Category Archives: New solutions

All, Energy, Environment, New solutions, Policy, Sustainable communities

What NJ’s 2015 Energy Master Plan needs to include: Take 1

August 11, 2015 Kimi 1 Comment

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities holds three hearings this month (August 2015) to collect public input in preparation for upding the state’s Energy Master Plan (EMP). Individual state goals for cutting power plant emissions are laid out in President Obama’s new national Clean Power Plan. Assemblyman Dan Benson explains their impact on New Jersey’s EMP:

States can .. decide for themselves how to get there .. (but) if New Jersey fails to produce our own plan in compliance with the Clean Power Plan, we may be forced by the federal government into a program of its design.

This is the Assemblyman’s list of characteristics of a strong state EMP – which you can freely incorporate into your spoken or written testimony. You can also review Environment New Jersey’s list of suggested talking points:

Obtains input from policymakers, energy suppliers, utilities, consumers, and other stakeholders
Coordinates specific state implementation planning so that it will adhere to the Federal Government’s Clean Power Plan’s standards and other Federal rules
Includes both supply and demand-side requirements
Focuses on energy efficiency programs and renewable energy goals
Builds upon a record of the past, what was successful and what needs to change
Seeks to provide a blueprint for the future, with achievable and specific goals
Examines the impact of consumer behavior on energy usage, and how does education and other policymaking modify market and consumer behavior in a beneficial manner

The Sierra Club will help you sign up and prepare testimony for an EMP hearing.

There’s Clean Energy Call to Action rally outside Newark’s Aug 11 EMP hearing. Feel free to join in – or just check out the materials.

All, Environment, Nature, New solutions, Policy, Protection

Visit the Pinelands – new map improves access for visitors

August 7, 2015 Kimi 2 Comments

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance advises that on August 4th the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced the launch of a public access plan for the state’s largest tract of land, Wharton State Forest (125,000 acres). Wharton State Forest is located in the heart of the Pinelands National Reserve and covers much of Burlington County and parts of Camden and Atlantic County.

A detailed official map of the roads and features of Wharton State Forest was never available to the public before now. The public access plan and map will allow the state to better protect Wharton State Forest by designating certain areas for non-motorized recreation only. See the online map or look for printed maps and brochures at historic Batsto Village and the Atsion Recreation Area.

Over the years more and more roads have been unintentionally created due to illegal off-roading through the state forest. The Motorized Access Plan delineates the 225 miles of sand and unimproved roads intended for motor vehicle use while leaving other access areas for emergency vehicles, wildlife, and low-impact recreation. The MAP achieves balance and provides a guide to users of the state forest so visitors can identify safe areas to drive, bike, walk and boat.

Support DEP’s Motorized Access Plan to limit Pinelands ORV damage

ORV damage to Pinelands — Credit: Pine Barrens Under Siege website

Wharton State Forest has sustained a great deal of damage from Off Road Vehicles (ORVs), and the damage has hindered fire suppression efforts and search and rescue due to impassable roadways. Enforcement of illegal off-roading activities has been difficult without a map clearly designating areas for motorized vehicle use and areas where motorized vehicles are prohibited.

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance supports the DEP’s Motorized Access Plan to protect the natural resources and recreational opportunities in Wharton State Forest. Learn more about ORV damage on their website, including news coverage by NBC10 about the plan and an interactive map of damage done in the Pinelands by irresponsible off road vehicle use.

Take Action Today
Please let your legislators know that you support this Motorized Access Plan by calling or emailing them today. It is very important that they hear from you and that they support this effort by the NJ DEP to better protect New Jersey’s natural resources and encourage all types of recreation in Wharton State Forest.

Find your state legislators with this easy tool or send an email using PPA’s Take Action tool.

More on Pine Barrens damage from ORVs at Pine Barrens Under Siege.

All, Environment, Food, Justice, Nature, New solutions, Policy, Protection

Want to become a Palm Oil Action Leader and help stop cookies from destroying our world?

August 5, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

I know it seems crazy, but the way some our favorite foods are grown and manufactured is doing fantastic harm to our world. Conflict palm oil is one product that harms the environment and is widely used in mass produced baked goods including crackers and GirlScout cookies … so the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is putting together a coalition of leaders who will learn to lead a movement to protect rainforests, the ecosystems they are home to, the air they clean and orangutans. Maybe you’d like to sign on.

CONFLICT PALM OIL: Are your cookies causing orangutan extinction?

We may not be able to see it, but Conflict Palm Oil has become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. It is found in roughly half the packaged products sold in US grocery stores, including favorite snack foods like ice cream, cookies, crackers, chocolate products, cereals, doughnuts and potato chips. In fact, palm oil is likely present in some form in nearly every room of your home.

Demand for palm oil is skyrocketing worldwide. The recent spike in use by the US snack food industry is due in large part to Conflict Palm Oil being used as a replacement for controversial trans fats. The oil is extracted from the fruit of oil palms native to Africa, now grown primarily in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Conflict Palm Oil production is now one of the world’s leading causes of rainforest destruction. Unchecked expansion is pushing new plantations deep into the heart of some of the world’s most culturally and biologically diverse ecosystems. Irreplaceable wildlife species like the Sumatran Rhino, Sumatran Elephant and the Sumatran and Borneo orangutan are being driven to the brink of extinction.

But Conflict Palm Oil is not only a local problem. The clearing of rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands for new plantations is releasing globally significant carbon pollution, making Conflict Palm Oil a major driver of human induced climate change.

If this issue concerns you, maybe you’d like join RAN’s Palm Oil Action Team and learn how to take the lead in stopping rainforest destruction by the snack food industry.

Palm Oil Action Leaders: Building a Movement to Cut Conflict P…

Ever wonder how you can fight deforestation, human rights abuses, child and forced labor, and the extinction of iconic species like the orangutan in YOUR community? RAN's Palm Oil Action Team organizes in their communities and online, around the world, to pressure the biggest corporations on the world to cut Conflict Palm Oil. The Snack Food 20 corporations would hate it – and we would love it – if you joined the Palm Oil Action Team. Check out the video of some of our local leaders, then get involved at http://a.ran.org/a2N

Posted by Rainforest Action Network on Tuesday, 4 August 2015

An animal friend speaking through sign language to tell about his home needing protection from conflict palm oil destruction is Strawberry the Orangutan. There are only about 60,000 wild orangutans left.

All, Health, Help, New solutions, Protection, Waste

Peepoople bags turn people waste into valuable fertilizer

June 24, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

The production of Peepoople bags is being subsidized by its creator, Anders Wilhelmson, but this brilliant idea could become completely self-funding once it catches on more in developing countries. The bags currently cost users 3.4¢. FastCompany writes:

For less than four cents a bag, Peepoople’s mobile toilet takes dangerous waste and turns it into valuable fertilizer. Peepoople makes bags for going to the toilet, but not any old bags. Inside are chemicals that break down the poo and pee into fertilizer. Peepoople’s bags not only help contain dangerous waste, offering alternative sanitation in slums and refugee camps. They also begin to turn the feces into a positive material that can nourish crops.

The business was started 10 years ago by Anders Wilhelmson, an architect, urban planner, and professor at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology … (who) started to think of the bag – which he considers a sort of mobile toilet, something akin to what a cell phone is to a landline.

All, Environment, Health, Nature, New solutions, Plants, Pests, Rescue, Policy, Protection, Sustainable communities, Water

We need Green Infrastructure, and EPA infographic shows why

June 17, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

This EPA infographic may just be the mother of all Green Infrastructure elucidations. It shows many different ways to incorporate GI in communities and how this helps us conserve water, reduce energy use, reduce flooding risks and make both buildings and Planet Earth, cooler.

Wikipedia‘s Green Infrastructure definition is pretty empty: it doesn’t help us paint a mind picture of what GI is.

Green Infrastructure or blue-green infrastructure is a network providing the “ingredients” for solving urban and climatic challenges by building with nature.

But American Rivers helps us understand the scope and relevance of Green Infrastructure.

Green infrastructure is an approach to water management that protects, restores, or mimics the natural water cycle. Green infrastructure is effective, economical, and enhances community safety and quality of life.

It means planting trees and restoring wetlands, rather than building a costly new water treatment plant. It means choosing water efficiency instead of building a new water supply dam. It means restoring floodplains instead of building taller levees.

Green infrastructure incorporates both the natural environment and engineered systems to provide clean water, conserve ecosystem values and functions, and provide a wide array of benefits to people and wildlife.

All, Energy, Environment, Nature, New solutions, Protection

Cute polar bear app helps you control your daily energy use

May 3, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

Time recommends using this cute app to track your energy use helps you learn how much energy you’re consuming and the adjustments you can make to evolve a more eco-friendly lifestyle. If you’re good, the polar bear’s iceberg gets bigger.

The app tracks your energy consumption in areas like electricity, travel and food, and within each category, there are suggestions for doing things differently to help conserve energy. Some of the suggestions are simple (like recycling) and some are complex (like installing a high-efficiency water closet). As you take up the suggestions, you accumulate carbon units and can quickly see how much energy you are saving.

A cute visual device — a polar bear perched on an iceberg — depicts your progress. The more energy you save, the bigger the iceberg gets.

Get the free app on Google Play or iTunes

Biking/Walking, Environment, Health, New solutions, Waste

Menstruation Activists spread the word: healthy menstrual products are also eco-friendly

May 1, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

Would you believe there’s something called Menstruation Activism – and that women who promote it via Sustainable Cycles are cycling across the United States to bring awareness to women everywhere about menstruation products that are healthier for us and better for the environment?

The Guardian report on menstruation products shares excellent information on what’s being done around the world to bring this universally taboo subject into the light. It should be easy to discuss and address the health and environmental concerns that are associated with ‘female hygiene’, as it’s a subject that affects 50% of the world’s population directly … and the environmental problems caused by unsustainable products affect everyone.

What a revolutionary idea. I love it!

All, Environment, Nature, New solutions, recycle/repurposed

Goat-Christmas tree tech & other upcycling strategies

January 28, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

Tree-eating goats are the newest firefighting tech

Reno’s latest firefighting technology is a bit unusual: Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District feeds old Christmas trees to goats. They’ve partnered with Goat Grazer’s Vince Thomas and his flock of 40, giving them yummy pine trees to eat full of Vitamin C and potassium. The trees would otherwise hang about in illegal dumping areas and become a fire hazard.

Poet journalist praises create repurposing

Adam Cole of NPR penned a poem to praise the different ways people put to use some of the 30 million dead Christmas trees Americans burn through annually once they’re not decorating homes any longer. Bradley Beach, New Jersey made it into his verse:

In the East, Mitchell Mann and Dominic Esposito
Are two Jersey boys who live by one credo:
“To save the environment, pretty much, being green.”
So they drummed up a posse of like-minded teens.
They’ll grab all the trees — every one within reach
And they’ll bring them all down to nearby Bradley Beach.
“Once the trees are on the beach they’re laid down against a fence.”
Where they form the foundation of the town’s defense.
“And as the wind blows the trees capture the sand.”
And soon dunes will form — at least that’s the plan.
And in future years, “When a storm comes through
It protects all the houses,” and habitat too.

Mulch a tree!

Another thing you can do with dead trees are mulch them. In NYC if you bring a tree to the city’s MulchFest, you will get back a bag of the mulch created from the noble pine!

Next year, buy a sustainably grown or re-plantable tree

If you plan ahead for next year, you can buy a sustainably grown tree or even a living tree with root ball intact, that gets replanted after Christmas.

All, Food, New solutions, recycle/repurposed

One business’ trash can be somebody’s dinner

January 26, 2015 Kimi Leave a comment

Rob Greenfield dives in the name of ending hunger – dumpster dives! 40% of US food goes uneaten so Rob travels around the country collecting food which he brings to parks and puts on display to show how much good food ends up being a waste problem instead of a hunger solution. After the media he invites have the chance to inspect his bounty, Rob gives it away:

“After leaving it out on display for a little while, if people want to take it home and eat it, they can.”

Rob finds perfectly good fruits, vegetables – both whole and prepackaged/cut up, canned foods, blocks of cheese, pizzas, bags full of bread and bagels. He’s eaten from 3-500 dumpsters and has never gotten sick from the food he’s found in them.

Rob’s goal is to connect the many people who are food insecure – who lack regular access to food – with the stream of food items that are discarded by restaurants and grocery stores even though there is nothing wrong with them .. except for being past a sell by date, which Rob says, “means nothing.” In the future Rob imagines, no good food will ever end up in a dumpster.

According to non-profit Feeding America, “In 2013, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children.”

All, Environment, Justice, New solutions, Protection

Support for Environmental Activists

June 10, 2014 Kimi Leave a comment

Center for Health, Environment & Justice
PO Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040
703-237-2249 | chej@chej.org
The Center for Health, Environment and Justice can help you and your community if you are facing an environmental health risk. From leaking landfills and polluted drinking water to incinerators and hazardous waste sites, we can help you take action towards a healthier future. Call us.