Chris Turner Blog

Sustainability is a process of creative destruction
Watching a 100-year-old house get knocked down might sound tragic, but it feels exhilarating. And it's a reminder that the process of change is an act of creative destruction that appeals to our darker nature as well as our high-minded ideals.
What does trick-or-treating tell us about sustainable living?
On Halloween night, every neighborhood pretends to be a walkable neighborhood. The truly sustainable neighborhoods, though, are the ones where kids can go by themselves to get treats the other 364 days of the year.
Limitless clean energy from wastewater? Nah, let's stick with clean coal
A Penn State lab has found a way to make hydrogen fuel from wastewater and seawater with no emissions. So why are we spending our billions on the pipe dream of burying the carbon dioxide we make burning coal?
In rural India, solar power is the cheap and easy option
Harish Hande launched his Indian solar company to dispel the myth that renewable energy was too expensive for the world's poorest people. The wealthy West could learn a lot from his math.
As Greenpeace turns 40, the eco-movement aches for another wave of innovation
In 1971, a ragtag gang of committed activists unleashed the first 'mind bomb,' and it set the environmental agenda for decades to come. Today, with campaigns by Al Gore and Bill McKibben preaching to the converted, it's time for another strategy.
Planning to tear down your old house? First, let it be art
As a wedding gift, we turned our neighbors' condemned house into an art gallery. What happened next was a crash course in the intrinsic value of urban space and the permission to re-use it.
The urban cycling boom: Sometimes too big, sometimes too small
In Tennessee, the streets are too dangerous for one 10-year-old on a bike. In Copenhagen, the streets are too crowded to accommodate any more kids. The real problem, though, is the one that dare not speak its name: there are too many cars.
Innovation stats of the week
The second edition of MNN's Innovation Index finds solar wilting, cleantech booming, deep seas cleared of fish and streets freed of cars. Here are the numbers that matter right now to the sustainable economy.
Climate conspiracy hoax revealed!
As GOP presidential hopefuls sound the alarm on the global warming hoax, we've uncovered the smoking gun: irrefutable proof, backed by flawless logic, that climate scientists are only in it for the fat climate science research cash!
Charming Hilo's waterfront promenade needs a radical makeover
Like many cities, beautiful downtown Hilo has been tragically divorced from its primary natural asset by highways and parking lots. Welcome signs and banners won't bring more tourists, but a highway wrecking crew could.

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