Suggested Reading: Pipeline Failures

I’m running short on time today— I’m leaving in a couple hours for a camping trip and will be away for the entire weekend with NO TECHNOLOGY (besides a camera, woo!). Honestly, I’m looking forward to it; expect a special post about my experience when I get back.

            So, I will keep this post brief, and I will have to skip out on manatees for today. Please check out past posts about endangered animals and feel free to do your own research! If there’s an endangered animal you want to see on Viridorari, be sure to email me at viridorari@yahoo.com or tweet at me (@viridorari) and let me know!

            For today’s Suggested Reading, I want to call attention to two recent events regarding pipeline failures; while both had minimal impacts (according to media), they serve as important warnings about pipeline dangers. Both of these incidents could have had a much greater effect on the environment and local communities.

Suggested Reading: Extinction of the Pipistrelle

As you may already know, I have a soft spot for bats. A really big soft spot, actually. I’ve been a bat advocate since I was kid, I managed to become a finalist for a big scholarship at my college with an essay about bats, and Viridorari’s first animal of the month was the golden-capped fruit bat.

            Most people see bats as a symbol of Halloween and creepy things, but many don’t know what an important roll they play in our global ecosystem, and in particular, our agriculture. Insect-eating bats are crucial for controlling pest populations that would otherwise demolish our fields. Fruit-eating bats are essential for pollinating fruit plants, much like bees. 

            I was very saddened to learn that recently, the Pipistrelle bat went extinct. They used to live on Australia’s Christmas Island, but now these tiny, adorable bats with the coolest name ever are gone for good. The Australian government failed to offer aid to scientists and the dying species until it was too late. The loss of any species is a terrible thing, especially when the cause of their death was caused by human related activities. Why is it that we think it’s okay to do as we please on this planet, without any regard to the other life forms that live here?

Suggested Reading: Thirteen Gold Monkeys

I will be forgoing "Activism Spotlight" today. I'm busy preparing for my departure to Texas tomorrow!

Suggested Reading

 Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at zoos and conservation programs? Have you ever heard about the release of captive animals into the wild, and wondered how it was done? Is wildlife conservation important to you? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you need to get your hands on a copy of Benjamin Beck’s Thirteen Gold Monkeys.

    Beck was a part of the first ever expedition to reintroduce zoo born golden lion tamarins from the United States into the wild coastal rainforests of Brazil. Between 1983 and 2005, Beck helped coordinate the release of 149 zoo born golden lion tamarins into the wild. Thirteen Gold Monkeys is the fictionalized account of Beck’s adventures with the first two of these reintroductions, in which the reader sees both the humans’ and the monkeys’ points of view. In the story, Beck gives us rare glimpses of what it takes to organize and run a zoo, the infinitely complicated process of preparing zoo animals for the wild, and the scientists’ and caretakers’ emotional entanglement with the animals they are responsible for.

Suggested Reading & Activism Spotlight: Trash-Free Living

Activism Spotlight

“Every time you reach for the trash,” Amy said, “if you make that motion a conscious thing, [you realize that you] reach for the trash so many times a day. I really was kind of amazed.”

Imagine living for an entire year without producing garbage. Impossible, right?

Apparently not, because that’s exactly what a young professional couple, Amy and Adam Korst, did from July 6th, 2009 to July 6th, 2010. Their original goal was to produce no more than one garbage bag of waste, and instead, they ended up with only a shoebox full of items that could not be recycled, reduced, reused, or composted between the two of them. 

Picture courtesy of: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2010-07-21-trash_N.htm

In comparison, the average American produces 4.6 pounds of garbage daily, three pounds of which goes to a landfill. We recycle only 32% of our total waste, and we trash 99% of everything we buy within six months. So, according to these estimates and averages, the Korsts saved about 2,190 pounds of waste from the landfill, which is over a ton.

How did they do it?

Activism Spotlight & Suggested Reading: Obama's Climate Address

Suggested Reading

This week’s suggested reading is actually a suggested watching. If you haven’t already, I want you to watch President Barack Obama’s speech on climate change, in which he explains his plan for reducing carbon pollution and increasing renewable energy in the United States.

Whenever the President gives a speech or an address, I feel it is important for American citizens to watch and listen. However, this speech in particular is a historical one. Never before has a President delved into such a forward looking and comprehensive plan for the environment. If you truly care about the environmental cause and working for change, it is essential to understand the viewpoint of the government on the matter and the actions that are currently being taken. If there aren’t enough initiatives being carried out, we need to voice our opinions and fight for them, and if actions are being taken, we need to show our support.

If you want to know the opinion of our nation’s leader on climate change, and the actions he is taking to reduce America’s carbon footprint, then you need to watch his climate change address, given at Georgetown University on June 25th.

Picture courtesy of: http://news.yahoo.com/watch-obamas-climate-change-speech-turns-hes-talking-174716170.html

Suggested Reading & Activism Spotlight: Featuring Stephanie Khoury

Activism Spotlight Featuring Guest Writer

Today, I am honored to have an Ithaca College student as this week’s Guest Writer on Viridorari! Stephanie Khoury is a junior Documentary Studies and Production Major at Ithaca College. If found her through an awesome environmental edition of Ithaca’s student publication, Buzzsaw, in which she wrote an article. Today she is featuring DivestIC for today’s “Activism Spotlight.”

Divestment is an ongoing environmental movement in the United States toted by Bill McKibben and 350.org that encourages cities, states, business, and (mainly) colleges and universities to withdraw their investments from fossil fuel companies that are damaging the environment. Although withdrawing these investments won’t necessarily make a big dent in this multi-billion dollar industry, the goal is to show big businesses and governments that we are determined to start focusing on a future that relies more heavily on renewable energy and that wreaking havoc on the environment to make profit is no longer acceptable, socially, politically, or economically.

    I asked Stephanie to provide some information about herself, and this was her response:

    A lover of all things related to ducks, marshmallows and polka-dots, my name is Stephanie Khoury and I hate grammar and bottled water. One of my favorite places is Ithaca College. As a junior I am kinda getting the whole college thing by making some room for friends and family, but sometimes I breathe, so that’s good. In between editing and interning for the All-American High School Film Festival, by Andrew Jenks (MTV's World of Jenks) I love making documentaries. If you’re an avid Googler, check out some of my docs, including "Expressions of Hope", which recently won the Loreen Arbus Focus on Disability Award at College Television Awards!

    Stephanie also included some cool videos in her writing for you to watch. I encourage you to view them to enhance your knowledge on this topic! Congratulations to all of the people around the country who have successfully obtained or are currently rallying for divestment. Keep fighting the good fight for our tomorrow!

    So, without further ado, I give you Stephanie and her DivestIC spotlight.

Suggested Reading & Activism Spotlight: Save The Golden Lion Tamarin

Activism Spotlight

Picture courtesy of: www.savetheliontamarin.org

In honor of this month’s featured animal, the Golden Lion Tamarin, I’d like to shine to spotlight on an organization called Save the Golden Lion Tamarin (SGLT). Based out of the Washington D.C. area, SGLT was created in 2005 by a small group of conservation professionals dedicated to protecting the golden lion tamarin. SGLT provides technical and financial support to their sister organization, the Associação Mico-Leão Dourado (Golden Lion Tamarin Association, AMLD), based in Rio de Janeiro.
SGLT’s mission is as follows:

1. To protect the Golden Lion Tamarin, a tiny endangered primate, and to protect and restore the globally outstanding biodiversity of its natural habitat, the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal Rainforest.

2. To cooperate with other organizations with similar purposes.

3. To enlighten and educate society about preservation of the environment, especially the Atlantic Rainforest and the Golden Lion Tamarin.

4. To support and promote the efforts of AMLD, a Brazilian non-profit registered under the laws of the city and State of Rio de Janeiro, whose mission is the conservation of the biodiversity of the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal Rainforest focusing on the long-term protection of the golden lion tamarin in its natural habitat.

Suggested Reading: Fossil Fuel Divestment

Fossil Fuel Divestment 

I asked you to get vocal about the environment in Green Challenge #7. What exactly is going on right now in the world of environmental activism? I’ve already discussed Keystone XL and fracking on Viridorari, but there’s another big movement happening right now, and it’s gaining steam.

Fossil fuel divestment.

Divestment is the opposite of investment- it’s withdrawing current investments or avoiding investing in particular companies. Divestment was popular in the 1980’s to end apartheid in South Africa by withdrawing investments from companies that profited from South Africa. Although the actual economic impact of the South African divestment was minimal, it made a big statement to representatives and legislatures and paved the way for policy change.

And policy change is exactly what Bill McKibben and 350.org, the instigators of this movement, want. McKibben has recently been encouraging colleges and universities around the United States to divest their stocks in fossil fuel companies, in particular, the 200 companies on 350.org’s list. Even if the economic impact isn’t big, the social and moral statement will be. Many colleges boast their environmental friendliness on campus, but then don’t put their money where their mouths are when it comes to investments. (Visit 350.org's website here.)

Activism Spotlight & Suggested Reading: KXL Pipeline

Happy Arbor Day!

Each year, the United States celebrates Arbor Day on the last Friday in April. It is a holiday that encourages people to plant and care for trees, and it originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The first Arbor day was held on April 10th, 1872, and it was estimated that 1,000,000 trees were planted that day. By the 1920's, each state in the United States had passed a law that designated a day for Arbor Day. Since then, many more countries have started to recognize a similar holiday.

Suggested Reading & Activism Spotlight: 350.org

Suggested Reading

In the near future, I will be discussing on Viridorari how the average citizen with a passion for the environment can make their voice heard in the government. As many of you know, I recently went to a program in Albany called Students Inside Albany, where I learned about lobbying and how to do it, along with how New York State politics work. I was fortunate enough to get a view of what really goes on inside the capitol.

The organization that sent me on this trip, the League of Women Voters, has a fantastic slogan: "Democracy is not a spectator sport." Too often, we mumble and groan about the issues in our country, but how many of us actually do something about it? Our first amendment right entails us to the freedom of speech, and you can use that right to make yourself heard in the government. Do you have an opinion on fracking? Pollution? The Keystone XL Pipeline? The availability of renewable energy? Okay, but does your area representative know what your opinions on those subjects are? If you haven't told him or her your ideas, chances are your representative is not psychic and does not know what you think. 

Suggested Reading, Activism Spotlight: Living on $14,000/year

Suggested Reading

This week’s “Suggested Reading” will be a two-page article in the Rolling Stone by Bill McKibben, called “The Fossil Fuel Resistance.” You can find the article here.

Bill McKibben is an environmentalist, journalist, and author who has and continues to write extensively about global warming. He leads 350.org, an international environmental organization that raises awareness about global climate change, confronts global warming denial, and works to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. 350.org, since 2011, has been leading a major protest against the prospect of creating the Keystone XL Pipeline. If built, this pipeline would run from Canada to Texas for the purpose of transporting petroleum products, and if any spills were to occur, it has the potential to wreak monumental damage on its surrounding environments. Protests against the pipeline have already found success in delaying its approval. With hard work and perseverance, the pipeline project could be stopped completely.

 McKibben’s article, “The Fossil Fuel Resistance,” highlights the growing numbers and success of the environmental movement, or as he calls it, the Resistance (against fuel companies and the control they exert over governments). McKibben says now that 80% of Arctic sea ice has disappeared, people are finally recognizing the importance of preserving the global environment and are taking action.

Activism Spotlight & Suggested Reading: Food Waste

 Activism Spotlight

Recently, a headline caught my attention, and I thought the story that accompanied it would be perfect for this week’s focus on food waste. If you’ll recall from this week’s harsh facts, while many American’s waste horrendous amounts of food, others rely on food stamps for survival:

“The average American wastes 209-254 pounds of edible food each year, while 17.2 million American households in 2010 were deemed “food insecure,” meaning it was difficult to provide food for everyone in the family. About 46 million Americans, or one in every seven people, relied on food stamps that same year.”

Source: http://www.facethefactsusa.org/facts/supersized-hunger-pangs-supersized-waste-infographic/

The headline was: SNAP Food Challenge: 1 family, $16 per day.

A family of four living in Massachusetts, including Peter and Nova Biro and their 9-year-old twin daughters, Sophie and Lily, decided to take on the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Food Challenge for one week earlier in March. They tackled this challenge to raise awareness about hunger and poverty and supplement Nova Biro’s work with LeadBoston.

Picture courtesy of http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/snap-food-challenge--1-family---16-per-day-152819355.html