Endangered Spaces blog

43 Years Ago . . .

2009-07-02T21:59:00.003-05:00

The crisis of our diminishing water resources is just as severe (if less obviously immediate) as any wartime crisis we have ever faced.

Our survival is just as much at stake as it was at the time of Pearl Harbor, or the Argonne, or Gettysburg, or Saratoga.

Jim Wright, U.S. Representative, The Coming Water Famine, 1966

Extinction is Forever : Canada Lynx

2009-06-29T20:40:00.003-05:00

Endangered by Global Warming : Canadian Lynx

Scientific Name: Lynx canadensis
Range: Canada and Northern U.S.
Status:” Threatened” under ESA
Global warming impacts: Warm spells affect duration and texture of the snowpack, which changes hunting dynamics between the lynx and showshoe hare.
Implications: The lynx-hare relationship is key to sustaining plant communities of boreal (northern) forest ecosystems.

Extinction is Forever : Leatherback Turtles

2009-06-27T15:06:00.000-05:00

Endangered by Global Warming : Leatherback Turtles

Record Holders: Leatherbacks are the largest of all sea turtles and are the deepest divers of any reptile species, reaching documented depths greater than 4,000 feet.
Ocean Wanderers: Leatherbacks have the broadest range of any sea turtles and can be found in temperate and tropical oceans around the planet.
Jellyfish Explosion: Experts believe that declining sea turtle numbers as responsible for a population explosion of jellyfish, the leatherbacks' principal diet.
Flooded Beaches: Rising sea levels and stronger tropical storms threaten breeding beaches and nests.
Warming Nests: Hotter sand means hotter nests, resulting in lower hatching rates and fewer males.

More on Leatherback Turtles

Leatherbacks were listed as endangered in 1970 and confront multiple threats from humans, from unintentionally being caught in fishing nets to intentionally being harvested for meat. Their estimated numbers are down to 26,000 – 43,000 nesting females, a dramatic decline from the 115,000 estimated in 1980.

We need Congress to act by passing a national cap on America's global warming pollution. This is the first critical step in slowing and reversing the threat of global warming.

Take action and spread the word at the Environmental Defense Fund website:

http://www.edf.org/warmingwildlife

Help Push Climate Bill Through House

2009-06-25T14:11:00.007-05:00

Stop Global Warming

We have a chance to pass climate legislation this year. The longer we wait to cut our global warming pollution, the harder it will be to solve this crisis. Please take action to support a final push to victory in the House.

Please visit Environmental Defense Action Fund website and take action to let your elected representatives know where you stand. Do not stop there, take the following steps to help push the bill through the House.

Spread the Word: We must show our strength in numbers to those who want to defeat climate change legislation. Please ask your friends to stand with us and help make climate action a top priority. You can use our tell-a-friend form on the website or you can simply email this url to your friends and family: http://action.environmentaldefense.org/campaign/cap_globalwarming_now
Call Your Representative: Dial the Capitol Hill switchboard -- (202) 224-3121 -- and ask for your Rep's office. Tell the office staff that you are a voter back home and that you support the American Clean Energy and Security Act because it will create jobs, unleash our clean energy future, free us from foreign oil, and cut America's global warming pollution. When you're done with the Capitol Hill office, please look up your member at http://www.house.gov/ and find the phone numbers for home district offices -- let the staff back home know what you think, too.
Facebook/Twitter It: Use your social networks to spread the word. Below are Facebook & Twitter length blurbs you can post right now:

Facebook: The House is schedule to vote this Friday on Waxman-Markey, the most important climate bill of our lives. Take action today, and urge your Representative to vote YES! http://bit.ly/lyaXR Then, please share with your friends!
Twitter: RT @EnvDefenseFund: House scheduled to vote on most important climate bill of our lives Friday. Tell them to vote YES - http://bit.ly/KzR9A

Here are five positive issues addressed by the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Use these for your own blog post or email to your friends and family.

It sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions at 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050. These cuts are in line with what scientists say are necessary to prevent the threat of run-away global warming.
It establishes a program to reward innovation and spur investment in clean energy technologies and new manufacturing jobs.
It promotes clean energy by requiring that 20% of electricity comes from a combination of renewable sources, such as wind and solar, and energy efficiency by 2020.
It provides an incentive for other countries without a cap on carbon to limit their emissions, by allowing the president to impose fees on carbon-intensive imports from nations that haven’t adopted their own greenhouse gas cap (starting in 2025).
It is our single best chance to pass a climate bill this year and may be our only chance to solve the global warming crisis.

So, take action or whistle in the dark when the lights go out.

100% Recycled, Wildflower Embeded Paper

2009-06-23T16:47:00.009-05:00

Now, here is a great idea!

Plantable Paper

Plantable paper is 100% post-consumer waste paper embedded with wildflower seeds. After the announcement is read, invitation noted, thanks accepted or birthday celebrated, you plant the paper and, voilà, wildflowers grow.

Bird's Eye
Clarkia
Black Eyed Susan
Poppy
Catchfly
Snap Dragon

They have a full selection of business and greeting cards, invitation and thank you cards, stationery with matching envelopes.

Do it Yourself : Plantable Paper

You may use toilet paper, paper grocery bags, junk mail, tissue paper, napkins or paper towels, construction paper or phone book pages. Gather your seeds, your paper and check out the directions on eHow. Tricia Goss gives step by step directions on how to make plantable paper. What a wonderful activity for children.

Good News!

This is how we should all be looking at recyclable materials. How may we recycle, reuse, repurpose materials that are now considered "waste." Whether you craft it yourself or purchase it online, be on the lookout for this Plantable Paper, a totally green replacement for paper cards.

Extinction is Forever - Sugar Maples

2009-06-23T13:50:00.000-05:00

Endangered by Global Warming : Sugar Maples

New England Icon: The sugar maple is a New England icon. For centuries, the trees' sap has provided a livelihood for generations of farmers, and maple syrup has become a $65 million per year industry.
Warmer Seasons: Warmer winters and earlier springs have led to earlier and shorter "sugaring" seasons, the period when the trees' sap is running, and is putting a strain on this industry.
Winter Freeze: During cold winters, sugar maples "recharge" themselves by letting the sap freeze from the inside of the tree out. They need these hard freezes to thrive, and warmer winters resulting from global warming will leave the trees vulnerable to pests.
Vibrant Falls: The sugar maple is also the source of the brilliant autumn reds that make them the jewels of New England's fall landscape. Fall tourism is worth billions to New England.

In a new online campaign launched by Environmental Defense Fund, you can learn about the threat of global warming through the prism of seven "ambassador species" living plants and animals already feeling the heat.

Please visit EDF, take action and spread the word. It only takes a minute or two and YOU can make a difference.

Extinction is Forever - Monarch Butterflies

2009-06-22T13:27:00.003-05:00

Endangered by Global Warming : Monarch Butterfly

Broad Range: The monarch spends at least part of its life in all of the lower 48 states.
Miraculous Migration: They carry on one of the most spectacular seasonal migrations of any creature on Earth - and it takes multiple generations to complete.
Habitat Threats: Climate change is threatening both their wintering grounds in Mexico (due to wetter mountain winters) and their summer breeding grounds (due to hotter, drier summers in eastern U.S. and Canda).
Small Critter, Big Loss: Because of the monarch's vast migration, their decline could have seriously negative impacts on the pollination of plants across the country.

It may not yet ring true for many Americans, but the warming planet is already changing habitat for countless species – in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

For most species threatened by global warming, other human activities over many years have already pushed them to the brink. One of the great tragedies is that after so many years of trying to right these wrongs, global warming threatens to reverse our conservation gains.

Here's the brutal truth: If we don't take action now to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, these and hundreds of thousands other species are doomed.

Take action and spread the word at the Environmental Defense Fund website:

http://www.edf.org/warmingwildlife

2009-06-22T07:42:00.000-05:00

Not a Paper Cup $19.95

The Rainforest Site will preserve 2290.0 sq. ft. of land for each Not a Paper Cup purchased.

e-mail product to a friend

Let us consider the elegant aesthetic of a simple white take-out cup -- pure utility, no frills -- a veritable blank canvas for the thoughts of an early morning commute. Now contemplate that same concept, but better! Imagine all the trees you'll save...

Double-walled ceramic for perfect insulation
Snug-fitting silicone lid withstands temperatures to 446 Fahrenheit (230 Celsius)
Keeps your beverage warm longer than a paper cup
Environmentally friendly
Microwave and dishwasher safe
Holds 16 oz.
6" T x 4" dia. at top (15.2 x 10.2 cm)
Imported

Shop Green!

Plastic Taking Over Pacific Ocean

2009-06-04T20:12:00.005-05:00

The plastic that is thrown out a window today, finds it way to the creek and then the river and, finally, the ocean.

Mussels have microscopic bits of plastic in their blood. Seabirds starve to death because their bellies are full of trash instead of fish. Seals are pooping out bits of colored plastic. Hermit Crabs live in plastic bottle caps rather than shells. Birds are building nests out of drinking straws, ear swabs and plastic twine. (Message in a Bottle, May/June 2009, Sierra Magazine).

The Garbage Patch (western Pacific gyre) is now estimated to be 2-3 the size of Texas, with some estimates as high as 5 million square miles. That is 1-1/2 the size of the continental USA! The Garbage Patch has been encountered 500 miles of California and 200 miles off the coast of Japan. There is now evidence of an eastern Pacific gyre.

The answer: cut off plastic at the source. Manufacturers and distributors of these plastic parts will have to become responsible. We may see the end of Styrofoam containers in restaurants, plastic lids and straws may disappear from McDonald's, and runoff laws may tighten for cities.

Whether it will enough and timely is another question entirely. What can you do? Stop using plastic. Buy ceramic coffee mugs and steel liquid containers and keep at home, in your car, and at work. Do not reuse plastic bottles as BPAs may be released into the drink. Shop for alternatives to plastic storage containers, especially when used for storing food or drink for children.

Economic and Glacial Meltdown 2009

2009-05-19T17:05:00.012-05:00

Global warming is draining our economy

We have already lost billions because of climate change. According to a University of Maryland study, costs already accrued include:

-----$1.3 billion – the amount of damage associated with crop loss as a result of Georgia’s drought in 2007
-----$300 million – reconstruction costs for the damage caused to rail transportation by Hurricane Katrina
-----$272 million – insured catastrophic losses in 2007, as a result of increasing flood damage.
The cost is projected to be far greater. The total cost of global warming will be 3.6 percent of GDP if present trends continue, according to a report from Tufts University.

Four global warming impacts alone – hurricane damage, real estate losses, energy costs, and water costs – will come with a price tag of 1.8 percent of U.S. GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually (in today's dollars) by 2100, according to the same study.

Losses will be massive to state economies. The impact of global warming on three sectors – tourism, electric utilities and real estate – together with hurricane damage would shrink Florida’s GDP by more than 5 percent by the end of the century, according to another report from Tufts University.

Waiting to act will only cost us more

Delaying just two years will require twice the effort. An analysis of 2008 climate legislation shows that waiting just two years to tackle global warming would require more than double the annual cuts in emissions to achieve the same cumulative goal – 4.3 percent in annual cuts versus 2 percent.
We should not delay investment and job creation. Companies are waiting for new rules before they invest billions in new power plants and other projects. A cap is necessary to unfreeze this investment. A cap will also create new manufacturing jobs, like making steel for wind turbines. See our online map, featuring 1,200 green jobs in key manufacturing states.

Damage from global warming grows more deadly

Science shows that climate measures are needed now more than ever.

Massive hurricanes. Warming ocean temperatures are unleashing violent hurricanes, reaching new levels of intensity and aggression previously unseen. A landmark MIT study in 2005 confirmed that hurricane intensity has doubled over the last 30 years. Since that study, no fewer than 16 other studies have supported the link between global warming and hurricane intensity, illustrating a growing and grave threat to humanity.
Increasing drought. Higher temperatures are evaporating water at a rapid pace, putting water supplies, livestock and crops in danger. Severe drought conditions began damaging wide swaths of North America, southern Europe and southern and central Asia at the turn of the century and in 2004, the Western U.S. experienced the most severe drought in 80 years and one of the most severe in 500 years.
More frequent and severe wildfires. As the climate warms, hot, dry summers are creating tinderbox conditions ideal for wildfires. “Since 1986,” Steven W. Running reported in Science magazine in August 2006, “longer, warmer summers have resulted in a fourfold increase of major [U.S.] wildfires and a sixfold increase in the area of forest burned, compared to the period from 1970 to 1986.”
Accelerated flooding and coastal erosion. Rising sea levels, caused by global warming, not only flood the land but also erode more coastline with higher ocean waves, threatening coastal populations and habitats. Over the 20th century, the seas rose between four and eight inches – ten times the average rate of the last 3,000 years. If sea level continues to rise, thousands of square miles of land in densely populated areas such as the eastern U.S. may be lost in a century or two.

Cutting emissions is a bargain

The cost of a carbon cap to American families and the U.S. GDP is almost too small to calculate, finds our comprehensive analysis of economic models.

In present-value terms, the median projected impact of climate policy is less than one-half of one percent of U.S. GDP for the period 2010-2030, and under three-quarters of one percent through the middle of the century.
In the year 2030, the U.S. economy is projected to be nearly double today’s size. The median forecast cost to the U.S. economy of capping greenhouse gas emissions is only 0.58 percent, according to an EDF study.
The overall cost of capping greenhouse gases for the average American family will amount to 1 percent or less of household budgets over the next two decades.

Read the analyses and reports on the website of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Or, Read On . . .

Climate action obstructionists (oil/gas/coal lobbyists' elected stooges) are trying to halt climate legislation by tacking on 450 worthless amendments to the Climate Legislation currently in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

With amendments like these, even environment-friendly legislators would have a hard time voting for the bill:

50 amendments to allow each of the 50 states to opt out of the pollution reduction requirements.
50 amendments to allow utilities from each state to avoid paying for global warming pollution credits.
amendment calling for review of the tax status of the Environmental Defense Fund.
amendments to eliminate all the tax benefits for businesses involved in the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).
amendment to use Presidio, part of San Francisco's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, as a national storage site for sequestered carbon dioxide.
amendment to turn Nevada's Yucca Mountain into a carbon dioxide storage site.

Please donate whatever amount you can to the Environmental Defense Fund, so that they may run new TV, print and online ads, go door-to-door to increase visibility in key Congressional Districts and get the message out in the blogosphere.

Click here and donate to EDF today.

Stop the economic and glacial meltdown
before it is too late.

We will make history in 2009. Whether this is the year we change America's energy policy direction or the year in which we lose an opportunity to act is up to us. Please take action!

Photograph Credits: Global Warming Art

McCarty Glacier - July 7th, 1909 by Ulysses Sherman Grant, USGS photo library, public domain. August 11, 2004 by Bruce F. Molnia, USGS, public domain

Bear Glacier - 1920: Photograph by unknown photographer in the collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Public domain by virtue of age. 2005: Photograph by Bruce F. Molnia of the USGS, in the collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Public domain as a work of the US government.

Northwestern Glacier - July 27, 1909: Photograph by Ulysses S. Grant in the collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Public domain by virtue of age. 2005: Photograph by Bruce F. Molnia of the USGS, in the collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Public domain as a work of the US government.

Muir and Riggs Glaciers - August 13th, 1941 by William O. Field, National Snow and Ice Data Center, may be used freely if properly cited. August 31, 2004 by Bruce F. Molnia, USGS, public domain,

Pedersen Glacier - 1920: Photograph by unknown photographer in the collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Public domain by virtue of age. August 8th, 2005: Photograph by Bruce F. Molnia of the USGS, in the collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Public domain as a work of the US government.

Stop delivery of 540M directories per year

2009-05-18T03:44:00.005-05:00

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org is helping municipalities and local governments around the country establish ordinances to mandate that Yellow Pages and White Pages only be delivered to home and offices that ask for them.

Municipalities and local government that provide trash services are extremely concerned about the landfill cost and why they have to absorb the cost of handling the telephone directories.

1.) Local governments are looking to establish an Ordinance of $5 per book to the telephone companies for the delivery of unwanted books that end up in the trash and take up valuable landfills.

2.) An alternative Ordinance being looked at is to require the telephone book to be delivered in a plastic bag and the directory company has to come back the following week to pick up the old book that has been placed in the reusable bag.

3.) Building and Property owners are banning the bulk delivery of Yellow and White Pages to their facilities. They are tired of having to handle the books and the cost associated with the ones left over and old books that end up in their trash dumps.

4.) Some Cities and Towns are looking to stop the delivery of Yellow and White Pages books and are using their litter laws as the tools to enforce their efforts.

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org asks the question: “Why do we get three to four pounds of paper dropped on our front door four to six times per year by various telephone directory companies and how are we supposed to dispose of them?”

Stop the nonsense and the cost placed on the consumer. If we want a book we will request one. If we do not want a book delivered, stop delivering them! The organization will contact the local telephone company and provide them with your name and address and tell them to stop the delivery. This service costs zero. thing.

Take action: Go to http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/stop-yellow-pages/, complete the short form, then confirm that you do want to opt-out of delivery by clicking the confirmation link in the email sent to you. Quick, easy and definitely a good cause

STOP Oil and Gas Drilling in Alaska

2009-05-15T19:10:00.005-05:00

In testimony to the House Committee on Natural Resources, big oil (Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron) made it clear that Alaska is still a major target for drilling.

In an area already feeling the impact of climate change, more drilling will mean additional pollution in the form of oil spills, airborne contaminants, and waste products like drilling fluids and metal cuttings.

This interest in drilling for oil threatens marine life and will add more acidifying carbon dioxide to the oceans. For more information about what this acidity is doing to the ocean, please read Oceans are Becoming More Acidic.

We have heard the rhetoric: drilling in the Arctic will reduce gas prices, oil development is safe, how the 1002 area is devoid of life, how drilling for oil is a national security issue . . .

Myths vs. Facts

Myth: Opening the ANWR to oil drilling will bring down prices at the pump.
Fact: Opening the Refuge to drilling would not lower today's prices.

According to a May 2008 report by the Energy Information Administration (PDF), opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today would result in Americans saving a few pennies per gallon, ten years from now.

Myth: Oil development does not harm the environment or people.
Fact: Oil drilling would harm the land, animals, and people of the Refuge.

The National Academy of Sciences reported that cumulative impacts of oil activities harmed the land, animals, Alaska Native culture, and wilderness. Visit the NAS and read the report online.

Myth: The Coastal Plain "1002 Area" is a desolate landscape with virtually no wildlife.
Fact: The Coastal Plain "1002 Area" is the biological heart of the Refuge.

Oil companies want to drill the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain (1002 Area) of AWNR, which scientists say is the very heart of ANWR.

Right Click to Open Larger Map in Another Tab or Window

Myth: Oil drilling will have a minimal footprint on the coastal plain "1002 Area" of the Refuge.
Fact: Drilling on the coastal plain "1002 Area" will leave a permanent network of sprawling industrial sites.

Nearly the entire North Slope is currently exploited. We must save the last five percent. See map below.

Right Click to Open Larger Map in Another Tab or Window

Myth: Drilling in the Refuge will help secure America's energy future.
Fact: Drilling for oil in America's Arctic will not break our oil addiction.

The U.S. needs to lead the world in new, clean, renewable energy solutions. Drilling is good only for the oil and gas companies and very bad for the Earth and its creatures.

What can you do?

Take Action: Visit Chill The Drills and send an email that asks for strong protections for the special places in America.

Take Action: Donate to Oceana Advocacy Resources (OAR).

Take Action: Educate your friends from either website.

Endangered Spaces : Pacific Trash Gyre

2009-05-13T02:36:00.003-05:00

Join Small Rivers ("content that flips") and start your river flowing.

Join the connect2earth community

2009-05-13T01:44:00.003-05:00

Launched in March 2008, connect2earth is a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) initiative sponsored by Nokia. Join the connect2earth community. Connect with others by posting text, images, audio or video and then follow the discussion as it continues on the web or your mobile phone.

Wolves Targeted Again

2009-05-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

Protections for Wolves Removed

Wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern portions of Oregon and Washington and northern Utah were delisted, thus losing federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. More than two thirds of the current population may be killed.

This Bush administration rule was given the green light by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar without any consultation with conservationists, congressional leaders, or scientists outside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Right now, the Defenders of Wildlife have a legal team preparing an emergency challenge to the delisting to help save these wolves. If you can donate to this cause, please do so on the Defenders of Wildlife website. Any amount will help.

Meanwhile, in Alaska:

It is the end of a bloody aerial gunning season that killed more than 250 wolves. However, the Palin administration has indicated that it will continue to kill wolves through other means. Let me see, she posted a bounty on forelegs, killed their cubs, poisoned their dens . . . maybe wolf furs and wolf cub rugs are next?

No Mother's Day for Polar Bears

2009-05-12T18:56:00.006-05:00

Are Polar Bears Doomed?
I am just sick about this. Please take action.

The opportunity granted by Congress for Secretary of the Interior Salazar to revoke the Bush extinction plan with the stroke of a pen has passed. Salazar's decision to keep the Bush rule is a terrible blow to polar bears and the future of their Arctic habitat. Salazar said that the Endangered Species Act is not the appropriate tool for us to deal with a global issue! Evidently, President Obama agrees.

Scientists warn that global warming could threaten one-third of the world's plant and vertebrate animal species with extinction by 2050. If the Endangered Species Act is not the proper tool for saving the polar bears, then what is? It is crucial that comprehensive global warming legislation include dedicated policies and funding to ensure wildlife can survive.

Click here to send a message to your representative through the Defenders of Wildlife website and let them know that the lives of the polar bears (and all the other endangered species) matter to you--more than oil and gas, more than dividing up the Arctic, more than bailing out crooks and their companies . . .

Music Monday : The Earth Song

2009-05-11T05:17:00.003-05:00

Omni Trio playing the Earth Song

The Music Monday meme has many participants. I decided to join in from Endangered Spaces this week.

Happy Mother's Day to the Earth

Visit Lady Java's Lounge for more information. Just click the Music Monday banner.

Reduce Carbon Footprint by Carbon Offsets

2009-05-08T03:49:00.006-05:00

Visit the CarbonAdviceGroup.com to calculate your carbon footprint, to learn how you may reduce your carbon footprint, and to purchase offset credits.

Below are a few of the latest projects that are financed with the funds that purchase carbon offsets.

Green Lights New Orleans
Location: New Orleans, USA Type: Community Project

The goal of the Green Lights New Orleans project is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the city by replacing 3 million light bulbs with more efficient, low energy light bulbs, thus avoiding 18,000 million tonnes of emissions over the lifetime of the programme – this roughly equates to taking 120,000 cars off the road for a whole year. Low energy bulbs use 75% less energy than regular light bulbs. By replacing all the bulbs in a house (around 30 bulbs on average) over $650 can be saved over the lifetime of the new bulbs for some of the city’s most impoverished inhabitants.

Greenville County Methane Capture
Location: South Carolina, USA Type: Methane Capture

This project is a landfill gas collection and utilization project located at the Enoree landfill in Greer, South Carolina, USA. It will initially flare the landfill gas, but it will ultimately use the gas to generate renewable electricity. The objective of the project is to install an active gas collection and utilization system that will convert the methane content of the landfill gases, thereby reducing its global warming impact.

Intrepid Dairy Farm Methane Capture
Location: Southern Idaho, USA Type: Methane Capture

The Whitesides and Westpoint dairy farms, located in southern Idaho, USA, are changing their method of processing manure to a system using anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion technology will help reduce the release of methane into the atmosphere and aid in mitigating climate change. The new biogas digesters installed at both dairies will now capture and destroy methane gas produced from the waste of over 12,000 dairy cows.

Earth Day : Green Peace : Inspiring Action

2009-04-22T01:49:00.003-05:00

Earth Day 2009 : I Am Only One

2009-04-21T03:23:00.009-05:00

I am only one, but I am one.

I cannot do everything,
but I can do something.

And I will not let what
I cannot do interfere
with what I can do.

~Edward Everett Hale~

If you wish to combine your energies with others to make a difference to the Earth and its inhabitants, please visit The Green Generation Campaign community.

The Green Generation Core Principles

A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal.
An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption.
Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

This post made in support of Bloggers Unite and their mission of outreach and education.

Plug 'n Play Wind Power

2009-04-20T02:24:00.004-05:00

Clarian Technologies is developing a windmill that generates energy. The Jellyfish wind appliance will plug into your electrical grid via a normal house socket, providing 40 killowatt-hours monthly, which is enough to power a 3500 sf home! No special wiring needed, just plug 'n play!

The Jellyfish wind appliance will launch next year. It is estimated that is will cost the consumer $400 for each unit.

From the website of Clarian Technologies:

The Jellyfish Wind Appliance is a small 36-inch tall vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) with a solid-state controller and a variable-speed induction generator that plugs directly into an existing wall socket and automatically generates power whenever the wind blows. The Jellyfish can be mounted on rooftops, wind towers or even existing street light poles - which are already pre-wired to the grid and have the tower already in place!

The Jellyfish Wind Appliance has been submitted to the Project 10 to the 100th contest. If you wish to vote, please sign up to be notified when voting opens.

Time is Running Out for the Polar Bears

2009-04-12T23:06:00.006-05:00

PLEASE Give the Polar Bears a Chance!

Global warming is melting the sea ice on which polar bears hunt and live. Therefore, polar bears are swimming farther and farther distances to reach solid ice. They are also drowning and dying of starvation in record numbers. Other polar bears, trapped on land hundreds of miles from solid ice, are being shot or dying of starvation.

The last Administration enacted regulations under Section 4(d) and Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act that reduced protection to polar bears and created an exemption for greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to an Act of Congress, the current Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, may revoke these illegal regulations .

The deadline for revocation is May 9, 2009. Approximately 5,000 signatures are needed on the petition at PolarBear.org to help convince Interior Secretary Salazar to revoke the illegal regulations before the deadline.

Take 5 minutes and take action. Sign the petition at PolarBear.org. Pass the word to your friends. The polar bear you save may be a mother.

BloggersUnite : Earth Day 2009

2009-04-11T22:16:00.003-05:00

Earth Day is April 22, 2009

A single voice can only yell so loud but an entire blogoshpere can make a difference like never before. Let's change the world together. (BloggersUnite).

On Earth Day, BloggersUnite is putting the power of the blogosphere behind The Green Generation Campaign.

The core principles of The Green Generation:

A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal.

An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption.

Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

Click to join BloggersUnite | Visit The Green Generation

On Earth Day, post your blog post about The Green Generation or other green topic of your choice, then visit BloggersUnite to share it with the world.

The Beginning of the End

2009-04-08T01:07:00.004-05:00

Two days ago, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced draft legislation that could unleash America's green energy future and address global warming.

This is the first step toward passing landmark climate legislation this year. If we succeed, we will make a critical investment in our children's ecological and economic futures.

If we fail? Well, we cannot fail.

Please make an emergency donation to the Environmental Defense Fund campaign to stop global warming action and transform the American economy.

In case there's any doubt about what's at stake, here is what 2500 scientists said just weeks ago at a global climate science conference:

Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realized. For many key parameters, the climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.

Please: Give $5 toward the future of your children. $10 if you have grandchildren. If you are flush, then give what you can afford. This is the beginning of the last battle for the future of the Earth.

Will it end well because we take timely action or end badly as the ocean encroaches on the land and extremes in weather have made climate refugees out of most of the citizens of the world? The end has not been written. We will write it with our actions.

Good News for Great Bear Rain Forest

2009-04-05T05:21:00.008-05:00

Back in November, I wrote a post about the Great Bear Rain Forest and how it was the largest tract of intact coastal temperate rain forest left on Earth.

The Earth Won One This Month

On 4/1/2009, the government of British Columbia announced that it would, indeed, keep its promises regarding the region. The major milestones achieved are:

5 million acres, an area half the size of Switzerland, have been legally protected from logging.
$120 million is available to First Nation communities to help kick-start a new conservation economy as an alternative to logging throughout the rainforest.
A new system of 'lighter touch' logging, based on Ecosystem-based Management (EBM), has been legislated. This system maintains 50 percent of the natural level of old growth forest in the region. This translates to an additional 1.7 million acres of forest set aside from logging.

View a media release with more details: Promise to Protect Great Bear Rainforest Becomes Reality - Five-Year Plan in Place