Daily Loaf

With a helping handout from taxpayers, multinational bankers like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have given themselves record bonuses – billions of dollars – in 2009. What? You didn’t get your record, subsidized bonus in 2009?

Despite those giddy Wall Street windfalls and federal stimulus package, the Florida employed rate topped 10.6% in June – 970,000 Floridians “officially” jobless. How many of your family, friends, and neighbors have yet to be lifted out of the economic black hole that seems to be consuming more and more of us?

In the Tampa-St. Petersburg region, we need our own stimulus package – for us. Read the rest of this entry »

In previous posts, I declared the problems that our country faces. The point was not to be pessimistic but to maturely point out the weak points so we can find solutions. We face mounting debt, a dependence on a finite power source stored beneath the Earth that may have peaked production, the baby boomer generation about to enter retirement, a lack of savings, and a consumer culture built upon a dominator society that depends entirely from receiving it’s inputs of materials and things from far away. This society is unsustainable and will need to transition to something different by choice or by collapse.

This society arose when we began valuing things, more than people. It is not a recent event, but an event that has playing itself out for thousands of years. I spoke of a permaculture path. A path to improve our economy to be environmentally friendly and get us off our addiction to fossil fuels. As a by-product of utilizing these permaculture design principles we will have healthier food, cheaper costs of living, meaningful work repairing the Earth all as we return to the community way of thinking and away from individualism. We must create a partnership society, partnering with the Earth and one another to repair the damage.

What does this look like though? It’s easy to state abstract ideas on digital paper, but how about an example locally?
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This column is the first in a series of profiles of people who do their part to live more sustainably in Tampa Bay.

Dave Starman lives a simple life. He resides on a sailboat in the harbor off Davis Island. He is just finishing his Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of South Florida, and drives to school everyday from South Tampa in his 1985 Mercedes Benz 300D diesel that he has converted to straight vegetable oil that he collects from restaurant waste fryers and filters.

The car is modified to heat the oil to a temperature which brings its viscocity similar to that of petroluem diesel fuel and the diesel engine just burns it.

On his sailboat, Dave limits his daily living power consumption to what can be collected from one 130 Watt solar panel.  He lives on a 12V DC system primarily with lights, stereo, water pump, and other marine navigational equipment.
Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Celebrating Independence Day or creating environmental disaster? – Kelly Rothwell looks at the littered aftermath of Fourth of July celebrations and wonder why, instead of giving back in celebration of their freedom, people decide to light off fireworks, leaving mass amounts of debris in the water and on the beach.

Local Food: Dinner in, and from, the garden at Gateway Organic Farm – Chef Gui Alinat gives information about Gateway Organic Farm’s next “Dinner in the Garden” event, an incredible local foods experience featuring nine Bay area chefs.

Read the rest of this entry »

St. Petersburg College now offers a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Sustainability Management. The program provides relevant and specialized training in:

- Energy and environmental management
- Sustainable enterprise planning
- Sustainable business strategies
- Triple bottom line management
- Resource management
- Sustainability in the natural environment
- Green construction and urban planning
- Legal aspects of sustainability
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For the next century, my generation’s greatest challenge will be dealing with our energy sources. Energy is what drives everything in our society. The food we eat, the gas we put in our cars, as well as the electricity we use to turn on our lights - all originating from fossil fuels that were created from condensed sunlight millions of years ago. For millions of years, the Earth only had the available energy source of the sunlight to feed our societies’ advancement.

During the 18th century that situation changed when the Industrial Revolution began using coal to fire industry and machinery to do the work of thousands of men. Shortly after the Civil War in the 1860s, oil was first utilized in this new industrialized society. America became the current day Saudi Arabia of oil exports up until the 1970s. Unfortunately for us, becoming the biggest exporter also made us the biggest user of oil. We currently have 5% of the population of the planet but utilize 25% of all the oil that the world consumes – roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day (though less since the recession).
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Below, is an interview I just conducted with Arlen Slobodow, a local filmmaker who just completed a documentary about air pollution caused by fossil fuels in the Tampa Bay area and how it affects our health and the health of our planet. Also, see my last post which goes more in depth about the film.

The following interview was conducted by phone on the evening of Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

Matt De Vlieger (M): How did you get involved in documentary filmmaking?
Arlen Slobodow (A): I have always been interested in social change work and have found mass media a good way to accomplish that. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I received an email from a local filmmaker, Arlen Slobodow of Public Media Productions, asking me to take a look at a 17-minute video he just completed on public health and the environmental consequences of air pollution in the Tampa Bay area.  Because I am such a supporter of local independent media production, things that inspire action for the public good, and combating big polluters, I thought I’d share it.  Also, be sure to check out my interview with the film’s writer/director/producer, Arlen Slobodow, in my next post.

Video after the jump
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Cool-N-Save: An eco-friendly energy saver for your air conditioning unit (Video): Jennifer Meier writes about how the Cool-n-SaveTM system affixes to the top of most home air conditioning units, resulting in a substantial drop in ambient temperature of up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The Cool-N-Save(TM) system has also been rated by the US Department of Energy and EPA as an Energy Star Partner.

Signs of hope: are our environmental efforts making a difference?: Linda Taylor shows us an example of how environmental efforts can make a difference, even if they take years to come to fruition.
Read the rest of this entry »

Oil slicks have been described as an unpredictable phenomenon, their direction and behavior dependent upon the weather, currents, tides, wind direction, temperatures, and whether the oil is crude or refined.

Given the allegations against our recent House Leadership and the indictment of the entire House’s conduct, the slick move by Republicans during the wee hours of the waning days of session was disappointing but much more predictable. You may remember the late-filed council amendment allowing oil drilling just a few miles off our coasts and its subsequent passage on the floor. As I noted in an April blog entry for The Political Whore, zero notice was given to the amendment’s likely opponents, yet the new language was accompanied by Powerpoint presentations delivered by oil industry representatives. It was a surreal scene for many in the room, drawing comparisons to a Carl Hiaasen novel. Fortunately, the Florida Senate, often the more mature chamber, decided against hearing the amended bill. Unfortunately, the debate isn’t going away. Read the rest of this entry »

As a young man growing up in this wonderful state I’ve seen the growth of the local area around me. I still recall the farmlands when I first moved to Pasco county nearly 10 years ago. Now they are all gone, replaced by rolled out lawns of Bermuda grass, cul de sacs, and neat rows of similar looking houses. I recall as a young man building some of those homes: installing windows, replacing dishwashers with custom brand new dishwashers, adding water softeners to neighborhoods far away from any development, with the closest road being I-75. Yes I grew up in the boom that was the post 9/11 years.

I’m 24 years old now, recalling the remarkable growth that I’ve seen over those years working on the growth in Pasco gives me reflection. Reflection on George W. Bush’s speech where he mentioned for America to go shopping. Yes I, too, got caught up into the fantasy of an easily accessible credit card line and a brand new plasma screen TV. We Americans consumed to our hearts content on easily borrowed money, second mortgages, and home equity loans. I don’t know how many times I’ve recalled seeing ads for debt consolidating or a new book proclaiming how to get out of debt. Easy money creates easy consuming. Now looking back I notice the hypocrisy. We are still currently at war in two nations for a greater length of time than even World War II. Yet at home, we bought up brand new homes and filled them with brand new things only to turn around and get rid of them when a brand new thing of another product came out. We became gluttonous as a nation.
Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Why does Florida Fish and Wildlife refuse to protect eagles and tortoises?: contributor and green activist Chris Hrabovsky asks why Florida wildlife is allowed to be sacrificed in order for big businesses to take over that land.

The roots of sprawl: Grant Rimbey explores the origins of sprawl in the United States, describes the difference between sprawl and sustainability, and hints at a future strategy for moving beyond sprawl.

Tampa City Council reclaimed water workshop: a post by John Dingfelder on Tampa City Council wanting to “turn the page” towards a new era of common sense water conservation.

An overview of Green Cities Florida in Orlando and hopes for a greener future: Joshua Michael Poll attended last week’s Green Cities Florida event in Orlando and discusses highlights from it, as well as his hopes for Tampa Bay’s green initiatives.

No acupuncture needles needed when it comes to Meridian Therapy: health and wellness contributor Kevin O’ Dunn looks at the use of toothpicks in place of needles in acupuncture and Meridian Therapy.

Help support the Tampa Theatre by shopping at Barnes and Noble this week: Michelle Schenck gives information on helping the Tampa Theatre by purchasing from Barnes and Noble book stores this week.

Steps to becoming greener: Starting a compost or worm bin: Tips and information from Joshua Michael Poll on creating healthier soil by making a compost or worm bin.

360 Vodka: drink in the name of Mother Earth: Jessica McCormick reviews the “eco-responsible” (and very tasty) 360 Vodka.

VP Biden boosts green jobs and training in Denver: Vice President Joe Biden creates 450,000 green jobs in Denver with $500 million from the economic stimulus bill, as reported by Michelle Schenck.

Lose your lawn and get Florida native plants instead; Free native plants tour Sat. (5/30): Joshua Michael Poll gives us more green tips- this time for our lawns and how to use native Florida plants in place of a time- and money-consuming traditional lawn.

Green office tip of the week: Reduce paper in your office: the latest green office tip from contributor Lisa Assetta.

McLibel and Wal-Suit trials: people who fought against these companies and made a difference: Chris Hrabovsky discusses the long McLibel suit in London and compares it to similar local issues and legal battles with Wal-Mart destroying wetlands and wildlife to build, showing what a few everyday people have done to stand up to these big companies.

Don’t forget to check out our Green Community Calendar for green events and workshops in the Bay Area!

Mc Libel is a documentary that was recommended to me a couple of years ago by fellow activists who said it was eerily familiar to our own Wal-Mart experience. After viewing this important and inspiring film recently, I must recommend that all activists see this film immediately. It started with one woman-Helen Steel. She was the first to take a stand, and then she was soon followed by Dave Morris who fought by her side to the bittersweet end. The two British activists made history in the longest ever English trial, by taking on the multi-national corporation McDonald’s. 

It began in 1982 when both activists were busy handing out leaflets with their group London Greenpeace. The group started by protesting environmental issues such as nuclear power and social justice issues including Third World Debt. In 1985 they launched International Day of Action Against McDonald’s, which continues on Oct.16th to this day. In 1986 they produced a six-sided fact sheet called “What’s wrong with McDonald’s-Everything they don’t want you to know.” The leaflet attacked many aspects of the corporations business accusing them of exploiting children with their advertising, promoting an unhealthy diet, exploiting workers, and environmental damage as well as cruelty to animals.

London Greenpeace held regular meetings, and were soon infiltrated by private investigators hired by McDonald’s. They actually hired two separate firms, and even had them spying on each other, as well as the activist’s in the group. Some meetings actually had as many spies as it had activists. The information obtained by the spies was used to issue libel writs to 5 volunteers in the group. There was no public legal aid for libel cases and the only legal advice they got was that this type of law was extremely complex and would be very costly so best to just end it by apologizing to McDonald’s. Read the rest of this entry »

Vice President Joe Biden released plans for a national program on Tuesday at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to focus on training workers for the “green job market”. These green jobs will focus on making public housing more energy efficient by adding solar panels and manufacturing wind turbines.

How do they plan on doing all of this in the heat of a recession? He announced that $500 million from the economic stimulus bill will be used to retrain people who now live in low-income housing for green jobs. He went on by saying that the stimulus bill will create 450,000 new green jobs. Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, President Obama officially announced the new rules governing auto emissions and fuel economy standards, effectively bringing to a close almost a decade of debate on the topic. For years, California has been petitioning the Federal Government to increase the mileage standards and reduce emissions. Meanwhile, the auto industry has fought back saying that a patchwork of standards would be crippling to their product development and adding more technology would ultimately hurt their bottom line.

In an interesting turn of events, this week President Obama was joined by Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California as he announced the new standards. It was a symbol of how far we have come or, alternatively, how desperate both sides are to claim this victory. That’s right, I said claim victory. Obviously, California is thrilled at the new mandate but the auto industry too? It turns out they have some reasons to be happy as well. The auto industry has been paralyzed by the years of debate over the new standards which have effectively stalled new car development. Who is going to design cars that will go to market in a few years if you know there will be fuel standards, but don’t yet know what they will be? With a concrete set of rules, they can finally get back to work on our future gas-sippers. In addition, by coming to the table willing to negotiate they were able to have input into the time frame for these new standards as well. Read the rest of this entry »

With this post, I make a strong case for the use of the social-media, micro-blogging tool Twitter as an extremely useful resource for staying connected to and up-to-the-minute with the green community, or any other community, for that matter. More on that later.

The case for Twitter requires use of the many and ever-growing list of applications to manage, filter, and access the flow of Tweets (comments). While the overall signal-to-noise ratio on Twitter may not be that high (case in point would be Oprah’s first Tweets that were little more than noise — dare I say white noise?), there is a high quality, high velocity stream of information, if you just know where and how to look.

The first step to creating a noise filter (to only see and/or block certain Tweets) requires a visit to the Twitter search engine. Navigating without this feature would be like finding something on the internet without a search engine (e.g., Google). Because of the “open architecture” characteristics of Twitter, ALL words in ALL tweets are searchable. Here is link to a search on all tweets that include “Creative Loafing” and “tampa”. And since the tweets update in real time, you always have the most up-to-date information. Read the rest of this entry »

Is hemp our future economic stimulus? A recent article on Alternet.org written by Dara Colwell suggests so. Industrial hemp has 25,000 known applications. From paper (our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written on hemp paper ), to clothing (your hemp pants will last forever ), to food products (according to this article, the Wall Street Journal stated that hemp is the fastest growing new food category in North America). Add in construction and automotive materials and you have a very sustainable green economy start-up.

But as most of you know, growing hemp in the United States is still illegal. The Drug Enforcement Administration has grouped this low-THC plant with its relative, marijuana. We are the only industrialized country on earth to prohibit hemp production. Canada even legalized growing hemp in 1997. Read the rest of this entry »

By taking the wisdom we have learned from past events, we can move forward free from the past and also enjoy freedom from the cycle of history repeating itself.  It has been said that class warfare has always been a part of our lives, even when it comes to our environment.  There are those who have more money who care more about sustaining their lifestyle, than they do about sustaining life on our planet.  There are those with less money, who care more about sustaining life, than allowing those with more to have it their way.  The difference has often been that those with more have also had more opportunity to squelch the views of those with less.  This is where a positive change is occurring. Many people far more educated than I am have told me stories and actually demonstrated how history has repeated itself.  I often respond to them by saying, “We are in a new era.  We have, for the first time in recorded history, several abilities that have never existed before” (that we know of).  These are:  1) The ability to travel anywhere on this planet in 24 hours or less, 2) The ability to talk to anyone, anywhere on this planet at any time, 3) The ability to translate every language in use today, 4) Access to “all” known information via internet, 4) The ability to travel to other planets.  As far as we know, these things have never before been available to mankind.  Therefore, we can not judge the future, by the limited scope of the past.  Our future need not be a bleak repeat of things we know all to well.  No more reruns of old tragedies and dramas.  With these new found abilities, we have found ourselves on a new path.  We are on the precipice of something much greater.  Read the rest of this entry »

At a time when many American companies are cutting back, Ford Motor Company is investing 550 million dollars retooling one of it’s Michigan based truck factories to manufacture smaller, fuel efficient cars and an electric version of the Focus sedan. The question is whether consumers will make the investment return if financial and political tides return fuel prices to previous lows.

This reporter does not know how Ford (whose Explorer line helped spark the S.U.V. craze) was able to avoid taking government bailout money while GM had to take billions to keep from going under, but this news is made even “greener” considering that the factory Ford is retooling is the same one that produced the gas guzzling Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. While Ford did not take federal aid, it is Michigan State and local government tax incentives and grants that allowed Ford to make the investment. Ford is also retooling two other plants to meet the current global demand for more fuel-efficient cars. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps you, like me have wondered what a revolution might look like in today’s America. Would it be a blood bath, like something out of the movie Braveheart? Or perhaps a Guy Fawkes masked hero would present the path, like the film V for Vendetta?

Well, first we must talk about the epidemic. The impetus for drastic change, in Braveheart, was of course the cruel way Scotland’s citizens were treated by the King of England. And in V for Vendetta, a literal epidemic was created with a virus sprayed on the citizens, and the ensuing panic and mayhem allowed the government to take dictatorial control of the country. The epidemic I am referring to in our current situation is not the swine flu, however. It is the corporate greed and corruption that has allowed our rights to be stripped away, and our planetary environment to be brought to the brink of disaster. Read the rest of this entry »

Van Jones has been selected by TIME magazine as one the 100 people influencing the world today. Here’s what Leonardo DiCaprio has to say about him.

Recently, Larry King asked Van during his CNN interview if he liked being called Obama’s new “green czar”. Van quickly dismissed the term saying, “I don’t like it. I call myself the green jobs handy man. They chop the heads off czars. My job is to help Barack Obama get his idea from signing a signing ceremony where he signs a bill to ordinary Americans signing back paychecks.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps , you’ve noticed a theme in my articles or maybe it is simply a theme amongst the corporate thieves and their publicly elected counterparts. The theme: bailouts, corporate welfare, our tax dollars, being used against us and our environment, all while CEO’s line their pockets with our hard earned cash.

Now this time it’s the proposed waterfront stadium in St. Petersburg. They want over $450 million of tax payer dollars to build a private business that will produce profits for its owners-not the taxpayers who have been asked to foot the bill. And you can guess what’s next; they will destroy the environment with their plan to dredge and fill the bay to make more room for their monstrosity. Their proposed ball field will destroy seagrass beds right near a freshwater spring and affect endangered manatee as well as dolphin.  Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a Green Job, or better yet a Green Career? Check out Daniel Goleman’s (New York Times science writer who authored and coined Emotional Intelligence) new book, Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Changes Everything. Since the book was just published, it may not have made it to your local library. Consider the ecological choice in having it in your hands next week by ordering it from Amazon.com.

To save trees and green cash, consider renting the book from BookSwim for $9.95 a month.  Read the rest of this entry »

For those of us growing weary of hearing about the energy crisis, coupled with the concept of more bailouts for corporations such as AIG and the rest of Wall Streets finest, we may finally have the “pick-me-up” you’ve been craving, in the form of green sustainability.

The truth is, “bailouts”, are not just limited to Wall Street thieves. Energy Companies like Progress Energy have been granted a “pre-emptive bailout”, for a boondoggle that hasn’t even been built yet. No longer do corporations have to screw up and gamble away their money in order to have the government hand them more of our hard earned cash. Now they can be given the right to reach into our wallets, to subsidize their gambling schemes before they even get started. It’s called Advanced Cost Recovery and the proposed Levy County nuclear plant is the first of more to come. Progress Energy started adding 25% to their customer’s bills this January of 2009, in part to pre-pay for their nuclear power project. They are taxing citizens for this corporation’s private gain.

But wait, where’s the “pick me up”, I referred to earlier? Like you, the only thing that makes me more weary, than hearing of another bailout, is hearing another person complain about it without offering any hope or solutions. Well, this time we have both. I have been researching this issue for some time now and have uncovered several solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t just be green at home, start a green routine at work, too. There are simple steps you can do right now to go green at work:

Only print documents and emails when absolutely necessary. Consider keeping digital copies instead of paper copies.

Use non-disposable utensils on your lunch break. Take a ceramic mug, reusable utensils, cloth napkins and plastic containers to work instead of using disposable cups, plastics utensils, sandwich bags and paper towels.

Turn off the power strip each night. If you don’t have a power strip, ask your employer to purchase a power strip for your office equipment. Did you know? Office computers waste $1 billion worth of electricity each year by being left on when they are not in use. 

Turn off lights when you leave your office. If you have access to the a/c thermostat, turn the thermostat up each night when you leave, too.

Check out this short video, “How to Be Green at Work” for more great “green” office tips!