The Carbon Footprints of our Pets

Ever wonder how much of an environmental impact your pet has? Well, two researchers in New Zealand have the answer for you. They have calculated the carbon footprints of pets. Read all about it in Eco-pawprints (High Country News).

cross-posted at Lizbeth's Garden

Audubon's Current Issue

I promised some time ago a post on the new issue of Audubon magazine. So here we go:

This is the debut issue printed on recycled paper.

(L)ess than one percent of the approximately 17,000 magazines published in the United States contain any recycled paper, according to the Better Paper Project, a nonprofit that works with the magazine industry to promote recycled paper. For magazines alone, 39 million trees are logged a year—that’s more than one every second.

There's going to be a new ingredient in some low volatile-organic-compound (VOC) paint. Proctor & Gamble, the company that invented olestra, have figured out how to put it in paint for viscosity.

Remember olestra—that fat substitute a few years ago that made potato chips “healthier,” albeit with a reputation for causing gastric distress and anal leakage? Well, it’s being reinvented as an ingredient in eco-friendly paint.

And the heart of the issue: "The Future is Now" green design inspired by Nature or designed to save it.

Of course we've all heard the story of Velcro, and its origin in the hooks and loops of burrs, but did you know that the sticking ability of geckos will soon be seen in Band-aids and tape, robots and medical devices?

Green living: In 2007, a tornado flattened Greensburg, Kansas. In the wake of the storm, the townspeople decided to rebuild in a sustainable way.

Tour Greensburg today ... and you will find a nearly finished, energy-saving City Hall and a new arts center; cisterns collecting rainwater to irrigate native street plantings; and a reduced-rent building, dubbed the “business incubator,” that is helping local businesses ... get on their feet. The new homes are designed to, among other things, minimize waste from building materials and take advantage of natural light.

Greensburg is the first U.S. town with LED street lamps, 300 of them, which has cut its energy costs by 70 percent. And it may go off the grid entirely with wind power.

In Loudon County, Virginia, there is an EcoVillage set in a natural woodland setting with houses built of recycled materials.

(It) aims to transform the American dream of home ownership into something more idyllic than a treeless grid of identical structures connected by a swirl of asphalt ...
(It's based on) Denmark’s bofoellesskaber, or “living communities.” ... Residents typically have private dwellings with their own kitchens, living rooms, and sleeping areas, but they also have access to a common house with a large dining room and kitchen for potlucks, meeting rooms, recreational facilities, and, frequently, daycare.

There is tons more in the original article, including the bed-and-breakfast in Taos, New Mexico, built from recycled materials, the ballroom in Austin, Texas, the living jungle gym in San Francisco, and the elementary school in Chicago built to LEED standards.

Also check out the section on cars and the ways they will be using new technology to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

Red Lodge Clearinghouse

I found a new site to "inspire natural resource collaboration". It's called Red Lodge Clearinghouse.

The Red Lodge Clearinghouse is a project of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School.

It has information on upcoming comment periods for federal agencies, other environmental news, grantwriting handbooks, funding opportunities, and more.

Quit the Chamber. Join the planet!

Quit the Chamber. Join the planet!.

Ask the members of the board of the National Chamber of Commerce to quit the Chamber in support of climate change.

cross-posted at Lizbeth's Garden

Feral Cats -- Scourge of Birds?

There's a lot of good stuff in the latest Audubon magazine, and I'll be doing a big post later, but I wanted to get this out there first.

I love cats. I had them the whole time I was growing up, and I wish I had one now, but it just wouldn't work. And my cats have always been at least partially outdoor cats. I never thought about it too much, and my mother firmly believes that it is wrong to keep a cat indoors all the time, for the cat's sake. But this article has made me really think about that theory.

Apparently, according to this Audubon article, cats, both totally feral and those somewhat dependent on humans, kill millions of birds a year.

The American Bird Conservancy estimates that 150 million free-ranging cats kill 500 million birds a year in the United States.

Many people believe that Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) is the answer. Feed the feral cats, trap them, neuter them, and then return them. But apparently it doesn't work.

According to a peer-reviewed study published February 24, 2009, in Conservation Biology, TNR causes “hyperpredation,” in which well-fed cats continue to prey on bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian populations so depressed they can no longer sustain native predators.

The article focused mainly on Hawaii, an area of particular concern because of the many indigenous and unique bird species there that are threatened with extinction, but the points made also apply to the mainland, too, Wisconsin and Florida being cited in particular.

Honestly, I knew cats kill birds, but I never thought the problem could be so terrible. And I never thought about this:

Wildlife biologists and law-enforcement officials contend that in most situations feeding feral cats violates federal law because it facilitates “take” of species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and/or the Endangered Species Act.

But that isn't usually enforced, due to the power of the feral cat lobby.

Last year, for example, it squashed federal legislation to remove exotic species from national wildlife refuges because feral cats might be among them. In Hawaii legislation to ban the feeding of cats on state property is invariably shouted down. “TNR advocates are very well organized and funded,” declares Steve Holmer, director of public relations for the American Bird Conservancy. “They’re getting ordinances passed all over the place.”

The article was fascinating, and contains much more data and facts than I am providing here. I highly recommend reading the whole article. What do you think? Should all cats be caged or kept indoors? Why doesn't TNR work? It seems like it should: sterilize the cats in a colony, and natural causes of death should do the rest. Is it impossible to trap all the cats in a colony? Does in-migration to a food source bring in unneutered cats?

cross-posted at Lizbeth's Garden