Ecolympics

Blog Moving

2011-12-10T17:20:00.000-08:00

Well, we got a letter from the US Olympics Committee saying we couldn't use the name Ecolympics anymore so our new event is going to be called Eco-Fest and our blog will be Eco-Now

(http://econowblog.blogspot.com/). New posts will be appearing at Eco-Now soon. Please join us over there!

The BeStraw Free Project

2011-06-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

I polled my Astronomy 101 class this week on their thoughts about our ability as a species to solve the problem of global warming and they were unanimously pessimistic, fearing that our actions were going to be too little too late. This alarms me because these are all people in their late teens or early 20's and have their whole lives ahead of them -- I hope in their case that pessimism does not equate with inaction or inability to act.

But I personally suspect it may be more of same for halting the biodiversity crisis -- by the time enough of us tune in to curb our consumptive habits, we could be past a tipping point and entire ecosystems could collapse.

So it's great to hear a positive story about someone who's thinking big and thinks we all really can make a difference. When Milo Cress found out that Americans use 500 million single use straws a day he decided to stop using them and began an online project where others could join to do the same. (Individual action and reducing consumption -- our two favorite topics!)
Milo lives in Burlington, VT, and is in the fourth grade.

As he writes on the Be Straw Free project information page, 500 million straws a day is like sending 127 busloads of straws to the landfill every day. That, you will agree, is a lot of straws, and a lot of waste. All so that we can sip a drink faster than drinking it straight from the edge?

You can do your part by refusing the straw for your next beverage at the bar, restaurant or soda fountain. Make it a summer project. Bring your own re-usable straw around. This is an idea that really needs to get around.

Global Biodiversity Outlook 3

2011-06-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you want a 10-minute primer on last year's UNEP Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 report, you can start with this fine video summary:

As summarized in Anup Shah's excellent Global Issues site, almost all the ecosystem health indicators since the 1970's are negative.

Though, land protection (below) is on the increase. Now, if we can start reducing our consumption we could possibly turn some of these other indicators around.

Ocean life on the brink of mass extinctions: study

2011-06-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

The article below is directly from Reuters. A few salient points mentioned: (1) as happens with popular articles like this, it sounds like unless we act now, the mass extinction will begin. If you're been reading this blog, you know the mass extinction has already begun, so what we'd like to do is to act now to prevent it from getting much worse; (2) halting overfishing doesn't require an international treaty! You and I can do something about it today by eating more sustainably. Next we have to educate our friends to do so too, and their friends, and so on. A little education can go a long way...

Here's the article:

(Reuters) - Life in the oceans is at imminent risk of the worst spate of extinctions in millions of years due to threats such as climate change and over-fishing, a study showed on Tuesday.

Time was running short to counter hazards such as a collapse of coral reefs or a spread of low-oxygen "dead zones," according to the study led by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO).

"We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation," according to the study by 27 experts to be presented to the United Nations.

"Unless action is taken now, the consequences of our activities are at a high risk of causing, through the combined effects of climate change, over-exploitation, pollution and habitat loss, the next globally significant extinction event in the ocean," it said.

Scientists list five mass extinctions over 600 million years -- most recently when the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago, apparently after an asteroid struck. Among others, the Permian period abruptly ended 250 million years ago.

"The findings are shocking," Alex Rogers, scientific director of IPSO, wrote of the conclusions from a 2011 workshop of ocean experts staged by IPSO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at Oxford University.

Fish are the main source of protein for a fifth of the world's population and the seas cycle oxygen and help absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activities.

OXYGEN

Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the seas faced a "deadly trio" of threats of higher temperatures, acidification and lack of oxygen, known as anoxia, that had featured in several past mass extinctions.

A build-up of carbon dioxide, blamed by the U.N. panel of climate scientists on human use of fossil fuels, is heating the planet. Absorbed into the oceans, it causes acidification, while run-off of fertilizers and pollution stokes anoxia.

"From a geological point of view, mass extinctions happen overnight, but on human timescales we may not realize that we are in the middle of such an event," Bijma wrote.

The study said that over-fishing is the easiest for governments to reverse -- countering global warming means a shift from fossil fuels, for instance, toward cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.

"Unlike climate change, it can be directly, immediately and effectively tackled by policy change," said William Cheung of the University of East Anglia.

"Over-fishing is now estimated to account for over 60 percent of the known local and global extinction of marine fishes," he wrote.

Among examples of over-fishing are the Chinese bahaba that can grow 2 meters long. Prices per kilo (2.2 lbs) for its swim bladder -- meant to have medicinal properties -- have risen from a few dollars in the 1930s to $20,000-$70,000.

(Editing by Jan Harvey)

The Rhino Horn is Not Medicine

2011-06-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Newsflash: the rhino horn does not cure cancer, nor is it a remedy for fever, headache, impotence, arthritis, pain, or ANY other medical condition. In fact, there is no evidence that the rhino horn has any medicinal value whatsoever. Yet poachers are still killing rhinos in alarming numbers to satisfy the demands of traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine. Rhino horn is also used in ornamental handles for daggers in Yemen.

According to Save the Rhino.org, the rhino population among its five species has plummeted from about one million at the turn of the 19th century, to 70,000 in 1970 to fewer than 24,500 today. The rhino has been around for 50 million years and today three of its five species are considered critically endangered and could become extinct within our lifetimes.

Saving Rhinos.org has begun a big campaign to educate us that the rhino horn has no medicinal value.

Education is the first step to improving the situation. Find out how you can help rhinos here; find out ten reasons to save the rhinos here.

It's our planet. These are our species. We need to take care of them.

Here's a short video by Tylor Loposser from the Sixth Extinction in Motion video project:

Black Rhino - Tylor from cmuutk on Vimeo.

The Drug Wars and Biodiversity

2011-05-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

I heard a disturbing report on NPR this morning about how the Mexican drug war is now spreading into central America, particularly into the northern Peten region of Guatemala, which includes the site of the fantastic Mayan pyramids at Tikal. Guatemala draws fewer tourists in a year -- about a million -- than Yellowstone National Park can draw in a summer month. Here is a recent article from the Guatemala Times that describes Guatemala's efforts to draw more eco-tourists, a niche that Costa Rica has carved out to modest success.

As the NPR article points out, news of shoot outs between drug gangs, even if they are not directed toward tourists, is a sure way to drive tourists away. This removes much needed revenue from local people who could be leading tourists on jungle treks. Drug cartels are also "cutting clandestine airstrips in the Guatemalan jungle", which causes habitat fragmentation and ultimately species loss.

While I don't see an ad campaign that says "Cocaine: It's Killing the Planet" anytime soon, perhaps we in the US should recognize that our consumption of cocaine has far-reaching consequences from ruining individual lives at home to communities and environments not far away.

Here is an article about how cocaine cultivation has been ravaging the Columbian rainforest.

Endangered Species Day

2011-05-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

The winter semester here at Boston University has just ended and this weekend the seniors will be convocating. Here, and in many other universities in the U.S. and Canada at this time, I suspect graduates will be hearing about how they can take what they’ve learned and go out and conquer the world. Graduation is a happy occasion, but I wonder how many graduates will be hearing about how an economy based on perpetual growth is unsustainable, how our present population growth is unsustainable and how the high rates of species loss, unless rapidly reduced, will doom us all. Ugh. Who wants to hear that?

But what message do we want to hear, at convocation or anytime? Personally, I would value hearing or seeing no message at all for a while so that I can think about what I do value. Think about all the times during the day when you are bombarded with ads about stuff to buy. There is stuff advertised on buses, on Youtube, in your inbox and your favorite website. (Some websites I can barely read the articles anymore because it keeps moving on me as different ads load.) Stuff to buy everywhere. Buying stuff, it would seem, is supposed to make us happy.

What is the cost of all this stuff? What is the cost of valuing stuff more than personal engagement or a walk in the woods?

I'm teaching Astronomy 101 starting next week and one thing I've always valued about an astronomical education is the perspective it gives. I know where we are in space and time.
We're in a large spiral galaxy, 3/4 of the way out to the edge and we're about 4.5 billion years old, in a universe that's just under 14 billion years old. It took 2500 years of science to be able to write that sentence. Another that has been just as hard won is: we're one of 10 million or more species who have evolved from a common ancestor over about 3.8 billion years of life on the only planet known to have life in the universe. (I'm watching some episodes of Carl Sagan's Cosmos again after many years, and Sagan, of course, was a master at helping us understand perspective.)

We share this planet with literally millions of other species and despite the hundreds of other planets discovered around other stars, we're still unique in the universe. We have abundant and varied life.

There's a new documentary called The Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction and I've got a short trailer and a long trailer for you below. Both versions feature provocative questions about the societies we live in and what we value. Today (May 20) is Endangered Species Day and World Environment Day is coming up on June 5. Check out the trailers below. Tune out of the perpetual bombardment to buy and instead think about what you value. There is still abundant life on Earth -- we need to start educating ourselves on how to value it.

The Economics of Happiness

2011-05-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

I stole this entire post from The Ecologist, a catch-all for environmental news from the Guardian newspaper in the UK. This looks like a timely and provocative film (we just had a forum about food security in our Biodiversity course) and it would be great to have a screening in the Boston area.

Here's is the description from The Ecologist:

A sneak preview of Helena Norberg-Hodge's epic documentary which examines how 'going local' is a powerful strategy to help repair our fractured world - ecosystems, societies and individuals

Economic globalisation has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.

The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localisation.

The film hears from a chorus of voices from six continents including Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of Tibet's government in exile, Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten and Zac Goldsmith. They explain that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need to localise, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. The Economics of Happiness restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world....

www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org

-----------

Definitely sounds like a film worth keeping an eye out for!

The Outermost House

2011-05-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

I've just finished Richard Ellis' book, The Empty Ocean, about how we are plundering the oceans in a war that we've been waging over the last 400 years. Needless to say, we're winning. It's not the sort of book you can plow through in a few sittings because the depressing facts about this or that species being annihilated keep getting to you, whether it be cod or tuna or turtles or whales or seals... but Ellis is a fine writer and does his own illustrations, which enhance the text, and his storytelling is good enough to keep coming back to.

Ellis uses quotes from other writers to great effect and I am enormously grateful for him for turning me on to Henry Beston and The Outermost House, published in 1936. This, I've now found out, is a classic of nature writing, and details, according to the subtitle, Beston's year on "the great beach of Cape Cod".

Beston is an amiable companion and there are many intimate moments in the The Outermost House, but here is the quote that Ellis excerpts, which is what made me seek out Beston in the first place:

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals... We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, we greatly err. For the animal should not be measured by man. In a world older and more complex than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."

The semester here at BU is over... go and get caught in the net of life and time and read The Outermost House. This book really should be better known.

Ecolympics Prize Winners

2011-05-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Prizes, prizes, prizes! We've been drawing lots, and making people happy with a chance to pull from our prize barrel. Like last year, if you claimed the highest points, (above 200 points, and 100-200 points) you qualified for the best prizes. If you didn't win one of those, you still qualified for our other prizes. Here's the list of winners and their prizes -- congratulations to all:

Elise Phalen -- Planet Earth DVD

Jenna Dee -- Planet Earth DVD

Silpa Sadhujan -- $50 Gift cert to Taranta in the north end

Danielle Chudolij -- $50 Gift cert to Taranta in the north end

Jenn Greene -- $50 Gift cert to Ten Tables in JP

Ashley Jones -- $50 gift pass to the New England Aquarium

Kyna Hamill -- Wine-tasting for two at The Fireplace

Lisha Kaluza -- Eco-friendly yoga mat from Kulae.com

Aberdine Donaldson -- Eco-friendly yoga mat from Kulae.com

Caitlin Flynn -- $25 Gift certificate to Greenward Eco-boutique

Sarah Goodyear -- $25 Gift cert to Veggie Planet in Cambridge

Meredith Withelder -- $25 Gift cert to Taza Chocolate

Rachel Atcheson -- 2 large pizzes from Peace o' Pie

The following people won copies of the terrific and inspiring "50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth": Margo Godersky, Marli Gordon, Christina Teng, Jennifer Gilbert, Kalani McDaniel, Mallory Morales, Olivia Watts, Michelle Kwock, Sophia Fregoso and Jenna Rizzen.

Three people won copies of the nutrition book, The China Study, generously donated by the publisher: Sarah Tompkins, Jennifer Saigal and Maddy Lee. Congratulations!

Two copies of The Happy Herbivore went to: Jordan Rosenthal and Chloe Skewis. Have fun with your vegan explorations!

Six ever-useful Chico bags went to James DeCamp, Christina Brinster, Michelle So, Jennifer Kaizer, Deep Shah and Raphael Addante. Way to go!

And finally, a yummy Equal Exchange Fair Trade Chocolate Bar went to Kacha Brandonjic, Chelsea Gagliano, Amelia Sagan-Mucha, Chloe Gummer, Alexandra Knowles, Ally Hughes, Zack Johnson, Katherine Storer and Phoebe Rosenthal. Well done!

Drop by CAS 119 to pick up your prize!

Photo Contest Winners

2011-05-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

Now that classes are winding down we can finally start giving out our prizes. Tough deciding on the photo contest! We had trees in all kinds of different environments and at many different times of day. Our first prize is a $25 gift card to Trader Joe's, which we hope gets used for things like fair trade or organic goods, but the winner can spend it on whatever she likes and our second prize is
a triple chocolate bar set from Taza Chocolate -- direct trade chocolate (yum!). Because the judging was so difficult, we decided to award two more photos an additional Equal Exchange fair trade chocolate bar each. Thanks to all who entered.

Here's the first place photo, which we liked for its overall composition -- trees framing trees:
a classic picture of New England in the Fall by Yue Huang -- congratulations Yue!

Our second place photo is by Valerie Belding, a spooky black and white shot from Undara, Australia -- congratulations Valerie!

Our third place photo is a placid, calming scene, very close to home at Walden Pond from Silpa Sadhujan -- congratulations Silpa!

And our fourth place photo is a colorful impressionistic shot that seems to be from the middle of a forest by Danielle Chudolij -- congratulations Danielle!

Thanks to all who entered -- it was a tight race right to the end!

Two short films about orangutans and palm oil

2011-05-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

MacQuarrie Byrne films teamed up with students at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Tennessee to make some short films about the present biodiversity crisis under the project title, Sixth Extinction in Motion. Here are two brief public service announcements about orangutans and palm oil, both reminding us that we as consumers can regularly vote with our dollar and make positive rather than negative changes in the environment. The first is by Maya Irvine and the second is by Sophia Chan.

Orangutan PSA from Maya Irvine on Vimeo.

6th Extinction: Orangutans from Sophia Chan on Vimeo.

Photo of the Day: Close Strolling

2011-04-29T08:07:00.001-07:00

We are about to announce our own photo contest winners and I wanted to show this terrific photo from Plymouth State University's Museum of the White Mountains. On their webpage it's called "close strolling".

What a great title! Forget backbacks and water bottles and fancy hiking boots. Let's just go for a stroll together among the tall, tall pines.

From their body language you can almost sense their amiable conversation.

But can you imagine the Whites without their spectacular forest cover? One hundred years ago, deforestation was a huge problem and it was largely thanks to the efforts of one person, Philip Ayres, who went on the lecture circuit with his own lantern slides , that a national forest reserve was ultimately created.

If you go to the above exhibit, you see that the efficiency with which Ayres describes the logging companies' decimation of the forests is reminiscent of the efficiency with which we are overfishing the oceans. Still, full credit -- and profound thanks -- to Ayres for giving us all such an incredible legacy. Perhaps one of us will fill his shoes for the beleaguered fish and other endangered species.

In the meantime, I suggest taking advantage of whatever weather you've got and going for some close strolling...

A Marine Life Encyclopedia

2011-04-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

We're tallying our points and hope to announce our prizes in the next few days, so make sure to make sure to make to get your Ecolympics points in fast. In the mean time, its posts like this Marine Life Encyclopedia from the New York Times that tells me we're on the right track: we live in an amazingly diverse world and we need to tune into it and our effect on it before it all slips right through our fingers.

Scan through the 16 photos in the above slideshow -- how many times did you say "Wow"?

Welcome to the International Year of Plastic Bags in Trees

2011-04-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures over two days on two different runs on my bike.

(Click on the link above or on the photo to view as a slideshow. Or click through the small photos below, or click on the photo below to go to the album for larger versions.)

Methinks we have a problem....

Anyone ready to ban the plastic bag?

Great WWF Ads

2011-04-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

You’ve got to hand it to the World Wildlife Fund for the creativity in their ads. Here’s a compilation of 55 compelling and provocative ads. Feel free to leave a comment about your favorites. I personally like the forest/lungs, the ghost tiger images and, for sheer provocation, both the child in the tiger suit and the soon-to-be consumed baby.

Guide to North American Mammals

2011-04-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make.

No, I'm not going to confess that I'm not as green as I'm letting on (I switched to 100% renewable electricity last month). Nor am I going to confess that I'm a proud shareholder of BP (I'm not -- btw, happy oil spill anniversary!)

No, I'm going to confess something much more mundane.

I confess that I love the Internet.

It's true. I love it that people from around the world are tuning in to what we're saying here. We're getting hits from India (Namaste), Qatar (Marhaba), Russia (Dobro požalovat'), Azerbaijan (Xoş gəlmişsiniz!), Australia (Welcome mates), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dobrodošli), Canada (Howdy),
Germany (Willkomen), Fiji (Bula) and other great places. Thanks for reading. It's nice to know you're interested in a greener, more sustainable planet whereever you are.

I also love the Internet because of cool sites like the Smithsonian's North American Mammals.
Before we start, how many mammal species would you guess exist in North America? 100? 200? 500? 800? 1000?

Fire up the site in another window, go to Enhanced Map Search (Beta) and we'll look at some cool things together. The first thing you'll notice, if you're on the default "mammal" view, is that there are 426 mammal species spread among just ten orders (remember Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species). Personally, I would have guessed there are 100-200 mammals in North America, so I would have been short by more than a factor of 2!

Here are the ten orders of mammals in North America: 1. even-toed ungulates; 2. carnivores; 3. whales, dolphins, porpoises; 4. bats; 5. opossums; 6. shrews, moles, hedgehogs; 7. rabbits, hares, pikas; 8. rodents; 9. manatees, dugongs; 10. armadillos, sloths, anteaters.

Really, if we were serious, we could memorize a short list of ten items like that.

Click on any order and you'll see how its species are distributed. For example, when you click on the box for Manatees and dugongs, you see that they are found only around the coast of Florida. Similarly, you can click on the arrow next to Bats and then see all the bat families. Click on any family and check off a species to find its geographical distribution. For example, the Family "Vesper Bats" seem to be quite widely distributed. When you check off the Pallid bat, you find it is concentrated in the western US, but the big brown bat has colonized the entire continental US, Mexico and southern Canada. You can amuse yourself with all ten different orders of North American mammals and get to know them better.

Another thing to try is to switch from the "Mammals" view to the "Ecoregions" view. Now you'll see the map transform into a colorful collage that indicates different ecological regions like grasslands, steppes, forests and so on. I live in Boston and suppose I want to go to Cape Code for the weekend -- what mammals might I see down there? Well, when I click on the Cape on the map, a box pops up that tells me it's the "Atlantic coastal pine barrens" ecoregion and I've got a chance to see 37 different mammals in the area including white-tailed deer, skunk, voles and much more. Click on "Explore" to see the geographical range for each.

Click on your favorite area and see what you can find.

Maybe you want to sink your teeth in a little deeper and find out which mammals are in trouble? Go back to the main page and click on Conservation status. You should list of categories on the right with "Extinct", "Extinct in the wild", "Critically endangered" and so on.

Here's where we can create our own field guide.

Suppose we want to find out more about the "Critically endangered" mammals". When I click on that menu item I get "13 records returned". Scroll down to the bottom of the page and "Select all" and then click on "Create field guide".

Voila! The site has generated a nice 13-page pdf file of all the critically endangered mammals in North America, including a color picture, a note about its conservation status, a paragraph about its habits, a map of where its found (some of my maps didn't reproduce very well) and space for me to make my own notes.

Go ahead, make your own field guide. This is a tool to use again and again. And there's much more to explore at this great site.

Yes, it's true, I love the Internet!

Looking for the Asian Longhorn Beetle

2011-04-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not bird watching.

I'm actually looking for the tell tale signs of the highly destructive Asian Longhorn Beetle on one of its favorite host species on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall -- the maples.

This event was organized by BU's Global Day of Service in partnership with the Friends of the Boston Public Garden, who provided guides and information sheets to identify the pest.

The Asian longhorn beetle was discovered in the Worcester, MA, area in August 2008 and has since been responsible for the decimation of more than 300,000 trees. To find the beetle, you must scan the entire tree for its exit hole, which is a perfect circle, slightly smaller than a dime. Given these tall trees on Commonwealth Avenue, you have to get a good method down so you don't keep scanning the same branches over and over again. And the brisk wind on Saturday made it extra challenging to hold the binocs steady, but we didn't find anything that was cause for concern.

Besides maples, the ALB also likes other hardwoods like birch and elm.

You can imagine that the state of Massachusetts is intent on eradicating this pest. Here's a guide
to identifying it and here is where to file a report. Invasive species, together with habitat fragmentation, pollution, overexploitation and climate change, is one of the main causes of the present biodiversity crisis.

A Mini Eco-Film Festival, Part 4

2011-04-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our 4th Mini Eco-Film Festival!

Our first film is from the Irish group, RealEyes, which is part of a global network of sustainability experts and business leaders affiliated with The Natural Step International, which operates in 12 countries.

Earth Day is this week and for our second film we have this great summary of environmental and Earth Day milestones over the last 40 years produced by Mother Nature Network. What new achievements will we make for 2011?

Our main feature today, which falls under Planet Management 101, is a Ted talk by the WWF’s Jason Clay talking about his work to convert big brand companies into using more sustainable practices. It’s worth your 20 minutes. It’s followed by a cool three and a half minute animated short, Good Vibrations, produced by Liberty Mutual, which looks at community responsibility and the costs of complacency.

Thanks for watching. Feel free to comment and share with your friends. Everywhere.

The Race Against Extinction

2011-04-15T06:57:00.000-07:00

What can one person do to halt the alarming increase in biodiversity loss?

You can join the Ecolympics. You can act on the suggestions in our blog.

And you can put your boots to the ground and join the Race Against Extinction, a 5K race this Sunday starting at Artesani Park in Boston.

Jeff Neterval started the race in 2008 thanks to his daughter's passion for animal's and E.O. Wilson's The Future of Life, which he read in 2001. Jeff writes that "Professor Wilson's calculation and message then that for $30 billion humankind could preserve over 70% of the world's species by conserving a number of our planet's biodiversity 'hot spots' was the inspiration."

Their mission is to both "raise awareness for preserving our planet's precious biodiversity and raise funds for organizations such as Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund to help them with their conservation efforts".

"Oh yeah," Jeff adds, "we also want to do this while having a good time!"

Jeff and his group held the first Race Against Extinction 5K on Earth Day in 2008 as an informal experiment (no permit) along the Charles along the Esplanade. It was a cold rainy week night. They managed to muster 8 participants. Proceeds were delivered to The Nature Conservancy. The original 8 and friends made along the way organized the second annual Race Against Extinction on April 17, 2010. They registered over 150 participants and raised approximately $8000 combined with a matching program for the World Wildlife Fund's Year of the Tiger campaign.

Jeff isn't kidding when he talks about having fun while doing this. The Race Against Extinction

even has a guy crazy enough to have run marathons dressed as a polar bear to help promote the cause... Last year, the polar bear ran the full Chicago Marathon in 87 degree weather. Now that's being committed to your cause!

This year, Jeff has had no outside sponsors and has funded the race himself. He's up against two big scheduling events too: Palm Sunday and the Boston marathon's popular 5k event. But willing participants will be recognized with protecting an acre of rain forest on Conservation International's Protect an Acre of rain forest.

Habitat fragmentation and deforestation are two of the main causes of the present biodiversity crisis, so protecting an acre of rain forest is an excellent and tangible way to do something positive for endangered species. I personally love the idea of being able to peer down into the Amazon on Google Earth and know that I helped to protect an acre.

It's amazing what one person can do: one person can organize a race that gets dozens of other people out for the same cause. I'll be there on Sunday. What about you -- ready to lace up your shoes and join the Race Against Extinction?

Making time for endangered species

2011-04-14T19:36:00.001-07:00

Education is the first step... then, if we don't take more action soon, we're going to have many more passenger pigeons for the 21st century...

Fair Trade Chocolate Tasting and Seminar

2011-04-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like hearing someone on your side trying to inspire you to keep doing what you're doing. Tonight we had Molly Zeff from Equal Exchange Coop talk to us about "Coffee, Chocolate and Why Fair Trade is a Way to Go Green." Equal Exchange began more than twenty years ago as a big risk taken by its three founders, who met at a New England food co-op, and now works with 40 farmer co-operatives in 20 countries. They bring some of the highest quality, organic, Fair Trade products to people in the US and their coffee, chocolate and cocoa have received awards and/or been nationally ranked.

Fair Trade, Molly explained, is a way of doing business, that aims to offer small farmers access to the world marketplace, provide consumers with products that support their values and advance social, economic and environmental goals. Equal Exchange frequently pays above the minimum Fair Trade price, which is above the market price, and guarantees pre-harvest funding of up to 60% of the final price, a pair of actions that give small farmers more income and allow them to make all-important long-term planning instead of focusing on immediate needs.

On the green side, Fair Trade labeling includes a number of green requirements such as the regulation of pesticides, waste disposal and more. Equal Exchange, it turns out, goes beyond these requirements and their products are almost entirely organic -- meaning no chemical pesticides or herbicides, the use of natural composting instead of chemical fertilizers and using diversity of crops to keep pests away. This is good stewardship for both the soil, the local biodiversity and the workers.

Coffee cultivation has been linked to deforestation because much of the mass-produced coffee is so-called "sun-grown". Equal Exchange, however, works with small farmers who tend to use "diversified shade", which not only preserves plant/tree diversity, it's good for songbird diversity as well.

I suspect most of us were persuaded that Equal Exchange was onto something good with all this, but the surprise came about 2/3 of the way through her presentation: most major chocolate companies use cocoa tainted by child labor and even child slavery. It's the chocolate industry's dirty little secret and you can find out more in the documentary Molly mentioned The Dark Side of Chocolate. As with any other social and environmental problem, it's up to us to educate ourselves, so see how your favorite chocolate company scores on this scorecard. According to the scorecard, there has been progress since the problem came to light in 2001, so keep those protest cards and letters going, and keep voting with your dollar.

For the tasting portion, Molly passed around two different bowls of chocolates: the Organic Dark Chocolate Caramel Crunch with Sea Salt and the Organic Mint Chocolate with a Delicate Crunch. We were encouraged to inhale each bowl to first take in the aroma, to admire the texture of the chocolate and finally to taste it. She gave us each a sheet to record our notes. I was used to trying to wax on about the various flavors of some new wine, but not about chocolate, but here we were tasting chocolate worth raving about. Both chocolates had unique flavors with several undertones that lingered afterwards. Nice.

Because the Ecolympics is about galvanizing individual action, to her enormous credit, Molly spent the last part of her presentation rallying us to keep going with our own actions. The kicker was that she got us to go around the room and admit to a single action we were prepared to do after her presentation. It was great to hear such a collection of actions that really was adding up to making a difference.

Is your bank financing climate change?

2011-04-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

We're all for shorter showers, eating less meat, bringing a re-usable bag or cup around and taking public transit, but as previous blog posts have indicated, eventually we're going to have to come together and create a movement that demands some changes from the powers that be.

One place to demand action from is our banks. According to Sourcewatch, Bank of America is one of the largest investors in the coal sector, and coal, of course, is a nasty pollutant and contributor to climate change.

You can find a nice summary about actions to get Bank of America and Wells Fargo to divest from coal here:

Using the banks' own policy statements, the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club, have prepared the "2011 Report Card on Banks and Mountain Top Removal". See for yourself if anyone gets an A or a B, and who gets C's and F's.

I don't know about you, but last time I checked, mountains were not for blowing up. We, as bank customers, should be doing what we can to improve our banks grades. It's our money after all.

Coffee, Chocolate and Fair Trade

2011-04-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Question1: How can you create positive change in your environment?

Question 2: Have you ever tried organic, fair trade chocolate?

Question 3: How is buying fair trade a way to go green?

Question 4: How can buying fair trade simultaneously empower small farmers and combat climate change?

Get the answers to these questions and more at our special seminar tomorrow night with Molly Zeff from Equal Exchange Coop. Molly will guide us through the world of fair trade by discussing two of its main products, coffee and chocolate. This event will feature a chocolate tasting.

What: Coffee, Chocolate and Why Fair Trade is a Way to Go Green
Where: CAS 211 (685 Commonwealth Avenue)
When: 6pm

We hope to see you there. All welcome. Ecolympics participants will earn bonus points.

10 Weird Endangered Species

2011-04-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here’s another video from the Mother Nature Channel highlighting 10 weird endangered species. Once you get past the annoying computer-generated voice, the video is full of fascinating facts about the aye aye, dugong, platypus and the ugly, ugly, ugly purple frog, who lives mostly thirteen feet below ground, the tiny bumblebee bat, and the olm, a blind amphibian who “skeeves out the locals with its strange, human like skin”, among others.

A Mini Eco-Film Festival, Part 3

2011-04-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

What can one person do to improve the health of our environment? Here are three films that look at how individuals can have a positive impact on our environment.

1. Change the Message

First up is this short but powerful film that can be applied to branding environmentalism. Maybe you’ve got a better way to spread the environmental message than the one we’ve been using or you’ve been hearing elsewhere in the media.

You may have seen this video from the IUCN on changing the message regarding biodiversity.

Perhaps you can think of a message that will get us all to listen.

2. Educate Yourself, Educate Others

If you don’t know Annie Leonard’s work, here’s a great place to start: The Story of Bottled Water. With abundant wit and a creative presentation, Leonard is educating all of us in a way that makes us want to act. Check out other films from The Story of Stuff Project and help spread the word.

3. Plant some trees

This classic animated film needs to be in your repertoire. Based on the short story by Jean Giorno and directed by French-Canadian filmmaker Frederic Back in 1987, The Man Who Planted Trees is a moving, well-told story that can be watched again and again. Enjoy.

As always, we welcome your comments.

Ecolympics, Week 1

2011-04-09T05:26:00.000-07:00

Check out this graph from the first week of Ecolympics challenge events.
As of Friday afternoon, we were at about 163 participants (with some Friday afternoon registrants still to be entered). According to the numbers, our three most popular events are Recycle! (128 participants), Stair Climb (101 participants) and, unlabeled on the far, far right, beyond Veggie-Mania, Water Break (107 participants) -- let's keep those water bottles out of landfills by not buying them in the first place.

If you have batteries, printer cartridges or old cell phones, you can bring them to our office in CAS 119 to help you Recycle!

At the other end, I want to shout out to those who agreed to defrost their freezer in De-freeze (15 people Ecolympians) -- as we say in our event page, doing this with a friend makes it much easier!

And we've got a more than a dozen dedicated people who are trying to keep an eye out for endangered species via Endangered Species Watch, or who are getting to know their environment via Species ID. We're looking forward to seeing your news on our Facebook page. In fact, we'd love to get more action on our Facebook page so if you have any event news, please share!

Good luck with your events in week 2 -- you can sign up for more if you're up for the challenge -- and thanks for Competing for Team Earth!

Things to to, things to do, things to do

2011-04-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

From convenient to challenging, have we got a list for you! Check out these fine lists for some eco-ideas and step up your involvement in preserving a sustainable environment. If you read a few of the lists, you'll see that one item is common: educate yourself.

Let's start with ten ways you can eat local from the (recently defunct) Boston Localvores.

Or how about ten sustainable actions (many of which are Ecolympics events) from Sustainability@BU?

If you just want to take simple steps to live green, check out the list from Conservation International.

If you're tuning into the biodiversity crisis, here are ten easy things you can do at home to protect endangered species, from the Endangered Species Coalition.

Strapped for cash? Here are ten things you can do for endangered species that don’t require money, from Squidoo.com.

Want to combine wildlife conservation and climate change activism? Here are ten things you can do to help imperiled wildlife survive climate change, from It’s Getting Hot Out There.

Or how about ten things you can do to save the ocean, from National Geographic.

Don't forget about the coral reefs. Here’s 25 things you can do to save them, from the NOAA.

Not enough for ya? Here are 100 ways to make a difference, from Marinebio.

Okay, you've had enough and you're ready to take action? Here are some action items from the World Wildlife Fund, the current action campaigns from the Center for Biological Diversity and the present advocacy campaigns from the Audubon Action Center .

What's inspiring you?

The Solutions are Interconnected

2011-04-06T09:12:00.001-07:00

I got this from the Somerville Climate Action website.

Really, this makes it look quite easy!

Ecolympics, Day 5

2011-04-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Ecolympics Day 5 already! I'm still thinking about what we should do for the opening ceremonies! How are your events going?

I don't know about you, but I'm having an easy time with Power Shower -- the one event that makes people around the office groan when I mention it. I lost a few points when I had to have an extra shower last night to relieve a migraine, but I've been at the two minute mark for the past three mornings.

My office is on the ground floor, so I don't usually need to worry about taking the stairs, but I did have to go to the 4th floor of the biology building on Monday and yes, I bypassed the elevator
for the stairs. I would like to know how much a single elevator ride costs in terms of power and carbon dioxide emission -- it should be easy to calculate.

I've got to step up my game and start identifying more species though. Thanks to my Arboretum tour on the weekend, I'm keeping an eye out for the soon to be blooming magnolias on Comm. Ave.

We have our recycle bins ready to go in the Core office, CAS 119, so if you have old cell phones, ear buds, or printer cartridges please bring them by.

I unplugged my home printer on the weekend and I've been good about turning the lights out since last year's Ecolympics. For TV-Free, I don't have a TV, but I resolved to turn off my laptop more often in the evenings... there are books to read after all.

Tonight I was treated by my sweetie to a local meal at The Hungry Mother in Cambridge. They specialize in seasonal and local ingredients and they definitely know what they are doing. Friendly service and great food from start to finish. I suppose I have to admit that I had the steak, but only because all of the other mains had gluten or something else I couldn't eat on account of migraine triggers. The beef was from Pineland Farms, and though it was high on the food chain, the waiter told us it was grass fed and from a quality, small sustainable operation.

(Nevertheless, if I'm going to claim points for Meat Less, I'm going to have to have a bunch of vegetarian or vegan meals to make up for this steak, delicious as it was.)

We started with the up-the-coast PEI mussels, and finished with a terrific Taza chocolate and hazelnut tart. Taza is one of our sponsors and it was great to have their rich chocolate showcased so well in the hazelnut crust. The taste and consistency of the chocolate was truly memorable.

We'd love to hear how you're doing with your challenges. Drop a comment below.

Harrison Ford on Saving Biodiversity

2011-04-05T09:58:00.001-07:00

Here's an article from CNN from last fall when nations were in Nagoya, Japan to try to find a way to save Earth's biodiversity. Harrison Ford was there as the vice chairman of Conservation International and it's interesting to see that he was urging nations to protect at least 25 percent of Earth's land mass and 15% of Earth's oceans. If you watch the video on the CNN link, once you get past all the promo stuff, you can see he's not the most enthusiastic spokesman for biodiversity -- he sounds a little tired -- but hey, good for him for doing it and I applaud him for his urgency. We need more spokespeople.

The New York Times summarized the agreement the next day. The Nagoya Protocol set targets of protecting 17% of land and 10% of Earth's oceans by 2020.

Meanwhile, back in Boston, the third annual Race Against Extinction runs on April 17. It's only 5 K and the registration, which goes to conservation groups like WWF and Conservation International, is only $25. Any takers? I think we should make it an official Ecolympics event worth at least 25 points.

Ecolympics Outdoors: Urban Nature Walk

2011-04-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

I'm determined to start learning more about species in my environment, endangered or not, for this year's Ecolympics (and beyond) and I made significant progress with two excellent, short hikes this weekend.

The first was yesterday at 9 am at the Arnold Arboretum with Arboretum guide Rhoda. As Rhoda told us, it was a good time of year for the hike as it was before the trees are budding so we could see the natural shape of the trees. The Arboretum hosts more than 5000 taxa (including species, subspecies and cultivars). Rhoda mentioned that her hikes lead her around to her favorite trees so that she could say hello to them. What amazed me is that it just took a fact or two, or a few tidbits of a story of origin to change an anonymous tree into an individual. I think on subsequent trips I'm going to be finding -- and greeting -- my own favorites there.

Today, as part of Ecolympics Outdoors, we had Urban Pantheist Jef Taylor lead a small group of us up the Muddy River, which runs adjacent to the Riverway. Things got off to an amusing start
as Jef began explaining to us about the trees that were planted along the Mass Pike. He showed that the trees had virtually no soil to work with and could/had to withstand a lot of soot. Momentarily stumped on which kind of tree we were looking at, the solution came in the form of the sidewalk fossil found next to it (pictured above) -- a norway maple. Who knew we were going to do urban archaeology too?

I was penless (this is the season where I'm always forgetting something in the pockets of my other jackets) so I couldn't take notes. But on top of the bird watching (blue jays, grackles, house sparrows and more) and tree stories (soon I'm going to have new favorites to greet along my bike route), there were tales of Canada geese, the protection of migratory bird species, identification of duck species and habits, the origins of the Emerald Necklace, the Boston side of the Muddy River vs. the Brookline side, mushroom identification, red tail hawk viewing (pictured at left) and more.

Jef was abundantly curious, a fount of information, and a keen guide who didn't want us to miss anything. He also told us he was a self-educated urban ecologist, a program that he began just over ten years ago with an effort to learn all the species in his own backyard.

For the Ecolympics, two of the events I signed up for are Species ID and Endangered Species Watch. Thanks to Jef's inspiring example, I'm going to approach these events with a new enthusiasm.

A couple more photos are included below.

Willow buds.

Mushroom closeup.

Mushroom gills... a new layer is added every year, so this mushroom is at least 3 years old.

Jef, Evan and Anya at the site of a freshly cut tree. Note the tree was hollow, the work of creatures like carpenter ants. We'd seen another one on the walk that was still living and was now a home for raccoons.

The Emotional Life of Elephants

2011-04-03T05:24:00.000-07:00

I just heard this week's program of Krista Tippett's Onbeing, where she interviews Katy Payne, who is an "acoustic biologist with a Quaker sensibility". From the show's description, Payne "discovered that humpback whales compose ever-changing songs and that elephants communicate across long distances by infrasound. Here, she reflects on life in this world through her experiences with two of the most exotic creatures."

The episode is mostly about elephants and it's great Sunday morning -- or any other quiet time -- listening.

Visit the episode homepage for some cool extra resources.

In the episode, Payne makes the point that we are just scratching the surface of our understanding of the animal world. Given her observations, I'd have to agree.

A Mini Eco-Film Festival, Part 2

2011-04-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to see our Ecolympics registrations coming along (yes, you can still sign up!) and we'll get back to blogging about our events soon. But given that our mission is to raise awareness of the human footprint on the environment and that it's the weekend, it's time for another mini Eco-film festival. Get your coffee or snacks, get comfortable and enjoy.

The first film is a succinct history of 300 years of fossil fuels, with the catchy title, "300 years of Fossil Fuels in 300 seconds." It's from the Post Carbon Institute, which aims to "lead the transition to a more resilient, equitable and sustainable world." They're based in Santa Rosa California, and I have a feeling we're going to be hearing more about this world "resilience" in years to come.

In our second film, which is more a seminar than a narrative but still engrossing, the inimitable Sir David Attenborough delivers the annual Royal Society Lecture.
Here, Sir David comes out swinging against population growth, which he argues is unsustainable. This is the short version, containing just the speech.

Here’s the complete version, with audience questions and answers. In one of the questions, Attenborough makes the point that the future where we have to worry about famines is already here. And given the list of food crises and famines in the last decade and century, it’s easy to see that despite the green revolution the land cannot sustain as many people as now live on it.

Our third film is an impressive Ted talk by biologist Willie Smits about his efforts to regrow a rainforest in Borneo. It shows how, with science, we can repair even the most devastated parts of our planet. And, his "people first" ideology is going to go a long way toward solving many of our problems.

Smits starts off by talking about the plight of the orangutan, whose habitat is being destroyed by our demand for palm oil.

Our 2nd eco-film festival ends there, but if you would like a sobering look at the sad life of at least one orangutan, then you should see the film, Green. It's about a female orangutan who is victimized by deforestation and resource exploitation. From the website, where you can see the whole 48-minute film, "This film is an emotional journey with Green's final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations." The film has won prizes at film festivals.

Thanks for watching! Feel free to leave comments.

How to Take a Three Minute Shower, Part 2

2011-04-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I claimed victory for my three minute and twenty second shower because even though I was 20 seconds beyond my goal, I was still about two minutes shorter than my five minute average. However, today I was determined to get under three minutes, or a count of 180.

I did a little pre-shower exercise -- some situps and pushups -- to get my blood going so that i didn't have to worry about trying to wake up in the shower. Then I turned the water on and got in while I had barely counted to 30. My bathroom was a little chilly and the water hadn't fully warmed yet, so I was jumping around a bit to get wet. I was also in fast motion to get my body wet as quickly as possible and by 54, 55, 56 I had finished soaking my hair and realized that by 59, 60 I was completely wet.

I turned the water off.

Yes, the so-called boat or navy shower. I was still in counting mode so it took me a few seconds to realize that I had actually turned the water off and could stop counting. Reset to 60. Take my time soaping up. Leisurely soap one arm then the other. Think about the world's problems. Leisurely soap my chest, my legs. Solve one or two of the world's problems. Soap the bottom of my feet, behind my ears. Shampoo. Leisurely scrub. Think of new problems to solve.

Okay, all soaped up -- water back on! 61, 62, 63. Back into fast shower mode. Rinse hair (75, 76...), rinse feet (87, 88...). This is easy -- I should be able to finish by 100 and cut yesterday's time in half. Rinse all places in between (101, 102...). Where did those last ten seconds go? 112, 112... Move, move. Rinse behind my ears. Is that it? 118, 119... Yes! Water off!

120. Not bad!

I notice that I count quicker when I start and slower as I'm finishing but I don't think it's so bad that I need to go out and buy a timer. The point is that if you put your mind to it, a short shower is possible. And you get on with your day quicker. If you need some extra inspiration, there's always Doing the Green Thing.

However, when I came out of the bathroom I noticed that I'd left my radio on. D'oh! Lose points for that!

The Ecolympics are starting today. I will blog about my other events once I decide which challenges I'm ready to accept. What about you? Are you ready? Sign up and let's do it!

How to Take a Three Minute Shower

2011-03-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to last year's Ecolympics, I cut my shower time down by about half, from somewhere in the ten-minute region to somewhere around the five minute region. According to our event page for Power Shower, every minute we cut in our shower time, saves about five gallons of water. So, given those numbers, over a year I saved about 1800 gallons of water.

However, recently my shower time has been floating upwards again.

So, today, on the eve of our 2nd annual Ecolympics (yes, you can still sign up), I'm here to tell you how to have a three minute shower.

Really, all you have to do is turn on the water, start counting to 180, jump in and do your stuff, and turn off the water while you're counting is just ticking from 179 to 180. It can be done!

This morning, it took my shower 40 seconds to warm up (d'oh, waste of 3.33 gallons!) but by the 120 count I was done soaping and washing. That left an ample count of 60 to wash my hair. The shampoo came out quickly (5 seconds), I got a good lather going (10 seconds), good scrubbing action (15 seconds), behind my ears (5 seconds), ouch, stay clear of the eyes (5 seconds)... hey, look at that, 20 seconds left over for rinsing... this is easy... At 160 the suds are dropping all around my feet. At 170, I'm massaging my scalp to get all the shampoo out. I'm going to easily have five seconds left over for that lovely zen shower feeling... 177, 178, 179...

Darn, there's a soap film on my legs that I didn't rinse properly. I'm overtime! 185, 186... And did I do the bottom of my feet? I'm sure I did but... 191, 192... That's gotta be it. Okay, all done.
Three seconds of standing there doing nothing... 198, 199, 200.

Water off!

Twenty seconds over! Hardly an Ecolympics record, but better than my shower times all week.
I'm claiming victory.

You can too. Be a part of our efforts to get individual actions to change the world. Sign up for the Ecolympics today. Challenge yourself to take a shorter shower. You know you want to.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Ecolympics

2011-03-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

Q. What are the Ecolympics?
A. The Ecolympics are a fun, participatory series of events geared towards the themes of sustainability, reduction of the human footprint on the environment and education about biodiversity and the current crisis in biodiversity loss.

Q. What is biodiversity?
A. The term “biodiversity” refers to the diversity of plant and animal life in an ecosystem or in the world as a whole. At present, Earth’s biodiversity is a suffering losses at accelerating and historic rates due primarily to human activities.

Q. Who can participate in the Ecolympics?
A. Everyone! Students, staff, and faculty at Boston University, friends from near and far, long-lost relatives and anyone in between.

Q. When are the Ecolympics?
A. The main events run from April 1 - 15, 2011. Check our website calendar and Facebook page for activities before and after those dates.

Q. What are the motivations behind the Ecolympics?
A. The United Nations declared 2010 The International Year of Biodiversity. The Olympic Games celebrate a spirit of sportsmanship and at the Ecolympics we want to celebrate a spirit of ecological sustainability and awareness. We are an integral part of nature and our fate is tightly linked with the entire diversity of life. We need to work together now to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. This year, 2011, is the International Year of Forests and our work continues...

Q. Is the loss of a few species really such a big deal?
A. Yes! Unfortunately we don’t even know how big of a deal it is. For example, most of our prescription drugs come from animals and plants, many of which are now endangered. The present loss of species is like losing an entire library before we’ve even catalogued or read the books. Further, it’s not just “a few species”; estimates of the present extinction rate are one hundred or more times greater than the normal extinction rate seen in the fossil record but on a time scale that is much shorter. So the present extinction event is beginning to compare to the mass extinction 65 million years ago, which wiped out 75% of species, including the dinosaurs. We need to take action now.

Q. How are the Ecolympics events connected to the biodiversity crisis?
A. It is human consumption of energy and natural resources that is polluting the environment and causing habitat loss, two factors that are driving the biodiversity crisis. By bringing our own cup around for coffee and water, we reduce the consumption of paper/Styrofoam cups and plastic water bottles, and start replacing our throw-away mentality with the idea of sustainability. By eating local we reduce the greenhouse gas emissions required to ship food from across the country or from around the world. By eating organic we reduce the need for herbicides and pesticides, which pollute ecosystems and watersheds.

Q. Why are there so many events?
A. In part to show that there are many ways an individual can make a difference and in part to show that we must change many of our habits and behaviors. Small incremental changes can add up to a big difference. The US has 4% of the world’s population but 22% of the world’s energy consumption – we just can’t go on like this.

Q. Can all these small “events” or actions really make a difference?
A. We think so. If these actions are done on their own, the difference will be small. But if they are done over and over, and if friends, colleagues and family are encouraged to do them together with us, then the difference can be significant. Plus, thinking about small changes on a daily basis will hopefully create a mindset that large-scale change is possible. It’s our Earth and we need to start practicing good stewardship that will protect our environment for generations to come.

Q. I’m a busy student with three papers due this week and two exams, you don’t expect me to participate do you?
A. We’re busy students (and faculty) too! The Ecolympics are about tuning into our behavior and our daily choices. Some of our events are so easy you can do them in the bathroom (take a shorter shower, turn off the water when you brush your teeth, cut your paper towel use in half), others you can do while you’re studying (turn off all the lights you’re not using, unplug unused power grabbers, put your computer into sleep mode when you’re taking a break) and still others you can do between classes or on your way home (take the stairs, bring a re-usable bag to the grocery store). Changing our consumptive behavior is easier than you think. Some of our events take a little planning and research (eating local, tell a friend about an endangered species), which is why we're allowing sign-ups beginning on March 22 so that you can plan ahead.

Q. I do many of these activities anyway, why should I join the Ecolympics?
A. By participating with us, you’ll help bring awareness to the need for us all to work together to reduce our impact on the environment. We need you to stand up and be counted! By talking about your actions with others, you could inspire them to get involved and we can build some much-needed momentum to make large, positive changes. Plus, you’ll have a chance to win some cool prizes!

Q. Prizes? What prizes?
A. Our emphasis is on participation, but we do have cool prizes like passes to the Museum of Science, eco-friendly yoga mats from Kulae.com, gift certificates from Greenward (an eco-friendly boutique in Cambridge), Taza Chocolate (an organic chocolate shop in Somerville) and Peace o' Pie (a cool vegan pizza joint in Allston), gift certificates to restaurants that serve local food and DVDs of the awesome Planet Earth series. (For our beyond-BU participants, unfortunately, prizes are limited to Boston University students, faculty and staff. But don't let that stop you for participating and even challenging your friends to participate.)

Q. How does the point system work?
A. Our Ecolympics are based on the honor system. When you register, you’ll be allotted a certain number of possible points according to the number of events you register for. Registering for more events will put you in the running for better prizes. At the end of the two weeks, you can log back in and claim your points according to what you accomplished. Prizes will be awarded via a lottery system. We value your participation and wish you good luck -- we hope you win!

(You can also gain points by attending our special events like our film on March 31, our Nature Work on April 3, our Fair Trade seminar on April 13 and/or our cooking class on April 15 -- see our Calendar for details.)

Q. What is Carbonrally?
A. Thanks to the efforts of the good people at Sustainability@BU, Boston University has joined Carbonrally, an organization that incorporates a social bent to reducing carbon emissions. Here’s what Sustainability@BU has to say about Carbonrally: “The folks at Carbonrally took their knowledge of consumers, software, and environmental studies and created new approaches to the global crisis by building a portal where people can discover, commit, and track small actions over time.” It’s free and fun!

Q. Why should I sign up for Carbonrally too? Isn’t joining the Ecolympics enough?
A. We recommend that when you sign up for the Ecolympics you also sign up for Carbonrally. Carbonrally has many of the same events as the Ecolympics and through them and their challenges you’ll be able to find out much more information about your actions than we at the Ecolympics could provide. By being part of Carbonrally you can accrue points for your school and try to win the monthly prize. Go for it!

Q. I’ve got an idea for an event. Want to hear it?
A. Yes! Post it on our Facebook page wall, or email us directly and we’ll keep it in mind when we plan next year's events.

Q. I want to do more. What can I do?
A. Keep going with Carbonrally. Talk to your friends and family about your concerns. Rent a documentary that focuses on biodiversity or the human impact on the environment. Join one of the green groups on campus. Start reading a green blog. Create your own green blog. Post news about biodiversity on your Facebook or social networking page. Watch where every dollar you spend goes. Find out how your bank is investing your money and if you’re not satisfied, find a greener bank. Reduce, re-use, re-cycle. Think before print. Eat in rather than forcing the restaurant to generate waste via take-out. Trade and re- use clothes with friends. Request that your office use less air- conditioning. Take the train or bus instead of the plane for short trips. Find out what is going on at the civic, state and national level to safeguard biodiversity and fight for it. Lobby for green energy. Boycott corporations that pollute the environment. Start an Ecolympics at your neighborhood K-12 school. Stay positive. Support green companies...

Flash Mob against Plastic Bottles

2011-03-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Oh, if only all of our individual environmental actions could get this sort of response.

Clever video that will help you practice your French and that really deserves an award for its social and environmental commentary. Watch it. Share it. Recycle it.

(Thanks to Kaca for sending it my way. )

Don't forget: our next film night is this Thursday at 7pm in CAS B-36 where we'll be showing the documentary Home. Come at 645 for delicious vegan pizza (saying a lot coming from a carnivore) from Allston's Peace o' Pie.

15 Random Things you Can Do to Promote Positive Environmental Change

2011-03-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

1. Write to the US Post Office and tell them that a 12-inch long receipt for a book of stamps is wasteful and ask them to improve.

2. Find an environmental blog and write comments on several of its posts. Share its cool posts on your Facebook page.

3. Combat the disinformation promoted by the Koch brothers by supporting the work of Robert Greenwald.

4. Write to the Giving Pledge and thank the billionaires for giving their wealth to philanthropic causes (seriously). Ask them to support ways to improve the lives of the global poor (who live in resource-rich countries) and ways to reduce the consumption of the global rich (who live in comparatively resource-poor countries). While you’re at it, ask them to support programs that will educate women, because educated women have fewer children and we desperately need to halt our rapid population growth. (The site seems to be mostly for media inquiries, but hey if millions of people wrote in with their suggestions, maybe some of that would get communicated to those with the big wallets.)

5. Write to your congressperson and ask him/her to introduce legislation that will add one dollar to all US income taxes. Propose that the $130 million dollars raised be used to protect watersheds, protect national parks and the land around them, and to educate citizens on the importance of biodiversity.

6. Support Planned Parenthood.

7. Volunteer to be a distributor to the Endangered Species Condom Project

8. Write op-eds for religious newspapers and magazines and tell them to promote birth control. It’s going to be a lot easier to sustain seven billion people than nine billion, which is the projection for mid-century.

9. Change all your bills to e-bills.

10. Research some plant-a-tree for a dollar sites and plant ten trees. Or twenty. Summarize your research for some environmental blogs or Facebook pages.

11. Support the in-progress documentary, Growthbusters: Hooked on Growth. Let’s face it, the planet is finite and unlimited growth is unsustainable.

12. Calculate your ecological footprint and pledge to reduce it.

13. Find an eco-hero and publicize his/her work.

14. Join the Ecolympics. Get your friends to join. Like us on Facebook, comment on our blogs posts. Share them. Come on our nature walk, come to our cooking class, and come to our film nights. Check our calendar for events.

15. Write to us with other suggestions for our next installment of random ways to promote positive environmental change.

A plague of frogs -- and other invasive species

2011-03-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

If you're been reading at all about biodiversity loss, you know that there are five main causes to the present crisis, all of which are human-induced: habitat fragmentation, pollution, over-exploitation, introduction of invasive species and climate change. You may know that the dodo didn't go extinct because it was poorly adapted to its environment on the island of Mauritius; it went extinct because it was over-hunted by sailors and because the introduced rats, pigs, dogs and cats ate its eggs, which were laid on the ground.

Here's a list of 10 other species introductions that have gone awry, a reminder that we really don't understand ecosystems very well.

Five Reasons to Join the Ecolympics

2011-03-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. We've got a challenge for you -- join us! Let's all become more aware of our consumptive habits and reduce our footprint on the environment. Check it out below and then go to our webpage and sign-up. You'll be competing for Team Earth -- and maybe you'll win a prize!

Ecolympics Film Night II: Crude

2011-03-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

In case I don't have time to say more about the film, I want to at least post the trailer. Voted by the National Board of Review as one of the top five documentaries of 2009, Crude tells "the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet: the infamous $27 billion "Amazon Chernobyl" lawsuit pitting 30,000 rainforest dwellers in Ecuador against the US oil giant Chevron."

Continued from the film jacket: "Winner of 19 International Awards, Crude takes you inside a riveting, high stakes drama steeped in global politics, the environmental movement, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, multinational corporate power, and rapidly disappearing indigenous cultures."

We're showing this documentary tomorrow, March 24 at 7pm in CAS B-36.
Please come at 645 pm to enjoy some vegan pizza.

The trailer is below:

Guess the Endangered Species II

2011-03-22T21:00:00.001-07:00

The pictured species is a species of wild goat that is found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indian, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. They flock together in groups of nine females and their young while the males are solitary. They were formerly prized as an elusive and difficult game animal to hunt in British India, it is now hunted in several countries for the supposed medicinal qualities of its horns. There are now approximately 2500 mature individuals and the numbers have declined 20% in two generations.

The species is:

Answer to come next week.

Last week’s species was the margay, which barely beat out the Mexican bobcat for top place in the poll. It is remarkably similar in appearance and closely related to the ocelot. The other animals in the list were all also endangered. The vaquita is a porpoise. Thanks for playing!

The Last Lions

2011-03-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Imagine Africa without lions. Unthinkable. It's like imagining the ocean without whales, the arctic without polar bears, or the Antarctic without penguins. Sadly, this could become a reality. Though the lion is not listed as endangered yet, its numbers are plummeting rapidly enough to cause alarm. In the past century, the lion population has decreased from about 100,000 to around 23,000. (Some estimates have the lion population as high as 400,000 a century ago, and up to 40,000 today.) They have already become extinct in 26 countries and have a population of greater than 1000 in only 7 countries.

This month, several wildlife conservation groups, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Born Free USA petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to have the lion listed under the Endangered Species Act. But wait. Lions don't live in the US, they live in Africa -- how could they be listed in the USA?

Answer: the groups leading the petition point out that between 1999 and 2008, Americans imported 4,021 lion trophies. In fact, this country is the largest importer of lion trophies and lion parts in the world. Placing lions on the endangered species list would prohibit the import of lion trophies. Though lions are also suffering from the typical problems threatening species today -- habitat destruction due to human encroachment and clearing land for agriculture -- halting the lion hunt would clearly help their situation. The US could then become a leader in protecting lions, though here are no wild lions in this country.

If you want to see lions in action, catch the National Geographic feature film, The Last Lions, now in theatres. It aint The Lion King, that's for sure. In the film, Ma Di Tao, the mother of three cubs, loses her mate and must protect and raise her cubs herself. The cineamatographers got some riveting footage of Africa at its wildest as we watch a compelling and suspenseful narrative unfold. Between asking myself how on Earth they captured these amazing scenes, I was always wondering what was going to happen next. As another reviewer said, this is definitely nature red tooth and claw. Though there's some anthropomorphizing in the narration (Jeremy Irons), and I could have done without the flashbacks and the slo-mo, the drama overcomes these minor quibbles.

There's a note in the credits about how you can cause an uproar to protect lions and I have to say, the items are rather minimal. Donate a few bucks here, share the story, etc. I hope they update the items to say that we should pressure the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list lions on the Endangered Species Act. Now that would be causing an upoar.

What is Missing

2011-03-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

How can we spread awareness about the present mass extinction in a way that doesn't stun us into depression but instead energizes us into action? One bold and impressive
attempt has recently been completed by Maya Lin, the artist who was responsible for the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. She has created an interactive memorial for many species and aspects of our natural world and combined it with some moving short films for the project, What is Missing. The project was created initially as a Times Square Billboard for Earth Day 2010 and
now here it is on the Internet.

What is missing from our world? Species are going missing. Peace and quiet in the wilderness is going missing. The natural sound of the ocean is going missing. Topsoil is going missing. Huge swaths of forest are going missing. Really, our entire natural world is going missing.

I particularly recommend the short video Unchopping a Tree.

This is a site to explore and ponder. And it's a wake-up call to all of us that we need to start acting now. Registration for the Ecolympics begins tomorrow. We're looking forward to seeing how you challenge yourself and your friends. Maybe in ten years we can memorialize what we've saved or restored...

A mini Eco-Film Festival

2011-03-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a brief eco-film festival to get you through the weekend.

First up are some flash animations created by Jimmy Egeland
with a terrific series called Eco-bunnies. So far, there are just
three episodes: Eco-bunnies1, The Eco-bunnies in Earth Day
Escapade and The Eco-bunnies in Hare Do's and Don'ts. I love
the idea of a visible carbon footprint -- I wonder how that would
change our actions. Watch and share, this guy definitely needs
more exposure.

Second up is this nice little short by Andrea Dorfman: Thoughts
on my Bike. As an urban cyclist, I share the sentiment
of trying to figure out what's wrong with our cities and our
lifestyles as I'm riding about.

And the main feature, as it were, is this fine episode of Extinction
Sucks, featuring the dynamic duo of Ashley and Aleisha. Here they
venture off to Nepal and Chitwan National Park to do their part
to protect the Indian Rhino from poachers. Not only do we first
worlders have to reduce our consumption, the show makes the point
reducing global poverty is a key to protecting biodiversity.
I've only watched the one episode so far, but based on that,
I think Extinction Sucks is radical and imaginative. Let's hope
they can inspire some radical and imaginative conservation ideas
among the rest of us.

As always, comments welcome.

Is Environmentalism Failing?

2011-03-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Downunder Melbourne Australia’s recent two week long Sustainable Living Festival included this sold old Great Debate: Is Environmentalism Failing.

Five of Australia’s top environmentalists, plus Canadian eco-scientist, David Suzuki, spoke for about ten minutes each. I’m including the entire 85 minute clip below, courtesy of Australia’s ABC network. Further below, I also include some notes. Bear in mind that these are notes and it’s worth your while to watch the entire debate as they are better speakers than I am a summarizer.

First up was Ian Lowe (about 4.5 minutes into the clip), President of the Australian Conservation Foundation who began by reminding the audience that societies only survive if they live within their natural systems, and this is what environmentalism was all about. He argued that though there have been environmental achievements (for example, catalytic converters), the science is clear that we’ve been degrading the environment for the past thirty years and that we’re not living sustainably. He said the two main causes of this degradation are the appalling poverty in the developing world and unsustainable consumption in the richer part of the world. We in the rich parts have to ask ourselves what we’re prepared to give up – we have to live more simply so that others may live.

He acknowledged that the challenge to remove economic growth as a focus of our society was daunting but history tells us that other daunting challenges were overcome when enough people wanted the change badly enough, such as bringing down apartheid in South Africa, bringing down the Berlin Wall, and bringing down dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. If our own politicians won’t listen then we have to replace them. He finished by saying that shaping a sustainable future is our duty and nothing less than our responsibility.

Next up was fiery Anna Rose (17:45 min into the clip), co-founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition who lamented that the environmental movement did not understand power and argued for ways to build power. Environmentalism was positioning itself as a charity that wanted your money not as a movement that needs your voice and power. She said that donations that began with us being harassed in the street are not empowering. Even online tools were being poorly used because the online organization was not translating into offline power. The notion of “click here” shows it’s simply a politics of gesture.

Climate change is not an environmental issue, she said, it’s about our health, survival and our future. Whether environmentalism fails is ultimately up to all of us.

Author Clive Hamilton (31:00) reminded the audience that Big Carbon is ruthless. He summarized some work done in Australia and noted that we urgently need a new environmental radicalism that understands the need to defeat Big Carbon and resists the pressure to conform to the prevailing political structure. This radicalism must be made up of people willing to put bodies on the line because, he concluded, no one ever achieved radical social change by being respectable.

Senator Christine Milne (43:00), Deputy Leader of the Australian Green Party, said that the concept of environmentalism has been spectacularly successful but the movement itself has failed to capitalize on the numbers of people who have a predisposition toward protecting the environment. She said many people support the idea but don’t have the courage to get involved.

But, she said, though we’ve had a revolution in communication, the democratic process hasn’t changed. Politicians are people who want to keep their seats and we need to make them believe they will lose their seat if they don’t act on our behalf. We need massive public campaigning and people have to say that they will change their vote. Thoreau said that most men lived lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with the song still in them – now is the time for us to get out and get active again on the streets so that our song is heard.

Philip Sutton (56:00), author and co-founder of Safe Climate Australia summarized some of the political actions that led up to the Kyoto Protocal and beyond. He complained that glaciers were moving faster than our political systems but that the frequency of extreme weather events was causing people to sit up and take notice of the changing climate. He argued for 100 percent cuts in greenhouse gases, growing more plants and burying them to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (reverse mining) and deflecting some solar energy to cool the Earth while we create a safe climate.

He said that during World War II, countries rebuilt their economies at maximum speed and added that we’ll all feel invigorated when we can see that a safe, cooler planet is possible in the near term.

Finally, David Suzuki (1:09:00) spoke and he was clearly reeling from the information and impassioned speeches of the previous speakers. He argued that present environmental efforts were dealing with the symptoms of our destructiveness not the root causes. Our economic system, which disregards the services nature performs for our health and wellbeing and focuses only on financial gains is at the heart of the crisis. We have failed to address the fundamental truth that endless on a finite world is impossible.

He said we need to revise our human-centered position to a biocentric position in order to see how we are interconnected with all other species. He was aghast that we humans are one of 10-30 million species and think nothing about taking over 88% of the globe and leaving only 12% for all other species.

He also cautioned about the enormous power of corporations who we’ve allowed to infiltrate government processes yet who exist only to make money and threaten to remove jobs whenever they see fit. He applauded the book, Merchants of Doubt for exposing the hundreds of millions of dollars that has been spent claiming that climate science is junk science, something that he rightly called criminal activity.

Being green shouldn’t be a political football, he said, nor should environmentalism be a specialty: it’s a way of seeing ourselves in the world. He concluded that our task now is to motivate the motivators to motivate.

So there you have it. Again, the speakers themselves say it much better than my crude paraphrasings so do have a look at the video. Though many of the speakers addressed climate change specifically, many of their arguments also apply to the present crisis in species loss. Is the situation in North America any different from Australia? Is environmentalism failing? Your comments are welcome.

Guess the Endangered Species

2011-03-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

How well do you know your species, endangered or otherwise? Let's find out.

The pictured species is found in the rainforests of Mexico and Central and South America. It’s the only cat that can climb down a tree head first like a squirrel. They are also known to hang from a branch with only one hind foot. Its diet consists of rodents, monkeys, lizards, birds, tree frogs and fruit and the majority of its prey is caught leaping through the trees. The main threats to the species are hunting for its fur and the pet trade and habitat loss due to deforestation.

This species is:

Answer coming soon!

E.O. Wilson Lecture on a Plan to Save Earth's Biodiversity

2011-03-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Harvard naturalist E.O. Wilson has done much to educate us about Earth’s biodiversity and the present mass extinction, particularly with his popular books, The Diversity of Life and The Future of Life . He is a terrific writer, who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize and is notably optimistic about our ability to overcome the problem of species loss.

Here he delivers a lecture at MIT about a plan to save Earth’s biodiversity. The lecture is over an hour – but it’s spring break so you have time -- and you can scroll down the text on the right hand side and see the highlights. The punchline? I’ll give you a hint. His plan costs a fraction of the recent bank bailout of $700 billion. One wonders what we’re waiting for…

Extinctions in the 21st Century

2011-03-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to believe that extinction is happening right before our eyes. There are five primary causes: habitat fragmentation, pollution, introduction of invasive species, overexploitation and climate change. Here is a list of ten species that have been declared extinct so far this century. These are masterpieces of nature that we can no longer enjoy. We are running the Ecolympics (registration begins on March 21) to raise awareness of exactly this problem.

The same information is presented, with a stirring soundtrack and more photos, in the video below, produced by the MotherNatureChannel:

Both of these need to be updated to include the Eastern Cougar, declared extinct this year, though it's last confirmed sighting was in Maine in 1938.

You can also find a timeline of extinctions on Wikipedia.

11 Powerful Environmental Messages

2011-03-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

Homeless polar bears, Earth as a melting ice cream cone, Tarzan who swings out of the jungle into deforestation and more. I was going to compile some environmental ads I found online into a video, but someone beat me to it. As you might expect, the World Wildlife Fund is well represented here, but other international conservation groups have original ads too. I wonder if these ads actually do anything more than making us “stop and think”. Feel free to leave a comment about that below.

(Video compiled by “ardas1968”, with each ad showing for 15 seconds, but the music is catchy, so just relax…)

Brazilian Conserve Water Ad Campaign

2011-03-05T07:31:00.000-08:00

A little creativity goes a long way... though I doubt we'll see this anytime soon in North America.

Watch this ad for Brazil's Save Water campaign once...

then watch it again with the translation below:
To sum it up: If you pee, you're invited.
(when you flush you waste up to 12 liters of drinkable water / 4380 liters in one year)
Pee in the bath! Help the Atlantic Forest.
Pee in the shower! We want everyone to do it!
Men! Women! Children! Brazilians! Or not! Nobles! Commoners! Musicians! Sports stars! People half-human, half-monster. Twilight creatures! Brazilian legends! Greek legends! Good people! Not so good people! Art geniuses! Science geniuses! Circus performers! Lovers! People from other planets! Movie stars!

In case you're wondering, urine is 75% water and sterile, so go ahead, and call it
conservation by urination.

World Water Day is March 22

2011-03-04T09:08:00.001-08:00

To mark the upcoming World Water Day, the ESO (that's the Environmental Student Organization, not the European Southern Observatory, who, by the way, have a fine repository of images from around the universe) is showing the documentary film One Water. The screening will be in CAS B12.

Given the lack of standards in the bottled water industry, and the environmental harm caused by both its excavation and the pollution from the water bottles, it doesn't take an Einstein to know we should be drinking tap water.

See the trailer for the film below.

One Water Trailer from KnightCenter on Vimeo.

Earth Justice and Roadless Now

2011-03-03T20:40:00.000-08:00

The environmental law firm Earth Justice has a campaign going on now called Roadless Now. According to their website, "There are nearly sixty million acres of wild national forest lands that were protected under the 2001 Roadless Rule. Now many of these areas stand unprotected and could be vulnerable to logging and road building." New development in these intact forests would harm water supplies for nearby cities and towns, fragment the habitat of local species (one of the causes of species extinctions) and ruin some pristine forests. As a senator, President Obama co-sponsored the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act. We should get him to fulfill his promise and protect these forests for good.

The above photo is a stunning roadless region called Ice Lake Basin, in Colorado. See this and many more roadless places in a slideshow on the Earth Justice site.

Breaking Free of Traffic

2011-03-01T19:07:00.001-08:00

As you can see, sustainability is a mindset.

The copyright on the image is Antoine, 2011.

Apparently, he got it from this billboard in Lisbon.

Anyway, we like.

The Living Planet Report

2011-02-27T20:11:00.000-08:00

The WWF has produced its Living Planet Report for 2010, a science-based analysis on the health of our planet and the impact of human activity, and as you might expect, the news is not good. The key finding is: “Humanity's demands exceed our planet's capacity to sustain us. That is, we ask for more than what we have.”

One of the markers of our planet’s biodiversity is the Living Planet Index, which tracks populations trends in over 2500 vertebrate species. Between 1970 and 2007, the Living Planet Index declined by 30%. This decline was seen in all biomes: freshwater species (-35%), marine species (-25%), and terrestrial species (-24%). The decline was worst among tropical species (-60%) and in species in low-income countries (-58%). Though temperate species make some gains in this period (+29%), thanks to improved environmental management in many regions, much of the change is probably because these species started from an already reduced baseline due to decades and centuries of agricultural expansion and industrialization. So much for the only bit of good news.

The high decline of species in low-income countries is clearly affected by globalization and consumption patterns in high-income countries. Our high ecological footprint is taking its toll. An excellent way to see this is through the Living Planet Report Mindmap. Here you can see how we’re all linked to biodiversity, how our footprint influences biodiversity and what choices we have for the future. It's an excellent resource worth exploring. You can also download and read the entire report.

Most Threatened Species in 2010

2011-02-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

I stumbled on a powerpoint presentation online that gives a nice summary of endangered species (well, I didn't exactly stumble since my search terms were "endangered species powerpoint"). The problem with writing about endangered species is that it's very much doom and gloom, after all, extinction is forever. The message in this presentation, which was directed at kids, was "Endangered means there's still time." Nice.

Then I found this nice infographic that summarizes the ten most threatened species in 2010. I suspect most of them will make the "10 most threatened" lists for the next several years, but the image presents information about the reasons that these species are so threatened. The present high rates of species loss are due to five human-caused factors: habitat loss, pollution, invasive species, overexploitation and global warming and you can see each of these factors rearing its head for these threatened species.

It should be noted that these are the most threatened high profile species. It's easy to find many more less famous species whose numbers are much more desperate, in the hundreds or only dozens. The Iberian lynx, for example, is thought to have less than 100 members.You can find lists of critically endangered species on Wikipedia and elsewhere. If "endangered"
means there's still time, then critically endangered means time is critical.

Welcome to the International Year of Forests

2011-02-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

We're back. After a too long hiatus, we're gearing up for the 2nd Annual Ecolympics hosted by the Core Curriculum at Boston University. This year we're running the events for two weeks, April 1 -- 15 and looking for a bigger impact. Naturally, it's you our participants who are going to determine how big our impact can be, so we're counting on you.

We got the Ecolympics going last year to raise awareness about the human impact on the environment and the consequent species loss. The problem of species loss is so severe -- Harvard naturalist E.O. Wilson has said that 30,000 species are going extinct every year -- that last year was decreed the International Year of Biodiversity. One result was the Nagoya Protocol, where nations agreed to halve biodiversity loss by 2020, increase the percentage of protected lands from 12.5 to 17% and increase the percentage of protected oceans from less than 1% to 10%. Making this happen is going to take a commitment from all of us.

This year is the International Year of Forests and Yann Arthus-Bertrand, who directed the compelling eco-documentary Home (and put it online, gratis) has prepared a visually stunning short film to summarize the importance of forests. Here, also, is a collection of some endangered forests around the world, from which the above photos are taken.

We're now in the planning stages for this year's Ecolympics. Along with our main Ecolympics activities, we're aiming to again feature vegetarian cooking classes and film nights as well as some new events like hosting sustainability seminars, going on local hikes and possibly tree

planting. If you're at BU and want to get involved, do get in touch. If you're beyond BU and want to get involved, also get in touch! We want to make a bigger, longer-lasting impact this year and we can do that with your help.

Daniel

Five Years to Make a Difference

2010-09-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

We're back. The World Cup has come and gone.
Summer was hot. September has all but
disappeared. It's still The International Year of
Biodiversity and we still definitely have work to do.

Here at BU, we had a terrific festival for Sustainability
just over a week ago with all the campus green groups
trying to get their information out. I manned a table for
the Ecolympics and many people came by to claim
our lovely poster, or some pamphlets and pins that
I got from the Secretary of the Convention on
Biological Diversity in Montreal. (The US, along with
Andorra and the Holy See, are the notable countries
who have not ratified the convention.)

Last week, the Director General of the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Julia Marton-
Lefevre, spoke to the UN and warned that we have five years
to make a difference.

Five years!

If we don't significantly slow down the rate
of species loss within five years, our ecosystems will not
recover in our lifetimes and our quality of life will
suffer. It's an incredibly small window for us not only
to educate ourselves but to act.

We are gearing up for another Ecolympics next
spring, which is going to be bigger and better than
this year. We are looking for ideas that will galvanize
people -- people everywhere -- to act positively to
reduce the rate of species loss locally and globally.
We are also looking for organizers to help us plan
a suite of interesting and fun activities to raise
awareness about the importance of biodiversity
so please get in touch if you want to be involved.

Daniel

The Ecolympics Challenge for World Environment Day, June 5, 2010

2010-05-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a civilization to look

after its species. Of course, the species, all thirty to one hundred

million of them, are no more ours than the wind is. But we humans

control the destiny of life on Earth and if we hold to our present course

of action, which includes high consumption of natural resources

leading to habitat destruction and pollution, not to mention climate

change, then by mid-century we’re going to have a much poorer planet: historic numbers of species will become extinct and we humans will have lost a significant part of our heritage and

quality of life.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we can each do something about it.

But I’m not an activist, you say. Fine, neither am I. At least so

far.

However, you and I both lead active lives and each day we have

opportunities to reduce our footprint on the environment. That’s

why last month my colleague, Alex, and I, together with a

dedicated team of students, organized the Boston University’s

first-ever Ecolympics. We were hoping to get at least one

hundred people to participate in our twenty-three events like

recycling, powering down computers, turning off lights,

taking shorter showers, using re-usable cups, eating less meat,

avoiding plastic, driving less and taking the stairs more.

Our motto was “Competing for Team Earth.”

We finally signed up more than two hundred people. Most of

the participants were from Boston University, but we also had

several people compete from other universities and from

Canada and Germany. The most common comment I got

from the participants was, “I enjoyed the challenge.” I’d

love to say that each of our actions saved a species, but it

doesn’t work that way. We have, however, engaged in the

struggle – against our own habits and attitudes and against

our ignorance.

We are ignorant about the long term consequences of our

present consumption of natural resources though our situation

seems like if in the story about the flood, Noah began

burning the floorboards of the ark to keep warm at night.

There has to be an alternative.

Check out the UNEP’s site for World Environment

Day on June 5, and see that people around the world have made

hundreds of suggestions for things to do to reduce our impact

on the environment and to protect species. The motto for World

Environment Day is “Many species. One Planet. One Future.”

You can also review our Ecolympics events and partake

in one of the events that you missed on your own. Or, if

you’re looking for a real green-medal challenge, here is

something you can do on World Environment Day:

organize your own Ecolympics for your work place or

school. Use our events as a guide. All you need

are a few green prizes as incentives, or a friendly bet

always makes a good challenge.

We need more Ecolympics and more Ecolympians. Next

year, we’re going to run the Ecolympics again, probably

for two weeks instead of one. We’re hoping for at least

double the number of participants: four hundred. But if

we really want to make a difference and get serious about

saving species, then we need four hundred million participants.

We need an Ecolympics that runs year round with everybody

participating every day.

Think about what it will mean for us all to be

Ecolympics champions! Clean air, clean waterways

healthy wetlands, thriving forests and diverse ecosystems.

This is why we need to Compete for Team Earth. This is

our future. The challenge is ours to accept.

Daniel

Prizes, prizes, prizes!

2010-05-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

Starting on Monday of this week, we've been drawing for our
awesome prizes in our various point tiers (above 200 points, 100-200
points and up to 100 points).

Here are the winners and their prizes:

Arianna Rizzo	Planet Earth DVD
Abby Cote	Yoga mat from Kulae.com
Maryne Shephard	$75 gift certificate to Vee Vee in Jamaica Plain
Stephanie Kubala	$50 gift cert to Ten Tables in JP
Jennifer Greene	$50 gift cert to Ten Tables in JP
Christina Coffey	Planet Earth DVD
Jaime Silverstein	Yoga mat from Kulae.com
Jessica Vogele	Planet Earth DVD
Jasmine Freehoff	Museum of Science Double Pass
Stephanie Nelson	Ecolympics Tshirt
Megan Peet	Museum of Science Double Pass
Hannah Walters	Museum of Science Double Pass
Sydney Lindberg	$25 Trader Joe's gift card
Quincey Lewinson	Yoga mat from Kulae.com
Tait Forman	$25 Trader Joe's gift card

Congratulations to all our winners!
We have a few -- stay tuned!

Daniel

Photo Contest Winner!

2010-05-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

We got some nice photos for our photo contest, from the colors of spring to life in the aquarium. Even in the handful of photos that we got you can see how much biodiversity adds to the simple visual aesthetic of our lives.

The photo that co-judge Alex Coverdill and I decided to go with for our contest winner is shown at left, by Camille Dupaquier.

Look at this old stump of a tree. Is it still living? There's a few twigs here and there that don't seem to have gotten the message that the tree is done for and they're still giving it their best. And in a hollow niche in the center, passing through the eye of the tree, as it were, a squirrel has been momentarily caught. You know that in the next instant the squirrel will be gone, but here it is framed by the tree. On its own, the tree is fascinating and full of character but I find it poignant that the squirrel is caught in the spotlight.
The Tree of Life (Darwin's metaphor for how species are related) is full of niches that different species specialize in. In this International Year of Biodiversity, we should become aware of which niches are disappearing and what we can do to halt it. Thanks for a provocative photo Camille!

Speaking of provocative, here's another image that I've been meaning to post regarding endangered species (click on the image to enlarge it). Apart from the disturbing facts at the bottom (the global population of tigers has fallen 97% in the last century), the figure shows that Ecuador and the USA have the most endangered animal species, with 2211 and 1203, respectively. As the subtitle says, here's a look at some countries with the greatest potential for both disaster and improvement.

Let's hope it's the latter.

Daniel

Who Are the Ecolympians?

2010-04-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

If you were following our Facebook group, you know that we
had more than 200 participants for the Ecolympics!
(210 to be exact!)

We relied on classroom announcements and emailings to
student groups and in under a month we were able to
attract 210 people to modify their behavior and reduce
their impact on the environment for a week. Pretty good!
Thanks for being part of it.

Most of those 210 participants -- most of you -- are
undergraduates here at Boston University but we also
signed up at least two grad students and thirteen faculty!

In addition, we had a strong "Beyond BU" contingent,
represented by participants from Brown University, MIT,
the University of Florida, Centennial High School as
well as five people in Canada and one person in Germany!
Thanks for your support!

We're pleased with our kick-off and we're now waiting
for everyone to submit their points so that we can award
the prizes. (The photo contest judging is occurring as
we speak.)

Alex and I, as co-chairs of the organizing committee
are also wondering how to make the Ecolympics bigger
and better for next year. We'd love to get your feedback.
Tell us about your Ecolympics experience. Tell us
also if you're continuing the Ecolympics spirit.
You can always email us at ecolympics "at" gmail.com

To be honest, next year we're hoping for ten times
more participants! All it would take would be for
each of us to challenge ten of our friends.
As Michael Pollan writes in the New York Times this
week, it would be like a chain reaction: the more
awareness that is raised, the more people will want
to do it and become involved. Well, that's the hope.

The slogan for the International Year of Biodiversity
is: Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.

Here at the Ecolympics we've been saying It's
our environment, it's our planet and we're all
competing for Team Earth.

Stay tuned for further posts about the prizes and
additional information about the International
Year of Biodiversity and more!

Daniel

Going Vegetarian

2010-04-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Who knew eating Vegetarian could be so easy?

What did you eat for dinner?
Flounder, Squash, and Grilled Potatoes.

Oh cool. Where did you go out to eat?
The Dining Hall.

I am sure you won't be surprised to hear that when I told my friend I had gotten this delicious meal at the Dining Hall she was shocked. In attempt to promote Earth Week, BU's Dining Services has done amazing job of providing fresh and new produce to students. I decided as a part of my Ecolympics challenge to eat Vegetarian for a Week and I am loving it! To be honest, there have been few times where I remember that I am eating Vegetarian because the "veggie" options this week have been so amazing. Will it get harder once Earth Week is over? I am not sure, but I this week has certainly showed me that it is possible.

I just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Eating Animals. I highly recommend it! So to make sure that the difference you make during the Ecolympics is not only a week long thing consider reading this book!!

Rajani

Day 3 Recap

2010-04-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

As the English say, I'm chuffed!

We had a dozen people take in the expertise of
GSU Executive Chef for a demo on how to make
Northeast Squash Bisque this afternoon. Chris
made it clear that cooking was all about
experimenting and nothing was locked in. It
was an easy-going class with lots of questions
(including several from moi) and the result
was a colorful, delicious bisque initially
served in shooters and garnished with
a tasty apple confit.

Asked about the challenge of cooking for students, he said that unlike
cooking in restaurants, students come back every day. He stressed
that if students want to talk about the meals they are getting he is
all ears.

This event was coordinated by Mary Farina in our Ecolympics
committee and facilitated by Sabrina Harper in BU's Dining Services,
whose enthusiasm made it happen. Thanks to you both!

Sabrina said Dining Services has events planned all through Earth
Week, so tune in to what they have to offer.

It was a great appetizer for our main Ecolympics event, a screening
of Planet Earth. Three lucky Ecolympians will take home the entire
DVD set of Planet Earth and we had a nice teaser of two episodes
from disc one for an audience of 25, together with vegetarian pizza
from Pizza Pie-er, very capably ordered by my partner in crime,
Alex. (It's a good thing too, because I probably would have forgotten
it was "Meatless Monday" and ordered pepperoni...)

I have to say that I love Planet Earth! I know there are clips on
Youtube but there's nothing like seeing it on a decent sized film
screen, with the amiable narration and storytelling of David
Attenborough (I think the US version has Sigourney Weaver as
narrator). So many of the animal episodes propel you through
the cycles of life: birds courting, panda bears nursing, caribou
running for their lives, elephants staving off thirst. The entire
drama is literally awesome. I could have watched another
complete disc. Maybe next year we'll have a Planet Earth
marathon?

We also sold a few t-shirts and gave away a bunch of our
posters -- stop by CAS 119 if you'd like either (t-shirts: ten
bucks, posters: gratis). Great to see the interest out there.

We were also asked it we were planning more events for the
week. We didn't want to go crazy with events in our first
Ecolympics so the rest of our events are the self-run events
that you've signed up for on our webpage (yes, you can still
sign up!). And we knew other student groups would
be doing their thing too, so check out the terrific list of events
here.

This week is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Perhaps in
40 more years, we'll all be so environmentally conscious and
living sustainably that we won't need an Ecolympics?
We can hope, right?

Finally, on my way into the veggie cooking demo today, I had
to cross over the path of the Boston Marathon. At 3pm,
hundreds and hundreds of runners were flowing past, some
taking it lightly but some wearing an enormous struggle on
their faces. In my seven years in Boston, this was the first
time I'd come down to see it and I was touched to see all the
emotion. All these people set out to essentially climb their
own Mount Everest and here they were completing it.

Last year, two of my sisters, Sue and Terrie, and several of
my cousins responded to the challenge of my cousin Heather
to walk the Hawaii marathon with her. Heather was on her
third bout with breast cancer and she saw her own treatment
as a marathon, an attitude that inspired everyone around her.
The "Honolulu Hopeful's" were written about in the
Calgary Herald after their race in December. Heather died
of cancer last month, but I was thinking of her and my
sisters who trained with her and supported her and walked an
entire marathon for her and for their own reasons. (They said
they'd never walk another one -- it takes too long! -- though
they didn't rule out running one. ) I'm proud of all of them.

The fight to preserve Earth's biodiversity is a sort
of marathon. Our Ecolympics are like a
training ground... can our small differences add
up to big change? We hope so, but only if we're
in it for the long haul. I am, and I hope you will
be too.

Good luck with your events and let us know how you're doing! Also, stop by our table on Earth Day (Thursday) and say Hi!

Daniel

Ecolympics Day 3

2010-04-19T06:04:00.001-07:00

It's already Day 3 -- I can see the week is going to fly by!

Yesterday I took my re-usable bags to the grocery store.
By the way, have you seen our resources for this event?
Tim Minchin does a bang-up job in getting the word out!

I got some organic carrots, potatoes and apples, but
the organic broccoli was looking kind of sad so I gave
that a pass. Last week I'd already bought some organic
chicken strips, so I was okay in the meat department.
In the past, I'd cook two for a meal, but because I'm
cutting my meat in half this week (for Meat-Less),
last night I just fried up one. I started cutting my
meat in half about 2 months ago and I have to
say that it's much easier than taking a short shower!
I have the exact same meals that I usually cook,
but with half my usual meat; i.e. I haven't had to
double up on rice or veggies. This has been a surprise
to me as I thought I needed a "full serving" of meat
to feel full.

I still love meat, but I can now see that having some
meals completely meat free is going to be easier than
I thought.

I also signed up for Veggie-mania but beyond the
organics I mentioned, I didn't buy anything I hadn't
bought before, so I'll have to find something on
my next trip.

I guess there's some small race today called
the Boston Marathon. Do any of your events feel
like a marathon? I'd be curious to know!

We're about full for our veggie cooking demo
this afternoon, so I'll see some of you there,
then tonight we're having our screening of
a few episodes of Planet Earth -- with
vegetarian pizza. Hope to see you there!

Daniel

ps. the baobab above is by Rachel Sussman,
who has a terrific album of the world's oldest
living things -- some awesome, hardy
biodiversity here, check it out!

Let the Ecolympic Games Begin!

2010-04-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

And they're off!
Go Ecolympians go!
~

On such a cold, dreary day, I would have loved a long, hot
shower. But because I signed up for Power Shower, I had
to keep it short. I didn't set any records, but it was
certainly shorter than if I hadn't signed up for
the event. It's funny what a little awareness
will do. Or won't do: I forgot to turn off the
living room lights before going in... but I turned them off
when I got out.

Because I signed up for Unpluggit, I finally unplugged my
printer this morning. I suppose I should be unplugging my
modem overnight...? Hmmm. I also unplugged the coffee
maker after it finished brewing this morning (I poured
the second cup into a thermos). It has a clock and a little
light on it that I don't need and simply drains power. I
started doing that about two months
ago, when the Ecolympics were in the planning stages.

I also signed up for Eat Local and I haven't yet figured out
how to do that. But I'm meeting a friend for dinner tonight
at the Cambridge Brewing Company, which, I just found out,
specializes in local food.

I'm happy to report my three Toothbrush Blitzes
today have each been successful. I'm not sure if I'm
doing another load of laundry this week, but on Tuesday
I did a load in cold water and then dried them overnight
with Nothing But Air. (So, if I signed up for the event but
didn't actually do it during the week, I guess I can't claim
the points? Darn...)

Tomorrow I guess I'm walking to the grocery store with
my re-usable bags for some organics!

How are you doing? If you want a guest blog entry,
send it to me (hudon@bu.edu) and I'll post it. Or just
write on our Facebook wall.

Good luck!
Daniel

Assignment Earth: Saving Amphibians from Deadly Fungus

2010-04-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice piece I just got from the Mother Nature Network:
Building captive colonies for eventual re-introduction to the wild, scientists from Atlanta rescue endangered frogs and other amphibians threatened with extinction by a fatal fungus spreading through South American forests. (Video: see below)

The Edge of Existence

2010-04-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been checking up on the Species of the Day recently. A few days ago they featured Darwin's frog, which is an incredible creature for its camouflage talents in either brown or green settings.
Species of the Day also contains a map that shows its habitat and like many of the featured species, Darwin's frog lives in just a single small corner of the world. These maps give you the feeling that Darwin's frog and other Species of the Day, like this primate, the Northern Muriqui,
live on the very edge of existence and the slightest push could extinguish them from the Earth forever.

The Zoological Society of London has taken this "edge of existence" metaphor to single out particularly vulnerable species for conservation.
They've made lists of the top 100 Edge, or "Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered" species in the categories of mammals, amphibians and birds (coming soon). Perusing the lists shows some fascinating species together with a barometer that indicates the extent of any conservation action, if any. On their home page, they have a nice video on coral reefs, an entire system on the edge. The video talks about this year, 2010, as a turning point for us to possibly do something to protect coral reefs worldwide.

So far, about 30 people have signed up for our Species Watch event. I'm looking forward to hearing about all kinds of species that I didn't know existed... Don't forget, you can still add new events, so why not consider adding Species Watch to your list. Peruse the Arkive or the Edge and tell us what you find on our Facebook page. Also thanks to Jennifer for posting a link to endangered species in Massachusetts -- that will make your "species watching" easier.

The Ecolympics start tomorrow! I'm excited! When I left the office we were at 168 participants... with your help, perhaps by the time Monday rolls around, we'll reach 200?!

Also, a special shout out to the ten Core faculty who have signed up -- thanks!

Remember, we are all competing for Team Earth.

Daniel

Our Poster

2010-04-15T13:03:00.001-07:00

How do you like our poster?

It was created by Zak Bos in the Core Office (with suggestions from moi and the other organizers). I think it nicely summarizes what we're about. Many of us take biodiversity for granted without realizing that we depend on it for our food, our health and our leisure.

That's why the main goal of the Ecolympics is to raise awareness of the human impact on the environment and the consequent species loss.

If you'd like a poster, just stop by the Core Office (CAS 119) and we'll give you one, while supplies last.

Daniel

Things I Am Excited About!

2010-04-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

With the first EVER Ecolympics rapidly approaching, there is still so much to do and so much to get excited about! So, here is my top 5 list of things related to Ecolympics that I'm pumped about, and also one thing that I'm not looking forward to so much.

1. Buying my T-shirt! Not only is it an eco-friendly T, not only is it tye dye, but it also allows me to put off laundry for another day! And everyone knows that doing laundry is bad for the environment. This is the shirt that keeps on giving!

2. The Meat-less event! I think that this is going to be one of the most difficult for me. Yesterday's menu included, a ham english muffin, pasta toss with sausage, a hamburger, and soupy (which is an Italian cured-sausage like snack. A bit like pepperoni except spicier, homemade, and hung in my basement for months. To be quite honest, I just don't ask what's in it, I don't think I want to know.). Thankfully, the dining hall will be helping to provide me (and everyone else) with meat free meals. While I don't know if I can go the whole week without eating any meat at all, I am certainly going to try to cut my meat consumption to at most once a day.

3. The Biodiversity@BU photo contest! I can't wait to see all the awesome pictures from all around BU. I'm also excited to finally have an excuse to get out and take pictures rather than do homework.

4. Oceans! This is not directly related to Ecolympics however, it is during Earth Week so it gets included. Starting Thursday (Earth Day) the AMC on Tremont St. will be showing Oceans, a Disney production (yes, I may be slightly obsessed with Disney but the obsession has finally come in handy because now I know about Oceans!). Oceans is a Planet Earthlike production that takes us under the sea. The part I am most excited about however, is that a portion of every ticket sold during it's first week in theaters will go to helping our Coral Reefs. Not only can I go see larger than life fish on the big screen, I can go knowing that I am helping the ocean.

5. Raising Awareness! When we had our first Ecolympics meeting, one of our fears was, would anyone actually care? This fear did not subside until our last meeting. Our facebook group has more than 200 members, not only from BU, but from all over the world. Over 100 people have taken the Ecolympics Oath (those of you who haven't signed up for events yet better get a move on!). The amount of people we are reaching is more than I expected, by far. And that is what I am most excited about! The fact that we are raising awareness (through friendly competition) about issues that are important to me and impacting us all.

So now, the one thing I am not excited about this week. Something that will pain me more than Meat-less. TV Free. You all might be saying, if it's going to hurt you that much, don't sign up for it. Valid point. However, I do believe I suggested the event. Therefore, I feel an obligation to go without TV. Should this be hard for me? No, it shouldn't. Can I entertain myself without the TV? Yes, I can go for walks, read the many books piled haphazardly around my dorm, write letters, hang out with my friends in a TV free zone. The options are there. But going TV Free denies me of the reward of the "TV Coma" I fall into after a long day of homework. Will I miss my Grey's Anatomy, my Law and Order SVU, my pointless MTV, and my Celeb Rehab with Dr. Drew? Yes, I will miss them dearly. But, will I come out of this week a new person, enlightened by all of the experiences that I had while doing something instead of sitting stuck to the TV? Probably not but I will still be alive and hopefully, I will have saved a little piece of the planet.

What are you excited most about? What do you think will be the biggest challenge? Post it to our facebook group! We are all in this together!

Ecolympics Love,
-Jill

PS-I will not be seeing Oceans until Sunday, AFTER TV Free Week is over. Also, I promise not to sit aimlessly in front of my computer for hours on end watching Youtube videos, nor will I attempt to catch up on my TV shows or watch movies on it either. That would be cheating, and Mother Earth will know.

The Ecolympics: How it Works

2010-04-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

We are just three days away from our Ecolympics kick-off! If you haven't signed up yet, there's still time. If you've signed up and want to add more events, there's still time for that too. Just mark your calendar for 12 noon on April 17 because that's when our events begin, with the exception of Power Shower, which begins at whatever time you get into the shower that day (unless you decide to be extreme and do a quick sponge-wash instead!).

I think it's going to be cool to know each of us our doing our own events on our own time and trying in the process to effect change and ultimately to raise awareness.

When you sign up for the events, you also take our Ecolympics oath and by doing this, you relieve us of the burden of judging your points. You take care of that for us. As the week proceeds, be sure to chat us up on our Facebook group page to let us know of any successes or difficulties you're having. For example, I still don't know how I'm going to "succeed" at Eat Local -- where am I going to get local breakfast cereal? Perhaps some eggs? For lunch, I know I can get Vermont's Cabot Cheese at Stop 'n Shop or Market Basket (for a dollar cheaper than at Whole Foods) but I need gluten-free bread and the stuff I buy comes from non-local California. Too far! For dinner, I don't know where to start just yet... I'll have to check our resources.

So, though the Ecolympics are self-run events, we hope you'll chat us up on our Facebook page or by commenting on our blog posts. We've had all kinds of water cooler talk about the Ecolympics in the Core Office and we'd love to recreate that online. Please also check the
resources for each of the event pages and be sure to send us links for anything that will
help us get better information out!

When the week is over, you'll log back into our site and tally your accomplishments. How often did you do what you set out to do? We have two options for most of our events so just check whichever one is appropriate. Do that for each of your events and we'll tally your final points.
We can't wait to hear about your success!

Your final points will fall into a particular tier (1, 2, 3 or 4) and we'll draw winners randomly from each tier. So, stay tuned to this blog for updates.

We've lined up some cool prizes: gift certificates to restaurants that serve local food, like Garden at the Cellar and Ten Tables, double passes for the Museum of Science, eco-friendly yoga mats (from our generous sponsor Kulae.com), Trader Joe's gift bags (food!), and last, but certainly not least, Planet Earth DVDs. At least a dozen Ecolympians will be taking a prize home!

(If you're beyond BU we still want you! We suggest you challenge a friend and create your own prize.)

Introducing the Arkive

2010-04-08T20:13:00.001-07:00

We're going to have some posts about what we're doing and you're doing for the Ecolympics soon, but I wanted to let you know about the Arkive, which is mentioned in the Resources for our Tell-A-Friend event. You should just go to the Arkive and explore or you can view the terrific promo featuring David Attenborough. It aims to be an image and video database of all the world's endangered species.

At left is the Fony Baobab, found only in Madagascar, where it is suffering from habitat loss. It was an IUCN Species of the Day earlier this month. Go to the Arkive and click on the image and you can see a nice slideshow of this exotic tree.

This little critter is called Burrowe's Giant Glass Frog, which doesn't look so giant to me. The Arkive doesn't have conservation status for it, so presumably they are waiting for an expert to fill in the details.

Another recent IUCN Species of the Day was the Humphead Wrasse, one of the largest reef fishes in the world. The Arkive has a nice collection of images and videos of this beauty, which is suffering from exploitation in the live reef-fish trade.
As you can see, the Arkive contains some top nature photography and as a website and archive, it has some other cool features like slideshows and creating your own scrapbook. All for free. Worth checking out!

Ashes and Snow

2010-04-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

Has anyone seen this exhibit by Toronto artist Gregory Colbert? Apparently some ten million people have seen it, making it the most-viewed exhibit by a living artist in history. I didn't know anything about it until I stumbled on a Youtube clip last week and the images have stayed with me, particularly of the orangutan and the woman in the boat. I wish I could see the whole film! The website for the installation has some lovely black and white images of harmonious interactions between our species and others. As described in the clip, it truly is a celebration of nature.

I found it when I was looking for information about palm oil, which is even more ubiquitous than high fructose corn syrup as it is in 50% of all consumer goods, from breakfast cereal to snack bars and chocolate bars, and from soap and cosmetics to biofuels. According to the Rainforest Action Network, demand for palm oil has tripled in the US in the last five years, making this crop one of the key causes in global rainforest destruction. Particularly hard-hit are the rainforests of Indonesia, where one of the last remaining populations of orangutans lives (the other population lives in Borneo). You can watch the last days of the orangutan, Green, in the 48-minute film by
Patrick Rouxel now being screened in documentary festivals. Patrick has also put the entire film
online. I see that Patrick also has a Facebook group with more than 2000 fans.

Here's the bad news on orangutan numbers in the 20th century from Patrick's website for the film: a decline from more than 300,000 to less than 10,000. The Honolulu Zoo has more information about orangutans.

This is why one of our events at the Ecolympics
is "Tell-A-Friend", which so far as many as one third of our participants have signed up for. We hope you'll consider signing up for it and sharing the information you find with us on our Facebook group.

Welcome to the Ecolympics Blog!

2010-04-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings fellow Ecolympians! If you've seen our FAQ you know what we're about. Here's a brief summary: this is the UN's International Year of Biodiversity, which, as they say here, "is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity".

“Biodiversity” refers to the diversity of plant and animal life in an ecosystem or in the world as a whole. Unfortunately, Earth’s biodiversity is now suffering losses at accelerating and historic rates due primarily to human activities. These activities include pollution, habitat loss and introduction of invasive species and the loss will be exacerbated by climate change.

So, the Ecolympics are designed as a series of fun, self-run events to help us all become aware of the human impact on our environment. They are sponsored by the College of Arts and Science's Core Curriculum here at Boston University. But anyone can participate. Our prizes are limited to present Boston University people, but we hope that wherever you are in the world, you'll sign-up and participate. In fact, we hope any participant anywhere will take our oath (at the bottom of the sign-up page) to heart and challenge friends to participate, creating their own prizes in the process.

Biodiversity loss is a global problem that, simply put, can only be bad news for humans. Scientists have catalogued some 1.5 million species and don't know how many more there are. So we are losing species before we can count them, let alone study them. By each of us exploring the repercussions of how we live our lives, how we use energy and water, how we eat and how we spend our dollars we can hopefully start reducing biodiversity loss.

Check out our resources. Send us links. Write on our Facebook wall with your thoughts, links and photos. Advertise us. It's our planet, our environment and these are our species. (Recently I saw a video that mentioned if aliens invaded and started taking or killing our species, we'd definitely fight back. Now is our chance.)

Here's a quote from E.O. Wilson's Pulitzer prizewinning book, The Diversity of Life: "[A] panda or a sequoia represents a magnitude of evolution that comes along only rarely. It takes a stroke of luck and a long period of probing, experimentation and failure. Such a creation is part of deep history and the planet does not have the means nor we the time to see it repeated."

In just under two weeks, we're going to announce, "Let the Games begin!" If you're at BU, sign-up by April 9 to qualify to win a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma. If you're beyond-BU, sign-up anyway to help us generate some buzz.

We value your participation and are excited you want to be a part of these Ecolympics.