Eco Chick Takes on Art Basel: Solberg, Shallit and Shangri-La
Art Basel descends on the city of Miami annually in December and all hell breaks loose.
What is the Price of OUR Stuff?
Ever wonder about the complete picture of consumption in our uber-consumer society and how it ties in with our global environment? Well I was recently turned onto the website for The Story of Stuff, which features a fantastic and informative story (with animation!) about our stuff-driven economy.The presentation is long,…
Party Pooper
Biking to work on the morning of July 5th I noticed scattered remnants of brightly colored paper. In some places boxes were piled and charred remains of something were close by. Fireworks. There was litter from exploded fireworks everywhere. The night before, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, it sounded like…
Bioremediation, well, kind of…
I am sure some of you have heard of kudzu…at least those of you interested in invasive species. This vine is all over the American South and grows at an unbelievably rapid 1 foot/day. That means you could probably sit back, have a cold one, and watch this stuff grow,…
Affordable housing development recently completed with solar power offset.
I hope we see more stories such as this one in the news! A housing company in California (of course!), Satellite Housing, has just completed a 17 unit development for affordable housing that includes solar panels. The solar installation will offset Carbon emissions the equivalent of planting 20 acres of…
Just a thought
Recently I found myself engaged in several discussions about taking care of our environment as a matter of personal integrity, choice, and responsibility. One such conversation happened with a stranger in a training course I was attending. The man works for the EPA. He looked to be in his early…
Ocean Acidification: Another Symptom of Global Warming
I attended the 8th Annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture at the Smithsonian on March 5th entitled “What Corals Are Dying To Tell Us About CO2 and Ocean Acidification.” Ken Caldeira, the presenter, spoke to about 500 people in a packed auditorium about the current trends worldwide in coral reef…
Cooperation between Big Business and Environmental Groups
What do DuPont, National Resource Defense Council, and Lehmen Brothers have in common? Normally not too much…but now they make up 3 of the 14 member strong US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), launched in January of this year. The Partnership was formed to address global warming and emissions where the Feds…
Supreme Court Begins Global Warming Case
Last week I saw a motley crew of people in a long line in front of the Supreme Court. I wondered what could draw such a variety of citizens to one place of protest? I looked in the NY Times for a clue. “Ah”, I realized, “its the environment”. A few…
Buildings that eat SMOG
Building material that can reduce surrounding emissions within an 8 foot area?! How cool! There is a chemical called titanium dioxide that has been used in coatings for metal, concrete, and other building materials as a deodorizer, to keep things white, and as a general preserving agent. But, it has…