Recommended book on Kickstarter - Passion for Place: Community Reflections on the Carmel River Watershed

Kickstarter is a great place to fund interesting new products and projects, including books. Great books. So we decided we want to help spread the word on book projects we like on Kickstarter and every weekend we'll share one with you.

The first one is Passion for Place: Community Reflections on the Carmel River Watershed, a book and CD project for and by the community and serves as a prototype for people in other communities.

This project is about creativity and the possibility of cultural change, understanding what ecological integrity means, and knowing that we are a part of that integrity.

The current status of the project is as followed:

Goal: $4,000

Pledged so far: $2,920 (28 backers)

Still missing: $1,080

Days left: 28 days (until Feb 25)

Here's a description of the project:
Wherever we live, sharing stories of our connection to rivers and land connect us to each other and remind us of what is important in our lives. We are reminded of the beauty, wonder, and spirit of the natural world. Creativity, in its greatest depths of the human psyche and genetic coding, emerges from the wildness of the natural world. When we allow wildness, our own spirit, to flourish within, we can also respect and allow nature’s spirit, the wild outside, to exist.

The stories, poems, and essays in the book are organized from the headwaters and source of the Carmel River, through the valley, and out to the lagoon and ocean. In addition, a CD of natural sounds combined with excerpts from interviews of eight community members will complete the anthology, taking the reader on a virtual experience of the Carmel River Watershed.

The Foreword is written by Freeman House, author of Totem Salmon: Life Lessons from Another Species. Internationally recognized authors Terry Tempest Williams and Peter Forbes have granted use of quotes for the book. Dr. Barbara Mossberg has written the Introduction that will appear on the cover front flap.

Copies of Passion for Place will be given to local libraries, schools and public officials as well as to the writers and interviewees. I will do talks about the watershed and my paintings, read stories on my own and with other contributors to the book, have live music with readings, hold readings along the trails and river among other avenues of sharing.

Given Carmel Valley is a destination location, known around the country and world, this book will be a useful, informative, beautiful resource and anthology for people to get to know the community and land from various perspectives.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Top 100 green apps - Whirleo

We are creating a list of the top 100 apps that will help you go green as part of our effort to promote a more sustainable lifestyle. Apps become an integral part of our life and a valuable tool and we believe we should also take advantage of them when it comes go greening up our life.

Every Friday we update you with a new app on the list, and today we're happy to introduce an app that according to the Alternative Consumer is "an eco-themed app game that can help you connect with your kids while teaching them the importance of saving the planet and fighting pollution."

Our app is Whirleo from Smith & Tinker. This app is for iPhone and iPad and costs $0.99.

Here are more details about Whirleo App:
Take a spin with Whirleo to save the planet! Whirleo follows the journey of a group of spinning tops that whirl through planet Rotopolis. As they travel, each Whirleo cleans up pollutants released by the begrimed Guzzler. Now you can help Whirly and his friends clean-up their environment via your touch-based mobile gaming device.

Spin, tilt and jump with Whirleo as you travel across land, sky and water. Locate power-ups and use them to clean up Pollutos like Petros, Smokies, Nukies, Heaters and more. Discover hidden crystals and solve puzzles while earning Greeno to purchase special boosts and limited edition Whirleo.

Whirleo is a universal application supporting iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Please enable iCloud backup in settings to share purchases and points across your Apple mobile devices.

Presented by Smith & Tinker in conjunction with 1% for the Planet.

One good turn deserves another!

You can check top 100 green apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 green apps.

Last week's green app - Seafood Watch.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

What we can really learn from Booklr comparison between the top 100 Kindle and Nook lists

Booklr just released an interesting comparison between the prices of the top 100 sold ebooks on BN.com and Amazon. It's an interesting comparison, although it might have reached the wrong conclusion.

"With the Kindle Fire, Nook, and e-readers constantly in the news, Booklr took a look at the prices in the Amazon Top 100 Kindle List and the Barnes & Noble Top 100 Nook List over the past week. The results might surprise you. The price of ebooks from each retailer is not always uniform. Consumers should consider this important factor since once you choose a device, you’re locked in to that retailer."

As you can see from the comparison below, the average price of a book on the top 100 list on Amazon is $6.48, while the average price of an ebook on the top 100 list on BN.com is $8.94. As you can also see from the comparison below the main reason for the difference is that cheap ebooks, with a cost between $0-2, are 35 percent of the top list on Amazon.

What we can learn from this data?
1. Readers like cheap ebooks.
2. Amazon offers many cheap books.

What we can't learn from this data?
1. ebooks have different prices on Amazon and BN.com - it might be the case, but you can't learn it from this compassion.
2. Amazon is cheaper than B&N - to reach this conclusion, you need to compare apples to apples (the same books), not apples and oranges.























Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Levi's is implementing a new paper policy and cutting its ties with APP

Rainforest Action Network blog reported yesterday on another company that says goodbye to Asia Pulp and Paper. This time it's Levi's, following a new paper policy the company implemented.

"Levi Strauss & Company has become the latest major brand to ban business with Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). This comes on the heels of a major public cancellation with APP affiliate Mercury Paper at the end of December by Kroger, America’s largest grocery chain."

In an email I received from Robin Averbeck of RAN, who provided more details on this story:

In the fall of 2009, Levi’s received a letter from RAN asking it to cut any ties with notorious Indonesian rainforest destroyer Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its affiliates. This was one of a hundred letters in RAN’s campaign to convince global fashion companies to stop buying from APP and choose responsible alternatives like recycled paper instead.

The Levi’s team called us and immediately began working with us to create a comprehensive paper policy that maximized recycled fiber and barred paper suppliers connected to rainforest destruction, like Asia Pulp & Paper.

We are pleased to announce today that Levi Strauss & Co. has implemented its new paper policy in its operations around the globe. This makes Levi’s the latest company in an ever-growing list of major corporate customers to exclude Asia Pulp & Paper for its human rights abuses and blatant rainforest destruction, and to take a stand to protect forests and the rights of communities that depend on them.

Kudos to RAN for its ongoing commitment to stop unsustainable logging and to Levi's for implementing a paper policy and walk the talk!

My guess is that until APP will get itself truly committed to sustainable logging practices (not just to 18% cut in energy and water use until 2015), the number of companies that cut the ties with them will keep growing.

More articles on APP:

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) - good or bad? ITS is saying APP is good and actually Greenpeace is bad!

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) - good or bad? Rolf Skar of Greenpeace is replying to Ian Lifshitz

APP - good or bad? An interview with the sustainability manager of the world's most controversial paper company

Photo credit: Rainforest Action Network blog

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Top 100 green apps - GreenITers for the followers/members of GreenITers.com

We are creating a list of the top 100 apps that will help you go green as part of our effort to promote a more sustainable lifestyle. Apps become an integral part of our life and a valuable tool and we believe we should also take advantage of them when it comes go greening up our life.

Every Friday we update you with a new app on the list, and today we're happy to introduce an app for those of you who are looking for a way to learn and share green knowledge with other eco minded peers.

Our app is GreenITers from Fullcircle Innovations. This app is for android and it is free.

Here are more details about GreenITers App:

GreenITers.com is the fastest growing Asia CleanTech / eco-innovations community. GreenITers App delivering mobility capability to all of our GreenITers.com (+70,000 and counting) followers/members.

Like most online communities you must register to take part in, Signing up for GreenITers.com is FREE, and takes 30 secs at max and can be done after downloading this app. You can easily sign up by going to GreenITers.com and clicking on the Sign Up button or click on the sign up icon in the app.

GreenITers Community Introduction:

GreenITers provides an online green community, where everyone from top academics to the average person with an interest in preserving the planet through eco-friendly technology, can get together online and share ideas, new gadgets, scientific news and break-through.

As a member, people can join groups, existing groups cover topics such as solar power, wind energy, ocean wave power Electric Vehicles, Green IT, Green Building, biofuel, Nature Protection, Climate Change and Green Innovations. These are great areas to post images, video, discuss ideas and collaborate on projects.

Other features include news share, photo library, and blog. Whether members are interested in green motoring technology or solar powered gadget re-chargers, or even how to generate energy from trees, this is a great place to whet your appetite, and work with or read posts from other GreenITers`s members.

It is going to take a global team effort to have an impact on climate change, and GreenITers.com provides a place where global green like-minded individuals can come together and progress into real clean technology solutions to the world.

GreenITers.com are for people who want to "Green it!" the world we are living in via eco innovations & technology.

You can check top 100 green apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 green apps.

Last week's green app - Seafood Watch.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

How green is your iPad? Update 1: Apple introduces the iPad Textbooks

We talked earlier this week about how green is the iPad, and we have two interesting updates about it. Here's the first one - Apple announced earlier today on a new software aimed at revolutionizing the way teachers teach, students learn and publishers create educational content.

Apple said, according to Mashable, that the iBooks store’s new textbook category will eventually include “every subject, every grade level, for every student.”For now, however, Apple is starting with high school textbooks from partners McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Apple’s Phil Schiller said that 1.5 million iPads are already in use at schools, including more than 1,000 one-to-one development programs.

How will textbooks look on the iPad? Check this report from Engadget:



What's our take on this move? We think it definitely helps in making the iPad a greener device. Textbooks are very wasteful given the fact that they're updated very often, many times only with minor changes. Then more copies are been printed and students can't use used copies anymore and need to buy new ones. This system doesn't make any sense from an environmental and social perspectives and is far from being sustainable.

Now, on the iPad, they have not only more features and added value, but also an option to be updated without wasting paper or other resources. So kudos to Apple and hopefully other and cheaper tablets will provide similar options so students who can't afford paying $499 for the iPad would still be able to reduce their textbooks' footprint and read them on a tablet.

For more information on how green is the iPad visit our iPad webpage at http://www.ecolibris.net/ipad.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

How green is the iPad? Ask Mike Daisey

Although Mike Daisey describes himself as a lifelong Apple super fan, he'll probably say not so much, at least when it comes to the social impact of the iPad (as well as other Apple products). Why? Listen to the opening episode of the year of This American Life (see below) and receive the answer.

I also wrote about it today on Triple Pundit. Here's a paragraph from the article:

Mike Daisey describes himself as a lifelong Apple super fan. One day he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made and started wondering who makes his Apple gadgets. He decided to investigate and traveled to Shenzhen, where the main factory of Foxconn is located. Foxconn is the largest contract electronics manufacturer in the world with clients including Apple, HP and Microsoft. The manufacturer’s factories were also home to at least 12 workers suicides last year. Daisey wasn’t the first one to investigate what happens in Foxconn, yet his report is different and will probably trouble you more profoundly than written reports.

For more information on how green is the iPad visit our iPad webpage at http://www.ecolibris.net/ipad.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!