Question Earthority!

“The economy may have gone to pot and the country’s future leadership may be wildly unclear, but there’s one thing we can count on: Halloween. Yes, October 31 is a holiday of certainty, full of ringing doorbells, sweet treats, and tiny ghosts and witches (or, more likely, Kung Fu Pandas and Hannah Montanas). But All Hallow’s Eve has a spooky flip side, laced with refined sugar, vinyl costumes, and other horrors that can give you the eco-shivers. If you want a greener fright night, here’s how to start.”

http://www.grist.org/advice/how/2008/10/14/?source=food

“So all those gourmet cooking shows have inspired you to spend more time in the kitchen. But between energy use, water use and food/packaging disposal, there’s lots of opportunity to help or hurt the environment in the process.”

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/commentary/37648

“Reel (push) mowers have been around for many years, but have been all but replaced by the ubiquitous gas-powered rotary lawn mowers. Per hour of operation, however, a gas lawn mower emits 10-12 times as much hydrocarbon as a typical auto. To reduce the environmental cost of lawn mowing, a new generation of reel mowers has been designed which operate much more effectively than the old push mowers, and with zero impact on the environment.”

http://www.eartheasy.com/article_reel_mower.htm

“Dear Pablo, I would like to use LED lighting to replace all my existing lighting. Over the long run, will I be reducing energy consumption and pollution, and even saving money?” (05/05/08)

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/05/05/ask_pablo_leds/

“This is a statement of principles about how individual rights relate to ecology, geography, and community. These statements are intended to win assent from green libertarians, libertarian-leaning greens, geolibertarians, and ecologically-minded economists. The meaning of ‘community’ below intentionally does not exclude completely voluntary communities, so as to not rule out assent from geoanarchists.”

http://ecolibertarian.org/manifesto

“Simply put, a green tax is a levy on pollution. It goes further than a carbon tax to levy a charge on all harmful emissions in proportion to the damage they cause, ideally making polluters pay for the full social cost of their emissions. The green tax shift replaces taxes on income and goods with taxes on pollution.”

http://www.scu.edu/scm/summer2007/feature6.cfm

“Clean coal is the name attributed to coal chemically washed of minerals and impurities, sometimes gasified, burned and the resulting flue gases treated with steam, with the purpose of almost completely eradicating sulfur dioxide, and reburned so as to make the carbon dioxide in the flue gas economically recoverable. The coal industry uses the term ‘clean coal’ to describe technologies designed to enhance both the efficiency and the environmental acceptability of coal extraction, preparation and use, with no specific quantitative limits on any emissions, particularly carbon dioxide.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_coal

“Strange but true: Energy-efficient light bulbs and hybrid cars are hurting our nation’s budding efforts to fight global warming. More precisely, every time an activist or politician hectors the public to voluntarily reach for a new bulb or spend extra on a Prius, ExxonMobil heaves a big sigh of relief. … Imagine if this had been the dominant response to racial segregation 50 years ago. Apartheid rules across much of our land and here are three things you can do: Take time, if possible, to feed three negroes who seek food at your lunch counter each month. Consider giving up your use of the N-word, or at least cut down. And avoid vacationing in states where National Guardsmen are needed to enroll blacks in public schools.” (09/04/07)

http://tinyurl.com/2kfano

“It’s a contradiction between word and deed that has many local residents puzzled. In a city that has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions and a county that has made generating environmentally sustainable jobs a priority, generating wind energy in your backyard is nearly impossible now. A few people stop in each week at Architectural & Environmental Associates of Flagstaff to ask about installing a backyard wind turbine. Once Vice President Jason Campbell lays out the months-long paperwork delays, the $14,000 in total costs and the uncertainties about whether a homeowner is even allowed to install a wind turbine inside the county or city limits, most people decide against buying them, he said.” [offered as an example of zoning ordinances, etc., nationwide that make it difficult for individuals to voluntarily cut down their own negative environmental impacts — remember Al Gore’s ordeal getting permission to install solar panels on his home? - TLK]

http://tinyurl.com/3cod9p

“During a kitchen remodel, if you have the cash to replace your refrigerator and you are shopping for a new one, by all means consider using a smaller fridge. Refrigerators can be cabinet-height, and/or cabinet-depth, and/or cabinet-width. Short caveat: a smaller fridge is not inherently a more efficient one. A large fridge with the same kilowatt-hour per year rating as a small fridge is actually more energy-efficient, because it cools a larger space using the same amount of energy. Energy Star offers some shopping tips, and the ACEEE lists the highest efficiency fridges by size, for your shopping pleasure. One reason to have a smaller fridge is of course the added kitchen space you’ll gain — for cooking what’s in the fridge, for opening doors, for standing room at a party. Another is the extra cash you’ll have for buying tasty food or saving for low-e windows. A third, shocking reason is that much of what’s in your fridge could probably be stored in a cabinet or pantry.”

http://tinyurl.com/2mcgv7