Video: Biden On The Environment

on global warming…

on the Kyoto Protocol

on renewable energy (ignore the bottled water)

on public tranportation

Dead Zone Grows With Summer Flooding

Summer floodin’ had me a blast
Summer floodin’ happened so fast

Scientists say the dead zone at the delta of the Mississippi River has reached over 8,000 square miles.  The heavy summer flooding has brought all kinds of fertilizer and pesticides down river from Iowa and the rest of the corn belt.  Corn is a dirty crop and has an outreach far beyond its overly fertilized soil.  Check out the documentary, King Corn.  We wrote about it a few months ago and it has a lot of info on the affect corn has on the ecosystem.  Since corn farmers generally aren’t rotating crops, they have to soak the fields with ammonia and fertilizer to get the crop to grow year-after-year.  This is leaving this huge dead zone.  The lack of oxygen is killing all of the wildlife and the entire ecosystem.   Watch more at this CNN video below.

Robert F Kennedy Jr Breaks It Down At NeoCon

Did I not mention this yesterday?  Well - I happened to be reading through the NeoCon magazine and never thought about how I had access to all of the speakers, etc.  This one totally slipped past me.  Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of Bobby Kennedy and the well-known environmentalist was speaking at NeoCon.  I looked through the book and initially thought I missed it - nope - 8am, Tuesday June 10th.  I’m in. 

I got up early to catch the 6:34am train into the office - which happens to be directly across the Chicago river from the Merchandise Mart, home of NeoCon.  I got to work in time to pickup my credentials and drop off my laptop.  I ran over to the Mart and waited for an elevator.  I got in and took the elevator up - the operator informs me that it only went to the 11th floor - I had to get to 14.  I exited at 11 and found my way to the 14th floor.  I got out and looked around and said “WTF?”  The hallway was empty - devoid of life - just shops with Christmas items - weird.  It’s now 8am and I look in the program again.  Oh shit! It’s at the Holiday Inn Merchandise Mart - connected, but in a different building.  I’m not waiting 10min for an elevator again, so I ran down 14 floors of stairs, across the street and made it to the correct venue.  Phew - I made it.  Guess what - the 8am program didn’t start until 8:25am.  A lot of running around for nothing.

If you’ve never heard Robert F Kennedy Jr speak, he has what I can only describe as a type of speech imediment - like he’s gasping for air.  He started out a little groggy, but once his words are rolling, he’s fine. I only bring this up because I was a little worried that the speech would lack something.  In retrospect, he could have been speaking German and I’d have been fine tuned to every last umlaut.  I guess in my case, he was speaking to the choir. 

I’m not a big fan of politics - never have been - but it is important to stay in touch with the world.  With the latest administration, it’s impossible not to speak about or speak up about, rather, the political landscape.  Kennedy made the point that Americans can tell you what color underwear that Lindsey Lohan is wearing, but can’t tell you much, if anything, about what is happening in the world (if you’re keeping score at home, the correct answer is, Lindsey doesn’t wear underwear).  I think his quote was, “we’re the most entertained and least informed society anywhere.”  People need to get out from under their rock which is general American media which is controlled by about 5 different companies. 

Kennedy went over so many facts about the current administration that I had no idea about.  He calls out all of these folks who are supporting environmental endeavors in the Bush administration as “former” lobbyists for bad people.  I put “former” in quotes because many of these people - when they leave their posts, they go back to where they came from.  They go back to the coal and oil companies. 

I can’t do any of his speech justice, so I’d suggest taking some time and watching it for yourself.   Some of these video clips are pretty much exactly the same speech I heard.

How the media fails us:

Here is a speech that is very similar to the speech he gave today:

Adapt Nature or Adapt To Nature?

Please excuse my diarrhea of the brain while I ponder and pander.

Who is smarter - the human or nature?  I’m talking about the modern, civilized cultures.  You may remember the movie from the 80’s called “The God’s Must Be Crazy.”  There is a particular part of that movie where then introduce the western culture and compare it to the aboriginal culture.  The aborigine adapts to his environment.  The aborigine protects nature and lives in harmony with nature.  The modern human adapts his environment to suit his needs.  What is the measure of wealth here?

We are habit forming creatures who are seeking comfort and something bigger and better all the time.  I think that might be the problem.  Rarely are we satisfied with life.  If you’re not always striving for what society deems as a better life (mostly material goods and thoughts), you are then somehow  a bad person.  There is no way you could really be happy.  The book, The Paradox of Choice talks about this phenomenon.  Sometimes enough should be enough.  There comes a time when there is too much choice because we chasing pipe dreams of what life should be.  I think this is why chain restaurants like Chipotle and Potbelly’s thrive, actually.  They have 10 menu items.  This is what you get.  It’s quick (which ties into our culture).  It tastes good.  Finally, there is very little choice.  There is little room to always second guess your choice (I’m sure many still do, however). 

This brings me back to my first question.  Are we as modern civilized humans smarter than nature because we change the environment to suit our needs?  Or is the aborigine (with little carbon footprint, mind you) the smarter human?  Can we out-think nature?  We obviously try all the time.  Personally, I feel that we have a lot to learn from nature.  For instance - did you ever notice that leaves aren’t dusty and dirty?  Most leaves have microscopic bumps on them and the dirt teaters on the top - rain comes and washes away the dirt easily.  The lotus leaf is the main one that is usually referenced - a paint company makes exterior paint that mimics this.

Think about a bird.  A bird finds a mate.  The bird then builds a nest and lays eggs.  Can the bird survive in a nest made out of toxic materials?  Will the eggs hatch and produce healthy “children” in this nest filled with chemicals and “un-natural” materials?  Will the offspring of the offspring survive or will nature lose in this toxic world?  I’m betting on the latter.  Is this the same world we’re bringing our children into?  Is it the world we were brought into? 

I am not even clear in my own head what I am trying to communicate here.  I’m obviously a bit frustrated.  We can’t change the past, but we can make positive strides towards improving the future.  I hate this euphemism, but, yes - changing a light bulb can make a difference.  Using healthy, clean, safe products can make a difference.  Buying local and organic food can make a difference.  Drying your clothes outside can make a difference.  Raising our children with these values passes this on to other generations.  These kids need to learn that life shouldn’t be about materialism.  That’s all they’re taught from birth, though. 

Someone I heard speak recently put it into a context that many of us can relate to.  In the 70’s and even early 80’s, it wasn’t uncommon to see someone chuck a bag of fast-food trash (with the Styrofoam Big Mac container) out the window of a moving care.  Littering was almost accepted.  Since then, there have been a ton PSA’s and people generally look at litterers as something that is bad (give a hoot, don’t pollute).  We have the power to start that chain reaction now./  Green doesn’t have to be a fad.  I hope when my children are my age, they won’t have to teach anyone to “go green.”  Green will be normal - it will be unthinkable to do it another way.  Of course, this assumption provides that there are resources available and not 10billion industrialized people in this world.

There is no way we can look out for and take care of our future generations.  We can only take care of the container they will be born into. 

The Gods Must Be Crazy : The civilized man part starts at 5:35

Science Fair: 16 Year Old Degrades Plastic

A 16 year old kid named Daniel Burd in Ontario set out to create a science project for the Canada-wide Science Fair.  He wondered - if plastic bags eventually do degrade after 1,000 years - what makes them eventually degrade?  If we can figure that out, we can probably make them degrade faster - short of using plasma gassification. 

Turns out that Daniel is wise beyond his years and is $30,000 richer for it.  He tried to isolate which microbes actually degrade the plastic.  After a lot of experimentation and weighing, etc, he figures that he can degrade a bag in as little as 90 days. 

See - the children ARE our future :-) 

I encourage you to read the entire article at the link below.

Source: The Blue Marble, The Record

PS - Special thanks to Mr Doyle for the reference

Easy Green: Rain Barrel Time

In most parts of the country, you don’t have to worry about freezing anymore.  It’s time to break out the rain barrels!  I actually put mine out several weeks ago. There is a lot of rain this time of year and your barrels will fill up amazingly fast.  My water is just sitting there waiting for the new flowers that need some love.

Why have a rain barrel?  I have one because I wanted to build a project and I wanted to harvest rain water.  It’s not entirely because I’m cheap - part of it is definitely the standard answer - because I can.  The less water going into our storm sewers, the  better - back to the earth, baby. 

There are a few options on rain barrels - buy one or make one yourself.  It all depends on the look you’re going for.  For me, I made my own. After doing some research, I found that the best recommended barrel material is food-grade plastic.  I called up a Coca-Cola bottling plant nearby and they happily gave me as many barrles as I wanted.  I could only fit two in the car and I thought that was a good starting point.  If you really wanted them to be prettier, you could paint them with some Krylon plastic paint (it’s made for childrens outdoor plastic toys, etc) - but I can’t really recommend spray paint on a green site, right?

Last year, I only hooked up one barrel.  That seemed to be pretty sufficient for our watering needs, but since I had the other barrel just staring at me, I decided to daisy chain them together.  So right now, I have two 55gal barrels on my deck - about 2 feet above the ground with spigots coming off of them. 

Basic setup:

• Food-grade barrel
• Spigot
• Downspout attachment with screen
• Overflow pipe (important)

My Setup

• Downspout into barrel one
• Overflow pipe out of barrel one - flexible sump pump hose
• Spigot near bottom of barrel
• Barb connector near top of barrel one - just below overflow line
• Barb connector in identical spot on barrel two
• Spigot near bottom of barrel

When barrel one fills up, it spills over into barrel two.  When barrel two is full, there is no where for the water to go, so it exits from the overflow flexible hose.  The barrels are elevated about two feet which is plenty of gravity to water pretty much anything I need.

One big question everyone asks is regarding mosquitoes.  Yes, they can be an issue with an open-ended rain barrel.  You want to make sure your barrel is as tight as possible or has screen prevening mosquitoes from getting to the water in the first place.  If they can’t get in, they can’t lay eggs.  Maybe you inherited barrels that have open holes.  In this case there are a few options.  Instead of contaminating the water with some chemicals, try adding a little veggie oil. The oil will create a barrier at the top of the water and not let the eggs break through.  Another option is adding some cider vinegar to the water.  This will kill anything that has hatched and deter moquitoes from visiting to lay more eggs.

Earth Day: Chicago Green Drinks Edition

How did I spend the actual Earth Day, April 22?  At work, of course.  I wish I could tell you that I attended some rally or something.  I fed my worms at my desk an apple core - that should keep them happy for a while.  How did I spend my Earth Day evening?  I attended Chicago Green Drinks with well over 100 other folks.  It was standing room only tonight.  Let’s just put it this way, if the speaker had pyrotechnics and the place caught on fire - my charred corpse would still be there (with a Fat Tire beer in hand).

Tonight was a special Green Drinks and one that I have been looking forward to for a long time.  I kinda felt bad going without my wife, but she was unable to attend because we didn’t have a babysitter and the event is all the way in the city and I was already there for work.  Why have I been looking forward to this one?  Sadhu Johnston was speaking.  He is the Deputy Mayor of Chicago and the first Chief Environmental Officer for the City of Chicago.

This is the third time I’ve seen Sadhu speak in person.  The first was at the Green Festival last year.  I’ve also seen him on Sara Snow’s show on Discovery Health.  The topic for the evening was the “state of the environment” for the City.  What have they been working on, what’s coming up, etc.  So let’s get in to the meat of the presentation.

The City of Chicago announced today a program to start collecting and recycling pharmaceuticals.  Currently, since pharmas are controlled substances, they have to be collected in a controlled environment.  I can just imagine a drop-box in the middle of the city and homeless folks walking around with issues from the little blue pills they took.  Yes - I just painted that picture in your head.  So to get the party started, the collections will be held at police stations throughout the city.  There haven’t been any major retailers who have agreed to collect these items - meaning Walgreens, CVS, etc.

Energy - On Saturday, you may recall from my posts that we attended what the city is calling “mega events.”  These are large scale household recycling events.  More than 3,500 people showed up.  That’s insane - but so great!

Sadhu also reported that the City is getting 20% of its power from green sources.  On top of that, they have a proposal out for a 1megawatt solar installation at a city pumping station. 

Climate Change - 70% of Chicago’s energy spent is on buildings.  20% is on mobile (buses, cars, etc).  They hope to reduce these emissions 80% by 2050.  That’s an enormous undertaking and is going to take a lot of little steps.

There is a program underway to help retrofit older buildings.  Many new buildings are already being LEED certified and building green.  You can get expedited permits if you build within sustainable standards.  The Merchandise Mart is one of the first old buildings to sign on.  If you’re not from here, the Merchandise Mart is so large that it has its own zip code.  They have realized a 12% reduction in energy which is amounting to approx. $12 million in savings.  If you don’t think the little things matter - listen to this.  They found that something as simple as cleaning their dust mop heads has saved them time, energy, and man power.  A clean mop works better and they don’t have to mop as often.

The last climate change intiative that Sadhu spoke of is called “transit oriented development.”  This is simply building housing and communities around transportation nodes.

There were more facts and figures and Q&A.  Many people are concerned over residential recycling in the city.  First off, the blue bag program doesn’t work.  Everyone is aware of that.  There is a bin system that is being rolled out, but it’s slow going due to infrastructure and just plain logistics.  Residents can get a grant of $75/year to help offset the cost of hiring a private company to haul your recycling waste.  If you live in an apartment building, this can make it very affordable and thus reduce your garbage going out to the curb.

Overall, I was happy that I attended the event.  I always enjoy Green Drinks and it’s enlightening to go and see so many people show up.  You really feel part of a community and know that Chicago is serious about the environment.  We’re one of the greenest cities in the country and getting better all the time.  Going to the event also affords me the opportunity to read and blog on the train while going home (like right now).

Happy Earth Day: Be Part Of The Solution

Earth Day 2008: E-Waste Disposal Event

1-800-GOT-JUNK is holding nationwide events on Saturday, April 19th for Earth Day to collect and recycle e-waste. ” 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is committed to keeping communities clean, and hazardous junk out of our landfills. We will be out in numerous communities across North America offering free e-waste collection.* We have teamed up with various electronic waste recyclers and together will properly collect and recycle thousands of pounds of e-waste on this one day.”  They charge a nominal amount for disposal of TVs and monitors in some locations.

In Chicago, you can take your computers to the Goose Island Household Chemical and Computer Recycling Center for recycling year-round.  They also take televisions and cell phones (and of course, household chemicals like paint).

Many Goodwill stores will accept computers free of charge where they will recycle what they cannot sell.

Some Catridge World stores will accept e-waste free of charge.  Call the store first.

Dell and Apple will recycle anything they make.  Apple will also take cell phones for recycling free of charge.

Still not sure where to dispose of something?  Check out Earth 911.

Source: 1-800-GOT-JUNK

Boo: Cotton Industry Commercial

Cotton Commerical - Goodbye

The commerical says, “Goodbye Mystery Fabric, Hello Cotton.” Great. That’s not the message I saw when I watched it. I saw people throwing clothing - usable clothing, good clothing - in the garbage. According to this article, over 145 billion pounds of recyclable clothing is sent to landfill each year. So many useful items that could have been donated to a resale/thrift store. Goodwill takes unsaleable textiles and sells them to textile recycling centers.

Annually, textile recycling removes 2.5 billion pounds of consumer clothing waste headed for landfills. This is an average of 10 pounds per American, but it barely puts a dent in the amount that goes to waste.  Almost half of the garments reclaimed by textile recyclers are exported to Third World nations to clothe the world’s poorest people.

We’re not even going into traditional cotton (which uses about 25% of the  all insecticides).  If you want to read stats on cotton - this is a good resource.  Anyway - watch the video above - lemme know what you think?  I don’t think it’s a very good message…I know that I’m probably being too nitpicky.

Source: North Texan Online