With the savory scent of summer grilling in the air, here's how to pick the best meat, fish, fowl and veggies for your outdoor cooking. Article written by David Worthman, published on The Green Guide.

As the days grow longer and warmer, grillers across the country will be sizzling and flipping their way through millions of burgers, chicken pieces and fish fillets. Americans eat, on average, 67 pounds of beef and 59.2 pounds of chicken per person, per year, most of it from "concentrated animal feeding operations" (CAFOs). This year, the American Public Health Association has asked that state governments impose moratoriums on new CAFOs due to the pollution and health threats posed by factory farms. Our seafood consumption, which hovered at around 15 pounds per capita until 2000, is expected to rise 26 percent by 2020—provided that fisheries aren't depleted by overfishing.

READ MORE of David Worthman's artile
www.thegreenguide.com

WASHINGTON - Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey released Wednesday that compares environmental-consumption habits in 14 countries.

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three out of four categories - housing, transportation and consumer goods, according to the assessment. In the fourth category, food, Americans ranked ahead of Japanese consumers, who eat more meat and seafood.

The rankings, called "Greendex," are the first to compare the lifestyles and behaviors of consumers in multiple countries, according to the National Geographic Society.

It plans to conduct the 100-plus-question survey annually and considers trends more important than yearly scores, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of National Geographic's mission programs.

"This is not just a one-time snapshot," Garcia said. "Some of the most important information may yet be revealed."
India and Brazil tied for the highest score: 60 points out of 100. U.S. consumers scored 44.9.

In between, China scored 56.1, Mexico 54.2, Hungary 53.2, Russia 52.4, Great Britain 50.2, Germany 50.2, Australia 50.2, Spain 50, Japan 49.1, France 48.7 and Canada 48.5.

Results are based on 1,000 online respondents per country interviewed in January and February by GlobeScan, an international polling firm.

To see how you score, take an abbreviated version of the survey at National Geographic Greendex

How Americans ranked among 14 nations in eco-friendly choices.
Transportation: 14th Place
Housing: 14th Place
Consumer Goods: 14th Place
Food: 13th Place

Source: McClatchy Newspapers
Above article printed in Arizona Republic

If any of you have ever pondered over the question “paper or plastic?” then here is an informative interactive site on MSNBC which tackles the grocery bag predicament. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23358591/ The site includes info on the resources used, recycling, current laws, and a way to calculate your impact.

There is of course, the third option, the reusable bag. You can find these almost anywhere now and they are not too expensive. I got mine for just $1 each. There are benefits of getting the paper or plastic options as well, if you reuse the bags for other purposes such as for trash, recycling, lunches, or even for your next grocery store visit. My local grocery store, Ralphs, offers discounts for all three types of bags: $0.10 each for reusable, $0.05 each for paper, and $0.03 each for plastic. Check your local grocery stores to see if they offer any of the same benefits. If you do get paper or plastic though, make sure they eventually end up in the recycling bin!

Hope this helps!

Mari

11th Hour Action Intern

A little-noticed amendment to last year's energy bill requires House members who lease vehicles to select those that emit low levels of greenhouse gases.

Rep. Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley likes his taxpayer-funded Ford Expedition. He isn't worried that it's not the most fuel-efficient car. It's reliable, suits his mountainous district and is cheaper to lease than many other vehicles.

"It's not a Cadillac. It's not a Lincoln. It's a Ford," the Republican congressman said with exasperation.

But like it or not, Gallegly and other lawmakers will have to give up gas-hungry SUVs and luxury sedans for leased vehicles that are more eco-correct, such as Toyota's Prius.

And some are in a high-octane fit about it.

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Article provided by www.latimes.com

Xerox Corp. is working on a green technique that's as plain as the stack of papers on your desk. Scientists at Xerox can make the print on documents appear -- then disappear in time, allowing paper to be reused. The goal is to produce an erasable paper that costs two to three times the price of regular paper but can be used hundreds of times. 

Using a molecular compound similar to the one on tinted eyeglasses, which darken or lighten depending on the amount of ultraviolet (UV) light in the environment, Xerox labs have developed paper that changes color when exposed to UV light. Unlike tinted glasses, however, which change color instantly upon walking outside or into a building, the print on Xerox's paper fades gradually over 16 to 24 hours, or it can be erased instantly by heating the paper.

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Site provided by: www.thegreenreporter.com

Here in Juneau, our hydroelectric power supply was cut off by an avalanche. Our power bills are expected to jump around 500% from around 11 cents per KwH to at least 50! We haven't even gotten the first power bill and already the paper reports consumption is down 20%! At the hospital our new motto is "If we're not saving lives, at least we're saving electricity!"

What if 5 years ago we heard that gas prices were going up 500% effective immediately? What a revolution there would have been! We can do so much to stop this disaster but like boiling frogs we have let it creep up on us until maybe there really is nothing we can do. Hell, it's a lot easier to say we can't fix it and keep running it into the ground than to change the way we live.

Denial is how a battered partner stays in a relationship until they are finally killed. It's how an alcoholic lets everything they care about go away or be destroyed. It's how humans justify abuse of animals and ignoring abuse of other humans. Every seemingly little thing we do--every time we drive to work when we could have gotten there by our own power, every time we throw away something that we could have not used, reused or recycled, and everytime we eat animal products, we push the planet closer to irrevocable destruction. We must awaken ourselves and our neigbors to the urgency of the situation before we destroy ourselves.

Allison Aldous
"We were determined to figure out how to continue commuting by bike."

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
"I didn't realize just how significant the difference was."

Dave Connell
"Computer geeks can now contribute to climate change solutions."

Renée Mullen
"Any energy saved is good for the environment."

Patrick Doran
"This great little science project never fails to amaze me."

Christian Renaud
"Substitute electronically mediated meetings for face-to-face ones."

Victoria Everman
"Only put on your skin ingredients that you'd be able to eat as well."

Barry Rice
"Your boots can unwittingly transport invasive plants and disease organisms."

Hank Green
"It's a brave new economy, and it's 100-percent resource-free."

Sanjayan
"Take energy-efficient compact light bulbs on trips and give them out."

Nina Hadley
"There aren't enough native shellfish doing the important things they're great at."

Caitlyn Toropova
"There's almost always an alternative food that is more sustainable, local or organic."

Jonathan Hoekstra
"Honey bee colonies continue to die out — so give a home to a wild orchard mason bee."

Stephanie Wear
"The best part is: It's pretty easy to do."

Jack Hurd
"Few of us know the origin of the forest products we purchase."

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Stuart Freedman (London's Borough Market); © Chris Helzer (native bee on ragwort, Griffith Prairie, Aurora, Nebraska)

Earth Day is an excellent time to reevaluate what you can do to further reduce your human footprint on Planet Earth. This year I noticed all the unsolicited things that enter my home that I do not want or need, and are just a big nuisance and a drain of resources. I realized the three biggest culprits are phone directories, magazines, and credit card offers.  

Today, I called and opted out of all the phone directory delivery lists. I receive at least six different phone books a year. When they are delivered we just throw them in our front closet and never use them since we go online if we need a phone number. Unfortunately, for me, it was "out of sight, out of mind.’" Well, no more.

Next, I called and opted out of all unsolicited magazine deliveries. I had our name taken off free community magazines that I never read and just throw in the magazine rack in a bedroom we use for out of town guests. Then I got our names off of real estate related magazines and publications we receive because my husband and I are in real estate. All these publications once again can be read online, so we don’t need a print copy to get the information. The double whammy is that we both receive copies, since we both hold active real estate licenses.

Lastly, I opted out of credit card propositions. It is insane all the credit-card offers we receive in the mail. Well, thank goodness, the credit card bureaus have set up a service to stop these offers called “opting out.” You call 1-888-5-opt-out or visit www.optoutprescreen.com and provide some information. Once you opt out, your name is removed from credit offer lists and the bureaus hide your file from companies that offer pre-approved credit for five years. This is unnecessary junk mail you can have stopped immediately.

The one thing I opted in to do for Earth Day was attend yesterday a talk given by Diane MacEachern, the author of the Big Green Purse. The talk was hosted by the Arizona League of Conservation Voters and was held at the beautiful Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Diane talked about the importance of shifting money we already spend to environmentally-safe, socially responsible products and services that would help protect the environment. She has started a Be One In a Million campaign. With this campaign if a million women intentionally shift at least $1000 of their existing budget to environmentally-friendly products, we can have a noticeable ONE BILLION DOLLAR IMPACT in the marketplace. I signed up this morning.

Here's a realistic view of petroleum and where we currently stand.  The film is called Crude Awakening:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-703701197044020456