Someone stake me?

Please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Try your luck with two American originals and a host of their celebrity friends. Space is limited to 200 players and 50 spectators in this no-limit Texas Hold ’Em tournament with proceeds to benefit the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance.
In the United States, we consume over 868 million gallons of petroleum EVERY DAY. Community-based, sustainable biodiesel is one solution to reducing this staggering statistic. The Sustainable Biodiesel Allianceis a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on the value of community-based biodiesel and quantifying the attributes of environmental and social sustainability.

At Hustler Casino in LA.

Gardening with nature in mind

Image by London Permaculture via FlickrMimicking Nature to Feed the Masses

The second method is permaculture gardening, which is an interdependent system where a large variety of complimentary plants are strategically located for the benefit of the entire garden. This design system is brilliant for urban micro-farms, kitchen gardens, self-sufficient homesteads, and even large scale family farming. The philosophy of permaculture gardening is to recreate nature in a profound way to produce chemical-free food.
Permaculture works something like this; you design an entire edible habitat based on the natural capital of your setting. Then, place plants to methodically balance the soil, water, and pests. For instance, a nitrogen fixing plant may be planted next to a nitrogen hungry plant, which may sit next to an ornamental that deters predators, and so on. Permaculture is also a closed circle philosophy where all resources are optimized though conservation and recycling. The immense food yields per acre are astonishing when using permaculture methods and the results are also drawing many newcomers.
Many homesteaders have utilized these techniques for years before Bill Mollison coined the term “permaculture”in the 80s. However since then, the definition of permaculture has grown to encompass sustainable design systems for all aspects of our existence – agriculture, water, housing, business, community, and wellness.
Now that conventional agriculture methods that depend on cheap infinite oil are proving to be unsustainable at best, permaculture’s popularity is exploding. Numerous businesses, institutes, courses, and internships are popping up to spread nature’s gospel.
Learning about these methods has given me new-found optimism about living in a sustainable way as humanity progresses. These techniques can truly provide a future of what has been previously called an oxymoron – Sustainable Abundance.

Sustainable Abundance - love that term.  No harm gardening.

O Canada!

Canada Considering a Plan to Slaughter 220,000 Seals

What is a troubled industry to do in order to survive? Well, if you're a lobbyists for Canadian fisheries, the answer may be to simply massacre the competition. A recently disclosed proposal calls for the killing of a whopping 220 thousand grey seals to combat declining fish stocks in the waters off Nova Scotia--lobbyists say the seals have been eating too much cod. The details of the plan are quite nightmarish, involving the use of guns, clubs, incinerators, and even logging equipment to aid in the slaughter of unsuspecting seals, during nursing season, no less, when the beaches will be crowded with newborn pups.

The proposed seal slaughter, according to a study obtained by The Coast, would be carried out on Sable Island in Nova Scotia, one of the species' main breeding grounds. It all stems from the fact that fisheries have been facing declines in fish stocks over the years, a reality they're blaming on the grey seals and not on their own activity. So industry lobbyists have urged the government to snuff out their competition, and the commissioned study confirms that officials are considering the grim plan.

As it turns out, killing 220 thousand seals over the next five years poses a logistical challenge. Rifles would be used to take down adults while pups would be bludgeoned to death with clubs, amounting to 100 thousand seals killed in 25 days the first year. Foresters, equipment normally used to collect felled trees, would gather the carcasses into dumpsters where they would then be set alight.

"At this production rate, a tandem dump truck would be filled with seals approximately every 10 minutes...seven hours a day for 25 days," notes the study.

Kill off natural predators. Wait, follow the logic. Seals killing cod, we kill cod... O Canada, will the Gorton's Fisherman be clubbed next?

L.O.V.E.

LOVE for the Environment

All we need is LOVE.

There are many things and we can (and should) do to preserve and protect our environment if we want to preserve and protect life on Earth. Reducing consumption of resources, reusing products and materials, and recycling what can no longer be reused are all critical to being more sustainable. However, the most important personal thing we can each do for the environment is to fall in LOVE: Local, Organic, Vegetarian/Vegan Eating. (Vegetarians don't eat any animals; even better, vegans don't consume any animal products, including eggs and dairy.)

There is consensus amongst the overwhelming majority of the world's scientists, environmentalists, governments, major corporations, and many others that climate change in the form of global warming is, by far, the most important environmental problem facing life on Earth. Carrying reusable bags, changing to energy-efficient light bulbs, saving water, and driving less are all very good things to do, yet they all pale in comparison to the cool effects of LOVE.

None of these or other positive actions prevent us from doing others, and we should try to do everything we can to live more sustainable lives. However, eating has a much bigger personal impact on the environment - as well as our health and the health of animals - than anything else most of us ever do.

Spread the Love!

Front gardens

Edible Estates

Have we convinced you yet that there are better things to do with the water, equipment, fuel, energy and pesticides that go into maintaining a traditional lawn? If we haven't, add this voice into the mix: Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn by Fritz Haeg. This expanded second edition won't overwhelm you with how-to minutiae or examples of perfection you could never hope to achieve on your own. Instead, you get a steady stream of inspiration: region-by-region prototypes, planting calendars, yes, but also full-blown essays by sustainability supporters such as Michael Pollan and Lesley Stern.

"By attacking the front lawn," writes the author, "an essential icon of the American Dream, my hope is to ignite a chain reaction of thoughts that question other antiquated conventions of home, street, neighborhood, city, and global networks that we take for granted. If we see that our neighbor’s typical lawn instead can be a beautiful food garden, perhaps we begin to look at the city around us with new eyes. The seemingly inevitable urban structures begin to unravel as we recognize that we have a choice about how we want to live and what we want to do with the places we have inherited from previous generations. No matter what has been handed to us, each of us should be given license to be an active part in the creation of the cities that we share, and in the process, our private land can be a public model for the world in which we would like to live."

Will we be able to overcome our American preoccupation with lawns that project the right image to the neighbors? It's a major shift for many—but perhaps planting a book like Edible Estates on your neighbor's coffee table might inspire more fruitful plantings in the front yard.

My garden out of necessity is in my front yard. And the lawn spaces are not what my neighbors would call grass. Think moss, dandelions, violets...

Hey I like it.

Trader Joe's on the right path

Trader Joe's moving to sustainable seafood

Food you buy at Trader Joe's is the good stuff, right? Eco-friendly and healthy? Unfortunately, that's not been the case for their fish—but that's changing, as Trader Joe's announces plans to offer only sustainable seafood by the end of 2012. Greenpeace's mock web site attacking Trader Joe's appalling lack of sustainability went viral, pushing the grocer to take action. Trader Joe's had previously ranked an abysmal 17th on a list of seafood sustainability at major supermarkets, scoring below chains such as Wal-Mart, Target and Costco.

Rank below Costco and Wal-Mart? Wow - not very good. At least by 2012 they'll be on the right track. Question is - why is it taking so long?

Green Boot Camp

From Eco-Zero to Eco-Hero

Let's face it: being green is not always easy (despite what Kermit once said). Whether life gets busy or you simply don't know where to begin. Adopting greener habits can sometimes seem daunting. Well there is something new in town to show you that it's not and you'll learn how step by step.

On Monday, April 5th Your Daily Thread.com is kicking off a Going Green Boot Camp. All earth month long it will dish simple tips that will get you greener. In fact, it will help you turn from an Eco-Zero into an Eco-Hero, even if you've never recycled before. And all in time for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd. That's right.

The boot camp will cover the complete gamut of green living tips guidance ranging from energy usage to sustainable fabrics and everything in between.

Think you're already an Eco-Hero? There will also be advanced tips to help you "earn your stripes" and develop even more green cred.

Work It:

Simply sign up here and you'll start getting your boot camp emails on Monday, April 5th. The boot camp promises to be fun, fresh, entertaining and of course convenient enough to fit into your life.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for the Going Green Boot camp and become the Eco-Hero you know you have inside you.

>Sign up at Your Daily Thread.