Halloween is just a day away and while there are bound to be plenty of spooky ghosts and goblins roaming the streets and searching out candy, some seriously scary real-life “monsters” are among us and they’ve been created (or encouraged) by global warming and pollution. Here are five reminders that things could get really scary (peak oil scary even!) if we don’t make an effort to improve things for the environment.

1. Giant Jellyfish

Seas full of enormous toxic jellyfish sound like something out of a bad scary movie, but due to overfishing the scary swarms are a reality in several parts of the world. With their natural predators fished out of commission and global warming linked to increasing jellyfish populations, these giant jellyfish (some of which can be deadly to both fish and humans) are a very valid threat and one that’s worth switching to sustainable seafood to avoid.

2. Two Headed Fish

They’re not quite the deadly sea creatures that were chasing down human meals in the movie Piranha, but two-headed fish and fish larvae are becoming more common and while there are a few things linked to the problem (including genetic mutation) many scientists feel pollution plays a huge role, with now-famous two-headed fish showing up in an Alberta lake near an oil sands operation and schools of two-headed fish larvae appearing in Australian waters near a pesticide-heavy macadamia plant. Click here to read more

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The kings of ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s have been campaigning for the environment all along. Their Lick Global Warming campaign has been around for years. The company buys carbon credits and led a charge to get the EPA to allow for hydro-carbon refrigeration, which doesn’t use ozone-depleting hydro-fluorocarbons and uses 10% less energy. Last year, Ben & Jerry’s introduced the new hyrdrocarbon freezer technology with the help of Greenpeace.

Now, Unilever has bigger and better freezer dreams for Ben & Jerry’s and their other ice cream mega-brand, the UK’s Magnum. The company wants to develop a low-carbon dessert that can be shipped and sold at room temperature and later frozen at home before it’s served. Unilever, which is also responsible for big brands like Dove, Surf and Vaseline, says ice cream is one of the more energy-intensive products because it needs to be frozen during storage and transport. So when looking for ways to be more eco-friendly company-wide, room temperature ice cream stood out.

The challenge? Click here to read more

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In the latest Washington Post On Leadership video series, Steve Pearlstein sits down with Vinod Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to discuss hybrid cars, global warming solutions and his leadership in the field.

Khosla: “Most of the environmentalists do a good job defining the problem. They do a terrible job finding and proposing solutions. They think the only way to get in balance with the environment is to use less of everything. They don’t think there’s cleaner ways to get more electricity, or more oil, or more cars. And I’m a firm believer, technology is the real solution. The world will not go backwards. Human beings aren’t made that way. And so you have to come up with different solutions.”

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Women have had the decision making power for home purchases for ages, but you might be surprised that when it comes to moving toward cleaner energy, women are still the big influencers. According to the recent Women’s Survey on Energy and the Environment, they’re the ones paying the electric bill and making the decisions on energy use in homes and businesses.

The survey commissioned by Women Impacting Public Policy and Women’s Council on Energy and Environment found that women want clean energy and more than half are willing to fork over an extra $30 to make it happen. In part, this is because  women are concerned about air pollution and how it affects their children’s health. The problem is, despite this desire to be more eco-friendly, many women don’t understand our current electricity sources and how they impact our environment.  Click here to read more

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