tagged w/ Eco-Conscious
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by Michelle
When you empty out your coffee grounds, what do you see? Most coffee grounds are deemed garbage and sent off to the landfill, but a few clever businesses see spent coffee grounds as much more. Starbucks has started an innovative recycling program called Grounds for Your Garden, which provides complimentary coffee grounds for customers, schools, nurseries and parks. Used coffee grounds are available upon request on a first come first served basis, and are packed in reused coffee bags.
Coffee grounds are excellent material for composting as they are high in nitrogen and add heat to compost when combined with materials high in carbon, such as dry leaves, brown paper or straw. Starbucks' win-win arrangement provides gardeners with high-quality compost material and finds a use for a large component of the waste produced by the company.
Meanwhile an Indiana-based company, Java-Log, have found another creative way to reuse coffee grounds, manufacturing an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical-based fire logs from them. Made from waste coffee grounds culled from instant coffee manufacturers and chain coffee shops compacted with non-petroleum wax, their logs burn longer and brighter, and smell nicer, providing heat and energy from 20 million pounds of coffee grounds annually that would otherwise have ended up in landfills. In addition, the Java-Log produces 80% less carbon monoxide and particulate matter than wood logs, and is produced from 100% renewable resources. You can even compost the ashes left over when your Java-Log has finished burning.
So the next time you empty your coffee filter, take another look. Do you see garbage? Or do you see black gold waiting to decompose into compost or be recycled into a fire log? Going green doesn't have to mean going without or living a miserable life walking barefoot uphill both ways. Creative, positive change can pop up in the most unexpected places - even in the bottom of your coffee cup.
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Michelle
When you empty out your coffee grounds, what do you see? Most coffee... more
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by Nicole
The Documentary Network is a veritable online goldmine of shorts and full-length features. Visitors can watch sample documentaries from a selection of 81 for free. Repeat customers can register and watch more stuff for free, plus a further selection of pay-per-view films which start at around 1 Euro (approx $1.50). As an added bonus, funds go directly to the filmmakers, minus a modest hosting fee, which makes this a great way of cutting big media distributors out of the equation.
The Daily Mantra got sucked in watching the illuminating Global Dimming, a Nova/BBC production that hypothesizes that the true power of global warming has been significantly underestimated, being masked by the counter effects of global dimming, which is caused by visible pollution such as smog and airplane contrails. To support this theory they interview scientists who collected and analyzed data from 5,000 weather stations taken during the three days after 9/11 when a flight moratorium was imposed, and our skies were free of planes and their contrails for the first time in decades. The three-day period created a sudden data spike, with the temperature change jumping significantly.
Continuing on the 9/11 theme, the Documentary Network has the seminal internet conspiracy flick, Loose Change, which outlines numerous inconsistencies and loopholes in the official version of how 9/11 played out. In the interest of being fair and balanced they're also showing Conspiracy Theory, which sets out to debunk the debunkers, and The Great Global Warming Swindle, which has a pretty self-explanatory title and should appeal to the diminishing pool of flat-earthers.
Talking of being fair and balanced, the Documentary Network also has OutFOXed, which documents "Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." One journalist who certainly won't be suppressed however is Greg Palast, who showcases his homage to Bush's Election Fraud on the site. In his 15 minute short he succinctly explores the statistical anomalies of the "spoiled" and simply "not-counted" 2004 votes, and shares with us some misdirected emails from Rove to Bush which indicate the not-so-dynamic duo are plotting to use illegal caging-list techniques to steal the election in '08.
Other films well worth viewing include the Pirates of Silicon Valley, which takes a humorous look at the characters in the Jobs' and Gates' camps who formed the technological landscape we know today, and the eye-opening Origins of Aids, which explores the idea that the disease may have infected humans due to contaminated oral vaccinations made from chimpanzee tissue that were used in an immunization program in the Belgium Congo. (Indeed something similar occured here in the U.S. in the 1950's with the polio vaccine which was contaminated with the simian virus SV40, potentially exposing 98 million Americans to the monkey disease which has been linked to cancer in humans.)
It's often said that truth is stranger than fiction, and continuing in this spirit there's documentaries on corrupt world governments (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and Stealing A Nation), the CIA (Crack The CIA and Secrets of The CIA), Iraq (Baghdad ER, The Power of Nightmares and Iraq For Sale), and the environment (Biofuels: Think Outside The Barrel), plus an investigation into the conspiracy theory perhaps above all others, the "faked" lunar landing (Moon Hoax: Astronauts Gone Wild), which all add up to a most enlightening video vault that remains open long after Blockbuster closes the doors on their edited-for-content DVDs.
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Nicole
The Documentary Network is a veritable online goldmine of shorts and... more
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Guerilla cuddler Juan Mann took his Free Hugs campaign from the streets of Australia via YouTube to Oprah Winfrey's TV studios. Along the way a lot of authority types got very worried about liability, bi-laws and red-tape, as like-minded cells of renegade huggers surfaced across the world. (We got our free hugs in Victoria, B.C..) At one point Mann got banned from doing his street corner hug deals in his hometown by city officials who couldn't get their heads around his hugs-not-slugs brand of subversion (see previous There's No Such Thing As A Free Hug story). So on October 22, 2007, Mann decided to move his Free Hugs campaign indoors for a while, offering an open house to anyone who fancied stopping by his humble abode at 30 Bucknell Street in Newtown, New South Wales - and that's when his troubles really began.
In the first 36 days of Mann's planned year-long open house, around 80 guests dropped in for a little hospitality. Some offered knowledge in return, others offered bribes (a TV producer offered cash if Mann would pull out of a scheduled interview with a rival station), and one rather-too-enthusiastic young lady even pinched Mann's bum after cooking him dinner. But on the whole, all seemed to be going well. Many of the conversations with those who stopped by were recorded and put up on the newly launched JuanMann.tv website, as well as on YouTube, where Mann has a burgeoning viewership.
Unfortunately one of Mann's new viewers turned out to be his landlord, who subsequently evicted him, complaining that his activities posed "a security risk to the building" and a potential "nuisance to the neighbors." Consequently, with just 21 days left in his current abode and a mere $9.16 in his pocket, the hapless hugger is on the hunt for a new place he can call hug-central.
Those who are sympathetic to Mann's plight can order a Free Hugs T-shirt from RemoGeneralStore.com/FreeHugs. Between now and Christmas you'll get one shirt free with every shirt ordered. And since 25% of the purchase price will go directly towards a new home that Mann says "you are more than welcome" to visit him in, it really is a great gift. Let's recap: buy one shirt, get one free, and get an open invitation to hang out with Mann at is new pad in NSW - plus all the hugs you can handle a bargain at just $31.22 (plus shipping).
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraGuerilla cuddler Juan Mann took his Free Hugs campaign from the streets of Australia... more
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by Nicole
Energy-saving light bulbs are the perfect gift for the person who has everything, since the kind of person who has everything is probably too busy watching their flat screen TV or playing with their Playstation 3 to take care of such eco-details. This is truly a gift that keeps giving, especially if you offer to fit them too (thus ensuring they don't go straight from the bottom of a Christmas tree to the back of a cupboard).
Buy an energy-saving E26 bulb from Ikea for a mere $3.99 and you'll likely save its recipient $30 in energy costs over its lifetime. Think about it, if you give four bulbs as a gift, which would cost you less than $16, it's really like giving away a whopping $120.
Ikea's energy efficient bulbs use up to 80% less energy than traditional bulbs, and last up to 10 time longer. What's more the company's so cool it gave all of its 9,600 British employees six of the bulbs to take home in an effort to save the planet, and promises to replace them for free when they eventually expire (see Guardian story). According to Energy Star, if every household in America replaced just one bulb with an approved low-energy replacement the emissions saved would be equivalent to more than 800,000 cars - now that is reason to celebrate!
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Nicole
Energy-saving light bulbs are the perfect gift for the person who has... more
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by Marisa
In theory, it's so great: a season dedicated to showering the people we love with cherished gifts. I mean, it's pretty hard to argue against generosity. And yet somehow these altruistic roots often feel lost in the holiday shuffle, as we scramble to find something, anything, to place in that stocking or under the tree. Well, treat yourself to a relieved exhale: this year Daily Mantra has your back with 24 days of alternative gift ideas, prioritizing a more spiritual, eco-friendly, debt-free holiday season.
As our first holiday gift suggestion, inspired by this pretty fantastic ad, Daily Mantra simply reminds you that charitable gifting is always a fantastic holiday option. I mean, sure, you could spend hours, if not days, in a packed local mall, fighting crowds for some item your loved one may be receiving ten times already. Or you could put some Thanksgiving in your Christmas with a charitable donation, spreading the seasonal generosity among loved ones and beyond, throughout the year. Unsure where to begin? Simply visit www.charitynavigator.org for a searchable database of international charities, including a charity evaluator that rates each charity by effectiveness and financial health. Then sit back and enjoy an eggnog, while everyone else is at the mall.
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Marisa
In theory, it's so great: a season dedicated to showering the people... more
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by Marisa
Looking to procrastinate with a clear - even virtuous - conscience? Look no further than FreeRice.com. Launched on October 7th by John Breen, creator of TheHungerSite.com and Poverty.com, FreeRice donates 10 grains of rice via the United Nations World Food Program for every vocabulary question you answer correctly. And those grains add up: As of November 27, FreeRice.com has donated 4,181,025,950 grains of rice - enough to feed more than 200,000 people for one day.
So, how do you play - er, help? When you first visit FreeRice.com, a randomly selected vocabulary word with four possible definitions will appear on your screen. The program then adjusts its difficulty based on whether you answer correctly: three correct answers in a row raise your "level" and one incorrect answer lowers it. With an impressive arsenal of terms, and difficulty levels appropriate for everyone from children to college professors (50 is the highest level, though it's rare to score above a 48), FreeRice.com is a satisfying visit for academes and altruists alike. Just take heed, according to the site's disclaimer, exercising your social conscience on FreeRice.com just might make you smarter. How many procrastinatory pleasures can claim that?
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Marisa
Looking to procrastinate with a clear - even virtuous - conscience? Look no... more
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Greenpeace has apparently adopted a whale. Theyre holding an online poll to name it. Of the 30 suggested names, 29 are lofty-sounding monikers borrowed from various ethnological mythologies, foreign languages, and environmental activists.
The 30th, clear favorite, is Mister Splashy Pants.
Why choose names like Libertad or Echo when you can vote for the name Mister Splashy Pants?Greenpeace has apparently adopted a whale. Theyre holding an online poll to name... more
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devo64
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4 years ago
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by Nicole
A bus company is offering discount bus travel in return for used cooking oil to power its bio-fueled fleet in a ground-breaking pilot scheme in the U.K.. Households along the Service 1 bus route in Kimarnock, Scotland have been given free containers to collect their used oil in, which they can exchange for discount travel vouchers at their local recycling plant.
A fleet of eight single-deck buses, operated by the Stagecoach Group Plc., have been fitted with dual fuel tanks for the trial scheme. The buses will warm up for around ten minutes in the morning using mineral diesel (it's cold in Scotland). Once a normal engine operating temperature is achieved, the buses will then switch to bio-fuel made from cooking oil and other food industry by-products for the remainder of the day. It's estimated that the initiative will cut CO2 emissions by 82%.
"This innovative project is a great opportunity for our customers to play their part in saving the planet by recycling household products that would otherwise go to waste," says Stagecoach Group Chief Executive, Brian Souter. "I'm sure the idea of cheaper travel in exchange for the used contents of your chip pan will capture people's imagination."
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Nicole
A bus company is offering discount bus travel in return for used cooking... more
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Love the Star Wars films? Always wanted to live like an Ewok? Well now you can, thanks to Canadian carpenter Tom Chudleigh whose Free Spirit Spheres are suspended in trees and accessible by rope bridges. Using the idea of eco-friendly living, Tom has constructed these 'pods' as a means of becoming at one with nature again, saying it will give man the opportunity to live in a Rainforest, whilst causing minimal damage. Being fully equipped for 4 sharers and only taking 3 men 3 days to erect, I'm sure Tom will receive some interest. Click the link for a bit more info.
Love the Star Wars films? Always wanted to live like an Ewok? Well now you can, thanks... more
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Enormous electricity-generating kites may be the future of green power. The wind dam concept is almost the same as a hydro-electric dam: Capture massive amounts of moving air and funnel it into a turbine. Plus, they look cool. The first of its kind may be coming to Russia next year.Enormous electricity-generating kites may be the future of green power. The wind dam... more
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devo64
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added this
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4 years ago
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Henry Rollins has taken some big steps to reduce his impact on the environment. He also has some words of wisdom to share.Henry Rollins has taken some big steps to reduce his impact on the environment. He... more
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by Nicole
James Blunt has been forced to return an experimental electric Mini Cooper he was loaned after he ran it into the ground. "It was the fastest car I've ever been in - totally silent, like a stealth Mini. That was part of the problem, said the singer to a reporter from the World Entertainment News Network. "I didn't crash it but I did break it and I was going too fast. I'm sure they've learnt from my mistakes."
One of only two prototype cars in the world, the ultra-eco Mini, which runs on two hi tech Lithium-ion batteries, was developed by engineers from NASA. Earlier the Daily Mantra reported that the regular U.K. production diesel version of the vehicle beat out Toyotas hybrid Prius in terms of its all round eco-friendliness, making the stylish Mini Cooper a beautiful car both inside and out.
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Nicole
James Blunt has been forced to return an experimental electric Mini Cooper... more
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by Nicole
I had begun to feel that this gigantic experiment with the whole of Nature, which increasingly seemed to me to be at risk of testing everything to destruction while at the same time extracting a cumulatively unsustainable harvest by artificial and progressively more toxic means, was both dangerous and short-sighted. I felt in my bones that if you abuse Nature unnecessarily and fail to maintain a balance, then She will probably abuse you in return. HRH The Prince Of Wales, The Elements Of Organic Gardening
A quarter of a century ago, when Prince Charles first spoke publicly about his belief in organic gardening and farming principles, he was dismissed as a tree-hugging eccentric that walked around talking to his plants. Twenty-five years on, hes considered an ecological visionary. His personal life may be somewhat controversial, but the garden is one place he gets it right (if only he could relate to people as well as he relates to his plants). In The Elements of Organic Gardening, published in the U.S. today by Kales Press, The Prince of Wales shares the sustainable growing methods hes used in his own gardens at Highgrove, Birkhall and Clarence House.
Soil is primeval, and a living organism we must treasure it. At Highgrove I have always practiced the art of feeding the soil rather than the plant.
The book covers the time-honored principles of composting, crop rotation and water conservation that weve ignored for too long at our own peril. In a modest, personable style, Charles talks about his use of ducks and birds to naturally control pests such a slugs and snails, and the use of natural insecticides made from garlic extract to control bugs. He shares his ideas on the virtues of seasonal planting to work with natures calendar rather then against it (Do we really need strawberries all year round?), and extols the traditional values of husbandry the care and cultivation of resources as well as crops since you cant have one without the other.
All is interconnected and interwoven; but we seem to have lost sight of this essential truth, and have become ever more separated from the inherent rhythms that lie at the heart of Nature. We have been dancing out of time with the music
As you travel through the pages, the heir to the English throne gives an intimate tour of each individual area of his extensive Highgrove gardens; The Productive Gardens, where rare heirloom varieties of fruit and veg provide vivid flavors, and The Ornamental Gardens, where planting provides food for the soul. We stroll with Charles on his dont-call-it-a-lawn, flat, strictly non-monoculture, mossy green lawn-type areas, which are made up of a myriad green plants and what some might term weeds (what is a weed but something different that dares to stick its head above the uniform?). Precisely manicured and mown, with stripes that would make any Englishman proud, these areas perhaps illustrate best that fact that you dont have to compromise to go organic. Dont mistake this for a dry gardening tome, whether youre a royalist or a republican, whether you have an acre or a plant pot to play with, this holistic approach to gardening and ultimately life makes for an invigorating philosophical read.
If you consider that our own bodies are entirely organic and that when we finally die they revert to organic matter, or soil, then you begin to realize that what we do to ourselves whether with an excess of antibiotic substances in our food or in our treatment can be mirrored in what we do to the wider Nature from which we spring.
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Nicole
I had begun to feel that this gigantic experiment with the whole of... more
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by Nicole
According to a new study CO2 levels in the atmosphere have risen 35% faster than expected since 2000. The research was done by the University of East Anglias Global Carbon Project in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey, and was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The unexpected increase was impart due to our ever rising emissions, but also, rather worryingly, because it appears the earths own ability to soak up emissions in its natural sinks is decreasing, which is compounding our global warming problems.
"In addition to the growth of global population and wealth, we now know that significant contributions to the growth of atmospheric CO2 arise from the slow-down of natural sinks," said the studys lead author, Dr Pep Canadell of the Global Carbon Project, in a statement. "The decline in global sink efficiency suggests that stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought," said report co-author Dr Corinne Le Quere of the British Antarctic Survey. Their decade long study in the North Atlantic found that the oceans ability to soak up CO2 had halved between the mid-90s and 2005.
And as the earths abilities to health itself is increasingly compromised, a recent report by Intertanko, an organization which represents the majority of the worlds tankers, has found that global CO2 emissions from shipping are now twice the level of those due to aviation. According to the BBC, they found that emissions have risen sharply over the last six years, due to increasing trade, and because ships are burning more fuel due to time and speed constraints. With 90% of the worlds cargo now carried by ships, we should perhaps all be encouraged to think global by keeping trade local.
Meanwhile global warming has had unexpected consequences at sea, causing quite a stink on the Canadian Navys ships. Until recently the storage of sewage and garbage aboard their ships hadnt been an issue, since the icy Arctic waters would keep it cool while they carried out their patrols at sea. However, with rising sea temperature odors have become a big issue, and the Navy have requested that regulations in the Arctic Water Pollution Prevention Act be relaxed to allow garbage and sewage dumping if, and when, necessary. An internal memo, reprinted by Green Options, revealed the Navy requested the changes to help alleviate our COs (commanding officers) concerns (with regard to) accumulated food remnants stored in garbage bags on decks during ever-increasing global warming summers.
Looking at the evidence from all quarters leads us to conclude the planet's in serious hot water.
http://www.dailymantra.com
http://www.myspace.com/thedailymantraby Nicole
According to a new study CO2 levels in the atmosphere have risen 35% faster... more
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Sustainability is a weak spot for the furniture industry. Eco-conscientious designers and entrepreneurs experiment with it, but big companies have merely dabbled.
Artek, a legendary Finnish furniture company founded in the 1930s by architect Alvar Aalto, is one of the few corporations in the furniture business that can claim sustainability as one of its priorities. Artek's current management believes that the values instilled by Aalto during the 1930s - good quality, sourcing local materials and using them economically - tick many of the boxes required of sustainable manufacturers today. Sustainability is a weak spot for the furniture industry. Eco-conscientious designers... more
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