Building A Greener Seattle

We, the current inhabitants of Seattle, Washington are privileged to live in the 3rd top "Greenest" city in the United States (Green, Huff Post - The Internet Newspaper: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/green-us-cities-list_n_1070107.html#s447934&title=3_Seattle_Washington). Although the people of Seattle have shown great efforts of caring for our recreational parks, cleaning up the environment, and doing small things to make our homes greener and more energy efficient over the past few decades, we could all still do a little bit more as a community to reach number 1 on the list of green cities in the US! The picture below is one of our very own recent developments: The Bullit Center. It is the greenest building in Washington because the entirety of its usage is devoted to energy efficience and spreading urban ecology. The buildings net total of water and energy use amounts to approximately zero (Considering it produces it's own)! It also gets rid of its own sewage and waste which is an astonishing saver of resources compared a plethora of other buildings in our area! (Click on the link below to see in detail the other perks of this Green Center) 

The Buillit Center:

1501 East Madison Street

http://www.responsibledeveloper.com/tags/center-for-energy-and-urban-ec/

If we are able to create more of these buildings or even make adjustments to the places we currently live in, Seattle would surely reach the top of the Green cities. Here are a few suggestions for small additions or changes you can make on your home that will create a great impact in our environment:

- Solar Panel roofs

- Using low/non-toxic paints for both exterior and interior walls of your home

- White roofs

- Green roofs (planting a small garden at the top of your apartment or home)

- Collecting/using recycled materials 

- Storing rain water for your laundry/toilet use

- Installing radient floor heating/cooling

- Double-pane windows

- Composting

Earth Day

Most people know about Earth Day. However, of those that do, most people don't actually do anything for it. People don't change their habits on that day, they don't help raise awareness for environmental issues, they just sort of ignore it. Let's try to make this year different.

Do you know how Earth Day started?

Wisconsin state senator Gaylord Nelson called to the nation and organized an environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. Nelson was an environmental activist who was unsatisfied with the top-down approaches to environmental problems that political advisors like Fred Dutton were proposing - he preferred the grassroots effort, in which each community could focus on its own local concerns.

20 million people across thousands of universities and colleges organized protests that day, fighting against everything that was deteriorating the environment. Some of the problems included pesticides, toxic dumps, power plants, air pollution, oil spills, raw sewage, and loss of wilderness.

Some quotes from the organizers:

"We're going to be focusing an enormous amount of public interest on a whole, wide range of environmental events, hopefully in such a manner that it's going to be drawing the interrelationships between them and, getting people to look at the whole thing as one consistent kind of picture, a picture of a society that's rapidly going in the wrong direction that has to be stopped and turned around." [1]

"Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself." [2]

So this year, on April 22, try to find that activist inside of you and do something for Earth Day. Sign a petition or donate to a cause, or maybe even just take a shorter shower or turn off your lights for the day. Do something! Every little bit counts!

Canary in the Mine - Urban Thoughts

This is no easy task since lots of time the land is paved and/or manicured so much so that the breadth of biodiversity is narrow and it’s hard to determine how things are affected until it shows up in humans which would mean it’s too late to be prevention. I’ve been thinking about Urban Ecology and how to determine land health in toxic neighborhoods.

Much like the Cananea (Peña, Mexican Americans and the environment) being at the forefront of using the Canary in the Mine as an early indication of danger. I think we need a Canary type organism for measuring the health of urban land. We know that certain frog and fish can be an indication of dangerous waterways, the canary is a good indication to mine conditions and Pikas are good indications to high altitude environmental changes. If we could figure out an animal that can be introduced to test if an area is toxic or find different types of organisms that can be used as an indication of the health of the land. I’m not sure what kind of organism is appropriate, something with a faster metabolism that humans would be pertinent, and perhaps something that eats other animals so at to biomagnify any toxics. Perhaps there could even be a set of animals, one for air quality and one for soil quality (earthworm?) and one for air quality testing. This line of thinking is more complicated than I thought when started this thesis. I just think that it could be an alternative to expensive and often out of reach tests that can be performed to figure out similar information.

Keeping it Local

http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/

The above link is to a website that lists all the regular farmer's markets supported by the Neighborhood Farmer's Market Alliance. There are seven, all scattered throughout the greater Seattle area. Most are closed for the season, but the University District and West Seattle Markets are open Saturdays and Sundays, respectively, year-round!

What's the advantage to shopping at a farmer's market?

There are many! First of all, people who sell their goods at farmer's markets are growing it themselves, so you're buying your food directly from the producer! Cutting out the middleman not only minimizes your cost as the consumer, but it decreases the amount of carbon released, because the only transportation the food is going through is just from the farm to the market then from the market to your home!

Second, you know where your food is coming from. Everything at the farmer's market will be locally grown, by certified organic farmers. You can talk to the farmers yourselves and ask them how they practice their farming. Not to mention, by buying locally, the money you pay will go straight back into your community.

Finally, everything you're buying will be fresh, seasonal food! Who wants packaged, processed, and artificially preserved food? I know I don't.

Overall, buying your food from your local farmer's market can only do good things for you and your community. So try stopping by the one nearest you sometime! I bet you'll find something that'll make you want to go back for more.

Here are some more links regarding local farmer's markets:

Farmers Markets - Check out what it says about the Ballard market!

West Seattle Farmer's Market - A Yelp review

Pike Place Market - Not just a tourist destination

Fremont Market - There's a flea market there too!