Environmental Sustainability Resources

General

  • Bill Moyers, conversation with Tim DeChristopher and the civil disobedience he has assumed to protest environmental degradation by organizations and government.  watch
  • Occidental Arts and Ecology Center:  OAEC is a non-profit education center in Sonoma County that works to promote ecologically and culturally sustainable communities    http://oaec.org/
  • Ted Talk - Ron Finley - Guerrilla Urban Agriculture.

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."
Ron Finley grows a nourishing food culture in South Central L.A.’s food desert by planting the seeds and tools for healthy eating  Watch

  • The Video Project produces documentary videos on environmental and social justice issues. The videos are produced by award winning producers and are often available in libraries. You can use them for community, neighborhood or organizational meetings to inform awareness, knowledge, decision making and action planning.    http://www.videoproject.com
  • You Tube Video - The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (45 min)

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba lost its source of fuel oil. Complicated by the US Embargo, Cuba lost access to foreign capital, the World Bank, IMF as well as shipped in food supplies. Almost overnight energy generation was severely cut (loss of up to 16 - 20 hours a day impacting refrigeration, ability to cook, air conditioning, elevators <with many housing units multi-story>, business operations very limited . By 1994 the average weight loss in the population was 20 lbs. Loss of fuel supplies meant very few buses ran and ability to get to work, school, shopping was severely curtailed. fuel dependent agriculture (fertilizer generation, large scale plantation structured) ended and Cuba almost overnight turned to small scale, urban agriculture becoming one of the only countries operating with food self-sufficiency and fossil fuel independence.  Watch

Energy Resources

  • Lighting – LED or CFL

The debate over which lighting is better, LED vs. CFL, has been raging over the last 10 years. New studies looking at the full lifecycle analysis (production to disposal) has clearly put LED in a better light (pun intended):  
http://www.caenergyefficiencymodel.com/research-confirms-advantages-of-led-lights/

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

  • Symphony of the Soil, a Film

A feature length film by Deborah Koons Garcia (yes, for you Deadheads, Jerry Garcia’s widow) on soil and its importance to life. The film follows soil scientists around the world, from Norwegian glaciers to Hawaiian volcanoes. Its intent is to move us from “soil-blind” to “soil-conscious.”  Watch

  • Edible City, an online Documentary

A 72 minute documentary that tracks the movement toward small-scale organic farms in the SF Bay Area, and the people who love to each what those growers produce. And, how many of us are growing some of our own food OR who get food from local urban or near-by farms. Watch

  • How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine   Jon Jeavons, http://www.johnjeavons.info/

Based outside of Willitts, CA, John Jeavon’s passion is how to save our top soil that we will actually be able to produce food for 9 billion people. He has developed methods of growing top soil that only take 5 years to grow back an inch of topsoil. He is also perfecting methods for feeding 9 billion people which will eventually help return our soil to a healthier state.

Transportation

  • Study shows that plug-in cars cost less than other cars over a car’s lifespan.  read
  • And how about solar cars, now this is the way to lower costs.  read

Water - The Ocean, Rivers, Lakes & Waterways

  • Whale rescue from illegal nets in Gulf of California – who says there isn’t communication between species?   watch
  • Project Baseline empowers passionate citizens to observe and record change within the world’s aquatic environments in a way that fosters public awareness and supports political action - See more at:   www.projectbaseline.org
  • Smithsonian Environmental Research Institute Short Videos – Ecosystem on Edge

    The Smithsonian says, 70 percent of the world’s people live in the coastal zone. Coasts offer life, from lush inland forests and fertile soils to the bounty of the sea. Biologically they are the most fruitful ecosystems on Earth. And yet they are also some of the most fragile. Invasive species, pollution and the steady march of climate change threaten their survival.

    The videos here provide glimpses of these ecosystems, both literally and figuratively on the edge. Explore them in any order. Discover the challenges life faces on the coasts—and what scientists and regular people can do to save them.

    Not only are the videos short and intriquing the website has lots of information about how to get involved in activities to help save our coasts and out oceans, great for kids and adults as well.
    http://ecosystems.serc.si.edu/

The Outdoors – Nature, Environmental Education

The California State Parks Foundation has supported summer learning programs integrated with environmental education at and experience in State Parks to lessen the learning gap that many children in poorer communities have by summer’s end. They commissioned a thought paper on Summer Learning Programs and outdoor education which makes the case for NATURE experiences as a powerful learning tool for youth.  www.calparks.org

The Role of Parks in High Quality Summer Learning Programs: Implications for Action in California, Sarah Pitcock, Senior Director of Program Quality, National Summer Learning Association,  M. Deborah Bialeschki, Ph.D. Director of Research, American Camp Association  pdf

Environmentally Sensitive Providers

Travel

  • Lindblad Cruises, environmentally sensitive cruise trips with onboard naturalists providing rich education. Partners with National Geographic.    http://www.expeditions.com/