Climate change impact in USA.

Here is a report you may want to look at to decide where you would like to live in the next 50 or so years from now. It also gives you a glimpse of what is coming if all of us does not start to change our lifestyle and start reduce our CO2 footprint.

This report may also be useful for businesses to decide how to invest money in the near and not so far future to continue to be competitive.

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts

My compost is producing tomatoes.

Back in the spring of 2008 I decided to buy a compost bin. I was able to take advantage of the great compost bins sale Hamilton County does two times a year http://www.hcdoes.org/SWMD/Residents/Yardwaste/ywcompost.html. After waiting a long winter I was finally able to put my wonderful compost rich soil at use.

My idea was, "...what if I could use my food scraps to grow tasty tomatoes, not like the ones that are sold in the stores now. They do not have any taste or smell, full of pesticide, artificially ripened with chemicals and that may be coming from far far away on a airplane.....What a waste of gasoline...".

If you think about it. Your trash needs to be transported to the local garbage landfill and will be there unmodified for 100s of years. In fact in the landfill the garbage is so compressed that there is not enough oxygen to decompose what could naturally decompose in your back yard.

And the garbage hill will keep growing until there will be no more space. At that point they will need to open a new landfill far from the city and they will spend even more gasoline to transport the garbage in the new site. I'm very sensitive to this as in Italy we keep having events where the landfills we imagined for granted were so full that they did not have anywhere to put the trash and they just left the trash in the streets for months (in Naples 2 times and in Palermo 1 time, just google "spazzatura Napoli" or "Emergenza rifiuti Palermo", select images at the top of the page and you will see what I mean). According to a recent study the garbage problem will soon be national in Italy because in 2 years the space of the current landfills on the all territory will be exhausted.

So going back to my compost and tomatoes. I thought it was a great idea to compost. You give more time life to the landfills, you save gasoline to transport garbage and tomatoes and you produce rich compost for your plants and garden.

Since I started to compost and recycling I produce only 1 tall bag of regular garbage a week instead of 3-4 when I arrived in USA, and my family in the meantime is also doubled.

My daughters helped me the all time to collect the scraps, damp them in the bin, turn the material. We also attended a free composting lesson at Park+Vine to learn more about composting.

Spring comes and with it our excitement to finally use the compost. I planted 7 big vases with 7 plants of tomatoes, all different varieties using only my old mulch, my rich compost and some soil of my wooded backyard. Two of those plants came from the seeds of a tomatoe I bought in the store.

My girls are so amazed of the results. What before was food scraps now is rich soil. What was something that mommy use to grab on the shelves of a store, now is growing on a plant in our deck. They go and look at the plants every morning and they tell me how tall the plants are growing and how may tomatoes are on each plant. And they are also all excited that the tomatoes have different shapes and sizes even if all the plants look the same. What an experience for them.

One inconvenient is that so far I was able to taste only a few of the cherry tomatoes, the first to be ripened, in fact as soon as my daughters see a red one they grab and eat it on the spot. I will post you more pictures when the big ones will be ready. The few tomatoes I ate were super delicious and full of flavor, not comparable to the ones you buy at the store.

Earth Hour 2009 March 28th from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

This rapid change in the world economy has by now affected all of us directly or indirectly.

But the other day I realized that the only way out is to keep taking positive action in what we firmly believe. And for me it is to try to make this world a better world for future generations.
So today I'm back with my postings, with more energy than ever.

It's spring! Recharge your inner energy by making something good for the Earth.
Join the rest of the world and switch off the lights on March 28th for 1 hour from 8:30 pm till 9:30 pm. Make this a family event or a work event or a school event.
For more information go to http://www.earthhour.org/.

I wish you a Happy Green New Year !!!

For me the New Year brings fresh air and renewed energy. It is the time to start new projects or pledge to change something to make it better. Sometimes you make some space in the basement your closets or your pantry. Sometimes you get rid of old clothes or you have more food than what you need. And you promise yourself you will be better this year. I can give you some suggestions; DONATE what you do not use anymore for a good cause, there are many people in need especially this year. And before throwing something away in the garbage, gather information on how it can be recycled or reused (a good place to start is http://earth911.com/). This year also our newly elected President Barack Obama is calling us to get active and help USA or a good cause around the world (for more information visit http://www.usaservice.org/). I created this event http://www.usaservice.org/page/event/detail/dayofservicejanuary19/4v8t2

I wish you all the best for the coming year.

Today sign the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland

Today sign the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland, that will last for about 2 weeks.
"The 14th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 4th meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will draw almost 11000 participants, including government delegates from the 187 Parties to the UNFCCC and representatives from business and industry.
The two-week meeting is the halfway mark in the negotiations on an ambitious and effective international climate change deal to be clinched in Copenhagen in 2009. Parties have little more than a year to agree on strengthened action on mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology.
A compilation paper of proposals for solutions has been put together. This can serve as a first version of a negotiating text in Poznań. Because of the limited time still available, it is critical that real progress is made and that Parties identify which proposals to take forward in 2009."It is a very important step wich precede the Kyoto Protocol ratification"(from the UNFCC website http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_14/items/4481.php).
If you are interested in following the meeting it will be webcasted at http://copportal1.man.poznan.pl/

Take the Energy Star Pledge and join the Hamilton County

The Hamilton County Government is Going Green and they need your help!

Take the pledge to save energy at www.greencounties.org/changetheworld

Deadline is November 30th, 2008. Take the pledge today!!

What we learned at the Seminar "Recycling and Beyond: what you can do!"

The Seminar “Recycling and Beyond: what YOU can do!” had been very successful and interesting. You can click on the links below and have a look at the presentations and interesting information.
I want to thank all the attendees, the speakers (from P&G, City of Cincinnati Office of Environmental Quality, Duke Energy, Rumpke), the organizers (Annie Katz, Brigitte Cordier, Gabi Scholz, Patti Minniear) and the sponsors (PGITI, Park+Vine, Clovernook Center, Granny’s Garden School and Bigg’s).

P&G Sustainability Program & Sustainable Innovation Products - Jack McAneny, P&G Global Sustainability.

“Green Cincinnati” Projects - Larry Falkin, Director, City of Cincinnati,Office of Environmental Quality.

Recycling - It’s Our Future - Anne Gray, Rumpke Municipal Public Sector Representative.

Practical Tips and Tools for Managing Your Energy Consumption - Gaurab Hazarika, Duke Energy