Bound for the garbage heap?

What’s more important to you: A gleaming, sleek computer, or knowing that your purchases are eco-friendly?

Apple is gambling that consumer addiction to its famously beautiful products will outweigh the fact that it recently dropped out of a voluntary green electronics certification program, called EPEAT. The Wall Street Journal reports that last month Apple asked EPEAT to pull its desktop computers, laptops and monitors from the registry. EPEAT certifies that electronics are recyclable, maximize energy efficiency and minimize environmental harm.

It was a controversial move on Apple’s part, made even stranger by the fact that Apple helped create the program in the first place. The program is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and manufacturers, but its standards were formed jointly with Apple, advocacy groups and government agencies. When Apple removed all 39 of its computers from the registry, they were, in effect, refusing to comply with the very standards that they helped to formulate.

Apple won’t confirm publicly why they pulled their products off the registry. Numerous sources speculate that the newest Macbook Pro with the “Retina” display—which debuted just about a month ago—failed to meet EPEAT standards. The laptop is almost impossible to disassemble, because its battery is glued to both the case and the glass display. EPEAT’s standards require that the product be easy to disassemble with common tools in order to remove toxic products, like a battery.

It’s hard to imagine that a move like this wouldn’t hurt Apple’s sales. U.S. law states that 95% of electronics purchases made by federal agencies must be EPEAT-certified. EPEAT doesn’t certify tablets or phones, so government agencies can still purchase iPhones and iPads. But more forward-thinking cities might follow the example of San Francisco, which recently stated that no government officials will purchase any Apple products. Moreover, dozens of prestigious universities require that their purchases be EPEAT-certified. Cornell and the University of California-Berkeley are already reviewing their Apple purchases.

But despite withdrawal, Apple is still far ahead of the curve in terms of environmental transparency. If you’re nervous about your newly un-certified MacBook, check out Apple’s environmental reports here.

UPDATE: Apple admitted they goofed. (Thanks to Capri Rasmussen for the tip-off).

Image: jaudrius.

The post Apple Addicts Choose A Sleek Design Over Environmental Responsibility appeared first on EcoSalon.

Just how clean is that water, anyway?

As summer’s heat presses down on cities across America, thousands of people will escape to the refreshing breezes off our coasts. But before you lay out your towel and race for the waves, be sure to check if the water meets public health standards.

Every year, the National Resources Defense Council publishes a report on the water quality of 200 popular American beaches. This year, about 8% of the beach samples tested violated public health standards for recreational waters, which usually leads to local health officials issuing advisories or shutting the beach down entirely.

8% might not seem like much. But that 8% translates into about 23,481 days of beach closings. That’s the third-highest number of days closed since the NRDC started the report 22 years ago, which signifies a troubling trend—or lack thereof. Water quality at some of the nation’s most popular beaches just isn’t improving that quickly. The NRDC recommends incentivizing ways to reduce bacterial runoff, such as promoting green roofs and porous pavements in cities.

Even if we wanted to ignore the environmental impact of such polluted water, there are more pressing reasons as to why we need to take action quickly. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 3.5 million people become sick from sewage overflow per year, with illnesses ranging from pinkeye and skin rashes, to meningitis. That number is probably a gross underestimate, since many people who become sick don’t report the illness, or believe it to be from other causes. More troubling, children are much more likely to become ill because they’re more likely to swallow water.

To find out what this year’s most unsafe and safe beaches are, go here.

Image: scmtngirl.

The post How is Your Beach Water Quality? Ask The National Resources Defense Council appeared first on EcoSalon.

Eyes on the prize: Google announces ‘Earth Engine’

Offering scientists and conservationists a better look-see at Mama Earth, Google Labs unveiled its Google Earth Engine yesterday at the International Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. The product puts an “unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and data – current and historical – online for the first time,” says Google, allowing for monitoring and measurement of changes in the Earth’s environment. The images are designed specifically for environmental protection use, providing information on the “locations and extent of global forests, detecting how our forests are changing over time, directing resources for disaster response or water resource mapping,” among other data. One important value of the system is that it will function like a watchdog camera, supporting the development of “monitor, report and verify” (MRV) efforts to stop global deforestation. The company released an example image, generated in collaboration with Mexico’s National Forestry Commission, of a forest cover and water map of Mexico which is the finest-scale to date. The company says the map required 15,000 hours of computation, but was completed in less than a day on Google Earth Engine using 1,000 computers.

Happy birthday EPA!

Now more than ever is a good time to celebrate the Environmental Protection Agency. As the mostly on-our-side government agency is turning 40, it’s coming under severe attacks from a hostile new (corporate-sponsored) Congress, and other science and climate-change deniers around the the world. GreenBiz has it right when it says: “a testament to the scale and scope of the EPA’s successes over the past 40 years that they’ve faded into the background, or been woven into the fabric of daily life.” However, any take-it-for-granted attitude would be a grave mistake right now given the current political climate, and it’s good that sites like Green For All (ThankYouEPA.com), are out there helping to get the word out. There’s an informative quick take, too, from the Aspen Institute in a 10 reasons we love ’em format. Among the highlights from the agency’s 40 years are banning the widespread use of DDT, addressing the acid rain problem, championing the reuse of waste, taking the lead on reducing vehicle emissions, cleaning up our water supply and being a  general conduit for public information.

Strange life forms found in (where else?) California!

While you would figure NASA would spend a lot time looking up, the organization just announced that one of its astrobiology research efforts that’s focused way down under one of California’s weirdest lakes has led to discovery that folks are saying will fundamentally shift the way we define life – and vastly expand the playing field in terms of how we look for life on other planets. These researchers have discovered the first known microorganism able to “thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism, which lives in Mono Lake, substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in the backbone of its DNA and other cellular components.” Quoted in the NY Daily News, Mary Voytek, director of NASA’s astrobiology program, says, “It’s terrestrial life – but not life as we know it.” The story adds that “all life discovered so far, from teeny amoebas to enormous elephants, are composed of combinations of the same six elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus,” but the new bacteria (its catchy name is GFAJ-1) can live without any phosphorus and instead uses arsenic to build cells. Why do we care? “The implication is that we still don’t know everything there is to know about what might make a planet habitable,” says another NASA scientist. “Maybe we’ll be able to find ET now.”

Images: Google, jessica.diamond, NASA

The post Ecosalon News: Quick Takes appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s no secret that anything resembling an environmental protection law that even nods to the possibility of human-induced climate change is under sustained and rabid attack by industry groups and the politicians who represent them. (Okay. Breathing.) The tactic over the last two years has been to go after the EPA, which is charged with creating regulations that abide by these laws. Myriad word bombs and legal challenges over the organization’s ethics and tactics have been lobbed at it by climate change deniers for years now.

Well, the Justice Department just made it clear in legal briefing that if you got a problem with the EPA, you should take it up with Congress. (Note: Today’s the day we take stuff up with Congress.) The government’s environmental watchdog is simply executing on existing law. If you’re a member of Congress, then take it up with yourself. Bottom line? If you don’t like what’s going down, change the law, and leave the EPA out of it.

Here’s the verbiage: As reported in Politico, the filing states that states, industry groups and other groups’ objections to EPA rules (here related primarily to the Clean Air Act) “is not really to EPA’s actions; rather it is to the decisions Congress made and to the strict requirements Congress itself imposed on sources of air pollution.”

So it’s the law, stupid. Well, it’s the law for now, anyway. The target on the back of these laws (and efforts to strengthen and update them) may be more attainable for climate change deniers when you get up tomorrow morning. To be fair, both parties have a problem with the existing antiquated Clean Air Act, though efforts to create new law didn’t make it though Congress as it was the last two years. (So keep in that going forward now, we’re not even talking progress. We’re talking about maintaining whatever footholds have been established in recent decades.)

Consider this: Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the favorite to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee if control of the House changes, says he’s geared up to investigate administration’s “poisonous regulations.” In fact, he told Politico that “If we have the gavel, I can assure you that the oversight subcommittee will be very busy. We’ll have a seat reserved for [the administration’s top climate and energy advisor Carol Browner].” EPA administrator Lisa Jackon would doubtless be spending a lot of time on the Hill, as well.

Attempting to go with a non-partisan note here, we all have varied opinions on what needs to happen in the arena of federal environmental law. Just ask yourself what it is you want and keep that in mind when you, if you haven’t already, go act on your wishes, that is to say, Vote. Now, please.

Image: samantha celera

The post The Law of Land and Sea and Air: Yet <em>Another</em> Reason to Vote! appeared first on EcoSalon.

According to Lucinda Marshall at Truthout, young children and babies in utero are at a major risk of chemical poisoning after oil spills because their immune systems are not fully developed, leaving them incapacitated to fight off dangerous compounds. While the National Institutes of Health have provided information on the way endocrine disrupters – common in both the oil and the substances used to clean it up – scientists aren’t clear on the effects of the chemicals, in part because until very recently, they had no idea which chemicals were being disseminated.

Now, without first telling Nalco Holding Co., the manufacturer of the dispersants that BP is using, the Environmental Protection Agency has released a list of ingredients used to break down the oil. And – shocker – the news isn’t pretty. One of the ingredients, 2-butoxyethanol, caused major health problems among cleanup workers on the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. That, plus the oil itself, could spell major risks to pregnant women and their fetuses.

According to Dr. Gina Solomon, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, “Some of the volatile chemicals in oil have been linked to miscarriage, preterm birth, and low birth weight, so it is a good idea for pregnant women to avoid the areas where there are elevated levels of VOCs [Volatile Organic Compounds] in the air. These are areas that include noticeable smells of oil or visible oil and also any areas where the EPA monitoring system detects elevated levels. The EPA air monitoring results are being updated regularly at www.epa.gov/bpspill. To be cautious, pregnant women may choose to avoid any areas directly along the waterfront and beachfront, even when oil is not visible.”

That’s easy enough advice to follow for would-be Gulf Coast vacationers (as if there are any this season). But for pregnant women living near the spill zone – where oil and dispersants reenter the atmosphere after being burned off the water – avoiding chemical exposure is akin to turning a blind eye to the disaster itself.

Image: Hello Turkey Toe

The post BP Oil Spill Imperils Pregnant Gulf Coasters appeared first on EcoSalon.

When I was in elementary school I gave zero thought to what auto emissions were doing to the environment. Not once did I look up at the black spew happily chortling up from my school bus and wonder where it went and what it meant. Maybe it was because I grew up in Detroit where such thoughts fell somewhere between anathema and simply way off radar. Today, of course, kids are different. (Well, some kids.) It’s second nature for them to wonder about such things. And it should be second nature to us to send them the right messages.

So, what about those school buses?

Some good news on this front comes in the form of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus USA program, which is designed to “reduce children’s exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses.” Clean School Bus USA is one of a number of federal and state programs that are providing grants for school-bus retrofitting and replacement to offer the approximately 24-million American children who take school buses daily a better ride. (That’s a lot of kids breathing in bus stuff for an average hour and half every day.)

The effort is beginning to pay off, most recently in Wisconsin and Ohio where a large Illinois-based school bus manufacturer has been commissioned to build 16 hybrid gasoline-electric buses for use in local school systems. The company, IC Bus, is a subsidiary of Navistar, which makes more than 60 percent of North America’s school buses and is also the recipient of recent $39 million dollar federal grant to manufacture all-electric vehicles. IC Bus is working with Enova (electric drive train) and Valance (electric propulsion) technology to deliver its CE Series hybrid bus, which is offered as a plug-in or a gas-electric without the plug-in option.

IC Bus says the series boasts 65 percent better fuel economy and a reduction of 39 percent emissions compared to the average diesel school bus. This is a big deal, kids. Those school buses cover a lot of ground. Can you say more than four billion miles a year?

Image: Andrei!

The post Busing 2010: School of Hybrid appeared first on EcoSalon.

When Hurricane Katrina clobbered the Gulf Coast in 2005, women bore the brunt of the chaos that ensued, facing sexual violence and abuse at the hands of relatives and strangers. It was out of that devastating period that Coastal Women for Change was formed, an organization devoted to bringing women’s voices to reconstruction efforts.

Founded in 2006 by a hairdresser and community activist named Sharon Hanshaw, CWC organized community forums, drawing attention to the need for childcare facilities in east and west Biloxi, and calling for an increased police presence in certain areas to protect the elderly living alone in trailers. “We believe there is value in coming together as a community, because some issues can seem insurmountable when considered alone, but when you get together with others, there is strength in those numbers,” reads the CWC web site’s About Us section.

Now, in the wake of the British Petroleum oil spill, CWC is contending with a new challenge: how to bring disaster relief to people who are already scarred by disaster. In an interview with American Prospect, Sharon Hanshaw describes the impact that the spill has had on the Gulf region’s collective psyche. “I can’t describe it. It’s like a death sentence or something,” she says. “When we think of any type of devastation, we think of Katrina automatically because people still live in the cottages. Others don’t fully understand what people who live in it feel; they think people should be over that. But if you don’t have a house, and you’re still paying for a mortgage, but it’s only a slab there…that gives you a sense of hopelessness.”

As the spill creeps closer to the coastline, Hanshaw’s biggest fear is that it will decimate the Gulf’s commercial fishing industry, leaving the 13,000 people employed by fisheries and restaurants out of work. “If it comes, you won’t have any jobs,” she says. “You would have to think about, what could we do besides clean up? What else can people do? They really want to know what their career is. They want work for a paycheck. If you can’t fish now, it’s like, OK, let’s clear the debris.”

But organizing the fishing community to prepare for a potential disaster isn’t as simple as it sounds. “A majority of fishermen are Vietnamese, but there are black and white fishermen. But they’re having their own meetings, and it’s like, ‘Oh, here we go.’ It’s redundant to be separate, and you got the same plight here. I see it all the time,” says Hanshaw. “All these different constituents are having meetings. They’re having meetings separately, and I’m like, do you know that you all have the same plight? But that’s our problem. We don’t know how to think that way.”

For now, CWC is acting as an information line from the Environmental Protection Agency and British Petroleum to local fisheries, keeping Gulf Coast fishers apprised of changes during the oil spill. “We’re just trying to not put fear in people. We’re trying to stay positive and hopeful, but we still know that we should be active in this.”

Image: Jay Fox Photos

The post Coastal Women for Change Protects Against BP Oil Spill appeared first on EcoSalon.

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 out how to do more to protect and restore the planet.

Quiz

Take this 10-question quiz about climate change, and the Clinton Foundation will donate $2 towards a program delivering solar-powered flashlights to people living in camps in Haiti.

For Kids

Are you a Mary Poppins in the making? PBSKids.org offers some Earth Day content to help you teach your kids, nieces, nephews or just brats you babysit. Their “Eeeko World” is full of kid-appropriate games and cartoons – just be prepared for animated monkeys and silly voices.

Activism

Act.ly asks web citizens to “Tweet change.” We like the initiatives focused around human health and the environment, including one demanding that mobile manufacturers treat their factory workers fairly, and another asking the EPA to control a pesticide chemical, methyl iodide.

Eco-To-Do List

The Nature Conservancy provides a list of things you can add to your to-do list, that will green your house, office and diet. We love their sustainable seafood recipes from star chefs like Dan Barber.

E-waste, Away!

Happy 40th birthday Earth Day, says Earth911.com with this 40 Green Tips & Tricks site, which includes great information about how to recycle your electronics properly, and recycle more than you have before.

Reminders

Don’t have an iPhone or other smart phone where you can access great green apps? Print “reminder” wallet cards with reminders about what to look for in fresh fish, or paper goods, from the Natural Resources Defence Council’s Earth Day pages.

Buy & Trade

The environmentally friendly section of Amazon.com is now live, and includes a program to trade in old stuff for new Amazon.com gift cards. Just be sure to ship green, when you send in your stuff!

Get on the Bus

Once you sign the official Earth Day Climate Petition to “support fair, ambitious, and comprehensive climate legislation”¦”  hitch a free bus ride from the Earth Day Network to attend the Climate Rally on April, 25th from select cities within day-trip-distance from D.C.

Earth Friendly Foodies

Think you’re diet’s eco-logical? Take this Food, Inc. inspired Earth Day quiz at YumSugar to find room for improvement.

Green, Inc.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce set up a special Business Civic Leadership Center page for Earth Day 2010, highlighting what their members are doing to go green. Read through and if you see any signs of greenwash, call “˜em out!

Green IT

The Green IT Economics summit, a major conference of the information technology industry, is taking place appropriately on Earth Day. Tune in to this webcast what thought leaders in tech are worrying about, environmentally speaking, when it comes to servers, software and social media. Check the program guide for what’s going on at Green IT!

Image: Ed Yourdon

The post Bookmark This! Digital Dozen Earth Day Links appeared first on EcoSalon.

In stark contrast with news of the devastating earthquake and loss of life in Haiti this week, greener vehicles, energy activism and conservation law enforcement gave the blogosphere reasons to hope (and post).

Hybrid, electric, and compact vehicles more fuel-efficient than what’s ever sold before – like the Cadillac XTS Platinum, the Ford Fusion Hybrid, the Nissan Leaf and the Toyota Scion iQ – won accolades at the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, which began Monday Jan. 11th and will be open to the public Saturday, Jan. 16th through Sunday, January 24th.

Some auto brands predicted, like academic researchers before them, that fuel efficiency would “drive” car sales in 2010 and beyond.

Just in time to curry favor with the auto lobby that turns out for the Detroit Auto Show each year, the U.S. Department of Energy this week also announced awards of $187 million in funding, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would go to American auto- and parts-makers to create not just jobs, but more efficient “super trucks” (military and commercial vehicles mostly) and passenger vehicles.

The D.O.E. also pledged – perhaps inspired by some of the greener efforts at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month – to enforce “minimum appliance conservation standards,” established in the Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1975. In other words, if you make electricity-sucking, carbon-emitting refrigerators, air conditioners or other appliances that don’t meet U.S. standards, and if you don’t report what your gadgets use with accuracy, the feds will fine you! This time they mean it. It’s for the earth. And the U.S. government purse.

Innovative new vehicles and appliances and environmental law enforcement, of course, are just one piece of the energy puzzle.

All of the green news this week from the D.O.E. wasn’t enough to cover the hypocrisy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week which allowed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue a permit to Patriot Coal to proceed with some habitat thrashing, mountaintop coal mining projects in West Virgina.

To solve problems like ruinous coal mining, burning and oil consumption, on Thursday, Jan. 14th the United Nations Foundation gathered investors and world financial leaders to discuss climate change and the role of energy in the global economy.

UNF philanthropist and founding member Ted Turner stated on CNBC’s Squawk Box the first day of the foundation’s meeting: “[In the U.S.] we’re still subsidizing the coal and oil industry in various ways and should stop doing that… [We should] make sure with fees or cap and trade that the true cost of pollution from burning coal and oil is covered by the users. Then solar and wind power can become very competitive. The oil problem – that’s $750 billion a year we’re transferring over to countries that are not exactly our friends.”

Soak up a balance of optimistic and skeptical news and opinions about green vehicles and appliances, and the U.S. government’s environmental initiatives as they relate to the global, energy economy below. Then go forth, share links and comment.

Basic Reading:

“Eco cars are dominating this year’s Detroit Auto Show with a number of new concept hybrids being launched by both large and small automakers. The Ford Fusion Hybrid won the 2010 North American Car of the Year…” – news via EnvironmentalLeader.com

A preview of green cars at the Detroit Auto Show 2010 by John Voelcker for GreenCarReports.com

“Coal releases more carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy produced than any other fossil fuel, but it also provides more than half the United States’ electricity supply. Mountaintop mining, a practice that has grown throughout the past 30 years, now supplies about 10 percent of U.S. coal.The EPA has a long history with trying to come to terms with the impacts of that destructive practice.” – A featured post at SolveClimate.com

“D.O.E. [is making a broad] effort to increase enforcement efforts for both Energy Star and the federal appliance standard program, which sets mandatory energy efficiency and water use requirements for a number of products, from air conditioners to urinals.” – News via the New York Times Green Inc. blog

The official home page for the Investor Summit on Climate Risk hosted by the United Nations

“The agenda includes speakers such as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Former Vice-President Al Gore, U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern and Media Executive/Philanthropist Ted Turner. The list of investors expected at the Summit underscores how climate change, an environmental issue, is increasingly gaining traction as a business issue.” – A news item on the Investor Summit on Climate Risk via EfficiencyLaw.com

Further Resources:

News of hybrids, compacts at Detroit Auto Show from Chosun Ilbo, a Korean news organization

A muscle car enthusiast and critic worries that too much “hybrid” could amount to not enough speed, via the Motortrend.com blog

Detroit Auto Show Round-Up: The Fully Monty, is a web page of short reviews and critiques of cars at the NAIAS 2010, from a decidedly not eco-centric source, Jalopnik

A DailyYonder.com blog post asking “How Do You Kill a Mountain?” and criticising coal mining practices approved by the EPA

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it would sign off on a Clean Water Act permit for a mountaintop removal coal mine operated by Patriot Coal Corp., drawing the ire of a coalition of environmental and community advocacy groups that says the decision opens the door for further environmental destruction in Appalachia…”- A news feature via Law 360

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by Lora Kolodny.

Nissan image via

The post EcoMeme: Green Rides and Energy Rules appeared first on EcoSalon.