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Want To Save Water? Shop Local and Turn Off the Lights

Allison Ford — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:08:27 +0000

Water generates most of our electricity but what are we doing to protect water?

It’s been called the source of the next great global conflict. More than oil or food, scarcity of water has been predicted to cause intense the most intense battles between nations.

We tend to think of water consumption in terms of the water we use at home for cooking, cleaning, and sanitation. According to the EPA, an average family of four uses about 400 gallons per day at home. Taking a shower? Two gallons per minute. Flushing a toilet uses 1.6 gallons per minute, although old toilets use up to four. Running the dishwasher? That uses between four and ten gallons per load (depending on the model of washer), which sounds like a lot until you realize that washing them by hand can drain up to twenty gallons per sink of dishes.

The conservation-minded meticulously turn off faucets while brushing teeth and install efficient appliances. We even admonish the kids that “If it’s yellow, let it mellow,” all in the name of preserving water. We install low-flow toilets and snivel at desert cities that use their water for irrigating golf courses and plush lawns. We do everything we can to not waste it.

But while Americans use more water for residential purposes than citizens of any other country, those 400 gallons don’t even tell the whole story. In order to sustain the average American lifestyle, it takes about 2,000 gallons of water per person, each and every day.

We never see the majority of that water. As a nation, our biggest water drain is the generation of electricity. About 42 percent of all the water used in the country goes toward producing thermoelectric power, creating steam and cooling generators. That’s the electricity that powers not only our houses, but also manufacturing and agriculture – even the power needed to pump water from its sources, which invariably grow farther and farther away as sprawl grows and water supplies shrink.

Irrigation eats up another 37 percent of our fresh water, and explains why California, Texas, and Florida – states with huge agricultural industries – are among the top water-consuming states in the country. Then there’s the industrial uses: factories, malls, schools, hospitals, and anywhere else that people make stuff, sell stuff, or buy stuff. After counting crops, livestock, mining, public needs and commercial use, less than 9 percent of the water consumed in the United States ever ends up in a house or in a glass.

At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages by the year 2013. Conservation efforts on the individual scale are welcome and important – in many cities, the overall rate of water consumption has stayed the same even as population has risen – but the only real way to conserve on a large scale is to address the water that facilitates our power and our food. It’s easy to look at fountains and golf courses in the desert and blame that waste and profligacy for our dwindling supplies of water, but the root problem is also our collective over-reliance on air conditioning, our lack of investment in public transportation, and our industrial food system.

Most municipal water systems keep prices as low as possible. In fact, in many places, they’re prohibited by law from turning a profit, and while that’s good for consumers’ budgets, it often camouflages the true cost of the retrieval, treatment, and transport of residential water. And the cost of items we purchase doesn’t reflect the true cost of what it took to produce the item – from the electricity for manufacturing to the fossil fuels for transport to the water used to support livestock.

The two best ways to save water are to use less electricity and to eat less non-local food, especially beef. Even a single commercial hamburger takes more than 600 gallons of water to produce. As growing cities and suburbs start fighting for ever-more-scarce sources of water, the way toward sustainability isn’t just by watering lawns at night – it’s by addressing everything we consume, from electricity to food to fast fashion to imported electronics. And ultimately, consuming less of it all.
Photos: Dottie Mae, danperry.com, Steve Johnson

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10 Industries and Trends That Will Shape Our Future

Andrea Newell — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:13:29 +0000

What will the future hold? It’s hard to say, but here are ten entities, industries, or trends that will impact it in various ways.

In the past several years, we have all felt out of control of our lives. We have been hit by economic hardship, rising cost of living, plummeting home values, stagnant salaries, and waves of layoffs. Even as things slowly rebound, there are still many factors that affect our lives that we might not be able to control, but we have found ways to communicate our opinions and, in some cases, make a change. Our society is tackling new and old problems, setting new trends and following a new path, and in many ways, this is a tipping point where the decisions we make now will have a ripple effect far into the future.

Who are the people making these major life decisions for us? You might be surprised.

1. Pharmaceutical Industry

Although prescription prices went up in 2011, Americans are veering away from both doctor visits and excessive prescription use. At the same time, new government healthcare regulations over prescriptions that some women do want to take stirred up debate and crossed boundaries into local government, religious and business realms.

2. Oil & Gas

After the BP spill and the continuing aftermath, no one could fail to see the impact the oil and gas industry has on our lives. Prices have continued to rise and all indications are that they will not go down again for any significant length of time. Car companies have even come to the realization that we need transportation improvements and new higher mileage, hybrid and electric vehicles are emerging onto the market. Unfortunately, they only account for a small percentage of the vehicles on the road but they are gaining in popularity. Alternative energy solutions have become the next big thing, but we are still teetering on the edge of a precipice where we are consuming more energy than these solutions can meet, so oil and gas are still necessary evils. For how long, no one knows. While they still dominate, consumers will not only bear the financial costs, but environmental, political, and health costs as well.

3. Banks

Even before our economy hit a wall in 2008, many mistrusted banks and lenders and feelings deteriorated even further as the situation worsened. The financial landscape is changing. People are becoming more aware of the benefits and pitfalls and are speaking up. When Bank of America saw fit to tack on an arbitrary fee, account holders noticed and protested. After a storm of bad press, Bank of America canceled that fee scheme, but now they are looking to impose more.

The recently passed JOBS Act will also affect small businesses financially in ways we can’t see yet. Now that the gates have opened for people to crowdfund small businesses, this could enable organizations who might not have been able to get traditional or angel funding. Small businesses currently account for 65 percent of new jobs. Perhaps it took a major fall in order to make a change.

4. Supreme Court

We don’t think of many Supreme Court decisions as affecting our day-to-day lives, but recently the Court has weighed in on some pertinent issues. The justices pushed back against physical GPS tracking of a suspect, but the argument exposed the bigger issue of individual privacy. Justice Sotomayor articulated the future concern of eroding personal privacy, pointing out that “physical intrusion is now unnecessary to many forms of surveillance,” which puts into question freedom of expression online, information sent in email and data stored in the cloud. The laws as written by our founding fathers cannot keep pace with the speed of our technological innovations and our society’s increasing dependence on virtual communication, so this issue is sure to come up again.

5. State Government

While the Supreme Court makes decisions felt across the nation, state governments have been flexing their power lately. States have passed a number of measures chipping away at Roe v. Wade and imposing limitations and requirements on abortion that vary state to state.

Arizona went further and crafted legislation that would allow employers to opt out of covering birth control as part of their benefits package. If women wanted reimbursement for prescription costs, it then proposed to compel them to justify to their employers that if they are using birth control, they were using it for reasons other than preventing pregnancy. Using birth control for its intended purpose could be grounds for dismissal.

The legislation (in that form) failed, but this trend of state interference in personal and medical privacy seems to be gaining momentum.

6. Work

The job landscape has been a tough one. The last few years have seen layoffs, stagnant salaries, and overworked employees who had to take on the tasks of vacated roles. New opportunities lean toward freelance or contract work and fewer permanent positions with benefits, while our nation is still known for its culture of overwork.

However, mobile tools are giving rise to more work-at-home arrangements to cut down on commuting, eliminate the need for expensive, wasteful office space, and encourage more work/life balance. Will work weeks get shorter? Will more people without location-based jobs (doctors, teachers, etc.) work remotely? The current tide is toward leaner work infrastructure and roles, so expect remote work arrangements to continue to be popular, but as for Americans working fewer hours? It’s a future hope, but not likely to become a reality soon.

7. Utilities

The utility bill is a growing part of monthly budgets, factoring in landlines, smart phones, tablets, cable, internet, as well as basic heating/cooling and water. We use more energy and spend more money, while the big utility fish are gobbling up the smaller ones, so we have fewer choices. If that wasn’t troubling enough, Verizon recently decided to follow in Bank of America’s footsteps and have added an additional fee onto their customers bills. And again, people noticed and protested. Will the future improve people’s abilities to read and comprehend their cell phone bills? Probably not, but hopefully conservation and alternative energy solutions will lessen our utilities’ control over our energy, and impact on our budgets and our planet.

8. Food

Hundreds of emerging books and blogs examine the content of food on the supermarket shelves and have found much of it full of unsavory ingredients. Despite the higher prices, organic food is gaining popularity and gardening has become cool again. Consumers are more food savvy than ever before and are scrutinizing their fare. The demand for healthier food is a positive trend, but it may come at a price, putting it out of reach for many that are still recovering economically or live in a food desert. How consumers shape this industry now will set the tone for the future.

9. Water

It’s easy to forget that water is precious. For most of us, it comes out of the tap when we need it and goes down the drain when we don’t, but water shortage is fast becoming one of the biggest issues of this century. Businesses are realizing how much water impacts their daily manufacturing processes and their profits. Lack of water can shut down a factory for days, while floods can impact crops and cause materials shortages and price hikes.

The price of water varies by region and abundance, but even here in the U.S., wars over water are becoming more intense. In the future we may see prices rise or simply see availability fall. CDP Water Disclosure Project’s Chris Hedemann believes that people will only start to care about conserving water when a water crisis hits.

10. Consumption

As our economy slowly recovers, many facets have changed. Consumer consumption and excessive waste have fallen out of favor, and frugality has spawned a new, sharing economy, also called the access economy. Companies like Zipcar and Airbnb promote swapping and lending, while anti-waste crusader Annie Leonard is seeing her dream of community and sharing start to come true. We’re replacing shopping bags with reusable cloth totes and borrowing from our neighbors rather than buying an item we may only use once or twice a year. Our economy has been hit before during the Great Depression, inspiring a generation of savers. Perhaps this economic disaster will inspire future generations of savers, lenders and borrowers.

Images: Bethan, Frederic Poirot, Julie Falk, Gisela Giardino, Garry Wilmore, Wally Gobetz, Blake Patterson, Chuck Schneider, Evan Leeson, Wester, aamy.

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A Generation Used To Convenience

Allison Ford — Sun, 29 May 2011 13:27:32 +0000

The Boomer generation isn’t used to being inconvenienced after all these years.

There’s a curious thing that you sometimes see in certain parts of America – signs at gas stations advertising their fuel as “100% GASOLINE! NO ETHANOL!” If you’re wondering exactly what kind of seal-clubbing, earth-befouling hillbillies these signs are meant to attract, I’d like to introduce you to my parents.

They drive giant SUVs any time they have to travel farther than two driveways away. Everything they buy is either single-serving or disposable, to assure maximum trash. They print their emails, double–bag their groceries in plastic, and run the A/C with the windows open. And, they believe that ethanol is bad for their cars because someone once forwarded them an email saying so.

I, their tomato-canning, bus-riding, cloth-napkin-using pinko commie daughter, am a constant source of mild puzzlement to them, and whenever I visit, I always try to drop a few hints. Judgmental, yes, but I can’t help it. “You know,” I say, “you guys go through so many soda cans, it’s a shame you don’t recycle.” I even point out that their town offers free unlimited curbside pickup as well as free bins. But to them, it’s just not worth the hassle. I once asked my dad if he’d ever consider switching to grass-fed beef, explaining all the problems with factory farming. “But Allison,” he said between bites of steak, “That’s what makes it so tasty.”

We recently had a conversation in which he claimed new research is proving that oil doesn’t really come from dinosaurs, and is actually a renewable resource. I am not making this up. He was totally convinced that once the data came in, the world could forget about all this wind and solar stuff and just drill baby, drill. (I actually looked into this theory, and it’s a fairly popular topic on World Net Daily, on the home page between birther conspiracies and ads for Goldline.)

Although my parents’ tendency to throw garbage from moving cars probably puts them slightly further on the spectrum of environmental disdain than the average American, there are sadly, millions of people like them. People who will only accept green living when it becomes cheaper, easier, and more convenient than the way they live now.

It’s not that they haven’t noticed what’s happened over the past 30 years – it’s that their generation, aside from that tiny vanguard who gave us the first Earth Day, doesn’t want to be put out. They care, just not enough to do anything about it.

This difference in philosophy isn’t about Democrat versus Republican, science versus religion, or coastal versus heartland. It’s a generational thing. My parents and everyone before them grew up believing that the environment and all its bounty were simply theirs for the taking. They came of age in a time when land was plentiful, oil was cheap, America was the greatest country on earth, and God put the fish and the trees there for us to consume.

To them, slow food, reusable bags, and riding bicycles is undoing decades of technology and innovation that made life easier and more convenient. When they play golf in Las Vegas, they don’t look at lush, green desert fairways and see an abomination, they see a triumphant example of man’s ability to harness nature.

The problem isn’t just convincing people like my parents to acknowledge scientific facts or making green technology affordable and available. The problem is convincing them to endure a little inconvenience. It’s convincing them to eat a little less beef, hitch a ride to work, and leave some cake for the rest of us. It’s also convincing them of the scariest thing of all – that much of that magical progress they and their generation made wasn’t really progress at all.

I don’t know what the solution is, besides waiting for them all to die out (doesn’t that seem like the answer to all Boomer-related problems?). For now, I try to nudge my parents in the right direction when I can. They’ll never install solar panels or think about food miles, but I’ve already convinced my mom to start buying vegetables at the wonderful farm stands that populate the Midwest during the summer and fall. That’s a start. The next step, when she gets home with a dozen ears of sweet country corn, will be getting her to recycle the damn bag.

Image: Dominic’s Pics

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Ra Ra

Andrea Newell — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:00:45 +0000

QuoteDaily quotes at EcoSalon.

“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” – Thomas Edison

Image: jurvetson

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The Goldberg Variations: Merry Mazel Tov!

Susan Goldberg — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:14:50 +0000

The first night of Chanukah falls on December 1st this year – and if you didn’t know that, then welcome to the club. A casual survey of Jews and gentiles alike leads me to believe that pretty much no one realized how early the holiday would begin this year. Even those of us who “celebrate” Chanukah think of it as coming right around Christmas – and I put “celebrate” inside snarky quotation marks because no matter what Jewish parents tell our kids, Chanukah really is kind of a snooze. Plain, boring, and a little bit sad, it is the ugly step-sister of holidays.

For Jewish children, Chanukah is the consolation prize they get because Christmas is not their holiday. What started out as a minor occasion in the Hebrew calendar has been tarted up with gifts and chocolate coins in a desperate effort to compete with Christmas (or as it’s more commonly known: The Best Holiday Ever.) Over the years I have tried to get my kids amped up about the Festival of Lights, but no matter how many times I read them The Pop Up Book of Chanukah, they remained largely unimpressed. Every year I would wage a hard-sell campaign to interest them in dreidels – those iconic symbols of the holiday that are also massively un-fun playthings. But I always felt that I was selling them on something I myself couldn’t get too worked up about.

Look at the facts: Christmas features festively decorated evergreen trees that twinkle with fairy lights and smell like happiness – Chanukah has a candle holder and it smells like fried foods. Christmas has Santa, flying in on a sled delivering huge piles of toys and goodies. Chanukah has one good present on the first night, quickly followed by inferior gifts for the next seven (by the end of the week my kids are getting Number Two pencils and throat lozenges). Christmas has Jingle Bells, The Chestnut Song and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer – Chanukah music is all about minor chords and aggravation.

The biggest disappointment for Jewish children is the lack of a tree, a deprivation my kids have been whining about ever since they first learned to talk. But that’s hardly their only complaint about this ho-hum oil-based occasion. So, in a last-ditch effort to drum up holiday spirit, I have devised a new and improved way to present Chanukah to my family: this year I have gone to great pains to play up the fact that Chanukah is based on the fact that early Jews were able to get eight days of light out of oil that was supposed to last for just one night. Looked at this way, Chanukah is all about optimizing non-renewable resources and getting the most use out of fossil fuels. My daughter is a fervent environmentalist, and I had big hopes that this argument would help her to finally love Chanukah – for its eco-friendliness if nothing else. Smug and self-impressed I pointed out to her that Chanukah was probably the first holiday that could be considered green. “Christmas trees are green,” was my daughter’s sad and hopeful reply.

I give up.

Editor’s Note: Susan Goldberg is a slightly lapsed treehugger. Although known to overuse paper products, she has the best of intentions – and a really small SUV. Catch her column, The Goldberg Variations, each week here at EcoSalon.

Image: seantoyer

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Not So Fast, Slick: Rethinking How Often to Change Your Oil

Scott Adelson — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:54:44 +0000

My first car was a ’68 Mustang, navy blue with a black vinyl top and a classic 289 engine. Everyone who saw it nodded knowingly, bestowing on me instant cool-car status (a critical antidote to teenage angst). It was in pretty good condition, too, previously owned by a little old lady (my grandma, who gave me the car when she stopped driving) and, as far as I was concerned, a whole lot hipper than the richer kids’ shiny new Trans Ams with those gaudy, behemoth eagles on the hood.

Yet despite my Detroit roots, that’s about all I could tell you about the thing. (When I open the hood of a vehicle I see what amounts to a small Jackson Pollack.) I did know how to change the oil, though. It was a simple, cheap and necessary operation, setting me back a few bucks for a couple cans of Penzoil.

But oil changes, like most car care, changed for me at some point after entering adulthood. Mainly this was because I stopped wanting to do anything resembling maintenance myself. Unfortunately, this leaves me at the mercy of The Man, who, for today’s purposes is my auto dealer/mechanic and, and a little further off in the background, the Oil Industry. (For the record, The Man can take many forms, such as my bank or my cell phone provider.)

With each new car I own, The Man (He/She/It) consistently tells me I should – nay, must – change my oil every 3,000-5,000 miles. (That’s more often than the old ‘Stang!) And that’s not all. At those intervals, which show up on my odometer every time I look at it, I also need all kinds of related fluid changes, new filters and other critical what not that sets me back a hundred-plus every time I even think about “regular” service. Jiffy Lubes et al aren’t much better, and in all cases I drive away with that gummy pseudo-sticker inside my windshield that makes sure that (literally in my face) I have a logo, a phone number and an admonition that evil things will happen to me if I don’t show up again at, say, 11,142 miles. (And not a mile later!) What it really says is “We’re really looking forward to seeing your checkbook again soon!”

Well, I get weird when I think I’m getting ripped off – especially by The Man – and I always suspected this oil game was a rip off. And Lo! And behold!: “Debunked: The 3000 Mile Oil Change Is a Myth.” This from CalRecycle, and noticed last week by the NYT, which cites Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor at car care site Edmunds.com, as saying that a good average for oil changes these days would be somewhere between 7,500 and 10,000 miles – or more.

Turns out that it’s been years since any car has come off the line with an engine that requires an oil change every 3,000-5,000 miles. And it’s not that automakers are telling you go out and grease your skids so often. In fact, most manufacturers tell it like it is in your vehicle’s how-to book. However, your dealer and lube specialist are likely doing nothing to dispel you from coming in to their garages as often as possible. In fact, you know what? Let’s dispense with the diplo-talk and just say it: They tell you to come in more often than you need to so they can steal your money.

Take California for example, where, according to the CalRecycle site (www.3000milemyth.org), “research conducted by the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) shows that nearly three-quarters of Californian drivers change their motor oil more often than automaker recommendations,” adding that “following the 3,000 mile myth generates millions of gallons of waste oil every year.”

Ah, The Man and his myths. Sad thing is, after a while we believe what we’re told. Says Reed (again from the NYT article): “3,000 miles strikes a deep chord with the consumer. It feels good to get an oil change. If you fill up the car with gas, wash it and change the oil, it runs better. Of course, it doesn’t. But it’s the perception.”

In traffic this morning, I gave this whole thing some thought. After revisiting my old Ford and its powerful but dirty old 1968 engine (man, for a moment there I was cool as could be), I looked around at all the shiny new post millennium cars screaming too fast down highway 101 heading into S.F. for the work day. Thousands of ’em. Thousands and thousands – and most all of them being bathed in, at best, twice the amount oil they need. Think about it in times-a-million-times-a-billion terms. Then follow the stream of used oil going into our waste systems. And then follow the money – right to The Man.

Image: therichbrooks

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Helicopters Over Deepwater Horizon and Why the Media in the Gulf Is Letting Us Down, Part 1

Stiv Wilson — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:54:17 +0000

We wake up in Mobile, Alabama, early, and head for Houma, Louisiana. We’ve arranged to get on a BP-sponsored helicopter flight over the Louisiana bayou and head offshore some 60 miles to the site where this whole thing started, where many oilmen died in an explosion. I’m with an activist from the Audubon Society and we’re driving well over 90 to get there on time. With us will be two NOAA scientists, one a biologist, one a geophysicist/oceanographer.

BP runs these sorties for media and has been for several months. The helicopter has 15 seats. I’m excited, not because I get to ride in a helicopter, but because I get nearly three hours to drill the BP guy and the scientists. Already seated are reporters from several major outlets, one, an NPR journalist trying to get good audio in a helicopter. Every time I ask a question, she turns her mic on. I’m doing her job for her.

Taking off, I ask the BP guy about the flight plan for our route. He doesn’t understand what I mean. Who chose it? I’m wondering if we’re seeing what’s really out here or if we’re seeing what they want us to see. He remarks that the journos choose the route, but what he means is they choose the destination. How we get there is up to BP and we’re not flying as the crow does. This is theater.

I take pictures of the wetlands, boom, slick, and some oiled beaches. The NOAA scientists champion the fact that of 77,000 miles of shoreline, only 600 are affected by oil. I don’t know what to do with this statistic. It sounds like an impressive ratio; then again, 600 miles is the entire collective coastline of Oregon and Washington State.

To get an accurate picture of this place you’d need to fly the same route every few days to see what is changing, not what it looks like in one isolated moment. Nonetheless, the photogs start clicking away whenever we come across “incriminating” pictures. But no one is asking questions and it’s driving me absolutely insane. How on earth can any good reporter pass up an opportunity like this?

I strategically place myself next to the BP employee and the scientists. I have a list and I’m going to get answers. The NOAA folks are cooperative, at times emotional. The BP employee is as cool as a cucumber; moreover, he doesn’t seem to know much. Every time I ask him a question he says, “I have all that information back on land, I’ll get back to you on that.”

Dispersants – this is what I want to know about. Specifically Corexit 9500 and 9527 (the ones used). This stuff is toxic as hell if it comes into acute contact with an animal. The effects of chronic, or low-level exposure aren’t known and that’s at the root of the fear that permeates the fishing community.

I talk to John Whitney, a NOAA Oceanographer who worked on the Exxon Valdez disaster. He gives me a crash chemistry lesson. Corexit is an extremely volatile compound. What this means is that it biodegrades very quickly – it has a half life of three to four days, which means after a few weeks it’s entirely gone, reduced to water and carbon dioxide. There are other volatile compounds produced in the degradation process, but no one can name one other than benzine. But it’s the middle of August now. If BP quit using dispersants on July 15th as they say they did, then it’s gone.

Entirely.

The dispersed oil remains, however, and the toxic poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) will persist, and not only on the surface. They’re stratified in the water column. PAHs are bad. Real bad. Having them dispersed isn’t a good thing either, especially when you have plumes from the surface leading way, way down. Dispersed means more surface area and more surface area means more biomass comes into contact with it. But NOAA is very rosy (like a dozen, red) on this subject, citing their report that states 75% of the oil is gone – dissolved and gobbled up by microbes. Dissolved? I wouldn’t drink it.

They show me charts reflecting findings that the toxicity isn’t anything to worry about. But only two days prior to this, I was in D’iberville, Mississippi, looking at Flipcam footage shot by fisherman showing beyond a shadow of doubt that oil plume persists in Mississippi Sound. I only get them on the record saying that it’s all “mostly” gone or in such low concentrations that it doesn’t matter. It matters, all right.

Editor’s note: Travel editor Stiv Wilson is reporting exclusively from the Gulf of Mexico this month. Read all of his dispatches here.

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The 10 Least Green Government Subsidies

Stephanie Rogers — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:31:23 +0000

Urban sprawl, pollution, over-consumption, deforestation…like it or not, U.S. taxpayers are still paying for all of these things to occur in America and beyond. Despite recent investments in green jobs and technology, an array of government subsidies pay big dirty industries like oil, coal and factory farms to destroy the environment in every way possible while greener, healthier industries like solar power and vegetable farms get a pittance.

1. Highways

When gas prices rose dramatically in 2008, Americans began flocking to mass transit in droves, resulting in declining revenues for the Federal Highway Trust Fund. Naturally, the Bush Administration’s response was to take money from already underfunded mass transit and use it to pay for highways that are already, as Slate put it, “paved with gold”. Billions of dollars are pumped into the highway system every year, which encourages the polluting car culture and leads to further sprawl, while mass transit continues to fall by the wayside.

2. SUVs

In case you aren’t already taking optimal advantage of the polluting power of our nation’s sprawling web of highways, the government would like to make your impact even greater by setting you up in a nice gas-guzzling subsidized SUV. A portion of the tax code revised in 2003 gives business owners a huge deduction for up to 30% of a large vehicle’s cost, which can add up to $25,000 in the case of a Hummer – far more than the credit given to individual purchasers of energy-efficient vehicles. Attempts to axe this provision in 2007 failed.

You only get the credit if it seats more than 9 passengers or weighs more than 14,000 pounds, but they don’t really care whether your business actually requires such a vehicle. So, by all means, get the Escalade.

3. Paper Mills

Paper mills cut down trees while sucking up massive amounts of fossil fuels and get big money from the government to do it – all through a loophole in a law that was supposed to benefit renewable energy. A law enacted in 2005 contains a section that gives businesses an incentive to mix alternative energy sources with fossil fuels. To qualify for the tax credit, paper companies started adding diesel fuel to “black liquor”, a pulp-making byproduct that they were already using to generate electricity on its own.

But time might be running out for this egregious misuse of taxpayer money: the unemployment extension bill approved by the Senate and on its way to the House would eliminate this loophole and use the funds for health care. (Editor’s note: We’ve contacted both the editor and writer of this story at BusinessWeek to confirm that this loophole will still be closed in the bill just passed by the Senate, and will update if more information becomes available. In the meantime, there’s this resource which seems to confirm the loophole is in fact being closed.)

4. Commercial Fishing

About half of the $713 million in subsidies given to the U.S. fishing industry directly contributes to overfishing, according to a new study by the Environmental Working Group. The subsidies – which equal about a fifth of the value of the catch itself – lower overhead costs and promote increased fishing capacity, meaning more fish are caught than can be naturally replaced.

Overfishing is a huge environmental problem – up to 25% of the world’s fishery stocks are overexploited or depleted, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. But that’s not the only result of the subsidies; because roughly half of the money goes toward fuel costs, other consequences include wasteful fuel consumption as well as air and water pollution.

5. Nuclear Power

The nuclear industry’s decade-long, $600 million lobbying effort finally paid off as President Obama agreed to grant loan guarantees for nuclear power plants. Obama has been promising since the early days of his campaign that he would find a way to “safely harness nuclear power”, but the $55 billion taxpayer-backed loan guarantees are going forward despite continued reservations about uranium mining and the storage of radioactive waste.

6. Factory Farming

American factory farms are literally filthy cesspools of their own making, and who else is cleaning up all that shit but American taxpayers? Giant factory farms make up just 2% of the livestock farms in the U.S. yet raise 40% of all animals in the U.S., and they do it using practices that are not only harmful to workers and the animals themselves, but to the environment.

The government heavily subsidizes factory farms so they can provide Ã¼ber-cheap meat and dairy, raising as many animals as possible in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of care. And why should they care about finding better ways to manage manure when the government hands them $125 million annually to “deal” with the consequences, and then doesn’t bother to check up on them?

Despite the backwards funding given to clean them up, gaping lagoons of livestock waste packed with pollutants continue to be one of the biggest environmental problems in America, fouling our water and causing those depressing dead zones in our oceans.

7. Corn Ethanol

In the quest to beat back fossil fuels, cleaner fuels that we can grow seemed like a good idea – until we realized that some, like corn, make a huge dent in the world’s food supply. But that isn’t stopping the U.S. government from giving billions in subsidies to the corn industry in general, and corn ethanol in particular.

Corn-based ethanol gobbled up 76% of federal government renewable energy subsidies in 2007, leaving little for more environmentally sound renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Worse yet, it’s a huge drain on water resources, gulping down up to 2,138 liters of water per liter of ethanol.

This isn’t just an unwise investment – it’s also destroying the rainforest. As American farmers have abandoned soy for subsidized corn, soy prices have risen worldwide – and led to an increase in Amazon deforestation. Brazil is the world’s second-largest producer of soy next to the U.S., and growing demand has meant more clear-cutting for soy plantations.

8. Processed Foods

Ethanol isn’t the only product that comes to us courtesy of U.S. corn subsidies. There’s also plenty of craptastic processed “food” products packed with multiple subsidized ingredients: wheat, sugar, soy and of course, corn. Gee, could the obesity epidemic have anything to do with the fact that our government makes junk food cheap, and encourages its consumption through the food stamp program?

It’s a sad state of affairs when a Twinkie costs less, calorically speaking, than a carrot. Meanwhile, farmers who produce fruits and vegetables (aside from corn), don’t get a dime in government subsidies. While the government is considering junk food taxes, a change to the Farm Bill might be more efficient.

9. Coal

You would think that the coal industry’s long-held dominance of the American energy market would have eliminated the need for subsidies. After all, the industry spent $47 million last year on PR alone. But the fact is, coal companies are milking the government for all it’s worth while continuing to pump greenhouse gases and carcinogens into the air and turn the Appalachian Mountains into post-apocalyptic hellholes.

Coal subsidies have survived this long because of the industry’s staggering influence on lawmakers, and because constituents in coal states often fear the economic repercussions of a scaled-back coal industry more than they fear the harm to their health and homes. And on top of the federal coal subsidies lumped in under “˜fossil fuels’, the industry gets untold breaks on a state and local level in places like Kentucky, where the coal industry netted $115 million in subsidies in 2006.

10. Oil

Climate change: brought to you by the U.S. government! According to a study by the Environmental Law Institute, fossil fuels received over $70 billion in subsidies between 2002 and 2008, while traditional sources of renewable energy were given just $12.2 billion.

But the oil industry won’t even admit that the direct spending and tax breaks they get are subsidies – they prefer to call them “incentives”, and claim that attempts to roll back some of those subsidies are actually “new taxes”.

As Grist notes, the ELI report is actually pretty conservative – it didn’t include things like military spending to defend oil in the Middle East or infrastructure spending. But the fossil fuel industry’s free ride is almost over: President Obama’s new federal budget proposal wipes out these breaks and increases funding for clean energy research (and, unfortunately, nuclear power).

Photo credits: The following photos are from Flickr and licensed for commercial use under Creative Commons: “Freeway” by Payton Chung; “SUV” by The Car Spy; “Paper mill in Washington State” by Jan Tik; “Fish face” by Andy Welsh; “Nuclear reactor” by Intamin10; “Factory farm protest sign” by johnnyalive; “Corn” by normanack; “Coal” by Duncan Harris; “Oil rig” by kenhodge13.

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The 10 Least Green Government Subsidies

Stephanie Rogers — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:45:04 +0000

10. Highways

9. SUVs

8. Paper Mills

7. Commercial Fishing

6. Nuclear Power

5. Factory Farming

4. Corn Ethanol

3. Processed Foods

2. Coal

1. Oil

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Foodie Underground: Dealing with Food Waste

Anna Brones — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:27:37 +0000

In the U.S. we waste about 25 percent of all food produced. In California alone, food is the largest source of waste, and overall U.S. food production accounts for nearly 300 million barrels of oil per year. You do the math: wasted food equals more dependence on fossil fuels, which means talking about cutting that dependence and taking a serious look at what and how much we stock our pantries.

When we talk about reducing our dependence on oil, thinking about how much we drive and cutting our consumption of single-use plastics are often the first on the item of tangible things we can do to make a difference. But food is a crucial component of our oil-based economy and talking about food waste is just as important as talking about driving more energy efficient vehicles; another link in the vastly interconnected web of ways that our everyday lives are connected to oil.

So how do we waste less? Eat consciously and seek out programs that are committed to providing local food and dealing with the issue of waste. Not Far From the Tree in Toronto is an excellent example of a community effort to harvest local, urban fruit that would otherwise go to waste. The residential fruit-picking program sends volunteers out to harvest the fruit from people who otherwise wouldn’t. One third of the bounty goes to the fruit tree owners, another third goes to the volunteers for their work, and the final third is distributed – by pedal power of course! – to local community organizations who can put it to good use.

Dealing with the produced goods sector, Food Finders in Long Beach, California works to rescue food from local grocery stores, bakeries restaurants and markets and distributes it to missions and shelters, highlighting the important role that food plays in social justice. Urban Gleaners in Oregon has a similar purpose, and fighting hunger is in turn ensuring that our food resources are put to good use without going to waste.

Want to learn more about food waste and what you can do about it? Check out Wasted Food, an excellent blog maintained by author Jonathan Bloom. And here are six useful tips to help you re-think the way you shop for food.

At the end of the day, we foodies can have a significant impact on changing how we think about food consumption and its link to our own oil dependence: making better food and less of it is immediately a step in the right direction.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: lyzadanger

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