Welcome, Guest

WOW! Bill McKibben's 350.org International Day of Climate Action was a huge success. According to their website people in 181 countries came together for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. At over 5200 events around the world, people gathered to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis.

I have just spent the last hour marveling over all the phenomenal pictures and videos that people sent in from all over the world. Check them out HERE.

There were several events planned in my area of Phoenix, Arizona like climbing up a mountain with Arizona State University students and bike rides. My husband and I met up on Thursday, October 22nd with some local members of 1Sky to take a 350.org photo in Old Town Scottsdale by the big LOVE sculpture in the park to signify our love of home, community, and our planet. Here is our picture.

We were in the park for about an hour taking photos and of course people walking by would question us about what we were doing. I had printed up small cards with what 350.org is all about and what it means. So when asked I would just pull out a card from my pocket and give it to them.

After the photos were taken some of the group went on for a bike ride, but my husband and I went to the Scottsdale ArtWalk where the local art galleries open their doors to the public and show off their work. This particular ArtWalk was a Taste of Art ArtWalk where you could sample food and wine as you stroll and look at art. So we opted out of the long bike ride in order to eat, drink wine and look at art which is more to our liking. (lol) I kept my 350.org gear on while at the ArtWalk and of course I was asked numerous times what does 350 mean, so I would whip out one of those printed cards and hand it to them. I had printed up 24 cards and only came home with three.

When you are in love with your home, and I don't mean your house, but where you live, for me it's the glorious Sonoran Desert, then you are always happy to support any organization that wants to protect it and keep it pristine, beautiful and healthy.

 

There is an effort to show the world the positive future that a sustainable society would create initiated by Bill Becker of the Presidential Climate Action Project. A new website is up called "The Future We Want." Check it out. They will continue to add more as technologies progress. 11th Hour is also featured!

http://www.futurewewant.org/

I wanted to communicate to the 11th Hour Action community about a current assault our website is undergoing from bloggers who are trying to sell everything from internet services, to sexual dysfunction medication, to who knows what. We are getting hundreds of fake registrations every day and it's clogging up our system. We have had to block all new registrations pending approval and the going is slow because it's hard to wade through hundreds of registrations that are only there so someone can post their ad for real estate or printers or whatever.   I want to tell anyone who thinks this is a site to post your ads, that it is not.  We will delete your account and delete your blog the moment we find it.  So if you are trying to post ads, or register to post ads, please don't.  This site is for the discussion of creating a sustainable world and for learning how to take steps to green your home, neighborhood, community and more.  So I ask if you are an blogger who is advertising something, please post somewhere else; for those who want to blog about what's going on in the enviornmental movement, or about what's going on in your life that is an attempt to go green, you are welcome.

I noticed a new action today that needs attention. If anyone is available in England or Wales, maybe you can join them!

As part of Eco Bro, a local action group, there will be a climb up Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales, on the 24th of October 2009 as our contribution to the 350.0rg campaign.  We will gather 350 feet below the summit and form a ring around the top of the mountain to symbolize the importantance of 350ppm of C02.  Anyone in our area of North Wales would be welcome to join us as we are hoping for over three hundred people up the summit.  Meeting at 13.00 at Summit Cafe

http://11thhouraction.com/node/3258

 
Grasspave2

Greening a School Playground

So I've been trying to help get rid of an asphalt parkinglot at a school here in Los Angeles and replace it with something called Grasspave. 

Grasspave and other simliar approaches, allow for cars to drive on the grass without having the cars sink into the ground.  The school that I'm trying to help has an old parking lot that the kids play on for recess, and because it's old, it crumbles and they are constantly skinning their kness and getting injured.  Because the school has to maintain a certain number of parking spaces, they can't get rid of the parking lot altogether and turn it into a grassy playground, so we had to find a new solution.  Well, we found it in Grasspave.  It's like a normal, grassy field, but it can support a great amount of weight (see firetruck picture).  Not only that, because it's grass, storm water runoff now seeps back into the ground rather than run off back into the streets and the ocean.  The grass and soil then biofilters the storm water so we solve a pollution issue also.  If we put a cistern below the grasspave, we could collect water.  Wow.  A great solution!

But we came across a stumbling block that I realize is a stumbling block many run into when they are trying to implement green solutions, and that is: PERMITS.  It turns out that the City of Los Angeles does not allow grass parking lots.  They said that they are 10 YEARS AWAY from permiiting grass parking lots. 10 YEARS.  That's a glacial pace for change. That's where non-profits and others come in.  We are now writing to our City Council people to change the law.  This experience points to how frustrating it can be to work hard on a green solution, only to have an old bureuacracy get in the way.  But that happens a lot, and it's up to us to help change the rules so that sustainable practices can be used more broadly.