 2010 (winter Olympi..." [read]

photo: Ricardo Medina

The morning plenary session at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting last Friday was on the “Global Impact of Rural Innovation” and had quite a distinguished panel of speakers. Well, every session at CGI had impressive credentials, but this one was particularly inspirational. Here are some of the highlights from Wangari Maathai , founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya:

Though much of the talk at last week’s Clinton Global Initiative meeting was about improving the lives of our fellow human beings, Rwandan president Paul Kagame was in attendance, seeking support for a historic conservation corridor in his country, which it is hoped will provide relief for endangered chimpanzees in the region. The Gishwati Area Conservation Program is being promoted in conjunction with the Great Ape Trust of Iowa and Earthpark is being billed as a “forest of hope”. This is what it’s all about:

Image Credit: The Guardian

A new software app for your phone takes all the calculating part out of figuring your carbon footprint. All you have to do is carry your phone around - which most of us do anyway - and it does the calculations for you. But, that also means it knows what you're doing at all times.

Intelligent dashboards are quickly becoming the major way in which people track and manage carbon footprints and environmental impacts. From home energy use to businesses carbon output, all the way up to the green-mindedness of a city, a state, or a country, we are beginning to use dashboards as an effective way to know where we stand.

West Coast Green 2008 highlighted this point through several avenues. First, the showhouse Harbinger featured a whole house energy monitoring system from Agilewaves. The system shows a homeowner what energy resources they're consuming, how much, the cost, and how to cut down. But homes are just the beginning.

Also at WCG was a workshop lead by leaders in dashboard technology. Highlighted was the fact that energy monitoring is a must-have technology if we are to make progress. Yet while advanced science is utilized, it is a basic human trait that is captured and will make dashboards effective in reducing human impact on a global level.