Ecomunicipality.com

As more and more of China's "floating population" return from their city jobs to their farms, officials brace for backlash from the recently unemployed.

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Between the invasive species, questions of drinking water safety, and dipping water levels, the Great Lakes have been taking a beating lately.

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In a place as dynamic as New York City, balancing preservation with development pressure is no easy task.

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The transformation of Copenhagen from a car-choked thoroughfare to a lively, pedestrian center began in 1962 with the closing of the Strøget, and folks walked and biked in record numbers. Now architect Jan Gehl hopes to spread this new urban culture.

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The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, faces a slew of federal charges related to bribery and abuses of power.

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The mayor of San Francisco delivers his annual state of the city message in ten 45-minute segments on YouTube rather than in person.

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Web sites that promise to pay for your old gadgets look bright around the holidays, when every extra dollar can count toward new gifts or even utility bills. But are the services worthwhile? How much can you earn?

We examined nine services that pay for your unwanted digital wares. These are among the newest options to help keep electronics waste out of landfills, while uncluttering your closets.

Click on this image to see what seven services quoted to pay for 11 used electronics.

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel/CBS Interactive)

We looked up what each service said it would pay for working iPods, PDAs, laptops, gaming consoles, and more, with cables but lacking their original boxes. For dead devices, some offer a pittance, or will connect you with willing recyclers and charity recipients. Our chart (at right) shows what each site claims it pays for specific equipment. Keep reading for highlights of the trade-in services.

We can't yet vouch for the start-to-finish experience of mailing in products to these companies. Those that find your equipment in worse shape than you estimated will downgrade the trade-in value.

If you only need to offload an old phone, look out for our upcoming comparison of sites that specialize in refurbishing and recycling handsets, including Cell for Cash, Simply Sellular, and ReCellular.

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Originally posted at Webware

The people of Salt Lake City have gotten behind the switch to mixed-use, and developers have been clearing away old sprawl. But the flailing economy has put projects on hold, leaving the city with a landscape full of holes.

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The Better Place Rogue is an all-electric version of the Nissan Rogue crossover SUV.

(Credit: Better Place)

Hawaii has decided to partner with Better Place to bring car battery exchange stations for electric vehicles to the islands, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle announced Tuesday.

Better Place stations, similar in concept to ...

Originally posted at Planetary Gear

Of primary importance will be dealing with the National Highway Trust Fund, long the source of federal transportation funding, but not having seen an increase in the gas tax for 15 years, it is essentially broke - spending more than it brings in.

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Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Monday unveiled an ambitious plan that calls for installing solar panels on residents' rooftops to meet 10 percent of the city's energy needs by the year 2020. "Our solar initiative is the largest of any kind anywhere in the world. When it takes full effect, L.A. will have 1,280 megawatts more capacity -- more than exists in the entire United States today," said the mayor.

Clean energy company Econcern will partner with China National Offshore Oil Corp and Sinohydro to invest 863 million euros ($1.09 billion) to build four Chinese wind farms, the companies said on Tuesday. Construction of the wind farms, which will generate around 720 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy, will begin in 2009, Netherlands-based Econcern said in a statement.

I am a social worker, not an economist, and what I know is this: The stock market is in free fall, financial organizations are being bailed out and the Detroit automakers might yet get financial help from Washington, D.C. But what about those of us in the nonprofit world? Where's our bailout?

With all the recent hullabaloo about the new greener Macbook, it's easy to forget that there have been some green computers out on the market for some time, and that they address areas that Apple has not. While Apple is to be applauded for their efforts, there are other companies that take green computing further: Iameco (said "I am eco") is the product of Dublin based Micropro Computers. What makes them greener than your average beige box? As Paul Maher puts it, they are updateable, upgradeable, reusable, and recyclable. And in some cases, biodegradable. More on that in a moment.

The demolition of a registered historic church in Brooklyn has underscored a debate over historic religious facilities between preservationists and congregations who struggle to pay the added costs of owning historic property.

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[NAIROBI] Using existing technologies to monitor carbon storage in developing country landscapes could save more carbon than closing 1400 coal-burning power plants, according to new research by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). The study will be presented in Poznan, Poland, at the Conference of the Parties (COP 14), an international gathering of experts working to ensure the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) effectively and fairly discourages activities that boost harmful emissions.

Environmental concerns have caused HSBC to scale back lending to forestry schemes in Malaysia and Indonesia and review links with Canadian oil sands, the British company told Reuters. HSBC will cut ties with a third of forestry clients such as palm oil, soy and timber companies, operating in countries where illegal logging and social conflicts are a problem, including Malaysia and Indonesia, the bank said.

POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - Soot is darkening ice in the Arctic and speeding a melt that could make the ocean around the North Pole ice-free in summer well before 2050, experts said on Tuesday. The experts said the fight against warming in the Arctic should be re-directed to focus more on cutting the industrial pollution from soot, ozone and methane in Europe, North America and Russia to try to prevent the ice disappearing.

The issues posed by homeless people in downtown Riverside, California, are not out of the ordinary. But they definitely do not help the city's efforts to revitalize downtown.

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Corporate Social Responsibility Press Release

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