Policy Collection ~ Presidential Automotive Emission Suggestions, New York City Organic Waste Collection Suggestions, & Personal Reflections

This is my final policy paper... It started as an NYC program on organic waste management, then moved to a federal piece on automotive emissions standards. Neither was of real interest to me, which is my bad for bending to fit in with the group overall.

Policy Collection ~ Presidential Automotive Emission Suggestions, New York City Organic Waste Collection Suggestions, & Personal Reflections

Presidential Automotive Emission Suggestions

My presidential policy focused on a wide scale massive increase in automotive fuel efficiency from three main cores: public transit, new production personal automobiles, and retrofits to existing vehicles. Making a solid effort at the daily use patterns of every citizen will pave the country for the understanding necessary to make other personal changes. It also will make a direct stab at the inarguable flow of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere responding to the fact that the United States is responsible for the largest portion of emissions worldwide. The following is the submission as part of the group project focus aimed at incorporating green initiatives into American life as a mandate with a high standard for change.

Efficiency: More Efficient Vehicles
President-elect Barack Obama will need to expediently transition the nation to new and existing alternative energy sources. For this policy to be successful, it will need to address the fleet of existing American automobiles as well as new production models, all while making these options financially feasible for citizens, as well as the currently slumping oil-dependent automotive industry. Currently there are approximately 250 million automobiles using United States infrastructure that can be transitioned to alternative fuels via electricity, hydrogen and biofuels. Appropriating funds in the direction of retrofitting the existing fleet as well as producing new vehicles will exponentially emphasize the impact of a move towards alternate fuels while remaining economically feasible.

The most efficient way to deal with this move towards automotive-based carbon neutrality is to create task forces for both public transit and personal automobile use. Public transit funding can create public works-like programs that incorporate spurred employment with a branching infrastructure meant solely for urban and regional transit programs throughout the country in cities and regions identified as target populations in need of public transit options. Mandating that all of the public transit sources use carbon neutral or flex fuel options aimed to wean many citizens from automobile dependence, and conversely, national oil dependence.
In addition, a mandates necessitating that all new passenger vehicles are flex-fuel the end of 2012 should be enacted immediately. Emphasis on developing technology to update many of the popular car models in existence would be needed in funding appropriations. Adjusting current pending legislation of fuel economy standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 should be extended to 50 miles per gallon for SUVs and all trucks and 65 miles per gallon for all other passenger vehicles. This will benefit a move towards dependence upon cellulosic ethanol and biofuels from grasses, straws, and non-kernel corn cellulose in substitute for gasoline. Tax-wise, retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers should aim towards developing vehicle technology that uses lightweight materials and redesigned engines.

Additionally, abolishing the 60,000-unit-per-manufacturer cap on buyer tax credits will spur supply and demand of flex-fuels vehicles domestically for consumers currently seeking flex-fuel.

New York City Organic Waste Collection Suggestions

Originally, when assigned to come up with a policy proposal, the assignment enabled us to choose city, state, or federal programs that we personally felt should be created and after newly elected officials transitioned into office. The idea was that programs would make communities, states, or the country more sustainable or raise the focus of sustainable living via programming that would lead to voluntary behavior changes. Personally, I feel that pilot programs with high visibility and basic infrastructure work the best in an urban setting.

Think Piece: Policy Implementation Ideas for Sustainability: Citywide Composting (NYC)

New York City could enjoy measurable benefit from a fairly basic urban agriculture program seen in other urban settings. These are programs that are implemented on a very local basis to promote community and sustainable values that can create not only economy but also education for the city. They are taken from San Francisco programming which is shown to be successful and can be translated to the urban spaces in New York City with minimal funding when compared to landfill and other resource costs.

San Francisco has long taken action in recycling consumer materials and is now taking further steps by including composting in their sanitation services. The green bins are placed with trash bins and hold all compostable materials that are then taken to city composting facilities in northern California. An estimated over 300 tons of organic material are collected daily reducing landfill needs and increasing economy utilizing the compostable outcome, hummus, in California agriculture. The New York City Department of Sanitation claims a lack of funding and manpower for such an endeavor and makes referrals to other community and ecology groups in the city, which do compost on very small-scale settings. The DSNY has formed the New York City Compost Project to do these some of these things as well as to educate. While this referral is helpful, it is very limited in the reach of education and does not successfully engender the public to begin thinking about their refuse and how to make it work for them or the city at large.

Beginning pilot programs in different high density zip codes (or sanitation routes) to test the merits of a citywide composting drive would bring notice to the need for this service as well as acclimatize citizens to be more aware of their refuse. Incentivizing restaurants to participate as well would make a sizable dent in food refuse. Organizations such as City Harvest already procure unused edible food collection, therefore, there is no reason why inedible food collection could not be collected by Sanitation Department workers (enabled as part of such a pilot program).

The New York Sanitation Department already recognizes groups making composting more translatable to the average person. The Lower East Side Ecology Center facilitates personal composting clinics giving subsidized materials to attendees. While this subsidized funding is certainly necessary, it is no way feasible to conquer or address the mounting problem of refuse in the city and the need for landfills to contain it. Looking at an urban program like that in San Francisco would show the feasibility of a similar program in an urban center like New York City and make active steps towards a solution.

Sources:
San Francisco Recycling
San Francisco Environmental Organization
Sunset Scavenger
New York City Compost Organization
Wasteless New York City
NRDC Recycling

Personal Reflections

Firstly, I would like to say that I think these policies may have been far more productive if they had not been so team influenced. I would have felt freer to do a topic which did not fit so well in with that of my group if I had not needed to tie my goals into theirs. I feel this unintentionally limited the areas we could work with reminiscent of how PlaNYC 2030 has no public health aspect. Basically, my group had me change my focus to fit in better in the instructed overall plan. My ideal national focus would have been on food and water security through water use in agriculture. In theory, this change in agricultural strategies could be stretched to relate to a lessening of fossil fuels used and carbon dioxide emitted in the use of machinery and transport, however, I believe that our national and local water strategies need a serious overhaul, perhaps even more stringently than our oil dependence.

Another federal idea was to focus on obesity through a sin tax system interlocked with insurance surcharges and a simultaneous resurrection of The President’s Physical Fitness Challenge. With the media support of this president and his and his wife’s personal fitness goals, I feel this program could make the obese feel accountable for their personal weight choices. They would begin to see that even if they do not feel they need a change, the rest of the country should not absorb their increased expense cost for health care for the average citizen. This would benefit those who could not currently manage affordable health care insurance by making their choice of healthier lifestyles a reflection in cost. The President’s Physical Fitness Challenge would then give school-aged children an outlet for working on their own fitness, teaching them goal setting and giving them a feeling of physical achievement through competing with their peers in a positive setting.

Also, having a group of eight people was detrimental to all of our work, making us change fundamentals of our individual programs to tie them together. I understand that in real policy teams, there are potentially larger numbers of participants, but this did not benefit our group. We really should have organized ourselves into two smaller groups. Many of the polish points were lost in our presentation and group paper due to this fact. I also would have liked to have had some focus in class on policy writing, on the fundamental drafting of policy briefs. I feel this would have been beneficial to everyone and would have made our work more focused on the planning and less focused on figuring out if we were drafting documents correctly. Formulating ideas for policies seem to be moving along more fluidly, however, despite this.

LMS Post ~ New York State Green Lights Eminent Domain in Manhattanville

How better than to celebrate the end of Law class than to see an example of eminent domain right here in NYC?!? Oh, the irony...



New York State Green Lights Eminent Domain in Manhattanville

At a news conference this morning, the Empire State Development Corporation unanimously voted to use the power of eminent domain to seize the remaining commercial holdouts in Columbia's Manhattanville expansion zone. That's bad news for the two property owners who have still refused to sell: storage space owner Nick Sprayregen and gas station owner Gurnam Singh, who can now legally be forced to sell their property to the state, which would then let Columbia take over the land.

Sprayregen, the far more vocal of the pair, has vowed to fight the eminent domain decision in court, having already entered several different lawsuits challenging whether Columbia's acquisition of the land will actually help the "public good." "I don't want to have to sue you," said Sprayregen's lawyer, Norman Siegel, to the staid ESDC board members. "You leave us no choice but to litigate." He said he felt sure the case would reach the Supreme Court, where ESDC's awkward history with AKRF and previous allegations it was colluding with Columbia would be weighted heavily.

For Columbia, though, today's decision marks the end of several years spent pushing its Manhattanville expansion through various government approvals, and the beginning what's likely to be several years of tussling with Sprayregen.

Though the Singhs have been reclusive throughout the process, they attended the meeting today and spoke through their 17 year-old daughter, Aman Kaur. "I'd appreciate it if everyone put down their BlackBerrys and listened to what I have to say," she began, going on to describe her family's 15-year history in the neighborhood. The two gas stations the family owns are their sole source of income, and Kaur wondered how her parents, immigrants from India, would make a living or pay for her to go to college. "I am literally begging the state for these properties. This is my past, my present, my future," she said.

In their comments, many of the plan's critics expressed a sense of resignation. "It's very clear to me that this is an exercise in futility," said one. "Your decision is virtually already 100% made," added another. A representative from the West Harlem Local Development Corporation (LDC) asked the ESDC to consider pushing back the vote until Columbia and the LDC signed the community benefits agreement.

Though Columbia already owns over 80% of the property in its proposed expansion zone, it says it needs the land under the Singh and Sprayregen properties to construct a 7-story underground structure that will house a bus depot, parking, loading docks, and utilities.

The decision comes seven months after the ESDC approved Columbia's expansion plan and declared the area "blighted," and a year after the city's Land Use Committee approved the plan. Check out our past coverage for more background on Manhattanville.

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Manhattanville for Dummies:

Community Board 9 (CB9): a group of West Harlem (Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and some of Morningside Heights) residents and business owners who applied to the Borough President's office and were selected to represent their neighborhood.

Local Development Corporation (LDC): Because CB9 doesn't have the power to negotiate with developers, the city created the West Harlem LDC. It's a group of CB9 members, public housing tenants, environmentalists, artists, and elected officials who meet regularly to decide what they want from Columbia in return for the expansion.

Community Benefits Agreement: This is what the LDC is working for. It's an agreement that will decide how much Columbia will put into an affordable housing fund, what environmental standards it will use, how much funding it'll give to the arts in Harlem.

LMS Post ~ Half New Yorkers Struggling to Pay for Groceries, Study Finds

This is not a shock. I worry especially in the elderly segment of the population. Younger adults can get out and try to find work and rely on schools to feed your kids and welfare, etc., etc., but when you are on a very strictly fixed income and not that mobile, like the elderly, you are really screwed. Also, I find the statistics interesting on college students, as should all of you.

This is depressing, when I get back in January, I am going to work with Mimi to get the LEAP group organized for anyone who wants to volunteer at City Harvest. Let me know if anyone is interested.



Half New Yorkers Struggling to Pay for Groceries, Study Finds

A report released Tuesday by the Food Bank for New York City has found that approximately four million New Yorkers—one in two—are having trouble paying for groceries, a 26 percent increase since the last survey in February. The Hunger Experience 2008 Update also found that college degrees are increasingly useless protection against indigence; one out of every three (36 percent) NYC college graduates had difficulty affording needed food this year, up from 11 percent in 2003. Lucy Cabrera, the food bank's president, says, "The results of this report are devastating. These numbers should be a wake-up call for all New Yorkers." The Food Bank NYC sources and distributes food to the estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers who rely on emergency food. Today you've got until noon to help the Food Bank by bidding on one of their cool celebrity decorated lunchboxes. (Just please don't outbid us on Mike D's Jacob the Jeweler box.)

LMS Post ~ Uproar Over Paterson's Budget Suggestions

I have no problem with the taxing of unnecessary consumer goods since it will help people be a little more frugal in their habits. I also, as a dietitian, welcome the taxing of non-diet sodas as we are knee deep in diabetics and obese citizens (and illegals) relying on taxpayer-funded healthcare in this city and state. I eagerly await health statistics in the next year to see if this makes a dent in obesity related disease claims in the city. I don't think it will be huge, but it would be really nice.

Uproar Over Paterson's Budget Suggestions

Governor David Paterson's budget proposal that includes a big cut to education funding and a variety of taxes and fees gets worked over. The Daily News, which called it a "slash-and-burn budget," points out, "The proposal, which needs legislative approval, did not include broad-based income tax increases, but relied on smaller ones"—specifically 137—"to raise $4.1 billion from cash-strapped New Yorkers." The head of the State Conservative Party, Michael Long, said of things like reinstating the sales tax on clothing under $110 and taxing spirits, wine and regular soda, "You're sending notice to the people of New York that we really don't want you here. The governor proposed flat spending, but why not actually cut the budget before raising taxes and fees?"

The Empire Center for New York State Policy's E.J. McMahon tells Politicker NY, "Nothing gets the couch potatoes off the couch like taxing their TV. he thing about those tax increases is, the irony of nuisance tax stuff that, is that economically they're utterly insignificant. Politically, obviously there's nothing worse. There are people who wouldn't blink at a massive confiscatory tax on business, but eighteen cents on a bottle of soda and they go nuts." And the Post's Albany bureau chief Frederic Dicker was unimpressed with the "lack of creativity in Paterson's proposal - no significant work-force downsizing, no real lifting of regulatory burdens" and with Paterson's delivery:

Whereas Cuomo, a national-class orator, inspired the state to tighten its belt and fork over more taxes as it faced a calamitous economic down turn in the early 1990s, Paterson delivered a flat and sometimes awkward budget presentation.

"So I want us to be optimistic," Paterson declared at one point. "I think we can come back to Albany, we can take responsibility, we can take control of this budget, we can take over 'Saturday Night Live.' "

Take over "Saturday Night Live"? Paterson appeared with that odd observation to be more focused on the nasty and embarrassing portrayal of him on NBC than he was on the state's dire financial straits.

And Mayor Bloomberg said that more city layoffs might be on the way, since NYC could lose up to $1 billion in the governor's proposal.

First Snow in Harlem...Doesn't Last, However, the Photos Are Nice

It started snowing, I grabbed my camera, took some photos from my office, and then ran outside. I wish I knew more about photography so they actually looked a little more like snow. however, I liked these ones and that's good enough for me. Also, I have a thing for ducks. Please to enjoy...

LMS Post ~ NYC Parks Department Counts Central Park Birds

This made me think of Hilary Brown... Who wants to blow off law with me tomorrow and go count some rusty blackbirds?

NYC Parks Department Counts Central Park Birds

NEW YORK (AP) ― Central Park is for the birds but how many of them?

The New York City Parks Department is conducting its annual count of its feathered friends in the Manhattan park on Sunday.

Last year, at least 7,771 birds were counted living there. The year before, there were about 6,400.

Teams of citizen bird watchers and park rangers are assigned to zones within the park's 843 acres. They identify and count every bird they can find. They then gather to share, analyze and tally their findings.

The Christmas Bird Count has been held annually since 1900.

Recent counts have turned up several species uncommon or rare for this time of year, such as rusty blackbirds. NEW YORK (AP) ― Central Park is for the birds but how many of them?

The New York City Parks Department is conducting its annual count of its feathered friends in the Manhattan park on Sunday.

Last year, at least 7,771 birds were counted living there. The year before, there were about 6,400.

Teams of citizen bird watchers and park rangers are assigned to zones within the park's 843 acres. They identify and count every bird they can find. They then gather to share, analyze and tally their findings.

The Christmas Bird Count has been held annually since 1900.

Recent counts have turned up several species uncommon or rare for this time of year, such as rusty blackbirds.

LMS Post ~ Michael Pollan PBS Interviews with Bill Moyers

This is a link to Micahel Pollan's two part interview for PBS with Bill Moyers... Good stuff. If you have any interest in food policy, or just wish to continue to eat for the rest of your life, you should maybe give it a look see.

VIDEO 1
VIDEO 2

Just in Time for the Holidays

A bomb scare at 25 Broad Street... The tree almost makes it seem novel.


dietrich on flickr

I Love This.

Adrian Johnson is a UK based illustrator and I like his style...

Things That Suck in Graphic Form

I need to get some graphics experience so I can make things like this...also, it happens to be true.

Sustainable Design Final Paper ~ Michael Reynolds

It's kind of a long one...

Michael Reynolds ~ Radically Sustainable Earthship Biotect

Theory

I chose to look into the career of Michael Reynolds after first hearing about the Sundance Channel’s April 2008 airing of “Garbage Warrior,” Oliver Hodge’s award-winning documentary following Reynolds’s work (Open Eye Media, UK, 2007). This recent “green” media spotlight has given an increased value to the concept of eco-conscious living something that I have long wanted to know more about from a functional standpoint. The documentary followed years of Reynolds career building his dwellings around the world, with or without government zoning approval.

Owning a home in the Southwestern United States, I find his style very colorful and intriguing as well as a hope for methods that could be borrowed to make existing structures such as my home more sustainable. Coupling this with my lifelong interest in recycled and second use materials, reducing domestic gridded energy use, and my desire to know more about home water conservation and filtration, his designs came to be what I feel are a very raw definition of Sustainable Design.

Biographic Background

Michael Reynolds graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1969 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture and a thesis that examined architecture’s need for “design that would reduce the stress level of the planet.” Directly after graduation, Reynolds relocated to Taos, New Mexico, after falling in love with the architecture and ambiance of the American Southwest. He also noted that he was seeking greater meaning as a child of the 1960s counterculture, as well as attempting to avoid the Vietnam draft.

Reynolds began designing and constructing structures utilizing recycled materials such as wire hangers and beer bottles as early as late 1969. His thesis was then published in the Architectural Record in 1971. He completed his first conceptual dwelling, which he called the Thumb House in 1972, using beer cans wired together into “bricks,” plaster, and mortar. In 1973, Reynolds was granted a U.S. patent for the Thumb House design.

Much like Reynolds’s use of items “as is,” he employs a trial and error method to his design and construction. This way, he is able to identify, examine, and fix and design or construction flaws. He has lived in each of his experimental homes all while developing his overall Earthship design core. This core element came to Reynolds as he discovered that through packing container items with dirt they could become insulated building materials. This allowed for designs to really become off the grid structures providing geothermal heating and cooling aspects.

Despite the breakthroughs in sustainability and building, Reynolds experienced defeat at the hands of the legal system several times through lawsuits concerning faulty zoning and construction. The complaints eventually led to his New Mexico architecture license being challenged. In 2000 Reynolds voluntarily surrendered his New Mexico credentials and licenses. This did not hinder his work to make his designs accessible to those who needed them, traveling globally with a team of builders to do so, often at great financial cost to himself. After his work became celebrated for the use of sustainable concepts in dire areas, he decided to begin working within the design and zoning parameters again in New Mexico, regaining his license.

Reynolds began to travel with his team of converted builders to countries where this low cost off-the-grid type of design was necessary, including disaster relief locations such as the Andaman Island tsunami (India, 2005), Honduras, and New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2006). Earthships are by design hurricane and earthquake-proof. Their near lack of wood in structure creation leaves them with little to no pest problems, although there can be warping if the door and window frames are not installed correctly. The water filtration features are very necessary in places where sanitation has become a problem due to extreme weather.

Michael Reynolds is the author of five books defining his design goals and illustrating how to build Earthships, allowing the concept to be achievable and available to the public. Also, Earthship Biotecture, a Taos, NM, company now sells sustainable construction building packages, provides educational seminars, and runs a hotel for interested parties. A community of Earthship homes has been erected outside Taos, NM, and it has come to be known as the Greater World Community. Disaster relief seminars are set globally as the need arises or different groups request Reynolds’s teaching services.

Earthships ~ Biophilic Structures

“Earthships demonstrate a way to live in harmony with the planet by encountering natural resources without depleting them. An Earthship is a passive solar home made or natural and recyclable materials.” ~ Michael Reynolds

Reynolds defines the terms “Earthship” and “biotecture” as the following:

“Earthship n. 1. Passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. Thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization 3. Renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.
Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability 2. A combination of biology and architecture.” (http://www.garbagewarrior.com)

Reynolds unveiled his radical design in 1986 after many years of refining. He attempted to join the modern technology available to he and his builders with the ancient building techniques of such groups as the Anasazi Indians. Their designs harnessed the power of the sun and earth while conserving all the natural resources they needed to live, such as water and heat energy. For example, Earthships are embanked into hillsides, using land to create the rear, side, and interiors walls for insulation purposes, ideally facing south to southeast to capture the best solar rays.

At that time of his original unveiling, Earthship construction incorporated materials such as discarded tires, bottles, and beer cans. Currently, designs have been extended to use items such as landfilled cardboard, plastics, glass, aluminum and steel cans, as well as the panels from discarded refrigerators, cooking ranges, and washing machines. Aside from these materials, the structures utilize all natural building materials such as wood, rock, and mud plaster. Occasionally a manufactured item is used in building, such as glass or solar panels, however, all attempts are made to use these as secondary use items whenever possible.

Other design points include a long hallway on the front of the structure allowing sunlight to be trapped as well as heat to be conducted into the attached rooms. Photovoltaic cells are now mounted on the roof allowing the conversion of sunlight into electricity in order to power lights, appliances, and computers. Some of the homes designed feature propane tanks, which are then used to power the water heater and stove. Often vegetable gardens are utilized in the hallway fed by water recycled after domestic use.

Heat & Energy Elements

Earthship walls are constructed to be thick stacked with earth-packed items mortared together and plastered over. This structure creates a heat sink in which solar energy is captured and radiated using a geothermal heating effect. During summer months, the windows in the front of the structure are opened, as are those in the rear ceiling, allowing for the air to flow through, and creating a cooling effect.

Many of the items being used in this process would otherwise be nonrecyclable (tires) or would take commensurate fossil fuels in their renewal (aluminum cans, plastic bottle, and glass). The geothermal nature of the dwellings mean energy is not needed for heating or cooling. The solar panels provide the energy needed for other functions. Dependent upon the size of the dwelling or the location, wind turbines may also be utilized. These different techniques may all be used in differing climates, allowing self-sufficiency concepts to translate to any given climate extreme.

Water Features

Water conservation is another core concept of the Earthship design. Reynolds believes that water collection should be central to the design as well as a biophilic filtration system to utilize the water to the highest degree and as many times as possible. Water is funneled or collected from rain or snowfall from the roof or other structural methods. It is then channeled to a large underground cistern. This cistern water is filtered, pumped, and pressurized for domestic uses.

The first use is for washing and bathing. This water is then recycled through a grease and particle filter into graywater for edible vegetative plant irrigation. This cleaned graywater then is utilized for toilet flushing prior to being piped to a conventional septic tank. The blackwater separated in the septic tank is then taken out of that internal system and treated for use in outside inedible vegetative irrigation. Toilets may also be optioned as composting toilets if so desired by dwellers.

Interiors

Michael Reynolds does not provide interior design work, however, many of the aspects of his building design can be translated into an interiors finish with little effort. Opting to have the interior walls plastered to create a smooth surface allows for many options including low VOC paints or plaster dyes. Choosing different colors and configurations of glass bottles in the interior and exterior walls can give a stained glass effect to the home. Creative choices in vegetation inside the structure give latitude and greenery as well as serving as air filtration and a sink for water features. Bathroom and kitchen designs can harness the Southwestern flair using other recycled objects in the making of mosaic walls, tubs, shower stalls, and countertops.

In summary

Due to the current state of the planet and the moral and ethical push for increased visibility and accessibility of sustainable design, Michael Reynolds has risen to the surface as a forward thinker and pioneer in designing low cost, self-sustainable structures. His use of items that would otherwise lay dormant in landfills for hundreds and thousands of years leeching into the earth should be an inspiration to all architects and designers illustrating that innovation can come even the most everyday of concepts, like dirt and garbage. While it is true that Reynolds does not design with aesthetics at the top of his list of goals, his structures can range form million dollar celebrity mansions to nearly costless emergency housing. That flexibility and high quality of function is the part that is truly astounding and sustainable about the evolution of his designs.

“I think with the Earthship concept we have just scratched the surface of what is possible in terms of using the materials that are discarded by modern society. There are many things out there and once people start seeing that as a resource, looking at municipal dumps as a resource, the human mind is going to go crazy with it. I think the potential of it is off the wall.” ~ Michael Richards

Bibliography

Earthship Biotecture Official Website http://www.earthship.net/ [Accessed November 27, 2008]

“Garbage Warrior” Official Website (2007), Oliver Hodge, Open eye Media, UK, http://www.garbagewarrior.com [Accessed Nov-26-2008]

“Greater World Communities,” http://directory.ic.org/records/?action=view&page=view&record_id=2553 [Accessed November 30, 2008]

Green Home Building Website http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/earthship.htm [Accessed Dec-2-2008]

Irvine, Dan. (September 3, 2007) “Earthships: Future-proof buildings,” CNN.com, http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/08/29/skewed.earthships/index.html#cnnSTCText

“1973: Sorry, Out of Gas,” http://www.sorryoutofgas.org/ [Accessed December 2, 2008]

Reed, Susan and Michael Haederle. “Want An Ecologically Correct House? Architect Michael Reynolds Builds Earthships Out of Beer Cans and Tires,” People Magazine. Vol. 35, No. 1. January 14, 1991.

Skurka, Norma and John Naar. Design for a Limited Planet: Living with Natural Energy, University of Michigan: McGraw-Hill: 1971, page 149.

YouTube Channel for Earthship Biotecture, a Taos, NM, company, http://www.youtube.com/user/earthship [Accessed December 1, 2008]

Wikipedia. “Michael Reynolds” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Reynolds_(architect) [Accessed Dec-1-2008] [Accessed December 1, 2008]

LMS Post ~ Obama Says Climate Change a Matter of National Security

I liked his quote about the time for delay and denial to be over....

Obama says climate change a matter of national security

Tue Dec 9, 2008 5:20pm EST

By Steve Holland

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama said on Tuesday attacking global climate change is a "matter of urgency" that will create jobs as he got advice from Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the issue.

In remarks to reporters, Obama made clear he would adopt an aggressive approach to global warming when he takes over the White House on January 20.

He and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met for nearly two hours with former Vice President Gore at Obama's presidential transition office in Chicago.

"All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over, the time for denial is over," Obama said.

Obama hopes addressing climate change can create the kind of jobs that will help pull the U.S. economy out of a deepening recession. He has begun to lay out plans for a massive recovery program to help stimulate the U.S. economy and create about 2.5 million jobs.

He said he would work with Democrats and Republicans, businesses, consumers and others with a stake in the issue to try to reach a consensus on a bold, aggressive approach to tackling the problem.

"This is a matter of urgency and of national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That's what I intend my administration to do," Obama said.

Obama had a willing partner in Gore, who won a Nobel in 2007 for his years-long effort to educate people about the gradual warming of the planet and to argue against those scientists who believe a warming trend is a naturally occurring event.

There was no talk of offering Gore a job in the Obama administration. Gore has indicated he is not interested in a position of climate "czar" or any Cabinet post.

Just two days after Obama won the November 4 election, Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection rolled out a media campaign to push for immediate investments in energy efficiency, renewable power generation like wind and solar technology and the creation of a unified national power grid.

Gore and his group are in line with most U.S. environmental groups, which believe the Obama administration has a chance to stem global warming.

Critics have accused the outgoing Bush administration of stalling on the issue, but the White House insists it is taking steps aimed at addressing the problem without damaging the U.S. economy.

"We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country, in all 50 states, to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy, to think about how we are increasing efficiency, to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come, even as we're saving the planet," Obama said.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles, editing by David Alexander and David Wiessler)

LMS Post ~ Priceless...and 30 Years Ago, Detroit....

My Life in NYC Feels Like This...

I am very interested in things like this- sort of ways to live your life as you usually do and then use what would otherwise be wasteful time spent online by you to give to another cause... I hope this catches on like wildfire...

Nutritious Rice Project on IBM World Community Grid Yields Promising Results

10 Million Computations in Nine Months

(CSRwire) ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/10/08 -- The landmark project between IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the University of Washington to develop new strains of rice that could produce crops with larger and more nutritious yields is now set to analyze data on the genes -- three months ahead of schedule. The research will focus on analyzing data that has been prioritized as promising by both the University of Washington in Seattle and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

Researchers will now begin to analyze the results while data continues to be collected on the rest of the proteins, according to IBM.

"While headlines about rice shortages have declined, the problem is still very real," said Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs. "More than 400,000 volunteers have already contributed 9,000 years of computer time to this project, and individual computers have processed more than 10 million transactions."

"Improving strains of rice to yield larger, more resilient, and nutritionally-optimized harvests will positively impact the lives of billions of people. This is a first-of-a-kind solution that demonstrates how a smart application of technology can offer a game-changing solution that can potentially create a greater change in society and how it deals with food issues."

The project is studying the structures of the proteins that make up the building blocks of rice. This will help identify the function of those proteins and enable researchers to identify which proteins could help produce more rice grains, ward off pests, resist disease or hold more nutrients. In the end, this project will create the largest and most comprehensive map of rice proteins and their related functions, helping rice researchers pinpoint which plants should be selected for cross-breeding to cultivate better crops.

"The community response to this project has been phenomenal. IBM's World Community Grid exceeds our expectations of computational power and makes scientific dreams a reality," said Michal Guerquin, project lead at the University of Washington.

IBM's World Community Grid is a virtual supercomputer created by individuals who donate their unused computer time to tackle complex calculations to accelerate scientific research. World Community Grid is collecting data for 30,000 to 60,000 different protein structures.

Anyone with a computer and Internet access can be a part of the solution. To donate unused computer time, individuals register on www.worldcommunitygrid.org and install a free, small, secure software program onto their computers. When computers are idle, data is requested from World Community Grid's server. These computers then perform the computations, and send the results back to the server, prompting it for a new piece of work. A screen saver will tell individuals when their computers are being used.

World Community Grid, the largest public humanitarian grid in existence, has 430,000-plus members who represent more than 200 countries and links to more than one million computers.

For more information about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com.

For more information on IBM and smart solutions to food issues,
please visit www.ibm.com/think

Please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DAR5wW19Eg&fmt=18 to see a video on IBM's solutions to food issues.

LMS Post ~ EU Agrees 2020 Clean Energy Deadline

Hopefully, we will follow suit.

EU agrees 2020 clean energy deadline

Green lobby and politicians hail agreement to use 20% renewables within 12 years as climate change landmark

• Ian Traynor
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday December 9 2008 17.02 GMT

EU leaders today agreed to combat climate change by ordering a fifth of Europe's energy mix to come from renewable sources within 12 years.

The agreement, hailed as "landmark" deal and a breakthrough by politicians and the green lobby alike, came ahead of a crucial EU summit on Thursday, at which 27 prime ministers and presidents aim to finalise the ambitious package to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020.

The agreement reached this afternoon in negotiations between government officials from across the union, the European parliament, and the European Commission paves the way for a new law obliging all EU countries to meet national targets for renewable energy.

Two contentious points had threatened to derail the legislation – the insistence that biofuels comprise 10% of transport fuel by the 2020 deadline, and an attempt by Italy to loosen the law by ordering a review of renewable energy progress in 2014. The review date was retained, but the compulsory nature of the overall target and the national quotas also survived.

The biofuels question has become an incendiary issue over the past year because of soaring food costs and shortages partly blamed on the conversion of land to grow fuel rather than crops.

Expert opinion has turned on the value of biofuels in combating climate change since at their current level of development, they are seen broadly as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution.

The 10% target was retained, but the equation was changed to include cars and trains running on electric power while the European Commission is to report within two years on the impact on land use of biofuels and on their "sustainability."

To count towards the 10% quota, the biofuels used in the transport sector must save a minimum of 35% of greenhouse gases compared with their fossil fuel equivalent.

Experts also argue that using the crop-based products as a petrol or diesel substitute is also misplaced as much greater energy savings can be had by, for example, heating buildings with biofuels.

Greenpeace, usually a fierce critic of the EU climate change policies, described the agreement as a "landmark."

"A ray of light amid the gloomy stone age positions of the EU member states on other elements of the climate package," the campaigners said. "We give the EU 8 out of 10 for its renewables deal."

Frauke Thies, Greenpeace's renewables expert, voiced reservations only about the biofuels factor.

Claude Turmes, the Luxembourg Green MEP who led the negotiations for the European Parliament, said he had "mixed feelings" about the biofuels factor.

"Despite mounting scientific evidence on the dangers of biofuels, we were unable to completely revise this wrongheaded target… renewable energy will be put at the very heart of EU energy policies."

The European Wind Energy Association, a lobby group, said today's deal put Europe in the lead of "the energy revolution the world needs". It calculated that, if the law is properly implemented, more than a third of Europe's electricity will be generated from renewable sources by 2020.

I Like to Have My Plastic Bottle Facts Up to Date...

So that I can better and more effectively shame people when they are drinking from plastic bottles.

Plastic Bottle Facts Make You Think Before You Drink

Aug 23, 2008 By Doug

Hopefully if you’re at this site and reading this you are well aware of the alternatives to using disposable bottles and recycle the ones you do. The advent of bottled water sent our already wasteful consumer culture into pollution overdrive and it’s a tremendous task to put the brakes on the momentum of this waste. Here is a list of plastic bottle fun facts that put the magnitude of this pollution into scope.

• Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting
• 90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself
• 80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
• 38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda)
• 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
• The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
• Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water
• Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States

Although it can be easy and convenient to pick up bottle beverage products the end cost to the environment is staggering. So be mindful when you drink…and remember, friends don’t let friends drink from disposables!

LMS Post ~ Brazil Pledges to Cut Amazon Destruction in Half

A step in the right direction. Hopefully, it will be sooner than stretched over the next decade.


Brazil pledges to cut Amazon destruction in half
Mon Dec 1, 2008 2:06pm EST

By Raymond Colitt

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil pledged Monday to cut the rate at which it was destroying its Amazon forest in half over the next decade to help combat global warming.

Setting its first such target after years of global criticism, Brazil will aim to reduce clearing of the world's largest rain forest to an annual 5,850 sq km (2,260 sq miles), by 2018, about half the recent rate.

"This plan improves Brazil's image, we'll have more moral authority internationally," Environment Minister Carlos Minc told reporters after a launching ceremony attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazil wants to become a major voice in global environmental issues and hopes the plan will help allay criticism it has done too little to fight burning and clearing by loggers, farmers and ranchers.

Amazon destruction makes Brazil one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases because trees release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when they're cut down or burned.

The announcement of the new plan, more than a decade after Brazil said it would adopt targets, coincided with the opening of a United Nations climate conference in Poznan, Poland.

Some conservationists said the plan marked an important change in the government's attitude from blaming rich countries to taking action itself. But critics said it was not ambitious enough and had been too slow coming.

"We'll have to wait another decade before seeing a real reduction in deforestation," said Roberto Smeraldi, head of the conservation group Friends of the Earth in Brazil.

"Brazil requires less capital and technology (than rich nations) to reduce emissions; we could do better than this."

Brazil had previously refused to adopt targets until rich countries, which cause most carbon emissions, offered more help to protect tropical forests in developing countries.

AMAZON FUND

Norway gave Brazil an unprecedented vote of confidence this year by pledging $1 billion to a new Amazon Fund over seven years aimed at improving conservation and the enforcement of laws against deforestation.

"We can adopt targets because we now have the instruments to implement them," said Tasso Azevedo, head of the government's Forestry Service, referring to the fund.

Some countries are still hesitant to donate money without a say in how it is spent.

Rich countries should now drop any reluctance to transfer technology to help Brazil reach its targets, Minc said.

Last week the government said Amazon deforestation increased 3.8 percent from a year earlier to nearly 4,633 square miles (12,000 sq km) -- roughly equal to the U.S. state of Connecticut -- as high commodity prices drew farmers and ranchers to slash more trees.

It was the first rise in four years, although well down from a peak of 10,570 square miles (27,379 sq km) in 2004.

Farmers and cattle ranchers moving deeper into the Amazon in search of cheaper land are some of the main culprits.

Brazil's government this year increased policing, impounded farm products from illegally cleared land and cut financing for unregistered properties, stepping up its efforts after figures showed a spike in deforestation late last year.

The plan announced Monday also included measures to boost energy efficiency and renewable fuels, an area in which Brazil is already a world leader.

The government aims to reduce taxes on fuel efficient cars, provide low-cost loans to buy solar panels, and replace one million inefficient refrigerators containing greenhouse gases per year for 10 years.

The use of biofuels, including Brazil's pioneering ethanol derived from sugarcane, is to increase from 20.3 billion liters (18.43 billion quarts) per year to 52.2 billion in ten years.

(Reporting by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Alan Elsner)
© Thomson Reuters 2008

LMS Post ~ Regulators Are Pushing Bluefin Tuna to the Brink

Yeah...just after I did my science project on fish and overfishing...I see this about bluefin tuna being pushed to extinction. If you read anything about the Mediterranean fishing practices, especially those of the Spanish, you know this will likely soon be an endangered species which will then go for top prices as sushi. The international lack of control on the global and local fishing industry is unbelievable. It is this lack of control that will see global fishery collapse as early as 2050. How depressing.

This is the first part of the article, click to read the entire thing.

Regulators Are Pushing Bluefin Tuna to the Brink

The international commission charged with protecting the giant bluefin tuna is once again failing to do its job. Its recent decision to ignore scientists’ recommendations for reducing catch limits may spell doom for this magnificent – and endangered – fish.

by Carl Safina

It’s one of the biggest, fastest, and most beautiful fish in the sea. It has captured the imaginations of people from Homer to Salvador Dali. But end-times loom for the giant bluefin tuna, whose chances of survival were greatly diminished in late November by the international commission charged with its care.

Once again, that body – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas – refused to take strong action to prevent the runaway overfishing of the giant bluefin tuna in its sole remaining, yet rapidly disappearing, stronghold: the Mediterranean.

One of the sea’s few elite warm-blooded fish, bluefin tuna can reach three-quarters of a ton, swim at highway speeds, migrate across oceans, and visit coasts of distant continents. They’re also the world’s most valued fish (once they’re dead), and therein they hang by the tail.

Too valuable everywhere to be allowed to live anywhere, the giant bluefin tuna may be worth more money to a person who kills one than any other animal on the planet, elephants and rhinos included. A few years ago, a single 444-pound bluefin tuna sold wholesale in Japan for $173,600. One fish.

A 43-nation commission has public-trust management authority and a mandate to conserve. But the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas has for its 40-year history merely acted as the fishing industry’s official, tax-funded conglomerate. Think of it as the International Conspiracy to Catch All the Tuna, and its record starts making sense. The commission’s resume on bluefin tuna graphs as plunging populations, down more than half in the Mediterranean and now free-falling, and down more than 90 percent in the west Atlantic.

The increasing rarity of bluefin—and escalating worldwide sushi madness—has only intensified fishing efforts. And as the fish diminish, demand further drives up the price of bluefin meat. As extinction nears, the fishing keeps escalating.

Fishing has already demolished bluefin populations. The last few decades have seen gold-rush bluefin fisheries disappear off Brazil, in the North Sea, and the southwest Pacific. Wherever they still swim, they are aggressively hunted.

Atlantic bluefin breed in only two places: the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico. From these two spawning areas they migrate throughout the whole North Atlantic, mingling in many fishing areas. But fish from these two populations do not interbreed; they are separate breeding stocks that, when not breeding, mix in many areas where they’re fished......

Greenpeace

Bluefin tuna can grow to more than 1,000 pounds and migrate the full length of the Atlantic

Time Photo ~ "In the Time of Trees" by Stuart Franklin

Since I deactivated my facebook account in an effort to make myself do more work (less procrastination)...I of course have developed an awe inspiring addiction to flickr and other photos... This grouping was something I found that I really loved. You may go to the link to see the photoshow, but I have taken some of the accompanying quotes about trees as they are pretty great.

In the Time of Trees
Magnum Photographer Stuart Franklin has spent a decade exploring the beauty of trees and the unique place they occupy in man's world.

Poland

"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life."
- Hermann Hesse, Wandering

Malaysia

"Of all man's works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that."
- Henry Ward Beecher

Borneo
"The best friend of earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth."
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Morocco
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." - Nelson Henderson

Galapagos
"Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance climbed up through my conscious mind as if suddenly the roots I had left behind cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood - and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent." - Pablo Neruda

Egypt
"It is good to know the truth, but it is better to speak of palm trees." - Arab Proverb

Malaysia

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."
- Hal Borland, Countryman: A Summary of Belief

Germany
"The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

England
"Then here's to the oak, the brave old oak,
Who stands in his pride alone!
And still flourish he a hale green tree
When a hundred years are gone!"
- H. F. Chorley

India
"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
- Warren Buffett

Scotland
"Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel."
- Aldo Leopold

Argentina
"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Ethiopia
"I'll lie here and learn
How, over their ground,
Trees make a long shadow
And a light sound."
- Louise Bogan

Mexico
"Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does."
- George Bernard Shaw

China
"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."
- Khalil Gibran