Green Daily

Last year the International Rhino Foundation's (IRF) made the news with a kooky rhino poop auction. Yes, they sold rhino droppings. On eBay.

This year they're going a little more conventional, but auctioning off something much bigger: an amazing four-day safari that would be the perfect gift for the conservationist or animal lover who really has everything.

They're calling it the "Rhino Rendezvous" - a trip for six to spend four days at the IRF headquarters at White Oak Conservation Center, just north of Jacksonville, Florida. The winner will receive ground transportation (i.e. not airfare), meals, accommodations, and a chance to go behind the scenes at the world class White Oak Conservation Center.

Some of the endangered species you'll get to see at the center include rhinos (of course), tigers, zebras and Komodo monitors. You'll get to take pictures, see feeding sessions and make some priceless memories.

The auction started on November 15th, and goes through December 15th. To give you an idea of what a great opportunity this is, the whole thing is valued at $25,000, but at the time of this post, bidding has only reached $3,100! That's what I call a bargain!

It's also a great cause. If you are thinking of taking a big family trip, and want to do something really unique that will help the conservation efforts of IRF, go place your bid. Some lucky winner is going to have an amazing story to tell.

In an effort to "go green," many schools are implementing incentives for students to travel to and from classes in an eco-friendly manner.

Let's take a look at some of the benefits that colleges across America are offering:

Hybrids to the front: At San Diego City College, 33 sought-after parking spaces will be reserved for hybrid vehicles, as well as other highly fuel-efficient options.

School pays you: At many schools, students are earning monetary rewards for leaving their cars at home, or even for carpooling. Stanford University will pay you up to $282 per year to do this.

Free stuff: Freshmen at Ripon College in Wisconsin were given a free Trek mountain bike, complete with helmet and lock, for agreeing not to drive to school. This is over $450 worth of of free stuff!

If you're starting or expanding your family in Balikpapan, get out a shovel and start planting a tree.

While I don't see this happening in North America anytime soon, the Indonesian city of Balikpapan has put a pretty original tree-planting requirement for citizens that are getting married or applying for a birth certificate.

Environmental officials in Balikpapan see this as a way to combat global warming and replace a lot of deforested land -- by some estimates, 70% of Indonesia's forests have been lost through mining and lumber. Balikpapan is in the province of East Kalimantan where estimates of over a million acres of forest are lost each year with only 70, 000 acres replenished.

While it could take a while to see if this tree-planting requirement is effective, it's not the first time I've heard of something like this. Even before green got trendy, I knew people that had a tree planted on their day of birth. Okay, I'll admit it, I thought the idea was cheesy. But to actually see my 20-something year-old friend stand next to her 20-something year-old tree was hugely fascinating and got me slightly eco-emotional. Don't judge -- as if you don't get misty-eyed thinking about the planet.

It's no secret that The Weather Channel's founder is -- how do I put this? -- less than completely convinced that humans are having any impact on the earth's climate. At the same time, TWC's parent company NBC is trying to show off its green credentials when and wherever possible. That's why it came as a bit of a surprise that NBC decided to axe the entire staff of TWC's climate change-oriented Forecast Earth.

What comes as an even bigger surprise: they did it smack in the middle of NBC's 'Green Week.' Look, I know times are tough and ad revenues are down, but laying off your channel's environmental team during Green Week really kinda undermines the network's street cred. The ironically timed layoffs affected 80 employees, ranging from support staffers to TWC veterans like meteorologist Dave Schwartz. According to a TWC statement, the cutbacks are the first of a few restructuring efforts. Still, let the records show that the climate change program was the first to get axed.

Harvard University released a report today that says developing countries should continue doing what they're doing, while the richest countries need to lead the way in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The report, released through Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, is making proposals to negotiators at the 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland next week. The Kyoto Protocol is set to expire in 2012 -- these talks are being held to figure out a successor to the environmental treaty produced in 1992.

The report wants developing countries to operate as usual for the first few decades but eventually adopt emission reduction rules. The Belfer Centre also calls for countries to introduce national carbon taxes and wants the new deal to promote the exchange of clean energy technology between rich and not-so-rich nations. The report also wants to see deforestation addressed, an important factor in global warming that wasn't in the original Kyoto treaty.

Ahh, it's that time of year again. Time for kicking back with family and friends, being thankful for stuff. Time for the Japanese whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru, to embark on its annual quest of death... and time for the Sea Shepherd Society to give them hell.

Only, this time around, the Sea Shepherds will be armed with a new secret weapon: Daryl Hannah. According to Captain Paul Watson, Hannah will be joining the crew of the Steve Irwin at the end of the month. Will she be pelting the Japanese whalers with bottle of rancid oil? Only time will tell.

I've pondered for a moment the idea of raising some hens in the backyard for eggs or even a goat for milk. However, once I think it through and consider the urban predators in our neighborhood as well as the stink, I generally push the idea out of my head. However, writer Caitlin O'Halloran is familiar with raising poultry in her backyard and decided to raise here own free-range turkeys this year for the holidays. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as expected.

Though she had named the two turkey chicks "Christmas" and "Thanksgiving," as the birds grew, both her husband (a slaughterhouse veterinarian) and her son shied away from killing or even eating the birds. It wasn't until some house guests and unlikely assassins arrived that the deed was done -- but not before, "a hatchet was sharpened and for good measure, a small-caliber shotgun was loaded as backup."

O'Halloran's short tale had me laughing out loud by the end and is a must-read for anyone considering raising their own Thanksgiving dinner.

Mrs. Meyers Clean Day has come out with their holiday fragrance for the season...Peppermint. But it's not just plain old peppermint. "Cool peppermint with a hint of vanilla warms the heart, rejuvenates the soul and is as soothing and stress-relieving as a candy cane in a cup of cocoa. What could be nicer than that?" Sounds delicious.

These would make a great gift basket; Put a Holiday Cleanup Set ($14.99) and together with the Holiday Handcare Set ($9.99). If your gift recipient really grooves on peppermint, they also offer a candle and a scent diffuser. These would make neat hostess gifts too. If peppermint is not your thing, check out their other scents including Basil, Lavender, Lemon Verbena and even a Baby Blossom.

With even more to love, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day uses naturally-derived ingredients whenever possible, and performs no animal testing. All of the liquid cleaning products are biodegradable and the powdered products break down into non-harmful products as well.

When the heads of the financially doomed US auto industry came before congress to ask for a bailout rescue package, you might think they would do so with some humility -- maybe tone it down a little with the limos and penthouse suites. Instead, the biggest news of the day was the fact that all of the Big 3's executives flew in on their own corporate jets. Not only is that a major carbon emission no-no, but it's a pretty horrendous PR move when you're lobbying for taxpayer bailout. Haven't they ever heard of jetpooling?

Are the Big 3 really that out of touch? That's been the criticism hurled at them for years and here at a pivotal time for the US auto industry -- they basically put it on display. I usually hate it when people take a single event and claim that it's a metaphor for whats wrong with a given industry of whatever; but this is a metaphor for everything that's wrong with the US auto industry. The criticism was so strong that GM and Ford are actually getting rid of a few of their jets.

Memo to the Big 3: Next time, call your buddies and you can share a single plane (you're all leaving from the Detroit area, right?) -- that will cut your slash your carbon footprint and not make you look disturbingly out of touch. There's even a service to help you coordinate.

Have you heard of Project Laundry List's new online petition asking the First Family to line dry their laundry? You may be familiar with the group begging the next president of the United States to grow a vegetable garden on the White House lawn to encourage sustainable gardens across the country. However, to air one's laundry in public is another matter entirely -- dirty or clean.

Project Laundry lists a lot of great reasons for individuals to use the natural power of the sun rather than an appliance to dry their clothes. For example, line drying reduces energy consumption, lengthens the life of your clothes, and the sun is a natural bleaching agent.

On the other hand, the first family is going to have a hard enough time keep the public out of their private lives. I certainly don't think that it's appropriate for the paparazzi to photograph what the First Lady wears to bed though this would be one way to settle the boxer/brief question without involving MTV

[via: Greenpeace Australia]

The Oxford Dictionary has named the word of the year for 2008: Hypermiling. Hypermiling is"an attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one's car and one's driving techniques."

Well, that didn't get William Safire of the New York Times' On Language column all that excited, especially as we see gas prices plummet back below $2 a gallon. Safire's choice? A nod to the recession with "Frugalista." According to the Oxford Dictionary, a frugalista is "a person who lives a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying secondhand, growing own produce, etc."

Safire thinks that frugalista is a much better choice than "recessionista" a term coined by Larry Kudlow and defined in the New York Times as "the new name for a style maven on a budget." I would agree with Safire.

So all you thrify folks out there, take heart! You're not a cheapskate anymore, you're a frugalista!

Just in time for your holiday decorating, Holiday LEDS has given us two packs of Crystal White Snowflake LED Christmas lights to give away to one lucky reader!

Light-emitting diodes (L.E.D.) use 98% less energy than conventional bulbs. The lamps last for several years and there are no glass bulbs to break. Unlike those old-school lights whose covers chipped and faded, L.E.D. color stays true. Another benefit of L.E.D. light is that they are cool to the touch and weather resistant.

All of Holiday LEDs lights are Energy Star certified and guarantied to last five years. They also offer a 30 day, "no questions asked" return policy.

• To enter, leave a confirmed comment below telling us how you will be using your Snowflake lights.
• The comment must be left before 5pm EST on Friday, November 28th.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winner will receive two boxes of Crystal White Snowflake LED lights (valued at $17.99 each).
• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States (including the District of Columbia) and Canada (excluding Quebec), who are 18 and older.

Click here for Official Rules.

GOOD LUCK!

A recent study shows that hairspray use by pregnant women could cause a birth defect, hypospadias, in baby boys. Hypospadias is one of the common urogenital congenital abnormalities affecting baby boys, with a prevalence of 4 to 24 per 10,000 births. Hypospadias is a birth defect of the urethra in the male that involves an abnormally-placed urinary opening.

The study, reported in Environmental Health Perspectives, looked at the role of endocrine disruptors such as phthalates, the use of folate supplementation and vegetarianism. There were increased risks for self-reported occupational exposure to hairspray and phthalate exposure. In good news, there was a significant protective effect of folate supplementation during the first three months of pregnancy. Vegetarianism was not found to be associated with risk either way.

So does this mean that if you're pregnant or considering getting pregnant, you might want to take it easy on the hairspray? While this study shows a link to work-related exposure to hairspray, which would be considerably more than a personal spray here and there, it's never a bad idea to try to use the safest cosmetics possible, whether pregnant or not. To find a safer hairspray, be sure to check out EWG's Cosmetics Database.

[Via Eco-Child's Play]

So you've bought a titanium body, road bike with cargo carriers and a Burley attachment. You've annually updated your helmet and bought wind-resistant bike pants and toe warmers for those New England November mornings. Your handles have been adjusted and your seat height seems perfect.

But your knees hurt so badly you can barely walk once you've finished your ride into work (10.8 miles uphill, of course). Time for the professional bike fitter. This is not the kid who changes your tire at the bike shop. This is a professional with training in biodynamics, cycling and bike mechanics. Measurements of your entire body are taken, three-dimensional motion capture technology is emplyed and adjustments are made to your bike by the millimeter.

The result can be a smoother, more efficient ride and a significant reduction in pain. Of course this is not a $12.95 fix at K-Mart. But consumers have raved about the results. You can find bike fitters across the country, and the more experienced the better. In Madison, Wisc. Cronometro offers bike fitter services. In Boulder, Col. there is Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and in the Bay Area Endurance Performance Training Center is popular.

[via NY Times]

How did Detroit's major industry fall so far so fast? Some say the fault lies solely at the hands of health costs and pensions. Others, like energy and environmental scientist Joe Romm, say U.S. automakers ran to their own demise by shunning the alternative energy market and all other technological advancements. Romm is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

So if and when a federal bail-out package comes for the auto industry Romm says major strings must be attached, because the automakers have a history of bailing on their promises.

First, full-disclosure: I am from Detroit. Both my parents have spent much of their careers in the auto industry and now one of them draws a pension from one of the (not so) Big Three.

Romm says U.S. automakers, and G.M. in particular, have been "suicidally lobbying" against themselves, decreeing the pointlessness of hybrids and spending millions of dollars lobbying against higher fuel standards and tailpipe emissions. He writes that in the 1990s,when Romm worked at the Department of Energy, car companies agreed to design a vehicle with triple-efficiency (80 miles per gallon) by 2004 in exchange for informal research assistance from DOE. After a billion dollars of effort the auto industry walked away from the deal as President George W. Bush entered the scene.

All that said, Romm isn't totally opposed to a bail-out. He says no matter what, many more job cuts will come. But a long-term disaster can be averted if the government attaches a lot of strings, like producing plug-in hybrid cars.

"If we are going to bail out Detroit, the deal has to be based on meeting the new fuel economy standards of 35 mpg by 2020, and meeting them increasingly with hybrids. The deal has to be for multiple plug-in hybrid car models. And most important, the deal has to include a management team that is wholly committed to that inevitable transition, a team that will not waste a penny of the taxpayer-funded bailout lobbying against the even tougher standards and regulations that will be needed to avoid the harsh consequences of global warming and peak oil."

But will that happen? The automakers have walked away from the table after accepting federal dollars before, look at Chrysler. And the airline industry is no different. Nonetheless, Romm sees an opportunity to push a major polluter into his corner.


[via Salon.com]