Posts Tagged ‘Environment’

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Why are organic strawberries more expensive?

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

It can be costly to be environmentally or health conscious. Lots of people say organic products are healthier and more environmentally friendly because they don’t use lots of chemical pesticides or hormones; however, they are typically also more expensive than conventionally-grown products.

Price always boils down to supply and demand. There are simply a lot fewer organic farms than non-organic farms, which makes organic produce rarer and more expensive provided people actually want organic products. Clearly, people do want organic products – as demonstrated by the explosion of marketing for anything and everything organic in recent years – and this marketing could be another big factor in the price.

Companies have done a good job making organics stand out and presenting them as something you want or need to have. Unfortunately for people who grow and enjoy organic products, the very things they like about them also make them more expensive. Hormones and chemical pesticides are cheaper ways to produce bigger crops, so it costs more to make the same quantity of strawberries (or whatever) without all that chemical stuff organic consumers don’t want.

If you want access to a special or different product, you’re going to pay for it. You have to decide for yourself if it’s worth the price.

Greenwashing is…

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Greenwashing is when corporations falsely advertise their products or activities as eco-friendly. Companies create the perception that they are mindful of the environment in their policies and products. But… they’re not.

Shocking Visualization of Fish Left in the Sea

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Holy cow! (Carp? Cod? Crab?)

There are lots of good reasons to care about the environment and support the groups that fight to protect it. But one really good reason is that if we don’t do something, we’re going to run out of tuna melts and fish sticks.

This article in the Guardian talks about why we as a civilization are failing to do enough about problems like overfishing. Each new generation simply isn’t conscious of what things were like in the generation before them. Kind of like how your parents remember when kids used to play outside, but you’ll remember staying inside playing video games. And when you get old and cranky about how the kids these days never take off their holobands at the dinner table, you’ll wish for the days when people sat down in the living room to play Nintendo – not for the days when children played stickball in the streets.

Anyway, David McLandless (our data viz hero from Information is Beautiful) made a scary map of the devastation that tasty sea life has seen over the past hundred years. Definitely worth checking out if you still need a reason to care about the environment.

Hot? Take Off Your Suit!

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
hawaiian-shirt-friday.jpg

(photo: Lazurite on flickr)

Remember those frigid winter mornings when Dad would tell you to quit whining already and put on a sweater if you were so cold? Well if you haven’t figured it out by now (which, duh), he was trying to save energy (i.e. money) by keeping the thermostat low.

Today, the Japanese government is doing essentially the same thing. But… kookier.

They’re pushing a new program called “Super Cool Biz.” Participating companies are encouraged to save energy by keeping their thermostats set to 82 degrees Fahrenheit this summer. After all, the nation is still trying to manage with reduced energy availability after some of its nuclear power plants were destroyed in the tsunami. But a nice side effect will be lower electricity bills for participating companies and a smaller carbon footprint for the entire nation.

The super cool part? Shorts, sandals, and Hawaiian t-shirts are all suddenly upgraded to “business casual.” We want pictures of super cool board meetings.

How are you staying cool this summer without contributing to a scorched earth?

Imagining A New Food Supply

Monday, February 14th, 2011

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(photo by Thomas Euler)

Did you see this? NYTimes foodman Mark Bittman is the kind of guy you want thinking about the food supply.

Says Mark:

“For decades, Americans believed that we had the world’s healthiest and safest diet. We worried little about this diet’s effect on the environment or on the lives of the animals (or even the workers) it relies upon. Nor did we worry about its ability to endure — that is, its sustainability.

That didn’t mean all was well. And we’ve come to recognize that our diet is unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system.”

Everyone needs food, so it’s funny (and okay, scary) that we have so little control over how our food gets to our plates. And like everything, food production has an economic story behind it.

Read Mark’s suggestions for shaking up the system, reclaiming our diets, and ensuring clean, nutritious food that’s good for us and the planet.

New 7-11 energy source? Wind. Source of rolling meat products? Still a mystery.

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

International mini-market chain 7-11 is greening up its act in 100 new eco-friendly stores in Japan.

These stores, which feature wind power and LED lights, cost up to 30% more than a traditional stores. But Sevs and other chain markets like it expect that the cost of “greening” buildings will go down as demand rises.

That would be pretty cool, huh?

Grow your own shoe trees!

Monday, February 7th, 2011


(photo credit: Яick Harris)

No, not like that. Like this:

A Dutch company called OAT has invented shoes made of… oats.

Instead of living in a garbage dump (or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) for the rest of eternity after you’ve worn them out, these kicks will break down like any other normal organic substance.

And then – here comes the good part – the seeds that have been hiding inside of the shoes all along will come to life and grow trees! Shoe trees.

Do you already do something clever with your old sneakers? Plant flowers in them? Use them to insulate your attic? Save them for special shoe-throwing occasions?

Thanks for the tip, GOOD.

Animal-Vehicle Accidents Cost $8 Billion A Year, But Designers Have Found A Sustainable Solution

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

“WASHINGTON – At a picturesque spot in the mountains near the ski resorts of Vail and Breckenridge, Colo., two streams of traffic converge: people driving east and west on Interstate 70, and animals – black bears, cougars, bobcats, elk and deer – headed north and south to feed and mate. When they collide, the animal is almost always killed and the vehicle badly damaged, even if the driver is lucky enough to escape injury.

The obvious solution is a bridge or a tunnel for the animals, but how do you build one they will use?”

What do you think?

Do you think wildlife bridges should be paid for by the government, or by nonprofit interest groups like the one that sponsored this design project? Have you ever been in an accident involving a wild animal?

This holiday season, let’s try to avoid destroying the rainforest

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

ran-book-guide.png

When you crack open a fresh copy of Where the Wild Things Are, do you smell rainforests in Indonesia being decimated? Well apparently, that actually happens.

Our friends at the bad-ass Rainforest Action Network just pulled together a shopping guide for the kiddies in your life. Download the 2-page guide here (pdf), or read more about the project at ran.org.

Former 1Sky Director Gillian Caldwell On Changing Climate Change

Monday, July 26th, 2010

gillian-caldwell.jpg Gillian Caldwell is the former head of 1Sky, a TILE Environment charity. She’s a film maker and an attorney who’s been advocating for worldwide social justice for 30 years. Since she began as the first Campaign Director in September 2007, 1Sky has grown to become the largest collaborative campaign in the United States, building a society-wide movement in support of bold federal action to tackle global warming. The 1Sky campaign now combines the force of more than 600 allied organizations, a full time team of 23 staff and 15 Regional Coordinators, more than 200,000 climate advocates and more than 4,960 volunteer “Climate Precinct Captains” covering every state in the country. Gillian was also the Executive Director of WITNESS, another TILE partner charity, so she’s a leader close to our heart!

TILE: How do issues relating to climate change affect young people?
Gillian: Young people will be the most affected by climate change. We are just starting to see the effects of climate change, and if we are unable to pass bold climate policy soon, every young person on the planet will be severely impacted by climate change.

TILE: What’s the most important thing we can do to combat climate change?
Gillian: The most important thing we can do to combat climate change is to get political and take action now. We need to secure strong federal policy (complimented by state policy and local climate initiatives) if we hope to prevent the worst effects of climate change and kickstart the green economy, but the clock is ticking.

TILE: What’s the biggest you challenge you face in your work?
Gillian: We are living in a world where coal and oil interests are deeply entrenched in everything. Convincing our federal policymakers that climate change needs to be our nation’s foremost priority in the face of billion dollar lobbying budgets of fossil fuel industries is not easy work, but it is vital to ensuring a safe climate and a blossoming renewable energy economy. I know we can do it.

TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Gillian: The best advice I would give to my teenage self is to dream big and pursue those dreams with all of my energy. Climate change is a big problem, but with enough people dreaming about the clean energy future that is possible and (here’s the important part) putting those dreams into action, we can solve it!

TILE: How do you think young people can play an important role in the changing landscape of philanthropy?
Gillian: Young people continue to find new and creative ways to fund the causes that are most important to them, and at the same time inspire others to get involved in the issues they care about. Young people have a big part to play in changing the landscape of philanthropy to fit the ways that they connect with people: especially online.


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