Lights out in San Francisco

The city of San Francisco will undergo a voluntary brownout from 8 until 9 p.m. on October 20, with the intention of brining awareness to the climate change issue.

Of the articles reviewed, The Los Angeles Times featured the most colorfully written story. John M. Glionna clearly approached it as a feature and not from a hard-news angle. The founder of the whole grass-roots movement, was profiled painting a clear picture of the person behind the whole "Lights out San Francisco" movement. Glionna also used very descriptive words to paint images of the ideal outcome of this event (a dark starry night over San Francisco).

The San Francisco Chronicle took a soft news approach to this story, even featuring Nate Tyler's name (the even organizer) in the lead. Arguably, Tyler's name might be considered a household name in the Bay Area given he worked for Google and is a professional surfer. The Chronicle's story is short and more to the point; pale in contrast to the L.A. Time's version of the same story.

The Associated Press takes the most straight-news approach with a catchy lead and a very clear nut graph, getting to the point and showing numbers and figures involved.


-oScar

Los Angels Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lightsout19sep19,0,2821623.story

San Francisco Chronicle: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/19/BUDUS8P5P.DTL

MSNBC/AP: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20888714/

Technorati tags: San Francisco, energy conservation,

Wal-Mart pretends to like green

Wal-Mart announced on Monday that it's partnering with the Carbon Disclosure project to track the energy consumption related with the production and sale of some of its products.

Those understanding Wal-Mart corporate policy and culture will know that this is only being embraced as move to enhance the value of it's market share, and not out of genuine concern for the environment—Carbon Disclosure Project has been trying to work with Wal-Mart for many years, but they only recently accepted after being advised to do so by an image consulting firm. Of the three news sources noted only one addressed this point, MSNBC. One should note that CNNMoney.com simply replicated the Wal-Mart news release word-by-word.

It's unfortunate that one of the largest entities in the United States, with a track record for disregard toward worker's rights and environmental issues isn't treated more skeptically.

Most news sources failed to note that Wall-Mart hasn't announced what, if anything, it will do with the data gathered from partnering with the Carbon Disclosure project.

-oScar

BusinessWeek: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2007/db20070924_008782.htm

Wal-Mart press release: http://www.walmartfacts.com/articles/5307.aspx

InfoWorld: http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2007/09/walmart_throws.html

Technorti tags: Wal-Mart, Carbon Disclosure project,

BUSH: treats climate change as a popularity contest

The United Nations held its climate summit on Monday, an even attended by more than 150 nations' leaders, not including George Bush who chose to instead create his own climate get-together on Thursday and Friday.

This clearly shows Bush commitment to undermining anything the U.N. may try to organize. If he were only indifferent to the U.N.'s proposals not attending their summit would have been enough, but instead he arranges for a counter-meeting on the same week.

This reminds me of high school kids who fail to get invitations to the the week's “hot party” so they throw their own party instead, only making themselves less popular.

-oScar

KXMC news: http://www.kxmc.com/News/165271.asp

The Associated Press: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCblENrfUosZwpVR7WE8RPWwnEwg
Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/259916

Technorati tags: U.N. climate summit, climate change, George W. Bush

parking peril

It’s estimated that parking spaces outnumber drivers three-to-one, say researchers from Purdue University in a press release issued last week. While the study was limited to Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Bryan Pijanowski the associate professor of forestry and natural resources who led the study believes it is representative of most mid-size counties in the United States.

The problem with having so much parking is the resulting polluting run-off, the heat absorbed by the parking surfaces and then released at night and the reduced replenishment of local watersheds.

Purdue University’s press release ends with Pijanowski’s suggested solutions for this problem: “combined-use or shared parking lots” and lifestyles that involve less use of automobiles.

Well, most Americans don’t seem to be ready to adopt European lifestyles. A more equitable solution might be to encourage developers to better design buildings and adjacent parking areas. Although more costly, parking structures are a better use of land and an option that would make more sense than “combined-use or shared parking lots.” The added costs to developers could be offset by tax or cash incentives.

Another focus should be better parking lot design, such as lots that are only partially paved with unpaved low-use areas could feature gravel or even grass.

Alternatives like these would allow Americans to continue the car-loving lifestyle they know and address some of the problems caused by excessive paving.

-oScar

Purdue University press release:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007b/070911PijanowskiParking.html

USA Today news story:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/weather/2007/09/parking-up-the-.html

MSNBC news story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20838931/

Technorati tags: automobiles, parking, pollution