carbon footprint news stories on Newser

Want to Stay at a Green Hotel? Think Cheap

Evann Gastaldo — Sat, 05 May 2012 07:50:00 CDT

The greenest hotel chain in the US isn't exactly the swankiest: A new report from Brighter Planet finds that Vagabond Inn is the most energy- and carbon-efficient, the Los Angeles Times reports. Next up: Red Lion Hotels, another mid-range offering, followed by the budget Red Carpet Inns and then Travelodge....

Google Electricity Use: Enough for 200K Homes

John Johnson — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:37:08 CDT

So how much juice does it take for Google to power all its searches and servers, not to mention email and YouTube? Lots, as in 2.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2010, reports the San Jose Mercury News . That's enough for about 200,000 houses. The company released...

Genghis Kahn: Tree-Hugging Slaughterer?

Polly Davis Doig — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:41:32 CST

If environmentalists were really serious about cutting carbon, they'd just go out and slaughter about 40 million people. Or so one might deduce from a new study that finds Genghis Khan's murderous invasion actually sucked about 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, reports Mother Nature Network. The trick?...

20+ Lawmakers Hit Copenhagen on US Dime

Will McCahill — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:52:00 CST

More than 20 members of Congress hit the Copenhagen climate conference last month, a CBS investigation finds—and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, which was in charge of the guest list, is being shifty about what it all cost. Of the fact that lawmakers (and some wives) commandeered three military...

Pets' Carbon Pawprint Cause for Alarm

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:38:00 CDT

Forget the gas guzzler—it's Fluffy and Fido who are delivering a carbon blow to the global environment. That's the odd warning from a pair of New Zealand professors who claim the carbon pawprint of a large dog delivers twice the impact of a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000...

The Edge Rejects Greenie Criticism of U2 Tour

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:06:01 CDT

U2 guitarist The Edge stood up to critics who say the band's massive world tour is bad news for the environment, the BBC reports. "I think anybody that's touring is going to have a carbon footprint," he said backstage last night at U2's Wembley Stadium concert. "We'd love to have...

U2 Tour Not So Eco-Friendly

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:02:02 CDT

U2 is all about “looking after our planet,” as frontman Bono once said—but they’re not practicing what they preach, according to Carbonfootprint.com: The band’s 44 concerts this year are the equivalent of “the four band members traveling the 34.125 million miles from Earth to Mars in a...

Calif. Branches Into Forests to Fight Climate Change

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:10:00 CDT

The California government is preparing to enter into the "forest bank" business in a bid to save woodlands and battle carbon pollution and climate change, reports the Los Angeles Times. The state is expected to roll out a California "cabon market" that may be expanded elsewhere in the West if...

Spam Doesn't Waste Energy, Humans Do

Ambreen Ali — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:25:19 CDT

A recent study that equates spam’s carbon footprint to that of a whopping 2.4 million homes is fascinating, but completely wrong, Jeremy Kaplan writes in PC Magazine . The researchers traced most of the energy usage to the end user’s computer, but that energy-waster would probably be left on even...