Chesapeake Bay Foundation Blog

Earth Day: "That's All There Is"

Photo courtesy Flickr Creative Commons.

 

“Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality, and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.” That’s what U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson said when he launched the very first Earth Day back in the spring of 1970. With roughly 20 million Americans taking part in that first Earth Day—from more than 10,000 schools and 1,000 communities across the country, bringing together all walks of life from housewives to farmers to scientists to students—the event was a bigger success than ever anticipated.

I had the honor of meeting and listening to Senator Nelson when he came to talk to The Nature Conservancy in the spring of 2004, just a year before his death. Though older, frailer, and bound to a wheelchair, Senator Nelson had not lost his impact or might. With quiet conviction he told the story of Earth Day, and why indeed it’s critical we continue to gather together on April 22 every year and raise awareness and appreciation for our environment.

After all, as Nelson said in 1995 on the 25^th Anniversary of Earth Day, our natural world and our health and wealth are intrinsically tied together: “The wealth of the nation is its air, water, soil, forests, minerals, rivers, lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats, and biodiversity… that’s all there is. That’s the whole economy. That’s where all the economic activity and jobs come from. These biological systems are the sustaining wealth of the world.”

And so year after year we have had the privilege of carrying on Nelson’s vision, and this year is no exception. From oyster festivals to tree plantings, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will be taking part in various Earth Day events across the watershed. Here below is a sneak peak of what you can expect. Please come out and join us! 

—Emmy Nicklin

 

CBF Earth Day Events

• Howard County Greenfest
  Various earth-friendly vendors and activities, including a children's craft and nature activity.
  Howard County, Maryland
  10 a.m.-4 p.m., April 14 
• Environmental Education Fair
  Glen Burnie, Maryland
  8 a.m., April 20 
• Earth Day at NIH
  Food, children's activities, learning tables, and more!
  Bethesda, Maryland
  10 a.m.-2 p.m., April 26
• Blue Ridge Oyster Festival
  Oysters, beer/wine, and live music await you at this 2^nd annual celebration of the Blue Ridge and the Bay! Proceeds benefit The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and Big Brothers & Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge.
  Nelson County, Virginia
  1 p.m.-7 p.m., April 21
  http://blueridgeoysterfest.com/
• Richmond Earth Day Festival
  A fun-filled day of music, food, art, games, environmental education, and even a 5K race. We’ll be there spreading our clean water message!
  Manchester District, Richmond, Virginia
  Noon-5 p.m., April 21
  www.earthdayrichmond.org
• Mechanicsburg Earth Day Festival
  Live music, exhibitors, kid-friendly activities, and more!
  Downtown Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
  9 a.m.-2 p.m., April 21
  http://www.mechanicsburgearthdayfestival.com/
• Earth, Water, Faith Festival
  The Chesapeake Interfaith Environmental Group and CBF put on this annual event featuring musical performances, children’s activities, environmental education displays, and more.
  Annapolis, Maryland
  2 p.m.-5 p.m., April 22
• Virginia Beach Earth Day Event
  Environmental exhibits, displays, and activities, including helpful tips to going green in your daily life.
  Virginia Beach, Virginia
  11 a.m.-4 p.m., April 22
• Earth Day at NIH
  Food trucks, children's activities, learning tables, and more!
  Bethesda, Maryland
  10 a.m.-2 p.m., April 26
• Renfrew Institute Earth Celebration Day and Festival of Art
  Environmental exhibits, live music, student clothesline display, food stand, and drum circle.
  Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
  11 a.m.-4 p.m., April 28

 

 

Chesapeake Born: Saving the Planet on the Cheap

Photo by Emmy Nicklin/CBF Staff.

What if you had to save the Chesapeake Bay, and you had no money?

It's a fitting question in the depths of the Great Recession, as deficit hawk shrills throughout the land and governments across the watershed wonder how to afford the next round of Bay cleanup requirements.

Personally, I've been investing cheaply in a host of advanced green technologies: a clothesline in the backyard ($3) and a rainy day drying rack ($20) in the cellar; organic cooling systems, AKA trees, to shade the south and western sides of my house ($500); busting up half my driveway with a pickaxe ($27) to absorb stormwater runoff, planting it with more organic cooling systems.

I bought a small house near work and stores, saving energy, allowing bicycle to replace car most days. A smaller fridge is next as I now shop almost daily. I installed a super-quiet whole house fan ($900) for all the cooling I need most days; and heavily insulated the attic and crawl spaces ($800).

Had I sprung big bucks for Energy Star appliances, solar panels, geothermal heat pumps and an electric car, I'd have received tens of thousands in government subsidies. And in the end I wouldn't have been greener.

So I think it’s time we took a serious look at cheaper ways of getting to a better planet, of saving taxpayer dollars as we restore our environment.

Broadly, that would mean cutting government subsidies to polluting activities; and letting polluting activities reflect their full price.

If I’d bought a big house in a rural subdivision, for example, I’d have been awarded a bigger mortgage deduction, even as I drove more, used more open space, required more roads and polluted more on my septic tank than on a city treatment plant.

We give some $1 trillion annually in federal tax breaks to homeowners, a presidential fiscal reform commission reports. At state and local levels, taxpayers pay thousands a year for every home in a sprawl development to ease the real cost of roads, water and air pollution and the cost of services such as fire, police and utilities.

The extra gasoline such residents burn would cost maybe eight bucks a gallon if we removed government subsidies to oil companies—more than 12 bucks a gallon if, as some suggest, we include part of the defense budget for protecting foreign oil sources.

If gasoline fetched its true market price, there’d be far less need to subsidize electric cars—or mass transit, or bigger roads. No need either, to subsidize solar and wind energy as much if all our traditional energy sources operated without subsidies (like the taxpayer guarantees for part of the accident insurance on nuclear power plants).

Power companies could be rewarded for saving energy, not pushing more of it. At a hearing on a new, $1.4 billion power line I asked what if that money went instead for conservation, could we avoid the need for the line?

Their shareholders wouldn’t like that, a company spokesman said, as they make money based on how much energy they transmit.

Agriculture, the Bay’s biggest source of pollution, is underpinned by federal crop subsidies; at the very least, we’d save big time on cleanup costs if these were morphed into payments for reducing runoff.

Water quality would also benefit if poultry manure were made the responsibility of the big chicken producers nationwide—now it is "owned" by individual growers.

Popular but expensive open space protection programs are in part a price we pay for bad government land-use policies. A proposal by Maryland’s Governor O’Malley to cut state subsidies for schools, roads, and wastewater where counties allow sprawl development could save billions.

Other environmentally beneficial savings worth scrutinizing range from low-cost commuter tolls (a subsidy to sprawl), to flood insurance and beach replacement (subsidies to development, often in some of our most sensitive natural areas).

From the other side of the equation, government accounting for economic progress needs to start valuing the nature we lose as well as the development that replaces it. Current indicators like GDP (gross domestic product), add the value of a parking lot but don’t subtract the value of the forest it felled.

Some might see in the above a danger of slowing growth; but if something can’t pay its way financially, and further creates pollution that costs to clean up, why on earth would we want more of it?

I think the possibilities of saving the Bay cheaper are large, and the politics for doing it are right. The Bay watershed has two Congressmen on the 12 member "Supercommittee" charged with coming up with deficit reductions.

Who wants to convene a conference to see what we can do?

 —Tom Horton

The above appeared in the Bay Journal News Service (http://www.bayjournalnewsservice.com/). Tom Horton covered the Bay for 33 years for The Sun in Baltimore, and is author of six books about the Chesapeake. Distributed by Bay Journal News Service.

 

Got a Story?

This in from the Wildlife Promise blog --

"The EPA is collecting public testimony from citizens like you about the effects that global warming is having on you, your family and your community, and they really want to hear from you-- wildlife and nature enthusiasts-- who see firsthand how climate change is effecting your garden, your backyard, your parks and the natural world you live in."

The message isn't just for wildlife enthusiasts -- personalize your message to reflect your concern for the Chesapeake Bay, its critters, and its ecosystems.

Balancing the Climate Crisis Against Maryland's Need for Jobs

The following Letter to the Editor was published in the Baltimore Sun on February 29, 2008

It was disappointing to see The Sun encourage delay on fighting global climate change ("Striking a balance," editorial, Feb. 26).

One thing we've learned from Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts is that if we don't set specific, incremental goals, no one is held accountable and little progress is achieved.

The Chesapeake Bay region is at severe risk from pollution and climate change, and the time for action was yesterday. Today we are playing catch-up, and tomorrow will be too late.

The federal government has failed to produce meaningful climate change legislation, and just last week, Rep. Chris Van Hollen told a meeting of concerned citizens in Annapolis that the best way to hold federal feet to the fire was for the states to move forward with climate change legislation.

The Global Climate Change Solutions Act is just such a bill.

It is designed to make fundamental, incremental reductions in carbon dioxide levels that will help avert imminent damage to the state and to solidify Maryland's role as a national leader in carbon reduction.

The state's carbon reduction goals are not overly ambitious.

Six states have set goals in the 80 percent to 90 percent reduction range, and 26 states have adopted lesser limitations.

And there are economic upsides. "Green jobs" can provide an economic boost at the same time that pollution is reduced.

There is no doubt that climate change is here, affecting local rivers, streams and the bay.

There is no doubt that rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms threaten coastal populations.

There is no doubt that we need to reduce pollution, now.

We need the road map, specific goals and milestones provided by the Global Climate Change Solutions Act.

William C. Baker
President, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

March 5 - Fight for Clean Water and Clean Energy

Put a big red circle around the date March 5 on your calendar.

The Clean Water Network has declared March 5 as National Clean Water Phone Congress Day. The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to act this year on what could be the most important clean water legislation in 35 years: The Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421).

This bipartisian bill is needed now to ensure that all of the nation's streams, headwater tributaries, wetlands and other waters remain protected from pollution by the federal Clean Water Act. It will reaffirm that the Clean Water Act was intended to protect all of the waters of the United States, from big rivers to small streams, and from the Great Lakes to remote wetlands. 

So limber up those fingers and and call your U.S. Representative between 9am and 6pm EST. Tell him/herto support clean water by getting behind the Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421). For more information about the bill and how to contact your representative, download this message from CWN.

If you live near Annapolis, you'll want to limber up those legs and walk or ride to Lawyer's Mall (across from the State House) to Rally with O'Malley for green jobs and a clean energy future. Join Governor O'Mally, the Alliance for Global Warming Solutions, CBF, and others at 10am on March 5 to thank the Gov. for his support of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 and to stand with him in asking the General Assembly to pass this bill!

Save the Bay - Cool the Planet

Yes, it was snowing at the climate change rally in Annapolis but thank goodness we still have snow in the winter! From recent reports of melting ice caps and record warmth it may not be that way for long. But the snow did not deter hundreds of activists from rallying to urge Maryland legislators to pass one of the strongest climate change bills in the country: The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) - requiring Maryland to institute programs that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 and 90% by 2050. Incidently, reducing GH gases will not only help cool the planet but it will also assist in reducing nitrogen pollution to the Bay because nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas (it traps 300 times more solar energy than carbon dioxide). So passing the bill is a twofer, a win-win, a double dip.

"I biked to the rally in the snow with five other CBFers," said Donkey Dover. "The crowd was really pumped up even in the cold. Lots of good energy," said Dover.

Here's how you can help: contact your elected leaders in Maryland and tell them you support GWSA and that we can not delay in acting to stop climate change. The longer we wait, the greater the peril.

For more on climate change and the Chesapeake Bay, read our report: http://www.cbf.org/site/DocServer/climatechange.pdf?docID=9423

To find your legislator, visit: http://mdelect.net/

CBF Gets a Chair at Virginia's Climate Change Table

CBF Virginia Executive Director Ann Jennings has been named by Gov. Tim Kaine to serve on the state's Commission on Climate Change. The 32-person advisory panel is charged with preparing a climate change action plan for the state.

Take the Polar Bear Plunge and Fight Global Warming

On December 8, CBF's president, Will Baker, will join hundreds of others across the country and take the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's third annual Polar Bear Plunge into the fridgid waters of Chesapeake Bay. Won't you join him?

CCAN's annual polar bear plunge draws prominent elected officials and journalists and allows us to dramatically communicate the dire threat to our planet’s environment – and to the Chesapeake Bay. We have one planet and it has a fever, and we need clean energy solutions now.

Join Will and other CBFers at this event and fundraiser. It all begins at 11 am on Saturday, Dec. 8th on the beach at CBF's Merrill Center headquarters in Annapolis. CCAN will have heated tents on the beach plus hot chocolate and donuts and even a trio of polar bears who sing rap songs for the Earth. It’s fun for the whole family for a cause that couldn’t be more vital.

Can't get to Annapolis? Check CCAN's Keep Winter Cold website for a plunge near you.

Register online at keepwintercold.org

And, again, keep in mind that this is also a fundraiser for CCAN and their work to fight global warming, such as the campaign to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act here in Maryland. Participants are simply asked to get their friends and family members to give pledges to sponsor their plunge. It’s easy, and CCAN will take care of all the details.

More on Global Warming and the Chesapeake

Regina Sass writes a good overview of the National Wildlife Federation's report about the effects of global warming on the Chesapeake Bay—a topic also addressed on Capitol Hill today during Senate hearings calling for a federal response to global warming. 

Smith Islanders Movie

(via the Sun's Bay & Environment blog)

Climate activist Mike Tidwell's first documentary, We Are All Smith Islanders, will be showing next month at the Montgomery County Public Library in Rockville.

The movie, which Tidwell wrote and directed, uses the receding livelihoods of the watermen on the island to demonstrate the effects of glabal warming. It occasionally makes the rounds, but the press person for Tidwell's organization, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said no screenings are planned in Baltimore or Annapolis for the near future.

All is not lost, though. If you don't feel like driving to Rockville, you can order the film from the CCAN web site.