Lora Kolodny

Articles by Lora Kolodny:

EcoMeme: Fire on the Water

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In a bitter twist of fate, right around Earth Day, one of the worst-ever oil spills in the U.S. began. It started on April 20th, when a Transocean Ltd.-owned oil rig called the Deepwater Horizon, which was drilling for black gold on behalf of BP (British Petroleum) exploded. The rig sank into the water off the shores of Louisiana, taking oil rig workers’ lives and spewing pollution into the water.

Today, the tarry crude oil bleeding from that site is nearing the ecologically rich shores of Louisiana, home to threatened …

EcoMeme: Is Your DNA a Public Concern?

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The privacy watchdogs have been barking hard this season. In case you’ve been off-the-grid, here’s the controversy from the world of social media that preceded one perhaps even larger about DNA research…

This week, Facebook automatically gave its users’ personal information to sites like Yelp and Pandora. Now, you and your FB friends can see each others’ bitchiest restaurant reviews, and worst, one-hit-wonder indulgences whether or not you ever intended to reveal these to one another.

Last month, Google raised privacy concerns when it automatically revealed its email …

Bookmark This! Digital Dozen Earth Day Links

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Forgive the cliché, but every day is Earth Day around EcoSalon. We’re still getting a lot out of April 22nd, though. It’s not just benefit concerts and vegan Iron Chefs!

There’s a bevy of activity online around Earth Day, though the movement started 40 years ago when the predecessor to the world wide web, Arpanet, was just a twinkle in Steve Wozniak’s eye.

We rounded up a dozen of the best Earth Day petitions, quizzes, games and guides to help even the most ecologically-minded among us figure …

EcoMeme: Non-Smoking Section Expands

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We didn’t see a fire, but there’s smoke and ongoing chatter about it all over the Web this week. More taxes and stricter regulations of tobacco sales and use are being put into place all around the world. At the same time, a new scientific discovery could get us closer to curing lung cancer.

First the good news. Researchers found a cluster of genes that are “active” in lung cancer patients, even in their healthy tissue and especially in their wind pipes, that could help predict whether smokers …

EcoMeme: Nuclear Weapons and Waste

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Capitalizing on the pro-nuclear-power views of President Obama, privately held companies and investors, in particular Bill Gates and Nathan Mhyrvold, are investing in the development of miniature and traveling wave nuclear reactors that could use spent uranium from nuclear power plants to safely supply energy to our humble abodes.

At least entrepreneurs are talking directly about what to do to solve nuclear waste problems. Because this week the Obama Administration released its plan to reduce and put limits on the usage of the United States’ nuclear arsenal, but disappointingly …

EcoMeme: Can Cloud Computing Have a Green Lining?

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Lust for Apple’s iPad reached a fevered pitch the second the company allowed pre-orders online (March 12th). We anticipate that the iPad will remain a trending topic on every corner of the internet, as sales begin at Best Buy and Apple stores April 3rd.

Greenpeace has been using iPad buzz to get people thinking about a need for greener information technology.

Are they really trying to take the wind out of Apple’s iPad sails, nee sales? Or is it reasonable to ask Apple fan-girls and -boys to think …

EcoMeme: Optimism vs. Laziness

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Are Americans optimistic about the environment, ignorant or just plain lazy? Are they fatigued from all the “green” messaging and cause marketing out there? Or are they just complacent? A recent Gallup poll has shown that “over time, Americans’ concerns about environmental problems have generally declined.”

That’s hard to believe when there’s more environmental damage caused by Americans and more news about this available to us than ever before.

Just this week, ships are avoiding their normal cargo routes so that they can keep burning dirty fuel and …

EcoMeme: Green City, Happy City?

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St. Patricks’ Day this week turned cities green literally – from landmarks to libations. But how green have major metro areas around the U.S. been throughout the year? The American Cities Business Journal group has released a new study on the matter.

Their inaugural Green Cities Index examined 43 U.S. cities, and ranked them based on 20 criteria encompassing residents’ environmental behavior, cities’ use or abuse of land and water, and presence of a variety of environment related projects and industries. The Green Cities Index 2010 survey results have …