The Go Green Debate

Would you choose to not have a family to save the planet?

Well that is exactly what Toni Vernelli & Sarah Irving did.
Meet the women who won’t have babies - because they’re not eco friendly.

Toni at age 27 was sterilized to “protect the planet”. Her boyfriend at the time, now husband, was very supportive, being an environmental activist himself, gave her a card on the morning of surgery saying “Congratulations”.

Sarah at age 31 & after a year of dating her boyfriend, Mark Hudson, started talking about sterilization. At the age of 37, Mark had a vasectomy and the couple felt incredibly relieved there was no chance of them having a baby.

“Scientist of the world unequivocally say that global warming is here and it is caused by man. Now weather or not the US wants to jump on board doesn’t mean that intelligent people in business can’t see the light.

- Paul Comey, V.P. Environmental Affairs, Green Mountain Coffee Rosters

Above is a quote from Eco Biz, an original series of short news and human interest segments by the Sundance Channel that explore the people and businesses driving change in a new wave of environmental innovation. Check out the full segment below.

Google can’t wait for advances in potential technologies that will save our planet, so they are taking things into their own hands. In the past year or so, they has spent millions on funding green initiatives. Their latest is Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, which will focus on advanced solar thermal power, wind power, geothermal systems that will help save our planet.

The global warming debate is in full force now as phase one: admitting that there is a real crisis, is ending and the next phase: what should be done, is starting. As the war against global warming continues, many still disagree with the mainstream solutions. Bjorn Lomborg, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger all accept the basics of global warming, however they question its severity & challenge the Kyoto Protocol as the best way to save the planet. While their solutions maybe flawed, the questions that they are raising about climate change are central to the solution as we shift into phase two of this debate.

John Stossel from 20/20 explains another side of the global warming issues and debates Al Gore’s Movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

On November 15, 2007, Wal-Mart released a comprehensive report of its sustainability efforts, outlining initiatives and highlighting their progress since October 2005, when they promised to sharply reduce the environmental effects of its operations and of the products it sells. The report provided lots of facts and figures about their progress; however did not appease the Wal-mart critics, as a coalition of 23 nonprofit groups immediately issued their own “Civil Society Critique,” which said Wal-Mart was doing too little too late.

The Center for Global Development has unveiled it’s online database, Carbon Monitoring for Action or CARMA, which is the first worldwide database of power plants’ carbon-dioxide emissions. The database provides a detailed inventory of power plants’ CO2 emissions by region across the globe. It includes information from 4,000 utilities and 50,000 plants, shows the biggest CO2 emitters and the facilities & companies that are most green.

Teens on Venice Beach, CA talk about their thoughts on environmental issues, who they feel is at fault for the current problems and what they can do.

Want to know how green the candidates are for the ‘08 presidential election? Well the crews over at Grist and Outside have teamed up to talk to the presidential contenders about green issues. They published interviews with all of the Democrats and a number of the Republicans, as well as compiled fact sheets on the candidates, with their current platforms, voting records, video, audio, and more. The Grist will also be updating these pages as events of the campaign unfold.