Nyc Buys Island for Birds

Across the country, urban rivers that were once used almost
exclusively for industrial purposes are being reclaimed as parks.
Recently, a little island in New York City’s east river took the first
steps to becoming a nature preserve. Nora Flaherty has this report:

Transcript

Across the country, urban rivers that were once used almost
exclusively for industrial purposes are being reclaimed as parks.
Recently, a little island in New York City’s east river took the first
steps to becoming a nature preserve. Nora Flaherty has this report:


New York City’s south Brother Island used to belong to a gravel
and sand company. In spite of this, the island is a wild place, and
one that’s home to hundreds of herons and other birds, it’s also a
stopover on the Atlantic flyway migration. And now it’s the
property of New York City.


Rose Harvey is the mid-Atlantic regional director of the Trust For
Public Land. She says places like South Brother Island are a
national priority:


“We are pretty much working on all the coasts in the bays in the estuaries along the rivers
in the urban areas to ensure that the urban rivers and [all] are protected as much as the
more rural and remote areas.”


Harvey says that although New York residents won’t be able to use
the land for recreation, there’s value in just being able to see a
wild place from the riverbank.


For the Environment Report, I’m Nora Flaherty.

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Report: Greenwashing Alive and Well

An environmental marketing firm wants shoppers to be a little more discerning this
holiday season. They say a practice known as ‘green-washing’ is alive and well. That’s
when companies make false or misleading environmental claims about their products.
Mark Brush has more:

Transcript

An environmental marketing firm wants shoppers to be a little more discerning this
holiday season. They say a practice known as ‘green-washing’ is alive and well. That’s
when companies make false or misleading environmental claims about their products.
Mark Brush has more:

The marketing firm Terra Choice looked at more than a-thousand products making
environmental claims. They said all but one product made false or misleading
statements. They found most companies are not lying about what they sell. But they are
making statements that disguise a product’s total environmental impact.

Scot Case is with Terra Choice. He says one example of green-washing is the little green
dot on some canisters of shaving cream or hair sprays marked ‘no CFCs’:

“And that makes it seems like, ‘Oh, this is an environmentally friendly product.’ Except
CFCs were banned in 1978. So all that green dot is really saying is ‘Hey, we’re obeying
the law.’ Well whoop dee doo dah. That is not helping me buy a more environmentally
friendly product.”


Case says consumers should look at all products making environmental claims with
skepticism.


For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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Study: Low Lead Levels Still Dangerous

A new study finds that exposure to even very low lead levels can cause
brain damage in children. Rebecca Williams reports:

Transcript

A new study finds that exposure to even very low lead levels can cause
brain damage in children. Rebecca Williams reports:


Children can be exposed to lead through lead-based paint in homes, or
lead in imported toys or other products.


The researchers looked at children with lead levels in their blood that
were below the level the federal government considers to be dangerous.


They studied the children over a six year period. And found that
children exposed to lead at very low levels had reduced IQ scores by 5
points.


Richard Canfield is a senior author of the study in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives:


“The evidence at this point is quite strong that meaningful effects on
children’s cognitive performance are due to small amounts of lead and
in fact, amounts below what the current regulations allow.”


Canfield says no one knows at this point if there is any safe level of
lead exposure.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Songwriter Connects With Kids

  • Joe Reilly and poetry writer Nora sing at a CD release party for Joe's album. (Photo by Chris Reilly)

Singer-songwriter Joe Reilly recently made an album with kids. The songs on the album are all about nature. Reilly discovered that when it comes to writing and singing about nature, some of these kids are wise beyond their years. Kyle Norris has this story:

Transcript

Singer-songwriter Joe Reilly recently made an album with kids. The songs on the album are all about nature. Reilly discovered that when it comes to writing and singing about nature, some of these kids are wise beyond their years. Kyle Norris has this story:


It’s hard to get kids to think outside their own little world. Let alone get them to think about the entire planet. But Joe Reilly seems to have a knack for getting kids to think big. And to talk about something pretty big, nature. He does it with music:


“Realizing the way that music can reach a place in any person, but especially in a kid that is a place of excitement and inspiration, there’s really like a magic there.”


Joe Reilly recently wrote an entire album with kids. He’d ask the kids open-ended questions, like “why is it important to protect the river?” And then he’d weave their answers into lyrics. He had one song with music, but no words. And then he heard a poem written by one of his ten-year old students. The poem by Nora Sinnett blew him out of the water. Reilly asked Nora if she was willing to read the poem over the song’s music.


(Song lyrics): “I am important. I may be only a whisper in a sea of voices. I may be only a blade of grass on a lawn. I may be one flower in a garden, a minnow in an ocean, a grain of sand on a beach, one star in the sky. But I am important. I matter. I stand tall. I am proud.”


She says she wrote the poem one day while she was hanging out in her grandpa’s library and she was just feeling kind of blue:


“I just like, saw a little ray of sunshine in window and I thought wow, that little ray of sunshine is really small but without that little ray of sunshine there wouldn’t be any other bits of sunshine. Then the room would just be dark. It just made me feel like I’m important because like, there’s only one leaf on a tree but without leaves the tree would be really bare. So little things make up big things.”


At a benefit show for the CD, Nora and Joe performed the song together. Afterwards, a mob of children and adults surrounded Nora. Kim Hunter is a poet and writer-in-residence in the Detroit schools. He was one of the people congratulating her.


“She has some really great metaphors in there. She’s a small person but she still, as says in poem, stands tall. And that’s, for a ten-year-old, a pretty sophisticated metaphor, and she employed it in a lot of different situations. It was a good poem.”


Hunter wasn’t the only person who thought it was a good poem. Songwriter Joe Reilly jokes that he’s been writing longer than Nora has been alive. He says he wishes he could write things as profound as Nora’s poem:


“I think there’s a real power in giving kids a voice and they can speak to adults and other kids, in a way we grown folks can’t always do.”


When Joe Reilly was a kid the adults in his life taught him about music and nature. He spent a lot of time exploring both of these things. He says they helped him to feel safe and good. These days, music and nature give him hope, which he says is a welcome change. To the hopelessness he feels about the environment and the future:


“When I can sit and make music with kids about how the beautiful earth is and how we want to celebrate our connections and inter-connections with all living beings. That just takes me beyond that despair, and it anchors me in some kind of hope.”


Reilly says that if he had sat down alone and tried to write a bunch of songs about nature, the songs would have been more serious. And not as fun. And silly. And lighthearted as it was with the kids. Like in this song. Where Joe and the kids invented a word to rhyme with river:


(Song): “Shibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby diver/We got a song about the Huron River/Water is such an important life-giver/We will protect it we will deliver”


For the Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

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Cities Brace for Global Warming – Part 2

  • Cities can expand mass transit, getting more cars off the road and giving people more options to help reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. (Photo by Karen Kelly)

Census figures show that more and more North Americans are now living in cities. For those who want to fight climate change, that means changing the way these urban folks live. In the second of a two-part series on climate change, Karen Kelly has the story of one city councilor who’s made that his mission:

Transcript

Census figures show that more and more North Americans are now living in cities. For those who want to fight climate change, that means changing the way these urban folks live. In the second of a two-part series on climate change, Karen Kelly has the story of one city councilor who’s made that his mission:


“We’re at Bronson and Fifth. It’s a four lane roadway into Ottawa.”


Clive Doucet is a city councilor in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. He’s standing about half a block from where he lives:


“This kind of street is a community killer, it’s a planet killer. It’s the fruit of 5,560 years of building cities for cars and not human beings.”


Doucet loves cities, which is why it pains him to see a once-beautiful neighborhood street become, as he calls it, a traffic sewer. It’s loud, it’s polluted, and it’s not safe. Three pedestrians have been killed near this corner in the past five years, and there’ve been many accidents.


Doucet was an activist for a long time, but after running for city council he realized the city has the power to change the climate. It builds the roads and it controls the public transportation:


“Public transit has, every environmentalist knows is one of the main keys to solving the environmental crisis. I mean, 45 to 50 percent of greenhouse gases come out of our use of land and the tailpipes of cars and trucks. We can get rid of most of that and we can not change our lifestyle one bit; in fact, we can make it better.”


Doucet hops on his bike to show what he means. He winds through the traffic and then stops along Ottawa’s five-mile-long light rail track:


“This runs parallel to the road we were just on. It’s a test line. It carries a hundred and 50 passengers every 15 minutes and when we get the two lines up and running, it will carry three times the traffic or more as Bronson and it’s quiet. We’re standing at the station now. You’re like in a church. See the train’s coming. Do you hear any noise? It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”


Doucet’s vision for his city is a comprehensive light rail system. He says it will reduce air and noise pollution, and make the city friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists, but Doucet is thinking about the bigger picture, too. And there, he’s not optimistic. He’s noticed that the winters in Ottawa are warmer now, and that’s disturbing for people because they really embrace winter.


Almost every park has an outdoor hockey rink, and people ice skate, not just for pleasure, but to get around. Doucet says he’s afraid that climate change will destroy what makes his city special:


“It’s incredibly sad. I mean, I’ve skated to work all my life and I live about a block from the canal I take my skates down and I’d skate to work and skate home. And I’ve seen countless marvelous sunrises on the canal. It is difficult to imagine my life without that. Those experiences have given my life poetry.”


Doucet says he’s pretty much given up hope on the federal government. He says they’re too beholden to big industry to really curb the emissions that cause climate change.
But at the local level? He says a lot can be done.


He recently wrote a book, Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual. In it, he says it’s time for city residents to get tough:


“Go after your municipal politicians and say, you know something, we want to have a city that’s pedestrian-based, that’s public transit-based and we want you to stop building roads. You can do stuff about your local government and the way you live locally.”


Doucet wouldn’t say it’s easy. Last year, Ottawa signed a contract to expand its light rail system. Then, a new mayor came in and the plan was scrapped. Doucet thinks it will happen eventually, but in the meantime, he’s still fighting the rush hour traffic on his bicycle.


For the Environment Report, I’m Karen Kelly.

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Cities Brace for Global Warming – Part 1

When we think about climate change, many of us think about it as a national, even international, problem. But a growing number of officials at the local level are beginning to see it as a local problem as well. Karen Kelly brings us the first
of a two-part series on what cities are doing to
prepare for global warming:

Transcript

When we think about climate change, many of us think about it as a national, even international, problem. But a growing number of officials at the local level are beginning to see it as a local problem as well. Karen Kelly brings us the first
Of a two-part series on what cities are doing to
prepare for global warming:


Ron Sims has lived in Washington State his whole life, and he loves its unique environment: Puget Sound, the snow-capped mountains, and the salmon runs. But he’s worried about its future. He’s now the head of King County, Washington. It’s home to about 2 million residents, including the city of Seattle.


As county executive, he sees the scientific reports about his region.
They say the snow caps are melting, marine life is changing and the cedar trees are being replaced by other species. That’s what happening right now.


But what really convinced Sims he had to do something is when he called scientists at the nearby University of Washington’s School of Climate Impacts.


“And I asked them a simple question. I wanted to know what the climate in our area would be in 2050.”


The scientists’ report said King County could expect frequent torrential rains that would cause serious flooding, even swamping the buildings of some major employers. In terms of wildlife, the rains would wipe out the salmon’s spawning grounds. Yet, at other times of the year, they say they’ll be a drought as the snowcaps decline. Sims knew it was time to take action:


“Should we wait for our children to make this decision in 2045 or 2030? And since we now know that we have to make these decisions, based upon what the scientists are telling us, why aren’t we doing it now? Because generations in the future are going to have to make far more complex decisions and this shouldn’t be one of them they have to work from.


Sims isn’t the only city or county leader who’s taking climate change seriously.
The mayor of London, England starting charging people a fee for driving into his city during rush hour.


In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the same proposal to reduce emissions. He also wants to see a new rule that requires all New York City taxis to be hybrids within the next five years, and groups like the US Conference of Mayors are holding climate change summits to help local officials plan for the effects of global warming.


Jennifer Penney is with the Alliance for Resilient Cities, which recently brought local leaders to Toronto. She says a lot of officials are realizing that they’ll be on the front lines when serious weather events occur:


“Most of those things are in the jurisdiction of the local government. So protecting people from heat waves. Dealing with local floods. Dealing with wind storms or tornadoes that come through. Those are the kinds of things that local governments are on the ground, they have to deal with.”


And that’s why city and county officials across the nation are starting to make plans.


Back in Washington State, Ron Sims decided on two strategies to deal with this. One, reduce his county’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, mostly by getting cars off the road. That’s led the county to start buying up development rights on rural lands to prevent sprawl and the number of suburban commuters. They’ve also bought a fleet of hybrid buses.


And the second strategy? Start finding ways to adapt to the realities of climate change. King County has taken many steps. They range from a plan to strengthen their levies to prevent flooding, and the county is buying up forest land to act as a sponge for the runoff water. Sims says King County’s climate change plan has touched every department in the government:


“We decided to go backwards in time in all functions of this government… how we plan for growth, what do preserve, what will we face, what do we see the consequences of 2050 being, and are we prepared for that?”


A lot of people wonder if the public is ready for that, to sacrifice for it.
Ron Sims tells his colleagues in local government that the public is ready.
They saw the pictures of Hurricane Katrina. Many saw Al Gore’s documentary on climate change, and now they’re looking for elected officials, if not at the national level, then at the local level, to take the lead.


For the Environment Report, I’m Karen Kelly.

Related Links

New Flame Retardants Show Up in Wildlife

A study of gull eggs shows that more chemicals used as flame retardants are
showing up in the environment. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

A study of gull eggs shows that more chemicals used as flame retardants are
showing up in the environment. Chuck Quirmbach reports:


Flame retardants on clothes and other products have reduced deaths and
injuries caused by fires. But the compound traditionally found in retardants,
polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDE, has found its way into many water
bodies and even into women’s breast milk.


A few years ago, after concerns about the compound being linked to health
problems in wildlife, makers of PBDEs began to phase out some types of it. A
recent update of a study of herring gull eggs around the Great Lakes has found
that levels of the phased out chemicals have been dropping, but research
scientist Robert Letcher of Environment Canada says there’s also bad news:


“Flame retardants that are replacing them commercially are starting to show up in
the gulls as an indicator species. And for example, there’s the replacement flame
retardant callled deca-BDE. That’s what we’re seeing going up.”


Letcher says there could be long-term health concerns for both wildlife and
humans.


For the Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Ethanol Production Falling Short

Domestic automakers have been advertising their flex-fuel vehicles as an answer to independence from foreign oil. That’s because they burn a mix of gasoline and domestically-produced ethanol. But ethanol production has been inefficient. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Domestic automakers have been advertising their flex-fuel vehicles as an answer to independence from foreign oil. That’s because they burn a mix of gasoline and domestically produced ethanol. But ethanol production has been inefficient. Lester Graham reports:


Ford Motor Company chairman Bill Ford, Junior says his company increased flex-fuel vehicles on assurances there would be a better source for ethanol.


“It has been mostly corn-based and we knew, we do know that long-term that’s not the answer.”


The hope was breakthroughs to mass produce cellulosic ethanol made from woody plants or waste wood chips were coming quickly. That didn’t happen.


“But, I’ll say this: if we don’t end up with cellulosic ethanol, we’re going to hit the wall pretty quickly in terms of vehicle penetration on ethanol.”


Ford says automakers are looking to fuel providers to find an energy answer that makes sense for mass production. In the meantime his company plans to make lighter vehicles with smaller, but powerful fuel-efficient engines that burn gasoline.


For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

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Green Travel Series: Rental Cars

  • So maybe it's not your typical rental car... but it is possible to rent cars that run on used cooking oil, in a few cities. (Photo by Bio-Beetle ECO Rental Cars)

A lot of rental car companies have started to change their fleets to
make them more attractive to consumers who want better gas mileage.
It’s been a good opportunity for rental companies to market themselves
as “green.” But Rebecca Williams reports it all hinges on whether
customers actually choose those cars when they get to the lot:

Transcript

A lot of rental car companies have started to change their fleets to
make them more attractive to consumers who want better gas mileage.
It’s been a good opportunity for rental companies to market themselves
as “green.” But Rebecca Williams reports it all hinges on whether
customers actually choose those cars when they get to the lot:


“Thank you for choosing Enterprise this is Karen how can I help you? What exactly are you looking for?”


Rental car companies pay a lot of attention to that last question –
what are you looking for? They change their fleets based on what
people get the most excited about.


We talked to a few people waiting in rental car lines at an airport:


“I like a car that handles well and can put up with adverse weather.”


“Lower prices and that husband and wife can both drive without paying a
fee.”


“I typically vacation on beaches so I’ll rent Jeeps and things like
that that have some kind of open air.”


That confirms what rental car companies say – there’s no typical
customer. Making things more complicated, there’s usually a big
difference between what people say they want on the phone… and what
they actually drive off the lot.


Christopher Buck is a regional vice president for Enterprise Rent-A-
Car:


“You know, when you’re on the phone you’re just saying I need temporary
transportation and I don’t want to spend a lot of money. When they get
here and actually see the wheels and paint and tires I don’t know if it
tugs on people’s heartstrings or what, but it’s hey, that’s a sharp
looking car!”


So people want to drive something that makes them feel good.


Christopher Buck says lately, he’s noticed a shift in what customers
end up renting. He says two years ago, his branches had a lot more
trucks and SUVs in their fleets. He says that’s what most people
wanted:


“And lately it seems those vehicles are not as popular. Customers seem
to be demanding more of the sedan. I would imagine fuel efficiency has
something to do with that now that gas is back over $3 a gallon.”


Buck says now, customers want the biggest car with the best gas
mileage. He’s changed the makeup of his fleets to reflect that. These
days, it’s mostly made up of sedans, with just a few SUVs, vans and
trucks.


Because gas mileage is playing a bigger role, Buck’s also added a few
hybrid vehicles. But he’s having trouble getting more:


“We’d like to get more to see if we really open doors up and advertise
that we truly have them, because we such a small number it’s hard to
really wave the flag because they’re so hard to manage and make sure
the hybrid requests are going straight into hybrids every single time.”


Getting hybrids isn’t easy right now, but that could change.


Neil Abrams is president of Abrams Consulting Group. He advises the
transportation industry. He says automakers such as Ford and GM make
more money selling cars to people rather than rental companies.


And so the US automakers are pulling back from the big incentives they
used to offer rental car companies. Abrams says that’s opening the
door for more cars from foreign automakers, and that could mean hybrids
such as the Toyota Prius will be more available in the future.


But he says that all depends on what customers want. If they want
hybrids, they’ll have to ask for them:


“If the rental consumer does not step up and demand an environmentally
efficient vehicle or hybrid, eventually rental companies will stop
offering them.”


If you really want a hybrid right now, it’s a good idea to call ahead
and see if you can specifically reserve one. That’s because there
aren’t very many.


Even if you can’t get one right now, just asking for one might help you
get one in the future. That’s because rental companies plan the makeup
of their fleets about a year in advance. It’s based on what customers
want. So the cars you’ll be able to rent in the future depend on what
you ask for today.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Green Travel Series: Hotels

When you’re reserving a hotel room, you’re probably not thinking about
whether your room has a low-flow toilet. Little by little, hotels are
making changes like that to lighten their environmental impact.
Rebecca Williams reports it’s not always easy for travelers to know how
green a hotel is:

Transcript

When you’re reserving a hotel room, you’re probably not thinking about
whether your room has a low-flow toilet. Little by little, hotels are
making changes like that to lighten their environmental impact.
Rebecca Williams reports it’s not always easy for travelers to know how
green a hotel is:


“This is our one washer where we do all our laundry, it’s running 24
hours a day.”


Gail Vantiem manages the front office for this Courtyard Marriott:


“We had 100 checkouts this morning so at least 300 towels need to be
done and put into the rooms today.”


And a lot of those towels could’ve been reused. Most of us might see
those little cards talking about reusing your towels and feel a little
twinge of guilt. But when people stay in a hotel they often take extra
long showers and use a bunch of towels. It feels like vacation.


But cutting back on the laundry load makes a lot of sense for a hotel.
It saves energy, water and of course, money.


Some hotels are trying to do more. They’re trying to find a balance
between giving you a comfortable stay and being more energy and water
conscious without doing anything that will inconvenience their guests.


This Marriott in suburban Detroit is being renovated. Gail Vantiem
says they’ve swapped the traditional lightbulbs for more efficient
compact fluorescents. They’ve installed low flow toilets and
showerheads.


After a guest checks out, the room is cleaned and the heat or air
conditioning and lights are turned off to save energy. Vantiem says
that’s where they’ve had the most public relations work to do:


“The number one complaint is the heat’s not working in the room in the
winter months. It’s just the way you explain to the guest, oh you know
we’re trying to conserve.”


But when it comes down to it, hotels are there to cater to their
guests’ needs. That might mean wanting fresh towels and sheets every
single day. Vantiem says it can be a tough thing for hotel managers to
balance:


“That’s the hospitality business, that’s what we’re here for, if they
don’t want it done we can’t change people’s minds by any means and we
don’t try.”


But some people say hotels can save a lot of money by trying.


Linda Chipperfield is vice president of marketing and outreach for
Green Seal. It’s an independent group that certifies hotels that have
a lighter environmental impact:


“The average hotel purchases more products in one week than 100
families will purchase over a whole year.”


Besides fresh towels and sheets every day, there are all those little
soaps and bottles of shampoo.


Chipperfield says hotels stand to save thousands of dollars each year
by reducing energy and water use. But she says on the whole, the hotel
industry has been slow to change:


“The more pillows there are on the bed, the more towels there are in
the bathroom, the more it’s perceived luxurious, it’s perceived as a
higher quality hotel. It really is a challenge for a hotel to create
different ways to make guests comfortable and portray the image of
luxury but try to save energy at the same time.”


Chipperfield says the key is to do some things that are visible to the
guests – like a towel reuse program. And also do some things that are
under the radar – like installing low-flow toilets that work just as
well as the traditional toilets.


But as a traveler, it’s not easy to know whether a hotel’s really
green, or if it just has a great marketing team. Even some hotels that
are doing a lot aren’t talking about it on their own websites.


Kim Solem is with Expedia. She says travel websites like hers are
struggling with how to rate green hotels. She says there’s no simple
way to judge who’s doing what:


“Right now there are several sets of standards in existence and they
vary by region so it’s pretty difficult for a traveler to understand
just what shade of green a hotel is or to compare one hotel against
another. So our goal is to get to a place where hotels are evaluated
on a standard, very comprehensive point system.”


Solem says she’d like to see a system that grades hotels on a 1 to 100
point scale. And have a little green icon by the ones doing the best
job.


But Solem says that’s at least a couple years off.


In the meantime, if you’re really curious, you can call the hotel
directly. You can ask what they’re doing to cut down on waste, energy
and water. And once you get there, you can hang your towels up for one
more use.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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