The greenpeace blog has a warning about budweiser beer.

Tests show rice used in Anheuser-Busch’s east coast US breweries is contaminated with genetically engineered rice varieties outlawed in most of the world.

The post mentions that the contamination is not intentional and the strain was supposed to have been contained within test sites.

BreathingEarth.net has an animated map showing the births, deaths and CO2 emissions of every country. It is interesting viewing and helps to put it all into perspective.

Treehugger has a post pointing to triplepundit.com where they have calculated the true cost of exotic bottled water. It’s interesting to note that it takes 25 liters of water to make the 1 litre bottles that the water is sold in (including power plant cooling water).

Ecology begins at home is an excellent free ebook full of tips on living in a way that has a less harmfull impact on the world. It’s easy to read and has tips which everyone can use in their daily life in order to do their bit for the environment.

He talks about saving energy, using less, reducing, re-using, recycling, keeping our food miles down by eating food produced locally and closer to home, taking personal responsibility for doing our bit in the world.

Ecology begins at home (PDF) via Small revolutions

This week TowardsGreen took part in it’s first blog carnival, “Carnival of the green”. Thanks to OneChange this week’s host.

20 million packed lunches a day (in the US alone) means a lot of plastic wrappers being used and thrown away every day. Enter the Wrap-n-Mat - a reusable lunch wrap which is more environmentally friendly then the disposable type, and can also be used as a place mat. They are good for fundraisers too.
Wrap-n-Mat via ParentHacks

The April edition of Hope Australia’s newsletter has a great article about why you should not drink bottled water. I will outlne the important points the article makes here.

• Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing – producing unnecessary garbage and vast quantities of energy, both for transporting the bottles as well as creating the actual packaging.
• Creating the bottles to meet America’s demand alone requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tones of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
• Water extraction is concentrated in communities where bottling plants are located. In India, for example, water extraction by Coca Cola for Dasini bottled water and other drinks has caused water shortages for over 50 villages. Similar problems have been reported in Texas and the Great Lakes region of North America, where farmers, fishers and others who depend on water for their livelihoods are suffering as water tables drop quickly.
• Bottled water in most cases is no healthier then tap water. The French Senate even advises people who drink bottled water to change brands frequently because the added minerals may be helpful in small doses but dangerous in higher doses.
• Halving the amount of people lacking access to drinking water would cost $30 billion which may seem like a lot but this number pales in comparison to the $100 billion that is currently spent on bottled water annualy.

Welcome! This blog is about everyday tips anyone can use to help reduce their energy and water wastage. I am by no means an expert and I will be learning as we go along. Please feel free to send in any corrections, ideas and comments.