Happy Earth Day, Everyone!

Earth Day has an almost religious quality about it this year.  Never before have I been known to shout Happy Earth Day to everyone I greet, nor have I ever been known to sign my emails with this wish.  What is going on?

My having spent the better part of this past year co-founding a green business, Back2Tap, may explain some of this, but I think there is more to it.   At a sustainability conference I attended at Rowan University recently, one corporate sustainability manager called it the “green tsunami“.  He may be right – like a real tsumani, this “wave” of environmentalism has  indeed  covered the land with a new rich “soil” which will increase productivity during the next “growing season”.  

The corporate world is working hard to green up all aspects of its operations, Obama is turning out to be a truly green president, and people are flocking to green events and joining green social networking sites on-line.  There is plenty to celebrate this year: Earth Day is becoming mainstream and it’s not just on April 22 anymore!

GoGreen Expo – Day 2!

Mariel Hemingway and Ann Whitman, a co-founder of Back2Tap

I just spent a perfectly spectacular spring Saturday inside the Hilton Hotel in New York City at the GoGreen Expo.  Not surprisingly, the turnout was low.  Most rational green folks were probably out enjoying nature and soaking in the abundant solar energy, or at the very least, planting trees or picking up litter in honor of Earth Day.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed the worthwhile events at the Expo today.

 

 

Fashion photographer Nigel Barker showed his new documentary film “A Sealed Fate?” which is about the the annual massacre of baby seals in Canada.  When it comes to baby seals, there is something that inspires sadistic humor in all but tried and true humanitarians.  Upon entering the lecture hall, I remembered more jokes about clubbing baby seals than actual facts about the issue.  It was an informative film that managed to convey the gravity of the atrocities without exposing viewers to anything terribly gruesome.  The coverage of  the actual seal hunt was shot from helicopters at a distance. 

 

All in all, Nigel made a compelling argument for boycotting Canadian seafood in order to pressure the Canadian government to stop licensing these hunts. It seems there is reason to believe the Canadian government may be swayed to ban this barbarism someday soon.   

 

The problem with the hunt is the inhumane tactics, not the overall reduction in the seal population.  There are about 5 million of these seals so they are not an endangered species.   During the first 12 days of their lives, baby seals are unable to swim and simply hang out on the ice nursing.  Sadly, 200,000 baby seals drowned this spring due the earlier thawing of the ice sheets, likely caused by global warming.  

 

Nigel was unsure which channels would be airing the documentary due to the expected reluctance of viewers to watch such material.  I did wonder why people would be OK seeing people getting shot on TV, but couldn’t watch seals being clubbed?  I had to work hard to restrain myself from suggesting that he ask the Military Channel to air the show, if not Discovery.  There I go again! 

 

When I got home from the expo this evening, my 11 year old son was thrilled to receive an adorable white baby seal stuffed animal.  When I asked him what he planned to name it – he responded “clubber”.  I’m afraid that name is going to stick because he saw me crack a smile before I was able to summon the thoughtful response and decry his choice.  All joking aside, if you’d like to support this worthy cause, visit protectseals.org. 

 

I didn’t have the opportunity to hear Mariel Hemingway’s inspiring talk, but she signed a copy of her new book for us – Healthy Living from the Inside Out. At first glance, it looks like a great book, full of practical suggestions for slowing down and enriching your life through diet, exercise and relaxation.”

 

One more day at the Expo.  I’m praying for rain!

Solar Trees are Sprouting

I’m not sure how this happened, but twice this week I found myself sitting around a table with fellow “green teamers” discussing solar trees as a way to reduce our carbon footprint.    First, I heard from Bob Ferguson about Envision Solar’s ground-breaking Solar Tree for parking lots.  How brilliant is that?  Parking lots are generally pretty hot, desolate places to begin with – putting up towers with photovoltaic cells couldn’t really “spoil” the ambiance there.  In fact, the solar trees look pretty cool, and they provide some shade to cars and reduce the heat island effect caused by development.  They even have outlets for charging electric cars.    And of course, when they put a whole bunch of these trees together, they call them Solar Groves.   Each tree in the grove produces 17,000 kWh per year, enough to power three typical San Diego homes for a year.  Also fascinating, is their LifeVillage - an entire modular solar-powered village that can be constructed in developing nations to provide self-powered community infrastructure for people in need.

My second solar tree encounter this week was at a WeAreBOOST Contest to Camp CURE kickoff dinner in Trenton.  WeAreBoost is running a Back2Tap reusable bottle fundraiser to raise money for the contest prizes.  One of my fellow speakers was Rein Triefeldt, a solar kinetic sculptor from Trenton.  He told us about his collaboration with an elementary school environmental club in Hillsborough, California.   Together via iChat technology, he and the students designed a  25-foot grid-connected, energy-producing solar tree for the school yard.   Then during the week of Earth Day 2008, they built a maquette (model) of their beautiful California Oak solar tree.  They calculate that their solar tree will generate 7,300  kWh – enough power to re-charge 2.500 iPhones and iPod’s every day for a year.  That’s something students were especially thrilled to learn!  I think the students summed it up best: “Solar trees saving real trees – that’s just too cool!”