by Erica Gies

Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago The massive climate and energy bill now working its way through Congress would create a multi-billion-dollar market in carbon offsets, giving owners of agricultural and forest land the opportunity to profit as companies seek to offset their carbon emissions. But what types of land management should qualify as an offset? How will an offset be measured and monitored? How often should offsets be reevaluated? Should environmental regulators or agriculture officials oversee the program? Read More

Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago The compliance market for offsets proposed under Waxman-Markey would result in a major realignment in the types of offsets offered, shifting away from renewable energy to offsets derived largely from land use, land use change, and forestry projects. Read More

Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago The Waxman-Markey climate bill does not propose a pure cap-and-trade scheme. It's actually cap and trade and offset. Carbon offsets are controversial: Viewed by supporters as a way to control carbon costs under cap-and-trade, but decried by critics as a significant flaw that will undermine the overriding goal of lowering carbon emissions. Read More

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago The road from deciding to ditch your car to actually doing it can be bumpy -- find out how one urban driver navigated her way to auto-freedom. Read More

Posted 2 years, 9 months ago Each night, the Qinghai-Tibet train leaves Beijing at 9:30. A mere 48 hours later, it rolls into Lhasa, 2,525 miles away.

Shortly after 9 p.m. one warm night last fall, my travel companion and I raced through the sprawling West Beijing train station, weaving our way through a crush of humanity sitting on newspapers and bits of cardboard, eating cups of noodles while waiting for their own journeys. Winded, we boarded our soft sleeper car on Train 27 and made our way to… Read More

Posted 3 years, 1 month ago Taking a vacation to the other side of the planet is the ultimate luxury, but it's one laced with guilt. On top of developed-country remorse, a new form of shame is beginning to stalk those of us taking "unnecessary" airplane rides: What about all that carbon dioxide spewing into the friendly but beleaguered skies? That's where the nascent carbon-offset market comes in, allowing individuals and companies to compensate for their emissions by investing in projects that reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

When… Read More

Posted 3 years, 3 months ago Reports that Fidel Castro turned over power to his brother Raul last week because of surgery for intestinal bleeding have brought a flashback to the Cold War, with reporters rushing to doodle prematurely on his grave and interview the vociferous hard-right Miami expat constituency that has helped dictate U.S.-Cuba policy for the last 47 years. But they're missing a vital part of the story.

Tired of my government's hyperbole on the subject, I visited Cuba not long ago. I wanted… Read More

Posted 4 years ago It's easy to see in hindsight. Yes, Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster, but it was aided by some very unnatural factors -- developed wetlands and neglected levees, to name two. Figuring there must be other parts of the U.S. in human-made peril, we talked with experts to learn where we've made ourselves most vulnerable, and what -- in lieu of scrapping the whole country and starting over -- is being done to help. Read More

Posted 4 years ago Much has been made of the effects of methamphetamine on users, from crumbling teeth to erratic behavior to heart inflammation to death. It's a painful story that the media has been only too eager to tell, as an estimated 346,000 people in the United States have become part of the meth-addiction "epidemic," with a million more using the drug casually, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But journalists and politicians have paid less attention to another damaging effect of the nation's latest fixation: what meth is doing to the environment.

Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

Since its founding in 1995, Craigslist has gained a devoted following in cities around the world. As filmmaker Michael Ferris Gibson showed in his recent documentary "24 Hours on Craigslist," the online community board brings strangers together for all sorts of transactions and revelations. Now the website's namesake foundation -- whose raison d'être is strengthening community by supporting local nonprofits -- is developing a new environmental network.

Craigslist Foundation's Environmental Non-Profit Network is still taking shape, but it will likely include both… Read More