On My Radar 12.29.11

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

NEWS from ALL OVER:

The ethanol subsidies have come to an end. You can read more about the history of ethanol support and the long road to its final demise in many sources. Here is a particularly good summary by John Voelcker for GreenCarReports posted at TPMIdeaLab. 

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has posted an interactive map which leaves no doubt that this was a year of extreme weather events across the US. The bold copy above the graphic announces:  In 2011, there were at least 2,941 monthly weather records broken by extreme events that struck communities in the US. The summary for my state of Connecticut lists the following events: “Record-breaking heat in 5 counties and a total of 13 broken heat records; Record-breaking rainfall in 3 counties and a total of 8 broken rainfall records; Record-breaking snow in 6 counties and a total of 12 broken snowfall records; Multi-million dollar losses from extreme flooding and hurricane damage; 3 billion dollars in damage from October snowstorm; Snowiest January on record.” [I remember that month very well.] Visit the site to check out the graphic and also to read more about the NDRC’s view that extreme weather and climate change are directly related.

In late November, a report by author Elizabeth Grossman in Yale Environment 360 warned that the acidification of the world’s oceans from an excess of CO2 has already begun. Author Carl Zimmer had issued a similar warning in February 2010. 

For the last few days, it was widely reported in a number of blogs that McDonald’s had pulled out of Bolivia. Today’s Marketplace Morning Report confirmed this story. Here is part of the exchange between Marketplace’s Adriene Hill and Reuter journalist Monica Machicao in Bolivia: “Hill: …Tell me, why did these McDonald's in Bolivia close? Machicao: There are a number of hypotheses. One of those — people prefer local food rather than McDonald's. It's the fact that it's more cheap; and in fact, it's really more tasty. Hill: So the local food is actually cheaper than McDonald's fast food? Machicao: Absolutely. Local food can even cost a third of McDonald's.” The same report also stated that Wendy’s was returning to Japan with a premium menu after a two year absence.You can read the rest of the transcript here. 

Gray whales are arriving early and in record numbers off the coast of Southern California. Check out the photos here. 

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

Frank Criscuolo, a beloved figure from the downtown New Haven restaurant scene, died unexpectedly at home on December 14, at the age of 62. Husband of Claire Criscuolo, Claire and Frank were co-owner and proprietors of the 35-year-old vegetarian restaurant Claire’s Corner Copia and Basta Trattoria (for ominvores) next door. He will be greatly missed. You can read his obituary at the New Haven Independent.

The number of owner/members in the Elm City Market continues to grow. When the store opened its doors on November 2, membership was at 750. There were 1200 members when the store’s site was last updated.

The new Connecticut chapter of Slow Food USA, Slow Food Shoreline, has held a number of events including happy hours and a food-centric art gallery tour. Read more about them at their new website.

With its roll-out in the Hill neighborhood in mid-December, the new brown toters for trash have now been distributed in every neighborhood and single-stream recycling in the large blue toters (formerly used for trash) is the rule of the day. You can read about more about the nuts and bolts of the program at the City site and reports of the program’s successes and challenges at the New Haven Independent. 

DISCOVERIES:

During a recent tour of New Haven specialty shops, I was happy to learn that many socks are made in Vermont. Idiom featured colorful non-matching socks from Solmate Socks from Vermont's Sock Lady. At J. Crew I learned that all their socks were sourced from Vermont. After checking out the company website, my guess is that they come from Cabot Hosiery Mills. Chances are if you bought “Made in the USA” socks from L. L. Bean, Orivs, or Bass, they came from Cabot. The mill also makes its own private brands, Cabot & Sons Vermont and Darn Tough Vermont.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

January 1

11:00 am - 1:30 pm

Lighthouse Park, New Haven

New Haven First Day Winter Festival featuring the 

Polar Plunge for Parks and Community Gardens

You can dive in and collect pledges, or sponsor a hardy soul if you don’t want to take the plunge yourself. Your choice. Either way it sounds like a good time. Check out www.firstdaynewhaven.org/ for more info.

January 4th

6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Pint Night

Co-sponsored by Trailblazer and Box 63 
in the Broadway District of New Haven

Also in support of the New Haven Land Trust. 

More details here.

BLOG NEWS:

On December 8 I briefly left my comfort zone and gave a talk based on some of my blog discoveries. Finding Your Own Way to Greenness: Tips and Tools for Greening Up Your Holidays was part of the Sustainable Quadrangle speakers series at the Yale Divinity School. Notes to what I discussed that day are posted here. 

On Thursday, January 5th, aspiring Master Gardeners in New Haven County begin their studies at Edgerton Park. I am one of the new students in this intensive course which is part of the University of Connecticut Cooperative Exension System. I guarantee you will be kept abreast of my progress and discoveries over the next four months. Wish me luck!

Meatless Monday posts will return on January 2, after a one-week break.

Happy New Year. I hope you will visit often in 2012. I like to think that together we can make a difference!

Weekend Updates 9.10

The theme Times are Strange (7/16) continues—with weather events vs. fauna this time around. As I write, the drought in Connecticut is ending, as we are being soaked (off and on) by the remnants of tropical storm Nicole combined with a secondary low tracking up the Eastern Seaboard. Nicole is the 14th named storm of the hurricane season which begins on June 1 and ends on November 30. It is considered to be an “active” year when there are 16-17 named storms. 

To the South, heavy rains had been plaguing Mexico and Central America for weeks before Hurricane Matthew arrived. On September 27, as many as 30 people were buried in a landslide in northwest Colombia. The next day, a large mudslide engulfed a sleeping village in Oaxaca, Mexico: 11 people are missing. At least 16 perished in a second mudslide in Chiapas, Mexico. 

Weeks of rain in the northern Midwest caused the Wisconsin River to rise to an all-time high of 20.6 feet: it crested on the 27th. Some 300 people became trapped in Blackhawk Park, Wisconsin after the access roads were washed out.

Also on the 27th, LA reached its hottest recorded temperature — 113°F! Not the hottest temperature for that date, but the hottest temperature ever recorded since records began in 1877. Temperatures have only been 110 degrees or higher three other times in LA. 

Igor, the hurricane that avoided a direct hit with New England, pummeled Newfoundland on September 21, technically as a “post-tropical” storm, but with the same power as a hurricane. The last storm to strike Newfoundland with such force occurred in 1935, before storms were named. 

  

Two tornadoes roared through Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island on September 16. One person died when a tree fell onto the roof of the car she was driving. An estimated 10,000 trees were wiped out. 

Yesterday the spider was still catching insects in our backyard in its stunning web (albeit in a slightly different location). Alas, the web has not survived the storm. But perhaps he/she’ll be back at it when the sun comes out tomorrow or the next day.

Food News:

Jack DeCoster, owner of Wright County Egg, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations on September 22. “We were horrified to learn that our eggs may have made people sick,” DeCoster said in the statement he read to the subcommittee. “We apologize to every one who may have been sickened by eating our eggs. I pray several times each day for all of them and for their improved health.” Jack DeCoster has a history of violations at egg operations in Maine, Iowa, and elsewhere going back many years. 

Other News:

An article titled “Cleaner for the Environment, Not for Dishes” became the most emailed story of the day when it appeared in the New York Times. In brief, it documented user dissatisfaction with their favorite dishwashing detergents once the phosphate concentrations were reduced (by laws that went into effect in 17 states in July). Numerous blogs picked the story up. Over 370 readers posted comments on the NYT site. Several friends confided that they had thought their dishwashers were broken until they read the article. 

In a post dated May 17, I referenced New Haven’s goal to plant 10,000 trees over the next ten years. From a Metro North window I read a poster announcing New York City’s goal to plant one million new trees across the City’s five boroughs over the next decade. Clearly they have experienced a huge setback with 10,000 trees lost in the recent tornadoes.

Political campaigns are heating up across the country. On Sunday former President Bill Clinton stumped for Dick Blumenthal just up the street at my son’s alma mater, Wilbur Cross High School. You can read all about it in the New Haven Independent. It’s too close to call in many states: you just might hold the deciding vote. You can see which way your state is trending by going to this google blog where there is an interactive map. 

The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop has completed its move and is now open for business on the ground floor of New Haven’s newest and greenest apartment building, 360 State Street. On October 6, from 6:00 pm–8:00 pm at the Hall of Records, 200 Orange Street, there will be a public meeting to discuss the food co-op that will occupy the remainder of the space. Elm City Market is scheduled to open in February, 2011.

On a sad and ironic note, Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway Corporation, met his death on September 27 when he inadvertently rode a Segway off a cliff and into a river on the grounds of his North Yorkshire estate. HIs death has raised some safety concerns with the environmentally-friendly vehicle, popular with many police departments and urban tour companies.