April 22nd, 2013

I remember 2007, when we started this website. People were tip-toeing toward greener behaviors. Activists were writing kids’ books explaining the greenhouse effect and urging tots to turn off the faucet while brushing their teeth. Scholars had assembled tomes, politely pointing out that we’d be running out of oil pretty soon. How things have changed on this Earth Day 2013…

[Read more →]

April 19th, 2013

You know those righteous 20-somethings you see on the news inveighing about how they’ve got the Earth on their shoulders and have to pick up the pieces of their wanton, consumerist elders? They do have a burden unlike any previous generation. God help ‘em. But here’s a little secret, they’re no greener than those elders, in fact, the Boomers out-green their kids in significant ways, according to a new survey by DDB.

[Read more →]

April 18th, 2011

There’s been a lot of talk about “shared sacrifice” as American lawmakers try to button down the spending that many blame for the nation’s problems.

Personally, I don’t understand why the discussion seems to be entirely about entitlement programs, with no talk about the defense spending. I am perpetually perplexed about our mission in Iraq and Afghanistan, which seems to be as much of a moving target as the terrorists we’re chasing, while the money flies out of the Treasury as if a giant vacuum were sucking off the conveyor belt (Want a visual? Check out CostofWar.com‘s ticker.)

I get it that many government programs could stand some tweaking and scrutinizing. But Congress seems to be taking a hedge clippers to the lawn ornamentation, while a tornado bears down on the horizon.

Why would we give the EPA’s budget a buzz cut while we stand on the brink of climate disaster?

[Read more →]

June 5th, 2010

It’s World Environment Day, and all I can think about is how the Gulf oil disaster has been book-ended by two environmental commemorations. The BP oil well blew out two days before Earth Day in April, though it was barely covered in the news until a few days later when people realized that oil was leaking into the ocean unabated. (In the back of our minds, we tend to assume that someone has a plan for these contingencies. Surprise! No plan.)

[Read more →]

April 29th, 2010

Up around Cape Cod, they were so worried about how the Cape Wind project might affect their views, or more precisely, their property values, that the opposition to this groundbreaking project dragged on and on. It took nine years to get final approval, which came yesterday from the Department of the Interior.

Two years ago we ran a story about another wind project, in nearby Hull, Mass., where the vast majority of residents are quite pleased with their money-saving wind turbines, which are a lot more up close and view-affecting than the Cape Wind project will ever be. Richard Miller, operations manager of the Hull Municipal Light Plant (HMLP), said then: “There has been no resistance on the part of the residents.”

Perhaps wind is a little less intimidating once it’s saving your school district $20K a year.

[Read more →]

April 22nd, 2010

“I don’t remember exactly what I did on the first Earth Day 40 years ago, but I remember exactly how I felt: deeply relieved,” writes Frances Beinecke. “You have to realize, the spring of 1970 was a tumultuous time. I was a junior at Yale, but most of us were essentially on strike. We never went to class, because we were far too embroiled in the political upheaval around us. Students were up in arms about the draft. Protests against the escalation in Vietnam had reached a fevered pitch–indeed four students would be shot dead by National Guardsmen at Kent State that May. Meanwhile the National Guard had descended on the streets of New Haven because Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panthers, was on trial downtown.”

[Read more →]

April 22nd, 2010

They are slipping through our fingers. Our tenuous hold on the Earth’s threatened animals, plants and fish, rivers and oceans, forests and ice caps is not strong enough. It’s not for lack of trying — environmental and eco-conscious groups are in a constant scramble to slow the lengthening list of losses.

Every year, more than 2 million acres of Amazon rainforest – called “the lungs of our planet” for its massive daily recycling of carbon dioxide into oxygen – is lost to logging, agriculture, roads and more.

At last count, out of 44,837 known species of living creatures on Earth, nearly 40 percent are threatened and 804 are extinct.

[Read more →]

April 22nd, 2010

On this 40th Earth Day, many activists are reaching out to their constituents, urging them to make life changes, to reduce energy consumption, rethink paper use, install better light bulbs, donate to climate causes. But mostly they want the American public to snap to attention and call the U.S. Senate. Among those wanting to rattling the cages in D.C. is former Vice President and green evangelist Al Gore. If the Senate “steps up and passes strong legislation, success will be within each,” he told supporters of Repower America in an Earth Day email.

[Read more →]

April 20th, 2010

With Earth Day approaching, and summer just around the corner, thinking about getting back to nature is, well…natural.

The folks at the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation think so, too. That’s why they have released their list of the “Top 10 Things You Can Do to Celebrate National Parks Week 2010″:

[Read more →]

April 20th, 2010

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

The world’s water supply needs protection on all sides. Industrial pollution and human waste contaminate water supplies across the globe, while chemical- and pharmaceutical-laden runoff compromised the water re-supplying our streams and aquifers.

Deforestation and development have drained wetlands, half of which disappeared in the last century.

[Read more →]

April 15th, 2010

Businesses are a planning a wide range of promotional events in conjunction with Earth Day on April 22. Here is a roundup of some of the promotions (check back — we will continually update this list): Disney Store celebrating Earth Day with new eco-friendly products In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Disney [...]

[Read more →]

April 24th, 2009

Photo: Business Wire
Green Youth Movement founder Ally Maize (second from left) plants the sustainable garden with her parents, Richard Maize (left), Rochelle Maize (back, standing) and two Archer School friends on Earth Day 2009.

From Green Right Now Reports

As the nation celebrated Earth Day this week, teen environmentalist and Green Youth Movement founder Ally Maize led schoolmates in planting the first “sustainable garden” at The Archer School for Girls in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

[Read more →]