When you see rolling hills of lush, green grass and trees, you probably think to yourself, “right on!” Well, don’t celebrate just yet because apparently, a greener Earth is actually a bad thing.

All this confusing research comes from a new study that was printed in the journal Nature Climate Change. The big conclusion of the study was, yes, the Earth has become significantly greener over the past 33 years, but that greening is because of all the carbon dioxide humans have been pumping into the air.

Scientists came to their conclusion by using “satellites to examine vegetation growth over time, assuming that the extra green is coming from leaves on plants and trees,” Grist reports.

“Using a computer model to estimate leaf growth, they find the extra greening is equivalent to adding about 18 million square kilometers of vegetated land to the globe, more than twice the area of the mainland U.S.”

So, this growth is happening because of the extra CO2 in the air. “Plants use sunlight for energy and convert CO2 (plus water) into sugar, which is stored for food,” Grist adds. “In a naive sense, more CO2 means more food for plants (this is called carbon dioxide fertilization), so there’s more growth.”

Now, technically, Earth greening isn’t so bad—plants love soaking up carbon. But the problem is, there’s no way all of Earth’s plants can soak up all the carbon we’re releasing. “All that extra plant growth can’t keep up with the 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide humans dump into the atmosphere every year,” Grist explains. Also, another problem: A lot of the world’s greening is happening in the arctic. Yeah, that’s not good.

So, let’s hope humans will actually find a way we all can agree on that will help us cut carbon emissions extensively so the planet can green naturally–and, you know, not die.

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Image of green forest via Shutterstock

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There are better ways to take care of those delicate garments. Here are nine greener alternatives to dry cleaning.

Part of being a conscious consumer is to know how to properly care for your things. This way, you can ensure that they last longer. When it comes to clothing, you should make a habit of looking at the labels and trying to follow the instructions on them. But what about when they say “dry clean only?”

We all know by now that dry cleaning is not a good thing. Conventional dry cleaning is a highly toxic process. Most dry cleaners use the chemical perchloroethylene (perc), which has been linked to various forms of cancers, eye, nose, throat and skin irritation and reduced fertility. Thankfully there are better ways to take care of those delicate garments.

1. CO2 Dry Cleaning
In recent years, eco-friendly dry cleaners have started to pop up in major cities. This may be a good option for those favorite pieces you just don’t want to experiment on. Look for cleaners that uses liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of that toxic perc. Type in your zip on NoDryClean.com and you can find one near you. An added advantage is that the CO₂ that’s used is captured as a byproduct of existing industrial processes, which decreases the amount of this greenhouse gas going into the environment.

2. Wash Cold
Many clothes that are labeled “dry clean only” really aren’t, retailers just lazily label them that way. Some synthetic textiles like rayon and acetate, as well as knits like wool and cashmere should never be washed, but otherwise it’s almost always safe to run them on the cold, delicate cycle in the washing machine. About 90% of the energy required to do a load of laundry comes from heating the water up, so washing cold helps you tread lighter on the earth too. Just pre-treat stains with a good (eco-friendly) spot remover.

3. Hand Wash
Sometimes, the answer can be just as simple as getting your hands a bit dirty (and wet). Hand washing is often the best way to clean delicate knits made from wool and cashmere, but works for just about anything. Just fill any water-tight receptacle with water, place dirty clothes in the water until they are saturated and use friction to remove dirt from the clothes. An added bonus is that you burn calories while doing this while eliminating the energy usage associated with washing machines.

4. Wonder Wash
This clever thing uses a patented pressure system that forces detergent into the fabric at high speed for a fast, efficient, economic and very easy way to gently wash your clothes. In just a few minutes you can clean up to a five pound load. When I lived in a building without access to laundry facilities I used mine all the time. The Wonder Wash uses a lot less water, and is ideal with delicates like woolens, silks, knits and cashmere garments.

5. Soap Nuts
Soap nuts are made from wild-harvested dried berries which contain saponin, a natural cleaner that has been used for laundry for hundreds of years. It works as a surfactant, breaking the surface tension of the water to penetrate the fibers of your clothing, lifting stains from the fabric and leaving dirt suspended in the water that is rinsed away. Soap Nuts are gentle on both clothes and skin, making them ideal for those with sensitive skin, eczema, allergies and psoriasis. But don’t expect these shells to foam up like commercial soaps, which have artificial foaming agents. Foam simply does not represent cleaning power.

6. Non-detergent Laundry Ball
These laundry balls by SmartKlean naturally maintain the softness, elasticity and color of fabrics. It’s much gentler on your clothes and will make them last longer. The ball, which washes 365 loads without soap or detergent, contains active components derived from earth minerals and leaves zero residues behind. It’s ideal for sensitive skin (and delicate clothes) and helps conserve both water and energy.

7. Remove Stains with Pantry Staples
To remove tough stains like coffee, grass or wine, a few basic items that you already have in your pantry can do the trick. Sprinkle salt or baking soda on fresh stains to absorb as much of it as possible. Then apply vinegar. On more stubborn stains, make a paste made of vinegar and baking soda and rub in into the fabric like you would any stain remover. To remove those pesky yellow underarm stains, soak the garment in white vinegar for at least 10 minutes before washing.

8. Wool Dryer Balls
To dry clothes more gently, toss those toxic dryer sheets and try these reusable, handmade, wool dryer BaaLLs that kill static and soften clothes without the toxins. Made (in the U.S.) from 100% certified organic wool, they reduce drying time by 40% for a full load, saving you money and energy, and softens, and reduces static cling on clothes without using any chemicals or leaving any residue.

9. Use Better Detergent
Most conventional laundry detergents contain surfactants like nonylphenol ethoxylate, which are known hormone disrupters and can pollute our waterways, and artificial fragrances, which can be among the most toxic components of any home or personal care product. Brands like Ecos, Seventh Generation, Ecover, Method, Berryplus and Biokleen offer eco-friendly laundry detergents, some even biodegradable, that clean without toxic ingredients.

Image: lisalaible

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Time vs. energy waster. 

Coffee and environment are inextricably linked, but to put your caffeine addiction into perspective, consider: one latte releases about the same amount of CO2 emissions as using Facebook for an entire year.

In 2011, Facebook says its “data centers and operations used 532 million kilowatt hours of energy, and emitted 285,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent.” That’s the same amount of CO2 as about 52,000 passenger vehicles would emit in one year. Broken down per user per year and you get the latte comparison.

Not a coffee drinker? According to the company, one year of Facebook accounts for about the same amount of energy as two glasses of wine.

Pick your environmental poison.

Image: dusk-photography

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7 truths you need to know about China’s environmental notoriety.

As I’m writing this, I’m preparing for my return trip to Chongqing, China after a two-month vacation living at home with my parents in beautiful (albeit morbidly freezing) Fargo. While I’m reveling in the fact that I’ll be going to a place with weather over zero, I’m a little less psyched than last September when my boyfriend and I first left for China, with hearts full of hope and three suitcases full of dreams.

Hope and dreams aside, it’s principally the glamor of living in a foreign country that was crushed in the months that ensued after my arrival, during which I studied my brains out, Chinese style (I’m studying Mandarin – learning 30 completely different hieroglyphs daily and being tested on them the next), got to do my laundry by hand, and slept “comfortably” each night with my boyfriend on a lovely spring-loaded twin mattress.

The great thing about international travel is that you learn what you can truly live with (and without). In this case, I learned I can live with all of the aforementioned, plus long layovers, 14-hour flights, ten-times-crazier-than-New-York cab drivers, and much much more. In retrospect, I can even laugh about most things.

But this is what I can’t laugh about: pollution boogers.

I’m sorry, dear reader, but the thing I am dreading above and beyond all else, is waking up with my nose plugged full of black, coal-sooty, shall we say, “organic matter”.

You may have heard all about China’s pollution problems. You may know that China is the biggest net CO2 emitter, having overtaken the U.S. in 2007. You may have even heard that 16 of the world’s 20 most disgustingly grimy, unlivable, unbreathable cities in the world are in China. But nothing compares to actually waking up to the lovely smell of pollution.

Here are seven things you need to know about China’s environmental problems, from an un-seasoned, non-scientist, pollution-breather. For these purposes, forgive me if I wax a little more serious, but let’s be honest: this is serious stuff.

1.  The human cost of China’s pollution woes is concretely and directly related to astronomical cancer rates and unforgivably low quality of life in many areas.

Take a look at China’s infamous “cancer villages,” villages and towns in China where the entire population has experienced the effect of pollution-linked cancer either personally or inter-personally. These horrifying areas of China reflect the degree to which pollution has directly harmed not just the land and the air, but the people as well. Cancer is China’s #1 cause of death. Only one percent of China‘s 560 million urban dwellers breathe air that the European Union’s standards would consider breathable. While Cancer Villages are poor examples of the whole, they are microcosms of the thousands if not tens of thousands of towns and cities where China’s coal reliance, unclean industry and waste practices have left their mark by a layer of soot and grime that most Chinese treat as a standard feature of the urban landscape.

2. When individuals speak up about this human cost, especially if they tackle environmental problems as a human rights issue, they put themselves at great risk.

One risk is being targeted by rich factory owners and industrial moguls whose wealth is a powerful tool for bribery and an incentive to all around thuggery. The other, more remote but very crushing risk is being deemed subversive and inimical to state stability and becoming a political prisoner for it. It’s downright sad that the greed and corruption underpinning the risk of pissing off the powerful, undermines and reduces environmental advocacy and results in little to no change. It’s even sadder that beneath the risk of becoming a political prisoner there’s a fundamental irony: stifling the voices of people who don’t want heavy metals in their children’s food or have no desire to see their neighbors drop dead from pollution-caused cancer could, even more than letting people advocate for human and environmental rights, become a truer risk of social breakdown.

3. Most of the worst pollution is concentrated in comparatively poorer Northern and inland areas.

Collectively, these areas are the engine that is moving total economic progress forward. They are where coal (China’s life support) is mined, heavy metals are extracted, heavy industry is booming, and domestic goods are produced. They are also the nexus of growing inland-coastal inequality that correlates to urban-rural and poor-rich disparities. Heavily polluting industry is kept away from the wealth and health of coastal poster cities like Shenzhen, not to mention from the newly rich who live there and the tourists who come to see the glossy side of China. There are no aforementioned “cancer villages” on the Southern coast.

4.  The U.S. and China are both part of an import-export machine that drives the global economy, but goods aren’t the only thing we trade.

While the U.S. exports more and more black money-making chunks of carbon to fuel China’s coal dependence, China exports its fair share: acid rain and particulates. If you take a look at this graph, you can see that coal exports from the United States into China sky-rocketed from 386,950 tons in 2009 to 4,071,837 tons in 2010. That’s more than 10 times in one year, proof that pushing to green public policy is not enough- we need to be global. That’s not all, if you’re reading this in Los Angeles, you’re breathing multinational pollution, and some of it is from China. As the New York Times put it, “China’s problem has become the world’s problem. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo. Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles originates in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research.” 

5. The central government actually has some comparatively brawny environmental regulations, hefty fines for non-compliance, and significant investments in green technology, and to a degree, it’s helped. But it’s not the whole story.

While a degree of mistrust is certainly appropriate, for the most part media reports about China’s greening efforts are reporting the truth. In 2009, China’s state council ambitiously stated that it plans on reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 (from 2005 levels). Its newly released 12th, five-year plan  (China’s centrally-designed map toward continued progress in 2011 to 2015), clearly indicates a continuing commitment to reducing its environmental issues, including big investments in green energy aimed at kicking its carbon habit and expanding what’s now in place. For example, China has not only overtaken the U.S. in carbon emissions, but according to the Guardian, it has also left the U.S. in the dust with its wind-power generating capacity. 

Here’s the part where we tend to fall prey to China’s image machine: While the central government is by all appearances trying, it isn’t trying that hard. The problem is that centrally designed incentives for local governments are structured around the economy not the environment. Social (re: economic) stability (re: growth) trumps environmental concerns. If a regulation will harm the local economy–say the expense of alienating factory owners by forcing them to put caps on a factory’s smokestacks, a local official just won’t follow it. And the central government, big investments aside, just isn’t willing to change its incentives.

6. Most Chinese feel for the environment and recognize that its destruction is a bad thing, but hope for continuing economic ascension trumps the fear of environmental decline.

Just as in the United States, when it comes to daily decision-making, whether it be by average, everyday people or by high level local officials and factory owners, “the bottom line” is what most people think about. And the bottom line in China is this: Now is the time to get rich (er, “moderately prosperous“) or die trying.  While the die trying part will likely come from destroying the environment, the reward is success in a society that desperately wants to prove its global clout after a century and a half of humiliation by Western powers. 

It’s also important to know that there’s just not the same level of “green” awareness in China as there is in the West and Japan right now. For example, in Chongqing there is a series of slogans run by the charismatic and well-connected mayor called “the Five Chongqings,” which are five visions of Chongqing’s future that are meant to guide its development into a global metropolitan city. One of them is translated into English as “Green Chongqing,” that is, a Chongqing with more trees. More trees is good, but the goal is not necessarily undertaken from an environmental standpoint. In this case, the vision is aesthetic. More trees means a prettier city that more people will want to visit, which means more tourism, and more inflow of capital.

While an expanded notion of “green” and an expanded sense of responsibility toward the environment would be great, most Chinese don’t see themselves as having the luxury to place that above its long economic project that has to date raised millions and millions of people out of abject poverty. And as far as they’re concerned, that project is nowhere near complete.

7.   We are implicated, and in a more complicated way than you may think. It goes without saying that China’s industry produces our products and supports our consumption. There’s no denying it. Just go to Wal-Mart and check every plastic thing you can find. But while we cannot escape this fact, self-flagellation isn’t quite the right response either. Our imports from China have been the linchpin in China’s export machine, the very mechanism that has supported the incredible feat that some call China’s miracle; its aforementioned poverty-elimination project. 500 million Chinese escaped poverty between 1981 and 2004, and in just the 3 years after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, poverty was cut by another 3rd. Our consumption, while we often lament its destructive facets, is a huge part of China’s ability to make that happen.

Let me put it in real terms: Tomorrow I may wake up with black boogers, but in a few months I’ll go home to my country, go to Target, and buy a Chinese-made plastic storage bin so I can organize all of the crap I bought while I was in Chongqing. And while I’m fueling the environmental cause of the current source of my sticky goober dread, I’ll be contributing to a global supply chain that is exploitative, harmful, and has performed the previously unimagined feat of building for my Chinese friends a system in which they can support themselves economically without the need of a communist leadership to give them an “iron rice bowl.” Oh, the ambivalence.

Images: Justin D, Lance Webel, Robertg6n1, blacksmithinstitute, malouenfrankinchina, J_Ensley

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War, science denial and Fox News. It’s what’s going on in the world, but it’s not especially merry, merry. If you’re feeling anxious about the eco conversation turning an ugly shade of green at the family Christmas dinner, rest easy. It’s not all doom and gloom. (Besides, there will be plenty of time post-feast to take on Uncle Ulysses on Wikileaks, your sister Sue on why being green doesn’t actually make you a commie, and cousin Clive on the South Atlantic Gyre.)

So, for your dining pleasure, I submit to you three news items everyone can be happy about:

1. Good for flora…

How is this for a dream headline: “Amazon deforestation in dramatic decline, official figures show.”

This is from the Guardian, which reported this summer that data from satellites shows that large areas of forest destruction was about halved in the period between August 2009 and May 2010, compared with the same period a year earlier (to about 930 square miles from about 1860 square miles). The story notes that the Brazilian environment agency, Ibama, said “the drop was due to the increased use of satellite data to spot the felling of trees and new tactics to deter loggers, including ending their ability to hide under cloud cover.” Along these lines, we recently reported here that Google’s announcement this month of its Earth Engine will allow for even more monitoring and measurement of changes in the Earth’s environment. With its eye in the sky, the system will “function like a watchdog camera, supporting the development of ‘monitor, report and verify’ (MRV) efforts to stop global deforestation.” Go, trees!

2. Good for fauna…

Things are looking up for some pretty cool endangered species – you know, the sexy ones that get lots of press and for which even your most “who-cares” relatives have a soft spot. Consider first the mountain gorilla, the number of which in national parks of three African countries has risen by 26 percent in the last seven years, says a recent census. Next, how about those tigers, whose on-the-brink status has led to a recent summit among the 13 nations where the animals still exist in the wild. The takeway was $300 million raised to save the animals (including a cool million from actor Leonardo DiCaprio), as well as agreement to attempt to double their number by 2022. And finally, there’s the canary in our global coalmine – the polar bear – for which The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has just designated 87,000 square miles along the north coast of Alaska as protected “critical habitat” as part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups (although a lump of coal to the Obama administration for declaring polar bears merely “threatened” today).

3. And good for us…

Hooray for the home team on the emissions front. As a result in an increase in United States fuel economy standards, a new EPA report is showing a 14 percent per mile drop in carbon dioxide emissions over the last six years, and a 16 percent drop in gasoline use, with a rise of 3.1 miles per gallon to 22.5. In fact, “C02 emissions have decreased while fuel economy has increased every year since 2005, reversing the trend of the previous eight years.” This doesn’t mean we’re all to breathe easy and lose our discipline on this issue, but good news is good news.

So there. Eat, drink and be environmentally merry. A little more champagne, please! Go ahead and top off the glass.

Special thanks to the Great News Network (GNN) for reminding me that all’s not dire on the environmental front.

Images: Sara&Joachim, Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel, wwarby, ^riza^

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Planes, trains and automobiles. Each leaves their own trail of exhaust that represents, in essence, your trail of exhaust when you make a decision to use one of these common methods of getting where you need/want to go. For those of you who are interested in measuring – and managing – that trail, there’s a new iPhone app that can tell you in advance what your CO2 emissions will likely be before you travel, or what your footprint looks like after you’ve arrived.

Available through Apple’s iTunes App Stores, Green Travel Choice is a GPS-based CO2 tracker that uses Pocketweb’s Pocket Life location-based web and mobile platform. A couple of “clicks” on the map (where you are and where you’re going) and the application displays travel options for your route, offering up nine modes of transport and the expected CO2 burn-off you can expect from each one. It then stores the information and your choices, so you can add up your emissions over time and get a summary of what you’ve been up to. Think of it like looking in your own personal carbon mirror. If you don’t like what you see, time to make some life changes. Or at least some new travel plans.

According to Pocketweb, an average person in an industrialized nation emits about 110-145 pounds of CO2 every week for travel. Making better choices about how you “get there” can have a big impact on the environment. If you drive an SUV from, say, New York City to Washington D.C., your carbon footprint amounts to about 240 pounds. Catch the train instead, and you’re down to 46 pounds. How’s that for some fast and simple weight loss?

Green Travel Choice has some solid alliances with environmental groups, as well. When you download the application, you’ll get a $15 voucher to join The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) as a Traveler member.

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