The “CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood” show’s segment about Quiet Orinda, its founders, and the broader debris blower debate aired Sunday morning, November 6 on your local CBS station.

CBS News Senior Correspondent John Blackstone interviews Susan and Peter Kendall, Gretchen Biggs from GreenwichCALM.org,  Julie "Catwoman" Newmar," and several pro-debris-blower individuals. Over 2.5 million viewers watched the episode!

You can watch the complete segment on our Videos page.

In Santa Cruz, California Ken Foster, owner of Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping runs a green lawn care and landscaping business. But what's really special about Terra Nova is its website and blog, where Terra Nova explains everything about eco-friendly landscaping.

Ken's recent article about leaf blower madness includes the results of his firm's own real-world test of debris blowers versus rakes and brooms.

Fresno, California: On March 21, 2012, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District hosted its Lawn Care Conference. Bringing together pollution experts, scientists, the Calif. Lawn Care Association, green landscapers, community groups, and industry reps, the conference will showcase the "best practices" for clean gardening. The latest technology, green power tools from around the world will be discussed and demonstrated.

In a recent test at an emissions lab/test center in Southern California, the first scientific test comparing emissions from a modern, so-called "clean" backpack debris blower (the Echo PB-500T) to those from a V-8 Ford Raptor Pickup truck was undretaken. The short video and article link are posted below; you can also watch the video under our Video section here on the Quiet Orinda website.

To summarize the test results:

"The two-stroke Echo leaf blower was worse still, generating 23 times the Carbon Monoxide and nearly 300 times more Non-methane Hydrocarbons than the Raptor crew cab pickup. Let's put that in perspective. To equal the hydrocarbon emissions of about a half-hour of yard work with this two-stroke leaf blower, you'd have to drive a Raptor for 3,887 miles, or the distance from Northern Texas to Anchorage, Alaska!

http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-car-vs-truck-vs-leaf-blower.html

Last fall's broadcast of nationally-syndicated Sea Change Radio, hosted by Alex Wise, was dedicated to examining debris blower pollution.