Black Creativity 2009: Green Revolution

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is currently featuring its Green Revolution exhibit, part of the Museum's annual Black Creativity celebration.

Green Revolution explores green technology and innovation and celebrates achievements by African Americans in the green movement.

The exhibit highlights more than 30 individuals with green careers. Among those featured in Green Revolution are: Van Jones, founder of Green for All; Majora Carter, most known as the past director of Sustainable South Bronx; Michael Dorsey, environmental advocate and professor at Dartmouth College; and, Warren Washington, head of the Climate Change Research Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. For a full list, click here.

Congratulations to all those working hard to revolutionize the way we interact with the planet!

The exhibit will continue through March 1, so hurry up if you're in the area and haven't seen it yet! For more information on the exhibit, click here.

What's in Your Paper?

Environmental Paper Network, a coalition of leading conservation groups, has a cool new website called What's in Your Paper? The new site offers a Purchaser's Toolkit that helps paper purchasers save money by cutting paper waste and buying paper products responsibly.

Confused about which papers are environmentally friendly? The Paper Steps provides guidance to the hierarchy of papers out there. Additionally, a What's Hot page features organizations and projects that promote environmentally responsible products and services.

For news and features, the website provides a link to the Paper Planet, an international blog reporting on the social and environmental transformation of the paper industry. Check it out!

The new site is great because its user friendly interface allows paper purchasers to grasp the importance of environmentally friendly paper and to learn how to go about purchasing responsible paper. To see the website, click here.

New Resources for LGBT Movement and Its Donors

Looking for some good resources on the LGBT movement and its donors? Well look no further than three new reports now available at the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) website.

First check out the Advancing Transgender Equality – A Guide for LGBT Organizations and Funders comprehensively describes the movement for transgender equality in the US. The report comes at an important time, as autonomous transgender organizations add full-time staff and increase their budgets, while general LGBT groups add trans-specific programs to their agendas. The report has five main sections:

· The evolution and growth of the movement for transgender equality, including an in-depth look at the movement today;
· The obstacles that face transgender Americans, including issues related to physical and mental health; safety and physical security; legal documentation and relationship rights; and employment and self-sufficiency;
· Work underway to overcome these obstacles;
· Recommendations for general LGBT organizations to make their work more trans-inclusive and relevant; and
· Recommendations to help funders increase their support for transgender equality.

Second, be sure to look through the 2008 State of the States Report. Its issued jointly with the Equality Federation, and provides LGBT movement organizations, allies, partners, and funders with an overview of statewide LGBT advocacy organizations, including those organizations’ capacity, the issues they are addressing, and the strategies and tactics they employ to achieve LGBT equality. It analyzes data on 41 state-based groups in 36 states. The report can help organizations craft strategies to achieve local, state, and national LGBT political victories and help donors determine how to direct their funding of state-based work.

Lastly there is some imoprtant information on the state of Nonprofit Endowment Funds – Why and How LGBT Movement Organizations Should Establish Them, a snapshot of current endowment funds and planned giving programs at US LGBT nonprofit organizations. Overall, they find that most organizations have little in the way of permanent or board-created endowments, and few are engaged in active planned-giving development.

The report provides a starting point for LGBT organizations interested in building endowment funds or launching planned-giving programs.

Save the Mangroves!

A recent edition of NewScientist has a small article on the world's largest surviving mangrove ecosystem, which is also home to the endangered royal Bengal tiger. According to the article, in February, the state government of West Bengal and the Indian government approved plans for a petrochemicals hub on the island of Nayachar, located in the Hooghly River.

If finalized, the plan would refine crude oil and produce petroleum by-products. The island is nearly 10 km from the Sunderbans, a biodiversity hotspot containing a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Noxious effluents would flow into the coastal waters and spread into the network of rivers and creeks. Sunderban, home to a range of marine, coastal and estuarine lifeforms, would be subjected to the pollution.

This article caught my eye, since I just visited Belize this past week, a place that Mangrove Action Project (MAP) says is also in danger of losing its mangroves due to construction.

In this case, the South Beach Belize Project, a private gated resort, would cut down the mangroves that border the island of Ambergris Caye to make way for the development. The biggest casualty would be the nearby Hol Chan Marine Reserve (where I just spent a whole day snorkeling!). The reserve is the single most visited site in Belize and encompasses more than 21 square miles of ecologically linked coastal mangrove swamp, sea grass meadows and coral reef habitats, including a portion of the Belize Barrier Reef, the Western Hemisphere's longest coral reef.

According to MAP:
Many marine species, particularly reef fishes and certain invertebrates, rely on mangroves and seagrasses for the feeding and protection of their young. Numerous bird and reptile species nest, rest and feed among mangroves, safe from predators. The food chain for Hol Chan's marine life begins in the mangroves with the algae that grow on mangrove roots and the bacteria and fungi that feed on decomposing mangrove leaves. When mangroves are destroyed, the effects are felt by all the species dependent on them, including bird and fish populations far away from the site of the damage.

Mangroves trap sediment washed into the water by rain and serve as a filter, keeping the water clear and protecting Hol Chan's reef and seagrass beds. Dredging, even when it does not directly destroy corals and seagrasses, adds sediments to the water. These sediments harm corals and seagrasses by reducing the light that can reach them, smothering them and altering the area's nutrient levels and sources. While dredging for South Beach Belize is slated for the back lagoon, westerly winds are known to send currents from the back lagoon towards the reef with drastic increases in suspended sediment.

You can find the full article on MAP's website by clicking here.

These two scenarios demonstrate the current threat that mangroves throughout the world are facing due to development projects that do not take into account their important role. To get a good background on mangroves, click here.

Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate

We’ve blogged before about what great resources Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate are, but they’re worth mentioning again! Both website provide great content that compiles top stories about the climate crisis, solutions, the consequences and politics of the environment.

The mission of Environmental Health News is to advance the public’s understanding of environmental health issues by providing access to worldwide news about a variety of subjects related to the health of humans, wildlife and ecosystems. Environmental Health News is published daily by Environmental Health Sciences, a non-profit organization founded in 2002. Its daily e-letter, Above The Fold, is available for free. Its syndication services also are available for free and are used by over 300 other websites around the world.

The Daily Climate was formed in 2007 and strives to be the source of record on climate change news. Its core purpose is to provide a daily summary highlighting the best news on climate change from around the globe. Since November 2008, The Daily Climate has commissioned and published high-quality enterprise pieces on unheralded and oft-overlooked aspects of climate science. Those reports are published along with a daily compilation of news about climate change from mainstream media sources around the world. An index, with links to the stories, can be found in the TDC Newsroom. The Daily Climate is published every morning by Environmental Health Sciences, a global nonprofit media company with headquarters in Charlottesville, Va. It offers a free daily e-letter with summaries and links to the best 15 stories of the day. Be sure to check them out and spread the word!

The Smart Streetlight

Today's regular streetlamps turn on or off when a photocell attached to them reacts to darkness or sunlight. They use one level of power, and when they burn out, the only way they get fixed is if someone notices.

Smart streetlamps, however, are controlled from a central point to turn on and off, dim, and flash continually in an emergency, like a car. This is what five test "smart" streetlamps in San Francisco are capable of doing. Run by Pacific Gas and Electric, these lamps use 100 LEDs to produce light similar to that of a regular streetlamp.

The new streetlamps can send and receive data, so a central monitoring station--or even a cell phone that connects to a secure website--can remotely program them to turn on and off. Furthermore, the illumination can be changed (presumably during dusk or dawn), thereby decreasing overall power usage. Even if full power is used, however, each streetlamp would draw 127 watts, compared to 290 watts for regular streetlamps.

San Francisco isn't the only city changing the way it lights its streets. According to Inhabitat, New York City is expected to test and install LED streetlamps this year. The Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Office for Visual interaction, is designing the new lamps with two light lenses that shine light not only directly below, but in different directions. The new lamps will therefore save money and energy, while also providing a safer habitat for New Yorkers.

To see the original blog in the New York Times, click here.

Tweeting from our Grantees

I’ve noticed recently that several of the Foundation’s grantees are on Twitter! (To see an earlier explanation of what Twitter is and why it’s helpful read my earlier blog post here). Here's a list of current grantees that I could find that are already tweeting:

1Sky
American Civil Liberties Union
Breakthrough
Committee to Protect Journalists
Forest Ethics
Free Press
Grist
Green for All
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
WITNESS
Natural Resources Defense Council
Planned Parenthood of New York City
Reporters Without Borders

Did I miss any? If so feel free to e-mail me at emiller@overbrook.org and add your organization’s twitter name in the comment box below and I’ll be sure to add them. The Foundation has two active Twitterers (Tweeters?). You can follow me here and Environment Program Assistant Christine Terada here

Tweet on!

DNA Testing and Constitutional Rights

Over the past two decades later, DNA evidence has been used to exonerate more than 230 people wrongfully convicted nationwide. This includes including 24 here in New York State.

In an effort to prevent more wrongful convictions, last week prosecutors and victims of crime joined people exonerated with DNA testing and leading legal rights organizations urged the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize that the federal Constitution allows prisoner’s access to DNA testing that could prove their innocence.

The Innocence Project reported that five amicus briefs were filed on behalf of William Osborne, an Innocence Project client, who has been seeking DNA testing for eight years to prove his innocence. Osborne was convicted of rape, attempted murder and related charges in 1993 in Alaska.

Alaska is one of just six states without a law permitting prisoners to apply for post-conviction DNA testing. Prosecutors in Alaska have refused to permit Osborne to conduct DNA testing at his own expense, even though they concede that favorable DNA results would “conclusively prove Osborne’s innocence.”

In 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny him access to DNA testing, and the state appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in the case on March 2.

We’ll keep you updated on what happens on the case in March. We couldn’t agree more with Peter Nuefeld, the Innocence Project Co-Director who said, “Our Constitution gives every citizen the right to prove that he’s innocent.”

A Dry Spell for Green Energy?

With the current economic downturn, the once-booming wind and solar power industry is also experiencing quite a fall. According to an article in the New York Times, despite the promise of a green-minded Obama administration, factories building parts for wind and solar power installation have recently announced a wave of layoffs.

Without help from the government, trade groups project that installation of new equipment is set to decline by 30 to 50 percent this year. DMI Industries of Fargo, a plant that makes towers for wind turbines, recently announced a cut of about 20 percent of its workforce due to falling sales.

Before the credit crisis, almost 20 big banks and financial institutions took advantage of generous federal tax incentives by helping finance installation of wind turbines and solar arrays. Now, with banks in trouble, the number has dropped to four, according to Keith Martin, a tax and project finance specialist with Chadbourne & Parke as quoted in the Times.

Wind and solar companies are urging Congress to help revive the market by adopting new measures. According to the Times, with the stimulus bill, both House and Senate would extend an important tax credit for wind energy for three years. Meanwhile, the House version of the stimulus bill would help both wind and solar industries become less dependent on banks by providing more immediate tax incentives.

Despite the current downfall, it is hoped that Obama's interest in clean energy and green jobs would not let this industry collapse. The issue of clean energy should remain a priority so this downturn would only be seen as a brief dry spell in the long-run.

Taxing Plastic Bags in NYC

Last week Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed a 5-cent fee on new plastic bags distributed at grocery stores, department stores, restaurants and other retailers. The fee is a penny lower than the 6 cents per bag proposed in November.

Despite the decreased fee, the projected revenue is $84 million. According to an article in the New York Times, other estimates suggest the revenue could rise to $144 million by 2011 and $124 in 2012. The falling revenue assumes that plastic bag consumption would decrease each year. In Ireland, plastic bag use decreased by 94 percent just a few weeks after the country adopted a 33-cent charge in 2002.

Because the fee is actually going to be considered a tax, the proposal still needs to be approve from the State Legislature in Albany. If the proposal passes, New York City would become one of the first cities in the United States to assess a plastic bag tax. Remember that San Francisco banned plastic bags at grocery stores in 2007.

I agree with those who worry about the tax, citing their need to use some bags to clean up after pet waste or to use for trash. I do know, however, that most people accumulate way more bags than can be used for these purposes. In my apartment, for example, between four roommates, there is always a large bag stuffed with extra plastic bags waiting to be recycled during the next trip to the grocery store. I hope the tax passes so that people will make more of a conscious effort to cut down on their plastic bag use.

The release of Emilio Gutiérrez Soto

Yesterday, Reporters Without Borders published an interview it obtained with Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto of the newspaper El Diario del Noroeste after his release on January 29th, 2009 from the detention centre in the Texan border city of El Paso where he was held for seven months. Gutiérrez fled across the border with his teenage son seeking asylum on June 15th, 2008.

In this interview, Gutiérrez describes his hasty departure after being threatened by military personnel in the northern state of Chihuahua where he lived and worked. He also recounts the circumstances of his arrest by the US immigration authorities and the conditions in which he was held in El Paso.

"I would have been a murder statistic if I hadn't fled to the United States," Gutiérrez said. In fact, one of his fellow journalists working for the same newspaper, Armando Rodríguez Carreón, was murdered in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez last November during a period of extreme violence.

It’s more than unfortunate that Gutiérrez's experience typifies the terrible situation that Mexican journalists experiencing on either side of the US border. Hopefully an increased awareness of the situation can be part of an effort by both US and Mexican federal authorities to make the border region safe.

A Greener Olympics

Anyone already excited about the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will be even more happy to know that the ice rinks will be greener than they've been in the past. Resurfice Corporation, an ice resurfacing company, has developed a greener, cleaner machine that is powered by electricity. The company currently supplies propane-powered resurfacers to five National Hockey League rinks, but is hoping to put the electric models on the market soon.

According to the article in The New York Times, resurfacers first ran on gasoline, then diesel fuel, then propane. Busy ice rinks have to be resurfaced hourly, and fossil-fuel-powered resurfacers pose even greater problems by emitting fumes that can linger in a closed arena.

Although they are cheaper to run, electric resurfacing machines are expensive, selling at $160,000--about twice the amount a propane model costs.

The article quotes Denis Hainault, director of ice sports for the Vancouver Organizing Committee, as saying the electric resurfacers are "one of the pillers of the Olympic movement to be sustainable as much as possible." The Vancouver Olympics committee has ordered 17 electric machines so far, which are being leased by Resurfice.

As someone who's definitely looking forward to the 2010 Games (I already have my tickets!), I'm even more excited by the thought of going to a green Olympics! Look out for my review blog in 2010...

The New York City Venture Philanthropy Fund

It’s 2009 and the New York City Venture Philanthropy Fund (VPF) is still going strong! VPF is a group that seeks to provide an effective method for identifying emerging under-funded, under-recognized projects or programs that embody an entrepreneurial spirit, and promise high impact and effectiveness for complex, persistent social problems. VPF is especially interested in supporting startups and fledgling organizations that have not yet received significant support from major funders.

In order to focus on issues in a meaningful way, each year VPF invests in one critical area, such as education, the arts, poverty, etc. For 2008-2009, VPF members voted to support unique, innovative ideas that seek to improve the environment in New York City. To learn about the 2008/9 investee, Concrete Safaris click here.

There are some exciting opportunities coming up in 2009. First, if you aren’t a member of VPF, you can now join online. There are also three committees within VPF, the grants committee, the project management committee and the public relations committee. If you’re interested in participating in any of these committees or just in learning more about what they do, send an e-mail to guidanceboard@nycvpf.org.

The next event for VPF will be for supporting its partner Green Spaces, at the Green Business Competition Launch Party on February 9th from 7:00-1:00 PM.

To see more about the VPF Guidance board, the VPF Advisory Council, and its members, click here. There’s also a great interview with VPF Founder, Heather Rees, here.