Articles by Julia Olmstead
Julia Olmstead is a graduate student in plant breeding and sustainable agriculture at Iowa State University and a graduate fellow with the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., and a freelance writer on agricultural and environmental issues.
All Articles
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Carbon offsets and human rights
More evidence was released today demonstrating the complexity and oxymoronic nature of "ethical capitalism." This time it has to do with carbon offsets.
According to "A funny place to store carbon," a report issued today by the World Rainforest Movement, villagers living along the edges of Mount Elgon National Park in east Uganda, the site of a Dutch-owned carbon offset project, have been beaten, shot at, and repeatedly denied access to their land by armed park rangers guarding the "carbon trees" inside the park.
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Saving gas the non-hybrid way
A nice story from Mother Jones this month on "hypermilers," people who use all kinds of wacky techniques to maximize fuel economy:
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More from Lester Brown on ethanol and food costs
Worried that no one's going to post on ethanol today? Let me ease your troubled mind ...
The world may soon be facing the highest food prices in history, according to Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute. The group released a missive today that says increased corn demand caused by the ethanol boom will dramatically raise food costs in the near future:
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Biodiesel means trouble for Uganda
As reported by Reuters yesterday:
The president of Uganda asked the National Forest Authority boss to quit after he refused to license a palm oil company to destroy a pristine rainforest on an island in Lake Victoria, according to his resignation note.
