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It gets harder every day to figure out who to vote for in Ontario if you are a TreeHugger type. It used to be New Democratic Party turf; then the Green Party came along, but one can't overlook the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty, which has pushed every TreeHugger button including:

Health: Banned trans fats in schools, smoking in cars with children, lawn pesticides and pit bulls. Planning: Cleaned up the planning act and brought in the Green Belt. Electricity: Banned incandescent bulbs, removed rules against clotheslines, closing coal fired power plants (or trying, anyways) Cycling: Eliminated...

Garimpo+Fuxique is the combination of a clothing and deco shops in Sao Paulo, Brazil, both centered on the idea of fabrics repurposing.

Garimpo stands for the decoration part of the shop, which hosts refurbished chairs, bed clothes, pillows, lighting accessories and even beach-ware such as umbrellas and bikinis. The style of the shop is defined by its hosts as a combination of extremes: romantic and modern, chic and popular, simple and luxurious, new and old. Fuxique is the clothing brand, which offers a whole line of garments, bags, accessories and necessaires. The clothes are produced with rare vintage pieces of ...

In a practice I can hardly fathom, the Turkish government has been giving 155 million new textbooks each year to students, most of which are thrown into the trash at the end of the year rather than simply requiring they return them for use by next year’s crop of students.

Of course there’s not only an environmental cost to this enormous waste of resources, but an economic cost as well, with the books costing the Turkish public more than $800 million annually.
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Times Are Changing
The climate science debate is over. Policy action is what it's all about. In spite of the US' delaying actions, other developed nations and many large companies are focused on real policy choices. Even Tony Blair has stopped 'beating around the bush'.

Scan Tony's recent speech on Breaking The Climate Deadlock, given to the Climate Group. Then download the full report on Breaking the Climate Deadlock (downloadable pdf file ...

Last month, on International Surfing Day, we talked about Rokkasho in Japan. Last weekend, the documentary on the controversial nuclear reprocessing plant and its potential effects on the rest of the world screened at the University of Hawaii.

"Now in the middle of the village at the highest point with the best views, a plant has been built for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants," Hitomi Kamanaka, the film's director said to KGMB9.com:

The rad...

PICNIC '07 winner Igor Kluin flanked by award creators and Richard Branson, jury chair.

Give us - or rather the PICNIC Green Challenge - your best climate-friendly, greenhouse-gas-cutting idea, and it could be worth a $750,000 cash prize sponsored by the Dutch Postcode Lottery.

While that may seem like an offbeat organization to be dabbling in eco-entrepreneurship, it's no joke. Last year's winner Igor Kluin (pictured above accepting his prize) revved up his company Qurrent with prize winnings, and is well on his way toward launching a system for connecting and managing local area networks of renewable energy...

Image from hdptcar

Time for another round of good news, bad news. First, the good: According to a weighty new UN report (it's 6,300 pages long and includes submissions from 2,500 experts) uncovered by The Independent, the world stands poised to enter a new era of peace, prosperity and empowerment. Increased democratization, economic and technological advances and medical breakthroughs have the potential to bring millions out of povert...

Tonight, one of our favorite celebrity chefs (from right up the road in Fall River, Mass.), Emeril Lagasse, will be starring in a brand new series on Planet Green. Not one but SIX episodes will debut tonight – BAM! Called Emeril Green, Lagasse will be helping viewers solve their cooking dilemmas and will shares his philosophy for fresh, locally grown foods and inspires consumers by using high-quality produce, seafood and meats.

Picture an ultimate foodie fantasy store. Then drop in some real people who have real culinary challenges

Actor Morgan Freeman is teaming up with us here at the Sierra Club on a project to provide people, communities, and companies in severe-storm and hurricane regions with the information they need to protect themselves from the effects of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. That includes sending the message that communities must work to protect, restore, and strengthen their natural line of defense: the wetlands, forests, and floodplains that buffer against high winds and absorb high water.

Freeman founded the Grenada Relief Fund in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan – a Category 5 storm – ...

Germany May Keep Nuclear Plants Running
The plan adopted in that preceding German administration had been to phase out nuclear power generation by 2020. Apparently, there are 17 nuclear plants still operating in Germany; and, Chancellor Angela Merkel, reacting to the political sentiments unleashed by growing electricity bills and the need to meet GHG-equivalent emission reduction commitments, is asking for a reconsideration of the nuclear phaseout goal. In spite of the fact that Germany did not, historically speaking, have much nuclear capacity to begin with (see graphic), there is popul...

(Picture: the Brazilian Senate in session. Credit: Agencia Senado Brazil.) The Brazilian Senate approved last week a modification to the law that establishes the amount of land the government can concede for rural use in the Legal Amazon without the need for a tender process. The previous limit was 500 hectares and now it's gone up to 15 fiscal modules: each municipality establishes the extension of the modules, and in some places they reach 100 hectares, which sets the maximum to 1500 hectares.

When Hillside Intermediate began their butterfly garden back in 1997 they probably had no idea that one day it would grow to 7 acres worth of carefully reconstructed wildlife habitat devoted to biodiversity that would earn awards from institutions like the Jane Goodall Institute and National Wildlife Federation. And no one could have predicted the enormous damage inflicted by vandals intent on destroying their hard work, even plugging up the entry to a bluebird box with golf balls and killing the chicks inside.

Of course, there’s often a brighter side when caring, decent human beings work together. And the outp...

Today, even the Wall Street Journal offers energy conservation advice to its readers. I guess it has gotten that bad, finally. I wish they had done so, say 30 or 20 years ago (or why not 3 years ago, when the IEA published its report called 'Saving Electricity In A Hurry', where the agency - correctly -predicted there would be more outages like those experienced in the United States, Japan and Canada).

Wall Street Journal: Pulling the Plug: ...

Except for a few US states (in blue) that seem intent on saluting the officially sanctioned corn blossom, it's over for a strong majority (states in red). Ethanol's flash in the cylinder is essentially silenced. Not much more for energy security is offered by ethanol, except indirectly, through it's fuel oxygenation functionality. (EtOH was always was superior to MTBE for fuel oxygenation, a fact generally overlooked by US print media and blog-xperts. )

Security dimension:- if pure ethanol is spilled on the ground, your well provides no more danger than drinking that "good old mountain dew." EtOH was always much superior to MTBE or straight ga...

Headlines revealing the discovery that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reduced the value of a statistical life by almost a million dollars abound. The news, as you might expect, generates some of the best humorous comments (quotes overleaf). But what does it all really mean? How does it affect your environmental quality? And how does it affect your finances, especially in a down economy?...

Thinking about investing in wind farms on the high seas? Scientists from NASA's Earth Science Division, working out of the California Jet Propulsion Lab, have used several years worth of QuikSCAT satellite data to produce wind power density maps for the ocean surface. Pictured here is the Northern Winter map. Northern Summer view is included in this link. (A list of "Top Ten" locations for frequent high oceanic winds on an annual average basis is presented below t...

I know that Barack Obama has the better environmental policies. I know he loves bicycles. I know he has to attract the middle American audience. But really, sponsoring a NASCAR race car? Via Wonkette, we learn from Sports Illustrated that "for the first time in history, a major presidential candidate may sponsor a race car in NASCAR's premier series. According to sources, Barack Obama's campaign is in talks to become t...

Beijing is "trying it's best to improve the environment" for the Olympics, largely by shutting down factories. But to really improve the environment in Beijing in the long term the government will need to focus on a much smaller but more prevalent carbon and particulate emitter: the car.
In the past, the city hasn't shown much interest in lowering the subsidy on gasoline or limiting cars, which, in a typically Chinese conflict of interest, are largely produced by state-owned companies. But last month, in a reflection o...

Farmboys turned fanboys?

You may have heard that the iPhone 3G went on sale this morning. I saw a line outside of the AT&T stores here in Manhattan, and I heard there was a line around the block this morning at the Union Street Apple store in San Francisco. But for the most part the lines this year paled in comparison to the initial launch. Yet my friend, Daniel Bowman Simon, takes the cake. Or, should I say, the Apple. Daniel and five other members of The WhoFarm environmental collective have just fin...

Enhancing America’s energy security is one of our country’s most pressing challenges, and U.S. policymakers are facing increased pressure to come up with solutions. Here’s why:

As negotiations around the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol loom and both domestic and international economies continue to grow, worldwide energy demand is surging. Indeed, by 2025, worldwide demand for petroleum is expected to increase by 30 percent*.

Business Roundtable firmly believes that enhancing our energy security will require diversifying our fuel mix and increasing fuel supplies to meet the energy needs of the transportation sector. Investing 100 percent in renewable b...

Enhancing America’s energy security is one of our country’s most pressing challenges, and U.S. policymakers are facing increased pressure to come up with solutions. Here’s why:

As negotiations around the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol loom and both domestic and international economies continue to grow, worldwide energy demand is surging. Indeed, by 2025, worldwide demand for petroleum is expected to increase by 30 percent*.

Business Roundtable firmly believes that enhancing our energy security will require diversifying our fuel mix and increasing fuel supplies to meet the energy needs of the transportation sector. Investing 100 percent in renewable b...

With kids across America suffering from a severe case of nature deficit disorder as technology creeps in and takes over their room for creative play it may come as a surprise that a group of kids putting together their very own field of dreams on which to play Wiffle ball have stirred up quite a ruckus in Greenwich, Connecticut.

It seems they’ve put a ton of time and energy into their recreation of Fenway, complete with a miniature Green Monster constructed out of reused pallets and painted green. But almost as soon as they began to play ball there were angry neighbors with a legal team, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in...

Ecotourism or green tourism started getting attention in Japan about 15 years ago, and if you carbon offset your airticket (which some tour agencies will now help you with) you could probably spend a rather planet-friendly week or two over in these parts of the woods. Rent-a-car? Oh, do pick up a Prius, but high speed trains are the most convenient way to get around, and there are local trains and bus services connecting even the most rural parts of the country to Tokyo and Osaka, the 2 largest cities. Here is a brief list of things to do on a greenish summer holiday to Japan:

1) Hotsprings - enjoy the volcanic...

Electricity Overload Leads to Bad Energy Saving Decisions

Do you suffer from "electricity overload"? We don't mean the number of plugs crowding your outlets. We mean the short circuit in your brain when you try to figure out: Do you save energy by turning lights off for only a few minutes? Which takes more energy: leaving air conditioning on all day or cooling your house after you come home at night? What is a watt? Do I pay twice as much for an appliance running on 240V as one on 120V?

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Photo credit: Hector Tobar/ LAT

Criminal mafias have long been associated with environmental destruction in countries around the world including Mexico and Liberia. A recent story in Los Angeles Times reveals that narcotraficantes, or drug traffickers, are clearing land in protected areas in Guatemala's Peten region, an area known for its exquisite biodiversity and ecological wealth.

According to the repor...