News Archives - Page 12 of 31

10 Critical Tips to Protect Your Family During Fire Season

California’s fire season has just begun heating up for 2014, starting with a wildfire in Silverado Canyon. The fire began Friday morning and has spread across at least 1600 acres by Saturday afternoon. Many homes have been mandatorily evacuated, and even more voluntarily evacuated. Even “A smoke advisory was issued throughout Orange and Riverside counties, including Irvine to the west, Corona to the north, Lake Elsinore to the east, and San Clemente to the south” reports NBC news. Luckily, Santa Ana winds will not be hindering the firefighters today, although Southern California is experiencing triple digits today and, the frustrating and infamous CA drought is not helping conditions either. Whether you live in the drought-prone areas of California or the more cool and wet areas of the North, it is always smart to practice fire-safety and be prepared! Here are 10 tips, Green Businesses agrees will help protect you from fires in your life. 1) Have and maintain smoke alar…

Find Anything on Google, Except Maybe Their Large Carbon Footprint

Google has been a carbon neutral company for seven years, and every year around this time they calculate and publish their carbon footprint so they can make sure to offset it completely. Today Google updated the Google Green website with their 2013 carbon footprint so we can see it for ourselves. They also made another announcement relevant to green businesses, communities and our environment. In ironic contradiction to the old song, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot," the search giant announced that it will put a 82MW solar power plant on top of an old oil and gas field in Kern County, Calif.

"There's something a little poetic about creating a renewable resource on land that once creaked with oil wells," said Google. "Over the years, this particular site in California has gone from 30 oil wells to five as it was exhausted of profitable fossil fuel reserves. The land sat for some time and today we’re ready to spiff things up."

The new deal wi…

20 Universities That Encourage Green Living

1) Nanyang Technical University – School of Art, Design and Media - The architectural structure of this building maximizes interior daylight, makes smart use of lack of space and land in the local area, minimizes materials, and uses lower water and electricity uses. 2) Yale University – Kroon Hall - Kroon Hall at Yale University is made from 80% certified timber, 16% recycled content. Also, 34% of the purchased materials came from regional sources. As a result, there is an 81% reduction in annual potable water use, which saves an average 500k gallons of city water a year. They are also seeing a 61% reduction in energy use compared to a similar building and program. It features rooftop photovoltaic panel providing 25% of the building’s electricity. Half of the red oak paneling came from a forest in northern Connecticut that’s managed by the school itself. 3) Carnegie Mellon University – Gates and Hillman…

California Officially Joins the War on Plastic Bags

Great news for the environment occurred last night, when CA government voted to ban single-use plastic bags across the state. “The bill, SB 270, will phase out single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and pharmacies beginning July 2015, and in convenience stores one year later, and create a mandatory minimum ten-cent fee for recycled paper, reusable plastic and compostable bags” states Stephanie Spear, author at EcoWatch, who wrote California Bans Plastic Bags. If the already agreed upon bill is signed by the CA governor, California will be the first state to ban these environmentally un-friendly products.

“More than 120 California local governments have already banned single-use plastic bags with more than 1 in 3 Californians already living somewhere with a plastic bag ban in place, in an effort to drive consumers towards sustainable behavior change,” affirms Spear. With such a large amount of the population already embracing the plastic ban bag, this measure will …

Jellyfish: Menace to Medicine

Recently, jellyfish have found themselves in the news as causing quite a bit of havoc among the seas. Fishermen, tourists, and even some power station workers are finding themselves negatively affected by these slimy characters. The Environmental News Network, reported on such issues this week; yet, they went a little further and found a research group who has discovered, and is working on, helpful aspects drawn from the jellyfish’s biological properties.

The Trouble with Tentacles

“Jellyfish have overwhelmed the marine ecosystem as a result of the overfishing of more competitive species [and] consuming fish eggs and larvae of weaker specimens…” claims ENN. This is causing a damaging imbalance among the seas. By blocking up the systems of power stations using seawater, jellyfish are causing a bump in the road for productivity. Furthermore, “jellyfish have had a dramatic impact on the world fishing industry, snagging and blocking fishing nets …

World Humanitarian Day: What will you do for humanity?

Today, August 19, 2014 is World Humanitarian Day. A day designated to honor those who dedicate their lives to humanity’s betterment, most especially those whom have lost their lives for the cause. According to WorldHumanitarianDay.org, “World Humanitarian Day falls on August 19, the day in 2003 when 22 aid workers were killed in a bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. It's a day to commemorate all people who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and to celebrate the spirit that inspires humanitarian work around the world.” Today, we say, “thank you”; today, we say, “how can we help?”; today, we say “enough’s enough!” Be brave and compassionate. People all over the world need your help in more ways than one. Many need financial help, many need shelter, many are starving and need food, many are persecuted for their own beliefs or race and need relief. Relief – a word most of us take for granted. I’m not talking about relief on your lunch break, or relief the sc…