From hiller at alum.mit.edu Thu Feb 2 06:23:09 2006 From: hiller at alum.mit.edu (Marty Hiller) Date: Thu Feb 2 06:20:55 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] estimate of global wind power capacity Message-ID: <8d7a58b8cfe9ceead86b4067a1aeba98@alum.mit.edu> Hi, I just ran across this reassuring estimate of how much wind power is available globally. http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html The page is loaded with mathematical details, but it basically says there's enough wind to power the world at current consumption rates. From the maps, it looks like nearly all of the most promising sites are along the coasts (ocean, bay, large lake.) Hot spots in NY are along the great lakes and on/off Long Island. I'd like to see a transition plan for this. And some sense of how many industrial-size windmills they're actually talking about. My mind boggles at the thought of that long drive where the interstate runs along Lake Erie in western NY & OH, with windmills the whole way. - Marty ------------------------- Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. -- Clarissa Pinkola Estes From mbrown at ithaca.edu Thu Feb 2 06:47:00 2006 From: mbrown at ithaca.edu (Marian Brown) Date: Thu Feb 2 06:47:32 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] estimate of global wind power capacity In-Reply-To: <8d7a58b8cfe9ceead86b4067a1aeba98@alum.mit.edu> References: <8d7a58b8cfe9ceead86b4067a1aeba98@alum.mit.edu> Message-ID: <43E21B64.40309@ithaca.edu> Marty has provided some excellent background information here. For those of you interested in pursuing wind projects locally, you should know about the Tompkins Renewable Energy Education Alliance (TREEA) that formed recently to work on alternative energy projects locally, focusing on wind for the initial stages for precisely the reasons pointed out. New York State has been termed "the Saudi Arabia of Wind", because of our wind profile and potential for sites for wind turbines. For more information on TREEA and what we're about, click here: http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/bclark/TREEA/TREEA.htm Marian Brown Marty Hiller wrote: > Hi, I just ran across this reassuring estimate of how much wind power > is available globally. > > http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html > > The page is loaded with mathematical details, but it basically says > there's enough wind to power the world at current consumption rates. > From the maps, it looks like nearly all of the most promising sites > are along the coasts (ocean, bay, large lake.) Hot spots in NY are > along the great lakes and on/off Long Island. > > I'd like to see a transition plan for this. And some sense of how many > industrial-size windmills they're actually talking about. My mind > boggles at the thought of that long drive where the interstate runs > along Lake Erie in western NY & OH, with windmills the whole way. > - Marty > > ------------------------- > Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of > stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. > -- Clarissa Pinkola Estes > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org From vrockney at tcpl.org Wed Feb 1 12:44:58 2006 From: vrockney at tcpl.org (Valorie Rockney) Date: Thu Feb 2 07:39:48 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Black History Series - Eric Acree presentation Thursday night about Rosa Parks Message-ID: <914EC9C644C1E944934A33B72C171F7937C68B@exchange.Gnosis.int> Hi Everyone, Here is more information about the Library's Black History Month series. It would be great if you'd circulate this email and/or post the attached flier if you have a chance. Hope to see you there! Thanks, Valorie Public Library Hosts Black History Month Series and Exhibit We often think we know all about Rosa Parks, right? Most of us have heard that she was a seamstress who sat down in the front of the bus and refused to get up because she was tired and her feet hurt. It turns out, though, that this often-recounted story isn't really accurate, and that there was actually quite a bit more to the story. Learn the real story of Rosa Parks, and why it is so seldom told, on Thursday, February 2, at 7 pm at the Tompkins County Public Library, as Eric Acree, the Director of the Africana Library at Cornell, hosts a book and video discussion about Rosa Parks. In addition to learning the truth about Rosa Parks, you can get other glimpses into the fascinating world of Black History as the Tompkins County Public Library celebrates Black History Month this February. Visit through words and images the ancient Malian empire, as told and re-told by traditional griots. Live through a revolution in 20th century Burkina Faso, and hear what it has to teach us. Experience the 1927 flooding of the lower Mississippi River, and see with new eyes the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Examine archival photographs and papers documenting the struggles and resourcefulness of the local African American community. All this and more is part of a series called "Four Favorites: Exploring Black History through Words and Images." Each Thursday evening in February, from 7-8:30 pm in the Borg Warner Room East, a Cornell scholar will host a free discussion about a favorite book and companion video. Everyone is welcome to attend whichever discussions they want, and there's no need to have read the book ahead of time. Starting February 1, the History Center's new exhibit, "Black History in Tompkins County: Local Stories of Courage and Triumph," is on display in the library's central display cases. In addition to the Tompkins County Public Library, sponsors of the month's events include The Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, The John Henrik Clarke Africana Library, the Multicultural Resource Center and The History Center in Tompkins County. Dates & Presenters: February 2nd, Eric Acree, Africana Librarian, Cornell University Book: She Would Not Be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, by Herbert Kohl. Video: Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks. The truth about the real Rosa Parks: her life, her philosophy, and her political activism. Includes a newly updated teachers' guide to evaluating materials about the civil rights movement. February 9th, Ayele Bekerie, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies & Research Center, Cornell University. Book: Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Video: Keita: The Heritage of the Griot. This story of Sundiata, who unified the twelve kingdoms of Mali to create a powerful empire, brings 13th century Africa to life, as retold by traditional griots. February 16th, Carina Ray, Ph.D. Candidate in African History, History Department, Cornell University. Book: Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87. Video: Thomas Sankara. Thomas Sankara set a model for African development by leading a popular revolutionary government in Burkina Faso, to address the hunger, illiteracy, and economic hardship that were a legacy of colonialism. February 23rd, Margaret Washington, Professor, History Department, Cornell University Book: Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Video: Fatal Flood. This dramatic yet little-known story of greed, power, race and natural disaster shows how "ineptitude and greed helped cause the flood," and how "human behavior proved more destructive than the swollen river itself" (Amazon). The parallels with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are unmistakable. For more information: Valorie Rockney, 272-4557 ex. 219, vrockney@tcpl.org. -30- From burns at panix.com Thu Feb 2 09:12:52 2006 From: burns at panix.com (burns@panix.com) Date: Thu Feb 2 09:34:44 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] (no subject) Message-ID: <59077.216.162.28.201.1138900372.squirrel@mail.panix.com> FINGER LAKES foods brochure From: "Michael Burns" To: fingerlakespermaculture@lists.mutualaid.org, sustainabletompkins@lists.mutualaid.org Cc: DLT22@cornell.edu User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.5 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal >From the Elmira Star-Gazette: AROUND THE LAKES January 30, 2006 FINGER LAKES Resources needed for foods brochure Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung, Cortland, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins counties is updating the "Guide to Foods Produced in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes." The guide is a resource for consumers to locate local producers of cheese, eggs, poultry and meat products, honey, maple and other sweet products, specialty foods, baked good and more. There also is a listing of pick-your-own produce farms, farm markets, roadside stands and community-supported agriculture farms. There is no cost to be included in the guide. Information: Contact Debbie Teeter at the Tompkins County office at 607/272-2292 or email DLT22@cornell.edu, by Feb. 17. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael Burns http://www.cayuta.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Earn your permaculture design certificate. The Finger Lakes Permacuture Institute offers affordable local classes. Go to: http://www.flpci.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From burns at panix.com Thu Feb 2 11:52:43 2006 From: burns at panix.com (Michael Burns) Date: Thu Feb 2 11:53:14 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] FINGER LAKES foods brochure Message-ID: <7747.216.162.28.201.1138909963.squirrel@mail.panix.com> >From the Elmira Star-Gazette: AROUND THE LAKES January 30, 2006 FINGER LAKES Resources needed for foods brochure Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung, Cortland, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins counties is updating the "Guide to Foods Produced in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes." The guide is a resource for consumers to locate local producers of cheese, eggs, poultry and meat products, honey, maple and other sweet products, specialty foods, baked good and more. There also is a listing of pick-your-own produce farms, farm markets, roadside stands and community-supported agriculture farms. There is no cost to be included in the guide. Information: Contact Debbie Teeter at the Tompkins County office at 607/272-2292 or email DLT22@cornell.edu, by Feb. 17. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael Burns http://www.cayuta.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Earn your permaculture design certificate. The Finger Lakes Permacuture Institute offers affordable local classes. Go to: http://www.flpci.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From dnr6 at cornell.edu Fri Feb 3 14:49:28 2006 From: dnr6 at cornell.edu (Daniel Roth) Date: Fri Feb 3 14:50:31 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Audubon International's Sustainable Community Campaign Message-ID: > > Audubon International Launches Sustainable Communities Campaign > In order to achieve our goal of fostering more sustainable communities, > Audubon International has launched the Sustainable Communities > Campaign. > Through the campaign, we are establishing partnerships with > universities, > businesses, government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, and > citizens > to establish a network of people and organizations dedicated to a > sustainable future. > > Audubon International is dedicated to protecting and sustaining land, > water, > wildlife, and natural resources by fostering more sustainable human and > natural communities. However, the issues associated with > sustainability are > very complex. By forming partnerships and by working together, we can > move > toward more sustainable lifestyles. We are pleased to offer an > electronic > version of our Sustainable Communities Campaign newsletter, which is > designed to highlight many of the activities and positive results of > our > participating partners. We appreciate your interest and hope you > will help > us spread the word and identify other potential partners. (For more > information: http://www.auduboncommunities.org ) > > Global Organics First SCC Target Watershed Sponsor > Global Organics of Goodyear, Arizona, has become the first Sustainable > Communities Campaign Watershed Sponsor. Global Organics has an > international reputation as a formulator of organic plant foods and > soil > conditioners for both organic and conventional growers. Customers > include > one of the world's largest producers of organically grown table grapes > and > one of California's largest stone fruit producers, both of whom have > been > using BioFlora products for the last decade. > > Global Organics is sponsoring the Southern Coastal California > Watershed. > Because of Global Organics' sponsorship, Audubon International will > now be > able to reach out to universities, businesses, governmental agencies, > and > not-for-profits in Coastal Southern California to establish additional > partnerships in that region that will be aimed directly at promoting > regional sustainability. (For more information: > http://www.auduboncommunities.org/regional/watersheds/ > southerncaliforniacoas > tal.htm ) > > Surf Your Region & Surf for Native Plants > As part of its Sustainable Communities Campaign, Audubon International > has > developed a user-friendly web tool to promote sustainable land > management. > This tool simplifies choosing regional native plants for landscaping > projects throughout the United States. > > The use of native plants can reduce our dependence on water as well as > promote other sustainable management practices. For example, the use > of > native plants benefits wildlife species that depend on those particular > plants for many of their biological needs. The tool allows people to > type > in their zip code and search for plants that are native to their > specific > area. At present, the native plant database is restricted to the > lower 48 > United States. However, in the near future, it will include native > plants > of Canada and Portugal and will continue to be expanded to include > other > countries. (For more information: > http://www.auduboncommunities.org/regional/search/ ) > > The University of Florida Joins Audubon International as a Sustainable > Communities Campaign Partner > The University of Florida has joined with Audubon International as a > partner > in the Sustainable Communities Campaign. The partnership with the > University of Florida began nearly three years ago prior to the > initiation > of the Sustainable Communities Campaign and resulted in the creation > of the > University of Florida's Program for Resource Efficient Communities. > > When Ron Dodson, president of Audubon International, originally met > with > representatives of the University of Florida, he asked the question, > "How > would an ordinary citizen access the wealth of information available > at the > University of Florida? It seems like a lot of buildings with all > sorts of > people and departments, but where does a person go first?" That > question > prompted more discussion, and, nearly a year later, the Program for > Resource > Efficient Communities was created as a new outreach program for the > University of Florida. The Program for Resource Efficient Communities > brings together the talents within the university and makes them > available > to the citizens of the state. > > In addition, as a result of ongoing discussions with Audubon > International, > it became clear that the University's environmental goals were similar > to > those of the Sustainable Communities Campaign. Consequently, the > University > of Florida decided to become more active in sustainable activities > beginning > with their main campus in Gainesville. As a result, the University of > Florida Gainesville campus recently became the first university campus > certified as an Audubon International Certified Cooperative Sanctuary. > (For more information: > http://www.auduboncommunities.org/partners/university.htm > > University of Alaska Pledges to Be the Best > It is a long way from the warm tropical winds of Florida to the > Arctic, but > sustainability issues are prevalent everywhere. Audubon International > is > very excited about the preliminary stages of developing a partnership > with > the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. A Sustainability Working Group has > already been created and is comprised of administration > representatives, > faculty members, students, and local citizens. In addition, the > University > of Alaska-Fairbanks has undertaken an assessment of issues connected > with > sustainability and their Fairbanks and Rural Campus structure. > > Plans are now underway for developing "The Sustainable University of > the > Northern Latitudes." The goal of the university is to "walk-the-walk > and to > talk-the-talk" of sustainability. Chancellor Steve Jones said, "We are > America's northern most land, sea, and space grant university. While > Alaska > is a magnificent place, it is always changing. The University of > Alaska-Fairbanks must take the lead in providing the best education, > research, and assistance to help all Alaskans reach their potential. > At the > same time, it is our responsibility to sustain Alaskan lifestyles and > this > globally significant jewel that we are privileged to live in." (For > more > information: http://www.uaf.edu/chancellor/report/2005/Sept05.html > > The Sustainable Communities Campaign Targets Watersheds > Through the Sustainable Communities Campaign, Audubon International has > targeted several U.S. watersheds to promote increased partnership > activity. > "These watersheds have been chosen because they all harbor significant > ecological resources and they are also areas where tremendous > population > growth is taking place," said R. Eric Dodson, Manager of the > Sustainable > Communities Campaign. Audubon International efforts are aimed at > getting > people and organizations to work together toward a common set of goals > associated with more sustainable communities. It is aimed at 1) > sharing > information with our various constituents, 2) learning from the > positive > actions taken by others, and 3) encouraging and motivating more > personal > involvement in sustainable resource management, community planning, and > development. > > Audubon International has created certification programs to work with > and > assist people where they live, work, and recreate, and recognize those > who > take positive environmental action. "Audubon International has > participating members in each of our targeted watersheds, but they are > only > a small percentage of the entire watershed. We are committed to > promoting > the positive actions that are taking place and to reaching out to > encourage > others to join us." Dodson concluded. (For more information: > http://www.auduboncommunities.org/regional/watersheds.htm ) > > > The Diamond Portfolio > Becoming an Audubon International Certified Gold Signature Sanctuary > is the > most prestigious designation available for companies that are involved > in > building new developments. Recently, Audubon International has > developed a > complex rating system that allows and encourages projects to strive > toward > the highest standards of sustainability. The Three Diamond Rating > system is > based on a 1, 2, or 3 diamond designation with 3 diamonds being the > highest > rating offered. > > Currently, there are only three "Certified Audubon Gold Signature > Sanctuary-3 Diamond" facilities in the world: The Old Collier Club in > Naples, Florida; the Oitavos Golfe Club located in Sintra-Cascais > National > Park, close to the Guincho beach and surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean; > and > the Sanctuary, a Crescent Resources Residential Housing Community > located on > Lake Wylie in Charlotte, N.C. In an effort to showcase the properties > that > have achieved this prestigious designation, the Sustainable Communities > Campaign has created a special webpage that provides direct links to > those > projects' Web pages. (For more information: > http://www.auduboncommunities.org/portfolio.htm ) > > > > > Eric Dodson > Manager, Sustainable Communities Campaign > Audubon International > P.O. Box 1827 > Dunedin, FL 34697 > (518) 767-9051 > > http://www.auduboninternational.org > > Fostering more sustainable natural and human communities one person, > one > place at a time - http://www.auduboncommunities.org > -------------- next part -------------- > _______________________________________________ > SteerComm mailing list > SteerComm@list.ncseonline.org > http://list.ncseonline.org/mailman/listinfo/steercomm From rlg2 at cornell.edu Fri Feb 3 16:27:20 2006 From: rlg2 at cornell.edu (Robinne Gray) Date: Fri Feb 3 16:27:38 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Cornell is *selling* its solar house Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060203192501.01e7fd28@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> ST folks are probably on top of this, but just in case the word isn't out...see below. Would love to see the thing put to good use! It would seem the place could be put to good use. Site it by the resource hub and rent it for long weekends....raffle off stays as a fundraiser.... There's a flyer I could forward to interested parties, but it's a big file because of the image. ~Robinne >Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 14:33:54 -0500 (EST) >Subject: Solar House >From: "Alexandra Noel Hollinger" > > Cornell is proud to offer the fully furnished, second place recipient >of the 2005 Solar Decathlon for public sale. This is a unique house >that was built to feature a sustainable lifestyle, incorporating >Passive Solar, Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal technologies. The >interior of the home is incorporated with the outdoors through the use >of large folding doors which provide expansive views during the winter >and open the interior spaces to the outside during the summer. This >extremely innovative, forward looking, environmentally friendly >building is also constructed of the highest quality materials and >stocked with state of the art appliances and amenities. > > Attached, please find an information flyer that will give you >additional details of this unique opportunity. If you are interested >in learning more, please call or email Tom LiVigne (Tel. 607-266-7871; >email: TPL6@cornell.edu). > From alh54 at cornell.edu Mon Feb 6 17:50:58 2006 From: alh54 at cornell.edu (Allison Jack) Date: Mon Feb 6 17:51:23 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] award winning solar house for sale Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060206205009.03c04530@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Thought people on this listserve might be interested, Allison Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 14:33:54 -0500 (EST) >>Subject: Solar House >>X-PH: V4.1@postoffice10 >>From: "Alexandra Noel Hollinger" >>To: anh24@cornell.edu >>User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.5 >> >> Cornell is proud to offer the fully furnished, second place recipient >>of the 2005 Solar Decathlon for public sale. This is a unique house >>that was built to feature a sustainable lifestyle, incorporating >>Passive Solar, Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal technologies. The >>interior of the home is incorporated with the outdoors through the use >>of large folding doors which provide expansive views during the winter >>and open the interior spaces to the outside during the summer. This >>extremely innovative, forward looking, environmentally friendly >>building is also constructed of the highest quality materials and >>stocked with state of the art appliances and amenities. >> >> Attached, please find an information flyer that will give you >>additional details of this unique opportunity. If you are interested >>in learning more, please call or email Tom LiVigne (Tel. 607-266-7871; >>email: TPL6@cornell.edu). ********************************************************************************************************************************* Allison L. H. Jack Graduate Student 335 Plant Science Department of Plant Pathology Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 273-5762 alh54@cornell.edu ********************************************************************************************************************************** From alh54 at cornell.edu Mon Feb 6 18:05:29 2006 From: alh54 at cornell.edu (Allison Jack) Date: Mon Feb 6 18:05:43 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education: Ricardo Salvador to speak at Cornell Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060206205629.03c31d18@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Hi everyone, I'm involved with a student group at Cornell (New World Agriculture and Ecology Group - international website: www.nwaeg.org) that is putting together a semester long seminar series on sustainable agriculture education. We're hoping to continue a dialogue on campus about how we could add more of a sustainability focus to our agricultural science educational programs at Cornell by learning from the successful programs at other universities. The Friday seminar is free and open to the public, and I think would be of interest to many of the people on this list. Dr. Salvador was involved in the creation of a sustainable agriculture program at Iowa State (a land grant institution like Cornell). He will be telling us about his experiences starting and running the program. I know the Cornell Community would benefit from the perspective that the Ithaca Community can offer, so it would be great if some of you were there. Please contact me if you have any questions about the event. -Allison The Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education Seminar Series presents: "Iowa State University's Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture: A Sketch of Its History and Immediate Challenges." Dr. Ricardo Salvador Program Director for Food Systems and Rural Development W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek MI Associate Professor of Agronomy and Sustainable Agriculture Iowa State University, Ames IA Friday, Feb 10, 2006 12:20-1:10; 404 Plant Science Building Ricardo Salvador served as Chair of Iowa State University's Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture from 2001 to 2003. Graduate and undergraduate courses he has taught at Iowa State University include Agroecosystems Analysis, Sustainable Agriculture, Advanced Crop Production, Crop Physiology and World Food Issues. He has served as the Coordinator of the Agronomy Department's endowed Global Agricultural Science and Policy Initiative (2000 - 2005), and Faculty Director of the University Honors Program (2004 - 2005), and in 1995 was awarded the Teaching Award of Merit from the National Association of College Teachers in Agriculture. Ricardo will present another seminar Thursday, Feb 9th in 135 Emerson Hall entitled "Ecological Footprint of Iowa Row Crop Agriculture." A pizza lunch for graduate students will follow the Thursday seminar. Contact Megan O'Rourke at meo27@cornell.edu for more information about the pizza lunch, or if you would like to meet with Ricardo. Seminars are Free and Open to the Cornell Community! Funded in part by the GPSAFC. Co-Sponsored by: New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG) at Cornell, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences; Department of Horticulture, Cornell Small Farm Program; the Community, Food and Agriculture Program; the Community Food Systems Program; the GPSAFC, and the Community and Rural Development Institute. For more information contact Julie at jmg225 or Allison at alh54 ********************************************************************************************************************************* Allison L. H. Jack Graduate Student 335 Plant Science Department of Plant Pathology Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 273-5762 alh54@cornell.edu ********************************************************************************************************************************** From tonydelplato at gmail.com Tue Feb 7 06:51:21 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Tue Feb 7 06:51:44 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Feds Say the Darnedest Things Message-ID: *The following is from current edition of The Grist Magazine, a great & amusing environmental journal. Tony Feds Say the Darnedest Things* *Bush's quasi-bold pronouncements on oil prompt criticism, backpedaling* In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush declared that "America is addicted to oil" and that he would "make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Within 24 hours, fiasco ensued. Saudi Arabia's ambassador said he would ask Bush, ahem, "what he exactly meant by that." Oil industry lobbyists squealed; libertarians nigh fainted. Energy experts (read: the literate) pointed out that most of the R&D programs mentioned in the speech -- "clean coal," nuclear, wind, solar, etc. -- are designed to generate electricity and wouldn't have any effect on oil consumption. And to cap off the furor with appropriate absurdity, administration officials said Bush's declaration that the U.S. would cut its Middle East oil imports 75 percent by 2025 was not meant to be taken literally. It was meant to dramatize the issue in a way "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." So ... lies lead to understanding. We're starting to get the whole WMD thing! *straight to the source:* Knight Ridder News Service, Kevin G. Hall, 01 Feb 2006 *straight to the source:* *The Christian Science Monitor*, Mark Clayton, 02 Feb 2006 *straight to the source:* *The New York Times*, Elisabeth Bumiller, 02 Feb 2006 -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From joel.and.sarah.gagnon at lightlink.com Tue Feb 7 08:26:00 2006 From: joel.and.sarah.gagnon at lightlink.com (Joel and Sarah Gagnon) Date: Tue Feb 7 08:34:02 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Feds Say the Darnedest Things In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <5.2.1.1.2.20060207112516.021d39d0@pop.lightlink.com> A tantalizing tidbit. Did you mean to include more? Joel Gagnon At 09:51 AM 2/7/06 -0500, you wrote: >*The following is from current edition of The Grist Magazine, a great & >amusing environmental journal. >Tony > >Feds Say the Darnedest Things* >*Bush's quasi-bold pronouncements on oil prompt criticism, backpedaling* > > In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush declared that >"America is addicted to oil" and that he would "make our dependence on >Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Within 24 hours, fiasco ensued. >Saudi Arabia's ambassador said he would ask Bush, ahem, "what he exactly >meant by that." Oil industry lobbyists squealed; libertarians nigh fainted. >Energy experts (read: the literate) pointed out that most of the R&D >programs mentioned in the speech -- "clean coal," nuclear, wind, solar, etc From dnr6 at cornell.edu Tue Feb 7 09:06:35 2006 From: dnr6 at cornell.edu (Daniel Roth) Date: Tue Feb 7 09:50:47 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Ecovillage, 2 rooms for rent NOW! Message-ID: <6bda031404fed7431c1a0e7c5e5fd959@cornell.edu> > Hello friends An unexpected departure of my two housemates has left open two open rooms for rent here at my place. If you are interested in living in an amazing model of sustainable community living please consider at least calling and hearing more about it, and maybe using this as an excuse to come visit. See the description below for contact info for Chris, my housemate and lovely land lady. Hope you can pass this along to other potential renters since this whole situation just fell in our laps. Thanks Dan Roth > > Live in 'EcoVillage at Ithaca' - a world-reknowned > experiment in sustainable community. Beautiful > timberframe home, supportive household & lively > community 2 mi. up W. Hill on 176 acres of land w/ > pond, trails, sauna & farm. $425 incl. utilities, > internet, laundry & more. 2 rooms avail.; Move-in date > neg. Contact CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 or > chrssophia@yahoo.com. > From glynn at tdarchitects.com Tue Feb 7 11:11:46 2006 From: glynn at tdarchitects.com (Glynn Bebee) Date: Tue Feb 7 11:12:20 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] From Microwave to Wind Turbine Message-ID: <000001c62c1a$58ecbec0$6601a8c0@Gateway600YGR> Microwave oven to wind turbine...at a self-reported 8 cents per watt...for "watt" it's worth ;-) http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/microwave_wind_generator.htm What's being built in shop class at IHS? From mdestries at gmail.com Tue Feb 7 11:44:56 2006 From: mdestries at gmail.com (Michael d'Estries) Date: Tue Feb 7 11:45:29 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Feds Say the Darnedest Things In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.2.20060207112516.021d39d0@pop.lightlink.com> References: <5.2.1.1.2.20060207112516.021d39d0@pop.lightlink.com> Message-ID: <470a07250602071144veb82ac0mddbb07343688a267@mail.gmail.com> Are Hybrids too quiet? Interesting discussion on the topic occuring over at Ithaca's own Groovy Green (www.groovygreen.com) Check out the finer points here: http://groovy.movingtonz.com/type/?p=400 Best, Michael On 2/7/06, Joel and Sarah Gagnon wrote: > > A tantalizing tidbit. Did you mean to include more? > > Joel Gagnon > > At 09:51 AM 2/7/06 -0500, you wrote: > >*The following is from current edition of The Grist Magazine, a great & > >amusing environmental journal. > >Tony > > > >Feds Say the Darnedest Things* > >*Bush's quasi-bold pronouncements on oil prompt criticism, backpedaling* > > > > In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush declared > that > >"America is addicted to oil" and that he would "make our dependence on > >Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Within 24 hours, fiasco ensued. > >Saudi Arabia's ambassador said he would ask Bush, ahem, "what he exactly > >meant by that." Oil industry lobbyists squealed; libertarians nigh > fainted. > >Energy experts (read: the literate) pointed out that most of the R&D > >programs mentioned in the speech -- "clean coal," nuclear, wind, solar, > etc > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > From tonydelplato at gmail.com Tue Feb 7 12:43:47 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Tue Feb 7 12:44:19 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Feds Say the Darnedest Things In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.2.20060207112516.021d39d0@pop.lightlink.com> References: <5.2.1.1.2.20060207112516.021d39d0@pop.lightlink.com> Message-ID: That's all there was. Tony On 2/7/06, Joel and Sarah Gagnon wrote: > > A tantalizing tidbit. Did you mean to include more? > > Joel Gagnon > > At 09:51 AM 2/7/06 -0500, you wrote: > >*The following is from current edition of The Grist Magazine, a great & > >amusing environmental journal. > >Tony > > > >Feds Say the Darnedest Things* > >*Bush's quasi-bold pronouncements on oil prompt criticism, backpedaling* > > > > In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush declared > that > >"America is addicted to oil" and that he would "make our dependence on > >Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Within 24 hours, fiasco ensued. > >Saudi Arabia's ambassador said he would ask Bush, ahem, "what he exactly > >meant by that." Oil industry lobbyists squealed; libertarians nigh > fainted. > >Energy experts (read: the literate) pointed out that most of the R&D > >programs mentioned in the speech -- "clean coal," nuclear, wind, solar, > etc > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From ebauchne at twcny.rr.com Tue Feb 7 13:25:12 2006 From: ebauchne at twcny.rr.com (Elizabeth Bauchner) Date: Tue Feb 7 13:26:06 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Molly Ivins: Push for Every Intendance is Just a Punch-Line Message-ID: <000001c62c2d$009e90a0$6401a8c0@RasMama> Molly Ivins gets a little more in-depth regarding Bush's speech... EB Published on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 by Working For Change Republican Jokers: Push For Energy Independence Is Just A Punch-Line by Molly Ivins I like to think that Republicans are having fun. They're such cards. What a wheeze, what a jape. Talking about energy independence in the State of the Union Address! President Bush said, "America is addicted to oil" and, we will "break this addiction." Oh what a good trick to see if anyone thought he actually meant it! I'm not going to embarrass the perennial suckers who fell for it by identifying them, but I assure you they include some well-known names in journalism. Boy, I bet they feel like fools, having written those optimistic columns pointing to how Bush had made a fine proposal -- cut oil imports from the Middle East by 75 percent by 2025 -- and people should take it seriously and stop dissing him. Of course, the next day the administration trotted out Energy Secretary Sam Bodman and Alan Hubbard, director of the president's National Economic Council, to assure us the president didn't mean it. Bodman explained, "That was purely an example." A 'for instance.' Like, we could set a goal like that. Actually, we could do that without breaking a sweat: set fuel efficiency standards at 40 miles per gallon in 10 years (hybrids already get higher mileage now), and you save 2.5 million barrels a day, just what we import now from the Mideast. According to Knight Ridder, "Asked why the president used the words 'the Middle East' when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that 'every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands.' The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him into trouble." Aw. Let's see, Bush lied so "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." It's our fault. We're so dumb, if he doesn't lie, we don't get it. Of course, those sophisticates who pay attention to stuff like the budget, where they decide how to spend the money, were already aware that the $150 million (a truly pitiful amount by Washington standards) Bush promised would go to making biofuels more competitive is $50 million less than what was in last year's budget for that purpose. But, you are not to assume that Bush has given up on the Dick Cheney plan to drill our way to energy independence just because he didn't mention it in his speech. Last month, the Department of Interior released a plan that will open 590,000 acres in Alaska's Western Arctic Reserve for drilling. The land has been protected for decades. The head of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Alaska Project, Chuck Clusen, said: "Scientists, sportsmen and conservation groups all agree we should protect the last 13 percent of the most sensitive habitat in the Western Arctic's Northeast area. Eighty-seven percent was already open. The Bureau of Land Management decided to hand all of it over to the oil companies. ... We can drill every last acre of wilderness, and it won't make us any more secure. We only have 3 percent of the world's oil, and the Middle East has 66 percent. Do the math. We can't drill our way to energy independence." What a good joke. And this guy Boehner, John Boehner, the new Republican majority leader, elected because of Tom DeLay's unfortunate indictment, what a gagster this guy is, what a zany madcap. He ran as a reform candidate! Har, har, har, har! This is a guy who's up to his neck in the K Street Project, in which conservative lobbyists and politicians walk hand-in-hand. Boehner has such a highly developed sense of ethics, he once distributed checks from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House of Representatives. But now that he's been elected, it's time to get serious, and Boehner has already backed away from Speaker Dennis Hastert's proposal to actually ban (gasp!) gifts and trips from lobbyists. Boehner figures it's enough just to report them. That'll take care of everything. I tell you, this bunch of cut-ups just keeps the fun coming. Just a few weeks ago, the House of Representatives cut $16 billion from Medicaid over 10 years, which means states will increase co-payments on poor people and drop preventive care -- which will cost more in the long run, but what the hey? They also cut $12.7 billion in student aid and loan programs over five years, because who needs that? And cut another $1.5 billion in child support enforcement in the next year, which is positively brilliant and will result in a drop of at least $8.4 billion in child support collected over the next 10 years. Oh, and a measly cut of $577 million in foster care over five years, making it harder to take care of neglected and abused children, who probably did something to deserve it in the first place. Now here's a little howler: Bush proposes cutting $36 billion from Medicare over the next five years only ... wait for it ... he's not cutting the money, he's saving it! A $36 billion Medicare savings. That's so clever. Molly Ivins is the former editor of the liberal monthly The Texas Observer . She is the bestselling author of several books including Who Let the Dogs In? C 2006 Creators Syndicate Elizabeth Bauchner Editor, Ithaca Community News http://www.ithacanews.org Freelance Writer http://www.elizabethbauchner.info From ebauchne at twcny.rr.com Tue Feb 7 17:17:27 2006 From: ebauchne at twcny.rr.com (Elizabeth Bauchner) Date: Tue Feb 7 17:17:51 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Molly Ivins: Push for Every Intendance is Just a Punch-Line In-Reply-To: <000001c62c2d$009e90a0$6401a8c0@RasMama> Message-ID: <000501c62c4d$715f4210$6401a8c0@RasMama> Whoa, the original subject line should have read: Molly Ivins: Push for Energy Independence Just a Punch Line EB Elizabeth Bauchner Editor, Ithaca Community News http://www.ithacanews.org Freelance Writer http://www.elizabethbauchner.info -----Original Message----- From: sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org [mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Bauchner Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 4:25 PM To: 'Sustainable Tompkins County listserv' Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Molly Ivins: Push for Every Intendance is Just a Punch-Line From Cnielsen56 at aol.com Tue Feb 7 19:16:14 2006 From: Cnielsen56 at aol.com (Cnielsen56@aol.com) Date: Tue Feb 7 19:16:34 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] God's Green Soldiers (this week's NEWSWEEK) Message-ID: <1ec.4abd3ec2.311abc7e@aol.com> _http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11179145/site/newsweek/_ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11179145/site/newsweek/) God's Green Soldiers A new call to combat global warming triggers soul-searching and controversy among evangelicals. By Karen Breslau and Martha Brant Newsweek Feb. 13, 2006 issue - In a town where access is everything, the Rev. Richard Cizik's calendar would be the envy of even the hardest-hitting Washington player. One day last week his schedule included the National Prayer Breakfast with President George W. Bush, a luncheon with King Abdullah II of Jordan and a cozy evening reception at the home of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Between meetings, Cizik hobnobbed with U2 lead singer Bono, in town to advocate for Third World debt relief. Shaking the rock star's hand as eager senators circled for their photo op, Cizik managed to swiftly preach his own gospel. "Global hunger and global warming are inescapably linked. You know that," Cizik said. "Absolutely," replied Bono. Cizik, who first arrived in Washington in 1980 as a foot soldier for the Moral Majority, is a self-described "Reagan movement conservative" and Bush supporter, who opposes abortion, gay marriage and embryonic-stem-cell research. He promotes those positions as vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the lobbying group that represents 30 million American Christians and more than 50 denominations. But in recent years, Cizik, 54, has also been at the forefront of a Biblically inspired environmental movement known as Creation Care, which holds that Christians have an obligation, described in the Book of Genesis, to "replenish the Earth" as God's stewards. "This is not a Red State issue or a Blue State issue or a green issue," Cizik says. "It's a spiritual issue." And a controversial one. Until now, the movement has emphasized the individual responsibility of Christians to conserve. But this week a coalition of leading evangelicals will issue "An Evangelical Call to Action," asking Congress and the Bush administration to combat global warming by restricting carbon-dioxide emissions. "Christians must care about climate change because we love God the Creator," it reads. The challenge to the Bush administration?which rejects mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions as economically harmful? has caused a major rift within evangelical circles. Last week the president of NAE, the Rev. Ted Haggard, announced that the group would not endorse the document, since it was not unanimously approved by members. And Cizik says NAE executives instructed him to remove his own name from full-page newspaper ads promoting the "Call to Action." Conservative critics of the document, including the Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, say the global-warming science is inconclusive and the issue doesn't belong on the evangelists' agenda. "It's a distraction when families are falling apart and abortion continues as a great evil," says Tom Minnery, director of Dobson's political-action group. But the "Call to Action" has been endorsed by dozens of Christian heavy hitters, including the country's leading megachurch pastor, the Rev. Rick Warren, as well as the presidents of major Christian colleges and denominations. Roman Catholic and Jewish groups have also embraced the cause, but it's the evangelicals, with their close ties to the GOP, who "have the power to move the debate," says John Green, of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "They could produce policies more palatable to people who have not been moved by secular environmental groups." The eco-evangelists tend to favor market-based approaches. "We are all for doing this in the most efficient, technological way that creates jobs," says the Rev. Jim Ball, of the Evangelical Environmental Network, who helped draft the document. Cizik, who came to believe the global-warming science only in recent years, says stirring the debate is his Christian duty. "Isn't it the task of the Biblical believer to warn society, not just about sin, but about mortal threats to our very being?" If it is, he's up to the job. ? 2006 Newsweek, Inc. From elansla at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us Wed Feb 8 10:46:40 2006 From: elansla at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us (Elan Shapiro) Date: Wed Feb 8 10:47:20 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Sustainable Tompkins Community Gathering Thu 2/9: Rethinking Fashion Message-ID: RETHINKING FASHION IN A SUSTAINABLE CULTURE Sustainable Tompkins invites you to our February community networking and learning event thisThursday February 9 from 6:00 to 8:30 at the Old Jail Bldg. Conference Rooms 125 Court St. near Tioga. We'll begin with an informal potluck dinner - hopefully including many locally grown and produced foods - and a chance to share in a go-around our current interests in the area of personal and/or community sustainability. After a brief introduction to Sustainable Tompkins' current projects and programs, we will explore how individuals and families can pursue sustainable clothing and fashion choices. Recognizing the underside of the clothing industry - from the pesticides used in the cultivation of cotton to the plight of sweatshop workers - can motivate us to reconsider what we wear and how we obtain it. It is possible to be comfortably dressed, express a personal style, save money, or even be on the leading edge of fashion, while being an earth-friendly consumer. Organizers of an upcoming "sustainable style" design contest and fashion show will announce the start of the contest and open a group discussion on how to promote organic and fair trade clothing, eco-chic fashions, clothing swaps, re-fashioning new styles from old garments, and other environmentally-conscious actions. Building on last month's exciting work on the "social marketing of sustainability" , participants will be invited to share relevant knowledge and brainstorm effective ways to link these ideas to a broader audience. This is a chance to get to know - and collaborate with - others who also wonder how best to engage people in crucial issues and hopeful solutions that directly affect ALL of us. Please join us and invite a friend or two! For more information, contact Elan Shapiro elansla@ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us, 607-275-0249. -- Elan Shapiro Sustainable Living Associates and Frog's Way B&B 211 Rachel Carson Way Ithaca, NY 14850 607-275-0249 "We must be the change we want to see in the world" Mohandas Gandhi From mdestries at gmail.com Wed Feb 8 11:24:51 2006 From: mdestries at gmail.com (Michael d'Estries) Date: Wed Feb 8 11:58:17 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Help Raise Money For Green Efforts By Sponsoring GroovyGreen in 24 Hour Event! Message-ID: <470a07250602081124p2057d0a5weede4bc12acc743c@mail.gmail.com> Hello Ithaca! GroovyGreen.com (a local blog that posts about local sustainability efforts, world green news, and other topics of interest) is holding a 24 blog-a-thon to help raise money for the Nature Conservancy's 'Adopt-An-Acre' of Rainforest program. Each acre costs $75 and we're hoping to hit at least one! **Starting February 24th at 8pm, the GG crew will being posting at least 2 stories per hour. Based on topics, creativity, local stories, and other surprises, there may be more than 50 posts when we finish 24 hours later at 8pm on the 25th. How can you help? Sponsor us! Any pledge would be welcome. It could be a dollar per post or a penny! Either way, we're looking for support on something that is both fun, educational, and rewarding with regards to sustainability. This is also an excellent opportunity to submit news about a local project or event occuring locally! All topics welcome! Every person, business, or organization will receive recognition in our revised website header for the week leading up to and after the event. Logos or other graphics are welcomed! We will update more on this exciting event as it draws closer. Anyone have any extra coffee to donate? Please email mdestries@gmail.com to arrange a pledge or some other form of support! We look forward to representing everything Ithaca has to offer the world-wide Green community and would love your input! Hope to see you on the 24th! Best, Michael www.groovygreen.com From GayNicholson at aol.com Wed Feb 8 17:37:24 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Wed Feb 8 17:37:51 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] intergenerational car sharing? Message-ID: <2b9.43d3d29.311bf6d4@aol.com> This idea may be a way to get a car share initiated -- by adding in a component of reciprocating driving services..... from the February 07, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0207/p03s03-ussc.html No longer driving, but as mobile as ever A program in Maine lets seniors trade in their cars for rides 24/7 when they opt to hand in the keys. By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WESTBROOK, MAINE - Because of failing eyesight, Mary Alice Crabb had to give up driving almost a decade ago. So when she lost her husband four years ago, she also lost her only transportation. She relied on friends at first but soon felt she was a burden. Her situation improved, however, when she joined Independent Transportation Network (ITN), a nonprofit program that lets seniors trade in their cars for rides. "I call them up, and say, 'I need a mall fix,' " she says, laughing, as driver Beth Paulsen- Olmstead takes her from a hair salon to a Portland-area mall. "I'd be lost without them." With 78 million baby boomers nearing retirement, local and state leaders are scrambling to devise transportation alternatives for seniors. The goal? Get them off the road when they no longer should drive, yet keep them integrated in their communities. How old is too old to drive? Debate intensifies after tragedies, like the one in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2003 when an 86-year-old plowed into a busy farmers' market, killing 10 people. But, as life expectancies grow, so does the need to help seniors keep their routines - from stocking the fridge to seeing friends. "Transportation is the No. 1 issue you hear going around to communities where seniors live," says Greg Olsen, legislative and policy director in the office of New York Rep. Steven Englebright, especially as society pushes back against institutional care. "To keep seniors in their homes and in their communities it takes housing and case management and other services," says Mr. Olsen. "The cornerstone of all of that is transportation." Programs across the country offer seniors incentives to give up their keys. Perhaps the most effective is the ITN model, which, because of its flexibility and availability to all income levels, is quickly expanding nationwide. The service, which began in Portland in 1995, provided more than 15,200 rides there last year with four cars, operated by 50 volunteers and six paid part-time drivers. Seniors can trade in their cars to the program and use the money to pay for rides, which average about $8. Family and friends can add to their accounts by donating time as volunteers, or by donating cars or cash. The service is available 24/7. Katherine Freund, who founded the program as an outgrowth of her graduate school project, says the key is that it uses no taxpayer money. Even if society wants all seniors to be entitled to transportation, she says, there is not enough money to meet that goal. That is how she came up with the model of a car trade-in. "I thought, 'here is all this equity depreciating in driveways from coast to coast,' " she says. Ms. Freund says she has been contacted by thousands of communities, policymakers, and the adult children of seniors worried about their parents on the road. Last year, four communities launched ITN affiliates: Mercer County, N.J., Santa Monica, Calif., Orlando, Fla., and Charleston, S.C. State legislatures, including those in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, are moving to create similar programs. "It always made sense to me that a volunteer transportation system is the way to go," says Olsen, who expects New York to have a bill shortly. Not all seniors pose risks on the road, of course, but drivers 75 and older do have higher crash rates per mile than all groups except 16-to-18- year-olds. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that the annual number of fatal crashes caused by older drivers is expected to double by 2030. "People are reluctant to say they are having problems driving," says Freund, whose son - now recovered - was run over by an elderly driver in 1988. "This is going to keep hurting people until we figure out how to solve it." According to the National Institute on Aging, more than 600,000 people age 70 or older stop driving each year. And The Surface Transportation Policy Project says that more than half of nondrivers aged 65 and older stay home on any given day because they have no transportation alternatives. Ms. Crabb calls ITN at least once a week, not just to take her to the places she needs to go, but to maintain some semblance of the life she led before her husband died, she says. Not relying on charity or friends or anyone else is important to her. "I'm too independent to impose on anyone," she says. "I like my own way of doing things." _Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links_ (http://search.csmonitor.com/2006/0207/p03s03-ussc.html) *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From GayNicholson at aol.com Wed Feb 8 22:29:43 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Wed Feb 8 22:29:51 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Notes on social marketing from January ST Council meeting Message-ID: <24e.6131892.311c3b57@aol.com> ***** FOUND -- a pair of black gloves after the meeting last month. Contact Ann Rhodes _arf1945@hotmail.com_ (mailto:arf1945@hotmail.com) ********* Sustainable Tompkins: Building a Broad Social Movement Notes from Presentation on ?Social Marketing? by Scott Erickson, Associate Professor of Marketing at Ithaca College January 2006 ?Social Marketing? is a concept derived from marketing theory to address the desire of organizations to encourage or discourage certain behaviors among the general public. Marketing theory centers on companies wanting people to buy products or services. In the marketing transaction, people give up something (money) in order to get something (goods or services). ?Social Marketing? is modeled on the same theory. You want people to do something, or change something, such as reduce their energy use, or buy local. How do you get them to do this? There is one group of people who will change their behavior as soon as you give them the information. In this case, the strategy is simple education. When some people understand, they will change. Recycling uses fewer resources? Fine, I will recycle. These are the easy folks. Others may require some ?marketing.? ?Social Marketing? theory reminds us to look at what people will get in exchange for what they give up. In this case, what they give up may be time, familiarity, comfort, etc.. You may want them to get engaged, go out of their way, do things differently than they are used to doing, make a donation, change an attitude, or give up something they were used to. So what might encourage them to make a change like this? What will they get in exchange? In order to encourage the outcome we want, we have to devise a transaction that will allow people to GET something from the exchange. This needs to be a willing exchange; we cannot compel people to change. Here is how Scott suggested we proceed: * Identify the target group you wish to reach. * Identify the needs and wants, and the values that members of that group hold in common * Identify what message might speak to that group, and what language they will respond to. Where do members of this group typically get their information? And who has real influence in this community? How are they organized? * Then design an exchange that will satisfy some need or want of the group, so that they will willingly make the change we want, out of their own self-interest. Designing the exchange How could we convince people that it is worth it to them to make the changes that we seek? We will have to craft the exchange, removing barriers to the behavior we seek - lowering the price, sweetening the pot, offering incentives, making it easier. There are some people who will not change until a law is passed, but a law is not necessarily preferable to willing change. In crafting the exchange, marketing theory tells us that we can manipulate four things: product, place, price, and promotion. There are several problems that make ?social marketing? more difficult than selling goods and services: * ?Temporal shift? The cost, or what people give up, is often removed in time from the benefit they will get. They often have to give up something immediately, but will not see the fruits of that until later, sometimes far off in the future. Some examples: I stop smoking, but my health doesn?t improve immediately. I buy a hybrid, but I don?t realize the savings for a long time. * ?Externalities? Often, the consequences of the choices people make are not felt directly by that individual. Things happen tangentially to the person. For example, you behave ?un-sustainably? but you don?t pay the cost. (You use the electricity, but you don?t live near the plant.) Or, you do behave ?sustainably,? but you don?t directly get the benefit. (I recycle aluminum, and the native women of Akwesasne can finally safely nurse their babies, because there is less pollution from the aluminum plants near them, and the water if now clean.) * ?Ignorance? If we are not familiar with a particular group we will not be able to design a successful exchange. A group that we have no contact with will seem ?hard to reach,? but they are not hard to reach to each other, only to those outside the group. * No ?generalities? Different target ?markets? will probably require different exchanges. One size does not fit all. Each target group will require its own strategy for engagement. * ?Over-marketing? The dangers of ?over-marketing? are clear. Advertisers and other propagandists are sometimes able to change what people believe is their self-interest; they can manufacture desire or consent, and they can mislead people in many ways. You can contact Scott Erickson at 413 Smiddy Hall, Ithaca College. 274-1235 _gerickson@ithaca.edu_ (mailto:gerickson@ithaca.edu) *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From GayNicholson at aol.com Thu Feb 9 10:36:52 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Thu Feb 9 10:37:22 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fwd: Architecture Lecture Tonight on sustainable building strategies Message-ID: Sheila Kennedy After Effects TODAY 6:30 pm 157 E. Sibley The projects Kennedy will present explore the merged territory of physical and digital materials, after effects-when architecture becomes a medium for the development of a new set of sustainable building strategies. * principal of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. (KVA), with partner Frano Violich * interdisciplinary design practice that explores new relationships between architecture, technology, and emerging public needs. * In 2000 Kennedy established MATx, a pioneering materials research unit which engages teaching, writing, and applied creative production across the fields of electronics, architecture, and material design. * recognized by National Design Excellence Awards from the American Institute of Architecture, Progressive Architecture Awards, Public Work Award of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Industrial Design Excellence Awards. --- end forwarded text -- Susan Christopherson Professor Department of City and Regional Planning Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 U.S. *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From GayNicholson at aol.com Thu Feb 9 21:21:49 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Thu Feb 9 21:22:21 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] A comeback for small farms Message-ID: <27e.575ed98.311d7ced@aol.com> relates to some of our discussion tonight at the ST meeting.... from the February 09, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p03s03-ussc.html A comeback for small farms Many professionals are giving up keyboards for a 'dirt-in-the fingernail' life and possible profit. By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor PITTSBORO, N.C. - As a young girl, Judy Lessler would market her dad's garden tomatoes around town. The special: all-you-can-carry for a set price. What seemed to be a straightforward business idea became a messy dilemma, Ms. Lessler recalls. People who took too many would end up with tomato splattered on their shoes. That memory and a lifetime of pondering land use and moral obligations, led Lessler, a spry biostatistician by trade, to become a full-time farmer. In a country where nine of the 20 Founding Fathers were farmers, today the field is a tough row to hoe. In 2005, CareerBuilder.com ranked "farming" as the least promising profession. Despite that, many people nationwide are choosing a life of straw hats and manure-stained shovels. Being so close to nature is personally satisfying and can also be profitable for them, as consumer demand rises for locally grown and organic produce, experts say. "The trend of conventional agriculture is going the other way: The kids don't want to farm, and the parents are looking to sell off the farm for real estate development," says Dan Sullivan, editor at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. "But then you have this significant counter-movement of people giving up their keyboards to farm, professionals going back to the land, and younger people getting into organic farming." Locally grown, organic foods help make it possible for today's smaller, highly diversified operations to gross up to $25,000 an acre, whereas in the past, a farmer was happy to make $2,000 in profit per acre. The Department of Agriculture says small farms are increasing at a rate of 2 percent a year. That figure is based on a 1974 definition, which established a farm as an operation that earns or has the potential to generate at least $1,000 a year. Today, many hobby farmers and suburban horse farmers meet this minimum requirement and use the distinction to get tax breaks on the land. A better indicator of growth, experts say, stems from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, where local residents buy stock in a nearby farm, taking on both the opportunities and risks. The number of CSA farms nationwide jumped from about 1,000 in 1999 to more than 2,000 in 2004, according to the Rodale Institute. "There's a trend toward smaller farms growing very high-value crops and being highly diversified," says Steve Evans, who is King County, Wash.'s "farmbudsman," helping local agriculture entrepreneurs. Other farming businesses and groups have also benefited. Seattle doubled the number of farmer's markets to 23 in the past 10 years, and increased how many are open year-round from one to four. A new farmer-to-chef conference there also filled up within days. Recently, the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group had a record 900 attendees at their annual event in Kentucky. Across the country, many people have taken to the farm. In Snoqualmie Valley, Wash., a former programmer from San Francisco is now a potato farmer. In upstate New York, Steve Gilman turned his weekend garden into a profitable organic lettuce farm. "What's happening is a response to industrial agriculture," says Mr. Gilman. "It's so heavily subsidized and centered around commodity crops that it's opened up new niches, which are growing considerably." In Chatham County, N.C., architects, doctors, and graduate students are putting old tobacco and cotton fields to new use, bringing bunches of radishes and okra to the Pittsboro Farmers' Market. "In most of these areas, demand outstrips supply," says Debbie Roos, an agriculture extension agent in Chatham County. Several sources are helping to meet demand. Universities such as North Carolina State, Hampshire College in Massachusetts and Iowa State have started farming programs for beginners. In a mostly white industry, movements in New York and Chicago have recently been trying to draw in minorities through farmer's markets, including one on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Some experts see a glaring reality: "This growth in very small farms and very large farms means that the middle-sized yeoman farmer is disappearing," especially in the Midwest, says farm economist Mike Duffy in Ames, Iowa. Many small farms are "lifestyle farms where people are not trying to be a commercial farmer," he says. And small farmers say they are lured in by a dirt-under-your-fingernails antidote to the sterile, sedentary life found in the office workplace. "Farming is deeply satisfying on another whole level," Gilman says. _Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links_ (http://search.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p03s03-ussc.html) *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From rainbowwarrior14874 at yahoo.com Thu Feb 9 21:31:42 2006 From: rainbowwarrior14874 at yahoo.com (Joshua Dolan) Date: Thu Feb 9 21:31:57 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Re: [SCFs] Help us find the funding (corrections) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060210053142.41964.qmail@web60516.mail.yahoo.com> --- southcentralfarmers@electrolandia.com wrote: > The Los Angeles South Central Community Farm > A unique opportunity at a critical time > > As the Mayor announced on Feb 8 2006, we must step > up and find the funding to buy the farm! (see the > following: http://www.southcentralfarmers.com) > > We need all of you to reach deep and find donors, > foundations, and philanthropist that can be touched > by this issue and can make sizeable contributions of > the size of 500K and 1M. The Mayor has stated that > we need to raise 15-16 Million in a very short time > before Horowitz evicts the South Central Farmers. > > Please contact: > Fernando Flores (909) 605-3136 > Email: southcentralfarmers@yahoo.com > > TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!!! > > The South Central Community Farm is located at the > corner of 41st and Alameda in the vicinity of the > tiny hamlet of Vernon and Watts in ?South Central? > Los Angeles. This neighborhood is severely deficient > in park, recreational and community garden space. > The Farm provides a too rare natural respite to the > low-income families who live in this highly > urbanized and semi-industrial neighborhood and > serves as a hub of community, cultural and family > activities. Most importantly, the South Central > Farm is providing healthy, homegrown food to the > families of the more than 360 farmers at the site > and serves as a cultural and spiritual center built > from a ?sense of place? that only a relationship to > the land can support. > > There recently has been significant media and social > scientific attention focused on the diverse > multi?ethnic community at South Central Farm and the > unique cultural and ecological landscape they have > created over the past 13 years. The farmers are in > danger of being evicted. This would involve the > destruction of an agro-ecological treasure to make > way for more industrial warehouses. > > The 14-acre site is privately owned and is currently > threatened with an imminent sale and development. > There presently exists an opportunity to purchase > this site and develop the existing community garden > into a multi cultural venue for healthy living, > featuring cultural, nutritional and environmental > education, managed community gardening and active > and passive recreation. Opportunities to acquire > and use such a large site for open space and > neighborhood benefit in the middle of the city are > very rare. Additionally, there is significant > existing social, cultural, and natural capital > resulting from the grassroots initiation of the > organization of the community garden, and the long > struggle to preserve the garden against a variety of > forces. > > There exists, at the Farm, significant spiritual and > personal investment from many parties, and within > the broader Los Angeles community, exceptional > attention and support. The collective achievements > of the individual farmers, the grassroots > organizers, the community organizations involved in > creating and sustaining the Farm can now be > galvanized with the desires of the political, > business and philanthropic leaders to create an > emblematic project that sets a new standard for the > meaning of community and neighborhood. > Additionally, the Farm can serve as a new paradigm > for the ?greening? of Los Angeles, literally > creating new ground for urban land use policy and > planning that achieves sustainable, healthy, and > culturally intact communities growing from a > public/private partnership and community planning > process. > > The neighborhood surrounding the South LA Farm is a > low-income community with nearly 40% of families in > the immediate census tract falling below the poverty > level. Over 88% of the population is Latino and 11% > African-American. There is a high percentage of > young people in the community, with 43% of the > population under the age of 19. Approximately 65% of > the housing is renter-occupied. The immediate > neighborhood of the project is underserved, with no > other community gardens, safe outdoor gathering > places, or green spaces for families and children. > > The Immediate Opportunity > > The a neutral third party, is working to arrange a > purchase of the property and subsequent transfer to > a non-profit organization (accountable to the > community of farmers), to preserve the spirit of the > community garden, while adding amenities and > programs that capture the many opportunities > presented by the 14 acre site and most importantly, > meet the needs of the community residing in the > surrounding neighborhoods. This will likely involve > a participatory community-based planning and design > process resulting in a multiple use plan > incorporating farming, environmental education, the > provision of recreational and cultural amenities, > and a program for long-term local stewardship for > the responsible and responsive management of the > Farm and respecting environmental justice principles > that call for ecological democracy[DGP1] . > > > > Regional Importance > > More than 1.5 million, or nearly two-thirds of all > children in Los Angeles County, do not live within > walking distance of a park, playground, or other > safe place to play or engage with the land. Of the > seven largest cities in the United States, Los > Angeles offers its children and their families the > least access to parks and open space. This problem > is most severe in the neighborhoods of South LA. > > Parks, open space and community gardens are not a > luxury; they are a necessity. Children and families > need these resources; neighborhoods and cities > require these resources for healthy communities. > > Exercise and nutrition is the most effective way to > address the growing obesity crisis among children. > Studies show that access to parks encourages > exercise. Ironically, obesity related illnesses like > diabetes; hypertension and heart disease are more > prevalent among Hispanic and Black children, the > same communities with the worse access to parks, > open space and community gardens in Los Angeles > County. > > Action > > Time is of the essence in capturing this rare > opportunity that serves so many aspects of creating > a more livable city in Los Angeles. Exceptional > leadership and vision has been shown by a large, > highly regarded foundation with a lead gift towards > the purchase of the property (approximately 50% of > the total needed). > > Significant investment from additional foundations, > corporations, and individuals is immediately > required to complete the purchase of the property, > develop the management plan through a participatory > community-based process to achieve sustainability > and advance social justice. While negotiations and > details of this transaction must remain > confidential, when completed, there will be > significant media attention and immeasurably > positive regard for the ?angel? philanthropists and > business and political leadership who pull this off. > > For more information, please contact: > > Fernando Flores (909) 605-3136 > Email: southcentralfarmers@yahoo.com > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! > Download today it's FREE! > http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/> _______________________________________________ > Southcentralfarmers mailing list > Southcentralfarmers@electrolandia.com > http://www.electrolandia.com/mailman/listinfo/southcentralfarmers > "Vast tasks, calling for all the courage, discipline, dedication, and ingenuity commonly associated with war, will have to be carried out if the majority of humankind are to survive and enjoy a tolerable future" ---Robert Hart __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From katy at energyjustice.net Fri Feb 10 08:25:26 2006 From: katy at energyjustice.net (Katy Nicholson) Date: Fri Feb 10 08:58:31 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Ecovillage, 2 rooms for rent NOW! In-Reply-To: <6bda031404fed7431c1a0e7c5e5fd959@cornell.edu> References: <6bda031404fed7431c1a0e7c5e5fd959@cornell.edu> Message-ID: <43ECBE76.5090202@energyjustice.net> Dan Hello, I don't know if we have met, but I am Steve Nicholson's niece. I am an energy activist as well (I am involved with Energy Justice Network and Energy Action). I am moving to Ithaca in about a month, so I wanted to find out more about the space available at EcoVillage, because I might be interested in living there. How can I find out more about it? Thanks! Katy Nicholson www.energyjustice.net Daniel Roth wrote: >> Hello friends > > An unexpected departure of my two housemates has left open two open > rooms for rent here at my place. > If you are interested in living in an amazing model of sustainable > community living please consider at least calling > and hearing more about it, and maybe using this as an excuse to come > visit. > See the description below for contact info for Chris, my housemate and > lovely land lady. > > Hope you can pass this along to other potential renters since this > whole situation just fell in our laps. > Thanks > > Dan Roth > >> >> Live in 'EcoVillage at Ithaca' - a world-reknowned >> experiment in sustainable community. Beautiful >> timberframe home, supportive household & lively >> community 2 mi. up W. Hill on 176 acres of land w/ >> pond, trails, sauna & farm. $425 incl. utilities, >> internet, laundry & more. 2 rooms avail.; Move-in date >> neg. Contact CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 or >> chrssophia@yahoo.com. >> > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > -- Katy Nicholson Energy Justice Network www.energyjustice.net Cambridge, MA "...it is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism." --Dee Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age From vrockney at tcpl.org Fri Feb 10 09:30:46 2006 From: vrockney at tcpl.org (Valorie Rockney) Date: Fri Feb 10 09:31:28 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Ecovillage, 2 rooms for rent NOW! Message-ID: <914EC9C644C1E944934A33B72C171F7937C8F3@exchange.Gnosis.int> Hi everyone, I'll reply to the list, in case there are others wanting to know this information. People interested in living at Ecovillage, whether as renters or as buyers, are encouraged to read through the Ecovillage website www.ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us, particularly the sections on living at Ecovillage and on membership. The website is a great place to start, and then you can decide if you want more information. Katy, you may also want to contact Dan Roth directly about renting space in the house he shares. Welcome to Ithaca, and we look forward to having you here! Best regards, Valorie PS. I'm writing this from work, so if you want to contact me, please use vrockney@ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us -----Original Message----- From: sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org [mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of Katy Nicholson Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 11:25 AM To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Ecovillage, 2 rooms for rent NOW! Dan Hello, I don't know if we have met, but I am Steve Nicholson's niece. I am an energy activist as well (I am involved with Energy Justice Network and Energy Action). I am moving to Ithaca in about a month, so I wanted to find out more about the space available at EcoVillage, because I might be interested in living there. How can I find out more about it? Thanks! Katy Nicholson www.energyjustice.net Daniel Roth wrote: >> Hello friends > > An unexpected departure of my two housemates has left open two open > rooms for rent here at my place. > If you are interested in living in an amazing model of sustainable > community living please consider at least calling > and hearing more about it, and maybe using this as an excuse to come > visit. > See the description below for contact info for Chris, my housemate and > lovely land lady. > > Hope you can pass this along to other potential renters since this > whole situation just fell in our laps. > Thanks > > Dan Roth > >> >> Live in 'EcoVillage at Ithaca' - a world-reknowned >> experiment in sustainable community. Beautiful >> timberframe home, supportive household & lively >> community 2 mi. up W. Hill on 176 acres of land w/ >> pond, trails, sauna & farm. $425 incl. utilities, >> internet, laundry & more. 2 rooms avail.; Move-in date >> neg. Contact CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 or >> chrssophia@yahoo.com. >> > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > -- Katy Nicholson Energy Justice Network www.energyjustice.net Cambridge, MA "...it is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism." --Dee Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age _______________________________________________ SustainableTompkins mailing list SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org From GayNicholson at aol.com Fri Feb 10 09:52:32 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Fri Feb 10 09:52:59 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] McKibben on the inner culture shift Message-ID: <195.50a75400.311e2ce0@aol.com> from Steve Nicholson: This was in Adbusters: _http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/63.php?id=143#_ (http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/63.php?id=143) I think it is a good message about being part of the sustainability effort. Change Who You Imagine You Are January 16, 2006 ____________________________________ Scientists who keep track of Arctic ice recently issued an alarming bulletin: the ice pack was melting as never before and was 20 percent smaller than the long-term average. What?s more, as it thawed and the light-reflecting white ice changed to light-absorbing blue water, the melting cycle was entering a self-reinforcing phase. One researcher noted ?The feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover.? Bigger global news than that is hard to imagine. I mean, you can seeit from outer space. Remember those posters from Apollo 7 of the blue-white orb drifting through black space? Well, it doesn?t look like that any more. There?s a lot less white and a lot more blue. We?re quickly building Earth 2.0. And it? s full of bugs. Literally. So it seems kind of odd, in the face of all that bigness, to be thinking small. Surely the answer is a Manhattan project of some kind, unleashing all our scientific talent to figure out the powersources to replace coal and gas and oil and hence staunch the flow of carbon into the atmosphere. Surely the answer is a huge international initiative ? Kyoto on steroids ? to somehow force governments to slow the growth of emissions. Surely both those things would help; in fact, surely they?re required. But they?re not enough. It?s becoming clearer every day that the roots of climate change lie not just in the technological infrastructure we?ve built to exploit fossil fuels, but in the habits of mind and heart created by that infrastructure. For example: cheap gasoline allowed us to rip up the trolley lines and replace them with cars, which in turn allowed the sprawling suburbs, which in turn allowed ever bigger houses, which in turn allowed an unprecedented isolation from community. One survey of Americans found that three quarters did not really know their next door neighbors. So how do you change that? Well, you could raise the price of gas, or rebuild the trolley line. But as long as we?re trapped in our sense of ourselves as individuals, such changes will breed as much resentment as anything else. If we?re really going to start using the bus, we need ? to borrow from earlier movements ? some consciousness raising. This is not precisely the same as the consciousness raising that birthed, say, the woman?s movement. In that case, women needed to understand and declare that they had been made victims, and that together they were powerful enough to confront that victimization. By painful contrast, there?s a sense in which we?re almost all in the victimizer class here, the beneficiaries of a life borrowed from the future and built on environmental destruction. On the other hand, there is a nagging discontent that might blossom into something profound if only we could figure out the language to describe it. The dirty little secret of our individualized consumer age is that it hasn? t made us quite as happy as it promised it would. In fact, to the degree that we can track such things, our sense of well-being has retreated almost as fast as the Arctic ice. Polling data on ?life satisfaction? shows it has been falling since the mid-50s; even a growing chorus of economists has begun to wonder if their constant prescription (More!) has lost its curative powers, or even turned subtly toxic. It?s not precisely clear why we find ourselves less happy, but the sociologists and psychologists seem to think it has something to do with loss of community. The same loss of community that the fossil fuel infrastructure made inevitable. We can?t wait for a technological miracle to save us from our ills (though the engineers should by all means keep working!). A change in our sense of who we are is just as important ? just as important in hard, practical terms. Take the most obvious example, the food we eat. Bought at the supermarket or drive-through, the average bite has traveled 1,500 miles before it reaches our lips. And the money we hand over for it disappears instantly back to corporate HQ. Whereas, if you join a community supported farm and pick up a produce box once a week, the total soil-plate journey is a few miles at most, and the money stays in the neighborhood. Now, there is a real cost involved. The food is not as convenient. It may not be exactly what you had in mind that day. There may be more of one thing than another ? two spinach meals in the same week. It may require some more time to cook. You are, in effect, an adjunct member of the farm, which means the whole world is not your oyster. This particular field is your oyster, and depending on the latitude and the season that may mean spinach. But when your mind starts to change a little, those costs start to become benefits. So what if the food is not as convenient? You got to see your neighbors when you picked it up ? maybe you even got to go out in the fields for an hour and pick it with them. You got to remind yourself that you exist in a particular place, with particular weather, particular soil, particular beauty ? you didn?t have to be a resident of the generic nowhere that flows through our various screens. You got to be a little less of an individual and a little more of a part of something larger. And you needn?t stop with food ? the same analysis can apply to energy. To transportation. To entertainment. To much of the way we live. A change in who we imagine ourselves to be sounds very woo-woo and vague. How could that help solve global warming? But getting over hyperindividualism is as crucial as getting over oil ? and my guess is you can?t manage one without the other. Bill McKibben is an environmental writer whose work appears regularly in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Harper?s. Stephen C. Nicholson Chair, Tompkins County Environmental Management Council Ithaca, NY 607-539-6923 _scnfish@clarityconnect.com_ (mailto:scnfish@clarityconnect.com) *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From burns at panix.com Fri Feb 10 12:21:59 2006 From: burns at panix.com (Michael Burns) Date: Fri Feb 10 12:23:05 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Jose Bove, enroute to Ithaca, deported Message-ID: <53768.216.162.28.201.1139602919.squirrel@mail.panix.com> ------------------------------ Original Message ------------------------------ Subject: Jose Bove deported From: "Committee on U.S. / Latin American Relations" Date: Thu, February 9, 2006 6:19 pm To: "Cuba Work Group of CUSLAR" ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- >French Anti-globalization Activist Sent Packing by U.S. > >- Tim Mccahill, Associated Press, Feb 9, 2006 > >NEW YORK - A French anti-globalization activist best known for ransacking a McDonald's restaurant near his home in 1999 was stopped at an airport upon arrival in the United States, denied entry by customs officials and put on a plane back to France. > >Jose Bove, who had been invited to speak at an event sponsored by Cornell University, was not eligible to enter the United States under the visa waiver program, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Janet Rapaport said late Wednesday. > >The visa waiver program allows residents of 27 participating countries, including France, to travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without getting a visa, according to information on the Department of State Web site. > >People traveling under the program are screened before they are allowed to enter the United States, according to the Web site. Rapaport said she did not know why Bove was ineligible. After arriving Wednesday afternoon at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Bove was detained and questioned by customs officials, Rapaport said. He was returned to France that evening. > >Bove had been set to speak Thursday in New York at an event sponsored by Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said Sean Sweeney, director of Cornell's Global Labor Institute and a faculty member at the school. > >"We're bitterly disappointed," he said. "A lot of time and effort was spent to bring him over." >Bove also had other engagements in New York and was to travel to the Cornell campus, in upstate Ithaca, next week to speak with students, Sweeney said. > >Last November, Bove was sentenced to four months in prison for destroying a field of genetically modified corn planted by an American seed company in southern France in July 2004. He also participated in protests during the World Trade Organization meetings held in December in Hong Kong, where he was briefly detained after arriving but allowed to enter following an intervention by the French consul general. > >### > >----------------------------------------- >AgBioWorld http://www.agbioworld.org; PO Box 85, Tuskegee Inst., AL 36087 > >Email your response to agbioworld@yahoo.com > >SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE at http://www.agbioworld.org >----------------------------------------- Dana Brown, Coordinator Committee on US/Latin American Relations (CUSLAR) 316 Anabel Taylor Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 607-255-7293 www.rso.cornell.edu/cuslar From glynn at tdarchitects.com Fri Feb 10 13:22:32 2006 From: glynn at tdarchitects.com (Glynn Bebee) Date: Fri Feb 10 13:23:08 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Mobile Demonstration Concept Message-ID: <200602102122.k1ALMVdV013231@ms-smtp-03.nyroc.rr.com> If you like dehumidification, you'll love the Desiccant Humidity Control Van. http://www.energysolutionscenter.org/consortia/dhcv_flyer_final_2005.pdf Maybe a future Resource Hub could drive to the people in a big electric RV.? From dnr6 at cornell.edu Fri Feb 10 13:22:51 2006 From: dnr6 at cornell.edu (Daniel Roth) Date: Fri Feb 10 13:23:59 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Ecovillage, 2 rooms for rent NOW! In-Reply-To: <43ECBE76.5090202@energyjustice.net> References: <6bda031404fed7431c1a0e7c5e5fd959@cornell.edu> <43ECBE76.5090202@energyjustice.net> Message-ID: <00ded4849428e38be834cf57a044c641@cornell.edu> Hi Katy This is exciting. OUr house might explode with youth activist energy if you move here though. If you are interested you should definetly call CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 and email her. >> chrssophia@yahoo.com. She is my housemate and the house owner. She >> will be excited to hear that someone like you is interested. Feel free to call me or email me as well. Peace... Daniel Roth (Cell) 518-727-6723 Co-Chair Youth ActionTeam US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development www.uspartnership.org Graduate Student Adult and Extension Education Cornell University On Feb 10, 2006, at 11:25 AM, Katy Nicholson wrote: > Dan > Hello, I don't know if we have met, but I am Steve Nicholson's niece. > I am an energy activist as well (I am involved with Energy Justice > Network and Energy Action). I am moving to Ithaca in about a month, so > I wanted to find out more about the space available at EcoVillage, > because I might be interested in living there. How can I find out more > about it? Thanks! > Katy Nicholson > www.energyjustice.net > > Daniel Roth wrote: > >>> Hello friends >> >> An unexpected departure of my two housemates has left open two open >> rooms for rent here at my place. >> If you are interested in living in an amazing model of sustainable >> community living please consider at least calling >> and hearing more about it, and maybe using this as an excuse to come >> visit. >> See the description below for contact info for Chris, my housemate >> and lovely land lady. >> >> Hope you can pass this along to other potential renters since this >> whole situation just fell in our laps. >> Thanks >> >> Dan Roth >> >>> >>> Live in 'EcoVillage at Ithaca' - a world-reknowned >>> experiment in sustainable community. Beautiful >>> timberframe home, supportive household & lively >>> community 2 mi. up W. Hill on 176 acres of land w/ >>> pond, trails, sauna & farm. $425 incl. utilities, >>> internet, laundry & more. 2 rooms avail.; Move-in date >>> neg. Contact CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 or >>> chrssophia@yahoo.com. >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> SustainableTompkins mailing list >> SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org >> http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >> free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org >> >> >> > > -- > Katy Nicholson > Energy Justice Network > www.energyjustice.net > Cambridge, MA > > "...it is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism." > --Dee Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > From rainbowwarrior14874 at yahoo.com Fri Feb 10 14:18:58 2006 From: rainbowwarrior14874 at yahoo.com (Joshua Dolan) Date: Fri Feb 10 14:19:35 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Ecovillage, 2 rooms for rent NOW! In-Reply-To: <00ded4849428e38be834cf57a044c641@cornell.edu> Message-ID: <20060210221858.31889.qmail@web60522.mail.yahoo.com> Is this better off in private? --- Daniel Roth wrote: > Hi Katy > This is exciting. OUr house might explode with youth > activist energy if > you move here though. > If you are interested you should definetly call > CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 > and email her. > >> chrssophia@yahoo.com. She is my housemate and the > house owner. She > >> will be excited to hear > that someone like you is interested. > > Feel free to call me or email me as well. > > Peace... > Daniel Roth > (Cell) 518-727-6723 > > Co-Chair > Youth ActionTeam > US Partnership for the Decade of Education for > Sustainable Development > www.uspartnership.org > > Graduate Student > Adult and Extension Education > Cornell University > > On Feb 10, 2006, at 11:25 AM, Katy Nicholson wrote: > > > Dan > > Hello, I don't know if we have met, but I am Steve > Nicholson's niece. > > I am an energy activist as well (I am involved > with Energy Justice > > Network and Energy Action). I am moving to Ithaca > in about a month, so > > I wanted to find out more about the space > available at EcoVillage, > > because I might be interested in living there. How > can I find out more > > about it? Thanks! > > Katy Nicholson > > www.energyjustice.net > > > > Daniel Roth wrote: > > > >>> Hello friends > >> > >> An unexpected departure of my two housemates has > left open two open > >> rooms for rent here at my place. > >> If you are interested in living in an amazing > model of sustainable > >> community living please consider at least calling > >> and hearing more about it, and maybe using this > as an excuse to come > >> visit. > >> See the description below for contact info for > Chris, my housemate > >> and lovely land lady. > >> > >> Hope you can pass this along to other potential > renters since this > >> whole situation just fell in our laps. > >> Thanks > >> > >> Dan Roth > >> > >>> > >>> Live in 'EcoVillage at Ithaca' - a > world-reknowned > >>> experiment in sustainable community. Beautiful > >>> timberframe home, supportive household & lively > >>> community 2 mi. up W. Hill on 176 acres of land > w/ > >>> pond, trails, sauna & farm. $425 incl. > utilities, > >>> internet, laundry & more. 2 rooms avail.; > Move-in date > >>> neg. Contact CHRIS @ 607-277-2746 or > >>> chrssophia@yahoo.com. > >>> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> SustainableTompkins mailing list > >> SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > >> > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > >> free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > >> > >> > >> > > > > -- > > Katy Nicholson > > Energy Justice Network > > www.energyjustice.net > > Cambridge, MA > > > > "...it is far too late and things are far too bad > for pessimism." > > --Dee Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age > > _______________________________________________ > > SustainableTompkins mailing list > > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > > > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > "Vast tasks, calling for all the courage, discipline, dedication, and ingenuity commonly associated with war, will have to be carried out if the majority of humankind are to survive and enjoy a tolerable future" ---Robert Hart __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From tonydelplato at gmail.com Fri Feb 10 14:53:04 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Fri Feb 10 14:53:25 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] McKibben on the inner culture shift In-Reply-To: <195.50a75400.311e2ce0@aol.com> References: <195.50a75400.311e2ce0@aol.com> Message-ID: Thanks Gay. This McKibben piece is right on the mark Tony Del Plato On 2/10/06, GayNicholson@aol.com wrote: > > > > from Steve Nicholson: > This was in Adbusters: _http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/63.php?id=143#_ > (http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/63.php?id=143) > I think it is a good message about being part of the sustainability > effort. > Change Who You Imagine You Are > January 16, 2006 > > ____________________________________ > > Scientists who keep track of Arctic ice recently issued an alarming > bulletin: the ice pack was melting as never before and was 20 percent > smaller than > the long-term average. What's more, as it thawed and the light-reflecting > white > ice changed to light-absorbing blue water, the melting cycle was entering > a > self-reinforcing phase. One researcher noted "The feeling is we are > reaching > a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover." > Bigger global news than that is hard to imagine. I mean, you can seeit > from > outer space. Remember those posters from Apollo 7 of the blue-white orb > drifting through black space? Well, it doesn't look like that any more. > There's a > lot less white and a lot more blue. We're quickly building Earth 2.0. And > it' > s full of bugs. Literally. > > So it seems kind of odd, in the face of all that bigness, to be thinking > small. Surely the answer is a Manhattan project of some kind, unleashing > all our > scientific talent to figure out the powersources to replace coal and gas > and > oil and hence staunch the flow of carbon into the atmosphere. Surely the > answer is a huge international initiative ? Kyoto on steroids ? to > somehow force > governments to slow the growth of emissions. Surely both those things > would > help; in fact, surely they're required. > > But they're not enough. It's becoming clearer every day that the roots of > climate change lie not just in the technological infrastructure we've > built to > exploit fossil fuels, but in the habits of mind and heart created by that > infrastructure. For example: cheap gasoline allowed us to rip up the > trolley > lines and replace them with cars, which in turn allowed the sprawling > suburbs, > which in turn allowed ever bigger houses, which in turn allowed an > unprecedented isolation from community. One survey of Americans > found that three > quarters did not really know their next door neighbors. > > So how do you change that? Well, you could raise the price of gas, or > rebuild the trolley line. > > But as long as we're trapped in our sense of ourselves as individuals, > such > changes will breed as much resentment as anything else. If we're really > going > to start using the bus, we need ? to borrow from earlier movements ? some > consciousness raising. > > This is not precisely the same as the consciousness raising that birthed, > say, the woman's movement. In that case, women needed to understand and > declare > that they had been made victims, and that together they were powerful > enough > to confront that victimization. By painful contrast, there's a sense in > which we're almost all in the victimizer class here, the beneficiaries of > a life > borrowed from the future and built on environmental destruction. > > On the other hand, there is a nagging discontent that might blossom into > something profound if only we could figure out the language to describe > it. > > The dirty little secret of our individualized consumer age is > that it hasn' > t made us quite as happy as it promised it would. In fact, to the degree > that > we can track such things, our sense of well-being has retreated almost as > fast as the Arctic ice. Polling data on 'life satisfaction' shows it has > been > falling since the mid-50s; even a growing chorus of economists has begun > to > wonder if their constant prescription (More!) has lost its curative > powers, or > even turned subtly toxic. It's not precisely clear why we find ourselves > less happy, but the sociologists and psychologists seem to think it has > something to do with loss of community. The same loss of community that > the fossil > fuel infrastructure made inevitable. > > We can't wait for a technological miracle to save us from our > ills (though > the engineers should by all means keep working!). A change in our > sense of who > we are is just as important ? just as important in hard, practical terms. > Take the most obvious example, the food we eat. Bought at the supermarket > or > drive-through, the average bite has traveled 1,500 miles before it reaches > our > lips. And the money we hand over for it disappears instantly back to > corporate > HQ. Whereas, if you join a community supported farm and pick up a produce > box once a week, the total soil-plate journey is a few miles at most, and > the > money stays in the neighborhood. > > Now, there is a real cost involved. The food is not as convenient. > It may > not be exactly what you had in mind that day. There may be more of one > thing > than another ? two spinach meals in the same week. It may require some > more > time to cook. You are, in effect, an adjunct member of the farm, which > means > the whole world is not your oyster. This particular field is your oyster, > and > depending on the latitude and the season that may mean spinach. > > But when your mind starts to change a little, those costs start to become > benefits. So what if the food is not as convenient? You got to see your > neighbors when you picked it up ? maybe you even got to go out in the > fields for an > hour and pick it with them. You got to remind yourself that you exist in > a > particular place, with particular weather, particular soil, particular > beauty ? > you didn't have to be a resident of the generic nowhere that flows > through > our various screens. You got to be a little less of an individual and a > little > more of a part of something larger. And you needn't stop with food ? the > same analysis can apply to energy. To transportation. To > entertainment. To much > of the way we live. > > A change in who we imagine ourselves to be sounds very woo-woo and vague. > How could that help solve global warming? But getting over > hyperindividualism > is as crucial as getting over oil ? and my guess is you can't manage one > without the other. > > Bill McKibben is an environmental writer whose work appears regularly in > The > Atlantic, The New York Times, and Harper's. > Stephen C. Nicholson > Chair, Tompkins County Environmental Management Council > Ithaca, NY > 607-539-6923 > _scnfish@clarityconnect.com_ (mailto:scnfish@clarityconnect.com) > > > > *************************************** > Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. > > Sustainable Tompkins > Program Coordinator > 1 Maple Avenue > Lansing, NY 14882 > gaynicholson@aol.com > > 607-533-7312 (home office) > 607-279-6618 (cell) > > Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities > Regional Coordinator > Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County > 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 > agn1@cornell.edu > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From ebauchne at twcny.rr.com Sat Feb 11 07:59:29 2006 From: ebauchne at twcny.rr.com (Elizabeth Bauchner) Date: Sat Feb 11 07:59:57 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Bush Administration Moves to Sell National Forest Land Message-ID: <002101c62f24$28aa37d0$6b01a8c0@RasMama> It looks like the Bush Administration has a plan for how to fund rural schools: extortion... EB p.s. I used to live in California, in a heavily wooded part of the state, so this issue is near and dear to my own heart. Published on Friday, February 10, 2006 by Knight Ridder Bush Administration Moves to Sell National Forest Land by Seth Borenstein WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will unveil a proposal Friday to sell up to 200,000 acres of national forest land in "isolated parcels" ranging from a quarter of an acre to 200 acres, much of it in California. The sale is part of a National Forest Service plan to raise $800 million over the next five years to pay for rural schools in 41 states, offsetting shrinking revenues from sale of timber from national forests. The Bureau of Land Management also plans to sell federal lands to raise an estimated $182 million over five years. Environmentalists charge that the short-term gain would be more than offset by the loss of public land. Congress would have to approve the land sales, but it has rejected similar recent proposals. "I am outraged, and I don't think the public is going to stand for it for one minute," said Wilderness Society policy analyst Mike Anderson. "It's a scheme to raise money at the expense of the national forests, the wildlife, recreation and all the other values that Americans hold dear. It's the ultimate threat to the national forest." Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the proposed land sales make sense. "Private property will end up in the possession of those who value it the most," Taylor said. "That is an iron law of economics." Details about what plots of land would be put up for sale are expected to be revealed at a noon press conference by Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist. The Forest Service owns 193 million acres of land and plans to sell about 175,000 to 200,000 acres, according to Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch. "They could be theoretically from every national forest," Valetkevitch said. "California has a lot on the list, I understand." The lands in question aren't environmentally sensitive wilderness or protected scenic areas, Valetkevitch said. "It could be something that's in a neighborhood that people don't even know is forest land," she said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attacked the plan as "crazy," saying: "Here the administration wants to pass more tax cuts for the rich, and to pay the bill, they want to sell off public land - our nation's natural heritage." The Forest Service owns 20 percent of California, including much of the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Big Sur and dense forests along the Oregon border. The Bureau of Land Management owns 15 percent of the Golden State. Rural schools get 25 percent of federal forest timber sale proceeds, but those revenues have fallen, so the idea is to sell forest land to make up for that, Valetkevitch said. Anderson of the Wilderness Society argued that money for rural schools could come from many sources and that the land sales are being proposed "so the budget deficit doesn't get worse." He noted that if forests are sold, future federal timber sales likely would yield even less money for rural schools. The president's new fiscal 2007 federal budget calls for the bureau to raise $1 million in 2007 land sales, $28 million in 2008, $40 million in 2009, $42 million in 2010 and $71 million in 2011. Dave Alberswerth, a Wilderness Society senior policy adviser, said that would be "way more than they have been selling in recent years." From 2000 to 2004, the bureau sold 13,160 acres for an average price of $320 an acre, he said. At that rate, the government would have to sell more than half a million acres to garner $182 million. C 2006 KR Washington Bureau and wire service sources Elizabeth Bauchner Editor, Ithaca Community News http://www.ithacanews.org Freelance Writer http://www.elizabethbauchner.info From tonydelplato at gmail.com Sun Feb 12 12:25:11 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Sun Feb 12 12:25:35 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] The Future of Food Message-ID: PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT February 12, 2006 *The Future of Food *is a controversial documentary about genetically engineered food, sustainable & organic agriculture, and factory farming by Deborah Koons Garcia. A post-screening panel discussion will take place, moderated by Tompkins County Representative Dooley Kiefer and will include John Losey, CU entymologist; Jacqulyn Hamilton, Peoples Garden Project; Louise Maher-Johnson, NYS Against Genetic Engineerting (NYSAGE) activist in Albany, NY and Chaw Chung, farmer/Stick & Stone Farm. *WHEN: February 25, Saturday, 1-5pm; the film will be shown @ 2pm * *with a panel discussion to follow* * WHERE: Human Services Building, 320 West State St., Ithaca, NY*** *The Future of Food* is a controversial documentary about genetically engineered food. Garcia spent three years researching and writing the film in order to raise consumers' awareness of modern, industrial food production and the increasing presence of genetically modified organism content in our food supply. "*The Future of Food* offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. "From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. "Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today." (*www.thefutureoffood.com*): For more information please contact Sacred Seed Organic Farm at (607) 591 9093 or aszerman@gmail.com. From earthdayithaca at yahoo.com Mon Feb 13 05:37:05 2006 From: earthdayithaca at yahoo.com (Center for Environmental Sustainability) Date: Mon Feb 13 05:38:03 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Earth Day Meeting Reminder Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060213083705.01e9f7b8@postoffice9.mail.cornell.edu> Dear Friends, (Sorry for any cross or duplicate postings) Just a reminder that we will be having the Second Earth Day Planning Session, February 15, 7:00-9:00 pm at the Old Jail House Conference Room at 125 E. Court St. For more information, contact me at 607-351-0664 or earthdayithaca@yahoo.com. See you there! From alh54 at cornell.edu Mon Feb 13 11:27:59 2006 From: alh54 at cornell.edu (Allison Jack) Date: Mon Feb 13 11:58:33 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education: Karl North Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060213142425.04623210@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Hi Everyone, Just wanted to pass on the announcement for this week's lecture/ discussion in the Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education seminar series. Karl North, a local dairy farmer, will be presenting his thoughts and perspective on sustainable agriculture research and education. It should be a very interesting talk and I hope that some of you can make it to contribute your ideas to the discussion. -Allison > >***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** > >The Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education Seminar Series presents: > >"Laying the Groundwork for a New Direction in Sustainable Agriculture >Research and Education" > >Karl North > >Northland Dairy, Freetown Corners, NY > >Friday, Feb 17, 2006 >12:20-1:10; 404 Plant Science Building > >Karl North farms in nearby Cortland County. He manages Northland Dairy as >both a business and an educational tool in sustainable agriculture. His >background and experience includes graduate work in social anthropology, >ecology, African studies, secondary school teaching in New York and West >Africa, farmsteading in the French Pyrenees, and educational work in >sustainable agriculture and Holistic Management. He will discuss the >systems thinking revolution in science, its implications for agricultural >education and research, and the obstacle it faces: the tradition of purely >reductionist science and the capitalist political economy. He will offer >examples of three tools based on the systems paradigm for use in research >and education in sustainable agriculture. For more information: >http://www.geocities.com/northsheep/. Mr. North will be discussing some of >the ideas raised in the attached document: "A Sustainable Agriculture >Research Agenda to Address a Gathering Crisis". > >There will be two opportunities to meet with Mr. North, a brown bag lunch >and discussion immediately following the seminar in 404 Plant Science >(1:10-2:00) and a potluck dinner from 6-8 pm in downtown Ithaca. Please >contact Allison to RSVP for either event (alh54@cornell.edu). > >Seminars are Free and Open to the Cornell and Greater Ithaca Community! >Funded in part by the GPSAFC. Co-Sponsored by: New World Agriculture and >Ecology Group (NWAEG) at Cornell, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences; >Department of Horticulture, Cornell Small Farm Program; the Community, >Food and Agriculture Program; the Community Food Systems Program; the >GPSAFC, and the Community and Rural Development Institute. For more >information contact Julie at jmg225 or Allison at alh54 or visit >http://www.rso.cornell.edu/nwaeg/index.html > >********************************************************************************************************************************* >Allison L. H. Jack >Graduate Student >335 Plant Science >Department of Plant Pathology >Cornell University >Ithaca, NY 14853 > >(607) 273-5762 >alh54@cornell.edu > >********************************************************************************************************************************** > ********************************************************************************************************************************* Allison L. H. Jack Graduate Student 335 Plant Science Department of Plant Pathology Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 273-5762 alh54@cornell.edu ********************************************************************************************************************************** From earthdayithaca at yahoo.com Mon Feb 13 13:07:34 2006 From: earthdayithaca at yahoo.com (Joey Gates) Date: Mon Feb 13 13:07:57 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] ISO local food advocates Message-ID: <20060213210734.74320.qmail@web36304.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello, In the spirit of promoting local food production and helping the Earth Day Celebration grow, we are looking for members of the local food movement to help us establish a food committee. Right now Earth Day does not include food vendors. Purposely so. We would love to have them, but need to establish guidelines to ensure that this potentially resource intensive (and waste producing) adventure is done sustainably. Wanna help? Please contact me or come to one of our planning meetings. As mentioned in an earlier email, the next one is Wednesday, the 15th from 7-9 at the Old Jail House building at 125 E. Court St. We really do want to eat organic food served on biodegradable plates :), (and the master composters will be there to take out the "trash"). Visualizing Whirled Peas, Joey --------------------------------- Yahoo! Autos. Looking for a sweet ride? Get pricing, reviews, & more on new and used cars. From rlg2 at cornell.edu Mon Feb 13 14:20:47 2006 From: rlg2 at cornell.edu (Robinne Gray) Date: Mon Feb 13 14:21:37 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Sustainable Built Environment: save the dates! Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060213165636.01e84770@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Hello ST friends, Over the past several months I've been working with Cornell students, faculty and administration to pull together a speaker series on the Sustainable Built Environment. Below is some "pre-publicity" for the series (until we get a poster together). Times and venues TBD. More info forthcoming! Best, ~Robinne * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Wed. March 15: JASON McLENNAN Director, BNIM/Elements (http://elements.bnim.com) Founder, Ecotone Publishing (www.ecotonedesign.com) Author, The Philosophy of Sustainable Design See his article (book excerpt) in the current edition of Architecture Week online: http://www.architectureweek.com/today.html Thurs. April 13: JOHN ABRAMS Principal, South Mountain Company, a design/build firm on Martha's Vineyard (www.somoco.com) Author, The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place (www.chelseagreen.com/2005/items/companywekeep) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We are also in the process of scheduling: Eco-Industrial Development: COREY BRINKEMA Director, The Green Institute Minneapolis, MN (www.greeninstitute.org) Principal, Trillium Planning and Development "Corey Brinkema is a nationally-recognized leader in eco-industrial and sustainable real estate development. Corey brings 19 years of experience in the real estate and environmental industries with projects throughout the United States and internationally. He provides technical, business management, and strategic planning oversight to projects in high-performance real estate and eco-industrial development; energy efficiency and distributed energy; recycled product market development; manufacturing resource efficiency; and hazardous waste management and brownfields remediation. Corey developed the Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center, a state-of-the-art environmental business center that has become an international model for the sustainable development of commercial-industrial facilities. Corey serves on the board of the national Eco-Industrial Development Council and the steering committee for Eco-Industrial Estates Asia Network."e hold Sustainable Mobility: SUE ZIELINSKI Director, SMART, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Former Director, Moving the Economy, Urban Development Services, City of Toronto See profesional biography at: http://www.partnerships.stockholm.se/feature_right.asp?IdNr=35 From cnp at thethomasgroup.com Mon Feb 13 11:34:08 2006 From: cnp at thethomasgroup.com (Christian Nielsen-Palacios) Date: Tue Feb 14 06:09:39 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] ecoLogical Home Ideas Message-ID: FYI... >>> 2/13/06 12:29 PM >>> ecoLogical Home Ideas is excited to announce that High Noon Productions, producers of the popular HGTV series, Dream House, has asked us to help with their search for families who are building green homes! To be eligible, you must break ground on the Dream Green House in late 2005 or the first half of 2006 and be willing to have their camera crews follow your home's construction from start to finish. They are accepting both new builds and extreme renovations done to existing structures. They are, of course, looking for unique designs, inspiring styles, and outgoing personalities willing to share with the nation the challenges and rewards of building green! They are seeking green homes from all parts of the country to appear in future episodes. Interested families, contractors or architects may send an email to DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com with a brief description of the home and some of the green features it will have. Feel free to pass this information along to your members! Kind regards, Monica Marsicek Publisher, ecoLogical Home Ideas mmarsicek@invisibleinkpublishing.com ***************** NOW YOU CAN JOIN NORCAL ADPSR QUICKLY WITH A CREDIT CARD!! We have just launched our user friendly secure web page where you can join with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. It takes less than 3 minutes, follow the links at http://www.adpsr-norcal.org/. You'll feel much better for doing so. Forwarded as a courtesy of NorCal ADPSR. These postings are originated by others and ADPSR takes no responsibility for content. Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) ADPSR National Forum 415 974-1306 http://adpsr.org/ ADPSR Northern California Chapter 510 845-1000 http://adpsr-norcal.org/ POB 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709 To be removed from this list, reply to this email with the word "REMOVE" and the e-mail address it was originally sent to in the subject line. Please DO NOT HIT THE REPLY BUTTON Reply only to: DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com From earthdayithaca at yahoo.com Tue Feb 14 09:23:38 2006 From: earthdayithaca at yahoo.com (Joey Gates) Date: Tue Feb 14 09:24:00 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Interesting Resource for Teachers Message-ID: <20060214172338.41102.qmail@web36301.mail.mud.yahoo.com> www.greenteacher.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From burns at panix.com Tue Feb 14 09:24:14 2006 From: burns at panix.com (Michael Burns) Date: Tue Feb 14 09:24:54 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, Ithaca, NY 3/31-4/2, 2006 Message-ID: <4589.216.162.28.201.1139937854.squirrel@mail.panix.com> PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS: Weekend Workshop sponsored by the FINGER LAKES PERMACULTURE INSTITUTE Friday, March 31, 6:15 - 9:00 pm Saturday. April 1, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Sunday, April 2, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm At ECOVILLAGE in Ithaca, NY with instructors STEPHEN GABRIEL and KARRYN OLSON-RAMANUJAN This workshop will provide an overview of the ethics, principles, and techniques of permaculture with a focus on practical application of conscious design strategies for sustainable living. Topics include: Site assessment, Applied Ethics and Principles, Observation, Design in Practice Tuition: Sliding Scale $100-250 $50 non-refundable deposit reserves your spot. Workshop completion earns credit--and is a prerequisite--for a permaculture design certificate. For more information about FLPCI, registration for the weekend workshop, and our 100-hour certification course visit http://www.flpci.org or call 607-319-0737. PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael Burns http://www.cayuta.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Earn your permaculture design certificate. The Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute offers affordable local classes. Go to: http://www.flpci.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From ws at twcny.rr.com Wed Feb 15 06:53:22 2006 From: ws at twcny.rr.com (Wendy Skinner) Date: Wed Feb 15 09:43:19 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Housing needed for person with multiple chem sensitivities References: Message-ID: <000901c6323f$9307fae0$6401a8c0@wendyvaio> I received a phone call from a woman with multiple chemical sensitivities who is looking for housing in Ithaca. She recently moved here because we are a "progressive" community but so far has been staying in a hotel room because healthy housing is so hard to find. She is single, solvent, and looking for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, or even a room in a house if it is suitable. Older housing that is NOT competely weather-proofed and that has not had interior upgrades in the last 10 - 20 years is preferable. If you have any housing or networking leads, please send them to me and I will forward them to her. Thanks for your consideration. Wendy Skinner 277-7611 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christian Nielsen-Palacios" To: Cc: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 2:34 PM Subject: [SustainableTompkins] ecoLogical Home Ideas FYI... >>> 2/13/06 12:29 PM >>> ecoLogical Home Ideas is excited to announce that High Noon Productions, producers of the popular HGTV series, Dream House, has asked us to help with their search for families who are building green homes! To be eligible, you must break ground on the Dream Green House in late 2005 or the first half of 2006 and be willing to have their camera crews follow your home's construction from start to finish. They are accepting both new builds and extreme renovations done to existing structures. They are, of course, looking for unique designs, inspiring styles, and outgoing personalities willing to share with the nation the challenges and rewards of building green! They are seeking green homes from all parts of the country to appear in future episodes. Interested families, contractors or architects may send an email to DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com with a brief description of the home and some of the green features it will have. Feel free to pass this information along to your members! Kind regards, Monica Marsicek Publisher, ecoLogical Home Ideas mmarsicek@invisibleinkpublishing.com ***************** NOW YOU CAN JOIN NORCAL ADPSR QUICKLY WITH A CREDIT CARD!! We have just launched our user friendly secure web page where you can join with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. It takes less than 3 minutes, follow the links at http://www.adpsr-norcal.org/. You'll feel much better for doing so. Forwarded as a courtesy of NorCal ADPSR. These postings are originated by others and ADPSR takes no responsibility for content. Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) ADPSR National Forum 415 974-1306 http://adpsr.org/ ADPSR Northern California Chapter 510 845-1000 http://adpsr-norcal.org/ POB 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709 To be removed from this list, reply to this email with the word "REMOVE" and the e-mail address it was originally sent to in the subject line. Please DO NOT HIT THE REPLY BUTTON Reply only to: DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com _______________________________________________ SustainableTompkins mailing list SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org From earthdayithaca at yahoo.com Wed Feb 15 10:01:42 2006 From: earthdayithaca at yahoo.com (Joey Gates) Date: Wed Feb 15 10:01:49 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Housing needed for person with multiple chem sensitivities In-Reply-To: <000901c6323f$9307fae0$6401a8c0@wendyvaio> Message-ID: <20060215180142.65450.qmail@web36307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Wendy, I was going to post this today: Rooms for rent in a 4 bedroom house in Danby area. Quiet road, trails (Finger Lakes Trail), scenic beauty, woodstove, veggie oriented, smoking free, long-haired friendly cat, wild birds, spacious living room/den/porch. Live in community with 1 other 2 adult household (in a seperate building on the land) of the environmentally friendly, vegetarian type. Ph. 273-5879. Good luck, Joey Wendy Skinner wrote: I received a phone call from a woman with multiple chemical sensitivities who is looking for housing in Ithaca. She recently moved here because we are a "progressive" community but so far has been staying in a hotel room because healthy housing is so hard to find. She is single, solvent, and looking for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, or even a room in a house if it is suitable. Older housing that is NOT competely weather-proofed and that has not had interior upgrades in the last 10 - 20 years is preferable. If you have any housing or networking leads, please send them to me and I will forward them to her. Thanks for your consideration. Wendy Skinner 277-7611 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christian Nielsen-Palacios" To: Cc: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 2:34 PM Subject: [SustainableTompkins] ecoLogical Home Ideas FYI... >>> 2/13/06 12:29 PM >>> ecoLogical Home Ideas is excited to announce that High Noon Productions, producers of the popular HGTV series, Dream House, has asked us to help with their search for families who are building green homes! To be eligible, you must break ground on the Dream Green House in late 2005 or the first half of 2006 and be willing to have their camera crews follow your home's construction from start to finish. They are accepting both new builds and extreme renovations done to existing structures. They are, of course, looking for unique designs, inspiring styles, and outgoing personalities willing to share with the nation the challenges and rewards of building green! They are seeking green homes from all parts of the country to appear in future episodes. Interested families, contractors or architects may send an email to DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com with a brief description of the home and some of the green features it will have. Feel free to pass this information along to your members! Kind regards, Monica Marsicek Publisher, ecoLogical Home Ideas mmarsicek@invisibleinkpublishing.com ***************** NOW YOU CAN JOIN NORCAL ADPSR QUICKLY WITH A CREDIT CARD!! We have just launched our user friendly secure web page where you can join with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. It takes less than 3 minutes, follow the links at http://www.adpsr-norcal.org/. You'll feel much better for doing so. Forwarded as a courtesy of NorCal ADPSR. These postings are originated by others and ADPSR takes no responsibility for content. Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) ADPSR National Forum 415 974-1306 http://adpsr.org/ ADPSR Northern California Chapter 510 845-1000 http://adpsr-norcal.org/ POB 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709 To be removed from this list, reply to this email with the word "REMOVE" and the e-mail address it was originally sent to in the subject line. Please DO NOT HIT THE REPLY BUTTON Reply only to: DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com _______________________________________________ SustainableTompkins mailing list SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ SustainableTompkins mailing list SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From ws at twcny.rr.com Wed Feb 15 13:00:54 2006 From: ws at twcny.rr.com (Wendy Skinner) Date: Wed Feb 15 13:01:21 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Housing needed for person with multiple chem sensitivities References: <20060215180142.65450.qmail@web36307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <004301c63272$e9fed390$6401a8c0@wendyvaio> Thanks, Joey. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joey Gates" To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 1:01 PM Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Housing needed for person with multiple chem sensitivities > Wendy, > I was going to post this today: > Rooms for rent in a 4 bedroom house in Danby area. > Quiet road, trails (Finger Lakes Trail), scenic beauty, woodstove, veggie > oriented, smoking free, long-haired friendly cat, wild birds, spacious > living room/den/porch. Live in community with 1 other 2 adult household > (in a seperate building on the land) of the environmentally friendly, > vegetarian type. Ph. 273-5879. > Good luck, > Joey > > Wendy Skinner wrote: > I received a phone call from a woman with multiple chemical sensitivities > who is looking for housing in Ithaca. She recently moved here because we > are > a "progressive" community but so far has been staying in a hotel room > because healthy housing is so hard to find. She is single, solvent, and > looking for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, or even a room in a house if it is > suitable. Older housing that is NOT competely weather-proofed and that has > not had interior upgrades in the last 10 - 20 years is preferable. If you > have any housing or networking leads, please send them to me and I will > forward them to her. Thanks for your consideration. > > Wendy Skinner > 277-7611 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Christian Nielsen-Palacios" > To: > Cc: ; ; > > ; ; ; > ; > ; ; > ; ; ; > > Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 2:34 PM > Subject: [SustainableTompkins] ecoLogical Home Ideas > > > FYI... > >>>> 2/13/06 12:29 PM >>> > ecoLogical Home Ideas is excited to announce that High Noon > Productions, producers of the popular HGTV series, Dream House, has > asked us to help with their search for families who are building > green homes! > > To be eligible, you must break ground on the Dream Green House in > late 2005 or the first half of 2006 and be willing to have their > camera crews follow your home's construction from start to finish. > They are accepting both new builds and extreme renovations done to > existing structures. They are, of course, looking for unique designs, > inspiring styles, and outgoing personalities willing to share with > the nation the challenges and rewards of building green! > > They are seeking green homes from all parts of the country to appear > in future episodes. Interested families, contractors or architects > may send an email to DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com with a > brief description of the home and some of the green features it will > have. > > Feel free to pass this information along to your members! > > Kind regards, > > Monica Marsicek > Publisher, ecoLogical Home Ideas > mmarsicek@invisibleinkpublishing.com > > ***************** > NOW YOU CAN JOIN NORCAL ADPSR QUICKLY WITH A CREDIT CARD!! > > We have just launched our user friendly secure web page where you can join > with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. It takes less than 3 minutes, > follow the links at http://www.adpsr-norcal.org/. You'll feel much better > for doing so. > > Forwarded as a courtesy of NorCal ADPSR. These postings are originated by > others and ADPSR takes no responsibility for content. > Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) > ADPSR National Forum 415 974-1306 http://adpsr.org/ > ADPSR Northern California Chapter 510 845-1000 http://adpsr-norcal.org/ > POB 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709 > > To be removed from this list, reply to this email with the word "REMOVE" > and > the e-mail address it was originally sent to in the subject line. > > Please DO NOT HIT THE REPLY BUTTON > Reply only to: DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > From GayNicholson at aol.com Wed Feb 15 20:59:22 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Wed Feb 15 20:59:33 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Motivating Sustainable Consumption Message-ID: <23a.701baa2.312560aa@aol.com> For anyone interested in the social psychology of consumption, check out this report (170 page pdf with exec summary). Motivating Sustainable Consumption is a report produced by Professor Tim Jackson for the Sustainable Development Research Network, in connection with the University of Surrey, UK http://www.sd- research.org.uk/researchreviews/documents/MotivatingSCfinal.pdf It explores the latest thinking and research relating to what it is that affects peoples behaviour in relation to environmental issues. How can policies and processes best influence people in changing their lifestyles? The report has 19 full pages of Reference materials. HERE IS THE ABSTRACT. WORTH GOING TO THE SITE AND READING THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Motivating Sustainable Consumption iii Abstract Consumer behaviour is key to the impact that society has on the environment. The actions that people take and choices they make ? to consume certain products and services or to live in certain ways rather than others ? all have direct and indirect impacts on the environment, as well as on personal (and collective) well-being. This is why the topic of ?sustainable consumption? has become a central focus for national and international policy. Why do we consume in the ways that we do? What factors shape and constrain our choices and actions? Why (and when) do people behave in pro-environmental or prosocial ways? And how can we encourage, motivate and facilitate more sustainable attitudes, behaviours and lifestyles? Motivating Sustainable Consumption sets out to address these questions. It reviews the literature on consumer behaviour and behavioural change. It discusses the evidence base for different models of change. It also highlights the dilemmas and opportunities that policy- makers face in addressing unsustainable consumption patterns and encouraging more sustainable lifestyles. Changing behaviours ? and in particular motivating more sustainable behaviours ? is far from straightforward. Individual behaviours are deeply embedded in social and institutional contexts. We are guided as much by what others around us say and do, and by the ?rules of the game? as we are by personal choice. We often find ourselves ?locked in? to unsustainable behaviours in spite of our own best intentions. In these circumstances, the rhetoric of ?consumer sovereignty? and ? hands-off? governance is inaccurate and unhelpful. Policy-makers are not innocent bystanders in the negotiation of consumer choice. Policy intervenes continually in consumer behaviour both directly (through regulation and taxes eg) and more importantly through its extensive influence over the social context within which people act. This insight offers a far more creative vista for policy innovation than has hitherto been recognised. A concerted strategy is needed to make it easy to behave more sustainably: ensuring that incentive structures and institutional rules favour sustainable behaviour, enabling access to pro-environmental choice, engaging people in initiatives to help themselves, and exemplifying the desired changes within Government?s own policies and practices. *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From bosak at ibiblio.org Thu Feb 16 08:45:55 2006 From: bosak at ibiblio.org (bosak@ibiblio.org) Date: Thu Feb 16 08:46:33 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Interesting Peak Oil hook In-Reply-To: <23a.701baa2.312560aa@aol.com> References: <23a.701baa2.312560aa@aol.com> Message-ID: <33751.24.59.194.75.1140108355.squirrel@secure.ibiblio.org> I just noticed another sign of growing awareness about "peak oil." If you go to any craigslist site (including the one for Ithaca) and click on "cars+trucks", the resulting page carries a link to "Peak Oil" at the top that activates a google search on the term. Pretty clever! Jon From vrockney at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us Thu Feb 16 06:59:19 2006 From: vrockney at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us (Valorie Rockney) Date: Thu Feb 16 08:49:02 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Re-Imagine Style party this Saturday afternoon In-Reply-To: <43ED2402.8090603@ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us> References: <43ED2402.8090603@ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us> Message-ID: <43F49347.8070007@ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us> Do you have clothes that just need a little bit of attention to be great? Would taking up a hem or sewing a button back on give you back your favorite makes-you-feel-wonderful dress? Or do you have a sweater that's basically terrific, except that the voluminous cowl neck makes you look like a snapping turtle? Or a drawer full of t-shirts that have great sentimental value but not much else? Or are you feeling more radical and experimental? Do you feel like playing with your old clothes - chopping them up and recombining them into something edgier or more adventurous? Are you feeling the old February doldrums and longing to do something really different? Bring yourself and any wearables you might want to work on to the Re-Imagine Style sewing party this Saturday from 12-4 at Valorie's house. (224 Rachel Carson Way, 272-4921) Men and children are welcome. If you can't sew, or just hate to, no worries. There are plenty of ways to re-incarnate old garments that don't involve sewing. We'll have on hand a few basic sewing supplies, a sewing machine, lots of books* for ideas and techniques, and supportive people to cheer you on. Please bring a selection of sewing supplies and your sewing machine, if you have them. (You might call first to see if we'll have enough machines.) If you have extra sewing supplies that you don't want, you can bring them along to donate for the contest. The contest?? Not this weekend, but on Earth Day, Sunday, April 23, at 2:30 at the Farmers' Market pavillion, we're hosting a Re-Fashion design contest and fashion show. There will be prizes for the best entries in each category, including $250 worth of gift certificates and goods for the Best of Show. Participants are challenged to create a "new" wearable garment from one or more existing garments or other materials that are unwanted or no longer good (worn-out, thrown-out, badly-fitting, damaged, etc.) Participants can use other existing fabrics, such as old drapes or linens or existing "stuff" of any kind, but their garment should contain not more than 10% new materials. We'll have entry blanks, contest information, and a small, fun magazine that Wendy put together on sustainability and clothing. If you're not interested in the contest, and just want to let down the hems of your son's corduroys, or if you're tired and just want to hang out and talk, you're still welcome at Saturday's party! Hope to see you there, Valorie and Wendy * some of the books we'll have at the party: Cheap Chic Artwear: Fashion and Anti-fashion Generation T :108 ways to transform a T-shirt Singer: Clothing Care & Repair Secondhand Chic From hiller at alum.mit.edu Fri Feb 17 05:20:20 2006 From: hiller at alum.mit.edu (Marty Hiller) Date: Fri Feb 17 12:10:48 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fwd: Announcing The Campaign for Community Preservation Message-ID: <51b0773e5077540915b5449ecf60638d@alum.mit.edu> I thought some of you might be interested in this. - Marty Begin forwarded message: > From: "Environmental Advocates of New York" > > Environmental Advocates of New York is launching The Campaign for > Community Preservation to pass the Community Preservation Act. The Act > will give New York?s cities and towns the power to voluntarily create > a community preservation fund to protect natural areas, support family > farms, and preserve historic structures and heritage. Guided by local > leaders, the Community Preservation Act creates a pay-as-you-go system > to support land conservation and historic preservation. > > Over the next six months, Environmental Advocates of New York will ask > you to take action to promote the Community Preservation Act. Through > our eAdvocacy system, you can let key decision-makers in Albany know > what you think. Along the way, we?ll update you on the bill?s > progress, share stories of special places in need of protection, and > let you know what you can do to help. Please tell a friend about our > campaign. > > > Additional Resources:? > > -See the list of organizations that support the Community Preservation > Act. > > -Find out the status of this bill in NY?s Legislature: Assembly | > Senate > > -Download a brochure on the Community Preservation Act (PDF file) > > For more information: > Visit: www.savenys.org?or The Campaign for Community Preservation. > > If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for > Environmental Advocates of New York. From earthdayithaca at yahoo.com Fri Feb 17 07:59:00 2006 From: earthdayithaca at yahoo.com (Center for Environmental Sustainability) Date: Fri Feb 17 13:12:19 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Earth Day Planning Mtg. Notes 2-16-06 Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060217105900.01f1b010@postoffice9.mail.cornell.edu> Earth Day Planning Session 2 February 15th, 2006 Attendees: Roxy Johnston, Deborah Dahl, David Gage, Wally Woods, Joey Gates, Valerie Rockney, Wendy Skinner, Joe O?Rourke (Small print-these notes were typed by Joey-please let me know of any corrections by 2/24) Re-Imagine Fashion Show- (Wendy & Valerie) They spoke with Tompkins County Solid Waste who is supporting show. Ithaca College is helping with printing booklet; centerfold is a pullout entry form. Sustainable Tompkins held a focus group and the idea received good feedback. The show has about 9 sponsors. There will be at least 18 contestants ? 3 categories, 6 entries each. Judging will happen April 8th in Dewitt building - drop off 9-12; judge from 1-3. At Earth Day, the show will be 30 minutes long from 2-230. 3 Part Publicity- Save the date, think about making something, then invites all will mention Earth Day. Earth Flag (Wendy) Tim Josephs is discussing with city attorney to see who makes decision and Wendy will f/up. (Deborah will be selling them again.) Art show cancelled. Johnnie Apple Seed Award (Deborah & Wally). In the past Wally has given this award from CES to groups with projects that promote sustainability-ex. To the school kids who planted trees at Gunn Hill. The award has a picture of Johnny Appleseed (whom Wally is a descendent of) and will be given to each vendor. Deborah & Wally would like to find kids to sing the Johnny Appleseed song. Adam to check with church to see if there are choruses that may be available. They could carol through the celebration. Brochure (Deborah, Sandra Voorhees & Joey) -separate vendors by elements. Would like to put contact info for tablers in brochure, we also need to make sure that CES info is on brochure this year. Opening Ceremony (Deborah) Audrey Cooper at CCE at Multi-cultural Resource Center Water In/Water Out (Roxy) The Waste Water Treatment Plant will be doing the tour again this year-date TBD. CU Transit will be asked for bus. Sign up at ED. Alt Transportation (Roxy)-needs to set up mtgs. Compost Fair (Adam) Has been recruiting volunteers-will have 17 master composters, incredible group. 1st training is Thurs 2/16. Will divide group into 4 committees-planning, marketing, booth-layout, general logistics-prizes, supplies. Electrifying Times (Dave) Brought magazines on Electric Vehicles as source of good info. Photo Display (Dave) Dave will put together a display of past year?s photos. Eco-footprint (Wally) will have eco-footprint quiz for folks to take. Bicycle operated TV (Joe) still has platform and parts, needs stand for TV. Looking for exercise bikes. Native Plant Society table ? native edibles and invasives-pictures with blurb underneath. Publicity (Joey, Adam & Lauren) Joey has contacted the Cornell newspapers. The PawPrint editor has offered to: put out a call for volunteers, run a side bar with ED highlights, run an employee profile on Joey with a focus on sustainability work and to send a photographer to get a follow up story. Adam is going to have one of his volunteers consolidate several media contact lists into one. The CES may also have a new member who has a journalism degree and can assist in publicity-stay tuned. Insurance (Joey) is next on the to do list:). T-Shirt RFP (Joey) given time constraints, this may have to wait another year-anyone interested in taking this up? Food Vendors (Joey) Have sent out notices searching for local food advocates, who may be interested in being food coordinators-to no avail. Update- I am meeting Grassroots Fest. Food Coordinator Gregar Brous on 2/20-stay tuned! Music (Steve Calkins, Crow Weaver & Joey) the main stage is filling quickly. A second performance area will be available at the head of the section of the pavilion that leads down to the dock. If anyone is interested in performing-please keep in mind the Earth/sustainability theme. Phone Tree (Wally) in honor of those who don?t email, Wally will be in charge of keeping you up to date. Next Meetings (everyone :) ) Wednesday, March 15th from 7-9 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, Rm C. Adam will be chairing. Saturday April 8th from 9-11 at the Tompkins County Solid Waste Office at 122 Commercial Drive (off Rt 13S). Saturday April 15th from 9-11 at the Farmer?s Market Pavilion, Booth 21. From mdestries at gmail.com Thu Feb 16 07:16:11 2006 From: mdestries at gmail.com (Michael d'Estries) Date: Fri Feb 17 14:26:35 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] 24 Hour Blog-A-Thon Looking For Local Ithaca 'GREEN' Stories!! Message-ID: <470a07250602160716k70cf5f80s7e5b87f945198c07@mail.gmail.com> Hello everyone! As some of you have already heard, local green online magazine, GroovyGreen.com, is participating in a 24-Hour Blog-A-Thon February 24/25 to raise money for the protection of the South American Rainforest. Every $75 purchases one acre of forest--and thanks to some early contributions (TREEA, Level Green, to name a few) --we're already approaching our second acre. However, the purpose of a blog-a-thon is also to post interesting and inspiring stories about sustainability--and we need your help! This would be a great opportunity to shine the international spotlight on the efforts being undertaken by Ithaca to contribute and educate for a clean, green, lifestyle. Do you know someone who would be willing to be interviewed for a particular cause? Do you have a story or book review that you're itching to share with the rest of the world? Is there a green product out there you would like review? As always, leading up to the event, we're still looking for sponsors to help us contribute to the preservation of the Rainforest. We plan on posting approximately 50 stories in the 24 hour period. People, businesses, organizations have sponsored us anywhere from 10 cents a post to $3! It doesn't matter! Any donation will be welcome! Recognition for the group, business, or individual will be displayed in our revised main page header leading up to and after the event. Think of it as any easy way to get your group advertised! Click here for more information: http://groovy.movingtonz.com/type/?page_id=441 or simply visit the main site: www.groovygreen.com Best Regards, Michael www.groovygreen.com From GayNicholson at aol.com Sat Feb 18 14:15:57 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Sat Feb 18 14:16:23 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Security: Power To The People Message-ID: <8e.36dc5049.3128f69d@aol.com> In our discussions about creating sustainable communities, we rarely mention security issues and how the sustainable community movement affects the future in terms of criminality or terrorism. Our work on energy security and food security are obviously relevant, but a deeper analysis would be informed by the work we do in creating new forms of social relations and the development of social capital. Thinking at the systems level requires that we take the impacts of demographics, technological developments, and global frictions into account in our redesign of community. >From the latest issue of Fast Company. Security: Power To The People The myth of American omnipotence fell in the Iraqi desert, laid low by an agile new enemy. We have a chance now to rethink the systems that protected us in the past. It's one we cannot miss. From: _Issue 103_ (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/103) | March 2006 | Page 120 By: John Robb Photographs by: Phillip Toledano The next decade holds mind-bending promise for American business. Globalization is prying open vast new markets. Technology is plowing ahead, fueling--and transforming--entire industries, creating services we never thought possible. Clever people worldwide are capitalizing every which way. But because globalization and technology are morally neutral forces, they can also drive change of a different sort. We saw this very clearly on September 11 and are seeing it now in Iraq and in conflicts around the world. In short, despite the aura of limitless possibility, our lives are evolving in ways we can control only if we recognize the new landscape. It's time to take an unblinking look. We have entered the age of the faceless, agile enemy. From London to Madrid and Nigeria to Russia, stateless terrorist groups have emerged to score blow after blow against us. Driven by cultural fragmentation, schooled in the most sophisticated technologies, and fueled by transnational crime, these groups are forcing corporations and individuals to develop new ways of defending themselves. The end result of this struggle will be a new, more resilient approach to national security, one built not around the state but around private citizens and companies. That new system will change how we live and work--for the better, in many ways--but the road getting there may seem long at times. Open-Source Warfare The conflict in Iraq has foreshadowed the future of global security in much the same way that the Spanish Civil War prefigured World War II. Unlike previous insurgencies, the one in Iraq is comprised of 75 to 100 small, diverse, and autonomous groups of zealots, patriots, and criminals alike. These groups, of course, have access to the same tools we do--from satellite phones to engineering degrees--and use them every bit as well. But their single most important asset is their organizational structure, an open-source community network very similar to what we now see in the software industry. It is an extremely innovative structure, sadly, and results in decision-making cycles much shorter than those of the U.S. military. Indeed, because the insurgents in Iraq lack a recognizable center of gravity--a leadership structure or an ideology--they are nearly immune to the application of conventional military force. Like Microsoft, the software superpower, the United States hasn't found its match in a competitor similar to itself, but rather in a loose, self-tuning network. The second insight Iraq gives us is that the convergence of international crime and terrorism will provide ample fuel and a global platform for these new enemies. Al Qaeda's attack on Madrid, for example, was funded by the sale of the drug Ecstasy. And Mois?s Na?m, in his new book, Illicit, details how globalization has fostered the development of a huge criminal economy that boasts a technologically leveraged global supply chain (like Wal-Mart's) and can handle everything from human trafficking (Eastern Europe) to illicit drugs (Asia and South America), pirated goods (Southeast Asia), arms (Central Asia), and money laundering (everywhere). Na?m puts the value of that economy at between $2 trillion and $3 trillion a year. He says it is expanding at seven times the rate of legitimate world trade. This terrorist-criminal symbiosis becomes even more powerful when considered next to the most disturbing sign coming out of Iraq: The terrorists have developed the ability to fight nation-states strategically--without weapons of mass destruction. This new method is called "systems disruption," a simple way of attacking the critical networks (electricity, oil, gas, water, communications, and transportation) that underpin modern life. Such disruptions are designed to erode the target state's legitimacy, to drive it to failure by keeping it from providing the services it must deliver in order to command the allegiance of its citizens. Over the past two years, attacks on the oil and electricity networks in Iraq have reduced and held delivery of these critical services below prewar levels, with a disastrous effect on the country, its people, and its economy. The early examples of systems disruption in Iraq and elsewhere are ominous. If these techniques are even lightly applied to the fragile electrical and oil-gas systems in Russia, Saudi Arabia, or anywhere in the target-rich West, we could see a rapid onset of economic and political chaos unmatched since the advent of blitzkrieg. (India's January arrest of militants with explosives in Hyderabad suggests that the country's high-tech industry could be a new target.) It's even worse when we consider the asymmetry of the economics involved: One small attack on an oil pipeline in southeast Iraq, conducted for an estimated $2,000, cost the Iraqi government more than $500 million in lost oil revenues. That is a return on investment of 25,000,000%. Now that the tipping point has been reached, the rise of global virtual states--with their thriving criminal economies, innovative networks, and hyperefficient war craft--will rapidly undermine public confidence in our national-security systems. In fact, this process has already begun. We've seen disruption of our oil supply in Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Colombia; the market's fear of more contributes mightily to the current high prices. But as those disruptions continue, the damage will spill over into the very structure of our society. Our profligate Defense Department, reeling from its inability to defend our borders on September 11 or to pacify even a small country like Iraq, will increasingly be seen as obsolete. The myth of the American superpower will be exposed as such. Then, inevitably, there will be a series of attacks on U.S. soil. The first casualty of these will be another institution, the ultrabureaucratic Department of Homeland Security, which, despite its new extra-legal surveillance powers, will prove unable to isolate and defuse the threats against us. (Its one big idea for keeping the global insurgency at bay--building a fence between Mexico and the United States, proposed in a recent congressional immigration bill--will prove as effective as the Maginot Line and the Great Wall of China.) But the metaphorical targets of September 11 are largely behind us. The strikes of the future will be strategic, pinpointing the systems we rely on, and they will leave entire sections of the country without energy and communications for protracted periods. But the frustration and economic pain that result will have a curious side effect: They will spur development of an entirely new, decentralized security system, one that devolves power and responsibility to a mix of private companies, individuals, and local governments. This structure is already visible in the legions of private contractors in Iraq, as well as in New York's amazingly effective counterterrorist intelligence unit. But as we look out to 2016, the long-term implications are clearer. Like Microsoft, the United States hasn't found its match in a competitor similar to itself, but rather in a loose, self-tuning network. Security will become a function of where you live and whom you work for, much as health care is allocated already. Wealthy individuals and multinational corporations will be the first to bail out of our collective system, opting instead to hire private military companies, such as Blackwater and Triple Canopy, to protect their homes and facilities and establish a protective perimeter around daily life. Parallel transportation networks--evolving out of the time-share aircraft companies such as Warren Buffett's NetJets--will cater to this group, leapfrogging its members from one secure, well-appointed lily pad to the next. Members of the middle class will follow, taking matters into their own hands by forming suburban collectives to share the costs of security--as they do now with education--and shore up delivery of critical services. These "armored suburbs" will deploy and maintain backup generators and communications links; they will be patrolled by civilian police auxiliaries that have received corporate training and boast their own state-of-the-art emergency-response systems. As for those without the means to build their own defense, they will have to make do with the remains of the national system. They will gravitate to America's cities, where they will be subject to ubiquitous surveillance and marginal or nonexistent services. For the poor, there will be no other refuge. Until, that is, the next wave of adaptive innovation takes hold. For all of these changes may prove to be exactly the kind of creative destruction we need to move beyond the current, failed state of affairs. By 2016 and beyond, real long-term solutions will emerge. Cities, most acutely affected by the new disruptions, will move fastest to become self-reliant, drawing from a wellspring of new ideas the market will put forward. These will range from building-based solar systems from firms such as Energy Innovations to privatized disaster and counterterrorist responses. We will also see the emergence of packaged software that combines real-time information (the status of first-responder units and facilities) with interactive content (information from citizens) and rich sources of data (satellite maps). Corporate communications monopolies will crumble as cities build their own emergency wireless networks using simple products from companies such as Proxim. Self-Reliance By 2016, we may see the trials of the previous decade as progress in disguise. The grassroots security effort will do more than just insulate our gas lines and high schools. It will also spur positive social change: So-called green systems will quickly shed their tree-hugger status and be seen as vital components of our economic and personal security. Even those civilian police auxiliaries could turn out to be a good thing in the long run: Their proliferation--and the technology they'll adopt--will lead to major reductions in crime. All of these changes may prove to be exactly the kind of creative destruction we need. Some towns and cities will go even further. In an effort to bar the door against expanding criminal networks, certain communities will move to regulate, tax, and control everything from illegal immigration to illicit drugs, despite federal pressure to do otherwise. A newly vigilant and networked public will push for much greater levels of transparency in government and corporate operations, using the Internet to expose, publish, and patch potential security flaws. Over time, this new transparency, and the wider participation it entails, will lead to radical improvements in government and corporate efficiency. On the national level, we'll see a withering of the security apparatus, but quite possibly a flowering in other areas. Energy independence and the obsolescence of conventional war with other countries will reduce tensions between the United States and the rest of the world. The end of oil will also force corrupt states, now propped up by energy income, to make the reforms they need to be accepted internationally, improving life for their people. Perhaps the most important global shift will be the rise of grassroots action and cross-connected communities. Like the Internet, these new networks will develop slowly at first. After a period of exponential growth, however, they will quickly become all but ubiquitous--and astonishingly powerful, perhaps as powerful as the networks arrayed against us. And so we will all become security consultants, taking an active role in deciding how it is bought, structured, and applied. That's a great responsibility and, with luck, an enormous opportunity. Choose wisely. John Robb was a mission commander for a "black" counterterrorism unit that worked with Delta Force and Seal Team 6 before becoming the first Internet analyst at Forrester Research and a key architect in the rise of Web logs and RSS. He is writing a book on the logic of terrorism. *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From GayNicholson at aol.com Sat Feb 18 14:30:46 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Sat Feb 18 14:31:02 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Demographics: The Population Hourglass Message-ID: <1f3.1bc90d88.3128fa16@aol.com> and here's another aspect that we need to be aware of in the sustainable community movement..... >From Fast Company, March 2006 issue: Demographics: The Population Hourglass Your future is older, browner, and more feminine than you might have realized. That will make for some major lifestyle changes ("Welcome home, Mom!") and lots of huge opportunities for business. From: _Issue 103_ (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/103) | March 2006 | Page 56 By: Andrew Zolli Photographs by: Phillip Toledano It's the futurist's first rule: You can't understand the future without demographics. The composition of a society--whether its citizens are old or young, prosperous or declining, rural or urban--shapes every aspect of civic life, from politics, economics, and culture to the kinds of products, services, and businesses that are likely to succeed or fail. Demographics isn't destiny, but it's close. Our leaders, as a rule, completely miss the boat on demographics and how it informs their own organizations, customers, and constituencies. And it's not hard to see why: Most executives aren't trained to make sense of demographic forecasts (there are no courses on demographics at Harvard Business School or Wharton, for example), and the field itself does little to raise its own profile. Demographers frequently come across like accountants-- without all that sex appeal. The demographic concentration of boomers at the top of the population pyramid represents the next American gold rush. (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/103/essay-body.html) (http://trax.fastcompany.com/k/w/partners/intel/promo/articles) (http://trax.fastcompany.com/k/w/hiringcenter/monster/promo-box) (http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v5|3390|0|0|*|m;27153354;0-0;0;10929665;4252-336|280;14823853|14841749|1;;~sscs=?http: //www.inc500conference.com) But that doesn't mean exciting and important things aren't happening. The United States of 2016 will find itself in the throes of demographic shifts that will upend our political, economic, and technological priorities and redefine our markets. From our age distribution to the color of our skin, we will look dramatically different. To get a sense of what lies ahead, consider a simple demographic tool: the "population pyramid." Imagine that we took all of the people in a given population and stacked them up by age, putting all the infants at the bottom and all the centenarians up top. For most stable, peacetime societies, the resulting figure would look like a pyramid, with the youngest people at the base and the oldest people up at the tip. And indeed, that is exactly what you see today in a place like India--a perfectly sloped pyramid with lots and lots of babies at the bottom and a handful of the ancient. By contrast, in what passes for a demographic joke (given our fondness for Fritos and Cinnabon), the current U.S. pyramid looks like an overweight contestant on The Biggest Loser, with the giant baby boom billowing out from its midsection. Starting in the next decade, however, our flabby pyramid is quickly going to slim down. It will assume the form of an hourglass, with the largest number of older people in our society's history, the quasi-retired baby boomers, up top, and the largest generation of young people since the boomers--the millennials, or echo boomers--at the bottom. The beleaguered generation-Xers will form the "pinched waist" in the middle. The hourglass society will bring an avalanche of new social challenges, cultural norms, and business opportunities. With a huge increase in the number of older consumers, entirely new entertainment, culture, and news markets will open up--film, television, books, and Internet sites pitched more to the Matlock set than to the Eminem crowd. Also, older people tend to vote more frequently, and they will wield significant political clout: We could see a multidecade "boomerocracy" or, as one gen-Xer put it archly over cocktails, "TRBN: terminal rule by boomer narcissists." (G)old Rush The demographic concentration of boomers at the top of the population pyramid, backed by their vast reservoirs of disposable income, represents the next American gold rush. Ten years from now, the cover of this magazine will be graced with the smiling faces of the entrepreneurs and corporate leaders who unlocked the elder boomers' hearts and minds--and drained their bank accounts. It's hard to overstate the weight of the numbers: Boomers now represent a U.S. market of some 36 million, or about 12% of the population, and as they move up the pyramid, the number of seniors is going to rise dramatically. By 2011, the 65-and-over population will be growing faster than the population as a whole in each of the 50 states. The Boomer Binge will have begun. Businesses aren't confused about the opportunity that growth represents: Consumer electronics firms such as Vodafone are investing in mobile phones with designs tweaked to the requirements of older customers; IBM has developed a computer mouse that compensates for the tremors that sometimes affect seniors' hands; and Gap Inc. recently unveiled Forth & Towne, a new clothing line for women who fall into the vast retail void between the navel-pierced teen and the librarian in a twin set. And those examples are just a foretaste. The real breakthroughs are going to come from companies helping boomers to hold on to their youth--and milk it for all it's worth. Boomers have never met a life stage they didn't want to remake in their own image, and their golden years will be no exception. Watch grandma windsurf! Pole vault! Pole dance! As their last act, boomers will remake even the American way of death: Consider Eternal Reefs (www.eternalreefs.com), a cremation burial option where your ashes can be mixed with concrete and turned into an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. Boomers will be scuba diving even in the afterlife. The hourglass phenomenon will shape not only where you work but whom you work with--and how you get along with them. The hourglass phenomenon will shape not only where you work but whom you work with--and how you get along with them. Some boomers, upon turning 65, will disappear in a puff of RV smoke, retiring to a never-ending suck-the-marrow-from-life experiential party that ends only at death. Others will find themselves fully and happily employed by companies desperate to keep them. Still others, due to lamentably low savings rates and the erosion of social services, will enter a purgatorial nether-retirement and serve as an object lesson for their children. This great boomer tri-furcation will in turn create a paradox for the gen-Xers coming up behind them. Some Xers will find themselves in the midst of an enormous job boom created by the vacating boomers, who will leave open far more jobs than there are qualified Xers to fill them. (And there will be much rejoicing.) At the same time, some Xers will find themselves trapped behind a new glass ceiling--the boomer "ass ceiling" if you will--blocked from their next career step because an all-too-healthy or all-too-indebted precursor just can't or won't retire. Making all of this intergenerational jockeying even more complex, the millennials will soon begin showing up in the workforce en masse, carting along a heady mix of ravenous careerism, natural social networking and IT skills, a thirst for learning, and a rather presumptuous expectation of direct contact with senior management. How this perky generation, which is more like the boomers than any generation in between, will get along with the perennially annoyed Xers will be the fodder for beloved sitcoms in 2013. Color Shift Even as America goes gray (and promptly dyes its hair), its skin will become more polychrome. Buoyed by higher birth rates among minorities and increasing immigration from Latin America and Asia, parts of the United States will become as diverse as a New York subway car. Minorities will make up one-third of the U.S. population in 2016; in the decades to come, Hispanics, now one of every seven Americans, will be one in four. As Hispanic influence grows, it will be transformed from the undifferentiated "niche market" many Americans consider it to be today into a mass market in its own right, segmented by nationality, cultural experience, and other characteristics. The cultural influx won't only be Hispanic, though. High schools will soon routinely offer Hindi and Mandarin as Asians become a still more influential slice of the populace. MTV is already launching new channels, MTV Desi, MTV Chi, and MTV K aimed at South Asian, Chinese, and Korean immigrant teens. We can expect a proliferation of culture not only pitched to Asians, but by them. The rise of these new blocs will change American diets, tastes, and cultural references--but it will also redefine the notion of race itself, perhaps permanently. The distinction between black and white will become an anachronism: Get ready for the politics of brown. But this burst of diversity and immigration will affect regions of the country differently. Almost one-half (46%) of U.S. population growth in the next decade will come from three states: California, Texas, and Florida, which by 2016 will have overtaken New York as the third-largest in the country. The giant sucking sound you'll hear will be the national center of gravity shifting south and west. By 2016, where you compete may matter much more than how. It won't be just the age and color of the workforce that change in the years ahead--its gender will change, too. Though it has been widely underreported, women make up approximately 58% of the undergraduate college population, and that figure is rising. Within 10 years, at least 3 million more women than men could be attending college, and because educational and economic achievement are so strongly correlated, those gains will inevitably translate into cultural influence, purchasing power, and corporate leadership. That trend will only accelerate through the 2010s. Women's economic achievement is already seeding the clouds for a deluge of development. Women's economic achievement is already seeding the clouds for a deluge of distaff marketing and product development. According to the National Association of Realtors, the percentage of single female home buyers in the past 20 years has nearly doubled, placing them second only to married couples. And the number of women buying high-end consumer electronics like plasma televisions is growing faster than the number of men (a reality yet to sink in at the big-box stores). Finally, while the workplace undergoes tremendous change, so will the American family. Thanks to boomer retirees who've outlived their income--or failed to save any of it--many families are going to get bigger. Consider Florida: While most of us think of it as a geriatric haven, in recent decades the number of seniors exiting the state has steadily increased, in many cases because they can no longer afford to stay. (To deal with this, MetLife started offering longevity insurance in 2004, a fixed deferred-income annuity to help insure seniors against "the biggest risk they will face in retirement: longevity risk." ) Where will boomers go when they run out of money? In many cases, the answer will be, home to live with their kids. In fact, according to some projections, a woman born after 1980 is likely to take care of her mother longer than she cares for her own children. (Perhaps MetLife will get around to "mother-in-law" insurance.) As those boomers move back in, they'll redefine the family from a two-generation "nuclear" family to a three- or even four-generation affair, a return to the beginning of the 20th century. These new multigenerational families will be a fertile new market for everything from new senior-plus-family transportation (call it "the Clan-agon") to travel, entertainment, cooking, and shopping. Health-care and financial-services companies will find themselves speaking not only to their senior customers but to their family members, who form an extended-care network. Oh, and it's not just your parents who may be living with you. Your kids may be there, too. Millennials fully expect to live forever, which gives them plenty of time to drag out each stage of life, starting with a nice prolonged "twixter" adolescence. For some, this will last well into their thirties. You won't have to worry about a babysitter, though: Grandma plays a mean game of Grand Theft Auto. Futurist Andrew Zolli is the founder of Z + Partners, a strategy consulting firm, and curator of the annual PopTech conference. He was a member of the Fast 50 class of 2005. *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From GayNicholson at aol.com Sat Feb 18 15:13:42 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Sat Feb 18 15:14:09 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Resources: The Revolution Begins Message-ID: <256.6a810bf.31290426@aol.com> >From Fast Company: Resources: The Revolution Begins Businesses large and small are finally seeing the green light. It isn't just conscience--or all those nice young people in Guatemalan sweaters--that's doing the trick. It's the sight of all that money. From: _Issue 103_ (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/103) | March 2006 | Page 72 By: Chip Giller and David Roberts Photographs by: Phillip Toledano Let's talk about your butt--specifically, what it's sitting on. If the world is to avoid ecological catastrophe over the coming decade it's going to require nothing less than another industrial revolution. Chances are, your chair is an unholy medley of polyvinyl chloride and hazardous chemicals that drift into your lungs each time you shift your weight. It was likely produced in a fossil-fuel-swilling factory that in turn spews toxic pollution and effluents. And it's ultimately destined for a landfill or incinerator, where it will emit carcinogenic dioxins and endocrine-disrupting phthalates, the kind of hormone-mimicking nasties that give male fish female genitalia and small children cancer (or is it the other way around?). Now, envision what you might be sitting on in 2016. Actually, never mind: Office-furniture outfit Haworth already built it. It's called the Zody, and it's made without PVC, CFCs, chrome, or any other toxic fixin's. Ninety-eight percent of it can be recycled; some 50% of it already has been. The energy used in the manufacturing process is completely offset by wind-power credits, and when the chair is ready to retire, the company will take it off your hands and reuse its components. Unsurprisingly, Haworth is motivated by more than woodsy altruism. "Haworth fundamentally believes that by being sustainable, you can be more profitable," says its president and CEO, Franco Bianchi. The lumbar-pampering chair isn't cheap to produce--nor, at $700 to $1,100 each, particularly cheap to buy--but the company believes there's money to be made at the sweet spot where quality meets environmental consciousness. In isolation, the story of the Zody is a font of warm fuzzies. But if the world is to avoid ecological catastrophe over the coming decade (Sorry, did we say "ecological catastrophe"? We meant "multiple, overlapping, mutually reinforcing ecological catastrophes"), it's going to require more than benign furnishings. What we need is nothing less than another industrial revolution--a wholesale conversion of the familiar model of brute-force resource- and waste-intensive industry to a model that mimics nature in its fecundity, flexibility, and efficiency. And quickly, please. That Sinking Feeling Last year, more than 100 citizens of the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu permanently fled their seaside village because a succession of strong waves and storms threatened to swallow it up. These unlucky folks and their counterparts on other low-lying islands and buckling shorelines are involuntary trendsetters, the world's first climate-change refugees. And according to the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University, they may be joined by as many as 50 million other environmental refugees by 2010. If you're under 40, experts say, you're likely to see the end of cheap crude oil in your lifetime. The same fossil-fuel addiction that drives climate chaos also fouls the air and dangerously distorts foreign policy. And things are only going to get messier: Experts differ on exactly when we're going to run out of cheap crude, but the consensus is that if you're under 40 (and particulate pollution doesn't kill you early), you're likely to see it in your lifetime. In the meantime, billions more people will be lining up for whatever's left. By 2050, the global population is expected to hit 9.2 billion, up from today's 6.5 billion. That means the world is adding a Dallas a week, and some of the fastest-growing spots on the planet--think China and India--are those most rapidly upping their per-capita demand for natural resources. We're razing rainforests, wiping out thousands of species, slurping up a dwindling supply of fresh water, and contaminating virtually every living creature with a witches' brew of more than 70,000 synthetic chemicals. In fact, because toxic chemicals tend to drift northward and accumulate in Arctic food chains, the breast milk of some mothers in Greenland now technically qualifies as hazardous waste. Sound grim? Don't just sit there crying into your phthalates. There are options--choose one! The first is an old standby: doing nothing. Resource wars will break out, environmental refugees will swarm the globe, people--mostly poor people--will starve from drought and be wiped out by intense storms. The world's rich will survive and probably prosper (they tend to), but wealth disparities will skyrocket, presumably at a significant cost to global political stability. A second option: Educate the world's population to the point of enlightenment so we all accept that we can live with much less, materially speaking. The rich get poor, the poor stay poor--voluntary simplicity, worldwide. Ahem. Let's talk about the third option, then: the next industrial revolution. Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice For decades, environmentalists have scolded the world's industrialized societies, warning that they must grow less, consume less, slow down, sacrifice. Human nature being what it is, that message found a rather modest audience. But a group of big thinkers has emerged in the past decade to put a new twist on the green dream--people like William McDonough, Michael Braungart, Amory Lovins, Janine Benyus, and Paul Hawken. Rather than taking ecological principles primarily as moral prohibitions, they suggest, why not see them as design challenges? Why not aim to build a democratic, market-based civilization of prosperity and plenty that puts humanity in a nurturing, rather than omnivorous, relationship with the ecosystems it inhabits? Far from utopian, they say, it's largely achievable in the next decade or so--and would ultimately cost far less than our present trajectory. Architect McDonough and chemist Braungart, authors of the landmark book Cradle to Cradle, contend that every material used in the manufacturing process should ultimately either biodegrade harmlessly or be reusable with no loss of quality (unlike today's recycling, which is actually downcycling). This radical model entirely eliminates the concept of waste, including pollution; or, as they put it in their book: Waste equals food. Lovins, a sustainable-energy expert and head of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a green think tank and consulting firm, is similarly fixated on eliminating waste--especially wasted energy. He estimates that preventable energy loss costs the global economy more than $1 trillion a year and argues that efficiency is the most affordable energy source in the United States. In a 2004 book, Winning the Oil Endgame (partly funded by the Pentagon), Lovins and his RMI crew lay out a market-centric strategy for weaning the United States off oil over the next couple of decades through efficiency efforts and the strategic use of existing technology. Net savings to the U.S. economy: $70 billion a year by 2025. Green Is Green Lofty and appealing ideas, these, but what's actually happening on the ground? To begin with perhaps the most ambitious example: As part of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development, McDonough's architectural firm is designing and overseeing construction of entire city districts in China. Some 400 million rural Chinese are expected to migrate to cities over the coming decade, and the government wants urban centers to absorb the influx with minimal ecological impact. The goal is to create dense urban areas that generate more power than they consume through smart building techniques and solar technology--a high-profile demonstration of cradle-to-cradle principles, if it actually happens. To date, though, McDonough has made more concrete progress with corporate clients, including BASF, Nike, PepsiCo, and Ford Motor Co., which famously commissioned the architect to oversee a top-to-bottom overhaul of its historic River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The past few months have seen blue-chip companies tripping over themselves to go green. In fact, the past few months have seen blue-chip companies tripping over themselves to go green. General Electric vowed to improve the energy efficiency of its operations by 4% a year and double its revenues from relatively clean products to $20 billion by 2010. Wal-Mart, which has contracted with Lovins and RMI for advice, has unveiled plans to double the fuel efficiency of its new trucks, cut greenhouse-gas emissions from existing stores by 20%, and develop a model green store. Energy giant BP just unveiled a new alternative-energy division, which it says could produce $6 billion in annual revenue by 2015. Whole Foods announced in January that it would buy enough wind-power credits to offset energy use at all of its U.S. stores, and Starbucks, which said in 2005 that it would buy wind energy to meet 20% of electricity needs at its U.S. stores, is this year adding 10% postconsumer recycled content to its ubiquitous paper cups. That should cut the need for new tree fiber by more than 5 million pounds a year, the company says. Even McDonald's is shooting to get its first green-building certification for a restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. These heavyweight corporations don't need a windmill to see which way the wind blows. And their sheer size means that even tentative, incremental efforts have the potential to move markets. But the most ambitious, inventive ideas are bubbling out of more agile, adaptable small and midsize companies. Take outdoor-clothing maker Patagonia. Ten years ago, it led the pack in switching to 100% organic cotton; now it's asking folks to return their old Capilene underwear (yes, they'd like you to wash it) to be recycled into new garments. In a similar vein, Hartmann & Forbes, which makes handwoven window coverings from sustainably grown grasses and bamboo, just launched a program to take them back at the end of their useful lives. Q Collection, an upscale furniture maker, outflanks competitors by eschewing formaldehyde, polyurethane, and flame retardants. GDiapers are made of reusable cloth with flushable, compostable inserts. IceStone is a glossy countertop material of recycled glass and concrete. Perhaps no other area is seeing as great a flurry of development as clean energy. Solar cells are shrinking, wind turbines are getting more efficient, and hydrokinetic energy--from the natural movement of water--is being tapped as never before. Energy company Energetech, for example, is teaming up with desalination company H2AU to develop technology that harnesses wave power and uses it to make ocean water drinkable. A prototype in the waters off of Port Kembla, Australia, last year beat expectations; a full-scale version could power 1,400 homes a year, at a competitive cost, or produce 260 million gallons of potable water--with zero emissions. There are thousands of others, small firms and startups creating nontoxic, modular, recyclable products; modeling more efficient production; reducing their pollution. As in any new wave of innovation, many--perhaps most--of these companies will fail, but each will add to the expanding store of practical wisdom. Flushable diapers and fancy chairs notwithstanding, we will never recover the thousands of species lost, the old-growth forests and Appalachian mountaintops leveled, or the lives cut short by poisons and pollution. There is already enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to guarantee at least some climatic disruption. The real engine of environmental progress will turn out to be not government action but imagination and entrepreneurial spirit. The European Union and U.S. states and cities are picking up some of the legislative and regulatory slack, but at the national level here, action to address these problems has been anemic at best and counterproductive at worst--a collective failure of will that could come back to haunt us. But if McDonough and company are right, the real engine of environmental progress will turn out to be not government action but the imagination and entrepreneurial spirit of thousands of market-savvy, environmentally minded innovators. As GE CEO and newly minted eco-evangelist Jeffrey Immelt is fond of saying, "Green is green." Chip Giller is founder and editor of Grist.org, an online environmental magazine. David Roberts is a Grist.org senior writer. *************************************** *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From tonydelplato at gmail.com Sun Feb 19 11:02:04 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Sun Feb 19 11:02:28 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] think of this whale as the world In-Reply-To: References: <9CD2AB30-A16D-11DA-BAD5-000393CA02EA@mac.com> Message-ID: This is a retelling of a front page story, SF Chronicle, Thursday, December 15, 2005 A female humpback whale, weighed down by hundreds of pounds of crab traps, her body entangled in a web of hundreds of yards of lines, wrapped around her tail, her torso,and with one line caught in her mouth, was struggling to stay afloat when a fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that the only way to save her was to untangle her. Conscious that one slap of her tail could kill a rescuer, they worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The one who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and that he will never be the same. -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From levelgreen at kaxy.com Mon Feb 20 09:26:13 2006 From: levelgreen at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Mon Feb 20 10:05:51 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fw: UNESCO: Highlights on Decade Progress to Date Message-ID: Thought you might be interested in the report below from UNESCO, forwarded a European sustainability network, on the first year of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The US Partnership isn't mentioned - what shall we do about this? There's clearly a LOT going on, with extraordinary networking potential for sharing information, ideas, and inspiration - ? Patricia Haines Level Green Institute ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: MEdIES To: levelgreen@kaxy.com Sent: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 10:56:43 +0200 Subject: UNESCO: Highlights on Progress to Date Dear MEdIES friends, We kindly send you for your interest a document from UNESCO, the Task Leader of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD) which highlights the progress to date regarding the Decade. You can find herewithlinks to various documents, publications and other relevant products. Regards, Iro Alampei MEdIES Secretariat **************************************** Highlights on Progress to Date January 2006 This document highlights developments of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) which are only a small reflection of the extraordinary number of activities, events, networks and support for the DESD from countries, regions, civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and stakeholders from all over the world. Every day, UNESCO Headquarters receives e-mails, phone calls and letters to share ideas and concrete initiatives, including artistic expressions, in support of the DESD. All these activities are creating immense energy and attention for the DESD. Vision: Quality of Education as the chief element for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to succeed and the overarching goal of UN DESD is to advance the quality of education at all levels. On the 20th of December 2002, Resolution 57/254 on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (57th Session) and UNESCO was designated as the lead agency for the promotion of the Decade. This resolution requested UNESCO to develop a draft international implementation scheme, clarifying its relationship with existing educational processes, in particular the Dakar Framework for Action and the United Nations Literacy Decade. In consultation with the United Nations Agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders, UNESCO was required to provide recommendations for governments on how to promote and improve the integration of education for sustainable development in their respective educational strategies and action plans at the appropriate level. --------------------------------------- GOALS OF THE UN DECADE ON EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The overall goal of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) is to integrate the values inherent in sustainable development into all aspects of learning to encourage changes in behavior that allow for a more sustainable and just society for all. The basic vision of the DESD is a world where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from education and learn the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation. This translates into four objectives, to: 1. Facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in ESD; 2. Foster an increased quality of teaching and learning in education for sustainable development; 3. Help countries make progress towards and attain Millennium Development Goals through ESD efforts; 4. Provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate ESD into education reform efforts. UNESCO'S RESPONSES TO UN RESOLUTIONS 57/254, 58/219 & 59/237 - An International Implementation Scheme for the DESD was prepared through consultation with other United Nations Agencies, international organizations, governments, NGOs, universities, individuals and the private sector. It was presented at the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (New York, September-October 2004). It was on the agenda of the UNESCO Executive Board in April 2005, which took note of the text and made some recommendations. The draft was further discussed and approved at the UNESCO Executive Board session in September 2005. The International Implementation Scheme is online at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001403/140372e.pdf. UNESCO has also started preparing an outline for a UNESCO Action Plan for its own contribution for the DESD, the draft of which can be consulted at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001403/140381e.pdf - A document on linkages between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD), Education For All (EFA) and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), was developed by the Division for Promotion of Quality Education, the Bureau of Strategic Planning and the Division of Basic Education. The purpose of this document is to clarify UNESCO's relationship with the educational processes already in existence, which is one of the key tasks requested of UNESCO in the Resolution. A brochure entitled "Links between the Global Initiatives in Education", gives an overview of the similarities and differences among the four initiatives and includes suggestions for mutual support and collaboration. ( http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001408/140848m.pdf) DESD HIGH LEVEL PANEL UNESCO's Director-General, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, convened in a High-Level Panel on the DESD, to provide guidance and advice to UNESCO on the DESD. It is composed of leading experts in the field: Dr Akito Arima, Senator and Former Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan; Prof. Alpha Omar Konaré, President of the Commission of the African Union and former President of the Republic of Mali; Mr Carl Lindberg, former Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kingdom of Sweden and Mr Steven Rockefeller, Chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. --------------------------------------------- LAUNCHES OF THE DECADE --------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH OF THE DESD: 1 March 2005 The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development was officially launched on March 1 2005 in New York, by UNESCO’s Director General Koïchiro Matsuura. REGIONAL, NATIONAL LAUNCHES OF THE DESD, LAUNCHES AT SPECIAL EVENTS: DESD launches are being prepared at the regional, sub-regional, national and even sub-national levels. Whenever regional conferences on ESD and DESD are taking place during 2005 it is suggested to have a regional launch and to promote the Decade. Many countries have expressed interest hosting their own national launches for the DESD following the international launches. Guidelines regarding national launches, national DESD committees and national DESD websites have been prepared, widely disseminated and available online on the DESD UNESCO website. Regional / sub-regional launches - Europe/North America region at the High-Level Meeting of Environment and Education Ministries (Vilnius, Lithuania 17-18 March 2005) - CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region at the CIS Education Minister’s Conference (Minsk, Belarus 5 - 6 April 2005) - Asia/Pacific region at UNU/UNESCO International Conference in Nagoya, Japan on June 28th 2005 - Latin America region at the Ibero-American Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, from May 31- June 2, 2005. - Arab region, in Bahrain on 17 - 18th September 2005 - Caribbean region, at a conference on ESD in Kingston, Jamaica, on 18-20 October 2005 - Mediterranean region at an International Conference in Athens, Greece on 26-27 November 2005 - Africa region at the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) Biennal meeting (Libreville, Gabon 27 - 31 March 2006) National / sub-national launches - Germany (Mainz, Germany - 13 January 2005) www.dekade.org Note : the current President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Horst Köhler (former Managing Director of the IMF) is the patron of the DESD in Germany. - Chili (Santiago – 12 to 14 January 2005), organization of the "II Seminario Internacional Educacion para el desarrollo sostenible" for the national launch - New Zealand (Auckland - 5 March 2005) - Japan (6 March 2005) launching event organized by ESD-J (Japan Council on the UNDESD) - Canada (Toronto - March 10-12, 2005) at the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian National Commission on the theme of 'Sustainable Development: Learning to Live Together' - Mexico (Mexico City-March 11, 2005), national launch and signature of a National Commitment for DESD, in presence of President Vicente Fox and representatives of all sectors of society. - Norway (Hamar-15 March 2005) on the theme of "YouthXchange and the UN DESD national and global challenges for sustainable consumption" - The Netherlands (The Hague-5 April 2005) - Quebec Province, Canada (Quebec City, May 19-20, 2005) at the 'Carrefour de la citoyenneté responsable' (www.csq.qc.net) - French speaking community, Belgium (Mons–Frameries-1 June 2005), during the "Forum de lancement de la Décennie de l'Education vers un Développement Durable en Communauté française de Belgique" (www.educa21.net/custom/forum-juin) - Scotland, UK (Stirling - 3 June 2005) - China (Tongji University, in collaboration with Chinese National Commission for UNESCO-10 September 2005) - Finland (fall 2005 – national DESD seminar, to be confirmed) - UK (London-13 December 2005), UK Launch Conference for the Decade on Education for Sustainable Development at the Institute of Education hosted by the UK National Commission for UNESCO - Viet Nam (Hanoi-spring 2006, tbc), national launch and installation of a national committee ---------------------------------------- DESD REGIONAL LAUNCHES & STRATEGIES ---------------------------------------- EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA REGION - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Regional Strategy: Europe and North America Region (www.unece.org/env/esd/welcome.htm) The DESD Regional Strategy was prepared for Europe and North America under UNECE’s leadership, to facilitate the introduction and promotion of education for sustainable development in the UNECE Region, which encompasses 55 countries with rich cultural diversity, and with a wide range of socio-economic and political conditions. The UNECE Regional Strategy was built on its members' partnerships, including United Nations Agencies, International Organizations, Governments, NGOs and universities to promote a comprehensive approach, seeking to strengthen cooperation on ESD at all levels within the region. It is a contribution in line with the DESD Draft International Implementation Scheme and should be used as a foundation for the regional implementation of the Decade to facilitate the introduction and promotion of ESD in the UNECE Region. The final draft of the UNECE Regional Strategy was adopted at the High-Level Meeting of Environment and Education Ministers (Vilnius, Lithuania 17-18 March 2005) www.unece.org/env/esd/HLmeetMarchl2005.htm. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC REGION UNESCO Office in Bangkok and Regional Bureau for Education: Asia and the Pacific Region UNESCO Bangkok facilitated the drafting of a regional implementation strategy for DESD which was launched at the Asia-Pacific Regional Launch of ESD in Nagoya, Japan in June 2005. The strategy was finalized based on the results of a regional situational analysis of ESD. The Situational Analysis of Education for Sustainable Development in the Asia-Pacific Region provides a snapshot view of the extent to which ESD has been integrated across various educational settings. Moving from Environmental Education to ESD will be a key challenge for the Decade. Youth, rural and indigenous communities, civil society, media and the private sector are all important stakeholders in meeting this challenge. (www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/esd_situation_analysis) The Working Paper: Asia-Pacific Regional Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development serves to help guide the implementation of ESD throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It is an open document that is adaptable for revision according to the changing needs of stakeholders and emerging issues throughout the Decade of ESD. (www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/esd_working_paper) LATIN AMERICA REGION The Ibero-American Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, from May 31- June 2, 2005, marked the launching of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN-DESD) within Latin America. The initiative was held by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) in partnership with UNESCO, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), UNEP, World Bank and Brazilian Government. The Ibero-American Conference on Sustainable Development represents a milestone in the integration of the region into the new concept that conciliates economic, social and environmental needs without compromising the future of any one of these. In Brazil, government authorities, representatives of public and private institutions, business people, non-governmental organizations and academic communities from all of the Ibero-American countries gathered for an ample debate and exchange of experiences with the objective of encouraging joint actions by the government, civil society and corporations in order to promote sustainable development in society. CARIBBEAN REGION Caribbean Regional Conference on Education for Sustainable Development: New Approaches for the Future held in Kingston, Jamaica on October 18-20, 2005. ( http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=28722&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html) This regional conference served as the Caribbean regional launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The main objectives of the conference were to: - Provide a forum to discuss and address the issues of ESD - Launch the decade of ESD in the Caribbean - Prepare action plans for implementing ESD in the region - Build partnerships among formal and non-formal educators within the region Participants included teachers, educators and administrators from pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the Caribbean; youth representatives from Youth-Path and other organizations; non-government organizations; government ministries; UNESCO and other organizations; private sector. The meeting highlighted that while environment has been seen within SIDS and UNESCO for some time now as encompassing physical, biological, social, cultural and economic aspects, this is certainly not the case in the Caribbean educational system, where it is viewed only in physical and biological terms. Thus one of the main challenges of ESD in the region and perhaps an important goal for the Decade is to use the strengths of existing environmental educational activities and to integrate into them the social, cultural and economic aspects. OTHER REGIONS Contacts have been made with the Africa and Arab States regions in order to prepare Regional Strategies for the DESD. Many initiatives are taking place or are under development in the different regions. --------------------------- SOME HIGHLIGHTS -------------------------- - UNESCO is more and more seen as an indispensable partner for ESD. A number of other meetings and workshops are taking place at various levels, regions and countries, regarding ESD and DESD with the backup of UNESCO (Headquarters, Regions and Field Offices). - Cooperation between the Education for Sustainable Development Section and other UNESCO sectors has been enhanced to insert ESD concepts and concerns in various key initiatives; such as: Small Island Developing States, Decade on Water for Life, Associated Schools Project Network. An information exchange and sharing mechanism has been set up between UNESCO Headquarters and field offices in the different regions involved in ESD activities. Focal points have been appointed in the different Programme sectors of UNESCO. - It is increasingly recognized at agency meetings, workshops and government consultations that ESD is a complex matter comprising many different facets. It is not simply another term for Environmental Education (EE), even though proponents of EE have been active in pushing for a DESD. Although EE is an integral component of ESD, ESD is more holistic in its approach and in the diversity of the issues covered. In many consultations and meetings, it has been argued that in addition to the environmental, economic and social pillar of sustainable development, culture must also be recognized as a dimension of sustainable development. - Increasing support has been received from NGOs, associations, the private sector and civil society to contribute to the ESD efforts and promote ESD at the regional and national levels. For example, in the Asia-Pacific region, first steps have been taken by NGOs, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to establish a regional alliance or network that will be essential in sharing information and supporting the coordination of the regional implementation of the DESD. - UNESCO's partners such as the "Ubuntu Alliance" and the United Nations University (UNU) are providing their expertise in preparing for the Decade. UNESCO participates in "Type 2 Partnerships" launched at the 2002 WSSD: - FAO/UNESCO Flagship Program for Education for Rural People (www.fao.org/sd/erp/index_en.htm) - Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership (GHESP) has initiated the development of a Toolkit/Resource Center project to provide effective change on strategies for reorienting higher education toward sustainable development. (www.ulsf.org/GHESPResourceProject/index.html) - "Educating for sustainable living with the Earth Charter" partnership which seeks to ensure that the concept and principles of sustainable development are incorporated into educational systems as well as local community programs. The resolution adopted by the 2003 UNESCO General Conference on the Earth Charter reinforces UNESCO’s implication in this global partnership, which involves the growing network of educators working with the Charter and aims to facilitate the further development of the Earth Charter as an educational framework. (www.earthcharter.org) - Recommendations for a Partnership strategy between the DESD and the private sector have been elaborated out of a cooperation between UNESCO and the ‘Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris’. COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION AND PUBLICATIONS FOR THE DESD UNESCO DESD website (www.unesco.org/education/desd) Since the beginning of October 2003, UNESCO has had an interactive website in English, French and Spanish with a highly appreciated mascot ('DD' seen right). The website gives visibility to local, national and international ESD activities, initiatives and events and is updated weekly with information in all three languages. Criteria and conditions for participation in the UNESCO DESD website have been developed. Official UN DESD logo The UN DESD logo, along with Guidelines for the use of the UN DESD logo, has been prepared and released. Both logo and guidelines are available on the UNESCO DESD website. An information note concerning the logo and guidelines has been sent to all National Commissions, all Permanent Delegations, national DESD focal points, all Heads of UNESCO field offices, and all NGOs in consultative status with UNESCO. Information folder on ESD A folder of ESD information briefs has been prepared in English and French in order to clarify and communicate the key concepts and messages of ESD, and also available for downloading. The collection of information briefs provides analysis on several issues including: Education for Sustainable Development; The World Summit on Sustainable Development; The evolving concept of Sustainable Development; ESD and Transdiciplinarity; UN DESD 2005-2014; Partnerships for ESD; Small Island Developing States; Agriculture, Biodiversity, Gender, Health, Poverty and Water. UNESCO and Sustainable Development brochure A brochure on "UNESCO and Sustainable Development", prepared with the Bureau of Strategic Planning, outlines UNESCO’s actions for sustainable development in its different fields of competence. It is available in English and French. Guidelines for National DESD launches and activities Guidelines regarding national launches, national DESD committees and national DESD websites have been prepared, widely disseminated and available online on the DESD UNESCO website. Guidelines for integrating sustainability issues in Teacher Education Guidelines and Recommendations for Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability have been prepared by the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability (York Univesity, Toronto) and the International Network of Teacher-Education Institutions. These Guidelines are available online on the DESD UNESCO website. Other publications related to Education for Sustainable Development - Posters for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development - The publication ‘Educating for a Sustainable Future: Commitments and Partnerships’ brings together the contributions of a wide range of educationalists including representatives of civil society, higher education institutions, non-governmental organizations, private companies, other UN agencies, Ministers of Education and Heads of State. This publication is a UNESCO Publishing publication and can be ordered through UNESCO Publishing (see http://publishing.unesco.org/details.aspx?Code_Livre=4225). - CD-ROM ‘Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future’, a multimedia teacher education program. The program contains 100 hours (25 modules) of professional development for use in pre-service teacher courses as well as for the in-service education of teachers, curriculum developers, education policy makers, and authors of educational materials. Also available online at www.unesco.org/education/tlsf. - CD-ROM and booklet "The Population in Sub-Saharan Africa", to guide and facilitate population education programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. "Never doubt that a group of committed citizens can change the world - indeed, it's the only thing that can." - Margaret Mead -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From tonydelplato at gmail.com Tue Feb 21 05:08:59 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Tue Feb 21 05:09:21 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] CU report: Americans More Skeptical re: GE Foods Message-ID: The following report is from Craig Winters, President The Campaign to label ge foods Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org According to a new report out by Cornell University, Americans "have become slightly more skeptical over the past three years" regarding genetically engineered foods. On a scale of 1 to 10, the level of "risk perception" increased from 5.4 in 2003 to to 6.1 in 2005. Posted below is the press release from Cornell University. This is great news to bring up to the media because the biotech industry is always trying to paint a picutre that Americans are becoming more and more accepting of genetically engineered foods. Here is good documentation indicating that is not the case. And we can make the argument that when the American public learn how irresponsible our government agencies have been in regulating genetically engineered foods, their concerns will continue to grow. ******************************************************** Risk or benefit: American opinions are split on genetically engineered food, but they are growing slightly more skeptical, study finds Contact: Blaine Friedlander Office: (607) 254-8093 bpf2@cornell.edu EMBARGOED until Sunday, Feb. 19, 2006, at 3:30 p.m. CST ST. LOUIS -- While more than two-thirds of the food in U.S. markets contains at least some amount of a genetically engineered (GE) crop, researchers want to know if Americans consider GE food a health risk or benefit. The result: Americans are split on the issue, but they have become slightly more skeptical over the past three years, according to a new study from Cornell University. "Depending on whom you ask, the technology is either beneficial or has negative effects on health and environment," said James Shanahan, associate professor of communication at Cornell and lead researcher of the study. Generally, women and non-Caucasians perceived higher risk in using biotechnology in food production than men and Caucasians. And politically, Republicans showed more overall support for GE foods than others, he said. John Besley, one of Shanahan's collaborators and a Cornell doctoral candidate in communication, presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science today (Feb. 19). The third co-author is Erik Nisbet, also a Cornell doctoral candidate in communication. The study included four annual national surveys from 2003 to 2005 (with samples of about 750 respondents each year) and three annual surveys of New Yorkers from 2003 to 2005 (about 850 respondents each year). The national survey measured support for GE food using a scale from 1 to 10, while the New York survey used a similar scale to measure the perceived health risks of GE food. "The results of the state and national surveys were very consistent with each other," said Shanahan. "And both showed a slight but significant shift over time toward a little less support and more risk perception." Specifically, the mean response for support for biotechnology was 5.6 (on a 1-10 scale) in the first year of the surveys, indicating that people were evenly divided in supporting, opposing or being undecided; by 2005, the mean declined slightly to 5.2. Similarly, the mean response for risk perception increased to 6.1 in 2005 from 5.4 in the first year. The researchers also found that people who pay more attention to the news tend to support GE food more than those who don't. "Overall, research shows that GE foods are safe and effective, though some people still harbor reservations about it," said Shanahan. "I suspect that the more people are exposed to the news, the more aware they are of biotechnology and, therefore, more supportive of it." The New York data were collected by Cornell's Survey Research Institute (SRI), which conducts survey research on par with other academic research facilities. The national data were collected during a research methods course in cooperation with SRI. Shanahan serves as the co-director of the public issues education project, Genetically Engineered Organisms. The project has an extensive Web site for consumers about GE crops and foods (http://www.geo-pie.cornell.edu), including information on what foods are most frequently engineered (corn and soybeans, followed by canola and cotton, from which cottonseed oil is derived), which traits have been engineered, regulations, and media coverage and opinions about GE foods. http://www.news.cornell.edu/pressoffice1/Feb06/AAAS-GEFood.bpf.html -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From tonydelplato at gmail.com Sun Feb 19 08:00:59 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Tue Feb 21 09:05:29 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Rachel's News #842: Can Regulation Succeed? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear SustainTompkins folks: While it's great to see so many ideas and suggestions about sustainability for our county and world, I think it's important to see where we're loosing ground and work to at least inform ourselves and then act to stop corporations from polluting our world, promoting the false idea of "free markets" close to home and afar, and polluting the political process. Rachel's Democracy & Health News is a great e-journal edited by Peter Montague and is a sober look at the forces that are undermining a sustainable world. Well researched and documented. I highly recommend subscribing, even if you think you're overloaded, for this monthly newsletter. in solidarity, Tony Del Plato . . Precaution trainings are now set for Mar. 31-Apr. 2 in New Brunswick, N.J.; May 19-21 near Chicago; June 23-25 in Seattle; and Sept. 8-10 in Minneapolis. Some scholarships are available. *^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^* Rachel's Democracy & Health News #842 *"Environment, health, jobs and justice--Who gets to decide?"* *Thursday, February 16, 2006* www.rachel.org -- To make a secure donation, click here . *^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^* *Featured stories in this issue...* Is It Possible to Regulate Dangerous Technologies? <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Is_It_Possible_to_Regulate_Dangerous_Technologies> The story of Erin Brockovich centered around chromium pollution, and it seemed to tell of a great victory for people who had been harmed. But underneath that story lies a deeper tale of the systematic corruption of science for the purpose of undermining the U.S. system of chemical regulation -- and this is not a story of victory by the people. Despite heroic work by dedicated citizen activists, the corporations may be winning. Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Controlling_Corporations_and_Restoring_Democracy> The combined impacts of super-sized corporations (companies bigger than countries) corporate personhood (giving companies the same constitutional protections as citizens), and money-in-politics combined with unbridled consumerism can explain the erosion of our democracy. The solutions proposed here by Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray would invigorate our democracy, clean up politics with publicly funded elections and take steps to limit corporate power. Great Lakes Pollution Is a Bigger Problem Than You Might Think <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Great_Lakes_Pollution_Is_a_Bigger_Problem_Than_You_Might_Think> Despite decades of effort cleaning up the Great Lakes, industrial discharges of water pollutants into the lakes are rising in both Canada and the United States, according to a new report from Environmental Defence and the Canadian Environmental Law Association. The Global Rise of Chronic Disease <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_The_Global_Rise_of_Chronic_Disease> Chronic disease from unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the use of tobacco is causing the premature deaths of up to 35 million people worldwide -- in all social classes -- according to scientists at a recent conference sponsored by the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). In America, 75 percent of us will soon achieve a body weight that negatively affects our health. *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* From: Rachel's Democracy & Health News #842, Feb. 16, 2006 *IS IT POSSIBLE TO REGULATE DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGIES?* By Peter Montague During 2005, in a four-part series of front-page articles, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) blew the whistle on the utterly-broken system for regulating chemicals in the U.S. In recent weeks, we have examined the first three parts of the WSJ series (see here , here , and here ). Today we examine part 4 -- in many ways the most profoundly troubling article of all. In part 4 of its series, WSJ reveals that U.S. regulatory standards for a potent cancer-causing chemical, chromium-6, were substantially relaxed as a direct result of a 20-year plan devised and carried out by a small group of "hired gun" consultants who intentionally planted false information about chromium-6 in the scientific literature, misled regulators, and violated most of the ethical standards upon which the credibility of science itself rests. Instead of being punished for these profoundly anti-social acts, the consultants were given lucrative contracts by the U.S. Department of Energy and the president of the firm was appointed to an advisory board of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. This story has been thoroughly investigated and fully documented not only by Peter Waldman in the Wall Street Journal, but also by hard- hitting, gutsy reports by the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., and by the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger's top environmental reporter, Alexander Lane , who broke the story first. The story begins with Erin Brockovitch, the paralegal played by Julia Roberts in the movie named after her. For years PG&E, a California utility, dumped large quantities of chromium-6 into unlined pits in the ground, which subsequently leaked chromium-6 into underground drinking water supplies in the town of Hinkley. Many people grew ill. Chromium-6 (or "hexavalent chromium") is a very toxic form of the shiny metal ("chrome") used for plating automobile bumpers, making stainless steel, and so on. The other form, Chromium-3 is a relatively benign species of chromium (in tiny amounts it is an essential nutrient for humans). Chromium-6 on the other hand is a potent carcinogen -- some say it is the second most potent carcinogen after dioxin, causing lung cancer and perhaps nasal cancer, stomach cancer, lymph cancer, and cancer of the blood-forming cells. As the Erin Brockovitch story unfolded in California, a related story unfolded on the other side of the continent, in New Jersey, where three firms had spent the first half of the 20th century dumping millions of tons of chromium wastes in Hudson and Essex Counties, just across the Hudson River from New York City. According to the companies, these wastes were 86% chromium-3 mixed with 14% chromium-6. During the '50s and '60s, as awareness of toxic waste began to grow, the three firms got rid of their toxic problem by donating chromium waste free to anyone who showed up with a dump truck. As a result, chromium waste was used to shape foundations, pave roads, fill wetlands and build sewers. Little league ball fields and school yards were covered with it. High-end golf courses were contoured with it. Housing developments were built on it. In Hudson and Essex Counties, at least 189 sites are contaminated with chromium-6. Many of those sites are now inhabited by poor people and people of color. Did the companies know chromium-6 was toxic? Old timers tell how they used to show new guys a trick -- they would put a dime in one nostril and pull it out the other. Chromium had eaten away the cartilage between their nostrils, which a doctor would call "performated nasal septum," a classic symptom of chromium poisoning. In the 1990s, thanks in part to Erin Brockovitch, PG&E was facing hundreds of millions of dollars in liability suits from 650 plaintiffs who believed they had been made sick by chromium-6. So lawyers for PG&E hired a man with science degrees -- one would hesitate to call him a scientist -- named Dennis Paustenbach , who runs a company called Chemrisk . Chemrisk comes to the aid of large firms when they get caught poisoning people with toxic chemicals. Across the continent in New Jersey, the chromium polluters in New Jersey hired the same Dennis Paustenbach to help them evade liability for their misdeeds. In California, despite Mr. Paustenbach's best efforts, PG&E settled the case with 650 Hinkley residents for $333 million in 1994. and just a few weeks ago PG&E settled with a second group of Hinkley residents for $295 million. But in New Jersey the outcome was different. A 15-year campaign by Mr. Paustenbach and his colleagues at ChemRisk paid off handsomely for the polluters and for their friends within N.J. state government, where the political leadership (both Republican and Democrat) always seemed to side with the chromium polluters against the citizens, according to an investigative series by reporter Alex Lane of the Newark Star- Ledger (available here: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 .) When Mr. Paustenbach and his toxic trouble-shooters began work in New Jersey, the allowable standard for chromium-6 in N.J. soil was 10 parts per million (ppm). When they finished, the N.J. standard was 6,100 parts per million -- the most lax standard anywhere in the U.S. Mr. Paustenbach proudly estimates that he saved the New Jersey polluters $1 billion in cleanup costs. In return for this boon, the three firms only had to contribute $400,000 in perfectly-legal bribes and blandishments intended to influence N.J. political officials. So for every dollar invested in corrupting the N.J. political process, these firms received $2500 in reduced liability for their chromium wastes. By any measure, this is an excellent return on investment. Some of the politicans involved made out like bandits, too. At the same time Mr. Paustenbach was buying favors for his three chromium clients (Honeywell, PPG Industries, and Maxus Energy Corp.) N.J. officials were using some of Mr. Paustenbach's ideas to devise a comprehensive plan for dealing with the 12,000 toxic wastes sites that dot N.J. like a bad case of the measles. Starting with Governor Jim Florio (Democrat), accelerating under Governor Christie Todd Whitman (Republican), and continuing under governor James McGreevey (Democrat), N.J. decided to "solve" its embarrassing and costly toxic waste problems by "capping" them with a plastic tarp, a thin layer of asphalt, a sidewalk, a school, a low-cost housing project -- whatever provided the quickest and cheapest way of hiding toxicants in plain site. Actual removal of toxicants was out, sweeping toxicants under the rug was in -- and still is. All the states "developers" were exceedingly grateful for the wisdom displayed by N.J. state officials and the developers expressed their gratitude through the perfectly-legal bribes known as "campaign contributions." As the "capping" solution to toxics made all kinds of new land available for re-development, the developers generously cut the politicians in on their deals. Since leaving office, the two Democratic ex-governors have been engaged in helping people build on contaminated sites (which are officially no longer defined as "contaminated" because the contaminants have been hidden beneath a plastic tarp or some other fig leaf). And of course the White House itself recognized Christie Todd Whitman for her service to developers -- she was appointed head of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she reprised her friendly-to-polluters performance on a national scale. She has since parlayed that prestigious national job into a new career in N.J. where she is now an "environmental consultant" to developers. One hand washes the other but the dirt never seems to go away. Of course such political shenanigans are nothing new. What's new is the way Dennis Paustenbach's crew chose to change the science of chromium toxicity. As described by the Wall Street Journal and the Environmental Working Group, Mr. Paustenbach set out to "salt" the peer-reviewed scientific literature with falsehoods about chromium, and he succeeded. The WSJ told the story Dec. 23, 2005: "During China's Cultural Revolution 40 years ago, a city doctor named Zhang JianDong was banished to the countryside of northeastern China. He arrived to a public-health emergency. "A giant smelter was spilling large amounts of chromium waste into the groundwater. Well water was turning yellow. People were developing mouth sores, nausea and diarrhea. Dr. Zhang spent the next two decades treating and studying the residents of five villages with chromium- polluted water. "In 1987, he published a study saying they were dying of cancer at higher rates than people nearby. He earned a national award in China for his research. In America, federal scientists translated it into English, and regulatory agencies began citing it as evidence that a form of the metal called chromium-6 might cause cancer if ingested. "Then in 1997, Dr. Zhang, in retirement, appeared to retract his life's work. A "clarification and further analysis" published under his name in a U.S. medical journal said there was no cancer link to chromium in the villages after all. This new conclusion, like the earlier one, soon found its way into U.S. regulatory assessments, as evidence that ingested chromium wasn't really a cancer risk." What an extraordinary story -- a Chinese researcher documents cancer from chromium-6 drinking-water exposures in five villages. He wins an award from the Chinese government for his work. His study is translated into English and begins to influence regulatory decisions in California, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Then suddenly 10 years later, without collecting any new data, the Chinese researcher recants, saying that his data really showed no cancer attributable to chromium-6 exposures. Gullible U.S. regulators breathe a sigh of relief because now they can stop worrying about chromium-6 contaminaing drinking water -- a serious concern in at least 37 states across the U.S. The only problem with this story is that the Chinese researcher did not write the second study, WSJ tells us, even though it was published under his name. The second study, recanting the first, was "conceived, drafted, edited, and submitted to medical journals" by Chemrisk, Dennis Paustenbach's hired-gun consulting firm. Under the leadership of governor Christie Todd Whitman, New Jersey environmental officials accepted the bogus study without question, and went on to give away the store to the chromium polluters, changing New Jersey's allowable chromium-6 level in soil from 10 ppm to 6100 ppm. California officials on the other hand smelled a rat. In its study, "Chrome-Plated Fraud ," the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reports that a California government scientist, Jay Beaumont, found "several notable limitations and oddities in the" 1997 recantation paper. Beaumont eventually learned of the whole sorry fraud and itemized 13 ways in which Mr. Paustenbach's Chemrisk firm committed ethical or scientific breaches, including: ** Failure to disclose who wrote the manuscript: The 1997 recantation was composed by hacks employed by Paustenbach, but Dr. Zhang and and one of his colleagues were identified as the sole authors. ** Failure to disclose that the study was funded by PG&E. ** Falsely stating in the published paper that stomach cancer rates weren't available for the province surrounding the 5 villages. The data were in fact readily available but they inconveniently showed that chromium-6 was tightly associated with elevated cancer levels, so Mr. Paustenbach's minions omitted the data, then lied saying the data weren't available. ** Basing analysis on the level of contamination detected in the wells in 1965, knowing that by the end of that year the picture of contamination in the wells had dramatically changed. ** Ignoring useful data that were readily available. Misrepresenting the study design in several ways to make it seem stronger. ** Failing to disclose key facts about the data presented. The Environmental Working Group goes on to say, "The lies, errors, and misrepresentations in the 1997 JOEM [Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine] article don't stop even there. EWG's review of court documents and depositions show that several of the high chromium-6 concentrations reported in Zhang's original 1987 study were left out of the 1997 paper. Worse, a graphic reporting chromium-6 concentrations in the wells of the Chinese village most affected by chromium contamination also erroneously shows the chromium-6 levels of the wells in a different, less contaminated village." Even after the story of the scientific deception broke, New Jersey DEP failed to act. The then-DEP-Commissioner Bradley Campbell did his best to keep the lid on. For example, after the Newark Star-Ledger broke the story of the Paustenbach's scientific deception, Campbell would not allow reporters to talk to DEP staff responsibile for chromium cleanups. But eventually citizen pressure built up to intolerable levels and Campbell had to act. Between them, the Newark Star-Ledger and the Interfaith Community Organization in Jersey City put such heat on Campbell that he finally relented and appointed a 24-member scientific study group to evaluate the chromium mess in northern New Jersey. The commission eventually concluded that, yes, DEP had allowed the three chromium polluters to leave unsafe levels of chromium all across Hudson and Essex Counties. But Campbell then refused to take further action. It got so bad that two members of the commission lodged a formal complaint with U.S. EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], asking the federal government to step in to protect New Jersey citizens from chromium. Fortunately, when the new governor was elected, Campbell was not re-hired as DEP Commissioner, so there's still hope that something can be done to force the chromium polluters to do a proper cleanup, returning N.J. to natural background levels of chromium in soil. But of course the issues raised by this sordid tale go far beyond mere political manipulation of scientific advisory committees. If this were an isolated story, we might chalk it up to one individual committed to undermining the scientific enterprise for personal gain. This would be comforting. But it isn't the case. If you have been reading a newspaper during the past 5 or 6 years, you know that scientific fraud has become common. It has now become standard operating procedure for corporations to ghost-write medical and scientific papers , then pay scientists or physicians to allow the work to be poublished under their name. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health are riddled with scientists who have conflicts of interest -- they are making money from companies whose financial wellbeing depends on research being conducted by their agencies. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received a record number of complaints of scientific misconduct -- 50% higher than the number of complaints in 2003. As we documented in Rachel's News #824 and #825 , manipulating scientific information for the purpose of manufacturing doubt -- intending to paralyze the reglatory system -- is now an industry unto itself. This story raises the possibility that corporate scientific malfeasance has now grown so bold, so well-financed and so generally- accepted as standard operating procedure that no unit of government can muster the will, the staff, the effort or the courage it would take to set things right. Maybe corporate power has now outstripped the ability of any government to rein it in. As a result, we must now ask ourselves whether, under modern conditions, it is possible to imagine a workable system of regulation to protect public health from the chemical industry -- or any other industry premised on dangerous technologies (biotech, nanotech, weapons in space, nuclear power, etc.) Is a workable system of regulation even imaginable under modern conditions? If you think the answer is "yes," we'd like to hear your ideas. If the answer is "No," then many of us would have to acknowledge that we have been wasting our time devising new regulatory approaches that could never, in fact, work within the current framework of political power. Therefore we would have to admit we have been -- and are -- working on the wrong problem(s). And I include my own work in this. This is a troubling prospect, but one supported by a very large and rapidly growing body of evidence. Return to Table of Contents <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Table_of_Contents> *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* From: In These Times, Feb. 18, 2005 *THE PEOPLE'S BUSINESS* *Controlling corporations and restoring democracy* By Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray [DHN introduction: This essay is adapted from The People's Business (ISBN 1576753093) by Lee Drutman (Citizen Works ) and Charlie Cray (Center for Corporate Policy ).] One does not have to look far in Washington these days to find evidence that government policy is being crafted with America's biggest corporations in mind. For example, the Bush administration's 2006 budget cuts the enforcement budgets of almost all the major regulatory agencies. If the gutting of the ergonomics rule, power plant emissions standards and drug safety programs was not already enough evidence that OSHA, EPA and FDA are deeply compromised, the slashing of their enforcement budgets presents the possibility -- indeed, probability -- that these public agencies will become captives of the private corporations they are supposed to regulate. This should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with the streams of corporate money that flowed into Bush campaign coffers (as well as the Kerry campaign and all races for the House and Senate) in the 2004 election. The old "follow the money" adage leads us to a democracy in thrall to giant corporations -- a democracy that is a far cry from the government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" that Lincoln hailed at Gettysburg. At a time when our democracy appears to be so thoroughly under the sway of large corporations, it is tempting to give up on politics. We must resist this temptation. Democracy offers the best solution to challenging corporate power. We must engage as citizens, not just as consumers or investors angling for a share of President Bush's "ownership society." The problem of corporate power Unfortunately, the destructive power of large corporations today is not limited to the political sphere. The increasing domination of corporations over virtually every dimension of our lives -- economic, political, cultural, even spiritual -- poses a fundamental threat to the well-being of our society. Corporations have fostered a polarization of wealth that has undermined our faith in a shared sense of prosperity. A corporate- driven consumer culture has led millions of Americans into personal debt, and alienated millions more by convincing them that the only path to happiness is through the purchase and consumption of ever- increasing quantities of material goods. The damage to the earth's life-supporting systems caused by the accelerating extraction of natural resources and the continued production, use, and disposal of life-threatening chemicals and greenhouse gases is huge and, in some respects, irreversible. Today's giant corporations spend billions of dollars a year to project a positive, friendly and caring image, promoting themselves as "responsible citizens" and "good neighbors." They have large marketing budgets and public relations experts skilled at neutralizing their critics and diverting attention from any controversy. By 2004, corporate advertising expenditures were expected to top $250 billion, enough to bring the average American more than 2,000 commercial messages a day. The problem of the corporation is at root one of design. Corporations are not structured to be benevolent institutions; they are structured to make money. In the pursuit of this one goal, they will freely cast aside concerns about the societies and ecological systems in which they operate. When corporations reach the size that they have reached today, they begin to overwhelm the political institutions that can keep them in check, eroding key limitations on their destructive capacities. Internationally, of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations and 49 are nations. How Big Business got to be so big Corporations in the United States began as quasi-government institutions, business organizations created by deliberate acts of state governments for distinct public purposes such as building canals or turnpikes. These corporations were limited in size and had only those rights and privileges directly written into their charters. As corporations grew bigger and more independent, their legal status changed them from creatures of the state to independent entities, from mere business organizations to "persons" with constitutional rights. The last three decades have represented the most sustained pro- business period in U.S. history. The corporate sector's game plan for fortifying its power in America was outlined in a memo written in August 1971 by soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. at the behest of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The "Powell Memorandum," drafted in response to rising popular skepticism about the role of big business and the unprecedented growth of consumer and environmental protection laws, was intended as a catalytic plan to spur big business into action. Powell argued that corporate leaders should single out the campuses, the courts and the media as key battlegrounds. One of the most significant developments that followed Powell's memo was the formation of the Business Roundtable in 1972 by Frederick Borch of General Electric and John Harper of Alcoa. As author Ted Nace has explained, "The Business Roundtable... functioned as a sort of senate for the corporate elite, allowing big business as a whole to set priorities and deploy its resources in a more effective way than ever before.... The '70s saw the creation of institutions to support the corporate agenda, including foundations, think tanks, litigation centers, publications, and increasingly sophisticated public relations and lobbying agencies." For example, beer magnate Joseph Coors, moved by Powell's memo, donated a quarter of a million dollars to the Analysis and Research Association, the forerunner of the massive font of pro-business and conservative propaganda known today as the Heritage Foundation. Meanwhile, existing but tiny conservative think tanks, like the Hoover Institute and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, grew dramatically in the '70s. Today, they are key players in the pro-business policy apparatus that dominates state and federal policymaking. According to a 2004 study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, between 1999 and 2001, 79 conservative foundations made more than $252 million in grants to 350 "archconservative policy nonprofit organizations." By contrast, the few timid foundations that have funded liberal causes often seem to act as a "drag anchor" on the progressive movement, moving from issue to issue like trust fund children with a serious case of attention-deficit disorder. >From analysis to action The vast majority of people, when asked, believe that corporations have too much power and are too focused on making a profit. "Business has gained too much power over too many aspects of American life," agreed 82 percent of respondents in a June 2000 Business Week poll, a year and a half before Enron's collapse. A 2004 Harris poll found that three-quarters of respondents said that the image of large corporations was either "not good" or "terrible." Corporations have achieved their dominant role in society through a complex power grab that spans the economic, political, legal and cultural spheres. Any attempt to challenge their power must take all these areas into account. There is a great need to develop a domestic strategy for challenging corporate power in the United States, where 185 of the world's 500 largest corporations are headquartered. Although any efforts to challenge corporations are inevitably bound up in the global justice movement, there is much to do here in the United States that can have a profoundly important effect on the global situation. By understanding the origin of the corporation as a creature of the state, we can better understand how we, as citizens with sovereignty over our government, ultimately can and must assert our right to hold corporations accountable. The task is to understand how we can begin to reestablish true citizen sovereignty in a country where corporations currently have almost all the power. Developing the movement To free our economy, culture and politics from the grip of giant corporations, we will have to develop a large, diverse and well- organized movement. But at what level should we focus our efforts: local, state, national or global? The answer, we believe, is a balance of all four. Across the country, many local communities continue to organize in resistance to giant chain stores like Wal-Mart, predatory lenders, factory farms, private prisons, incinerators and landfills, the planting of genetically modified organisms, and nuclear power plants. Local communities are continuously organizing to strengthen local businesses, raise the living wage, resist predatory marketing in schools, cut off corporate welfare and protect essential services such as water from privatization. Local struggles are crucial for recruiting citizens to the broader struggle against corporate rule. Unfortunately, examples of grassroots movements that have succeeded in placing structural restraints on corporations are not as common as they should be. One of the ways we can accelerate the process is by organizing a large-scale national network of state and local lawmakers who are interested in enacting policies that address specific issues or place broader restraints on corporate power. Just as the corporations have the powerful American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to distribute and support model legislation in the states, so we need our own networks to experiment with and advance different policies that can curb and limit corporate power. The National Caucus of Environmental Legislators -- a low-budget coalition of state lawmakers established in 1996 in response to the Republican takeover of Congress and several state legislatures -- is a model that could be used to introduce and advance innovative legislative ideas at the state level. The New Rules Project has also begun to analyze and compile information on these kinds of laws. Additionally, the U.S. PIRG network of state public interest research groups and the Center for Policy Alternatives have worked to promote model progressive legislation, as has the newly founded American Legislative Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE). Moving the movement Despite their many strengths, many major movements of the past few decades (labor, environmental, consumer) have all suffered from internal fractures and a lack of connection to the broader society. The result is that they have been increasingly boxed into "special interest" roles, despite the fact that the policies they advocate generally benefit the vast majority of people. Cognitive linguist George Lakoff puts it this way: "Coalitions with different interest-based messages for different voting blocks [are] without a general moral vision. Movements, on the other hand, are based on shared values, values that define who we are. They have a better chance of being broad-based and lasting. In short, progressives need to be thinking in terms of a broad-based progressive-values movement, not in terms of issue coalitions." If there is one group at the center of the struggle to challenge corporate power, it is organized labor. As a Century Foundation Task Force Report on the Future of Unions concluded, "Labor unions have been the single most important agent for social justice in the United States." Labor is at the forefront of efforts to challenge excessive CEO pay, corporate attempts to move their headquarters offshore to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and the outsourcing of jobs. Labor also has played a leading role in opposing the war in Iraq and exposing war profiteers benefiting from Iraq reconstruction contracts. As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has written, unions need to start "building social movements that reach beyond the workplace into the entire community and offer working people beyond our ranks the opportunity to improve their lives and livelihood." This is beginning to occur more frequently. Union locals and national labor support groups like Jobs With Justice have been a key force in building cross- town alliances around economic justice battles such as living wage campaigns and the new Fair Taxes for All campaign. These union-led, cross-community alliances have in turn supported some of the strongest union organizing campaigns, including the nearly two- decades-old Justice for Janitors campaign that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its allies successfully organized in Los Angeles and other cities across the country. Clearly, labor unions, along with community-based organizations and churches, will be central to the construction of lasting local coalitions that can serve as organizing clearinghouses to challenge corporate rule. Constructing a new politics To challenge corporate power we must also value and rebuild the public sphere, and draw clear lines of resistance against the expansion of corporate power, such as the current push by Bush to convert Social Security into individual investment accounts that will allow Wall Street to rake off billions of dollars in annual brokerage fees. Most importantly, we must work to change the rules instead of agreeing to play with a stacked deck. In our hyper-commercialized culture, we spend far more time and energy thinking about what products we want to buy next instead of thinking about how we can change our local communities for the better, or affect the latest debates in Washington, D.C. or the state capitol. And when so much energy is spent on commercial and material pursuits instead of on collective and political pursuits, we begin to think of ourselves as consumers, not citizens, with little understanding of how or why we are so disempowered. The restoration of democracy requires us to address the backstory behind this process of psychological colonization. It requires us to address the public policies and judicial doctrines that treat advertising as a public good -- a tax-deductible business expense and a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. It's been so long since we have seriously addressed such fundamental questions that, as a result, the average American is now exposed to more than 100 commercial messages per waking hour. As of October 2003, there were 46,438 shopping malls in the United States, covering 5.8 billion square feet of space, or about 20.2 square feet for every man, woman and child in the United States. As economist Juliet Schor reports, "Americans spend three to four times as many hours a year shopping as their counterparts in Western European countries. Once a purely utilitarian chore, shopping has been elevated to the status of a national passion." A consequence of the hyper-commercialization of our culture is that instead of organizing collectively, we often buy into the market-based ideology of individual choice and responsibility and assume that we can change the world by changing our personal habits of consumption. The politics of recycling offers a minor but telling example of how corporations manage to escape blame by utilizing the politics of personal responsibility. Although recycling is a decent habit, the message conveyed is that the onus for environmental sustainability largely rests upon the individual, and that the solutions to pollution are not to be found further upstream in the industrial system. The personal choices we make are important. But we shouldn't assume that's the best we can do. We need to understand that it can't truly be a matter of choice until we get some more say in what our choices are. True power still resides in the ability to write, enforce and judge the laws of the land, no matter what the corporations and their personal-choice, market-centered view of the world instruct us to believe. Rebuilding the public sphere With increased corporate encroachment upon our schools and universities, our arts institutions, our houses of worship and even our elections, we are losing the independent institutions that once nurtured and developed the values and beliefs necessary to challenge the corporate worldview. These and other institutions and public assets should be considered valuable parts of a public "commons" of our collective heritage and therefore off limits to for-profit corporations. "The idea of the commons helps us identify and describe the common values that lie beyond the marketplace," writes author David Bollier. "We can begin to develop a more textured appreciation for the importance of civic commitment, democratic norms, social equity, cultural and aesthetic concerns, and ecological needs.... A language of the commons also serves to restore humanistic, democratic concerns to their proper place in public policy-making. It insists that citizenship trumps ownership, that the democratic tradition be given an equal or superior footing vis-a-vis the economic categories of the market." Changing the rules Much citizen organizing today focuses on influencing administrative, legislative and judicial processes that are set up to favor large corporations from the very start. Put simply, many of the rules are not fair, and until we can begin to collectively challenge this fundamental unfairness, we will continue to fight with one hand tied behind our backs. Instead of providing opportunities for people to organize collectively to demand real political solutions and start asking tough questions about how harmful policies become law in the first place, many community-based organizations seem content to merely clean up the mess left behind by failed economic policies and declining social services. The most successful organizing happens when it is focused on specific demands. Two crucial reforms have great potential to aid the movement's ability to grow: fundamental campaign finance reform and media reform. Together, these could serve as a compelling foundation for a mass movement that challenges corporate power more broadly. The movement for citizen-controlled elections, organized at the local level with support from national groups such as the Center for Voting and Democracy and Public Campaign, provides a useful framework for action for the broad spectrum of people who currently feel shut out of politics. Media reform is also essential. With growing government secrecy and a corporate-dominated two-party political system, the role of independent media is more critical than ever. As Bill Moyers suggested in his keynote address at the National Conference on Media Reform in 2003, "If free and independent journalism committed to telling the truth without fear or favor is suffocated, the oxygen goes out of democracy." The media have always been and will continue to be the most important tool for communicating ideas and educating the public about ongoing problems. Thomas Paine wrote more than 200 years ago: "There is nothing that obtains so general an influence over the manners and morals of a people as the press; from that as from a fountain the streams of vice or virtue are poured forth over a nation." History is replete with examples that show how critical the media's role has been in addressing the injustices of our society. For instance, many Progressive Era reforms came only in response to the investigative exposes of corporate abuses by muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell. Writing in popular magazines like Collier's and McClure's, these writers provided a powerful public challenge to the corruption of the Gilded Age. Because of increased corporate consolidation of the media, coverage of all levels of government has been greatly reduced. When people are kept ignorant of what is happening in their communities, in their states, in Washington, D.C. and in the world, it becomes much easier for large corporations to overwhelm the political process and control the economy without citizens understanding what is happening. Though media reform is a complex subject, one approach bears mentioning -- establishing and strengthening nonprofit media outlets. The long-term vision Though campaign finance reform and media reform offer useful starting points, ultimately, there is much more to be done. We need to get tough on corporate crime. We need to make sure markets are properly competitive by breaking up the giant corporate monopolies and oligarchies. We need to make corporations more accountable to all stakeholders and less focused on maximizing shareholder profit above all. We need to stop allowing corporations to claim Bill of Rights protections to undermine citizen-enacted laws. Ultimately, we need to restore the understanding that in a democracy the rights of citizens to govern themselves are more important than the rights of corporations to make money. Since their charters and licenses are granted by citizen governments, it should be up to the people to decide how corporations can serve the public good and what should be done when they don't. As Justices Byron White, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall noted in 1978: "Corporations are artificial entities created by law for the purpose of furthering certain economic goals... . The State need not permit its own creation to consume it." The people's business The many constituencies concerned with the consequences of corporate power are indeed a diverse group, and although this diversity can be a source of strength, it also makes it difficult to clearly articulate a vision for the struggle. What principles, then, can unite us? One abiding faith that almost all of us share is that of citizen democracy: that citizens should be able to decide how they wish to live through democratic processes and that big corporations should not be able to tell citizens how to live their lives and run their communities. The most effective way to control corporations will be to restore citizen democracy and to reclaim the once widely accepted principle that corporations are but creatures of the state, chartered under the premise that they will serve the public good, and entitled to only those rights and privileges granted by citizen-controlled governments. Only by doing so will we be able to create the just and sustainable economy that we seek, an economy driven by the values of human life and community and democracy instead of the current suicide economy driven only by the relentless pursuit of financial profit at any cost. Therefore, we must work assiduously to challenge the dominant role of the corporation in our lives and in our politics. We must reestablish citizen sovereignty, and we must restore the corporations to their proper role as the servants of the people, not our masters. This is the people's business. Return to Table of Contents <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Table_of_Contents> *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* From: Toronto Globe and Mail, Feb. 9, 2006 *POLLUTION IN GREAT LAKES RISING DESPITE CLEANUP EFFORT, STUDY SAYS* *Industrial releases of toxic materials took off from 1998 to 2002, data show* By Martin Mittelstaedt TORONTO -- Despite decades of effort cleaning up the Great Lakes, industrial discharges of water pollutants into the lakes are rising in both Canada and the United States, according to a new report . The upswing has been pronounced, with the amount of dangerous pollutants soaring 21 per cent between 1998 and 2002. Discharges rose 23 per cent at U.S. companies and 13 per cent at Canadian ones, said the report by Environmental Defence and the Canadian Environmental Law Association . In 1998, more than 4,000 tonnes were discharged, while in 2002, slightly over 5,000 tonnes entered the lakes. The largest releases were of corrosive nitric acid and nitrates, compounds that trigger algae and seaweed growth. But the discharges also included ethylene glycol, a poisonous solvent, and metals, including nickel, chromium and manganese. The finding is unexpected because companies have spent billions of dollars trying to clean up the environment, and water quality in the lakes has improved dramatically since the late 1960s and early 1970s. But environmentalists say the new figures suggest that complacency about the health of the lakes, the largest body of fresh water in the world and the source of drinking water for about 24 million people, is misplaced. "We have not solved the water-pollution problem," said Paul Muldoon of the Canadian Environmental Law Association . The reasons are not clear. The report, which is being made public today, suggested its figures underestimated the amount of pollution entering the lakes because not all companies must divulge their releases. Because Canada and the United States have different disclosure laws, the figures did not include emissions from municipal sewage plants, another large source of contaminants. Mr. Muldoon said a likely factor behind the increase is that industries released more pollutants as their output grew. He said that if rising economic output is behind the increase, companies should have to invest some of their extra revenue in pollution controls. The largest water polluter on the lakes in 2002 was a U.S. Steel Corp. plant in Gary, Ind., that discharges effluent into Lake Michigan. The largest Canadian polluter was an Imperial Oil refinery in Sarnia that discharges into the St. Clair River. The groups say their report is the first comprehensive look at industrial pollution trends in the Great Lakes region in about a decade. Environment Canada undertook a similar study based on data from the early 1990s. Governments stopped extensive monitoring of pollutant releases because the Great Lakes were believed to be returning to good health. But if discharges are rising again, the lack of scrutiny is misplaced, according to one of those who worked on the report. The failure of governments to compile this data is "a real indictment of the lack of attention being paid to Great Lakes issues," said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence . He said governments should track the pollution trends and not leave this work to non-profit agencies with limited budgets. The Joyce Foundation financed the report. Environment Canada officials did not return calls. The pollution trends were based on publicly available data on discharges of harmful substances that companies must file with the U.S. and Canadian governments. The largest air polluter on the lakes was Ontario Power Generation's Nanticoke coal-fired power station on Lake Erie. ======================================================== Sidebar: Troubling tally A new report finds that the amount of dangerous pollutants being discharged into the Great Lakes basin is on the rise, soaring 21 per cent between 1998 and 2002. Discharges rose 23 per cent at U.S. companies and 13 per cent at Canadian ones. Lake Superior basin Canadian facilities: 3,351 United States facilities: 791 Lake Huron basin Canadian facilities: 5,778 United States facilities: 2,732 Lake Ontario basin Canadian facilities: 13,708 United States facilities: 7,363 Lake Michigan basin Canadian facilities: 0 United States facilities: 19,012 Lake Erie basin: Canadian facilities: 20,388 United States facilities: 26,344 The 15 facilities with the largest releases of water pollutants into the Great Lakes basin, 2002 in descending order 1.U.S. Steel Corp., Gary, Ind. 2.Anheuser-Busch Inc., Baldwinsville, N.Y. 3.Imperial Oil, Sarnia, Ont. 4.Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y. 5.Parmalat Canada, Winchester, Ont. 6. Fort James Operating Co., Green Bay, Wis. 7.Jungbunzlauer Canada Inc., Port Colborne, Ont. 8.Domtar Inc., Espanola, Ont. 9.Abitibi-Consolidated Co. of Canada, Thorold, Ont. 10.Escanaba Paper Co., Escanaba, Mich. 11.Great Lakes Cheese of N.Y. Inc., Adams, N.Y. 12.Stelco Inc., Hamilton, Ont. 13.Dunkirk Steam Station, Dunkirk, N.Y. 14.Huntley Generating Station, Tonawanda, N.Y. 15.Cytec Canada Inc., Niagara Falls, Ont. Source: www.pollutionwatch.org ======================================================== Return to Table of Contents <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Table_of_Contents> *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* From: American Association for the Advancement of Science , Dec. 21, 2005 *EXPERTS PONDER THE GLOBAL RISE OF CHRONIC DISEASE* By Paul Recer A growing global epidemic of chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, will cause at least 35 million deaths this year, costing the world economy billions of dollars, even though medical science has identified the principal causes and knows ways to prevent it, experts said at a AAAS seminar in Washington, D.C. Speakers at the first Philip Hauge Abelson Advancing Science Seminar said that twice as many premature deaths are caused worldwide by chronic diseases as by all infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies combined. And while the toll from infectious diseases is declining globally, deaths from chronic disease are expected to increase by 17 percent in the next 10 years. The 8 December seminar included speakers from the World Health Organization (WHO), from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and from university research labs. It was the inaugural event in a series named for Abelson, a researcher in physics, biology and other sciences, and the editor for 22 years of Science, which is published by AAAS. Abelson died last year at the age of 91. Alan I. Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science, said the seminar series would address major societal challenges and focus on the frontiers of science and technology. Robert Beaglehole, WHO's director of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, said in the keynote address that the toll of premature death from chronic disease is increasing worldwide principally because of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the use of tobacco and the aging of populations in almost all countries. Diet and the lack of physical activity is contributing to a growing pattern of obesity, a key risk factor for diabetes and early heart disease. And it's not just happening in the rich countries, such as the United States and South Africa, where recent reports show that 75 percent of women aged 30 and over are overweight. A "very frightening statistic," said Beaglehole, is that in countries both rich and poor, about 22 million children worldwide under the age of five are already obese. "We've done a lot to observe the emergence of this problem," he said. "We have done practically nothing to solve it." Beaglehole said that common misunderstandings about chronic disease have affected policy decisions and slowed the worldwide response to the emerging epidemic. For instance, he said it's widely believed that premature heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic diseases are mostly a plague among the elderly and among the rich in high-income countries. Actually, said Beaglehole, 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases are in low- and middle-income countries. A WHO report found that poor people, in all but the least developed countries, are more likely than the rich to develop chronic diseases and are more likely to die early. And it is not just the elderly who are victims. The WHO report found that almost half of the deaths from chronic diseases occur in people under 70 years old. "A very dangerous misunderstanding is that chronic disease is the result of unhealthy lifestyles under the control of individuals," Beaglehole said. "The reality is that poor people and children have very limited choices, and it is unfair to blame them for the environmental conditions in which they suffer." There's also the belief by many that chronic diseases and premature deaths cannot be prevented. "The reality is that approximately 80 percent of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is preventable, as are 40 percent of all cancers -- many of which result from tobacco consumption," said Beaglehole. "A few known risk factors explain the vast majority of premature chronic disease deaths." A global effort to attack the causes of chronic disease could reduce death rates by 2 percent a year and save 36 million lives within a decade, he said. Ninety percent of the lives saved, said Beaglehole, would be in low- and middle-income countries. Slowing the epidemic of premature death from chronic diseases will have to involve policy issues beyond the health field, he said. For instance, farm subsidies often affect the type of food available in some countries. An example: The consumption of full fat milk is encouraged in schools in some European countries because of subsidies, said Beaglehole. Excessive fat, sugar and salt in the diet lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Other specialists at the Abelson seminar reported recent findings that offer new hope for treatment and management of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and cancer. Eric J. Topol, provost of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, said studies of families with heart attack have demonstrated specific genes that are causative or induce susceptibility. This will allow strategies of lifestyle and individualized therapy early in life to prevent heart attacks decades later. The battle against the growing epidemic of obesity will require fundamental changes in attitudes toward food and exercise, said Holly Wyatt, the program director at the Centers for Obesity Research and Education at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In American society, she said, "we've had a lot of pressures to not expend more energy than we have to and we had a lot of pressure to eat more than we need." To change the behaviors that lead to obesity will require encouragement from virtually every element in society -- employers, schools, churches, community centers and retail stores, she said. Such programs have worked in the past to discourage tobacco use and encourage using seat belts in cars. Without such an effort, Wyatt said that by 2008 about 75 percent of Americans will be at a body weight that negatively affects health. Basic research on how the kidneys regulate salt in the body has given medical science a new understanding of the causes of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, said Rick Lifton, Sterling Professor and chairman of Genetics atYale University School of Medicine. He said there are biological pathways and gene mutations that cause the kidneys to sequester sodium, leading to increases in blood pressure. Drugs to counter these effects could lead to dramatically improved treatments for hypertension, a disorder that affects a billion people world wide and is linked to about 5 million deaths annually. Dr. Gerald I. Shulman, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of internal medicine and cellular & molecular physiology at Yale University, said that new, non-invasive studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy have demonstrated that the development of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is directly related to the build-up of fat inside muscle and liver cells where it disrupts normal insulin signaling and action in these organs. Studies in transgenic and knockout mice as well as in humans have shown that removing this excess intracellular fat can restore insulin sensitivity and cure type 2 diabetes. The results from these studies provide new targets for novel therapies that might be developed to reduce intracellular fat levels and reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, said Shulman. Copyright 2005. American Association for the Advancement of Science Return to Table of Contents <#1097ae6bc69edd5f_Table_of_Contents> *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* *Rachel's Democracy & Health News* (formerly Rachel's Environment & Health News) highlights the connections between issues that are often considered separately or not at all. The natural world is deteriorating and human health is declining because those who make the important decisions aren't the ones who bear the brunt. Our purpose is to connect the dots between human health, the destruction of nature, the decline of community, the rise of economic insecurity and inequalities, growing stress among workers and families, and the crippling legacies of patriarchy, intolerance, and racial injustice that allow us to be divided and therefore ruled by the few. In a democracy, there are no more fundamental questions than, "Who gets to decide?" And, "How *do* the few control the many, and what might be done about it?" As you come across stories that might help people connect the dots, please Email them to us at dhn@rachel.org. *Rachel's Democracy & Health News* is published as often as necessary to provide readers with up-to-date coverage of the subject. Editors: Peter Montague - peter@rachel.org Tim Montague - tim@rachel.org *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* To start your own free Email subscription to *Rachel's Democracy & Health News* send a blank Email to: *join-rachel@gselist.org* . In response, you will receive an Email asking you to confirm that you want to subscribe. *::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::* *Environmental Research Foundation* *P.O. Box 160, New Brunswick, N.J. 08903* *dhn@rachel.org* --- You are currently subscribed to rachel as: tonydelplato@gmail.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-174138-77678C@gselist.org -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From Cnielsen56 at aol.com Tue Feb 21 17:24:01 2006 From: Cnielsen56 at aol.com (Cnielsen56@aol.com) Date: Tue Feb 21 17:24:24 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fwd: Symposium on Energy Message-ID: <296.5f09aa7.312d1731@aol.com> From Cnielsen56 at aol.com Tue Feb 21 17:29:29 2006 From: Cnielsen56 at aol.com (Cnielsen56@aol.com) Date: Tue Feb 21 17:30:12 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Anyone going to NESEA conference? Message-ID: <24a.7402b2e.312d1879@aol.com> Building Energy '06 will take place in Boston March 7-10... Is anyone gong from Ithaca? _Building Energy Conference and Trade Show_ (http://buildingenergy.nesea.org/) _http://buildingenergy.nesea.org/_ (http://buildingenergy.nesea.org/) (http://www.nesea.org) From cnp at thethomasgroup.com Wed Feb 22 06:20:22 2006 From: cnp at thethomasgroup.com (Christian Nielsen-Palacios) Date: Wed Feb 22 06:21:16 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fwd: Symposium on Energy Message-ID: It was a forwarded message about a symposium in Cazenovia College. I don't understand why it doesn't show up. Here's the link: http://www.cazenovia.edu/energy >>> Marian Brown 2/21/06 8:32 PM >>> Christian - maybe it's just me, but I can't open anything attached....? MMB nielsen56@aol.com wrote: >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >_______________________________________________ >SustainableTompkins mailing list >SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > From ph24 at kaxy.com Mon Feb 20 15:54:54 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Wed Feb 22 08:06:28 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon Message-ID: The Level Green Institute, a faculty/student team from Cornell, and the Thomas Group are co-hosting an open brainstorm/visioning green building charette this coming Saturday morning from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon at the Thomas offices, 215 The Commons, above the Empire State and TC3 classrooms in Center Ithaca. The gathering will focus on designs for a central lodge for the proposed campus/community ECO-HOSTEL, tentatively sited for Level Green's 1519 Slaterville Road land. The Hostel itself is envisioned as a multi-site facility that will be cooperatively owned and managed, providing low-cost lodging options, on-going eco-tourism training and educational programs around sustainability issues - aligned with Tompkins County's Strategic Tourism Planning Board's priority for eco- and educational tourism development. Everyone welcome. Since space is limited, please rsvp to Patricia Haines or James Smithmeyer . Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From ph24 at kaxy.com Tue Feb 21 18:37:28 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Wed Feb 22 08:06:28 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fw: Ithaca Free Clinic Gala Benefit Message-ID: This sounds like a wonderful event - and the Clinic an extraordinary addition to the Ithaca community!----- Forwarded Message ----- From: sarah c bankert To: Camel Breeders announcement list Sent: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:02:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: Ithaca Free Clinic Gala Benefit Come celebrate with us! The First Annual Gala Benefit for the Ithaca Free Clinic Olivia Restaurant Saturday, March 25th, 2006, 6-9pm Elegant food and spirits Auction and Music $100/per person All proceeds to benefit the IFC __________________________________ Our Story... With the help of over 60 volunteers and months of hard work, the Ithaca Free Clinic opened this January 2006 with the mission of offering totally free integrative health and wellness services, combining complementary alternative and mainstream medicine. We have preventative and immediate primary care providers, including doctors, nurses, herbalists, acupuncturists, massage therapists and others. Additionally, we offer browsing and borrowing access to the Ithaca Health Alliance health resource library, nutrition and educational programs, facilitated enrollment into state programs and lifestyle education (body mechanics, movement therapy, organic food choices). The clinic is open to all Tompkins County residents and needs your support! Ithaca Free Clinic PO Box 362 Ithaca NY 14851 clinic@ithacahealth.org (607) 330-1254 Gala Benefit info: Sarah Bankert sb_clarke@yahoo.com (607) 277-0673 --------------------------------- --------------------------------- Brings words and photos together (easily) with PhotoMail - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail. Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From bonnieora at alivinglibrary.org Wed Feb 22 08:14:06 2006 From: bonnieora at alivinglibrary.org (Bonnie Sherk) Date: Wed Feb 22 08:14:22 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: this sounds great; wish i could be there; it would be wonderful to develop it as a Branch Living Library site, which would also interconnect with all resources in Ithaca and elsewhere as part of our emerging A.L.L. network On Feb 20, 2006, at 3:54 PM, Patricia Haines wrote: > The Level Green Institute, a faculty/student team from Cornell, and > the Thomas Group are co-hosting > an open brainstorm/visioning green building charette this coming > Saturday morning from 10:00 am to > 12:00 noon at the Thomas offices, 215 The Commons, above the Empire > State and TC3 classrooms in > Center Ithaca. > > The gathering will focus on designs for a central lodge for the > proposed campus/community > ECO-HOSTEL, tentatively sited for Level Green's 1519 Slaterville Road > land. The Hostel itself is > envisioned as a multi-site facility that will be cooperatively owned > and managed, providing low-cost > lodging options, on-going eco-tourism training and educational > programs around sustainability issues > - aligned with Tompkins County's Strategic Tourism Planning Board's > priority for eco- and > educational tourism development. > > Everyone welcome. Since space is limited, please rsvp to Patricia > Haines or > James Smithmeyer . > > Level Green Institute > - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through > collaborative initiatives in > education and the arts > > -- > This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail > http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > Bonnie Ora Sherk Founder & Director Life Frames, Inc. & A Living Library bonnieora@alivinglibrary.org http://www.alivinglibrary.org 415.206.9710 212.242.1700 A Living Library, with all sectors of community, incorporates local resources and transforms them to become vibrant, content-rich, ecological learning landscapes; each Branch linked to another. From GayNicholson at aol.com Wed Feb 22 18:12:30 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Wed Feb 22 18:13:06 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Wally Woods OpEd today on Sustainability Message-ID: <26f.6327080.312e740e@aol.com> In today's Ithaca Journal: (http://gcirm.theithacajournal.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/news.theithacajournal.com/stories/opinion/729101557/728x90_1/OasDefault/tonys_fancy_food/ton ys_fancyfood_leader.gif/63646263373530383433666431393530) It's time for us to rediscover sustainability ?We are all a pawn in the game.? ? Bob Dylan Today's sustainability movement was forming in the early 1970s when certain factions of global planners were beginning to realize that the massive consumerism of Americans and Europeans, if left unchecked, would rapidly deplete the earth's natural resources, pollute the landscape and the waters of the Earth and would dramatically change weather patterns. All of this could lead to global chaos. In addition, the emerging technological revolution and globalization would escalate the process. These planners took a two-pronged approach to lessen the impact of this monumental shift. First, they encouraged people to begin to live a more simple and sustainable lifestyle with lowered expectations of continuous upward mobility. In the mid-1970s, I read a copy of a letter from the North American Tri-Lateral Commission which had been sent to all university presidents. It strongly encouraged the need to ?lower the expectations of college students, as jobs will be lost to technology and globalization in the coming years.? Basically, the message was ignored. Consumerism's momentum was too strong a force to be easily diverted. Despite this, the modern sustainability movement was founded and was embraced by millions of people around the world. They changed their lifestyles and thinking in an effort to help restore the planet. ?We won't solve today's problems with yesterday's thinking.? ? Albert Einstein Over the past 50 years, the consumer economy has been carefully crafted into a pathological obsession as a cover for the militarization of the country, where power and money are ??ber alles.? Major consequences have included massive corruption at all levels of business and government, debt, depleted resources, increased poverty and a failing democracy. Maintenance of the consumer society has required the ?dumbing down? of education and the manipulation of people's fears. Open discourse, rational thought and critical analysis have been marginalized as righteous dogma becomes the new patriotism and truth. Privatization schemes, deregulation, credit cards, manipulated stocks and destructive development have all helped to keep the financial markets operating. And of course, periodic wars are waged to secure natural resources and markets. All of this has been done, we are told, to sustain the ?American way of life.? Ithaca has not escaped these consequences. We have high debt load, excessive taxes, failing infrastructure, hideous development, pollution, etc. The perfect storm is developing over all of us. What was the last man on Easter Island thinking as he cut down the last tree? The world has had enough of this shock and awe. Many of the world's people are exploring peaceful, environmentally sound and life enhancing ways to live meaningful lives. ?Imagine.? ? John Lennon Crisis can bring opportunity, and our little village on the lake can create a renaissance. What would you like to be greeted by when you enter the Ithaca region ? a highway of big boxes or a living model of sustainability? Imagine driving under a wind turbine that is humming a wind song as a welcoming gateway to a sustainable city! This region already has the fundamental requisites for a viable, sustainable civilization. Music, arts and the sciences are supported by creative thinkers, real visionaries, dedicated, compassionate doers and passionate people committed to building a community for meaningful living. We have whole food farms, clean water and natural beauty. The merging global paradigm is one that experiences a living earth that is an integrative system in co-evolution with life upon planet Earth. This is a sustainable, balanced, political, economic and social human system that is future-oriented and self-adjusting with Earth's natural systems. This paradigm requires entirely new ways of thinking. Beginner steps: 1. Stop all downtown development. 2. Discard the gentrification model for Ithaca. 3. Continue infrastructure repairs. 4. Plan for regional integration of healthy food (organic, non-GMO), safe water and disposal systems. 5. Focus tax abatement programs for local farms, owner-occupied housing and home repairs. 6. Be a city with a solar panel on every roof. 7. Give tax credit for green housing. 8. Create good quality health care using the integrative medicine model. 9. Promote job creation for construction and manufacturing of sustainable green products for regional and global markets. 10. Create fair trade zones and not-free trade zones. Ideas are only limited by our imaginations. The two-curve change model can be very helpful for transitions, and network science can be used for effective planning. Humans have been living in self-destructive patterns for far too long. It's time to get away from that self-limiting thinking. This is a historical time where the idealist is the realist. Our grandchildren may yet forgive us! . . . Wally Woods lives in Ithaca. Originally published February 22, 2006 *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From wsh6 at cornell.edu Wed Feb 22 18:17:04 2006 From: wsh6 at cornell.edu (Bill Hecht) Date: Wed Feb 22 18:17:18 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Wally Woods OpEd today on Sustainability In-Reply-To: <26f.6327080.312e740e@aol.com> References: <26f.6327080.312e740e@aol.com> Message-ID: <43FD1B20.704@cornell.edu> I like where this guy is coming from and going yft GayNicholson@aol.com wrote: > > >In today's Ithaca Journal: > >(http://gcirm.theithacajournal.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/news.theithacajournal.com/stories/opinion/729101557/728x90_1/OasDefault/tonys_fancy_food/ton >ys_fancyfood_leader.gif/63646263373530383433666431393530) > >It's time for us to rediscover sustainability > >?We are all a pawn in the game.? >? Bob Dylan >Today's sustainability movement was forming in the early 1970s when certain >factions of global planners were beginning to realize that the massive >consumerism of Americans and Europeans, if left unchecked, would rapidly deplete >the earth's natural resources, pollute the landscape and the waters of the >Earth and would dramatically change weather patterns. All of this could lead to >global chaos. In addition, the emerging technological revolution and >globalization would escalate the process. These planners took a two-pronged approach >to lessen the impact of this monumental shift. First, they encouraged people >to begin to live a more simple and sustainable lifestyle with lowered >expectations of continuous upward mobility. In the mid-1970s, I read a copy of a >letter from the North American Tri-Lateral Commission which had been sent to all > university presidents. It strongly encouraged the need to ?lower the >expectations of college students, as jobs will be lost to technology and >globalization in the coming years.? >Basically, the message was ignored. Consumerism's momentum was too strong a >force to be easily diverted. Despite this, the modern sustainability movement >was founded and was embraced by millions of people around the world. They >changed their lifestyles and thinking in an effort to help restore the planet. >?We won't solve today's problems with yesterday's thinking.? >? Albert Einstein >Over the past 50 years, the consumer economy has been carefully crafted into >a pathological obsession as a cover for the militarization of the country, >where power and money are ??ber alles.? Major consequences have included >massive corruption at all levels of business and government, debt, depleted >resources, increased poverty and a failing democracy. >Maintenance of the consumer society has required the ?dumbing down? of >education and the manipulation of people's fears. Open discourse, rational >thought and critical analysis have been marginalized as righteous dogma becomes the >new patriotism and truth. Privatization schemes, deregulation, credit cards, > manipulated stocks and destructive development have all helped to keep the >financial markets operating. And of course, periodic wars are waged to secure >natural resources and markets. All of this has been done, we are told, to >sustain the ?American way of life.? >Ithaca has not escaped these consequences. We have high debt load, excessive >taxes, failing infrastructure, hideous development, pollution, etc. The >perfect storm is developing over all of us. >What was the last man on Easter Island thinking as he cut down the last >tree? >The world has had enough of this shock and awe. Many of the world's people >are exploring peaceful, environmentally sound and life enhancing ways to live >meaningful lives. >?Imagine.? >? John Lennon >Crisis can bring opportunity, and our little village on the lake can create >a renaissance. What would you like to be greeted by when you enter the Ithaca >region ? a highway of big boxes or a living model of sustainability? Imagine >driving under a wind turbine that is humming a wind song as a welcoming >gateway to a sustainable city! >This region already has the fundamental requisites for a viable, sustainable >civilization. Music, arts and the sciences are supported by creative >thinkers, real visionaries, dedicated, compassionate doers and passionate people >committed to building a community for meaningful living. We have whole food >farms, clean water and natural beauty. >The merging global paradigm is one that experiences a living earth that is >an integrative system in co-evolution with life upon planet Earth. This is a >sustainable, balanced, political, economic and social human system that is >future-oriented and self-adjusting with Earth's natural systems. >This paradigm requires entirely new ways of thinking. >Beginner steps: >1. Stop all downtown development. >2. Discard the gentrification model for Ithaca. >3. Continue infrastructure repairs. >4. Plan for regional integration of healthy food (organic, non-GMO), safe >water and disposal systems. >5. Focus tax abatement programs for local farms, owner-occupied housing and >home repairs. >6. Be a city with a solar panel on every roof. >7. Give tax credit for green housing. >8. Create good quality health care using the integrative medicine model. >9. Promote job creation for construction and manufacturing of sustainable >green products for regional and global markets. >10. Create fair trade zones and not-free trade zones. >Ideas are only limited by our imaginations. The two-curve change model can >be very helpful for transitions, and network science can be used for effective >planning. >Humans have been living in self-destructive patterns for far too long. It's >time to get away from that self-limiting thinking. This is a historical time >where the idealist is the realist. >Our grandchildren may yet forgive us! >. . . >Wally Woods lives in Ithaca. >Originally published February 22, 2006 > >*************************************** >Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. > >Sustainable Tompkins >Program Coordinator >1 Maple Avenue >Lansing, NY 14882 >gaynicholson@aol.com > >607-533-7312 (home office) >607-279-6618 (cell) > >Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities >Regional Coordinator >Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County >615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 >agn1@cornell.edu > >_______________________________________________ >SustainableTompkins mailing list >SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > From cnp at thethomasgroup.com Thu Feb 23 06:20:27 2006 From: cnp at thethomasgroup.com (Christian Nielsen-Palacios) Date: Thu Feb 23 06:21:06 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Car sharing in Ithaca Message-ID: Sunday, February 26th at 9:00 AM , Fernando de Aragon will be speaking about car sharing and local efforts to bring car sharing to Ithaca. In the "Arch Room" of the Unitarian Church (corner of Buffalo and Aurora) From ph24 at kaxy.com Thu Feb 23 07:40:09 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Thu Feb 23 08:18:39 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: thanks for jogging my thinking about Living Library possibilities! I had been thinking of the City of Ithaca Six MIle Creek gorge trail in this context, but we could take this approach for all of Level Green as well - great idea! Once national dance week is over in late April I'll delve into what you're up to and we can get serious about joining your good efforts. And someday, who knows, we may even be in the same place at the same time... If we can get funding, I'd hope to bring you here to give a community presentation aboutt Living Libraries, and consult with the City trail project and the Level Green folks as well. What do you think your fee for such a talk and consulting would be? I know the City will take you more seriously if we're paying you - funny, this politics of funding stuff. all the best - Patricia ----- Original Message ----- From: Bonnie Sherk To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv Sent: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:14:06 -0800 Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon > this sounds great; wish i could be there; it would be wonderful to > develop it as a Branch Living Library site, which would also > interconnect with all resources in Ithaca and elsewhere as part of our > emerging A.L.L. network > On Feb 20, 2006, at 3:54 PM, Patricia Haines wrote: > > > The Level Green Institute, a faculty/student team from Cornell, and > > the Thomas Group are co-hosting > > an open brainstorm/visioning green building charette this coming > > Saturday morning from 10:00 am to > > 12:00 noon at the Thomas offices, 215 The Commons, above the Empire > > State and TC3 classrooms in > > Center Ithaca. > > > > The gathering will focus on designs for a central lodge for the > > proposed campus/community > > ECO-HOSTEL, tentatively sited for Level Green's 1519 Slaterville Road > > land. The Hostel itself is > > envisioned as a multi-site facility that will be cooperatively owned > > and managed, providing low-cost > > lodging options, on-going eco-tourism training and educational > > programs around sustainability issues > > - aligned with Tompkins County's Strategic Tourism Planning Board's > > priority for eco- and > > educational tourism development. > > > > Everyone welcome. Since space is limited, please rsvp to Patricia > > Haines or > > James Smithmeyer . > > > > Level Green Institute > > - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through > > collaborative initiatives in > > education and the arts > > > > -- > > This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail > > http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm > > _______________________________________________ > > SustainableTompkins mailing list > > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > > > Bonnie Ora Sherk > Founder & Director > Life Frames, Inc. & A Living Library > bonnieora@alivinglibrary.org > http://www.alivinglibrary.org > 415.206.9710 > 212.242.1700 > > A Living Library, with all sectors of community, incorporates local > resources and transforms them to become vibrant, content-rich, > ecological learning landscapes; each Branch linked to another. > > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From ph24 at kaxy.com Thu Feb 23 07:44:34 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Thu Feb 23 08:23:13 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: apologies everyone - I thought I was replying just to Bonnie sherk's message; I'll be more careful from how on. - Patricia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patricia Haines" To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv Sent: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 10:40:09 -0500 Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon > thanks for jogging my thinking about Living Library possibilities! I had been thinking of the > City > of Ithaca Six MIle Creek gorge trail in this context, but we could take this approach for all of > Level Green as well - great idea! > > Once national dance week is over in late April I'll delve into what you're up to and we can get > serious about joining your good efforts. And someday, who knows, we may even be in the same place > at > the same time... If we can get funding, I'd hope to bring you here to give a community > presentation > aboutt Living Libraries, and consult with the City trail project and the Level Green folks as > well. > What do you think your fee for such a talk and consulting would be? I know the City will take you > more seriously if we're paying you - funny, this politics of funding stuff. > > all the best - Patricia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Bonnie Sherk > To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv > Sent: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:14:06 -0800 > Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Eco-Hostel green building charette Saturday 10-12 noon > > > this sounds great; wish i could be there; it would be wonderful to > > develop it as a Branch Living Library site, which would also > > interconnect with all resources in Ithaca and elsewhere as part of our > > emerging A.L.L. network > > On Feb 20, 2006, at 3:54 PM, Patricia Haines wrote: > > > > > The Level Green Institute, a faculty/student team from Cornell, and > > > the Thomas Group are co-hosting > > > an open brainstorm/visioning green building charette this coming > > > Saturday morning from 10:00 am to > > > 12:00 noon at the Thomas offices, 215 The Commons, above the Empire > > > State and TC3 classrooms in > > > Center Ithaca. > > > > > > The gathering will focus on designs for a central lodge for the > > > proposed campus/community > > > ECO-HOSTEL, tentatively sited for Level Green's 1519 Slaterville Road > > > land. The Hostel itself is > > > envisioned as a multi-site facility that will be cooperatively owned > > > and managed, providing low-cost > > > lodging options, on-going eco-tourism training and educational > > > programs around sustainability issues > > > - aligned with Tompkins County's Strategic Tourism Planning Board's > > > priority for eco- and > > > educational tourism development. > > > > > > Everyone welcome. Since space is limited, please rsvp to Patricia > > > Haines or > > > James Smithmeyer . > > > > > > Level Green Institute > > > - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through > > > collaborative initiatives in > > > education and the arts > > > > > > -- > > > This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail > > > http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm > > > _______________________________________________ > > > SustainableTompkins mailing list > > > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > > > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > > > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > > > > > > Bonnie Ora Sherk > > Founder & Director > > Life Frames, Inc. & A Living Library > > bonnieora@alivinglibrary.org > > http://www.alivinglibrary.org > > 415.206.9710 > > 212.242.1700 > > > > A Living Library, with all sectors of community, incorporates local > > resources and transforms them to become vibrant, content-rich, > > ecological learning landscapes; each Branch linked to another. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > SustainableTompkins mailing list > > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > Level Green Institute > - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in > education and the arts > > -- > This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From GayNicholson at aol.com Thu Feb 23 10:19:20 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Thu Feb 23 10:19:30 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Rewarding Recyclers, and Finding Gold in the Garbage Message-ID: <2e5.2c93d9f.312f56a8@aol.com> New York Times This article reflects the use of incentives discussed in Scott Erickson's presentation on social marketing techniques at January STC meeting.... (http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.com/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&camp=foxsearch2006-emailtools06-nyt5&ad=tyfs_n ytimes_logo_88x31.jpg&goto=http://c lk.atdmt.com/ORG/go/nwyrkfxs0040000007org/direct/01/) ____________________________________ February 21, 2006 Green Ventures Rewarding Recyclers, and Finding Gold in the Garbage By BONNIE DeSIMONE PHILADELPHIA ? Patrick Fitzgerald found himself distracted as he studied for the bar exam at Fordham University five years ago. New York City was debating the merits of continuing its recycling program and Mr. FitzGerald wondered why that was a question at all. "I wasn't an overt tree-hugger, but I thought it was odd," he said. He began poking around Web sites and news articles about the economics of recycling, and concluded that one of the industry's biggest problems was motivating its suppliers ? the people who generate garbage. Moral obligation ? or even compassion for trees ? was not enough to induce good recycling habits, Mr. FitzGerald decided. Instead of spending money on campaigns to persuade people to recycle, he thought: What if you paid them directly? What would happen? In late 2002, he talked about the idea with Ron Gonen, a high school classmate and fellow Philadelphia-area native. Before long, the project swallowed up their lives and maxed out their credit cards. Mr. FitzGerald quit his job at a Wall Street law firm, moved back into his mother's attic in suburban Philadelphia and began working the phones and Internet search engines, making contacts in the solid-waste industry and finding retailers who were willing to participate in a customer rewards program. Mr. Gonen, then in his first year in the M.B.A. program at Columbia University, put in late nights writing a business plan and software, becoming "more and more involved and obsessed." Their teamwork led to the birth of RecycleBank (_recyclebank.com_ (http://recyclebank.com/) ) in early 2004. The logo is a piggy bank whose hind end is a recycling bin, embodying consumer incentives and environmental consciousness. The process seems elegantly simple. Households get credit for the weight of materials they recycle, which is scanned and recorded through a computer chip embedded in the garbage bins when they are picked up by the sanitation crew. They exchange that credit for coupons at various businesses. Municipal officials save disposal fees. Recycling companies make more money from processing. Retailers gain the feel-good association with a socially beneficial activity. RecycleBank charges municipalities (or private haulers, depending on the arrangement) $24 a household, and guarantees clients that they will save at least that much in disposal fees as waste is diverted from landfills and incinerators. The company also receives revenue from recycling plants, depending on how much it increases the amount of materials that are processed. "I thought the idea had tremendous merit right from the start," said Clifford J. Schorer Jr., who helped mentor Mr. Gonen in his position as entrepreneur in residence at the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia. The university contributed $100,000 to RecycleBank's seed money. Residents participating in RecycleBank can check their "balance" online and cash in their coupons ? a maximum of $25 a month, $400 a year ? at several dozen national chains like _Starbucks_ (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyp rofile.asp&symb=SBUX) , _Home Depot_ (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyp rofile.asp&symb=HD) and _Bed Bath & Beyond_ (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html- companyprofile.asp&symb=BBBY) . The _Coca-Cola Company_ (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/ redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=KO) set up a Green Community Fund, where coupons can be donated to environmental education programs in the Philadelphia public schools and public libraries. During its start last year in Philadelphia, RecycleBank also established relationships with local businesses like the Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop and the Reading Terminal Market, where about 25 specialty vendors accept the coupons. One problem for the RecycleBank was trying to find a way to measure the volume of recyclable goods generated by a household and credit that amount to participants. Through Web searches and phone calls, the men identified Cascade Engineering in Grand Rapids, Mich., which provided free several thousand 35- and 64-gallon bins embedded with RFID (radio frequency identification) technology as part of its research and development budget. The "smart waste" tag, a combination computer chip and bar code, enables the bins to be scanned and weighed and the amount linked to a household. The information is channeled from an on-board computer in the garbage trucks into a databank. The LTS Scale Corporation of Twinsburg, Ohio, was able to configure scales and a tipping mechanism for the containers, which fit on the back of the trucks so the bins can be weighed and easily emptied. Why not cheat by adding a bowling ball or other heavy nonrecyclable items to the trash? RecycleBank came up with a button on the on-board computer that workers can press to flag the address if they notice contraband. This happens "less than rarely," Mr. FitzGerald said. Both men, who are 30 years old, decided early on that it was important to spare households the tedium of separating glass, paper, plastic and metal. They signed on with the Philadelphia-based Blue Mountain Recycling, which uses sorting technology employing fans, gravity, magnets and manual picking. RecycleBank persuaded Philadelphia officials to allow it to conduct a pilot project involving 2,500 households in two Philadelphia neighborhoods, upscale Chestnut Hill and modest West Oak Lane. Six months later, 90 percent of the households in both neighborhoods were participating, up from 35 percent in Chestnut Hill and 7 percent in West Oak Lane ? averaging 25 pounds a week of recyclables per home. The city is considering whether to contract for the service and extend it. The project's success has helped Mr. FitzGerald and Mr. Gonen to sell the RecycleBank program to several municipalities in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Officials in Wilmington, Del., will begin a RecycleBank plan with an initial 4,000 households on April 1. The company's largest expansion occurred when Blue Mountain was acquired by _Casella Waste Systems_ (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&sym b=CWST) in Rutland, Vt., in September. Casella plans to introduce the RecycleBank program to 100,000 households in New England next year. Mr. Gonen said the fast start had been exhilarating, but added, "I'm very focused on putting on the brakes when they need to be put on." *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu From tonydelplato at gmail.com Thu Feb 23 10:56:50 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Thu Feb 23 11:23:39 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE FUTURE OF FOOD Message-ID: * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * February 23, 2006 *The Future of Food *is a controversial documentary about genetically engineered food, sustainable & organic agriculture, and factory farming by Deborah Koons Garcia. A post-screening panel discussion will take place, moderated by Tompkins County Representative Dooley Kiefer and will include John Losey, CU entomologist; Jacqulyn Hamilton, Peoples' Garden Project of Ithaca; Ajay K. Garg, CU Molecular Biologist; Louise Maher-Johnson, NYS Against Genetic Engineering (NYSAGE) activist in Albany, NY and Chaw Chang, Stick & Stone Farm. * WHEN: February 25, Saturday, 1-5pm; the film will be shown @ 2pm with a panel discussion to follow WHERE: Human Services Building, 320 West State St., Ithaca, NY * "*The Future of Food* offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. "From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. "Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today." (*www.thefutureoffood.com*): For more information please contact Sacred Seed Organic Farm at (607) 591 9093 or aszerman@gmail.com. -30- *PANELIST BIOS ** Chaw Chang* is an organic vegetable farmer who has been running Stick and Stone Farm for the past ten years. Three years ago, he and his wife Lucy purchased a farm on NY Rt 96 north of Ithaca where they run a farm stand carrying 100% local and GMO-free foods and produce. Together, they grow ten acres of vegetables, selling their produce at the Ithaca Farmers' Market, and cooperatively marketing their produce to restaurants, food coops and grocery stores in the Ithaca area. They also belong to a multi-farm CSA called the Full Plate farm collective (currently signing up new memberships). * Ajay K. Garg* is a Rice Project Leader and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. He received a Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the University of Hyderabad, India in 1996. Dr. Garg is an active member of the rice research community and his research interests focus on improving abiotic stress tolerance and increasing grain yield in rice to meet the challenges of global food security. Now, the success of the "green revolution" can be further consolidated by "gene, genomics and GMO revolution integrated with plant breeding technologies" in man's war against hunger in the required time frame. If we ignore this potential, our solutions will be all the more difficult to achieve. * Jacqulyn Hamilton* People's Garden Project of Ithaca, NY * Louise Johnson* Upon retiring from teaching literature in NYC high schools, she resettled in Schoharie County to become involved in food and farm preservation issues. As a member of both the Safe Food Committee of Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn and the Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany, she became a founding member of New York SAGE or NYSAGE, New York State Against Genetic Engineering, a coalition of food coops and CSAs across NYS. After lobbying in the Albany legislature and giving senators and assembly members copies of the film "The Future of Food," state legislators introduced three new and one re-written assembly bills. On Feb 8, 2006, along with Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA)- Ms Johnson lobbied for protection for NYS farms from GMO pollen drift; for the labeling of seeds for GMO content; and for manufacturer liability for cross-contamination. *John Losey* has a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 1996. The main thrust of his research involves corn that has been genetically-modified to contain genetic material from the soil-dwelling bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This transgenic "Bt corn" produces a toxin which protects it from pest attack. His research focuses on the potential impact of Bt-corn on both the target pest and on non-target organisms. In collaboration with Linda Rayor, and Maureen Carter (Entomology), he found that larvae of the monarch butterfly on milkweed leaves dusted with transgenic Bt-corn pollen ate less, grew more slowly, and suffered higher mortality than those fed leaves dusted with untransformed corn pollen or leaves without pollen (Nature 399:214). -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From mb105 at cornell.edu Thu Feb 23 11:39:29 2006 From: mb105 at cornell.edu (Molly Brewton) Date: Thu Feb 23 11:39:37 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060223143648.08df0188@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Dear All, Does anyone know if this is true? Forgive me if this has already been discussed on the list; I rarely find time to read all the postings carefully. Thanks, Molly > >---------- > > > NHNE News List > > > > > > CLIMATE CHANGE: ON THE EDGE > > > > GREENLAND ICE CAP BREAKING UP AT TWICE THE RATE IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO, SAYS > > SCIENTIST BUSH TRIED TO GAG > > > > By Jim Hansen > > The Independent > > February 17, 2006 > > > > > http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345926.ece > > > > > A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far > > faster than scientists had feared -- twice as much ice is going into > the sea > > as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels -- and > > climate change -- could be dramatic. > > > > Yet, a few weeks ago, when I -- a NASA climate scientist -- tried to > talk to > > the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for > > prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the NASA public > > affairs team -- staffed by political appointees from the Bush > administration > > -- tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored the > > restrictions. The first line of NASA's mission is to understand and protect > > the planet. > > > > This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the > first > > time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining the > > Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at least > > 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years > ago, > > when people still said the ice sheet was in balance. > > > > Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just the > > beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping > point > > beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. The issue is how close we are > > getting to that tipping point. The summer of 2005 broke all records for > > melting in Greenland. So we may be on the edge. > > > > Our understanding of what is going on is very new. Today's forecasts of > > sea-level rise use climate models of the ice sheets that say they can only > > disintegrate over a thousand years or more. But we can now see that the > > models are almost worthless. They treat the ice sheets like a single block > > of ice that will slowly melt. But what is happening is much more dynamic. > > > > Once the ice starts to melt at the surface, it forms lakes that empty down > > crevasses to the bottom of the ice. You get rivers of water underneath the > > ice. And the ice slides towards the ocean. > > > > Our Nasa scientists have measured this in Greenland. And once these ice > > streams start moving, their influence stretches right to the interior > of the > > ice sheet. Building an ice sheet takes a long time, because it is > limited by > > snowfall. But destroying it can be explosively rapid. > > > > How fast can this go? Right now, I think our best measure is what happened > > in the past. We know that, for instance, 14,000 years ago sea levels > rose by > > 20m in 400 years -- that is five metres in a century. This was towards the > > end of the last ice age, so there was more ice around. But, on the other > > hand, temperatures were not warming as fast as today. > > > > How far can it go? The last time the world was three degrees warmer than > > today -- which is what we expect later this century -- sea levels were 25m > > higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don't act soon. > None of > > the current climate and ice models predict this. But I prefer the evidence > > from the Earth's history and my own eyes. I think sea-level rise is > going to > > be the big issue soon, more even than warming itself. > > > > It's hard to say what the world will be like if this happens. It would be > > another planet. You could imagine great armadas of icebergs breaking off > > Greenland and melting as they float south. And, of course, huge areas being > > flooded. > > > > How long have we got? We have to stabilise emissions of carbon dioxide > > within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree. That > > will be warmer than it has been for half a million years, and many things > > could become unstoppable. If we are to stop that, we cannot wait for new > > technologies like capturing emissions from burning coal. We have to act > with > > what we have. This decade, that means focusing on energy efficiency and > > renewable sources of energy that do not burn carbon. We don't have much > time > > left. > > > > .......... > > > > Jim Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in > > New York, is President George Bush's top climate modeller. He was speaking > > to Fred Pearce. > > > > ------------ > > > > NHNE News List: > > > > To subscribe, send a message to: > > > nhnenews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > > To unsubscribe, send a message to: > > > nhnenews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > > > To review current posts: > > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/messages > > > > > Published by David Sunfellow > > NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE) > > eMail: nhne@nhne.com > > NHNE Website: http://www.nhne.com/ > > Phone: (928) 282-6120 > > Fax: (815) 642-0117 > > > > > > -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > CONTINUUM ) )) ))) > > A Subscriber List Offering In-Depth Reflections and Inspirations > > From Joel & Michelle Levey at > > http://www.WisdomAtWork.com > > http://www.KohalaSanctuary.com > > > > To be added or deleted from this list, please contact: > > Levey@WisdomAtWork.com > > > > From jason at tdarchitects.com Thu Feb 23 11:59:40 2006 From: jason at tdarchitects.com (Jason Demarest, AIA) Date: Thu Feb 23 12:00:22 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? In-Reply-To: <6.2.1.2.2.20060223143648.08df0188@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Message-ID: <200602231959.k1NJxeSq000483@ms-smtp-02.nyroc.rr.com> Others think so: http://www.architecture2030.org/global_impact/index.html Jason K. Demarest, AIA Tallman & Demarest Architects, LLP 301 S. Geneva St. Suite 101 Ithaca, NY 14850 Mobile: 607.351.0091 Office: 607.330.4555 Fax: 607.330.4508 www.tdarchitects.com -----Original Message----- From: sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org [mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of Molly Brewton Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 2:39 PM To: sustainabletompkins@lists.mutualaid.org; fingerlakespermaculture@lists.mutualaid.org Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? Dear All, Does anyone know if this is true? Forgive me if this has already been discussed on the list; I rarely find time to read all the postings carefully. Thanks, Molly > >---------- > > > NHNE News List > > > > > > CLIMATE CHANGE: ON THE EDGE > > > > GREENLAND ICE CAP BREAKING UP AT TWICE THE RATE IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO, SAYS > > SCIENTIST BUSH TRIED TO GAG > > > > By Jim Hansen > > The Independent > > February 17, 2006 > > > > > http://news.ind ependent.co.uk/environment/article345926.ece > > > > > A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far > > faster than scientists had feared -- twice as much ice is going into > the sea > > as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels -- and > > climate change -- could be dramatic. > > > > Yet, a few weeks ago, when I -- a NASA climate scientist -- tried to > talk to > > the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for > > prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the NASA public > > affairs team -- staffed by political appointees from the Bush > administration > > -- tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored the > > restrictions. The first line of NASA's mission is to understand and protect > > the planet. > > > > This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the > first > > time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining the > > Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at least > > 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years > ago, > > when people still said the ice sheet was in balance. > > > > Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just the > > beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping > point > > beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. The issue is how close we are > > getting to that tipping point. The summer of 2005 broke all records for > > melting in Greenland. So we may be on the edge. > > > > Our understanding of what is going on is very new. Today's forecasts of > > sea-level rise use climate models of the ice sheets that say they can only > > disintegrate over a thousand years or more. But we can now see that the > > models are almost worthless. They treat the ice sheets like a single block > > of ice that will slowly melt. But what is happening is much more dynamic. > > > > Once the ice starts to melt at the surface, it forms lakes that empty down > > crevasses to the bottom of the ice. You get rivers of water underneath the > > ice. And the ice slides towards the ocean. > > > > Our Nasa scientists have measured this in Greenland. And once these ice > > streams start moving, their influence stretches right to the interior > of the > > ice sheet. Building an ice sheet takes a long time, because it is > limited by > > snowfall. But destroying it can be explosively rapid. > > > > How fast can this go? Right now, I think our best measure is what happened > > in the past. We know that, for instance, 14,000 years ago sea levels > rose by > > 20m in 400 years -- that is five metres in a century. This was towards the > > end of the last ice age, so there was more ice around. But, on the other > > hand, temperatures were not warming as fast as today. > > > > How far can it go? The last time the world was three degrees warmer than > > today -- which is what we expect later this century -- sea levels were 25m > > higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don't act soon. > None of > > the current climate and ice models predict this. But I prefer the evidence > > from the Earth's history and my own eyes. I think sea-level rise is > going to > > be the big issue soon, more even than warming itself. > > > > It's hard to say what the world will be like if this happens. It would be > > another planet. You could imagine great armadas of icebergs breaking off > > Greenland and melting as they float south. And, of course, huge areas being > > flooded. > > > > How long have we got? We have to stabilise emissions of carbon dioxide > > within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree. That > > will be warmer than it has been for half a million years, and many things > > could become unstoppable. If we are to stop that, we cannot wait for new > > technologies like capturing emissions from burning coal. We have to act > with > > what we have. This decade, that means focusing on energy efficiency and > > renewable sources of energy that do not burn carbon. We don't have much > time > > left. > > > > .......... > > > > Jim Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in > > New York, is President George Bush's top climate modeller. He was speaking > > to Fred Pearce. > > > > ------------ > > > > NHNE News List: > > > > To subscribe, send a message to: > > > nhnenews-subscribe@yahoogroups.co m > > > > To unsubscribe, send a message to: > > > nhnenews-unsubscribe@yahoogroup s.com > > > > > To review current posts: > > > http://groups.yahoo.com/gro up/nhnenews/messages > > > > > Published by David Sunfellow > > NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE) > > eMail: nhne@nhne.com > > NHNE Website: http://www.nhne.com/ > > Phone: (928) 282-6120 > > Fax: (815) 642-0117 > > > > > > -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > CONTINUUM ) )) ))) > > A Subscriber List Offering In-Depth Reflections and Inspirations > > From Joel & Michelle Levey at > > http://www.WisdomAtWork.com > > http://www.KohalaSanctuary.com > > > > To be added or deleted from this list, please contact: > > Levey@WisdomAtWork.com > > > > _______________________________________________ SustainableTompkins mailing list SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org From tonydelplato at gmail.com Thu Feb 23 12:57:40 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Thu Feb 23 12:57:45 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Wally Woods OpEd today on Sustainability In-Reply-To: <43FD1B20.704@cornell.edu> References: <26f.6327080.312e740e@aol.com> <43FD1B20.704@cornell.edu> Message-ID: Wally is one of the most articulate and clear headed thinkers in our community. He beautifully weaves the many threads that make up the life of a community. Solutions, adaptions are possible and necessary. He's got a road map that doesn't include automobiles. The Cayuga Basin is lucky to have him. Tony Del Plato On 2/22/06, Bill Hecht wrote: > > I like where this guy is coming from and going > > yft > > GayNicholson@aol.com wrote: > > > > > > >In today's Ithaca Journal: > > > >( > http://gcirm.theithacajournal.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/news.theithacajournal.com/stories/opinion/729101557/728x90_1/OasDefault/tonys_fancy_food/ton > >ys_fancyfood_leader.gif/63646263373530383433666431393530) > > > >It's time for us to rediscover sustainability > > > >"We are all a pawn in the game." > >? Bob Dylan > >Today's sustainability movement was forming in the early 1970s when > certain > >factions of global planners were beginning to realize that the massive > >consumerism of Americans and Europeans, if left unchecked, would rapidly > deplete > >the earth's natural resources, pollute the landscape and the waters of > the > >Earth and would dramatically change weather patterns. All of this could > lead to > >global chaos. In addition, the emerging technological revolution and > >globalization would escalate the process. These planners took > a two-pronged approach > >to lessen the impact of this monumental shift. First, they encouraged > people > >to begin to live a more simple and sustainable lifestyle with lowered > >expectations of continuous upward mobility. In the mid-1970s, I read a > copy of a > >letter from the North American Tri-Lateral Commission which had been > sent to all > > university presidents. It strongly encouraged the need to "lower the > >expectations of college students, as jobs will be lost to technology and > >globalization in the coming years." > >Basically, the message was ignored. Consumerism's momentum was too > strong a > >force to be easily diverted. Despite this, the modern sustainability > movement > >was founded and was embraced by millions of people around the world. > They > >changed their lifestyles and thinking in an effort to help restore the > planet. > >"We won't solve today's problems with yesterday's thinking." > >? Albert Einstein > >Over the past 50 years, the consumer economy has been carefully crafted > into > >a pathological obsession as a cover for the militarization of the > country, > >where power and money are "?ber alles." Major consequences have included > >massive corruption at all levels of business and government, debt, > depleted > >resources, increased poverty and a failing democracy. > >Maintenance of the consumer society has required the "dumbing down" of > >education and the manipulation of people's fears. Open discourse, > rational > >thought and critical analysis have been marginalized as righteous dogma > becomes the > >new patriotism and truth. Privatization schemes, deregulation, credit > cards, > > manipulated stocks and destructive development have all helped to keep > the > >financial markets operating. And of course, periodic wars are waged to > secure > >natural resources and markets. All of this has been done, we are told, > to > >sustain the "American way of life." > >Ithaca has not escaped these consequences. We have high debt load, > excessive > >taxes, failing infrastructure, hideous development, pollution, etc. The > >perfect storm is developing over all of us. > >What was the last man on Easter Island thinking as he cut down the last > >tree? > >The world has had enough of this shock and awe. Many of the world's > people > >are exploring peaceful, environmentally sound and life enhancing ways to > live > >meaningful lives. > >"Imagine." > >? John Lennon > >Crisis can bring opportunity, and our little village on the lake can > create > >a renaissance. What would you like to be greeted by when you enter the > Ithaca > >region ? a highway of big boxes or a living model of sustainability? > Imagine > >driving under a wind turbine that is humming a wind song as a welcoming > >gateway to a sustainable city! > >This region already has the fundamental requisites for a > viable, sustainable > >civilization. Music, arts and the sciences are supported by creative > >thinkers, real visionaries, dedicated, compassionate doers and > passionate people > >committed to building a community for meaningful living. We have whole > food > >farms, clean water and natural beauty. > >The merging global paradigm is one that experiences a living earth that > is > >an integrative system in co-evolution with life upon planet Earth. This > is a > >sustainable, balanced, political, economic and social human system that > is > >future-oriented and self-adjusting with Earth's natural systems. > >This paradigm requires entirely new ways of thinking. > >Beginner steps: > >1. Stop all downtown development. > >2. Discard the gentrification model for Ithaca. > >3. Continue infrastructure repairs. > >4. Plan for regional integration of healthy food (organic, non-GMO), > safe > >water and disposal systems. > >5. Focus tax abatement programs for local farms, owner-occupied housing > and > >home repairs. > >6. Be a city with a solar panel on every roof. > >7. Give tax credit for green housing. > >8. Create good quality health care using the integrative medicine model. > >9. Promote job creation for construction and manufacturing > of sustainable > >green products for regional and global markets. > >10. Create fair trade zones and not-free trade zones. > >Ideas are only limited by our imaginations. The two-curve change model > can > >be very helpful for transitions, and network science can be used for > effective > >planning. > >Humans have been living in self-destructive patterns for far too long. > It's > >time to get away from that self-limiting thinking. This is a historical > time > >where the idealist is the realist. > >Our grandchildren may yet forgive us! > >. . . > >Wally Woods lives in Ithaca. > >Originally published February 22, 2006 > > > >*************************************** > >Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. > > > >Sustainable Tompkins > >Program Coordinator > >1 Maple Avenue > >Lansing, NY 14882 > >gaynicholson@aol.com > > > >607-533-7312 (home office) > >607-279-6618 (cell) > > > >Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities > >Regional Coordinator > >Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County > >615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 > >agn1@cornell.edu > > > >_______________________________________________ > >SustainableTompkins mailing list > >SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From rlg2 at cornell.edu Thu Feb 23 15:22:46 2006 From: rlg2 at cornell.edu (Robinne Gray) Date: Thu Feb 23 15:23:33 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] May cohousing tour in MA Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060223182045.01ec33e0@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> I realize not everyone can go to Massachusetts for this event, but those who are participating in the planning for such communities may want to make the trip. Note the option for URBAN cohousing. ~R. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join us for a tour of four Cohousing Communities in Massachusetts! and please forward this note to others who might be interested. May 13, 2006. The tour will start in Cambridge and travel west to New View Cohousing in Acton. Then it's on to the Northampton area to visit Pioneer Valley Cohousing in Amherst and Pathways (and Rocky Hill) Cohousing in Florence. A box lunch will be served in the Pioneer Valley Common House. We will return to Boston to tour Cambridge Cohousing. The tour will be led by Laura Fitch , cohousing architect and 12-year resident of Pioneer Valley Cohousing . The tour will run from 8:15 AM to 6:00 pm and will start and end at the Alewife Station (end of redline) in Cambridge. Alewife is easy to get to and within walking distance from our final stop and neighborhood restaurants. If we get a large number of participants interested in urban cohousing, we will consider substituting Cornerstone Cohousing in Cambridge for New View - just let us know so we can make this happen for you. A fall tour of Massachusetts Communities is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 14 - Jamaica Plain, Pioneer Valley, Pathways and Rocky Hill communities. Register on the cohousing.org website under events. Laura Laura E. Fitch, AIA, LEED Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc. 110 Pulpit Hill Rd. Amherst, MA 01002 413-549-5799 lfitch@krausfitch.com ------------------------- From mdestries at gmail.com Fri Feb 24 07:32:21 2006 From: mdestries at gmail.com (Michael d'Estries) Date: Fri Feb 24 07:32:43 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Reminder: 2006 Sustainable Blog-A-Thon Tonight! Message-ID: <470a07250602240732y6af5818as9226416a16ea16ad@mail.gmail.com> The exciting 2006 Green Blog-A-Thon is set to kick off tonight and continue straight for 24 Hours! There are many sites participating and a host of interesting and engaging articles will be appearing all night and straight into Saturday. Ithaca's own GroovyGreen.com will be posting for 24 Hours straight and will feature local articles and interviews on initiatives and projects happening around Tompkins County. We're always looking for stories, so feel free to email me to promote a project you're working on or looking for support with! Tonight's efforts are in support of the Nature Conservancy's Adopt-An-Acre of Rainforest program. Feel free to donate and help out! Many thanks already to sponsors Sustainable Tompkins, TREEA, Level Green Institute, and CFLBulbs.com! We look forward to seeing you tonight! Have a great weekend! Michael www.groovygreen.com From meerco at yahoo.com Fri Feb 24 07:33:45 2006 From: meerco at yahoo.com (Meagan Cocke) Date: Fri Feb 24 07:34:07 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Gary Nabhan lecture Mon Feb 27 at CU Message-ID: <20060224153345.19510.qmail@web50511.mail.yahoo.com> **DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE SEMINAR SERIES** TITLE: 'RENEWING AMERICA'S FOOD TRADITIONS USING TRADITIONAL PLANTS WITH INDIAN NATIONS AND TRIBES' Monday, Feb. 27 @ 11:15 to 12:05 Plant Science 404 SPEAKER: GARY NABHAN, Ph.D. Professor, Dept. of Applied Indigenous Studies and Environmental Sciences, Director of Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ SPEAKER BIO & ABSTRACT: Gary Nabhan is the first director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University. Nabhan co-founded the non-profit conservation group Native Seeds/SEARCH, spearheaded the Ironwood Alliance (responsible for research and public support that led to a 120,000 acre Ironwoods Forest National Monument), and initiated the Traditional Native American Farmers' Association. For such cross-cultural collaborations, he has been awarded a MacArthur ?Genius? Fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology. Nabhan crosses disciplinary, linguistic and ethnic boundaries with apparent ease, an essential skill for someone who lives and works among many different communities in the Southwest. He is the author of many books including Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation. North Point Press, 1989; Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story. Counterpoint Press, 1999; and Coming Home to Eat: The Sensual Pleasures and Global Politics of Local Foods. W.W. Norton and Co., 2001. This presentation will highlight the collaborative efforts undertaken by the Renewing America's Food Traditions consortium to assist Native American and other ethnic communities in safeguarding their historic culinary knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, seeds, and breeds. These resources are of critical importance to the survival of many communities now suffering from meteoric rises in adult onset diabetes and other diseases of Western civilization. ******************************* For the Full Department of Horticulture Seminar Series Schedule: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/news_events/2006SpringSeminar.pdf __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From ph24 at kaxy.com Fri Feb 24 07:11:03 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Fri Feb 24 07:49:49 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? In-Reply-To: <200602231959.k1NJxeSq000483@ms-smtp-02.nyroc.rr.com> References: <200602231959.k1NJxeSq000483@ms-smtp-02.nyroc.rr.com> Message-ID: There was a piece on this on NPR last weekend,in some depth, with a discussion of the ramifications. Sorry - can't recall what time or whether it was saturday or sunday. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Demarest, AIA" To: "'Sustainable Tompkins County listserv'" Sent: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:59:40 -0500 Subject: RE: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? > Others think so: > > http://www.architecture2030.org/global_impact/index.html > > > Jason K. Demarest, AIA > Tallman & Demarest Architects, LLP > 301 S. Geneva St. > Suite 101 > Ithaca, NY 14850 > Mobile: 607.351.0091 > Office: 607.330.4555 > Fax: 607.330.4508 > www.tdarchitects.com > -----Original Message----- > From: sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org > [mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of Molly > Brewton > Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 2:39 PM > To: sustainabletompkins@lists.mutualaid.org; > fingerlakespermaculture@lists.mutualaid.org > Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? > > Dear All, > > Does anyone know if this is true? Forgive me if this has already been > discussed on the list; I rarely find time to read all the postings > carefully. > > Thanks, > Molly > > > > >---------- > > > > > NHNE News List > > > > > > > > > CLIMATE CHANGE: ON THE EDGE > > > > > > GREENLAND ICE CAP BREAKING UP AT TWICE THE RATE IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO, > SAYS > > > SCIENTIST BUSH TRIED TO GAG > > > > > > By Jim Hansen > > > The Independent > > > February 17, 2006 > > > > > > > > > http://news.ind > ependent.co.uk/environment/article345926.ece > > > > > > > > A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far > > > faster than scientists had feared -- twice as much ice is going into > > the sea > > > as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels -- and > > > climate change -- could be dramatic. > > > > > > Yet, a few weeks ago, when I -- a NASA climate scientist -- tried to > > talk to > > > the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for > > > prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the NASA public > > > affairs team -- staffed by political appointees from the Bush > > administration > > > -- tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored > the > > > restrictions. The first line of NASA's mission is to understand and > protect > > > the planet. > > > > > > This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the > > first > > > time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining the > > > Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at > least > > > 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years > > ago, > > > when people still said the ice sheet was in balance. > > > > > > Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just > the > > > beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping > > point > > > beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. The issue is how close we > are > > > getting to that tipping point. The summer of 2005 broke all records for > > > melting in Greenland. So we may be on the edge. > > > > > > Our understanding of what is going on is very new. Today's forecasts of > > > sea-level rise use climate models of the ice sheets that say they can > only > > > disintegrate over a thousand years or more. But we can now see that the > > > models are almost worthless. They treat the ice sheets like a single > block > > > of ice that will slowly melt. But what is happening is much more > dynamic. > > > > > > Once the ice starts to melt at the surface, it forms lakes that empty > down > > > crevasses to the bottom of the ice. You get rivers of water underneath > the > > > ice. And the ice slides towards the ocean. > > > > > > Our Nasa scientists have measured this in Greenland. And once these ice > > > streams start moving, their influence stretches right to the interior > > of the > > > ice sheet. Building an ice sheet takes a long time, because it is > > limited by > > > snowfall. But destroying it can be explosively rapid. > > > > > > How fast can this go? Right now, I think our best measure is what > happened > > > in the past. We know that, for instance, 14,000 years ago sea levels > > rose by > > > 20m in 400 years -- that is five metres in a century. This was towards > the > > > end of the last ice age, so there was more ice around. But, on the other > > > hand, temperatures were not warming as fast as today. > > > > > > How far can it go? The last time the world was three degrees warmer than > > > today -- which is what we expect later this century -- sea levels were > 25m > > > higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don't act soon. > > None of > > > the current climate and ice models predict this. But I prefer the > evidence > > > from the Earth's history and my own eyes. I think sea-level rise is > > going to > > > be the big issue soon, more even than warming itself. > > > > > > It's hard to say what the world will be like if this happens. It would > be > > > another planet. You could imagine great armadas of icebergs breaking off > > > Greenland and melting as they float south. And, of course, huge areas > being > > > flooded. > > > > > > How long have we got? We have to stabilise emissions of carbon dioxide > > > within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree. That > > > will be warmer than it has been for half a million years, and many > things > > > could become unstoppable. If we are to stop that, we cannot wait for new > > > technologies like capturing emissions from burning coal. We have to act > > with > > > what we have. This decade, that means focusing on energy efficiency and > > > renewable sources of energy that do not burn carbon. We don't have much > > time > > > left. > > > > > > .......... > > > > > > Jim Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies > in > > > New York, is President George Bush's top climate modeller. He was > speaking > > > to Fred Pearce. > > > > > > ------------ > > > > > > NHNE News List: > > > > > > To subscribe, send a message to: > > > > > > nhnenews-subscribe@yahoogroups.co > m > > > > > > To unsubscribe, send a message to: > > > > > > nhnenews-unsubscribe@yahoogroup > s.com > > > > > > > > To review current posts: > > > > > > http://groups.yahoo.com/gro > up/nhnenews/messages > > > > > > > > Published by David Sunfellow > > > NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE) > > > eMail: nhne@nhne.com > > > NHNE Website: http://www.nhne.com/ > > > Phone: (928) 282-6120 > > > Fax: (815) 642-0117 > > > > > > > > > -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > CONTINUUM ) )) ))) > > > A Subscriber List Offering In-Depth Reflections and Inspirations > > > From Joel & Michelle Levey at > > > http://www.WisdomAtWork.com > > > http://www.KohalaSanctuary.com > > > > > > To be added or deleted from this list, please contact: > > > Levey@WisdomAtWork.com > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From ph24 at kaxy.com Fri Feb 24 07:11:03 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Fri Feb 24 07:49:49 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? In-Reply-To: <200602231959.k1NJxeSq000483@ms-smtp-02.nyroc.rr.com> References: <200602231959.k1NJxeSq000483@ms-smtp-02.nyroc.rr.com> Message-ID: There was a piece on this on NPR last weekend,in some depth, with a discussion of the ramifications. Sorry - can't recall what time or whether it was saturday or sunday. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Demarest, AIA" To: "'Sustainable Tompkins County listserv'" Sent: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:59:40 -0500 Subject: RE: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? > Others think so: > > http://www.architecture2030.org/global_impact/index.html > > > Jason K. Demarest, AIA > Tallman & Demarest Architects, LLP > 301 S. Geneva St. > Suite 101 > Ithaca, NY 14850 > Mobile: 607.351.0091 > Office: 607.330.4555 > Fax: 607.330.4508 > www.tdarchitects.com > -----Original Message----- > From: sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org > [mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces@lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of Molly > Brewton > Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 2:39 PM > To: sustainabletompkins@lists.mutualaid.org; > fingerlakespermaculture@lists.mutualaid.org > Subject: [SustainableTompkins] does anyone know if this is true? > > Dear All, > > Does anyone know if this is true? Forgive me if this has already been > discussed on the list; I rarely find time to read all the postings > carefully. > > Thanks, > Molly > > > > >---------- > > > > > NHNE News List > > > > > > > > > CLIMATE CHANGE: ON THE EDGE > > > > > > GREENLAND ICE CAP BREAKING UP AT TWICE THE RATE IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO, > SAYS > > > SCIENTIST BUSH TRIED TO GAG > > > > > > By Jim Hansen > > > The Independent > > > February 17, 2006 > > > > > > > > > http://news.ind > ependent.co.uk/environment/article345926.ece > > > > > > > > A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far > > > faster than scientists had feared -- twice as much ice is going into > > the sea > > > as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels -- and > > > climate change -- could be dramatic. > > > > > > Yet, a few weeks ago, when I -- a NASA climate scientist -- tried to > > talk to > > > the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for > > > prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the NASA public > > > affairs team -- staffed by political appointees from the Bush > > administration > > > -- tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored > the > > > restrictions. The first line of NASA's mission is to understand and > protect > > > the planet. > > > > > > This new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the > > first > > > time the detailed behaviour of the ice streams that are draining the > > > Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at > least > > > 200 cubic kilometres of ice a year. It is different from even two years > > ago, > > > when people still said the ice sheet was in balance. > > > > > > Hundreds of cubic kilometres sounds like a lot of ice. But this is just > the > > > beginning. Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping > > point > > > beyond which break-up is explosively rapid. The issue is how close we > are > > > getting to that tipping point. The summer of 2005 broke all records for > > > melting in Greenland. So we may be on the edge. > > > > > > Our understanding of what is going on is very new. Today's forecasts of > > > sea-level rise use climate models of the ice sheets that say they can > only > > > disintegrate over a thousand years or more. But we can now see that the > > > models are almost worthless. They treat the ice sheets like a single > block > > > of ice that will slowly melt. But what is happening is much more > dynamic. > > > > > > Once the ice starts to melt at the surface, it forms lakes that empty > down > > > crevasses to the bottom of the ice. You get rivers of water underneath > the > > > ice. And the ice slides towards the ocean. > > > > > > Our Nasa scientists have measured this in Greenland. And once these ice > > > streams start moving, their influence stretches right to the interior > > of the > > > ice sheet. Building an ice sheet takes a long time, because it is > > limited by > > > snowfall. But destroying it can be explosively rapid. > > > > > > How fast can this go? Right now, I think our best measure is what > happened > > > in the past. We know that, for instance, 14,000 years ago sea levels > > rose by > > > 20m in 400 years -- that is five metres in a century. This was towards > the > > > end of the last ice age, so there was more ice around. But, on the other > > > hand, temperatures were not warming as fast as today. > > > > > > How far can it go? The last time the world was three degrees warmer than > > > today -- which is what we expect later this century -- sea levels were > 25m > > > higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don't act soon. > > None of > > > the current climate and ice models predict this. But I prefer the > evidence > > > from the Earth's history and my own eyes. I think sea-level rise is > > going to > > > be the big issue soon, more even than warming itself. > > > > > > It's hard to say what the world will be like if this happens. It would > be > > > another planet. You could imagine great armadas of icebergs breaking off > > > Greenland and melting as they float south. And, of course, huge areas > being > > > flooded. > > > > > > How long have we got? We have to stabilise emissions of carbon dioxide > > > within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree. That > > > will be warmer than it has been for half a million years, and many > things > > > could become unstoppable. If we are to stop that, we cannot wait for new > > > technologies like capturing emissions from burning coal. We have to act > > with > > > what we have. This decade, that means focusing on energy efficiency and > > > renewable sources of energy that do not burn carbon. We don't have much > > time > > > left. > > > > > > .......... > > > > > > Jim Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies > in > > > New York, is President George Bush's top climate modeller. He was > speaking > > > to Fred Pearce. > > > > > > ------------ > > > > > > NHNE News List: > > > > > > To subscribe, send a message to: > > > > > > nhnenews-subscribe@yahoogroups.co > m > > > > > > To unsubscribe, send a message to: > > > > > > nhnenews-unsubscribe@yahoogroup > s.com > > > > > > > > To review current posts: > > > > > > http://groups.yahoo.com/gro > up/nhnenews/messages > > > > > > > > Published by David Sunfellow > > > NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE) > > > eMail: nhne@nhne.com > > > NHNE Website: http://www.nhne.com/ > > > Phone: (928) 282-6120 > > > Fax: (815) 642-0117 > > > > > > > > > -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > CONTINUUM ) )) ))) > > > A Subscriber List Offering In-Depth Reflections and Inspirations > > > From Joel & Michelle Levey at > > > http://www.WisdomAtWork.com > > > http://www.KohalaSanctuary.com > > > > > > To be added or deleted from this list, please contact: > > > Levey@WisdomAtWork.com > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From ph24 at kaxy.com Fri Feb 24 07:39:09 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Fri Feb 24 08:17:49 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fw: [USPDESDpartner] Call for a speaker for panel discussion Message-ID: any thoughts on the call for an energy speaker below? ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "LaPierre, Alice" To: "USPEDS \(E-mail\)" Sent: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 09:37:27 -0800 Subject: [USPDESDpartner] Call for a speaker for panel discussion Good morning, The City of Berkeley, CA is hosting the 3rd Annual Green Home EXPO and Energy Symposium on Saturday, April 29, 2006. This event highlights renewable energy and conservation, alternative buildnig materials, and healthy living products, from recycled wood furniture to biodiesel fuel demonstrations. Part of this yesr's event is a panel discussion on energy independence. This will be hosted by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, and confirmed panelists include a CEC commissioner, a representative from UC Berkeley, and a representative from PG&E. We are looking for a speaker with a science background who can address issues of global warming and fossil fuel consumption; our preference is for a woman, since all other confirmed members are male, and we'd like to balance the panel. The panel discussion is one hour, with an additional half hour for questions afterwards. The discussion will begin at approximately 1 PM. Because we are a City government, we are unable to pay an honorarium. If you are interested, or if you know someone who would be interested, please pass this notice to them. Thanking you in advance, Alice La Pierre, Event Coordinator Alice La Pierre Energy Analyst City of Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Development Office 2180 Milvia St., 2nd fl. Berkeley, CA 94704 www.CityofBerkeley.Info/ENERGY Tel: 510-981-5435 FAX: 510-981-5450 *********************************************** "The methods for population control are enormously controversial. One measure, however, seems humane and acceptable: If you teach calculus to teenage girls, they go on to have far fewer babies. Calculus is the contraceptive of the future. It doesn't work for boys." -- Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak *********************************************** Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ SteerComm mailing list SteerComm@list.ncseonline.org http://list.ncseonline.org/mailman/listinfo/steercomm From tonydelplato at gmail.com Fri Feb 24 09:22:57 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Fri Feb 24 09:23:03 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Food & Society Update In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.2.20060224121019.01ce0298@postoffice10.mail.cornell.edu> References: <5.2.1.1.2.20060224121019.01ce0298@postoffice10.mail.cornell.edu> Message-ID: Dear Sustainable Tompkins. An interesting and model story from America's heartland for Tompkins. Tony Del Plato - >>http://ola.wkkf.org/fasupdate/2006/january/feature.html >>b9ac0b.jpg >>b9ac1a.jpg >>Volume 5, Issue 1 - Jan. 2006 >>b9ac2a.jpg >> >>The Case of Woodbury County >>Iowa has the highest production of corn and the second highest production >>of soybeans in the United States. How did little Woodbury County pass >>ordinances promoting local foods? >> >>Iowa's Woodbury County has some of the >>richest farmland in the state. Unlike much of Iowa, the landscape in >>Woodbury isn't flat. The Loess Hills, carved over millennia by the >>snaking Missouri River, create steep ridges and gently rolling hills. The >>soil is gritty, sifting easily through your fingers. During a rainstorm, >>loess soil washes quickly down the cliffs. Local farmers constantly >>battle soil erosion. >> >>Loess Hills State Forest. Credit: Iowa Department of Natural Resources >>Despite these challenges, 1,148 farms harvested 332,515 acres of farmland >>in 2002half of it corn. >> >>A year from now, Woodbury Countys farmscape could look very different. In >>June 2005, the County passed an >>< http://www.woodbury-ia.com/departments/economicdevelopment/wc_press_release_organics%20v2.pdf >Organics >>Conversion Policy, offering up to $50,000 annually in property tax >>rebates for those who convert from conventional to organic farming >>practices. The policy is intended to address a growing problem in >>Iowarural population decline resulting from the growth of large commodity >>farms. Because the average age of a farmer in Woodbury County is 57over >>half of the countys farmland will need to change hands in the next 10-15 >>years. The County needs new farmers to continue its agricultural tradition. >> >>We want to make it economically possible for young families to enter >>farmingour next generation of farmers,says George Boykin, Chairman of the >>Woodbury >>County Board of Supervisors, in a Woodbury County press release. >> >>On January 10, 2006, the County also became the first in the United >>States to mandate the purchase of locally grown, organic food. The >>< http://www.woodbury-ia.com/departments/economicdevelopment/WC_PRESS_RELEASE_LFPP.pdf >Local >>Food Purchase Policyrequires Woodbury County departments to purchase >>locally grown, organic food from within a 100 mile radius for regular >>city use. The policy has the potential to shift $281,000 in annual food >>purchases to a local farmer-operated cooperative, increasing local demand >>and spurring increased production and processing. >> >>b9aca7.jpgThe policy also helps build connections between area farmers. >>Since the county must work with a contractor and broker, the farmers must >>network to aggregate supply. Together they are building an infrastructure >>that supports a locally-owned and controlled food system. >> >>The Local Food Purchase Policysupports the Organic Conversion >>Policypassed last summer, providing a market for the farmers who convert >>to organic production. In the end, we anticipate a quality local food >>brand emerging from the increased economic activity in our area,says Rob >>Marquesee, the Director of >>< http://www.woodbury-ia.com/departments/economicdevelopment/WC_PRESS_RELEASE_LFPP.pdf >Rural >>Economic Development for Woodbury County, in a press release. >> >>How did this happen? >> >>In a state where 90 percent of the land is used for agriculture, Woodbury >>Countys organic and local food ordinances could serve as a catalyst for >>transforming Iowas agricultural landscape. With a graying farm workforce >>and population losses, Iowas rural communities need fresh ideas for >>retaining younger people and building economically viable regions. >> >>The Woodbury policies, while innovative, did not emerge from a vacuum. >>Nor will their existence immediately transform Western Iowas agricultural >>landscape. Still, what makes a Woodbury County happen? >> >>First, the support of key county officials. Rob Marqusee, the Director of >>Rural Economic Development for Woodbury County, already believed that >>local, agriculture-based economies were key to revitalizing rural >>communities. If he wanted to prove this to a larger audience of county >>economic development officials, he needed hard data and credible numbers >>to back up his claims. >> >>Some of that data came from research coordinated by the >>Leopold Center for Sustainable >>Agriculture at Iowa State University, which is well >>regarded for exploring and cultivating alternatives to conventional >>agriculture. The >>Regional Food Systems >>Working Group, funded by the Leopold Center and the >>W.K. Kellogg Foundation, has also been a valuable >>resource for the Woodbury County developments. >> In addition to providing assistance in Woodbury County, the >>Leopold Center has worked with Iowa States >>Center for Transportation Research and Education to develop a new tool >>that can help local groups make the case for supporting community-based >>food systems. The >>Iowa Produce >>Market Potential Calculator is helping users explore new or expand >>existing markets for fresh produce. >> >>Using supply and demand data from the calculator, Rich Pirog, the Leopold >>Centers Marketing >>and Food Systems Research Program Leader, and Iowa State University >>economist Dave Swenson examined what would happen to Iowas economy if 25 >>percent of the fruits and vegetables consumed in Iowa were grown in the >>state. They determined that total new sales in Iowa would increase by >>nearly $140 million, and $54.2 million in additional labor income would >>be paid to 2,030 job holders, of which 190 would be working on farms. >> >>In all honesty, a computer business is competing equally with an >>agricultural businesses in the eyes of an economic developer when it >>comes to stimulating the local rural economy,says Pirog. Food and fiber >>businesses can be just as viable as other choices, of course, but you >>have to present your data behind the economic 8-ball of what are the >>returns to the local and regional economy? >> >>We want to help groups make a better case for investing in local and >>regional food enterprises,Pirog continues. The Iowa Produce Calculator is >>one tool that can help provide the numbers so often lacking in making >>that better case. >> >>Additionally, demand for and awareness of local foods in Woodbury County >>is strong, thanks to a solid network of NGOs and farmers markets. With a >>strongly mobilized community, the community support will likely continue >>after external funding from foundations ends. Additionally, the increased >>demand provides an incentive for farmers and processing plants to work >>together to determine the best ways to serve the community. >> >>Over time, Woodbury County will showcase how county policies work in >>building sustainable regional food systems. In the meantime, The Leopold >>Center will continue studying the conditions and criteria needed to build >>resilient regional food systems. Although those criteria will vary by >>region, the Center expects to discover the essential elements common to >>all regions and construct a workable model for food and fiber businesses >>to foster rural development. >> -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From levelgreen at kaxy.com Fri Feb 24 10:00:56 2006 From: levelgreen at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Fri Feb 24 10:39:30 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Fw: Audubon Intl Sustainable Communities Program? Message-ID: Is anyone familiar with this program? there's a brief description below. AI's Eric Dodson says that the closest participant to us is Henrietta, NY - ? seems like something we might consider for the future - Patricia Haines ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "R. Eric Dodson" To: "'Patricia Haines'" Sent: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:27:45 -0500 Subject: RE: AI Sustainable Communities Program Hi Patricia - Sorry it has taken me a few days to respond to this email. Ithaca is not currently a member of the program. The closest town to Ithaca currently enrolled in the program would be Henrietta, New York. An overview of the Sustainable Communities Program can be found at: http://www.auduboninternational.org/programs/scp/ Thanks for the hyperlink... that sounds great! All the best, - Eric -----Original Message----- From: Patricia Haines [mailto:levelgreen@kaxy.com] Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 11:08 AM To: R. Eric Dodson Subject: AI Sustainable Communities Program Thanks Eric - is Ithaca, NY a member of your program? This sounds li,ke something ALL members of the U.S. Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development should know about. Can you send an invitation with basic info to - ? It's also EXACTLY what the emerging Adult & Community Learning Sector of the Partnership would like to highlight on the pages we'll be putting up within the Partnership's website. Can you send me the appropriate website address so we can put in a link? any basic description you would like us to post with the link? Thanks - I'm awed and humbled by how much good work I'm learning about through the Partnership! Patricia----- Original Message ----- From: "R. Eric Dodson" To: Sent: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:10:19 -0500 Subject: RE: [USPDESDpartner] Street art supporting sustainable water use? > This sounds like an interesting and innovative community in Australia. I > would encourage them to participate in Audubon International's Sustainable > Communities Program to showcase some of their accomplishments. Once in the > Sustainable Communities Program they would have the opportunity to network > with other communities doing similar innovative sustainable practices around > the world, and this could greatly help them along with their Outreach and > Education efforts. It sounds like they are doing terrific stuff. > > The SCP Program's web address is: > http://www.auduboninternational.org/programs/scp/ > > Cheers, -Eric > > > -----Original Message----- > From: steercomm-bounces@list.ncseonline.org > [mailto:steercomm-bounces@list.ncseonline.org] On Behalf Of Patricia Haines > Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 11:00 AM > To: steercomm@list.ncseonline.org > Subject: [USPDESDpartner] Street art supporting sustainable water use? > > Any thoughts you can share with the folks in Mount Gambier, South Australia, > about cit planning tht > supports environmental resources and prorities? > > see below - Patricia > > ----- Forwarded Message ----- > Hello all, > My name is Kylie and I work with the City of Mount Gambier, South Australia. > > > Just a little bit of background information, the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier > (turns brilliant blue > between November and March) is the town's water supply. The lake which is a > volcanic crater formed > about 5000 yrs ago provides a window into the regions unconfined aquifer. > The lake is replenished by > local rainfall and stormwater (via underground aquifers) from the catchment > zone which includes the > entire City of Mount Gambier (pop 23,000). > > > > The issue I would like some help with is: here at Council we find ourselves > in a very exciting and > unique time. We are currently redesigning the entire city centre. At present > our resident architect > has a basic concept of four nodes along the main street each with different > themes that are tied > together with one common thread (the space is about 10m *5m). > > In terms of the common thread linking all four nodes we are wanting to > embrace what we have here in > Mount Gambier, which is lots or rain and as a consequence lots of stormwater > (or eventual drinking > water). In doing this I wanted to both incorporate water sensitive urban > design and modern art to > get across the message about sustainable water use and reuse drawing on the > fact that we are indeed > unique in drinking our stormwater. > > I know this is a little vague but we have a unique opportunity to use public > art or modelling to get > across very important messages to both locals and tourists (the blue lake is > one of SA main tourist > attractions) so if anyone has used street art and interpretative signage to > put out an environmental > message I would love to hear about them. > > Thanks in advance for your time > > > > Kylie > > > > Kylie CLIMIE > BAppSci (Hons) > > Blue Lake Water Care Officer > City of Mount Gambier > 10 Watson Terrace > Mount Gambier SA 5290 > > P: 08 8721 2520 > F: 08 8724 9791 > > > From: GayNicholson@aol.com > To: ph24@kaxy.com > Sent: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:22:13 EST > Subject: Fwd: Street art supporting sustainable water use > > in case you had some ideas to share... > > *************************************** > Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. > > Sustainable Tompkins > Program Coordinator > 1 Maple Avenue > Lansing, NY 14882 > gaynicholson@aol.com > > 607-533-7312 (home office) > 607-279-6618 (cell) > > Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities > Regional Coordinator > Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County > 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 > agn1@cornell.edu > > > > Level Green Institute > - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative > initiatives in > education and the arts > > -- > This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail > http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm > > _______________________________________________ > SteerComm mailing list > SteerComm@list.ncseonline.org > http://list.ncseonline.org/mailman/listinfo/steercomm "Never doubt that a group of committed citizens can change the world - indeed, it's the only thing that can." - Margaret Mead -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm "Never doubt that a group of committed citizens can change the world - indeed, it's the only thing that can." - Margaret Mead -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From tonydelplato at gmail.com Fri Feb 24 14:07:54 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Fri Feb 24 14:08:32 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] URGENT: House Vote Mar 2 on Food Uniformity HR4167 In-Reply-To: <5D3E5CCB3DF3DB44A4AC19E3C3865E4901EFB5EF@cuexchange2.consumer.org> References: <5D3E5CCB3DF3DB44A4AC19E3C3865E4901EFB5EF@cuexchange2.consumer.org> Message-ID: Hey all: the following is important legislation. Please act on it. Thanks Tony The House of Representatives is now scheduled to vote next THURSDAY, MARCH 2 on HR 4167, the National Uniformity of Foods Act of 2005. This bill would nullify any state food safety or labeling law that is not IDENTICAL to federal law. This means that it would nullify the Alaska law requiring labeling of genetically engineered fish, and California Prop 65 labels that require labels on any products that contain carcinogens. If this law passes, no state could ever pass a GMO labeling bill in the future. I strongly urge you to call your Representative in Congress urging him or her to vote NO on HR4167 and to ask your members to do the same. The bill has been seriously misrepresented by industry, and has 227 co-sponsors--enough to pass the bill if they all vote for it. Industry has been claiming the bill is needed to remedy a patchwork of differing regulations in the states. In fact, state laws are needed because there are huge gaps in federal law--80% of food safety enforcement work is done at the state level. The bill is opposed by many mainstream organizations, including the Association of Food and Drug Officials, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and the National Conference of State Legislatures. You can refer people to the Consumers Union food safety website, * www.NotInMyFood.org* , where we have an Alert that people can send. _______________________________________________ Geactivists mailing list Geactivists@geaction.org http://geaction.org/mailman/listinfo/geactivists_geaction.org -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From tonydelplato at gmail.com Sat Feb 25 18:27:19 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Sat Feb 25 18:27:41 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] NYTimes.com: After Judge's Ruling, Fewer Are Arrested in Mass Bike Ride In-Reply-To: <44010d4d.67a74534.4898.ffffd59fSMTPIN_ADDED@mx.gmail.com> References: <44010d4d.67a74534.4898.ffffd59fSMTPIN_ADDED@mx.gmail.com> Message-ID: De-escalating street wars in the Big Apple. [image: The New York Times] [image: E-mail This] [image: Article Tools Sponsored By] *This page was sent to you by: * tonydelplato@gmail.com *NEW YORK REGION * | February 26, 2006 *After Judge's Ruling, Fewer Are Arrested in Mass Bike Ride * By JIM DWYER On Friday night, three people were arrested, far fewer than the 20 to 40 arrested at many of the rides in the last year. [image: Most E-mailed] 1. Why Doctors So Often Get It Wrong 2. The Quick Fix: Schools Where the Only Real Test Is Basketball 3. A Year Abroad (or 3) as a Career Move 4. Welcome Back, Alumni 5. Op-Ed Contributor: Eating for Credit ? Go to Complete List Advertisement Thank You For Smoking opens March 17th Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today's neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots and an opportunistic senator, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes. http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/thankyouforsmoking/teaser/ Do you love NY? Get the insider's guide to where to stay, what to do and where to eat. Go to www.nytimes.com/travel for your NYC Guide now. Click here . Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From ph24 at kaxy.com Sun Feb 26 06:13:49 2006 From: ph24 at kaxy.com (Patricia Haines) Date: Sun Feb 26 06:52:59 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Reminder: 2006 Sustainable Blog-A-Thon Tonight! In-Reply-To: <470a07250602240732y6af5818as9226416a16ea16ad@mail.gmail.com> References: <470a07250602240732y6af5818as9226416a16ea16ad@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: -Michael: I've just read through Groovy green's web site (which is wonderful!) in search of instruction as to how to submit a story for the blog-a-thon - ??? I want to contribute something about * Earth Day 2006 * Level Green's campus/community eco-hostel initiative and Summer meadow Sundays family-friendly arts and nature series- * Ithacans (Dan Roth and myself) on leadership team for U.S. Partnership for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development thanks for your instructions! - Patricia --- Original Message ----- From: "Michael d'Estries" To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" , "sustainability friends" , permaculture@cayuta.org Sent: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:32:21 -0500 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Reminder: 2006 Sustainable Blog-A-Thon Tonight! > The exciting 2006 Green Blog-A-Thon is set to kick off tonight and continue > straight for 24 Hours! There are many sites participating and a host of > interesting and engaging articles will be appearing all night and straight > into Saturday. Ithaca's own GroovyGreen.com will be posting for 24 Hours > straight and will feature local articles and interviews on initiatives and > projects happening around Tompkins County. We're always looking for stories, > so feel free to email me to promote a project you're working on or looking > for support with! Tonight's efforts are in support of the Nature > Conservancy's Adopt-An-Acre of Rainforest program. Feel free to donate and > help out! Many thanks already to sponsors Sustainable Tompkins, TREEA, Level > Green Institute, and CFLBulbs.com! > > We look forward to seeing you tonight! Have a great weekend! > > Michael > www.groovygreen.com > _______________________________________________ > SustainableTompkins mailing list > SustainableTompkins@lists.mutualaid.org > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org Level Green Institute - fostering social, economic and environmental justice through collaborative initiatives in education and the arts -- This email was brought to you by Kaxy Mail http://www.kaxy.com/free_email_account.htm From mdestries at gmail.com Mon Feb 27 10:19:40 2006 From: mdestries at gmail.com (Michael d'Estries) Date: Mon Feb 27 10:20:00 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Future Green Projects In Ithaca Message-ID: <470a07250602271019i6f1c52d8rfe5e8468a7634ac1@mail.gmail.com> Reprinted from GroovyGreen.com 'Green Blog-A-Thon' Gay Nicholson has a vision?and she's not afraid to share it. As Program Coordinator for Sustainable Tompkins in Ithaca, NY her responsibilities include everything and anything related to green education and sustainable living. Her latest project?and one that will have effects on not just Ithaca, but hopefully the surrounding region?is to help create a sustainability corridor in an area where superstores such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot dot the landscape. "Although the Cayuga Inlet Sustainability Corridor will serve a specific geographic locale, it may also become a model for other communities and regions that are trying to solve the challenge of integrating the elements of a sustainable community," Gay recently told GroovyGreen.com over the phone. "This is a wonderfully stimulating intellectual and social challenge. If successful, the co-creators of the Sustainability Corridor will become informants to the rest of the world, sharing our vision and lessons learned." Nicholson explained that often the elements of community sustainability are undertaken in a piecemeal fashion. One town might invest in solar panels while another town creates bike paths. Rarely have we deliberately sought to redesign and integrate infrastructure for living, working, shopping, and playing in a more sustainable manner. Nicholson and her colleagues are offering the Sustainability Corridor as both a unifying vision for various proposed development projects and a geographic location for making sustainability a reality. Along Rt. 13 in Ithaca, NY you will find every type of strip development typical of towns across America. Nicholson and a coalition of partners from Sustainable Tompkins, Cornell University, Ithaca College, Cooperative Extension, local green builders, government agencies, and other groups are exploring how to use sustainability principles to develop and redevelop adjacent lands between the "franchise strip" and Cayuga Inlet, a major tributary into Cayuga Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. This natural corridor along the Inlet from the south entry point of the City of Ithaca to the waterfront of the lake has several large undeveloped parcels as well as a mixture of relatively light commercial/industrial development. The vision for the Sustainability Corridor began with an early working group of Sustainable Tompkins focused on creating a Green Resource Hub in the light industrial zone along the Inlet, where one of their members owns land and other renewable energy businesses are already established. The Hub would feature a facility for educating consumers on green building, renewable energy, and green products. A showroom of green materials would give customers and contractors a chance to see some of the new green design materials firsthand. "There will also be classroom space for seminars on renewables, energy efficiency, and green building, as well as on-site professional help for people interested in learning green building techniques or ways to improve existing homes," Gay explained. "The Hub would also offer workforce training and professional development opportunities such as certification in green building, home performance, and installation of sustainable technologies." With nearby trails and possible bike/electric scooter rentals, the location would also serve as an easy way to access other destinations in the Corridor. But this isn't all Nicholson and her partners have planned for Ithaca. "We're really excited about creating a Reuse Center for the area?similar to what Significant Elements (a local historic architectural salvage business) has done, but on a larger scale and with more components of the waste stream." So, instead of heading off to the Home Depot for building supplies, you might check out the Reuse Center first for some reclaimed 2?4s. Tompkins County Solid Waste Division is leading the group that is investigating the potential flow of materials in the surrounding area. "Another possibility is to have small micro-enterprises as a part of this Center that create products directly from the materials entering the reuse facility" Nicholson added. The possibility of training seminars on repairing or reconstructing goods is also being discussed. While the potential for a 'green warehouse' store for bulk purchases of green products in contrast to a Home Depot or Lowe's would be great, Nicholson admits that she would rather see local stores carry more green products first. "Let's expand the local effort and support our stores in carrying environmentally preferable goods, before attempting to build another store." To further this goal, Nicholson is working with the county Solid Waste Division to develop a regional green purchasing website that will feature local stores and their green products. But the scale of green retail in Ithaca may be about to expand significantly. At the north end of the Cayuga Inlet Sustainability Corridor is Inlet Island, not far from where the stream's waters meet the lake. The City of Ithaca owns 2 acres of the island and has recently put their development out to bid. Local businessman Jeff Furman (one of the cofounders of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream) and his partners hope to persuade the City to let them develop it as a green retail or "eco mall" complex that might have small shops featuring green products, local wines, an organic caf? using local foods, and senior housing. Jeff sees great potential for this to be part of the eco tourism draw of the region ? such that a visit to the eco-mall is an education in itself in green building technology. A key component of the Sustainability Corridor will come from the development of the last large undeveloped parcel within the City of Ithaca. The Southwest Park tract of 70 acres is sandwiched between the commercial/industrial area to the north, big boxes to the east and south, and the Inlet on the west. It has been slated for development for several years, and the received wisdom was that market forces would dictate further big box development of the land. But a growing shortage of affordable housing in the community strengthened calls for creating a new neighborhood on the Southwest parcel. Another Sustainable Tompkins working group called PLUS (Planning for Land Use Sustainability) persuaded the City that the community could design the kind of neighborhood that they would like to see and provide developers with definite guidelines around sustainable design and infrastructure. "If we have to have development, it should be affordable, low ecological footprint, and integrated into the fabric of the community," Gay said. A neighborhood filled with energy efficient, affordable healthy homes supported by renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and geothermal heat pumps would be an excellent model for future developments. A City-appointed advisory committee, with several Sustainable Tompkins members, has now shared its vision of design guidelines for Southwest Park. These include developing the site according to new urbanism and green building principals of high density, mixed use, mixed-income workforce housing, passive solar design, decreased vehicular traffic, and alternative transportation in the form of multi-use trails, bus routes and car-share operations. "In the future, we may be able to incorporate the railroad into these plans," Gay added. "In the coming years, as peak oil becomes more of a consumer reality, transportation will once again include practical systems, such as a tram or trolley infrastructure." While Gay and her partners' plans may seem ambitious, they are not outside the realm of feasibility; nor do they simply act to encourage environmental awareness. "Ithaca loses so many young people to urban centers," she said. "If we can create a new employment hub around sustainability that creates decent incomes while also giving people an excellent living standard, perhaps the youth will stay on. Focusing on economic development, while also embracing sustainability will be key for Ithaca's future population diversity." The Cayuga Inlet Sustainability Corridor also includes a vision for developing an Innovation Center somewhere along Rt. 13. While no site has yet been determined, Gay imagines the Innovation Center "as something along the lines of "Yankee tinker meets Cornell high tech." Upstate New York was the source of an amazing number of agricultural innovations during the Civil War because of the labor shortage. "What will we invent due to the energy shortage?" she asks. The Green Resource Hub, Reuse Center, and Innovation Center will all be excellent places for service learning by students at Cornell, Ithaca College, and the local community college to work with local businesses and residents. Gay envisions a chance for the next generation to work together in a practical way to create the living and working systems of a sustainable future. At the Innovation Center, individuals could take their innovative ideas or inventions and gain professional assistance from engineering all the way to marketing. These ideas might lead to low-cost solutions for families that cannot afford, say, the next hydrogen car. Instead, if Peak Oil does in fact cause disruptions in the energy supply, these people could still purchase devices that could assist them with the transition. "We still need to work on sustainable food for the community and low-cost technology options for lower-income families. None of this will matter if we cannot assist everyone. A truly sustainable community creates systems that support all of its members." All of these projects are at the earliest phases of development and Nicholson understands there's a lot more work left to be done. "Right now we are in the recruitment phase of engaging partners, developing the vision, and researching the market realities" she said, " but I've received a good reception from everyone I have talked with so far, including elected officials, planners, faculty, and business interests." With a great sense of urgency concerning the state of the world, she's ready to begin. "I am motivated by the spur of climate change, peak oil, and demographic trends, but I am also inspired by the sheer joy of working with a community of sustainability advocates to create the infrastructure for our transition to a new energy economy. Ithaca is home to so many creative people. There is a sense of civic engagement and responsibility for the future that is expressed more vividly here than in most communities." You can find out more about these projects and other sustainable activities in Tompkins County by visiting the Sustainable Tompkins website ( www.sustainabletompkins.org). From alh54 at cornell.edu Mon Feb 27 11:11:41 2006 From: alh54 at cornell.edu (Allison Jack) Date: Mon Feb 27 11:12:05 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education seminar series: Rosemeyer and Donaldson announcement Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060227140958.0412ebe8@postoffice8.mail.cornell.edu> Hi everyone, Thanks to those who have attended our previous talks (Ricardo Salvador and Karl North). We really appreciate the community participation! Here is the next talk in our series. Hope to see some of you there. Take care, Allison The Issues in Sustainable Agriculture Education Seminar Series presents: Facilitating sustainable agriculture at Evergreen State College: Learning communities and student self-direction Dr. Martha Rosemeyer Mary Ellen Donaldson The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA PLEASE NOTE ROOM CHANGE Friday, March 3, 2006 12:20-1:10; 133 Emerson Hall PLEASE NOTE ROOM CHANGE After her University of California-Santa Cruz dissertation research on the slash mulch system, Martha Rosemeyer continued her research and coordinated agroecology graduate and undergraduate field courses for eight years in Costa Rica. During this time she worked for two years with the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) Management of Organic Inputs to Soils of the Tropics (MOIST) group on research and documentation of mulch-based agriculture systems in Central America. She is now in her fifth year teaching ecological agriculture and food system programs at Evergreen State College in Olympia WA. Designed to support the emergence of sustainable agriculture and food systems, Evergreen State College offers full-time, interdiciplinary academic programs uniting theory and practice. An on-campus certified organic farm facilitates real-world learning. The skills of observation, quantitative reasoning, reflection, synthesis and critical thinking are fostered by lab exercises, lectures, field trips and workshops. However, the development of a learning community is critical to success. Martha will discuss her experience in facilitating this curriculum in sustainable agriculture for future farmers, consumers, non-profit and agency personnel. Mary Ellen Donaldson is a senior undergraduate who purposefully transferred to Evergreen to study sustainable agriculture through non-traditional educational models. Course work with her mentor, Dr. Martha Rosemeyer, has included "Community Food Systems in Costa Rica and Nicaragua", "Nicaragua: Sustainable Food Systems and Community Development: A six month internship in sustainable development with the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers", and "Ecological Agriculture: A Systems Perspective". She will be presenting on her experience of how Evergreen's unconventional educational methodologies, in the classroom and out of the classroom, both community models and independent contract studies, synthesize a student's understanding of the natural sciences with the social sciences in the study of sustainable agriculture. There will be two opportunities to meet with Dr. Rosemeyer and Ms. Donaldson, a brown bag lunch and discussion immediately following the seminar in 133 Emerson (1:10-2:00) and a potluck dinner from 6-9 pm in downtown Ithaca. Please contact Allison to RSVP for either event (alh54@cornell.edu). Seminars are free and open to the Cornell and greater Ithaca community! Funded in part by the GPSAFC. Co-Sponsored by: New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG) at Cornell, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences; Department of Horticulture, Cornell Small Farm Program; the Community, Food and Agriculture Program; the Community Food Systems Program; the GPSAFC, and the Community and Rural Development Institute. For more information visit www.rso.cornell.edu/nwaeg/ or contact Julie at jmg225 or Allison at alh54 ********************************************************************************************************************************* Allison L. H. Jack Graduate Student 335 Plant Science Department of Plant Pathology Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 273-5762 alh54@cornell.edu ********************************************************************************************************************************** From mbrown at ithaca.edu Mon Feb 27 12:36:19 2006 From: mbrown at ithaca.edu (Marian Brown) Date: Mon Feb 27 12:36:51 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Reminder: Sustainability Webinar here tomorrow Message-ID: <440362C3.9020100@ithaca.edu> **Finding the Competitive Edge: The Financial Benefits of Creating a Sustainable Campus** Tuesday, February 28, 2006 1:00 - 3:00p.m. Campus Center (2nd floor) - Clark Lounge Ithaca College (Free and open to the public - come join us!) During this webinar, Hunter Lovins of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Inc. will show our institution how to increase profitability and efficiency while becoming more environmentally and socially responsible. Natural Capitalism will help our institution manage an "integrated bottom line", combining profitability, environmental awareness and social responsibility, while fostering greater levels of operational effectiveness. Hope you can make it! Marian - - - - - - - - - - - *What is Natural Capitalism? * * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Natural Capitalism is a managerial philosophy put into action with a commitment to using our natural resources and human capital in a way that increases profit and quality of life (adapted from Natural Capitalism Solutions' mission statement). *The Natural Capitalism Principles used by NCS are: * 1. Radical Resource Efficiency: Radically increase the productivity with which all resources are used, including energy, water, materials and people. The growing number of profitable solutions to environmental challenges can buy the time needed to implement measures that will attain true sustainability. 2. Design for Sustainability Such innovative design processes as Biomimicry, Cradle to Cradle and other forms of green design enable businesses to harness nature's wisdom to drive innovation. These approaches allow us to create systems that eliminate waste and toxics while delivering superior products and service. *3. Manage for Prosperity and Sustainability:* Employ the emerging practice of Sustainable Management to restore, enhance and sustain the natural and human capital needed for continuing financial prosperity. Effective Sustainable Management enables companies and communities to enhance core business value and reinforce competitive advantage. ** * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * //A worldwide recognized leader in helping companies and communities profit from more sustainable practices. / /Hunter Lovins has authored and co-authored numerous / /books, including Brittle Power (1982), Energy Unbound (1986), Factor Four ? Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (1997), Green Development (1998), Natural Capitalism (1999), and hundreds of papers and articles. She was named as a Time magazine Hero for the Planet in 2000./ / / /Hunter has consulted for government agencies and the private sector, briefing senior management at such groups as Interface, Mitsubishi, Bank of America, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and numerous utility companies. She is a founding Professor of Business at Presidio World College./ / From tonydelplato at gmail.com Mon Feb 27 19:37:30 2006 From: tonydelplato at gmail.com (Tony Del Plato) Date: Mon Feb 27 19:37:34 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Urgent Action - Stop the Rollback of State Food Safety and Labeling Laws! In-Reply-To: <20060227183554.14427.2242.qmail@omail1.getactive.com> References: <20060227183554.14427.2242.qmail@omail1.getactive.com> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Center for Food Safety Date: Feb 27, 2006 1:35 PM Subject: Urgent Action - Stop the Rollback of State Food Safety and Labeling Laws! To: Anthony Del Plato [image: Center for Food Safety] Dear Anthony, *Urgent Action - Stop the Rollback of State Food Safety and Labeling Laws!* *A bill is pending in the United States House of Representatives that would eliminate dozens of food safety and labeling laws. The bill, H.R. 4167, the National Uniformity for Food Act, does this by stripping away the power of states to regulate food safety. * * * *This bill is set to hit the House floor for a vote this Thursday, March 2nd ? please contact your representatives TODAY and urge them to vote NO on HR 4167! * Here is how the bill works. Under the guise of promoting "uniformity" of food safety and labeling laws in the U.S., the bill requires all state food safety laws to be identical to the requirements of the Federal Food and Drug Administration. If the FDA has not passed a regulation on a food threat, then all state regulations on that threat would immediately be voided. And, since the states regulate many food safety issues not covered by the FDA, many food safety laws will be voided and replaced with no law at all. For example, the bill would preempt Alaska's newly passed law to label genetically engineered fish and California's Proposition 65, a very effective law that requires labeling of food and consumer products that contain substances known to cause cancer or reproductive harm. It would also threaten state laws governing the safety of milk and shellfish. *The "uniformity" to be achieved by the bill is in many instances the uniform absence of food safety regulation that the food industry seeks.*** Local and state officials are now responsible for 80% of the nation's food safety enforcement. H.R. 4167 puts a strangle hold on the people most informed about local needs. It is opposed by dozens of environmental health groups, by California's State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the Association of Food and Drug Officials, the National Conference of State Legislators and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture. *If this bill passes, not only will hundreds of current state food safety laws face being overturned, future state food safety and labeling initiatives could be impossible to put in place.* There are currently 226 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives to pass the bill in the House, so every letter is needed to ensure that these Representatives understand what a bad bill this is. *CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW AND URGE THEM TO VOTE NO ON H.R. 4167! * ------------------------------ Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend! If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Center for Food Safety . This message was sent to tonydelplato@gmail.com. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop ALL email from Center for Food Safety, click to removeyourself from our lists (or reply via email with "remove" in the subject line). -- "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die- life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes From GayNicholson at aol.com Tue Feb 28 11:39:36 2006 From: GayNicholson at aol.com (GayNicholson@aol.com) Date: Tue Feb 28 11:47:13 2006 Subject: [SustainableTompkins] property tax exemption for solar and wind expired Message-ID: <23b.7b7bf99.313600f8@aol.com> Thought this should be shared with this listserv as well.... see thread below. >From Rob Garrity on a TREEA listserv post: Thanks Gay, As a person working in the RE field, I can say without a doubt, this is a clear incentive for the installation of RE systems. When the retail price of such systems averages $20-60k, homeowners are rightfully suspect of the effect that this investment will have on their property tax. This website allows you to search for your respective assembly persons via zip code: _http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/_ (http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/) For 14850 our assemblypeople are: Generically, NW of Tompkins Co.: Assemblyman Gary D. Finch 123rd Assembly District finchg@ assembly.state.ny.us DISTRICT OFFICE 69 South Street Auburn, NY 13021 315-255-3045 ALBANY OFFICE LOB 718 Albany, NY 12248 518-455-5878 Tompkins County: Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton 125th Assembly District liftonb@ assembly.state.ny.us DISTRICT OFFICE 106 East Court Street Ithaca, NY 14850 607-277-8030 ALBANY OFFICE LOB 821 Albany, NY 12248 518-455-5444 On Feb 27, 2006, at 10:23 PM, GayNicholson@aol.com wrote: Hello, The property tax exemption for solar and wind systems expired on January 1, 2006. A new bill is in the Assembly to extend the property tax exemption until 2016 and to add hydro to it. This would keep assessors from adding the value of your renewable system to the tax rolls for this period of time. It would be a good idea to contact your assembly rep to encourage support for the bill. Gay * Jack Quinn is sponsoring Bill Number A9398 in the New York Assembly. The purpose of this bill is to extend Real Property Tax Law which authorizes a real property taxation exemption for solar or wind energy systems or farm waste energy systems from January 1, 2006 until January 1, 2016. It also amends the Real Property Tax law to make hydro energy systems eligible for a tax exemption. _http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A09398_ (http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A09398) *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) = *************************************** Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 gaynicholson@aol.com 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 agn1@cornell.edu