I'm usually not an all or nothing kind of guy but when it comes to cleaning I go all in for convenience. Ecosense has a starter pack that helps convert your home from a minefield of toxics to a sustainably cleaner home.

The Ecosense Home Conversion Pack has everything you need for $99 for a 90 day supply. I hadn't realized there were even eco-friendly versions of some of these products:

The pack also comes with a Safer for your Home DVD.

Industrial hemp is the only crop that is illegal to grow but legal to buy in the United States. It's uses in manufacturing and health products is myriad, from a replacement for the environmentally dangerous fiberglass to use in foods and supplements because of it's fatty acid profile. Additionally, hemp is a fast-growing, high-yield plant that can combat carbon pollution. It would also be very helpful as a rotation crop.

Congressman Ron Paul is working to lift the restrictions on growing hemp in the United States but he says passage of a bill faces an uphill climb because of the stigma of hemp's relation to marijuana. It is yet another area where progress is being held back because of the tension between science and political posturing. Even the report  below does an editorial disservice to the issue by wrapping the report in references to the evil weed!

Envirosax, makers of high-fashion, re-useable shopping bags is making quite a splash with the Celebs.  From Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck to Cynthia Nixon, Vivica Fox and the cast of SNL. I like these not only for their style but also because having a stylish shopping kit will make it more likely that I'll actually remember to bring that bags to the store.

The company has recently partnered with Planet Green for a branded version.

You can buy the Planet Green set here at earthscreen.

The bags:

The Celebs:

Jen & Ben

SNL's Andy Samberg & Seth Myers

Get the Planet Green set here.

Captain Sullenberger became an over-night hero and media sensation when he landed his jetliner in the Hudson River saving 155 lives in January of this year. Following that event, the FAA reviewed it's policy of releasing bird strike data which had previously held in secret because it was feared that fear and panic would decrease business to certain airports.

The data is now being released and one of the causes in the rise of bird strike incidents has steadily risen since 1990. The area of greatest increase is at Lovell Field in Chattanooga, TN with a 1275% rise in number of bird strikes since 1990.

Though the report does not report on causality, the AP reports that changes in migration patterns are partly to blame, whether based on climate change or sprawling development:

Wildlife experts have said the population of some birds, particularly large ones like Canada geese, has been growing as more and more birds find the food to live near cities and airports year round rather than migrating.

We often highlight the perils of global climate change in this blog.  But today is a day to celebrate the earth and those who have dedicated their lives to it's health. I have a personal hero: The New York City school system and my teachers at I.S. 44. The school sits on West 77th street, directly across the street from the Natural History Museum where my friends and I would hang out for lunch and where we took numerous field trips. Additionally, the City held a science fair every year where we presented our solar and energy projects where they were reviewed by ecological rock stars like Robert Redford. The school always found interesting ways to spark a passion for the environment in its students and they deserve to be recognized for that.

Treehugger has a great slideshow today to highlight 11 environmental heroes. On it's list are John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Gaylord Nelson, EF Schumacher, Chico Mendez, David Attenborough, David Suzuki, Paul Hawken, Wangari Maathai, and Al Gore.

Check it out.

A nasty confluence of low water levels caused unsustainable development plus aggressive lending has lead 1,500 Indian farmers to take their own lives.

Water levels are reportedly below 250 feet where they used to be at 40 feet just a few years ago. Over foresting and damming is the main culprit

The Independent has more:

...Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.

 

His family must repay a debt of £400 and the crop this year is poor.

 

"The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."

 

"That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these loans."

 

Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."

 

Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.

Maple syrup requires a very specific set of weather events in order to keep the sweetness flowing. Weeks of below-freezing temperatures, when the sap is frozen in the branches, followed by a warming trend when the sweet treat flows down the trunk of the trees where it can be tapped, are essential.

from Treehugger:

..."climate change is likely to cause long-term shifts in forest species, such as sugar maples moving north out of the country."

 

Migration of tree species is nothing new, and occurred as a natural response to gradual changes in climate in the past. But in this case, it seems to be accelerating at an unprecedented rate. According to research by UVM ecologist Brian Beckage, tree species have shifted more than 90 meters up the slopes of the Green Mountains since 1964, following the movement of cooler climates.

 

What it means is that the migration and disappearance of the sugar maple out of the Northeast U.S. may be ultimately inevitable.

 

On a personal note, I grew up in the Northeast and maple syrup harvesting is not only a multi-million dollar industry, it's a way of life. Parents and kids who revel in this yearly ritual will have a hard time finding something equally fun, educational, and tasty with which to replace this winter activity.

Reaching back to a tradition it  began in the 1950's Disney is bringing the nature documentary back to theaters. After the success of March of the Penguins and the Discovery series Planet Earth Disney began a partnership with BBC, Discovery, and Greenlight Media to bring lavishly produced nature films into the mainstream. Here is a trailer of their first film, Earth, narrated by James Earl Jones:

The studio plans on 2 releases per year. This could go a long way toward raising a new generation of environmentally conscious kids.

This week the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama Administration announced it would be reviewing between 150 and 200 surface mine permits in Appalachia.

Surface mining is the practice of blowing the tops off of mountain tops to make the coal underneath them more accessible. Apart from destroying the mountain ecosystem, the practice also involves dumping the waste which ends up in streams and rivers. 

The Bush Administration took a hands-off approach to the practice.

The Wall Street Journal has more.

photo: George Riley

One of the founding principles of earthscreen is that saving the planet should not be viewed as a sacrifice: that we need to underscore the benefits of a sustainable planet and go about seeking change from that perspective. We've been stressing this point since 2004.

NPR today released an article about how quick we are to reduce gas consumption when prices are high but that we jump right back into our SUVs once the prices come down.

Instead, they say they need something more fundamental to motivate people. So efficiency boosters are turning to social marketers to find out how to change energy consumption habits. Social marketing is the use of public media to get people to make the right choices for society.

 

But what works? One effective tactic: fear of death. Social marketers give themselves high marks for getting people to stop smoking. But energy is different. As social marketer Merrill Shugoll of Shugoll Research explains, Big Oil is not the same as Big Tobacco. People need energy, she says — they don't need cigarettes.

The article wraps up with:

Social marketers say there are some things to avoid when you're trying to make people change their energy appetites. A big one is the idea of sacrifice. President Jimmy Carter tried that when he put on a sweater and told Americans to turn down the thermostat. It didn't work.

We couldn't agree more.

Image courtesy of Chiefport

While the U.S. News is dominated by auto company bailouts against the backdrop of a President-Elect who campaigned on investing taxpayer dollars in green technology, it is important to give a hat tip to industrial leaders who have already seen the light.

Treehugger has done just that by profiling 5 CEOs who have led the way in changing business practices from wasteful, dirty, and unsustainable and are now becoming evangelists, at a very high level, for the green movement, not as mouthpieces but by changing their industries.

Topping the list is carpet maker Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, the largest modular carpet manufacturer in the world. After reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, he completely changed the way Interface does business with the goal of becoming completely sustainable.

The thesis of the book is that businesses, more than anything else, are responsible for the future of the environment. Either they could profit by finding ways to renew resources, or they could destroy themselves along with the earth as they maintained a plunderer’s attitude towards creating profits.

 

Shortly after, he vowed to move his company towards complete sustainability—no easy task for a billion-dollar-a-year factory based company. But by implementing intensive recycling programs, turning to energy-efficient computer controlled boilers, using corn to create carpet, and utilizing solar and wind power, Anderson has made some serious strides towards his goal. And the conserved energy and reused materials have helped Interface’s profits rise.

 

Just as important, Anderson showed the business world that even an international, multi-billion dollar company can go green without dipping into the red.

 

The other four profiled are: Sir Richard Branson, Brad Hole, Rupert Murdoch, and T. Boone Pickens.

Though the polls show that California's Proposition 2 -  the Standards for Confining Farm Animals initiative - is winning by a margin of 72 to 10, millions of dollars are being poured into both the Yes and No campaigns.

This initiative simply states that animals raised for food must be allowed to stand up, extend their limbs or wings, and turn around in their confinement.  Though the initiative covers all animals, the fight comes down to the $330 billion egg industry.

The initiative is gaining national attention. The main argument against the prop is that it would destroy California's egg industry and force retailers to import eggs from Mexico.  Proponents, however, believe that the increase in price would be a measly 1 cent per egg.

Grist.org is running a comprehensive article highlighting both sides.

Proposition supporter, The Omnivore's Dilemma author, Michael Pollan gives us the bigger picture:

My hope is that, as on so many issues, California will push the rest of the country forward, and Prop. 2's passage will push companies like McDonald's to change their standards (they're on the precipice already, I'm told) and California's position will become the de facto national position. So whatever messiness we may inherit here, California will, when the history of these brutal practices is written, look visionary.

Treehugger featured a story today about a new efficiency calculator with a Halloween theme.

I hope they upgrade the calculator with additional areas for improvement, like wrapping the water heater and using an Energy Star fridge. As is, you can't really get a complete picture but it's a good start. What I like most about the calculator is that it estimates the savings of both dollars and pounds of carbon dioxide. I put in the numbers for what changes I've already made and the results are $750 and 10,000 pounds of CO2 saved! Try it out.

Recently I posted about Thomas Friedman's new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded.  In it he argues that a Green Revolution is the next best bet for solving the climate crisis which will provide a new path to American prosperity, innovation, and global competitiveness.  

From the Publisher:

With all that in mind, Friedman lays out his argument that if we are going to avoid the worst disruptions looming before us as we enter the Energy-Climate Era, we are going to need several disruptive breakthroughs in the clean-technology sphere--disruptive in the transformational sense. He explores what enabled the disruptive breakthroughs that created the IT (Information Technology) revolution that flattened the world in information terms and then shows how a similar set of disruptive breakthroughs could spark the ET--Energy Technology--revolution. Time and again, though, Friedman shows why it is both necessary and desirous for America to lead this revolution--with the first green president, a green New Deal, and spurred by the Greenest Generation--and why meeting the green challenge of the twenty-first century could transform America every bit as meeting the Red challenge, that of Communism, did in the twentieth century.

Since the book was released, we've experienced the worst economic crisis since the 1920's.  This past Friday, financier and master speculator George Soros appeared on Bill Moyers' Journal to discuss his new book The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means. Though Soros seems shaky on the details of what a focus on renewable energy technology entails, his ideas about finance, along with Friedman's details on a Green Revolution provide a welcome and popularly emerging narrative of a new way forward.

Though others have written extensively about this convergence, notably, Amory & L. Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawkins in Natural Capitalism.  What is important now is that because of our economic situation, people are listening.

In Los Angles, we're spread out all over the place.  Within the same city my friends up to 30 miles away in every direction.  That's why Web sites that put me in touch with other city travelers are an important tool to solve the dilemma, "But I don't know enough people near me to make this work.

(Photo: Ryan McVay/Getty Images)

Highlighted at planetgreen.com is a list of the best online carpool resources featuring: Carpool Connect, eRideshare, GoLoco, and Carpool World. This article point out that most of the differences between the services have to do with style and usability.

Here's the review of the site that looks most useful to me:

GoLoco: A sort of mash up between a social site and a carpool service, GoLoco matches rides to prospective riders within its community database. You sign up and create a profile where friends and family can touch base with your projected traveling. GoLoco certainly displays the most personality—it makes arranging carpooling seem like checking in on your MySpace page.