You don’t have to wait for next Halloween to track down energy vampires in your home. Any time of the year will do.

Just follow these Alliance to Save Energy guidelines, which are fun for kids and will surely be enlightening for adults too.

First step, turn off all the lights and appliances in the house. Take a flashlight outside to see if the meter is still running. It probably will be, because you’ve got things on “stand by” all over the house — hair dryers, phones, computers, televisions, DVRs.

Now investigate. Walk around the house with the flashlight and find the little LED lights that indicate an appliance is “ready.” Even in sleep mode, it’s drawing energy and you can

KillAWatt EZ will tell you how much energy your electronics are gobbling

often tell by feeling the item or the plug-in. Is it warm? It’s drawing energy.

The solution, aside from unplugging individual appliances, is to put equipment on a power strip. Then turn the power strip off whenever possible.

The costs of “phantom energy” are real. The Department of Energy estimates that the constant energy draw of appliances and electronics that aren’t even turned on can account for 20 percent of your energy bill.

According to the Alliance To Save Energy’s worksheet (developed with Energy Star), it costs about $6.85 a year (on average) to keep a VCR on standby and $4.28 for a TV that’s plugged in. Seem like chump change? Multiply those by how many VCRs and TVs there are in the house, then add in all the other clocks, toasters, phones and computers you’ve got plugged into the wall.

If you want a more precise fix on your vampires, consider proving their harm with a KillaWatt, a device that you can plug suspicious appliances into to give you a read out of how many watts are being consumed. The KillaWatt, by P3 International, an electronics firm in New York, is sold in several versions. See the P3 website.

One of the nation’s leading environmental organizations, The Sierra Club, released its 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:

• Efficiency
• Energy
• Food
• Academics
• Purchasing
• Transportation
• Waste management
• Administration

Many colleges and universities’ efforts to stop global warming were applauded, 27 of the 135 schools were given As. While many schools are making an environmental difference, 10 were given a failing grade.

Who made the top marks grade? Of those 27 making As, six schools nabbed an A+:

1. The University of Colorado at Boulder
2. University of Washington at Seattle
3. Middlebury College
4. University of Vermont
5. College of the Atlantic
6. Evergreen State University

To find out more about the green movement underway at universities across the nation, GreenRightNow took a closer look at some schools, including the University of California at San Diego and Emory University in Atlanta.

Our interviews revealed that many colleges, not just those at the A+ level, are getting serious about greener practices as they try to preserve land and water, lower energy costs, provide local food, develop green technology and instill a sense of responsibility toward the environment among students.

UC San Diego, for instance, has started a unique program using student educators called EcoNauts. (See our story.)

Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director, predicts that green will continue to be an important color for those considering a college.

“The next generation of students cares deeply about stopping global warming, and schools that take the initiative to become environmentally responsible are doing the right thing for the planet and are better poised to attract the best students,” he said in a news release.

According to the Princeton Review, two-thirds of students say they take into account a school’s environmental credentials. Students are more concerned with the planet now than ever and want to consider, and possibly attend, the greenest universities and colleges.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.

Once I figured out that Jones had been heckled out of his job by right-wing ideologue, Fox News TV commentator and Supreme Heckler Glenn Beck, I knew there had to be lots more to read.

Chris Kelly had a wickedly blunt column on Huffington Post (though it preceded Jones’ resignation and was mostly about Meg Whitman) that drilled right to the core. He concluded that Jones had come under right-wing fire because he was black and a Marxist. “You might even call him a black Marxist. Because of how black he is. And because he’s a Marxist.”

As more news emerged, it became obvious that race was central. Beck had attacked Jones in retaliation for a boycott of his show led by Color of Change, an African-American advocacy group co-founded by Jones and James Rucker. The group was angered when Beck called President Obama a racist.

Ariana Huffington came on board today with a column thanking Glenn Beck for returning Van Jones to the public sector, where he can be more effective anyway: “Van Jones is a thoughtful leader who knows how to use words to move people to action,” she said. “…Now, thanks to Glenn Beck, we’ve got that voice back. No longer tied to his desk with a sock in his mouth, Van is now freed to do what he does best: inspire and energize groups around the country.”

There’s a scary thought, a black man on the loose inspiring the country. Next thing you know he’ll be wanting to speak to our youth about personal responsibility, fortitude and striving to do well in school.

Speaking of voices. Beck, Kelly and Huffington are all notably partisan, albeit at different political poles.

Which makes me wonder what moderate regular folks think? Could it be that most Americans, stressed by health care, job losses, real estate issues and the continuing war in the Middle East, simply see all this yammering as a missed turn in the road to getting things done? (That is, if they’re aware of it at all.)

For the majority of us who reside outside the political fray, this resignation is simply unfortunate because we need a strong leader guiding us toward more sustainable ways, especially here in the US where we gobble an amazing 40 percent of the world’s resources. We need to transition to new energy sources, green building and efficient business operations that can steer us clear of climate change catastrophes. These changes can and will provide economic renewal in the form of green jobs. That’s not just a hope. Green changes are already happening on a micro-scale, in wind turbine plants, on organic farms, at solar plants and electric car facilities.

The high-level post at the fulcrum of the action is so pivotal, and yet so vulnerable.

On hindsight, anyone serving as the green jobs chief was likely to be skewered in a country that still debates whether global warming exists… and is caused by carbon emissions from human enterprises.

Now we need someone who will help bring us together. Someone who can talk to us about personal responsibility.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Here’s a little cautionary tale about how bigger is not always better — and about the inter-connectedness of our energy and food systems, specifically how coal-fired power plants affect your diet.

Say you were camping with friends and caught a really BIG fish. This 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. It’s a no brainer. But if you’re a post-industrial age sportsperson, you must consider this: That big fish fillet could be disproportionately loaded with mercury; keeping the little fishy could be safer.

According to recent sampling studies by our federal government, ALL of our freshwater fish are contaminated, to some extent, with mercury. And the way mercury works its way through the food chain is that it builds momentum, so that those higher on the food chain are more contaminated — a process called “biomagnification”. And some of those big fish contain a mercury that’s become more toxic, too, after the mercury has been acted on by bacteria found in wetlands and swamps and converted to the more dangerous methylmercury.

The science is complicated, but you don’t need a biology degree to get the gist of things, that our fish are coming to us in less than pristine condition.

Fishy Findings

The US Geological Survey study tested fish from 291 streams across the country and found that all tested positive for traces of mercury, demonstrating how widespread mercury pollution has become. But scientists also reported that only about one-quarter had mercury levels exceeding the EPA’s safe guidelines for people eating “average amounts of fish.”

Still. ALL of the fish tested in the US showed some levels of mercury contamination. (The levels of mercury ranged from .008 to 1.95 parts per million – or micrograms per gram of wet tissue.)

This left us to wonder: Are we supposed to be alarmed? What can we now safely eat? Must we forfeit fresh fish along with all those ocean varieties that are endangered?

The answers: Yes and no. Some fish. No, but sometimes yes – can be confusing.

The government’s FAQs on this topic only left us feeling more uneasy about our future meals and also more than a little helpless about the air pollution at the root of it all. They explain that mercury is a “potent neurotoxin” in fish, wildlife and humans, yet they note that fish are “important part of a healthy diet.” We did know that: Fish are high in protein and healthy oils.

So officials are advising us to continue to eat fish, but with caution. The public should:

• Make “informed decisions” based on EPA and FDA guidelines.
• Check our state advisoriesUSDA guidelines to find out which freshwater fish are most affected and where.
• Kids and women of child-bearing age need to take special care because mercury can be harmful to developing bodies, and especially minds. They should eat no more than two meals a week that contain fish that are “lower in mercury,” according to the

“We don’t want to scare people away from eating fish, because they’re a healthy source of protein, but they should pay attention to state fish consumption advisories and also the EPA and FDA guidance for consumption of commercial fish,” says Mark E. Brigham, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, a leader on the study and an expert in mercury in biological systems.

Isn’t that a lot to ask of consumers who are already busy reading food labels, trying to shop “the outside aisles” of the grocery store, searching for information on how livestock was fed and trying to find the hormone-free milk?

Pause…. “We want informed consumers,” says Brigham.

In case you think freshwater fish present a minor culinary concern, you should know that the federal government estimates about 34 million people fish for sport and food. No doubt many more fancy catfish at the neighborhood fish fry and patronize lakeside restaurants looking for walleye and perch.

To be fair, though, Brigham isn’t on the food side of this issue, but the fact-finding science side. He understands that his team’s discovery -  that every last fish tested had some traces of mercury – is not a comfort to the fish-eating public. But it was not surprising.

Mercury, he points out, “is a pervasive contaminant in the environment.” It is the second leading cause of “impaired” water systems – the first is pathogenic contamination, such as bacterial infections – and has been tracked for many years. Forty-eight of the 50 states issue advisories on mercury in fish.

In addition, “there’s always been a natural component to the mercury cycle. It does get emitted from volcanoes and is “degassed from the earth” and rained back down into waterways.
That’s the good news within the bad news.

A human-made problem

The really bad news, though, is that historical sampling of lake beds shows that mercury contamination from natural sources was slight compared with the rapid accumulation from post-industrial activities.

Knowingly and inadvertently, humans have spewed significant mercury into the earth’s biological systems, waterways and atmosphere as we’ve developed cement plants, mercury and gold mines, metal smelting and coal-burning power plants.

Some of that pollution has been cleaned up as we’ve realized that dumping industrial waste directly into streams and lakes, no matter how giant (think: Lake Erie) is not a good idea.

But the main contributor to the global “mercury cycle’” is coal power plants of which there are 491 in the US and hundreds more around the world, such as in China, which is building coal plants faster than anyone.

Coal-fired power plants account for 40 percent of all mercury emissions in the US, according to the EPA.

The top 50 most-polluting US coal-burning power plants emitted 20 tons of toxic mercury into the air in 2007, according to a study by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project.

All US coal plants collectively emit some 48 tons of mercury annually, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, preliminarily released in July.

That mercury gets emitted as oxidized, elemental or particulate-bonded forms. The oxidized or particulate-bonded mercury falls to the earth relatively quickly, contaminating the local region and watersheds — but it can also be captured more easily. The elemental mercury, though, can ride in the atmosphere, joining mercury emissions from around the world, Brigham said, which explains why his study group found mercury in fish in areas distant from known sources of mercury.

Furthermore, certain natural conditions, present in wetland environments and forests, enhance a process that converts mercury into methylmercury, which is easily taken up by aquatic life. This leads to the seeming paradox of some fish in relatively undeveloped watersheds and pristine areas having some of the highest elevated levels of mercury (in the rural South and wild wetlands of the Pacific Northwest and Midwest); and complicates the matter of knowing what is safe to eat.

The best way to help save our freshwater fish, and their ocean cousins, from further injury, Brigham, among others, have concluded, would be to reduce those mercury emissions at their source.

(Though remember, some fish is safe to eat all the time, and other fish is safe to eat some of the time, like once a week, if it’s the right type…Check your advisories.)

Dialing back mercury emissions

The EPA first tried to reduce mercury emissions from coal plants with a 2005 regulation called the Clean Air Mercury Rule. But it was thrown out by the courts, which advised the agency to employ the Clean Air Act to set mercury emission guidelines.

The EPA is in the midst of trying to make this change, but a new rule must meet certain tests. The Clean Air Act requires, for instance, that standards for other pollutants in the same category, known as “Hazardous Air Pollutants” (lead, toxic gases and dioxin) be set simultaneously.

Once a rule is written and approved, coal-fired plants will be required to use the latest technological advances to cleanse mercury from their admissions. It can be done: Some coal plants in the US have already added scrubbing technology, required by more stringent state guidelines, proving that removing the mercury is possible.

Furthermore, according to the July GAO report technology to remove mercury is effective and affordable.

Coal plants with the technology already in place are removing 80 to 90 percent of the mercury in air emissions.

Coal’s CO2 emissions, blamed for rising carbon in the atmosphere, will not be affected by this new rule

Resources:

• GAO Testimony to the US Senate committees and subcommittees concerned with food and environmental health.
• EPA list of State Fish Advisories
• Effects of Mercury on People on the EPA

(Photos of: Fish in a Pan by ZKruger/dreamstime.com; brook trout by Eric Engbretson, US FWS; boy fishing by Ronald Laubenstein, US FWS.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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 group 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.

This trend could mean we’re duty-bound to toast Columbus Day with a Gimlet and have a Bloody Mary Thanksgiving. We can handle that.

Finlandia (doesn’t the name just give you shivers?) sees itself as a good fit for tree stewardship. “Finland’s nature and pristine glacial spring water has always been an essential element in making Finlandia Vodka. We do our best to find ways to reduce our environmental footprint and this partnership allows all of us to give back to nature,” says Nick Nelson, US brand manager for the company.

We see this trend as resulting in hectares of trees. Trees for the Future has already helped plant nearly 65 million trees in communities in Central America, Africa, and Asia since its inception in 1988, according to the non-profit.  The group, founded by Dave Deppner, helps local people acquire the technical know-how to return degraded lands back into sustainable forested lands or agricultural/forestry operations.

Trees for the Future partners with many types of companies, including non-alcoholic beverage firms, like Celestial Seasonings, and familiar environmentally minded companies like Clean Air Gardening, Whole Foods Market and 41pounds.org and many more.

While TFTF has been helping restore Earth’s equilibrium, Finlandia has been helping people challenge theirs in several flavors sold in more than 100 countries. For those who can’t make a decent Greyhound or Screwdriver, the company came up with Vodka Fusion drinks tinged with cranberry, grapefruit, tangerine and other fruity flavors.

Salud! or Kippis!

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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 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; they’re much farther below the surface. Still, that means they’re drilling through potential groundwater territory. And it doesn’t explain away the numerous reports around the country of water contaminated with chemicals used in the fracturing process.

Call me suspicious, or call me a reader of Pro Publica which has been cracking open this story, but these matters worry me. (See the latest story from Pro Publica here. It’s about how gas drilling could be the culprit in contaminated Wyoming water wells being investigated by the EPA. The EPA jumped on this problem a few years after residents in the tiny town of Pavillion complained that “their water wells turned sour and reeked of fuel vapors shortly after drilling took place nearby,” according to Pro Publica. Hmmmm. I smell a problem.)

But I digress. What’s happening now is that Congress may soon ask for more disclosure from gas companies, requiring them to reveal the chemicals being used in the hydraulic fracturing process. If passed, the companies would have to itemize what’s in those fluids they’re injecting beneath the earth to split the rock (which releases gas stores).

The Natural Resources Defense Council supports this potential repeal of the “Halliburton Loophole,” as it’s known because this 2005 exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act allowed Halliburton to keep its fracturing formula secret.

The NRDC is asking supporters of disclosure to contact their lawmakers about these pending bills:
House of Representatives’ Bill 2766 and Senate Bill 1215.

For more info on areas where natural gas drilling has contaminated water and threatened property see the NRDC blog by Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the group.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.

This is a trend that even phonebook providers are waking up to. On August 13, the Yellow Pages Association and the Association of Directory Publishers launched a national opt-out program. “Yellowpagesoptout.com makes it simple for consumers to find information about managing home delivery of print directories,” said Neg Norton, president, Yellow Pages Association.

It is simple. Go to www.yellowpagesoptout.com to enter your zip code. The site pulls up the list of providers for your area. Some publishers have direct links to stop delivery, while others require that you call them. This allows users to lower the number of phonebooks they receive yearly or simple stop all print delivery.

You’ll still be able to get “the yellow pages”.

“Our local data is available in a number of ways, including print phone books, Internet Yellow Pages, Google, and Yahoo! Local, for example.” Norton said. “Whatever way consumers choose to find a local business, chances are the last mile of the search was supported by Yellow Pages – whether the consumer knows it or not.”

There are areas that are testing out a Yellow Pages-only pilot program. A hardcopy of the yellow pages would be distributed to consumers, with a cd-rom of the white pages. Consumers would still be able to request to receive a hardcopy of the white pages if they preferred. ”In areas where the Yellow Pages-only delivery has been tried, an average of 1 percent of subscribers requested paper copies of the White Pages,” said Don Sadler, AT&T Spokesman. AT&T Florida is getting on board with the program this fall in four of their major markets: West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami.

And if you do prefer print versions to virtual phonebooks, you will be pleased to know that the print versions are becoming more eco-friendly. The paper used contains 40% recycled content, while the other 60% is a byproduct of sawmills.

If you don’t recycle your old phonebooks, they are either gathering dust on your desk or taking up space in area landfills, neither of which are desirable.

Need help figuring out where and how to recycle? The Yellow Pages site has tips.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.”

Two cups of watermelon contains nearly 10 percent of the daily recommended value, she adds.

And after your melon fix, look to an array of dried and fresh fruits and veggies to pump up the potassium, such as dried apricots, avocados, figs, kiwi, oranges, raisins, dates, beans, potatoes, tomatoes and even grapefruit are other good sources of potassium.

Potassium works to lower blood pressure by helping regulate body fluids, providing a balance with sodium. To find out more about why potassium from natural sources is superior to supplements, see this article from Med India.

UT Southwestern, in Dallas, notes that adults should get 4,044 milligrams of potassium from food and beverages each day, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

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.

Talk about energy and inspiration. Look at these folks taking control of their neighborhood in Baltimore. They were contributing to the Project Orange Thumb makeover this week of the Oliver area. The project, sponsored by Fiskars and Home Depot, will beautify the neighborhood and provide it with a community veggie garden. How literally green, and smart.

Speaking of neighborhoods, if yours doesn’t smile on exposed laundry lines, try hiding the clothes behind a bush, tastefully hung on a fence. Call it a green outdoor art experience.

And speaking of art, we spotted this très cool bike rack in downtown Chicago. We don’t know where it came from. But we know a bike rack when we see it.

(Photo credits: Oliver park, Fiskars Project Orange Thumb; all others, GreenRightNow)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The global warming activist group 350.org is basking in its new-found celebrity 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).

Rajendra Pachauri’s statement in an interview: “As chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) I cannot take a position because we do not make recommendations. But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal. What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target.”

Previously, the “safe” number cited by the IPCC and nations around the world was 450. But given how things have been declining, 350 is looking like a better place to be.

McKibben, who told supporters “This news makes it much easier for all of us to push hard leading up to the International Day of Climate Action on the 24th of October … and the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen this December.

In this case, the “Colbert bump” as 350 supporters were calling it, was a good thing.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media