When your tap water is flammable, you know you’ve got big problems. After a water well was drilled in their backyard this June, Mark and Linda Wilfong of West Virginia have had nothing but trouble. Their house reeks of natural gas and their water is so polluted that they are forced to drink and shower with bottled water. Despite continued calls to authorities, no one is stepping in to help the Wilfongs get access to clean water. But why? Shouldn’t there be government officials qualified enough to handle problems like these? Watch this video to find out more.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen has come up with a great idea about how to encourage guests to be healthy and eco-friendly at the same time. If guests cycle for at least 15 minutes in the hotel gym and create a subsequent 10 watts of energy, they will receive a $36 meal voucher. Not a bad deal, right?

The Crowne Plaza is already an environmentally conscious establishment, as is indicated by the solar panels on its roof and its goal to be carbon neutral, so it’s fitting that they would be the people to come up with this world-first plan to create an eco-incentive for healthy habits. Also, it makes sense that the program would start in Copenhagen because of the city’s long-standing bicycle culture.

The “cycle for your supper” program was just launched last Monday, and the Crowne Plaza told the BBC that they are hoping to expand it to all of their other hotels in the UK.

In Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, the temperature is a beautiful springy 12 degrees today. In the winter, as you can imagine, it is even colder. With temperatures averaging about -30 degrees Fahrenheit, locals are forced to spend a huge chunk (40%) of their monthly income on coal just to stay warm. Because so many people must burn coal in the winter, pollution has become a serious problem in Ulaanbaatar.

But if those Mongolians could afford a greener alternative to coal, perhaps the capital city would be a cleaner and healthier place to live. Kiva, a microfinance organization, has responded to this need by connecting locals with a Mongolian bank that has begun to give eco-loans to inhabitants of Ulaanbaatar so that they can afford to sustain the environment and themselves. The eco-loans will go to three things: energy efficient stoves, energy efficient fuel made from compressed sawdust, and yurt covers. A yurt is a traditional Mongolian dwelling which looks like this:

The United Nations Development Program engineered a type of blanket that covers an entire yurt, helping with insulation and reducing the need for coal by 50%.

Green loans not only make eco-products more financially accessible to families who live in yurts, but also empower entrepreneurs to produce the energy efficient stoves and yurt blankets locally, thus reducing dependence on foreign imports.

You can read more here: Kiva stories from the field

I am particularly disappointed with Glenn Beck’s latest smear campaign. This time it’s against someone who Time Magazine calls “one of the 100 most influential people in the world.” Van Jones, a trail blazer, leader, and activist in the environmental and community development field, has dedicated his life to “greening the ghetto.” After graduating from Yale Law School he committed himself to empowering young minorities to fight for racial equality. He also fought against police brutality and launched a “Books Not Bars” campaign to close California’s juvenile prisons.

Later in his career he worked toward integrating environmentalism into poor (usually black) neighborhoods by encouraging and training youth to get green jobs. At a conference in February, Van Jones said

“give the young people standing on the corner the opportunity to put down those hand guns and pick up some caulking guns“

He was referring to the influx of opportunities in the construction field to retrofit houses using environmentally friendly methods. Installing solar panels, assembling hybrid vehicles, and teaching environmental science to children can all be considered green jobs because they have the potential to clean up the environment and boost a whole new sector of the economy.

President Obama is on board with the green jobs initiative. He appointed Jones special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality last year, thus providing the mover and shaker with access to a wider arena of political influence which he has used to continue promoting a green collar economy.

And then the inevitable happened. Glenn Beck, Fox’s favorite talking (air)head, dug up
a few minor slip-ups from Jones’ radical past and has blown them way out of proportion. It only took two things to set off a pitchfork campaign against Jones—a campaign so strong that it has actually forced Van to resign. What two things you ask? First, he called republicans “assholes” as a response to a question at an informal press conference a few months back. Then in 2004 he signed an online petition in support of the claim that George Bush knew about the terrorist attacks of 9/11 before they happened. But, as Huffington Post puts it:

“Suggesting that President Bush invited the 9/11 attacks in order to start a war is really no crazier than suggesting that President Obama wants to let terrorists loose in the United States, or that he plans to kill old people and disabled children, or that there’s something sinister about his encouraging school kids to study hard.”

Anyway, Van Jones stepped down, saying “I came here to fight for others, not for myself.” It’s truly a shame that one overzealous loud mouth can bring down such an accomplished man with the potential to make real positive change in the green movement and beyond.

Urban alleyways conjure images of dark, slimy, creepy things. They’re places where only the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should hang out. But Chicago, the city with the most alleys in the world (1,900 miles of them to be exact), is transforming theirs into cleaner places as a part of the new Green Alley Program. The plan is to repave them with permeable materials to benefit the environment. Here’s how:

1. Pavement absorbs water that then goes into the earth reducing flooding and saving tax payer money which would otherwise be spent treating storm water
2. The pavement is a light color so it reflects heat and is cooler, reducing the “urban heat island effect”
3. They’re made of recycled materials
4. Lights in the alleys will be energy efficient

Green alleys aren’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when I think of ways to reduce the effects of climate change, but I think urban renewal projects like this one can really make a difference in the long run.