Green Daily

What truth was so inconvenient that even Al Gore's movie wouldn't cover it? Forget the trace amounts of BPA in your SIGG bottle, what about the weed killer in your tap water? Do you have a killer record collection, or a eco-conscious one? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Why Is Al Gore Dodging Livestock Emissions? Given that animal production results in more of the world's greenhouse emissions than cars, Moby asked Al why he didn't mention this in "An Inconvenient Truth." Says Moby, "He answered honestly... Getting people to give up animal products is almost impossible."

A House Built Out of Cannabis It's every stoner's dream, but soon it could be a reality. A company in the UK is bringing its revolutionary, carbon-negative and non-hallucinogenic cement to the US: Hemcrete. The stuff is 7x stronger than conventional concrete and it weighs about half as much.

Weed Killer in Your Water Speaking of weed, how would you feel if I told you that there's weed killer in your drinking water? Not too comforting, eh? It's called Atrazine, and it's used by farmers, golf courses, and yard of the month hopefuls. Banned in Europe, the EPA says it's OK for Americans.

Is Your Music Library Green? A new life cycle study of six different ways of consuming music confirms what we already know: downloading digital music is much greener than owning any kind of physical copy. OK, it's not exactly earth-shattering, but the results are enlightening none the less.

Generation Y Will Kill Us All According to a recent study, the most non-conscientious, energy-wasting age group is (drumroll, please) 18-25. However, it's not from lack of concern for environmental issues. It's because they haven't taken the initiative to learn what appliances use the most water and electricity.

Green in a Flash:

• Ready to replace that front lawn with a productive veggie garden?
• Robotic fish are monitoring pollution levels in the ocean. Awesome.
  
• Lenders are offering green mortgages for eco-conscious home upgrades.

Why did Fiat let a panda get behind the wheel? Is your neighborhood increasing your risk of developing cancer? Are the uneducated, miscreants you call friends still drinking wine out of the bottle? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Use Endangered Animals As Crash Test Dummies? The latest ads for Fiat's gas-sipping hatchback features pandas, walruses, and penguins testing the vehicle's crash worthiness. The message: the 500 is safe and has a low environmental "impact." Don't freak animal lovers, I'm pretty sure it was Photoshopped.

My Morning Jacket Donates to Animal Sanctuary Jim James, front man of My Morning Jacket, is releasing a George Harrison tribute album and all the proceeds will go to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. The timing seems a little unfortunate though. Most of my money's tied up in Michael Jackson tribute memorabilia.

These Polluted Cities Up Your Cancer Risk Is the city you live in increasing your risk of developing cancer? According to the EPA, about 600 neighborhoods in the US have a cancer risk that exceeds 100 in one million. That means 100 people that live there over a lifetime will develop cancer from pollution alone.

Oh Crap, it's the Dog Flu! Could your dog be incubating a deadly superbug in order kill you and take your spot on the couch? According to experts, the H3N8 canine flu has infected some 10,000-30,000 dogs in the US, but has yet to infect a human. Paranoid? There is a vaccine available for dogs.

Is Boxed Wine Really Greener? If you're going to endure the disrespect from you wine snob friends, you might as well make sure that your boxed wine has a lower eco-footprint than their beloved bottles (so you can be an eco-snob and judge them too). Pablo from Treehugger says feel righteous box drinkers.

Green in a Flash:

• Novato wine fest rocks out to a solar powered sound system.
• Great Lakes gray wolves are temporarily back on the endangered list.
• Air pollution from some major roadways extends out about one and a half miles.

Have Fatboy Slim and Jarvis Cocker joined the Blue Man Group? Looking for ways to look smart and save your office some money? Need an excuse to procrastinate mowing the yard? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all the latest green news and tips.

Fatboy Slim Has the Climate Change Blues Blue is the new green for Oxfam protesters at Copenhagen's climate conference. To help roll out the new "Demand action until you're blue in the face" campaign, Fat Boy Slim and others are showing how easy it is to get the new paintjob on video.

Reduce Your Office's Footprint Energy Star and Danny Seo have developed a website to show you how to slash your office's energy bill and even create a "Green Team" of coworkers (not modeled after Will Ferrell's trash-talking Green Team). A penny saved is a penny earned, and that's job security, people.

But I like Coffee and Bananas! If you tend to obsess over your carbon foodprint, you've probably come across a startling revelation: most of our favorite food vices come from the tropics! Though there's no silver bullet, Grist has come up with some ways to help combat those food miles.

More Mowing, Mo' Watering Of all the suburban lawn farmers I've met, virtually none of them enjoy mowing the grass in the summer heat. Good news! Letting your grass grow a little longer will actually save you some water. Longer grass = more shade = recipe for laziness.

Coke's Trashy Art Installation In support of UK Recycle Week, Coca Cola commissioned a sculpture that sorta kinda blurs the line between art and trash. Artists built a Coke can sculpture that delivers a pro-recycling message to birds and UFOs flying over the English coastline, but looks trashy from the ground.

Green in a Flash:

• NYC taxi drivers won't get penalized for refusing to buy hybrids.
• Speaking of NYC, Moby's vegan restaurant burned down.
  
• Climate legislation working its way through Congress would cost about $175 per household.

Why are our green celebrities threatening to move to Australia? Why has a whole city gone vegetarian one day a week? Looking for ways to be a more eco-conscious wedding guest? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all of the latest green news and tips.

New Auto Standards on the Way The Obama administration wants to put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, when it comes to curbing emissions and fuel consumption. Word on the street is that officials are looking to bump car standards to 42 mpg by 2016. Wow.

Adrian Grenier in Love with Australia's Greenness Australia is apparently out-competing the US in the department of eco-friendliness, and it may cost us a green celeb or two. "Every time I'm here, I just want to move here -- and I might! I might find myself a nice Australian wife."

Belgian Town Adopts Meat-free Day Government officials in Ghent will go meat-free one day a week and they're encouraging all other residents and restaurants to follow their lead. Their goal: Save the planet. Meat Free Mondays has a kinda nice ring to it.

Wedding Season is Here You might as well get your mind and your wallet ready. If you want to make all the weddings on your calendar, but still keep a nice and tidy footprint, check out Grist's video on how to be a green wedding guest.

Should We Be Jealous? The Vauxhall Corsa ecoFLEX is cheap, gets 59 mpg combined, doesn't need to plug in, and doesn't use a hybrid drivetrain. Oh yeah, it's also not available in the US. What gives?

Green in a Flash:

• Bike to Work Day was a big success in NYC.
• You may soon enjoy a Coke from a new, more eco-friendly bottle.
• Lime trees in the UK monitor air pollution and help researchers make pollution maps.

Do you know Tom Hanks' track record when it comes to electric cars? Which celebrity has been crowned the most anti-green for 2009? Need help choosing a healthier way to combat your bodily stink? Today's Eco-Beat has the scoop on all of the latest green news and tips.

Tom Hanks Loves His Green Machine Here's some Tom Hanks trivia for super-fans: did he or didn't he ever own one of GM's all-electric EV1s before they were so cruelly destroyed? For the answer you'll have to check out his letter to The New Yorker.

Rewarding Anti-Greenness There are still 7.5ish months left in 2009, but for some reason, Treehugger has released its hilarious 2009 Anti-Green Awards. Seriously guys, a lot can change in 7.5 months. They must be going by the Mayan calendar.

The Pitfalls of Deodorant Sure, pit stains are embarrassing, but with some antiperspirants, the solution may be worse than the problem. Grist has put together a video that helps you stay stink-free while protecting you pits from nasty little chemical additives.

UK Tests GPS Speed Limiters for Your Car Transport for London is now testing a device that uses GPS tracking to automatically override lead feet and reduce emissions. The technology is not mandatory, but officials hope drivers will opt in. Yeah, right.

Will The EPA Crack Down on Marathon Runners? Marathons do have a tendency to trap unsuspecting drivers in carbon spewing traffic jams on Saturday mornings, but that's not what has congress worried. Rep. Joe Barton fears the EPA may want to regulate large hordes of runners as a source of CO2 pollution.

Green in a Flash:

• Joaquin Phoenix's sister has opened a green store in Florida.
• Warren Buffet is showing off new green pre-fab homes.
• What's it gonna take to make subsidy-free solar competitive cheaper forms of energy?

You're a conscientious shopper, and you pay attention to the green and ethical practices behind the businesses that get your money -- good for you! Now, apparently, you should be getting your booty over to Kohl's, which just came in as the number one purchaser of green power among retailers, and third overall.

EPA Green Power Partners that have completed voluntary green power purchases were ranked. Green power is defined by the EPA as "electricity generated from environmentally preferable resources like wind and solar."

Kohl's more than doubled their green power purchase for 2009, but still came in behind Intel Corporation, which came in at first place for the second year in a row, and PepsiCo. The full list includes a few names that just might surprise you, such as Wal-Mart stores and several states and cities.

There are plenty of other businesses making the list, and all together, EPA Green Power Partners are buying over 16 billion kWh of green power each year.

Why did Morrissey throw a fit at Coachella? Is gaining weight good for the environment? Guess which tiny religious city-state is harvesting power from above? Today's Eco-Beat has got the scoop on all the latest awesome green news and tips.

Erykah Badu, Adrien Grenier Design for Kiehl's In time for Earth Day, Kiehls has released its fairly traded, organic body lotion in a limited edition 100% recycled bottle designed by Adrian Grenier, Erykah Badu, Kelly Slater, and students from Parson's New School of Design.

The Skinny on Obesity and the Environment Thinking about packing on a few pounds just for kicks? Not so fast, obese adults eat more and are less likely to walk rather than drive.

Morrissey Pulls a Britney Spears You heard about Britney walking off stage in Vancouver because she smelled pot smoke in the crowd? Well, Morrissey apparently had the same reaction at last weekend's Coachella festival -- to the smell of meat.

Vatican Constructing Europe's Largest Solar Farm I've always been jealous of the fact that the Pope has his own country and a car named after him (the Popemobile). Soon, he's also going to have Europe's biggest solar power plant too. Sheesh.

California Mandates More Efficient Flat Panel TVs Buying a new flat panel TV for the digital switch? California has proposed standards to make flat panels 50% more efficient by 2013 -- that's hardcore. Until then, look for the Energy Star logo.

Green in a Flash:

• Surprise! The EPA has declared that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health.
• This week is International TV Turnoff Week.
• Bikers: Ride on the road and risk getting run over, or ride on sidewalks and risk slamming into a pregnant celebrity?

This should not be a news item, but it has been popping up on green news sites and pages all over in the last couple of days.

The EPA has said that greenhouse gases are dangerous to our health. They've said it before. But this time, it appears the White House is listening. This means that we can officially start regulating greenhouse gases, which has not always been a priority of the nation's leadership.

Some lawmakers have already been working on carbon cap-and-trade CO2 program, which would require polluters to buy permits according to the amount of pollution they release into the atmosphere.

The move is already producing warnings from some legislators, who are worried about the massive amount of regulations on businesses that could result. This is explained further over at Bloomberg. Either way, we're going to be hearing a lot more about greenhouse gases in the coming days and months.

Get ready for European style carbon trading, because here it comes. As the EPA tinkers with the idea of creating a carbon market they first need to know exactly how who's doing the emitting and how much. That's why they've gone public with a proposal to make heavy polluters in the steel, chemical, and auto, and hopefully coal power industries submit annual reports of their overall greenhouse gas emissions to Washington in an effort to monitor America's impact on climate change.

When the EU launched its carbon trading market in 2005, the first couple of years were a major debacle, because the government lacked sufficient data on how much pollution each facility was releasing -- they were also heavily lobbied to give the permits out for free (which they did). Learning from the EU's mistakes, the US plan will most likely have a few years of emissions data in the run up to the opening bell -- if indeed team Obama is able to successfully launch a GHG permitting scheme.

Would you rather scald yourself, or allow harmful bacteria to grow in your water heater? Most energy conservation checklists will tell you that lowering your home's water heater to 120°F will help you safely shrink your home's ecological footprint. According to the health organizations in Canada, however, there may be one slight problem with this strategy. A deadly, warm water loving bacteria that causes pneumonia could possibly grow in your heater if you crank the thermostat down.

Legionella, named for an outbreak that killed 34 at an American Legion gathering in 1976, thrives in warm environments ranging from 77 - 113°F, especially in electric water heaters. At 122 - 133°F, Legionella can survive but not multiply. Why exactly do health organizations in Canada and the US disagree on this issue? It's hard to say. OSHA doesn't recommend setting heaters as high as 140°F, because of the risk of scalding children and the infirm. In Canada, most organizations warn against setting heaters below 140°F, because of the risk of Legionaire's disease. We've all been scalded with hot water, and it sucks -- but it's probably preferable to getting pneumonia. Don't you think?

[via Treehugger]

That week, WaterSense partners in Arizona will demonstrate inside a Phoenix home how leaks can waste more than 200 gallons of water in 7 days. And how fixing them is easier than you think.

Here are a few water-saving tips:

Gallery: Fix A Leak

Although vehicle emissions get most of the ink, the energy used inside our homes and businesses end up producing the lion's share of emissions each year in the US: 48%. That's why, each year, the EPA takes an inventory on which cities are making the largest effort to lower their skyline's carbon footprint. They measure that by the number of Energy Star labeled buildings in a given city.

In order to get that coveted rating, a building must consume 35% less electricity and emit 35% less greenhouse emissions than a conventional structure its size. 2008 saw a massive 130% jump in the number of Energy Star qualified buildings around the nation. Here's a list of the cities that really put their money where their mouth is.

Surprise, the smoke-belching broiler at your local BK is not only serving up artery-clogging grub, but it's slowly crispifying the planet. Thanks to a small business grant from the EPA, however, there may be a solution to the surprisingly harmful emissions created by our craving for cheap mcfood, warmed to perfection under a heat lamp. Innova Tech will take their $70,000 grant and use it to develop a contraption that will clean up the charbroiled particulate matter -- aka soot -- created by our fast food nation.

By retrofitting the charbroilers at your local fast food eateries, Innova Tech hopes to build a business out of helping fast food green its cooking process. In the US, it's estimated that the restaurant industry produces 285 tons of particulate matter (41 tons of pure VOCs) a day. Of that, 94% reportedly comes from underfired charbroilers. Innova Tech's contraption will use a filter, vapor condensor, and continuous waste removal to help keep charbroilers running at maximum efficiency.

[via CleanTechnica]

Last September, Honda announced that they were bringing back the Insight -- or at least the Insight brand identity -- and in 2009 they we're going to come after the Prius with a vengeance. With the Insight's launch date set for Earth Day, April 22nd, the suits at Honda are still deliberating over pricing options for the US market. Obviously, in this down market, the lower the price, the better. That's why Honda's executive VP Koichi Kondo is campaigning to sell the Insight for less than $20K.

If Honda is really serious about knocking the Prius out of the #1 spot, or even gaining a significant foothold in the hybrid market, they know they've got to go painfully low on price. The first market to see the Insight will be Japan, and the price for the Japanese is already set at 1.89 million yen ($21,140), so I don't know how they will manage to sell the Insight in the US for under 20K -- but they might have to. Although some would argue that the EPA underestimated the Insight's fuel economy, the EPA rated it 43mpg city/40mpg Highway. Compare that to the Prius' 48/45.

How would you like to get a $5,000 discount on your next plug-in hybrid car? If governor Rick Perry of Texas has his way, all you'll need to do is move to one of the state's many famous smog-filled metropolises. That's right, in the governor's State of the State Address Tuesday, the governor laid out a plan that could give buyers more bargaining chips at the car lot, while cleaning up the air and giving a boost to the state's cooling wind power sector.

Basically, the plan works like this: the $5,000 incentive would encourage car-obsessed Texans who live in areas that fall below EPA air quality standards to buy cleaner plug-in hybrids. At the same time, these PHEVs would act as a giant storage facility for all of the unused wind power created at night and other non-peak hours. For a Republican Governor who's an outspoken opponent of tougher EPA regulations and biodiesel, this is a pretty big deal -- and surprisingly well thought-out.

If the $7,500 federal plug-in vehicle tax incentive is adopted, along with Governor Perry's, Texans could be looking at a $12,500 discount on their next PHEV.

[via AutoBlogGreen]