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Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 181

david — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:30:07 +0000

If you live in San Francisco and are into green design, you may want to check out West Coast Green between September 30 – October 2 at Fort Mason Center. My friend Michelle Kaufmann is on the The Future of Prefab panel, which you should definitely make a point of being at. Wish I could be there! On to the Reads…

If some sort of natural disaster or terrorist attack were to shut down New York City’s food supply chain, our supermarket shelves would reportedly be picked clean within three days. Other U.S. cities aren’t any better prepared for such emergencies, thanks to our fuelish dependence on a globalized food system.

One of the most beneficial and fun ways to save on gasoline, even skip gasoline if you so choose, is by pedal power! If you haven’t noticed, bike riding has made a big comeback in the last few years. Business men and women are riding bikes to work, families are spending quality time going for bike rides, people are riding their bikes for exercise, kids are riding their bikes to/from school and more.

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is in the Arctic to protest Cairn Energy’s drilling here. At dawn Greenpeace activists left the Esperanza aboard inflatables, successfully evaded the Danish Navy, and scaled the Stena Don drilling rig. Four climbers are currently occupying the rig, halting the drilling operation.

I tried to stay quiet and hoped that if I closed my eyes long enough, this whole “Ground-Zero Mosque” controversy would blow over. It hasn’t. In fact, all the fuss and controversy over this “mosque” has risen to such ridiculous and offensive levels that I can no longer endure this breed of Islamaphobia gone wild. (Thank you! It’s not even AT the WTC site, it’s 4 blocks away.)

Thich Nhat Hahn in Guardian UK: The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 180.

david — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:30:02 +0000

In 2005, the City of San Francisco instituted strict purchasing standards requiring municipal departments to buy products that met certain environmental, health and toxicity guidelines, and have now released their list of more than 1,000 products, like bathroom disinfectants and computer keyboard cleaners, that do not emit greenhouse gases.

April Dávila wondered what it would take to cut the GMO giant (Monsanto) out of her family’s life. She found that it was far more entrenched than she’d ever realized.

It’s widely understood that travel by train is perhaps the most eco-friendly way to get around, other than walking or biking. It’s certainly more efficient and less polluting than flying or driving a car. But what are the other benefits to taking the train, other than fewer carbon emissions?

Used shipping containers are popping up all over as eco-friendly building materials. Since framing can be one of the costliest parts of many construction projects, the shipping container offers more than just a green building solution – it helps save money by providing what’s essentially a prefab structure for architects and contractors to work with.

Yes, the United States has still not made any progress on the piece of legislation regarding the climate that would actually set a price for carbon. China however may be in the process of doing that very thing, the promise that the US is failing to keep.

My first “junk” claim is Josie Maran Cosmetics’ Argan Mascara. I’m picking on Jose Maran Cosmetics to start because of a recent Twitter party that included promoting the products as safe for pregnant mamas, including that they were free of petrochemicals. And while I can’t safe whether or not the products are safe, I can say that many of the products are not free of petrochemicals as advertised.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 179.

david — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:30:33 +0000

If you happen to live in the Los Angeles area, and have knowledge of a cool apartment and/or a guest house for rent, please let me know. I will be moving back there shortly and am starting to look around. Thanks!

I spend a lot of time thinking about all the ways in which I’m not doing enough to minimize my impact on the planet. In moderate quantities, this guilt has been highly effective in pushing me to make better decisions. At the same time, too much guilt leads to depression, paralysis, and hopelessness. Where’s the middle ground?

There was a small sign by the road that I could not read, but on the way out, I stopped. It said ‘Certified Wildlife Habitat – National Wildlife Federation.’ Wow, I thought, I didn’t know you could get certification for feeding the birds!

High-fructose corn syrup, (HFCS) the widely used and historically inexpensive sweetener, has been getting a critical look from food scientists and many American families, thanks at least in part to books, movies and studies looking at why Americans continue to gain weight. First lady Michelle Obama, meantime, has said that she won’t feed her daughters products containing the ingredient.

We all probably have promotional items we’ve accepted that are languishing on a shelf somewhere. Instead of letting them collect dust, you can use your crafty skills to turn them into something cute and useful.

At first blush, it looks much like the camp I attended as a teen in Iowa: lots of kids singing, swimming, playing basketball, helping each other on the ropes course, canoeing, and in the process making lifetime friendships. However, this camp is quite different in one BIG way. The campers are not all from the same county in Iowa, with homogeneous beliefs and experiences. These kids are from very diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. They are from regions of the world with the most intense conflict and centuries of embedded hatred.

Earlier this year I shared the good news that Richardsville Elementary School was working towards becoming the first net-zero energy public school. As you can imagine, that is quite an undertaking and will be quite an accomplishment when it opens. Well…..as good news would have it, construction is nearing completion and Richardsville Elementary is on target to be open by the end of August!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 178.

david — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:30:08 +0000

Last week I checked out Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS & The Story of the Heart at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. (Thanks Aunt Pat!) This is one of those exhibits that features “plasticized” authentic human specimens including whole-body Plastinates, organs and translucent body slices, letting one see inside actual human bodies. Plastination is the method of halting decomposition to preserve anatomical specimens for scientific and medical education. It extracts all bodily fluids and soluble fat from specimens, replacing them through vacuum-forced impregnation with reactive resins and elastomers, and then curing them with light, heat or certain gases, which give the specimens rigidity and permanence. All of the donors had agreed before their deaths that their bodies could be displayed for public education purposes. Pretty nifty, I say. It was a little strange at first, but after about 5 minutes I was incredibly fascinated with what I was seeing. If one of these exhibits ever come to your town, be sure to check it out. On to the Reads…

Why buy expensive products when you can get the same job done with a $2 bottle of hydrogen peroxide that you can find at any grocery or drugstore? It’s cheap, it’s effective, and it involves less packaging — win/win/win.

While BP faces litigation and steep fines, it is also gaining money from one of the US government’s stimulus programs. Over the next several years, as much as $308 million in federal funds, $175 million of which is directly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will flow to a power plant outside of Bakersfield, California.

Belgium is considering whether to allow a new method of disposing of human remains that is being billed as a greener, less carbon-intensive alternative to cremation. Funeral directors in northern Belgium want the country to give the green light to resomation, a water and alkali-based process that turns bodies into a mix of liquid and minerals. Resomation uses less energy than cremation and emits significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

You may not be a car enthusiast. You may not even be 100% environmentally-conscious in your transportation choices. But neither of those points matter here, because once you take a look at these forms of chic eco transportation, you might decide it’s time for a change. (As a car nut, I love these rides…)

Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear plants.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 177.

david — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:30:15 +0000

This first story/link is going to really bother you. I mean, really bother you. Especially if you eat fast food. And it should, as it’s just plain disgusting. The hamburgers you are eating are made of fatty scrapings from the slaughterhouse floor. Never again, ever, will I eat a fast food “hamburger” that sells for $.79.

“Pink slime” is the nickname earned by a formerly inedible byproduct of the beef industry. It’s “the cheapest, least desirable beef on offer — fatty sweepings from the slaughterhouse floor, which are notoriously rife with pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella… sends the scraps through a series of machines, grinds them into a paste, separates out the fat, and laces the substance with ammonia to kill pathogens.” McDonald’s and Burger King use this stuff. As meat.

Life isn’t always cut out the way we think it should be. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make the most out of it, right?! As Eleanor Roosevelt so aptly stated: “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” So, with that in mind…here are some simple biofriendly tips for life and living.

Architect Michelle Kaufmann, who I just recently met up with here in Denver, has just introduced her new simple and elegant Zero series homes. These new homes are designed to be net zero energy (where they produce as much energy as the need), healthy, comfortable, and smart. The spaces are designed to blur the boundary between the interior and exterior, “borrowing” space from the outdoors, and using the strategy of designing big rather than building big. I have been a huge of fan of Michelle’s work for years, and it was great to finally meet her!

One of the mistakes that I made last year was not feeding my plants and amending the soil in my container garden. When you first plant the potting soil that you use should likely have all the compost, nutrients and minerals for the plant to initially survive, but over time the plant will use these up and they will deplete. Don’t Forget to Amend the Soil in Your Container Garden.

Assistant architecture professor Ginger Krieg Dosier recently unveiled a new breed of biologically “grown” bricks that are durable, sustainably manufactured, and easily produced from readily available materials. Called “Better Bricks,” the building material can be “grown” from sand, common bacteria, calcium chloride, and urea (yes, the stuff in your pee) instead of being baked, which consumes a ton of energy.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 176.

david — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:30:58 +0000

Completely off-topic, but I wanted to tell you guys – go see the movie Inception if you haven’t seen it yet. I saw it the other day and I think I am going to go see it again. Absolutely amazing, and proof that great movies can still come out of Hollywood once in a while. On to the Reads…

Purchasing and installing solar power on your home or business can be overwhelming. You want to do your part for the environment, but don’t know where to begin, right? Here are a few ideas and resources to get you started.

If you or your son or daughter is in high school, have you given any thought to college majors? There are all kinds of schools out there that offer all kinds of degrees, but for someone who wants to take eco-friendliness into a career, the time is now to start looking at what colleges offer the best environmental studies programs.

The Earthship crew goes to Haiti to help teach about and rebuild sustainable housing for earthquake survivors.

It’s easy to take flush toilets, grid-power, and fresh water on tap for granted. I can’t blame any of us for thinking that all these modern conveniences are normal… it’s the only normal we’ve known. Due to this most folks have a hard time imagining an off-the-grid life because it’s not clear what’s needed to make the leap. So here’s a crash course in practical and sustainable solutions for moving yourself off-the-grid.

Looking for a refreshing alternative to throwing away your toothpaste tubes? This easy do-it-yourself project upcycles your empty tubes into a simple toothbrush holder. Upcycling materials like these are a great way to reuse without costing a mint.

Melting glaciers, more humid air and eight other key indicators show that global warming is undeniable, scientists said on Wednesday, citing a new comprehensive review of the last decade of climate data.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 175.

david — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:30:58 +0000

Now that summer is here, I am doing my best to buy all of my food from the Farmer’s Market right up the street from me. Last week I bought all my bread, fruits and veggies for the entire week, and even a bottle of strawberry jam, from the vendors there – all for $16! The only thing that I need every week that no one has there is coffee, so I still need to go to the store for that. But the Farmer’s Market is a great place to get the majority of your food, from local farmers, for way less than a grocery store. And it’s organic, to boot! So be sure to check out your local market if you have one – I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the offerings. On to the reads…

I had to ask myself – if we, the self-proclaimed environmentally-friendly activists, had known six months ago that this oil spill would occur, would we have given up our destructive behavior? Would we have sworn off buying petroleum-based products for the rest of our lives?

Woman cannot live on baguettes alone. So what’s a vegetarian to do in a country where fish, meat, and copious amounts of butter and cheese are par for the course? Head south to a little village called Ventenac on the Mediterranean coast of Southern France. That’s where I discovered Chateau Ventenac, a 19th century castle on the Canal du Midi that’s become a magnet for artists, poets, writers and, on that particular week, veg-loving foodies. Slowing Down in Southern France.

“We are a nation of oiloholics: Instead of ranting at oil companies, pols, let’s look in the mirror.” I wish they had said “As well as ranting at oil companies… let’s look in the mirror.” Because I think we need to take both collective as well as individual responsibility. It’s not either/or.

The modern age has given birth to scores of how-to books, and the environmental movement has played no small part in that. There are “green” how-to books, magazines, and websites on nearly every topic: how to garden organically*, how to create the perfect compost, how to keep bees and produce your own honey, how to cut your energy costs… William Powers’ book, Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream, is quite different.

You try to eat a healthy diet, stay active, and keep your kids safe from negative influences outside the home. You choose personal care products with claims like ‘natural’ and ‘organic’, but are those products in your bathroom really healthy? Or are they still full of dangerous chemicals?

Despite a lagging global economy and tight credit markets, 2010 is shaping up to be a banner year for the offshore wind energy industry. According to new figures released by the European Wind Energy Association, 118 new offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 333 megawatts were fully connected to the European grid in the first half of 2010.

And now for a little comic relief: Amish Teen Leads Police on Horse-And-Buggy Chase

Have a great weekend…

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 174.

david — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:30:55 +0000

Back from my month-long road trip across America! My trip took me from CO to Florida via back roads and small towns, from Florida to MA through the Blue Ridge Mountains, and then from MA back to CO in one sitting…with a 4 hour nap at a rest area in Missouri. It’s good to be home, but I had a great time on the road. Let’s check out some Reads from this past week…

Our Plunder of Nature Will End Up Killing Capitalism and Our Obscene Lifestyles. To anyone who is paying attention, things look doomed. Fortunately for American capitalism, nobody is paying attention. They never have.

Today I watched a neighbor’s kids. We made toad houses and planted sunflowers and it was a treat for me. My garden does not look like much – it is too young yet but to see a habitat garden through the eyes of a child makes it amazing. There is a lot of life going on in my backyard, I’m just too used to it. Everything was WOOOOOOWWWW! to them. You know what, it is pretty WOW.

No matter who you are or where you live, you have probably experienced stress at some point in your life. What does matter is how you chose to deal with those stresses. If you don’t deal with them sensibly you will probably stress yourself out even more. So here are 10 green ways to help lower your stress level.

The economy is tanking, the Gulf is full of oil, and the U.S. is experiencing record heat waves. With gas and food prices set to spike in the next few years, many professionals are starting to eye the exit door. Now a growing online community of off-gridders is here to help them.

It wouldn’t surprise me if every single major company ever accused of any significant or memorable environmental degradation was also guilty of greenwashing. When companies are not forced to pay for the damage they do, paying money to market themselves as green is almost always cheaper than actually changing their business practices to be more ecologically sustainable.

When talking about moving away from a carbon-based economy, one of the biggest arguments you hear is that folks rely on fossil fuels for their livelihoods. Those people are right. Oil and coal production employ quite a lot of people! The thing you don’t hear as much about is that a new, green economy is going need workers, too.

It is days like today that I’m convinced I have one of best clothes dryers in the world. I’ve been using a line to hang-dry my clothes for about 10 years and I originally turned to the clothesline out of laziness, a desire to shrink my ecological footprint and to save some money on the electricity bill, as the Fort Collins Coloradoan documented in 2007. But in the summer months, the reason I prefer to use a clothesline is because it’s simply the best clothes dryer out there.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 173.

david — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:30:31 +0000

You know what’s cool? Going back to the ballpark you always went to as a kid and see that it has yet to add a waterslide, a hotel, or a theme park to the outfield like so many “new” ballparks have. Whatever happened to going to a park to watch the baseball? It was great to be back at Fenway. Let’s check on some Reads…

We don’t have to rely on air conditioners alone to keep us cool, not even when outside temperatures are approaching three digits. Here are five ways to keep yourself cool without the use of electricity, making your power bill cheaper and your house a little greener

The following are natural remedy tips for how to deal with a stubborn-to-heal diaper rash. These tips have worked successfully for many moms and they’ll hopefully work for you, too.

I thought I would update you on the wedding plans and all the things we’re doing to make the event as low-impact as possible. During the planning process, so many challenges have arisen from the fact that we are avoiding disposable items like cups and flatware…and it has been a real struggle to not give in here or there/do things the easy way {read: the wasteful way}. But we’re sticking to our guns on the following…

With the 4th of July only a few days away, Americans everywhere are getting ready to celebrate their Independence Day with picnics, parties and various other activities. But, whether you have already made your plans or not, here are 5 MUSTS for a biofriendly 4th of July.

The recent demise of our Teflon frying pan was greeted as an opportunity to find a plasticless alternative. I have always been a fan of cast iron cookware. but I haven’t been able to find any pans locally…(but) Earlier this week we picked up a blue steel frying pan from a catering supply store.

Think you can’t have a backyard garden in the city? Think again!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 172.

david — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:30:24 +0000

This weekend my little brother is getting married, so I am up here in Boston to attend and be the Best Man. Guess I better get started on a little something to say for a toast, no? While I dream up something ridiculous to say, enjoy these Green Reads I found interesting this past week:

Much has been written about the reasons kids need to get outdoors to play, to get involved in nature, and away from the couch and big, bad, evils of TV and video screens. But what actually gets kids playing outdoors?

You don’t always have an outlet, and, even as sophisticated as many solar chargers have become, you don’t always have sunlight or the time to wait for them to give your phone an adequate amount of juice. But (hopefully) you’ve always got your own two feet, and now, that may be all you need to have a fully charged phone, even during summer camping and festival hopping.

Insect repellents, as you can imagine, are neither eco-friendly nor particularly good for you. Many are made with DEET, which is highly effective in warding off pests but not something you want swimming around in your bloodstream, which is exactly where it ends up after you spray it on your skin. Fortunately, there are all kinds of do-it-yourself recipes for natural bug sprays.

Alliance delivers farm-fresh produce to South Bronx consumers.

The writing is on the wall for corporate sustainability efforts — both literally and figuratively. In the largest survey of CEOs on sustainability issues, 81 percent of global chief executives say their company’s green strategies are fully enmeshed in operations, and that the time to take action is now.

What are you doing during this time of year? Are you in your office, sitting in front of a computer? Are you outside in a garden, harvesting lettuce and greens? When it gets brighter earlier, do you wake up earlier, too? Is the winter snow merely a deterrent to getting to work? Does your day-to-day life change throughout the months, or is it stagnant and unchanging?

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy: