Environmental activists say many public Earth Day and other environmental events are leaving a trail of waste and carbon emissions.
USA Today said activists are pushing for greener events with less food waste and drink packaging, as well as fewer giveaway items. The Convention Industry Council has is working to develop benchmarks for the staging of low-impact events, the newspaper said.
"The dialogue is cheapened when environmental events themselves do not showcase some environmental criteria for how they are implemented," Ron Mader of the ecotourism journal Planeta.com, told USA Today. "You're harming the development of a constituency which would support and carry forth (green) ideals."
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
Related stories:
The sea ice is getting thinner
Large areas of the Arctic sea-ice are only one metre thick this year, equating to an approximate 50 percent thinning as compared to the year 2001. These are the initial results from the latest Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association lead expedition to the North Polar Sea.
When Earth turned bad: New evidence supports terrestrial cause of end-permian mass extinction
Two hundred and fifty million years ago, ninety percent of marine species disappeared and life on land suffered greatly during the world's largest mass extinction. The cause of this great dying has baffled scientists for decades, and recent speculations invoke asteroid impacts as a kill mechanism. Yet a new study published in the December issue of Geology provides strong indications that the extinction cause did not come from the heavens but from Earth itself.
Driving the future of in-vehicle ICT
(PhysOrg.com) -- Information and communications systems in road vehicles are progressing steadily, but the research community behind these developments remains fragmented. Now a European initiative has linked key knowledge centres and is paving the way for the next generation of ‘joined up’ intelligent vehicle research.
New evidence on the robustness of metabolic networks
Biological systems are constantly evolving in ways that increase their fitness for survival amidst environmental fluctuations and internal errors. Now, in a study of cell metabolism, a Northwestern University research team has found new evidence that evolution has produced cell metabolisms that are especially well suited to handle potentially harmful changes like gene deletions and mutations.
Amateur Astronomers See Perseids Hit the Moon
One, the old-fashioned way: Find a dark place with starry skies and count the meteors streaking overhead. Two, the new way: Find a dark place with starry skies and then completely ignore the meteors. Instead, watch the Moon. That's where the explosions are.
Innate immune system targets asthma-linked fungus for destruction
A new study shows that the innate immune system of humans is capable of killing a fungus linked to airway inflammation, chronic rhinosinusitis and bronchial asthma. Researchers at Mayo Clinic and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) have revealed that eosinophils, a particular type of white blood cell, exert a strong immune response against the environmental fungus
Alternaria alternata. The groundbreaking findings, which shed light on some of the early events involved in the recognition of
A. alternata by the human immune system, were published recently in the
Journal of Immunology.
Genetic predisposition may play a role in anxiety disorders
Finnish scientists have identified genes that may predispose to anxiety disorders. Research conducted under the supervision of Academy Research Fellow Iiris Hovatta have focused on genes that influence human behaviour, and some of the studied genes show a statistical association with specific anxiety disorders. The work is carried out as part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO).
Beer-based biofuel, trash brigade help turn convention green
The Democratic Party is using beer-based biofuel and a recycling brigade guarding trash cans to help ease the environmental impact of its convention in Denver this week.