Environmental Communities

Delegates from across the globe are gathering this week in San Francisco to share ideas and innovations to advance the international movement for sustainable cities.

A WorldChanging blog by Holly Pearson highlights the seventh international EcoCity World Summit, which will be hosted by Oakland-based EcoCity Builders and partner organisations.

The international community of inspired change-makers are addressing the world’s environmental problems, whilst thinking of ” truly sustainable, ecologically, healthy and socially just” solutions.

Topics of agenda include

• Ecological city design
• Green architecture, green building
• Renewable energy
• Restoration of natural ecologies
• Recycling
• Green business incentives
• Ecological footprint

Why are cities the main point of focus?

Richard Register, President of EcoCity Builders, explains that cities are, “directly connected to the state of the planet’s environment as well as to local problems and solutions, both ecological and economic.”

Mr Register went on to suggest that cities could run on a fraction of the energy and generate a fraction of the ecological impact if they were really well-designed and efficient.

The EcoCity World Summit Main Conference concludes tomorrow, with main topics of discussion being architecture, urban design, land use and government.

To register click here.

Sources:WorldChanging blog by Holly Pearson and EcoCity World Summit 2008

On Tuesday morning, activists from Blue Ridge Earth First! established a blockade at the entrance to Dominion Power’s James River headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.

Three activists locked themselves to one another, blocking the only road in and out of the office complex for almost an hour.

The campaign was against the building of Dominion’s proposed new coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia.

Supporters stood-by holding signs and banners demanding, ‘No Coal for Virginia.’

Why Chesapeake Climate Action Network believes the Wise County Coal Plant is bad for Virginia

1. The plant would emit 5.4m tons of Co2 annually.
2. Mountaintop removal coal mining would be exacerbated.
3. 1476 jobs would be lost.
4. It will will not be clean.
5. The plant will not meet the Governor’s own carbon reduction goals.
6. Opposition to the plant keeps growing.
7. Virginia hasn’t invested in renewables or efficiency

Help deliver the mile-long petition with hundrerds of others on May 8th in Richmond.

Join CCAN in collecting 50,000 petition signatures by May 1st by clicking here.

Sources: CCAN

Farmers in North Queensland, Australia have recently bought 20,000 diesel-producing trees in an experiment to see if they can self-sustain their agricultural production.

Australian farmers are attempting to essentially become self-sustainable by relying on special diesel-producing trees called Copaifera langsdorfii.

However..

Michael d’Estries , a regular contributer to Groovy Green says: “As with anything almost too good to be true, there is one catch.

“100 trees will only produce about 25 barrels of diesel fuel annually. Additionally, that fuel will only last a couple months in terms of keep.”

That said, Australian farmers are hoping the trees will provide a consistent and cheap source of fuel for their machinery.

According to d’Estries, the trees are expected to continue producing fuel for about 10 years.

Eco-friendly

Steve N Lee commented on Warren McLaren’s article, ‘The Diesel Tree: Grow Your Own Oil,’ on Treehugger sounding surprised but pleased by the news: “I still find this hard to believe. Not just for the fuel production, but for the fact that we don’t need to harvest the plant, i.e. kill it, to get what we want from it, but simply to encourage it’s long term growth.

“The tapping of the fuel will also be vastly more eco-friendly than traditional oil drilling.”

In about 15 years time, we should be able to see just how well the investment has paid off for Australian farmers.

Sources: Groovy Green and Treehugger

Defenders of Wildlife has revealed that a record number of bison have been slaughtered in America.

In a press release, DoW has said over 1,100 bison have been slaughtered this winter around Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

DoW suggests that the removal of nearly one-quarter of the park’s bison population dramatically demonstrates the need to reform the rules governing the last stronghold for America’s wild bison.

America’s last free-roaming wild bison

Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of DoW said: “Yellowstone’s bison are America’s bison, the last pure descendants of the tens of millions that once thundered through the American landscape.

“Yet as soon as they set foot outside of Yellowstone Park, even onto publicly owned national forests, they are harassed and killed. This is truly one of the worst examples of wildlife management in the country.”

Montana Department of Livestock is responsible for indiscriminately slaughtering bison that venture outside of the park in winter looking for food.

Why are bison being slaughtered?

DoW claim that faulty science and biased politics have led to regular winter roundups of bison in order to be killed due to the fear they might transmit a disease called brucellosis to cattle grazing on public lands.

However, there has never been a documented case of a bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle in the wild and the vast majority of bison killed for this reason are not even tested for the disease beforehand.

What action can be taken to stop unnecessary slaughters?

You can write to the Montana Promotion Division and ask for sensible management of these endangered animals.

To do this online, click here.

What is it?

In two days time, millions of people all over the world are expected to unite as one global community in the World Wildlife Fund’s effort to inspire people to take action on climate change.

WWF is asking everyone to take part in Earth Hour on March 29th between 8-9pm by switching off all lights.

Scepticism

However, despite so many people coming together for a seemingly worthy cause, there are still some sceptics that question whether fighting global warming is really necessary or if global warming even exists at all.

Panagiotis Chatzistamoulis from Greece is a regular contributer to a Facebook group, Global Warming Is Junk Science, and feels the same way he did about Americans who supported the war against Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“They were conned. They thought they were doing the right thing.”

JunkScience.com is a website that claims to provide, “The Real ‘Inconvenient Truth’ ” in response to Al Gore’s documentary  which highlighted the issue of global warming to the world.

The website suggests that there are ”basic misconceptions” of the Earth and goes on to explain the ‘facts’.

To read JunkScience.com’s version of the truth, click here.

Alternatively, get involved with Earth Hour and sign up here.

WordPress won’t allow me to link properly at the moment so for the time being:

Global Warming Is Junk Science www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2227846431

Facebook www.facebook.com

Rebecca Sherman from London is the creator of a Facebook group which proposes that we ‘Boycott Japanese Products Until Japan Ends Whaling!‘

Just last Friday, a clash between the crew of the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin, and the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru, turned violent when the Japanese Coast Guard began to throw flash grenades at the crew of the Steve Irwin inside the Australian Territorial Zone .

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

SSCS is an international non-profit organisation whose mission is to end destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in the interest of conservation.

Captain struck by bullet

Captain Paul Watson was struck by a bullet in the chest. However, his life was spared when the bullet was stopped by his Kevlar vest and an anti-poaching badge which was worn on his sweater underneath. 

Additional injuries were sustained by crewmembers Ashley Dunn and Ralph Lowe.  Dunn, 35, from Launceston, Australia suffered a hip injury when he tried to get out of the way of the exploding grenades. Lowe, 33, from Melbourne, Australia received bruises to his back when one of the flash grenades exploded behind him.

Why did this happen?

“Whales are endangered and hunting them has been illegal since 1986. However, under the auspices of The Institute of Cetacean Research, Japan uses a scientific loophole in the ban to continue hunting and killing endangered whales and selling the meat for profit,” says Sherman.

The Japanese Coast Guard was retaliating against Sea Shepherd crewmembers for tossing rotten butter onto the decks to discourage their illegal whaling activities. The clash came after a week long pursuit by the Steve Irwin of the Nisshin Maru, in an effort to stop illegal whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Sherman says: “Please boycott Japanese products. Hit Japan wear it hurts. Let them know that you think whale hunting is wrong and it should be stopped.”

Visit www.seashepherd.org for more information on their campaign.

Also check out Sherman’s Facebook group for further details at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5925369230

The campaign for a Bottle Bill in West Virginia by Linda Frame of West Virginia’s Citizen Action Group is being backed by the Independant Liberal Arts Community Co-op.

Larry Hammons of ILACC, a group primarily interested in the fight against poverty, is currently drafting an e-mail in support of the campaign to Frame, the Program Manager of the Action Group.

The campaign website states that: “West Virginians use over 1 billion containers each year, the majority of which end up in landfils or along our highways.”

A Bottle Bill would essentially provide incentives for existing recyclers, Solid Waste Authority facilities and new businesses to collect empty beverage containers.

A Bottle Bill will also:

•  increase recycling rates and reduce landfill
• reduce litter
• reduce overall burden placed on taxpayers and municipal waste management systems
• save taxpayers money
• reduce costs to farmers for damages to crops and livestock caused by litter
• allow West Virginia to join the other 11 states where Bottle Bills enjoy strong public support
• help West Virginia comply with the West Virginia Recycling Act and it’s goals
• create hundreds of jobs

Change is needed

Hammons has his own ideas about why a Bottle Bill is the right step to take: “Why would a company want to use virgin materials when our land fills are overflowing with re-usable glass and metal containers?

“Because it’s cheaper for the corporations. In reality the consumer is paying to despose of these throw away containers. Every time we buy a Coke we are giving the Coca-Cola corporation profit and then we pay to despose of there bi-product.”

Hammons emphasises the fact that these corporations want to appear to be environmentally friendly but still they leave us to throw their products into the landfills. So why are we not re-using the glass, plastic and melting down the aluminum?

A disposable society

In celebration of the Bill, Hammons said: “Recycling costs money. America has become a disposable society. The average Joe feels like his opinion means nothing, that no-one listens, so he does nothing. That’s exactly what the media and these corporations want Joe to do - nothing! If there isnt a cry for change there will be none.”

You can telephone, email or write to the legislators and Governor Manchin and ask them to support the Bottle Bill. Details can be found on www.wvbottlebill.org/

Alternatively, click on this link to be taken to an online petition.

The Student Environmental Action Coalition will be supporting No War No Warming’s protest against war and global warming on March 19th. There will be action and protests all week long culminating on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

‘Militarism and the Environment’ is just one of SEAC’s current initiatives and recognises the link between the destruction of the environment and war.

What is No War No Warming?

No War No Warming is a colaboration of over 50 organisations, most of which are committed to creating a just and sustainable world like SEAC. They will be joining other groups on protest day in Washington to demand for an end to the war.

The environmental activist community believes the U.S. has an ‘addiction’ to fossil fuels. Their website claims that, “the profits of the oil companies are at an all-time high while hundreds of thousands die in Iraq and gas prices keep going up.”

Through nonviolent means, No War No Warming wants to send out a clear message to institutions that they feel are making profit from a war for oil. To keep up-to-date with the schedule visit www.nowarnowarming.org 

ENO, the environmental news website I am writing for has now gone public.

Please take a look http://environmentalnewsonline.com/index.php

The Surfrider Foundation is fighting against a proposed development permit for the Takanassee Beach Club property in Long Branch, New Jersey. The Foundation has launched a petition to try to persuade the NJ DEP to refuse the permit.  

If the plans go ahead, public access to the ocean will be restricted by 19 luxury residences with path ways to the beach and 5 public parking spaces. The property previously operated as a private beach club allowing thousands to enjoy the ocean and Lake Takanassee.

John Weber, Surfrider Foundation’s Northeast Regional Manager said: “In short, coastal development is out of control here in New Jersey. We should be pulling away from the coast in the face of sea level rise, not building more condos etc.” 

Reasons to fight 

The property has historic importance and the Surfrider Foundation would like particular buildings to be saved and turned into some type of museum dedicated to the lifesaving services that once used them.

The development would mean a significant reduction in the number of people able to access the beach. 

This site is in between the ocean and a coastal lake and has experienced flooding several times in recent years and the property has been ruled as an erosion hazard area.

The recreational opportunities for local residents and visitors would be reduced and their history lost.

The lake is on the City’s Roster of Open Space Inventory. The development will prevent people accessing the lake to fish in the current way and adversely impact public open space.

The problem

Despite this list of reasons to save the Takanassee Beach Club, Weber remains concerned over the prospect of losing the fight: “…our state Department of Environmental Protection is just too close with developers and their attourneys, so getting these coastal building permits is easier.”

But the fight continues whilst the project is on hold pending environmental review.

The Surfrider Foundation’s Mission Statement

“The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education.”

For more information on the The Surfrider Foundation’s fight to Save Takanassee Beach visit http://www.savetakbeach.com/ . There is also a short documentary on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dNH8UOPH8