By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now

It’s The Year of Living Dangerously all over again.

Orangutan (Photo: Tom Theodore/Dreamstime)

On Tuesday, two journalists were arrested in Sumatra while covering a politically sensitive topic – palm oil harvesting and the ensuing decimation of Southeast Asia’s old-growth, carbon-capturing rainforests, and the subsequent release of giant CO2 pockets that lie beneath the forests and their peat swamps.

More disturbing than the reporters’ deportation, though, is how little we consumers seem to realize that, not only are we what we eat, but when it comes to palm oil, we are eating our own lifeblood. We’re ‘eating’ our oxygen, we’re ‘eating’ our fellow species. We’re consuming our own future by driving up carbon emissions much faster than we can offset them. We are the snake eating its own tail.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

An emerging body of evidence suggests that the changing global climate is already affecting infectious disease transmission patterns. At a symposium today at the 58th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Washington D.C., experts reported that such changes are expected to have a profound impact on global public health.

“There is concrete evidence that the global climate is changing, and these changes are expected to greatly impact human health as surface temperatures rise, agricultural belts shift, and extreme weather events become more commonplace,” Mary H. Hayden, Ph.D. of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement. “Although most scientists agree that climate change is underway, the role it plays in infectious disease transmission is still in contention. The evidence presented today suggests that climate change will exacerbate the challenges of controlling infectious diseases in the developing world.”

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

HD Net’s Dan Rather Reports Tuesday night will feature never-before-seen footage from the island of Madagascar, where an ecological horror show is taking place. Madagascar’s national parks are, according to scientists, being raped by loggers who are illegally chopping down rare and extremely valuable rosewood trees. The recently obtained video shows loggers hauling the trees out of the forests by hand.

On Madagascar, loggers are illegally chopping down rare and extremely valuable trees. (Photo: HD Net)

Each of these trees is worth thousands of dollars on the international market, but the desperate residents of Madagascar are cutting them down for only a few dollars a day.

[Read more →]

Green Right Now Reports

We hate to just sit around and wait for technology to work us out of this global warming fix….but hey! Look at this technology from Popular Science’s just released Best of What’s New list:

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

Amazingly, there are still places in the Bay Area and Central Valley where keen-eyed observers can witness one of nature’s miracles: wild salmon spawning. The Bay Institute has just published an updated map and calendar of top local viewing spots and information on the best seasons to see salmon in the wild. These free brochures are available at Aquarium of the Bay, where a new poster exhibit highlights the life cycle of these extraordinary fish.

“Bay Area and Central Valley residents are fortunate to live within close driving distance of waterways where they can witness these magnificent but endangered creatures in their natural habitat,” Tina Swanson, executive director of The Bay Institute, said in a statement. “In addition to visiting these areas, we urge individuals to consider how their actions affect our salmon and the rivers they depend on, make smart decisions in their own lives about water and chemical use, and vote in favor of the environment. It will take all of us working together to protect and restore these species and the valuable fishery that, until recently, they supported.”

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

As debates about climate change — does it exist and how serious is it? – rage on, many scientists continue to uncover more and more evidence that atmospheric pollution is having negative effects on Earth, right here and now, climate change or not.

Scientists studying the chemistry of lakes reported in a study published this week that atmospheric nitrogen released from the burning of fossil fuels and the widespread use of fertilizers in agriculture is altering the makeup of even remote bodies of water.

Green Lake 5 in Colorado (Photo: James Elser/ASU)

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

California American Water has designated the week of Nov. 9 as “No Drugs Down the Drain” Week in its Los Angeles service area as part of a national campaign to reduce pharmaceutical pollution in water supplies. Items such as aspirin, prescription drugs and other medications should never be thrown down the drain or toilet, where they can seep into the ground and find their way back into the public water supply.

Los Angeles County residents will be encouraged to contact the County of Los Angeles’ Department of Public Works at 888-253-2652 or visit www.888cleanla.com to find out where they can drop off expired or unwanted pharmaceuticals and other household items free of charge.

California American Water also will sponsor the “No Drugs Down the Drain” outreach campaign in San Diego and Ventura.

[Read more →]

Gucci Group said it plans to implement an industry-leading paper policy.

From Green Right Now Reports

Luxury brand Gucci Group said today it is joining forces with Rainforest Action Network and will eliminate all paper made from Indonesian rainforests and plantations and by controversial suppliers such as Asia Pulp and Paper. The company said this is a first step in its plan to implement an industry-leading paper policy.

Rainforest Action Network officials said they are pleased to sign up the famous luxury house in its ongoing effort to protect Indonesian and other endangered forests. Since the beginning of Fall 2009, RAN has been urging the fashion world to more closely examine their paper supply chains and to sever any connection with paper suppliers like Asia Pulp and Paper who are actively destroying Indonesia’s rainforests.

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

While the world scrambles to find clean energy solutions, somewhere, every minute of every day, saws buzz through a forest, cutting down one of nature’s antidotes to carbon pollution.

Saving forests in the Congo will help save endangered gorillas (Photo: John Martin)

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

The US Environmental Protection Agency said today it is hitting the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency with a $250,000 civil penalty for federal violations of the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The Department of Justice, working on behalf of the EPA, lodged a proposed consent decree with the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the city and county of San Francisco for releasing at least 940 barrels of diesel fuel — some of which entered into Islais Creek, a tributary of the San Francisco Bay.

View Larger Map

[Read more →]

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

In June, Greenpeace released “Slaughtering the Amazon,” a three-year investigation into deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Greenpeace found that people were taking over protected lands in order to expand their cattle ranches. This was not only illegal, but large quantities of greenhouse gases were being released into the atmosphere as a result of the rapidly depleting forests.

Adidas, Nike and Timberland have committed to cancel supplier contracts unless their products were guaranteed to be free from Amazon destruction.

Deforestation accounts for around one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world’s trains, planes and cars combined, and Greenpeace estimates that the cattle industry is responsible for 80 percent of all deforestation.

Now, just four months after the release of “Slaughtering the Amazon,” positive steps are being taken by some of the big companies implicated.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

In an effort to protect public health, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will open the Winter Spare the Air season on Sunday, Nov. 1, and begin enforcing a regulation that restricts wood burning in the Bay Area through Feb. 28, 2010.

Wood smoke is the largest source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area. Certain weather conditions in the wintertime cause the air to remain still. When these conditions occur, the Bay Area Air District calls a Winter Spare the Air Alert.

[Read more →]