Green Daily

Does David Duchovny seem like a guy who knows what's up in the garden? Is compostable plastic all it's greenwashed up to be? Do you scoop your dog's poop religiously, rain or shine? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on poop scooping, as well as all the latest green news and tips.

David Duchovny: Organic Gardener Extraodinaire The "Californication" star is putting his skills to the test on a completely unrelated show this weekend: "Extreme Home Makeover." Duchovny is helping the EHM team put the finishing touches on a green home makeover by lending a hand in the organic garden.

Compostable Plastic: Yea or Nay? Sure, it makes you feel all warm inside when that cup you're sipping from is stamped "compostable," but what does that really mean? Are you going to take it home and throw it in your hydrolyzing compost bin? If not, might be better to go recyclable.

SF Airport Gets Carbon Offset Kiosks Buying carbon offsets has never been easier for those flying out of SFO ... or if you have a layover there. As of today, San Francisco International Airport is home to the world's first carbon offset kiosks. Buy a paper, offset your travel, and then board your flight. It's that easy.

Is Your Pet's Poop Killing Orcas? A bag of fresh dog poop may not qualify as a fashion accessory, but it does express something about you: You care about other people's shoes and also about whales. A coalition in Seattle is raising awareness about the glut of dog crap that washes into Puget Sound.

A Website Dedicated to Sustainable Beer! For those of us who like sustainably brewed beer (which I'm assuming is a lot of us) there's a whole website dedicated to the delicious, green suds. SustainaBrew keeps tabs on all sorts of sustainable micro breweries, so you can kick back and enjoy the brews.

Green in a Flash:

• Good news! The ozone hole shrank in 2009.
• "The Cove" is going to hit festivals, maybe even theaters, in Japan.
• According to the White House, cap and trade would cost US households $1,761 a year. Ouch.
  

One of my favorite things is when big companies finally see the "Green Light" (and by green I mean eco-friendly and potential money-makers) of environmentally responsible products. Sponge king 3M, though its Scotch Brite brand, has clearly picked up on the whole, "Oh, people want sustainably-produced versions of this stuff!" concept. Hooray!

Like all good Green Warriors, when I first heard about the Greener Clean line I was suitably skeptical and suspicious of 3M greenwashing, just because their products use so many chemicals. I mean, there's a picture of a guy with a blow torch and a protective gas mask on their products page!

Very intelligently, they got the new line of Scotch Brite Greener Clean into the hands of bloggers at the BlogHer Conference, by way of the Room 704 gift bags. I got several samples, including scrubbers, sponges and wipes, all made from natural, sustainable, recycled and recyclable materials.

Wanna watch the only safe-for-work porno on the internet? Who would win in a battle royale: The Muppets or Big Oil? Would you pay 40 times as much for a bulb that lasts 40 times as long? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Rossellini's Green Porno 3 Launches Online For those of you with an insatiable urge to learn about how other animals do it, you're in luck. Isabella Rossellini's "Green Porno: Season 3" is now available to copulate with your web browser on the Sundance Channel's website.

The Muppets Take on Big Oil Word on the street has it that the next Muppets movie will pit Kermit and the gang against an oil tycoon in a battle over the fate of a cherished old theater that sits on a large pocket of oil. What kind of dirty tricks will the tycoon pull? Haven't they ever heard of slant drilling?

A LEED Certified White House? Small steps have been made to green the White House over the years (e.g. George W. Bush installed a photovoltaic system and solar powered water heaters). Now, the Obamas want to take it a step further -- LEED Certification. It's going to be a major undertaking.

How to Break the Ice with Climate Change Deniers Considering that certain regions of the US are calling 2009 "the year without a summer" (though not where I live),the cooler-than-average summer has invigorated climate change naysayers. Here's some info to help explain the difference between climate and weather.

A Light Bulb That Lasts Two Decades Would you pay more (a lot more) for an LED bulb that's not only super efficient, but you only have to change it every 20 years? Panasonic hopes so. Their new EverLed bulbs go on sale in Japan next month for $40 a pop. The do have 40x the lifespan of an incandescent, however.

Green in a Flash:

• Pamela Anderson's green fashion launch has been pushed back.
• The new CAFE standards have been unveiled: 35.5 mpg by 2016.
• Burger King treated customers to a drive-thru light show powered by their own gas-guzzlers.

My friend Annie Scott wrote a great post for our sister site Gadling about the many eco-initiatives of luxury hotel titan, Ritz-Carlton. It was serendipitous timing. I had just done a review of the Ritz-Carlton property in Half Moon Bay and heard about their "Green Initiative" in this ecologically fragile area. Just days later, my GreenDaily colleague Kristin Seymour sent me information about the Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach receiving bronze-level Green Seal Certification.

Ritz-Carlton, with a name already synonymous with luxury and service, is officially becoming an eco-leader in the hotel industry!

While in Jamaica to learn more about event services offered by the Ritz-Carlton, Annie discovered, almost by chance, several green packages, including Giveback Getaways, Meaningful Meetings, A Vow to Help Others and VolunTeaming. She also heard about, and then researched Community Footprints, which is the Ritz-Carlton's admirable and successful local community involvement program.

Need a new tune to add to your global warming playlist? Who are the greatest per capita polluters on the planet? Is your cell phone trying to kill you? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Rock Stars of the World Unite to Fight Global Warming Thanks to the Global Humanitarian Forum, 55 rockers including Duran Duran and Scorpions have all thrown together to rock a Band Aid-ish version of Midnight Oil's "Beds'r Burning." Look for a cheesy in-studio music video of each artist laying down their tracks.

All Liquids Now Come in a Box First, it was juice. Then came wine. Now a companies like Tetra Pak are boxing up everything from soup to water to even shelf stable milk -- based on the fact that the box is both cheaper to ship and reduces landfill waste. Are you on board with boxed water? Boxed beer?

The Top 5 Most Polluting Countries Congratulations, America, we're not #1. Australia has overtaken us as the largest per capita polluter on planet earth. Americans are second overall, with Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia rounding out the Top 5 (or Bottom 5, depending on how you look at it).

Is Your Cell Phone Frying Your Brain? For those of use who live life with a mobile device glued to our heads, microwaving our gray matter is an ever-present lifestyle risk. Are you talking on a radiation-spewing phone of death? The Environmental Working Group has ranked 1,000 cell phones by radiation levels.

It's Bike Buying Season Not only is the cooler fall weather going to make it possible to ride to the store without getting drenched in sweat, but it's also model year closeout time. Bike shops may not run those obnoxious dealership commercials, but they do make some hot deals on last year's wheels.

Green in a Flash:

• Japan wants US forces stationed in their country to clean up their act.
• Michael Pollan says health care reform is useless without food reform.
• What's an appropriate memorial for the King of Pop? A dance floor powered by a gold-plated wind turbine, maybe?

Last week I encouraged you to go see "No Impact Man", the documentary about environmentalist Colin Beavan's efforts, with his family, to live for a year impact-free, in New York City. In the film and companion book, "No Impact Man," Colin shares the story of the experiment that he, his wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter, Isabella, conducted over the course of a year.

They reduced their trash to zero, ate only food grown within 250 miles of their home, (which meant giving up coffee -- eek!), and stopped using electricity, which meant dealing with nine flights of stairs to get in or out of their 9th floor apartment every day (double eek!). Their story is funny, and thought-provoking, and manages to make the idea of giving up toilet paper and electricity, in the middle of New York City, see accessible -- even possible.

I had a chance to meet Colin on the press tour for "No Impact Man," along with Beth Terry from Fake Plastic Fish. We got to ask some follow up questions about the No Impact Man experiment, plus get Colin's first-hand advice on living impact-free.

Patrick Swayze died today at the age of 57 after a 20 month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Maybe you knew him best as the misunderstood dancer Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." Or perhaps your favorite memories of him are from the amazing fight scenes in "Road House." We all have our favorite Swayze moments, and it's with a heavy heart that we say good-bye to the screen icon and one-time "Sexiest Man Alive".

Not only did he have a major impact on cinema, but he was a conservationist as well. While filming "King Solomon's Mines" in South Africa, he was moved by the people and animals in the African bush.

"Out of this experience was born an idea for a global conservation documentary series that is turning huge," Swayze told the LA Times in 2004. "I've got some of the leading paleoanthropological scientists in the world coming on my team, and award-winning wildlife documentarians."

Looking for a farmer's market somewhere in the vicinity of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? How is Edward Norton going to save the Kenyan wilderness in running shorts? Are your eco-friendly cleaning products really making a difference? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

White House Farmer's Market: Go for Launch! A few months ago, who'd have that the White House would get involved with a local food movement. A group called Fresh Farm Markets won approval for a farmer's market on Vermont Ave. The administration's role appears to be pretty limited (bigger fish to fry).

Edward Norton Runs for Conservation The latest celebrity to tackle the grueling NYC Marathon for the planet, Ed is running to benefit the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust -- a group that protects the grasslands of western Kenya. Is he up to it? He's up to about 15 miles so far.

A Clock That Harnesses Dirt Power Clocks that utilize renewable energy are not exactly new (remember those watches you have to wind?). Still, not too many tickers can use your houseplants as batteries. This eco-chic timepiece is made from sustainable bamboo and gets its power from moist soil.

Chicken Sex: What You Need to Know Is eating an egg the same thing as killing a chicken? For vegetarians out there who are simply averse to the thought of killing animals for food, the question remains: Is a carton of eggs really a carton of potential baby chicks? Grist has the answer.

How Green Are Method Cleaning Supplies? Afraid that you've been taken by advertising campaigns that convinced you to buy a bunch of greenwashed cleaning supplies. Well, if you stocked your cupboard with Method products, pat yourself on the back. They've earned their street cred.

Green in a Flash:

• It ain't paint; it's zero-VOC color liquid by Bungaloo.
• The breakdown of all the energy we waste in the US.
• The EPA says pending mountaintop-removal permits would violate the Clean Water Act.

The internets have been abuzz with outrage at stainless steel aluminum* waterbottle manufacturer Sigg. In an effort to avoid the BPA present in plastic bottles, many people picked the metal Sigg water bottle. Now we know that the liner of some those bottles contained "trace amounts" of BPA, which totally defeats the purpose of using a Sigg in the first place.

Steve Wasik, CEO of Sigg, has been abject in his apologies, including two letters posted on the Sigg site. They're also offering to voluntarily exchange bottles with the BPA liner, although the consumer has to pay shipping costs.

Meanwhile, competitor Camelbak is looking pretty good. They offer several versions of BPA-free bottles, including a stainless steel option that just came out this summer. Talk about good timing!

How does Jason Mraz stay dedicated to his super-strict, raw food diet? Is your need for speed negating your green driving efforts? In your expert opinion, are Fudgesicles a "smart" food choice? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the lastest green news and tips.

Jason Mraz is on a Raw Vegan Diet, His Chef... A raw food vegan since last April, Jason Mraz is promoting his eco-diet and his current Cafe Gratitude Tour in a series of funny online videos. After watching Mraz's latest installment, I get the sense that some of his assistants are placating him. Don't know why.

Insight Not as Insightful on the Highway Most cars get their worst mileage in the city and their best on the highway. For hybrids, the opposite is true. In fact, a recent test by Consumer Reports showed that the Honda Insight lost as much as 15mpg at speeds between 55-75mph -- so watch the lead foot.

Fruit Loops Now a Health Food! Fruit Loops were recently labeled a "smart choice" by manufacturers as part of an effort to make it easier to eat healthy, allegedly. Not to be confused with "organic," "natural," or any of the other dubious labels given to our foods, "smart choice" simply means that it won't kill you.

Treasure Island: The Jewel of Eco Developments Developers are planning a LEED gold neighborhood on the other famous island in SF Bay (not Alcatraz), complete with urban farms, condos mid-rises, and a green wastewater treatment plant surrounded by wetlands. When complete, all eco-pirates will be jealous.

Would You Ride This to Work? Though I find old school pedal power completely adequate, electric bikes seem to be getting a pretty solid foothold in urban transit. Some e-bikes are, however, a little sexier than others. The YikeBike cost $5,500, tops out at 12mph and looks like part of a circus act.

Green in a Flash:

• This has been the 34th coolest summer on record. What!?
  
• France is levying a new tax on oil, gas and coal consumption.
• Maruka honey is effective in fighting off MRSA, a scary antibiotic-resistant strain of staph infection.

Now that I've managed to absorb the the simplified information about the Copenhagen Climate Conference, aka COP15, I'm getting a grasp on the many ancillary programs and activities that are planned concurrently with the conference.

Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Ritt Bjerregaard, (best title, best name, possibly ever, and she's a groovy older lady who wears awesome glasses!) is hosting a gathering of the mayors from large cities around the world as a gesture of support. Well, support and pressure -- they're gathering as a show of strength, to tell state leaders that the citizens of the world expect a decisive action to come out of COP15. You tell 'em, Ritt!

I think one of the coolest events related to the conference is the special Earth Hour the citizens of Copenhagen plan to observe at 7pm on December 16, the day before COP15 concludes. This is their way of demonstrating support for the conference, and also to encourage the world leaders to come to a consensus.

Is online grocery shopping more eco-friendly than the grocery store? Looking for ways to fight the green fight on you college campus? Are you ready to take you personal water conservation to a new level? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Is it Green? Al Gore Invests in Ocado Al Gore, inventor of the internet and champion of climate change legislation, is investing heavily in an online UK grocery retailer named Ocado. While Al's no stranger to eco-controversy, the question this time around: Is shipping groceries greener than running retail stores?

Working to Green Your Campus Recently, Grist release their picks for the top 20 Green Universities. For those students who aren't going to transfer simply based on greenness, you can always work to make you college a little more environmentally-aware. Tree-sitting is not required.

Shower Like the Planet is Your Battleship A new shower head can cut a few gallons out of your shower, but if you really wanna get hardcore, I mean military-style hardcore -- try a Navy shower. Developed to conserve water at sea, it works like this: Turn on the water, get soaked, turn it off, lather, then rinse.

"The Cove" Worked, but Not for Whales In an odd twist on the dolphin slaughter story, fishermen in Taiji did round up 100 dolphins -- but didn't kill them. Instead, 50 f them were sold to aquariums. Things didn't go so well for the 50 pilot whales involved; they were killed in the name of tradition and whale steak.

EU Says Goodbye to Thomas Edison The European Union's ban on the incandescent bulb went into effect this month. That doesn't mean that the creepy light bulb police will be knocking on doors, but it does mean retailers are prohibited from purchasing any more old-school bulbs -- the end of an era.

Green in a Flash:

• Just a reminder: A jellyfish is not a toy -- or a weapon.
• Google's mirrors may one day cut the cost of solar plants by 25%.
• The Ford Focus Hybrid will be the first contestant in Jay Leno's Green Car Challenge.

Every year on the third Saturday of September, all the best people have the same social engagement: Get together and clean up the beaches around the world. The event is the International Coastal Cleanup, and this year that date is September 19th. Make a note on your calendar!

The annual International Coastal Cleanup is the largest volunteer day of its kind. The Ocean Conservancy leads this event, with several sponsoring partners including Coca-Cola and Bank of America.

Last year 400,000 volunteers in 100 countries and 42 US states collected more than 6.8 million pounds of trash. This year they hope to see more volunteers in even more locations.

For more than five years I've been one of those annoying people in San Francisco, driving a Toyota Prius and feeling smugly eco-superior. There have been many times when my husband and I have gloated over how little we spend on gas and how light it makes our carbon footprint.

This summer I had a chance to drive a few Ford 2010 models, and in that process met several people on the Ford Safety and Sustainability Team. Knowing that Ford offers several hybrids -– the Fusion, Escape, Milan and Mariner -- I figured our conversations would focus on that technology, and maybe get into plug-in electric vehicles.

In the course of several discussions, including a one-on-one interview with Sue Cischke, Ford Group Vice President, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, I learned something surprising: figuring out which car is most environmentally-friendly for your situation is more complex than just picking the hybrid.

Why is Pamela Anderson ripping the clothes off of air travelers' backs? Are you ready to bury the hatchet with SIGG? Should you have fewer babies for the environment? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

PETA's Airport Security Commercial Doesn't Fly Pamela Anderson teamed up with PETA once again to use her uh ... assets to campaign against animal products. She plays a scantily-clad airport security officer who literally strips passengers of their fur and leather clothing. Needless to say, it's been rejected by airports.

SIGG Wants to Make it Right Following a tidal wave of critical press, SIGG's CEO made a formal apology yesterday saying that he made a mistake by not announcing that SIGG's liners contained trace amounts of BPA. To win back your trust, SIGG is making it easy for you to trade in your old SIGG.

Should the Environment be Part of Family Planning? I don't think I'm alone in saying that if there's one thing that instantly gets under my skin, it's someone who's trying to lecture me about how many children I should or shouldn't have. If you're trying to have the family-print discussion with someone, I suggest reading this first.

Should We Ban the Coat and Tie? Hoping to conserve some electricity during an energy crisis, the government of Bangladesh has banned employees from wearing suits and ties. That's right, they banned suits and ties. That way, they can turn up thermostats in government buildings.

The Giants' Laundry Team Hits a Grand Slam As the Giants battle for a playoff berth, the team's laundry services have already clinched the pennant. Along with other green efforts at Candlestick, the team's uniforms are now being washed in phosphate-free, botanical suds from locally-based VASKA.

Green in a Flash:

• The UK is considering a tax hike to keep more passengers grounded.
• Yesterday, Boulder became the first fully functioning smart grid city.
  
• The world's largest solar plant will be build by an Arizona-base company, in China.