If more customers knew that Dasani water was simply municipal tap water – the same exact stuff that comes out of their own faucets at home – would they pay a premium for it? Probably not, as notorious eco-pranksters The Yes Men found out during a recent trip to Boston.

The Yes Men and “Coca-Cola spokespeople” unveiled a new, more truthful name and label for Dassani bottled water at a park and then spoke to people about whether they would buy it.

Check it out:

From The Phoenix:

The mock press conference, part of Boston-based Corporate Accountability International’s (CIA) Think Outside the Bottle campaign, protested Coca-Cola’s refusal to state Dasani’s origin — public water sources — on its labels, as Pepsi and Nestlé have done with their bottled-water brands.

“This is a classic case of deception,” said Mike Bonanno (a/k/a Igor Vamos), in town that day with main cohort Andy Bichlbaum (né Jacques Servin) for the opening of The Yes Men Fix the World at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. “They don’t want people to know that they’re drinking tap water because it’s pure profit. Basically, they’ve figured out such a great scam that they don’t want it to end.”

Check out the rest of their eco-pranks at TheYesMen.org.

Link [The Phoenix]

Winter may be closing in on us, but that doesn’t mean that we have to stop growing our own food, even for those who live in the cold Northeast. The OrganicNation.tv team talked to Yale Sustainable Food Project director Melina Shannon-DiPietro about the project’s unheated greenhouse, which continues producing tasty winter greens well into the coldest time of the year.

Winter Harvest at Yale’s Greenhouse from OrganicNation on Vimeo.

Want to know more about the Yale Sustainable Food Project? Check out Organic Nation’s other video from their visit to the one-acre organic farm founded by Alice Waters and members of the Yale faculty in 2001. Or, visit Yale.edu/SustainableFood.

Link [Organic Nation] + [Yale]

If we build a bunch of wind turbines near communities, people are going to start dropping to the ground in pain because infrasound is affecting their inner ear. Or, at least, that’s what one New York doctor wants us all to believe. She’s wrong – but the problem is, opponents of wind power are seizing onto her argument to further their own agenda.

Pediatrician Nina Pierpont gathered testimony from a scant 38 people who live near wind turbines in England, Canada and elsewhere about headaches, nausea, insomnia, visual blurring, vertigo and panic attacks. Her website, WindTurbineSyndrome.com, and book of the same name attributes these symptoms to infrasound, a type of low-frequency sound that she claims disrupts the inner-ear vestibular system—the body’s chief tool for balance and spatial orientation.

Thankfully, Grist has examined and debunked Pierpont’s hypothesis:

So here’s what’s wrong with wind-turbine syndrome. First, there’s Pierpont’s method. Her study consisted of 38 people from ten families—by most standards too small to yield conclusive results. All of them self-identified as people who were already experiencing health effects; there was no control group.

Further, acousticians who study the issue say Pierpont fundamentally misunderstands the nature of low-frequency sound. Geoff Leventhall, an English acoustician who retired from the University of London and chairs the European Institute of Noise Control Engineering, agrees that turbines create infrasound that cannot be heard. So do driving with an open window, swinging on a swing set, and even jogging—the slight rise and fall of the head create the effect.

Leventhall describes infrasound as a common phenomenon that isn’t dangerous except at extremely high levels, such as those produced by spacecraft. Infrasound from wind turbines does not approach that level, said Leventhall, who recently flew to Wisconsin to testify at a hearing for the proposed Glacier Hills Wind Park.

Her work isn’t even peer-reviewed, despite her claims – the four-person editorial board that she cites includes herself, her husband and two others—a professor emeritus of literature and an ecologist and psychologist.

Grist has more technical details on why Pierpont is wrong, as well as an analysis on how her claims are affecting the wind industry.

None of this is to say that noise from wind turbines are never an annoyance for people who live near them – but it’s probably safe to say that the effect upon people who live near them is far less dangerous than that of fossil fuel-burning power plants.

Link [Grist]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Coral seems so peaceful and passive, rippling in the currents of the sea in all its colorful beauty. It’s easy to forget that it’s actually an animal and not a plant. But, perhaps this photo will remind you – captured on a dive in Israel in March, it’s the first documentation of coral feeding on a jellyfish.

From BBC News:

Ocean currents and nutrients had created a seasonal bloom of the jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) and many surrounded the reef in which the team were diving.

It was then they saw the strange behaviour.

“During the survey we were amazed to notice some mushroom corals actively feeding on the moon jellyfish,” says Ada Alamaru, a member of the research team who is doing her PhD in marine biology supervised by Prof Yossi Loya at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it,” Ms Alamaru says.

Researchers believe that coral’s ability to survive on a variety of food sources may give it an advantage in a changing world – and it’s going to need it. Reefs are increasingly threatened by climate change, particularly increased air and sea surface temperatures, rises in sea level, changes in weather patterns and changes in seawater chemistry.

But acidification of the world’s oceans from human CO2 emissions is an extremely formidable opponent for coral to face, and it’s hard to say right now whether they’ll make it through the fight.

Link [BBC News]

Antioch University is seeking a full-time Chair of the MA in Urban Sustainability Program in Los Angeles.

Antioch University Los Angeles provides rigorous progressive education to prepare students for the complexities of today’s diverse societies. Combining dynamic scholarship and creative endeavor with experiential learning and reflective practice, AULA fosters personal and collective agency, global citizenship, and socially conscious leadership.

Position Overview:

The Chair of the MA in Urban Sustainability Program is responsible for administering all aspects of the Program, including recommending for hire and supervision of program faculty, coordinating student recruitment and retention efforts with the campus Admissions and marketing staff, and developing a strategy for the launch and ongoing implementation of the low-residency, online graduate program in consultation with the Provost/VPAA.

As a member of the core faculty, the chair shares the usual responsibilities of all core faculty, including teaching, advising, and mentoring duties in the MA in Urban Sustainability program. The Chair is expected to have significant expertise and professional experience in an area relevant to urban sustainability (e.g., publications, community service, honors, recognition of excellence, etc.) The position reports to the Chief Academic Officer.

To Apply:

If you would like to apply, please submit a cover letter referencing the job title, resume, salary history, and 3 professional references (names/phone numbers),

Human Resources
Antioch University Los Angeles
400 Corporate Pointe
Culver City, CA  90230-7615

Documents submitted via email as attachments must be in Microsoft Word format. Resumes that do not reference a specific job title in the cover letter or email subject line will not be considered.

Contact Information:
(310) 943-1590 (fax)
aulahumanresources@antiochla.edu
http://www.antiochla.edu

For college students who love travel, surfing, the environment and helping others, there’s nothing quite like the Eco Surf Volunteer effort. This program – which is truly in the spirit of one of our favorite green celebs and do-gooders, Jack Johnson – takes groups of students to historic beach town of Canoa, Ecuador for surfing, relaxing on the beach, learning about the local culture – and most importantly, helping school kids.

Eco Surf Volunteers – Canoa, Ecuador – Footage courtesy of Nicole Andersen & Sarah Han from Sam Bailey on Vimeo.

From Surfline.com:

To these students, the idea of merely visiting an international travel destination was not an option. These student’s desired a deeper sense of adventure, one that would immerse them completely in Ecuadorian life, the Spanish language, and the exotic South American beach culture.

As a participant with Eco Surf, each student-volunteer spent half their day working with local children by teaching English in an English Through Art program, helping in local medical clinics, and building new playground equipment from recycled and natural resources. The second half of their day was spent surfing with local Ecuadorian surf guides, all peers their own age. Volunteer team members not familiar with surfing were offered two hour surf lessons each day.

Additionally, Eco Surf donated three new laptop computers to the community, effectively establishing the first academic computer lab in the village.

Interested in going along next time? Future volunteer projects are scheduled for January 2-10, March 20-28, and July 31-August 9, 2010. For more information about Eco Surf Volunteers, visit www.EcoSurfVolunteers.org or email info@ecosurfvolunteers.org.

Link [EcoSurfVolunteers.org]

Russians who were looking forward to whale penis leather seats for their $1.45 million bulletproof SUVs are crying in disappointment, and pointing their fingers at environmentalists and Pamela Anderson for this grave injustice.

While the Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition SUV comes with gold trim, gauges encrusted with diamonds and rubies and three bottles of premium vodka, Russian millionaires will have to do without ultra soft and luxurious penis skin.

Here’s a snippet of the absolutely brilliant press release put out by Leonard F. Yankelovich of Dartz, the Prombron manufacturer.

ARMORED CAR WITHOUT PENIS. LET’S SAVE THE WHALES.

One month ago DARTZ presented uberluxury armored car with whale penis interior – PROMBRON’ (ex.RussoBaltique), lot of people name this car as DARTZ.KOMBAT. As the world’s resonance was very huge and DARTZ got lot of angry e-mails from Greenpeace, WWF and also Pamela Anderson, DARTZ make strong decision to stop their plans regarding such interior.

We have no any ideas to kill the whale or something like that. All we want – to make just luxury car. Real luxury car which will be world number one car. We just looking for most expensive products for this car – and that’s why we choosed whale penis leathure when we checked it is most of most. After wave of protest we realised our mistake and make a decision not to use natural leathure at all.

We will focus on world most advanced nanotechnologies to achieve interior highest quality using artificial materials which also was never used for cars. We want to tell our hello to all whales: “Our Sea Brothers! We all know that earth are stand on three whales – we will keep You live! We don’t Earth fall down to Ocean!”

Yes, we all know that earth are stand on three whales. Therefore, the world thanks you, Dartz, for making such a selfless sacrifice.

Link [JamesList] via [Wired]

Photo credit: JamesList

A hack of an “environmental scholar” working for an organization that consistently seeks to undermine efforts to fight global warming got schooled on climate change policy by Senator John Kerry during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on November 10th. Kerry rebuked Green’s comments for a solid five minutes, leaving a floundering Green unable to defend his views as anything other than his own personal opinion.

Kerry: “You may know something that thousands of other scientists don’t. They won a Nobel Prize. You and I didn’t.”

Ken Green’s title as ‘resident environmental scholar’ at the American Enterprise Institute may seem to indicate that he has a clue what he’s talking about. But who, exactly, are Green and this Institute?

From a 2007 Treehugger article:

The American Enterprise Institute, according to the Guardian, was called out in February for ” offering scientists and economists $10,000 each, “to undermine the IPCC report. .” AEI visiting scholar Kenneth Green made the $10,000 offer “to scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere,” in a letter describing the IPCC as “resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent.” They noted also that AEI “has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil, and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI’s board of trustees.”

It just goes to show who these people really are – and how easy it is for them to misrepresent themselves to climate change skeptics as “experts”. What a joke.

Link [Treehugger]

Of all the wacky things that fuel can be made from nowadays – ranging from dirty diapers to confiscated booze – somehow, this one takes the cake. Soon, we may be able to power our vehicles and heat our homes with nothing but air. A biofuel firm called Joule Biotechnologies has discovered a way to produce fuel from carbon dioxide in the air, using photosynthetic microbes.

From Gas 2.0:

Inside specially designed reactors, Joule’s engineered microbes thrive off of sunlight and CO2. In return, depending on the type of organism, they can produce straight ethanol, diesel or a number of other types of hydrocarbons.

Although the process sounds similar to algae-produced biofuels, the Joule process is incredibly (and beneficially) different for several reasons:

* Doesn’t produce biomass
* No agricultural feedstock needed
* Can be conducted on non-arable land
* Doesn’t need fresh water
* Produces fuel directly without the need for extraction or refinement

Fuel from thin air. Amazing, isn’t it? There is literally a world of possibilities out there when it comes to earth-friendly, renewable fuels.

Link [Gas 2.0]
Photo credit: Joule Biotechnologies

“Darling, you look fabulous! What’s your secret?””

“Well, I’ll tell you… I swallowed a tapeworm and I’ve never been thinner!”

Allowing a disgusting parasite that can reach up to 25 feet long to grow inside your intestines isn’t exactly a reasonable way to lose weight. Yet, the Tapeworm Diet exists, and who else but Tyra Banks featured it on her circus of a talk show on Monday, exposing this vomitous idea to millions of people across the country.

From Ecorazzi:

According to Diet Review, “[The Tapeworm] secretes proteins in our intestinal tract that make our digestion of food much less efficient. A less efficient digestive systems means that you can consume more calories through your food since your “body guest” is also noshing on them for his own growth purposes. Some scientists estimate that those infected with a single tapeworm can lose up to one or two pounds each week.”

Healthy eating? Blah. Exercise? Who needs it! Just swallow a parasite and continue hitting KFC for lunch and dinner. Tyra even had a guy on that sells the worms over the Internet; despite an FDA ban on the practice. Said one woman on Twitter, “I’m still undecided on Tyra Banks’ Tapeworm diet. I don’t know if its a great or just plain ridiculous.” Undecided? What the hell is wrong with people?

And Tyra actually found two women who said they were willing to ingest a tapeworm to lose weight, despite the risks. You might ask, “Who are these people?” But, hey, this is America.

It might sound like some kind of hoax, but it’s for real – check out the comments at Diets in Review. Some of them are clearly tongue-in-cheek (and the diet has an unlikely 52% approval rating), but there are also commenters asking for information on where to get a tapeworm they can swallow. Amazing.

Link [Ecorazzi]