Green Daily

And I thought jokes about Al Gore eating too much were so last year.

Sean Hannity, on FOX News, recently blamed the former vice president for the food crisis. Seriously. This hugely complex issue we're all hearing about has been helpfully simplified by Hannity who says:

"The Growing Consensus is that the crop deficit is directly related to the increased demand for production of quote earth friendly biofuels, an effort pushed by none other than the vanquished vice president Al Gore and all in the name of quote saving the planet."

Hannity's theory is a little too simple and a wee bit misleading (so is Hannity's statement that "Scores of scientists all over the world say human activities are not heating up the earth at all.").

Gore's views on bio-fuel are a bit more nuanced. At a speech in Argentina last year, for instance, Gore said that, "the drive to produce alternative fuels must not create new forms of environmental damage." He also talked about food prices increasing if biofuels are not used carefully.

It's great to see celebrities getting greener, consumers getting eco-smarter and Al Gore pissing-off FOX news. With positive stories everywhere, it's easy to get a warm fuzzy feeling that the earth is going to be all right.

Then you see the science. Figures recently published on the web site of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that carbon dioxide, everyone's favorite greenhouse gas, is building up faster than expected and is currently at a record high, renewing fears that global warming could slide out of control.

Here are the numbers: Currently, the planet has 387 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 floating around - that's the highest it has been in the last 650,000 years and up 40% since the industrial revolution. What's scarier is the increased rate of concentration. From 1970 to 2000 the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose annually by 1.5 ppm. More recently, the increase since 2000 has been 2.1 ppm, per year on average. Just last year, the mean concentration of carbon dioxide went up by 2.14 ppm. We're concentrating CO2 into the air now more than ever.

What do all of these numbers mean? While the earth can naturally soak up about half of our future carbon output every year, through forests and oceans, these newly reported figures may make policy people rethink current, overly optimistic, emission reduction plans.

The good news - according to a recent survey, a slight majority of Americans (53%) would pay more money for green friendly products and a decent number (36%) reported changes in their personal habits to help out the planet.

The report, called "Global Shades of Green" was produced by the marketing firm Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS). They looked into consumer choices and views on eco-friendliness.

About half of respondents are more concerned about the planet than they were five years ago. 36% make an effort to get educated on green issues (usually through the Internet and television).

And the not-so-good news? Only a quarter of respondents really seek out green-friendly products. Only 19% say their purchasing decisions are influenced by how apparently green the company is. More bad news - American consumers are pretty skeptical about green claims from business. 35% see marketing as the main motivation for businesses claiming they care about the earth.

Just in time for my trip to NYC, the folks at Greenopia have come up with a New York City handbook. These useful little green consumer guides point out the earth-friendliest ways to shop the city. San Fran and L.A. have their own handbooks and more cities will eventually get covered.

So you're thinking, "what's so special about another green guide?". Well this isn't just a list of companies that pay to get on a directory. These little books (printed on chlorine-free, recycled paper, of course) have been compiled by actual researchers wandering New York streets.

You'll get details on everything from tree-free party invitations to silk made from free-range silkworms (which I didn't even know existed). To reduce carbon emissions, researchers even took bicycles and public transportation to research the greenest offerings in the city.

I know where to get organic ice cream where I live, but this guide will point out the fair trade coffee and locally-produced goodies I should try in between museum visits. Getting some fancy, planet-friendly threads will be way easier with Greenopia's list of eco sample sales and shoe stores that offer animal cruelty-free foot wear.

First, Häagen-Dazs releases a Vanilla Honey Bee flavor to raise awareness on the barley understood issue of those disappearing bees. Now, they want to go a bit further.

Look out for an ad campaign from the ice cream maker to include TV spots and the web site helpthehoneybees.com. An upcoming print ad in certain issues of Newsweek will consist of a page lined with real flower seeds on recycled linen asking readers to physically "plant this page. save a bee,".

Colony Collapse Disorder is the official name for the puzzling and ominous news that millions of bees are disappearing. Häagen-Dazs wants to help fight the problem.

Why should the ice cream maker want to get involved? Turns out a lot of ice cream flavors (40% of Häagen-Dazs varieties in fact) require the sweet, bee-produced stuff.

Feeling guilty about scheduling your social life around the upcoming American Idol finale? That guilt can now be off-set by Fox choosing renewable energy to power the two live shows.

This is how they're doing it. The L.A. Department of Water and Power will provide a combo of solar, wind and hydro energy through its Green Power for a Green LA Program.

Going beyond just providing sustainable juice, the Green Power Program will also focus on conserving water and energy and helping the tree population by working with the Million Tree L.A. initiative - a project that aims to see a million trees planted over the next few years.

And to get even more eco-power, a solar panel system from E-Village, Inc. is being installed and then donated to a California school after the May 20th and 21st broadcasts.

These efforts are part of Fox's overall plan to be more planet friendly (despite owning Fox news) and go totally carbon-neutral in a couple of years.

And I resisted making a "they should harness the power of Paula Abdul's craziness" joke. Ah Paula, you just make it so easy.

If you follow progressive green news, you'll find a lot of stuff happening in England.

And you can't get more English than an eco town built by Prince Charles. A developer called Red Tree, along with the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, have been given permission to build a brand spankin' new town in South Devon, England.

The new settlement, called Sherford, will be constructed over the next year and hold 12, 000 citizens in what's being branded as Britain's greenest town.

How green? Think about all of the urban eco ideas you've heard of and put them in one impressively sustainable town plan.

Cars will be banned in some areas, a huge 390ft wind turbine will tower over a park and a full half of energy needs will be met by renewable sources like wind and solar energy. Want more green? Construction materials will be mostly found within a 50 mile radius, green roofs will be the norm and you'll be able to walk between your home, work, and shopping. Or you could ride the bicycle that comes with every home.

Call me crazy, but I'm guessing more climate change concern is better than less. I mean, it's better than climate change apathy given the evidence of serious environmental problems we're facing.

Grassfire.org doesn't feel that way - the conservative organization has announced that they have received over 100, 000 signatures for their petition to "Stop Climate Alarmism". More specifically, the petition is fighting the America's Climate Security Act of 2007 being considered by the United States Senate.

The group already commissions a number of right-wing petitions on touchy issues like increasing US border security and stopping Internet porn (which could suck for a certain porn-loving Canadian traveler I know).

What they're getting very excited about is the recent news of getting more signatures than Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection petition over an eight day period (although Gore's Alliance does claim over 1 million signatures over a longer period). They're also pointing out that, compared to Gore's $300 million ad campaign, the apparently low-cost, grassroots petition launched by Grassfire.org is more popular since its launch.

Softchoice, a Toronto based IT reseller, is making it easier for business to shop green for computer stuff.

How do they do it? Softchoice offers a database of green computer products, in a bunch of different IT categories, by drawing on environmental information from the Green Electronics Council, a group that lists EPEAT standard products.

EPEAT uses a bunch of criteria to determine what products get certain certificates of eco-friendliness - gold, silver and bronze depending on the criteria met. Everything from packaging to product longevity is considered before a product gets on the EPEAT list.

Not a stranger to being progressive, Softchoice already has a computer recycling program, uses natural light in their Toronto head office and allows employees to bring their dogs to work (okay, the dog thing isn't specifically green, but it's really cool).

I didn't think anyone used foam cups for coffee anymore (aside from cops on police dramas) but turns out a lot of us are still throwing away piles of polystyrene. If only some machine could take all this throw-away foam and make something useful with it.

Fortunately, the machine already exists. A $750 000 Italian made contraption, called an ECO mold, will be part of a project to turn mountains of foam cups to blocks of insulating material for building.

This is how it works - the machine gets shredded polystyrene products into a mold and forms them into building-friendly shapes using steam and compression.

If you're still hung over from World Intellectual Property Day celebrations (drinking Jägerbombs 'till dawn with those crazy I.P. obsessed kids no doubt), hold on for some more intellectual property news.

Trademark applications in the United States reached an all time high in 2007 according to an annual report from Dochert LLP called Trends in Trademarks. A large part of this increase comes from the growing number of green-centric products and services constantly coming out.

As someone who has to write the word "eco" a lot, I wasn't very surprised to see the trendy prefix reach an all-time trademarking high last year, doubling to over 900 new applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Guess what other word got huge in the business world of green? Yup, "green", which is still the most popular way to say a product or service won't kill the planet.

The last time I was in India, back when I was an easily annoyed, totally westernized 14 year-old, I appreciated the amazing things I saw but secretly longed for a Big Mac, any less-than-spicy food, American television, and a North American toilet. The train toilets, especially, were often nothing more than a smelly room with a toilet cut into the floor allowing you to see the tracks zipping by (seriously not fun after eating spicy food!).

Well, times have changed since that trip in '87. Now, I love everything spicy, I swore off McDonald's, and new bio-toilets are being tried out on Indian Railways.

A number of experimental bio-toilets are being installed in different trains across India, a country that is bustling with a lot of people that use trains (and being human, have biological necessities). With two million Indian passengers using train toilets daily, Indian Railways plans to have every one of its 9000 trains equipped with cleaner commodes by 2001-13.

Leave it to the left coast to bring us seriously sweet threads with more green bragging rights than most.

The Rio Rain clothing line, produced by the designer and manufacturer Ecoapparel of West Vancouver, goes beyond the claims of many green-friendly designers and does so without sacrificing style. Like an increasing number of eco-conscious fashion being released, these clothes have a list of enviro-features but don't need to look like they do. They're body hugging, beautifully designed and should be worn by those who rightfully care about what they wear.

Once you look good, you can feel good by knowing that they use organically grown or recycled cotton, bamboo, and ignore the damaging petroleum, dyes and chemicals that are still common in the garment industry. From the material to the manufacturing process (they have certified facilities in Vancouver and Asia) all the way to the eco-friendly physical West Vancouver store made with reclaimed wood, Rio Rain tries to go beyond just making sure they have energy efficient light bulbs (and, yeah, they have those too).

Here are two fun business section facts: Tourism is one of the world's largest growth industries and ecotourism, specifically, is growing three times faster than the industry in general.

Before you grab your snorkeling gear and celebrate you may want to read this report from ClimateChangeCorp.com.

Turns out, while sustainable tourism can help with things like conservation and helping out local populations, the reality of this type of green-friendly traveling is not close to where it needs to be. What makes things even worse is that the tourism industry is not ready for climate change even though they will get hit very hard by it - more hurricanes and rising seas make daiquiris on the beach so much less enjoyable.

The report quotes the United Nations Environmental Program by pointing to tourists who pollute way more than the locals and are rarely required to pay anything to offset ecosystem damage when they visit that sandy beach (maritime tourism is singled out as being especially hit). And what about helping the locals? Popular all-inclusive resorts are often isolated from local populations and the benefits of tourism are not always felt by those living beyond the security fence past the seafood beach buffet.