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British enviros curb flying to protest airplane emissions
A growing number of British enviros are quitting or cutting back on air travel, resisting the siren song of low-fare, no-frills airlines. “I just realized that all my other efforts to be green—recycling, insulating the house, not driving a giant 4x4—would be totally wiped out by a couple of holidays by air,” said Michael Gibson, one participant in this fledgling movement. A round-trip flight from the U.K. to Florida produces about as much CO2 as a year’s worth of driving by the average Brit, and the number of such flights is expected to soar over the coming years: The British government forecasts that more than twice as many people will use the nation’s airports by 2030 as do now. Flight abstainers are launching a website next month that will encourage people to pledge to cut back on or refrain from flying. The activists are also pressuring the European Union to tax airplane fuel, which would raise the price of flying and thus tamp down demand.
Sources: The Observer, 01.29.06; grist.org.

It’s a Floor Wax & Dessert Topping!
Algae being harnessed to combat climate change and other eco-woes. Consider the algae. Three years ago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology rocket scientist Isaac Berzin had an idea: use the slimy plants to clean up emissions from power plants. Today, at a power plant next to MIT, tubes of healthy algae slurp up 40 percent of carbon dioxide and 86 percent of nitrous oxide before power-plant emissions are released into the atmosphere. Not only that, but harvested algae will squeeze out a combustible biofuel. The right type of algae can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to soybeans’ measly 60 gallons. What to do with the dried algae flakes left over from biodiesel squeezing? Process them into ethanol. And Berzin claims that the whole shebang can make a profit. His company, GreenFuel Technologies, is currently conducting trials and hopes to be in full production by 2009. Not bad for a plant with just one cell.
Sources: The Christian Science Monitor, 01.11.06; grist.org.

The Fries Have It
Boston diner gets its heat from used veggie oil
Restaurant owner Don Levy geared up for this year’s chilly Boston winter by getting rid of his furnace. Wait, it’s not as batty as it sounds: Levy replaced his old heating system with a boiler that runs on 100 percent vegetable oil—a readily available resource, so long as Bostonians keep eating fries. Not only is Levy avoiding high natural-gas heating prices, he also doesn’t have to pay sanitation workers to haul away his leftover oil. “I’m saving money, and I’m saving the planet, too,” says Levy, who is confident that he’ll recoup his investment within five years. To those that argue that alternative-energy systems aren’t economical, we say: Booyah!
Sources: The Boston Globe, 01.21.06; grist.org.

Happier Beef
Do you wonder how your steak was treated before it landed on the barbecue? Good news: Whole Foods Market (WFM) has raised $550,000 to create the Animal Compassion Foundation, a nonprofit for improving animal welfare through new standards developed with the Animal Welfare Institute and the Humane Society of the U.S. By 2008 all meats sold by WFM in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. will come from ranchers who adhere to the new standards. The foundation will also identify animal-compassionate ranchers and farmers willing to share knowledge, and its online library will offer new technology and research to help conventional farmers convert to the new standards and create a global networking community.
Source: animalcompassionfoundation.org.

Pesty News
Home insecticides may double risk for acute childhood leukemia. French medical researchers have discovered yet another reason to practice nontoxic pest control around the home: It may reduce your kids’ risk of acute leukemia. The team’s study, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that children in homes where mothers reported using insecticides while pregnant and after birth face a two-fold increase in risk for the fatal blood disease. The study particularly targets compounds—like plant sprays, mosquito repellants, and lice-killing shampoos— that contain a group of pesticides called carbamates. The link between pesticides and leukemia is still being hotly debated, but the doctors say their finding should encourage folks to take action now.
Sources: BBC News 01.06; grist.org.

Two Prongs Make a Right
New coalition lobbies Big Auto to build plug-in hybrid cars
Plug-In Partners is not, as the name might indicate, a swingers’ club. Rather, it’s a diverse national campaign— encompassing cities, electric utilities, national-security hawks, and others— pushing for plug-in hybrids: gas-electric vehicles with batteries that can be recharged via a regular wall socket. Once powered up (ideally at night, when electric rates tend to be lower) such vehicles could go 20 to 35 miles or more on electricity alone and achieve fuel efficiency of 80 to 100 miles per gallon. The coalition says plug-in hybrids could substantially reduce demand for oil and curb air pollution. Most automakers say plug-in hybrids would cost more than consumers want to spend, so the campaign has vowed to drum up demand. Member city Austin, Texas, led the way in January by vowing to buy 600 of the next-gen green vehicles as soon as they come to market.
Sources: Star Tribune, 12.25.06; grist.org.

What About Those Cahs in the Yahd?
Pioneering e-waste recycling law takes effect in Maine
The Pine Tree State has become the first in the nation to require manufacturers to cover the cost of recycling televisions and computer monitors. Similar to e-waste laws already in force in Japan and some European countries, Maine’s new rule allows municipalities to bill the expenses of recycling dumped screens to manufacturers. The aim is to make it less costly for these localities to keep televisions and computer monitors—which can contain about five pounds of lead each, as well as mercury, cadmium, and other toxic chemicals—out of landfills. Maine’s groundbreaking-for-the-U.S. move is inspiring about 15 other states to consider similar legislation.
Sources: Portland Press Herald, 12.18.06; grist.org.

You Can Grow Your Own Way
GM crops advance on the world’s arable acreage
Genetically modified crops are taking over the world. [Evil laugh here.] The acreage devoted to biotech crops jumped 11 percent last year. Biotech varieties of rice—the world’s most important food crop—are poised to take off in China, a development that would put GM crops into the hands of tens of millions of small farmers who grow nearly half the calories eaten by the human race. Acres devoted to GM crops still cover a small percentage of the world’s total arable land, but they’ve been growing fast—from 4.3 million acres in six countries in 1996 to 222 million acres in 21 countries last year. Industry supporters hail these and other findings in a new report as proof that despite controversy about their viability and safety, biotech crops are becoming the preferred way to grow food and fiber. Critics, including Friends of the Earth, believe the jury is still out.