Starting tomorrow, June 22, all my green L.A. lifestyle blogging will happen on my own website, green LA girl.
Though Emerald City will no longer be updated, LATimes.com will always have fresh, green, Pulitzer Prize-winning news reporting from L.A. and beyond on its Environment page. And a new blog called Greenspace, written by the LA Times' environmental reporters, will launch Thursday.
>> With more people opting for less travel or more eco-travel, airlines are suffering -- but also getting greener, sort of. Wired's Dave Demerjian has the scoop from the Eco-Aviation Conference this week.
Have questions about public transit? Check out The Transit Coalition's bulletin boards for answers. The Transit Coalition's a nonprofit that advocates for better public transportation in the greater L.A. area, and the coalition's bulletin boards are used to promote a free exchange of ideas about transit.
Especially compared with the disorganized comment streams of most transit blogs, the Transit Coalition's boards are fairly well organized by topic and transit line, allowing you to quickly follow a discussion about the issues that affect you. More importantly, these boards attract some serious transit wonks -- which means that if you ask a specific question about the Gold Line, you'll likely receive a detailed, informed answer. In fact, your burning questions may already have been answered on the board; just read through the discussion to find out everything you wanted to know about transit in L.A.
According to Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition, open access to and free exchange of transit information is imperative to creating a viable public transit system. "How do you grow if you don't provide information?" he asks rhetorically. Thus the boards allows a diverse group of people to weigh in -- though the discussion here is of a much higher level than on most blogs, with fewer inane questions of the "why don't they build a monorail from my doorstep to the elevator at my job?" variety.
About 200 people are active participants on the boards; thousands from all over the country are active readers. The Transit Coalition also informs people of transit happenings via its weekly e-newsletter and monthly print newsletter. Reed points to a growing interest in transit issues among Angelenos, and is optimistic about the future of public transit in L.A. "All of these things haven't been in alignment for so very long are finally lining up," Reed says. "This is the year where the citizens of L.A. are frustrated enough that they may actually say yes to something."
Want to get more involved with the Transit Coalition? Everyone's invited to the coalition's monthly meetings; the next one happens June 24, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Philippe The Original, 1001 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, I've never been able to attend these meetings -- because I can't find a viable public transportation method to get me to and from there that late in the evening. Maybe after the subway to the sea gets built ...
Unfortunately, the study doesn't cover e-books. "In order to address e-books effectively, I’d need to look at a lifecycle comparison that analyzes the impacts of e-readers vs. paper as a medium," said Tyson Miller, founder and director of the Green Press Initiative, in an interview published on Sustainablog. "I do hope that we can explore much more in-depth in future iterations."
The lack of studies effectively comparing the carbon footprint of paper vs. electronic books hasn't stopped the e-book industry from marketing both e-books and e-readers as eco-friendly products. There's even a Read an E-book Week, which appears to have been started by a couple of e-book writers, who claim on their website that "E-Books Can Help Reduce Your Carbon Footprint."
Sony, too, has been pushing its Sony Reader (right) as an eco-product. In an interview with the Sietch Blog, Rick Clancy, senior vice president for Corporate Communications at Sony, recently recommended the Sony Reader thusly: "Think of all the trees that can be spared if more people read e-books. Another great feature is that the Sony Reader uses very little energy. My understanding is the device can go through about 1,000 page turns without needing to be recharged."
To actually measure the carbon footprint of an e-book, however, would require doing a lifecycle analysis of the e-reader -- including its production methods, materials used, energy required for the reader's use, and recyclability. A future study will likely come up with a ballpark average figure, but variables will remain depending on how one obtains and uses the product (Is the reader charging up the book via solar power or coal power? Will readers discard and buy new e-readers as often as they do cellphones or computers?).
And beyond the paper book to e-book comparison, there's the reading habit comparisons for both. For instance, someone who only reads paper books -- but mostly borrows the books from the library which she gets to by bicycle (that's me) -- will have a vastly different reading carbon footprint than someone who drives their Hummer to the bookstore and buys books printed on virgin paper.
But what all of this got me thinking about is whether people would even use e-books for the same purposes that they do paper books. A while back, I wondered whether or not Google Docs would actually make offices more eco-friendly (I'd gotten an e-mail from a Google person touting Google Docs as eco) since it's unclear how the carbon footprint of "traditional" paper use compares to that of going paperless.
I posed this question to Jamais Cascio, futurist of the Cheeseburger Footprint fame, who said "I guess that the question can only be answered by looking at what you're doing with paper & paperless, and just how fungible the two really are." More on that and a review of the Sony Reader next.
Want pragmatism? Then try "Climate Change In Our World" -- put together by British environmental and meteorological offices -- which shows us medium-case climate scenarios for the future to encourage level-headed preparation for what's to come.
But that's boring, no? If you want the drama of worst-case scenarios that evoke fear and panic, you have to turn to the U.S. -- and even better, to U.S. television.
"Earth 2100," a 2-hour ABC News special set to air this fall, will show how "the 'perfect storm' of climate change, resource depletion, and population growth could converge with catastrophic results." And in case the scary science isn't doom and gloom enough, ABC wants you to imagine and create an even scarier scenario -- on video.
For this "massive online game" that'll be "played" in stages until the "Earth 2100" show airs, ABC doesn't want the boring pragmatic stuff. You're to "imagine the unimaginable," then create a video "report" about it and send it to ABC. These videos "will be woven into an evolving web-based story, and the best ones will be used as the spine of the network primetime show."
First round: What will 2015 look like? ABC sets out a basic scenario for filmmakers to work from, and it doesn't sound good: We're still in Iraq, still not doing much as a nation to address climate change, still building more coal-fired power plants. Closer to home, "wildfires are raging out of control in Colorado and Southern California leaving thousands of people homeless."
Inspired? Make a video "report" and send it in by June 9. The scenarios that emerge from those videos will then be used to create the basic scenario for 2050, and so on for 2070 and 2100.
Just to be clear, despite my poking fun, I'm not saying "Earth 2100" will be a bad show necessarily. It's quite possible that doom and gloom scenarios may spur people into action, though they tend to leave me rather disillusioned and lethargic. It's just that I found "Earth 2100" rather humorously over the top, finding out about it right after trying out the sedate British "Climate Change In Our World." Both are about looking to 2100, both about spurring people to action. But the vastly different approaches seem rather symbolic of the differences I often see between the U.S. and U.K.
What will happen to Earth between now and 2100? And more importantly, how do you get people to care about our climate future? That's what environmentalists, scientists, and even TV people are all asking -- and using everything from Google Earth to online games in an effort to engage people.
Put Google Earth together with British scientists, and you get "Climate Change In Our World," an "interactive animation showing how climate change and global temperature rises could affect our world over the next 100 years." (via Grist) Google Earth fans can now watch a time lapse of the Earth heating up simply by downloading a KML.
I actually found the app a tad disappointing -- but I think it's because I expected way too much. Somehow I thought I'd get animations of cities dramatically getting submerged, lakes drying out to turn into deserts. "Climate Change In Our World" is much less dramatic than that. Mainly, the color of the globe changes -- some areas much faster than others -- to warmer colors as temperatures go up. Plus the app lets you zoom in to different cities to read geographic-specific tidbits of climate predictions. A look at California shows we're really, really, going to need to prepare for severe water shortages.
"Climate Change In Our World" uses medium-case climate scenarios, with the message that the issue at hand now is not so much about preventing climate disaster, but preparing for it. After all, environmental disasters are already happening around the world; a lot of damage has already been done.
Of course, we can take action to prevent worst-case scenarios. And there's a webby new game to get people engaged with those issues too. More about that in the next post.
"Project Runway" fans: Did you know there's an online shoe design reality show? "FN Shoestar," sponsored by Nine West, recently challenged its designers to create sustainable uppers for a sandal. The result: Pretty crunchy-looking shoes.
"Shoestar" isn't a particularly creative show since it basically copies "Project Runway's" format, down to the inane interviews ("The green challenge is ... definitely challenging," explains one girl). The gaffes are somewhat funnier though, with one girl talking about "fox suede" -- then explaining that "fox" is spelled f-a-u-x.
The designers make eco-mistakes too. For example, Tyvek -- the like-paper-but-stronger-than-paper stuff used to make some FedEx and USPS envelopes -- is no friend of the environment. Like Styrofoam, Tyvek's usually made to create one-use products that unfortunately last forever in landfills (yes, industry people will say Styrofoam and Tyvek are recyclable, but they rarely do get recycled as most cities don't have recycling programs in place for these expensive-to-recycle products that have little to no post-recycling value).
Still, the show covers a bunch of more environmentally-friendly materials used in shoes, so eco-fashionistas might find the episode an interesting crash course in sustainable shoes.
For cute every-day eco-shoes available today, I highly recommend Simple Shoes' ecoSNEAKS, available for both men and women. These are made of hemp, organic cotton, recycled PET, recycled car tire, and 100% post-consumer paper pulp!
I ordered a pair of the “Stop Global Warming” edition Women’s Retire shoes a month ago, partly because $5 from each $60 pair sold gets donated to StopGlobalWarming.org. Just two days later, the shoes arrived at my doorstep via free shipping. Now, I wear them all the time because they're so comfy -- and because they attract a surprising number of compliments, especially considering that they're just sneakers.
>> Not all tires are created equal, with some lowering fuel economy by 10% or more! "With no standardized rating available, consumers often unwittingly choose tires that hurt fuel economy." It seems the only way to figure out whether one's tires will allow for better fuel economy than another is by trial and error. Maybe a tire rating site is in order?
>> Riverside gets BikeLids -- which are sort of like covered parking for your bicycle. Since the BikeLid's secured with a U-Lock or padlock, it doesn't seem to offer additional security from theft -- but your bike'll be shielded from the elements.
A new, updated version of nonprofit Redefining Progress' Ecological Footprint Quiz came out -- and so I took it. The result -- I require 1.84 earths!
How could this be? Turns out, a big chunk of my footprint was calculated by things beyond my direct control. According to the FAQ:
There are some portions of your footprint that are not the direct result of your consumption habits. For example, each resident of a city is "responsible" for a portion of the city's infrastructure, such as roads, schools, and government offices, regardless of whether the resident uses those services. In addition, some options that could make your footprint smaller are not available to you as a result of choices on the part of local decision makers, such as reliable and efficient public transportation as an alternative to driving. Therefore, an important path to reducing your footprint is to advocate for more sustainable decisions at all levels of government.
Well, okay then. But the quiz got me wondering if it'd be possible to live in L.A. and have a footprint that'd require just 1 earth or less -- so I took the quiz again basically checking off everything that'd lower my score.
In this imaginary greener life, I moved to a big apartment complex built only with green materials with a 100 square foot edible garden. My imaginary greener self also quit all travel, went vegan, and installed a graywater system for the imaginary garden.
This spartan lifestyle got me down to .98 earths! So I guess it is still possible to live in L.A. and have a sustainable lifestyle according to this calculator -- except we don't have any huge, LEED-certified complexes offering apartments smaller than 500 square feet....
As with most footprint calculators, this quiz tends to be geared toward home-and-car owners, and doesn't offer apartment dwellers extra points for not having a lawn, not buying their own washer / dryer or other appliances, etc.
Still, it's kind of a fun exercise if you have a few minutes to kill at work --
Let me know how many earths you require.
Soon, it'll be as easy to get public transit directions as it is to get driving directions via Google. By the summer, Angelenos will likely be using Google Transit, a Google Maps-based application that seamlessly links up walking to various public transit modes, to easily plan their bus and train rides in L.A.
Although L.A. transit agencies won't make the Earth Day 2008 challenge deadline proposed by Google, Metro and Metrolink are working hard to get their system info into Google Transit. Both agencies are currently in the testing phase.
Matthew Barrett of the Metro Library says the Metro bus information's ready to go -- and is already being tested -- but that they're waiting to get the rail info in there before the roll out. No firm dates -- aside from the fact that the launch will be after Earth Day -- have been set yet -- but since Metro and Google Transit had a conference call yesterday, more details should come out soon.
Metrolink, for its part, is planning an early May rollout. "Google Transit is a huge opportunity for us," said Francisco Oaxaca, Metrolink's manager of media and external communications, "because we think we're the ones most vulnerable to not having a multi-agency trip planner." Oaxaca pointed out that many Metrolink riders require multiple transfers between different agencies, and often have to go cobble together a route using multiple trip planners from various agencies. Google Transit, by contrast, would give people "an opportunity to plan door to door."
Of course, the success of Google Transit for L.A. requires that ALL of our many transit agencies in the area join Metro and Metrolink to really offer Angelenos a comprehensive trip planner. The OCTA and the Burbank Bus are a step ahead and already in the Google Transit system, but most local agencies are not. The Big Blue Bus, the Culver City Bus, and all the various bus lines also need to format their schedule and fare info to work with the Google Transit system. It's only when all the agencies get involved that riders will be able to take full advantage of both the Google Transit app and L.A.'s network of transit systems.
According to Oaxaca, Google Transit can be a real money saver for transit agencies. Building a trip planner from scratch could cost an agency "easily over $100,000," Oaxaca said, while formatting the transit information to fit into Google Transit cost Metrolink just "several thousand." Oaxaca also noted that once transit agencies put up the front end cost of getting into Google Transit, updates will be painless. "It really takes a lot of the burden off the transit agencies."
So encourage your local transit agency to get on to Google Transit! There's certainly great support for Google Transit among transit riders, as evidenced by a recent MetroRiderLA post and the ensuing 20+ comments. I have a call in to the Big Blue Bus, but haven't heard an update yet. More to come on that soon.
In the meantime, look forward to Metro and Metrolink's debuts on Google Transit. After the initial rollout, Metrolink will work on getting Amtrak information onto Google Transit, since the two agencies have a joint "rail to rail" service that allows passengers to ride either agency's trains interchangeably. Metrolink also plans to start testing its real-time train status function in May. Happy riding.
Why take separate carbon footprint and water footprint quizzes, when you can do it all with Low Impact Living's Environmental Impact Calculator? This new LILI calculator (in Beta) puts as many eco-impact criteria as possible into one interactive module, letting you see how eco-you are compared to others in your 'hood. Then, LILI recommends actions you can take to lower that impact.
It took me just 8 minutes to input the info to get my calculations -- and I'm proud to say I scored very very low! The average LILI, based on the environmental impacts of a typical home in the region, is 100 -- and I got an 18!
The low score has me liking the calculator, but the app does still need some fine tuning. For example, I put in that I didn't have a dishwasher -- but then still had to answer a question about how many dishwasher loads I do a week. I had the same problem with the washing machine / dryer questions; I also got no questions about my use of the apartment complex's communal washing machine.
And while I like that the LILI gives me a list of recommended actions at the end, I found that most actions on this list had little to do with the info I'd put into the quiz. For example, I got a suggestion to install low flow shower heads -- but I already have low flow shower heads and simply wasn't asked about it during the calculations part. Some advice, like buying a biodiesel vehicle to replace my car, seemed rather bizarre, considering that I don't have a car to replace, and that adding one would actually increase my footprint.
Still, the LILI's recommended actions are useful and practical in that they include the cost of taking that action, the annual savings (if any) that action will create, and the LILI score reduction that action will provide. With all that info, it's easy to see at a glance what eco home improvement project will get you the most eco-bang for your buck.
Go through the calculator, and let me know if you beat my score!
Odd thing about Myspace's new eco-book, "MySpace/OurPlanet: Change Is Possible": It kicks off with Myspace president Tom Anderson basically declaring the supremacy of the printed word over the web: "I wouldn't be doing this unless I thought it was for something so unbelievably important that it had to be in print," Anderson writes in his foreword.
Is the soy-ink printed, recycled-paper book mightier than the blog? Perhaps, though in Myspace's case, the book's designed to mimic the social networking site, covering a whole lot of topics in a semi-disorganized, but also semi-associative, eclectic, freewheeling fashion.
Published by HarperTeen, "Myspace/Our Planet" clearly aims at a young audience, with advice on greening prom, taking eco-alternative spring breaks, and changing mom and dad. And impressively, the book provides a rather surprisingly informative and engaging perspective on a wide range of environmental topics, despite the web-friendly snippets-and-bullet-points format of the book.
That, of course, makes me think that the book wasn't exactly written "by the Myspace community with Jeca Taudte," as the cover states. More accurately, the book seems to have been written by Taudto, with random pullout quotes from Myspace members sprinkled in. Here's one such brilliant quote included in the book, written by one Lorylicious![[♥rawr]]:
I REALLY HOPE PPL START TO TAKE ACTION ON ALL THE DISASTERS WE ARE CAUSING. GLOBAL WARMING IS GETTING BAD AND NO ONE REALIZES WE NEED MOTIVATIONAL TEAMS TO GET EVERYONE INVOLVE I THINK THERE SHOULD BE MORE RECYCLING, STOP THE WAR BECAUSE WERE ONLY DESTROYING MORE OF OUR WORLD AND LOOSING SOLDIERS THAT HAVE FAMILIES (sic on all spelling, grammar, punctuation errors, and choice to use all caps)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the effort to tie the book in with the social networking site that seems most strained. In the first few pages, readers are advised to employ Myspace as a tool to further their enviro-activism -- by adding eco-organization as one of the "Top 8" friends or using eco-related pics and wallpaper to "make it clear that the earth matters to you" -- actions that seemed so ineffectually small that it actually made me LOL.
But the web activism advice improved as I read on. A chapter tied in personal enviro-activism with larger political activism, for example, also conveniently tying Myspace's Our Planet page with Myspace's Impact Channel. And then the book recommended green blogging "to educate communities and to inspire change." Wait -- that's me!
Maybe I shouldn't have LOL'd so quickly. Serendipitously, I got an "invite" to add Heal the Bay as a "cause" I support -- so I hit "accept." On Facebook.
One enviro-campaign that makes me laugh -- with them, not at them: Greenpeace's little pranks against the makers of Kleenex, Kimberly-Clark -- a company that shamelessly continues to make paper products from clearcut ancient forests. Spoofing Kleenex's "let it out" ad campaign, Greenpeace has created a "Kleercut: Wiping Away Ancient Forests" site, complete with a header depicting forest animals crying on Kleenexes over their destroyed habitat.
The spoof site's not the first time Greenpeace has used Kleenex's own advertising to poke fun at the company. About a year ago, Greenpeace activists infiltrated one Kleenex shoot for its “Let it Out” ad campaign. Kleenex reps enticed passers by to plop onto a blue couch and let out their sorrows — with a $200 award for crying in an ad-worthy way — on a Kleenex. Greenpeace members pretended to be would-be cryers, thus crashing the couch -- and making a YouTube video of the debacle.
One girl mourns the loss of her dog on Kleenex’s blue couch, during which GreenPeace activists unfurl a Kleercut banner behind her. The Kleenex rep berates the activists, saying “she’s talking about something personal, while you have a ‘nice agenda.’” Then the girl pipes up to shake her kleenex and say “it really makes me upset that … this is all a 100% virgin fiber.” Here's the video:
Kimberly-Clark happens to be the largest tissue maker in the world -- which seems to suggest that business as usual is still more economically rewarding than eco-conscious business practices. Change that by going against the grain! Need a tissue? Get Seventh Generation's 100% recycled, minimum 80% post-consumer tissues, available at Whole Foods and other local stores. Or you can ditch disposables altogether and get a hanky, like reader m suggests.
Still stuck at the paper or plastic conundrum? Go over to MSNBC's Battle of the Bags: Paper or Plastic, and you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the issue. This little web piece uses short surveys, videos, polls, and quizzes to exhaustively examine the bag issue -- to conclude that it's pretty much impossible to figure out whether a plastic or paper bag is better.
While Battle of the Bags doesn't push the reusable bag as strongly as I'd like -- though a montage of chic reusable bags is part of the piece -- hopefully more people will come to that conclusion after watching the piece.
One of the issues that MSNBC doesn't really cover is the fact that plastic bags wash out to the oceans and kill marine life -- which doesn't bode well, environmentally or financially, for L.A.'s tourism industry.
Battle of the Bags'll be personally useful for me, since every time I write about plastic bag bans and taxes happening around the world, I get one-sided comments and emails about how plastic bags are greener than paper bags. In the future, I'll just point them to MSNBC.
In about 3 years (2011) Metro hopes to be operating a bus-only lane on Wilshire from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica (about 12.5 miles) during the morning and afternoon rush hours...and it should improve travel times by about 25 percent with a dedicated lane and signal priority. Funding has been recommended in the President's proposed budget and we hope to get additional federal monies next year. Construction could start as early as the 4th quarter of this year.
Three years seems like a really long time, though I'm glad to hear that we at least have a tentative date when the project'll actually come to fruition. The Wilshire bus lane project recently received $5 million in state funding -- though Metro still needs more money to finish the project.
Incidentally, this Metro chat was supposed to be about Metro's new draft Long Range Transportation Plan and ways to fund traffic relief -- though as has been the case with all the other chats, the questions were mostly random inquiries -- or complaints -- people had about transportation issues in L.A.
Still, Metro's ramping up its efforts to get the public -- especially the public on the web -- engaged with the Long Range Transportation Plan. Yesterday, Metro launched a new "Imagine" site that collects the plan's "story," the full draft of the plan, ways to contact Metro about the plan, and information about public meetings on an easy-to-navigate site, hopefully making it easier for Angelenos to get involved.
The "Imagine" site's even got a blog. So far, there's just one post -- penned not by an individual but by "Metro" -- that's basically an excerpt of the Plan's stated goal. Will the blog be as impersonal and canned as the previous Metro chats have been? 23 eager comments on that bland first post seem to show that the public hopes otherwise --
How do you get people involved in big issues that are enormously important but also dauntingly huge in scope -- and seemingly very removed from the realities of the people you're trying to reach? You've probably heard about how many people around the world don't have access to clean drinking water. But in our own bottled-water lives, this faraway problem is usually very much out of sight -- and often out of mind.
WaterPartners International, a nonprofit that provides safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries, is trying to bring the water issue closer to home -- or more accurately, the computer. Can't (or don't want to) travel to see the global water crisis first-hand? Then just have your Second Life avatar walk over to the WaterPartners Village to see it in a simulated digital world. Here's a clip of what that Second Life visit might look like:
Why use the fictional world of Second Life to raise awareness about this real-world issue? "What we were really trying to do was touch people at a deeper level and allow them to interact with what the characters and with the issue in a way that's really not possible otherwise," says Steve Byers, director of development and communication for WaterPartners. "We can't physically take people to these villages, and ... even when you're there physically, there are still some psychological barriers. Its sort of uncomfortable to go into someone's dwelling place, for example. Whereas in this virtual world, we can break down those barriers in a more comfortable way."
Second Life is just one venue by which WaterPartners is trying to bring this issue into the mainstream. Facebook Flickr, Myspace, and YouTube also have a WaterPartners Village presence, thanks to three avatars -- Dahney from Ethiopia, Miguel from Honduras, and Araja from India -- each with their own profiles and regularly-updated blogs. No, the avatars are not modeled after actual people. "From the philosophical standpoint, they're conveying truth through the art of storytelling," Byers says."
Will this e-foray prove successful in bringing attention to the global water crisis? Byers hopes so, noting that this WaterPartners Village is primarily an awareness-building campaign. "If people who have a Myspace page or a Facebook page, if they would link to this, that would be a step.... We hope that will expand our network."
The campaign's clearly aimed at people younger than me -- Araja, the oldest WaterPartners Village avatar, is just 22 -- so although I'm not particularly compelled to make Araja my Myspace "friend," maybe younger would-be social activists will get into their blog storylines. What do you think?
WaterPartners Village is even planning a World Water Day concert in Second Life, starting 5 pm Pacific time on March 22. Unfortunately, I tried Second Life a couple times, but couldn't get into it -- and finally deleted the program from my computer during my effort to speed up my computer a few days ago. If your avatar decides to go rock out, please report back and let me know if I should give Second Life another chance --
Google maps makes driving around L.A. super easy. If only we had a similar app for public transit....
Actually, Google does have a public transit app -- It's just not available for L.A. -- yet. Google Transit -- which seamlessly links up walking to various public transit modes -- has been helping people from Tokyo to Portland get around. Check out how it works via this short video:
My current goal's to bring Google Transit to L.A.
Why now? According to WorldChanging, Google Transit posed a challenge at the recent TransITech conference in Anaheim to get your city on Google Transit by Earth Day 2008.
That target date seems a bit unrealistic, considering it's only about a month away. On the other hand, since Google's put together the system, it seems all transit agencies have to do is get their transit info to Google to put together. As WorldChanging points out, "It's a win for the transit agencies, too, because their specialized trip-planner websites are all made with expensive proprietary software, while Google's system is free and they publish their API."
In fact, a couple local-ish transit systems -- the Burbank Bus and the OCTA -- are already on Google Transit. However, Metro's not on there -- nor are the Culver City Bus or the Big Blue Bus or many of our other numerous transit systems that link up to create the super-complicated public transportation network we have in L.A.
For the newbie transit taker, navigating between the different systems can seem very daunting -- even scary enough as to be forbidding. Yes, we have Metro Trip Planner, which does have info from various local transit agencies. However, this app has a lot of glitches, as anyone who's used it frequently knows. Trip Planner's also not particularly user friendly, especially when compared to the super simple way Google Transit lets you find alternate routes, change departure or arrival times, etc.
As a first step in my quest to Google Transit-fy L.A., I called up Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus. Linda Gamberg, BBB's marketing & public information coordinator, said that she'd coincidentally just gotten an email from Google Transit, and although she wasn't very familiar with the app yet, she'd find out more. Somewhat serendipitously, Big Blue Bus has just begun work on a website overhaul (target date for launch: Jan. 2009) -- which includes plans for a more user-friendly trip planner.
Hopefully the BBB and Google Transit can work together, perhaps saving both time and money while giving transit riders a great tool. Meanwhile, I'm wondering why more transit systems haven't gotten on the Google Transit bandwagon already, mainly because working with Google Transit seems a lot easier than developing their own systems from scratch.... I'll try to find out what exactly it takes to get a transit system on Google Transit, and what the holdup is....
Of course, BBB's info alone won't make Google Transit super effective for L.A., since many riders use multiple transit systems to get around. Next up -- Finding out if Metro's got plans to get on Google Transit -- even if it's not mentioned in the draft of Metro's Long Range Plans. If there are Metro or other transit agency peeps reading this -- Here's how cities can get in touch with Google Transit.
Feel like the only environmentalist on your block? A whole bunch of enviro-networking websites want you as a green friend -- and each has a unique twist. A few to check out:
For the most involved community:Care2. The premise for this very active site is that "One person can make a difference." Here, do-gooders can use all sorts of e-activist tools to create petitions, send e-cards, submit news, or get health advice. More so than any of the other networking sites, Care2 has some serious diehard fans -- as evidenced by the number of emails I get from Care2 members -- from their Care2 email accounts -- asking me to join.
For your own unique eco-content page:Gaia Community. Formerly Zaadz, Gaia currently boasts on its homepage that it's attracted 162,665 "conscious individuals." The site offers the usual for the eco-minded would-be community member -- profiles, blogs, news feeds, and the like -- but does have a new unique feature called myGaia that works much like iGoogle.
For those crunched for time:Do The Green Thing. If Care2 and Gaia seem way too involved, this simpler community might be for you. Join, and you'll get just two emails a month, each taking you to a short video on an eco theme -- which the members then chat about and commit to acting on. The DTGT people made the cute Valentine's Day video about sharing body heat.
For the green competitor:Greenopolis. Got a competitive streak? Then Greenopolis is for you -- because this site'll survey you and test you on your greenness -- then put a color-coded badge on your profile so all can see how green you are. Go greener, and you earn points to improve your badge color. The site's still in beta though, so the community isn't very big yet. (via got2begreen)
For the eco-shopper:WorldofGood.com. If ethical consumerism's your mantra, join WorldofGood.com to "create positive change through commerce, as part of a global community." This new site helps you make socially-conscious buying choices, supporting fair trade, sweatshop-free, and other ethical sourcing models.
For local networking:GenGreen. Here's a network that aims to turn virtual connections into local activism. GenGreen's uniquely geared toward local networking, helping you meet up with real-life neighbors you may never have run into otherwise. Members can see other local members, find out about local green events, and get listings of local green businesses. Unfortunately, GenGreen's newer in the green scene, and doesn't yet boast as many members as Care2 and Gaia.
For really local networking: Sustainable Santa Monica. Live in Santa Monica? Then get to know your neighbors via the web. Created to "encourage community members to connect with others working toward a sustainable Santa Monica," Sustainable Santa Monica lets you take part in a Santa Monica virtual community that shares local green ideas.
Lastly -- Nothing beats a community based on face to face interaction. Get out to the green social events in the L.A. area, and make some new eco-minded friends.
Do you know "How It All Ends"? This 10-minute viral video (below) is taking the Web by storm, engaging climate-change activists and skeptics alike.
In it, Oregon high school science teacher Greg Craven makes a slightly geeky and campily entertaining -- yet simple and convincing -- argument as to why we should act against global climate change -- whether or not we agree global climate change is really happening.
This video is actually a revision that patches up the holes in his initial video, titled "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See." Since posting these to great public response, Craven has been busy creating an "Expansion Pack" that supports and elaborates on "How It All Ends."
The goal of these videos: To educate and mobilize people into action. Accordingly, all of his work is available for free to download and manipulate as the user pleases. All the videos are on YouTube as well as Craven's own website WonderingMind42 and the Manpollo Project website.
Apparently, Craven worked a bit too hard on all of this. According to CTV, Craven ended up at the emergency room with chest pains, and was told by the doctors to reduce his stress level and take it easy.
Thanks to Marina at the L.A. Times for the link -- as well as for copy editing this blog!
Carbon footprint calculators are so 2007... Now we have water footprint calculators! H2O Conserve gives you an estimate of how much water you use via a short quiz. (via Utne)
Answer a few questions about your living situations and personal habits -- shower length, general diet, etc. -- and voila, you get your own personal water footprint score.
Post-quiz, H2O Conserve offers some water-saving tips. But unfortunately, those tips are just general tips, not personal tips based on the answers you gave to the quiz. If your score's high though, these tips would be a good place to start.
My water footprint, according to H2O Conserve, is 538.89 gallons per day, compared to the average American's 1,189.3 gallons. What's your score?
Tomorrow, L.A. will get its own edition of Ideal Bite, the popular eco-tip e-newsletter. Ideal Bite's like Daily Candy with a green vibe. If you're already a subscriber to the national edition, but wish the tips pointed you to local stores and services instead of web-based ones, the L.A. edition should better fit your needs.
New York and San Francisco already have their local editions -- and Chicago will soon get its own too. The first L.A. tips will cover organic chocolate stores, green moving companies, eco-friendly building supplies -- and even local L.A. eco-heroes. Sign up now to get an locally-relevant eco-tip delivered to your inbox every weekday.
Feel like the only person toting your own to-go mug? The Mug Project's here to give you some love. A couple guys in Jamaica Plains, Mass. started this social site for mug-toters living the bring-your-own lifestyle.
Visitors can commiserate by sharing their mug stories (I'm wondering if these are actually going to be interesting to read), or more practically, add some local coffee shops that offer a discount for bringing your own mug to the Mug Project Partner Map.
The project even has a cute little video, in which a guy "cheats" on his reusable mug with disposables:
Wired magazine put together a list of 33 things that suck. Of them, quite a few are un-enviro things, like the fuel economy (or lack there of) of our cars, the profusion of different types of printer cartridges (as well as their expense), the difficulty of opening plastic clam shells (a task that sent nearly 6,500 Americans to emergency rooms in 2004), and of course, gridlocked traffic.
Now the good news: We've already got eco-solutions for all of these!
Plastic packaging: Try not to buy stuff that's plastic-encased. Trader Joe's is an otherwise eco-friendly store that's guilty of this eco-sin. Hit the farmers' market instead!
Traffic: Do like Kathryn and I have, and de-car already :)
So e-cards are one of those things that I've always thought should be free -- kind of like e-mail. But the speed with which do-gooder e-card dealios are popping up makes me think that maybe my thinking is outdated. A couple of cases in point:
Send e-card, plant real tree in real world. If the $25 required to plant a tree through L.A.-based TreePeople seems a bit steep, why not plant a tree in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua or Panama for just a buck?
Mokugift lets you send an e-Tree AND plant a tree in the real world in the recipient's name. The lucky eTree recipient can click over to their "e-Island" to read your message. Here's my e-Island, set up when I got a tree from the marketing person at Mokugift. I can even embed my e-Island into my blog thusly:
Send e-card, save humanity, support artists. Created by the people behind RE:VISION, Reindeer Greetings lets you pick from 12 artfully designed e-cards for 99 cents (79 cents plus a 20 cent "processing fee" you only find out about once you're ready to buy) -- with 41 cents of that going to Architecture for Humanity, an innovative humanitarian organization I love.
I'm still not sure how I feel about these pay-per-e-card ideas. On the one hand, I just can't adjust to the idea of buying e-cards -- and I'm not sure why I wouldn't just give the whole 99 cents to Architecture for Humanity, rather than just 41 cents via the card.
That said, people who pooh-pooh the idea of buying something with a portion going to charity -- arguing that it's better to just donate the money -- rarely give that money directly to charity anyways. I can complain that only 41 cents goes to Architecture for Humanity, but I didn't exactly have solid plans to donate any money to Architecture for Humanity this holiday season.... Isn't 41 cents better than 0 cents?
Green shopping events dominated the weekend, and now green conferences are taking over the week. It all starts on Monday with GreenXchange Global Marketplace Conference, a business tech-focused event. The idea: To bring together international business, financial and policy experts from the public and private sector "to further accelerate international awareness and applications of sustainable green technologies."
An impressive lineup of speakers includes L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Chair of the California Air Resources Board Mary Nichols, Michael Peevey of the California Public Utilities Commission, and Robyn Beavers, Director of Sustainability at Google. Speakers and panels will discuss both renewable and non-renewable energy, clean tech, climate change policy and more.
When: Monday, 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Tues., 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. Where: Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, 2025 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles Cost: $995 (unless prices have recently changed; GreenXchange's website is currently down)
I'll be there, taking notes and pictures, though the chances of me getting there by 7 a.m.'s pretty slim. The event is put together by VerdeXchange, a publisher and environmental think tank, and trade show producer IDG World Expo. And this conference is just the beginning for GreenXchange; a larger GreenXchange Xpo event is planned for Oct. 1-3, 2008, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Wanted: More eco-friendly electronics. Survey says 12% of people "are ready to dish out extra dollars for computers and TVs that use less energy or come from an environmentally friendly company."
I would think this signals a trend -- meaning that this 12% figure will continue to go up, so forward-thinking companies should go full force into greening their lines. Analysts, however, are more conservative than I. "I'm not suggesting that these companies go entirely green with their product lines," analyst Christopher Mines is quoted as saying. "I just think 12% is enough of a market to capture."
Well, alright then. In the meantime, if you're looking for a green PC or TV, start by checking out Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics (PDF). And here's how to use the computer you already have a little more greenly.
Before switching hosts, look for one that 1) has a solid reputation or a reliable recommendation -- just as with conventional hosts, some green hosts are better than others (I highly recommend AISO.net, but had horrible experiences with Sustainable Websites) -- and 2) is actually powered by renewable energy. Some hosts simply buy offsets and call themselves green -- and switching to one of those isn't significantly different from just staying with your current host and buying your own offsets.
Buying offsets has become an increasingly controversial and murky issue; here's a primer on the good, bad, and confusing nature of offsets.
2. Get CO2Stats. This small, free widget measures -- and offsets -- the carbon emissions created by the total electricity usage of your readers' computers while they're on your site.
Two PhD students developed this app, and they're paying out-of-pocket to offset the carbon emissions of CO2Stats widget users through Sustainable Travel International. Again, the controversies surrounding offsets apply, but at the very least, CO2Stats highlights the fact that Internet surfing does come at a cost to the environment.
All you have to do is grab the free code and put it on your sidebar. My one complaint is that the widget isn't very self-explanatory; looking at it, it's difficult to tell what exactly makes the user's site "green" or what is being offset. But the guys say they're looking at adding "a small MouseOver popup of explanatory text that elaborates on our calculation methods to the widget."
Parts 1 and 2 help you green your current computer. But computers have this habit of going defunct just as you're getting used to them -
So I started putting a post together to help you pick a new green machine only to find that Jasmin Malik Chua's already written a comprehensive guide -- "How to Buy a Green PC" -- for Computer Shopper.
"How to Buy a Green PC" covers everything from the energy efficiency of LCD monitors over CRTs to Energy Star-certified models to end-of-life recycling options. Read it before hitting the stores.
Feeling obsessive? Stress a bit more over your green machine purchase by reading Northwest Products Stewardship Council's guide, which asks you to consider other smaller factors -- i.e. the packaging materials your computer's shipped in -- before getting a new computer.
If you're a forward-looking, techy green computer person, check out Jeremy Faludi of Worldchanging's wonkier 3-parter on green computers, covering what's to come in green data centers, components and whole machines.
All thecrazy eventsthis month threw me for a loop, so Energy week's been extended to 2 weeks. Today -- tips for making your computer habit a little more eco-friendly:
1. Change your power settings to give your computer breaks. Need to see the savings onscreen to believe it? Local Cooling, a free downloadable app, will lay it out for Windows XP users; TweakVista, not-so-free program for Vista users, has a feature that shows the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted each month by your PC -- as well as the monthly electrical bill that results. Caution: I haven't tried either of these programs myself, since the numbers on my electric bill are visualization enough for me.
2. When you're not using it, turn it off. Back in the days when Pine was a popular e-mail system and blogs didn't exist, you may've heard that you shouldn't turn your computer off because it's only built to turn on and off a relatively small number of times. Needless to say, times have changed. According to PC magazine, computers today can handle 40,000 on/off cycles, "considerably more times than the average user will turn the computer on and off during its five- to seven-year life span."
So if you don't plan to use a computer for a few hours, turn it off -- you'll save energy, and your computer will appreciate the break. And please turn that thing off overnight.
3. Use it less and enjoy the SoCal weather. Don't end up like these somewhat sad Korean kids who're now in a government-funded "Internet Rescue camp" to cure them of their computer addiction. Read all the way to the bottom of this post? Thank you -- I appreciate your diligence. Now take a little break and go for a walk.
The other green computer tips involve buying new stuff; that'll come in Part 3.
Wired magazine put together a list of 
