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From Carton to Carpet: Recycled Homes

By Avi Friedman / On March 8th, 2012
North Americans are doing their fair share in reducing the millions of tons of domestic garbage that the country generates.  Each week they carefully sort their own waste and place it in a box near the curb for a pickup.  When the program began, some argued that recycling is no more than fancy garbage collection.  They were wrong.  Not only has recycling eased the pressure on our landfills, recycled products became the prime component in many construction products.
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A New Year, But Old Problems Persist: Reports of Child Labor and Export of Toxics Continue

By Elizabeth Grossman / On January 11th, 2012
Next month will mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth. Given the last two centuries' stratospheric advances in technology and the past century's progress in human rights policy, one would think that child labor, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, and the export of hazardous industrial refuse to poor countries and communities would be a thing of the past. But as several reports released last month show, Dickensian working and living conditions are still very much with us. Children continue to be engaged in hazardous manual labor instead of attending school.
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The E.U. "Airline Tax"

By Shi-Ling Hsu / On January 9th, 2012
The charge that airlines will have to pay for flying in and out of the EU is not a "tax" at all, but the cost of airlines having to hold tradable emissions permits under the EU Emissions Trading System. Starting January 1, 2012, airlines will have to hold permits for the carbon dioxide their airplanes emit during the entire length of a flight that originates or terminates in the EU zone [see EU reg].
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Deja Vu in Kiwi-Ancient Forests

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On December 14th, 2011
To the untrained eye, New Zealand forests have a tropical feel somewhat out-of-character in a temperate world. Like Australia, these rainforests owe their existence to the ancient ark of Gondwana that broke away from Pangea at a time when dinosaurs were still flourishing.  Some of the species like giant Kauri trees have lineages dating back 100 million years.
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Temperate Rainforests Down Under Owe Existence to Ancient Ark

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On December 9th, 2011
Some 38-45 million years ago, Australia broke off from its parent super-continent, Gondwana, and began drifting northward.  In its long and arduous journey, the ark rafted ancient species forced to cope with a cooling and drying climate. Some, like Antarctic beech (Nothofagus spp.), were forced into climatic refugia along the eastern edge of Australia where it remained moist enough to cradle the evolution of rainforest communities in changing times.
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Occupy the Tongass Rainforest?

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On November 7th, 2011
Taking America by storm with actions reminiscent of the 60s, “Occupy Wall Street” has gone viral in an attempt to raise awareness about corporate interests being placed above public needs. But the movement has yet to sound alarm bells on the Tongass rainforest, where a native corporation is seeking to develop and log over 100-square miles of public lands through a legislative lands transfer proposed in Congress.
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It Is a Matter of Scale or What is the Connection between Brain Size and Sprawl

By Admin / On September 26th, 2011
Scale is fundamental to urban design. If you get it right, and achieve a well-proportioned space between buildings, you have a sound basis to build upon. Even if the architecture is far from perfect, the public realm you create can be decent and comfortable. If you get the scale wrong and your master plan is built, even the most lustrous architecture won’t remediate the failure of space-making; people might still use it for utilitarian reasons (think the parking lot of a Wal-Mart), but will not enjoy it.

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