Manuel said:
"This is great news! I hope all cities pass this into law.The practice of using plastic bags just to quickly dispose of them has been going on far t..." [read]
Jay Knecht said:
"What are the performance stats for the Son of Max? ..." [read]
gazelle said:
"@ Dallas:
The book, and the supplementary videos in the "How It All Ends" youtube series, address this in detail, but I'll try to paraphrase:..." [read]
Barry said:
"Kofi Annan has about as much of a clue about electric cars and developing countries as Ann Ann the Panda.
He underestimates the ingenuity o..." [read]
JJ said:
"Very cool. I didn't thought that biodesel might be our future fuel...." [read]
Derek said:
""I guarantee you this will spark huge debates around the world," she said. "We have to delve into this in a way that hasn't been done in a long tim..." [read]
Thanksgiving -- it's the best of times, it's the worst of times. Like most Americans, I look forward to Thanksgiving every year. There's the great food, the family traditions, and the fact that it's all about community and being thankful rather than about how much stuff you can buy (that's the day after Thanksgiving).
But it's also a time when many of us environmentalists butt heads with some of our more distant relatives. Imagine it now: Showing up to the table and the only open seat is the one next to Uncle Bert, a guy who hasn't missed a tea party protest all year.
Earlier this year, I had one of the best experiences of my life. I traveled to Kenya, Africa with a small team from the Micro-finance group, MicroPlace.
I first became fired up with the idea of micro-lending a couple of years ago when my family decided to finance a bank and numerous micro-loans in lieu of gifts to one another at the holidays. It's a beautiful schematic: your loan of a "micro" amount ($20, $200, or anything above or in between) can completely change the life of someone living in a developing country. What seems like a little to us, is a lot to them.
Spirit Beauty Lounge, a carbon-neutral online boutique specializing in organic, cruelty-free, and green lifestyle products, is popping up in New York City at the Green Finds Eco Holiday Market Place. Enjoy organic treats and cocktails during their "Eco-Beauty Happy Hours," mini makeovers by natural beauty expert and makeup artist Jessa Blades (above) of Blades Natural Beauty, and manicures by Green Spa on the Go, now through December 23, 2009. Click through for details.
I wrote about the plight of California frogs back in August as a result of a pesticide cloud blowing into California's Sierra Mountains, deforming and killing off California's Pacific tree frogs and foothill yellow-legged frogs. Now another threat to California's frog population comes in the form of a non-native fish.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope (left) testifies at the Arlington EPA hearing as API's Howard Feldman looks on.
This week we saw some amazing public action as part of the two Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings on its proposed tailoring rule, which we call the "Big Polluters" rule.
Right now only a handful of pollution sources, including coal-fired power plants, are responsible for more than half of all of the global warming pollution in the United States. Cleaning these up is a large step towards stopping global warming, so EPA is proposing a new rule to start cleaning up these Big Polluters under the Clean Air Act. By targeting the worst offenders, the Big Polluters rule is an important step that will cut global warming pollution while still helping our economy grow.
The best environmental advertising and marketing campaigns of the year were celebrated last night in London at the Green Awards. Taking the Grand Prix, presented by Jonathan Porritt, was the latest Keep Britain Tidy campaign called Food on The Go which targeted 18-24 years old and their horrible litter dropping habits. Apparently due to successfully partnering with McDonalds and Greggs Bakers there was a 31% reduction in litter at the sites they worked with. Pretty good going! So let's see what other enviro winners there are out there in the blogosphere this week.
Do you like it easy, concise and world-changing? Are you eager to get involved in improving our future and ready to embrace new world-shaking idea with one simple click? Then just sign up to TBD, the latest project by All Day Buffet, which launched at the Feast Conference in New York last month. Since then, every Wednesday they endorse one mind-blowing project by sending it to your inbox. Then it's up to you to take action; help spread the word by sending it on to others who give a damn or join forces with places "where people create real value, where business is a good thing, where charity is implicit, where we work smarter, not harder".
Photo by Adrian Cotter
Over the past two weeks, photographers of all abilities have been submitting entries to a new monthly contest on Sierra Club Trails. The theme of "Orange" has drawn a crazy array of images -- from sunsets, butterflies, fall leaves, to kayaks, cows and centipedes. Now the community is voting for the People's Choice Award winner, and the winner of the Grand Prize -- a Canon G-11 digital camera. You're invited to help us find the winner. You're also welcome to participate in next month's photo contest.
...
Attendees at the San Francisco Green Festival weren't lacking for beautiful things to look at. This display used found materials including flowers and edibles. It is beautiful, and colorful, but right next to it was another large and impressive piece of art created from industrial materials welded together. It was that piece that seemed to draw people in......
A familiar face at San Francisco's Green Festival was Mr. Ellie Pooh, a company that makes paper from elephant dung. Elephants in Sri Lanka are killed for their interference with agriculture, but they interfere with agriculture simply because they're running out of space of their own. By making a lucrative market for paper from their dung, they're given a better chance at survival. ...
Treenex offers up some holiday cards that are certainly not cheap, but are a gift within themselves. When you buy a card, you plant a tree. A whole tree for a single gift card...not a bad trade! And, Treenex is more than just a gift card company - it's really more a group of avid tree planters who also have some adorable gift cards to sell. ...
This weekend, San Francisco held Green Festival, the nation's largest green consumer living event. Over 40,000 people packed into the Concourse Exhibition Center to see over 350 businesses, artists, nonprofits, and over 125 speakers and musicians for a weekend of all things green. It was jam packed, and ever time I thought I saw it all, I turned a corner and there was a whole new row of interesting things to see. Everything, and I do mean everything was represented, including the latest in clean technology, green building, socially responsible investing, eco-fashion, renewable energy, green careers/green collar jobs, natural foods, groundbreaking films and ecotourism....
We said it last year: Lets call recycling what it is- a fraud, a sham, a scam perpetrated by big business on the citizens and municipalities of America. A method of getting citizens to pick up corporate waste and for our towns and cities to get stuck with trying to sell the stuff. And lets call America Recycles Day what it is- a marketing ploy by the biggest producers of garbage to make us pick up their crap.
And what a change in a year. The National Recycling Coalition is virtually bankrupt and recyclables are piling up in warehouses around the country because nobody wants them, or they are being sold for far less than the cost to taxpayers to pick it all up. All so the main sponsors of America Recycles day, Nestle waters and the American Chemistry Council, (which never saw a toxic disposable chemical it didn't love) can keep making us feel good about picking up their garbage and storing it for them.
Enough. It is time to celebrate Buy Nothing Disposable Day....
Or so they are trying to tell us. The Vinyl Institute claims that vinyl is sustainable, versatile, energy efficient and durable. They even built a website, Vinyl in design, to "familiarize architects and designers with the range of solutions vinyl provides for today's and tomorrow's design challenges."
No mention of its manufacture from chlorine and fossil fuels, Phthalate plasticizers, dioxins, recyclability, or any of the other reasons that so many green designers are trying to build without the stuff....
Image via: Antenna MagazineShare
Don't we wish it were that easy: Just go online, pick all the green attributes you want, and then pick up you own custom solar car the next week or month at a dealership. You could add solar panels, make it a plug-in, add a charging port for your iPod and make the dimensions just roomy enough for your family without requiring a special permit to park it in a normal parking space. Oh well, we can always dream. Now Kia wants you to dream big on their website by designing your own custom (solar) car for a chance to win $1,000USD....
Vimy Ridge
On this Veterans Day in the States and Remembrance Day in Canada and Australia, it is worth reading a Sierra Club of Canada document about the Environmental Costs of War.
It starts with a quote from Clauswitz from 1831: "War is never an isolated act."...
Global Green Award Winners: Dr. George Campbell Jr., Mindy Lubber, Peter Darbee, Matt Petersen, Bonnie Reiss, and Sebastian Copeland
"Mr. Obama -- Tear down this carbon!" news presenter Miles O'Brien demanded in his speech at the Global Green Sustainable Design Awards last night in New York City, before an audience of benefactors and green luminaries. His reference to Reagan's famous call to Gorbachev, a few years before the latter would help usher the collapse of the Berlin Wall wasn't just timely, but poignant too. Gorbachev would go on to found Green Cross and Global Green USA, a celebrity-heavy organization that has most recently led green reconstruction efforts in New Orleans.
See photos of the winners and attendees below, including designer Nicole Miller, actor Brian Cox and architect Thom Mayne....
My hope is this superb documentary will shock Americans and create a surge of
urgency that stops the atrocity of mountain top removal coal mining immediately. -- Ashley JuddI know it doesn't work as literally as this, but what would you do if you knew that ancient mountains were being destroyed and communities torn apart every time you turned on a light in your home, or flipped the switch on your sound system, or heated up water for tea?
There are a few more steps in the mining-to-lightswitch process, of course, but this is basically the story of mountaintop-removal mining. I want to invite you to attend a sneak-peek screening of a stunning new film on the subject, called Coal Country , and also to sign up to win one of ten free copies of the film's companion book, Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal , published by Sierra Club Books. Keep reading......
TreeHugger will be at Greenbuild in Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow to hear Al Gore give the keynote address. He will have a tough act to follow after last year's Van Jones' barnburner. The expo is also pretty spectacular, with a lot of green gizmos and gadgets, but also some simple, effective green building products. Some of the highlights of last year's Greenbuild:...
Calling it a "moral response to an immoral situation" and drawing inspiration from social justice luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the organizers of Climate Justice Fast, and a growing list of 150+ supporters from around the world, have begun a hunger strike to last through the end of the COP15 climate change conference on December 18th. Fasters will subsist on water alone for more than 40 days:...
Raffaele Ascione cape worn by Lady Gaga. Credit: The Uniform ProjectRaffaele Ascione's cape--worn by pop star Lady Gaga--certainly affirms that shoulder pads are in. Sheena Matheiken--the face/body of The Uniform Project--wore the cape, and an entire design by the up and coming fashion designer at Saturday night's AccesSoireé, a six month anniversary party celebrating 191 ways to wear one dress. Thanks to The Uniform Project, we have the sentimental story behind Ascione's handcrafted design--click through for photos. ...
R4 Fashion event in Toronto, featuring Thieves. Image courtesy of R4 FashionR4 Fashion and Sustainable Technology Education Project (STEP) at the University of Waterloo, are bringing top Canadian designers together for a runway show and competition to showcase sustainable design and raise environmental awareness. Canadian designers Aime by Monica Mei, CARRIE by Carrie Hayes, Cherry Blossom, Thieves by Sonja den Elzen, Heidi Ackerman, and Rachel Jasmine Chan, will show pieces from their collections and create a garment from an unexpected material--waste, paper, and whatnot--click through for details and a fashion preview, in photos. ...
Score at Score! Credit: ScoreFlavorpill and Bust Magazine are hosting Score! a pop-up swap and fundraiser to benefit City Harvest. Attendees are invited to bring clothes, accessories, books, DVDs, and more. Everything is free--or as Kanye West would say '"free.99"--and Nylon Magazine's Senior Editor will be on hand to curate the clothing section. Click through for details.
...
Credit: Airwalk Airwalk recently launched Doing Your Part, an online fundraiser for Surfrider Foundation and Music for Relief. They are donating a dollar for every visitor to their site--until they reach $10,000--to the California-based environmental non-profits. Choose your favorite charity, after the fold....
Images courtesy of Hopenhagen/Ogilvy & Mather.This guest post was written by Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, as part of the Voices from Hopenhagen series.
In explaining the genesis of the name "The Beatles," John Lennon famously wrote, "A Man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them 'From this day on, you are Beatles with an A.'"
With its roots in such a story, the name of the band came to reinforce some essential characteristics of the thing it was naming: free imagination, inspired irreverence, and a dose of whimsical humility. Name and band were fused - and the John, Paul, George, Ringo foursome by any other name would not have been so sweet. ...
One dress, 365 days. Credit: The Uniform Project
You may remember Jasmin's post on The Uniform Project: One Dress, 365 Ways to Wear It back in May. Booklynite Sheena Matheiken's has made it half-way through the year--191 days on Saturday, to be exact--in one dress and with the help of vintage she's perfected the art of accessorizing. This weekend New Yorkers can borrow Sheena's style--she'll be dressed by rising star Raffaele Ascione-- and dress in black with vintage flare--like the invite suggests--click through for the invite. ...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 11.24.09
Photo by Adrian Cotter
Over the past two weeks, photographers of all abilities have been submitting entries to a new monthly contest on Sierra Club Trails. 
Attendees at the San Francisco Green Festival weren't lacking for beautiful things to look at. This display used found materials including flowers and edibles. It is beautiful, and colorful, but right next to it was another large and impressive piece of art created from industrial materials welded together. It was that piece that seemed to draw people in......
A familiar face at San Francisco's Green Festival was 
This weekend, San Francisco held Green Festival, the nation's largest green consumer living event. Over 40,000 people packed into the Concourse Exhibition Center to see over 350 businesses, artists, nonprofits, and over 125 speakers and musicians for a weekend of all things green. It was jam packed, and ever time I thought I saw it all, I turned a corner and there was a whole new row of interesting things to see. Everything, and I do mean everything was represented, including the latest in clean technology, green building, socially responsible investing, eco-fashion, renewable energy, green careers/green collar jobs, natural foods, groundbreaking films and ecotourism....
We 
Or so they are trying to tell us. The Vinyl Institute claims that vinyl is sustainable, versatile, energy efficient and durable. They even built a website, 
Image via: 
Vimy Ridge
On this Veterans Day in the States and Remembrance Day in Canada and Australia, it is worth reading a Sierra Club of Canada document about the
Global Green Award Winners: Dr. George Campbell Jr., Mindy Lubber, Peter Darbee, Matt Petersen, Bonnie Reiss, and Sebastian Copeland
"Mr. Obama -- Tear down this carbon!" news presenter Miles O'Brien demanded in his speech at the Global Green Sustainable Design Awards last night in New York City, before an audience of benefactors and green luminaries. His reference to 
I know it doesn't work as literally as this, but what would you do if you knew that ancient mountains were being destroyed and communities torn apart every time you turned on a light in your home, or flipped the switch on your sound system, or heated up water for tea?
There are a few more steps in the mining-to-lightswitch process, of course, but this is basically the story of mountaintop-removal mining. I want to invite you to 
TreeHugger will be at 
Raffaele Ascione cape worn by Lady Gaga. Credit: 
R4 Fashion event in Toronto, featuring Thieves. Image courtesy of 
Score at Score! Credit: Score
Credit: Airwalk
Images courtesy of Hopenhagen/Ogilvy & Mather.
This guest post was written by Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director, 
One dress, 365 days. Credit: The Uniform Project
You may remember Jasmin's post on 
