By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

One of the nation’s leading environmental organizations, The Sierra Club, released their Third Annual Sierra Cool Schools list in the September/October issue of The Sierra Magazine.

The 135 schools were graded on a 100 point scale, and given final grades of A+ to F. There were eight categories that were taken into account:

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

At first, I was confused about the resignation of Van Jones, a man so well-suited to his post as the White House Special Advisor on Green Jobs that his tenure should have been long and fruitful. Here was a man who’d founded a human rights organization championing the underprivileged, and then another group, Green for All, that pioneered the idea of re-engaging the working class in progressive new fields of employment like green building and alternative energy. He literally wrote the book on green-collar jobs, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two Biggest Problems (Harper One 2008) before most people had heard the phrase green collar jobs.

Hearing the news of his resignation over the weekend, I consulted the website of Green for All, the Oakland-based project he co-founded and ran before accepting the White House appointment. GFA expressed sadness and obliquely referred to “the buzz and speculation surrounding this news.”

Clearly, this was a murky issue, and Green For All wanted to avoid the mud.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Here’s a little cautionary tale about how bigger is not always better, and knowing who to blame doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. It’s also about the inter-connectedness of our energy and food systems, and specifically how coal-fired power plants affect your diet.

Say you were camping with friends and caught a really BIG fish. This squirming monster would give you bragging rights for a year. Now say you caught a smaller fish, suitable for pan frying but not Kodak-worthy.

What do you do? If you’re Daniel Boone, you toss the little guy back. But if you’re a post-industrial age sportsman or woman, you will want to consider this: Keep the big hunker and you’ve got more to eat, and disproportionately more mercury contamination.

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If we can just remain standing long enough, Trees for the Future is on track to plant a lot of carbon-eating foliage this fall.

The non-profit is linking up with alcoholic beverage companies faster than you can say bottoms up.

First it was Trinity Oaks wine, now Finlandia Vodka has teamed with TFTF to plant one tree for each specially tagged bottle sold starting in September and continuing through November in the US.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

One of my pet complaints is finally being addressed, at least partly. Living here in the Barnett Shale region of Texas, where drilling for natural gas is making Swiss cheese of the ground beneath, say, my house, I’ve been sensitive to these reports coming out that link fracturing chemicals to groundwater contamination.

To be fair, natural gas advocates point out that the crevices they’re tapping are typically not at the same level as groundwater. Still, that means they’re either drilling through potential groundwater territory, or above it (think: gravity).

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

If it feels like you are finding a new phonebook on your door step every week and yet, you can’t remember the last time you opened one to get a number, listen up. The industry may be walking away, albeit in baby steps, from its paper-wasting ways.

These days there are multiple ways to get a phone number without having to thumb through a directory. With sites like www.yellowpages.com and www.superpages.com many people are turning away from print phone books and using online versions. There are even free phonebook applications for phones such as the iPhone and Blackberrys.

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Curbside idling uses fuel, but because the car is going nowhere, it translates into 0 mpg. An automobile may burn more than half a gallon of fuel for every hour spent idling. Unless you are simply dropping off or picking up someone, make it a habit to turn your engine off when waiting at the curb even if it’s just for a short period.

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Green Right Now Reports

Increasingly we’re hearing about how local, seasonal food is richer in nutrients than canned or out-of-season produce that’s been shipped in from afar.

UT Southwestern Medical Center nutrition experts say we can be even more deliberate with our menu choices by choosing seasonal fruits and veggies that offer specific health benefits.

Their tip today: Eat fresh melons in season — and that means late summer in the US — to get a boost of potassium. That mineral can help athletes and those suffering from high blood pressure.

“Melons like cantaloupe and watermelon are particularly high in potassium,” says Lona Sandon, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “One fourth a cantaloupe contains 800 to 900 milligrams of potassium, roughly 20 percent of the recommended daily value.”

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Green things are starting to shadow us wherever we go, leaping out in unexpected places. Like at the gas station.

Yet this green creep seems so normal. Read our picto-blog and you’ll see what we mean.

This sign, touting how Tom Thumb’s gas stations are now wind-powered, pretty much speaks for itself.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The global warming group 350.org is touting its new-found fame after founder Bill McKibben appeared on The Colbert Report.

McKibben chatted with the Colb-ster about “350″ — enlightening viewers on the significance of that number and how we’ve got to make that a benchmark if we want to salvage the Earth’s atmosphere.

Today, the group won validation of its goal and its namesake when the United Nation’s top climate scientist said that 350 (alright, it stands for the 350 parts per million of carbon in the air) is a good and appropriate target level for Mother Earth (with healthy humans).

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that it will become increasingly fashionable, practical and accepted to do away with your perfectly coiffed green velvet, water-sucking, chemically dependent lawn…and replace it with…a vegetable garden!

I’m not saying the neighbors will rush into your newly composted, tomato and potato plot with tambourines or anything, just that they might not file a homeowner’s association complaint.

There are just too many trendsetters in this arena for the concept of literally laying down roots to not take hold.

Remember the Eat the View campaign? A modest kitchen gardener in Maine and his like-minded buddies pushed through a petition with some 100,000 signers convincing the Obamas to convert some turf to veggie gardening at the White House. The presidential garden, although still surrounded by fields of grass, has been warmly watched by veggie gardeners and struck just the right note in this year of economic hardship.

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By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Coca-Cola is getting kudos from environmentalists for meeting them half way on the subject of BPA, bisphenol-A, a toxic chemical used in food packaging.

On May 28 of this year, lobbyists from the chemical industry and food companies gathered at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting public health and the environment, the focus of the meeting was to white-wash the risks of BPA.

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