Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
By Barbara Kessler
While some global warming activists despaired over Congress’ failure to launch the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act last week, the We Campaign (founded by Al Gore and comrades to promote action against global warming) forged ahead.
Tags: Activists & Authors · Energy & Water · Headlines
By Barbara Kessler
Wonder how the gray wolves are faring since they were “delisted” from protection under the Endangered Species Act? One of the three Rocky Mountain states with a significant gray wolf population, Idaho, is having meetings to determine the rules for the hunting of the wolves this fall.
[Read more →]Tags: Activists & Authors · Briefs · Wildlife
By Michele Chan Santos
On a quiet street in the tree-covered city of Rollingwood, a suburb of Austin, Texas, sits a house designed to epitomize everything technology and modern design can do to make a home environmentally friendly and safe for families with children.
Tags: Activists & Authors · Clean & Maintain · Energy & Water · Green Them · Home Building · Model Projects
By Barbara Kessler
Green washers are taking consumers and taxpayers for a joy ride of deception that will have real costs, both environmentally and economically, if the companies aren’t exposed. So says Greenpeace, the venerable environmental watchdog group, which used Earth Day to unveil its new website against green washing, stopgreenwash.org. The website [...]
[Read more →]Tags: Activists & Authors · Briefs · Greener Businesses
Earth Day reverberated around the world on Sunday, with festivals from Tokyo to Barcelona to San Francisco. In the United States, the key urban festivals attracted crowds of thousands as entertainers blasted music in New York City’s Central Park, the Mall in Washington D.C. and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
But while the day was [...]
Tags: Activists & Authors · Celebrities & Politicians · Cities & States · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers · Model Projects
By John DeFore
Standing out in the current wave of books about the environment — dire jeremiads, thoughtful analyses, and green-leaning coffee-table books — is a compact but weighty tome that is largely uninterested in conveying to readers any kind of “the time is now!” urgency. Rather, American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau released April [...]
Tags: Activists & Authors · Books & Movies · Briefs · Model People
By Harriet Blake
You’ve just moved to town and somehow you still have too much stuff. The Salvation Army is about 20 minutes down the road. But perhaps there is someone closer who could use that antique desk or the comfy but well-worn recliner? And with the price of gas and all those carbon emissions, that [...]
Tags: Activists & Authors · Model Projects · Recycle & Reuse
By John DeFore
Fires that broke out Monday in Maltby, Washington, outside of Seattle, consumed three new luxury homes and damaged a fourth (firefighters were able to save the fifth). The culprits, if preliminary evidence is to be believed, consider themselves environmentalists.
Tags: Activists & Authors · Briefs · Headlines
By Shermakaye Bass
Austin, Texas, is known for its enthusiastic (some would say vehement) greenness, and these days, at least one arts organization is taking a strong eco-stance.
Photo: The Arthouce at the Jones Center
The Arthouse at the Jones Center is hosting “Fritz Haeg: Attack on the Front Lawn,” a multi-prong installation by the roving American [...]
Tags: Activists & Authors · Cities & States · Food · Model Projects · Trees & Plants
By Bill Marvel
“The heavens show forth the glory of God,” the Psalmist declared, “and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.”
Ah, no longer. Unless you live in a remote desert or on a mountaintop, these days the heavens mostly show forth the operations of the local electric utility. And the firmament — when you can see [...]
Tags: Activists & Authors · Energy & Water · Home Improvements · Model Projects
By Shermakaye Bass
If you’ve heard the Lazy Environmentalist on Sirius Radio or have read the LE website or book, or have shopped at the Vivavi green-design showroom in Brooklyn, then you’ve more or less met Josh Dorfman, the man behind the movement.
He’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. And now it seems the pithy, practical naturalist [...]
By Tom Kessler
Live Earth – the Concerts for a Climate in Crisis arrives in stores today as a 2 DVD/1 CD highlights package of last July’s historic global event that brought together entertainers for concerts in eight international cities. It captures many inspirational performances, particularly those from Linkin Park (pictured), Foo Fighters, Melissa [...]
Tags: Activists & Authors · Celebrities & Politicians · GET INSPIRED · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers · Model People · Model Projects · SHOP GREEN
By John DeFore
Efforts by the World Bank to ease global poverty draw critiques from many quarters, sometimes including the people of those nations the group seeks to help. The latest round of criticism, though, comes from within the bank itself.
A lengthy new report written by the Independent Evaluation Group (”an independent, three-part unit within the World Bank Group,” as the report puts it) studied the bank’s environmental efforts from 1990 [Read more →]
By John DeFore
In another development sure to result in gray hair, if not legal action, for those in the plastics industry, the city of Los Angeles voted this week to ban plastic bags by July of 2010.
The city’s action isn’t a law, though: It will only become one if the state of California fails to adopt a 25-cent fee for plastic bag use that has been proposed but was met with resistence earlier this year. As a result, plastic-bag advocates tell the Los Angeles Times that this week’s vote won’t inspire [Read more →]
By John DeFore
Over the last few years, moviegoers may have come to expect that any documentary pairing scientists and ice caps will be a scare-fest or a sermon — a big-screen effort to hammer home the urgent need to take action countering climate change.
Not so with Encounters at the End of the World, a film that’s drawing glowing reviews as it expands into theaters across the country. Yes, the movie has things to say about the environment — in at least one instance, it even suggests that humankind’s days here are numbered — but it is far from strident, superficially issue-driven, or even political. [Read more →]
