Image credit: Ricardo Diaz, used under Creative Commons license. Dear Pablo: The latest craze seems to be food trucks and I want to know, which is greener: food trucks or restaurants? Food trucks have become the latest foodie fad, with mobile gourmet canteens flooding the domain of roach coaches all across the US. Aside from just being part of the general trend in increasing nutritional awareness among consumers of food truck meals, food trucks are now also providing a restaurant alternative to hipsters and yuppies. With this demographic's keen interest in the declining state of our environment, it is only natural to wonder which has a lower impact on the environment: a food truck or a restaurant. Of course, there are many components, so let's take a look at a few.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit: Andres Rueda, used under Creative Commons license. Dear Pablo: Is it more sustainable to use cash or credit cards to pay for transactions? The correlation between consumerism and environmental impact goes without saying but aside from the embodied impact of our purchases, what about the transaction itself? Each year vast quantities of paper money and coins are produced for use in commerce but increasingly people are paying with plastic. What are the relative impacts of paper money and credit card transactions? This week we will find out and we will also explore some emerging alternatives.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo by comedy_nose via Flickr CC Dear Pablo: Two airlines have recently switched from paper flight records to iPads. Is this really an environmental improvement? TreeHugger recently covered news of two airlines (, followed by United Continental) that have switched to iPads to replace about 38 pounds of paper in the cockpit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 3,208 metric tons. Writer Jaymi Heimbuch asks "But when you stop to think that the savings is equivalent to about two people flying across the country, is the savings really worth it?" Well, is it? And is the iPad really better than all that paper?... Read the full story on TreeHugger