Green Daily

Over the last few months, I've uncovered a disturbing trend in the green media world. No, it's not a sci-fi Soylent Green type conspiracy where the dead are used to feed our energy addiction. It's that we're all obsessed (myself included) with death -- see here, here, here, and here. And why is that? Maybe because we hope to find a way to become helpful to the fight against climate change, even after we've taken a dirt nap. Just like those residing in this Spanish cemetery.

After conducting an exhaustive search, the town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet couldn't find a suitable piece of ground to carry out their renewable energy plans, so they decided to build a giant solar array over the town's 4 square kilometer cemetery. At first, there was indignation, but after an awareness campaign, the complaints have for the most part subsided. Instead, many even feel proud that the cemetery is now part of the town energy network.

With the economy in shambles and lay-offs all over the place, I keep asking myself, how can I power my yacht in an eco-friendly way.

Fortunately, Solar Sailor, an Australian-based company, has a solution. By using the sun and wind, two things boats have a lot of access to, this technology can help make renewable energy a major power source for your luxury boat.

One of the main hurdles, according to Dr. Robert Dane, the sailor who came up with the concept, was the dangerous combination of strong winds and solar panels. The solution? Make wind sails out of solar collectors, naturally. Ideally, the vessel would be powered by a combination of wind and solar energy, plus batteries and old fashion fuel.

While my student loan payments precludes me for buying a yacht (for now!), it's nice to see the super rich getting on-board with innovative energy ideas.

While the Solar Sailor technology could reduce emissions and costs for yachts, the company has also reported interest from other types of marine vessels, including crewless drones for coast guards (that operate for two years at a time!) and ferry operators in Asia.

In the midst of all the Christmas shopping, Thanksgiving cooking and general holiday craziness going on, the National Day of Listening on Friday is a great tradition to institute that doesn't involve a lot of stuff.

StoryCorps, a group dedicated to preserving oral history, is encouraging everyone to take an hour on Friday, November 28, to listen to someone tell their story. It could be an older relative, a neighbor or even your kid.

You can record the stories if you want, or just take the time to listen. What a great thing to do - instead of participating in the Black Friday madness and shopping frenzy, stay home and listen to someone.

Can you imagine the joy an older relative might feel if you asked them to tell you their story? And what a great way for kids to learn listening skills and learn more about life. Make Friday a listening day, instead of a shopping day. There is nothing to sort and recycle, no research to find out if it is safe and eco-friendly and no money to spend. Sounds like a perfect new holiday tradition to me.

[Via Lifehacker]

Yesterday, daredevil Eric Scott became the first man to cross Colorado's 1,024ft deep Royal Gorge using nothing but a jet pack -- a major breakthrough for rocket pack enthusiasts worldwide. He didn't even wear a backup parachute. And while I have to admit that Eric crossing the gorge by jet pack is without a doubt the most awesome thing that I've seen all week, for the sake of the environment, I'm hoping that personal jet pack travel doesn't catch on.

If you happen to drink beer at your house and occasionally enjoy a little lime wedge in the beer bottle, what can you do when it's time to recycle?

Try and dig the lime out with your fingers or various utensils, break the bottle, throw it into the recycling wedge and all? If this is a burning question in your mind, the ask Umbra feature on Grist has an interesting (and entertaining) video to watch.

The video has tips on twisting the lime just right so it goes into (and comes out of) the bottle more easily and important thoughts on the recycling process. Basically, glass is heated to such a high temperature that the lime doesn't stand a chance. Of course, the smell in the recycling bin might not be so pretty after a few days.

Shoe and bag designer Hetty Rose makes amazing shoes and bags to order. She makes each item by hand and uses vintage fabrics. She's particularly well known for her creations using the striking patterns from vintage kimonos.

A custom pair of shoes or handbag can be quite expensive, but with the intent of encouraging sustainable fashion, Hetty is expanding her offering with a special discount to people who want to convert an item from their own wardrobes into something new and special.

Do you have a well-loved, and perhaps a bit worn, article of clothing that you want to find a way to keep? Hetty will take your item and remake it into a unique -- and unusually affordable -- designer item.

Talk about the ultimate gift for a recycling fashionista who dreams of having a one of a kind piece for her wardrobe!

Seriously, the Hetty Rose shoes and bags are so special that three of them even have their own blog. Shoes With Stories follows three of the floral fabric cuties through their trials and travails. It might sound kooky, but these shoes have character!

If you are wondering about good turkey alternatives, the folks over at Holidash have some insight for you. There are brands to try and some words about what it all tastes like. So, if you are looking to un-turkey this Thanksgiving, check it out!

One of the greenest gifts you can buy is the gift of an experience. No clutter, nothing to store, nothing that will eventually end up in a landfill one day.

XperienceDays offers a whole series of experiences to give and to share, including culinary, dining and spa experiences. Some of the less green options might be the recreational racing and flying experiences, not to say they don't look super fun.

You can search by type of experience or by metro area, and you can search for solo experiences, or experiences for two, for your gift recipient to share (perhaps with you!). Some of the experiences are quite pricey, but they do have a selection of gifts under $100 bucks, so check that out too.

See the gallery below for some of the great adventures!

You're probably thinking: "oh great, another PETA-like organization, showing a bunch of skin just to promote themselves while using the environment as an excuse." Well, this stunt is not exactly what you'd think. It turns out that these girls gone wild have decided to internalize their fight against climate change -- going commando to make a statement.

As part of the "350 project," the ladies at Allegheny College in western Pennsylvania have strung up 350 bras, panties and socks to promote the use of clotheslines and raise the level of climate change awareness on their campus. The number 350 signifies the level of carbon emissions (i.e. 350 parts per million) in the atmosphere that scientists agree results in irreparable harm to the earth's ecosystems.

The students had originally intended to carry out the exercise using 350 bed sheets, but then they realized that nudity, or at least the hint of nudity, is much more effective at raising awareness. Not to mention, they were having trouble collecting enough sheets.Currently, earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels stand at around 387 ppm.

Trying to go all organic for your Thanksgiving meal? According to Smart Money, via Well, that will cost you extra $126. Based on a traditional menu for eight people, the non-organic meal came out to $169, while the fully organic meal totaled about $295. Almost three hundred bucks for a dinner for eight. For a dinner you have to cook at home? Wow. To be fair, the meal did include three bottles of organic wine and was purchased in Manhattan.

The biggest price premium was seen on the purchase of the turkey, with the organic fellow coming in at a whopping $99 dollars versus $23 for its conventional counterpart. That's $76 dollars extra. Pass me some of that organic wine please.

Honestly, a price tag like this doesn't seem possible, at least for most families and especially if you are cooking for a lot of folks. Of course, one could trim down the expenses by picking at least the fruits and vegetables that are most important to buy organic, with the help of the Dirty Dozen list. And yes, potatoes are on that list.

If you get freaked out by grim stories about climate change, you should just skip this article. New projections about the spread of malaria, plus dengue fever, plus huge numbers of environmental refugees in the South Pacific are simply scary.

It's no surprise that mosquitoes, like so many other creatures, are seeing their habitats shift as temperatures rise and weather patterns change. Areas that used to be too cold for mosquitoes are now warmer, and wetter. This is ideal for mosquitoes and the malaria parasite to thrive.

Because it's never been a problem before, people in these areas have little knowledge about how to avoid malaria, and even less resistance to the disease. Models predict that 60% of the world's population (up from 45%) will live in an area at risk for malaria by the end of the century.

It's the same story with dengue fever: models are projecting that Fiji could see a 20 to 30% increase in dengue fever. The same estimates predict that 58% of the world live in an area at risk of dengue fever by 2085.

And then there are the environmental refugees, people who have to leave their homes because of rising waters (which are great for breeding mosquitos, btw.) But how many people could that be? How about: 50 million people by 2010.

I'm pretty overwhelmed by just these tidbits, but if you're a steely-eyed realist and hungry for all the gory details, check out the full report from the Lowry Institute: "The Sting of Climate Change."

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), known for product safety and evaluating companies on standards compliance, has launched two new programs to make sure companies are as green as they say they are.

The programs, to be launched early next year in the U.S. and Europe and later in Asia, should help consumer and retailers make better choices amidst a slew of products stamped with dubious green-claims.

UL's validation service will audit and test a product and provide companies with detailed results. The environmental certification process will be based on eco-standards in the product's industry. If the green-touting product passes, it gets a UL label, or some yet-to-be designed, probably green-colored, stamp. Products would get reviewed regularly in case the green wears off.

Unlike a lot of other organizations that do this type of thing, this not-for-profit has a long history with the whole standards business -- they've been around since 1894. While things are still pretty confusing and misleading on the green product front, anyone taking on greenwashing, on any level, should make life a bit easier for the green-weary shopper.

In a warm up to his annual pardoning of turkeys in honor of Thanksgiving, the president has been less forgiving to another bird: the bald eagle.

Instead, he has pardoned Leslie Owen Collier, who was convicted of killing three bald eagles, via a misdirected attempt to use poisoned hamburger meat to kill coyotes.

Bush has also granted pardons to several convicted of bank fraud and Daniel Figh Pue III who, according to the Associated Press, was "convicted of illegal treatment, storage and disposal of a hazardous waste without a permit."

This pardon simultaneously says it's ok to kill endangered species and takes aim at our national symbol. You might say he's killing two birds with one stone.

Over the course of history, NASA research and development programs have given us all kinds of great inventions: velcro, space foam pillows, and pens that write upside down. Now that we've got all of these sweet technologies, it's easy to take it for granted that developers with each technology had to overcome an intense learning curve. Well, the same is true of NASA's revolutionary $154M water recovery system.

Under ideal circumstances, this high tech system is supposed to recycle moisture released by the crew -- sweat, condensation, urine, and even astronaut tears -- and turn it into drinkable water, maximizing the crew's water efficiency. Right now, astronauts orbiting the earth are trying to get the darn thing to work its magic. The fact that the system is malfunctioning could jeopardize plans to have 6 astronauts living aboard the space station for extended periods of time.

If they're able to fix the system, the technology could hold the key to concerns about peak water. Until then, I guess the astronauts must draw straws to see who samples the water coming out of the misfiring recycler. Yum.

Unless you were raised vegan since birth, Thanksgiving brings with it warm memories of food that you can no longer eat. This doesn't mean that you have to go without many of the tastes that you remember -- it just means that you have to hunt down some new recipes. Fortunately Green Daily is here to help you do the holiday right.

• Mashed potatoes without the cream can be delicious! Try Lani's Vegan Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
• Add a little green to your table with this tasty Broccoli Crunch with apples and panfried shallots.
• Skip the Tofurky and opt instead for Seitan Stuffed Squash. Seitan is basically gluten that has a texture similar to meat. It is also high in protein.
• Garbonzo beans make the base for Punkrock Chickpea Gravy. Add a host of herbs and spices and you have yourself some tasty dressing.
• Can't decide between pumpkin or pecan pie? Why not have both? Vegan Pumpkin Pie uses vegetable shortening in the crust and tofu as a filler.

Do you have a favorite vegan recipe or substitution you'd like to share?