SalvaEco

Cleveland, Ohio doesn't get a lot of respect. It's been the butt of countless jokes, an environmental scapegoat, the "City whose river caught on fire," and a symbol for the declining cities of the "Rust Belt" of the American midwest.

But that doesn't mean that there isn't a green heart in the Cleveland area. Even a city in the middle of the rust belt can be a center for "Think Globally – Act Locally." In fact, I've recently found that the Cleveland area has a vibrant local/regional blog at Green City Blue Lake, covering the local and regional scene from a green perspective. GCBL arose out of an earlier site called EcoCity Cleveland, which remains online as an archive with a wealth of information still available in its pages, but is no longer actively supported.

We're coming up on our two-month birthday (next week, in fact), and we'd like to celebrate by adding a few more writers to our already talented stable. If you're passionate and knowledgeable about green living, and write well, you may be just the person we want. We're looking specifically for the following:

• A Los Angeles-area resident to cover the many green things happening there.
• A "green teen" — an active and passionate pre-teen to teenager who can cover green activities and development by/for that age group.
• A "green senior" — replace "pre-teen" and "teenager" with "senior citizen" or "elder" in the above description.
• A green entrepreneur — Amy's doing great with the wide world of green business; now we want to add an "insider" to the mix. We'd prefer someone who's running a business, not just thinking about one.
• UPDATE: One more… I knew something wasn't right here! We're also looking for a writer to jump into Ryan Thibodaux's Red, Green and Blue spot — a progressive environmentalist who likes to argue politics… and does it well. Ryan's not leaving… just moving on to other areas.
• Another UPDATE: We'd also like a Chicago-based writer… just too much good stuff going on there…

We'd want each of these writers to contribute weekly at a minimum. While each writer at GO has a primary "beat," there's always room for branching out.

David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang are both architects, but to call their company, Living, an architecture firm doesn’t come anywhere near to explaining what they do. Benjamin and Yang create what they call “open source, incremental, small-scale architecture that engages the city.” They fuse science, technology, engineering and interactivity, “defining responsive kinetic architecture to involve input, processing and output.” Their work is as much R&D as structural design. A couple of weeks ago at Postopolis, a New York exhibition and conference on architecture, urbanism, landscape and design (of which our teammate Geoff Manaugh was an organizer), the pair presented two of their projects, Living Glass and River Glow, which utilize responsive technologies as a means of revealing the presence of CO2 and water pollutants, respectively. They categorize both as “Flash Research”: An architectural project that involves: 1. A budget under $1000 2. A duration of less than three months 3. Proof-of-concept through the creation of a full-scale functioning prototype Living Glass involves a reactive, transparent surface with an infrared sensor and gills that open and shut as they detect the presence of humans and control air quality in a room. With minor changes, the system could be tuned for… (more)

(Posted by Sarah Rich in Cities at 7:31 PM)

‘Avoided Deforestation’ Gets World Bank Investment
Social Issues Increasingly Impacting Forest Industry
Is It Time To Consider “Embodied” Emissions?
Sudan’s Breathtaking Migration
‘Green’ Polymer Made From Biodiesel And Wine Products

(more)

(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 6:30 PM)

Folks seem shy to get these forums started, so I'll jump in. I am not sure if pretentious self promotion of blogs is appropriate for this forum or not, but I bet this post can be removed if it isn't.

I'm a compulsive internet peruser and recently I thought it would be interesting to set up a site where I regurgitated my thoughts, snippets and impressions of what I read throughout the day. I try and lean towards topics of what I consider "social conscientiousness". Only because it is much harder to spell than ethics. I love topics around the environment and the myriad of sub-topics that entails such as commercial ethics, sustainability, global politics, etc. Okay, it's a mish-mash really, who am I kidding.

 

Editor's note: Liam Rattray is one of Green Options' "rock star" interns. Liam and fellow intern Ryan Thibodaux (also one of our writers) were instrumental in getting Green Options launched on time!

 

Web 2.0 is the essential buzzword, everyone knows it, but not many people know what it actually is. Even industry specialists disagree over the definition of "Web 2.0", but most foresee it changing the way people interact with the internet and each other. This short post on Web 2.0 is centered around the visionary YouTube video entitled "Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us" (5 min) by Michael Wesch an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology of Kansas State University. If you haven't seen this video, zip on over to it using the good old fashioned hypertext link provided. In the time it takes you to watch this video 542 new blogs will have just been created throughout the world.

Do you think that lifestyle environmentalism has, well, perhaps lost its bearings, what with the biodegradable bikinis, reclaimed paper scrapbooking journals and hemp seat covers for SUVs? We do, as we said when we called on folks to make this Earth Day their last. Greener Postures targets the same empty-headed faddishness, but with more humor and dash. It’s one of my new favorite pieces of sustainability humor, right up there with the Onion’s I’m Doing My Inconsequential Part For The Environment, Spring an Environmentalist Hoax, Author Says and the Wombat. Take their dig at solar-powered bags: 5. SOLAR-POWERED BAG
Wouldn’t you like to carry around your own renewable energy source? 
Sure, should I carry a windmill? 
I was thinking of something less quixotic: a laptop bag with solar panels. 
You mean I can recharge my laptop on the go? 
Actually, this is more for iPods, cell phones, BlackBerries, stuff like that. It only takes one or two hours to charge those. 
Let’s play a game. You tell me who could possibly have a use for this product, and I’ll tell you why they don’t. 
Busy city people— 
Can charge their gadgets at night. 
Travelers— 
Can charge in the car, train, or… (more)

(Posted by Alex Steffen in Purchasing Green at 2:01 PM)

On Monday, we announced the Green Options The Lighter Side of Green contest, and we've been really pleased with the response we've received. Of course, we'd love to see more contest submissions, so if you think you can make us laugh, take your shot at a $100 cash prize and a starter contract as GO's resident funny man or woman.

While we're quite happy with the team of writers we have on board, we could use a couple more. If you're a writer or blogger with a passion for green living, and can commit to daily blog posts (6 per week), we'd be interested in talking to you.

When we launch, we want to publish 8-10 quality blog posts per day that inform and enlighten our readers about the wide world of green living. Our bloggers do have areas of focus, but there's lots of room for branching out.

This is the area to submit feedback on elements of the GO blog…