Crude: A Joe Berlinger Film

A 2009 Sundance Film Festival selection, Crude: The Real Price of Oil, is a documentary based on Chevron’s destruction of the Ecuadorian rain forest. Joe Berlinger, known for films like Paradise Lost and Brother’s Keeper, gives a well-rounded look at one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in history. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the case, in the late 60s, Chevron (formally known as Texaco), came across a hidden oil deposit under the northern portion of the Amazon. The government and people in Ecuador were not sure what to do when this big industry came into their homelands so they entrusted Chevron with obtaining the oil through modern environmental practices, that would do little harm to the environment and the people. Chevron didn’t live up to that and year later. The end result: an environmental disaster that left the whole situation earning the title, “Amazon Chernobyl.”

“Gripping…cinematic. The most urgent film I’ve seen at Sundance this year.”
-Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

“A sprawling legal thriller with rare depth and power.”
-Stephen Holden, The New York Times

What’s new with the climate talks?

So I don’t know if you heard, but last week Yvo de Boer announced he would be stepping down from his post as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change, or the UNFCCC. His official step down date is June 1, so that gives de Boer and the UNFCCC a mere three months to find his replacement.

As you probably heard, if not from me then from countless other sources, that the UN Climate Change Conference in December in Copenhagen ended with less than desirable results (really, the results were quite horrible, but don’t get me started). Nation delegates will meet in Cancun, Mexico…yes that’s right Cancun…later this year (Nov.29 -Dec.10) to give the negotiations another try. They will hopefully be giving another shot to coming up with a solid legally binding agreement that will be able to replace Kyoto. But de Boer’s resignation is leaving many nervous about how this will affect the already shaky Mexico negotiations.

Apparently, negotiations will continue in Bonn, Germany from April 9-11 and then again from May 31 - June 1. Until then, according to an associated press article, “De Boer’s successor will be named by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has put climate change on the top of his own and the U.N.’s priorities. He is likely to look for a candidate from the developing countries.”

Those are some big words…developing nations?! If that is the case, I am extremely excited and would foresee the voice of developing countries no longer being hidden beneath developed countries and big industry in Cancun. If not, we will probably be looking at the same type of “accord” that came out of Copenhagen.

Facebook on Coal?!

To all of you Facebook users out there, you might be excited to know that the second most visited site in the U.S. just announced that it is opening up their first data center in Oregon! Sounds cool right? Well, what if I told you that they are planning on to power that data center with coal?

Yes my friends…coal.

Treehugger.com seems to be the first one to have leaked this one on the Internet, but the news is actually spreading like…uhh…well, like wild fire across the blogosphere. It’s only natural that we bring the news here too. Jonathan Heiliger, VP of Technical Operations for Facebook, announced the news in late January right on Facebook that they were designing a facility that would be “highly efficient and cost-effective for our operations today and in the future.”

Well, we didn’t find out until just recently that those “cost-effective” operations means powering this new exciting step for them partly with coal. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that coal is NOT the most “highly efficient” choice I would have chosen. Perhaps, wind energy? Or what about solar panels?

It was interesting to see that “Cause groups” were popping up right within Facebook’s social network borders, calling for Zuckerberg (Facebook creator) and other Facebook higher ups to rethink the decision and go for clean energy instead. It kind of puts it’s users in a rut, especially if they are concerned that the network that they use to stay in contact with people across the world supports just the type of non-renewable energy economy that they would like to see the U.S. get out of.

Come on Facebook execs, rethink this.

Not Exactly What I Would Be Spending $8 Billion On…

Remember the Three Mile Island incident? Remember how it basically put a halt to any more nuclear reactors being built in the United States? You do?! Well, then someone please tell me why President Obama just signed on to an $8 billion dollar loan to build the first nuclear sites in nearly three decades.

That’s right my friends, it seems nuclear is back in the picture. It seems not Obama isn’t all talk as I thought, but I honestly thought that even though he muttered those words in the State of the Union address a little while back, that wouldn’t be the first on the “clean energy” list. But alas, I was mistaken.

The pair of reactors to be built in Georgia are the beginning of what seems to be a continuing implementation of nuclear sites. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that nuclear seems “clean” because it doesn’t release as many harmful greenhouse gases and sure it produces an extensive amount of energy, but this is not what we should be investing billions of dollars in. Nuclear sites are dangerous and, quite frankly, not good for surrounding areas due to the need to dispose of tons of radioactive waste released into the immediate environment. We should be investing in actual clean energy like wind and solar, not to mention something that will not be pulling more money out of the pockets of the taxpayers.

Sure, Obama is not seeing any progress coming from the Senate as far passing the energy bill, but he is not making it a priority. And if he isn’t making this a priority, then those in the Senate will see no reason to put it first on their list either. But when that day finally comes when the Senate is able to bring out the energy bill and come to an agreement on it, they should be thinking about the most cost-effective, safe, and future-helping ways to produce clean energy for our country. And that, my dear friends, does not include a giant nuclear reactor.

It’s Just Snow…

So this crazy east coast blizzard has been creating mixed feelings in tons of Americans, those actually in the storm and those watching from afar. While kids play in the snow, excited about another snow day, and employees complain that they have to clean ridiculous amounts of snow off their cars, climate skeptics are using the “blizzard” to, well, disprove climate change. Yes, it is snowing out, but to say that that disproves climate change is, quite frankly, absurd.

The reason we stopped using the words “global warming” is for this exact reason. Global warming refers to an overall increase in temperature of our Earth, which in turn affects our climate. We refer to this issue now as “climate change” because it is exactly that, a changing climate, and it is affecting places differently all around the world. Some places are experiencing drought, some are experiencing all time low temperatures, some are seeing extreme weather popping up regularly, among others. Weather and climate are different things, but are connected.

But alas, people are still taking this opportunity to disprove climate change. Take for example Senator James Inhofe and his family, who took the snow from this crazy climate change disproving blizzard and built an igloo on Capitol Hill with a sign saying “Al Gore’s New Home.” Clever. We are all entitled to our demonstrations. At least this one was fun for the kids, but in all seriousness, it’s just snow.

An Environmental Journalist, Hard at Work

Here at Ithaca College we often have the rare privilege to meet extraordinarily influential people and sometimes even get the chance to study with them. I got to listen to one of those people speak today and her name is Sandra Steingraber. A cancer survivor, an author, and a biologist, Steingraber is one influential woman and we are lucky enough to have here as a Scholar-in-Residence here at IC. Steingraber has spent her life knowing she wanted to make a difference in the lives of those around her, knowing as early as age seven, she said.

Her first book Living Downstream, originally published in 1997 and released in a revised edition this year, tells a compelling story of the links between environmental contamination and cancer in communities. It was her own community’s high cancer rates that led her to question just what exactly was happening to their health and what was causing it. The book was so fantastic that the People’s Picture Company Inc. just turned the book into a film. And although often we find that films never quite add up to the books they portray, Steingraber said the film is an amazing visual way of telling her story and her research.

Steingraber has been referred to today as a modern Rachel Carson. And to be honest, the similarities seen between Carson and Steingraber are unreal. I think my favorite part about it is looking up the book on Amazon and finding out that people most often buy both Silent Spring by Carson and Living Downstream by Steingraber, together. Wow, so she is not only influencing thousands with her research and prose, but getting those in our day to read one of the most influential environmental books of an environmental leader gone before us. As a women in both a writing field and an environmental field, it makes me feel moved to make as big of a difference as they have. Umm, can we go back in time so I can start earlier?

Helping Haiti from our Home

Today was a pretty inspiring day for me, most especially around the noon hour. I received an email that went out to many student organizations, most especially those dedicated to volunteering. The email was brief, saying only that there would be a brainstorming meeting Thursday at the lunch hour to discuss efforts to help Haiti. I figured that a handful of people would show up, not because I didn’t have faith in the student body that they were willing to help, but because college inboxes are flooded everyday with emails about meetings to go and they all manage to be at the exact same time. But the turn out was more than I could have hoped for.

We gathered in one of our only few lectures halls on campus and students from all different organizations, not even just volunteer ones, met and brainstormed ideas about how we could help those in Haiti from afar. There were talks of benefit concerts, collaborations with other colleges, t-shirt drives, wristband sales, and the list went on and on. Honestly, I sat there in awe at how willing everyone was to lend a hand. What I think hit home for a lot of people was the few speakers we had at the beginning of the meeting. They were a few members from our own CSA, the Caribbean Students Association. Haiti is a place close to their hearts, especially one whose family actually lives in Haiti, and they were eager to get people involved. Although, it felt like the energy to make a difference overseas was already there.

The question remains just what exactly our student body will do to raise funds to send over to Haiti. But with the energy and enthusiasm I saw today, it is evident that we will for sure go above and beyond what is expected. Isn’t that an IC student anyway?

“Travel with a Purpose”

One of the main things I hear about our country with the economy being bad is the fact that so many people are deciding to go to college or join volunteer organizations like the Peace Corps. And of course the reason is because there are not a lot of jobs out there and if you are done with college, you most likely won’t have to start paying loans back. But there are so many other organizations where people can volunteer and not necessarily do it for two years. Ever hear of International Student Volunteers?

This past summer I spent a month, having the time of my life in The Land of the Long White Cloud, New Zealand. And the reason I went was because I heard about this awesome program called ISV, where you  “travel with a purpose.” Basically, they send you to countries across the world to volunteer at either conservation projects or community development projects. Thousands of student apply and thousands go and do their work all throughout the year. After two weeks of volunteering, ISV sends students on a two-week adventure tour of the country they were volunteering in to immerse themselves in the culture. It really is a spectacular program.

I mention this because this Saturday I headed to Rochester for an ISV Rep Conference. They have been holding these small conferences all across the U.S. over the past few months, where local ISV alumni (representatives really) gather together to discuss ways in order to encourage other students to make the commitment to volunteering overseas. And if making a month long time commitment is too much, students can just do the two volunteer weeks. And if that is still too long, I just found out they are collecting donations on their website that will go directly to the Red Cross efforts in Haiti. Another Kudos!