May 18th, 2013 
Eric Wilson 
For those who don’t follow national weather patterns, it was an exceptionally snowy April, especially in Minnesota, or shall I say even for Minnesota. There was at least some snow on the ground from roughly December 8th through May 2nd in the Twin Cities. This limited data set causes people to make comments like the [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Transportation 
Tags: Climate Change, Dispatches from the Bus, Earth Day, Mass Transit, Minneapolis, Minnesota 
No Comments » May 14th, 2013 Eric Wilson Ask any ecologist or biologist and they’ll probably tell you that greater diversity in a system, usually referred to as biodiversity, increases its health and long term viability. Extending this to human populations, a diversity of ideas and perspectives makes for a healthier society. While conflict and strife are inevitable, co-existing is in our best [...]
May 13th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
At the turn of the century, urban areas were teeming with food production facilities. Mind you, this was the 19th century. As food production joined the global supply chain, vast tracts of industrial spaces that had once housed abattoirs emptied and stood vacant. Only since the more recent century gave way (and really the past [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Business, Clean Technology, Eric Wilson Tags: Denver, Food, food industry No Comments » May 12th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
I was in Denver for 26 hours a few months ago and had to rent a car. If there had been light rail from the airport, maybe I could’ve pulled it off, but I had a series of meetings, including one in Boulder, so car rental it was. Anyway, I choose the cheapest model, figuring [...]
May 10th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
As part of a recent business trip, I flew Delta Airlines. Flying is rife with environmental concerns, but it’s not going away. Here’s what Delta has done to green their practices: In-flight recycling: To date, Delta has recycled more than 7 million pounds of aluminum, plastic, and paper products onboard that would have otherwise been [...]
May 8th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
My wife and I recently ended a 5-month long home search. Our parameters were a bit tight. Between budget and location, we automatically discounted a number of homes. We have one car and wanted to keep it that way for sustainability reasons (financial and environmental). We looked for a place close to the bus line [...]
May 6th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
During Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror, his environmental transgressions were manifold. Among them were chemical warfare, continued oil extraction, and setting wells in Kuwait on fire, all of which were well publicized. Perhaps less well known was the draining of the Fertile Crescent, the birthplace of agriculture. In Iraq, some of the most fertile land [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Eric Wilson, News, Stewards of the Earth Tags: Environment, Los Angeles, Video No Comments » May 4th, 2013 Eric Wilson I’ve started a little research project. Most mornings while I stand on the corner I count the number of cars that pass by as I wait for my bus transfer from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul. Here are my results: Tuesday I counted 50 cars passing by as I waited for the bus, [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Op-Ed, Transportation Tags: Bicycles, Bus, Dispatches from the Bus, Mass Transit, Minnesota, Prius No Comments » May 1st, 2013 Eric Wilson 
The snow has finally melted in Minnesota (though another round of flurries falls as I post this). Nothing signifies spring in the sustainability world quite like the season’s first Tour de Fat. In Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, New Belgium’s annual celebration of bicycles returns after its winter hiatus. Today and tomorrow an exciting event is taking [...]
Posted in Conferences, Energy Efficiency, Eric Wilson Tags: Atlanta, Calendar, California, Minnesota, New Belgium Brewery, Noelle Phares, Santa Barbara, Stephen Chu No Comments » April 29th, 2013 Eric Wilson 
Although written in 2008, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent feels like something that could’ve been written yesterday. Extremely biased and one-sided, at times bordering on vitriolic, Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands’ author, makes a strong argument against the development of the Athabaskan tar sands. While this is a losing battle if [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Policy, Reviews, Sustainable Development Tags: Book Review, Carbon Sequestration, Fracking, Natural Gas, Tar Sands No Comments »
