My 5: Snezana Pavlovic, Niš, Serbia

Blue Planet Green Living invites readers from around the world to answer this question: “What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?” Snezana Pavlovic, a student of Balkan languages at the University of Nis, Serbia, shares her “My 5″:

* Be informed and have an ecological conscience about our environment.

* Systematically work on problems of pollution by passing effective laws….

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National Children’s Study to Assess Environment and Genetics

In a press release yesterday, the National Institutes of Health announced that the first Vanguard Center of the National Children’s Study had begun recruiting volunteers. Yesterday, we interviewed Dr. Phil Landrigan, who will lead the Queens, New York, site. In yesterday’s post, Landmark National Children’s Study Launches in US, Dr. Landrigan explained the purpose of the study and drew parallels with the Framingham Stroke Study.

Today, we bring you Dr. Jeff Murray, neonatologist and medical geneticist. Dr. Murray will be principal investigator for the Polk County, Iowa, research site, which is expected to begin recruiting participants in 2011. He provides us with insights into how the study will work on a local level. In future posts, we’ll introduce you to other researchers who are involved in the National Children’s Study and announce findings as they are released.

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My 5: Dr. Jeff Murray, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

Blue Planet Green Living asked Dr. Jeff Murray, neonatologist and medical geneticist, “What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?”

JEFF MURRAY:

* Love your children and and all children….

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Landmark National Children’s Study Launches in US

The National Children’s Study is the largest study of children’s health that’s ever been undertaken in this country. It’s what we call a prospective epidemiologic study, which means it’s going to enroll moms very early in pregnancy and follow the children out to at least age 21.

The goal of the study is to identify factors in the environment that cause disease in children, like autism and childhood cancer, attention deficit disorder, asthma, diabetes, birth defects, prematurity, and low birth weight.

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My 5: Dr. Philip Landrigan, Mount Sinai Medical Center

Blue Planet Green Living asked Dr. Philip Landrigan, one of the key proponents of the National Children’s Study and a professor at Mount Sinai Medical School, “What are the five most important things that we can do to save the planet?”

DR. LANDRIGAN:
* I would say it really comes down to taking deliberate, conscious steps to protect children from toxic environmental exposures in early life. For example, never sand down old paint during pregnancy because of the risk of lead….

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Seeking Sustainability in a Harsh and Beautiful Land

Miriam Kashia, a Peace Corps volunteer who returned from Namibia one year ago, recently spoke with Blue Planet Green Living about her experience. What follows is Part 2 of a two-part interview.

BPGL: I’ve heard, over the years, about problems with poaching of African game. Is that an issue in Namibia?

KASHIA: In almost all African countries, there’s been a lot of poaching of wild animals. And most animals now only live in the game parks. There are very few left just roaming wild. There are still many varieties of antelope and, depending on where you are, a few others. But most of the more exotic animals now live in game parks or on game farms, actually. When I say farm, I’m talking about what we would call a ranch. Because it’s a desert, it takes thousands of hectares to support their livestock of goats, sheep, cattle, and wild animals.

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My 5: Miriam Kashia, Peace Corps Volunteer

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

MIRIAM KASHIA:

* Make changes that reflect your increasing knowledge and concern, and tell people what you are doing to inspire others.

* Join and support some of the excellent environmental activist organizations (NRDC, Sierra Club, a local group, etc.)….

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Peace Corps Volunteer Teaches Green Living in Namibia

Seated across from me is a gentle, silver-haired woman. She speaks in soft tones, gesturing slightly from time to time. Her manner is warm and welcoming. You could easily call her mild-mannered. But don’t let her appearance fool you. Miriam Kashia is a force to be reckoned with when there’s a job to be done. And that’s just the spirit with which she tackled her recent Peace Corps assignment in Namibia, home to some of the world’s most impoverished people.

Kashia returned to the United States a year ago, in January 2008. She’s had time to reflect on her experience, and to see from a distance the effects of the work she did half a world away. I interviewed her in her Iowa City home.

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My 5: Lindsay Render, University of Iowa

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

LINDSAY RENDER:
* Cut down on the dependence on technology. Live simpler lives….

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Winter Wineland at Truett Hurst Winery

Truett Hurst Winery will host a Winter Wineland event January 17 and 18, 2009. Guests will have an opportunity to sample wines and see the progress of this young, biodynamic winery. Blue Planet Green Living featured Truett Hurst Winery in a recent article, Birth of a Biodynamic Winery.

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Saving Money by Going Green

There’s one light in every building that’s on 24 hours a day: the exit sign. It’s the least paid-attention-to light in every building, and probably the most expensive.

There are two 30-Watt light bulbs in an exit sign. Replace those with two 1.2 Watt light-emitting diode [LED] bulbs. Now, you replace the LED bulbs every 10 years instead of every year, which has a financial impact on its own. Incandescent light bulbs cost about $2 each, and LEDS are down to $7.50 each now. The energy savings per exit sign is around $60 year. So, the ROI is three months, if you look at simple payback of the energy savings.

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Going Green Requires a Cultural Change

Rob Rafson, P.E., is V.P. Engineering of Full Circle, a Chicago-based sustainability management solutions firm. What follows is Part 3 of a four-part interview.

BPGL: You mentioned that making changes in the way companies do business isn’t just a matter of changing the equipment, it also requires a cultural change. Tell us more about how that looks to you.

RAFSON: The biggest thing to my mind is that the cultural change has to happen on all levels. Consumers need to look for green businesses, and there need to be watchdog organizations on the alert for “green washing” — companies proclaiming they’re environmentally responsible just for show.

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Tax Incentives Boost Green ROI

Rob Rafson, P.E., is V.P. Engineering of Full Circle, a Chicago-based sustainability management solutions firm. He is also co-author, with Harold J. Rafson, of Brownfields: Redeveloping Environmentally Distressed Properties (1999). What follows is Part 2 of a four-part interview.

BPGL: You’re known in Chicago for the largest rooftop solar installation in the city, on top of a brownfield redevelopment project. But people say solar technology has a long payback. Is solar economically viable?

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The Positive Economics of Going Green

“The only way the Green Revolution will be achieved is through economic opportunity, not through regulation,” says Rob Rafson. A world-renowned environmental engineer and author of the highly regarded book, Brownfields: Redeveloping Environmentally Distressed Properties (1999), Rafson has cleaned up and redeveloped 17 brownfields — including four Superfund projects. He’s on a mission to teach sustainability management to businesses. “Once they see the economic benefits of going green, the transition is easy to sell to shareholders and management,” he tells us.

“In our opinion,” Rafson says, referring to Full Circle, his Chicago-based Sustainability Management Solutions firm, “any business interested in going green should do a cost benefit analysis of tactical opportunities that support their overall strategy and simply look at the return on investment (ROI). Whether it’s through renovating to make a building LEED certified, going to solar power, reducing waste stream, etc. — if you filter all the tactics by ROI, the steps become obvious. If you execute on the projects that have immediate and real economic impact, you can stair-step toward more complex projects with longer term ROI.”

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Jagdish Poudel, Contributing Writer

Jagdish Poudel is a Master of Science (M. sc.) student in environmental science from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. He works as a researcher and environmentalist for the nonprofit organization Living Earth Nepal.

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Notes from Nepal: Teaching Climate Change in the Himalayas

Nepal has an amazing range and variety of fauna and flora. In this country, the vegetation of the east and west Himalayas meet. As one proceeds across Nepal from east to west, there is a gradual change in the forest at any particular altitude. Owing to its geography and the great variety of plant and animal life, Nepal could rightly be called Nature’s Paradise. This developing country is still virgin territory for the study of the environment and its exploitation for human use, because a great percentage of the total population depends upon the natural resources for their livelihood.

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“We Can Get Completely Off Oil in 15 Years”

Jeff Wilson has a plan: “We can free the United States of its dependency on oil, not just foreign oil, in 15 years.”

Yeah, sure. This guy’s dreaming. I thought, as I began to read his book, The Manhattan Project 2009. I’ve heard pie-in-the-sky schemes before.

Then I read his book, and I was convinced. My next thoughts were, Everybody needs to read this book. It’s all here, in a step-by-step program. He’s even written legislative proposals for congressmen. It’s all here, and it is possible. I wanted to talk to this guy.

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Silent Spring

First published in 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is undoubtedly one of the founding texts of the modern environmental movement. Indeed, as Al Gore noted in his introduction to a 1994 edition, “without this book, the environmental movement might have been long delayed or never have developed at all.” I suppose it is a credit to the book’s influence and power that many of its ideas have become widely accepted by the great majority of the public (surely by visitors to this site) and appear so obvious that it seems incredible someone had to write a book to prove them.

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My 5: Jordan Jones, AmeriCorps

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

JORDAN JONES:

Get educated. — There’s no better way to win a debate than preparation. If we want to get involved in the environmental debate and change minds, we need to know our stuff. Popular movements are as much about ideas as they are about action and the green movement is no different. Plus, the more you know, the more you can pass on to others….

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Jordan Jones, Contributing Writer

I am 23 years old and full of that empathetic enthusiasm so common to youth. Originally from Des Moines, I attended the University of Iowa from 2004 to 2008, graduating last spring with degrees in English and History. After graduation, I joined AmeriCorps and got a job at the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity affiliate, building houses for those in need. Sometimes I work in the Habitat ReStore, a shop that sells discount building materials and furniture. I love my job and I learn new things literally every day.

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