This months featured site is a local company I discovered one day while out doing errands. Mybarebags.com is a site that sells reusable canvas shopping bags. The issue of plastic shopping bags has been covered in previous posts. Plastic bags are something that I believe we need to learn to live without, and adopting a mentality of reusing instead of a disposable mentality is a really good step in the direction of drastically reducing plastic bag use.
I have actually bought and started using the reusable bags that you see at the grocery store. However, according to the owner of Mybarebags.com, Joyce Weand, these bags are made out of “non-woven polypropylene which is an oil-based product (more oil dependency…)” and the bags are only good for so many uses, and will not biodegrade in our lifetime.
Canvas shopping bags like the ones sold by Mybarebags.com are made out of cotton and are 100% biodegradable.
Have you heard about Neil Young’s Electric Car? I just read the blog post on The Huffington Post blog about the making of Neil’s electric car. How cool would that have been to here Neil creating some new songs or playing something from his Harvest album while you were working on his car. Neil also has some advice about saving the the automobile industry. Check out these posts as well as any of Neil’s other Huffington Post articles.
A $19,000 electric car similar to the smart car is to be released in the US in 2009. This electric car is only to be a low speed vehicle(LSV) so nothing for those of you with a lead foot. Links in this article then lead me to several other electric car articles:
From Treehugger, 30 Different Ways to Put a Roof Over Your Head…with all the layoffs and the way the economy is people are going to be needing this type of housing…a better class of Hoovervilles?
Speaking of shelter, I came across this site which sells Earth Shelter Technologies…these look like some pretty sweet
Earth friendly homes.
DailyTech has a post about “60 Minutes” Catching a Tech Firm Red Handed by exporting tech garbage to China…this article really makes me think about all the computers and cell phones that I have had within the last decade…I wonder were they all are now? Sadly, it also makes me realize that my spending habits do affect others.
I was sent a message from Kim to check out the Mixx thread about the post Wine and The Ecosystem on Nature.org. Check out the post to find some great articles about the environmental concerns facing the wine industry. This post reminded me of the August environmental post which had a reference to a Treehugger article about boxed wines which according to the article, is more environmentally friendly because the materials used for boxed wines are so much lighter than bottles. I am not exactly sure how many different wines are available in the boxed form, but I am guessing we should be seeing a greater variety as the industry gains respectability. Maybe Gary over at Wine Library TV will do a boxed wine video to let us know if any quality boxed wines are available.
If boxed wine isn’t something you are willing to try, try buying wines that are made locally instead of buying the imports which must be transported over a long distances. For a few more tip on buying more environmentally friendly wines, check out he article “What’s your wines carbon footprint?”
How does your favorite wine stack up?
Other Environmental Info
Kim also has a post that poses the old question Am I my brothers keeper? With the brother being the Earth.
Wow, I just found out about William Yuan, a twelve year old inventor who invented a new type of solar cell that absorbs 500 times the amount of energy current cells absorb. Wow…that is some kid.
From the http://www.onehundredmonths.org/ newsletter, came this creative video Wake Up, “Freak Out – then Get a Grip” , which I found to be a bit depressing, however its ending has a hopeful message.
I am transitioning from publishing the environment post on the 15th of the month to the second week of the month(7-14th), so two August Environment posts will be done this month.
From the TechCrunch post, More Proof That Canada Hates The Environment, I found out about PickupPal.com, which is a site that helps people to car pool. Do you need a ride, or are you planning a road trip, check out PickupPal and see if you can find someone to share the cost of the ride.
From the TreeHugger Newsletter, I found out about David Byrne of the Talking Heads, who is designing bicycle racks for New York as part of a promotional contest that the city is running to make cycling cool. Check out the interview with David Byrne in the video on the Treehugger post.
Also from Treehugger, comes an article about Boxed Wine. I had never thought about the environmental issues concerning bottles vs boxes. From my experience, usually only less expensive types of wines come in boxes. From the article, I gather the box wine packaging industry is trying to change this very issue.
I Stumbled across an article MIT Scientist Offers ‘Solar Revolution’ on the Science News Review blog where a process discovery that will enable generation of energy using solar panels even when the sun is not visible. Sweet, I really am looking forward to investing in a solar electricity system for my house.
From a Viddler subscription I came across this video which makes a whole lot of sense. Flex-fuel vehicles should be a standard in the US.
What do you think of the Flex Fuel video?From Facebook, I learned about WecanSolveit.org…after watching the video on the previous link, I joined the group and am looking forward to getting updates, and will pass on the info as I get it.
From Digg, I learned about Green Cement, which involves a process for reducing the the CO2 which results from making cement, because according to the Green Cement Article, the production of cement accounts for 5% of the worlds CO2 emissions.
Dlr gave me a link where I learned that the Government is restricting the testing for Mad Cow disease by exporters. Testing can only be done by the government. I am not exactly sure if this an environmental link…but it is in..Dlr also sent in the article Tempe High School goes Green. I just love hearing about young environmentalists.
Limmekus has promised to write an article about a friend’s attempt to build a green daycare.
Classicalgeek or CynthiaWunsch offered to write a post about her church which is going green and establishing a wildlife habitat 3 blocks from downtown Dallas.
TeddyRised shares a post he wrote last year about his views on Carbon Offsetting. Seems like a good advice to me. I have never been a fan of the Carbon Offsetting principal either.
Well that is it for the second environmental resources post for August 2008. If you find or write any environmentally related posts, please feel free it contact me via any of the Social Networking sites or by emailing me at info at this sites root url.
Oh, one last thing, Kim aka Spostareduro, has a new project called WeArefacebook which is a place for Facebook activists to blog about their passions or interests including the environment.
I just started reading the cover story on this month Wired about the Future of the Electric Car. It’s a pretty interesting article from what I have read thus far. The story is about Shai Agassi and his Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
I will be off line until Friday night, due to going on a Men’s retreat.
The issue of plastic shopping bags has been covered in previous posts. Plastic bags are something that I believe we need to learn to live without, and adopting a mentality of reusing instead of a disposable mentality is a really good step in the direction of drastically reducing plastic bag use.
reminded me of the 
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