Green Girl

I thought this article from eMarketer was pretty interesting, discussing the greening (or “greenwashing”) of online advertisting. 60% of people polled in a DoubleClick survey say that it’s important to them that the products they buy are manufactured by environmentally-conscious companies.

The internet is a useful place for those of us who are concerned  about the environment because it opens up avenues of communication and investigation of what companies are actually doing when they claim that their practices are green.  While it is possible that the growing concern will encourage people to market their products as green even when they truly aren’t, we hope that consumers’ green desires will transform companies’ policies for a cleaner, greener future.

Here’s a few news links on some hot-button issues for the green crowd:

• Samsung is set to release two environmentally-friendly mobile phones. One is made from a recycled plastic, and the other is manufactured without BFRs and PVC. We think corporate responsibility is very sexy…way to go, Samsung!
• The G8 Summit , which gets so little press in the US, is being dominated this year by issues relating to the environment, world health, and food and water supplies.
• Affordable, sleek, and committed to taking care of the environment, Ikea has recently released a new website that will help them codify their “Ikea Way,” continuing to greenwash the brand and to promote its earth-friendly policies to those of us who care.

PETA has been on KFC for a while about their slaughterhouse practices, and apparently, the organization’s pressure is working! In a recent agreement with 461 KFC franchises, PETA has announced that KFC will begin selling unchicken products! While many of KFC’s franchises are not yet ready to take action, the fact that PETA has gotten 461 stores to begin to offer vegan products is amazing.

In my humble opinion, it will be a smart business move for KFC in addition to being the right thing to do. As more people become health and environmentally conscious, more people are switching to the veggie lifestyle. I’ve been vegetarian for almost 15 years, and I’ve seen the market change to be far more veggie-friendly in my time. The fast food industry still has a long way to go in capturing the vegetarian market, and it’s impressive that a company with such a long, devastating record on animal rights and the environment is possibly going to be a leader on this issue.

See more at The Globe And Mail and on the PETA site.

Here’s a few green stories that are hot right now:

• There’s controversy about a Wilmington, North Carolina cement plant that wants to destroy wetlands to expand its operations.  While it promises to bring millions of dollars in revenue and new jobs to the area, local residents have formed a “Fight Titan” group to try to stop Titan America from razing wetlands.
• Scholars studying energy consumption at the University Of California at Berkeley suggest that economic concerns outweigh environmental concerns in consumers’ shopping choices. While the rising price of gas is making folks reconsider their transportation choices, the high cost of alternative fuels and transportation often keeps us from making green-friendly changes.
• It’s Environmental Awareness week in Jamaica ! From protecting coral reefs to reducing carbon emissions, seminars and events across Kingston as Jamaicans come together to learn more about how they can do their part to help.

I found a fascinating article on News Food, an Italian site chronicling problems of world hunger. The article “Safety Nets,” which was prepared by the environmental research group Equilibrium, suggests that regions with well-managed protected areas not only serve as environmental stewards, but they also offer many benefits to area people living in poverty. Because poverty is a multi-faceted problem that includes issues far beyond inability to make enough money, these protected areas encourage people who are more dependent on natural resources to share those resources, to find spiritual fulfillment through caring for a common goal, and gives them access to clean water supplies and better productivity for home-grown crops.

Isn’t that lovely? As much as we put into caring for the earth, we get it right back…

The EPA has just released their most recent Report On The Enviroment.
Using scientifically sound indicators to address questions that they believe are fundamental to our understanding of the environment, they compile the data and present it each year to provide input to shape their programs better and inform the public of problem areas as well as successes. There are also regional reports available so that you can see how well the EPA thinks the environment is doing in your area of the U.S. It’s a useful resource for all citizens to help us understand what we’re doing well and where we can improve in greening our lifestyles, so take a moment and check it out.

ABC recently covered a report produced by UK researchers suggesting that the increasing problem of obesity in the U.S. is contributing to the depletion of our ozone layer. While it might seem like a wild assertion, the researchers claim that the 400+ calorie a day difference in the amount of food necessary to feed an obese person could actually contribute to environmental problems because of the necessary use of resources in producing that food.

Critics have suggested that these studies are bogus and fan the flames of fat-hatred. In the United States, we throw away more than 400 calories of food each day per person, so it is more likely that waste is at the root of our food-production pollution.

It’s an article worth reading, no matter which side of the debate you fall on. While I agree with critics that it seems unfair to blame folks carrying a little extra weight around for damaging the environment, I do like to consider the ways that our individual choices can impact the environment. If taking better care of ourselves helps to make the world a cleaner, greener place, then it’s probably not a bad idea to consider the impact we’re making.

Living in the drought-plagued Southeastern United States has turned me on to a whole new world of areas where I can live cleaner and greener in my own daily life. From the mandatory water restrictions to the programs that are encouraging us to upgrade our shower heads and incorporate devices like rain barrels into our homes and gardens, the city governments have been doing an impressive job of handling the dangers we’ve been facing. Minimal efforts, such as turning the shower nozzle off when you’re lathering yourself up with soap, can save as much as 15,000 gallons of water a year if you do it diligently.

This drought is just one more example of how our present crisis causes us finally to take some action to change our ways. It is regrettable that it took a crisis that threatened our well-being to make us change, but what is important is to realize that we are changing.

Sara Shipley Hiles of Defenders Magazine has produced a poignant article about the worldwide endangerment of amphibians. From a deadly fungus affecting hundreds of frogs in Panama to the disappearance of the leopard frogs in southern Missouri, the disappearance of our amphibians has reached epidemic proportions. Hiles quotes Kevin Zippel, the program officer for Amphibian Ark , which is a multi-million dollar project attempting to collect critically endangered amphibian species from the wild for breeding and safe-keeping in zoos and aquariums:

“It sounds like hyperbole, but really, this is the greatest conservation challenge humanity has ever faced. The world hasn’t seen an extinction crisis like this since the dinosaurs died out.”

Organizers of the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan , which is the umbrella organization under which Amphibian Ark falls, have dubbed 2008 the “Year Of The Frog” in their efforts to spread the word about the dangers facing one of our most lovable creatures.

I found this article to be quite clear for those of you looking for a nice comparison of the three political candidates still in the running and their policies on the environment. Comparing their policies on climate change, gasoline prices, oil use, vehicle fuel economy, and biofuels, writer Chris Baltimore has compiled a handy sheet for those of you who are still unsure about who you’ll be voting for. While Clinton and Obama are nearly on point for all their policies, McCain is (not surprisingly) quite a bit more conservative in his plans for the environment. In an effort to win independent voters, McCain has been distinguishing himself from previous Republicans by including the environment in his campaign speeches; however, many environmentalists are skeptical about his conservative approach and the sincerity of his interest in green changes. You can see more on McCain’s environmental scorecard in this report from CBS and this one from The Daily Green .