Earth Blog

The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ends today in Boston. This year’s theme was: "The Beauty and Benefits of Science."  One of the benefits of science is that it is eventually going to lead us to a way to slow down climate change.

Last week at a panel discussion Mark Berliner, a professor and chair of statistics at THE Ohio State University and a former co-chair of the American Statistical Association’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change Policy said, “an aversion to statistical thinking and probability is a significant reason that we haven’t enacted strategies to deal with climate change right now.”

It’s not because we are lazy and more interested in the immediate benefits (or lack of) for the choices we make everyday or because humans aren’t forward-thinking enough to handle big problems until we are forced to change or die. It’s just that we don’t really like to do any kind math.

Lisa Jackson stepped down from her position as the Administrator of the EPA on Thursday. The resignation will be official after the President’s State of the Union address next month.

In a brief statement she thanked President Obama for nominating her four years ago and said she leaves “ confident the ship is sailing in the right direction” on environmental issues like energy independence, clean air and water, and assisting communities as they recover from environmental disasters.

In her statement she gave no scandalous reason for stepping down from her post unlike General Petraeus had to do earlier this year.  She gave innocuous, open-ended reasons: new challenges and new opportunities. This has caused the media to speculate that she may be a candidate for the presidency at Princeton (Jackson is a Princeton alum) or running for public office in New Jersey where she is a resident.

“Trash jeopardizes the health of our ocean, our economy and people," said David Pittenger,  the director of Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program, "Sometimes there are uncontrollable events – like the Japan tsunami – that add to the larger problem of marine debris. That's why it's important to tackle what's preventable."

The Ocean Conservancy’s 27th annual International Coastal Cleanup is scheduled for September 15th. We may not yet be able to clean up the soupy muck that makes up the patch floating in the ocean but it’s true what Pittenger said: we can prevent further damage to the marine ecosystem by developing better habits.

The non-profit is asking for people to pledge to participate in a cleanup or reduce the amount of trash you create.

Simi Valley (Simi) is the latest and fifth city in California to reach Silver level status as part of the California Green Communities (CGC) program. Earlier this year we blogged about the city of Claremont’s success in achieving the same level.

As of right now Simi is the only city in Ventura County that has received recognition from CGC. Last Monday the city was gifted a green flag with a silver leaf and a plaque at a city council meeting to commemorate the occasion.

Here we are again: another UN Earth summit has come and gone and no one seems overtly happy about the outcome.

Here is the first paragraph from a Washington Post article about Rio+20:

“The global environment summit concluding Friday, which drew nearly 100 world leaders and more than 45,000 other people to Rio de Janiero [sic] and cost tens of millions of dollars, may produce one lasting legacy: Convincing people it’s not worth holding global summits.”

Ouch. Yet at the conference they managed to ratify the “The Future We Want.”  The document (the official final draft is downloadable in PDF here in six different languages) is the UN’s fifty-three page vision and commitment to sustainability.

Ray Bradbury, the legendary and prolific writer best known for Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, passed away last night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 91.

Bradbury’s works frequently featured space exploration a subject that fascinated him. He likely cheered when failed presidential candidate Newt Gingrich proposed a moon base. He wrote stories that foreshadowed technology’s evil role in our lives and how it would affect human interaction.

Yesterday Cinco De Mayo parades marched merrily through cities from Seattle to Kansas City (their celebration featured a Chihuahua parade) and Mexican heritage was celebrated with traditional dancing and music. The Battle of Puebla was fought and won on a May 5th a long time ago but the climate change battle is ongoing and 350.org staged events of their own over the weekend to raise more awareness.

The idea was simply to “connect the dots” between global warming and extreme weather through a series of images featuring dots, and the people and creatures in areas that had been affected or are continuing to be affected by the issue.

"We just celebrated Earth Day. May 5 is more like Broken Earth Day, a worldwide witness to the destruction global warming is already causing," said Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, a global climate campaign. "People everywhere are saying the same thing: our tragedy is not some isolated trauma, it's part of a pattern."

Today’s study that reinforces what we already know to be true or colloquially stated as “Duh” comes to us from San Diego State University. 

Researchers there have found that millennials, or the generation born in the 1980s and the 1990s, are more focused on fame and money than they are on civic-mindedness, political participation, and giving back to communities. By comparing milennials, Generation X, and baby boomers at the same age -college- they saw the disparities between the generation’s areas of focus. Sadly, the parents of the current crop of college kids could not pass down their ideals.

Today is important because it’s Read Across America Day! A day millions of children across the United States and throughout the rest of the world will celebrate literacy. 

Schools, libraries, and businesses will also celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and host Seuss-centric or Lorax themed activities. The Lorax opens in movie theaters and even though it hasn’t received praise from everyone, parents and educators are using the book and new animated movie as a launching pad to discussing this year’s green theme.

Suzy Amis Cameron knows the right clothes are needed to walk the red carpet. She has had to walk several red carpets as the wife of James Cameron, award-winning director of blockbuster hits like Avatar and Titanic.

In 2009 she founded Red Carpet Green Dress to raise awareness about sustainability and environmental stewardship through design. 

The organization recently announced the winner of their annual gown design contest, Miami’s Valentina Delfino, whose dress concept will be worn by actress Missi Pyle on tonight’s red carpet at the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Pyle is not nominated for an Oscar herself but is part of the cast of the heavily nominated film The Artist.

The United States Forest Service estimates that tree cover in urban parts of the United States is declining at four million trees per year. That’s the same amount of iPhones 4S that sold over a single weekend when they debuted in 2011.  While an iPhone owner could argue Apple and their products are an important facet of technology and urban living, can they prove smartphones are necessary to a city’s landscape?

“Trees are an important part of the urban landscape,” according to Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. “They play a role in improving air and water quality and provide so many environmental and social benefits. As our Forest Service Chief says, ‘…urban trees are the hardest working trees in America.’

Valentine’s Day was a shopping holiday we covered on the blog and we urged shoppers to buy local and ethical, if possible, when hunting for last minute gifts. Ethical consumerism and the effectiveness of “voting with your money” is being debated and discussed over at treehugger.com and at least one other green blog.

The debate started when Sami Grover posted: ““Why Corporate Fat Cats Love Ethical Consumerism.” He set out to explore the concept of: "Every time you spend a dollar, you are casting a vote."  The widely-accepted idea is this: If you don’t agree with the way a company does business simply stop shopping there and they will change or go out of business as they see their revenues drop. But is that wishful thinking? Grover argues that real change occurs at the political and cultural level. He cautions that ethical consumerism could erode the political activism he believes to be more effective at getting at the core problem. Is he right or wrong or somewhere in between?

The EPA (the job-killing, regulating machine we talk about a lot here on the Earth Blog) has announced the 2012 beneficiaries of their “Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities” program. The program is part of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities that includes the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Building Blocks program isn’t handing out money to fifty-six communities in twenty-six states- they are providing technical assistance which is a fancy term for information. These communities asked the EPA to come in to help create a plan for improving their town’s infrastructures. 

The EPA explained it best: “The assistance will be delivered in a day-long workshop for each community that will provide ideas on local policies and procedures to improve the local economy, environment, and quality of life. Each community will receive a short ‘next steps’ memo outlining options the community can consider as it moves forward.”  

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has been a busy little public utility lately. The company is launching green programs for the 3.5 million people it provides electricity and gas services to faster than you can say “corporate sustainability.”

This week alone SDG&E announced their “Green Button” tool for customers and opened their Energy Innovation Center in San Diego. It all looks like a lot of fun so let’s go in for a closer look!

Do you remember Captain Planet?  If you were a cartoon-watching child in the early 90’s, or the parent of such a child, you probably remember the show. If the details are hazy the end theme song may jog your memory a bit: “Captain Planet, he’s our hero, gonna take pollution down to zero”.  Its official title was Captain Planet and the Planeteers and it was created by Ted Turner, a television media magnate and philanthropist. The original show ran from 1990-1992 and a sequel, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, ran from 1993-1996. The premise was to teach children about environmentalism and conservation with a group of multi-cultural teens who possess magical rings that can summon Captain Planet to help defeat villains and their attempts to destroy the Earth through greed, consumption or pollution.