Daily Archives: December 28, 2008

photo by zorilla

In 2007, the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association launched a campaign to “change the perceptions about the benefits of biofuels” by linking ethanol production with rising food costs and global food shortages. Ethanol producers defend their product, saying that biofuels do not cause soaring food prices and meal shortages and insinuate that the GMA is the one reaping the benefits of high food prices by scapegoating biofuels. Who exactly is telling the truth?

Bamboo is a great sustainable fiber which can be used for just about anything. We’re talking about underwear, <a href=”http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/asus_ba

Photo Credit: Dan Bush, McFall

It has been a rocky year for many in 2008. With an ailing economy, viral job loss, busted mortgages, roller coaster oil prices and stock markets, and a grim forecast , it is easy to neglect the good news. But the good news is the same as the bad news, depending on how you look at it or phrase it:

Read further for 7 bad AND good news events of 2008

Image source: Albany Aerial Photos

You’ve heard of both national newspapers and glossy magazines hosting a green issue. Well, now Middlebury College is getting in on the act with a special issue of The Middlebury Campus. All content, cartoons, articles and ads are on environmentally-related topics.

For the issue, writers reached out to environmental thinkers to pen Op-Ed pieces, and got staff writers to discuss issues like organic food, environmental art and sustainable

Image source: Amazing Grass

Recently I sampled several Superfood products from Amazing Grass. Superfood – those green, vitamin-packed food and drinks that look like someone just cut a swatch out of your front lawn, juiced it and served it up to you in a glass. Amazing Grass now offers several handy nutrition bars and mixes to blend in drinks, all claiming to give lots of health benefits with few or no downsides. This holiday season I sat around with a few family members (eco-friendly and not-so-eco-friendly alike) and sampled the items. This is what we had to say:

Image: GETTY

Mistletoe Growth as an Indicator of Toxic Metal Contamination
Just in time for the Christmas season, the Julius-Kühn Institute, aka the German Federal Research Center for Cultivated Plants, brings us these interesting tidings: there’s more going on under the mistletoe than just kissing. Scientists at JKI suggest that the amount of toxic metal contamination in soils can be known by looking at how much mistletoe is growing on the trees above.

photo: DeSmogblog.com

Like “fighting your way through a junkyard that is 20 miles long . . . blindfolded” is how 44-year-old eco-adventurer Todd Carmichael describes his recent trek across Antarctica to the South Pole. The temperature was a mere 35 degrees below zero and white outs were common

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