CT Green Scene

NY Times: The Road to Copenhagen

With the upcoming climate summit scheduled to start on December 7th in Copenhagen, news of more carbon dioxide hitting the atmosphere is no surprise. This story from today's New York Times is no exception. By draining the canals in Indonesia, the country has become one of the biggest offenders when it comes to greenhouse gases.

"Canals — used legally and illegally — extend from surrounding rivers nearly into the peninsula’s impenetrable core. By slowly draining and drying the peat land, they are releasing carbon dioxide, contributing to making Indonesia the world’s third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States."

"Forests like the one on the Kampar Peninsula are at the center of a growing battle over the shape of a new climate treaty and efforts to curb the destruction and degradation of forests. Though countries are expected to reach only a broad agreement at next month’s summit meeting in Copenhagen, governments, scientists, businesses and environmentalists are already arguing over what kinds of forests should qualify as carbon reducers and what kinds of projects should be rewarded financially."

To read the entire article, click here.

To read what Boston GreenScene had to say about the upcoming summit, click here.

To read a previous article on CT GreenScene about the benefits of planting trees and how it affects our environment, click here.

Image courtesy of India's Top News.

Climate Change...In the News

The turkey carcass is cold. Leftovers have been picked clean. The holiday season is in full swing. And global warming is still a big threat. With the upcoming summit in Copenhagen this December, there are a number of articles talking about who’s got what plan and who doesn’t.

Take a look at what Yale University Environmental 360 had to say about whether the climate change talks will be successful or not. A panel of experts chimed in with their viewpoints.

As some third world countries would like you to know, the cost of climate change may be more than some can handle. Read what Guyana's Prime Minister Bharrat Jagdeo said Saturday.

And if you’re interested in how climate change will affect your ski season, check out this story from the Associated Press about resorts in Utah.

Raw Sewage Anyone?

by Eileen Weber

When we think of runoff, we look at the agricultural runoff from farm animals and how it pollutes our waterways with manure and chemicals. But what we often forget is the human waste that ends up polluting our water systems.

In today’s New York Times, it was reported from data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that “9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems—including those in major cities—have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere.” Many of the violators were never fined.

Whenever there is a heavy rain, there is the strong possibility that the wastewater treatment plants will overflow. That kind of spillage brings contamination. Recent studies have shown that when sewers overflow many people become sick after swimming in contaminated water.

Green Job Growth: What is it? Where is it?

by Anneli C. Olila, Editor-in-Chief of Boston GreenScene / Principal of Olila Documents & Communication Strategies

In my recent discussion of green job hunting myths, I argued against the mystique surrounding the green job industry and the psychological and other barriers this presents to those hoping to transition into a green career.  Responses from readers ranged from disbelief, to hesitant hope, to specific questions regarding qualifications and resources. In this article, I start to provide some data that may be useful to readers in understanding the projected growth of the green job market and where they might fit in.

What Do We Mean by 'the Green Job Market is Growing'?

According to the United States President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), green jobs are everywhere, and the growth of the green job market is anticipated to continue to outstrip the growth of other markets. In its July 2009 report, the CEA cited data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing projected growth in environmentally-related occupations to be 38% more than all other occupations combined by 2016. This is depicted in the following figure, reproduced from page 8 of their report:

To put this into perspective, it is worth noting that the occupations they considered were actually in a fairly limited range.  Specifically, the BLS projections drawn from in the CEA report are based on data for the following occupations only:

Wipe Out?

by Eileen Weber
 
Yesterday, The Huffington Post had an entry that caught my eye. It focused on the death of tens of thousands of bats this year due to a mysterious fungus. Called “white-nose syndrome”, the disease is wiping them out.
 
Why should we care? Because bats eat the insects that are harmful to us and our crops. Without them, there would be a massive overpopulation of insects.
 
Earlier this year, the same story was reported on National Public Radio. So why is it that no one seems to be paying attention? Is it just because bats aren’t fuzzy and cute? If this were a blight wiping out all domestic kittens, would we be more concerned? There has been little funding for the cause yet it could have catastrophic results if left unattended.

How to Green Your Thanksgiving

by Analiese Paik, Founder of the Fairfield Green Food Guide

Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating the harvest and giving thanks with friends and family for the food that sustains and nourishes us. This year I challenge you to choose at least one new way to “green” your Thanksgiving. Think of reducing your “foodprint” as a way of giving thanks to Mother Earth. Bonus Feature: A Guide to Buying Local and Sustainable Turkeys.

#1 Source locally grown foods and eat with the seasons. When we choose local, we know our “food miles” are low and our food is farm-fresh and delicious. Choosing locally-grown, seasonal foods supports family-owned farms, farm stands and farmers’ markets as well as the independent and specialty grocers that carry their products.  Keeping food dollars local supports the local economy while investing in the future of a local food shed. Additionally, many locally grown foods are not packaged at all since they are sold loose at farm stands and farmers’ markets, thereby cutting down on waste. Apples, pears, New York chestnuts so delicate they can be eaten raw, winter squash, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, turnips, honey, maple syrup and artisan cheeses are available locally because we actually still have some working family farms. Yes we have turkeys in Connecticut! Please consult the Guide to Buying Local and Sustainable Turkeys below.

#2 Choose organic whenever feasible. Agricultural practices related to growing food are significant contributors to greenhouse gases. “Food miles”, however, are not the main contributors to food chain greenhouse gases, agricultural practices are and animal agriculture is a big percentage of that. Indeed, choosing organic and other sustainably grown and produced foods over conventional is an excellent means to further reduce one’s “foodprint”. Make your holiday meal extra special this season by choosing an organic, free-range or Heritage turkey since it will surely be the most delicious turkey you have ever served. Many farms, specialty grocers, and mail order businesses sell these gourmet turkeys, but please place your order early, expect to pay a price commensurate with the quality you are receiving, and follow the cooking directions specific to your breed for optimal results. Yes we have Heritage, organic and free-range turkeys in Connecticut! Please consult the Guide to Buying Local and Sustainable Turkeys below.

#3 Don’t buy more than you’re going to cook. Stop buying fruits and vegetables in bulk if you frequently find them in your refrigerator or on your counter going bad. We think we’re doing right by our family by saving money from buying in quantity, but throwing out food is just wasteful. To avoid spoiled leftovers, portion and freeze food from your Thanksgiving meal that will not be eaten in the next few days.

Goats: Not Great Gardeners, But the Cheese Is Great

by James Simpkins

This past Sunday on route 2E about ten miles southeast of Hartford, I realized that I spend very little time in that part of the state. This was not exactly a revelation since I spend most of my time in Canton in the opposite corner, but it is rather beautiful out that way. However, I wasn’t just out for the colloquial “Sunday drive” (though I wouldn’t have minded); I was on a mission. For goat cheese. 

While attending a party in Simsbury at a colleague’s house, I met a Latin teacher named Mark. Though he insulted the French language (pronouncing it “badly spoken Latin”), which normally removes people from the Christmas card list, he quickly redeemed himself by sharing some of the goat cheese be had brought. There were four different kinds of fresh chevre on the plate—chive, herbes de Provence, black pepper, and dill—and all were delicious. When I inquired where he acquired such bon fromage, Mark further endeared himself to this gourmand when he said “we made them at our farm.”

The “we” Mark was speaking of includes his husband Paul, the main cheesemonger and their farm—already well-known to more local residents—is called Beltane Farm located in Lebanon, CT. Mark and Paul breed, raise, and milk their flock of Oberhasli and La Mancha goats twice a day to bring lucky Connecticut residents their fresh goat’s milk and cheeses. And from my own experience, the goats appear really happy to be there, too. And why shouldn’t they be?

Connecticut Author Presentation at UConn

Thursday, December 2, 2009

C. Marina Marchese,
Connecticut author of  HONEYBEE: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper
Owner of Red Bee Honey company

Ten years ago Marina Marchese fell in love with bees during a tour of a neighbor’s honeybee hives. She quit her job, acquired her own bees, built hives, harvested honey, and earned her certificate in apitherapy. She then founded Red Bee Honey which sells artisinal honey and honey-related products to shops and restaurants all over the country.  Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper is her account of abandoning the rat race to live blissfully as a beekeeper and honey entrepreneur –plus everything you’d ever want to know about bees.

Presentation, book signing, and honey tasting afterward.

UConn Co-op Bookstore
2075 Hillside Road
Storrs, CT 06269
860.486.5027  

Paying Extra for Green Power...

Think an extra $58 a month is worth it for renewable energy? Some people do, but lots of people don't. The New York Times explores how that extra money is actually spent and why some customers are reluctant to support wind an solar energy.

"The solicitations have been flooding people’s mailboxes lately: pay a bit more on your electricity bill for 100 percent clean wind power. Or, the fliers say, buy 'green power certificates' to offset your global warming emissions.

Close to a million electricity customers have signed up for such payments voluntarily, and the amount of electricity sold in this way has nearly tripled since 2005, amid rising concern about climate change and energy security. But the participants are in a distinct minority, with a sign-up rate of only about 2 percent in programs run by utilities.

The low sign-up rate raises a question: If large majorities of Americans favor increased government support for clean energy, as polls suggest, why are so many people reluctant to back such programs when it comes to paying extra themselves?"

To read more from today's The New York Times article, click here.

To read other articles on this site about renewable energy, click here.

Image courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Game.

Talking Turkey

by Eileen Weber

I caught a cooking show that nearly stopped my heart: Paul Prudhomme, famed chef from New Orleans, deep fat-frying a turkey. After injecting butter-laden gravy under the bird’s skin with a cooking needle “to marinate it from the inside”, he dunked the carcass in a vat of boiling oil. I had a small myocardial infarction just watching it.

But why not deep-fry it? Who wants a dry turkey anyway?

That’s why Whole Foods Market in Westport held a turkey tasting event last Friday. With so many options to choose from, here was an opportunity for consumers to find the turkey they liked best. As an added bonus, Analiese Paik, founder of Fairfield Green Food Guide, was there to help customers consider their options.

“It can be really confusing for people,” said Paik. “With so many options, all natural versus organic, people can feel a little overwhelmed by the labelling.”

T Boone Pickens to Join Congressman Larson in East Hartford

Via GreenMarine Productions

Congressman John Larson will host a public forum on the Economy and Energy at Goodwin College in East Hartford on Tuesday, November 24th, from 4 - 5:30 pm in Goodwin College Auditorium.

Larson will be joined by special guest T. Boone Pickens, energy pioneer and creator of the Pickens Plan.

Larson is a co-sponsor of the NAT GAS Act, legislation Mr. Pickens strongly supports, which will make domestic natural gas a more accessible alternative to imported oil while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and urban pollution in vehicles.

Seating is limited. To RSVP or obtain further information about the town hall forum, please call Larson's office at 860-278-8888.

THE TRUTH ABOUT A TABOO SUBJECT: NUCLEAR POWER

People's Action for Clean Energy (PACE) presents a unique clean energy EXPO Saturday, November 21, 2009 Unitarian Society of Hartford 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford (1/10 mile north of intersection of Routes 44 & 189). Enjoy exhibits, the film "Meltdown," in depth discussions and awards.

Admission is free to the public.  Donations are welcome. For more information, call (860) 693-4813 or visit www.pace-cleanenergy.org

Counting Carbon

by Eileen Weber


Thinking of building a new house or renovating your old one? Got a new office building that’s going up soon? Wondering how all this will affect the environment? Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has developed an online carbon calculator called Green Footstep to help homeowners and businesses determine their carbon footprint.

It’s certainly nothing new. There are a number of online carbon calculators. Even Microsoft got into the act earlier this year by launching their Environmental Sustainability Dashboard, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package. Its goal is to help companies track their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, something that most ERP systems don’t do.

"ERP systems are really good at giving you the financial numbers, but where they fall short is with the environment or social issues," said Jennifer Pollard, a senior Microsoft product manager, as quoted in a February 9th article in The Seattle Times.

But what makes RMI’s system special is that it not only calculates the construction footprint of the project but the operational footprint of the building’s lifetime once that project is finished.

Squashing Some Green Job Hunting Myths

by Anneli C. Olila, Editor-in-Chief of Boston GreenScene / Principal of Olila Documents & Communication Strategies

Each week, I spend hours talking to job seekers of all levels—from those just graduating from school to highly-experienced C-level executives. Many are contemplating a green career, either out of their passion for the environment or simply because other markets are tight and the green market shows promise. Often, what I hear is a fatigued and resigned voice on the other end of the phone saying, “I’d love to join a green company, but they all want you to already have vast experience in the green industry.” 

When anyone, let alone a top-level, international, well-accomplished executive, says this to me in the midst of cataloging his or her milestone achievements—such as dramatically increasing revenue, efficiency, and organizational prestige; adeptly handling countless mergers and acquisitions; building exceptional cross-cultural and cross-functional teams; applying proven project management and Six Sigma skills; and achieving numerous patented inventions across regulatory environments—I am astonished. I am astonished as editor-in-chief of a green information portal, and I am astonished as a communications specialist who works closely with companies, schools, recruiters, and job seekers. I am also astonished just as a thinking person. There is an apparent and unfortunate mystique built around the green industry—and, frankly, around the job search industry itself—that is completely unwarranted.

If They're Always Sad, Who Cares When Authors Speak of Food?

by James Simpkins

I realize that the very title of my article this week may be an open invitation for the snarky reader who may want to take the cheap shot for the clear path to the ironic it leaves open. You know what? Go ahead. After the past couple days, I think food writers may deserve it every now and then…especially novelists. 

This past Monday at the Instituto de Cervantes in New York City Four European writers: Christoph Peters (Germany), Agnès Desarthe (France), Jesús Ruiz Mantilla (Spain) and Clara Sereni (Italy) came together for an evening of readings and discussion called "Eat Your Words: When Authors Speak of Food", moderated by highly acclaimed American writer Mark Kurlansky, a guy who has written a lot of books I won’t bother to name aside from Salt. Being someone who writes about food (and who lives a scant two hours from NYC) I thought I would go. Besides the lovely wine and passed hors d’oeuvres that were served in the garden and the Spanish government’s gorgeous real estate on 49^th and 3^rd, the event did next to nothing to inspire me, let alone inspire me to buy anyone’s book. It turns out these ‘paperback writers’ are based more on Proust than Lear, and that, in the opinion of this writer, is not a good thing.

Eco Love Glove

by Eileen Weber

If you’ve read this site with any regularity, you are aware of the kind of stories we tackle: climate change, land conservation, food and farming issues just to name a few. But today, these sober topics will take a back seat to the eco-friendly condom.

There are brands that use natural products. There are brands that will biodegrade. There are brands specifically made for vegans. And, there are brands with the latex allergic in mind. So many condoms, so little time. So what’s best for the environment?

Food Fight

by Eileen Weber

Last night, the Wilton Library hosted a screening of the documentary Food Fight. Supported by the Fink Family Foundation and the green initiatives by the library community, the film is another look at how the food industry affects our lives.

But while previous films like Food, Inc. and FRESH looked at the industrial side of agribusiness with a heaping spoonful of animal cruelty, the documentary, produced and directed by Chris Taylor, takes a brief but hard look at how we got to this point. Rather than coming off as one big complaint about the food system, his film gives just a little glimmer of hope that supporting your local farmer and growing your own food may be the key to changing the way we eat.

Beside the ubiquitous comments from journalist and food writer Michael Pollan and a brief appearance from Will Allen, the famed founder of Milwaukee’s Growing Power as highlighted in FRESH, the real star in this film was Alice Waters.

Some may know her as a great chef. Some may know her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. But anyone involved with food or cooking knows Ms. Waters as a visionary who started a food revolution.

Starbucks Wins! (Crap.)

by James Simpkins

I moved to Connecticut’s Farmington River Valley about two and a half years ago and am still looking for a good cup of coffee. Check that—an amazing cup of coffee. Spare me the Dunkin’ Donuts angle; I’m tired, and their coffee couldn’t hold a candle to what I’m talking about. Here, go to this website so you’ll have a frame of reference. Honestly, Equator Coffee is the best cup o’ joe I’ve ever had, which is backed up by them winning Roaster of the Year for 2009 in Roast Magazine to add to their growing list of accolades. To top it off, they all drive hybrids or bio-diesel, recycle everything, compost their waste, just purchased their own farm in Panama where they are sustainably growing coffee with Panamanians at the helm, AND they are owned by women.

How’s that Dunkin’ Donuts tastin’ about now?

This upper echelon of coffee is what's missing in my locale. And while it may sound over the top for some of you, once you try it, you will at least appreciate the gross difference between what Equator and DD are selling--it's like finding out your butter is margarine.

Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner

by Eileen Weber
 
On a crisp, fall evening, I dined with some very dear friends of mine. Good wine. Good conversation. And some surprisingly good beef. Curious, I asked what kind of meat it was. Was it a special cut? Did it come from an exotic place? No, it was just grass-fed. Even more interesting, the slices next to the grass-fed beef were corn-fed. There was a distinct taste difference.
 
While the corn-fed was juicy, flavorful, and certainly had the beef taste I’ve grown accustomed to, it was definitely fattier. The grass-fed was leaner and had a cleaner, more concentrated taste. The grass-fed beef was less filling, too. With the corn-fed, I felt like I’d just downed a Thanksgiving dinner and needed to unzip my pants just to breathe a little better.
 
The health benefits of grass-fed beef are many. For one, it's high in Omega-3 fatty acids, the kind you find in certain oily fishes. And, grass-fed beef doesn’t come with a side of hormones or antibiotics. There’s no need to give them any. They’re not bulked up on grain to the size of a third world country to sell as quickly as possible. They graze on grass and gradually grow to a proper size. As John Morosani of Laurel Ridge Farm in Litchfield says, that’s what cows are supposed to do.
 
“Cows eat grass and they’re good at it,” he said. “Feeding cows grain is just a mad science experiment.”

Tribal Wind

The New York Times has an editorial from yesterday's edition about Cape Wind.

"After eight years of arduous state and federal environmental reviews, the promoters of Cape Wind, a wind energy project off the Massachusetts coast, had every reason to believe that they were home free. Then the Wampanoag tribes asked the Interior Department to declare all of Nantucket Sound, where the 130 wind turbines would be built, a “traditional cultural property” and, they hoped, block construction.

Tribal officials say their culture requires them to greet the sunrise each day and that this ritual requires unobstructed views. Their claim should be rejected by the responsible federal and state officials. Another round of bureaucratic reviews would drag out an approval process that has gone on much too long and give opponents time to find some other way to derail the effort..."

To read more of the story from The New York Times, click here.

To read an earlier article on this site about the not-in-my-backyard attitude about wind turbines including Cape Wind, click here.

Image courtesy of DustNetworks.com