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

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

Ever wondered, where would get earth friendly furniture polish, vegan shoes or fair trade chocolate? Well wonder no more. The Find Green Web site is a search engine for the environmental consumer. It links users to all the products they want to find, compares prices and gives you other valuable information about all kinds of products. Search bath tissue and you’ll be provided a whole list of options. Click your favorite and you can buy it from that outlet. If you like Seventh Generation bath tissue to be specific search here, and it will give you the opportunity to see what all the various purveorys of Seventh Generation bath tissue are charging. Maybe this week amazon.com has a sale or you can buy bulk from gaiam.com for cheaper. See for yourself at www.thefindgreen.com

- Lindsey

Time magazine puts together a good list of environment-related news sites. There are only 10, so your bookmarks tab won’t overflow. Some, like Grist, give great context to environmental issues of the day.

Check them out.

Also know that you can bookmark this site and subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed.

John David Sutter
Environment Reporter

jsutter@oklahoman.com

Want to know what it’s like to live or work in the arctic — but you don’t have the budget or you’re worried the ice will melt before you get there?

Get a feel for it just by going to Norman tonight.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hosting “Stories from a Changing Planet,” a multi-media presentation about the thousand-year-old ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. There, you’ll hear from ice researchers, geologists, oceanographers, climate scientists, biologists and Arctic residents.

The program starts at 7 p.m. today (April 22).

The experts are on a national tour with stops at science centers and museums around the country.

For more information, visit the museum’s Web site. There are also opportunities for teachers.

John David Sutter
Environment Reporter

jsutter@oklahoman.com

A cool book recently crossed my desk, “True Green @ Work: 100 way you can make the environment your business.” (National Geographic Books, $19.95). It outlines in quick tidbits of information simple steps you can take as an employee or employer to help the environment. Here are a few:

1. Turn off your computer. That box of information sucks up nearly 1,000 kilowatts of electricity, which results in more than two tons of carbon emissions each year if left to hum in the dark all night. If you shut down every night before you head for home, you can cut that down to less than 250 kilowatts each year.

2. Get a plant. An indoor plant works like a natural air filter. They absorb pollutants and computer radiation and turn all that carbon dioxide you breath out in the form of hot air back into sweet oxygen. They also cool the air through a process called transpiration and can possibly protect you from germs. Research suggests that a plant can reduce incidences of fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses. And if that was not enough, plants are noted as having a stress-reducing effect. So buy a fern and relax.

3. Bring your own cup. Stop using the company’s Styrofoam cups and bring your own coffee mug. It is not only environment, but gives you the opportunity to show off your personality a little. Using your own mug can reduce your coffee-related waste 30 times over what you’d toss using paper products, which translates to 60 times less air pollution.
- Lindsey

What better way to celebrate than with some terrifying facts about what we are doing to our environment, courtesy of C.S. Goldsmith, author of UNINHABITABLE: A Case for Caution. 

Just kidding. But seriously, folks.

Instead of focusing on the negative and scaring everyone to death, I’m going to give you a list of things you can do to help reduce global warming: 

1. Recycle!
2. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs!
3. Use less heat and air conditioning!
4. Turn off lights, appliances and the water faucet!
5. Plant trees!
6. Drive less and get some exercise!
7. Use less hot water!
8. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to see in what areas you can improve your energy efficiency!
9. Buy products that are energy-efficient and recyclable!
10. Spread the word!

I use exclamation points for a reason. Global warming is a huge threat, and it’s not going away any time soon. Goldsmith claims the problem is worse and more immediate than has been publicized. The problem is not only ours; it is our children’s as well. 

“We have 5 to 10 years maximum to find a way to tame global warming. Otherwise, we risk methane-induced temperature spikes that could push us into temperature zones that would make adaptation unlikely and much of the plane uninhabitable,” Goldsmith said. 

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty awful. 

So, to the powers that be, I am officially declaring every day to be Earth Day. The way things are going, we’re going to need more than one day a year to reverse our destructive path and make sure that our children will have an Earth on which to live.

Anybody with me?

- Lisa

Watch this for good news.