This sounds interesting and fun – save the date: Monday, February 6, 2012. Public lecture begins at 7pm. The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, NYC 10021.

What would happen if the world’s greatest source of oxygen became depleted and eventually disappeared? You’re probably thinking, great, another news story about deforestation. What is widely unknown is that the world’s greatest source of oxygen is plankton, not terrestrial trees.  This common misconception can easily be remedied: The crew of the Tara Oceans schooner will be presenting a public lecture on their recent research concerning the health of the world’s oceans. The 15-member crew crisscrossed the high seas for the past two and half years while on their latest global scientific cruise.

An impressive one hundred eighteen feet in length, the Tara Ocean has sailed both arctic and tropical waters and will docked in the East River (Battery Park, North Cove Marina) from February 5 to 11.

The team conducts their research mainly through the study of plankton and the relationship between plankton abundance and the health of the oceans. The lecture will include presentations not only from the head scientist of the ship, Eric Karsenti, but also from other crew members as well as prominent leaders of the Tara Foundation for Marine Research USA.
The program will focus on the wide scale oceanic issues that directly affect the health of our planet as a whole.

In addition, Explorers Club Member Mara G. Haseltine, an artist and environmentalist, will unveil La Boheme: A Portrait of Today’s Oceans in Peril, her latest sculpture based on her discoveries on board Tara Oceans. (more…)

Rather than buy a dozen roses for your sweetheart, here’s a bouquet of treats, all made from ethically-derived precious metals … give a heartfelt, sustainable and stylish keepsake …

From top, left to right:

Love Is on the Inside Engraved Ring
14K rose gold and sterling silver, 2mm-8mm widths, $195-$325
Jesse Chamberlain of Jesse Danger, Salem, MA

Three Pair Hoop Set
14K rose gold, $68
Kristin Mulholland of Kristin Noel Designs, Atascadero, CA

Braille Love Wedding/Commitment Band
10K rose gold, $385
Nicole Zahour, Rye, NY

Round Wedding/Commitment Band
18K rose gold, $ varies with width
Benjamin Manning of Utopian Creations, Kensington Park, SA, Australia (more…)

Are Cheetos vegan? Just asking… If you’re having an alternative Super Bowl event and you want to toss around some pigskin that isn’t really pigskin, this is the ball for you. This Fair Trade football is an excellent backyard ball. It sports an all-weather, high-grip surface, is official size & weight; and it’s totally vegan.

Both eco and Fair Trade certified, this football is union-made by adult workers who received a fair wage. And no animals were harmed in its manufacture.

Best if all – all after-tax profits go to children’s charities.

$39 @ amazon.com

eco cred: This eco-certified football sports PU microfiber and 70% eco-certified rubber. PU microfiber is a synthetic fiber that produces an excellent leathery feel and causes no harm to people or planet. The rubber is derived from third-party certified sustainably managed forests in India and Sri Lanka.

related: more sporting goods on The Alternative Consumer

I’m old enough to remember when most street food vendors sold their chow out of carts with limited menus consisting primarily of fetid delicacies like over-boiled hotdogs aged to perfection in a caldron of used bath water, or pretzels coated with enough salt to cause instantaneous cardiac arrest. Well, how times have changed. Today’s street food movement/fad is lead by state-of-the-art food trucks selling all manner of morsels: from delicious crepes to countless varieties of burgers, tacos and confections.

Many food trucks use only locally grown produce, meats and breads and are run by individuals that revel in the independence and creativity that their mobile restaurants afford them. One shining and successful outfit is L.A.’s Green Truck, which has been doing their ‘green’ thing for a few years now. Their menu is totally (more…)

Swedish designer Elin Sagen’s lovely jewelry is created from discarded china and porcelain. The nostalgia and elegance inherent in the designs and patterns of the recycled porcelain evokes feelings of things both old and new. Inspired by fond memories of family dinner gatherings, they have a nice homespun quality and appeal.

(more…)

• Debris from washing synthetic clothes may be entering the food chain… Accumulating ‘Microplastic’ is Threat to Shores – bbc
• High flying designs… New Ideas Sharpen Focus for Green Aircraft – sciencedaily
• Mind games… Wireless Sensors Monitor Your Thoughts on the Fly – livescience
• Threat low but problems continue… Water Leaks at Japan’s Stricken Fukushima Nuclear Plant – msnbc
• Politics as usual… Keystone Pipeline to be Linked to U.S. Highway Bill: Boehner – reuters

Bluefin tuna is one of the most coveted varieties of fish in the world. Their meat goes for outlandish prices and is exported daily all over the planet. The high demand for wild bluefin tuna has led to overfishing of the species, particularly in Japan — as a result, the tuna population is greatly threatened. It does not help the tuna population that restaurants all over the world, including right here in the United States, are putting constant pressure on local fish markets to provide daily fillets and bluefin steaks.

Japanese scientists have developed a new method of hatching bluefins from eggs and farm raising the fish as a way to reduce overfishing and slow the destruction of the global bluefin population (traditional bluefin farming involves raising captured juvenile fish). One might think replenishing the tuna population and providing tuna for consumption via ocean fish farms might prove beneficial to both consumers and the dwindling wild bluefin numbers. Unfortunately, this might not be the case. (more…)

The inspiration for this documentary: recent college graduates Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis find out that their generation could have a shorter life span than their parents because of what they’re eating — corn. The following are four of many reasons that I’m glad I spent an hour and a half of my time watching this documentary in which two young men travel to Greene, Iowa to plant and track a single acre of corn.

• I learned that a certain type of corn, a commodity corn that has been genetically modified, can be found in A LOT of things we eat. Think about the endless number of foods that have corn starch or high fructose corn syrup in them. To our non-vegetarian readers, what do you think comprised the diet of the last cow that you ate — lush green grasses? Chances are that cow was corn-fed.
• (more…)

Brazilian designer Brunno Jahara creates much of his work from recycled materials. Brunno’s Batucada Collection of trays, lamps and vases is created from 100% recycled aluminum.

Brazil recycles over 90% of its aluminum, primarily due to the proliferation of ‘catadores’ – a culture of people who survive  on the money earned from picking through the country’s landfills and reselling what they find.

Though the objects share common shapes, each piece in the collection has its own unique surface, a combination of hammered dents and garbage dump imperfections.

Note: Batucada is the name given to the percussive beats played on drums and handmade instruments at carnivals and parties – its rhythms are reflected in the shapes, forms and unique lines of these colorful pieces.

Related: more green design on The Alternative Consumer