Green Options

The U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that up to $32 million dollars of Recovery Act funding will be used to expand the harvest of hydroelectric power. “There’s no one solution to the energy crisis, but hydro-power is clearly part of the solution and represents a major opportunity to create more clean energy jobs,” said Secretary Chu.

Communicating climate change is a difficult task, and in some sense a sea change is needed before the public and policy makers truly can catch up to the science.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, in our home thoughts are turning to celebrating with fair trade, organic chocolate like Cocoa Camino.

Cocoa Camino is a line of premium Fair Trade Certified and certified organic chocolate, cocoa and sugar products produced by the Canadian La Siembra Co-operative.  These products include chocolate bars, sugar, hot chocolate, cocoa, chocolate chips, syrup and couverture.  They’re sold in natural health food stores, pharmacies and grocery stores.

Although I wholeheartedly agree with it, I have to admit to stealing that line from Thom Henley and Kenny Peavy, authors of As if the Earth Matters. This book can serve as a textbook, a field guide, or an outdoor manual for teachers, parents, and children. It is full of hands-on activities which have been developed and field-tested by the authors and their students.

Thom Henley is well known in the world of conservation, having been instrumental in protecting and forming Canada’s Gwaii Haanas National Park on the Queen Charlotte Archipelago. He is an associate professor of the Stream Keeper Academy in Washington State and serves as Honorary Director of the Rediscovery International Foundation. The author or co-author of nine other books, his environmental accomplishments are too numerous to keep listing here.

The Republicans and Democrats will not only be battling it out in the presidential elections this fall, but they are battling it out over who can hold the “greenest” (or is it the most greenwashed) national convention in late summer. From recycled fiber carpet to biodegradable plates, each political party is trying to outdo the other with its eco-friendly and “sustainable” conventions.

The Democratic National Convention will be held in Denver, Colorado in August 2008. The party states:

The DNCC has a tremendous opportunity to educate the public and Convention attendees on making individual life choices that are environmentally sustainable. We intend to lead by example in this effort, with organizers applying green planning principles to every decision made in the lead-up to Convention week.

The Democrats will be offsetting the carbon created by the convention, using B20 biodiesel in all their generators, purchasing renewable energy certificates, using sustainable materials, and planning local river clean-ups and tree planting projects in the area.

The great outdoors and environmental sustainability have long gone hand in hand, and many outdoors-gear companies have been leaders in sustainable business practices. Patagonia, Keen, and Teko have been pioneers in producing gear that uses lower-impact materials (like organics) or recycled materials (like PET bottles). Now, outfitter super cooperative REI is getting into the act, incorporating more sustainable materials into their line of clothing.

"Our eco-sensitive offerings are the

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