Daily Loaf

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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Last October, an economy that had been running its course for the past three decades was laid to rest. Our country has been on a nearly 30-year credit bubble where we have binged on cheap credit to buy up homes at ever increasing values. This 30-year ascent made us think it could be forever. But this bubble was based upon unsustainable principles and ecological destruction. We destroyed as much land as we could to produce quickly and consume as much food, building supplies, minerals as we could get from the land as fast as possible. We utilize an extremely dense energy source — fossil fuels — to live lifestyles that are historically similar to those that kings lived before. In order to accomplish all this, we have put ourselves in debt for decades to come. We have borrowed from the future to live in the present for far too long.

Here in Florida the Ponzi scheme of real estate flipping ended as well. As my carpenter friend remarked: “We worked ourselves out of a job.” The University of Florida released a demographic report showing that 58,000 people left the state of Florida this year, ending our over 60-year growth pattern. This is a turnaround for a state that based its economic model on perpetual growth. An economy strictly based upon tourism and building is falling apart. We are already witnessing the vast decline in state resources and even our own governor is leaving for Washington D.C. But I’m here, and I’m a native of Florida and I’m not leaving my state any time soon. I’ve been researching a green economy for the past year and a half and I believe it’s the way to move forward for this state and our country. It’s based upon ethics, entrepreneurship and decentralization — a return to a local living economy.
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In April, Van Jones was recognized by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet for the work he did with Green for All and the U.S. government.

Sunday, in the midst of a quiet Labor Day weekend, Van Jones resigned as special advisor on green jobs for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Glenn Beck, Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly all promoted the idea that Jones was a threat to our national security. Once the now-infamous video surfaced showing what he said about Republicans last year during the campaign and long before he went to DC, Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks gave him two weeks, max. Turns out that prediction was optimistic.

So the Jones controversy became just another firestorm to stir up,  something to discredit the president with and distract from the most important conversation today – health care. But in case you’d never heard of Jones before all this brouhaha, here’s more: 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:

Fixing sprawl and redesigning suburbia- Grant Rimbey CNU explores a possible strategy towards improving existing sprawl. Fixing the sprawl that we have, along with sprawl demolition and recycling, are strategies that could be employed in the future as a new green industry.

Nation’s largest solar facility to be in DeSoto County by next year- Florida Power and Light is currently building the nation’s largest photovoltaic plant in DeSoto County, a $173.5 million, 25 megawatt solar generating facility.

Fresh: New Thinking About What We’re Eating screening – What’s wrong with the mega-industrial food industry- Struggling small farms, problems with food safety rules and the mega-industrial food industry, and a film about all of the above.
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In a previous Green Community post I’ve discussed sprawl: developer-driven poor planning and bad growth polices facilitated by developer-friendly elected officials, and why we need to cease building this way.

In this post I present one possible strategy towards improving existing sprawl. Fixing the sprawl that we have, along with sprawl demolition and recycling, are strategies that could be employed in the future as a new green industry.

Ultra cool Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com recently held a competition titled “The Reburbia Design Competition”, that had the goal of re-envisioning the suburbs.
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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:

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!

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »