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September, 2009
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Cats and Choices
I own and love two cats. Oh, how I wish it wasn't so!
In his beautiful book, A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox writes,
Animals can truly let go and let be...they instruct us in realizing that intensity of living is more important than duration and in this sense they cure us of the platonic prejudice humans have that declares that eternity and length of duration must be the test of the goodness of things.
And there is no doubt that for dog and cat owners, the unvarnished complete acceptance of you as you are is a real gift. When everyone hates me, it seems, I can stroke my cat and receive a joyous purr in response.
But what of the hoard of escaped, gone-wild and born-wild cats in the world. Are they cut from the same cloth? Alas, no, and this is what Ted Williams, writing for Audubon magazine, tells us in his very unsettling article, Felines Fatales (http://audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0909.html)
"With something like 150 million free-ranging house cats wreaking havoc on ...
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Four-Star Environmentalism – A Q & A with Tedd Saunders
Tedd Saunders is recognized for creating some of the most acclaimed environmental models in the hospitality industry. As founder and CEO of EcoLogical Solutions and an influential member of E2, he was one of the first in the hospitality industry to realize that the greening of hotels could not only help mitigate climate change, but serve the bottom line as well. Some past clients include The Lenox Hotel in Boston, The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, Taj Hotels, and the Copley Square Hotel in Boston. Ted is also the Chief Sustainability Officer, The Saunders Hotel Group, & Co Owner, The Lenox Hotel and Comfort Inn & Suites Boston/Airport. I recently spoke with him about the greening of his industry and about what each of us can do to encourage hoteliers to adopt a more eco-friendly model. (Hint: It takes more than reusing your bath towel.)
Q. How did you become involved with E2 and what are some of the important things the organization is doing to shape environmental policy?
A. I...
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Q&A: Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns on National Parks
Filmmaker Ken Burns has explored baseball, jazz, the Civil War and more. Now, in a six-part series that premieres Sunday on PBS, he turns his lens on our national parks -- "America's best idea." He spoke to OnEarth about his motivation for the documentary, what he learned about wolves and other wildlife, and his concern that global warming could destroy some of America's treasures for future generations. The interview has been edited for brevity.
Why were you interested in telling the story of America's national parks?
I've always been interested in how my country ticks, and that's what I try to explore in my films. The national parks are the first time in human history that land has been set aside -- not for kings or noblemen or the very rich -- but for everybody, and for all time. We invented it. It's an utterly democratic idea. In a way, it's the Declaration of Independence applied to the landscape.
Did spending so much time in our national parks affect your thinking ...
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They Can’t Go Home Again
All around the boat they were leaping into the air, making their way slowly back to their birthplace. From hundreds of miles away, the Alaskan salmon were returning to the streams in the Tongass National Forest to find the very creek and spot where they were born, to lay or fertilize their eggs and expire after the next generation was created. The salmon spawning in the millions meant that the grizzly bear and cubs could stand in the streams and scoop up the fish as they thrashed by, guaranteeing that they would have enough body fat to get through the coming winter. The eagles, waiting high in the Sitka spruce would also have a great feast before the onset of winter.
But this was not happening last summer. In August, John and I hosted an NRDC-sponsored trip to Southeast Alaska and I observed something as painful as anything I have seen in nature. I watched as the salmon worked their way back to their home stream only to be halted - not by dams or fish nets but by dry creeks. Afte...
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From the G20 Talks: Pittsburgh Police Harassing Non Violent Citizens
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is perhaps best known as the home of the Pirates and the Steelers, and the birthplace of the mighty Ohio River. This week the city is trying to put on its best face for the International Coal Conference and the G20 Summit of world leaders, chaired by President Barack Obama.
"The Pittsburgh Summit is an important opportunity to continue the hard work that we have done in confronting the global economic crisis, and renewing prosperity for our people," said President Obama in a statement. "Pittsburgh stands as a bold example of how to create new jobs and industries while transitioning to a 21st century economy."
Yet thus far this week, Pittsburgh has shown itself to be a bold example of police harassment of private citizens.
Hundreds of people from across America have arrived in Pittsburgh to voice their concerns about the fundamentally undemocratic nature of the G20, in which a small group of people from the largest, most powerful nations make decisions behin...
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Grass is bad for you
I was quite cheered by the article in the Wall Street Journal recently (September 17th) - "Turf Battle Heats Up Over Limits on Water-Guzzling Landscapes" by Gwendolyn Bounds. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203278404574416990861394378.html
) It looks like the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to take its WaterSense conservation program to the national level, introducing a voluntary certification for the yards of newly-built homes if they are water-conserving. Essentially this will encourage less lawn and more water-sensitive landscaping.
I quote -
The rationale: Homeowners waste a lot of water laboring to keep lawns lush.
Locally, some cities and water utilities, in Florida, Nevada and Texas, for example, already offer homeowners and builders financial incentives for taking steps to decrease water usage, including reducing the amount of lawn in residential yards. But the EPA's latest bid to go green would take the movement national, and that has the turfgrass ...
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Stopping Ocean Sprawl
The oceans that surround the U.S. create more than 2 million jobs and over $128 billion in gross domestic product annually. And with the continent thoroughly developed, we are being drawn into developing more and more of the oceans, driven by the profits from tourism, recreation, and living resources that the oceans provide. As a result, it’s beginning to look a lot like sprawl out there even without the telltale markers—the housing developments, highways and parking lots—that make up sprawl on land. Instead, “ocean sprawl” is a combination of offshore oil rigs, shipping lanes, wind farms and ever more ocean uses—and it puts increased pressure on ocean and coastal resources already under enormous strain as a result of overexploitation, habitat degradation, coastal pollution and climate change. This sprawl, and our ocean strain in general, has arisen in large part because our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes are currently governed by more than 140 laws and twenty different ... -
Post Traumatic Stress That Never Ends
She is going to be in Mrs. Young’s first grade class this year. A heady veteran and graduate of kindergarten, dark-eyed Lilly wonders if she will cry this year like she did last year. She doesn’t like to think about that, but the loud noises scared her—scared a lot of kids in her class—and the blasting on the mountain above the school hasn’t stopped. Lilly can’t imagine that it ever will. She has never known a time in her short life when there wasn’t dynamite blasting somewhere, shaking her house and cracking the walls of her bedroom, right by her stuffed tiger.
She hears her mom crying at night, and Lilly wants to comfort her. But she’s afraid, too. When her mom is scared, Lilly doesn’t know what to do. Sometimes she brings her tiger and sits in her mom’s lap, holding her in her little arms. Sometimes, she just scoots under the covers, pretending that they live in a castle far away, and her mom is the queen and Lilly is the most beautiful princess In ...
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News Broadcasting as Hooey
I would like to know the origin of the habit of "news" shows inviting ex-public servants to give opinions. The fact that these people are no longer in power should mean more to news commentators than it apparently does. If we still had an interest in what these people had to say, we would have let them keep their political seats.
Ex-public servants no longer have any place in the news, ask their replacements instead. The problem is the broadcasting mogal in charge will not approve true opposition to be aired. Truth would cloud up all their hooey. All that remains is a comedy of tragedies.
Someone should tell Keith Olbermann that Rush Limbaugh is not a suitable voice of opposition to a real politician. Even a small, local politician, like a governor. But since so many small local politicians choose to act like clowns, its an easy mistake. I'd like to see Keith use a man-in-the-street to seek opposition to Congressional claptrap. He might find a truth-teller willing to speakout that w...
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The Problem of Global Corporate Farming
The article, Africa on the Auction Block by Bruce Stutz, brings the planet's largest problem to light: Global Corporate Farming. Agricultural Colonialism poisons the water with herbicidal run-off and the land by reducing precious topsoil. Single-crop farming should be banned globally, but that will take lots of education to end. Mankind is still feudal and greedy. There is much to learn.
Sending consistent messages to agricultural colonialists is difficult without an organized front. The agricultural colonialists are often chemical companies with mercenaries. The local population is powerless against them. It reminds me of the old Chevy Chase movie "The Three Amigos," about the Mexican peasants and the roving banditos who terrorized them. But the realities are worse, and the peasants seldom win.
In the movie, three friends must go through a paradigm shift, from "I only care for myself day to day" to "I must try to end the terror, whatever the cost." Movie heroism may inspire a fe...
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There won't be a Shire, Pippin
"....all that was once green and good in this world will be gone. There won't be a Shire, Pippin"
My daughter Emily and I have just plowed through all three of Peter Jackson's amazing Lord of the Rings film trilogy. And of course, there are environmentalist clues everywhere. Sandwiched as he was between the two World Wars, Tolkein knew the face of evil. He understood what lust for power could bring. But some of his lines are uncanny allegories for our century too: they echo the environmental arguments between the laissez-faire brigade and those eager to fight. Could any of us have put it any better than the debate of the hobbits being carried by the tree-shepherds?
TREEBEARD: The ents cannot hold back this war. We must weather such things as we have always done.
MERRY: How can that be your decision?
TREEBEARD: This is not our war.
MERRY: But your part of this world! Aren't you? You must help. Please. You must do something.
TREEBEARD: You are young and brave, master Merry. But your pa...
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Swine Flu: Exactly Who Are We Protecting?
The swine flu is being covered by the media with the emphasis on vaccinations, washing hands and sneezing inside our elbows. But is the information the public needs and has a right to being made available? Or is the coverage done in a way to favor the pharmaceutical industry and to mostly ignore the role pig CAFOs play in the mixing of new viruses and antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
Case in point: April 30th: the WHO, "...bowing to pressure from meat industry producers..." decides to change the name of the swine flu.
Case in point: July 16th: Canadian investigative reporter Alex Roslin finds statistical correlations between pig density per capita in most regions or Canadian Provinces and the number of hospitalisations and deaths due to swine flu in the same region.
Case in point: July 18th: Headline: "Stop counting cases of H1N1, WHO tells countries."
Case in point: September 11th: the Public Health Agency of Canda's Web site shows one death in the Province of Quebec between September ... -
A School in the Shadow of Hell
Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West Virginia, has been a lightning rod of controversy since 2005, when Massey Coal bought out Peabody Coal and began a massive coal mining operation and coal cleaning operation in the vicinity of the school.
The facts are jaw-dropping, and really make me wonder what true family values mean to politicians locally and nationally. Students in this school have suffered from health problems for years, far beyond what one might expect in a random population.
In a letter written to the governor in 2005, concerned parents wrote that were “children coming home from the school with breathing difficulties, sore throats, headaches, and other health problems, including a seventeen-year-old who had attended the school and died from ovarian cancer, another seventeen-year-old former student who was fighting ovarian cancer, three teachers who had died from cancer in the past six years, and yet another who is currently fighting cancer. We gave you flyov...
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NYC Composts...With or Without Worms
"I think with worms it's like this: either people love it or they don't," according to Christine Datz-Romero, Executive Director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, as she sums up the love-hate relationship New Yorkers have with the idea of indoor worm composting. Worms or no worms, popularity of urban composting in NYC has soared over the past few years.
Every day, the average New York City household throws away two pounds of organic waste. By sending less of this renewable trash to the landfills and more into the natural cycle of decomposition and regeneration, New Yorkers conscious of sustainable living are contributing positively to a vital need for healthier, productive, and chemical-free food and plant growth. EcoFlix takes a look at how some Manhattanites are taking recycling to a new level.
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Keep Tap on Top
After more than a decade of blockbuster growth, U.S. bottled water sales dropped 6% this past year. Why? Because environmentally-minded consumers, urged on by their Mayors (in San Francisco, CA, Minneapolis, MN, and NYC, NY as well as elsewhere) and environmental leaders, are rejecting bottled water as wasteful. Way to go, consumers!
Now stand by your tap. Bottled-water makers have stepped up a months-long price war to try to win you back. PepsiCo Inc.’s Aquafina brand sold at some grocery stores for as little as $2.99 for a 24-pack of half-liter bottles, reports the Wall Street Journal. In addition to lower pricing, bottled water companies have also been reducing the amount of plastic in their bottles in response to public criticism that bottled water is wasteful. As reported in the Environmental Leader, Pepsi’s “Eco-Fina” half-liter bottle is made with 50 percent less plastic, and Coca-Cola introduced the PlantBottle, a fully recyclable plastic bottle made partially from...
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Reclaiming Lost Mountains: TECO's Sham, TECO's Shame
This post is the last in this series of four pieces concerning the Tampa Energy Company, or TECO, as it is better-known. Of course, if and when I have more information, I'll write about it again.
TECO has finished its operations in McRoberts, Kentucky. Though they claim that they restored the mountain and reclaimed it, it is not so. The mountain is gone, and all that is left is a huge rocky scar where the mountain was. The valleys are still filled, and there are still problems with serious and dangerous flooding. The Burke's garden was never replaced, and the homes that were destroyed in TECO's time in McRoberts were not replaced, either. The town and its 921 residents will never be the same again.
TECO, however, is not completely gone. They have changed their name in Kentucky to the Clintwood Elkhorn Coal Company and have now a mine site in Pike County. It is a mountaintop removal site, and the same things are occurring in Pike county as did in neighboring Letcher County. Clintwood E... -
Review | Naming Nature, by Carol Kaesuk Yoon
In Naming Nature, science journalist Carol Kaesuk Yoon takes readers on a playful tour through the history of taxonomy, from the time of Carl Linnaeus to the present. In recounting the field's development, she discovers that changes in the practice of taxonomy seem to correlate with society's growing disconnection from nature. At stake is the importance, or lack of importance, scientists grant to the human umwelt--the world as we perceive it. According to Yoon, just as taxonomists have moved away from a reliance on subjective judgments in their classification of life (and toward a reliance on numerical and evolutionary criteria), so too has the public begun to engage less with the natural world. "We have unwittingly traded a facility with living things for a savantlike brand expertise, exchanging the language of the living world--the names of real plants and real animals--for a vocabulary of Tony the Tigers and Geico geckos," Yoon describes.
It goes without saying that the hi...
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Making the Big Switch
I have a new friend - the Philadelphia Energy Cooperative...Let me explain.
When my wife Nancy and I married three years ago, combining families meant that we bought ... well, if not a McMansion, at least a wannabee. It has an acre of ground (of which more of, in future posts, D.V.) and too many windows and high ceilings for its own good. And for my ecological peace of mind.
Now, Nancy and I have quite different preferences for night-time temperatures. Our bedroom sits over our garage and is the hottest part of the house. She has to have our room less than 74 degrees, with fans blasting; I shiver under the bedclothes. This past July and August, with the inefficient nature of our air conditioning, we had every fan in the house blasting air at us with the whole-house thermostat set at 72 degrees. Did we sleep? Well, yes, although the constant roar took some getting used to.
But I was in torment over the electricity we were using - not because of the cost, but because of the noxiou...
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Are You a Better Environmentalist Than a Fifth Grader?
Whenever I get pessimistic about our ability to solve our major environmental issues, like climate change, I remind myself that kids are actually more hopeful and motivated about making change than their parents. If you've ever watched Jeff Foxworthy's show, you know that there are some smart 5th graders out there! Turns out 5th graders - and other "graders"- may be worth learning from in other ways. (Of course, as a parent of teenagers, I know that teenagers know EVERYTHING! But that's for another blog...)
Recent research done by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change for Nickelodeon found that: 1) the majority of kids believe that global warming is a problem and 2) kids are twice as likely as parents to believe they can do something to stop global warming. Just as my parents' generation learned to wear seat belts from their kids (remember those long car trips flopping around in the back of the station wagon with the seats down - we had seatbelts - we just didn't wear th...
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Eco-Labeling: How Sustainable is Organic?
A growing number of supermarkets are committing to green building, but how sustainable are the products inside? As major food retailers progress towards making their stores more sustainable, it's easy to forget about the great strides that still need to be made in the sustainability of the food itself.
Hannaford Bros new LEED certified supermarket in Augusta, ME
Hannaford's newest store, which opened July 25th in Augusta, Maine, is the first supermarket in the world to be Platinum-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Their use of geo-thermal heating and cooling, solar power, and recycled and locally-sourced materials is part of a movement helping to create a more sustainable world, and they deserve recognition for their commitment to reducing their environmental footprint. As this eco-friendly building opens its doors, many other supermarkets are ...
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Not In Kansas anymore – BNSF Intermodal Threatens the Environment
We in the Kansas City area are fortunate to have relatively clean air, but thanks to magical thinking by the “wizards” who run the BNSF Railroad and possible approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a decision may soon be made that will cause huge harm to our environment and health.
How did this come to be?
In December of 2006, the BNSF Railroad told the public they planned to develop one of the largest intermodal facilities in the world - a 1300 acre intermodal facility including railyard and 12 million square feet of warehouses and distribution facilities, near the small town of Gardner, Kansas, on the edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The purpose of the facility? To transfer Chinese imports received through the Ports of Long Beach and LA from the train, and to ship them by truck up to 500 miles. The market area of the facility would be over 750,000 square miles. “It’s a major impact, not just for Kansas City, but globally”, said Skip Kalb,...
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Plugging In Solar: A Q & A with John Cheney
I recently spoke with John Cheney, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Regenesis Power (http://www.regenesispower.com/), a company that designs, engineers, finances and builds solar thermal and solar photovoltaic power solutions for businesses. John has been a member of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) www.E2.org for five years and is currently devoting his time and energy to push for the enactment of a Feed-in Tariff system by the California State Legislature of California.
Q. Do you have previous experience in the solar industry? How did you end up working at Regenesis?
A. I've actually started four companies in a variety of industries, including entertainment, computer graphics and fiber optics. The last company I was involved in was called MMA Renewable Ventures, a renewable and solar-energy project finance company. MMA received funding about four years ago, in 2005, and it's been one of the largest financiers of solar projects in the U.S. since then. Regenesis work...
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Depraved Indifference: The Plight of the Southern Appalachians
The exploitation of Appalachia is nothing new. It has been going on for more than a hundred years. And like exploitation everywhere, from exploitation of the Native American who were here when the first settlers arrived, to to the exploitation of the indigenous settlers in Australia, to the exploitation of the Boers in South Africa by the British, to the exploitation of the poor in this country by the rich, to the exploitation of children by sexual predators, it is always the same. Keep the people poor and scared so that they remain powerless.
In the nineteenth century, Appalachia was not poor. Mountain families were farmers, and did well cultivating the steep hillsides and the rich bottomland in the mountains. There were naturists and knew how to live on the land, work with the land, and live in peace with the land. The mountains were shelter, provider, home. They knew weather lore, planting lore, nature lore. They knew how to fish and hunt and build, how the streams flowed, where...
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Paying with the Life of the Mountains
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store--“Sixteen Tons,” Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1955I lived at the head of Choppin' Branch Road in McRoberts with my wife Debra, just beneath TECO Coal’s mountaintop removal strip mine. Living beneath this mine has been a frightening experience. TECO set off explosives daily that would shake the entire house. I had to go underneath the house more than once to try and repair damage to my foundation.
The blasting was bad, but it was the floods of 2002 that destroyed us. My house and my son’s are located just beneath one of TECO’s valley fills. During the spring and summer of 2002 we experienced more than four flash floods that would leave rocks as big as a cow’s head in...
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TECO and the 'Appalachian Apocalypse'
TECO and the 'Appalachian Apocalypse'
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store--Tennessee Ernie Ford, "16 Tons"--1955Used to be that oldtimers would sit around and talk about the 50-year flood that nearly washed everything away in 1957. It happened in Choppin' Block Holler, which was once an old coal camp at the side of Dunham Mountain, near McRoberts, in Letcher County, Kentucky.
Letcher County, Kentucky
That was until 1998, the year the Tampa Energy Company (TECO) opened up a new mine site in McRoberts. Since that time, flooding has reached the hundred-year levels, frequently. Now, many times each year, residents have to muck out their houses and businesses every time it rains...
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Louisiana Pacific Relents on Plant Inspection by Outside Experts - But Will There be One?
Louisiana Pacific Canada Ltd. has apparently had a change of heart. Initially, the company refused to allow an inspection of its wood products plant in the Swan Valley of western Manitoba by outside experts. But after a request from the Clean Environment Commission CEC, (an advisory body to the provincial government, it has agreed.
But only with strict conditions attached.
* LP must be given 5 business days advance notice.
* All those taking part must identify themselves with valid IDs in advance.
* The tour must be limited to six people.
* No photographs or recordings will be allowed.
* Participants must undergo a safety orientation.
* They must sign a waiver in order to get into the plant's production areas.
* The company will not answer any technical questions because "all pertinent technical information is already on the public record."
LP agreed after the Clean Environment Commission supported the request for the outside inspection from two citiz...
Mowing the Lawn