Why the hell aren't school busses running on biodiesel? Remember in elementary school when they would teach you how to recycle and be good to the environment. Well, here's an easy way for those same schools to get it right. It's a no brainer. Here's the stats [via Veggie Van]:

• 24 million children ride the school bus every day.
• On average, students spend an hour and a half every weekday in a school bus.
• School buses in the US travel over 4 billion miles each year.
• Of the 450,000 school buses in the USA 390,000 of them run on harmful petroleum diesel.
• 350 million gallons of diesel are used every year in school buses.
• Asthma is the number one cause of absenteeism in school children.
• Diesel emissions pollute the natural environment.
• Biodiesel cuts harmful emissions by up to 85%
• Biodiesel can run in any unmodified diesel engine.
• Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils grown in America.
• Biodiesel lessens our dependence on foreign oil.
• Biodiesel cleans the engine as it goes prolonging the life of the engine.
  

Julia Roberts was on Oprah today promoting her helping biodiesel producer Earth Biofuels promote a program to encourage the use of biodiesel in more than 500,000 diesel school buses nationwide. ''It's very important that we expand our use of clean energy and make a long-term commitment to it. Biodiesel and ethanol are better for the environment and for the air we breathe,'' she said. She will be joining current Earth Biofuels celeb board members country singer Willie Nelson and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman.

Willie has used biodiesel fuels on his tour bus for the last couple years and has become somewhat of a father figure for biofuels in the U.S. Willie even has his own biofuel which combines 20% renewable vegetable-based diesel fuel with 80% traditional diesel, and can be used in almost any diesel engine without modification. The result is a cleaner burning, American-farmed renewable fuel.

"“It'’s important because we are going around the world starting wars over oil, and we don'’t have to do that,"” Willie has said. "“We can grow our own fuel here at home, help our farmers, help our environment, help the truckers . . . help the local communities."

Great list of consumer products that are good for the planet. Check it out.

Inc. does a great job profiling 50 most intriguing entrepreneurial companies that are embracing green business in the Green 50 feature. In fact, the action is being driven as much by markets as morality. Leave it to entrepreneurs to attack this multi-billion dollar industry.

I would like to make one addition to the list: Green Tavani. One of the main reasons I love being a part of this blog is that no environmentally dangerous emissions are used in the making of the site. No commute = no car pollution. No paper used = no trees cut. Hopefully, we'll be on the list one day.

What a great story! How does an African woman in 1977 start a movement among women that eventually planted 30 million trees and begets her the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Wangari Maathai, educated in the US, overcame many obstacles especially from the male-dominated society of Kenya and founded the Green Belt movement, which has prevented soil erosion and provided firewood for cooking fires.

The program has been carried out primarily by women in the villages of Kenya, who through protecting their environment and through the paid employment for planting the trees are able to better care for their children and their children's future.

She has come to be affectionately called "Tree Woman"
http://www.wangarimaathai.or.ke/