Results tagged “environment”

Seven out of fifteen ain't bad. That's how many New England schools made the Princeton Review's "green honor roll" of the greenest colleges in America by receiving as-close-to-perfect-as-possible green rankings of 99 points.

Each week Bostonist is dedicated to bringing you the most viral Boston-based videos the internet has to offer.

--One woman reminisces about her youth as a smelly lobster-monger near James Hook when she ogled cute fishermen. [shamrag]

This Bostonist always pictured solar panels being best-suited to dot the rooftops of sun-baked, equatorial locales. But according to the Associated Press (via the Herald), the Commonwealth is quickly becoming a leader in solar energy.

The battle over global warming is escalating and it's being fought all over the cultural map, most recently in a three state struggle for the "right to dry."

A state senator from Milton has unveiled a plan to apply a gradual tax to plastic bags, starting at 2 cents and then rising to 15 cents.

This week, the Civil Society Institute released survey results that showed 82 percent of people in Massachusetts approved of Cape Wind, which would install wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. The news came out just as Cape Wind supporters were pushing for US Rep Ed "Biz" Markey to publicly back the project. {They are not lobbying Senator Ted Kennedy, who, in a fit of NIMBYism, has opposed the project from the get-go because Nantucket Sound is his backyard.)

While in San Francisco this past week Veggiest was able to take a trip to the beautiful headquarters of VegNews magazine. For those of you unfamiliar, VegNews is the premier (and only completely vegan) vegetarian publication on the shelves right now. What sets VegNews apart, aside from their fabulous staff of course, is that they seek to promote the entire vegetarian lifestyle and offer informative stories on a wide variety of veg topics.

Massachusetts is the hot battlefield for wind energy. What happens here will no doubt impact how seriously wind is taken as an alternative energy source in the rest of the United States. And, last week, a lot happened regarding wind energy that didn't have anything to do with Cape Wind.

The owners of Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square are on a mission. It’s pretty hard to miss… in fact, it’s conveniently spelled out on a poster behind the counter. They sell fair trade, shade grown, organic coffee and organic food “with an underlying agenda of social responsibility and environmental stewardship.” The counters are made of bamboo or crushed beer bottles; the ceiling tiles are made of 100% recycled material; the shop is illuminated by efficiency lighting; whenever possible, the owners used materials from less than 250 miles away. “Wherever we could make tiny little inroads to what I believe in, we did it,” says Daniel Goldstein, one of the owners. It meant that it took longer than expected to build the cafe, located at the front of Harvest Co-Op... well over a year. But it’s more than worth it, according to Goldstein—he hopes the café will be Massachusetts’ first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified commercial retailer.

Cape Wind has already suffered delays galore as opponents figure out what else they can study about the wind farm in Nantucket Sound--and they've received another delay for Christmas.

As Bostonians we pride ourselves on our history as a city steeped in sea-faring tradition. Whether it be our statuesque U.S.S. Constitution, the ubiquitous story of the Boston Tea Party, or the ever-present duck boats, Boston and the ocean will be forever intertwined. As such, Bostonist presents some last-minute gift ideas that pay homage to our salty roots.

"It's an important civic concern," Bos explained. "All of us are in the public sphere and we have to agree on the same tests of truth. Right now, we have different tests of truth."

Or at least they need some sensitivity training. Via Universal Hub, we hear Harper's Ferry has some real racist assholes on its staff. There's one guy who was begging to be fired after insulting black hip-hop performer Bus Driver last week. Bus Driver promptly refused to perform, and the other act, Daedalus, followed suit. Etan at Basstown spoke with Regan Farquhar (aka Bus Driver) and his DJ. They say the sound guy at Harper's Ferry...

Mike Doughty proved Saturday night that the Hannah Montana scalping uproar could be easily solved if Miley Cyrus and her target audience were old enough to drink. While welcoming his audience of about 75 people to the intimate basement space of the Lizard Lounge, the singer-songwriter and former Soul Coughing front man explained that tickets to the evening’s show had sold out in one minute. There had been postings on Craigslist charging $100 a ticket....

Today, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi presented a major renewable energy bill today that will be debated next week. Right after DiMasi's announcement and also in the State House, authors Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb gave a presentation to legislators about a specific way to achieve that goal--investment in wind energy.

We've talked plenty about wind turbines. Now local legislators seem to be setting even more green goals. Legislators have proposed setting mandates to increase the blending of biofuels with heating oil.

We're sad to report that the NFL has determined there's no fire to go with the smoke. As sure as people were, and as hopeful as we were that it was true, the league has said there's no evidence that the Colts were piping in artificial crowd noise Sunday against the Patriots. CBS blames faulty equipment in the truck to explain why, at one point during the game, it sounded like a CD skipped, then...

Animator Dave Schlafman, of Boston, is in the finals of Current TV's Current and the Alliance Ecospot Contest to find the best PSA about the environment. The goal of the contest is to get people to look at the climate crisis in new ways. The masses can vote for the winning spot. All it takes is registering on current.com, and you can vote for the best PSA. Schlafman's is titled "The Sky is Falling,"...

Mayor Menino has gone so green that he might end up looking like Kermit the Frog. First Menino laid out his plan to improve life for cyclists in the city, and now he's drawing inspiration from Cape Wind by proposing wind turbines for City Hall Plaza. The Globe reported on Saturday that the mayor wants a single turbine that can "generate up to one-quarter of the electricity used at City Hall." Globe writer Peter Howe...

WGBH's Victory Garden has started its 32nd season with a new host, the beefcakey Australian Jamie Durie. When we heard about the new season and were offered a chance to chat with Durie, we were skeptical because we have neither land nor lawn upon which to garden.

Now that a partially dissolved piece of sodium metal has been deemed the culprit in the burning of several Charles River cleanup volunteers, the local news is playing up the MIT ritual known as the "sodium drop."

NESN asks the question, "Will the poetry in the field spark romance in the stands?" Perhaps - but the first episode of Sox Appeal suggests that if you really want to woo someone, you're better off doing it without the distractions of a baseball game. Garrett Lucash, a retired figure skater who will apparently do anything to banish the stereotype of the male figure skater, meets with three different women. He tries to strike...

A team of MIT students and professors have completed the preliminary round in the Defense Advanced Recearch Projects Agency's Urban Challenge competition. Representatives from DARPA visited with the team and their vehicle to see if they would be one of the 30 teams of the current 53 who will compete in the semi-finals in October. From the Urban Challenge website: the Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated...

The Boston wing of the FBI met with leaders of local schools because they think spies might try to steal research. The Herald writes, "Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Warren Bamford recently met with officials at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, among other schools, to train academics on what sort of research could be used by terrorists." The FBI wants academics to watch their laptops and note any overenthusiastic...

Like just about anyone who thought their love of music was aptly captured onscreen by John Cusack in "High Fidelity," the folks over at Paste Magazine are fond of The Music List. So we weren't terribly surprised to see (via Stereogum) that the mag created a list of the nation's best music venues, broken down into regions. The criteria, as Paste spells it out in their June issue (Parkey Posey on the cover!): We weighed...

The films of Zhang Yimou will screen at the Brattle Theatre from Wednesday, May 30 through Thursday, June 7. Raise the Red Lantern starts the festival tonight and Thursday at 4:45, 7:15, and 9:45.

The Boston Babydolls will perform "Burlesque: By Women, For Women" on Tuesday, May 15, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $12, and no men will be admitted. OK, men can read this to whet their appetite for burlesque, but they're not invited to the Boston Babydolls Ladies Only burlesque show at Coolidge Corner. The Babydolls are recreating the heyday of burlesque, when shows "for ladies without escorts" sold out. Bostonist asked Miss Mina some questions...

Emerge Spa and Salon opened its doors on Newbury street about a year ago and recently Bostonist had the opportunity to experience the best the Spa has to offer. Having once been to its sister salon, G20, Bostonist expected nothing but the best and Emerge didn't disappoint. Immediately, Bostonist was whisked up to the third floor while the representative explained such offerings as the roof garden, and the fireside lounge, juice bar and cafe. Weather...