Green Economy
Climate Leadership
Green Buildings
Green Transportation
Zero Waste
Access to Nature
Lighter Footprint
Clean Water
Clean Air
Local Food
http://www.talkgreentous.ca/goals.php0

QUOTE
“Making Vancouver the greenest city in the world will
require harnessing the city’s greatest resources—its
people, businesses, NGOs, schools, and institutions.
All hands on deck are needed to help achieve the
transformation into a one-planet city.

By sparking a global competition for the title of
Greenest City, we hope to inspire not only Vancouverites
but also the citizens and governments of cities
around the world to join our efforts.”
http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/PDF/Vancouver2020-ABrightGreenFuture.pdf

 The Douglas County School District (and several business partners) have announced the development of more than 3 MW of solar projects at 31 different sites, including 30 schools and one athletic stadium. The school district has entered into a power purchase agreement with REgeneration Finance, which will own and finance the solar electric generating projects. The project will be built at a cost of $18.3 million at no capital, operational, maintenance, insurance, financing or ownership expense to Douglas County School District taxpayers, and it is estimated this project will save the school district $5.5 million over a 25-year period. Installation will take approximately nine months to complete
http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content_lt.php?content.6121

- Want more time, better health, clearer conscience, more fun, and more money? Join the No Impact movement and begin your empowerment while joining with others. National No Impact Week starts August 29th! Come on- get your feet wet, challenge yourself, and make new friends- there are numerous options. – Editor
 
SIERRA CLUB NO IMPACT WEEK 8/29
For one week, remove yourself from consumerdom, lower your environmental impact, and improve your quality of life by focusing on what’s really important to you. Starting August 29th, thousands of people across the world will take part in the No Impact Week! To experience the difference low impact living can have for yourself, click to register and receive the new and improved how-to manual. http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageNavigator/NAT_noimpact

FINDING LOCALS
Joining a MeetUp group is a great way to get support and inspiration from local No Impact Week participants! Check out our MeetUp page here to find one in your area. Can’t find one? Start your own! Once you’re set up, email us to receive the workshop manual, which has everything you’ll need for sparking meaningful discussions and activities. www.meetup.com/No-Impact-Project/

PLANET GREEN TV HOUSE PARTIES
Call up your peeps and host an end of the summer No Impact House Party! Planet Green will broadcast the television premiere of No Impact Man August 28th at 10pm EDT.  We’ve partnered with Sierra Club to create a toolkit with fun activities, provocative discussion questions, and ideas for actions you can take to make a difference. Download it here.  No TV? No problem. You can rent the film or stream it free from Netflix.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/reel-impact/no-impact-man-lives-life-with-less.html

NO IMPACT WEEK FOR UNIVERSITIES
This fall, nearly 30,000 college students nationwide will take part in our customized University No Impact Week! Schools include Ohio State University, Indiana University-Purdue, Rollins College, and Arizona State University. It’s a great way to get students involved in and excited about environmentalism, and to introduce them to all the great green resources on campus. If you’d like us to create a week with your school, click here for more details. http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/universities/

SCREENINGS FOR COMMUNITIES OF FAITH
Hosting a screening of No Impact Man is a great opportunity for your community to get together to discuss environmental issues and take action. And thanks to generous support from the 11th Hour Project, faith-based organizations are invited to participate in our special community-screening event for free. In addition, participants are eligible to purchase copies of No Impact Man the book at half-off retail price. If your faith group would like to screen No Impact Man, please contact Lindsay@noimpactproject.org   http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/universities/

- While many cohousing projects are deeply committed to solar power, our cohousing still retains an old restriction on the visibility of solar panels. We have them but a few of us are not proud of them- yet.  In California, it is against the law to prohibit solar panels based on “esthetics.” Everywhere needs this law. Solar IS the “New Normal.” One way to help create this is to get solar panels on the White House. Sign the petition!- Editor

Solar on the White House Campaign Heats Up

It’s happening. The effort to get solar back on the White House is getting national attention. We were so jazzed up by the effort, we reached out to the Globama to help drive traffic to the petition. Now, many other organizations are on board, including the Solar Energy Industries Association. The effort needs more grassroots support and national attention before anything happens. To sign the petition and raise more awareness-It’s happening. The effort to get solar back on the White House is getting national attention. We were so jazzed up by the effort, we reached out to the Globama to help drive traffic to the petition. Now, many other organizations are on board, including the Solar Energy Industries Association. The effort needs more grassroots support and national attention before anything happens. To sign the petition and raise more awarenesshttp://www.solaronthewhitehouse.com/
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2010/05/solar-on-the-white-house-campaign-heats-up

- Austin has been conducting a great multi-faceted energy project to create a fundamental shift for more end-use efficiency and significant amounts of new distributed generation, and now the report’s 39 recommendations have been published. This can be a model for many places! And it’s smart to include energy-hogging water.  - Editor

 Pecan Street Project
Pecan Street Project, Inc. today issued a report of recommendations spurred by the research and deliberations conducted throughout 2009. The Pecan Street Project is using Austin’s energy grid as a test-bed for smart grid technologies, products and services that will transform the energy system. The scope of this effort is dramatically larger than any one organization, department, expert or leader can execute.

The Mission includes: We will establish the City of Austin as America’s clean energy laboratory. We will design and implement an energy generation and management system that generates a power plant’s worth of power from clean sources within the city limits and delivers it over an advanced delivery system that allows for unprecedented customer energy management and conservation.
For a 3 minute video worth seeing- http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/video/inside-austins-pecan-street-project
For the report- http://pecanstreetprojectaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Pecan_Street_Final_Report_March_2010.pdf
http://pecanstreetprojectaustin.org/

- If kids had had this curriculum way back in the 1950’s when CO2 emissions started to really rise, we might not be in this mess. Better late than never- share this with all schools- and it might work with adults, too! It’s FREE! And if we all got moving, the issue of coal ash could disappear. - Editor

No Impact Project- Environmental Education Curriculum for Middle and High School Teachers
When Colin Beavan (aka “No Impact Man”) and his family decided to try living for a year without doing any harm to the environment (the “No Impact Experiment”), it attracted worldwide media attention. Why all the fuss? Because the Beavans traded their old habits for more environmentally-friendly ones – and figured out that doing so actually made their lives happier, healthier, and more abundant.
This curriculum uses these tools to help middle and high school students explore the effects their everyday behavior has on the environment, their health, and their well-being. It will also challenge students to think about how the systems in our present society influence our lifestyle choices in ways that often are not good for environment. Finally, it will guide students to take action both individually and with others to bring about positive change.
http://noimpactproject.org/educators-middle-high-school-environment-curriculum-html/

- Years ago when I took corporate executives to Biosphere 2 for transformational rethinking of our planet’s limits, now this astonishing facility has evolved and continues to offer real opportunities. Visitors welcome! - Editor

Biosphere 2’s Second Chapter: Climate Change
Biosphere 2 was sold to an investment company, which, in turn, allowed New York’s Columbia University to manage the property. Under Columbia’s supervision, the focus of the project shifted to the study of how the high concentrations of carbon dioxide inside the structures affected plant life. Biosphere 2, it turned out, was a great laboratory for tracking the effects of climate change on a number of different ecosystems.

“They were able to show that as more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere, coral reefs are endangered and die off,” said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, who now oversees Biosphere 2. Researchers at the University of Arizona have made important findings about the effects of drought on varying species of trees planted inside the biosphere more than two decades ago.

According to Ruiz, Biosphere 2’s initial attempts at creating a fully enclosed system have produced a unique tool to study a similarly enclosed environment: Earth’s. “Because of its scale, there is no other facility like it. It has become one of the best places to study the effects of climate change.”
http://www.sphere.com/2010/01/11/biosphere-2s-second-chapter-climate-change/19312078/?icid=main|search3|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2F2010%2F01%2F11%2Fbiosphere-2s-second-chapter-climate-change%2F19312078%2F
For more information about the lectures, or for tour prices and hours of operation, call 520-838-6200 or visit the Biosphere 2 website - http://www.b2science.org/.
For an article on how trees respond to drought with increased temperatures inside Biosphere 2- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/uoa-b2e040809.php

- Copenhagen is full of speeches, demonstrations, private meetings, and even art as ways to try to reach people. Here is an art project showing at a visceral level how much space a ton of CO2 takes up at normal pressure, placed outside the venue. - Editor
The CO2 Cube
In Copenhagen, where the United Nations’ summit on global warming is currently underway, artists unveiled what they are calling “The CO2 Cube,” a three-story site-specific artwork that was designed by L.A.-based architect Christophe Cornubert. Its creators said the cube represents the space that one metric ton of carbon dioxide would occupy if stored at standard atmospheric pressure — specifically, a space that is the equivalent of 27 feet cubed, or 19,683 cubic feet. The size of the installation is crucial: The average citizen of an industrialized country releases one metric ton of carbon dioxide per month, according to a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Visitors in Copenhagen walk along a moat, which runs around the structure’s perimeter. The external surfaces of the cube serve as video screens that feature artwork as well as streaming news clips and other web content.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/12/la-architect-christophe-cornuberts-carbondioxide-cube-debuts-in-copenhagen.html

QUOTE
“The “papa bear” in me. I have two young kids that I love more than anything in the world,
 and if it weren’t for them, I would have quit a long time ago.
 If the carbon does hit the fan, and things become as bad as we’re now being warned by a large chunk of our scientific community,
I want to be able to look my kids in the eye and say,
 “I am so, so sorry it turned out like this sweethearts, but I did the best I could.”
Greg Craven, teacher, YouTube star, and author when asked what drives him to work on climate change
http://www.beavertonvalleytimes.com/sustainable/story_2nd.php?story_id=125754813056346600

- If faith and religion aren’t convincing, perhaps this very logical, fun approach will move minds and hearts. This book would make a meaningful holiday gift- buy a bunch. - Editor
What’s the Worst That Could Happen?
In 2007, high school science teacher Craven posted a ten-minute video, The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See, predicting dire consequences without strong measures to stop global warming. That video attracted millions of viewers; his focus now is not ‘what’ to think about global warming, but ‘how.’ Based on a series of viral videos that have garnered more than 7.2 million views, this visually appealing book gives readers- be they global warming activists, soccer moms, or NASCAR dads- a way to decide on the best course of action, by asking them to consider, What’s the worst that could happen? And for those who decide that action is needed, Craven provides a solution that is not only powerful but also happens to be stunningly easy. Not just another change your light bulb book, this intriguing and provocative guide is the first to help readers make sense-for themselves-of the contradictory statements about global climate change.
Greg Craven’s Website- www.gregcraven.org
To see a 9 minute video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ
To buy the book- http://www.powells.com/biblio?inkey=62-9780399535017-0&PID=34124&PID=34124

QUOTE
“We have arrived at a moment unlike any other in all of human history.
Our home is in grave danger.
None of us can travel backward in time to undo errors,
no matter how clear their consequences make them over time.
Those of us alive today have a rare privilege that few generations in history have known, the chance to undertake an historic mission worthy of our best efforts. Why is it that humanity is failing to confront this unprecedented mortal threat?

The only meaningful and effective solutions for the climate crisis involve massive changes in human behavior and thinking. These solutions require difficult decisions that can only be made within the political system of the United States and other nations.
There is no other way. It is in the hands of the present generation a decision we can not escape and a choice to be mourned or celebrated through all the generations to follow. “
Al Gore, from new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis http://video.newsweek.com/#?t=46606096001&l=45881688001

- This new book took 2 years to write and lays out what we need to do to save our planet. An audio tape with a mix of voices to increase interest is also available (the quote above is from the audio.) Try to get from your local bookstore. - Editor

Al Gore’s Climate Choice
Former Vice President Al Gore’s third book centering on global warming is out. Titled “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,” it centers on the same mantra at the core of his message for years now – that the only missing link holding back action is political will. The book is mainly a heavily illustrated guide to the technologies and policies that could, in Mr. Gore’s view, limit climate dangers. Nuclear is largely out, capturing and burying carbon dioxide is somewhat in. Gains in energy efficiency are a vital stepping stone, he says, along with vastly expanded deployment of renewable energy sources and improved storage and grid components to make sure the power is available where and when it’s needed.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/al-gores-climate-choice/