Environment

I do love the Winter Olympics and look forward to February 2010 from Vancouver, BC.

So it seems that this organizing committee is truly focused on the environment and this will be the first Olympics to offset all the CO2 emissions.  Now I'm not an expert on this stuff but I do like that they've gotten a huge amount of sponsors to even help convince a majority of attendees to purchase offsets.  Whatever it takes to clean this world and keep having a good time too.

According to Fast Company

The former candidate cities for the 2016 Olympic games may have fought over green credentials, but Vancouver isn't doing too bad itself for next year's games. The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) plans to offset all emissions at the event--that's 118,000 tons of CO2 emissions from things like construction, staff travel, and even the torch run.

While past Olympic games have offset emissions, the Vancouver event is the first to take into account venue construction and preparation. That's a smart move--all those plane rides from place to place spew tons of emissions. It's also a move that makes the Vancouver games significantly more expensive to offset than previous games.
 

Slow news day.  Saturdays usually are. 

Our small town, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to cut down three ancient cottonwood trees that stand in front of my sister's house...the one Dad built when I was a baby.  These are old trees...probably close to two hundred years.  They stand side-by-side in the strip of land between her sidewalk and the street.  That strip of land is actually city property, streets here having been platted at a hundred feet wide.  So it's the city's call on the trees.  Sis has no legal recourse.

Musings, funnies, profound revelations, off-the-wall thoughts, personal triumphs (or failures)...whatever doesn't fit anywhere else goes here.

Yesterday I heard a story on NPR about a proposed law in Seattle to add a 20-cent surcharge for every plastic bag a customer's purchases require.  Interestingly, though Washingtonians are known for their environmental sensitivities, polls show a majority are opposed to the bill.  What about you?  If your state wanted to do this, would you support it?

I'm off to take my son to catch a flight for a job interview.  Barge lines are still hiring!

In case you hadn't seen today's headline:  U.S. says greenhouse emissions endanger human health

This quote must have been edited out of the article: 

EPA scientist G. Galilei was relieved to hear of the US government's acknowledgement of accepted science.  "At least I wasn't threatened with excommunication this time," he said.

Continuing Partizane's profiles of women who are leading in caring for our Environment.

In another change from the Bush years, we have at the helm of EPA a career environmental professional.  She is an engineer and 16 year veteran of the EPA who went on to head the New Jersey DEP.  This is a woman who knows her business and is now at the forefront in the battle to save Mother Earth.

She has already reversed or re-opened several Bush Administration decisions such as California's desire to tighten up even further the restrictions of green house gasses put out by all your cars in California.

Yes, there is some controversy surrounding her, especially in NJ, but I could really care less.  One does not get to this level of leadership in government or business without stepping on a few toes.  I should know, my toes are almost flat.  All I know is that the woman is career EPA so she knows the playing field a zillion times better than any of us.

April 22, 2009

References

http://www.epa.gov/earthday/events.htm

http://earthday.net/all_events

EPA Tip of the Day Podcast

We all share one Mother Earth. 

She is the one single thing that all peoples, all animals and all plants share.  We humans have many languages, religions and cultures but only one Mother Earth.  We Americans are lefties, righties, all colors of the rainbow, conservatives, liberals and progressives but we share only one Mother Earth.

Welcome to Partizane's month long celebration of our Mother Earth.

The blogs are open to your opinions on all subjects as usual, but we encourage people to think and write about what we, we individuals and we as a society can do to preserve and protect Mother Earth for our children's children's children.

Update.  Please see KenoshaMarge's great suggestions for what we can all do.  Down in the comments.

It's actually a climate summit but I like to think of it as Earth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7970274.stm

Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate

US President Barack Obama has invited figures from the world's 16 major economies to Washington for a meeting on climate change at the end of April.

 

The event will be the first meeting of what the White House styles "the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate".

 

It will focus on increasing the supply of clean energy and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the White House said.

 

It was announced as millions worldwide observed Earth Hour, turning off lights in a protest against climate change. The Washington meeting is scheduled to take place on 27-28 April and the sessions will culminate in a July meeting in Italy.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?verified=true&storyId=10242...

I heard the NPR Science Friday interview which is at the link.  I was riding home from the doctor on a beautiful day and had the pleasure of listenning to perhaps the first "science" appointment in the Obama administration that I can truly respect and believe.  This is one clear headed, pragmatic and well spoken woman.  I will be following her career at NOAA as she takes one of the top spots in the battle to save planet Earth.