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Green Tip of the Week
Saving water while washing dishes is both important and easy, as long as we keep to the big picture. The best method is a matter of opinion, but for the non-zealots, here are three tips:
1. If you have a modern Energy Star dishwasher, use it! Don't pre-rinse
excessively, and try to run full loads, but that dishwasher is more
efficient than the majority of people who hand wash.
2. If you hand wash, use separate sinks or bowls of soapy and rinse
water. Rinse again with cold running water, and never leave the faucet
running while you scrub.
3. If you have an old, inefficient dishwasher, think about saving up for
a new one. A modern bottom-of-the-line unit uses much less water (and
probably cleans better) than a higher quality old one.
Correction
The last edition of the Almanac erroneously stated that only
7,000 cubic meters of ice remained in the Arctic Ocean at the end of
summer in 2012, down from 13,000 eight years ago. The correct unit for
both numbers is cubic kilometers, which is quite a bit more ice (a
billion times more, actually).
Conservation Calendar
Seashore Discovery
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown.
Meet creatures of the sea including crabs, whelks and scallops. Cost is
$9 or $6 for Mass Audubon members; free for kids under three.
Toddler Time
Wednesdays, 10:00 am to noon, Native Earth Teaching Farm, Chilmark.
Wednesday mornings at Native Earth are Toddler Time, where toddlers and
their adults can meet and play in a fun and unfettered environment.
Suggested donation of $10. For more info call 508-645-3304 or see website.
Guided Birding Tours
Saturdays, 9:00 to 11:30 am, starting at MV Reg. High School.
Visit birding hot spots with your guide Robert Culbert. Carpool will
depart from the high school faculty parking lot at 9:00. Cost is $30 per
adult, $15 for under 18. For more details, call 508-693-4908.
West Tisbury Farmer's Market
Saturdays, 9:00 to noon at the Grange Hall, West Tisbury.
Fresh picked produce from local farms, flowers, delicious baked goods
and prepared foods from Island kitchens and more. For more info, see new website.
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Local News
Last Call at the Oasis
Time's running out . . . (click for movie poster)
Join VCS and the MV Film Society this Friday (Sept. 7) at 4:30 at the
Capawock Theater in Vineyard Haven for the next film in our "Green on
Screen" collaboration. Last Call at the Oasis, by Jessica Yu,
examines the present problems and future shortages of “the single most
necessary element for any of us to sustain and live and thrive.” For
tickets, and to watch the trailer, see the MVFS festival website.
From the film's website:
Developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, the
company responsible for AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC. and WAITING
FOR “SUPERMAN”, LAST CALL AT THE OASIS presents a powerful argument for
why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world
this century. Illuminating the vital role water plays in our lives,
exposing the defects in the current system and depicting communities
already struggling with its ill-effects, the film features activist Erin
Brockovich and such distinguished experts as Peter Gleick, Alex
Prud’homme, Jay Famiglietti and Robert Glennon.
Warmer Oceans No Picnic for Fish
In the sixth installment of her series on climate change (originally published in the Vineyard Gazette), Liz Durkee describes the impact of rising ocean temperatures on fish and the fishing business:
“The sad fact is that humans are
responsible for disrupting the finely-tuned ocean and land-based
ecosystems that sustain us. We didn’t foresee this when fossil fuel
consumption charged the Industrial Revolution. Now we know. Now we can
choose to buy local seafood and boycott species that are at risk.”
Other News
The Sound of Silence
In addition to their bright colors, healthy reefs produce a cacophony of sounds, if you know how to listen for them. (photo by Martin Strmko)
For more than 40 years, musician Bernie Krause has been recording the
sounds of nature for use in his electronic compositions. Many of these
recordings now represent valuable archives of sounds that can no longer
be replicated, at least not easily, or in their original habitats. For
example, recordings from damaged and dying coral reefs are much quieter
than those from healthy sections of the same reef.
From Krause, as quoted in an The Guardian:
"A great silence is spreading over the
natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening. Little by
little the vast orchestra of life, the chorus of the natural world, is
in the process of being quietened. . . . The sense of desolation extends
beyond mere silence."
To read more, and hear some of his sounds, click over to the article. |
