May 2009

As Americans attempt to save money in order to weather the bad economy, more are giving up on products of the organic movement like milk.

Small farms are closing across the country because dairy cooperatives are no longer purchasing their milk. The $1.3 billion organic milk industry had been steadily growing, and dairy conglomerates were taking every ounce of organic milk a farmer could supply, according to the New York Times.

But with high feed prices and with consumers purchasing milk based on price rather than quality, the once-profitable industry is dying.

Although President Barack Obama has spoken out against mining that destroys mountaintops, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved 42 such permits.

If the projects go through, hundreds of miles of Appalachian mountains, forests and streams would be tarnished. This news has caused an uproar from both environmental leaders and elected officials.

“(The) reported approval of a wave of new mountaintop removal coal mines would represent a leap in the wrong direction,” Sierra Club Director Carl Pope told Reuters. “With the bulldozers and explosives standing by in Appalachia, the Obama administration should take bold action to protect communities, streams and mountains before it's too late.”

If you have traveled and stayed in a hotel recently, you may have noticed the signs and postcards placed throughout the room that advertise a relatively new green initiative: optional linen cleanings. Other quick fixes like glass cups and coffee mugs have also made there way into the temporary housing option, replacing the wasteful paper and Styrofoam cups.

So are these quick fixes or sustainable solutions?

The questions perhaps needs to be examined from a business and marketing perspective. Green hotel searches on the web have become a hot topic. Environmentally conscious consumers want to know they are contributing to the recovery of the earth by staying in green buildings with eco-friendly accommodations.

Hot searches mean attractive business opportunities, and, as with any trend, businesses try to catch the wave and adjust to changing attitudes. Hotels are no exception, but what separates the green marketed hotel from the truly sustainable green hotel?

Influential environmental author Michael Pollan has watched multinational companies twist his words into new advertising campaigns for the last time.

Now, he’s telling people interested in protecting themselves against growing problems in the commercial food industry to shy away from anything connected with advertising.

Here is his reasoning: When Pollan argued against consuming foods with high-fructose corn syrup, Coca-cola came out with corn-syrup free soda. All of a sudden, sugar was the healthy alternative.

In reality, Pollan’s point was corn syrup is a highly processed product of the chemical food industry, which is manufacturing more foods with long lists of ingredients not found in the dictionary.

Then Pollan came up with this rule for conscientious eaters: No food should have more than five ingredients. Haagen-Dazs later countered with a special five-ingredient ice cream. All of a sudden, ice cream was somehow a health food.

First it was electric cars and dealerships; now it’s another sustainability competition: recycling. Portland and San Francisco are once again competing to be the nation’s leader in sustainability, but one city is clearly emerging as the victor very early on in the race.

High profile mayors Sam Adams (of Portland) and Gavin Newsome (of San Francisco) have been far from shy when it comes to making claims of being the best. Not long ago, Newsome announced San Francisco would be the electric car capital of the world. Shortly after, Adams responded by proclaiming San Francisco’s efforts as great, but openly declaring that Portland would be the “nation’s hub for yet one more industry [electric cars] of sustainability.”

Michigan has a long history of building cars, but now the state is finding itself in a situation that demands more diversity, the inverse effect of a struggling automotive industry. Given those trends and its existing manufacturing infrastructure it makes sense that Michigan is pushing aggressively toward the creation of green jobs. But how successful is that initiative?

Right now green jobs employ about 109,000 people in Michigan, and that’s with 7.7% growth from 2005 to 2008. Considering the state’s population hovers somewhere around 10 million people, that’s a drop in the bucket.

Part of former-President George W. Bush’s legacy is rooted in the success of corn-based ethanol.

Under his watch, the U.S. poured resources into corn through heavy subsidies, thus claiming it as the successor of petroleum despite critics claims against such an endorsement.

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is planning a shift in focus toward cellulose ethanol, which is made from the byproducts of lawn and tree maintenance such as woodchips and switchgrass.

Proposed changes to the Renewable Fuels Act would require 16 billion gallons of cellulose-based ethanol by 2022, with lesser amounts coming from other types of biofuels.

The goal is to reduce green house emissions caused by producing biofuels, according to an EPA press release. The rules would require cellulose-based fuel to release 60 percent less green house gasses than regular gasoline.

DTE Energy and environmentalists are fighting in Michigan right now over a proposed Fermi 3 nuclear power plant. The centerpiece of the argument is the impact installing a new nuclear power plant would have on the surrounding ecosystem. Warm water and phosphorous would be generated regularly after the plant went live, and to clear the way for the plant, a swath of wetland would be destroyed.

There’s also an open question on where to put the nuclear waste generated by the Fermi 3 plant, something that existing nuclear power plants already struggle with. The proposed building site is also near 5 coal power plants, which are already creating their own footprints on the environment.