Michael Prager

I have written previously (perhaps approaching cliche by now; you decide) about having two blogs and wanting to have one — not by jettisoning one by having them merge organically. Here's another post that fits in both places — about sustainable living (no link; you're reading it) and food issues, at fisherblue.com/blog; in fact, I starting writing this at the other one.

A half dozen people gathering in Bedford last night for the first in a series of planning meeting that will culminate in what they hope will be a large-scale demonstration calling for urgent action from climate-change delegates convening in Copenhagen in December.

I've been wasting my time parrying with a high school acquaintance on Facebook the past couple of days, after he posted something about how stupid it is that bankrupt companies will be forced to make small, unsafe (but high-mileage) cars that nobody wants.

By a party-line vote, the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected an attempt to tie any limits on carbon in the US to the same limits in India and China. 

First off, it's good it failed. However...

I have finally found a legitimate use for coal, which I've consistently derided as evil crap whose only supporters are coerced by direct economic benefit. I don't claim much cleverness in my "discovery," since others have understood it for a while:

Coal is a bargaining chip, or, as Kenneth Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, puts it, "a universal fig leaf."

In a story in Scientific American, he is quoted as saying,

Congrats to Icon Architecture. It won awards for two of its affordable housing projects, Egleston Crossing in Roxbury and Maverick Landing in East Boston.

The latter is "Massachusetts’s first green, affordable multi-family housing development, adhering to “healthy homes” principles and achieving LEED certification. [It] is a model for projects funded through the Federal Housing and Urban Development HOPE VI program."

Cong. Ed Markey is the prize attraction of this year's fundraiser for the Environmental League of Massachusetts, whose 13th annual Earth Night is May 27. Markey's main task these days is the climate and energy bill that carries his name and Henry Waxman's. (A revised version was released on Friday, and the Committee on Energy and Commerce is meeting today to consider it. Here's a summary.)

I've been writing about business ideas to bring better food to your home for quite some time. The first one was Jeff Barry's Boston Organics, years ago, when I was still at the Globe; I had a feature for a while called "A Click Away," I think. More recently, I've written about Gabriel Erde-Cohen's urban/personal CSAs.

Now we can add Laurel Friel, the "queen bean" behind The Green Bean,  a start-up whose idea is to do the shopping for you at the region's farmer's markets and deliver your order to your door. I met her Saturday at the Somerville Climate Action Network's event I wrote about on Thursday. 

From 10-2 on Saturday, green partisans will gather at Somerville High School for demonstrations, giveaways, and fellowship with their own kind.

Byggmeister, the Newton energy efficiency buidling contractor, will have a representative to evaluate your energy bills for what you might save, there'll be recycled kids crafts and recycled fashions (and you can bring clothing donations to do some recycling yourself), free basic bike tune-ups for people who ride over, and plenty more.

The event is free; maybe I'll see you there.