By Barbara Kessler and Julie Bonnin
Green Right Now

Tis’ the season to be…conservative? Afraid so. As the economic downturn and the need to better care for our planet converge into a new aesthetic, we are facing an unusual holiday season. We can show we care with holiday gifts that help us all to consume less.

This might seem the antithesis of consumerism, too bah humbug to be any fun. But we think you’ll see that we’re talking about smarter consuming; buying durable goods that cut out the disposables, forsaking chemical-laden items and making some of your own stuff, whether its soda or energy. Read on:

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By Julie Bonnin
Green Right Now

With unpredictable winter weather wreaking havoc on traditional Currier & Ives skating scenes, synthetic ice may be the only thing that can salvage one of winter’s favorite pastimes.

So when skaters flock to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City Saturday for the Nov. 22 opening of a 150-foot rink that features a 17-foot tall stainless steel polar bear at its center, they will be gliding across a surface that feels like ice, but won’t consume huge amounts of water and refrigeration. The faux ice rink will operate through Feb. 28, and for holiday seasons to come.

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By Barbara Kessler
If you’re planning a traditional Thanksgiving, you’ll be needing a bird. This year, organic and pastured turkeys are more available than ever. Check your local grocery now, and get on a list if need be.

Here are some places to look for a turkey that’s been raised on organic feed, and allowed a more humane existence.

• Local Harvest — If you’re into local heirloom turkeys or other pedigree varieties you may already be too late! But don’t beat yourself up over it, local farmers in Texas have told us that many connoisseurs place their orders months ahead of time. Still, there’s a flock of healthier birds waiting.

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By Shermakaye Bass

If skiing or snowboarding is your brood’s idea of the perfect family vacation, then ask yourself: What could make it even “more” perfect?

Powdery white slopes and alpine valleys? Maybe a white Christmas? Chances are when you think of skiing, you think of things white, not green. But the green-ski movement, prompted by U.S. groups like the Ski Area Citizens Coalition (SACC), an outgrowth of nonprofit Colorado Wild, and National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) “Sustainable Slopes” program, is changing that – little by little.

A fairly young endeavor (SACC started in 1999; Sustainable Slopes in 2000), the movement’s emergence reminds us that as healthy and nature-loving as this sport might be, it hasn’t been known for its environmental sensitivity.

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By John DeFore

Dancing the night away is great exercise, but for some lucky clubbers in Rotterdam, it’s also a way (albeit a small way) to contribute to the world’s supply of renewable electricity.

A recent article in the New York Times highlights a disco in that Dutch city whose 270 square-foot dance floor harvests energy from dancers’ movement and uses it to help run the light show.

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By John DeFore

The atmospheric effects of airline flights aside, traveling to developing countries and remote ecosystems can have plenty of positive impact. But those benefits also can be wildly overstated by tourism entrepreneurs while the negative effects of flocking tourists get swept under the carpet. A new group is hoping to make the complicated pros and cons a bit easier to comprehend.

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By Shermakaye Bass

Ever wonder about the origins of trick-or-treating, or why folklore has witches riding brooms under a harvest moon? Or why this time of year pranksters like to put on masks and roam the night? Or why we bob for apples and carve Jack ‘O Lanterns?

It might surprise you to learn that Halloween’s roots are actually quite green. For the pre-Christian cultures of Northern Europe, it was about the earth, Mother Nature. The gourds, the ghosts and goblins, the slinky black cat that we use as motifs and decorations today all harken back to an era when the harvest was literally a do-or-die time and there was no predicting a yield - and when nature was more of a spooky mystery to mankind than a nurturing, reassuring force. Who knew if the coming year would see a bumper corn crop or if the unseen forces of nature were going to make the near future a…nightmare? !

In the very earliest celebrations, which happened at the end of October/early November, people tried to cajole Mother Nature by putting out offerings of just-harvested fruits and vegetables (enter the apple and pumpkin as Halloween symbols). This time of year also was associated with death and dying, as the ancient people noted the earth’s changing cycles, and they believed that during this brief phase all manner of spirits prowled the planet. They lit bonfires and, later, candles to ward them away, and many folklorists think this is how the Jack’ O Lantern and Halloween luminarias entered the modern-day picture.

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By Clint Williams

Set atop a ridge overlooking the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, the Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls State Park in north Georgia offers a sweeping view of the foothills, the lights of the old gold-rush town of Dahlonega and distant peaks to the east. The 20-room lodge, celebrating its 10th anniversary in October, also offers a close-up view of how thoughtful design and day-to-day diligence combine for low-impact living.

The Hike Inn was built for those who love the outdoors, but aren’t so crazy about sleeping on the ground. Guests arrive on foot, hiking a five-mile trail that takes you through a deeply shaded forest of oak and pine, tulip poplar and maple; through tunnels of rhododendron and patches of pungent galax, a broadleaf evergreen groundcover. Your steps will be lighter, though, knowing that a hot shower and hot meal are waiting for a you at the end of the trail.

The inn, named for the naturalist who inspired the Mark Trail newspaper comic strip, was designed to provide accommodations “somewhere between a tent and a Holiday Inn,” says architect Garland Reynolds of nearby Gainesville, Ga.

Traditional Japanese inns inspire the steeply pitched roofs and deep eaves, Reynolds says.
And there are practical concerns: the eaves provide shelter from rain and snow as you move from the bunkhouse to the bathhouse to the mess hall and on to the Sunrise Room, the social center of the inn where guests gather around a wood stove, reading, chatting or playing one another in a collection of board games. The covered deck off the Sunrise Room (pictured above) is the place to stand, coffee cup in hand, to welcome the crimson streaks of daybreak.

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By Kelly Rondeau

It’s back to the books for kids across America and going green in the classroom has never been so easy. With the help of a popular program called the Go Green Initiative, teachers have quick and simple access online to all the tools and resources needed to green a classroom, an entire school, or even a school-district.

Serving as the charter and flagship school for the Go Green Initiative, Walnut Grove Elementary School, in Pleasanton, Calif., first found out about the program in 2002 when Jill Buck, a mother of three, and PTA president, got creative and began asking “What else could we do to go green?”

“The school was doing some gardening, composting and recycling, but I wanted to do more, so I sat down at my kitchen table and started writing up the initiative,” said Ms. Buck (pictured left). “That was in 2002, and since then the program has just grown and grown: we’re now operating in all 50 states in the US, we’re in 13 countries, and on 4 continents; our website gets over 2 million hits a month; it’s an amazing program. Schools are finding us on the Internet and simply by word of mouth.”

Walnut Grove’s principal, Bill Radulovich, comments, “It all started here on my campus, as Jill (Buck) was my PTA president. As the charter school for this program, she first starting designing ideas to partner with waste management to help us with recycling waste, and that grew into networking and working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funds that are distributed to different programs.

“Where once we had cardboard boxes to hold are recycling items, we now have huge 55-gallon gobblers, these huge barrels with slots that are really cool. She helped us gain more methods in the form of recycling and reusing and how to be more efficient overall.”

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By Barbara Kessler

After an outbreak of bad publicity earlier this year over bisphenol-A (BPA), the plastic additive which dozens of studies identify as a potential carcinogen and endocrine disruptor, the U.S. government promised to take another look. Its conclusion: BPA is safe.

The Federal Drug Administration had previously cleared BPA for use in an array of consumer products, such as clear plastic baby bottles, the resin lining in food cans and many other items. It promised a new review of the science after Canada proposed a ban of BPA in baby bottles and manufacturers of polycarbonate water bottles began voluntarily giving up BPA. All cited concerns over the plastics’ tendency to leach when when warmed and possible harmful effects on humans, particularly children.

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By Catherine Girardeau

Eleven-year-old Colin Carlson of Coventry, Conn., took his cue from the penguins. The recent winner of the sixth annual Action for Nature International Young Eco-Hero Awards in the 8-to-13 age group was nine when he visited the Galapagos Islands as a member of the National Geographic Kids Expedition Team.

“I was snorkeling near a beach that was supposed to be teeming with Galapagos penguins, and there were only two or three,” Colin said in an interview with GreenRightNow. When Colin asked why, the answer he got – repeated El Nino ocean warming cycles associated with global climate change – prompted him to launch
“The Cool Coventry Club” to educate people about global warming and energy conservation, starting in his hometown.

San Francisco, California-based non-profit Action for Nature’s president, Beryl Kay, said her organization started the International Young Eco-Hero Awards after publishing a book about children’s successful environmental efforts around the world. “We thought it would be worthwhile to keep in touch with children who are doing exciting environmental things,” Kay said.

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By Barbara Kessler

Looking for a safer sunscreen? It’s not easy to find.The Environmental Working Group looked at almost 1,000 brand-name sunscreen products and found that the majority contain chemicals that either potentially pose health hazards or inadequately protect skin from damaging sun rays. Here’s their list of the top safe sunscreens:

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