Michael's main responsibilities at TreeHugger are with the editorial side of things (the text content), but because he is a generalist and slightly obsessive about this great green adventure, he usually has a finger in every pie at the company. He has two law degrees (LL.L and LL.B) and as recently as 5 years ago, nothing seemed to indicate that he would spend almost every waking hour dedicated to the environment. It was reading The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken and Good News For A Change by David Suzuki and Holly Dressel that changed his life. Before that, he knew there were problems but didn't think too much about them. After, he knew there were solutions and couldn't think about anything else. Michael strongly believes that making sustainability mainstream is the thing to do first because governments and corporations will follow their voters and customers. This revolution has to move from the bottom up.

Blog Entries by Michael Graham Richard

4 Reasons Why Recession is BAD for the Environment

Posted October 10, 2008 | 10:39 AM (EST)


1) When squeezed, companies will reduce their investments into research & development and green programs. These are usually not short-term profit centers, so that is what's axed first. Some progress has been made in the past few years, it would be sad to lose ground now.

2)...

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Cool Science & Technology: WIRED NextFest 2008 Preview

Posted September 27, 2008 | 02:32 PM (EST)


NextFest 2008 is currently taking place in Chicago's Millenium Park. It's the place to go to see cutting-edge innovations and futuristic technologies. I had a chance to get in before the general public and put together a series of posts full of photos of what you'll be...

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Review of SunLawn Push Reel Mower

Posted September 19, 2008 | 01:11 PM (EST)


This week I had some fun reviewing a reel mower by SunLawn. It's no secret that I love reel mowers. I still think that grass lawns are a bad idea in most places and that native species of low-lying plants would be a better idea, but...

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Green Car News This Week

Posted September 4, 2008 | 03:26 PM (EST)


Transportation has a huge impact on the environment, and figuring out ways to make mobility greener and cleaner is at the top of the priority list. Lets have a look at some of the green(er) car news items from the past week:

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Bike-Sharing: An Idea Whose Time has Come

Posted August 15, 2008 | 02:59 PM (EST)


After the great success of high-tech bike-sharing program in places like Paris, with its Velib, and Barcelona, among others, it's about time for the US to join the party.

Some cities already had small-scale and/or low-tech bike-sharing programs, but to scale and really make a...

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Number of the Day: 38 MPG

Posted August 8, 2008 | 04:11 PM (EST)


38 -- That's the number of miles per gallon (US gallons) that the average passenger car in the UK is getting according to the British Department of Transport.

22.4 -- That's how many miles per gallon (US gallons) the average passenger vehicle in the United States...

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Americans Drove 9.6 Billion Fewer Miles in May 2008, Biggest Drop in 66 Years

Posted July 30, 2008 | 02:31 PM (EST)


If you look at the numbers from the US Federal Highway Administration (FHA), you'll find that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May 2008, biggest drop in 66 years. The drop is even more impressive when you consider that pretty much since stats are compiled, the number of...

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The Split Personalities of Ford (USA vs. Europe)

Posted July 25, 2008 | 03:17 PM (EST)


While Ford is losing billions and watching its market share shrink in the US, it is introducing really efficient cars in Europe, like the 63.6 MPG ECOnetic Diesel Fiesta. If Ford was to introduce this car in North-America, even at a loss, even in small numbers, it would help...

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Ludicrous Lawns, Wasted Water, and Solid Solutions

Posted July 18, 2008 | 02:42 PM (EST)


NASA has studied satellite data and concluded that lawns in the US are taking up as much space as the whole state of New York (not the city, the state). That's fifty thousand square miles of grass!

2008-07-18-mgrjuly1801.jpg

Of course, since most (almost all)...

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4 Fun Green Stories and 2 Sad Ones

Posted July 11, 2008 | 01:35 PM (EST)


In the past, the green movement has often been accused of being too "doom & gloom", too serious. That's less the case nowadays, but it's still a good idea once in a while to take things lightly and have some fun. Below are 4 fun green stories, but to remind...

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Will 2010 be the Year of the Green Car?

Posted June 27, 2008 | 01:59 PM (EST)


It seems like the next generation of green(er) cars will be with us soon. A slew of announcements for plug-in hybrids and electric car all show the same time stamp: 2010.

Nissan Carlos Ghosn photo

Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has recently announced at...

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Water-Powered Cars: Possible or Impossible?

Posted June 20, 2008 | 01:48 PM (EST)


Water Cars: Turn on your BS detector
Oil prices are high, and everybody's looking for a quick fix. People in the media know about this, so they are scrambling to find "energy" stories, and as always, many unscientific ones make it through.

In recent days, a "water-powered car"...

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Wind Power Success Stories, Part 2

Posted June 13, 2008 | 12:09 PM (EST)


Last week in part 1, I looked at many wind power success stories. This week, we're going to take a closer look at the wind power industry itself.

Wind Power Facts and Statistics
The American Wind Energy Association compiles many statistics on wind power in the US....

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Wind Power Success Stories

Posted June 5, 2008 | 10:24 PM (EST)


In my last piece for HuffPo Green, I looked at how much solar power was potentially available to us. One image I used showed the total number of solar energy hitting the Earth totally dwarfing humanity's current energy usage. But in between was another, smaller but still quite big,...

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Can We Power the Whole World with Solar Power?

Posted May 30, 2008 | 02:03 PM (EST)


There's a good chance that you've heard somewhere that "there's more than enough energy coming from the sun to power all of humanity". Today, what I'd like to do is look a bit more closely at that statement to see if it is true, and then put it in perspective.

...
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