Creating a Flash Flood in Santa Fe-350.org Earth Art

350.org (If you don’t know about 350.org please take a look-Briefly, they are an organization bringing huge amounts of attention to climate change and creating local solutions) is at it again, this time coordinating a Global Art Event that will be documented via satellite by award winning cinematographer Doug Crawford and from the ground by cameras, video cameras and thousands of cell phones. These events will be broadcast worldwide as part of the U.N Climate Summit, which takes place in Cancun, Mexico Nov 29-Dec 10. Across the globe art events are taking place, you can see if anything is happening near you so that you can participate.

Here in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Art Institute is coordinating the Flash Flood, for a living river event that will take place tomorrow, November 20. An incredible group of over 40 community partners have come together to create this event. Thousands of people will gather in the dry bed of the Santa Fe River (which has been designated as one of the most endangered rivers in America) holding blue painted signs to show where the river should be running. Here is more information on this event.

Many schools are involved in making this event happen and here are some of the volunteers.

Some of the other events taking place are:

In Mexico City people will create a human hurricane surrounding a 350 that is in the safe “eye of the storm” to show the increase in extreme weather in Mexico and that a “hurricane” of citizen action is needed to solve the climate crises.

in New Delhi 5,000 school children will work with aerial artist Daniel Dancer to form the image of a gigantic elephant to ask world leaders to stop ignoring the “elephant in the room”…climate change.

And in Austin, Texas the largest CSA (community supported agriculture) in the state has planted a giant winter garden in the shape of the number “350″ to symbolize the role that local food can have in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Let’s hope, and take action so that this Climate Summit brings more than last years meeting in Copenhagen. Perhaps creating art will bring more people around the globe to recognize that we truly are connected, that climate change is something we all can do something about, and that we have to let our leaders know this is something that we care about. You can find out more about 350 Earth here.

I will be in the dry river tomorrow, imagining a flowing, living Santa Fe River.

This is such a great video from 350.org.  Please share it.

No Impact Man and Family

If you have not seen the film No Impact Man and have channel Planet Green you are in luck. Saturday, August 28, at 10/9c pm No Impact Man will have its television premier.

This is a great film and you can read about in another post.

What I liked so much about the film is that we were able to see so many of the possible ways that we can reduce our impact on the earth. Some may be more important than others, but the idea is that we all do something and do it now. Together we will make a difference. As the film shows we may even find some beautiful benefits to living a cleaner, greener life, that we never even imagined.

San Francisco's Ferry Building Farmers Market

Mother Nature Network recently ran a story on the 10 Greenest Cities in America. Some of the top ten cities may surprise you and some of what is happening across the country may as well.

I was surprised that Oakland, California has the nation’s cleanest tap water and also hydrogen powered buses. Chicago has over 2.5 million square feet of rooftop gardens of some sort and has recently planted over half a million trees throughout the city.

This is all good news. More and more people are recognizing that the future of our cities depend upon a greener today. As recycling and other programs become mainstream momentum builds for even more sustainable opportunities. Greener habits are becoming a new lifestyle. In fact much of this “greening” is nothing new but rather how people lived half a century ago when resources, and what they provide, were appreciated more. Growing some of your own food or knowing who grows it used to be commonplace. We have given away so much of our power and trusted that the companies that provide our food, body care products and cleaning products (and also medicines) would not be allowed to sell us products that could make us sick. This unfortunately is not always the case so we must recapture our power and pay more attention to what is going into our bodies, in our homes and businesses.

We all have a role to play and the more that each of us incorporate new habits the greener our cities will become and the healthier we all will be, as well as our planet.

This sort of creativity and out of the box thinking based on real-life situations is what originally propelled America to greatness and business ingenuity decades ago, and it is probably the only way to restore America’s economy and move us truly into the 21st century in a sustainable way…which is the only way that has a future.

Today I read an article in the NY Times with more encouraging news out of Detroit. Yes, good news for a change. It seems that there are quite a few businesses who have recognized that there are many assets still in this city and it is time to utilize them before they disappear. Detroit has been abandoned by half its population, but perhaps more significantly abandoned mentally and emotionally by most of the country since it has come to symbolize much of what has gone wrong in this country. Could it be that now Detroit will become a model for what can go right in the U.S.?

Here are just a few brief examples from the article of what is happening in Detroit that offer a glimpse of what could bring new life for this city, and as you will see many of these businesses are a part of the ‘alternative’ energy paradigm. Some of the new projects in Detroit have come from multinationals who are innovators in this field. It has taken the U.S. a while to catch on, many European countries are way ahead of us when it comes to clean, alternative energy, but at least we are finally beginning to move in this direction. Apparently in America the people will move this forward not the government, so support this in any way that you can.

A solar energy company base in Dublin, Ireland, NTR, awarded contracts to two auto suppliers to make components for solar dishes. NTR’s chief executive points out in this article that it should be no surprise that they came to Detroit because, “the standard of manufacturing in the automotive industry is extremely high, and that is the only place you can find such a concentration of skills.”

Maybe we need to ask ourselves why America is not in the forefront recognizing the skills that remain from our industrial base. Have we become so accustomed to just throwing things out, including people, that don’t seem to work anymore. We need to recognize something new is possible. NTR is installing the first 60 of its SunCatcher dishes in Phoenix, Arizona and if all goes well with its solar-plant deals they expect to sell 65,000 of them over the next couple of years. Now that is an opportunity if I have ever seen one, and that is just the beginning.

Global Wind Systems, based in a Detroit suburb, is working with local suppliers to design a new generation of turbines that will be assembled in the area.

General Electric is investing $100 million in a research and manufacturing facility for wind turbines that will employ 1,000 people.

One of the largest projects combines the vision of two investors, Extreme Power of Austin, Texas and Clairvoyant Energy of Santa Barbara, California. Just outside Detroit they are refurbishing a closed Ford plant and will hire 4,000 workers to make solar panels and battery systems for utility companies.

In spite of its many problems Detroit can turn designs into workable products quickly, and it still has a precision manufacturing base that can be a huge advantage for these new businesses. It just takes rethinking what is available and what is needed in this era that we have entered.

Dowding Industries, a family-owned company in Eaton Rapids, could prove to be a model company for recognizing what potential exists by moving forward. The company had provided parts for the auto, tractor and rail industries but faced a losing battle as work was shifted overseas. After learning about the growing wind-power industry Dowding shifted gears. An initial contract with a wind turbine company started something new for this company. You can read more about it in the NY Times article.

I will add, not all of the new ventures are part of this new sustainable future that we are slowly creating, but they are bringing jobs and new hope to the city and this is crucial as well. Do we have to wait for our cities to be emptied and businesses to collapse before we move in a new direction? Detroit may be showing us what is possible but lets support these changes in our own cities and towns now. There is much work to do to move to a sustainable future, but it is exciting and is really already happening in many ways, we just don’t hear enough about it. Help spread the word and be a part of it.

Can you imagine an actual large scale farm in an urban environment? How about in a city that has lost over half of its population since the sixties, has been pretty much abandoned and has a really tough reputation?

Well it looks as if the vision of one financial manager to bring a working 70 acre farm in the middle of Detroit is happening, and that is just the beginning…the ultimate vision is the world’s largest urban farm.

John Hantz, one of the wealthiest residents of Detroit, has a plan to bring fresh food, jobs, education, and a new tax base to a city that has been experiencing in many ways a long, slow, painful demise. I love that this is a plan by one of the most unlikeliest candidates to create an urban farm…this is not a young ‘back to the land’ 20-something and not even an aging hippie. This is a man who had been a star stock broker at American Express and then started his own financial services company that now has 20 offices, 500 employees and $1.3 billion in assets under its management.

Are we seeing a turning point where ‘real’ business people are realizing that it is time for a paradigm change? I can thankfully say, this seems to be the case.

More about John Hantz’s Farm… You can read a lot more about it here at the Hantz Farm Detroit web site. The vision is to “redefine urban growth”.  Detroit presents a unique opportunity since so much of the city has been abandoned. Buildings and homes sit empty in neighborhood after neighborhood. The sprawling city is in fact larger than San Francisco, Boston and Manhattan combined! Now that is a lot of land, and a lot of that land has been sitting vacant for a long time and it is pretty ugly to look at. Couple that with a declining auto industry in Detroit and  you have a pretty depressed city in a lot of ways.

This vision for a real farm in the city sounds revolutionary and inspired to me. This plan will accomplish so much if it comes even close to its goal. Phase One will involve more than 70 acres of underutilized vacant land and abandoned properties on Detroit’s lower east side. The farm will grow “fresh and safe” (I am not exactly sure what that really means, but it sounds if the farms will be pesticide and herbicide free if not organic) fruit and vegetables and incorporate solar and wind power.

This will accomplish many things:

Bring employment to a city that has a 27% unemployment rate, and also offer education for those involved.

Create a new tax base for a city that needs to collect taxes for services, but was losing more of its tax base year after year.

Bring fresh fruit and vegetables to a city where residents often have to travel twice as far to a market than to a liquor store.

Bring fresh produce to restaurants who otherwise have to buy from much farther away.

Offer a model city for other cities that also are facing declining populations and perhaps inspire other cities to bring smaller farms closer, if not within the city limits.

Create a new local economy.

Bring beauty and a natural environment to city dwellers.

Bring alternative energy to the inner city. The plan includes the installation of solar panels to power itself. Hantz Farms will also harvest wind energy and utilize geothermal heat and biomass fuel from recycling compost.

This won’t be like just any old farm. The latest technology will be used including compost heated greenhouses as well as hydroponics to maximize growing potential. Trees will also be planted to create fruit orchards.

Hantz’s plan is not without controversy. Detroit already has a recent history of urban gardens, there are almost 900 smaller gardens within the city but most are just for private consumption. Hantz’s farm will be a for-profit enterprise and that also means that it will generate much needed tax revenue for the city. Many involved in the original urban gardens feel as if corporate America could be moving in to their community, and maybe they are right…but in this case is that really a bad thing? Maybe it takes something like this on a larger scale to really start a larger movement.

As I see it there are quite a few large corporations doing good out there. More to come on this in the next few days.

Another vision of urban farming is taking place on rooftops across the country. From San Francisco to Chicago and New York rooftop gardens are growing. The city of Chicago has been in the forefront of this movement with tax incentives for rooftop gardens for about ten years. Other cities are slowly catching on. The energy savings as well as reducing runoff are great incentives, not to mention something healthy and delicious to eat.

In San Francisco the roof at the California Academy of Science in beautiful Golden Gate Park is an incredible example of what can be created on a rooftop. They have a 2.5 acre garden with several microclimates, 1.7 million plants comprised of 80 different native species and four productive beehives. There are some species found in the roof garden that aren’t even on the ground. Once again the benefits are far reaching. The soil on the roof has insulated the building so well that the energy needs of the 400,000 square foot building were reduced by about 10 percent. Plus the roof retained 98% of its rainfall, preventing it from entering the storm water system, which can get over stressed with big storms. This also reduces costs for the municipal wastewater treatment.

A new company called Sky Vegetables is creating sustainable, commercial-scale hydroponic farms on urban rooftops across America. Each one of these farms in the sky will provide chemical free and locally grown produce, and reduce environmental damage.

I first learned of Sky Vegetables at the Slow Money conference held in Santa Fe last September.  I heard a short presentation about the company and found the idea fantastic. Their web site has a very cool pictorial of how this roof farm will actually work from composting, to solar and even wind energy.

Just as in Detroit, Sky Vegetables has a vision to improve the health and nutrition of city populations and also create new jobs. This is accomplished by developing urban sustainable agricultural communities whether on the ground or on rooftops.

The benefits that Sky Vegetables will bring are the same as in Detroit to a large extent. Access to fresh produce in areas where often marketing is done at the local convenience store or gas station, which means nothing fresh. Healthcare costs could be reduced over time as urban populations turn to fresher food. Green jobs will be created, as well as an education opportunity that will go along with the job. A new local and sustainable community will be established.

Sky Vegetables also sees benefits to building owners in creating or allowing a “Sky Farm” to be created. It provides a new stream of income, increases building efficiency by providing insulation in the winter and absorbing heat in the summer. Environmental benefits mentioned include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a reduction in fossil fuel use, food is grown without pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers in what previously was unused spaced.

So we may not need to travel too far for fresh produce wherever we are if these ideas take root and become even more widely accepted. Not every city would be able to provide land for farms, small or large, but there sure are a lot of empty roof tops in the city. I love the creativity and leap into something new that both of these visions offer. Yes there have been community gardens in cities for a long time and even some rooftop gardens, but now it is time to take this to the next level where it is not just a garden for personal use and enjoyment.

The more quality food that is available across the country that is easily accessible, reasonably priced and doesn’t require a long trip to arrive at the market, the more people will benefit and so will the environment. Quietly a movement is growing called local food and the shape that it is taking is showing up in many forms. Keep your eyes open if you are a city dweller and you may find tomorrow’s salad growing closer than you imagined.

This is a story of inspiration that grew from one family’s recognition that our food supply is not secure. In 2001 there was a recall of taco shells that the Dervaes family ate. The recall was because GMO corn was used that had not been certified for human consumption. The realization that such a ‘mistake’ could take place motivated this family to consider how they could protect themselves from something like this happening again.

Some people might have been motivated to switch to an organic only food supply but this family took a different sort of action…they began learning how to supply their own food and today they are producing 6,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables a year on less than 1/10th of an acre in the city of Pasadena in California.

Their story has become a feature length movie, HomeGrown, and they have now moved beyond just producing their own food. If you are lucky enough to live in Santa Fe, next week on January 27th this film will be shown at the Santa Fe Farmers Market at 7 pm, along with the film Fresh, as the opening films for the 2010 series. It isn’t available on DVD yet but you can sign up to purchase it here. There is also a short film, 15+ minutes, called Homegrown Revolution about the Dervaes family and you can find out about it here. This link will take you to a shorter You Tube version of this short film, You will visit their urban homestead and see many of the ways that they have transformed their life in what can be considered a most radical act, changing themselves to change the world.

Their website Path to Freedom shows all of the ways that the Dervaes family is living a more sustainable life from producing their own food, to energy and water use, even beekeeping. Visit their website to learn more about their exciting adventure.   They also have a blog where you can join them in their ongoing daily experiences on this journey.

If you have a home garden or are thinking about creating one you will surely be inspired reading about what one family has done.

Today while waiting in the check-out line at my local co-op I saw a magazine that was new to me called Urban Farm…Sustainable City Living which looked great so I bought a copy. After taking some time to look it over I have to say that it is really inspiring. Their premier issue just came out last August, so it really is brand new and it seems as if they are off to a great start. I am so excited about how many of us there really are out there, and the more that we connect and realize that there are so many great things happening out there the more energy that will come out of all of us to create a sustainable future. It is easy to focus on the negative, that is what is in the media daily, but in fact there are so many wonderful, inspirational stories every day…so stay positive and pay attention to what is happening in your neighborhood, in your state and all across the country.

So here is more about this very cool magazine, click here to visit their web site, and look for their magazine in your local co-op or natural food store, book store or news stand. If you can’t find it, ask for it so that they will know people are interested in it or you can subscribe online.

“Urban Farm^® magazine’s mission is to promote the benefits of self sustainability and to provide the tools with which to do it on any size property.” There was a very informative story on how to make a backyard garden. They called it Square Foot Gardening and it saves space, water, seeds and time…which makes perfect sense when you are creating and working in an urban garden in your back yard, or maybe even your front yard.

Urban Farm^® reaches out to those in the city and suburbs, those who are inspired by the local food movement and who want to start raising chickens and growing food for themselves, supporting local agriculture and living more sustainably.”  In the newest issue there is a great article about WIll Allen and his incredible work in Milwaukee. If you don’t know who Will Allen is then that alone is a good reason to buy the magazine. This man is amazing and the work that he has done creating Growing Power is nothing short of miraculous. Will was a pioneer in the community food movement and has shown what is possible with perseverance and passion.

“Urban Farm^® is informational and inspirational, filled with how-to projects, profiles of urban farmers across America, “green” and innovative products, and of course, recipes for preparing your homegrown vegetables, eggs and other farm bounty.” I liked that there was an article about the challenges that people are having creating backyard gardens, that are really mini-farms, and raising livestock. It helps to know what one is up against and how someone else made there way through the many obstacles that came up. This is creating a community of sustainability.

Just looking through the one issue I learned so much and there was so much valuable information from composting to recipes to alternative energy sources. This is a wonderful magazine so look for it and check it out. You will find lots of material for creating more SmartLifeways in your own life.

This link is so cute i just had to include it. If you want to smile, check it out.

Phipps "Green" Visitor Center

A two day G20 summit, not very long considering how many critical issues are at hand, will convene tomorrow in PIttsburgh. I had no idea but Pittsburgh is being hailed as one of the greenest urban centers in the U.S. Could this be? transformed from the city of steel, to the city of green. Sounds positive to me and I am eager to see first hand when the SmartLifeways road trip finally gets underway.

Leaders from the 20 largest global economies will be meeting in Pittsburgh and what is really exciting is that both of the main venues for the event are “green”, committed to sustainable practices and mainly use local, organic food, and not just for this event but on a regular basis. Now that is making a statement about a new paradigm. I wonder how Monsanto feels about this global publicity for a new and better way? Looks like better living through chemistry is not universally accepted as such a great idea anymore….

The G20’s opening reception and dinner will be held at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The regular practice for all events at Phipps is to use local, organic, sustainably and humanely raised food and beverages and this is the case for the summit as well. No big name chefs will be working this dinner,  just the regular local staff.  All food waste is composted and recycling practices are standard operating procedure here. The Conservatory’s Visitor Center was the first LEED certified visitor center in a public garden. You can read more about their “green” commitment and Sustainable Landscapes Program here.

All meetings will be held at the David E. Lawrence Convention Center. “The Center is the first and largest certified “green” convention center in the world awarded the Gold LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the U.S. Green Building Council.” This is an inspirational example of what is possible when there is a commitment to supporting a clean environment. Sustainable building is not just for small scale construction, this is a 1.5 million square foot structure, and over 75% of the building is naturally lit.

The center also has a rooftop garden that will provide lettuce, eggplant, green peppers and tomatoes for meals…and that is about as local as it gets. The convention center’s executive chef is also working with local farms for the remaining produce requirements. This commitment to local suppliers also shows a wider audience that local farms can support large scale demand with healthier, cleaner, fresher and sustainably produced food. The farmers are out there wanting to grow their products this way, it is up to us to demand it and to let the government know that we want our food sources protected.

While we will have to wait and see what concrete results come from the Summit there is no ignoring that in addition to the global economy, the issues of climate control and our global food supply will be on the agenda. Let’s hope that the environment where the events are held, and the food that is eaten will be reminders that this is the change that we want to see.

Last year there was a 35% increase in green roofs installed, although some may have had cactus or other plants and not food. Imagine, that comes to somewhere between six to ten million square feet of gardens that were started on roofs. Now that is one way to start cooling off our cities, and slowing global warming.

So whether you have a yard, just a balcony or maybe even only a ledge it is possible to grow something that you can enjoy the taste of before too long. What a new sense of appreciation we gain about what goes into getting food to our table when we have taken the effort to grow something ourselves.

Consider it, maybe a small garden is a big step in your living a bit more sustainably. If you already have a city garden tell us about it to inspire more people to do the same.