Green Options

It’s not that Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the Lower 48, needs any more publicity. After all, about 30,000 hikers annually make the trek up to the thin air of 14, 496 feet. People who secure even a day use wilderness permit (not much fun making the ascent in one day) through the Mt. Whitney lottery system often feel better than if they had won a state run lottery where they actually win money.

On a recent (this past week) stroll up into the thin air of Mt. Whitney my hiking buddies and I discovered some things. While most hikers have courtesy and smarts to be as conscious as possible toward environmental stewardship it always happens where a few conventionally grown apples ruin it for everyone else. Case in point being at the last reliable water source (High Camp Tarn) before the final push up the 99 switchbacks to reach the summit what did we spy? A dazzling reflection of the various peaks? Yes. A plethora of discarded Mountain House packages resting on the floor of the tarn. You bet. Not only did these packages tarnish the beauty of the scenic watering hole but even forgetting esthetics, who wants to drink water from a polluted lake before a major climb?

Great Wolf Resorts achieves Green Seal status and starts its own in-house sustainability program called Project Green Wolf

In a previous post, I listed five of the best things I think you can do in order to live a sustainable lifestyle — #6-10. Now, here is the top five list.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is hosting a “Dump the Pump” video contest. The winner will get one free year on public transportation!

There won’t be only one winner.

A Spanish company called Turtle Airships is working on plans to build a luxurious solar-powered blimp which can take passengers from New York to Paris.

Perhaps the only thing cooler than being powered by lightweight photovoltaic cells, this airship is also designed to rest on land or water.

Gasoline is a nasty thing.  When we burn it we foul the air with pollutants and when we import it we cause economic and political problems.  So we’re interested in switching to electricity as a fuel – are we ready?

There is no question that today’s EVs and all those planned by the automakers for the next few years are great for commuting.  Whether driving a Tesla Roadster, a BMW Mini-E, a plug-in Prius, or a vintage Toyota Rav4/EV, you’ve got a great vehicle for our average daily drive of 29 miles.  Just plug it in when you go to bed at night and plug it in at work if you have the opportunity, and you’ll be a happy camper.

I can’t believe I’m writing an article about Justin Timberlake. On Saturday, the 27-year-old actor and singer opened the first LEED Platinum certified golf course in the United States.

The multi-talented Timberlake’s latest business venture, Mirimichi Lakes golf club in North Shelby County, Tennessee, opened Saturday after Timberlake christened the course with a 291-yard drive crushed down the middle of the fairway, after which, the singer and actor grinned and said, “nobody’s happier about this course.”

July 20th, 2009 was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic flight to the moon, where astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the moon. 40 years ago, space flight inspired such awe that astronauts were hailed as heroes and celebrities by men, women, and children alike. 40 years later none of us, besides the most avid space fanatic, would likely to be able to name one astronaut in service today.

Despite the tragedies of Space Shuttle Challenger, and later Columbia, where the world is shocked into being reminded of the inherit dangers of sitting on 1 million gallons of rocket fuel, or re-entering the earth’s atmosphere at 1,870 miles per hour. We all see space flight as mundane because the vast majority of space flights since Apollo 11, have been mostly conducting seemingly routine scientific experiments. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in the importance of science in space, but these experiments don’t exactly inspire awe in the general population like, oh say, a manned mission to Mars would. We also don’t have the fever of beating those damned Ruskies because they might go to space and blow us all up, which we had during the height of the cold war when Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar Sea of Tranquility.

Advocates for better, green transportation achieved great success this year with a transportation bill in the House of Representatives that could change the United States forever. Not only advocates have brought this to where it is, though. The general public, the US Chamber of Commerce, AAA, the AFL-CIO, Associated General Contractors of America, and others have brought it to where it is today. This progressive bill would reverse auto-centric federal transportation policies that have led the US into various environmental, social and economic crises for the past several decades.

Unfortunately, delay due to lawmakers’ inability to come to a consensus and the Obama administration’s reluctancy to increase gas prices at this time (which are much lower, in real terms, than they were 54 years ago) may postpone the bill for another 18 months. However, there is opportunity to take action!

Join other bicyclists or support a bicyclist to help combat global warming this Fall. For the second year in a row, bicyclists (and non-bicyclists) will join together for a climate conference “on wheels” — the Brita Climate Ride.

You could say that Ecovolunteer is a travel agent. But the trips we organize are not your average holidays. They bring you to places that are not accessible to tourists. Where you get the possibility to protect nature and its inhabitants.

A friend told me that she was planning an eco-vacation, so I did a little research on the subject. As it turns on, a lot of eco-tourism [...]