Urban Ecoist

I will totally admit that I stole this idea from this month’s National Geographic, but I really did think that it is such a good idea that really, I am just passing this on…It’s allowed.

Meet Ecofont. And it looks its best in 10 point. Anything bigger and you can start to see the holes. See what I mean?

The trick is that each letter, number or symbol has all these little holes in it. Holes mean no ink in that spot, obviously, and thus the savings in costly printer ink and more ink cartridges going into landfills by those of us that don’t bother to recycle them (I’m guilty of this sometimes).

Now, it’s not like you are going to save the world with a font here, but if you can conserve ink, why not, right? I have recently gone back to get my masters (the reason for sporadic new posts) and suddenly, I find that I am printing out a lot more than I used to. So this ecofont couldn’t have come at a better time. I cannot give you any quantifiable savings on my end as a newbie user, and I really doubt that I will be able to perceive a discernible difference considering my control (previous amount printed) was just changed. But I have faith that I will save ink, dammit!

Anyhoo, the font is available to you free via this site, ecofont.eu (yes, it’s a European product, because they care more about the world than we do here in ‘merica).

It’s a zip file and it is pretty easy to install. You can read some help files on the site if you find that you are having problems getting the file into your fonts drive, or whatever I did to get this to work. The only problem that I had was trying to find it listed under Ecofont. It’s Spranq eco sans in Word.

Ecofont download available here

National Geographic, ecofont, printing, ink

I have spent some time in the past on the issue of clean coal, both on this site and on Urban Ecoist’s sistah-site, Daily Science Dose, here and here. So it won’t come as any secret to anyone that I am skeptical of the fossil fuel industry and I like sharing my skepticism with all my smart and well-groomed readers.

I received my first update from a group called the ACCCE. At first, I had to wonder what group this was, but I sign up for newsletters from many, many organizations, so it was perfectly reasonable for me not to figure out immediately that ACCCE stands for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

The email itself doesn’t explain the acronym, but there are several handy links in the body of the message. One of which takes you to the Behind the Plug blog. Here, I’ll give you a link to it as well, it’s that awesome!

An example of pure comedy genius:

Today’s post is all about the “regrettable choice” that my home state of Michigan has made by forcing Big Coal to slow down plans to build more coal-fired power plants in the Great Lakes State.

Recently, Michigan’s Governor has taken a stand to become a “green energy” state. The auto plants have let the state down, and she is looking to the future to save her sorry state. Have you not noticed the ads on TV every now and then (I usually see them during PGA Tour events) with Jeff Daniels talking about how great it is to do business in Michigan? Michigan is hurting, economically, as it has depended on old, dirty technology for far too long.

The Clean Coal blog claims that due to the automaker’s forced re-tooling, the state will be needing a “robust supply of baseload energy.” And renewable sources “will not be sufficient to meet that growing need.” No evidence to support that claim there, but why would Big Coal lie? Here’s the best part…

Gov. Granholm also set a goal to reduce the carbon footprint associated with power generation in her state. That goal can be best met through deploying new technologies that capture and store CO2, not through mandates that would lessen Michigan’s reliance on affordable, domestic energy resources like coal – which currently provides more than 60 percent of Michigan’s power.

There are currently eight new coal plants being proposed in Michigan. Each of these projects provides an opportunity to create jobs for Michigan workers and ensure that electricity production keeps pace with the state’s projected energy needs. These plants can be retrofitted with advanced technologies to capture and store CO2. In fact, given the time necessary to permit and construct a new power plant today, it’s possible that these technologies would become available for deployment at or very near the time these new plants are put into operation.

I added the emphasis on that last sentence.

So the argument is that coal will be just fine when the new technology is installed to capture the carbon and sequester it elsewhere. BUT…that technology is not available. The writer even admits that, but he lamely offers a possibility that those new technologies may prove successful enough by the time that these new coal plants are built that the plants can be retrofitted to reduce their emissions.

This post is just an example of the greenwashing going on. I am tempted to leave a comment, just for giggles, as the comment will only appear after being approved by the author.

And let’s look at the author. He’s Joe Lucas. He’s the ACCCE’s VP of Communications. And he also helped found a group called the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, which is one of two groups that merged to form the ACCCE. The ABEC was a lobbying group. They got their funding from guess who, the mining industry. In just the last year that ABEC operated, the group received over 3 million dollars in funding.

Huh, I guess that it is “possible” that Mr. Lucas is maybe just a little biased…

coal, clean coal, ACCCE, Americans Coalition for Clean Coal Technology, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, mining, Big Coal, carbon, Michigan, Governor Granholm, renewable, energy, automakers, technology, greenwashing, lobbyists

If you haven’t run across something about Guerrilla Gardening before now, let me introduce you to the concept and the group. There is a website, that is based in Britain, even though it has members from around the world. So if the site seems too British-y, the guy behind GG is a Brit, so many of the projects covered are London-based.

Guerrilla gardening is kind of like squatting, except that it will be plants, not yourself, in a seemingly abandoned urban space, that is not a building. Let’s say your neighborhood has a curb space that no one looks after, or an oddly placed and unused planter by an older school that is no longer in use. Well, do you think anyone would mind if you put in a few marigolds?

For the most part, people don’t mind.

It is a pleasant way to vandalize someone else’s property. I’d recommend finding a spot to adopt. I live in Portland, Oregon and it is hard to find an abandoned plot of land that doesn’t have something cool growing in it already, but while living in Chicago, I could find spaces with no problem. Choose drought-resistant varieties of plants, so that you don’t have to water it constantly. You should not expect the neighbors to look after your plot — some may, but don’t rely on that resource to keep the plants alive.

Obviously, check out the spot for how much sunlight it receives, because some plants like shade and some like sun. Think easy gardening. There is no reason to put in finicky places. These spaces may have poor, compacted soil, so find those species that don’t mind poor or average soil. Think food, too, and put in easy to grow veggies here and there. Check out ideas in companion planting for ideas. But again, this is not your space, so if you cannot get there everyday, don’t set your plot up for failure. That will make people sad, not happy, and the whole point of putting in flowers is to make people happy. They may not know it, but it will.

Sneak out in the middle of the night with spade and plants. Maybe dress up like a ninja…

Oh, yeah, and it is technically illegal, so don’t get caught.

guerrilla gardening, urban spaces, abandoned, land, garden plot, soil, plants, Portland, Oregon, Chicago

I ran across this on the Care2 network. I don’t think I am going out on a limb by assuming that many Urban Ecoists out there have gardens or at least a few pots of things growing. Why not help out in the Great Sunflower Project and count bees this next growing season?

It’s really quite simple, or so the website claims. This will be my first year participating, so if anyone participated last season, leave a comment or two describing your own experience if you are so inclined.

The Great Sunflower Project is meant to study the health of the urban bee. It is well documented that bees are disappearing in the wild and in agricultural areas, and as bees are a very valuable resource for pollinating many of the things we eat and use in our daily lives, the health of bee populations could not be more important. Studies focus on the wild bees, but fewer studies have looked at the health of urban bee populations.

We know that pollinators are declining in certain wild and many agricultural landscapes. However, little is known about urban pollinators. Our recent data on bumble bees in an urban setting suggests that urban bees may also be declining (McFrederick & LeBuhn 2006, Fenter and LeBuhn submitted). While the loss of these pollinators is important, it is more important to understand what effect these losses have had on pollinator services.

We do not know much about how healthy bee populations are maintained in an urban environment. Because natural habitats are uncommon in urban landscapes, they may not provide enough resources to support viable pollinator communities. However, if other habitats, such as urban gardens and restored areas, are sufficiently connected to natural habitat, then native populations may thrive. — The Great Sunflower Project

I tend to advocate making your urban garden a home to all things wild and helpful, so putting in a sunflower or two, in addition to the beauty they bring, will also bring bees to your garden. The bees will pollinate everything else you grow or let grow, and in return you get vegetables, fruit, and seeds for your next season.

If you join the Great Sunflower Project, you will receive seeds for a wild, native sunflower variety called the lemon queen. Plant the seeds (sunflowers are notoriously easy to grow from seed) and sit back. You can plant the sunflower in pots if you don’t have traditional garden space. While sitting back enjoying your garden, write down how many bees come to the flowers on your sunflowers. Make a note of what time of day, the temperature, and the date. That’s all there is to it. You enter the data on the website under your account. The Project is specifically interested in how long it takes five bees to visit a single plant. And if you can identify the type of bee, even better.

So get the kids involved in this one. The website offers lot of interesting info on bees of all shapes and sizes, as well as how to attract more bees to your garden. There is also resources for teachers and students.

urban garden, city garden, bees, honeybees, pollination, colony collapse disorder, wild bees, bee health, flowers, vegetables, seeds, sunflower, great sunflower project, kids, gardening

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

If you were not already aware of it, there is a high-numbered cable channel called Planet Green.  It is part of the Discovery family of cable channels, and I have to say it is the least fav of all the Discovery channels.  In fact, I mostly hate Planet Green — except for Bill Nye’s show, Stuff Happens.

I know, I know, of all people, you’d think that an Urban Ecoist like myself, I’d be all about Planet Green, but really, it is so lame. The shows always seem to revolve around some B-list celebrity and how cool they are because they are eco-conscious. I mean, Adrian Genier? Give me a break. Planet Green is making a huge mistake with this focus on celebrities telling the rest of American how to live “green”. One, nobody really cares what an actor or rapper thinks, and the only people that would care are simply blindly following just another “trend” that an overpaid celebrity is hawking. Also, if I may point out, Discovery has never had problems in the past with using actual experts in the field, like scientists, so why now this reliance on actors with no relevant experience other than shopping for a hybrid. I would rather hear advice and research from an actual scientist than watching a lame game show with host Tom Green (seriously, please tell me his last name is the only reason he got the job, because it sure wasn’t his talent). True story — my boyfriend will turn on Planet Green just to annoy me. It usually works, but then…

Enter Bill Nye.

Mark Davis/Getty Images

I have been a fan of Bill Nye for years. He’s a big dork, with no apparent ego, and he makes sense. He’s got that old-school vaudeville-esque style that can appeal to kids as well as adults, and his show is interesting and informative.

Example…aluminum causes tooth loss in cows. I did not know that. It’s actually the mining of bauxite that releases certain substances that are harming cow teeth on nearby farms.

The boyfriend and I stumbled across Stuff Happens, and we have watched a few episodes “on demand” thanks to Comcast. It’s funny whenever Nye poses a question to his audience, Chris turns to me and had made it a little game to see if I already know about the topic. I mean, I write about this stuff, so I should know about it, yes?

And here’s a kicker for you. I never use non-stick pans when I cook, much to Chris’ chagrin as he washes quite a few pots and pans on a weekly basis. He always complains about my non-stick choices, and I always tell him that I don’t trust the non-stick coating on his pans, as they are pock-marked and scratched. And then, we watched the Kitchen episode of Stuff Happens. The next morning, I awoke to the sounds of breakfast being made. I walked into the kitchen and a non-stick pan had been used for Chris’s scrambled eggs. He’ll listen to Bill Nye, but not to me. Sigh.

Hopefully, Bill Nye can create a few spinoffs for Planet Green, as he is the only thing worth watching.

Planet Green, Discovery, channel, cable, Bill Nye, Stuff Happens, Adrian Gernier, Tom Green, television, episode, kitchen, aluminum, non-stick pans

If you have not heard or read about it, you may not know that frogs and amphibians are in trouble. Reports of declining numbers are coming in from all parts of the Earth, and if it helps, think of an amphibian as a canary in a coalmine. Amphibians are good bio-indicators of ecological health. This is mostly due to the fact that frogs and amphibians have permeable skin, and having such, amphibians tend to “soak up” pollutants and other chemicals more easily. The pollution also bio-accumulates in amphibians, so effects of said chemicals can be more palpable than in other creatures. Amphibians also spend their lives in both water and on land, so they get the, er, worst of both worlds. In other words, frogs are rather fragile, and when the world becomes too dry or polluted, they die.

So why not turn your little plot of potential wildlife habitat of a back or front yard into a frog sanctuary.

It’s easier than you think. But you will need to put in a pond. Ponds can be simple or you can go crazy. But if you ever needed a reason to put in a small pond in the backyard, this is it. Do it for the frogs.

Frogs like fresh water and lots of cover. If you have a bigger pond, you can have both fish and frogs, but for the most part, you may have to choose frogs over fish. You see, eggs and tadpoles are like candy to fish, so frogs won’t move in if fish are around. If you have one of those two-tier ponds, you could have frogs in the top and fish in the bottom. Or you try to create a barrier in your pond with rocks, which frogs also happen to enjoy.

Other things to keep in mind. Frogs need gently sloping walls, not straight ones. Also, make sure to include some aquatic plants in your frog pond. Keep your water clean, and as frogs are voracious insect eaters, you shouldn’t have to worry about mosquitoes, but of course, keep the water fresh and clean all the same.

If you are using city water, you may want to let the chlorine blow off of your water before adding it to your pond. Chlorine blows off fast when the water is left out in the sun. Frogs are sensitive to chlorine, so try not to add water out of the tap into your pond. Let it sit out in a bucket or four for a few days.

Outside the pond, have lost of groundcover plants and shrubs around the yard. Frogs don’t like a lot of direct sunlight, so if you have a shady garden, you are one step in the right direction already. Frogs also like rocks and logs around which to make their homes.

backyard habitat, wildlife, frogs, amphibians, insects, healthy, bio-indicators, ecology, ecological health, environment, urban garden, pond, plants

And of course, I meant, don’t put that in the recycling bin just yet. Not because I need to water the plants, or lug a gallon of water anywhere (which seems to be all that mine get reused for). I want to make a lamp out of it.

“A lamp, you say? How’s that?”

“Well, I found this really neat kit that I can buy online that will let me turn that milk jug into a festival lamp. Its a Milkit.”

That incredulous look I know so well….

“I’m serious. That’s its name!”

“A lamp?” You look at me skeptically.

“Okay, a party light! We can use it at the luau next month.” I say as I quickly leave the room.

“What luau?”

(No really… I think they are cute.)

Just for a bit of fun this morning…

You Are Olive Green

You are the most real of all the green shades. You’re always true to yourself. For you, authenticity and honesty are very important… both in others and yourself. You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you. People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

What Color Green Are You?

just for fun