Green Around The Edges

Sea Turtles: Up Close and Personal

2011-12-19T16:33:00.000-05:00

Baby sea turtles are adorable. When you see them on the beach, heading toward a big, dark ocean it’s easy to imagine scooping one up and taking it to the relative safety of your bathtub.

That’s what might have happened to Gumby, one of the turtles recovering in the Sea Turtle Hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium. Gumby arrived on June 26, 2011 malnourished and unable to swim. She’s made amazing progress, thanks to the expert care received at the hospital. Check out the current status of this beautiful little turtle, along with the other current patients of the hospital here on the hospital blog.

If you’re in Charleston, definitely take the time to stop in for the Behind the Scenes tour of the hospital. We spent an afternoon recently meeting Gumby and her friends, and learning about the hard work this team is doing rescuing turtles throughout South Carolina’s beaches. It’s a rare opportunity to see these turtles up close, and talk with experts about their care and the challenges they face. If you live a little too far away for a visit, follow their progress on the blog, check out South Carolina's turtle nesting numbers throughout the season, or participate in their rescue in another way through a donation or adoption.

Whale Songs: Fun Citizen Science for Kids

2011-12-04T08:06:00.001-05:00

Photo courtesy Whale.FM

My son and I listened to whale calls this week, sitting at our kitchen table. Scientific American and Zooniverse (along with other partners) have an interesting citizen science program available that’s particularly engaging for kids. The public can listen to and help match whale songs available on the Whale.FM website. These are recordings of Orcas and Pilot Whales, and the calls are represented audibly and visually on a spectrogram.

Here’s how Whale.FM explains the goal of the program:
“When using the main part of this site, you are helping to classify the sounds that whales make into distinct groupings. For example, in Orcas (Killer Whales) there are over 150 identified types of call. Every time you match a pair of Orca calls, you're casting a vote for those two calls to be considered 'similar'. By doing this over and over again, with many people listening to each sound and casting a vote, we can build up a map of those calls that are more or less alike, to find patterns and groupings. We're learning how whales communicate with each other.”

Many of the calls are hauntingly beautiful. Listening to and trying to match them gave us a chance to talk about the other man-made noise in the ocean from shipping, military sonar and offshore construction, and wonder what impact it might have on these creatures that are so reliant on sound.

And They're Off!

2011-11-10T13:18:00.001-05:00

Baby loggerheads

It's the end of the season when baby loggerheads to scramble to the surf in Hilton Head, SC and we were lucky enough to come across these little guys getting some assistance from a dedicated (and fully trained) volunteer one night during a recent visit.

As adults, these little guys will reach 300-400 pounds. But this evening, they were tiny miracles struggling to reach waves that dwarfed their two-inch forms. But somehow they made it, little flippers waving frantically as they plunged into the surf and disappeared. The females that survive will be back when they reach maturity - they nest every two to four years - and the process will begin again. Assuming, of course, that we've preserved some beach for them to come back to.

Hilton Head sunset

This particular program is managed by the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island. Help them out by removing beach litter, keeping lights out between May 1 and October 31, and smoothing out sandcastles at the end of the day.

What happened to the fish? (We ate them.)

2011-09-16T17:05:00.000-04:00

Conservation International reports that more than 80% of commerical fisheries are in decline or depleted. That's an important bit of news, because our demand for seafood is on the rise.

Those two facts can't exist together for long. Obviously the little seafood guides we're carrying in our wallets that tell us what's sustainable enough to order off the restaurant menu aren't fixing the problem.

Conservation International suggests a multi-pronged approach. In addition to hanging on to those pocket guides (and using them), one of their recommendations is to look for supermarkets and restaurants that make a commitment to offering sustainable seafood.

I'm not sure what the new meaning of the term "sustainable seafood" will come to be over the next few years. And I'm not sure what my personal impact can be. But, conscious consumption seems a good place to start. That's easier said than done, but these tools recommended by CI give me a place to start. My local grocer scored a 5.8 (ouch) out of 10 on the Supermarket Scorecard put together by Greenpeace. There's some work ahead of us.

Take It Home

2011-09-02T16:53:00.000-04:00

The amount of "stuff" left on a beach at the end of a day is disheartening. During a recent trip to Hilton Head with my family, we found it was easy to trip over plastic toys, abandoned shoes and miscellaneous cords during a casual walk in the sand - along with the usual food wrappers and half-crushed beer cans.

While many of us do a decent job of leaving nothing behind but our footprints when we visit an official nature preserve, we treat the beach like a restaurant table that nature will "bus" for us after we leave. In effect, it will, but everything swept off the beach by waves goes right into one of the few natural areas left to us - the ocean. If you take it to the beach, make sure it goes home with you.

It's Still Turtle Season

2011-08-20T06:45:00.001-04:00

It's still turtle season on beaches here in the Southeast. That means there is a lot of activity (nesting or hatching) and some great opportunities to protect and learn more about these amazing creatures.

Whenever volunteers identify a nest, they mark it clearly with some type of sign. When you see it, that's your cue to leave that area alone. Here are a few more turtle-saving tips from the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island:

- Turn off beachfront lights from May 1 through October 1.
- Remove beach litter (this includes larger things like tents, which can be obstacles for nesting turtles).
- Fill in holes and smooth sand castles. (I know this is a tough one. But to a two inch baby loggerhead trying to dodge predators and make it to the surf, a sandcastle looks like Mount Everest.)
- Report injured turtles. (There's a toll free number on the sign located at each nest. Use it to report disturbed nests as well.)
- Do not shine flashlights or take flash photos of nesting turtles. (Use the same guidelines for newly hatched turtles. I've seen something as simple as a "red eye" light from a camera confuse a baby loggerhead about which direction he needed to go to get to safety.)

Some of these requests are inconvenient, but they aren't going to ruin any vacations. On a recent trip to Hilton Head we really enjoyed working in sea turtle conservation as an underlying theme, between beach time and a visit to Salty Dog. Plan ahead to take a "turtle tour" with volunteers from the Coastal Discovery Museum for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see nesting or hatching.

In all your beach activities, keep in mind that sea turtles are protected. The loggerheads, which nest on Hilton Head, are federally threatened and globally endangered. Sea turtles have very few remaining safe havens, thanks to human impact on their habitats. Turn off the flashlight, pull in your beach chairs, and give them a break.

Scripps Studies the "Garbage Patch"

2011-08-18T04:34:00.000-04:00

Students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego recently released their findings from a research trip to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch". They estimate that fish in the area ingest plastic at a rate of about 12,000 to 24,000 tons per year.

That's a lot of plastic. This is cause for concern not only because of the harm that plastic can do to the fish that ingest it, but also because of the unknown toxicological impacts.

Most of the pieces are broken-down bits smaller than a fingernail but that's not always the case. This photo shows some of the debris encountered by researchers - a large net tangled with rope, more netting and plastic. Plastic of any size is dangerous for marine life. As for nets - if you haven't seen this video yet of a humpback whale being rescued from fishing nets, it's worth the four minutes.

Photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

So Excellent a Fishe

2011-08-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading So Excellent a Fishe: A Natural History of Sea Turtles, by Archie Carr. Written in 1967, it's a must-read for anyone planning to visit Tortugero, Costa Rica. In the first chapter Carr talks about his early years there, and it's fascinating to see things that have changed, and remained the same, in this beautiful place.

Throughout much of the book Carr ponders the fate of sea turtles in a way that only someone who devoted much of his life to conserving them can. Given the mysteries that presented themselves to him on a regular basis, particularly those surrounding the green turtles and their habits (where do baby turtles go, assuming they reach the ocean safely?), I can't help but wonder how he would have reacted to the award-winning and highly detailed map of nesting data created by the State of the World's Sea Turtles (SWOT) Initiative. A partnership between Conservation International, Duke University and the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group, the most recent report compiled data from over 1,000 nesting sites worldwide - a level of detail that could have only existed in Carr's dreams.

The fact that there are over 1,000 nesting sites, however, shouldn't give the impression that these ancient creatures are abundant. Carr recalls wistfully the loss of the arribadas during his lifetime - a regularly occurring event where tens of thousands of ridleys would come ashore to nest. More than forty years later in The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One, Sylvia A. Earle wonders how, in spite of compelling evidence to the contrary, mankind persisted (and still persists) in its belief that the ocean is unalterable, and the creatures that inhabit it limitless. Instead, she argues, the creatures and diversity we see in the oceans now - and what we take as "normal" - are merely fragments of fragments of the abundance that existed until recently in the sea. That former abundance is the true "normal" - not the 1,000 green sea turtle nesting sites we see now, some of which may only include a handful of turtles.

All of this argues that mapping the ocean's turtles and other wildlife is critical, and finding ways to protect them is the urgent next step. Because conserving "fragments of fragments" is what we've come to.

Tiny Trash = Big Problem

2011-07-31T05:49:00.000-04:00

I haven't seen anyone toss something on the ground - a can, a cup, a cigarette butt - in a long, long time. But apparently, a lot of folks still do because the Ocean Conservancy reports that litter is still a big problem for the ocean.

Their campaign, called "1 month, 1 minute, 1 thing" focuses on simple things ordinary people can do to make a difference. This month they're focusing on tiny trash, like bottle caps and candy wrappers, that can easily be eaten by marine wildlife.

They have several crafty suggestions on ways to dress up your own personal "tiny trash tin" that you carry about from place to place. I'm...not crafty. So that part doesn't appeal to me. But this tiny trash is a big, big problem (if you're not convinced see "Death by Plastic" in Scientific American, and the haunting images that go along with it). I love the focus and the reminder to bring my own trash home and either toss it responsibly or better yet recycle it. Count me in, minus the glue gun.

Sea Turtle Deaths

2011-07-26T19:03:00.002-04:00

My optimism about the year-over-year increase in the number of turtle nests found by Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida was tempered today as I read an article by Melissa Gaskill in Scientific American.

The numbers of dead turtles washing up on shores around the world seem bleak. The slide show that accompanies the article is even more disturbing (although I recommend you watch it anyway). You'll find one particularly startling image there, which shows the trash consumed by a green turtle found dead on the coast of Brazil. According to the article, nearly 200 turtles (Kemp's ridley, green and loggerhead) washed up on Gulf coast shores this April. That's the most deaths in one month since record keeping began back in 1986. Most of these turtles appear to have drowned in trawl nets. Many others have died this year from ingesting trash (typically plastic).

Still worse, the National Marine Fisheries Service estimates commercial shrimping in the Gulf of Mexico killed 5,365 turtles in 2009. Just in the Gulf of Mexico.

Even the feeling of relief I had after seeing a picture of a turtle escape hatch (TED) that allows turtles to escape trawl nets dissolved as I read that a "few" U.S. fisheries require the use of these devices, but that "the majority of trawl fisheries worldwide do not, and even in the U.S. their use is now always enforced". It sounds like even in the U.S. we're doing a poor job of protecting turtles.

If you haven't actually seen a sea turtle, these numbers might seem abstract to you. If that's the case, make an effort to see one of these amazing animals. Stop by an aquarium or check into a guided turtle walk if you're near a nesting beach.

There's a direct cause and effect between human activity and the fate of these ancient creatures. There are things we can do to alter the course. But first, we have to care.

Photo courtesy of NOAA

Blue Carbon

2011-07-22T16:41:00.002-04:00

Have you ever marveled at a mangrove tree? Growing up near the coast in Florida, I did. They grow impossibly well in salt marshes - an environment that most trees have the good sense to avoid. But mangroves thrive there, and in the process they support a wealth of life.

Even before I knew this, somehow it just felt...wrong...when I saw mangroves pulled out, filled in and paved over for a golf course or condo with a waterfront view. Now the source of my unease - the reason a persistent little voice kept whispering that there must be some important function those mangroves serve (there are many, actually) - has a name. It's Blue Carbon.

Blue carbon, as Conservation International explains, is a term that defines the coastal systems that they now know store enormous amounts of carbon. Salt marshes, sea grasses, mangroves, and the ecosystems they make up may be able to store as much as five times as much carbon as tropical rainforests. Of course, coastal systems everywhere are under pressure. Conservation International and their partners are working to mitigate that by developing a Blue Carbon policy.

If you're looking for a way to get a close-up view of a mangrove forest (without getting wet), try the Wetlands exhibit at the Florida Aquarium. Housed under a glass dome, it combines a mangrove forest with an aviary, so free-flying birds are everywhere. The kids will love it, and they'll learn a little something along the way!

photo: CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn, courtesy of Conservation International

Blogs about turtles and dolphins, and why you should read them.

2011-07-19T15:11:00.001-04:00

I have a couple of new favorite blogs that I wish everyone knew about.

The South Carolina Aquarium's Sea Turtle Rescue blog is direct and to the point, with all the latest facts about some amazing rescue and rehabilitation work their team is doing. Particularly riveting are the photos (often before and after treatment) of the turtles that come to the center.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium's blog is another of my favorites (full disclosure: I'm a volunteer for CMA). There's a little bit of everything here, which keeps it fun - turtle rescue, news about Winter (CMA's soon-to-be movie star) and her prosthetic tail, and lots of CMA-specific updates.

If you're looking for some meaningful reading, add these two blogs to your list.

Tortugero's Turtles

2011-07-14T15:40:00.003-04:00

A few weeks back we spent a little time in Tortugero, which lies on the northeastern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. It's here, more than anywhere else in the Western hemisphere, that the endangered green turtles come to nest. The story of Tortugero and how it came to be a national park is uplifting - a quick, facts-only version can be found here at the Sea Turtle Conservancy site.

Green turtles nest from July through October. We knew our visit, scheduled for late June, might be too early and unfortunately, it was. My son was particularly disappointed. But we did see some older nests and recent tracks, so it served as a great introduction to world of sea turtle conservation. The wild beauty of Tortugero gave us plenty of other things to explore.

Now that we're back in the states, we hope to make a trip to spy some nesting turtles (this time, probably loggerhead) on the South Carolina shore. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

The Gift of Reading: Promising Pages Delivers in Charlotte

2011-07-11T07:29:00.002-04:00

If you haven't heard of Promising Pages here in Charlotte, NC - you will soon. Led by founder Kristina Cruise, this nonprofit group is making news by collecting gently used books (they'll accept new books as well), then (this is the best part) wrapping them up as presents and getting them into the hands of kids that need them.

I love the concept of re-purposing gently used books, so I volunteered for a brief afternoon with Promising Pages at their information table at a Healthy Home Market event. The enthusiastic Promising Pages volunteers didn't hesitate to engage passers-by with news about their mission, and to point out the newly-placed, permanent drop off bin at the store. Most folks stopped by to listen; many said they'd be back at some point in the future with donations.

With limitless enthusiasm and partners like Crisis Assistance Ministry and Classroom Central, Promising Pages seems determined to make a difference in Charlotte. The latest from this dynamic group is a "Guess for Gas" contest. "Erma the Book Worm's" Honda Element has been stuffed to the overflowing with books. Guess how many books are in the car (or have the closest guess), win a $100 gas card.

It's all fun, and all for an incredibly good cause. The contest ends July 31st, so visit the Promising Pages site soon to participate. And keep an eye on these folks. They're moving fast!

The Only Billboard I've Ever Liked

2011-07-07T06:33:00.000-04:00

Somehow, every topic related to the environment manages to find itself mired in some type of controversy. The latest I've seen is the Coca-Cola billboard in the Philippines. Unveiled on June 23rd in cooperation with the World Wildlife Federation, it's an image of a Coke bottle surrounded by thousands of Fukien tea plants. The concept is that the plants will eat CO2, the pots the tea plants are sitting in are made from recycled bottles, and they use organic fertilizers. Eventually, they'll grow over the entire billboard surface.

Critics say it's a PR stunt. Well of course it is! And a pretty good one at that (we're all talking about it, aren't we?) Give Coca-Cola and WWF credit for a killer idea, and leave it at that. Maybe the "living billboard" idea will catch on and we'll see some pop up in the Carolinas. It would be the only billboard I've ever seen that I liked!

Check out the full story and a great image at Huffpost Green.

Eat More Yogurt - Offset Carbon

2010-09-25T07:58:00.000-04:00

We seem to go through a lot of Stonyfield Farm products in our house - particular yogurt. Like a lot of manufacturers, they have a Rewards program. My husband had his sights set on a particular Patagonia bag (man purse), so I spent an extraordinary number of hours plugging in the tiny machine-printed numbers off gooey yogurt tops in an effort to tally up enough points to order it for him.

I was al..most...there... when they went permanently out of stock. Close one door, open another - that's when I discovered I could apply those rewards points to carbon offsets through Native Energy! Fast forward to now - we've offset a bit of carbon and I'm a lot happier about squinting at those tiny numbers (but really - can't they make a P look significantly different from an F?).

Visit Stonyfield Farms website (www.stonyfieldfarm.com) if you're interested.

Giving When It Already Hurts

2009-02-14T13:03:00.001-05:00

Giving til it hurts is hard enough. Giving when you’re already trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage – as many folks are these days – is quite another.

Yes, this post is wildly off topic. I promise to mention the word “green” in here somewhere to keep it somewhat relevant (there it was!).

But these are the times when giving – of time as much as of money – is more important than ever. Giving a little of ourselves to others enriches us. And who couldn’t use a little enriching these days?

Find something you love and give something of yourself to it. For five minutes, allow yourself to think of something other than the economy, the plummeting balance in your 401k and how long you can go before getting the brakes fixed.

Think of it as a cheap thrill – what else makes you feel so good, for so long, for so little?

If you’re looking for ideas, here are a few. But these days, you don’t have to look far for chances to help someone else out. You might be surprised how much a phone call to a neighbor that was recently laid off means, or an offer to carpool to school for a family going through a tough time (which saves wear and tear on the environment, and so we’ve come full circle!).

MDA Stride & Ride – If you’re looking for stories of courage, love and hope, look no further than the families involved in this battle. We became aware of this particular event through the Pritchard family. Emily and Michael Pritchard can tell the story about their son Jake best: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jakepritchard

Helping Hand – Odds are there’s a nursing home within 10 minutes of your house. Odds are there’s an elderly person there who doesn’t get much in the way of visitors. Call the Admissions Director of the facility and ask if anyone there could use…a new pair of soft socks, a box of chocolate chip cookies. It really doesn’t take much. A simple gesture that shows someone out there is thinking of them, and will drive 10 minutes to drop off a couple of magazines for them to read, is an enormous gift to a lonely senior.

Food Drives – There’s no shortage of these right now. Buy one can of something – beans, corn, whatever – each week at the grocery store. Use coupons or find sales. It will cost less than a dollar a week. Save it up, donate it to a local church or food pantry.

VolunteerMatch.org – Connect with non-profit groups that match your interests in your area or nationwide through this free service.

Physics for Future Presidents

2009-02-12T16:39:00.003-05:00

Wait – don’t stop reading yet! The title may be heavy, and the subjects at hand are certainly serious. But Richard A. Muller, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has a gift for taking unexplainable and – well – explaining it. The sections devoted to energy, nuclear power and global warming were particularly interesting and much easier to read than you would expect. I do admit to doing some skimming in the section on nuclear power, but that had more to do with the time of night that I was reading and much less to do with the author’s ability to write about complicated subjects in an understandable way.

Check it out. It’s enlightening and important to see all of these critical issues through the dispassionate, objective eyes of a physicist.

Somewhat related is the recent article in Grist that some of Britain’s top climate research folks are warning against “apocalyptic predictions” related to global warming. They aren’t saying climate change isn’t a (big) problem – but they fear that “overplaying natural variations in weather”, while attention grabbing, will backfire in the end. Why? Not every snow storm or dry, hot spell in Yourtown, USA is due to global warming. The Met Office representatives say they are afraid all of the hyperbole will draw attention from the real and critical problems that need real and effective solutions, and “undermine the basic facts that the implications of climate change are profound and will be severe if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut drastically.”

Boreal Forests Defined

2009-02-07T19:29:00.005-05:00

I saw a headline today about disposable paper towels wiping out boreal forests. I was alarmed. I was concerned. I was confused.

You see – I had no idea what a “boreal forest” was. I thought maybe it meant “really old” forest. Or perhaps “forest with exceptionally large trees”. But an embarrassingly easy Google search led me to the right answer. The term boreal means “northern”. They are found in places that have short summers and long winters, like Siberia, Scandinavia, Alaska and Canada. Because they have a short growing season, the vegetation in these forests regenerates slowly. So when a tree is cut down to…say…make a roll of toilet paper, it’s gonna take a while for nature to grow another one.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) gives a wealth of detail on their site about the reasons why using virgin pulp for disposable products is a bad idea. The shorthand version is that it negatively impacts many species and indigenous communities that rely on the forest. The forests are also among the largest terrestrial storehouses of carbon dioxide – which we need right now.

There are a number of companies and products listed on the NRDC site as those to avoid. You can check them out for yourself, but I will say that I doubt anyone from Kimberly – Clark is getting an invite to the next NRDC office party. There are also lists of companies and products that DO use recycled content, including Marcal, Seventh Generation and Green Forest (there are more, check out the NRDC list here).

I’m all for using paper products from recycled materials. But wow, they are typically SO much more expensive. So to be honest I try to alternate the paper products I use. I don’t use 100% recycled, 100% of the time. I do, however, use it periodically and I keep an eye out for coupons or sales. They are pretty scarce, in my experience. Anyone that has a source, please let me know!

For more facts about forests: www.forestfacts.org

NC Sate and Federal Tax Credits - The List

2009-01-30T14:53:00.006-05:00

If you're never quite sure what incentives are out there - NC state and federal - for energy efficient projects that you're thinking about, check out the February issue of Carolina Country.

On pages 10-11 you'll find an easy to read summary. Here's a quick sampling, and it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that there are additional requirements and restrictions not listed here that you'll need to check into before you hire somebody to start climbing onto your roof with solar panels.

- Solar water heaters are eligible for a federal tax credit of up to 30%, up to $2,000 and a state property exemption.

- Federal tax credits are still available for vehicles (hybrid gas-electric, battery-electric, etc). But, there is a 60,000 vehicle limit per manufacturer before a phase out period begins, and Toyota and Honda have already been phased out. If you're interested, you'll need to start shopping for a Ford, GM or Nissan, since that's where the credit is still available.

- Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are in a separate classification. There's a federal tax credit of $2,500-$7,500, and the first 250,000 vehicles sold get the full tax credit.

There's more on the list, including photovoltaic systems (the federal tax credit is up to 30% of cost, state tax credit up to 35% of cost, not to exceed $10,500).

If you live in the distribution area for this magazine and you've already tossed - ahem, recycled - your copy, I think the February issue will appear online soon.

Source: "Go Green Save Green". Compiled by Morgan Lashley, NC Association of Electric Cooperatives. Carolina Country is the monthly magazine of North Carolina's Touchstone Energy Cooperatives. Picture used with permission.

No Green Thumb Required - But You Will Need a Pencil

2009-01-29T10:41:00.005-05:00

I’m a “let’s toss that seed in the ground and see if it grows” type of gardener. While I love the abundance of a full, green summer garden, I rarely take the time to make sure I’m doing it right. So I started Don Rosenberg’s new book, No Green Thumb Required: Organic Family Gardening Made Easy, (Catawba Publishing) thinking I would flip through it in an hour, find the “good stuff” and check that off the to-do list. It didn’t quite work out that way.

First of all, I’m still a gardening neophyte. I’ve had a garden for several years, but for some reason every year still seems like my first venture into the back yard with a hoe. To make matters worse, Rosenberg has packed a lot into 150 pages.

The first part of the book covers general info, as if Rosenberg is trying to bring everyone up to speed on the basics. Terms like “intensive planting” are introduced, but much of the information is broad, with references to things like the benefits of organic food and gardening in limited space.

Chapter 7 discusses kids in the garden, with some tips for kid-friendly projects. But the real meat of the book begins right around Chapter 9, when Rosenberg starts addressing the best way to plan your garden. He lists the types of vegetables that he recommends for small spaces, and the variety included might surprise you. Kohlrabi and pak choy are listed, alongside the more pedestrian stuff that I’m used to, like carrots, spinach and squash.

After recommending varieties, the book goes into planning the garden, complete with a grid that you can use to gauge how much space you’ll need for each of your favorite veggies. That’s when I realized there was no way I’d be able to get out of this without getting out a pencil. Articles in the appendix address common questions and tips for growing tomatoes and other popular items. Like one of my favorites - squash. You might find yourself taken back by Rosenberg’s advice about stabbing a vine borer to death with a needle to save your squash plant. But if you do, I’d suggest that perhaps you’ve never lost your first ever zucchini plant to the little suckers. I’m generally very mild mannered, but that experience was enough to push me over the edge, and my son found me in the backyard hacking them to tiny bits with a shovel as soon as I discovered what they were. And so now, since I have my pencil in hand, I write a note to myself: “get needles”.

Here’s what I discovered about No Green Thumb Required. It’s a reference book. Not an article. Oh. No wonder I couldn’t get through it in one sitting. I now realize I’m supposed to keep it around, fill out the charts and actually use it. I’m not sure whether I’ll follow through on all of that – but I do have my short list of stuff I’d like in my garden already written out. Right next to the note about needles. So that’s a start, right?

If you’d like more information about the book, check out Rosenberg’s site at www.instantorganicgarden.com or visit Amazon.com.

(Lots of) Cash for Clunkers

2009-01-16T16:11:00.002-05:00

If you have dreams of a hybrid sitting in your driveway – but instead you’ve got an enormous SUV lurking out there, waiting for your next trip to the gas station – Congress has a deal for you. “Cash for Clunkers”, legislation introduced on Wednesday in both the House and Senate, proposes up to $4500 vouchers be given to SUV owners that turn in their gas guzzlers. Those vouchers can be used for reimbursement when purchasing new vehicles that exceed federal fuel economy targets by at least 25 percent.

It seems win-win. In theory, auto manufacturers would gear up to produce the in-demand, fuel efficient cars. Those cars would be replacing larger, less environmentally friendly SUVS and Congress estimates the savings would be equal to 40,000 to 80,000 barrels of motor fuel each day by the end of the four year program.
But I hope that in the rush to re-start the auto industry, reduce dependency on foreign oil and save the planet in general everyone takes the long view. Up to a million cars a year, over four years, is 4 million SUVS that could be scrapped. Are there any unintended consequences that we should be thinking of NOW instead of being surprised them by later? Surely we can re-use some of the materials in these SUVs before they head to the scrap heap? Is that cost factored into the overall cost of the program? And while we’re at it, is the program realistic? Is $4500 enough of an incentive if you owe, say, $15,000 on your SUV now? Will folks heading to the dealerships, voucher in hand, be able to get credit (assuming they’ve found work after being laid off)?

Don’t get me wrong. It’s great out-of-the-box thinking, and I’m all for it. I’m just hoping that someone with a giant whiteboard on Capitol Hill is drawing lots of circles and lines right now in a big, comprehensive plan to make sure that this big (expensive) program lives up to its promise. Costs are estimated to be between $1 to $2 billion per year, and you know how initial government estimates always seem to be...well...a bit on the low side. The numbers coming out of Washington these days are so numbingly large, it's easy to lose track of the fact that $1 billion is still a big, big number.

Check out MSN’s story on the subject and – for some glimpses into more unintended consequences that need to be considered – The Daily Green.

In Pursuit of Safer CFLs

2009-01-15T18:55:00.006-05:00

CFL bulbs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) are thought of as a better lighting choice across the board – from an energy saving perspective, anyway.

Of course, those nagging concerns about their mercury content won’t quite go away (nor should they). Advocates say that the mercury used in the bulbs is far outweighed - in a big picture kind of way - by the benefit of the mercury saved (since a major source of mercury in the environment comes from coal-fired electrical plants, and CFLs use less energy than their incandescent cousins). But it was a big newsflash to me that not all CFL bulbs are created equal. Some have more mercury than others. Some have so much mercury, in fact, that they wouldn’t be permitted for sale in Europe.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a great report on 7 high quality, low mercury bulbs. It's short - it will take you five minutes to read, tops. Meanwhile here’s an even quicker version: Earthmate, Litetronics, Sylvania, Feit, MaxLite, Philips all have bulbs that made it on to the list (Sylvania has two).

By the way - the Energy Star label you see on a CFL box is not an indicator that the bulb is low in mercury. And while you're at the EWG site, think about signing up for regular updates. They're always filled with relevant, interesting info.

One more thing - no amount of mercury is a good amount when it's on your floor. EWG offers practical tips for using CFLs more safely, including avoiding them in places where mercury exposure is unacceptable (children's rooms).

2008-12-30T06:27:00.004-05:00

The best case I've read to date for a gasoline tax is Thomas Friedman's article in the New York Times on December 28th.

I have a six year old mini-van. I'd love to say I have a Prius, or some other kind of hybrid, but I don't and no new car is on our short term horizon. I'd also love to say that we live in an urban area, within walking distance of most of the "stuff" we need to do. But we don't, and no new house is on our horizon either. We live in suburbs, where to do...well..pretty much ANYTHING, you have to get in the car.

So we modify our behavior as much as we can. We group errands for fewer trips and go easy on the gas pedal. And truthfully, the drop in gas prices has been good news for us. But, as Friedman reports in his article, it's also part of the reason that trucks and SUVs will outsell cars in the month of December. There are some folks that truly need larger vehicles (and by "need" I mean they haul large equipment to job sites). But for most of us, having a super-sized vehicle is nice but not all that necessary. Yet we will jump at the chance, due to lower gas prices and dealer incentives, to buy a vehicle that we need a ladder to climb into and then lead the public outcry when someone mentions a gas tax.

That's short term thinking, and that's what got us into this mess in the first place. I don't think there are any easy answers - and if there are, I'm certainly not going to be the source of them. But I do know that if we don't voluntarily change our behavior then Friedman is right - the only answer is to have a system that will "permanently change consumer demand". Like a gas tax.

So no, I'm not looking forward to it. But, in the face of our own inability to modify our behavior, what else is there to do?

Interested inDuke Energy Carolinas 2009 Distributed Generation Program?

2008-12-25T06:33:00.004-05:00

Duke Energy's plan to install solar panels at several hundred sites in North Carolina - including homes, schools, office buildings, etc. - is still scheduled to start in "early 2009".

The plan is still pending approval by the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) but if/when that comes through Duke plans to spend two years installing the panels.

Duke Energy is either a white hat or black hat kind of company, depending on your perspective. But this plan is interesting either way. If you're interested in participating (having panels put on your roof or property) you can fill out a form on Duke's site to try to qualify as a host site. There are a number of requirements, including the obvious (you need to be a Duke Energy customer, located in NC) and some not so obvious (a roof less than five years old). Check out the Duke Energy site for more information and requirements.