John Bain

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Is China Is Saving the Planet?

| October 3, 2012 | Comments (19)
Is China Is Saving the Planet?

Quick! Name the company that’s doing the most for the green cause in the world.
According to green industry journal Greentech Media, it’s the Chinese Communist Party.
This claim is true, if a little silly. The Chinese government has made amazing forays into every area of green technology, from wind power (they recently dethroned the U.S. to become #1 in installed wind power generation capability) to solar panels to electric vehicles. Their government-run reforestation program alone employs over 1 million people.

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Are Corporations People Too?

| August 22, 2012 | Comments (6)
Are Corporations People Too?

Editor’s Note: “Corporations are people, my friend” – Mitt Romney Well, he is half right. Corporations are made up of people anyway. But are corporations entitled to the same rights as individual people? To understand this complex subject, let’s start with Wikipedia’s definition for Corporate/Legal Personhood” “Today, in statutory and corporate law, certain social constructs are [...]

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The ennui of twenty-something-ness

| August 11, 2012 | Comments (9)
The ennui of twenty-something-ness

My generation Y has made some waves. The election of Barack Obama and Occupy Wall Street cemented our position as “game-changers,” movers and shakers who get the word out through social media to really make a difference.

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Crowdfunding: Real Private Equity

| July 20, 2012 | Comments (28)
Crowdfunding: Real Private Equity

Kickstarter and Indiegogo sure are great. You can donate whatever you want to help out a small project that appeals to you, be it a product (the now-famous iPod watch, for instance), a game, or a band. If you donate $100, the producers usually throw in a t-shirt. Throw in a couple grand, and you could receive a crazy perk like a free skydiving trip with the cast and crew of an indie movie.
But what if you want to give $10,000 and get a piece of the action yourself?

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Working Your Way Through College

| July 7, 2012 | Comments (3)
Working Your Way Through College

If you’re of a certain age, you may remember a time when you could pay your way through college working at the movie theater. That time is definitively over — but why? Well, we can start with the rising cost of tuition.

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Where’s the Beef?

| June 28, 2012 | Comments (9)
Where’s the Beef?

Consider steak…As with everything we put in our bodies, our society can’t leave well enough alone.
There are several problems with the beef industry. The worst is the use of large tracts of arable land to house and feed cattle when this land would often be better used to plant crops for human consumption. But that’s not something that ends up on your plate.

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Monsanto and the American Way

| May 31, 2012 | Comments (37)
Monsanto and the American Way

For the past few weeks here at Good-B we’ve been talking about genetically modified foods. In this field there is no company more lauded – and questioned – for its achievements than agricultural juggernaut Monsanto. We’ve invited this company into our homes – and make no mistake, you have eaten Monsanto today – without questioning their motives or thinking much of it at all. Why?

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Genetically Modified Foods–Bon Appétit!

| April 28, 2012 | Comments (11)
Genetically Modified Foods–Bon Appétit!

“Genetically modified organism:”That term is bandied around a lot, but what does it mean?
You’ll never know. U.S. law does not require corporations to make their patents on genetically modified crops public. And yes, you can patent an organism. There are GMOs in 58 percent of U.S. processed foods and 72% of U.S. corn. In other words: you ate a GMO today.

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American Prestige and The Green Revolution

| April 10, 2012 | Comments (40)
American Prestige and The Green Revolution

America has two problems right now: one we talk about, and one we don’t.

One problem, admittedly, encompasses a lot of others; but it can be summed up as a general feeling that this country is doing something wrong, that our position as a world leader is slowly slipping.

The other problem is that we’re no longer a leader in green technology. Europe and China have taken the crown here: in 2009, China spent $34.6 billion on clean tech, almost double the U.S.’s total. The EU, meanwhile, actually takes the Kyoto Protocol somewhat seriously and has been lessening emissions on a yearly basis.

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Keystone XL Politics

| March 12, 2012 | Comments (30)
Keystone XL Politics

A recent Pew poll even showed that 66 percent of Americans support Keystone XL… and also stronger environmental legislation. May I remind you that there have not been two more antithetical concepts since… ever

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Does Our Future Depend on Cow Emissions?

| March 2, 2012 | Comments (28)
Does Our Future Depend on Cow Emissions?

For the past few weeks, I’ve been wondering if carbon dioxide might not be the driving force behind global warming.
Have I gone climate denier, become a card-carrying member of the GOP? Have I been swept up in the populist fervor of young maverick Mitt Romney’s whirlwind campaign?
No, I’ve just been reading the news (and taking classes) and can no longer be glibly ignorant of the huge significance of methane gas to climate change. In fact, it’s a factor in 28% of the climate change currently occurring. It’s also 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

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Black Carbon: The Other Greenhouse Gas!

| February 19, 2012 | Comments (15)
Black Carbon: The Other Greenhouse Gas!

Ever see an eighteen-wheeler belching out smog and think, “That’s got to be bad for the environment”?
Indeed it is – and carbon dioxide has nothing to do with it.
There is, in fact, an entire world of non-CO2 greenhouse gases with various effects on the global climate. Gases such as methane and black carbon contribute 30% to 40% of the world’s global warming potential. The upside, though, is that these agents act on a very short term – weeks to months – as opposed to carbon dioxide, which can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years.

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