Wake Up Call

Ollie Bouler has evolved from her initial fundraising efforts of saving birds after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico into speaking for the environment at large.  Here is a recent animation she created, encouraging people to take action today to save our planet.

Not-So-Great South Bay

 Sludge in Orowoc Creek, Islip NY

Another reason to ban plastic bags

Parking lot garbage we picked up in five minutes

Sadly, Sandy

East Village, November 2012

This week I thought about the woman whose arms are now empty for babies 

Swept away by the storm.

I learned to listen to the stories of others.

I watched my fellow educators make sense of our lives, while reaching our students like a life raft.

I  heard about friends grandbabies pets lost dreams and a widow who clutched her husband's slippers because that's all she has left.

I watch neighbors battle the storm recovering slowly in baby steps, while comforting their children in the cold quiet darkness under dusty quilts from the attic.

Texts, calls, posts, tweets, face to face.

How are you?

Thank God we are fine.

Grateful and guilty. 

My parents under my roof, rolling meatballs and making coffee.

The inlaws, with us every step start to finish, reminding us to fill up our gas cans, remembering Katrina, Ivan, and all the others before.

Armed with canned food, extra boxes, warm coats, we battle to help, but feel helpless to give true solace for what was lost.

Over the phone, a voice bravely facing pain-- can you put me on your list to rebuild?

Dumpsters filled with a lifetime

Long lines of cars and polling booths snake through Election Tuesday

Awaiting the next storm; turn off the radio.

A collective gasp for air.air.air: a reminder that it could be our last.

On the Radio

I have a thing for the radio. Fiddling with the tuner, hearing a bit of static, adjusting the metal antenna offers a comforting nostalgia unmatched by the ipod. The idea of a radio that requires no batteries, no electric-- I swoon!! Perfect for the garden or a blackout, this handy crank and solar Eton radio also serves a flashlight and cell phone charger. And unlike the other one we tried, which will remain unnamed, this one actually holds its power long enough to finish a round of Car Talk and beyond. Get one for everyone you know!

Consumption

Check out this map of the deforestation of the US. The last graphic reveals a huge decrease in the number of forests, especially in the eastern half of the country. But what's more disturbing to me is that the last graphic reads 1926. Who knows what that map looks like now.
Here's a recent graphic of global electricity consumption:

Clearly the glow of the Northeast in the US shows just how plugged in this region is as it replaced trees with industry. The worldwide disparity of access to electric has great implications for those who don't have enough juice to power lifesaving healthcare technology, and creating access through solar panels has become a mission for groups like Power Up Gambia.
Both images reveal a culture that devours everything in its path, fueled by its own consumption, until it extinguishes every last resource. No wonder Godzilla is mad as hell.

Life Out of Balance

In the late 1950's, biologist and author of Silent Spring Rachel Carson warned of how man, in his quest for profit, disrupts the harmony of nature which had been developed over eons. The result, the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems. In 1983, the film Koyaanisqatsi used visual imagery and Philip Glass's music to tell the epic story of man versus nature.
But this year, a group of artists at the Noguchi Museum in Queens decided use their imaginations to offer their own suggestions to help nature adapt to urbanization and habitat loss. The exhibition, Civic Action: A Vision for Long Island City, looks at ways to improve environmental health by using an urban farming system for railings, double-hung windows; greening “no parking zones”; building bridges for butterflies and superhighways for salamanders; and repaving Broadway from the N/Q subway station to Socrates Sculpture Park with drivable grass.
Perhaps it's the artists who will lead an environmental renaissance after all.

Costa Rica: The Video

Good Morning, Irene

I am fortunate to have spent the morning only cleaning the yard of debris from the storm. Many of my friends were not so lucky. Pamela called, on the road with coolers full of food, reporting that the North Fork of Long Island looked like a war zone. Erika, stranded at her house on a mountain in Vermont, texted that all the roads had washed away. Michelle posted pics of 9W in Coxsackie, now underwater. Hurricane Irene's path of destruction was far reaching.
I'd get on my soapbox right about now, but it blew away with the high winds. Instead I'll simply say that climate change is something to take seriously. As the oceans increase in temperature and more ice become water, those once-in-a-lifetime storms may become more regular events. One only needs to look to Hurricane Katrina to see our hand in altering the environment, whose impact was worse due to the loss of wetlands on the Gulf Coast. Perhaps we Americans should consider that before we dismantle important governmental agencies which regulate and protect our natural habitat. What's that expression about an ounce of prevention? Or is it cutting off our nose to spite our face?

Lessons from Costa Rica

Must everything come down to dollars and cents? In a super-capitalistic society, I suppose we could reduce everything, even preserving the environment, into a commodity. With the crash of US economic markets and looming governmental budget cuts setting the stage for the dismantling of environmental regulation, it was heartening to see the New York Times article today about the cost effectiveness of maintaining biodiversity and other natural resources. Holding up Costa Rica as a model, a country known for its investment in national parks, the article cites their Payment for Environmental Services program, where land owners are paid to maintain native forest instead of cutting. In curtailing deforestation, Costa Rica serves as a model for the rest of the world and is the reason for their thriving eco-tourism. Having just returned from Four Seasons Resort in Costa Rica and visiting the Palo Verde rainforest, I can say that preserving the environment can be financially beneficial. The concept reminded me of a conversation our family had with Congressman Steve Israel in March. He spoke of securing money for restoring the Long Island Sound, helping to make commercial fishing a profitable profession again, only to see funding disappear. Some would say the program was big government waste, but others might see it as serving two purposes-- both economically and environmentally. With our current Congressional gridlock, perhaps we should take a look at Costa Rica's forward-thinking environmental plans and adopt them as our own.

The Cost of Green Lawns

What's with the lawns, people? Scotts is developing a genetically modified bluegrass for golf courses, and we all know it's a matter of time before it makes its way to homes across America. Not regulated by the agriculture department or the EPA, we all can write the next line of this story--- INVASIVE SPECIES! Like kudzoo's march through the South, we'll then be scrambling to contain the grass at considerable cost financially and environmentally.
Our obsession with a green lawn borders on insanity. Pesticide use for grass is off the charts, especially on Long Island, where run-off and aquifers are of scant concern in light of the lure of a lawn. Then teams of fossil-fuel burning lawn mowers and leaf blowers plow through our neighborhoods, all for a crop that feeds no one, not even birds, which is then watered with a precious resource: drinkable water.
So here's my proposal-- Charge a HUGE tax on pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Encourage people to appreciate natural looking lawns, to plant native plants to feed animals, or to cultivate crops to feed people.

July 4th: Power Off!

Most of us spend 4th of July outside with loved ones, enjoying an ear of corn on the cob and a slice of watermelon to celebrate our freedoms. Meanwhile inside our homes sit humming cable boxes, always at the ready. Last week, the NYT cited cable boxes as our nation's number one energy drain: not refrigerators, not lights, but cable boxes, which often sit unused for great percentages of the day. My cable company gave me three boxes as part of my package, and I can say there are two that sit there in the 'off' position for days on end, simply functioning as clocks. The Times reports that even in the off position, these boxes still pull tremendous amounts of energy. True, they could have been made to be more efficient by cable companies, much like their European counterparts, but no, US companies didn't think to do that, assuming the American consumer wouldn't tolerate waiting for their box to boot up as their computer does. Instead, the boxes suck energy, driving us to consume more resources for no real reason. Why does it require government regulation to get companies to do the right thing? If and when the government says, hey, wait a minute cable folks, we did away with antenna broadcast airwaves, at LEAST make these boxes energy efficient, the corporations will cry, oh no we hate big government, we can regulate ourselves, and now we'll have to charge more to our customers to redesign and replace these boxes which now need to be tossed in the landfill. What, the cable company didn't know there was an energy crisis? Must have been watching the Casey Anthony trial that day.
Anyway, for my patriotic duty, I have put my cable boxes on power strips and off they go-- freedom from consumption.

Corn: America's Hidden Threat

Corn-- a gift from the Native Americans, now an insidious blight on American society. Ok I exaggerate, but the impact the corn industry has had on our country is one many people haven't even considered. From the billions of dollars in subsidizes the industry received for decades, to Iowa Caucus opening the presidential elections, to corn syrup infiltrating our food, the corn lobby has clearly asserted its power. The environmental damage to soil created by the corn superfarms combined with the cuts to federal conservation programs and regulations could spell disaster not unlike the Dust Bowl of the 1930's.

Japan: Our Prayers

As yet another natural disaster rips apart a different region of the globe, it gives us pause to reflect on our fragile existance. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic ash, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blizzards-- the past year is evidence that few are left unscathed by Nature's wrath. Add on man-made disasters-- radiation leaks, oil spills, water contamination-- and it becomes clear that our ecology needs to be a top priority if we are to survive. Our prayers this morning are with the Japanese people. May we all find ways to help them recover.

Tongass: A National Treasure

As Olivia and James head off to the US Wildlife and Fisheries conference in Baltimore, the federal budget battle rages on in Washington DC. I am aghast at some of the suggestions. Do away with the EPA? I don't even know what to say to that kind of idea, especially when lax regulation paved the way for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Continue subsidising the oil industry? C'mon people, you can't be serious.
Meanwhile, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's winter publication of LIVING BIRD proposed a great way to save the government $30 million dollars. Stop subsidizing the logging of old-growth forest in Tongass, Alaska. This 17 million acre national forest is home to a beautiful and ancient ecosystem that once lost, cannot be replaced. Now why didn't Congress think of that?

(Re)Recycling

Jericho High School had established a water bottle recycling program several years ago; however the program was discontinued in September. Unfortunately our recycling bins weren't distinct enough from our garbage cans, causing too many food scraps to make their way into the bins. Although more and more students are using reusable stainless bottles, many are still reliant on plastic water bottles. Here is a pic of discarded water bottles on stage after middle school graduation.

With 52,000 water bottles sold annually through our school cafeteria, not to mention the scores of bottles brought in via backpacks, the Senior Experience class made restarting the recycling program our number one priority. Thanks to the fundraising efforts of several clubs, the input of East Coast Recycling and the Eco Action Network, and the support of our district's administration, it looks as if we'll make our March 4th deadline, just in time for a pep rally kick-off event. The students are planning a multimedia campaign to educate our student population on both the need for and the method of proper recycling. While some students were shooting a video, others reused the backs of Bouler Architecture blueprints to make 'coming soon' signs. Their enthusiasm for getting this eco-friendly project off the ground was contagious. As I walked out of the room with Tim, a student who plans to become a chef, he looked out at the snow-filled courtyard and asked if he could turn part of it into an organic garden with a compost. Absolutely!

In Life As In Literature

What can be said about the toxic sludge oozing across Eastern Europe? Yet another man-made, ecological disaster. It happens as I am about to begin teaching Enemy of the People, the Henrik Ibsen play where a whistleblowing scientist is ostracized from his community for trying to reveal that the local spring water is contaminated. Written in 1882, it's a cautionary play warning us about the battle between public safety and the bottom line, and how the majority is too easily swayed to know the difference.

Losing the Green War

Crab swimming in oil tar balls in Orange Beach, Alabama: photo by James Bouler

How can this be? On the cover of this Sunday's New York Times, Abu Dhabi sets a goal of a zero-carbon footprint city in 2007 and builds it. The week before, NYT columnist Thomas Friedman describes how China has transformed its factories to manufacture clean-tech products. Meanwhile, our Senate can't pass clean energy legistation-- even with the oil spill in recent memory. Despite the $300 million invested by the oil industry in lobbying our legislators, I still had hopes that this issue wouldn't be reduced to the usual 'us vs. them' mentality and get tangled in gridlock. I hoped that with so much hanging in the balance-- manufacturing jobs, national security, and the ecology-- our representatives would see it in our nation's best interests to move the issue, but alas with midterm elections upon us, once again setting appropriate incentives to move the US off oil will have to wait again. One can only wonder if we can afford the cost of waiting while others pass us by.

Studio Time Continues

Sunday's New York Times ran a cover story about the volitility of weather patterns these days-- the flood in Pakistan being another in a long list of natural disasters this year.
It's something I had been working through myself in my Angry Landscape series, where the landscape strikes back against humanity. Not unlike the mutant Godzilla, nature can only put up with so much, and I was sad to see our hand in disrupting the balance of nature once again. With these ideas in mind, it became a productive weekend in the studio. Setting up on the screened in porch at Potic Cottage, malm stove burning to ward off the dampness of the torrential thunderstorms which passed through the Hudson Valley all weekend, I was able to work through some Angry Landscapes in preparation for the Ripe Art Gallery show in December. The more finished paintings are oil on paper-- an odd combination I know, but I love the way the oil is absorbed into the thick paper. It gives a richness that gouache, which I use for the collages, simply lacks. The top image, titled Evergreen Terrace, is loosely based on my childhood house which was situated across the street from an envelope factory which was dumping glue into the ground in tubs. Needless to say we were on well water, and my parents became the whistleblowers who ended this practice. With the ground safe from toxins, I wonder if the evergreens ever returned. Meanwhile, let's hope Nature's balance can be set right before she gets too angry.

Zero Energy House

I'm guest blogging today on Bouler Design while Nadine is in the Gulf viewing the devastating effects of the oil-spill first hand. Her daughter Olivia has been walking the walk since April when a broken oil pipe allowed thousands of gallons of oil a day to gush into the sea, threatening the fragile eco-system. But Bouler Architecture has put sustainable building at the core of its philosophy since they started business. The zero-energy house at Oak Beach on Long Island is a great example how we can build smarter, not just to reduce our use of fossil fuels but to actually produce more energy than we consume.

For the architect, James Bouler and his client Jill Korman, efficient design was key. They sought to maximize the potential of the site for solar power by demolishing 50% of an existing structure and rebuilding using a geothermal pump, photovoltaic solar panels, an EDPM white roof, energy performance rated windows and Icynene insulation. The house has been finished for a year and has exceeded all expectations, producing more energy than it used and earning it the highest energy-rating on Long Island.
Jill's brief to the architect was simple: build me a comfortable house that is considerate of the planet using as few resources as possible - and Bouler Architecture delivered this functional and aesthetically pleasing design.


10 kw solar panels capture the strong South Shore sun; even in winter the house is energy efficient.


Careful placement of the roof lines and windows allows for passive solar heating and cooling, blocking the summer sun but allowing the sun's rays to heat the poured concrete floors.


Before the geothermal pump was hooked up and the radiant heating started this still kept the house a comfortable 60F in winter.


The angle of the windows in the barrel roof shades the sun, while the clerestory windows on the north side allow for ambient light


Salvaged and reclaimed wood from the original beach cottage was reused throughout the house - either decoratively as in this stair post, for framing the new house or as scrap lumber.

The Oak Beach house is a model for the implementation of green technology and great sustainable design, an irrefutable argument for environmentally-responsible building - modernemama

Banding Birds

One of Olivia's dreams was to band a bird, so we jumped at the chance for her to band one of her favorite birds, the barn owl. Don Riepe, director of the northeast chapter of the American Littoral Society, invited Olivia to join his group in banding barn owls in Jamaica Bay, Queens, and boy, did she have an adventure. After a few attempts to locate the sleeping birds, the fourth try struck gold, and Olivia was able to observe the beautiful birds up close as they were banded for tracking purposes.