CARPOOLING INCENTIVE SWEEPSTAKES 2007 Carpool 4 or more to a car and you could win VIP tickets to Coachella for LIFE! Find out how, CLICK HERE
PLEASE RECYCLE @ 10 FOR 1 BOTTLE RECYCLING CENTER New for 2007...Recycle your empties. Bring us 10 empty water bottles you find laying around the polo field and redeem them for 1 new free bottle of water. Please help keep the polo field clean, Recycle and stay hydrated all at the same time.
I don't mean to put a damper on your sweet bass riffs, but the steel used to make the strings that make the people dance make greenhouse gas emissions dance around in the atmosphere. The EPA recognizes steel production in the US as a sizable contributor to global warming.
What's a bassist to do? The next time your bass strings lack that brightness you once enjoyed, take them off and boil them instead of going out to buy a new set. Here's how:
1. Take the strings off your bass. 2. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. 3. Put your bass strings in the boiling water so they completely submerged. 4. Boil for five minutes and turn off the heat. 5. Pour out the water and let the strings dry and cool off(being eco-friendly shouldn't hurt your already calloused paws). 6. Restring your bass and enjoy the bright sounds you thought were gone. I suggest trying out You Set The Scene by Love, it's my favorite...OK it's the only one I know how to play....but it rules! 7. Use the money you saved on new strings to offset the emissions associated with powering your amp or buy some energy efficient lightbulbs to light up your jam sessions.
I love a good glass of Coca-Cola on the rocks once in awhile. Now I have another reason to love it, check out this story from Treehugger.com . But what's gonna happen to the carbonation????
Recently Coca-Cola announced that it will spend $3 million to perform green upgrades to its headquarters in Atlanta. Coke intends to cut energy use in the building by 23%, and cut water consumption by 15%. To achieve this goal the company will install energy-efficient lights and air-conditioning equipment, and also harvest rainwater. Coke will save more than $1 million in annual operating costs, so the investment payback will be quick. Coke expects that the entire overhaul will be complete within the next eighteen months and help eliminate 10,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, as well as save over $1 million in annual operating costs. Coke is just one example of the many large corporation that have been retrofitting their offices and factories to make them greener. While some of the upgrades are modest, it is a sign that green building concepts are becoming more mainstream. See also this previous post: Coca-Cola is Going Green. :: Via greenbuildingsnyc
OK. Time to decode some renewable energy geek talk for you: a renewable energy portfolio standard is usually declared by a United States governor or a state agency that oversees environmental affairs for the state. You'll hear a politician say something like "By 2020, 20% of the energy used in the great state of XYZ will come from renewable sources like wind power or solar power!" on TV with a zillion smiling environmentalists in the background of the shot.
You normally don't hear much about it after that---unless you read geeky renewable energy publications like my personal favorite, Wind Energy Weekly. I <3 Wind Energy Weekly....but I digress....
I monitor my utility's progress with the state RPS when I get my bill from my power company telling me what resources were used to make the power I use in my apartment. As I glance at the pie chart in the bill insert, I often remark "Hm! Not quite there yet, are you?! You better get moving, the RPS is coming for you in three short years." which prompts my roommate to smile patiently at me across the table.
Pretty cool, eh? I'm proud to say that all three states I've called home at one time or another have renewable portfolio standards. To further this great movement in the US, the people at Wind Energy Works! put together a website for people to get involved and urge their congress people to support a national renewable portfolio standard. Check out the webpage here and take action. In addition, Wind Energy Works! is an awesome resource for good arguments for the dinner table on why renewable energy is such an important thing to support. But you don't have to take my word for it!
This story was so juicy, I opted for E! Online's version!
by Sarah Hall E! Online Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:22:51 AM PDT
Apparently, Sheryl Crow can't touch Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove on the topic of global warming.
The singer and Laurie David, her partner on the Stop Global Warming College Tour, had a less than friendly encounter with Rove at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday, according to numerous published reports.
The trouble reportedly began when Crow and David approached Rove at the event and urged him to take a "fresh look" at the science of global warming.
According to David's account of the exchange, which was published on the Huffington Post, the senior White House advisor "immediately got combative," and launched into a defensive recitation of the administration's global warming policy.
When Crow laid a hand on Rove's arm to try and diffuse the situation, he shook her off, snapping, "Don't touch me!"
Crow responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us," to which Rove replied, "I don't work for you; I work for the American people."
"We are the American people," Crow reminded him.
David, the producer of an Inconvenient Truth, described Rove as "dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully."
"Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official," she wrote.
Relating his version of the incident, Rove told the Washington Post that David "came over to insult me, and she succeeded."
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Tony Fratto accused Crow and David of "going after officials with misinformed assertions at a social dinner."
"It would be better to set aside Hollywood histrionics and try to help with the problem instead of this baseless, and tasteless, finger pointing," Fratto told the New York Times.
David said that she was shocked by Rove's response.
"I honestly thought that I was going to change his mind, like, right there and then," she told the Associated Press.
Earlier this month, Crow and David embarked on their Stop Global Warming College Tour, riding a biodiesel bus to 12 campuses across the U.S. in an effort to increase student awareness of the issues surrounding climate change.
The tour concluded at George Washington University Sunday, coinciding with Earth Day. In addition to Crow, Carole King, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill performed, while David's husband, Seinfeld creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David spoke, along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Crow dedicated the closing song of the concert, a cover of the Beatle's "We Can Work It Out," to Rove, who she referred to as "my new friend."
WorldChanging Team Originally posted on Worldchanging.com on February 3, 2007 1:12 PM
by Worldchanging Los Angeles local blogger, GreenLAGirl
A new solution to Los Angeles' e-waste problem comes from a surprising source: Amoeba Music.
This gigantic music store recently introduced "The Big Green Box" at its Hollywood location. Customers can drop off their old and broken electronic gadgets into this box, instead of sending the unwanted junk to the landfills. Amoeba proudly announced this latest addition to the store in its latest email newsletter:
According to the U.S.E.P.A., (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) computers and electronic goods are the fastest growing waste stream in the U.S. accounting for approximately 220 million pounds of waste per year. So gather up your expired batteries, old cell phones, Walkmans and pagers and bring them to us, we'll make sure they are properly recycled!
Amoeba's turning out to be a huge independent music store with a green heart. Of course, Amoeba's core business -- buying and selling music -- could be called eco-friendly in its own right. Unlike chain stores like Virgin and Tower, Amoeba buys and resells used CDs, LPs, and DVDs. Not only is Amoeba thriving at a time when many brick-and-mortar music stores are closing up shop, the indie store also allows these CDs and LPs to escape the landfill by finding them new owners.
Recently, Amoeba stepped up its eco-efforts, because according to its website, "with the current state of our environment we felt it necessary to take on a larger, more global focus." This campaign includes Amoeba's "Think Green: 10 Steps for a Greener Tomorrow" educational effort, which encourages individual consumers to take personal action. The store even sells CFL bulbs alongside its CDs.
In addition, Amoeba has ramped up its involvement with environmental organizations. In addition to donating some of its profits to the Rainforest Action Network -- which Amoeba has been doing since it opened its Berkely store in 1990 -- the music store is now also working with the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and Conservation International.
So the next time you drop by Amoeba Music to sell or buy some new-used music, remember to take your dead batteries and broken toaster with you. Amoeba's open for green business Mon. - Sat. from 10:30 am. - 11 pm, and Sun. from 11 am - 9 pm.
Update from GreenBase: The Big Green Box is now available at Amoeba's San Francisco and Berkeley locations. More information on this effort and Amoeba's new biodegradable plastic bags can be found here.
The winners of MTV's Break the Addiction Challenge will be honored on MTV's TRL today @ 3:30. The grand prize winners are Cornell University and Rutgers Unversity.
All of the finalists and winners of BTA are part of theCampus Climate Challenge, a campaign of over 30 organizations uniting young people to organize on college campuses and high schools to win 100% Clean Energy policies at their schools.
What makes Cornell and Rutger's worthy of the grand prize? Students at Cornell University gathered enough signatures to make their campus carbon neutral, passed the vote for a clean-energy fee, and organized "Feel the Heat," a week of campus events to raise environmental awareness and call students to action. Rutgers University is already taking steps to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and is also busy getting the word out -- through a dorm competition, screenings of "An Inconvenient Truth," and inviting keynote speakers like Congressman Frank Pallone to address the student body.
This little gadget fills your room with tons of swirling rainbows---all through the power of the sun! Find a sunny window and affix the suction cup on the back of the rainbow maker to the window. The sunlight pours in, enters the little solar panel on the top and powers the gears in the center that spin the crystal. The sunlight also hits the crystal at the bottom and shoots rainbows all over your room--creating a solar-powered disco. This is a great eco-friendly baby gift, too (get 'em started early on renewable energy)--perfect for nurseries. At under twenty bucks, it's priced to move. Get it here.
Some suggested jams for your solar-powered dance party:
Looking for an Earth Day e-card with a little more punch than a nature scene? Check out Grist's line of hilarious e-cards that get your point across to your friends and family. Get 'em here!
Earth Day is upon us and chances are, wherever you are, there is a cool event shaping up. My Earth Day event pick is happening in Big Sur, CA at the Henry Miller Library on Sunday from 11am-7pm. The (((folkYeah))) concert series has done it again and put together a bill of some of the best and brightest acts in the Bay Area. Some of my personal favorites are appearing:
Hiss Golden Messenger - the new all-star band with members from the Mother Hips and the Court and Spark.
Can Andrew Bird do any wrong? In my eyes, the answer is "no". A friend of mine hipped me to his stuff only two weeks ago and looked positively shocked when I told her I had never heard of him. I like to start from the beginning, so immediately delved into Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs and settled into a beautiful landscape of smart lyrics and that reverie you feel when you are alone and the creative juices are flowing...and well, everything else just seems to fade away.....THEN, I read that Mr. Bird himself was embarking on a sustainable tour....needless to say, my little heart soared....biodiesel-powered bus, offsetting his emissions with carbon offsets from Native Energy, sustainable goodies from Stonyfield Farm at the merch table? Sweet Heavens! Be a part of Andrew's tour by checking out his concert dates on JamBase. Guess who will be in the front row of his show at the Fillmore with a bunch of organic posies?
On April 14, 2007, gaggles of enthusiastic Americans gathered at more than 1,400 spots around the U.S. to demand action against climate change, part of a coordinated Step It Up campaign launched by author Bill McKibben. At all the rallies, marches, parties, and other hullabaloos, the message was the same: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, and pledge an 80 percent reduction by 2050. I Stepped It Up last Saturday and rode my bike in the rain to a clean car expo held right underneath the lovely Golden Gate Bridge. I encourage you to take a few minutes and go to www.StepItUp2007.org to view the pictures and read actions reports on the 1400 actions held April 14th. It'll give you goosebumps.
Entering its second year, The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival is bringing the message of Earth Day to over 60 live music venues with over 200 performances in New York, Chicago and San Francisco over Earth Day weekend including free events in Central Park, Lincoln Park, Golden Gate Park and Grand Central Terminal.
From April 20th to 22nd, music venues across the country will come together to cultivate awareness of environmental issues through the unifying voice of music with performances by Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Willie Nelson, Bob Weir and his band Ratdog, The Decemberists, Kaiser Chiefs, The Laurie Berkner Band, The Walkmen, Taylor Hicks, Stephen Marley & Junior Gong, Brand New, Jon Anderson of YES, RJD2, English Beat, Andrew Bird, and many more.
The tour is more than just a concert. Check out clean cars at the Pimp My Clean Car shows. Shout Out your thoughts on global warming or other environmental issues. Participate in the Town Hall Forum and enter to win free tix and a meet and greet with Guster. And bring some canned goods to donate to the food drive.
Want to get a taste of what you might be missing? Watch the video of last year's tour:
An interview with Craig Minowa of green-leaning band Cloud Cult By David Roberts 18 Apr 2007
Imagine the soaring tribal rock of Arcade Fire, the head-nodding beat-pop of Postal Service, and the arty skronk of Modest Mouse, strung together in a loose-limbed, lo-fi pastiche. Toss in half a chamber orchestra and some found-sound collages, and top it off with vocals of almost childlike guilelessness and yearning.
That, in a nutshell, is Cloud Cult, a quirky little band out of Minnesota that in the last few years has emerged from obscurity into improbable indie success. Their last album, Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, was an out-of-nowhere college-radio smash that brought major labels courting. That interest is only likely to increase with the release last week of the band's new album, The Meaning of 8, an artistic leap forward that melds the eccentricities beloved by long-time fans with accessible, unshakeable melodies. Rarely has major label pursuit been so futile. Cloud Cult's DIY values go well beyond home-studio noodling into deeply committed green territory. The band records and produces its music on the organic farm of band leader, principal songwriter, and singer Craig Minowa. The northern Minnesota farm -- also Minowa's home and the offices of his nonprofit music label Earthology Records -- is heated entirely with geothermal energy. Early albums were shipped in recycled jewel cases, cleaned by hand by the band; since then, Earthology has developed a full range of eco-friendly packaging and reproduction services that it offers to other bands.
Minowa and crew are now headed out on tour in their biodiesel van. Grist will be co-presenting (with radio station KEXP) the band's shows in Portland and Seattle. I caught up with Minowa by phone.
Q. Which came first, environmental awareness or love of music
A. I've been directly involved with music for longer. I took piano lessons as a little kid, and didn't work in the environmental movement until early high school. But the passion for both grew together. I love both of them so much; I just don't feel like a complete person if I'm not doing both.
Q. Were your parents environmentalists?
A. No. They weren't specifically environmentalists; it was a conservative Christian family. The birthing ground for the environmental tendencies was when I was young. I was kind of a freakazoid of the community, one of the kids that got picked on and beaten up by everyone. So I would go hang out in the woods. There's a tree I could climb but no one else could climb, so I spent a lot of time up there. Over the years I found a lot of solace and friendship out in the woods, and as I got older it felt like something I wanted to protect -- my sacred ground.
Q. You got your degree in environmental science. How much experience did you have in the movement before you jumped over to music professionally?
A. All through college I was doing volunteer work with environmental groups, trying to find my niche in the environmental field. I ended up working with nonprofits, doing environmental education, even some work with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources -- all over the place, testing different things out. I found my niche working with smaller nonprofits. That's where I've been ever since, and I love it.
To read the full article, listen to some of their music, and check out some more pics click here.
Check out the song "Step it Up" by The Gallerists. It turns out a whole bunch of artists wrote songs for Step It Up, April 14 2007, the largest U.S. mobilization on Climate Change to date. You can listen to a whole lot more here.
Are you on the ground each day working to address our climate crisis? Have you, even if only secretly, always wanted to be on MTV? Well, here's your chance to live out that dream and also get to share your story and inspire thousands of others who want to know what they can do about climate change. Click here to find out how you can apply to be on MTV's True Life.
Welcome to GreenBase - As we approach Earth Day (4/22) there is no better time to consider the impact we are having on the planet. JamBase believes in a future where live music can be celebrated without damaging the Earth. We believe that the power of music can help humanity make the transition to a sustainable future.
To this end, JamBase is launching Green.JamBase.com, which will focus on the intersection of live music and climate change.
You Set The Scene by Love
A new solution to Los Angeles' e-waste problem comes from a surprising source: 
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Imagine the soaring tribal rock of Arcade Fire, the head-nodding beat-pop of Postal Service, and the arty skronk of Modest Mouse, strung together in a loose-limbed, lo-fi pastiche. Toss in half a chamber orchestra and some found-sound collages, and top it off with vocals of almost childlike guilelessness and yearning.
Check out the song "Step it Up" by 
