“Water is the best of all things.” – Pindar

It’s one of the world’s worst sea-related ecological disasters, laying waste to thousands of miles of shoreline and ruining habitats and livelihoods on a truly terrifying scale – but suddenly, there’s new hope for recovery. No, nothing to do with this. Think bigger.

As recently as the 1960s, the Aral Sea of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was one of the world’s greatest lakes, covering a whopping 26,000 square miles. Then along came a Soviet government keen to industrialize by any means necessary. The water was diverted for cotton farm irrigation, salinity soared, pollution festered (pesticides, weapons testing, you name it), and the sea gave way to a desert, eerily dotted with stranded boats and fishing stations that hint at the terrible human impact on the region’s population. It’s environmental change so profound it’s even upset the local climate.

How do you recover from that? Answer: with a government looking to erase the damage done by Soviet rule, supported by the coffers of the World Bank. The North Aral (above at top, one of the three main remnants of the once mighty whole) was dammed in 2005, and now life is returning – most importantly, the fish. They’re critical to boost the economy and bring the money that’s badly needed for further redevelopment. How much damage can be undone, only time will tell – and while the North Aral is gradually (painfully) expanding outwards again, the southern sea remnants are just years away from dying up completely. Recovery? Maybe, but not in our lifetime.

Images: martijn.munneke and NASA Goddard Photo & Video

Prod someone’s memory about Disney’s Finding Nemo, and you’ll find a fond thought or two for the chilled-out, backstroke-swimming dude called Crush the Sea Turtle. Just as Nemo turned clown-fish into ocean celebrities (with worrying consequences), sea turtles are now established as the languid, eccentric grandfathers of the sea, all thanks to those clever folk at Pixar.

But here’s the grim reality. All sea turtles are either threatened or endangered. Not cool.

The good news is there’s a Cousteau on the case – Fabien, grandson of world-famous ecologist and ocean pioneer Jacques (who would have been 100 this year). He’s working with biologist Dr. Wallace J. Nichols to fill the oceans with sea turtles – a billion of them. Sound absurd? Not when you consider that adult turtles each lay clutches of up to 250 eggs in just an hour-long sitting.

If you aspire to be one of the lucky ones hiding behind the shoreline of one of the special beaches of the world where turtles lay their young (e.g. Key Biscayne, Florida), the Billion Baby Turtle Project will work to protect the experience and the creatures behind it – and it all starts in El Salvador. From there, a worldwide network of government bodies, volunteers, non-profits and former egg collectors will work to shore up (as it were) the nesting grounds of turtles for generations to come.

Images: nosha, Marcio Cabral de Moura

Imagine the consequences of 20 years of nuclear waste dumping in the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea that surround the Italian Peninsula and its islands.

It’s an unfolding crisis that has the international community alarmed, including the fishing interests in Japan.

We’re talking about the coasts of 22 countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and a pending ecological and public health disaster which is being allegedly swept under the rug by the Italian government.

I only learned about it recently in a Counterpunch post on the nightmare, passed along to me by a devastated reader. Meantime, the disaster is also catching on in the mainstream media.

The post writer, Michael Leonardi, is a university educator who lives in Calabria with his wife and baby. He says after returning from a visit to the States, he was alarmed to learn that the Tyrrhenian Sea – which his daughter has been bathing in since birth – was intentionally poisoned with toxic waste.

“How shocked and dismayed we were to discover that government officials have known about it all along,” he shares. “And how enraged we are that a journalist has been killed, possibly for trying to reveal the truth about the disposal of waste by the international Ecomafia and their colluding government and corporate interests.”

The journalist described was Rai television reporter Ilaria Alpi. Leonardi says she was following the trail of arms and toxic garbage trafficking from Italy to Somalia in 1994 when she and her camera man, Miran Hrovatin, were gunned down and killed in Mogadishu.

“Many here believe, including the Mafia pentito, Franceso Fonti, that she was killed because she learned too much about the collusion between the Mafia and Italian military,” argues a bold Leonardi.

So how is the dumping engineered by the bad guys?

Leonardi says dozens of ships with the radioactive and toxic cargoes have been intentionally sunk by organized crime syndicates.

Leonardi says epidemic levels of cancerous tumors and thyroid problems have occurred in the area and along the coasts of the Mediterranean – where fishermen make a living by selling their catch throughout Italian and on the international market.

The public outcry is heating up as Greenpeace and the Italian environmental organization Legambiente work to bring the disaster to the surface. CNN reported on the scuttled hips, as well, last week. The report says it is believed between 32 and 41 of the ships sunk in international waters between Italy, Greece and Spain.

Lending credence to the sinking, testimony by Franceso Fonti, who admitted his role in helping to sink three ships in the fishing waters, including the Cunsky.

Last week a robot sub was sent down off the coast of Centraro to shoot photos of the ship thought to be the Cunsky. The images document the presence of drums like those used to transport and store radioactive and toxic wastes. The hope is that the barrels are still in tact but no one knows for certain what they contain.

“Traces of Mercury and Cesnium 137 have recently been found near the town of Amantea in Calabria further south of Cetraro by about 50 kilimeters,” explains Leonardi. “Amantea is considered a “hot spot” for tumors and ground temperature around the contamination area is six degrees warmer than normal.

“The population is demanding the truth and government action,” he says, adding international cooperation is needed.

Images: enigmachck1, Wiki, Wiki

Stockholm-based Jantze Brogard Asshoff studio produces thoughtful, elegant designs. Founders Moa Jantze, Hanna Brogård and Johanna Asshoff strive to simplify their surroundings to improve everyday life.

“We create sophisticated, useful products with a poetic soul and playful character,” they explain. “Our backgrounds from different parts of Sweden will always be a great source of inspiration. We like to mix modern with traditional, folklore with decadent luxury and regional Swedish handicraft with industrial production.”

The results are apparent in the well-balanced red Bloom Chair with folksy flowers embroidered on felted wool. The little seat with steel and pipe construction was  inspired by the rich ornamentation of  past Scandinavian folk traditions by Moa Jantze.

Another innovative design is the upholstered felt Pinecone Pouf, a pouf with wool scales by Moa Jantze.

In recent weeks, the group showed off its Greenhouse container at a curated group show called Kitchen Ecology exhibited during Dwell on Design event in Los Angeles.

The modern designs of fresh international eco designers were featured, including Greenhouse by Jantze BrogÃ¥rd Asshoff, a paper house-shaped bin (think Monopoly houses where the porches are  pedals). When you step on the porch the roof opens up. It comes in different sizes to fit different types of garbage boxes and sorting.

“Greenhouse is a beautiful way to store and sort your garbage and fits both at home and in office spaces,” says the designers.

Look for more innovative green solutions from this upcoming Swedish team!

Images: Jantze Brogard Asshoff

As the climate changes, so will the habitats of flora and fauna – changing far faster than natural adaptation can deal with. Mass extinctions are a very real threat. What to do?

One option on the table is a truly startling display of geoengineering. This week, scientists at Britain’s University of York (my home city, and a hotbed of eco-innovation at the moment) have just released the results of an experiment to move a species of butterfly to the limits of its traditional temperature “comfort zone”, to be encouraged to embrace a new habitat. It did – and it’s thriving.

The technique is called Assisted Colonization – and the implications are immense. Entire populations could, at great expense, be moved out of one habitat to another, staying one step ahead of global warming and continuing to thrive in the wild. Only the species most at risk would be targeted for such drastic measures, such as small plant-life relying on the wind to migrate painfully slowly (via seed dispersal).

It’s tinkering with Nature on an epic scale, and critics are going to find it easy to sling mud. We still understand only a fraction of the complex interdependencies within an ecosystem. The danger – take away a supporting beam (ie. a creature that is a vital link in the food chain, or necessary to propagate other species, such as the way bees pollinate apple trees), and the whole structure crashes down.

Are the risks worth the rewards?

Image: Paraflyer

Will your years of good green living end with a natural, good green death?

It’s a sensitive topic – so sensitive, many of us can’t embrace it. I cringed some years back when my book group chose to read Mary Roach’s Stiff: Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. The last thing I wanted to do was cuddle up with a read about how to dispose of our bodies: donating organs to eager medical school students, cremation, wrapping remains in biodegradable burial shrouds before returning them to the earth. Still, I managed to trudge through it.

Stiff, published at the height of HBO’s Six Feet Under craze, introduced me to the notion of natural burials and got me thinking about such choices. You should consider them as well.

According to the Centre for Natural Burial in Canada, the modern concept for this alternative approach first began in the UK in 1993 and has since spread globally. A relatively new idea, it focuses on methods that conserve, sustain and protect the earth from which we came and shall return. In other words, your concern for the planet (driving a hybrid, sparing landfills of bad plastics, using reusable shopping bags) doesn’t have to die when your time has come.

The body is prepared for burial in a simple shroud or placed in a biodegradable casket made of locally harvested wood, wicker or recycled paper. No embalming chemicals are used to prepare the body, natural markers like shrubs and trees replace headstones, and burial grounds are often protected preserves in which the natural burial protects and restores nature. There’s no need for irrigation, herbicides or pesticides to sustain the habitat.

The benefits to the planet are obvious, but is it right for your family? “It’s a big leap for some and a thankful change for others,” observes Kathy Curry of the Fernwood Funeral Home in upscale and earthy Mill Valley, California. Fernwood’s natural burials are located on a diverse, 32-acre site adjacent to the Golden Gate National Recreation areas. “It really appeals to environmentalists and people looking to do something more simple, people who don’t like the excess of a big fancy casket and funeral.”

Indeed, the metal caskets and other excesses of conventional burials are taking a huge ecological toll on our planet, according to Joe Sehee of the Green Burial Council, considered the green standard for eco-friendly burial methods in the United States. “We are burying some 800,000 gallons of fluids known to contain carcinogens, along with enough metal each year to rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge and enough concrete to fill a two-lane highway,” he told me. “The lid is being lifted on what we are spending and wasting, and that is what we are trying to get away from.”

Sehee sees the concept moving into the mainstream quickly with supply having trouble keeping up with demand, including a surge in green cremation practices, up from 3% in the 1960′s to as high as 70% in parts of California and almost 50% nationally. “Most people don’t want to impede the process of regeneration by embalming and spending $5,000 on a box, which is what we have been doing over the last 100 years in the industry,” he says.

The recession could also increase the trend. At Fernwood, you might spend $7,500 on a natural burial while an ornate burial can cost well over $20,000. Curry points out that in the U.S., some plots alone sell for as much as $60,000.

Meantime, those opting for green should be careful, suggests Sehee, who warns some mortuaries falsely advertise chemical-free and healthy grasses, but are guilty of green washing. One reason his council was established was to keep the once underground movement of alternative burials well above board.

Image: batega

Geoengineering. Now there’s a word to make you shiver.

We’ve had an unhappy history of manipulating our environment for our own benefit – or rather, successful for us in the short term. The shift from shortsighted plundering of natural resources to informed scientific trials – the exciting new field of applied ecology – has been a painful one, littered with devastating blunders that are still going on. But will it allow us to correct those mistakes?

This week a report from the England’s University of East Anglia, led by Tim Lenton, Professor in Earth System Science, concluded that the myriad methods of geoengineering could complement conservation techniques around the globe, although they alone couldn’t halt global warming. These techniques could include: the use of oceanic algae blooms to absorb C02 and the artificial stimulation of other natural carbon sinks; solar radiation management such as increasing the amount of reflective – or at least non-absorbing – material on and above the planet’s surface, such as making clouds reflect more sunlight by using fine water sprays, or most exotically, using space mirrors; and the creation of highly fertile soils by lacing them with charcoal, nicknamed “biochar“.

It’s a controversial topic, and to many hardline environmentalists, a very hard sell. Hasn’t anthropogenic climate change caused all our problems in the first place? Aren’t the stakes too high, the results too unpredictable? Or do the Earth sciences and our industrial ingenuity hold some of the answers we so desperately need?

We can understand wanting to fill your gas tank with vegetable oil. But washing your hands in it? Amazingly, a way’s been found to do just that – and Treehugger has the details.

Time for a hypothetical scenario. There’s a major company on the brink of having one of its genetically modified crops deregulated, i.e. nothing between it and the environment. Fail-safe? An independent full environmental impact study, designed to weed out any dangers. Except…this study has been ditched, in favor of a patchier study undertaken by the company itself. Ludicrous, it would never be allowed to happen…wouldn’t it?

On the 8th of January, Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickramatunge was murdered on his way to work – an event described by the Sri Lankan Mirror as the biggest blow to media freedom the country had suffered. A few days later the Sunday Leader, the independent newspaper where Wickramatunge had previously been editor-in-chief, published an editorial he wrote to be released on the event of his death – and it’s moving, unsettling and uplifting.

Mr. Obama – with all that money being thrown at the economy to make it stand upright again, isn’t there room for reform with the national unhealthy, inefficient, deeply 20th-Century food system? Tom Philpott outlines why such work is a necessity, not a luxury, over at Grist.

Science, not politics, will guide the decisions of the Environmental Protection Agency, promises its new administrator Lisa Jackson. Stirring words – but she’ll need more than just words considering the amount of pressure the organization is under to clean up its act after the difficult Bush era…

…and she could start by taking a look at the disaster unfolding in eastern Tennessee, take a longer, harder look at the practice of using “clean coal”, and pass the findings back to the policy-makers.

What would you do if you found a huge, perfectly circular disc of ice slowly rotating in your local pond? Since Mulder and Scully seem to have retired, feel free to panic a little – but there’s a perfectly rational explanation for it all. As usual, science is a lot weirder than you think.

For every endangered species making a welcome comeback, there are many more that continue to struggle in perilously low numbers. How many of these 44 beautiful endangered forms of life will bypass the threat of extinction?

GreenUPGRADER poses a timely question: with all the power at our fingertips to alter ecological systems, what should we be doing? What is enough, what is too much, and what is right and wrong? Join the discussion and give your opinion on where the line should be.

Speaking of ecologies, the Supreme Court is preparing to rule whether it’s legal and ethical for mines to dump industrial waste into lakes and rivers. It’s very much environmentalists and a few congress members vs. the government of Alaska (not entirely surprising) but the signs are good. Read the full story at Planetsave.

Advocating the practice of “culture blending” in the search for the sum total of the best lifestyle options the world has to offer, we’re proud to link to Suzanne’s Files. She wants quality, not luxury (a topic close to our hearts) and she’s keen to share the wealth of experience that she and her international collective have accumulated. In every sense, a quality outfit.

This one’s for fun. Ladies, if you find yourself clothes-shopping for the man in your life and you want him to look as good as Daniel Craig in a suit (and guys, if you want to look like James Bond), you’ll find the Art Of Manliness guide to a man’s style in relation to his body type to be absolutely invaluable.

Is the modern world guilty of promoting overclaiming? Like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon where “all the children are above average”, do we mainly overestimate our contributions and skills in the spirit of shoring up our confidence and optimism? Gretchen Rubin explores if this is it hurting our happiness in the long run.

Oh PETA, no. No no PETA no. As if they haven’t run enough ludicrous stunts for one lifetime, we’re now faced with the call for the rebranding of fish as Sea Kittens – because that will make them fluffier and more lovable, melting the hearts of illegal fishermen everywhere. Meanwhile, cat lovers everywhere are presumably worried that their beloveds will be relabeled Land Fish. Watch this space.

And lastly, an unexpected new method in the fight against global warming is…crops that bounce back more light?

Image:  Ã-¢Ã-¨Ã-Ÿ Ã-¤Ã-â„¢Ã- Ã-§Ã-

You may have heard the buzz: tropical rainforests are repairing themselves far faster than expected. Time for a big party?

Keep the champagne corked for now. It’s true that research by the Carnegie Institution points to some 135,000 square miles of tropical rainforest growing back, but this deserves some context. For a start, that’s less than 2% of the original forest coverage. Also, all this regrowth is an interrupted ecosystem – razed forests that for a time couldn’t perform their vital role as the lungs of our planet. (More on the implications of that in a minute.)

And there’s the vital question of carbon storage. Determining how much carbon young trees lock up has been a recent hot topic – during its development, a new tree takes in more carbon than an older one, and so a new forest absorbs carbon at a quicker rate. Until recently it was also presumed that as forests became elderly there was a “drop-off point” beyond which their carbon storing abilities were severely diminished – implying that planting new forests was the quickest and most effective way to combat global warming. Yet a recent anaylsis by Nature has overturned this – concluding that old growth forests remained sprightly “carbon sinks” well beyond the century-old mark.

Chopping down a rainforest, no matter how quickly it grows back, is opening Pandora’s box.

First, there’s the enormous release of carbon into the environment from all the decomposing vegetation. According to the Wilderness Society, trees in the U.S. alone hold the equivalent of 20 years of American greenhouse gas emissions.

Deforestation is also the loss of a habitat, and even if it’s temporary, some species can’t survive such upheaval.

Regrowth has its own problems – it’s decades before new trees start fulfilling their carbon-sinking potential.

It seems that by far the best way to help forests clean our atmosphere is to simply let them get on with it. For our own good, forests should be allowed to grow old.

A world where conservation techniques do work, coupled with a natural world much tougher than we expected? Maybe we’ll crack open that bubbly after all.

Image: baxterclaws

A year in Lifestyle – from dire rumblings over biofuel to the unprecedented eco-promises of President Elect Obama, from ravaged coral to eco sunscreen, personal sustainability to green careers. It’s been a whirlwind 12 months…and here’s why.

January: we first look at the menaces of urban tumbleweed, plastic hotel toiletries, greenwashing, and pondered the wisdom of using silicone cookware and fuel in place of food.

February: Kim checks out Japanese holistic toothpaste; salmon stocks crash in north California; we suggest shedding some light; orangutans swipe chopsticks for a good cause; Freecycle helps us get household essentials entirely for free; a mousetrap even mice might like; catalytic converters lose their green credentials; Luanne finds a coral cemetery; travel journals are an Art form – look!; and the bamboo that helps you read in the bath.

March: the first Seattle Green Festival; find out what “Touski” means; See Spot Recycle; not all City Slickers are lost in the country; it’s been a good, green year for laptops; how to lunch on brown bags (or green up your lunch bag); greenwashers on the run; my number 1 fan; AllTop launches; the joy of spring asparagus; how easy it is to give; nobody’s mowing the lawn; the Wabi Sabi way; cleaning without nasty chemicals; bringing back Slow Shaving; magical (not magic) mushrooms; a chat with Aaron “King Corn” Woolf; where else to keep strawberries?; one angry bird; vitamins for the needy; and how does your house score?

April: picnicking with (not against) the environment; You Are Beautiful; what is carbon offsetting anyway?; sustainable scrubbers; sardines are the new salmon; hogging rainwater; giving the almost-green a nudge; the complicated ethics of fur; how to spot if a restaurant is eco; upcycling the softest of brushes; what’s for Earth-dinner?; stain removal without skin removal; how to celebrate Earth Day, quick!; exactly how bamboo is sustainable and green; Harry Potter turns over a new leaf; the sense in embracing the ridiculous; when “reducing” apparently doesn’t mean “less”; the sudsless car wash; the right way to arrange a steamy tumble; and flagging down the right kind of (luxury) cab.

May: 60,000 pounds of shrimp every day – it has to be Las Vegas; plug those sizzling leaks; sneaky, sneaky plastic; chewy rope for furry friends; lunches you won’t want to wait for; sexy soil; greenscouring; the unacceptable nature of animal food-farming in America; the busy, buzzing farming assistants under mysterious threat; how (and how not) to charm a green goddess; plastic – out with the new, in with the old; the Why of rising prices; LEED-certified ELEMENT hotels launch; and lastly, lots of sex.

June: George W. Bush is “honored” by green activists; we’re unimpressed by the Eco Kettle; how to throw a party right; feeling good about eating meat; first steps (first revolutions?) with bikes; political greenscouring abounding; how we’re becoming Nature’s noisy neighbors; how much of our groceries get thrown out?; even matches can be re-thunk; the tranquil – and threatened – Joshua Tree National Park; gardening with the wind; the science of Shh!; Earthship ahoy; eco-friendly sunscreen; why individual choices matter; Do-It-Ourselves cities; the grass is always greener if it’s not faux; and Method get a makeover.

July: the enduring problem with palm oil; the first worldwide climate change pressure group; pack smarter, not lighter; a sustainable spread; 25 ways to fill your piggy bank; the unfairly-maligned clothespeg; as much soda as you can make; festival of destruction?; good habits start young; your SUV is redeemable; what’s cookin’ in the White House?; green buildings you can munch on; pingg!; 30 unusual compostable items; greenwasher is Bond villain; 10 ways to avoid eco-snobbery; marine conservation that works; hitting the spot with eco sex toys; new urbanism; a yoga mat that in every sense isn’t square; and 10 eco gifts that aren’t crunchy, preachy or political.

August: eco-friendly dining venues; curly light bulbs, explained; You vs. Junk Drawer; scoop the poop; Germans champion the passive approach; tips on first date butterflies; in the future, electricity will be weird; on your bike!; making sure your shade makes the grade; a very Italian recession; 15 life-changing books; green gadgets you won’t be able to keep your hands off; school supplies for budding greenies; worlds of meaning; 9 inventions they said would never work; eating out of palm leaves; Barnstable’s beach smoking ban; environmental art you’ll never forget; and lights out for England’s churches.

September: the rinse & return of milk bottles; shoes that never get wet?, e-book readers finally arrive; capping escaping caps; what the stars (the twinkling kind) can tell us; building a 21st-Century home; recycled specs; the gift of an eco action pack; SGF seeking SGM; crayons!; Mom, I think I solved the energy crisis; autumn yard decor; chain stores shrinking?; the navy shower; models wearing parachutes, and other madnesses; Greenbottling it; Solay cleaners; Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics; and 15 glimpses into houses of the future.

October: 10 lean, green fashion and decor deals; VroomVroomVroom; October Fair Trade roundup; the Virtual March; a dangerous love of olive oil; the innate profitability of organic farming; Starbucks in hot water; guilt-free roadtrips; of oil and ANWR; gits for an eco hostess; TripAdvisor’s More Than Footprints; greening your junk, 16 creative ways; Nokia’s wooden phone – well, maybe; 10 green collar jobs for 2009 and beyond; interview with Starre Vartan; a better Halloween (here too); 7 endangered species we’ll be seeing more of; USBCELL; cloth diapers fill with controversy; 10 tips for personal sustainability; 10 ways to unlock your inner green goddess; sustainable sushi; save the Angel Oak; shoes that fall apart for a good reason; and biomimicry – how we’re learning from the best.

November: prison inmates gathering moss; traveller’s gadgets; rain harvests; eco promises from the new guy in the White House; more worries over cellphones; the power of Maatiam; Nature’s healthy architecture; Facebook friends frenzy; Oceana Adopt-A-Creature; 12 DIY projects; the magic of England’s Cornwall (home of Eden); 10-4 10-4, top restaurant on the road; One Million Acts of Green; Smart Biking, smartphones and smart networking; Amazon rationalize their packaging (and about time); creative bookworming; the well-named Good Hotel; soldiers and civilians plant 6 million trees – in one day; 7 ways of giving meaningfully; Eco-Libris; eBay‘s environmental record gets spotty; party punch; Madeleine Pickens and wild mustangs; mulching Nature’s cast-offs; and the real cost of 10 everyday items.

December: Africa’s Last Eden; are e-book readers truly green?; Vroom, Woosh, Dig, Sizzle!; Canadians losing their bottle; interview with Robyn Griggs Lawrence; the generation that knows best; 9 reasons not to buy pets from a pet store; elephants are better off in the wild, suggests study; getting there greener; environmentalism 2.0; a viral Brighter Planet; Go-Ahead Group set standards for travel; 7 outrageous PETA stunts; pocket markets take a stand; a new perspective on camel humps; the marvellous Bicycle Commuter Act; your plastic “friend” goes green?; the Surfrider Foundation; 10 reasons to love being on a train; electronic recipe books (at 20 times the price); eco board games; Dubai cons the environment; humane veal?; Australia’s Sunshine Coast; one teenager makes a difference in Darfur; questions to ask your printer; and Vegan Hoppin’ John!

Image: Sir Mervs