By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

I remember spending one long, gray Christmas season seven years ago in the hospital with my daughter. I wouldn’t say it was a terrible time. While we weren’t happy to be hospital-bound, but we were enormously, elatedly grateful that our little girl, just 3 ½, had survived a critical surgery and was getting the medical care she needed.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

In case you missed it, just before Thanksgiving, the World Meteorologic Society let us know that the atmospheric greenhouse gases reached their highest levels ever in 2007.

The same year the Arctic ice shelf pulled back more than ever. Hmmm. Coincidence?

According to the WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the causes were clear: “Population growth and urban development worldwide continue to increase the use of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, which emit carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. At the same time, the clearing of land for agriculture, including deforestation, is releasing carbon dioxide into the air and reducing carbon uptake by the biosphere.”

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work
This week, I had two features in national newspapers that highlighted the central theme of Saving The World At Work:  One person, filled with purpose, can change the world.
Read both of those stories:

Harnessing The Power Of One (Investor’s Business Daily)
Frequent Flier (The New York Times)

Read more from [...]

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Many of us want to implement socially responsible programs at work ranging from people to community to planet. The problem is, with the current state of the economy, we need to tie it to the business. In many cases, you’ll need to demonstrate that your ideas is either free or helps the company save money.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It’s been a little over a year since I went to see the smart fortwo at a Dallas stop on the traveling road show that preceded its sales in the U.S. I was wowed by the brightly painted, road-hugging micro cars with their cozy seats, wide-view windshields and buggy like demeanor.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Here’s an excerpt from my new book, Saving The World At Work:

Many employees spend their entire work life under artificial lights. This situation can affect their moods as well as their performance. A landmark 2003 study for the Environmental Protection Agency by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that natural light improves an employee’s vision, function, and productivity, but most important, mood-it wards off depression and alleviates job stress.

In their book Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart talk about a new Herman Miller furniture factory that was redesigned with bigger windows and skylights, allowing sunshine to pour into the entire workspace. The employees’ mood improved immediately, and so did productivity.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
There’s science, and there’s applied science. Here’s some interesting applied science: Nanobamas. OK. We get that everything’s Obama right now. Obama-drama. Obama-rama. But nanobamas?
The scoop: John Hart, an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department at the University of Michigan wants to expand our understanding of nanotechnology, which could be [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

If global warming wasn’t so devastatingly tangible, it would sound like part of a doomsday cult. Consider these projections of the future for a swath of the U.S.

First up: Kansas, the American heartland, breadbasket to the world, a place of amber waves of grain…a place we might not recognize by century’s end.

Under projected global warming scenarios, Kansas will become hotter and drier, with more insects and more storms during the next several decades. By century’s end, western Kansas will be so arid, it will need 8 more inches of water to sustain crops there. Eastern Kansas will be wetter, but so warm that evaporation will claim the extra rainfall and southwestern Kansas will be a virtual desert. All this according to a report released last week by University of Kansas scientists Nathaniel Brunsell and Johannes Feddema for the Climate Change and Energy Project based in Salina, Kansas.

But wait, Dorothy, there’s more.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work
Here’s one of the most inspiring stories from Saving The World at Work (The Joan story).
Joan works in the legal group in one of Microsoft’s business units in Washington.  She’s passionate about the environment, and wanted to help Microsoft become a leader in this area.  She moved the needle [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

Columbus, Ohio. It’s not the first place you think of when green cities come to mind. Or the second or the third.

Indeed, there’s a whole string of burgs more strongly associated with sustainability. There’s Boulder with its rock solid commitment to community gardens, organic food mecca Eugene and all wind-powered Austin. The U.S. has many traditional pockets of non-tradition paying daily homage to the green spirit.

But now here comes Columbus — and Little Rock, and Raleigh, and Sioux Falls. These regular-folks towns are getting their green groove on too. They’re setting up sustainability offices, buying biodiesel buses, hosting solar car events and designing new bike lanes.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Don’t know if it’s the financial crisis, the change of seasons or just the usual grumpiness over the incessant despoiling of the mothership, but the green agitators seem especially edgy lately.
Reuters reported Monday that Greenpeace had blockaded palm oil ships leaving an Indonesian port bound for China and Europe. Their [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

The latest recall of cheap-stuff-from-China-that-we-can’t-seem-to-get-enough-of is rich with irony.

The item being recalled, a two-necklace set containing lead and sold by Claire’s Boutiques for $8, features a yin-yang design in black and white. The words “Best” and “Friends” are inscribed above the medallion on each necklace. Sadly, it’s another example of how cheap imports from China are not our best friends.

It breaks my heart to think about the little girls whose pocket money would just cover such an item and how they begged their parents to let them buy it for themselves — and their best friends. Lead, as you know, is dangerous for children if ingested or absorbed.

To see the full details on this toxic piece of jewelry see the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

Consider this an early warning for the holiday season, beware the glittery, shiny painted bauble for $8.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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