Solar System Powers Donggwang Green Village on Semi-Tropical Jeju Island

Donggwang is on the western half of Jeju-do, the largest of South Korea’s semi-tropical southern islands. Near the village, Halla Mountain, a volcano and the tallest mountain in South Korea, rises from the island’s center amidst a patchwork of small farms.

Donggwang has achieved what even the most powerful countries in the world are still struggling to accomplish: total energy independence with clean technology.

On the roof of each of the 40 houses in Donggwang lies a large beds of solar panels. Even the small, local elementary school runs on free electric energy from the sun. The photovoltaic panels produce enough energy to power the entire area. Amidst cattle and fields, Donggwang is a state-of-the-art renewable energy village.

I spoke with Choo Chan Lee, who lives in Donggwang. Mr. Lee, a Seoul native, retired to Donggwang green village after operating a successful grocery store in New York for many years. He and his wife invited my in for tea to talk about the solar system and their life in Donggwang.

“Dongwang is a solar town,” Mr. Lee says. “[The solar systems] are a lot of help for us. Mine is 2.1 kW.”

In 2004, the government helped to install solar systems in Donggwang, paying 70% of the installation fees.

“They told us this is your town,” recalls Mr. Lee. “Do you wand them or not? We said that we would like them.”

When asked whether he is concerned about environmental issues, Mr. Lee replies casually, “Yeah, the environment is a very important issue. In Jeju we don’t have many factories, so the air is very nice. Very nice environment. The motto is a clean city - clean island. They’re trying to do this solar and then the windmills. My favorite part of living in Jeju is the fresh air. The clean air.”

More Posts on Solar Power:

• How Solar Panels Could Power 90% of US Transportation
• Solar Thermal Electricity: Can it Replace Coal, Gas, and Oil?
• Solar Energy Could Power U.S. Many Times Over

Photo credit (top, above): Gavin Hudson, EcoWorldly

Mother’s Day began when social activist and poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the original Mother’s Day Proclamation after the Civil War in 1870.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

This day began as a call to action, and it is only fitting this Sunday on Mother’s Day families take action on climate change and let their voices be heard.  1Sky is asking mothers and their children to create images to send to Congress urging them to remember the implications of climate change on the next generation.  The images will be compiled and be taken to DC to be displayed and given to Congress.

Mother’s Day weekend is our chance to expand the climate movement—to invite parents, young people and community groups to come together and send a powerful message that resonates with our political leaders. We all share the same cause—the welfare of future generations—and together, we can make climate action a moral imperative for our elected officials.

1Sky’s Mother’s Day events are perfect for the eco mom, who really doesn’t want gifts, but she wants change.  Finding a way to stay active with children can be challenging, as chaos and rubber bullets keeps me from taking my children to protest marches; however, we can paint or attend a Mommy Meetup.  I created an event involving hiking and photography in my community.  Even No Impact Man has joined the 1Sky Mother’s Day crusade. You can register for events or start your own event at 1Sky or email ada@1sky.org to learn more. Make your eco mom proud!  This Mother’s Day, give the best gift of all: bold action on climate change.

If the five easy steps in this video are not enough for you, then take a look at this list from Seoul’s 2008 Earth Day organizers of ten more ways to go green, Korean style.

1. Shop only for things you need
2. Create less trash
3. Eat when you are hungry, not when you’re bored
4. Try a vegetarian diet
5. Eat less “ready-made” food
6. Showering only when you need to
7. Do laundry only when you need to
8. Don’t drive a car
9. Use less electricity
10. Tell others about environmentally conscious lifestyles

Links from the video:

Roots & Shoots, USA

Roots & Shoots, Korea

ImaginePeace.or.kr

Beautiful Store

Links to Korean environmental and social interest organizations:

LOHAS Korea

Green Korea United

Friends of Asia

That would be me!  I had the honor of being featured on the Lindberg Report, a weekly podcast on Planetsave.  Of course I thought of many things to say after the interview was over, like how my class had raised steelhead in the classroom and then released them into the river, but Max is great interviewer and it was a great experience.

One recent study published in the April issue of Pediatrics suggests that answer is yes, by an amazing fifty percent less incidence of obesity. The study, called the School Nutrition Policy Initiative, was conducted at ten schools in the Philadelphia area. Five of the schools eliminated all candy from the premises, and replaced soda with water, 100 percent juice, and milk for beverages. The schools also improved the quality of food and offered nutritious snacks. Additionally, students received about fifty hours of nutrition education over the course of the year and were given some incentives toward increasing physical activity.

The results of these small changes were an impressive fifty percent reduction in obesity rates among children in grades K-8 for the experimental group. This result was particularly important since the schools selected have a mostly urban population, where the obesity rate can be nearly 42 percent. Many of these children have little access to physical activity in their home environments due to safety concerns and less access to nutritious foods.
The program was developed by Temple University and The Food Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to making better food and nutrition affordable and available to all. The success of the program with just a few small changes is encouraging news. However, the Food Trust and the pediatricians involved view the results also as a sign that more can be done by extending the reach of the program to outside the schools and into the neighborhood and home environment.

As the costs of food rise, issues like childhood obesity rates and access to better food choices will become a greater issue as well. Ultimately, we all benefit from a healthier next generation. In order for most schools to change, however, the push to do so has to come from the community and involved parents, as well as outreach programs to the communities with lower income families face so many barriers to a healthy diet.

You can find more information on the program at the Food Trust web site.

The EcoGeek calls Huddler “The Finest Green Shopping Community So Far“. What is Huddler?

Launched in March of 2008, Huddler is a network of niche product review communities. By focusing each “Huddle” on specific areas of interest, Huddler hopes to provide a home for the most knowledgeable, passionate consumers to meet one another and share what they know in an interface that even novice internet users can take advantage of. By integrating custom built discussion forums, wikis, product reviews, image hosting, and more, Huddler not only helps you decide what to buy, but how to better use what you already own. Huddle together. Shop Better.

Huddler is holding a contest to celebrate its launch. Simply join Huddler, share you knowledge of the green products you use, and win! “From hybrid vehicles to solar arrays, CFL bulbs to green cleaners, efficient appliances to geothermal heat pumps, Huddler wants to know about your experiences and help you learn from like-minded peers.” You could win a green prize pack containing:

• 1 100% recycled nylon Huddler messenger bag
• 1 EarthLED CL-3 bulb
• 2 TCP SpringLight CFL bulbs
• 1 bottle of Eco Touch waterless car wash
• 1 bottle of Biokleen all-purpose spray and wipe cleaner
• 1 bottle of Earth Friendly Products Dishmate dish washing liquid
• 1 bottle of Method daily shower spray
• 1 pair of GreenLaces shoelaces

Join Huddler now to win!

Photo credit: Pete Beverly, NREL/DOE

A new model of solar purchasing appears to be coming of age: community solar purchasing programs. Last month, two colleagues in the Local Clean Energy Alliance and I carpooled to a workshop by the Downtown San Jose Solar Project about their experiences setting up a community purchasing program.

Community purchasing programs are a mechanism for aggregating the community’s purchases of solar photovoltaics and thermal arrays to receive a discount. By pooling their purchasing dollars and buying in bulk, neighbors can save 10-20% or more on their installation. In this arrangement, individuals own their solar arrays.

Coupled with the federal and state incentives, this can considerably lower the out-of-pocket cost of solar arrays to such an extent that they are cheaper than purchasing electricity or gas from the utility (when the time value of money is taken into account). Going solar becomes an even better deal when one considers the probable increases in the prices of fossil fuel based electricity over the next couple of decades.

Solar City - a solar installation company – was the first in the U.S. to implement community purchase programs whereby homeowners get volume discounts when their neighborhoods go solar and continues to use this as their primary business model.

Photo credit: Charles Watkins, NREL/DOE

In October 2006, Solar City aggregated a Portola Valley neighborhood’s purchasing power to receive bulk purchase discounts on a total of 343kW of photovoltaics. The threshold for receiving the bulk discount was 175kW. The solar panels were installed on 78 homes within four months with an average residential installation of 4.3kW. The savings for the community aggregating their orders was 20-30% per array installed. After the bulk discounts as well as the CSI incentives and Federal tax credits, the fully amortized monthly cost of these installed systems is less than their previous utility bills. Such programs can be controversial since the “discounts” are being offered by one company in a non-competitive bid situation.

Recently, a neighborhood group - the Downtown San Jose Solar Project - banded together to purchase solar in bulk and find their own solar installer through a competitive bidding situation. They put their collective requirements for three solar systems out to bid by several solar companies to get the best price, quality, etc. As of the beginning of this month, the project includes 24 San Jose homes producing 99kW of electricity. The 24 systems in San Jose will produce 3,560,000 kWh over the systems’ lifetime and will eliminate, according to today’s current fuel mix, about 5,055,861 pounds of carbon dioxide. The community group wants to see this program spread across the Bay Area and hopes the training inspired people to set up their own community purchasing programs.

My journeys along Highway 1, in search for leading ecopreneurial enterprises, brought me to this healing place and, as I discovered, a thriving residential community that draws energy and sustenance from their surrounding biological richness. It’s this residential community of researchers, staff, and educators, along with the enrichment programs and remarkable natural setting, that have drawn over 300,000 visitors from around the world seeking a greater connection to community and the land.

In their Solarium, a building attached to the main lodge where all the meals are taken in the community, I talked with Juliet Johnson, a former water engineer turned sustainability guide for the Esalen Institute as its Sustainability Coordinator.

“We’re really about the human potential,” sings Johnson brightly while sipping on herbal tea. “How can we evolve to the next level. How can we be better than we are? Part of the answer rests with being in harmony with the land and each other.” This same perspective guides their prosperous nonprofit organization with educational workshops that provide the bulk of the financial support for the work of the organization.

The Esalen Institute’s approach to ecopreneurship is remarkably similar to what my wife and I write about in ECOpreneuring. There’s more to a bottom line than never-ending growth of profits year after year. Says Johnson about many of their programs and their approach to sustainability: “How do you value things that don’t fit on a spreadsheet?” This sense of human query has guided Esalen over the years, harnessing the power of their community to help transform all who arrive to their peaceful coastal enclave.

After spending the morning with Johnson and walking some of the 120 acres that make up the grounds, I realized few other places I’ve visited seem to reflect this nexus of sustainability consciousness better than Esalen. Once on the grounds, you’re a part of their community.

Besides the exceptional line-up of workshops for the public (90 percent of all visitors are workshop participants), the Esalen community has tapped geothermal energy for heating, added several solar thermal systems and a small 3 kW photovoltaic system, with plans for more. Esalen harvests about fifty percent of the vegetables served by the Esalen kitchen from their own organic farm on site, and conserve resources, whether through composting food waste to using energy efficient lighting. Most recently, Esalen added a “Living Machine” to biologically treat grey and black water. Their bathhouse renovation incorporated a sod roof and many of the renovations have focused on reusing building materials on site. Even a Gazebo School was created to serve the pre-school age children of staffers, guests and the Big Sur community, complete with a learning garden, farm animals and compost pile.

“At Esalen, sustainability is about abundance and a deeply connected human experience that is grounded in community, spirituality, personal growth and connection to the natural world,” writes Johnson in their Friends of Esalen newsletter that features programs that include workshops by such acclaimed visionaries as Amory Lovins (Advanced Energy Efficiency and Alternative Supplies for Profitable Climate Protection) and Michael Ableman and Steve Harper (From the Good Earth: Reclaiming our Relationship with the Land).

Like most ecopreneurial enterprises, the Esalen Institute continues its evolution, seeking a deeper, richer and more enduring relationship to fellow humankind and to nature. As captured in one of Esalen’s six Values Statements: “Transformation of consciousness is the basis for transformation of the world, individually, collectively, and in social systems.”

I look forward to returning to this community of kindred spirits, to see how their sustainability consciousness reaches new faces and places.

New Urbanism (sometimes referred to as Traditional Neighborhood Design) is a movement spearheaded by the The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). Its goals are “promoting walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl. CNU takes a proactive, multi-disciplinary approach to restoring our communities.” Improving sustainability is one of the Principles of New Urbanism (see below),additionally, New Urbanism advocates a number of benefits. Although there are broad overlaps between using historical, traditional housing forms (or, unfortunately more often, faux-historical looking buildings) and New Urbanist principles, there is nothing magical about gabled roofs and wood siding, and New Urbanism does not require retro-styled throwbacks (although many examples of it do combine visual historical revivalism with the good community principles it supports).

Much of the attention we pay to green building deals with the parts and pieces and how our buildings work. Greener buildings use less energy for thermal comfort (heating and cooling) and less energy for lighting and draw on fewer resources (and less impact from the materials that are used) in their construction. All of these are good and useful steps to take. However, all of this just takes into account the building itself, and perhaps the site it rests upon. With this kind of focus (or lack thereof) one could envision a community of dispersed “green” buildings all individually well designed and well made, but, in the aggregate, contributing hugely to the destruction of habitat, the depletion of resources, and the net degradation of the environment.

The best-intentioned and highest-rated building could, in fact, be less green in its overall effect if its location is responsible for adverse effects. A building that is located close to an urban center does not need new roads built, unlike a greenfield development. New utility connections require less materials and labor when the building is close to existing services. A new condominium development could be designed with stringent water use and reclamation standards, for example, but the adverse impact of the extra roads needed to reach it could more than outweigh all the positive steps undertaken for the project. A building may significantly reduce the amount of energy it requires to operate, but if it takes more energy to get to and from that building, how much of a benefit does that improvement really represent?

Looking at the forest, rather than concentrating on the individual trees (to mangle a metaphor) means considering sustainability from a number of scales. In addition to looking at the sustainability of the building as a self-contained unit, it also needs to be considered in terms of how it interrelates with the other buildings and the broader community it belongs to. Just as trying to sell more soap (or T-shirts, or whatever) simply because they are organic and sustainably produced overlooks the more basic question of whether or not that product is even needed in the first place. Similarly, building green buildings out in the exurbs encourages sprawl and contributes as much (or more) to environmental degradation. A modest building built on a vacant lot in the city will be more sustainable in a number of important ways, though it won’t get the acclaim that a LEED Protactinium Level building might get, though it may be the more environmentally responsible of the the two.

New Urbanist neighborhoods are in place across the country. People who live in these communities find the vitality and liveability afforded by having their neighborhoods designed with people in mind, rather than cars, to be a great benefit. At Bradburn Village in Westminster, Colorado, neighbors are holding weekly group gatherings because the configuration and proximity of their homes makes such things possible.

Every home in Bradburn includes a large front porch,not just a token two-foot, concrete stoop. Garages are all in the back, and homes here also have very small setbacks (the distance between the house and the sidewalk or front yard), meaning the porches sit right above the sidewalks. This means that people sitting on their front porches easily see neighbors walking by and they stop to talk, creating a community bond that is so elusive in most traditional suburban neighborhoods.Other community features that encourage social interaction among neighbors include public spaces such as the many pocket parks—every home in the development is a 5 minute walk from one of these green spaces—wide sidewalks, and an interconnected street grid (no cul-de-sacs) that makes the community very pedestrian-friendly. As a result of these design features, Bradburn’s residents all know each other, and many have become close, meaning that if you want to socialize with your friends over a few drinks, you just wander on down to the park or walk 5 minutes to your buddy’s home. (via: Fermentarium)

When the Audubon society built its new headquarters in the early 1990s it chose to renovate an existing 19th century office building in downtown New York City, rather than building a new building in a bucolic setting. Although that might reflect some people’s expectations, it would carry with it a number of adverse impacts. Choosing a walkable, transit-networked, well-supported site was more in line with the organization’s goals than the simple image of a new building set in a sylvan glade. New Urbanist guidelines help steer the wider community toward more livable and sustainable goals, and can compound and amplify the benefits of good sustainable building design, rather than letting those effects be diluted but impacts caused outside the immediate bounds of the property line.

Principles of New Urbanism
1. Walkability -Most things within a 10-minute walk of home and work. Pedestrian friendly street design
2. Connectivity -Interconnected street grid network disperses traffic & eases walking
3. Mixed-Use & Diversity -A mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site. Mixed-use within neighborhoods, within blocks, and within buildings. Diversity of people - of ages, income levels, cultures, and races
4. Mixed Housing - A range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity
5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design - Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of place
6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure -Transect planning: Highest densities at town center; progressively less dense towards the edge.
7. Increased Density -More buildings, residences, shops, and services closer together for ease of walking, to enable a more efficient use of services and resources, and to create a more convenient, enjoyable place to live.
8. Smart Transportation -Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily transportation
9. Sustainability -Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations. More local production. More walking, less driving
10. Quality of Life - Taken together these add up to a high quality of life well worth living, and create places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit.

Image Source: Fermentarium

Environmentally friendly scuba diving, a new kind of courier bicycle service, the “scrapmobile” and more. A thoroughly positive and refreshing report as we head into the weekend.

The group had approached the principal last month and finally she responded last week. The principal was very supportive of our effort and will put our anti-idling brochure in the weekly newsletter. This was a great first step for us. However, to approve and enforce an anti-idling policy, we will need the support of the PTA. So next, we will work on our communication and campaign for PTA support. (The HCES actually offers an anti-idling tool kit to help local campaign efforts.)

On a personal level, I was walking with my daughter right before Thanksgiving and noticed a fellow preschool mom walking towards an idling van. Although a bit apprehensive, I decided to strike up a conversation in attempt to bring up this issue (while our children were admiring each other’s backpacks). During our chat, I casually mentioned how expensive gas has become and how my family tries to conserve by consolidating errands or turning off the car when not needed. I mentioned I read that if the average family cut out 5 minutes of idling per day, they can save over $100 a year in fuel cost. (1) She said she never thought about how the cost of idling and how much it was costing her family. She actually thanked me for the suggestion. Although it was not the environmental epiphany I would like, this will hopefully mean one less car idling in the neighborhood.

(1) http://www.thehcf.org/antiidlingprimer.html

FUF plants trees in San Francisco, and you can plant with them. To date, they’ve planted over 40,000 trees and counting. They’re also the only NGO of their kind in the city. That means no FUF, no trees. Generally, FUF teams meet every other Saturday to plant. Get on FUF’s mailing list to find tree planting locations and times.

You can just show up to one of the plantings with no reservation. There, you’ll meet other volunteers of all ages, some experienced arborists along with many first-time volunteers. These folks are always fun, always friendly, and share an interest in the keeping the environment healthy and beautiful. Come for the chance to plant some trees, stay for the fun potluck lunch that usually follows a planting!

If you’ve never planted a tree in San Francisco, you don’t know what you’re missing: history, excitement, community, fun, and the chance to tell your friends, “hey, I planted that tree!” whenever you go by it. You will also get to know a district of the city like you’ve never known it before. If you have more money than time, you can also donate to this very deserving organization. You can even buy a live Christmas tree (before Dec. 19)through FUF to be planted somewhere in the city.

My first tree planting with FUF took place in the Tenderloin, SF’s seedy, crack-addled, and perhaps poorest downtown neighborhood. I arrived at 9 AM, in time for the morning motivational pep talk and instructions on how to plant a tree. Then, we grabbed shovels and gloves and hit the streets. Our goal: to plant 80 trees in one day and make the city’s poorest area more beautiful.

We split up into teams and went to different locations throughout the neighborhood. The sidewalk had already bee cut for us and next to the exposed dirt stood fast-growing Brisbane Box trees, ready to be planted. We sank our shovels into the city’s sub-pavement dirt. Guess what we discovered? It’s sand! In such an earthquake-prone area, I would never have guessed it, but the entire downtown area, as far as I could see, was built on very sandy soil. Digging, we also got a glimpse of SF’s history; we pulled up at least one old piece of water pipe that had probably been buried there since the great 1906 fire!

By this time, everyone was laughing and having a good time getting to know one another. We had an experienced tree planter with each group who gave us useful tree planting knowledge, like how much of the tree’s base should be showing after it’s planted. As we were working, people walking by stopped to ask what we were doing. A couple even wanted to know if they could help, so we put them right to work. We also received such kind thanks from the neighborhood’s residents and business-owners. It was an extremely heart-warming time and it gave me a whole new reason to love the city. Find out why urban trees are so important here.

In addition to planting trees, FUF also helps to care for the trees. After the trees are planted, the residents or business owners who requested trees take responsibility to water them. However, twice while the trees are still young, FUF visits them again to trim away unnecessary branches and offer support where support is needed. They also check in with the tree’s owner to ask how things are going and answer any questions. Tree care days happen every other Saturday, interspaced with the tree planting days.

Some volunteers (like me) love the tree plantings; others prefer the tree care days. Try both and see which suits you best. Volunteers on tree care days get their hands a little less dirty since there’s no digging to be done. They also learn a lot about how to check trees for health and how to prune trees. Whichever you prefer, no Saturday morning in San Francisco could be better spent than by joining the Friends of the Urban forest in planting or caring for the city’s biggest treasure, it’s trees.

References and Resources:

Benefits of Urban Trees | South Carolina Forestry Commission

Home | Friends of the Urban Forest

Volunteer | Friends of the Urban Forest

Donate | Friends of the Urban Forest

Buy a Christmas Tree | Friends of the Urban Forest

Mailing List | Friends of the Urban Forest

Bay Area, California, and US-wide resources for tree planting | Friends of the Urban Forest

Photo Source:

FUF Planting Volunteers | Flickr

The first innovative step towards stacking cars was the parking structure, where layers of cars could be stacked upon each other. The next innovative step is to actually stack cars up against each other to reduce the absurd amount of space we require for vehicular parking. The concept is a hybrid of car sharing systems, spatial planning, alternative fueling systems, and personal convenience.

Developed by MIT Media Lab students from the Concept Car Design Workshop sponsored by GM, the key behind this concept is the redesign of the wheel and axel. Rather than having a rigid axel, it will actually fold in a way that will allow the car to rotate upwards 90 degrees. In this, the long dimension of the vehicle is perpendicular to the ground while parked. Since each car has the same form and design, they perfectly nest together to reduce surface space consumption. The stackable car will be able to reduce required curbside parking space by about a third to a half. This allows for more sidewalk space, biking lanes, and comfortable city conditions.

Due to the small dimensions, the stacks of cars will be conveniently placed in locations all over the city- where you would normally come out of a building and hail a cab; you can jump in an electric city car and advance to your next desired location. The concept City Car system includes solar paneling on the rooftops of buildings adjacent to the stackable parking depositories. These panels will be the power supply to charge the electric cars while parked.

This car-sharing concept is a solution to the missing link between public transportation and the front door. Often people don’t use public transit due to the time necessary to switch from the subway to the bus to the next bus. Now people can commute into the city, get off the train, jump in a city car, and drive that extra three to ten miles to the office. This is a reasonable solution to a very prevalent problem. Instead of unnecessarily consuming a parking space while in the office all day long, you can use a city car in the morning and evening, while others use it all afternoon; and the convenience of hopping in a city car is what will make this work. In addition, since these cars aren’t personal vehicles and people will be in them on an average of five to thirty minutes, hopefully the new system will encourage people to share rides across town thus influencing our sense of community, status, and ownership.

In fact, in many ways, there is more reason for optimism for the fate of our species and the planet now than at any point in the last several centuries. These are the views found in Dr. Seymour Garte’s new book, Where We Stand, a surprising look at the real state of our planet.

The book is a response to a real dilemma in the environmentalist community: pessimism and the apathy spawned from a sense that the challenges we’re facing are insurmountable. We seem to move from crises to crises (acid rain to ozone thinning to climate change to species extinction) with a mounting sense of panic and despair. But hasn’t the environmental movement accomplished anything since its birth? Isn’t anything getting better?

This book answers both questions with an emphatic “yes!” Dr. Garte makes a persuading case for optimism about the state of the environment and the quality of human health worldwide. The book finds compelling good news on the subjects of hunger, disease, toxins, biodiversity, population growth, and other issues of environmental ecology and human welfare. We should all celebrate the successful reduction of ozone thinning agents, the hard-fought protection of many endangered species, the elimination of lead from gasoline and paint, and the sanity that prevented nuclear warfare and a nuclear winter in the ‘60s and ‘80s.

Despite all the good news that Dr. Garte offers, he urges that the purpose of the book is not to lull readers into a sense of complacency or to give a false sense that environmental issues are will solve themselves. We’re reminded of ongoing threats to environmental and public health at the end of each chapter in a section simply titled, “The Bad News.” Perhaps one take-home message is that we can solve (and have solved) some very daunting man-made environmental issues, but solutions don’t just happen over night; they are the result of hard work from many different people and industries.

Environmental crises require attention and action from a number of different sectors of society, says Garte. Firstly, the scientific community more fully explains the causes of environmental issues and suggests possible courses of action to remedy the problem. Next, environmentalists and non-profits make the issues known to the public, push lawmakers to pass appropriate legislation. Then lawmakers, who have the power to pass regulations to protect the public from an unhealthy environment, pass legislation to do so. Business responds by developing the technologies to make environmental sustainability goals possible. Finally, it’s back the to environmentalists to try to keep everyone honest and the scientists to double check and continue their work.

Dr. Garte offers a refreshingly rational and level-headed approach to dealing with environmental crises. He peppers the work with personal anecdotes that illustrate practical and impractical responses to environmental issues. He argues, for example, that a complete “back to nature” approach that involves an abandonment of modern technologies is neither practical nor particularly useful. Clearing forests with stone axes and fire is no more benign than culling them with modern lumber machines. With these examples, the author makes the argument for the importance of an objective understanding of our impact on the planet and regulations that control this impact.

Some of the most captivating portions of the book are those that give in-depth analysis of specific environmental issues. For instance, Chapter 9 explores the histories of three hazardous substances that have been successfully reduced in the environment: lead, CFCs, and tobacco smoke. These were effective little vignettes that read like short stories with happy endings. After 8 chapters covering topics ranging anywhere from the AIDS epidemic to deforestation, it was a welcome change of pace to pause and focus on a few topics in this fashion.

But if there’s something for everyone to like in Dr. Garte’s book, there are also details with which various parties are sure to disagree. For instance, notion that the health of a nation can be gauged by the amount of meat it consumes per capita may raise more than a few eyebrows in the vegetarian community. There are several other small but poignant assertions that may start heads shaking. These include the claims that ground water has been mostly undrinkable for the majority of human history and that wild foods are inferior to foods from domesticated plant species.

Critics may also point to possible oversimplifications in favor of the positive. In a very brief discussion of surface water, the author sites a twofold increase in the number of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs in the U.S. as a positive development without giving much of an explanation why. “Because water is always precious to living things” doesn’t do justice to the author’s ability elsewhere to provide clear and convincing reasoning.

It must have been difficult for the author to shepherd his argument through the vast and complex fields of the environment and human health. The book offers a window on a plethora of environmental issues and their resolutions. Therefore, readers with a stronger interest in one field than another may wish to use the book as a reference tool for ways in which matters regarding that field have improved. For instance, readers interested in air quality may be fascinated to learn the severity of air quality issues in the 1950s and a brief history of the ensuing air quality acts in Europe and North America. Other readers may choose to skim or skip over these sections in preference for a discussion on how infectious diseases have been reduced.

With these criticisms in mind, Dr. Garte deserves praise for delivering a book from the perspective of an environmentalist, which offers hope for the future. It’s easy to get lost in a sense of despair or even what the author describes as “grim satisfaction” at the conclusion that there’s nothing we can do now to save the planet. With unhealthy and certainly unhelpful attitudes such as these circulating, Dr. Garte’s book acts like a sort of booster shot of optimism. It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come and a reminder of what’s possible.

This first event, the American Democracy Institute's Empower Change Summit, is a biggie. To be held this Saturday, November 3rd at UCLA's Royce Hall, the event features Bill Clinton and centers on empowering yourself, your friends and your community to affect change in your everyday lives and thus, the world.

Sponsored by the American Youth Summit, the focus of the discussions has a decidedly environmental tilt. Additional panelists and speakers include Jonathan Greenblatt, Founder of Ethos Water, and Blake Mykoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes.

Entrance is free, but you must register in advance. I’d do it quickly…with this lineup, tickets are sure to go fast.

Don't limit bulk purchases to food items only!

Buying shampoo, laundry soap, dish soap, toilet paper, etc. is also beneficial to the environment and your wallet. Even if an item is not available in bulk at your local co-op or health food store, buying the largest size possible will give you similar savings financially and environmentally.

The Chinese coal industry is known for its lucrative returns: the China Shenhua Energy Co. gained 65% from July to September, and many investors claim they can't afford not to be in China. In fact, 20% of Shenhua's stock is held by U.S. investors — one of whom is the Teachers Retirement System of Texas.

But China's coal is also a huge polluter. According to the New York Times, China uses more coal than the US, the EU, and Japan combined, contributing an enormous amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. Coal-fired plants emit more than 60 different hazardous air pollutants. The large amounts of sulfur dioxide produced by Chinese coal cause acid rain, which pollutes water sources. But because of China's rapidly advancing economy, the country needs energy — fast and cheap. Coal-fired plants are much cheaper and quicker to build than natural gas, nuclear, or hydroelectric plants, and it's widely available.

Four years ago, before America was awash in greenwashing, Mothering Magazine featured a great article title "No More Junk Toys: Rethinking Children's Gifts" by Judith Rubin. Rubin writes,

Like junk food, junk toys can be fun but are devoid of nutrition. Buying them requires little forethought. They are excessively commercial, and are often linked to cross-marketing schemes. They excite children at first, but that initial flicker doesn't endure. Also like junk food, junk toys have hidden environmental and social costs for which the consumers pay.

Creating Healthy Environments for Children features Private Practice's Amy Brenneman as host with Ben Harper providing music. Pediatricians Dr. Philip Landrigan and Dr. Alan Greene provide their expertise, as well. Their five major tips include:

• Avoid using pesticides
• Clean safely
• Help children breathe easier
• Provide healthy food
• Use plastic products wisely.

Pop the DVD in your computers, and you'll find three tool kits, one each for home, child care centers, and schools, that provide resources for making each environment safer for children. The tool kits also give advice for community outreach and activism on safer environments for children.

King Corn focuses on co-producers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis as they move to Iowa, rent an plot of farmland, and attempt to grow an acre of corn using typical industrial methods: genetically modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers, powerful herbicides, and government subsidies. They show us exactly how industrial corn production works today, from seed to table, in the convoluted journey of a commodity. From Ian and Curt's one acre, they harvest enough corn to make 57,348 sodas, 3,894 burgers, or 6,726 boxes of cornflakes. And yes, corn is a major ingredient in all of those foods.