San Miguel de Allende

A week ago Carmen and I were invited by our friend, architect Federico Vidargas, to attend a conference in SMA. Federico, who is from San Miguel but has lived and raised family here in Chicago for many years, was concerned about how the city is growing, some poor developments have been allowed in recent years, growing traffic, and water quality, affordability and availability. The conference he put together, called SMASH, was an intriguing model for a convening meant to target specific issues and produce concrete suggestions and action steps. Federico secured funding, convened a great group of people (majority from SMA, a number from the U.S. and other countries) and set up an itinerary meant to shed light on critical issues and to address them. Along the way, we got to meet (in addition to numerous other outstanding people) his brother, sister and mother - all very committed to the city. We'll write more here when the conference web site is loaded with photos and video.

To see an audio slideshow on the conference, click here: http://smash2009.webng.com/

Sociologists Aim at Climate Change

Interesting piece in Nature Reports on the sociology of climate change - what urges people to take action at the community level, the household level, etc. Has ramifications for policy makers at various levels, as well as for advocates and targeting media campaigns. See the story at http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0908/full/climate.2009.73.html.

North Lawndale Youth Target Food Deserts

Chicago's Free Spirit Media has just posted its latest video piece, done in collaboration with UMOJA, online. It's at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7t132j0Hg. This 10-minute piece explores the issue of lack of affordable, healthy food and includes a community survey, interviews with experts, conversations with people on the street. Well done all around.

IJJ Fellowship Links

IJJ’s Current Fellowships

http://www.justicejournalism.org/fellowships/index.html

American Prospect

http://www.prospect.org

Bay State Banner

http://www.baystatebanner.com

ColorLines

http://www.colorlines.com

The Grio

http://www.thegrio.com

KMEX-34/Los Angeles

http://www.univision.com/content/channel.jhtml?chid=9450&schid=9451

Metro San Juan

http://www.metrosanjuan.com

Michael Eric Dyson Show

http://dysonshow.org

New Orleans Data Weekly

http://www.ladatanews.com/welcome.php

NPR West

http://www.npr.org

Sho-Ban News

http://www.shobannews.com

Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media (Chicago workshop)

http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2009/05/meteorologists-weathercasters-weigh-climate-science-chicago

CNT's Housing + Transit Affordability Index
http://www.cnt.org/repository/H+T%20Index%20Chicago%20Fact%20Sheet2.pdf

PPIC's "How much do California's low-income households spend on transportation?"
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/rb/RB_704LRRB.pdf

TCDP: Climate Change and Low-Income Communities
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/2009/06/25/climate-change-and-low-income-communities.html

U.S. News & World Report: Cleanest & Most Polluted U.S. Cities
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2009/04/29/health-buzz-cleanest-and-most-polluted-us-cities-and-other-health-news.html

Chicago Magazine: How do we compare? The myth of green space
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2007/How-We-Compare-Green-Space

LA Times: California's poor neighborhoods push for parks
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/urban_parks

Justice in the Air: Toxic Pollution in Our Neighborhoods
http://college.usc.edu/geography/ESPE/documents/justice_air_web.pdf

ALA's Most Polluted Areas
http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.50752/k.D532/Rankings.htm

Environmental Justice in L.A.: A Timeline
http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?ContentID=2816

Open Source Green Activism

A fascinating idea from Ald. Manny Flores - citizens can get online, post their ideas for building the city's green economy, then watch as others critique, improve and advocate for them. Visit http://www.greeneconomychicago.com - there are already some great ideas posted.

TIME Takes a Look at Food Deserts

TIME has just posted a piece looking at food deserts. Talks to Mari Gallagher, looks at Farmer's Best Market on Chicago's South Side. Minority residents of the windy city have to travel twice as far to get fresh meats and produce. See the story, as well as the accompanying video, at http://tinyurl.com/qpkz29.

Old Stoves + Global Warming

Nice piece in the NYT on an emerging strategy for quickly reducing global warming: upgrade the primitive cooking stoves in villages throughout developing world. These old soot-producing stoves may play a significant role as a cause of warming and present a potential quick fix for at least some of the major cause. See the story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/science/earth/16degrees.html?_r=1&hp

(No) Drilly, Baby, Drill sez Friedman

Nice column by Thomas Friedman on how Costa Rica has rolled environmental management together with other priorities since the late '90s. That's when environment, energy, mining and water were all placed under one minister. This led to an integrated way of approaching the environment and development - seeing them as compatible rather than mutually exclusive. Though oil was discovered in Costa Rican territory, the country decided to ban drilling. See the column here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12friedman.html?_r=1

Funny, a little sick, and very informative

That's how Isabella Rosselini described the new series she wrote, stars in and co-produced. It's called Green Porno 2, was released online April 1, and tells the story of how wild marine animals reproduce. (Green Porno 1 looked at the sex habits of insects.) In it Rosselini plays a number of animals, including a starfish, alongside dozens of different... well, you'll have to watch for yourself. It's amazing! See it at:

http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/

Vinyl Floors Lead to Autism in Children?

U.S. and Swedish researchers called evidence far from conclusive. Yet children in homes with vinyl floors were twice as likely to have autism. Vinyl can emit phthalates - which help to make plastic flexible and prevent nail polish from chipping - and are prominent in the lives of American consumers.

The researchers found four environmental factors associated with autism: vinyl flooring, the mother’s smoking, family economic problems and condensation on windows, which indicates poor ventilation.

To see the study:
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/autism-and-vinyl-flooring

Eating Meat = Global Warming

Interesting posting at the NYT's Green Inc. blog. First cites 2006 UN report that livestock is responsible for 18 % of greenhouse gas emissions. But then a recent Archives of Internal Medicine editorial stating that water use is 2-5 times greater worldwide for animal-source food than basic crops such as legumes and grains. Also states that livestock production accounts for 55% of the erosion process in the U.S. and 1/3 of the total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorous to surface water.

See the blog and links at http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/

Two Critical Takes on 'Greening' of Chicago

Several interesting and quite different pieces question the city's dedication to a sustainable future.
Tribune environmental reporter Michael Hawthorne has a piece in this morning's paper looking at the commitment by City Hall back in 2001 to reduce dependence on traditional energy, and the little progress made since. See it at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-daley-green-power-bd22-mar22,0,6177898.story.

"But more than two years after the deadline he set, the city continues to get nearly all of its power from coal, natural gas and nuclear plants, according to records obtained by the Tribune."

And Chitown Daily News has an interview with urban historian Harold Platt of Loyola University Chicago.

"On biodiversity, Daley is doing pretty good, but then take something like transportation ... With the air pollution from cars and congestion, I think it’s a miserable failure. Where has Daley been in terms of promoting public transportation? Even the Olympic committee said that’s been one of the city’s worst failings, public transit. So it’s not just lefty green tree-huggers, even outside, the world committee has been looking at Rio, Madrid, and we don’t measure up."

To see Chitown's interview, go to http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/A_green_city_skeptic,23953

White House + Gardening

Wondered at all recently if the Obamas were the first WH occupants to have a garden? Well, not surprisingly Eleanor Roosevelt had a Victory Garden there during the war. But the story goes back much further. And ofcourse, the web being the web, someone has made a short animated history of WH gardens. In this case it's Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International, leader of the "Eat The View" campaign. Roger's piece, on Vimeo, says that at the peak of the Victory Gardens movement Americans grew 40% of their own fruit and vegetables. See several animated pieces at: http://vimeo.com/1767242

Incidentally, the video says that the average distance that food travels to U.S. plates is 1,500 miles. Is that possible? It's 1,190 miles Chicago to Miami... A little snooping around the web led to a study (Tim Lang, Thames Valley University) that says:

"An increasing proportion of what Americans eat is produced in other countries, including an estimated 39 percent of fruits, 12 percent of vegetables, 40 percent of lamb, and 78 percent of fish and shellfish in 2001.4 The typical American prepared meal contains, on average, ingredients from at least five countries outside the United States."

The link (posted by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Iowa) that cites Lang's study also shows a color graphic illustrating the rise in the percentage of grapes, pineapples, artichokes and asparagus that are imported to the U.S. It's at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/files/food_travel072103.pdf

Climate Change Warned in Video from 1958(!)

This piece of video from 50 years ago lays out the dangers of excessive carbon dioxide, down to the southern coasts of the US falling to rising waters, the melting of glaciers, etc. See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lgzz-L7GFg.

So, what are the obvious excesses of today that we know are inherently wrong but that we ignore?

Europeans Shed Light on Encouraging Solar

NYT piece on growing US interest in following the European (German and Spanish) model for encouraging solar energy. It's the 'feed-in tariff,' whereby governments mandate that a utility must pay higher rates for green electricity. See it at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/business/energy-environment/13solar.html?em

Majora Carter on TED.com

If you haven't seen it already, take a look at Majora Carter's speech on www.ted.com. Her informative, passionate speech on Greening the Ghetto is up at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal.html. While you're at it, take a look at Malcolm Gladwell's speech on TED.

Green World-Mundo Verde Symposium

This past Friday I moderated a panel at Symposium on the greening of architecture, put together by the US GBC, HACIA, Instituto Cervantes and Sao Paulo-Illinois Partners. The agenda is at www.haciaworks.org. Tried to look at the growing green collar jobs movement and how it affects the world of Latino architects, developers and other construction people in Chicago. Thanks to Ald. Manny Flores for sharing his vision for a sustainable city as well as to Paige Finnegan of LEED Council, Aurelio Zarzosa-Ramirez and Lourdex Gonzalez of Primera Construction for all sharing interesting perspectives.