If you’re like me, you always spot curious-looking trees when you go for a hike, wonder what they’re called while looking at the leaves and flowers, then forget about them — only to spot and wonder about them all over again the next time you see them. Now comes an iPhone app that’ll stop the wondering cycle: The Arbor Day Tree Identification Guide: What Tree Is That?

The app is the mobile version of the Arbor Day Foundation’s book “What Tree is That?” published back in 2009. Just like the book, the new digital, tree-free iPhone-friendly version lets you easily identify North American trees by noting the characteristics of the leaves and branches with the help of color illustrations.

Plus, the app lets iPhone and iPod Touch owners geo-tag the tree they’ve identified using iPhone’s global positioning system. Find it at iTunes for just $4.95 — a nice savings from the $14.95 sticker price for the book version.

Not an iPhone user? Arbor Day does offer a somewhat jankier mobile version of What Tree is That that works for other smart phones. It’s what I would use, except I’m trying to get into the habit of taking a break from my phone when I take a hike….

Image via Arbor Day Foundation

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Hold that cell phone close to your head, and your brain will get about 7 percent more active. That’s the finding of a new study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It’s unclear, however, what this new finding means.

First, here’s what the study found. According to Wired, A team led by neuroscientist Nora Volkow of the National Institutes of Health attached a pair of cell phones — one turned off, the other with a live call — to each experimentee’s head. “Twenty minutes into the call, clinicians injected a radioactive form of sugar into each person, then began imaging their brains with a Positron Emission Topography machine. Over the course of 30 minutes, the sugar pooled in the brain’s most active regions and revealed the energy use to the brain scanner.”

The result? “Accounting for normal activity, the subjects showed about a 7 percent boost in sugar use on the side of the head where the active cellphone was.”

What that boost means, though, is unclear. “The preliminary study … raises many more questions than it answers,” reports LA Times. “But by providing solid evidence that cellphone use has measurable effects on brain activity, it suggests that the nation’s passionate attachment to its 300 million cellphones may be altering the way we think and behave in subtle ways.” NY Times reports on one potential concern:

Although speculative, one theory about how an artificial increase in brain glucose metabolism could be harmful is that it could potentially lead to the creation of molecules called free radicals, which in excess can damage healthy cells. Or it may be that repeated stimulation by electromagnetic radiation could set off an inflammatory response, which studies suggest is associated with a number of heath problems, including cancer.

NPR reports on other avenues of inquiry:

[Lennart Hardell, a cancer researcher at University Hospital in Orebro], who has previously suggested a link between cell phone use and brain cancer, says the finding doesn’t necessarily strengthen his case, because there’s no direct link between increased brain metabolism and cancer. But he says it’s still possible researchers will find an indirect one, perhaps involving hormonal changes or the production of molecules known as free radicals in the brain.

What can you do in the meantime to keep your cellphone use as safe as possible? “Just use a wired headset or the speakerphone function,” is what Volkow told Wired. “That keeps the phone far enough away to make it an insignificant risk.” Here are additional tips on reducing cell phone radiation.

Earlier:
>> Eco-friendly phones — How green are they really?
>> Old cell phones: How many have you recycled?
>> Pick safer smart phone: Droid, Nexus One are top radiation emitters

Photo by pittaya

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Looking to hook up with a politician willing to help you pollute? Click over to Polluterharmony and check out the profiles of elected government officials — who have a lovely record of cozying up to corporate polluters.

Greenpeace’s spoof dating site — described as “the No.1 matchmaking site for polluters, industry lobbyists, & politicians” — names and shames the politicians who’ve supported the less-than-green interest of big polluting companies willing to pay lawmakers to push dirty agendas. There are profiles of politicians seeking love, success stories of matches made in polluter heaven, and even a Twitter contest that lets anyone play matchmaker by using the tag #polluterharmony for a chance to win an undisclosed prize described as “a special Polluterharmony surprise” by Greenpeace.

Do you see any of your own elected officials on Polluterharmony? Know one who should have a profile on the site? Tweet your match — and if you win, let me know what the surprise prize is.

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iPhone users rejoice: Noshing on sustainable seafood has now become a mobile game, Foursqare-style.

That’s because the mobile version of Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide just got more interactive. Once a relative simple app that told you which fish to enjoy and which to avoid for health and environmental reasons, Seafood Watch has now added a feature called Project FishMap.

Now, eco-pescatarians can add their favorite sustainable seafood restaurants to a map — and even earn badges for helping to crowdsource this green dining info!

If I owned an iPhone, I’d already have the Seafood Watch app. It’s free, after all, and it gets handily updated as environmental conditions change. But as it is, I and my Blackberry have go about my eco-pescatarian ways with an old school paper wallet card. And sadly, while an Android version’s due to be released next year, no plans to create a Blackberry version exists.

Earlier:
>> A Sustainable seafood guide for the digital age
>> Sustainable seafood shopping gets easier at supermarkets
>> Metro and Foursquare : Can check-ins boost ridership?
>> Shop for safer sunscreens with EWG’s new iPhone app

Image via Monterey Bay Aquarium

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You’ve all seen them — Those end-of-email pleas to “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail,” sometimes added in green font with an image of a leaf at the end for good measure. If you’re the type of emailer who’s added that tagline to your e-missives, I’ve got good news. Now, you don’t even have to rely on your email recipient to be considerate. You can actually mandate eco-considerateness — by preventing printing altogether!

How? With a little help from World Wildlife Federation’s WWF file format. According to WWF’s Save as WWF website, the WWF format’s pretty much like the PDF format — except WWF documents can’t be printed! (via Lifehacker)

To be clear, the WWF will only prevent people from printing the WWF attachments, not the email you sent the attachment with — so you may want to keep your “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail” email signature. And practically speaking, the WWF format isn’t going to be a viable option for, say, documents that require your real pen-to-paper signature.

But if you plan to email around a file that you really believe no one should be printing — whether for naughty or nice reasons — perhaps the WWF could work for you! I would give WWF a try, except the WWF software’s currently only available for Mac OS X 10.4+. A Windows version’s supposed to be coming soon though –

Image via saveaswwf.com

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What exactly is a “green” phone? If you asked me, I’d say an energy-efficient, long-lasting phone with low radiation risks that’s made with safe, recycled and recyclable materials.

Sprint’s Samsung Restore meets some of those criteria — partially. Which is to say that while Sprint’s greener phone is one of the most eco-friendly ones out there — and likely greener than the one you’re holding, unless you got yours refurbished or held on to an oldie for at least a few years — it’s easy for an environmentalist to be disappointed with Restore simply because even the greenest new cell phones on the market are still far from truly green.

Basically, the Restore’s a phone in greener packaging. The phone casing’s made with 27 percent post-consumer recycled plastics — and the device itself is 77 percent recyclable, according to its website (84 percent recyclable according to Sprint’s Environmental Sustainability Communications Manager). And the whole product comes in almost all recyclable packaging — an all-recyclable box made with 70 percent post-consumer recycled paper and a few unfortunate small plastic baggies.

Eco-purists may already wonder why Sprint’s box isn’t 100 percent recycled and the phone 100 percent recyclable. They’ll be further disappointed that the Restore still “has low levels of PVC, BFRs, Phthalates, Beryllium,” according to Sprint’s communications manager. And while the Restore has an Energy Star certified AC adapter, the adapter’s specific to the device — and not usable or reusable with any other phone.

But to be fair, most phones have worse recyclability rates, come in very plasticky packaging, and contain higher levels of dangerous materials. And most phone companies make only minimal attempts to disclose — much less address — these green shortcomings. In that sense, Sprint’s ahead of the pack — even if it’s still not exactly a shining green beacon of sustainability.

Since most of the eco-features simply have to do with Restore’s packaging, the phone itself works pretty much just like other, less green phones in its price range. The full QWERTY keyboard makes texting and tweeting easy — though the Facebook and Google buttons are simply shortcuts to the mobile websites. The flashless 2.0-megapixel camera doesn’t take the best-quality photos, but will serve most people’s Facebooking needs well enough. According to CNet’s comprehensive, techier review, the phone’s call quality could be improved — but I had no issues calling in the L.A.-area. The speakerphone feature worked especially well for me — I used it for over an hour while trying to troubleshoot my Blackberry with Credo’s tech reps!

The Restore’s a pretty basic phone — so fancier phone users who like to run apps likely won’t want to downgrade to this one. But for the less app-happy public who still like to text and tweet, the Samsung Restore is available for $49.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) with a new two-year service agreement.

Earlier:
>> Eco-friendly phones — How green are they really?
>> Cell phone radiation worries — and how to reduce your health risks
>> Old cell phones: How many have you recycled?
>> Sprint’s in-store buyback program: Instant credit for recycling phones
>> Pick safer smart phone: Droid, Nexus One are top radiation emitters

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If you watched “Food, Inc.” or read “Gristle,” you know the many downsides of factory farming — from food safety issues to human health problems to environmental pollution. Now comes a tool that’ll let you see just how close to home the problems of factory farming are. Factory Farm Map, an interactive web tool put together by environmental nonprofit Food and Water Watch, lets you see just how much factory farming’s happening in your county and state.

I, of course, looked up the numbers for Los Angeles County and California. I think of my county as a largely urban area, but apparently, quite a lot of factory farming goes on in my ‘hood — enough to earn the county an orange “severe” label from Food and Water Watch.

You can also get charts and graphs illustrating each state and county’s stats. Find out the total number of factory farmed animals and the average number of animals per site in your state — and see how your county’s numbers compare to those of neighbor counties.

I actually wish the map was more detailed, so I could find out exactly where these factory farms in L.A. County are located and how close they are to me. Maybe Food and Water watch will have that info when they launch version 2.0.

Another interesting finding I discovered from Factory Farm Map: Alaska has no factory farms! How does your state compare?

Images via Food and Water Watch

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Do you think twice about accepting a friend’s dinner invitation on a Sunday — because that would mean missing Dexter? Does your anxiety level get unbearable — if you go a day without checking Facebook and Twitter? Perhaps your TV and internet addiction hasn’t gotten that bad — but a new documentary film called “Play Again” is sure to make you rethink your digital habits.

Though I’m on both Facebook and Twitter, I do feel lucky I grew up (at least according to my driver’s license) before either of those got invented. Kids today are not that lucky. What happens when you grow up spending more time in front of a screen than interacting with real humans face to face or playing in nature? We’ll find out soon, because that is indeed how the average American child grows up today.

“Play Again” follows the lives six American teenagers who spend between five to 15 hours a day in front of screens. These kids are then released from their digital umbilical cords to go on a wilderness adventure — sans cell phones or TVs.

“Play Again” will screen as part of the Artivist Festival at noon on Dec. 4 at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. Even better, a select number of free tickets are available, so long as you reserve them before they run out! The screening will be followed by a filmmaker Q&A panel and a reception. The film is also screening at festivals and events across the U.S. and is available on DVD for $19.95.

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Last week, my laptop crashed. Fixing it would have cost about as much as buying a new laptop — so buy a new laptop I did, after spending $99 just to have BestBuy’s geek squad tell me the old laptop would cost a lot to fix!

Still, I’m proud to say that I used that old laptop for 4.5 years — far longer than the 18 months or so the average electronic product gets used. Fittingly, the speed with which new electronics become broken electronics is the latest topic taken up by Annie Leonard and the rest of the team behind The Story of Stuff.

The latest short eco-educational cartoon video’s The Story of Electronics — which follows the short life of electronics that are “Designed for the Dump” — a.k.a. designed for planned obsolescence. From causing miscarriages and cancer in employees making the electronics to wreaking environmental havoc in less-developed countries where old electronics get dumped, The Story of Electronics is not a happy tale.

That said, there is some good news. More electronics manufacturers are instituting take-back programs — although many of these programs are still pretty sucky, as the Electronic Takeback Coalition’s latest report card points out. The end-of-life recycling issue is actually the reason I again got a Dell laptop this time around. Dell has what pretty much everyone agrees is the best end-of-life program for its computers. Once I finish attempting to salvage whatever information’s still intact on my old laptop’s hard drive, I can simply ask Dell — via an online form — to pick up my old computer from my home for responsible recycling — free of charge. This type of convenient service is one that every manufacturer should offer — but does not.

Of course, some onus falls on the electronics users and their lust for the latest gadgets. My laptop — and my old cell phone too — got weird looks from people because I’d used them for so long. Most people, however, upgrade as soon as they possibly can — often every year or so. That’s why more concerned environmentalists are creating everything from DIY fix-it manuals to retro electronics shops to fight planned obsolescence — one small gadget at a time.

Be honest — How long have you had the computer you’re reading this blog post on?

Earlier:
>> Get happy by spending less: Buy tomorrow, moodle today
>> A Superguide for e-recycling: Make money, not e-waste
>> Green tech guides: Making greener gadget shopping easier
>> Shop smart and save green on electronics and gadgets
>> Oh the things you can recycle
>> If it is broken, recycle it — The first green LA girl post!

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I can proudly say I never got sucked into playing Farmville — but I did, for some reason, get addicted to playing Zoo World on Facebook for a few months. If you’ve gotten obsessed with raising virtual chickens or feeding virtual pandas on Facebook, there’s now help for you. You can now protect real life animals — like my favorite, the Atlantic puffin — without leaving Facebook.

How so? World Wildlife Fund’s put its entire gift catalog on Facebook! To adopt a real animal, just click over to pick from more than a hundred species. I recommend the puffin!

Lest any MNN readers mistakenly think WWF’s capturing wild animals and sending them to adopter’s homes, rest assured the adoptions are really just symbolic. The money you spend to “adopt” doesn’t really get you a real life animal to call your own — but goes towards funding WWF’s work to protect wildlife. That’s why the cost of adopting a cute little puffin is the same as adopting larger, less cute animals! After all, the small plush versions of the adopted animals that donators receive are all about the same size.

And in fact, the adoption fees are kind of on a sliding scale. You can pay as much as $250 to “adopt” a family of sea turtles — or as little as $25 to adopt a very cute puffin. The amount you spend basically affects the amount of cute WWF shwag you get (Plush animals, among which the puffin is the cutest, only come with a $50 donation or more) — and less selfishly, the work WWF’s able to do.

Now, while I love that WWF’s made symbolic wildlife adoptions easier for Facebook addicts, I do wish there was a way to make these adoptions into a sort of game — basically by offering not just plush versions of wildlife, but virtual versions as well. I mean, judging from the popularity of Farmville, it seems many people not yet willing to plunk down $25 for a symbolic adoption of a puffin may make microdonations over time to adopt virtual puffin families to care for — donations that could add up to $25 relatively quickly….

No such game is available as of yet, but WWF said in a press release that it plans to launch online quiz called “Find Your Inner Animal.” (I hope I’m a puffin!) You can also “friend” animals — so far limited to tigers, pandas, polar bears and sadly, not puffins — to get updates on WWF’s conservation work related to them.

Top photo by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region; bottom photo via WWF

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