Save Eco Destinations

Photo from prontohotel.com

These islands are a choice destination for nature lovers. It is an area that still retains untainted archipelagos—some of the few left in the globe. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a Biosphere Reserve with significant biodiversity of wildlife.

(FYI: The Galapagos is a group of volcanic islands in the Pacific located 972 km west of Ecuador, right on the equator.)

It seems that island officials, businessmen and locals, together with ecologist and Galapagos resident Gunter Reck, are speaking up about the threat inherent to overpopulation on their land, caused in part by tourism.

UNESCO already placed the islands on its World Heritage in Danger list in 2007.

Energy, water, and waste problems have been exacerbated by the escalating amount of tourists, but also the growing population and the consequent agricultural and other practices – which are evidently being practiced irresponsibly. It’s kind of like Twitter—the burgeoning amount of users causes the system to collapse. And this will continue to occur until they upgrade it or lower the amount of users—or tourists, as the case may be.

photo by consumerbrigade.com

97% of the islands constitute a National Park, according to the WWF.

However, there is a conundrum: 80% to 85% of the population relies on the tourism industry to make an income, and many families are large by Western standards, comprising of 4+ kids.

But that’s not all.

A persisting threat is the plants and animals introduced by humans (some of them pirates!). Species such as feral goats, cats, and cattle have become invasive and are destroying the habitats of native animals. And because these native species did not originally have any predators to be wary of, they have no skills to defend themselves of these new bullies. Poor wusses. Just kidding.

Amazingly mild and friendly seals - photo from the bs report

Plant species like guava, avocado, elephant grass, and citrus fruits like oranges and lemons have managed to become invasive as well, obliterating native plant species in the humid areas of San Cristobal, Isabela, and other parts of the islands.

Also, local environmentalists fear the growing poultry industry may spread disease to wild birds, and illegal fishing activities are messing with the marine sanctuary. Especially targeted are sharks – for their delicious fins, I imagine.

And poachers are slaughtering the mild-mannered sea lions. Wikipedia tells us that

On January 28, 2008, Galapagos National Park official Victor Carrion announced the killing of 53 sea lions (13 pups, 25 youngsters, 9 males and 6 females) at Pinta, Galapagos Islands nature reserve with their heads caved in. In 2001 poachers killed 35 male sea lions.

Can you even begin to imagine how a person could bash the head of a sea lion in? Despicable! - photo by naturetrek.co.uk

So heartless.

Read more about the threats to the Galapagos Islands here and here. If that’s not enough for you, be assured that you’ll find tons more info through a simple Google search.

Note: I am currently on vacation. (Yay WordPress magic that allows me to schedule posts for the future!). This will be my last post for the week.  See you soon!

A 35-acre cay off the island of Eleuthera is preparing to become private, completely eco-friendly digs to be called S.T.A.R., as in Sustainable Terrain and Resources.

The developers claim commitment “to making Star Island sustainable and earth-friendly at every level.” All energy to power the bungalows, residences, and the hotel will be harnessed from wind, sun, and water.

The cay, in its pre-S.T.A.R. existence, is currently an uncivilized (read: perfect) slab of land that developer David Sklar and a fellow developer friend decided they ought to buy and transform into a luxurious hub of ecotourism – for those who can afford it. The first building will supposedly be launched this year.

photo from NYT

All waste will be recycled, composted, and used as fertilizer; rain water will be harvested and heated via solar power; mini wind turbines will harness energy; geothermal heat pumps will produce heating and cooling capabilities “by tapping into the stability of underground temperatures that average between 65 to 70 degrees”; and lots more. Read about the island’s green technology here.

The website’s Products page remains under construction. I wonder what will go there. Will it feature the biodegradable products they will use to upkeep the development? Organic cotton bed sheets? Maybe organic marihuana. Just kidding. Hmm. The Green Activities page also remains a mystery, but the model on the page’s photo appears to be longline fishing. Well, I guess that’s sustainable, although not eating fish at all would be the best option, of course.

Other ridiculously rich folk, such as CEOs Sir Richard Branson and Alan Worden and Leonardo DiCaprio, are also keeping busy with similar projects. You might read about them in future posts.

And, you know, I think this is really cool. The Bahamas + no pollution = awesome, right? Gorgeous. Clean. Absolutely dreamy.

Well, hang tight because soon I will post regarding why this whole deal really grinds my gears.

A saltwater pond with algae - photo by Charles G. Summers, Jr.

LiveFuels Inc, a developer of renewable algal-biofuels, is working on turning algae into biofuels in a way that is 1) scalable, 2) sustainable, and 3) faster than previously employed methods.

The Texas-based developer has just launched a new pilot program to research ways to boost algae productivity and the rates of biomass conversion into renewable oils – that is, turning the algae into biofuels. The project is taking place at LiveFuels’ new facility in Brownsville, Texas.

“By harnessing the power of natural systems, we hope to achieve what has eluded the biofuels community for decades – cost effectiveness, scalability and sustainability,” said LiveFuels CEO Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones.

The plan is to then implement the findings all along the coast of Louisiana. This will be a full-scale, commercial operation. Sounds great to me.

Red tide off the Floridian coast - photo by SeaWiFS

Red Tide

And you know how agricultural runoff teeming with phosphates and other nutrients gets into rivers and streams and causes the dreaded red tide (a.k.a. algal bloom)? LiveFuels will remove a lot of these harmful nutrients from the Mississippi River and use them as fertilizer to grow their algae.

This method will lower the amount of phosphates in the river that eventually flow out into the Gulf of Mexico and hopefully mitigate the red tide notorious for plaguing the southern coast of the U.S. every summer.

The logistics

LifeFuels cheaply grows native algae in its open saltwater ponds. Conversely, other companies have grown monocultures of algae – sometimes genetically modified – within expensive quarters. This has precluded algae-based biofuels from entering the market as a salable alternative.

Researchers then get “filter-feeding” fish to eat the algae. Once digested, the algae turns into valuable oil that is hosted within some of the fish’s organs. The fish are then killed and squeezed for the oil (yikes!). The oil will then be fed to a refinery.

The oil’s by-products, like protein, will be sold to pet food manufacturers.

“Current approaches to generating algal-biofuels are resource intensive and face fundamental science and engineering hurdles,” noted David Kingsbury, former chief program officer for the Science Program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and chairman of the LiveFuels scientific advisory board.

“LiveFuels’ approach is ingenious in its simplicity. By turning natural food chains into productive systems, LiveFuels eliminates many of the costs and risks plaguing other approaches to using algae for biofuels,” he added.

Costa Maya - photo by lecates

The Mexican Government said last month that discussions on an ecotourism project on Costa Maya are back on. No further news has been reported since then.

The 47,938 acre- (19,400 ha) area would span 28 miles (45 km) of beach in the Municipality of Othón P. Blanco south of Tulum, near Mahahual, Noticaribe reports.

The project would create 30,000 jobs, said Delegate for the Environmental and Natural Resources Secretary (SEMARNAT) Gabriela Lima Laurents. This is extremely beneficial and significant, especially considering the devastating effects the H1N1 outbreak has had on the tourism industry in Mexico for the past few months.

“There are various spheres [of influence] involved and so the process is long – everyone must meet an agreement and respect the environment,” she said.

Sixty percent of the land will be reserved for ecological preservation.

Environmentalists, three levels of government, and – of course – private investors have been attending the meetings. This is precisely why the project was delayed. They were also awaiting a second meeting with representatives from the Urban Development and Environmental Secretariat (SEDUMA).

“It is a complex project because it has many subprojects, it is not SEMARNAT that has halted it … but the red tape,” she explained.

The beach in this area resembles that of Cancun, Lima Laurents noted, with white sands and waters in different shades of blue – which *cough* business(wo)men and tourists from all over the world would love *cough*.

Ecotourism + nature conservation = Fantastic

As noted in Eco-Yucatán, the 24^th annual International Coastal Cleanup will take place on September 19, 2009. (You can schedule a clean-up on an alternate date, too.)

Here’s a video with some gorgeous footage (um, for the first 19 seconds) that succinctly sums up what the Intl Coastal Cleanup is about:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/TX5WAEeqwYU&rel]

Last year, nearly 400,000 volunteers collected more than 6.8 million pounds of trash in 104 countries and 42 US states during the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup — the world’s largest volunteer effort of its kind.

Surf on over here to find a clean-up site in your area and register for the one you want to attend. If no events are going on in your area and/or Sept 19 does not work for you, you can propose a clean-up here. Very flexible for optimal efficiency. Woo!

You can “sign up to clean up” debris such as plastic bottles (plastic everything, really), used condoms (yup – I had to clean these up once at a beach clean-up in Los Angeles), seaweed, and other junk from beaches and waterways here.

For clean oceans and to prevent the unnecessary, grisly death of marine life. photo by www.genetologisch-onderzoek.nl

This event is extra sweet because it’s international and we absolutely need this kind of activism worldwide. You’d think federal or at least state governments would sponsor this sort of thing. But no. Governments just take us to war (hi, U.S.!), take away all funding for domestic violence shelters in the entire state of California (hi, Gov. Schwarzenegger!), and other awesome stuff. (By the way, you can oppose the governor’s grand move by following the link to Stop Family Violence’s action alert, also at the above link, if you’re in CA, or passing along the link to a CA resident.)

P.S. Is anyone else bothered by the fact that corporations are sponsoring this event? I guess they just want consumers to think they don’t suck 100% of the time.

Climate Ride 2008 - photo by climateride.org

If you love biking, have I got good news for you!

You can partake in a fully supported fundraising bike ride next month and spend 5 days traversing gorgeous landscapes to raise awareness about climate change, plus hang out with 200+ likeminded people—from renewable energy experts to climate activists and average Janes and Joes.

There are currently 40 spots left to register and for Brita Climate Ride, a 5-day, 300-mi-long bike ride taking you all the way from New York City to Washington, D.C. from September 26-30.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/RyB70xvJ4JY]

Once in D.C., you will hit the Capitol and get an opportunity to meet your state reps – and badger them into pulling their heads out of their, uh, bums, in time for the COP15 Copenhagen, the United Nations Climate Change Conference from December 7-18.

The event is a way to raise funds to support

essential climate and bicycling advocacy projects at three beneficiary organizations: Focus the Nation, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, and Clean Air – Cool Planet. Your fundraising helps the beneficiaries continue to provide the critical services and education needed to address climate and energy issues.

Additionally, you will be raising general awareness about climate change, carbon neutrality, and renewable energy.

There will be networking and informative talks provided by climate experts on subjects such as green technology and “solutions” to climate change (I suppose they mean mitigating the potentially devastating effects of climate change – or do you believe we still have time to turn back time? I don’t.). You can also munch on “great food.” Hopefully they’re looking into sustainably-grown food.

Go here for more videos – even to check out some of the countryside you’d be riding through.

If you’re not into biking but would like to help out, you definitely sponsor the ride.

photo by Lyndon Douglas via the Barbican

1) Londoners: Visit the art exhibit Radical Nature at the Barbican through October 18 and/or read about it here. The Barbican is also hosting other events about nature.

2) Grist article about climate change art

3) Take a slideshow tour of eco-ish museums

4) View some stunning photographs of birds in the wild

Puffin, Northumberland, UK. Photo from telegraph.co.uk

5) New York: Visit the Design for a Living World exhibit at Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum through January 4, 2010. Read a blog post about it at supereco.

6) Play to Stop – Europe for Climate is a collaboration between MTV and EU Climate Action to get the “young’uns” to give a damn. Because I’m not in the mood to tell you about it, I’ll let someone else do it:

The campaign will involve three concerts, TV spots, webcasts and games, and editorial content about the battle against climate change.

The concerts will be connected with major events related to climate change. The first concert, by Moby, will be in Stockholm and will be linked to World Water Week. The second and third concerts (entertainers yet to be announced) will be in Budapest linked to Mobility Week and in Copenhagen linked to the Climate Conference.

Other famous celebrities involved in the campaign will be the Bulgarian tennis player Magdalena Maleeva, Danish singer Anna David, Italian TV star Paola Maugeri, Polish entertainer Michal Pirog, and Romanian climate activist Serban Miron Copot.

So you go, make an account, and watch videos and so on. There is a knowledge test and games you can play to go to the concerts. This is open to people 18 years old+ in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Read more about it at PlanetSave.

7) See NASA’s sexy, first-ever images of “night-shining” clouds possibly linked to global warming. They were captured by the AIM, or Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, satellite at different dates.

8 ) Holy Jezeus it’s an office atop a tree! And it is gorrrgeous.

photo by inhabitat

9) Check out photos of living, growing furniture. ‘Nuff said.

10) Get crafty with ideas to make throw pillows, homemade lava lamps, and more by reusing stuff you already have.

Demonstators block the entrance to Camp Garcia Naval Base January 13, 2003 in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For decades, warships and planes used it as a firing range before it was closed in 2003. A new U.S. congressional report, prepared for a hearing on March 12, 2009, says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of the Health and Human Services department charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites, "deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns" of residents exposed to the toxic munitions left behind. Photo from www.cpcml.ca

The U.S. polluted Puerto Rico through live-fire and bombing exercises from WWII until 2003 while it used the area as the biggest training ground for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Forces. 

The Navy is now fortunately trying to undo the damage by cleaning its shit up. But not because they’re a magnanimous bunch. In truth, it’s a response to the Vieques Government and almost 9,300 residents going after the U.S. Govt for polluting their land and burdening the population with illnesses.

Awesome: the Department of the Interior wants to turn the area into a wildlife reserve once it’s cleaned up. Yay. And small portions of the area including undeveloped beaches have already been opened to the public as a wildlife refuge by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sucky: to “clean it up” by getting rid of hazardous unexploded munitions, the Navy wants to detonate them in the open air. Actually, it’s already started conducting these explosions. The Navy also wishes to burn 100 acres of tropical jungle to find where the hell they placed cluster bombs and explode them.

Imagine the smoke, violent noise (causing mass anxiety and general disruption, I presume), destruction and other crap that would – once again – plague the region’s humans, non-humans, and ecosystems if the Navy goes ahead with this at full capacity.

photo by NOAA - ccma.nos.noaa.gov

Naturally, the locals are pissed and suspicious. For a long time now, locals have resisted the Navy’s operations on their home land. And they know this clean-up scheme will screw them once more.

“The great majority of emergency room visits here last year were for respiratory problems,” said Evelyn Delerme Camacho, the mayor of Vieques, PR. “Can they guarantee that contaminants or smoke won’t reach the population? Would we have to wait and see if there’s a problem?”

Head of the Navy’s Vieques restoration program Christopher T. Penny said that thus far, using a remote-control device to penetrate the vegetation has not yielded favorable results. Further, it unexploded bombs are too powerful and therefore unsuitable to be exploded in detonation chambers. Nice bullshit detector.

EPA reps defend the Navy and claim its plans are standard protocol. EPA deputy director in San Juan Jose C. Font went as far as to say the detonations do not pose a threat to human health (um, what about the fauna and flora, genius?) – if limited (what is “limited”?) amounts go off at a time and the wind remains calm. He said that the air quality would be consistently monitored throughout the detonations.

"A gift for Vieques from Clinton and the U.S. Navy" - photo by thegully.com

Gee, with the stellar reputation of the U.S. throughout the Americas, not to mention globally, I’m sure the peeps at Vieques will trust the EPA’s every word and take a chill pill.

After all, the TNT, napalm, depleted uranium, mercury, lead and other chemicals, including PCBs, all potentially present at Vieques are all harmless.

Oh – also, the EPA said the cleanup could last up to a decade.

Excuse me?

Bastards!

More bullshit:

“In 2003, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which assesses health hazards at Superfund sites, concluded that levels of heavy metals and explosive compounds found in Vieques’s soil, groundwater, air and fish did not pose a health risk.

Really? That’s funny, because cancers of the breast, cervix and uterus have increased by 300% over the past 20 years.

But this year the registry agency said it would “rigorously” revisit its 2003 finding, and its director, Dr. Howard Frumkin, plans to visit Vieques on Wednesday to meet with residents.”

PR is asking Obama to get his ass in gear and “achieve an environmentally acceptable cleanup” and “closely monitor the health of the people of Vieques and promote appropriate remedies.” It is the least the U.S. could do. The least.

Because if those bombs are not removed, accidental explosions could take place. Any. Time. Actually, this may happen regardless.

“The real risk is that there’s no technology available that would guarantee that they’ve removed every piece of ordnance,” said Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, an assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Always shitting on everyone. I am so sick of their bullshit. I guess ignorance is bliss. Just reading Naomi Klein’s Disaster Capitalism, for example, makes my blood boil. My mother has had friends “disappear” during a dictatorship funded by the U.S. Government in the late 1970s. I won’t even get into Pinochet. Jesus Christ…

Some good news:

Once the whole mess is over, locals want to use the area for ecotourism too, and housing. These people live in poverty.

Fishers are already enjoying catching their prey in peace, and endangered turtles such as the loggerheads might finally be able to reclaim the land for nesting once the chaos subsides.

Source: NYT.

If you live in the area or are interested in sustainability within Mexico check out Green Expo Tulum 2009. (Scroll down for English.)

On August 7-8 you can expand your knowledge about sustainable living and show that you support sustainable construction and nature conservation in the area. Network, attend workshops, conferences, and – of course – morrrrrre.

Go go go!

image borrowed from yourgreenfriend.com

Here are 10 things you can do today:

1) Sign up to be a climate precinct captain (this is mostly in the U.S., although you can participate from anywhere)

By signing up you can become part of this collaborative web platform by 1Sky, the Energy Action Coalition / Power Shift 2009, an online community and find likeminded people in your area to join or form a local community and plan local events (whatever “local” means to you). Then, you can help

hold our elected officials accountable for creating a Power Shift and passing bold, federal climate legislation in 2009

You can do this by signing this petition, organizing a rally, joining one, organizing fundraisers, helping fund the movement, and other things, but mostly—if you want—doing hands-on stuff. Which can be particularly exciting when naked:

1Sky Solutions also has a “training video” (don’t worry: it’s 2 minutes long!) on its home page so you can learn about the movement and a forum for discussions.

Also, nationwide beach parties for clean energy begin on August 10. Hell yes. You can join others or sign up to start your own. Amazing.

Check out the Energy Action Coalition and Power Shift 2009’s photos and videos and add them on Twitter and Facebook. Also, read their blogs! Sweet.

2) Download the thorough Citizen’s Guide to Climate Policy to learn tons about what makes good climate policy and tons of other important information. You can also read an article about the document at Grist here.

3) The geeks and economists among us might also be interested in reading Climate economics 101 and policy activism.

4) Remember yesterday’s post about pushing for health care reform to get to the issue of climate policy faster? Here’s an article about this issue.

5) Miami: Find a whole bunch of awesome events to attend and participate in at Greener Miami.

6) TreeHugger article: Why the U.S. doesn’t get climate change – a poll tells us that

Americans find climate change to be the lowest priority out of any country in the entire world

7) Washington, D.C.: Join the Climate Action Factory. Read the blog, watch the video, receive alerts, check out photos, follow them on Twitter, contribute time/energy/materials/space, etc.

8 ) Europe: Join the Climate Action Factory. Read the blog, watch the video, receive alerts, check out photos, follow them on Twitter, contribute time/energy/materials/space, etc.

9) Become an Environmental Crime Fighter! The EPA needs you. If you live in the U.S., you can call the EPA’s tips and complaints line or inform them online:

It was this kind of tip that led to the capture earlier this month of Larkin Baggett, a Utah man who pleaded guilty to seven environmental and assault charges after he pointed a loaded rifle at Florida authorities in March.

10) This is just a comic you can read for fun!

comic by toothpastefordinner.com