the greener side

Greening the world through digital maps

Maps shape our world, now more than ever. New digital maps not only help us to see how birds and astronauts see the Earth, but they also invite us to take a closer look at the state of our ecosystems. Such pictures, to repeat the cliche, are more powerful than words: if you can't fly to the Gulf Coast, for example, peek at an online map of Mississippi for a sense of the sheer scale of Katrina's devastation.

When Google Maps and Google Earth software made satellite views of the planet free last year, people started mixing up their own sets of data into the maps. As the blog  Google Maps Mania shows, such mashups are legion. Suddenly subway directions, cheap gas, apartment rentals, city muggings, tiki bars, and UFO sightings have got a pushpin on a homegrown Google map.

The first mashup released by Google itself yesterday underscores the search giant's understanding that maps wield ecological might. Google worked with the makers of Earth Day to create its Green Summer pages, an eco-friendly sightseeing guide for the top five U.S. vacation destinations: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, and Orlando. It plots the locations of raw foods restaurants, eco-friendly resorts and hotels, and plays videos to show off the businesses. And of course, you can search there for more green stuff. Sort of like Green Maps, only more interactive.

On that tip, don't forget oodles of other digital maps. The Google Sightseeing blog shows the beauty of the earth as well as pollution it suffers. Don't rent a helicopter to see  the "Worst Places In The World;" Sprol also takes you to Google Maps views of disasters such as suburban strip mall madness and more. X-Maps let you view the worst spewers of carbon dioxide and acid rain, looking down from the clouds. It's hard to take climate change lightly after seeing its potential ability to reshape our coastlines as sea levels rise. Master mappers National Geographic allow you to view patterns in population, climate, natural hazards, topography, and mineral resources.Tons of tools help us picture global trends; Worldmapper inflates or shrinks regions based on their statistics.

tags: maps mapping

Whatever floats your...raft

While I was hunting for eco-friendly beach toys (which are nearly impossible to find, so draft your business plan now), Miguel ran across the Recyclers Raft. It cracks me up! You don't need to purse your lips or buy a pump to blow it up. Instead, insert a bunch of 2-liter bottles to keep the $50 raft afloat. Calling it more durable than regular rafts, maker Ron See advertises his product as puppy-proof. He was inspired by a contest in a Pennsylvania resort town that dared people to make and race flotation devices from old bottles. See decided to craft, patent, and sell his own raft that demanded recycling--a practice that he lives by. As he describes via email:

My whole family and I have been living off-grid since 1997. We use solar panels and a battery bank for most of our power supply, propane cook stove and hot water and a diesel generator for back up. I also have 2 windmills for battery charging that we are working towards installing. I run a small metal recycling and hauling business in Hartstown, PA. I have personally cleaned up over 2000 tons of scrap steel, and other metals from farm dumps old fence rows and businesses in the past 13 years.

To play devil's advocate, many LOHAS consumers might be too busy downing dixie cups of organic wheatgrass juice to build up a vast enough collection of 2-liter pop bottles to fill this raft’s 66 by 38 inch frame (though you could collect from neighbors). Nor is the  polyester duck canvas some trendy, sustainably-harvested, biodegradable material. But if the recylers' raft is as durable as See and his three kids attest, that would make it greener than those rafts that you buy on Memorial Day, then trash by the time it's flat on Labor Day. Credit for creativity is due.

How green my home city grows

Oily-haired hipsters and transplanted Schaumburgers alike used to look down on the tractor tire in my side yard on Chicago's near west side. Ha, they didn't know how much they were missing, as the women of Wolcott were living it up, happily drinking in that old-school view. I insisted that the tire stay put. It took an angelic volunteer, by the time I'd moved away, to lighten up our sow thistle and dandelion-laden corner with more delicate, Smith and Hawken-appropriate native plant landscaping.

But even living thousands of miles away, I pine for the long-gone tire. Now it would even be in high demand as a garden prop for local green thinkers. Turns out the city's premier eco-minded landscaper, Christy Webber, devotes her own work to a shabby chic style she calls "West Side Revived," replete with "found objects such as plastic piping, bottles, street signs and license plates." I can't decide if this talk, along with all the breathlessness about Daley's green urban renewal, either makes me suspicious or homesick. The Garden in a City show, named for Chicago's Latin tagline, happened this weekend and I missed it even though I'm in town. Eh. So dig through these pictures to see how the third coast is beating its bicoastal brethren at gritty city greenery.

Clean energy looking bright

This makes for a cool visual, if anything. Several hundred activists shone mirrors on San Francisco's City Hall to rally for clean energy yesterday. The city could become the world's biggest user of renewable energy. I was indoors and didn't make it. (Photos from Mona Brooks and Greenpeace)

Biofuel on sale in SF

For at least a couple of years, diesel has been generally more expensive than gasoline--infuriating since it's a byproduct of making gas (can you tell me why?). And unless you're in the midwest, biodiesel is usually pricier than petroleum-based diesel; blame shipping costs. But if you're thinking about trying biofuel, now might be the time to feed it to your old Benz or new Jetta. With old-school diesel in the Bay Area costing between $3.12 and $3.69 per gallon, biodiesel is finally looking cheap--or at least comparable--by comparison. Bay Area Biofuel has knocked its cost down to $3.25/gallon. Alas, it's $3.65 at the Biofuel Oasis and between $3.50 and $3.90 at the SF Biofuels Cooperative. Check out other U.S. biodiesel fueling stations on this map.

Color Mother's Day green

Luckily I ordered these Organic Bouquet tulips for my mom early in the week, so they'd arrive just before Mother's Day. Then yesterday, she broke her arm--fell trying to stand up from a Whole Foods table, no less (there's no space to scoot from the edge of the booth, which pinches against the table corner.)  Ouch@$#! So I'm relieved that the tulips showed up this afternoon, just as her friends from high school were stopping by. If your mom doesn't care how late you are, you can still order eco-friendly flowers that'll reach her door next week. But forget FTD; give fair trade, Veriflora-labeled flowers instead.

Check, please: what do we owe nature?

Never mind how polluted it might be, at least the air we breathe is still free. But what if you had to pay for it--and all the other essential freebies that nature provides? Columbia University Ecology Prof. Shahid Naheem imagines:

Our most vital utilities and services — such as the provisioning of breathable air, potable water, fertile soils, productive fisheries, equitable climate, environmental security, and much more — are all provided for us by millions of species that work around the clock.
...
And the plants, animals, and microorganisms that provide these services have never sent us a bill.
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Nine years ago, I took part in a study that estimated nature’s services as worth in the neighborhood of 33 trillion dollars a year.  Translate that into modern currency, divide by the 6.5 billion people estimated to currently inhabit the Earth, and every man, woman, and child would get a bill for about $500 each month. 

If we adjust payments so that the biggest users, say the wealthiest nations, pay the most, then the typical bill for a family of 4 in the United States would be more like $13,000 per month. 

Such back-of-the-envelope calculations are wacky, to be sure, but they do drive home the message – biodiversity does a lot for us and asks for nothing in return.

 

Update: Jeff at Sustainablog points to a new study that puts a price tag on natural treasures ($10K for a coral reef, anyone?), and he points out: "If you're feeling a little squeamish about such an exercise, keep in mind that ecosystems come out on top in a cost-benefit analysis."

Update: Where to share a car?

Since I first posted this chart in the fall, Americans have been freaking about oil supplies peaking, telecommuting to avoid the pinch at the pump, and flocking to car-sharing services in city centers. Plus, our transmission gave out, forcing me to walk about an hour a day, minimum, and burn perhaps the greenest fuel of all: calories--no joke when you live on this hill. Car-less, I've been shopping a small bag at a time, shoving organic chocolate in my backpack and pedaling away.

For bulk groceries, it still seems that taking a taxi from the store is cheaper than sharing a car, plus it drops you off at your door for good so you don't have to march home from the lot. Now that a Zipcar office opened a block from work, however, I'm tempted to try it. Should I cave into the ever-expanding Zipcar empire, support the rival Flexcar, or support the local nonprofit City CarShare? See if the chart speaks for itself. What's your favorite? Continue to the next page to view or download the chart (you'll need Java enabled--or try here-but maybe I'll add an image later)

Gambling on a green future

Eyeing a sustainable future and willing to bet on it? If green mutual funds aren't slow enough for you, then dig up $200 and place a Long Bet. This project of the Long Now Foundation, makers of the 10,000 year clock, lets you gamble online with noted geniuses and famous futurists.

On the dim side, today's featured wager, placed by knighted astrophysicist Martin Rees, foresees that one event of bioterror or bioerror (rising "from inadvertance rather than evil intent") will wipe out a million souls by 2020. So far the odds are 50/50--the same odds Rees gives our species for lasting another century.

Other predictions are on the brighter side: Also within 14 years, could solar energy be as cheap as fossil fuels? Will the average household keep a room to make a self-sustaining water supply? Will we make huge strides toward clean energy within a decade? And when will people stop denying global warming? To add your wager to the public debate, just don't expect to get your money back; all proceeds will go to charity.