climate

10 Products that Get a Tree Planted

HunterGreen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:20:04 -0400

“Going Green” has turned into big business for many. With the world consciousness becoming more aware of our destructive direction as a society, more businesses are turning to eco-friendly solutions to not only help the world, but also to help their reputation.

This article at We Heart World talks about buying products from companies that plant trees when you make some sort of purchase. It is an excellent way for people to do just a little more for the environment by supporting these companies in their initiative.

It shouldn't always be about price and convenience. We have the power to show confidence and consideration to those companies who are trying to make a difference.

Here are links to the companies in the article that DO make a difference. If you have any interest in buying the types of products that they sell, please stop by and compare. All things being equal, it makes sense to do the secondary things that make a difference such as showing your support with your purchases.

Computers: Dell

Plant a Tree for Me

Connectivity: IOGEAR

Road to a Million Trees

Maternity T-Shirt: UnButtonedMaternity

Plant a Tree Mommy

Surfboards: Loose Fit Surf Shop

Surf and Trees Campaign

Boots: Blundstone

Plant yourself in Blundstones. Plant a tree in Canada

Soap: JustNeem

Neem Tree

Shaving Oil: Pacific Shaving

Plants a tree for every bottle of shaving oil sold

Strollers: Baby Rain Inc.

Planting a tree for every stroller purchase.

Handbags: Ecoist

Plants a tree for every handbag

Books: Eco-Libris

Buy a book from them, they’ll plant a tree

Read more about businesses that help the environment on my blog.

Saving The World One Plate At A Time

scleaver — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Choosing climate-healthy foods at the grocery store, with never-ending aisles of packaged foods, overflowing bins of produce from around the world, and walls of stocked freezer cases, presents an obvious challenge. But, a new study, discussed at WorldChanging.com, approaches this conundrum with one question: which is more important? The food you eat, or where that food is grown?

In short, the food you eat is more important. While local food is always a better choice than food imported from across the country or the globe, the next time you’re planning your meals, the best thing you can do to eat climate-friendly is just say No to beef. Red meat, compared to cereals, chicken, dairy products, produce, and oils, has the largest impact on the climate. (If you want to take it a step farther, cut out dairy, it ranked second in the amount of emissions produced.)

A hopeful finding from the study: small shifts in food choices can have a huge impact on the climate. If we consumers switched 12 percent of our meat and dairy food choices to veggie-based foods, it would have the same impact on the climate as going 100 percent local for all food purchases.

Need help replacing that weekly burger?

Vegetarian Kitchen has information about eating a vegetarian diet.

VegWeb has vegan recipes and shopping tips.

The International Vegetarian Union has vegetarian recipes from around the world.

And, Vegetarian Cooking has even more veggie recipes.

Image from Runner's World article about eating vegetarian for performance.

How to Get Carbon Free in 10 Years – Reduce Global Warming

susan — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Cutting your carbon footprint is one thing - but becoming carbon free in 10 years? Sounds impossible? Putting out ZERO carbon emissions requires major deprivation and sacrifice, right? Not so. You’d be amazed at how simple, painless changes can help you snag the gold ring -- saving yourself money and saving the planet from fire and (melting) ice.

Now for the details: I found one of the best step-by-step breakdowns of how one family can do it in Yes Magazine. This helpful article takes a hypothetical family of three and proposes changes they’ll need to make each year to go from producing 60,000 pounds of carbon emissions per year to zero.Here’s a sampling of what you can do to make the biggest difference - with the least effort and expense. Remember, even if you can’t do it all and get to ZERO, taking any of these actions will be a move in the right direction.

Year 1

Switch to CFLs
Wash clothes in cold water and air dry them
Turn off the computer when not in use
One adult commutes by bus three days a week

Year 2

Insulate attic and basement
Insulate heat ducts
Patch air leaks around the home

Year 3

Commute by bus daily
Sell second car
Weatherize windows and doors

Year 4

Take train (not plane) when you go on vacation

Year 5

Trade in old car for an electric model

Year 6

Lower hot water heater temp
Insulate hot water heater and pipes
Replace old refrigerator with energy-efficient model
Eliminate second refrigerator

Years 7 to 10

Vacation close to home
Buy energy-efficient washing machine
Convert to solar hot water system
Commute by electric bikes 8 months of the year
Replace furnace with electric heat pump that also cools
Buy certified green, renewable power from their electric company

Now that wasn’t so hard was it?

For more details, see Yes Magazine.

For more on Reducing Your Carbon Footprint:

Carbon Footprints

What Exactly is a Carbon Footprint?

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint From Travel

Wash Your Carbon Footprint Away

The Quest For The Perfect Carbon Calculator

Global Warming: Call that a debate?

tdupuy — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Everyone should check out demanddebate.com. They don't think that global warming isn't happening. They think that global warming is happening, it's not the fault of humans. So they use the word 'debate' because that sounds more reasonable than denial.
Demanddenial.com is still available. I was thinking of giving that URL to Sheri Shepherd of The View for her birthday. Unless she's not sure when or if that happened either.

One of the books on demanddebate.com is "The Sky Is Not Falling" by Holly Fretwell, a natural resources management expert. A natural resources management expert? Uhm, doesn't that sound like an engineer at Chevron's title? Doesn't sound like the brass a blood bank. The book is about how awesome the Earth is and how we shouldn't change anything. "Shows kids 9-12 that human ingenuity combined with an "enviropreneurial" spirit will lead us to a bright environmental future, not one where people ruin the earth."

In other words, "Earth stop hitting yourself!"

This is like a fox writing a book (for children) why it should in fact be allowed in the hen house.

As I have learned from presidents (past and current), just because you have a book with pictures and a simple story, doesn't make all your assertions correct. See: mushroom cloud. And just because you say "nu-huh" to scientific research doesn't automatically make you an authority on discourse. See: evolution. I'm all for debates. I'm all for demanding them. But demanddebate.com is misleading and a misnomer.