The Sierra Club's Owen Bailey was at the Farmer's Market in L.A. to ask people what they are thankful for. Some celebs shared their answers here too, but the best responses came from the most adorable little kids in the world at around 1:45.

Last week I got to see two electric vehicles that many Americans would lust after, if and when they become available in 2010-2011. Mitsubishi brought two of its iMiEV all-electric city cars to San Francisco and gave one to the local utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, to keep for testing. (See photos.)

 
I took a ride around the block in one of them with Mitsubishi's Kenichiro Wada and PG&E's Brad Whitcomb. Snappy little 4-seater car. (And yes, that steering wheel is on the right side, Japanese style, just in these test cars.) Mr. Wada said Mitsubishi hopes to start selling a U.S. version in late 2010.

Just a quick reminder that the public comment period for the EPA regarding CO2 emission regulation closes Friday. Go here, here, or here if you want to be heard before the deadline.

There has been a flurry of good news lately in the push against coal. But expect Big Coal to fight back.

 --to be better educated on climate change issues, by reading books like Van Jones' The Green Collar Economy (which has been sitting on my bookshelf for weeks); regularly listening to the several environmentally-related podcasts to which I subscribe; reading periodicals, blogs and websites that post on these issues; attending panels and forums; etc. Information is everywhere; there's no excuse not to seek it out.

--    to be a more socially conscious consumer (and recycler).

--    and finally, to be more tolerant of folks who are willing to change their carbon-heavy habits, but who just need more education and encouragement to do so.  Every day, more people – and businesses – want to learn more and do more.  There are definitely strong forces of the status quo, and I need to do my part to counteract them whenever possible.

I read about Cheat Neutral, a joke site that says you can cheat on your significant other and then pay $5 to feel better about it. The joke is that this $5 will go to someone who has no chance of being in a relationship so they won't ever cheat.  

After completing How Green is My Cuisine, one quiz-taker sent us a recent study out of Carnegie Mellon, which found that going vegan one day a week saved much more in greenhouse-gas emissions than eating locally-grown food during the course of a year. This argument isn't new.

Of course, going vegan/eating organic and buying locally aren't mutually exclusive either. But you might want to check out the discussion forum that is going on right now and share your opinion.

I'm going to post a short video here that shows my morning glory vine. I'm new to using the video feature of my camera and I'm pretty green when it comes to editing video, but hey, I said I was lazy. If I wait until I've actually read the camera instructions on how to use video and read the user manual for iMovie, well, it would be next spring by now, and time is passing too fast already.

When Hurricane Ike bore down on the Texas coast last fall with its 110-mile-per-hour winds and 15-foot storm surge, it left behind an estimated 11,000 damaged homes and a pressing political question--are there some places where houses just don't belong?

Real estate is hard to come by in Santa Coloma de Gramenet that the graveyard was just about the only viable location for a new array of solar panels. While the locals weren't too keen on the idea at first, learning that the project will generate enough electricity to power 60 homes annually and will keep about as many tons of carbon dioxide out of the air each year may have swayed them. Additionally, the project's designers tried to keep the profile of the solar panels as low as possible -- the panels cover less than 5% of the total surface area of the graveyard.

"The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors, whatever your religion may be, is to generate clean energy for new generations," said the director of the Spanish energy company behind the project. Sounds like a heavenly idea to me.

When you think about city living, growing your own food isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. But a movement is blossoming in cities from coast to coast to grow and harvest fruits, vegetables, and herbs in urban backyards and community gardens.

The idea isn't really a new one; it's more that we're seeing a return to older ways where there was a closer connection between people and the food they ate. As the local food movement has gathered momentum, community vegetable gardens have been proliferating on vacant urban plots. And increasingly, city dwellers are producing food for the table even closer to home: in their own back yards.

A quick review of this past week's happenings in the blog world

It's been a good week in the ongoing battle against coal. The EPA's rejection of a new coal plant in Utah means bad news for three proposed coal power plants in Nevada. And here's more coal victory news! And here's the story of high school students in Ohio flexing their muscle. Right on!

Also...

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has launched his own blog.

The economic downturn has not deterred Green Building Convention goers in Boston.

Scientists try to spell out for us why the "global warming has stopped" mantra is a myth.

And finally...Neil Young asks, "So you want a big electric car?"

The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) is “publishing” a new online magazine about climate change and sustainability called Texas Climate News. The magazine is edited by Bill Dawson, former environmental reporter for the Houston Chronicle, who has covered the environment, science, health, and related news for about three decades.

In other words, even at the brink of bankruptcy, the automakers still are resisting technological change and wishing for business as usual. Congress needs to hear from us that we want to keep those requirements in place. We want the American automakers to gear up for the cars of the future. Plug In America has made it easy to send a message through their "No Bailout Without Strings" page.

Need some time to brainstorm? Head over to our discussion forums and bounce your ideas off other Climate Crossroads members!

You can also watch this video interview with Energy and Environment Policy Transition Team member Heather Zichal for some inspiration:

Judging by some of the stories out there this week, it seems the answers to our energy and deforestation problems come from the collective cabooses of our four-legged brethren.

The Toronto Zoo, with its 5,000 animals, is working on converting animal poop that zoo workers shovel on a daily basis into a power source. If it goes as planned, there'd be enough “poo power” for the whole zoo, with some left over to feed back into the grid.

Meanwhile in the dairy farms of Kern County, California, plans are being laid out to convert the methane, a potent greenhouse-gas, that comes from cows into natural gas. Construction of the so-called “biogas distribution network” may begin next year and will have the capability of powering tens of thousands of homes.

And if that wasn't enough, 1,500 lucky journalists recently received a press release on paper manufactured from elephant dung that promoted the DVD release of “Horton Hears a Who!”

The tie-in to the movie works well: Horton, Dr. Seuss's whimsical main character, is a socially conscious elephant who knows the importance of sticking to one's ideals even in the face of social resistance. He knows that even one small person, one small action, can make a difference, especially in efforts to defend a fragile world.

Ford's CEO, who was in Washington begging for a bailout this week, arrived at the Capitol in a Ford Fusion Hybrid. Nice!

But wait. How did he get to Washington from Detroit? Did he buy a plane ticket? Of course not. He took his private jet. Duh! 

In fact, all of the CEOs from the cash-strapped Big Three took separate corporate jets, which cost their companies tens of thousands of dollars each. And Ford's CEO doesn't even live in Detroit. He lives in Seattle -- where his jet takes him on weekends.

Check out the White House Organic Farm Project and tell the incoming family to consider starting an organic farm on the grounds of the White House. Corn, strawberries, zucchini, it doesn't matter! Just planting an organic patch would send a strong message in support of safe and healthy food.

Wasn't more surf and less turf supposed to be the way to go to set ourselves on a path to healthier eating? That's sure what I remember a few years back when I started eating more seafood and less flesh-on-the-hoof. (My consumption of fowl remained fairly steady, my main adjustment being to purchase free-range chicken at the grocery store.)

But no sooner had I adjusted my diet to include more tuna steaks than beef steaks, along came warnings about mercury in larger fish. So much for albacore and swordfish on the grill. (I continued to eat tuna in the form of sushi, but less frequently.) Luckily, there were plenty of other fish I enjoyed, like salmon, Chilean sea bass, and halibut.

But not so fast. Many of these options are now considered off-limits because we've fished them nearly to the edge of extinction. Chilean sea bass is pretty much a total no-no, even when it's wild-caught. Wild Atlantic salmon have been teetering on the brink for years, and this year's commercial salmon season on the Pacific coast of the U.S. (excepting Alaska) was canceled due to an alarming crash in the number of fish returning to their spawning streams.

At this writing, wild Alaskan salmon runs between $15 and $25 a pound, relegating it to special occasions in most households. Farm-raised salmon presents a host of problems, from being disease-ridden due to overcrowding (and passing those diseases on to wild fish passing nearby), to habitat destruction, to inefficiencies inherent in aquaculture: on average, it takes a pound of fishmeal (ground-up smaller fish) to raise one pound of farmed salmon. For cod, the ratio is five to one; for tuna, it's more like 20 to 1.

What's a fish-lover to do? One alternative is to eat lower on the food chain. Eschew top predators like tuna, swordfish, salmon, and sea bass in favor of smaller fish like herring, whiting, sardines, pollack, and mackerel. Shellfish like crab, lobster, mussels, and oysters can also be good choices, depending on the health of the local harvest.

And therein lies the key, as in terrestrial eating: to the extent you can, eat local, seasonal, and sustainably harvested seafood. Talk to your local fishmonger; they'll usually be the best source of information about what's on offer and how it was caught. And if you don't have a local fishmonger, here are some other resources for anyone who wants to "eat green" while partaking of the sea's (threatened) bounty.

Seafood Watch, a service of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, gives recommendations of what to buy (and why), provides a free downloadable pocket guide for ocean-friendly seafood, keeps you abreast of fishing pracices worldwide, and lets you know what you can do to promote awareness of sustainable seafood, like letting your local restaurants and grocery stores know that you care about where your seafood comes from.

The Blue Ocean Institute, a marine conservation organization on Long Island, New York, also provides seafood and sushi guides, as well as seafood FAQ, retail resources, and a wealth of advice to help people "make better choices on behalf of the ocean." The Marine Stewardship Council, a London-based nonprofit working to certify, promote, and reward sustainable fishing practices, lets you track fisheries and provides practical information on purchasing and cooking sustainable seafood. Or check out Eartheasy's sustainable seafood guide.

So don't despair, just take care when you choose your next seafood meal.

The U.S. Green Building Council announced yesterday that they're seeking public feedback to develop a LEED rating system for neighborhoods. It would be the first of its kind for neighborhood design and construction. Traditionally, the LEED rating applies for individual structures. Click here to give the USGBC your two cents.

Meanwhile, the green building conference in Boston is drawing tens of thousands of people, despite the slumping economy.

In a series of articles called "The Last Stand," The Steamboat Pilot & Today recently took an in-depth look at the epidemic. One particularly chilling tale: In northern British Columbia, which faces the same threat from mountain pine beetles, the mean temperature has increased by over four degrees in the last century, and the winters are no longer cold enough to kill off the beetles.

In the early fall or late spring, sustained temperatures of about minus 15 degrees can do the trick. ... Such conditions used to occur like clockwork once a decade. The last time it happened was 1985.

 Kind of like how those lemmings haven't boomed since 1994?

At least officials in Canada seem to be making the connection. One article quotes British Columbia's chief forester as saying, “It certainly appears our warming climate is conducive to increased survivability of the mountain pine beetle. It's just science. It is what it is.”

Obama goes on to make clear to the Governors, business leaders, and international delegates present in Los Angeles today that the era of federal resistance to their leadership on climate and energy is going to end on January 20. "When I am President, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America."

Here's a look back at Decision '08 and why clean energy was an issue that truly resonated with voters.

In case you missed it, here's T. Boone Pickens back on Meet the Press on Sunday. And here's a revisit of the Sierra Club's Carl Pope with Pickens and Center for American Progress CEO John Podesta last August at the Democratic Convention in Denver.

Are you a vegetarian or a vege-leaning omnivore looking to break from the tradition of eating meat on Thanksgiving? Perhaps you're a health-minded meat-eater interested in the challenge of eating only vegetables while your family mercilessly chows down around you?

Check out these suggestions from Treehugger and perhaps join our Meatless Mondays action group and chat about eating green on Turkey Day.

A quick review of this past week's happenings in the blog world

Will climate change make the current economic crisis look like a cake walk?

If you think CFLs look funny, check this out.

Ants can teach us a thing or two about easing congestion on our highways.

Someone seriously examines if driving is more green than bicycling.

And last but not least: Here's a thoughtful piece about famed-author Michael Crichton, a "devout and honest skeptic," who passed away last week.

President Bush may have been willing to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant and that EPA must regulate it, but as the clock runs out on Bush's presidency, the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) signaled the end of the Bush era this morning and the beginning of a clean energy future.

The EPA has continued to issue clean-air permits to coal-fired power plants without requiring those plants to use the best available technology to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. One such plant is a project called the Bonanza Generating Station, a 110-MW waste-coal facility being proposed by Deseret Power Electric Cooperative. The Bonanza plant would have emitted 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups appealed this permit to the Environmental Appeals Board.

The EAB ruled today that the EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new coal-fired power plants. The decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions. This puts an effective hold on the final permitting of almost all new coal plants until the Obama administration decides on the best available control technology for CO2 emissions from coal plants.

"Today's decision opens the way for meaningful action to fight global warming and is a major step in bringing about a clean energy economy," said Joanne Spalding, the Sierra Club senior attorney who argued the case. "This is one more sign that we must begin repowering, refueling, and rebuilding America.

"The EAB rejected every Bush Administration excuse for failing to regulate the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States. This decision gives the Obama administration a clean slate to begin building our clean energy economy for the 21st century."

A group of high-publicity pranksters called The Yes Men printed 1.2 million copies of a phony New York Times, dated July 4, 2009. Among the top stories, the Iraq War ends! 

Here's another article they conjured up about nationalizing Big Oil to help fund climate-change solutions. Notice who's quoted in the story: Deputy Under Secretary of the E.P.A. Gavin Newsom, the current San Francisco mayor.

What's amazing, though, is how many other words on their runner-up list are eco-related, like frugalista, eco-hacking, rewilding, and (everybody's favorite word to hate) staycation.

*yes, I actually do own a full-sized hardcover OED, and I don't care what it did to my carbon footprint to have it logged, printed, and shipped to me.

Not hardly. There's still a lot of work to do before we reach that golden day. Sure, the economy is still priority #1, but let's not forget that the Bush administration shows no intention of marching gently into that good night. They're going out fighting, and they've got 75 days to do it. 

How can we stop them from weakening environmental protections in the time that's left?

And what about Detroit? It sounds like Obama wants to bail-out U.S. automakers responsibly, but the Bush administration needs to play ball. Read Tom Friedman's column from yesterday for a thoughtful screed on why giving Detroit a blank check is a terrible idea.

Ready? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Answer 10 quick questions to learn more about your cuisine and how to possibly greenify it. The quiz is the latest in an ongoing series of fun "How Green Is My..." exams.

Speaking of cuisine, check out the Crossroads' awesome food section with sustainable recipes from food experts and Crossroads members.

However, in the midst of this trivia, an occasional nugget offers insight into how our next President views the political arena he has just mastered so thoroughly. Here's a wonderful bit from Newsweek's "Secrets of the 2008 Campaign" quoting Obama on efforts by the debate moderators to keep things at a sixth-grade level:

Auto makers in Detroit want in on the bailout party. In October, GM's U.S. sales plunged 45 percent. And since the recent $750 billion bailout for the bank and loan industry set up a precedent for saving Wall Street, the U.S. auto industry – with its record of resisting better gas mileage standards and efficiency – now wants a slice of the pie.

So if billions in tax money is going to be handed over to GM and Ford, what should the American people demand of these corporate execs? They don't deserve a blank check.

It was right around the time the Baby Boomers began to arrive into the world that "convenience" became the order of the day in this country. Appliances, gadgets, modes of transport--anything that could save us time and effort--were accepted almost unconditionally as signs of progress and a higher quality of life.

This was nowhere more so than in the way we ate. TV dinners, pre-cooked frozen foods, and preservative-laden comestibles with long shelf lives were all the rage in supermarkets and kitchens from coast to coast. At the same time, we began eating out more, and the emergence of fast food outlets, which quickly proliferated across the American landscape, utterly transformed our notion of "dining out."

How ironic that the quality of the food we consumed took a nose dive at the very time our quality of life was arguably at its apex, and that Americans' lousy eating habits led to an epidemic of obesity and myriad diet-related health problems.

But even as McDonald's empire was expanding in the 1960s, argues food writer Mark Bittman, the seeds of a counter-revolution in our food consciousness were being sown. And that consciousness, now making itself manifest in phenomena like the Slow Food movement, has made Bittman hopeful that health and sustainability are starting to replace convenience as the paramount objective in our eating habits. Read Bittman's recent New York Times article, Why Take Food Seriously?.

Barack Obama's historic victory last night is such a huge achievement, pundits and experts are still trying to sort through the implications. In terms of climate change, it's a breakthrough. Obama will probably reverse the lame-duck administration's record of inactivity and apathy.

This got me thinking: what if the president-elect stumbled on this site one day? If he became a Climate Crossroads member, he'd probably join the 2% Solution, judging by his commitment to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

He'd probably read the article “How to Green Your Home” for tips on planning his new abode on Pennsylvania Avenue. He'd probably check out the food section and forward the link to the White House chef. And he'd probably surf through the energy independence section.

It's unclear whether the new president will ever come across Climate Crossroads, but what is clear is that Obama's theme of “change” will take the country on a new path toward taking the climate crisis seriously.