Shallow Nation » Environment

Obama Kenilworth Tree Planting Photos, Video 4-21-09

Shallow Nation — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:44:23 +0000

Here are Obama Kenilworth tree planting photos and video from April 21, 2009. That same day, Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. See video and photos from both events which preceded Earth Day celebrations which took place the next day, April 22, 2009

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, along with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden all participated in the tree planting ceremony which took place at Kenilworth Aquatic Garden in Washington on April 21, 2009 in celebration of Earth Day. The event was sponsored by the Student Conservation Association (SCA), with several members of the organization participating.

The leader, Amtchat Edwards, then gave a little explanation. “This is a real life service project,” he said, noting that they were planting trees to protect the river and, by extension, the entire watershed. He then staged a demonstration, calling on four of the students to play trees, with hands interlocked to simulate roots, another to play dirt and still another to play rain.

Source (and full summary of the event. The Obamas and Clinton Plant Some Trees

Here is video of the Kenilworth Tree planting event via C-SPAN.

The Student Conservation Association (SCA) was established in 1957 and presently, nationwide, the organization has some 4,000 interns and volunteers who collectively contribute more than two million hours of conservation service per year, according to the organization’s own assessment. In total, SCA members are active in all 50 states and annually serve more than 500 natural and cultural sites in all 50 states.

Photo credit: White House source: White House

Here are several more Kenilworth tree planting ceremony photos:

The same day, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, with Senator Kennedy and former President Bill Clinton present at the signing ceremony.

Video and photos after the jump

President Barack Obama meets with Senator Kennedy and former President Clinton to discuss national service. April 21, 2009. White House Photo/ Chuck Kennedy.

In prepared remarks, Obama said:

We need your service, right now, at this moment in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be; that’s for you to discover. But I’m asking you to stand up and play your part. I’m asking you to help change history’s course. Put your shoulder up against the wheel. And if you do, I promise you – your life will be richer, our country will be stronger, and someday, years from now, you may remember it as the moment when your own story and the American story converged, when they came together, and we met the challenges of our new century.

Source: White House Blog: A Call to Service

Senator Ted Kennedy also spoke at the event. In his speech, he evoked the memory of his late brother, President John F. Kennedy who, with the Peace Corps, also inspired and encouraged young people to commit to public service in the early 1960s. His speech which preceded President Obama’s, can be seen in the video below.

YouTube Video Link

pics pictures

Obama Kenilworth Tree Planting Photos, Video 4-21-09

National Geographic: Garbage Moguls Video, Photos (Earth Day 4-22-09)

Shallow Nation — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:00:19 +0000

Watch National Geographic Garbage Moguls video and photos here. The documentary, presented on Earth Day, April 22, 2009 at 9 p.m. ET/PT chronicles the efforts of a New Jersey company, TerraCycle, helmed by a 27-year-old CEO, Tom Szaky, with a staff of more than 50, who literally turn trash into cash.

Tom Szaky established the company in his dorm room while he was a freshman at Princeton. It was actually the second company the Hungarian born and Canadian-raised Szarky had established; at 14 he had a web design business. It has since become a multimillion dollar company that employs more than 50 people and whose clients include Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, Home Depot and Target.

Initially, the company began with a single produce; TerraCycle Plant Food made by converting the castings of worms that had consumed garbage into an all-natural liquid fertilizer, which is then packaged in used soda bottles. The product is literally garbage packaged in garbage. Presently the TerraCycle Plant Food is sold at Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, and thousands of other stores.

Photo credit: Milton Oppenheimer / Silent Crow Arts

Both the company and its CEO have won notoriety and acclaim. Inc Magazine named Szaky its “The #1 CEO Under Thirty” in its July 2006 issue, beating out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Read the feature article: The Coolest Little Start-Up in America

Tom Szaky has also written a book, Revolution in a Bottle How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business, which lays out the company’s vision and mission and presents a blueprint for other companies to follow. Regarding the company’s mission and vision, Szaky said in a recent interview.

“Recycling has solved for certain types of waste material — we want to solve for everything else….Waste is always going to be present. The trick is not to view it as waste.” [...]

“It’s like I am in California in 1849, but I am the only one who can see the gold,” Szaky said. “No one else is cashing in on this model because it is not a sexy industry. In fact, it is the opposite of sexy, it’s garbage.”

Source: TerraCycle looks to transform U.S. habits by creating useful products

The company also “upcycles” which is the process of making useful products out of garbage that can’t be recycled.

National Geographic Garbage Moguls documentary gives a fascinating glimpse into the creativity and inventiveness of the process. Upcycling in concrete terms means making kites out of Oreo cookie wrappers, messenger bags from billboards, pencils from rolled newspapers and spiral notebooks from cardboard cereal boxes.

TerraCycle has a massive outreach effort to collect the raw materials for such creative transformation. Among these is a collaboration with Kraft Foods. The food conglomerate owns Capri Sun and other drink products popular with children. The outreach effort involves collecting the various juice containers for reuse, paying 2 cents a piece to participating schools, churches and community groups which number more than 20,000 nationwide.

Watch National Geographic: Garbage Moguls video, photos below.

Video “Terra-Re-Cycle” – TerraCycle reaches out to the next generation of consumers – and recyclers. Video Link

Video “Go Fly a Kite” – Got a kite? Check. Open space? Sorta. Clear skies? Not even close. But that won’t keep these moguls from trying. Video Link

Video “Fire Test” – If someone offered you $1,000 to tell them if cookie wrapper are flammable, could you do it? Video Link

Video “Bleach Test” – What’s better than watching bleach work its magic on cookie wrappers? Watching this dude watching bleach. Video Link

Photos and video courtesy of National Geographic Channel

Related posts:

National Geographic: Garbage Moguls Video, Photos (Earth Day 4-22-09) pics pictures

Earth Hour 2009

Shallow Nation — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:51:47 +0000

Earth Hour is March 28, 2009 from 8:30pm to 9:30pm in your local time zone. Curious to know more? Read more and watch videos here.

The first Earth Hour was in 2007, the brainchild the World Wildlife Fund in Sydney, Australia. One city participated with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning off their lights for one hour. The next year, Earth Hour 2008 went global with 50 million people in 35 countries participating.

This year, the goal is one billion participants in Earth Hour 2009. Vote Earth’ is the theme this year. Turning off your lights for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. local time is a vote cast for the future survival of the Earth.

Famed artist Shepard Fairey who designed the ionic Obama logo has designed the official Earth Hour logo which you can see above. You can see and download the image in a number of formats on Flickr.

Will 1 billion people participate in 2009? Find out more at the official Earth Hour Web site.

It is estimated that more than 1,500 cities and towns in 80 countries will participate. Notably, in France, 28 cities including Paris will participate. This means that The Eiffel Tower and other iconic Paris landmarks including the Cathedral of Notre Dame and l’Elysée, will be darkened during that hour.

Other landmarks slated to participate by going dark or dim include: the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, The Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, Rome’s Colosseum, New York City’s Broadway theater signs, Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, the London Eye Ferris wheel, the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, the Las Vegas strip, Niagara Falls, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Table Mountain in Cape Town, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Source: An Hour to Help Save the Earth

Watch videos below.

Video Link

Video Link

YouTube video link (Click if you can’t see the video above.)

Earth Hour 2009

Michelle Obama White House Garden Photos, Video

Shallow Nation — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:49:24 +0000

First Lady Michelle Obama began work on a vegetable garden at the White House on March 20, 2009. See video and photos here. She had the assistance of more than two dozen fifth graders from from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, D.C. who will have ongoing involvement with the garden, planting, tending and harvesting the crops.

She becomes the first First Lady to plant a garden in the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt who planted a Victory garden during World War II. The White House Kitchen Garden is set on 1,100 square feet on the White House grounds and will be an organic vegetable garden, yielding crops year-round for the White House as well as for Miriam’s Kitchen, a Washington, DC soup kitchen.

Both the First Lady and the President have long advocated for organic, locally grown produce, both to foster healthier eating and to avoid dependence on industrial farms which use harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizer and consume fossil fuel in transporting food. Prior to the Obamas’ advocacy, Alice Waters, the chef at the famed Chez Panisse restaurant in California, a longtime champion of locally grown foods and the “slow foods” movement, has pushed for a White House garden since 1992. (See: White House becoming Green House?)

In a recent interview, Mrs. Obama discussed her commitment to use the garden to set an example.

“A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things that you’ll ever eat,” she said. “And my children know the difference, and that’s how I’ve been able to get them to try different things.

“I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House?”

Michelle Obama also addresses rising concern about improper diets which have lead to the high incidence of obesity and related illnesses including diabetes, in the U.S. and sees the garden as a means to raise awareness. Regarding the involvement of children from Bancroft Elementary School which, incidentally, has had a garden since 2001.

“My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

According to the New York Times, overseeing the new garden will be White House assistant chef Sam Kass, a longtime advocate of locally grown food and previously the Obamas’ chef in Chicago. It will grow 55 different varieties of produce, including both fruits and vegetables, adhering to the White House kitchen staff’s wish list and grown from organic seedlings which were started at the White House greenhouses. The grounds crew and the kitchen staff will do most of the work, with the assistance of the school children, the Obama family and White House staff members who have volunteered.

Source: Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

For more on the White House Garden groundbreaking ceremony, including photos, see Michelle Obama touts healthy eating as she tills new White House garden
and White House Garden Is Not Exactly Shovel-Ready

More Michelle Obama pictures and video after the jump…

Here is White House garden groundbreaking ceremony video. Photos below.

Video Link

Photo source: Whitehouse.gov Victory garden poster source: The National Archives

Michelle Obama White House Garden Photos, Video pics pictures

Earth Hour 2009 (Video)

Shallow Nation — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:32:28 +0000

Earth Hour is March 28, 2009. See video and find out more here about this new tradition begun in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when residents posed and answered the simple question that many of us may ask, “What can I do about climate change? I am just one person.” Collective efforts of many people created Earth Hour. The concept is as simple as it is powerful. Around the world, people are asked to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:30pm to 9:30pm in their local time zone. The tradition which spread worldwide in 2008 and will be repeated in 2009.

Major cities throughout the world will participate in Earth Hour 2009. Thus far 1,539 cities and towns in 80 countries have committed to participate in this powerful gesture which acknowledges that global warming is an issue that can’t be ignored. This is rapid growth when one considers this is only the 3rd year, with the first year having had participation only from the single, originating city, Sydney, Australia where 2.2 million homes and businesses participated. Notably, in France, 28 cities including Paris will participate. This means that The Eiffel Tower and other iconic Paris landmarks including the Cathedral of Notre Dame and l’Elysée, will be darkened during that hour.

Last year Earth Hour 2008 saw participation of 50 million people in 35 countries. Greg Bourne, chief executive of WWF Australia one of the members of the team that founded Earth Hour, discussed the impetus in a recent interview.

Bourne says the inspiration for the movement came from the global millennium fireworks displays in 2000. “We saw these fireworks start in Sydney, then go to London, New York, San Francisco and we thought `this celebration right around the world, let’s do it again but for an environmental issue; provide a beacon of hope that we can all make a difference’,” he says.

Source: The Switched on will Switch Off (The interview continues…)

Shepard Fairey who designed the ionic Obama logo has designed the official Earth Hour logo. You can see and download the image in a number of formats on Flickr.

Can 1 billion people participate in 2009? Time will tell. It all starts one person at a time. Find out more at the official Earth Hour Web site.

See also a gallery of photos from Earth Hour 2008

YouTube video link (Click if you can’t see the video above.)

Earth Hour 2009 (Video)

Toxic 12 List (Video)

Shallow Nation — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:58:54 +0000

Former Ms. America Susan Jeske is publicizing The Toxic 12 list; harmful ingredients that make cosmetics and makeup toxic. See the full list and watch an informative video.

The Toxic 12 List

1. Benzoyl peroxide
2. DEA (diethanolamine) and MEA (1.5509 ?3.07%) (monoethanolamine) and TEA (triethanolamine)
3. Dioxin
4. DMDM hydantoin and imidazolidinyl urea
5. Synthetic Colors and Pigments
6. Parabens (methyl, butyl, ethyl, propyl)
7. FEG (polyethylene glycol)
8. Phthalates 9xenoestrogens)
9. Propylene glycol and butylene glycol
10. Sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate
11. Sunscreen chemicals like avobensone, benzphenone and PABA
12. Triclosan

Unfortunately, these ingredients are widely used in cosmetics.

Susan Jeske knows from personal experience, not only as a beauty pageant queen, crowned Ms. America in 1997 (the year of the pageant’s debut), but as someone who had a successful career in the cosmetics industry. Five years ago, she began to experience serious skin problems, and a doctor told her, “What you are using on your skin contains synthetic and toxic chemicals and is making you sick. Stop using your skin care and use products that are “natural” and “organic.”

Visit her Web site SusanJeske.com and see the outline of her important presentation ”The Impact of Toxins in Cosmetics and Personal Care Products and How to Avoid Them” she addresses the failure of the FDA to regulate the substances found in common cosmetic products including make-up, lotions and shampoos; the risks and dangers of the Toxic 12 which include biological mutation, reproductive complications, acute toxicity, tumors, skin and eye irritations. In addition to defining the problem she offers solutions; one can avoid toxic makeup and find natural, nontoxic, organic cosmetics that do not jeopardize heath. Her Web site also outlines her speaking engagements on the subject and the media attention she has brought to the problem of toxic chemicals in cosmetics.

This serious issue has an outspoken and tireless advocate in Susan Jeske, awarded the Lifetime Presidential Award from former U.S. President George W. Bush for a lifetime of commitment to charity and volunteerism, recognizing her 20 years of taking the empowerment and philanthropic mission of pageants in all of the 50 states and worldwide to 26 countries, as the concept of “beauty pageant” continues to be reinvented for a new century.

Watch Susan Jeske Toxic 12 List Video below.

YouTube Link

Here is a video report on Susan Jeske and her career as a beauty consultant and her philanthropic work.

YouTube Link

Kiss Me Deadly: Lead In Lipstick

Toxic 12 List (Video)

Photos: Naomi Campbell Launches the Planting Of One Million Trees in Nigeria 7-11-08

Shallow Nation — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:42:58 +0000

Super model Naomi Campbell took part in a tree planting ceremony at the Abuja Central Park and Botanical Gardens on July 11, 2008 in Abuja, Nigeria. The tree planting ceremony launches ‘The planting of one million trees’ in the federal capital territory.

The mission set by the Abuja Green Society is to bring the community together and raise awareness of environmental issues to make a greener city. “The Abuja Green Society’s green initiative aims to plant a tree for every new baby born in the region’s hospital’s in a bid to give them a better future.”

Source: Naomi Campbell – Campbell Goes Green for Africa

Third photo: Naomi Campbell with Savile Row designer and tailor Oswald Boateng

Photo credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe

Photos: Naomi Campbell Launches the Planting Of One Million Trees in Nigeria 7-11-08