Green Options

Prince Charles made some strong arguments when he shared his thoughts on the devastation of the global economic recession vs. that of climate change, at a meeting of Brazilian business leaders and officials in Rio de Janeiro.

As with anything, there are two sides of that coin. For consignment stores, it’s a bonanza, as consumers look at second-hand goods as a way to continue to fulfill their needs while cutting spending substantially. Those ecopreneurs who decided they wanted to make money by recycling used clothing, sporting goods, printer cartridges, or any number of other goods, the weather is warm and sunny, and the gods of industry are smiling upon them.

As credit tightens up and business conditions worsen in what has now been officially declared as a recession, small businesses that rely on funding are the first to suffer. Responding to the sharp economic downturn facing the nation, a group of seven leading nonprofits that offer lending and support services to small businesses are taking swift actions to help entrepreneurs challenged by higher costs, declining sales, and tightening credit.

If you’re one of the millions of California voters who helped pass Proposition 2 on November 4, chances are pretty good that your Thanksgiving meal will include some sort of free-range, hormone-free dead bird—or, if you fall into the veg camp, maybe a more benign Tofurky or Field Roast. But for illegal poachers like Peter Ciraula of Gilroy, California, odds are good that the celebratory meal will include breast of snow goose, leg of endangered sandhill crane, or perhaps a pot-pie of protected swan.

“[Ciraula] said he was going to eat some of them,” said Department of Fish and Game warden Patrick Foy, ”But when we asked him why he had so many, he never really never offered up a very valid explanation.”

Instead of getting coal in their stockings, this year’s naughty (and even nice!) children may get lead. The economic downturn may have some folks buying cheap and possibly dangerous toys.