September 2008 Archives

Due to technical difficulties beyond our control, we will be unable to post blog entries until further notice.

Please continue to renew, reuse, recycle, shun plastic, think green thoughts and most importantly...check us out on our sister station at Happy Monkey Planet!

Are you one of the gazillions of our peeps who faithfully post your antics, world philosophies, crazy pussycats and more on YouTube? Well, time to make some cold hard cash with your fresh green idea on The Tube!

The non-profit genius X Prize Foundation announced this week that they have crafted an eco challenge for YouTubers called "What's your crazy green idea?" Dream up a world-changing idea to stop global warming, post a two-minute YouTube video about it, and it could be worth $25,000. "Because before it's a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea."

The rules are pretty simple:

• Go join the "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" YouTube Group
• Create genius and post your two minute video to YouTube.
• The deadline for videos is October 31.

Your video should answer these three questions:

• What is the Grand Challenge or world-wide problem that you are trying to solve?
• What is the specific prize idea (goal, rules, judging criteria)?
• How will this prize lead to benefits for humanity?

The X Prize Foundation is famous for designing and administering wild and wonderful competitions with prizes of $10 million or more, for quests ranging from ultra-efficient passenger vehicles to breakthroughs in clean fuels, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, carbon reduction, and sustainable housing.

So get out that camera, fellow eco-lovers and commit your genius green idea to digital greatness. You could win $25,000...it could also be worth so much more to the planet.

For more information on the "What's your crazy green idea?" contest, go HERE. To find out more about the X Prize Foundation, check THIS out.

Here's a strange little piece of information for you...apparently according to a poll conducted recently by a hoity-toity marketing company, folks over 55 years old are the most prolific consumers of green products and services. All this is completely bass-ackwards to the idea that environmentalism is a youth movement. Weird, right?

It goes a little something like this:

• Both male and female groups 55 years and older reported above average usage of environmentally-friendly home goods.

• Leading the way are 55-59 year old females, who are more than twice as likely as the average consumer to use green products, the survey shows.

• Males 65-69 years old are second, more than 1.7 times as likely to use green products than the average American.

• When asked why they elect to purchase eco-friendly goods, a leading 33 percent of the group said it "makes me feel good about myself."

• The next most common reason selected for avoiding green goods was, "I do not believe that they are that much better for the environment," said 17 percent of respondents.

What does this mean? No seriously, I'm asking you. I mean, huge props to our older eco-friends! Thank you for doing what we have left undone and doing it well. But does this mean that us younger folk are delusional and dangerously self-absorbed? That we think it's someone else's job to save the environment? And what happens when, not to be all doomsday but, when the older green generation dies out? What environmental responsibility isn't 'cool' enough? Is it not enough that the green movement has been co-opted by Adrian Grenier, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tommy Lee, no less? Hey, even Miley Cyrus has a lame little green tune...that's not sucking the kids in?

I'm at a loss. We're the mover shaker generation and we're letting "other people" carry the responsibility. Go out and recycle something, would ya?

For more information on the survey results, check HERE.

Why exactly do republicans freak me out? I think this video speaks for itself.

It occurs to me that it has been weeks since the last time I went on one of my plastic bag rants. Plastic bags. Yep, those handy-dandy plastic bags that they pass out at the grocery store, pharmacy and just about anyplace you buy anything are choking the planet one bag at a time.

They're everywhere. Just look around as you walk or drive around the city, you'll see them clogging storm drains and stuck in trees.

Let me give you some numbers to consider.

• Californians use more than 19 billion disposable plastic shopping bags each year.
• Taxpayers spend more than $25 million to collect and dispose of them.
• Over one million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide.
• In the US less than 5% of plastic bags are recycled.
• Plastics are not biodegradable, they photo-degrade which means they break down into little toxic pieces. That can contaminate soil, water and harm wildlife.
• Approximately 60 to 90 percent of marine debris is plastic.
• Plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish or sponges, are mistaken for food by seabirds, marine mammals, fish and sea turtles.
• More than 1 million seabirds and marine mammals die each year because of ingestion and entanglement of debris including bags.
• Single-use bags made out of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are the big problem. They stay on the planet up to 1,000 years.
• It takes 11 barrels of oil to produce a ton of plastic bags.
• Producing 1 million bags generates 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide.

It's so easy to switch to reusable shopping bags, I say take the first step. There are so many styles options and sizes to choose from. Click HERE to check some out. You can carry them with no eco-guilt as a matter of fact you will show everyone your great big social conscience, and who doesn't love this planet? Well we love America right? That's what all those politicians keep telling us.

Ebay, everyone's favorite guilty pleasure and online juggernaut, has gone green and fuzzy. Ebay has launched WorldofGood.com, an online trading post that brings together thousands of People Positive and Eco Positive sellers and products all in one place, empowering you to shop in ways that align with your personal values. "Where your shopping shapes the world"

The goal is that you will be lured to buy things made of sustainable materials or products that help other people around the world, and Ebay has put them all at this one-stop-shop spot. Yes, it's consumerism...but it's ethical and responsible consumerism. And it gives you that same great Ebay high.

You can even search the site in four categories based on your ethical priorities: People Positive, Eco Positive, Animal Friendly and Support a Cause.

So what's available on WorldofGood.com?

• Pottery - This stunning, although not cheap, Murano glass vase hand crafted in Brazil

• Clothing - like this hand-dyed, organic cotton baby tee that is cut and sewn by the Fair Trade Zone women's cooperative in Nicaragua.
  

• Jewelry - or this rad bracelet made of colorful, recycled telephone wire by a Fair Trade bunch from South Africa called the Bartel Arts Trust
  

The nice thing about the site is that it gives you loads of information about where your purchase comes from and how it's produced. And of course, "Respected, independent organizations verify the positive impact every product has on people and the planet. Our goal is to ensure that every choice you make here is a good one."

So what you waiting for, kittens? Go CHECK IT OUT...that means CLICK HERE.

Last night I settled in to watch the first female GOP candidate for VP, Sarah Palin, give the most important speech of her very short political career. After the speech I then listened to the pundits and my fellow Americans and a bunch of coworkers basically crown her the new queen of the republican party.

I have to say I have my issues with her stand on "social" issues. But as I watched she made a lot of what sounded like pro-environmental claims to me. So being a blogger/journalist I decided to investigate some of her claims. Click HERE and see what I found. Let's just say she is a true politician, and expert at the spin.

In a previous post Stacy has referred to herself as a lipstick environmentalist. I must admit I'm in the same boat. I walk that line daily, I want to be girly and use make-up, wear cute clothes and beauty treatments...I am a woman of a certain age and frankly ladies we know we fight it every single day. So what's a girl to do? There are some more environmentally friendly options and we have discussed them on more than one occasion. I think I help keep Burt's Bees in business.

But that can only take me so far. As I looked around the eco websites that I frequent I noticed a bunch of homemade treatments from hair to teeth.  Now I can't say for sure if any of these options work but a few look like things I want to give a shot.

Homemade whitener for the teeth, sweet.  Well actually sour. Take a solution of 75% lemon juice and 25% salt and rinse.  This doesn't sound like the best tasting concoction, but what the heck I'll give a shot, my neighbors have a lemon tree.  Be careful not to swallow it if you are on a low sodium diet and it may cause a bit of pain if you have sensitive teeth so use your good judgment, please.

Of course the old lemon in the hair really does work if you have light hair or highlights. But if you are dark haired you can do the same with apple vinegar to shine it up. The old standby to deep condition your dry hair, and this one I actually have used, is a mashed up avocado a teaspoon of honey and about a quarter cup of good old mayo works great as a deep conditioner. Mix it all up take it in the shower and put it on your hair after shampooing. You will need to leave this on for about 10-minutes before rinsing. But your hair will just eat it up.

How about an eco option for face masks? I am a face mask junkie. Any of these ingredients are simple to put together to make a great face mask.  Just mash the ingredients together and let the mixture sit on your face for 10-15 minutes.

Try combining any of these combos:

• Apple+Honey+Oatmeal
• Avocado+Honey
• Banana+Yogurt+Honey
• Brown Sugar+Milk
• Strawberries+Cream+Honey
• Egg Yolk+Honey+Olive Oil
• Oatmeal+Olive Oil
• Cucumber+Yogurt+Strawberries+Honey
• Blended Almonds+Honey+Egg White
• Baking Soda+Water
• Apricots+Milk
• Lemon+Egg+Honey
  

Why not give one or two a try and the most important thing, relax. You deserve it!

I'm all about the snacks, mostly of the salty and crunchy nature...and although I've never been a super fan of SunChips, their green initiatives may convince me to give them another whirl. Because SunChips are now created with sweet, clean solar energy, at least in the company's Modesto, CA plant.

The California plant is just one of the company's eight factories turning out the little whole grain munchies, but the only one that is using solar power. The beauty of a small change is that it leads to bigger revelations. Consider it a first step.

For those grungy oil-burning plants, the company buys green energy credits to match 100% of the electricity required to make each and every bag of SunChips snacks. Renewable Energy Credits are used to promote the creation of renewable electricity.

Also on tap for SunChips, is the re-building of an entire eco-town, completely green inspired, in Kansas. Totally true story: On May 4, 2007, Greensburg, Kansas was decimated by a devastating tornado, leaving behind nothing but rubble.  The whole town is being reborn as an entirely environmentally friendly space.

Planet Green and Discovery Networks, in conjunction with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio, present "Greensburg: A Story of Community Rebuilding," a 13-part documentary series about the rebirth of a small town. SunChips has donated $1 million to help build the solar-powered SunChips Business Incubator in Greensburg, Kansas, which is designed to help small businesses get back up and running.

For more information on the solar toasted snacks, check THIS out. To read more about the work in Greensburg, go HERE.

For extra credit: The SunChip is neither a chip nor a cracker...discuss.