Clean & Green
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Best & Worst Green Celebrities
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on May 5, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Popular Media
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009Aside from the Jolly Green Giant, which celebrities are really living green?
 Honourable Mention |
A friend of mine told me the other day about how U2 guitarist The Edge is putting celebrity residents of Malibu, CA in a tizzy by building five mansions on a local mountaintop for an estimated $15 million. Although The Edge claims the building project is taking a completely green approach, locals point out that this is irrelevant, as it will create a “permanently scarred mountainside” (I’m giving the “Best Headline of 2009 Award” to the Irish Tribune News for “Richest nimbys in US row with Edge over plans“). So this got me wondering: aside from the Jolly Green Giant and a few hot Sci-Fi chicks, which celebrities are really living green? Well, PETA has once again picked the sexiest vegetarians alive, Natalie Portman has a line of eco-friendly footwear, and a lot of celebs drive green cars. Let’s face it, it’s kind of a given that a celebity’s publicist will make sure that there a lots of green photo ops, like George Clooney posing with his Tango, but how green can you really be if you have to take jets, limos, and security teams with you everywhere you go? The Chicago Tribune has a slide show of not green celebrities, where we learn that Celine Dion, for instance, uses 18,000 gallons of water a day for a home she doesn’t live in, and Treehugger.com informs us that when Woody Harrelson forgets to pack his favorite vegan belt and shoes, he has them flown by jet to Cannes. Our pick for best green celebrity? Green Day’s partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council. You’ve gotta be a little punk to really be green.
What’s Your Facebook Footprint?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on April 19, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Sunday, April 19th, 2009Does the green movement’s use of the web cancel itself out?
Last year we wrote about how Ford was having a Fiesta, and that you weren’t invitado. Well, they’re finally going to market the car next year in the states, and they apparently picked 100 bloggers from over 4,000 applicants to pump their product through social networking. Which all got me wondering. What is the carbon footprint of our time spent on the web? Well, apparently two Google searches produce the same amount of CO2 as bringing water to a boil on your stovetop. Some other examples: the total of electricity consumed by major search engines in 2006 was nearly 5 gigawatts, which is enough to power Las Vegas on the hottest day of the year. What about the trillions of spam messages sent annually? They consume enough electricity to power 2.4 million homes, and release as much carbon dioxide as 3.1 million cars consuming 2 billion gallons of gasoline. Which begs the obvious question: if that’s the impact of spam, what about porn? Based on all of this, will the benefits of buying a Fiesta be undone by all the blogging and Facebooking about them? You decide. Current estimates would put Facebook’s overall carbon footprint at half of New York City’s (thanks mostly to all those photos you share!). That somehow doesn’t sound as bad as the fact that Avatars in Second Life consume as much electricity as actual Brazilians, but it’s still a hefty figure. Fortunately there are lots of Facebook apps to help you manage your carbon footprint. If you actually take this topic seriously and want to figure out your carbon footprint, there a plenty of resources like the LowImpactLiving.com Impact Calculator, and this WSJ article takes a good look at a few products and how their footprints are measured.
Luxury Buses For The Rich, Dumpster Diving For The Rest Of Us
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on April 4, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green
Saturday, April 4th, 2009I’m either going Freegan or getting a job with Twitter
In my effort to live a greener lifestyle, I can’t decide whether to become a dumpster-diving freegan or get a high-paying job in San Francisco. We touched on dumpster diving back in June 2008, when the concept seemed a little far-fetched for the average American. Apparently though, things are getting tough enough that it’s becoming an acceptable lifestyle. It’s interesting to me, however, the way American society remains curiously stratified even when “going green”. While some people are literally dumpster-diving for dinner, others can only be encouraged to take the bus if it has wifi, leather seats, and a hostess. Although my irritation with Liberal Elitist Crybabies was momentarily aroused by the article in that last link, I dug a little deeper and was a little impressed with the strategies of the Bay Area company Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation. The inclination of course, is to snark at how hard it is to pry an aging yuppy from their BMW, but the company is in fact tapping into a market that otherwise probably WOULD keep driving their car around as the sole occupant, so let’s give them that much. They’re also putting some energy into awareness-raising , and have clearly defined plans for emissions reductions . And of special concern to people like me, yes, they even have the “short bus” option (26MB Video). Not to be confused with a Yuppie Short Bus. Read the rest of this entry »
Bottled Or Tapped?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on March 11, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009When It Comes To Water, The Choice Is Clear
I think it was WC Fields who said “Water? Never touch the stuff. Fish f*** in it, you know”. In spite of the fact that bottled water makers continue to suggest that their product is somehow pure, there’s really no assurance this is true, and oddly, L.A. tap water often beats out bottled water brands in blind taste tests. Add to this the fact that it takes 17 million barrels of oil annually to package and transport America’s bottle water consumed (tap water has 1/100 the environmental impact of bottled water) and you have a big loser all around. It also is ironic that it takes 3 liters of water to package every 1 liter of bottled water, and that while people fret about the economy, they pay $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon for bottled water, while tap water costs a mere $0.002 per gallon. Duke University did an insightful study that outlines the drawbacks of bottled water; they took the results seriously enough that they’re petitioning congress. If you still really want bottled water and your local tap water sucks, see if maybe your area has a product like NYC’s Tap’d, or until Segway creator Dean Kamen’s amazing Slingshot purification system catches on, consider finding your own home water purifying
Lions and Tigers and…Well Okay, No Tigers Or Bears…
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 4, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009Amara Conservation: Sustainable Wildlife Conservation Through Education
…but there are some elephants involved. For several years I’ve worked with a very cool non-profit in Kenya called Amara Conservation. Originally founded by Lori Bergemann of Ann Arbor, MI, Amara focuses on encouraging sustainable wildlife conservation in Kenya, mainly by using a mobile film unit to show educational films produced by the African Environmental Film Foundation to the rural people of Kenya. Amara supports a lot of other projects in Kenya, including lion translocation, various activities of the Kenya Wildlife Service, and is currently working on some other interesting projects, including a mobile radio station in conjunction with UK-based Radioactive. The clip here is an early promotional video from 2001. We’re currently planning a May/June fundraiser in Michigan; if you’re interested in helping out somehow (volunteering, networking, fund raising), contact me or contact Amara via their web site. The clip here was written & produced Chris Cook, edited by Matt Zacharias, with music by yours truly, Ian Gray. Read the rest of this entry »