Green Drinks gets computer savvy this month with a focus on greening computer usage and IT. Rebecca Thorburn, a member of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, will be on hand to discuss the non-profit organization's dedication to promoting climate conservation through the widespread deployment of energy efficient hardware and power management software. ...

On Thursday night, the Austin Film Festival will make you wonder what you would do for a joy ride as they bring us Blood Car, one of the surprise hits of the 2007 fest. Based in the not-so-distant future, where gas prices are over $30 a gallon and everyone's new mode of transportation involves Rollerblades, vegan kindergarten teacher Archie discovers that the future of the combustion engine may not lie in fields of green, but in pools of blood....

While high-end luxury transportation may not always be associated with sustainability, a new limo service is rolling into town to change all that. Clean Air Limo is Austin's first eco-luxury private car service. Traditionally, most limousine companies in Central Texas use Lincoln Town Cars which could serve as one of the many contributing factors to why Texas leads the nation carbon emissions. Clean Air Limo uses only eco-friendly vehicles in their fleet. ...

Austin City Council proposed a resolution to reduce the use of plastic bags back in May, but Whole Foods is taking matters into their own hands and no longer offering plastic bags at check out. They are upping the ante from 5 cents to 10 cents for those who bring reusable bags, or customers can conveniently purchase the new 99 cent "better bag" made of 80% post-consumer waste....

Yesterday the EarthLab Foundation announced its annual list of the top 10 greenest cities in America. Austin ranked 9th in this year's list. The list is compiled by sampling the one million plus users of the website's carbon and lifestyle calculator that has been featured in Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The Eleventh Hour, at the 2007 Emmy Awards, and by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection....

Senator Barack Obama delivered a rousing speech to thousands of die-hard supporters this past Saturday at the Backyard, touching on just about every hot issue at the core of next year's election debates. Pledging to shut down Guantanamo, restore habeas corpus, and renew the hunt for Al Qaeda, Obama stressed the need for a stronger international agenda and quoted Kennedy's famous inaugural address—"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear......

Nearly 1 million people have been displaced by the California wildfires. Heckuva job: Former FEMA director Michael Brown is making himself available for interviews about the wildfires. Home sales went down 8% in September. Russia's "Chessboard killer" found guilty of 48 murders. Turkish planes attacked Kurdish positions in Turkey today, just outside the Iraq border. It may be more beneficial to the environment to be a carnivore who eats locally-made meat than to be......

Little did we know last Monday when Al Gore stopped off in Austin for his Inconvenient Truth presentation that today he would be announced the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. There were rumors that it might happen - as a way for the Nobel committee to make a firm statement about the correlation between the environment and world peace - but now it is official. Gore will share the prize this year with the......

This press release from Yellow Tape Construction Company crossed our desk today, and it not only sounds like too much fun, it also helps the environment! Good...and good for you. Who hates that? Have a box of gaudy Christmas decorations your spouse won't let you display? Stop letting it gather dust in the attic, and give it to Yellow Tape! We'll take your singing Santa dolls, blinking, animatronic reindeer—even that dollar-store garland from your first......

Here in Austin, we're all about the environment and stuff. Right? Damn right! So this year's AFF Green Cinema Showcase should go over especially well with all you envirothusiasts out there. This year's program will feature three films that explore topical environmental issues like global warming, industrial hemp production and renewable fuel sources. Oh hey--if you're interested in these films, you might also want to check out Gimme Green, a short documentary exploring America's obsession......

As Fantastic Fest kicks off tonight, Austinist will be bringing you previews of films playing at the festival. We begin today with Wendigo director Larry Fessenden's latest, The Last Winter. An interesting yet practical genre mash-up, the film is an eco-horror piece concerning the fate of an oil crew who are damaging the environment in rural Alaska. There's no serial killer here: the antagonist(?) is actually the planet, which begins to fight back when......

There will always be chatter about Austin's changing landscape, much as there will always be supporters for both developers and the environment. We want the privilege of taking a dip in a glistening spring-fed pool, but we also want to have a robust economy that allows us to continue working and living in this city. Some would argue that the two desires aren't mutually exclusive, but we all know that it's a sticky subject.......

The biggest trend in fashion (and everything else) this year seems to be going green. With all of the talk about global warming and environmental conservation, the fashion industry has started responding by using sustainable fabrics and organic dyes. Now, boutique owner Jyl Kusche from Therapy Clothing is jumping on the bio-diesel bandwagon. Eco With An Edge is Therapy’s new campaign. The shop is expanding with eco-friendly inventory, such as canvas shopping bags, recyclable gift......

Lady Bird (Claudia Alta Taylor) Johnson was the oldest living former First Lady before her death this afternoon in Austin. The widow of LBJ will be fondly remembered for her love and work for the environment (promoting the highway beautification bill, raising money for Town Lake Park, and co-founding a national wildflower center). She had not been in top health since her first stroke in the early '90s, but still made rare public appearances around......

We hope that after seven other posts about Spot the Spank you are aware that Austinist has teamed up with Spank Dance Company to be the exclusive promotional outlet for their latest dance 4Red Lines. Prior to each performance, Austinist has posted a clue to help you determine its secret location. If you haven’t recovered from Eeyore’s Birthday been able to catch at least one of these performances, what are you waiting for? This is......

This Thursday, Austinist presents another installment of Spot the Spank. By now, we hope you are already aware that Austinist has teamed up with Spank Dance Company to give you clues on where to check out their latest dance production, 4Red Lines. If you haven’t been able to catch the performance, what are you waiting for? Perhaps our clues have been just that good. Or maybe you were partaking in other recreational activities at Eeyore’s......

As you're hopefully already aware, Austinist has teamed up with Spank Dance Company to be the exclusive promotional outlet for their latest dance production, 4Red Lines. The location for this Saturday’s two performances will be prime people watching and a perfect backdrop to observe the interaction between the dancers and the audience. If you haven’t been able to “Spot the Spank” guess the location of the upcoming performances from the clue listed below and come......

Spank Dance Company is conducting a social experiment on you. Have you noticed? Were you wandering around outside of the Convention Center during SXSW only to see four red clad dancers (and one whimsical ring leader) spontaneously break into dance? Maybe you were enjoying the epic day we had this past Thursday at Republic Square Park and caught a glimpse of them. According to Spank Dance Company's director and choreographer, Ellen Bartel, if you......

One of the films we're most excited about seeing at this year's South By Southwest Film Festival is Laura Dunn's The Unforeseen, a documentary look at the controversy surrounding Austin's real estate development and its impact on the Edwards Aquifer and on Barton Springs. Co-executive-produced by Terrence Malik and Robert Redford (who reportedly learned to swim at Barton Springs), the film explores the unseen relationships between our natural environment and our urge to destroy it.......

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day, taking place this year on Saturday, January 13th, was created to honor the memory of the civil rights hero and encourage the public to carry on his legacy of volunteerism through community service projects. Locally, what began as a grassroots effort by State Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin) to clean up East MLK Jr. Boulevard in 2000 has blossomed into the citywide MLK Day of Service. The 2007 clean......

For those of you who were out seeing the rock n’ roll or slamming Beaujolais Nouveau last night, you may have missed Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater on the Colbert Report. With his trademark ease, Linklater went toe-to-toe with the satirical newsman, discussing his new movie Fast Food Nation and explaining the evils of international mega food corps. and the harm they perpetuate vis-à-vis the environment and public health. Linklater, while funny, didn’t try too hard,......

We told you in January that Whole Foods purchased the largest share of wind energy credits in the nation. They became the first major national corporation to buy enough renewable energy credits to make up for all of their energy usage. Now WF wants to help get you in on (pun warning) the winds of change. Reuters reports: “Seventy-six Whole Foods stores in nine states will offer $5 and $15 plastic cards that are to......

Apparently the nuclear testing by North Korea has made South Koreans a tad frisky. Obese people are totally bad for the environment. And we aren't talking about methane gas. Students in business school are a bunch of cheaters. That explains quite a bit. On its death-bed, the Ford Taurus is considered to have been a huge influence within the auto industry. Grandpa would be glad to know he's storing a piece of history. In......

If you haven't been watching Moyers on America on PBS, you're missing out. Last week's episode on Evangelicals and the environment was both disturbing and refreshing at the same time. This week's episode focuses on net neutrality, whether corporations should charge us for the internet, media ownership, etc. If the government passes a bill giving corporations (such as AT&T) the right to regulate the speed at which sites are accessed, then what's to stop......

Mayors Wynn and Cowman (of Leander a.k.a. Baghdad) tasked (Texan for "asked") a broad group of community and business leaders and organizations in February to examine the need for an independent voice for public transportation in the region. For the last seven months, the group has been working on the alliance's development, and voila, the Alliance for Public Transportation is formed. It shall promote public transportation that improves our quality of life, economic development,......

City of Austin's Art in Public Places (AIPP) program, which seeks to beautify outdoor spaces with installations of sculptures and murals by local and national artists, recently finished displaying the design proposals for the future north Austin development where the Mueller Airport used to sit. This week, they've issued a new challenge to artists all over the country: the new Gables development north of Town Lake Park has been alloted a public art budget of......

In what appears to be a trend, another large residential tower has broken ground in downtown Austin (at West and Fifth). In a break from the trend, this tower will be full of high-end rentals instead of high-end condos. Zom Inc., the developer and ostensible future landlord, and PageSoutherlandPage, the architect, appear to be making full use of the building's prime location, with 9,000 square feet of street level retail, so that's nice. On the......

Last week, the Senate Budget Committee caved in to special interest groups and passed a budget resolution that includes a provision designed exclusively to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The entire Senate will vote on this resolution as early as Thursday! Last December, the Arctic drilling was blocked by generating tens of thousands of phone calls to Capitol Hill. It's time to do it again! Please call your Senators right now:......

Drawing upon the success of last year's art installation in Central Park, entitled The Gates -- the record of which is now displayed in the Austin Museum of Art's Christo and Jeanne-Claude exhibition (from the Würth Museum in Künzelsau, Germany) -- Whole Foods and Austin Green Art are sponsoring a similar art project in town. Only, rather than employing world-famous artists, the "Green Gates" exhibit is having local schoolkids doing the creating (from Austin......

The Austin Chronicle's Daniel Mottola reports in today's issue that our city's title as Clean Energy Capital of the World may be contested in the near future. Last week, Mayor Wynn agreed to the Energy Freedom Challenge, a "national public education campaign to challenge cities around the U.S. to become the first city to acquire over half of its electricity from renewable energy resources." The EFC is sponsored by Solar Austin, one of the......