more troubled trees...

Ponderosa Pines aren't the only ones suffering from the effects of some insects. Up in Worcester, MA, thousands of Maple trees are scheduled to be chopped down in the next months due to an infestation of Asian long-horned beetles. Following a tornado in 1953, Maples were planted as replacement trees, and unfortunately all those Maples and too little tree diversity allowed the pests to gain a strong foothold.

Read more about these Maples and plant diversification in yesterday's NY Times article here.

What's Tappening?

Tappening is the anti-bottled water project of Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo's, that launched those controversial ads during the election suggesting that both candidates have a drinking problem -drinking bottled water that is. Yaverbaum works in public relations and therefore realizes the power of a clever slogan. Check out this recent interview, where he talks about the "aha" moment when he realized the environmental impact of bottled water and his desire to plant the seed for change. Here are some sobering statistics from the Tappening website:

If you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 dollars annually! The same amount of tap water would cost around 49 cents.

Americans buy 28 billion water bottles annually, which uses the equal of 17 million barrels of oil, sufficient to fuel 1 million cars for 12 months worth of driving.

With only 23% of discarded PET bottles recycled it costs American cities about $70 million to clean up the discarded bottles yearly.

Bottled water often contains more bacteria and impurities than tap water, because the EPA regulates municipal water systems more stringently than the FDA regulates bottled water.

Dangerous Mussels in Maryland Waterways

Remember the devastation brought about by Zebra mussels that I mentioned in a past post? Well, I have some bad news. Despite the more than $3 million dollars Maryland has spent on precautionary measures, a fish survey team on the Susquehanna River discovered a single half-inch zebra mussel inside a water intake pipe upstream from the Conowingo Dam.

The Baltimore Sun's Candus Thomson reports:

The zebra mussel is native to Europe's Black and Caspian seas. The mussels entered the Great Lakes in the mid-1980s in the ballast water of an oceangoing freighter. Since then, the mollusks have spread to waters that border or cut through more than 20 states, Quebec and Ontario. This month, they were discovered in a high-mountain lake in Utah.

Zebra mussels reproduce rapidly and attach to structures and each other, building dense layers up to a foot thick. They spread by traveling in the bottom of boats or by attaching to propellers, bilges and anchors or floating docks.

In addition to clogging reservoir ducts and hydroelectric dam intake pipes, the mussels upset the balance of nature by removing nutrients needed by other species.

Find the full article here, on baltimoresun.com

Greenhouse Gases Reach Record High

From the Associated Press: The U.N. weather agency says the three main greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere have reached new record highs. Apparently this is the first time in a decade that the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has increased, partially by natural sources, like wetlands, and partially by human activities such as fertilizer use or fuel combustion. Ugh.

Ecotarian. Why didn't I think of that?

Just learned (via the treehugger newsletter) this term that refers to an individual who selects food with consideration for the environmental factors and energy used to produce it. Ecotarian. Sort of brilliantly obvious, don't you think?

The Guardian's Ethical Living columnist Lucy Siegle writes:

Ecotarianism has a winningly common-sense approach. The concept is simple: eat the foods with the lowest environmental burden, those with the lowest global-warming potential (GWP) and the least chance of messing up the planet via their acidification and pollution potential.

integrated water management systems

Allison Arief put a really cool post up on her NY Times blog last night about some of the latest new alternative technologies, not just green - but blue. Check it out here to learn about Living Roofs, Living Walls, Greywater, and Rainwater Harvesting. I think the Living Wall is way cool. Check it out. This one is an overpass by Patrick Blanc: Pont Max Juvénal, Aix-en-Provence.

From Arief's post: Living walls are far less common at present, but can be similarly effective at reducing building cooling demand and restoring bird and butterfly habitats. ...But despite their fantastic appearance, living walls are highly practical: they absorb and filter storm water, which reduces local water body pollution and helps prevent the overwhelming of municipal storm water infrastructure. (An urban example by architect Cesar Pelli, which is slated to receive LEED Platinum certification, is shown below). They also filter air particulates, improving air quality and help to reduce the urban heat island effect (UHI). Living walls can also be installed in building interiors, where they not only improve air quality but add humidity to the air when central heating is used in the winter.

nine books for 2009

Treehugger just released their list of nine must read books on eating well.


The 100 Mile Diet, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon
Food Security for the Faint, Robin Wheeler
How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman
The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson
No Nonsense Guide to World Food, Wayne Roberts
Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel
Where Our Food Comes From, Gary Paul Nathan

For summaries of the books, click here.

smart penguin

I absolutely could not resist posting this video that is up on buzzfeed. What an awesome, adorable and most of all: lucky little penguin.

please help save the frogs

Because football has apparently taken over Thursday nights now, on top of Sunday and Monday nights, I was only able to catch the first quarter of The Animal Planet documentary, The Vanishing Frog. I learned enough in that short time, however, to understand the threats facing our planet's amphibian population. Here are some facts:

Since the 1980s, more than 120 species of frogs have gone extinct.

Right now, one-third to one-half of the world's amphibian species are threatened.

For example, a decade ago there were tens of thousands of Southern Mountain Yellow-Legged frogs in the lakes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Today, less than 200 remain.

Climate change, pollution, the introduction of non-native species, fires, and most recently a deadly chytrid aquatic fungus are the main suspects in the disappearance of the frogs and so many other amphibian species.

Chytrid fungus is currently unstoppable and untreatable in the wild. The World Conservation Union calls it the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates.

The top five critically endangered frogs are: the Southern Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, the Panamanian Golden Frog, the Variable Harlequin Frog, the Lehmann's Poison Frog, and the Southern Corroboree Frog (pictured).

Only about 250 Southern Corroboree frogs remain in the wild, 25% of which are expected to vanish in the next three years, quite possibly because of the chytrid aquatic fungus.

I encourage you to check your local listings for The Vanishing Frog or watch the full documentary here on Animal Planet's website. And if you'd like to help, learn more by visiting savethefrog.com or click here to purchase a t-shirt or make a donation to Amphibian Arc that supports their global amphibian rescue efforts.

More bad news about vitamins...

Tara Parker-Pope writes about all the recent bad news about vitamins in her NY Times Well blog. From her post:

Everyone needs vitamins, which are critical for the body. But for most people, the micronutrients we get from foods usually are adequate to prevent vitamin deficiency, which is rare in the United States. That said, some extra vitamins have proven benefits, such as vitamin B12 supplements for the elderly and folic acid for women of child-bearing age. And calcium and vitamin D in women over 65 appear to protect bone health.

A Johns Hopkins School of Medicine review of 19 vitamin E clinical trials of more than 135,000 people showed high doses of vitamin E (greater than 400 IUs) increased a person’s risk for dying during the study period by 4 percent. Taking vitamin E with other vitamins and minerals resulted in a 6 percent higher risk of dying. A later study of daily vitamin E showed vitamin E takers had a 13 percent higher risk for heart failure.

On the bright side, while Vitamin C has no overall benefit for cold prevention, it has been linked with a 50% reduction in colds among marathon runners, skiers, soldiers, and people who are exposed to significant physical stress and cold temperatures, according to the study Parker-Pope discusses. Be careful though - because Vitamin C may interfere with Cancer treatment.