Sustainable Houses

While looking for information on green design, which is what our group is interviewing on, I came across some interesting videos on how they are making homes more efficient. It's nice to see some encouragement of a more sustainable world coming together. There were many more videos I stumbled upon while looking through these, so if they interest you I would suggest typing in sustainable houses in on you tube or another search engine. Enjoy the videos.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tErcppNIqRo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifTBxGba_Ac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj2m6pYr3Fw&feature=related


-Taylor Nissen

Environmental Racism by Tracey

Here are some interesting studies I read about environmental racism. This topic is one of the top reasons I became an Environmental major. I worked in the mortgage industry for 8 years and watched Realtors redline minorities into "undesirable" neighborhoods near Portland's old industrial sites on the Willamette River. Most of the homebuyers were unaware of any health problems possibly related to living in these polluted areas, and were happy to find a cheap home they could afford. I tried to start an educational program for first time minority buyers to educate them about "poor neighborhoods" and the risk of living there. But, the program was never approved due to the hand in hand nature of a mortgage brokers job with realtors... So, I decided to get out of that industry and go back to school!

San Francisco Bay Area has a lot of issues with air quality in minority areas. http://cjtc.ucsc.edu/docs/bay_final.pdf

This one is kind of old but still interesting to read, it's a greenpeace report about threats to Indian land. http://www.ejnet.org/ej/toxicthreattoindianlands.pdf

There's really so many great sites and stories I could post. So, if you are interested in more just let me know!

Tracey Adams

Environmental Justice

 Here is Lee Brain, the son of an oil engineer who was able to witness first hand the detrimental impacts big oil can have on the people who inhabit an area that has been relinquished to the oil companies.  The video is about 20 minutes, but if you start it around minute 8 you get the best of the speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1X3VynNZQaQ

Massey Energy update

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577241422775070412.html

After watching the documentary about the coal mining industry destroying the Appalachian mountains I was inspired to do some further research. Since this documentary was filmed last year, I was curious as to what had happened since- as in did Massey get in any trouble? It might have said at the end of the documentary but unfortunately I didn't get to finish it. however, netflix does have it (if anyone is interested) and I plan on watching it and forcing my roommates to watch it with me later. Anyway, this article talks about some mine foremen getting in trouble for ignoring some safety issues in the mine that directly resulted in the deaths of several miners. I hate to see them in trouble while Massey just pays his way out of any sort of conflict with the law. Anyway it was nice to see that someone was being held responsible for the destruction, even though the main reason was because it resulted in people dying rather than the mountains dying.

women in the environment

The website womenintheenvironment.org is a cool website. These women have joined together to face challenges of the environmental industries such as recycling companies and co-ops, environmental law, sustainable building and remodeling for commercial and residential real estate, environmental engineering, landfill diversion techniques, and sustainable marketing to name a few. They are based in Fort Worth, TX.
There is also womeninenvironment.org and wedo.org which is a more global effort for women and the environment.

-Kaylee Wheeler

Culture and Diversity

While searching for something to write about for this blog I came across this video interview of Juan Mayr, the former Environment Minister for Columbia. What he talks about furthers our discussion we had this last week on culture and the environment. Juan Mayr believes culture and diversity are the most beautiful things given to us by god.

In the article Lessons from our Ancestors we read about the traditional cultures of the Tibetan nomads, farmers from Bali, the Inuit, and Kogi were each group had a high understanding of their local environment. But in recent years all four of these culture’s environments have become threatened from western ideologies to climate change.

In the Tibetan nomad example their highly specialized adaptation to their environment is being threatened by Chinese growth and the influence of monoculture. Juan Mayr’s comments about how some people can’t understand diversity and only see their own views points is a strong example of this, but it's also seen nearly everywhere.  

-Matt Spohr

The Un-Envioronmental Environmentalist

So, I was thinking today during an especially hot and long shower, about how I used 92% biodegradable shampoo while showering. I thought about how I should buy more products that are more sustainable in order to reduce my carbon footprint. Shortly thereafter, I was struck with a pretty obvious problem. I was taking a hot shower. Not only that, but I had been in the shower for almost 20 minutes already. I started thinking about how I should take shorter showers because I was completely counteracting the positive environmental impacts of my shampoo with the length of my shower and the energy consumed in it. I decided that I was, at times, an un-environmental environmentalist.

I think that this can still be constructive, though, if looked at in the right light. I see a lot of people who think that preserving the environment somehow makes them more "righteous" than the next guy. There are people that look down on people who don't recycle or (like me) like hot and long showers. I tend to think of these types of people as more uneducated, rather than wrong or stupid. I can fix my showering habits, and it's something I'm working on.

But, the environmentalist movement and helping to preserve the environment in general, should be a constant cycle of self criticism. What can I do better? How can I reduce MY footprint? The second we stop criticizing ourselves, it's easy to fall into a pattern of thinking that we are as good as we can be- that we're doing all for the environment that we can. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Always look at yourself and think "What else can I do?" Encourage your neighbors and friends to be more sustainable. But don't ever condemn anyone for not being as sustainable as you, because in reality we're all a detriment to the planet. It's just the degrees of our impact that differ.

- Will Stott

Culture Shock Sudanese refugees coming to America

this is a pretty neat video.
i like when they say the sprinkles look like beans :)

-Lauren Shippen

Green Fire

It was very interesting to me how Leopold's teachings are still practiced today.  A man that did not see what we are dealing with today has made such an impact on the way people treat the natural world today.  I think it showed how far ahead of his time Leopold actually was.  He showed that people need to have a little more respect for nature and not just use it anyway that we feel needed.  Leopold has been and probably always will be one of the best conservationist that people will come to know.  I think if people followed his teachings a little more we would be in a better situation now.

Wolves Are Still In Trouble

We talked a little about wolves almost becoming extinct in the 1800s.  I came across this website and discovered that wolves are still in grave danger.  The website gives you some information about what is happening and has a link to sign a petition to stop this horrible killing of such beautiful animals.  One of the videos stated that Idaho expected to sell 70,000 permits to kill over 200 wolves, with the goal to cut the already low population in half!

http://action.defenders.org/site/PageServer?pagename=savewolves_homepage

I find it interesting that with all of the worries about pollution these days, every time it snows we put tons and tons of pollution on the roads to melt ice. I am talking about NaCl, in other words salt. I just read an article that talked about how much salt that we were put on the roads which each snow storm that we get, and where it runs to when it gets melted. Being a former "snow fighter" as we liked to call ourselves, limiting the amount salt was never an issue that we were concerned with, all we worried about was removing ice from roads. I found it very interesting that only a cup of salt into a 5 gallon bucket could kill fish, I understand that there is way more water that runs through streams and rivers, but there is still a lot that runs into them. I didn't know of too many studies that has been done to see what effects this has on the habitat and ecosystems in these areas.

Image obtained at:http://connect.in.com/paradigm-shift/images-paradigm-shift-512011-listen-or-watch-1-1610713467648.html

I came across this little sketch and I think it is somewhat symbolic of what we have been discussing in class this week about religion and people's views on the environment. It's really important to understand where people are coming from, their culture, their upbringing and their religion, all of these things shape a person and have a role in why they believe and do the things they do.

What would Jesus drive?

http:www.weibo.com/topsummit

This little one is soooo cute and I can not wait to share it with everyone .

And today I saw a really interesting website called: What would Jesus drive?
It is like a joke but people are serious talking about that, then they asserted :"Pollution that causes the threat of global warming violates the Great Commandments, the Golden Rule, and the biblical call to care for 'the least of these', and therefore denies Christ's Lordship and His reconciliation of all things 'through his blood, shed on the cross"by Forrest M. Mims III 
I start wondering that question.
What do you think a Christan will do? 

http://www.4truth.net/fourtruthpbscience.aspx?pageid=8589952961 (Christian Environmentalism: Plastic or Paper?by Forrest M. Mims III)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zPcR7wgh0c

If we have more of a spiritual or religious connection with the world as John Muir did would we be treating it so poorly? This video shows some of the beautiful places we have in this world and what we are turning them into today. 

Things that our generation could make connections with on a spiritual level in nature are now turning into polluted areas. In Whites writing he talks about how he used to love the places where he grew up and how it has changed so much since then. It is now an urbanized and has pollution in the streets. The talks about wars and the impacts they have had our planets, and that a war with canons causes erosion and deforestation, but a war with hydrogen bombs may alter genetics for all life on this planet.

The book I have been reading for this class has a good quote that goes along with this week’s material.

“ We have become as Gods, destroyer of worlds”  

-Miranda Cynova 

Beautiful

These photos are touching... this is where we are headed if we do not make some changes.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/environmental-ads-44102408

-Lauren Shippen

Why People Doubt

http://youtu.be/Io-Tb7vTamY

I believe in global climate change, but I know there are people that do not. This week I wanted to explore why some people are SO certain that this is a huge hoax. Attached above is a YouTube of a segment by Glenn Beck making his case as to why global climate change is a hoax. 

After watching it I can see why the American public is so confused. They did name something that is a problem--the media's portrayal of global climate change. They make it scary and immediate. What is wrong with that is people just learn to be afraid. They also then expect to see the immediate changes (which in most cases the signs of global warming take time--and by the time they are here it may be to late). So instead of scaring people into believing in global warming, it would be better to educate people. Educate people both factually on how this is not a hoax, but also give hope that change is possible. Then start informing people on what they can do. The next step that should be taken is to have the public call for industrial and corporate change. Global warming (I'm sorry to say) is not going to be reversed by people recycling their water bottles. It is going to be changed when companies stop polluting the air with fossil fuels. We need to take care of our environment, but we need to show people why and teach them how.

European Cold Spell

Here in the Midwest, our winter has been abnormally mild. This is not the case in other parts of the earth. In Serbia, we are having people being evacuated out of homes because of the severe cold and mass amount of snow received this year. The temperatures they have been experiencing haven’t been this low for over 100 years. The death toll has now reached to 83, many of them being hypothermia related. Packages of food and medication have been airlifted in for people who are trapped in the snow. Power outages have been happening with many homes to heat, and rescue crew has been working around the clock. Other eastern countries have been hit. Poland’s death toll is now to 20, Ukraine’s death toll is 43 and counting; mostly the homeless who could not get to warm shelter. Ukranian prime minister Mykola Azarov spoke about the issue, "I call on citizens, enterprises, organizations not to be indifferent, to support and protect those people who cannot help themselves in this difficult time, we are one people." (Huffington Post)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/europe-cold-spell_n_1246774.html?ref=green&ir=Green#s654908

Global Dialogue

This isn't my week to blog, but I stumbled upon this really cool website called Dropping Knowledge. When you go to this website, it gives you information and stories about global warming and you can also click on a link called "Dialogue" and scroll through questions asked and people from all over give their opinion on the subject. One example I found interesting is "How can we be so highly evolved, yet so completely unaware?" Not many people gave feedback on that one....Check it out! 


Here's the site:
http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/home/home.page


-Lauren Shippen

Extreme Green

Check this out!  No Trash Family- this family went a whole year and only had a wine glass full of trash. I found this article in a people magazine the other day and then online to share with everyone. I think it's pretty cool how resourceful they are.