Tuesday, March 17, 2009
eGreens
Posted
by Alex Woodward
Google
on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 10:31 PM
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- We celebrate St. Pat’s as much as the next lad or lass, but if you’re going to forgo green-colored beer, why not try the other green beer? The Sierra Club blog rounds up a few brews to toast the occasion.
- South by Southwest is underway in neighboring Austin, Texas, where somewhere near a billions bands are scheduled (or not) to play anywhere and everywhere in the city limits. The fest offers a guide for a more green music experience and is teaming with Austin-based TreeFolks Inc. to encourage visitors to plant a tree while in town. The fest anticipates at least 11,000 visitors each year — that’s a lot of trees.
- A hard rain’s gonna fall — from your showerhead. From the Sewerage and Water Board: “Hard water is caused primarily by two harmless minerals—calcium and magnesium. The total hardness is the sum of the two expressed as milligrams per liter (mg/L) of calcium carbonate or grains/gallon of calcium carbonate. In 2007, the average total hardness in tap water was 166 mg/L on the East Bank, and 150 mg/L on the West Bank. For comparison, in terms of mg/L of calcium carbonate, soft water ranges from 0 to 75, moderately hard water from 75 to 150, hard water from 150 to 300, and water above 300 is considered very hard.” If our city’s hard water has got you down in the drain, grist’s always-helpful Umbra Frisk has some advice for eco-friendly alternatives to soften up.
- The Earth Hour campaign is calling for pledges to go without electricity for one hour in an attempt to create an international blackout (8:30 p.m., Saturday, March 28). So far, 1,539 cities in 80 countries are on board. We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, you can RSVP on the campaign’s Facebook event page.
- The first round of Environmental Protection Agency funds from the American Recovery and Investment Act have delegated $71.1 million to Louisiana for “water projects,” including much needed renovations to existing municipal water systems. The EPA says at least 20 percent of the grants are to be used for green jobs and water and energy efficiency.
Tags: Green & Sustainable Living, General
