Green Guide’s Posts

• For Give and For Get

  The green guide to gift giving 3

  Posted 4 years, 10 months ago

  The plain truth is that Americans love to consume, and we do it with more abandon than ever during the holiday season. Nearly a quarter of all retail goods move out of stores and into homes between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and, we suspect, often into landfills by January).

  

  That poses a dilemma for the thoughtful and socially responsible holiday shopper. What if one of those "four calling birds" is an endangered species? What if the precious metal in the "five golden rings" was mined in an environmentally insensitive manner? What on earth to do… Read More

• Grill Bit

  Tips for earth-sensitive -- and tasty -- barbecuing 1

  Posted 5 years, 2 months ago

  

  You know the grill.

  It's hot out there: Time to empty the kitchen of cutlery and condiments and wander into the backyard to do what our ancient ancestors did: Barbecue something!

  Of course, people have been gleefully grilling, giving no thought to the environment, for centuries. Linguists tell us that the word barbecue likely stemmed from a coinage of the Taino Indians of Haiti, and was appropriated -- oddly enough -- by proper Bostonians as early as 1733, with raucous Texans seizing upon it by the mid-1800s.

  Long thought of as one… Read More

• Put the Pedal to the Mettle

  The word on relatively green cars and positively green bicycles 2

  Posted 5 years, 10 months ago

  

  Hy-wire act.

  Photo: DOE.

  My daughter Maya, who is 9, saw a picture of the General Motors Hy-wire, the company's super-sleek experimental fuel-cell car, and immediately decided we should have one. Unfortunately, I had to explain to her that the hydrogen-powered, zero-emission, fossil-fuel-free car would be perfect for us in all respects except one: It's not available. So it goes with U.S. manufacturers and innovative, efficient automotive technology -- all promise, no delivery.

  So what's an environmentally minded would-be car owner to do? First, make sure you really need a car.… Read More

• Rage, Rage Against the Spraying of the Flight

  Pesticide use on airplanes could harm your health 0

  Posted 6 years ago

  Vacations are supposed to leave you feeling relaxed, happy, and healthy -- but if you travel by air, you might feel worse by the time you get home than you did when you left.

  

  Fear of flying? For good reason.

  Flying should not generally be the transportation option of choice for the environmentally minded, given its intensive use of resources. (Intercity buses consume less than a fifth the energy jets do to cover the same amount of distance.) And not only is it lousy for the Earth, it's not great for your… Read More

• Who're You Calling Chicken?

  Starting from scratch with chickens and eggs 0

  Posted 6 years, 6 months ago

  

  Chicks and balances.

  Photo: USDA.

  It's very provoking, as Humpty Dumpty once told Alice, to be called an egg. After all, a name must mean something. "My name," he told her, "means the shape I am -- and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost." The same could be said of many labels for poultry and eggs. After all, "cage-free" sounds pleasant -- but does it guarantee that the chickens get outdoors? And what exactly is a "natural" hen? Sure… Read More

All Posts