It’s gotta be the hats
May 16, 2008
Buy Orgainc
May 15, 2008
The biggest culprit of fossil fuel usage in industrial farming is not transporting food or fueling machinery; it’s chemicals.
Buy Grass FEd Beef
May 14, 2008
Grain-fed beef requires thirty-five calories for every calorie of beef produced.
Swat Down Vampire Power
May 14, 2008
Vampire power is the power that your electronics use when they are in standby mode. You know, things like the microwave, DVD players and yes, definitely your printer. Department of Energy, national residential electricity consumption in 2004 was 1.29 billion megawatt hours (MWh)—5% of which is 64m MWh. The wasted energy, in other words, is equivalent to the output of 18 typical power stations.
There is a movement afoot to encourage manufacturers to either remove or diminish the wattage of standby power, and Britain is moving fast to ban them altogether.
What can you do?
The first one is easy. If you only use your DVD once a week, un-plug it. If you don’t want to have to manage this yourself all over the house, and easier answwer is to get a Smart Power Strip
Want to see how much power your devides are using when you’re not looking? Get a Watt Meter
Gasoline Spill in Martinez
May 14, 2008
A tugboat at Tesoro’s Golden Eagle refinery Avon wharf facility hit three pipes shortly before 1:10 a.m., dumping 1500 gallons of gasoline into the San Francisco Bay.
The coast Guard has deployed a boom and is using skimmers to try to contain the Gasoline.
Here’s a link to a slideshow of the accident site.
No word yet on the environmental impact, but here’s a story on Kron 4.
Print smart.
May 14, 2008
The average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of paper a year. Use re-cycled paper for in-house printing and either re-use or recycle it.
Reducing packaging
May 14, 2008
We all get frustrated by the insane packaging that some things come in. Even kids. So what to do? U Florida has some good ideas.
Thoughts on McCain’s Environmental plan
May 13, 2008
McCain has long had a hot and cold relationship with the green movement, but maybe he’s taking a page from the California governator’s book about how to suddenly be seen as green as though it’s been a life goal.
Or maybe it was just the moment. In a wind power generation plant.
In any case, now he’s said it he’s going to have to get behind it for the rest of the election at least.
Dave Roberts points out that while better than expected, McCain’s proposals still have a long way to go.
McCain has always supported cap and trade programs and his goals are pretty much what everybody else has proposed. He looks to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels to 60% below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s plan of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050 .
He also wants to give away carbon offest permits (rather than auctioning them off) to get corporations with the program. What’s wrong with that idea? Well the whole idea of auctioning off permits is to limit the supply and so make it more expensive to get the permits, encouraging corporations to decrease their need for the permit. If they get them for free what exactly is the motivation? Oh, and of course they could just SELL some of them and make a boatload of money on the credits they got free from the guvmint. How very Republican.
McCain isn’t afraid to take a poke at Bush’s lack of policy though. He said “I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges” in a direct stab at Bush’s open denial then sudden revelation that global warming even exists, and McCain says he plans for the US to lead the post-Kyoto UN process and offer incentives for other countries to sign on.
Interestingly, McCain has really pushed for nuclear power in the past as a way to reduce greenhouse gasses and Ethanol, not so much to save the world, but to reduce our dependencies on foreign oil which “Makes us to vulnerable to the vagaries of foreign nations”.
Bottom line, we’ll wait and see how McCain develops his policies and really puts his policies into action. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a president who listens to the scientists instead of suppressing them.
Naaah. I’m still voting for. Obama.
Turn it off!
May 13, 2008
Turning off and/or unplugging your computer and peripherals or use a Smart Strip
Is biofuel really an alternative?
May 12, 2008
Everybody seems to be surprised that the advent of biofuels as a gasoline alternative has had an impact on not only the environment, but on the world food supply.
David Lorenz and David Morris from the Institute for Local-Self Reliance published some findings in 1995, but apparently nobody was listening.
In 2007, WCCO TV in Minnesota ran this piece called “Will Ethanol Fuel a Food Shortage?” http://wcco.com/topstories/good.question.ethanol.2.367063.html
Oh, and if you’re thinking of rushing out to stat farming for biofuels, think again. Or at least read this study from Rutgers about how to calculate the cost of farming.
The high costs of farming, compared with the high risk factors involved still make it hard for a small farmer to make a profit.
In addition to increasing the cost of everyday foods, the rush to produce more corn could impact even the oceans in a major way. The Dead Zone is a huge area of water - over 7,000 square miles – that forms every year as a result of nitrogen leaching from fertilized corn fields in the Midwest into the Mississippi river system. The nitrogen causes a huge algae bloom which then suffocates aquatic life in the area.
So bottom line. If we reach the expected production level of 15 Billion gallons of ethanol and we use over 285 Billion Gallons of gas/year, is the drop in the bucket worth it? Or should we be looking for some other options?
Boss Design - Socially Responsible Design
May 12, 2008
Companies like Boss Design that have worked to be socially responsible are changing the way we do business.
Ditch the “disposable” containers
May 12, 2008
Reusing a glass jar five times at home can save about half of the energy a commercial packager uses to make five disposable containers
Lose the junk mail
May 12, 2008
Are you just plain tired of the pile of catalogs you get delivered to your door every day? Green Dimes is a service that can help you get off the mailing lists and stop the paper spam. There are three levels of service.
Free
Gives you information for DIY removal from junk mail lists – including access to their catalog screener so you can contact the catalog publishers directly. Download-able form letters to request removal from mailing lists.
$20- Premium
The same opt out information as the free account, but with automatic removal from many junk mail lists and quarterly reporting of list removals. Green Dimes will plant 5 trees in your name with their non-profit partners. (the offer is good for multiple names at the same address)
$36- Bundle
Everything in the premium package plus some green goodies. A reuse-able shopping bag, two compact florescent bulbs and a t-shirt.
Green Dimes has worked for over 5 million people to date. The company claims they can eliminate up to 90% of your junk mail. Isn’t it about time you reduced your junk mail?
Encourage your restaurant to be sustainable
May 12, 2008
In a restaurant, make it a habit of asking where your food comes from. Is the fish farmed or wild? Is it sustainably harvested? Get a pocket guide to see if the fish you’re buying is sustainably harvested.
Is this really organic? Should I care?
May 11, 2008
So, you’ve decided to go organic. You go down to the grocery store and proudly fill your cart with all these lovely products shouting ORGANIC in bold colors, and it makes you feel better.
As it should. Well, at least it should if those products are REALLY organic. The problem is that they might not be all organic at all.
Organic food has the following benefits:
- Grown or raised by a producer whose methods are in balance with nature, and do not harm or destroy the environment.
- The farmer is committed to the environment and the quality of his produce and fostering healthy soil and growing conditions.
- Land on which organic food is grown has been free of toxic and chemical pesticides and fertilizers for three years prior to certification.
- Sustainable farming practices arte in use, like crop rotation to allow fields to recover from year to year, and cover crops are planted to add nutrients to the soil and hold back weeds.
- Organic meat, poultry and egg products come from farms that do not administer antibiotics or hormones, use organic feed, and give animals access to the outdoors.
- Processed food has been minimally processed, with no artificial ingredients, preservatives, radiation or genetically modified organisms.
So, how do you know?
Ask. Ask the farmer at the farmer’s market, the local grocer or the butcher if their food is organic. Read the labels, especially on packaged foods.
Only USDA certified-organic foods are allowed to use the word “organic” in the product name.
BUT, organic ingredients can be listed on the packaging of products that are not organic (for instance, “contains organic barley”).
In addition, if a company is certified as an organic producer, it can use the word “organic” in its company name, even on products the company makes that are not organic.
Regulation
Since 2002 Organics have been regulated by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Program.
The National Organic Standards Board defines organic agriculture as “an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.”
All that said, the regulations are getting stretched now that big business is getting interested in providing organics to the customers. The Organic Consumers Association tells us about these “sneak attacks” to try to bring more conventional ingredients into organic products.
Oh, and speaking of regulation, you may find farmers at the local market who bristle at the idea that their produce is not worthy of notice because it’s not organic. The fact is tht getting certified can be prohibitively expensive for a small farmer, and some have simply opted out. They grow their produce as if it were certified though, and they will happily share with you how their produce is raised. Some farmers use the natrual certification instead for this reason.
A recent article in the Loudount Times noted “To be certified organic, a farmer must go through a rigorous certification process by the United States Department of Agriculture, typically a three-year initial process with certified agents and inspectors studying the land, extensive documentation and daily record-keeping. In 2002, the USDA established the program to federally regulate farming with no chemical substances.”
To buy organic or not is still a good question. Automatically buying something because it says organic on the label is probably not the best answer. You still have to think about your purchases and know where they come from and what’s in them. Take the time to educate yourself about local products and make your choices based on what is healthy for you.
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