Looking for water
Surfing for reflective exercises about water that engage the five senses
The Story of Stuff
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view.
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Well-designed, but I am skeptical as to how this is promoting any profound realization. Yes the United States is undoubtedly a major exploiter of resources and labor as well are fueled by desires for mass gain/production with limited cost, but what is new?
End point: I am bitter over environmental “awareness” and the newly adaptive buzzword that is sustainability.
I understand the concept of making the public more educated; Do not get me wrong, I am not opposed to education and the sharing of insightful and worthwhile information. But, in the sense of crisis-recognition, there comes a point to which the state of the problem or issue at hand cannot be further defined nor illustrated. Take globalization and the maltreatment of exported labor: Indefinitely everyone’s favorite barbie doll which comes out of your local Wal-Mart has a high probability that it was made from the hands of outsourced workers— this only presenting the repercussions of energy expenditures in shipment, deferred labor opportunities for United States citizens in need of employment, and no recognition to the fact that the labor: pay ratio for the outsourced worker is completely and poorly unbalanced.
But, we will keep spending our time and energy making these videos to promote public “awareness,”… and the public reaction? “That is so shocking or amazing or sad… etc” to which the viewer contemplates the viewed medium of information then resumes their typical lifestyle. I do not mean to sound pessimistic, but I am deeply frustrated upon how “awareness” is not complemented with solutions to these problems. Aside from “Buy energy efficient appliances and light bulbs” (These not practical solutions as they are only promoting the habits of consumption which started the whole mess) there are no instructional guidelines to constructing proenvironmental change which is feasible within the realm of economics. I know initiatives to ”Help Save the Whales” has great intentions, but truly, we cannot merely donate money to help save the whales and only go about our normal environmentally destructive behaviors of overconsumption and environmental expenditure; This is counterproductive.
Environmental sustainability is a full cycle: Initiated with an informed mindset of human costs of environmental interaction, carried out through minimal environmental expenditure of resources and energy, and completed with the mechanics of reinvestment and reuse.
The earth cannot afford to settle for a band-aid made of charitable donations and awareness campaigns to solve the current and proliferating problems of environmental distress and destruction; This solution rests in the behavioral and attitudinal shifts of the individual.
Also see: Consumerism: Ideas that Changed the World
Maybe if we get over these habits, and become cognizant that there is a discrepancy between “needs” and “wants,” the environment can actually get somewhere on the road to recovery…
Love to travel, but want to lower your environmental impact on the world while doing so? Then the Race2theGreen Project is right up your alley!
R2G is designed to help promote international relations and cultural exchange while also raising awareness of the need to increase sustainability in global travel! Our goal is to put together fun, educational events that help make it easier for us to bike, canoe/kayak or sail around the world and visit green festivals, solar panel factories, windmill farms, organic gardens and other eco-friendly locations on our travels!
How do you top that?
In 2011, we’ll bike from L.A. to D.C. and put on a big, green music festival to celebrate getting visible, functional solar panels on the lawn of the White House!
What’s it leading up to?
In 2012, we’ll sail from the U.S. to Europe and spend a few months visiting solar panel factories, windmill farms, organic gardens and green festivals!
Every week we’ll make 3-minute podcasts of our adventures, which we will combine at the end of each trip into feature-length documentaries to take around to high schools and colleges (in order to encourage students to join us when they’re old enough)!
Whether you want to be on the adventures with us, toss out suggestions, provide us with contacts you think might make the events a success, help us raise funds, put together welcoming parties when we come to your city or just follow our progress…consider yourself invited! YES, YOU!
Here is how you can follow us online…
R2G Site
Youtube channel
Wordpress blog
Twitter feed
Facebook group“The Road to Sustainability is a lot like driving your car at night - you can never see your destination, but as long as you’re facing in the right direction…all you have to do is keep moving forward!”
The fish you eat.
When I talk about the work that I do in community based fisheries management in Maine with people who are unfamiliar with the industry, often the conversation changes to people telling me about the seafood products that they love to consume. More and more, the person I’m talking to often says something along the lines of “but we should really stop eating everything that comes from the ocean RIGHT NOW due to overfishing.”
WRONG. Please, for the love of Pete, don’t do that.
First of all, you’re right, Seafood Lover, there are many species that are experiencing overfishing or that have been overfished. But there are suitable, sustainable fish, shellfish, and crustacean options for your palette. I’ll do this over a series of installments, so please check back for more information.
AMERICAN LOBSTER Homarus americanus
This may seem simple or silly for you Mainers, but there are many economic and ecological benefits to consuming lobster. According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, as of August 31, 2009, there are 5538 lobster license holders in the State of Maine.
Maine requires lobster fishermen to abide by strict and heavily enforced rules that promote conservation and sustainability of this essential stock in the Gulf of Maine.
- Minimum measure ensures juveniles get to live until they are able to reproduce.
- Maximum measure keeps those big lobsters on the ocean floor and reproducing.
- V-notching (literally cutting a v-shape into the middle flipper on the tail) is done on female lobsters that are trapped and carrying eggs. This notch notes them as being good breeders, and they must be returned to the ocean in the future even if they are not bearing eggs at the time they are caught.
- Lobsters landed in Maine are only harvested by traps. This method of fishing has minimal impact on the essential habitat on the ocean floor and also ensures a high quality product that is handled only by hand.
- This is an owner-operator fishery, which means the license holder must be on board the vessel when fishing and he is only allowed to fish his own gear, marked with a unique buoy.
Background: When the worldwide economic crisis hit in the fall of 2008, the lobster market was hit particularly hard and boat prices (also known as ex-vessel value, this term signifies the price that fishermen receive for their catch through their dealers) dropped below $2.00/lb in some areas. This has had a drastic effect on Maine’s remote island and coastal communities. These sea towns have little alternate employment and due to overfishing and mismanagement of other species, 90% of seafood landings come from the lobster industry. The good news is that the resource is at a time of unprecedented abundance and 2009 yielded a high volume of landings. The bad news is that the boat price is still low.
Many people think of lobster as a summertime luxury item, but fishermen harvest this product year round, which means that it isn’t traveling thousands of miles and still has a pretty low carbon footprint. With lobster retail prices starting around $5.40/pound in the winter of 2010, this product is still accessible. It’s not as cheap as chicken, but when you’re thinking about seafood for dinner as you walk around your local fishmonger or grocery stor, think of lobster. Eat this succulent critter and you’re helping your coastal economy and local neighbors. Win-win.
