Your Daily Greens – Sea Turtle Threat, No Impact Movie, and Google’s EcoRank

Photo: Juvenile sea turtle found inside a cooler in a Miami man’s truck.

Daily happenings around the GreenSphere (People, Companies & Communities):

Sea Turtle Threat: Sea Turtles, who lay their eggs every year on Miami Beach, continue to be threatened by beach-goers. Egg poachers and vandals have also destroyed a number of nests in recent years along the shoreline. In addition, dozens of mature turtles are killed every breeding season by boat propellers or people hoping to make a profit from the illegal sale of turtle meat. With threats at every turn, it’s no wonder advocates have been pressing the local authorities for help.

No Impact Movie: No Impact Man, a documentary about a Manhattan-based family that abandon their high consumption 5th Avenue lifestyle, had it’s theatrical release today. The story follows Colin Beavan who vows to spend a year working towards creating zero waste and misspending no energy. He tries his utmost to reduce, reuse, and recycle and live as simply as possible. So far, the film has garnered high praise on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pushing the Daisies: Green funerals are starting to become more popular as many Canadians choose to make their funeral arrangements more eco-friendly – from using recycled paper announcements to being buried in a green casket made without harmful materials. Now, natural burial grounds are popping up for those looking for an environmentally-conscious end. For some time, advocates have argued that manicured lawns and concrete grave liners are far from green and are unnecessary. Natural or green burials are now seen as the cleanest and most eco-friendly option.

Google’s EcoRank: According to ecologists, Google’s “PageRank” algorithm can be useful in the real world as well as the virtual. PageRank, with a few adaptations, can determine which species are absolutely critical for sustaining ecosystems and which are not. The number of complex combinations of relationships in even a simple ecosystem is astronomical – having to track billions of webpages may mean google is up to the challenge. Too bad a single algorithm isn’t all that’s needed to save not only critical species from extinction but all of earth’s intriguing fauna.

Tagged as: Environment, Google, Lifestyle, Ocean, Science, Sustainable