7 minutes you won't easily forget

Talk about scary! Seven minutes you won't easily forget.





Via Scientific American

Perspective: oil spill

How much oil is really spilling into the Gulf?

This video attempts to put the numbers into perspective:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Enjoy!

Thanks to FreeTech4Teachers for the pointer to this

Rain barrel

Rain barrel in place and full just with rain overnight to this AM., originally uploaded by shersteve.

I put my new rain barrel in place yesterday just in time to catch the rain overnight.

I wasn't sure how long it would take to fill but with just what we had overnight to this AM it is almost full already.

Save Kilowatt Ours

I received the following appeal from Jeff Barrie, Founder of Kilowatt Ours, via email. I think it is a worthy effort to contribute to. I have made a contribution. Can you?

Dear Friends,

It has been an exhilarating adventure producing Kilowatt Ours and seeing it make such a broad, positive impact in the world. I write with a heartfelt thank you to the thousands of people who have taken its message, shared it in your communities and made energy saving changes in your lives. You have become the solution, and your stories continue to inspire me! I recently learned that government data indicate a 2.3% decline in coal consumption in the electric power sector in the near term (source: EIA.DOE.gov) -- a sign that the vision portrayed in Kilowatt Ours is becoming a reality. We know that Kilowatt Ours has helped save untold millions of kilowatts. Now I ask you to help "Save Kilowatt Ours!"

This is an urgent appeal for your financial support to help us bridge a shortfall, and to reach continued greatness in changing the world. In two weeks, without your support, we are faced with the reality of cutting our staff, slashing our award-winning programs, and closing our office.

Please help us today by...

1. making a donation of $5 or more at http://www.KilowattOurs.org/SaveKilowattOurs (donations of $55 or more may choose to receive a gift copy of Nancy Sleeth's wonderful, inspiring new book "Go Green, Save Green.")
2. asking a friend or twelve to make a donation(s) (If you are with an organization -- please forward to your listserves as appropriate)
3. thinking of people or companies that you feel will be interested in making larger financial contributions or sponsorships - please help us connect with them.

We have been running full-throttle for 5 years to get our message to the widest audience possible, with great success. Kilowatt Ours has now been broadcast more than 1200 times on 400+ public TV stations nationwide, reaching 75% of the public TV marketplace. Not bad for a shoestring film project produced in my basement apartment. Since all broadcasts are royalty-free, we must find other creative ways to finance our continued work, including asking all our friends, fans and collaborators, like you. We are actively seeking new grants, sponsorships, and Recovery Act dollars to broaden our work, and we foresee much prosperity moving forward. YOU can help us today by making a small contribution, and being as generous as you are able: http://www.KilowattOurs.org/SaveKilowattOurs

Make your rain barrel for less than $30

Yesterday, I picked up the rain barrel I ordered after seeing the display at Franklin's Earth Day.

I need a couple of items to help install it properly. I find in Google Alerts today, instructions on how to make your own rain barrel for less than $30.

Pretty cool!

Here are the instructions from Mike Barth, the Assistant Principal at Norton High School.

Grow the air you breathe

Yes, fascinating stuff.




I wonder if there will be a run on these plants?

Nature-deficit disorder

Wil Richardson writes:

When I mentioned in passing our 45-minutes-a-day on the computer policy during a recent presentation, I was seriously amazed at how many people came up afterwards (and even e-mailed me later) and asked about that. There was like a whole ‘lotta angst going on in terms of people wondering if their kids were getting too much screen time and how we came to the decision to limit our own kids. I had no answer for the first part, and I felt like I stumbled through the second part because to be honest, it’s a really complex equation that is going to be different for every kid, every set of parents. For us, I think it’s a combination of having two very energetic kids who love to physically play, a reaction to the struggle for balance in my own life, and an expectation that when we’re together as a family, we’re together as a family that interacts more often than not without media.

You can read his full posting here

Why did this catch my reading eye? Probably because I am reading "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv in preparation for A Love Affair with Books next month.

A sample teaser from the book:

As we grow more separate from nature, we continue to separate from one another physically. The effects are more than skin deep, says Nancy Dess, senior scientist with the American Psychological Association. "None of the new communications technologies involve human touch; they all tend to place us one step removed from direct experience. Add this to control-oriented changes in the workplace and schools, where touch is often forbidden, or at east discouraged, from any kind of physical contact, and we've got a problem," she says. Without touch, infant primates die; adult primates with touch deficits become more aggressive. Primate studies also show that physical touch is essential to the peace making process. "Perversely, many of us can go through an average day and not have more than a handshake.," she adds. Diminishing touch is only one by-product of the culture of technical control, but Dess believes it contributes to violence in an ever more tightly wired society.

Page 67 of the paperback text of Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

How much exposure to nature do you get daily?

How much exposure to humans do you get daily?

5 for Friday

Here is some key points from this week's reading:

1 - the time is ripe

A confluence of biophysical and social processes — the physics of heat trapping gases, the faltering of the consumption-driven, global economic system, and the re-energizing of our own democratic political process – all this has created space for deliberate human action to reshape the future. As a nation, the decisions that we make — or fail to make — in the next year will have profound consequences, not only for our children, and for their children, but in fact, for every human being who will ever inhabit the earth from now until the end of time.

Read the full article on the global warming education effort written by Eban Goldstein here

2 - on a similar track along the road to Copenhagen

For Obama, the political winds at his back are now as favorable as they will ever be. He is in a position to seize 2009 and do three things to meet the climate challenge: properly educate the American public about climate change and the need for immediate action; exercise the full might of his executive powers and regulatory discretion under the Clean Air Act to jump-start action; and spend freely from his enormous store of political capital to lead the government to enact comprehensive federal climate legislation. If he does, the United States will reclaim the mantle of global leadership when it takes its seat in Copenhagen.

Read the full article from the Yale Environment 360 here

3 - on the green jobs front

Nationally, there are about 1.7 million low-income youths (16 to 24) who were out of school and out of work in 2005, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. Many of them live in areas of concentrated poverty and are often striving for precious few opportunities that the corporate media glorify--rap stars, professional athletes. When Thrower tells young people in Manchester about green jobs, "it goes in one ear and out the other." Despite this, he is confident that once he starts to put solar panels up in his neighborhood, he'll become a tangible new role model young people will want to emulate.

Read the full article about green jobs here

4 - In January, I had found a discussion between Van Jones and California State Senator Darrell Steinberg as they discussed green jobs. You can find the audio discussion here.

5 - and finally, from Wil Richardson

So those of you who have heard me speak know that I love to tell the story of Laura Stockman and the good work that she’s been doing in her community and writing about in her blog “Twenty-five Days to Make a Difference.” Laura is only 11, but her willingness to do community service of all kinds and to share those experiences with others sets her apart in many ways. Through her blog, she’s been able to connect with people from every part of the globe, and she’s even been asked to teach other kids in other classrooms how to go about changing their own places for the better. Because of her efforts, Laura has been invited to the Special Olympics in Idaho this year to be a part of its Global Youth Summit. It’s all good stuff and I think a great testament to how even younger kids (with the help of their parents and, hopefully, their teachers) can use social media to sincerely “make a difference.”

Read the full posting about Laura and how you can help to make a difference here

Enjoy!

Failure to pay attention

Pay attention to what you ask?

There were approx. 30 in the Attleboro hall to view the movie “Escape from Suburbia” and the discussion that followed versus millions in front of their TV to watch the Super Bowl.

How much oil/coal was consumed to power the Super Bowl and all the TVs to watch the spectacle?

Oil that a short while ago had risen to historic prices generating lots of talk but now that the prices have returned to lower levels, the issue seems to have passed.

It hasn’t.

What can I do? The problem is so huge.

“Conservation is one answer… conservation is economically more sustainable.”

Reduce your household energy use. Change out regular light bulbs for the energy saving kind. Take one small step at a time but keep at it.

“Action encourages optimism”

Take the 2 Mile Challenge!

Walk or use a bike (in the warmer New England weather) to the store for those small item errands rather than take the family vehicle.

“Community is our solution. We need to help one another.”

Get active in your community. There are a number of groups in the area that are working to address this issue. The Franklin Area Climate Team is one. Check out the sponsor listing for the Green Reel series for other groups in our area.

Talk with your neighbors, share the tips and tricks you pick up with each other.

Do something today!

Note: the quotations in Bold were notes that I took from the dialog in the movie "Escape from Suburbia"

"but you can't eat it as it is!"

In the film, King Corn:

Ian and Curt start the spring by injecting ammonia fertilizer. The chemical promises to increase yields fourfold, fueling the mission of abundance laid out for them. Then it’s planting time, and with a rented tractor, Ian and Curt set 31,000 seeds in the ground in 18 minutes. Their seed has been genetically modified for high yields and herbicide tolerance, and when the seedlings sprout, Ian and Curt apply a powerful spray to ensure that only their corn will thrive on their acre.

The crop that thrives on the single acre will yield 5 tons of corn. Unfortunately, the corn that is grown is not something humans can eat without further processing. The corn is "feed corn" used to fatten cattle and to make high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The prevalence of HFCS in the food we eat is astounding.

The PBS website for King Corn provides a wealth of links for further reading. Michael Pollen's site is there as is the "The truth about HFCS" which is prepared by the Corn Refiners Association.

Spend the next couple of days looking at the labels of the foods you eat at home.

Find out what does not contain HFCS.

If something contains HFCS and that surprises you, please let me know.

Thanks!

King Corn - reflections

Image via WikipediaI went to see King Corn last night. According to the Press Kit, the synopsis reads:

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.

In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.

The questions are very troubling. I was not aware of how prevalent corn and one of the major byproducts, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is in the foods that we eat.

I had my normal at home lunch today. A Fluffanutter sandwich (which is Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter on bread), some strawberry jam on saltine and Ritz crackers with a half glass of milk to help wash it down.

If I guessed which of the foods I ate contained High Fructose Corn Syrup, I would have left out the peanut butter, the bread, the crackers and the milk.

I was wrong to leave out the bread and crackers. The Weight Watchers Wheat Bread contains HFCS, as does the Ritz Crackers, as does the Original Nabisco Saltines. If I had Low fat saltines, I could have avoided the HFCS.

The Fluff uses corn syrup not HFCS but that quibbles.

The peanut butter and the milk are the only two items from lunch that did not contain HFCS.

My father has TypeII diabetes. One of the driving factors for this is the HFCS.

What your food labels for a few days and see what they can tell you.

What foods surprise you by containing HFCS?

Energy savings

If you missed getting to the Franklin Library on Monday night to catch the talk about saving money with household energy usage, you can review the presentation document used.

Even if you are not a Franklin resident, in these days of high residential heating costs, you might be able to find a tip or two that perhaps you have not yet considered implementing for your house.

You can review the presentation here.


If there is a tip or two that you have used successfully that is not listed, please let us know.

Earth Hour - 3/29/08 8:00 PM

did you see the Google home page today? They turned the lights out!

Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Given our company's commitment to environmental awareness and energy efficiency, we strongly support the Earth Hour campaign, and have darkened our homepage today to help spread awareness of what we hope will be a highly successful global event.

Blog Action Day - Environment

The theme for Blog Action Day is the environment.

How coincidental is it that in the same week that Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on "An Inconvenient Truth", the courts in England ruled that in order for the teachers to present "An Inconvenient Truth" in class, they must correct 9 points.

So folks can't quite come to an agreement on this I guess. Are we really in global warming or are we not? Is there something we can do about it, or is there not?

Maybe the discussion on this day will bring about some points of agreement.

There is hope, I am an optimist.

In my quiet way, I will attempt to highlight roadside detritus. I get to see a bit of it as I run around Franklin and walk with my wife on the weekends.

sherku: coke detritus

sherku: budweiser detritus

These are two of a series that unfortunately, unless something changes, may be a long one.

The times they are a-changing

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

So Bob Dylan wrote in 1963 and sings with meaning for today.

Prophetic?

Seems to be...