Urban Ecoist

Part and parcel of being an urban ecoist is worrying about those lands outside of our urban habitat, as we understand and appreciate the importance of the wilderness and its inhabitants. That said, let’s get right into this.

Oil Shale: A Destructive Way to Put Off the Inevitable

It is not like oil shale has not been around forever, literally. Cavemen figured out how to burn oil shale rocks. It wasn’t until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution that mankind rediscovered this resource and started mining it in great quantities. That was all well and good, but oil shale was more expensive to process than petroleum, which also has more potential energy, and petrol became our fuel of choice.

Oil shale does not contain oil, per se. It contains kerogen, which contains hydrocarbons. But it’s a bit of a process to get those hydrocarbons, which means it costs more to get those hydrocarbons. And we all know what it means when a form of energy costs more than good ol’ gas or coal — it is not going to fly with the American public.

But wait, oil prices have been rising, which makes oil shale extraction more attractive to the American public in terms of cost. However, there are costs involved in oil shale that many of us might not see as part of the bottom line.

Oil shale has to be mined, and mining is almost always a very destructive process in terms of the environment in which the minable resource is found. Look at mountaintop removal-style mining in Appalachian coal deposits, and you will see what I mean.

In an odd move by the Obama Admin, in the person and department of Ken Salazar and the Interior, our federal government is going to offer our public lands to oil shale development projects. Incidentally, there are already six 160 acre parcels of public lands that have already bee “leased” out to companies for “research, development, and demonstration” purposes.

Oil shale is a great way to finish destroying the West. This is what the Powder River Basin looks like after coal.

It’s not so much that oil shale wouldn’t provide cost-effective energy, but really? Are we still looking for ways to fill up our conventional combustion engines, or are we looking past fossil fuels to a cleaner and more responsible future? I say, screw the development leases, save what’s left of the Western United States, and spend that money and time on algae, or switchgrass, or jatropha, or something that doesn’t rely on the same tired technology that is not only destroying our planet, but if you need a more selfish and individualized reason, but air pollution affects your health.

It’s like the ship is sinking, but we keep thinking that if we go to the lower decks, we’ll be safe. Dig deeper? Please.

You have less than a month to bitch to Salazar about this futile exercise in energy development. Click here if you want to go the National Wildlife Federation website and have them send a letter to the DOI for you, or you can mail your own letter to the following:

Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240

or save a tree and email the DOI at feedback@ios.doi.gov

oil shale, United States, energy, oil, fossil fuels, environment, mining, resources, wilderness, Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar, Obama

Ok, so a little insight into me…I like watching cooking competition shows. You know, like Top Chef or Iron Chef. And I really like watching shows that pit restaurant against restaurant, like last year’s Last Restaurant Standing on BBC or this year’s The Chopping Block.

Anyhoo, while watching The Chopping Block last night, there was quite a little to-do over Chilean Sea Bass. The restaurant’s client did not approve of serving Chilean Sea Bass as it is severely over-fished (thanks to a brilliant marketing decision to rename the Patagonian Toothfish). The “chefs”, and I use that term loosely in this case, had already ordered 25 pounds of the Chilean Sea Bass. They quickly tried to get a different fish, halibut, but that did not last the night. When a lady’s order for halibut could not be made, the kitchen suggested the Chilean Sea Bass. The client actually went into the kitchen to express that she did not want Chilean Sea Bass served…at all. Bravo to you, Nicole Miller. But alas, the “kitchen” (now that is loose too) sent out farmed-raised salmon. Another no-no.

And on top of that a few days ago, I found out about a campaign to stop the unregulated swordfish trade. Which makes me cringe as I wrote my very first newspaper-published article back in 1997 about how swordfish were being overfished and responsible chefs were taking off their menus. Sigh.

Which leads me to my topic today. Do you know what fish is safe and responsible to eat?

I know there are some people out there that think that if a restaurant has it on the menu, it must be okay to eat. Wrong. You see, the thing about Chilean sea bass is that is brings in a really good price due to its growing scarcity. Same with tuna. Same with swordfish. And if something brings in enough money, it doesn’t matter if it is harvested in a responsible manner or not. Think of fish as the tar sands of wild foods. It may still make money for people, but at what cost?

And unfortunately, with fish, there are fewer and fewer good choices out there. I’m pretty nerdy about this kind of thing, and yet, I even have a hard time keeping up with what’s ok to eat. I pop by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website (click here to go) a few times a year to check out their handy guides (paper or mobile) about not only which fish are overfished or unsustainably harvested, but which fish tend to carry heavier burden of ocean pollution (i.e. mercury and other heavy metals) and pass them onto their devourer in a sort of poetic justice.

I know what a a pain it can be to be picky about the species of fish you will and won’t eat. But trust me, all chefs are total whores for your approval. The kitchen may make fun of you for bitching about farm-raised salmon, but not for long. They will know that you are right, and I bet they’ll change that menu as soon as they run out of the product.

The Chopping Block, farm-raised salmon, chilean sea bass, overfished, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Seafood Watch, seafood, fish, restaurant, pollution, mercury, responsible fishing, sustainable fishing, unregulated fishing, swordfish, tuna, patagonian toothfish

For the time being, let’s hope so.

First, a little backstory…The Arctic is melting. Whether you want to blame man for that or not, it is happening. Summer of 2007 saw the lowest “minimum”* of sea ice since, well, the last Ice Age. 2008’s figures are not any better, though not as minimum as ‘07.

*sea ice minimum refers to the point in the summer season in which the ice cap melts to it’s lowest level. Conversely, the “maximum” is the point during the winter in which there is the most ice. Simple enough.

So, with Arctic ice sheets abating, that means that the Arctic Ocean is becoming more and more navigable to ships and fishing boats. Also, it seems that some species of fish that prefer colder water may be moving into Arctic waters. If the fish go to the Arctic Sea, so will the fishing boats.

Or so it would seem. But somehow the North Pacific Fishery Management Council are becoming a more forward-thinking government agency, and fishing boats may not be allowed in Arctic waters off of Alaska. The NPFMC is meeting in early February to make the final determination on whether or not to create legal fisheries in the Arctic Ocean.

To get a little more detailed, the NPFMC may one day allow fishing in the Arctic, but not until proper studies of the region and its ecosystem can be conducted. The fish populations should be studied first and maybe fished second if the populations can withstand harvest.

You can do your part (besides making sure the fish you consume is sustainably harvested) in this decision making process by writing the NPFMC and letting them know that you support the decision to make an environmental survey of the Arctic fish stocks (and future immigrant populations fleeing warming waters in more southern seas) before allowing commercial fishing concerns to pillage and plunder in order to make more fish sticks.

Click on this sentence to go to the PEW Environmental Group’s website to send an email (save paper) to the Chairman of the NPFMC asking him to close off Arctic waters to commercial fishing.

Arctic, Arctic Ocean, fisheries, fishing, commercial fishing, Alaska, ice, global warming, climate change, fish, populations, stocks, North Pacific Fishery Management Council, sustainably harvested

January. The cold, the snow, the ice, the cabin fever. Other than the inordinate amount of video games that I play over the winter, I also begin planning out what I will be doing in the garden this next season. I look through seed catalogs, garden supply catalogs, books on garden design, reference books on perennials. I really do spend too much time on my garden plans, but planning in advance can save you a lot of work in the future.

Speaking of the future, or possibly the present for some of us around the country in those regions experiencing drought conditions, water is quickly becoming a scarce commodity. And besides, who likes spending all that time watering the garden? That’s time I could spend in the hammock.

Let me introduce you to xeriscaping, or garden design that requires little supplemental water and produces little waste. It’s one of those made up words using Greek to make it sound all sciency, xeros meaning zero and scape which pertains to a landscape or an area of land. Roughly translated, “dry scene” landscaping uses plants that are native to the area, and if the area happens to be an area like Southern California, those native plants are naturally drought-resistant. Otherwise, they sure couldn’t be natives.

Check with your local nursery to see what they have available that’s native and needs little to no additional irrigation that what it would get from normal precipitation patterns (of course, every summer has a dry spell in which you will have to water everything, but normally, you shouldn’t have to water these plants every day.

Even if you are in an area in which water is not a problem, you should still consider planting species in your garden that don’t require a lot of extra water. Save the water for your veggie garden. You can get lovely flowers and ornamentals in the colors of the rainbow that are also drought-resistant. Save on your water bill or your water table out in the country.

A few examples of drought-resistant annuals

Zinnia

Marigold

Cosmos

Moss Rose

A few examples of drought-resistant perennials

Sedum

Yarrow

Purple Coneflower aka Echinacea

Iris

Hens and Chicks

Phlox

Culinary herbs like sage, thyme, lavender, and rosemary

xeriscaping, drought-resistant, gardening, gardens, water, watering, irrigation, garden design, landscaping, plants, annuals, perennials

George Bush is not going quietly into that good night, indeed. I warned before of the sneaky lame duck tactics of our dear, soon-to-be-departed-but-not-forgotten Dubya. And once again, I ask you to continue your good work of bitching at the appropriate people when needed, although it had no effect on the recent EPA’s repeal of the Stream Buffer Zone.

Now, the Bureau of Land Management is holding an auction, and wilderness lands in Utah’s Red Rock Wilderness are up for grabs for all the oil and gas mining you can shake a dollar at.

According to a recent press release from the BLM (a sub-agency within the Department of the Interior), the BLM is forced by law to hold such auctions every quarter. However, in that same law, the BLM is also entrusted with safeguarding “special and unique non-energy resources”.

Ah, the great debate that we will be facing more and more in the coming century. What pristine wilderness is worth saving when there is oil in that there ground?

I could go on and on about how we should save these wild lands from industrialized rape, but then I am typing on a laptop that uses electricity. I could point out that most of the energy that I am consuming right now comes from the Bonneville Dam, but then I have to apologize for the salmon hurt by dams. I am in a Catch-22 right now, but I still think that some areas should be preserved no matter what. Even if I have no gas to go the candle store to buy candles since I don’t have electricity, I don’t care. Some areas should not be touched, and maybe we should figure out a better way to support our energy habit and get off the junk.

But this is the United States, and for some reason, our industry is only looking for a quick buck and our politicians only look for quick fixes.

Vast swatches of the Utah Redrock Wilderness are coming up for sale December 19th. Many of those areas are in lands that are very, very close to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks as well as Dinosaur National Monument. This auction was initially announced on Election Day; the thinking being that with the whole nation focused elsewhere, maybe nobody would notice. That didn’t work. Under pressure from environmental groups, the BLM recently took nearly 100,000 acres off the auction block. Oh, but wait, the BLM took off the canyon floors but not the canyons’ sides.

Kinda like that scene in Poltergeist when you find out that Craig T. Nelson’s boss removed the tombstones, but not the bodies

You can bitch about this to the Bureau of Land Management, but they are hardly concerned with what you think. You can bitch about it to the Obama Transition Team, but they may not be able to do anything either. You can send letters and emails and phone calls to your Representative and your Senators. You should probably do all of the above. Sometimes complaining gets things done. Let’s hope this is one of those times.

An easy way to hit all of those people is to check out the Natural Resources Defense Council’s campaign website by clicking here. All you have to do is fill out your name and address and voila, you are protesting. I love internet activism.

A mine is a terrible waste.

BLM, Bureau of Land Management, George Bush, Bush, Dubya, Utah, Red Rock, wilderness, EPA, Stream Buffer Zone, auction, oil, gas, mining, industry, National Parks, Canyonlands, Arches, Dinosaur National Monument, public lands, lame duck, Department of the Interior, energy, electricity, Bonneville Dam, Natural Resources Defense Council, Obama, senator, representative

If you have been reading this site, you may have noticed that I spend some days focused on ecology outside the Urban Ecoist’s immediate concern, and I do that because most people that are concerned about the ecology in one place are concerned about the ecology every place.

Has anyone out there caught Animal Planet’s new series Whale Wars?

Whale Wars follows the increasingly incompetent adventures of the Sea Shepherd, an environmental NGO hell-bent on saving the whales. Go ahead, check out the link in that last sentence, and you will find no end of things to laugh at on the site. Actually, that is not fair. The website doesn’t seem funny until after you’ve watched an episode or two of the series.

OK, let’s begin. Whaling has a long history of greed and waste and the near-extinction of many species of whales. I abhor whale hunting, and only in a few instances, do I think it is “culturally justified” and in those cases, I think the number of whales harvested should only be enough to satisfy the handful of people on this planet who entire way of life revolves around the whale, as it was one of the few prey that those few, few people had throughout their history.

When it comes to the Japanese (picture above to right), sorry, but you are an industrialized nation that has absolutely no need whatsoever for hunting whales. And yet, Japan regularly hunts whales, and a lot of them.

This is where the Sea Shepherd ship of fools come into play.

Sea Shepherd sails out and tries to harass the Japanese whaling fleet every season, and this last season was filmed and we get to watch it from the comfort of our urban living rooms.

And oh my, if you have ever had the desire to volunteer for an environmental organization or maybe still harbor that notion, Whale Wars will make you happy that you never signed up for active duty on the front lines, per se.

I honestly don’t know where to begin, as I don’t want to dissuade anyone from checking the show out on their own. It is too, too funny. The captain is a fat, slovenly, kicked-out-of-Greenpeace fascist that never seems to be around when the sh*t is going down. He has two toadies, a guy that looks just like the guy who was the right hand man of Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the first Batman movie; and the other guy is a scrawny guy from Sweden (although his accent is strangely Middle-American) with huge nostrils and an upturned nose, so you cannot help but be looking up his nose the whole time. He has an “executive producer/quartermaster” that seems to also do nothing most of the time, except talk about everyone else. Luckily, she decided to stay behind in Melbourne in this last episode, so hopefully, she won’t be on camera anymore.

And then there is the crew. A lot of bleeding hearts that thought, “hey, a semester at sea and we get to save whales. Righteous.” But the crew is likable, and you only like them more when you see what madness they have subjected themselves to aboard the Sea Shepherd’s flagship, the ill-named Steve Irwin (I don’t think Mr. Irwin would want his name attached to this megalomanical captain and his delusions of grandeur).

I think the most shocking thing about Whale Wars i.e. Sea Shepherd is how absolutely incompetent these people are. I mean, seriously, I am surprised they manage to keep the boat afloat.

If this is all the whales have, they are screwed.

Animal Planet, Whale Wars, Sea Sheperd, conservation, environmentalists, NGOs, whaling, Japanese, extinction, Steve Irwin, Melbourne, whales, ecology

When will humankind learn to choose a cautious path? Why is it that our species, and I am especially pointing fingers at the American sub-species, is quick to make a poor decision on a subject that would be best served with a little more understanding.

The Alaskan Pollock has become a “go-to” fish for a good portion of the American fishing fleet. Pollock is used in place of other seafood, such as crab and lobster, as well as in fish sticks and those unspecified-species-of-fish-sandwiches you get at fast food places. For years, fisheries experts have cited the Alaskan Pollock of an example of a successfully (sustainably) managed fish stock.

And now, the realization that maybe we are in fact overfishing the Alaskan pollock is starting to dawn on those who pay attention and worry about other species that also eat pollock — stellar sea lions, fur seals, whales, among other marine creatures.

I mentioned in Urban Ecoist’s step-sister site, Daily Science Dose, that it has been reported that a large percentage of Alaskan pollock are moving to the cooler waters of Russia. As waters around the Aleutian Islands, which are the spawning grounds for Alaskan Pollock (also known as walleye pollock), warm up, the fish are following their food to colder waters, leaving the American waters behind and depleting the numbers that American fishing ships are catching.

Well, not only are the pollock movin’ on up to the East Side, but there are also less of them.

Pollock was not always the fish of choice for US Consumers. Remember cod? Maybe you don’t actually, as it has been severely over-fished and extreme hard to find. The World Wildlife Fund has gone so far as to call cod endangered. Because cod was taken off the menu for a cheap white fish, pollock stepped in to fill the gap. And now, 20 or so years after the cod fishery started sinking, and the pollock became the substitute of choice, scientists are finding evidence of plummeting numbers of pollock. Low enough to cause concern among environmentalists and scientists that are allowed to be honest about the situation (i.e. not paid for by the fishing industry).

And that brings me to the fur seal. Northern Fur Seals live on the remote Commander Islands (the westernmost Aleutians that are actually closer to Russia than Alaska) as well as the Pribilof Islands up in the Bering Sea (map at right). And the fur seals, after almost being wiped out by over-hunting (they have really nice pelts), face a similar fate if their main food source is over-fished.

Greenpeace has launched a campaign to try and help the fur seals before their numbers also plummet. The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council is about to set the 2009 quota for pollock, and you can write a letter to the NPFMC to speak out against their ideas to raise the quota rather than lower it in order to try and restore the pollock population. If you want to get involved, check out the link here.

Also, you may want to avoid pollock. If demand is driven down, we may be able to rectify the situation that certain fishery management councils won’t.

pollock, Alaska, Alaskan pollock, walleye pollock, American fishing, fisheries, Pacific, Commander Islands, Pribilof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, Russia, fish stocks, fishsticks, fast food, imitation crab, imitation lobster, stellar sea lions, fur seals, whales, Greenpeace, cod, overfishing, North Pacific Fisheries Management Council

I finally watched WALL-E last night. I write finally because I usually see Pixar films in the theatre, usually within the first two weeks of their release. I never got around to seeing WALL-E as I hate going to the cinema now that I have to sit through television commercials, and my boyfriend is a big poophead when it comes to seeing so-called kids films.

Now, there was some disgruntlement among some caused by WALL-E’s rampant environmentalism. Some said children shouldn’t be exposed to the Church of Al Gore, and some claimed that Disney was being hypocritical in regards to its merchandising habits when it comes to films like WALL-E. I happen to agree with the second issue, but the first is ridiculous.

Kids should be initiated into the world of environmentalism. You know, I have resented that label since I was young and idealistic, thinking that we could save the planet. I resent it even more now, as no one should not be an environmentalist. Being human and environmentally-mindful should be one and the same, and the fact that some don’t get that yet is why the Earth is in so much trouble. However, to be fair the beginning of the Industrial Age was a while ago, and I doubt that first person to burn coal or a gallon of gas could even imagine what devastation that act would cause. But there is so much more to the environmental crisis than just carbon dioxide — we do produce a lot of crap, both in the form of trash, but also in the form of dangerous chemicals and toxins that are destroying the planet and its inhabitants much faster than global warming.

The more children of today are exposed to the truth the better. Let’s get beyond the Bush Regime’s maybes and omissions and upcoming Republican party spokeswoman Sarah Palin’s not caring to know the causes of climate change.

I loved WALL-E, by the way. My boyfriend liked it, too, although he kept complaining about WALL-E having human emotions. He just doesn’t understand kids’ movies.

WALL-E, Disney, Pixar, environmentalism, environment, trash, chemicals, toxins, Al Gore, children, kids, movies, films, Republican, denial, Palin, Bush

Ah, traffic. It really is the worst thing about city-living, and more and more cities across the globe are following the American model of individual vehicles for each driver. Our freeways are congested, and commute times rival the time you’d spend watching a sports game. If you have ever driven during rush hour on the interstate system in Atlanta, LA, Detroit, San Francisco, Tampa, Miami…you know what I am talking about. Well, more and more global urban centers are starting to see what I am talking about.

Location: Beijing, China — we all heard that some draconian driving laws started a little before the Olympic Spectacle began. Recent reports from China are detailing the utter confusion that most Beijing drivers are feeling with some of the new laws and their post-Olympic variants. It seems that back in July, Beijing made alternate-day driving a rule for two months…

Beijing launched new driving restrictions on Sunday [July 20] that will ban more than a million cars from its streets in a bid to rein in the city’s notorious air pollution and traffic for next month’s Olympics.

Traffic on the capital’s normally bustling streets was noticeably light on Sunday, even for a weekend, amid the new rules that will ban cars with odd- and even-numbered licence plates from the roads on alternate days for two months.–France 24/AFP

…and it was good.

Many in China seemed to approve, taking to the Internet to mostly praise the measures, which in the end produced bluer skies and generally smoother traffic flows. A survey of 5,058 people by the New Beijing News last month showed 68.9 percent supported the traffic controls based on odd- and even-numbered license plates, 19 percent objected to them and 12.1 percent had no opinion. Asked what they would do if the restrictions were to continue, 18 percent of interviewees said they would buy another car.

“Recently, it takes me nearly twice as long to commute than it did during the Olympics,” said Zhang Fengyan, 30, an appliance salesman. “The difference is too big. I’d love it if they can make this rule permanent.” –Washington Post Oct. 2

However, it seems that the more severe alternate day driving was easier to understand for most people. The one car-less day a week is further complicated when the day changes.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing car owners, many apparently puzzled by no-driving days designated by the last digit of their license numbers, now face revised rules which threaten even greater confusion.

The no-car days, introduced on Oct 11 to reduce gridlock and pollution, have apparently left so many drivers scratching their heads that one Beijing newspaper runs front-page notices each day to remind drivers which weekday they aren’t allowed to drive. –via ENN

I guess this week, the day you could not drive was moved back a day, and it threatening to destroy the whole system. Ok, I made that destroy thing up, but it is a little confusing when the days change on you, kind of like when your trash/recycling pick-up day is if it’s a holiday week.

Unfortunately, Beijing is only an example and a beginning to bigger headaches when it comes to transportation and its infrastructure and all of those darn cars polluting our skies. Think about it. Beijing has 3 million cars for its 17 million residents. That is one car per 5.6 people. In the whole of the United States, we have 250 million cars/trucks per 305 million people. So that is one car per 1.2 people. Think what Beijing would be like if it’s car ownership rate were the same as the United States.

Wait. Is it fair that I would compare Beijing to the whole of America and its multiple car households, instead of comparing Beijing’s numbers with another major urban center, such as New York City. It seems that Beijing is more like New York, if you look at these numbers.

From the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, in 2007, there were 1,738,970 registered personal vehicles in the whole NYC area. The population of the area is approximately 8,250,000 as of 2006. That’s about 0.2 cars per person in NYC. Beijing is 0.17, so it’s not far off from the US’s largest metropolis. The real problem is that Beijing is adding 1,000 new vehicles a day — if you figure 365,000 new cars a year, that represents a 12% increase. That 12% means that Beijing’s number of cars will double in less than seven years.

If I haven’t advocated it enough, this world really, really needs to figure out mass public transportation. It’s not so much that it is not available in some cities, it is that it’s seemingly ineffective. People don’t want to spend an hour on a bus or a train if they can drive themselves in their car in twenty minutes. Or what on a good traffic day is twenty minutes. More cars will mean more roads, more delays, and despite our best efforts at switching over to fuel-efficient vehicles and even electric cars, if we don’t cut the overall number of vehicles, we are all screwed.

Get a bike. Avoid suburbs.

Beijing, driving, traffic, Atlanta, Detroit, LA, San Francisco, cars, vehicles, Tampa, Miami, China, alternate day driving, laws, rules, per capita, New York City, NYC, New York, mass transit, public transit, bus, train

So, after being a resident of the area for two years, I can safely say that Southern California has its fair share of urban ecosystems. Along the coast, and inland for a bit, and except for a pause of housing developments between Southern Orange County and San Diego, the entire Southern California landscape is its own brand of urban living.

That said, I happened upon this news about Southern California Edison (SCE) building an artificial reef for a kelp forest. You see, Southern California Edison is one of the largest power companies out there, providing power to 13 million people in 180 cities in 11 California counties. And one way that SCE powers so many homes is with the help of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The San Onofre nuke plant generates 2200 MW of SCE’s electricity that powers numerous pools in SoCal. Ah, I kid, hospitals, grade schools, and fire houses also get power from San Onofre. At least a portion of it.

But it seems that like most nuclear power generation facilities, SONGS needs water to cool the reactor or else it will get much too hot and cause a meltdown (in a very simplified version of how a nuke plant works). SONGS uses ocean water, as it is abundant due to SONGS location on the ocean. The intake valve is about 3000 feet offshore, but the output valve is situated at about 6000 feet offshore. Therein lies the problem of San Onofre and the solution in the form of the artificial reef.

It’s not so much that the water discharged is too warm, but rather that the cloudier near-shore water is being transferred to an area that is home to a rather sizable kelp reef that thrives in clear, non-cloudy water. Kelp needs sunlight to grow. Cloudier water means less sunlight is getting to the kelp. Kelp is an important habitat for fish and other species that depend on the “forest” for safety, stability, and food. In fifteen years of research at the site, it was determined that the kelp forest was indeed suffering a bit from the cloudy water, and if the kelp suffers, so does the neighborhood — of fish and other marine creatures.

Click on the image for better detail.
So what does SCE do? It figures that there isn’t much that can be done to prevent the cloudy water from reaching the area of the kelp forest, as the pipes are already built, and it is not like the plant itself can be located farther away from the kelp. Instead, SCE and the California Coastal Commission did some studies and concluded that if a new reef were built northwest of the San Onofre nuclear plant, the kelp could relocate and restore the area for fish and wildlife.

From the article:

SCE environmental engineers began with an experimental 23-acre reef northwest of the power plant to test the first-of-its kind design researchers had developed.

Utility and commission scientists analyzed a new single-layer rock design as well as several types of material, evaluating how best to develop a sustainable giant kelp forest. The results formed the basis for SCE’s construction plan that was endorsed last February by the coastal commission. Construction of the two-mile reef began in June and recently was completed.

So you see, urban ecoists, sometimes the appliance you plug in has far reaching consequences to many other ecosystems. Find out where your power comes from.

Southern California Edison, SCE, artificial reef, kelp, forest, fish, wildlife, Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, sunlight, California Coastal Commission, urban, ecosystems, habitat restoration

I ran across this over the weekend, and though it so brilliant that I had to share it.

Prisons across the United States are going green, and by that I mean that inmates are growing organic produce, composting the food waste from the prison kitchens, and even recycling shoes into that rubber turf that is being installed around playgrounds.

Above: Ironwood State Prison in California operates its own solar power plant.

An Oregon prison is raising honeybees, an Indiana prison built a wind turbine to reduce its energy costs, a California prison has solar panels, and a North Carolina correctional facility has built a cistern system to capture rain water.

Can we really learn a better way from those who have strayed? Seems we can. The programs at the prisons are not only a great way to reduce costs, help the environment, and divert refuse from landfills, but also the pro-green programs are teaching the inmates valuable skills and giving them responsibilities to encourage self-confidence and a feeling of community.

From the Associated Press:

LITTLEROCK, Wash. – Of all the things convicted murderer Robert Knowles has been called during his 13 years behind bars, recycler hasn’t been one of them.

But there he was one morning, pitchfork in hand, composting food scraps from the main chow line and coffee grounds from prison headquarters — doing his part to “green” the prison.

“It’s nice to be out in the elements,” said Knowles, 42, stirring dark, rich compost that will amend the soil at the small farm where he and fellow inmates of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center grew 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables this year.

Inmates of the minimum-security facility, 25 miles from Olympia, the state capital, raise bees, grow organic tomatoes and lettuce, compost 100 percent of food waste and even recycle shoe scraps that are made into playground turf.

“It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students,” said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, which oversees 15 prisons and 18,000 offenders. “It’s good security.”

As around-the-clock operations, prisons are voracious resource hogs, and administrators are under increasing pressure to reduce waste and conserve energy and water.

In 2007, states spent more than $49 billion to feed, house, clothe, treat and supervise 2.3 million offenders, the Pew Center on the States reported this year.

As the prison population has grown this decade, up 76 percent from 1.3 million in 2000, the number of prisons and jails has risen with it. The latest U.S. Bureau of Justice data show 1,821 facilities in 2005, up from 1,668 in 2000.

To keep costs down, the Indiana Department of Corrections installed water boilers that run on waste wood chips, and built a wind turbine at one prison that generates about 10 kilowatts an hour and saves $2,280 a year.

At Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, Calif., 6,200 solar panels send energy back to the grid, enough to power 4,100 homes a year. The prison was trying to meet an executive order requiring state agencies to reduce energy use by 20 percent by 2015, said a spokeswoman, Lt. Sue Smith.

North Carolina’s Department of Corrections switched to chemical-free cleaners and vegetable-based inks. This summer, because of a water shortage, inmates converted 50-gallon pickle barrels into small cisterns that capture rainwater.

Under a state mandate to reduce energy use, the Oregon Department of Corrections replaced old appliances with energy-efficient ones, installed solar water heaters and used a geothermal well to heat water. It also modified washing machines so they could reuse rinse-water to wash about a million pounds of clothes a month.

At Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Ore., inmates recycle scraps from old prison blues to make diaper bags for women’s shelters and dog beds for animal shelters.

“We try to model prosocial behavior,” said Vern Rowan, business manager for the Oregon Department of Corrections. Being sustainable “is something that everybody should be doing, regardless of where they’re at.”

Cedar Creek, in the heart of a forest, feels more like an outdoor retreat than institutional lockup.

Most of the 400 inmates are in a work program, and put in between six and eight hours a day.

The responsibility of caring for the prison’s three hives of Italian honey bees falls mostly to Daniel Travatte, 36, a soft-spoken former drug addict who is serving 10 years for attempted armed robbery.

Under the supervision of prison counselor Vicki Briggs, Travatte has learned to harvest honey — which inmates occasionally eat with breakfast biscuits — and use beeswax to make lotions. He’s become an expert on their habits.

“I’m trying to change myself,” said Travatte. “A lot of people go through prison with no intention of changing. I love working with the bees. It keeps me busy. I have a lot of responsibility to take care of.”

While there isn’t scientific evidence that such activities are helping inmates, Nalini Nadkarni, an environmental studies professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., notes anecdotal evidence that it’s working.

“They were stimulating their minds and having conversations that were different than ‘How much more time we have left’?” said Nadkarni.

One inmate went beyond conversations, enrolling in a doctoral program when he got out and co-authoring a research paper with Nadkarni on a moss-growing project she started to help reduce the impact of wild moss harvesting on forests.

While Cedar Creek went green out of economic necessity — it had to conserve because it didn’t have the wastewater capacity to expand four years ago — it is now embracing other benefits, said Dan Pacholke, a state prison administrator who helped implement many of the practices.

Cedar Creek uses 250,000 fewer gallons of water a year, saves $6,000 to $8,400 annually on garbage bills and avoided a $1.4 million sewage treatment plant upgrade.

A large “Con-Post” marks the prison’s composting station, made of recycled concrete blocks and reclaimed wood, where Knowles spends about six hours a day, making sure the compost gets enough heat, moisture and air to break down food scraps.

“They trust me to do all this with no supervision,” said Knowles, who is serving time for the hit-and-run death of an off-duty police officer.

“I like growing the vegetables,” Knowles said. “My mom had a garden. I can see having my own garden.”

Sorry, I rarely like including an entire article in a post, but I really had a hard time deciding what paragraphs to include. I find this inspirational and I hope that the positive reaction to the established programs will encourage other correctional facilities to follow suit and develop their own gardens, composting programs, and develop ways to convert old systems to renewable and sustainable ones.

And what can we on the “outside” learn from these prisoners? Composting is easy, and organic gardening is also pretty easy. Not only are you providing your family with fresh, healthy produce, but if you include your whole family in the garden, you are giving kids responsibilities which will in turn give them self-confidence. Not only that, but getting kids out in the garden is a great way to teach them about how consumption and our part in the larger cycles of the Earth and its ecosystems.

I think schools should also take a note from the prisons of America. Have students spend an hour in a school garden or turning compost. Have a school wind turbine, and teach kids how it works. Have students organize a scrap drive, like back in World World II, and encourage them to lead the green revolution.

Viva la Revolution!!

And it took prisoners to lead the way? Maybe not, but going green is a great component to an inmate’s rehabilitation.

prisons, correctional facility, gardening, green, ecosystems, organic, composting, solar, water cisterns, California, Oregon, Indiana, North Carolina, honeybees, landfills, environment, children, schools, gardens, scrap metal, World War II, green revolution

Normally, I do try to focus on things that have to do with urban ecology and things we can do to preserve a healthy environment within cities, but every now and then, I feel compelled to bring outside interests to your attention. No, I am not trying to sell you a timeshare, but rather bring your attention to the latest Lame Duck Bush attempt to undermine environmental regulations so his friends can make more money and destroy the planet that much faster.

Something is rotten in the state of …the EPA.

A rule is currently in place that prohibits mining companies from operating within 100 feet of streams and rivers. Bush and his henchman, Stephen Johnson, the EPA’s protective-of-profit-only administrator, are trying once again to revise the Stream Buffer Zone. They tried last year, but a huge public outcry and tens of thousands of letters to the EPA shut the revision down. And now, with less than three months to go for our Lil’ Bush to fulfill all of promises to his Big Coal buddies, he is again trying to slip this one past us.

I found a very oddly written FAQ sheet from the Office of Surface Mining. It seems to be hiding something in its language. Seems that it is an awfully defensive response to the public outcry. But the real gist of it is that the current laws regarding the Stream Buffer Zone are confusing to some, so it needs to be rewritten and enforced, because it wasn’t really enforced either. Oh, and don’t worry, because the the new revision and enforcement will be more protective of streams, not less, more. The OSM doesn’t really specify how exactly, but the mining companies will have more of a burden to protect the environment somehow.

The Stream Buffer Zone rule has been around since Reagan days, so why revise it now? Is it because maybe coal companies are more eager than ever to continue to destroy mountains in order to get to that sweet, sweet coal? Huh, what market mechanisms would make it worth their while to mine coal from a site that the EPA claims will be more expensive to mine due to the OSM’s proposed new rules and enforcement? Maybe that coal’s price has gone up, and the coal companies will still make money on the site? Or is coal perhaps running out in other mines and new mines are needed? Oh, but wait, coal is, like, totally abundant according to the industry. No need to develop other energy sources, coal will last forever.

Wow, the power of advertising. I love this one.

If you want to give Bush and Johnson a great going away present, send them a letter about what you think about revising the Stream Buffer Zone. A great place to start is Ilovemountains.org. Also, the Center for Biological Diversity has a campaign going that you can access here.

This is a little excerpt from the CBD letter. You can send an email right from your urban desk.

The Office of Surface Mining’s recommendation would overturn an existing ban on mining within 100 feet of streams that has been in place since 1983. The Stream Buffer Zone rule is one of the only habitat protections for Appalachian ecosystems. Rather than enforcing the rule to protect water quality, the Bush administration and the OSM are giving coal companies permission to permanently destroy streams. Over 1,200 miles of streams in Appalachia have already been devastated by mountaintop-removal coal mining.

Makes you miss those Lame Duck Clinton moves to protect the environment before he left office.

coal, stream buffer zone, office of surface mining, Bush, EPA, Stephen Johnson, lame duck, revision, enforcement, big coal, coal, coal mining, mountains, mountaintop mining, mountaintop removal, Reagan, Clinton

As you may have guessed from my posts, I am really big into saving water. Despite the childhood in Michigan, surrounded by the Great Lakes and never really having to worry about water, I am acutely aware of the somewhat finite nature of water. Not finite, so much so that water will disappear, but rather that potable, clean fresh water can be looked at as finite.

So what seemingly little things can you do around your house or apartment to conserve water? You can switch to low-flow shower heads, low-flow toilets; you can install a grey-water collection system, but let’s say you rent your house or apartment or you simply don’t have the financial resources at the moment to convert your old-school plumbing into the newer, greener water-conserving systems — then you can always get yourself a bucket.

Notice I found a picture of an old, vintage-y looking bucket. I heart antiques, and it is recycling, afterall. But I disgress.

You know when you are waiting for your shower or kitchen sink to “warm up” i.e. start pumping out hot water instead of cold, you can collect that water that normally goes down the drain. You may not think that your faucets take that long to start kicking out the hot/warm water, but if you do this simple bucket technique, I think you will be surprised how much water you are wasting down the drain.

Obviously, take the bucket, put it under the faucet in question while you are waiting for warm or hot water. Voila. You have saved water that would normally go into the sewer system.

What can you do with that water is up to you. I tend to save the water from my kitchen sink to soak my dirtiest pots and pans so that when I do clean them it is that much easier and uses that much less water. But you can save the water for your pet’s water, or even your own drinking water. You can transfer it to a water pitcher in your refrigerator. Just keep your water pail clean or devote a pail just for drinking water. You can also use that water to water your houseplants or your outdoor garden. You can use the water for a birdbath, too. Birds really like fresh water, and will reward you with pesticide-free insect control around your yard.

water, conservation, water resources, Michigan, Great Lakes, saving water, low-flow, lo-flo, toilets, faucets, showerhead, apartment, rental, grey water, gray water, birdbath, bird bath, pesticide free insect control

The wonderful thing about Urban Ecoists is that we are not only concerned about the immediate eco-system around us, but we see the macro-system as it is all inter-related. Healthy forests and rivers means healthy cities. Despite the fact, that we urbanites live in cities, we love our wilderness. And we love the myriad creatures that inhabit those places. We see protecting that wilderness and the organisms that dwell there as a sacred (not a word I use often) responsibility.

Too bad we don’t have an open season for this species…

In such, do you know what your lame duck president and his hench men are trying to do before they leave office? Well, I could never cover it all in this little blog, but today I will urge you to submit your comment during this next week to the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne regarding proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act. The public comment period ends September 15, 2008.

The changes in a nutshell are a good start at gutting the very things that have made to the Endangered Species Act a success. I will not bore you with all the details, I will let the Center for Biological Diversity do that for me, but essentially, the ESA works because any federal agency, such as the Office of Surface Mining, would have to work with the Fish and Wildlife Service to make sure that any new mine approved by the OSM would be environmentally-sound and not pose a danger to any, well, fish and wildlife. Do you like how I chose agencies whose names tell the story for me? A good writer is an efficient one, ask Hemingway. Not that I am comparing myself to Hemingway, oh, never mind. I’m lazy, there I said it.

Anyhoo, the new rules could lighten up on having “interagency checks and balances.” Also, the period for scientists to evaluate a project is cut by a third and automatically okay’d if the science doesn’t make the deadline. There are some other scary changes, too, like re-defining or limiting what effects would be considered harmful, and the like. Check out the Center for Biological Diversity’s website to find out more and to take action by emailing in a pre-written letter to Secretary Kempthorne and the Department of the Interior. I always like to email the [sic]President as well when it comes to these sorts of things. He whose name must not be named’s email is comments@whitehouse.gov.

Endangered Species Act, Dirk Kempthorne, Department of the Interior, Office of Surface Mining, Fish and Wildlife Service, Center for Biological Diversity