Kayakas!

Already under pressure from a combination of poaching, logging and disease, the great apes are increasingly feeling the threat posed by further habitat destruction as a consequence of the push to switch from fossil fuels to biofuels. Richard Leakey, the chair of WildlifeDirect and a leading conservationist, has warned that the apes, which include chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas, are facing an “inevitable crisis” and that measures such as financial incentives should be considered to encourage the protection of forests and other vulnerable habitats. Speaking to a group of journalists, the former director of the Kenyan Wildlife Service said, “I am concern…

The Government unveiled a scheme yesterday, where produce will carry a label indicating the size of its carbon footprint. It will take into account the production, distribution and even disposal of the packaging after use. It”s not an easy task though, because the footprint of an item in a supermarket is not always obvious. For example, a vegetable grown in Africa and shipped to the UK may have a smaller footprint than the same vegetable grown in the UK, if the greenhouse required heating. “More and more, businesses are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment. To help them achieve that we need a reliable, consistent way to measure these impacts that business…

In the fight to save energy and combat emissions, every little bit helps: even the lowly, mass-produced clay brick. Over nine billion bricks are churned out annually, each at great cost to the environment (making cement for concrete bricks emits thousands of pounds of mercury into the air while baking them discharges a diverse array of pollutants). Henry Liu, a 70-year-old retired civil engineer, decided he could improve upon this wasteful process. He came up with the concept for a better brick, one that would put to use fly ash, a waste product commonly issued from coal-power plants, and that would prove just as durable as regular clay bricks. Because they solidify under…

Michael Iannone has been hard at work ever since we spied him on TreeHuggerTV last year, building a beautiful Kirei Signature Console for eco-enthusiast Kachina Myers” housewarming party (here”s part one, part two and part three). In addition to changing the name of the company to Iannone:Design, just in time for ICFF, earlier this month, he”s produced some new …

Every 30 seconds, a book is published somewhere in the world. Stamping out our ideas in chemical ink on mashed up wood pulp is a process that leaves a lot of room for ecological improvement. The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing is the first book to tackle head-on the task of systematically lightening the ecological footprint of the book production process. Cindy Katz (CEO and founder of Plant a Tree USA) and Jennifer S. Wilkov (author of the Dating Your Money series and publisher of E.S.P. Press Corp.) are the Green Guide Girls™, and their roadmap to greene…

I guess the closest thing we have to a wedding theme is to  make it as environmentally-friendly as possible. Weddings are such big-business now, with the wedding industry pulling in a whopping $160-billion per year.  The average American wedding costs nealry $30,000, and sadly, much of that money goes into buying things that are wasteful and pollutive — not to mention over-priced and unnecessary.  I mean, just think of all the plastics, paper, and energy that is used to produce some of the decorations, favors, invitations, etc. 

Of course we aren’t planning to spend anywhere near $30,000 on our wedding, but still, we won’t ever spend this much money on one single event again, so we want to make sure that we spend our money in an environmentally-conscious and ethical way.  I don’t want to get so caught up in all of the planning (and the countless “wedding” products that are being advertised to me that I don’t really want or need) that I forget what is important to us.

Two things that are very important to us are the environment and human rights (which so often intersect). I am, after all, studying to become an environmental journalist, and A. is an anthropologist with a long history of activism.  When A bought my engagement ring, he wanted to make sure that it was not a blood diamond, so he researched it thouroughly ended up buying an antique diamond and having the setting made separately for me.  He could’ve bought an unethical diamond for the same price that was twice as big, but he stuck to his guns and didn’t allow the industry to play to his emotions and get him to go against what he believes in.  In the end, the ring turned out to be so much more beautiful, and more meaningful because I knew he put so much thought and care into having it made - and no one had to suffer for it.

I guess I want to apply the same concept to our wedding.  I think it will make it more intimate and special, and will reflect who we really are.  Let’s face it - neither of us have ever been considered “normal” and we have both always danced to the beat of our own drummers.  

Some choices we’ve made so far:

• We chose a reception venue that we knew could accommodate a vegetarian-friendly/organic menu, and they are a smaller, non-corporate establishment as well
• I chose a dress that is handmade in France (where they have very strict labor laws) in a small, ethically-run factory rather than in China, or some developing nation
• We printed our Save-the-Date cards on 100% post-consumer recycled card-stock
• We plan to use a mix of hand-made paper flowers (from recycled sources) and organic flowers instead of traditionally grown flowers that use tons of  pesticides
• For our favors, we are going to give everyone tree seedlings wrapped in burlap; if people actually plant them they will help reduce global warming and improve air quality; and if people just toss them (like they do with most wedding favors) at least there will be no harm done
• We are staying in a cute little bed & breakfast for our wedding night, rather than some corporate hotel - it’s better to support the little guy!

So far, one obstacle that we’ve run into is with the food.  A is vegan and I am vegetarian.  We are vegetarian/vegan primarily for environmental and health reasons, but I think many people in our families feel that we are just being picky, weird, or flaky/hippies, or whatever.  On occasion, I will eat a little bit of meat or fish, particularly if I am a guest at someone’s house who didn’t realize I was vegetarian (or when I’m at my parent’s house where there are never any vegetables to be found).  But, when spending thousands of dollars on a meal, I don’t want that money to help support the factory-farming/meat/chemical fertilizer industry. It is just simply something that we are not comfortable with.

If it were entirley up to us, we wouldn’t serve any meat at all at the reception. BUT, I’m pretty sure we would have a mutiny on our hands, so we’ve decided that we will serve a limited amount of meat so that our families won’t have a freak out.  However, it will have to be organic meat, which usually costs quite a bit more. The majority of the food will be vegan though and I think most people won’t even notice.  We are going to do a buffet, rather than a sit-down meal, so that way we don’t have to send out the meal cards ahead of time.  I can just see people getting the meal choice card in the mail and not seeing the standard beef, chicken or fish choices and being confused, so we will just skip that whole ordeal.  This way, nobody will have time to dwell on it because they won’t realize there isn’t meat in most of the food until they are already there.  Basically, we can almost “trick” people into eating vegetarian food by not mentioning that it’s vegetarian.  I bet most people will be hungry enough not to care.  And we are having open-bar, so that should help take their minds off the food for a bit, eh?

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I counted the number of plastic bags which Tesco used to deliver my shopping:

I got my soap nuts today.

I also go my Burt’s Bees Head to Toe starter kit and lip balms today. Yum, yum, yum.

BP:  125/82 (pm)

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WASHINGTON–  President Bush, during a speech to the US Global Leadership Campaign, discussed his plan to bring 15 major nations into cooperation on the handling of Global Warming.  Bush’s announcement comes less than a week before the G8 Summit, where climate change and global warming will be major issues.  The presidents plan calls for 15 industrial nations to come to the negotiating table before the end of this year, and create an outline for dealing with green house gases.  These talks would be attended by world leaders, industrial heads, leading climate experts, and alternative energy scientists.  In all, the international legislation would further postpone the United States from entering into  a binding climate agreement.  Since the finalization of the Kyoto Protocol, The United States has failed to lead the worlds fight against green house gases.  America is the number one world producer of green house gases, followed by China who produce about 56% of American emissions.  Ignoring the fact that the United States is a major cause of climate change, the Bush administration has vowed never to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.  The president has said that due to special considerations given to China and India, and because he feels lowering greenhouse gases could place undue stress on big business, the United States cannot ratify the agreement.  This attitude sounds less like a world leader and more like a elementary school student.  With or without full cooperation of India and China, America needs to be part of the overall global solution to climate change.  Even the Supreme court has ruled that the central government needs to take control of green house gases.  In the case of Massachusetts v. EPA, the high court ruled that the government agency did have the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions and other green house gases, and that its rationale for not utilizing that authority was unacceptable.  Of course the ruling did not go unchallenged, Justices Roberts and Alito, both recently appointed by President Bush, were joined by two others in filing a dissent form the bench.  It is not surprising that appointees of the Bush administration would try to rule against a case as straight forward as the one presented against the EPA.  Chief Justice Roberts even went as far to say that there was “no judgment on whether global warming exists, what causes it, or the extent of the problem.”  This statement is hard to understand coming form a so called educated man, every reputable scientist in the field has shown that global warming exists,that it has been perpetuated by human activity, and that it is possibly the gravest situation facing our generation.  The Kyoto agreement calls for ratifying Annex 1 nations, developed nations, to reduce their green house gas emissions to 5% less than their 1990 levels.  For some EU nations these means dropping back as much as 15% of their current levels.  Germany and Great Britain have gone a step farther and agreed to a 60% cut by 2050.  The Bush Administration rejected that accord less than a week ago, further alienating itself from the international community.  The Bush plan has no binding language and creates no international governing body, and is for the lack of a better term “worthless”.   The United States first needs to ratify the existing Kyoto agreement, and then work with other governments to set the next goals after Kyoto has expired.  Without America the worlds efforts are merely a “drop in the bucket”.  The United States has said time and time again that we will lead the world in the fight against terror, well whats is more terrifying than not having a world.

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There are common sense tips for saving gas–slow down, down make “jack rabbit” starts after stopping, etc. Hypermilers are people who know all the tricks for saving gas and make a game of seeing how high they can boost their MPG by applying them.

As some people quoted in the article point out, however, a few of these techniques can be dangerous. For instance, not everyone has the skill or reflexes to draft safely behind a tractor-trailer. Bottom line–always use common sense.

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While some might want to debate how this is calculated, it is still a worthwhile exercise. If they are even half right, it gives us plenty to think about.

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