P.M. Greenlist: Why did the baby elephant seal cross the CA 1?

>> Why did the baby elephant seal cross the road? Elephant seals are blubbering their way across California 1, worrying both police and seal-lovers.

>> California has a law restricting lead in jewelry, but the jewelry industry has yet to fully comply. Part of the reason may be that neither stores nor suppliers have been fined, despite the fact that the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found in December that more than a third of 375 children's jewelry items tested exceeded the allowed lead content.

>> Students: Buy an e-book, plant a tree, free. iChapters, a company that sells both paper and electronic versions of textbooks at a discount, is having a “Plant a Tree” drive. Buy an e-book (or an e-chapter if you don't need the whole textbook), and iChapters will plant a tree through nonprofit Paso Pacifico. So far, 35,000+ trees have been planted; the drive continues until Feb. 15.

>> Baby care products: Full of hormone-altering chemicals. That's the research finding published in medical journal Pediatrics, which says "baby lotions, shampoos and powders carry high concentrations of hormone-altering chemicals in their bodies that might have reproductive effects." Let me point you to Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep website, which'll help you make better choices while the FDA continues to not perform its regulatory functions.

>> About a quarter of workplaces offer no recycling or environmental programs (PDF), according to a recent nationwide survey commissioned by Blumberg Capital Partners and conducted by Fleishman-Hillard Research. Here are tips for getting a recycling program started at your workplace. The survey also reports that 65% of workers who said their building had energy-efficient lighting/heating also said their office building’s condition increased their work productivity.

>> Exxon and Chevron: Still making the big bucks.

Photo by Stephen Osman