Green Daily

You've probably heard about the Nature Conservancy's "Plant a Billion Trees" campaign. It's very straight-forward: donate a dollar and they will plant a tree in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. The goal is to restore or preserve 30 million acres of forest by 2015, and remove 10 million tons of carbon dioxide ... annually!

Various companies have partnered with the Nature Conservancy, including Payless Shoes. Now one of my favorite socially-responsible hospitality organizations, the Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, is increasing their support to the tree planting efforts.

Kimpton already had a relationship with the Nature Conservancy to donate the proceeds from their in-house filtered Natura® water program.

Why are giant angry chickens massing outside Jay Leno's studio? Want to keep up with Alicia Silverstone's "groovy" green finds? Are you a member of the subversive, underground Law Reform Coalition? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

PETA Protesters in Chicken Costumes Target Jay Leno Protesters targeting Jay Leno? The same Jay Leno that instituted the Green Car Challenge? Why? PETA members donned their favorite chicken suits outside of the Leno Show's studio this week because it supports McDonald's ... or is it the other way around?

Silverstone Expands Her Kind Empire with Website Along with her upcoming book "The Kind Diet," Alicia announced that she'll be spreading even more kindness through a new green website TheKindLife.com. Apparently, it's designed to be a place where Alicia shares her latest fashion and skincare "groovy finds."

Should I Buy Carbon Offsets? The concept of buying carbon offsets is a hotly debated moral issue for some green activists ... not because of what it is, but what it represents. If you think of offsets as a contribution to a green energy project, cool. However, they don't "erase" your eco sins.

Lawn Reform: Yea or Nay? A group called the Lawn Reform Coalition is trying to change the way America landscapes. Their basic practices include: eliminating broad-spectrum fertilizers and insecticides, growing longer lawns, and generally using less grass/more sustainable plants.

Baltimore Schools Launch Meatless Mondays At the urging of Paul McCartney and a host of others, the Baltimore Public School System will institute Meatless Mondays. As the first school system in the nation to join the movement, administrators are hoping to curb their footprint while promoting healthy eating.

Green in a Flash:

• Loveland ski resort has its earliest opening in 40 years, today.
• Let NASA's Tom Wagner give you a quick lesson on Arctic sea ice.
• Trying to buy a new Prius in Japan? Good luck, 3rd gen Prius sales are backlogged until May 2010.

Plenty of us like getting our fruit fixes through juice -- it's portable, tasty, and often less messy than eating a piece of fruit. But are you sure you're really getting fruit in your juice, or are there a bunch of added, artificial flavors? And what about the packaging -- is your juice killing the planet?

Naked Juice makes it simple for eco-warriors to get their juice on, naturally. They start with real fruit that is sustainably sourced (all bananas are Rainforest Alliance Certified, and all the fruit and veggie blends are non-GMO, or non-genetically modified organisms). They also work with suppliers to make sure they're ethical both socially and environmentally.

The creation of the juice is sustainbly done, too. Naked Juice's packaging is recyclable, as is most of their suppliers' packaging, and they're constantly working to improve their waste and energy reduction at every stage of the game. All products are transported on recyclable plastic pallets (durable and lighter than wood), reducing fuel used for transport and saving trees.

Are houseboats the next big thing in coastal architecture? Did anybody get a free sample of Heather Mills' vegan treats in the Bronx yesterday? Who's side are you on in the Beer Wars: the Rebel Micro-Brewers or the Imperial Beer Forces? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Brad Pitt's Make it Right Debuts Floating House Yesterday, Make it Right unveiled their latest bouyant creation in the NOLA rebuilding effort. Part boat, part house, it's designed by Morphosis Architects to roll with whatever the rising tide brings in. Don't worry about floating away, it's anchored by two 12' tall anchor posts.

Heather Mills VBites the Big Apple The former McCartney mistress opened the doors to the very first US location of her popular vegan restaurant chain VBites in the Bronx yesterday. Mills could be seen handing out free samples to the neighborhood kiddies. Ahh, isn't that nice.

Top 5 Green Home Myths Do you have a pie-in-the-sky master plan to revolutionize your home's energy use, you're just waiting to win the lottery so you can get started? You can make improvements in almost every aspect of your home's footprint without making a huge impact on your wallet.

Beer Wars Movie: Battle of the Microbrews Beer connoisseurs, you've probably noticed that the diversity on the beer aisle has been skyrocketing. Local, organic, and sometimes even renewably-powered micro brews have been winning the uphill battle into the nation's alcohol-stream. "Beer Wars" is their story.

Finally, A Theft-Proof Folding Bike Until now, an urban cyclist's best hope was to buy a cheap frame, get a degree from Bike Lock University, and cross their fingers. Now, Biomega has unveiled the revolutionary Boston Bike, which has a lock integrated into its folding frame. Awesome.

Green in a Flash:

• Speaking of bike commuting, need some extra cargo space?
• Check out this awesome, eco-chic bamboo charging station.
• Something about the term "irradiated food" just kinda rubs me the wrong way.

It was hard, but I've given up Chilean Seabass. It's probably the world's most delicious fish, and consequently it's been overfished practically to the point of extinction. No eating seafood on the red list!

At least I still have my tuna sashimi, right?

Sadly, no. Bluefin tuna, a.k.a. the amazingly tasty dark pink flesh you get at fine sushi restaurants, is one of the most badass looking fish in the sea. However, scary looking as they are, these bad boys are just as vulnerable to mankind's excess as the rest of the animal kingdom. And now they're on the red list, too.

Is "Old Christine" up to some new green tricks? Can Evander "the Real Deal" Holyfield help deliver a knockout blow to his latest opponent, global warming? Should you invest in a solar hot-water heater? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Goes Green on the Set On the set of "The New Adventures of Old Christine," Julia works to keep the show's footprint as small as possible. Says Julia: "Every light bulb is a compact fluorescent. We have a big recycling program. We tried to get rid of water bottles last year and failed at it."

Holyfield Steps in the Ring with Climate Change The four-time heavyweight champ has partnered up with Global NES Georgia to convert 40 acres of his estate into a solar energy farm while converting another acre into a organic community garden for the neighborhood kids. Awesome.

When to Replace that Old Hot Water Heater Sure, that old energy-hogging heater needs to go, but what should you put in its place? A tankless, on-demand heater, maybe? Or a renewable solar hot water heater? Grist has all the info to help you decide whether you can go zero-emissions in the shower.

US National Park Fail Their Physical If you watched Ken Burns' fabulous new documentary on our national parks, you now realize just how important it is for average, ordinary citizens to monitor the health of our parks. Well, after their latest exam, they're not looking too healthy.

Nature Scenes Make Us More Caring One more very good reason to buy one of those National Parks calendars and hang it up in your cubicle: University of Rochester researchers have discovered that people are more relaxed, relationship-oriented, and generous after looking at beautiful naturescapes. No kidding.

Green in a Flash:

• There are only 209 female bike commuters in Mississippi.
• What big prank are The Yes Men planning for Copenhagen?
• Starting in 2010, the EPA will require that 10,000 industrial facilities report their estimated greenhouse emissions.

Shark conservation is an urgent issue. Last month during "Shark Week" I mentioned the efforts of the Ocean Conservancy and the Monterey Bay Aquarium to support the Shark Conservation Act of 2009.

Oceana is another organization working hard to save sharks. They're also supporting the legislation and working with "Mad Men's" January Jones, one of the faces of a campaign to raise awareness about the importance of protecting and restoring the shark populations.

January's catch phrase is "We should be afraid for sharks, not of them." To prove her point, she and Oceana made a PSA of her swimming with sharks.

Is Michelle Obama engaged in a hideous plot to teach children that veggies don't grow at the supermarket? Need some recession-friendly fall decorating ideas, courtesy of mother nature? Will you take your EV for a cruise on the electric highway? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Michelle Obama Live On Sesame Street Did you miss the First Lady's appearance on Sesame Street? Yeah, so did everybody else who's lucky enough to be gainfully employed these days. Thankfully, you can watch Michelle's enlightening gardening tips (aka commie food witchcraft) at your leisure on the interweb.

Fall Decorations You Can Literally Scoop Up for Free These days, decorating your abode with flowers you picked out of the field next across the street isn't cheap -- it's sustainable. CasaSugar has a ton of ideas to help you steal designs (don't worry they're public domain) from mother nature and enhance your home's aesthetic.

China Masters the Art of Cloud Seeding Using what they learned during the Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese officials sprayed a cocktail of miraculous chemicals into the sky to ensure that their parade -- celebrating 60 years of communist rule -- didn't get rained-out on Thursday.

California's Highway 101 Goes Electric For the next few weeks, those lucky enough (and wealthy enough) to drive a Tesla Roadster will get to charge up for free at stations between LA and San Francisco. Eventually, Solarcity will equip the stations with universal chargers for all e-cars to "fill up" for a fee.

Wyclef Jean Launches "Earthkeeping" Campaign Timberland has hooked up with Wyclef to launch one of those campaigns that blend music, commercialism and environmental activism. As part of the campaign, Wyclef will host a series of urban greening events, then head to Haiti to build a tree nursery with his nonprofit Yéle.

Green in a Flash:

• Iowa State researchers can boost wind turbine production by 35%.
• Droughts in the Southeast were caused by population growth.
• Banish bum wipes from your bathroom with a toilet top add-on called The Blue Bidet.

As climate change reshapes ecosystems across the planet, people living in impoverished rural areas are feeling a disproportionate impact. Since women make up 70% of those living beneath the poverty line, this is especially true of the women in those communities. That's why Oxfam has put together an initiative called Sisters on the Planet.

Despite the unfortunate fact that the name keeps reminding me of "Snakes on a Plane," the idea behind Sisters on a Planet is very cool: To help provide the tools and resources to help women actively respond to those changes.

Today, Sisters on the Planet is holding an awards ceremony in Los Angeles to honor women who are at the forefront of the battle to steer US policies toward a more sustainable and climate-friendly future.

Is the all-star version of "Beds Are Burning" the eco-jam of 2009? What actress found happiness in a pile of goat manure? Prius drivers, have you heard about the danger lurking in your floor mat? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

"Beds Are Burning" Video Hits the Web Much like Sting's eco-centered "Message in a Bottle," a gaggle of green celebrities have lent their voices to a new celebrity sing-a-long version of Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning." Duran Duran, Fergie, Lily Allen, and Bob Geldof are just a few of the stars making an appearance.

Ellen Page Lived in a Eco-Commune After the immense success that followed "Juno," Ellen Page apparently felt the need to lay low for a while and study the art of permaculture at an eco-village outside Eugene, Oregon. There, she learned that shoveling goat poop was one of life's hidden treasures.

Toyota Issues a Recall on Prius, Other Models Yeah, a Prius can save you big bucks on gas ... as long as you don't drive with a lead foot. While I'm sure most hybrid drivers would never drive like that intentionally, due to a flaw in the the floormat/accelerator pedal design, your pedal could get stuck to the floor!

Will the 2016 Olympics be Mankind's Last? While I find the prediction ridiculous a tad on the alarmist side, the governor of Tokyo (one of the cities vying for the 2016 Olympic games) has gone on record, saying "It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind." Talk about a hard sell.

A New Frontier in the Anti-Smoking War In the fight to improve air-quality for non-smokers, lighting up has been banned almost universally in all bars, restaurants and public places. Now, a Dallas woman is suing her neighbor for smoke that has allegedly wafted through their shared firewall.

Green in a Flash:

• Mahindra's diesel-sipping pickups will hit showrooms in 2009.
• How a brief overview of the brand new 800-page Senate climate bill.
• Put some pesticide-free hemp in your doggie's dish; it's all-natural and 100% legal.

Sometimes it's easy to forget just what a dirty, messy, polluting process it is to get crude oil out of the ground so we can turn it into fuel. That's because most of the pollution takes place "somewhere else" -- in another country, in another part of the world.

The indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon don't have that luxury. As we see in "CRUDE", a new documentary from award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger, the rainforest where they live has been polluted across an area the size of Rhode Island in an effort to extract black gold. It's an environmental disaster referred to in the film as being thirty times more devastating than the Exxon Valdez spill.

"CRUDE" is the story of the $27 billion-dollar, multi-year environmental lawsuit brought against Texaco -- now owned by Chevron -- on behalf of 30,000 rainforest dwellers. Berlinger shows both sides of the story, which is by turns sad, outrageous and inspiring, but never preachy. The filmmaker leaves conclusions up to you.

I do my best to avoid drinking bottled water, but every once in a while, I find myself someplace where the tap water just tastes (or smells, or looks) bad. But I have a solution now -- EcoUsable Ech20 filtered water bottles.

The stainless steel bottles aren't just BPA-free -- they also have a personal filtration system, so you can take icky, gross water and turn it into clean, tasty agua in seconds (seriously, I took part in a demo of this at Surf Expo and the water went from brown to crystal clear, and tasted great).

They offer multiple sizes and colors, and are priced reasonably -- the 18 oz. filtered water bottles are $34.99, and the 25 oz. version is $39.99. Replacement filters are offered on the site as well, for $24.99. Bottoms up!

Who is Sting's latest message in a bottle addressed to? Can the First Lady bring sustainable gardening to Sesame Street? Why the heck are school kids forbidden to ride bikes to school? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Sting Helps Trees Send Out an SOS The latest celebrity to join forces with Prince Charles' Rainforests Project, Sting is lending one of his most famous tunes to the cause. He hopes that leaders at the climate talks in Copenhagen get his message in a bottle. Watch Sting's latest "Message in a Bottle" video.

Michelle Obama Brings Green Thumb to Sesame St. Want some elementary gardening tips mixed with some awesome muppetry action? The First Lady will share some of the lessons she learned in the White House veggie garden with the furry denizens of Sesame Street and you, of course.

Salad Engineering 101 Grab some of the tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce that Michelle Obama taught you to grow on Sesame Street and get to work on a leafy masterpiece that eats like a complete meal. FitSugar has some tips to turn your low-carbon appetizer into a superfood.

Refuting the Car Idling Myths Should I warm the car up for a few minutes in winter? Are frequent starts rough on my starter? Is idling more fuel efficient than turning the engine on and back off? Or are we needlessly idling our way to a hotter dirty planet? The short answer to the last question is: Yes.

School District Bans Biking/Walking to School In the middle of a child obesity epidemic, schools in Saratoga Springs, NY, have actually banned students from biking or walking to school. Why would a school district enact such a ridiculous policy? Thankfully, at least one family is standing up to the ban.

Green in a Flash:

• Is Dell's new wireless charging system an energy sinkhole?
• Check out these awesome shipping container offices!
• Will the climate bill end up like a promiscuous teenager in a slasher film?

Here in San Francisco we've resigned ourselves to another year of dashed World Series hopes. But we do have a baseball superlative to be proud of: The San Francisco Giants are certainly the most eco-friendly major league baseball team!

In addition to a solar powered stadium and a water-conserving irrigation system, the team uses Vaska, an all-natural, phosphate-free detergent. The company is even local, based across the bay in Berkeley, California.

Since I'm getting to be something of an expert on green laundry practices, the company contacted me and offered a sample of their herbatergent ™. Of course I said yes!

Do you want Brad Pitt's Make it Right Foundation to build your next eco-chic house? How is a JetSki going to help the Sea Shepherds put a stop to whaling? Is it time to bust out your favorite childhood lunchbox? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Brad Pitt Gets US Building Council Award What's the equivalent of an Oscar for charitable, green (re)builders? I guess it's the big glass plate that Brad Pitt received from the US Green Building Council at last week's Clinton Global Initiative. So far, the Make it Right Foundation has completed 13 homes in New Orleans.

Sea Shepherds Construct a JetSki of Doom Forget ramming Japanese whaling ships; that was so last year. The Sea Shepherds are working on a new toy to harass the whaling fleet: An all-black, screaming-fast attack vehicle, aka a SeaDoo on steroids. But who wants to ride a SeaDoo in the Antarctic?

Watch Sir David Attenborough's 50 Greatest Hits You've watched "Planet Earth," "The Blue Planet," and dozens of other breathtaking documentaries narrated by this fascinating Knight of the British Empire. Now you can watch Attenborough's 50 most amazing brushes with nature online.

Reducing Your Lunchprint We know that going out for lunch everyday can wreak havoc on your wallet, waistline, and the planet -- so what's the best way to combat all three delicious but unwanted side effects? You guessed it; pack a lunch. It's so simple, yet so effective. Check out Grist for more tips.

Now That's Efficiency Would you install a sleek, modern, combination sink+toilet in your water-wise bathroom? The W + W (washbasin/watercloset) by Roca is probably the most attractive bathroom fixture of its kind. Still, I think it might weird some people out.

Green in a Flash:

• Wanna win a free trip to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park?
• John Kerry asks, what's the worst that will happen if Al Gore's wrong?
• Do you know what to look for when shopping for compact fluorescent bulbs?