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The following ten stories, organized by region, made international headlines from April 27 to May 4 for their impact on the environment and society. For more stories that changed the world, see our archive, here.
North American Environmental News
Canada has proven once again that it is way ahead of the rest of world with its progressive government. Ontario has banned the use and sale of lawn and garden pesticides for homeowners. Quebec instituted a similar ban on 20 some pesticide products back in 2006.
The new ban is set to take effect by spring of 2009. Home Depot has already agreed to stop selling the pesticides by the end of 2008! This is a huge victory for anti-toxic supporters all over the continent. If only someone in the United States government could take such affirmative action we could all be spared. Ontario will basically phase out some 80 different chemicals and over 300 products that contain them.
Continue reading this article at the Environmental Blog. Join the discussion about this article at Care2.
By Sharon Troy •
April 15, 2008
Does anyone really need an excuse to bake a chocolate cake? I know I don’t. But it happened that I had a couple of ingredients at home that I was looking to use up. I was excited to discover a great recipe I could adapt to fit the bill.
I have an abundance of fresh mint from my herb garden. Drinking Mojitos with every meal seemed a little impractical, so I did the next best thing and combined my mint with chocolate. While scouring the internet for a basic chocolate cake recipe. I was so excited to find this great recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen that included an unusual ingredient: beets!
Beets are admittedly not high on my list of favorite vegetables. But a co-worker brought me some from his CSA and assumed the office vegan would know what to do with them. They’ve actually been sitting in my crisper for weeks, so I was quite happy I got to use them before they went bad. Here’s the (only slightly modified) recipe for this delicious cake, published with permission.
By Max Lindberg •
February 22, 2008
$23,500 and 4,405 pounds of Belgian chocolate, molded into a life-size Ferrari Formula 1 car, goes on display this week at a Ferrari owners club party in Sorrento, Italy.
The car, which took a year to make, will be smashed with hammers and party-goers will receive bits and pieces to take home in special bags as a souvenir, or snack.
Source: Ananova
By Jennifer Lance •
February 6, 2008
Bishops of Liverpool and London are calling on Christians to give up carbon for Lent. According to the Telegraph,
Lent is the time when Christians traditionally give up such things as sweets, chocolate or alcohol in recognition of the 40 days Christ spent fasting in the desert to prepare for his ministry. This year they will be asked to think about their own carbon footprint…
More:
Diocese of London
Tearfund
Image courtesy of www.london.anglican.org. [...]
By Jennifer Lance •
January 11, 2008
When I first became a vegetarian and during my stint as a vegan, I had a hard time making a good cake. My egg-free cakes always ended up dense, more like the consistency of bad brownies. Then, one year on my birthday, my friend Liz made for this delicious, airy, vegan chocolate cake. This recipe is super simple and easy to clean up. In fact, the whole thing is mixed right in the baking pan! You may balk when you see that this cake recipe includes vinegar, but I think the vinegar reacts with the baking soda to make the cake rise up and be light without the presence of eggs. Of course, organically grown ingredients are a must!
Vegan Chocolate Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan. Combine in the pan (not a separate bowl):
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup Sucanat or brown sugar
1/4 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
By Max Lindberg •
December 23, 2007
What do they do with chocolate products they can’t sell? Off to the landfill to decompose and create methane. Wish they could just send it to me. Two young Britons, Andy Pag and John Grimshaw, have traveled more than 4,000 miles across the Sahara using such chocolate as fuel.
The two decided to prove the viability of different kinds of feedstock to produce biofuels, especially biodiesel and ethanol. They’ve done that, traveling from Poole, England to Timbuktu, Mali, 4,473 miles, using 396 gallons of fuel made from three tons of discarded chocolate.
The truck was salvaged from a scrap yard, repaired and fitted for the long trip. It will remain in Timbuktu, a donation to a local charity. The crew will also set up a small processing unit to convert waste oil products into fuel.
By Heidi Strebel •
October 22, 2007
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. The word is music to my ears, while the thing itself – when it is a bittersweet pearl of cocoa, or a spicy hazelnut praline, or again the warm melting heart of a rich gateau – why, no words can describe it! No wonder the famed Azetec Emperor Montezuma drank 50 cups of chocolate a day. No wonder the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus chose the name "Theobroma cacao" or "food of
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By serenity_ii •
October 12, 2007
Oh yeah, and we got Endangered Species chocolate for trick-or-treaters this year!
By Alicia Erickson •
August 30, 2007
As schools and fall activities start their momentum, so too does the need for funding. I spent many fall afternoons in my school days hauling a box of chocolates door to door in the name of a field trip or project, all while resisting the urge to eat them… sometimes successfully.
It is not common to think of where our chocolate bars come from. I did not even know what a cacao pod looked
[...]
Chocolate, along with coffee and tea, is one of the most popular Fair Trade certified products available. Côte d'Ivoire is the largest producer of cocoa in the world, and the abundance of this popular ingredient has played a major role in the country's political crisis. A diplomatic source in Abidjan made the comparison that cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire "is the same as timberor diamonds were in Liberia."
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Editor's note: We're pleased to welcome Colleen Patrick-Goudreau to the Green Options writing team! Colleen has taught vegan cooking classes in Oakland, California, for seven years, and is a columnist for VegNews magazine
, and a contributing writer for KQED radio's Perspectives program. Her first cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Recipes for Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets, will be published
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