General

It’s hard to tell exactly where the hybrid car industry is going to go. Just a few years ago, hybrid cars were on the rise to offset the steadily increasing gas prices. Then, murmurs of electric cars generated overwhelming enthusiasm for the prospect of never spending another dollar at the gas pump. Now, electric cars are hitting the streets and hybrids feel a bit in no man’s land between the common gasoline engine and the idealistic electric car.

Statistics show that hybrids peaked in 2007 before the gas price explosion in 2008 and before the worst periods of the longest recession since WWII. Last year, hybrids had fallen 17% since that time to around 289,000 cars.

So why is the industry so hard to understand when the hybrid trend is clearly downward?

LCD TV manufacturers should certainly not panic about the recent sales statistics released, but there may be reasons to rethink the routine, electronics trends that have dictated sales prices for years.

Curve-shaped product lives mixed with descending pricing structures are the products of economists and business folks trying to grapple the complexities of the buying behavior of consumers living in a world of constant technological advancements. A product comes on the scene at a premium price with the latest and greatest technology and as time goes by, prices drop and more people start buying it until it no longer is in demand and the product slowly phases out. It is routine with all products.

So what explains the latest trends of increased spending on LCD TVs, a product in existence for years?

This is an era where many are thinking about switching out that big SUV for a car that’s better for the environment. But what about switching out your family pet for a nice indoor plant?

A new book called Time to Eat the Dog? by a husband and wife team in New Zealand argue that every aspect of life should be put under the microscope of sustainable living, along with pet ownership.

Dogs that require a meat diet, according to the authors, have a surprisingly large ecological paw print. It takes more than two acres of land to keep a medium size dog fed. In contrast, a Land Cruiser needs about half that.

I agree that feeding dogs a dried meat diet is not a good idea – and could even be called irresponsible from the earth’s perspective. But couldn’t you say the same thing about a man or a woman with a high percentage of meat in their diet, especially if it travels long distances to reach a dinner plate?

On the weekend we celebrate with pride the legacy of Martin Luther King Junior, it’s worth a look back at some of his famous remarks, this time from an environmental perspective.

It’s obvious that King was a man who respected the earth, just like he respected it’s people. He preached a philosophy of responsibility, unity and nonviolence: Three valuable lessons for anyone trying to make an impact in and on the environmental world.

Responsibility

King: Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

I wish I had a count of the number of times friends and family members have asked me to stop talking about factory farming or environmental degradation because they just didn’t want to think about it. If we would only let our mind get the facts straight, our consciences would do the rest.

Unity

China has been in the headlines lately for their push for green energy and green technology. However, they haven’t applied that green gusto at home when it comes to taking out the trash.

Guangzhou in the Panyu district is facing the same problems of other large Chinese cities: a growing population, exhausted landfill sites, no waste reduction programs. The city was selected by the government to be the home of a new trash incinerator that would serve 2.5 million residents by burning 2,000 tons of trash daily.

Churches worldwide are not just showing off their commitment to a religious life but also decreasing their carbon footprint. One such community believes that “It's part of Christian spirituality to respect the environment."

Clothing is often a victim of a closet cleaning, moves, or style updates. Perfectly good pieces are pitched in the trash without a second thought. Levi’s and Goodwill have launched a tag-team mission to make sure your jeans have more than one life.

Levi Strauss’ new “Care Tag For Our Planet” program has a twofold mission to reduce the carbon footprint of their jeans. Each pair will have a tag that recommends that the owner reduce energy consumption by washing the jeans in cold water, air dry them when possible, and wash them less to reduce water consumption. The last label line suggests donating the pair to Goodwill to extend their lifecycle.

Halloween is just around the corner and like any other celebration that usually means two things: spending cash, and decorating with props. Props like costumes, scary skeletons, tombstones and eerie lights that cast an orange-ish glow all are part of the fun and they help create fond memories for kids and adults alike.

It’s all part of bringing in the Halloween spirit so how can you preserve the fun and still do something to reduce impact on the environment? We’ve pulled together some easy tips and they’re centered around three words – reduce, reuse and recycle.

In his latest piece, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman says there are three bombs that could devastate society as we know it: the nuclear bomb, the climate bomb and the debt bomb.

And he’s right. All three of these could irrevocably push the system – either the natural or economic system – to the breaking point.

But still, just as it was during the Cold War climax, the nuclear bomb is the one constant, it-could-happen-tomorrow threat. Especially with technology spreading to hostile, short-fused nations like Iran, Pakistan, India and North Korea, among others.

If looked at holistically, the nuclear and climate threats are interrelated. Even a regional nuclear back-and-forth between foes would leave lasting effects on the world ecosystem and climate.

A study released in late 2006 found detonating between 50 and 100 bombs, a tiny percent of those now ready and aimed, would throw the world into a tailspin.

Both the 2012 London Games and the newly announced 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics are looking to offset the thousands of athletes, coaches and sports fans converging on their cities.

But Rio’s “Carbon Zero 2016” campaign is planning to offset the entire games through tree planting. Three million saplings, when all said and done, actually.

Tree planting is a great start. The trees will throw tons and tons of oxygen into the air, helping to combat carbon emissions from things like plane rides and construction projects.

But I’ve yet to read about Rio officials looking at ways to decrease the amount of carbon they plan to use. Any green program should have both offsets and reductions, especially programs as high-profile as the Olympic games.