‘Green News Report’ – June 2, 2009

IN TODAY’S AUDIO REPORT: Rules of the road; ‘Packing’ in the parks; Is eco-system recovery even possible? PLUS: Green News Report helps your troubles go down the drain! …. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail, mean green cleaning machines? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (links below): Recycle used dryer lint? YES we can!; “The United States of Waste” — an energy IN-efficiency analysis; Why Conservatives should support mass transit funding’; Greener TVs could be on the way; Poachers get pwned by robot decoys!.. PLUS: Watch “EARTH 2100” tonight with Bob Woodruff… See below for more!

Info/links on stuff we talked about on today’s episode, plus MORE green news, all follows below…

• Polluted Ecosystems Can Recover
  “The damages to these ecosystems are pretty serious,” said Oswald Schmitz, an ecology professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and co-author of the meta-analysis with Yale Ph.D. student Holly Jones. “But the message is that if societies choose to become sustainable, ecosystems will recover. It isn’t hopeless.”
• Obama admin takes first leap into roadless brawl
  Currently, the Clinton-era rule applies to 10 states because of a court decision late last year….[T]he Forest Service faced a “Hobbesian choice” over which of the court orders to disobey. [U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Wyoming] threw out the roadless rule in 2003, [California Magistrate Judge Elizabeth] Laporte reinstated it in 2006, and Brimmer threw it out again last year.
• Guns in parks make for a messy, sometimes violent mix
  “There were probably 400 people there at the time, and he’s shooting a 9-millimeter handgun at a bear that apparently is leaving as this guy is walking around chasing after the bear,” said Swed, who retired in January after 33 years with the Park Service. “I can’t imagine a police officer in a situation, even if it were a life-or-death situation, ever firing a weapon in a crowded campground like that to protect himself.”
• Strategy Being Devised To Protect Use of BPA; Groups Hope to Block Ban of Chemical
  Industry representatives weighed a range of ideas, including “using fear tactics [e.g. “Do you want to have access to baby food anymore?” as well as giving control back to consumers (e.g. you have a choice between the more expensive product that is frozen or fresh or foods packaged in cans) as ways to dissuade people from choosing BPA-free packaging,” the notes said.
• 117 Years of BPA
• Green Becoming a ‘Tiebreaker’ in Shopping Decisions, Survey Finds
  But there’s a big gap, however, between what they’re finding and actually buying. Less than half of the shoppers who looked for green products, for example, actually found them, and only 22 percent of those surveyed bought green products. Although green attributes can sway shoppers, it’s not enough to put green products on the shelf, according to Brian Lynch, the director of sales and sales promotion at the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
• Study: For Consumers, Green Is Greenwash
  The study, Sustainable Futures ‘09, finds that many companies are unable to get their messages through to consumers because some marketing campaigns are seen as little more than opportunism on the part of big business.
• STUDY: Sustainable Futures ’09
• The Seven Sins of Greenwashing: Is Everybody Lying?
  [O]f 2,219 products making environmental claims that researchers found in North American retailers, “over 98 percent” committed one of several “sins.”
• From CONSUMER REPORTS: GreenerChoices.org, Products for a Better Planet
• Goodguide.com : Find Safe, Healthy, Green Products
• Try These Homemade Drain Cleaner Remedies for Clearing a Drain Blockage

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: More green news not covered in today’s audio report… See below!

• 5 Amazing Reuses for Dryer Lint: If you don’t use a clothes dryer, then you don’t have to deal with lint outside your belly button.
• Grist.org: The United States of waste
• Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit
• Coming Soon: A New Eco-Label for TVs
• Robot Animals Snare U.S. Poachers
• ‘Earth 2100’: the Final Century of Civilization?
  Planet at Risk: Experts Warn Population Growth, Resource Depletion, Climate Change Could Bring Catastrophe in Next Century

  In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it. In that spirit, guided by some of the world’s experts, ABC News’ “Earth 2100,” hosted by Bob Woodruff, will journey through the next century and explore what might be our worst-case scenario.