Southwest Airlines has always been one of my favorite carriers, a position which was recently reinforced when they refused to charge the onerous $100 checked luggage fee being levied by other airlines. My confidence in Southwest escalated another notch today when I learned a “green plane” is being added to their fleet. Environmentally friendly materials used in the interior of the Boeing 737-700 will equate to a weight savings of almost five pounds per seat, saving fuel and reducing emissions while adding recyclable elements to the cabin interior and reducing waste. Elements of the plane include: Read the rest of this entry »

As I drive from the southern border of our great country to the northern, I am painfully aware of my carbon footprint. Although I am somewhat comforted that my car gets 30 miles to the gallon, and that when I am home in Sarasota I walk everywhere, it doesn’t change the fact that travel is not an environmentally friendly activity.

Someday, we will have the technology to reduce fossil fuels; Virgin Air is currently testing a jet engine fuel that contains a high percentage of biofuels, and numerous manufacturers are bring electric vehicles to market. One of the latter, the “soleckshaw,” is a motorized cycle rickshaw that can be pedaled normally or run on a 36-volt solar battery.

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When I moved to Florida a number of people warned me against drinking the tap water. Their mantra was, “Drink only bottled water!” One friend pointed out that because Florida is one of the country’s largest agricultural states, the aquifer was almost certainly contaminated with runoff pesticides.

I have mixed feelings about bottled water. First, I recoil at the idea of buying water that is bottled by Coca-Cola (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina). I have a hard time believing the two companies that manufacture the majority of the world’s unhealthy, carbonated, sugar-and-sweetener laden soft drinks are providing bottled water because they are concerned about the quality of our tap water (or our health). An examination of Dasani’s label will reveal that Coke adds trace amounts of minerals, including magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt), potassium chloride, and common salt to their bottled water. Pepsi’s brand contains no additives, but the water used to produce Aquafina is drawn from municipal sources, despite the fact that the label on the bottle features a series of high mountain peaks that suggest crystal clear mountain streams as the source.

Indeed, 40 percent of bottled water begins life as regular tap water. Aquafina is produced from municipal water in Wichita, Kansas. Coke’s Dasani is taken from the taps of Queens, New York; Jacksonville, Florida; and elsewhere. Everest bottled water originates from Read the rest of this entry »

The older (or should I say more mature) I get, the more interest I have in environmental issues. Since moving to Sarasota I’ve become a fan of the Saturday morning Downtown Farmer’s Market, where local organic and traditional farmers sell fresh-picked fruits and vegetables. Not only does everything that I buy here taste delicious, it lasts longer, because it hasn’t been on a truck for three days, crossing the country. The last bag of spinach I bought at the Farmer’s Market was from Worden Organic Farms and it lasted a full three weeks without a hint of slime appearing. Can you imagine that happening with a store-bought bag of spinach?

There’s so much to be said for buying locally. It supports the area farmers; it makes available fruits and vegetables that were picked at the peak of ripeness, rather than just before their prime; and Read the rest of this entry »

I love to travel. But every time I get on an airplane I know that my carbon footprint gets bigger. What exactly is a carbon footprint? It’s the measure of the amount of carbon dioxide – the man-made gas that is responsible for global warming and the greenhouse effect – that is emitted into the atmosphere as you go about your daily life. Almost everything you do affects it: turning on a coffee maker, driving a car, buying food, and most especially flying in an airplane.

Air travel accounts for about 3.5 percent of the human contribution to global warming. My travels have been especially egregious, because many of the places I visited required long flights, and many of my destinations were so remote that they could only be reached by plane. To balance this, I try to minimize my carbon footprint in all other areas of my life. I walk everywhere rather than driving, and when I must use the car Read the rest of this entry »