On Saturday, October 17th in Western Springs, Lyons Township High School South Campus (4900 S. Willow Springs Road) is hosting a free environmental fair “How Cool is Your Home?”.  To learn more about this free event, visit www.lagrangearealwv.org. There will be speakers, exhibits, children’s activities, giveaways, and door prizes.  Should be educational and fun for all!

Three things to pass along:

1. The Road to Sustainability from Physics World: A cool write up about the sustainable stuff.  Here’s a little intro quote:“Sustainability” is the hottest topic in energy research today, but what does it actually mean? George Crabtree and John Sarrao describe what makes a technology sustainable, and outline the materials-science challenges standing between us and clean, long-lasting energy
2. Newsweek’s Green Rankings 2009: This years marks the beginning of Newsweek’s “green” rankings where they rank 500 of the greenest companies.  Who do you think made #1?
3. Sum Total Being Green isn’t new:

These homes are upcycled, meaning objects are reused for a different purpose instead of being thrown into a landfill.  Phoenix Commotion, the company founded by Dan Philips in East Town, Texas, doesn’t just build homes for customers, but requires that the customers participate in the building process to take early ownership and feel the investment.  The town has even supported Dan by creating a center for the drop off of construction waste, which will then be turned into beautiful homes.  You might think the houses are junk (well they are literally), but Dan has become a master builder who meets all building codes.  Check these beauties out! http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/02/garden/20090903-recycled-slideshow_index.html

Article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/garden/03recycle.html?_r=1

I wanted to share the link to this article from Van Jones, who is the Obama Administration’s lead cheer-leader on pushing the “green collar” economy: Selling Americans on a Green Collar Economy.

I wanted to share this article about a new program in Orland Park. It is from the South Town: Orland Park mayor unveils ‘Smart Living’ project. Mayor Dan McLaughlin, who is leading this effort, was a speaker here at MVCC in May for our Creating Sustainable Communities discussion. (You can listen to the podcast from the discussion here: Creating Sustainable Communities)

I wanted to share the video below. There is some very interesting thinking here.

The man who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and ’70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering. This talk at the US State Department is a foretaste of his major new book, sure to provoke widespread debate.

The library was happy to host a special event as part of our One Book, One College series. This event, “Creating Sustainable Communities,” featured area leaders who discussed green efforts in the Southwest Suburban Region. Panel members included: Jerry Bennett, Mayor of Palos Hills; Daniel J. McLaughlin, Mayor of Orland Park; Reggie Greenwood, Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation; David Chandler, Center for Neighborhood Technology; and Chris Slattery, The Delta Institute, Stephanie Presseller, Moraine Valley Community College.

• Listen now:
• Visit our event podcast past
• Listen in iTunes
• Download the MP3 audio

I think that there is a commonly-held feeling that environmental issues did not exist in the US until Rachel Carson’s battles in the early part of the 20th Century.  We almost have this idyllic view of an agrarian past where we didn’t have the technological means (industry, coal/nuclear power, mass farming, etc) to really damage the environment.  Chris J. Magoc, of Mercyhurst College, would have us rethink this myth.  His book, Environmental Issues in American History discusses key environmental battles from the founding of our country to the present day.  Importantly, this book includes primary documents, so that the reader can “hear” from the people who are locked in these battles.  Just to get a taste of the scope of this book, I have typed out the tabel of contents, chapter by chapter.  This is a nice preview of the issues that are included.  This book is available in the Moraine Valley Library.

• Nature as a Commodity: Native Americans, White Settlers, and the Land Ordinance of 1785
• Controlling Water in the Early Industrialization of New England
• Scientific Forestry and the Emergence of Conservation
• Property Rights, Technology, and Environmental Protection: Hydraulic Gold Miners v. Farmers in California
• Wildlife Conservation: Slaughter and Salvation of the Bison
• “Reclaiming” the Arid West
• Preservation vs. Conservation: The Epic Fight over Yosemite’s Hetch-Hetchy Valley
• Progressive Women and “Municipal Housekeeping”: Caroline Bartlett Crane’s Fight for Improved Meat Inspection
• Getting the Lead Out: Public Health and the Debate over Tetraethly Leaded  Gasoline
• Causes and Consequences of the Dust Bowl
• The Donora Disaster and the Problem of Air Pollution
• Rachel Carson, Cesar Chavez, and the Pesticide Debate
• Love Canal and the Grassroots Movement Against Toxic Waste
• The Endangered Species Act: the Rights of Nature?
• Three Mile Island and the Search for a National Energy Policy

 As I was perusing the latest issue of Library Journal, a fine, fine, publication, I came across a section on green business resources.  This included a number of books, which we have put on order, and it also included the following Web sites:

• B Corp:This site works to ID and certify green business. It also edits Good Business magazine.
• Center for Small Business and the Environment: A nonprofit that works with small business and the environment.
• Ecopreneurist: A blog aimed at green start-ups and small business
• Greenbiz: Offers more than 8000 resources including news and daily features.

Before the new year hit, I heard an interesting piece from NPR’s World View about the costs of consumerism. It seems that the end of the 20th century has proven that capitalism is superior to communism, but we have to be careful not to think that this means that capitalism doesn’t have and cause problems that we must address. This show really challenges us to consider the special mixture of American consumerism and capitalism.

• Cost of Consumerism

Today, we go back to our Critical Thinking on Capitalism series with an environmentalist who’ll tell us the way we do business is killing the planet, and we’ll hear from a political scientist who says we must change what we value in order to “prosper.” Also, Human Rights contributor Doug Cassel looks at global poverty and capitalism since the fall of the Soviet Union.