Shift delivers unto you the real poop 

First it was cloth and it was bad. Then it was disposable and time and energy were saved, and you could just throw them "away." And it was good once more. And then, like with oil or plastic, we discovered that a place called "away" does not exist and it was bad again.

Now we have the rebirth of the cloth diaper that fits and snugs and tapes and it is good again. But we also have a multi-billion dollar diaper biz with its new fangled technology and seductive cartoon-themed onesies. And parent's don't know WHAT the hell to do.

And lo Shift said: go with the cloth. For these are the only reasons why you would care:

Monetary Savings:
Numbers show that you will actually save $1,000 to $1,500 over the course of the 30 months or so your baby is being potty-trained.

Convenience:
Cloth diaper are no longer the Model A jalopy of olden days. Fitted cloth diapers today feature elastic, built-in fasteners, waterproof (yet breathable) exteriors, and all sorts of other bells and whistles to make sure junior doesn't sully the carpet.

Landfill:
There is none with cloth.

And it was good again.

Making bulb look yummy dubbed as "genius"  

Remember when fluorescent lights made everything (and everyone) look gravely ill? Ancient history! These days Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) are being touted as an environmental savior. And when you consider that they use 80% less electricity that normal incandescent bulbs, you can see why. In fact, the numbers are staggering.

To wit:

• If every household in America replaced one regular 60-watt bulb with a CFL, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people (hello, Houston). From an emissions standpoint, that's the equivalent of taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
• Just one bulb swapped out would equal enough electricity saved to turn off two entire power plants (the biggest polluters on the planet)
• One $3 CFL pays for itself in lower electric bills in five months.

You get the idea. Now go get a bulb (available at your local Wal-Mart of all places) and buy one for your neighbors for the holidays. Check out the brilliant Fast Company article for more.

Chuck your old cell phone and do your part for world aid

Admit it, you've been seduced by the blinking lights and astute urban marketing for that new cell phone; the one that emails, texts, plays music, snaps pictures, takes videos, and occasionally makes a phone call (and none of it very well). But what to do with the one you just got and the others before it piling up in that shoe box? You can relax because ReCellular, and many companies like it, have helped recycle and refurbish many of the nearly 100 million cell phones lying dormant in the US alone.

So, go ahead, spend with impunity. And next year, when the phone that makes waffles comes out, you can feel good knowing that somebody in Uganda will thank you.

Charge up Your Gizmos Just Like President Clinton
 
Solio, the solar battery charger is not only cool looking, but powerful enough to charge all of your hand held electronic products anywhere under the sun. So powerful, in fact, that President Clinton (no slouch in the power department himself) ordered 1500 of them for his guests at this year's Clinton Global Initiative.

The Solio works by absorbing power from the sun and storing that energy within its internal battery. But more importantly, Solio can charge all of your products from cell phones and iPods, to digital cameras and game players, even GPS systems. One hour of sun will give you enough juice to play your iPod for about an hour. So plug into the sun and feel positively presidential.

Movie Stars Decide to Buy Solar Systems So They Can Hang Out Together More Often

A lot of people know Ed Norton from his classic role in Fight Club — the badass populist who organizes a global men’s organization to vent aggression. Aside from a slew of top notch acting gigs, however, he’s also been busy organizing his fellow stars for environmental causes.

In 2002, while visiting his father (an environmentalist and senior adviser of the Nature Conservancy’s Great Yunnan River Project in China), it was a revelation for Norton to see that almost all of the roofs in a Chinese city of five million were covered in solar panels. As a pilot, he had always noticed the flat roofs baking in the L.A. sun, and saw an opportunity to bring the energy-efficient panels to Southern California.

Norton came up with an idea that he then proposed to BP Solar: for every solar panel his program sold to a celebrity, BP would donate in kind to a low-income family. Thus was born the BP Solar Neighbors plan. Celebrities participating include Ed Begley, Jr., Daryl Hannah, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Salma Hayek, and Brad Pitt. The panels not only help the environment but also make a big difference in the lives of low-income families by reducing their monthly utility bills, sometimes to nothing.

According to Norton, he loves how the BP Solar Neighbors program brings people of different races and classes together toward a common goal: improving the quality of their lives. The first rule of Solar Club is everyone talks about solar!

For more information: www.solarneighbors.com