Live Green in Plano Volunteers,
Plano's Environmental Education Coordinators never rest! Watch for some of the many exciting sustainable developments they have planned for 2010: a Workshop for Faith-Based Green Teams, the roll-out of an online course on Food Waste Composting, four Energy Toolkit Workshops at Elliott's Hardware, a plastic bag reduction campaign, energy and water rebates, and the local premiere of Tapped, the Movie, a documentary about the environmental consequences of bottled water.
The third annual Live Green Expo on Saturday, April 17, 2010 will have many new features including American Farmer/Lecturer/Author Joel Salatin, the Texas Renewable Energy Consortium mobile classroom, and a panel discussion on green jobs. More information can be found at Live Green Expo.
You'll find many opportunities to learn while you volunteer: assisting with the next Live Green in Plano Volunteer Training for six weeks beginning Monday, January 25, 2010, working alongside Master Composters at the Plano Community Garden on the second and fourth Saturdays, or assisting Erin Hoffer as she leads the winter Compost and Yardwise Classes. Join us at the popular Organic Gardening Learn Green to Live Green Seminar which will encore at Davis Library on Thursday, January 28, 2010.
Check our Web site for details. Sign up to assist. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors to join you.
2010 is your chance to get involved and make a difference!
Deb Bliss
Sustainability Volunteer Coordinator
City of Plano | |
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Green Gifts for the Holidays 
by Tanis Roelofs
with contributions from Fash Eftekhari and the Environmental Defense Fund
Green gifts can be intangible presents delivering green goodness long after the holidays, and won't end up as clutter in your closet.
· Donate time and money to a
charity in honor of the gift
cutting your own carbon emissions and fuel bills, you can
Arboretum or Dallas World Aquarium.
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Copenhagen Climate Change Conference 
by Tanis Roelofs
* How much are industrialized countries willing to reduce their
emissions of greenhouse gases?
* How much are major developing countries such as China and
India willing to limit the growth of their emissions?
* How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in
reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of
climate change going to be financed?
* How is that money going to be managed?
International agreement on these points is the goal for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009. The mission: to create a new global protocol to address climate change to succeed the Kyoto Treaty when it expires in 2012.
The United States is willing to participate and even lead the changes required to save the planet. A coalition of international environmental non-governmental agencies has drafted the "Copenhagen Climate Treaty". Some specifics of the treaty include:
· A carbon budget which would bring CO2 levels down to 1990
levels by 2020 and reduce them by another 80 percent by
2050.
· A new organization to manage the processes of emissions
cuts, adaptation and forest protection.
· Different plans for developed and newly industrialized
countries that match responsibility for actions with resource
and abilities.
Be sure to watch the news during the next few weeks as the process unfolds. |
Aquaponics:
Sustainable Farming in Your Backyard 
by David Pennington
Imagine a lush, low-maintenance organic garden automatically nourished by a tank of tilapia. Imagine your dinner plate filled with fresh greens and fish from your own backyard. David Pennington currently designs and builds aquaponic systems for people wishing to grow food sustainably and teaches people how to build their own systems. He explains the system below.
Aquaponics is the combination of two concepts: aquaculture and hydroponics. Each of these two can present considerable waste issues, but combined into an aquaponic system they become a symbiotic and sustainable type of agriculture. The water in an aquaponic system recirculates from the fish vessels to the plants in a continuous loop. Beneficial bacteria in the system convert waste ammonia from the aquaculture section into nitrates, and plants in the hydroponic section gladly remove the nitrates. One of the key benefits of aquaponics is water conservation: only small amounts of water are added to replace water that leaves the system in the form of plants, fish, and evaporation. To read more, click here. David Pennington can be reached at aquaponicdave@gmail.com or 214-235-5839. |
Fieldtrip Report:
TimberCreek: Warm, Welcoming and Net Zero Energy 
The TimberCreek Net Zero Energy home in Lewisville goes beyond energy efficiency in producing more energy than the home will require. The idea intrigued 30 Plano volunteers who toured the home one Saturday morning with the owner of Greencraft Builder, LLC, Chris Miles and architect William Peck. This private home was built as part of the Department of Energy's Building America Program and open to the public for one month before the family took up residency.
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Book Review: Big Coal by Jeff Goodell  It's not a coffee table book and its 300 page length may prove daunting to some readers, but Jeff Goodell's story about how our lives became so intertwined with coal is timely and needs to be heard. He writes: "We love it, hate it, can't live without it." The true cost of coal is not $33/megawatt hour, but lives lost in mines, irreversible destruction of land, cancers, asthma, heart disease, dead fish, poisoned drinking water, and polluted air. Yet we constantly plug new devices and appliances into the wall. We think of electricity as clean, modern, and an inexhaustible resource.
Goodell's work explains why 50% of Americans live in areas where air exceeds pollution standards. He gives us the social, political, world history, and the current state of coal, but he also tells about future technology. Terms such as integrated gasification combined cycle and CO2 sequestration will soon be in the news and need to be clearly understood by voters.
Statistics show the average American consumes 20 pounds of coal per day, that longterm exposure to low levels of pollutants are as dangerous to human health as short-term exposure to high levels of pollutants. Big Coal makes the case that the impact of using coal as a major energy resource is not restricted to Tennessee and Wyoming. It is an issue all Americans need to address here and now. |
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Lead Your Congregation Down a Greener Path
The City of Plano is looking for members of faith-based congregations ready to lead their organizations in implementing green practices that will yield both financial and environmental results.
When: Saturday, January 23 from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Where: Parkway Service Center, 4120 W. Plano Parkway, Plano, TX 75093
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