Story on all the little + the big things we can do

Chicago's RedEye had a nice story that lays out the little - as well as the big - things that we can all do to help reduce our carbon footprint. It's amazing how quickly green issues have risen in prominence in the public's eye, yet constant reminders of the ways that our own actions are relevant, like this piece, are very important. Reporter Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, who has covered environmental issues for some time, explores home energy, flying, driving, eating meat, recycling, etc. "If everyone in Chicago [used reusable bags], it would eliminate 601 million bags and save 4,508 tons of waste from going to a landfill." And how about the newspaper industry itself? Interestingly, the 1,500 daily newspapers in the U.S. use about 9.2 million tons of paper - consuming more than the book, magazine and catalog sectors combined. Yet it turns out they're the most recycled paper product around - and newsprint itself contains an average of 32 percent recycled fiber. (Still, it's a great incentive for going digital!) Anyway, enterprising reporting!

Chicago Tribune Interviews Weisman

Today's Trib has an interview with author Alan Weisman. An excerpt from the story:
Among those interesting facts:

- Humans use more than a third of the world's land surface for food production.

- In the ocean, north of Hawaii, there is a 1,000-mile-wide area containing 3 million tons of trash -- bottle caps, fish netting, six-pack rings, limp balloons, plastic bags and other detritus of human civilization -- that oceanographers have dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

- Over the past half-century, humans have produced 1 billion tons of plastic.

Virtually all of that plastic remains somewhere on the planet, and, even if humans disappeared tomorrow, it would stick around for a long, long time.

How long?

"No one knows," writes Weisman, "because no plastic has died a natural death yet. It took today's microbes ... a long time after plants appeared to learn to eat lignin and cellulose. More recently, they've even learned to eat oil. None can digest plastic yet, because 50 years is too short a time for evolution to develop the necessary biochemistry."

Provocative stuff, right?

What's Wrong with Environmentalists?

I recently discovered the thoughtful and incisive blog of Paul Botts of the Donnelley Foundation, at http://dot-org.blogspot.com. In a February posting he discusses how environmentalists have hurt their own cause by doing a poor job at communicating with broader society. In this
post, he discusses similarities between environmentalism and feminism - in terms of how the approach that seems to work at one point in the movement may not resonate for a later generation.

Is Walking (to work) Hard?

Harold Henderson's blog at the Chicago Reader has an interesting item on walking to work. Turns out that the 3 top towns in the U.S. of more than 5,000 people where over 1/2 the population walks to work are... military bases. See the posting here. The web site this is drawn from has lots of data to mine - http://www.city-data.com.

CTA Tightens Management

CTA Tattler reports on a very interesting (and largely unreported) development. In today's posting, Tattler reports the agency has worked with the Civic Consulting Alliance to benefit from more than $2 million in pro bono consulting to improve agency management. For example, working with Booz Allen Hamilton, CTA chief Ron Huberman has led a "Performance Initiative" that has helped the agency enforce accountability of its managers in terms of cleanliness, safety, courtesy, etc. Sounds like smart management.

Chicago's Green Maps Are Out!

Today's Reader announces that the long-awaited Art Institute-produced 'green' neighborhood maps are now available online. Harold Henderson discusses the maps, the import of having them as a tool, and the complexity of decision-making they represent. See the maps here. Produced by AI students, they are colorful and pack a lot of information.

Environmental Journalism Round-Up

There's a nice round-up of coverage on the environment by Curtis Brainard on the Columbia Journalism Review's web site. Brainard looks at some of the top green reporting of late - including Grist , the NYT's series "The Energy Challenge," the LA Times series "Altered Oceans" and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel series on how climate change is specifically affecting Wisconsin. News budgets are being slashed, but fortunately - for the moment - climate change is not just a hot story but a sizzling one. "We can only hope for more."

The World Without Us

Saw journalist Alan Weisman speak last night - was truly remarkable. His book "The World Without Us" is just out and he's on tour. The book explores a world without humans, and Weisman interviewed hundreds of people to explore the notion. For example, he talked to city managers in Manhattan to learn how long the city's bridges would survive if workers stopped coming to take care of them. And how long it would take for New York's subways to flood and streets to cave in if workers stopped arriving each morning. It's a fascinating journey - largely about the resilience of nature - and worth picking up.

Gaviotas Comes to Chicago

The Peace Museum has just inaugurated the exhibit "Gaviotas: An Oasis of Imagination" on one of the world's most innovative sustainable cities. At the Harold Washington Library through January 2008, the exhibit features the writing of journalist Alan Weisman. The story is a remarkable one and explores the many creative solutions that residents of Gaviotas have implemented to resolve the challenges of living in one of Colombia's most inhospitable regions. The exhibit also features Gaviotas-like projects in Chicago; several of my photos appear there.

Green Development Going up in Evanston

This is cool - a new green development is going up in Evanston. See this piece in Evanston Now. The developers are hoping for a platinum-level LEED rating from USGBC. My wife Carmen is part of the team designing the homes and is quoted in the story.

Finally... A Rally for CTA Funding

This coming Monday, Nov. 5th, there will be a rally in downtown Chicago to support funding for CTA. Finally - but isn't it a day too late?! See this link for more on our funding scenario in Illinois and the need for reform.

Chilling Future for Global Warming?

Rolling Stone's October edition has a fascinating piece on where British scientist James Lovelock sees global warming headed. Jeff Goodell summarizes Lovelock's outlook: "...the scale of the catastrophe that awaits us will soon become obvious. By 2020, droughts and other extreme weather will be commonplace. By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe, and Berlin will be as hot as Baghdad. Atlanta will end up a kudzu jungle. Phoenix will become uninhabitable, as will parts of Beijing (desert), Miami (rising seas) and London (floods). Food shortages will drive millions of people north, raising political tensions." How on target is Lovelock? Who knows, but just to contemplate the future as he sees it is chilling and should compel us to act now.

Critical Mess

Great piece in the Reader on Chicago's recycling. Many Chicagoans are eager to recycle, but the City simply isn't 'delivering' in its programs.

Opening Statement for Chicago Visions

This blog is about the city of Chicago. It will look at the city itself, the environment, the architecture, the organizations and the people who call 'the Third Coast' home. It's written out of love for the town that Jaime Lerner and Alex Kotlowitz, thousands of miles apart, referred to affectionately as the ultimate 'real' city. Chicago is all at once grounded in its neighborhoods, complex in its power struggles, simple in its beauty, and almost always misunderstood by outsiders. But most importantly, it is home.