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Reminding us that plants support human life, Jonathan Drori shares the vision of the Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion seeds to date from dwindling yet essential plant species.
Namaste: Dawn Baillie
TED Website: http://www.ted.com/
Related articles by Zemanta
- In praise of … the Millennium Seed Bank (guardian.co.uk)
Hat Tip: Thanks, Dawn.
Demon child, originally uploaded by MsBlueSky.
The Belgian city of Ghent has declared Thursdays meat-free. The Flemish university town of some 200,000 people has now introduced a weekly “Veggie Thursday.” The city hopes to improve public health, reduce its impact on the environment and enhance animal welfare. “If everyone in Flanders (population: six million) does not eat meat one day a week, we will save as much CO2 in a year as taking half a million cars off the road,” said an Ethical Vegetarian Association spokesperson. You can read the meat of the story here.
Hat Tip: nmoe.org/
Bicycle + Plants = Going Green, originally uploaded by Mohan.M.
The bicycle-friendly city of Muenster, Germany, has an advertising campaign that compares the space used by various modes of travel. These are the relevant statistics: (1) 72 people transported on 72 bikes requires 90 square meters (2) based on an average occupancy of 1.2 people per car, 60 cars are needed to transport 72 people, which takes 1,000 square meters and (3) 72 people can be transported on 1 bus, which only requires 30 square meters of space and no permanent parking space, since it can be parked elsewhere. For more information, click here.
Turn of the turbines?, originally uploaded by Dave JG (away).
Europe’s largest onshore wind farm has recently begun operating in Scotland. It’s called Whitelee and its 140 turbines are enough to power Glasgow. Plans to expand it—and build another, bigger one—are already underway. This and a future project could help ensure that half of all of Scotland’s electricity would come from green sources by 2020. More of the story here.
For information and inspiration, visit: veteransgreenjobs.org/
Since the age of 10, Tayler McGillis has collected and recycled more than 23,000 pounds of aluminum from roadside trash, old homes and other sources. The Toluca, Illinois resident has thus been able to raise more than $18,000 for local charities including Habitat for Humanity. Tayler has also turned an abandoned coal mine into a wildlife preserve and designed and built a project to stop lake erosion. What’s more, he and a team of volunteers have walked and cleaned up more than 400 miles of local highways.
Hat Tip: epa.state.il.us
Save the Earth, originally uploaded by Puhleebu.
These days, New Zealand students are busy cleaning up Mother Earth. Over 600 Kiwi schools are involved in a program called, Enviroschools, in which every classroom has compost and paper recycling bins. Classes sponsor dolphins, design eco buildings on computers, and stock bird feeders they’ve built. There are “wheels days” for bikes and scooters, designed to promote exercise and take more cars off the road. According to officials, Enviroschools students don’t just learn about the environment; they do something about it. Details here.
Sunjay Tyle, a 15 year-old senior at Pittsford Mendon High School in Rochester, New York, has been working on an alternative energy project with Professor J.H. David Wu at the University of Rochester since he was nine and has created a new method for directly converting cellulose into ethanol. Sunjay also blogs about the environment, alternative energy, transportation, and other topics for Mother Nature Network.
Hat Tip: businessweek.com
The Nature Sanctuary, originally uploaded by Gemma Grace.
The Findhorn Foundation is a spiritual community, eco-village and an international centre for holistic education in Moray, Scotland, helping to unfold a new human consciousness and create a positive and sustainable future. The Park is the hub of the community, welcoming residential guests and day visitors. It is the site of many ecological buildings and initiatives, and home to 300 people.
Findhorn has less impact on the environment than any other community in the developed world, despite the fact that its thousands of visitors and residents still fly too much.
16 year-old Linus Wafula lives in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, with his mother. Unable to afford school, Linus has spent much of his youth addressing the impact of uncollected waste in his neighborhood. In one instance, he created a volunteer youth club that cleaned up dumpsites and drained stagnant water, provided residents with garbage bags, and educated them about waste management efforts. The club also started a tree planting campaign to beautify the neighborhood. Linus is a recent winner of an Action For Nature International Young Eco-Hero Award. Click here to read his blog.
Hat Tip: world-wire.com
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Kids vs Global Warming is a non profit organization founded and led by Alec Loorz, who is now 14 years old. “We are a group of kids that educate other kids about the science of global warming and empower them to take action. Through educational presentations, community activism projects, action teams, and hands on demonstrations, we teach youth that they have a voice, and that they can do something about global warming.”
This recycled hairstyling mannequin head keeps crows away from a garbage collection point in Ube, Japan. For the complete story, click here.
Colin Carlson directs a climate change organization called the Cool Coventry Club, a service project to educate people about global warming and encourage energy conservation at individual, business and governmental levels. He also works with businesses to develop “energy action plans.” He is a Nestle Very Best In Youth winner and a recent winner of a Do Something Plum Grant, which he is using to produce climate change information booklets he created for Coventry’s second grade public school students. Born on Harry Potter’s birthday, twelve year-old Colin is currently a student at the University of Connecticut.
Hat Tip: nytimes & photographer Shana Sureck
Ocean Motion, originally uploaded by Nick Carlson.
The ocean is the birthplace of life on earth. But it’s in trouble. Here’re just two of many reasons why:
(1) A recent National Academy of Sciences study estimates that the oil running off our streets and driveways and ultimately flowing into the oceans is equal to an Exxon Valdez oil spill – 10.9 million gallons – every eight months.
(2) Over half of the world’s original coastal marshes and mangrove forests are now developed as industrial parks, residential areas and farms.
(3) More than 2.8 billion gallons of industrial waste water per day are discharged directly into U.S. ocean waters, excluding electric utilities and offshore oil and gas effluents. Heavy metals released from industry, such as mercury and lead, are often found in marine life, including many of those often consumed by humans.
What can you do about these and other problems affecting our oceans? For starters, visit see-the-sea.org.
Mollie created her own blog and letter-writing campaign as a way to help polar bears gain protection on the Endangered Species list. After reading at school about the plight of the polar bear, Mollie and some friends created “Save the bears!” posters and marched around the playground. Many of her peers taunted the girls, saying their march was accomplishing very little, and later that evening, Mollie realized they were right. She decided to take more concrete action and started a blog, where she posted statements such as “Polar bears like to swim, but they can’t swim forever!”, referring to the dire consequences of melting Arctic ice. She also asked people to write letters to the Fish and Wildlife Service supporting the polar bear’s inclusion on the Endangered Species list, and collected 171 letters. When the Alaska Wilderness League learned of Mollie’s work, they asked her to speak at an Arctic rally on Capitol Hill, where she shared the stage with Senators John Kerry and Bernie Sanders – and stood on a box in order to reach the microphone.
Hat tip: barronprize.org/
Summer Oakes, who is known as “the world’s first eco-model, is a tireless advocate for environmental issues, and she is unapologetic about using her assets “to make a difference.” She has a degree in environmental science and entomology from Cornell University, is a Udall environmental scholar, and has just published a book, Style, Naturally, the Savvy Shopping Guide to Sustainable Fashion and Beauty. “Everything I work on in modeling is about partnering with environmentally sound companies,” said Oakes, who was named a “Global Citizen” by Vanity Fair in 2007.
Hat tip: vancouversun.com
Plastic Issue, originally uploaded by Light and Life -Murali.
For sustainable living, what comes from the earth should go back to the earth. This has been done for millennia in rural India, by composting crop and food wastes. Now, in some parts of the country, environmental experts are exploring how plastic waste can be used for road construction. Click here for more information.
I Meen It, originally uploaded by kaytethinks.
Students will be encouraged to find solutions to global warming with the launch of a new environmental school curriculum in Melbourne.
The Living in 2030: An Experiment in Survival is a new school curriculum in Melbourne, Australia that invites students to imagine a world 20 years from now where environmental solutions have not yet been found to pressing issues including global warming. Students must then find solutions to the problems.
Steve Cook, principal at Williamstown High School – which has tested the education resource – said students had responded with optimism and creativity to the program.
“The work produced by our students involved in this program is characterized by their creativity, passion for the environment and a real desire to make a difference.”
For details, click here.
Make 18 minutes and 16 seconds. When you’re sure you can spare them, watch the following video – Monday’s only post. Don’t let anything or anyone interrupt you.
Inspired by a first-grade teacher who taught that people in Africa had difficulty getting clean water and access to wells, six year-old Ryan Hreljac, made a deal with his parents. A year after performing extra chores and doing a little fundraising, he had amassed $2,000 and in January, 1999, a well was built at the Angolo Primary School in northern Uganda.
Ten years later, Ryan’s work continues through the Ryan’s Well Foundation which has so far built 502 wells in sixteen countries serving a total of 621,712 people.
Habitat Heroes creator is Australian mom, Sharon Lowe, who conceived the idea when she had trouble finding a child-friendly ecology website for her seven year old daughter. “The core of Habitat Heroes was formed around values my husband and I wish to instill in our children,” Lowe said. “(The site) unites children into a global force of Super Heroes, teaching them that everyone can make a difference.” Hat tip to www.rolemommy.com
Obama fixing the environment, originally uploaded by redcoulter.
The last 100 days or so paint a green picture of the Obama administration. Here’s some of what ‘s been accomplished:
1. Obama began the process of blocking the vast majority of new coal plants.
2. He began the process of dramatically increasing the efficiency of our vehicles, by ordering EPA to support tough emissions requirements asking the Department of Transportation to quickly issue and phase-in tougher fuel economy standards.
3. In every single major speech, he has focused on the urgent need for a clean energy transition and for a price for carbon (cap-and-trade and “closing the carbon loophole”).
4. He signed into law the tax credits needed to achieve his ambitious goal of 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015 .
5. He signed into law a massive investment in mass transit and train travel — and laid out an aggressive vision for a high-speed rail network.
6. He signed into law the tax credits needed meet his ambitious goal of doubling renewables in his first term.
7. He signed into law the funding needed to jumpstart a 21st smart grid that is critical to enable the renewable energy, energy efficiency, and plug-in hybrid revolution.
8. He signed into law the single biggest investment in the deployment of energy-efficient technology in U.S. history, along with strong incentives for state governments to fix their inefficiency-promoting utility regulations.
9. He more than doubled the annual budget for advanced energy efficiency, renewable energy, and low carbon technology.
Hat tip: www.worldchanging.com
A fishing trip, originally uploaded by slavishtubesocks.
In 2007, a blog called “Fishes Feed Us,” was created by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc., and hosted by One Ocean, as a way for youth in New York City and the Indo-Pacific Region to exchange views about the fish crisis, telling their stories from the “fishes’ perspective” as well as from their own viewpoints. Here is some of what they had to say:
One day we will have to go to a museum to see a fish because we are eating up our ocean’s supply too fast, too soon. (Sameena – New York City)
Since the big commercial fishing vessels started coming into our local waters, there are fewer fish, and more pollution. If we can barely survive now, how are the future generations going to? (Francine – Malaysia)
I wish some groups would help fishers’ children so that they could go to school. It is every child’s right to be educated. (Angelica – New York City)
Boom! Everything seemed to stop. Then I saw fishes floating. Dead. With one dynamite explosion, the reefs, our home, were completely demolished. (Kristine – Philippines)
Education is the key. If people understand the human consequences of losing the world’s fish stocks, they will try and help stop the depletion. (Jasmine – New York City)
Red trash, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.
Plastic is a problem but so is paper:
1. Plastic bags require 40% less energy to produce than paper bags.
2. Paper bags produce 80% more solid waste than plastic and due to modern landfill techniques, don’t biodegrade much faster than their polyethylene counterparts.
3. It takes less energy to recycle a plastic bag than paper.
4. Plastic bags weigh less and take up less landfill space than their paper counterparts.
5. Paper bag manufacturing creates more air and water pollution than plastic bags.
Solution? Purchase reusable cloth bags and use them.
Hat Tip to http://www.greendaily.com
Yuyun Ismawati is one of this year’s recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work related to the growing challenges of trash on small islands, where trash storage space is scarce and poses an obvious threat to the land and community.
Robert Fleming, originally uploaded by cstm-mstc pgc-mpc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment has become the first major Hollywood studio to build a “green” sound stage. “Stage 23 incorporates numerous sustainable elements, such as local and environmentally preferred construction materials—including Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber, which is harvested from responsibly managed forests; recycled steel and metals; non-toxic paint and adhesives; and concrete foundations with 35 percent recycled fly ash. The Stage is surrounded by a perimeter of pervious asphalt, which allows rain water to percolate into the ground instead of running off into the Los Angeles River; contains energy efficient lighting; and incorporates Ice Bear® cooling technology in the stage’s tech rooms, using off-peak electricity for daytime cooling. The Stage is also designed to include a 100-kilowatt solar electrical system that will generate clean renewable energy.”
Hat Tip to www.designtaxi.com/
These commercials were produced for MTV in 1990. Time flies, the situation remains pretty much the same.
When he was nine, Alex Lin had co-created a community service team called Westerly Innovations Network (WIN) and it seemed fitting to motivate his team to tackle E-Waste. Alex’s leadership and dedication contributed to a slew of amazing accomplishments including a recycling drive which collected 21,000 pounds of E-Waste and the creation of a permanent E-Waste receptacle in town, which has collected more than 60,000 pounds of waste. Alex recently helped build an Internet café in Cameroon, and is now setting up a pilot system for providing refurbished computers to international youth through the United Nation’s Environment Program and launching a Bridging Divides program with U.S. businesses and schools.
When Erica Fernandez found out that a liquefied natural gas facility was proposed for the coast of Oxnard and Malibu with a 36-inch pipeline routed through low-income neighborhoods, she was outraged. She worked in concert with the Sierra Club and Latino No on LNG group to mobilize the youth and Latino voice in protests and public meetings. She organized weekly protests at the BHP Billiton offices in Oxnard, met regularly with community members, marched through neighborhoods that would be most impacted, reached out to the media, and brought more than 250 high school students to a critical rally. Her passionate testimony at the California State Lands Commission meeting was quoted in news articles, and helped convince the Commission to vote to deny the project.
To learn more about the Brower Youth Awards, visit http://broweryouthawards.org/article.php?list=type&type=12.
Green Grocery Shopping Bag, originally uploaded by Dizzy Design.
The Big Green Purse is encouraging a million women to shift at least $1,000 of money they already spend for an initial $1 billion Big Green Purse impact. Want to join? Click here.
NOTE: Big Green Purse is the brainchild of Diane MacEachern who is believes that “the fastest, easiest, most direct route to a clean and healthy environment is tyo shift our spending to environmentally-safe, socially responsible products and services.”
Environmentalist Leonardo (DiCaprio) has donated this autographed shirt to benefit Global Green USA – an organization focused on stemming global climate change. You can purchase it on eBay (current high bid as of 7:45 am, PDT = $147.50). If you prefer an Antarctica coffee table book signed by the actor and Mikhail Gorbachev, click here (current high bid = $405). Hurry, auction ends on Earth Day, April 22nd.
Visit Global Green USA for more Earth Day gift ideas.
No Chance at Life., originally uploaded by cut.open.
The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative has recommended that President Obama appoint a high-level adviser on ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes issues equal in rank to the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. This new senior official would be responsible for addressing the fact that the marine environment of the United States is in serious trouble. For example, “ninety percent of large predatory fish are now gone. There is a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, created by an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizer carried by the Mississippi River from America’s hinterland, that has grown to an area roughly the size of Massachusetts. Nearly 90 percent of U.S. wetlands have vanished due to development, and twenty-six thousand of the country’s beaches have been temporarily closed or put under advisories because of pollution.“ Enough said. Click to learn more about how the JOCI is addressing the crisis.
When he was nine, Alex had co-created a community service team called Westerly Innovations Network (WIN) and it seemed fitting to motivate his team to tackle E-Waste. Thus, Project WIN ’05 was born. Alex’s leadership and dedication contributed to a slew of amazing accomplishments including a recycling drive which collected 21,000 pounds of E-Waste and the creation of a permanent E-Waste receptacle in town, which has collected more than 60,000 pounds of waste.
Leatherback turtle at sunrise, originally uploaded by SEE Turtles.
Leatherback turtles, the most widely distributed reptiles on Earth, may have survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, but today they’re threatened with extinction themselves, in large part due to the carelessness of humans. Since jellyfish and marine debris concentrate where ocean water masses meet, the turtles feeding in these areas are vulnerable to ingesting plastic. Once leatherbacks ingest plastic, thousands of spines lining the throat and esophagus make it nearly impossible to regurgitate. The plastic can lead to partial or even complete obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in decreased digestive efficiency, energetic and reproductive costs and, for some, starvation. “The frustrating, yet hopeful aspect is that humans can easily begin addressing the solution, without major lifestyle changes”, says Dalhousie University professor Mike James. “It’s as simple as reducing packaging and moving towards alternative, biodegradable materials and recycling.”
Twearth Day is Project Green Jungle’s Earth Day Event. For six days, they’ll be utilizing Twitter in real time from the jungles of Costa Rica with water quality updates from the Sixaola River and species and biodiversity surveys from the Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve.
We discovered this website a few days ago. Colin, its founder, explains its purpose far better than we can:
“Hi, my name is Colin. I am 10 years old and in the 5th grade. I love geology (any science really), history, the ocean, anything about WW II, Civil War or Revolutionary War, my friends and my family. My favorite music is from Jack Johnson, Ziggy and Bob Marley, John Butler Trio, Ben Taylor, James Hunter, and anything from the 80′s (that bums my mom out).
My mom helped me put this web site together because I am so angry about what is happening to our planet. Pollution and waste! What I hope is that kids will read what I write and start thinking about what they can do in their community to help keep the earth clean.
Keep visiting my web site and I promise to keep giving you cool things to read, and cool web sites to check out. Thanks! Also check out my blog at: ecosavvykid.blogspot.com.”
In 2004, Guster guitarist and vocalist Adam Gardner and his wife Lauren Sullivan co-founded Reverb, an organization that educates and engages musicians and their fans to promote environmental sustainability. Since its inception, the group has worked with (among others), Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, and Guster who this week, embarked on their fourth annual Campus Consciousness Tour (click here for details and tour itinerary).
Blue Avocado lives here.
12 year-old surfer, Chris Regan, had this to say at a Department of the Interior’s Public Meeting on Offshore Energy Resources at the Atlantic City Convention Center: “I’ve watched an oil exec sneer at every person who has come up to speak today against drilling for oil,“ young Regan stated. He then stopped speaking, turned to his left and stared directly at his 3-piece suit-clad target. “Let me ask you something,“ said Regan, whose mother had signed him out of school to attend the hearing. “Do you have children? Grandchildren?“ The bigwig was caught off guard, but answered that he did have children. “This is their future too,” Regan told him. More on the Regan and the meeting at ESPN.
PHOTO CREDIT: nickphotos
Remedee is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people discover their voices through media. The organizers believe that young men and women are capable of telling profound stories about their world. In this short film, Jacie Lemon and Sharett Brooks take an airboat tour of the Louisiana wetlands to learn about the consequences of the MRGO industrial canal.
Terroir: A Sense of Place is the inaugural exhibition for an exciting new venue in Marin County at The Marin French Cheese Company. Originally a French term, the word terroir expresses the special characteristics that a specific landscape contributes to growing foods. For this exhibition, the definition has been co-opted to express the Sense of Place that these artists experience of nature.
For more information and directions, visit http://artatthecheesefactory.blogspot.com/.
Headline Quote: Ancient Native American Proverb
In towns throughout Appalachia, unregulated mining prior to 1977 created a huge environmental problem called Acid Mine Drainage.
In 1994, a group called Team SPLASH (Sustainable Partnership of Landscape Architects, Scientists, and Historians) made up of artists, scientists, and humanists came together with the town of Vintondale, Pennsylvania, to explore the opportunities for innovative AMD treatment.
The result is a passive treatment park with public art pieces that lend historical perspective and an air of celebration to sustainable community development.
For more information, visit http://www.amdandart.org/
