Falls of the James Group Blog

» Electricity 101

» Coal ash from U.S. blamed for Dominican town's birth defects

The coal ash is from the Virginia-based AES Corporation. A contractor hired by the company to dispose of the ash dumped it in the province of Samana, Dominican Republic. It has since been cleaned up, but residents still have abnormal levels of arsenic in their blood, and the birth defects continue.

How’s that for ‘clean coal’?

» Polluted Southern communities ask EPA to address environmental injustice

Environmental justice leaders representing more than a dozen polluted communities from six Southern states met with Environmental Protection Agency leaders this week and asked them to take action to better protect the health of low-income communities and communities of color.

Good News! National Parks Getting Funded!

from the National Parks Conservation Association:

I am writing with exciting news about our national parks! With help from national park supporters like you over the past several months, the National Park System has just received a significant increase in funding for 2010. Last week, President Obama signed a $32.2 billion Interior and Environment Appropriations bill for the 2010 fiscal year. In this bill, the National Park Service (NPS) received $2.7 billion—roughly $218 million above the 2009 funding level!

While this bill demonstrates a concerted effort by Congress and the Administration to restore our national treasures in time for the 2016 centennial of the National Park Service, this victory for national parks could not have happened without NPCA supporters like YOU.

Here are some of the highlights from the bill:

NPS Operations received roughly $130 million above last year’s funding level, which fulfills the President’s pledge to increase park operations $100 million above inflation.
The NPS portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund—a fund used to purchase critical lands now on the market for conservation and public recreation—received $126.26 million. This is an increase of $61 million over last year’s level and $28 million above the President’s request.
Public-Private Partnerships, previously known as the Centennial Challenge, was funded at $15 million.
A potentially harmful rider that would have required a public hunt to manage the growing elk population at Theodore Roosevelt National Park was removed. The rider would have overridden longstanding agency-wide policy.
Most importantly, and beyond the numbers, the NPS is now better able to hire more rangers, fill out the authorized boundaries of many parks, enhance its ability to address the impacts of climate change on our national parks, and preserve America’s Everglades, Great Lakes, and other nationally-significant ecosystems.

NPCA works tirelessly to ensure that our National Park System is adequately funded and protected—and especially leading up to 2016. With your support and with the resources and experience we’ve gained from over 90 years in Washington, we will not give up in making America’s best idea even better.

Thank you for your support of NPCA, for the messages you send to your leaders, and for all that you do for our parks. Working together we can, and do, make a positive difference for America’s national parks.

» US Pulls the Plug On Copenhagen

Pitiful.

» Philly Beats New York!

The Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition reports, based on a US Census survey, that Philadelphia is ranked number one among the ten largest US cities for bicycle commuters per-capita. Per the Census data, 1.6% of Philly commutes are estimated to be by bicycle. Poor New York City came in at 6’th place (0.6%). “Philadelphia also tied for 10th among the country’s 60 largest cities and the second highest percentage among east coast cities (only Washington DC has a higher percentage). Philadelphia’s percentage of commuters who bike is nearly three times the national average of 0.55%.” Look below for the rankings for all ten of the largest US cities.

Philadelphia 1.6% (6th largest city)

San Jose 1.2% (l0th largest city)

Chicago - 1.0% (3rd largest city)

San Diego 0.9% (9th largest city)

Los Angeles - 0.9% (2nd largest city)

New York - 0.6% (1st largest city)

Phoenix - 0.8% (5th largest city)

Houston - 0.4% (4th largest city)

Dallas - 0.1% (8th largest city)

San Antonio - 0.1% (7th largest city)

» Science Lesson at Restaurant

I was glad to hear about this event. Hopefully more local restaurants are doing their part to educate their patrons about sustainable fishing practices and seafood.

» Solar Lights On The James

I have mentioned these before, but its nice to see City toot their own horn a bit about them. Hopefully, they will show up soon elsewhere, even on regular City streets. They are being increasingly used all over the world, including Baghdad, so one would hope Richmond would catch on at some point.

» Responding to Alex Steffen’s Critique of Transition at WorldChanging

In my personal opinion, this is one of the more interesting deabtes going on right now.

Again, in my personal opinion, I also agree with John Robb’s comments:

I like both men, they are exceptional thinkers. The question they are debating is whether you believe global/national or local action ultimately prevails. The debate might already be settled since Transition Towns presents a viable path towards to mitigating the impact of looming economic collapse and a hyper-concentration of wealth/influence (this gives it strength). Secondly, as the copyright effort above demonstrates (yet again), global solutions are impossible since global governance is firmly in the thrall of parasitic financial interests.

I also think this somewhat relates to Ralph Nader’s (who I might remind you, pretty much founded the Environmental Protection Agency) new book, “Only the SuperRich Can Save Us”.

How does this debate relate to Virginia, to Richmond, to your neighborhood?

» Japan, Land of the Rising Grid-Tied Battery

Japan is doing some great stuff on a RESIDENTIAL level with battery storage.

I can’t stress this enough- our over-reliance on cheap (?) fossil fuels is making this country fall further and further behind. Sadly, I don’t expect our new Governor to listen, but I hope I am wrong about him.