Search results for label/clean%20coal
The Green Moms Carnival On Coal
| February 9, 2010 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
This months Green Moms Carnival is about coal. This is an issue I have written about before, it’s one that is very important to me. There is coal mining about 130 miles from me in the McAlester area. Hearing the stories from the people who live around the mining is just heart breaking. And the mining here in Oklahoma is nothing like the mining in the Appalachian mountains. We so often forget the people that are being harmed by our use of coal.
Here is a video of one of the people living in the town of Bokoshe, Oklahoma where coal ash is dumped.
The coal ash she is talking about can contain arsenic, barium, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, thallium, selenium, molybdenum, mercury, and many other toxins. That is what she is cleaning off her windows and breathing in everyday.
Coal ash can also spill and create a major disaster like the Tennessee spill back in December of 2008. About 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash spilled over Tennessee. It’s not an easy spill to clean up either. Treehugger.com reported this past December that the clean up is far from over.
Lynn at Organic Mania talks about not really knowing much about coal before this carnival. I think this is where most Americans find themselves, it was long ago I was the same.
Karen at Best of Mother Earth says “A bit like my wish for fast food restaurants to be shut down. Ain’t happening. I wish I could feel optimistic about this one. I don’t.” I sadly agree. She also shares some of coals history and why clean coal isn’t really clean.
Diane at The Big Green Purse talks about Obama’s State of the Union address and why clean coal and nukes shouldn’t be on the table for helping our energy problems.
Green Bean over at The Green Phone Booth talks about reading Lost Mountain and about mountaintop removal coal mining and what it’s doing to Appalachia.
Deanna at Crunchy Chicken talks about one of the many ways the coal industry is working to make sure everyone thinks coal is wonderful, this time their target is kids.
Hope you have learned a bit about coal from the Green Moms. Making people aware of the problem is the first and biggest step.
The Dirt On Greenwashing
| July 15, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Going green is the in thing now so of course companies are jumping on board. But there are a few problems with that. One is that it’s cheaper and easier for them to just make up reasons why their product is already green and throw a label on it, than change the product. And the other is the fact that being sustainable is greener than being green.
We rush out to buy green products without stopping to think if we need them. Come on we are all guilty of this, yes me as well! Sure we need to replace some products if we want to get away from toxins but we all over buy at some point.
Some examples of this are-
The Dawn Saving Wildlife campaign. While I love animals and the fact that each bottle donates $1 to helping them, something is wrong with the fact that the very soap you are buying contains chemicals like Tricolsan, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, synthetic dyes and synthetic fragrances.
All of those things are harmful to you and the wildlife Dawn says it’s saving. If they care about the wildlife shouldn’t they take out those chemicals?
Even gas companies are jumping on the “green bandwagon.” Companies like BP like to run ads like this one-
I can just see someone sitting in a board office saying “if we add wind turbines people will think it’s the “greener” gas station.”
And what about the mother of all greenwashing, “clean coal.” A technology that doesn’t exist and even if it did it doesn’t fix the problems of how we get the coal, leaving this so called “clean coal” very dirty.
So how do we keep from falling for greenwashing?
TerraChoice.com has information on the “sins of greenwashing.” You can learn what “green” labels really mean and what to watch for. So what “green” products have you found to be greenwashed?
