In a bid to try and meet reduction targets set, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has ordered local authorities to stop giving preferential treatment to energy guzzling projects. The premier has pledged to reform the pricing of natural resources such as water and natural gas and impose higher taxes on pollution emitted. He also vowed to penalize those who violate environmental law by implementing a polluters pay policy. Of the 20 cities in the world with the most polluted air, China houses 16 of them. A recent study suggests that 400,000 premature deaths per year are caused by air pollution and in a country where river water has been known to burn through skin, any curb in pollution is a welcome one.

Cutting preferential treatment to big polluters - what a novel idea: ya reckon we could make it fly in Congress?

more on this at Chinaview.

As an environmentalist, and more importantly, as a concerned citizen of this planet, it is my duty to go forth and spread the message of compact fluorescent light bulbs [CFLs]. I have done this but not without a large dose of guilt as up until recently, I have not been practicing what I preach. And I *know* that I am not alone.

It pains me to admit that I have been in a room with others of my ilk, where we have talked about the benefits of these bulbs, the urgent need for people to replace their bulbs and how we could persuade them to make that switch. Having visited each other’s homes, we could not have failed to notice that many of our apartments lacked CFL bulbs and so, in the room amongst us, a large fluorescent elephant has stood.

There are various reasons why people don’t change over to CFLs, some with more merit than others, though none valid enough in my opinion. I would like to address the one issue that I have come across most often and, not surprisingly the issue that stopped me from making the switch long ago: the color of the light.

Until recently, every CFL bulb I purchased turned my lovely warmly lit cozy living room into a CTU interrogation unit. Instead of relaxing as I walked through the door, my anxiety level would crank up a notch, and I would find myself fighting the desire to turn around and run right back out.

There are those out there who say these bulbs are much closer to natural light but to tell you the truth, I found the bulbs emit light that is way too blue for my constitution and which always resulted in an immediate and long lasting case of the blues.

The ever increasing hypocrisy of my situation got the better of me and I finally decided to open the closet door and shed some light on my incandescent skeletons. Fortunately for me, Chris Neidl from Solar One enlightened me on the subject:

“The key number you need to focus on when purchasing bulbs (beyond wattage and lumens) is the color temp number measured in Kelvin. The magic number is 2700 - that gives you a warm, yellowish light.
Some people prefer a whiter light, but in my experience they are in the minority. “Full Spectrum” lighting, which has long been promoted by many in the environmental community because it produces ‘natural light’ closest to sun light, turns out to not deliver the type of ‘incandescent-like light that most people prefer.”

Thanks to Chris, I am no longer burdened with this shameful secret. My elephant has left the room, my electric bill has dropped and I come home to a warm welcoming glow.

One word of advice: I’ve found that not all 2700 emit the exact same quality of light so you want to try and purchase the same size and manufacturer’s bulbs for a given room. Some are warmer in light than others. As CFLs cost a bit more, I recommend at least initially finding a store that displays them ‘plugged in’ so you can see the light before you make your purchase.

Here’s to a bright future!

The Breating Earth site is a simulation of carbon dioxide emissions as well as birth and death rates of different countries in real time. Well worth checking out.

Step it Up 2007 is organizing a rally/installation to help promote climate change action. On Saturday April 14th at Noon in Battery Park, NYC, thousands of participants dressed in blue will create a column along the projected waterlines should the 10 foot sea level rise scenario occur, redifining lower Manhattan.

To take part in this momentous event, register at Step it Up here

For more information on Hurricanes and Sea Level Rise affecting NYC, check out Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research.

Artist Chris Jordan is working on an incredible series of prints using statistics to illustrate our culture. The print above depicts the number of plastic bags used in the US in 5 minutes.

“Statistics tend to feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or $12.5 million spent every hour on the Iraq war. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.”
Consumption features heavily and the Seurat painting created from 106,000 aluminum cans - the number Americans consume in 30 seconds is a quite incredible. See a sample of his work here

The artist points out that one really needs to see the prints in person in order for the scale to really convey the full impact of the image so please let us know if your aunt, uncle, girlfriend or neighbhor owns a gallery and would be willing to put on an exhibition of this powerful work.

Coco, Liz and I have decided to become the proud mothers of a thousand oysters (in the meantime only 650) by joining the NY/NJ Baykeeper - River Project - Harbor School Oyster Gardening Volunteer Program. When we signed up after a lecture by the very knowledgeable Meredith Comi of Baykeeper, we got a bucket with tiny oysters, called spat, which we proceeded to put into a multi-storied net and submerged in the New York Hudson River. The oysters will grow in our net for a year until they are big enough to be placed on one of the newly established oyster reefs by Baykeeper.

Oysters are quite amazing little creatures. They are tough. They can live out of the water for quite a while (if the temperature and humidity is right and you put them deep shell down). They grow really old (if we would let them, some say 12 others say 50 years). But most amazingly, one adult oyster filters 50 gallons of water per day, removing suspended particles from the water making it clean & clear. As most of you know the Hudson could use some clean and clear, as it used to be when it boasted the largest oyster beds of the world. New York was the oyster capital until the early 20th century until the human population and its waste grew dramatically and killed the oysters (raw sewage, oil spills, over-harvesting, other ‘new’ industrial pollution).

The oysters we are growing now could help revive the Hudson’s ecosystem. Clearer water allows for more biological activity at greater depths. Oyster reefs make for a safe great home to baby fish and other marine creatures. Oyster reefs also prevent coastal erosion and with higher tides coming at our vulnerable coast line (due to global warming and isostatic rebound), it’s a very good thing. Anyone who is interested can help grow oysters at different locations in the city. Important things to remember, contact Baykeeper first ; ), they have permits for putting floats and nets. The floats and nets have to be at locations where regular folks cannot get to them or see them because if anyone shall eat one - they will be very very sick and die (maybe). You have to commit to checking up on them once a month and take them out of the net, count some, measure some, remove predators, observe and record other marine organisms (like tons of tiny shrimp, sea squirts, fish etc.).

It’s tons of fun. Click on the image and see more on our flickr page. This one up here shows Liz measuring our babies.

Also if you want to find out more about the history of oysters in New York, I recommend the very interesting, entertaining, fabulous book by Mark Kurlansky, The Big Oyster.

The Stern Report has everyone talking about what measures companies and governments are going to take to mitigate the acceleration of climate change. Here at Chartreuse, since we are first and foremost about adopting a green approach in our personal lives, we would like to take this opportunity to remind our readers (& ourselves) of some simple steps we can and should all take to reduce our carbon footprints.

1. Replace your lightbulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs.
If every American switched ONE lightbulb in their house to a CFC, we would save enough energy to light >2.5 MILLION homes for a year.
A couple of CFL facts: They use 1/3 of the energy of regular incandescent bulbs and last up to 10X longer and will save you $30 over the life of each bulb. To find a store carrying CFLs near you, click here.

2. ENERGY SUCKERS:

• Don’t keep applicances on STANDBY. The UK is considering banning these buttons altoghether as they use 8% of all domestic energy. Factor in Americans’ desire for TV sets in everyroom and our general fetishism of electronic appliances, a study conducted at Berkeley estimated that Californians’s standby buttons are draining anywhere between 6 and 26% percent of their energy.
• Chargers: Cellphones, Blackberrys, etc…. You may have taken your phone with you, but if the charger is still plugged, it is still draining energy so much so that a source inside the EPA suggested cell phone chargers alone negated savings made through the Energy Star program.

No one wants to run around switching off power and pulling out plugs - make it easy on yourself and invest in a few power strips. you can just flick one switch and leave your house with a clear conscious. Some of them are so smart, if you plug in your computer and related peripherals, turning off your computer will signal to the strip which in turn will turn off printers, scanners etc. Check it out here.

Another innovative strip glows according to how much energy items plugged in are using - A very visual reminder!

Tune in next week for 2 more tips to make a difference

I accidentally encountered a lovely series of articles on the Guardian website about traveling the old fashioned way in order to reduce your carbon footprint. 3 Journalists choose 3 different destinations and write about their journey getting there. What struck me the most as I was reading these was how little I cared about the final destination and how fascinated I was about their experiences actually on their journey.
I can’t vow that I won’t ever take a plane again, but I am definitely rethinking the way I plan my holidays. So I hope you enjoy the trip to Hong Kong, Egypt & Ibiza. Personally, I found it really brought back the romance to travel and as we all know with romance.. there is always a lot of excitement & fun as well as the occasional heartburn…

Blogged with Flock

As a student and someone with a penchant for working in non-profits, I have had to curtail the number of organic items I buy throughout my food-shoping life. I always found it tricky to remember which foods were deemed ‘dirty’, consistently ending up with the highest level of pesticide residue and which were clean…well cleaner that I could rationalize buying non-organic come the end of the month.
A site called foodnews has come out with a very nifty little wallet size shopper’s guide to pesticides in foods, listing the top 10 clean & dirty fruits and vegetables to help you prioritize if necessary when you shop. You can download the card here as well as view an extended list & learn about lots of other interesting food facts.

I love the concept of this card. It’s keeping it real for many of us who can’t just pop into Wholefoods and spend our rent money on organic food. My only complaint is that they don’t consider the ‘carbon’ impact of the foods they list. For example Kiwis are listed as a clean food, one you could risk bying non-organic but they don’t tell you that for every pound of kiwis you eat, 5 lbs of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere getting it to your table so keep that in mind. (have you ever seen kiwi trees growing in your local park?)

A great addition to this would be to join a local food coop -check out our side bar listing- or CSA (community supported agriculture) program and get better, fresher, local food for cheaper.