350, Independence Mall and my 6-y.o. daughter

As we previewed earlier this week, today was International Climate Day of Action, including a synchronized global rally featuring photogenic human chains forming the number 350.   I was there. My daughter was there.  I brought my roommate too.  And it was rainy and miserable and inconvenient.

What is new at the 2009 GreenFest Philly?

In no particular order here is a short list of some of the new green offerings I noticed at the 2009 GreenFest Philly:

Come to Philly in September to Get Your Slice of the Renewable Energy Pie

President Obama has pledged that $150-billion dollars will be put towards energy independence over the next 10 years.  Where can you learn about how to get your slice of this pie from leading public and private industry experts?The answer is the The World Green Energy Symposium and Exposition on Sept 25-26 to be held right here in Philly.

Narberth Greens Develops Turnkey Energy Challenge: Is your community ready to turn the key?

Avi Loren Fox of Narberth Greens

PhillyEcoCity recently spoke with Temple environmental studies major Avi Loren Fox, who is amassing quite a resume as an environmental change agent in Narberth and beyond.  Avi  founded Narberth Greens (NG) which recently won the nonprofit award from the Lower Merion Environmental Advisory Council for its efforts in encouraging sustainable practices, including recycling, town cleanups, and home-grown vegetable trading.

Neighborhood Bike Works: The Hub of the Bicyle Culture

Find out what Neighborhood Bike Works and the “Bicycle Lifestyle” is all about right here >>>

This four minutes video was filmed and edited by Greendocs:
Julia Hoff, Bunker Seyfert,Heather Craig and Kathleen Monahan.

Read on…

The simple things the city can do to decrease its carbon footprint

It is amply clear that Michael Nutter, the Mayor of Philadelphia is committed to moving Philadelphia and its region to be more environmentally sustainable.

The City appointed a Director of Sustainability, Van Jones has been regularly consulting and talking with city and regional leaders and the convening of a cabinet level meeting promoting Green Jobs on February 27, all underscored Mayor Nutter’s commitment to moving to a Green Economy.

Great!!

What concerns me is the low level stuff, the little things that each of us can do in our every day life to reduce our carbon footprint.

The struggle to reduce our carbon footprint will be lost or won by millions of people all over the United States who decide to make very small changes to their daily life.

Philly Compost launches

Let’s connect these 2 facts together…

1. Methane has 72 times the global warming power of carbon – per NOAA and the recent article in Grid magazine by Tanya Seaman
2. Backyard or onsite composting offers the highest environmental benefit among organics management strategies because of the decrease or elimination of transportation impacts. – per the COOL2012 website

Food scraps dumped into land fills slowly decompose while producing a lot of methane which is 72 times more damaging to our Earth climate than carbon. And, in my opinion, it is considerably easier to reduce the amount of food scrap discarded into landfills. Philly Compost proposes to help us systematically compost our food scraps.

The Future of the Northwest Philadelphia Urban Forest

A review of Sebastián I. Varela ’s Master’s Thesis on the Northwest Urban Forrest.
By Paco Verin, B.A., PCH

This article is a summary of a large and important study of the NorthWest Philadelphia urban forest., and it offers a call to action to its inhabitants. Sebastián Varela’s study focused on trees, is complex and involved many people, and this article does not intent to address every aspect of it The author of this summary acknowledges past and present efforts by a number of individuals and organizations to care for Philadelphia’s trees and natural spaces. To receive a full copy of Sebastián Varela’s study, please contact Mr. Varela directly at:  sivarela@syr.edu

Emily’s Bike

I was a wondering what was this long bloc of plastic that Emily was carrying around while doing her grocery shopping? So I asked.

Emily took me to her new bicycle – to her new electric bike. I knew that Emily and her partner had decided to live without owning a car and the new eZee electric bike is an expression of Emily’s determination to minimize her carbon footprint. The long bloc of plastic is the Li Ion Polymer rechargable electric battery pack that Emily removes from her bike as a security measure when she parks it.

Black is the New Green

Charing A. Ball,  Staff Writer at the Mount Airy TimesExpress and the host of “People, Places and Things” on Gtown Internet Radio just launched a Video Blog on Youtube where she will document her experience as an African American woman going Green. In her first instalment of her videoblog, Charing states her intention and direction for her blog.

I am curious to find out  the experience of an African American woman working toward a greener life style. Stay tuned.