CARNIVAL OF THE GREEN #125!
Welcome to TreeHugger’s Carnival of the Green #125 hosted by The Conservation Report! The last Carnival was at EcoTech Daily. This Carnival includes a very diverse and immensely informative lineup. Topics include book reviews, ethical traveling, fair trade coffee, rain barrel construction, and many other surprises! I will start with a few submissions that highlight the complexities of the carbon cycle and illustrate the need to consider many variables when managing Earth’s carbon portfolio.
The conundrum of carbon
Extracting and burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere, and since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, the excess carbon dioxide plays a role in the unnatural warming of the Earth. Additionally, while the burning of fossil fuels is occurring, other anthropogenic activities further add to or exacerbate the problem. As a result, it can be a struggle to manage our activities or balance the good and bad. For example, trees are an important carbon sink, since trees absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and convert it into biomass, while releasing O2. This carbon sequestering effect is useful, but when a tree dies and breaks down, the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere/environment where it may or may not be absorbed by other systems or reservoirs as part of a complex cyclical process. Nonetheless, the ability of trees to sequester carbon make them an important tool in fighting global warming. Furthermore, trees provide ecosystem services and are aesthetically pleasing, so knowing that forests are being cut down or even witnessing a single tree being taken down certainly invokes emotion for some people. Lynn at OrganicMania documents some poor planning and what some would perceive as reckless behavior from Bethesda, Maryland:
Eight healthy, beautiful, four story tall trees adjacent to a city sidewalk felled to make way for yet another condominium building. This happened on Earth Day. Really.
What is more valuable to society or the global community—condominiums or trees? The concrete jungle that is a city creates a microclimate that generates and traps heat. Concrete jungles also deliver pollution more efficiently to waterways than natural areas or areas developed with less concrete. As a result, trees can improve environmental conditions within cities. The Blue Voice discusses the need for more trees in urbanscapes or better urban forestry policies in the blog post, “A world in need of trees“:
But there is a lot of good news here: despite the difficulties, cities across the country, from Los Angeles to New York, are undertaking ambitious tree-planting projects. Many states, like New Mexico, have also realized the enormous benefits that come with releafing, and now have reforestation projects under way. On Tuesday, HR 5867, The Energy Conservation through Trees Act, was introduced in the House. This legislation would create a grant program to help utilities with programs that target tree planting to reduce energy demand. The end result would be lower electric bills for homeowners and lower peak load demands for power companies.
The bill would use science-based guidelines to ensure trees are planted where they won’t affect pre-existing infrastructure, block solar panels or wind turbines, or damage power lines. Utilities would work with nonprofit tree-planting groups or similar municipal groups who would act as technical experts. Federal money would have to be matched by nonfederal dollars. (News from American Forests)
If, on this Arbor Day, you’d like to find out what releaf projects are happening in your community, The Alliance for Community Trees has a city-by-city, state-by-state list of organizations and neighborhood groups working to bring trees and all their legion of benefits back into our streets and our lives. Check it out, get involved! One of the lives you improve will be your own.
Although trees play a role in fighting global warming, they are susceptible to diseases and pest infestations, which can kill trees and cause them to release their carbon back into the atmosphere/environment. One such pest infestation is from the mountain pine beetle. These insects attack vast swaths of forestland. Most detrimentally, the beetle acts as a vector by transmitting a fungus that results in the tree’s death by blocking its ability to absorb nutrients and water. When forests die and decompose, they release great amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere/environment. Interestingly, the increase in mountain pine beetle populations is probably the result of human activities. Ed Yong at ScienceBlogs writes in more depth about the problem and mitigation measures being used:
[Werner Kurz from the Canadian Forest Service] modelled the effects of the beetles in the south-central region of British Columbia between 2000 and 2020. He took a wide range of factors into consideration including growth, leaf litter, decay, forest fires and deforestation, and ran 100 different simulations under a range of different conditions.
For the first two years of the simulation, the forest was a carbon sink, soaking in half a million tonnes of carbon every year. After 2002, things changed and the falling forests turned into sources of carbon, giving off an average of 17.6 million tonnes every year between 2003 and 2020.
The beetles’ tree-killing antics will result in the release of about 270 million tonnes of carbon over the 21 year period covered in the simulation. The forestry industry is managing the infestation with “salvage-logging”, felling infected trees to prevent the spread of the beetles and to recover some economic value from the timber. This harvest will add another 50 million tonnes of carbon to the beetles’ direct tally, although only a small proportion of this will be released into the atmosphere.
The effects of these tiny insects matches those of more usual suspects. Kurz predicts that this single outbreak will release as much carbon dioxide over 21 years as Canada’s entire transportation sector does over five. And the annual amount of carbon released by the beetles in this small patch of British Columbia is similar to the amount given off by forest fires over all of Canada during earlier decades.
It’s very interesting how phenomena in Nature, like the mountain pine beetle example, will go unnoticed by the mainstream public, but these seemingly unimportant happenings in Nature are significant enough to have a great impact on our lives. Furthermore, most people have the capacity to worry only about issues they can immediately sense, while some people can’t react. For example, some people want to do more for the environment but are not given the choice, educational tools, or infrastructure to do so. For example, what if I want to recycle my computer and its lithium batter—I know the computer and its components are recyclable, but I can’t recycle the components, since the recycling infrastructure does not exist. However, non-governmental organizations like ASL Recycling and corporations like Sony are providing the infrastructure where government has failed to do so.
However, the problem of not having the tools to live a greener lifestyle has manifested into other areas—not just recycling. For example, what if I want to live in a house or some other type of residence that is greener than the average American McMansion, when most of the private and public housing that is available does not reflect sustainability goals.
The paradigm is shifting.
Around the world, from China to the United States, ecocities and ecovillages are being constructed to provide people with greener choices to conventional homes. Certainly these environmentally friendly zip codes are attractive for the seasoned environmentalist or even the nouveau-green, but most importantly, these ecocities and ecovillages provide an opportunity for any person or family to have a lifestyle that is better for the environment. ProTraveller describes how these ecocities and ecovillages deter pollution that would otherwise be released through transportation activities. Furthermore, these green zip codes promote natural landscaping, renewable energy, and urban agriculture. ProTraveller highlights 15 ecocities and ecovillages from around the globe:
The ecocity is defined by two different factors: the input it requires from the land around it and the output that it causes to that land. In terms of input, an ecocity tries to reduce its reliance on the surrounding earth for necessities such as water, food and energy. In terms of output, it minimises the waste it produces in areas such as carbon dioxide air pollution and pollution to nearby water sources. Sounds technical and boring, doesn’t it? But that’s not the case; the people who live in ecocities are determined to make those places interesting, inspiring and fun. China and the U.S. are leading the way but there are ecocities in Africa, South America and Europe as well.
If you do not live in an ecohome, or have the time to reduce your carbon footprint, or perhaps you do not want to wait around for government or business to provide greener choices and infrastructure, or maybe you want to further supplement the green lifestyle you already have, then you can calculate your carbon dioxide emissions and purchase carbon offsets. The Green Thinking Blog provides some information on how to do this through TerraPass.com:
TerraPass.com sells carbon offsets for the driver, the flier, the business, the bride and groom, the student, or the homeowner. Using the carbon footprint calculator, you can determine the amount of carbon dioxide emissions you are putting into the atmosphere every year. So, what is a carbon offset anyway? “A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions, the principal cause of global warming.”
(Terrapass FAQs)You can purchase a TerraPass for yourself or give it to someone else as a gift. All your money goes toward green projects that reduce carbon emissions. With your purchase, Terrapass sends you a clear, attractive window decal for your car or home window. If you’re a frequent flier, you’ll get a luggage tag to show off (it will also be easier to find your bags at baggage claim). If you offset a wedding, you’ll get a framed certificate to display for guests.
Do-it-yourself and save in so many ways
So what if you can’t afford to live in an ecovillage or purchase carbon offsets but want to reduce waste and reduce your carbon footprint? Through resourcefulness, it is possible to make simple and altruistic choices that benefit the environment. You can minimize resource extraction and save by becoming a do-it-yourselfer at home and recycling what you have. Collectively or in the aggregate, single individuals or families that practice frugal behavior can make a huge difference in reducing consumption of resources and pollution into the environment. Carnival of the Green #125 has some great do-it-yourself projects that will minimize anyone’s impact on the environment.
First, EcoJoe offers a great recipe for protein bars. Making your own protein bars at home cuts out packaging, allows you to save a few bucks, and have some fun with the family or roommates! Here is a snippet from EcoJoe:
Follow along with this picture essay, and you will learn the secrets of how to make some cheap, homemade protein bars. Here are the ingredients. If you want to use some eco-friendly protein powder, or organic bananas, or what have you, then by all means do. I opted for the cheapest ingredients for this demonstration.
- Banana
- Whey protein
- Oats
- Peanut butter
- Raw Peanuts (optional)
We have saved some money on food but what about water? Currently, I’m at home in North Carolina from Michigan in between law school classes. Here in North Carolina, water conservation has become a big issue in the last couple of years. We have experienced record droughts that have forced local communities and businesses to practice water conservation.
Consider that in America, we wash our cars religiously and we plant and water vegetation that is often not adapted to grow in the climate where we live. However, in making choices as consumers, we must consider climate change, our resource strained world, and ask ourselves is it our right to wash our cars and lawns too frequently, have too many children, or lavishly drive inefficient SUVs that take away fuel from future generations? Obviously, we should be changing our behavior and conserving resources to preserve our great civilization with all its freedoms for future generations to enjoy.
The access to potable water will be an issue for future generations, but one solution to water availability is using rainwater catchment systems that provide a water contingency or water bank for personal use. Not the Jet Set blog has some useful information and provides an excellent photo essay on how to build a low-cost rain barrel. The directions are clear and easy. The concept provides a great utility to society with minimal costs and very high returns:
So maybe you’ve read my How To on rainwater collection, and you’re ready to give this a go. I know several people who have gotten to this point and stopped. They got the raw barrels, and for whatever reason, they just didn’t finish. They’ve been setting there for years – unused. Time and priorities are always an issue, but there’s no excuse for letting this one slip through the cracks. This job is about 2 hammers out of 5 on difficulty (but only because we are using power tools, otherwise it would be a 1), and about 1.5 dollar signs out of 5 (the cost of the barrels is variable, but the rest is quite cheap). Really, the barrel can be painted over a weekend of intermittent activity, and the rest of the work can be done in one evening. It’s really not hard.
We have another great do-it-yourselfer at My Recycled Bags.com. Cindy of My Recycled Bags.com crocheted a recycled green tote bag that she calls the Green Greenie Bag. The material she resourcefully used to create the Green Greenie Bag is from recycled plastic bags. She provides further directions and pattern information at her blog post:
The project is made using recycled plastic bags which have been repurposed into plarn or plastic bag yarn. Here is a picture tutorial to show you the step-by-step process to making plarn. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than creating an eco-friendly greenie bag for yourself, a family member or friend.
The green consumer
Green is everywhere. I remember when being green was perceived as a fringe hippie movement and mainstream society thought a green life was either unreachable or impractical. However, green turned out to be a very important ideology and mass movement to sustain our civilization and fight global warming. Today, the idea of green seems like its being hijacked and made fashionable but that is what happens when an idea becomes mainstream. Green is not exempt from any of the consumer, economic or social tests applied everyday.
Sustainability will creep in every aspect of our lives until it goes unnoticed. Entertainment is even going green. There is a green DVD club that cuts out the doom and gloom often associated with environmentalism. Promoting positive results is as important as reporting the negative consequences. Green Deals Daily reports that:
Some environmental films can be too heavy-handed, pessimistic or worst of all, boring. I was happily surprised to be entertained from start to finish by this wonderful collection. I’m not even normally a huge nature film buff but I can honestly say the incredibly complex and interconnected life of the fig tree had me riveted from start to finish….
In order to live up to the high environmental standards set by these excellent films, ECC has taken steps to ensure their packaging and carbon footprint are as green as possible. The liner notes, envelope and DVD case are all made from 100% recycled fiber, contain no plastic and are printed with soy-based inks. Additionally, Earth Cinema Circle puts a percentage of membership fees toward Conservation Fund’s Go Zero tree planting carbon offset program.
Personally, I do not see environmental issues as being doom and gloom. There is a thrill in the challenge to solve environmental degradation and working with resource users. If we cannot handle the doom and gloom we can make ourselves happier by making choices that are immediate and ethical therefore leave us with a good feeling sans the doom and gloom.
It is in a corporation’s DNA to be motivated by profits. Even green or greener corporations are motivated by consumer sells, public relations and savings. What about those corporations that are not 100% marketing or selling green, sustainable or ethical goods? Corporations like the Starbucks Coffee Company offer ethical or green goods with conventional goods. However, the consumer has the power to make the choice that reflects the best for the environment or workers that brought the goods to market. Coffee is an obvious example where the consumer can buy the fair trade brand and send a message to corporate executives at the board meeting that consumers prefer fair trade over coffee that isn’t fair trade. Greener Pastures: Personal Finance discusses in further detail that:
At first it was part of a grassroots movement to change the world. But now it’s big business. Fair Trade Coffee is the latest buzz, a growing profit maker. Americans’ growing awareness of unfair labor practices abroad has spawned newfound compassion from the big guys, like Starbucks, and even MacDonald’s, compelling them to respond by offering increasing numbers of fair trade options. And the result: more fair trade coffee is being sold than ever before.
The question is, is it enough? Worldwide each year 7 million tons of coffee beans are grown, most of it hand picked. Why shouldn’t it all come from Fair Trade Farms? It should be the norm, not the exception.
Lynn at OrganicMania provides further insight for consumers choosing between organic or conventional foods. She highlights some of her best discussions like the four factors to consider when trying to go organic or not and the practicality of going organic when considering certain factors. Furthermore, she brings to light the ethical dilemma of choice:
Maybe the current crisis is an opportunity to expand our focus beyond raising green kids. It’s time to look at all the world’s children as part of the human family. When we’re so focused on organics versus conventional foods, are we at risk of thinking only of our own nuclear families? Are we losing sight of the fact that more children than ever before are starving? Did you know that one child dies every five seconds from hunger-related causes? In 2008. It’s incredible, isn’t it?
So are you struggling to make sense of organics vs. conventional foods? Count your blessings. Maybe it’s time to think about what share of money to keep for the family food budget versus donating to the starving millions.
LILL’s LIST discusses the doom and gloom associated with choosing food but then turns the discussion to how she makes her practical and realistic choices:
So, enough with the doom and gloom. A person has to eat, so what do we do about all this? Well, we each have to decide to what degree we are willing and able to pursue safe food. Money, of course, is a factor, as is availability of organic, natural and locally produced food. In my case, I only buy organic meat, milk, veggies and fruit. If I can’t afford organic, I don’t buy it. I usually buy organic bread, but sometimes opt for the store brand of sprouted grain bread. Once in awhile, I buy frozen food, even a frozen dinner, with the theory that “once in awhile” won’t kill me.
When it’s available, I buy local, organically raised food, but that’s not often for fruits and veggies in Maine. The only fish and shellfish I eat are wild-caught. Unfortunately, there are few organic restaurants nearby, so when we eat out, we just try to choose the most natural offerings. And, of course, we garden. Although my three-year trial of going vegetarian made me realize that I’m a confirmed omnivore, I love veggies, especially when we get to pick them fresh from our own garden. Just maybe, that’s the best way to be sure that your food is safe: grow it yourself.
Joel at Life Goggles provides some green product reviews. His product review is on the ChicoBags Reusable Bag. He also gives some information on Life Goggles’ Great Green Giveaway and how to win prizes in the Great Green Giveaway. The ChicoBags certainly seem very useful because it is so painful when I forget my basket or tote and have to use paper or plastic. AS IF!
Coming with an integrated pouch and a handy carabiner for attaching to a keychain, ChicoBags are pretty easy to carry with you and not suddenly realise at the checkout that you’ve left it at home. The size is 18” x 18” (3” x4” in the pouch), can carry about 20lbs and weighs a small 1.5oz.
Of course, the best way to conserve is not consuming at all and reusing as much as possible. In my opinion, paper towels like plastic bags should be banned, limited or taxed. Green4u provides some of the best and most practical advice in a post entitled “Old Towels + T-Shirts = Rags”:
Americans produce 195 tons of garbage a year. Paper towels are one of the many things that end up in that pile. A way to help reduce the amount of garbage created is to use less paper towels.
Save your old towels and t-shirts and use them as rags. Use these rags instead of paper towels as much as you can.
My parents were ahead of their time (or behind the times) because they always did this. We had a an entire cabinet in our basements of old towels and t-shirts. We used them to dust, wash the cars, clean up messes…etc. pretty much anything you can think of. My Mom had a separate laundry basket right next the cabinet to put the dirty ones in. She would wash them separately (sometimes with bleach if it had alot of stains on them).
Book reviews
Sometimes making green choices can be difficult because green can be expensive. Jennifer Killpack-Knutsen at Jen’s Green Journal recommends The Complete Tightwad Gazette to navigate expense. She provides insight on why she recommends this book:
As the movement becomes trendier, lower middle-class to poor greens are starting to feel left out. We can’t afford clothing made with bamboo fiber or hybrid cars or energy star homes. I took an online test to see how green I was and did rather poorly, because the test was geared to people who buy green (consumption!) and totally leaves out those of us who are reducing our footprint by reducing and reusing. My family, for instance purchases almost all our clothing second hand. While I’m glad that eco-friendly products are becoming more widely available, I’d like to acknowledge those who consume less or reuse more before those who buy the latest green goods.
That’s why I love the book The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I’m not an especially frugal person, but I find (as the author does on page 222) that there’s a lot of overlap between tightwaddery and green living. The Complete Tightwad Gazette has great ideas on how to reduce and reuse, and if nothing else inspires me to come up with my own creative solutions. I like to think of this book as the “Poor Green’s Bible”.
I am very excited that someone has tackled one of my favorite subjects and book. The first time I was exposed to The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure by Joseph Jenkins was during my Peace Corps service in Madagascar. The book takes a comical approach towards the subject, which helps the reader to transition into an idea that is overwhelmingly considered taboo. However, composting human waste is a very practical way to live sustainably. Jessica Jones at Practical Nourishment reviews the book by Jenkins and discusses the practicality of composting human manure and why composting human manure is not as nasty as one thinks:
According to Jenkins, in America we’ve adopted a policy of defecating and urinating in our drinking water and then piping it off somewhere to let someone else deal with it. Even after the contaminated water is treated at wastewater treatment plants, it may still be polluted with excessive levels of nitrates, chlorine (a potent cancer-causing poison), pharmaceutical drugs, industrial chemicals, detergents and other pollutants. The treated water, along with antibiotic-resistant bacteria that breeds in sewage sludge, is then discharged directly into the environment. The discharging of sludge, sewage, or wastewater into nature’s waterways invariably creates pollution, the effects of which are far-reaching. Not only are we polluting our drinking water and our environment, but the billions of gallons we waste every day by flushing our toilets is depleting our water supplies in a time when water consumption is on the rise. Additionally, by dumping soil nutrients– found in humanure– down the toilet, we increase our need for synthetic fertilizers, which is now the largest diffuse source of water pollution in our lakes, rivers, and streams.
Adam at Life Goggles reviews the book The Transition Handbook – From Oil Dependency To Local Resilience:
…the whole transition thing of this ‘Transition Movement’ is to do with moving away from the dependency on oil and building resilience – i.e. building a way of coping with the change when oil runs out. And the book is a guide to the issues central this change and how to prepare for a different future.
Split up into three main chapters: The Head, The Heart and The Hands, the book starts off with a great introduction to what it’s all about. The amount of text initially looks fearsome, but Rob Hopkins writes with a relaxed style that draws you in and the more you read the less hard work the book seems. What makes it more interesting is that Rob relies on his own experiences to draw you in and explains things in a clear and relaxed style.
Synthetic isn’t healthy
We blend nature with chemicals to make synthetic products. We often see our technological evolution within these modern synthetic products and how they have severed our reliance on seemingly imperfect natural products. However, at closer scrutiny the synthetic comidification of nature seems to be to our detriment. People are going back to natural materials. Natural materials look better and they provide a healthier environment.
Recent headlines have highlighted that humans, pets and nature are riddled with prescription drugs like antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones in addition to chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), phthalates…etc. Knowing that these chemicals are accumulating and/or bioaccumulating is scary because these chemicals are most likely the cause of unnecessary fetal, child and adult deaths. Many of these anthropogenic substances are also known carcinogens. Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish describes her journey to rid her place of sources that contain these harmful chemicals:
But I’ve written before about the cords they love to chew. Electrical cords are covered in PVC. A few nights ago, I went around and coated some of them with Vaseline sprinked with cayenne pepper as a deterrent. Yeah, gross. Hopefully gross to Soots and Arya too. And we keep them locked out of the room where our computers live.
I’ve also written about the cans of food we feed them, undoubtedly lined with BPA. I am now more motivated than ever to make their food from scratch. I just have to find an affordable source of whole un-plastic-wrapped, free-range chicken. The organic chickens at Enzo’s at Market Hall are $2.89/lb. That’s a lot for chicken, right? We eat so little meat ourselves that we really don’t worry about the price. But these kitties are obligate carnivores. They require much more meat than we do. And we don’t want to go broke feeding them. So I’m committed to taking the time to figure this out within the next two weeks. Please hold me to it!
Environmental Working Group has a whole list of healthy pet tips. They are worth checking out. But still, how can we be sure that we are keeping them as safe as possible? This must be how parents feel about protecting their children. We do the best we can.
The green traveler
I believe environmentalists by nature love to travel but we must be conscious of our actions when we travel. Mei-Ling McNamara via The Lantern Books Blog provides several key elements to traveling ethically. She outlines these elements in her essay “Shangri-La Starts Here” amongst her experiences derived from a trip to Nepal. On her journey she met the inspiring Bharat Basnet. Here is a clip of a great essay:
Bharat has made it his personal mission to bring rivers like the Bagmati back to life. Among some of his ventures is the Kantipur Temple House, set back in a quiet garden on the outskirts of the Thamel district in Kathmandu. It is a beautifully wrought, eco-friendly hotel built by local craftsmen in the traditional Nepali style, when “houses used to be temples, and temples, houses,” Bharat says, almost wistfully. Some of his progressive changes include using renewable solar power, devising a water-saving flush system, installing fans instead of air-conditioning, and employing a plastic/cans free policy in the hotel. He also offers guests free airport pick-up by his battery-powered car, and provides cotton shopping bags as an alternative to using polythene bags….
One of many inspiring people I met in Asia told me something that has remained with me far after returning home. As a teacher, when students ask him advice about what they should do, he tells them:
“It is your life. It is your choice. This is your story. You write the pages in the book of your life. When you are old, don’t you want to make it one you want to read?”
Our blog entries reflect our life choices and stories. This Carnival illustrates that we are all changing our world through blogging by sharing our experiences and knowledge. We celebrate this beautiful fact through Carnival of the Green. I have enjoyed doing Carnival of the Green #125. I hope you all have enjoyed my forum. I certainly have enjoyed your posts and hosting them on my blog. I want to thank my fellow bloggers that participated in this Carnival as they made it truly impressive! The next Carnival of the Green will be at Bean Sprouts on May 5th. Please visit the contributing blogs of Carnival of the Green #125:
EcoJoe
Ed Yong at ScienceBlogs
Fake Plastic Fish
Green4u
GreenDeals Daily
Greener Pastures: Personal Finance
Green Thinking Blog
Jen’s Green Journal
Lantern Books Blog
Life Goggles
LILL’s LIST
My Recycled Bags.com
Not the Jet Set
Organic Mania
Practical Nourishment
ProTraveller
The Blue Voice
