An Open Letter to the Land that I Love

Breaking News- Renewable Energy can STILL power our planet!

Yesterday, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an exciting report about the potential of Renewables and the world energy market. Over 120 world experts produced a scientific document over 1,000 pages long that provides a solution to 'business as usual' carbon emissions. They believe that we could meet the globe's energy needs with 80% renewable energies by mid-century . This would be a socially, politically, and physically strenuous task. If we eliminate all the complications and shift our paradigm, we still have issues like that which Ramon Pichs, Co-Chair of the Working Group III, added: “The report shows that it is not the availability of the resource, but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades. Developing countries have an important stake in this future—this is where most of the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditi...

Eating Garbage

Garbage is Beautiful. And let me tell you why. In 2010, the EPA estimated the US produced over 240 million tons of municipal solid waste. That is over four pounds of garbage, per person, per day. We travel through our day throwing things ‘away’. But where do they go? Does your trash go to a landfill, incinerator, or Waste to Energy Plant? Currently in NJ, thirteen counties have solid waste landfills and five counties have resource recovery facilities (incinerators). Of the five counties with resource recovery facilities, three also have landfills to receive waste that cannot be burnt. Eight counties have awarded waste disposal contracts and require that all waste be sent to one facility for disposal. The remaining thirteen counties have a free market system and transporters may send waste out of the county or state. The majority of us don’t know information like this, and don’t care as long as we don’t have to look at it. But if we were forced to look at the garb...

A Bit About the Challenge of Living...Buildings

Just because I'm an Environmental student does not mean I was born wanting to make my clothes out of hemp, live in a cobb house, and eat only raw/vegetarian friendly foods. I'm a Jersey girl at heart, who happened to spend her summers camping in the Northern part of the state canoeing, swimming, hiking and singing. I really grew to love spending time on the Appalachian Trail, the challenge of long, multi-day hikes, the danger of bears and other large animals, and the wonder of how life goes on despite everything happening in our cities. As I got older, I could feel the natural world around me start to change. Summers got hot- like 106 degrees hot. We couldn't hike the normal trails because water sources were dry, we couldn't swim in the lake because so much water evaporated the fecal count was unsafe, and something called the gypsy moth was plaguing the entire county, devouring everything green in its path. I realized then that maybe things don't continue on despit...

Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

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