If you’ve read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, or looked into the detail of “No Child Left Inside” legislation and initiatives,you know that broad health issues (obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and even depression), and concern over environmental awareness, tend to drive the idea of getting kids outdoors more. For a number of programs around the country, though, the stakes are even higher: environmental education is becoming an integral part of working with kids at risk of falling into lives of crime, addiction, and poverty (which make the above-mentioned health issues a bigger likelihood).

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Earth Angel Hand-Powered Vibe featured in Time’s eco sex piece

Damn it! Why, or why, didn’t we get off our asses and pitch Time the “Sex and the Eco City” piece in this week’s issue? It’s all stuff we’ve covered before! [Shameless self-promotion alert:] Vegan condoms? Check. Hand-powered vibrators? Check. JimmyJane products? Check. Phthalates? Check? Safer material options? Check. In fact, we covered it all in our 2006 book Sex Toy: An A-Z Guide  to Bedside Accessories — but that was back when sex toys were still “dirty.” Oh well. Maybe there’s still time to pitch the New York Times.

MORE FROM EM & LO:

• Do We Need Male Reproductive Rights?
• Do Men Fake Orgasms?
• Can You Keep an Ex from Posting Your Nudie Pics?

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today joined New Mexico’s congressional delegation to advance a vital water supply project that will provide clean, safe and reliable water to a quarter of a million people in the Navajo Nation, the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the city of Gallup, New Mexico.

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This week marks an historic turning point for people who love the wild canyon country and sweeping mesas of Southern Utah. For the first time, the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest and Public Lands will consider a bill designed to protect millions of acres of spectacular Utah lands as wilderness.

All of these lands—some of the last great places on earth—are owned by the public, but most of them remain vulnerable to industrial development. America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act would protect them from oil and gas development, uranium mining, and off-road vehicle use. Meanwhile, hunters, anglers, hikers, and families could continue to enjoy them, including the renowned Cedar Mesa, San Rafael Swell, and the Book Cliffs.

This is our chance to be present at the creation. If we pass the Red Rock Wilderness Act, we can tell our grandchildren we helped birth the latest Yellowstone. We can say we preserved treasures equal to Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks. We can add to the wilderness inheritance of future generations, and they will thank us for it.

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Lake Nakuru National Park in central Kenya, internationally known for its concentration of bright pink flamingos, has been designated as an international bird sanctuary.

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As I walked south on Sixth Avenue this morning, like any thinking person, I declined two different people’s attempts to give me a free copy of the New York Post. Not really my kind of paper.

It wasn’t until I got comfortable at my desk and read the day’s news, online natch, that I realized that wasn’t really the Post they were giving out. I should have known by the hippie clothes of the paper holders. Methinks Posts workers wouldn’t wear vintage plaid bell bottoms.

The Yes Men, the collective that produced the paper, have done this before. Last November they printed and distributed a fake New York Times. While the fake Times was about Iraq, this fake Post is all about the environment.  You can check it out online here.

As commentators, politicians, and friends mourn the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, much of the discussion has focused on the issue that the Senator himself described as “the cause of my life”: health care reform. A tweet from fellow green blogger Chris Baskind reminded me that Kennedy also had a strong record on environmental issues. Just a few of his accomplishments on this front:

• Targeting the “oil depletion allowance”: according to a list of accomplishments available on his Senate website, in 1975, Kennedy was responsible for trimming a rather generous tax deduction for oil producers.
  
  
• Co-sponsoring fuel efficiency standards: Kennedy co-sponsored the original legislation establishing CAFE standards, and also supported the ‘07 increase in those standards.
  
  
• Supporting mass transit: Kennedy fought to keep Amtrak funded, and to also raise “the monthly amount of the employer-based federal mass transit tax benefit from $105 to $200,” putting it on par with a federal parking tax benefit.
  
  

Of course, Kennedy also raised the ire of many environmentalists in a least one case: he was adamantly opposed to the Cape Wind project off of Nantucket Sound.

Maybe it wasn’t “the cause of his lifetime,” but Senator Kennedy clearly had an impact on environmental policy and legislation during his storied tenure in the Senate. Other issues will likely receive more attention in the next few days, but it’s worth considering — and perhaps even debating — Kennedy’s environmental legacy.

So, what do you think? Will Kennedy be remembered as a champion of environmental protection and conservation? Should he be? Share your thoughts…

Image credit: Kennedy’s official photo via Wikimedia Commons

photo by Tony the Misfit

Urban Outfitters aren’t the only ones trying to make bicycles sexier. A brothel in Berlin, Germany, where prostitution is legal, is now offering discounts to customers who arrive by bike or a verifiable form of public transportation: 5 euros off a 70-euro 45-minute sesh.

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HOME is a travel notebook, showing landscapes captured from a bird’s eye view above. This film calls for a new awareness, inviting the viewer to stop for a moment in order to look at our planet and realize how we treat her treasures and her beauty.

Directed by internationally renowned French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, produced by world famous director Luc Besson and narrated by five-time Academy Award® nominee Glenn Close, HOME aims to change the way people see the planet and their impact on it. Shot in high definition in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, the unique and first-time ever all-aerial filming style highlights the Earth’s wonders as well as its wounds and provides a necessary perspective to approach the changing environment.

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This graphic visualization posted by the Daily Dish depicts the amount of street space taken up by different modes of transportation–bicycle, car, and bus–per person. As this demonstrates, cars are not only a crime against the environment but one could argue, also against the availability of the urban public space, which is so crucial to the vibrancy of cities.

[photo credit and link to entire post on the Daily Dish]

Some of these buildings exist only on paper (or rather a computer hard drive), but this is a list of 10 large office buildings “that are not only bold, beautiful and futuristic, but ‘green’ too.”

I’m especially impressed by the “Cactus Building,” a new government building in Doha, Qatar. As the name suggests, it “draws its inspiration from the ability of cacti thriving in a desert. The energy efficient structure features sunshade panels that open and close according to the sun’s intensity, as well as a botanic dome adding to its green rating.”

[Via]