More to green picture than food miles - TreeHugger.com Jenna Watson
Whether tis better to consume local or green food? Can common sense help? If a product is grown locally and could be grown
locally without expensive greenhouse and other (fossil fuel inputs)
then it is probably a more environmentally friendly food: It may have
lower "food miles" than an imported food.
There are lots of
great tools out there to help calculate food miles or food kilometers
or ghg / unit of food. The challenge comes from the difficulty of
consumers actually knowing the origin and the production techniques of
their favourite snacks. What if the local food is actually produced in
a more emission intensive manner than the imported food?
Image via: Coulomb Technologies
Sonoma County, CA is preparing to install 200 new ChargePoint electric vehicle charging stations throughout the county. The infrastructure is being installed in preparation of electric vehicles being sold like hot cakes starting over the next few years, but the plan hinges on a little thing calle...
Photo credit: Louise GalvinLouise Galvin, hair colorist to the stars and the woman behind the eponymous haircare line, can add another pip to her collar: Louise Galvin is U.K.'s first beauty company to become carbon-neutral.
Pumped full of naturally derived ingredients like essential oils, natural extracts, and vegetable-based moisturizing and conditioning agents—no sulfates, parabens, silicone, petrochemicals, synthetic fragrances, or polymers, thanks—Galvin's cruelty-free follicle-primping products maintain cl...
Before: how not to grill--high flame, smoke and charring. Photo via flickr by (appropriately) Combust
When barbecuing your free-range meats and line-caught fish this July 4th, be sure to whip up some marinade first. Yesterday, I offered ten ways to avoid carcinogenic HCAs and PAHs when grilling (or any high-heat cooking, for that matter). Thanks to a comment from a reader, I dug digger into tip # 4, the marinating suggestion that lessens HCAs, and discovered some compelling results and recommended recipes for significa...
Those prices are in Yuans per liter, I think.
Fuel Subsidies Punish Virtue
The Chinese government has recently decided to raise fuel prices by about 10%, the third increase in the past few months, following a 6-7% increase on June 1st, and a 3-5% increase in March. The stated goal is to bring the price of fuel in China closer to what the market price is. From a green point of view, this is good because subsidized fossil fuels only encourages waste, over-consumption, and the buying of vehicles that aren't fuel efficient. It also artificially reduces the competitiveness of technologies that aren't based on fossil fuels, slowing down their adop...
Photos via Critical Bench, and the Guardian
We're well aware that more and more products are apt to be labeled with false green claims to try to grab the attention of increasingly green consumers--and 98% percent of them were guilty of exactly that last year. Now consider the federal, USDA regulated
Assembly Room, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed; and, in 1787, the U.S. Constitution was drafted. Image credit:Flockr, Dailyville photostream. Excerpted.
Perhaps that title is becoming common from those of us who've been fighting for clean energy for the U.S. instead of the same old dirty fossil fuels, but as chants of "Drill, baby, drill!" continue to emanate from some corners, we must stick with it.
We've hit summer's stride - It's time for the 4th of July holiday weekend, people are traveling, ...
Photo credit: Colette
Renowned Parisian retailer Colette and the cutest car this side of Sanrio have put up a united fashion front, rallying five designer labels from Paris, New York, Berlin, Brazil, and Denmark to produce a tres exclusive, tres limited-edition collection of bags, jewelry, tees, and accessories for the urban car brand.
Revolving around the themes of urban mobility, design, and sustainability, the co-branded
Photo: Wikipedia, CC
The Incredible Shrinking Sheep!
Could the changing climate be shrinking animals? That seems to be the case for the Soay sheep of Scotland. "The island of Hirta, on the western coast of Scotland, is home to a special breed of sheep. Soay sheep, named after a neighbouring island, are the most primitive breed of domestic sheep and have lived on the isles of St Kilda for at least a millennium." These sheep are already smaller on average than other breeds of sheep, but according to a recent study, they have been getting even smaller......
Image via friends v1Stephen Colbert took on the Supreme Court case that outraged environmentalists everywhere--you know, the one that ruled that toxic waste from a gold mine could be dumped in a lake, subsequently eradicating all life within. Colbert's take will most likely make you even more angry, but at least it's funny as hell. Watch the video after...
Photo via the Takeaway
As fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military escalated in South Waziristan, millions of people were forced to flee their homes—it was Pakistan's biggest exodus since the country's founding in 1947. The two million refugees now face a slew of severe health risks—among them, a contaminated, damaged water supply and insufficient access to health care.
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