Posts tagged pollution
Polluters, politicians run a foul of Moms Clean Air Force
Feb 1st
Julianne Moore Stars in New Video Calling on Mothers To Join the “Moms Clean Air Force”
Actress Asks Mothers to Tell Washington to Stand Up for Clean Air,
Not Protect the Utility and Coal Industries
Washington, DC – Actress and mother Julianne Moore today released a new video calling on parents to join the fight against toxic air pollution. In the video, which endorses a nonpartisan grassroots group called the Moms Clean Air Force, Moore appears along with the heroine of her popular children’s books, Freckleface Strawberry.
Moms are becoming a powerful force in American politics. They are telling Washington that they will not allow their children’s health to be compromised by dirty fossil fuel power plants, the single largest source of pollution in the U.S. The Moms Clean Air Force is a growing community of tens of thousands of moms— from all across the political spectrum and all across the country—uniting to make their voices heard to protect their children’s health.
“Clean air should be above politics,” Moore said. “The discussion about regulations to protect our air has gotten so polarized that we have forgotten an important thing: We all breathe the same air. And all our children suffer because of pollution. We don’t have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We can have both. We can have what’s best for all our children.”
President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law in 1970 with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans; however, the law is now under dangerous political attack. The new mercury and air toxics standards signed in December, after 21 years of planning, are already under political attack, with some politicians in Congress and lobbyists for the utility and coal industries calling to annul it or defund the Environmental Protection Agency.
Responding to this threat, Moms Clean Air Force is bringing parents together in support of a simple idea: That every child has the right to breathe clean air.
Moore became interested in MCAF after Dominque Browning, the group’s Co-Founder and Senior Director and former Editor-in-Chief of House & Garden, contacted her last summer. “I wrote to Julianne, knowing she is a protective mom, asking her if she would help us spread the word about the connection between toxic—and invisible—air pollution and children’s health, and she responded immediately,” Browning said. “Julianne joins a Force of thousands of mothers with real concerns about mercury poisoning, asthma, behavioral issues, and host of other problems associated with polluted air. Together we are determined to clear the air and protect the health of our children and loved ones.”
Moms Clean Air Force is a coalition of mothers including Blythe Danner, Laila Ali, and Jessica Capshaw, and partner groups such as Healthy Child, Healthy World, Treehugger, Green for All, Asthma Moms, Latism (Latinos in Social Media), Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (ANHE), Care2, BlogHer, and Clever Girls Collective.
CU-BOULDER’S NEWEST RESIDENCE HALL SHOWCASES SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Aug 16th
The University of Colorado Boulder’s newest residence hall, Williams Village North, is welcoming students this week for the first time, many of whom will be learning about the building’s sustainable design through two new Residential Academic Programs, or RAPs, that are housed in the residence hall.
The RAPs, “Sustainable by Design” and “Social Entrepreneurship for Equitable Development and Sustainability,” or SEEDS, will allow students to use the building as a living and learning laboratory.
CU-Boulder now has 12 campus RAPs that allow students to live and learn together in the same residence hall with other students who have shared interests. The RAP programs are designed to introduce students to faculty and to allow them to take selected courses and to participate in educational and social events — allwithin their residence hall.
“One of our main objectives with the SEEDS RAP is to bring students from different academic backgrounds together and have them work together to learn about sustainability,” said Professor Susan Clarke, faculty director of the SEEDS RAP. “Figuring out how to solve problems coming from different disciplines is what we want the students to take from this program.”
Professor Joann Silverstein of the College of Engineering and Applied Science is the faculty director of the Sustainable by Design RAP.
As an introduction, students from both new RAPs are required to take a course titled “Social Innovation and Design for Sustainable Communities,” which highlights the multidisciplinary aspect of the programs. Architecture Assistant Professor Matthew Jelacic will serve as the faculty in residence for both of the RAPs, and he will be one of the professors team teaching the course.
The course is centered on the concepts of design, innovation and sustainability, and uses the concept of design to bridge engineering and social science domains, according to Jelacic.
“My hope for this course is that it helps prepare students to work on solving the complex local-to-global problems faced in the world today such as environmental pollution, sustainable resources, energy scarcity, hunger and socio-economic disparities,” Jelacic said.
The RAPs also will have an annual theme, and this year they are focusing on food.
“The issue of sustainability is not a straight forward concept,” Clarke said. “Sustainable food production is a very difficult problem to solve, but it is also something that students can relate to and learn about with a hands-on approach.”
Throughout the school year, local chefs, farmers and others involved in sustainable food production will visit Williams Village North to share their experiences with the students. And since the new residence hall has its own kitchen stocked with energy-efficient appliances, students also will get to sample some recipes made from locally produced food.
“Having vibrant sustainability entrepreneurs in Boulder is a real bonus to our program because it shows our students the value in what they are learning,” Clarke said. “There are numerous opportunities available to graduates who can apply sustainability to real-world problems like food production.”
Built to a high Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standard, the Williams Village North building has numerous sustainability features. In addition to the usual sustainable items such as efficient lighting and water fixtures and appliances, the facility also includes energy-efficient lighting with windows that maximize daylight use, occupancy sensor lighting, advanced heating andcooling systems with automatic controls and native landscaping.
Additionally, more than 50 percent of all of the construction waste was diverted from thelandfill. The building also is on track to be the first LEED Platinum building on campus.
“Compared to a building of the same size that wasn’t constructed with these sustainability features, Williams Village North is expected to use about 39 percent less energy,” said Heidi Roge, building project manager from CU-Boulder’s Housing and Dining Services department. “This translates into more than $220,000 in annual utility savings.”
The $46.5 million residence hall includes 131,246 gross square feet, 500 beds, five classrooms, one faculty apartment, a residence hall director apartment, a great room/lobby and study spaces on each floor. Construction on the residence hall began in January 2010.
The total cost of the residence hall has been financed through bonds taken out by thecampus Housing and Dining Services department. The bonds will be repaid through revenue generated by the 500 additional beds.
Additional building features include:
— Solar-heated water
— On-site solar photovoltaic renewable energy on the carport at Bear Creek Apartments
— Covered bike parking
— Phantom load switches
— Light emitting diode, or LED, lighting
— Building materials and construction maximized by the use of regional, high recycle content and low Volatile Organic Compound, or VOC, materials
— Storm water diverters for roof drainage to provide irrigation to landscaping
— Energy Star appliances
Bag Monster
Jun 28th
The Bag Monster talks to us, at the Boulder Creek Festival, about the pollution of single use plastic bags and how we can help prevent from using these bags that take a very long time to biodegrade.
