A Stamp of Approval

  • The 2008 Nature of America issuance, Great Lakes Dunes, is the tenth stamp pane in an educational series that features the beauty and complexity of major plant and animal communities in the United States. A description of the dunes and a numbered key to the artwork appear on the back of the stamp pane, along with a corresponding list of common and scientific names for 27 selected species. (Photo courtesy of the USPS)

The Great Lakes are getting a stamp of
approval from the Postal Service. Heidi Chang
reports there’s a new sheet of postal stamps
that celebrate the region:

Transcript

The Great Lakes are getting a stamp of
approval from the Postal Service. Heidi Chang
reports there’s a new sheet of postal stamps
that celebrate the region:

The new sheet of stamps is the latest in the Postal Service’s “Nature
in America” series.

John Dawson created the painting depicted on the sheet of stamps. It
features 27 different kinds of plants and animals found in the Great
Lakes Dunes.

Dawson says he hopes the stamps will make people more aware of the
beauty of the dunes, and the need to save the whole environment.

“The animals, the plants, the flowers, the bugs, it’s all inter-related.
That’s what’s important about showing this stuff – that it’s important to
keep the environment intact, because there’s so many things that
depend on each other.”

Dawson has designed all ten of the Nature of America series. But this
one is special to him because he started his career living in the Great
Lakes region.

For The Environment Report, this is Heidi Chang.

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Outlawing the Incandescent Bulb

  • Bill Dawson delivering light bulbs to his neighbors in Ottawa. (Photo by Karen Kelly)

The warmer weather brings gardens, barbeques, and often, solicitors to
your door. Many people dread opening the door for someone who’s asking
for money. But in a number of Canadian cities, volunteers are actually
giving something away: a compact fluorescent light bulb and a bit of
education, too. Karen Kelly has the story:

Transcript

The warmer weather brings gardens, barbeques, and often, solicitors to
your door. Many people dread opening the door for someone who’s asking
for money. But in a number of Canadian cities, volunteers are actually
giving something away: a compact fluorescent light bulb and a bit of
education, too. Karen Kelly has the story:


Bill Dawson is standing in this woman’s doorway holding up a
fluorescent light bulb. She looks a little unsure about it, but then he explains that even changing one light bulb can have an
impact:


“What can I do as an individual. Well, I could, just by my little bit,
can make a big difference. Because hopefully, once you start to use
this, it’s going to make you start to think, how can I save energy in
other ways.”


Dawson is a volunteer for Project Porchlight. They have a simple plan:
give one free compact fluorescent bulb to every household in Canada.
The bulb will last up to 8 times as long as a conventional bulb and use
a quarter of the electricity. And if every household changes one bulb,
it’s the equivalent of removing 66 thousand cars off the road.


It’s kind of hard to believe, but that potential is what motivated
Stuart Hickox to start Project Porchlight two years ago:


“I remember sitting there thinking, wow, that’s incredible. Somebody
should do a campaign about this. So I talked to a few friends. But the
big breakthrough for us was that we decided not to just do an awareness
campaign. We decided we’d bridge the gap between awareness and action
by raising money to give people their first bulb.”


So, with more than 250 volunteers and funding from HydroOttawa, the
local utility, the group delivered almost a quarter million light bulbs
in Ottawa last fall. They wore matching fluorescent green jackets and
hats. They drove rechargeable electric bikes with lime green saddlebags
packed with bulbs. And they answered lots of questions like, is the
mercury in these bulbs dangerous for people? The answer? No. But you
should throw them with out with other household hazardous waste.


Hickox’s theory was, if you can get someone to change a light bulb, you
might change their thinking as well:


“When you give them that bulb and that person makes that change, they
realize they can take action on climate change and they do. And it’s
the gateway. It leads to a sense of the individual that you can do
something, and that therefore they may participate and do other
things.”


It worked with Bill Dawson. Before he started volunteering with the
group, he says he felt helpless when he thought about global warming:


“I didn’t even think about what I could do as an individual. It was
just…I’d look at those smokestacks and I’d say, ehh, what’s the
point.”


Then Bill went to a Project Porchlight training session.
He came home with 120 lightbulbs and a radical plan for his own life.
He got rid of his luxury car, which he loved, and bought a Prius, an
energy efficient hybrid car.


Bill says his friends thought he was crazy. He’s 83, a successful
businessman and his car, an Audi A6, was part of his image.
But that’s changed:


“I’d think I’d much rather be an image of a green, someone concerned
about the environment, having 13 grandchildren and two great
grandchildren, it’s a pretty bleak future for those kids and…I don’t
know whether it’s too late or not, but we certainly have got to do
something.”


But now, Bill and people in every household in four Canadian cities are
doing something, thanks to Project Porchlight. And soon, everyone in
Canada will be changing their bulbs, because the Canadian government
has announced it is phasing out old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs
altogether over the next five years.


For the Environment Report, I’m Karen Kelly.

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