On My Radar 3.16.14

Recent News. Happenings. Discoveries…Here are some of the items on my radar.

SEISMOLOGICAL NEWS:

Earthquakes in the Midwest, where they have been uncommon until recently, have fueled concerns that fracking is to blame. 

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

Tree lovers spoke and Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) listened. Hundreds turned out at the Technical Meeting and Public Info Session hosted by PURA at the Hamden Middle School on March 6. PURA has asked UI and CL&P, the state’s two utility companies, to voluntarily “scale back” their aggressive tree trimming plans while PURA considers the case further. This is good news, but only a temporary halt. Those who would like to register their thoughts on the utilities’ new “Vegetation Management Plans” can still email  comments to: pura.executivesecretary@ct.gov. Don’t delay. PURA expects to make a preliminary ruling in early April.

The Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, a fundraiser for environmental causes in New Haven, is less than two months away. The snow should be gone by then, and organizers are urging all past and future riders to commit — now! Join a team and start collecting pledges!

FOOD NEWS

We celebrated Pi Day on Friday with a homemade root vegetable pie. It may not look like much, but it was really good. We ate over half for dinner. Pi (and pie) lovers are super excited about next year’s Pi Day. Take one look at this graphic and you will see why.

The recently published book The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, by Christopher Leonard received quite a bit of press coverage last week, including an op-ed piece by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. Here is an excerpt from the description of the book on the Amazon site: “The American supermarket seems to represent the best in America: abundance, freedom, choice. But that turns out to be an illusion. The rotisserie chicken, the pepperoni, the cordon bleu, the frozen pot pie, and the bacon virtually all come from four companies…In The Meat Racket, investigative reporter Christopher Leonard delivers the first-ever account of how a handful of companies have seized the nation’s meat supply. He shows how they built a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, charges high prices to consumers, and returns the industry to the shape it had in the 1900s before the meat monopolists were broken up… We know that it takes big companies to bring meat to the American table. What The Meat Racket shows is that this industrial system is rigged against all of us. In that sense, Leonard has exposed our heartland’s biggest scandal.”

St. Patrick’s Day is Tomorrow. Yearning to serve some green food to celebrate? Here is a link to Martha Stewart’s 28 Kale Healthy Recipes. 

Special thanks to Dan, Don, Kevin, and Pam for their contributions to this edition of On My Radar. I couldn't do it without you.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 19th

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Chipotle, 900 Chapel Street, New Haven

New Haven Green Drinks 

Chris Schweitzer (New Haven/León Sister City Project) and 

Joel Tolman (Common Ground High School) will speak on 

the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride

Chipotle will donate half of all sales, including Margaritas and beer purchases, between 5 pm and 9 pm to support Rock to Rock.

Green Drinks

By this point some of you probably picture my road to greenness as an unpaved gravelly path travelled only by determined people wearing Birkenstocks and being serious all the time. But if you just let me tell you about one of my favorite discoveries in the past year, you may change your mind.

The discovery? Green Drinks. There is a chapter in New Haven, organized by now-Alderman Justin Elicker and Debra Lombard, LEED AP which meets every third Wednesday in a different local bar, featuring reduced price drinks, free appetizers and a special guest. How cool is this — meeting over local brews to discuss things Green?

The first Green Drinks was held in London in 1989. There are now 656 chapters in 62 countries. The Green Drinks International website promises: “These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help it spread to other cities.”

At our first Green Drinks we were met outside the door of the Anchor Bar by the local unicycle club, which was hoping to drum up some new members. OK, perhaps a little scary. But it was a hot summer night, and a cold brew would taste soooo good. The bar was crowded. The program was called to order by a person who could mimic the sound of a police siren and thus invoke silence for a fleeting moment or two. We had gathered to learn about solar panels. There was no elbow room and the speaker could hardly be heard over the din, but he was enthusiastic and persistent and had a panel with him for show-and-tell. We stayed a long time and indulged in some terrific sweet potato fries, got to handle the panel, and made some new friends. We were hooked.

At other Green Drinks, we have heard about Smart Growth, local honey and single-stream-recycling, as well as the theory that those in power are actually aliens who are trying to guide us to Mars.

For those in New Haven, note that I am posting far enough ahead that you can actually plan to attend the next Green Drinks, Wednesday, January 20, 6-8pm at the WestSide Bar & Grille in Westville.

For the rest of you, check out the website and search for the branch nearest you. There are active chapters in Pittsfield and Framingham, MA; in Philadelphia, PA; in suburban Chicago; in Palo Alto, CA; and in Copenhagen, to name but a few. If you do not find your city, the website has guidelines for setting up your own chapter.

At Green Drinks you never know what old friends you will see, what new ones you might meet, or what new idea you might encounter. But you can be sure that if you arrive there with an open heart and open mind, you are likely to come away with an expanded vision of the world, and it won’t just be a consequence of the drinks.

Have no fear, the drinks aren’t really green. (Unless, perhaps, your chapter happens to meet on St. Patrick’s Day.)