Nerd Stalker

Nerd Stalker interview with co-founder Hans Chung of Mokugift at a recent Failcon conference in San Francisco. The Mokugift mission is to foster environmental solidarity by making it easy and rewarding for anyone to fight climate change and by providing the tools to inspire others to do the same. Mokugift makes it possible for concerned citizens, even those lacking access to planting space, to plant real trees for $1 apiece, either for themselves or as gifts to others. Gifting a mokugift tree is similar to sending an e-card, and recipients can display their trees online at Facebook, MySpace, MyYahoo, iGoogle and other popular Web sites. Award-winning nonprofit organizations specializing in agroforestry project—which restore depleted lands and boost the agricultural productivity and incomes of indigenous peoples in some of the poorest parts of the world—plant the actual trees purchased via mokugift.

Today I went to the last day of the Green Festival here in San Francisco. As we walked up to the concourse we were bombarded by everyone wanting us to sign petitions galore. There were the token hacky sackers, plenty of dreadlocks and petuli. Fortunately there were also those of us who were simply interested in what we can do in our small way to make this a better place (minus the hippy uniform). The line to get in was really long, it looked very crowded and we had a stroller. We thought of just leaving then decided to brave it, it helped when a nice lady who was leaving gave us her pass (love it when that happens). We get in check in the stroller in an area that was overflowing with stuff then we were off through the maze of organic/hemp clothing, bedding, social investing, solar gear, recycled bags, supplements, food/drink of all kinds, activist groups, magazines, eco educational masters programs and so much more. My favorite group/biz of the day was an Amazon.com alternative called...

Went to the dwell conference this past weekend, it was pretty inspirational. Maybe by some miracle I'll be able to find some land in San Francisco where I can drop a weeHouse on. The theme of the whole conference was still all things green, especially when it comes to building. I'll have more on this conference soon.

Why everyone doesn't have one of these boggles my mind.

Video: Reel Mowers Cut Down Pollution

Larry Magid of the New York Times thought he was good about energy conservation until he took a Kill-a-watt meter to his home electronics, and was shocked. His PC drew 134 watts all night long, his DVD player 26 watts, and his stereo system 47 watts, all on idle or sleep mode. He notes that the Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants, the government says. His recommendations ...

Like I said I dig Method , works good and doesnt kill me how cool is that?

San Francisco is on a roll. In April, the city banned plastic shopping bags, banned bottled water in some restaurants, and banned Styrofoam takeout containers. In another progressive step, plans are now under way to turn the copious amounts of waste vegetable oil produced by the city's 2600 restaurants into biodiesel. The goal: offsetting 20% of the diesel fuel used by city buses .

Don't you hate it when you order takeout and besides all the containers, there are stacks of servietttes and half a dozen knives and forks that you don't need? The Eco-Agents in New York City did. This group's main preoccupation is saving the Amazon Rainforest, but are also "involved in personal and group discussions about creating responsible environmental consciousness towards nature in particular when it comes to plastic and paper waste." They have started a campaign called eco-to-go, where customers inform the takeout joint that they want nothing but the food in its containers, no napkins or forks or other waste. I've noticed that certain takeout chains get this already, asking if customers need condiments or cutlery. Congratulations to Eco-Agents for trying to make this more common. I suggest that they might go the next step of suggesting that people bring in their own containers to avoid wasting cardboard or polystyrene, (like they do at Bring Your Own.O...

We got out of our cage for a bit to enjoy our hood, little did we know how cold and windy it was but that was not about to stop the 3 of us. Our hood is made up of lots of really great design companies and we happened to stumble upon 2 really great new furniture shops. Cisco Home has an amazing new show room, you would never guess that this innocuous 16th street business would house such a great space. The front of the show room is made up of a nice selection of contemporary pieces where the rear is composed of more traditional wood type stuff. Robert (Sales Associate) tells me they are having a floor sample sale this weekend, so check them out. Right upstairs from Cisco Home is the uber green eco terric store, as their name implies the furniture, flooring, home supplies, and clothing are made up of fair trade environmentally friendly items. They seem very hard core into what they do which is refreshing, there is not alot of color and items are on the pricier side but then again you...