Wetlands · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with wetlands

Katrina's Damage Due to Destruction of Wetlands?

Sometimes you’re doing some online research and you come across something that makes you shake your head in wonder. Today, I found this in a search for something else- a headline from the June 12, 1910 issue of the New York Times.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9506E0DF1239E433A25751C1A9609C946196D6CF

NEW ORLEANS’S PLANS FOR GREAT SUBURBS; Over a Million Acres of Marsh-l… – Article Preview – The New York Times via kwout

Considering what we now know about the protective effect of wetlands from storm surges,
it is just tragic that this destruction of wetlands was once seen as “progress.” According to NOAA :

Low lying coastal areas in and around the Gulf Coast have always been susceptible to storm surge from hurricanes, but the situation has worsened over time as protective coastal wetlands have disappeared due to land subsidence and human intervention.

While our culture is finally coming around and realizing how valuable wetlands are for coastal protection, as wildlife nurseries, and as natural water filtration systems, there are plenty of companies still fighting to remove the few we have left. A quick Google News search found conflicts in Plympton, Mass., and San Francisco, CA., and a million-dollar amelioration plan for a development that was built on a floodplain in Port Huron, MI.

More than half of wetlands have been eliminated since Europeans colonized the United States, according to the Audubon Society. 90% of California’s wetlands have been drained, while about half of Florida’s (a state that is naturally about 30% wetland) have been. This is one of those issues that often comes down to local land-use planning, so one way to make a big difference with this problem is to get involved in your community planning board.

flooding, Hurricaine Katrina, New Orleans, wetlands

Lu Magazine Party

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by Starre Vartan · 11/13/06

The indefatiguable Remy Chevalier threw a great party last Thursday night to promote Lü, his high-fashion all-green magazine that we would all love to see in print! A truly gorgeous green fashion mag would change the fashion landscape in no time flat (how about all jeans made from organic cotton? Why not find Ingeo at The Gap?) But so far, publishers have been reticent, causing much consternation among all of us that know that this kind of magazine would be a huge success, bringing together greenies and fashionistas, and eventually, the rest of the world with us.

From Lü Magazine’s website:

Lü magazine (green in Chinese) is a cradle-to-cradle fashion magazine, inspired in 2001 by environmental supermodel and muse Angela Lindvall. A motley crew of New York green fashionistas want to create the magazine with Hachette, the folks who bring you ELLE, wrestle them into doing it, because the planet needs it.
Team leader Remy Chevalier, whose father co-founded ELLE, is also working to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant up the Hudson with Riverkeeper and Clearwater. Remy brought us the Eco-Saloon at the nightclub Wetlands in the 90′s, and currently works full-time on a number of environmental campaigns.

The party was held in the Red Room at The Park, and we enjoyed great drinks and lots of delicious chocolates. Thanks for a great party Remy!

Elisa Jimenez, visionary fashion designer

A Summer Rayne Oakes sandwich, with Earth Tech Products’ Frank Bianco and Chris Pesce

The yummy men! Franz Knipschildt, chocolatier extraordinaire, and Dave Schmeir of Orange V, the best organic vodka on the planet!

The ever-fabulous Patrick McDonald

Monsieur Chevalier and writer Marianne Macy

Yours truly (in my new-to-me Hairy Mary’s dress) and my beau, Brian Howard

Not pictured: Celine Ruben-Salama of Pro’tech’d, Brendan Brazier, vegan triathalete and formulator of Vega, Joshua Weise, and Eve Kitten’s Nancy Bacich. It was great to meet and see you all!

cape, cotton, design, designer, dress, Fashion, formula, Hair, India, jeans, magazine, model, Nightclub, nuclear, nuclear power, Organic, party, summer, Summer Rayne Oakes, Tea, vegan, vintage, water, wetlands

The Avoided Topic

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by Starre Vartan · 11/12/06

Original illustration for Eco Chick by Gregory Grigoriou of I See Dots

The Problem

This month, one of E/ The Environmental Magazine’s feature stories is about the the myth of the population dearth, the idea that we’re not replacing ourselves at quite the rate we have during the heights of human population growth, which occurred in the 1960′s. The doom and gloom predictions of economists that there won’t be enough young people to sustain economies in the future might have families considering a 3rd or 4th child. But look at the statistics and you’ll see that the Earth’s population is still zooming straight up. While it’s true that most of that growth is coming from people in developing nations, everyone plays a part:

Let’s look at the accelerating momentum of population growth. In the year 1000, there were an estimated 254 to 345 million people on the planet, mostly living agrarian lives. World population grew very slowly in those days. In 1200, 200 years later, there were still only 360 to 450 million people. Move all the way up to the relatively modern world, in 1700, and there were still only 600 to 679 million people sharing the planet.
The first billion was reached, probably, in 1802. But after that we really took off as a species. It took just 125 years to add the second billion, in 1927, and only 34 years to get to three billion, in 1961. Four billion (1974) took just 13 years, and five billion (1987) another 13. We crossed the six billion threshold in 1999, after only 12 years. When will we get to seven billion? How does 2012, just six years away, sound?

Americans, especially, are a more significant part of the continued population growth than people in most other Western nations. I’m sure you all saw the heralding of the 300 millionth American a few weeks ago, and it won’t be long before we get to 400 million:

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation with significant population growth, and a new report sees those burgeoning numbers as a factor in our unparalleled impact on the environment.
While Europe shrinks, U.S. population grows by just under one percent a year, which translates to 8,000 people a day, or three million per year. The 300 millionth American will either be born here (or move here) sometime this fall. According to Victoria Markham, executive director of the Connecticut-based Center for Environment and Population (CEP), the growth is magnified by a very high rate of resource consumption. “The U.S. has the largest per-capita environmental impact in the world,” she says, “not only in terms of resource use, but also the pollution and waste associated with it.”
The U.S. uses three times more water than the world average per capita, and (despite being only five percent of world population) consumes a quarter of its energy. Americans buy and use a lot of stuff, Markham says, but there’s more to it than that. Baby boomers, despite their relatively high level of environmental awareness, are also enjoying an unprecedented amount of wealth, living in larger houses on more land than any other generation in U.S. history. What’s more, she says, the nation’s number of households is also increasing dramatically as families fragment. (Average household size dropped from 3.1 persons in 1970 to 2.6 in 2000, according to U.S. Census figures.)

The Solution

For us all to live as healthfully as we can, while still leaving places for nature to be nature, there have to be fewer people. This is the only way I can see for human beings to continue into the future without using up all the resources on Earth. And I’m not talking about cutting population in developing countries (though I’m certainly not opposed to supporting birth control and family planning for those places), but starting at home. The only people you can really change are you and your friends and family.

You’re not just using a lifetime’s worth of resources when you have a baby in this country, you are using an American’s lifetime’s worth of resources. Think about that, and your one baby might as well be triplets. I’m not suggesting that we legislate the number of children people have, but I think we should question this whole idea that it’s ‘OK’ or responsible in some way to have 2 or 3 kids. Because when those 2 or 3 children are Americans, they will be consuming much more than their peers throughout the rest of the world.

Baby, car, cars, children, cities, consumption, eating, Energy, Europe, fall, farm, farms, health, Home, kids, magazine, mom, opinion, Pollution, reduce, resources, schools, spa, sport, style, Tea, transportation, travel, trees, urban, waste, water, wetlands, wood, Zoo

Saving the Great Bahama Banks

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by Starre Vartan · 06/26/06

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to take an incredible trip to the Bahamas. I wasn’t there to relax and enjoy myself for a vacation, though I certainly did some relaxing and had a fabulous time. I was there to see the Grand Bahama Banks- and why they need to be protected.

There are over 700 islands in the extensive collection that together form the Bahamas, and they all have their different charms. New Providence Island is the center of the tourist industry, onto which quite a few resorts and bunches of hotels, bars and restaurants crowd. But if you never leave New Providence, and you take it to be the whole of the Bahamian experience, you’ve seen just 1/700th of this amazing ecosystem and met just a few of its people.

Andros Island (above, from the air), is the largest of the Bahamian islands, and lies just a 10-minute small plane ride from the cosmopolitan New Providence. The Nature Conservancy is working with the Bahamas National Trust and the Kerzner Marine Foundation to protect the Western waters of Andros, called the Great Bahama Banks.

Before I started my work, I explored the beach of Small Hope Bay Lodge (a 60′s-style eco hotel where I stayed) which was natural sand, covered in bits of seaweed, shells, and old coral. I snorkelled in the water below and spotted starfish, anenomes, about 10 different kinds of fish, and some brain and other corals holding on (for information on coral click here, for information on the devastation of coral in the Caribbean, click here.)

Looking out of one of the doors of Small Hope Bay Lodge and the Lodge itself.

The Lodge on the Eastern side of the island was one of the few places to stay, so it took us several hours by van and then on the boat below, to get to the Western side of the island. It is as deserted as it looks; there are no major towns or settlements on this side of the island.

Our guide, the extremely well-informed Shawn Leadon, said sometimes its hard to tell the difference between ocean and sky, and it’s easy to see why (below). This very shallow (about 2-4 feet deep) water is an unbelievable shade of aquamarine, and besides making for great photos, is an incubator and nursery for hundreds of species of fish including tarpin, bonefish, pufferfish, sharks, green turtles, and more that populate the Carribbean seas. Flamingoes, osprey, cranes, egrets, and other birds all like to nest here (due to the fantastic meals maybe?).