Save Eco Destinations

Have you asked yourself this—why people don’t care?

I  have.

Most often, I can only think that it is an issue of greed, selfishness, ignorance or—especially—outright denial (and greed).

We know that people in the South Pacific, such as the islands of Tuvalu, and other low-lying areas are living on land that is sinking (flooding really). Imagine sea water coming up to your knees, your hips…

Food can no longer grow, water is polluted, sewage systems are screwed, hygiene hazards are rampant, and ultimately people must be evacuated lest they die by drowning or other troubles. Elsewhere, droughts turn rich pasture turns into dead, barren land.

Already, 300,000 die yearly due to global warming (the vast majority of whom are women, by the way).

It is expected that millions of refugees will need places to go as global warming advances and water takes over the areas of Bangladesh, Calcutta, New York, Florida, and on and on.

So, this is enough to make people care, right? To get a Nalgene bottle and refill it daily instead of wasting myriad resources on purchasing pricy bottled water, to recycle instead of tossing cans in the garbage, to appreciate things more and be less wasteful, to become conscientious.

You’d think so.

So why isn’t it?

Language

Some people think it’s all in the language. The New York Times article claims that environmentalists worry the term “global warming” repels conservatives and others because they associate it with hippies and cutting spending.

The firm conducting the study suggested discussing “our deteriorating atmosphere” to make it, um, more universally relevant. I know, pathetic.

Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.”

Whatever. Language? If this is truly the case, it’s so funny I forgot to laugh—and chose to ram my head into the wall instead.

“We know why it’s lowest. When someone thinks of global warming, they think of a politicized, polarized argument. When you say ‘global warming,’ a certain group of Americans think that’s a code word for progressive liberals, gay marriage and other such issues.” – ecoAmerica

Oh no! Liberals!

Plus, screw global warming—it will only affect them.

Did I mention “ram my head into the wall”?

So we can’t say global warming, energy efficiency or the environment. Are you kidding me? Ridiculous.

Listen, if your problem is that anything that sounds liberal spooks you, you’ve got more problems than one—particularly when the issue at hand is as imminent as global warming. Swallow and digest it.

Make it personal

Perhaps (and this is my opinion) the point is making the issue clearly and directly relevant to everyone.

Whether it’s threatening that your favorite Caribbean hotel where you spend your ritzy summers will shut down due to flooding or that your beloved ski resort will shut down due to a lack of snow, that is, no matter what kind of selfish jerk you are, the answer lies in making the issue relevant to you.

It makes sense. Not everyone is the underdog type who cares about others because of justice. Most people need to be directly affected by something to even blink. And it really seems that it is most people who need to be shaken up out of their catatonic state.

Changes to make to drive others to change

(FYI: My thoughts are in parentheses.)

Instead of global warming, try climate change (hey, it wasn’t my idea).

Substitute energy efficiency with the purportedly more positive saving money for a more prosperous future.

Drop the environment in favor of the air we breathe, the water our children drink—which right here is an example of making the situation directly relevant to people. Put them in the picture.

Remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology – NYT

Switch environmentalists with conservationists (ooh, that feels sleazy).

Forget scientific arguments and stress common sense. (Listen, you need both.)

Use moral arguments—people need to feel guilty to get off their asses, it’s true.

A modest example:

As a conservationist, I urge you to consider saving money for a more prosperous future by turning off the tap when you brush your teeth to conserve water, leaving more for our children and their children to drink. It is our responsibility as Americans/Germans/Brazilians/etc. Think of your family and your friends. Climate change is something we can all collaborate to control through simple common sense.

Yeah, but let me tell you why I don’t like it. Because people should already be concerned and on the go. Because “climate change” sounds less severe than “global warming” (which, already, doesn’t sound critical enough). Because our priorities should lie on mitigating global warming instead of changing our rhetoric to make asshats care.

FYI, here’s a related article I just found while browsing for pictures:  Eco-semantics

Here you go. Now go call yourself a conservationist.

Have you visited the state of Montana in the summer? The open space is pretty great—clear, sunny, crisp, pure. Nature and wildlife all around, and not the fake kind of nature like bonsai trees and botanical gardens laced with asphalt, but tall grass, towering trees, and pristine lakes for miles on end. No BS.

Now some hotels and lodges are educating their guests to help them keep their home green. Visitors will learn about a program that allows them to donate $1-$2 to help conserve the local landscape.

As innkeepers (and hopefully travel agents and so on) collect donations from their guests, they can aid landowners who sign conservation easements (binding agreements that limit owners’ ability to develop or build on their property). These can allow landowners to, for example, keep a ranch for strictly agricultural use rather than sell it to someone who would destroy the natural landscape, pave it, and build apartments or other polluting developments.

“The small donations will add up over time from travelers wanting to preserve Montana’s natural horizons,” said Mike Scholz, a former Big Sky hotelier who founded the Travelers for Open Land program. Partners include the Montana Association of Land Trusts, the Montana Community Foundation and Travel Montana, the state tourism agency.

You can also engage in an awesome ecological project here by joining the Conservation Corps. This is hand-on work. Positions are actually available from February through November, so you don’t have to wait until summer. Also, their work also extends to surrounding states. Projects include restoring and building trails, assisting scientists in biological research, restoring forests and grasslands, preserving habitat through planting trees and other activities, and community service.

If you’re itching for nature (I am!) and feeling generous, consider giving your time in exchange for purity and fulfillment doing your part to help locals in these laudable projects.

Even if you live around the Roaring Fork and Vail Valleys in Colorado, you might not be aware that evil forces (*evil laugh*) are talking BS to fatten their bank accounts by raping more natural resources.

Namely, the board president, Tom Turnbull, of Holy Cross Energy, the coop that powers the area’s ski resorts, is saying that “civilizations have historically thrived in warmer periods as opposed to ice ages.” as the company tries to make its way into the Rockies to mine for coal.

But what about the Waxman-Markey bill? The US is supposed to reduce greenhouse gasses by 20% by the year 2020, right? Well, now its 17%… it became official last week, according to Grist. 17% lower by 2020. How meager! America, we’re watching you, and you’re a disgrace!

Sure, US President Obama wrote:

We are now one step closer to delivering on the promise of a new clean energy economy that will make America less dependent on foreign oil, crack down on polluters, and create millions of new jobs all across America.

But srsly. The US could do tons better. Check it out: the EC is planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 20%–and by 2015. Nevermind that 2020 BS. All right?

We’re dealing with trendy Aspen and Vail here, hot skiing spots—which, by the way, would not benefit from rising temperatures! Snow actually melts in heat. (Who knew?) So, much like in Switzerland and other regions whose tourism industry relies on cold temperatures to retain its appeal, much of the state of Colorado’s economy relies on its weather.

You’re not doing too well convincing us with your warmer-is-better fable, Turnbull.

So activist locals are trying to get progressive, green-friendly board members elected to the rural coop, 43,000 members-strong Holy Cross Energy. They’re having a hard time, perhaps most likely because the news isn’t out as much as it should be. The coop hasn’t even publicized this info via its newsletter.

The Colorado Independent reported,

“Vail real estate broker George Lamb faces off against Eagle County environmental building planner and overall sustainability guru Adam Palmer in the other contested race, and Aspen’s Hal Clark — an Aspen SkiCo-backed candidate last year — is running unopposed.”

Want more? Read the whole article here.

(Scroll down for the latest news.)

Background (a few years ago):

The pier was built on a public beach and is located a mere 118 meters from the Jardines reef, all despite extensive opposition from environmental groups and companies and 3 years of lawsuits.

The pier was built illegally, as that type of infrastructure is prohibited in the area, according to the 2003 Local Environmental Ordering Plan (rough translation). Sediments flew, as the lawfully mandated precautions for such a structure were ignored. And so on.

2009:

“There were instructions to demolish the pier because it harms the coastline and the surrounding environment. We will have to address those who were involved in the building of the pier and we won’t take technical decisions lightly. The environment and coast of Quintana Roo, and in particular where this pier was build, is fragile and we have to be alert to the decisions the government takes so they don’t damage the environment,” said  State Governor Félix Arturo Gonzalez Canto during an interview held in late March.

Okay. At the same time…

Federal Attorney of Environmental Protection (Profepa) Delegate Luis Jorge Morales Arjona claims the Ultramar-Aquaword pier does not affect the Jardines reef – at all.

Sure, we believe him.

He said that after the pier was reopened (oh yeah, it was shut down) Profepa conducted an inspection of the area underwater during 4 days. “Several tests were done,” Morales Arjona said.

But wait.

He said Profepa verified the organisms that were transplanted (so they woulnd’t die) from the pier area, which were originally on the surface the pier was built on. “There they are, alive,” he said.

And.

However, “We don’t know how many organisms survived. We don’t know how many there were and which area they spanned,” he said.

He also assured the pier is not located close to a reef that could be affected by ships. And that the pier counts with the authorization of the Environmental Impact Manifestation (MIA) and the concession of the sea-land federal zone.

*Headdesk*

Environmentalists protest to have pier torn down

And that’s not all

100 shopkeepers and merchants signed a document stating they support the Ultramar pier. In that document, they wrote that the coral reef exists only in the minds of their opponents.

Essentially, a group of pissed off folks wrote a letter stating that they are not associated with the pier, but anyone who’s against it is a stupid jerk who wants them to starve to death when they lose business due to a non-existent pier.

It’s almost funny how they use both legal and rude language in the same document, accusing anyone who wants the pier gone as an immoral agitator. I mean, I get what they’re saying,  but, geez, get a grip.

Early last month, Mexican citizens marched in Cozumel demanding the plan to extract 7 million cubic meters of sand off the north coast of Cozumel’s beaches be cancelled.

The march was organized by the environmentalist NGO Sky, Land and Sea (Cielo, Tierra y Mar, or Citymar) in order to protest the extraction of sand. This extraction would cause severe problems to the local ecosystem, said Citymar President Guadalupe Alvarez Chulim.

Local and diverse species would be adversely affected if such a huge amount of sand were removed from the area because said species feed off plankton and sea grasses.

Alvarez Chulim expressed gladness when the municipal president took the NGO’s side. He said neither the will of Cozumel’s inhabitants nor their local environment would be trampled.

“When there is will, it is possible to avoid the implementation of pernicious projects,” Alvarez Chulim told El Quintanarroense.

Success: The Cozumel City Council decided to side with Citymar and local residents.

La Ollita

Another plan has been set up to replace the Cozumel sand-extraction plan: to extract sand from the fishing area at La Ollita instead. Locals oppose this plan as well, even though, supposedly (uh huh) it would cause less environmental damage. (Bullshit.)

Alderman Baltazar Gómez Catzin said that “it is understood that municipal authority supports the collective cause and it has shown it, this would not be the exception,” according to El Quintanarroense.

The issue now is getting enough people to stand up and take to the streets to protest the new project once it starts.

“I am willing to head the movement, but I won’t do it when I don’t have the direct support of several dozen people willing to take certain measures,” Gómez Catzin said, and noted that people are not used to taking these sorts of actions, although they have on numerous occasions in the last few years.

He said the harm done to the area of extraction would be irreversible, even though official information is being hidden. (Wow. Ok—not really a surprise.)

“The authorities are hiding information, but we have seen the effects, regardless of the fact that a good amount of the millions of cubic meters of sand extracted years ago ended up in the bay, affecting the corals,” he added.

The beaches that have suffered sand extractions are still notably damaged by them.

If you’ve been keeping up on Xcacel-Xcacelito through the blog or elsewhere, you know that Grupo Posadas has been intent on building a resort on one of the most important turtle nesting sites in the world. These creatures are the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonian mydas) sea turtles.

Due to shady business between the federal and state governments and third parties, Xcacel-Xcacelito went from being a protected site to a patch of land up for grabs to the highest freakin’ bidder.

Even though this area used to be protected, as it belonged to a region declared protected back in 1998, it is no longer under jurisdiction of the state government. Being now in the federal government’s control, it was commercialized.

Grupo Posadas took advantage of the perilous situation the sanctuary found itself in and recently purchased the area free of legal repercussions regarding nature conservation and so on.

Take action

What we can do is email people in power in the Mexican Government, tell them how wrong we think this is, and do our best to influence them to turn things around. To take this land out of corporate hands and back into nature and the people’s.

I’ve found information on who to email; these are people influential in making decisions regarding whether to keep Xcacel-Xcacelito as an unviolated nesting site or turn it into a corporate wasteland.

The Mangrove Action Project has a sample letter you can email Mexican President Calderón and other folk in the Mexican Government.

Please send them an email.

I hope you all did something to celebrate your empathy toward the earth and all living creatures for Earth Day and had lots of fun doing it.

If not, hey, it’s cool—because it’s Earth Week! And if you read this late, well, fear not! This is about celebrating Earth Day daily, weekly, monthly, yearly—constantly doing things green.

Even if you can’t attend any events for Earth Week, skim some events for inspiration. Maybe you can join an activist group to organize beach clean-ups, for instance.

Eco events taking place this week throughout the U.S.:
Many colleges are organizing events this week, such as
DePauw University, IN
Ithaca College in NY
Berkeley and USC in CA
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
University of Houston, TX
University of Iowa

If you live in Charlottesville, Virginia, check out local events such as critical mass (Sunday 26, 12:30pm) at earthweek.org.

Also:
Denver, CO
Western NY

Canada: Ontario

Corning Community College in NY showed the animated movie Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (see trailer) today.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s a charming film about a human male who chops down trees for a living suddenly shrinking and becoming part of a village of tiny, beautiful creatures that live harmoniously in the forest. That is, the forest the guy was helping chop down. It’s very sweet and wonderful for kids. I highly recommend it.

Whether it’s to meet new people and join forces or to take a moment to nourish yourself and the planet some other way, I hope we all take advantage of the awareness raising to continue on our path to sustainable living.

Tomorrow, April 22, is Earth Day 2009. Have you planned any events?

OK, I’ll ‘fess up: I haven’t. I thought it was on April 20, and today I saw it’s the 21^st, and I freaked out. Then I learned it’s tomorrow, and I felt a lot better. But I still don’t have any plans.

So, here: let’s look some up together.

Let’s go to EarthDay.net. Awesome. Here are the 4 things Earth Day Network encourages us to do:

1)      Help create a billion acts of green.  Log it in and become a member of The Green Generation. Sweet. Here you get to pledge how you will celebrate earth day. Are you finally switching to cloth napkins? Vowing to air-dry your laundry in the back yard? Installing a low-flush toilet? Solar panels? Going vegetarian? Having an Earth Day potluck to raise awareness? Ooh, that one sounds like my kind of Earth Day. Perfect.

2)      Make the NO COAL CALL.  Whether you’re in the U.S. or elsewhere in the globe, check out what you can achieve by making this simple call. Use Skype to make it cheaper. You can even encourage others by setting up a booth for them to call from.

3)      If you live in the U.S., you may be concerned about school food. Find out how to green your school here.

4)      Join Earth Day 2009 events at your university campus. Publish your event to garner attendants here.

More ideas:

• If you liked my idea, you could host an Earth Day potluck to raise awareness and nourish those you love. Go for locally bought, organic, sustainably grown, and vegetarian (vegan!) as much as possible. You know how to roll.

• You could host an Earth Day bake sale! If you’re a baker extraordinaire, here’s your chance to mesh two of your interests and bake for the planet! Perhaps whole-grain cookies with nuts and seeds, as wholesome as can be. You could request shoppers’ email addresses to send them eco-friendly tips for traveling, home, work, and so on. There’s really no limit to what you can do.

• Find a local protest and join it! Make signs, wear blue and green, maybe paint your face. You know, with biodegradable, recyclable materials. Obviously.

• Been feeling shady about shopping at a certain Earth-polluting corporation? Start your boycott.

• Get your office to switch to recycled paper, go off plastic and Styrofoam cups and switch to ceramic mugs, encourage your co-workers to print only when necessary, and so on.

Any ideas you’d like to share?

And remember, Earth Day is there to remind us to make every day count. So make every day, week and month Earth-y. It’s up to us.

Oh, Portland. Home to over half a million people, many vegan restaurants, amazing bands (RIP Sleater-Kinney), bikers, tree huggers, DIYers, and the like. (BTW, check out Havi Brooks, a Portland-based wonderful coach/yoga teacher/inspiration source galore/lots of etc.etc.)

Check it out: by 2010 (2010!!!) Portland will be so green it will supply 100% renewable energy. Had you heard of solar-powered parking meters? I hadn’t. Holy shit that’s amazing.

Of course, this green hub has always been innovative in its eco ways. Back in 1903 it was already trying to get other US cities to heart green spaces in urban areas, for instance. Three decades ago it replaced a 6-lane highway with a waterfront park. (Wow.) Today the city boasts 92,000 acres of green space plus 74 mi. of biking, hiking, and running trails. Portland protects 25 million acres of forest and farms.

More: Portland employs fuel cells that run on waste methane (maybe farms should get on this, since cattle produce so much methane it’s screwing up our planet-ahem, thought about going vegetarian lately?), a micro hydro facility in its drinking water system, and microturbines that run on, again, waste methane. Next time you’re feeling gassy, think about that! (If you’re the gassy type, maybe consider powering your house that way. If only, huh?)

Portland’s the first US city to implement a plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The city helped found the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign and has been touted as a green city for a long time.

50 of the city´s buildings meet or exceed the US Green Building Council’s sustainability standards. The city is pedestrian and bike-friendly (hear that, Florida, Los Angeles, etc. etc.??) About 25% of commuters ride their bikes to work. There is lots of green amidst the drab cement or urban life (hear that New York? Mexico DF? Detroit? Santiago? Sao Paulo? Etc. etc.?)

‘Nuff freaking said.

Let’s review.

Essentially, the “green cities movement” comprises loose groups of cities focused on becoming and remaining sustainable. Green cities, I joyfully report, are sprouting worldwide, albeit only in urban areas thus far.

Their point is, as I’m sure you’ve guessed already, to lessen their environmentally destructive impact. Green cities do this by reducing their waste, recycling it, and reusing materials. Their goals are lowering emissions and increasing housing density, green spaces, and sustainable local businesses.

Remember Gothenburg’s ecotopia?  Same concepts, although Gothenburg’s are more evolved.

Examples

I was surprised to learn that a typical green city is located in Brazil: Curitiba. This city went green back in the 1970s!

Curitiba has a high-tech bus system and has worked to increase population density around transit hubs, enabling other areas to become green, open land instead of stimulating urban sprawl.  I’m not sure why this city counts as green when it has such a long way to go, but if it’s the best Brazil’s got right now, I’ll take it. It’s got a lot more than many cities can boast, after all.

And remember Iceland? Reykjavik relies on geothermal and hydropower for heating and generating most of its electricity. This city has the largest geothermal heating system in the world. In fact, it was ranked 1^st in Grist Magazine’s “15 Greenest Cities” list. On the other hand, it’s got large scale urban sprawl and one of the highest worldwide per-capita ownerships. Public transport consists of an unpopular hydrogen-powered bus system.

We should note that Reykjavik plans to go fossil fuel-free by 2050, though. Cheers to that.

Other green cities include Sydney, Copenhagen, Portland, and Seattle. More on that coming up.