• Highlights of House-Senate Economic Stimulus Plan – ap
• Whose ocean is this, anyway? Cleaner Waters Attract Sharks to Sydney Beaches – reuters
• Fighting climate change is smart economics…Surprise – Economists Agree – slate/the big money
• Just don’t consume it by the pound…The Sweet Truth: Chocolate can be Healthy – livescience
• About that other Valentine’s Day standby…Cheap Roses Cost the Earth – sciencedaily
• The Moon Reveals its Weirder Side – nature news

An emerging player in the booming prefab and green building movement is EcoSteel Building Systems, a residential and commercial builder with a “hybrid approach” to prefab.

EcoSteel, which is headquartered in Park City, Utah, is currently completing five modern prefab steel homes in South Carolina, New Mexico, Utah, Maryland and Massachusetts, while three other projects are starting — two in California and one in Georgia.  (more…)

These days it seems as if everything revolves around money, but there is one place where it doesn’t: BarterBuddies.com, a new online community, based in the U.K., where people can come to swap goods – no money ever changes hands.

Barter Buddies takes traditional ideas of exchange and trade, and applies them to the modern world using 21st century technology. If you have goods or services to offer, the Barter Buddies system can put you in touch with an interested trader. Sign up and the first three months are free; and after that, membership costs £15 a year.

Bartering may seem like it belongs to the bygone days of horse and carriage, but it is perfectly suitable for today’s shaky economic times and planetary warming. By connecting with like-minded individuals in your locality to swap goods or services, you can cut down on air miles and packaging. You can also find a pretty good deal, too.

find out more @ barterbuddies.co.uk

• The FDA should have been on this from the get-go…Peanut Butter Outbreak Prompts Tighter Food Safety – yahoo!/ap
• Millions of Animals Feared Dead in Australia – msnbc
• Is your home insured for falling space debris?  Scientists Eye Debris After Satellite Collision – yahoo! news
• Consumer Confidence Slides as Joblessness Snowballs – prnewswire
• It was a fun theory…Damaged Wind Turbine: It Wasn’t Aliens – nyt
• Google Earth Leads Man to ‘Buried Treasure’ – foxnews
• Ever look at what’s actually in your Coke or Pepsi?  India to Launch Cow Urine as Soft Drink – timesonline
• I guess the vet didn’t make house calls…Injured Deer Finds Vet – ananova

Our good friends and supreme purveyors of eco friendly doggie-do-dads, Olive Green Dog, are running a Valentine’s Day Special, $10 off all orders of $50 or more.

Pictured at right is Babs the Bunny ($10), a natural cotton chew toy made with veggie dyes and machine-washable.  A natural, dog flossing toy.

Olive ships almost anywhere, so get going.

find more @ olivegreendog.com

Green building takes a big step forward in Queens, NY.  World-renowned piano manufacturer, Steinway & Sons, is quickly making its factory a showplace for alternative heating and cooling systems by installing a rooftop solar installation.

The roughly $900,000 project, which is expected to be completed in May, was funded in part by a state grant of $588,000 and should pay for itself in a brief four and a half years.

The solar installation works by trapping the sun’s rays in (more…)

Saving energy is entering the world of car audio.  Bose has announced it will introduce its Energy Efficient Series sound system in the 2011 Chevy Volt.  The proprietary Bose system is 30% smaller, 40% lighter, and uses 50% less energy than conventional Bose sound systems, while delivering premium, high-quality audio.

Bose engineers focused their design efforts on 3 areas (more…)

• This is not a diet story…(photos) Four Ways Humans Can Trigger Earthquakes – natgeo
• Airport Uses Radar, Noise to Prevent Bird Strikes – cnn
• San Francisco? (audio) Scientists Tracking Mountain Lions Near Urban Areas – npr
• More study is needed…Bush-era Offshore Drilling Plan Shelved – msnbc
• The Noah’s Ark condo…100-Plus Animals Rescued From 2-Bedroom Apartment – myway

This is part eight of a 10-part series on how changing ones eating habits may be the most accessible and impactful way to improve the world.

Now that we’ve tightened our grasp on how to use eating habits as a powerful vote for the environment, let’s dive back into the soil and discuss how to both make our gardens grow and eat with little-to-no garbage.  Both questions develop into a single and truly magical answer: composting.  Even amongst a “concrete jungle,” you too can experience the magnificence of watching life be recycled from death.

When a plant’s life has freshly ceased, its body is full of organic components that’d be completely wasted if thrown to the landfills.  (more…)