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tdsollog Surfboard industry rides a wave of eco-friendly change Jun 25, 2008 5:56 AM Surfboard industry rides a wave of eco-friendly change By TIFFANI N. GARLIC For The Press, 609-569-7483 Published: Monday, June 23, 2008, The Press of Atlantic City: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/186/story/188873.html Some area surfers are going green because it's the right thing to do, they say. Others will tell you it's for a better ride on the waves. Whatever the reason, a shift in surfboard production is changing what surfers bring to the beach. "The last few years the surfing industry has gone through a complete revolution with the materials that are being used," said Jim Hennessy, owner of Heritage on West Avenue in Ocean City. "The industry is going a long way to reducing production waste." Two types of surfboards dominate the mainstream market today: the traditional polyurethane (Fiberglas) boards and the new epoxy boards. The difference is environmental safety. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Web site, the chemical 2,4-Toluene diisocyanate, or TDI, is the toxin that makes polyurethane environmentally dangerous. Released during production, TDI is extremely toxic in short- and long-term exposure, causing severe skin and eye irritation as well as respiratory, gastrointestinal and central nervous system complications. In 1985, the chemical was officially recognized as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" by the EPA. Although the effects of TDI are only harmful during production and after disposal, the surfing community has become much more aware of the environmental impact. In December 2005, Clark Foam, the leading producer of polyurethane surfboard cores in the U.S., was shut down by the EPA, which cited several violations related to TDI emissions from the factory building. Referred to as "Black Monday" in the surfing industry, Clark Foam's halt in production hasn't been a wipeout for surfboard sales in area surf shops. On the contrary, Hennessy said, "Business is very good, we've probably sold 1,000 boards between the three shops." He sees the emergence of epoxy boards as a positive factor for the industry and says that they are stronger, lighter and more environmentally friendly than traditional polyurethane boards. Friends and surfers Chris Conte, 17, and Dan Ginolfi, 14, have been braving the waves for the past five years and say they see a difference between the boards. Conte, who owns an epoxy board, said "it floats better in the water," while Ginolfi said his polyurethane board "doesn't break as easy." Going through about two boards per year, the Stone Harbor residents have to take price, performance and personal style into consideration when buying a new board. Ginolfi said that he'd be switching to an epoxy board for his next purchase. Mike Rossi, 14, has surfed for the past five years and feels that epoxy surfboards are going to be the wave of the future. Crediting professional surfers with the switch, the Ship Bottom resident predicted the change in the industry. "There's always going to be a hardcore surfer that wants an old-school Fiberglas board, but I think that's going to change now that pro surfers are riding epoxy boards," he said. "Kids will want to follow that." Skeptical about the trend toward epoxy boards in the past few years is Michael Lisewski, owner of Matador Surfboards on Beachview Avenue in Manahawkin. "I don't doubt that people are buying thousands of these boards, but when I go out to the beaches I don't see them (the boards) under their feet." For Lisewski, traditional polyurethane boards are the best way to go. The East Coast surfboard shaper said that most surfers won't want to have a mass-produced board when they can get one that is hand-crafted and customized to fit their needs. Preferring to use a less harmful polyurethane chemical called Methyl diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, Lisewski realizes that the environment is a pressing issue but said no material is perfect. "I think the surfing industry is extremely environmentally concerned but resin is resin," he said of the shell that covers polyurethane surfboards. "It's all nasty, but it's still the best way to make boards." To e-mail Tiffani Garlic at The Press: TGarlic@pressofac.com
tdsollog Ecotravel (Green Travel): Back to Nature and Ready for Guests in the Great Plains Jun 10, 2008 11:17 AM Back to Nature and Ready for Guests in the Great Plains Dan Koeck for The New York Times http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/travel/08journeys.html?th&emc=th By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK Published: June 8, 2008 OVER the past decade, as human populations on the Great Plains have thinned, many conservationists have seen an opportunity unparalleled since the frontier days of the 19th century brought towns to the region. Outdoors people, big landowners, travel operators and conservationists are now returning much of the Great Plains to its wild state, to a kind of American steppe. Conservationists are reviving native fauna and flora, and wolf populations are returning to the Yellowstone area. In the future, many hope, one giant fenceless region might be created across the entire plains that cover much of central North America east of the Rockies south to West Texas and New Mexico. The idea of rewilding the West takes its inspiration from two professors, Frank and Deborah Popper. In an essay written two decades ago in the journal Planning, they suggested restoring the Upper Midwest to its native state, which they called the Buffalo Commons, and largely replacing agriculture in the region with eco-tourism. While many Western conservationists do not agree with elements of the Buffalo Commons, preservation efforts have taken off. The American Prairie Foundation, a group dedicated to creating prairie wildlife reserves, has been buying up land in Montana and reintroducing wild American bison, which had largely vanished in the region. Another nonprofit group, the Great Plains Restoration Council is helping to preserve open land in South Dakota. Private landowners, too, have been buying land to return it to open space — Ted Turner, who owns some two million acres of Western land concentrated in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota and Oklahoma, has helped restore bison herds on his property. The lions won’t be arriving anytime soon, but travel operators have already come, to take advantage of the return of the wild. “When my wife and I first started, two decades ago, we were one of only two operators in the state,” said John Hanson, owner of the Logging Camp Ranch in Bowman, N.D. “Now there are thousands.” Off the Beaten Path, an operator based in Bozeman, Mont., was one of the first to take advantage of interest in rewilding. Among its custom and group tours, it runs guided six-day wolf-watching trips. “They know they just want to see wolves,” said Bill Bryan, a co-founder and chairman of the company, of his growing clientele. As the plains have become depopulated, locals have also started sighting regular migrations of pronghorn antelope, elk, mountain lions, bighorn sheep and even bison. Taking advantage of the animal repopulation, Upper Midwest outfitters are designing extended wildlife safaris. Twice a year, the American Prairie Foundation runs safaris across the land it has preserved, trips that at times include private plane flights across the open land. In the future, predicts Sean Garrity, the foundation’s president, Off the Beaten Path will run these safaris, and many local aviation outfits will begin prairie flights. Though often overshadowed by nearby Badlands National Park, South Dakota’s Custer State Park runs backcountry jeep safaris. The trips put visitors within feet of herds of bison roaming in the park, as well as providing background on their habits and history. “They’ll get you right into the middle of the herd,” said Duane Lammers, a guide based in South Dakota. Even without the jeep rides, it’s hard to miss the bison. On one trip to Custer State Park, I woke in the early morning, walked out of my tent and stumbled into a group of bison ambling slowly across the road. Other guides focus on an airborne niche. In North Dakota, the guide Jean Legge leads trips to search for birds like the rare Baird’s sparrow, whose summer range is in the northern plains. Ninety percent of her clients are not from North Dakota, Ms. Legge said, but they know that the state’s prairie habitat allows for breeding behavior not found elsewhere. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, among the largest American eco-tourism operators, also runs weeklong birding trips to North Dakota, Minnesota and other Midwest destinations. Mr. Hanson’s operation draws game hunters, who know North Dakota is witnessing a revival of wildlife, but he also attracts visitors who want to go birding or merely want a more rugged experience on a real working ranch than they can get on a typical dude ranch. “A lot of people come here because they know this is very remote,” he said. “It’s not like a tourist ranch.” With the revival of the buffalo herds, ranches across the Upper Midwest have also begun offering big-game hunting, with bison as the biggest lure. Across Montana, outfitters run hunts on ranches like the Flying D, more than 100,000 acres owned by Mr. Turner. Like bagging big game in Africa, though, bison don’t come cheap: a bull hunt can cost well over $2,000. To truly appreciate the prairie’s wide-open spaces, groups like the American Prairie Foundation suggest an extended drive. The foundation has begun a self-guided auto tour, with extensive information on prairie history. North Dakota’s Little Missouri National Grasslands, over a million acres, also offers a self-drive itinerary. The drive winds through the tall, brownish grass and bright prairie flowers, passing eerie buttes standing tall amid the plains, their formations like pieces of rock eroded smooth by water. For now, the Upper Midwest cannot offer the kind of rhino-by-day, riesling-by-night pampering of famed African bush camps. Accommodations on many extended Upper Midwest trips tend to be rustic, with basic lodges or ranch houses; on the self-drives, you can cruise for hours through the desolate plains moonscapes without coming to a sizable town. But that will change. “Five years from now, you’ll have the infrastructure here for a more upscale experience,” said Mr. Bryan of Off the Beaten Path. Already, the American Prairie Foundation has opened an upscale ranch house on the land it has preserved. “A lot of folks we’re bringing out here have been to places like Africa and stayed in some of those extravagant lodges,” said Mr. Garrity, the foundation president. The customers, he says, are often pleased to find that the prairie accommodations, though hardly as plush, come near to what they expect. In the long run, plains advocates hope growing tourism will not ruin the special lure of the destination. “The most incredible thing is, if you want to experience the Great Plains the way it was in the 19th century, you can still have that experience,” said Ted Lee Eubanks, chief executive of Fermata, a company that helps regions develop eco-tourism. “You can still stand right in the wagon ruts from that time.” PURE PRAIRIE American Prairie Foundation (406-585-4600; www.americanprairie.org). The Montana Hunting Company runs bison hunts (www.montanahuntingcompany.com; 406-585-9042). Custer State Park in South Dakota (605- 255-4515; www.sdgfp.info/Parks/Regions/Custer/index.htm). Off the Beaten Path is based in Bozeman, Mont. (800-445- 2995; www.offthebeatenpath.com). Logging Camp Ranch is in Bowman, N.D. (701-279-5501; www.loggingcampranch.com). Dakota Birding operates out of Valley City, N.D. (701-845-4762; www.dakotabirding.com). Victor Emanuel Nature Tours is based in Austin, Tex. (800-328-8368; www.ventbird.com).
tdsollog Nothing But Nets: A $10 Mosquito Net Is Making Charity Cool Jun 4, 2008 9:31 AM A $10 Mosquito Net Is Making Charity Cool http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/us/02malaria.html?th&emc=th By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Published: June 2, 2008 Donating $10 to buy a mosquito net to save an African child from malaria has become a hip way to show you care, especially for teenagers. The movement is like a modern version of the March of Dimes, created in 1938 to defeat polio, or like collecting pennies for Unicef on Halloween. Unusual allies, like the Methodist and Lutheran Churches, the National Basketball Association and the United Nations Foundation, are stoking the passion for nets that prevent malaria. The annual “American Idol Gives Back” fund-raising television special has donated about $6 million a year for two years. The music channel VH1 made a fund-raising video featuring a pesky man in a mosquito suit. It is an appeal that clearly resonates with young people. Addressing a conference of 6,000 Methodist youths in North Carolina last year, Bishop Thomas Bickerton held up his own $10 and told the crowd: “This represents your lunch today at McDonald’s or your pizza tonight from Domino’s. Or you could save a human life.” The lights were so bright that he could see only what was happening at his feet. “They just showered the stage with $10 bills,” Bishop Bickerton said. “In 30 seconds, we had $16,000. I’m just lucky they didn’t throw coins.” Part of what has helped the campaign catch on is its sheer simplicity and affordability — $10 buys one net to save a child. Nothing But Nets, the best-known campaign, has raised $20 million from 70,000 individuals, most of it in donations averaging $60. That is a small fraction of the overall need, which experts estimate at $2.5 billion. But it gives the effort a populist edge, and participation is psychologically rewarding for anyone whose philanthropic pockets are shallower than those of Bill Gates. “The first time I donated money, after my bar mitzvah, it was for someone who needed a heart transplant,” said Daniel Fogel, 18, a founder of his Waltham, Mass., high school’s juggling club, which raised $2,353 for nets last year. “But I had the feeling: Am I really helping? But if you can say $10 saves a life, that makes students feel they can help a lot. And every student has $10.” Emily Renzelli of West Virginia University learned about malaria on a trip to South Africa. She raised about $1,000 through bake sales and parties where students were snagged in nets and not released until they recited facts about malaria. Naomi Levine, an expert on philanthropy at New York University, said young people “more than ever want to do something.” “You won’t find them giving money to research,” she added. “It’s too far off. But a net is something you can hold in your hand. And any time young people get interested in any form of philanthropy, it’s a good thing.” Crucial to the drive against malaria, which kills an estimated one million people a year, mostly in Africa, has been the development of an inexpensive, long-lasting insecticidal net. Unlike old nets, which either had no insecticide or had to be dipped twice a year, the new ones keep killing or repelling mosquitoes for three to five years. When more than 60 percent of the inhabitants of a village use them over their beds while they are sleeping, malaria rates usually drop sharply. Major donors have focused on malaria since the creation in 2001 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has paid for 106 million nets. President Bush in 2005 started the President’s Malaria Initiative, which has bought 6 million so far. The Gates Foundation has spent almost $1.2 billion on malaria, and although most goes toward research into vaccines and new drugs, part went to match the first $3 million raised by Nothing But Nets. Although in recent years a welter of malaria campaigns has sprung up worldwide, participation in the United States was anemic until two years ago when Rick Reilly, then the back-page columnist for Sports Illustrated, took his daughter to Venice. Exhausted from shopping, he said in a recent interview, he returned alone to their hotel. Idly channel-surfing, he stumbled onto a BBC documentary about malaria in Africa. Imitating a British accent, he said: “Up to 3,000 children die needlessly each day of malaria — and all they need is a net.” “I thought, ‘That’s a column,’ ” he said. “Sports is nothing but nets — basketball nets, tennis nets, soccer nets, lacrosse nets, jumping the net, cutting down nets, the New Jersey Nets, girls in fishnets, whatever ... .” Before asking his readers to donate $10 or $20, he searched for an agency to collect the money and buy the nets. He found the United Nations Foundation, which was started in 1998 by Ted Turner. Although it was already sponsoring another campaign, Malaria No More, it agreed to his request that a new group be started with the name Nothing But Nets. “That’s a real title,” Mr. Reilly said. “It’s so simple that even sports fans can get it.” The foundation put a donation form on its Web site and promised to cover all administrative costs. Within a few days, $1.6 million had flowed in. Soon after, Major League Soccer and the National Basketball Association became sponsors. Players like Diego Gutierrez of the Chicago Fire and DeSagana Diop of the New Jersey Nets, who is from Senegal, helped raise money and traveled to Africa to hand out nets. The United Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church and the Union for Reform Judaism also joined the effort, as did corporate sponsors like Orkin Pest Control and Makita tools. The two Protestant churches pledged to raise up to $100 million each. They organize youth basketball tournaments and ask for money from their own adherents. For example, Bishop Bickerton said, at the Methodist general conference in April, a basketball signed by all the church’s bishops was auctioned off for $430,000. But most of the contributions have been modest, raised by students. Yoni D. P. Rechtman, a seventh grader on the undefeated middle-school team at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, organized a 3-on-3 basketball tournament as part of his “mitzvah project,” the tradition of raising money for a good cause before one’s bar mitzvah. Unfortunately, he said, it rained that day; but the nine players who showed up anyway had family pledges totaling $1,900. At Howard University in Washington, Ololade Ajayi helped organize the African Student Association fashion show to raise $2,300. She had a personal interest, she said, because she caught malaria several times growing up in Nigeria and lost a friend to it. “We had to take our own nets to boarding school,” she said. “There were stagnant water pools on the school grounds. If your net got holes in it, you’d be bitten.” But the champion for her age and weight class is undoubtedly Katherine Commale of Hopewell, Pa., who has just turned 7 and has raised $43,000. Her mother, Lynda Commale, said it started in April 2006 when she was watching television while the family slept and learned from a PBS documentary that a child died of malaria every 30 seconds. “I couldn’t sleep,” Ms. Commale said. “The next morning, the kids said, ‘Mom, what’s wrong with you?’ I told them — and Katherine was just 5, and she started counting on her fingers. She got to 30, and she looked horrified. And she said ‘Mommy, we have to do something.’ ” With her 3-year-old brother, Katherine built a diorama from a pizza box and some Barbie dolls to represent an African family in a hut. Then, with a piece of tulle and a toy bug, she developed a short skit showing how nets protect sleeping children. “She tucks it in, she says, ‘You’re safe now,’ ” Ms. Commale said. “Kids get this in like 90 seconds.” Soon, she and Katherine made a presentation at their church and raised $2,000, and they have continued visiting churches. Katherine and her friends also hand-decorate gift cards (which can be ordered at lyndacommale@yahoo.com.) that say, “A mosquito net has been purchased in your name.” They have raised about $8,000 each Christmas, Ms. Commale said.
tdsollog As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise May 31, 2008 9:07 PM As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise From the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/us/30grease.html?th&emc=th By SUSAN SAULNY Published: May 30, 2008 The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank. After rummaging around assorted restaurant rubbish, he dunked a tube into a smelly storage bin and, the police said, vacuumed out about 300 gallons of grease. Nick Damianidis, an owner of Olympia Pizza and Pasta in Arlington, Wash., has had oil stolen. The man was caught before he could slip away. In his truck, the police found 2,500 gallons of used fryer grease, indicating that the Burger King had not been his first fast-food craving of the day. Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night. “Fryer grease has become gold,” Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.” Much to the surprise of Mr. Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks. In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon. (That would make the 2,500-gallon haul in the Burger King case worth more than $6,000.) Biodiesel is derived by processing vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol. It is increasingly available around the country, but it is expensive. With the right kind of conversion kit (easily found on the Internet) anyone can turn discarded cooking oil into a usable engine fuel that can burn on its own, or as a cheap additive to regular diesel. “The last time kids broke in here they went for the alcohol,” said Mr. Damianidis, who fries chicken wings and cheese sticks. “Obviously they’re stealing oil because it’s worth something.” While there have been reports of thefts in multiple states, law enforcement officials do not compile national statistics and it remains unclear whether this is part of a passing trend or something more serious. The suspects in a growing number of grease infractions fall into a range of categories, people interviewed on the matter said, as grease theft is a crime of opportunity. They include do-it-yourself environmentalists worried about their carbon footprints, warring waste management firms trying to beat each other on the sly, and petty thieves who are profiting from the oil’s rising value on the black market. “It’s a new oddity,” said Officer Seth Hanson of the Federal Way Police Department, near Tacoma, Wash. He said thefts occur outside at least a couple of restaurants there each week. “We’re trying to get an eyeball on how well-organized it is, if at all. To date, we haven’t been very successful in finding anybody.” Thefts have been reported in at least 20 states, said Christopher A. Griffin, whose family owns Griffin Industries, one of the largest grease collection and rendering companies in the country. The problem has gotten so bad, Mr. Griffin has hired two detectives to investigate thefts around the country. “Theft is theft,” said Mr. Griffin, who is based in Cold Spring, Ky. “I don’t care if you’re stealing grease or if you’re stealing diamonds.” Fryer oil from a restaurant that does a high volume of frying one kind of food — for example, a fried-chicken chain — is at a premium because of its relative purity. The large-scale producers of grease, restaurants mostly, own their old oil and in recent months have even made a small profit by selling it to collectors. Because of the grease’s rancid odor, most restaurants usually store it out back with the trash. “Once you put something in the trash, it’s abandoned property,” said Jon A. Jaworski, a lawyer in Houston who represents accused grease thieves. “A lot of times, it’s not theft.” Even so, most restaurant owners and grease collectors say that grease is not free for the taking. “There’s a new fight for the product, definitely a whole new demand sector,” said Bill Smith, a market reporter for Urner Barry’s Yellow Sheet, an industry newsletter that tracks yellow grease. “Grease theft is becoming a bigger and bigger issue.” In the case of the Burger King theft, in Morgan Hill, Calif., the police were alerted to suspicious activity by a neighbor who runs his own grease collection and recycling business and is on the lookout for rustlers. Driving through town, the neighbor, Mark Rosenzweig, said he spotted the suspect’s truck because “it stuck out.” He said he followed it for blocks before it pulled into the Burger King. Mr. Rosenzweig said he knew the man who holds the Burger King grease account, so he called him. “I had to give everybody a roadside tutorial on grease theft,” Mr. Rosenzweig said of his next call — to the police. “Ten years ago we couldn’t give this stuff away. Now everybody’s fighting over it.” The suspect in the case, a 49-year-old man who said he was from Las Vegas, has yet to enter a plea, and is due in court next in July. A typical fast-food restaurant produces 150 to 250 pounds of grease a week. Many do not even know when a theft occurs because it usually happens overnight. Most security cameras and night watchmen are focused on cash registers, not the trash. “Who do you go after?” said Jason Christensen, a trader of fats and oils for the AgriTrading Corporation, in Minnesota. “I sense you’ll start seeing more surveillance equipment put in to monitor these storage facilities at the restaurant. As the price goes up, you can afford to spend a little more to protect your interest.” And there is so much interest in grease these days. The City of San Francisco has its own grease recycling program run through the Public Utilities Commission called SFGreasecycle, which collects discarded vegetable oil from city restaurants at no charge and recycles it into biodiesel for use in the city fleet. Healy Biodiesel, a company in Sedgwick, Kan., says it offers a top-quality fuel made from local cooking oils. Ben Healy, the owner, has contracts to collect the raw grease from several franchises around town. “One particular night not too long ago, 9 out of 15 were stolen,” he said of the grease bins. “That’s a majority of the oil and it was a big kick in the stomach.” At Olympia Pizza and Pasta, Mr. Damianidis, who now sells his grease for a small monthly fee, finds the problem of stolen fryer oil quite annoying and distracting. And he wants to stop the thefts. He is leaning toward a security camera and hoping for the best. “I cook food,” Mr. Damianidis said. “I’m not going to stay up until 2 in the morning trying to catch someone stealing a barrel of grease.”
tdsollog Organically Natural Blog From ELF (Eyes, Lips, Face) May 21, 2008 9:43 AM From ELF (Eyes, Lips, Face) Organically Natural Blog http://www.eyeslipsface.com/blog.asp?blog_id=1000116&pagenum=1 The craze and rage is all “nuts” for natural and organic food, makeup, clothes, you name it. But does that really have an effect on most consumers, will you go all organic or all natural with your purchases or are there some items that you just can’t live without? What are your best buys, are they natural or not and why? Are you an Organic, Natural, or a Regular Shopper? Does price, packaging, or popularity out way “healthiness”. Ok sorry 20 questions…but would love to hear what you think. And for every valid web comment on this blog only we will give you a Free $5 e.l.f. coupon via email just to say thanks (1 per person, valid to the first 100 posts only).

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Surfboard industry rides a wave of eco-friendly change
Ecotravel (Green Travel): Back to Nature and Ready for Guests in the Great Plains
Nothing But Nets: A $10 Mosquito Net Is Making Charity Cool
As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise

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