With Halloween just around the corner, here are some tips to having a ghoulishly green time:

1. Bobbing for apples? Make sure you buy locally or organically grown varieties.
2. Go to a pumpkin patch nearest you to pick out your pumpkins for carving and decoration or make sure your grocery store has purchased them from a local patch.
3. Use LED lights instead of candles inside pumpkins; they’ll last longer and you can reuse them next year.
4. Save the pumpkin seeds you removed while carving and roast them for a healthy seasonal snack.
5. Make your own costume instead of buying one. Consider revamping an old skirt or shirt into something wicked, or explore the local Goodwill. Some tips for do-it-yourself costumes can be found at Planet Green.
6. Decorate your house with orange and black CFL bulbs.
7. Consider buying environmentally friendly treats such as candy made with fair trade or organic chocolate. Some ideas can be found at Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Store or Chocolate Bar.
8. Having a Halloween party? Use plastic cups, plates, bowls and cutlery which you can stick in the dishwasher and re-use next year.
9. Be sure to give kids cloth bags or pillow cases for trick or treating.

One major addition to this line: its environmental friendliness.

With features including a revolutionary energy efficient LED-backlit display, a recyclable aluminum body and glass screen, and even 41% less packaging, these new laptops are a surefire solution to overflowing landfills and increasing energy consumption.

Read more specfics here.

While many travelers choose to visit the popular and often over visited landmarks of China, among them the Great Wall, the Yin Ruins, and the Forbidden City, more and more travelers are beginning to choose to travel off the beaten path to a more authentic and oftentimes more remote China. Fortunately, more eco-lodges are popping up to assist this new trend where supporting the local community is an inherent feature of a traveler’s stay. A good example is the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat which has committed to being sustainable through the creation of its own well which lessens its dependence on water resources, by hiring staff from nearby villages, and also by committing to replacing coal with alternative energy by 2009.

Two other ecolodges in China are Wenhai Ecolodge and Alou’s Tibetan Lodge.

Want to test your inner greenness? Go Green Travel Green has a list of quizzes here, testing your knowledge on everything from eco-anxiety levels to travel history to organic foods and many issues in between. What’s your favorite quiz and how did you rate?

The Economist published two articles last week focusing on endangered and threatened species. The first of these articles, Living on the Edge, chronicles the number of animals on the verge of obliteration, citing that “of the 44,838 species considered, 16,928 are threatened with extinction, including almost a quarter of the world’s mammals.” This is a shocking number considering the many conservation programs in place around the world.  However, it tells us that these programs aren’t doing enough.

In the Amazon alone, a piece the size of Rhode Island was deforested in the second half of 2007, making way for soybean farms and taking with it all the birds, bugs, and mammals endemic to that region. Malaysia is also clearing its forests to make room for palm oil trees to be converted into biodiesel.

Reasons for species endangerment aren’t limited to deforestation, but vary from poaching to global warming to pollution. While eco tourism, heightened awareness, and conservation efforts can help some of these cases, another tool that might help save threatened species is a new database which The Economist discusses in Where the Wild Things Are. Called the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool, or IBAT for short, this online database aims to “make it easier for businesses to incorporate concerns about conservation into their planning from the beginning of a project,” thereby being able to idenitify biodiverse habitats and the species that are endemic to them, and as a result, make it easier for these business to alter their building plans to preserve ecological hotspots.

Come January 2009, as part of the $700 billion bail-out, those who bike to work will get a morsel of relief for their carbon neutral transportation method. Bicycle commuters will be eligible for a $20/month “tax-free reimbursement from their employers for bicycle-related expenses” which will also then be tax deductible at the end of the year. Called the Transportation Fringe Benefit to Bicycle Commuters, will this program get more commuters out of their cars and onto their bikes?

Find out more about it here.

Check out details of Google’s greening efforts here.

Taiwan's "Peculiar Peak" - Mt. Dabajian

More than 200 summits over 3,000 meters (10,000 ft.) in elevation, world-class mountaineering & rock climbing, thousands of kilometers of alpine trekking, lush evergreen forests, breathtaking valleys – an amalgamation of features that describe the likes of the Canadian Rockies or the French Alps, right? True, but what if I told you that you can find all this and more in… deep breath… Taiwan!?!? That’s right, Taiwan! Often noted for its extreme population density in urban areas and progressive architectural escapades, Taiwan also boasts an unbelievably gorgeous countryside that would leave any outdoor enthusiast foaming at the Nalgene. From the “rooftop of Taiwan,” Mt. Yushan (3,952m) – Northeast Asia’s highest peak – to the Sea of Clouds in the Central Mountain Range, Taiwan has a diverse expanse of rich terrain and stunning vistas. So… When you’re planning your next open-air adventure, take a gander at what Taiwan has to offer – you’ll be amazed!

For more information on the titillating Taiwanese terrain, check out the following links!

Taiwan’s National Scenic Areas & Parks
Taiwan Tourism Bureau

This is especially true in such war-torn countries as Senegal, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo where wildlife can be sacrificed in the middle of conflicts but where eco-tourism can work to counteract this destruction.

For example, ivory has for centuries been a treasured commodity, used for both ornamental as well as practical and medical purposes; this has been especially popular in Asian markets.

A recent article in Ethical Traveler (2008) highlighted the rise of elephant poaching due to  “China’s insatiable appetite for ivory” and cited shocking statistics including the demise of the Senegalese elephant population from 20,000 tusked pachyderms in the late 90s to only two today. Reuters also investigated the obliteration of elephants by poaching, citing that the 2-million acre Virunga National Park of Rwanda, once the home of 5,000 Savannah elephants in the 1970s, now only has 300 – seven elephants having been killed as recently as August 2008.

It has been suggested that eco-tourism, however, can help turn these numbers around. Travel to elephant sanctuaries and game reserves brings not only much needed money for elephant protection and conservation, but also attracts attention and heightens awareness of the continued illegal poaching.

Whole Travel offers a number of different African safari adventures including Leopard Walk Lodge, Tsaro Elephant Lodge, and many more which contribute to helping this preservation effort.