What Is a Green Job?

Van Jones, the influential special adviser on green jobs to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is featured in these White House videos explaining what exactly green jobs are. Jones, whose book The Green Collar Economy basically elevated the concept of green jobs into the national dialog, was among The Daily Green's nominees for a 2009 Heart of Green Award.

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Ethanol Now Fuels Over Half of Brazilian Cars & Light Vehicles

Brazil is renowned for being a world leader in ethanol use and this telling statistic bears that out: According to Petrobras CFO Almir Barbassa ethanol now powers more than 50% of all the light vehicles in the nation. Biofuels Digest quotes Barbassa as saying that gasoline has now become "the alternative fuel":

In fact Petrobras predicts that by 2020 that the gasoline market for light vehicles will shrink by 17%, with ethanol use increasing.

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Organizing plastic bags and cloth towels

I've been going through our kitchen inch by inch since our recession remodel wrapped up. I'm trying to make it more efficient by getting rid of lots of excess stuff and reorganizing cabinets and drawers. There's no sense spending all that time and money to make it outwardly pleasing when chaos reigns inside the cabinets! Recently I tackled a drawer that stores our plastic bags, foil, waxed paper, towels and oven mits. I didn't have the foresight to take a 'before' photo, but trust me -- it was a disaster. Plastic bags that I'd washed for reuse were just shoved in randomly. We had all of these pot holders in there, which we never, ever use. And the towels were always getting tossed around.

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Climate Bill Vote is Today: Everything You Need to Know

The Democrat's climate bill is heading for a vote in the House of Representatives today. A lot has been staked on its passage: Obama's political capital. Pelosi's prestige, and, oh yeah, the future security of the world's climate. There are plenty of representatives who are undecided on how they'll vote, and the chances of the bill passing are still uncertain even in the 11th hour. Here's a quick rundown of where the bill stands now, and what you need to know in order to join the rest of us green wonks in biting our nails whilst perched on the edge of our seats . . .

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8 Ways to Be Green On The Go

Life doesn’t stop and neither do we. There’s always work, school, traveling, errands, sports practices etc. that keep us on the go. You might think there’s little time to be green, but that’s not the case. There are plenty of ways to fit eco-conscious acts into our busy schedules. Here are some tips for being green while on the go.

1. Get it on Your Phone

Earth911’s new iPhone App, iRecycle, makes it easy to find recycling locations anywhere in the U.S. Find places to drop-off your old cell phone (or water bottle or motor oil or… well, you get the idea), get directions and find out what else they accept. Here’s a quick summary of its features:

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Installing Plastic Trees To Help the Environment

Trees are great absorbers of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and inhibitors of climate change -- that's why treehuggers hug them so much. But leave it to humanity to engineer a better tree. A synthetic tree, currently being tested as a prototype, ensnares carbon about 1,000 times faster than a real tree.

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7 quick projects to go green and save $$ at the same time

People are scared thinking about going green because they assume it will cost them. The fact is there are many things that one can do and not spend a dime but instead save. And things that really need money upfront in a short run would turn into money savers. Anyway, here are some small projects that would cost you little or nothing to start and will save you a lot in the long run.

1. Recycle, Recycle, Recycle (please). You can recycle almost everything you use. Start from cans, bottles, paper, plastic... all away to electronics and alkaline batteries. Go here to find out where can you recycle the item you were planing to trash.
2. Make a habit to turn of the lights every time you're leaving a room for more than 15min. Your kitchen lights don't need to be on when you're in the leaving room for example.
3. Go paperless. Receive all statements via email instead - and please don't print them when you get them (you can view them on screen).
4. Print less and set your printer to print on double sides (most office printers have this options).
5. Walk more - it's healthy for you and less gas you'll spend driving. You could carpool to work, saving money and helping the environment at the same time - find somebody to carpool with here.
6. Find some time to double your car's mileage by installing a water system. It's well worth it and the ebook (please don't print the ebook - read it on the screen - see project #3) and videos make it easy for anyone to do it. This will save you greatly, especially if you drive a lot.
7. Make your own solar panels and stop paying for the electricity. This is a project that would boggle your mind at first (I know you're asking: How in the world I could make my own solar panels - it if was that easy they wouldn't cost thousands to by), but when you review the videos here you will see that you can do it.

Anyway, these are just some quick projects that you can tackle that will save you money and help the environment.