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September 27, 2008
Drill Elsewhere: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Expanding
Drill, Baby Drill? Not in the Monterey Bay, it would seem.
These past few weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of bad news, especially when it comes to the environment. We've seen economic turmoil and the 25-year-old ban on offshore drilling expire in Congress, leading me to get very nervous about seeing oil rigs being built in the Monterey Bay.
Finally, a piece of good news from Washington. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is going to be expanded to include one of the country's largest underwater volcanoes with old-growth coral forests. These areas will be protected from overfishing, dumping and oil and gas exploration.
[President Bush] announced that the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, off the California coast, will be expanded by 585 square nautical miles to include the Davidson Seamount, an underwater mountain.
More At: MSNBC.com:Bush eyes more Pacific marine areas to protect
According to the Monterey Herald, the Davidson Seamount is located 80 miles southwest of Monterey, about 70 miles out to sea. It's 7,874 feet tall, with its peak still more than 4000 feet below the surface. Recent explorations by Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers uncovered ocean life found nowhere else in the world-many species are from the deep sea, where little light reaches and plants and animals grow and reproduce at very slow rates.
The sanctuary is not contiguous (see the new map at the Los Angeles Times), but covers several regions in the vicinity of the Monterey Bay, where giant kelp forests and a deep ocean canyon provide key habitats for a number of endangered species, like the Southern Sea Otter and the Great White Shark. The expansion is set to become official in the beginning of November.
Posted by sorsha at 3:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 25, 2008
Fast Food Chains Like McDonald's Recycle-In Canada
I've been on a recycling rant here since our Trans-Canadian Roadtrip and I know-you're probably saying-can't she show us more pictures of crazed bighorn sheep and clearcut forests, enough pictures of recycle bins already!
I swear, this is my last one... for a while. After all, I just don't see enough recycling opportunities in the United States to take more pictures!
I always smile when I see a recycle bin in a new place-whether it's in a school or an airport or a national park or a highway rest stop.
It's pretty safe to say, I smiled all the way across Canada.
My husband is constantly having to listen to my "great green ideas". Like how we should require or provide adequate incentives to gas stations and big-box stores to provide recycling to their clients and visitors.
My personal feeling is that local communities, many of which have taken the step to require citizens to recycle should also mandate recycling in the business community. For example, why don't we have more local ordinances that make places of business over a certain square footage provide recycling bins (they are already often required to have trashcans)? This way, malls, airports, bus/train stations, and other places that often sell bottled drinks and paper stubs would be forced to recycle and keep this stuff out of landfills. It goes without saying that public and government buildings, like libraries and town halls, should do the same.
So imagine my surprise and delight this summer when I found that most of my great recycling ideas were already in action-IN CANADA.
Even fast food chains like McDonald's and hotel chains like Sheraton have recycling facilities in Canada.
When are we likely to see these same companies providing recycling in the US?
When local community governments, states and the federal government put laws in place to make them-just as they have for citizens.
Posted by sorsha at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 23, 2008
Fall Foliage In The Pacific Northwest
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September 22, 2008
How To Spot A Moose
It's fall!
That means moose mating time-one of the best times to spot them!
Posted by sorsha at 8:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Beds, Baths & Bottle Bins: When Will US Hotels Start Recycling?
In case you hadn't figured this out yet... we travel a lot. And regardless of whether we're backpacking or roadtripping or on safari, we try to live by the mantra: Pack Out Your Trash.
About two years ago, we spent two weeks on Maui, Hawaii. We were there for a wedding of a friend and we had been there before. We had a plan to keep costs down without messing with the relaxation aspects of our trip.
When we first arrived, we stopped at the grocery store and got some basic food supplies, including several boxes of bottled/canned drinks. We often travel this way, keeping the incidental costs down so we can splurge on others-for example, buy a pack of soda ($2.99 for six) instead of ordering one at the swim-up bar ($6 each). This allows us to spend our money on a really nice dinner instead, like going to Mama's Fish House.
So we arrived at our swanky hotel on the Kaanapali strip and hauled our stuff up to a beautiful room with an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean off Black Rock. The hotel complex, designed to suck your wallet dry every time you get hungry or thirsty, did not have recycling facilities anywhere onsite for guests.
We asked. Not even behind the scenes. We sent a letter to the hotel management suggesting they install recycle bins near the ice machines (unobtrusive but available, right next to the soda machines dispensing bottles and cans), but never received a reply.
So we enjoyed our time on Maui, hiking, snorkeling and going to a beautiful wedding on the beach...And we hoarded our recycling like chipmunks hoard nuts for the winter.
Because you're never far from the coast, it's very important to keep trash under control so it doesn't pollute the coastline-the lifeblood of the economy. The Hawaiian economy relies heavily on its environment. Tourism, fishing, and farming make up a substantial part how locals make a living. It rains all the time and runoff spills straight into the ocean.
A bunch of small islands, Hawaii has specialized waste management needs and instead of landfills, most towns have transfer stations. A lot of the waste is shipped back to the mainland.
Recycling is a big deal for locals. However, the importance is not reflected anywhere for the tourists. Hotels seem to think that part of the definition of luxury is excess, not troubling their guests with such trivialities as recycling.
Except that it was a concern to us NOT having recycling.
The hotels were not devoid of "green" features. A little card informing us about the shortage of fresh water on the Islands suggested we only have our towels and sheets washed when necessary. We were happy to oblige. But we wanted to keep our various and sundry granola bar boxes, paper, bottles and cans out of the trash.
On our last day, with a bag full of recycling, we were forced to take desperate measures. On the way to the airport, we stopped our rental car by the transfer station and asked to be allowed to recycle. We got a few funny looks, but they let us in without any fee or permit. The facility attendant thanked us for "doing the right thing".
If only doing the "right" thing was more convenient, a lot more people would participate. People come to Hawaii to swim in the warm waters and they won't do so if it's polluted. Instead of cleaning up after tourists, why not allow them the ability to keep their own impact minimal for future visitors and the locals who live there.
Leave no trace applies not just to hikers and backpackers. It always applies!
This past summer, we drove across Canada on a roadtrip. We stayed in the same hotel chain and low and behold: every single hotel room we stayed at in Canada had a recycle bin. As we were roadtripping in a tiny convertible, we were ecstatic to have readily available recycling-at rest stops and at hotels, where we knew for sure that our recyclable waste was not going straight to a landfill.
My friend, fresh back from Hawaii, with a killer tan reports: Still no readily available recycling in the Islands.
Posted by sorsha at 8:26 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
September 19, 2008
Al Gore's Challenge: Repowering America
It's always inspiring when you see someone working on something they're passionate about. I think Al Gore would have made a good president, but I think he makes an even better soldier on the front lines of the climate change crisis. And he's getting stuff done.
Al Gore made a big splash with An Inconvenient Truth, but that was only the beginning. In 2006, he founded the Alliance for Climate Protection, whose mission is to persuade people (Americans especially) through solid science that climate change does exist, is a very serious concern for the future of mankind, and can be addressed, if only we act soon.
Preferably now.
The Alliance is currently running the WE (We can solve it) campaign, an urgent call to bring together the American public to fight against climate change by issuing collective, bipartisan pressure on politicians of every level to solve the climate crisis. The message is clear: regardless of who your party affiliation, if you care about the future of the country and the planet you will leave for your children, then the WE campaign is for you.
Back in July, Al Gore gave a speech challenging the American public. He set an ambitious goal for our country: produce 100% of our electricity needs from zero-carbon-emitting sources (like wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, etc.) and do so within the next decade.
Yeah, it's a tall order but if you listen to Gore's speech, you'll see that he doesn't just talk about the WHAT. Now he's talking about the HOW.
Gore didn't pull many punches when it came to illustrating how the oil and gas industries lobby in Washington tries to control our nation's energy policy. As to why oil and gas industries need to be a product of our past, not our future, he stated that pretty clearly when he said:
"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change." - Al Gore
This past week, the WE campaign ran a hard-hitting ad about the oil and gas lobby. I think it's safe to say it was pretty effective.
You can find out more about Al Gore's Challenge on the WE website.
Posted by sorsha at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2008
Fall Is Coming!
I love fall.
Brisk wind rattling the brightly colored leaves until they spin from the trees and swirl around your feet. Woodsmoke in the air. Halloween.
It's time to batten down the hatches against the cool weather drafts (and critters).
We also play chicken-we try not to turn on the heat until there's a danger that the pipes will freeze. It's sweater time.
Posted by sorsha at 7:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 16, 2008
Rest Stop Recycling: The Canadians Have Us Beat
Your typical Trans-Canadian highway rest stop has many more "green" features than your average rest stop in the USA. Every single Canadian rest stop, even this one out in the middle of nowhere in northern Alberta, had recycling. So did all our hotel rooms.
I have driven across Interstate 80, the backbone of the USA highway system, three times in the past year. Recycling is not available at all rest stops-especially in the Midwest. Between Tahoe California (a nice rest stop with bottle/can recycling) and Iowa (where they also have Wifi), you gotta keep your recycling in the car.
FYI: That's 1,500 miles. The eastern half of Interstate 80 does better, with most states having some recycling facilities.
Posted by sorsha at 1:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 11, 2008
Granite State Greenery: AMC Huts Showcase Green Tech
Hello, all!
Just back from a hike through some of the AMC huts along the Appalachian Trail. We headed up the Bridal Path Trail up to Greenleaf hut and then on up a total of 3600 feet to Mount Lafayette (5,260ft) and across the Garfield Ridge Trail to Galehead hut, passing the summit of Mt. Garfield (4,500 ft) along the way.
Had a great time, some serious weather though, like fog, hurricane force winds (80+mph), torrential rain, thunder, lightning and a snow advisory.
The Garfield Ridge Trail was substantially more difficult than I remembered, especially around Mt. Garfield, where it turns from a trail to a rock climbing expedition. It made Agony Ridge below Greenleaf feel like a cakewalk.The weather thankfully cleared for a bit along the way and we had some fantastic views.
We made it to Galehead a bit after dark. The Galehead crew gave us a tour of all the green tech at the hut—composting toilets, kitchen compost, wind power, solar, on-demand hot water for the kitchen, etc.
You can find more pictures of our trip on FLICKR: Greenleaf to Galehead and I'm going to try to do a post with more details on how the huts of the White Mountains make little choices that make big differences to keep their impact on the environment low.
Posted by sorsha at 3:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
