Green

Official: E85 plug-in hybrid Chevy Malibu powers Penn State to second year EcoCar 2 win [w/video] #green

Peace Corps to accept same-sex volunteer couples

Giant leatherback turtles, some weighing half as much as a small car, drag themselves out of the ocean and up the sloping shore on the northeastern coast of Trinidad while villagers await wearing dimmed headlamps in the dark. Their black carapaces glistening, the turtles inch along the moonlit beach, using their powerful front flippers to move their bulky frames onto the sand. In years past, poachers from Grande Riviere and nearby towns would ransack the turtles’ buried eggs and hack the critically threatened reptiles to death with machetes to sell their meat in the market. Now, the turtles are the focus of a thriving tourist trade, with people so devoted to them that they shoo birds away when the turtles first start out as tiny hatchlings scurrying to sea. via Sea Turtle Comeback: Giant Leatherback Numbers Rebound In Parts Of Caribbean.

Purple wildflowers sprout in abundance around the bright-yellow pipe, one of several jutting from the sandy soil in this unassuming patch of grass and mud. A dirty hose runs from the pipe to an idling truck and into a large tank labeled, “NON-POTABLE WATER.” This is the former Hadnot Point fuel farm, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune’s main fuel depot until it was ordered closed in the 1980s. At one point, a layer of gasoline 15 feet thick floated atop the groundwater here, and this “fluid vapor recovery” truck is part of the continuing effort to remove it. “He’s skimming that contaminate out of that well, into this tank,” civilian Bob Lowder, head of environmental quality for the base, said during a recent tour. “We’ll take that off for recondition or disposal, as appropriate.” The coastal base is the site of what’s considered the worst case of drinking-water contamination in the nation’s history. But the Marines stress that that’s just what it is — history. via Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Base, Coming Clean After Water Contamination Concerns.

U.S. Senate Bars GMO Labels as March Against Monsanto Revs Up #green

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a sporadic series where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Friday). Just joining us? You'll find all the previous Friday Farm Fix posts here and here. Daisy, our seven-year-old Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog, leads the flock down the driveway. (Marta was napping.) The only thing about starting back up with the Friday Farm Fix is that it's making me realize just how fast the time flies by. It's already Friday again Saturday again? Here's what's been happening around the farm this week. . . The highlight was seen from the upstairs bedroom window: a mother doe nursing her itty bitty spotted fawn about 75 feet out in the hayfield. So sweet. You can just make out the baby in the photo below. The humidity jumped up to 87% in the house and had us turning on the upstairs a/c and wondering how we were going to survive the next four months drenched in sweat, but thankfully we've been given a brief reprieve, with a few beautiful breezy days and sweet cool nights. Temporary bliss. We're gearing up to hopefully start cutting some hay next week if the weather cooperates; it can heat back up all it wants to then. I spent as much time as I could in the kitchen garden, planting, plotting, mulching, watering, clearing out a few more raised beds, and picking lots of bolting Swiss chard (cold tolerant, heat tolerant, easy to grow!) for the chickens. I've also been marveling at how much farther ahead things were a year ago this week. Look at all that beautiful basil! (The Friday Farm Fixes from this time last year are here and here.) We signed on for a month of rabbit sitting. So far so good. We fed about 5,000 ravenous mosquitoes. I think this may be the worst they've ever been, but at least their appearance means we've had a more 'normal' (and much needed) wet spring. I made yet another version of a yellow cake with easy lemon curd that I've been sporadically working on for the past couple of years. Joe loved it, but I don't think it's quite there yet. At this point I've decided it would probably be easier to simply bake a plain yellow cake and pour the lemon filling over each slice. 23 more photos and the rest of the weekly recap below (hover over each image for a description). . . Click here for the rest of this post »

Fracking accident leaks benzene into Colorado stream. #green

More than 30 million people fled their homes in 2012 because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes, a new report indicates. According to the study by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and theNorwegian Refugee Council, natural disasters forced 32.4 million people to flee last year, with the overwhelming majority (98 percent) due to climate- and weather-related events. While most of the victims live in developing nations, 2012 also saw an increase in environmental refugees in wealthy countries, particularly in the United States. The report establishes that most of the damage was caused by severe flooding, with India and Nigeria suffering the brunt of the destruction. India, in particular, experienced repeated flooding during its long monsoon season. Africa suffered a record high in 2012, with 8.2 million people displaced because of natural disasters. The study points out that both the intensity and the frequency of natural disasters are cause for concern as climate change is projected to continue to spur recurrent tragedies. According to the report, multiple displacement events occurred in three-quarters of the countries affected. via Natural Disasters Displaced 32.4 Million People In 2012, IDMC Study Shows.

VIDEO: 1940s futuristic answer to the housing shortage

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