Archive for Being Green

TUSCA and the Color of Politics

May 29, 2008 · Filed under Being Green, TUSCA, Uncategorized

 

In February 2007, someone posted Severn Suzuki’s 6:40 minute speech on You-Tube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8cmWZOX8Q ). She gave this speech to the United Nation Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992 and was only 12 years old at the time.  Since it’s been posted, her video has been seen by 1,624,068 people and counting. I truly urge you to see it too.  My first reaction to Suzuki’s speech was tearful frustration soon followed by burning curiosity. Where was I at 12? Rummaging through my memory, I figured out that this was the year I was shipped off to Spain to live with my grandparents and learn “proper” Spanish! That year, my grandfather was writing a book about Christopher Columbus’s discovery of Puerto Rico on his second voyage. That particular voyage’s log has been lost and no one really knows where Columbus first landed. Some say Mayagüez. Others say Añasco. My grandfather went to the Museo Naval in Madrid to read old papers and do original research for his book “Debated Headlands” and came to the conclusion he landed in Aguada.

 

Meanwhile, at 12, I was put in “a Convent”, stumbling through lispy lightening-speed Spanish, learning Latin and trying to avoid being abused by the neurotic Nuns running the school. The very first day, I got in enormous trouble at lunch when I was served a banana for dessert. Being from Isla Verde, Puerto Rico I picked up the banana and began unpeeling it “like normal”. Before I got to the second strip, however, a nun had slapped me hard across the face. I was so shocked; I dropped my banana back on my plate. Then, I was made to pick up my knife and fork, cut away the peel like a surgeon, chop the fruit into chunks and eat one piece at a time using the upside down fork technique. “Like a civilized person, not a savage”, the nun had hissed. That year, I really missed my parents in Puerto Rico and, it turns out, I also missed the TUSCA project.

 

TUSCA stood for “Transportation and Urban Settlement Combined Action”.  It was a visionary project proposed by Architect Etienne Dusart and endorsed by Governor Luis A. Ferré (but Luis Muñoz Marin liked it too) at the Planning Board from 1970-71 to build a rapid transit system around and within the entire island of Puerto Rico. The budget (then) was $680 million, it should have been finished by 1980 and should have been self-supporting (including the amortization of capital costs) before 1990. The plan called for three phases to deal with the congestion already choking San Juan in the 70s including: a comprehensive island widemass transportation system with trains, buses, ferries and moving sidewalks, new planned communities and another airport. As Lynn Feigenbaum wrote in her article “In the Shape of Things to Come” (SJSTAR June 6, 1971) “Its supporters…view TUSCA not as a cost, but as a necessity, on as island where urban sprawl and population density have become clichés and where highways and urbanizations gobble up more and more valuable land.” 

 

In 1970, there were only 15 cars per every 100 people. Today there are 62. Imagine the childhood I would have had riding the train (instead of being driven by car) from San Juan to Ponce in 64 minutes, Ponce to Mayaguez in 26 and back from Mayaguez to San Juan in 55? Even a trip from Hato Rey to Luquillo would only have taken 25 minutes! So what happened? Politicians dropped the ball. After the change in Administration from PNP to PDP, there was no one in government to passionately lead the project through. Instead, ARPE and the Planning Board were split apart and TUSCA was dropped in favor of building the 3.4 kilometers of streets and highways per km² we enjoy today. To add insult to injury, Singapore saw OUR TUSCA project at a presentation by Tony Nelessen, David Fairchild and Etienne Dusart and THEY went ahead and did it! In 1974, Singapore established their own Urban Redevelopment Authority, organized their own Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and built 109.4 kilometers of track with 64 stations. Today, in Puerto Rico, we have the Tren Urbano with 17.2 kilometers of track and 16 stations. And we compare ourselves to them? Ay bendito, Puerto Rico. TUSCA was planned to pay for itself in 35 years. That would be now.

 

About nine months ago, I found myself listening to Pedro Pierluisi speak about running for Politics with Luis Fortuño and I asked him about the PNP’s stance on the environment. I was thinking about Thomas Friedman’s article in the NYTimes (April 15, 2007) called “The Power of Green” where he believes “living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America [also Puerto Rico] in a GREEN way can be the basis of  a new unifying political movement in the 21stcentury. Because”, he writes, “a new GREEN ideology, properly defined, has the power to mobilize liberals and conservatives, evangelicals and atheists, big business and environmentalists that can both pull us through and propel us forward.” Maybe it could also unite Puerto Ricans. Isn’t it terribly ironic that PR Tourism continually promotes Puerto Rico as a Tropical Paradise as we locals stew in ever worsening traffic and trash? Along Friedman’s lines, I don’t think Puerto Rico needs any more Blue or Red Leaders. I think it needs Environmental GREEN Leaders who will support projects like TUSCA until every 12 year old child in Puerto Rico (and their children’s children) can ride the train to Ponce and wherever else they want to go around the island.

 

In May 2008, I had the immense privilege of meeting Tony and Françoise Nelessen (from Princeton)  and David and Clea  Fairchild (from Monterrey) at Etienne Dusart’s (from Belgium) house in Nicaragua at their 40th Harvard Reunion of an Urban Planning Program from which all three gentlemen graduated and later worked together on TUSCA. They were also joined by more classmates and spouses including Brian and Myra Canin (from South Africa and now Orlando), Michael and Armgart Von Heppe (from Hamburg), Alan and Ana Peskine (from Paris), Bernie and Vivienne Benin (from New Hampshire), Eric Doepke (from Cincinnati) and Tom Mierzwa (from U of Maryland) where they all relaxed for a week in NICA hospitality and caught up with each others projects and lives.

 

I was thrilled to be in the middle of it all, flitting around like a butterfly: Looking, Listening, Learning and Experiencing the way a room full of architect colleagues move and feel about and within a wide variety of spaces after 40 years of separate interpretation and practice. Our mutual host, Etienne (with much support from Irene Arevalo) planned  a “Complete Sensory Overload” with tours by horse drawn carriage around Granada, visits into local homes, hikes up volcanoes and through rainforests, fresh water swims in a lake in which the entire island of PR fits, salt water swims in the Pacific, private swims in his infinity pool with waterfalls, a horse show, a hammock maker, a saint carver, a colorful guide named Giaconda, a party with shimmering dancing girls, grilled food and a bar ever flowing with iced cold Toña beer, Freixinet cava, Flor de Caña Cuba Libres and Marques de Caceres Red. What a wild week of tropical living woven into warm memories. Etienne’s motto is “Vive la Vida!” I’d add,”Con Verde Luz”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THe Future is a Verb: Spread the Word

April 3, 2008 · Filed under Being Green, Carbon Neutral, green buildings · Tagged , , ,

The first time I saw William McDonough speak on a DVD called “Powershift”, I had a V-8 moment: a smack on the side of the head. “How many designers can go out and design a building that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, changes colors with the seasons and self-replicates?”, he asked.  To answer his own question, he designed a building for Oberlin College like a tree: it makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, purifies its own sewage, produces more energy than it needs to operate and provides a healthy and happy environmental for all species: indoor and out.

Utterly fascinated, I vowed to meet McDonough in person and later that year, I got my chance at the U S Green Building Council’s (USGBC) 2006 5th Greenbuild Convention in Denver, Colorado. Granted, I am neither a builder nor an architect- I went to learn about “Building a Bright Green Future”-and meet McDonough.  In fact, I found myself surrounded by 18,000 passionate Green people from all professions and a mind blowing array of world renown speakers. David Suzuki, a brilliant Canadian scientist & environmentalist opened the conference, William McDonough “Mr. Cradle-to Cradle (C2C)” gave the keynote speech and Jeffery Sachs, Economist from the Earth Institute, closed! I felt like I was at the Green Oscars and came out primed & pumped to make my world Green by thinking smarter.

Unfortunately, I could not attend Greenbuild’s 2007 Convention in Chicago (which was swamped  by 22,283 attendees). However, due to the USGBC’s generous ongoing education program,  everyone can now go into their website (www.greenbuild365.org)  and watch their archived videos for free. Last year, Bill Clinton gave the keynote speech where he announced his $3 Billion Clinton Climate Initiative to retrofit schools. While the video is rather long (2 hrs.!), it does introduce you to some fabulous people, including Jerome Ringo of the Apollo Alliance (Green Collar Jobs) and George Watsky of Youth Speaks (moving performance art). Another fascinating (and shorter) clip is of Paul Hawkens, author of “Blessed Unrest: How the Greatest Movement came into being and nobody saw it coming”. (watch videos of each on youtube!) This year’s 2008 Greenbuild Convention is in Boston,-Nov. 19-22- with Desmond Tutu as the Keynote speaker. The tipping point has happened.

Since then, I’ve became hooked on webinars, and signed in with Focus the Nation  to watch the “Face IT” webcast (www.architecture2030.org/faceit/webcast.php) aired live to 1,500 campuses, faith and civic organizations and in all 50 states on Jan. 31, 2008 (but still online to watch when you want). Sponsored by the USGBC, it was  produced by Architecture 2030 (another non-profit established to fight global-warming by architect Edward Mazria in 2002). 2030’s Challenge is that all new buildings, developments and major renovations (and an equal amount of existing buildings) be designed or renovated to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% and that the fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings be increased to 60% in 2010, 70% in 2015, 80% in 2020, 90% in 2025 until Carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate).

Challenge 2030’s targets require implementing innovative sustainable design strategies, generating on-site renewable power and/or purchasing (20% maximum) renewable energy and/or certified renewable energy credits. The 2030 Challenge was issued in  January 2006, and since then, numerous groups have signed on to implement its targets, including the US Conference of Mayors (also signed by the Majors of Aguadilla, Camuy and Yauco in Puerto Rico!), American Institute of Architects (AIA), US Green Building Council (USGBC), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA/Target Finder), Royal Architecture Institute of Canada (RAIC), International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA), and more. Even President Bush signed a bill with The 2030 Challenge. After being passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Energy Independence and Security Act became law with the President’s signature in December 2007. Section 433 of this bill requires that all federal buildings meet the energy performance standards of The 2030 Challenge.

 The most fun about watching the FACE IT webcast was to follow up with the winners of the Reverberate Competitions, divided into graphic design and video for $40,000 in prize money. Qualifying students had 24 hours to come up with a painted face or body part; in either black & white or color and a week to make a video. “The Future is a Verb. Spread the Word” was the competition’s tagline. Check out the winners great entries.  Watch their Videos. http://www.architecture2030.org/faceit/faceit_index.php?most_recent_video=1 And, think.  

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Why GREEN CUISINE is my DBA

March 31, 2008 · Filed under Being Green, LEED EB, green buildings, green cuisine · Tagged , , , ,

           I joke that I have a very tight karma due to all the “coincidences” I don’t readily perceive for a long time. Now that I have turned 50, I better understand why the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.  For a start, I was born in Hospital Auxulio Mutuo (Hospital of Mutual Help) and grew up in Isla Verde (Green Island), Puerto Rico.  According to my various horoscopes: I am a “Rooster” in Chinese, a “Chain” in Arabic, a “Raven” in the Native American, a “Traveler” in African and a “Libra” in the West. From the day I was born, I inherited the grape vine as my sacred “tree”, green as my cosmic color (addressed by the heart chakra), Venus as my sacred planet and the elephant as my spirit animal. Naturally, the first time my family each officially picked their favorite colors (ask them…I swear its true), my father chose “red”; my mother, “yellow”, my sister, “pink” and, I chose “green”. At that tender age, I was totally oblivious to the butterfly effect this would cause on the chain of events linking “Green Cuisine”, the holistic umbrella for all of the projects I cook up. 

     Searching for my earliest memory, I recall precisely the first time I “cooked” and spilt blood for love. It happened when I was 3, the same afternoon my mom was giving birth to my sister in the hospital and I was at home alone with my father. While he was in the garage building a boat, I was inside, unsupervised. Knowing full well I was strictly prohibited to touch knives, I took the unusual opportunity to harvest fresh limes in the garden and make nectar. Long story short, I concocted the limeade, cut myself in the process, bandaged my wound without crying and delivered a sticky glass of pure bliss and abandon to my father (who promptly fainted at the sight of my blood). It was a memorable day for us all.  

         My mother (and her mother and her grandmother) were all comforting cooks who made soups from scratch and baked homemade pies for dessert. My mom followed James Beard recipes from his Fireside Cookbook and we always ate fresh foods including a salad. When I got my own Betty Crocker cookbook at age 7, I took to preparing a carefully planned dinner each week. And so I evolved, experimenting with every flavor in the spice rack, asking for electric beaters and omelette pans for birthdays, reading cookbooks like novels, whipping up feasts without blinking and thinking there was no better way to understand the world but through F&B (Food & Beverage) eyes. After high school, I attending a semester preparing classic French cuisine at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris followed by the coldest winters of my entire life at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration where I prepared myself for a career in Hospitality and Service (“Life IS Service”, according to Cornell).          

       Over most of my professional life, I have prepped in kitchens, managed restaurants, directed F&B departments, taught cooking and wine classes, catered parties, sold wine, stomped grapes, grown gardens, published F&B articles & newsletters & magazines & calendars, food styled videos, organized fund raising food & wine festivals, cooked for charity and traveled the world studying wine harvests and rainforest medicinal herbs. As this blog evolves, I will include various F& B stories and diaries (some previously published and others not) of my adventures tying my GREEN CUISINE DBA and karma together.            

      In a cruel twist of fate, I was asked to leave hospitality for a time for a new career in “JAN SAN” (short for Janitorial & Sanitary Supplies). Like Cinderella after midnight, I abruptly found myself in a wet smelly bathroom counting toilets and studying trash bins whereas a few months prior, I had been uncorking a fruity Rossesse wine and growing artichokes on the Italian Riviera. Attempting to make lemonade out of a sour scenario, I joked that I was flushing out my resume with the addition of another dimension in to Green Cuisine for if you are what you eat, you also **** what you eat and I supplied the Greenest toilet tissue in town. 

      As the Zen saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” and I knew squat. Soon, I was learning a new language of abbreviations for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). I discovered that Puerto Ricans have the highest rate of asthma in America making MAY the official “Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month” on the island. Once I got a bigger picture, I became an advocate for “Green Cleaning” using the T.E.A.M approach (Toss the toxicity, Economize on Energy, Appreciate the Atmosphere and Master your Materials) for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) following Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP).          

      As defined by Executive Order #13101 signed by Clinton in 1998,  an “environmentally preferable” product or service is: “One that has a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared to a similar product or service used for the same purpose”.           

     EPP is an informed way to make a better buy. Between two paints, EPP chooses the odor-free version with no VOCs to avoid chocking fumes. Between two vacuums, EPP chooses a high efficiency particular air (HEPA) filter to eliminate swirling dust. Between two toilet papers, EPP chooses the processed chlorine free (PCF) tissue made from 100% recycled pulp with post-consumer waste (PCW) over a cuddly white brand which is marketed as “soft” but which  brutally clear-cuts ancient forests in secret. To keep it simple, EPP recommends “Green Seal certified” products because they meet strict sustainable specifications for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPP is a healthier and safer way to spend your money when you have a choice which “costs” about the same (or just a wee bit more because “you are worth it”).         

       In karmic terms, nothing happens without a reason still, it was painful when my position was “eliminated” and I was swept aside like dirt. Now I crow what I know (and keep learning) concerning even deeper shades of GREEN in what we drive, where we go, what we eat, how we clean, what we buy, how we live and where we throw our “garbage” away. I am now involved with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) helping Green businesses make real profits without costing the world in the future. It all comes around in the end.

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Leading the Way

March 25, 2008 · Filed under Being Green, LEED EB, green buildings · Tagged , ,

The other day, Luis Fortuño spoke to SJ Rotary about his economic plans for Energy when he is elected Governor of Puerto Rico. Several members of the audience later told me they were watching my face as he spoke. Granted, I am a lousy poker player, so I imagine I was beaming! His speech was a Sustainability-in-Business presentation through and through and gloriously GREEN. He said a lot of spot-on things about renewable energy sources (sun and wind) and recycling and still more on how  “he’d act by example”. In other words, he noted that our local Government is the largest consumer of Energy on the island and he was going to start there first- by making it more efficient through  LEED. I wondered if everyone knew what he meant.  

Unfortunately, commercial Buildings are notoriously inefficient. Statistics compiled by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization founded in 1993, show that American (and Puerto Rican) buildings consume 40% of the total energy. [5% is consumed during the building’s construction; 83% is consumed during its lifetime!] Buildings suck up 62% of the electricity and guzzle 12% of the drinking water while producing TONS of garbage and 30% of total Greenhouse Gas [GHG]) or CO² emissions. Indeed, inefficient buildings are more to blame for Global Warming than cars!  

LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” and is the defacto GREEN standard for High Performance Buildings developed by the USGBC. The LEED system rates buildings by points achieved through implementing and documenting sustainable choices in 6 areas including: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, indoor environmental air quality, material selection and innovation. The rating system covers design and New Construction (LEED NC) and well as Operations and Maintenance of Existing Buildings (LEED EB) and others. LEED establishes a common measurable yardstick for healthy, efficient and cost saving practices and GREEN buildings don’t have to be new. Statistics show that the Existing Building (EB) market is 80 times larger than the New Construction (NC) market and its potential for energy and water savings is enormous. A 2006 USGBC study found that by retrofitting older buildings with GREEN changes, owners saved (on average) $.90/ft² annually in energy and other costs and paid back their investment in 2-2½ years. Converting Existing Buildings to High performance GREEN buildings promises to have a huge impact on Global Warming. 

Today, the USGBC, based in Washington DC, has 7,500+ members and 75+ local chapters including one in the Caribbean, based in Puerto Rico. Spearheaded by Architect Fernando Abuñas in 2005, the local chapter is continuous evolving and now meets the first Thursday of each month in the School of Architecture on the UPR Santurce campus. The chapter, however,  is very diversified and welcomes engineers, builders, interior designers, landscape designers, energy consultants, real estate planners, commissioning providers, environmentalists and Green Business Strategists (such as myself) in addition to practicing architects and emerging Green builders (students). Locally, the Chapter has already hosted numerous learning seminars as well as its 1ST Symposium on Green Building and Annual Assembly on Dec. 7, 2007 at the PR Convention Center. Bill Weinaug, a USGBC member- mechanical engineer and Convention’s opening speaker-referred to Carbon Neutral Caribbean as a huge opportunity in sustainable luxury living.  Currently involved in 20 GREEN projects throughout the islands, he summed up his strategy as a combination of Good Design (the right thing to do), Good Value (good payback) and Good Ideas (involving a plethora of New Technology). He commented that every minute enough energy reaches the Earth from the Sun to meet the World’s energy demands for one year…and that the Caribbean is a prime spot for sustainably harvesting energy from the sun, wind and deep sea. 

This weekend, (March 14-15, 2008), the Green Building Trade Show and Conference Corporation (GBTS), will also be hosting it’s first FERIA VERDE at the Puerto Rico Convention Center. Both Free and open to the public from 9 AM to 5 P.M., it promises to be a showcase for ecologically friendly product and service providers involved in the local sustainability movement. As far as I know, this is the first time all the major GREEN players on the island will be under the same roof and available for questions and answers! I can’t wait to see what Green Solutions are available here.

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How to Hop in and Help

March 25, 2008 · Filed under Being Green, Year of the Frog · Tagged , ,

I knew 2008 was the Year of the Rat but, according to Wikipedia, it is also the International Year of Languages, the Planet, the Potato, Sanitation and The Frog. Beginning on Feb. 29th (Leap Day) and lasting throughout the year, international public global awareness is being raised by Amphibian Ark (AARK) to save them. Why bother? Well, conservation biologists call amphibians “the canaries in the coal mine”. When frogs decline in the wild, it is a shrill emergency alarm for every species, including humans.

Googling “The Year of the Frog” I discover their situation really bad. Frogs are dying at a faster pace that anything we have ever experienced. This amphibian crisis is being compared to the largest single mass extinction since the dinosaurs disappeared. In fact, the World Conservation Union (UCN) estimates that 165 species are already extinct. Worse yet, 1/3 to ½ of the world’s 6,000 known amphibian species are near extinction and may disappear in our lifetime. Unfortunately, AARK claims the combination of habitat destruction, climate change, pesticides and a disease called Amphibian Chytrid caused by the Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus (Bd) is wiping them out. The deadly fungus is travelling fast and uncontrollably all around the world. It stops frogs, toads and salamanders from breathing through their skin which kills them through suffocation. Actually, NO amphibian is safe. The remaining hope for many species is a captive breeding program at accredited zoos. Fortunately, I also learned that The Clorox Company has signed on as the first official corporate sponsor of Amphibian Ark’s 2008 program by donating funds and bleach ( a powerful fungicide)  to stop the spread. The AARK program hopes to get everyone involved this Leap year.

But, really, why are frogs important to humans? Digging deeper, I learn frog skin is full of useful chemicals which scientists are just beginning to understand. Frog slime has substances which may cure a variety of diseases, including AIDS and Staph infections. Frog skin peptides have blocked and killed HIV in lab studies even when the virus is hidden in dendritic cells. This may be the missing key for an AIDS vaccine. In Australia, chemicals from a Queensland frog skin healed sores. In Brazil, a dressing from a dehydrated Amazon frog skin reduced the healing time for burns and diabetic ulcers in half. In Ecuador, another frog chemical has been found to be 200 times stronger than morphine with all of the benefits and none of the side effects. This could be a great new painkiller. Saving valuable frogs for new human medicine is just another of the many reasons AARK say Frogs Matter. So, I jumped in.

Next, I discovered a website promoting the “First International  Conference on the Coqui Frog” which was held in Hilo Hawaii on Feb. 7-9, 2008. There it states that there are 16 species of the Eleutherodactylus genus (which in Greek means “free toes”) tree frogs in Puerto Rico with 13 species unique (endemic) to the island. Indeed, there are more than 500 Eleutherodactylus species in the Caribbean living throughout Mexico and down to northern Argentina, yet only in PR are all our species called “coquis”. Unfortunately, our beloved mascot, the common E. coqui,  has also spread to Hawaii where it is considered an invasive pest with huge efforts underway to kill it and its reputation. Anyone caught releasing coquis (you catch and kill) in Hawaii is charged with a Class C Felony and faces a $50,000-$200,000 fine and up to 3 years in jail. 

This rattles me when I also learn from Rafael Joglar’s article “Conserving the Puerto Rican Herpetology” (published in Applied Herpetology October 2007) that three for our local species (E. karlschmidti, E. jasperi and E. eneidae) have not been seen or heard in Puerto Rico since 1976, 1981 and 1990 respectively and are probably extinct due to a synergistic interaction between climate change (increased dry periods) and disease (Bd). Our Golden coqui is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as Critically Endangered. So is our only native toad:  the Crested Toad. Once, it existed as two distinct populations- in the north and in the south- yet the northern toads have not been seen in the wild since 1988 . The only known wild population remains in the Guanica National Forest.  In 1984, A Species Survival Plan (SSP) was developed through the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) for our Toad with captive breeding programs coordinated among 20+ zoos. Between 1982-85, 1,300 toadlets were shipped to the island for release in the Cambalache National Forest and between 1997-2005, another 90,000 were released in Guanica. Still over the past 15 years, the southern population has dwindled to about 200 adults. In an effort to reach and teach the local public, an exhibit featuring zoo-raised toads is on display at the Dr. Juan A. Rubero Zoo in Mayaguez.  Jen Stabile from the Central Florida Zoo made the coqui a big deal at her Zoo. Her 2-day “Fiesta del Coqui” brought in 8 times the number of visitors seen on a typical weekend. 

In addition, Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, both medical (!) anthropologists, and authors of “Panic in Paradise: Invasive Species Hysteria and the Hawaiian Coqui War” as well as co-Directors of CHIRP (Coqui Hawaiin Integration and Reeducation Project) are out to protect and promote the coqui too. On his website (www.hawaiiancoqui.org ) Singer writes: “There is, in fact, NO science showing coquis as threats to native birds or insects”. Coquis eat insects including mosquitos, fire ants, roaches, stinging caterpillars and other harmful pests which is GOOD. He says they are no more invasive than the “beloved gecko” and even a “scientific study” has shown that they do not harm or endanger Hawaii’s ecosystem. Instead, Singer believes the Hawaiian Coqui Fraud is an emotional and economic issue with greedy companies out to make  Big Bucks using Federal Funds to fight a useless losing battle (not to mention poisoning a lot of other animals, plants, the groundwater, the soil and-yes- humans in the process). Nonetheless, the County of Hawaii, USDA, State of Hawaii, Department of Agriculture and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board have purchased trailer tank sprayers (ranging from 100-400 gallon capacity) for use by anyone for free and provides grants of up to $5,000 to buy citric acid, hydrated lime, gloves, masks, refreshments and other supplies “necessary to fight the coqui”.  

 The sad truth is that the coqui’s mating sing-song call keeps the Hawaiins awake at night. Describing it as “a cross between a lawnmower and a table saw”, they even go so far as to claim its SHREIK is bad for Human Health (though this is unfounded and millions in the Caribbean would beg to differ)! Singer writes that the war against coquis is “wrong and cruel” and has created a 67 acre Place of Refuge (Pu’uhona) or Coqui Sanctuary and Nature Preserve on the Big Island where his fellow Hawaiins are encouraged to see the benefits of the coqui in ECOTourism. He believes one of the best ways to get used the sound is to hear it as music, and not noise….like some exotic nighttime birdcall… and urges visitors to join him in “Coqui Encounters” and “Sunset Serenade” tours. Soy de aqui and I love the coqui so I truly believe this a worthy cause.  Check out his Da Coqui Song! It’s great.So what can YOU do for The Year of the Frog in Puerto Rico?

  1. Sign the “Save the Frog” petition at www.amphibianark.org/online-petition.php
  2. Download their Campaign InfoPack (available in English and Spanish) and share it
  3. Organize a Frog project in School
  4. Visit and support the Mayaguez Zoo to learn more
  5. Have your Corporation donate to Amphibian Ark and other Conservation organizations.

If you don’t get involved to save the frog now, how well will you sleep at night here?  

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Tune in and turn off the light

March 10, 2008 · Filed under Being Green · Tagged , , , ,

When you see the satellite image of our Earth at Night (geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.html), Puerto Rico is definitely the shining light of the Caribbean. The entire island is clearly visible as we burn midnight oil and belch out greenhouse gases. According to the EPA, our tiny speck of an island’s electrical power demand per population density is the 3rd largest within the US, the 2nd in the Americas and the 11th in the world! Our contribution to global warming is blatantly exposed for all to see for we look like a bright hole in the night’s sky. With a barrel of crude oil in the world market at $110. dollars (and a gallon of gas in Germany at $8! …Ay bendito…que nos espera), we are fossil fuel fools and it shows.

To understand where we stand, our Carbon footprint is calculated from the impact we have on the environment from burning fossil fuels (crude oil, natural gas, coal and gasoline) measured in tons of Carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions. Although various greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere by absorbing heat, CO² is the worst so scientists commonly use it to measure global-warming emissions.

A Carbon footprint is also the sum of two parts. Our Primary Carbon Footprint measures the direct emissions of CO² produced by our energy choices and transportation.   In PR, we are mostly dependent on imported crude oil or petroleum (93%) for our electricity and we have over three million cars. Our motor vehicle per capita on the island is 0.74 (the highest in the USA) and our gasoline consumption is more than 1,089,000,000 gallons/year. Just for perspective, this is More than ALL of the gasoline consumed in ALL of the seven Central American countries together!!!! We burn so much fossil fuel, Puerto Rico’s Greenhouse gas emissions are 230% higher than world average and 333% higher than the rest of Latin American and the Caribbean.

To get a more detailed idea of the tons of CO² produced by each of our energy plants on the island, go to www.carma.org, type in Puerto Rico and see. CARMA, standing for Carbon Monitoring in Action, is a non profit organization within the Center for Global Development and has been online since 2007. It reveals the CO² emissions of more than 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies in every country on Earth. In Puerto Rico, there are 31 power plants listed including one coal plant (supposedly recognized as one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the world) and one natural gas plant. Quick math, however, will show that our 2 largest oil burning plants together produce 13% less electricity than this one coal plant, yet the coal plant produces 30% more tons of CO² emissions than ALL other 30 plants put together. Unfortunately, there is really no such thing as clean coal.

Our Secondary Carbon Footprint is a measure of the indirect CO² emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use (including their manufacture and eventual breakdown). An example of lifecycle evaluation is the whole debate between which is more environmentally preferable: paper bags, plastic bags or reusable bags! (But that’s another story).

If our island’s carbon footprint bothers you, like it does me, you have the opportunity to join EARTH HOUR(www.earthhour.org ), a Global movement on March 29, 2008 to make your voice heard. Begun in Sydney, Australia last year, this city turned out its lights for one hour to send a message and unite in the cry for action on global warming. In 2008, however, Earth Hour is spreading around the world. Indeed, their interactive website shows a globe highlighting where (and to what extent) action is taking place all over. I received a link from a US Green Building Council (USGBC) member to sign up and pledge to turn my lights out from 8 PM- 9 PM this Earth Hour so I did and will. So can you, as well as all your friends and everyone you know. You can even track and link how many people you’ve “turned on” to “turn off” on this website. As they say, every single light makes a statement and you’ll be able to really see the difference on a global scale.

Once you’ve experienced Earth Hour, it’s only natural that you follow through with Earth Day on April 22, 2008. The message on the web is no matter what you’re doing for Earth Day 2008, wear BLUE. Then, on April 22nd, make your voice heard again by picking up the phone and calling the U.S. Congress (tel: 202-224-3121) to stop the construction of any new coal-fired plants.  Fifty-nine coal plants were canceled in 2007 (over a third of the 151 planned) because millions of people who just said NO to Coal and YES to renewable energy. Unfortunately, according to the Environmental Defense fund, the US government only spends $1.5 billion a year on renewable energy research (while ExxonMobil earns $1 billion a day). China, however, has committed to invest over $200 billion in renewable energy sources over the next 15 years.

April 1, 2008 is also being touted as Fossil Fool Day. With no sources of renewable energy in Puerto Rico, the joke’s on us.

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