Want $2 Gasoline? Here's How...

For the first time in two decades U.S. gasoline consumption has actually declined. The high price of gas, now approaching $5 per gallon, has persuaded drivers to curb their driving and switch to public transportation and biking. Using less gas means fewer CO2 emissions and less global warming, too. But don't get too excited—Americans' consumption is only down about one percent as of April, not actually enough to affect pump prices—or climate change, for that matter.

Conventional wisdom says that we'll never see cheap gas again because global demand is outpacing supply. Industry experts are even talking $9 to $12 per gallon within two years. Yikes! The only way to lower prices would be to pump more (they won't) or use much, much less. (We won't.)

But wait! Plug-in hybrid cars, which supplement gas with an electric recharge, could raise efficiency to over 100 miles per gallon. That's almost five times better than the current U.S. fleet average. Build enough cars like this and you could see an oil glut! Saudi sheiks would cry "Uncle," gas prices would plummet, and the air would be cleaner, too.

Don't take our word for it. Consider the words of this self-proclaimed energy expert: "Plug-in hybrids will be able to travel much greater distances on electricity alone... thereby making us less dependent on oil." —President George W. Bush

Toyota, GM, and Nissan each promise to release plug-in hybrids in 2010 or 2011. Soon we could be using less oil, but where will all the extra electricity come from? Nuclear? Solar? Wind? Not coal!

SOURCES: http://www.hybridconsortium.org
New York Post, President's Energy Speech, 2/21/06
PBS Nightly Business Report, May 28, 2008.

Driven To Starvation

Reporting for Information Clearinghouse, law and ethics expert William A. Cohn describes how the auto industry is not just destroying the environment but also driving 100 million of the world's poor to starvation.

"Speaking at the United Nations on April 21st, Bolivian President Evo Morales called his country's food crisis 'an external problem' caused by policies in which 'cars come first, not human beings.' Peruvian President Alan Garcia joined in saying that biofuels harm the world's poorest people. Morales previously blamed the world's leading polluters for causing the severe weather which has ravaged Bolivia with floods since November 2007, destroying more than 1.2 million homes....

"Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told the BBC on April 22nd that WFP is now delivering food aid to an additional 100 million people who did not need assistance six months ago, 'but today simply can't afford enough food for their family....'"

Cohn continues, "Much of the global energy demand comes from cars.... Presidential candidates McCain and Clinton have played to voters' short-term instincts by calling for a suspension of the federal gas tax during the summer travel season.... Sadly, the U.S. has set the example of denying the need for sacrifice and change."

Cohn quotes sources which assert that GM and the oil companies killed the all-electric car and buried the technology for extended range batteries. The internal combustion engine, which needs frequent maintenance and repairs, is highly profitable but obscenely dirty. In more ways than one.

SOURCE: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19841.htm

The Health Benefits of Recession

ABC News reports that as a result of the economic slowdown, families are saving money by buying fewer prepared meals and returning to home cooking. "It's more work and you have to be more organized," sighs one homemaker, but it's also less expensive. Hey, it's an opportunity to step up to the plate with more whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies!

SOURCE: ABC News, May 13, 2008.

10% of Americans Trending Vegetarian

Besides not smoking, probably the best thing you can do for your health is to eat less meat. Good news—more and more people are getting the message! A newly released "Vegetarianism in America" study published by Vegetarian Times shows that 3.2 percent of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian-based diet. Of these about 0.5 percent, or 1 million, are vegans, who consume no animal products at all. About 10 percent, or 22.8 million people, say they largely follow a vegetarian-inclined diet. Another 5.2 percent, or 11.9 million people, are "definitely interested" in following a vegetarian-based diet in the future.

Why Liberals Are Bummed

Researchers at New York University recently found out why conservatives tend to be happier than liberals. They asked subjects if they agreed with such statements as, "It's not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others." Conservatives were far more likely to agree. "Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives," said researcher Jaime Napier. Conservatives are generally happier because of their greater ability to rationalize political and social inequalities. They also believe in the rewards of hard work and individual effort.

Some liberals might counter that "ignorance is bliss." They're more likely to feel like "victims" who believe in the need for collective action to right social wrongs.

Arthur Brooks, Syracuse University professor and author of Gross National Happiness, found that conservatives are also more likely to be married, go to church, and be optimistic about the future, all bellwethers of happiness.

Brooks adds, however, that religious liberals are happier than most, suggesting that a strong belief in some form of higher power may be an important determinant of happiness. Unhappy people of all political stripes may "want to cultivate a spiritual life." At least you don't have to join the Moral Majority. Yoga and even spiritual atheism work, too.

One more point the experts forgot to mention: Eight years of President George Bush would bum out any liberal!

SOURCES: U.S. News, May 5, 2008.
The Week, May 17, 2008.

Mass Media's Artificial Green

Mass media coverage of environmental issues is spotty, if not downright misleading. During the 2008 primary season presidential candidates have seldom been asked about climate change. The media-fueled controversy over John McCain's proposed "gas tax holiday" diverted attention away from more serious considerations such as carbon caps, the ethanol controversy, unclean coal, and solar subsidies. The media's rationale is that economics, terrorism, and healthcare are all more important to voters. And if the electorate gets bored with these topics, newscasters can always goose ratings by (mis)quoting the candidates' eccentric pastors.

Environmental coverage in print media fares somewhat better than broadcast journalism. Among the best is Scientific American, where recent articles have included a grand plan for solar power (April 2008), the dangers of reprocessing plutonium in nuclear plants (May 2008), and the ethics of climate change (June 2008). Yes, science with ethics!Since our affluent lifestyle is frying the planet, the moral response is to "try to stop doing it and compensate the people we harm."

More typical of mainstream environmental coverage is Wired (5/2008), which recently headlined with these hyperbolic assertions:

"Keep your SUV." Driving an old SUV is less damaging than building a new hybrid.

"Forget organics." Eat local.

"Go nuclear." Burning coal releases greenhouse gases, so build more nuclear plants.

"Screw the spotted owl." The planet's heating up anyway, so prepare for the worst.

Wired's approach is clever but cynical, tending to shed more heat than light on complex topics. As if global warming needs more heat!

Corporate media, whether willfully or through negligence, keeps missing the big picture. Cutting CO2 emissions will require phasing out fossil fuels starting immediately. A mix of alternative energies is needed to replace oil and coal, but which alternatives and in what proportions? What are the costs and who will bear the burden? Gasoline from algae or coal? Maybe. Hydrogen? Takes energy to make it. Nuclear fission, for all its problems, is the big biz favorite. Many environmentalists prefer a "bioregional" approach, a mix of smaller scale technologies best suited to the geography: solar in the desert; tidal power at the coast; wind on the plains; hydroelectric upstream; geothermal near hot rocks; ethanol only in corn country. A few "deep ecologists" even argue for systematic population reduction and an expansion of wilderness.

Rarely discussed is conservation. How much will Americans have to "sacrifice"? How much can be saved through design efficiencies, better home insulation, expanded mass transit? And where are those cute electric microcars?

How much "stuff" is just too much? Rich societies already have more than enough toys. Meanwhile there are billions in poverty who simply want enough to eat. Maybe we should do with less for their sake, as well as our own.

Why aren't these issues aired more often? Maybe because mass media is sponsored by big corporations whose big profits depend on impulse consumption. "Buy MORE!" Maybe we'd be better informed if more news were publiclyfunded—more NPR and PBS, less NBC and FOX.

SOURCES: Wired, May 2008.
Scientific American, April 2008; May 2008; June 2008.
www.energyefficienthomearticles.com/Article/ee-homes--energy-savings----Home-insulation--slash-energy-bills--stay-snug-in-winter-cool-in-summer-/6742

Killer Cribs & Stealth Strollers

Friends of the Earth recently released a study finding a high percentage of baby products, including portable cribs, strollers, car seats, and infant carriers, contain toxic fire retardant chemicals. These chemicals, called halogenated fire retardants, have been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption, and neurological and reproductive dysfunction, and they particularly impact infants and children.

This report, titled "Killer Cribs: Protecting Infants and Children from Toxic Exposure," is based on a sample of 150 baby products and 350 pieces of household furniture from California stores and residences.

California Assemblyman Mark Leno has introduced a bill, A.B. 706, which would end the use of these dangerous chemicals in many products. The bill has passed the California Assembly and is pending on the State Senate floor.

SOURCE:
Friends of the Earth, Press Release, May 20, 2008.

Toxic Baby Lotions

Don't just worry about how you feed or clothe your baby. Now you have to think about what you're smearing on his skin, too. A new study has found that babies' skin can absorb chemicals from lotions, powders, and shampoos. Researchers found that infants who were lathered up with the most cosmetics products were exposed to high levels of phthalates, hormone-altering chemicals that can have effects on a baby's developing reproductive system. When researchers tested the urine of 163 infants, they found surprisingly high phthalate concentrations in all of them. "We found that mothers' reported use of infant lotion, infant powder, and shampoo was significantly associated" with the amount of phthalates found in the babies' urine, researchers told the Los Angeles Times. Phthalates are used to hold in fragrance and color, but they're not listed as ingredients on labels, so it's impossible to tell which cosmetics contain them.

Labels! Is there a legislator in the House... or the Senate?

SOURCE: The Week, February 22, 2008.

	Even baby knows that plastic is out and breast is best.

Plastic Bottled Water's Days Are Numbered

Bottled water is out, and tap water is in, says the May/June 2008 cover story of E – The Environmental Magazine. Call it reverse snob appeal. These days, it's the tap water enthusiasts, concerned about the environment, who get to act self-righteous. Just like it has become cool to bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store and your own mug to the coffee shop, the reusable water bottle is the hip, new eco-accessory.

In Canada, the bottled water issue has reached the level of an "uprising." College students are staging protests, declaring "bottled-water free zones" on campus. High school activists are raising questions about why their school board members are locking them into a contract with Coke or Pepsi (makers of Aquafina and Dasani bottled water) when they have access to drinking fountains for free. Some of the students have jokingly started selling bottled air for $1.

Perhaps Richard Girard, a corporate researcher for the Ottawa-based Polaris Institute, says it best: "This movement is gaining momentum because the general public is starting to figure out bottled water is a scam," he says.

Plastic In The Pacific: Bottled water is also contributing to huge amounts of waste and energy consumption. It takes 15 million barrels of oil per year to make all of the plastic water bottles in America, according to the Container Recycling Institute. Sending those bottles by air and truck uses even more fossil fuel. Once people drain the bottles, they rarely recycle them, and eight out of 10 end up in the landfill. The bottles that drift from landfills often wash out to sea to form a huge raft of plastic in the center of the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas.

Don't Refill! Plastic Bottles Leach Dangerous Chemicals: Research shows that clear bottles made of polycarbonate plastic (such as the original 32-ounce Nalgene) can leach bisphenol-A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical that acts like estrogen in the body. Since BPA has been linked to low sperm counts and an increased risk of breast and prostate cancer, scientists suggest avoiding reusable bottles made from plastic.

Stainless Steel & Glass Are Best: The safest alternatives are nonreactive glass or metal containers. Some of the best refillable bottle options come from the stainless, light, unbreakable SIGG bottles made in Switzerland. They're killer cool, too. We got our SIGG bottle at REI. Backpack chic!

The trend away from bottled water may also boost sales of home filters. Water quality experts say most tap water is fine to drink straight from the faucet—especially in cities like Seattle, New York City, Denver, and good old San Francisco, where water comes from pristine mountain reservoirs.

SOURCE:
E/The Environmental Magazine, May/June 2008.

Healthy Living Bookshelf

GORGEOUSLY GREEN:
8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life
Sophie Uliano
HarperCollins Publishers, 2008, $16.95

Written in a modified 'Valley Girlese', Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano encourages changes in our extravagant lifestyle—all while still keeping the style part. Here, at last, is "every girl's guide to an Earth- Friendly life." Many of the topics are of special interest to women—safe cosmetic ingredients and organic fabrics for clothes—but Sophie also delves into guy-friendly nitty-gritty such as green cars, alternative fuels, and composting with worms. On this matter Sophie may be a better writer than she is a gardener. When the author appeared with Julia Roberts (who wrote her Foreword) on Oprah, her gardening worms escaped and crawled around on the stage. Neither Julia, Oprah, nor Sophie herself wanted to pick them up, so a stagehand came out and took care of it. Even though Oprah seemed a little squeamish about the whole situation, Sophie forged ahead and encouraged us to compost our garbage, grow vegetables, and recycle, recycle, recycle—all to have an impact on the greening of our damaged earth. The book itself is a breezy compendium of all that's wrong with our modern culture's "fancy" lifestyle with suggestions for change. It includes lists of chemicals and why they're bad for us, and sources for healthy makeup products, including Sophie's own line of safe cosmetics. You'll also find websites, checklists, recipes. Especially of note, the Green weddings and Green vacations sections. Sophie's motto is, "One change makes a difference." Oh, and she's sooo glad we caught it in time, while we can still save the planet. You gotta love her spunk!

THE BLUE ZONES: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest
Dan Buettner
Random House, 2008, $26

Buettner and staff took a map of the world and colored "blue zones" showing areas with a high percentage of centenarians, giving the book its title. What do the world's most long-lived people have in common? Lots of fresh veggies, limited meat and sugar, physical activity, and a large social network. Yes, you'll find familiar "blue zones" such as Okinawa and Sardinia, but also some surprises, such as smoggy Loma Linda, California, home to long-lived Seventh Day Adventists.

THE JUNGLE EFFECT: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World — Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home
Dr. Daphne Miller
HarperCollins, 2008, $17.95

Pizza, pasta, hamburgers, sushi, tacos, and french fries... how did we turn healthy cuisine into not-so-healthy junk food? How is it possible that relatively poor native populations in Mexico and Africa have such low levels of the chronic diseases that plague the United States? What is the secret behind the extremely low rate of clinical depression in Iceland, where dreary weather is the norm?
Daphne Miller, MD, loves to cook, loves adventure, and loves her patients. Over the past three years she has traveled around the world to find authentic indigenous recipes and traditions that can help preserve health and prevent the many modern diseases caused by a Western lifestyle. The Jungle Effect is filled with inspiring stories, interviews with world-renowned food experts, delicious recipes, and valuable diet secrets that will stick with you for a lifetime. Food, well-prepared, may be your very best medicine!

NEMESIS: The Last Days of the American Republic
Chalmers Johnson
Henry Holt & Company, 2006, $16

The author of Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire explores the U.S. addiction to war and its corrosive impact on democratic institutions. Our vast network of global military bases fall in the same category as war: they're addictive. Once they're built everyone in the area becomes economically dependent on them, and they're impossible to close without a firestorm of outrage. Meanwhile we ignore healthcare, education, and the environment, bankrupting our budget, and mortgaging our children's future. So long as our leadership thinks we're the world's policeman the downward spiral continues. Yet what's at stake is far greater than our budget or even the lives squandered. We must change course or face the end of the American experience itself. As Johnson admonishes, "Failing such reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us."

Israeli & Palestinian Women—Lose Weight & Make Peace?

Palestinian and Israeli women attend a diet group in Jerusalem and find they have a lot in common. There's the weekly weigh-in, the tips on healthy snacking and the chit-chat about unruly kids or errant husbands. For a while the common battle with weight loss takes precedent over the weighty issues of politics and religion.

"I never felt good about myself and my body, and that's something that women all over the world struggle with," said Yael Luttwak, an American-born Israeli who started the groups. Luttwak, a filmmaker, set up the first Jerusalem-based diet group for a 2007 documentary called "A Slim Peace." The fourth 10-week group started this past April.

Skeptics might dismiss this unusual attempt at coexistence as naive, noting peace remains elusive despite a string of initiatives using everything from haute cuisine to surfing to try to promote ties between Israelis and Palestinians. On the other hand, proponents argue they work because they make peace-making personal.

"Let it all out: work, the news, kids, the husband, the no-husband, the ex-husband," says Israeli facilitator Odelya Gertel-Kraybill at a recent class in Jerusalem.

"Before, the only Israelis I knew were soldiers at checkpoints, I thought they were all brutal," said Palestinian student Enas Smoom. "But in the group, we forget we are Israelis and Palestinians — we are just women talking about nutrition."

These women have no illusions about solving one of the world's most intractable conflicts in a diet class. In fact, several of them say they haven't even lost much weight. But they do believe such groups can help change attitudes.

SOURCES: Reuters, April 15, 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL1687989220080522

Take The Stairs! Clean The House! Garden! Walk! Just Keep Moving!

Keep moving! A lack of regular exercise can ruin your health in as little as two weeks! A University of Missouri research team has found direct evidence that a reduction in daily physical activity is an actual cause of many of the risk factors for chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also found that it only takes about two weeks of reduced activity to start noticing the effects.

Frank Booth, professor of biomedical sciences in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, explains: "Our findings indicated that if there is a lack of normal physical activity, a person greatly increases the chances of developing a chronic disease. Previously, we thought that not exercising just wasn't healthy, but we didn't think that a lack of activity could cause disease. That assumption was wrong."

Booth and researchers at the University of Copenhagen conducted two different studies in Copenhagen. In the first study, participants were asked to reduce the amount of steps they took per day from 6,000 to 1,400 for three weeks. Instead of walking or taking the stairs, participants were instructed to use motorized transportation, such as a car or elevator, in every situation possible. The second study asked participants who were more active, averaging 10,000 steps per day, to reduce their activity to 1,400 steps per day for two weeks. The average American adult takes 7,473 steps a day.

Booth summarizes, "When extra fats and sugars (glucose) don't clear the bloodstream, they go where we don't want them and cause problems for our bodies' typical metabolic functions.... [I]ncreasing daily stepping could actually reverse a cause of chronic disease."

We figure that the docs recommend walking at least four miles daily (8,000 to 10,000 steps), in all activities combined. Adding just two half-hour walks (about 3 miles) a day to your regular routine should put you over the top.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), March 19, 2008.

Overweight & Diabetic: Operate?

The American Diabetes Association says that almost 90 percent of people newly diagnosed with the disease are overweight. Being overweight puts people at risk of Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes, and weight-loss surgery is being touted as a "cure."

Because research suggests that one form of weight-loss or "bariatric" surgery—gastric bypass—offers health benefits beyond simply cutting the pounds, medical practitioners and patients are increasingly seeing surgery not as a last resort but as a really good option, as well as an avenue to learn more about the mechanisms behind the disease.

Patients who underwent gastric banding, a procedure that allows only a small amount of food to be eaten at once, were five times as likely to be disease-free two years later as those who tried to control their diabetes through diet, exercise, and medication. These new findings will allow patients who aren't heavy enough to qualify for surgery to get it, said Dr. Julio Teixeira, a surgeon at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.

"It suggests that intensive weight-loss therapy may be a more effective first step in the management of diabetes than simple lifestyle change," Australian doctors wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1/23/08).

Questioning the method of this madness—why anyone would choose surgery over diet and exercise—Adbusters' Elecia Chrunik comments: "If a sufferer loses 10 percent of his or her body weight the effects of the disease can be minimized, even eradicated.... What's hard to understand is why people have lost the desire to be active participants in their own lives, why surgery would be more appealing than working towards health and why it's okay to say, 'It's my life, but I'd rather you do the work.'"

SOURCES:
Daily News, January 23, 2008.
U.S. News, February 21, 2008.
Adbusters, May-June 2008.