Carnival of the Green #204

Howdy! Welcome to the Thanksgiving Week version of The Carnival of the Green.

We certainly all have lots to be thankful for, including the Carnival's host(ess with the mostess) Kara, last week's host EcoSalon, and next week's host Another Green Idea.

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Just in time for the end of Fall, Bobbie Whitehead says save a few seeds, save some money at a post called Saving Seed posted at The Backyard Grower.

Looking for a cost-effective way to grow fruits and vegetables? For some gardeners and growers, saving seeds allows them to reduce their planting expenses. In deciding which seeds to save, extension specialists suggest using seed from some of the best fruits and vegetables in a crop in order to avoid reintroducing diseases from the previous year.

Got a couple posts this week on the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks. Tamir Birk handicaps the upcoming battle over greenhouse gases. 2012: The End of the Kyoto Accord - Will We See a New Deal on Climate Change in Copenhagen? at the blog InformedVote.

Nostradamus was right. The year 2012 will certainly bring the end of an era. Next month’s UN convention on climate change in Copenhagen reminds us that the Kyoto Protocol is on its last legs. Indeed, the world’s first legally-binding legislation on greenhouse gas emission and climate change, for years battered and bruised through political conflagrations, diluted by the rhetoric of parliamentarians and spokespersons, pondered, plied and twisted through years of delay, and ultimately never ratified by the United States, is in need of a successor. And if Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s prognostications prove accurate, a definitive deal will not be reached in the Danish capital. So, what can we expect from the Copenhagen summit? What will the major players have to say for themselves?

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg comes at it from his own, always interesting/challenging perspective. Check out Revenge of the Angry Mermaid at Sustainablog.

The Little Mermaid takes her role as a symbol of climate change seriously. And she’s angry. Angry because also coming to her town are thousands of lobbyists and business (as usual) representatives intent on holding back progress for a dangerously warming world, opting instead for short term profits over long term sustainability.

Like me, Justin Allison is trying the climate debate out from a faith-based perspective. He has a piece called Either Way Climate Change is Politically Motivated over at Old Testament Ecology.

If you’re a conservative you probably think that climate change is fake. If you’re a liberal climate change is near and dear to you. If you are somewhere in between you are probably ambivalent, or even apathetic.

I'd call myself agostic on climate change, but I do have my own opinions (heck - I have a blog after all!). Since Tamir, Jeff and Justin have raised the subject - here's my post at SustainLane.com yesterday on the underlying evil of Climategate. Excerpt:

What has been widely reported in "climate denier" circles (though I have yet to see it reported here at SustainLane at all or places like Grist in other than derogatory fashion), was the hacking of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, UK. Iain Murray called CRU "the Pentagon of Climate Science." That's how important that place is to climate scientists. Over 150mb of emails and other data were pulled from CRU's servers that laid out in detail the efforts by several leading climatologists to hide derogatory climate data, something bloggers like Powerline have been poring over (see here, here and here). The New York Times and other mainstream media outlets have decided that this information was "leaked" and thus not worthy of publishing (ahem, hypocrites). But online journals like Climate Depot have chronicled the daily release of new findings - papers with contrary findings suppressed, access to scientific journals denied, cooked data, etc. Look it up. You can do your own search of these emails here.

Surbhi Bhatia presents Our Environment: Raising a Voice of Concern posted at The Viewspaper.

Clearly it is our modern lifestyle that is responsible for wreaking havoc on the environment. So to undo all the damage, all we have to do is stop using our cars (or any motorized vehicle for that matter), electricity, or simply all the marvels of 21st century. In other words, go back to Stone Age. Or, we can let better sense prevail and stop fighting the forces of nature. 

Tyler Tervooren submits Marketing for Environmentalists: Sell Benefits, Not Features over at Frugally Green.

Whether you wanted to be or not, if you've ever tried to sell a product or an idea to someone, then you've been in the marketing business. As long as you have to do it, you might as well be good at it, right? One basic rule that is often ignored by those not in the know (especially us crazy activists) is that people do not care about what your product or idea comes with. They care about what those things can DO FOR THEM. Start focusing on benefits instead of features and you might find a little more success with your efforts.

It wouldn't be a Thanksgiving Week COTG if we didn't have a post about turkeys! Pure Natural Diva comes through with Let's talk Turkey: Your guide to all things Turkey for the Holidays. "Know what you are buying for your thanksgiving dinner this holiday season." After you catch a cold playing football in the yard, she has some helpful natural remedies in her Diva Cold & Flu Tool Kit.

Katy highlights some "historic energy legislation" over at Boots On The Roof.

The U.S. House of Representatives has recently signed into law legislation that can only be described as historic legislation and will finally take significant steps toward moving the U.S. over to a clean energy economy.

Sally Kneidel has some green product information (also posted at Veggie Revolution) for those of you who have bathrooms in your homes:

Plush toilet paper requires wood from the world's last old-growth forests. Seems the long fibers of old trees make softer paper. Consumers need to get a grip - half the world (or more) doesn't even have toilet paper. At most supermarkets in the States, you can find at least one brand that uses 100% recycled paper. Take a minute to look for one. Seventh Generation is a good one, but there are others.

And so do the folks at Fake Plastic Fish:

Graze Organic Lunch Bags Give-Away - Review and give-away of a set of Graze Organic lunch and snack bags that are made from organic cotton and are nearly plastic free. No plastic lining, as in most other lunch bags and wraps. Why package organic food in plastic? [twitter.com/fakeplasticfish]

Finally, Marie Snyder is already packing up the turkey leftovers and looking forward to Black Friday, in a different sort of way. Check out her post called An Earth-Friendly Christmas.

It's explores the idea that Jesus wouldn't buy anything for Christmas, so maybe we should slow down the madness for his sake. In a nutshell.

Amen, my friend. 

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Many thanks for dropping by. If I missed anybody, just drop me a note and we'll get your post up post-haste.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday. And please do say a prayer for our fellow Americans in the military who are away from their loved ones around the world.

Grace and peace,

db