CT Green Scene

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.

Westporters Take Stand on Global Warming

by Monique Bosch

Westport residents ignored torrential rain and headed for Compo beach at dawn Saturday, October 24th, to participate in the International Day of Climate Action. It marked the largest day of environmental action in history. Westport was only one in over 5,000 events that took place in 181 countries around the world. A sudden unexpected clearing of the skies rewarded those who braved the weather.

Local musicians serenaded the group over coffee and donuts as beach towels forming 3-5-0 were arranged on the sand.  The number, 350 parts per million (ppm), signifies the level scientists say is the safe upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere. We are currently at 390 ppm.

As 350.org organizer Bill McKibben explained, we now have a tangible goal, a number to strive for. “This number is attainable, but it will take a global effort to get there,” he said. McKibben is an author, educator and environmentalist spearheading the effort to bring the world together to solve the climate crisis.

Vegetarian What? (part II of at last II)

by James Simpkins

Last week I’m sure that there were more than a couple raised eyebrows or sighs of exasperation at my writing on the fake meat thing—and that’s fine. I actually didn’t realize I was so fired up about it until I read it again later. It’s funny how that works.

My personal truth about the whole fake meat topic is really “live and let live.” I don’t actually keep myself up at night worrying whether or not people should eat tofu shaped like a turkey. Honestly, though, I think it’s a little strange. Then again, if you saw the wildly un-hip sweatpants that I like to wear around the house, I should think to be understood at least as bizarre.

One of the comments on my previous article was by Julie Braun, of particular note as she mentioned something I don’t hear very often by folks trying to justify their weirdness. She pointed out the taste that she liked. Now here is the pickle that most of us are in: What costs the most in trying to eat (pick one) “green”, “organic”, “healthy”, “natural”, etc.—aside from perhaps succumbing to whim while shopping at Whole Foods Market—is loss of flavor. And meat tastes better than almost anything. Properly cooked meat is, gastronomically speaking, a much more pleasurable experience than most tofu, seitan (pronounced ‘say-tahn’) or tempeh I’ve ever had and you’ll waste your time trying to convince me otherwise. But, I regularly eat all of the meat substitutes listed above. I’ll get to why, later.

Julia Bond: Don't Sacrifice a Mountain for Your Electricity

Coal generates a whopping fifty-five percent of the electricity we use in the United States, and blasting the tops off mountains is the cheapest, fastest way to get it. Right now, the EPA is reviewing 79 new mountaintop removal coal mining permits, and 470 mountains have already been decapitated. If you don't want another mountain destroyed for the sake of your electricity, join renowned environmentalist Julia Bonds, profiled in National Geographic and Newsweek, for

Burning the Future: Dirty Coal From Cradle to Grave on Thursday, October 15th, 7:00 PM, at The Loomis Chaffee School Gilchrist Auditorium, Clark Center4 Batchelder Rd., Windsor, CT 06095. For more information call, 860-255-7663.

 

Art of Bee Wrangling

by Melissa Waldron Lehner
Fertile Ground USA

Bees have been seein' red these days. Well, actually they can't see the color red, Ted Jones explains, they only see black. But they have been getting pretty ornery from all the rain here in Connecticut. While picking up some eggs, I had the pleasure of running into Ted, expert bee-wrangler, owner of Jones’ Apiaries in Farmington, Connecticut, and president of Connecticut Beekeepers who was at Hard Rain Farm in Burlington with his son to smoke out some bees. Hard Rain Farm rents 10 of his hives to pollinate the myriad of apples, kale, eggplant, herbs and other vegetables and fruits that grow on the 4 acres of well managed farmland.

Today, father and son were out to collect the honey. A thunderstorm had just come through and the sky was bluish-black. Tom eyed the sky and held out his hand for rain, not a welcome thing for bees. “Bees don’t like the rain too much, it’s best to stay away from them.” That’s why Ted was sending in his son to check on the hives. His son, dutifully suited up for what looked like a trip to the moon, had a long-nosed smoker by his side. The smoke apparently sedates the bees and reduces the chance of being stung. Ted explained that a bee’s behavior is triggered by pheromones, or rather, chemical signals which then elicit a response from the bee, a response like stinging for example. “Another thing is, you don’t ever want to go near a beehive with a banana, you know,” says Ted dryly, as if there was a punch line coming. The only punch line is for the poor sucker who peels one back while standing in front of a hive - even one lone bee can wreak havoc. Bananas have an aroma which set off the alarm response and can cause quite a stir of stingers directed at said banana holder. “It could be ugly,” he grimaced.

Only 10% of honeybees remain in the wild. Tom says his business has really picked up nowadays and he has hardly had a day off. “It used to be that you just dropped off the hives at the beginning of the season and then you come to pick them up at the end. But no more.” Now Ted needs to visit the hives every two to three weeks to make sure all is well. “Some get wiped out when farmers spray their crops with all those pesticides, others have been wiped out by disease.”

Where Did All The Fish Go?

by Eileen Weber

Summer always brings back wistful memories of my childhood and they mainly center around food. I remember fresh cherry tomatoes bursting with sun-warmed flavor. Fresh sugar snap peas. Blueberries. Nectarines. Zucchinis and their little flowers.

But the best of all was the fresh fish we’d often have for dinner. My dad, while hardly a chef, did have the right idea when it came to preparing fish: a little lemon, a little butter or olive oil, some salt and pepper and you’re done. On your plate, the fish should speak for himself.

Simple ingredients and a quick flip on the grill was all that was necessary for a great meal. But these days, that meal is threatened. Or more specifically, that meal is on the endangered list.

It has been increasingly pointed out that we are depleting our fish source. Where did all the fish go? Well, we ate them. Now what?

Mark Bittman, Food Columnist for The New York Times, wrote that while restaurants and retailers are responsible for the fish they sell, we as consumers are also responsible for what we eat.

“I’m all for seafood restaurants and fishmongers carrying only sustainable fish…,” said Bittman in his June 9th article, “but I think it’s also up to consumers to know enough to refuse to buy certain fish because they’re threatened (or, for that matter, because they’re farmed in unsustainable ways).”

Climate Change: Picturing The Science

by Eileen Weber

Kudzu. Native to Japan and southeast China, it’s the “plant that ate the south” in the lower half of the United States. But what if you saw a picture of that very same kudzu flourishing, say, somewhere on Long Island? Then that’s a product of global warming.

Last night at the Westport Public Library, David Downie, Professor of Environmental Studies at Fairfield University, hosted a lecture featuring Gavin Schmidt and Joshua Wolfe, co-authors of Climate Change: Picturing the Science. Schmidt is a climatologist for the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Wolfe is a freelance photojournalist.

Together, they portrayed the visible effects of environmental damage specifically as a result of greenhouse gases. Drought. Fires. Severe storms. Shrinking glaciers and a rising water table. A dried up Lake Chad and a drying out Colorado River. Scary scenes of what has already taken place and what we already cannot change.

“The science debate should be over,” said Downie of whether or not to believe that there is global warming. “This is now down to political will. This is about policy change.”

Both Downie and Schmidt made the point that we can’t stop global warming. It’s too late. We now have to think in terms of damage control.

“The choices we have are: How much warming do you want? Luke warm? Or toasty hot?” said Schmidt.

Water Foul?

by Rip Empson  
New Canaan Advertiser
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Feeding resident ducks and geese has long been an activity shared by parents and their children on afternoon walks, but many residents may be surprised to learn that feeding local waterfowl can be harmful — and is now prohibited.

Last week, Town Council approved an ordinance designed to discourage this behavior,  declaring it unlawful to feed waterfowl on public land.

Ordinance 6-10, which was passed by one vote last week, will be enforced by police and animal control officers, and any resident found in violation of the ordinance may be fined $90.

At the coucil’s meeting, the vote on the proposed ordinance ended in a draw, but First Selectman Jeb Walker stepped in to break the tie in favor of approval.

“With this vote, we are not trying to take away a great childhood joy,” said Town Council member Richard White, who voted in favor of the ordinance. “We are trying to address a broader issue and outline an overall bird management program — which we have to undertake.”

The new ordinance is part of a town-wide effort to address the growing number of waterfowl living on public land in New Canaan — specifically Canada Geese, which have been labeled as the primary offenders.

Food Safety Gone Wrong?

by Eileen Weber

Salmonella. E. coli. Listeria. These are just a few of the scary names that pop up with food borne illnesses. It’s been found in our spinach. It covers our tomatoes. Even peanut butter is not immune.

"We have a crisis in food safety in this country," said Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro in an interview with the Hartford Courant on April 8th. "We've watched nine people die of salmonella poisoning from peanut butter. ... This bill is an attempt to address that issue in a very reasoned and thoughtful [way]."

DeLauro has good reason to be alarmed by the illness rate. According to an April 9th article in The New York Times, the Food Safety Modernization Act, or H.R. 875, is addressing these illnesses in the food that we eat. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) listed 16 in 100,000 people were diagnosed with food-related illnesses. That’s roughly 48,000 people. Only three years earlier, that number was 14 in 100,000 or about 42,000 people.

And that’s only the ones that were diagnosed. It takes someone being sick enough to be hospitalized and the illness to be properly diagnosed. For truly accurate statistics, it gets a little tricky.

It’s because of this kind of information that DeLauro is putting her agenda forward to regulate the food industry. The goal here is to break the Food and Drug Administration into two separate bodies. It will require food companies to meet standards for contaminants in the food they sell. It will also offer a system of certifying safe imports. There will be stricter food inspections, mandatory recalls, and civil penalties for policy violations.

While regulating our food sounds like a noble cause, there are many people who think the bill is not such a good idea. Blogs abound with vehement outrage against the bill. There has been plenty of fodder on YouTube. Shouts of “This is just big government trying to shut down the little guy!” and “It will be the death of all things good, right and organic in this world!”

Editorial Credibility in an Online World

by Elizabeth G. Howard

I was recruited by MomCentral.com to take part in their blog tours, when the subject was appropriate for my blogs. I have two blogs -- Letters from a Small State, which reflects on my life in Connecticut, and Honk if You Compost, my eco-humor blog.

I am on a mission with these tours: to write great reviews and thoughtful pieces for whatever I sign on to. I take the job seriously, even if the pay isn't much.

Recently I committed to review Clorox's Green Works Natural Biodegradable Cleaning Wipes. I am seriously curious about this brand-- I particularly wanted see if Clorox could sell me on this disposable product.

They didn't ... the wipes, although compostable weren't amazingly useful enough to make them worth adding to the cleaning products that are tried and truly low-impact.

Everyone's Truth is Out There
Curiously, my negative eco-humor-review was not too overly adored by the MomCentral crew-- I was asked if I didn't want to tone it down just a little bit? This has indicated to me what I have been suspecting about this far-reaching and influential website (and others like it): online reviews can often be more about promoting products than they are about giving serious consideration to the product and its impact on the audience. In the case of MomCentral, I fear this may be the case.

It is certainly true that with online writing, the lines between advertising and editorial are gone. As is illustrated by contextual advertising (ie. Adsense), where once there was a firm division between the ad and the ed, we now decide precisely what we advertise based on the page content.

The result? The more niche reporting becomes, the more difficult it becomes to evaluate the credibility, objectivity and even the usefulness of information we find online. Everyone has an opinion--and that opinion is backed by an agenda that becomes more and more hidden.

I have one recommendation, and that is awareness. For more information about how to evaluate what you read on the web, have a look here.