Environmental Graffiti

Welcome to this week’s installment of Knox’s Wireless Green, a rundown of all the week’s most interesting, weird, and popular stories from the worlds of science and the environment.

So far, I’ve managed to keep from tooting our own horn, so to speak, in this column. We’ve

It’s official. Greenwashing has become the hot trend in marketing.

If this doesn’t say “green” I don’t know what does. Image by Ben Schumin

Greenwashing, or making misleading claims about a product’s environmental credentials, has become a commonplace commercial and environmental issue. More and more people are speaking with their wallets when

Bob McNichol, blind since a 2005 explosion in an aluminum recycling center, believed he would be blind the rest of his life after Irish doctors told him they were out of options.

Image by Sugar Pond

It was then, however, that he heard about the procedure being performed by Dr. Christopher Liu in Brighton– Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP). If memory of Latin class serves, that’s medspeak for “putting teeth into your head as fake eyes.”

It’s a new take on the age-old question that takes the form, “If you could do something without getting caught, would you?”

A retreating ice shelf in Greenland. Photo by John Rudolph

Usually, the ’something’ involves having an affair, stealing a large amount of money, or even killing someone generally regarded as evil. The responses typically fall into one

Sea Turtle Inc., a non-profit turtle hospital in South Padre Island, Texas, hopes to fit one of its residents with what it believes is the world’s first prosthetic flipper.

Adult Green Sea Turtles can reach up to 450 pounds and live for 100 years.

Allison is a three-year-old Atlantic Green sea turtle. When Allison arrived at the hospital two years ago, she was bloody and missing three of her four fins, likely from a shark attack.

Eaton, maker of the hybrid electric drivetrain for large commercial vehicles, announced today that they had received an order from Coca-Cola for 120 trucks, a serious move by the beverage giant towards having a green fleet.

Coke had previously field tested 20 of the vehicles and found that in addition to being more emissions-friendly, the vehicles were consuming nearly 40 percent less fuel.

For those of you who remember hearing about how the drought affecting the Southeast United States was bad for marijuana production last summer– or maybe you just, ahem, noticed– there’s been some fine developments for our very mellowed-out friends.

Many Phish fans are alleged to have smoked marijuana. Original image here.

Last summer’s drought, which will still take a period of years to overcome, happened to hit hardest 6 of the 10 most prolific producers of marijuana.

Today we celebrate the Leap Year, the extra day at the end of February that comes around once every four years.

For some people the leap year has a special significance. This year, for instance, there have been initiatives to encourage people to put that extra day to use helping the planet.

While Iraq is by far the biggest issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, the candidate’s environmental stances are more important this year than in any election preceding it.

Theodore Roosevelt

We sincerely hope that our next president, whoever he or she may be, is committed to helping improve the planet’s environment. While they might not have had any great examples to follow the past few years, there are several U.S. presidents that did a lot for the environment. Here’s a list of 5 eco-friendly presidents in chronological order.

Genetically modified plants are extremely unpopular in certain circles.

Peanut plants dying during a drought. Image from APS

There are a variety of reasons for this, from fear of potential negative health effects to anger at the Monsanto corporation’s business policies with the patented seeds. But there are other groups who fully support GMO crops and research, citing the