Green business, green design and sustainability are buzz words these days. SF is even hosting The Green Festival this weekend to showcase all the ways you can lesson your carbon footprint, go organic and eat healthy for the planet, etc. I was planning to go to the Green Festival—Deepak Chopra is talking and a lot of the YogiTimes crew will be in attendance—and then I saw the news. All the talk in the world can't make the oil spill in the Bay any better...major bummer. I felt the way I did in my environmental studies classes at UCSC back in the day--where to start when things are so dire?
I was overwhelmed looking at the photos of oiled birds this a.m. but I know, with concerted effort, progress can be made. I live in a now-hip neighborhood that was a pile of rubble after the 1989 earthquake; in college, I spent summers helping the Predatory Bird Research group with falcon releases, eventually helping get peregrines off the endangered species list (there's another reason this blog is called Bird in the Tree). So this weekend, pre-show and maybe instead of the Green Festival, I'm looking into what help the Bay clean up crew needs- maybe I can help de-oil a scoter or two.
"I've seen people try to change/and I know it isn't easy" sings Norah Jones on a recent release...a line I know and understand very well. But just because change ain't easy don't mean it ain't possible!
Above and beyond ER triage for Bay cleanup, I hope those who use cars to question their transportation options today, and everyday forward. Oil barrels are moving toward the $100 mark, Gore won the Peace Prize for his pretty darn alarming environmental doc, and a lot of the sky is falling-so what else does it take to wake up?
Bike. Walk. Use Biodiesel. Take the bus. Carpool. And check out these organizations.
Save the Bay
Marine Mammal Center
San Francisco Bike Coalition
and
Ecotality
Baykeeper
2 comments:
My heart aches about those oil-covered birds—oddly more than when I hear of people getting hurt.
I keep an google alert for bird lover blogs and news and any that may be interested in the ivory-billed woodpecker. I hope this is ok.
On February 27, 2004 at about 12:30pm I got a phone call from my husband, a long time birder. He was sobbing as he said, “Norma, I saw it” with a quivering voice. I knew exactly what he was talking about. My own knees felt like jelly and my head felt faint. I had to sit down. My students looked at me and asked me “Mrs. H. is everything OK?” He told me what happened.
Bobby, would not be weeping over seeing a pileated woodpecker, after all his research he knew what he had seen. This is all happened before Cornell, before the Nature Conservancy, before the Fish & Wildlife, before there were ‘naysayers,’ and before the ‘big announcement’ by the US Department of the Interior on April 28, 2005.
Bobby and others have now established the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation, a 501(c)3, a nonprofit organization, whose mission is the continued search: to locate, document photographically, study, protect ivory-bills and to educate the general public.
On February 23, 2008 the Foundation will host its Second Annual Celebration Gala Weekend. Dr. Jerry Jackson, a noted expert on Ivory-billed Woodpeckers will be the keynote speaker. Bobby Harrison and Tim Gallagher will MC the event. In a special session on ‘How to conduct a Low Impact Search for Ivory-bills’ Bobby will show his unpublished video that he took on September 4th, 2004. Detailed information about the event is available on web site (www.ibwfound.org). I wanted to invite you.
Norma
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