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Summer 2009 Newsletter
Greetings!
This edition of the Ecology Center newsletter contains an update on our work, with ideas for protecting the environment, building community, and creating justice. The Ecology Center has provided free, non-commercial information to the public since 1969. We help people make informed choices about issues that affect them, others, and the planet. To this end, we make the EcoCalendar, the EcoDirectory, and this Newsletter accessible and free to all. Please support us and the services we provide by becoming a member of the Ecology Center. You can visit our website at ecologycenter.org. Ecology Center programs and projects highlighted this issue: 1. From the Fields of the Capay Valley to the Farmers' Market2. GAIA and Informal Recyclers Participate in Global Climate Talks3. Action Does It: Climate Change Action Group Alumni Tell Their Stories
4. New Stainless Steel Water Bottles for Hot, Cold, and Easy5. For All the Fish, So Long?6. Always Covering New Terrain |
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 1. From the Fields of the Capay Valley to the Farmers' Market
 Some crops like it hot. Along with Ecology Center staff and friends, Berkeley Farmers' Market volunteer Dylan Cardiff braved the heat of the Capay Valley to get a closer look at where some of our market produce is grown. Read all about it on his blog.
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2. GAIA and Informal Recyclers Participate in Global Climate Talks
 The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) is a project of the Ecology Center and has over 600 member organizations and individuals in 68 countries. This June, GAIA brought together a delegation of wastepickers, wastepicker unions, and advocates from Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and India to participate in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Bonn, Germany.
In many parts of the developing world, collecting and sorting recyclables from waste "informally" provides a livelihood for large numbers of the urban poor, especially women and children. The World Bank estimates that 1% of the urban population in developing countries earns a living through this work, which goes by different names around the world, including reclaimers, catadores (carton collectors), scavengers, and recyclers.
Although the question of waste has received scant attention in climate arenas, decisions made in the climate change negotiations will have a huge impact on waste policy, environmental justice struggles, and the lives of informal sector recyclers globally. Currently, global climate subsidies largely prioritize centralized "waste-to-energy" technologies (incinerators and landfill gas systems) over more effective, affordable, and job-creating solutions in recycling, composting, and anaerobic digestion. Read more about reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from informal recycling.
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3. Action Does It: Climate Change Action Group Alumni Tell Their Stories
 The selection of potluck offerings would humble any professional caterer: heirloom tomato and cling peach salad, roasted summer squash and eggplant braised in Sonoma olive oil, sweet baguettes baked fresh that morning, to name just a few dishes. Most ingredients had been sourced from a local farmers' market, grown in a neighborhood garden, or picked from a backyard tree, creating a spread of mainly local, organic, and minimally packaged foods.
But the real excitement of the evening wasn't what was on the table, but rather the accounts given by those sitting around the table. One by one, attendees of this Climate Change Action Group reunion potluck - representing a significant portion of the nearly 25 groups that have taken place at the Ecology Center over the past year - described what they had accomplished during and since their participation in a group. Read their stories here.
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 4. New Stainless Steel Water Bottles for Hot, Cold, and Easy
Almost everyone these days is aware of the dangers of plastic water bottles to your health and to the environment. To help you kick the plastic habit, we've been selling stainless steel Klean Kanteens at our store for several years now, and they are still immensely popular. Sometimes, however, you wish they were just a little different. Here are some new alternatives:
- The Thinksport double-walled bottles are also made of stainless steel but the vacuum-sealed double wall keeps your drink hot or cold for hours. You can put ice cubes in it and the outside won't sweat. Hot drinks won't feel hot on the outside. The Thinksport bottle also has a removable internal mesh filter to contain your ice cubes or tea leaves.
- The new 27 oz Klean Kanteen Wide. These have all the great features of the Classic Kanteens but with an extra wide opening for easy filling, pouring, and cleaning. The stainless steel cap is standard, and the wide mouth works with most hiking and camping water filters.
- The 1 liter New Wave Enviro bottles are made of stainless steel just like the Klean Kanteens, but when the 27 oz Kanteen is just a little too small and the 40 oz a little too large, the New Wave Enviro is just right. 1 liter is approximately 34 oz, and the concave shape looks cool and is easier to hold.
It's important to stay hydrated in the hot days of summer. So go out, have some fun, and drink up!
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5. For All the Fish, So Long?
 The jumbo squid arrived off the Northern California coastline sometime around 2002. It didn't seem unusual at the time: Every ten or twenty years the squid meander up from Central America, following warm currents and the fish they like to eat. They leave a few years later when conditions change. But this time something funny happened: They didn't leave.
Are ocean conditions rolling backward 550 million years to the Cambrian era, when invertebrates ruled the warm seas and bony fishes hadn't been invented yet? Read the article in Terrain magazine.
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6. Always Covering New Terrain
 The economy may be sluggish, but Terrain is moving forward and growing with gusto! In the past year, we have added over fifty new distribution spots, and you can find Terrain in 13 cities and counties from Eureka to San Jose. We're printing four issues a year once again, and we have a newly redesigned website where you can find information about the magazine, read and comment on past issues online, and find fresh web-only content. Stop by and browse and comment on stories. Join in lively discussions on topics such as public transit and wildlife. If you're a writer and have a story idea, we want to hear from you! Drop us a line and pitch a topic: terraineditorial@ecologycenter.org. If you'd like to see Terrain in your area, contact us about being a distribution volunteer. We could always use a hand distributing the magazine to bookstores, coffee shops, markets, stores, and restaurants all over the Bay Area, specifically in the North & South Bay and Sacramento. Our next issue drops in September and focuses on our climate in crisis. Come by the Ecology Center booth and visit us at Bioneers in October and Green Fest in November to check out current and back issues. www.terrainmagazine.org
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Did you know that you can call us with your environmental questions? Our Info Desk staff will give you referrals and provide information to help you make sound ecological choices. Email erc@ecologycenter.org or give us a call at 510-548-2220 x233. To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, send a note to newsletter@ecologycenter.org. This newsletter can also be found online at http://ecologycenter.org/newsletter
The Ecology Center is a membership organization providing environmental information and direct services to promote sustainable living and a healthy, socially just world. Please support this community resource for the environment by becoming a member or by making a donation. Support our work on-line at http://www.ecologycenter.org/donate/
[Photo credits for banner: Anise Swallowtail: Art Siegel. Peach: Beck Cowles. Tomatoes: Sean Lamb. Sunflower: David Ricardo. Bikes: alles-schlumpf, phogel. Farm tour: Carrie Bennett. Fish: Monterey Bay Aquarium. ] |
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