Coffee and Conservation

A lot of us rely on coffee to get our brains going in the morning. But it's important to think about coffee, not just with it; after all, the coffee-growing regions of the world overlap with many of our planet's key biodiversity hotspots, and our morning cup has implications for the whole world. Tropical forests help control both local weather and global climate, and provide habitat for species ranging from familiar songbirds to species as yet unknown to science. When impoverished coffee growers clear-cut these forests for coffee plantations or overuse pesticides, the damage remains long after the buzz wears off.


Many of these issues are complex, and there are a wide variety of certification criteria. What does it mean to say that coffee is shade-grown? Just how organic is an organic bean? Should you choose a brew from Costa Rica or Nicaragua? The Coffee & Conservation blog at http://www.coffeehabitat.com/ is an in-depth tour through the mysterious plantation of the facts, dedicated to untangling the environmental and social issues surrounding coffee cultivation and guiding caffeine fiends to the most sustainable fix.


Short of time? Check out their Top 5 Indicators of Sustainable Coffee list to help you make a snap judgment. Or read the product reviews to see how your current choices stack up.

Photo courtesy of:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakeliefer/ / CC BY 2.0

Use Less Stuff Week

*** Use Less Stuff Week starts Thursday, November 19 ***

Use Less Stuff (ULS) Day, which has fallen on the third Thursday of November since 1995, will expand to an entire week this year to further educate consumers about the increase of waste generated during the holiday season.

The organization is promoting concepts such as using rechargeable batteries in electronic gifts for the holidays and reusing gift wrap or wrapping with alternatives such as newspaper. Both of these ideas prolong the life of products, thereby reducing what needs to be thrown away.

According to the U.S. EPA, recycling diverted 68 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2001, up from 34 million tons in 1990. The ULS report claims that not only is the waste generated between Thanksgiving and New Years higher than at other times during the year, but the amount of this waste is actually growing. When the campaign first began, the estimated waste totaled to 5 million tons, and now it is closer to 6 million tons.

ULS has also released a program called CalcuLess that lets consumers quantify the impact of the packaging they use. Simply type in a product and how much it weighs and receive tailored information about the item, such as what it’s made of and how often it’s recycled, according to the EPA.

Read the rest of this article at Earth 911.

Image courtesy of Washington State University.

Radio Program on Watershed Issue

Don't miss this show in 2 weeks
(postponed from this week)
Eco-logic at WBAI 99.5 FM

on Tuesday, December 1
(please note new date)
11 am-12 noon

The topic will be:
Hydraulic Fracturing for Gas


Guests will be:
Deborah Goldberg, managing attorney with Earthjustice and
Annie Wilson of the Atlantic chapter of the Sierra Club.

From host Ken Gale:
Exploding toilets. Exploding wells. Contaminated drinking water. This is what has happened in other states that have allowed Halliburton's hydraulic fracturing process to reach natural gas deposits in shale. Chesapeake Energy Corporation put out a press release on Oct. 28 stating they won't drill in New York City's watershed.
- What does that really mean?
- What about the other companies that are taking out drilling leases?
- What about the rest of the state?
- Why is the governor allowing these leases?
- What about other dangers to the water supplies?
- What about the already-contaminated water in Pennsylvania and other states?
- We already do without the gas. We cannot do without the water. I will explore these topics in detail.

(archived at Ecologic archives)

Community Gardens Divert Leaves from the Trash Bin to the Compost Bin

NYCLeaves: Project LeafDrop, a new coalition of community gardens and greening groups dedicated to diverting fallen leaves from the trash bin to the compost bin, is building a growing network of community gardens that will take in some of the 20,000 tons of residential leaves that would otherwise go to landfills and is turning them into beautiful, rich compost or mulch for garden beds and street trees. Community gardens participating in “Project LeafDrop” are inviting neighborhood residents to bring their bagged leaves (in paper or clear plastic bags without twigs or trash) to their gardens on specific dates in November and early December. The gardeners will use these “browns” to improve the balance of their compostable materials or share them with other groups working to enrich undernourished urban open spaces.

Master Composters will be available at many of the participating gardens with information about how to make nutritious “brown gold” compost in your own garden, yard or apartment and the convenience and importance of recycling.

Garden groups wishing to join Project LeafDrop and register as drop-off sites, to find specific drop-off dates at a participating garden near you, or for more information about Project LeafDrop, see the group's website: http://www.NYCLeaves.org or email them at compost@nycleaves.org.

Gas Drilling Yields Radioactive Wastewater

Yesterday the investigative journalism website ProPublica reported on a disturbing phenomenon about gas drilling: that the wastewater created by the process is radioactive. It also seems that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York State's Department of Health have known about naturally occurring underground radiation in general since the mid-1980's and have been concerned with the specific problem of radiation in the Marcellus Shale's drilling wastewater since at least April of this year.

The article states that, "[w]hat scientists call naturally occurring radioactive materials...are common in oil and gas drilling waste, and especially in brine, the dirty water that has been soaking in the shale for centuries...[T]ests taken so far suggest the amount of radioactive material measured in New York is far higher than in many other places."

The DEC has issued draft guidelines for drilling in the Marcellus Shale, the underground rock formation extending from Southern New York all the way to West Virginia, and which encompasses New York City's watershed. You can submit comments through the online submission system or via email to dmnsgeis@gw.dec.state.ny.us until December 31, 2009. And a petition to sign has been created by an alliance of New York state-based environmental, political and citizen groups to ban gas drilling in New York State.

There is a public hearing tonight, Tuesday, November 10th at 6:30PM at the Stuyvesant High School Auditorium, 345 Chambers Street, Manhattan.

For more background, see our previous posts on this topic and/or Damascus Citizens for Sustainability or the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.

Are Genetically Modified Organisms in Your Food?

Q: Can You Tell If There Are Genetically Modified Organisms in the Food You're Eating?

A: Not really because of the absence of food labeling laws governing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

What are genetically modified organisms and why should you want to know?

Come to the panel discussion to find out!

When: Friday, November 13th at 7pm

Where: Park Slope Food Coop
782 Union St., Brooklyn (btw 6th & 7th Av.)

Image courtesy of U. of Michigan

Compost-O-Rama !

Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009
1pm - 5pm

Location: MS 51 & the Old Stone House
5th Ave @ 4th St in Park Slope, Brooklyn


Bring your old Jack - O - Lantern!

We will supply the shredded leaves.

This is a pilot program at MS 51 to demonstrate how simple waste materials - leaves and pumpkins - can be turn into benefit. Thanks to BBG and Jon Pope, a master composter and carpenter, we have 3 giant rodent-proof bins to fill with material. Finished compost will be distributed in the spring to our historically referenced gardens of useful plants.

Please pass the information on and come on down to see the fun.

Good beer is available right across the street!

Volunteers are welcome to contact Claudia at permie@earthlink.net

For more information: 718-768-3195 or info@theoldstonehouse.org