Searching for "Environment and Green Living"

29,500 New Acres Of Maine Wilderness

The Appalachian Mountain Club secures more protected backcountry in Maine's deep forest and mountains

Good news for outdoor enthusiasts and environmentalists alike in Maine: Yesterday, the Appalachian Mountain Club announced its recent purchase of 29,500 acres of the Roach Ponds track land.  Although the AMC will manage the property, they have donated the land to the state of Maine so that it will remain permanently protected land for recreational public use.   

The acquisition of the land secures what AMC deputy director Walter Graff termed as the “missing link” in what is now 63 miles and nearly 650,000 acres of continuous conservation land in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness region.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Wilderness Conservation Cooperation

Mexico, Canada and ths US sign on to work together to protect wilderness

It shouldn't be news, but it is. Mexico, Canada and the US just signed the first ever agreement to work together to protect wilderness in North America. The "Memo of Understanding" (MOU) signed at the WILD 09 Conference last week in Merida,Mexico is the first trilateral continental vision of wilderness protection--the first time that all three countries have formally agreed to cooperate on wilderness conservation.

In a speech given by Mexican President Calderon, he said, "This agreement will facilitate the sharing of successful experiences, monitoring, and training of human resources, as well as the financing of projects that will protect and recover wilderness areas." After flying home from Los Angeles on Friday and marveling out the plane window at how completely jam packed the landscape is with humans and concrete as far as the eye can see, I hope it will include provisions for wildlife corridors throughout the continent. It looks like it does (access the document here). It also addresses ecosystems and natural resources that defy political boundaries, while encouraging cooperative research. It promises to consider and respects indigenous customs and conservation strategies, national environmental policy,  and prioritize species survival. It recognizes the importance of wilderness conservation in mitigating and monitoring and surviving climate change.

What it means on the ground: stay tuned and we'll see if it's just government fluff or if it will inspire substantive change.

-Berne Broudy

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Monday, November 09, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Green Gear: P3 International Kill A Watt EZ

A meter that calculates how much energy your electronics use each day

During the energy audit and renovations that I recently did at my home, I was trying to figure out how to drop my energy usage. Wash clothes and myself less, turn off lights, shower at night when the solar panels have heated my water and lay off the dishwasher were all obvious suggestions. But what I really wondered about was how much juice my computers, hard drives and related electronics were costing me and the planet. I'm good about slicking off the light switch. But those are the things that I often forget to turn off.


After chatting about this with my electrician, he showed up at my house one day with the Kill A Watt EZ, a consumer power meter. You plug any 110 volt device with a cord into the meter, and it actually tells you exactly how much energy any appliance you plug it into is using, as well as what it's costing you per year (it allows you to enter the rate your electric utility is charging you).

I followed the straightforward instructions to set up the unit (took less than a minute) and then plugged in my laptop (a MacBook Pro). It's costing me about $3 per month to run it. My all in one HP printer: cost $1.19/month. My desktop plus eight bay external hard drives are costing me $7.80 per month when they are on. Guess that's the power strip I really need to turn off.I am curious to note how much electricity they use when they are off.
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Monday, November 09, 2009 in: Environment and Green Living, Gear
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Green Gear: Mountain Hardwear rEva

A laptop travel case made from backpack leftovers .

Protect your computer and the environment at the same time with Mountain Hardwear's rEva.

When the padding for backpack shoulder straps, hipbelts and backpanels gets punched out of oversized slabs of EVA foam, even if the patterns are strategically placed for maximum efficiency and minimum waste, there are leftovers. Those leftovers normally get trucked off to a landfill where they are often burned. Mountain Hardwear is now reclaiming that waste. The company now has the waste gathered up from the factory floor and chopped into vaguely uniform pieces. They won't tell us what they do next--the next step is proprietary -- but it looks like they suck all the air out of the pieces somehow vacuum packing them into a "remolded" panel with a texture like a bunch of different kinds of dried beans mixed up inside. The remanufactured EVA is dense and protective, perfect for stashing a computer inside. Mountain Hardwear says the tech will soon appear in their backpacks, but we haven't seen it yet. Read Full Story...

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Monday, November 09, 2009 in: Environment and Green Living
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Gear Spotlight: Spenco Earthbound Insoles

Spenco's first try at green is supportive and 55% recycled/renewable

Designed for hiking, walking, running and other sports where shock absorption and arch and heel support are key, Spenco's Earthbound delivers. They're supportive, and my fee felt better at the end of a long day than in the insoles that came with my boots. I've worn the Spencos for about a month mostly hiking and walking, and I forget they're there--a good thing in an insole. That's because my feet don't hurt, and my bad ankle is less wobbly--the insoles are doing their job.

The Earthbound's stability cradle is 100% recycled nylon with excellent arch support for a low to medium arch, and heel cup that's deep enough to be stable without putting your heel too high or too low. A layer of 65% recycled EVA foam is blended with 35% natural cork for extra cushioning from toe to heel. And a forefoot crash pad adds shock absorption under the ball of foot to help beat soreness from foot strike and push off. The top of the insole is cloth, made with 40 percent recycled polyester fabric; it's not too slipper--not too sticky. Read Full Story...

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Friday, October 30, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Adirondack Voters Asked to Approve Illegal Power Line

It's already built in Forever Wild Land, but is a potentially life-saving power line worth the cost of cutting through pristine wilderness?

On Tuesday, residents of New York's Adirondacks will be asked to vote "yea" on the construction of a power line. The reality: It's needed--Tupper Lake has had recent power outages for more than 24 hours, which could endanger lives in winter. The catch: It's already been built, right through the middle of the hallowed and forever-wild Forest Preserve.

According to Adirondack Explorer, if the proposal is approved, New York will trade National Grid a six-acre, two-mile strip along Route 56 where the line was built last year for a forty-three-acre parcel along the South Branch of the Grass River.

It's the lesser of two evils. In the trade, the power line goes through land that was supposed to be forever wild, but in exchange the state gets a larger parcel of land in ancient boreal forest with endangered spruce grouse habitat. The line, had it gone through the boreal forest, would have crossed ninety-five streams and wetlands, according to the Adirondack Council.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Polar Bears Get Protected Habitat

Obama Administration earmarks over 200,000 square miles of Alaska as protected polar bear habitat--but not everyone is happy about it

Polar bears finally have a place of their own—for now.   

Last Thursday, the day after Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell filed a complaint in an effort to have polar bears delisted as threatened under the 2008 Endangered Species Act, the Obama Administration announced a decision to allow the Department of Interior to allocate more than 200,000 square miles of Alaska and its coastal waters as “critical habitat” for the polar bear population. Under a critical habitat designation, the federal government prohibits any activity that threatens the protected species.

“The Administration is fully committed to the protection and recovery of the polar bear,” Interior Assistant Tom Strickland was quoted as saying in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife news release.  “As we move forward with comprehensive climate strategy, we will continue to work to protect the polar bear and its fragile environment.”

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Saturday Is International Day of Climate Action

350.org hosts talks, rallies, and solutions worldwide for International Day of Climate Action

While "let’s mitigate some carbon!" might not sound like the rallying cry of a generation, it should be: This weekend, that exclamation and others of a similar sentiment will be heard at nearly 3,000 locations worldwide. Following a call to action by 350.org, hundreds of thousands of environmentally-minded folks will gravitate to rallies to support efforts to mitigate the Earth’s atmospheric CO2 emissions. The goal is nothing less than to motivate our world’s leaders to step up and take legislative action.  

350.org, an open-source campaign whose name reflects its mission to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm), declared this Saturday, October 24, the International Day of Climate Action. Communities all over the planet are encouraged to rally together and organize events at iconic locations that call attention to 350.org’s mission. They’ve asked assembly organizers and participants to creatively incorporate the number 350 into their event, take photos and then upload them to the 350.org Web site. 350.org plans to take all the photos and assemble them into a “gigantic, global, visual petition.”
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Friday, October 23, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Don't Toss Your Tubes

Turn your retired bike tubes into usable straps.

Sometimes simple ideas are the best, and IT Clips has a good one. Millions of bicycle inner tubes end up in the landfill each year. In an effort to give them a second life, the company was born. IT Clips are plastic threadable locking buckles designed to accommodate a retired road or mountain bike inner tube. The buckles clip together so you can use the tube as an adjustable loop, and they come with hooks that thread around the clips turning the whole thing into a true bungie/tie down. So far they seem strong: i used mine to strap down as much lumber as would fit on the roof of my Subaru, and hung bikes with them from the rafters in my garage for storage. Read Full Story...

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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Bioneers 2009: Earth Is Alive!

Bioneers speakers share plans to keep it that way

Dateline: Monday afternoon, Planet Earth
Climate change deniers might be an endangered species: At Bioneers, the big buzz was that most of humanity recognizes that we've created a really, really big mess on the planet. Annie Leonard, a Bioneers plenary speaker and creator of The Story of Stuff, cites the fact that 70 percent of the American population sympathizes with climate change.  That's far more than supported popular social causes of the past like the Civil Rights movement, women’s suffrage, or abolishing slavery.   But Leonard stressed that we cannot wait for 100 percent of the population to get it. The time to act is now, and she stresses that we have the numbers to invoke change. The big question posed by Leonard is “are we going to change by design or default?” 


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Monday, October 19, 2009 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living
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