In partnership with the Daylife people (who we've written about here), we've created the first "green index". It works a bit like a stock market index, except that instead of tracking stocks, it tracks mentions of certain key green phrases in the media. It's a way to gauge how much mindshare certain concepts have and see if they are gaining or losing ground compared to last week. Not very scientific, but lots of fun!
New keywords can be added to it and if you click on an entry, you can see more details and read recent new stories on that particular topic.
Next is what we call the TreeHugger Green Index "badge". It shows the direction the index is moving this week and will link back to the permanent home of the TreeHugger Green Index. We'll make code available that you can cut & paste in your blog if you want to show the badge and have an easy way to keep track of the green index.
Also, if you have any suggestions, please contact us. Thank you.
Recent Business Related Posts
Recent News on BP Spill Dispersants Reminiscent of Russian Toxic Rain Prediction
Image: Craig Anderson, Flickr
Earlier this summer, when the BP Oil Spill was still at the top of the headlines everywhere, Russian predictions of a toxic rain consequent to the BP oil spill were generally dismissed by the scientific community. But the cultural meme, as well as an underlying level of anxiety for Gulf residents, was planted. Now, reports are appearing that raise the spectre of the Russian prediction. Are people living on the Gulf, and even further inland, really at risk? Or is the only risk the diversion of dollars into lawyers' pockets?...
Drought Politics In Colorado - Candidate For Governor Fostering State's Rights Or Ignorant Provocation?
Image credit:Colorado Trout Unlimited.
Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes seems to have a habit of hitting the xenophia-flavored cool aid. April's recent post covered his ranting about how promoting bike riding is part of a world government conspiracy designed to steal personal freedoms. At the time I thought 'well...it might win him some Tea Party-style votes and he won't lose too many bike riders who otherwise would have supported him.' Maes' latest proclamation on environment (upending a century of water law) is likely to terrify neighboring state governors, business executives, and real estate developers so that conservation seems a side issue. Speaking before the Colorado Water Congress, Maes said, according to the Colorado Independent, and other sources ""I have a pretty simple policy on water so far: If it starts in Colorado, it's our water,"" ...
Asian Elephants Get a New Home at the Smithsonian National Zoo
Image Credit: Mehgan Murphy, National Zoo
If you've been to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. lately, you may have noticed that they've been working on the first stage of their "Elephant Trails" project- a bold initiative to build a complex of indoor and outdoor habitats for the zoo's Asian elephants that will allow the endangered animals to thrive. Phase I, which opened to the public yesterday, includes two new outdoor yards and an elephant barn, which is LEED certified and includes 5,700 square feet of livable space, and will be the elephants' future home....
Handmade Online Marketplace Etsy Raises $20 Million Financing
Handmade is becoming big business -- reeeally big. Etsy -- the online marketplace for handmade items -- announced earlier this week that it has raised $20 million in venture capital financing and has now tripled its valuation at $300 million (not including the funding). With sales up a whopping 72% from last year, business is booming -- not to mention ex-Google exec Adam Freed being roped in as Etsy's new chief operating officer. ...
West Virginia Football Uniforms To Honor Coal, Fallen Miners
photo via Nike
In an attempt to honor the 29 coal miners who tragically died last year at the Upper Big Branch coal mine, the West Virginia University Mountaineers have teamed up with Nike to create new football uniforms that have the mark of coal. The uniforms are white, but have coal dust on the pants and shoulders. The yellow strip on the hemet is said to represent a miner's headlamp. In the photo featuring the new uniform a player appears to be emerging from a strip mine, leaving behind a desolate landscape. ...
"Clean Coal" Positioned To Be The High End Energy Product No One Can Afford
Taylorville Illinois Energy Center, a proposed "clean coal" power plant. Image credit:Illinois Times
Southern Illinois has vast, easily accessible coal reserves. That coal may be sulfurous and wet and salty; but ,Southern Illinois also has good geologic features for CO2 sequestration, plus Presidential root tendrils are there. These aspects explain, in a last-year kind of way, why Obama's Energy Department supports this $3.5 billion fantasy. (Several major conceptual design changes have been made since the Bush Administration version was announced in very different configuration, giving the Illinois Congressional delegation multiple incentives to scramble.) The Illinois Commerce Commission has studied the costs and benefits of the most current version of the project. The Commission's report is just out. They figure nuclear power is cheaper, for heaven sake....
Banksy Turns Kiddie Ride Into Anti-BP Statement
Photo: Banksy.co.uk
Poor Dolphin
World-famous guerilla artist Banksy has made many environmental statements in the past, but we think this one is particularly clever, especially with the events of the past few months. Check out the video after the jump to see the coin-operated kiddie ride in action....
Does Morality Matter in Saving the Planet?
Image credit: After Gutenberg
When I posted a video of a mainstream farmer trying to green his operations, commenter Adam suggested that he was just doing it for economic reasons. That's an observation that gets bandied about a lot here at TreeHugger—that this company, or that individual, is not really interested in true sustainability. They are just in it for themselves.
I guess the big question is this—does it matter?...
Interview: Rainforest Action Network Executive Director Rebecca Tarbotton
photo via RAN
Rainforest Action Network's new Executive Director, Rebecca Tarbotton, has big plans for the Bay Area-based advocacy group. RAN, which was founded in 1985, takes on big banks that are funding the coal industry, like JP Morgan and Chase, and it has worked to protect the world's most threatened rainforests, like those in Indonesia that are home to endangered orangutans and tigers. Tarbotton has a lot to say about RAN's future and where the environmental movement is going....
On James Lee and the Events at Discovery Communications Headquarters
photo: Michael Graham Richard
As most readers have probably heard or read by now, yesterday was a dramatic day at the Silver Spring, Maryland headquarters of TreeHugger's parent company, Discovery Communications. Early in the afternoon a lone man, later identified to be James J. Lee, entered the building, brandishing a pistol and carrying explosives, and began taking hostages. The situation ended four hours later with the hostages unharmed and Lee losing his life. ...
Déjà Vu All Over Again: Offshore Oil Platform Explodes in Gulf of Mexico [Updated x5]
Image: Google Maps
Thankfully, No Deaths This Time
An offshore oil platform exploded and caught fire today in the Gulf of Mexico. It is located about 80 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site of BP's massive oil spill. All 13 people who were on the rig were evacuated and only one was injured, reports the U.S. Coast Guard....
