Installing a solar electric system on your roof is a major way to help the environment and save money in the long run, but there are numerous ways to do both now by increasing the energy efficiency of your home. You can install CFL bulbs, install a drain-water heat recovery system, install low-flow fixtures, and make sure your home is properly insulated. If you include a solar energy system on your roof, your house can come as close to carbon neutral as possible!
The American Lung Association (ALA) just issued its 10th annual State of the Air report for 2009 yesterday. Use it to learn your county’s air pollution ratings - they have an interactive air pollution map so you can click your state and drill down from there.
Or, if you’re a city dweller like me, go straight to the city rankings - which are assessed by ozone levels, as well as short-term and year-round particle pollution. The overall findings are just scary - six in ten Americans live in areas where pollution has reached dangerous levels.
So what exactly is air pollution?
Air becomes polluted when chemicals are introduced into the atmosphere that endangers humans and other living organisms. Overall, these chemicals and particles pair up to reduce the quality of air. Air pollution is usually categorized as ozone or particle pollution.
Ozone pollution is an increase in the concentration of ozone in the air at ground level. According to AirNOW, a multi-agency U.S. government…
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Wilderness Ventures , the oldest and most experienced adventure travel program for young people, offers domestic and international programs that teach teens valuable life lessons like a sense of environmental responsibility and new leadership skills. Their Service Adventure to Costa Rica’s Savegre Valley gives teenagers an opportunity to be immersed in the Costa Rican culture while participating in humanitarian projects and spending time in the great outdoors.
This Costa Rican community service exploration is an exciting combination of diverse adventure travel and stimulating cultural immersion in an unspoiled tropical paradise of pristine beaches, exotic wildlife, and a rainbow of colorful flowers and birds. Teens who participate earn 60 hours of community service while building a rural school in a cloud forest, teaching local school children English, and restoring nesting habitat for endangered sea turtles. Participants experience the beauty of this peaceful country by sea…
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TourSpot’s travel and city guide application is now available in the Apple App Store - a city guide application with innovative features like social network integration with Facebook, live and interactive maps, mobile coupons, and live travel content.
The app is designed to enhance the experience of travel by combining rich content and live mapping with location-based search capabilities.
TourSpot can be used to take a walking tour of a city without having to carry a paper guide or map. While walking around users can update their status on Facebook or upload a photo. Features in TourSpot include location-based search of points of interest, restaurants, hotels, and nightlife. TourSpot also features a city event feed that is updated on a weekly basis. In New York City we feature a location-based mobile coupon feed.
TourSpot’s travel content is written by travel writers. Whenever possible, TourSpot provides links to relevant Wikipedia articles that provide its users even more…
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At Sonoma County Grape Camp (www.SonomaGrapeCamp.com), there are no sleeping bags, no mosquito repellent and no wake-up songs. Rather, it is a behind-the-scenes three-day wine and food adventure designed to explore the fine craft of taking winegrapes from the vineyard to the bottle and more.
Produced by Sonoma County Winegrape Commission and Relish Culinary Adventures, this camp offers consumers hands-on experience harvesting grapes and blending wine, as well as exclusive access to influential grape growers, winemakers and chefs who help make Sonoma County wine country a world-class destination.
“There was an incredible line-up of first-rate venues and celebrity-level hosts and speakers,” said 2008 camper Steve Edison, of Thousand Oaks, Calif. “I really felt like an insider.”
The third annual Grape Camp will take place during the exciting harvest season, Sept. 21-23. Camp highlights include an outdoor vineyard reception dinner overlooking the Russian River Valley at Arista Winery;…
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The company has partnered with Atlantic Energy Services (OTC:AESO) of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a leader in designing, financing and implementing energy efficiency projects, to offer free, no-obligation environmental assessments to U.S. hotels from now through May 2009.
A valuable resource for green hotels, EcoGreenHotel helps lodging facilities address environmental issues and implement environmentally sound initiatives. The company’s website offers a marketplace for green hotel products and services and provides a one- stop venue for green hospitality industry news, basic environmental overviews and other tools like green hotel checklists, project ideas, book lists, and valuable links designed to promote a more sustainable hospitality industry. Meanwhile, its green hotel consutling services guide owners, operators and developers through the journey of developing and/or maintaining a sustainable operation or project.
“Atlantic Energy has earned a stellar reputation for helping…
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Cambean Hospitality, the Miami Beach-based hospitality group that owns and manages four boutique hotel properties in the historic South Beach area, just announced that they will soon be the most Earth-friendly, carbon neutral hospitality company in the world.
Cambean plans to achieve this designation by installing solar panels and a wind turbine on the roof of the Clifton South Beach Hotel, and by purchasing carbon offsets and renewable energy credits (RECs) from Boulder, Colo.-based Renewable Choice Energy to offset Cambean’s fuel and electricity consumption.
“While many hospitality companies have embraced being ‘Green,’ their involvement, and the involvement of their guests, is purely a voluntary or opportunistic approach and is not mandated by corporate guidelines,” stated Brian Scheinblum, president of Cambean Hospitality. “Cambean Hospitality, on the other hand, has quantified the carbon footprint for our entire portfolio of properties, and is mandating that we…
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Adventures by Disney (AdventuresbyDisney.com ), provider of high-end family travel experiences, was awarded Best Travel Website by the Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards. The IAC Awards, produced by the Web Marketing Association, recognize excellence in online advertising and those responsible for the best in Internet marketing. The Best Travel Website award is given to travel industry sites that exemplify creativity, innovation, design, memorability and impact. The new website was created by a dedicated Adventures by Disney web team at WDPRO (Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online).
"We are honored that the Web Marketing Association awarded an IAC ‘Best Travel Website’ Award to Adventures by Disney," said Don Gross, Vice President, Adventures by Disney. "With our 2009 re-design, we sought to combine a user-friendly format with highly informative content, including features to better assist families planning vacations. We continue to raise the bar by enhancing our…
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The Ramona Band of the Cahuilla Indian Tribe is developing an eco resort near Anza, California. The first of its kind, the Ramona Band of Cahuilla Mission Native Americans’ resort is designed as a 100% off-grid renewable energy project that will employ multiple alternative energy technologies to meet 100% of its energy needs and recycle much of its own waste byproducts, such as sewage, biogas, and restaurant food waste.
The resort, funded jointly by the Ramona Band, the Department of Energy, the US Department of Agriculture and multiple other Federal agencies, is being built in the Anza Valley on the Ramona Indian Reservation in Riverside County, near San Diego, Calif. Upon completion it will offer a peaceful retreat to the public and corporate clients, as well as an educational experience about the Native American culture, habitat, natural remedies, and care of the environment through the use of renewable energy and sustainable green lifestyle practices.
“We want to create a…
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Pacific Whale Foundation president Greg Kaufman recently presented at a naturalist workshop in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Titled “Eco-Friendly Whalewatching: It’s Not Always Easiest to Be Green”, sharing direct experiences with modeling eco-friendly behaviors for its guests and using eco-friendly products.
This three-day workshop was hosted by the Dolphin Fleet of Provincetown, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. The purpose of the annual workshop was to educate naturalist/science educators, interns, volunteers, and those directly involved with whale watch tours or research in the Gulf of Maine region. The conference included morning lectures that addressed the status of great whales and seals in the region, physical oceanography, and current conservation concerns. Afternoon workshops included, ?Plankton and the Ecosystem,? which included lectures and hands-on identification of multiple species and, ?Photo-Identification…
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