The Green Life

Weaning Off Paper Towels

The CDC recommends that you wash your hands after using a public restroom to prevent the spread of disease. But what about all that's wasted every time you use a paper towel? In fact, each person uses about 741 pounds of paper each year. That’s a lot of trees.

Recycled paper towels and electric hand dryers are great, but one company claims these solutions aren’t green enough. PeopleTowels claims that its organic-cotton hand towels produce no waste and reduce a user's carbon footprint. Also, they come in colorful designs.

The downside is that they can be pricey if you’re on a budget. And they're only available through the company’s Web site.

Fish is Delicious, But What's the Catch?

Isn't it frustrating when your best efforts to do the right thing are thwarted?

That's what may be happening to customers at some sushi restaurants that are serving endangered bluefin tuna without telling their clientele. Researchers at the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics tested the fish at 31 sushi restaurants in New York and Denver; they found that where bluefin tuna was served, it was correctly labeled “bluefin” only 36% of the time. Several times it was mislabeled as another tuna species, or just identified as "tuna." 

It's a tough time to be a pescetarian. According to a Monterey Bay Aquarium report, overfishing is pervasive. Most (63%) of stocks are in need of recovery. Destructive fishing practices like trawling harm the ocean floor. This BBC article from 2006 predicts that if current fishing practices continue, wild fish will be a thing of the past by 2050. Yikes!

Green Your Holiday Meals: Decorate Smart

Working up a menu for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or any of the other upcoming winter holidays? This week’s tips will help you be environmentally responsible while planning that feast.

Tip #2: Think Through the Decor

If you’re shopping for table settings for the big meal, look for organic, reusable linens and cloth napkins. As for the centerpiece, try to go with one that’s nondisposable or edible – such as a cornucopia filled with seasonal fruit and vegetables – instead of flowers. Did you know that around 80 percent of flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from Colombia and Ecuador and contain 50 percent more pesticides than is legal to have on edibles? Just some food for thought.

Tell us: How do you green your holiday decor?

Babies Crawl to Take a Stand

Thousands of babies are on a mission to Washington, D.C. They’re fed up with being exposed to more than 80,000 untested toxic chemicals lurking in their homes. OK, so not literally. But the Million Baby Crawl campaign is and they’re taking a stand for those that, well, can’t stand.

The campaign’s sponsor, Seventh Generation, plus Safer Chemicals Healthy Families and celebrities, such as Erin Brockovich, have joined together in support of the Million Baby Crawl. They want to strengthen the Toxic Substance Control Act, which currently regulates only 200 toxic chemicals.

World Toilet Day Spreads Word on Crappy Problem

Here's some food for thought the next time you're sitting on the pot: Nearly 2.5 billion people lack access to proper sanitation, which kills 1.8 million people a year. To raise awareness of this messy issue while celebrating the importance of sanitation, the World Toilet Organization designated today, Nov. 19, as World Toilet Day.

The WTO, a global nonprofit committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide, established World Toilet Day to highlight people’s right to a safe and hygienic sanitary environment. Lacking sanitation is socially and economically debilitating; diarrheal diseases kill five times as many children in developing countries as does HIV/AIDS, and they also cause people to spend weeks out of school or work.

Bright Lights, Big City, and an Empty Night Sky

Early tomorrow morning (between 2 and 4 a.m. on Nov. 17) will be the best time in North America to see the Leonids meteor shower. Unfortunately, instead of gazing up into a dark sky cluttered with twinkling stars, many people will only see a dull-orange or murky-gray haze when they tilt their heads skyward.

Light pollution, the glare from artificial lights, is blotting out the stars. It’s a problem in cities, but also in suburbs and even rural areas. The damage isn’t just aesthetic; over-lighting can be a costly waste of electricity. Also, animals’ natural rhythms can be disrupted when the night is no longer dark.

But fortunately, there are ways to reduce light pollution, such as using outdoor-lighting fixtures that keep light focused downward on the ground, or turning off those lights that aren't needed for safety. The International Dark Sky Association provides a helpful guide for homeowners about choosing outdoor-lighting fixtures. If you're concerned about light pollution in your hometown, contact your city council, especially when new residential and commercial developments are being planned. 

-- Année Tousseau

An SUV with a Whale-Penis-Leather Interior? No Thanks.

What do Greenpeace, Pamela Anderson, and million-dollar Russian SUVs have in common? Whale penises. Recently, Dartz, the Russian manufacturer of the $1.5 million Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition SUV, withdrew its plans to line the model’s interior using whale-penis leather after being criticized by environmental and animal-advocacy groups.

Still, the car will be produced, and "gaudy" doesn't even begin to describe this four-ton, bulletproof, Kevlar-coated monstrosity with gold-plated windows, pure tungsten exhaust pipes, and diamond-encrusted speed gauges. To top it off, buyers get three bottles of Russo-Baltique, a vodka that retailed at $1.3 million last year.

Who Makes America's Dirtiest Car?

What makes one car more environmentally friendly than another? Better gas mileage, right? But that's only part of the equation. A greener auto combines fuel efficiency with lower tailpipe emissions of noxious gases like carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and formaldehyde.

Drawing from this logic, Forbes published its list of America's dirtiest cars and trucks. The worst? The gas-guzzling, emissions-coughing Jeep Grand Cherokee. Domestic automakers make up most of the entries on the list, with Chrysler alone responsible for five. (Tsk, Tsk.)

Forbes didn't produce a list of the cleanest cars, but hybrids boast excellent gas mileage and many have extremely low tailpipe emissions. The California Air Resources Board maintains a useful site that compares cars and trucks to others of the same year and assigns each a "global-warming score" and a "smog score," similar to how the Forbes list was drawn up.

--Année Tousseau

Eating Green Without Going Veg

It can be tough being both an environmentalist and a meat-eater. We know that industrial animal feedlots can produce as much waste as cities and a lot ends up fouling our waters. We know that raising animals to eat requires much more fuel and energy than raising veggies. Recently there's also been uproar about the health dangers lurking in that seemingly innocuous mound of pink, squiggly hamburger meat at the grocery store.

Many people find it easy to go meatless, but what about those of us who care about the planet but can’t shake our deep, abiding love for cheeseburgers and carne asada burritos? Can a house divided against itself stand? Some are saying we can have our steak dinner and eat it too, if we replace conventional beef with local, grass-fed beef.

Movie Review Friday: Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home

Escape to the movies with one of our Movie Review Friday selections. Each week we review a film with an environmental theme that's currently in theaters or available on DVD. Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a short review and look for it in the next Movie Review Friday.

Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home (2007)

Available on DVD; watch the first 20 minutes here

Garbage! is an in-depth look at the typical family's environmental impact. Living in a consumer-driven, pollution-oriented society, filmmaker Andrew Nisker became concerned for the type of environment his young son would grow up in. Interested in analyzing households' waste output, Nisker asked the McDonald family to hold onto every single piece of trash for three months.

As the McDonalds (Glen, Michele, and their three children) begin to save paper plates, candy wrappers, Christmas packaging, and everything else, Nisker traces the family’s eco-footprint to find out where their stuff comes from and ends up. To avoid health violations, the family disposed of “wet garbage” (compost materials such as food scraps, cat litter, and diapers) once a week but kept track of the weight thrown out. Nisker also examined the family's habits involving recycling, transportation, water, and energy.

Nisker’s journey from the McDonalds' home in Toronto took him to local supermarkets, rivers, and recycling plants, but also to landfills in Michigan and topless mountains in West Virginia. He interviewed community members about the impacts of detrimental production practices on the environment and people’s health, doing an excellent job of revealing an out-of-sight-out-of-mind disconnect that exists between consumers and their environmental footprints.

The film is informative and easy to follow without being overwhelming. Nisker’s passion for change is refreshing and original. His commitment to the cause is demonstrated in part by his emotional struggle to part ways with his precious, albeit polluting, Jeep. Garbage! presents a fantastic experiment about household waste paths and is a must-see for anyone interested in environmental issues; Nisker really does prove that “the revolution starts at home.” 

--Michael Mullaley