Friday, November 13, 2009
Green Seed Innovations
We're looking for your ideas...How have you started living greener this year?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Green Planet Blog
The Green Pages blog is now embedded within the Green Planet website. Working together we hope to foster environmental responsibility. Check us out at www.greenplanet.org!
Monday, October 5, 2009
A single tree...*
...absorbs almost 50 lbs of carbon dioxide and also absorbs sulfur dioxide ( produced by coal-burning power plants), nitrous oxides (produced by vehicular exhaust), particulate pollutants (produced from burning fuel especially diesel)
...produces enough oxygen to sustain two adults
...reduces noise pollution
...reduces asphalt temperature by 36 degrees F
...reduces storm water runoff and erosion
...increases property value
...reduces interior temperature of parked cars by 47 degrees F
According to the US Forest Service homes with trees use 20-25% less energy than those without. Plant evergreens on the north side to block cool northern winds and deciduous trees to the south, east and west to offer summer shade and winter sun.
...produces enough oxygen to sustain two adults
...reduces noise pollution...reduces asphalt temperature by 36 degrees F
...reduces storm water runoff and erosion
...increases property value
...reduces interior temperature of parked cars by 47 degrees F
According to the US Forest Service homes with trees use 20-25% less energy than those without. Plant evergreens on the north side to block cool northern winds and deciduous trees to the south, east and west to offer summer shade and winter sun.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Go Harvard!
As someone who has spent time playing frisbee with kids on Harvard yard's lawn and as someone who is also the daughter of a soil scientist and organic fertilizer salesman - all I can say is "Go Harvard!":
From the New York Times:
THERE is an underground revolution spreading across Harvard University this fall. It’s occurring under the soil and involves fungi, bacteria, microbes and roots, which are now fed with compost and compost tea rather than pesticides and synthetic nitrogen.
The results have so astounded university administrators that what started as a one-acre pilot project in Harvard Yard has spread organic practices through 25 acres on the campus.
Organic is the way to go...even the elite universities are catching the drift. Here's Harvards tips to those of us trying to green up our own lawn care practices:
Organic growing techniques are so simple that any homeowner can get the hang of them. But to do so, it’s necessary to learn some basic facts about the structure and biology of your particular soil. In an organic approach, one bag of chemicals does not fit all. And timing is key.
The first step, Mr. Fleisher said, is to take a core sample of your soil, and send some of it to a good testing laboratory, such as the one at the University of Massachusetts, or one recommended by your state university. A textural analysis will indicate the percentage of clay, silt and sand in your soil, and how well it drains. A complete nutrient analysis will tell you what elements and micronutrients the soil contains. Such tests cost from $13 to $75, and results are returned within a few weeks.
The next step is to do a simple percolation test. Use a shovel or a post-hole digger to make a hole 12 inches deep.
“Make one-inch markings on a stick and put that in the hole,” Mr. Clyne said.
Then fill the hole with water and let it drain for 30 minutes. “Then, fill up the hole again, and see how fast it drains,” he said.
One inch an hour is adequate for a home lawn.
Without good drainage, water and air cannot be properly absorbed by plant roots.
Also, “compaction wreaks havoc on your fungal communities,” Mr. Clyne said. And fungi are key to soil health.
There’s a give-and-take between fungi and plants, as the fungi consume carbohydrates exuded by plant roots and give back water, phosphorus and other minerals. Bacteria also consume carbohydrates. And they in turn are eaten by protozoa and other creatures that convert the bacteria’s protein into nitrogen, which feeds the plants.
Adding compost to soil gets that biological community cooking.
“Once you get that nutrient cycling system going,” Mr. Fleisher said, “it can produce 150 pounds of nitrogen an acre. With that kind of available nitrogen, why would you fertilize?”
From the New York Times:
THERE is an underground revolution spreading across Harvard University this fall. It’s occurring under the soil and involves fungi, bacteria, microbes and roots, which are now fed with compost and compost tea rather than pesticides and synthetic nitrogen.
The results have so astounded university administrators that what started as a one-acre pilot project in Harvard Yard has spread organic practices through 25 acres on the campus.Organic is the way to go...even the elite universities are catching the drift. Here's Harvards tips to those of us trying to green up our own lawn care practices:
Organic growing techniques are so simple that any homeowner can get the hang of them. But to do so, it’s necessary to learn some basic facts about the structure and biology of your particular soil. In an organic approach, one bag of chemicals does not fit all. And timing is key.
The first step, Mr. Fleisher said, is to take a core sample of your soil, and send some of it to a good testing laboratory, such as the one at the University of Massachusetts, or one recommended by your state university. A textural analysis will indicate the percentage of clay, silt and sand in your soil, and how well it drains. A complete nutrient analysis will tell you what elements and micronutrients the soil contains. Such tests cost from $13 to $75, and results are returned within a few weeks.
The next step is to do a simple percolation test. Use a shovel or a post-hole digger to make a hole 12 inches deep.
“Make one-inch markings on a stick and put that in the hole,” Mr. Clyne said.
Then fill the hole with water and let it drain for 30 minutes. “Then, fill up the hole again, and see how fast it drains,” he said.
One inch an hour is adequate for a home lawn.
Without good drainage, water and air cannot be properly absorbed by plant roots.
Also, “compaction wreaks havoc on your fungal communities,” Mr. Clyne said. And fungi are key to soil health.
There’s a give-and-take between fungi and plants, as the fungi consume carbohydrates exuded by plant roots and give back water, phosphorus and other minerals. Bacteria also consume carbohydrates. And they in turn are eaten by protozoa and other creatures that convert the bacteria’s protein into nitrogen, which feeds the plants. Adding compost to soil gets that biological community cooking.
“Once you get that nutrient cycling system going,” Mr. Fleisher said, “it can produce 150 pounds of nitrogen an acre. With that kind of available nitrogen, why would you fertilize?”
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Importance of Sleep
So here is another sport where my health background creeps into the Green Pages. But I am a huge advocated of SLEEP. Perhaps because I have spent more than my fair share of nights without it. But pay attention as flu season approaches:
In a recent study for The Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists followed 153 men and women for two weeks, keeping track of their quality and duration of sleep. Then, during a five-day period, they quarantined the subjects and exposed them to cold viruses. Those who slept an average of fewer than seven hours a night, it turned out, were three times as likely to get sick as those who averaged at least eight hours.
(source)
In a recent study for The Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists followed 153 men and women for two weeks, keeping track of their quality and duration of sleep. Then, during a five-day period, they quarantined the subjects and exposed them to cold viruses. Those who slept an average of fewer than seven hours a night, it turned out, were three times as likely to get sick as those who averaged at least eight hours.
(source)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Ecology and Pigs
If I could trace my zeal for sustainable living to one thing, it would stem from my studies of ecology and the interrelatedness of all things living. The idea that we are all (animal, plant and mineral) dependent on each other. I had a Jewish friend once say to me, "Nothing testifies of a God more to me than the complex and co-dependent relationship between man and his environment."
Part, if not most, of our problems with the deteriorating state of the environment come from a total obliviousness to this relationship.
Point in case: No one stopped Eygyptian officials when they decided the best way to combat swine flu was to decimate the country's pig population. A year later, that oversight is haunting those officials as the streets fill up with trash because their country's organic waste disposal system (the pigs) is now dead.
See this The New York Times article for more details, Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs
Part, if not most, of our problems with the deteriorating state of the environment come from a total obliviousness to this relationship.
Point in case: No one stopped Eygyptian officials when they decided the best way to combat swine flu was to decimate the country's pig population. A year later, that oversight is haunting those officials as the streets fill up with trash because their country's organic waste disposal system (the pigs) is now dead.
See this The New York Times article for more details, Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs
Religion and the Environment
Religion and the Environment
As the whole world awakens to the needs of the environment,
what tools of healing and nurture can religious traditions offer?
The website Patheos has an interesting series running on religion and the environment. They have solicited responses to the question above from individuals representing a variety of different faith. Their answers are presented in the public square section of their website (until 9/29). Check it out!
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