Sir Paul McCartney: Meat Free Monday

Meat Free Monday is a campaign which aims to encourage the nation to help slow climate change by reducing meat consumption. Launched by Paul, Stella and Mary McCartney in June 2009, the campaign aims to raise awareness of the environmental impact of meat eating and encourage people to meaningfully reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by having at least one meat-free day every week.

Source: Anders Bekeken

Food giant Sodexo serves up Meatless Mondays across the US

Americans are finally getting the old adage, “you are what you eat.” Programs like Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and Meatless Monday have gotten people thinking twice about hitting that fast food drive thru. Meatless Monday got a huge boost when institutional food giant Sodexo to promote their program in hundreds of corporate cafeterias, senior centers, and university dining halls.

The basis of the Meatless Monday program is simple; ditch your meatloaf in favor of “healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives” one day a week.

Source: Tainted Green

Oprah and her 378 staff take on the Vegan Challenge

The vegetarian diet hasn’t had the best history in the united States; many derided the plant based diet as only for tree-hugging hippies that eat nothing but nuts and berries. Over time, supermarkets and even fast-food spots like Burger King have added veggie friendly items. Oprah Winfrey hopes that she can take veg-friendly diets one step further by challenging herself and her staff members to eat a vegan diet on an episode that airs February 1st.

The challenge is on! No meat, no milk, no animal anything. Oprah and 378 Harpo staffers go vegan for one week. Could you do it?



SourceTainted Green

Mussel power: Universal solvent no match for new self-healing sticky gel

Scientists can now manufacture a synthetic version of the self-healing sticky substance that mussels use to anchor themselves to rocks in pounding ocean surf and surging tidal basins. A patent is pending on the substance, whose potential applications include use as an adhesive or coating for underwater machinery or in biomedical settings as a surgical adhesive or bonding agent for implants.

Read more atScience Daily

83% of Brits Believe Global Warming is an Imminent Threat

England has been hit by unusually cold winters for the last two years -- the cold seasons of both 2009 and 2010 were more frigid than usual. And then there were those hacked climate emails -- which were actually leaked from a famous research center right there in England -- that breathless skeptics were eager to claim revealed that the whole global warming thing was a hoax. But wouldn't you know it; those two favorite skeptic talking points haven't gained much traction. The people of England still believe climate change poses as much of a threat now as they did two years ago.

Asked if climate change was a current or imminent threat, 83% of Britons agreed, with just 14% saying global warming poses no threat. Compared with August 2009, when the same question was asked, opinion remained steady despite a series of events in the intervening 18 months that might have made people less certain about the perils of climate change. Emails between climate researchers that were released online in November 2009 had led to unfounded suggestions that the scientific basis for global warming was flawed. World leaders also failed to agree to a global deal to combat warming and a mistake over the melting of Himalayan glaciers was handled badly by the UN's science panel.

Source:TreeHugger

Lighting the Future: Walmart Converting Hundreds of Stores' Lot Lighting to LEDs

Today it takes a lot of coal, natural gas, wind, solar and other energy sources to power lights around the world. The good news is lighting is getting more efficient and consuming less energy; the bad news is more lighting is being added every day. The move from incandescent light bulbs to compact florescent light bulbs is helping reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and LED lights will accelerate those savings in the not-too-distant future.

At Walmart, that future is now. Because electricity is the number two operating expense in almost every one of our stores and clubs around the world, we have been focused for decades on efficiency and reducing energy use, particularly from lighting.

Source: TreeHugger

Instead of ‘Drill, Baby, drill’ let’s Charge, Baby, Charge

Only by making our transportation system oil-free will Americans be free from skyrocketing gas prices, free from oil disasters, free from hostile governments that control foreign oil supplies. The great campaign to free America from the toxic influence of oil has been stalled for decades. Obama’s State of the Union address laid out a vision for restarting the United States, built upon a simple idea: less oil, more clean energy

Climate Progress

NASA Building and Bloom Laptop Show Future of Smart Green Design at Autodesk

Last week, design software firm Autodesk held a sustainability summit at their San Francisco office. The designs created with Autodesk software are often impressive, and very often have a sustainable bend. But there were two presenters whose projects particularly highlighted the greener edge to using the various programs in Autodesk's suite of tools. The first was NASA Ames building, which broke ground back in 2009 and is set for completion in just a couple months. The second is a laptop concept that revolutionizes how devices can, and should be made for ultimate recyclability, repairability and upgradability -- the Bloom Laptop.

SourceTreeHugger