Spoil and The Great Bear Rainforest

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Tara Holmes

This past weekend, I attended the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in Boston, hosted by e-inc. Though I had already attended Maynard’s top notch version of the Festival a few weeks back, I was pleasantly surprised by how little overlap there was between films at the two events. That said, one of the films I was able to see in Boston was Spoil, put out by The ILCP, EP Films and Pacific Wild. While I tend to consider myself someone who’s current with pressing environmental issues, I must admit – I was stunned. The potential devastation taking place in one of our planet’s most majestic and critical natural habitats, the Great Bear Rainforest, needs immediate attention. One of the largest tracts of temperate rainforest left in the world, the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, Canada, is home to a plethora of cohabitant species ranging from whales and wild salmon to wolves and bears. The bear, given the Rainforest’s name, holds a special place to those who have lived in harmony with the forest for thousands of years. The unique “Spirit Bear”, a black bear born white due to a recessive gene, roams these lands and is known for its beauty and rarity, yet today numbers only in the low hundreds.

The Spirit Bear, along with the other species who call the Great Bear Rainforest home, are in constant threat. Not only from continued trophy hunting, but now from a proposed Enbridge crude oil pipeline stretching across Canada bringing tar sand oil from Alberta to the North Coast of British Columbia for export to China and other countries. Supertanker ships, that carry upwards of 2 million barrels of oil, would be navigating through tight, delicate and dangerous rocky terrain in order to reach a shipping port bound for Pacific travel. The Exxon Valdez faltered in similar waters in Prince William Sound and damage is still taking its toll on wildlife and natural habitat.

In the case of the Great Bear Rainforest, as with any struggle between business and conservation, it’s critical to understand the balance between energy, economic growth and the importance of natural ecosystems. As we continue to demand greater amounts of energy and as countries – like China – continue to develop and grow, we face serious environmental challenges. The Alberta tar sands are an example of how far we’re willing to go to obtain fossil fuel reserves while destroying everything in our path; the tar sands extraction process is one of the most environmentally damaging and GHG-intensive to-date. The risks are getting higher and fragile and necessary ecosystems like the Great Bear Rainforest are under attack with continued and unabated development. To learn more about the current challenges facing the Great Bear Rainforest, please visit Pacific Wild’s website.

Local Green Happenings for Spring

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Oftentimes, I find myself wondering: what green happenings are taking place in and around Cambridge and Boston? If you have similar sentiments, there are a number of leads that might satisfy your curiosity.

A smart place to start is, of course, the Cambridge Energy Alliance Community Events Calendar, but on the off-chance you still can’t find what you’re looking for, there is still hope!

Whether you’re interested in a weekend afternoon outing, or changing your transit habits, look no further. The City of Cambridge has designated May, 2011 as “Go Green Month” and the third week of May as “Climate Change Week.” During the month of May, (and hyper-concentrated in the week from May 13th to 22nd), you can find an array of local activities including nature walks, talks, workshops, and other environmentally-focused events. Guests include Zipcar, MassRIDES, MBTA, CAC Gallery and Cambridge Bicycle Committee, to name a few. There are also commuter challenges throughout the month, so take a look if you typically drive to work but instead want to try taking public transit, carpooling or biking.

In addition to Cambridge, Boston has an informative site complete with local area green event listings. The Boston GreenScene also comes complete with a local green directory highlighting area companies and organizations that focus on green-related industry and services. Services listed include green consulting, green building and green cleaning in addition to community groups such as Boston Green Drinks and various MeetUp groups.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival comes to Boston!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Tara Holmes

For those of you itching to see some good, quality short films on everything from climate change, to sustainable, local farming to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity, then look no further — the Wild & Scenic Film Festival is in Boston March 25th and 26th!

The event, sponsored by e-inc, consists not only of the film festival itself, but a series of panels, fund-raising events and guest speakers, including Robin Young, host of WBUR’s “Here and Now”. Panelists include: David Cash, Undersecretary of Policy, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs; Howard Herzog, Senior Engineer, MIT Energy Initiative; Namrita Kapur, Director Corporate Partnership, Environmental Defense Fund; and Alexander Taft, Climate Officer, National Grid. There will also be a locavore tasting menu of foods and wine and a showing of Carbon Nation with a question and answer session with film producer Artemis Jouzinsky.

I saw the film festival when it came to Maynard last week and was thoroughly impressed by both the high quality of artistic expression and subject matter depth. I highly recommend going if you can! Tickets for the Boston showing range from $10 to $30 depending on which day and events you chose to attend. For more information go to http://www.e-action.us/.

Japan Tragedy Highlights Nuclear Doubts

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Tara Holmes

After the devastating 8.8 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan last week, millions are without power, adequate food or water supply. The earthquake was so powerful, that Japan moved 8 feet and the axis of the Earth shifted. The human death toll is still being determined, however, recent reports are comparing this natural disaster to the massive destruction caused during WWII; nothing has taken a similar toll on Japan since.

To add confusion to chaos, Japan is now dealing with a number of nuclear power plans that may face possible meltdown. A cause for local and global concern, Japanese officials have resorted to using sea water to cool a reactor that exploded a couple of days ago in hopes to keep it under control while electricity supplies remain down. Countries like France have begun using Japan as an example of why nuclear energy is too dangerous too rely upon for energy use. This argument however brings up the classic question: If not nuclear, then what? Nuclear does not contribute to harmful GHG emissions which contribute to climate change. Do we then regress to using coal on a massive scale? Nuclear, and proponents of nuclear energy, argue it’s the “cleaner” alternative to fossil fuels — although waste and potential nuclear meltdown, as what’s currently on display in Japan — remain serious concerns. Solar and wind technologies, while actively in use in many countries including the U.S., still remain at a high market cost, particularly solar, and are thus not able to complete with the cheaper, fossil fuel competitors that currently supply the bulk of the planet’s energy supply. It’s a sticky situation with many political and industry incentives at stake, but in the end, the fallout of nuclear energy may not be worth the energy it produces.

We are all hoping a full nuclear meltdown at one or more of the nuclear power plants does not occur on top of what the Japanese are already enduring, but at present time, it’s unclear what the outcome will be. Japan is receiving international aid, yet this tragedy will take many weeks, months, if not years to recover from. If you want to help, the American Red Cross is accepting donations: http://www.redcross.org.

2005 and 2010 Tied for Hottest Years on Record

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Tara Holmes

The NYTimes recently cited that current NASA data matches NOAA data making 2005 and 2010 the two hottest years on Earth in recorded history. [NASA data is available here.]

From extreme flooding in Pakistan, California, Australia and Tennessee, to significant snow fall in England and France, to raging fires in Russia and extreme heat in New England, 2010 was indeed a notable weather year. While climate deniers continue to correlate varying weather patterns with the natural cycle of the Earth, climatologists disagree stating that the global average surface temperature was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the average for the entire 20th century. In fact, according to the NYTimes article, 9 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since the year 2000. It will be interesting – and perhaps startling – to see what occurs in 2011. This data is a reminder that climate change is real, and immediate global action, both political and personal, is imperative to maintain a healthy, livable planet for all.

Smart Growth Awards

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Tara Holmes

The EPA recently announced the winners of its Smart Growth Awards program, a program that ranks national cities and communities on metrics of green development and environmental design sensitivity. The program also ranks urban planning elements such as density and compact community development. The recent winners are: Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, NYC, Baltimore and 20 rural Maine communities. NYC came out on top this year with increased bike paths and carved out public spaces as key improvements. “New York City has achieved a relatively small carbon footprint, given its size, through its commitment to creating compact and walkable neighborhoods” the EPA said.

Portland won EPA recognition for its “Making the Greatest Place” growth plan which “…calls for maintaining connections with nature, preserving existing neighborhoods, strengthening employment and industrial areas, and concentrating growth in designated centers.” In Maine, 20 towns linked by Route 1 collaborated in an effort to preserve the region’s rural character, while in San Francisco, a seedy alleyway South of Market area was turned into vibrant public space lined with restaurants, shops, and a farmers market. Finally, Baltimore won for a green building design that rehabilitated an historic building into a mixed-use residential and commercial space that revitalized the surrounding neighborhood.

With Cambridge and/or Boston’s ever-increasing commitment to sustainability, let’s hope that we make the list next time!

The World Where Oil Flows Free

Posted on July 12, 2010 by JesseGorden

The Gulf Oil Spill has been the event at the top of everyone’s mind for many weeks now, almost to the point of our adapting to the initially shocking concept. The images that have surfaced have been heartrending enough, though, that the shock factor hasn’t been allowed to completely fade. Predictions of the results to come in the next weeks and months are concerning to say the least, and the estimate of how much has been leaking each day continues to rise. BP comes up with a new method to “fix” the problem every few weeks, each seeming promising with a side-serving of bad news. Effects on humans are starting to surface, some gruesome news and some simply tragic projections. With all of this on our plates, it’s understandably hard to think about, let alone discuss, other similar issues.

One more brick was added to the weight of environmental concern when, on June 11th, another oil spill was reported, this time in Utah. How could an oil spill happen in the middle of the continent? This time it wasn’t an oil rig that failed; in the mountains south of the Great Salt Lake, an oil-transporting pipeline was breached around 10pm. Residents who reported a strong petroleum scent around 7am the next day allowed for the leak to be stopped less than 24 hours after it began. Regardless of the speed with which it was stopped, 33,000 gallons of crude oil were leaked into Salt Lake City creeks and a pond- but not the Lake. Because of the national disappointment with and disdain for the oil giant BP, Chevron responded quickly and aggressively with cleanup devotions.

This leak was obviously a dramatically smaller scale than the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of a pipeline tapped directly into natural oil stores being busted, a quarter-sized hole was melted in the controllable pipe transporting oil in UT, and it was all over in 24 hours.

The BP underwater pipe has been gushing tens of thousands of gallons each day, for two and a half months. In the UT spill, around 300 Canada Geese and ducks were covered in oil, and fewer than 10 were killed; one endangered fish species was threatened by the spill. The Gulf of Mexico’s biota are threatened in a much, much broader sense- as you might imagine, considering the unimaginable quantity of poison being spewed into the ocean.

While much of the oil spilled in Utah has been cleaned up, the efforts in the Gulf of Mexico have comparatively only just begun. The estimated clean-up time is months, possibly years; the truth is that the effected coastlines (their ecosystems, their businesses, their citizens), especially those closer to the epicenter, may never recover.

While the Gulf oil spill eclipses other fossil fuel issues in the eye of society at present, it also brings an important topic right to the surface of the pile of important current issues, and in some cases inspires reflection.

Would we still be discussing the Utah oil spill, were the BP tragedy not over-shadowing its significance?

The answer is “Maybe not;” spills are not uncommon, mishaps at drilling sites are not uncommon. What makes the BP spill different is the enormous individual scale, proximity to affluent nations, and resulting publicity.

We do not often hear about the ill effects of the oil industry that are happening in less-fortunate regions of our world.

If we ignore the intense sociological disasters surrounding the oil industry in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, there are statistics to look at that might make the president of BP’s hair curl. It’s estimated that from what are technically Shell and Chevron operations, there are three hundred small and large oil spills in this area each year, due to various factors including oil piracy, aging equipment, and worse-than-poor regulation. In this undeveloped region where locals see no benefit from the industry, oil spills surround the villages. An image of the ruined environment was painted potently by one BBC article;

“Visitors to the Nigerian village of Kpor, deep in the Niger Delta, are greeted by strange sights: silver frogs blink from gleaming puddles, sunlight bounces from an eerie black lake, and dragonflies hover over cauldrons of tar.”

This is a generally unillustrated tragedy, an example of what we are not seeing through the corporate veil. Information is not exposed for many reasons- too many to discuss here- but these events are significant enough to spend time digging for.

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Discussed above are only the results of our addiction to oil. What about the other common fossil fuels that we depend on? If we disregard the carbon emissions and their effects, related to burning any fossil fuels-

Coal mining means mountain tops destroyed, geology and topography both obliterated as removed mountain tops are filled into valleys; this is not to mention the pollution nightmares that come along with mining, or the health risks: 11,000+ injured (lowest number ever recorded), 69 killed most recently.
Natural gas mining–hydraulic fracturing/fracking— creates air-polluting ground-level ozone, poisons the surrounding groundwater and has severe effects on surrounding communities.

Maintenance of our presently strong socioeconomic bonds to fossil fuels are already fatal, both to operators and the surrounding environment. What will it be like when these limited resources begin to truly dwindle, when, if we haven’t changed the juice our society runs on, we are mining every potentially coal-filled mountain and drilling into every oil deposit the earth’s crust has left to offer? We can be assured worker safety and environmental health will not be more of a priority then, in the hour of desperation, than it is now.

It seems that now is time to start using the information we have already to start making changes in the way our energy system works.This is not to say that there won’t be risks associated with other energy practices, but after looking at the information surrounding the above-mentioned options, I would argue that finding an environmentally-friendly energy option that posed the same level of human and environmental health risks would be difficult. Environmental safety is an inherent property of an environmentally-friendly product, afterall.

Obama pushes new tax credits for Green Companies

Posted on July 12, 2010 by nikitaob

Speaking at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, President Obama issued new proposals for issuing tax credits to renewable energy companies as a means of stimulating job creation. The President urged increasing the current funds already approved by the Congress totaling some 2.3 billion dollars. The problem is, there aren’t enough tax credits to go around,” Obama told the crowd at the university. “When we announced the program last year, it was such a success that we received 500 applications requesting over $8 billion in tax credits. But we only had $2.3 billion to invest. In other words, we had almost four times as many worthy requests as we had tax credits.”

President Obama’s trip to promote alternative fuels was also part of a larger effort to help push Senate elections this November back towards the Democrats, who have been consistently losing ground to the political right over the past several months. Indeed, Obama wasted no time criticizing top GOP leaders for being critical of his administration rather than offering up original solutions. “At every turn, we’ve met opposition and obstruction from leaders across the aisle,” said the president. “That’s why I’m glad I’ve got a boxer in the Senate, who’s not afraid to fight for what he believes in. The boxer, according to the President was none other than majority leader Harry Reid, who has been a key ally of the administration’s efforts across the board, including climate change and the move towards renewable energy products.

However, for Obama to even consider enacting massive initiatives such as removing national dependence on foreign petroleum, the President has recognized that he must first secure a firm majority in both houses of Congress. Indeed, the November Elections will truly be a referendum on the policies of Obama and Congressional Democrats.

California’s global warming fight in jeopardy

Posted on June 29, 2010 by JesseGorden

As of this month, it’s official that California’s residents will be voting on the November ballot as to whether they would like to suspend the law that has been put in effect to help the state take responsibility for its greenhouse gas emissions.

When they announced a cutting-edge legislative initiative to fight the climate change caused by Global Warming in late 2009, California was hailed as ambitious, meant positively by some and negatively by others. Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) was designed to aid California in meeting its goals of reaching 1990 level emissions by the year 2020, using a cap and trade program as well as other methods. The contention of some, was that cap and trade methods do not work to reduce the act of pollution but simply shift it around to those with the deepest pockets, and others suggested that the regulations would force citizens to purchase more costly energy options than other parts of the nation. Many were simply happy that someone was doing something concrete to fight Climate Change.

Thus far, a good portion of the law’s components have been approved and gone into effect. The industry of alternative energies has begun to bloom in California, but these successes may all be shut down in short order, should the people take the bate and vote it into suspension.

This move is, of course, backed by the oil industry that AB32 was designed, in part, to subdue. More surprising, perhaps, is that it is not only supported by those who make money through the oil industry, but it originated in the meeting rooms of Texas oil giants Valero Energy Inc. and Tesoro Corp. What they are calling the “California Jobs Initiative” paints AB 32 as a tax on homeowners, further suggests a definitive (unexplained) connection between this law and job loss, and devalues any and all progress that has been made and could be made in the direction of clean energy. The campaign, born in oil bureaucracy, uses the word “bureaucrat” to give AB 32 a negative taste several times in the few paragraphs on its home page.

The good news (for us, for Governor Schwarzenegger, for California, for the planet) is that there has been a push back- an organization called “Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs” has been formed by environmentalists and green tech professionals alike. They seem to be a group to reckon with, based on the bold imagery evident immediately upon arrival at their website’s home page.

As the opposing sides battle this controversial proposition out over the next 5 months, hopefully all truths will come to light so that citizens of California may make the most wise decisions, unskewed by false information.

U.S. Climate Change Belief: Rising?

Posted on June 11, 2010 by JesseGorden

Just last December, polls had the US’s belief in Global Warming down 8%, and 9% fewer people believed its anthropogenic (man-made) origins. The same trend had been measured by various polls several months prior, as well.

There was plenty of speculation as to the reason for this, some pointing to the unusually extreme snowstorms (which are, if anything, only an indication of Climate Change, by the by), “Climate Gate” or the Republican discontent with a new Democratic president. While, since the release of those poll results scientists have shaken their heads in disappointment and wonder, no concrete reason for the downturn in public understanding was ever identified.

A study released June 8th by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities suggests that public concern for global warming (and the resulting climate change) is finally on an up-sweep:

“Since January, public belief that global warming is happening rose four points, to 61 percent, while belief that it is caused mostly by human activities rose three points, to 50 percent. The number of Americans who worry about global warming rose three points, to 53 percent. And the number of Americans who said that the issue is personally important to them rose five points, to 63 percent.”

One can only imagine how many environmentally minded citizens and scientists heaved relieved sighs across the country, having heard this news, thinking “Phew, thank you, there is still hope for our people, after all.” I know this was my initial thought.

Further confirmation of the public’s understanding comes from a Stanford poll completed June 7th; it indicates that trust in climate scientists is high, up three points to 71% trusting moderately or highly. It’s important to note that their results show a 5 point drop (from 2008 to 2009) in public belief in the fact that global warming is occurring, but the scientists maintain positivity in that the majority of the U.S. understands that global warming is happening.

Jon Krosnik, the scientist in charge of the Stanford-AP poll regarding public opinions of environment and energy. They have been conducting annual pools since 2006 with the same questions, and suggest in a new study that wording is key and can change the results of a study dramatically. Krosnik and his fellow authors were unabashed in naming names of problematic polls from otherwise esteemed institutions, and some feathers have unquestionably been ruffled. While Mr. Krosnik remains certain that our country’s concern for Climate Change has only been underestimated by most pollsters, others maintain that “waning belief in global warming and fading concern about its effects are consistent findings.”

How are we to know whose findings to believe? For now, let us move forth with the conclusion that we ought to err on the side of caution when it comes to poll wording. Possibly more importantly, remember that polls are simply surveys of samples, and the future is in our own hands.

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