Earth Blog

Starting on Wednesday you can bid on surplus and scrap metals from the "boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona where decommissioned United States military aircraft sit in the hot dessert sun waiting to be stripped down to their base materials.

Right now the yard at Tucson's base is the only location where extra government planes  -over 4,200 to be exact- live. Some of the planes are operational or historic but the yard also acts as the military’s own giant pick-a-part for aircraft. Once a plane is no longer useful to the military it will be sold for scrap.

This week in bag ban news the idyllic hamlet of Ojai is on course to become the first city in Ventura County to ban single use plastic bags.

The Ventura County Star reported that the Ojai City Council passed the ordinance but it will still require council’s approval later this month to be officially deemed a law.

What better toppings are there for a heaping stack of waffles or pancakes than butter and maple syrup? Restaurants and grocery stores may try and tempt you with fresh fruit or other flavored syrups but maple syrup is the king of breakfast condiments. Even if you have given it up for healthier alternatives nothing can beat it -except for maybe the Asian longhorned beetle.

Valentine’s Day was a shopping holiday we covered on the blog and we urged shoppers to buy local and ethical, if possible, when hunting for last minute gifts. Ethical consumerism and the effectiveness of “voting with your money” is being debated and discussed over at treehugger.com and at least one other green blog.

The debate started when Sami Grover posted: ““Why Corporate Fat Cats Love Ethical Consumerism.” He set out to explore the concept of: "Every time you spend a dollar, you are casting a vote."  The widely-accepted idea is this: If you don’t agree with the way a company does business simply stop shopping there and they will change or go out of business as they see their revenues drop. But is that wishful thinking? Grover argues that real change occurs at the political and cultural level. He cautions that ethical consumerism could erode the political activism he believes to be more effective at getting at the core problem. Is he right or wrong or somewhere in between?