green voice

On New Year's Eve, curmudgeons at Lake Superior State University in Michigan included "green" on a list of overused terms that had lost meaning and ought to be banned from serious conversation.

They have a point. Claiming to be "green" seems to be the theme of half the commercials on TV. Yet making the world "greener" is one of the few universally shared goals of our time. The questions are: What does it entail, how do we do it, and when?

The Voice asked a number of the well-credentialed environmentalists and policymakers who live in Takoma Park or Silver Spring to give us a few ideas that could be enacted soon, sometime this year, at the local or state level.

It looks like it is only in Quebec, but what a good idea:

Click Here

It takes 10 times as much grain to feed a person with an cow doing the initial digestion on the vegetable matter as not. Given how many of our compatriots are using agricultural lands to power their driving habits via ethanol, now is a particularly useful time to cut way back on meat eating. Particularly if you also want to live in a world without food riots.

I understand that not every person can make this change, but most of us don't have an excuse.

Sensational article here or a bit more sober but still plenty alarming link at Wikipedia.

The signs in Whole Foods about the cost of paper make it tempting (and Whole Foods will take back and claim to recycle plastic bags), but, if you haven't remembered your reusable bags, try to avoid the plastic anyways.

I am starting to write a series of entries telling people what to do (carbon tax, stop using bottled water) to protect the environment, and why it should be done (why as far as the physical, chemical, and biological effects that various actions have; global warming, plastic particles in wild animals on the bottom of the ocean). Before I address what and why, however, I would like to describe how to think about deciding what to do about our actions affecting the environment.

There is a whole body of various environmental derived theories of spirituality and ethics, but I'm not going to write about those. They mostly extend the ideas of rights or inherent value from just humans to other sentient beings or just to all of life, or even to landscapes as they existed before humans. The problem with these sorts of theories is that they tend to blow up a big beautiful romantic bubble of idealism that is popped the first time someone gets a roach infestation. It's fine to try regard all life as being equally deserving of legal rights as ourselves, but for many people that perspective is distant from why we should bend over and pick up some trash or stand up and turn off a light.

Is there any proof linking human breast cancer to exposure to chemicals in the environment? Or do researchers think most cases of breast cancers are genetically inherited?

Are mothballs safe to use? If not, are there any environmentally friendly alternatives?

See the responses from E Magazine by clicking on the link below.

An announcement from our friends at CCAN

Wednesdays from 7-8:30, July 18 to August 15

CCAN’s Takoma Park office,
6839 Eastern Ave, Takoma Park MD 20912

If you have a great phone voice and think you can pitch CCAN, please volunteer for our membership drive phone bank. Our goal is to reach 500 members by August 15, and we need your help! If you have never phone banked with us before, don’t worry, we’ll get you fully trained. DINNER AND FUN INCLUDED! Just contact Susanna at susanna@chesapeakeclimate.org and let her know which of the following dates would work best for you: July 18, July 25 (tentative), August 1, August 15

Take our 4 question Volunteer Survey

Get credit for your volunteer time!
Many companies offer benefits for their employees who do volunteer work. We want to help you get the credit you deserve. Often times companies need nonprofits to register as a charity; if so, contact Susanna at susanna@chesapeakeclimate.org and let us help you get set up.

For more information email Info@chesapeakeclimate.org or call 301-270-3722

Sunday, July 22nd, 1-5pm
7125 Willow Ave, Takoma Park, MD

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network will once again open to the public Maryland's only 95-percent renewable energy household. The home, owned by Mike Tidwell of Takoma Park, is equipped with energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, and is powered by photovoltaic solar panels, a solar hot-water system, and a corn-burning home-heating stove.

The house has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and TV and radio stations (including NPR) all across the United States and Europe, and was recently featured on the Voice of America all across the world. One of the most newsworthy aspects of the home is the fact that all of these energy changes were made for the cost of just a cup of coffee a day!

Buses should be free is an interesting article from Canada proposing a practical fix for increasing our passenger miles per gallon rating.

Make the Ride-Ons come every 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes, and they'd start to look useful for a day of errand running. I have to say that since the fares are payable by Metro Smartcard, I've been riding them a lot more often.

Over a morning cup of joe, Eric and I got to talking about the pros and cons of carbon offsets.

It's easy to see why hardcore environmentalists would disapprove of them conceptually because of the disincentive to change our own consumptive behaviors. But on a practical level, they are a step in the right direction... aren't they?

Help us frame the debate. Please comment on carbon offsets and whether you think they are a good or bad thing.

It's in the wind, my friends. I have been following headlines about biofuels with great interest and this one hit me hard.

It's true that biofuels are a clean energy source we can get behind but we can't go all willy nilly on biofuels without addressing CONSUMPTION of all that is unclean.

This blog is awesome by the way.

Dear EarthTalk: I’m “pro-solar” all the way for the sake of the environment, but solar power has not historically been very cost-effective. What innovations are coming down the pike that will bring costs down to make solar competitive with other energy sources?

ah, but if it could be my quote, but it's not.

Check this out: Wisebread.com.

(Thanks, Chris.)

I was just checking my morning weather on weather.com, and I found out they have a blog on climate change: climate.weather.com/blog and it's really good!

A month or so ago I read an article in the Post citing that tortilla prices are going through the roof in Latin America thanks to an international demand for ethanol. Columnist Marcela Sanchez called the region "the 'Persian Gulf' of Biofuels"

You can vote for your favorite TP environmental leader or organization by voting online for the upcoming Azalea Awards. Vote here.

There are 9 categories altogether this year– only one of them focuses specifically on the environment. But it's heart-warming to see the long and diverse list of nominees. ( I think it's twice as long as last year.) There are many write-ins coming in as well.

Read about UMD students learning to be environmentalists in the school of architecture.

It'll make ya feel good....

I think Mike Tidwell puts himself out there boldly in this piece from the April Voice:

No peace on earth without wind farms and 100 mpg cars

Check it out.

Check out this cool blog called Shifting Baselines.

I just read a post on a listserv from a PTA mom who attended a meeting focused on improving the school lunch program in MCPS. How is this an issue that effects the environment you ask?