If you are trying to avoid GMOs and the potential for strange growths or zombie-like qualities this summer, participating in a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, may be a good choice.

Sometimes we need the most literal of images to open our eyes. So it is with Kim Abeles’ art — she creates art with smog so viewers can see the dirty tracks of the way we live in clear outlines. She has enlarged often-overlooked lichen and given them eyes.

Forget the grid. For the developing world, professors forget the power lines and the coal-fired electricity they deliver. In developing you countries, renewable energy sources are their the answer to getting people online, was, powering up their cell phones and running computer labs in schools.

Though Congress this year may be better known as the session that failed to accomplish anything, a report commissioned by three ranking members of the House shows this year’s collection of Representatives has cast more anti-environment votes than any other in history. The total averages out to one anti-environmental vote for every day in session in 2011. The votes were split by party, with 94 percent of Republicans voting anti-environment and 86 percent of Democrats voting pro-environment.

Fueled by federal grant dollars and powered by a team of advisors, the EnergySmart program is proving catalytic in the way it helps people take action after receiving an energy audit.

It’s that time of year. The resolutions fly back and forth, the company incentive packages and community weight loss programs are rolling out. Your gym is about to become a lot more crowded with people looking to burn off the holiday pounds and jump into the new year leaner and meaner and healthier, ideally.

Six years ago, in the interest of protecting Colorado’s pristine wilderness areas while the national roadless area rule was being contested in court, the state began development of a roadless rule. Two drafts and 200,000 public comments later, local conservation organizations are now looking to scrap that rule and go back to the national roadless rule, which has since been validated twice by circuit courts, including the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in October. Not only is a state rule no long necessary, conservation groups say, the Colorado roadless rule doesn’t offer protections for Colorado’s forests that are as strong as the national rule. They’re putting pressure on the Obama administration to block the proposed Colorado Roadless Rule.

If you shop with any regularity at the Abbondanza stall at the farmers’ market, you might have noticed some gaps in their inventory this fall. Dried beans and winter squash are mostly what Shanan Olson, co-owner, says people have commented on missing. They ask why, and she’s not sure how to reply. Pesticide drift on their organic-certified farm in 2010 cost most of their fall harvest, a $250,000 loss. At least, that’s what they can piece together. What really happened to their crop has been a complicated puzzle to solve.

Step away from the shrimp cocktail and the smoked salmon spread. Even fisheries that sell products stamped with the seal of approval from the Marine Stewardship Council, an international nonprofit that promotes solutions to overfishing and certifies fisheries and seafood products as sustainable or environmentally friendly, have been the source of some oceanic nightmares.

This year, you could give gifts. Or, you could give the gift of a stronger local economy, more jobs, more money for local charities and more tax dollars for infrastructure by buying services instead of goods. Spa treatments, haircuts, house cleaning, massages and computer help are all examples of services that can be purchased from locally owned businesses.