WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS
5 October 2010
ECO RADIO KC ¤ WEEKLY ECOLOGICAL ISSUES RADIO SHOW
Tuesday, 5 October 2010, 12:00noon-1:00pm ¤ on Kansas City Community Radio
Listen at KKFI-FM 90.1, or on web-streaming at http://www.kkfi.org/
There's still time to call and donate during the pledge drive at (888)931-0901
On Eco-Radio KC this week, host Steve Mann and guest Toby Grotz will discuss "Nothing lasts Forever: Beyond Petroleum & Coal". Toby Grotz is an electrical engineer who has explored for oil overseas and helped design power plants in the U.S. He will discuss why we need to design a whole new energy system that runs on renewable energy well before we run out of fossil fuels.
On Friday at 9:30am, listen as the Bioneers radio series presents "From Bows & Arrows to Laptops: Marrying Traditional Knowledge with Web Technology to Save the Amazon". Forty years ago when a logging road was blasted deep into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the outside world discovered the Surui people. Contact with the Western world led to their decimation by disease, warfare and illegal logging and mining. The Surui organized to save themselves and their homeland by electing a young leader to tell their story to the world. Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui traveled from the Amazon rainforest to the Google-plex to ask for help to bring his people back from the brink of extinction and save their precious rainforest. The collaboration with Google Earth Outreach manager Rebecca Moore has helped map a next world that marries the best of tradition and conservation with the best of high technology. Translation by Vasco van Roosmalen.
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FROM THE KOGI "ELDER BROTHER" OF COLOMBIA ¤ AN ECOLOGICAL WARNING
Jacinto Zarabata is the first member of the Kogi people of Colombia ever to visit Britain. It would be easy to view Jacinto as a noble savage - an exotic being from a pristine indigenous culture still living in impenetrable pockets of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. On the contrary, this small, self-assured spokesman for the Kogi has made the journey to Britain because the Kogi have embarked on an unusual and ambitious mission. They are making a movie about their way of life – but not for themselves. It is for us of the industrial societies.
Living by a complex set of spiritual beliefs, the Kogi are the "elder brother" and guardians of the heart of the earth, and they believe we of industrial societies ("little brother") are destroying the planet. They have come to warn us, before it is too late. the Kogi have observed frightening changes to their homeland in recent decades. The glaciers are melting, storms have increased in ferocity, there are landslides and floods, followed by droughts and deforestation. Over centuries, they survived the wars waged on them by retreating farther into the mountains, through dense rainforest and cloud forest dubbed "El Infierno" by settlers. There are still no roads to the Kogi's traditional settlements (Jacinto's home does not exist on official maps), but global capitalism is slowly conquering the Kogi's isolation.
In 1991, a BBC documentary, "From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brother's Warning", the Kogi warned of climate disruption, and that "little brother's" (industrial society's) hunger for energy and material possessions was "cutting out of the eyes and ears" of the great mother (the earth). But we didn't listen. So with one of the few industrial devices they use, cameras, they themselves are making a new film "Aluna", which will take the audience on a perilous journey into the mysteries of their sacred places to change our understanding of reality. The film is to be released in the Summer of 2011, but you can watch the trailer at Aluna - the movie trailer. Read more of this article at A message from the Heart of the World.
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SUNFLOWER COAL-FIRED ELECTRIC PLANT ¤ 2ND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
Written comments: Thursday, 23 September - Saturday, 23 October 2010
Public Hearing: Monday, 25 October 2010, 2:00pm
Capitol Plaza Hotel (Sunflower Ballroom), 1717 SW Topeka Blvd., Topeka KS 66612
Don't wait. Don't procrastinate. Participate now.
Because Kansas Gov. Parkinson and the Legislature cut an inside deal that took from the Kansas Department of Health & Environment power to act on behalf of Kansans, the KDHE is now acting on behalf of the EPA. Several months ago, the KDHE held public hearings on the Sunflower Electric Power permit application, and received over 4,600 comments. But Sunflower Power had submitted faulty data on air pollution dispersion, so the KDHE has opened a second public comment period.
However it is URGENT that the EPA keep the process fair. Coal proponents have pressured the KDHE to shorten the 45 day comment period to only 30 days, even though this permit cycle has resulted in nearly six times the comments as the 2006/2007 cycle. The Sunflower coal supporters want the permit issued rapidly so they can avoid multiple federal greenhouse gas regulations that come into play on 2 January 2011.
Fortunately the EPA has, so far, held the political maneuvering in check. To ask the EPA to protect the integrity of permitting process, first go to http://action.sierraclub.org/SunflowerLeak.
To submit a comment specifically about the permit request by Sunflower to build a coal-fired electric generating station in Holcombe, submit it between 23 Sept. and 23 Oct. Use one of the following options:
- Send e-mail to sunflowercomments@kdheks.gov
- Mail written comments to: KDHE Bureau of Air, Attention Sunflower Comments, 1000 SW Jackson St., Suite 310, Topeka KS 66612-1366
- Present comments verbally or in writing at the hearing on 25 October, 2:00pm
ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPALS IN PRACTICING PERMACULTURE ¤ 3RD LECTURE
Thursday, 7 October 2010, 6:00-9:00pm - $$$
Matt Ross Community Center, 8101 Marty St., Overland Park KS 66204
Steve Moring of Vajra Farm Permaculture Center will describe how humans can mimic nature's interrelated life-forms to create balanced and sustainable food production ecosystems which maintain species diversity and environmental stability. This lecture is the third in a nine-session weekly permaculture lecture series. The lecture will be followed by a group discussion of permaculture applications, resources, local organizations and community projects, and will finish with a viewing of the film "Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie". Preregistration is required, and a percentage of the fees will support the Kaw Permaculture Collaborative and it's parent organization, the Sustainability Action Network. For more information contact Steve Moring at (785)691-7305 or <smoring@grasshoppernet.com>
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10/10/10 ¤ COMMUNITY ACTION CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Now in the final week before the 10/10/10 Global Work Party , the number of world wide events has set a record over 6077 events - 350.org. All are local actions that will contribute to reversing CO2 emissions, global temperature rises, and the 392ppm atmospheric concentration of CO2. Some actions are: solar electric installation in Namibia, coral reef clean up off the island country of Nauru, solar powered lights for Hurrican Alex victims in Mexico, Mayor of Mexico City signing a commitment of 10% annual cut in emissions, Sumo wrestlers bicycling in Tokyo . . .
Lawrence KS:
- Screening of Dirty Business: "Clean Coal" and Our Energy Future, 7:00pm, ECM 1204 Oread Blvd. Sponsored by K.U. EcoJustice, Sustainability Action Network, Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy, Kansas Sierra Club, Films For Action. More info from <paradigm@ixks.com>
- A farm day at Mellowfields Urban Farm CSA. More info from <jja80@yahoo.com>
- 350KC.org tree planting with K.C. Parks & Recreation Dept., 10:00am-4:00pm, location TBA
- prepare for the Spring planting of a Food Forest in a lawn infested lot, 1:00-4:00pm, 43rd & McGee Streets. Sponsored by 350KC.org and Food Not Lawns KC. More info from <steve@squashblossomkc.org>
- Bicycle workshop with Dave Anderson, 1:30-4:00pm, K.C. Central Library, 10th & Main St., K.C. Missouri
- K.C. Art Institute rain garden clean up, and recycled paper project, with Theo Brunch, 2:00-5:00pm, 45th & Warwick Ave., K.C. Missouri
- Pot luck diner after-party, All Souls Unitarian Church, Canover Cafe, 5:00-8:00pm, 45th & Walnut St., K.C. Missouri
CHUITNA COAL PROJECT BY PACRIM COAL ¤ UPPER COOK INLET, ALASKA
Strip mining in West Virginia destroys streams by dumping mountaintops there. In Alaska, they dispense with the first step, and simply destroy the stream by digging it entirely up. PacRim Coal, a Delaware corporation funded by Barrick Gold and Texas investors is planning to develop Alaska’s largest coal strip mine 45 miles west of Anchorage. They intend to remove 11 miles of the Middle Creek, a primary tributary of the Chuitna River, an important salmon stream for indigenous and Anglo fishers alike. This is just a foot in the door for the investors who own some sixty thousand acres of land (much of it coastal, riverfront, and wetlands) that promises to yield an estimated 1 billion metric tons of low-quality sub-bituminous coal.
In a poetic irony, the coal would be strip mined, crushed, shipped to energy-ravenous China, burned and returned to Alaska in the form of acid and particulates that will ride the prevailing winds back across the Pacific to the land from which it came. Unfortunately, there is no law that bans mining through a salmon steam, so a sustainable resource will be sacrificed for a dirty and depleting resource. PacRim claims "they’ll clean it all up and stock the river with more salmon and it will be 'even better' than before", but there’s no record of that type of restoration ever happening before. Read more at Chuitna Coal Project with many links and contact info, and at Chuitna and the Curse of Coal with many photos and personal commentary.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is accepting public comment until Wednesday, 13 October 2010 at 5:00pm (Alaska time zone). Send comments to Russell Kirkham at <russell.kirkham@alaska.gov>, or to 550 West 7th Avenue #920, Anchorage AK 99501.
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TRANSITION KANSAS CITY ¤ TOWARDS A LOWER-CARBON COMMUNITY
Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 6:00pm
Waldo Library, 201 East 75th St., Kansas City MO 64114
The Kansas City Transition Initiative is addressing climate disruption and peak oil inflation at the local level, a relocalization effort similar to hundreds of others around the globe. Architect Jerry Sargent will discuss "Using Empty School Buildings in Revitalizing Neighborhoods".
The Transition movement was begun by Rob Hopkins in Great Britain Transition Towns, and in the U.S. is coordinated by Transition US based in Sebastapol CA. They help local initiatives with resources and publications, and they have 22 trainers traveling to conduct local training sessions. For more info, or to get on the Kansas City e-mail list, call (816)767-8873, or contact them at <bkjelshus@sbcglobal.net>
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KANSAS ENERGY CONFERENCE
(formerly KANSAS WIND & RENEWABLE ENERGY CONFERENCE)
Tuesday-Wednesday, 12-13 October 2010 - $$$
Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center, Wichita KS
Even though the name change seems to imply the "all of the above" energy policy of BP (coal, nuclear, oil, wind, solar, natural gas), the program seems to focus on wind, solar and efficiency as in the past. The only program detail now available is that the keynote speaker will be Mike Revak, Vice President of Sales for Siemens Energy, Inc. Will it be worth traveling to Wichita? Stay tuned - Kansas Energy Conference 2010
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LAWRENCE SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD
Wednesday, 13 October 2010, 5:30pm
Recycling and Resource Recovery Annex, 320 N.E. Industrial Lane, Lawrence KS
The October agenda will be available soon. The S.A.B. meets monthly to discuss any and all aspects of furthering sustainability policies and practices by the City of Lawrence government and private persons. The public is welcome. Minutes are finalized in about a month after each meeting http://www.lawrenceks.org/wrr/envadvisoryboard
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KANSAS CITY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
Wednesday, 13 October 2010, 4:00-6:00pm
Mid America Regional Council, Rivergate Center 2nd floor, 600 Broadway, KC MO
The Environmental Management Commission promotes environmental awareness and resource efficiency to the City's leader and staff, to assist the progress of Kansas City toward sustainability. Members of the general public are encouraged to attend and observe meetings and to join and participate in its efforts. More information and the EMC April 2009 minutes are available at http://www.kcmo.org/manager.nsf/web/emc
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BIONEERS ¤ CELEBRATING 21 YEARS OF BREAKTHROUGH SOLUTIONS
Friday-Sunday, 15-17 October 2010 - $$$
San Rafael CA
The Bioneers are social and scientific innovators who develop solutions that mimic nature's operating systems. They are visionaries who, in their own communities, are creating a healthy, diverse, equitable and beautiful world. With phenomenal effectiveness, the Bioneers reach tens-of-thousands of people at their conference and simultaneous satellite conferences, through their year-round radio show, by their professional intensive seminars, in their Eco Schools program, and by their Democracy School training. For conference info, schedule, and registration go to the 2010 Bioneers Conference.
There are dozens of simultaneous regional conferences with speakers and workshops and major speakers beamed live from the San Rafael conference - Bioneers beaming to regional conferences. The nearest ones to the Kansas City/Lawrence area are: Bluegrass Bioneers | 2010 in Louisville KY (22-24 October), Northland Bioneers - 2010 in St. Paul MN (23-24 October), and Colorado Bioneers - 2010 in Boulder CO (5-7 November).
Revolution From the Heart of Nature
It's all alive; it's all connected; it's all intelligent; it's all relatives
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BURROUGHS CREEK TRAIL & PARK DEDICATION CEREMONY
Saturday, 16 October 2010, 11:00am
15th St. at the trail (near Parnell Park), Lawrence KS 66044
Initiated by the neighborhoods of Brook Creek, Barker, and East Lawrence, and built by the City of Lawrence, this community-uniting trail has been in the making for seven years. The Burroughs Creek Trail extends from Hobbs Park on 11th Street south to 23rd Street where it connects with the Haskel University rail-trail. It is located on the historic railroad bed built in 1867-68 by anti-slavery publisher, John Speer, and partners, and abandoned by BNSF RR in 1988. The trail plans call for it to continue north to a bicycle-pedestrian bridge across the Kaw River, and south to connect with the Wakarusa Wetlands and on to the Wakarusa River. At both ends it will link to major segments of a City-wide bicycle-pedestrian trail network.
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SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK - MONTHLY MEETING
Sunday, 17 October 2010, 11:00am
location TBA, Lawrence KS
Local Solutions for Transition to a Sustainable Economy
S.A.N. organizes societal scale action for ecological sustainability both in our personal lives, and through public policy changes. "Be the change you want to see". The S.A.N. meeting agenda will include:
- Transition Kaw Valley power point trial run
- Kansas Permaculture Institute possible merger
- community workshops: solar food dehydrator, cold frames, rain barrels, etc.
- S.A.N.web hosting options
- develop an annual events schedule
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FOOD NOT LAWNS ¤ COMMUNIVERSITY CLASS #2305A
Wednesdays, 20 & 27 October and 3 & 10 November 2010, 7:00pm - $$
UMKC School of Medicine, Theatre C, 2411 Holmes St., Kansas City MO 64108
Grow food not lawns! Increase local food security, improve your diet, beautify your surroundings, build community, reduce pollution and energy use (It takes 87 calories of fuel to transport one calorie of perishable fresh fruit from west coast to east coast). As supporters of the Food Not Lawns national movement, we will hold five sessions dealing with topics that include whole system design, garden preparation, permaculture, water-wise gardening, seed saving, planting, and free resources. Presenters include master and highly-qualified gardeners. Class fee is $18, plus $5 for materials. Register at Communiversity online registration. Bring a picture ID. Limit 30. More info at Food Not Lawns KC, or <steve@prairietrading.com>.
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TRANSITION TRAINING WORKSHOP IN OMAHA
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 October 2010, 6:30pm-9:00pm Fri., 8:30am-5:30pm Sat.-Sun. - $$$
Columbans Retreat Center, 1902 Calhoun Street, Bellevue, NE 68005
The Transition movement was begun by Rob Hopkins in Great Britain Transition Towns, and in the U.S. is coordinated by Transition US based in Sebastapol CA. The focus is for local communities to transition from fossil fuel dependency to local resilience by tapping into their citizens' own genius and creativity. There currently are 74 transition initiatives in the U.S., and hundreds around the world. This training in Omaha will be conducted by the founders of Transition Colorado, Lynette Hanthorn and Michael Brownlee. For more info and to register go to http://www.transitionomaha.org
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LAWRENCE ELECTRONICS RECYCLING EVENT
Saturday, 23 October 2010, 9:00am to 1:00pm
Electronics devices typically contain toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury and cadmium, and precious metals like silver and gold. If recycled properly, these metals can be materials feed stock for new industrial processes, not to mention saving production costs, and keeping them out of the landfill.
This one day event will provide Lawrence residents and businesses a way to conveniently recycle old, unwanted electronics equipment. Items accepted for recycling are computer monitors, desktops, laptops, keyboards, printers and other peripherals, televisions, copiers, scanners, telephones, cell phones, pagers, fax machines, VHS/DVD drives, hand held devices, and small appliances like micro wave or toaster ovens. There is a recycling fee for computer monitors ($10.00) and televisions ($15.00). There are no charges for other electronic equipment. Items not accepted are large appliances such as refrigerators and AC units. Fees may be paid by cash or check.
Electronic recycling will be provided by Extreme Recycling, Inc. http://www.extremerecyclinginc.com/ recycling the E-waste in accordance to Federal and Kansas Electronic Waste Processing Regulations. The event is sponsored by the City of Lawrence Waste Reduction & Recycling Division http://www.lawrencerecycles.org/
The SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK, Inc. is a Kansas not-for-profit organization. DONATIONS ARE APPRECIATED, and checks can be mailed to P.O.Box 1064, Lawrence KS 66044. Our mission is to advocate and organize societal scale action to address sustainability issues. The triple crises of Energy-Ecology-Economy are building so rapidly that large scale action is needed immediately and methodically to overcome institutional barriers and advance public policy that preserves ecological sustainability. Our focus is to build a relocalized economy-ecology in concert with the Transition Town movement occurring in many other communities. To join the Sustainability Action Network please contact us at <paradigm@ixks.com>
Our current projects include:
1) Transition Kaw Valley - initiating transition to a relocalized post-carbon economy, and municipal level Peak Oil response planning.
2) Kaw Permaculture Collaborative - developing skills and resources for poly-cropping sustainable food production.
3) Energy Conservation & Renewables - advancing a green economy through decentralized technologies and regulations, for conservation and renewable energy.
4) Land Consortium - organizing interested stakeholders to acquire prime farmland in the urban fringe for land-based economic development and regional food security.
5) Water Rights and Watersheds - protecting the water commons, the source of all life, from privatization and contamination, and restoring our watersheds.
6) Electric & Human Powered Vehicles - promoting neighborhood electric vehicles and utility tricycles, including infrastructure and pro-active regulations.
7) Weekly Sustainability Announcements - informing and encouraging others to become active in the Sustainability Action Network, or other action driven groups.
8) Collaboration with sister organizations - such as: The Light Center eco-village; Kaw Valley Food System farm-based economic development; Citizens for Responsible Planning; Films for Action; Kansas River Valley Growers fighting for local water rights; national efforts by the Sustainable Energy Network; KC Metro groups like the Kansas City Food Circle and the All Species Project, etc.
We welcome suggestions for items to be included. Please send items to <paradigm@ixks.com>
To subscribe to this list, please send an e-mail to <paradigm@ixks.com> with the subject line reading “subscribe to Sustainability Announcements”.
If you do not care to continue on this announcements list, please respond "unsubscribe to Sustainability Announcements" at <paradigm@ixks.com>
