Carolina North APPROVED!

In case you missed the most recent DTH headline, the Chapel Hill Town Council has approved the development agreement for UNC's new research campus. This is BIG NEWS for UNC, as it now begins to develop the 250-acre campus.

So what does this have to do with sustainability? Everything. Chancellor Thorp said it himself:

"Carolina North will be a model of sustainability, a place to apply our environmental research in a real-world scenario, to explore new energy sources and technology, to push the envelope on smart design. This new campus will not only help us to retain our best and brightest, it will also be a magnet to attract quality faculty, staff and students to North Carolina."

This new campus, as currently planned, will include a central green way, working landscapes, public transit, undeveloped forest, and more. You can read the design guidelines online at:
http://research.unc.edu/cn/Design_Guidelines.pdf

To read the Chancellor's full Opinion in the Herald-Sun, visit:
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/Thorp/112-1176052.cfm?

To learn more about Carolina North, visit:
http://research.unc.edu/cn/index.php

MakeMeSustainable Monday: Solar Power

Welcome to our new Monday-morning blog feature, where we share easy tips and DIY projects that you can use this week to help make your life a bit more sustainable!

If you haven't already setup your sustainability profile at MakeMeSustainable, you can start by visiting http://makemesustainable.com. If you live in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, you'll automatically join our local group!

This week's project: solar power for cellphones & radios!
While efficiency and battery technology still have a long way to go, solar power is still the most attractive of the many sustainable technologies to many consumers. For most folks solar energy makes good sense - tap the solar energy all around use to reduce dependence on energy from the traditional electrical grid, which is usually produced by coal or nuclear power.

If you're interested in experimenting with solar power, consider this:

• It takes a lot of energy to actually produce a solar panel. If you want to reduce your environmental impacts, consider using a "reclaimed" solar panel for your projects. This can be as small as the panel inside those little garden lights, or as big as decommissioned highway panels. Some tips on finding a decommissioned panel can be found here.
• Solar panels are actually more efficient and will generate more power in colder temperatures. Excessive heat does not mean greater power.
• Any DIY project with electricity will require a bit of technical knowledge (e.g. using a soldering iron) and some safety precautions. Don't be scared to learn something new. Do, however, read all instructions carefully and make sure you are safe!
  

Ok, ready to get started?

To make a solar powered cell phone charger, go to:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar_Powered_Cell_Phone_Charger/

To make a solar powered radio, go to:
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Solar-Powered-radio-for-%245/

If you're ready for the big leagues, check out Planet Green's "7 Great Weekend Solar Power Projects." It includes the aforementioned projects AND more complex projects like a solar powered boom box!
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/solar-projects-weekend.html

"E-Cycling" event TOMORROW

With the switch to all-digital television, many folks are replacing their old television sets. But old electronic equipment does not have to go to the landfill, because it can be recycled! Fox 50 is hosting an "E-Cycling" event TOMORROW on Saturday, June 27 in order to promote the responsible recycling of electronics. They are hosting the event at three locations across the Triangle area for convenience. The event will be held from 10 am-2 pm in the parking lot of the following locations:

• Durham - Renaissance Center (7001 Fayetteville Rd, Durham, NC 27713)
• North Raleigh - Capital Blvd. (6101 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, NC 27616)
• Cary - Crossroads Plaza (237 Crossroads Blvd, Cary, NC 27518)

Check out the website below for examples of what to bring and more information:
http://www.fox50.com/dpp/community/E_Cycling_Page

18 Tips for Green Pest Control

In this beautiful weather, I like sitting outside on my porch. How do I keep from getting eaten alive by mosquitoes without spray poisons and carcinogens all over my body?

I live in an old house and have a mice problem. How do I get rid of the mice without poisoning all wildlife?

Something (or someone) is eating the vegetables in my little backyard garden. What's a humane solution?

This recent post at WebEcoist is light on details, but heavy on ideas to get you thinking about "green" ways to control pests. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find some Citrosa Geranium for the back porch!
http://webecoist.com/2009/06/12/18-tips-for-super-green-pest-control/

Jobs. Green Jobs.

Are you blue from not yet finding a job after graduation? Well recent grads might want to start looking green!

Green-collar jobs are one of the fastest growing sectors in the United States. PEW Research Company recently released information that supports that the number of green jobs are rising. The industry has grown 9% a year, which is more than twice the amount of growth in the traditional job industry. "With all the emphasis in the stimulus and energy bills, there's going to be new demand and a lot more investment in these businesses, which will mean more jobs," said Joel Yudken, a member of an advisory panel for the Pew study, in an article in the Wall Street Journal. "It's a growth area, there's no question about that."

Find more information about green job opportunities and openings at any one of the following websites:
http://www.greenjobs.com
http://www.greenjobs.net
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com

The Carbon Counter

No longer can the citizens of NYC only watch a counter clicking the US further into debt on the National Debt Clock. A new, similarly depressing display just opened a few blocks away, and is known as The Carbon Counter. It shows the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the Earth’s atmosphere every second—at an alarming rate.

At 70 feet high in a prime location outside of Madison Square Garden and Penn Station and with a current display of over 3,600,000,000,000 metric tons, it is impossible to ignore. This is exactly what the creator, Deutsche Bank, desires. By helping people recognize the reality of climate change, the bank hopes to inspire change.

And how about the sign itself? It uses low-energy LED lights and is offset by carbon credits.

To view the clock, and find out what you can do to turn back the numbers, visit: www.dbcca.com

Eats 101

image copyright http://www.Eats101.com

Since this week is all about food and gardening, it's a happy coincidence that we just learned about a really cool sustainable food-related course here at UNC. Yes, I said sustainable FOOD-related COURSE! Here's the overview:

Since its inception in 1997, UNC’s Honors Seminar in Food and Culture (HNRS 352-001—aka “Eats 101”) has explored cultural, social, economic, and environmental sustainability through the lens of historical and contemporary food practices. Designed as a fourth hour “lab,” the new sustainability section connects students with sustainable food initiatives at home and abroad in addition to facilitating hands on experience with food production, acquisition, and preparation.

Awesome!! Students in this course have made site visits all around town (e.g. Carrboro Farmer’s Market, Counter Culture Coffee, Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, Peregrine Farms, Chapel Hill Creamery, SEEDS, Baldwin Farms, Weaver Street Bakery/Market), hosted and prepared a dinner at the first Southeast Regional Food Activist Summit Conference, and even presented at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

Special thanks go to Professor Jim Ferguson, who developed this course, and Lauren Wilson, a Food Studies major in Interdisciplinary Studies and French major at Carolina, for bringing our attention to this course!

Holy cow, I wish I was in the course! Learn more about Eats 101 online at:
http://www.eats101.com/

image copyright http://www.Eats101.com

Upside-down gardening

Although summer doesn’t technically begin for another ten days, it’s still a perfectly appropriate time to start that summer garden you’ve been dreaming about all winter. Don’t worry if you don’t have much of a yard to work with, or even a yard at all! A fun type of tomato gardening that’s recently been sweeping the nation’s porches and patios only requires a container (like a 2 liter soda bottle), some soil, string for hanging, a place for it to hang from—and, of course, the baby tomato plant itself.

For directions on how to make your own upside-down tomato plant holder (also known as “inverted tomatoes” or “topsy-turvy tomatoes”), visit: http://www.ehow.com/how_2280899_make-down-tomato-plant-holder.html or http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/1620-how-to-make-an-upside-down-tomato-planter or http://www.cheapvegetablegardener.com/2009/04/make-your-own-upside-down-tomato.html .

Upside down gardening not only looks great; it’s great for the environment too! Hanging baskets generally don’t have weed or pest problems, so chemical care is unnecessary. It’s even said that tomatoes develop faster hanging than growing from the ground up. Plus, it’s so fun that the neighbors will want to try it too, and soon everyone will be growing their own local and delicious spaghetti sauce, savory salsa or tasty tomato bisque!

Buying local and community gardens!

While yesterday's post was all about the importance of having a home garden, it is definitely true that not everyone can have a home garden. So what to do?

1) Buy locally produced food - including milk, produce, meat, bread, eggs, etc. That means is has been produced within 150 miles. When you buy local, your food will be fresher, there will be less pollution transporting food, AND your money will stay in the local economy. It's a win-win-win scenario!

Even if you live and/or work on UNC's campus, there are lots of opportunities to "eat local":


2) Seek out a community garden! UNC has the Carolina Garden Co-Op with multiple plots. Nearby is also the Northside Community Garden at 400 Caldwell St., and the Carrboro Community Garden within Carrboro's Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Hillsborough Road. Community gardens are great ways to meet other interested community members AND get yourself some real-life gardening experience!

White House Garden Tour!

"As raw as it gets!" -Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies



It's great the our First Family now has a garden of their own, but having a garden is nothing new. Remember the WWII "victory gardens"? With the economy down and prices up, these economically- and environmentally-beneficial landscapes are making a comeback!



Are you gardening? I know I am!

Why is "stuff" so complicated?

Check out this gem from a recent Bill Moyers interview with Daniel Goleman!

DANIEL GOLEMAN:

"...The riddle of the chariot comes from the 5th century, from an obscure text in India.....It poses the question: where is the chariot? Is it in its wheel? In the frame? In the rods that connect it to the horse? It's not in any one of those. It is an aggregate of parts.

"And the metaphor here is that any product is not a single thing here. It has a back story. It's an aggregate. It's an assembly. And that assembly includes the impacts along the way. So we've got to expand our thinking about the stuff we buy. Because it has a history that could be better going into the future if we vote with our dollars. And that's another metaphor I'd like to put out. Is that it's like an election, folks, you know. Do you want the...pricy one with the chemicals of concern?

"Or do you want the one that's actually cheaper as it happens, and that you know is safe for your family. And if you do, and, as you say, if you have a broader moral vision, do you want to let other people know? Do you want to make the company know, so that by the time your grandchildren are buying it, it's a safer product."

A very interest discussion on the importance of knowing the "true costs" of the products we buy. But how can we tell what products are "safe" or have the smallest impact on people and the environment?

Fortunately, Mr. Goleman pointed to 2 excellent (and easy to navigate) online resources to help you quickly find the better products!

http://www.goodguide.com/ (easy ratings guide to find the preferable products)
and
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ (what potentially dangerous chemicals are in your cosmetics?)

Hat tip to Greg Gangi, of UNC's Institute for the Environment, for pointing this out!

What's our true footprint ?

Time-lapse photography and aerial photography - both can create stunning visuals of natural processes. And together, they can also give us a true sense of the human impact on our environment. Wired Science has put NASA aerial photographs together to create time-lapse videos that show our true footprint on Planet Earth.

Urbanization: Dubai


Water consumption: Aral Sea


Deforestation: Amazon


For more time-lapse videos and information, check out Wired Science at:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/earthobservatoryvideos/

"Home"

Did you know that June 5th was World Environment Day? This year's World Environment Day occurred on a Friday and featured a major event. An awareness documentary called "Home" was released on Friday simultaneously in 100 countries. According to an article by Anne Chaon of AFP, it is documentary about saving the planet brought to you by director/photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.



The director said in the article that "the idea is to explain what's happening to the planet by beginning at the beginning, by the miracle of life on earth." It took three years to complete and features stunning aerial shots. He said of his desire to complete the film that "although there's a general trend towards an awareness of ecological issues, concrete action is still too little, too slow." In an attempt to maximize awareness, the complete film is available for FREE viewing online until June 14!

Check it out online at http://www.youtube.com/homeproject.

The World We Avoided...

If you caught the ABC special "earth 2100" last week, you were treated to a frightening version of the world as it could be if humans do not act quickly to address issues such as global warming and population growth. But how real are such scenarios? Unfortunately more real than some might like to believe.

To this end, atmospheric chemists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Johns Hopkins University, and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency ran a simulation of “what might have been” if chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had not been banned with the 1989 Montreal Protocol.

In summary:

"The year is 2065. Nearly two-thirds of Earth’s ozone is gone—not just over the poles, but everywhere. The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica, first discovered in the 1980s, is a year-round fixture, with a twin over the North Pole. The ultraviolet (UV) radiation falling on mid-latitude cities like Washington, D.C., is strong enough to cause sunburn in just five minutes. DNA-mutating UV radiation is up more than 500 percent, with likely harmful effects on plants, animals, and human skin cancer rates."

Read all about it online at:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldWithoutOzone/page1.php

Your input needed for UNC Sustainability Report!

Does your University group or department have any programs, research, or accomplishments that promote sustainability?

If so, we would like to include your university group/department’s accomplishments in the upcoming 2009 Campus Sustainability Report, which reaches a wide audience of elected officials, educational leaders, government agencies, and local and regional organizations and thought leaders. The report will highlight sustainability-related accomplishments, trends, awards, and activities across the University. The report is focused on documenting new actions and their impacts. Thus it will cover progress made in policies, practices, curriculum, research, engagement, and funding since fall 2007. Longer term trends are also of interest in order to measure progress over time. A copy of the 2007 report is available online at http://sustainability.unc.edu.

You may submit information by completing the easy online form at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VgDLk6GUTmrU5ubIweTYDg_3d_3d

The deadline for submissions in June 10, so don’t delay!

Treasured Results

As some of you may have seen in the Daily Tar Heel, the Tar Heel Treasure sale was a wonderful success! Over 14.5 tons of goods were collected, $7,000 was raised for the Carson Scholarship, $1,000 worth of items were donated to the N.C. Children’s Hospital, and hundreds of wonderful community partners and volunteers worked together to make a wonderful sale!

Continue the conservation by keeping reusable items out of the trash. Donate used items to places like our local PTA Thrift. If you have a book, DVD, CD, or video game, you could even trade your item for another through websites like SwapTree.com (Eco-hint: use minimal packaging and ship/receive locally). And always, always recycle!

By reusing items and reducing waste, you’re saving natural resources and landfill space. In other words, reuse, reduce, recycle, and save the world!

To learn what items are recyclable in Orange County, visit http://www.co.orange.nc.us/recycling/community.asp.

To learn more about trading items online, visit www.swaptree.com.