Real Food Challenge: Uniting Students for Just and Sustainable Food

College students across the nation are coming together to demand ‘real food’ – local, organic, fair trade food via college farms, farm-to-cafeteria programs and other initiatives.  The Real Food Challenge loosely defines ‘real food’ as a holistic term they’re using to bring together a lot of different ideas people have about just and sustainable food. Since colleges and universities spend more than $4 billion on food every year, college students have the ability to directly influence a significant portion of the national food system.

From Real Food Challenge:

People are increasingly waking up to the need for change. The situation is dire, as environmental degradation, corporate consolidation, homogenization, and alienation become the hallmarks of our food system. The momentum for change is growing; consumers are demanding more real food, activists from across the country are linking up, and the buzz is growing all around. On hundreds of college campuses all around the country, the momentum has become a budding movement.

This movement, however, lacks common goals, a common framework, and a collective voice. Nor is this movement as diverse and widespread as it should be. If we move strategically and effectively, we can capitalize on the growing energy and bring the many elements of the campus food movement into collaboration, working towards a unified goal of more socially and environmentally conscious food.

We have shown that we have the passion, drive and wherewithal to make real change. Thousands of students are already working to create a more just and sustainable food system, and have demonstrated a commitment to the highest ideals of environmental sustainability and social justice.

Dozens of schools are already participating, including sustainability leaders like College of the Atlantic, Dartmouth College, Evergreen State College, Middlebury College, NYU and Warren Wilson College. Check out the list, and if your school isn’t on it, the Real Food Challenge website has all the details on how you can get involved.  The website also includes resources like a 10-step ‘Guide to Launch’, action ideas and downloadable posters.

This is a fantastic way for college students to exercise their power to make the world the way they want it to be. Why settle for pesticide-laden, mass-produced junk when you can demand better, and get it? This is a really well-organized campaign, and it’ll undoubtedly do a world of good in changing the way college students think of food.

Link [Real Food Challenge]

Green Retailing 3.0: An Interactive World of Green Internet Shopping

In the past few days, we’ve seen a lot of bleak stories about how the retail industry is struggling to make ends meet due to consumers limiting their spending. Dire predictions have been made about the many outlets that won’t survive the season, as people do everything they can to save money – including not buying anything at all. But, even as most mainstream retailers resort to desperate measures for sales, the green retail industry is seeing growth.

Graham Hill, founder of Treehugger, wrote about how the green retail industry can continue to beat the odds, and proposes a quick shift to ‘green retailing 3.0’. From The Huffington Post:

So how about leap-frogging to green retailing 3.0? This would combine the best of two worlds - the well-developing empire of Internet-based e-commerce and an expanded universe of truly well-designed and quality-made green goods. An example of an early attempt at this is the Green Home online store, and the UK’s Green Store.

However these, and really most e-commerce sites, have been hampered by an inability to give people a full shopping experience. But that is starting to change. Look at Zoomii, an online bookstore that copies Amazon’s pricing and shipping policies but lets you browse the bookshelves. Perhaps It won’t be long before your own (realistic) Second Life avatar can go in to a virtual store and try on the organic t-shirt and jeans you’ve been needing.

Seem far-fetched to think that those vast tracts of land now taken up by the behemoth buildings we call “malls” can be replaced by online sites and distributed networks of green suppliers? Well, E-bay probably seemed like a crazy idea not too long ago.

Hill points out that brick-and-mortar neighborhood stores with a green theme typically don’t have a great selection, and we can’t depend on mega-retailers to go green in any meaningful way, no matter how they might attempt to pander to environmentalists.

There are pros and cons to both local shopping and internet shopping, and that won’t change no matter how fancy and interactive online storefronts might become. Earth 911 has a rundown on the battle between online vs. local in-store shopping.

Hill’s ‘green retailing 3.0’ idea is intriguing, though. We’d certainly love to see the world of online shopping get a lot greener, and in order to do that on a large scale, stores need to entice even mainstream consumers to buy their merchandise.

Link [The Huffington Post] + [Earth 911]

Macedonians Plant Six Million Trees in One Day

Extensive wildfires in Macedonia over the past two summers destroyed millions of trees, but the hills and forests of this Balkan country will be green again before too long. Thousands of Macedonians came together in a major reforestation drive, and planted six million trees in a single day.

From Reuters:

“Our goal is to make Macedonia “greener” and make people more aware of the needs of this planet,” said Macedonian opera singer Boris Trajanov, who initiated the project.

Thousands of people were bused to the planting sites, including more than 1,000 soldiers who planted some 200,000 seedlings at 14 sites.

“Just as we take care of our homes, we should take care of our planet,” said Silvana, boarding a bus with her two children. “We have no other place to live, that’s why I’m going.”

Trajanov told Reuters he hoped to spread the campaign across the whole Balkan region next year.

“If Macedonia, a country of two million people, can plant six million trees, we can only imagine how many trees can be planted in other, bigger countries,” he said.

Six million trees in a single day – that’s really impressive. Pretty inspiring to see so many people come together for the purpose of beautifying their country and repairing damage to the environment. And, this wasn’t even the first time – back in March, they planted 2 million trees, symbolizing one for each citizen in the nation. Imagine how much good we could do if even a fraction of the citizens of every other nation in the world followed suit!

Link [Reuters] via [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Balkan Analysis

Green DIY Holiday Décor: Wine Bottle Candle Holders

If you’re looking for some cheap, green ideas for holiday décor that don’t look like a fourth grader’s art project, Design Sponge has instructions for wine bottle candle holders that look chic and cost far less than store-bought décor. And no, this doesn’t entail simply sticking a taper candle into the mouth of a wine bottle. Using a glass cutter, you cut the bottles at varying heights to create a custom-made tablescape.

From Design Sponge:

Here’s what you’ll need:

-Glass cutting kit (we like this one or this one)
-Empty wine or beer bottles
-Sandpaper for polishing cut edges
-Candle
-Ice cube

Making a vase or candle holders out of a glass bottle isn’t rocket science, but it does take some practice. Don’t be upset or frustrated if you end up sacrificing a few bottles to the recycling bin before you master the fine art of scoring. To get started, adjust the cutter so that your bottle lies flat on the rollers with the scoring blade at your desired height. Using both hands, carefully roll the bottle towards you, keeping steady pressure as you create as straight a score line as possible around the entire bottle. Remember that to get a nice clean break in your glass it’s more important that the line be straight, not necessarily deep.

Now it’s time for the fire and ice. Light your candle, and holding the score line directly above the flame, slowly rotate the bottle for 20-30 seconds. Then do a few quick rotations so that the score line is evenly heated all around. Next, grab an ice cube and slide it along the score. This is where it gets interesting. If you hear any clicks or tiny cracking noises, this is a good sign. Most bottles won’t separate during the first round, so you may have to repeat the fire and ice routine a few times before the bottle magically (and cleanly!) snaps in two.

Soften the cut edges of the glass with sandpaper and you’ve got yourself a perfect little vase (or candle holder, or drinking glass)… Experiment with different sizes and heights and you’ll see that the possibilities are endless!

This could be really beautiful with jewel-toned bottles in different shapes. It’s a great way to reuse the many wine bottles your family imbibed on Thanksgiving, and it totally cuts out the need to run out and consume more crap you don’t need. Check back with EarthFirst over the coming weeks for more cool DIY holiday projects.

Link [Design Sponge]

More Pine Forests Succumbing to Mountain Pine Beetle Infestation

The bark beetle problem extending from New Mexico to British Columbia is getting worse, turning the region’s signature pine forests from green to rust red. Montana has already lost a million acres, and the news in Colorado and southern Wyoming is even worse. In Montana’s capital city, Helena, loggers are racing to cut down infected trees to stop the beetles from spreading.

From The New York Times:

In Wyoming and Colorado in 2006 there were a million acres of dead trees. Last year it was 1.5 million. This year it is expected to total over two million. In the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, the problem is most severe. It is the largest known insect infestation in the history of North America, officials said. British Columbia has lost 33 million acres of lodgepole pine forest, and a freak wind event in 2006 blew mountain pine beetles, a species of bark beetle, over the Continental Divide to northern Alberta. Experts fear that the beetles could travel all the way to the Great Lakes.

In the next three to five years, Mr. Kyhl said, virtually all of Colorado’s lodgepole pine trees over five inches in diameter will be lost, about five million acres. “Already in many places, every lodgepole over five inches is dead as far as the eye can see,” he said.

Foresters say the historic outbreak has several causes. Because fires have been suppressed for so long, all forests are roughly the same age, and the trees are big enough to be susceptible to beetles. A decade of drought has weakened the trees. And hard winters have softened, which allows the beetles to flourish and expand their range.

The beetle drills through the pine bark and digs a hole in the wood where it lays its eggs. The larvae inject a fungus to stop the tree from moving sap, which could drown them, and that fungus stains the wood blue. The trees emit a white, candle wax-like resin into the beetle’s drill hole in an attempt to fight them off, which sometimes works – but in some cases, the beetle emits a pheromone call for reinforcements, causing a swarm that kills the tree.

The reason for all of this? Warming temperatures. Decades ago, temperatures dropped to 30 or 40 degrees below zero in the Rockies, which kept infestations like this at bay. Now, the beetles have free reign. And, the death of all these trees is of course having a major effect on the forest ecosystem. In Yellowstone, for example, the white pine trees falling prey to the beetles grow nuts rich in fat, which grizzly bears depend upon for survival. Flash floods could also be a problem, and all of these dry forests are at major risk of fast-spreading fire.

This is one of the most obvious ways in which we’re already experiencing the effects of global warming here in North America. If this isn’t a blaring siren of warning, I don’t know what is.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Dion Manastyrski, B.C Ministry of Forests and Range

Solar Panels Decorate Graves in Spanish Cemetery

Graveyards take up a lot of space. Before the growing population became a pressing problem, people didn’t think too much about the efficiency of dedicating large swaths of perfectly good land to store skeletons for an indefinite length of time. By now we should know better – we’re wasting perfectly good land and if we keep on creating cemeteries at the rate we are today the whole world will end up covered in them. So, the idea to turn a sunny expanse of graves into a solar power plant is a fantastic first step toward common sense.

From TIME Magazine:

Santa Coloma is the first city in Spain to convert its municipal burial place into what is essentially a power plant. The installation consists of 462 solar panels spread over roughly 10,700 sq. ft. (1000 sq. m.), and has a capacity of 100 kilowatts, enough to meet the energy needs of 60 families.

The idea came from Esteve Serret, director of Conste, a company that manages Santa Coloma’s cemetery. Serret had long been interested in renewable energy, and one day, as he worked with his father in the graveyard, he realized they were standing in a potent site for it. “To produce solar energy you need a wide open space,” Serret says. “and in Santa Coloma, the biggest open space is the cemetery.” Indeed, the city’s 124,000 inhabitants are squeezed into a bare 1.54 sq. miles (4 sq. km.) of space — and much of that land is mountainous.

Serret had only to convince the cemetery’s owners: the municipal government. That turned out to be easy, especially because the $935,000 it would cost to install the panels would come from Conste and Endesa, a major power company. “Why not? we thought,” says Begoña Bellete, councilwoman for environmental affairs. “A city like ours has to commit itself to being on the frontlines of the fight against climate change. And this was a great opportunity because the financing would be private. All we had to do was provide the space.”

This is a fantastic start, and in Spain, other cities are already warming up to the idea. Neighboring Barcelona has inquired about the project. It’s hard to imagine this catching on in America, though, what with the complete and unapologetic sense of entitlement to the ideas of the past, whether they work in today’s world or not. Regardless, something’s got to give, soon.

Link [TIME Magazine]

Who’s Who in Green: Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben knows more about environmentalism, genetic engineering and climate change than you and me. A lot more. In fact, as noted in an article about him by The Nation, he’s the go-to guy for keynote speeches, forewords, blurbs and anthologies. He has been writing about these topics since the ‘80s and has written a long list of well-respected books including The End of Nature, The Age of Missing Information, Maybe One, Enough and Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.

In 2006, McKibben led the organization of one of the largest demonstrations to raise awareness about global warming in history, cementing his already admirable reputation as a leading American environmentalist. Al Gore has said that McKibben’s descriptions of the problem of climate change made a huge impression on him as a senator, helping to shape his revolutionary work in environmentalism.

You may have already seen McKibben’s writing at Grist, where he’s a frequent guest author and is also on the board of directors.  He also contributes to The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Mother Jones, The National Geographic, Rolling Stone and Outside.

He’s been honored with both the Guggenheim and the Lyndhurst fellowships, won a Lannan Literary Award and has been given honorary degrees from a variety of colleges including Green Mountain College and the State University of New York. He’s currently a scholar in residence at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he also directs the Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism.

McKibben is also co-founder of 350.org, an international grassroots campaign to spread awareness of the need to keep CO2 levels in the atmosphere at 350 parts per million or lower. The idea sprang from a speech given by NASA climate scientist James Hansen, in which he said that levels above 350ppm were too high, at least “if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted.”

Of their efforts, McKibben wrote at Grist.org,

Our plan — again, with your help — is to take the number 350 and beat it into every head and heart on planet Earth, to tattoo it into every brain. If our fellow earthlings know nothing else about climate change, they need to know that 350 lies in the direction of safety. We are busy trying to find artists, musicians, activists, preachers, athletes, and, well, normal people in all corners of the globe who will figure out how to make 350 the most well-known number on the planet.

Already it’s starting — 350 cyclists circling through Salt Lake City, earning real publicity as they did so. I was in Honolulu yesterday, where activists are figuring out how to put red tarps on the roofs of 350 homes in a single neighborhood that could have solar PV panels if only the utility would get out of the way. In Maui today, people promised to assemble 350 surfers off the beach for a photo. At an evangelical conference last week, pastors were talking about ringing their bells 350 times.

McKibben also founded StepItUp07.org, an online organizing hub for a National Day of Climate Action, April 14th, 2007. On that day, people gathered for hundreds of rallies around the world to ask Congress to cut carbon by 80% by 2050. McKibben himself led a 5-day walk across Vermont to demand action on global warming, and Step it Up 07 has been described as the largest day of protest about climate change in the nation’s history.

Many people credit McKibben with bringing the concept of climate change to the masses, making it easy to understand in his book, ‘End of Nature’. That was obviously just the beginning, as McKibben makes it his life’s work to make sure people understand just how important of an issue climate change really is, and continues to inspire people to act every day, all around the world.

Bill McKibben’s Green Score: 88,572

Bizarre Alien-Like Elbowed Squid Filmed at Oil Drilling Site

A Shell Oil robot filming a mile and a half under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico captured something surprising: a bizarre, alien-like creature with extremely long, elbowed tentacles. It was a rare sighting of the Magnapinna squid, which remains largely a mystery to science. The video was taken on November 11th at the Shell ‘Perdido’ oil drilling site, about 200 miles off the coast of Houston, Texas.

From National Geographic:

Based on analysis of videos not unlike the one captured at the Perdido site, scientists know that the adult Magnapinna observed to date range from 5 to 23 feet (1.5 to 7 meters) long, Vecchione said. By contrast, the largest known giant squid measured about 16 meters (52 feet) long.

And whereas giant squid and other cephalopods have eight short arms and two long tentacles, Magnapinna has ten indistinguishable appendages that all appear to be the same length.

“The most peculiar structure is that of the arms,” said deep-sea biologist Bruce Robison of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

Referring to the way the tentacles hang down from elbow-like kinks, Robison said: “Judging from that structure, we think the animal feeds by dragging its arms and the ends of its tentacles along the seafloor as it drifts slowly above it.”

The Perdido site is one of the deepest oil drilling sites in the world. Experts don’t think the Magnapinna squid’s presence there has any expert significance, and some are actually aligning with the oil industry in the hopes of capturing more rare deep-sea footage. Marine biologists are eager to use the high-tech oil industry ROV  (remotely operated vehicle) technology.

That seems like a bad idea, doesn’t it? Scientists relying on corporations for important data? According to National Geographic, most sightings of the Magnapinna have come from research vessels, not oil companies. At least one scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is being cautious about it. Squid biologist Michael Vecchione said oil industry collaborations “should not get in the way of purely scientific exploration. We need to be careful about deep-sea conservation.”

Link [National Geographic] + [YouTube]
Photo credit: National Geographic

Great Green Job of the Week: Engineer of Mechanical Systems at Vestas Wind Technology

Vestas offers you challenging career opportunities in a global environment. As the world leader in modern energy, our wind turbines reduce CO2 emissions by millions of tons each year. Our employees, representing 56 nationalities, are eager to welcome new colleagues to our rapidly growing organization. Care to join us?

As our Engineer, Mechanical Systems you will be a part of Vestas Americas Technology Group, and provide mechanical engineering expertise in support of sales, service, installation and product development of wind turbines.

Location: Portland, Oregon

Responsibilities and Tasks

As part of Vestas Americas Technology Group, provide mechanical engineering expertise in support of sales, service, installation and product development of wind turbines.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Completes continuous improvement projects to analyze and resolve field failures of mechanical systems/components for wind turbine generators. Includes root cause analysis, development of immediate corrective actions, design of permanent solution and implementation.
• Respond to technical inquiries from service personnel, project managers, and outside customers.
• Provides required engineering support during and after the installation of wind turbines
• Conducts studies to assess failure modes and effects and develop time to failure models.
• Prepares and maintains necessary drawings, specifications, and documents for project installations, and continuous improvement projects.
• Coordinates/participates with Vestas Research & Development in Denmark as required for ongoing product development and reliability projects.
• Utilizes mechanical engineering expertise and knowledge of wind turbine systems to provide technical support of sales.
• Provides ongoing technical support for in-service wind turbines as needed.
• Solid field and manufacturing trouble shooting skills

Qualifications and Work Experience

• Bachelors or Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering required
• Minimum of 5 years experience with industrial mechanical components and hydraulic systems.
• Experience or strong familiarity with root cause analysis for mechanical system failures required.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills required.
• Project management or other relative leadership experience.
• Proficient in AutoCAD, and/or ProE. Strong computer skills in all MS Office software.
• Six Sigma and reliability engineering experience preferred

Vestas offers a competitive salary and one of the most comprehensive benefits plans in the industry, including fully paid healthcare premiums for the employee and all eligible dependents, four weeks accrued vacation per year, five sick days per year and a generous 401(k) plan.

For consideration please email resume to careersinwind@vestas.com with the title Engineer, Mechanical Systems in the subject line.

The Looming Deluge of Eco-Disaster Flicks

Since green is the new black, it’s no surprise that eco-themes are creeping into all aspects of life – including entertainment. Though we’ve yet to see a flood of environment-themed music a la Corey Feldman just yet, we’re definitely starting to notice the rising number of eco disaster flicks being made right now – and we’re not the only ones. Scott Brown of WIRED warns of the deluge of global warming- and environment-related flicks that are to come, wondering whether we’ll see a parade of camp or films with actual credibility.

From WIRED:

The dopiness of so-called ecotainment—environmentally virtuous entertainment—rises in direct proportion to its message-mongering. In this way, it’s no different from the Christian inspirational flick. To be sure, many classics prey upon our ecological anxieties—The Birds, Jaws, and Jurassic Park come to mind. But these highlight the indomitable and inscrutable brutality of nature, not the need for better stewardship of a beleaguered planet. They’re the children of Moby-Dick, not Silent Spring. Even in these jittery, post-Inconvenient Truth days of rising seas, killer storms, and T. Boone Pickens TV spots, blockbuster-scale ecotainment is still the poseur spawn of Towering Inferno-style disaster matinee and Silkwood-esque docudrama. The subject matter simply resists Hollywood idiocy: Environmental problems are complex and holistic, whereas mainstream movies thrive on conspicuous good/evil dichotomies that flatter our binary human minds. To oversimplify: Nature is Gore-ville; blockbusters are Bush country.

Brown points out recent films with eco themes or story lines: The Happening, Wall-E, Hellboy II and Quantum of Solace as well as some that have yet to debut, including The Thaw, Strays, a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon and 2012.

We’ve also got a new Keanu Reeves vehicle to look forward to: an environmental-minded remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. You’ve probably seen the trailers, in which Keanu uses his vapid “acting” method to portray an alien who comes to earth to give a violent tough-love message about our planet-destroying ways.

Hey, more attention to all of these problems is definitely a good thing. Since entertainment seems to be the only way to get to many people these days, perhaps it’ll help raise awareness about the problems we’re facing, and the fact that they aren’t going to go away unless we do something about them.  So, bring ‘em on – and, as Brown says, “Hope that we’ll someday remake The Day After Tomorrow as a campy commentary on our catastrophic overabundance of fresh air and bluebirds.”

Link [WIRED]

Urine Recycler Finally Passes Astronauts’ Test

Astronauts on the Endeavor have been testing a $154 million water recycling system for a week now, and after a few days of problems with the machine shutting down intermittently, it’s finally working. The urine processor is brand-spanking-new technology that NASA hopes will help them solve the problem of water availability in space. They need to be able to convert astronauts’ urine and sweat into drinkable water in order to double the size of the space station crew to six next year.

From MSNBC:

By early Tuesday, the machine had run continuously for five hours, well past the intended mark. Additional testing was ongoing, and hopes were high that more than enough samples of processed urine would be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour for safety tests.

Space station skipper Mike Fincke, who had nursed the urine processor along, yelled “Yippee” when he learned it was finally doing its job.

“You have to remember that this is serial number zero-zero-one for a brand new technology which we’re testing out here on space station, so you can expect to have a few hiccups,” said astronaut Donald Pettit, who also worked on the contraption.

No one will drink the recycled water until it’s tested for safety back on Earth, but the Endeavor will return this weekend with six one-liter containers of recycled urine and condensation, more than originally expected.

This kind of technology isn’t just helpful up in space – it could revolutionize our ability to provide enough safe drinking water for the growing population. We’re going to need to get very clever about water conservation, and this is a great step forward.

Link [MSNBC]

Shrimp on a Treadmill Helps Scientists Study Climate Change Effects

By now you may have seen the strange YouTube video that shows a shrimp inexplicably running on an underwater treadmill to the tune of ‘The Final Countdown’, the Benny Hill theme, the Rocky theme and several other humorous and inspirational anthems. Funny as it may be to see this little guy running with all its might, the shrimp on a treadmill is actually part of a serious science experiment. Researchers are studying how climate change will affect marine species; specifically, how shrimp might adapt to higher bacteria levels in the water from climate change and polluted runoff. They wanted to see whether a bacterial infection would affect the shrimp’s endurance and thus its ability to survive.

From MSNBC:

Just as with sick people, “we found that the diseased shrimp have a more difficult time performing on the treadmill,” said Burnett. “The difference is, when you get a cold or an infection, no one tries to eat you.”

At first, Burnett and Scholnick weren’t sure the little critters would actually run on the rotating belt in their aquarium, or whether they’d last for more than a couple of minutes even if they did.

To their amazement, they found that, like the Energizer Bunny, healthy shrimp just kept going and going and going — just as a sample shrimp did in an aquarium that Burnett and Scholnick brought along with them to Studio 1A.

“We thought they would pedal along, swim and walk for a few minutes, and [instead] just hours and hours went by,” said Scholnick. “We just stopped the experiment because they’d just go on and on.” Some were still going strong after more than four hours.

The shrimp used in the experiments were bred for research and were not taken from the wild. The research was funded by a National Science Foundation grant.

Now that they know how disease affects shrimp, the researchers plan on applying their treadmill research method to other creatures.

It’s easy to feel sort of sorry for the little shrimp as it furiously tries to keep up with the treadmill, but as was said on the Today Show (I can’t believe I’m about to quote a Kathie Lee Gifford quip), “That shrimp would rather be on a treadmill than on a barbie.”

Link [MSNBC]

California Cities Considering Alternatives to Grass

Cookie Smith won a home beautification award from the city of Garden Grove, California, for her lush, green lawn. Smith was especially proud of the reward considering that her lawn – which set her back an incredible $10,000 – was artificial, and the city couldn’t even tell. In fact, Garden Grove has a ban on artificial turf.

Ironically, Garden Grove – and many other areas of California – is under a water conservation order, yet they still require homeowners to keep their lawns alive. Smith’s neighbor was shocked when he complied with the order to conserve water and was hit with a $50 fine when his grass withered and turned brown.

From the Ventura County Star:

“It’s kind of like saying ‘We want you to look like Brooke Shields, but we don’t want you to use any makeup,’” Smith said.

Now some cities are reconsidering their lawn laws and exploring alternatives to homes with perfect rectangles of green.

The state’s ever-growing population and the threat of a prolonged drought could kill the concept of the traditional lawn in California, where some communities conduct patrols looking for signs that homeowners are lavishing too much water on their lawns or letting it dribble down driveways.

Officials estimate that up to 70 percent of a family’s water bill is spent on landscaping.

Still, many will be reluctant to abandon lawns entirely. Thick carpets of grass have defined the landscape of suburban America for more than a century, and a healthy lawn in this semiarid climate is a status symbol.

Okay, this is ridiculous. California city councils, what the hell are you thinking? How irresponsible is it to waste precious, scarce water resources on a lawn that does absolutely nothing but sit there and look pretty? Lawns aren’t even as attractive as native gardens can be. They don’t provide food. They don’t provide a welcoming habitat for wildlife. Californians complain about the water restrictions and then turn around and waste thousands of gallons of water on this bourgeoisie ‘status symbol’.

Sorry if I sound like your mother telling you to clean your plate, but there are people in Africa who don’t have a drop of clean, fresh water to drink. This is the sort of thing that makes people across the world view America as a land of selfish, narcissistic idiots.

And people, artificial turf is NOT THE ANSWER. For one, it’s often toxic. It’s made from petroleum. It heats up and kills all of the beneficial organisms in the soil below, essentially rendering the land barren. It can harbor germs. And when your neighbor’s dog drops a deuce on it, that pile isn’t going to decompose and disappear into the earth. It’s just going to sit there until you clean it up. Have fun with that.

Californians and residents of other parched areas of America are going to have to part with their lawns eventually, like it or not. More water isn’t going to magically appear to meet the needs of all of these people plus the millions more that will move there in the next couple of decades, and keep their stupid lawns green.

Link [Ventura County Star]

Global Warming Will Cause Malaria Epidemic in Australia and Pacific Islands

Malaria and dengue fever will spread across Australia and the Pacific Islands from south and southeast Asia as climate change allows mosquitoes to travel to areas that were once too cold for them to survive, according to a new report.

Though Australia has been free of malaria since 1962, rising temperatures could make areas as far south as Gladstone on the mid-Queensland coast hospitable for mosquitoes. Outbreaks of dengue fever could reach Rockhampton, 100 kilometers further north.

From The Telegraph:

The report, The Sting of Climate Change: Malaria and Dengue Fever in Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, predicts that in countries where the mosquito-borne diseases are already present, the situation will worsen as temperatures climb.

“Mosquitoes are very sensitive to changes in climate. Warmer conditions allow the mosquitoes and the malaria parasite itself to develop and grow more quickly, while wetter conditions let mosquitoes live longer and breed more prolifically,” it said.

“The sting of climate change is an international public health crisis being felt on Australia’s tropical doorstep. It may soon be pressing on Australia’s northern shores as well.”
Malaria is already a big problem in the lowlands of Papua New Guinea, but the research indicates that global warming will allow mosquitoes to travel into the country’s western highlands, affecting up to another two million people.

This is a serious warning; hopefully the governments of these countries will take immediate action. I’m not familiar with the Australian government’s viewpoints on global warming and whether or not they’re likely to do something about this – any Australians want to weigh in? Seeing as malaria already kills two million people – mostly children – every year, and this number will likely rise dramatically if the events we’re being warned about come to pass, there’s certainly no time to waste.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Happy Thanksgiving from Gov. Sarah Palin

Who could forget this Thanksgiving classic? In one of the most bizarre press conferences ever- Governor Sarah Palin pardons a turkey and talks about how fun it was as turkeys right behind her are slaughtered. Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Conan’s Green Tip: Walk, if You’re Not Famous

During their ‘Green is Universal’ themed programming last week, NBC had celebrities appear in clips they called “Green Your Routine”, offering their suggestions for living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Most of what viewers saw was the same old ho-hum tips about light bulbs, reusable bags and taking the bus. One clip that caught our attention, however, was Conan O’Brien advising us that one of the best things we can do is walk instead of driving.  Of course, that tip doesn’t apply to him – he’s famous.

How many celebrities have said basically the same thing, without a hint of humor, when explaining why they don’t practice what they preach? Gotta love the old ‘I’m too famous for that’ excuse.

The funny thing is, Conan does walk around NYC all the time by himself and hardly anyone who sees him even blinks an eye. But, that doesn’t stop posts like this ending up on the internet: Red alert! Conan O’Brien eats at Subway alone! I guess some people care.

Link [Huffington Post]

GM Giving Up 2 of 5 Private Jets Amid Criticism

C-SPAN isn’t exactly known for being the channel to watch when you want a good laugh. But, during the congressional hearings last week with the heads of GM, Chrysler and Ford, viewers were treated to some unexpected and bittersweet hilarity when the Big Three executives got skewered for arriving in Washington D.C. on a private jet. Their expressions during the barrage of questions belied the fact that they didn’t even consider how bad the luxury trips looked in light of the purpose of the hearings.

It’s bad enough that all three head honchos showed absolutely zero humility while begging Congress for a multi-billion dollar bailout. But then, Wagoner simply smirked when the three executives were asked if they planned to sell their private jets and fly back to Detroit via commercial airline. The response the public got from the auto companies afterward was simply that it’s “company policy” for the CEOs to travel on private jets, and that it was a “private matter”.

It was only after getting a verbal whipping from members of Congress that GM announced they’d be giving up their private jets.

From CNN Money:

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the auto maker, which leases the planes, had decided to get rid of two of its five remaining jets before this week’s hearings as part of deep cost cutting under way at the company. The company sold two planes in September.

“We understand the symbolic issue of people showing up in Washington in corporate jets,” Wilkinson said. “We’re very sensitive to that.”

All travel at the company is getting cut dramatically as GM, which burned through $6.9 billion in cash in the third quarter, struggled to stay afloat. GM has eliminated half the workers who staff its Detroit-based hangar and planes, Wilkinson said.

“There’s a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off them with tin cups in their hands,” Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D.-N.Y.) said. “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo.”

It’s pretty sickening to hear that the company considers it a “symbolic issue”. Continuing to revel in such unnecessary excess while asking for a handout isn’t going to garner much sympathy from the taxpaying public.

Link [CNN Money] + [YouTube]

U.S. Intelligence Reports Warn of Global Warming Consequences

Global warming will help Russia gain power as the U.S. and its dollar declines, according to a new U.S. intelligence report on what the world will likely be like by the year 2025.  The report, Global Trends 2025, warns that the warming earth will extend Russia’s growing season and allow it access to northern oil fields, strengthening its economy. Canada will also benefit for the same reasons.

From MSNBC:

It also says countries in Africa and South Asia may find themselves unstable and ungoverned, as state regimes collapse or wither away under security problems and water and food shortages brought about by climate change and a population increase of 1.4 billion.

The potential for conflict will be greater in 2025 than it is now, as the world’s population competes for declining and shifting food, water and energy resources.

The report, a year in the making, also suggests the world may complete its move away from its dependence on oil, and that the U.S. dollar, while remaining important, will decline to “first among equals” among other national currencies.

U.S. global power also will likely decline, as Americans’ concerns about putting resources into solving domestic problems may cause the United States to pull resources from foreign and global problems.

Well, it’s no surprise that global warming is going to mess things up, big time. We’ve already been warned that climate shifts will cause major food and water issues across the world, and that the stability of African nations in particular will decline.

What is surprising is that the Bush administration let this one through the ol’ global-warming-isn’t-real filter. They’ve been stifling research that affirms global warming as a real and serious threat for years, and Bush has certainly proven that he’s not going to go out quietly.  January 20th can’t arrive quickly enough.

Link [MSNBC]
Image credit: Flickr user AlphaTangoBravo

Honda Debuts FC Sport Concept to Dazed Crowd

The reaction to the new Honda FC Sport Concept at the LA Auto Show last week seemed to indicate that the crowd was either so dazzled by the amazing design that they were speechless, or that everyone was kind of baffled by strange, clunky look of the thing. Treehugger described the front grille as resembling “a pair of black Honda Super Hero Underoos draped across the hood”, with the rear looking like “a tapered jet engine exhaust”. That doesn’t sound good.

From Treehugger:

There is no jet engine to speak of however, but instead a patented Honda hydrogen fuel cell. They have been trying to make the fuel cell fly for the past couple years. Honda is not a big believer in the plug-in hybrid, stating that today’s batteries are not quite up to snuff with their technology to make them a viable option. Some would say this is a smart move, others would say a foolish… but as fierce a competitor Honda is in the consumer marketplace, it is hard to question the method of their madness.

Is electric plug-ins the wave for the future, with Tesla, among many others leading the way. Or should we invest our hopes in a hydrogen infrastructure? While some folks claim that the trillion dollar infrastructure would not be economically viable, others say that hydrogen could be in our grasp for a lot less than we think.

I’m certainly no expert on hydrogen fuel cell vs. plug-in technology, so that part is better left for others to mull over. But, back to the design. It’s pretty fugly, is it not? Sure, there have been much uglier concept cars unveiled before, but it’s still pretty bad. The New York Times called it “Quantum of Grotesque” and said “each angle is worst than the last”. It’s certainly… different. But, you can’t blame them for trying something new. And, once the shock wore off, it certainly got people talking.

Link [Treehugger] + [The New York Times]
Photo credit: LA Auto Show

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