shall we take an environment break?

there’s been an awful lot of gloom & doom on this blog recently, and i thought that i would take a break from my OCED (obsessive-compulsive election disorder) and post some good news in honor of sunday.

i’ve been collecting heartening environmental news stories for awhile (no, you’re not going to hear about the polar icemelt, at least not today). some of it is amazing and all of it is delightful.

did you know that much of south america has banned plastic bags completely? like, you go to the supermarket and they will not give you a bag. bravo, buenos aires! closer to home (and quite astonishingly) wal-mart has committed to reducing its use of plastic bags by one-third. that’s the first good news i’ve ever heard about that company, so way to go wal-mart. but beware, supermarkets: if you DO still provide plastic bags, you better be paying the baggers — two NYC grocery executives just did the perp walk because baggers were working for nothing more than the coins in their tip cup.

twelve-year-old william yuan has invented a new type of solar cell that is 500 times more powerful than the solar cells presently in use. when i was twelve, i was still trying to master double-dutch jump-rope, and here’s william already well on his way to singlehandedly solving the energy crisis. you go, kid! meanwhile, scientists at ohio state university have created another new material that absorbs the full spectrum of light, also much more powerful than current technology. this is solar energy 2.0.

my own hometown, nyc, has commenced an experiment in using ocean-powered turbines to produce energy. it’s believed that the power of the tides in the east river alone could power up to 10,000 homes (or is that apartments?) once the project goes fully online. turbines are also being tested in spain and have gone LIVE and are already feeding power to the central station in dublin!

a company with the playful name “Zero Water” has invented a pitcher that takes all — ALL, do you hear me? — chemicals, residues, contaminants, lead, mercury and whatnot out of tap water. which is quite fantastic, as water now outsells soda and most of the bottles are not recycled (likely because there’s no nickel redemption) (why not?). so go pour yourself a tall, cool, beautiful glass of zero tapwater!

coolest of cool things: a portable solar phone-and-ipod charger. that’s what i call imagination! a laptop charger should be next.

and readgreen seems to be catching on. that’s a program that lets you digitally subscribe to magazines that are ordinarily only available in print. i’ve recently started recycling my magazines (i subscribe to The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Utne Reader, Mother Jones, Electronic Musician and Recording Magazine) by sending them to my company’s headquarters in california, where they are put in the computer-repair waiting room. collecting and shipping them really brought home to me just how much paper actually passes through my life in this way. i don’t know if i could bear to part with The New Yorker (the cartoons! the caption contest! the reading it late at night in bed!) but i’m going digital with the rest of them as soon as my present subscriptions expire.

and an awesome new online tool has just been invented: the wind & solar potential map. you can log in (it’s free) and if the answer is “solar” and you’re the DIY type, you can even make your own solar panels out of cheap stuff you can buy on ebay!

here are some helpful tips on how to keep your morning coffee green.

the world’s largest solar-powered winery is being built in california. not a wine drinker? then get yourself a cup of tea from traditional medicinals, which has already opened the largest solar-powered tea factory.

interested in more green reading? eco-homes put together a review roundup of the top thirty environmental blogs & websites.

so now i’ve extracted all the good news from my environmental folder, and you know what that means… but i’ll leave the scary stuff aside until after the election: we’ve got enough to worry about right now.

oh, speaking of the election (yes, my OCED is kicking in a little) i never imagined that a political ad could be serious and funny at the same time. but i was wrong! so, have you talked to YOUR parents about john mccain?