by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I’m happy to be this week’s host of Tree Hugger’s Carnival of the Green, a kind of green-love link-fest where blogs collect stand-out posts from green cyber-space and give them a shout-out on their home page. Tree Hugger manages the carnival of bloggers who submit posts that they’d like to see included and they are mentioned and linked on different sites each Monday. The Evangelical Ecologist hosted last week and next week’s carnival will be at Made Eejits.

Lots of talk out there about the practice of Hypermiling - the art optimizing your car’s fuel efficiency. Brave New Leaf - an inspiring read from a “normal American guy” who recently “woke up” to the ways of green, introduces us to the techniques and to a hypermiling expert who can push a Prius up to 120 mpg. Mindful Momma, a going-green mom of 2 in Minneapolis (my hometown!) who hopes to inspire lively conversation while sharing her trials, tributes and “crazy ideas”, also sounds enthusiastic about the possibilities of the sport of hypermiling, though cautions over some of the extreme techniques. (All this explains why I consistently get an average mileage in the 50’s in my Pruis. With my dogs often riding in the back seat, I use my gas pedal and brakes sparingly and carefully, making me a budding hypermiler!)

Of course, Veggie Revolution folks are getting by and getting vibrantly fit on two wheels with a little mass transit on the side. And, since I’m working on taking my own bicycling commitment to something a step beyond fair weather, I was hanging onto every word in this rainy day commute story.

Woolovers takes a close look at the eco-mindedness of wool, comparing it with the sad state of most of our toxic cotton textiles industry. I love wool of all textures and I’m glad to know more about how it is produced. And thanks for giving me a new word, “hygroscopic” to describe one of its many benefits.

Beth at Fake Plastic Fish has been making plastic-free changes in CA since June 2007 and shares her list of 34 changes to date. I can bet you have not seen all of these yet. Here’s your chance to be audience to the dedicated research she has done to reveal the truth about a plastic called DW2, being manufactured with additives making it into a “chemo-degradable” product.

Plastic and kids have seemed to merge into a huge mess over the decades - almost every toy, diaper, diaper bag, sippy cup, pacifier and other kid things are filled with this petroleum-based toxic stuff. David at The Good Human, wants to encourage everyone to be a better human in environmental and other ways. Here he shares a parent-friendly list of the Top Ten Ways To Green Your Children.

I’ve always felt that making stuff was far more fun than playing with any toy I ever had. My Recycled Bags shares her own Valentine’s project for all ages using recycled denim. The instructions are specific and step by step, making it a nice partner project between parents and kids.

I’ve previously revealed my admiring fondness for No Impact Man and it looks like Healthy and Green by the Day is equally enamored with the idea of a family finding ways to reduce consumption and get back to the simple and fun parts about being together. Never mind hypermiling, this blogger reminds us that the greenest car in the world is no car.

Cars, airplanes, trains, bicycles…there’s so much to consider in the way we move about the place. My favorite bumper sticker goes way back and it says, “My other car is a pair of hiking boots.” I rarely take mine off, meaning that I’ve managed to wear out some of the most rugged, making this post from Green Deals Daily of special interest to me. Timberland’s Earthkeepers have hit all the eco-angles with these mountain-friendly hikers.

GP at Etched In Stone runs an Inn in Montana showing good horse sense - literally and of the green variety. Her submission has sound, detailed and motivating advice for de-cluttering your space for the new year as well as reminders about keeping perspective on what we really need to acquire in the first place.

Melanie at Bean Sprouts shares a very small ex-coucil house in the UK with 5 people, grows food, keeps chickens and bees - co-housing life at its finest. She is already planning a green and leafy garden for spring and gives some good insight on how best to do it.

Giving Hands is a great place to increase your awareness of matters pertaining to charity, environment and volunteerism. January of this year kicked off his “Save The Ocean Month” and you can go here to learn about our oceans at risk and explore the many ways to help turn the tide.

Oceans and fish are both in peril and it’s becoming more and more clear that fish farms are not an answer to helping either one. Why Travel France tells us about the increasingly popular - meaning cheap - farmed Pangas fish who is being injected with hormones, subjected to unnatural food and pesticides and showing up with high levels of toxins - mad fish disease anyone?

That wraps up this week’s Carnival. Thanks for joining us, for your thoughts and ideas and for being part of the Way of Change! Tao

Tags: activism, culture, food, health, home, people

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:41 am and is filed under Green Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.