Highlights from “Best of Green 2011”

The website Treehugger has the results in on their “Best Of Green 2011” and the results in the food and health category are worth checking out for their unique impact on our lives

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Airports Go Green.. But Does Air Travel?

A New York Times article this morning describes the San Francisco International Airport’s efforts to go green with “furniture made from sustainable timber, lighting that exceeds California’s energy efficiency standards by 35 percent, and paints and building products that emit lower levels of chemical gases,” in their newly renovated T2 terminal. They even have organic food offerings. This all sounds wonderful, but it doesn’t change the fact that for all of T2’s environmentally friendly features, air travel remains the most carbon-intensive form of transportation.

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Women’s Rights Are Worker’s Rights and Other Updates From Wisconsin

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s slash-and-burn approach to public sector unions–imitated by over a dozen Republican governors across the nation–is the political equivalent of slamming women’s labor history into reverse.

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An Intro to GMOs and the Path of Less Consumption

The buzz around genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has grown to a fever pitch in recent months, with approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of three new kinds of genetically engineered (GE) foods: alfalfa (which becomes hay), a type of corn grown to produce ethanol, and sugar beets. And the approval by the Food and Drug Administration of a super-fast-growing salmon — the first genetically modified animal to be sold in the U.S., but probably not the last — may not be far behind.

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Is Our Sexuality (and our Future) at Stake? Maria Rodale’s take on the impact of Atrazine

There are several studies emerging on the herbicide Atrazine that raise serious questions about our ability to reproduce as a species…unless we stop poisoning ourselves, and our children, with chemicals. Wake up America!

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Wind Farms and Bike Lanes? Not In My Neighbourhood

After two groups in a progressive area of Brooklyn, New York called aggressively for the removal of a 9 month old bike-lane this month, Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times noted in an article in the Week In Review that “in Europe, bike lanes crisscross cities, wind turbines appear in counties with high-priced country homes and plants that make green energy from waste are situated in even the wealthiest neighborhoods.” What’s going on here?

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Fifty-Three Percent of U.S. Backyard Gardeners Growing Vegetables

A nationwide survey indicates that spending for vegetables and fruits grown in household gardens now surpasses spending for lawns, trees, shrubs – and even flowers.

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From Libya: Poems of War, Peace, Women, and Power

Where are the Libyan women’s voices in our media right now? Check out the incredible and powerful Suheir Hammad in a public performance as she explores the power within pacifism with her strong and beautiful poems.

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Disaster Aftermath: Making Women’s Health a Priority

Upon the heels of one of the recent earthquake, we can only hope that all the parties involved in the disaster response – from aid groups to foreign militaries to friends and neighbors – will make women’s health and safety a priority.

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Styrofoam In the Capitol and Other Real Life Grimms Fairy Tales

The Republicans are wasting a small fortune that taxpayers would otherwise save in order to ‘ungreen’ the Capitol. By shutting down this money-saving program before it has been fully implemented, Republicans are imposing a ten-year cost of around $50 million on taxpayers.

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