ShelterBox Kits to Offer Sustained Relief in Japan

From Earth911.com:

A week after a giant earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, relief workers are turning their focus from search and rescue to helping displaced survivors – and that’s where ShelterBox comes in.

The UK-based charity, which dispatched an international team to Tokyo immediately after the disaster struck, now has about 500 of its emergency aid kits on the ground in Japan, another 400 en route and 5,000 on stand-by. The team is working to distribute the kits in the country’s worst affected areas on the northern coast.

Food and medicine are of course critical after such a disaster, but what’s unique – and sustainable – about ShelterBox is its focus on longer-term shelter and self-sufficiency in the weeks and months that follow.

Each heavy-duty box is packed for a specific emergency, but generally contains:

• Tent designed to hold 10 people and withstand extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall and high winds up to one year; it also includes privacy partitions to divide space as needed
• Thermal blankets and insulated ground sheets
• Water filtration system good for three years, plus water storage containers
• Tool kit with an ax, hammer, saw, shovel, pliers, wire cutter for building latrines, chopping firewood and eventually home repairs
• Steel stove that can burn wood or any other fuel, plus steel pans, cooking and eating utensils, bowls and mugs
• Children’s pack with coloring books and crayons

“These materials are used over and over,” says Tiffany Stephenson of Shelterbox USA, one of the organization’s 18 affiliates.

“Last year, a team returned to Mexico three years after a disaster there and a family was still using the box.”

ShelterBox’s custom tent, by manufactuer Vengo, is redesigned every year for durability, Stephenson adds. “People are living in them every single day; these are not your camping trip tents.”

The stove, which the agency’s website notes can even burn paint, is also crucial in this sense, she points out. “It helps families feed themselves without having to wait for the next handout.”

Such delays can be the difference between life and death.

“It’s extremely cold here and we are hearing reports of people having to sleep in their cars while evacuation centers remain full and overcrowded,” ShelterBox international director Lasse Petersen told NPR. “We’re committed to doing everything we can to help Japan’s people at this extremely testing time.”

 

 

 

Aerotropolis Atlanta to feature Georgia's largest solar plant

As a resident of Atlanta, it always pleases me to see my city embrace green initiatives. One of Atlanta's prominent developers, Jacoby Development, is in the process of creating a new office, hotel and retail space that will incorporate solar canopies over 30 acres of airport parking at the Hartsfield-Jackson Int'l Airport. These solar canopies will provide power to the $1.5 billion project spanning 100 acres. See an excerpt of the story below from the Green Building Chronicle:

An abandoned Ford assembly plant site near Atlanta’s airport could soon become the largest clean energy producer — by far — in the state of Georgia.

With a capacity of up to 10 megawatts, the arrays would generate nearly 10 times the amount of electricity of any other solar project planned in the state — and more than 20 times the amount of any existing facility.

The solar arrays would serve as roofs for 30 acres of airport parking that represent the first of Jacoby Development’s planned Aerotropolis Atlanta project.

The solar project isn’t yet under construction, but Jacoby Development has already secured a power-purchase agreement with a “local utility” to buy up to 10 megawatts of electricity from Aerotropolis. The 10 megawatts represent one-third of the entire needs of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Go here to read the full story on the Green Building Chronicle.

EcoSense for Living TV series premieres in Georgia during Earth month

Jennie Turner Garlington, Creator and Executive Producer of EcoSense for Living

EcoSense for Living exposes everyday tips and topics to simultaneously save money and the environment. Episodes will premiere in Georgia during Earth Month and are slotted for Tuesdays April 5, April 12, April 19 and April 26 at 7:30 pm on GPB.

An excerpt from the show's creator and executive producer, Jennie Garlington:

“People think being green means spending more money,” Jennie said. “Our series reflects the opposite. There are ways – lots of them – to save money while helping the environment. In EcoSense for Living we have created an outlet to communicate to everyone just how easy it is to save money and to join in saving our resources for our children, whether you are a single homeowner, a huge corporate entity or an elementary school student. It’s all about saving our world for the generations to come and I can’t think of a better time to spread the word in Georgia than during Earth Month.”

EcoSense for Living: Episode 1, will premiere on GPB Tuesday, April 5 at 7:30 pm.

EcoSense for Living: Children & Nature, episode 2, profiles the importance of getting children outside and more involved in nature. Richard Louv identifies the phenomenon of dwindling exposure to nature as “nature deficit disorder” in his book “Last Child in the Woods.” Louv is interviewed in this episode which will premiere on GPB Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 pm.

EcoSense for Living: Green Jobs, episode 3, explores how corporations large and small are making a difference in America with green jobs. The Louisiana Green Corps, a small pizza place called Pizza Fusion, and Coca-Cola’s Spartanburg plant, a model of sustainability and material recovery, are all profiled in this episode. It will premiere on GPB Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 pm.

The newest episode, EcoSense for Living: Green Buildings, profiles homes, a school and even Atlanta’s Phillips Arena to illustrate how energy efficient buildings reduce our carbon footprint in remarkable ways. Phillips Arena was retrofitted with energy efficient systems and it now uses 21% less electricity than other arenas of similar size. This episode also profiles Arabia Mountain High School which focuses on environmental learning throughout its curricula using Promethean boards (to reduce paper and enhance learning), outdoor classrooms, and even energy- and water-efficient rest rooms. Green Buildings compares modular, new, completely green homes to modified older homes with energy efficient systems and opens by touring the Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC for a glimpse of the cutting edge green building designs being developed across the globe. Sponsored by the Department of Energy, the Decathlon is a competition showcasing design and designers, many of them college students, from Germany to California. Episode 4 will premiere on GPB Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 pm.

Watch GPB on these nine stations across Georgia: Atlanta – Channel 8.1; Albany - WABW/14.1, Augusta - WCES/20.1, Chatsworth - WCLP/18.1, Columbus - WJSP/28.1, Dawson - WACS/25.1, Macon - WMUM/29.1, Savannah - WVAN/9.1, Waycross - WXGA/8.1. www.gpb.org

You know I'll be tuning in! For those of you not in GA, don't worry...I'll recap each episode here on my blog. Stay tuned!

 

"Vegan Revolution" story on CNN

Vegan 101: Tips to help you survive the week long Vegan challenge

Ok, so now that I have my ladies all in to join me on my odyssey to healthy living, I need to become the provider of information to help them succeed! I already know that they're not going to do the research, so let me taylor my approach to each of them in a way to make the challenge more appealing.

Take for instance Miss Silverspoon Vanderwooden, who's always going about the town - living the fabulous life of dining out, going to parties and charity events - places where she can be seen. Expecting her to cook every night will definitely set her up to fail, so I'm providing a list of Vegan restaurants around Atlanta that she can run to for refuge: VegDining.com. Who knew that there are 88 vegan restaurants in Atlanta!

The Female Fatale Fitness Bootcamper likes to mix things up in the kitchen and actually enjoys cooking! So to give her some recipe ideas, there's Vegan Lunchbox, Dinner with Dilip, or Post Punk Kitchen for blogs that teach people about Vegan cooking.

The Quickwitted Office Assassionator and the Lazy Greek Goddess will almost immediately try to find a reason to drop out of this challenge, so I'll use sweets to try to keep them interested by sending them over to My Sweet Vegan for dessert ideas.

We all love wine, but pairing vegan food with wine may be challenging for those who rely on the standard of "white with seafood and red with meat." Read this article for ways to compliment your healthy vegan diet with a glass of wine or this blog entry for specific pairings of wine and vegan food.

See you at the finish line ladies,

XOXO

 

 

 

 

Going Vegan...for a week at least!

So the other night, I caught a show on Oprah where she challenged her staff to go Vegan for a week. I've always been curious about Vegans and their lifestyle...but not in a way that made me want to join the cause. It seemed like the staffers who took the challenge seriously saw a significant change in the way that they felt and one even lost 11 pounds. So with this in mind...I've decided to start my own challenge and pull in some of my friends and co-workers to see 1. Who's bold enough to try it for a week, and 2. As sort of a funny experiment to see who would fail miserably and who would actually take this Vegan challenge serious. I tried recruiting my family, friends and co-workers - but only a few brave ones stepped up to take this challenge on:

1. Miss Silverspoon Vanderwoodsen

2. The Female Fatale Fitness Bootcamper

3. The Lazy Greek Goddess

4. The Quickwitted Office Assinater

5. Myself of course - The Eco-Diva Extraordinaire!

I'm already putting my bets on whose going to bail out first. This shall be a very interesting experiment indeed! The challenge starts on Monday...so ladies, put on your game face because it's on!!!

XOXO

Petition: Ask Peru's President to Protect Uncontacted Tribes

All of these peoples face terrible threats – to their land, livelihoods and, ultimately, their lives. If nothing is done, they are likely to disappear entirely.

Uncontacted tribes are extremely vulnerable to any form of contact with outsiders because they do not have immunity to Western diseases.

International law recognises the Indians’ land as theirs, just as it recognises their right to live on it as they want to.

Following first contact, it is common for more than 50% of a tribe to die. Sometimes all of them perish. That law is not being respected by the Peruvian government or the companies who are invading tribal land.

What can we do about it?
Survival is urging the Peruvian government to protect these isolated Indians by not allowing any oil exploration, logging or other form of natural resource extraction on their land.

The government must recognise the Indians as the owners of their land.

After a Survival campaign in the 1990s, in collaboration with local indigenous organisation FENAMAD, the oil company Mobil pulled out of an area inhabited by uncontacted tribes in south-east Peru.

Please help us fight for the rights of the world’s most vulnerable peoples.

Act now to help the Uncontacted Indians of Peru
Your efforts are crucial in defending the Uncontacted Tribes. Get involved in this urgent effort in the following ways.

•Writing a letter to the Peruvian government can make a real difference.
•Donate to the Uncontacted Indians campaign (and other Survival campaigns).
•Write to your MP or MEP (UK) or Senators and members of Congress (US).
•Write to your local Peruvian embassy
•If you want to get more involved, contact Survival…