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No, we’re not talking about Willie Nelson here, but a tale of 4 people and the random things they found on a mile stretch of road they were cleaning up. Now, I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve cleaned up countless roads in my time, but you can never really predict the random things you can find out there. Sure, you have the classic 7-11 chilli dog boxes, or perhaps an empty 40oz beer bottle in a bag, tire shrapnel, articles of clothing, or even the mysterious lone shoe. But, nothing can ever prepare you for the forgotten and tossed Environmental Stewardship textbook! (Of all books to find out there.) or the complete 12 pack of beer, still intact. (No, we didn’t drink it. We recycled the cans.) How about the wrestling trading card that explains “nothing can stop ‘the animal’…”? (a classic)

Normally when we set out on this stretch of road (Rhode Island Ave. between Edgewood and Greenbelt Rds.) we are prepared to see the nasty, the smelly, the random and ridiculous….and a lot of it. We were lucky in a few different ways today. 1) the weather was a bit cooler with a slight breeze. 2) the road wasn’t too nasty or smelly, which could be an indication that we are doing an amazing job OR people who like to throw trash out their windows are on vacation. and finally 3) we found a lot of random and ridiculous surprises, which definitely keeps things interesting.

I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance to participate in a clean-up, jump at the opportunity. Not only are you helping the environment, but chances are that you will come across some random objects that will keep you guessing and talking.

This last Thursday marked the 2nd annual Potomac Watershed Trash Summit. The summit brought together well over 400 people from around the area to have an open discussion and learn about our local waterways and what we can do to help make our watershed trash free. It was a venue for elected officials, concerned citizens, members of local businesses and organizations to get together and strategize to help in the Alice Ferguson Foundation’s goal of a Trash Free Potomac by 2013.

As someone who attended the event, it was good to see such an age range of participants, from high school on up, from every different sector. The goal of a Trash Free Potomac by 2013 will be a huge project, and will certainly not be successful without the interest and participation from every single citizen, organization, business and government agency of the area.

We heard from a lot of different people and talked in round table style about where we begin to make this watershed trash free. Does it start with river, creek, street and neighborhood clean-ups? Does it start with regulations and mandates on product manufacturers? Does it begin with solid recycling and reuse programs? Does it start with education on our impact that we can have on the environment?

Solution: we all have different things to contribute to making this project a success. My question to you is: no matter if you live in the Potomac Watershed, the Chesapeake or even the Columbia Watershed on the West Coast, what can you do to help make our waterways trash free?

… of garbage, twice the size of Texas, floating in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between the Hawaiian Islands and Northern California. Hard to imagine? Not really. The island of trash is being held together by a slowly rotating system of currents and mats of floating seaweed and kelp. Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in CA, estimates that there is about 3 million tons of plastic floating in this mass, not to mention the millions of tons of other debris. The plastic will eventually sink, where it will then become part of the 46,000 pieces of garbage estimated for every square mile of ocean.

According to statistics, well over 80% of the trash in the oceans is brought there from our storm drains and run-off from our polluted streets, streams and rivers. You carelessly throw a gum wrapper, baby diaper, plastic bottle or even oil on the ground and where does it go? It gets into our water ways via storm drains, down to creeks, into the rivers and finally spilling into our oceans. People are so quick to point fingers, but who is really to blame?

What can you do? Stay educated about the environment and your effect on it. Get involved with clean-ups or do one of your own in your own neighborhood. Know what watershed you’re in and the health of that area. Recycle and use designated trash cans, and encourage that behavior in your day to day life.

Watch out Frederick, there’s a new market in town. MOMs will be opening it’s fifth store this Spring on Buckeystown Pike. Energy conservation is important to MOMs, which is why we chose to have 20 huge skylights installed throughout the store to lower our energy consumption, reduce our carbon footprint and filter in as much of the nutrient giving natural light that we could. (Not to mention all of the energy efficient equipment that we’re having installed.)

Each skylight, measuring 5′ x 6′, captures sunlight in the dome mounted on the roof, and reflects the light through a series of mirrors down a shaft and into the store’s aisle ways and back offices. The best part about it is that the skylight has been created in such a way that as long as there is day light, no matter the angle in the sky, the skylights can still capture that light and reflect it down. (Of course, the light will be the most “intense” at noon when it is straight overhead.) Do you want to learn more? Visit www.huvco.com for more information.

In the news today it was announced that California power companies will be banned from purchasing electricity from high polluting resources, such as from coal-fired power plants. The announcement came after the Public Utilities Commission voted to pass the ban at 4-0, with hopes to lower the release of green house gases linked to global warming.

The new ban and standards set to kick into affect February 1st is aimed at encouraging power companies to invest in cleaner energy resources, ie wind and solar, and discouraging the use of the more polluting resources such as coal. While coal is the one of the least expensive and abundant resources, it is also one of the highest polluting.

California is doing a great thing here, and as one of the largest states, is going to make a huge difference. I can only hope that with more time and recognition of the issue of global warming, more and more counties and states will draw similar bans and regulations and kick their old polluting habits.

In the past few weeks I’ve been sitting with disappointment over a movie I saw over Thanksgiving weekend. Normally, I wouldn’t use this space to post movie reviews, however, after seeing Happy Feet, I feel like I have to say something, as it sends out the wrong message about how the environment works. Spoilers ahead!

Happy Feet is about a penguin who is born different and his struggle with that, along with the penguin colony’s struggle with lack of fish. He is ultimately kicked out of the penguin colony for his differences. He then decides that he’ll take it upon himself to go find out who’s taking all the fish and let them know what it’s doing to the penguins. In his mission he discovers humans are overfishing the Antarctic. Yes, it is true, we are everywhere. He manages to spread his plea to humans through dancing.

The erroneous message that was made clear in the movie, though, is that eating fish, no matter what kind it is or origin, is killing the penguins. The movie wraps up with scenes of kids across the globe watching news reports about the plight of the penguins and eventually shows all of humanity vowing never to take another bite of any seafood.

I would like to end this review with a list that I came upon yesterday, which is a list of good fish to eat and a list of bad fish to eat. The list places fish that are low in mercury and PCBs and those that preserve oceanic diversity high in priority. While it is good to know our place in the food web, the better action is to make more educated choices.

Regional pocket seafood guides - choose fish that are eco-friendly!

Recent conversation around my dinner table at home has been leaning in the direction of extinction and the depletion of the world’s natural resources. The one fairly new to the conversation plate, alongside our sunchokes and rice or spaghetti squash, is the recent announcement by scientists that the world’s seafood will soon be depleted. It is crazy to think that entire species that we depend on for food will be wiped out by 2048.

The prediction came after a four year study based on effects of pollution, overfishing and other environmental factors. All these things combined could spell extinction for popular fish species that fill our plates and bellies, as well as hamper the ocean’s ability to produce and filter enough nutrients to keep the stocks up and the spread of disease down among commercial and non-commercial fish alike.

It’s hard to imagine that in a world that is comprised of over two thirds water, which is filled with so much diversity, wonderment, and the backbone of so many cultures, that it could come to the point that soon the only seafood that will be available will be that raised in hatcheries. But it makes sense, right? We are living in the 21st century where now more than ever people are eating more healthy and are encouraged to fit fish into their diets. According to recent reports, we are consuming more seafood than ever before, and harvesting faster than the species have a chance to repopulate. Add on top of that pollution, global warming and human ignorance, and we have a recipe for catastrophe.

As someone who likes to keep an open mind, I, along with the scientific predictions, could be wrong. Nature could suprise us. (Probably not.)

Kenyan Nobel prize winner launches campaign to plant 1 billion trees in 2007 By Elizabeth A. Kennedy ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:59 a.m. November 8, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner called on people around the world to plant 1 billion trees in the next year, saying Wednesday the effort is a way ordinary citizens can fight global warming.

Wangari Maathai, who in 2004 became the first black African woman to win a Nobel in any category, urged participants to ensure the trees thrive long after they are planted.

“It’s one thing to plant a tree, it’s another to make it survive,” said Maathai, who founded Kenya’s Green Party in 1987 and focused on planting trees to address the wood fuel crisis here.

Maathai said the campaign is meant to inspire ordinary citizens to help the environment.

“This something that anybody can do,” Maathai said Wednesday at the U.N. conference on climate change, which has drawn delegates from more than 100 countries to Kenya.

Scientists blame the past century’s 1-degree rise in average global temperatures at least in part on the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel burners.

Africa is the continent expected to suffer most from shifting climate zones and droughts, like the one now in its fourth year in East Africa.

Destroying trees through burning contributes to global warming, releasing about 370 million tons of greenhouse gases every year — about 5 percent of the world total — scientists say. Planting trees can offset climate change in part because they absorb carbon dioxide.

The tree-planting project, organized by the United Nations Environment Program, shows that “action does not need to be confined to the corridors of the negotiation halls,” said Achem Steiner, UNEP’s executive director.

The project calls on participants — including individuals, schools and governments — to sign up on UNEP’s Web site and register the trees they planted.

Also Wednesday, some climate conference participants said the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States were a good sign for environmental issues. The U.S. — the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — has rejected mandatory emissions cuts, saying they could hamstring the economy and because poorer countries are exempt.

On Tuesday, Americans swept Democrats into power in the House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years and largely dismantled the GOP Senate majority.

“President Bush still has two more years in office so it’s very unlikely that the U.S. negotiating posture will change,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

But, he said, the fact that Democrats, many of whom support emissions caps, took control of the House means climate and energy issues will be prominent in the 2008 presidential campaign.

On the Net: www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign www.greenbeltmovement.org/