Photo by Richard A. Huston
July 2005 | Evergreen News
Health / Environment / Food / Spiritual Life / Social Good
Kyoto in Our Own Back Yards
Let’s give credit where it is due. The local chapter of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) did just that in June with a “Personalizing Kyoto: Beyond Fossil Fuel” program to celebrate Mayor Nickels’ recent leadership in signing the Kyoto Treaty and convincing nearly 200 (and counting) other U.S. mayors to do the same.
The event was designed to educate and motivate individuals and organizations to do their part to make the goals of Kyoto a reality, since the Bush Administration considers it just a bunch of carbon, er, fairy dust. Speakers included representatives from King County Metro, Sound Transit, Flexcar, Seattle Monorail, Transportation Choices Coalition, NW Biodiesel Network, Dr. Dan’s Alternative Fuel Werks, Cascade Bicycle Club and the Port of Seattle.
Among other topics, the presenters addressed the forecast for a dramatic increase in downtown traffic—ugh—and how alternative transportation methods will become a larger quality-of-life necessity.
BALLE also sponsored a transportation fair to explore alternative fuel options and even showed willing participants how to make their own biodiesel. BALLE Seattle captured personal written pledges from attendees to engage in such activities as more walking and cycling, taking public transportation more frequently, converting to biodiesel, and even giving up using a car for a month or more.
Some vital planetary numbers: A bicycle commuter saves one pound of carbon dioxide emissions for every mile on the saddle compared to riding in a conventional car. Downtown Seattle bike commuters alone prevent the release of 3,600 tons of CO2 into our atmosphere every year.
Proceeds from the BALLE Seattle event went to support CIVIC Worldwide in honor of human rights hero Marla Ruzicka, who recently was killed in Iraq. For more info, check out www.balleseattle.org.
—Heather Nordell
Mapping the City’s Green and Brown
You might say it’s about time Seattle put itself on the map. In this case, the geo-placement is due to Seattle’s just-announced participation in the Green Map System. The international project celebrated its 10th anniversary in March (years, not months). So our city finally joins 285 others in 45 countries (see www.seattlegreenmap.net).
Seattle Green Map uses emerging Web graphics technology to give users extraordinary interactive abilities to find all things “green” in Seattle. You can look up eco-friendly buildings, find recycling centers, and shop at organic and natural food stores.
True to Seattle’s progressive nature, the local green map even allows you to look for polluted sites. Heather Trim of People for Puget Sound successfully bid to include “brown” sites you wouldn’t think a green map would contain.
“If we’re going to map the sustainable sites, let’s also include the sites we need to clean up,” she says. Currently, 142 locations with contaminated groundwater or soil are detailed on the map.
“The Green Map tells us what our city is like,” says Richard Conlin, city councilman who kicked off his reelection campaign in mid-June. “It tells us what we need to work on."
The Web site is already valuable, but the future holds even more innovation. When you log on to the site, you may be required to download a “scalable vector graphics” (SVG) viewer. This Web technology creates a new standard for how graphics are handled on the Internet. Right now, most browsers, such as Internet Explorer, still need a special viewer downloaded to be able to see the map and interact with it. Soon, though, the browser upgrades will contain this viewer automatically and you won’t need to concern yourself. It will be seamless.
With SVG technology, you will (eventually) be able to actually put icons on the map yourself. If you want your elementary school’s greenhouse noted on the map, soon you’ll be able to enter the Web site and put it there yourself. Neighborhood activists can collaborate and fill a specific neighborhood with flower gardens, P-Patches or parks the size of a city block. You might well be able to find out which neighbor uses rain barrels or who has solar paneling.
Students from two city high schools, Cleveland and Nathan Hale, were involved in a special mapping project of their surrounding neighborhoods through the Homewaters Project, based at North Seattle Community College. Their mapping efforts not only educated them on many aspects of their community, but also added to the complexity and range of information available in both Meadowbrook and Beacon Hill.
You can never be too young to think—and click—green.
—Miryam Gordon
Walking (and Walking) for World Peace
The Bainbridge Island Buddhist Temple and the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action are cosponsoring a walk for world peace this month. Well, walk is sort of an understatement. The journey begins July 16 at Richland, near the Hanford nuclear site, and routes to the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor, Wash.
That’s 300 miles.
Guest speakers from various organizations will share their concerns about nuclear issues along the route. Peace walkers will average about 15 miles per day, arriving at Bangor August 7 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the catastrophic destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by atomic bombs.
The Hanford site is where plutonium was manufactured for the Nagasaki atomic bomb, and where Yakima natives and neighbors are still suffering with radiation sickness. The Trident base is the largest active nuclear weapons depot in the world. It is the base for the Pacific Fleet and nine nuclear Trident submarines.
Anyone may join the walkers at any time along the route. You can walk for as long as you wish. For more information, call 206-780-6739 or email gilberto@nipponzan.net.
—M.G.
When Weather, Livelihood Collide
Most of us consider storms as part of the natural order, sometimes wondrous, maybe routine, other times, admit it, a bit of a nuisance. But farmers are linked to weather in a deeper way. They don’t need the reminder, but every season get some strong indicator that the best-cultivated plans can vanish in a relative instant. Here is a report filed to an EM staffer from Bean Fairbanks at Willie Green’s Organic Farm in Monroe:
After months of preparation, hard work and no income, farmers were just beginning to harvest in earnest when devastating hailstorms destroyed crops [in late May]. At Willie Green’s Organic Farm, 15 minutes of hail virtually erased months of work and tens of thousands of dollars in seed, labor and supplies.
The storm blew in just as the farm was loading trucks for two opening-day farmers’ markets in Bellevue and Lake City. Returning customers were enthusiastic to see the farm staff and to get their “fix” of local seasonal organic produce. An hour into the market, the damage reports started coming in. All of the greens had been destroyed, blueberries had dropped and pea vines were severed.
Investments made to ensure an early corn crop were made in vain as the hail tattered the cornstalks. Where lush rows of green baby spinach had stood, there is now the green confetti of shredded leaves.
All wholesale operations were suspended for a minimum of two to three weeks. Some crops may be lost completely for this year. Scheduled for six farmers’ markets each week, the farm debated whether it could afford to pay someone to work the markets when they will only have a few root vegetables to sell.
Although crop damage from weather or pests is always hard on farmers, crop destruction early in the year is especially painful, financially and emotionally, to farmers. After working all winter and early spring without income, the first seasonal income is crucial. The excitement of the first harvests is special, and the farmers gain a lot from the personal, direct and enthusiastic interaction with their customers at the farmers’ markets. The combination of financial reward for months of labor with appreciation for the harvest from the farmers’ markets is a heartbreaking loss.
One way to offset such hardship is community-supported agriculture. CSAs form a partnership between farmers and consumers, providing farmers with early season income in exchange for a share of the harvest.
Most seasonal CSA programs have just started deliveries, and hopefully will be minimally impacted by the late-May hail. CSA is a vital means that the community can pursue to support local farming. In traditional programs, the consumer takes on the same risk as the farmer, receiving a rich bounty when the farmer does well and less when the crops do not thrive. Other CSA programs offer some type of guarantee, like a voucher for the next season, to limit the risk to consumers.
The Feds and Your Blogs
Bloggers who go offline from their Web journal creations will discover a disturbing on-the-ground development. The federal government is taking its first steps into controlling citizen blogs.
The Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign-finance laws, is drafting new rules that would require paid political advertisements on the Internet to declare who funded the ad. This would follow what is standard procedure for television commercials.
The commission is further considering whether bloggers need to post disclaimers about whether they are being compensated in any way for writing about candidates or soliciting contributions on their behalf.
If your favorite blogs don’t take money from political interests, then the FEC rules won’t apply. But there are some early worries this federal foray is just an opening search point to control blog opinions. The FEC, for example, is looking at how to regulate online volunteer campaign activity.
Up to now, the FEC has resisted regulating the Internet. But a court ruling widened the definition of public communications as related to political endorsements. Bloggers from such prominent sites as Daily Kos and Eschaton filed public comments during the appropriate period in May and June. Hearings were held in late June, and a final draft of the FEC rules are due later this year.
There is one way this can all go away and you can get back to your computer: Congress can intervene to exempt the Internet from FEC regulation. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is leading that initiative.
—Bob Condor
![[Send]](http://seattle.consciouschoice.com/sendlink/send.gif){kind=small}
Recommend this page to a friend
Top Ten pages recommended to friends:
