For all those who never thought activism could be sexy, think again. Summer Rayne Oakes’ work is proof that you can do good in anything you do, that includes modeling. But more than just a pretty face on the green scene, Summer’s legitimacy comes from her study and work in the field. A graduate from Cornell University, she’s an entomologist and environmental scientist by training. Since then, she’s become the face of cause-related modeling, working on innovative sustainable design/development projects to push sustainability issues through fashion and media–a position which earned her the name of… “The Eco-Model.”

Her studies range from waste management, to landscape impact analysis and aquatic entomology and stream water quality overlap with her environmentally-relevant, values-based modeling, for which she is largely recognized.

Summer Rayne is also a spokesperson, resident expert, and youngest Board of Advisors for Discovery Network’s Planet Green and a partner at the consulting firm, Group SJR, which is grounded in innovative research, brand development/management, and strategic communications.

Summer is an activist first and foremost and stays connected to grassroots initiatives including the youth climate change-green jobs movement; environmental- and socially-conscious design; and sustainable development, particularly in Africa and the Arctic.

“I’d like to be aboveboard with all of you: I consider myself an activist first and foremost. You can call me many titles, but that is the word that I feel best describes who I am, what drives me—and that’s the work that I am most proud of. I am one of the lucky ones: I’ve always had a passion. It was with me the day I was born. I have known nothing else…And sometimes, that alone, shakes me to the core.

Everything I do—whether it is as a model, author, host, creator, consultant, or collaborator—is influenced, if not defined by my activism. I specifically seek out programs and work that specifically enable, enhance, or add to the work that I am most passionate about; programs that will bring important issues to a wider audience and make them more relevant to all of our lives; and to empower individuals and all of us collectively.”

We’re excited to hear Summer offer her insights at The Feast Conference on forward momentum in upward streams, honing and presenting “green” messaging to truly elicit change. If you haven’t already, buy your tickets as we are close to selling out!

One of the unfortunate facts about life is that the vast majority of us need to work to support ourselves. Also unfortunate is the fact that most of us that work are not in positions to make significant changes at our workplace.

Why am I stating the painfully obvious? Because in our lives outside of the office it is relatively easy to make eco-conscious choices if we want. At work that becomes much more difficult, particularly when you factor in office politics and bottom-line-driven bosses. Some businesses, however, are doing their part to help the environment.

I work at a big New England law firm. Law firms, by and large, are not eco-friendly workplaces. The nature of the work necessitates the production and reproduction of thousands of pages of documents on a daily basis, there can be a decent amount of travel involved, and people work long hours, which requires vast amounts of power to keep lights, computers, climate control systems, and everything else humming at all hours of the day. Luckily, my firm has started a “going green initiative,” which recognizes the adverse effects daily business can have on the environment and aims to mitigate them.

Some of the actions the firm has taken include: The donation of 120,000 sq. ft. of office furniture to nonprofit groups from recent office relocations; installation of recycled rubber floors, lutron and motion-sensor lighting controls, energy star appliances and electronics, and energy efficient HVAC controls in new offices along the East Coast; replacing inefficient computers, monitors, printers, and copiers with EPA-rated energy star ones; purchasing recycled paper and paper goods that are used on a regular basis as well as providing many recycling bins for paper, bottles, and cans; recycling old computers and toner cartridges; and encouraging double-sided printing whenever possible.

My firm is by no means the only law firm that is implementing these same measures. The American Bar Association, in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency, has set forth a challenge to all law firms to do become more eco-friendly in their practices (read more here). Replacing equipment and renovating offices is incredibly expensive, but even small things like encouraging recycling can make a difference. And double-sided copying saves money on paper costs.

If your workplace doesn’t appear to be making environmentally friendly decisions, there are things that can be done, just make sure to be careful if and when you bring them up.

If you’ve ever sat around and thought, “Gee, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Zagat-style guide to local green businesses?” then wish no longer concerned citizen, because a small, ambitious group called Greenopia publishes just such a guide for Los Angeles, San Francisco, and as of April – New York City’s Big Green Apple. I recently caught up with Janna Olson, who, in addition to being a lovely person, is also market manager for Greenopia New York. She had a lot to say.

Can you tell me a little bit about Greenopia?

Greenopia is a series of local guides to green living that take a neighborhood approach to finding those eco-friendly choices we might know are out there, but don’t have time to research ourselves. It turns out that in New York they’re really all around us.

The guide’s founder Gay Browne grew up asthmatic in Southern California. In the early 90s, when her young son was diagnosed with autistic tendencies, she got serious about detoxifying her world. But she found the process of building a home in an eco-friendly, non-toxic manner to be a path with a lot of great solutions, but no comprehensive and accessible guideposts.

Were the guides a logical offshoot from that?

That and the fact that the few resources she did find were very “all or nothing.” She felt that a need for something that serves the staunch green devotee and people new to the idea of making healthier choices in an increasingly toxic world. It’s a continuum.

So, Greenopia’s 50+ categories showing where to find more eco-friendly products and services in town is the result of one person’s dedication to making this idea of “going green” an easy transition.

I would imagine that putting the guides together was a major undertaking, particularly in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. How much effort went into these?

Whew! Loads. The aim is to celebrate every businessperson who’s opened the door to healthier options for people to choose from. These aren’t paid listings; we’re working to find businesses that are earnest in their efforts.

Greenopia engages three keys to building listings that are solid and trustworthy. We start with a questionnaire for each of the 50 categories with criteria composed from national certifiers, local experts, and industry best practices.

Next we hit the streets. In New York, for example, twenty of us walked the commercial blocks of all five boroughs…in the middle of winter.

Scoping each business that looks like a good candidate, our researchers then take out a 1-4 page questionnaire and ask to tour restaurant kitchens or speak with directors of operations and heads of housekeeping.

Finally, the lists of fully researched businesses – in NYC, we found 1,425out of 80,000 possibilities in all five boroughs – are taken to an Advisory Council composed of local experts in each field. The Advisory Council reviews our lists to make sure we haven’t overlooked key businesses and vet those who may not be as green as they appeared.

So, the interaction between our local Advisory Council and the researchers – who can go back to a location to clarify questions when necessary – is key to rounding out a constantly evolving process and ensuring our research is solid, which is crucial.

Wow, you guys must be in great physical shape, do you all go to green gyms?

The walking, cycling, and backpacks crammed with research kept us all in fairly peak condition last winter.

How does your rating system work?

We take a Michelin-style approach to 29 of the trickiest categories, rating them with 1-4 leaves which respectively denote 25, 50, 75, or 90+ percent eco-friendly product offerings and practices. Part of the continuum of building a healthier world is about providing a welcome place to start (so 25% eco-effort gets a business listed) and showcasing an ideal to shoot for (90% and above).

This applies to “front of house” products and services as well as “behind the scenes” practices. Some things businesses do behind the scenes can be more evident: The Fort Greene restaurant and Habana Outpost, for example, make use of their solar panels a point of welcome and education for their patrons.

On the other hand, at the Hotel Benjamin, you’d probably never guess that they’re saving thousands of gallons of water each year with less glamorous, highly cost-efficient low flow toilets and shower heads in over 90% of their 209 rooms. The save even more water with a towel and linen reuse policy and reduce their draw on the energy grid using 90% Energy Star appliances with CFLs in their hallways, lobbies, and conference rooms.

What sorts of businesses do you rate?

Mostly businesses in categories where it’s difficult to discern what makes them eco-friendly: hotels, restaurants, salons, garden supplies, dry cleaners (a particularly deceptive category due to the sometimes erroneous “organic” sign hanging in shops that still use carcinogenic PERC much of the time).

By contrast categories like recycling centers, eco-cleaning services, and alternative energy contractors are more obvious in their greener ambitions. But, even there, we state our basic evaluation criteria at the outset.

Do you do all the ratings yourself?

We do, and I like to encourage people to remember that Greenopia’s guides are just that – guides. We work really hard to put easy access to trustworthy options in people’s own hands. And the guide is there to encourage your own investigation and curiosity.

We have a great online resource that exists precisely so you can evaluate and recommend businesses on your own. The site and the printed guides are packed with facts to spark your own explanation. So you end up in a position to start your own conversations with neighborhood shop owners and service providers to learn where their eco-friendly efforts are headed.

Can a company pay to be mentioned in your guides?

Absolutely not. With independent research, trust is everything. No one is charged because they may or may not be included once we’re done. That’s Greenopia’s Michelin Guide or Consumer Reports element.

Our aim is to respect the businesses and organizations committed to building a sustainable society as well. Companies listed in the guides are welcome to sell them, which is a win-win in that they can make a profit, support each other locally, and encourage their customers to support greening the City’s supply chain.

Where does your funding come from then?

Well, to borrow a phrase: People like you! It’s really about people buying and using th guides. In essence, that’s what keeps us going.

In all three cities, thousands of people have bought guides, are participating in Greenopia.com as a social network, launching blogs, and subscribing (at no cost) to our online newsletter. As a result, companies are advertising on our website, and that also helps to fund our efforts.

Most Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods Market locations have them in New York, LA, and San Francisco, and there’s a great list on our site’s Buy the Guide Locally page that notes every local, eco-friendly business that sells Greenopia guides so people can support them by stopping in for a guide and learning more about what they have to offer.

The real service being provided is two-fold: Each new person that starts using Greenopia has the combination of facts about what makes for a healthier choice as well as access to places a block or two from their home that allow them to make those choices. Oftentimes it can be just as easy to pick up a healthier habit then simply doing it the old way.

Have you noticed that there has been more interest of late?

Yes! So much seems to have happened since the so-called tipping point of early-2006 when Yanklovich polling reported that Americans now worried about their country’s dependence on foreign energy sources with more believing that energy independence was a necessity.

To what do you attribute this new sense of eco-friendliness and awareness? Surely it couldn’t all have been Al Gore right?

Well, there are lots of external signals that are shaping our shift in a greener direction: We’ve got Big 10 schools offering degrees in sustainability, off the charts oil prices, the new realm of business called social entrepreneurialism, intensified storm systems and vanishing polar ice caps, large corporations realizing significant savings from energy efficient choices plus big profits and averted fines in the carbon emissions trade. There’s also been a trend in reinsurance companies refusing to cover corporations that ignore effective risk management policies to mitigate further eco-system collapse.

Of course, these macro factors seems pretty far removed from choices we make as individuals, but it’s a good part of why we have increasingly seen local and organic food choices at the grocery store, and compact fluorescent bulbs on every hardware store shelf and even at Wal-Mart.

What I really think is driving this new “eco-friendliness” is the unacknowledged internal stress that comes from knowing that the way in which we collectively consume resources is unsustainable. It’s taxing to constantly read and hear about the destruction of the environment and the loss of species. And it feels better to make proactive choices.

So I know that you guys keep track of businesses that are doing really great things for the environment, but do you also rate businesses that are killing us (Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, Halliburton, Dow, R.J. Reynolds, Northrup Grumman, I’m looking at you)?

The evils of large corporations are probably more well known to us than the solutions that exist right around the corner from where we live. Engaging those solutions and shifting our dollars away from those businesses you mentioned and others is the quickest way I know to get a message into corporate boardrooms. To me, that seems more powerful than Greenopia rating the “bad guys.”

Too bad, that could be a fun blog maybe.

Hey, greenopia will host it if you want to launch it. Or you could just rent “The Corporation” and keep moving towards solutions.

Why does the San Francisco guide cost a dollar less ($16.95) than the New York and LA ones? I’m dying to know.

That’s an easy one: LA and New York are bigger. So, you actually get more bang for the buck with a broader base of businesses and locations to choose from. Also, our guides are printed on 100% de-inked recycled paper with the highest concentration of soy ink possible. Carbon offsets are engaged for research, production, printing, and transport of the guide. So, the San Francisco guide provides one with additional green savings simply because the city is smaller. Otherwise, production is a costly endeavor…for us, but thankfully not for the earth.

So you guys really walk the walk then, huh?

We’re always striving to do better. Going green is an education for us and everybody – that’s why it’s exciting.

I noticed that Greenopia has ambitions plans for expansion. When are you going to make it to Hartford and its suburbs?

In my vision for the US, every town is part of Greenopia country. Right now, we’re ready to roll into more than ten cities at once. Greenopia has a city-by-city plan – based on demographics and sustainability rankings – for the release of our guides and we’re expanding our web  presence to incorporate cities in secondary markets like Hartford. Be patient, there’s no question that the demand is there.

What can I do until then to assure that I’m choosing the best businesses to patronize?

Use the fantastic wealth of green blogs, books, and websites (like ours) out there to education yourself and get in the practice of asking some polite inquisitive questions of local business owners and their staff.

How can I make more green?

Hmm, shift your career aspirations to solar or wind, local organic farming, or other green growth industries?

Excuse me, what I meant was “How else can I make my life more green?”

For personal health, try shifting to locally grown foods that come from farms devoted to sustainable practices. Fresher food is higher in nutritional content and better tasting, too. When it’s local, you’re also cutting your carbon footprint by not contributing to the average journey of 1500 miles that grocery store produce on American dinner plates usually travels.

For greener energy and greener pockets, remember it’s true that a CFL uses 25% the electricity as an incandescent bulb. Also, keeping relying less on heat and air conditioning, and monitoring idle appliances really makes a difference. You can even arrange for an earth-friendly burial service (which we describe in our guides).

OK, before it comes to my burial, what about making green decisions at work?

Check into how recycling works in your building and do one key thing to help that process along; recommend or arrange an energy audit of the company’s offices; advocate for double sided copies which save trees and money, and could allow you to switch suppliers and purchase 20% or higher post-consumer recycled paper.

The short answer is to look in the guides: there’s a ten point section devoted to what you can do to save coal, chemicals, air quality, and water by changing little things on the job.

Can I, alone, actually make a difference?

If there’s a lesson of the marketplace to be taken from Greenopia’s pages, it is that small efforts magnify. Taking one – or several – green actions immediately changes your world. And your world is The World.

OK, last question: Are we all screwed?

That’s the looming question in the back of all our minds now. If we translate it into a hypothesis, the answer becomes our shared challenge. The answer is in the doing, and that’s what this guide is for.

I hear nay-sayers all the time tell me: “These little things are just tragic ways of deceiving ourselves in the face of our own extinction.”  I disagree. Finding solutions in your neighborhood, talking with and buying from a problem solver, these things go a long way to relieving the stress of that question so you can sleep easier at night.

The more frequently you join with people living life on the solution side, the clearer the power of our own actions to shape that answer becomes. I think “going green” really just means you can envision a future.

Thanks for bearing with me, and thanks so much for your time.

It’s been a total delight. Thank you for exploring life in Greenopia.

You can also find this article and Abe’s writing in the Huffington Post Green section.

I live Northern California, otherwise known as “Recycling Heaven”. If New Hampshire is “Live Free or Die” then NoCal is most assuredly “Recycle or Die” (I sort of like how that’s on the true side, considering how quickly we’re using the Earth’s resources). Recycling here is a way of life, you just do it–work places have recycling bins, every neighborhood (it seems) has recycling pick-up service (no toting it anywhere), and even street corners sport recycling bins next to trash cans. This is why, every time I visit the East Coast, I become disoriented. I wander confusedly looking for a place to deposit my empty water bottle while my friends patiently point to the trash can. I naively ask my hosts where they put their recycling when I finish my bottle of beer. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that people throw away perfectly good glass, aluminium (do you know how much that’s worth???), paper, and plastic (that’s literally oil).

Luckily, there is hope on the horizon for West Coast denizens heading East.

Some cities are talking about Mandating recycling. Of course, by ’some cities’, I mean San Francisco which already is keeping 70% of its waste out of landfills. SF wants to hit 75% though, and that’s why it’s talking about mandating recycling under pain of stopping garbage pick up service if you fail to comply. I must admit, I sort of like this approach. It’s very ‘eye for an eye’. Don’t bother to recycle? You can sit in your trash while your neighbors look at you askance. Why is SF doing all this though? According to Mayor Newsom it’s because “You want to be the greatest city. You want to be the leading city.” Hear that NYC? That sounds like a challenge. You might have better bagels, but we have better recycling! Are you going to stand for that?

But, there’s a way I think will work even better. Pay people to recycle. I love this. The company at the forefront of this movement (RecycleBank) has a simple formula:

1) Charge municipalities $24 per household to run the service.
2) Weigh the amount of recycling households deposit via some fancy technology (RFID). Amazingly, most folks don’t cheat–they must fear the recycling gods.
3) Pay the household for what they deposit via gift cards to stores like Starbucks and CVS.
4) People recycle way more and throw away a lot less.
5) Municipalities save more than $24 per household since they don’t have to haul all the garbage.
6) RecycleBank makes more money by selling the recyclables to recycling plants.

Brilliant. Everyone wins. And, it’s already been proven effective in the cities it’s been started in.

“RecycleBank persuaded Philadelphia officials to allow it to conduct a pilot project involving 2,500 households in two Philadelphia neighborhoods, upscale Chestnut Hill and modest West Oak Lane. Six months later, 90 percent of the households in both neighborhoods were participating, up from 35 percent in Chestnut Hill and 7 percent in West Oak Lane — averaging 25 pounds a week of recyclables per home. The city is considering whether to contract for the service and extend it.”


So how can you bring this kind of recycling to your hometown? Check this out. The sooner you do it, the sooner I stop asking you where the nearest recycling bin is when I visit. Happy Recycling!

Since April 1st, the Sundance channel has aired season 2 of The Green: “television’s first regularly-scheduled programming destination dedicated entirely to the environment,” according to the website. Unfortunately, I do not receive the Sundance Channel and have never seen the program, but for those who do and for those who are curious as to how the sudden environmental movement is revolutionizing our lifestyle, our economy, and now our entrainment, this program is a must.

Robert Redford co-hosts this program, which features segments ranging from designers creating eco-friendly products to the executives and businesses implementing green friendly practices. Accompanying The Green station, The Green website features additional multimedia, links, and resources for those looking to participate as well as educate themselves.

The Green airs Tuesdays at 9 pm on the Sundance Channel.

Visit http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen for more information.

If animal rights weren’t enough of a reason to eat less meat (for the record, I’m Not a vegetarian), then maybe climate change should be. Growing meat, especially cows, is super bad for the environment. For one thing, to produce 200 meat calories requires 2 to 5 times the amount of grain (!) than say, 200 bread calories. Inherent in that are all the problems associated with farming such as increased contamination in groundwater, pesticides used, forests burned for crop space etc… Meat exacerbates this further by causing additional shipping (the grain to feed the cows is not generally produced nearby), overuse of antibiotics (feeding cows grain versus their natural diet of grass fattens them quickly, but causes them health problems), more ‘waste’ (you know, from the other end), and of course, whatever electrical power the cattle ‘factories’ are using. All this taken together means:

“…if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.” (Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler ).

Additionally, that extra grain going to feed cows is Not going to feed people, and given the current global food shortage, that seems a bit oddly prioritized. I realize cattle feed may not be suitable for people, but surely the land could be used to grow people friendly crops.

Not to say that meat is all bad, or that Bessie and Daisy should be sacrificed for the greater good–growing livestock helps maintain biodiversity and soil quality. What really needs to change is how we raise meat. According the Union of Concerned Scientists:
“…there are better ways to raise food animals. Raising cattle on pasture lessens environmental damage, improves animal health, and reduces antibiotic use. Over the past decade, numerous scientific studies have shown that the meat and milk from pasture-raised animals are higher in fats that may confer health benefits on humans.”

Of course growing meat in pasture means it will be more expensive and we won’t be able to raise as much. Basically, we’d all need to cut back (and by ‘we’ I mean Americans and Europeans). The reality is that this should not be difficult or even bad for us to do. Too much meat, especially of the red variety, has been linked to all sorts of health problems like heart disease. Really, our moms were right all along when they said to eat more vegetables. You could also make the switch to grass-fed, cruelty and antibiotic free meat. It’s more expensive, but if you simultaneously cut your intake (say, by 20%) you’ll be making a good moral and health choice, without really effecting your food budget (sweet!). Besides, grass-fed is more delicious so you can mask your good intentions by claiming to be a connaisseur. And, you’ll get to label yourself as a ‘flexitarian‘ which sounds way cooler than “I’m eating less meat these days”.

So next time you’re cruisin’ the meat aisle, think twice about what you buy. If it isn’t going to be as natural as possible, then reach for the tofu instead. Bessie and Mother Earth will both thank you.

Tired of hauling your junk mail from mailbox to recycling bin (or <shudder> trash can)? Sick of sorting through the catalogs to find your birthday cards from Grandma? Well, you’re in luck. There’s been a recent trend of organizations popping up to stop junk mail. From D.I.Y sites that give you all the steps you need (for the ambitious) to sites that do it all for you (for the lazy who are willing to pay), there’s a solution for you. For both the lazy and greedy, there’s GreenDimes, which is currently paying new customers a dollar to get rid of their junk mail. GreenDimes is a bit different from those other places too, says Dan Estabrook, general manager of GreenDimes “We are a full service junk mail reduction service…With services ranging from GreenDimes Basic, our new do-it-yourself service that’s free, to to GreenDimes premium, our full service solution where we do everything for you…” Basically, they’re trying to do it all.

Sounds crazy, huh? It seems like the owner of GreenDimes is in business to put himself out of business by stopping junk mail (GreenDimes also runs a petition to create a do-not-mail list, much like the do-not-call list). As a social entrepreneur, he’s trying to do good, but for profit. The current campaign of paying you a dollar to sign up is to drum up support and create a viral campaign to empty our mailboxes. But don’t panic about the folks running GreenDimes being out of a job any time soon, the parent company TONIC, is definitively not around to put itself out of business. Tonic works with top designers to create cool enviro-friendly t-shirts and then gives 40% of the cost to good causes. Cool T-shirts AND less mail–sounds like a winner to me!

Do you know where your clothes come from? And no, I don’t mean the Gap, or China for that matter. I mean sheep, cotton plants and the like. Well, Deepa Natarajan does. The Botanical Gardens have reinstated an old program under her direction, called Fiber and Dye that explores just that.

With the assistance of Sasha Duerr of the Permacouture Institute, Deepa and co. updated the old exhibit for modern times. At the Garden you can check out everything from the raw materials used to create clothing to some handmade finished product to the kinds of plants various dyes come from (see photos below). You can also take a self-guided walk through the Garden itself, which showcases the relevant plants used for both dyeing and material. In addition, the exhibit ran a few workshops, including an Easter Egg dyeing workshop featuring natural dyes that allowed kids to actually see where their dyes come from (way cooler than those little tablets things that come in an Easter Egg dyeing kit).

According to Deepa, the idea behind this is the same as garden programs that many schools do. In those, children are taught where their food comes through garden tours or even by having the kids raise plants. Why not do the same for clothing? It would be cool for people to know that onion skins can create a beautiful golden hue, or cabbage (yes, cabbage) a brilliant blue. You can hear the dinner table conversations now–”but mom, I’d much rather make dye with my cabbage than eat it!”

This exhibit has another goal too–to help raise awareness about eco-fashion and sustainable clothing, or as Deepa called it “Slow Clothing”. Lot’s of eco-fashion is a bit on the pricey side right now, but I’m willing to bet that as awareness grows and more producers start joining in to meet demand that prices will fall. In the meantime, eco-savvy people can try for sustainable fabrics, reusing fabrics (hullo, Vintage!), and clothing made with fair practices. If you’re in the SF Bay area you can also check out the Fiber and Dye exhibit this weekend–it runs until Monday, March 31 and is open from 9am-5pm each day. Admission prices and directions can be found here.

Biofuel (or Biorganic Fuel) is what it sounds like: fuel derived from organic material. The biofuel you’re probably most familiar with is Ethanol. Ethanol is alcohol (though probably not something you’d care to drink) often derived from corn, though it can be made from many things. Ethanol has a lot of benefits, including the fact that it burns cleaner and is a renewable resource. Since it comes from plants like corn and sugar cane, and the plants absorb the Carbon Dioxide let off by burning the fuel, it creates a cycle of cleaner fuel production. Seems great, no? The US government has certainly hopped aboard this bandwagon, increasing the amount of biofuel that must be mixed into gasoline (via the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy and Security Act of 2007), and subsidizing farmers to raise the crops necessary for this (read: corn and soybeans).

Only, there’s a catch. In fact, there are few:

Food Shortages: “when we divert our corn or soybeans to fuel, if people around the world are going to continue to eat the same amount that they’re already eating, you have to replace that food somewhere else,” (Study: Ethanol Worse for Climate Than Gasoline ). Thus, thanks to good ‘ol supply and demand, food prices have increased–not just because of biofuels, but it is certainly a factor. This maybe isn’t a big deal for your average American, but sure hurts the people of Nigeria. Going hand in hand with that is the fact that in some countries farmers are participating in slash and burn practices to create more land to grow crops for biofuel. It is believed that this could release twice as much carbon dioxide as gasoline usage over the next 30 years.

Higher energy cost to create biofuel than what you get out of it: This one is controversial, but some scientists believe that between the fuel to run farm equipment, ship the crops, fertilize, and farm in general, that some kinds of biofuel, especially corn, are energy inefficient.

Not cost effective: Ethanol from corn is relatively cheap because it’s subsidized. The problem with subsidies is a whole ‘nother one, but it is pretty well recognized (if arguable) that it does nothing for crop diversity or allowing developing countries to create competitive farming industries. Not to mention, that’s letting our energy future rest in the hands of the American farm lobby.

Weather: It’s tricky. If we become reliant on biofuel and we have a bad drought, we’re in trouble. Then we’d have both a food AND fuel shortage, a veritable double whammy of disaster.

So what’s a good eco-citizen to do? Well, there are some alternatives. One is to use switchgrass instead of corn. Switchgrass grows well just about anywhere, even on land that’s been exhausted by other crops. It has multiple uses as animal feed, biofuel, or ground cover to stop erosion. And, since humans can’t eat it, it’s not so bad for the food production problem as corn. Another interesting idea is to use trash to create ethanol. And of course, there’s always solar and wind energy.

So basically, Biofuel is an interesting avenue to explore, but really requires further research before we make it the backbone of American energy independence and promote it as an environmentally sustainable fuel.

Two scientists, F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr at Los Alamos National Laboratory, have come up with an idea that could potentially solve the emission problems caused by gas guzzling cars. They call it Green Freedom. They believe they can create a system that would take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into gas. Since this would be a closed cycle (carbon dioxide released = carbon dioxide removed), it would basically negate the effect of vehicles on the road using normal gas and assure continued availability of fuel (so no more reliance on the Middle East for oil). Because it doesn’t use valuable land (like biofuel), hydrogen (lot’s of energy to create), or electric (won’t take you very far) it could be a superior method, assuming of course it doesn’t have an extremely high energy price. The scientists argue it would be cost effective enough ($3-4 a gallon) to actually work, which is huge, since that’s a problem that has consistently thwarted the efforts of the solar power industry.

Many would probably argue we should look for options that don’t involve the use of oil at all (such as ‘healthy’ forms of transportation like walking and biking), but one must appreciate the ingenuity involved here. It will be awhile before anyone knows if this is a truly viable option, but in the meantime, let’s hope smart people like these guys keep on keepin’ on with the good ideas.