ecology

They myth of food miles

Here's a lively discussion on Metafilter about an article that says that eating local foods (the so-called locavore movement) is "bad for the planet," which is, of course, a load of horseshit. This comment hits the nail on the head:

Use common sense. Common sense tells you that buying local is better. So buy local. Common sense and 20th century sensibility tells you that if you live in Saskatchewan you are not going to want to live on dried apples and beef jerky 6 months of the year, so you'll import food. Common sense says turn out the lights. Common sense says drive a more energy efficient car.

Not really on-topic, but I'm always mystified and amazed when people get mad when it's suggested that it's better to turn the lights off, or recycle, or whatever. Recycling, especially. Recycling really offends some people. It's like it's hurting them when people recycle. If only it really was.

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Farewell, My Subaru

Short documentary about Doug Fine's experiment in sustainable living.

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Top 50 Things To Do To Stop Global Warming

This list kind of sums things up nicely. Nearly everything here is also about saving money, too.

via Digg.

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Lessons from the Wolf

Interesting article from Scientific American about wolf reintroduction at Yellowstone.

The jist is that reintroduced wolves have culled the elk population in such a way that cottonwood trees are able to reproduce again without elk eating the saplings.

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More about fluorescent lightbulbs

According to this article at treehugger.com, not all fluorescent bulbs live up to their advertised life expectancy, light output, or energy savings (although some apparently do). Commercial Electric doesn't seem to be represented in the study that's cited here, but Commercial Electric is apparently just a brand owned by a larger company called Technical Consumer Products. The ones I just bought at Home Depot aren't mentioned in this study either.

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Fluorescent lightbulbs

An interesting article about the coming ubiquity of fluorescent lightbulbs.

"...if every one of 110 million American households bought just one [fluorescent] bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people."

I just had to replace a fluorescent bulb in the kitchen that I put in less than four years ago, which isn't supposed to happen. I went to Home Depot where I bought the bulbs and found that they no longer carry that brand (Commercial Electric). Also they didn't have any "soft yellow" anymore. I don't like the light from the white bulbs.

via GroovyGreen.com

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