Daily Loaf

Here’s your guide to finding the freshest, locally produced foods and goods (and an all-around good time) at weekly fresh markets in the Bay Area.

Gulfport Tuesday Morning Fresh Market- Every Tuesday; 9 am-3 pm. The Tuesday Morning Fresh Market is a weekly gathering in the Gulfport, Florida Waterfront District offering fresh fruits, vegetables and seafood in a festive environment with local art vendors. Speakers, vendors, artists are welcome to join in each Tuesday in the Gulfport Waterfront District. An all ages event! 2914 Beach Blvd. S., Gulfport.

Oldsmar Downtown Fresh Market- Wednesdays (through April); 8 am-1 pm. 100 State Street West, next to City Hall.

Downtown Clearwater Farmers Market- Every Wednesday (through May); 9 am-2 pm. Providing Clearwater’s residents, business people and visitors with the freshest produce, baked goods, gourmet foods, unique gifts, crafts, flowers and plants has been our passion and our pleasure. Located on the 500 block of Cleveland Street between Garden Avenue and N. Ft. Harrison Avenue.

Safety Harbor Farmers’ Market- Every Thursday (through May); 8 am-1:30 pm. Fresh and organic produce, plants and fresh flowers, gourmet foods, baked goods, handmade jewelry, light snacks. Located at the Gazebo at John Wilson Park- 401 Main Street, Downtown Safety Harbor

Dunedin Green Market- Every Friday (through April); 8 am- 1 pm. Featuring fresh, local produced goods such as baked good, ready-to-eat-foods, organic plants and herbs, coffee, honey, seafood, clothing, and so much more. 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.
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The Temple Terrace Preservation Society’s next meeting on Thursday, November 19, will be featuring local author and Temple Terrace resident, Dr. John Henry Fleming, and his newest book, Fearsome Creatures. Dr. Fleming will do a reading and signing of his latest book that’s mystical, magical and funny, with an environmental theme about preserving what’s left of Florida.

As CL writer Shawn Alff reviewed, “In Fearsome Creatures of Florida, Tampa author John Henry Fleming serves as taxonomist of Florida folklore, producing a wildlife handbook that could have been published by National Enquirer. This book breathes new life into real creatures and popular myths like the Skunk Ape and the Chupacabra.”
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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:

City of Seminole recycling and sustainability discussion - A local activist held a discussion on recycling and sustainability at the Seminole Community Library on Monday, November 9.

1890s Ybor City: Green and sustainable (plus vintage postcards) – Grant Rimbey explores the green and sustainable nature of pre-urban renewal Ybor City.

BPA in plastics linked to aggressive behavior in children – Did you know that exposure to the BPA in the “bad” plastics has been linked to aggressiveness in children, as well as other diseases in humans?

Energy systems 2.0 – We are currently in an energy crisis, yet continuing to rely on old, out-of-date systems of provision that are no longer viable, economically or ecologically.
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With the holiday season coming to a start and the year already coming to an end, why wait until the new year to start living a greener lifestyle? Get into the swing of the holidays by putting some eco-friendly practices to use. Bonus: They’ll help you save money as well.

Here’s a list of some sites that offer great tips and advice on how to green your holidays this year:
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Talk about recycling with a purpose: The new Navy Ship, USS New York, came into New York harbor this week sporting more than just 361 crew members – contained in the ship is 7.5 tons of recycled steel from the World Trade Center.

The 25,000 behemoth was built in Virginia and is the length of two football fields. Written on the bow above its crest is written “Never Forget”. Built in Louisiana, it made its way into New York harbor earlier this week, performing a 21-gun salute in front of Ground Zero and docking until November 11 so that the public can climb aboard and get a firsthand glimpse of it.
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For a big budget, Hollywood-style disaster film, 2012 probably wouldn’t come to mind as an “eco film” to most people. But not only does the movie serve as a message (or warning) of the effects of impending climate change, the director, Roland Emmerich, and producers took great strides to be as green as possible when making it.

Roland Emmerich, known for directing and producing other big budget disaster movies such as The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, has been living a green lifestyle himself – driving a Prius and using solar energy to power his home – and wanted to carry over some eco-friendly practices into his filmmaking. He stated to MNN at the Environmental Media Association Awards, “After making The Day After Tomorrow, I said to myself, ‘From now on my movies should have a green footprint’.”
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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.

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.

Ellenton Farmers Market- Saturdays; 8 am – 1 pm. Ellenton Farmers’ Market will be the largest year-round market in florida that specializes in “green” natural, organic and environmentally friendly products that makes for a healthier lifestyle and a better environment. Located just North of the Prime Outlet Mall in Ellenton, Florida (exit 224, Old Exit 43, off I – 75).

St. Pete Saturday Morning Market- Every Saturday; 9 am to 2 pm. Downtown St. Petersburg in the Al Lang Stadium parking lot /1st Ave. S and 1st St. Open October 3 through May 29.

Land O’Lakes Saturday Market- Every Saturday; 9 am-2 pm. The Land O’Lakes Saturday Market is a weekly community event with live music and a threefold mission: 1. To foster a healthy and productive lifestyle of “buy fresh, buy local” by facilitating the connection of local food producers with local consumers.; 2. To promote the development of local green businesses, as well as artists and craftsmen.; 3. To bring our community together for networking and fun in a relaxed atmosphere. Land O’ Lakes Saturday Market donates profits to the Heritage Park Foundation and the Suncoast Harvest Food Bank. We are located at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center, on the west side of US 41 – Land O’ Lakes Blvd., three miles north of SR 54 (across from the Land O’ Lakes Post Office- Directions). website: www.lolsaturdaymkt.com; email: lolsaturdaymkt@aol.com
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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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Earlier this week, I wrote a post about BPA (Bisphenol-A) being found in plastic bottles and food containers and its harmful effects on humans, it also being linked to causing aggressive behavior in children. Use of this chemical has been banned in Canada and in some parts of the US.

Now you don’t have to look much further to get your daily dose of BPA – just open a can of soup or tuna! Tests recently performed by Consumer Reports showed traces of BPA in almost all of the 19 name-brand cans of soup, tuna, vegetables, and juice. There were even some cans labeled “BPA-free” that contained the chemical. And don’t think your organic canned foods are safe either – the chemical showed up in some of those as well.
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The local elections will be decided Tuesday night, but voting for the City of Largo Recycled Innovations Contest has just begun.  This online contest encouraged innovators of all ages to make a use-able items with the contents of their trash can.

Eligible recycled innovations range from kitty litter box hanging gardens to baby food container space savers and more. The innovators went beyond traditional recycling and re-purposed their trash into items that may be reused for daily activities.

Contestants will vie for innovative prizes such a solar/wind powered charges for cell phones, MP3 players and other electronics, environmental board games, and learning toys to name a few.  Prizes will be awarded to the greatest innovators in various age categories: Junior Innovators, Tween Innovators, and MacGyvers.
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Until this week, I had no idea that the World Wide Web that I am accustomed to is called “Web 2.0”, a second wave in the development of our most important medium for communication. Web 2.0 can be thought of as inspiring a shift in the role of the user, from receiver to creator, allowing participants to become “core developers”). The Web became a two-way street, constantly changing at the hands of the public (for a detailed description of Web 2.0 and its development, click here). As hard as it is to imagine the Web without its interactivity, Web 2.0 only came about in reaction to the dot-com bust, when the unidirectional Web 1.0 was in a crisis. The response, a rethinking and reworking of the existing system, introduced the world to many of the most successful applications and websites in use today, from MySpace to YouTube to Facebook.

In a similar sense, we are currently in an energy crisis, yet continuing to rely on old, out-of-date systems of provision that are no longer viable, economically or ecologically. Energy is distributed from power plants to consumers in a top-down fashion that leaves all the control in the hands of large corporations. Additionally, power stations produce massive amounts of waste and CO2 emissions, illuminating the need for a radical transformation in the way that energy is produced and distributed. What must occur, to follow the above analogy, is a shift to Energy 2.0.
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We’ve all heard about the “bad” plastics- those that contain carcinogens, toxins, and BPA (Bisphenol-A). But did you know that exposure to the BPA in the “bad” plastics has been linked to aggressiveness in children, as well as other diseases in humans?

A first-of-its-kind study done by the University of North Carolina linked behavioral problems in children from women that were exposed to BPA during pregnancy.
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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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Earlier this week, the UK’s climate chief and leading authority on global warming, Lord Stern of Brentford, released a report on the raising of cattle and pigs, and how its production greatly affects greenhouse gases and climate change. Bentford said that, “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Stern reports that meat production at about 18 percent of global carbon emissions. He also hopes that “a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.”

This is proving to be yet another topic to send Glenn Beck on a tirade. Beck plays the meat-loving victim and asks, “Are we going to stand for that? Are we going to put up with this?” He also goes on to mock the Meatless Monday movement and makes it sound like more of a punishment for school children than something that would help teach them to make healthy food choices.

Video after the break:
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I’ve decided for a greener landscape and to kill my yard. I will not waste water trying to keep the grass green. I will not use chemicals to kill the weeds. I don’t want to pollute the air any further with a gas-powered lawn mower and I’ve tried an electric one but it is not powerful enough for the weeds and overly agressive bahia grass. So, now I must decide the best way to kill the lawn.

The article, How to Kill Your Lawn, in the Los Angeles Times, says the big dig method is not the most practical as it may remove too much topsoil and incite crab grass.  I certainly do not need to incite any further unwelcome plants in my yard.
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Fall is the time of the year when we begin to prepare for Winter and the many holidays to come over the next several months. Take time for yourself this fall and step up your fitness program in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.  Whether you are beginning your fitness program or stepping up your program, additional calorie burn and muscle toning will keep you in check this holiday season.  Exercise assists us in keeping our weight and body fat in balance as well as our stress levels.

With the fall weather finally here, it is a great time to get outside. Enjoy the weather by running or walking along the beach or the water.  Being by the water and on the sand is beneficial in many ways. The sand on the beach adds more difficulty which adds to your calorie burn. The change of scenery sure beats the view from the treadmill and makes your run much more enjoyable. Exercise is such a great release mentally, so achieving this experience in the presence of the elements assists you in the release leaving you feeling balanced and grounded. 
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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.

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.

Ellenton Farmers Market- Saturdays; 8 am – 1 pm. Ellenton Farmers’ Market will be the largest year-round market in florida that specializes in “green” natural, organic and environmentally friendly products that makes for a healthier lifestyle and a better environment. Located just North of the Prime Outlet Mall in Ellenton, Florida (exit 224, Old Exit 43, off I – 75).

St. Pete Saturday Morning Market- Every Saturday; 9 am to 2 pm. Downtown St. Petersburg in the Al Lang Stadium parking lot / 1st Ave. S and 1st St. Open October 3 through May 29.
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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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Nestlé Waters North America announced it has teamed up with Keep America Beautiful to provide $10,000 “Recycle On The Go” grants to 12 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, including Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful. These efforts are being done in hopes of encouraging and empowering local communities, like Hillsborough County, to make away-from-home recycling more convenient.

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful was selected from over 55 other KAB affiliates for its “innovative proposal to tackle public space recycling at four major Hillsborough County park facilities. Between tournaments, sports leagues, and every day use, these locations each see approximately 75,000 residents and visitors per year. The sites chosen to start this campaign are Northdale Park, Shimberg Park, Ed Raddice Sports Complex and Lake Park. The bins, provided by Conex Recycling, collect plastics 1-7, aluminum and tin.”
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The Issue
Most of us spend more waking hours while at work than at home, we might as well be eco-aware while doing so.

Be Part of the Solution
What can we do to be more sustainable?  How about:

Turn off you computer at night!  A computer left on 24 hours a day costs your company between $115 and $160 in electricity annually!

Don’t use screensavers.  Instead, set your monitor to turn off automatically after 10 minutes of non-use and set computers to sleep/hibernate after 30 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that people who make environmentally-friendly inventions have the best intentions at heart, but sometimes they take it a bit too far and come up with things that are, well, weird. Just in time for the creepiest holiday of the year, TreeHugger has compiled a slideshow list of some of the most unusual (to put it politely) green inventions out there.

And what, you ask, is on this strange list? Take, for instance, a luminol-filled lamp that runs on – you guessed it – blood. It’s the same stuff that forensic analysts use to find traces of blood at a crime scene and now you can light up your home with that same eerie blue glow.
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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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We all know the Tampa Bay area is notoriously inept at short or long-range planning. Most would rather work on their tans, or try to forget that nasty divorce up north, than do the heavy lifting required to intelligently plan for our region’s future.

Examples of our incompetence are everywhere. We lack mass transit, housing for the homeless,  good architecture and planning, appreciation (or even knowledge of) the history of our area,  potable water provided without sucking local rivers dry, or even  places worth caring about.

As it turns out, we may be off the hook. It may not matter in the future that we’ve been such custodial goof-offs.

Gordon Hamilton, a research professor at the University of Maine, and members of Clean Air-Cool Planet gave a presentation at the Florida Aquarium on Thursday morning that illustrates how most of Tampa Bay will be under water by 2100 anyway. How much water? Estimates vary from a low of three feet to a high of six feet, maybe more, and they presented maps that show what our region would look like if the sea rose 20 inches, 3.3 feet, and 6.6 feet. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Parag Khanna’s maps of the South Central Asia around the 12 minute mark in the video below is a great way of understanding our role in Afghanistan. With this map you can assume that we are not leaving Afghanistan for a long time. We need it to be safe to deliver oil from the South Central Asian countries that most Americans don’t even know about. These small countries have great wealth waiting to be shipped overseas for Chinese and American demand. During the fall of Soviet Russia Oil and natural gas was found in the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
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Tampa’s first annual Green Halloween event will take place in Old Hyde Park Village this Friday, October 23rd from 3:30pm-6:30pm.

Sponsored by Divine Events of Tampa, their initiative is to create healthier and more eco-friendly holiday events for the people of Tampa Bay.  This green event will include a pumpkin patch cake walk, bobbing for organic apples, best green costume contest, making your own Halloween bag out of old magazines.
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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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If you don’t understand the definitions of each of the terms, you may not end up buying what you are looking for!

Here’s what you need to know…

The USDA enforces proper organic production and categorizes the terms in the following manner:

-Products with the “100% Organic” seal include products with 100% organically produced (raw and processed) ingredients.

-Products with the “USDA Certified Organics” seal are made with 95% or more organic ingredients. Read the rest of this entry »