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Cash for Clunkers edges Americans onto greener roads
By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now
The Cash for Clunkers program, which ended this week, may have been more environmentally friendly than originally thought. The concern among environmentalists was that by tossing away old cars and buying news ones, the program encouraged a throw-away society mentality — something Americans are often accused of.
The Sierra Club, says spokesman Jesse Prentice-Dunn, initially had concerns that the bill was weak.
“Now, looking at the final stats,” he says, “consumers did buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. One thing that was very encouraging, was that more than 84 percent traded in trucks and other gas guzzlers; and 59 percent purchased cars.”
They may not have purchased hybrids, says Prentice-Dunn — the Prius was No. 7 on the list of cars purchased. However, the fact that they bought more fuel-efficient cars was important. The Sierra Club, he says, was encouraged by consumers’ choices.
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Tags: · Cash for Clunkers, cleaner cars, Department of Transportation, Fuel Efficiency, Hybrids, Sierra Club
Try Sierra Club’s virtual frying pan to count your carbon footprint
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Shall we have an omelet with vegetables and cheese for breakfast?
Let’s order a Caesar salad for lunch, with some chicken noodle soup.
And dinner – Who’s up for meatloaf, with macaroni and cheese on the side and some chocolate chip cookies to top it off?
Oh, while you’re at it, stop for a second and ask yourself: What impact does this food have on the environment?
Here’s some food for thought: An entertaining interactive tool lets you add up your “carbon points” and see just how badly those three cups of coffee are hurting the world.
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Tags: · "fresh" seafood, Carbon Dioxide, Co2e, food system and greenhouse gases, food waste, Greenhouse Gases, low carbon diet calculator, processed food, regional food, seasonal food, Sierra Club, Sierra Club GreenHome
Kitson & Partners planning solar-powered city in Florida
Rendering: Kitson & Partners
This rendering of the Babcock Ranch project shows the solar panels and green roofs that will be used to manage energy needs.
From Green Right Now Reports
Real estate developer Kitson & Partners today announced an agreement with electric utility Florida Power & Light to build a large solar photovoltaic power plant at Babcock Ranch, Fla. – making it the “world’s first city powered by solar energy.”
Kitson & Partners said the 17,000-acre city of Babcock Ranch will consume less power than the proposed FPL on-site solar facilities will produce. The city also will be integrated with a “smart grid” that will provide greater efficiencies and allow residents and businesses to monitor and control their energy consumption.
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Tags: · Babcock Ranch, Eric Silagy, Florida, Florida Power Light, Kate Johnson, Kitson & Partners, Sierra Club, Syd Kitson
Texas coal opponents call for a temporary moratorium on new plants
March 24th, 2009 · 1 Comment
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Environmentalists, community activists and some state legislators are calling for a temporary moratorium on coal plants in Texas, where 12 coal-fired power plants are proposed.
The opponents gathered at the capitol in Austin today, saying that halting construction of the plants would help fight climate change and protect the health of local communities by cutting out coal’s toxic wastes and emissions, according to advocacy group Public Citizen.
“The evidence is now abundantly clear: Climate change is already affecting Texans and impacts will only increase in severity if we fail to act quickly. Texas already leads the nation in global warming gases. If we were our own country, Texas would rank eighth in the world among carbon emitters,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, in a press release.
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Tags: · Carbon Emissions, coal plants, Corpus Christi, Galveston Bay, moratorium on coal, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Texas, Texas activists
New coalition asks for kinder treatment of wildlife
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
A new coalition of animal rights, conservation and faith groups is asking for a philosophical change in how the federal government treats the nation’s diminishing wildlife, particularly of top predators, whose presence helps insure healthy wild ecosystems.
 The coalition sent a letter signed by 115 of its member groups to Agriculture Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack earlier this month asking him to end the federal government’s systematic killings of wildlife, such as wolves, coyotes, bears, cougars and prairie dogs.
The group contends that the killings are excessive and often cruel and that Wildlife Services, a department of the USDA that exterminated 2.4 million animals in 2007 should be reevaluated.
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Tags: · animal rights, Big Wildlife, conservation groups, Sierra Club, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife, Wildlife Services
Catch the spirit of giving: Recycle, reuse and reduce by donating at the holidays
By Diane Porter
Green Right Now
We’re too familiar with the downsides of the holiday season. Bags of new things come into the house and get hidden in already-full closets and drawers. Boxes of decorations come out of their hiding places, muscling their way into your living space. Wrapping paper and ribbons multiply like guppies, scissors and tape go missing, cookies come out of the oven and the doorbell rings. When it’s all over, we work to find places for the new stuff, stash the decorations again and vow to make next year different.
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Tags: · Brides Against Breast Cancer, Computers for Schools, Dress for Success, Freecycle, Gifts in Kind America, Glass Slipper, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, National Cristina Foundation, Nike, Project Linus, Project Night Night, Recycles.org, Ronald McDonald House, Share the Technology, Sierra Club, Soles 4 Souls
Green Goods: Sierra Club Socks
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Socks, they’re a universal holiday gift. Anyone can use ‘em, and most anyone would appreciate an extra pair, which is why the Sierra Club settled on having a sock drive to help the homeless this season.
 Buy a pair of Sierra Club brand socks (made by Devmir Inc., based in North Carolina) in a blend of organic cotton, bamboo and recycled synthetic fibers, and the conservation group will donate a pair to The National Coalition for the Homeless. Sierra Club also will get 10 percent of the proceeds in this mutual effort to raise money for Sierra Club and donate one million pairs of socks to people in need.
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Tags: · bamboo fabric, Green Goods, homeless, organic cotton, Sierra Club, socks
Palin, Biden: Where They Stand On Energy And The Environment
September 10th, 2008 · No Comments
By Shermakaye Bass
Republican presidential candidate Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has historically opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), has been uncharacteristically taciturn on the energy issue since he chose pro-drilling Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Green-energy proponents find that ominous.
 “With the pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for his running mate, John McCain’s race towards the Bush administration’s failed energy policy is now complete,” Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said recently. “… No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governor Palin. Along with her support for drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts, she also opposes a windfall profit tax on the richest oil companies. …She has been dismissive of alternative energy, saying ‘alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop’, when in reality it is the oil she would like to drill that would take a decade to bring to market.”
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) in Washington, D.C., showed a similar concern over Palin.
“Obviously, it’s a very disappointing pick for a (presidential) candidate who at one time made a priority of getting us away from the old fossil fuels of the past – Sen. McCain,” said David Sandretti, the League’s communications director.
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Tags: · Alaska, Carbon Emissions, Clean Air, global warming, Governor Sarah Palin, League of Conservation Voters, Oil Companies, Pebble Mine, Polar Bears, Project Vote Smart, Proposition 4, Riverkeeper. Alaska Clean Water Act, Salmon, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Joe Biden, Senator John McCain, Sierra Club
Sierra Mag Lauds Ten Universities That "Get It"
By Barbara Kessler
College-bound hig h schoolers looking for an environmentally conscientious college should have no shortage of guidance this year. The Sierra Club has joined the Princeton Review in assessing the green creds of U.S. universities.
Actually, the venerable environmental group was first out with the idea, launching a “Cool Schools” rundown in 2007. Their second annual review, in the group’s Sept./Oct.Sierra magazine, settles on list of the top ten campuses — Ten That Get It — that includes colleges of all sizes from the East to the West.
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Tags: · Arizona State University, green colleges, Middlebury College, Oberlin College, Princeton Review, Sierra Club, University of Colorado
Radical “Environmentalists” Make a Point at the Atmosphere’s Expense?
By John DeFore
Fires that broke out Monday in Maltby, Washington, outside of Seattle, consumed three new luxury homes and damaged a fourth (firefighters were able to save the fifth). The culprits, if preliminary evidence is to be believed, consider themselves environmentalists.
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Tags: · Earth Liberation Front, Fire, Seattle, Sierra Club
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