Green Daily

The are few things better during the holidays than the delicious taste of seasonal beer. This is a fact and not open to discussion. Thank you for understanding.

Bison Brewing Company understands, too. They are the makers of many fine beer products, but their seasonal offering of Gingerbread Ale is especially tasty.

For the ice cream lover on your list, I'd like to recommend, Terra Fuela. This is one Ben & Jerry's pint that won't pack on the pounds.

Ben & Jerry's partnered with Intervale Compost Company, to create a fun gift. Packed inside a pint sized carton is some of Intervale's finest compost made with ... you guessed it ... ice cream! Tucked within the rich compost are dwarf sunflower seeds guaranteed to sprout from your pot.

Priced at $4.95, this gift is a great stocking stuffer or inexpensive enough to buy for everyone in the office. Then again, you could just keep a couple for yourself on your favorite windowsill.

Want to green your vehicle's footprint, but the current economic slump taken you out of the market for a new hybrid? There may soon be another option. Instead of taking of saddling yourself with a crushing car payment, a company called Poulsen Hybrid Inc. is developing a add-on plug-in system to make your old clunker into a power-assisted, fuel sipping green machine -- and it's expected to be priced well under $5,000.

According to Poulsen Inc. the average car needs only 10-15horsepower to maintain speeds of 60mph on a level road, so a bolt-on solution is perfectly adequate. The Poulsen system can be installed on any car (the SUV system will be complete in 2009) with wheels size 15" or larger and kicks on between speeds of 15-60mph. Of course, the fuel saving will fluctuate with different vehicles and driving styles, but third party testing firms are now trying to come up with some kind of standard savings that Poulsen can use in their marketing material. Due to concerns about durability and reliability, the Poulsen Hybrid system will be installed only by licensed dealers. Will it work? I hope so, that would be awesome.

[via Treehugger]

Where have all the acorns gone? From Virginia to Pennsylvania to New York to the Midwest, naturalists are reporting a startling loss of acorns, according to the Washington Post. People are reporting, that even on their own properties, oak trees that were dropping acorns like crazy last year are bare this year. According to experts, many animals are at risk of starving this winter due to this shortage.

The big mystery is why this is happening. Oak trees do cycle according to the type of oak and stressed trees actually overproduce acorns, to ensure survival of the species. Oaks can self-pollinate although the male trees pollinate the female tree. This is where the weather is critical, as a late frost can kill the female flowers, and hence the decrease the chance of pollination. Another theory is that wet weather might have washed all the pollen away.

While one bare acorn cycle isn't a big deal, if it continues it could be a sign of something bigger.

Maybe you think it's crude or dumb or backwards, but I've always appreciated the sleaziness of most US convenience stores -- at least, anthropologically speaking. I love the idea that I can stand at one counter and buy lotto tickets, cigarettes, Copenhagen, dangerous energy pills, pornography, or just put $5 on pump 3. Pure Americana.

Still, time are changing and drastically new models are being considered for the c-store that I can appreciate even more. One of those radically different business models is embodied in a new type of eco-friendly "gas station" called The Green Spot Market and Fuels in Dallas.

Having kids does strange things to people. They often take up an interest in recycling in order to ensure a better world for their children. Parents have even been known to change their diets in order to give their kids pesticide free food. Celebrities are not exempt.

Take chain smoking, culinary king, Anthony Bourdain. After the birth of his daughter, Ariane, he quit his two-and-a-half pack-a-day habit and feeds her only organic food.

Then there's Madonna who recently gave Guy Ritchie detailed instructions on what the boys eat while in his care. The list said that Ritchie was to feed the boys only a macrobiotic, vegetarian, organic diet with no processed or refined food ... among other things.

Check our our gallery for more organic loving celebs.

Yeah, I stole Saab's tagline, so what? I've always been a little annoyed by the assertion that any company with a background in aerospace can automatically make the best equipment. In the case of cars -- like BMW and Saab -- it seems to translate pretty well. Now another company is touting their jet engine design knowledge; claiming that they've come up with a new turbine that harvests as much wind energy as a conventional turbine twice its size, but is compact enough to maximize a tract of land's power per acre.

These new turbines, conceived by Massachusetts-based FloDesign, looks pretty similar to a huge jet engine on a stick. Typical turbines capture a small percentage of the air that moves around their enormous blades -- 59.3% has been considered the limit. FloDesign's turbines are equipped with a shroud which funnels air into the turbine, speeding it up even. That allows FloDesign turbines not only to be twice as effective, but be packed in like sardines on a smaller piece of property. After driving through a few giant farms recently, compactness is definitely something I can appreciate.

Check out the video.

[via Earth2Tech]

There were 267 entries for last week's Snowflake LED light giveaway. This tells me that you people are in desperate need of some holiday lighting! Now, when I asked what y'all planned on doing with the lights, I got some pretty interesting responses. Here are a few of my favorites:

Merlin is looking for trouble ...

I would decorate one of our cats with them. No silly, not really.

Mary gave me a great idea ...

I'll wait until my husband falls asleep on the couch on Christmas eve and use them to decorate him and the cat since it is likely they will both still be laying there on Christmas morning!

I've heard of recycled rubber used for planters or tire swings but never for jewelry...until now! Christiane Diehl based in Hanover, Germany, has created beautiful necklaces, bracelets and rings from recycled rubber from bicycle tubes and air mattresses. Cutting tiny shapes from the rubber material she creates uniquely eco-friendly accessories that really make a statement! Who knew recycled rubber could look so good -- personally I think its really chic and I love the incredible detail. Green keeps getting prettier and prettier.

[via Inhabitat]

Venice may not be the perfect case study for how rising sea levels might affect coastal cities around the world, but just like the tiny islands of Tuvalu, Venice's situation has become somewhat symbolic of climate change. Torrential rains and strong winter winds have brought sea levels around the canal city -- bursting at the seems with with priceless antiquities -- to their highest point in 22 years, leaving much of the city underwater.

Venice's Mayor has asked all citizens to stay in their homes if possible, while gutsy Venetians try to go about their routines without the aid of city transportation or water taxis. Flooding is nothing new for the city. Being located at 0ft elevation, it doesn't take a very powerful storm to bring the seas over the roads and into low lying areas like St. Mark's Square. Still, the storm system moving through the Adriatic has drummed up some seriously uncomfortable conditions in the lagoon city. And construction is already underway on a floodgate system to guard the city against rising sea levels expected as a result of climate change.

Kinda reminds me of that post apocalyptic Flooded London exhibit, only real.

In hopes of quelling some consumer concerns about Aurora's treatment of their dairy cows, the company announced that it has received an Animal Welfare Review Certification from an independent auditor, Validus Services, LLC.

Such a certification is awarded after a throrough inspection of the animals takes place on site by a Validus employee and recommendations have been made. Dairy herds are assessed for the their body condition, locomotion, "parlor behavior" (how they bevave during milking), and slips and falls. Health facilities are also looked at.

Anyone who ever lived near a coast is familiar with the dread "Red Tide" -- a sudden and uncontrollable bloom of algae that turns the water murky red-brown, depletes oxygen and destroys menu plans for shellfish lovers.

Scientists have been looking for ways to control red tide blooms, with varying degrees of success. Now a team of French researchers may have unlocked a new secret of the microscopic underwater world.

Using fluorescent markers, the marine biologists tracked the life cycle of parasites that live on the red tide plankton. When the algae bloom first occurs, it takes the parasites some time before they can get into the plankton system. During this time the red tide thrives.

However, once the parasites get a "toe-hold" in, they rapidly reproduce, and like the creatures in Aliens, burst out of the plankton, destroying it in the process. As this cycle continues, the bloom -- and the red tide -- recedes.

Scientists hope that, based on these observations, some day they may be able to control or at least shorten the duration of the plankton imbalance by introducing the Alien-like parasites to a red tide. It's not a complete solutions, but it's another piece in the puzzle.

Just mention Mrs. Meyer's geranium product line to me and I reach deep into the recesses of my brain to conjure up the scent ... it is THAT good. The amount of Mrs. Meyer's products in my neck of the woods are limited so the best way for me to get my fix is by ordering them online. Fortunately the company is offering FREE SHIPPING for today's orders -- and today ony!

To get the free shipping just hop on over the the site, select your favorite cleaning product and you are done. This is a wonderful opportunity to try some of that Peppermint Holiday Collection that Patricia was raving about. Free shipping is also a good excuse to assemble a gift basket for a Meyer's fanatic you know. Finally, buy some cleansing goodness for your loved ones and throw it in their stockings as a subtle hint that you could use some help around the house.

Mrs. Meyer's is committed to using naturally derived, biodegradable material in their products and they never, ever test on animals.

OK, I totally agree that Ringo's video announcement to fans -- the one where he threatened to throw all of their fan mail into the recycling bin unopened starting October 20th -- was a colossally bad PR move. Still, when you're a Beatle, you can make all kinds of incindiery statements and have the whole controversy blow over in a couple of weeks (see Lennon's bigger than Jesus). Especially when another more popular Beatle steps in a grants you absolution.

In defense of his old friend, Paul McCartney recently spoke out about the fan mail flap -- saying that Ringo was being blasted for simply speaking his mind. As a pretty serious environmentalist himself, Paul has probably felt a little guilty about the mountains of junk fan mail that pours into his office every day for the last 40+ years. It's just that Paul has the good sense not to say anything about it. In Paul's own words:

"We love Ringo... In the world that we live in you're not supposed to say that, so he's always getting in trouble for speaking his mind... I think it's a good quality. It's called honesty, actually."

[via Ecorazzi]

Today the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau announced that Beijing reached its goal of 256 "blue-sky days" -- days on which the pollution index is below 100 -- a full month earlier than planned.

China attributes this success to a combination of long term investments in air quality, starting as far back as 1998, as well as some dramatic measures taken in anticipation of the Olympic Games in August.

Amid criticisms and concerns for the health of athletes from around the world, Beijing closed some area factories and notably took half of the cars in the city off the road. Car emissions were down 60% from the previous year.