In 2004 the Environmental Protection Agency created the SmartWay program to rate fuel efficiency of commercial trucks. In 2006 the program was extended to identify green cars. Cars are given 2 ratings on a scale of 1 to 10. The first is for air pollution and the second is for green house gas. Cars with a combined score of more than 13 with neither rating being less than 6 earn the SmartWay Green Leaf. Cars with a rating of 9 or more in both categories earn the SmartWay Elite Green Leaf. So far only the natural-gas-powered Honda Civic GX and the gas-electric Civic Hybrid are certified Elite – encouraging consumers to be Civic-minded.
Health-minded people know high-fat foods take longer to digest than low-fat foods. Longer digestion time means high-fat foods are digested lower in the intestines, releasing a hormone that suppresses appetite. Scientists at England's Institute of Food Research used this information to make the body feel full. They coated the fat droplets in various foods with a modified plant protein to slow digestion until the foods reached the lower intestines. Because this process works on any food containing fat without affecting its taste, there's a fat chance of fooling Mother Nature.
The 2,500 U.S. military working dogs aren't easily fooled. Their 4-month training at Lackland Air Force Base teaches them to detect explosive devices, drugs and land mines, after which they're expected to work until they are 10 years old. Now these four-legged military personnel finally have their own treatment center. The $15 million veterinary hospital is for both trainees and combat-injured dogs and is equipped with operating rooms, digital radiography, CT scanners, an intensive care unit and recovery rooms with an underwater treadmill and exercise balls – everything necessary to give these heroes a new leash on life.
New life has also been given to Spain's largest rubbish dump. It won the Energy, Water and Recycling award at the 2008 World Architecture Festival. The 8-year "Valley of Joan" project by Spanish architects Battle and Roig converted the 150-hectare landfill into green, terraced landscape, giving it back to nature. The system of hills and banks not only avoids erosion, its underground drainage system filters contaminated waste fluids which are used to irrigate the project and the bio gases it emits are used to make electricity. Obviously, clean up what you mess up is a philosophy the world could live by.
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