Category: Health & Environment

A latest report has claimed that an increase in electric cars is likely to lead to more electricity production from coal, gas and nuclear plants, without necessarily reducing oil demand for conventional cars
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“We need smart electric vehicles that interact with smart electricity grids so cars can charge up on green power. Dump electric vehicles plugged into a dump electricity grid would only add demand for coal and nuclear power and drive us away from a sustainable energy future,” said Greenpeace’s Franziska Achterberg.
Continue reading “Electric cars not so eco-friendly: Green groups”

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The second not-so-great transportation number, $53 million, reflects the total spending on pollution-reducing transit grants that the White House included in its budget proposal for fiscal year 2011.

The administration hopes to steer nearly 10 times that amount, or nearly $530 million, to its new three-agency partnership for sustainable communities. Still, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) pulled out the $53 million number today to note that the White House had proposed $22 million more for the same type of transit grants last year (and ended up spending $100 million).

From the EESI’s budget statement (emphasis theirs):

A focus on livability is expected to have benefits for air quality,
public health, energy savings, and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. The
rest of the proposed budget, however, represents very little change in
how these issues and public goals are addressed. A special fund to help
reduce GHG emissions within FTA, in fact, saw a significant decrease from $75 million to $53 million.

Continue reading “A Troubling Transportation Number for the Obama Administration”

GREENBELT, Md., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ — The Bozzuto Group today announced The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown is on track to become the most sizeable LEED certified apartment community in the Baltimore area.
The development, comprised of 275 apartments, 24,000 square feet of street-level retail and a 1,245 space parking garage, is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is being constructed to attain LEED certification. The Fitzgerald garage opened on January 11th, residential leasing will commence in March, and retail will begin to deliver in early summer.
"As a longtime multifamily developer, we have for many years believed that growth can be both economically and environmentally sound," said Tom Bozzuto, CEO of The Bozzuto Group. "We believe The Fitzgerald takes that notion to the next level."
To achieve LEED certification, The Fitzgerald’s sustainability strategy includes implementing a number of environmentally-conscious design features, construction tactics, water efficiency technologies and air quality practices.
Continue reading “The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown to Become Baltimore’s Largest LEED(R) Certified Residential Development”

Continue reading “Mobile Garden Rail Car To Be Tacked on To Chicago Transit System”

From Mowing to Growing is not meant to transform each lawn into a garden, but to open us up to the possibilities of self-sustenance, organic growth, and perpetual change. In particular, we seek specific technical, urbanistic, and architectural strategies not simply for the food production required to feed the cities and suburbs, but the possibilities of diet, agriculture, and retrofitted facilities that could achieve that level within the constraints of the local climate.
Citing the work of Fritz Haeg, the competition brief points out that "North Americans devote 40,000 square miles to lawns," more than is used "for wheat, corn, or tobacco." Further, U.S. residents "spend $750 million dollars a year on grass seed alone while only 2% of America’s food is locally grown." So, the competition asks:
How can we break the American love affair with the suburban lawn?
Can green houses be incorporated in skyscrapers?
What are the urban design strategies for food production in cities?
Can food grow on rooftops, parking lots, building facades?
What is required to remove foreclosure signs on lawns and convert them to gardens?
Prizes go as high as $10,000, and judges include Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr of Architecture For Humanity, vertical agriculturalist (agriverticality?) Dickson Despommier, and many more. Register by March 31, with submissions due before April 30.
Continue reading “From Mowing to Growing”

190 Million Americans are Obese or Overweight. Childhood Obesity has Tripled in the last 30 Years
Click to play video

(CBS)  In its “Where America Stands” series, CBS News is looking at a broad spectrum of issues facing this country in the new decade.

The evidence of an epidemic is everywhere.

Two-thirds, more than 190 million Americans are overweight or obese.

Obesity-related diseases are a $147 billion dollar medical burden every year.

Childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years.

CBS Reports: Where America Stands

Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI)

Tell Us What You Think Send us an email.

As CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports, this could be the first generation since the Civil War to have a shortened life expectancy.

The Problem

To gauge the problem, a team of doctors and cardiologists from Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital set up a MASH unit of sorts in a middle school gym, where they run a battery of tests on 97 seemingly healthy children.

But the results reveal an alarming reality here: three out of every four children are either overweight or obese.

Heart Screening for all Sixth Graders?

That means about seventy of the children are on a high-risk trajectory for coronary artery disease by their 30’s and 40’s.

Doctor Joshua Samuels treats kids with blood pressure levels of an unhealthy adult. Back at his clinic, 11-year-old Wesley Randall has dangerously high blood pressure, and is 60 pounds overweight.

“I just eat,” Wesley said, “to solve my problems.”

Where America Stood, 50 Years Ago

“A few years down the road these are the people who are going to be flooding into our hospitals and emergency rooms,” said Dr. Samuels.

Fifteen-year-old Emily Allen is trying to avoid just that. “What I look like now, she said, “it upsets me.”

The Hudson, Michigan teen was healthy at age five. But by age ten, she could no longer fit into kids clothing. She became obese.

“I just feel guilty,” she said, “that I couldn’t change earlier.”

On doctor’s orders, Emily joined a weight loss program called “m-power” at the University of Michigan. She’s already lost 26 pounds, thanks, in part, to support from other teens.

Other teens, like Amber Bell, who is in an even scarier life or death struggle. She’s shed 50 pounds, but still weighs nearly 400 lbs.

“What made you say, ‘I’m going to make a change here,'” Doane asked.

“I didn’t want my parents to feel like I was a failure and I wanted to have friends,” Amber replied.

(CBS)

-> According to a Jan. 5th WebMD article, "TAmerica’s obesity epidemic now poses an equal or greater threat to health-related quality of life than smoking, according to a new study. Researchers say that as obesity in America has risen dramatically in recent years — and smoking rates have declined — the contribution of obesity to the burden of disease and shortening of life has increased while smoking’s role has decreased."
"The study showed that from 1993 to 2008, the proportion of smokers among U.S. adults declined by 18.5% while the proportion of obese adults increased 85%. Using information from nationwide annual health-related quality-of-life surveys conducted during the same time period, researchers calculated the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to these two major health risk factors…"
Continue reading “STUDY: OBESITY RISE HURTS MORE THAN SMOKING”

Find your local sources for steaks, ground beef, leg of lamb, sausage, bacon, eggs, smoked hams, roasting chickens, handmade cheeses, goats-milk fudge, cheese-stuffed pasta, Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas geese, and more-all fresh from the pasture! This directory lists grass-based farms in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia that sell their products directly to consumers
Continue reading “Future Harvest”

Directly and indirectly, dependence on the motor vehicle is the leading cause of preventable death.
Motor vehicle fatalities (significant part of the blue boxes) and heart disease (major contributing factor is the lack of exercise) are at (or next to) the top of the list for all ages.

	Age Groups
Rank	<1	1-4	5-9	10-14	15-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+	All Ages
1	Congenital Anomalies 5,819	Unintentional Injury 1,610	Unintentional Injury 1,044	Unintentional Injury 1,214	Unintentional Injury 16,229	Unintentional Injury 14,954	Unintentional Injury 17,534	Malignant Neoplasms 50,334	Malignant Neoplasms 101,454	Heart Disease 510,542	Heart Disease 631,636
2	Short Gestation 4,841	Congenital Anomalies 515	Malignant Neoplasms 459	Malignant Neoplasms 448	Homicide 5,717	Suicide 4,985	Malignant Neoplasms 13,917	Heart Disease 38,095	Heart Disease 65,477	Malignant Neoplasms 387,515	Malignant Neoplasms 559,888
3	SIDS 2,323	Malignant Neoplasms 377	Congenital Anomalies 182	Homicide 241	Suicide 4,189	Homicide 4,725	Heart Disease 12,339	Unintentional Injury 19,675	Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 12,375	Cerebro- vascular 117,010	Cerebro- vascular 137,119
4	Maternal Pregnancy Comp. 1,683	Homicide 366	Homicide 149	Suicide 216	Malignant Neoplasms 1,644	Malignant Neoplasms 3,656	Suicide 6,591	Liver Disease 7,712	Unintentional Injury 11,446	Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 106,845	Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 124,583
5	Unintentional Injury 1,147	Heart Disease 161	Heart Disease 90	Heart Disease 163	Heart Disease 1,076	Heart Disease 3,307	HIV 4,010	Suicide 7,426	Diabetes Mellitus 11,432	Alzheimer’s Disease 71,660	Unintentional Injury 121,599
6	Placenta Cord Membranes 1,140	Influenza & Pneumonia 125	Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 52	Congenital Anomalies 162	Congenital Anomalies 460	HIV 1,182	Homicide 3,020	Cerebro- vascular 6,341	Cerebro- vascular 10,518	Diabetes Mellitus 52,351	Diabetes Mellitus 72,449
7	Respiratory Distress 825	Septicemia 88	Cerebro- vascular 45	Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 63	Cerebro- vascular 210	Diabetes Mellitus 673	Liver Disease 2,551	Diabetes Mellitus 5,692	Liver Disease 7,217	Influenza & Pneumonia 49,346	Alzheimer’s Disease 72,432
8	Bacterial Sepsis 807	Perinatal Period 65	Influenza & Pneumonia 40	Cerebro- vascular 50	HIV 206	Cerebro- vascular 527	Cerebro- vascular 2,221	HIV 4,377	Suicide 4,583	Nephritis 37,377	Influenza & Pneumonia 56,326
9	Neonatal Hemorrhage 618	Benign Neoplasms 60	Septicemia 40	Septicemia 44	Influenza & Pneumonia 184	Congenital Anomalies 437	Diabetes Mellitus 2,094	Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 3,924	Nephritis 4,368	Unintentional Injury 36,689	Nephritis 45,344
10	Circulatory System Disease 543	Cerebro- vascular 54	Benign Neoplasms 38	Benign Neoplasms 38	Complicated Pregnancy 179	Influenza & Pneumonia 335	Septicemia 870	Viral Hepatitis 2,911	Septicemia 4,032	Septicemia 26,201	Septicemia 34,234

Continue reading “10 Leading Causes of Death, United States 2006, All Races, Both Sexes”

The Maryland Waterkeepers have petitioned the EPA to pull Maryland’s authority to administer the Clean Water Act. This move is primarily about the NPDES discharge permits for industrial operations and other point sources. The second major action against Maryland in a year, this points out that the environmental and development (what’s left of it in this economy) communities have something in common: Frustration with the Maryland Department of the Environment. Hate to say it, as we certainly have friends at MDE – but maybe it is time for some real culture change…
Continue reading “Waterkeepers move on MDE”