Earth Emerson

Here's a cool little article about a few eco applications and sites that may be of interest on this Earth Day 2009. I like the Facebook app:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/22/its-earth-day-so-make-sure-to-try-out-some-green-vanity-apps/?awesm=tcrn.ch_XJ&utm_medium=awesm-twitter&utm_content=techcrunch-autopost&utm_campaign=techcrunch&utm_source=twitter.com

Any environmentalist can tell you that Global Warming (or, Climate Change), is a serious issue in today's state of the world, and that everyone should be doing their part to reduce their carbon emmisions to help cool our Earth down a little. However, not everyone knows the most efficient ways to do that. Sure, driving less is a big one, but for the urban student who doesn't even own a car, or drives only 3 months out of the year, that's not really an issue. Reusing canvas bags sure helps, but if you're eating in the dining hall, again it's not very pertinant to you, nor would you specifically have a big impact.

But there is something that almost everyone does three times a day that has an incredible impact, good or bad depending, on the environment. And that's what I'm going to talk about.

Every day a person sits down to a table of food to replenish his or her belly. But what that person choses to eat can either positively or negatively affect the world. If he or she sits down to a plate of delicious organic and locally-picked fruits and vegetables, that person is not only supporting those local farmers, but also helping replenish the land with nutrients not found in commercial fertilizer (which actually hurts the soil a lot). Local food also has to travel less far, thus further reducing carbon emmisions. And since that plate contains no meat, that person is also saving water, reducing carbon emmisions and encouraging clean air: all by the ommision of meat.

According to the UN, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation. It also generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure. Livestock uses a third of our water supply and HALF of our agricultural supply, just for feed.

It takes enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 25 miles and enough water for 17 showers to produce one hamburger patty. The production of one pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water. It takes less water to produce a year's worth of food for a pure vegetarian than to produce one month's food for a meat-eater.

If you have a PB&J instead of a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution. Everything comes from plants anyway, just not always directly. You could eat the potato that grows straight from the ground, or you could eat the pig that eats the potatoes. The only problem with that is, why wait when there is already food there? The water it takes to produce the beef on one hamburger could pruduce peanuts for about 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the land that it takes to produce that beef could produce peanuts for 19 PB&Js.

And that's just peanut butter we're talking, here. The fact is,the closer to the earth you eat, the better it is environmentally.

So every year, Earth Emerson has our Vegetarian Food Festival. Like all events we have, it's about how every person can have a positive effect on our world. We educate how and why eating less meat, or just plain adopting a vegetarian diet helps the world from deforestation, water scarcity, and Climate Change. It's a choice you can make once a week or every single meal, and it has a huge impact. But we want people to have fun and enjoy themselves, which is why we have great restaurants donate food, and why we make our own awesome dishes.

Now that you know why we have our food fest, I hope you'll volunteer to help! Bake a delicious pie or stay late to clean up, or make a pamphlet to share the info you've just learned. It's about promoting sustainable lifestyles, not pushing judgement or preaching.

Info:
"Livestocks Long Shadow", The Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations. http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/a0701e/A0701E00.pdf
The Peanut Butter and Jelly Campaign. http://www.pbjcampaign.org/
Logical Environmental Reasons for a Vegetarian Lifestyle. http://www.enviroveggie.com/

Bill Clinton and Al Gore spoke before 100 Mayors outlining ways to fight global warming and protect the environment. Here's the full article from KomoTV and the AP:

http://www.komotv.com/news/10962136.html

I have been following NBC Nightly News' coverage of the environment and watching their videos online and I stumbled on this link:
Enviro Videos

The link is a playlist of several short and useful video segments about greening the world.

Most of the clips come from this cool site called videojug.com.

Enjoy!

-Satch

We use way too much petroleum-based plastic at Emerson. From water cups and soda bottles to food serviceware petroleum-based plastic is all around us. The plastic is made from a non-renewable source and pollutes the environment during its production and disposal. These used to be the facts of life, but now there is a clear answer before us- corn and starch-based plastics that biodegrade and can be returned to nature safely. Let's transition this year to the new plastic. Here are some of the major players in this field:

http://www.cereplast.com/cmspage.php?pgid=51

http://www.natureworksllc.com/

http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/foods.htm

-Satch

The Sierra club website has some good info about compact fluorescent bulbs as relates to the potentially hazardous mercury content. The link below also directs readers to the EPA site for proper clean-up procedure should you drop one. The article also addresses the argument about how much energy it takes to light (turn on) a compact fluorescent bulb versus an incandescent.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200707/mrgreen_mailbag.asp

-Satch

Here's a cool story about a system to capture a car's emissions and then turn them into biofuel:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1847347220070719?src=071907_1249_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reuters&sp=true

-Satch

There's a cool site called RiverWired.com.
"RiverWired is a content and social networking site dedicated to all things green."
Check it out and check out the story on making a green roof:

http://www.riverwired.com/?q=view_video/13765

-Satch

I'm sure many of you have seen this great spoof of the Matrix, but if you haven't you must check it out:

Part 1
http://www.themeatrix1.com/

Part 2
http://www.themeatrix2.com/

Part 3
http://www.moremeatrix.com/

-Satch

Here's a recent ABC News video story about the negative impact of bottled water on the environment. It's not the best overview of the situation, but it has some good facts and visuals:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3357298

-Satch