Green Daily

Sad but true: there are lots of endangered animals out there. Climate change, deforestation and habitat destruction are all powerful forces working against wild populations of, well, most wild animals.

So you know it has to be pretty bad when the World Wildlife Fund singles out a species for particular attention. This week the conservation organization called for urgent action to save the tigers. In addition to surviving the three challenges above, these regal striped beasts have been brought to their collective knees by poaching and "parts trafficking".

Yep. A whole species brought down by the Tiger Penis Trade.

Yes, what I'm asking is if it's okay to eat a baby animal if it had a good, albeit short life?

Proponents of pasture-raised "rose veal" say that their veal is fundamentally different from the nightmarish image of animals kept in pens so small they are unable to move, and pumped full of antibiotics to stave off rampant infection, a.k.a. "white veal."

For years chefs have been complaining about the bland taste of pen-raised white veal, which are kept in crates so small they can't turn or lie down, and fed a diet of artificial milk. The main appeal, if you could get past the cruelty issue, was tenderness: you can cut it with the side of a fork. Rose veal has a more developed flavor because of a mixed diet of milk and grains, and the milk often actually comes from its mother. This kinder veal is growing in popularity with foodies, especially those who espouse whole animal, sustainable practices.

Many of our friends at PETA, and other animal-rights organizations, believe that we shouldn't be eating meat or drinking milk in the first place, but if you are, it's unspeakably cruel to take animals away from the mother at such a young age. Generally they make little or no distinction between pink and white veal.

Have you always dreamed of costarring in a film or video with an animated partner, like Paula Abdul and that dancing cat in "Opposites Attract"? And do you have a message for the world about saving the rainforest? If so, The Prince's Rainforest can help you achieve both of these dreams.

HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, created The Prince's Rainforest Project to simply raise awareness of the connection between deforestation and climate change. The campaign has a frog mascot who appeared in a video with Prince Charles, as well as Princes William and Harry, Daniel Craig, Pele, Harrison Ford, and perhaps inevitably, Robin Williams.

One of the coolest things about the campaign is that you can make your own video, with the frog, urging world leaders to take bold action to address climate change at Copenhagen. It's hard to imagine that world leaders haven't heard this message yet, with all of the activism going on practically every day, but if anything will catch the attention of the last few resisters, I'm betting the frog is it.

University of Kentucky Uses Innovative Recycled Plastic Decking at the Solar Decathlon from Plastics Make it Possible on Vimeo.

Last month students from around the world gathered on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to compete in the Solar Decathlon, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Twenty teams designed, built and operated solar-powered homes, which were then opened to the public, both to get votes, and to educate people about the latest uses of energy-efficient building practices and materials.

The first, and hardest, part of the competition actually happens before they get to D.C., when the teams design their structures, raise money to build them, and supervise contractors to actually raise them. Then they take them apart -- very carefully! -- and transport them to the National Mall, where they are reassembled on site. The final phase includes the judging, where they are evaluated on 10 different areas:

I'm sure a few of you will agree with me that the Eco/Green Movement can be a bit lacking in the sense of humor department. But two men -- two Yes Men -- have made it their mission to remedy both corporate wrong doings, and the dearth of laughs in the discussion.

Mike Bonnano and Andy Bichlbaum are the Yes Men -- or at least, those are their stage names. The two activists/performers/pranksters/identity thieves -- although they call it "identity correction" -- star in the new documentary "The Yes Men Fix the World," which showcases some of the big "Borat"-style hoaxes they've played on corporate world, all in the name of drawing attention to the way things should be.

The film opens with Andy Bichlbaum preparing to appear on the BBC as "Jude Finisterra", a representative of Dow Chemical. He is endearingly, and understandably, nervous, because he's about to tell a whopper of lie to the entire world: that Dow accepts all responsibility for the Bhopal chemical accident and ragedy, and plan to sell off subsidiary Union Carbide to finance $12 billion in reparations.

Back in the 70s, I remember nuclear energy being discussed in the same breath as geothermal and solar power. But then the partial core meltdown happened at Three Mile Island in 1979, giving the American public a huge scare about the safety of nuclear reactors.

It didn't help matters when the film "Silkwood", starring Meryl Streep, came out in 1983, showing how workers who were exposed to plutonium had to be literally scrubbed raw -- those decontamination showers are burned into the brains of a generation!

But the climate crisis has created the urgent need for a power source that doesn't produce CO2. There are already several nuclear power-plants online in the U.S. In 31 states there are 104 reactors, which provide about 20% of our energy -- and 70% of our emission-free energy.

I'm not the only one who thinks traditional Halloween candy is more trick than treat. There is an actual grass roots movement called Green Halloween, started by Seattle-area mom Corey Colwell-Lipson in 2007.

A few years ago, while taking her then six- and two-year-olds out trick or treating, Colwell-Lipson was impressed and inspired by the houses that provided treats like bubbles and stickers as an alternative to candy. She thought it would be great if there was a way -- like a sign -- for parents to know which houses had healthy treats, so they could steer their children accordingly.

As she talked to other parents about the idea, it grew into a whole program. In addition to parents, local merchants started to ask for a "Green Halloween" logo to show that they supported the initiative. Soon everyone involved decided to make a local non-profit the beneficiary of their efforts.

If you're into cars that run on alternative fuels, then this is your lucky week. The Global Green Challenge is a 3,000 kilometer race through the center of Australia that starts in Darwin in the north, finishes in Adelaide in the south, and takes the participants through desert, rainforest and coastal plains.

The race, which began as the World Solar Challenge in 1987, is held every two years. Teams come from around the world to race their kooky looking solar-powered cars that resemble space ships. Most of the teams are made up of engineering students, and the competition is quite earnest.

This year, in addition to the solar concept car competition, there will be a second race called The Eco Challenge, which will include alternative fuel cars that are actually in production around the world.

Photojournalist Chris Jordan's latest stunning/sobering project, called "Midway, Message from the Gyre," is a series of photos of dead birds, stuffed full of plastic trash.

No, it's not some kind of post-modern statement about man's relationship with nature and consumption, although it does deliver a pretty strong message on that topic.

The Midway Journey is a project Jordan undertook with four other media artists to document the effect of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on the birds of the Midway Atoll in the Pacific, 2,000 miles away from the nearest continent.

Sometimes the whole conversation about eating natural foods can get strident and scary. From "Fast Food Nation" to "Food Inc.," there are loads of people ready and willing to terrify you into putting down the french fries.

The other day this video for Honest Foods bars turned up in my email. It's charming, and light-hearted, and gets the message across about choosing natural, wholesome foods.

What a concept! A happy natural food ad! In addition to making me hungry, and want to go out dancing, the Honest Foods video got me thinking about how rare it is to have fun singing and dancing in commercials for wholesome things.

Tomorrow is the big day! International Day of Climate Action Day, when activists around the world are staging major protests to send a message to world leaders about climate change.

What do we want? Less CO2! When do want it? ASAP, preferably before the glaciers melt, the rain forests burn down and civilization as we know it collapses!

Greenpeace and 350.org are helping to organize the protests, demonstrations and "actions," which will probably involve at least two out of the following list of protest activities:

So what's your Halloween costume this year? Oh, you don't have one? That's okay, we have some eco-friendly and oh-so-clever ideas for you!

Being sustainable doesn't mean you have to wear an unimaginative, boring, hemp bag. Just the opposite, unless you're going as a Wet Blanket Environmentalist.

Get out your creativity, roll up your sleeves, and prepare ready to wow your friends and neighbors with these environmentally smart Halloween costumes.

When you're a kid, Halloween is your chance to get a ton of candy, for free, which you then eat until you get sick. And when you're an adult, it's a reason to buy all the candy you'd normally never let in the house ... which you then eat until you get sick.

Here's the truly scary part: it's not just overeating that makes you sick, it's the stuff in most commercially produced candy bars that will make you turn green, even if you're only reading the label!

I was checking out Fitsugar, and was reminded that most candy contains high fructose corn syrup and food coloring. Bad, but if you're only indulging once or twice a year, not going to kill you. But then there are the hydrogenated oils, which are so bad they even cause miscarriages!

An Open Letter to Starbucks:

Dear Starbucks,

We have our love-hate relationship. Sure, the pumpkin spice latte is hard to resist. But your inability to put compostable -- or even recyclable -- cups in stores until 2012* makes me see red. If I can buy compostable hot cups at the supermarket, then you can order them in bulk with your logo printed on them!

Even giving you credit for the "cup summit" in May, when you brought together recycling experts to talk about The Cup, it's despicable for you, the largest specialty coffee company in the world to be so bad, and so late to the game, at managing your waste stream.

Besides the cup issue, many of your stores don't even offer recycling. Just last month, you launched a pilot recycling program in Manhattan with Global Green USA's Coalition for Resource Recovery. That's definitely the right thing to do, but you don't deserve praise for it. More like, "Hello, it's 2009! It's about time you dealt with recycling the literally billions of cups your customers produce each year. WTH took you so long?"

Some people put away money for a rainy day. Other people bank a different kind of green to save for the future. They collect seeds!

Seed banks are a way to preserve seeds and plants (despite the name, many seed banks collect plants and grow the seeds, too) in the event of a disaster, like a war or some kind of climate catastrophe. The idea is to protect biodiversity, as well as food sources, so that we don't accidentally completely wipe out a really useful plant by over-harvesting it, or destroying the habitat where it grows.

The Millennium Seed Bank, which is associated with 250-year-old Kew Gardens, announced last week that they have samples of 10 percent of the world's seeds in their vault. Their goal is to collect 25 percent of the world's seeds by 2020!