7 Apr 08 |
Photo courtesy of spisharam at Flickr.com.
Despite what the Chinese zodiac says, 2008 is officially the year of the frog. Nearly 6,000 frog species are threatened with extinction, and there’s no time like the present to take action.
Frogs are under intensive pressure - they face massive habitat loss, pesticide poisoning and even human predation. As if those dangers weren’t enough, a previously unknown fungus recently began attacking frogs. This fungus has an extremely high mortality rate - after Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is introduced, 50% of amphibian species and 80% of individuals generally die within 1 year. Think of it as Kermit Ebola.
It’s likely that the spread of Chytrid Fungus is caused by human activity. Chytrid Fungus is moving along with global trade, and the problem is developing at a much faster rate than previous infections. Dutch Elm Disease took nearly 30 years to cross from Europe to the United States, while Chytrid Fungus took roughly 20 years to cross from the US to Europe. The pathogen wasn’t even identified in the lab until after it had spread to virtually every country in the world. Globalization has something to do with this, but the deadly fungus is also getting a boost from global warming..
“Climate change is making for cooler days and warmer nights due to changes in cloud cover on the tropical mountains,” [says Alan Pounds, an ecologist at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica]. This shifts temperatures to those more agreeable to the fungus, which thrives between 17°C and 25°C. “Global warming is loading the dice in favour of this disease-causing fungus,” he says.
There is good news, though. An effective treatment has been found using over-the-counter antibiotic cream. This means that wherever frogs can be reached, they can be treated to cure infection. Several zoos and botanical preserves are working with the group Amphibean Ark to create refuges for wild frog populations. The idea is to treat incoming frogs and create a biosecure area in case the frogs go extinct in the wild.
Is your zoo taking part? You can petition them to get with the program, and raise awareness about the issue. Several zoos, such as the Denver Zoo, have found big money in frog preservation. These programs are extremely effective at raising donations and improving visitor turnout. Kids love cute frogs - and this is a way to make sure that frogs are around for our grandchildren!
Photo courtesy of shadowowl at Flickr.com.
Zoo programs are already having unexpected results. The Memphis Zoo has found a new way to preserve the endangered Mississippi gopher frog. They’ve introduced a program to save the species using in-vitro fertilization. With only about 100 adults left in the wild, the zoo has spawned a batch of 94 viable tadpoles. That’s an amazing result!
Popularity: 7% [?]
23 Mar 08 |
Photo courtesy of job_earth at Flickr.com.
An increasing number of religious leaders are promoting environmental causes at the pulpit. From using organic bread during mass to promoting water conservation as a path to peace in the Middle East, these leaders are connecting the dots between conservative faith and conservation. Here are 20 very different leaders who stand out for their environmental activism.
Additional newsworthy developments include:
Photo courtesy of Magda-50 at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Just looking over the new 7 deadly sins version 2.0 in this article in the AP and it would appear that the Vatican has now added pollution to the list.
According to Pope Gregory the Great, the seven deadly sins are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, sloth, Wrath, envy and pride. These are capital sins that could lead to eternal damnation without confession or “perfect contrition.
The new deadly sins include Pollution, mind altering drugs, genetic experiments, and the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor.
“If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that’s especially social, rather than individual,” said Girotti, whose office deals with matters of conscience and grants absolution.
Not to be outdone, the Baptist church has come out stating that we have a biblical duty to stop global warming, according to this article in the Washington Post. “A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change” states that there is substantial evidence for global warming.
“We believe our current denominational resolutions and engagement with these issues have often been too timid,” the statement said. “Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do better.”
In the Baptist church, things like this are considered by the individual churches as more of a strong suggestion rather than a commandment. Local churches have a greater deal of autonomy when it comes to these kind of declarations.
We can only hope that our elected leaders who make such a show of their faith are listening.
Popularity: 4% [?]
18 Feb 08 |
Photo courtesy of k9ine at Flickr.com.
A week after contacting the three companies that are offering Green Credit Cards, only one of the companies has replied to my questions:
Emily, at Brighter Planet, wrote:
Hi George - The market rate for our offsets are $12 a ton, and we measure in short tons (2000 lbs.) And as far as biodegradable plastic goes, we wish! The truth is that only giftcards can be made out of biodegradable material right now because they hold up for 3-5 swipes, not enough for a credit card. As soon as a good enough, durable plastic comes out we’ll switch! Thanks for your interest and let me know if there are other questions I can answer for you.
Thanks,
Emily
I asked these same questions to the other green card providers and I’m still waiting on a reply from Earth Rewards and Green Pay. But I’m not holding my breath - have you ever tried getting straight talk from a credit card company?
Photo courtesy of unitednatures at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Photo courtesy of WookieSlayer at Flickr.com.
There are credit cards that offer just about every incentive under the sun. For those who want to earn cash back, airline miles, or even strange things like hours in jetfighter training, there are cards that reward cardholders with a percentage of every dollar spent. Now, several companies have rolled out credit cards with an environmental affinity. For every purchase on these cards, a portion of the fees are invested into carbon offsets and financing projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
General Electric launched the Earth Rewards MasterCard. It offers two green options - users can donate 1% of their purchases to fighting global warming, or they can keep half a percent for themselves and donate the other half percent to saving the planet.
Bank of America is behind the Brighter Planet Visa. They use a point system where every dollar spent earns a point and 1,000 points equals a ton of carbon dioxide offsets. That makes it a bit hard to compare apples to oranges, but a ton of carbon costs anywhere from $5 to $40 with an average value around $10 per ton. So, that equals about the same reward rate as the Earth Rewards Card (1% or 1:100).
MetaBank offers the GreenPay MasterCard. It rewards cardholders with 5 lbs of CO2 reduction for every dollar spent and 10 lbs for every dollar spent on gasoline or utilities. The first thing to do in comparing these is to convert carbon pounds to carbon tons. Carbon credits are measured using metric tons and 1 metric ton is approximately 2205 lbs. So, at the lower rate, every $441 spent on the card earns 1 ton of carbon credits. Assuming $10 per ton of carbon credit, that works out to about a 2.2% reward rate or 1:45.
From the information on their websites and responses to my inquiries, it appears that all of these cards are printed on standard plastic blanks. That’s a real shame, considering that many stores now offer gift cards printed on biodegradable plastics.
In summary:
Earth Rewards MasterCard: 1:100 (1 cent earned per dollar spent)
Brighter Planet Visa: approximately 1:100 (1 cent per dollar )
GreenPay MasterCard: approximately 1:45 (2.2 cents per dollar )
Greenpay MasterCard for gas and electricity purchases: 1:22 (4.5 cents per dollar)
The cards also have critics:
Some advocates question whether the green cards will actually lead to fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. “What I am more concerned about is that it gives people an easy pass: ‘OK, I’ve got my green credit card, so I can do things that are carbon-ridiculous,’” says Leslie Lowe, director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility on Energy and Environment, a nonprofit based in New York.
For now, your best bet may be to keep a high reward card and use the rewards to purchase carbon credits on your own. Whether you join one of these programs or not, you can always sign up for paperless statements and cut your footprint that way!
Popularity: 9% [?]
According to Mark Buckley, the VP of Environmental Affairs at Staples, an estimated 133,000 computers are discarded every day in the U.S. That’s nearly 49 million computers a year! And that doesn’t even include cell phones and other office related electronics.Old electronic junk, or “e-waste” is increasingly becoming a larger problem in today’s electronic age, making the need for recycling more and more important. A lot of people think that paying to recycle their stuff is not worth it, and they just throw it into the garbage to get rid of it. But a few major computer companies like HP, Dell, Sony and Apple are making it easier for people to recycle their old computers when they upgrade.According to Earth 911.org’s website,
Reusing and recycling prevents electronic items from reaching landfills, creating less waste, providing usable items to organizations that need them and recapturing valuable resources.”
If you work for a company that seems to upgrade to new computers on a regular basis, start asking what your company is doing with those old computers. If the computers are broken beyond repair, search around for local take back programs or retailers that recycle any electronic product. Look online for the manufacturer of your old computer to see if they have a recycling or take back program. Staples, for example, will recycle electronics from any manufacturer for 10 dollars or less, nationwide. It might not be free to recycle that dusty old computer, but at least they will make sure it is recycled properly.Here at my workplace, I just upgraded to a new Apple computer. Don’t be jealous! After the purchase, Apple emailed me a Fed-Ex shipping label to print out. All I have to do is box up this old PC, stick on the shipping label and drop it off at a FedEx Kinko’s. They’ll take it back and see that it is recycled. Seems like hassle free e-cycling to me!If your computer or other electronics are still in working order, but you have newer models you are using, try selling, donating or free-cycling your electronic goods. There are lots of people who still can not afford to buy brand new computers, so selling or donating yours locally can help others in your community. Ebay and freecycle.org are two good resources for selling electronics, or giving them away.Just remember, it’s all about doing your part. Become proactive at work by asking what they are doing with old computers there. It may cost your boss a little extra to do some good, but doing good will pay off when your consumers and other companies begin to take notice.
Popularity: 7% [?]
7 Feb 08 |
Photo courtesy of bsidez at Flickr.com.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell the people who are ultra-dedicated to a cause apart from people who are a little bit insane. Chuck Thomas is one of those people who blurs the line.
Every day, he commutes 14 miles to work on his bicycle. That’s pretty impressive in itself, since a 14 mile bike ride burns around 1,000 calories and saves around half a gallon of gas each way. But the really amazing thing about Mr. Thomas’ commute is that he bikes to work on a Tollway. That reminds me of a certain arcade game…
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Photo courtesy of Groovie Goolie at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Environmentalists fought a valiant fight to block the construction of the first new coal plant built in the state of Georgia in over 20 years. The Sierra Club, Greenlaw, and Friends of the Chattahoochee argued that the state should not have granted permits to the plant that, while using more modern pollution controls, did not use the best available.
The plant uses a dry scrubber instead of a more effective wet scrubber in order to remove the sulfur dioxide from the smoke, and no carbon dioxide limits would be in place. Surprisingly, many of the local residents welcome the plant for the economic benefits it would bring to the area, without taking into consideration the amount of pollution and greenhouse gases that would come along with that.
With the price of solar now very close to the price of coal plants, why are we still building these things? It will take another five years to build in which time given the present rate of advancement in solar technology the plant will be hopelessly outdated and expensive to operate before it is completed.
The environmentalists in Georgia lost this round; Judge Stephanie Howells issued an order affirming the states decision to allow the plant to be built. Howells’ opinion is being appealed and the project manager for the new plant states he will not break ground until appeals are resolved.
Popularity: 4% [?]
A great article in today’s Dallas paper covers a man in Pennsylvania who has discovered how to microwave old car tires back into completely usable, separate materials. For 50 cents worth of electricity, he can microwave an old 14 inch tire down to 1.2 gallons of diesel fuel, 7.5 pounds of carbon black, 50 cubic feet of combustible gas and 2 pounds of high-strength steel.
Even better, he has discovered that you can use the same system on sludge dredged from the bottom of a river to create usable fuel!
Car tires, of course, have steel belts, and metal – as many home microwave oven users have accidentally discovered – reacts poorly to microwaves. “The microwave door hit me in the head a few times before I figured out how to deal with that,” Mr. Pringle said.
Oxygen causes that bad reaction. So he microwaved tires in a vacuum. After many trials and errors, he, chief engineer Hawk Hogan, researcher George Birch and others found a frequency that turned tires into useful material. With 50 cents’ worth of electricity for the large microwave he has fabricated, he demonstrates. He turns a single 14-inch car tire, one small piece at a time, into 1.2 gallons of diesel fuel, 7.5 pounds of carbon black, 50 cubic feet of combustible gas and 2 pounds of high-strength steel.
Through tubes from the vacuum chamber inside the microwave, the diesel fuel goes into a glass container and the combustible gas is captured in a tank. The solids remain in a container inside the oven.
Each demonstration finishes with a flourish, when he flicks a cigar lighter to a torch and burns off the gas he just produced.
“I’ve tested the diesel fuel in my pickup,” Mr. Pringle said. “The truck ran fine, but the exhaust smelled like burning rubber. At stoplights, people around me kept checking to see if they’d left their parking brake engaged.”
He later dialed the right frequency to harvest usable fuels from material dredged from river bottoms.
“What was left was aggregate material that was completely clean and safe.” Mr. Preski reviewed articles in engineering journals and decided there was potential in what Mr. Pringle developed.
Popularity: 6% [?]
During the 1960’s there was a street theater group, known as the Diggers, in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. They regularly held free concerts, fed the public for free in golden gate park, and perhaps the most famous of their altruistic activities; the free store.
The free store was basically a second hand store that people would bring unwanted items to and anyone could walk in off the street and pick up anything they wanted off the shelves for free; no money ever changed hands. The Diggers aren’t around anymore (at least not in Haight-Ashbury) but the concept of the free store has been carried to a lot of unexpected Venues. A friend of mine who was a student at Fort Worth’s Baptist Seminary told me that they had a free store of sorts in the dorm, and free stores have gained in popularity all across Europe.
What has all this got to do with Chemicals and waste disposal? Well, everything; especially if you live in Fort Worth, Texas. This week I had the pleasure of visiting Fort Worth’s Environmental Collection Center. If you live in Fort Worth or one of the participating municipalities (go to their website to see if your community is one of them) you can show up at the center with acids, aerosol cans, antifreeze, batteries (all kinds, including car batteries), brake fluid, cooking oil, craft chemicals, degreasers, drain cleaner, fertilizer, fluorescent light bulbs, compact flourescent light bulbs (CFLs), herbicides, household chemicals, motor oil, paints & stains, paint thinners, pest strips, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, photo chemicals, pool chemicals, oil filters, solvents, transmission fluid and varnish…And they will take them off your hands.
Now, many years ago I played in a band with the primary purpose in life to promote environmental issues. We played free concerts at several drop off recycling centers like this in order to promote recycling and proper waste disposal so that people wouldn’t be dumping motor oil down storm drains; It’s not new. But what I found unique and how we tie this all together is that not only is this a drop off and recycling center; it’s a free store for household chemicals and paint. I first heard about this service from Ken 
Otoole, the gallery director of The Second Floor Gallery in Fort Worth. He painted the entire art gallery using paint obtained for free from the ECC. I admit, the first thing I thought of was the old Steven Wright joke “I just bought some used paint; it came in the shape of a house” but as he explained you simply walk in and take whatever paint other citizens have dropped off. You get free paint and the paint winds up on your walls instead of in a landfill somewhere. You may have to mix a few to get the color you want, but the price is right.
And we’re not talking just paint. When I was there I found carpet cleaner, motor oil, bio-degradable degreaser (that one went home with me; I drive a diesel after all), sterno, bicycle chain lube and all kinds of things that I personally have paid good money for in the past. Nothing beats saving the environment and saving money all at the same time.
And what happens to the stuff that nobody wants or they can’t give out? Well, cooking oil is used to make bio-fuels, batteries are stripped and recycled, used motor oil is recycled, and pesticides are shipped to appropriate centers to be incinerated and rendered harmless. Paint cans are crushed, allowed to dry, and then 
crushed some more before being safely disposed of. In short; everything that can be recycled is recycled, and everything that can’t is safely converted. Much better than dumping it down a storm drain I think.
Like I said before, there are a limited number of communities that can participate in Fort Worth’s program and if your community doesn’t have such a program you have some campaigning to do with your city government. To find out what is available to you visit Earth911.org and punch in what you have and where you need to get rid of it and it will tell you whats available locally; and while you’re there see if they have a free store. If not, talk to them about the free frame of reference.
Popularity: 10% [?]