sustainability

photo: Warren Gretz, DOE/NREL

A policy promoting cost-effective, low-carbon "homegrown" fuels as alternatives to oil could benefit the US economy as well as the environment. Madhu Khanna (2009) and her colleagues propose a national Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which would provide flexibility to energy companies to meet national carbon reduction targets using any mix of fuels they want. Recognizing that the scientific consensus on climate change cannot motivate all stakeholders, they highlight the standard as "a major win for American consumers, businesses, and farmers, with large positive effects on our economy and our national security in the long run."

photo: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz Mariordo

The world's cities are on track to occupy an extra 1.5 million square kilometres by 2030 -- the equivalent of the area of France, Germany and Spain combined. About 2,800 people met at the Planet Under Pressure Conference in London this week to discuss solutions for more environmentally friendly cities, including creating better infrastructure, reversing the trend for ever-larger homes, and ending subsidies that favor cars over public transport. In the words of Karen Seto (2009), an organizer of four sessions at the conference, ”The way cities have grown since World War II is neither socially or environmentally sustainable and the environmental cost of ongoing urban sprawl is too great to continue.”