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This week in conservation
February 18 - 24, 2008
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In This Issue:

Local News:
We Can Act Locally;
A New Island Energy

Feature:
Plastic Patch in Pacific Grows to Twice Size of U.S.;
House passes ocean development bill

Calendar:
Moonrise Meander;
Fisheries Program;
REGULATORY REVISIONS TO STORMWATER MANAGEMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS;
more...

Save The Date:
13th Annual Cape Cod Natural History Conference

Nature Update:
Study links population to intersex fish

Wastewater Update:
Pump Technology Conquers Tough Flow

Biofuel Update:
Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat

Sustainable Update:
Locavore Nation
LOCAL NEWS

We Can Act Locally
 Brendan O’Neill, Executive Director
Vineyard Conservation Society
Controversy, primarily around land use and land development issues, has been a defining trait of the Vineyard community in recent years. So it is remarkable and gratifying to see signs that the Vineyard is uniting around the common goal of conserving energy, improving efficiency, and thinking about the future.

One catalyst is certainly the skyrocketing cost of fuel. But there is also a dawning awareness of the deadly seriousness of global warming. The report released last November from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that human-generated global warming (caused largely by the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use) is strongly affecting life on earth. Changes are impacting coastal wetlands and coastal flooding patterns, agriculture and forestry, and many aspects of human health.

Go to Energy Section for the rest of the article.

A New Island Energy
 Vineyard Gazette
http://www.mvgazette.com/island_energy.php

Plotting a Course to Sustainability in 2050
By JIM HICKEY

Renewable Energy Wave
By SAM BUNGEY

Opinions from Workaday Islanders: Saving Energy Is the Thing to Do
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Green and Comfortable: Both Are Possible
By JULIA RAPPAPORT

Cape Light Compact Performs an Energy Audit On Gazette Building, Finding a Few Air Leaks
By JULIA WELLS

Change Light Bulbs, Driving Habits, Without Depleting Bank Account
By JACK SHEA

Those Carbon Shoes Leave Tracks: A Reporter Measures His Footprint
By JACK SHEA
Feature

Plastic Patch in Pacific Grows to Twice Size of U.S.
by FishOutofWater
Wed Feb 06, 2008

The enormous soup of plastic debris in the Pacific has grown rapidly to twice the size of the U.S. An ongoing voyage into the foul soup of garbage has revealed it is composed of two huge vortices one in the eastern Pacific and one in the western Pacific. The vortices are maintained by a confluence of subsurface currents and by regions of high atmospheric pressure above the subtropical Pacific Ocean.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/
2008/2/6/191913/9946/103/451447e

House passes ocean development bill
By DAVID KIBBE
TIMES BOSTON BUREAU
February 14, 2008
BOSTON — The state House of Representatives approved an ocean management bill last night that would allow renewable energy projects in ocean sanctuaries, removing a major obstacle to a proposal by developer Jay Cashman to build up to 120 wind turbines in Buzzards Bay.

http://capecodonline.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080214/
NEWS/802140324/-1/NEWS01

Ideal Bite
Energy Tip
Consider the cost savings if the Vineyard were to switch all their municipal outdoor lighting and street lights to LED’s as Ann Arbor is now doing. The City of Ann Arbor (MI) has been running a pilot project:
http://www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us/
PublicServices/SystemsPlanning/
Energy/LEDLighting.html
to try out LED street lights in one of the first such installations in the country. The City's supervisor of signs got the manufacturer of some of the city's downtown streetlights to create a retrofit lamp that used LEDs.

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/414/

 

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Calendar
Moonrise Meander

Wed, Feb 20, Moonrise Meander, 4:45 pm, Felix Neck shines under the moonlight! Join us to greet the full moon rising over Sengekontacket Pond as the sunsets over the marsh and fields behind you. Learn about the lunar eclipse that will occur later that evening. Call 508-627-4850 x 101 with questions
Fisheries Program
Wed, Feb 20, Fisheries Program 5:30 pm, Chilmark library, South Rd. Menemsha Fisheries Development Fund series. Films: "The Water Talks To Me," and "Last Season: Portrait of a Trawler." Discussion follows. Free. 508-645-3360.
REGULATORY REVISIONS TO STORMWATER MANAGEMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS
Fri, Feb 22, REGULATORY REVISIONS TO STORMWATER MANAGEMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS, Margo Clerkin, our DEP Circuit Rider, will come for a noon workshop (bring a bag lunch) She will provide an overview of regulatory changes to the stormwater standards, implementatin of LID techniques, and stormwater management system design. MV Commission, OB Call 508-693-3453 with questions
Nutrition Lecture
Sat, Feb 23, Nutrition Lecture 7-8 pm, Natural Food Barn, 294 State Rd., Vineyard Haven. With Lisa Vunk. Label reading, food additives. Weekly through May 3. Free. 508-471-3707.
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Save The Date
13th Annual Cape Cod Natural History Conference
Sat, March 8, 13th Annual Cape Cod Natural History Conference, at the Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable. Frederick H.C. Hotchkiss, Director of Marine and Paleobiological Research Institute will do a presentation on Starfish Symmetry Oddities. For information and registration go to www.massaudubon.org/wellfleetbay click on Special Events and find the PDF file with registration form and conference program.The contact person is Melissa Lowe mlowe@massaudubon.com Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
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Nature Update
Study links population to intersex fish
Fri Feb 8, 2008
BALTIMORE - A form of intersex fish, which have both male and female traits, were found more often by researchers in areas with more farming and population density, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

http://groups.google.com/group/
talk.origins/browse_thread/thread/
a6d1809737c4efdb
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Wastewater Update
Pump Technology Conquers Tough Flow

New generation pump provides the right connection for Martha’s Vineyard Hospital

Nearly every wastewater utility confronts it own unique operational considerations. However, few rival those on Martha’s Vineyard, the premier vacation island off the coast of Cape Cod, MA.

http://www.govengr.com/ArticlesJan08/
matha.pdf
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Biofuel Update
Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: February 8, 2008

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/
science/earth/08wbiofuels.html
?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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Sustainable Update
Locavore Nation

Locavore Nation is a year-long effort to see what it takes to live by a regionally based diet. Join us as 15 individuals from around the country share their experiences as they try to get 80 percent of their food from local, organic, seasonal sources and then incorporate it into tasty, healthy meals.

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/
locavore_nation/
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