Permafrost Methane

This isn't a new topic but it is new to Enviro-Sustain as a dangerous element of climate change. Here is an article I read today but I saw a different article earlier this week and read at the time but can't find now. Basically, as global temperatures rise more arctic permafrost land is thawing, with that methane is released. As the methane is released it compounds the greenhouse gas aspect that is pushing temperatures higher in a literal vicious circle.

This is pretty much how it works: "As the Earth warms, the summer thaw bites a bit deeper, awakening ice-age microbes that attack organic matter – vegetation and animal remains – buried where oxygen cannot reach, producing methane that gurgles to the surface and into the air."

Just another thing to keep up with in this world of environmental and sustainability issues.

More Ecological Footprint

I have a great interactive visual from The Global Footprint Network that provides a country by country view at different aspects of how the ecological footprint of humans is.

Tigers - Extinct? Soon...

Generally my posts are about websites, larger environmental issues or living sustainably and environmentally consciously. This post is about a different sustainability issue - poaching endangered species, which often get to be endangered because their hunting is not done sustainably.

Here is an article about the poaching of tigers and their precipitous drop in populations and ranges over recent years. Last year5% of the wild tiger population was killed, meaning at that rate it would be less than 20 years for extinction of all tiger species.

I learned a lot from this article and I recommend that you read it but an example of something I didn't know was that tigers were once found in 25 countries and now only in 13 countries and that their populations have declined from an estimated 100,000 100 years ago to about 3200 in the wild today.

Behind on Posting

I am woefully behind posting to this blog but I haven't given up! I have several topics at any given time that I want to post about, sometimes they end up being larger than I want them to be and need to be pruned, sometimes I am fighting for time in my life to squeeze them in and sometimes I just post to the less serious blogs that I maintain.

Since this is a post about being behind on posting it gives me the perfect opportunity to share that Earth went into overshoot just over 3 months ago. Some of the blog readers who have followed from the beginning will understand what overshoot is and here is a post from mid-may about it.

We went into overshoot on August 21, 2010!!! Yes, that is correct, Earth Overshoot Day moved more than a month ahead of when it was in 2009! That is a startling change! Here is a link to the Global Footprint Network news release about that.

Earthshare

Earthshare.org is a website that maintains a focus on presenting work-place giving options that then have donations go to "the most respected and responsible environmental and conservation organizations in America."

In addition to that, they also have information on their site about the issues, getting involved and news & media. An interesting part of the site was their quiz section, with numerous quizzes and answers. I signed up for their email newsletter while I visited the site.

Cedar Grove Compost

Hello, It has felt like I have been neglecting Enviro-Sustain lately without meeting my goal of 5+ posts in a given week in quite some time. I have actually been reading the same amount and accumulating great topics and websites for posts but I haven't had time to post them. On average Enviro-Sustain posts take longer than posts for all of my other blogs as this is often a new topic and there is more material to share.

Since that excuse-fest is now over I can post about Cedar Grove Composting.

I was inspired to post about Cedar Grove as there was a piece in a newsletter put out by Seattle Utilities. This had a coupon for a free foll of compostable kitchen bags, which I didn't buy before it expired but did think about. I am not sure how to best post about this website as there is a wealth of composting information on the site. I guess I will begin by sharing a few links to their site. Here is a pretty helpful link - they have a youtube channel with videos about how to compost. Since 1989 Cedar Grove has diverted over 4 million tons of organic material from landfills. They offer a number of products for sale from mulch to soil amendments and blends to composting kits/supplies. Really this only scratches the surface of what is available on their site so it is definitely worth having a look through some time.

Out of This World!

So how would space travel be something for Enviro-Sustain? Well I was looking through a World Changing article from a week ago and I think it definitely fits here. The article I read is titled - Space Tourism, Climate Change and the Need for Sustainable Space Exploration. This brief piece was mostly about another article from the journal Nature. This just highlights that there is more to think about than sorting our recycling, composting, saving forests and natural space, developing renewable energy and all of the other terrestrial aspects of building a sustainable future.

Sustainable Las Vegas?

You may be wondering what is wrong with that title? Do those words go together at all? For Las Vegas Sands, the company that owns the Venetian and Palazzo hotels with over 7000 combined hotel rooms it does mean something. This morning I read an article from a weekly gaming email I have received for over 9 years now, the Casino City Times. The article is titled Top-10 Ways Las Vegas Sands is Going Green.

No picture in this post but here are a couple of cool stats from the piece. The combined building space of the two hotels and the Sands Expo Center total over 17 million square feet of space making this the largest LEED certified "green" building in the world! WOW, that is pretty cool.

They also have some other very cool ways that they are going green like having their own energy efficient light bulbs designed. What? Yes, they weren't satisfied with the existing energy efficient light bulbs so they designed new ones to meet their needs. Who does that?

OK, overall I thought it was a fun article.

State of the Future

If anyone needs something to do tomorrow night, this event The State of the Future sounds interesting. It is a meeting/presentation from the executive editor of WorldChanging. I saw this in their newsletter and for one time I am ahead of the date of an event.

Water Shortages - Possibly?

I read an article today about metropolitan areas across the US that may have water shortages in the future due to a number of factors. It isn't a long article so I won't summarize it here but here are the top three areas that are at risk.

#3 - Phoenix
#2 - Houston
#1 - Los Angeles

Some of the others in the top 10 are not ones you would automatically expect like Orlando (#10).