Michael Prager

I'm still a green neophyte, so I can't wax eloquent about Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, who has popped up on my radar a couple of times in short order. But E.O. Wilson, whose imprimatur I'll accept on any topic, says this...

I wouldn't have thought to match these two spots for comparison, or the others contained therein, but that's what makes this "Globalist Quiz" question in Sunday's Globe interesting... 

I spent four hours last weekend at the Going Green Expo, which was a very curious mix of really good, valuable, creditable presenters and some questionable participants, including Waste Management, Vita Mix, and some cookware manufacturer whose name I can't recall, even though I sat through the demo and have done so before, at the Home Show. (That won't make them happy!)

I may or may not comment more on that show, but for now, I wanted to note the proliferation of green-based conferences and trade shows around here.

It was a sure bet that the headlines on Earl Butz's obit this week would focus on the racial slur that torpedoed his public life, and it was in every one I saw. But Butz, agriculture secretary under Nixon and Ford in the '70s, was perhaps one of the most influential figures in 20th century America, although not exactly in a salutary way. He blessed, and hastened, the demise of the family farm, for example, stating baldly and  unapologetically that farming was now the domain of corporations, and the family farmer would just have to get used to it.

It's hard to know what's up with the Bush administration's decision to pull funding for the so-called "FutureGen" coal plant that was awarded only a couple of months ago to downstate Mattoon, Ill. The reason given by Energy Secretary Sam Bodman is that costs have grown beyond reason, but not surprisingly, the coal and oil companies behind FutureGen are disputing that.

LOVE THIS from Think Progress, which points out that CNN's Republican debate, the last one before Super Tuesday, is sponsored by some front for the coal industry. And, no questions have been asked on global warming, it says, in the past four debates.

I've been wanting for a while to get in a mention of "It's Not Easy Being Green," an 8-episode show shot in Cornwall, England in 2005 and 2006 that I've been watching. It is the made-for-TV attempt by the Strawbridge family to revive a 300-year-old farm via technology and self-sufficiency.

Whole Foods announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer plastic bags after April 22. Love That! After that date, which is Earth Day, the choice will be recycled paper bags or reusable bags, which of course will not be free. We've been trying to use only cloth and/or polymer mesh bags for several years in our house, but I have to say, we have been far from perfect.

According to my WordPress blog stats counter, this is my 21st post touching on some sort of green topic, but it's the first that features my byline. This story ran in the Sunday Globe this morning. I got onto the idea by meeting a fellow at Boston Green Drinks, which I'm fairly sure I mentioned in one of the 20 green posts. I'm looking for more story ideas, and ideally, more publications to place them. Share your thoughts in comments, please...