By Harriet Blake

Fact: America has an abundance of food.
Question: So why does anyone go hungry in this country?

A potato gleaning in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Armed with this simple thought, the Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) took up the cause of feeding the hungry in 1979 with the idea of gleaning fields for salvageable produce.

“We do this in two says,” says Carol Breitinger, communications director. “We use volunteers in the field for hands-on gleaning, or we send out trucks to pick up surplus crops that farmers can’t use and would just end up in the landfill.”

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

In an effort to bring attention to the nation’s outdated toxic chemical laws, Seventh Generation, the makers of many environmentally safe home products, has partnered with Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families in the Million Baby Crawl. This campaign is asking everyone, moms or not, to urge Congress for stronger chemical regulations.

Erin Brockovich

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By Sommer Saadi and Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

If anyone doubted that there’s a global grassroots movement to fight climate change, they may reconsider after viewing the photos that streamed in this weekend from the International Day of Climate Action.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

The US Department of Energy’s 2009 Solar Decathlon showcased the best in solar-powered home design as conceived by colleges students. Over 20 teams from across North America and Europe competed in this year’s competition.

1st Place Solar Home

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

This Saturday is International Day of Climate Action — a chance for everyone to take a stand on behalf of the planet and possibly participate in one of 4,300 actions that are planned in 171 countries.

350.org began the International Day of Climate Action campaign not only to wake up politicians, but wake up the world. The group wants everyone to know about and understand the number 350, which signifies the level many scientists have identified as the safe utmost limit for CO2 in the atmosphere, in parts per million.

Here are a few unique events around the US:

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Green Right Now Reports

Health reform has gripped your attention and dominated your computer and TV screens for weeks now.

In case you’ve got little time to spare to study up on climate legislation coming down the pike soon after this huge debate, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change has boiled it down to a summary report.

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By Harriet Blake
As the Nobel Prize Committee noted in awarding President Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize last week, the world is in a better place than it was a year ago.
The world also is in a better place thanks to six young people who are being honored on Tuesday for their heroic environmental efforts. [...]

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Halloween is still a few weeks out, but for farm animal advocates, it is time to talk turkey.

Ginnifer Goodwin at the Farm Sanctuary (Photo: Ryan Pfluger)

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By Harriet Blake

For a fledgling environmental group, Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light has hit the ground running.

The two-week-old organization called on people of faith this week to phone their Arkansas congressmen – Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln and Sen. Mark Pryor – to urge them to “protect Creation and public health by voting for the Clean Jobs and American Power Act.”

The act, which reached the Senate floor Wednesday, was introduced by U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The legislation aims to help develop clean energy jobs, reduce pollution and protect U.S. security by improving national energy production and fighting global climate change.

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(Photo: PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. | PR Newswire)

From Green Right Now Reports

Call it a sign of the times. The PNC Financial Services Group has unveiled the largest green wall in North America as a unique way to make its Pittsburgh headquarters building more energy-efficient.

The 2,380-square foot, soil-based wall is similar in size to a doubles tennis court and features a variety of regional plants grown into living art on the south-facing wall of One PNC Plaza at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh.

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Green Right Now Reports

Looking to improve the cost efficiency and aesthetics of solar power, a New Jersey company, EarthSure, has decided that solar panels should be buried in the earth.

No they’re not trying to win the “renewal energy miscalculation” award, they have developed a way to funnel solar light to the buried panels, which would gather solar power from the transported light (like solar tubes). The new operation would be unseen, and would not require that rooftops be converted into glassy conversation pieces.

Homeowner’s associations listen up:

“No unsightly above-ground solar panels need to be used anymore. This is an enhancement not only in economics and in the green movement, but a great technological improvement in the area of design and construction as well,” the company reports in a news release.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Considering how the desert challenges our green aspirations, it’s surprising there’s not already a reality show: Extreme Green — Finding eco-friendly solutions where the sun always shines.

OK, so the title could use some work. The facts remain – the desert is great for producing heat and making solar power. But when it comes to human habitation, it’s an air conditioning-dependent, rugged place.

They understand that in Palm Desert, a small city in Southern California’s desert Coachella Valley. Palm Desert, in fact, would make a good candidate for the Extreme Green pilot show.

“Palm Desert has a long history of interest in the environment both in energy conservation and saving water and respect for the environment,” said Lauri Aylaian, director of community development for the resort city of 50,000.

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