Mapping Sacred Sites

Posted 12 July 2011, by Staff, Sacred Land Film Project (Earth Island Institute), sacredland.org

Mt. Shasta, California, North America – July 12, 2011 – TRT: 07:43

Maps tell stories, and control of the printing press allowed colonial powers to tell their own stories for centuries. A Native American tribe that was literally taken off the map in California’s history books — and is still unrecognized by the U.S. government — is using technology to put themselves back on the map.

On June 11 and 12, Eli Moore and Catalina Garzon of Pacific Institute, and Miho Kim of The Data Center, led a mapping workshop with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to continue a long process of documenting sacred sites in the Winnemem’s traditional cultural territory.

On Saturday, mapping terminology and GPS skills were mastered in the Winnemem village near Redding, and on Sunday a dozen young people practiced their new skills while visiting four sacred sites along the McCloud River.

We filmed the workshop to include as a scene in our Losing Sacred Ground documentary series. All over the world, indigenous communities are incorporating mapping into their communication and outreach strategies, as they craft the stories they want to tell to the outside world about their struggles to protect land, culture, language and sacred sites. Mapping now figures into five of our eight stories: in Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Russia’s Altai Republic, the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, and in northern California.

As Winnemem leader Caleen Sisk-Franco says, “We need to create evidence to convince the Forest Service that this is a historic cultural district containing a network of sacred sites that all work together. Different places teach us different things and have different purposes. But we need them all.”

Check out our new film clip of the Winnemem Mapping Workshop here.

Ed Note: please visit the original site to view video associated with this article.

http://www.sacredland.org/mapping-sacred-sites/

KU engineering students design solar-powered sterilizer for doctor in Zimbabwe

KU engineering students design solar-powered sterilizer for doctor in Zimbabwe

Posted 03 July 2011, by Karrey Britt, WellCommons (The World Company), wellcommons.com

,

There’s a 5-foot-tall, funnel-shaped metal object being stored this summer in a laboratory on Kansas University’s West Campus.

Ronald Dougherty, professor and chair of the KU Mechanical Engineering Department, explained that it could be life-changing for people in developing countries.

Under his direction, four engineering students designed and built the object to sterilize medical instruments using solar energy. It’s specifically for a doctor who is working in Sanyati, Zimbabwe, where electricity is scarce.

“The students wanted to have an impact on the world. They didn’t want to do another washing machine or something like that. They wanted to do something that would have a big impact on the lives of people,” Dougherty said.

The students — Kayla Dill, Stewart Bernard, Brian Hatesohl and Travis Rowe — worked on the project during the past year as part of a senior design course.

They landed the project because Dougherty and Scott Hoffman, a Honeywell engineer, crossed paths at the right time. Dougherty was looking for class projects and Hoffman was needing assistance to help his friend, Dr. Mark Byler, a medical missionary in Zimbabwe, who was in need of a reliable autoclave.

Hoffman did some research at first, but quickly realized that it would be too time-consuming for him. So, he’s glad the KU students were willing to take on the challenge.

“It’s difficult for us to comprehend how terrible it is over there under the government,” Hoffman said. “If you have a broken leg or need to deliver a baby and there’s no electricity at the moment to sterilize the instruments, you are kind of screwed.”

That’s why Hoffman is passionate about the autoclave project and is funding it. So far, it has cost $1,500.

An autoclave sterilizes instruments by subjecting them to extreme temperatures that viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms can’t survive. To ensure sterilization, instruments must be in the autoclave at temperatures above 285 degrees for at least three hours.

Byler currently uses an autoclave that’s powered by electricity, but it’s spotty and unreliable. Diesel fuel is scarce and costly and there’s no nearby water source suitable to supply the autoclave with hydroelectric power. Byler also requested that it be environmentally friendly, which meant no burning of products like wood. That left solar energy.

Dougherty said the students did a lot of research on solar power and medical applications among other things. He said they never came across another solar-powered autoclave, so it could be the first.

The students’ autoclave is operational, but Dougherty said it needs more testing and fine-tuning, and Hoffman has agreed to continue to fund it. So, Dougherty will be looking for another group of students to work on it during the upcoming school year.

“The main goal is to make sure that it is appropriate for the people over in Zimbabwe. We want to make sure that there are no questions, no issues. That there’s a good manual so they know how to assemble it, repair it and run it, Dougherty said. “We want to make sure it operates as perfectly as possible for them.”

He anticipates they will have one ready to send to Zimbabwe by next May.

Ed Note: Please visit the original site for the photographs accompanying the article.

http://wellcommons.com/groups/wellness/2011/jul/3/ku-engineering-students-design-solar-pow/

Fighting for the forests with fire in his eyes

Posted 12 July 2011, by Thu Trang, Viet Nam News, vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Professor Dang Huy Huynh received a certificate of merit for his contribution to protecting the environment. He is aged 80, but still tramps across the country in child-like awe of the environment, which he says is fast changing.

Dang Huy Huynh never tires of finding new ways to protect the environment. He attributes his zeal to the time spent fighting on the front lines. Thu Trangreports.

Despite his 80 years, Professor Dang Huy Huynh still tramps across the country to find new ways of protecting the environment: he proposes laws to ensure biological diversity, participates in the State committee to supervise large hydroelectric plants and gives lectures to young students so that they can follow in his footsteps.

Former director of the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Professor Huynh is now chairman of the Viet Nam Animal Association, executive committee deputy chairman at the Viet Nam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment and a member of the Viet Nam Association of Biology.

“Sometimes I feel overloaded, but I always remind myself that I’m a lecturer and a scientist so I should try my best to do everything for our country as long as I am healthy,” he said.

Huynh, who was born in the central province of Quang Nam, started researching animals and the environment in 1961, when he worked for the Biology Division of the State Committee on Science.

“I loved the work because after nearly 10 years of being in the army and fighting on the front lines, I appreciated the beauty of the environment,” he said.

In 1976 Huynh became director of the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources and in 1985 he was selected as chairman of the Viet Nam Animal Association.

Nguyen Ba Thu, chairman of the Viet Nam Association for National Parks and Nature Reserves, said Huynh was one of the first to advocate for raising bears, tigers and gayals according to international conventions.

“Thanks to Huynh’s research, the vooc (a kind of langur) reproduced asexually for the first time in Viet Nam,” he said.

Huynh still goes on business trips to different places across the country—wherever he is needed—from Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Cao Bang provinces to Phu Quoc and Con Dao islands.

Huynh’s appreciation of Viet Nam’s natural heritage increases with each place he travels, and he is grieved by the destruction he has witnessed.

Thousands of trees have been cut down in recent years. At present, Viet Nam has about two million hectares of forest, covering 38 per cent of the nation’s land. According to Huynh, forests should occupy 45 per cent and have a higher level of plant and animal diversity.

“During my business trips in the northern mountainous provinces in the 1960s, I saw hundreds of vooc mui hech (langurs with up-turn noses) drinking water in the streams, but now the species is facing extinction,” he said.

Huynh also saw dozens of gayals wandering in the forests in Lai Chau Province, but recently he has searched for them in vain.

The State and international organisations care about the issue and invest a lot of money in protecting the environment, but some people still damage the forests and kill the animals, he said.

“We should remember that if we damage the environment now, we will have to suffer serious consequences in the future,” said Huynh.

Belief in youth

Huynh has faith in young, hard-working scientists, who he says do not mind going over mountains and crossing forests to search for new species of plants and animals.

“If young people are encouraged, they will make a significant impact. They will have better access to information and technology than my generation,” he said.

In Huynh’s opinion, senior scientists should take responsibility for training, helping young people in their fields, in order to stimulate their interest in protecting the environment and animals.

“I’m sure that they will do the work well — even better than our generation—and the country’s future depends on them,” said Huynh. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Sunday/Features/213244/Fighting-for-the-forests-with-fire-in-his-eyes.html

Curse of the tropics – a glimpse at tropical conservation

Posted 12 July 2011, by Kirsty Graham, BCLocalNews (BlackPress), bclocalnews.com

Part I

When we picture “the tropics”, we picture lush jungles teeming with wildlife, where we can’t hear ourselves think over the sound of bird song.

We don’t imagine banana and coffee plantations, ramshackle urban sprawl or clear-cuts. My education thus far has drawn me to wherever the twain shall meet.

Conservation biology explores the limits of ecology when faced with human infringement, and tries to find a balance between nature and development. I am fortunate enough to study at Quest University Canada – an institution that encourages wild experiential learning projects.

For my undergraduate thesis, I travelled to Costa Rica for two months. I focused on primate research, but was immersed in a diverse range of conservation projects.

It soon became clear that the challenges facing tropical conservation are similar to those here in Canada, including land disputes, ecology versus economy and inadequate environmental education.

Costa Rica provides an interesting case because their economy relies heavily on ecotourism. With so much invested in biodiversity, the pressure is on to develop quick, cheap and effective management plans.

As in British Columbia’s own rainforests, it remains to be seen how much we are willing to compromise. To avoid the inevitable sense of overwhelm, there are small changes that individuals can make to chip away at the problem.

So next time you visit a tropical country, consider your impact. Although we are encouraged to leave no trace, change will happen when we can take away an appreciation of the awe and splendour of these natural tropical places.

– Kirsty Graham, Special to MidWeek

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/125453558.html

Leaf sizes tied to water availability

 

Posted 12 July 2011, by Jonathan Lebowitz, USA Today, content.usatoday.com

Leaves are some of the most diverse biological objects on the planet and their sizes may be linked to the climates they inhabit.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and published in the journal Plant Physiology now reveals why leaves tend to be smaller in dry climates and larger in wet ones.

To survive, leaves must maintain their “pipe delivery system” to replenish water lost through transpiration, the process plants face when opening their leaf pores to capture carbon dioxide to make sugars for their food.

Occasionally, obstructions in a leaf’s veins, such as an air bubble, blocks water from being “pumped” through the system. These obstructions, known as embolisms, are more likely to occur in the leaves of plants living in climates where water is scarce.

Using three-dimensional computer models, the team of ecologists and botanists simulated the impacts of embolisms on water transport for leaves of different sizes and vein architectures.

“The computer models allowed us to create any type of leaf and introduce any amount of water to identify patterns between an electronic replica and a real laboratory experiment,” says Lawren Sack of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA.

They concluded that the small leaves were better adapted to arid climates, providing more outlets for fresh water to travel into the leaves when “used” water is transpired out of the leaves. Small leaves, like those from desert shrubs, have a greater abundance of “major veins” that provide more pathways around embolisms.

Christine Scoffoni, a doctoral student at UCLA and lead author of the research, compared the major veins to an interstate highway and the minor veins to narrow city roads, where an embolism is like an accident that causes a major slowdown.

Larger leaves, such as those from sunflowers and sycamores, have fewer veins spaced farther apart. Large leaves are well suited for tropical climates where heavy rainfall provides a surplus of water, decreasing the risk for vein network congestion.

 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/07/leaf-sizes-tied-to-water-availability-

The Ecology Center Scores Gold with IDEA Award for Water Conservation Exhibit

Splash! Exhibit at The Ecology Center Encourages Water Conservation Through Innovative Design

Posted 12 July 2011, by Staff, 3BL Media, 3blmedia.com

PRESS RELEASE / MEDIA ADVISORY:

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) San Juan Capistrano – July 12, 2011 - Known for its innovative approach to environmental education, The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano collaborated with the design firm Zago to create the Splash! How Good Water Works water conservation exhibit located at the Center through August 2011.  The Splash! exhibit has now received a Gold Award in the category of Environments for the 2011 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), showing how good design can do more than look good; it can drive positive changes in the world.

The Splash! exhibit originated when Evan Marks, the director of The Ecology Center, saw a provocative exhibit on climate change at the United Nations that ZAGO had created in New York. The exhibit featured bean bags representing the greenhouse gas emissions of different countries, challenging visitors to get involved in solutions for climate change.

The Zago climate change exhibit at the UN represented for Marks the power of good design to drive positive social change. “It was amazing,” said Marks. After talking, Marks and the Zago team developed a plan to work together informing people about solutions for another important problem. “A year and a half later, we said we should do something on water.”

To make the water exhibit a reality they teamed up with surf brand Hurley and their recently launched H20 initiative as the beginning of a partnership to inspire water literacy and access.

Throughout 2009 Zago and The Ecology Center collaborated closely on the development of the Splash! exhibit, finding captivating ways to show visitors the large impact of everyday choices on water conservation. There were many challenges along the way, with different priorities challenging all involved at the center and their community, but in the end the resulting exhibit encourages visitors to rethink how they live.

Open on weekends for visits, the Splash! exhibit features a self guided walk through the solutions we can use to slash our water use. As you walk through the exhibit you find that the typical Southern Californian uses 1800 gallons of water a day, often in surprising ways. Electronics that we buy require enormous quantities of water to produce, and eating less meat can save 2000 gallons of water a week as well as saving money and boosting our health.

“We rarely have the opportunity to work on projects that have both a local focus and a global reach,” said Manuel Toscano, principal at Zago. “With the exhibition ‘Splash! how good water works’ under the creative and content partnership we forged with Evan Marks and his organization The Ecology Center, we successfully created an exhibition that covers the challenges and opportunities associated with water quality and conservation in the Orange County, while still putting these challenges in a global context. We are very proud and exited to have been recognized by the IDSA with a gold award for one of our favorite and most enjoyable projects of 2010.”

The unique design of the Splash exhibit that earned it the Gold IDEA award helps its message to connect with people. Although water is a pressing challenge around the globe, the exhibit and everything else at The Ecology Center are optimistic. Rather than lecturing, the exhibit draws us in, welcoming us as guests into the 1878 farmhouse that has become a center of 21^st century environmental solutions.

The IDEA award ceremony for the Splash! exhibit will take place at the 2011 IDSA International Conference September 14 to 17 in New Orleans.

About The EcologyCenter
The Ecology Center is an exciting new educational center, whose purpose is to engage the entire family in fun, hands-on activities that teach practical, environmental solutions at the household and community level. The Ecology Center is located at 32701 Alipaz St. in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. For more information, please visit www.theecologycenter.org or (949) 443-4223.

About Zago
Zago is founded on the belief that simplicity and honesty are the essential ingredients for sustainable and meaningful branding. Zago’s work takes different forms in many different mediums, serving non-profit, a&d, cultural, and corporate clients worldwide. We collaborate closely with our clients to produce dynamic and thoughtful results across media and industry boundaries. The agency has studios in New York City and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   Visit the website at http://www.zagollc.com/ for more about Zago.

About Hurley
Founded in 1999, Hurley is an authentic “Microphone for Youth” brand rooted in surf, skate, art, music and beach cultures. Driven by creativity and freedom of expression, Hurley develops world-class products for guys, girls and kids, including sportswear, footwear, eyewear, accessories, loungewear, swimwear and wetsuits. A wholly owned, independently run subsidiary of Nike, Inc., Hurley’s corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa, CA, with international offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Barcelona and Bali. See www.hurley.com for more.
GCC15204

Contact Information:

The Ecology Center

http://www.theecologycenter.org

Evan Marks

Starting Up Green

http://www.startingupgreen.com

Glenn Croston

glenn.croston@startingupgreen.com

http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/Ecology-Center-Scores-Gold-IDEA-Award-Water-Conservation-Exhibit

 

 

Eva Joly to run for French presidency

Fraud prosecutor and green crusader beats favourite Nicolas Hulot in Greens-Europe-Ecology primary race

Posted 12 July 2011, by Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, guardian.co.uk

Eva Joly, the ruthless fraud prosecutor who nailed the 1990s corruption scandal at oil company Elf, is to run for French president.

Joly stunned France by winning the primary race for France’s new expanded environmental party, Greens-Europe-Ecology, beating the favourite, TV presenter Nicolas Hulot, with 58% of the vote against Hulot’s 41%.

Her score was seen as a victory for her theory of “combative” environmentalism. She has promised to attack lobby groups and financial interests and suggested creating an international court for crimes against the environment. She is a fierce advocate of pulling France out of its dependency on nuclear power.

The maverick 67-year-old with trademark red glasses is a household name in France. Her pursuit of corruption at the highest reaches of the French elite inspired film director Claude Chabrol’s dark thriller A Comedy of Power, where Isabelle Huppert played a vengeful magistrate loosely modelled on Joly.

Joly on Tuesday announced: “Ethics is possible, even at the head of state,” vowing an end to the corruption scandals still gripping France.

Born in a working-class suburb in Norway, she came to Paris as a young au pair to finance her legal studies and ended up marrying the son of the bourgeois family she was posted to, despite their disapproval. She now holds joint Norwegian-French nationality and will be the first dual national to run for the French presidency – a fact she uses in her attacks on the anti-immigration extreme-right. She vowed to be the “candidate of mixed blood” and “a France which doesn’t accept discrimination or ghettos”.

Joly’s Norwegian accent and monotone voice is seen by some as a severe handicap. But she staunchly refuses to take coaching in communications. Indeed, pollsters feel her no-nonsense approach and lack of TV style plays well to a French electorate fed up with spin.

Joly is a relative newcomer to politics. She was elected MEP for the Paris region in 2009, before her party Europe Ecology merged with the old Green party, Les Verts, to create a new green movement known by the initials EELV.

Membership has soared after good turnouts in regional and local elections. Joly has anchored herself firmly on the left, but she must now come up with a social and economic programme that can convince voters beyond environmental issues and her trademark crusades against high-level corruption.

The Greens hope to boost their score to around 10% in the presidential election. Joly is currently personally scoring around 6% in polls.

Some key EELV figures, such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the MEP and former student leader of May 1968, who supports Joly, have worried about the rise of the extreme right’s Marine Le Pen. Cohn-Bendit has warned the Green party should consider ditching its candidate and rallying behind a Socialist party candidate in order to avoid splitting the leftist vote. If the left vote is split, Le Pen could get through to the presidential second round.

The EELV party will also position itself as potential future parliamentary allies of the Socialist party if a Socialist wins the presidency. This could see Joly appointed as a minister in a Socialist government.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/12/eva-joly-run-french-presidency

,

Environmental Health Trust Lauds San Francisco for Saving Right-to-Know on Cell Phone Radiation

Approved legislation requiring businesses to provide safety information about cell phone radiation to people before they purchase their phonesis a real victory for people all over the world

Press release, The Investor Relations Group

 

Posted 12 July 2011, by Staff, CisionWire, cisionwire.com

Citizens of San Francisco won an important victory on July 11 when the Community Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved legislation requiring businesses to provide safety information about cell phone radiation to people before they purchase their phones.

“This is a real victory for people all over the world, and an end to the insulting treatment of cell phone users as too dumb to understand,” said Ellen Marks, Director of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy of Environmental Health Trust, and one of the leaders of the effort to save the city’s Right to Know.  “We have a right to know how to be smart and safe with phones.”  Video of the event can be seen on Youtube.

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association was out in full force at the small municipal meeting, arguing that scientific information did not justify such warnings.  “These devices are safe and there’s no proof of any harm,” the CTIA’s Jerry Keegan assured the committee.

Keegan rejected the conclusions of the World Health Organization (WHO), which recently declared that cell phone radiation, like engine exhausts and some pesticides, should be considered a possible human carcinogen.  Keegan pointed to industry-sponsored work that reaches different conclusions.

Supervisor Eric Mar asked how the CTIA could assert that there was no risk of harm when he had numerous published studies in hand that had been reviewed by the WHO showing that cell phone radiation increased the risks of malignant brain tumors and tumors of the hearing nerve.

City supervisor John Alvalos, the author of the legislation, said that people deserve the right to know up front the safety warnings about cell phones that the FCC requires and that manufacturers are hiding in tiny print that nobody sees.  “How can cell phone companies warn people not to keep phones in their pockets and keep them a safe distance from their bodies and run ads that feature people using phones in precisely this manner?  We have a duty to ourselves and our children,” he said.

Lloyd Morgan, senior scientist with EHT, told the committee that cities and states across the nation that are taking precautionary steps and much stronger advisories are now provided by governments in Israel, France, and India.

Commenting on the San Francisco developments, Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, president of EHT, pointed out:  “The original legislation simply required posting radiation levels.  This improved bill will give people important information on how to reduce radiation exposures—a matter of grave importance for pregnant women and young men wanting to become fathers.”

Research presented to the EHT’s Istanbul Conference from the Gazi Biophysics Department in Turkey has found that prenatal exposure to cell phone radiation causes brain, liver and eye damage to baby rabbits and rats and impairs sperm count and health.

The bill goes to the full Board of Supervisors on July 19, where unanimous approval is expected, according to Alvalos.

About Environmental Health Trust

Environmental Health Trust (EHT) educates individuals, health professionals and communities about controllable environmental health risks and policy changes needed to reduce those risks. Current multi-media projects include: local and national campaigns to ban smoking and asbestos; working with international physician and worker safety groups to warn about the risks of inappropriate use of diagnostic radiation and cell phones, promoting research and awareness of environmental causes of breast cancer, and building environmental wellness programs in Wyoming and Pennsylvania to address the environmental impacts of energy development, the built environment and radon. EHT was created with the goal of promoting health and preventing disease one person, one community and one nation at a time. Capitalizing on growing public interest in Dr. Devra Lee Davis’s three popular books, When Smoke Ran Like Water, a National Book Award Finalist, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, and Disconnect–The Truth about Cell Phone Radiation, What Industry Has Done to Hide It and How to Protect Your Family, as well as recent documentary films, the foundation’s website offers clear, science-based information to prevent environmentally based disease and promote health, for the general public, children, and health professionals. For more information about getting involved in the numerous special projects spearheaded by the EHT, please log on to http://www.ehtrust.org.

Janet Vasquez

The Investor Relations Group

212-825-3210

jvasquez@investorrelationsgroup.com

Environmental Health Trust

http://www.saferphonezone.com

 

http://www.cisionwire.com/the-investor-relations-group/r/environmental-health-trust-lauds-san-francisco-for-saving-right-to-know-on-cell-phone-radiation,c9144765

Michele Bachmann Signs Racist Pledge Declaring Black Children Were Better Off Slaves

 

 

Posted 12 July 2011, by Brock Keeling, SFist, sfist.com

Avowed racist Rep. Michele Bachmann, the GOP presidential candidate, signed an anti-Christian conservative pledge last week stating that among other things, according to the Telegraph, “African American children were more likely to grow up in stable families during the era of slavery than under President Barack Obama.” One of countless Americans still furious over having a black man in the Oval Office, Bachmann, along with fellow candidate Rick Santorum, approved and agreed with the following statement.

“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President,” the opening statement reads. It just gets more horrific from there.

In lieu of creating yet another moment of bad (and, far worse, ineffective) satire in response, some moderates fought back. Cheryl Contee, blogger for Jack and Jill Politics, responded, “Given that families were broken up regularly for sales during slavery and that rape by masters was pretty common, this could not be more offensive.”

The pledge, created by anti-civil rights groups The Family Leader, was then given to The White House.

In addition to yet again evoking slavery in an effort to sway uneducated voters, the confused GOP candidate and her husband, Marcus, also made headlines by using taxpayer dollars to run a clinic that “suggested in counseling that prayer could help switch a patient’s sexual orientation.” According to the LA Times, the noted anti-gay candidate and her partner used federal and state funds to “[endorse and practice] reparative therapy aimed at changing a gay person’s sexual orientation, despite the fact that such ‘therapy’ is widely discredited by the scientific and medical communities.”

Contact the author of this article or email tips@sfist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

http://sfist.com/2011/07/12/michele_bachmann_signs_racist_pledg.php