Girls Gone Green and Teen Girls magazine has teamed up to bring an essay contest just for teen girls. If you are a teen girl that has gone green, you can submit your story and picture for a chance to win a trip for 4 to Amelia Island, Florida.
Contest rules and prize details are available at: http://www.girlslife.com/projectgogreen
Some happy news for Toyota; the Prius was named the Top Green Car by Comsumer Reports.
Toyota Prius. The Prius ($26,950) received a redesign for 2010 and leads this category for the seventh straight year. It’s still the most fuel-efficient car in Consumer Reports’ ratings, with 44 mpg overall. The Prius is a pleasant car to drive, with a roomy interior, a steady ride, hatchback versatility, and excellent reliability and crash-test results. The 2010 redesign also gave it a more solid feel and a dedicated EV mode that allows it to run longer on electric power at low speeds, an advantage in slow, congested traffic.
After all the news of recalls this is one positive thing that can provide a point of pride for Toyota. After years of being one of the car manufacturers that people can rely on for durability in their vehicles, consumer confidence has dropped considerably.
This week a killer whale at Sea World in Orlando killed his trainer in front of a live audience. Hearing about this horrifying incident had many people talking and thinking. Even though they are large animals and have the word “killer” as part of their name , animals shows like the ones at Sea World had many people in the general public thinking they are pretty safe. Now it just makes you wonder how much danger the public have been exposed to. Although they are trained animal, they are still animals with animal instincts.
This killer whale, Tilikum, that killed his trainer is also linked to two other human killings. And it has many in the general public wondering when enough is enough. At this point it seems that the animal should not be a part of the Sea World exhibit and animal shows.
Bob Barker and PETA are asking Sea World to shut down their mammal aquariums and release the animals to sanctuaries. It is doubtful that will happen. These animal shows and aquariums are what draw the public to Sea World.
Obviously one human death is one too many. What should be done is beyond my level of expertise, but what Sea World has going on now needs to change.
Bota Box, a company that sells wine in boxes, is giving a $2 donation to the Arbor Day Foundation for every new fan that they receive in April on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/botabox.
Bota Box is a environmentally friendly wine supplier. The packaging in printed on recycled paper containing 100% post-consumer fiber and the box itself is 100% recyclable. Soy-based inks and coatings are printed directly on non-bleached Kraft paper, which is bonded together with cornstarch instead of glue. The bag does not contain phthalate plasticizers or Bisphenol-A (BPA).
According to recent studies, bag-in-box wines, like Bota Box, have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional glass bottles. Bag-in-box wines create 85% less landfill waste than glass wine bottles. The transport of Bota Box reduces greenhouse gas emissions because the packaging is 35% lighter on average than glass as well as 44% smaller in size.
Composting has not been on the top of my list. I have considered it and it seems simple, but I just want to get it right. Before I would start and then just abandon the whole thing. We usually put fallen leaves around the trees in our yard, but we don’t use the scraps of vegetable matter-those end up going in the garbage. Last night the Super Bowl commercial with Audi and the green police made me think about composting again. One guy was getting a ticket for throwing a banana peels into the garbage and I thought that is the same thing that I do with my peelings.
Here are some YouTube videos on composting that I am using as a resource for composting. It really answered a lot of my questions. One thing I was doing was putting food scraps on top of the compost and that was attracting a lot of pest. A video gave the common sense solution of covering the food scraps with dry material. As I try to compost once more, I hope to get everything right this time around.
People across the world have reached out to the victims of January 12th Earthquake. One company Good to Grow has donated over 2,000 BPA free bottles to an orphanage in Haiti, The Hands and Feet Project, that has two locations through Haiti and has been helping victims of the earthquake.
The donation to Hands and Feet Project is part of Green to Grow’s Bottles to Babies initiative, whose ongoing outreach gives back to those in need while helping to educate them about issues related to their families’ health and the environment. Last year, through their Bottles to Babies initiative, Green to Grow donated over $52,000 of BPA-free feeding products to non-profit organizations that serve low-income families in the U.S. and abroad.
Green to Grow was started by Mike Ritterbrown and his wife Shelley Aronoff. This couple wanted to have BPA-free bottles for their own child and found the supply of those products limited. They then started the need company out of need to have the BPA-free bottles available for themselves and other parents. Green to Grow products are free of BPA, phthalates, lead, and PVC. Green to Grow manufacturers and distributes a line of BPA-free plastic baby bottles, glass baby bottles, silicone nipples, starter/gift sets, organic cotton baby cloths, totes, and accessories.
Links: Green to Grow
More hybrid and battery electric powered cars are being built and the need for the batteries that power those automobiles is growing.
Lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel announced today it will invest $237 million in a new manufacturing plant near its Indianapolis headquarters in order to meet anticipated demand for advanced battery systems used in both automotive and stationary smart grid applications. Backed by a mix of private funds and public incentives, the new facilities will more than double EnerDel’s U.S. production capacity and create 1,400 new jobs.
Whether it is the desire to be environmentally responsible or just to save on gas more consumers are looking for alternative fuel vehicles. In 2008 both Ford and Toyota underestimated the demand for hybrid vehicles and the battery shortage caused a bottleneck in production. A new battery supply company is certainly welcome and as the market recovers they will be poised to fulfill the demand that will take place.
About everyone has a cell phone and knows how to text. You can now text your donations to help the Haitian Earthquake victims.
Several different humanitarian organizations have established ways for cell phone users to text their donations to help victims of the January 12th Earthquake in Haiti. The donation will be added to user’s cell phone bill.
Haiti was hit with magnitude 7 earthquake. The quake struck the country southwest of its capital of Port au Prince at 4:53 pm local time. This huge earthquake has caused catastrophic damage to the area. The number of casualties has not been reported, but judging from the damage and photos there is expected to be a significant loss of life. The Prime Minister of Haiti has said that hundreds of thousands may have lost their lives as a result of the earthquake
The quake occurred on the North American plate and the Caribbean plate. Earthquakes are not unusual for Haiti, but it is the strongest that they have felt in a century. Aftershocks have already been experienced since the initial quake and more could be felt in the coming days and weeks.
The United States is sending two search and rescues teams of about 72 each.
You can help by making donations to organizations that will be helping the relief efforts.
You can donate money to the American Red Cross
You can donate money to UNICEF at http://www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake or call 1-800-4UNICEF
Donate Money to World Vision for the Haiti Relief
CNN Top Ten Heroes tribute in Hollywood was in November and Efren Peñaflorida was name the 2009 CNN Hero of the year. Peñaflorida is from the Philippines and received an award from Pilipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on behalf of his organization and its many volunteers.
His organization, Dynamic Teen Company, brings education to children living in the slums of the Philippines that would never get an education otherwise. Children flock to them as they teach and they have helped to change many lives over the years.
Peñaflorida is a young man that has worked to make a difference and use whatever resources that he had to make an impact in the lives of human beings. He really is a true definition of a hero.