The Good Human provides us with an excellent eco friendly gardening tip:

Check the weather forecasts before you water, and let mother nature water your plants on the rainy days! For more cool tips on easy energy conservation and reducing your carbon footprint, be sure to check out the Good Human site!

-Valerie 

Actually, the Preserve toothbrush by Recycline doesn’t reuse old ones, so don’t worry! It’s simply made of environmentally friendly materials so you can reduce your carbon footprint and keep your teeth shiny all at the same time!

 -Valerie 

Professor John Anthony Allan of the University of London in Britain has been awarded the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize for his work on the concept of “virtual water.”

“Virtual water” is a method of calculating how much water went in to the production of making various products. So one wouldn’t just calculate the actual water poured into one’s coffee machine, but the H2O that was involved in the growing, packaging, and transport of the cup of java as well.

With increasing water shortages as the result of global warming, “virtual water” calculations might show us that the glass is definitely more than half empty!

-Valerie 

There’s a new instrument to detect mercury pollution in the environment – sled dog fur.

Scientists have discovered that analyzing the fur of Alasakan sled dogs can reveal the levels of mercury contamination in the immediate surroundings, the blog Live Science reports. The dogs eat the leftover food from the surrounding villages, which contain the varying levels of mercury.

Here’s a scary thought: if the mercury is showing up in the dog fur, might it mean the toxic substance is showing up in the bodies of the human population as well?

 -Valerie 

A Californian utility PG&E is now using giant vats of cow poop to power the Golden State, Inhabitat reports.

Methane-powered generators are nothing new…but using actual poo?

The cow poop is collected in giant vats, where the methane is collected and used as natural gas. , the methane produced by cow poop is a very damaging greenhouse gas and a threat to the environment. But, maybe this poop harvesting can at least put that gas to some good use!

This news story reports on how Washington and Oregon will start allowing the killing of sea lions in order to stop them from feeding on dwindling reserves of migrating salmon.

Do you think this is fair? Who should survive: salmon or sea lions?

--Valerie 

The city of Seattle has “just said no” to bottled water – at least for their events and employee’s water coolers.

By stopping the flow of bottled H20, the city plans to save thousands of dollars and help stem the environmental impact of all those empty plastic bottles and jugs.