Once-denuded slopes in the foothills of the Himalayas are showing signs of green again. In Nepal, local community groups are managing the forests, deriving income from the timber, and also protecting watersheds and a variety of rare birds, mammals, and flowering plants. In 1957, the government nationalized the forests, but it had neither the willContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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In 1986, a waste-to-energy plant opened in Delhi, India, financed by the Danish International Development Agency at a cost of over $10 million. The plant was expected to generate 3.8 megawatts of electricity from garbage, and its success was to be copied in other Indian cities. However, the plant was a failure. Two yearsContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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Peter Huber's new book, Hard Green, both supports and challenges free market environmentalism.
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Weitzman says that current income need be adjusted downward by 1 percent at most to account for the loss of exhaustible resources. In a finite world, the conventional wisdom tells us that we shall eventually run out of nonrenewable resources, such as crude oil, iron ore, and bauxite. And long before exhaustion actually takes place,Continue reading "Greening Nepal"
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Bananas are growing in a mine drainage tunnel in Leadville, Colo. Along with carrots, spinach, beets, and broccoli, these crops may provide the solution to cleaning up one of the nation’s most polluted Superfund sites. Entrepreneur Frank Burcik, president of Water Treatment and Decontamination International, created the underground greenhouse to remove toxic heavy metals fromContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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Nestled between a national park and a proposed wilderness area and cut through by the beautiful Virgin River, Utah’s Horse Valley Ranch is probably one of the West’s most coveted pieces of real estate. Despite its potential value on the open market, the owners had no desire to create a landscape of ranchettes or endangerContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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Plastics made from plants is an idea that scientists have touted for years, but no one was able to bring it to the marketplace. That has changed with an announcement from Cargill Incorporated and Dow Chemical Company. In a joint venture, the firms plan to build a $300 million facility in Blair, Neb., to manufactureContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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Bananas are growing in a mine drainage tunnel in Leadville, Colo. Along with carrots, spinach, beets, and broccoli, these crops may provide the solution to cleaning up one of the nation’s most polluted Superfund sites. Entrepreneur Frank Burcik, president of Water Treatment and Decontamination International, created the underground greenhouse to remove toxic heavy metals fromContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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Breaching the Edwards Dam on Maine’s Kennebec River last July to help fish had an unexpected benefit for furniture-makers, wood craftsmen, architects, musical instrument-makers, and even pen-makers. Old growth timbers have been salvaged from the dam’s foundation for use in a host of wood products. Most of the trees were taken from the Maine woodsContinue reading "Greening Nepal"
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