Green Options

Any one out there care to try this? The UK’s Register Hardware this week features a video in which Blake Farrow, a US “boffin” (for “eggead”), as they describe him, shows how to make a working solar cell using such odd ingredients as powdered donuts, Starbucks tea, a pencil, cellophane tape and Everclear. It might sound crazy at first, but the science [...]

When you’re looking to green your lifestyle, it helps to learn from the experiences of others rather than trying to reinvent the wheel yourself. That’s why, from time to time, I like to highlight the stories of various “eco-heroes” across the country.

In my last feature — “Going Green? Learn from these Pros” — some of the stars were folks like Mike Turner, who retrofitted an old Honda Civic for a super imrovement in mileage, and Elizabeth Rogers, creator of a new Website (Shift Your Habit) that demonstrates the money-saving power of eco-friendly habits. This time, I’ve got some new green success stories to share:

A lot more good green news comes out every day than any one person — or even one Website — can keep up with. While we can’t cover it all, following are a few of the previous week’s news stories worth mentioning:

Making its debut at the TED (”Technology, Entertainment, Design”) conference in California this week: the Mission One all-electric, super-sporty and zero-emissions motorcycle that can go up to 150 miles per hour;

There’s no shortage of news stories, blogs and online resources aimed at helping people go green, but sometimes the best way to learn new habits is to watch someone else in action.

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the recent eco-stars across the U.S. whom I’ve discovered in my daily wanderings across the Web:

Ukrainian-born designer Inna Alesina couldn’t have created a more eloquent design to express our overconsumption of the world’s resources, in this particular case, water. As she states on her Website, “The user would have to be careful while filling the glass and cover the hole with his or her thumb while drinking, thus one could put a stop to waste (in the global sense) with one’s own hands.” (Note: You can [...]

Three and a half years after New Orleans was devastated by post-Katrina levee failures, the Big Easy is still working to bounce back … and it’s coming back greener than ever.

(Did you know, by the way, that President Barack Obama’s pick for head of the Environmental Protection Agency — Linda Jackson — grew up in the lower Ninth Ward?)

So what’s new and green in the Crescent City? Check out some of these developments:

Here’s an idea that’s good for the planet and so much more: it’s a new blog I’ve just discovered called Stimulus Bike. Its mission? To “Improve the health of our economy, ourselves, our environment, and our wallets!”

Stimulus Bike says it wants to see economic stimulus funds work to promote cycling, something that could save us money over the long term (less gas money, fewer car repairs, etc.) and promote a healthier, more sustainable way of getting from here to there.

Now, under President Barack Obama’s currently proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the average citizen isn’t expecting to see a check in the mail a la last year’s economic boost effort (which didn’t work anyway). However, it’s possible you could benefit from reduced tax withholding in your paycheck. Stimulus Bike would like to see you invest those dollars in a two-wheeler of some kind:

How do two trends — the rise of backyard vegetable gardening and the downward spiral of the economy — come together? The Family Care Network in Manton, Michigan, knows how.

The non-profit organization, which just won a $1,000 nutritional grant from the Consumer Wellness Center, will use the funds to buy the seeds and supplies it needs to plant three organic garden plots. When the harvest comes in, it will go straight to the network’s food bank for distribution to needy area seniors and families … giving them, as the Consumer Wellness Center says, “fresh produce instead of the typical canned and processed foods donated to food banks.”

But, wait, there’s more:

Want to add your two cents’ worth to the incoming Obama administration’s call for New Deal-type investments in the US? You can help ensure a better future — and a greener one at that — by endorsing the Post Carbon Institute’s new proposal: “The Real New Deal: Energy Scarcity and the Path to Energy, Economic and Environmental Recovery.”

Written by Post Carbon Instituters Richard Heinberg, Asher Miller, Daniel Lerch and Andrew Calvo, “The Real New Deal” calls on President-elect Barack Obama to completely redesign our economy and society to wean it from its dependence on cheap (and soon-to-be not-so-cheap) fossil fuels.

“Our 21st century nation’s dependence on 20th century fossil fuels is the root of the economic and environmental threats we face,” the report’s executive summary states. “A coordinated, comprehensive transition to an economy that is no longer dependent on hydrocarbon fuels and no longer emits climate-changing levels of carbon — a Real New Deal for a post-carbon world — will be the Obama Administration’s greatest opportunity to lead the nation on a path toward economic, energy and environmental recovery.”

Are there many things more anachronistic in the 21st Century U.S. than the Miss America Pageant? (Come on, even the term “Miss” sounds dated when applied to human females older than, say, 11.) Still, if the storied annual beauty pageant must continue, it might as well do so in a way that’s a bit more up to date.

And so it shall, at least for one contestant: Ashley Ruth Wheeler, aka Miss Vermont, is taking the pageant into modernity by choosing to wear a green — as in eco-friendly — gown. Her dress will not only be locally designed, but made with hemp, organic cotton, organic silk and recycled beads and lace.