As most of us linger in blogland, the paper-free platform makes it easy to forget the footprint left behind; even if the footprint is a tiny computer mouse-shaped print, it is still brimming with carbon emissions. Luckily for us, there is an effortless way to offset a blog’s dent in the environment.

An initiative started in Germany, the Make it Green program reaches right into the United States to help you square up with Mother Earth. The My Blog is Carbon Neutral initiative has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant a sapling in Plumas National Forest on behalf of your little piece of online real estate. Your blog and/or website can be responsible for a fir or pine sapling planted in Northern California, offsetting your site’s carbon footprint for fifty years. Now you can use “˜ecologically conscious’ as an adjective for your website in addition to the rest of your life.

The preservation of forests is a great compensation toward excess carbon dioxide (and thus global warming); take it one step past forest preservation toward forest creation by participating in this program. Isn’t it poetic for the intangible cellulose-free online demographic to collaborate for a tangible change in oxygen production?!

The post Blog for Oxygen appeared first on EcoSalon.

This week we saw the two extremes of Green TV. The CW’s girls from West Bev went green in little doses, while a three week race around the world left a big carbon footprint.

Even West Bev Girls Go Green

Sometimes the eco awareness tips come between the TV shows, not on the TV shows. Such is the case with the CW’s “Go Green” campaign.

The network is running an interstitial in prime time that serves up environmentally friendly tips from shows like 90210 and Life Unexpected. Who’d have thought the egocentric Naomi would help drive home the eco-centric tip about reducing your carbon footprint by “leaving your car home twice a week?” And it’s quite possible that the footage from Life Unexpected might make teens think twice about the fact that planting a garden offsets carbon emissions by removing carbon dioxide.

The spot is tied to a larger campaign on the CW website sponsored by SC Johnson. There, a second video tells how the girls from West Bev are helping the environment by wearing vintage clothes. An uplifting and important green message, but kind of depressing when you realize their retro is 1985.

There are featured interviews with Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl and Michael Rady from 90210, who talk about ways they’ve personally gone green, provide lots of helpful environmental tips, and even include a green matching game.

If only the new Melrose Place was as entertaining.

The Amazingly Un-Eco-Friendly Race

On Sunday night, The Amazing Race crossed another final finish line. Brothers Dan and Jordan took home the top prize, but in our estimation, the loser was Mother Earth. Contestants traveled 40,000 miles across five continents leaving a huge carbon footprint in their wake.

The six finalists alone, traveled 25,000 miles per person by plane. That’s a carbon footprint of 9.2 tons each in just 23 days (an average American uses 20 tons a year). Now add in the crew and other contestants who didn’t go the distance. Plus the cars, taxis, buses, and trains they travel on, and that’s a lot of environmental damage just for a few fleeting hours of TV pleasure.

Still, the reality show did manage to be more eco-friendly this season than in years past. They limited the number of plane trips to six, as compared to as many as fifteen on previous excursions. Racers used public transportation more and they occasionally hopped on bicycles and even ox driven carts to get to some destinations.

So we’re hoping Dan and Jordan might help to offset “The Race’s” footprint. By our very rough calculations, if they use $15,000 of their one million dollar winnings to plant a few trees or donate to a wind farm, they can make The Amazing Race carbon neutral.

And maybe next season, part of the game could be to buy carbon offsets every time a plane ticket is purchased? Just a thought.

Tune in next time to see what’s cropping up on green TV.

Image Courtesy of the CBS

The post I Want My Green TV: The Amazing Un-Eco-Friendly Race appeared first on EcoSalon.

I have two thumbs and neither one is green, in any way, shape or form. Nature and plush, pretty gardens fill me with joy, but don’t let me anywhere near a shovel or pruning shears – tragic mishaps are likely to occur.

I’ve been responsible for many a premature death due to my apparent lack of “intuition” when it comes to growing green things. But even I could probably take on a Grow Me a Tree and nurture it through adolescence and into adulthood.

The Silver Birch seeds arrive “grow ready” in a compostable brown sack filled with soil. Rip off the top of the sack and care for the seeds (i.e. water, assure proper sunlight exposure, etc.) until the tree is mature enough to plant outside. Seems easy enough. But please note that the Silver Birch can grow as tall as 30 feet high. Plant carefully.

Despite my trepidation, I ordered one for myself and plan to focus as if the future of the planet depends on it. If others followed suit, and each grew a tree, what a wonderful world it might turn out to be.

Find the Grow Me a Tree at snowhome for approximately $8.50 (plus $15 shipping from the U.K. to the U.S.).

– via Nigel’s Eco Store

The post One-Two-Three, Grow Me a Tree appeared first on EcoSalon.

Boris Trajanov, who organized the planting of 6 million trees in one day in Macedonia, knows that such huge efforts are not impossible when you put your heart and some great organization into it! Now, Mokugift, a leading online tree gifting service, pledges to plant 5 million trees by the end of 2009.

Mokugift is in partnership with the United Nations Environmental Programme’s Billion Tree Campaign. The UNEP is sending out the call to citizens globally to plant over 7 billion trees, or roughly one tree per global citizen, by the close of 2009.

It’s being called Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign. The campaign got a head start in the first 18 months following its launch in 2006. Individuals and communities, private sector companies, organizations and governments in 166 countries have planted 2.5 billion trees already, making it one of the UN’s most successful environmental campaigns yet. The campaign has exceeded all expectations because of strong grassroots support and well-planned global outreach strategies.

“Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign” stresses the power of solidarity because everyone matters, and every tree counts.

If you missed out on the action in Macedonia, Mokugift makes it possible for ordinary people to join in the fun!  Each tree planted cost only $1. All you have to do to plant a tree is make a few refined turns of the index finger, click the mouse and – this could be the hard part – choose a country in which you want your tree(s) planted. In mere moments, you can go from web surfing to becoming a global tree planter participating in the reforestation of the planet.

Giving a tree really is as easy as sending an e-card.  When that someone special receives a tree, they can proudly display their trees online at Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle and other popular Web sites. Mokugift even enables iPhone and iPod touch owners to plant a tree and they make it as easy as buying their favorite song.  Plus, Mokugift plants a tree when iPhone and iPod touch owners purchase A Real Tree application on Apple’s iTunes AppStore.

Image: McPig

The post Click and Plant: How You Can Participate in Reforesting the Globe appeared first on EcoSalon.