Green Daily

Are you worried about your Cinco de Mayo's impact on the environment? Why is Google getting into the goat business? Is your mayor fighting the good fight for the environment? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all of the latest green news and tips.

How to Verde Your Cinco de Mayo It's Cinco de Mayo and, quite obviously, the number one question on everybody's mind today is: Can I recycle a beer bottle with a lime wedge stuck inside?

Google Harnesses Goat Power No, Google's powerful servers aren't being powered by goats on treadmills. The livestock is actually a part of Google lawn maintenance plan. They've hired 200 goats to clear the brush around their Mountain View HQ.

Is Your Mayor in the Green 15? To lead a city down a path of sustainability, you've got to have a seriously green-leaning captain. Grist put together a list of the 15 most eco-conscious mayors in the country. Did yours make the list?

Anderson Cooper Wins Hero Award Conservation International is honoring Coops and the rest of CNN's Green team the with Global Conservation Hero Award for their work on the awesome series Planet in Peril. Way to go, guys!

Honda Chips Away at Prius Domination Look out Prius, the new Honda Insight is coming at you like a spider monkey. The Insight's first month in the US saw sales of 2,096, while Prius sales were down 61.5% from last April. I'm going to ahead and assume that those figures are somewhat linked.

Green in a Flash:

• Broadway's got its first ever LEED-certified theater!
• The grey wolf has officially come off of the endangered species list.
• GM wants to sell Saturn and all of its awesome upcoming hybrid models before 2010.

(Photo by Fiesta Toys)

Kids love computers, right? Also animals. So what could be more perfect than a video game that teaches them about conservation, and even encourages action by letting them pick projects to support?

Tales 4 Tomorrow (there's music, click with caution!) is a video game collaboration between Conservation International and Kango, a new environmentally-focused toy company.

Educational video games, which are visually overwhelming for anyone over the age of 11, but perfect for stimulus hungry little ones, are paired with stuffed animals made from environmentally-friendly soy and cotton materials. Each stuffed animal has a tag (printed on recycled paper, of course) that explains its background -- where it lives, if it's endangered, and other conservation information.

By playing the video games, kids can earn "habitokens" that go toward building a new habitat for their endangered animal friend. They also learn about cause and effect -- that their actions can have an impact on the environment.

It's a great lesson, and one you know they'll enjoy because kids and video games go together like ice cream and hot days. If you need a reason to go for it, think of it as an Earth Day gift, and an investment in some future conservationists!

It's a tough time to be a turtle. Their oceanic habitats are getting more acidic, their numbers are dwindling, and there are so many of those plastic bags -- the ones that look just like delicious jellyfish, but seriously screw up turtle innards -- floating around.

Lucky for the turtles, they have an advocate and ambassador: Mr. Leatherback, a.k.a. "The James Bond of the animal kingdom."

Mr. Leatherback is a character who travels around the world -- he's been to 43 countries so far -- helping to raise awareness for his gentle and critically-endangered brethren.

In addition to his in-person educational appearances, Mr. Leatherback is big on the internet. He has a brand new website, plus he's on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube! Definitely check out the photo gallery -- it's pretty funny to see a giant turtle in front of the Coliseum and Great Pyramids!

Also, as you can see in the video, he's quite an accomplished dancer. Especially for an oversized reptile.

He and Olympic swimmer Rowdy Gaines are sharing announcing duties for the Great Turtle Race, which starts today in Nova Scotia.

The race follows 11 turtles on their annual migration from the cold waters of Canada to the Caribbean and South America. You can visit the Conservation International site to meet the racers, who all have names and distinct personalities. Mr. Leatherback, along with cool race sponsors like R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, hope the race will spread the word about the plight of the turtles, but in a fun, non-doom and gloom way.

With friends like Mr. Leatherback looking out for them, I'm feeling a little more optimistic for the turtles!

With the success of Kung Fu Panda, a sequel was inevitable. The DVD came out this week to enormous acclaim (the kid/family kind, not the critics.) It's the kind of good news the studios dream about!

It's also good to hear that Dreamworks Animation is partnering with Conservation International to give a little bit of their success back to the pandas.

Recently the production team took a research trip to Sichuan province, the site of a terrible earthquake last May, and the home of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

At Chengdu, the production team observed pandas playing in a natural habitat, made sketches and filmed the cuddly looking creatures for later reference. They also brought a $1 million donation to help with conservation efforts for the iconic bears.

To thank the team for their generous gift, and for helping raise awareness of the plight of the panda, the research center officials named a panda cub "Po" after Jack Black's character in the movie.

Now, if only we could do something about Jack Black's wardrobe, we'd really be on to something!

Speaking of measurements, Conservation International has a dandy carbon calculator and a separate ecological impact calculator.

Unlike most carbon calculators that take your through cartoons of suburban living with editorial comments on what an immoral global citizen you are for digesting so much carbon, this calculator is straightforward. Users can use a simple or detailed series of carbon measurements based on home life habits, travel and driving. Instead of asking you to blindly accept the math Conservation International provides an explanation of its measurements under the tab "methodology and sources."

The ecological impact calculator examines your recycling, consuming and eating habits largely. At the end of both of these gadgets CI asks you for something. The carbon calculator suggests you make a donation to offset your carbon footprint based on what you've consumed. The ecological impact calculator wants you to pledge your willingness to fight for a better Earth.

For me, this brings to mind small green army men of my youth.

Harrison Ford is a man's man. He has been ever since he blasted TIE fighters from the Millennium Falcon, beat up bad guys to save the Holy Grail, or kicked some terrorist ass aboard Air Force One. And how would a man's man take on deforestation? By ripping off his chest hair!

As the vice president of Conservation International, a group that works to curb climate change and protect endangered species around the world, Harrison is very serious when it comes to saving trees. So, when it came time to raise awareness about deforestation, the 65-year-old actor didn't hesitate to appear half-naked on Access Hollywood and get his chest waxed while the cameras rolled -- all while "guest correspondent" Mel B offered what I'm sure was insightful commentary on the unspeakable pain Dr. Jones was suffering.