Save the Oceans . . . From Us!

Oceana Web Site

Tags: oceana, save oceans, save ocean life, ocean turning point

Pop-Sci Innovation of the Year Award

Sony XEL-1 Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Television

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. The organic in OLED refers to organic material.The "LED" stands for "Light Emitting Diode" and describes the process of converting electric energy into light.

Want to know more?

• Visit Sony Style for OLED specs and prices.
• Visit Pop-Sci for the latest technology winners.

I look forward to "growing my own" soon. LOL

Tags: oled, organic material, led tv, oled tv, sony xel-1

How Long Can YOU Tread Water?

As the new year dawns, we need to save the polar bear -- and all life on Earth -- by taking the lead on rapid, large-scale efforts to immediately curb greenhouse gas emissions, improve fuel efficiency, conserve energy and develop alternative energy sources, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Please sign the petition at SaveThePolarBear.org and then send it to all your friends. It's a gift you and your loved ones can give the planet this holiday season.

Tags: save the polar bear, polar bear drowning, arctic ice melt, take action

To All Who Pass This Way . . .

Clean Coal Leaves SMUDGE

Tags: clean coal,

Bush Interior Department Systematically Corrupt

This Tuesday, the Interior Department's inspector general released a scathing new report accusing Bush administration officials of gross misconduct, illegal actions and systematic abuse in their efforts to ignore, undermine and violate environmental laws. The report found that dozens of endangered species and hundreds of scientists suffered

Read the report from the New York Times.

While this will surprise no reader of this blog, you may want to pass on the information to your friends and family. Ask them to support, with a donation, an environmental or scientific organization before the end of this year.

Tags: interior department, bush administration, systematic abuse

Stop the Bush Legacy

Stop the current administration from taking these last actions against the environment:

• Announced plans to lease iconic areas in Utah – including Desolation Canyon and greater Nine Mile Canyon – to the oil and gas industry;
• Released new oilshale plans that could affect up to 2 million acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming with this as yet unsafe and unproven technology;
• Made changes to the Endangered Species Act that would all but eliminate protections for fish, wildlife and forests; and
• Proposed to allow clearcut logging in ancient forests in Oregon.

What can you do?

• Give to the Union of Concerned Scientists today.
• Donate to The Wilderness Society today.
• Send whatever gift you can to the American Rivers.
• Donate to NRDC to help the wolves.
• Stand with Environmental Defense Fund by donating Global Warming Challenge.

Technology You Will Love : HD Radio

High-definition (HD) radio is the latest technological advance in broadcasting. You may hear HD radio on both the AM and the FM band. HD radio is not satellite radio. HD radio is broadcast by antenna, so you must be within the listening area of an HD station to hear it.

You will be amazed at how many local radio stations, both AM and FM, are broadcasting in HD. Many stations plan to broadcast in HD soon, too. Why? The sounds you hear are crystal clear and do not fade in and out like analog signals. You may listen to a simulation of HD and non-HD radio on the hdradio.com site.

To listen to digital AM and FM programming, all you need is an HD radio receiver. The beauty of HD radio is that the digital signal is piggybacked on the analog signal, so there is no cost for you to listen. The digital part of the signal contains information that is not sent with the analog signal, like information about the song title and artist.

This extra bit of information sent with the digital signal enables a neat feature called song tagging. When you hear a song on the FM band of the HD radio that you like, just hit the "tag" button on the radio. The song and the song information are saved to your iPod. Your selected songs show up in an iTunes play list as "tagged." This allows you to click, download and buy the songs you want directly from the Apple® iTunes Music Store.

Many new cars come with HD radio receivers. To add an HD radio receiver to your car ranges in price from $100 to $400. If you want to listen to HD radio at home, you will need a Jensen JiMS 525i (pictured below) or other name brand HD radio receiver. Portable HD radio receivers start at $100.

I expect all radio stations will be broadcasting in digital eventually. If you wish to add HD digital radio to your home entertainment center or home theater, you may spend from $200 to $7000, depending on the brand and the features you want.

Tags: hd radio, hd radio receivers, digital radio, song tagging, iPod tagging

Green Seasons Greeting eCard

Send a Green eCard to Your Friends

Junk Mail is Bad for the Environment

Canada's Boreal Forest

According to ForestEthics, junk mail’s contribution to climate change equals more than nine million cars, seven US states combined, or the emissions generated by heating nearly 13 million homes for the winter.

Just as the Do Not Call Registry freed Americans from telemarketers, a Do Not Mail Registry would give us the choice to stop junk mailers from violating our privacy, wasting our time and damaging the environment.

Sign a petition to Support a Do Not Mail Registry in the USA and then tell your friends. If you live in Canada, please Support The Red Dot Campaign here.

ForestEthics has published the Naughty and Nice list, which you may read here. Below is a listing of the companies of the naughty, nice and check twice companies.

Nice - patronize these fine folks

• Timberland
• Patagonia
• Crate & Barrel
• Dell
• Victoria’s Secret

Checking Twice

• JC Penney
• HSBC
• Bank of America
• Lands’ End

Naughty - Do not patronize these businesess - or - write them about their careless use of natural resources

• Sears
• Neiman Marcus
• Eddie Bauer
• Capital One
• Chase Bank
• Citi
• American Express

A company's ranking on the scorecard is determined by using four criteria -- whether endangered forests are cut to produce the company's catalogs; whether the company uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper; the amount of post-consumer recycled content in the company's direct mailings; and the company's efforts to reduce overall paper consumption. The group looked at 21 companies, all of which have either sourced or are currently sourcing the Boreal Forest in Canada for their fiber.

Time Running Out for Redrock Canyonlands

Robert Redford sent out a red-hot letter last week on behalf of the NRDC Action Fund asking for support in stopping the Bush administration’s plan to allow gas and oil companies to plunder Utah’s precious Redrock wilderness near Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. The land-grab auction scheduled for Friday will be tough to reverse once the giveaway of rights happens.

Robert Redford said:

In my mind, this theft of our heritage goes beyond the cynical -- it's criminal . . . parting shot, to destroy our legacy of public lands for short-term gain.

TAKE ACTION! Read the details and register your opposition before December 19.

Tags: nrdc, utah, redrock wilderness, oil and gas exploitation, save a national treasure, take action

Save the Canyonlands of Utah

When my son was about eight, we flew to Phoenix, Arizona and met up with my friend, Sue. Sue took us on a whirlwind driving tour of northern Arizona and southern Utah. We visited Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, Lake Powell and managed to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the snow on the way back to Phoenix. I will never forget the majestic canyonlands and plan to return there one day soon. Now, it may be too late . . .

While America was voting for Barack Obama and his vision of a clean energy future, Bush and Cheney's underlings were conspiring to plunder one of the crown jewels of our natural heritage for their fossil fuel cronies.

The auction of Redrock country will take place on December 19. At stake are world-renowned vistas near Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, as well as near Dinosaur National Monument. The highest bidders will earn the right to turn vast tracts of pristine wilderness into industrial wastelands.

Please take action today

Tags: utah, canyonlands, oil exploration, public lands, national parks, national monuments

Truth in Advertising : Clean Coal

Does the term clean coal make you grind your teeth?

Only a person who has NOT seen the Berkeley Pit . . .

Photograph from PitWatch

nor the leavings of mountain top mining . . . (below)

. . . would ever think that coal could be clean.

While the coal industry spends millions marketing "clean" coal, not a single clean coal power plant exists in the U.S. today or is even under construction.

If you are tired of hearing lies touted as truth, you may want to join ThisIsReality.org.

Tags: ThisIsReality.org, not clean coal, truth in advertising

Goodbye Curious George

Governor Bush, and that is all I will ever call him because it is the only office to which he was ever truly elected . . . (George Carlin).

Most lame duck presidents use their last days in office to return favors, to pardon felons, and to prepare for their future in the real world. This is just human nature, I guess. While George W. Bush prepares for his life in the public sector, the American people prepare for their lives in a changed world with a devastated environment, failing economy, and a sense that they have been "had."


GoodbyeCuriousGeorge is the name for a website of the George Bush Sendoff Society. It is for all the . . .

• environmentalists who have wept about the wolves, the polar bears, the whales and the buffalo.
  
• scientists who have bristled at being censured when issuing findings of their research.
• teachers who have seen the legacy of "No Child Left Behind."
• anyone who ever wanted to impeach george bush.

The website features a film that is a parody of Bush's last days in office. It is better to laugh than cry, so give it a visit and see what you think. It is vintage Bush, with the fabricated words that made us all cringe. At the end, Bush rides off, wondering what he can do in his spare time: take over a country, get a job with one of his oil buddies or work with a defense contractor, because "oil won't last, but war will always be in fashion."

Tags: goodbyecuriousgeorge, sendoff society, lame duck

The Greening of December

Beyond Global warming

Polar bears are feeling it. So is the small, rabbit-like pika. It’s global warming -- the biggest conservation challenge of our time. But for the last eight years, the Bush Administration has virtually ignored the problem as Arctic sea ice dwindles and temperatures rise.

With a new administration comes a new opportunity to tackle the impacts that global warming is having on our wildlife and wild places. Defenders’ new report Beyond Global Warming offers concrete recommendations for swift action to ensure our wildlife and wild places continue to survive in a warming world.

Learn more about Defenders' latest report Beyond Global Warming.

Green Action of the Month

Deadly Season Begins

Another brutal season of aerial killing has begun in Alaska. At least 19 wolves have been slaughtered through the terrible program championed by Governor Sarah Palin -- and this season could be the bloodiest yet.

Watch video on aerial wolf killing and urge Governor Sarah Palin to end Alaska’s deadly slaughter from the skies.

Here’s another way to help -- and give a truly meaningful gift at the same time. Adopt a wolf this Holiday Season and that special loved one will receive a cuddly plush wolf toy, a personalized Certificate of Adoption, a color 5” x 7” wolf photograph and a fact sheet full of fascinating information about these amazing animals.

There are 24 different animals up for for adoption

Click picture above to view the 24 animals up for adoption.

Perfect gift for holidays, birthdays or other special occasion. Help educate children through animal fact sheets and wildlife activities book (included). Download a personalized Certificate of Adoption. Plush toys come with FREE first-class shipping in time for Christmas available through 12/16.

Tags: adopt an animal, defenders of wildlife, green gift

Mr. President, We Have a Few Issues . . .

A little light reading (391 pages) for the President-Elect, courtesy of 29 environmental groups that collaborated to bring attention to the most important issues in a coherent form. They produced a comprehensive list of actions and policies they would like President-elect Barack Obama to adopt after he takes office January 20.

Transition talk: A 391-page green gorilla in the room | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

The groups involved were:

* American Rivers
* Center for International Environmental Law
* Clean Water Action
* Defenders of Wildlife
* Earth Justice
* Environment America
* Environmental Defense Fund
* Friends of the Earth
* Greenpeace
* Izaak Walton League
* League of Conservation Voters
* National Audubon Society
* National Parks Conservation Association
* National Tribal Environmental Council
* National Wildlife Federation
* Native American Rights Fund
* Natural Resources Defense Council
* Oceana
* Ocean Conservancy
* Pew Environment Group
* Physicians for Social Responsibility
* Population Connection
* Population Action International
* Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
* Sierra Club
* The Wilderness Society
* The Trust for Public Land
* Union of Concerned Scientists
* World Wildlife Fund

That 29 discrete and diverse organizations could collaborate and produce a document of this scope in the time they had is amazing. Another miracle is that President-elect Obama's office accepted the document. This is quite a change from the current administration. Remember this? White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail - NYTimes.com

The Dolphins Think It Is Funny

Tags: 391 page environmental punch list, environmental activism, collaboration

Petland is No Place for Pets

Tags: puppy mills, petland, cruelty to animals, humane society