Just when you thought you heard it all regarding the BP oil spill in the Gulf, you hear this.
On the sidelines of an oil conference in London, Transocean Ltd. president Steven Newman said there were things President Barack Obama’s administration “could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit.”
Sometimes it’s best to stop, pause and analyze Steve, especially when people died and 5,000 barrels of oil a day are leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
Read more about what Steve Newman thinks about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Yahoo!.
Looks like Monsanto might be getting their way with genetically modified engineering …
As per the WSJ:
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a 2007 nationwide injunction that barred farmers from planting Monsanto Co.’s Roundup Ready alfalfa seed until the federal government completed a study of whether the seed’s use would affect conventional and organic alfalfa crops.
The ruling doesn’t immediately clear farmers to plant the genetically engineered seed, but it could allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to permit the interim planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa, with some restrictions, while the agency completes an environmental study.
More about Monsanto and the GMO Alfalfa.
The recent oil spill in the Gulf has gotten some Florida residents rethinking their feelings on offshore drilling.
Charter captain Jim McMahon, who spent Thursday catching cobia and King Mackerel, said the spill changed his mind.
“I am pessimistic about this,” he said. “It could be devastating to the fishing and tourism industry. People aren’t going to come to a beach if they have to step through tar balls.”
Still others just still don’t get it. As one person who doesn’t quite get said:
“I would rather we drill here than spend another 10 years fighting at war and being dependent on oil from other places,” she said.
The idea is to use alternative fuel. Oil is not the answer here. But thanks for clearing up why we are at war.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_spill_drilling_fallout
I have to admit, I’m a lot of things green and organic but one place I fall on my face is at the grocery store – At the checkout with the cashier asking, “Paper or plastic?”
I cringe on the inside, knowing I know better, knowing there is no good answer other than “neither, I brought my own thanks.” But I forgot. Again I forgot to bring my canvas bags. I drive home feeling guilty with my paper or plastic bags of groceries. What a waste.
We all need a kick in the pants sometimes. I got mine in an email the other day from Stephen Troy who is making a movie about plastic bags and why they are bad, bad ideas. He’s a blurb from his site:
It is short, ridiculous, hilarious, and it will be beautiful. It is environmentally conscious, having a subtle but unmistakable green message about the importance of recycling. After viewing this film, no one in the audience will be able to simply look the other way when they see plastic bags littering our streets.
So what does this have to do with you dear reader? We, first off, bring your own bags to the grocery store so Stephen can find another environmental cause. I never met Stephen, but I think he would agree that is a good first step. Second, give our film maker a hand in the form of a small (or as big as you want) donation. It costs to make a movie, even a “short, ridiculous, hilarious” movie like the one Stephen is making.
Find out more about Paper or Plastic: Recycle or Die (the movie). You can also donate to the cause.
November 19th, 2009
Jimmy
- Use computer and monitor power management. Doing so can save nearly half a ton of CO2 and more than $60 a year in energy costs.
- Don’t use a screen saver. Screen savers are not necessary on modern monitors and studies show they actually consume more energy than allowing the monitor to dim when it’s not in use.
- Buying a new computer? Make energy efficiency a priority while shopping for your PC and monitor. Look for the ENERGY STAR label or browse the Climate Savers Computing product catalog.
- Turn down the brightness setting on your monitor. The brightest setting on a monitor consumes twice the power used by the dimmest setting.
- Turn off peripherals such as printers, scanners and speakers when not in use.
- Fight phantom power; plug all your electronics into one power strip and turn the strip off when you are finished using your computer. When feasible, we also recommend unplugging the power strip from the wall to avoid high voltage surges which may occur during an electrical storm.
- Use a laptop instead of a desktop. Laptops typically consume less power than desktops.
- Close unused applications and turn off your monitor when you’re not using it.
- Use a power meter to find out how much energy your computer actually consumes and to calculate your actual savings.
- Establish multiple power schemes to address different usage models. For example, you can create a power scheme for playing music CDs that shuts off your hard drive and monitor immediately, but never puts your system into standby mode.
The above tips and more great information can be found at http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/
You can also get more involved by pledging to reduce your computer energy consumption. I did.
November 12th, 2009
Jimmy
It’s taken me about 2 months to find this bamboo business card holder from Canoe in Portland.
I thought it would be a piece or cake to find an ecofriendly business card case. Not so. I looked for:
- recycled business card case
- sustainable business card case
- ecofriendly business card case
- free range business card case
- green business card case
- fair trade business card case
I also searched for all of the above, but replaced “case” with “holder.” There was nothing impressive out there. Though I did find a Tilapia leather business card holder that was a bit too feminine for my taste. I was unable to relocate the site at the time of posting.
I’m not sure what I finally searched for to find the Canoe site, but this bamboo business card case came up. The site said out of stock. Out of desperation I emailed the shop. After a pleasant phone call with the owner, I have 2 bamboo business card cases in the mail.
Canoe doesn’t tout itself as a green store store per se, but they carry quite of few ecofriendly products and sell items from local artists. Sounds pretty green to me. Thanks Canoe of Portland.