The cuteness seriously broke my brain. (The second video has the same intro, but is different from then on.)

Graphic from Etsy Labs

Deets here. Sponsored by Crumb Bakery. Ooh la la!

Photo by Hugh Sitton/Getty Images

Is it just me or is it getting hotter in here?

New York City produces nearly 1 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions—an amount comparable with that of Ireland or Portugal—according to a study commissioned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “You have to have a real baseline or we’re just talking past each other as to what works and what doesn’t work—we won’t ever know whether we really made a difference,” Bloomberg was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

The study was conducted by the New York City Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability to assess the city’s progress in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

The town that was so nice they named it twice produced a net emission of 58.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005. The biggest gas belchers are the city’s hundreds of thousands of buildings, which consume enough electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and steam to contribute 79 percent of the city’s total emissions. The study also found that emissions increased by more than 8 percent between 1995 and 2005, though the city’s focus on environmentally friendly initiatives appears to have helped stabilize emissions rates of late. “Each one of these things really does make a difference, and they add up,” our chief knish said.

Still, in New Yorkers’ defense, the city does harbor 2.7 percent of the country’s population—8.2 million of 300 million—with the average New Yorker contributing less than a third of the emissions generated by the typical American, largely because of the popularity of the mass-transit system.

Photo by Pottery Barn

Exhausted of working for the Man in all its soul-sucking, environment-trashing, bottom-line-famished glory? Consider parlaying your creative talents into starting up your own eco-friendly small business, much like what my pals Mark (of 3R Living) and Summer (of BTC Elements) have done.

Here are some inspirational resources to get you started:

1. Amy Peters’ Studio Blog
2. Boss Lady: Because Women Run Businesses
3. Cute Little Store
4. Hear Hear: Intelligence for Small Businesses
5. Ladies Who Launch (also has a book)
6. Make It: A Blog for Craft Entrepreneurs
7. Slate Biz Box: Small-Business Owners Dish on Small Businesses
8. The Switchboards: Your Connection to Creativity
9. A Boutique Industry: Support and Encouragement for the Entrepreneurial Woman
10. The Anti-9-to-5-Guide
11. Women Take Wing

Less-exciting but necessary reading:

1. IRS Guide to Starting a Business
2. IRS Small-Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource
3. U.S. Small Business Administration
4. Yahoo Small Business

New Yorkers should also check out the New York Public Library’s Small Business Resource Center.

Related article:
1. Get Organazized

Screenshot from the Tap Project

For World Water Day—an international day of observance to draw attention to the plight of 1 billion people who lack access to clean, safe drinking water—a new UNICEF initiative known as the Tap Project has rallied together New York City restaurants to help raise money for clean-water projects.

And so today, at hundreds of participating restaurants across the city, patrons will be invited to pay $1 for tap water usually offered gratis. But whether you’re dining in New York, NY or Sebeak, Minn. (population 710), you’re free to make an online donation directly through the Web site.

For a blast from the past, read what I wrote about World Water Day, a year ago.

Related articles:
1. Charity: Water
2. On the (New York) Waterfront

Help out:
1. EWG’s Project Bottled Water

Photo by Tony Cenicola/New York Times

The “fabled deliciousness” of New York’s water, which the city isn’t required to filter, is under siege, according to the New York Times.

Increasingly stormy weather that comes with climate change, for one, is muddying the city water beyond what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems safe for direct consumption. Between September 2004 and last June, for instance, four major storms have dumped highly turbid (or cloudy) water into upstate reservoirs. The tiny particles suspended in the water can interfere with chlorine disinfection, while serving as food for disease-causing organisms.

Another culprit being fingered is industrial pollution. Much of Westchester has been paved over in the last five decades, diverting fertilizer, sewage, and road salt into reservoirs so that from 1989 to 1999, the city has had to increase the amount of chlorine it added by 35 percent.

If the federal agency does conclude that city water is too sullied to be consumed directly, New York will have to spend huge sums on filtering, close the book on 165 years of filter-free taps—and absorb a major blow to its hometown pride.

Dear Strand Books,

Last evening I went to your main store to pick up a book I had reserved on your Web site. The person working the register I walked up to could not have radiated more loathing for his current duties or the unequivocal sense that he did not want to be there. He tossed my credit card back at me without so much as glancing up, and did the same with the credit-card receipt I had to sign. (To mix things up, he impassively rolled the pen towards me.) I thanked him. He did not so much as grunt in response.

Now I don’t expect a great deal in terms of customer service, but I do expect not to be treated like one of the great unwashed by staff reveling in apathetic, hipper-than-thou complacency. Above all, shopping is an experience, from the second a customer enters the store, to the moment he or she leaves. And while I’d prefer to support an independent bookstore such as yours, if paying more at Barnes & Noble or Borders means I’m extended the most basic of courtesies, then I’d rather take my chances with the chainstore.

Regards,
Jasmin

Update: Boy were they fast with their apology! They’re going to send me a gift card to make up for it, which I accepted, because I have no shame.

Dear Chekhov,

An admirer of your incomparable wisdom,
Anne

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