‘Jackass’ Steve-O is Actually Serious about Animal Activism

So, maybe Steve-O is for real about this animal rights stuff. When he became the latest celeb to get naked for PETA’s anti-fur campaign last fall, a lot of people scoffed – I mean, this is the dude that was on the Jackass spinoff ‘Wildboyz’. Goat rodeo, anyone? I, for one, didn’t know anything about Steve-O’s animal activism – I’ve sat through countless hours (my husband is a fan) watching him intentionally harm himself as part of the cast of Jackass, CKY and Wildboyz, so it’s hard to take him seriously. Um, he used Tobasco sauce as eyedrops, and that’s a very mild example.

I was surprised to read Ecorazzi’s write-up about Steve-O rocking a PETA anti-fur shirt at the Maxim Hot 100 Party in Hollywood, California last week:

Daredevil Steve-O arrived to the Maxim Hot 100 Party in Hollywood, California last week rocking a PETA Anti-Fur shirt. No stranger to activism, the Jackass star has participated in many campaigns for the animal rights organization. You can check out some of his work here.

Since ‘Wildboyz’ seemed to make it clear that Steve-O wasn’t too concerned about the welfare of animals, I did a bit of digging before reposting this news, and was again surprised to find this on his personal website, posted on April 5th 2008 after he went to rehab and decided to clean up his life:

I want to make this world a better place and have chosen to do so by living what I consider to be a good life. I wish to lead by example, which is why I no longer contribute to the suffering of animals. I will not eat or wear any parts of the bodies of dead animals (correction: I eat fish). I could make a list of the things I choose to do, but, rther than do that, I will just leave you with the following statement: I am hopeful that I will make you all proud.

Perhaps we should all take this as a lesson: being so incredibly goofy that you would get a huge tattoo of your own face on your back doesn’t necessarily make you a douchebag. Also, crack is whack. Here’s hoping Steve-O stays clean and continues the animal rights work.

Link [Ecorazzi] + [Steve-O]

The Simpsons Go Green(ish) for the Krustyland Ride at Universal Studios

As if the Simpsons could get any cooler. The new Simpsons-themed ride at Universal Studios is going to be green less polluting due to the installation of 27,675 LED lights, which will save 662kWh a day (about what an average house uses in a month).

From underwire:

Universal Studios Hollywood’s new Simpsons Ride celebrates the carnival-barker-style commercialism you’d expect from an attraction named after a greedy capitalist clown, but there’s more than meets the eye: Krustyland is engineered to echo the eco-friendly sensibility dramatized in The Simpsons Movie last summer, which found the city of Springfield encased in a giant bubble after Homer dumps garbage in the lake.

According to Universal officials, the Simpsons Ride boasts the largest lighting installation of LED lamps in theme park history. The ride’s 2,582 energy-saving LED lights expend 27,675 watts per hour. That’s less than a third of the 82,909 watts that would have been consumed by standard incandescent lighting used by the conventionally powered attraction previously on site, according to Universal.

End result: energy savings of 662,796 watts per day. As Homer might say in between donuts: Mmmmm, kilowatts!

No matter how you slice it, theme parks aren’t green. Typically, natural areas are clear-cut and wildlife is displaced to make room for fantasyland attractions where tons of electricity is used and people generate trash like nobody’s business. And, let’s not even go into the fact that we remove real wildlife to replace it with a cleaned-up version of it that lets us ‘enjoy it on our own terms’. However, at least having LED lights is trying, right? It’s better than what they’ve been doing so far. Baby steps are better than the status quo.

Link [underwire]

Cooking Grease is Big Business as Gas Prices Soar

Don’t you wish you would have been one of those ‘weirdos’ who outfitted your diesel-engine car to use biofuels? Years ago, when people first started gathering used cooking oil from restaurants to fuel their vehicles, news of it was greeted by the public with amazement and more than a little scorn. After all, gas was still less than $2 a gallon and most people seemed to think we’d never run out. Well, who’s laughing now, bitches? Cooking grease is turning into a booming industry of its own, and the folks who are no longer dependent on petroleum are breathing a big ‘ol sigh of relief as the rest of the population worries about gas prices.

The Chicago Tribune has it:

Restaurants increasingly are being paid for their used cooking oil, icky stuff that historically they’ve had to pay to have hauled away. And sales of kits that allow diesel-powered cars to run on used cooking oil are soaring.

With all the attention, rendering firms are reporting a surge in grease thefts.

Grease’s rising star stems from rising energy prices. Demand for biodiesel is soaring, putting pressure on supplies of used vegetable oil, which can be used to make the alternative fuel.

Restaurants are getting into profit-sharing programs with companies that haul their raw used cooking oil away. Companies that make kits that convert diesel vehicles to burn straight vegetable oil are making money, too – one company, Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems in Massachusetts, expects to double their sales this year and are having trouble keeping up with demand.

Some drivers are still hitting up restaurants themselves to get oil for free and running it through filters to catch stray bits of food before putting it in their fuel tanks. Many, it seems, are also going the route of theft, making the business even more competitive. This cooking grease boom just goes to show that when they’re pinched, people get creative. Let’s see more of it!

Link [The Chicago Tribune]
Photo credit: Flickr user jsbarrie

Nature Can Coooold Blooded: Frog Eating Spider Is Full of Badass

I feel bad for the frog, but…

Kick. Ass.

Via [Green Daily] via [videosift]

Help No Impact Man Fight Global Warming

Colin Beaven, also known as No Impact Man, aims to make an impact that will help the planet: he’s meeting with his representative to push a plan for an effective global warming mitigation policy and he needs your help. All you have to do is cut and paste the text he’s written into an email and send it to him so he can serve them all up to Representative Nadler. It will only take a minute of your time, and you might just win a copy of Morgan Spurlock’s ‘What Would Jesus Buy’ DVD.

Colin explains the policy he’s urging:

• Introduce, as soon as possible, a non-binding resolution to the House of Representatives asserting that we need a climate change mitigation policy with a goal of no more than 350 ppm of atmospheric carbon dioxide (read why here). Furthermore, the resolution should say that the United States must collaborate with the international community to achieve an effective successor to the Kyoto Protocol that will achieve the 350 goal or better (depending on how the science progresses).
• Pledge to support the 1sky.org policy platform that also includes creating five million green jobs (through, for example, weatherizing our buildings and manufacturing solar panels and windmills), and placing a moratorium on the building of new coal power plants.
• Pass on to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter addressed jointly to her and Representative Nadler, in his position as Assistant Whip, asking them both to push for the introduction of new and the strengthening of currently pending climate change legislation to reflect the crucial 350 goal. This means, at the very least, aiming for an 80% reduction in climate emissions below 1990 levels by 2050 and a 25% reduction by 2020.

Help him reach his goal of 3,500 emails! Visit No Impact Man for more information, and be sure to pass this post along to your friends to get them to send one, too.

Link [No Impact Man] via [Treehugger]

A Nature-Inspired Underwater Power Generator that Looks Like Sharks

Following nature’s innate wisdom when planning a design seems like a really smart idea. I love bio-mimicry, and this is just about the coolest thing I’ve seen. Underwater generators that disturb sea life as little as possible and look this awesome? Love it.

Gizmodo has it:

It never hurts to take cues from nature when designing technology, and that’s just what BioPower Systems did when engineering its bioSTREAM underwater generator. It’s inspired by shark tails, using the shape in a fixed device that moves with the motion of the ocean. It reverses the use of the tail, with the water moving it rather than it moving in the water, but by anchoring it to a fixed point it allows it to align itself in any direction depending on how the flow is moving. No word on just how cost-effective generating energy this way would be, however.

I wish they would add shark fins to them that stick out of the water. I’d pay to go see that – a giant field of artificial sharks swimming in an unchanging and immovable formation.

Read more about biologically inspired ocean power systems at the BioPower Systems website.

Link [Gizmodo] + [BioPower Systems]

Get a DIY Flat-Pack Home Delivered and Have an Attractive Cabin in Two Days

So you want to build your own home, but aren’t exactly a contractor. Maybe you don’t have the first clue how to go about doing it, and are in a hurry and strapped for cash. Until now, you would have had no choice but to give up your DIY dream. Lucky for you, a company called Argos has become the first major retailer to offer an attractive and affordable cabin that supposedly takes two people only two days to build.

From Springwise:

The British retailer’s basic five-room cabin, measuring roughly 32×17 feet or 8×5 meters, costs GBP 10,999. An upgraded model, with amenities such as laminate floors with in-floor heating, costs GBP 13,099. Both models are suitable for year-round living and are made by Finnish forestry company Finnforest using wood from sustainable forests.

Argos’ cabins open up several new-business opportunities. For starters, there’s likely a much larger market for ready-to-move-in cabins than for cabins that must first be put together, however easy their assembly might be. Thus, one option would be to buy the kits, assemble them and then resell the homes. The cabins’ low price coupled with their short assembly time would make the potential profit margin a lot greater than would be the case with conventionally built homes that require weeks to build.

Why stop at IKEA flat-pack furniture when you can have a flat-pack home? This is pure awesome. Just get yourself some land and you can have a nice, modest cabin that you won’t be paying off for decades to come. The entire thing (not counting land, utility hookups, surveys and permits) costs little more than the average down payment on a traditional home. This would be a great starting point for a compact homestead complete with solar panels and other energy-saving utilities.

Link [Springwise]

Newt Gingrich Claims to be an Environmentalist, Then Backpedals When It’s Inconvenient

It’s way, way too late for Newt Gingrich to get on the good side of liberals. So, when the former Republican congressman did an interview last fall with Salon and tried to paint himself as an environmentalist, it’s unlikely that anyone took him too seriously – aside from the handful of conservatives who may have read the piece and wondered where the hell his ‘green’ streak came from.

From the interview:

“Somebody who believes that the environment is part of our heritage, and we have an absolute obligation to try to maintain it, and develop it, and sustain it. And somebody who has reverence for the extraordinary complexity that God has created in the natural world.”

When speaking to his loyal followers, however, Gingrich goes in another direction entirely. Subscribers to his weekly newsletter received this tired spiel in their inboxes just last week:

For decades left-leaning politicians have advocated higher prices and less energy. They were going to save the environment by punishing Americans into driving less and driving smaller cars. Now their policies have succeeded with a vengeance.

The very left wing politicians who favored a policy of no oil and gas exploration, no use of coal, no development of nuclear power, and no aggressive development of new technologies are now panic-stricken that their policies of higher prices have led to higher prices.

Let’s ignore, temporarily, the many stupid things Mr. Gingrich said in the above two paragraphs (particularly the ‘punishing Americans’ bit, ugh, are Americans really so entitled?). Rather, the point of this piece is, in what universe is Newt Gingrich an environmentalist, and why can conservatives not see that while they point their fingers at liberal politicians and call them panderers, that their own politicians and figureheads are doing the same, if not worse?

The only place this irreverent political hack is an environmentalist is in Rush Limbaugh’s dreams and maybe in Bizarro World.

Link [Salon] + [Human Events]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

FBI on the Trail of Dangerous Vegan Potluck Dinner Attendees

Dayum! So apparently we’re not the only ones who think militant vegans can get a little crazazy – the FBI is on their trail, too. Those wily wilesters are looking for a few good moles who aren’t afraid of stepping into those infamous dens of dissent – vegan potluck dinners.

College student Paul Carroll was called into a meeting at a coffee house with the campus police sergeant and a female FBI special agent. Carroll had previously been charged with a misdemeanor for spray-painting the inside of a campus elevator, and knew the police officer from when he turned himself in. What they had to say once he got there wasn’t exactly what he was expecting.

From City Pages:

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

Those vegans. You gotta watch out for them, seriously, what with their non-leather accessories, tofu and almond milk. They are some dangerous mofos who won’t hesitate to cut you if you dare to pledge your support for meat eating in their presence. As we speak, they’re covering their tracks so the FBI doesn’t find their secret vegan activist hideaways complete with seed bombs, trays of dairy-free bakery treats and posters of famous vegans Alicia Silverstone and Woody Harrelson. They are armed with PETA brochures and planning a terrorist infiltration of the Republican National Convention complete with dangerous ‘Go Vegan’ stickers and peacemongering propaganda.

Link [City Pages] via [BoingBoing]
Photo credit: Flickr user Joi

Holy Oprah! Talk Show Host Goes Vegan

Wow. Just wow. OPRAH, worshipped by millions of American women (and some men, too), has joined Team Vegan. This is huge, y’all. Could veganism get a better spokesmodel? Could anything get a better spokesmodel? I mean, she features a product on her ‘favorite things’ show and packs of rabid Oprah fans raid stores devouring every trace of it.

Ecorazzi’s got the scoop:

After the first day of being vegan she wrote: “So this first day wasn’t hard at all. For breakfast, I had steel-cut oatmeal with fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped walnuts and a splash of soy milk and some agave nectar. For lunch, chunky mushroom soup with wild rice and pecans. As a snack, a handful of roasted almonds. And for dinner, a baked potato drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper with a salad of shredded lettuce, cranberries, pine nuts and tiny orange slices with a vinegar and oil dressing.” Delicious!

Now granted as of right now Oprah plans on only doing this for 21 days as part of a cleanse, but I only planned on being vegan for a week and that was 7 years ago. And good news — so far it looks like Oprah has been pretty impressed. She revealed: “Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. “What’s left?” I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes”

Damn, is this fantastic for animals everywhere. We can only hope that her crazed fans follow suit and at least give it a try. If nothing else, this elevates veganism into the public consciousness in a positive light.

We’ll just have to see if it holds, and undoubtedly vegans worldwide will be watching as well. Woe to Oprah if she tries to pull any veganwashing. Have you ever met a militant vegan? They’re fucking nuts!

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Flickr user Willowtree2005

Welcome to the Black Hole of Despair: High Oil Prices Cause Resurgence in Coal Mining

Sigh. This is not good, people. Just when you think the high price of oil will force people to turn to greener sources of energy, they turn back to the tried and true. As if afraid to give new forms of energy a shot, demand is back up for dirty, dirty coal. This is not going to be easy.

The New York Times has it:

But after decades of seemingly terminal decline, Japan’s coal country is stirring again. With energy prices reaching record highs — oil settled above $135 a barrel on Thursday — Japan’s high-cost mines are suddenly competitive again, and demand for their coal is booming. Production has jumped to its highest in nearly four decades, creating a sensation rarely felt in these mining communities: hope.

Soaring commodity prices have had distorting effects across the global economy, driving up food prices and prompting fears of future energy shortages. But they have been an unanticipated boon to the coal producing regions of countries like Japan that had written off coal mining as a relic of the Industrial Revolution.

Please, Oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, don’t let this turn into a worldwide trend. This would send us backward in our progress toward a greener planet. Where high oil prices could have spurred increased funding and interest in wind energy, solar power and other renewable forms of energy, we’re increasing carbon output. How incredibly stupid. Perhaps the human race is hell-bent on destroying itself, after all.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user mangpages

New Advertising Campaign Uses Both Sweet and Sour to Sell The Need to Save the World

Talk about a visceral advertising campaign.

The Nicolas Hulot Foundation, run by the French ecologist of the same name, is running two disparately different advertising campaigns. One makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, the other turns your stomach and spins the mind. We’re opening with stomach turning.

Here’s a warm and fuzzy.

Back to stomach turning.

Head over to Green Expander to see more of both the good and the bad (no ugly).

Links [Green Expander] & [Defi Pour la Terre]

DIY Video: How To Rock Your Own Seed Bombing Campaign

Seed bomb away!!!

I played a lot of Army when I was growing up. Start with a bunch of 10 year old boys, throw in some Maine woods, some plastic toy guns, and clumps of mud (or grenades as we thought of them) and you’d get a whole weekend of pure fun.

So seed bombing definitely appeals to the 10 year old in me. Seed bombing is the act of tossing balls of clay, dirt, and seeds into vacant lots and other urban areas in need of some green. After a good rain and some time in the sun the seeds sprout out and make that spot of urban blight just a little bit greener.

Check out this DIY video showing the best way of undertaking your own green guerrilla seed bomb campaign.

Via [FreshCut] & [The See3 Blog]

The ‘King of All Stupidly Unnecessary Packaging Award’ Goes to AT&T

There’s unnecessary packaging, and then there is STUPIDLY unnecessary packaging. This lands firmly in the latter category.

Brett from TUAW was recently on the receiving end of a shipment from AT&T that stretches the imagination. His package from AT&T was shipped via DHL 2-day and came with a plastic bag and an invoice for “75011 MISC iPhone PPA BAG … $0.00.”

Was that box and bag packaged by robots? Are AT&T box packers so numb to their job that they don’t actually notice what they are working on? How did this dumbass trip up happen?

I’m gonna order me 30 or so of those MISC iPhone PPA Bags, they’ll come in handy the next time I have to move.

Eco Fail.

Link [TUAW] via [Gizmodo]

FYI: Wildlife Refuges are the Place to Go for Illicit Hookups

So, the men’s restrooms at your local park are now infested with undercover cops who stick out like a sore thumb, given that they don’t have a leash connecting their junk to a collar around their neck. What do you do? The rest stops aren’t safe anymore. Airport bathrooms are now too conspicuous, thanks to that sellout Senator Craig. Fear not, trollers: you can now have anonymous unprotected sex at wildlife refuges without fear of getting caught. You might have to drill some new glory holes, but it will be totally worth it.

From MSNBC:

America’s wildlife refuges are so short of money that one-third have no staff, boardwalks and buildings are in disrepair, and drug dealers are using them to grow marijuana and make methamphetamine, a group pushing for more funding says.

A decrease in law enforcement has left the refuges vulnerable to criminal activity, including prostitution, torched cars and illegal immigrant camps along the Potomac River in suburban Washington, D.C.; gay sex hookups in South Carolina and Alabama; methamphetamine labs in Nevada; and pot growing operations in Washington state.

This is just what you’ve been hoping for. Not only are wildlife refuges free of cops and large enough to have huge meth-fueled gay sex parties, you can enjoy the scenery as you partake in the debauchery. Aww, look, it’s a cute little chipmunk!

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Flickr user Ed_45

Pedal-Powered Eco Cabs Debut in Sweden

If you visit Stockholm any time soon, you’ll have a new eco-friendly option for getting around the city: human-powered ‘eco cabs’. They don’t have A/C and probably aren’t the best choice if you’re in a hurry to get to the airport or something, but one bonus is you’ll be going slow enough to get a good tour of the scenery while en route.

Treehugger has it:

The Ecocab, that jazzy three-wheeled improvement on the older pedicab/rickshaw idea, debuted the first of May in Toronto and has been seen in cities such as Dublin and in Berlin for last year’s World Cup. In Toronto, advertising is to be the main revenue for cab company owners, at least at first. But while the new Stockholm-based fleet of eight Ecocabs trolling the inner city are brightly emblazoned with ads, they also cost cold hard cash, in some cases more than a regular taxi.

Stockholm’s Ecocabs, which will run only from May though September each year, charge 40 Swedish crowns ($6.50) per rider per 15 minute period. The ecocabs have a small 12v self-charging battery-driven engine to help the driver power up hills and run the indicator lights, and can reach a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour, though the average speed is closer to half that.

Something about sitting pretty while some poor schmuck has to work his ass off to pedal you around seems sorta wrong, but it’s certainly a great alternative to riding in a gas-powered automobile. Just be sure to give him a sugar cube and pat him on the head when you get to your destination.

Link [Treehugger]

Queen Elizabeth Outfits Her Crib with the World’s Largest Wind Turbine

Move over, Prince Charles. Yo mamma wants the world to know she’s the baddest eco bitch in town. Queen Elizabeth’s property company, the Crown Estate, has purchased the largest wind turbine in the world. This baby is 7.5 megawatts, dwarfing even the huge 1.5 megawatt monsters that can currently be seen around the world.

Ecorazzi has it:

“The Estate, which owns most of the seabed off Britain’s shores, regularly leases out its land to wind farm projects but has never invested in the turbines. With a capacity of 7.5 megawatts, the Crown has gone for the biggest yet. ‘This is not something we’ve ever done before and I think it will raise quite a few eyebrows,’ Ben Barton, the company’s offshore manager for wind farms said.”

The turbine is expected to be fully operational by 2010 — with all the power generated sold to the national grid and the Queen’s iPod. Seriously. We hear she loves David Cook but would “love to have David Archuleta over for dinner.”

The Queen’s gone green! We love it. Hopefully all you Brits will appreciate this move and encourage more of the same. The Queen may not have any political power, but she can certainly influence the masses. What’s good enough for royalty is surely good enough for the serfs, eh?

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Big Shocker: EPA Chairman is Just a White House Puppet

Wow, this is so totally shocking. I mean, who knew that the White House pressures and at times, completely overrides the heads of various government agencies in favor of their own twisted agendas? Who would have thought that the United States government isn’t as democratic as it claims to be? I just fell out of my chair in shock.

From MSNBC:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency [Stephen Johnson] came under sharp attack at a House hearing Tuesday, with Democratic lawmakers accusing him of repeatedly caving in to White House pressure on environmental issues such as global warming and a recently enacted health standard for smog.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the committee chairman, said depositions provided by senior EPA staff members suggest that Johnson had been overruled or heavily influenced by the White House on recent EPA decisions on the smog standard, its rejected of a waiver for California on global warming regulations, and the EPA ongoing deliberations on whether to regulate carbon dioxide.

“You have essentially become a figurehead,” Waxman told Johnson. “… In each case, you backed down.”

Crazy, man. What are we going to learn next – that our leaders take money from corporations to enact legislation that works in their favor? That they give large government contracts to companies they’re personally associated with, for their own financial gain? My confidence in the dedication of our government to protect and further the interests of the people is truly shaken.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons & Wikimedia Commons

Does Your College Have Lead-Laden AstroTurf Fields?

Hundreds of colleges and universities across the country have chosen AstroTurf as a low-maintenance, supposedly eco-friendly alternative to live grass. Athletes roll around on it every day, and no doubt fumes and microscopic particles are kicked up into the air during games and practice. Recently, it’s been found that there are disturbing amounts of lead in this bright green synthetic turf.

From Plenty Magazine:

Four New Jersey artificial playing fields have registered high levels of lead, the neurotoxic heavy metal, and the U.S.Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating, according to the Washington Post . And not only that, but the recycled crumb rubber fill used as padding has been found to release toxic volatile organic compounds (VOC)s. These include styrene-butadiene, classified by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen, and whose inhalation can produce irritation of eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Another VOC in the fill, ethylene-propylene, is on EPA’s hazardous air pollutants list.

If your college has an AstroTurf field, it might be a good time to push for an alternative. Of course, you don’t want your school to tear up the fake stuff and replace it with grass they’re gonna pour pesticides and herbicides onto. Push for an organic lawn. If it can be done on golf courses, there’s no reason it can’t be done on your home team’s playing field. You can get more info at SafeLawns.org.

Link [Plenty Magazine] + [Safe Lawns]
Photo credit: Flickr user D. de la Peña

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