One semester down, two more to go!
I apologize for the lack of posts in the past few months. Things have been really busy with school, learning lots and writing tons (some of which I will be posting here later).
I wanted to share this interesting TED talk about the MPAs in Kiribati. Very cool.
An interesting video about pink salmon and sea lice. Click on the link below to watch the video and visit the website at: http://www.watershed-watch.org/sealice.html
Watershed Watch - Sea Lice
Today I found a really interesting website called 'Off the Hook'. It is a group of people based in Nova Scotia who have taken initiative to create a Community Supported Fishery. If you live in Halifax you can invest in a share of the 'Off the Hook' catch to help support to local fishers, coastal communities, and a low-impact fishing method. The money that you pay goes directly to the fishing co-op, which pays the fishers a fair price for their catch. And in exchange you receive fresh sustainably caught fish each week for 8 weeks!
To learn more about Off the Hook, or to sign up to get your share for the fall season check out their website at: http://www.offthehookcsf.ca
As oil continues to pump out into the Gulf of Mexico, I feel as though the news casters are becoming tired of reporting on the disaster. Today I found a great site Save our Gulf. It provides up to date information about the spill and what is happening in and around the Gulf.
This past weekend I watched a few movies that were part of the Green Film Festival in Seoul (GFFIS). I was thrilled when I heard about the festival and was even more excited when I saw the list of some of the films that would be featured. It was a pretty rainy weekend here in Seoul so it made for a perfect day (and night) sitting inside a cozy theatre watching some green movies.
During the afternoon we saw 'Greenlit' and a collection of shorts: Ice Blossoms, Let`s Pollute, How to Destroy the World - Rubbish -Transport, Skylight, and The Bill. All in all I really enjoyed all of the shorts, especially the 'How to Destroy the World' clips; however, I cannot say the same for 'Greenlit'. This movie solidified my belief that Hollywood is run by a bunch of nitwits, whose only concern is the almighty dollar as well as creating a false sense of security and pacifism within its target audience, which in most cases I believe to be ALL of North America. At some points during the film I got so angry at the frustratingly oblivious narrator, Miranda Bailey (executive producer of The SQUID AND THE WHALE) that I found myself talking to the screen in the crowded theatre.
Here is the synopsis of the movie that is offered on the GIFFS website: Movie people are legendarily liberal and left leaning, particularly when it comes to the environment. GREENLIT puts their commitment to the test as filmmaker Miranda Bailey (executive producer of The SQUID AND THE WHALE) follows the production of THE RIVER WHY, starring Zach Gilford (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) as it attempts to keep an environmentally friendly set thanks to the supervision of a "green" consultant. What starts off with great enthusiasm quickly devolves in this insightful and hilarious film.
I would like to know who wrote this synopsis and at what point did they think this movie was hilarious. And the only insightful part of this film is that it shows us how arrogant and ignorant these movie companies (and the people that work for them) really are.
At the end this movie I felt the defeat and frustration of the 'environmental consultant', who's love for the environment had her knee deep in a compost dumpster after a crew member mixed in packing peanuts with the bag of compost... not quite hilarious.
The second movie that we saw was 'Sweet Crude', which was a really powerful and insightful film. The focus of the film is the Niger Delta and the environmental and economic destruction of its surroundings due to the oil extraction that has been taking place over the past 50 years. This film feels very intimate because it is made up of the personal stories of struggle of the villagers from Oporoza and their determination to have their voices heard. We are presented with the greed and corruption of the government that has tried to silence the voice of its people, which has only made them fight back with more force. This is an important film, especially in the wake of the BP disaster that has taken place in the Gulf of Mexico. As North Americans we could not believe that the BP disaster was allowed to take place and that the company should be responsible for the cleaning - now think about living alongside a waterway that has had the same amount of oil pollution, but for 50 consecutive years with no one taking responsibility and the government allowing it to continue. Scary.
Visions of Green and Blue has made it to its one year anniversary!
Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all those people out there who continue to visit and read!
I will soon begin a new adventure, leaving Korea and moving back to Canada to start a graduate program in Environment and Resource Management. So I am sure that the program will fuel me with lots of interesting things to share here!
Thanks again for reading :)
-Kait
On April 20th a massive blast on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig began a raging fire and caused 11 workers to go missing. On April 22nd the rig sunk and has since caused a major oil spill that continues to grow and spread with each passing day. It is estimated that the ruptured well is spewing 200,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day. On Friday oil began washing up on Louisiana shores threatening pristine habitats, fisheries, and the livelihoods of the local residents. Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi have declared a State of Emergency and have dispatched clean-up crews. Strong winds and waves are making the 'cleanup' difficult with some environmental groups claiming that if BP manages to cleanup 20% of the leaked oil it would be miracle. What is truly frightening is that because the US does not require the oil companies to install pricey fail safe systems, their blowout preventer failed and now they do not know how to stop the spill of oil. BP sent robotic submarines 1,5000 meters down to try to cap the leaks; however, it did not work and now they have warned that it may take several months to stop the flow of oil. At this rate BP could overtake Exxon Valdez which is the worst recorded oil spill in US history.
Perhaps this is the environmental disaster that the US needs to help it steer away from fossil fuels and begin focusing on environmentally safe forms of energy.
Click here to view a collection of news reports about the BP oil spill.
The Amazon rainforest faces yet another challenge...
Al Jazeera English - Americas - Brazil dam tender triggers protest
(The following article was taken from Al Jazeera English)
Brazil dam tender triggers protest
The Belo Monte threatens livelihoods of tens of thousands of Brazilian Indians [AFP]
Environmentalists in Brazil are protesting against the awarding of a tender for a controversial hydroelectric project.
Around 500 activists of Greenpeace, the environment group, dumped three tonnes of manure in front of the National Electric Energy Agency's offices in Brasilia, where the tender was speedily awarded on Tuesday.
The government launched the bidding process to begin construction of the Belo Monte dam after successfully appealing against a suspension order.
The tender was awarded to Norte Energia, a consortium led by a subsidiary of Electrobras, the state electricity company, after a series of court injunctions that had blocked and unblocked the auction process.
Opponents of the dam construction said they would not be deterred by the awarding of the tender.
Renata Pinheiro, of the Xingu Vivo movement, said: "We will not be discouraged, we will continue to demonstrate."
The protesters said said they plan to occupy some of the 500sq km of the Amazon rainforest land that Greenpeace estimates would be flooded by the Belo Monte dam.
Livelihoods threatened
Indigenous groups and environmental activists have staged several demonstrations in recent weeks, saying the dam is ecologically irresponsible.
They also say it will threaten the livelihood of 12,000 families, most of them Brazilian Indians living on the banks of the Xingu river that would feed the facility.
IN DEPTH
"We, the indigenous, demand justice and respect," read one placard carried by protesters in front of the National Electric Energy Agency's offices.
The regional justice ministry in the state of Para tried to stall tenders for the project in a ruling, calling the dam "an affront to environmental laws".
It said too many questions remained over how the dam would affect flora and fauna in the region, and what would become of the families who would have to be relocated.
But the project has been defended by the local population who hope to benefit from the estimated 18,000 and 80,000 direct and indirect jobs the government says the project will create.
Energy boost
The government has insisted the dam is essential to its plan to boost energy production in Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy.
For a construction cost of $11.2bn, Belo Monte is expected to be able to produce 11,000 megawatts, which could supply 20 million homes with power.
The dam would be the third-biggest in the world, after China's Three Gorges facility, and Brazil's Itaipu dam in the south.
A Greenpeace spokesman said the government should have used other possible energy sources such as wind power, biomass or solar.
Hydroelectric energy accounts for 73 per cent of the energy produced in Brazil.
I am sure that most of you have already heard the disappointing news regarding the rejection of the proposal to ban the export of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, but I thought I should write a quick post about it for anyone who is still in the dark.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival (http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.shtml).
On March 18th 2010, CITES rejected the proposal to protect Bluefin tuna. Japan, who imports 80% of the tuna played a big part in the rejection of the proposal. Many of the poorer fishing nations followed in Japan's shadow claiming that the ban would devastate their economies.
Japan and some of the other fishing nations also claim that CITES should not play a role in regulating marine species. This notion entrenches the idea that marine species are not animals and that they do not deserve the same protection as land animals. However, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICATT) who is supposed to be in charge of regulating tuna has let the tuna down time and time again. The most recent let down came in November when ICCAT reduced quotas from 19,500 to 13,500when the ICCAT scientist recommended placing a ban on Bluefin Tuna fisheries. (see previous post regarding ICCAT November decision).
This seems like the last nail in the coffin for Bluefin Tuna. Certain governments have been blinded by short term profit and have failed to take into account the science that has been provided or the long term effects of such aggressive fishing practices. All of this has put Bluefin Tuna on the path to extinction, and it seems as though it will come much sooner than we thought.
Click here for a GreenPeace article regarding CITES decision.
I found this talk really interesting. Dan Barber, a chef from New York state discusses the sustainability of two different types of farmed fish.
If you live in the US or the UK eating sustainably caught seafood in restaurants just for a lot easier. Charles Clover the author of The End of the Line has created a new rating system based on the effects the restauarants are having on the ocean: " The fish2fork rating system is designed to inform customers whether a restaurant is doing all it can to serve sustainable seafood and reduce its impact on our oceans at a time when overfishing is perhaps the greatest threat to marine life on 70 per cent of the planet’s surface."
When I was a child my mother managed a bookstore, needless to say our house was (and continues to be) full of books. As I grew up I felt the need to build my own personal library with books that I love; however, now when I look at the piles of books that I have purchased over the years I can't help but feel guilty. All of my books (which cost a fortune to move everytime I relocate myself) now represent the millions of trees that are cut down to make books, magazines, and newspapers.
Most books are made from virgin (non-recycled) paper and most magazines are made from coated virgin magazine paper. When you think about the numbers things begin to seem a little bit clearer:
- 1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
- 1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
- 1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)
- 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets. (info from conserveatree)
With these numbers I began thinking about the school that I currently work at and how on average we go through about 2 reams of paper per day. Two reams of paper per day means 10 reams of paper per week, which means 520 reams of paper per year. 520 reams of paper is roughly 31 trees per year! 31 trees and that is only for copy paper, the number would continue to climb if I added in tissue, paper towel, toilet paper, and all of the arts and craft supplies. 31 trees, and this only a small school of around 70 children, I can only imagine what a large school would go through!
So with all of this in mind I have decided to limit my purchases of new books and try to borrow as many as possible from friends and my local library (which is a little difficuly as I live in Korea and the English section is quite small). If I cannot borrow a specific book that I am looking for I then make my way to a used bookstore, where I don't feel quite as guilty making a purchase. And I have been thinking more and more about buying an e-reader something like the 'nook' which can store up to 1,500 books. There are also options that you can look at to help reduce your impact on the earth when it comes to purchasing books. Companies like Eco-Libris are trying to balance out books by planting trees and supporting green books. All you have to do is visit the website buy some stickers to put on your books and for each sticker you purchase they will plant a tree.
I read a really interesting article today on 'Futurism Now' . It's particularly interesting to me because it involves a Green Energy deal between the country that I have been living in for the past year and a half and the Canadian province that I grew up in.
Taken from 'Futurism Now':
25 January 2010 – The Ontario government has just signed an agreement that will (reportedly) bring more green energy and new jobs to Ontario, Canada.
A consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) will invest CAD$7 billion (£4.12 Billion) to generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power. These projects will triple Ontario’s output from renewable wind and solar sources and provide clean electricity to more than 580,000 households. The investment will also lead to more than 16,000 new green energy jobs to build, install and operate the renewable generation projects.
QUICK FACTS
More than 1,200 megawatts of new renewable projects, representing CAD$2.8 billion (£1.65 billion) of investment, have started up in Ontario since 2003.
$7-Billion (£4.12 Billion) Investment Means Green Energy and 16,000 New Jobs For Ontario, Canada
Ontario is Canada’s leading province in wind and solar power.
The Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.
CO2 emissions from coal-fired power generation are 73 per cent lower than 2003 levels, with four more units coming offline in fall, 2010.
Why aren’t more deals like this being made in the U.S.?
The Korean consortium will also work with major partners to attract four manufacturing plants. This will lead to the creation of 1,440 manufacturing and related jobs building wind and solar technology for use in Ontario and export across North America.
The consortium fully intends to use Ontario-made steel in its renewable energy projects, such as constructing its wind turbine towers.
This is the single-largest investment in renewable energy in provincial history. The consortium chose Ontario because the province’s Green Energy Act guarantees stable rates for renewable energy.
“Thanks to today’s announcement, we will be delivering more green energy for Ontarians to use — and more green energy products for North America to buy. With this step, Ontario is becoming the place to be for green energy manufacturing in North America,” said Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario.
“We commend Ontario for creating a welcoming climate for green energy investment. Samsung takes pride in its global efforts to support a more sustainable future and looks forward to working with Ontario residents and businesses to create clean, green power,” said Sung-Ha Chi, President and CEO, Samsung C&T Corporation.
“This is an exciting opportunity to help create new manufacturing facilities and be on the cutting edge of an emerging renewable energy supply sector in Ontario,” said Chan-Ki Jung, Executive Vice-President, Korea Electric Power Corporation.
Lovetta Conto is a sixteen year old who fled her home country of Liberia to Ghana to escape civil war. While growing up in a refugee camp Lovetta met Cori Stern, the founder of Strongheart Fellowship, which is a "social-entrepreneurship program designed to help bright, resilient young people from extremely challenging circumstances around the globe develop into compassionate, innovative problem-solvers and leaders that can affect significant social change".
Photo: Carolyn Cole, LA Times, 2003
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