Green Options

Moving back to California, Discovering Almond Flour, and Devouring Banana Nut Muffins

Gina Munsey — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:48:15 +0000

Life flies past us so quickly, and sometimes I’m certain the sound of the wind is actually the sound of life flying by. That’s the way it’s felt lately; a whirling blur, a constant hum, non-stop motion. Since my last post in August, I’ve gone on a 14-state road trip, moved from the East Coast back to my beautiful California, and re-entered the corporate world after a year-long hiatus. My husband quit his job to launch a graphic design business, we found a goat living on our new property, summer faded away into the brilliance of autumn, and I discovered almond flour.

Yes, that’s it. I discovered almond flour. Extraordinary, delicious, versatile almond flour.

It’s not cheap — I paid about $35 for 5 pounds from my local co-op — but I’ve never enjoyed gluten-free baked goods more. A single cup of almond flour provides the following nutrients:

140% of the RDA for vitamin E
80% of the RDA for magnesium
60% of the RDA for phosphorus
48% of the RDA for protein
32% of the RDA of calcium
16% of the RDA for folic acid

There’s more. Almond flour also makes the best banana-nut bread/muffins ever.

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Holiday Binge Might Alter Gut Microbes

Rachel Shulman — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:45:51 +0000

Overeating on holidays like Thanksgiving is more than acceptable in our culture - it’s expected.

Why not binge on mashed potatoes, gravy, and pecan pie? Thanksgiving only comes once a year, after all. Sure, you might gain a few pounds over the holiday season, but you have until New Year’s to worry about those.

New research suggests that the holiday binge might have a less visible effect than the extra weight around your midsection. Switching from a healthy diet to one high in fat and sugar - even for just a day - might allow obesity-linked microbes to dominate the communities of microorganisms found in your gut.

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Great Lakes Ecosystems May be Compromised by… Carp?

Beth Graddon-Hodgson — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:54:02 +0000

With concerns over climate change globally, you might think that the last thing that environmentalists would worry about would be the natural food chain of wildlife; but for the Great Lakes there could be severe consequences posed if the carp manage to enter waterways they’ve been barred from entering.

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Oceans’ Ability to Absorb Carbon & Protect Against Climate Change Weakening

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:23:03 +0000

Oceans regulate our climate. They play a key role in keeping the world’s “homeostasis” in tact. However, their ability to absorb carbon & keep the climate in balance is dwindling, a new report shows.

In a year-by-year study from 1765 to 2008, researchers found that the oceans are struggling to meet increasing emissions demands. They cannot take in as much carbon as they used to.

The study, published in the November 19 issue of the journal Nature, found that the percentage of fossil fuel emissions the ocean has been taking in since 2000 has decreased by as much as 10%.

This is the first study of its kind or breadth. One previous study had attempted to measure the oceans’ industrial carbon absorption for one year — 1994. This does so for a period of 200+ years.

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Invasion of the Fish Snatchers?

Dave Dempsey — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:20:00 +0000

Bighead carp are one of two non-native species of Asian carp causing widespread concern among Great Lakes advocates. The other is silver carp.

Great Lakes advocates are calling it a “conservation emergency” now that non-native Asian carp have been detected within seven miles of Lake Michigan. They want an immediate closure of locks and gateways leading to the lake in a literally”last-ditch” attempt to keep the fish out.

The fear is that the giant fish will disrupt the valuable Great Lakes sport fishery by outcompeting species at the top of the Lake Michigan food web, consuming the forage fish the established species depend on — and like many of the other 180 non-native aquatic species already in the Great Lakes, causing general ecosystem disruption.

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Storing Renewable Energy in Boxes of Air

Susan Kraemer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:33:55 +0000

Storage is needed to harvest the full yield available from intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar. One of the options is compressed-air storage; till now only possible in underground caverns. But SustainX Energy Solutions; a Dartmouth College start-up that got $4 million in VC funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital this year is working on compressing and storing air in cheap off-the-shelf shipping containers.

Over the next two years SustainX will try to develop a way to cram 4 megawatt-hours worth of stored energy into each 40-foot long container and to reduce the energy that it currently takes to compress and release air by about 70%.

The goal? A renewable energy storage system with the portability and scalability of a battery and the economy and capacity of a cave. Make that a portable cave.

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Don’t Forget the Batteries Grab Fuji’s New EnviroMAX Batteries

Wenona Napolitano — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:23:14 +0000

Yes, I know most eco gifts don’t need batteries but some tech gadgets and other goodies do, like digital cameras and who is going to be without a camera on Christmas?

This year you have a green choice when it comes to batteries-other than the often expensive and hard to find recharge-ables (why can’t they just put them with the rest of the darn batteries, but no you have to go searching and end up in the electronics section if they carry them at all). Anyway this year you have the option of buying Fuji’s new EnviroMAX batteries.

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For the Naughty Ones on Your Holiday List: Santa’s Coal and Snowman Poop

Wenona Napolitano — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:20:48 +0000

Here’s a fun stocking stuffing gift for those who have been a little naughty this year: Sweet Soaps Santa’s Coal and Snowman Poop soaps.

Sure to get the message across while garnering a smile these fun soaps will make perfect eco-friendly stocking stuffers.

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Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?

Nick Chambers — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:06:36 +0000

Editor’s Note: This is part four of an exclusive sit down I had with Hideaki Watanabe, Nissan’s Division Manager of their Global Zero Emission Business Unit, at last week’s U.S. debut of the LEAF in Los Angeles. Part one is devoted to battery swapping, part two to battery leasing, and part three to the quietness and safety of EVs.

During the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, Renault invited Gas 2.0’s own UK-based Chris Milton to an exclusive event detailing the company’s electric car strategy. The event introduced some rather quirky (and quirkily named) electric cars, including the Twizy, the Kangoo, and the Zoe. These aren’t just concept cars, they are cars that Renault intends to build and sell—some by next year.

Based on those releases—and the fact that Nissan hasn’t invested anything in battery swapping while Renault has jumped in head first—it started to seem that the Renault-Nissan Alliance was taking two completely different paths on the road to EV world domination. On the one hand you have Nissan with the rather mainstream-looking LEAF and plans for a luxury Infiniti electric car. And on the other you have… the Twizy.

In my recent sit down with Hideaki Watanabe, Nissan’s Division Manager of their Global Zero Emission Business Unit, I asked him to explain why Nissan and Renault were apparently moving in opposite directions.

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President’s Environmental Youth Awards Recognize Green Student Leaders

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:40:18 +0000

How many of the environmental education initiatives that you know of were started by teachers, parents, or non-profit organizations? That’s typical: from artistic approaches to rainwater harvesting to solar boat building, most efforts at teaching kids about environmental issues start with adults. But students often come up with their own programs, too, and the President’s Environmental Youth Awards aims to highlight those efforts that start with schoolkids.

Started in 1971 by the EPA, this awards program “…recognizes young people across America for projects which demonstrate their commitment to the environment.” Awards are given for one project in each of the EPA’s ten regions. After 38 years, the winning projects have run the gamut — everything from peer environmental education to recycling efforts to wetlands restoration. Recent winners have included

The Green Books Project in Lewisville, NC: Student Cory Adkins saw textbooks being thrown away at his school, and started his program to sell these books… and use the funds generated to support recycling in his community.

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