Green Daily

(Photo by Target)

Okay, so I get that we shouldn't use leather, because it's (theoretically) cruel to kill animals for fashion, and the tanning and dying process is (definitely) an environmental nightmare that produces evil, poisonous sludge.

A fashionable girl can still turn to fun (and bonus: inexpensive) vinyl options from trendy bargain retailers like Target and H&M. No animals hurt here! Except, wait, the production of vinyl is sort of nasty. But did I mention, no animals hurt? Vegan? Please, can't I at least have a leather looking bag?

Apparently the answer is "No." A news alert from the Center for Environmental Health just released results from a study that found vinyl bags bought in the Bay Area have high -- dangerously high -- levels of lead in them. Great! That's where I live, and I'm carrying a fabulous H&M vinyl bag right now. Except I just dropped it like a radiation-hot potato.

Scientists and agriculturalists and beekeepers continue to struggle to find an explanation -- and a solution -- for the worldwide disappearance of honey bees.

Maybe disappearance is the wrong word -- one in three bee colonies is actually dying. This phenomenon is known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and has been linked to cell phones, climate change, parasites, and even UFOs. As in, aliens are coming to Earth, landing in fields, collecting our bees, and flying away.

In other words, we just don't know why it's happening!

One of the biggest benefits of having bees around is that farmers depend on them to pollinate crops, including one third of the produce grown in the U.S. So when you don't have any bees ... no pollination ... and no produce.

Last week was the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake on May 12, 2008, that destroyed the Wolong Panda sanctuary in the Sichuan province of China. The surviving pandas were sent to other sanctuaries around the country, and eight of the pandas had an extended stay at the Beijing zoo over the summer.

Most have now moved to their new luxurious sanctuary in Bi Feng Xia. Jennifer Keating from the San Diego zoo took a trip to China and reports that the dedicated keepers and adorable animals are all recovering nicely and adapting well to their new location.

While reading about the status, I stumbled across news of a movie that was being filmed at Wolong when the 8.0 earthquake struck. The Disney film is the story of an orphan boy who finds a lost panda cub, and helps the cub find his mother. The surprising thing is that they used real pandas -- not animated -- to tell the story.

The big environmental news over the weekend was an announcement that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would not overturn an 11th hour Bush rule that limits Endangered Species Act protection for polar bears.

Environmentalists, activists and scientists have been lobbying to get the rule reversed since it went into effect in December. And it was a shock to most Democrats that Salazar didn't use his special authority to undo the Bush damage.

Salazar's explanation was that the Endangered Species Act is the wrong way to pursue corporate green house gas emitters, and he left open the possibility that he would enact other laws to strengthen environmental protection for polar bears and other animals whose habitat is threatened by climate change.

This actually sound sort of logical to me, and hints that the Obama administration might even have some other, bigger environmental changes in the works. But it was not good enough at all for environmental activists like Greenpeace. They're foaming at the mouth!

As soon as they heard the news, Greenpeace did a "direct communication" action outside of Salazar's office: Two activists ("solemnly") walked into the pond in front of the Department of the Interior building and dropped off a symbolic drowned polar bear.

Yeah, they sacrificed a big, white stuffed animal in a corporate water feature. How very PETA of them.

Actually, let me take that back. If PETA had been running that protest, the activists would have been topless, pregnant women, wearing polar bear masks. With duct tape over the mouths. In cages.

Maybe next time!

Hey, Friday night, date night! Are some of you menfolk feeling like you could use some special loving from your loved one? Try getting her in the mood with a big, juicy steak!

Sorry if I just rattled a bunch of vegetarian cages, that wasn't my intention! I'm just passing along some new primate related research that shows male chimps who share meat get more sex action from the lady chimps. In fact, they double their mating chances when they pass the leg bone!

The old "boom boom" doesn't happen when other behaviors, like groomings, are exchanged. In fact, grooming usually just gets you more grooming. Yawn.

Naturally, since we're all descended from primates (except for those nice folks who were supernaturally deposited from spaceships over the past few thousand years -- welcome to our planet!) the next step is to investigate how this behavior plays out with humans.

In other words, more research needs to be done to see if humans also have "the dude you date" vs. "the guy who does your hair" categories. And if the dude you date gives you carne asada, do you reciprocate with caliente amore?

As interesting as that will be, I think most of us are familiar with the dinner = nookie paradigm. The really important question is, "Do vegetarians get more or less sex than meat eaters?" Let's find out!

Proud San Francisco Zoo giraffe parents, Kristin and Floyd, are pleased to announce the birth of a new giraffe calf!

The baby giraffe was born this week, and is the second calf born to the herd this year. In January, Bititi received a bundle of leggy joy named Camilla.

The zoo vets are keeping an eye on this new calf, who seems to be healthy. They don't know if it's a boy or a girl -- they haven't done a physical exam yet, and apparently these things aren't super-obvious, even to the trained eye.

Here's another little pearl of wisdom you might not know -- the gestation period for a giraffe is 14 to 15 months! Also, giraffes give birth standing up, and baby giraffes are up to six feet tall when born.

Admit it -- right this minute you're glad you're not a pregnant giraffe.

The San Francisco Zoo is seeing a bit of a baby boom lately. In addition to the two giraffe calves, there's also the irresistible baby gorilla Hasani and a baby howler monkey. They're celebrating with a four month long Baby Bonanza in May, June, July and August, inviting visitors to bring their babies to see the babies at the Zoo.

A word of advice if you decide to come visit San Francisco and see the Baby Bonanza at the Zoo this summer: please remember to pack a winter jacket! Those jokes about cold summers and fog? All too true!

Saturday night was the big event -- Earth Hour where landmarks, organizations and regular folks shut off the lights for an hour at 8:30pm local time.

There was a candlelight walk in Washington D.C., crowds gathered as the mayors of Nashville and LA switched off the lights, and even Las Vegas shut off the Strip! Vegas visitors got glow sticks to keep the party illuminated, while the marquees went dark.

They even turned off the lights in Thomas Edison's laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey.

It's amazing to check out photos of all of the landmarks around the world. I found a bunch of before and after images which show you how much of a difference it makes to turn off the lights.

Is McMansion culture finally coming to an end? Current data about new homes in the US seems to indicate that the economy -- and possibly an increase in energy and environmental awareness -- is affecting the tendency to fixate on a home's square-footage above all else. From the second to fourth quarter in 2008, average new home square footage in the US plummeted from 2,629 to 2343.

While it took a major mortgage and economic meltdown to reverse the bigger is better trend, there's some real hope out there that the change will leave a lasting impression. According to VP of the National Association of Home Builders Gopal Ahluwalia: "this will remain a trend. I don't expect this (home size) to come back up ... family size has been declining for the past 35 years." Is the economy forcing us to realize what we've already knew about energy-efficiency, maintenance, and sustainability? KB Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, has watched its average home size shrink from 2,400 sq-ft to just 1,600 over the last two years. In Houston, they've started selling an 880 sq-ft house for $63,995.

[via TreeHugger]

If you've ever spent time in the Lone Star State, it quickly becomes obvious -- sometimes painfully so -- that Texas enjoys an abundance of burning, scorching sunshine. While not everyone views these rays as a resource yet, lobbyists, policymakers and politicians (the three most dreaded groups in the state) are working on an incentive package to make Texas a leader in solar energy.

Thus far, 69 renewable energy bills have been introduce in this Texas legislative session, and 50 of them focus on boosting the state's solar resources. Some representatives have even taken to calling this the "solar session." According to representative Mark Strama:

"There are senators and representatives that are talking about solar that have never mentioned the word probably in their lives. We've actually heard the term 'global warming,' and two years ago that was called 'the G word' - you didn't talk about it."

Considering the state's success with promoting wind energy, it's easy to imagine that much of the momentum will start to spill over into becoming the preeminent force solar energy as well. Austin Energy just gave the green light to the largest solar farm in the nation, so that's a start.

[via Earth2Tech]

You know why Komodo Dragons are called dragons? It's not because they're fuzzy, cuddly and furry. It's because they're mean lizards who will kill you if they get a chance.

Last summer some Indonesian villagers protested when foreign aid workers forbade the traditional goat and deer sacrifices that appease the dragons.

You know what happened? A nine year old boy got eaten! Komodo dragons mean business!

This week a fisherman was mauled by Komodo dragons and bled to death before he could reach the hospital. He was trespassing on an island where there are a ton of Komodo dragons. Well, not a ton, because they're endangered and there are only about 4,000 left in the world.

Still, as this fisherman discovered, it only takes one angry dragon to mess you up.

Knights, eco-tourists and fisherman beware! Komodo dragons have a taste for human blood, and they're not shy about taking it from you.

Slow moving and pretty cute for a reptile, turtles are apparently pretty tasty too. Demand for turtle meat, particularly in Asia, has surged to the point that the Centre for Biological Diversity has asked a number of American states to ban the harvesting of turtles and has called the practice unsustainable.

While the increase in turtle meat consumption is concentrated in southeast Asia, the number of freshwater turtles in that part of the world has sharply declined. So, hungry turtle-eating Asians are looking to certain American states where turtle harvesting has increased hugely -- Iowa, for instance, saw turtle harvests increase by over 700% between 1987 and 2007.

There are concerns that this quick decimation of turtles could have serious consequences for future turtle populations. Texas has already banned commercial harvesting of wild turtles and Florida is considering a ban for April 15. The Center for Biological Diversity is also asking eight other American states to consider a ban.

Note to self: don't marry and then divorce a bomb making militant eco-activists, because he will totally send you up the river!

Marie Mason, is a 47 year old mother of two, who took in stray dogs and liked to sing folk songs. She also made an unfortunate choice of a third husband, a wild-eyed activist who got her involved in bombing the University of Michigan in 1999.

The bombing was to protest the research being done on genetically modified crops. No one was hurt, but of course it was very upsetting to the people who worked there. Oh, and it caused $1 million worth of damage.

Mason was just sentenced to 22 years for her involvement in the bombing, based partly on testimony from her ex-husband -- who by the way was the one who lit the fuse. He only got sentenced to nine years for the same "terrorist act" because he cooperated with the FBI to bring down Mason.

One of the reasons she got such a long sentence is that her activism was considered terrorism by the court. Ever since 9/11 the FBI has been treating militant activists as "domestic terrorists" and getting much more strict sentences.

Is it fair? Like everything, it depends on your perspective. No, you can't go around burning down logging camps or setting fires to university offices. But is what she did as bad as a group like Sea Shepherd , who might actually be trying to kill people? Where's their jail sentence?

By now you should know that parrots are totally smart. From famous birds like Alex, the parrot who hung out at MIT, to the crotchety 47 year-old bird that lives with your neighbors, everyone has a story about the remarkable intelligence of these crafty, sharp-beaked personalities.

Out in Denver, Willie, a green and white Quaker Parrot, is a hero for saving the life of a little girl his owner was babysitting.

The babysitter walked into another a room for a minute, and in those seconds the child choked on the cereal she was eating. Somehow, amazingly Willie knew that something was wrong with the kid, and was motivated to do something about it.

He made a big ruckus, calling out "Mama, baby!" and got the babysitter back in the room in time to do the Heimlich maneuver and save the girl's life.

The American Red Cross has awarded Willie the Animal Lifesaver Award, and we have yet another glimpse through the veil of animal intelligence.

Even before its launch, one of the best things Tesla PR department had going for it was a general outpouring of celebrity support. Heck, there was even a rumor that a few of Hollywood's elite male actors would stage an impromptu Tesla parade at this year's Oscars.

But with that kind of high profile attention, there comes a slight risk -- and rumor would have you believe that at least one superstar isn't so happy with his electric Roadster. According to a piece in Gawker, a certain governator of the great state of California, has been trying to get his money back for months.

What's Tesla's return policy? I can assure you that I don't have any idea. Considering the weak status of the auto industry, coupled with news that Tesla specifically is having a tough time keeping their head above water, I really doubt that they're excited about giving Schwarzenegger his $100K back. What's the governor's problem? According to a tipster, Arnold has a tough time getting in and out of the tiny Lotus body, "he's more of a Hummer guy."

[via Ecorazzi]