Wired has a good piece on “Inconvenient Truths” about green living and climate change.  The idea is that to win the fight against global warming, common beliefs are often wrong.  There are some good ones in here, here’s a list of my favourites:

• City living is better for the environment
• Air conditioning is better than heating
• Organic farming produces more emissions than conventional farming
• Natural old-growth forests produce more greenhouse gasses than logged forests
• Genetically modified crops will feed the world more efficiently
• Nuclear power is the cleanest source of power widely available today
• A used car beats the pants off a new Prius in terms of overall sustainability

I particularly like the point about how living right in a city (not the burbs where we are) is the most efficient for many reasons.  Lower car usage, apartment buildings are more efficient to heat and cool, and no lawn mowing add up to a lot of savings.  The lawn mower in particular is a kicker for me.  These things are ridiculous for emissions.  The only saving grace I can think of is we only need to cut the grass like 15 times a year, tops, due to the fact we live in a frozen benighted climate.

Anyway it’s a good read, I highly recommend it.

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