Scuppie you ask? You have heard of Yuppie, and maybe you have been called one. You also might have been called a hippie or eco-freak, but have you ever been called a scuppie?

Well, if not, than you haven’t heard of a financial planner named Chuck Failla. It seems Mr. Failla has coined the term Scuppie (Socially Conscious Upwardly-mobile Person) to describe the new breed of mainstream eco-friendly and environmentally conscious people.

Chuck Failla describes a Scuppie as a sort of anti-yuppie. Essentially, they are in the same life-space, but the Scuppie is more responsible and compassionate. Failla already has a book planned, a website designed, and master plans to adjust the nation’s vernacular.

What do you think? Are you a Scuppie?

If I had to design the best earth-friendly structure ever, it would have to generate its own power, produce no emissions, be made of recycled products, and help clean the environment. If I did that then I would have built this structure.

In Madrid Spain, this structure is both a green-house and power plant. It is made with pure recycled materials. That’s right, this building is going to house CO2 cleansing, oxygen producing plants, and it will generate electricity.

The electricity generating part comes in the form of solar cells that will line the structure. Once built, it should produce enough power to sell back into the grid. Not a bad plan if you ask me.

NewScientist is reporting on a disturbing body of research that demonstrates that Phthalates, the chemical that helps plastics be pliable, may be worse than originally thought.

Phthalates have been rumored to cause cancers. Unfortunately, these chemicals are found in paints, cosmetics, bottles, and even toys. The research demonstrates that these chemicals may block the testosterone production in babies during gestation. This causes a child, regardless of sex, to have increased natural testosterone levels.

In plain talk, male babies are being born with sex-related complications including undescended testicles, and testicular cancer. They are also being related to a continuing shrinking of umm… boy parts. What will this mean in 20 years, 30 years? Has anybody seen Children of Men?

How many CDs do you own? What about DVDs? Here is another way of looking at my question. How many CDs and DVDs and their plastic jewel cases have you thrown away? When I think about it, my numbers are probably in the hundreds if not thousands.

CDs and DVDs are made plastic, polycarbonate, and other nasty, non-bodegradeble materials, and they we are simply trashing them. To the best of my knowledge, there is no recycling program for these materials.

On the other side of the coin there are services like iTunes and the Amazon music download store. They are saving a ton of of CDs, DVDs and their cases from our landfills every day. Here is a quote regarding Apple’s environmental impact

Sooner or later, all Music CD’s and the Jewel Cases they are packaged in will end up in a landfill somewhere. CD’s are mostly manufactured from Aluminum and Polycarbonate along with Lacquer, Dyes, and other materials such as water, glass, and nickel. Most of these materials must also be processed before manufacturers can use them to make CD’s. As an example, to make plastic, crude oil from the ground is combined with natural gas and chemicals in a processing plant. In addition to manufacturing, there are transportation costs (shipping CD’s in trucks to the store) as well as packaging costs (the jewel cases, shrink wrap, etc.) to consider as well.

By buying your music from the Apple Store, you are helping to prevent a stack of CD’s 2.6 miles high from having to be manufactured PER DAY.

I had no idea.

Have you heard of Energy Saving Day? Well, apparently neither did the British. The Brits were supposed to dedicate Wednesday, February 27, to being green. They were going to turn off all all electrical appliances when not in use.

How did they do? Energy use declined substantially increased by a little more than 1%. The failing eco-experiment was blamed on lack of support and a colder than usual temperatures. But, is it fair to blame those things? Or is something more human involved?

I blame apathy. Look at the US. The only folks I know that are truly making a difference for the enviornment are enjoying tax-cuts. People are hard pressed to make a difference unless they are bribed. Now, I know I sound a bit cynical, and I am begging the world to change my opinion. For now however, I am not shocked by the spectacular craptastic result of the British Energy Saving Day.

I am not trying to be morbid here, but there are some certainties in the universe and death is one of them. If you think about it, death is one metaphor for how humans have completely neglected and warped the concept of earth stewardship. When people or things die, it used to be a simple matter of Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. In modern times however, it is more of a Ashes to Stainless Steel, Never to Rust.

If this grim turn of events has you concerned, then the Somerset Willow Company has a product for you. Their Willow Casket is made to withstand for days and days (instead of decades) and is guaranteed to decompose with you. This will ensure that you are not adding to a giant necropolistic landfill.

Personally, short of cremation, this seems like one of the better ways go (as in die) green.

I don’t know if you ski or not, but if you do, than this might be important to you. A company in Colorado named Purl Wax has introduced an earth-friendly, 100% biodegradable, and effective ski and snowboard performance wax.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, when you ski or snowboard, you must apply wax to the bottom of your board to help reduce friction on the snow. You see, most of these performance waxes are made with non-renewable petroleum-based perfluorocarbons. These nasty chemicals produce greenhouse gasses that are more harmful the environment than carbon dioxide.

Purl’s Bio-ester wax is vegetable based. We grow those, so their product is completely renewable. It also doesn’t break down into perfluorooctanoic acid, which is a known carcinogenic.

I only get the paper delivered two days a week, and I recycle it when I am done with it. Every week however, I end up with 2 plastic bags that will sit in landfills for hundreds of years. That is 104 bags a year, and in my neighborhood, that is probably thousands of bags a year. That is a tremendous amount of waste.

That situation is about to get a bit better. GP plastics, the major manufacturer of polyethylene bags for the newspaper industry, has created PolyGreen, a biodegradable bag product. PolyGreen bags will decompose in a landfill in just 3 years (as apposed to an estimated 1000 for normal poly bags). In the wild, the bags will decompose in just a few months.

I understand the need of the bags - I do. They keep my paper dry on cold, snowy mornings. What I don’t understand is why this product hasn’t been done before now. I can only imagine how many billions of poly-bags are filling landfills. With luck, PolyGreen might be generalized and used in more packaging in the near future.

Don’t get me wrong. Even though this post is going to demonstrate a catastrophic failure of an alternative energy source, I am presenting to show you the benefits of wind energy. Think about it, while this video is very dramatic, the destruction is not nearly what it would be if a nuclear or coal plant having a catastrophic failure. Which would you prefer in your neighborhood?

Here is the story. On wind generators, there is a safety device that slows or even stops the blade of the turbines if the wind speed is to high. Obviously, in this generator, that device has failed. The video is very dramatic. It demonstrates just how much potential and kinetic energy is built into the power of wind.

Like I said before, even though this is dramatic, it is relatively controlled and the fallout is minimal. Compare this to to the aftermath of Chernobyl.:

Enough said…

I use a solar charger for my iPhone. If I am going to have a gadget, then I want to minimize the environmental impact as much as possible. I have looked often at Voltaic Charging Bags to charge my laptop and a few other gadgets. The Voltaic bags can generate more electricity through their solar panels, and they are a great fit for my 13 inch Macbook.

Voltaic’s latest announcement might be enough for me to finally move on this purchase. Voltaic solar charging bags are now made with 100% post-consumer recycled PET (recycled bottles and bags) plastic based fabrics. That’s right, not only are the bags saving energy in gobs, but they represent reused and recycled materials.

The Voltaic bags can be a bit pricey. They range from $200 - $600, but in just a year or two, they will probably pay for themselves. But, if you are willing to use Voltaic bags, you probably are interested in more than just the financial situation.