The island nation of Madagascar is a refuge for several species of endangered animals. An amazing 5% of the world's biodiversity can be found on the world's fourth largest island, located in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa.

International funding and support for conservation programs have helped preserve many of these unique species, including the iconic lemur. But this year the political climate became so volatile that Madagascar was suspended from the African Union, and a great deal of international conservation support was forced to withdraw.

Now that those pesky eco-watchdogs are out of the way, 60 Second Extinction Countdown at Scientific American reports that poachers are having a field day with the natural resources of Madagascar, harvesting timber and -- this really awful -- selling endangered lemurs to restaurants as a luxury food delicacy.

We've all done it. In a weak moment at Walgreens, or maybe at the gym, you see the appealingly slender bottle of SmartWater, with all of those magical electrolytes that you've been conditioned to believe will make you stronger, thinner and (yes) smarter. Your good tap water intentions fly out the window and before you know it you're locking lips with Jennifer Aniston -- metaphorically speaking, of course.

Remember to stay strong! Don't give in to the lure of Jen's sunkissed smile and promises of Hollywood glamour!

It's easy to find information to help you strengthen your tap water drinking resolve. Our clever friends over at Fit Sugar have a great list of the reasons to pick tap water over bottled water, many of which are echoed by ingenious folks at Tappening:

You may have noticed palm oil in the news recently.

Confectionery giant Cadbury bowed to pressure in New Zealand -- including a boycott of their products at the Auckland Zoo -- and reverted to the recipe of their Dairy Milk bar that contains cocoa butter instead of palm oil. Last week LUSH Cosmetics announced that they will no longer use palm oil because of environmental concerns.

Why all the hubbub? For those of you unfamiliar with The Palm Oil Problem, let me share the basics.

Photo by ReUsies.com.

I know it's barely mid-August, but yes, it's time to start thinking about keeping things eco-friendly for a new school year. One way to keep your kids' carbon footprint light is to pack them healthy, fresh lunches using local, organically grown food.

And then you need to find a waste-free, green way to pack them!

Wrapping up
Do you experience daily ziplock baggie guilt? They can't be recycled, and some of us (Me! Yes! I admit it!) find the whole wash out zip lock bags thing kinda gross, so every time you use one it's an exercise in waste. You can go for compostable paper wraps, 100% recycled tin foil, or my favorite, nylon-lined cotton ReUsies. They come in sandwich or the slightly smaller snack size, and a couple dozen designs.

(Photo by Tropicana)

Recently, Tropicana invited me, along with a number of other bloggers, to their Chicago headquarters to learn about their efforts toward sustainability. I was skeptical. Tropicana is a huge corporation -- they're part of Pepsico, after all, and I just hadn't heard all that much about their efforts to help the planet.

Let me just say I was pleasantly surprised by what I learned.

For starters, they do their best to keep things local. Out of every 10 oranges harvested, 9.5 come from Florida. The other half an orange comes from Brazil, which is a necessity in case Florida has a bad hurricane season or loses too many orange trees to frost. For example, in 2004, Florida was down 250 million trees after the hurricanes and a bout of citrus canker.

Every day it seems like another new all-natural and organic brand hits the market. It's hard, and kind of a hassle, to try to track down the story and to verify that all of these products really are made with TLC ... and not BPA!

It used to be that you could take a stroll or bike ride down to the local food co-op and chat with the folks behind the counter to get scoop on all the products sold there. Often you could even meet the producers or farmers, because practically everything was sourced locally.

For better or worse, times have changed and we have literally the entire world at our finger tips. And soon we will have a resource that blends that co-op feeling with the convenience and choice of the internet. Abe's Market is a new online marketplace where you can shop for all-natural beauty, food, kids' stuff, and home and garden goods, plus participate in a community to exchange information and tips. It's sort of like the co-op with the bulletin board except you can go there at 3 a.m. if you feel like it, and have it all delivered to you.

(Photo by Geoff Burke, Getty Images)

There's a new eco-friendly beer on tap in The Great Lakes State, and the brewmeister is none other than terminally shirtless rap/rock/country crooner Kid Rock. Apparently, Mr. Rock has been carefully perfecting this beer's flavor for the past year and now it's ready for mass consumption. Here's how Kid Rock describes the beer to the Detroit Free Press:

""American-style lager ... easy to drink without an aftertaste... I'm American, that's what I like to drink, and from looking around the parking lot before my shows, I know that's what my fans drink,"

Thoughtfully dubbed "American Badass Beer," the brew was unveiled at two of Kid Rock's concerts in Detroit last week and is now available statewide in Michigan. American Badass Beer (I'm already getting really annoyed with that title) will be available nationwide over the next year.

If you were getting excited about the prospect that Kid Rock might hang up the microphone and work full time at the brewery, sorry, no such luck. The Michigan Brewing Company is undertaking the production duties, which is also the reason it qualifies as a green beer. The Michigan Brewing Company, like a few other major green breweries, produces its own power from biodiesel generators.

In fact, nearby MSU students are unwittingly aiding Kid Rock's efforts to market his poorly-named green brew. Fryer grease from their cafeterias is powering the aforementioned generators. If the food at Michigan State's cafeterias is anything like the ones at my school, there should be grease aplenty. There was probably enough grease pumping out of our cafeterias to power the entire campus.

I'd warn other green brewers like New Belgium and Sierra Nevada to watch out, but I don't think American Badass Beer is really targeting their demographic. Something about the name and the beer's celebrity spokesman leads me to think that ABB will not be a favorite among the Prius-driving public.

You may have already seen a few of these funky bottles lurking around your local grocery store. Anheuser-Busch has been using them for a couple of years now as well as some of the other beer giants. A few months ago, Coca-Cola announced plans to start rolling these babies out in limited venues across the country. Now, Rexam, a huge consumer packaging company, has jumped into the aluminum bottle market. So, I'm guessing that we're destined to see a lot more of them.

The good news is that, in terms of sustainability, aluminum bottles look like a clear winner over glass. For starters, one of these new aluminum bottles weighs in at about 20 grams, whereas a comparable glass bottle weighs about 180-200 grams. Obviously, weight plays a huge factor in an item's carbon footprint, so we're talking about some serious reductions in shipping emissions. Not bad, eh?

(Photo by Adwriter on Flickr)

Last Thursday I was grocery shopping with a friend. Produce is amazing this time of year and I couldn't resist grabbing a couple of fragrant, juicy peaches.

"What are you doing?" she asked me, horrified. "Those aren't organic!"

I looked at her blankly.

"The dirty dozen? Thin skinned fruit? Pesticides?" she prompted, which jolted my memory. Reluctantly I put down the filthy fruit, and went in search of the clean(er) organic version.

With so many other things to remember, I honestly don't feel bad that I forgot about the dirty dozen. But it did make me think about ways to make it easier to remember them.

So, remember how Andy Dick dressed up as a knife-wielding parody of childhood icon, Ronald McDonald, as part of a PETA demonstration? Well there's more!

PETA has an ongoing vendetta against McDonald's, basically involving food sourcing. They want Mickey D's to get their chickens from poultry suppliers who use the cruelty-free controlled atmosphere killing.

Sure, PETA's right, it would be better for the chickens. And better for us because it would eliminate PETA's need to hold "scalding tank demonstrations" with tanks of bloody water in public places.

My favorite traditions for the 4th of July involve eating outdoors. Picnics, BBQs, coolers at the beach, nothing says summer holiday like the smell of sunscreen mixed with the salty goodness of a crispy hot dog.

And while I must admit a weakness for Cool Ranch Doritos, as a rule I like to keep my al fresco dining practices in line with my "regular" organic, sustainable and local habits.

One place where that's most important -- and easy -- is in the "meat/not-meat" main dish department:

(Photo by Getty Images)

Why didn't anyone tell me that last week was National Pollinator Week? The festivities ran from June 22nd through the 28th, but we can still celebrate pollinators by planting some pollen-rich wildflowers in our backyards!

There's been a lot of media coverage about Colony Collapse Disorder, the mysterious phenomena that is wiping out whole hives of European honey bees, the pollination workhorses of industrial farming.

I recently interviewed Ed Flanagan, the president of Wyman's Blueberries, for Tonic, and we discussed the importance of bees for wild blueberry pollination and how the agriculture industry is responding to CCD.

I don't know anybody who actively dislikes the farmers' market. However, I do know plenty of folks who don't take full advantage of markets near them. Are you one of them?

Don't be! This time of year is perfect for stocking up on fresh fruits and vegetables. In-season produce is often more affordable than you think. In fact, you might be surprised at how many meals you can make with just $20 worth of food from your local market!

Not sure what to shop for? Or maybe you're just not sure what certain fruits look like when perfectly ripe. This article has a few tips for not only choosing, but using delicious farmers' market fare. Additionally, you might benefit from these tips on how to save money when you go (who knew those quarters you've been saving could save you money?).

(Photo by Getty Images)

On Monday Josh's Eco Beat included an item about Andy Dick dressed as a maniacal Ronald McDonald on behalf of our dramatic friends at PETA.

It reminded me that it's been a while I checked in with those masters of PR and media manipulation. So clicked on over to the PETA homepage and found, to my surprise and delight, that it's been a whole year since Leona Lewis and Anthony Keidis were selected as the Sexiest Vegetarians alive.

That's right, there's a new pair of Sexiest Vegetarians According to PETA! The big winner for the ladies is Kellie Pickler ("Pick Pickler!" -- I guess the fake boobs didn't disqualify her) of American Idol and country music fame. Representing Dude Vegetarians is Hayden Panettierre's ex-boyfriend, and Heroes co-star, Milo Ventimiglia.

(Photo by Natura)

As I've mentioned, one of my other jobs is writing for UpTake.com's hotels blog. It's a fun gig that lets me indulge in my love of travel and in the best of cases, sometimes it also overlaps with my eco-interests.

A great example of this is the Kimpton group of hotels and restaurants. I just recently stayed at one of their properties, the 70 Park Avenue, in NYC, and as always it was a delightfully green hotel stay. In-room recycling, energy efficient water and light fixtures, organic toiletries, and of course we reused our towels.

The San Francisco-based organization consistently demonstrates some of the best environmental practices in the hotel and restaurant industries. In 2005 they formally launched the "EarthCare" program in all of their properties, but they've been practicing green as far back as 1981!