• The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was the most sophisticated in the world
• The Deepwater Horizon cost BP roughly $300 million
• To operate the rig, it cost BP $1 million per day, and it had been operating in the Gulf for 7 years before its sinking
• This oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every 4-7 days. It continues to leak.
• The spill is estimated to cost BP $25 million

This would be bad news for any company, excepting BP. The corporation formerly known as British Petroleum earned over $6 billion in profit during the first 3 months of this year.

In addition, Dr. Bronner’s products practice what they preach. Their soaps are made from certified organic essential oils and are wrapped in 10% hemp-flax / 90% post-consumer recycled paper from Living Tree Paper Company.

They come in multiple scents, using the same base ingredients that make up the magic formula: organic extra virgin coconut, olive, jojoba, and hemp oils.

This mix creates a one-of-a-kind soap that cleans effectively without being abrasive to the skin, resulting in a soft lather that leaves the skin refreshed and rejuvenated.

Use it daily or take it on your next adventure. It’s the closest thing to luxury when you’re in the middle of the jungle somewhere and you need a refreshing cleanse.

(via Matador Goods)

Three savvy women started 3B bags locally here in Denver. They saw a real need to try and eliminate the use of plastic produce bags – and they were subsequently featured on the local evening news. Just weeks before the bags appeared in the store, I remember thinking to myself that it would be so nice to have an alternative to plastic produce bags.

Order ‘em!

(via No Impact Man)

In short, I don’t have a single bad thing to say about this $350 push mower. Usually reviews are supposed to include pros and cons, but I can flatly state this mower has none of the latter.

Both Jude and I can easily maneuver the Neuton around our just-over-a-quarter-of-an-acre lawn. It shipped with a bag, a mulching attachment, as well as a side discharge chute. (We almost always used the mulcher.) The battery life, which I was originally concerned about, turned out to be more than sufficient. In fact, we found we could do two mowings on a single charge. We were eager to keep up with the trimming because too-tall grass would challenge the Neuton 5.2 (not at all an issue at all with either of us). At first, we found the narrow mowing deck and wheel base annoying because we had to run back and forth across the yard a few extra times. Its 14-inch deck was measly compared to my old 21-inch gas mower’s deck. But what’s wrong with a little additional time outside and exercise? The narrow deck didn’t get a second thought.

My old gas mower weighed at least three times as much and consumed, on average, a whopping heap of fuel and oil. Not to mention the headaches and annual maintenance. In my eyes, the Neuton has already paid for itself in just one summer.

Did you know?

Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using 800 million gallons of gas per year and producing tons of air pollutants. Garden equipment engines, which have had unregulated emissions until very recently, emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, producing up to 5% of the nation’s air pollution and a good deal more in metropolitan areas.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the amount of pollution emitted by a lawnmower operating for one hour is equivalent to the amount of pollution emitted by a car driven for approximately 20 miles.

Worldchanging is a solutions-based online magazine that works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it’s here. We only need to put the pieces together.

(via No Impact Man)

The world’s first commercial wave farm went live at the end of September in Agucadoura, located off the coast of northern Portugal. Designed by Pelamis Wave Power, the farm employs three Wave Energy Converters - snakelike, semi-submerged devices that generate electricity with hydraulic rams driven by waves. This first phase of the new renewable energy farm is rated at 2.25 MW with 3 machines, and the the second phase will add an additional 25 machines to bring the capacity to 21 MW – enough to power 15,000 homes!

(via Inhabitat)

ALA #270 has more work-from-home tips, including links to web-based tools, pre-fab home office buildings for your yard, and more.

Another tip for keeping your house cool in the summer: run your washing machine, dishwasher, and drier at night. These big appliances throw off a lot of heat, and during the day you’re just going to make your air conditioner work overtime to keep the house cool. Another benefit of using your big appliances at night is that you reduce strain on the electrical grid during peak hours.

This has proved so effective in cutting energy costs, the UK has kicked off a nighttime dishwasher campaign.

I am trying to convince Africa that the energy crisis and climate change and Africa’s capacity to develop its economy through agriculture and to improve the health of their people through nutrition should be pursued in tandem.

Africans should realize that they might actually be able to skip a stage of development. They don’t have to go through the carbon-intensive phase. They can’t afford it, unless they have their own oil resources.

If your next flight is short, you might want to consider taking a train instead. Besides cutting out the long lines at security, you can also relax in more spacious cabins, use your cell phone and laptop (many even have power outlets) and avoid ear popping cabin air pressurization.

Texas is already the largest producer of wind power, with 5,300 installed megawatts — more than double the installed capacity of California, the next closest state. And Texas is fast expanding its capacity.

“This project will almost put Texas ahead of Germany in installed wind,” said Greg Wortham, executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium.

via The Times.

Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro has seen dramatic glacial retreat between 1976 (left) and 2006. The mountaintop glacial area has decreased 80 percent since the early 20th century, says a UN atlas released on June 11, 2008.

Check out the details: http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/nw_1

Photographing a Wedding and then an Earthquake

Can you imagine what it was like to have been photographing a wedding in Sichuan, China when 7.9 earthquake hit and shakes for three minutes? (via Kottke and un.be.lievable)

Zappos.com’s unique hiring price includes “The Offer”

“If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit! (also via Kottke, The Master of the Setup)

Xcel Energy’s First Ever “Smart Grid”, right here in Boulder, CO

Fascinating.

Practical Traveler

It’s no wonder that a lot of travelers are talking about just staying home this summer.

AfriGadget.com

An entire website dedicated to African ingenuity… and how everyday problems are solved. Africans are the masters of making something entirely useful out of nothing at all.

American Airlines to charge $15 for checked luggage

An announcement today made by AA comes at a time when crude closes at an all-time high ($133), and the DOW is down 200 points two days in a row. Forget that it’s a fucking stupid idea to begin with… planes are over-crowded as they are and now everyone is going to carry-on hand luggage. The Times has more.

Excellent stuff, especially the list of websites.

The No Impact Man is not suggesting you drop everything and do them all today, but pick a few and start changing your life. After all, it doesn’t take much to start making the world a better place. Jude and I are actively doing about 90% of the items in Colin’s list below, and it feels great.

No Impact Man’s 42 Ways to Go Trash-Free

1. No soda in cans (which means we’re probably less likely to get cancer from aspartame).
2. No water in plastic bottles (which means we get to keep our endocrines undisrupted).
3. No coffee in disposable cups (which means we don’t suffer from the morning sluggishness that comes from overnight caffeine withdrawal).
4. No throwaway plastic razors and blade cartridges (I’m staging the straightedge razor comeback).
5. Using non-disposable feminine-hygiene products that aren’t bad for women and are good for the planet.
6. No Indian food in throwaway takeout tubs.
7. No Italian food in plastic throwaway tubs.
8. No Chinese food in plastic throwaway tubs.
9. Taking our own reusable containers to takeout joints (except that now we’re eating local so this tip is out for us).
10. Admitting that we sometimes miss Indian, Italian and Chinese takeout.
11. Hopping on the scale and celebrating the loss of
    my 20-pound spare tire since I stopped eating bucketsful of Indian,
    Italian and Chinese takeout.
12. Buying milk in returnable, reusable glass bottles.
13. Shopping for honey and pickled veggies and other goods in jars only from merchants who will take back the jars and reuse them.
14. Returning egg and berry cartons to the vendors at the farmers’ market for reuse.
15. Using neither paper nor plastic bags and bringing our own reusable bags when grocery shopping.
16. Canceling our magazine and newspaper subscriptions and reading online.
17. Putting an end to the junk mail tree killing.
18. Carrying my ultra-cool reusable cup and water bottle (which is a glass jar I diverted from the landfill and got for free).
19. Carrying reusable cloths for everything from blowing my nose to drying my hands to wrapping up a purchased bagel.
20. Wiping my hands on my pants instead of using a paper towel when I forget my cloth.
21. Politely asking restaurant servers to take away
    paper and plastic napkins, placemats, straws, cups and single-serving
    containers.
22. Explaining to servers with a big smile that I am on a make-no-garbage kick.
23. Leaving servers a big tip for dealing with my
    obsessive-compulsive, make-no-garbage nonsense, since they can’t take
    the big smile to the bank.
24. Pretending McDonalds and Burger King and all their paper and plastic wrappers just don’t exist.
25. Buying no candy bars, gum, lollypops or ice cream (not even Ben and Jerry’s peanut butter cup) that is individually packaged.
26. Making my own household cleaners to avoid all the throwaway plastic bottles.
27. Using baking soda from a recyclable container to brush my teeth.
28. Using baking soda for a deodorant to avoid the plastic containers that deodorant typically comes in (cheap and works well).
29. Using baking soda for shampoo to avoid plastic shampoo bottles.
30. Using the plastic bags that other people’s newspapers are delivered in to pick up Frankie the dog’s poop.
31. Keeping a worm bin to compost our food scraps into nourishment that can be returned to the earth instead of toxins that seep from the landfills.
32. Switching to real—meaning cloth—diapers which Isabella, before she was potty-trained, liked much better.
33. Not buying anything disposable.
34. Not buying anything in packaging (and count the
    money we save because that means pretty much buy nothing unless it’s
    second hand).
35. Shopping for food only from the bulk bins and from the local farmer’s market where food is unpackaged and fresh.
36. Forgetting about prepackaged, processed food of any description.
37. Being happy that the result is that we get to eat food instead of chemicals.
38. Giving our second-hand clothes away to Housing Works or other charities.
39. Offering products we no longer need on Freecycle instead of throwing them away.
40. Collecting used paper from other people’s trash and using the other side.
41. Using old clothes for rags around the apartment instead of paper towels.
42. Talking with humor about what we’re doing because
    making a little less trash is a concrete first step everyone can take
    that leads to more and more environmental consciousness.

Instead of printing this list, save it as a bookmark and return often to try something new.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the environment, blah, blah, blah, melting ice caps. To judge from all the gas-guzzlers still fouling the air and the plastic bottles clogging the dumps, it appears that the news that we are killing ourselves and the world with our greed and garbage hasn’t sunk in. That’s one reason “The 11th Hour,�? an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary about our environmental calamity, is such essential viewing. It may not change your life, but it may inspire you to recycle that old slogan-button your folks pinned on their dashikis back in the day: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

…

If your head isn’t lodged in the sand, much of what’s said in the movie will be agonizing and familiar. Gasping children, disappearing animals, gushing oil, billowing smoke, dying lakes, emptying forests, warming weather — the list of ills is numbingly familiar. In the movie’s eye-catching opener, the directors riffle through a veritable catalog of timely snapshots, some obvious (a smoggy skyline), others less so (a human fetus).

The full review at The Times.

What does it matter, though? Some jerks just tapped into a newly-discovered “ultra-deep” 8 billion barrels of light crude off Brazil’s coast. Let the guzzling continue.

One of the first posts, “New Space“, shows off Wall Street On Demand’s newest digs. The company is growing at a sizable pace, and overflowing into this new office was natural — or so I’m told (I started here just days after the official move-in). Our creative director said:

It was interesting to take an IA perspective to physical architecture and design the space from a usability perspective. Our goals were to foster communication, help make new relationships, provide quiet in the storm, and give people a workspace that was professional (sorry, no dot-com foosball tables) while being adaptable and flexible to the myriad of uses that our team finds for their space.

We tried for art gallery + laboratory + library.

Check it out.

My iPhone bill from AT&T was 51 pages long. It listed every single time it automatically checked for new email messages, the amount of data transferred, the exact time of the connection, etc… Only the nerdiest of the nerds would find this information important and necessary. This type of report should only be available online or by the request of the customer. Especially since the argument of “what if they don’t have a computer and Internet access?�? is moot with iPhone owners — all of which must own a computer with Internet access just to activate the phone.

More from Nashville.

Via DaringFireball.

These photos just released by the U.S. Geological Survey Landsat Project show the glacier covering Greenland has receeded enough to reveal the world’s newest land mass, Warming Island.

CNET News.com reports “Scientists are concerned because the glacier on Greenland contains enough water to raise global sea levels by about 23 feet.”

I say you are wrong.

“Yahoo! going carbon neutral is equivalent to shutting off the electricity in all San Francisco homes for a month.”

Filo’s full post at yodel.yahoo.com.

Skipping back a couple of years when my wife (then fiance) was living in London, each trip to the Safeway or Sainsburys was an adventure. See, stores across the pond charge for plastic bags. Yes, customes actually pay for them. So it becomes somewhat of a game at the checkout counter: how many items can I fit a single plastic bag so I don’t have to buy another one? At 10p per bag, the costs add up. We beat the system and still are today by using canvas boat totes — perfect for lugging around all the groceries you can carry.

Jump back to me at the manager’s counter at the local Pig. When I told her of my adventures in England, and asked her if her bosses would entertain the thought of reducing plastic bag usage or even consider charging customers for them, she stared back in amazement. I am of the belief The Pig would benefit in three glorious ways:

1. They’d reduce the amount of waste they’re responsible for every day
2. They’d save money by reducing the amount they spend on plastic bags
3. They’d be doing the world a favor

But instead of listening to my seemlingly brilliant business model for The Pig, she actually laughed at me and said, “no way, my boss would never go for that. Have a good mornin’, sir.” I think she was still trying to figure out what “England” is.

So, here we are today with news that the city of San Francisco has voted to ban plastic bags. A month ago, Ikea said it’s going to charge $0.05 per bag at their stores.

No, I can’t take the credit for giving these two the idea, but what will it take for other stores to get on board? And more importantly, how long will it take?

We’re talking about an airplane that is representing aviation in the 21st century in terms of efficiency
Jens Bischoff

The Airbus A380, currently en route to New York’s JFK airport, departed Frankfurt this morning kicking off a ’round-the-world “sales pitch.” Today’s flight operated by Lufthansa will arrive at JFK just past noon EST. My favorite piece from the AP/NYT article is this quote from Lufthansa’s VP for the Americas: “We’re talking about an airplane that is representing aviation in the 21st century in terms of efficiency.”

You’d think that was the best part. Think again. The A380 burns 1 gallon (4 liters) of fuel for each passenger every 80 miles. Today’s flight carries 519 passengers, 4 pilots, and an assortment of Lufthansa and Airbus employees. Let’s round it up to 530 total people for fun. For those passengers to fly 80 miles, that’s 530 gallons of fuel. The trip from Frankfurt to JFK is 7,683 — a total of 96 segments of 80 miles. What does all this mean?

The first leg of a ’round-the-world tour for the world’s most fuel efficient plane requires 50,880 gallons of aviation gas. I haven’t run the numbers in a long while on a ‘regular’ plane’s flight across the Atlantic, but holy crap! Let’s go one step further. If the price of avgas in New York is $4.43 (source: AirNav), this trip is costing $225,398.40 — one way.