Shareholders Slam Apple's Environmental Initiatives
“The Apple shareholder meeting on Thursday was a telling example of just how difficult it is for a public company to go green, even if it really wants to.
Apple currently has a much greener reputation than it deserves according to the recent New Scientist study. Consumers rank Apple #3 in sustainability, even though the scientists rank them at #19. Yes, they have made efforts to reduce toxicity in their products and created an e-waste recycling program, but both of these green initiatives came as a response to activist campaigns led by NGO’s like Greenpeace.”
(via Good)
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Unpackaged
“Beginning life as a market stall in 2006, Unpackaged is a unique and brilliant concept that is so simple it hurts, especially considering the sheer amount of packaging waste that is ridiculously filling our planet’s landfill sites. Within the beautifully designed shop, organic whole foods, dried fruit, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, even refillable oils, vinegars and wines are all available to place straight into your own containers, that you will have brought along with you … if you haven’t then reusable bags are available. Zero packaging.”
(via Good)
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“We are standing at the threshold of runaway climate change and the coming disruptions which most scientists say are inevitable will lead us either into a future of totalitarianism or into a new and unprecedented era of human cooperation.”
- Ross Gelbspan, from his new book “The Heat Is Online”
Eating Dogs Is No Worse Than Eating Pigs
“…do pigs have any more or less of a soul than dogs? Are they any more or less sentient? Do they suffer any more or less in death? Are they any more or less part of the mysterious unity of life? I think not.”
(via The New York Times)
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Plitvicka Jezera National Park is one of Earth’s jewels. This mountain valley holds many large emerald lakes, each of which drains into the next in spectacular series of waterfalls.
Reblogged from Things like that.
Coca-Cola Goes Completely Green at Olympics
“In Ambitious Eco-Friendly Push, Sponsor Big Red Vows to Produce Zero Waste During the Vancouver Games”
Does this mean their farm lobbying arm will stop petitioning the government for corn subsidies (i.e., cheap high fructose corn syrup) that cause systematic overplanting and the accompanying water table depletion and overfertilization (not to mention an epidemic of obesity and skyrocketing healthcare costs)? Or does their “greenwash” only extend to meaningless gestures?
(via Ad Age)
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“This little box has, inside it, some kind of circuitry that harvests WiFi energy out of the air and converts it into electricity. This has been done before, but the Airnergy is able to harvest electricity with a high enough efficiency to make it practically useful: on the CES floor, they were able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% to full in about 90 minutes, using nothing but ambient WiFi signals as a power source.”
(via OhGizmo!)
Reblogged from benjamin palmer.
Michael Pollan On The High Cost Of Cheap Food
“Earlier this week, food journalist and author Michael Pollan appeared on the Daily Show to promote his latest book “Food Rules,” a straightforward set of guidelines for helping us navigate the increasingly complex question of “What should you eat?” In discussing the book, Pollan points to the hidden costs of cheap food on both the health of ourselves and the environment. Pollan cites a staggering statistic, noting that the average American receives 20 percent of their annual calories from high fructose corn syrup, a figure that explains the high incidences of preventable diseases such as type II diabetes.”
(via PSFK)
Coke Announces Global Rollout of Plant-Based Plastic Bottles
A huge move by one of the largest consumer food manufacturers, The Coca-Cola Company unveiled today a new plastic bottle made partially from plants. The “PlantBottle™” is fully recyclable, has a lower reliance on a non-renewable resource, and reduces carbon emissions, compared with petroleum-based PET plastic bottles. The new bottles stand to cut down on carbon emissions by up to 25% compared to traditional PET bottles.
Nearly 1.6 billion servings of Coca-Cola-branded beverages are served each day.
(via Inhabitat.com)
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The Carnivore’s Dilemma
“It’s true that food production is an important contributor to climate change. And the claim that meat (especially beef) is closely linked to global warming has received some credible backing, including by the United Nations and University of Chicago. Both institutions have issued reports that have been widely summarized as condemning meat-eating.
But that’s an overly simplistic conclusion to draw from the research… it could be, in fact, that a conscientious meat eater may have a more environmentally friendly diet than your average vegetarian.
None of us, whether we are vegan or omnivore, can entirely avoid foods that play a role in global warming. Singling out meat is misleading and unhelpful, especially since few people are likely to entirely abandon animal-based foods.
Still, there are numerous reasonable ways to reduce our individual contributions to climate change through our food choices. Because it takes more resources to produce meat and dairy than, say, fresh locally grown carrots, it’s sensible to cut back on consumption of animal-based foods. More important, all eaters can lower their global warming contribution by following these simple rules: avoid processed foods and those from industrialized farms; reduce food waste; and buy local and in season.”
(via The New York Times)
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Garbage Island
I give VBS TV a lot of credit for creating this piece. The crew went to the Northern Gyre in the Pacific Ocean, a spot where currents spin and cycle, churning up tons of plastic into a giant pool of chemical soup, flecked with bits and whole chunks of refuse that cannot biodegrade.
Disheartening and absurd. I feel so small when I see video like this because there’s only so many ways for me to help. I would love to see #2 or #3 of Garbage Island to focus on how a citizen can help and change things on a broader scale.
Fast Food: Would You Like 1,000 Calories with That?
If public-health advocates, and now the Senate, get their way, when you look at a menu from a chain restaurant, those calorie counts will be staring you down.
(via, my pal, Maria Gonima)
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Increasingly, Food Companies Cannot Guarantee Safety
Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients.
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Trailer for The Cove, an upcoming documentary, about inhumane dolphins killings for food in Japan.
More details here in an interview with Canadian TV investigative reporter Boyd Harnell
This makes me so sad and angry
Today Vice President Gore announced that his next book, Our Choice, will be published by Rodale in the US and by other publishers internationally on November 3, 2009. Picking up where An Inconvenient Truth left off, Our Choice utilizes Mr. Gore’s forty years of experience as a student, policymaker, author, filmmaker, entrepreneur and activist to comprehensively describe the real solutions to global warming. A co-recipient of the Nobel Peace prize in 2007 for his environmental work, Mr. Gore continues to make sense of the pressing issues we face and Our Choice will unquestionably inspire and rally those ready to fight for solutions that were deemed impossible only a short time ago.
Said Vice President Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved. Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. Our Choice will answer that call.”
Go, Al!
