I just read the coolest article, seriously.

I was browsing around on The Guardian looking for inspiration when I found this article about how Costa Rica is both the world's greenest country as well as its happiest country. Really? Ecological consciousness is linked to happiness?

Costa Rica is world's greenest, happiest country

The article didn't go into much detail, but I'm willing to speculate.  Let's start with Ashley Seager's quote: "The [Happy Planet Index] shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today."

Well, why? The Happy Planet Index, first off, combines life expectancy and life satisfaction, which I think are pretty decent measures. According to Mr. Seager, the US is 114th of 143-- not a great standing given our long lives. African countries are at the very bottom of the scale, and the highest European nation is the Netherlands.

OK, so that's a start. What is it about green living that makes us happy, and about dirty living that is unsatisfying? 

This is pure speculation, but I'd like to chalk up the American angst to materialism. It's not only that our infrastructure poorly designed and we are often forced to drive cars to work-- on top of that, we want nice cars that 'define us.' We work longer hours than any other developed nation (correct me if I'm wrong-- it's been a long time since I read the stats), which stresses us and gives us more disposable cash to make those monthly payments.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, is big on the bicycle. I think in general that they live a more compact lifestyle, and place a higher value on frugality. This sort of attitude goes a long way toward overall satisfaction, and it's also better for the environment.

Of course, maybe there are other reasons forthe relative happiness of Costa Ricans and the Dutch. Most of the above was pure speculation. I'd love to hear what you think!

It sounds paradoxical, I know. But it's an experiment that has already been successful in Germany, where the neighborhood of Freiburg was planned and built to be auto-free. Residents can have cars, but parking spots are prohibitively expensive. Residents have a town with all the necessities, such as grocery store and health clinic, and public transportation to get them into the bigger city.

Now an ambitious soul is doing the same thing in the U.S.-- Hayward, California more specifically. Sherman Lewis is developing a whole suburb to be car-free. To make it a success, he has to do a little suburban restructuring. This suburb, for example, will have a few restaurants, as well as a grocery store. The neighborhood will be built a mile away from a public transportation railway, and residents will take shuttle buses to access the rail system. There will also be a ride share program-- thus, cars will be available, but they will be pooled amongst a greater number of people.

It sounds great to me. Having relied heavily on public transportation when I studied abroad in France and in Canada, I have a great appreciation for the convenience of not having to maintain a car. I like going to the grocery store more often, and walking home with my goodies. My absolute favorite thing about this type of setup is that by walking more and by being outside more, you see other people and you get a chance to talk to your neighbors. You're not just passing each other in your cars-- it feels like a community. When is the last time you said hello to your neighbor?

The project in Hayward is by no means a definite plan. Let's hope, though, that it comes to be and attains some measure of success. Maybe it will give Americans a chance to witness the benefits of an auto-free lifestyle.

(Photos: Wikimedia Commons)

Perhaps you've seen the Sun Chips commercials that show the bag breaking down in the soil. It seems like a cool idea, right? We all use plastic bags, so if we can manufacture biodegradable ones, it seems like our problems are solved.

The science says it doesn't really work. There are several problems with the biodegradation process for plastic bags. First, there are many environments in which little to no degradation takes place, such as in landfills, in low temperatures, and in humid evironments. That pretty much cuts out the process of degradation in most of the possible contexts.

Secondly, the bags still take a lot of oil to manufacture. It's still a waste of resources, whereas reusable bags utilize the least amount of energy, given that you can use them over and over. It's still possible to recycle biodegrable bags, but once they have the stamp of biodegradability, how many people do you think are really going to be induced to do that?

Thirdly, there is a question of how toxic the biodegraded remnants are. Many of the ingredients added to help the degradation process are harmful, and remain in the environment after the bag has broken down, including lead and cobalt.

So, stick with your best choice: reusable bags. And if you end up with a plastic bag here and there, please recycle them. 

Water conservationists and golf course owners have never been the best of buddies. An eco-friendly golf course sounds like an oxymoron—a big green water hog sounds more familiar.

But last week, the New York Times posted an article about new wireless sensors that can help reduce water usage on golf courses. These "subterranean wireless sensors...monitor moisture, temperature and salinity in the soil and feed the data to a software network accessed remotely on a laptop, a handheld device or a desktop computer," reports NYT. Pretty clever, if you ask me.

These systems will help some golf courses save millions of gallons of water per year. This will cut operating costs and reduce the strain on drought-affected communities where water usage is a hotly contested issue.

Will water-saving sensor technology transform golf into a "green" sport? Surely, there are other factors to consider, including synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use, and responsible land management. But water conservation efforts are a step in the right direction, especially when considering the fact that we can use this technology for other applications such as soccer and football fields, public parks and recreational facilities.

At around $11,000 a pop, these systems are still out of reach for most Little League baseball fields and community recreation areas. But if golf courses begin adopting these systems en masse, manufacturers may start producing smaller, less expensive setups that will help athletic field owners across the country adopt smarter water management practices...

...Or lazier practices, since machines would actually be doing most of the work. I guess this saves time and energy that can be used to perfect that golf swing.

What do you think?

Destruction from logging nearly wiped out the orangutan population years ago, and now a large paper company wants to log a biologically important area that has been used since 2002 as a place to release rehabilitated orangutans.  

The Asia Paper & Pulp company has received a license from the Indonesian government to clear hundreds of acres of trees on the island of Sumatra, where an estimated 10% of the 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild reside.

Orangutans- because of human folly, of course- need a lot of protection. They are kidnapped as babies to be sold as pets, have already been negatively impacted by palm oil plantations that originally nearly wiped them out, and are orphaned when mother orangutans are slain by humans. Preserving the orangutan's habitat is another important step in ensuring the survival of the species, and the Indonesian government has a wonderful opportunity to either further endanger the species or make more of an effort to aid the species.

You see, Orangutans are arboreal (they dwell strictly in the trees) and rely on trees completely for their survival. Without them, they have no home, nowhere to go, nowhere to get there, and nothing to eat, resulting in death. Which eventually, if not stopped, leads to their extinction.

And we don't want to see something as cute as these poor creatures disappear, now do we?

For now, here is what we can all do to try to help the survival of the orangutans:

1. Don't use (or buy anything that is made with) palm oil (vegetable oil) that was harvested unsustainably. Use sustainably harvested palm oil or another oil- such as sunflower or olive oil.
2. You can "adopt" an orangutan through websites such as www.redapes.org. 
3. Purchase sustainably harvested or recycled paper and paper products.
4. Support zoos that help with orangutan conservation efforts and captive-breeding.