Continuing yesterday’s post on the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation and its role in promoting environmental education and best practices in watershed management, I recently had the opportunity to speak with founder and executive director Tom Murdoch and foundation staff members about the organization’s history and activities. (Best practices will be further examined in a third and concluding [...]
Archive for the ‘Behavior’ Category
Local Solutions to Managing Environmental Complexity: The Adopt-a-Stream Foundation (Part 2)
February 19th, 2013 
Sean Connell Local Solutions to Managing Environmental Complexity: The Adopt-a-Stream Foundation (Part 1)
February 18th, 2013 Sean Connell 
Few settings evoke more of a sense of peacefulness and natural beauty than a small creek in the woods, the water burbling as it spills downstream. Sitting restfully beside a stream, maybe glimpsing a tiny fish wriggling in the water, perhaps the last thing that comes to mind (or that you want to think about) [...]
More than Another Reality TV Show: Barter Kings
February 17th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
I don’t watch much television, not these days at least. Growing up I had one in my room and I think that proved to be too much. I went without one for a few years and often long for those days. There are enough other distractions (electronic and otherwise) to fill my time. However, while [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Economics, Eric Wilson, Green Economy, Sustainable Development 
Tags: California, Consumerism, consumption, Landfill, Los Angeles 
No Comments »The Weight of China’s Heavy Hand
February 13th, 2013 Noelle Phares 
Some regions wait for economic development to reduce unsustainably high fertility rates. Others take more direct approaches. China’s One-Child policy represents one of the better-known efforts of the latter type. Introduced in 1979 when birth rates were near 6 per female, the One-Child policy has since been praised for its successes in reducing population growth [...]
Posted in 2nd Green, Behavior, China, Op-Ed Tags: China, Noelle Phares, One-Child Policy, Overpopulation No Comments »Learning from Trees: Climate Appropriate Design
February 10th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
I picked up David Suzuki’s Tree: A Life Story at the library recently and started reading it on the bus. It traces the development of a Douglas-fir from seedling to towering specimen and its eventual decay. During the discussion of deciduous and evergreen trees, I couldn’t help but think about design though. As Suzuki, and [...]
Posted in Behavior, Eric Wilson, Featured Posts, Op-Ed, Policy Tags: Biomimicry, David Suzuki, Urban Planning No Comments »The Extension of Personal Commitment
February 6th, 2013 Noelle Phares 
As graduate students, my peers and I are faced daily with workloads that seem at times, insurmountable. The prospect of “keeping up” is a mere physical impossibility for many of us. To succeed, to capitalize on the opportunities that abound as students in a well respected, well connected, and well-directed institution requires sacrifice on a [...]
What Will Happen to Car Sharing Now the ZipCar is Part of Avis?
February 3rd, 2013 Eric Wilson 
Avis epitomizes corporate America in many ways. ZipCar was a counter-corporate organization in many ways. Although ZipCar was a publicly traded company, it did not operate in the same way as Avis. Instead, it worked off a highly decentralized approach. Instead of a large outlet, like those found at the airport, with hundreds of cars, [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Eric Wilson, Transportation Tags: Boulder-Colorado, Cars, Denver, Minneapolis No Comments »New City in North Dakota Bigger Than Minneapolis. Wait. Nope, It’s Just Gas Flares.
January 28th, 2013 Justin Manger 
The Bakken oil fields in North Dakota are releasing so much gas that, according to The Financial Times, oil companies at the heart of the US shale oil boom are burning off enough gas to power all the homes in Chicago and Washington combined. In the photo from space at the bottom of this post, [...]
Kitchen Appliances: Toaster vs. Toaster Oven
January 27th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
I don’t think I’ve ever owned a toaster. I’m talking about the small kitchen appliance that browns bread products. To my knowledge that’s all it does and will ever be able to do. I’m sure I own devices that only accomplish one task; I used to have a waffle maker for instance. I still want [...]
Drain Cleaner Is Indicative of the (Sustainability) Problem
January 20th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my suburban experiment post, my wife and I are renting a place; one half of a duplex where the landlord lives next door. It’s convenient in a number of ways, but as outlined in that post, there are trade-offs. Renting someone else’s home is always tricky. Currently [...]
