Green Iowa AmeriCorps

Maybe Its Just Indigestion: Review of Gasland

2011-11-09T17:09:00.002-06:00

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
Ansel Adams

I have a confession to make. I love “This American Life”. Now this isn’t just a shameless plug for NPR, but before I get into my discussion on the documentary Gasland I want to touch upon what makes “This American Life” special, besides Ira Glass’ voice. “This American Life” is, simply, good radio. It is engaging, its personal, it is thought provoking, it combines artistic elements in radio with thorough research. The show lays bare the very personal stories of the individuals but retains a cool and calculated structure to guide us through the highly emotional narratives. The result, a radio piece that leaves listeners with an experience that is at once personal and educating.
This, in summary, describes my experience with Gasland.

Initially, Gasland strikes me as something that is misdirected. It has the artsy feel of cinematography major and the narrative mechanics used to set the stage are by no means revolutionary. Yet it is all effective. The narrator uses a level, almost deadpan, radio voice and when combined with the aesthetically pretty camera shots the film becomes the documentary of a journey.

But here I am, two paragraphs into my review and I haven’t even told you what Gasland is about. Josh Fox is the narrator and the muse for this film. The son of two Pennsylvanian self proclaimed hippies Josh has lived in the Pennsylvanian backwoods. Exploring the creek that runs behind his house, plucking at his banjo, and presumably learning cinematography in his ample spare time. Josh’s story begins like so many others who also live in rural areas, he receives a letter from a gas company informing him that his property sits over a large deposit of natural gas, in Josh’s case the Marcellus Shale. How large? The Marcellus Shale alone extends across the states of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. And this isn’t the only massive deposit of natural gas in the United States.

Go google a map of natural gas deposits in the U.S., I’ll wait.

So Josh receives a letter informing him of the deposit of gas that sits under his property. The deposit that makes up the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and the company offers Josh over four thousand dollars per acre of land to drill for this gas. For Josh, that would have been $100,000 dollars, for a signature.

The film weaves in and out of technical descriptions about the methods used to extract natural gas from the ground, hydraulic fracturing (fondly referred to as fracking), and the personal narratives of Josh and those affected by the fracking. The film is highly personal. Josh carries it with him everywhere and there are more than a couple off center shots of him driving through the nation as he visits homes where tap water explodes into flame, the hides slough off of cattle, and meets individuals who have leased their land only to lose their sense of smell, taste, and their way of life.

What impressed me most was the level of detailed research and the accessibility of these complex and well concealed processes. The gas companies did not willingly give up any information and often times the individuals Josh interviewed did not seem to know as much about the fracking process as Josh. The film showed just how horrible and mindless the fracking process is and the clear lack of concern from the gas companies.

If I had to level one complaint at Gasland it would be that the full complexity of this issue was not explored. If you have seen the film you will understand that this film is already quite complex. But lets go back to “This American Life”. I heard a similar piece about gas drilling in the Pennsylvania area. Similar health issues were described, the burning water coming out of the tap, dying animals, contaminated water, this really is seven horsemen types of awful. But the NPR radio piece found those individuals who leased there land and were happy for the money. Throughout Gasland you wonder, how can this still be going on. When I hear that over 596 chemicals are dumped into natural drinking water supplies I don’t need to hear much more to know that this fracking cannot be good. But the money paid to landowners has divided the affected populations. A cool, quick $100,000 can turn a good neighbor into a political rival. This issue was largely ignored by Gasland and, I believe, is critical to understanding the difficulties associated with fighting the corporate exploitation of our most precious natural resource, water.

In today’s world of the occupy movement, the populist movements and the springtime of revolution it is interesting to see one individual dig deeper and do the work to uncover such well concealed information. It remains to be seen what the public can do with such knowledge.

Anecdotal Case Study of Programmable Thermostats

2011-07-09T09:20:00.004-05:00

I have had a programmable thermostat in my humble abode for a couple of months now. I thought I'd share the benefits I've seen from using it, the settings I use, and why I choose to use them.

Leading off with the benefits. Due to the settings I've chosen to use, I've seen my summer electric bills drop by almost $40/month compared with the same months last year--despite this summer being warmer than it was last year. For a typical programmable thermostat, costing about $50, this creates a payback period of five weeks and a Net Present Value over the course of five months (months of likely AC use) of nearly $150 (4% discount rate); that is, given an investment return rate of 4%, you could put $150 in your pocket today and end up with the same money. It has most certainly generated positive value.

These savings were achieved with the following settings. In the overnight hours during weekdays (9p-7a), I have it set for 70°. From 7a-9p, I leave it set for 85°. On the weekend, I have it set for the same 70° overnight and 75° during the day.

While I concede that these are by and large very warm settings (especially for the evening hours after work), they clearly make an enormous difference in the bottom line. However, by keeping those settings that high, especially during the hottest days, I am paying a huge dividend to both my utility company and to the environment.

On hot days, utilities achieve what's called "peak demand" or "peak load." When this happens, especially to utilities that do not have their own generation capabilities, the companies have to go onto the open market and pay spot-market prices for electricity. These can be several dollars (or several hundred dollars) per kilowatt-hour in five-minute increments. Considering retail prices are less than ten cents/kWh (here in Iowa), this is a HUGE markup. By having my thermostat up, I reduce the system-wide demand and reduce the need to pay exorbitant prices on the spot market.

Utilities that have generative capabilities can use generators to meet peak demand. These usually use an enormous amount of relatively expensive fuel, relatively inefficiently. My utility company has such capabilities. Instead of making it necessary to use that fuel and pollute, I choose to suffer mildly until 9pm.

Why 9pm? If the answer hasn't made itself evident yet, that's the time at which there is significant drop-off in load demand. Moreover, by using electricity overnight, I help smooth overall load demand--which is a topic for another post!

Environmental Book Reviews (Round 2)

2011-06-16T10:39:00.001-05:00

Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy is Undermining the Environmental Revolution
By Heather Rogers

While reviewing recently published environmental literature, this book really looked like it had potential. The author argues that the problems in the environmental movement have little to do with technological shortcomings or lack of will among voters. Instead, the environmental movement has been unsuccessful because it has been pulled into the same old economic system that it should be trying to reform. This can be seen in modern environmentalism’s new-found materialism. The author’s introduction provides an example by talking about the increasingly common re-usable shopping bags. I am going to go a step further and post this article on buying green televisions. While I obviously have respect for the authors of that article, it seems to have never occurred to them that a person can live a fulfilling (and very sustainable) life with no television at all.

Overall, the book was well researched and clear in it’s writing. However, my biggest critique seemed to be that the information gathered by the author was not used to it’s full potential. The author seemed to build up an interesting series of arguments only to stop short of applying all of this information to the big picture. This was especially strange because clearly the author had opinions in this area. One example is this excerpt: “Capitalism’s market imperatives, which have remained mind-bogglingly unchallenged in the pall of economic collapse dictate that profitability comes first.” This quote is surprising because it seems to have been casually mentioned as a well established fact in the middle of an otherwise bland chapter on green automobiles.

Despite falling short of being truly ground-breaking, this would be an excellent read for someone who is just getting introduced into environmentalism and trying to live a more sustainable life. It provides a unique prospective on many different aspects of sustainability.

Against the Grain: How Agriculture has Hijacked Civilization
By Richard Manning

With some books, it takes a few chapters to figure out the author’s bias and motivation for writing. It’s refreshing that you know what you are in for by the time you finish this book’s title.

The first portion of this book lays out the history of agriculture with a strong bias against the effects of sedentism and grain production. While doing this, the author selectively picks facts from the archaeological record and ignores any that might support other conclusions. Reading his arguments, this book reminds you that with a big enough data set, you can pretty much argue any conclusion. Additionally, the author insists on connecting trends in ancient agriculture to modern agriculture. Although interesting for the sake of argument, these connections are generally weak and require more data to be convincing.

This books gets interesting once the author moves beyond more ancient history and begins to discuss the worlds food culture in the last 100 years. There is an especially interesting section on the historical roots of America’s obsession with food. This section alone makes the book worth reading.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.

2011-05-17T10:54:00.001-05:00

The title of this post comes from a Chinese proverb and I thought it a fitting assessment of a project undertaken by members of Green Iowa Americorps in Cedar Rapids recently. Eric Nost and Thor Anderson have been working with Trees Forever and the City Arborist, Todd Fagan, to plan a large-scale tree planting in the Wellington Heights neighborhood of CR. Yesterday our detachment of GIA, along with a handful of community volunteers, planted 35 trees. Today we will plant 20 more. The benefits of these "street trees" are many and wide ranging. When planted in cities, trees do two things of exceptional importance to our organization: they provide shade to houses in the summer--thereby lowering fossil fuel use and residential cost for air conditioning--and they sequester carbon (and in turn produce oxygen, a sort of subsidiary benefit). These benefits only increase as the trees mature. Which is why, of course, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. We'll have to settle for now.

Its Already Here

2011-05-16T10:57:00.002-05:00

Last week I finished reading Bill McKibben's latest book, Eaarth, which I thoroughly enjoyed and which another member reviewed previously. In one of his central theses, McKibben argues that climate change is not exclusively an issue for future generations, but that we humans and our industrial activities have already radically altered our home planet, enough so that it requires another name. Hence "Eaarth." He goes through a litany of commentators, all of whom trot out the same bequeathing-a-spoiled-planet-to-our-grandkids line that has been environmental conventional wisdom for some time. But that line is no longer serviceable: the climate is changing now. Here's a video from The Weather Channel (via climateprogress) that makes this point enthusiastically.

Corridor Cities Plan for Nature

2011-04-22T16:14:00.002-05:00

The Cedar Rapids Gazette briefly mentions our collaboration to plant trees in a Cedar Rapids neighborhood in an Earth Day article about what Corridor cities are doing to plan for nature.

Natural World: A Farm for the Future - A documentary on a post carbon farm.

2011-04-19T10:17:00.001-05:00

Green Iowa Newsletter

2011-04-14T11:20:00.003-05:00

See what we've been up to lately-- check out the latest edition of our newsletter here!

"The Cove"

2011-03-30T16:54:00.003-05:00

The documentary "The Cove" directed by Louie Psihoyos was an emotional and heart-rending picture to watch. It is based on actual events involving dolphins. The fishermen of Taijii, Japan use mulitiple boats to herd a pod of dolphins into the bay. To do this, they create a wall of sound by clanking on pipes that extend into the water. The dolphins are highly sensitive to sound so they turn and try to swim away; therein sealing their fate. Once in the bay, they are roped off with fishing net and left alone over night. Early the next morning, everythings begins innocently by marine show specialists, who come from around the world, choosing which dolphin they would like to take back for their shows. I realize this doesn't sound too horrible once you get past the part where the dolphins will now be subjected to captivity and large noisy crowds, but are you wondering about the dolphins that don't get picked? Well, these dolphins are dragged, and yes, I mean that literally, dragged behind a boat around the bend in the bay. Once there, they are speared repeatedly until the water is red with their blood. (You may think I am exaggerating, but watch the film and you'll see for yourself.) I realize that harvesting dolphins is an occupation and a source of income for the nation, but what I don't understand is why people would eat dolphin meat. The meat contains large amounts of mercury; which, as most of us know, is toxic to humans. So why the need for dolphin meat? The people who made this documentary actually had a technician take DNA samples of differnt meats that were sold in the markets. And guess what they found? Dolphin meat labeled as whale meat. The people who visit the market may really be eating mercury laden meat instead of real whale meat. The dolphin herding happens repeatedly every single year from September through March. On average, 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed each year. I personally can find it hard to believe that the governments would allow the dolphin capture to continue knowing that the meat is toxic to consumers. I really encourage you to watch the documentary. I know it may be hard for some to watch but really everyone should know what is happening to the dolphins.

A Culture of Conservation

2011-03-30T16:40:00.002-05:00

ISU hosted a webinar discussing "A Culture of Conservation" by Dr. Jacqueline Comito. She discussed the issues we have with communication when it comes to conservation. There was a survey conducted that discussed common frustrations among farmers, watershed commissioners, DNR and other groups like this. Some of these included how the people are rewarded for high yields and not for conservation, how an increase of erosion is due to increased tillage, and how urban residents have an under appreciation of farmers by thinking they do nothing when to comes to protecting the land and water. They discussed if changing the language of conservation would increase conservation practices, encourage change in individual practices, or create and reflect the value changes in society. Also, there is a misperception of the "good farmer." Typically, commercials of agriculture are showing farmers who are under forty and tilling in a nice, rich, black soil field. In reality, most farmers in Iowa are over fifty and soil quality is a mix of good and bad. They would also like the commercials to show better soil conservation practices like terraces, waterways, and no till. The speaker also mentioned how we measure agriculture success is in high yields and efficiency; where real success should be measured in lessening soil erosion, water pollution, flooding, and damaging native habitats. They pointed out that there are concerns about soil and water quality but there is really no urgency to fix any of these issues or misconceptions. The lecture was informative and had some interesting points. If anyone is interested you can go to Iowa Learning Farms and look at their webinars. They cover many different topics so you may find one to your liking.

Climate change, earthquakes, volcanic activity, and avalanches.

2011-03-30T09:17:00.002-05:00

There is interesting new evidence that climate change will cause more frequent and intense earthquakes, avalanches and eruptions of volcanos. Scientists have started to study the corelation between glacier melt, changes in geology and increased sesmic activity. Also, the article points outs alarming climate change feedback loops possible in seabeds that I had not read about before.

Read the article from the Guardian here.

Environmental Lecture

2011-03-29T14:37:00.004-05:00

I went to an lecture on environmental issues by Carolyn Raffensperger. She talked about how we have more right to a gun than we do to clean air. There is nothing in the constitution about our rights to breate clean air and drink clean water. She pointed out that we are a here and now generation. We do not look toward the future more than 20 years and that we should be looking out for the 7th generation, along the lines of 150 years down the road. We need to be taking care of the environment around us so there is something still unique and beautiful to future generations. We want something to pass down through the generations that we can be proud of. She mentioned that her generation left behind global warming, dead oceans, and polluted air and that future generations will be paying for that for many years to come. She suggested that the younger generation start taking care of the future and find ways to implement change that would improve our way of life. I agree with her points but I also think time is against us. Change rarely happens fast and we need dedicated individuals that will start the process and then others that will carry on through the generations. It is a big undertaking to think outside of what is good for the economy and start thinking what is good for our world. As she pointed out with slavery, we knew it was wrong so we outlawed it, even though it was supposedly "good" for the economy. We know things are wrong in this day in age, but we are willing to risk things like health, entire animal species, and our lives in order to gain that extra buck. As Carolyn said, we need individuals who will be proactive and have their ideas and possible solutions heard so that our generation has something worthwhile to pass on to future generations.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

2011-03-22T14:22:00.002-05:00

I watched this documentary which was also presented at the 'Sundance Film Festival' and the 'Tribeca Film Festival.' The film tries to portray something along the lines of a murder mystery over who killed the electric car. After watching this film I felt it was quite obvious as to "Who done it?" General Motors was the basis of this film and their crack at the electric car was known as the EV-1. From the consumer reviews of the car, it was great! Totally electric with a charging system in your garage. It even got many positive reviews from celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Ed Bagley Jr., and Ralph Nader. Shortly after many other auto makers took a crack at the electric car. Toyota made a line of them including the RAV-4, and Ford made an excellent transformation of their Ford Ranger. Unfortunately none of these vehicles were available for outright purchase, and they could only be leased out. After the early success of these models GM and other companies started to pull all of these cars off the road. From the evidence presented in this murder case as the judge and jury I feel it was obvious the oil companies leaned on auto makers and the cracked. They bought up the rights to a lot of these cars, and made changes to make them worse. In the year 2004 these cars were ordered to be turned when their lease was up, and never drove again. Many of them have been found in scrap yards AND HAVE BEEN CRUSHED for no other reason than big Oil knows they are a threat to their multi-billion dollar business. That was my take on the movie I would encourage everyone to watch it and make their own opinion!

Three new books on climate change

2011-03-22T13:43:00.006-05:00

On February 23rd, I set out with my fellow Creole-enthusiasts for our annual pilgrimage to Mardi Gras. Although this trip was intended to be a vacation from my Green Iowa position, I decided to use some of my free time reviewing environmental literature. My final destination was New Orleans, a city so intimately connected to it's natural environment that it is frequently cited as a bellwether for future environmental issues. In light of this, I decided to review some recent books discussing climate change. Even in the conservative estimates of many environmentalists (and scientists), sea level rise because of global warming would seriously jeopardize the future of this important American city.

Personally, I feel that I am due for a climate change refresher course. My opinions and information about climate change have not significantly changed since my college chemistry courses and seeing Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth." Seeing as I consider myself a serious environmentalist, this seems like a major oversight. Who knows? Maybe I am just another liberal sheep swayed by greedy, fear-mongering scientists?...I doubt it. But in the name of self improvement and challenging my own beliefs, I am going to review 3 books from across the spectrum of climate change opinions and attempt to objectively assess their arguments and importance. Then I will rant about the three books on a blog. I should also note that since I'm on vacation, I'm going to review popular literature instead of primary scientific literature. It's way more fun that way and if I was reviewing primary research papers, you would not have made it this far.

Eaarth by Bill McKibben

Eaarth represents the mainstream environmental end of the spectrum. Bill McKibben has earned his reputation as a strong proponent for environmental thought and policy. His first books such as The End of Nature and Deep Economy take a holistic view of environmental issues and connects them to many parts of the reader's everyday world. The title Eaarth is a reference to his new theory that significant damage has already been done to our environment and the worlds systems because of global warming. He then uses the term Eaarth as a reference to the new planet that we have created. According to him, our current planet is so fundamentally different from the historical Earth that it cannot accurately be described using the same word.
As you can imagine, the opening to this book is dark. He provides extensive and well-cited examples of the damaging changes caused by excess CO₂ in the atmosphere. One statistic hit home for Iowa natives. To simplify McKibben's explanation, warmer air holds more water. Therefore, precipitation events will tend to be more severe. This immediately reminded me of the severe flood events that seem to be more and more frequent in Iowa recently. Overall, his warnings are well done and in fact, may be too well done. Instead of inspiring me to help slow down these looming catastrophes, at times I am instead tempted to hoard up on canned food and ammo and wait for the eventual collapse of society.

Fortunately for my mental stability, Eaarth eventually shifted to how society should respond to this new world. His first major topic is one that environmentalists sometimes have to push under the rug and ignore in the name of the "greater good": poverty. McKibben cites that further global warming severity will be heavily controlled by developing nations. Therefore, improving poverty issues is the most direct and most just method for improving our environment (and compensating for historical wrongs). From there, he defends his belief that small, independent, and flexible communities will be the best method for thriving on planet Eaarth. McKibben is not simply arguing for the traditional hippy back-to-the-land fix. He states that the internet and other advances in information technology will help these new small towns be more multi-cultural, open, and well connected. In his eyes, the internet will help overcome the biggest drawbacks to the small towns that are fading in developed countries (isolated, repressive, close-minded). I personally believe this may be wishful thinking on the authors part, but I would love to see a future as Bill McKibben envisions it.

Overall, McKibben managed to give an overview of the environmental movement with updates from the last few years. He left nearly no subculture unmentioned and no environmental leader up-quoted. His information was from legitimate sources and are argued for in a clear, interesting, and efficient way (something that will be a delightful change after finishing this blog post). His only drawback is that this book will create few environmentalists; it will just give veterans more ammo. For me, his arguments were the conventional on the topic of global warming policies, I found myself agreeing with nearly every comment he made.

Climate Confusion by Roy W. Spencer

Spencer's book was chosen to represent the opposite end of the global warming policy spectrum. It offers a critical view of the belief that global warming will have a significant effect. To be honest, it was the only book I could find at my public library that was critical of climate change. I have a feeling the liberal media might be limiting my access to the truth. After all, public libraries are the most blatant example of American socialism. But I digress, Roy Spencer has a Ph.D. in Meteorology from University of Wisconsin and a fairly solid list of credentials. Additionally, all of the praise on the opening pages insist that this is a highly scientific analysis of the issues.

In the name of objectivity, I tried to keep an open mind for the entire book and, when possible, give the author the benefit of the doubt. However, many different issues came together to erode my faith in the author and respect for his work. I will explain the weak points of this book in later paragraphs. However, I would like to start this review with the strong points of this book. The most important fact that you should take away from this is that Roy Spencer's theory is a defensible one. I cannot comment on the validity or strength of the data to support it, but it is possible that the meteorological mechanism he describes would actually counteract the heat caused by greenhouse gas build-up. It is currently one of hundreds of theories about the effect of increased CO₂ levels in the atmosphere. Scientifically, his theory should be respected until contradicted by evidence. At a policy level, however, it is worth imagining what would happen if either of these theories are wrong. If the conventional climate change models are accepted, but incorrect, our nation and world will still have the benefits of a more flexible and stronger energy network that could respond more easily to disasters. Such a network would be expensive and the money might have been better used in other areas, but it's not a catastrophe. On the other hand, if Spencer's theory is accepted but incorrect, the world's governments will have sat on their hands while we do damage to our climate that cannot be easily undone.

Now I’m going to go through the problems with this book. First, he repeatedly accuses the scientific community of changing their conclusions in order to gain more funding from the government. This may seem minor, but as a student who has gone through the training to become a biologist, this is the worst kind of insult to a scientist. Changing your data or adapting your conclusions for personal gain is a mortal sin among scientists. Additionally, Spencer's accusation seems to be purely conjecture and he does not provide significant evidence to support it. Spencer's opinion of scientists seems to be quite low in general. He states, "scientists have a tendency to respond emotionally when you challenge them." From personal experience and training, this statement is a lie. From his writing, I believe I've discovered why he draws such emotional responses from scientists. These are all direct quotes from "Climate Confusion":

-"we scientists do not provide goods or services that are useful to the public"
-"When science tries to explain what happened long ago, when no eyewitnesses were available to make measurements, I do not consider that to be "hard" science."
-"weather forecasters are incompetent fools"
-"...there are a few "gray literature" science publications which are little more than science tabloids...The two most famous of these publications are Nature and Science"

To discuss this last quote, my general method for determining how important a publication is to think about how vague the title is. The more vague, the more important and difficult to get published in. This makes "Science" and "Nature" the most rigorous and important publications in science.

Another indication that Spencer lacks respect for science is that he spends only a third of the book talking about science. Despite the praise of the scientific rigor of this book on the front page, the following quotes occur in this book:

-"I believe that the only right that the natural world has are conferred upon it by humans"
-"The religious reverence some have for the environment is probably best categorized as Paganism"
-"The United Nation's dream of global governance is now closer than ever"
-"Free Market's provide the most prosperity for society"
-"...political pandering to class envy is the motivating force behind many proposed policy solutions to the global warming problem"
-"The most important thing we can do for the world's poor is to support the spread of freedom"

I apologize for listing Spencer's writing again, but I feel that these quotes speak for themselves and require no further analysis on my part. In short, I believe the author may have gotten off topic and no longer was simply defending his scientific theory.

My last major criticism of the book is that it was poorly written. The large font and giant margins reminded me of a paper I would have handed in for eighth grade English. Also, the book lacked citations and the majority of his examples lack any information that would help a reader check his data. The first verifiable source of scientific peer reviewed literature occurred on page 71 (the book is 182 pages long). Additionally, this particular paper was published 17 years ago. He also spent nearly an entire page summarizing the plot of the film "The Truman Show" to defend a somewhat minor point. My final critique is that he seems to have copied an pasted portions of the body of his book to make his introduction and conclusion to the book.

Overall, the book had a few chapters of legitimate scientific information but this was padded by political pandering and off topic rants from the author's personal life. All authors have a tendency to do this, but Roy Spencer did this to such a degree that it was hard to view his book as respectable. Also, his tone of writing was so condescending and snarky that my own inner monologue was starting to match it by the end. It was quite an unpleasant experience for my friends during Mardi Gras.

BONUS QUOTES:
"So many new oil finds are occurring that there are increasing numbers of geologist that don't believe all of it could have come from ancient life" (no citation)
"We would probably be unable to drive any species to extinction even if we tried" [A list of species driven to extinction by humans]

Whole Earth Discipline by David Brand

David Brand lies somewhere in the middle ground between these two authors. He has the background of a hard-core and highly respected environmentalist, but recently has taken an unconventional turn. The book jacket describes that he believes that we should work our way out of global warming with increasing urbanization, nuclear power, and biotechnology. These topics are so taboo to mainstream environmental thought that Brand needs to work very hard to defend this premise. In my opinion, he does this flawlessly. My environmentalist beliefs were completely reformed by some of his arguments. For far too long, environmentalists have had knee-jerk reaction to many of these trends instead of rationally debating the merits of these technologies.

Interestingly, the issue that I find to be his most debatable is urbanization. He argues that the most innovation, energy efficiency, and environmentalism comes from urban environments. These are all shown to be true. The main example from the United States is New York, which is surprisingly one of the greenest cities in the country per capita. He takes this a step farther and looks at the large expanses of slums that show surprising resourcefulness. He quotes Prince Charles as saying that Mubai's slums have "...an underlying intuitive grammar of design that subconsciously produces [a place] that is walkable, mixed-use, and adapted to the local climate and materials." This description is basically the gold standard to green construction. He also states that urbanization will lead to greening of the countryside and allow nature to take back large portions of it. I find this conclusion to be his weakest argument. As an Iowan, I've seen that lower population density in rural areas absolutely does not result in an improved natural environment.

His arguments for nuclear power are based on the fact that it is not a simple issue. Therefore, it seems silly to summarize it in a paragraph. Therefore, I would like to say that these are just a few quick points, but by no means a comprehensive defense of the technology. One good point he mentions is that most environmentalists believe that if we can't guarantee that we can contain the waste for it's 10,000 year life span (to pick an arbitrarily large number), then we should not create nuclear waste. In reality, that is assuming our society will stay largely unchanged for 10,000 years. Within just 5,000 years, our society will probably have gone one of two directions. Option A, our society continues to advance at the current technological pace. In 5,000 years we will find a little nuclear waste a laughably small problem. Option B, is the civilization collapsing for some future reason. In this scenario, a little radiation will probably not be a major problem compared to disease, predation, zombies, or potentially our robot overlords (my wager is on zombies). Therefore, the key is to make a good, and highly flexible plan for containing the nuclear waste. Also, nuclear has the disadvantage of having rare spectacular and memorable disasters while coal is a long term and everyday disaster of the same magnitude. I have to admit that I am convinced by his arguments on this front. In general I do not think it is a silver bullet, but it is a good short term method for base load energy generation.

His discussion on biotechnology is the most blatant example of environmentalists directly working against legitimate scientific evidence. In defense of biotechnology, older accepted methods for breeding have moved around large portions of genomes and have sometimes crossbred between species. Therefore, intentionally moving portions of genes from one species to another using genetic engineering is simply a more efficient method. As far as safety, conventional breeding has already created many strains of food that are toxic to certain people. In fact, all plants have complex cocktails of toxins meant to deter insects and other parasites. Farmers want to breed in many of these toxins into plants in order to improve the plants natural defenses. The key is to make sure none of these toxins effect people. Genetic engineering is just as likely to create these and already accepted breeding techniques. My personal issues with genetic engineering have been policy based and the fact that biotechnology has been a very powerful tool for already overly powerful agricultural corporations. Brand addresses this by pointing out the increasing movement of "open-source" biotechnology meant to be released into public domain. I personally find this very interesting and am going to find further reading into this. Once again, this summary has been an overly simplistic, but hopefully interesting summary of his arguments. I hope I've done them justice.

Additionally, he discussed environmental engineering as a method for combating global warming. It was an interesting discussion but not contentious because there is not yet any political debate about funding for such a project.

In quick succession, The Whole Earth Discipline manages to sound overly conservative then liberal, all while making logical sense. In doing this, Brand even makes the reader realize how environmentalism has become just another political tools for both parties to use. In reality green thought is connected to the core beliefs of both parties. He therefore proposes a new party called the blue-greens. This would be a group that parallels the original green party but with a greater emphasis on technology. Instead of working against certain forms of progress, the blue-greens will join into potentially environmentally damaging projects and help to improve them from the inside. It as an interesting idea and although I have been swayed by his arguments, I definitely do not consider myself a blue-green. In case you haven't noticed from my writing, I highly suggest reading this book. It is a well written discussion of highly controversial topics and it greatly altered my view of the environmental movement and government policies.

Interestingly, all of these books argue that humans are causing a significant effect on the atmosphere. The core difference between the authors is how we will fix this new situation. McKibben argues that we will become more adaptable and resilient by changing our social structures. Brand argues that we will be able to fix all the issues using the full range of technology available to us. Spencer argues that the world will fix itself. My attempt at a climate change refresher course just reinforced my initial beliefs; the science has not significantly changed. Humans are pumping too much CO₂ into the atmosphere. The only decision to make is how to fix it.

Homeowner Handbook

2011-03-11T11:20:00.002-06:00

Center on Sustainable Communities has released a new, free resource for homeowners who want to improve the quality of their homes in a sustainable manner.

You can find a PDF version of the Homeowner Handbook here.

Modern Marvels - Renewable energy!

2011-02-10T11:40:00.003-06:00

I watched a History Channel documentary about renewable energy, and found it to be quite interesting! It started by talking about how each part of the world has its own form of renewable energy some of which we have tapped into, and others that we are just now unlocking their potential! First it talked about solar energy which is being taken advantage of quite well by the company of FedEx, who in California has their own solar power plant and can receive 50% of their needs during peak hours from the sun! It then talked about the limitless potential of the mid-western wind farms. But what I found most interesting about the documentary was the portion about Geo-thermal, and how well the country of Iceland is utilizing it. With the country being surrounded by Volcanoes, guysers, and steam vents Iceland has many ways to take advantage of it's renewable energy source. In fact, currently half of the country's energy needs are met by using Geo-thermal energy, and with the country trying to move towards 100% Hydrogen powered cars if that were to happen it would be the worlds first country to be totally energy efficient. All and all it was worth watching. The only bad part was it just leaves you wondering why we aren't taking more advantage of the renewable energy available to us!

New Feature

2011-02-09T15:45:00.001-06:00

Green Iowa AmeriCorps is now on Twitter! Follow us at
http://twitter.com/GreenIowaAC

Designing a Great Neighborhood

2011-02-02T10:28:00.006-06:00

This documentary follows the process of designing and building the Wild Sage cohousing community in Boulder, Colorado. It is a fairly simple concept of producing an old-fashioned sense of community in a modern, sustainable way. This includes a design that encourages both social contact within the neighborhood and individual space in private residences. Private homes have everything you would expect of a typical home, but they have the added bonus of various shared community spaces, such as courtyards, a playground and a common house.

The goal at Wild Sage was to create a "zero emissions" neighborhood, where solar energy, energy efficiency, and behavioral changes would eliminate the need for fossil fuels. This film shows the collective process of residents, architects, and planners, designing and creating the Wild Sage community.

You can watch the full documentary on netflix.com.

Finding a Saudi Arabia Under Detroit, Among Other Engineering Wonders

2011-01-28T07:49:00.001-06:00

In the following video Amory Lovins speaks on Integrative Design as it applies to efficiency and energy usage. He's one of the foremost energy experts in the world, and he'll make you an optimist within two of his dense and expertly pleased examples.

Experts' Takes on State of the Union

2011-01-27T16:57:00.001-06:00

Via 3quarksdaily:

In the above video editors from Scientific American give their takes on some of the specifics of the most recent State of the Union address, delivered Tuesday by President Obama. This also works as a summary for those of you--*points to self*--disengaged individuals who didn't get around to watching it live. The first group of points are very relevant to members of Green Iowa Americorps and others with environmental and energy (but I repeat myself) concerns; only the last point--the one about healthcare--is outside our purview.

No Impact Man

2011-01-18T15:19:00.003-06:00

A New York journalist along with his Marc Jacobs handbag-obsessed wife and their daughter try to live a no-impact lifestyle for a year. Little by little they cut things out of their lives, starting with no take-out, ending with no electricity or refrigerator. This is available in both book and movie form (instant on netflix) and once again the book is better than the movie. The movie could definitely have expanded more on their experiment versus their family's dilemma of whether to have a second child or not.

At the end of the book No Impact Man discusses what practices the family decides to stick with and what they just absolutely couldn't live without. One of the benefits they didn't anticipate the journey bringing them involved losing a ton of weight and feeling much healthier. While the average Iowan probably doesn't eat as much take-out as this family, there is still a lot we can learn from their experience. The bike rides on the streets of NYC are a little daunting and Iowa may not have the luxury of the Whole Foods stores around the corner but we sure do have pretty good produce in the summer. A particularly great idea from the No Impact Project is taking a cloth to a Farmers' Market to collect food items that would otherwise be handed to you in several individual wrappers. An ironic scene is painted in your mind when the author brings his own mason jar to his local organic market to eliminate the use of plastic bags when purchasing bulk items (e.g. pasta, flour, trail mix-think of a candy store!) and the store clerk looks at him like he's crazy. You would think a clerk in an organic store would be elated at the fact that he was in a sense, being truly organic, however she didn't really know what to do. To make it easier on her, he had even gone as far as to pre-weigh his glass mason jar.

Needless to say, we could go on about this forever but this is a good movie and an even better book. Some critics claim he was just doing it for fame and fortune-you be the judge. Take time out of your day to experience this story yourself and form your own opinions. Hopefully you'll find something worthwhile to take away from his story like we did :)

New Feature

2011-01-18T10:40:00.000-06:00

We've added a button that allows our readers to "like" our posts on Facebook. Please help us market our valuable services by using this new feature. Genuineness welcome, but not required.

The Lazy Environmentalist

2011-01-17T10:16:00.005-06:00

While searching on Netflix for an environmentally-friendly film to watch we came across the TV series "The Lazy Environmentalist". The show's host visits everyday people in different situations and introduces them to alternative green practices within their home or business. The changes he suggests are meant to be simple, cost-effective, and practical. If the Lazy Environmentalist's suggestion doesn't work for you, e.g., it does not produce the same end results, it is too costly, or it is inconvenient, then he doesn't pressure you to change your habits. Most people find it easy to take in some of his suggestions, as opposed to all of them. It is all about being LAZY.

Some of our favorite episodes from the first season were "The Lazy Bride" and "The Lazy Brother". In episode 3 the host meets with an apprehensive couple to discuss greening their wedding. He offered options of local and organic cake, flowers, wine, and party favors. In episode 6 the host meets with his "Lazy Brother" to give him pointers on how to green his home. As Green Iowa members we use some of the same energy efficiency measures that he suggested, such as using CFLs. He also gave us some great ideas of how to expand our services and offer new suggestions to our customers.

Watch these episodes to learn more on your own! They're conveniently 25 minutes long and offer two different scenarios in each episode. Again, you can find them instantly on netflix.com or visit the "Lazy Environmentalist" website to learn more.

"Preventing Heat From Sneaking Out of the House"

2011-01-13T14:30:00.002-06:00

Here's a great article in the New York Times that overviews the sort of work we do and how we save you money. Unfortunately, the author misses out on the fact that often the people who need this service the most are those who can't, as he suggests, pay $75 up front to have the local utility audit and weatherize their home or who can't physically perform the work themselves.

Programmable Thermostats and Settings

2010-12-25T06:55:00.002-06:00

So, for Christmas, being the energy greenhorn that I am, I asked for a programmable thermostat. I had one installed in my home when I lived in Des Moines, and thought it was a great (and really effective) tool for cost savings and conservation. Having participated in the programmable thermostat installation in Rockford, IA, I thought its installation would be something I can handle. While perusing programmable thermostat manuals on Honeywell website (all the programmable thermostats I have worked with and seen are Honeywell) I noted one had suggested Energy Star settings for maximum savings, so I decided to look them up for myself.

In winter, most important this time of year as the January cold sets in, Energy Star recommends the following settings:

Wake (6am): no more than 70

Leave (8am): turn down at least 8 degrees

Return (6pm): no more than 70 (again)

Sleep (10pm): turn down at least 8 degrees (again)

In the summer, maximum energy savings can be achieved thusly:

Wake (6am): no less than 78

Leave (8am): turn up at least 7 degrees

Return (6pm): no less than 78 (again)

Sleep (10pm): turn up at least 4 degrees

For yours truly, the suggested sleep temperature in the summer is a little (LOT) too warm. Nevertheless, if I am lucky enough for Santa to bring me a thermostat, these settings will largely become mine, too.

Go Further

2010-12-03T00:07:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd take the opportunity to end this blog drought! I am so excited about reading everyone's posts about all the great things they are learning and experience through personal development.

I watched a pretty cool documentary the other day called "Go Further" and its actually based on a trip Woody Harrelson and some friends took on bikes and a biofuel run bus down the Pacific coastline speaking on the importance of sustainable living.

Here is the trailer. It is also a Instant Watch on Netflix :)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

Cheers!

The Oil Spill's True Impact

2010-08-09T14:38:00.001-05:00

Here is an interesting article rotating through the environmental blogsphere. If only they knew the caulking superpowers of Green Iowa AmeriCorps.

If anyone is interested in gaining these super powers, Green Iowa is hiring!

Recycling Mania

2010-08-04T13:25:00.008-05:00

In the past week, Green Iowa AmeriCorps has been on a recycling kick. Members from the team participated in two very different kinds of recycling drives.

On July 29th, the Eccentric Recycling Drive collected many odd items to show the public the diversity hidden in recycling. Volunteers sat outside the Hyvee on Wilson as many members of the community kindly donated tennis balls, denim, and golf balls, along with many other items. This hodgepodge assortment of items will be going to local organizations in need, along with companies from around the country looking to recycle these items.

If you’re interested in recycling your own materials, the following links should provide you with great starting point. A great general recycling resource can be found at Earth 911.

The Electric Recycling Drive held on August 1st was a huge success. The line of cars waiting to drop off their old appliances and Styrofoam stretched across the Lindale Mall parking lot. For four hours on a bright Sunday, volunteers worked at unloading vehicles filled with old TVs and computer monitors. This event pulled in a massive amount of electronic waste; the grand total was three semi trucks filled to the brim, three small bus loads donated to Goodwill, and a number of items to Flood Them with Love. The success of this recycling drive was broadcasted by KCRG in both the morning and during the event. The recycled material will be going to Midwest Electronic Recovery to be stripped, sorted, and recycled properly.

Reuse to the Rescue

2010-07-26T09:55:00.000-05:00

Before my summer stint as a Green Iowa Americorps member I believed "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" to be just a set of alliterative imperatives about what to do with domestic detritus, a feel-good slogan to slap on a mason-jar-turned-drinking-vessel. I was not aware that the phrase implied a hierarchy of waste management techniques or that it conceptually consolidated important truths about what we do with stuff when we're done with it: I stand amended, newly reverent in my regard for what I took formerly to be a tepid bromide. The chart below, from the Wiki link above, shows a zoomed-in view of the hierarchy:

Note that the Reduce segments which represent the strategic apex of this diagram--namely prevention and minimization--differ from the segments below in that they deal with causes rather than fallout. They angle to create less waste, thereby allaying the potential future necessity of dealing with it. Once waste gets created, however reduced the amount (it should be said here that notions of reduction seem antithetical to the normal processes of our globalized and hyperactive world economy, predicated as it is on expansion, growth, more. And that such an ethic and its associated practices are therefore formidably difficult to enact), that waste must be dealt with, and reuse presents an especially sound, efficient approach for doing just that.

Effective and expansive reuse requires certain conceptual maneuverings about the definition--even the existence--of what we call waste. Tom Szaky of TerraCycle made this point in his speech to Google (reviewed in a previous post), and his company is a testament to the economic (and implied environmental) value of reuse. Something not mentioned in that post was Szaky's point about the economic/environmental advantages to reuse over recycling, which might be the more commonly know waste mitigation strategy:

"using...waste without doing almost anything to it is the best form. You always want to do as little as possible because that is the ultimate solution. If you can just reuse than you're the best off, so the more you manipulate the worse you are off. And recycling is a lot of manipulation, its a meltdown and a meltup and a bunch of transportation."

These last are carbon-intensive and thus waste-laden procedures themselves: processing creates waste and is therefore to be avoided whenever possible. And you avoid processing by simply reusing materials in their current forms, which can be done to spectacular effect.

Here in the Cedar Rapids detachment of Green Iowa Americorps we make frequent and enthusiastic use of a Habitat for Humanity ReStore located in nearby Hiawatha. The store stocks salvaged building materials--hardware, doors, drawers, lumber, tile and a multitude of other items--and sells them at reasonable cost, all the revenue going to support Habitat crews in the area.

As a volunteer group we get access to these materials for free, and we take advantage of this perk whenever possible whether in building a shed for the community garden or finding a new door for a house we're weatherizing.

Part 2 of this post forthcoming.

A First for Cedar Rapids

2010-07-22T14:31:00.004-05:00

The Cedar Rapids group of GIA is getting things done at the Water Tower Place condominiums in New Bohemia (SE of downtown), doing the prep work for a green roof that will be the first of its kind in town. We're acknowledged on their site (scroll about halfway down) which has more information about the project. Hoopla, the local free weekly, also has a writeup, but it can't be located online as far as this blogger can tell.

Why Would I Want a Mess in my Nest?

2010-07-16T12:50:00.005-05:00

Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars is a documentary about the grassroots movement in Texas against the construction of eleven coal plants located in Central Texas. In 2007, TXU, the main provider of electricity in Texas, planned to spend eleven billion dollars on new coal burning plants that would spew approximately 75 million tons of CO₂ into the already polluted Texan air. In general, coal plants absolutely destroy our air quality with the millions of air pollutants, such as toxic heavy metals, put into the environment. It also wastes a valuable, nonrenewable natural resource that is constantly decimated by our current energy-inefficient economy.

This documentary covers the grassroots and local government’s fight against these disastrous factories. It emphasizes the novelty of this crusade be continually reminding the audience of Texas’ history as indifferent to the environment. Perhaps one of the most interesting shots during the documentary was of an interesting book called The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist. It showed the diverse population that fought to protect the environment, from politians to ranchers, liberals to conservatives. As a coworker, Sara said, “the environment isn’t a political topic”, it encompasses everyone from every walk of life. This documentary is well filmed, informative, and a heartwarming story. I would recommend it to anyone remotely interested in activism, the environment, politics, or Texas itself.

Texas’ battle against coal continues to this day as the EPA rejects its flexible pollution permit policy. Mother Nature will surely win this war and continue to become an important topic across the nation.

Waste Not, Want Not

2010-07-14T16:22:00.006-05:00

A couple in Dallas, Oregon has been trying to live trash free for an entire year. See coverage of their story on a Portland news channel site. The couple blogged about their recently-ended mission at Green Garbage Project. Its inspiring and its absolutely necessary as these statistics from their blog make clear:

"The statistics speak for themselves – the average U.S. citizen produces 4.5 pounds of garbage a day, more than anywhere else in the world. 16,000 plastic bags are used each second in the United States. Americans recycle only about 32% of our total waste. And the big one – 99% of everything that we buy ends up trashed within six months. Does this make sense to anybody?"

The Landfill as Poorly-Managed Warehouse

2010-07-09T11:02:00.003-05:00

"What," Tom Szaky of Terracycle asks in a talk at Google, "is waste?" To paraphrase his answer: its a goldmine. Well that and also something--a concept, an accumulation, the extracted, extruded, denuded, and discarded material of human industrial and consumptive processes--that has precisely zero corollaries in nature. Apart from his questionable (if implicit) dichotomizing of nature and culture (to his credit its a useful dichotomy, one widely employed by environmentalists to dramatize human effect on the non-human bio- and terraspheres), the point he makes is illuminating and absolutely essential to the ethos of green entrepreneurship in its contemporary form.

Illuminating because it gets to the heart of one of the biggest largely uncountenanced problems intrinsic to human activity, and one that actually gives legs to his nature/culture separation schema. That is, nature endures because it exists in a perpetual state of reuse: nothing falls out of the cycle. Humans (the unnatural animals) produce complex polymers and other synthetics which they tire of or use up, cast off, and attempt to forget under piles of sod. So raw materials are constantly being turned into (supposedly) unusable waste-- stuff that falls out of the cycle--requiring more to be put in on the front end, which means resource depletion, which means a decidedly finite prospectus for human activity in its current guise. Except: if you look hard enough, conceptualize radically enough, you will see that waste does not metastatically deactivate into some unusable compound (see parenthetical above), but rather remains as--or transforms into--a gigantically abundant, if somewhat malodorous, raw material.

Which gets us to the part of Szaky's point essential to the green entrepreneur of the 21st century. What he recognized in the potential for garbage outlined above is what has vaulted his company to the forefront of green businesses today. Of garbage there is a tremendous supply; of demand for garbage there is, well, less than none. We want to be rid of it. Here's what this means: not only does garbage not cost anything to the business innovative enough to use it as a raw material, but people will actually pay you to take it from them. So you as a business can collect money to obtain your raw materials, which, maybe needless to say, is the jackpot inverse of the typical situation. Terracycle's model has to be the truest embodiment of that slogan oft-bandied in eco-preneur circles, "Doing well by doing good," and it is truly inspiring to see a company so effectively do justice to that from which it takes and to the profits which it makes.

You Say Commissioning, I Say Weatherization

2010-06-24T15:56:00.002-05:00

The professional practice of "commissioning"--appraising the efficiency of a building and making recommendations (and sometimes the necessary fixes) based on findings--parallels in many ways the efforts that we here at Green Iowa Americorps make in weatherizing area homes. In an article on Yale's environment360 site, commissioning is hailed as a cost-effective way to make dramatic improvements in a building's energy efficiency. A lot of the problems building commissioners find--and thus the changes they make--are operational or systemic, which is why even LEED buildings can and do benefit from such services. A building might be designed with cutting-edge green features, but if, for example, there's "a ventilation system fan installed backwards, so it blows full force into another fan blowing in the right direction" or "the control system [is] set up so heating and cooling systems both work at once, like driving with your feet on the brakes and the accelerator at the same time," the operational flaws will counteract architectural brilliance. Now most of the houses we work in would probably turn up noses at the USGBC, but the premise is still the same. Sometimes we find a ceiling fan blowing the wrong way for the season (pushing down in warm weather, pulling up in cold), or an unnecessarily scalding hot water heater, or a door that doesn't seal out the air the way it should, and we make the necessary changes.

Its not only in the process where parallels can be found, but also in the level of public clamor for the services we and the professional commissioners provide:

But if you imagine that real estate developers must be lining up for this service — if only to save money, or determine whether they are getting the building they paid for — you would be mistaken. Even now, well under 5 percent — and probably closer to 1 percent — of new commercial buildings actually go through the process.

Again there are differences--our projects are residential and usually built long ago--but the sense of being relatively unsought, the reality that we have to tirelessly market for a no-brainer service, resonates with the actuality of commercial demand for commissioning which, if you go by the stats cited in the article, appears to be powerfully effective at cutting costs by improving efficiency.

Frontiers in Energy

2010-06-21T10:47:00.006-05:00

Via WorldChanging:

Europeans breaking wind (power records), Fins getting smart (meters), Swedes making haste (with waste), Californians catching some rays (and saving them for later), and other items.

Via 3QuarksDaily:

Could "20-foot-long slugs of amplified coherent light (10 nanoseconds)" which "travel 1,500 yards and converge simultaneously through 192 beams on the tiny target, compressing and heating it to fusion ignition, with a yield of energy 10 to 100 times of what goes into it," be the future of energy? Quite possibly.

Via The New York Times:

It's time for action Mr. Prez.

In Defense of Shoveling Dirt

2010-06-17T10:54:00.002-05:00

I don't think many readers of the previous post would doubt that our efforts at Time Check park were worthwhile with respect to personal growth or neighborhood improvement. But there were a number of doubts voiced within our team (I count myself in this tally; tellingly most of these doubts were voiced as we were knee deep in mountains of dirt under a noonday sun, which is not to invalidate them) as to the connection between refurbishing recreational facilities and our "Green" mission. This post will not be a (decidedly unnecessary) apologia for our efforts but rather an attempt to reconcile the Time Check project with our mission to improve the health of the environment.

First some context. In a talk given at Google, Paul Hawken--he of Smith & Hawken and Natural Capitalism fame--spoke about the One Big Movement of the twenty-first century which encompasses human rights, social justice, and environmentalism and a plethora of related efforts. While often perceived as distinct domains, he suggests that these movements are just different expressions of the same purpose, a purpose he doesn't identify outright but gestures toward by citing community, progress, justice, concern for the future in addition to the present. He traces a long thread of cause and effect through the fabric of seemingly disparate concerns: corruption leads to poverty, poverty induces anxiety and high infant mortality which leads to higher birth rates, higher birth rates equal higher population, rises in population increase demand on resources which then leads to more poverty and so on. And woven throughout all of these issues is an increased demand on the environment and climate which support human society.

Networked problems and needs--as interconnected and brutally cyclical as those described by Mr. Hawken--may seem to complicate the process for those involved in working out solutions. But here's the sunny reality: networks simplify causes and amplify effects. So when we shovel dirt and cart it around to low spots in Right Center, we're not just improving a baseball field. We're also making it more likely that the field will see use, that kids will come to the park instead of expending their youthful energy in less constructive activities, activities which might land them in the future care of these corrections workers' Iowan counterparts, thereby diverting the whole mini-cycle of poverty > prison > more poverty and attendant social ills, potentially cutting population growth and increased demand on resources, and also restoring pride in a community whose members might now be more inclined to heed the advice of environmentalists with the knowledge that their kids aren't out looking for releases from boredom, but are at the park, playing baseball.

In Case You Missed It

2010-06-16T10:31:00.002-05:00

Last week the Cedar Rapids contingent of Green Iowa Americorps participated in the revitalization of Time Check park, a large public space in the NW part of the city which had fallen into disrepair in the two years since the Cedar River put it six feet under (water). We worked with an organization called Make A Smile--described to me by one of its members as a loose knit band of wardens who travel the country doing this kind of thing on their own transportation dime and during their own vacation time--donning fluorescent yellow shirts with big smiling faces on the fronts and setting about the work of resuscitating the park.

Here's a brief rundown of the differences we made in our week at Time Check: Leveled the ballfield, seeded it, and covered it with hay; scrubbed a playground clean of obscenities and general wear; tarred a basketball blacktop and refurbished the backboards; planted new trees and mulched around old ones; painted and repainted a series of posts lining the park's perimeter; carried a toddler playground to its footing and helped with the install, wheelbarrowing concrete and raking gravel; pulled old metal slats out of a fence; and performed various other duties as needed.

Throughout the week we were thanked and lauded. The Make A Smile people could not have offered kinder words or more generous gratitude. A few of us played basketball with an appreciative local seventh grader who was desperate to get in the first game on the pristine new courts. Another local puttered around on a minibike, thanking each group of workers in turn. This wasn't a typical project for us, but it was a rewarding one, and one in which the difference we made was not hard to locate either in the faces of the locals--almost contrite with gratitude--or in the stark facelift we performed on the facility itself.

Green Gotham

2010-06-14T15:01:00.007-05:00

PBS's fantastic series e² (subtitled less ambiguously: the economies of being environmentally conscious) features "design" as the theme of its first season. The inaugural episode--"The Green Apple", a play on the nickname of that American epicenter of cutting edge design--begins with this premise: that there exists an association in the public imagination between the physical realities of cities and environmental degradation. I don't know if this association is so prevalent anymore, at least in environmentally-conscious circles (which this reviewer imagines/misguidedly daydreams to be expanding like dust clouds away from nuclear fission), but the episode's cinematographers make a strong case in visual rhetoric: multitudes of polluters and people sharing air, the dull hues of a synthetic landscape, the infinite inefficiencies of cars idling in metropolitan gridlock.

After setting up this illusion they go for the big reveal: cities in some general (but also limited) sense--and New York in particular--are actually beacons of efficiency and environmental benefit and really just all things green. Hence the episode's title. One of the interviewees, however, draws a significant distinction between those older cities like New York whose infrastructures were developed largely pre-automobile and to conduce foot-traffic and a handful of newer cities--he cites Houston and Atlanta but LA's the penultimate pariah here--where cars are like limbs and pedestrianing approaches Sisyphean heights of futility. These latter, because they either lack density or undermine their concentration advantage by necessitating a personal vehicle, limit the extent of the rule that cities are more environmentally friendly.

One might think that the environmental benefit of the cityscape hinges on issues of transport. But New York's advantage not only appears in the realm of people-moving and moving people. The buildings to which all these comers and goers travel actually have a greater energy demand--and thus a larger carbon footprint--than the vehicles scurrying about their toes. Usually. But in New York, a few developers commissioning buildings and many architects designing them have adopted the long-view and the city now turns out many buildings with dramatically reduced demands on the planet and some that even extend beyond harm-reduction to offer benefits to the city around them, a sort of small-scale export the likes of which (outside of aesthetic appeal and attendant notoriety) very few buildings have offered before. Specifically, two of the newer constructions in Midtown Manhattan act like giant filters, not only avoiding sending their own pollutants out but actually removing particulate and other harmful matter from the air and leaving it cleaner once it passes through.

All the micro-level design innovations occurring in New York are great, but here's the real macro take home: density is the key, the attribute that sets cities apart as nodes of efficiency, and New York has it in spades. And it seems that this reality has now reached even those off-the grid havens of sustainability that may have seemed the pastoral idyllics of the green movement's yesteryear. We here at Green Iowa Americorps visited one such community a few weeks back in Fairfield, Iowa. The Sustainable Living Coalition exemplified the tenets they preached: self-sufficiency, long-term sustainability, ultra-low impact habitation and cultivation of the land. Lonnie Gamble, the founder of many of the motley projects including and surrounding the SLC and a kind of grassroots sustainability polymath, gave us a tour of the compound and supplemented our group's growing body of information on the virtues and possibilites of the type of living that makes mere eco-friendliness seem shamefully inadequate. But even Lonnie on his hay bale soapbox spoke of the real future of green living: it is not these back-to-the-land type communes (which have their value as Edenic places of learning and inspiration), but sustainable urban development that could, Gaia willing, be our salvation.

Human Footprint

2010-06-09T20:34:00.005-05:00

Human Footprint is a documentary available to watch for free via snagfilms.com. It discusses the impact that each human being has on the planet over the course of their lifetime.

Although it is certainly an eye-opener to discover how much average Americans consume --things ranging from bread to beer and cosmetics--, the amount of materials that the volunteers in the program use to show how much we consume is an ironic waste of materials unto itself when one considers the energy it took to mobilize everything.

Nevertheless, the program explores every aspect of our material consumption during the course of our lives and is worth watching if you are interested in how much "stuff" we actually use.

Electric Cars in Iowa

2010-04-05T13:23:00.003-05:00

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104040326

Elk Horn goes electric; will plug-in cars follow?

Elk Horn, Ia. - It's been six months since Mike Howard's companies paid to install the little metal post on the parking lot outside the Danish Windmill gift shop. Throughout that time, the only electric cars charged at it have belonged to Mike Howard.

Still, Lisa Steen Riggs sees the day coming when eco-tourists flock to this tiny Shelby County community to learn about their efforts to be environmentally friendly. Visitors will stop at a new Energy Academy, Riggs predicts, as well as examine the restaurant's geothermal heating system and visit the Viking House's green roof.

"People made fun of us when we bought that old windmill," said Riggs, manager of a tourist corporation that now draws 60,000 visitors a year to a breeze-powered Danish artifact imported in 1976. But "that's how this community thinks. No idea is crazy. We can do it."

It may be a while, however, before they can do it with electric cars.

Plug-in electric vehicles most definitely are coming to Iowa.

At least two Des Moines dealerships expect to add them to their lots in the next year - not counting the area's seven Chevrolet dealers, each of which presumably will have access to that company's Volt. The first truckload of electric cars, a three-model family of vehicles imported by an Ames firm, could unload at Des Moines Motors as early as May.

For Elk Horn and other communities, the problem drawing electric-car tourism right now is that the cars can't get to them. Elk Horn has four electric-car charging stations - or two-thirds of the publicly known stations in Iowa. But the city, population 650, sits more than 80 miles from the only other known public-accessible way to power an electric car - charging stations at two Kum & Go stores in Des Moines.

Internet maps for the ChargePoint system, a network that allows users to find the closest charging station and tell whether it's in use, show Elk Horn as the only dot between Denver, Colo., and Madison, Wis., and between Little Rock, Ark., and the Canadian border.

"Somebody has to start," Howard said when asked why he paid for Elk Horn's four charging stations and has plans to add another four later this year at locations along Interstate Highway 80. "It's going to be slow, but somebody has to put the infrastructure in place."

Maybe not, say some of the men poised to bring electric cars.

"All the studies ... say people are looking at it primarily as a commuting car," said Gene Gabus, owner of Des Moines Motors and a distributor scheduled to control the flow of Electric Motor Cars to 33 states. "Most people are just looking to drive these things around town" and charge them at home.

Mark Hummel, general manager at Hummel's Nissan in Des Moines, where they're already planning for arrival of the Nissan Leaf early next year, said: "The early adopters, I don't think that aspect of it will even faze them."

The Leaf, which Nissan will launch late in 2010 in areas of the United States that have more of a public charging infrastructure, likely will make it to Des Moines around May 2011.

Even without public charging, "I think there will probably be all the market I can get my hands on," Hummel said. "I already have a half-dozen people who have told me, 'I want the first one that you get.' "

Thomas Turrentine, director of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California-Davis, said researchers are "not seeing a big immediate need" for public charging stations because most people drive fewer than 100 miles a day. That's well within the range of the coming electric vehicles.

But some drivers, when pushing the limits of that range, get nervous in an electric vehicle, he said.

"Some people, when driving around on a quarter-tank of gas, feel an immediate need to fill it up," Turrentine said. "The longer people drive these electric vehicles, the fewer people think they need" public charging.

Phil Gott, director of automotive science and technology for research company IHS Global Insight, said car dealers are right to believe they can launch electric vehicles without an infrastructure in place. But longer term, charging stations are essential to build public confidence, he said.

Studies in Europe and Southern California, where charging stations are more prevalent, show that few of the $6,000 to $9,000 stations are used often enough to turn a profit for electric companies, Gott said. But the fact that they exist leads people to drive electric vehicles to places where they otherwise might not.

"If your kids fall down the stairs" you have to be ready, Gott said. "It's for that second emergency trip that people worry about it. Public charging stations are a confidence- builder."

Several public entities are working on that building.

In December, the Iowa Office of Energy Independence awarded a $250,000 federal stimulus grant to the University of Iowa to build a solar-powered charging station with 21 parking spaces. Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie said he thinks it's time the city at least starts thinking about placing a handful of charging stations in Des Moines parking garages.

Cownie said he's asked city administrators to tell him "what does it take to make this happen, and when can we roll it out?"

"I believe there's going to be a need in the next 12 to 24 months," Cownie said. "I think we ought to have the infrastructure in place to support those folks that want to transition to vehicles that are not burning gasoline."

Howard has the same belief.

He owns several businesses focused on calibrating the devices companies use to test their electronic equipment. He said he's using his own money to expand Iowa's electric car infrastructure because he believes somebody has to.

Howard said he's talked to restaurants, motels and similar locations along Interstate 80 and believes it's feasible to install charging stations every 100 miles or so between Chicago and Denver. Four or five should happen by the end of summer, he said.

As an experiment, he is working on a solar cell farm he hopes will provide electricity to a residential neighborhood that adjoins his Elk Horn offices.

"It's the right thing to do," Howard said as he tools through Elk Horn in a tiny electric van. "Everything we have is borrowed. And it's being borrowed from our children."

"Green" Ted Talks

2010-04-02T09:21:00.002-05:00

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK.

www.ted.com

-- video player is slow so it may be easier to view videos on youtube--

http://www.youtube.com/user/tedtalksdirector?blend=1&ob=4#p/u

Here are a few "Green" Ted Talks that I have found. I'm sure there are a lot more out there...

Kevin Surace - Eco Friendly Drywall

Shai Agassi - Adoption of electric cars

Bill Gates - Innovating to Zero

William McDonough - Cradle to Cradle Design

Alex Steffen - Sees a sustainable future

Andy Hobsbawn - Do the green thing

Rachel Armstrong - Architecture that rebuilds itself

James Balog - Time lapse proof of ice loss

Capt. Charles Moore - Seas of plastic

Adam Grosser - sustainable fridge

John la Grou - plugs smart power outlets

Bill Gross - on new energy

Saul Griffith - kites tap wind energy

Willie Smits - restores a rainforest

Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka

2010-03-31T22:13:00.004-05:00

Sarah Susanka is a pioneer in the field of architecture. Her critically-acclaimed books on home design have aided many to see that a big house is not a better house. It is unfortunate that most of the homes being built today do not seek to represent the lifestyles of those living within them, but rather the aim to project a notion of status. With her eye-opening presentation, Sarah Susanka presents a more holistic approach to home design.

Sarah Susanka has formatted her manifesto of the “Not So Big House” to DVD. Entitled "Not So Big House; Home by Design", you will find it easily digestible and packed full of examples and simple visuals. It is straightforward and to the point, but it lacks in comparison to the books because of this. The books are great for referencing the pictures and meandering through with a cup of hot coffee. If you have more time, definitely check out the books.

Small homes require less material and require less energy to heat and cool. By investing more money in the details, rather than in square footage, one is able to use sustainable products of higher quality. For more information on these ideas, watch the DVD, read the books and visit Susanka's website. http://www.susanka.com/

"Less Is More" Review

2010-03-31T13:27:00.001-05:00

In the car to Greensburg, we spent a good portion of our trip reading from the book "Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness" by Cecile Andrews, Wanda Urbanska, and a selection of other authors. The book describes the rising "Simplicity" movement as they call it, and each author presents their own view on what that means.

I have done some personal research on minimalist living, and I generally agree with the principles of living with a smaller footprint, consuming less, and clearing up your life so that one has more time for friends, family, and fulfilling pursuits. I believe that most Americans lead cluttered, busy lives that could be simplified to save money, free up more time to build meaningful relationships, and generally reduce stress in people's lives. These beliefs are core to the message presented in this book, and yet I had a hard time agreeing with any of it.

One problem is that each author is trying in a few pages to quickly express a particular worldview, so the book reads as a series of introductions to other books that each of the authors could have written. It's lacking in real content, or anything besides anecdotal stories and theoretical benefits to living the simple life. It reads a little bit like a socialist propaganda, without any hard data or objectively convincing information. The way the book is written invites skepticism, where it should invite interest. Living with less is a great idea for living more sustainably, if only it could be presented in a more convincing and accessible way.

I wouldn't recommend this book, but I would recommend outside research in minimalist living. You don't have to live off the grid in a commune to adopt some of its simple principles into your life. Walking or biking is healthier and more environmentally friendly than driving, cooking for yourself is cheaper, and allows for the inclusion of more wholesome ingredients than buying prepackaged food, and borrowing a book from the library instead of buying allows you to read more for less, and wastes less paper, glue, ink and transportation. These are just some simple examples of how minimalism can be incorporated into anyone's daily life, but this book makes it seem much more difficult than it really is. The blog Zen Habits by Leo Babauta is a good place to start to get more accessible, day-to-day advice about simple living.

King Corn

2010-03-30T22:18:00.004-05:00

Corn, corn, everywhere and not a kernel to eat! Have you thought about how subsidizing corn has impacted our health, limited the biodiversity of our food supply, and fueled our fast-food economy? In King Corn (2007), Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis explore the production and distribution of corn in the rural Midwest.

In addition to the documentary, there are a number of articles about the impact of subsidized corn on our economy and health. A Cornell News article cites the research of Cornell's David Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that researched the economics and environmental implications of ethanol production. You can access the article here.

Also, Wired Science published an article called "Fast Food: Just Another Name for Corn." According to the article, chemical analysis from restaurants across the US shows that the diets of cows and chickens used in fast food are mostly corn-based. You can find the article here.

Check out DVDs at the Library!

2010-03-30T21:49:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, the library can be an overwhelming place to start investigating a topic. With tons of books carrying countless ideas, the shelves are often abandoned for quicker and more concise research on the internet. If you find this to be true, check out the DVD section at your library. It is a great resource, especially in Cedar Falls for any eco-minded individual. From local presentations on alternative energy to documentaries about global environmental crises, the information presented can spark interest and motivate people with any evening spent on the couch.

Green Iowa AmeriCorps News, Press, & Radio!

2010-03-16T11:05:00.001-05:00

KWWL NEWS
Thursday 3/11/10
http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=12127233

KWWL NEWS
Saturday 3/13/10
http://www.kwwl.com/global/story.asp?s=12135610

WATERLOO/CEAR FALLS COURIER
Sunday 3/14/10
http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_660460d0-2f22-11df-a158-001cc4c03286.html

IOWA PUBLIC RADIO (KUNI)
Tuesday 3/16/10
http://iowapublicradio.org/newsroom.php

Is Your Eco-Label Lying?

2010-03-15T21:27:00.007-05:00

Deciphering the many different environmental labels, brands, and claims can be a little daunting and it's easy sometimes to feel swindled. If you would like to feel more educated on the matter and be a little more confident in your greenwashing identification, check out this article. You might find it helpful.

Apparently, they weatherize differently in the south...and with more flow.

2010-03-09T11:05:00.003-06:00

10 Amazing Artists Using Recycled Materials

2010-03-09T10:44:00.003-06:00

Junk can be a beautiful thing, if you have the eyes to see it. From litter off the streets to odds and ends in the house, these artists from around the world find a use for what others would toss out without a second thought. We've compiled 10 artists who are creating intriguing works with recycled materials, redefining what we call trash -- we love this kind of reuse! Take a look, and vote for your favorite.