Thursday, 21 Jul 2005

We think the hardest part about going to the grocery store is focusing on the task at hand, when it's more fun just to groove to the sweet sounds of Engelbert Humperdinck. But for others, the challenge comes in sifting through the bevy of greenish products. You know, the stuff in the all-natural-organic-shade-grown-fair-traded-feel-good aisle? Writer Bill Penrose suggests that maybe, just maybe, marketers are having a little fun at green shoppers' expense. And he says the time has come to turn the tables.

Between the Devil and the Deep Green Supercenter

Wal-Mart building two experimental green stores

Mega-giganto retailer Wal-Mart is conducting an experiment. No, not the world-domination experiment, a different one: It's constructing two "Supercenters" with green-building features designed to reduce energy and water use. The first, in Texas, will have solar cells embedded in skylights; runoff waste water will be captured and reused; heat from refrigeration units will warm water for the bathroom sinks; waste oil from the garage and food-service areas will be burned in a radiant floor-heating system; energy-efficient LED lights will illuminate the low-paid, uninsured, non-unionized Wal-Mart "associates" on the floor below. After three years, the results of the experiment will be assessed by independent agencies and shared publicly, and the most successful elements will be used in other Supercenters and likely in other big-box retail stores. "The No. 1 rule in retail is to get people in and have them hang around for a while," said Rick Fedrizzi of the U.S. Green Building Council. "In green spaces you have a sense of well-being." The move is, suffice to say, unlikely to mollify Wal-Mart's critics in the environmental and labor movements.

Beak Truth to Power

Scientists question ivory-billed woodpecker evidence

Conservationists and bird lovers have been enjoying their euphoric high from the rediscovery of the legendary, turns-out-not-extinct-after-all ivory-billed woodpecker. So leave it to a trio of meddling scientists to come along and harsh the buzz. Three biologists have written a paper questioning whether the evidence gathered to support the alleged re-emergence of the woodpecker -- including the now-famous grainy four-second video -- is in fact conclusive. "In my opinion," said Jerome Jackson, one of the paper's authors, "the data presented thus far do no more than suggest the possibility" that the woodpecker is back. The paper is expected to be published in a peer-reviewed journal within weeks, along with a spirited rebuttal from the team that announced the discovery, along with a rebuttal of the rebuttal by the paper's authors, all of which will no doubt prompt months of anguished hand-wringing from everyone involved. At stake is not just the heart-warming story of a species returned like a phoenix from the ashes of extinction, but the $13 million in conservation money the Bush administration plans to distribute to landowners in the region.

The Hills Are Alive ...

As Europeans flock to urban centers, wildlife reclaim the countryside

Wild boars on the outskirts of Berlin. Bears scaring schoolkids in Austria. New summer blockbuster about a wildlife invasion? Nope, it's Europe in the 21st century. Animals long considered scarce are reappearing in the countryside as folks across the continent abandon rural villages for cities, leaving behind "old mines and quarries" and "farmland that can no longer be profitably harvested," says one researcher. Wolves, which disappeared from Germany in the mid-1800s, now range over abandoned Soviet military reservations in the eastern Saxony region, perhaps having migrated from Poland's Carpathian Mountains. Wildcats and osprey are also being seen in the Teutonic east. And wild critters could reclaim even more territory, as, based on current birth rates, Europe's overall human population is expected to drop about 41 million by 2030. Who knows -- by then a good chunk of the continent could have become a de facto nature preserve.

Queer Eye for the Turbine

Hip, new wind-turbine designs shed those fusty rotating blades

As anti-wind-power crusaders make ever-louder indictments of unsightly turbines, wind advocates are fighting back with a new tool -- aesthetics. A handful of wind-power companies are teaming up with designers to develop new contraptions that can harness wind energy without the traditional spinning blades, as well as new plans for placing turbines away from scenic landscapes. Take the Aerogenerator, a new wind turbine intended to be situated far out at sea; the Guardian describes the vaguely V-shaped design as looking "like a cross between a glider and a giant harp, or perhaps a James Bond villain's mid-ocean hideout." A prototype will be tested soon, and if all goes well Aerogenerators could be in production within three to five years, boosters say. Meanwhile, innovative architects are working to incorporate spiral turbines and other new types directly into skyscrapers; the power they generate could then be used on site, and someday such buildings might generate all their own electricity.