Daily Loaf

It wasn’t easy for me to resist the temptation to gush happily in print over our President’s visit to DeSoto county last week; but what struck me as I watched the event on TV were the paradoxical images –

Consider this: a utility company executive delivers accolades to the President for his leadership on sustainable energy production. Is this an anomaly? Maybe, but FPL Group’s CEO Lewis Hay, belongs to an exclusive club. Its members are forward thinking business executives readying their companies for a new green economy.

Granted, Mr. Hay’s exuberance may be due to the $200 million of stimulus funding FP & L is about to receive. But you have to admit, it does take chutzpah for him and his activist executive buddies to visit Washington in support of climate change legislation. They gathered as the Waxman/Markey bill was coming up for a key house vote back in June, even taking out a full page ad in DC newspapers. Acknowledging the paradigm shift to sustainable, clean power production so many others deny, they see the legislation as good for business. Whoa, did you hear that, Chamber of Commerce? Jokingly, Obama noted that people get nervous about change, relating Hay’s comment “especially utility executives” to which the crowd, largely made up of utility contractors and employees, laughed heartily.

Or this image: Juxtaposed against gleaming hi-tech solar panels, straw cowboy hats perched atop the heads of men in the first row bobbed up and down nodding in agreement with the President’s words. Thirty years ago this would be a scene in a sci-fi flick, and for some in the Deep South it would have been a horror flick. An African American President telling a rural Florida farming community: Boys, we’re gonna be installin’ some special equipment out here in these pastures, we’re gonna start harvesting sun rays. Yeah, sure ya are, and I just got done putting a trailer hitch on my spaceship to Mars. Oh by golly, farming sure has changed. No horses corralling cattle; no tractors in the fields, no worry of drought damaged crops.
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This post is about one of my favorite places in Tampa Bay: Ybor City.

The Ybor City I admire is the community pre “urban renewal”: that pathetic time in the 1960s when vast stretches of this remarkable multi-lingual and multi-ethnic historic district were demolished in the name of the mid-century streamlined suburban dream.  I’ve written about Tampa’s planning history in previous Creative Loafing posts: The Tampa That Might Have Been, The roots of sprawl, and Fixing sprawl and redesigning suburbia.

The idea behind urban renewal (a national program) was that it demolish the existing crumbling old historic fabric of cities, and the newly vacant lots would become modern new development that would spur the economy. In Ybor this Faustian new construction never materialized, as I remember the old 1980s “Rough Riders restaurant” in Ybor being surrounded by vacant lots.

The real premise for urban renewal was most likely racial and socioeconomic, with the goal of moving the poor and disenfranchised out of the cities and into the sparkling new modern housing projects further out. Mind you, this re-location scheme is still being pursued by Tampa and the county to this day as these old housing projects are now meeting the wrecking ball and the unfortunate inhabitants are relocated even further out to places like the USF area (aka “Suitcase City”), Lutz, Carrollwood and Brandon (might I add places that largely lack mass transit). Dear readers, please note that South Tampa is not on the list.
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A local activist has scheduled a discussion on recycling and sustainability at the Seminole Community Library on Monday, November 9, from 10 am to 12 pm.

Mary DeGeorge, coordinator of the discussion, moved from New York to Florida two years ago.  While in New York, she established a paper recycling program at the 1,200 student school in which she taught.

Mary is a member of the Pinellas County Utilities Technical Management Committee (recycling subcommittee) which meets at the Solid Waste Management Plant in St. Petersburg.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Tampa Bay planning tip: Learn to swim (video) – Grant Rimbey explores what rising ocean levels could mean for the Tampa Bay area by 2100.

Green Visions Series: Water conservation and the revival of local economies - Eric Stewart proposes how we can create an ecologically-based way of living in Florida.

Tampa takes part in International Day of Climate Action – This past Saturday marked the International Day of Climate Action, a global call for an active, scientifically-minded approach to climate change. With 4,000 simultaneous demonstrations taking place in over 180 countries, it was the most widespread day of environmental action in history.
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The Tampa Bay Derby Darlins are at it again, teaming up with Esurance, T.R.E.E., Inc. (Tampa Bay Reforestation and Environmental Efforts Inc), the City of Temple Terrace Parks and Recreation Department and Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, Inc. to plant trees to offset their carbon gas emissions from their local and long distance traveling done in their 2009 season.

The girls and other volunteers will be planting 72 Florida native trees including the Florida Elm, Baldcypress and Longleaf pine trees.

If you would like to help the girls and volunteer this Halloween, the planting will take place at 10 am this Saturday, October 31st, at 78th Street and Bullard Parkway in Temple Terrace. The rain date will be scheduled for Saturday, November 7th.
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Last Saturday (October 24) was the International Day of Climate Action — the biggest day of grassroots action on global warming ever. People from over 180 countries participated in different ways to show our world leaders that we want them to establish stricter rules on global carbon emissions when they meet in Copenhagen in December to reach an agreement on a new climate treaty.

There were over 5,200 events staged internationally and over 19,000 photos taken of the various events that day — from the US to India, Australia to Iceland. See photos submitted to Greenpeace, the Huffington Post, TreeHugger, and check out 350.org’s page for photos and current updates of the movement.
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The inaugural Tampa Bay Green Business Summit, hosted by Mayor Rick Baker, will be held tomorrow (Tuesday, October 27)  at the Progress Center for the Arts at the Mahaffey Theater in Downtown St. Petersburg. The event will allow the business community to share ideas, strategies and best practices to invest and grow business in the emerging clean technology and green industries.

The Green Business Summit is a free event open to the public that targets members of the business community seeking to learn about opportunities and risk management of green business in the wake of impending climate change legislation and litigation. The green business revolution offers businesses both challenges and opportunities. This event will identify business strategies for coping with the challenges and taking advantage of the business opportunities.

There will be three panel discussions on green investment and the economy; understanding regulation and carbon markets, and managing sustainable businesses.
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This past Saturday marked the International Day of Climate Action, a global call for an active, scientifically-minded approach to climate change. With 4,000 simultaneous demonstrations taking place in over 180 countries, it was the most widespread day of environmental action in history.

Activists hope an opportunity for improvement is on the horizon. In early December, President Obama and other foreign leaders will decide on a new climate treaty at the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen. One of the primary topics of discussion: carbon emissions. The concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere recently topped 390 parts per million (ppm), but most scientists believe that safe levels should not exceed 350 ppm. If levels are maintained or continue to rise, climate change will become a more severe problem. 89 countries have already proclaimed their support for the 350 target.

350.org, an international climate campaign, would like to see global carbon emissions reduced 80% by 2050. This target would allow atmospheric carbon levels to fall below 350 ppm once again. The organization was founded by U.S. author Bill McKibben, who published one of the first books on global warming for the general public. 350.org coordinated the International Day of Climate Action in order to send a cohesive message to world leaders about the need to reduce carbon emissions and stop global temperature increases.

On Saturday morning, a group of about 40 people gathered along Bayshore Boulevard to add their voices to the call for climate action. The event, dubbed the “Tampa Bay 350 Action Rally,” was sponsored by Repower America, Faiths United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE), and Greenpeace. With the Big Bend Power Station as a backdrop, the rally featured speeches by various environmental activists as well as a brief demonstration.

Kate Melges, Greenpeace Lead Activist for the Bay area, organized the event and believes that politics threaten to undermine viable solutions to the climate crisis. She said we need a clean energy policy backed by science, not oil companies and lobbyists. Melges also thinks that it’s important for President Obama to take a leading role at the UN Climate Change Conference in December: “It is time for him to be a leader and stand up to the challenge of climate change.”

Sommer Geck, a Greenpeace Campus Coordinator at the University of South Florida, said that the current moment is a peak time for political action regarding climate change. She pointed out a disparity between public and scientific perspectives on global warming: “Less than 1% of scientists believe that global warming isn’t caused by humans. Yet nearly 60% of the population thinks that.” Geck also warned, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train… If you’re not working against climate change, you’re helping it.”

Adrian Brunori, a representative for Repower America, pointed out that climate change affects certain parts of the planet differently, saying, “The 350 target caps global temperature rise at 3 degrees. The Earth distributes that unevenly. At the equator, the temperature will rise by ½ a degree whereas the poles will see a 12 degree increase.”

Several attendees at the Tampa Bay 350 Action Rally took a faith-based approach to climate change. Reverend Warren Clark of Faiths United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE) believes that environmental stewardship is a moral responsibility which will impact the well-being of future generations. Clark gave a short demonstration about sea-level rise as it relates to global warming. He explained the rationale behind the rally’s location: “We chose this place because, whenever there is a storm in Tampa, this is where Bayshore floods.”

The Tampa Bay 350 Action Rally concluded with photographs and a march down Bayshore. Many attendees carried signs with slogans such as “Make Our Energy Clean” and “Power Past Coal.”

Images and information concerning the International Day of Climate Action are available at www.350.org.

Let us assume for one moment that water was a precious commodity, as rare as gold itself. How would we treat it? Would we bathe our infertile landscape with it? Expend perfectly clean water to dispose of our waste? Throw it away after scantly using it in the sink while doing dishes?

Now let us live in reality. Realize that already this resource is such a thing. For we live way above our means at almost 500 gallons a day for the average American. Most human beings on this planet use less than 100 gallons, and by 2025 water will be a scarce resource for nearly three-quarters of the population due to exponential growth of use and depleting glaciers.

In my previous post about South Central Asia, I spoke also about the resource war that could erupt over water. With recent fires in California as well as sandstorms in Australia, more than ever resilience in a water supply will be crucial for our success in the future. We must adapt to a goal of using less water and utilizing it more efficiently.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Tampa joins International Day of Climate Action to take a stand for a safe climate future- On October 24, people from Tampa Bay joined Greenpeace to hear the importance of acting now for the climate and gather together to take a stand for the climate and a clean energy future as part of the largest global day of climate action ever.

Which big name food company is behind your organic food? – Did you know that some of your favorite organic food brands are owned by some of the biggest names in the food production business?

October 24 is the International Day of Climate Action (videos) – The biggest day of grassroots action on global warming ever.

The Age of Stupid showing at USF St. Pete campus (video) – The Student Environmental Awareness Society is starting their Environmental Film Series with the question, “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had a chance?”
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The following is an essay on sustainable development by Anubha Momin, a Canadian student studying abroad in London who will be attending the Youth Encounter on Sustainability program in Braunwald, Switzerland. This two-week program “aims to sensitize participants to the complex issues of sustainable development in a global context, through course work, field trips, workshops, group work, discussions and practical learning experiences, combined with social and cultural activities”.

I’ve been integrating climate conscious actions into my days for as long as I can remember: trying to view documents on screen instead of printing and printing double-sided if required to print, regarding plastic water bottles with disdain, and using cloth grocery bags even before I was being charged for plastic ones.

However, when my good friend Martina informed me that she was planning to traverse the 9306 km that make up Canada by bicycle in an effort to raise awareness about climate change, I began to reconsider my limited knowledge about the environmental issues my reducing, reusing, and recycling were to target. To that end, I decided to apply to the Youth Encounter on Sustainability program, a course run by ETH Zurich, which is being held this year in the car-free mountain village of Braunwald, Switzerland. I am seeking just the type of immersive, didactic environment YES offers in order to heighten my awareness of sustainable development, beyond the surface attention provided in blog posts, news programs, and school.
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Will you stand? Comment what you’re standing for here locally in Tampa bay.

Looking for something green-related to do this weekend? Look no further than our own Green Community Calendar.

Dunedin Green Market- Every Friday; 8 am- 1 pm. The Dunedin Green Market is located in Pioneer Park at the cross streets of Douglas Avenue and Main Street in Downtown Dunedin and runs every Friday.

Dialogue on Climate Change and Coastal Conservation- Friday, October 23; 9 am-12 pm. On October 23rd, participate and be part of a lively discussion on climate change adaptation strategies and ways to maintain our coasts as places where people and wildlife can thrive. The Dialogue on Climate Change and Coastal Conservation will explore what we must do to prepare for the challenges of a changing coastline. The Dialogue will build on and increase cooperation for protecting natural resources and the economy in response to the effects of global warming. Free event. Seating is limited so please reserve your seats now. Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park, 950 Lake Carillon Drive, St. Petersburg, FL 33716.

Tampa Downtown Market- Fridays October-May; 10 am-2 pm. The vision of the Tampa Downtown Market is to provide local residents and businesses of the community with the freshest, highest quality, most nutritious, and most reasonably priced food & gourmet products. The mission of the Tampa Downtown Market is to serve as a community-gathering place where local farmers, producers, and artisans can offer fresh agricultural and related products to generate a sense of local pride and further the economic development of Downtown Tampa. With a strong focus on sustainability, the Tampa Downtown Market intends to provide a vehicle to educate the community on the importance of good health as we create more business opportunities and residential benefits. Located in Lykes Gaslight Square- Tampa St. & Kennedy Blvd., Downtown Tampa.

2009 Audubon Assembly- Friday and Saturday, October 23-24. Come and enjoy two days of Audubon fellowship. Connect with nature and birds on expert-led and self-guided field trips. Celebrate Audubon chapter milestones, too: St. Petersburg Audubon turns 100 and Clearwater Audubon is 50 this year. Deepen your knowledge at exciting learning sessions. And share your stories of how climate change is affecting your life and the places you care about. See the full Assembly schedule. Register here. Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park, 950 Lake Carillon Drive, St. Petersburg, FL 33716.

Green Halloween- Friday, October 23; 3:30-6:30 pm. Who says Halloween has to be unhealthy? And who says healthy can’t be fun? Green Halloween® is about making Halloween happy and healthy and about creating community traditions we can all be proud of. Divine Events will host Tampa’s inaugural Green Halloween on Friday, October 23, from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Hyde Park Village. Event activities include a pumpkin patch cake walk, bobbing for organic apples, make your own Halloween bag out of old TBPM magazines, “best green costume” contest, and much more! National Sponsors Cascadian Farms, Glee Gum, Larabar & Surf Sweets will be providing healthy snacks for kids. Divine Events will also be collecting used children’s Halloween costumes, in good condition, to donate to The Alpha House of Tampa for use by less fortunate children. Local sponsors include Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine, Seedlings, My Green Home, and Nicole Geller Photography.  To read all about Green Halloween® and find fun events near you, visit GreenHalloween.org/Tampa. You can learn how to get involved locally, sign up for the super nifty newsletter, and share DIY costume ideas, recipes, and more on the new discussion board. There’s even a trick-or-treat bag design contest for kids! For more information visit www.greenhalloween.org/tampa or contact Barbara Keskiner at barbara@divinetampa.com or 727.403.5868.
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This Saturday, October 24, 2009, is the International Day of Climate Action - the biggest day of grassroots action on global warming ever. Why are people speaking out on this day, you ask?

People are trying to make their voices heard over wanting stricter regulations on global carbon emissions, so we can try to curb global warming before it gets out of hand. This December in Copenhagen, many world leaders will be attending the Climate Conference to reach an agreement on a new climate treaty. Environmental activists want them to know that they mean business and want things changed now, before it’s too late.

That’s where 350.org comes in:
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On October 24, people from Tampa will join Greenpeace to hear the importance of acting now for the climate and gather together to take a stand for the climate and a clean energy future as part of the largest global day of climate action ever.

The event is one of more than 3,000 events in over 150 countries to call on President Obama and other world leaders to secure a fair, ambitious and binding global deal in Copenhagen this December at the UN Climate Change Conference. Greenpeace is calling on President Obama to lead the world toward a solution to the climate crisis that is based on the latest science, not the demands of oil and coal companies and their backers in Congress.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Connecting of tribes at the Campus and Community Sustainability Conference at USF- Contributor Eric Stewart gives an overview of the seminars at the event and what Florida students are doing to make others aware of sustainablity issues.

USF Green Expo panel discusses high-speed rail- A speaker at the USF Going Green Expo, Nazih Haddad, Manager of the High-Speed Rail Program at the Florida Department of Transportation, said that demographics, geography, and growth management needs to create a perfect niche for high speed rail technology.

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful receives $10,000 grant award as part of nationwide competition to “think green”- KHCB received a $10,000 cash grant for being one of 15 winners nationwide in a competition to present proposals for ambitious projects representing a wide array of stewardship, community outreach and educational projects.

Participate in ‘No Impact Week’ to lighten your carbon footprint-  Starting Sunday, October 18, use the No Impact Project guide and learn to gradually reduce your carbon footprint, step-by-step.
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A report released earlier this year by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works claimed that green and clean energy jobs were lower paying than similar non-green jobs. For instance, it said that workers in renewable energy manufacturing facilities were making around $7-$10 an hour less than their non-green manufacturing counterparts. But a report from Clean Edge and PayScale released this past week says it may be quite the contrary for green collar jobs, which comes as good news to all of those who have lost their prior jobs due to the recession.

According to this Green Inc. article: “The median earnings found in the survey range from $36,100 a year for an insulation worker to $112,000 a year for design engineering managers in alternative energy, according to Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale.” Mr. Lee also went on to say that several entry-level positions — including jobs as solar-energy system installers and solar fabrication technicians — require only high school or associate’s degrees and pay more than $40,000 annually.
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If you’re interested in clean energy solutions, climate change, and the environment, be sure to attend the Repower America event tonight in St. Petersburg:
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I intend to describe an emerging tribe that is being formed, not only in the Tampa Bay area, but across the state as well. But while doing, so I want to showcase my own observations of the mindset of a large section of the population that is emerging. I believe and have witnessed the cohesive power of this tribe en mass. This cohesiveness is being brought about with courage from an unknowable source. The people standing up for the changes within our culture are ones that have jumped into a new dark abyss. They go forward with lamps showing the way for others to follow.

Last weekend, I attended the 4th Annual Campus and Community Sustainability Conference and Expo at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus. One of the first seminars I went to was about a group of young architect students from the USF Center for Community Design and Research designing a sustainable community.  These young ladies entered a contest to design a sustainable city, their design being at the heart of  Tampa between Ybor and downtown Tampa. They readily valued community supported agriculture as a method of enabling people to consume food, not measured in miles, but in feet. Light rail mixed with walkable communities enabled the commuters to enjoy a short stroll to anything needed in daily living. Driving a bicycle was just about the only vehicle allowed within most of the area. There was a centralized farmers market where hundreds of stands could be set up, bringing in the local community garden’s food, as well as that from local farmers.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Eco Chic: Bracelets and cuffs from recycled vinyl records- These bracelets are a great way to enhance your favorite outfit while showing your love for music and the environment all at the same time.

700 people pose nude in a French vineyard for Greenpeace- Stripping down for a good cause.

Stylish, eco-friendly yoga mat totes- Check out these new eco-friendly yoga bags made from recycled items such as recycled juice boxes and feed sacks.

Ed Begley Jr. to talk about sustainable living in Tampa- The actor, also the host of the cable channel Green Planet’s Living With Ed, said that one of the things he’ll be talking about at USF is GreenSwitch, a new concept developed by Magnum Energy Solutions. GreenSwitch uses wireless technology to turn off electrical outlets and light switches, helping home owners to reduce energy consumption by as much as 25 percent.
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We’ve recently seen an influx of environmental themed films that deal with what we’re putting into our bodies. Food, Inc. and Fresh dealt with the mega industrial food industries, and the results of the hormones and chemicals that enter our bodies from the overprocessed foods we eat. But what about chemicals and pesticides that enter our bodies from the upkeep of our prized lush, green lawns?

The new documentary, A Chemical Reaction: The Story of a True Green Revolution, addresses the health risks and side effects of synthetic lawn pesticide and herbicide use and human and animal illnesses, and what a small town did to be the first place in North America to ban the use of these toxic chemicals.

See the film’s trailer after the break
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The $500 billion beauty industry is embraces a message that tells women they must correct, conceal and camouflage. Peel away the glitz and glamour, says Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, and you’ll expose the toxic truths lurking beneath the beauty industry’s seedy underbelly. Malkan shares five of the biggies that the major beauty purveyors would rather keep under wraps.

1. Many skincare products contain chemicals toxic to the skin

“A mind-boggling array of products contain chemicals that sensitize skin and trigger skin problems such as rashes, redness, acne, and other symptoms of contact dermatitis”, says Malkan, who notes that doctors often misdiagnose these problems as eczema and prescribe drugs such as steroids or immunosuppressants. Then, of course, there are the toxic chemicals that are known or suspected causes of long-term health effects such as asthma, infertility, learning disabilities, and cancer—ingredients that companies persist in including despite the fact that they “already know how to make great products without these hazardous chemicals,” she says.

2. Companies that donate to breast cancer research still use carcinogens in their products
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When you go to your local pharmacy and see an array of beauty products, soaps and other toiletries labeled as ‘green’, it might be hard to determine which ones are legitimately organic or natural products and which ones might be exploiting their green efforts.

According to Women’s Health Magazine, most beauty products  that are legitimate green products should be produced with minimal energy, derived from renewable materials, and be a plant-based product.

The best thing to do to weed out these possible exploiters is to carefully read the ingredient label and also see if it has been stamped by a logo certifying its green status.

Some labels to look for include:
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Lady Liberty, ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone – only darkness every day. Our St. Pete house just ain’t a home when she goes away. You can forget about solar panels in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mayor Rick Baker has completely robbed the city of all sunshine. And as for Lady Liberty, I wonder if she’s gone to stay. (Click here to hear the song that’s already playing in your head)

The St. Pete times recently reported that agenda items that come before the St. Petersburg City Council are a “done deal” before they are brought to a public forum, according to Councilman Jim Kennedy. This means that any time you or any member of the public speak at a city hearing, your testimony and evidence will not be considered by the board because they have already made up their mind in a meeting with the mayor days before. “It may be a done deal because it has been analyzed and its been massaged” said Kennedy, who openly admits that the Mayor regularly conducts private meetings with council members to ensure his ideas will get a majority vote.
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It’s time to move from wondering what’s Slow Food to questioning Slow Money. Like enjoying locally-grown food, slow money is about making your investments local, “bringing money back down to earth,” says Woody Tasch. For deeper digging, there’s his book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered. No time? Check out why the Wall Street Journal considers slow money a local hedge fund.

In early September, over 450 people from 34 states and six countries showed up in Santa Fe for the Slow Money Inaugural National Gathering. If you missed it, they are slowly putting workshops videos up on their web site.
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The 14th annual ASES Solar Home Tour this Saturday, October 3rd will be the first time tour conducted in Tampa. Don’t miss the opportunity to see some demonstrations, learn how solar photovoltaic installations work and how to save money by using energy efficient systems in your home.

In my last post, the energy savings I mentioned weren’t all that’s available for those of you who want to harness some of the sun’s power and claim it for yourself.  Unfortunately, there seems to be a little placating going on between the citizenry’s desire to move our state toward renewable energy and our legislator’s desire to make us think that they are on our side. Last November, Florida voters passed Amendment 3. What? You don’t remember Amendment 3? Not many people do, but then again, it seems there’s not much of a reason to.

What you may remember about November 2008’s ballot: the long lines for a voting booth, media hype and all of those pesky Constitutional Amendments. One of them, Amendment 3, was placed on the ballot under the authority of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission; a gubernatorial appointed board that meets once every 20 years. Every 20 years – really? One of the ideas they managed to place on the ballot was amazingly clearly worded, but honestly, I don’t think it was the renewable energy part that prompted so many Floridians to vote for Amendment 3. Authors cleverly name amendments to attract attention, and often word them to confuse the general public, designed for a pass or fail depending on which outcome they prefer. Remember the “Florida Marriage Protection Amendment”? In the case of Amendment 3 it was the storm protection component that played to fear-stricken Floridians: fear of not only hurricane force winds, but fear that they’d improve their homes to protect themselves, and then get taxed. It passed. Couldn’t have been because of the renewable energy, there’s already an exemption on the books for that, but who knew?
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The City Council of St. Petersburg will make a decision this Thursday that will signal what path the city is taking for the future. The council will vote on spending nearly $700,000 in taxpayer money for more police and special projects for the owners of BayWalk, including privatization of the sidewalk outside the mall entrance.  BayWalk’s ownership, whose controlling interest is held by Wells Fargo Bank, said without the subsidy and the sidewalk, they cannot possibly turn around the failing entertainment complex.

From the standpoint of public policy that promotes sustainable economics, the council’s choice is clear, I think. Will it continue a worn-out policy of subsidies to out-of-town corporations and mainly profit the wealthy few? Or will it adopt an enlightened, sustainable public policy that promotes economic development of all local residents, in every community, not just the privileged ones?
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With committee meetings just around the corner for the Florida Legislature, the proposal to drill for oil in state waters, just a few miles off the coasts of America’s best beaches, has begun – again. 

I was recently invited to speak at the Agency on Bay Management, a committee of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council.  I was joined on the panel by a representative from Senator Bill Nelson’s office, two representatives of the oil industry, a scientist, and a representative of our local tourism industry. While video of my remarks is not available, our office uploaded the audio to YouTube, complete with photogaphs of our beautiful Gulf Coast.

Video after the jump:  Read the rest of this entry »

A great opportunity crossed my path when Jamie Trahan from the USF Clean Energy Research Center called. As a local green builder, she thought I could help her search for homes to feature on the 14th annual ASES National Solar Tour being held across the country on October 3rd.

Sadly, I informed her although I researched installing solar on our super energy efficient homes, I couldn’t find a way to make it work. Our mission is to build sustainable and affordable. We went with a gas fired tankless hot water system. Yes, it is natural gas, not a renewable, but still better than a traditional water heater sapping electricity around the clock. I know everyone can relate to waiting for water to come from the tank to your shower and up to a comfortable temp, wasting gallons upon gallons of water in our already deprived region. Tankless saves money and almost more importantly, water. Would I have preferred solar? Damn straight I would, future homeowners of our Ec0-Craftsman would have benefited from a zero energy home, but solar is caught in a conundrum of sorts. There’s not the demand to spur mass production, which leads to lower costs while at the same time, there isn’t the mass production leading to lower cost which would spur demand.
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Do you want to know more about renewable energy and local sustainable products? Then the Going Green Tampa 2009 Expo will be right up your alley.

Held Friday, October 9th and Saturday, October 10th at the USF Marshall Center, the Expo will feature a number of exhibits and workshops that will focus on sustainability and reasons why the Tampa Bay area would be a great place for a businesses who would be interested in green growth.

According to the Going Green Tampa Bay website, below is what is expected to be a part of the expo:
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How are academic institutions meeting the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce their carbon footprint?

What are the strategies that they are using to become more “green,” less wasteful, and more energy efficient?

Colleges and universities across the country are exercising leadership in their communities by modeling ways to eliminate global warming emissions, and by producing graduates educated in environmental issues and concerns.  Panelists will give brief presentations on current and future plans for sustainability on their campus, followed by a roundtable discussion amongst all participants. Read the rest of this entry »

According to this press release from Hillsborough County:

Hillsborough County has been notified that it will receive $7,665,200 in federal stimulus funds to undertake energy efficiency and conservation projects on its facilities and vehicles. The award is the largest energy grant awarded to a County government in Florida to date. The funding comes from $2.7 billion set aside as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions by governments around the nation.

The County plans to use the grant money on the following improvement projects:

-A solar photovoltaic system on the original County Courthouse on Pierce Street, $1.307 million

-Energy-saving lighting retrofit to two County warehouse buildings on Falkenburg Road, $300,000
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Eco-adventurer takes ‘Plastiki’ expedition to the Pacific Garbage Patch- Eco-adventurer David de Rothschild plans to sail 11,000 miles from San Francisco to Sydney by way of the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch on his 60-foot catamaran called the Plastiki.

The truth about Van Jones: Communist? Nope. Revolutionary? Hope so. – From what I’ve known about Jones as a person and his work the past four years, I would say it’s pushing it to call him a communist. As for being a revolutionary, he is indeed a leader in the Green Revolution.

What we need to form Florida’s green economy- A green economy, based upon ethics, entrepreneurship and decentralization, would be the way to move forward for this state and our country.
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The Age of Stupid is an eco docu-drama directed by Franny Armstrong (Mc Libel, Drowned Out) and will be shown as a “first of it’s kind” worldwide live event- simulcast live from a solar tent in New York to only 440 movie theaters in the nation, in conjunction with UN Climate Week.

The film stars Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects) as a global archivist in the future who is wondering why the heck people didn’t get the clue about global climate change and stop it when we still had a chance. It also interweaves six dramatic stories of people from around the globe facing different ecological crises and features present day news clips that are featured in this future media archive.

See the trailer after the jump:
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Gulf Restoration Network report reveals poor water quality protection Gulf-wide:

TAMPA, FL – Today the Gulf Restoration Network released its “Clean Up Your Act!” report card, which grades Gulf of Mexico states on how they implement the Clean Water Act and protect their state waters and public health. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas all received disappointing and unsatisfactory grades for their failure to fully incorporate the Clean Water Act into state policies. The report grades the Gulf States on issues such as establishing water quality standards, policies to prevent Dead Zone-causing pollution, public health protection, and facilitating public participation in the policy-making process.

“Florida’s economy and future depends on our waters, and Florida’s failure to successfully implement the Clean Water Act continues to hurt our environment, public health, and our economy” stated Joe Murphy, Florida Program Director of the Gulf Restoration Network. “It’s time for Florida, and for Governor Crist, to step up and protect the lifeblood of our state’s future.”
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