14 January 2009

cleaning up dirty: a web roundup

From the oxymoronic "clean coal" to green clothing care, here's a little collection of articles and ideas on how to keep the world a little cleaner.

The no 'poo method: Wash your hair the non-toxic and economical way, with these tried and true baking soda and vinegar recipes
[One Green Generation]

Lighten up in '09: A buyers' guide to the most energy efficient (ie, less carbon-spewing) and least mercury containing CFLs
[Environmental Working Group]

Butts for fashion: Keeping cigarette butts out of the wastestream by creating yarn from it for knitting, crocheting
[Treehugger]

Goody gum drops! Tips for removing chewing gum from clothing, the eco-friendly way
[Planet Green]

Dirty snow: It's an energy-sucking industry -- tips on choosing ski resorts with a smaller carbon footprint
[Care2]

Dirty, dirty coal: It'll never be clean!
[GOOD]

It becomes a game of rhetorical bait-and-switch. Point out that there are exactly zero commercial power plants in the U.S. that sequester any carbon emissions, and “clean coal” advocates talk about how they’ve reduced “emissions” (though not greenhouse gasses). Mention that coal-burning power plants are still the country’s largest source of acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide pollution and airborne emissions of birth-defect- and brain-damage-causing mercury pollution—or that they’re responsible for roughly 24,000 deaths every year in the United States—and ACCCE will tell you that they’re a mere ten years away from perfecting the art of carbon capture.

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