Free Light Bulbs Today at Home Depot

by Justin Glow on

Today, Sunday — Earth Day — Home Depot is doing their part for the environment by giving away 1,000,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs to customers who visit any of the U.S. stores, while supplies last.

According to their website, if all of the compact fluorescents in the promotion are used to replace standard bulbs, it will result in an estimated $12-million savings in annual energy costs, and a reduction of 196 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Such a large CO2 cutback is the equivalent of removing 70,000 cars from U.S. roads.

To find the Home Depot nearest you, head to their website, click “Store Finder” (I can’t directly link you, unfortunately), and enter in your zip code. They have over 2,000 stores in the Unites States, so if my calculations are correct, and they sometimes are, each store will have about 500 free bulbs to give away.

The Australian government has already begun the process of phasing out regular incandescent bulbs in favor of compact fluorescents on a national scale, with plans to complete its goal in 2010. This is expected to “reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by four million tonnes” by 2012.

If you don’t have any compact fluorescents in your home yet, now is the time to act. Be proactive; Recognize your impact on the environment as an individual, and take the necessary steps to reduce your ecological footprint. Don’t wait for your government, no matter where you live, to enact regulations and force you to be concerned about the condition of our planet. Be concerned now because it’s the right thing to do.

[Via Lifehacker]

Polluters Protecting our Planet from Polluters

by Neil Woodburn on

We try to avoid straying into politics here in the travel world at Gadling, but occasionally politics strays into travel in a very inconvenient manner.

For those Americans in the crowd, this has occurred most alarmingly in the field of environmental protection. And yes, I’m pointing my finger at the Bush Administration.

Actually, I’m going to let Vanity Fair point the finger. Their Green Issue this month contains the following article: The Bush Administration: Texas Chainsaw Management. The article, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tackles the irony of Bush appointing “more than 100 top environmental posts to representatives of polluting industries.” The idea here is that Bush has appointed the fox to guard the hen house.

The most poignant example provided by Kennedy is Mark Rey, the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment who oversees the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Before landing his position, Rey was a former timber-industry lobbyist who served as Vice President of Forest Resources for the American Forest and Paper Association from 1992-1994. The goal of this organization can be summed up rather succinctly; less trees, more paper. To see more of Rey’s shocking anti-environmental resume, click here.

And then there is the case of Phillip Cooney, who was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute before becoming Bush’s chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Yikes. After “resigning” when it was discovered by the New York Times that he was editing government documents to downplay the oil industries impact on Global Warming, Cooney accepted a job at, big surprise here, Exxon Mobil.

Kennedy goes on to describe a dozen other cases throughout the Bush administration, each as equally frightening as the two mentioned above and equally as detrimental upon our planet.

So, the next time you decide to go for a walk in the woods, and can’t seem to find any, you’ll know where to point the finger.

Earth Day: Cache In Trash Out

by Kelly Amabile on

Although this year’s official Cache In Trash Out Day has already past (it was April 14), there are still a bunch of clean-up events being held today across the US, dovetailing nicely with Earth Day activities. CITO events are organized by geocaching enthusiasts, who travel all over in search of hidden treasure. It’s an opportunity for GPS hunt-lovin’ hobbyists to make sure cache-friendly locations throughout the world are being kept clean and environmentally unharmed.

In the US, there are a variety of Earth Day CITO events planned to clean up roads, parks and hiking trails. And around the world folks are getting creative about clean-ups too: At one CITO gathering in Canada, 85 new trees will be planted in coordination with the local township. In South Africa, a Big Bay Beachcomb will be followed by a group breakfast, and a maintenance check on a nearby cache, a regular geocaching task that will surely happen often during CITO events. There may also be dicsussion about how geocachers can make sure recent scares like this don’t happen anymore. Although at times the hidden caches can cause confusion, geocachers are generally quite mindful of cache placement and its’ impact on the environment and surrounding community.

Of course, CITO is something that should be happening every day, and each time geocachers interact with natural surroundings in the course of their hide and seek adventures. (Which is basically all the time.) But CITO events are a great way to build additional awareness about the popular scavenger hunt activity, and make sure its participants are doing their part to keep Planet Earth happy while they play.

Environmentalist Greats Tour

by Jamie Rhein on

Since Earth Day is only once a year, but environmentalism is a year-round venture, here’s a way to travel the earth in the footprints of good company. The Ecology Hall of Fame is not an actual place, but a Web site that lists various people instrumental in the environmental movement. Some of those listed do have places you might pass by in your travels or head to as a destination.

Here is a sampling of what I’m dubbing an “Environmentalist Greats of the East Coast” Tour. There are several others, but here’s four to start you off.

1. Edward Abbey –Most famous for his books the Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire, Abbey was a true environment champion meshing politics and the environment with philosophy and literature. You can see the historic marker dedicated to him near the Home Township marker on State Route 119 in Pennsylvania.

2. Theodore Roosevelt– The first American president to throw himself into environmental causes. He increased the National Forest service by 400% and established the National Park and the National Monuments System. Visit his home Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.

3. Rachel Carson – Author of Silent Spring, the book that pointed out science is not always used for the good. The balance between chemical use and food production is imperative for a healthy planet was Carson’s way of thinking. You can visit the Rachel Carson Homestead where she was born and grew up in Springdale, Pennsylvania and the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge in Maine that was named after her to enjoy the essence of Carson’s life.

4. Rosalie Barrow Edge– First woman to hold any position of prominence in the environmental movement. Her big thing was birds, particularly raptors. Her love led to her creation of the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Today, it is still a haven for hawks, eagles, falcons and warblers.

Earth Day

by Neil Woodburn on

It must be Earth Day.

I knew it was coming up a few weeks ago when I kept finding “Green Issues” in my mailbox. First it was Outside Magazine and then Vanity Fair that game with bold headlines proclaiming that the issue in my hands, despite being printed on dead trees, was celebrating environmentalism.

This is, of course, a good thing. We here at Gadling support Earth Day and other environment concerns for the simple fact that we are travelers, our passion is exploring this great planet and all it has to offer. When parts of our favorite green/blue orb become polluted, deforested, irradiated, inhospitable, or otherwise raped by the heavy hand of mankind, it impacts the very thing we all hold dear.

So spend a moment to check out today’s posts, dedicated to lessening our impact on the planet before we break it like some Christmas morning toy. Because, as the Tick once said; “Earth, that’s where I keep all my stuff!”