Planetsave

The North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office has issued a statement against the proposed bailout for the ‘big 3’ automakers. In particular, the release voices their opposition to bailing out General Motors due to their resistance to improving fuel-efficiency.

“General Motors deserves bankruptcy,” said Jason Crawford, a press officer for the ELF. “Fully aware of America’s dependence on foreign oil and the horrific environmental impact of the Hummer—an 8,500-pound monstrosity that yields an average of 10-mpg—GM continued producing gas-guzzling, polluting vehicles.”

Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor's Note: This is Part 3 of Michael's search for an entry-level job within an environmentally-focused non-profit or NGO]

Make sure to read my last update on my job search if you missed it. On a whim, I ended up speaking on camera to a college newspaper writer in Chicago about my troubles finding a job that meets my qualifications.

Life is funny—that interview ended up leading me to a seriously useful job resource. I had agreed to the interview because I felt bad for the journalist, who seemed to be struggling to get responses. But the video wound up on the internet, where Wendy Freeman, the director of career advising at Evergreen State College, stumbled across it. Excited to help with a search for a green job, she contacted me quickly.

She recommended that I focus my search on the east coast, specifically the Washington DC area, and said that she will work with me until I find a job that fits me perfectly. She has been a wealth of knowledge and information that could help anyone else in a similar situation to mine.

Read the rest of this entry »

Japan will drop its minke whale targets from 935 to 750, the first reduction made in over 20 years.

On top of reduced whale meat demand and world-wide pressure, Japan cites the unrelenting sea protests as a reason for this decision. This comes as both a huge victory for the animal rights community and also as breaking news, considering stories earlier today reported this season’s quota to be the same as it had been in previous years.

Read the rest of this entry »

PETA has released a downloadable videogame parody of the Cooking Mama series usually found on Nintendo game consoles. The game includes such family friendly activities as plucking feathers and removing the internal organs from a dead turkey.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rainforest Action Network has declared yesterday and today, November 15th, as national days of protest against Citibank and Bank of America for their consistent support of the coal industry and its impact on global warming.

Read the rest of this entry »

Once severely endangered, elephants in South Africa now thrive, causing some to worry that their population could threaten smaller species.

While some are calling to reinstate culling of elephants for the first time since 1994, other conservationists worry that the effects of killing elephants run deeper than we understand.

In 1900, the elephant population sunk to only 200 due to hunting; now, the population is estimated to be 17,000. This soaring number combined with their individual demand for feed can result in over-grazing, which hurts the rhinoceros and gazelle populations first.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent Businessweek article, Kim Jeffery the CEO of Nestlé Water North America, makers of Poland Spring waters, whines (yes, whines) that they are misunderstood and not given the credit they deserve.  Clearly he thinks all the charges of greenwash are unfair.

But, are they? The article tells of all the environmentally preferable things that they had done but that no one knew about.  The article then goes on to say:

Part of the reason Nestlé Waters wasn’t touting its environmental efforts, according to Jeffery, was that he and the rest of management considered such actions business as usual.

Yes! That’s the point. the “green” things Nestlé were doing were part of normal business operations, many of which saved the company lots of money. Are they good for the environment? Of course. But that’s not really what greenwashing is all about. Its about consumer marketing. This is where the real greenwashing occurs. Before I go on, I want to say that I truly applaud the industry for implementing eco-bottles. That said, it seems to be a blatant case of greenwash to position bottled water as being good for the environment. Water companies should tout eco-bottles, but they shouldn’t suggest that they are good for the environment. They should sell the water, not the the environmental friendliness of the packaging. I would like to ad, that Nestlé is not the worst offender of greenwashy bottled water ads and their ad campaigns are far less offensive than those for Fuji Water and Deer Park.

Read the rest of this entry »

The USDA has confiscated Ned, a severely underweight male elephant from circus trainer Lance Ramos, aka Lancelot Kollman. Only the second elephant to have been confiscated by the USDA, Ned was taken from Ramos for failure to comply with the Animal Welfare Act and was placed with The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

Read the rest of this entry »

An Indian organic farmer and anti-pollution advocate was shot to death on Monday while in the midst of exposing an illegal dumpsite on his property to the media.

Challa Krishnamurthy started a 20-acre organic farm in Gowribidanur, India with the intention to make it a model for how others should treat the land. But despite his efforts to keep his property free of toxic chemicals, he discovered that a local distillery and sugarcane factory had been dumping untreated waste onto his property as well as others.

Read the rest of this entry »

Combined Water Issues Map from WaterCAMPWS

In reporting about our current and impending national freshwater issues I have occassionally received criticism/feedback along the lines of “water conservation may be important in places like Africa, but we live in the U.S…so quit the scare tactics!”.

I find this ‘we-invented-water!’ attitude troubling considering the myriad of water issues facing our country today. Issues that, if not dealt with soon, will become a crisis making the oil problem look like a bad hair day.

So how best do I illustrate our current water woes to the folks who do not appreciate my water conservation tips?

…I got it! How about I get some leading minds in the field together to impart their focused wisdom? And accompany said wisdom with PICTURES!

Great idea me!

WaterCAMPWS, help!…

WaterCAMPWS (Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems) consists of university faculty, research scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, and municipal practitioners in fields related to water purity from University of California Berkeley, MWRDG-Chicago, Clark Atlanta University, Howard University, University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NRMRL-EPA, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Yale University.

WaterCAMPWS has listed the threats to our water supply as:
Read the rest of this entry »