Sustainablog

Some days my hope wavers that this polarized American society can get anywhere meaningful. The communication gap is so wide and prickly. That goes for environmental issues, political ones, cultural ones and any other kinds of ones. Sometimes it just seems hopeless to me. Or at least very fatiguing.

Consider my most recent sustainablog post — NASA Maps Global CO2 Patterns; Produces More Science for Nonbelievers to Dispute.

I showed some exasperation in that post, too. I wondered how science, a system based on factual discovery as means of proving (or disproving) a hypothesis, is so controversial as it relates to environmental matters. I wondered — and continue to wonder — how two people can look at facts of science and pick and choose what to believe and then vehemently disagree with each other. Read the rest of this entry »

By Janet Larsen

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/Update76.htm

Standing before the United Nations General Assembly in October 1987, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, made an appeal representing “an endangered nation.” That year for the first time, “unusual high waves” in the Indian Ocean inundated a quarter of the urban area on the capital island of Male’, flooded farms, and washed away reclaimed land. Gayoom cited scientific evidence that human activities were releasing greenhouse gases that warm the planet, ultimately raising global sea level as glaciers melt and warmer water expands. The trouble extended beyond small islands; studies showed that rising seas would wreak havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Netherlands, and the river deltas of Egypt and Bangladesh.

Fast-forward through two decades of swelling seas and more powerful storms and the call has moved from the need to study global warming to the necessity of dramatic action to stabilize climate. With small island nations in peril, these days President Gayoom evokes the vision of a United Nations where “name plates are gone; seats are empty.” He does not speak alone: this fall, some 50 countries, including a number of small island nations along with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the European Union, are planning to put a resolution before the U.N. General Assembly requesting that the U.N. Security Council address “the threat posed by climate change to international peace and security.” As Ambassador Stuart Beck of Palau has asked, “Would any nation facing an invading army not do the same?”

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Katydids visited our back porch on the past several weekends. The way their bodies were designed to look like leaves impressed me, and also made me think about how much of a conundrum these insects are. In fact, it made very confused as to my beliefs in evolution and god. In the end I suppose that the concepts are compatible. But what a marvel to see something designed to be so camouflaged as a katydid.

After looking on Wikipedia, I learned that there are approximately 6,400 species of katydids around the world. I wanted to see more of these fascinating insects, and so I searched for photos on Flickr. What you see here are some of the more beautiful and interesting photos I found, combined with several of my own. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientific American reports that like so many elements in the world, it’s all in the use and volume for whether that something, say poison or E. coli, is a friend or foe: “Escherichia coli (E. coli) can give you a severe case of food poisoning or, with a little genetic engineering, a useful plastic.”

San Diego-based scientists at Genomatica have developed the ability to manipulate bacteria into being useful to feed our societal lust for plastics, by producing “butanediol (BDO), a chemical compound used to make everything from spandex to car bumpers, thereby providing a more energy-efficient way of making it without oil or natural gas,” the article says. Read the rest of this entry »

Fellow Green Options blogger, Sam Aola Ooko, recently related that there has been a reconciliation of religion and evolution.

As written in that EcoWorldly blog post — St. Charles Darwin Unveiled: Catholics, Anglicans Finally Agreed on Evolution — it seems that the Vatican and the Church of England have decided that there is a place in the world for both beliefs, that Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and religious faith can coexist peacefully.

I’m fascinated.

I can understand, for example, the Christian view that the premise of evolution is faulty and can’t align with the belief that God created the Earth. Science says Earth dates billions of years back. The stories of the Bible say, “Oh, no it dih-n’t!” Read the rest of this entry »

During unusually high temperatures and droughts, researchers have found that walnut trees emit large amounts of aspirin into the air, possibly as a warning to other trees to prepare for the changes.

Scientists with National Center for Atmospheric Research hope that the findings will open new doors to study how plants impact air quality, but also to develop a warning system to tell farmers when crops are beginning to fail. Scientists have long-known that plants in laboratory settings can produce aspirin-like chemicals, but this study is first known record of plants emitting noticeable levels of the chemical into an ecosystem when under stress.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Last week we sent an email to our action network asking how people were coping with high oil prices. The response on our sister blog, the Green Room, was enthusiastic — over 600 comments! Here are some of our favorites, organized by topic:

Strategies to Increase Gas Mileage

From Ann:

I’ve been driving 60 mph on the highway and have seen a dramatic improvement in my gas mileage. I’m getting 38-40 mpg in my Toyota Camry on the highway! Drive 60 when you go.

From Mike Frisch:

I have dropped my fuel use by 70-80%

1) I bicycle two days per week (25 mile round trip) - great exercise & fun.

2) I purchased an electric bike/scooter (Ego cycle 2 LX, cost $1700) and I use it two days per week - costs 10 cents to charge it - great fun.

3) On the days I have to use my car, I carpool, and I drive 60 mph or less to save fuel.

Editor’s Note: For others thinking of trying scooters, be sure to do it safely. Motorcycle and scooter accidents are on the rise due to inexperienced converts.

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Educating kids about how they can make a difference with the environment is important. Letting them actually make a difference with the environment is even more important. Involving kids, hands on, in environmental and sustainability projects will give them a sense of power over the environmental problems they hear about. They need to learn that they can DO something to help at their age. It’s not just a problem for the grown ups to fix.

The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is a program that is designed to do just that. According to their website

the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will provide students and teachers with the tools and resources to inspire innovative thinking about sustainability issues, and engage them in developing actionable solutions for a greener world.

The first step of this challenge will begin this September with a national middle school competition where 6-8th graders will identify an environmental problem in their community, create a program to improve that problem, and explain how their program can be used in other communities, too.

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As a pacifist, I do not condone the use of violence to solve one’s problems but this topic still intrigues me. Imagine bombs that do as much damage as TNT but without the environmental impact.

Whether detonated or not TNT (Trinitrotoluene) can contaminate the environment. This compound is used frequently as an explosive because in its standard form it is a solid but it can quickly be converted to a harmful gas. According to University of Minnesota researchers, solid TNT contaminates the soil and groundwater. Also, if broken down by water, the chemical can be absorbed directly into the skin causing headaches, anemia and skin irritation.

So, in lieu of the environmental and unintended human safety issues surrounding TNT and similar traditional chemical weapons, German scientists are developing explosives made using tetrazoles. Tetrazoles are found to be extremely stable and get their explosive power from nitrogen rather than the carbon found in TNT and company.

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Green investors often refer to the “triple bottom line”:

• What are the social benefits?
• What are the environmental benefits?
• What is the financial Return on Investment (ROI)?

The first Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds avoided companies that made cigarettes, supplied the military, or did business in South Africa. This new approach was called “negative screening”. Later on, SRI investment companies started including environmental screens.

The next logical step beyond negative screens is to assess the proactive “good” being accomplished by the company in which one is investing. What result is the company being responsible for?

Some green investors suggest selecting companies that will “make a lot of money” against the backdrop of climate change or other major issues. While this is a first step, something more is needed. I propose a new approach called the “Ecology Benefit Index”.

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