Do you have to be eco-friendly even on Halloween?

I was reading author Jodi Helmer's ideas for having a green Halloween (in her book The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference) and was a bit put off by some of her suggestions.

For instance, Helmer's suggestion about giving organic apple to trick-or-treaters seems plain wrong. Didn't giving apples fall out of favor after all the scares about razor blades and other sharp objects? Even if these turned out to be urban legends, come on - you don't want yours to be known as the "neighborhood apple house," do you?

I much prefer her suggestion about buying treats in bulk to minimize the waste you get from packaging. But even so, you've still got to make sure the candy's individually wrapped.

Heimer, whose Web site is www.green-year.com, also suggests skipping the costumes at the mall and making your own, which is a good idea - provided you have the time, energy and creativity to come up with one.

She suggests pulling out your wedding dress and going as the Bride of Frankenstein. Right. That's not happening. But I can think of some other homemade costumes I might try.

What are your ideas about having a green Halloween?

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Photo Illustration)

Time was when the opinion of the Archbishop of Canterbury carried a good deal of weight - so much so that it required four knights to go knock him off when he was deemed too 'turbulent.'

That may still be the case (the weight, that is, not the knights knocking him off - we hope), but we'll have to see how far the latest declaration from Dr Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury resonates: While the Telegraph's paraphrase, "Go Green to Save Your Soul," may be overstated, he made it clear that people should live in a way that "honours rather than endangers the life of the planet."

In a lecture at Southwark Cathedral, Dr Rowan Williams said the Christian response to climate change is to immediately minimise any impact on the environment.

He cited examples of switching off appliances, taking holidays at home and growing your own food in an allotment. He said it would not only reduce an individual's carbon footprint but through "re-connecting" with nature help people to get back in touch with the human soul.

The Archbishop even recommends walking in the rain in order to reconnect with nature, scaling back on air travel and concentrating on what makes the soul human in the "biblical sense."

All that spiritual stuff is fine and good, but given his earlier condemnation of capitalists for "idolatry" and call for them to "repent" for causing the economic collapse, the anti-consumerist underpinnings of some of his latest suggestions could be seen by some in power as, dare we say, "turbulent."

Hope he's got good bodyguards.

Here it is World Vegetarian Day, and the Daily News is celebrating in typically contrarian fashion, singing the praises of a sausage factory and explaining how to get your kids to eat things like pork, octopus, bear meat and lasagna - you know, the things kids really need to be eating and don't get enough of.

More seriously, all health authorities agree that what American kids, and adults as well, need to be eating more of is fresh fruits and vegetables. A new CDC report found our national average is under 10% of teens getting the recommended servings daily (we are meeting our daily recommendation for lasagna, however).According to this list, Pennsylvania is on the high end of the curve, topping 15% of teens adequately nourished.

This isn't all that surprising, as a report a few years back by the General Accounting Office found that the USDA spent less than 5 percent of its food-promotion budget on fruits and vegetables, despite these foods comprising 33 percent of the Food Guide Pyramid - which the GAO also suggested be updated "to better communicate the need for a variety of produce, especially deeply colored fruits and vegetables, to fight chronic diseases." Funding of meat and dairy promotion, meanwhile, was plentiful.

Today, though, saw a small step in a very positive direction for government nutrition programs, as the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, which provides food vouchers to those who need extra help getting good food, has been significantly revised for the first time since its inception in the 1970s. For too long a dumping ground for commodity foods the government's trying to get rid of (in order to keep prices stable), the WIC program will now for the first time fund fresh fruits and vegetables.

This is a welcome move, even if it doesn't encourage anyone to go vegetarian, because it means millions of women and children will have a much better chance at meeting real nutrition needs. But given this auspicious occasion, it's worth pointing out (as some bloggers have) that there are clear, unassailable reasons to reduce or eliminate meat (and dairy) - especially if you're trying to live sustainably.

The reasons are clear enough that the Baltimore School District just announced it will go meatless once a week as part of the "Meatless Mondays" program, which "aims to get Americans to cut out steaks and pork chops on one day a week as a way of trimming the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the livestock industry and as a way of supporting locally grown foods."

According to this report from 6abc.com in Baltimore, the schools' staff "have been working with local farmers to provide fresh produce, and with its distributors to find local suppliers. the City Schools also introduced a teaching farm, Great Kids Farm, and is developing the resources to establish a garden at each of its more than 200 schools."

In addition to giving kids a better shot at good health from nurtitious food choices, this citywide move seems like a pretty significant step on the way to, dare I say it, "Greenest City in America." Too bad Philadelphia hasn't taken it... yet.

Here's a quick thought from the Daily News Editorial Board...

AS cell-phone-toting drivers debate the fairness of being forced to wait for arriving planes in the airports' grim and poorly signed cell-phone lot on Bartram Avenue instead of the shoulder of I-95, we have the perfect solution:

Just a few blocks away is the naturally landscaped lot of one of America's most surprising national wildlife areas, the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. Surrounded by shoulder-high native grasses and flowers, the preserve parking lot is open dawn to dusk. A helpful ranger is on duty until 4 p.m. daily with maps of the 3.3-mile, easily walked loop trail and a list of the latest sightings. The other day, ours included a bald eagle, kingfishers, egrets, painted turtles, cormorants and great blue herons.

Get out of the car, stroll five minutes to reach a footbridge across the water. Keep your cell phone with you, though. When you're gazing across the lily-pad-lined water, it's easy to forget that civilization is nearby.

If there's anyone who's qualified to publish his own Guide to Sustainable Living, it's Ed Begley, Jr., who's done just that in his new release from Clarkson Potter.

Begley, a well known TV and movie actor, has lately become the walking embodiment of "green living" thanks largely to his hit TV show "Living with Ed" and his earlier book "Living Like Ed." But he's no bandwagon-jumper: As he points out in our podcast interview, he's been on this case for close to 40 years. And while it's hip to mock Hollywood actors who have scads of money to throw at problems, Begley stresses that his money-saving / earth-saving tips are for everybody, not just the rich:

"In 1970," he says, "I didn't have a lot of dough, so I bought an electric car for $950, which saved me money right away in the price of fuel and maintenance - very low on that vehicle. I started recycling and composting - very inexpensive obviously - riding my bike more than I already did, taking public transportation more ... so then after a bit of time I could afford something that cost a little bit more - a solar oven, perhaps. I saved a little more money and I could afford a rain barrel to collect my rain water and pretty soon I could afford some good insulation, and I built and built. So all I say to people is, do it no differently than I did. I wasn't a big star in 1970 - I couldn't afford solar for 20 years.  ... Pick the low-hanging fruit first, do the cheap and easy stuff first, and you will save money. I sure did."

Asked about Philly specifically as an area to take advantage of things like solar power, Begley allowed that - a greater number of cloudy days notwithstanding - we may even have some advantages over his home state of California. "Believe it or not, the solar electric panels work better where it's sunny and cold. You just want the photons. If it's freezing cold out, those solar panels will work much better than they will here in hot southern California or anywheer in the southwest. When solar electric panels get hot they lose 15% of their efficiency, so if you have a cool and sunny part of the year, a sunny winter day when it's freezing out those solar panels are still gonna work great."

Begley's no blinkered cheerleader; after discussing a misstep where he overzealously installed a home wind turbine in an area that didn't get enough year-round wind, he cautioned: "Only do it if it makes financial sense. Do that [cheap and easy] stuff first. And nowadays those choices abound: energy-efficient lightbulbs; energy-saving thrermostat; weatherstripping around your doors and windows; bike-riding when weather and fitness permit - and I've ridden around Philadelphia, the beautiful Schuylkill river there, and those great river paths along it - it's just a great bike-riding city - taking public transportation if it's available to you, and it sure is in Philadelphia.

"Cheap and easy," he repeated."Home gardening, home composting, it's dirt cheap - do that stuff first and you will save money, I guarantee." While he advised saving it up for a rain barrel or solar oven, you might first want to put $23 toward Ed Begley, Jr.'s Guide to Sustainable Living and get the complete lowdown.

In the meantime, you can hear the full podcast here.

When Michelle Obama grabbed a shovel and started digging up the White House lawn for a kitchen garden last spring (remember?), she helped spark perhaps the biggest surge in backyard food production since World War II. But before declaring victory in your garden, you have to figure out what to do with its bounty.

So here's a package I put together for the Food section of today's Daily News, keyed to the Burpee Harvest Festival (more info here). First, you can extend the reach of your harvest with some tips on preserving, sharing, organizing and recipes. And when your garden kicks into produce overdrive, there's nothing like salsa to absorb the bounty - try some of these different varieties of salsa to make use of as many of your veggies as possible.

Our coverage on gardening, especially urban gardening, on this blog has concentrated on the big picture (for instance, here, here, here and here), but we're not above getting down and dirty with close-up, ground-level looks at the growing trend of heirloom tomatoes and the abundance of cucumbers. Enjoy!

Photo illustration.

Q&A with ECA

Q: Can you please explain what is in the Waxman-Markey Bill?

A: The Waxman-Markey Bill, officially known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) or H.R 2454, colloquially known as “cap and trade,” is actually so much more than that. The house is set to vote on the bill today, and if it passes it will be the first legislation of its kind in the U.S.

It seems that the House took the idea of a cap and trade bill and used it as an opportunity to stuff every possible clean energy project into one place. As a result this mammoth bill includes almost every element of energy policy—the good and the bad. The part that has been most talked about is the “cap and trade” element. Basically, certain high emission industries like electricity generation would become subject to regulations on how much carbon they emit. The emission levels would be capped with the ultimate goal to get below 2005 carbon levels. The main idea is that entities that emit a lot of carbon will have to pay for it through permits, or “carbon credits”. If they end up with more credits than they need through efforts like conservation, then they can sell them to another company who needs more credits. If they emit more than they are permitted, they pay a hefty fine, so it is in their best interest to either cut emissions or buy enough credits.

The credits themselves will be both given away (85%) and auctioned off (15%). As the program progresses, those numbers will gradually invert so that the majority of credits are being auctioned. Some credits will be given to regulated industries to get them started, while others will be given to non-regulated industries with stipulations that revenue from their sale be applied to energy efficiency projects, renewable energy, transportation planning, clean car projects and transmission projects—basically initiatives that will save money for consumers.

Revenue from auctioned credits will go to mitigating climate change in any number of ways ranging from offsets to low and moderate income families to helping other nations adopt climate change strategies.

This legislation establishes a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires specific percentages of U.S power generation to come from renewable sources. Many states already have RPS laws that are more stringent than the one in the Waxman-Markey bill, so environmentalists say that the targets of 6% by 2012 and 20% by 2020 fall much too short of the kind of strong standards that we need.

The bill also makes a substantial investment in energy technologies like renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration, electric vehicles and general research and development. It creates a new entity called the Clean Energy Deployment Administration that will be separate from the existing Energy Department and is meant to provide loans and help spur investment.

Coal snuck into the bill in a big way through a provision that allows more coal fired power plants to be built but mandates that they adopt carbon capture and sequestration technology. The bill stipulates increasing percentages of carbon that these plants will have to capture as the program progresses. I want to note here that currently carbon capture and sequestration is not a proven technology and no coal fired power plant has yet successfully used it to mitigate carbon emissions.

A few other random, but important elements that made it into the bill are increased standards for lighting, furnaces and other appliances. It also provides for new building standards that mandate a 30% improvement by 2010 and a 50% improvement by 2016. There is money for retraining workers for clean energy industries, a cash for clunkers program, electric cars, and money to create a more efficient transmission infrastructure, called a “smart grid.”

As you can see, this bill has a lot in it, some good and some bad. Most environmentalists agree that although the bill isn’t perfect, it is a step in the right direction and that improvements can be made to it through amendments in the future. Many people worry that if we don’t use the current momentum behind climate change issues to pass this bill now, the next version will be even weaker.

To find out more nitty gritty details of the bill check out this fabulous article on grist.org.

Read more Energy Advice columns from ECA here.

Q&A with ECA

Q: Will the State’s budget crisis affect any of the new energy programs that you have been writing about on this blog so far this year?

A. Yes. In fact, the Keystone HELP program, which offers a low interest loan or rebate to help homeowners afford energy efficiency improvements to their homes, is in danger of being cut as I write. This is the first and only attempt by Pennsylvania to offer financial incentives that support efficiency home improvements and it is a good program. The Keystone HELP Loan was lauded as one of the nation’s most successful state sponsored energy efficiency programs and a model for a national program at a recent Department of Energy meeting in D.C. It has various tiers that correspond to several different interest rates and most importantly it requires that the building industry complete training in efficiency before they participate as contractors in the program. Not only does Keystone HELP make big projects affordable to homeowners, but it also makes a concerted effort to increase the competencies of contractors in this state, a huge bonus. But now, with difficult budget decisions looming, all these positive steps toward greater energy independence, lower energy bills, and fewer emissions are in jeopardy.

The thing that baffles us most about this is that there is almost no political issue hotter right now than “going green” -- President Obama made sure of that. Since his inauguration, the President has made it clear that energy is one of the most important issues on his agenda and he has acted on his words by increasing funding for weatherization and significantly beefing up the federal tax credits for energy efficient home improvements. For a while there, most other politicians followed his lead and no one wanted to be “anti-weatherization.” I mean, come on, how can anyone argue against something that makes so much sense -- weatherization reduces the consumer’s energy bills, creates jobs, increase energy independence, and shrinks carbon footprints. How could anyone NOT want to support something that makes so much sense in economically troubled times? Not to be cynical, but is this a case where politicians say one thing and do another -- i.e. applaud energy efficiency while refusing to fund the only financial tool available to the average person? Maybe they assume that no one cares to really look at that budget after all.We say, prove them wrong, and let our representatives know just how unhappy we are that after so much waiting for real change on energy issues, they are going to backpedal at the 11th hour. Pennsylvanians need to demand that the state government continue to fund the Keystone HELP program.

Read more Energy Advice columns from ECA here.

Here's an "earthy" tip: There's still time to plant your tomatoes!... that is, as long as someone else started 'em for you.

While it's too late this year to start from seeds, you can get seedlings and jump into the ever-more-trendy urban gardening movement that has been sweeping the green world, most notably here via the Philadelphia Orchard Project. And if you're at all unsure about how to do tomatoes right, there's a new edition out of an old favorite with Daily News cred: "You Bet Your Tomatoes!" (Plain White Press) by Mike McGrath, illustrated by Earth to Philly's Signe Wilkinson. Inside you'll find McGrath's inimitable tips, resources and loudly-voiced opinions (no, seriouslly - guy uses boldface and all-caps like some people use table salt!) enhanced by dozens of Signe's whimsical line drawings.

Originally released in 2002, the collaboration dates back further than that. Signe Wilkinson says she got her start "drawing mulch-based cartoons" in the late 1980's at Organic Gardening Magazine where her "irrepressible editor" was Mike McGrath.  They have collaborated over the years on compost, and now tomatoes. Mike's show, You Bet Your Garden, is heard on WHYY radio 90.9 on Saturday morning's at 11 AM. Signe now gardens two floors up on a roof garden in center city. She specializes in flowers while her husband grows tomatoes, beans and basil.

You can find You Bet Your Tomatoes! at amazon.com, and while there you might want to grab Mike McGrath's Book of Compost, also featuring Signe's inimitable penwork. And then you can get busy in the dirt!