Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

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U.S. To Build World’s Largest Solar-Power Plant

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

China may be in the lead when it comes to investing in renewable energy, but the U.S. is about to take a 1,000 megawatt leap.

  • The Obama administration just approved a permit allowing a $6 billion solar thermal plant to be built on federal land in a California desert.
  • Solar thermal energy production isn’t the same as photovoltaic solar panels. The plant works by using mirrors to direct sunlight into a tube, where its heat generates steam and moves turbines.
  • The company building the plant, Solar Trust of America, intends to start construction immediately to take advantage of government incentives for renewable energy projects before the year ends.

Facts & Figures

  • This plant, along with 8 others recently approved by the CA Energy Commission, will produce enough power to sustain 800,000 homes.
  • CA law requires all state utilities generate 1/3 of their power from renewable energy by 2020.
  • Solar Trust estimates that this project alone will create 7,600 jobs.

Chicken Gas Chambers For Humanity

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

If nobody wants to be reminded that their chicken was slaughtered before arriving in the supermarket, then how can chicken producers advertise their new “humane” slaughtering process?

  • Your typical chicken arrives at the slaughterhouse on a truck. It’s plucked from its cage and hung upside-down with its legs shackled to a rail that takes it first to an electrical stunner, and then to a machine that slits its throat and bleeds it to death.
  • But electrical stunners aren’t perfect, and the ethics of hanging already-stressed live chickens upside-down for the last minutes of their lives are sketchy. So some producers are starting to use a gas-based alternative to the electrical stunner.
  • You can call it “controlled atmosphere stunning,” “sedation stunning,” or “slow induction anesthesia,” but the new method uses a carbon dioxide gas chamber to knock the birds out before they’re slaughtered, vastly reducing the stress, pain, and suffering that come with traditional methods.

Facts & Figures

  • Bell & Evans, one of the companies using the new gas-stunning method, “processes” 200,000 chickens a week.
  • Tyson Foods, which uses electrical stunners, slaughters more than 1 million chickens per week.
  • Companies in Britain and Nebraska that already use “controlled atmosphere stunning” tend not to advertise this fact on their product packaging.

Best Quote

“People don’t want to know too much. It’s hard to sell humane killing as a concept.” – Marc Cooper, Senior Scientific Manager in the Farm Animals Department of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, London

They Wanted The World To Change, So They Did It Themselves

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Ever been frustrated by how slow things are to change, when people are suffering right now? If you’re anything like the latest crop of social entrepreneurs, you may be able to turn your frustration into something much more meaningful.

  • Today’s social entrepreneurs are taking on the world’s problems a bit at a time. Their successes show that it’s not necessarily the biggest, wealthiest organizations who make the small incremental changes that matter.
  • These individuals tend to identify specific problems and then do whatever they can to meet the need. One invented microfinance. Another is focused on making menstrual supplies available where a woman’s period causes her to miss school and work. And another pressures U.S. companies to stop buying from African warlords, effectively funding terrorism and horrific violence directed at women in Congo.
  • They’re often naive at the beginning, expecting too much and consulting with local people too little. And success is never assured. But the rewards are real – both for entrepreneurs and the relatively small number of people whose lives they are changing.

Facts & Figures

  • DoSomething.org provided $100,000 to help 23-year-old Maggie Doyne build a school in Nepal.
  • Lisa Shannon carried 45,000 pennies to Intel’s headquarters, offering to pay the extra penny it would cost Intel to source their materials outside of Congo and avoid 45,000 more violent deaths at the hands of warlords.
  • $300 sends a Nepalese child to Maggie Doyne’s school, with health and dental care included.

Best Quote

“If your own children were born orphans in Nepal, you wouldn’t wait for the U.N. or the government to do something about it while they were hungry and cold and breaking rocks by the side of a riverbed.” – Maggie Doyne

Ban On Deepwater Drilling Lifted

Friday, October 15th, 2010

The ban is lifted, but it’s not business as usual for deepwater oil drillers...

  • President Obama halted deepwater drilling after a BP oil rig exploded and started dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico this summer. Now the ban is being lifted, but the oil industry will be forced to comply with new, stricter regulations before they’ll be issued permits to drill.
  • According to the oil industry, the main problem isn’t increased oversight or costs related to the new regulations – that they expected. Instead, they’re concerned that without knowing the new rules in advance, they won’t be able to plan for the profitable reopening of their drilling operations.
  • Environmentalists are worried that the ban is being lifted too soon, without proper study of what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The new rules are okay, they say, but not nearly thorough enough.

Best Quote

“The truth is, there will always be risks associated with deep-water drilling.” – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

Forget Traditional Fundraising. Let’s Grow Weed!

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Everyone had a theory about what would happen when California legalized marijuana for medical use, but growing it to fund an art foundation probably wasn’t on the list.

  • Using a small plot of land in Sonoma County, Kirsha Kaechele is experimenting with a way to fund arts programs in perpetuity by legally growing marijuana.
  • Some growers are already donating some of their profit to charities and creative causes, but Life is Art is hoping to use the marijuana farm as a consistent source of funding for a lifetime of homegrown art projects.
  • In November, California voters will consider a proposal to make marijuana legal for recreational purposes. Marijuana supporters who oppose the measure worry that expanding use will allow corporations to step in, put small growers out of business, and eliminate the potential for charitable growing.

Facts & Figures

  • Selling marijuana is still technically a crime under federal law.
  • An ounce of medical-grade marijuana sells for about $200 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • Art is Life plans to generate $1 million next year to pay for art projects based on the farm and in New Orleans.

Best Quote

“The whole game of finding support just started to seem so childish. So I decided to grow up and became a marijuana farmer.” – Kirsha Kaechele, Director of Art is Life Foundation

After Copenhagen, China Steps Back Into The Climate Change Spotlight

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

The problem is the same, but getting the world to agree on a solution is proving to be a challenge.

  • China and the United States emit more greenhouse gases than any other nations in the world, but during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, the two nations argued over who should carry more responsibility for tackling the problem.
  • After a week of similar rich-country/poor-country conflicts, Copenhagen ended without any agreement on how to address the global greenhouse gas problem. This time, China is hosting the conference and the goals are a little different: Instead of a global agreement, participants may seek smaller, more manageable deals such as corporate carbon-cutting programs.
  • The Copenhagen conference made it clear that China, though still a developing nation, is going to be front and center in the climate change debate. In addition to being the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, China is also the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy sources.

Facts & Figures

  • China’s per-capita GDP is $3,700 per year; the per capita GDP in the U.S. is $46,000.
  • Coal accounts for 80% of China’s energy production.
  • Developed nations pledged $30 billion in Copenhagen to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nearly all of which has been fulfilled.

Best Quote

“China came to understand that given the scale of the country, there’s simply no way it can hide – you’re either the leader or you will be blamed. By hosting this meeting, it sends a strong signal that China is thinking about how to play a more proactive role on the international stage.” – Yang Ailun, Greenpeace China’s Head of Climate and Energy

Changing the world from the bottom up: Rainforest Action Network Executive Director Rebecca Tarbotton

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

rebecca-tarbotton.jpg Rebecca Tarbotton, the Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, is what you would call a “well-rounded” rabble-rouser. She’s been using the power of bottom-up organizing to make real change throughout her whole career. She started off as an environmental researcher working among indigenous communities in Canada, then spent eight years working in India, where she supported traditional food and farming practices and helped a women’s farming alliance grow from seven to 4,000  members. Her mind still on agriculture, she advocated for the new local food movement in the UK and then fought the genetically-modified crop invasion in California. At RAN, she’s helped show how the environment and the economy are inextricably linked. By pressuring the companies that fund environmental destruction, she’s helped create policies that change the way corporations do business in America. If you’re not inspired already, read on.


TILE: How did you first get started in environmental activism?
Rebecca: I always knew that I wanted to make change in the world, but I started out my career working in human rights and development abroad. While I was working in India organizing with woman farmers, I realized what an impact corporations have on people and ecosystems around the world, and how profoundly important it is to give local people a say in the decisions that effect their lives and livelihoods. That realization eventually brought me to Rainforest Action Network, where we focus on moving corporations toward better environmental and human rights practices.

TILE: What is the most pressing issue that Rainforest Action Network is working on?
Rebecca: RAN believes firmly that local, community driven solutions are the only way to save the planet. That’s why we’re working with communities around the globe to keep forests standing, fossil fuels in the ground and stop climate change.

TILE: What is the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Rebecca: The tension between building targeted, strategic campaigns that can make change, and building lifelong activists and a movement that’s inclusive and incorporates people from all areas of society. While both of these are important goals, they require very different strategies and resources. RAN historically has straddled these two goals very well, and we’re always looking for ways to improve the way we work.

TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Rebecca: Don’t worry too much about what’s you’re going to be, worry about what you’re going to do. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking too much about “career” and what you want your profession to be. It’s more important to connect with your passion and your motivations which will lead you to work that you want to do in a sustainable way.

TILE: How do you think young people can play an important role in the changing landscape of philanthropy?
Rebecca: Find causes that you believe in and get involved. Don’t use philanthropy as an alternative to action. Do both. Philanthropy is action – but your philanthropy will be more meaningful if you’re engaged in the work in the world.

>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.

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Development Goals In Africa May Not Be Met By Deadline

Monday, September 20th, 2010

The U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals were created to fight poverty and stimulate economies in Africa between 2000-2015, but whether the project will be a success remains to be seen.

  • Several new reports are suggesting that U.N. Millennium Development Goals will not be met by their deadline unless leaders of both developing and developed nations step up their involvement and investment.
  • The goals for Sub-Saharan Africa, which were agreed upon by 190 countries in the U.N. in 2000, include reducing poverty, hunger, disease, and early deaths by a certain percentage by 2015.
  • There are many reasons why the initiative is in danger of failing: Donors have failed to fulfill their pledges, some African leaders have been uncooperative, and many African governments have failed to increase health spending to the mandated 15% of their gross domestic product.

Facts & Figures

  • The death rate for mothers has barely shifted since 2000.
  • The total number of people living in poverty has grown to more than 400 million.
  • The U.S. has pledged an additional $63 billion to improve healthcare in target countries, $3.5 billion for agricultural initiatives, and $30 billion to help countries prepare for global warming.

Best Quote

“Unless an urgent rescue package is developed to accelerate fulfillment of all the MDGs, we are likely to witness the greatest collective failure in history.” – Oxfam

Taking Drivers To Task For Destroying Wildlife

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Roadkill is finally acknowledged as a serious environmental and human safety issue.

  • Individuals and state-sponsored research groups are increasingly using GPS technology and the Internet to pinpoint where critters are being mowed down on America’s roads.
  • The California Roadkill Mapping System has created the first website that involves volunteers combing the roads to collect roadkill information.
  • Researchers hope to use the information for two primary purposes: to accurately assess the impact of cars on wildlife and to highlight “hot spots” that would benefit from additional signage or other preventative strategies.

Facts & Figures

  • The Humane Society estimates that 1 million animals are killed on roads each day; the Federal Highway Administration says that 1-2 million large animals are killed every year.
  • Roughly 200 people die each year as a result of hitting animals while driving.
  • There are 4 million miles of public road in the U.S., and about 258 million vehicles using those roads.

Best Quote

“For some people the only contact they have with wild animals is when they run them over,” said Fraser M. Shilling, the lead researcher on the project. “This is the first time people have been able to record roadkill online and I think it will change our understanding of what our road system is really doing to wildlife.” – Fraser M. Shilling, Lead Researcher, California Roadkill Observation System (a research project by the University of California, Davis)

Frankenstein Fish About To Be Approved For Human Consumption

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

A company called “AquAdvantage Salmon” wants people to believe its product is safe. So does the burgeoning genetically-modified food industry.

  • On September 19th, staff from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are expected to deliver a report that says AquAdvantage – a genetically-modified salmon – is as safe as regular Atlantic salmon and should be approved for human consumption in the U.S.
  • The AquAdvantage fish was created with DNA from another, eel-like fish, and added growth hormones from a different species of salmon. The resulting creature grows twice as fast as a normal Atlantic salmon.
  • Critics say the approval process doesn’t allow the public (including independent scientists) to fully understand the implications of allowing this genetically-modified fish into the U.S. food supply. They are also concerned about the potential ecological risks posed by a fish created in a lab.

Facts & Figures

  • The University of Guelph in Canada wants the FDA to approve their genetically-engineered “Enviropig,” which is purported to produce “environmentally friendly manure.”
  • The United States has already approved the cultivation of genetically-modified corn and soybean crops.

Best Quote

“If these genetically engineered salmon are approved, it will be setting worldwide precedent because salmon is a global commodity. It will be the first genetically engineered animal approved for human consumption and for wide-scale farming.” – Anne Kapuscinski, Professor at Dartmouth College and international expert on the safety of genetically modified organisms

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