• 8 Gifts That Reduce Waste – Examiner. Okay, so if you haven’t bought all your presents, you’re a serious procrastinator, but here are a few good ideas.
• DIY Green Wrapping – Green Phone Booth. I love wrapping presents in reusable bags. Two gifts in one!
• Vegetarian Holiday Recipes – Green Phone Booth. Has anyone tried these? They look good.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared, so there’s a lot. Do you do want the good news or the bad news first?

The good news:

• Empire State Building Achieves LEED Gold Certification – Inhabit. It’s the tallest building in the U.S. to get LEED certification.
• EPA Issues Rule Limiting Arsenic, Mercury Emissions from Power Plants – NPR. About half of the coal- and oil-fired power plants still lack modern pollution controls. Now they have three years to clean up their act.
• Elevation of the Chimp May Reshape Research – New York Times. The government is halting all new grants for research on chimps.
• EPA Report Cracks Down on Hydraulic Fracking – Energy 2.0. The EPA specifically links fracking with groundwater contamination.
• Could Having Better Labels Help out the Environment? – Slate. More argument for social norms advertising.
• Naked People Need Building Science – Energy Vanguard. Okay, so this is less good news and more funny. But it makes a good point!

The bad news:

• The Scariest Energy Graph You’ll See Today – Green Bang. Warning: the the US Energy Information Administration’s International Energy Outlook 2011 is pretty depressing.
• Canada Holds Hearing on Suspected Virus in Salmon – New York Times. Infectious salmon anemia has spread from farmed fish to wild.
• As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks – New York Times. Permafrost could contain twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere.
• Plastic Bags – XKCD. I love XKCD.

• Energy Circle’s 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts of Efficiency – Energy Circle. I love that spray foam and caulk are at the top of this list.
• A gift guide to bike stuff that people actually want  - Grist. I vote for Smart Wool socks.
• Hubway to branch out next spring – Boston Globe. 20 stations in Cambridge starting in March!
• Winter Farmers’ Markets – Boston Globe. The winter farmers market at the Pru is definitely not getting the love it deserves right now.
• Organic Can Feed the World – The Atlantic. ”A 2010 United Nations study (PDF) concluded that organic and other sustainable farming methods that come under the umbrella of what the study’s authors called ‘agroecology’ would be necessary to feed the future world.”
• Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded – New York Times. ”The increase, a half-billion extra tons of carbon pumped into the air, was almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution.”
• What’s the #1 Air-Pollution Source in Montreal During Winter? Old Wood Stoves and Fireplaces – Treehugger. Old wood stoves are not only inefficient, but release tons of particulate matter into the air.
• Sustainability: 4 Principles for Behavior Change – Practically Green. I love these! Berklee’s Counseling and Advising Center did an anti–drugs and alcohol social norms campaign that was just great.

• Win a Free $600 Value Energy Audit from Sierra Club Green Home – Inhabit. Enter before October 31.
• A Chimney Balloon will Keep Your House Warm, Save You Money – Energy Circle. Fireplaces suck for energy efficiency, but chimney balloons can help.
• Weatherize Baby Weatherize – Complete Home Evaluations. DeWitt has now done energy audits for 250 homes in Maine.
• Meal Planning in the Digital Age – Half-Assed Housewife. I used to be great at meal planning; now I’m trying to relearn it. I hope these websites will help.
• Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup – Not Eating Out in New York. It’s that time of year…
• How To Speed Up Your Website And Be More Eco Friendly – Eco Living Advice. I doubt these tips actually save much energy, but they’re common sense that I need to keep in mind.
• 6 Ways To Drink Wine Smarter – Huffington Post. My friend Lesley really recommends Yellow + Blue.
• 5 Easy Car Repairs Anyone Can Do (Even You) – Cheap Like Me. I’ve never done an oil change myself, but I’ve watched my sister do it many times.
• Go Slow To Go Fast – Slate. Reducing speed limits not only saves gas, but can also reduce traffic jams.
• EPA Launches “Greener Products” Portal – Energy 2.0. A new online guide for EPA eco-labeling  programs.

• Meat-free dining in the Boston area – Boston Globe. There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants in the Boston area now. Not mentioned here: My Thai Cafe in Chinatown (formerly Budda’s Delight).
• Guitar Antihero 1: How Gibson Guitars made illegal logging a conservative cause célèbre  - Slate. How is this guy a Tea Party hero? Crazy. I hope musicians are boycotting.
• Making Change Happen, on a Deadline – New York Times. The Rapid Results strategy strives to make a difference in just 100 days.
• Legal Sea Foods … Lousy Ads – Boston Magazine. An ad takes a swipe at groups who want to protect at-risk fish. In response, let’s all get the Monterey Bay Aquarium guide and avoid Legal Sea Foods’ salmon. (Thanks, Lesley!)
• Renewables and efficiency in our energy future – Boston Globe. An interview with Daniel Yergin from  Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
  
• A new toolbox for urban analysis – Boston Globe. New software helps urban planners visualize cities’ characteristics.
• New biomass rules demand cleaner, more efficient plants – Boston Globe. To get subsidies, plants have to reach 40–60% efficiency (from the barely 25% they’re at now).
• The Shirt From Hell – Slate. No-iron shirts contain formaldehyde. Ew!

• In Japan, the Summer of Setsuden – New York Times. So if threatened by blackouts, Americans would save energy, too?
• Robots Extract Coolant From Old Refrigerators – New York Times. I worried that the transportation of these refrigerators outweighed the benefits of recycling them, but “the refrigerator has an equivalent of approximately five tons of carbon dioxide . . . for comparison, that is like driving over 10,000 miles in an average car.”
• The Not-So-Green Mountains – New York Times. I get this guy’s position, but it’s such NIMBYism. Mountains are being leveled for coal mining every day, but roads are too much for your mountain.
• MBTA to test Chrysler’s hybrid pickups – Boston Globe. Not just hybrid pickups, but plug-in hybrid pickups. Cool.

• Review: My Experiences With the Plug-in Prius – Green Lifestyle Consulting. I want one!
• What is a Wind Turbine and How Does it Work? – The Good Human. Very basic, but I need that basic. And the video tour inside the windmill is great.
• Why You Should NEVER Use Non-Dimmable CFLs with Dimmer Switches – Energy Circle. Dimmable CFLs are more expensive, but they’re worth it.
• Starbucks tackles recycling – Boston Globe. I admit that I have thrown out perfectly good cups because I thought I had to rinse them out to recycle them.
• Path mired in Green Line delay – Boston Globe. I’m really looking forward to the Community Path being completed—unfortunately it’s years away.
• Study finds steep drop in state’s native birds – Boston Globe. Yet species of Southern birds are increasing.
• A War Against Food Waste – New York Times. The Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute are trying to reduce the more than 30 million tons of food thrown out each year.
• Minimalist Meals: Fantastic Food in Ten Minutes or Less – Get Rich Slowly. I’ve probably posted this list of Bittman’s before, but I need a refresher.

• Google Details, and Defends, Its Use of Electricity – New York Times. Now that so many things are moving to the “cloud,” it’s more important than ever for us to understand that it’s not free.
• Kendall CoGen Plant – Boston Green Blog. Ever passed by those smoke stacks in Kendall Square and wondered what they were?
• The GRS Garden Project: August 2011 Update – Get Rich Slowly. J.D. does a cost-benefit analysis of his garden. It’s definitely gotten better as time has gone on.
• Working – xkcd. Efficiency and xkcd: two of my favorite things.

• Water chestnut removal from Mystic River to commence – Somerville Journal. There are quite a lot of water chestnuts in the Charles River, too, and they’re sharp little buggers.
• Hubway Discounts! – Boston Biker. The bike sharing program is offering a reduced yearly fee and a free helmet for low-income Boston residents.
• Boston GreenFest 2011: Green Gone Bad – Boston Green Scene. I didn’t make it to GreenFest this year, but I’ve been disappointed by it in the past. The Boston Local Food Festival is much better.
• Can Jeremy Grantham Profit From Ecological Mayhem? – New York Times. This is some seriously long-term investment strategy. I think I have a crush on Jeremy Grantham.
• Will new insurance coverage make the intrauterine device America’s favorite contraceptive? – Slate. Great news: by 2013, insurance companies will have to provide IUDs (and other contraceptives) without a copay.
• Fresh and Direct From the Garden an Ocean Away – New York Times. This is why I’m always a little confused by a knee-jerk reaction against nonnative species: tomatoes aren’t native to Italy, and potatoes aren’t native to Ireland.
• Is taking notes on a notepad or an iPad more environmentally responsible? – Slate. Hint: it’s not the iPad.