The book, aimed at primary grade students, offers various refuge scenes for the kids to color. I’m not that into drawing but my niece had a great time coloring the desert big horn sheep that live in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. The book also allows kids to create a list of wildlife sightings. The book also encourages kids to ride bike through the refuges instead scaring the wildlife with vehicular monsters.

We like the style of Katie R. Schipps’s drawings, which offer a rough and ready look with large lines, and creates the perfect fit for attacking with a crayon or colored marker. Hopefully the refuge system will survive for many years but at least kids today will have some insight into the all important refuge system and how important it is to our future.

Directed by Stephanie Soechtig, the film deconstructs the various aspects of the bottled water industry. Tapped examines the role of the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution, and our reliance on oil. Unlike oil which people think of as a commodity, water hasn’t truly hasn’t been considered a commodity until recently. Although water wars and rights have become big news in various countries, Tapped jumps into the fray and pulls no punches right here in the U.S. The film targets (among others) the big three bottled water companies (Nestle, Coke and Pepsi who declined to be interviewed for the film), the International Bottled Water Association, and the FDA.

Tapped leaps right into water rights war between Swiss owned Nestle (who owns various bottle water brands including Poland Springs and Arrowhead) and the town of Fryeburg, ME. The film shows compelling footage and as well as local interviews which show that Nestle stealthy bought the rights to land in an effort to suck all of the water supply from the ground that it can without the consent or payment to the public. The film captures footage of tanker trucks quietly rolling into town but instead of loading up with black gold, they fill up with blue gold (H2O). Soechtig creates more drama as she displays the protests and grassroots movement demonstrations while showing and discussing the Nestle tactics.

They say that oil and water don’t mix, but nothing could be further from the truth when considering the plastic water bottles. The film flows with information about the hazardous materials found in the petroleum based plastic water bottles. Most companies produce water bottles using BPA which as the film claims can causes cancer, brain disorders and diabetes among other diseases. Even though the FDA claims that small levels of BPA to be safe that approval is based upon two chemical company studies. We loved the footage of Senator John Kerry grilling an FDA employee about the lack of third party, independent studies that the FDA uses to determine the safety of various plastic water bottle ingredients.

Speaking of the FDA, the bottled water does not fall under FDA jurisdiction as far as water quality, and it’s horrifying to watch the FDA spokespeople (as well as the spokespeople from the International Bottled Water Association) refuse to answer or simple gloss over questions about various studies and quotes about the quality of the water and the containers. It’s pretty much a self regulated industry so caveat emptor to all bottled water drinkers.

The film also pulls a few heart strings when Soechtig interviews local residents in Corpus Christi who live next to the largest private manufacturer of plastic water bottles. The documentary makes a strong case that the manufacturer looms as a sort of plastic Three Mile Island for the local residents who deal with various diseases and defects because of their proximity.

Tapped surprises with info about the worldwide effects of plastic water bottles (i.e. the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is only one of five ocean plastic zones in the oceans) as well and lots of insider info from various experts and even an ex-FDA employee.  At some points the film becomes a bit repetitive as it encircles the same points but overall the film offers keen insight into the bottle water industry and leaves the companies making the bottles, sucking the water from the ground, and regulating the industry looking all wet.

The festivities brought together their field representatives from all over the globe including: Belize, Fiji, Mexico, Indonesia, Honduras, almost anywhere coral reefs have become an endangered species. Over locally produced and multilayered Lagunitas IPA and tasty hors d’oeuvres the crowd mingled and discussed the state of coral reefs worldwide. Talking to the various field reps, we got the idea that they create awareness and educate many locals and tourists with little resources. It was as if the field reps paraphrased a quote from the film The Grapes of Wrath, “Wherever there’s a fight about coral reefs, I’ll be there.”

The party highlighted not only food and connecting but educating as well. For those not familiar with the Coral Reef Alliance, they effectively manage protection areas like national underwater parks. Although the focus remains mostly environmental, the field representatives also offer social justice programs where locals also benefit from community initiatives.

Many people claim that the coral reefs will be gone in 40 years or so, unless we act quickly. As always, money looms as the key to conservation with many divers supporting and donating to the organization and the continuing coral reef education. Several speakers mentioned recent successes including the poaching patrols in Honduras and the enacting of the first anchor free zone in Fiji where the boaters use a user fee system that also benefits the local communities.

Leaving the event, we couldn’t help from being inspired the their plan of action tied together with their pull one’s self up by the bootstraps (or in this case scuba fins) mentality to save the worldwide coral reefs.

On a recent (this past week) stroll up into the thin air of Mt. Whitney my hiking buddies and I discovered some things. While most hikers have courtesy and smarts to be as conscious as possible toward environmental stewardship it always happens where a few conventionally grown apples ruin it for everyone else. Case in point being at the last reliable water source (High Camp Tarn) before the final push up the 99 switchbacks to reach the summit what did we spy? A dazzling reflection of the various peaks? Yes. A plethora of discarded Mountain House packages resting on the floor of the tarn. You bet. Not only did these packages tarnish the beauty of the scenic watering hole but even forgetting esthetics, who wants to drink water from a polluted lake before a major climb?

Speaking of water, where would we have been without a trusty water filter? Up you know creek but we tried this new Clear2Go portable water bottle with filter which the company gave out as free samples in Golden Gate Park a few months ago for anyone who brought four plastic bottles. What a deal? Saving landfill space and getting a filter that removes 99.9 % of Guardia and cryptosporidium with the NASA-derived technology. I don’t think this filter will help you get to Mars but the water filtered tasted great and we’re glad to report that we survived drinking water from the great open spaces.

In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder

We ploughed through some of the well organized and highly useful guide and discovered that beyond the tax credits, homeowners can save even more money through rebates as well as a breakdown to many money and environment friendly loans for energy efficient home improvements. One loan that we like is the Energy Star Loan which homeowners can use for installation of qualifying improvements that are Energy Star rated or meet program standards.

Here are some of the details:
The Loan Amount: $1,000-$15,000
Rate and Term: 6.99%
Fixed Rate; 3, 5, or 10 year term.
ii. Unsecured, no lien.
iii. No Fees or closing costs.
iv. No pre-payment penalty.

Not too shabby.

Finally, the politicians have created some far reaching incentives to truly get on us on the Green road to recovery. This downloadable decoder makes it easy to navigate down that Green road.

David de Rothschild seeks to change the perception of plastic. He has created a plastic love boat named the Plastiki which he discussed in depth in a presentation/lecture a couple nights ago at San Francisco’s Academy of Sciences. De Rothschild plans to sail his boat, made almost entirely from reused plastic bottles, from Pier 31 in San Francisco, through the Great Eastern Garbage Patch to Sydney, Australia.

De Rothschild’s presentation came off as anything but dull and preachy. What else can we say when he begins the lecture with a video of many bovine tailpipes creating various amounts of various colored excrement. Rothschild’s point being not to gross the audience out (which he did to some degree) but to educate people that all the cow “tailpipes” create more CO2 than the tailpipes for all cars and trucks.

The casually attired, highly educated and hyper frenzied De Rothschild never wasted a moment or a word as he pointed out various that fact that there are 300 terms for “sustainability” and that his project and much of his thinking attributes to Buckminster Fuller. De Rothschild takes Fullers words, “Do more with less” to heart and thus the creation of the boat made from the plastic bottles.

De Rothschild, admittedly could have spoken for hours, mostly seeks to educate the world that people should find value in the omnipresent plastic – even if it means pulling a Kon-Tiki or Waterworld to get his point across.

Photo by David Gilbert, http://www.uncontacted.com/

A documentary or any feature film, like a good dessert, needs good texture. Some docs offer light delicate flavors, while others serve up crisp tawdry offerings but Crude, the latest feature documentary from director Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) brings a feel so viscous its some wonder that the film and the emotions within it don’t just ooze into the theater.

And why wouldn’t the film be viscous with center of the film swirling around a legal case about the black gold being pumped out of the jungles of Ecuador. Some have called the case the “Amazon Chernobyl” but whatever the name, Berlinger delves head first into this the David versus Goliath story that circles around one of the longest and most controversial legal (not to mention environmental and human rights) cases ever.

Crude aptly gives a balanced view of the various sides involved in the case which pits plaintiffs (30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers) versus U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which later merged with Chevron – systemically contaminated an area the size of Rhode Island over a period of three decades. The plaintiffs allege that the contamination has led to numerous birth defects, increased rates of cancer leukemia, not to mention deaths.

Shot in cinéma vérité style Crude brings together various elements that one might not expect from a single documentary including: high stakes legal motions, backroom legal maneuvering,  global politics, environmental causes, social justice, media frenzies, celebrity activism, multinational corporate power, and disappearing culture.

With so many layers, the film could have easily been bogged down (like the over 10 year still on going trial) but Berlinger keeps much of the film out of the courtrooms and in and around the alleged contamination sites where both the judge and attorneys for both sides trudge through the sludge and jungle to the various inspection sites. Crude deftly moves from the jungle to health clinics to the celebrity scene where rainforest advocates Trudie Styler and Sting helped bring attention to the case.

Crude come off like a war documentary shot in the trenches but instead of offering a dry, matter-of-fact 60 Minutes style, Berlinger makes the film personal. Looking at the smaller picture includes heartbreaking scenes with local ingenious people who have suffered through various illnesses, tragedies and deaths. But the doc also captures the lawyers and scientists and their opinions not to mention their polarized philosophies. Berlinger doesn’t set out to take sides but it’s easy to tell from the various on-screen quotes about who offers sincerity versus others who “hang themselves” with their own words.

Although Crude could have delved deeper in the minutiae, the 101 running time severs as a reminder about not only how powerful film making can be but how important and informative the subject can be as well.

Crude shows May 2nd at the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival

Clint Eastwood’s iconic Dirty Harry character uttered “A man’s got to know his limitations” but can say the same thing about the Green progress of a company? In the case of the smaller and less capitalized Lake Tahoe ski resort Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort we looked at skied, snowboarded, walked, and peeked around at what Green goings on here at this resort. Like all ski reports they should be concerned about their carbon footprint and global warming because with no snow they have no business.

Sierra, unlike some of the larger resorts like Heavenly, don’t have as much capital to spend on LEED certified buildings, high output photovoltaic systems or biodiesal powered snow-cats but then again they have a smaller footprint in terms of actual buildings (LEED or otherwise) or the amount of high energy snow making machines.

In truthfulness Sierra’s green initiatives don’t have that “wow” factor but that doesn’t mean that they ignore the green philosophy. Under there PROJECT: GREEN SIERRA they have instituted many educational, community and environmental programs. Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort works local school children to collect plastic bottle tops in exchange for a free day of skiing and snowboarding. The collected plastic tops will be recycled into new bottle tops by Aveda™ in their Caps Recycling Program.

In terms of using the green thumb for building, Sierra “saved” their sister ski area Northstar from creating more landfill when they rescued the doors and installed them at the Grandview and Base lodge. They also used recycled material to rebuild the roof-top decks above their main lodge and above Grandview Lodge. On the below side, they replaced carpet in the main lodge with a carpet that is 25% recycled and contains 100% recycled backing. We have to like that carpet has Cradle-to-Cradle certification.

Speaking of recycling, Sierra makes a point to use 100% eco-friendly disposable products for all their restaurants. All plates, bowls, cups and flatware come from renewable sources such as sugar cane, potato starch and corn resin. When trying to be somewhat progressive with their recycling program unexpected things occurred. Next to their blue recycling bins they labeled their garbage bins “landfill” because that’s where it ends up. Skiers and riders, feeling guilty by not wanting to create more landfill, started tossing everything into the recycle bins. We had to laugh too. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. People in this region just need to be educated that a half eaten chili burger can’t be recycled. Now, Sierra needs to look at compost bins.

A lot of times it comes down to what you don’t do that can be classified as Green. Sierra only uses four snow guns which use a ton of energy and they have no condos. Their changes might seem small scale to many but at least the changes continue. We hope that soon Sierra will implement some major alt energy source, change their menu to more organic local based cuisine (although they do offer free Wednesday wine tasting from three local winemakers), and work on their water conservation efforts. When they accomplish some of sustainable ideas then it will really “Make my day”.

Usually when people visit a winery, people look for various shades of white or dark red, but here our color paradigm might shift to say Green. The recently opened CADE Winery offers not only solar power and organically farmed winery but hopes to garner LEED Gold status and if so, would be the first Estate Gold LEED certified winery in the Napa Valley.

When visiting a winery, people’s olfactory system normally goes into overdrive but instead of inhaling the aromas of vanilla, rosemary, oak and sage here we took deep breaths of the air. As in indoor air quality. No stuffy AC here as the building relies on natural ventilation. Although the wines remain something to admire, we also dig the other green aspects. CADE utilizes 100% solar power and organic farming methods which both look so green and tasty.

From top to bottom, our Green buzz comes from the other building features like the concrete composed that contains a generous amount (30 percent) of fly ash, steel made up of 98 percent recycled material, FSC glass and wood, as well as blue jeans for insulation and its own concrete mass for cooling.

The Green aspects just continue. It’s too bad that we didn’t bike or drive our electric car (we did carpool) because the winery offers a plug-in base for hybrid electric cars; and bicycle racks. Even better, they offer a shower (hopefully with low flow showerhead) so cyclists can clean up before one of the numerous tastings or events.

For the foodies, the winery offers a full-time chef on site who focuses on organic, sustainable cuisine grown on site. We haven’t had the chance to chow down on the sustainable cuisine but we’ll check back when we do.

Curious about the name? The winery name CADE derives from a Shakespearean term used for an oak cask or barrel.  How about the size? in this case size matters as the winery comprises more than 60 acres, 23 of which were planted as vineyards in 2003. Of the remaining land, 28 acres will be protected in a land trust to ensure that they will always remain open space.  Now there should be a big “Cheers” to that fact.