Honoree Receives Audubon/Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship
New York, NY—A Corvallis, Oregon woman is the recipient of a new national fellowship designed to advance the work of individuals with outstanding potential to help shape a brighter environmental future.
Heath Keirstead is one of only 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota. Fellows receive specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work and share best practices with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with project outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive $10,000 towards a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contributing to greater environmental health.
For her fellowship, Keirstead will focus her efforts on helping community members make more environmentally-friendly decisions in the unique ecosystem in which they live. By sharing guides on invasive plants and training volunteers to perform weed audits, Keirstead will be empowering people to maintain healthy backyards, encouraging conscientious actions that will eventually lead to a healthier, more water-wise environment. Replacing invasive plants with native species benefits everyone – wildlife and humans included.
Involved in conservation efforts for seven years, Keirstead is currently the Education and Outreach Coordinator of the Benton Soil & Water Conservation District. In her present role, Keirstead reaches more than 3,000 students through classroom visits, educational events, fairs and workshops, encouraging kids to explore their natural environments and treat conservation as not just a hobby, but as a practice and a career choice. She brings a similar conservation message to more than 2500 adults each year.
“Heath is the kind of person who can make a real difference in the health of our environment and the quality of our future,” said Audubon President John Flicker. “Each of our TogetherGreen Fellows demonstrates exceptional environmental understanding and commitment, combined with tremendous potential to inspire and lead others. Together, they represent the talented and diverse leadership the environmental community will need to tackle the huge challenges and opportunities confronting us now and in the years to come.”
“The TogetherGreen Fellowship is giving me the opportunity to tackle the costly issue of invasive species by using an innovative format that will empower residents to start with their own backyards,” said Keirstead.
Keirstead has been affiliated with Benton Soil & Water Conservation District since 2006. Half of the TogetherGreen fellows come from within Audubon’s far-reaching national network; half channel their environmental efforts through other organizations.
Keirstead received a Masters degree in soil science from Oregon State University and a Bachelors degree in environmental studies from the University of Vermont. In addition to her current role, she is a trained Master Recycler, coaching her co-workers on recycling opportunities and food waste composting and she’s on the board of the statewide non-profit Oregon Green Schools Association.
“Toyota believes in the power of grassroots efforts to develop the environmental leaders of tomorrow,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, Group Vice President, Toyota Motor North America. “These 40 TogetherGreen Fellows will receive invaluable training for the future while immediately making a difference today with on-the-ground community projects.”
A complete list of TogetherGreen fellows can be found online at www.TogetherGreen.org/fellows.
<>
Corvallis Woman Singled Out for Environmental Leadership
Cheap Valentine's Day roses are costing the Earth
LEICESTER, England, February 13, 2009 – Cut-price Valentine's Day roses exported from Kenya for sale in the UK are "bleeding that country dry," says Dr. David Harper, an ecology and conservation biologist at the University of Leicester.
A senior lecturer at the university's Department of Biology, Dr. Harper has conducted research for over 25 years at Lake Naivasha, the center of Kenya's horticultural industry.
He warned that cheap roses grown by companies that have no concern for the environment are having a devastating effect on the ecology of Lake Naivasha.
Instead, Dr. Harper is urging UK shoppers to buy Fair Trade roses, produced by companies that are conscientious and have a transparent supply chain.
"Roses that come cheap are grown by companies that have no concern for the environment, who cut corners and avoid legislation, who sell their flowers into the auction in Amsterdam so that all the buyer knows is the flowers "come from Holland."
"In reality, they have come from Kenya where the industry is, literally, draining that country dry."
However, some companies are taking a more responsible approach and selling directly to British supermarkets and many of them are Fair Trade certified.
Said Dr. Harper, "These companies want a sustainable future for the wildlife and the environment, as well as the people, where they grow their roses. Sadly, there are not enough of them."
"At Lake Naivasha, the good companies make up about half of the total. That is not enough; together, the industry is sucking the lake dry. The country's legislation is strong, but its enforcement is weak so companies whose only interest is profit take advantage of that."
Dr. Harper says the demand for the 10,000 metric tonnes of roses sold in the UK for Valentine's Day and for Mother's Day have contributed to the devastation of the ecosystem at the lake.
Almost half a million people now live around the shores of the lake, drawn there by the flower trade. The shantytowns that have sprung up have no sanitation - water comes from the lake and sewage returns to it. The largely unregulated use of lake water for irrigation is reducing the level of the lake.
Part of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Naivasha lies northwest of the capital Nairobi, outside the town of Naivasha. More than 400 different species of birds have been reported at the lake and hippos inhabit the lake as well.
Flowers are not held to the same standards for chemical residues as food products. Strong chemical pesticides can be used on the flowers to produce the perfect, pest-free bloom, and this could pose a health risk to workers and local wildlife, including the lake's population of hippos, environmental groups told the UN Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2002.
Harper and his colleagues from other British and Dutch universities first raised the alarm about the situation in 2002, just as the new Kenyan Water Act was passed. Since then, the lake has continued to shrink.
Personally, whether Fair Trade certified or not, I do have a problem with roses from Kenya in the same way as I have a problem with organic and often also Fair Trade certified, I believe, green beans from Kenya.
None of this is doing the local people any good for instead of growing food for themselves and their families they grow a cash crop. Before it may have been coffee (and it still is) or tobacco and now it is beans and roses. This does not feed them and while it may give them an income; money does not feed.
Also, the environmental impact, and not only of the crops being grown there if that faraway land but the costs of flying the roses and the beans all the way daily from Kenya to Europe defeats every object and is not sustainable, whatever Fair Trade etc. certification. It does not cut any ice.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
<>
Biofuels cannot be called sustainable, at least not in British Advert
Advertising Standards Authority upholds George Monbiot’s complaint and rules that biofuels can only be declared “sustainable” if clear policies are in place to limit impact on food production and deforestation
by Michael Smith
A complaint by environmental journalist George Monbiot that advertisements in the national press by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) misrepresented biofuels as “sustainable” has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently.
The ASA ruled that large text at the bottom of the adverts stating referring to biofuels as a “sustainable answer to OPEC's oil” was misleading, and banned the ads from appearing again in their current form.
The Renewable Fuels Association, on the other hand, said it believed biofuels met the Oxford English Dictionary definition of sustainable as “able to be sustained” and “avoiding depletion of natural resources” and argued that the feedstocks commonly used for biofuel production, such as grains, vegetable oils and sugar cane, were renewable, plant-based resources which could be grown and harvested or collected each year.
What the RFA, obviously, does not take into consideration but what the ASA did is the fact that many of those operations of growing the base crop for biofuels cause irreparable damage to the world's environment and to fragile ecosystems. Their hair splitting as to the definition of sustainable and sustainability in the Oxford dictionary also is, in my view, less than helpful.
Instead the RFA went on to say there was considerable evidence to suggest biofuels were not primary contributors to the global food crisis and that it was also not correct to suggest that biofuels were responsible for an expansion of agricultural land into wildlife habitat and the loss of biodiversity.
This evidence is, obviously, from the industry itself in the same way as someone wanted to persuade – for lack of another word – the Green (Living) Review that biofuels were fine and had no impact on the food resources. That particular correspondent also was from the industry.
The organisation cited research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the US Department of Agriculture, which showed that there was significant global capacity to expand agricultural land use without jeopardising land use for forest or other sensitive environmental ecosystems.
The advertising standards authority accepted these arguments but countered that the UK government's Gallagher Review considered biofuel production would result in net greenhouse emissions and loss of biodiversity through habitat destruction in the period to 2020 unless improved policies were put in place to ensure biofuel production targeted idle or marginal land.
The EU is currently working on the development of such land use policies, but the ASA concluded that until they are in place and fully adopted the impact of increased demand for energy crops on deforestation and food production meant it is misleading to refer to them as sustainable.
The other side of biofuels, especially as regards to bio-diesel, is that it is reckoned to be more polluting than the oil-based fuels they are supposed to replace, and this also with regards to the emission of so-called greenhouse gases. And still they are trying to persuade us all that this is the better option.
I must say it is beginning to appear that we are trading the fossil oil lobby for the biofuels lobby and the latter seems to be as bad as the former, if not even getting worse than that.
The problem is that the biofuels lobby, from a variety of sides, is doing a great job at greenwashing and browbeating of people, trying to make everyone believe that they have the environment at heart and are working to ease climate change. Nothing could be further from the truth as far as most of them are concerned. They have a vested interested and that interest is money, at least as far as the big companies are concerned and let's face it, the big petrochemical companies are jumping on the bandwagon and are very vociferous. There is money to be made here and lots of it, and the governments are giving grants for biofuels left, right and center. Nice work if you can get it.
It is my belief that we should look at a completely different alternative to the ICE, the infernal combustion engine, and therefore could do away with the need for such fuels and this ongoing discussion on this matter as to harm or not harm done by biofuels.
Bio-diesel produced from waste cooking oil in one thing or cars run on gas produced from waste, but to actually grow crops that are to be turned into a diesel or a gasoline replacement on land that would be much better used for the growing of foods is not only not sustainable but it is a crime.
Many of the crops that are grown for turning into biofuels in fact are food crops, such as maize, for instance, or sugar cane as well, and sugar cane is being grown in land stolen from the rainforests, the latter which we need so urgently to keep the climate balanced.
The first motorcars were not designed to be run on gasoline, for instance, but on methane gas, and we sure have lots of that.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
<>
Santa Fe Woman Singled Out for Environmental Leadership
Honoree Receives Audubon/Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship
New York, NY – A Santa Fe, New Mexico woman is the recipient of a new national fellowship designed to advance the work of individuals with outstanding potential to help shape a brighter environmental future.
Avery Anderson is one of only 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota. Fellows receive specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work and share best practices with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with project outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive $10,000 towards a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contributing to greater environmental health.
For her fellowship, Anderson will focus her efforts on the restoration of a degraded section of the Dry Cimarron River in northeastern New Mexico. She plans to help improve both water quality and supply through on-site volunteer workshops that reach out to the local ranching community.
The Coordinator of The Quivira Coalition’s Conservation and Ranch Leadership and Youth (CARLY) program has been involved in a wide range of conservation efforts before choosing to focus on organizing ranchers and conservationists. After working as a field assistant for the Wyoming Wolf Project and as a field researcher in Kenya’s Amboseli - Tsavo West ecosystem, Anderson became interested in studying not only wildlife, but people’s interactions with wildlife and the environment as a whole. That led her to work as a children’s environmental science teacher at the Urban Resources Institute, as the lead instructor for incoming Yale Forestry & Environmental Studies graduate students in New Haven, CT, and ultimately to her current role in Santa Fe. At The Quivira Coalition she uses her skills and experience to help develop leadership skills in the field of land conservation.
“Avery is the kind of person who can make a real difference in the health of our environment and the quality of our future,” said Audubon President John Flicker. “Each of our TogetherGreen Fellows demonstrates exceptional environmental understanding and commitment, combined with tremendous potential to inspire and lead others. Together, they represent the talented and diverse leadership the environmental community will need to tackle the huge challenges and opportunities confronting us now and in the years to come.”
“I feel very privileged to have been selected as a TogetherGreen Fellow, and know that the support of Audubon and Toyota will be a great asset to my restoration project on the Dry Cimarron River,” said Anderson. “The Quivira Coalition and I are eager to engage a diverse audience with this project, and look forward to meeting new folks at our upcoming river restoration workshops.”
Anderson received a Masters from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Her Master’s project, which focused on establishing a dialogue about the carnivore-livestock conflict in Wyoming, will be published in a book entitled, “Large Carnivores, People and Governance.” She graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in Geoarcheology.
“Toyota believes in the power of grassroots efforts to develop the environmental leaders of tomorrow,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, Group Vice President, Toyota Motor North America. “These 40 TogetherGreen Fellows will receive invaluable training for the future while immediately making a difference today with on-the-ground community projects.”
A complete list of TogetherGreen fellows can be found online at www.TogetherGreen.org/fellows.
<>
Managing your woodlot
by Michael Smith
In this current climate in Europe with the demand for firewood being at an all-time high anyone who has the slightest idea how to manage the woodlots on his property can make quite some money.
Many people in Britain and also elsewhere do have their own little or even not so little woodlots on their property but have no idea as to how to mange it for their own benefit and also for profit, as far as firewood and such are concerned.
In addition to that there are farms that have quite a bit of woodland, even to such an extent that those plots of woodland are being used for shooting and such like. Very often, however, the tress are left to their own devices, so to speak, and no real management is being undertaken.
The same, in a way, is true for wooded parks, municipal or otherwise, where trees that have fallen are, unless the pose a danger, left where they have fallen to just rot away.
In other cases, where trees are cut in countryside management and municipal and public parks the trees are often cut into lengths and then left as “habitat piles” laying about higgldy-piggledy piled up. This is lazy forestry practice in fact despite the claims that it is “for the wildlife”.
In years gone by when people has Estovers rights and such like and even when it was no longer used in such ways woods and forests – including parks – did not have any of such debris left laying about and neither were logs left, and still wildlife thrives. More at times, it would seem, that today with the “habitat piles”.
Many forestry authorities are now advising against such “habitat piles” and that for more than one reason. The main reason being that those higgledy-piggledy left piles cause diseases to spread amongst the trees and therefore the advice is no to build proper “habitat piles” where the logs are sunk into the ground some way. That, however, requires time and effort.
The other reason is that trees left to rot in the woods and forests are a CO2 hazard, do to speak, for int heir decaying process the wood that is left to rot releases the CO2 that it has absorbed during its growing process. Fart better, therefore, to use the wood, even if it is just for firewood. The release of CO2 if the same but the heating with wood is carbon-neutral.
Also to be considered is that during he decaying process of the wood left laying about not only CO2 is set free but also a much more dangerous greenhouse gas, namely methane. This does not occur when the wood is burned.
So, instead of leaving the wood to die out there in the bush it is time to bring it in and turn it into an income, even if it be just a small one, whether for a farm or a municipal and public park or those that manage the countryside areas.
With the current demand for firewood for homes and – it could soon be – power stations we cannot afford to leave wood too rot out there.
If the right methods be applied some of the country's heating needs and those of power stations could be met by that wood which no one wants for anything else or which has no other market.
The issue of the Dutch Elm Disease in Britain could also be solved – to a great extent if not entirely – by removing all dead and dying elm trees and burning the wood in homes or better still power stations. The reason I recommend power stations here is because the wood then is not going to sit on someone's porch or in someone's yard at home for the beetle to mature and swarm and infect further trees with the pathogen that the, inadvertently, carry about.
Within less than a generation, if done correctly, the Dutch Elm Disease could, I am convinced, be overcome, if the above be employed. Other diseases too could be dealt with in this way, e.g. felling the diseased trees and burning the wood.
This is a case of killing two birds with one stone: removing – hopefully – the disease and providing carbon-neutral energy.
From the woodland owner's side this, obviously, does require some more work than just leaving things to fall and then in situ as they are. It requires the active cutting and bringing in of the wood and then preparing and selling it. The reward, however, could and should be grater here than the outlay, in finances and time.
It can be done because it used to be done. We have but become lazy in our management of woods over the years as, to some extent, the market for firewood was not there and the demand was rather low, and also as we were told in woodland management by certain people with little knowledge who thought that they knew it all to leave the wood as “habitat piles”. This, however, has caused more problems than that it did good; something that anyone with just half and ounce of brain could and should have seen coming.
If you leave diseased wood out there to rot down then you will spread the disease to other trees. This is so obvious but those misguided environmentalists who thought that they knew it all did not care about the trees and the possible income from those; all they cared about was invertebrates and such like needing a place to be.
What did they think those creatures did before when all woods and forests were managed properly, including for firewood and very little debris was lost? They lived quite well on the forest floor without human interference of giving them piles of wood to chew.
We cannot afford this practice, and in fact never could, for it caused disease to spread. Today, however, we can afford this even less for it is not beneficial for anyone, not at least the environment, that we import firewood from as far field as Poland to satisfy the need in Britain, especially as we here waste such wood.
It is most urgent that we manage our own woodlots, whether on farms or elsewhere, in such a way that they benefit us all.
The use of firewood is, as I have said before, carbon neutral as the wood only releases the amount of carbon that it accumulated during its growth. The same carbon is also released while the wood is a “habitat pile”. So not all that good for the environment, is it now.
Much better, therefore, to burn the wood and to have carbon neutral energy rather that to waste it by letting it rot in the woods.
Managing woodlots for firewood, especially if only dealing with dying and fallen timber, is not rocket science and the market is out there, at least presently, for firewood, and if we keep on at the right people the market may even get bigger as time goes by, especially when everyone realizes the facts about carbon neutrality of firewood.
This does only, though, really work, as to locally harvested firewood and not too that that has been imported from nearly as far afield as Russia. That is not a sustainable way to go. Using homegrown wood, on the other hand, is.
While I have been addressing here the British market, the lesson applies also for other countries. I do know that in other countries this seems too be understood far better than in Britain, such as in those of Europe and especially in the USA and Canada, but still there are some people who have little idea of how to get people to buy firewood because some see the smoke as an issue, as far as being “green” is concerned. However, the carbon neutrality of firewood is what should be considered by all of us; the smoke is something that is secondary and negligible, especially as far as untreated natural wood is concerned.
So, let's hear it for local firewood.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
<>
Love Food, Hate Waste – Shopping
by Michael Smith
According to the Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP), a quasi-government operation in the UK, more than one third of all food that is bought by British households ends us as waste.
Often this is due because of people simply not understanding how to store this food, especially fresh produce, whether fruit or vegetables, including potatoes, carrots, etc. and also people seem to assume that a carrot must be thrown away when it has become a little black in places or a potato when it has developed shoots; neither of which is the case.
Another thing that people seem to assume is that the “best before” date means that if it a day or two or such “out of date” it means that the food can no longer be used for human consumption and hence has too be disposed off. In most case that too is a fallacy.
One way, maybe, of reducing the amount of food that we waste in our households would be to shop for food, especially for fresh produce, whether vegetables or fruit, on a daily basis and only to buy as much as we need on the day or the next day, rather than do a weekly shop as most of us do.
But, who has the time to do this, nowadays, where in most families both father and mother go out to work and where there are also many single person households where it is also not always possible to go shopping on a daily basis.
Those of us who have that possibility of getting our produce on a daily basis, whether from a greengrocers, a farmer's market or even the fresh produce section of a supermarket,, should consider themselves blessed in this way, as they really have a great way of cutting down on the food that they waste.
In addition to that, and we have talked about this before, there is the need for many to learn and relearn proper cooking as regards to what to do with leftovers and also to learn proper ways of storing produce.
Lakeland, as we have seen in another article, has developed some storage bags for a variety of produce and I am just, at this moment, putting the Potato Bag through its paces and the way things are looking after a week of having potatoes in them is that the bag is doing a great job.
On the other hand, while it is easy to buy such storage bags and such, when it comes to potato storage, and that of most root crops, all that is required is a frost-free dark place and the crops to be stored in a canvas or burlap sack. Much like the sacks that, in the olden days, potatoes came in.
There is a source of such sacks that often is free even and that are pet shops where some feed stuffs, such as nuts, come in burlap sacks or Hessian sacks and those will hold about 2-5kg of potatoes, depending on their size. Those sacks are very often thrown away by the storekeepers, so it is well worth inquiring as they can also be used for a variety of other tasks.
There is no need, if you have the time to inquire and a friendly store or two about, to buy any special storage bags but then again, at a retail price of a little over £5 for the Potato Bag from Lakeland that also is hardly an issue, especially when it comes to keeping food fresh.
The old-timers sure had their ways but some of those, obviously, are not suitable for the urbanites and suburbanites amongst us who do not have a garden where to grown and then put up potatoes for the winter in clamps. So, other storage methods need to be found and keeping potatoes in bags in the dark and away from frost is something that can be done, for starters. And this can be achieved buy purchasing such bags from vendors or to get some freebies and DIY.
The proper storage more often than not is the deciding factor as to how well food keeps at our homes and hence the factor as to how much food – and with it money – we waste.
Waste not, want not, I was told as a child and that has always stayed with me. Still as valid today as it was then in the 1960s.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
<>
Dayton Man Singled Out for Environmental Leadership
Honoree Receives Audubon/Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship
New York, NY —A Dayton, Ohio man is the recipient of a new national fellowship designed to advance the work of individuals with outstanding potential to help shape a brighter environmental future.
Tom Hissong is one of only 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota. Fellows receive specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work and share best practices with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with project outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive $10,000 towards a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contributing to greater environmental health.
For his fellowship, Hissong will focus his efforts on piloting a new project named Plan-it Green that will engage students, teachers, and parents from Kiser Elementary School in Dayton, Ohio with challenging educational experiences focused on the planet. Students will participate in multiple field trips, conservation actions and scientific investigations at the Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm north of Dayton. Through simple action projects like monitoring use of paper towels in classrooms / restrooms and investigating ways to reduce waste during lunch, students will become environmental stewards creating measurable conservation change and help lead their teachers, families, friends and communities in becoming more environmentally-aware.
Involved in conservation efforts for 32 years, Hissong is currently the Education Coordinator for Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm. In his current role, Hissong introduced more than 20,000 children to nature and farming during the 2006-2007 school year alone – encouraging a whole new generation of environmental stewards to explore their natural environments. Previously, at the Dayton Museum of Natural History, he had the opportunity to educate thousands of students, young and old, on the natural history of their local community, through topics such as geology, trees, insects, birds, nature sketching, astronomy and many more
“Tom is the kind of person who can make a real difference in the health of our environment and the quality of our future,” said Audubon President John Flicker. “Each of our TogetherGreen Fellows demonstrates exceptional environmental understanding and commitment, combined with tremendous potential to inspire and lead others. Together, they represent the talented and diverse leadership the environmental community will need to tackle the huge challenges and opportunities confronting us now and in the years to come.”
“I am truly honored to be selected for the Audubon/Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship and am excited about using my new conservation leadership skills in my home community.” said Tom. “I hope that I can be the spark that ignites a passion to protect and nurture our natural world in young students, just like someone did for me when I was young. My goal for this project is to take students with little knowledge about the natural world, lead them to a sense of wonder and excitement for the natural world, to conservation action on behalf of the natural world and the environment that sustains us.”
Hissong has been affiliated with Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm and Park District since 1994. Half of the TogetherGreen fellows come from within Audubon’s far-reaching national network; half channel their environmental efforts through other organizations.
He received his Bachelors degree in environmental education from The Ohio State University. A dedicated environmental educator, Hissong received the 2007 Tamar Chotzen Audubon Educator of the Year Award.
“Toyota believes in the power of grassroots efforts to develop the environmental leaders of tomorrow,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, Group Vice President, Toyota Motor North America. “These 40 TogetherGreen Fellows will receive invaluable training for the future while immediately making a difference today with on-the-ground community projects.”
A complete list of the 2008 TogetherGreen fellows can be found at www.TogetherGreen.org/fellows.
<>
Don't waste sewage – it is a valuable resource
by Michael Smith
The way we treat sewage needs to undergo a revolution on the same scale as we have seen attitudes change to household rubbish and industrial waste.
This was, basically, the core message of an event hosted by consultants Aqua Enviro in January 2009.
While the value of most other resources is widely recognized now, in the UK and elsewhere, we tend to have a devil-may-care attitude to water consumption in the UK, perhaps in part due to the climate.
The current wastewater treatment regime does almost exactly what it says on the tin - it wastes water.
Aqua Enviro's Dr Nigel Horan told delegates at the event that while technology may have moved on, there has been no real change in the way we look at sewage for generations.
We need to look at sewage as a resource, rather than a waste product to be simply got rid of, he said.
He said that the the system of treating our sewerage was put in place in Victorian times and had a function - to get solids off the street because people were dropping down dead from diseases.
The very thought of the way sewerage was disposed and treated before that just makes one cringe, if not more. No wonder we were having diseases run rampant in Britain.
"We've done that quite effectively but we've not had much in the way of innovation for the past hundred years."
He argued that water companies were not just throwing money away, they were paying to throw money away.
More water metering, widespread use of sludge in energy-from-waste generation and the extraction of marketable chemicals would all help realize the true value of wastewater, he said.
A case in point is phosphorus, he said, a chemical found in abundance in raw effluent with a market demand is on the doorstep.
"Fertilizer manufacturers in this country can only meet about 40% of the demand each year because they don't have the phosphorous," he said.
"There's enough phosphorous in wastewater to meet the whole of the demand."
The industry needs transforming, he said, and we need to tap into the resources that are currently being horribly wasted.
Another thing that no one seems to talk about is the fact that sewerage contains methane as a gas and that this could be extracted to heat homes and businesses and to run electricity generating plants, ideally on a local level.
Currently, at most, if not indeed all, wastewater treatment plants methane is flared off and a most valuable resource is being wasted. Instead it could be used to power a local power plant.
Such suggestions in Britain, though, would, no doubt, bring out the NIMBY brigade again and nothing like that could ever be implemented, which is rather sad.
When we are talking about methane, the sewerage gas, the self-same gas is also being released by all landfill sites and in the UK in most cases this is being vented off or flared off and it is not utilized yet again.
Are we going to learn some day?
© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
<>
Ethical at Pure London
by Michael Smith
Ethical women's (and it was not just women's) clothing and fashion accessories at Pure London Show have been seen here for the first time this year in early February.
Though not as yet a large collection of ethical clothing and fashion accessories, what was on show was a great quality and some of it extremely interesting. Kashmere and other wools were in evidence, as well as organic and ethically produced cotton clothes.
In the accessories range a number of the shoe companies stood out in my view and also the company that makes curtains, handbags, wallets and even baseball caps from cork. In fact a lot, lot more that what I have just listed.
The question, obviously, is as to whether the buyers of the hight street stores, boutiques, and others are ready to buy into the ethical bit. We can but hope that they will for there is lots of nice stuff there, and, obviously, there is much more than what was showing at Pure London.
Some part of me believes that it may still be some time before the High Street will completely by into the ethical and green issue and especially brands. However, if it is what the consumer demands then, I am sure that they will. They just have to.
But, if the seminars by the Ethical Fashion Forum were anything to go by then the message may already be getting across for they were extremely busy and packed out to some extent. A good thins that, methinks, and it would point to a definite hunger out there amongst buyers and traders to learn more about ethical, as that is, it would appear, what the consumer demands.
A good range of ethically produced and sourced products were to be seen at especially the Ethical Pure accessories and also some interesting ranges at the Ethical Pure clothing section.
I would hope though that that soon more ethical and green designers, labels and brands will be represented at Pure London in the future, and not so so distant one either.
Some of the prices also – especially of some of the items I saw – were also not exorbitant; far from it in fact. This is very good to see as regards to ethical fashion, etc. Normally we find, do we not, that as soon as the label “ethical” or “eco” or “green” is attached the price rises about fourfold.
I am going to stick my neck out here with a sort of prediction and that is that I believe that people will, despite the recession and depression, for I firmly believe we are headed for the latter if we have not already arrived there, instead of taking holidays abroad and easting out that much, buy nice ethical clothes in the same way as I believe that people will make use of the their gardens more instead of holidaying abroad.
I shall try to obtain some samples from some of the companies that I saw and I shall bring the reviews in this here journal as and when.
Hopefully one should be forthcoming for sure and that is some great and green shoes that were shown, which are made of mostly recycled materials.
One sample came our way directly and that is an Envirosax and I shall be reviewing this here in due course.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank all the staff in the press office for their help and attention given freely and generously.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
<>
Local Educator Singled Out for Environmental Leadership
Honoree Receives Audubon/Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship
New York, NY —An environmental educator from Tacoma, Washington is the recipient of a new national fellowship for individuals with outstanding potential to help shape a brighter environmental future.
Stephanie Swaim is one of only 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota. Fellows receive specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work and share best practices with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with project outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive $10,000 towards a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contributing to greater environmental health.
Swaim will focus her efforts on engaging and educating middle-school students at Fort Lewis Army Base through an after-school program called Osprey Club. The youth will volunteer in conservation efforts, working on ecology projects run by the Tahoma Audubon Society that include clean-up projects and wildlife studies. They will also serve as mentors to younger kids in the elementary schools and daycares on base. Swaim hopes to involve 50 students in the program’s first year – resulting in 1,000 hours of volunteer work and a group of students who can serve as environmental leaders in their schools and communities.
Swaim has been involved in conservation efforts for ten years and is currently the Education Coordinator for the Tahoma Audubon Society. Swaim has proven herself to be a dedicated and innovative environmental educator, who is determined to make nature accessible to all kids. As coordinator of the JASON Project at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, she built a district-wide science education program for over 8,500 middle-school students. Swaim has led programs at nature centers around the country, including the New England Aquarium and the Florida Keys Ocean Science Center.
“Stephanie is the kind of person who can make a real difference in the health of our environment and the quality of our future,” said Audubon President John Flicker. “Each of our TogetherGreen Fellows demonstrates exceptional environmental understanding and commitment, combined with tremendous potential to inspire and lead others. Together, they represent the talented and diverse leadership the environmental community will need to tackle the huge challenges and opportunities confronting us now and in the years to come.”
“I'm excited to be a part of this first cohort of conservation leaders,” said Swaim. “We are an Audubon chapter that was built on the passion of our volunteers to create a community of educated nature-advocates. I'm happy to be able to continue to build out educational programming to include our military families, who make up such a large part of our community.”
“Stephanie is a great asset to the community and to Tahoma Audubon,” said Bryan Flint, Executive Director of Tahoma Audubon Society. “We are proud that her vision and talents are being recognized and supported.”
Swaim has been affiliated with Tahoma Audubon Society since January 2008. Half of the TogetherGreen fellows come from within Audubon’s far-reaching national network; half channel their environmental efforts through other organizations.
Swaim received a Masters degree in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island and a Bachelors degree in biology from Mount Holyoke College. In addition to her current duties for Audubon, Swaim is a certified Wilderness First Responder.
“Toyota believes in the power of grassroots efforts to develop the environmental leaders of tomorrow,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, Group Vice President, Toyota Motor North America. “These 40 TogetherGreen Fellows will receive invaluable training for the future while immediately making a difference today with on-the-ground community projects.”
A complete list of the 2008 TogetherGreen fellows can be found at www.TogetherGreen.org/fellows.
<>
