Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: wili_hybrid

Hiram Warren Johnson, California’s governor between 1911 and 1917, championed for the State’s initiative, referendum and recall laws.  Johnson served as the leader of the nation’s Progressive movement until August 6, 1945, the same day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

In the past 20 years, Johnson’s legacy extended to the rise and fall of California’s 25th Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, the State’s love/hate relationship with the death penalty, the decision to make English the official language of California, and the recall of Governor Joseph Graham “Gray” Davis, Jr. in 2003.  Most recently, Johnson and the Progressive movement established the framework for Proposition 8.

Whether or not you liked Governor Davis, in many ways the decision to recall him from office revealed an unfortunate flaw in California’s political system.  At its core and without getting into the substantive issues, Proposition 8 showed the nation just how antiquated and dangerous California’s proposition system can be.  In an earlier posting on this Website, I questioned whether California had outgrown its operating instructions.  Now, I wonder if California can sustain itself and still hold tight to the 100-year old system that still houses its progressive ideals.

The principles of progressivism — the desire to remove corruption and undue influence from government, the desire to include more people in politics, and the idea that government plays a critical role in solving social inequities — are just as important today as they were during Hiram Johnson’s leadership.  The rising population of California, however (3,426,861 in 1920 and an estimated 38,000,000 in 2010), may render these noble causes obsolete.

At Compete to Conserve, we’ve been working hard since last year’s launch continually to improve our website while staying the course, eco-wise.  Well into the first month of the new year, we have been challenging our community to think hard about doing more, getting involved, and being more green.  We want our members to understand that everyone can make small changes every day that add up to create real impact, and we like to remind everyone that you don’t have to be an environmentalist to save energy and natural resources.

In today’s political climate, it is important to know that individual actions really do make a difference, especially when some of the traditional notions of progressivism seem to falter as our population grows.  That’s why we like to remind ourselves that people, not politics, will inherit the earth.  These same people — our community — can work together toward the goal of a sustainable 2009.

photo credit: Glenn Loos-Austin

This November, as families across the U.S. prepare for the button-popping holiday known as Thanksgiving, a growing number will give thanks for belonging to a CSA. CSAs, short for community supported agriculture, allow consumers to purchase fresh, in-season produce directly from a farm.

This subscription-based arrangement cuts out the middlemen (distributors and grocery stores) and provides a dependable income for the farmers. In return, consumers receive weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly boxes of fruits and vegetables, usually organic and at a better price than what one would pay for comparable produce at the market.

Thankful for a Variety

Growers can also offer a diverse selection of produce, because subscriptions give them a guaranteed market. While a typical grocery store may offer organic apples and tomatoes, a CSA box could also contain difficult-to-find foods such as organic daikon, tomatillos, and chili peppers.

Thankful for the People Who Grow Our Food

CSA members say they also enjoy developing a personal relationship with the people who grow the food they eat. Most CSAs distribute newsletters or have blog detailing their plantings, harvests, and other interesting news on the farm.

Thankful All Year Long

Some CSAs run spring through fall, offering a bounty of seasonal produce. In California, most of the CSAs operate year-round, though members should prepare to get lots of kale and dark greens through the cooler winter months. Thanksgiving can be a real treat because of the amazing sweet potatoes, butternut and acorn squashes, and colorful potato varietals.

In my experience as a member of the Eatwell Farms CSA, summer was my favorite season because of the berry fruits and unusual variety watermelons. In the winter, I have to confess, many of my dark greens went toward making vegetable stock. Still, I appreciated the variety of local, seasonal vegetables it provided the family. Without it, I may have been tempted to buy more than one box of blueberries imported from Argentina in February.

More resources:

Search for a CSA near you:
http://www.localharvest.org/

Eatwell Farm blog:
http://www.eatwellfarm.typepad.com/

Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association:
http://www.biodynamics.com/csa.html

photo credit: otisarchives3

Hospitals use a lot of energy, and not surprisingly the healthcare sector ranks second in energy intensity.  Hospitals use 836 trillion BTUs of energy annually (over 2.5 times the energy intensity and CO2 emissions of commercial office buildings), produce 28.575 million tons of CO2 and over 30 lbs of CO2 emissions per square foot on an annual basis.  It would logically follow that Hospitals have at their disposal myriad resources to make a change toward sustainability.  Regrettably, this is not the case.

While my approach in trying to make a difference and improve our environment has been deliberately non-partisan, at some point it is necessary to take a definitive stand on something, even if that “something” is mired in controversy.  Working in hospital administration these past six years, I fear that the healthcare system in California today is so dysfunctional that it borders on the edge of cataclysmic failure.  Surprisingly, this systemic problem has not received the necessary attention a crisis of such magnitude should mandate. (more…)

photo credit: pedroelnegro [ in love with dark side ]

Apple’s iPhone is the greatest invention ever.  Apple’s iPhone is destroying modern civilization as we know it. After reading an October 10, 2008, LA Times article about tech publisher Tim O’Reilly (he challenged web entrepreneurs and engineers to “get serious”), I started to think about my iPhone.

I’ve been waiting for its arrival since I started my first real job in 1995. I remember my first few years playing lawyer, going to court, scheduling future hearings, motions and trials – all with a paper calendar.  And then I would return to my office and input that very same information into some computer-based calendaring system. Even after I no longer had to calendar court hearings, my addiction to a paper-based system remained.

But this story really starts in 1988. (more…)

photo credit: insyros

Any day now, there’s going to be a really big earthquake in California.  There will also be floods in Mississippi, tornadoes in Kansas, tsunamis in Alaska and volcanoes in Hawaii.  Any day now there may also be (at least since 2001) explosions in public places, biological and/or chemical threats, and maybe even a nuclear blast.

Are you ready?:  “Are You Ready” is the title of a 206 page guide prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  Although it is generally published in book form, www.ready.gov contains PDF versions of this particular survival guide and more.  The site offers information for just about everyone, including pets.  Indeed, the “likelihood that you and your animals will survive an emergency such as a fire or flood, tornado or terrorist attach depends largely on emergency planning done today.” (more…)

photo credit: StuSeeger

This week, SustainLane released their annual ranking of city sustainability of the fifty most populous cities in the nation, with Portland, Oregon placing first, followed by San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago - each holding onto their same spots as last year.  My native city, New York City,  moved up one notch into fifth place.  Mesa, Arizona came in last.  The most improved city from the study was Columbus, Ohio, moving up to 37th from last place last year.  Las Vegas dropped the most, moving from 27th to 47th place.

Each city in this study was ranked according to the following criteria.  I’ve noted the city that ranked highest in each category:

• Air Quality (Honolulu, HI)
• City Commuting (Washington, DC)
• Energy & Climate Change (San Francisco, CA)
• Local Food/Agriculture (Minneapolis, MN)
• Green Building (Portland, OR)
• Green Economy (Portland, OR)
• Housing Affordability (San Antonio, TX)
• City Innovation (Portland, OR)
• Knowledge Base (Portland, OR)
• Metro Street Congestion (Cleveland, OH)
• Metro Transit Ridership (New York, NY)
• Natural Disaster Risk (Mesa, AZ)
• Planning/Land Use (New York, NY)
• Waste Management (San Francisco, CA)
• Tap Water Quality (Kansas City, MO)
• Water Supply (Chicago, IL)

(more…)