Sustainability and Built Systems

Spring 2014

Author: haentjeb

Naked Juice Can No Longer Advertise As “All Natural”

May 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Naked Juice (owned by PepsiCo) has agreed to remove the “All Natural” label from their juice containers and advertisements in the aftermath of a recent class action lawsuit. The juice was found to contain several artificial ingredients, GMOs, and even an ingredient synthetically produced from formaldehyde.

Possibly even more disturbing than Naked’s deceptive advertising is that the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the settlement agreed that they would not freely communicate with the press.

From the LiveingMaxWell.com blog post:

If lawyers who are supposed to represent the interests of the class action group cannot freely talk to the press about the settlement and cannot have complete freedom to spread information about how consumers can make a claim to the $9 million dollars, it begs the question: whose interests are the plaintiffs’ lawyers truly representing?

 

Humpback Whales Conveniently Removed From Endangered List

April 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The North Pacific humpback whale was removed from the endangered list in Canada over Easter weekend. The federal advisory committee on endangered species claims that the great rise in the whales’ population since commercial whaling was banned in 1966 has justified the reclassification. However, the whales’ classification downgrade also happens to remove a major legal hurdle that stood in the way of the $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline project.

There are number of articles on the recent change, most of which seem more suspect than happy in tone. The image below is from this article.

image

Sources: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, WWF Canada
Graphic by Matthew Bambach / The Globe and Mail

The Social Impact of Fracking

April 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

While reading more about the fracking in our state’s Macellus Shale I came across two articles that highlight fracking’s penchant for creating societal friction.

Here is a an excerpt from a Lancaster Online article, where a panel of Pennsylvania Quakers shared their perspective of fracking and its toll on their community.

“First they frack the community, then then they frack the land,” she said, at one point tearfully. “If you’re familiar with the tragedy of the commons, that is what happened to us. We could not hold together as a community.

“They set neighbor against neighbor. Families break up, family farms break up, fights happen. The greed and outrage machines begin on both sides. Bullying arrives.”

Another article from thinkprogress.org is reporting that the, “oil and gas company, Hilcorp,  is trying to use a 1961 Pennsylvania law that would allow the company to bundle properties of people who don’t sign drilling leases with their neighbors who do, meaning that even landowners who don’t sign leases will be forced to allow drilling under their land if enough of their neighbors sign leases.”

Roadmap for the US’s switch to 100% renewables by 2050

March 24, 2014 / / 1 Comment

If you only have time for one of these links, I’d start with the interactive 50-State Roadmap. For each state that you click on, a wealth of stats and info are provided regarding that state’s own route to 100% renewables.

The creator of this roadmap was Dr. Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, who believes that this goal is well within our reach if we can just muster the social and political will.

Here are two short articles on Dr. Jacobson from:

CleanTechnica.com  and  News.Stanford.edu

California Struggles with Ongoing Drought

March 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

As nearly 95% of the state of California remains in a drought, new desalination plants are being considered.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Drought-Refocuses-Attention-on-Desalinations-Promise-and-Potential-Pitfalls-247428921.html 

A new 50 million gallon/day plant is on track to open Carlsbad, Ca in two years, and several other communities in the state are considering similar solutions. However, the ecological impact and the high price that are still inherent to desalination are causing many towns to hold to out for cheaper sources of water.

Environmental Meat Vs. Ethical Meat Vs. No Meat

February 26, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday I came across an article in NPR’s The Salt blog which I found to be somewhat disheartening. In Why Farmers Can Prevent Global Warming Just As Well As Vegetarians, factory farming-like practices are touted as the best solution for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock industry.

In no way am I questioning the logic behind the article’s source. As the demand for animal products rises globally, so will the already vast emissions from the livestock industry due to feeding, raising, transporting, and the creation of new grazing lands. Thus, per the findings of the study, animals should be raised in an industrial facility on grain, and the creation of new grazing land for livestock should be avoided. (It should be noted that “grain” may not mean what you think it means.) It makes sense that deforestation is not good, and that “…transitions toward more productive livestock production systems…” should be more efficient and economical, but at what cost ethically? Neither the article nor the abstract of its (pay walled) primary source explicitly mention the practices that factory farms are notorious for; however, it’s fairly easy to make that connection when their recommendations rely heavily on limiting land use and altering livestock diets. Is this really a solution that we should be suggesting to developing nations?

Through all of this, I am still having trouble understanding how the factory farming of meat can somehow be just as eco-friendly as non-consumption, and it saddens me to realize that the escalation of these farming practices are the likely outcome when compared to simple restraint.

Interesting Segment from NPR’s TED Radio Hour

February 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

If you haven’t heard of it before, I think NPR does a really nice job putting together their podcast, TED Radio Hour.  As the title suggests, it’s a selection of related TED talks, but also mixes-in interviews with each of the featured speakers. The show translates well to an audio podcast but the video for each talk is easily accessible from the NPR website.

The episode from last week was titled, Everything is Connected, where the theme was based on “…how everything in nature is connected, and how we can restore its delicate balance.”  If you only had time to listen one segment, I would suggest, What Listening To Nature Teaches Us About Changing Habitats.   The segment features Bernie Krause, who has been recording the sounds of nature for over 45 years.  From the NPR link:

Bernie Krause is a bioacoustician whose recordings have uncovered nature’s rich sonic tapestry — along with some unexpected results. Krause captures the fading voices of nature, studying sonic interplay between species as they attract mates, hunt prey and sound out their roles in the ecosystem. His documentation of vanishing aural habitats is a chilling reminder of shrinking biodiversity.

Some Thoughts on the TBL

February 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The  concept of the Triple Bottom Line seems like a great goal for companies; however, creating a firm definition for all companies to follow seems less promising.  I was surprised that I’ve never heard of the phrase before so I poked around on google a bit.  The Wikipedia entry shows some of the supportive and critical arguments for a TBL; although, most of the criticism seems to be based on a mandatory TBL.  It’s hard to imagine how legislation enforcing such practices could be effective.  Before creating new legislation and regulations, I would start by fixing those already in place.  Perhaps close some loopholes and force companies to pay the tax they already owe, and then allocate more money to incentives and organizations that support ecological and societal causes.

Overall, I really like the concept of the TBL, and I look forward to supporting companies who have chosen to embrace it.  I think one of the best ways to change how companies behave is by voting with our dollar.  The site, TriplePundit.com has a wealth of information and articles related to the Triple Bottom Line and the businesses using it.

I say The Story of Stuff is better than no story at all.

February 5, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Ugghhh, I honestly feel dumber for having read the Hearitage Foundation article.  I also tried to watch the four-part critique videos on YouTube by Lee Doren, but only made it through the first two.  I think those may have even been worse than having to read the HF article.  Dorin had some valid concerns in the first segment, but by the second he was beginning to go off the deep end with his rants and “critiques”.
Don’t get me wrong, I really think The Story of Stuff needs to tone down the politics and tighten up the stats (although, if you actually take the time to do some of the fact checking yourself, you’ll see that she’s really not as far off as her political critics would have you believe).  As the video stands, I would probably not be showing it to elementary school kids either.  I think the current video would work better for high school kids who could then discuss and critique it in class.
My main problem with this whole debate is these super rightwing “critiques” that sound as though they were written by the Koch brothers.  These critiques (the HF article especially) seem more concerned at attacking her character and nitpicking stats than actually producing any true rebuttals to her main arguments.  Not to sound too “anti-American”, but I think these issues are worth shedding light on.

Wind Power Rivals Coal

February 3, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Wind Power Rivals Coal

This is news from December, but I thought the blog could use a little pick-me-up.

tl;dr   Warren Buffet’s subsidiary, MidAmerican Energy, has ordered $1 billion worth of wind turbines from Siemens AG to be used in projects in Iowa.

It’s nice to see a bit of progress here and there, especially after having to listen to Donald Trump fighting the off shore wind project in Scotland for the past two years because he feels it will negatively impact the view from his planned golf course and hotel.

Notable quotes:

“If Congress were to remove all the subsidies from every energy source, the wind industry can compete on its own.” –Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association

“MidAmerican expects to close some coal-powered plants in 2015 as the price of wind power continues to slide.” — Adam Wright, vice president of wind generation and development for MidAmerican

“Power from wind is now cheaper than power from newly built natural gas plants.” –Amy Grace, a wind analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance

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