Kumar Venkat

Kumar Venkat

Kumar Venkat is a technologist and carbon footprint analyst based in Portland, Oregon. As the founder of CleanMetrics Corp., he helped companies quantify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  @kumarvenkat

Articles by this author

Greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and air travel add up to more than 15% of net US national emissions. We could put a significant dent in passenger transport emissions if many white collar employees continue to work from home all or part of the time and if businesses replace a large part of air travel with video conferences. (Photo: Danielle Scott/Flickr/cc) Views
Monday, May 18, 2020
Emerging From the Pandemic With a Climate Plan
As most of us stay hunkered down at home, we can already see a clearing of the air. There are reports of dramatically lower air pollution and smog around the world. Los Angeles saw a 29% drop in air pollution in March, and the nitrogen dioxide in the air from Boston to Washington is at the lowest...
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For an equal supply of protein, beef produces 20-25 times as much greenhouse gas emissions on average as beans, and about 12 times as much as tofu. (Photo: Neil H/flickr/cc) Views
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Eating Well Without Destroying the Climate
As you sit down to eat a holiday dinner with family or friends this year, the Earth’s climate may be the farthest thing from your mind. But if you are looking for a good New Year’s resolution in a few weeks, you can’t go wrong with climate-friendly eating. The links between food and climate are...
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A worker installs solar panels atop a government building in Lakewood, Colo. The industry has added more than 80,000 jobs since 2010, according to The Solar Foundation. Views
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Reframing the Here and Now: How to Fight Back on the Climate Front
Climate change programs are up for elimination with the proposed 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan . While environmentalists are protesting this, we are not seeing a grassroots uprising to fight this in the way that Obamacare...
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Thursday, April 01, 2004
What Kind of Productivity Do We Need?
On my last visit to India, I walked into a restroom at the airport in Bangalore, the high-tech capital of India, and was greeted by an attendant whose job was to dispense liquid soap and paper towels. The work was, of course, superfluous, but he clearly needed the job and the tips he occasionally...
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Thursday, January 08, 2004
Free Trade: Benefit or Peril for the Environment?
One of the most contentious issues surrounding globalization is the concern that free trade hurts the environment, both locally and globally. The classic argument for free global trade is that it is efficient for countries to specialize in producing goods where they have a comparative advantage,...
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Thursday, December 11, 2003
Global Trade = Global Warming
Recent news that Russia is unlikely to ratify the Kyoto Protocol -- which would deliver a deathblow to the world's first climate change pact -- comes at a time when the need for a comprehensive international agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions has never been greater. One of the reasons is the...
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Thursday, September 18, 2003
Globalization's Unanswered Questions
During the run-up to the World Trade Organization's failed meeting in Cancun, most editorial writers around the world called for an end to unfair farm subsidies and tariffs in rich countries. After all, who could be against an open global market in agricultural products that might offer farmers in...
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