Planetsave

In another effort to bridge the sustainability gaps in our society today, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called for more diversity in environmentalism yesterday. Speaking to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, she stated clearly that low-income and minority groups are often hit the hardest by environmental problems. “The place where I grew up is like other places in this country. Places where the burden of pollution and environmental degradation falls disproportionately on low-income and minority communities – and most often, on the children in those communities.”
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At the 100th annual convention (or “Centennial Convention”) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on July 14th, the powerful organization passed a resolution to support climate and energy legislation. Despite the great likelihood that African Americans will bear more, as a percentage of their household incomes, than caucasians for clean, green energy, the NAACP recognized the importance of this great matter and stood in support of green climate legislation.

In addition to the fact that African Americans are increasingly in support of climate protection and action for its broader importance, the organization said that climate change would have a more severe effect on African Americans and is, therefore, an especially important matter for their members. It is an important matter globally and a possibly even more important matter for African Americans.

Important issues the NAACP also address in the resolution are that the climate legislation needs to do its best to make sure that low- and moderate-income families bear as little as necessary and gain as much as possible from such legislation. This is an important aspect of sustainable legislation and is something other groups, such as Public Citizen, are justly pushing for.
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If you’ve ever visited Mexico City, you know that it isn’t exactly a model of sustainability. It faces serious environmental challenges, including water shortages, smog, waste disposal problems, and traffic congestion.

But Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is at least trying to steer the urban behemoth in a more sustainable direction. In 2007, Ebrard launched an ambitious 15-year eco-action policy called “Plan Verde” (Green Plan) to address many of the city’s woes.  Taking lessons from Bogota, Columbia, Plan Verde is addressing city transit issues, in part, with bikes. The capital’s Bicycle Master Plan aims to increase bicycle trips to 5% of daily trips made in the city by 2012.

To start, the city purchased 2,500 bicycles to give free to residents who complete a bicycle safety course. The bikes are city-friendly with a low frame for men and women, a basket, fenders, a rack, a bell, and reflectors.

Of course with more bike traffic, you need more bike infrastructure. Read the rest of this entry »

More money was distributed today by the Department of Energy. 141 million dollars to be more precise. This time Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands and Texas will play beneficiaries of the Recovery Act.

As a part of the Department’s State Energy Program, which has been apportioned $3.1 billion, states and territories propose plans to prioritize energy savings, create or retain jobs, increase the use of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And that’s where this $141 million will be going. Each state receives funding according to its needs (population based), with Texas receiving more than half of the allotted $141 million dollars. They will receive $87.5 million.

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If you are like me, you’re going to hit as many music festivals this summer as your wallet can handle.

We’ll be joined by hundreds of thousands of people heading out to enjoy great band performances. Of course, that also means hundreds of thousands of people eating packaged food and drinking bottled water (and other substances) and all the waste that entails. And let’s not forget the tons of fossil fuels burned just getting there.

Fortunately, many festival programmers and organizers have been working behind the scenes for years to try to mitigate some of the environmental impact of these annual throngs of music-lovers. They all adhere to the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ principles at the heart of greening their festivals, but that is just the beginning. Most are upping the ante on green initiatives.

Here I highlight just five of this summer’s festivals and their creative and inspiring eco-initiatives:

1. Bumbershoot, Seattle

Bumbershoot is a leader in green festivals. To begin with, organizers have creatively applied the re-use principle by turning their old signage into new Bumbershoot bags. A small local business called Alchemy Goods turns old rubber and vinyl into bags.

All this is after the festival signs have already been used multiple times. First they print most of their new signage locally on 100% recyclable material using 100% VOC and solvent-free inks. Then they re-use a large percentage of the previous year’s signs for the current year’s promotion. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh! The weather outside [can be] frightful, which is why Stephen Chu of the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that 7 states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire) will be the recipients of more than $288 million dollars, which will be put toward weatherization projects.

The funds will go toward weatherization projects benefiting more than 91,000 homes. And with the money and subsequent weatherization comes lower energy costs for low-income families that need it, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and creation of green jobs across the country – all part of the Obama administration’s green vision.

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The New Economics Foundation tells us that “as the G8 prepare to meet in Italy this week, the second global ranking of the ecological efficiency with which the world’s nations deliver long and happy lives for the people who live there – the ‘Happy Planet Index‘ – reveals a surprising picture of the relative wealth and progress of nations.”

The Happy Planet Index 2.0: “Why good lives don’t have to cost the earth” shows that Costa Rica scores number one at the top of the Happy Planet Index 2.0 as the ‘greenest and happiest’ country with Latin America toping the Index overall.  Out of 143 nations surveyed, the USA ranks 114th and the UK 74th. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s it like to live in an off the grid straw bale house, use solar power, grow your own food, and collect rainfall from your roof? What if your father was a famous actor turned green activist? Nick News documents the lives of kids living alternative, ecological lifestyles in their new A Kid Off The Grid television program. The show features three kids’ stories from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeastern Missouri, a sustainable off the grid community, and that of Hayden Begley, daughter of Ed Begley Jr., the popular environmental celebrity.

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In a controversial statement, leading environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt has said that couples who have more than two children are being ‘irresponsible’ by creating an unbearable burden on the environment.

Porritt, Chair of the UK’s high-level Sustainable Development Commission, has urged world government’s to consider adopting widespread contraception and abortion policies as a vital component of strategies to reduce global warming.

Speaking about his views, which are sure to raise an eyebrow or two amongst liberal thinkers, Porritt said, “I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate.”

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A startling new WWF study has revealed that people living in Hong Kong currently use twice as many resources as residents in China, more than double the sustainable level.

To feed the vibrant city’s massive demand for natural resources, and absorb the CO2 emitted, residents need an area of land and sea larger than 250 Hong Kong’s, an incredible seven-fold increase since 1965.

According to Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of the Global Footprint Network, “Although small geographically, Hong Kong not only has significant resource demands, but it also has an over-proportional influence on the world.

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