Summer 2006 Newsletter

Dear Ecology Center members and friends,

Happy Summer! The aim of this Ecology Center newsletter is to provide you with ideas for sustainable living, and to give you an update on the work of the Ecology Center. The Ecology Center has provided free, non-commercial information to the public since 1969. We help people make informed choices about issues that affect them, others, and the planet. To this end, we make the Eco-Calendar, the Eco-Directory, and this Newsletter accessible and free to all. Please support us and the services we provide by becoming a member. Visit our website at http://ecologycenter.org/donate/

In this issue:

1. Paper Doesn’t Only Grow on Trees: Mixed Paper Recycling Drive 2006
2. Planes, Trains, and Biofueled-Hybrid-Offset-Carpools: Tips for Eco-Friendlier Summer Travel
3. The Indigenous Permaculture Project Connects Communities of El Salvador with the Bay Area
4. César Chávez’s “Fast for Life” Honored by Berkeley Farmers’ Market Event
5. Help Farmers Stop the USDA’s Plan to Microchip Every Farm and Backyard Animal
6. The Ecology Center’s Eco-House Launches Urban Skills Workshop Series
7. Recipe for Farm Fresh Choice’s Summer Salad with Cilantro and Lemon Vinaigrette
8. Top 10 Resources Our Staff Wants You to Know About

1. Paper Doesn’t Only Grow on Trees: Mixed Paper Recycling Drive 2006

Last year, Berkeley saved over 100,000 trees and 65,000 barrels of oil just by recycling paper. Though that sounds wonderful, it was only half the amount of paper that was discarded. According to the results of audits conducted as part of the last Cash for Trash contest, we are still wasting an equal amount of trees and oil just by throwing junk mail and other paper in the garbage can. It’s an area in which most of us can do more, regardless of where we live.

Are you recycling in some parts of your life but not others? Do you recycle discards from the kitchen and office but not from the living room, bathroom, or garage? Do you recycle paper and containers at home but not at work, school, or at the park? Next time you take out the trash, take a look at what recyclables are in there and determine where they came from — perhaps your recycling system needs tweaking.

It turns out that we discard almost three to four times more paper than bottles and cans. With that in mind, the Ecology Center has launched a mixed paper drive with the aim of increasing the amount of paper recycled by 35 tons per month or 2 pounds per Berkeley household. Read the instructions for the Berkeley curbside recycling program and find out if there’s more that you can recycle. If you live in another city and would like instructions, call our info desk at 510-548-2220 x233.

Recycling does make an impact. For a great history of curbside recycling programs and an assessment of their successes, read the Terrain article Bulging at the Waste: More Americans recycle than vote. Is it making a difference? The answer is yes.

2. Planes, Trains, and Biofueled-Hybrid-Offset-Carpools: Tips for Eco-Friendlier Summer Travel

Sometimes a vacation is when all our best intentions for eco-friendly living fly out the window, and we find ourselves burning jet fuel and staying in accommodations that have a giant eco-footprint. On other vacations, we’re living close to the earth, on just granola, candles, and a favorite tin cup. Well, whichever way you go this travel season, here are a few tips to help you have a great vacation and keep your impact on the planet to a minimum.

Getting There

If you compare the fuel efficiency of different modes of transportation you will find the following:¹

• Amtrak train travel uses 2,100 BTUs per passenger-mile
• An automobile uses on average 3,597 BTUs per passenger-mile (based on 1.6 passengers)
• A transit bus uses on average 3,698 BTUs per passenger-mile
• Airlines use 3,890 BTUs per passenger-mile

Beginning with this energy use and factoring in such environmental factors as air emissions, water pollution, and infrastructural impacts on land and habitat, we offer the following recommendations for choosing a mode of travel:

• Take the train. A train can use up to 70% less energy and causes up to 85% less air pollution than air travel.² Even though trains run on diesel, they are highly efficient because for much of the time the train’s wheels glide on the rail. Mass transit options such as the train are better for the environment and give you the freedom to sleep, read, or do work on the way.
• Don’t fly if you can help it. One transatlantic flight for a family of four creates more CO₂ than that family generates domestically in an entire year, and about twice the emissions of a car traveling 12,000 miles.³ Short flights are especially energy-guzzling because take-off and landing require so much extra energy. If you must fly, do it only for long flights and go nonstop whenever possible.⁴ Planes also emit lots of pollutants at high altitudes, particularly nitrogen oxides, which may triple the climate impact of plane travel.⁵ Flying is by far the least eco-friendly option.
• If you must drive a car, consider not just going fuel-efficient but renting a hybrid. You can start with listings from the Eco-Directory. For the issues associated with driving cars, and also a survey of future transportation technologies, read the Terrain article Car Wars: Renegotiating Our Relationship with the Open Road.
• For those running on biofuels, the station locator will help you identify sources of biofuels along your trip route. For those who haven’t made the switch yet, read about why biofuels may be the best bet of all in the Terrain article Liquid Solar: The Nation’s Fastest-Growing Alternative Fuel? Vegetable Oil. Decided that you want to go biodiesel? Check out the Berkeley Biodiesel Collective.
  
• Contribute to a zero-emissions project. If you have to fly, consider making your trip "climate-neutral" by making a donation to zero- or negative-emission projects such as building renewable energy facilities or planting trees that cancel out the carbon dioxide produced by your flight. These so-called carbon offsets or “green tags” are available through organizations such as those listed in the Eco-Directory. Alternatively, you could donate what you judge to be the correct amount of money to the environmental group of your choice, like the Ecology Center.

Choosing a Destination and Staying There⁶

• Greener hotels: Some hotels are making a commitment to reduce their environmental impact. Since some are doing more than others, ask each hotel about its environmental practices before making a reservation.
• Linens: Laundering sheets and towels consumes large amounts of energy, water, and detergent. Ask your room attendant to change your linens and towels every other day (or less often if you prefer).
• Human-powered and public transportation: Not only are walking and bicycling good for the environment and your health — they can also help you stumble upon all sorts of hidden treasures you would never otherwise find. Many cities have bus and rail systems that can bring you to major hotels and attractions, reducing or eliminating the need for a car. If possible, don’t rent a car, don’t rent a scooter, and don’t fly within the country. Plan your trip using buses, trains, ferries, bicycles, and your feet.
• Ecotours: The city in which you're staying may have sightseeing tours designed to minimize your impact on indigenous populations and the local environment. Check the city's tourism website or call its chamber of commerce for details.
• Going camping? The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics’s fact sheet on the Seven Principles of Responsible Camping will tell you how to camp with the least impact. Other great links on camping - including camping with kids, camp recipes, and making your own gear - can be found at knowledgehound.com.

For more ideas, Lonely Planet has a great Guide for Responsible Travel on their website. Have a great trip!

3. The Indigenous Permaculture Project Connects Communities of El Salvador with the Bay Area

The Ecology Center's Indigenous Permaculture Project is traveling this Summer to El Salvador to support the Traditional School Program in Sonsonate state which is working on building water purification systems, constructing a community building, and giving workshops on health and traditional farming. Poverty and exploitation of resources has led to rapid deforestation and erosion in this area. The Indigenous Permaculture Project links people in the Bay Area with the communities of El Salvador to restore the natural environment in this region. The communities of Maquilishuat Nahuatl people and the cooperative of El Manzano will host 10 international participants for 8 days. If you are interested in joining the reality trip July 1-9, there is still room. You will work with community members on projects like building a community center, working with children in local elementary schools, practicing sustainable forestry management, building composting toilets and water catchment systems, practicing traditional farming and sustainable agriculture, learning/teaching biodiesel brewing, and learning adobe house or traditional house construction. Participants will enjoy homestays with local families and explore the beautiful and dramatic natural surroundings. The participants will also meet with local community members and together, international and local participants will create a community action project.

If you can't join the trip but want to hear more about the work, come to the Indigenous Permaculture Event at the Ecology Center on Wednesday, June 28. The evening's events will include Mayan native dance, music, poetry and a slideshow presentation of the Indigenous Permaculture Project's work in the Bay Area, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and in El Salvador. If you can't make the event but would like to make a donation, please contact us at the Ecology Center. All proceeds will help fund the work.

4. César Chávez's “Fast for Life” Honored by Berkeley Farmers' Market Event

César Chávez conducted his last and longest public fast at age 61, his "Fast for Life," for 36 days, July 17 - August 21, 1988, to call attention to farm workers and their children stricken by pesticides. César said "… A fast is first and foremost personal…The fast is also a heartfelt prayer for purification and strengthening for all those who work beside me in the farm worker movement. The fast is also an act of penance for those in positions of moral authority and for all men and women activists who know what is right and just, who know that they could and should do more… During the past few years I have been studying the plague of pesticides on our land and our food. The evil is far greater than even I had thought it to be, it threatens to choke out the life of our people and also the life system that supports us all. The solution to this deadly crisis will not be found in the arrogance of the powerful, but in solidarity with the weak…Together, all things are possible."

To honor César and this “Fast for Life”, speakers, cultural performers, and informational tables will all be on hand at the Berkeley Farmers' Markets on Saturday, July 15 from 10am to 3pm at Civic Center Park (Center St @ Martin Luther King, Jr. Way). Performers and speakers will include Aztec dancers; Francisco Herrera (singer/songwriter); César A. Cruz (poet; Director, Avenues Project; co-founder, Making Changes Center); Tina Flores (East Bay Farmworkers Support Committee); Efren Avalos (farmworker turned organic farmer); Jim Cochran (farmer); more. This event is endorsed by Berkeley's César Chávez Commemoration Committee. The event is free. Come join us!

5. Help Farmers Stop the USDA's Plan to Microchip Every Farm and Backyard Animal

The farmers at our Farmers' Markets have requested that we help get the word out about an important action alert regarding the USDA's plan to ID all farm animals, even backyard animals. Your rights to affordable foods direct from local farmers would be chipped away if this initiative passes. The USDA is quietly using the USA PATRIOT Act to rush through new legislation called NAIS (National Animal Identification System) that will require ALL owners of horses, chickens, cows, pigeons, goats, pigs, sheep, and other livestock to register every animal with the federal government, and to tag each animal with a 15-digit barcode or electronic implant for tracking in a national database. Anyone with even an egg hen in their backyard will be required to tag the animal, file paperwork, and pay registration fees in order to avoid fines. Animal owners will also be subject to government inspection on their own property. To find out more, and to find out what you can do such as talk to your friends, write to your congress people and representatives, start a petition or postcard campaign, write letters to the editor of publications that you read, make buttons and bumper stickers, organize a group, visit the alert.

6. The Ecology Center's Eco-House Launches Urban Skills Workshop Series

The Berkeley Eco-House has long been a demonstration site where people have learned about urban sustainability through workshops in permaculture, natural building and other topics in ecological living. The site provides living examples of permaculture, a graywater system, rainwater catchment, solar energy, and green building. The front garden contains drought-tolerant and native plants, while the backyard is devoted to food-growing and an aquaculture pond. The garden shed includes strawbale and rammed earth technologies, and even sports a living roof. Inside the house are natural linoleum floors, salvaged cabinets and flooring, low-energy fluorescents, and efficient appliances such as an on-demand water heater. Solar energy provides all of the home's electricity. Find out more about the Eco-House in the Terrain article Steps to a Rich Future: Eco-House Joins the Ecology Center Family.

The Eco-House's Summer/Fall Workshop Series offers great opportunities for you to get in on the fun. Workshops include: Local Medicinal Herbs and Your Health; Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden; Bee Keeping in the City; Home Greywater; Learn How To Build a Living Roof Garden; Grow Edible Mushrooms at Home. Check out the Eco-Calendar for details.

7. Recipe for Farm Fresh Choice's Summer Salad with Cilantro and Lemon Vinaigrette

The Ecology Center's Farm Fresh Choice program promotes healthy eating for all by distributing fresh fruits and vegetables at produce stands in South and West Berkeley. They also offer up many great recipes, including this Summer salad. Try it out! Read more about Farm Fresh Choice in the Terrain article A Ripe Opportunity.

Raw Vegetable Salad with Cilantro and Lemon Vinaigrette
(serves 3-4)

Salad

• 3 medium-sized beets
• 1 medium bunch carrots
• 3 medium zucchini
• 1/2 pound green beans
• 1 small red onion
• 3-4 scallions (green onions)
• 2 TBS chopped cilantro

Peel and grate the beets, carrots, and zucchini. Finely chop the onions, scallions and green beans. Mix together and dress with a vinaigrette dressing (below).

Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 to 3 TBS fresh lemon juice (about 2 medium lemons)
• 1 TBS honey
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 medium clove garlic, minced

8. Top 10 Resources Our Staff Wants You to Know About

In honor of Earth Day 2006, our Environmental Resource Center staff picked 10 resources that we especially like to share with people. Here they are:

Spiral Gardens Nursery and Food Security Project - Located in South Berkeley, Spiral Gardens' operations consist of four elements: an organic nursery specializing in plants for food, medicine, and ecological restoration; a low-cost organic produce stand featuring fresh food from regional farmers; a collective food production garden wherein half of the harvest goes to homeless and elderly, and half is divided among the volunteers who grow it; and free classes as a way for people to share knowledge about self-sufficiency through gardening, skills for good eating habits, and tools to build a vibrant community. Read the interview with founder Daniel Miller in the Ecology Center farmers' market newsletter.

Eco-Directory - The Ecology Center's internal rolodex has gone public. Now you can easily find online referrals for things like least-toxic termite control, soil testing, and CSA food boxes.

Borax - A great alternative to chlorine bleach. It kills mold and disinfects, yet it doesn't have the toxic effects of chlorine. Buying it in bulk at the Ecology Center store works for the environment by eliminating excess fillers, fragrances, and packaging. Plus, you support your local non-profit environmental center.

Stopwaste.org – Trying to recycle a mattress or an old typewriter? This amazing resource will tell you where to take your stuff for recycling or reuse in Alameda County. The site also hosts the Bay Friendly Gardening program. Bay friendly gardening is gardening that: nurtures healthy soil and plants; conserves water and other resources; reuses plant trimmings through mulching and composting; provides wildlife habitat; features native and Mediterranean plants; and chooses least-toxic pest control methods.

Better Basics For The Home by Annie Berthold-Bond - Use this book's recipes to replace expensive and toxic products. Look up how to make cleaners, polishes, repellants, garden care products, dyes, medicines, and body care items using healthier ingredients. This book is available in the Ecology Center store and in the Ecology Center library.

Biofuel Oasis - This women/worker-owned co-op makes running a car on biodiesel do-able for folks living in the Bay Area. They also host events and classes and serve as an amazing general resource on biofuels and alternative transportation.

Freecycle.org - Want something for free, or a new owner for your stuff? This online community can make it happen. Posting your free item on craigslist.org or on freecycle.org has been known to make it disappear within a few hours. Truly great.

Bay Area Progressive Directory - Looking for jobs? Organizing a project? This is a good place to start. Amazing local organizations are listed here with contact info and links.

Kyoto USA – Recently, the polar bear and the hippo were added to the list of species threatened with extinction. The effects of global warming are far reaching, including the melting of ice floes that polar bears need in order to hunt seals and other prey. Without ice floes, their food supply will decline. There is also evidence that the snow caves where they raise their young are melting earlier in the year. The United States federal government has declined to ratify the Kyoto treaty or to take any other meaningful action towards stopping the causes of global warming. KyotoUSA was formed on the premise that if the feds won't act, then take it to the locals. They work on local efforts that encourage organizing and advocacy efforts by people, businesses (large and small), schools and local governments throughout the U.S. Some of their most important work involves petitioning cities to endorse the Kyoto Protocol and to make infrastructural changes to reduce their greenhouse emissions. Who needs the feds?!

Vandana Shiva - An original tree hugger, this Indian physicist and activist inspires everyone working to stop multinationals from their attempts to patent everything they come in contact with. She participated in the Chipko movement during the 1970s. The movement, whose main participants were women, adopted the tactic of hugging trees to prevent their felling. (For those interested in current, local treesits and forest protection, visit the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters.) She went on to author many books, particularly on biodiversity and the problems with genetic engineering, the problems of globalization, and Western efforts to commodify the cultural heritage of the global South. Check out her books in the Ecology Center library or store. Read a fine interview with her on the subject of “Earth Democracy” from Yes! Magazine.

¹ Source: http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_04_20.html

² Source: http://www.climnet.org/publicawareness/transport.html

³ Source: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/temp/x-mar2005-stewart.htm

⁴ Jets produce an average of almost .4 tons of C0₂ per passenger per flight. Source: The Green Guide, http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc.mhtml?i=114&s=ecotourism

⁵ Little is known about the effects of atmospheric releases of NO_x from planes and other sources. The pollution impact of every plane trip also includes your travel to and from the airport, all the golf carts driving around on the tarmac, and the thousands of airline employees who go to work to get you on the plane. These other "mobile sources" must be factored into the per-mile pollution burden of air travel. We weren't able to find this calculation.

⁶ Adapted from the Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/304-lowimpact-travel-tips.html

We hope you find this information useful.  Did you know that you can call us with your environmental questions? Our Info Desk staff will give you referrals and provide information to help you make sound ecological choices.   Email erc@ecologycenter.org or give us a call at 510-548-2220 x233. To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, send a note to newsletter@ecologycenter.org. This newsletter can also be found online at http://ecologycenter.org/newsletter/20060623.html.

The Ecology Center is a membership organization providing environmental information and direct services to promote sustainable living and a healthy, socially just world. Please support this community resource for the environment by becoming a member or making a donation. Support our work on-line at http://www.ecologycenter.org/donate/