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?

Three steps back

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

WTF: Obama Expands Offshore Drilling Far Beyond Bush

Well, we knew the announcement was coming, and sure enough, here it is: Obama has unveiled his offshore drilling plans, and to the eyes of the environmentally conscious, it ain't pretty. Matt already detailed most of the provisions, which were revealed last night in a leak to reporters. But in case you missed it, the new plan opens up vast swaths of American coastline: some on the east coast and some around Alaska for drilling--a more expansive offering to oil companies than even Bush ever authorized.


Obama's Offshore Drilling Plan
According to the LA Times, here are the biggest implications of the new drilling plan:


Eventually open two-thirds of the eastern Gulf's oil and gas resources for drilling.


Proceed with drilling off Virginia, provided the project clears environmental and military reviews.


Study the viability of drilling off the mid- and southern Atlantic coasts.


Study the viability of drilling in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas -- areas hotly defended by environmentalists -- but issue no new drilling leases in either sea before 2013.


Pundits and commentators are scrambling to rationalize Obama's move: some say it's a political olive branch to conservatives, some say it's intended to help persuade moderates to consider comprehensive energy reform. Bradford Plumer notes at the Vine that it may be a preemptive measure to quell public furor when gas prices rise above $3 this summer, as they're expected to do.


The move is certainly political--as noted just about everywhere, most of the oil won't be available for 10-12 years, and some of it likely never at all. And there's only 120 million barrels estimated to be found off the coast of Virginia--hardly enough to even put a dent in US dependence on foreign oil.

Playing politics with the environment and our future?

Too stupid to save ourselves

Image via Wikipedia

James Lovelock Says Humans 'Not Clever Enough' to Stop Climate Change

Climate Change is War: We Need More Authoritarian Action
Jumping right into the hook, Lovelock proclaims that,
I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle as complex a situation as climate change. We're very active animals. We like to think, 'Ah, yes, this will be a good policy,' but it's almost never that simple. Wars show this to be true...climate change is kind of a repetition of a war-time situation. It could easily lead to a physical war.

In the end Lovelock concludes, it's going to take a a catastrophe such as the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica collapsing and rapidly raising sea levels or dust bowl conditions throughout the American Midwest to actually get humans to act on climate.

He's right. We just don't care. We care more about Tiger Woods, American Idol... We need a disaster to move us off our couches and away from the TV.

Following the money

Koch Industries Funding Anti-Climate Agenda, and Now Democratic Senators

Oil and gas giant Koch Industries is doling out more and more money to Democrats as it works to turn the polar ice caps into puddles in bipartisan fashion. Formerly regarded as a staunchly Republican funding machine, Koch has given nearly 30 percent of its overall campaign dollars to Democrats so far this year.


Some of that largesse ended up in the coffers of typically environment-friendly members, including Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). As E&E News reports ($ubscription req’d) and The Wonk Room relays, Senator Lincoln has collected $10,000 so far this year from Koch Industries, and Senator Baucus has collected $5,000.


Why are Senators Lincoln and Baucus accepting this dirty energy money from Koch? In the League of Conservation Voter’s scorecard of pro-environment members for the 2nd session of the last Congress, Senator Lincoln scored 91% and Senator Baucus scored 100%.




Koch hasn’t had a change of heart or any moral epiphany about its contribution to global warming and planetary demise. So why are these Senators suddenly taking oil and gas money from one of the world’s worst polluters?


As we reported previously here at DeSmog Blog, Koch and its affiliates have funneled millions of dollars to industry front groups who contend that global warming is a liberal conspiracy rather than a scientifically proven fact. Koch-funded groups wage war on science and spout oil and gas industry lies to confuse people into believing that the status quo is just fine, which suits Koch’s oily bottom line perfectly.

The above was from July 2009. Now from Greenpeace

The company’s founder, Fred Koch, who once earned $5 million building oil refineries in the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin’s reign, was a co-founder of the libertarian John Birch Society. Charles G. and David H. Koch, two of Fred’s four sons, each now own 42% of the company’s stock. According to 2009 Forbes rankings, the Koch brothers are tied for the 19th-richest person in the world, and for ninth-richest American, each worth between $14 and $16 billion, more than George Soros or the founders of Google.


The Koch brothers use three foundations to spread Koch Industries’ influence, including support for roughly 40 organizations that doubt or downplay climate change or otherwise oppose policy solutions to build a clean energy future. Greenpeace also notes that Koch Industries has been the largest oil and gas industry contributor to electoral campaigns since the 2006 election cycle, and its done its fair share of lobbying as well.


The Greenpeace report notes Koch’s role in funding the Institute for Energy Research, which was behind the Danish study that attacked the viability of wind power. Greenpeace also points out the role that Koch’s web of climate denier groups played in supporting, disseminating and promoting the Spanish study attacking green jobs, including AFP, IER and the Heritage Foundation.

Following the money - oil and gas wallets need to keep their coffers filled and denying the impact of fossil fuel use is essential.

Way past the tipping point

Made by Hand

Made By Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throw Away World

I'm a creator by nature and consider myself a bit of a DIYer. I always have to be doing some sort of craft and my life has been filled with projects from knitting sweaters to painting huge canvasses, from sewing quilts to hemming my own clothes, from building bookshelves to gardening to scrapbooking to making soap and candles to spending hours in a dark room (which has now been turned into hours on photoshop). But I can honestly say that for all these projects, only a handful were done in order to fulfill a need. The projects keep me curious and entertained, they turn into but they aren't necessarily done in order to reduce a reliance on mass produced goods. Much of the time, if I need something, I buy it rather than build it. Why?


While reading Made by Hand this past weekend. Why not make something myself? Much of the time it's because it's quicker and easier to just buy it, or I think that I can't make it myself. But the essence of Do It Yourself culture boils down to the idea that if you can't make it yourself, is it a necessary item, or is it as satisfying of an addition to your home?


Frauenfelder realized that the stress and spin of daily life is grating. But by simply doing things for yourself - things you don't think you can do - you can seriously slow down, and find so much more joy, satisfaction and time, in your day. He writes that many people skip making things for themselves because of fear - a fear of failure, or of not knowing that something can be done by hand.


Made By Hand is a wonderfully inspiring read and makes turning to a make-centric way of life feel not only approachable, but utopian. Coming out on May 27, 2010, you can grab a copy on Amazon for $17.

The reviewer also posted:

So after reading the book, I made a list of all the things I have thought about doing, but haven't done yet out of fear of messing up, impatience, or laziness.


1) Make my own yogurt
2) Sew a shirt
3) Make preserves from local berries
4) Make my own bread
5) Whittle something really cool, though I haven't decided what yet
6) Re-sole my boots

In looking at the list, I feel pretty good. I've done the yogurt, preserves, bread and tried whittling. Repaired a shirt but never sewed one. Repaired my shoes but never resoled them.

The only things I fear doing myself is working with electricity. Not a fear of failure but a fear of electrocution.

Drop that "Chicken" nugget

If you could find the chicken in that piece of technology. I thought chicken bones are bad for you?

Carl Lewis Knows

Anthropocene man

Image via Wikipedia

Earth 'Entering New Age of Geological Time'

Humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes on the planet that we may be ushering in a new period of geological history.

Through pollution, population growth, urbanisation, travel, mining and use of fossil fuels we have altered the planet in ways which will be felt for millions of years, experts believe.
It is feared that the damage mankind has inflicted will lead to the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth's history with thousands of plants and animals being wiped out.


The new epoch, called the Anthropocene - meaning new man - would be the first period of geological time shaped by the action of a single species.


Although the term has been in informal use among scientists for more than a decade, it is now under consideration as an official term.

The big question is - Will Man survive in the New Man Epoch?

Shoes required?

Let Children Run "Barefoot" this Spring in VivoBarefoot Kids!

Playing in tide pools barefoot is a fond memory of my youth, so was climbing on rocks that scattered Maine's rocky coast; much to my dislike, the latter required shoes. This spring children can run wild--barefoot but not--in Terra Plana's VivoBarefoot shoes, with a thin puncture-resistant sole.

So you buy shoes to make it feel like you are not wearing shoes? Why not save the money and just go barefoot - for real! Barefoot shoes - an unnecessary purchase for running in the grass.

Everyone is in on the act

Even Triscuits by Kraft is promoting Home Farming.

From rural areas to urban communities, home farms are sprouting up all over the country. And it's only just begun. Triscuit has created this site with help from Urban Farming, a non-profit organization, to help build a home farming community where both beginners and more seasoned gardeners can dialogue and gather information towards their common mission: to reap food that is deliciously fresh, penny-wise, healthier for themselves and the planet. It’s about home farming, and the everyday joy that grows out of it. So join us and let’s get farming!

On their boxes they also have basil or dill seed cards. Basil on Regular and Dill on Reduced Fat. The big plus on the site - Paul James is the "resident farming expert." Loved him on TV!

Survival

Image via Wikipedia

Richard Heinberg on Life After Growth : TreeHugger

Richard Heinberg invented the term "Peak Everything," a term we have used a lot on TreeHugger. He has written nine books on the subject of how "resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared."


He concluded his recent talk in Toronto with the statement "Every crisis is an opportunity, and we are about to enter the biggest opportunity of our lives."
He is grimly optimistic, and as the slide shows, believes "life can be better." but before he gets to that upper of an ending, we have a downer of an introduction- a litany of what we are running out of (oil, soil, phosphates, natural gas and even coal).


We have reached the end of economic growth as we have known it. The "growth" we are talking about consists of the expansion of the overall size of the economy (with more people being served and more money changing hands) and of the quantities of energy and material goods flowing through it. The economic crisis that began in 2008 was both foreseeable and inevitable, and that it marks a permanent, fundamental break from past decades--a period in which economists adopted the unrealistic view that perpetual economic growth is necessary and also possible to achieve.
But he does believe that we can transition to a new economy that isn't based on growth.


The only reasonable response, it seems to me, is to act as if survival is possible, and to build resilience throughout society as quickly as can be, acting locally wherever there are individuals or groups with the understanding and wherewithal. We must assume that a satisfactory, sustainable way of life is achievable in the absence of fossil fuels and conventional economic growth, and go about building it.
Talk about "Opportunity"! Heinberg sees the Transition movement as a beacon in this calamity, and concludes an essay on his site that pretty much says what his talk did:


Call it Transition, call it cultural survival and renewal, call it what you will, it is the only game in town for the foreseeable future.

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.

Extending the growing season

Inflatable House Has Traditional Form

We love buildings that tread lightly and leave no trace, that give us a little extra room when we need it. (see all of our garden shed offices) Everyone has seen inflatable domes those jumping structures that kids love so much, but Altro Studio has come up with a more conventional house form made of modular, cellular sections that zip together. It could be the perfect inflatable garden shed. (For working in, not storing sharp tools)
It looks quite comfy, and full of natural light. Although, this was built a couple of years ago; people might worry now about living in a vinyl shed. The designers write:


Once the length of the house has been determined, each module is concluded in non-inflatable plugging panels, that can contain a door or window as needed. These last elements themselves, which allow for the ventilation of the internal space, are characterized by a side zip closing system.

With my luck the local woodpeckers will switch to plastic, start drumming on the side - loving the sound - and pop holes into the structure. Still would love to take a chance. This would be much easier to install - and take down.