By John DeFore
Green Right Now

Somewhere in between the sleep-away camps, beach excursions and baseball games of summer, kids and parents alike generally see the appeal of the sand-free floors and refrigerated air of a good museum. Institutions across the country know this is a great time to squeeze some education into kid-friendly, entertaining exhibitions; here’s a list of some of the best nature-oriented attractions for vacationers who’ve felt a bit too much heat this month.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

When you fish for seafood at your local grocery, it can be difficult to tell whether you are supporting sustainable fishing practices.

Was the snapper you selected caught using legal, sustainable fishing practices? Should you even be buying it? Is the Chilean Sea Bass you just purchased on the “Red List” of jeopardized marine species? Does the grocery you’re patronizing buy seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council?

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By Christopher Peake
Green Right Now

Aquariums are wonderful places to spend a summer day: if the weather is cool you can stay outdoors, if it’s hot there are indoor exhibits. Menacing sharks, beautifully-colored fish, gliding sea turtles, manta rays, sea snakes, sea horses, penguins and birds and river otters and performing orcas and porpoises all represent what is most beautiful and exciting about the waters of Planet Earth.

But they also represent a world that is disappearing quicker than we thought possible, and this is where aquariums hold a key to the future of water creatures.

Aquariums have realized that they must conduct research and they must also show us what is alive, what is dying and what we can do to balance it all. And so they tie their exhibits and their activities back to conservation, and tell us how we can help.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
You’ve planted the organic garden, the compost is cooking and the native plants that cover your lawn look cool and save water. What’s next?
Chickens, of course.
The “urban chicken” trend has been endlessly chronicled in recent months, touting tales of city folks building backyard coops, buying hens and getting fresh eggs daily. [...]

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
Walgreens, the largest drugstore chain in the nation, is going green in Southern California. The retail chain celebrated the grand opening on Wednesday of a new store in Mira Mesa outside of San Diego, that is expected to be the first drugstore in the US to meet Leadership in Energy and [...]

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We’ve been told that the switch to green energy will cost us a lot or a little, depending on who’s putting out the information.

Now, the Natural Resources Defense Council is telling us that switching to clean energy, as supported in the pending American Clean Energy and Security Act in Congress, would save us money on our electricity bills — at least by 2020.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It sounds like an oxymoron - a car “wash” that uses no water.

But some of the best green ideas turn traditional practices upside down. Bayes High Performance Waterless Wash/Detailer reinvents the car wash by subtracting the water. It’s not a “wash” in the conventional sense and the only water used is that contained with the biodegradable cleaner itself.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Monarch butterflies can be found in every continental state in America. Seven states have even named the monarch their “state insect,” according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

That’s good news for those who would like to create a backyard space to attract monarchs as they make their way north or south for their long annual migrations.

The first step is a to do a little research to learn what monarchs and other butterflies are fluttering around your community. Books can provide information, but lepidopterists (people who collect and study butterflies and moths) or butterfly organizations in your area also will have details.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

This Global Change Research report released this week is a compendium of the expected fallout from climate change in the U.S.

It’s not something you’ll want to curl up with in place of your bedtime novel; it won’t make you hazy, happy and sleepy (picture yourself bolt upright, watching crime news to calm down). Still, for those of us deliberately trying to keep our heads above the sand (or our real estate above the tide) it’s a must read.

I recommend skipping a lot of the governmentish intros and conclusions. Cut to the heartland synopses; these assessments of each region are a great reality check. This section of the report is stout and specific and will wrest away any fuzzy notion you have that climate change will just make things a tad warmer and we’ll all wear fewer sweaters.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The movie FOOD, INC. opened this past weekend in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

It’s not the first film to tackle the problems of our industrial food complex. Indies like Chris Taylor’s Food Fight (2008) and King Corn (2007) a handful of few bigger releases, like Fast Food Nation (2006) have been chipping away at this story for a few years now.

But FOOD INC. arrives at a time when the American public seems primed for the message in ways it wasn’t before: We better recognize today that our mass-produced food is threatening our vitality and tearing up the arable land we need; that food that’s been processed beyond recognition has also been stripped of nutrients; that packaging can’t substitute for flavor and that local food often tastes better it has a lower environmental cost (OK, not everyone gets that last point, yet).

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It might not have been possible a few years ago, but a new paradigm is emerging in the cleaning aisles of our groceries and markets.

Once the top products were those that promised glistening surfaces cleaned with the strongest disinfectants and most potent, marketable-sounding concoctions of “brighteners” and “germ zappers” — devil and the environment be damned.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Given the enormity of climate change, it’s not always easy to calculate how we individuals can make a contribution that matters. In honor of World Oceans Day (June 8), the Nature Conservancy has assembled a list of a few concrete ways we can help heal, or at least minimize the damage to, our marine world.

The list is a testament to our connectedness here on planet Earth — did you realize that the nitrogen fertilizer you dump on the yard could be part of the pollution overpowering streams and rivers; winding up in the ocean where it creates algal “blooms” that starve marine life of oxygen? Ah, right. That’s not what you were thinking of when you cracked open the bag of weed-and-feed. Heavy stuff, yes, but the sort of thing we humans need to think on. That lovely green turf comes with an environmental price tag — unless and until you find other ways to feed the lawn, like using lower nitrogen-content organic food.

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