Category — Environment

Now you can easily do your part to help cut America’s dependence on fossil fuels, including foreign oil by choosing the type of power you purchase. In NY this can be achieved by selecting GREEN Power and WIND Power from ConEdison Solutions.

• GREEN Power is composed of 65% run-of-the-river hydro and 35% wind power(generated from regional wind and low-impact hydropower sources).
• WIND Power is composed of electricity exclusively generated from 100% wind power. [Read more →]

Indian Farmer

I recently had the pleasure of reading a truly inspiring story entitled, “Sowing Hope” about an amazing humanitarian named Joseph Curiale who is doing tremendous work in India. After having viewed a disturbing piece back in March on CNN about the thousands of South Indian farmers who have committed suicide because of a 7 year drought and their mounting debts, Los Angeles’ own, Joe Curiale, made the commitment to make a difference.

Due to the drought, more than 150,000 farmers have died countrywide and the numbers only continue to grow. As Joe mentions on his blog, with the desperate situation, many farmers feel that suicide is their only escape, leaving their young widows vulnerable to harassment from moneylenders, “…some of whom charge up to 450% interest (annually) and often demand partial repayment by raping the widows… An Indian film director had told me of one village where the moneylender would rape the women right in front of their husbands, further pushing them to suicide…” [Read more →]

Since the start of 2001, Paris has seen an increase in bicycle use of over 48%. July 15th, 2007 marked the starting point of a major transformation in the way people will travel around the French capital. With the setting up of Vélib, the world’s most ambitious program aimed at facilitating bicycle access — now thousands of bicycles are available from hundreds of stations close to major public transport hubs spread out across the city.

The membership fees of 29 euros/per year increase with each 1/2 hour added, the first one being free, rendering the ride virtually free if you consider a report from”L’observatoire des déplacements dans la capitale” dated from 2005 estimating the average ride to last for 25 minutes .

The system is accessible to ages 14 and up. At the stations, the computer terminals enable you to:
- obtain one-day and seven-day subscriptions
- recharge your account (long duration)
- obtain information ( particularly which other stations are nearby and whether they are available).

Once you have finished your journey, all you have to do is deposit the bicycle back at any Vélib station.

Enjoy the ride!

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, left, shakes hands with former Vice President Al Gore at a ceremony to sign the Global Warming Response Act at Giants Stadium Friday, July 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

On the eve of Live Earth (a series of concerts around the world drawing attention to global warming, including one at The Meadowlands), Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed the “Global Warming Response Act” into law.

On Friday, New Jersey became the third state in the nation to enact a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction law Requiring the Garden State to significantly cut emissions of global-warming gases. California and Hawaii have adopted similar laws, and eight other states are considering them.

Passage of these laws can “inspire hope and build the enthusiasm necessary to get this crisis solved,” Al Gore, the former vice president turned environmental activist told an enthusiastic crowd of lawmakers and environmentalists who witnessed the bill signing. Under the new law, the Department of Environmental Protection will conduct an emissions inventory, and based on the results, devise a plan to monitor and reduce harmful emissions. The law mirrors an executive order Corzine issued in January. Emissions from fossil fuels, such as coal and gasoline, are believed by many scientists to be a leading cause of global warming.

The Live Earth concerts scheduled for Saturday were inspired and backed by Gore’s campaign to force global warming onto the international political agenda by generating a groundswell of public concern.

The Bamboo Bike Project , a collaboration between David Ho and John Mutter of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Craig Calfee @ Calfee Design aims to examine the feasibility of implementing cargo bikes made of bamboo as a sustainable form of transportation in Africa where very few people own cars or even motorcycles. Especially in rural Africa, most people have to rely on inadequate and relatively expensive buses.

According to Ho, a bamboo bicycle industry would be relatively easy to establish, since making bamboo frames doesn’t require all the complex tools that conventional bicycles require. He added that bamboo frames can be made with a Swiss army knife.

These bicycles are creatively modified to become boda boda taxis. They estimate that there are 14,000 bicycles altogether, and the number is rapidly increasing. With lack of access to effective transportation being a fundamental limiter to employment opportunities, local and regional trade, and public health, the bikes are meant to promote sustainable living. The ultimate goals of this noble project are twofold: to build a better bike for the poor in rural areas of Africa and to stimulate a bicycle building industry to satisfy local needs.

Learn more about the Bamboo Bike Project

GRAIN a 16th year hold international non-governmental organization (NGO) which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people’s control over genetic resources and local knowledge, has just published a special issue of Seedling which focuses on biofuels, or as they like to call them, agrofuels.
In this special edition, Seedling argues that the wide-scale cultivation of agrofuels will actually make things worse in many parts of the world, notably South-east Asia and the Amazon basin where the drying of peat lands and the felling of tropical forest will release far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than will be saved by using agrofuels.

More than 30 groups from around the world are calling for a Moratorium to stop the EU rush for biofuels (or agrofuels). They warn that agrofuel production for EU markets will accelerate climate change, destroy biodiversity and uproot local communities.
2007-06-27 | Joint Press Release by EcoNexus, Biofuelwatch, Corporate Europe Observatory.

[youtube DtPvHu9un7Y nolink]

A dear friend of ours recently turned us on to a great new book called Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World In it, 23 leading experts reveal the ways that psychoactive plants allow nature’s “voice” to speak to humans and what this communication means for our future. Exploring the relevance of plant-induced visions and shamanic teachings to humanity’s environmental crisis, the book comes complete with winning contributions from Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Wade Davis, Michael Pollan, Alex Grey and Katsi Cook to name just a few.

Visionary plants have long served indigenous peoples and their shamans as enhancers of perception, thinking, and healing. These plants can also be important guides to the reality of the natural world and how we can live harmoniously in it. In Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World, editor J. P. Harpignies gathers presentations from the Bioneers annual conference of environmental and social visionaries that explores how plant consciousness affects the human condition. Twenty-three leading ethnobotanists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and cultural figures present their understandings of the nature of psychoactive plants and their significant connection to humans. What they reveal is that these plants may help us access the profound intelligence in nature–the “mind of nature”–that we must learn to understand in order to survive our ecologically destructive way of life.

J. P. Harpignies is associate producer of the national Bioneers conference and coproducer and founder of the Eco-Metropolis conference in New York City. He is the author of Political Ecosystems: Modernity, Complexity, Fluidity and the Eco-Left and Double Helix Hubris: Against Designer Genes, the editor of Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World, and the associate editor of Ecological Medicine and Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies (The Bioneers Series). Interested in hearing more from JP? He will be at the Open Center in NYC on Friday, June 22^nd for a booksigning & evening lecture.

Image courtesy of sam-gilbey.com

MTV Networks International just launched a global, youth-focused climate-change campaign last week called, MTV Switch. The multiplatform campaign will run 35 public-service announcements on tv, online and on mobile.

The campaign, geared towards 15- to 25-year-olds, plans to promote an environmental-friendly lifestyle by delivering simple tips on how the viewer can take small actions to make differences in eliminating the world’s carbon emissions.

A Chinese farmer has made his own solar-powered water heater out of beer bottles and hosepipes. Sunlight heats the water as it passes slowly through the bottles before flowing into the bathroom as hot water, reports China Economy Network.

“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province.

Read More:

Europe’s first regular passenger train service powered by bio-fuel set off on its maiden journey across Britain with prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown hailing the launch for helping to combat global warming. The train, run by Virgin Trains, will use a blended fuel made up of 20 percent biodiesel, which is derived from biological material — typically vegetable oil.