Earth Day

8 Steps to Organize a Clean-Up Day in Your Community

akronheim — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Eww, there's trash everywhere, and somebody's gotta clean it up. Ever wanted to organize a group of people to do just that? I've done it at Ithaca College (IC) and many others have done the same. The IC Environmental Society has Green Teams who clean up after home football games and keep the good stuff (free unopened beer, sweatshirts, etc) recycle what we can, and throw out the rest. Even a group of high school students cleaned up their local park in New Haven recently and younger kids did it last year for Earth Day.

Here's 8 easy steps to get on your way to cleaning up your campus/park/area:

1. Find 5-10 loyal friends/sustainable companions to take on this endeavor.
2. Pick a day and time that works for all of you.
3. Decide where exactly on your campus you want to focus on for this first clean up day...where's the trash?
4. Create advertisements to recruit extra volunteers for the clean-up day. Make sure there's contact info for RSVPing, the date and time for the day, and a meeting place that everyone would know about.
5. Compile the list of volunteers.
6. Buy enough gloves, garbage bags, and maybe even plastic body suits if you want, for everyone for the clean day. You can ask departments on your campus or student organizations for money for these kinds of purchases easily. (If you really need help, with that, let me know!)
7. Send out a reminder email or phone call to every volunteer the day before the big day.
8. CLEAN UP! And maybe even start a group with all these extra people that wants to do this every week/month.

Reflections on Earth Day

akronheim — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:53:30 -0400

This week at Ithaca College, and at many colleges around the country, there were Earth Day events on Tuesday. Ithaca College hosted a screening of the 11th Hour that night and during the day hosted a free luncheon with Brooke Hansen discussing Native American Environmentalism. For the entire week we had events and dubbed last week: Earth Week.

Monday we had the Deputy Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, Bill Richardson, (no, not THAT Bill Richardson...) speak, Wednesday we had a vegetarian teach-in catered by a local co-op in Ithaca, Green Star, and Thursday we hosted another free luncheon to discuss Natural Beauty Products as well as a presentation that night from Benjamin Dangl, author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia. Phew!

These events were somewhere ideologically in the middle of the hay-days of Earth Day with ideals about less consumption and the new capitalistic green movement that has come with the evolution of Earth Day. Bradford Plumer discussed on The New Republic's Energy and Environment Blog that in its beginnings, Earth Day was simply promoting less consumption and being eco-friendly, while today large company's like Toyota, Macy's, Lexus etc are teaming up to promote their new green products around Earth Day. I was even on hulu.com where you can stream many popular, commercial media for free, and they publicized that they support Earth Week. Who doesn't support Earth Day? Maybe Hummer? Their still only up to around 14 city/18 highway mpg...pretty far off of the recently proposed 35 mpg fleetwide standard in the Energy Bill this past fall.

Hummers and companies alike aside, I think capitalism has the opportunity to really take off with the green sector and create fewer obsolete products, products that use less energy, renewable energy, and use energy more efficiently. If they do that, and the grassroots sector continues to educate and mobilize people around these issues, the supply and demand will be there; and we'll be that much closer to fighting climate change.

RW Readers Show What They Did on Earth Day -- How About You??

RiverWired.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:36:20 -0400

Send us your photos to add to our Earth Day collection! We want to see what you did to celebrate.

As I was riding my bike through Central Park in NY, I saw another biker, catching some zzzzz's -- why didn't I think of that?

I liked the green-leafed Park Flag flying next to the red, white, and blue.

Kids always know best how to have fun.

I brought some bags to clean up litter -- but I was amazed at how respectful everyone was being of the park grounds -- I couldn't find a single scrap -- OK, maybe one or two, but really, you could just sense that something new was going on here -- people dedicated to living clean and green.

-- Susan Seliger, Editor-In-Chief, RiverWired.com

At 39 weeks pregnant, my contribution is necessarily modest. I'm making my own yogurt to avoid having more plastic containers to recycle.

When I was in college, I had a friend whose parents were from France and I had homemade yogurt at their house for the first time and it was incredible. Ours is just as good. We have tried vanilla-flavored, coffee-flavored and plain and they're all good. Plus the little 4-oz glass containers are too cute.

The unit costs about $24 at the Park Slope Coop and uses about 13 watts of power per 32 oz batch (8- 4 oz. servings) and best of all...no plastic yogurt containers hanging around.

-- Ellen Honigstock, Architect PC, RA, LEED AP

Eat Up on Earth Day

scleaver — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:50:51 -0400

Happy Earth Day! Here are five ways that you can celebrate a delicious Earth Day, go local, and give back:

1. Reduce your Carbon Food-print. Visit www.EatLowCarbon.org to calculate the total (estimated) carbon emissions produced by your breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You may be surprised at what you find. For example, cereal and milk produces 1224 carbon dioxide equivalents (the amount of global warming from carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases), almost as much as an omelet with meat and cheese. FYI: the most carbon-friendly breakfast options are yogurt with fruit (306) and a fried egg (336).

2. Gear up for the first farmer’s market. Around the country, farmer’s markets are getting ready to start the summer season. Find one near you by visiting the River Wired homepage and entering your zipcode into our Local Harvest search. Then, learn how to tackle weekly local shopping at Busy Cooks at About.com. My favorite tip: ask questions, both to learn more about where your food comes from and to figure out how to use vegetables you’ve never cooked with before.

3. Update your recipe file. Find out what’s in season near you at Food Miles application from the Natural Defense Fund. Then, search one of the great food recipe sites: The Food Network, All Recipes, or Epicurious to find recipes that are just as in season. In Michigan, asparagus and broccoli are both in season, which means that this week I’ll be whipping up a chicken, asparagus, and broccoli stir fry.

4. Help solve the food crisis. Donate to the World Food Program.

5. Visit a local restaurant. Whenever I have to choose between a national chain and a local restaurant, I choose the local one, no matter what’s on the menu. Especially in Michigan, where the economy has been on the downturn for years, investing in local food, restaurants, and businesses can produce huge payoffs. As Frank Turner, a local Detroit chef, once told me, “if we all spent $10 a week on Michigan products, agriculture or otherwise, we could put $36 million every week back into the state’s economy.”

Photo Credit: An image of where the farms are around the U.S. from Local Harvest.

Exciting Week - Earth Day & Blog Contests

jchait — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:12:21 -0400

Well, it's a busy week if you happen to be a green blogger or green blog reader.

Of course Earth Day is today and if you haven't told us here at RiverWired what you're doing yet, we'd love to know. Check out this post - tell us what you'll be doing to celebrate and even send us photos of your Earth Day fun this year. We'd love to hear from you.

All around the blogosphere greenies will be posting great ideas, so I'll try to round up some good posts for you here.

In other news it's Bloggy week - which means one thing - prizes, prizes, and more prizes.

Each Bloggy Giveaway event is all about appreciation for blog readers. You can head over to the Bloggy website to learn more about this cool week for blog readers. Also, just because I'm so nice, I collected some nice green contests up for you.

First off maybe you remember me gushing about the Building With Awareness DVD and book the other day. Building With Awareness is 5 hours of straw bale building on DVD and at one of my blogs participating in the Bloggys I'm giving a copy away to one lucky winner.

Other green contest prizes you can win this week include:

The Bloggy Giveaways kicked off this morning and already there are over 450 prizes up for grabs at the website - with more coming. If you've never participated in the Bloggys this is a good time to start. And no worries, as part of the Bloggy rules no one can make you buy stuff - all giveaways must be 100% free.

Ok, in a little bit I'll be back with our regularly scheduled green home posts, but I did want to fill you in on these cool events. I like to try and keep readers up on what's new in the green blogosphere. To make sure you don't miss more news, or other green home posts make sure to subscribe to this blog.

An Earth Day Blast from the Past

deborah — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In 1990 I spent Earth Day at Central Park where I and thousands of others watched the b52s rock out. I was 25 then and this is the first real Earth Day celebration I remember. It was huge and Earth Day was finally being celebrated all over the city - and all over the world. I remember a reporter asking some people sitting near us if they were environmentally conscious all year round, or just for Earth Day and the b52s. The people told him they were very much into the environment, but they left soon after and their soda cans were on the lawn.

I also remember all the people sitting in the trees trying to get a closer look at the show. Speakers such as Ralph Nader and Jane Fonda and the performers kept begging the people not to sit in the trees, but they were still going up there.

I don't now how much of the message was sinking in then, but I'm happy to see it sinking in now.

While we're discussing Earth Day 1990, check out this video from an Earth Day special that same year - it features a young looking Meryl Streep and Kevin Costner:

It may sound smug but I was feeling kind of superior on Earth Day in 1990. My parents recycled since I was a toddler. We used to go on hikes to clean up the Appalachian Trail and we were taught to take care of the earth at a very early age. If that reporter spoke to me that Earth Day I would have told him I thought about the earth year round. And when I left, there would have been nothing left behind.

Image: EarthDayNY.org

Universal Studios' Earth Day Celebration

deborah — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

How does a big Hollywood studio celebrate Earth Day? If you're Universal Studios you'll be celebrating the day with a family friend "Eco Fair."

On Saturday, April 26th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Universal is promising a fun, star-studded family affair featuring "over 30 engaging and educational displays, celebrity appearances, an offer of free parking for hybrid vehicles, and a hazardous waste disposal drive sponsored by the City and County of Los Angeles."

Melora Hardin from "The Office" and Lauren Koslow from "Days of Our Lives" will be on hand to sign eco friendly bags and give out some energy efficient lightbulbs at the Environmental Media Association booth.

Other highlights:

A display featuring "vital impact" reptiles.
Knitting yarns made from organic matter.
Hazardous waste collection - Get all that old motor oil and paint thinner out of your garage.
Displays and presentations from over 30 environmentally friendly businesses.

If you're coming, do drive your hybrid or electric car so you can get in free!

Green Building Link Love - RiverWired Style

jchait — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:35:23 -0400

This week I decided to shine some link love on some of the other cool beans bloggers around RiverWired. However, I wondered, would anyone be discussing green house topics? Yes, as it turns out. Check out these nice finds.

Videos I like:

Grassroots: Collecting Rainwater: Collecting rainwater is something easy you can do at your own home to conserve water and reduce your water costs. This is a nice video explaining all the basics.

Eco-Bunnies: Way too fun. Also, although, don't quote me on it, I'm pretty sure that this video is by the same guys who made this tofu video that I'm obsessed with. (It sounds like them).

Posts I adore:

Hot News About Water Heaters: To learn what could save us millions in water costs check out this post.

Sustainability with a Sense of Style: Not exactly home building related, but I am a green interior junkie, and these bamboo pieces are great.

Checklist for a Green Home: Love checklists, love green homes, so, what's not to love?

Green Design Gets Groovy: A great resource if you'd like to design green & hip.

Which Solar Energy System Saves the Most Money?: You know you want to know.

Green is the New Gold – in the Real Estate Market: All the more reason to build or renovate green.

News you need:

Find The Eco-Career of Your Dreams: Home related jobs included, but more this is just a really cool top ten list.

Hey, by the way, did you hear that Earth Day is coming? I bet you did. Hit this link to find out what the RiverWired team is doing to celebrate and let us know what you'll be doing as well.

What cool links are you reading this week? Leave a comment and let me know.

Honoring Earth Day This Month – With Green Building & Home Ideas

jchait — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:51:49 -0400

Sorry to be MIA readers, I caught my son's bad cold and felt icky for days. I'm feeling a bit perkier now and just in time too because April is a busy month.

As many of you likely know, April is Earth Day month. Technically Earth Day falls on the 22nd, but I tend to look at it as an all month event at my blogs - then I can offer up ideas about how you can celebrate.

I should also let you know that I'm a little ambivalent about Earth Day. On one hand, sure I think it's cool to honor the earth one day a year. On the other hand I think it's lame to honor the earth ONLY one day a year. I wrote a rant about this at Tree Hugging Family - so I won't rehash it here.

I will say that in my opinion, the real way to celebrate Earth Day is to be green all year long. Going green, or planting a tree on a single day can only get us so far. Installing n excellent water heater, using reclaimed wood, recycling our building waste, and using other green building and home techniques are green gifts that give back to the planet not only on Earth Day, but for many years to come.

That said, throughout the month I'll be offering you some ideas about how you can honor the planet all year round (and on Earth Day). We're lucky in one respect because when it comes to green building, there are plenty of great ways to make the entire process greener.

This month, at this blog, look for ways to celebrate Earth Day that relate to your home. We'll look at ideas that work for new homes and existing homes. Ideas related to:

Water use.
Energy applications and use.
Insulation.
Reclaimed materials.
Landscaping.
And more.

Also be sure to check the video section of this site. I've added some videos and hope to add a large amount of new ones this month. I'm picky, so they'll be good videos.

What do you think about Earth Day? Are you celebrating? I hope you're celebrating all year long.