Greenversations

Recently, I was listening to a radio show in which commentators were talking about the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing. I remember that evening very well. I watched the images of that historic milestone with my great grandmother in Puerto Rico. She was 84 then and we discussed how the world had changed during her lifetime. She described seeing the arrival of the first cars to the Island. She contrasted those developments with the news-breaking story of that evening on July 20, 1969, when the first man landed on the moon. Looking back to these 40 years, we’ve witnessed great technological advances and innovations we now take for granted. Travel in space, communications, and nanotechnology are just some of the things that have changed in the past forty years. And that brings me to the subject today.

I’ve always been attracted to the concept of the future. In the sixties, I remember going to the World Fair in New York and watching several exhibits which forecasted how life was going to be in the 21st century. In fact, one of my favorite cartoons, The Jetsons, was an animated science fiction sitcom which portrayed life in the 25th century as conceived by the producers back in 1963. There were robots, electronic contraptions, and flying cars. If you come to think about it, other than the flying cars, some of their futuristic ideas have become a reality. However, in remembering this series, I noticed something recently which made me pause and think. There was hardly any vegetation in that “future.” There were hardly any trees. No greenery. Is that how life will become in the 25th century?

When you come to think about it, a future without trees or vegetation would not only be scary, but deadly for all mankind. Many animals, including human beings, would not survive without any vegetation on Earth. Plants are necessary for multiple reasons—they provide us with oxygen and they are at the foundation of all food chains. Furthermore, they play a fundamental role in ecology—they cleanse the atmosphere of excessively large quantities of carbon dioxide emissions. So, when we think of sustainable development and environmental protection, these are not the fads of the moment. They are essential to our survival. We can all start working to protect our planet by pledging to take action in favor of our planet on Earth Day and every day.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

About the Author: Michelle Gugger graduated from Rutgers University in 2008. She is currently spending a year of service at EPA’s Region 3 Office in Philadelphia, PA as an AmeriCorps VISTA

In the US, produce travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches the grocery store. If you were to travel that same distance in your car for a piece of produce, you would be emitting almost a ton of carbon dioxide emissions into the environment with every trip! Most of the produce that we buy at our local grocery stores comes from miles away, from all over the world. This means that some of our produce is being sent to our local grocery stores in ships, planes and trucks – all of which release significant amounts of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions along the way.

We can definitely reduce our environmental impact the next time we go produce shopping by purchasing locally grown produce. According to Sustainable Table, if Iowa provided 10 % more produce for its local consumers, an average of 280,000 - 346,000 gallons of fuel would be saved, and 6.7 - 7.9 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced each year!

Eating locally grown produce is also one good way for you to become a climate ambassador in your community. You can educate your friends and family about our food system and the environmental importance of eating locally grown produce.

• LocalHarvest.org will help you find local farmers in your community.
• BackyardGardener can help you learn more about staring your own garden to take advantage of the spring and upcoming summer season by growing your own tomatoes, herbs, carrots, peppers, etc.

Be sure to share some more ideas on how we can all eat locally!!!! And let us know how you plan on reducing your environmental impact through sustainable produce practices.

About the Author: Loreal Crumbley, a senior at George Mason University, is an intern with EPA’s Environmental Education Division through EPA’s Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP).

There are many ways to reduce your personal impact on climate change. An easy way to decrease your contribution is by reducing your transportation emissions. When we drive we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. There are many different steps you can take to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to save money!

There are plenty of alternatives to driving our personal vehicles. We can join carpools, which help save energy and produce fewer emissions. My county offers special carpool parking lots and designated highway routes for carpoolers. If you research carpooling in your area, you may find that your county provides benefits for carpool riders. Instead of driving a car you can walk or bike ride to school and work. Since summer is starting, walking or riding a bike also makes it easy to spend more time outside rather than cooped up in your car.

Another way to lessen your impact is to keep your vehicle well serviced. If you keep your car well tuned and follow the manufacturer’s guide to scheduled maintenance, you will produce fewer emissions. Not only will you reduce greenhouse gas emissions but you will have a more fuel-efficient car and it will be more reliable. You should also change air filters regularly and use the recommended motor oil. Having a well tuned engine can reduce fuel consumption. Regularly checking the amount of air in your tires can also decrease your fuel consumption, and the less fuel your vehicle consumes, the less it pollutes the air and the fewer greenhouse gases it emits.

Here are a few tips to becoming an environmental driver:

• Avoid idling for long periods of time.
• Turn off engine when sitting or waiting.
• Reduce weight in your trunk and unload unnecessary items.
• Be easy on brakes and gas pedal;, driving at moderate speeds uses less fuel.
• Try smoother accelerations. They pollute less and save fuel.
• Plan your trips and combine errands to reduce mileage.

For more information on climate change and what you can do while on the road, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/road.html

We can all do our part to help reduce climate change. Remember it’s never too late to start new habits! If you haven’t started driving yet, these tips could be helpful for your parents or friends who have their licenses. Spread the word. We all need to work together in this fight to reduce climate change!

About the Author: Michelle Gugger graduated from Rutgers University in 2008. She is currently spending a year of service at EPA’s Region 3 Office in Philadelphia, PA as an AmeriCorps VISTA

In Philadelphia, it can get pretty cold in the winter. Tomorrow’s temperature is going to be a high of 18 degrees. On days like these it’s hard to think about being energy efficient. If you’re like me, you probably want to get out of the cold as soon as possible and into a heavily heated place. Fortunately, there are things we can do to keep nice and warm and energy efficient at the same time. Here are a few easy things that you can do at home:

• Inform your parents that lowering your thermostat by 2 degrees can save 2,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions a year from entering our environment.
• Also inform your parents that lowering your thermostat while no one is home or at night can save their energy bill an average of $180 a year — in addition to big greenhouse gas savings.
• Put an end to wasteful heating. Some examples of wasteful heating include leaving your windows/doors open in the winter or putting furniture in front of radiators which prevents heat from circulating.
• Use nature to keep your home warmer by leaving your blinds open during the day and shutting them at night.

At home, heating is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gases according to the EPA. But, you would be surprised with the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that you could save by doing a few simple things! If you want to find out just how much, calculate your emissions before and after you make the changes. When you’re done, I’d love to hear about the positive changes that you could make.

About the author: Cory Wagner joined EPA’s Office of Environmental Information in 2005. He is currently the project manager for the development of the Toxics Release Inventory-Made Easy (TRI-ME) and TRI-MEweb reporting assistance software.

Individual rights have certainly been in the news lately. From the Olympic Torch being doused in France in protest of suspected human rights abuses in China, to the Supreme Court reviewing the DC gun ban in light of the Second Amendment, to the continuing struggle to balance an individual’s right to privacy against the safety of the general public in a post-911 world, one can hardly read a newspaper these days without seeing an article about rights. This makes sense as we are a nation built on rights. The rights of the individual are crucial to our way of life and the backbone of democracy.