tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-296740872024-03-15T18:10:05.935-07:00GreenDan.orgEveryday is Earth Day.D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-9188311790808394382012-09-27T12:40:00.000-07:002016-04-07T13:14:57.168-07:00UK Goes Against Science and Nature by Licensing Killing BadgersSean Michael Dodd writes:
<blockquote>In England, wild badgers (heretofore a protected species) are being hunted down and killed, en masse, on behalf of dairy farmers ("<a href="http://www.vpr.net/npr/161810760/" target="_blank">Badger Battle: British Animal Lovers Protest Cull</a>") who complain that badger urine and saliva secreted on the ground causes bovine tuberculosis when their dairy cows graze on pastures.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5rYJYlQcAEZ5goL3wSY1xSuhiUIjE_EFyklXW_zeld9gJa2AtuEDt1uZNM_QyX1LmPBh8a3UcqaacWRgjXNxCMte43drL3BG7XqY63fkF_qGuuoV7TQlKG16oYYauA2OZlEbGyg/s1600/Badger-cubs-in-the-Westco-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5rYJYlQcAEZ5goL3wSY1xSuhiUIjE_EFyklXW_zeld9gJa2AtuEDt1uZNM_QyX1LmPBh8a3UcqaacWRgjXNxCMte43drL3BG7XqY63fkF_qGuuoV7TQlKG16oYYauA2OZlEbGyg/s400/Badger-cubs-in-the-Westco-001.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>This seems like a perfect illustration of the extreme human hubris and violence against Nature which is systematically ruining the Earth in the form of agro-industrial ecocide.
<p>The dairy farmers have many options, none of which they seem to be exploring.
<p>First, they could simply accept that a certain number of cows are going to fall ill. Disease is part of nature, and over time, if they left Nature to her own devices, they would probably see their herds develop natural immunity, as the weakest succumb and the strongest survive.
<p>Second, they could replace their cows with other milk-producing livestock who are immune to badger urine. For example, goats and sheep produce milk too.
<p>Third, they could perhaps take extra measures to tend to their pastures, locating and cleaning areas where badgers are known to forage.
<p>There are many options that are far better than simply hunting down every last badger and turning the natural environment into an open-air factory farm.
<p>If sustainability means anything, it means honoring the rights of each and every species and respecting the natural ebb and flow of Nature's systems; not killing off certain species in order to promote others, and not interfering in Nature's own cycles.</blockquote>
On simply a practical level, The Guardian ("<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/badger-cull-editorial" target="_blank">Badger cull: in the interests of no one</a>") notes that the cull won't achieve its stated objective, and in fact be counterproductive:
<blockquote>The licensed killing of badgers in parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset could achieve a number of things. It could further advertise the unwelcome existence of bovine tuberculosis in British dairy herds. It could polarise opinion in the countryside and unite political opposition everywhere else. It could cost the farmers involved more than they could gain. It will almost certainly provoke active protest and put even more pressure on already hard-pressed police forces.
<p>What it will almost certainly not do is limit bovine tuberculosis, even in the target zones of Gloucestershire and Somerset.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-73415184848760184312012-03-27T21:44:00.002-07:002012-03-27T21:47:42.218-07:00Michael Pollan's Food Rulesby Marija Jacimovic<br /><br /><object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=35444471&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=35444471&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/35444471">Michael Pollan's Food Rules</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/marijajacimovic">Marija Jacimovic</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-89260170716507165162011-02-18T15:45:00.001-08:002011-04-17T11:44:13.310-07:00Gasland Trailer<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="600" height="365" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dZe1AeH0Qz8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-37796141954315152302010-01-12T16:15:00.006-08:002015-03-24T12:46:59.867-07:00Recycling Plastic BagsYou wouldn't know it from all the plastic bags in the garage of our four-unit building, but <a href="http://www.sfgov.org/site/sf311csc_index.asp?id=71355">San Francisco banned plastic bags at supermarkets and pharmacies on November 20th, 2007</a>.<br /><br />We've been good about collecting the plastic bags we've received over the last two years, but now what do we do with them?<br /><br />Some Whole Foods and Safeways used to have collection bins, but they're hard to find lately. Cole Hardware still collects them. Where else?<br /><br />
Fortunately, I just found a site that has a <a href="http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org/plasticbag/s01_consumers.html">searchable database of plastic bag collection sites</a>. <blockquote>Plastic bags are recycled into many different products. Most plastic bags are recycled into composite lumber but can also be reprocessed into small pellets, or post consumer resin, which can become feed stock for a variety of products such as new bags, pallets, containers, crates, and pipe.<br /><br />You can help by returning clean, dry, empty plastic bags to recycling drop off centers or retailers and municipalities that provide designated plastic bag recycling bins.</blockquote>Now if we would all just get better about bringing reusable canvas bags to the stores that still use plastic bags.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-35633360679159050212009-12-16T13:03:00.002-08:002009-12-16T13:05:15.170-08:00VIDEO: Why We Must Take Decisive Action On the Global Climate Crisis...or else risk an unimaginable future.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zORv8wwiadQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zORv8wwiadQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-68883013171870089522009-09-21T19:37:00.006-07:002009-09-22T15:58:16.338-07:00The New Look Treasure Island<p><a href="http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/4382"><img alt="2009_09_treasureisland.jpg" src="http://sf.curbed.com/uploads/2009_09_treasureisland.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />From <a href="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/around-town/real-estate/Treasure-Island-to-Get-Its-Own-Telegraph-Hill.html">NBC Bay Area</a>:<blockquote>The ground-up green redevelopment of Treasure Island will orient major streets to block gusts of wind, which primarily hit the artificial island from the southwest. <br /><br />The result is a <strong>grid of streets rotated exactly 68 degrees</strong>, as determined by the geniuses at CMG Landscape Architects. And thus shall pedestrians enjoy the pedestrian-oriented modern village that's being built just for them on the grounds of the former naval base. <br /><br />Recall that, true to the principles of smart growth, density's the key word— only <strong>100 acres of the island's total 400 will be future-ized</strong>. <br /><br />The rest? Open space. Plans also include turning the west-facing part of Yerba Buena into a some sort of mini-Telegraph Hill, with townhomes up and down the hill, capped by a new park. <br /><br />The 6,000 to 8,000 residences included in the master plan will be farmed out to individual architects to avoid an "architectural monoculture" with – alas – no fake Victorians.</blockquote>Sloanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15008684233769639260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-76845991637704134712009-05-10T22:23:00.004-07:002011-08-22T16:18:24.225-07:00Progess Report on Recycling<center><a href="http://schoolworkhelper.net/2011/06/landfill-sites-selection-types-techniques/" target="_blank"><img src="http://schoolworkhelper.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/landfill-landscape.jpg"></a></center>
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<br />According to the Environmental Protection Agency:<blockquote>In 2007, U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 254 million tons of MSW, which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day.
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<br />Currently, in the United States, <b>33.4 percent is recovered and recycled or composted, 12.6 percent is burned at combustion facilities, and the remaining 54 percent is disposed of in landfills</b>.
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<br /><a href="http://www.epa.gov/osw/basic-solid.htm">Recycling, including composting, diverted 85 million tons of material away from disposal in 2007, up from 15 million tons in 1980</a>, when the recycle rate was just 10% and 90% of MSW was being combusted with energy recovery or disposed of by landfilling.
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<br />Typical materials that are recycled include batteries, recycled at a rate of 99%, paper and paperboard at 55%, and yard trimmings at 64%.</blockquote>So the good news is that the recycling rate increased from 10% to 33% from 1980 to 2007, up from <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4620041.stm">28% in 2005</a>.
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<br />The bad news is that more than half of the solid waste the United States produces still ends up in landfills. And we're consuming, ie producing more waste, than ever before. Even with more of us recycling, the amount of garbage we create continues to grow: in 1980 we put 135 tons of waste into landfills; in 2007, we put 169 tons of waste into landfills.
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<br />We can do better. We must do better.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-19351793337765022009-04-06T20:23:00.004-07:002015-03-24T12:48:04.668-07:00PCs Left On Cost $2.8 Billion A YearI used to leave my computer on when I left the office at the end of the day, so that it could be backed up. Not now. How could I after reading this?<blockquote><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2009-03-25-pc-power-company-costs_N.htm">U.S. organizations squander $2.8 billion a year to power unused machines, emitting about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide — roughly the equivalent of 4 million cars</a> — according to a report to be released Wednesday.
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<br />About half of 108 million office PCs in the USA are not properly shut down at night, says the 2009 PC Energy Report, produced by 1E, an energy-management software company, and the non-profit Alliance to Save Energy. The report analyzed workplace PC power consumption in the USA, United Kingdom and Germany.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-20673714333123472442009-03-31T14:54:00.003-07:002013-02-19T20:54:01.693-08:00Recycling Styrofoam Packing Peanuts<center><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlrW1NiisIWVIh4IMxxOOvulRy_3Ms8QYcbil_M0deqsms36gOc5ZCSPBg-LpCDc92b6mPFmmQWslgstoh51Eigb0s-9gVjMQ9XMKwU41vamEn6Mz2I-HQy503t6ftDm0x9Hs7Q/s320/styrofoam-packing-peanuts.jpg" /></center>
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I've been saving styrofoam packing peanuts for a few years now. I was tired of looking at the bags of the stuff in my truck, but couldn't bring myself to throw them away, knowing how <a href="http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html" target="_blank">bad stryofoam is for the environment</a>. Since I don't send many packages that require packing, I wasn't sure what I'd do with them, until today.
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<a href="http://www.sfenvironment.com/ecofinder/" target="_blank">EcoFindeRRR</a>, a web tool created by SFEnvironment, a department of the City & County of San Francisco, allows you to search by zip code and find places to recycle everything from appliances to pesticides, and yes, styrofoam packing peanuts. I recycled mine at the Packaging Store.
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If you don't live in San Francisco, you can <a href="http://www.loosefillpackaging.com/" target="_blank">recycle your styrofoam packing peanuts at one of over 1,500 Peanut Hotline collection sites</a> in the US.D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-79421367141410587792008-12-09T12:08:00.002-08:002008-12-09T12:26:48.900-08:00Reduce and ReuseIt looks like recycling has hit a major glitch: too much supply is chasing too little demand. This story from Sunday's New York Times ("<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08recycle.html">Back at Junk Value, Recyclables Are Piling Up</a>") reinforces the importance of reducing and reusing waste at the source.<blockquote><center><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08recycle.html"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/12/08/business/08recycle.large2.jpg" width=350 border=0></a></center><br>The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices.<br /><br />On the West Coast, for example, mixed paper is selling for $20 to $25 a ton, down from $105 in October, according to Official Board Markets, a newsletter that tracks paper prices. And recyclers say tin is worth about $5 a ton, down from $327 earlier this year. There is greater domestic demand for glass, so its price has not fallen as much.<br /><br />...the economics, while they have soured, still favor recycling over landfills.<br /><br />In New York City, for instance, the city is getting paid $10 for a ton of paper, down from $50 or more before October, but it has no plans to cease recycling, said Robert Lange, the city’s recycling director. In Boston, one of the hardest-hit markets, prices are down to $5 a ton, and the city expects it will soon have to pay to unload its paper. But city officials said that would still be better than paying $80 a ton to put it in a landfill.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-66385978830857140702008-10-26T08:23:00.004-07:002011-08-22T16:24:43.278-07:00Top Cars for Fuel EfficiencyPopular Mechanics profiles the "<a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/reader_rides/4288444.html">5 Top Retro Eco-Supercars: Best Fuel Sippers of the Past 34 Years</a>." It says a lot about the auto industry and consumer behavior that most of these cars weren't made recently. The car companies can do better and car consumers should demand more from them.
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<br /><center><a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/reader_rides/4288444.html?page=5"><img src="http://media.popularmechanics.com/images/civics-470-1008.jpg" width=350 border=0></a><br><i>"Original Champ, Still Contending"</i></center>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-58275371099560534752008-10-08T15:40:00.002-07:002008-10-08T15:42:01.930-07:00Human-powered CarThis sure beats the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHl-o-2Dss">car that Fred Flintstone had</a>.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cmt5uXCAgSo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cmt5uXCAgSo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-2037156612496082252008-09-10T14:52:00.003-07:002011-08-22T16:25:10.123-07:00"Meat: Making Global Warming Worse"<center><a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html"><img src="http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2008/0809/meat_environment_0908.jpg" border=0></a></center>
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<br />Bryan Walsh writes for TIME Magazine:<blockquote><a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html">"Give up meat for one day [per week] at least initially, and decrease it from there,"</a> Rajendra Pachauri told Britain's Observer newspaper. "In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity."
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<br />By the numbers, Pachauri is absolutely right. In a 2006 report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concluded that worldwide livestock farming generates 18% of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions — by comparison, all the world's cars, trains, planes and boats account for a combined 13% of greenhouse gas emissions. Much of livestock's contribution to global warming come from deforestation, as the growing demand for meat results in trees being cut down to make space for pasture or farmland to grow animal feed.</blockquote>I'm pretty sure that I already have days when I don't eat meat, but its not a habit. Starting his week, I'm going to take Pachauri's advice and make Fridays meat-free. If this goes well, I will make other days meat-free.
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<br />What about you? Do you eat meat? If so, do you eat meat every day? I'd like to get your thoughts in the Comments section.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-69912488359210752782008-08-28T10:33:00.007-07:002008-08-28T11:06:39.763-07:00Kamikatsu, Zero-Waste Town of the Future<br><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/05/japan.recycling?picture=336197909"><img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/Guardian/world/gallery/2008/aug/04/japan.recycling/GD8201614@A-resident-divides-up-7395.jpg" border=0 width=400></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/05/japan.recycling?picture=336197930">From The Guardian (UK)</a>:<blockquote>Five years ago <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/05/japan.recycling?picture=336197930">Kamikatsu</a>, in south-western Japan, embarked on an ambitious environmental campaign that, if successful, could become a model for the rest of the country, and beyond. By 2020, the village’s 2,000 residents aim to eliminate the use of landfills and incinerators, and instead recycle or reuse every single item of household waste. The Guardian recently spent a day following the unlikely eco-warriors of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/05/japan.recycling?picture=336197930">Japan’s zero-waste village</a>.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-66902961514617758922008-08-21T18:29:00.009-07:002008-08-21T19:03:02.382-07:00A $100 Cup of CoffeeThis morning I stopped by my favorite coffee and donut shop in the Mission, owned by a friendly Vietnamese couple in their 50s. Or maybe they are Thai or Burmese, I can't be sure. Anyway, their coffee isn't particularly good, but the price is right, parking is usually easy to find, and they throw in a few free donut holes with every donut.<br /><br /><a href="http://greenstarbucks.wordpress.com/category/cups/"><img src="http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/styrafoam.gif" align=right width=150 border=0></a>This morning I noticed that they had replaced their styrofoam coffee cups with paper ones. I made a point of mentioning to the woman, "Hey, great new cups!"<br /><br />She then told me that the <a href="http://www.sfgov.org/site/cao_page.asp?id=62865">City of San Francisco fined them $100 for using styrofoam</a> and that if they were caught again, the fine would be $500. <br /><br />The ban on styrofoam has been in effect for over a year now, so she couldn't plead ignorance. "That's too bad," I said. "But paper cups are better than styrofoam."<br /><br />"Very expensive," she said. Ok, maybe she decided that she wasn't likely to get caught, and that the savings for styrofoam were worth the risk.<br /><br />"Well, why not raise your coffee price by $.05 to cover your costs?" I asked.<br /><br />She laughed and then pulled out a big bag of styrofoam cups from underneath the counter. "One thousand of these cups cost $15. One thousand of those paper cups cost $50. Very expensive. Next time the fine will be $500."<br /><br />I tried to reassure her that paper was better than styrofoam, and suggested that she might even want to put her business name on them. <br /><br />"Yeah, [business name here]" she laughed. Right, I thought. If spending an extra three and a half cents per cup was 'very expensive,' no way was she ever going to spend money on custom printed cups.<br /><br />Now I suspect that green-bashers might point to a story like mine and say, "This just proves that San Francisco isn't a business-friendly town. They put environmentalism over small business owners." Except they would probably be less civil in their language.<br /><br />My response would be, how much does a styrofoam cup really cost? Sure, its cheaper than paper, but what are the externalities of styrofoam production, styrofoam consumption and <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/what_can_we_do.php">styrofoam disposal</a>? I bet its more than $.035 per cup.<br /><br />The problem with <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/MN47122A98.DTL">pro-business, anti-environmentalist types</a> is that they fail to consider, let alone measure, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality">externalities</a>. If we want to measure the true cost of something like a coffee cup, how can we ignore them?D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-56096053947215619782008-07-30T19:41:00.003-07:002008-07-30T20:11:15.978-07:00Recycle Old CDs and DVDsI've been collecting old damaged CDs and CD-R coasters for years now, thinking that I might one day be inspired and motivated to build <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=geodesic+dome&m=text">something</a> with them.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.global-b2b-network.com/direct/dbimage/50316478/Oem_Cd_r_Discs.jpg" border=0><br /><br />Now I've learned that CDs and DVDs can be recycled, which is a good thing since they're made of chemicals and metals that have no business being in a landfill, e.g. "<a href="http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/cds-dvds-jewel-cases-recycling-460708">aluminum, gold, silver and nickel with petroleum-derived plastics, lacquers and dyes</a>."<br /><br />To learn how to recycle your CDs and DVDs, visit <a href="http://earth911.org/blog/2008/06/23/taking-out-the-musical-trash/">Earth 911</a>. You might also consider using the <a href="http://greendisk.com/gdsite/services.aspx">GreenDisk Technotrash Can service</a>. The company will handle up to 20 pounds for about $7.<br /><br />I haven't given up on my CD project just yet, but its good to know that I'll have something to do with my box of CD-R coasters in case I do.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-44041946658398630282008-07-29T20:33:00.002-07:002008-08-04T21:13:56.265-07:00Driving and EatingOver 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions -- 43 percent to be exact -- come from two things that most Americans do on a daily basis: driving (25%) and eating meat (18%).<br /><br />Think about this the next time you head towards the drive-thru: if "<a href="http://www.usaweekend.com/08_issues/080720/080720think-green-laundry.html">we all skipped meat one day a week, it would be like taking 8 million cars off the road</a>."<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-29428871789429395852008-07-23T10:47:00.002-07:002008-07-23T10:51:39.894-07:00Al Gore Calls for End to Carbon-Based Fuels in 10 Years<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/F9cllAiXImg&rel=0&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/F9cllAiXImg&rel=0&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />"<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92638501&ft=1&f=100" TARGET="_blank">We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.</a>"<br /><br />Learn more at <a href="http://www.wecansolveit.org/" TARGET="_blank">We Can Solve It</a>.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-63878342840651432072008-05-31T15:24:00.008-07:002013-02-11T16:35:20.721-08:00Recycling Wine Corks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiByL_GpAOdSs_frGmL3k9mKDsMjCC0cXR44r-96U7jny6PHt0LqlWAOaUf0MDVzqwxs806EuSSMzPlsindvklTc_4xGavs_Bfp8605gYutRNXMsGZJeMxKVDIkwIwzMiEWkYD6Og/s1600/Wine-Corks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiByL_GpAOdSs_frGmL3k9mKDsMjCC0cXR44r-96U7jny6PHt0LqlWAOaUf0MDVzqwxs806EuSSMzPlsindvklTc_4xGavs_Bfp8605gYutRNXMsGZJeMxKVDIkwIwzMiEWkYD6Og/s400/Wine-Corks.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
I remember being told a few years ago that there was a worldwide shortage of cork, which is "carved from the bark of a type of oak tree found mostly in Portugal and the Mediterranean." Whether there is actually a shortage or not doesn't concern me so much as the fact that it seems unconscionable to throw away a good piece of cork after opening a bottle of wine or champagne. For a time I saved corks, thinking that I might someday find someone who had a use for them, or think of one myself.<br />
<br />
Now I can <a href="http://www.greendan.org/2008/05/recycling-wine-corks.html">recycle my wine corks</a>.<br />
<br />
Roger Archey in Larkspur, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, "is heading a new effort to recycle wine corks - and he's already collected over 300,000 of them."<br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/30/BU6510V2K9.DTL" target="_blank">Archey is running ReCork America</a>, a recycling program created by Amorim, a Portuguese company that manufactures a quarter of the world's 13 billion wine corks. With help from volunteers, including some local schools, he's gotten recycling commitments from a host of local restaurants and wineries, and set up several cork drop-off sites including the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant.</blockquote>
Currently <a href="http://www.recorkamerica.com/recork_locations.html" target="_blank">ReCork America has six drop-off cork collection locations: three in San Francisco, two in Napa and one in Turner, Oregon</a>.<br />
<br />
While <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Paradox" target="_blank">American don't drink nearly as much wine per capita as do the French or Germans</a>, we still drink about 15 bottles per capita per year, or hundreds of millions of bottles as a nation. And some analysts predict that "<a href="http://www.researchrecap.com/index.php/2007/12/26/us-wine-consumption-to-challenge-frances/" target="_blank">the US could overtake France as the leading per capita" wine consumer</a>. That means a rising tide of cork flowing into our landfills, unless programs like ReCork America can put a cork in it.<br />
<br />
UPDATE (2/11/13): In April 2010, <a href="http://earth911.com/news/2010/04/07/all-whole-foods-stores-to-recycle-wine-corks/" target="_blank">Whole Foods Market implemented a company-wide wine cork recycling program throughout its 292 store locations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom</a>.<br />
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If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can also recycle your wine corks at participating locations of the <a href="http://community.sportsbasement.com/stores/" target="_blank">Sports Basement</a>.D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-88108795631774146762008-04-16T18:19:00.005-07:002008-04-16T18:36:11.544-07:00Solar OptimismThe development of alternative energy has been exceedingly slow. Although we've known for decades that energy from fossil fuels, coal and nuclear were non-sustainable and carried huge costs in the forms of waste, disposal and potential risks, it seems that progress in developing affordable and efficient energy, especially solar, has been slow in coming.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.oxypower.com/residential/energyinstalls.html"><img src="http://www.oxypower.com/residential/images/en_24th.jpg" align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 border=0></a>Now there are reasons to be more optimistic.<br /><br />Nanosolar, based in San Jose, "claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/technology/18solar.html">solar energy becomes less expensive than coal."</a><br /><br />Other companies, like Ausra in Palo Alto, are rethinking the way that solar energy is captured:<blockquote>The difficulty is that electricity is hard to store. Batteries are not up to efficiently storing energy on a large scale. A different approach being tried by the solar power industry could eliminate the problem.<br /><br />The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. For example, a coffee thermos and a laptop computer’s battery store about the same amount of energy, said John S. O’Donnell, executive vice president of a company in the solar thermal business, Ausra. The thermos costs about $5 and the laptop battery $150, he said, and “that’s why <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/earth/15sola.html">solar thermal is going to be the dominant form</a>.”</blockquote>All of this news dovetails nicely with a recent piece by Ray Kurzweil in the Washington Post, "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103326.html">Making the World A Billion Times Better</a>":<blockquote>Take energy. Today, 70 percent of it comes from fossil fuels, a 19th-century technology. But if we could capture just one ten-thousandth of the sunlight that falls on Earth, we could meet 100 percent of the world's energy needs using this renewable and environmentally friendly source. We can't do that now because solar panels rely on old technology, making them expensive, inefficient, heavy and hard to install. But a new generation of panels based on nanotechnology (which manipulates matter at the level of molecules) is starting to overcome these obstacles. The tipping point at which energy from solar panels will actually be less expensive than fossil fuels is only a few years away. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103326.html">The power we are generating from solar is doubling every two years; at that rate, it will be able to meet all our energy needs within 20 years</a>.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-65773016993379462902008-01-31T14:48:00.000-08:002008-01-31T14:51:29.999-08:00"The Threat of Population Growth Pales Beside the Greed of the Rich"<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/75474/">George Monbiot writes</a>:<blockquote>In 2005, the UN estimated that the world's population will more or less stabilize in 2200 at 10 billion. But a paper published in Nature last week suggests that there is an 88 percent chance that global population growth will end during this century.<br /><br />In other words, if we accept the UN's projection, the global population will grow by roughly 50 percent and then stop. This means it will become 50 percent harder to stop runaway climate change, 50 percent harder to feed the world, 50 percent harder to prevent the overuse of resources. <br /><br />Even here, however, population growth is not the most immediate issue: another sector is expanding much faster. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization expects that global meat production will double by 2050 - growing, in other words, at two and a half times the rate of human numbers. The supply of meat has already trebled since 1980: farm animals now take up 70 percent of all agricultural land and eat one third of the world's grain. In the rich nations we consume three times as much meat and four times as much milk per capita as the people of the poor world. While human population growth is one of the factors that could contribute to a global food deficit, it is not the most urgent.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-11543892401811454472008-01-25T17:46:00.001-08:002008-07-30T20:30:51.301-07:00"Can Burt’s Bees Turn Clorox Green?"From the New York Times:<blockquote><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/business/06bees.html">In the summer of 1984, Burt Shavitz, a beekeeper in Maine, picked up Roxanne Quimby</a>, a 33-year-old single mother down on her luck, as she hitchhiked to the post office in Dexter, Me. More than a dozen years Ms. Quimby’s senior, the guy locals called “the bee-man” sold honey in pickle jars from the back of his pickup truck. To Ms. Quimby, he seemed to be living an idyllic life in the wilderness (including making his home inside a small turkey coop).<br /><br />She offered to help Mr. Shavitz tend to his beehives. The two became lovers and eventually birthed Burt’s Bees, a niche company famous for beeswax lip balm, lotions, soaps and shampoos, as well as for its homespun packaging and feel-good, eco-friendly marketing. The bearded man whose image is used to peddle the products is modeled after Mr. Shavitz.<br /><br />Today, the couple’s quirky enterprise is owned by the Clorox Company, a consumer products giant best known for making bleach, which bought it for $913 million in November. Clorox plans to turn Burt’s Bees into a mainstream American brand sold in big-box stores like Wal-Mart. Along the way, <b>Clorox executives say, they plan to learn from unusual business practices at Burt’s Bees — many centered on environmental sustainability. Clorox, the company promises, is going green.</b></blockquote>In related news, Clorox recently launched a line of cleaners called Green Works, which are hypoallergenic and biodegradable, made with 99 percent plant-based ingredients such as coconut and lemon oil. The line has been endorsed by the Sierra Club.<br /><br />You'll find a more detailed discussion of <a href="http://notquitecrunchyparent.blogspot.com/2008/01/clorox-goes-green-with-green-works-is.html">Clorox going green at The Not Quite Crunchy Parent</a>.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-6952151264766441742008-01-10T15:51:00.000-08:002008-01-10T16:30:36.086-08:00China To Ban Free Plastic BagsGood news today from <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/10/BUMSUC52A.DTL">China, which has announced it will ban free plastic shopping bags</a> on June 1, just in time for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. China's move is meant to cut "white pollution," reduce waste and conserve resources.<blockquote> Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said China's solid waste is at "a crisis level."<br /><br />"Their landfills are reaching capacity and will be full in 13 years," she said, adding that a ban like this could be a significant way to educate the public about China's environmental issues.<br /><br /><b>In the United States, which has less than one-quarter of China's 1.3 billion people, the Sierra Club's Sierra magazine estimates that almost 100 billion plastic bags are thrown out each year.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/poptech2007-chris-jordan.php"><img src="http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007/10/24/poptech-chris-jordan-plastic-bags.jpg" width=300 alt="Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds."></a><br><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.</i></span><br /><br />In New York on Wednesday, the City Council was set to vote on a measure that would require large stores to recycle plastic bags.<br /><br />China's move won praise from environmental organizations including Greenpeace, which issued a statement welcoming the ban.<br /><br />"The State Council's announcement to ban free plastic bags is a perfect case to combine two of the major forces in environment protection: public participation and government policy guidance," Greenpeace said.<br /><br />Christopher Flavin, president of Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organization in Washington, said: "China is ahead of the U.S. with this policy.<br /><br />Internationally, legislation to discourage plastic bag use has been passed in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan, where authorities either tax shoppers who use them or impose fees on companies that distribute them. Bangladesh already bans them, as do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.<br /><br />Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the use of petroleum-based plastic bags in large grocery stores. In France, supermarket chains have begun shying away from giving away plastic bags and German stores must pay a recycling fee if they wish to offer them. Ireland's surcharge on bags imposed in 2003 has been credited with sharply reducing demand.</blockquote>If the United States and other countries with Pacific coastlines were to adopt similar bans, perhaps we might be able to curb the growth of those <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/pollution/trash-vortex">Pacific Trash Vortices</a>, one of which is now the size of Texas.<br>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-46776999872271901912008-01-07T11:17:00.001-08:002008-01-07T12:38:28.278-08:00Greening or Greenwashing at Wal-Mart?I've been a member of the Sierra Club for more than 10 years now and I have friends who work for <a href="http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=542416">Wal-Mart here in the Bay Area</a>, so it was with more than just a passing interest that I read the story in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle Magazine: "<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/06/CM9TTS800.DTL">Werbach at Wal-Mart? Ex-Sierra Club head Adam Werbach is busy "greening" Wal-Mart</a>. Some former friends and colleagues say it's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but is it possible he's onto something?"<br /><br />I think its great that Wal-Mart is trying to reduce its carbon footprint, I'm pretty sure that their main motivation is to cut costs, ie increase profits. In fact, that's how <a href="http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=05-P13-00043&segmentID=1">Andy Ruben, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Sustainability at Wal-Mart, summed up Wal-Mart's environmental policy</a> in an interview back in October 2005:<blockquote><b>We found that environment, looking at these things, it's good for business</b>. Looking at things in a new way can help us in terms of reducing energy where we pay for the pollution that goes on in some way, and our customers do. Reducing waste, then we pay twice for.<br /><br />So, let me give you an example. One brand of toys we sell, a private brand, Kid Connection. Just by reducing the packaging size, we're able to save $2.4 million in that one product line annually in transportation. It equates to about 3,100 trees that are never harvested and about a thousand barrels oil. Some people are going to be motivated purely by the benefits, some people will be motivated by the cost savings. And I think that's okay. I think what's important is that, you know, we take advantage of the opportunities of the company we have.</blockquote>While I'm sure Werbach believes that he's doing good by helping the world's largest corporation cut its energy use and materials consumption, I can't believe he doesn't see why they chose <i>him</i>. Werbach is a former President of the Sierra Club and had been a vocal critic of Wal-Mart. Who better to co-opt and get on the Wal-Mart payroll? <br /><br />Ruben claims he wasn't familiar with Werbach's criticism before he hired Werbach -- which I find patently ridiculous.<blockquote>I asked Ruben if he'd been aware of all the derogatory things Werbach had said and written about Wal-Mart. "No, I really wasn't, I knew very little about that background," he said. "But, truthfully, it didn't matter. All I care about is getting the right people who can help us now. I had read his 'Environmentalism is Dead' speech on a plane from Bentonville to Chicago, and then Paul Hawken's book, 'The Ecology of Commerce,' from Chicago to London, and I thought, I've got so much education, and I have no idea of these things, what am I not seeing? And at about the same time Wal-Mart was having a similar wake-up. We realized that the most important business strategy we could be engaged in right now is going for full-time sustainability."</blockquote>First off, it sounds like Mr Ruben is doing a lot of flying. Maybe he could help advance the cause of sustainability by using web and phone conferencing a bit more? And if he has "so much education," why should I believe he didn't thoroughly vet Werbach before hiring him?<br /><br />Sorry, Mr Ruben, I think you're lying. And Adam, I'm sorry to see you become a shill. I think your successor at Sierra Clubs hits the target with his remarks about you and Wal-Mart:<blockquote>"Adam says that Wal-Mart is dedicated to making themselves sustainable, but he means they are in his little realm," says Carl Pope, president of the Sierra Club. "<b>The real issue is the supply chain and the business model. How does a powerful business organization like that end up with shelves full of leaded toys from China?</b> They announced a while ago that they were greening their supply chain, but the jury is in, they haven't done it."<br /><br />So, does this make Werbach a hypocrite? "No," said Pope. "He's just putting his energies into an insignificant part of the problem. <b>What good is it to change the consciousness of the associates if they're selling poisonous toys?</b> Look, I give them points for their energy-saving efforts; it's good business sense to have efficiency, and it's admirable to reduce waste. But the supply chain is the most important issue, the low-price business model. I consider Adam a friend, but what he's doing is frivolous; it's rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29674087.post-52901846573126572792007-11-26T17:41:00.000-08:002008-01-07T11:16:56.427-08:00Tide Turning in Texas?I grew up in Texas and still love the state, so I'm encouraged by this news on NPR's <i>All Things Considered</i>:<blockquote><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16630774">Texas is the country's largest emitter of global warming gases</a>. But the state's political leaders say climate change isn't a problem and have blocked even minor efforts to address the issue. That has prompted the mayors of some of the state's biggest cities — including influential Republicans — to take the issue into their own hands.</blockquote>D Stricklandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03701313444665575349noreply@blogger.com0