Green Daily

'Cause seriously, who wants to pay four bucks a gallon for gas?

Ridership on subways in major urban areas, including Southern California, South Florida, and Denver, Colorado. It's also up 11% in Philly, which is surprising, considering the city just raised its transit fees.

And it's not just trains that commuters are opting for: motor scooter sales jumped 24% in the beginning of 2008; Seattle reports a 17% increase in vanpool riders; and bike tip blogger Paul Dorn reported that traffic tripled on his two websites that offer cycling tips for commuters. (But commuters are still wary of bicycle use - this article reports that, though bike use is up 6% in Philly, for example, most people don't feel safe cycling to work). Four words: MORE BIKE LANES, PHILLY!



via [USA Today]

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has unveiled some rockin' workout gear that just happens to also be tres eco chic.

Fair warning: some of their picks are kinda pricey, so if you have the money and you're looking to invest in some fresh, funky exercise clothes and accessories, here are some great options.

1). This pic at left, courtesy of London's Daily Mail, is quite possibly the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

2). Dude should blame pollution. No, really: according to researchers at the University of London, even though baldness is hereditary, toxins and carcinogens from pollution can exacerbate the condition by blocking the mechanisms that produce protein from which hair is formed.

Basically, "pollution" counts as any particulates that worm their way into your bloodstream, from smog to cigarettes.

So, all you men predisposed to male-pattern baldness living in big cities and smoking a pack a day? Watch it. Unless they come up with an anti-pollution gel, you could be bald-headed sooner than you think.

via [Grist]

Women's Health mag has come up with a great way to switch up your workouts with its Workout Customizer.

Visit the site, and simply click and drag six of the little images at left into the empty boxes at right to create a personalized workout that you can do indoors or out. You can choose from four categories: core, upper, lower, and total body, so you can either mix it up or concentrate on one specific muscle group.

You can then either look at the pics on your computer to prompt you as you exercise indoors, or print out the paper (make sure you print on scrap paper!) and take it with you.

Not sure how to reuse those odds and ends around the house? Happen to have a furry friend? Well, you're in luck. Here are a few items that can be turned into toys for your buddy.

• Turn an old sock and some string into a cat "mouse." Simply cut the sock in half, sew it up in a mouse shape, and leave a small opening. Stuff one half into the other half, and attach the string tail with a few more stitches, and voila.
• Old shoelaces - especially the rawhide ones - make for hours of kitty fun. You can also tie them to a plastic wiffle ball and tie the other end to a doorknob, if you're lazy.
  
• If you buy milk with a plastic cap, remove the circle of plastic that attaches the cap to the bottle, toss it onto the floor, and watch your cats explode with happiness. (It's the cheapest toys that provide the most entertainment value...)
• If that throw rug gets old and ratty, or you get your carpets replaced, cut up some scraps and staple them with a staple gun to a old wooden board. Bingo: instant scratching post.
• An old box or paper bag can be a great hideout. Or use your ripped blankets or sheets atop a stiff cardboard box for a window perch.

Those rubber and plastic pet toys may be brightly colored and cheap, but many are made with dangerous chemicals and are tossed when they're no longer usable.

Instead, invest in a few organic, natural toys. They may be a little more expensive upfront, but you can wash them off and use them over and over again, so you'll pay as much as you would for several of those cheaper plastic toys.

Even better idea? Make your own toys, or reuse old kids' toys you already own. Or look for old pet toys at yard sales and flea markets.

In this case, eating "greener" refers to both the food itself (healthier, nutrient-rich foods) and the path it took to get to your table (organically, locally grown).

Eat.Drink.Better offers many tips, including (big surprise): STOP EATING MEAT; only buy in bulk if you'll actually eat it; use tons of coupons, and grow your own food.

I like the author's emphasis on not wasting food. It's something many people don't think about, but buying tons of organic food, letting it go bad, and throwing it away is just as bad as not buying organic in the first place. The food still sits on the landfill for awhile and takes up space.

Lately I've been outlining eco-workouts, which basically involve heading outside to workout and not using any unwanted equipment.

Recently I came upon another angle to working out with eco ethics in mind...vegan bodybuilding. (If you need a reminder as to why vegetarianism is directly linked to environmentalism, re-read Deanna's rockin' gallery).

Now, before you get all up in arms (pun intended), hear me out. Or rather, hear this guy out. Granted, he IS a fitness model (see adjacent pic for evidence) but he has some decent things to say. Justin emphasizes not consuming any vitamin capsules or protein-building products with gelatin, and suggests using ones with agar-agar as a substitute. He also reminds readers to keep their protein shakes vegan with soy, rice, and hemp).

Ever stand in your local drugstore and feel a wave of brand overload? Seriously: how many shampoos/conditioners/detanglers/smoothing creams/hair gook does one need?

Debranded Home's goal is to rid you of the brands that clutter your vision and your bathroom sink. But before you go and dismiss this as too "Adbusters" for your taste, consider this: the site also features an entire section on making your own beauty products. From hand soap to herbal shampoo to toothpaste, these green options are good to the earth and your body.

Fair warning: This is pretty creepy.

What if, instead of burying or cremating dead bodies, we dissolved them in lye and flushed the liquid down the drain?

Well, my friend, get used to the idea: it could be the wave of the future. The process is called alkaline hydrolysis, and it uses lye and 300-degree heat, along with 60 pounds of pressure per square inch, to destroy bodies in huge cylinders that resemble iron lungs.

To date, no mortuaries use the process, and only two medical centers practice it, but only on cadavers donated to science. Although some places, including the Mayo Clinic, use it on human medical waste and animals.

All you need for these exercise circuits from Runner's World is a green outdoor space and self-motivation - no cash, membership card or fancy clothes needed.

The great thing about these workout plans is that RW gives you demonstration videos of the moves, including side planks, hanging abdominal curls, traveling lunges, and sumo squats.

There are two workouts: Core Power and Lower Body Blast. The first workout is 30 minutes and combines sprints with the three of the exercises mentioned above. The second is as it sounds, a challenging 45-minute routine that focuses on your lower half (the latter will require you to find a slight incline).

Like getting greeting cards, but don't like the waste they generate?

ReProduct has come up with a solution. It's easy:

• Buy a card and sent it to a worthy recipient (you can choose from pre-made cards, or custom-design your own)
  
• Once the lucky recipient receives the card, enjoys the sentiment (and removes the cash, if applicable), they simply drop it in a mailbox (it comes with an prepaid envelope)
• The card is sent to Shaw Industries, where it is combined with tons of others and used to make carpet tiles

...pretty cool, eh? Mom will appreciate your sentiments as well as your attention to the environment. Go grab one quickly - there are special Mother's Day design options for your perusal.


re [feelgood style]

Remember that enormous soup of plastic debris that's chillin' in the Pacific Ocean?

Well, guess what? It's still there. And it's not going away anytime soon.

One Hawaiian columnist is lamenting the soup, and the resulting grossness that it leaves on Hawaiian shorefronts. She compiled quite an extensive list of the products that make up the plastic slush, including but not limited to: Happy Meal toys, plexiglass police shields, hair dryers, sex toys, and "Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific" shampoo bottles. Hmm...maybe someone could come up with a "Gee, that plastic sludge smells terrific" lotion? (One caveat: not sure if we could market it as organic. Hmm...)

Some specific stats?

The water calculator is a great way to see, on average, how much water you use per year in comparison to the rest of the country.

A few caveats, though:

a) The "quick" calculator option is fairly limiting and could have a high margin of error. For instance, because I entered "female" and "vegetarian" (no vegan option) into the system, the calculator assumed that, because I don't eat meat, I eat a comparatively higher amount of dairy and "cereal" (I think they mean carbs in general), which isn't true. Best to go with the "extended" version.

b)The site only allows you to enter your food consumption in kilograms, so if you're like me and don't know offhand how many kilograms of fruit you eat per week, convert it to pounds.

Again, as a warning, I'm not sure how accurate this is - but I'm somehow confident that our readers will be sure to let us know! The site does have some interesting stats and studies, which are worth checking out.

Why can't you just take a normal vitamin or supplement, you ask? Well, Real Food Organics claims that those typical pills tend to contain dangerous synthetic materials, and they came up with nutritional supplements derived from organic fruits and veggies.

In addition, the company has pledged to be green: the vitamins are packaged in a glass bottle within a biodegradable box, which is made from mineral powder. And its paper marketing materials are made from food by-products.

And groups like the Organic Consumers' Association are touting organic vitamins, and even launched a campaign, NutriCon, to get the word out that Big Pharma is giving people unhealthy supplements.