- Image via Wikipedia
Students Heading Back To School Go Green- Click This Link to See a Recent Channel 10 Interview with Ian and Maria
Its wonderful to see so many ‘green’ back-to-school products this year out in stores. All companies want to be green and some are greener than others, so make sure you do your homework before making those purchases. Look for products made from post-consumer recycled materials and products bearing the Forest Stewardship Council logo. Products bearing the FSC logo guarantee that the wood is from a certified well-managed forest.
Remember the first R is Reduce, so don’t buy more than you need. According to the Story of Stuff.com, 99% of the stuff we purchase (in North America) is trashed within 6 months of buying it. “How can we run a planet on that level of materials throughput?”, asks Annie Leonard.
The average American generates 4.5 pounds of garbage everyday! Floridians make twice the national average at 9 pounds of waste a day. And that is just a small portion of the trash created upstream to make the things we buy. From the Story of Stuff, for every one garbage can of waste you put out on the curb, 70 garbage cans of waste were made upstream (in production of the products we purchase) to create that one garbage can of junk.
There are a few additional things you can do to make your child’s school year more sustainable. Find out if your school has a recycling program, and not just for paper. Plastic water and juice bottles, cans and glass are a major source of waste. Lunches are a big source of waste also. It’s estimated that on average, schoolchildren generate 67 pounds of waste every year thanks to the plastic baggies, brown bags, and other waste used to pack lunches. Buy your child a reusable drink bottle, get rid of the brown paper bag lunch and try a laptop lunch box with reusable containers. Pack a cloth napkin rather than a paper napkin.
Many schools are adopting edible schoolyard garden projects. Find out if your child’s school has one. These projects are excellent ways to connect children to the natural world around them as well as their food supply. They serve as hands-on science laboratories. Children can also learn about vermiculture as a means to compost their lunch scraps.
Everyone taking small steps together leads to big change.
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- Waste-Free School Lunches (1800recycling.com)
- Green Your Kid’s Packed School Lunch: The Buy Guide (Slideshow) (treehugger.com)
- Litter Free Lunch – Making Kids A Greener Lunch (chicagonow.com)
- Do One Thing: Bring Home Your Recyclables. (thegoodhuman.com)
“Picture this, a blue planet protected by a thin layer of atmosphere that keeps temperature, air and water in perfect balance to maintain life. In the cold depths of space, this planet is a virtual paradise, the only one know of its kind. And, it is our planet, Earth. But something is wrong…human civilization and our relentless consumption has brought this planet to the brink. But specifically, our addiction to one single resource may push us over the edge. And, that resource is Oil.”
“”
“So get educated, stay educated, so we can think for ourselves and join the fight to save this unique blue planet for future generations,” DiCaprio closes. But, this problem of climate change is not really just a problem for future generations. As author Bill McKibben argues in his new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
- Image via Wikipedia
We also must engage our political system. We’ve seen no seriousness or urgency out of the Senate as the Clean Energy and Climate Change bill languished. As McKibben writes in the Huffington Post (linked below), “Political time is in short supply, too. So far, of course, Washington has done nothing—the Senate is currently considering a watered-down version of a watered-down bill, one that would only apply to electric utilities and only cause the slowest of changes, and even that has not persuaded President Obama to knock heads. He’ll go after BP, but not the GOP—the bill’s great champion, John Kerry, summed up the prevailing strategy for winning votes: “We believe we have compromised significantly, and we’re prepared to compromise further.” “
We can still bring change through grassroots efforts, like those of 350.org, 1Sky and Repower America (links below) and also through the efforts of many individuals calling their Senators to tell them that we need a bill that addresses climate change, carbon pollution and clean energy now. Get educated, stay educated and get active. Your future is now.
Links to Help You Get Active on this Issue:
Where to Find my U.S. Senators Contact Info
Repower America: Together, We Can Solve It
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- Book Review: McKibben’s Eaarth (cleantechies.com)
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- Google Eaarth Shows Our Hellish 4C Future if Republicans Filibuster 2010 Climate Bill (cleantechnica.com)
- Bill McKibben’s Eaarth (conclusion) (scientificamerican.com)
Image by Earthprints via Flickr
Windows to the Universe – from the educators at Windows to the Universe, a compilation of classroom activities for teachers and educators who wish to address oil spills and the effects of oil spills with students.
- Bird Baths: Cleaning Up Wildlife After Oil Spills, an activity from National Geographic
- Exploring Effects of Oil Spills on Birds, an activity from the Center for Global Environmental Education
- Liquid Density and Oil Spills, an activity from National Geographic
- What Happens When an Oil Spill Occurs? a resource from Teachers’ Domain
- Pollution Solution, from the Smithsonian Institution
- Oil Spill Activities, from the Gulf of Maine Aquarium
- Oil Spill: Exxon Valdez, 1989, a NOVA video from Teachers’ Domain
- Oil Spill Cleanup Middle School Experiment, an activity from the US EPA
- Responding to Oil Spills, resources from NOAA‘s National Ocean Service
- Global Marine Oil Pollution Information Gateway, resources from UNEP GPA
- Kids’ Pages on Oil in the Sea, resources from UNEP GPA
- Mixing Oil and Water, The Why Files
From the National Environmental Education Week newsletter:
Every young student can tell you what are the biggest theme-park attractions in Orlando. But probably very few can tell you about Big Tree Park, home Florida’s oldest and most distinguished resident, the Senator bald cypress tree. Located in Longwood, FL , the Senator majestically looms high as if he could touch the clouds, above a land blanketed with way too many strip malls and concrete.
Big Tree Park, part of the Spring Hammock Preserve is a nice reprieve from the modernized world and also a nice glimpse back at what Florida’s past must have looked like. Its amazing that the Senator still exists and wasn’t a casualty along the road of Florida’s development frenzy. (In fact, cypress wood was highly prized for building by early Floridians, as the heartwood is famous for its resistance to insects and decay. This characteristic is only found in very old cypress trees.)
The Senator has the the distinction of being the oldest cypress tree in North America and also the largest tree of any species east of the Mississippi River. Its estimated to be 3500 years old, and according to Wikipedia, the fifth oldest tree in the world. It is 125 feet (38 m) tall, with a trunk diameter of 17.5 feet (5.3 m). As you can read from the dedication plaque, the Seminole Indians and other Native Americans Indians used the tree as a landmark. In 1925, a hurricane destroyed the top of the tree, reducing its height by 47 feet.
Continue down the boardwalk and you will meet the Senator’s companion, Lady Liberty, a mere 2,000 years young.
Park admission is free and it is usually not very busy. I like to visit the Senator in different seasons. Its like returning to see an old friend, there is always something different and interesting going on.
Its almost impossible to capture the massiveness of the Senator cypress in a photo. To appreciate it, you will just have to visit in person (about a half hour drive from downtown Orlando).
 Maps with Driving Directions [Seminole County Disclaimer] |
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| Location: | West of U.S. 17-92 at 761 General Hutchinson Parkway Longwood, FL 32750 | |
| Hours: | The park hours are 8:00 a.m. to sunset seven days a week 363 days a year. (Note:Parks Close at 5pm on the day before Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve.)The park is closed for Thanksgiving and Christmas. | |
| Contact: | 407-665-2001 |
Plus 10 Reasons to Plant (Native to Your Area) Trees in Your Neighborhood
1. Trees Give us Clean Fresh Air- Trees absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen. Every mature urban tree removes up to 26 pounds of carbon dioxide and releases 13 pounds of oxygen into the air each year.
2. Trees Cool Our Earth- Trees cool the earth by giving us shade and by transpiring water through their leaves. Trees are known as carbon sinks because they remove the heat-trapping greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide from the air and store it.
3.Trees Act As Wind Break in a Storm or Hurricane-Trees that are planted and maintained correctly, serve as barriers against strong winds.
4. Trees Clean Our Water- Roots absorb and remove pollutants from the water that recharges our drinking water aquifer.
5. Trees Reduce Storm Runoff and Protect Against Topsoil Erosion- Humans need fertile topsoil to grow crops. The roots of trees hold onto the soil and save it from erosion.
6. Trees Provide Habitat for Native Wildlife and Migrating Birds- Trees provide nectar, nuts sees and fruit for wildlife to eat. Trees also provide another component of habitat, shelter and a place to raise young.
7. Trees Provide Food For Humans As Well.
8. Trees Increase Property Values and Add Beauty to the Landscape- Well cared for trees add 5-7% to the sale price of a home.
9. Trees Contribute to Community Pride and Peace- Urban communities with trees are more peaceful, quiet, and cooler and act as a deterrent to crime.
10. Without Trees There Would Be No Humans- Trees play a vital role in our planet’s ecosystems. The Amazon rainforest has been named the “Lungs of the Planet” because it provides the essential service of recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen and produces nearly 20% of the world’s oxygen.
More info on Trees:
Florida Urban Forestry Council
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Here is a partial transcript of that interview.
AMY GOODMAN: First of all, explain what Corexit is, the company that makes it, what’s in it, and your concerns.
HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money. And the government—both EPA, NOAA, etc.—have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up. Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that’s been going on for almost three months.
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve made comparisons between Corexit, the use of Corexit and hiding BP’s liability, and what happened at Ground Zero after the attacks of September 11th, Hugh Kaufman.
HUGH KAUFMAN: Yeah, I was one of the people who—well, I did. I did the ombudsman investigation on Ground Zero, where EPA made false statements about the safety of the air, which has since, of course, been proven to be false. Consequently, you have the heroes, the workers there, a large percentage of them are sick right now, not even ten years later, and most of them will die early because of respitory problems, cancer, etc., because of EPA’s false statements. And you’ve got the same thing going on in the Gulf, EPA administrators saying the same thing, that the air is safe and the water is safe…Same thing with OSHA with the workers, they’re using mostly BP’s contractor. And BP’s contractor for doing air testing is the company that’s used by companies to prove they don’t have a problem. If you remember the wallboard pollution problem from China, the wallboard from China, this company does that environmental monitoring. It’s a massive cover-up. And so far, luckily, we have two members of Congress and one member of the Senate on the case. Hopefully more will join in.
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: Hugh Kaufman, can you talk about this video clip? (It’s from an investigation from WKRG News 5 into the toxicity levels of water and sand on public beaches around Mobile, Alabamba. One of the water samples collected near a boom at Dauphin Island Marina just exploded when mixed with an organic solvent separating the oil from the water.)
HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, yes. I saw that when it first came out, I think on Sunday. And what they documented was that the water—you know, when you’re on the sand with your children and they dig, and there’s a little water?—they documented there was over 200 parts per million of oil waste in the water, and it’s not noticeable to the human eye, that the children were playing with on the beach. On top of it, the contamination in one of the samples was so high that when they put the solvent in, as a first step in identifying how much oil may be in the water, the thing blew up, just as he said, probably because there was too much Corexit in that particular sample. But what’s funny about that is, on Thursday, the administrator of EPA, in answering Senator Mikulski’s question at the hearing that you played the clip on, said that EPA has tested the water up to three miles out and onshore and found that it’s safe. And then, a few days later, the television station in Pensacola and in Mobile document with their own limited testing that that statement was false, misleading and/or inaccurate by the administrator, under oath, to Senator Mikulski in that hearing.
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As the Gulf of Mexico continues to fill up with oil with no end in sight, the reports continue to bring us more distressing news. As of June 16, NOAA tells us that 1/3 of the Gulf is now closed to fishing.
Methane (a very potent greenhouse gas) adds a new dimension to this ever-unfolding catastrophe. The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill. “This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,” Kessler stated.
Meanwhile according to McClatchy News Service, the Department of the Interior’s MMS approved at least 5 new oil drilling projects without environmental review.
What can you do to express your outrage at this environmental cataclysm caused by human greed and non-existent government regulation?
Attend a Hands Across the Sand event near you on June 26th. The image is powerful, the message is simple. NO to Offshore Oil Drilling, YES to Clean Energy. On Fort Lauderdale Beach, the event is being held at the intersection of AIA and Las Olas Boulevard. Here is a link to one of the Facebook pages created for the event.
To find an event near you go to
HandsAcrosstheSand.com.
See you at the beach…
From the South Florida Wildlands Association:
The Department of the Interior needs to hear from you. The current moratorium on deepwater drilling should become a permanent ban. Current deep water drilling pushes the limits of human technology. The acknowledgement before Congress by executives of virtually all oil companies engaged in deepwater operations that they would be as incapable as BP of coping with the current spill, makes any other course of action far too risky.
The Minerals Management Service (MMS), has allowed numerous ‘environmental waivers’ for offshore oil operations in both deep and shallow waters. The DOI should undertake an immediate and complete review of all current permits. Where environmental safeguards are lax, non-existent, not enforced, or not up to ‘best available science’, the DOI should halt the operation immediately. The DOI must implement a monitoring and inspection system on all remaining offshore oil operations to insure that environmental safeguards are being met on a regular basis. See the below link.
Additional Links to Help You Get Active on this Issue:
Where to Find my U.S. Senators Contact Info
Repower America: Together, We Can Solve It
Naomi Klein in the Guardian
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- The Spill, The Scandal and The President (rollingstone.com)
- Senator says BP violating law on blowout preventers (cnn.com)
- Pssst … drill, baby, drill (beliefnet.com)
This is the creepiest ad. The ‘drill baby, drill’ chants from the crowd make me imagine a blood-thirsty crowd of Romans awaiting a gladiator fight.
This creates once again an opportunity to mention how important it is to demand clean energy and climate change action from our elected officials. Call your Senators. And please tell them, you don’t want a bill full of giveaways to big polluters and more offshore drilling.
Have you visited the Repower America Wall? Add your voice today.
Links to Get You Active on this Issue:
Where to Find my U.S. Senators Contact Info
Repower America: Together, We Can Solve It
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- Gulf Oil Spill: A Symbol Of What Fossil Fuels Do To The Earth Every Day, Say Environmentalists (huffingtonpost.com)
- Energy and Climate Bill Includes Offshore Drilling (cleantechies.com)
We are already bumping up against limits, a changing climate and limits with how much carbon dioxide our atmosphere will take. Oil companies are taking more and more risk to push the edge of technology to grab as much oil as they can. With all their billions, they lobby against environmental regulation. Now, we are seeing the results at the intersection of complacent government and billionaire petrol giants.
One of the truly saddest articles I read this week was in Spiegel Online. It read, Expert Recommends Killing Oil-Soaked Birds because according to studies because less than 1% of the oil-soaked birds survive. The Prestige spill killed 250,000 birds. Of the thousands that were cleaned, most died within a few days, and only 600 lived and were able to be released into the wild. According to a British study of the spill, the median lifespan of a bird that was cleaned and released was only seven days. Do we turn a blind eye to how this impacts our home and the species we share it with?
This week, US Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, quoted Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman to the Senate’s Environment and Public Relations Committee. “He said that when it comes to reliance on modern technology, ‘Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.’ ”
Nelson concluded his testimony, “Madam Chairman, members of the committee, I believe the ultimate answer to America’s energy needs lies not in oil, but in alternative fuels and new energy technologies. And I think we can help pay for an accelerated national energy program by ending the billions of dollars in giveaways to the oil industry; by making sure it pays all its taxes and royalties.”
Please join Senator Nelson in his call for no more offshore oil drilling. Call your US Senators, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, record a message at the Repower America Wall.
Links to Get You Active on this Issue:
Where to Find my U.S. Senators Contact Info
Repower America: Together, We Can Solve It
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness…. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” – Howard Zinn, 1922-2010
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- Climate Bill to Include State Opt-Out for Offshore Drilling (news.firedoglake.com)
- Image by Earthprints via Flickr
America faces unparalleled economic, national security and environmental challenges. The solution seems simple- make a transition to clean, renewable energy. A majority of Americans support a clean energy future, but powerful special interests block our path, and are spending millions of dollars to protect their interests.
What can you do? Call your US Senators today and tell them you want a clean energy future and real comprehensive climate change legislation. Don’t just call once, call often and tell your friends to do the same. Then add your voice to the Repower America Wall.
Here is an excerpt from the Repower America Wall recorded by our beloved science guy, Bill Nye. In this video Nye talks about the need for patriotic young Americans to get excited about math and science so that they can develop the new technologies for energy and sustainable living. “If we don’t act on climate change, other countries will… The United States invented light bulbs. It invented audio. It invented television. The United States sent the first people to the moon…Why shouldn’t the United States come up with the new technologies in energy? Wouldn’t that be great?”
Nye concludes, “Add your voice. Influence our leaders. Let’s get going on this. The problem is real and its serious.”
Links to Get You Active on this Issue:
Where to Find my U.S. Senators Contact Info
Repower America: Together, We Can Solve It
” I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as if they were great and noble. The world is moved along , not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”- Hellen Keller
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In this video for the Global Oneness Project, she discusses our collective disposability consciousness. “When I started thinking about disposability consciousness, I went and asked a lot of native people that I know if, in their original language they had any words for waste, disposable, or trash, and I have yet to find in any traditional language words for waste, disposable, or trash because all traditional knowledge knows that there’s no such thing, ” says Hill.
Hill examines how waste and disposables are magnifiers of our lost connection to the sacred. “Those forms of disconnect work best when they just subtly weave themselves into the fabric of our lives where we just take it for granted that we’re going to go to the coffee shop and get coffee that came from an exploited community somewhere where a forest was destroyed for a monoculture, put it in a paper cup that used to be a forest, put a plastic lid on top of it that used to be an indigenous community somewhere in a beautiful area, drink it, and then throw it away where it goes back and pollutes a nature community or a human community at the end.
We cannot have peace on the earth unless we also have peace with the earth. Our disposability consciousness is a weapon of mass destruction.
It is the most joyful life-affirming choice to let go of disposability consciousness and to reclaim every moment, every day, every choice as a step towards healing.”
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