Green Options

Los Angeles has proposed a new water management law that would require rainwater harvesting on all new homes, large developments, as well as on some redevelopment projects. The Department of Public Works unanimously approved the new ordinance in January for the increasingly parched region. It requires various methods to capture, reuse or infiltrate all of the rainwater runoff that is generated by a 3/4 inch rainstorm.

These rain barrels have been made from recycled cherry containers.

African Elephant Bull Photographed in Kruger Park on 20 June 2009.

The author’s last two posts have shown that culling is often used as a “solution” to limit the growth in animal numbers in a particular situations. At the extremes, some animal rights lobbyists oppose the killing of animals on the basis of principle alone ignoring environmental or wildlife issues while some legislators look for a fast fix without a long term view and justify killing by the need to protect the remaining.
There are always a range of opinions and solutions which can be considered in these cases. There is normally neither enough time nor enough information to allow the development of a solution that is acceptable to all and guarantees a longterm solution to the problem. In this context, it is instructive to look at the elephant as an example of the difficulties in finding solutions even in very well studied cases.

Please note that this is a layman’s understanding based on a quick “reading” of two recent major reports and is clearly open to much discussion. The author is simply trying to get a simple overall understanding of managing elephant populations and to also present some interesting information contained in the two reports.

Controlling an Over Abundance of Elephants

Although many press reports focus on the threats to elephants through capture, poaching and commercial hunting, the African Elephant in South Africa is probably more threatened by their successful adaption to protected ranges than directly by man.

The appeal of shortwave, geoengineering is in it’s purportedly rapid, remediation impact (although no global experiments have been conducted yet). However, the combined climate impact of GHG increases with a geoengineered reduction in shortwave radiation is not known, but, it is feared, could result in environmental “winners” and “losers”–meaning some regions of the planet could experience severe drought, and even increased conflict over water resources.

Gender concern in water resources management is globally seen as instrumental in
achieving greater efficiency, effectiveness and equity in the sector. The role of women in water management has long been recognized by the Indian administration. One of the reasons for this is the importance of women in terms of their numerical strength and the significant contribution they make to the agricultural labor force.

In the primarily agricultural Indian setup, there is a strong need to encourage participation of women in even greater strength. Consequently, at least one of the states in India (and a drought hit one) has now declared reservation for women in all local water governing bodies at all levels.

We’ve all heard the legend of Johnny Appleseed, the legendary apple tree planter of the United States. He walked across the country with his walking stick, and a bucket of seeds, just walking and planting as he went. Everywhere he went, apple trees sprouted up. And he was a hero. It is such a hero that Yosemite is looking for now.

The number of large trees is falling in Yosemite National Park, but no Johnny can be found. And the decrease is bad news for many species, including spotted owls, mosses, orchids and fishers (a carnivore related to weasels). These species, as well as others, are losing their habitat with the loss of the trees.

First there was the dotcom bust of the late 1990s, then came the real-estate bubble that’s deflating before our eyes. Next up: the green bubble. Alternative energy ventures have received a lot of great press, heavy investment and lip service from politicians in the last couple of years, but many of the nascent green industry’s balance sheets are beginning to bleed red.