Little known fact:The wastewater treatment plant that Stanford sends its water to cannot remove all chemicals from our water before they dump it into the bay. They get the major ones, and treat the water for things that can kill humans, but chemicals from things like birth control and Prozac still get into the bay water and make our fish sterile (albeit un-depressed?).

We can thus assume that the effects of this biodegradable "natural" (whatever that technically menas) laundry detergent are less harmful than whatever we're doing to the fishies now.

Eco-friendly laundry detergent. Do it for Nemo.

We have a disposable society. We love using things once or twice and then throwing them into pits in the ground. Cups, plates, gloves, hats…you name it. Perhaps this tendency towards the disposable is a reflection of our transient, liminal, earthly nature. Everything dies – everything, even our species, will be eventually “disposed of.” But more likely our love of the single serving is a sign of our inability to grasp the scale of our disposable lifestyle.

We are producing sterile, unusable trash outputs faster than we are receiving inputs from our planet. The scales are off. Units are wrong. We’re headed for trouble.

Luckily, a few simple changes in lifestyle can change our trajectory.

Try reuse.stanford.edu the next time you need something for your dorm room. Welcome to the craigslist of Stanford! Bulletin boards, desks, chairs and refrigerators abound. A sweet resource. And let’s face it, used stuff is super trendy right now.

Furthermore, if you’re feeling really saucy consider refusepact.org. This Stanford-produced idea is simple: refuse to use disposables. Bring your own plate/containers/silverware to those wonderful info session lunches. I know I go to them for the free food and am always dismayed by the predominance of flimsy disposable plates/forks/knives that are bound straight for the landfill with my saliva still on them. Join me in refusing disposables and bring your own! Feel nerdy or awkward bringing your own supplies? GET OVER YOURSELF. You are on the cutting edge of a snowballing trend. Be a role model and suck it up.

Near the end of my workday today I gave my e-mail one final check and discovered that a, shall we say, “critical” review of Stanford Dining’s new pilot “trayless dining” policy had been published in the Daily. After muttering a few frustrated expletives to my co-worker, I soon resigned myself to the fact that if someone hates the idea of trayless dining then it is not their fault. If anything, it is a sign of my failure as someone fighting to increase the resilience and sustainability of our society in the face of, let’s be honest, some crazy environmental shit.

As such, here is my educational two cents about the infamous dining hall tray.

The facts about trayless dining at Stanford (and why not using trays is a good thing):

1) You can have a tray if you need one/want one/desire one/passionately lust for one in the fashion of the Stanford student who wrote the aforementioned article found here http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=1033368 .

2) Trayless dining is a pilot program of Stanford Dining based on a survey of approximately 500 Stanford students completed last spring. It’s part of their well-established Love Food, Hate Waste Campaign. It has been planned with rationality and care, and is not what I would define as a radical move.

3) Trays = unnecessary waste. You and I both know that it’s easy to trudge home for dinner at the end of the day and totally load up on all-you-can-eat munchies, only to realize five minutes in that you will probably vomit if you consume everything on your plate. Excess food = waste of water/energy/land resources + unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions (both due to the food production process, and due to the emissions that go along with dealing with food waste). No tray = less likely to take too much food. Logical. Beneficial. End of story.

4) No trays = saves water (they say it takes half a gallon to wash one tray one time) = saves money for Stanford Dining = they have other money to do things like buy good food and keep staff on board.

5) Trayless dining is an awareness campaign. It is visible. It is personal. It may not have huge effects on our school’s water consumption, but it makes Stanford students think a little more about the resources they consume in a one-way, irreversible manner (RANDOM FACT: the freshwater we use at Stanford is treated and expelled to SF bay, a saltwater body, and is not reused). If this is not apparent enough, then it’s on us – the students who care about it – to step up and help Dining advertise the reasons behind their apparently appalling traylessness.

I could throw a bunch of statistics/official-ish facts at you to back all this stuff up (feel free to contact me if you would like them – elainea1@stanford.edu); but I will refrain.

The moral of the story is, if you can’t deal with going without trays in your dining hall then maybe you should sit down for a chat with one of the tropical climate refugees who has already lost their home and livelihood due to permanent island inundation. Or maybe you should talk to your children in fifty years and explain to them why the Colorado River and the Sierra Snowpack are no longer able to provide water to the Californian public. Or maybe you should consider the facts, consider your morals, and readjust your position on trayless dining accordingly.

Bottled Water- often considered a “healthy alternative” in very popular in the States- we currently drink about 8 million gallons of it each year. And while this bottled water is indeed healthier than drinking coke or pepsi, bottled water is incredibly bad for the health of our planet. And it turns out it may be bad for us as well. Several environmental organizations have declared war on bottled water, and are trying to show its ill effects on not only the planet, but also on us. The following is a recap of some of these problems.

Problem #1: it takes 3-5 times more water to create the plastic water bottle than will actually fit in the bottle. Considering each bottle should only be used once (to prevent the leeching of phthalates)- that is a lot of water that is wasted for each bottle we drink.

I came across this graph showing where energy is used in an average American home:

The Heating and Cooling costs (and CO2 emissions) are clearly the most substantial portion of household energy use. Homeowners who wish to reduce their emissions, therefore, should start here. Fortunately, a fairly easy solution exists for individuals who are designing and building their own home: Passive Solar Design

Passive solar design is based on two main principles: the tilting of the earth on its axis, and utilizing thermal mass to maintain an ideal temperature in the house.

Tom Arnold is the Chief Environmental Officer of Terrapass, an environmental company that provides carbon offsetting solutions for individuals.

MP3 File | Subscribe via iTunes | Add to del.icio.us

"Terrapass is the $50 bumper sticker," says Tom. In a period when climate change could not be more critical, Terrapass provides a way for individuals to offset their car, flight, or home carbon emissions -- and to show it on a decal and bumper sticker.

In this interview, Tom provides some interesting insight into the company, the carbon credit business, and the climate change milieu.

This past March, Terrapass became the official gift to the Academy Awards' performers and presenters, all 100,000 lbs of CO2 reductions for every Hollywood star. In addition to some Hollywood glitter, this is a sign that doing environmental good -- and showing it -- is the new chic.

Many thanks to Himanshu Agarwal and Ashish Chordia for coordinating the interview and Min Li Chan and Galen Panger for the contributions.

Stay tuned for more interesting interviews, including a whirlwind tour of Napa, California (featuring Thomas Keller of French Laundry), John Morgridge, and Vinod Khosla.

- Min Liu

For part I click here

Inspired by my friend D who intends to stop using shampoo as soon as she runs out, no Impact Man, and a variety of other sites I am attempting to go shampoo-less and to wash my hair with a baking soda solution and vinegar rinse. Today was day 1, I’ll let you know what happens after week II. If I make it that far

However, I do have reviews of using vinegar and baking soda to clean the oven, help with the dishes, and clean the toilet.

The Washington Post has the fix on the debates last night. I agree with them that Clinton is emerging from these debates as the most impressive among the field. She's also the clear leader in the latest polls on the Democratic side, with 42% compared to Obama's 27% and Edwards' 11%.

But get this, folks: When you add non-candidate Gore into the mix, he places third with 17%, and takes a 7-point chunk out of Hillary. Obama falls to 23% and Edwards to a paltry 8%. Furthermore, Al Gore wins on intensity. Sixty percent of his supporters do so "strongly," compared to 53% for Hillary and a continually-softening 43% for Obama. Crazy.

Here he is on the Daily show, in case you missed it (from two Thursdays ago):

Part 2 here.

TED Talks today released an amazing and passionate talk by famed Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr today. In it, he discusses his efforts and those of his company to understand where we are and where we need to be in order to solve the climate crisis. Prognosis: Terrible. At the end of the presentation, he's so choked up, he can't speak.

This is a fantastic video, and a powerful call to action. Share it with friends!

"Policy is paramount." California has capped emissions. "But it's not enough."

Every so often I’m going to review an eco-friendly cleaning technique for those of us who live in apartments and do have to clean them occasionally.

But first, how I was literally reduced to an eco-friendly method -

When you get married, inevitably the issue of a just division of chores arises, especially when one of you has a lower tolerance for dirt than the other. In my case, I’m the one who grew up with the belief that the bathroom sink should be routinely wiped down. In a trade-off for laundry (which I despise), vacuuming, and putting the dishes away my job is to clean the bathroom and the kitchen.

The problem – I live in married couples housing, in apartments in which some designer, in a fit of brilliance, decided that the bathrooms didn’t need ventilation. Lack of ventilation in the bathroom, especially when combined with the cheap vinyl shower curtain housing provides, is the perfect growing place for mold.

Everywhere Al Gore goes, people implore him to run for President. "We have dug ourselves into a 20-ft. hole, and we need somebody who knows how to build a ladder. Al's the guy," says Steve Jobs of Apple. "Like many others, I have tried my best to convince him. So far, no luck."

"It happens all the time," says Tipper Gore. "Everybody wants to take him for a walk in the woods. He won't go. He's not doing it!"

Jessica Usborne, an audience member at one of Gore's talks, stood up and asked The Question. "Given the urgency of global warming, shouldn't you not only educate people but also help implement the changes that will be necessary—by running for President?"

Gore understands deeply the damage done to America's institutions and reputation by the Bush Administration, and has faith that the American public sphere that has permitted Bush to ride roughshod over our Constitution will be restored gradually by the Internet, regardless of who the next several Presidents will be. But there's nothing like a true leader, and I believe there is no one more up to the huge challenges facing the next President than Al Gore.

I wish he would run. Not Hillary. Not Obama.

Al Gore.

According to the American Institute of Architects, our very own Global Ecology Research Center is one of the top 10 "green" buildings in the nation. The article states:

"Global Ecology Research Center, Stanford, California, by EHDD Architects, a low-energy laboratory and office building that cut carbon emissions associated with building operation by 72 percent."

You can read about the other choices here.

Building image from the Stanford Report

New research coming out of Stanford suggests that ethanol might be just as harmful for human health as gasoline (if not more) and may not even have the desired CO₂ reduction benefits we need to actually take a step toward stopping climate change. Add that to the massive land use required for corn production (along with the massive pesticide use), and I'm suddenly feeling less enthusiastic about this as a fuel source. I agree with Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Mark Jacobson, who produced the results, when he says that better alternatives are electricity generated from solar and wind, and hydrogen fuel also ultimately generated from green power sources.

As I'm sure everyone has already discovered, Google posted a rather sobering Earth Day logo today, depicting a melting iceberg. Yahoo, on the other hand, has turned its exclamation mark into a lightbulb, which is powered by the windmill "Y." Yahoo might be trying to be cute, but Google wins for impact. Millions of people will see the logo today.

In other news, the Clinton campaign has announced that it has gone completely carbon neutral, while the Bush Administration released a "fact sheet" citing its "strong environmental record."

Following a tumultuous day for him that included critical e-mails and a call home to his parents from readers of this Blog, the student who sent the offensive original message apologized to me in a letter on Facebook and requested that I take his name off of the blog. He said I could share the letter with you, and I think it is only fair to offer him a chance to provide his own version of the events.

Here's what he said:

I would like to personally apologize for my comment to you on Facebook. It is something that I deeply regret saying, and was merely a result of my propensity to speak without thinking. I am not sure as to how I was even put onto the list to receive messages regarding an event I had not RSVP’d for. I had already gotten multiple copies of the message, and was simply mad to see what appeared to be spam messages in my Facebook inbox (something that would not have been surprising had it been Myspace). Again, without even thinking, I quickly fired off the response that I sent to you. I never once viewed your profile, and I can assure you that this was NOT a deliberate act of homophobia; in fact, I have many gay friends and acquaintances...

State transportation planners have nearly finished designing a high-tech bullet train system that would take passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just over two-and-a-half hours at 220 mph -- faster than a Ferrari. The electric train, which would extend from San Diego to the Bay Area and Sacramento, is slated to be put before voters in 2008 at a price tag of $30 billion. Given California's population growth rate -- we effectively add another San Jose to our population every two years -- the ensuing commuter flood will jam our highways and airports. An electric high-speed bullet train would be significantly more environmentally- and aesthetically-friendly, not to mention cheaper, than building more highways and/or expanding our airports.

Though the rest of the industrialized world has had high speed trains like this for as much as 43 years (in the case of Japan), America has yet to construct even one truly high-speed train (i.e. over 200 mph).

As always, California will show the way.

Visit the California High Speed Rail Authority Website for more >>

[Revised Saturday, 7:39pm]

Two years after declaring his support for the Iraq war in Kresge Auditorium in 2005, Thomas Friedman returned to Stanford today to declare "Green" as the way to "restore America to its natural place in the global order as the beacon of progress, hope, and inspiration."

The three most important issues facing America, he said, are "jobs, temperature, and terrorism," the solutions to which "are so large in scale, they cannot possibly be addressed by an America divided along red and blue state lines."

"The power of a new Green ideology is that it can, properly defined, mobilize liberals and conservatives, evangelicals and atheists, red states and blue states, big business and environmentalists around a core agenda that can both pull us together and propel us forward."

"The next president," he said, "will have to rally us with a Green patriotism."

Friedman said that Green "hit mainstream" through the convergence of 9/11, Katrina, and the internet revolution. The "bad news" is that, while Green has hit mainstream, it has not "gone down Main Street."

The tenor of tonight's speech and Q&A with Ralph Nader, I think, can be best illustrated by describing three of the more distinct moments in what was a very compelling evening:

• Alan Morrison's introduction of Nader came with a telling admission: that even he, who has argued more than 20 cases in front of the Supreme Court and is now on faculty at the Law School, feels that Nader demands more of him than he is 'capable' of providing.


• When Nader asked the audience, mostly Law students and undergraduates, how many of us will devote our post-graduation lives to the pursuit of justice (however we define it), far less than half of us raised our hands.


• The very first question Nader received during the Q&A went something like this: "Ralph Nader, given your assertion during the 2000 election that there is no difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore, has your thinking at all changed, seven years later, when we're stuck in the war in Iraq and Al Gore is the leading advocate for confronting global warming?"

The perfect Valentine's eCard for that special hippie co-op someone.

This Valentine's Day, why not make that "I love you" a sustainable one? We're not suggesting that you propose to anyone necessarily (that might be a little too sustainable)... but how about greening it up a little bit? Some easy things you can do today to say "Happy Valentine's Day, Valentine" in a greener way:

• Shower together. It saves water, and it's a sexy treat! Just, for the sake of your housemates, make sure you clean up afterwards. You can learn more about greening your sex life here and here.


• Cook 'em a nice, organic dinner. Head on down to Whole Foods on Emerson and pick up all the tasty organic ingredients you need. While you're at it, pick up some organic chocolates, too.


• Offset your loved one's carbon emissions for the next year. A $30 gift certificate is enough for them to purchase a TerraPass for their dorm room, and best of all, you can send these gift certificates via e-mail!


• Rent An Inconvenient Truth and watch it together. If you still haven't seen it, or watching Al Gore talk about global warming is a turn-on for either one of you, this documentary could be the perfect lead-in to foreplay. Or even foreplay itself. (Unfortunately, there are none available from Green as of this writing.)

For more, check here and here.

In other news, Google appears to have dropped the "L" from its name for Valentine's Day. "Googe"? That just sounds gross.

Maybe there was another chocolate-covered strawberry there and somebody ate it.

Polar bears on chunks of glacial ice in the Bering Sea in 2004. From the recent NYTimes article reporting on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's just-released report that human activity is causing global warming. Nothing really new, it seems, except now the scientists report over 90% confidence in their predictions (however they're measuring confidence). This follows an alarming article in the WashPost reporting that global warming could extinguish the polar bear as a species.