Mayor Greg Nickels today signed an agreement with the Cascade Land Conservancy to extend a nationally-recognized partnership to maintain and improve Seattle’s green spaces.
The Green Seattle Partnership was formed in 2004 to restore 2,500 acres of forested parkland by 2025. The unique public/private effort is the largest urban forest restoration project in the nation, and has been duplicated in other cities such as Tacoma and Kirkland.
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Have you ever wondered about Mother Nature’s counterpart, Father Nature?
Look no further than ecologist and artist of nature, Steven Apfelbaum. You could even call him Father Nature. His book, Nature’s Second Chance: Restoring the Ecology of Stone Prairie Farm (Beacon, 2009), offers an engaging and refreshingly personal narrative of how, as humans, we can reconnect with the land, our community, and our true selves through restoration work on the land. (The book is also available as an eBook.)
“Dirty hands and sweat welded my relationship with Stone Prairie Farm … where I have worked to give nature a second chance,” writes Apfelbaum in the book’s Introduction. “My years of planting, of nurturing the resurgence of prairie, wetland, and forest cover where eroded fields once lay exposed, have created a deep, direct connection to nature.” The land became his home, love, passion, and peace — even the humble beginnings for his livelihood after launching the ecological consulting firm, Applied Ecological Services, Inc., and Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries — both exemplary triple bottom businesses.
Apfelbaum’s inspiration, like many in his field, was renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold who so clearly enunciated a vision for a land ethic to guide our human relationship with all of nature: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise.”
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I live in Vermont. Tonight it is going to be 20 below zero. It’s the kind of cold that makes your eye sockets sore as you run from the car inside. Jeans almost freeze, and stiffly press against your thighs. Any exposed flesh is sore and tingly within minutes.
This is the the time of year that parents and children can go completely stir crazy. Days of being inside, cooped up, wear on everyone. Discipline problems crop up more than often then usual (ah, all day, it seems), my fuse is shorter as well. We need to GET OUT! But not spend money (or much of it, anyway).
So here is a quick list of 5 ways to fight said cabin fever on the cheap and green.
1. Visit your local library. Even if you just go and hang out and read with your kids, it gets you all out of the house and surrounded by books. Both are good for clearing the mind and supporting reading. If your library has a weekly story hour with an activity, even better.
2. Attend a local elementary school or high school sports event. They are free, and fun for the kids to watch and learn about a sport. Gymnastics and basketball are both in season right now, and are very lively and engaging for kids. I just took my girls to a basketball game tonight. They loved watching how the game worked and the older kids in action.
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I first heard about Obama’s Green Inauguration in a passing discussion by two news journalists today who mentioned that he was using a green carpet for his celebration.
“Yeah, but you know everyone will be flying in and taking limos,” the journalist noted. And honestly, he did have a point.
However, after researching the green inauguration ball further (which as it turns out is totally separate from the actual inauguration), it does seem as though there’s definitely a larger green effort involved in what might otherwise be passed off as green washing.
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Wildlife smuggling is a profitable trade. Given that the U.S. does not punish the crime harshly, you might consider doing it as a job in these tough times.
Yesterday MSNBC and CNN picked up a story about the discovery of illegal wildlife trafficking activity on a boat traveling from Peru to Chile. The topic seems to be of great interest to Americans if mainstream media sources choose to run these kinds of stories.
Estimates vary, but the general consensus is that internationally, the illegal wildlife trade ranks at least second or third in its volume and profitability, only behind the trade of drugs and guns. It’s thought to be a billion dollar industry annually in the U.S. alone. The World Wildlife Federation says its “the second-biggest threat to species after habitat destruction.”
So why is the crime punished in the United States in such a puny way?
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This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.
Like our other vendors Norwood is coming out strong with numerous new green and eco-friendly products for 2009.
Norwood is one of the largest names in our industry and I am happy to see they are going green in a big way.
Take a look at this crazy use of recycled fabric that Norwood is now selling. Yes, that is a Wilson lightweight golf bag made from 100% recycled fabric. Norwood’s website boasts “eco-conscious golfers can feel confident with their game while helping the environment”.
I have to tell you that the closest I get to a golf course is the Nintendo WII with my nephews. Like many green thinkers I believe that a traditional golf course uses a bit too much land and way too much water, normally in places with little of both to spare.
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Climate change, developers, and logging are blamed
Since the winter of 2006, when a state of emergency was declared for 18 counties in the state, Western Washington has experienced increasingly dramatic annual flooding episodes creating a state of emergency in growing numbers of counties each year.
For the past three years here, the number of roads, farms, buildings, and houses damaged or destroyed increased—helped along by the landslides that usually follow in the wake of such flooding. Although with this year the number of landslides has been somewhat constrained, the total area of flooding has increased from the previous two years (several sections of Interstate 5 remained shut down as of Saturday night, Jan. 10), and tens of thousands of people have had to be evacuated over the past 10 days. The governor declared a state of emergency in late December, which has only abated in the past couple of days.
It would seem that a “trifecta” of reinforcing factors is to blame: climate change (an extra heavy dose of snow, followed by several days of heavy rains), upland forest clear-cutting (leaving less vegetation to soak up water and hold the soil in place), and over-development in flood plane areas (leaving too many people’s houses too low in the face of rising rivers) …all of which set the stage for the current state of emergency. The damage is still being tallied, and although the heavy rains have largely abated, repairs to roads and highways will take months if not a full year (and with state budgets so tight) or more.
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Panasonic is fast becoming a brand name not just for electronics but also for green building products.
Eco-Products 2008 recently held in Tokyo, showcased a series of award-winning green products and services. The E Floor, developed by Panasonic Electric Works, was given the Chairperson’s Award. The Eco Product Awards is presented by four organizations including the Global Environmental Forum, a non-profit organization under the jurisdiction of Japan’s Ministry of Environment.
The E-floor is an extremely durable product made from a 100% recycled hard chip board. According to Panasonic, using this material can be equated to saving forest areas that are 135 times the size of the Tokyo Dome, on an annual basis. Panasonic began selling the E Floor product line over a year ago with a monthly sales target of 170 million yen.
Although Panasonic has not been associated with the home building industry in previous years, I believe more companies will bring a wide range of their green technologies into their products and services across group companies in coming years.
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Panasonic E Floor with Award at Eco-Products 2008
Panasonic E Floor at Eco-Products 2008
Image Credits: Panasonic/Tetsuya Yokoyama
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Before buying a small wind turbine for your roof, consider this: a recent British study claims that many home turbines generate only a fraction of what manufacturers promise, and some don’t even generate enough power to run their own electronics. The study, which was funded by the British Wind Energy Association, looked at turbines in four rural, 10 suburban, and 12 urban sites over the course of a year.
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This morning I stopped at Starbucks for a treat - a soy gingerbread latte. As I walked through the door berating myself for not bringing my travel mug, I noticed again all of the disposable cups and associated waste we now accept as part of our morning coffee ritual.
Over 50% of adult Americans, more than 150 million people, consume coffee daily. That’s a lot of joe, and a huge opportunity to caffeinate more sustainably. Here are a few tips to green your morning coffee.
1. Brew Your Coffee at Home
Or, in the words of Bon Appetit, become your own barista. In addition to reducing landfill waste, you’ll save money and have more control over the beans you brew, not to mention any sweetener or milk you add. I’m currently in love with coffee made with a French press, and ask for a medium grind when I buy beans at my local specialty roaster.
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