Filed under: Business + Politics | Tags: Apple, Bloomberg, disputes, GreeNYC, legal, NYC, trademark
New York City began a green initiative called GreeNYC in May 2007 to promote environmental awareness. Mayor Bloomberg launched the campaign with the goal of lowering the city’s carbon emissions by 30% by 2030. The logo, a green curvilinear apple, has shown up hybrid taxis, whole foods reusable bags, bus shelters, and other places around the city.
GreeNYC is attempting to trademark the logo which does not sit well with Apple Inc. Every trademark application goes through a 30 day opposition phase and Apple is disputing the logo claiming it will “seriously injure” their reputation.
I see why Apple has an interest in maintaining the uniqueness of their logo and brand image, it does have mystifying effects on the mind after all. But an apple is one of the most basic and universal shapes and Apple will be hard pressed to find legal grounds to counter the GreeNYC logo. Hopefully the two will come to some sort of an agreement. Defeating the GreeNYC logo will certainly put frowns on the faces of environmentalists and Apple fans alike. It may end up tarnishing Apple’s environmental image.
I’m surprised Washington Apples made it past Apple’s legal team.
via: Daily Tech
Bobby Grace
Filed under: Local Events + Action, Nature + Travel | Tags: Conservation, logging, monarch watch, monarchs
Think of the delicate way this word dances on your English-speaking tongue: mariposa, mar-ee-po-sa. Even the sound of it brings to mind something fanciful, perhaps delicate. Now that I have your aural attention, I give you one mariposa, one butterfly, in particular: the monarch. This magical mariposa, which depends on a Mexican sanctuary each winter, faces steep odds for survival because of illegal logging.
Wait – don’t go. This isn’t one of those whiney enviro stories. Instead, I want you to think about your tiny apartment balcony, the yard at your residence hall complex, maybe your flowerbed. Consider inviting a monarch there for lunch and more.
Here’s the deal: KU is home to Orley “Chip” Taylor, professor of entomology and founder of Monarch Watch. Monarch Watch keeps tabs on migrating monarchs and is a bounty of research, conservation and education. There are tagging events every year, wherin Monarch Watch schoolchildren and others put tiny stickers on the critters so researchers can track how far or where they go.
This amazing insect migrates to the place of its ancestor, a place it has never been before. Then it reproduces, and several generations later returns to the same place.
Last week, Chip sounded the alarm about the pending collapse of monarch migration and population. declining Logging in Mexico threatens the butterflies’ winter home, while human expansion — paving, developing, building, etc. — gobbles up the resources of the insects’ summer home, North America. Since 2000, Monarch Watch has counted the three lowest populations at the Mexican sanctuary.
So, now that you’re all depressed, here’s whatcha can do: Create a monarch waystation with milkweed, making a Pony Express reproduction stopping point for their long journey that will assure that at least here, we keep some habitat preserved.
There’s a lot to be learned from these butterflies, Chip said. “If we don’t, we’re pretty lousy stewards of this planet and it bodes poorly for our future.”
–Jen Humphrey
Monarchs in Mexico:
Filed under: Business + Politics, Design + Architecture, Science + Tech | Tags: blue collar, Boston, green building, green business
So those were some pretty tough dudes in the Sundance film we watched last week. I wouldn’t want to grapple with them in a back alley steetfight involving bare knuckles and/or weapons (although, if someone gave me a magnet I could probably do some damage to that one guy’s ear). I would, however, like to extend my hand to them and offer them a place in the global sustainability conversation and a place in my own personal eco-brotherhood. The ironworkers, carpet layers, plumbers, and roofers of South Boston represent a type of community ignored for too long among green decision makers. This is the sort of traditional blue collar “I want to get my hands dirty” work that seems at odds with the negatively (incorrectly) stereotyped view that the liberal bourgeoisie are the only community preoccupied with environmental causes.
These workers may have looked at the green movement from the perspective of a passive observer or a skeptical cynic, but show them what it means to their own work and there might be a marked shift in perspective. It becomes apart of what they do and is something they can feel and touch and marvel at when they’re done. It no longer seems unimportant. It also tells us about the nature of the work itself. There’s an age-old societal view that this sort of job is not satisfying, it’s a stopgap to something better or that it’s only reserved for those who couldn’t make it doing anything else. That ignores the fact that plumbers, carpet layers, roofers, ironworkes, steelworkers etc. might actually like what they do, and like anyone else with a job they like, they want to be as good at it as possible. If these workers see that the best way to do their job is to do it in a way that is environmentally-conscious the skepticism they may have had goes away and they might not even recognize it.
These workers have a genuine interest in how things are built, the resourcefulness of materials, and the mechanics of construction. Why not find a green initiative they can support that is in line with these interests and is cognizant of these values?
I don’t think the video is a wild unrepresentative example either. Clean energy, for example, is being seen as a way of actually creating more blue collar jobs as this Living on Earth spot demonstrates. This morning’s KC Star business section also had an interesting story about green-building projects in Kansas City. By far the coolest example of “blue collar going green” is this example from Wired Magazine of a hybrid-only repair shop in San Francisco’s SOMA district. It’s the prime example of green consumer products (hybrids) fueling green niche services (hybrid repair) that are being serviced by blue collar workers (the mechanics). Pretty cool.
-Vince Meserko
Filed under: Society + Media | Tags: blog till you drop, blogger, blogging, convergence, environment, global warming, green fatigue, green movement, journalism, Lauren Keith, New york Times
Photo by Tayseer, flickr.com
It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your readers are?
They’re right here, you post procrastinator. They are breathing down your avatar’s neck, expectantly drooling on their keyboards, just waiting for you to hit the almighty “save” button.
You’ve been slaving away over a hot CPU all damn day, but in the world of the ever-impending deadline, readers don’t give a ctrl-alt-del.
The New York Times reported Sunday that two well-known technology bloggers suffered from heart attacks and have gone to meet their maker (presumably Al Gore).
It seems the stress of approaching deadlines is taking its toll everywhere.
Mother Nature knows for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for the (environment).
I fear the sixth great mass extinction will begin soon, this time arising from the deaths of environmentalists suffering from green fatigue.
We rush around: turning off the lights, unplugging unused toasters and TVs, digging through the garbage to find one man’s trash that’s another man’s trip to the recycling center and being a vegetarian even when your friends force you to join them for a Buffalo Wild Wings dinner.
But what satisfaction do we get, especially when we come home to find that our roommate has single-handedly chopped down the entire Amazon rainforest and transported its chipboard brothers and sisters to our living room?
The non-organic, petroleum-derived Doritos bag was my addition to this trip down the Amazon Trail.
With global warming putting an impending deadline on the survival of the human race, we need to take a step back before we hit “save” on our daily actions.
People demand news, now, never-ending. As bloggers, we need to make the climate crisis relevant but not redundant, to remember our deadline and to remind readers of theirs.
Don’t forget that you can stop and breathe for a second, but please divert your CO2 elsewhere.
—Lauren Keith
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Filed under: Nature + Travel | Tags: animal diets, Canada Geese, Chacma baboons, feeding animals
Strolling through the Wyandotte County Lake Park, I heard a loud Canadian accent that echoed for miles across the 400-acre expanse of water. It was constant and intrusive and soon the spring cheer gave way to irritation at the noisy disruption to the tranquil setting. As the sound drew closer, it became hard to resist the urge for a confrontation. I looked around for something to hurl. Sticks, stones, words … . Breadcrumbs?
Yes, maybe that should do it. Except, crumbs don’t hurt, or do they? Well, the Parks and Recreation Department says that feeding the Canada Geese the wrong food can be harmful, and “fosters a ‘beggar’ mentality.” Still, it seemed a way to placate their honks. But feeding wild animals food of any sort poses more harm than good. The geese congregate close to where picknickers gather and their loud pleas suggest they want to be fed whatever leftovers tossed at them. But, eating the “wrong” food can only be bad for their regular diet and such close interaction with humans causes traffic and safety hazards, according to Parks and Recreation.
Just like the chacma baboons found in Southern Africa who’ve become so used to humans that they’re a constant nuisance. Troops have been known to raid homes and restaurants and attacks on tourists and residents have become commonplace – all because of people having fed the primates over the years.
What many have failed to understand is that whether it’s the chacmas or Canadian geese, they don’t need to survive off the scraps thrown at them. Admittedly, animal food sources are being depleted by rapid urbanization, but that doesn’t mean we have to toss a piece of bread whenever we see a duck or a banana in the case of a monkey or baboon.
With all the good intentions that people have, the premise we should operate from is that animals have their own highly specialized diets and that saying no to feeding them helps more than hinders.
-Denzyl
