Go Green

The Guardian puts together a striking photo gallery on the electronic waste that ends up on the shores of West Africa, where it can poison the people who tear it apart for precious metals they can sell.

One of the big risks, the story points out, is mercury poisoning. This may all seem so far removed, but The Oklahoman recently reported on a man in Bryan County who died from apparent mercury poisoning after he used mercury to try to extract gold from circuit boards. Officials said he was poor and desperate for money.

The Guardian’s story says you can get more gold out of computer circuitry than from a hunk of rock.

In Oklahoma City and Midwest City, you can take your old computer parts to a hazardous waste recycling centers that will dispose of them without releasing the potentially toxic components.

John David Sutter

What do you do when you have a gas guzzler, but it doesn’t make good financial sense to buy a new car?

I’m in that position. However, gas prices are making it more and more economical. And my commute is such that it might almost make more economical sense to get the new car.

I did the math yesterday and it appears that I can reduce my gas cost from $60 once a week to a total gas bill of $60 a month. And I suppose I can use that extra $180 a month to pay off a car quicker. And there’s that whole tax incentive thing.

Usually I jump right into doing something to help the environment, but adding a car payment to my monthly bills sort of makes my stomach turn.

What would you do?

Here is a good resource I found in my research.

- Lindsey

Companies are scrambling lately to appear as green as possible, and a new term has come up to describe these activities: greenwashing.

A group called SourceWatch has more on the phenomenon.

There’s even an interactive site where you can rate ads based on how greenwashed you find them to be — and find advice about spotting a greenwasher.

As the Guardian writes, a report by the Advertising Standards Agency in Britain showed that greenwashing quadrupled in the past year there.

The group provides a list of things to look for in your quest not to be fooled by companies that would wish to appear green but whose actions may not be as “ecofriendly” as they claim.

Here’s their list:

1. Fluffy language
Words or terms with no clear meaning, e.g. “ecofriendly”.

2. Green products v dirty company
Such as efficient light bulbs made in a factory which pollutes rivers.

3. Suggestive pictures
Green images that indicate an (unjustified) green impact eg flowers blooming from exhaust pipes.

4. Irrelevant claims
Emphasising one tiny green attribute when everything else is “ungreen”.

5. Best in a bad class?
Declaring you are slightly greener than the rest, even if the rest are pretty terrible.

6. When it’s just not credible
“Ecofriendly” cigarettes anyone? “Greening” a dangerous product doesn’t make it safe.

7. Gobbledygook
Jargon and information that only a scientist could check or understand.

8. Imaginary friends
A “label” that looks like third party endorsement … except it is made up by the company itself.

9. No proof
It could be right, but where’s the evidence?

10. Outright lying
Totally fabricated claims or data.

John

According to this article from CNN, LA is no longer the dirtiest, sootiest city in America.

The American Lung Association named Pittsburgh, PA, as the No. 1 sootiest city. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the city has spent years trying to avoid the reputation of being the “Smoky City”:

“According to the association’s annual national report card on air pollution that’s being released today, the five-county Pittsburgh metropolitan area has the worst 24-hour soot levels and the second-worst annual soot level, behind Los Angeles.”

Some believe that it isn’t necessarily that Pittsburgh’s air has decreased in quality, but that Los Angeles’ air has improved - good news for them, bad news for Pittsburgh.

Oklahoma, according to the report, received varying grades from A to F for air quality. Tulsa and Oklahoma counties both received an F grade. Strangely, Cleveland County received an A grade - despite being right by Oklahoma County. I’m not sure how to explain that disparity.

Take a look at The State of the Air report and see what you think.

- Linds