As we were prowling for practical green gifts to feature in our coming 2009 Green Gifts Lists, this simple T-shirt caught our eye. It’s green, unisex and made with organic cotton. And you’ve got that iconic Panda there on the side. What more could a greenie want?

Organic cotton T from World Wildlife Fund

It’s your gift — to re-gift at Christmas or Hanukkah — with a donation of $50 to World Wildlife Fund.

A gift to the WWF is a no-brainer for conservationists concerned about polar bears, tigers, pandas, penguins, moose and countless other creatures threatened by global warming and loss of habitat.

For the person on your list who’s wild about saving a certain favorite animal, check out WWF’s pewter earrings that depict wolves, rhinos, whales, turtles, tigers, frogs, dolphins and more. These are also a gift option when you make a $50 donation.

Handmade pewter earrings from WWF

To read more about WWF’s work, check out their list of 19 priority areas where the organization is working to restore or preserve lands that hold some of the world’s most exotic and threatened animals. (Many of these areas, the Amazon, Yangzee Region, the Congo Basin and the North American Great Plains also serve as areas where carbon is naturally sequestered, helping in the fight against global warming.)

World Wildlife Fund offers other thank you gifts, for young and old, including tote and aluminum water bottles. And, as always, you can “adopt” an animal — in fact, you can choose from 100 animals to adopt. Each adoption entitles the giver to a certificate of adoption and depending on the donation, a stuffed animal and other goodies. Great stocking stuffers.

Snow Leopard (Photo: World Wildlife Fund)

Chimpanzee (Photo: World Wildlife Fund)

Palm Oil, an ingredient found in most processed food, has been the subject of much environmental debate in recent years over its role in deforestation. It is commonly found in cooking oil and as an ingredient in cosmetics, soaps, detergents, and some plastics. Palm oil also has been considered for use in the production of biodiesel.

There have been many attempts to make palm oil sustainable. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was even established in 2003 to do just that. Unfortunately, six years later, there is still no system that can effectively trace palm oil beyond the processor to the plantation level. Companies that manufacture products using palm oil have little way of knowing where the controversial substance originated — which leaves the question of whether and to what degree palm oil is sustainably farmed up in the air.

This week, a press campaign run by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and aimed at putting the best spin on the industry ran aground when Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned a magazine ad by the Malaysian boosters.

The headline of the MPOC’s magazine advertisement read: “Palm Oil: The Green Answer.”

As if that were not misleading enough, the ad made many more claims, such as:

• “Palm oil is the only product able to sustainably and efficiently meet a large portion of the world’s increasing demand for oil crop-based consumer goods, foodstuffs and biofuel … Malaysia’s forest cover is certain to be maintained.”
• “With the increased attention paid to oil crops, and oil palm in particular, a number of criticisms have been leveled at Malaysia’s palm oil industry, from accusations of rampant deforestation and unsound environmental practices to unfair treatment of farmers and indigenous people. These allegations – protectionist agendas hidden under a thin veneer of environmental concern – are based neither on scientific evidence, nor, for that matter, on fact.”
• “In addition to its green credentials, Malaysia’s palm oil industry also plays an important role in the industrialization of the country and the alleviation of poverty, especially amongst rural populations.”

The advertisement violated substantiation, truthfulness, and the environmental claims sections of the Advertising Standards Authority’s Code, according to the group’s assessment.

“Although we acknowledged that some Malaysian palm oil companies had sought certification from the RSPO [the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil], we understood that the scheme and the certification of biofuels in general was still the subject of debate,” stated the Advertising Standards Authority’s Assessment.

They report explained that “palm oil had played a role in the development of the Malaysian economy in its shift from reliance on rubber and tin mining” and it acknowledged MPOCs assertion that this created one million jobs.

But it also noted that environmental and human rights groups had legitimate complaints about palm oil producers. Friends of the Earth, for instance, contends that palm oil production creates adverse social impacts by displacing indigenous communities affected by deforestation.

Issues over housing and land rights and low wages and poor treatment of workers “compromised MPOCs claim that palm oil had a societal benefit,” the advertisers assessment stated.

The advertising regulators concluded that the magazine ad must no longer appear in its current form.

There is no such thing as sustainable palm oil, at least not yet, according to the ASA.

Malaysian leader presses palm oil’s virtues

The MPOC fired back on Wednesday, complaining that the ASA was relying on FOE’s biased environmental conclusions and arguing that palm oil, being the cheapest vegetable oil, should be available to consumers, especially the poor.

“Today, the ASA ruled that an advertorial in The Economist highlighting the economic importance and environmental sustainability of Malaysian Palm Oil should not appear in any other UK media outlets. The ruling followed a complaint by Friends of the Earth about the advertorial. By censoring our message, this relatively small group of people is blocking the entire British public’s access to a diverse range of views and information about Palm Oil,” wrote the Malaysian group’s CEO Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Yusof Basiron.

“Consumers have a right to have information about the various products and services available to them and a right to determine for themselves which they want. Consequently, we are deeply concerned that the ASA is acting as an interested party in the public debate on palm oil rather than as a neutral and objective arbiter.”

“Don’t let the vacation ruin the destination.”

These words of wisdom hail from environmentalists who have legitimate concerns about ocean pollution due to cruise ship dumping.

Cruise ship vacations have gained in popularity in the last decade, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which states that the industry has grown nearly twice as fast as any other means of travel during that time frame. And, at the same time, the average ship size has been growing at about 90 feet every five years. Ships used to average about 3,000 passengers, but today some carry as many as 8,000.

So with larger ships carrying more passengers, there is mounting concern about how this growth will affect the ocean’s marine life and water quality.

Recently the World Wildlife Federation’s Baltic Sea chapter recommended that area ports upgrade their facilities to cope with contamination from cruise ship sewage. The WWF said that Baltic-area ports are not keeping their facilities up-to-date in terms of disposing of cruise ship waste and suggested that the money being made by cruise ship tourism be spent upgrading the facilities, according to a report in the Environmental News Service.

“We find it unfair that so many ports are profiting from cruise line tourism but are not prepared to take care of their waste,” said Pauli Merriman, director of the WWF Baltic Ecoregion Progamme, in the ENS report.

In one week, a single average size cruise ship can generate about 200,000 gallons of sewage as well as 1 million gallons of gray water (the runoff from showers and kitchens), says Friends of the Earth Clean Vessels Campaign director Marcie Keever.

“That amounts to about 50 swimming pools-worth of polluted water,” she says.

Cleaning up pollution from cruise ships uses technology that separates the solids from the liquids and uses reverse osmosis to get rid of the pollutants. The solids get incinerated with the ashes either being dumped on land or at sea beyond 3 to 12 nautical miles. On land, the human manure can be recycled as nutrients for soil.

In the U.S., says Keever, there are no regulations for dumping sewage from vessels beyond three nautical miles from shore. Beyond three miles, cruise ships are allowed to dump raw, partially treated, or treated sewage.

As for port-side dumping, she says, “the dumping of treated sewage (using 30-year old-technology) is allowed in many ports except for states that have created no-discharge areas or agreements…. California is one of the places with anti-dumping laws, as are Alaska and Maine. Washington and Florida have voluntary agreements with the cruise industry but those agreements don’t go any further that U.S. federal requirements in most cases.”

Green Right Now Reports

We thought we were done with the Valentine’s Day tips. But then along came these soooo cute little seal and polar bear pictures from the World Wildlife Fund and we just said, awwwww! soooo cute. We had to spread the word.

Emailing a Valentine is green and commendable. Emailing a Valentine that features endangered wildlife….we’re talking potential credits in heaven — albeit not what you’d get by volunteering for WWF, or say, building a house with Habitat for Humanity.

Still. Small steps count. And if you’re chained to a desk today, the WWF e-tines are available and free! Of course, they’ll pitch you for a donation. But hey, they’re a non-profit doing yeoman’s work.

So if you’re still looking. Send your love a virtual cuddly.

Earth Hour, that annual blackout to demonstrate support for fighting global warming, will be back stronger than ever in 2009. Organizers announced Thursday that 377 cities in 74 countries have pledged to participate in the global event set for March 28 at 8:30 p.m. (your time), surpassing last year’s participation.

Sponsor World Wildlife Fund also announced that Shepard Fairey, whose portrait of Barack Obama has been popularized on t-shirts and other objects, has created a “Vote Earth” T-shirt to promote Earth Hour. The poster’s text, “Vote Earth. Your Light Switch is Your Vote,” asks people to participate by turning out the lights in their homes and businesses.

The image from the limited edition poster will be available through social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Flickr and at EarthHourUS.org for those who want to set up events around Earth Hour.

Among the cities participating this year in the U.S., are: Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco. Other cities include: Athens, Beijing, Brussels, Cape Town, Dubai, Helsinki, London, Manila, Moscow, Rio del Janeiro, Rome and Sydney.

WWF’s vice president of climate change, Richard Moss, Ph.D., noted that 2009 is an important year to send a strong signal from the U.S. in support of measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with global leaders set to sign a pact on reductions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

WWF senior communications director Steve Ertel said that several U.S. cities will hold special events on Earth Day. Las Vegas, for instance, has volunteered to shut down the strip (and that’s a lot of watts).

Earth Hour, however, is “not about energy savings per se,’ Ertel said. “It’s really a symbolic event. By turning off your lights for an hour, you’re voting for action on climate change.”

Despite some recent studies suggesting that global warming has drifted downward on the electorate’s list of priorities as economic concerns have superceded other issues, Ertel says he believes people still want to address greenhouse gas emissions. He pointed to other research showing that clean energy development, for instance, will curb GHGs and create jobs.

Earth Hour began in Sydney as a city-wide event in 2007. It went worldwide in 2008, when an estimated 50 million people in 371 cities across 35 countries worldwide turned off their lights during Earth Hour.

To sign up as a participant of Earth Hour, and to learn how to host a local event, visit the action area of their website.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

• Earth Hour 2009 coverage: darkness for enlightenment
• Through the dark, enlightenment
• Closing in on Earth Hour 2009

Every spring, as sure as the sun warms the cedars and the birds flock back from Mexico, Lee Clauser leads a stealth group of intense adults dressed in khakis and boots to the edge of a wild thicket near his house in north central Texas.

They creep into the brush, quietly unloading their weapons of mass observation.

Putting binoculars to eyes, they look, and listen, for the brilliant Golden-cheeked warbler, and for the reclusive Black-capped vireo. Both songbirds are listed as endangered in the United States, their nesting grounds having been narrowed to a strip of Texas Hill Country that supplies just the right shrubbery and old-growth cedars. The birders, who come from Fort Worth, Dallas, New England, the Pacific Northwest and beyond, know that catching a glimpse of one of these delicate creatures is a rare treat.

“People have come from Europe to see those birds, both species. For birders all over the world, it’s a huge deal,” says Clauser, a retired banker and life-long bird rescue and rehabilitation expert.

“Texas is the only place in the entire world that they nest,” confirms Gail Morris, president of the Fort Worth Audubon Society. “They require certain junipers and ash and that habitat is just not available anywhere.”

The Black-Cap (estimated population 6,000) and the Golden-cheek (estimated population 21,000) have been listed as endangered for nearly two decades, according to government records. The reason for their decline and the biggest threat to their recovery is one and the same: Loss of habitat to residential and commercial growth.

In Texas, exurbia, agriculture and industrial pursuits – cement plants, landfills, gas drilling – have encroached on the birds. . . and are poised to claim even more of them. The forests favored by Clauser’s bird groups occupy land adjacent to a proposed gravel pit that would bring rock blasting and mining nearly certain to affect the vireo and the warbler.

A Story Echoed Everywhere

Sadly, it is a common story, replayed across the globe. From Sumatra to China to the United States, animals are being crowded out by residential sprawl and human “improvements” to the land. The answer — to hold the line on the growth – has proven difficult to impossible in many cases.

“Habitat loss is the biggest driver of species endangerment in the world,” says Colby Loucks, deputy director for the Conservation Science Program at the World Wildlife Fund. And it’s hard to fight, whether the animal in immediate harm’s way is a Texas songbird or a Pacific sea turtle.

Civilization is crashing into natural places such as the Baja region of Mexico, where massive tourist expansion is projected to bring a ten-fold increase in population, imperiling not just the sea turtles that nest there, but the region’s freshwater, which supports the wildlife and the people, Loucks said.

It’s happening, too, in central China where roads and railroads designed to bring development to the mountainous wilderness, are carving up the ancient byways used by the Giant Panda to migrate to new bamboo forests. And it’s happening in the Appalachians, where mountaintop coal mining is filling valleys with slag and pollution, stifling stream life, lacing the ecosystem with mercury and heading straight for our tap water.

Scientists like Loucks, and others, are increasingly stressing the big picture: That we need to preserve our planet’s biodiversity and recognize the inter-connectivity of animals and plants, large and small, because we’re all perched on the same slippery slope.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued a report earlier this week stating that global warming is increasing at an even faster pace than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast in 2007. The report, “Climate Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner,” was pegged to the Oct. 20 Luxembourg meeting of the European Union’s Environment Ministers.

Despite concerns about the global financial crisis, the ministers have chosen to stick with their environmental improvement plan – to reduce greenhouse gases 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The WWF would like to see that increased to 30 percent for the EU.

According to the WWF’s scientific data, there were six key findings:

1. The Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice up to 30 years ahead of what the IPCC originally thought. Summer sea ice could disappear entirely between 2013 and 2040. This has not happened in more than a million years.

2. The rise of the global sea level could increase twofold from the IPCC’s estimate of .59 meter (about 23 inches) by the end of the century.

3. Forests and oceans, known as “natural carbon sinks,” are not absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere as quickly as they used to.

4. Because of rising temperatures, there’s been a decrease in food crops that equals about 40 million tons of grain per year.

5. The marine ecosystems in the North and Baltic seas also are being affected by the warmest temperatures ever recorded.

6. Cyclones in the United Kingdom are increasing in number and in intensity, which will in turn increase the wind speeds and storm-related losses over Central and Western Europe.

Richard Moss, vice president for the WWF’s Climate Change division and a member of the IPCC, said the report indicates to all that the world must act now.

“That means individuals in their own lives need to get involved, at home and by expressing their alarm. They need to get in touch with their local politicians,” Dr. Moss said. “Businesses need to get on board, too. We are seeing action at the state and local levels.”

The promise of a new administration offers hope, he says. “At least we won’t have the climate debate anymore since both candidates realize that global warming is human-induced. The candidates are moving in the right direction. And the science pointed out in this report should help.”

What about both candidates’ seeming concessions to off-shore drilling?

“Seeing the American public invest more finances to energy resources like oil is unfortunate,” says Dr. Moss. “It’s sad to see that happen. Our off-shore areas shouldn’t be destroyed.”

On the WWF website, the author of the report, climate scientist Dr. Tina Tin, says, “Climate change, is a major challenge to the future of mankind and the environment, and this sobering overview highlights just how critical it is that EU Environment Ministers discussing the EU legislations against climate change today commit to a strong climate and energy package, in order to ensure a low carbon future.”

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The numbers are in from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and declining ice thickness is at a hazardous level; observed to be the second-lowest coverage on record, scientists said this week.

According to the NSIDC, on September 12, 2008, the sea ice extent dropped to 1.74 million square miles (4.52 million square kilometers) — or a little less than half the area of the United States. This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as sea ice has now begun its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling.

Satellite observations show that the 2008 minimum is the second-lowest recorded since 1979 — the lowest level was recorded in 2007 — and is 2.24 million square kilometers (0.86 million square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum.

The latest news from the NSIDC, which is a part of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, and NASA, reaffirms the strong negative trend in summertime sea ice observed over the past thirty years.

“Arctic sea ice may well have reached its lowest levels ever in terms of total volume,” the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) noted in a press release.

“If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic this year than in any other year since monitoring began,” said Dr. Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change adviser for WWF’s Arctic Program. “This is also the first year that the Northwest Passage over the top of North America and the Northeast Passage over the top of Russia are both free of ice.”

Sommerkorn says in the statement that the continuing loss of older, thicker ice means that the Arctic ice cover is following a trend of becoming younger and thinner each year. The area of ice that is at least five years old has decreased by 56 percent between 1985 and 2007. The oldest ice types have essentially disappeared. Taken together, the new figures clearly show the Arctic is experiencing the continuation of an accelerated declining trend.

“The Arctic is a key factor in stabilizing the global climate,” Sommerkorn adds.

He explains the imperative existence of Arctic ice: “It’s like a mirror, reflecting the sun’s heat back into space. As that ice goes, Arctic waters absorb more heat, adding to global warming. The local warming of the Arctic will also soon release more greenhouse gases from the Arctic that were previously locked in permanently frozen ground. This means there will be two powerful feedbacks from the Arctic affecting the global environment. This is not just an Arctic problem, it is a global problem, and it demands a global response.”

Governments of the world are reportedly negotiating a new climate agreement to come into force in 2013, but the heat is on for a new international climate agreement to be reached at the U.N. Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009.

For more information see the full NSIDC announcement. See an up close view of 2008 Arctic Sea Ice from the AMSR-E, the instrument on the Aqua satellite here.

The NSIDC will release more detailed information from research gathered at the beginning of October, including a full analysis of the possible causes behind this year’s low ice conditions, particularly interesting aspects of the melt season, the set-up going into the important winter growth season ahead, and graphics comparing this year to the long-term record. At that time, they say, they will know what the monthly average September sea ice extent was in 2008 – the measure scientists most often rely on for accurate analysis and comparison over the long-term.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Three major charities — The World Wildlife Fund, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and ninemillion.org– benefited from the Nike + Human Race 10K on Sunday, an event billed as the World’s Biggest Race that involved 25 races in 25 cities around the globe.

Thousands of runners turned out for the 10K in the North American host cities of New York City, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and Austin, as well as around the world in other major cities such as Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vancouver, Lima, Instanbul, Singapore, Melbourne, Warsaw, and Seoul. Collectively, the runners logged more than 3 million miles, according to Nike, with each mile producing more money toward the three charities.

Among the athletes and celebrities who showed their support by running in Austin were seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong; Olympic Gold Medalist swimmers, Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen (just back from Bejiing); Hollywood actor and organic enthusiast, Matthew McConaughey, and Emmy award winner musician Ben Harper.

Nike serves as an active member of the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Saver program, and has partnered with the WWF as it tries to become more environmentally sensitive and efficient with the resources it uses. The corporate giant recently completed measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from its contracted manufacturer and shipping operations, and as a next step, Nike will focus on reducing the carbon footprint of these contracted operations.

The money raised from the race has yet to be tallied, but will support Armstrong’s LiveStrong program, which aims to fight cancer through healthier lifestyles; the WWF’s conservation and habitat preservation efforts and ninemillion.org’s goals to give nine million children better access to education, sport and technology by 2010. Ninemillion.org partners with Nike and Microsoft.

For more on how the charity dollars will be used, and particularly how the money may be used to fight global warming, see the Nike + Human Race website. Runners can also see their results on this Nike web page.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media