http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/index.php Portland and surrounding area community news and information http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121496523341401700 You can drink organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee, but if you’re throwing away a cup of day, your coffee habit still hurts the environment. According to the 2008 edition of the Coffee Statistics Report, people around the world consume more than 400 billion cups of coffee every ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303841459960400 The Oregon Health & Science University has set some lofty goals for the satellite campus it is planning along the west bank of the Willamette River just south of the Ross Island Bridge. One goal is to graduate new health professionals to replace the baby boomers who now are starting to retire. ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303862600044100 One of the most unpalatable environmental stories of the year landed with an alarming splash in March, when The Associated Press reported that water supplies across America are contaminated by trace amounts of pharmaceuticals. Drugs detected in tap water range from mood stabilizers in Southern ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303997148487900 When visiting the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, remember to meander and take things slow. Do otherwise and your visit will simply be a quick, unenlightened walk on a milelong, flat path. It’s when you take your time and really stop to listen, to stare at the trees and watch the ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303843738620700 With gasoline prices punching through the $4-a-gallon threshold, new-car buyers are increasingly concerned with better mileage. Hybrids and diesels are more efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts, but they cost thousands of dollars more. Although the fuel savings eventually will make ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303853422897900 In “A Snow Mobile for George,” filmmaker Todd Darling opens with a swirling panorama from a boat floating down the Klamath River, and asks: “How did I end up here floating backwards down a river, 20 miles from a road, and even further from electricity? It all began in a cabin in ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303860103733900 PORTLAND Hillsdale Farmers Market • 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays April 27-Oct. 26 Wilson High School parking lot, Southwest Sunset Boulevard and Capitol Highway Eamon Molloy, 503-475-6555 contact@hillsdalefarmersmarket.com, www.hillsdalefarmersmarket.com Hollywood Farmers ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303846148681100 Pet lovers, by and large, are the kind of people who care about their environment. Anyone kindhearted enough to take responsibility for an animal companion probably is concerned about the state of the natural world. Perhaps that why there’s been relatively little scrutiny of how pet ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303866169870200 Buzz off, Bio. Scoot over, Psych. Pipe down, Communications. A brand-new major — renewable energy systems — is matriculating at a campus near you. This month (barring last-minute food fights in the cafeteria) Oregon Institute of Technology senior Tim Bailey will don his gown and ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303839133524100 EVENTS • Breakfast on the Bridges There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but breakfast is a different matter entirely. Volunteers for bike nonprofit organization Shift pass out free pastries and coffee to cyclists and pedestrians on the Hawthorne and Steel bridges. 7:30 a.m. to ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303848828773700 It’s true that some of the people involved in the international conference coming to town next week will be tearing up a parking lot and replacing it with a “community green space.” And it also is true that at least one participant in the same conference last year had an image of ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303855641775300 The premise of “Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet” reminds me of a game I used to play as a teenager. Lying on our backs while staring at undulating clouds, my friends and I would debate what was the most important invention ever. The wheel? Indoor plumbing? Penicillin? This slim ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121303851063642600 The human-powered gym is an idea is so transcendentally brilliant, you’ve probably thought of it yourself. “Probably 50 percent of the time, when I tell somebody about this,” Adam Boesel says, “People say, oh, I’ve had that idea.” But unlike you, Boesel has ... http://www.sandypost.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=121260050819603400 Energy conservation – once the practice of Earth-conscious, sustainable-living folks – now is in the mainstream, thanks to soaring energy prices. As people resolve to use less electricity in order to cut costs, many questions inevitably arise: How can one reduce energy use at home? ...