Refilling instead of landfilling

There are two pieces of good news for us today at Penn State. It's amazing, the work that the original crew of Alex, Jared, Steve, and I started almost 3 years ago has spread farther and deeper.

First, Penn State's green.psu.edu from the Office of Sustainability fills us in on the bottle refilling stations across PSU. Those early and strong efforts (victory fill at right) to work with the Office of Physical Plant paid off. Today, there are 20 bottle stations at University Park and a few more across the Commonwealth campuses. 18 more will arrive at University Park in the next two years.

Second, tonight at 7 pm, the Bucknell Green Film Series will be showing Tapped, Stephanie Soechtig's debut feature film about the surprising and far-reaching impacts of the bottled water industry. The film probes topics like the petroleum used to make plastics and transport bottled products long distances, excessive groundwater withdrawals by bottling plants, and the general lack of regulatory oversight over the bottled water industry. Who profits and who loses out when society prioritizes convenience over sustainability?



Following the film, the a post-screening discussion and Q & A session about bottled water and its impacts here in Pennsylvania. The discussion will be moderated by Cathy Curran Myers, Director of the BUEC and former Deputy Secretary for Water Management at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. I (Peter Buckland) will also be a panelist discussing our work advocating on reducing bottled water here at Penn State.

HOME

I want to share this movie, Home, with all of you. In all of our work for sustainability education and the flourishing of all life on Earth, it pays to watch something as humbling as this documentary (if you can even call it that). Home took my breath away on several levels and I think it might yours too. Best of all, it's a feature length film that the producers and directors decided needed to be free because its message was too important.

The brief showing on American agriculture placed in the context of human and natural history is particularly startling given the film's emphasis on balance. To paraphrase, the U.S. grows enough grain to feed 2 billion people but most of that grain goes to feeding livestock and increasingly into biofuels (that substitute for the fossil fuels the film has been discussing). This seriously calls into question the idea that the American farmer feeds the world.


Some people dislike words like "balance" or "harmony." What do you think? Does this film oversell those points? Or are we as out of balance as it portrays?

Film Series might raise Natural Environmental Awareness

This just in from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences:

The Earth and Mineral Sciences Library Spring 2010 Film Series kicks off on Jan. 20, with a documentary on geologic changes in the Great Lakes. All films are screened at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesdays in room 105 of the Deike Building on Penn State's University Park campus. The films feature a diverse mix of topics related to Earth and the environment.

The schedule is as follows with descriptions of those films that seem most pertinent to our emphasis on social and natural environmental sustainability:

Jan. 20: "Geologic Journey -- Part 1: The Great Lakes" (45 min.)

Jan. 27: "The Hurricane of ’38" (53 min.)
In September 1938, the National Weather Bureau predicted this storm would blow itself out. Instead it began an unexpected sprint north along the coast. Over 600 people were killed. Another 100 were never found.

Feb. 3: "Petroapocalypse Now?" (48 min.)
This documentary asks whether Earth's oil resources are beginning to run out, discusses the accuracy of petroleum reserves estimates and the potentially disastrous effects if oil production falls, and asks what steps we can take to prevent this.

Feb. 10: "Geologic Journey – Part 2: The Rockies" (45 min.)

Feb. 17: "Tornado Glory: Experience the Real Chase" (56 min.)

Feb. 24: "Power Paths" (56 min.)
This documentary follows the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota Sioux tribes, as they find ways to introduce renewable energy projects into their communities through a grassroots movement.

March 3: "Geologic Journey – Part 3: The Canadian Shield" (45 min.)

March 17: "Hurricane Katrina: The Storm that Drowned a City" (56 min.)
Nova takes an in-depth look at what made Hurricane Katrina so deadly and analyzes how this event has resulted in unprecedented destruction for the Gulf Coast.

March 24: "Earth Energy" (46 min.)
Sculptor, aviator, inventor, and filmmaker Bill Lishman is concerned by our dependence on central energy sources and fossil fuels so he takes a journey in search of Earth's renewable energy.

March 31: "Geologic Journey – Part 4: The Appalachians" (45 min.)

April 7: "The Big Chill: A Looming Ice Age?" (50 min.)
This program investigates the likelihood of the biggest climate change in more than 10,000 years.

April 14: "Gold Futures: Open-Pit Mining in Romania" (57 min.)

April 21: "Geologic Journey – Part 5: The Atlantic Coast" (45 min.)

April 28: "Is there Life on Mars?" (56 min.)

Tapped the Movie

Like Food, Inc. recently did for American industrial agriculture, Tapped examines the economic, social, and environmental effects of another destructive industry - water. But Tapped zeroes in on the ruin visited upon us and ecosystems by the globalized supply chain and its commodification in single-use bottles. The makers of Who Killed the Electric Car? and I.O.U.S.A. ask us to consider a very pointed question: "Is access to clean drinking water a human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce?" That's a loaded question.

The net effects of this seemingly innocuous little thing are disastrous. In the United States we sell 29 billion single-use plastic bottles annually. "In a time when we're looking at climate change, why are we shipping water around the world?" Why are we perpetuating an industry whose end product leads to 3.5 million tons of plastic trash in the north Pacific Ocean expanding over 9,000 football fields worth of area?

We need to change this system, and Tapped gives us more fodder. Where does your money go when you buy Dasani, Aquafina, Poland Spring, Fiji, or Arrowhead? In a nation as rich as ours, with as rich a water system as we have, why spend billions upon billions of dollars playing a water shipping shell game when we could be investing a fraction of that money into riparian systems' health, river and lake health, and ocean health? Why not update and secure our water supplying infrastructure for the long-term health of our people?



But it's also personal. Can you use less water? If you can, can your friends and family? What alternatives are there to corporate private water? How can we change what we do to be more sustainable people?

Can you be more mindful? Of course you can.

As a first step, you can go to the Tapped website and sign their declaration which begins, "By signing this declaration I promise to limit my consumption of bottled water..." Join me.

It is time for you and me to Take Back the Tap!

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

We are going to be watching The Real Dirt on Farmer John at our meeting this week at 8 pm in 134 Cedar Building. From the film's website:

The epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America.

It's a tale of redemption through organic farming and artistic expression. I guess I wonder if "farmer John" is the kind of person we think of as "an educated person." Let's get together and see!

Watch the trailer!


I like Rotten Tomatoes which gave it an 88%. Pretty good!