A Deeper Green

So today I gave my worms a little extra loving and a little bit of water for their bedding, as it was looking a little dry on top. They seem to be settling in ok. I don’t have very many of them, so I am hoping they will get to making worm babies soon! I decided to try a little bit of food for them, as they were already good established worms. They’ve had a little bit of celery, some apples bits, and a couple small potato peels. I also gave them some egg shells, as I hear it helps their digestion. So yay worms!

In other news, I am in Madison this weekend at the Alliant Energy Center Madison Fishing Expo. It seems pretty fun so far. I am hoping to talk to lots of people about invasive species and some water conservation issues. Hopefully the show will be fantastic and we will get to talk to a bunch of people. Wish us luck, and have a great weekend!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/last-rites-for-lake-van.php

I really don’t have much to say except that I am greatful for the beautiful lakes that I live near and the brilliant and courageous people who work every day to protect them.

I meant to put this at the end of the blog yesterday, but was silly and forgot.

Those of you not located in the Chicagoland area and interested in volunteering but are unsure where your talents might be needed can check out www.idealist.org. They have thousands of volunteer positions in many fields listed, including plenty of jobs in the environment and green living arenas. Find yourself one today!

It’s no secret that Americans are big on volunteering. Numerous studies have shown that Americans like to get out there and do good. Especially those who are in college or who are retired. Volunteering is a fantastic way to give back to your community and to fill your life with some purpose, in ways that you may not have ever foreseen before.

Currently, I don’t have a lot of time for volunteering in my life, but in college I LOVED getting out there and doing something to help my college community and the surrounding communities. I volunteered at the local Humane Society and also helped with local environmental projects. I assisted in organizing blood drives and drove those who were transportationally challenged to vote. I did all sorts of cool stuff, and had a great time doing it.

I was reminded of my volunteering days recently. As many of you know I work for the Shedd Aquarium. The Shedd employs just under 400 full and part-time staff but is a very large place with thousands of visitors each week. This means that we rely HEAVILY on our volunteers. There are more volunteers at the Shedd than employees! The really cool part about being a Shedd volunteer is that everyone at Shedd knows how important you are. Volunteers are given great perks from the aquarium for their time, including free admission and classes, and there are many unique learning opportunities just from doing the assigned job.

I think this is the great part about America’s volunteer culture. Everyone benefits. We have come so far from the years in the past where volunteers were expected to come in once a week, stuff envelops for two hours and walk away with a pat on the back. While that still happens and still needs to happen in many places, I feel that norm is moving much more towards real, rewarding experiences for volunteers. I know that other museums in the Chicagoland area have similar relationships with their volunteers to the Shedd, and it is a beautiful thing.

Now, as I said, I currently very seldom volunteer my time, unless it is with an organization I’m already involved in, and that is occasional not regular. But, I do encourage those of you with the time to consider finding a rewarding volunteer program to be a part of. And if you read my blog, either you love me or you love the environment, so why not try for some green volunteer opportunities.

Of course you can always come out to the Shedd, we’d love to have you. But there are plenty of other great opportunities around as well. Alliance for the Great Lakes is always looking for volunteers to help with their adopt a beach program. Chicagolad Environmental Network always has a great list of volunteer positions listed on its website, and there are many other places that have wonderful opportunities for you to get out there and make a difference for your piece of the world.

These places are very chicago-centric but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t great opportunities near you. Just ask an organization that you admire if they are looking for or could use some volunteers. I am willing to bet the answer is yes, and I’m willing to bet what they need you do to will be pretty cool.

Find that article here.

I now proudly share some apartment space not only with the best man alive, but also with some red wiggler worms. I was hoping to get them sooner, but they just came home with me today.

They are making their home in a shallow plastic bin with some holes drilled into it by me. I also provided them with some shredded, wet New York Times and some bits of a paper grocery bag.

The worms that I got came from an already well established bin. I scooped them out with some of their castings and just transferred them to my own bin. This is still an experiment to me, so we’ll see how they do. They’ve been in the bin for a couple of hours now, and have yet to leave their clumps of casting, possibly because I took them outside in the cold and the castings were the warmest bits of the bin. We’ll see what happens and I, of course, will keep you updated.

When we got home I gave them a little bit of potato peelings and some finely chopped celery. Hopefully they find that to be tasty worm food!

So, wind energy is mostly a rural thing, or an offshore thing. Occasionally you hear about the odd wind turbine in a more residential setting, but this article talks about the advent of more wind turbines in urban settings. It seems pretty cool.

I’m not really sure how viable the whole thing will end up being, but I guess that’s why they are doing the experimental bits now.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Great+Lakes+enough+quench+water+shortage+Report/1282988/story.html

While this seems fairly obvious to me, I like that there is appparently hard scientific evidence with the numbers all crunched and such to prove it. Unless you are putting water back into the watershed you can’t take water out (says the girl who lives in Chicago, which is the highest outflow point for the lakes, I’m sorry guys!). What would shipping water the american southwest prove? Nothing really, except that if you bring enough water with you, you CAN have a lawn in the desert… lame. Move to michigan why don’t you?

Ok, that was a little silly. But I mean really… why is this still something that comes up all the time?

So last night I had the pleasure of attending a movie premiere for “Mysteries of the Great Lakes.” This was a 44 minute movie that was presented at the Henry Crown Omnimax Theater at the Museum if Science and Industry, and let me tell you how fantastic this movie was. Very fantastic!

The movie has a strong conservation message, and follows the saga of some very dedicated conservation workers. It shows many of the problems facing the Great Lakes and those that work to save them.  I walked out feeling very hopeful and very energized for the work I do in Great Lakes conservation.

For those of you that live in Chicago I highly recommend a trip to MSI and a viewing of this wonderful movie.

Something else kinda interesting, both the movie and the evening were sponsored, in part, by the Canadian Consul General, Georges Rioux. He gave a speech before each showing and seemed like a pretty great guy. I didn’t get a change to speak with him personally, but I find it so wonderful that we can have this level of international cooperation on Great Lakes issues. I know that having cooperation with Canada doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when it comes to the Great Lakes there has been a lot of arguing in the past so it’s great to know that we are moving forward on the same page.

Ok, that’s all for now. If you are able, go see the movie, and then tell me what you think!

but as I just talked about greener cars, here is what is looking to be the first “mass produced” electric car in the U.S. When they say mass produced they mean 100,000 cars in the next 24 months, which actually does seem pretty good.

As you will note, the car is not very expensive either. Both the 60-mile range and the 120-mile range fall under $20,000.

Now if only we could power the plugs those cars connect to on only wind and solar! Oh what a glorious future we could have