Ever gone berserk over the impossible-to-open and excessive packaging of something you got in the mail?  Well, Amazon has come to the rescue with Frustration-Free Packaging, which is designed to reduce the stress level of opening packages, as well as the waste created from shipping. The company is working directly with manufacturers to eliminate all the excess plastic, cardboard, twist-ties and hassle, to send products in minimally packaged recyclable boxes.  Love it.

Check out a video demonstration

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The Chicago Tribune went out into the Chicagoland area (which is what they call, you know, the area around Chicago) to find the Chicagoan with the lowest carbon footprint, and they came up with Ken Dunn, a 65-year old who is so green his carbon footprint is only about ten percent that of your average American.

Let’s go down the list of what makes Dunn such a lean green fighting machine, minus the fighting.   And the machine.   But the article litearlly does call him “very lean” and “green.”  So anyway.

He rides a bike instead of driving.   He air-dries all his clothes.   He grows his own vegetables.   He heats his home with a wood-burning furnace.   He eats expired and discarded food he gets from his job as a recycler.

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Eighteen states sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles. The suit comes one year after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision outlining that the EPA had the power to limit said emissions under the Clean Air Act. In addition to these 18 states, 3 cities and 11 environmental organizations have also signed onto the suit.

The Supreme Court ruling was viewed as a major defeat for the Bush administration given their policy on global warming. Although the administration has admitted that some aspects of climate change are human-caused, they have been widely opposed to “across-the-board” limits on carbon emissions.

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by Kerry Trueman

The Interfaith Power and Light movement, a coalition of Southern churches, is seeking to inspire its flock to be better stewards of the land. Some churches are screening “An Inconvenient Truth” to their congregations while others are conducting workshops that encourage churchgoers to calculate their carbon footprint and pledge to reduce it by 10%.

The movement is spreading throughout the South as more evangelicals begin to embrace environmental issues. Finally, a faith-based initiative that doesn’t rely on turning a blind eye to science. Hallelujah!