Senate Climate Bill Revealed: A Quick Guide

Senate Climate Bill Revealed: A Quick Guide:

The Senate climate bill, called the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, just made its debut today. There are still pieces deliberately left out of the bill that will be subject to Senate debate, and of course, time will need to be taken to properly analyze the 800-page bill (hey, at least it's shorter than Waxman-Markey's 1300-pager). But here's a first look--a rundown of its pros and cons...

One major difference in the Senate bill is it includes incentives for more nuclear power--a measure included perhaps to draw more Republicans, who've long said they want to see more nuclear power included, to the bargaining table.

Carbon offsets, one of the more dubious components of the climate bill, are now more affordable and easier to purchase, in what appears to be a concession to conservatives and heavy industry groups. There's also more faith and funding put into carbon sequestration, a technology that's still years away, but acts as a sign of good faith to the powerful coal industry.

But all the differences aren't negative--in fact, many seem to be drastic improvements:

The Senate bill leaves the EPA in the game--where the Waxman-Markey bill would remove the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases as a harmful pollutant, it's intact in Kerry-Boxer.

It also introduces a price collar on carbon, which has some climate policy experts thrilled. That basically means there's a limit to how cheap or how expensive carbon permits can be priced, which stabilizes costs and is good for industry. It also prevents the price from falling too low.

Sure some improvements but appeasing nuclear and coal industries?

What's the downside?

Kerry on Climate: "Suppose Al Gore Is Wrong":

'Suppose they're all wrong.' Sen. John Kerry, a co-sponsor of the climate bill that will hit the Senate this week, was talking about Al Gore, Jim Hanson, and other climate change worriers at a discussion last Monday, 'and we get going at [addressing carbon emissions]?' His response was almost Friedman-esque (see yesterday's column) -- but thankfully without the PR sloganeering:

What's the worst that will happen? We'll be in the ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

So the downside of going green - wait....wait....is there one?

Just too inconvenient

Cassandras of Climate by Paul Krugman

Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.

And here’s the thing: I’m not engaging in hyperbole. These days, dire warnings aren’t the delusional raving of cranks. They’re what come out of the most widely respected climate models, devised by the leading researchers. The prognosis for the planet has gotten much, much worse in just the last few years.

What’s driving this new pessimism? Partly it’s the fact that some predicted changes, like a decline in Arctic Sea ice, are happening much faster than expected. Partly it’s growing evidence that feedback loops amplifying the effects of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are stronger than previously realized. For example, it has long been understood that global warming will cause the tundra to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide, which will cause even more warming, but new research shows far more carbon locked in the permafrost than previously thought, which means a much bigger feedback effect.

The result of all this is that climate scientists have, en masse, become Cassandras — gifted with the ability to prophesy future disasters, but cursed with the inability to get anyone to believe them.

n a rational world, then, the looming climate disaster would be our dominant political and policy concern. But it manifestly isn’t. Why not?

Part of the answer is that it’s hard to keep peoples’ attention focused. Weather fluctuates — New Yorkers may recall the heat wave that pushed the thermometer above 90 in April — and even at a global level, this is enough to cause substantial year-to-year wobbles in average temperature. As a result, any year with record heat is normally followed by a number of cooler years: According to Britain’s Met Office, 1998 was the hottest year so far, although NASA — which arguably has better data — says it was 2005. And it’s all too easy to reach the false conclusion that the danger is past.

But the larger reason we’re ignoring climate change is that Al Gore was right: This truth is just too inconvenient. Responding to climate change with the vigor that the threat deserves would not, contrary to legend, be devastating for the economy as a whole. But it would shuffle the economic deck, hurting some powerful vested interests even as it created new economic opportunities. And the industries of the past have armies of lobbyists in place right now; the industries of the future don’t.

Nor is it just a matter of vested interests. It’s also a matter of vested ideas. For three decades the dominant political ideology in America has extolled private enterprise and denigrated government, but climate change is a problem that can only be addressed through government action. And rather than concede the limits of their philosophy, many on the right have chosen to deny that the problem exists.

So here we are, with the greatest challenge facing mankind on the back burner, at best, as a policy issue. I’m not, by the way, saying that the Obama administration was wrong to push health care first. It was necessary to show voters a tangible achievement before next November. But climate change legislation had better be next.

And as I pointed out in my last column, we can afford to do this. Even as climate modelers have been reaching consensus on the view that the threat is worse than we realized, economic modelers have been reaching consensus on the view that the costs of emission control are lower than many feared.

So the time for action is now. O.K., strictly speaking it’s long past. But better late than never.

Too inconvenient. Changing the status quo. Leaving our comfort zone. A little work. Small prices to pay for a future.

Year of the Flood Tour

This Ain't Your Usual Book Launch

At every stop of the Year of the Flood tour, admission and fundraising goes to local green charities; tonight is to Nature Canada. In the States, it will go to Farm Forward, the American Bird Conservancy, Oceana and WildEarth Guardians.

Of course, this is the woman who complained about the carbon footprint of book tours, and famously invented the Long Pen so she wouldn't have to do this any more. But this is so much more than a book launch, and she works hard to make it as green as possible (besides supporting so many good charities):

• Book tours take energy, and not just that of the author. Airplanes, trains, taxis; hotels, meals, the powering of lights and heat for events and appearances - all consume.
• In an effort to keep this tour as green as possible, all those involved have agreed to make the following choices wherever possible.

• To make the events as local as possible, by using not only local talent but also local food, organic if available.
• The author is taking the VegiVows for the duration of the trip, with the exception of non-avian and non-mammalian bioforms once a week. Like the Gardeners, however, she will permit eggs, viewed as a sort of nut.
• To carbon-neutralize the travel, with the help of the calculations of ZeroFootprint ; to go by train when possible.
• To choose hotels and other sleeping places that have environmental policies, whenever available.
• To choose paper that is Ancient Forest Friendly and approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, with the help of Canopy
• To choose CD covers that are environmentally friendly, and organic cotton only for the items in our Café Press store
• To request the event venues to serve only shade-grown, organic, fair trade coffee, which is bird-friendly - unlike sun-grown and pesticide-sprayed, a huge destroyer of songbirds.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the tour hits in my area. Would love to be a part of it.

Corporate Doublespeak

Sugar Laden and Highly Processed Foods To Be Sold As “Smart Food Choices”:

General Mills and Kellogg’s want to sell sugary processed foods like Froot Loops and Lucky Charms to your kids.  This isn’t anything new.  But under the guise of the new “Smart Choices” Program, large food corporations want to proudly label sugary, highly processed foods as good nutritional food options.

The program was recently created by a conglomerate of conglomerates, including ConAgra Foods, Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, Pepsico, Tyson Foods, and Unilever.  The participating companies list all their products that “meet a comprehensive set of nutrition criteria based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and other sources of nutrition science and authoritative dietary guidance”.  You can review the Smart Choices website for yourself.

Read more of this story »

Sugar is good - repeat after me - sugar is good. Sugary and multi-collared cereal with cartoon character mascots are good. Your Real basic food is so old-fashioned. Processed foods are the "in" foods.

Pancake patch next year?

Farmer Gene Logsdon Explains How to Make Your Own Home-Grown 'Pancake Patch':

More and more people are growing their own veggies, but what about grains?

Growing grains? According to Logsdon - if you know how to garden you know how to grow grains.

Still using Stone Age Incandescents

The L Prize: A New Look at an Old Bulb:

Image via: the8rgrl at Flickr.com

These days with CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs), and LEDs (light emitting diodes) and everything else, it seems hard (or maybe just taboo) to remember a time when we used something as inefficient as the standard 60-watt incandescent lightbulb. Yet, they still make up 50% of the market share and the US Energy Department wants companies to take a new look at this old standard. For whomever can come up with a highly-efficient yet comparable alternative they win $10 million, and that's just the tip of th...read on

I am just amazed that incandescent bulbs still make up 50% of the market share. Maybe not amazed - shocked. Unless you had purchased a 10 year supply and continuing to replace your bulbs with those old incandescents, why you are continuing to but them is totally insane. With the new CFLes out there, you can't blame it on the use of dimmers, lamp shades....

Toilet paper wars

Plush Toilet Paper: Soft on Your Butt, Hard on the Environment

A recent Washington Post article tackles the tender issue of toilet paper softness. The article reported the market is glutted with super-plush toilet paper; they cited Quilted Northern Ultra Plush as emblematic of the trend toward super-softening toilet paper. But there is one big problem: the softer the toilet paper, the more likely it is made from old growth and virgin trees. But as Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist with the NRDC said, "We don't need old-growth forests . . . to wipe our behinds."

Old growth and virgin wood fibers are longer than recycled ones, and the longer fibers, when processed, make for an overall smoother, suppler surface. While TreeHugger has reported on blind tests that find recycled and virgin toilet paper indistinguishable, I don't find it hard to believe that the latter is softer (the Post and Consumer Reports seems to bear this out). The more important point is the use of old growth forests for something as ephemeral (and possibly inessential) as toilet paper. Toilet paper comprises 5% of US forest products, but there's little reason why it shouldn't be less. And there's little reason why the toilet paper that is used shouldn't be primarily made of post-consumer materials. In fact, according to the market analysis firm RISI Inc. about 75% of "away from home"/no-choice toilet paper is recycled. So people can and will used recycled TP when the choice is removed. Yet a mere 5% of "at home" TP sales are 100% recycled.

Many ways to take care of your bottom. The article above has some useful links. Also consider:Seventh Generation and Marcal .

After the Flood

Disease And Dystopia In Atwood's 'Flood'

In The Year of the Flood Atwood imagines a country run by a corporate elite and policed by a corporate security force (CorpsSeCorps) trained in "Internal Rendition." Genetic engineers have invented hybrid creatures, like the liobam, a lion-lamb mix, and recreational meds such as BlyssPluss, a sex drug that promises multiple orgasms with no medical risk. These scientists are working toward the ultimate goal — immortality. Meanwhile, the balance between the human and natural worlds has gone awry, with "great dead zones" in major bodies of water and many animals passing into extinction.

Atwood is close enough to recent headlines and sophisticated scientific research to make her invented universe believable. And, she reminds us, scientists are capable of terrible, Earth-changing errors.

As The Year of the Flood opens, most of the human population has been wiped out by a fast-moving airborne plague. Toby and Ren, two women associated with a nature-embracing group called God's Gardeners, are among the few still alive. The cult's founder, Adam One, has warned of doomsday by Waterless Flood, and set up a series of food storehouses dubbed "Ararats" in anticipation of disaster.

Toby is holed up in a former spa, using her Gardener skills — gardening, foraging, using herbal medicines and, if necessary, a gun — to survive in the wilderness. Ren, a trapeze dancer at a high-end sex club, has stayed alive because she's locked in quarantine while awaiting test results after a client ripped her Biofilm Bodyglove.

As Toby and Ren struggle to find others, and to fend off nightmarish predators, they tell the stories of God's Gardeners, with its Edencliff Rooftop Garden blooming in the midst of urban slums, and the increasingly repressive years leading up to the pandemic they have both survived.

Looking forward to reading this book. "God's Gardeners" sounds like my kind of group. Who wants to start a group today?

Google's Carbon Cycle Maps

An important application:

Google Earth has a new application that shows carbon dioxide in different layers of the earth's atmosphere. Tyler Erickson, a geospatial researcher at the Michigan Tech Research Institute in Ann Arbor, responded to a competition call from Google asking scientists to present research results using KML, a data format used by Google Earth. This is what he came up with - an app that illustrates for us the carbon cycle, a deeper understanding of which can impact everything from mainstream understanding of carbon emissions to environmental policy.

Erickson said, "I tried to think of a complex data set that would have public relevance." NASA reports that it lead him to work with data from NASA-funded researcher Anna Michalak of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Michalak develops complex computer models to trace carbon dioxide back in time to where it enters and leaves the atmosphere. With this information, we now have a great visual way to see and understand the carbon cycle, seeing in color where carbon dioxide is cycled into the earth through plants and water or where it hangs in the higher levels of the atmosphere.

We talk often about how mapping can make people greener thanks to the impact visuals can have on our understanding. This new layer can help scientists explain the carbon cycle to people so that habits and policies can hopefully be influenced for the better.

Making it easier to see impacts, making it easier to explain what needs to be done. Thanks Google.

About time that the Interior Dept thinks about Mother Earth

Interior Dept Sees Need for Global Warming Strategy:

Wild Fire in California Forest in Fall of 2007. Image credit:Assurance Group

We cheered earlier this week when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the first-ever department-wide coordinated strategy to address the impacts of climate change on the public lands, wildlife, coasts, and ecosystems managed by his agency.

It's a fantastic plan and a nice coincidence because it comes right before our major Sunday event: Sierra Club activists from around the country are hosting more than Read the full story on TreeHugger>

Some encouraging signs coming from DC. Maybe there is hope for some change in direction.

Pee in Your Garden

Researchers Say 'Good To Pee On Tomato Plants' - Just Don't Let The Neighbors See:

Clandestine tomato plant fertilizing device: the Bed Pan Guitar. Image credit: Photobucket, by turquoisemoleeater

Now that my tomatoes are done producing for 2009, like all the other gardeners I know, I am planning to do better in 2010. Priority #1 for next year is to order the tomato plants from a small company that does not spread tomato blight to its customers. (Reminder to self: do not buy plants from home and garden stores.) Priority #2 is balance out the added cost for plants with reduced expen...Read the full story on TreeHugger"

Okay neighbors I admit it. I have been marking my territory for a few years now.

But hey, just like a dog, it works. It keeps other gardeners out of my garden.

A great step - The Green House

A LEEDer, greener White House:

The White House isn't so pallid white anymore, in all the very best ways—and none so inspiring to us here at Super Eco as its green initiatives. President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and the first family are very much walking the talk when it comes to taking care of the hearth of the nation in an eco-friendly, sustainable way. Now, the Obamas are taking aim at LEED certification for the White House itself. As the Green Guide reports:

According to government officials familiar with greening efforts,
the Obama White House intends to be the first White House to earn LEED
certification, a system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC) to measure and reward buildings and communities that implement
green building design, construction, operations, and maintenance.

“LEED certification of the White House is absolutely possible and
viable,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and president of USGBC, which has
offered to help advise the White House on the process. However,
Fedrizzi noted, it will not be easy because of the building’s historic
status and the security required to protect the President and his
family.

“A normal building is already a challenging assignment, and this is
something that’s a historic structure, one of [the] nation’s most
historic structures,” he says.

Here's something you may not realize: the Obamas didn't have to start from scratch to paint the White House a deeper shade of green. What the Obamas bring, though, is the interest, energy and fresh new faces it takes to color the White House and its activities a greener shade of sustainable.

• Victory for a White House garden
• The first garden: A fertile source of green ideas
• The first soil: Dirty business at the White House
• New White House chef is a lunch revolutionary
• Group urges first family to eat it (homegrown organic food, that is)

(Photo credit:The White House/Joyce N. Boghosian)

Kudos. Let us hope that it is not simply a PR tactic but one that can teach and set an example for all to follow. Simple steps to elaborate steps - bring them all to the public's attention.

SurvivaBall

In a strange way I wish this was real.

Veggie List

Veggie Trader: A Craigslist for Local Produce

How great would it be if there were want ads in your local newspaper or on Craigslist for organic fruits and vegetables, grown in your town, by your neighbors? A new website - Veggie Trader has sprung up that offers exactly such a service–a purchasing and bartering clearinghouse for locally grown fruits and vegetables.

From Veggietrader:

Using Veggie Trader is free and easy. It works like classified advertising. You post a listing describing the excess produce you have and what you'd like in return, and then you wait for a response...

Or, if you're looking for local produce, you simply enter your zipcode and see what your neighbors have available. You can also post specific produce you’re looking for in our Wanted section and see which of your neighbors answers your request.

Now if my tomato plants cooperate next year - bingo!

LED Light Bulbs

Green Irene has been going to lighting conventions and actively researching LED (light-emitting diode) technology. We were not happy with the first generation LED lighting which was over $95 per bulb and performed poorly. This new generation has come down a lot in price (though we admit a $25 bulb is not for everyone). Unlike most LEDs this is FULLY DIMMABLE from 0% to 100% (many CFLs have a smaller range). Its bright 3500k light is brilliant and will last over 12 years if on 24 hours a day ! These bulbs are made without mercury which has kept some consumers from CFLs energy saving bulbs.

Visit Green Irene to purchase.

Beyond "Buy Local"

USDA Urges Schools, Hospitals, Others To 'Buy Local'

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is launching a campaign to encourage schools, hospitals, jails and other institutions to buy food from local producers. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been trying to get Americans to eat more fruit and vegetables as a way to combat obesity. The campaign also aims to provide income for small farms and boost the economies in rural areas.

But it should go beyond "Buy Local." Create a campaign to reduce the consumption of processed foods. Encourage the baking of bread, cooking a meal from scratch, eliminating "fast food."

It is time we promote Slow Food.

...the idea of good means enjoying delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals. The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and celebrate culture and regional diversity.


When we talk about clean food, we are talking about nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity.


We believe that food is a universal right. Food that is fair should be accessible to all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor.

Norman Borlaug Dead

Norman Borlaug Dead

DALLAS — Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95.

Borlaug died just before 11 p.m. Saturday at his home in Dallas from complications of cancer, said school spokeswoman Kathleen Phillips. Phillips said Borlaug's granddaughter told her about his death. Borlaug was a distinguished professor at the university in College Station.

The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.

Thanks to the green revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period.

'We would like his life to be a model for making a difference in the lives of others and to bring about efforts to end human misery for all mankind,' his children said in a statement. 'One of his favorite quotes was, 'Reach for the stars. Although you will never touch them, if you reach hard enough, you will find that you get a little 'star dust' on you in the process.''

Equal parts scientist and humanitarian, the Iowa-born Borlaug realized improved crop varieties were just part of the answer, and pressed governments for farmer-friendly economic policies and improved infrastructure to make markets accessible. A 2006 book about Borlaug is titled 'The Man Who Fed the World.'

But how far do we go? Monsanto has taken Borlaug's work way beyond his humanitarian ideal. GMO, pesticide "infused"...sure more food - but quality and healthy food?

Probiotics

So I started my SCOBY using a bottle of GT's organic raw Kombucha drink. The first batches were made with black tea and one tea bag of ginger tea. The result - delicious. The batch brewing now - mixed black tea with a tea bag of Guayaki Yerba Mate. Can't wait to try the resulting nectar.

Have been making and drinking both milk and water kefir. The milk kefir is fantastic - so easy and quick to make. Blended with a banana and a few blueberries is the ultimate dessert.

The water kefir has been made with a fig. Very nice taste as well though I am ready to throw a dried apricot in for a different taste.

Great tasting products, good for me (full of probiotics) and cheaper than buying the products at Whole Foods.

Connecting with nature in your yard

Michael Pollan: People Are Finally Talking About Food, and You Can Thank Wendell Berry for That

It was Wendell Berry who helped me solve my Thoreau problem, providing a sturdy bridge over the deep American divide between nature and culture. Using the farm rather than the wilderness as his text, Berry taught me I had a legitimate quarrel with nature -- a lover's quarrel -- and showed me how to conduct it without reaching for the heavy artillery. He relocated wildness from the woods "out there" (beyond the fence) to a handful of garden soil or the green shoot of a germinating pea, a necessary quality that could be not just conserved but cultivated. He marked out a path that led us back into nature, no longer as spectators but as full-fledged participants.

Obviously much more is at stake here than a garden fence. My Thoreau problem is another name for the problem of American environmentalism, which historically has had much more to say about leaving nature alone than about how we might use it well. To the extent that we're finally beginning to hear a new, more neighborly conversation between American environmentalists and American farmers, not to mention between urban eaters and rural food producers, Berry deserves much of the credit for getting it started with sentences like these:

Why should conservationists have a positive interest in...farming? There are lots of reasons, but the plainest is: Conservationists eat. To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd. Urban conservationists may feel entitled to be unconcerned about food production because they are not farmers. But they can't be let off so easily, for they are all farming by proxy. They can eat only if land is farmed on their behalf by somebody somewhere in some fashion. If conservationists will attempt to resume responsibility for their need to eat, they will be led back fairly directly to all their previous concerns for the welfare of nature. -- "Conservationist and Agrarian," 2002

That we are all implicated in farming -- that, in Berry's now-famous formulation, "eating is an agricultural act" -- is perhaps his signal contribution to the rethinking of food and farming under way today. All those taking part in that conversation, whether in the White House or at the farmers' market, are deep in his debt.

It is from our own soil, from our own garden, from our own diggings that we connect with nature and come to appreciate, respect, love and want to preserve and protect our environment. And it all can start with a simple radish seed.

Parasites in Jersey waters

Bizarre Tongue-Eating Parasite Discovered Off the Jersey Coast

The sea-dwelling parasite attacks fish, burrows into it, and then devours its tongue. After eating the tongue, the parasite proceeds to live inside the fish's mouth. There's a horror film waiting to be made about this thing. Surprisingly, the fish doesn't seem to suffer any severe impediment--just the loss of its tongue--and seems to have no trouble surviving with its new, far uglier tongue.

Scared the heck out of me when I first read this - after having spent a week in the waters of New Jersey. A sigh of relief when I read:

The Jersey Shore is still tongue replacing creature-free, if you stateside Northeasterners were worried about the thing ruining your late summer vacationing.

Oh, that Jersey. Bad for them, a relief for me.

After Van Jones

What's Next After Taking Out Van Jones? Fox News Blurts Out Agenda to Sabotage the Environment

Having taken Van Jones down, the job destroyers and climate destroyers of the right wing most certainly smell blood.

Now Phil Kerpen, policy director for Americans for Prosperity, has laid out the right-wing strategy for how "the Van Jones affair could be an important turning point in the Obama administration," in a piece on FOXNews.com. AFP is "pro-tobacco industry" group that "worked around the U.S. in recent years to defeat" smokefree workplace laws (as SourceWatch notes) — and is now fighting for the big corporate polluters to block climate and clean energy action. Brad Johnson at WonkRoom has documented how Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a front group for billionaire polluters, pushing the most inane pro-pollution ads you'll ever see (here).

But what Fox News and AFP would like to achieve is no joke:

The Van Jones affair is, as President Obama likes to say, a "teachable moment," and we need to put not just him but the whole corrupt "green jobs" concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream.

Battle lines are being drawn. Shots have been fired and one casualty already. The problem is that if they continue their campaign the biggest casualty may be our environment.

Beck and Jones

Beck rides the crazy train

Somehow Glenn Beck's wacky proclamations never cease to amaze both in their inaccuracy and outrageousness. In case you missed this, here's a video of Beck taking potshots at Special Advisor on Green Jobs Van Jones (he's Beck's new favorite target) and praising DDT's effectiveness in saving 500 million lives. Beck appears to imply that environmentalists like Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring", have no concern or interest in all the human lives that were saved by DDT or the people who continue to die from malaria.

He also manages to mock "hippie" Joni Mitchell's song, "Big Yellow Taxi."

Is it legal to have him stand in a field and spray him with DDT? Can we also make him listen to Joni at the same time? I know - torture is inhumane - but he likes DDT.

Interesting note about the Van Jones issue: Arianna Huffington Thanks Beck

Contrary to the media caricature, the real Van Jones is a thoughtful leader who knows how to use words to move people to action. To stick him behind a desk, working out the details of tax credits for green jobs -- incredibly important though the job is -- was never the best use of his unique and abundant skills.

This is not an attempt to put a positive spin on an ugly episode. I've actually been feeling this way ever since Van told me he was taking this job.

Now, thanks to Glenn Beck, we've got that voice back. No longer tied to his desk with a sock in his mouth, Van is now freed to do what he does best: inspire and energize groups around the country. Student groups and labor groups and small business groups and middle class Americans everywhere who are losing jobs and losing homes and losing hope. He's free to push with all his might and insight for the vision tens of millions of Americans tirelessly worked for during the presidential campaign -- the vision they voted for in November -- but which is now in danger of being drowned in the fetid political swamps of Washington.

Interesting take on the issue.

Boy based on petitions I have signed and words I have used - I can never hold a position in DC as long as Beck is around.

But still the same food...

McDonald's Goes Green?

McDonald’s pilot “green” restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, is estimated to use 25 percent less energy than a traditional McDonald’s restaurant, reported the UK Times Online. The restaurant features a storm water management system and a vegetative green roof together with the required installation of Energy Star-rated kitchen equipment and networked equipment to save energy.

How about measuring the footprint of that Big Mac?

Solar Powered Skins for iPhones and iPod Touch

Solar Powered Skins for iPhones and iPod Touch:
Image via NovoThink

It looks like Apple gadget users will have a new way to charge up iPods and iPhone devices with the sun, thanks to the latest from NovoThink. The company has released the Solar Surge, a skin with an integrated solar cell capable of charging the Apple devices on 100% solar power. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Hint - Hint - I want one! But I have to wait for the iPod Nano version. Unless someone packages an iTouch with a Solar Surge for me.

No Impact Man - Big Screen

Author Colin Beavan, in research for his next book, began the No Impact Project in November 2006. A newly self-proclaimed environmentalist who could no longer avoid pointing the finger at himself, Colin leaves behind his liberal complacency and vows to make as little environmental impact as possible for one year. No more automated transportation, no more electricity, no more non-local food, no more material consumption…no problem. That is, until his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife, Michelle, and their two year-old daughter are dragged into the fray. What began as one man’s environmental experiment quickly becomes an experiment in how much one woman is willing to sacrifice for her husband’s dreams.

How does the White House Garden Grow?

I wish I had all that help to prepare and plant my garden. gardening...?

No need for deer fencing here. Those Secret Service agents are always on duty. Wonder if they can patrol my garden next year?

Move over Gordon Ramsay

3 reasons we love the Naked Chef:

Foodie fandom is all the rage—what? you're not watching Top Chef Season 6 in Vegas?!?—but if you're not a follower, take it from us: "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver isn't merely another pretty face. The UK chef and media sensation is becoming well known 'round the world not only for his food-focused TV shows but also his green initiatives. Yup, we're smitten. Here's why:

1. Oliver supports healthier school lunches for kids. His efforts to bring radical change to the school meals system threw down the gauntlet to challenge junk food culture and show schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids would actually eat. Starting this fall, Oliver will work with local officials to bring
   healthy food to America’s fattest city: Huntington, W. Va.
2. In July, the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food announced it would set up a program in Bradford, England, to help people learn to cook with seasonal and local
   produce.
3. Now, the Naked Chef is reducing his carbon footprint through CO2 offsets. To offset the CO2 emissions of his busy international lifestyle, Oliver is working with ClimateCare to donate to projects including solar power installations in India, wind power projects in China and providing energy-efficient stoves in Cambodia.  “My company is serious about helping to prevent the dangers of climate change and we recognize that, with everything we do, but especially with TV programs like this one, we create a carbon footprint,” he confessed.

The Naked Chef's work is clearly not a case of naked ambition. Oliver has made it clear that he values teaching real people, creating real recipes, implementing real programs (and not merely talking about the ideas on camera). He's the real thing: see more at JamieOliver.com.

(Photo credit:Jamie Oliver)

Three cheers Jamie - though I still enjoy Gordon's TV shows.

Waste Free Lunch Kits

The Waste Free Lunch kit for $40 in Caterpiller or Butterfly prints can save over $450 in saran wrap, tin foil, baggies and reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill. Visit Green Irene for Snack Packs and other items to reduce the waste in school lunches.

Connecting with Nature

A Conversation with Thomas Berry by Nicholas Tuff

I love this quote from Thomas Berry:

Why do you want the children to walk in the woods? Why do you want them to experience the rain and the wind and the dawn and the sunset and the whole amazing flurry of existence. The reason is to awaken in the children a sense of who they are and the context in which their life unfolds. In this way, the integral relatedness of the Universe will be preserved.

Not only children but everyone should go out, plant, dig, make mud-pies, listen to the birds, look up at the sky, smell the soil...

Take time to understand and feel our connection with Mother Earth. When we all understand we are all part of nature, environmentally sound practices and lives will come to us naturally.