Blogs

Get out of the car for a day

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:39:38 PDT

Picture a world with clean air, even in the big cities. Envision a calm commute that involves biking, walking, sharing a ride on public transit, or staying at your home office. Imagine having extra hours in your day to be with family and friends or simply relax.

Consider how much money you'd save if you could walk to all your errands instead of forking over cash to oil companies for every little trip.

That's the ideal of a carfree world â one built around people instead of cars. Many of us don't live there yet, but some communities are trying to take back the streets.

From adding bike lanes to building homes closer to shopping areas, people are looking outside the box of the car and towards a more connected, smaller-scale style of living.

This is the goal of World Carfree Day, celebrated on September 22. With activities planned from Washington DC to London, across Canada and around Europe, where the event started.

Even if your town doesn't have a party planned, you can use the day to explore carfree options, such as:

Find a new way to work such as public transit, or consider telecommuting.
Walk or bike with your kids to school.
See how many regular errands you can run on foot; Walkscore can show what's near your address.
Get on a bike or look for a new one. Bicycling is great exercise and less expensive than driving a car.

One day without a car may be a big step for some folks. But it's a step in a clean, green direction. You'll save money on gas, reduce stress from your commute, and do the planet a favor by limiting pollution.

Slow Food Nation is smiling

Sam Silverstein — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:21:16 PDT

I spent two hours at the Slow Food Nation taste pavilion this past weekend here in San Francisco. Lots of debate around these parts as to the "elitist" nature of the event and the movement from which it springs. What did I see?

Happy people. Lots of them, on both sides of the exchange.

The Slow Food campaign, which started in Italy two decades ago, now counts more than 80,000 members worldwide. The turnout for Slow Food Nation this past weekend was estimated at 60,000.

Something's going on. But what exactly?

Slow Food is the opposite of fast. The underlying idea is that food is meant to be savored, its origins understood. From that point, a multitude of good things follow.

Slow Food Nation organizer and celebrity chef Alice Waters put it this way:

"When we eat fast food, we are eating the values of that fast food. And it's telling us that food should be cheap. And its telling us that advertising confers value, and that standardization is more important than quality, and that kitchen work is drudgery. ... We have to understand that food is something very precious, not something that [comes] after the Nike shoes, the cell phones and the cars and whatever else we decide we're going to spend our money on. It should be way up there [in our values]. And we either pay up front, or we pay [later]."

Slow foodists favor paying now, and if what I saw this past weekend is any indication, are happy to do so.

Enthusiasts had been targeting this past weekend's San Francisco event, the first of its kind, for a long while, and spirits were high -- pun intended. The chattiest exhibitors we met were the bartenders.

Our absinthe cocktail came with a 10-minute explanation of the spirit's origin, history, use, and pointed direction on how to drink it: "Like wine! Don't gulp!"

We met Art Pollard, a chocolatier from Utah, whose enthusiasm for his end product seemed to settle the question: If you could eat chocolate any time you wanted, would you still? His method of doling out samples was: one for you, one for me, one for you...

We chatted with a couple in from Eugene, Oregon for the weekend, on behalf of their Slow Food "convivium" (read: local chapter).

Toward the end of the night, we slumped in folding chairs at long tables around cups of strong coffee. The vibe was more wedding than convention.

Three days later, I'm still smiling. The event's lasting impression: Think before you eat, about the source of what you're about to put in your mouth, the distance it's traveled, the people who cultivated it.

And if they're standing in front of you, say "thank you."

Sam Silverstein is the editor of Yahoo! Green.Â

Yao Ming teams up with the U.N on environmental issues

Forecast Earth Correspondent Don Willmott — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:13:32 PDT

What's not to like about Yao Ming, the high-profile (literally) international basketball star who most recently electrified the Olympic Opening Ceremonies by carrying his nation's flag into the stadium.

Yao is using this moment in the spotlight to announce that he has become the U.N. Environment Program's (UNEP) first Environmental Champion, and in that role he will raise awareness of issues surrounding climate change and energy efficiency. The effort is underway at the Olympics themselves, with UNEP providing lots of fun info. and videos about what has gone into making these games at least somewhat "sustainable."

As for Yao, his prepared statement reads, in part:

As a sportsman, I believe sport has a major role to play in promoting environmental issues, so I will work with young people across the world and try to inspire them to plant trees, use energy efficient light bulbs, harvest rain water, and to become environmental champions in their own communities.

As the world celebrates the Beijing Olympic Games, I would also like to call upon the organizers of all major sports events in the world to make sure they use public transport facilities, build proper waste management systems, and use greener forms for energy. Please join me in this global team effort.

Good for you, Yao.

And by the way, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are slated to be the greenest yet. Check out the official website to see the steps the host city is already taking.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.

The "green" Olympics gets underway

Forecast Earth Correspondent Don Willmott — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:56:42 PDT

I happen to love the Olympics, especially the opening ceremonies, so I've launched into hours of high-definition home theater glory.

I hope things go well over the next two weeks, and I really hope Beijing gets at least some of the clear air that local officials have been promising against all logic and evidence.

This is a big deal for China. There's honor at stake, and if China "loses face" over this issue, it's going to be uncomfortable all around.

China's official English-language news organization Xinhua had a recent report outlining all of the efforts the Beijing Olympic Committee and the government have made to create a "green" Olympics. Geothermal energy, water recycling, rainwater utilization, solar power, naturally lit stadiums ... they're all part of the package.

In a refreshing bit of candor, Xinhua said on July 29 that, "A whole week of hot and humid weather with no rainfall and a persistent haze dampened people's mood and undermined a newly built confidence in the city's air quality."

But it was quick to point out that low visibility doesn't always mean pollution. It could just be fog, it said. Last weekend saw a couple of "blue sky days," but the past few days have been bleaker. I'm not expecting the weather gods or the Communist Party to pull off any true miracles in the next two weeks.

No matter what happens, the world will be better off as a result of all the green consciousness raising that has gone on in China over the past few years.

One could argue that China has just as much right to pollute the world as America and Europe do, but the hope is that despite its huge size and its frantic rush to develop, China can learn from our mistakes and skip right past some of the pollution pitfalls that plagued us in the 20th century.

Little signs, such as the recent ban on free plastic bags, are baby steps in the right direction. As one official said, "All efforts relating to the promotion of 'green Olympics' will leave a precious heritage for Beijing when the Games are over."

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.

Slow down, we eat too fast

Forecast Earth Correspondent Jay Weinstein — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:22:00 PDT

Responding to the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in a historic quarter of Rome in 1986, a movement began to take back the food system from processors that were usurping the place of freshly cooked food in the lives of ordinary people.

Called the Slow Food movement, it slyly played on the industry's term for convenience foods, "fast food."

This year, the organization is hosting a gathering called Slow Food Nation in San Francisco to discuss the state of the food system today. The event, scheduled for Labor Day weekend 2008, and they're optimistically estimating up to 70,000 participants from all walks of life.

The most important goal the Slow Food people could achieve, in my opinion, would be to bring in mainstream consumers who are curious about the movement, but not gourmet cooks or high cuisine aficionados. Regular beef-stew-eating, Budweiser-drinking Americans are the people this organization needs to invite on board the sustainability bandwagon.

Only when mass-market consumers understand the stakes will the economics of the food industry change for the better. If average home cooks learn that that beef stew will be more delicious, more humane, and not despoil the land if they use pasture-raised beef, then the'lly have incentive to pay that extra buck.

If Slow Food is seen as a society of elitist gourmets to whom money is no issue, then it will remain a niche, and the problems of factory farming and monoculture cultivation will continue to grow.

Struggling middle-class and economically disadvantaged citizens need a reason to change their diets. Most base their food decisions on one factor: price. That scenario will always favor the factory producers of food, who have not been held accountable for the ecological damage their systems engender.

In a July 23 article in the New York Times, San Francisco food writer Corby Kummer, a board member of Slow Food USA, expressed the hope that Slow Food Nation would be akin to a culinary Woodstock event, but only if it could draw less-affluent, younger attendees than typically show up at urban farmers' markets. By introducing people of modest means to diverse foods raised on small farms, the Slow Food Nation event could create some buzz in the communities that have been slowest to adopt those ethical edibles.

I know many people involved with the Slow Food movement, and they are deeply committed to making our food supply more healthful, sustainable, and humane. Anybody who can get to the SF Bay Area on Labor Day weekend will find a city transformed into a garden to illustrate the possibilities.

The lawn in front of city hall is being dug up and planted with vegetables. Artisanal cooks will be teaching how to pickle and preserve great harvests to you don't have to buy so many imports in the winter. The city will be an ad hoc university of land stewardship, great ingredients, and inspired cooking.

Especially if you're interested in ways you can preserve America's culinary heritage, support small producers, and make a difference in the health of the soil, waterways, and air of our land, this is a rare opportunity to educate yourself in ways to help.

In late autumn, the Italian Slow Food organization is organizing the "Salone del Gusto" and "Terra Madre" events in Turin, Italy, to promote local farm-to-table culture. To learn about those events, scheduled for October 23-27, 2008, check out www.salonedelgusto.com, www.terramadre.info, and www.slowfood.com.

Jay Weinstein's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.

Phone charging station gets upgrade

Jaymi Heimbuch — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:30:36 PDT

Got Wind has some fun tricks up its sleeve. Last year at the Glastonbury Festival -- a massive music and performing arts festival in the United Kingdom -- phone service provider Orange and renewable tech creator Got Wind provided a tent-mounted, wind-powered phone charger.

This was a pretty awesome setup, considering that the event is off in the boonies and cell-phone charging stations would be in demand. But this year, the team plans to dwarf last yearâs charging pod.

The new pod will stand nearly 23 feet tall and host a wind generator and solar panels that will generate enough electricity to charge up to 100 mobile phones an hour and store any leftover energy in its battery tank.

With thousands of people attending the festival, the team thinks theyâll be pretty busy. And the newer recharging pod is still only a test for bigger, more powerful stations to come.

I can definitely see stations like this being useful at any large event where outlets are scarce.

Via TreeHugger, Got Wind, REchargePod

Tune in to green

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:18:59 PDT

Flipping around the TV channels is getting pretty eco-friendly these days. Sure, the cable box, DVR, and telly itself may be sucking vampire power while you're not looking (a smart power strip can reduce the load). But what's on the screen is going greener every day.

Starting June 4, 2008, Discovery Networks launches the first 24-hour cable channel devoted to an eco-lifestyle. Called Planet Green, the channel will reach 50 million homes in the U.S.

The 250+ hours of original programming will include new shows by celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse and former "This Old House" host Steve Thomas, among others. Rapper Ludacris and rocker Tommy Lee will also battle to see whose concert tour can be greener in a show slated to premiere this August. Ed Begley Jr.'s popular show "Living With Ed" moves to the new network too.

At last year's Green Festival in San Francisco, I got a preview of the new channel. I talked to self-confessed 'organic cheerleader' Sara Snow who has two shows already on Discovery. She's bringing her simple steps for living lighter on the planet to her latest show, "Get Fresh With Sara Snow."

If that's not enough eco-TV for you, check out the Sundance Channel for a line-up it calls The Green. With a mix of documentaries and reality-TV-like features, Sundance's offerings are a bit more edgy than Discovery's.

Think of Planet Green as the "how-to" channel, full of practical experts guiding you along the path to an ever more earth-friendly lifestyle. If you want recipes, shopping advice, remodeling tips, you'll find it on Discovery Networks, with a dash of celebrity fun thrown in.

Consider Sundance Channel the place to dig deeper into environmental issues and see where the world is going. Programs like "The Ecoists" and "Eco Biz" profile activists, entrepreneurs, and celebs who are trying to change the world. "Big Ideas for a Small Planet" looks at broad topics such as transportation or fashion and examines new technologies or emerging philosophies that are making these things greener. If you want inspiration to keep fighting the good fight, Sundance shines.

Enviro themes are popping up in unusual places on TV too. The current season of MTV's The Real World went green the house in Hollywood, California. Low-flow showers, dual-flush toilets, and a bike-powered computer are just some of the eco-toys peppered throughout the place. Watch some video tours, thanks to Grist.org.

Carectomy week in review

Joshua Liberles — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:51:49 PDT

HGTV âgreen homeâ: Complete with gas-guzzling SUV!

Has green-washing hit a new low? HGTV has completely missed the point of what it means to be sustainable with its new Green Home Giveaway sweepstakes.

The winner gets a fancy âgreenâ home in Hilton Head, SC, complete with energy-efficient appliances, eco-floors, amenities, doo-dads, etc.; a membership to the local water-sucking, pesticide-spewing golf course; and a hybrid SUV. Of course all of these prizes are carefully branded and marketed through the HGTV programming.

Bicycle City: Perfection, sans picket fences?

Bicycle City sounds like a place Iâd like to live. By plannersâ description, its highlights include a âwalkable, urban design; vibrant local economy; eco-friendly, sustainable design; organic farming; human-powered transportation; strong and diverse community; active healthy lifestyle.â

By contrast to most urban areas, Bicycle City doesnât have âpollution, traffic jams, parking lots, national franchises, strip malls, stress, chemicals, or 'cookie cutter' â designs.

Glastonbury Festival celebrates green transport

The annual Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is encouraging concertgoers to leave their cars at home. A full third of people attending the three-day celebration (akin to Woodstock, but in the English countryside) will commute by public transport (including via coach and rail) and festival organizers are encouraging all who attend to car-share, if they must commute by vehicle. âThe aim is to reduce the number of cars which come to the festival,â organizers say.

Cars cause a scentless spring

Cars have made us fat, diseased, cash-strapped, and disconnected from one another and ourselves. Now, thanks to air pollution caused by cars and power plants, we don't even have the scent of flowers to appreciate. As National Geographic reports, the potency of the smell of flowers has been reduced by as much as 90%.

X-Prize expanding

Hank Green — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:58:59 PDT

We love the X-Prize, right? It helped the private sector get into space and is now sponsoring a competition to create a commercially viable 100-mpg car.

But the competition isn't stopping there. The X-Prize Foundation has announced that it will be creating several new prizes for a variety of environmental categories with a total worth of $100 million.

Apparently, this new suite of X-Prizes includes the Automotive X-Prize and may also include (but isn't limited to):

Biofuels
Energy storage
Carbon capture
Solar
Water
Energy efficiency
Clean aviation fuel
The provision of basic utilities for developing nations

The basis for the need, says the CEO of the foundation, Peter Diamandis, is that progress is happening too slow.

Indeed, I tend to agree with him. Though the vast amount of news that we have to cover every day at EcoGeek is a testament to the fact that clean technology is developing quickly, solutions are not coming in fast enough.

The first new prize, for biofuels, will be launched later this year with others being rolled out over a two-year period.

The foundation hopes that each of the sectors in which it provides a prize has the potential to truly revolutionize the economy. And with 8% of venture capital funding in America already flowing into clean technology, it's likely that the foundation is right.

Details on the "Energy and Environment X-Prize Suite" (PDF) will continue to emerge throughout the next year. And while $10 million is a bit trivial in what could end up being a trillion dollar industry, it may be that the first $10 million is more important than the last $100 billion.

Via BusinessWeek

We've come a long way, baby

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:43:56 PDT

Earth Day is like the environmentalist's Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Fourth of July wrapped up in one.

Some may poo-poo Earth Day as having lost its true meaning, but like Charlie Brown, we can always rediscover the heart and soul of the day.

Stripped of the recent commercialism, the whole point of this day has always been to bring attention to our environment and what we need to do to clean it up.

So what better time than Earth Day 2008 to look at how far we've come in the past 12 months, and to think about what we can do to make our planet a cleaner place in the future.

Top five signs we're on the right track

Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize -- Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were recognized for their work to spread the word about man-made climate change.

The Nobel Committee made clear the devastating effect global warming will have on human lives and security. For peace in our times, we have to reverse climate change. And thanks to Mr. Gore's work, millions of people are aware of this.

Prius sales topped 1 million -- The icon for green driving, Toyota's Prius hybrid car, hit a million cars sold worldwide in June 2007. Over half of those cars are zipping around the U.S.

The Prius is Silicon Valley's car of choice -- as evidenced by the dozens in Yahoo!'s own parking lot (and my own driveway). Other carmakers are jumping on the hybrid bandwagon every model year.

Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 signed into law -- This U.S. legislation, while far from perfect, has huge potential to increase our country's energy efficiency.

It raises standard gas mileage for cars and light trucks (aka SUVs) for the first time ages to 35 mpg by 2020. And this act bans the sale of most incandescent lightbulbs by 2014. We should see more Energy Star-rated appliances too.

The Vatican called pollution a sin -- When even the Catholic Church is going green, you know the message has spread. Church official Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti said, "You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming, or coveting your neighbor's wife, but also by ruining the environment."

Rev. John Wauck from Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross added that protecting the environment is implied in the Bible's Book of Genesis. Pollution is a variation on the mortal sin of gluttony or selfishness.

Wal-Mart went green -- Surprisingly, the world's biggest retailer has jumped on the sustainability bandwagon. How much of this is green-washing is debatable, but it's true that the mega-store has made some big eco-friendly efforts.

Wal-Mart sold more than 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs in 2007, introduced fair-trade certified coffee in April 2008, and buys 10 million pounds of organic cotton annually.

Considering the company expects 90% of American households will shop at its stores this year, I think it's pretty important that Wal-Mart is doing something green.

We're more aware of climate change than ever before. We know something about how our choices in energy use, travel, and shopping affect the planet and our own communities. Let's pat ourselves on the back... then let's get back to work.

Top five things still we need to work on

Drive less, carpool more, use public transit -- Gas is climbing to $4 a gallon, so really, who wants to drive more anyway? If the nasty emissions don't make you want to share the ride or get out of the car entirely, the cost should.

Start small by carpooling to work a couple days a week. This really isn't that hard for most people, since statistically our commutes aren't long in distance. It's the time spent sitting in traffic that stretches our workday -- but if your city has carpool lanes, you'll zip to the office and back home easily.

Be a conscious consumer, reduce the stuff you buy -- The first step in "reduce, reuse, recycle" is often forgotten, but it's the most important one. The less junk we buy, the less we need to reuse or recycle. We're nipping the problem in the bud.

Do I really need the latest cell phone when I renew my plan? No, even if the company is giving it to me free. The old phone works fine, so why add it to the landfill?

Now personally, I love fashion, but when I feel like having new clothes, I hit the thrift store or look for vintage garb on eBay. At least then I'm not requiring new resources to be used simply for my pleasure, plus I'm keeping stuff out of the garbage.

You don't have to abandon all your possessions and live off the grid, but we can all think a bit more carefully about what we do buy, consider where it comes from, and what we'll do with it after we're finished with it.

Avoid toxic plastics -- We're starting to learn that some very common plastics leach toxic chemicals into our bodies, and these chemicals have been linked to cancer, reproductive problems, and other health dangers.

Two biggies to watch out for are Bisphenol A (also known as BPA) and phthalates. BPA is often found in plastic water bottles and baby bottles -- these containers usually have a #7 in the 'chasing arrow' symbol on the bottom. Phthalates are found in PVC and soft vinyl goods plus in personal-care products like shampoos and lotions. Look for any ingredient with "-phthalate" in the name.

Conserve water -- According to the United Nations, 41% of the world's population lacks access to clean water. The U.S. southeast was hit by a devastating drought last year, and global climate change will continue to screw with weather patterns.

It's always wise to conserve the water we have, and it's easy too. Fix leaks around the house, install a low-flow showerhead, consider drought-resistant landscaping, heck, even let it mellow if it's yellow. I've heard some famous people even do that.

Tell elected officials the environment matters to you (and vote accordingly) -- Our individual actions help a lot. But to make the biggest impact possible, we need our government to act.

Legislation ensures that corporations don't pollute the skies and oceans or use up all our natural resources. Our government can influence other countries to clean up their acts too.

So remind your representatives at the state and federal level that you care about our environment and want them to act with the planet in mind. And in November, when you have a chance to vote for a new president, consider the candidates' views on climate change too.