Wednesday, 07 Mar 2007

Teller All Your Crazy Dreams

Bank of America announces $20 billion green initiative

In perhaps the largest initiative of its kind evah, Bank of America has announced a $20 billion investment in being all green and stuff over the next decade. The largest U.S. retail bank will use most of the moola to finance green-focused commercial clients, while also offering lower mortgage rates on energy-efficient homes, starting a credit-card program that directs bling to greenhouse-gas reduction projects, and donating to green nonprofits (ooh, over here!). The bank already offers rebates to hybrid-driving employees and is building energy-efficient offices in New York City and Charlotte, N.C. "This is intended to be good business as well as the right thing to do," says BOA's platitude-prone Anne Finucane. In other spendy business-greening news, Colorado's Vail Resorts has announced plans to build a $1 billion eco-friendly mixed-use resort village. And hell, we might go out and shoot a couple billion bucks into the atmosphere, just to see if they can suck up carbon dioxide on their own.

Pay No Attention to That Protocol Behind the Curtain

Twenty-year-old Montreal Protocol has helped combat global warming

It kind of sucks to be the Montreal Protocol. Not only do you lack the name recognition of your compatriot from Kyoto, you also go widely unrecognized for the work you've done to fight global warming. The phaseout of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons under the Montreal treaty -- negotiated in 1987 to protect the ozone layer -- has dramatically slowed the rate of climate change, as CFCs are also potent greenhouse gases. (Shocking statistic alert: common chemical CFC-12 is 11,000 times as heat-trapping as carbon dioxide. Eleven. Thousand. Times.) Research published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences simulated how the planet would have warmed if not for the humble Montreal Protocol -- which contributed to a 60 percent drop in global CFC emissions from 1989 to 1995 -- and "clearly shows that things are possible in a global treaty," says lead author Guus Velders. "We gained about 10 years for climate change." Excellent! We'll pencil in "apocalypse" for 2017.


You do your best to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but at the end of the day you're always left with that fourth R: refuse. Trash, that is. So is it better to send your household garbage to a smoking incinerator or a sprawling landfill? Advice maven Umbra Fisk dons her heavy-duty gloves to sift through the truth about detritus disposal in the U.S., and comes up with a surprising answer.

Heeeeere Techy, Techy, Techy

Vermont angling to become the green version of Silicon Valley

Vermont, which has long tussled with Maine to avoid the tag of "whitest state in the nation," is going in search of some color -- green, that is. Lending depth to its nickname, the Green Mountain State is luring eco-engineers to its verdant flanks and helping established green companies expand. Noting that the state boasts "clean air, no billboards," Gov. Jim Douglas (R) says he hopes green-tech will be to Vermont what high-tech is to Silicon Valley: "We wanted to find a niche, an economic sector in which Vermont can excel. Environmental engineering and sustainable technology is that niche." But bizfolk in the state say it's not easy: "The tax burden is high, and the costs of health insurance have just risen and risen," said David Bowles, president of an oil-spill cleanup equipment maker. "And there's a sort of philosophical disconnect between people who love this view of Vermont as an unspoiled place where business doesn't mix." Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how do you like your state?

Vive la Discorde

E.U. leaders gather for summit, squabble over renewable-energy target

As European Union leaders gather for a two-day summit that starts tomorrow, one question is dominating the agenda: what exactly did the Olsen twins buy on their recent Paris shopping spree? Once that's answered, the heads of state will move on to more mundane topics like emissions cuts and renewable energy. While the summit is expected to result in an agreement to cut carbon emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 -- and as much as 30 percent if other nations around the world agree to cuts -- there's strife a-go-go over a proposal that 20 percent of energy production by 2020 come from renewable sources. Rumor has it that nearly half of the 27 member states, including France and Poland, oppose that target, in part because it doesn't consider the role of nuclear power. But one thing is sure, says German chancellor and summit chair Angela Merkel: "The necessity to combat climate change and to reduce our energy dependency, coupled with the fact Kyoto is running out, [has] concentrated minds."