Photo by piper, under a Creative Commons license

Take Action, Start a Petition
The Care2 Petition Site makes it a snap to start your own petition. First, identify the target of your protest, then draft out a call-to-action message and decide on your goal number of signatures

Quote of the Day: Carlo Petrini on Taking It Slow
“The quest for slowness, which begins as a simple rebellion against the impoverishment of taste in our lives, makes it possible to rediscover taste.”

Event of the Day: Farm Aid 2007
Are you going to Farm Aid?

Farm Aid 2007: The Press Conference
While we’re recovering from yesterday’s completely awesome Farm Aid 2007, here are a few clips from the press conference, courtesy of the official Farm Aid blog.

Quote of the Day: Marion Nestle on Advertising to Children
“Adults may be fair game for marketers, but children are not. Children cannot distinguish sales pitches from information unless taught to do so.”

Click here for more »

Photo by Wired

A Very Special Interspecial Reunion
A lion that was raised by humans, but was released into the wilds of Africa, reunites with his former handlers a year later. What else can Treehugger say but “OMGKITTIES!!!11!!!”

Wired’s Artifacts from the Future: Fusion Food
Possibly coming to a produce store near you: Monsanto’s Cinna-Del, the only GM apple that expresses both cinnamon and sugar, only $26.99 per kilo!

Penguins March into New Patagonian Marine Park
Squawk if you’ve heard this one: The government of Argentina is creating a new marine park along the isolated Patagonia coast to officially safeguard more than half a million penguins and other rare seabirds, according to the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Peace, Love, Earth: Yeah, Baby
Designer Anna Mkhitarian reinvents that tired hippie standard—the ol’ peace sign—into physical, wearable mantras that, though unsubtle, remind us what our groovy voyage on Spaceship Earth is all about.

Global Warming Wants to Eat Your Flesh
We’d have used a picture of flesh-eating bacteria diligently at work, but all our options made us want to disgorge the contents of our stomachs, so here’s a nonthreatening—dare we say even cuddly?—microscopic look at the insidious beasties themselves.

Click here for more »

What an eye! What style! What a man!

Art by Charley Harper

Art by Charley Harper

Art by Charley Harper

Art by Charley Harper

Photo by FredFlare.com

Art by Heather Amuny Dey, via Design Milk

Art by Hybrid-Home, via Design Milk

Does anyone remember an episode of Conan O’Brien or one of those other late-night talk shows—they kind of blend together at that hour for me—where they did a skit based on Celebrity Jeopardy with a George W. Bush impersonator? The answer was “Pluto” and our esteemed Commander in Chief’s response was, “What is Mexican for pollute. As in ‘Give a hoot-o, don’t pluto.’”

Still cracks me up every single time.

Related article:
1. Remembering Woodsy Owl

Photo by cruadin, under a Creative Commons license

In the “Ask Martha” column of August’s Martha Stewart Living, one reader asks for ways to banish flies and mosquitoes in her yard without using chemicals.

The grand dame herself—or some lesser mortal on her staff—replies:

Birds are the best insect control nature has to offer. They’re much preferable to chemical sprays and bug zappers. Swallows, in particular, subsist mainly on winged insects. A pair of swallows can eat thousands of mosquitoes in a day! That’s one reason I keep so many birdhouses on my properties. Swallows are common all over the United States. They like open spaces, so hang your birdhouses—ideally bluebird boxes with an entrance hole of one and a half inches—near fields and lawns, rather than in heavily wooded areas.

Banishing creepy crawlies and fliers is one thing, but you can also help stem the dangerous decline in once-common backyard birds, some of whose numbers have fallen more than 80 percent in the past 40 years, according to the National Audubon Society. Here are sustainable birdhouse and bird-feeder options (besides thrifting or making your own, natch) that will garner you some frequent-flier privileges of your own.

Sanctuary, sustainability, and self-sufficiency are the cornerstones of the vocational training at Brown’s Foster Home for men with developmental disabilities. The residents hammer out hundreds of birdhouses each year from reclaimed materials, including rusty hardware, driftwood, and 200-year-old barn boards. Aside from providing some income, these birdhouses are also a source of accomplishment and dignity. Each house is numbered, dated, and cataloged. ($35-$75, Recycled Reflections)

Untreated cedar, salvaged from a local Portland contractor, was used to shape the classic lines of this handmade birdhouse, which will fit wrens, chickadees, bluebirds, downy woodpeckers and other similar-size birds. The overhang helps with drainage, and the door flips open for easy interior cleaning. “Most birds prefer untreated wood because it allows their claws to grip the naturally rough walls more easily,” says Emily, the store’s owner. A percentage of the profits go to the Nature Conservancy or the Portland Audubon Society. ($12, PaperSeed Shop at Etsy)

The birdhouses and feeders of this family-owned business are constructed by hand from wood reclaimed from fallen barns in northwestern New York. Natural cracks, splits, nail holes, peg holes, insect damage, knots, and warping from age lend each birdhouse distinct characteristics that make it a unique piece of American history. Includes a decorative grapevine wreath wrapped around the exterior of each mini abode. Bonus: Free shipping within the United States. (From $19.99, Poppy’s Birdhouses)

Smaller birds such as finches may prefer to mob around this recycled-plastic bird feeder, which comes with multiple perches. Shatterproof polycarbonate windows ward off feathered troublemakers, while spelling long-term durability. This Smith & Hawken exclusive’s regular price is a somewhat steep $49, but it’s currently on clearance for half that. The company also sells a matching window-mountable birdfeeder ($33.99, clearance), so you can peer in on the action and drive your cat batty at the same time. Eat your heart out, Animal Planet. ($23.99, Smith & Hawken)

I’m a tad ambivalent about PopOutz’s birdfeeders. On the one hand, they’re lightweight and can be flattened to save space, lowering their fuel and transport demands. But while the company fashioned its feeders out of 100 percent recyclable polypropylene plastic, it could also have done one better and used recycled plastic, as well. The low, low price of two bucks could go either way—ubiquity or disposability. You gotta admit they’re cute, though. Comes in six colors. ($1.80, Unipeck of America)

Photo by Twist

More than a year later, the perfect eco-friendly dishwashing and counter-scrubbing sponge remains a wantonly elusive thing. The hub and I test drove a couple of 100 percent cellulose sponges (sans scrubby sides) that we found at a natural foods store, but they soon fell apart after a few vigorous turns at the sink. We’ve dilligently swerved away from sponges with nylon-based backing—and try to stick to those that don’t claim to be antibacterial¹—but the questionable dyes and plastic packaging still leave us wanting.

Twist, a new eco-friendly household products company, might be onto something, although it’s not without its shortfalls. The Boulder, Colo.-based outfit has sent out into the marketplace a 100 percent all-natural and biodegradable Loofah Sponge ($4.99 for a pack of two) that is part cellulose-cotton sponge and part Loofah plant fiber. (The cellulose comprises tree fibers from renewable-tree farms.)

Like the rest of Twist’s line, its Loofah Sponges are packed in attractive paperboard boxes that the company says are “earth friendly and recyclable.” It doesn’t mention if its packaging is made from recycled paper with any kind of post-consumer content, however, which in PR-speak usually means they’re not.

Another quibble: The antibacterial agent Twist adds to its sponges and cloths (Barquat CB 50). Here’s where things get hairy—synthetic antibacterial disinfectants are not only classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as pesticides (which have been strongly linked to the development of Parkinson’s), but they could also be encouraging drug-resistant superbacteria, allergies, immune-system failure, and dangerous environmental pollution.

To its credit, Twist does do a highly creative number on its packaging by providing instructions on how to turn it into a mini-birdfeeder. The company also says it “takes special care to make sure 99/97 percent of all waste is reused in production,” which is a knockout accomplishment.

Very close—possibly closer than any other sponge I’ve seen to date—but still no cigar.

[via CribCandy]

¹The only O-Cel-O sponges being produced with the antimicrobial agent are those that explicitly say so on the packaging, according the 3M customer-service rep who responded to my e-mail.

Photo by Twist

Photo by Twist

Photo by andreas., under a Creative Commons license

No doubt you’ve heard about the mysterious ailment that has been wiping out up to 80 percent of beekeeping colonies across North America and Europe. Known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” the bee losses have stirred beekeepers and conservationists alike into a panicked frenzy. We should be doing the same, considering that a study last year concluded that pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide.

“If the tireless apian workers didn’t fly from one flower to the next, depositing pollen grains so that fruit trees can bloom, America could well be asking where its next meal would come from,” says Kevin Berger in Salon.

While the eggheads continue to debate about what’s causing the bees to vanish en masse—cell-phone signals? pesticides? Dick Cheney’s all-encompassing, life-extinguishing aura of evil?—we can still invite bees into our gardens by creating a chemical-free botanical sanctuary they can’t resist. (Organic beekeepers, it seems, have been reporting no losses.)

Here are some suggestions from Greenlight on how to encourage bee frolics on your home turf:

• Start by planting things that will be attractive to bees. Check out the Urban Bee Project’s recommendations for plants that will do well in your area. In my garden, I can attest that bees love blooming lavender.

• Create as much plant diversity as possible¹.

• Plan your plantings to bloom over a long season—so there will always be flowers.

• Keep in mind bees’ preferences: no mulch (bees tunnel into bare soil) and a slightly wild look. How far you go with calculated neglect is up to you. This is not permission to refrain from weeding and mulching your garden.

You can also find a trove of tips at the Urban Bee Project.

Additional resources:
1. How to Invite Bees into Your Backyard
2. How to Green Your Gardening

Related articles:
1. Lawn & Order
2. Leave Me the Birds and the Bees, Please

¹Gardens with 10 or more species of attractive plants have been found to entice the most bees.

WW@TH: Shroom to Grow: Home-Grown Insulation Gets Fungi