Travel & Nature

FIRST PRIZE WINNER Mother’s Love, Australia by Alli Minor, Hoover, Alabama

Awww, mama and baby Kualas just in time to remind us that mom's very special day is this weekend (please allow us to help you pamper mom and mama earth with our gift guide).

However, hit the JUMP to see the GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the Rainforest Alliance's First “Picture Sustainability” Photo Contest. Last January, the Rainforest Alliance invited United States residents to submit photos illustrating sustainable agriculture, forestry and tourism with the aim of raising awareness about conservation issues while expanding the foundation’s collection of photos for use in its publications and on its Web site. A bunch of prizes were offered with the Grand Prize winner receiving a trip to New York City including lodging at an eco-friendly hotel, seats at the Rainforest Alliance annual gala, and a Fujifilm FinePix digital camera. We NYC TreeHuggers couldn't be more thrilled to welcome the lucky photographer whom we hope will use their winnings to snap a few awareness-raising shots in Gotham's very own urban forest. Drum-roll please...

Food & Health

Store Wars!

Revolution is in the air, as the Swiss Government's Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology concludes that plants have rights, and we have to treat them appropriately. A majority of the panel concluded that "living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive." The Weekly Standard, which is appalled, gives an example of how a farmer mowing his field is OK, but if he carelessly decapitates flowers while walking home, that is immoral. It suggests that "The animal rights movement grew out of the same poisonous soil." Patrick Metzger at Green Daily suggests that "this concept is a little extreme even for the most committed treehugger."

Having scanned the report, I am not so sure that it is that far off base. It isn't just Julia Butterfly Hill who has fought for the rights of trees, and there are many who fall in love with their garden and protect their tomatoes like their pets, and give them the proper reverence when they are eaten. They don't pick them and throw them against the wall.

Millions of Jains refuse any food obtained with unnecessary cruelty, and many will not eat root vegetables because it kills the plant; it is not like this is a new idea.

They are not, like the Weekly Standard suggests, writing a vegetable Bill of Rights, they are only saying that all living things should be treated with respect. How can one argue with that? Download the PDF report here.

Design & Architecture

UK architecture website BD online asked Austin Williams, author of new book The Enemies of Progress, and Pooran Desai of BioRegional Quintain. We excerpt a bit:

Austin Williams says YES: "The mantra “less is more” has gone from being a defining moment in modernist thought to the unquestioned orthodoxy of our environmental age. Unfortunately, its progressive content has been stripped away.

Efficiency used to encourage us to design creatively in order to, as Buckminster Fuller implied, do more and more. Now, environmental efficiency states that using less is an end in itself. Sustainability is a moral injunction for restraint. Architecture has become a carbon spreadsheet. In that sense, the essence of imagination is lost."

Pooran Desai says NO: "The world has changed in only a couple of years. The days of plentiful, cheap oil have gone for good. For the first time in 40 years, food security is back on the agenda — not only as an international political issue but as a domestic one as well. We now know we must find solutions which enable us to lead high-quality lives within the limits of the planet’s finite resources. Creativity is not about ignoring constraints. That is madness, literally a state of dissociation from reality. Creativity is about solutions which overcome constraints." ::BD Online

Recent Comment by Cybercat : "Killing creativity? In what way does forcing you to do more with less kill crea..." [read]

Food & Health

I’ve found a way to save the bees and save your itchy, watery, allergy eyes. And, no, it doesn’t come in an orange prescription bottle or costly over-the-counter remedy. It comes from my favorite source –- nature.

Yesterday I was outside at a shoot for the cover for my book, surrounded by blooming trees and shrubs, with pollen flying freely all around us. I, who have never suffered from allergies, suddenly had watering eyes and a cough that wouldn’t quit. My makeup artist was thankfully on hand to catch the running mascara (come on -- I have to look good on the cover of my book!) and as she dabbed and blotted, allergies became the topic of conversation.

TH Exclusives

Image courtesy procsilas at flickr

There are now oodles of guides to buying green gifts for your mom on Mother's Day. Here's our take on this year's fabulous finds. And while the organic flowers-organic chocolate-organic spa basket thing is all well and good, what if your dearest wish is not to just buy green for mom but find ways to get her to be green, or greener? Every mom is different - and some of your moms may be your personal inspiration - but if you want to offer your mom a service rather than just give her a gift, we've collected some TreeHugger ideas for off-beat ways to show your love and support mom on her green path.

1. Start slow, slow, slow. Value shifting is not a short-term process, so don't expect your mom to come around over night. And try not to bombard her with negative eco-facts. Instead, if your mom is a real newbie (or really resistant to your former efforts) choose just a single area to focus you service on - something dear to your mom's heart like her garden, the kitchen, or the bathroom. Danish researchers have found that adopting one environmental behavior usually leads people to adopt another, especially if opportunities are around for further "greening." So basically, if you can find the one green thing that truly resonates with your mom, chances are she'll be started on the road to further greenness. Need inspiration for which area to start with - check our Green Guides.

Business & Politics

Image courtesy of JackVersloot via flickr

When in Rome: Joining its fellow top polluters -- China, India and the U.S. -- Russia has signaled it would rebuff the imposition of tougher emission standards, casting doubt on the prospects for a future U.N.-mediated climate treaty, reports Reuters' Alister Doyle. Government officials said last week that the country wouldn't accept binding caps under a new deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire by the end of 2012.

Food & Health

A study in the April 15 edition of Environmental Science & Technology by the prolific Carnegie Mellon University researcher Christopher Weber found that food transport accounts for only 11 percent of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, while production contributes a whopping 83 percent. Specifically, nitrous oxide and methane -- mainly byproducts of fertilizer use, manure management and animal digestion -- make up a far bigger piece of the emissions pie than emissions from transporting our food from faraway places, the study found.

Weber and colleague Scott Matthews conducted a life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gases emitted during all stages of growing and transporting food consumed in the U.S. (using Department of Commerce data) and calculated that the average U.S. household generates 8.1 metric tons (t) of greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) annually as a result of food consumption. By comparison, driving a car that gets 25 miles per gallon of gasoline for 12,000 miles per year (the U.S. average) produces about 4.4 tons of CO2.

Recent Comment by Cybercat : "There isn't a percentage for how much is generated from feeding animals other animal by..." [read]