Carnival of the Green #207

By Chris Baskind in Living

Here we go into another Christmas week. Regardless which holiday you celebrate this time of year, we hope it’s warm, healthy — and green.

Along those lines, Lighter Footstep is proud to host this week’s Carnival of the Green, which is coordinated by Kara DiCamillo and our friends at Treehugger. Last week’s Carnival paid a visit to The Daily Mitzvah. Next Monday, it will move on to Apartment Ecology (if you’d like to participate, see the bottom of this article).

The Carnival of the Green is a roundup of articles by some of the web’s sharpest and most active green bloggers. So grab a cup of coffee, relax, and browse. Here are this week’s contributions:

Jumping straight into the spirit of the season, the Little Green Blog shares a beautiful article: Nurturing mind, body and spirit during winter. Over on sister site My Zero Waste, the delightful Mrs. Green calms our nerves when it comes to eating perfectly good veggies beyond their official freshness date.

There’s still time to green-up your holidays. Old Testament and Ecology has seven quick tips on saving money and resources this season.

If you’ve not already added Sally Kneidel’s site to your RSS reader or bookmarks, take a few moments to do so. Her article on the disappearing ice caps of Mount Kilimanjaro is a good example why: the text is smart, and all the beautiful photos –picturing some of the world’s most beautiful and challenging environmental destinations — were taken by Sally herself. It’s good to see primary writing and original photography still thriving in the green blogosphere.

Good news! Eco-homes aren’t just for hippies anymore. Oh, you’re a hippie? No offense intended: that’s just the lead from an article on What Green Investment showing that if you have enough money, you can buy a luxurious and energy efficient home. The swanky eco pads pictured in the article are all in really out-of-the-way places, to which you’ll no doubt jet (first class, safely curtained away from the hippies in coach).

So the Copenhagen COP15 climate talks ended in disgust and failure. You were expecting something different in the middle of a worldwide recession? Not to worry: Nopenhagen wasn’t going to save the planet, anyway.

The closest thing to modern piracy is the price of printer ink cartridges, and the draconian policies used by their manufacturers to make sure we don’t refill them. Don’t worry, the buccaneers at HP feel your pain. Beth Terry has an objective interview with the poor HP representative tasked with defending the undefendable at her Fake Plastic Fish.

Speaking of plastic, did you know your shower curtain is probably full of nasty PVC? You’ll find suggestions on detoxing your tub with 5 Ways to Green Any Bathroom at Go Green Street.

Need to get rid of something? Looking for a real deal — as in free? You’ll want to check out Freecycling. Stuff With a Purpose has a great primer.

Want to trim your household expenses? You’ll find eight helpful tips for doing so at the Home I Own blog.

Alice in Blogland has an epic rant on how most MP3 players seemed designed for the landfill. She’s right, of course: I’d give up the iPod’s slimness for a rechargeable battery in some standard, easy-to-replace size.

Looks like “Fair Trade” is here to stay. The BBC has placed the term in its list of the 20 most important words of the decade. Find details at the Ethical Superstore blog.

REUSE is probably the most ignored R of the Reduce, Resuse, Recycle triad. Chanel Grntham (Miss Earth South Africa 2009) has a tidy little stool refinishing project demonstrating that a little work and creativity can make lots of old items useable again.

Boots On the Roof has just returned from the Solar Power International gathering, and has a report.

Wandering Mist suggests Gifting Green this Holiday Season.

Finally, our Best Green Tweet of the week was posted by Sally Kneidel:

@SallyKneidel: 10% or more of Florida submerged by 2100. From Copenhagen: seas rising faster than expected.

If you’d like your tweets to be considered for a future Carnival, just attach the hashtag #BestGreenTweets.

And that’s this week’s Carnival. Are you a green blogger? Want to participate in the next Carnival of the Green at the Humane Connection? You’ll find everything you need to know at Treehugger’s Carnival of the Green homepage

Originally posted 21. Dec, 2009 | Tags: Blogs, Carnival of the Green, feature, Green Websites