Newsweek International has an article online detailing seven methods of conservation for the future: When a slump in business travelers forced Ulrich Römer to cut costs at his family-owned Hotel am Stadtpark in Hilden, Germany, in 2002, he found that he didn’t have to skimp on comfort for his guests. Instead, he replaced hundreds of [...]

John Fleck, comments on this Washington Post story on the price of corn in Mexico: We subsidize ethanol so we can use it instead of gasoline in our cars. The price of corn rises. Poor folk in Mexico can’t afford their staple food.

Heath Haussamen was up early this morning: Most of New Mexico’s leaders in Washington were critical of at least some of the proposals President Bush made Tuesday in his State of the Union address. Oh really? On energy independence and climate change, Bush called for reducing the nation’s gasoline usage by 20 percent in the [...]

The council reversed its early decision on the subject, with Councilors Gary Clauss, Thomas Nupp and Judy Ward casting “yea” votes, and Councilor Steve May dissenting. Last time, it was Clauss going it alone, in support of the resolution. Mayor James Marshall was spared from casting a tie-breaking vote when Ward – who had indicated [...]

In addition to the House of Representatives, it looks like Jeff Bingaman — our boy from Silver City — is getting in on the climate change action as well. From The Hill: Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is floating climate-change legislation on Capitol Hill that he plans to introduce soon. A draft version of the bill [...]

Eclipse Aviation, which is based in Albuquerque, recently saw its Eclipse 500 ranked at the bottom of a comparison of private jets. The kicker: the bottom was the place to be. The Helium Report recently conducted a study on offsetting carbon emissions while flying on private planes (the way TerraPass will help you offest emissions [...]

The Silver City Town Council decided to stick their heads in the sand last night, voting down a resolution in support of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (you can view the resolution here). Gary Clauss was the only councilor to vote for the measure, though Mayor James Marshall presented it and sounded as though [...]

Read Jim Baca: Fast forward to a report put out by the Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative, an effort funded in part by the World Bank. Read the report’s executive summary here. It turns out that livestock production accounts for more greenhouse gas emmissions than the transportation sector. Cattle Farts are warming up the planet. [...]

From The Consumerist: Energy Star appliances will save you enough money to warrant you purchasing them regardless of tax breaks, but hey, why not get some tax breaks? There are lots of incentive programs out there… everything from rebates to tax cuts. You’ve just got to know where to look. Meet DSIRE, the Database of [...]

Heading into the weekend, I wanted to share this nugget of truth with you, courtesy of Mark Kleiman: There are, however, at least two conservation measures that have, as far as I can tell, modest costs (and in one case huge side-benefits) and potentially substantial energy-saving potential. Both have to do with reducing the “heat [...]

From MSNBC: Switzerland – Sometimes, global warming can help put money in your pocket. Hansruedi Burgener has welcomed up to 800 people a day — twice the average number of visitors — to his remote mountain hostel in the Alps this summer. They all hope to watch a rock the size of two Empire State [...]

John Fleck is still my go to guy for climate and weather stuff, and his article in yesterday’s Journal is a must read: So is the drought over? That was probably the most-asked question in New Mexico last week, as long-awaited rains hit the state with so much force that floodwaters damaged neighborhoods from Rio [...]