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Outside the Box: Green goes gray and more
Outside the Box is Enviroblog's weekly column of stories "outside the norm and refusing to conform."
Packaging lite:
In the competition for the title of "Official Greenest Corporation in the Universe", what you sell is only slightly more important than what you sell it in. Cincinnati's Enquirer is reporting that many of the country's biggest consumer goods and packaging companies have begun investigating ways to package products more sustainably. By packaging products in ways that pack more easily and produce less waste, companies can save money (on materials and shipping) and the Earth at the same time.
Below the fold: rude cows, and the environmental movement grows up.
Older and wiser:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is tapping its oldest resources. Environmentally-minded seniors are getting involved by joining in Greenpeace's Grey Power campaign, which urges political action at every age. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, some write letters and some are on the frontlines, but others, like Rosamund Darrow-Smith, take a slightly different approach:
"I'm what I call an urban guerilla," she says in the unlikely setting of a Petersham terrace. "I get beautifully dressed and go to events where I know important people will be."
After those events, Darrow-Smith pulls the important people aside and charmingly explains her position on environmental issues. She says
"They don't expect [to be given a green lecture]. They think all greenies have dreadlocks or something."
We at Enviroblog wonder: when will Greenpeace US start a Gray Power initiative?
They could at least say 'excuse me'.
Burping ruminants have become the target of government research in the UK, where every day Britain's 10 million cows produce 100-200 liters of methane -- each. Methane is a greenhouse gas with even stronger effects than carbon dioxide. Scientists hope to be able to reduce livestock emissions by producing a more easily digestible feed -- current field tests involve sealing sheep in tunnels to analyze the air quality before and after the animals have eaten. The Times Online article points out not once but twice that most livestock methane emissions come from belching and not from, ahem, "the other end" as is commonly believed.