During WWII Americans across the country were asked to plant Victory Gardens to provide food for their families and communities so that the food from large-scale farms could be sent to support the soldiers fighting in the war.  Spurred on by a massive ad campaign paid for by the War Department, everyone with a patch of dirt began planting fruits & veggies and even chickens.

We now need Victory Gardens for the 21st Century but this time the beneficiary will be the planet, not the soldiers.

My neighbor has transformed her back yard to a 21st Century Victory Garden.  She's growing peas, potatoes, squash, tomatoes - all organic.  She's on the right track.

In addition to using our own land to grow our own food instead of planting water sucking lawns we can also buy food locally and this solution is just as good.

A new Web site dedicated to locally grown food and organic cooking has popped up and it's a real pip. OrganicToBe.org is leading the charge.  The site includes organic recipes, farm stories, news, and an opinions blog.  The site is sponsored by OrganicToGo.com, an organic catering and cafe business and those who live in California and Washington State can drop by one of their stores.

Following on from a 2004 Pentagon report that global warming increases threats to the United States (Grist/Amanda Griscom), the intelligence communities are starting to weigh in, stating explicitly that global warming increases threats of terrorism. 

From the AP:

Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central and Southeast Asia are most vulnerable to warming-related drought, flooding, extreme weather and hunger. The assessment warns of a global spillover from increased migration and water-related disputes, Fingar said in prepared remarks Wednesday to a joint hearing of a special House committee on global warming and a House Intelligence subcommittee.

This, in turn, can have an indirect but negative impact on national security, in general.  Perhaps reports like this will help to bridge the gap between climate change naysayers and prod them to join the chorus of voices who believe it is time to tackle climate change head-on and unequivocally.

Environmentally on-the-fence politicians are flipping and flopping faster than a flounder in a flat bottom boat.  Conservatives see the current energy crisis as the perfect opportunity to call for off-shore drilling as a gimmick to "show" that they are willing to act on reducing fuel prices by calling for lifting the moratorium on off-shore drilling.

Here's the thing:  The oil conglomerates already have access to over 40 million acres of untapped reserves at their disposal that they are neither drilling nor tapping.  This past Sunday on Meet the Press, Joe Biden said that this 40 million acres contains 79% of the proven reserves.

The lift the off-shore drilling ban proponents are simply making a land grab for big oil as a political ploy to "show" that they are concerned and "doing something" to help.  It's a load of pish posh.

Decades ago, my great grandmother bought some land in Oklahoma.  The land was soon leased by a natural gas company and has been sending checks, first to my grandmother, now to my mom, on a somewhat irregular basis.  It's not a lot of money - sometimes $300 a month and sometimes $5000 a month.  You see, when the price for natural gas is low, the company doesn't pump the gas.  That's when mom gets a $300 check, or no check at all.  But when the price for gas is high, they pump at full capacity and mom gets a $5000  check. 

Before we destroy coast-lines around the country we need full, transparent accountability of the leased land already available for drilling.  There is a special place in hell reserved for politicians who manipulate the environment and environmental laws to score political points.  

On June 5th I covered Treehugger's article about the logic of reel mowers and yesterday about how the gas crisis is forcing more environmentally sound behavior.  Today, it seems the world is listening.  One reel mower manufacturer American Lawn Mower Co., reports a spike in sales of 60 - 70 percent over last year.  Yahoo!/AP has the story.

We've written before about how high gas prices and a crummy economy can provide environmental benefits: People drive less.  Now the trend is hitting other wasteful sectors like bottled water.  And the effects are not just felt along the metro edges of the US but deep within.  Here's a tidbit from the Bellville News Democrat (AP):

The lousy economy may be accomplishing what environmentalists have been trying to do for years -- wean people off the disposable plastic bottles of water that were sold as stylish, portable, healthier and safer than water from the tap.

Heather Kennedy, 33, an office administrator from Austin, Texas, said she used to drink a lot of bottled water but now tries to drink exclusively tap water.

"I feel that (bottled water) is a rip-off," she said in an e-mail. "It is not a better or healthier product than the water that comes out of my tap. It is absurd to pay so much extra for it."

Measured in 700-milliliter bottles of Poland Spring, a daily intake of water would cost $4.41, based on prices at a CVS drugstore in New York. Or $6.36 in 20-ounce bottles of Dasani. By half-liters of Evian, that'll be $6.76, please. Which adds up to thousands a year.

The bottom line: tap water is "in."

 As for other effects on the environment, all of that waste is not only in the form of the plastic containers that reside forever in our landfills but think of the freight, gas, and manpower it takes to lug water around the world and nation.  It's obscene.

Furthermore, tap water is highly regulated and bottled water is not regulated at all.  That means that there is a great probability that tap water is healthier than bottled.

We're big fans of Kleen Kanteen.  

It's a great, sturdy, stainless steel eco solution to the bottled water problem.  Now, it looks to be a trendy thing to have, as well.

Big news on the car front today.  Honda unveiled the FCX Clairity, the first zero emission, hydrogen/electric car in general production.  The Huffington Post has all the buzz.

Looks pretty cool.  Celebrities will be the first to nab the Clarity with Jamie Lee Curtis and husband Christopher Guest (Waiting For Guffman, Dog Show) at the front of the line.

As with the electric car so famously shredded in Who Killed The Electric Car, the FCX Clarity will only be available for lease. The price tag is $600 per month and includes all maintenance and collision insurance.  As a coda to this story, Honda announced in May that they have sold 1 million units of the Prius.  They plan to follow up on the hydrogen/electric Clarity with a gas hybrid version.

This is one area of cutting back that is personally difficult for me but I'm doing it nonetheless:  Eat less meat.  Beef production causes myriad troubles for the environment from water use (441 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef), to methane, to deforestation to make grazing land, to the energy it takes to get meat from the farm to the table.  The NY Times has a good article out with some tips for the meat eaters out there.

Photo:Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The advice:

1. Don't worry about getting enough protein.  Just eat a balanced diet and you'll get all you need.

2. Buy less meat.  Even if you reduce your portion from 10 oz. to 6 oz. you're still saving hundreds of gallons of water.

3. Get meat out of the center of the plate.  Combine meat with other ingredients, say, in a stew and you'll reduce, reduce, reduce.

4. Love your veggies.  Buy new and different kinds of veggies and enjoy leaning how to make new dishes.

5. Make non-meat as convenient as meat.  Cook up a batch of beans and keep 'em in the fridge.

6. Just make a few rules.  Try no meat at breakfast, or no burgers for lunch.  

7. Look at restaurant menus in a different way.  Order from other parts of the menu.  Try several different non-meat apps or salads and consider splitting a meat dish with a friend.

At Treehugger.com Michael Graham Richard makes some excellent points about rethinking lawn mowing.  The first is that lawns are really not the best use of land to begin with.  Plant veggies or low-water native plants instead.

That being said, the next best thing is to use a reel mower instead of a gigantic. gas choking, carbon spewing, heavy-duty  lawn demon.

Richard writes about how much more pleasant and, yes, fun, it is to use the old-fashioned kind of mower.

When I searched through the earthscreen site for reel mowers I was shocked at the number we feature - 2 pages of search results full!  Check them out and ditch the gas guzzler.

The Discovery Channel is launching the first ever 24 hour, 100% Green Living channel, Planet Green. Here's the official announcement:

Planet Green, the first and only 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network, invites you to enjoy the freshest, ecoist shows on TV. From gear to gourmet, renovation to innovation, find out what's cool, what's hot and what's next. For more ways to make your world more beautiful, watch Planet Green in the stunning clarity of HD. It's an eye opening experience.

Here's a nifty channel finder. You can also fill out a short form to request the program in HD if your carrier doesn't yet have it in HD.

Here are some featured shows: Alter Eco, a makeover show, Greenovate, a show highlighting how to upgrade a house to green for sale, Hollywood Green, a celeb-filled show about everything green in Hollywood.

The 2010 goal of 10 gigawatts (gW) of wind power was met in 2007.  The 2020 goal of 30 gW is projected to be met in 2012. The combination of governmental incentives coupled with competitive pricing schemes seems to be the secret sauce.

Of particular note, from the Environmental News Network:

The breathtaking growth of Chinese wind power illustrates how effective government policy can influence the market. Since the issuing of the renewable energy law, the government has enacted a series of policies to facilitate wind power development. One important step has been to improve the wind power pricing regulation, which uses a competitive bidding process to determine the price of wind power. Through five rounds of public tendering to issue wind concessions, policymakers have explored ways to further improve pricing and disperse worries in the industry about excessively low bidding hindering further development.

 

The more sophisticated pricing schemes have stabilized China's wind power market, while the benchmark of turbine localization has provided market-entry opportunities for fledging domestic manufacturers. The government also supports wind power through tax incentives and subsidies.

 

If U.S. lawmakers could ween themselves off of omnibus energy policy bills, perhaps we could achieve similar success by taking bite sized pieces out of the problem of taking renewable energy mainstream.