Green Daily

How did Oprah accidentally started a bidding war for a Brazilian staple food? Looking for ways to promote a bike to work policy? Who will prevail in the super bowl of the hybrids: Insight vs. Prius? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Raiders of the Amazon? As we saw with the KFC debacle, when Oprah promotes food, hordes of hungry Americans respond. Since educating her followers on a little-know superfood called the acai berry -- rich in antioxidants but a staple food for Brazil's poor -- the wholesale price has skyrocketed.

How to Create a Bike Friendly Office Not that it isn't intuitive, but if you're thinking about encouraging employees to ride to work, maybe this awesome how-to guide will inspire you to adopt a bike-friendly plan of action.

Green Fashion Merger Luxury conglomerate LVMH just bought an almost 50% stake in Bono and wife Ali Hewson's sustainable clothing brand Edun. Does that mean the brand will water down its green mission? If you already can't afford their clothes, does it really matter?

The Prius Strikes Back Unconfirmed reports are going around that Toyota has taken 75,000 preorders for the updated 2010 model, set to go on sale in Japan on Monday. If true, that would pretty much blow away the Insight's pretty impressive sales figures.

Americans Are the Least Green Consumers Yeah, Americans were once again ranked as the least green consumers based on a number of factors like public transportation and eating local foods. Second to last place: Canada. The good news: At least we're getting better.

Green in a Flash:

• London's iconic double-decker buses are going hybrid!
• The EPA has released a summer guide to saving energy at home.
• US House may require 15% of energy to come from renewables by 2025.

Aside from adding a bunch of those sweet fake bullet hole decals, what could possibly make the Hollywood sign more iconic? Are tree-huggers ready to laugh at themselves? Are you comfortable paying $50K for a glorified golf cart? Today's Eco-Beat has got the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Hollywood Sign May Get Solarized The movement to add grid-connected solar panels to the iconic Hollywood sign is growing. Sure, the revolution has been met with some resistance, but now it's got a Facebook page, so it's totally official.

Mike Judge Takes Aim at Tree-Huggers We know that Mike Judge can create a hilarious caricature of conservative, suburban family life. Now, he's launching a new series that will make us laugh, cry, but mostly laugh about an eco-conscious suburban family just trying to make a difference: The Goode Family.

The Official Results are In According to Disney, 2.7 million trees will be planted as a result of Earth's opening weekend ticket sales. 2.7 million tickets = 2.7 million trees planted by the Nature Conservancy in Brazil's Atlantic Forest!

Congressman Backs Cap-and-Dividend Bill When it comes to cap-and-trade, Rep. Chris Van Hollen has a solution that all the fence sitters can understand: a bribe. He wants to divvy up the proceeds and send Americans a monthly check. Before I take a stand, how much might that check be?

Tesla's Model S Gets First Test Drive The Model S has officially been test driven by someone who doesn't get a Tesla paycheck. I'd say the review wasn't exactly glowing. The writer described the Model S as "more like a glorified golf cart than a harbinger of tomorrow tech." Ouch.

Green in a Flash:

• Want an easy way to recycle your households CFLs?
• Fed-Ex Paris is adding pedal powered trikes to its fleet.
• Chrysler's filing for bankruptcy may bring about a greener fleet.

As you know, today is a very special day for the planet, so be sure to wish it a happy Earth Day. To help you do just that, today's Eco-Beat has all the news and tips you need to get your Earth Day party on. Rock on, planet earth!

Plant a Tree Without Even Thinking About It Disney said they'll plant a tree for every ticket they sell to their new eco-documentary, Earth, throughout opening weekend. Grab a ticket, enjoy the show, and plant a tree while you zone out to the mesmerizing images.

Shrink Your Footprint, Get a Free Missy Higgins Song In honor of Earth Day, Missy Higgins will let you download an unreleased version of "Where I Stood" for free. All you've got to do is pledge to reduce your eco-footprint by 2%. Remember people, your word is your bond.

AOL's New Energy-Saving Toolbar is Here! Looking for a way to reduce your computing footprint? A brand spanking new toolbar from AOL can help you save electricity, printer paper, and keep you plugged in to the latest green computing technology.

Do Earth Day on the Cheap! Our friends at WalletPop put together an awesome slide show that gives you 16 ways to reduce your footprint while saving some green. Most of them are pretty simple, but you've gotta check out the Chinese carpenter who built a DIY solar water heater out of beer bottles!

Screw Earth Day? You read that right. Grist says Earth Day is for wimps ... but even so, they're having an Earth Day sign-up special. Register with them and get a free download of their book and a chance to win tix to Bonaroo.

Ed Begley Jr. on QVC Today! We knew Ed had mild super powers, but apparently he is a master at the art of eco-tasking. Not only is he appearing on The Price Is Right today, but then he'll magically fly across the daytime TV universe to give us green demos on QVC!

Need Some Earth Day Snark? It's OK, everybody gets fed up with people constantly telling them how to live. Watch this Howcast about how to have an 'Extreme Earth Day,' vent your frustrations, then get back to saving the planet.

Green in a Flash:

• Is your town one of 'The 10 Best Cities to be in for Earth Day?'
• Take a photo journey through Colorado's renewable energy revolution.
• Watch some awesome eco-documentaries and learn more about the challenges that the planet is facing.

Prince Charles and his lovely bride Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are on their five day state visit to Brazil -- the one that has some folks all het up over them flying there in a private jet, even though he's a prince and they bought carbon offsets.

One of their stops was in the Brazilian city of Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon. While there, Camilla was the guest of honor at a fashion show of clothes made from recycles bottles and cans.

The show was held at the Musical Centre for Art and Education, which is located in a poverty stricken area of the city, and is supported by the British Embassy there.

The dresses seem a bit colorful for Camilla, who always seems more at home in Wellies and a hunting jacket. But as always, she was an excellent sport, posing for photos with the models who were chosen from the neighborhood.

It's a big planet with a lot of green happenings. Here's a sample of environmental headlines from everywhere:

Korea -- Yellow dust storms hit Korea hard, especially Seoul and the Gyeonggi Province, every spring. Gyeonggi have decided to fight the storms by building a forest of 5 million trees by 2011. The government, through a private sector organization called "Future Forests", will be planting a forest in Kubuqi, in Northern China, where the dust storms originate.

Pakistan -- A bunch of dolphins washed up on a beach just west of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. Locals have been playing with the mammals and picking them up to pose for cameras, increasing the danger to the animals. Most of the dolphins, who were likely beached by a high tide, were able to return to sea, but about six are still trapped on land. A wildlife official has reported that the remaining dolphins are being sent back into the water as soon as possible.

Prince Charles is embarking on a whirlwind tour through South America next month as part of his crusade to battle global warming. To meet the demands of his ambitious schedule -- 40 appearances throughout South America in 10 days -- Charles has decided to make the 16,400 mile trip in a luxurious private jet. So, instead of scoring points with environmentalist for his green efforts, he's getting kicked around in the media for his choice in transportation.

Curiously, no one seems interested in the fact that the entire tour's emissions will be offset. Charles is getting blasted for being hypocritical and excessive for the trip that will cost around $431,900 and release 322 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The Prince has been trying to green up his image, but the poor guy can't seem to do anything right in the minds of staunch environmentalists. While I'm all about giving celebrities a hard time, I'm of the opinion that it's kinda absurd to recognize a human as royalty on the one hand, then turn around and expect them to be all down-to-earth. A prince flying coach? Really?

I'm hating these tough times for dolphins, even if they do have some questionable sexual proclivities.

In January a large number were seen just off the shore at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cold tides from El Nino had driven them into the unusual migration pattern. That's the Brazilian bunch in the photo.

Then today I read about a pod of 200 (and possibly more) melon-head dolphins in danger of beaching themselves in Manila Bay.

Unlike the case of the dolphins off the coast of South America, experts in the Philippines don't have an easy explanation for why the dolphins are there. Proposed reasons include an underwater quake, which could have damaged the dolphins' eardrums and disrupted their navigation abilities, or a sick leader who accidentally led them into the shallows.

Dozens of volunteers, including local fishermen, are trying to reorient the (sometimes overly) friendly mammals and help them get back to the open sea.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? About Douglas Adams and So Long and Thanks for all the Fish? Get out your telescopes and towels, and don't panic!

It's a big planet with a lot of green happenings. Here's a sample of environmental headlines from everywhere:

Brazil -- An "eco-limit" fence to be built in Rio de Janeiro is supposed to protect rain forests from illegal occupation. Critics see it as a way to segregate the slums of Rio from everyone else.

India -- Large protests in southern India have broken out for the third time since November because of a tiger reserve extension intended to protect the endangered cats. The tiger population in India has drastically dropped to only 1, 411 cats from 40, 000 a century ago.

South Korea -- The government has announced $38 billion over four years for eco-development projects. The green schemes include pouring money into public transit, creating a low-carbon railway and bicycle trails. The "green new deal" aims to create 1 million jobs and jump start a slumping economy.

Australia - NASA has written a open letter to President-elect Obama saying that Australia's large coal exports could "guarantee destruction of much of the life on the planet". The letter also asks for a moratorium on dirty coal plants and pushes from the use of next-generation nuclear power.

United Kingdom - Transport for London has announced the biggest roll-out of hybrid buses in Europe and expects all new London buses to be hybrid by 2012. The new vehicles will emit 40% less emissions than a regular bus and should help the capital city reach a goal of 60% emission reduction over the next 16 years.

187 countries are getting together in Poland to discuss what will replace the Kyoto Protocol which is set to expire in 2012. Farm emissions, especially from giant factory farms, will be one of the big issues on the table. The UN has released figures that point to agriculture, along with transportation, as being among the most "problematic" sectors related to global warming.

Farm animals have always been, as this NYT piece calls them, "living smokestacks". But as the global consumption of meat skyrockets, the population of farm animals has shot up into the trillions. The UN now estimates that 18% of emissions come from farm animals, which is even more than the usual suspects of cars, buses and airplanes.

While there are some innovative projects to reduce farm animal emissions -- a Dutch project that makes electricity from methane captured from heating pig manure, for instance -- the consumption of meat remains huge in the western world and is soaring in the developing world. China, India and Brazil, for instance, have increased red meat consumption by 33% in the last decade. Global meat consumption is expected to double in the first half of this century.

As Sea shared last week, a bunch of penguins washed ashore in Brazil, basically making a migration of almost 2,000 miles. Experts believe this behavior may be related to climate change, the resulting availability of fish, and possibly pollution.

Last Friday, as a follow up to this report, the World Wildlife Fund released a report stating that climate change is likely to cause a decline -- or even wipe out -- 1/2 to 3/4 of the penguin colonies in the Antarctic.

You know who lives in the Antarctic? Those cute Emperor Penguins from March of the Penguins. Except that pretty soon the only way anyone will know what they look like is by watching that movie, because the penguins cannot adapt fast enough to the changes in their environment.

Here are some scary stats from WWF:

• Surface temperatures along the West coast of the Antarctic Peninsula have already increased nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last half-century – many times the global average
• Sea ice coverage in that area is 40 percent less than it was a quarter century ago and that penguin populations have already declined significantly.
• Adélie Penguin populations have dropped by 65 percent over the past 25 years and at least one population of Emperor Penguins has declined by half over the past 50 years.

Something has to be done to reduce the warming in the polar regions, or you'll be taking your kids to see a double feature of Death March of the Penguins and Polar Bears: Arctic Tales of Extinction.

While planning that coveted green kitchen redesign, you might want pay extra close attention to what kind of counter tops you choose. I know, all the design magazines out there show kitchens decked out with those easy-to-clean, indestructible granite counters -- but there's a catch. Aside from the extremely energy-intensive extraction and transportation process that this stone goes through on the way to your kitchen, it might also be radioactive. Seriously.

Experts maintain that its exceedingly rare to find a counter that poses any serious health risks. Still, with the ballooning popularity of the stone, and the many exotic locations that the stone is coming from, it's hard for anyone to keep track of which stones contain which levels of radioactive materials like uranium, thorium or even potassium. According to the EPA, they've been getting swarmed with questions about the safety of granite. They recommend taking action if radon measurements exceed 4 picocuries, one woman's counter top in New Jersey was emitting 100 picocuries -- one of the more extreme cases.

[via Treehugger]

When more than 400 penguins have washed up on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches in the last two months, you know something is seriously wrong. According to scientists, it is common to find some penguins swept onto these shores, but the recent numbers are cause for concern.

Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at Brazil's Niteroi Zoo, has blamed the problem on overfishing, which has forced penguins to seek fish further south. This leaves them vulnerable to the strong ocean currents that bring them straight to Brazil's shores. He also reports that many of the penguins they receive at the zoo for treatment are covered in petroleum from the Campos oil fields just offshore. While researchers and rescuers are torn over the exact cause of this phenomenon, most believe it is the combination of these factors.

Obviously drugs -- even the legal ones -- aren't very good for you, and most will get you arrested (or worse), but rumor has it that some people still take them anyway. So, with that in mind, the least you can do is work towards a more sustainable habit. To see all the substances we've covered in this series, see our Guide to Green Green Drug Use.

Prisoners in Rio de Janeiro have found a new way to minimize their carbon-footprint while smuggling drugs into Brazil's overcrowded prisons. Instead of baking a cake or digging a tunnel, these crafty prisoners turned to the original air mail -- tricking their guards with the zero-emission delivery services of the carrier pigeon. Long before overnight air delivery, carrier pigeons were used to couriered messages back and forth between towns hundreds of miles apart. In fact, the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo was first delivered by a pigeon.

For months, guards were perplexed by the amount of contraband finding its way through the prison's high tech checkpoints; until one of them noticed a pigeon wearing a cell phone-sized backpack. Sure enough, it was full of drugs. The pigeons had lived inside the prison walls and had been adopted as pets by the prisoners. Friends and family would smuggle the birds out and once they were released, the pigeons returned home bearing gifts.

When it comes to ranching on protected lands, Brazilian police are not messing around. They're currently in the middle of a crackdown that has resulted in the impounding of over 13,500 head of cattle from illegal farming operations. According to Brazil's environmental protection agency IBAMA, this is the first year since 2004 that illegal deforestation has risen -- and they're not taking it lightly.

Although much of the Amazon is protected, illegal ranchers continue to slash and burn their way deeper into the world's largest rainforest to take advantage of high beef prices. So far, the police have carried out major raids in the states of Pará and Rondonia, similar to this winter's Arch of Fire operation. Environmental minister Flavio Montiel expects to seize over a hundred thousand cows by the time the crackdown comes to a close -- hopefully discouraging all profiteers to back off of the rainforest. The impounded herds will become "environmental barbeque" for the nation's hunger-fighting programs. Sorry PETA.

The bad news: In April, the Amazon rainforest shrunk by 430 square miles, in addition to the 2,300 square miles that were destroyed since last August.

The even worse news: What we're doing to try to stop it may not be working.

What's causing such destruction, you ask? Sadly, it's pretty simple: illegal logging, soybean farming, and cattle production are contributing to the mass destruction of forests, at rates that are hard to keep up with. According to the World Resources Institute, Brazil is the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because of deforestation.
The new deforestation data is from a system called DETER, which monitors the rainforest in real-time. For awhile, the outlook was more positive, as a long-term monitoring system reported data that suggested that the rate of deforestation had dropped more than 50%. But researchers believe that the new DETER data will change these stats.