Greenversations

My family and I just sold our first house. If you’ve ever been through this, you know how many details are involved in sprucing up a home to put on the market – painting, landscaping, cleaning, and on and on. Just like the roof, the furnace and the plumbing – healthy indoor air requires maintenance, and maybe even some elbow grease.

Working at EPA means I’m pretty up to speed on the importance of healthy air. Being a dad, the message is clear to me. When my younger daughter showed signs of developing asthma, in addition to following the pediatrician’s orders, we took extra effort to keep the house in tiptop shape. Since we bought a fixer-upper there was plenty to do. The basics for maintaining clean indoor air go like this – eliminate or remove pollutants, ventilate with fresh air, control moisture, test for radon, and regularly service appliances like heating and air conditioning, and cooking appliances. For more tips than I have room for, check out http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/careforyourair.html.

Selling and buying a home has made me realize that taking steps to protect indoor air quality actually added value to our sale and helped us spot value when we were looking for a new home. Certainly folks can take a “do-it-yourself” approach like my family did by following EPA’s tips. But wouldn’t it be nice if “indoor air quality” were built in? The good news is EPA has launched a program called Indoor airPLUS. To earn the Indoor airPLUS label, a new home must include a comprehensive set of indoor air quality requirements and a third-party verifies it.

As a dad, having good indoor air means living healthy as well as having peace of mind.

About the author: John Millet started at EPA in 2002 and is the Director of Communications for the Office of Air and Radiation covering climate change, emissions, and acid rain. He is the proud dad of two girls and a new home.

Independence Day is celebrated across America often outdoors with picnics, fireworks, pool parties, or vacation trips.  Share what you plan to do to be red, white, and blue - and green!

How will you green your 4th of July?

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

El Día de la Independencia se celebra por todos los Estados Unidos con frecuencia al aire libre al irse de picnic, fuegos artificiales, fiestas en la piscina, u otras excursiones vacacionales. Comparta lo que planifica hacer en favor de los colores patrióticos rojo, blanco, y azul - y para ser verde también!

¿Cuán verde será su 4 de julio?

Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

Students participate in the Baldwin County Grasses in Classes program to help grow native plants for wetland and dune restoration projects.

Do you want to educate, inspire, and engage students, scouts, park, zoo or museum visitors, or even your neighbors and family members to do something about climate change and how it may affect wildlife and their precious habitats? We (Karen, a former teacher and Mike, who monitors local water quality as a volunteer for the Audubon Naturalist Society) are impassioned about the climate change issue, especially as it may affect wildlife and wild places, and how important it is to get everyone involved in solving the problems associated with it. So two years ago we gathered together educators from 6 other federal agencies to develop the new Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators to help the educator in each of us spread the word on what is at stake and what we can do about it.

It was not an easy task to find and organize staff members from agencies as diverse as National Park Service, NASA, NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, but we were determined to create an educational product that demonstrated a strong, unified voice on climate change and that was built on the efforts of scientists and educators from government agencies that work on issues involving climate change, wildlife and wild places. After two years of meetings, phone calls, emails, data dumps, arguments, hugs, long drives to video shoots, and lunches for grousing and/or celebrating, we are extremely proud and excited about the end result of this truly unique collaboration.

Please go to the inter-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) site where the toolkit is being hosted and see for yourself! Let us know what you think!

About the Authors: Karen Scott is an Environmental Education Specialist for the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection and Environmental Education after spending more than 10 years with EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Programs, Climate Change Division. Michael Kolian is a physical scientist with EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Programs, Climate Change Division.

Just as I finished mowing my lawn last month, a neighbor strolled over and commented on what appeared to be a half-done job. “Looks like you missed a few spots,” he commented wryly.

My neighbor is a retiree who mows his two-acre plot twice per week. Though he’s tolerant of weeds and other “imperfections,” its overall height is closely maintained; dandelion, clover, and other “weedy” blooms never last long. His comment about my lawn, while delivered with a smile, was also a friendly nudge—peer pressure, perhaps—to get me to comply with modern social norms regarding landscaping.

He wasn’t wrong about me missing a few spots. In fact, his comment was wonderfully understated. There are seemingly random patches in my lawn that I hadn’t mowed in weeks. But rather than firing up my mower and bringing my yard into monotonous harmony with everybody else, I shared my personal pollinator protection plan.

I explained about the plight of pollinators, including the widely publicized issue known as Colony Collapse Disorder. I mentioned that honey bees are having a tough time, and noted that I don’t see as many of them now as I used to. My neighbor’s face lit up. Apparently, a few months ago he was talking to an amateur beekeeper friend, who commented that he’s down to only one hive now where he used to have five. “The fella said he doesn’t have any idea what’s happening to his bees,” my neighbor said, “but it’s interesting you should bring that up.”

I continued by observing that a lawn devoid of blooms is a barren desert to honey bees and other pollinators, which brought us back around to my somewhat unkempt yard. What looks like random patches of unmown lawn are actually thick patches of clover that I allow to bloom. I only mow them when the blooms fade and begin to transform into seeds. Doing so seems to bring on a new blush of fresh, white blossoms. I also pointed out that since I stopped mowing weekly, other wildflowers have sprung up, and the place is abuzz with various six-legged visitors.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed a sort of shagginess to parts of my neighbor’s formerly uniform lawn the following week! Not only was clover blooming in patches, my neighbor had even one-upped me by planting a half-dozen flowering trees!

Now, if only I could figure out how to get him to apply that friendly peer pressure on our other neighbors in favor of this bee-friendly approach, this could be the start of something big!

For additional environmentally-focused lawn care tips, see http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/controlling/garden.htm.

About the Author: Quentin Borges-Silva works in communications for EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs and is a member of the Agency’s Pollinator Protection Team. He’s also the Bicycle Coordinator for the Pesticide Program, helping co-workers “protect human health and the environment” by biking to work.

In almost every neighborhood there are local libraries and these libraries provide a great wealth of information. They provide books on many different subjects and also supply daily newspapers, magazines, movies and CDs—everything you could possibly need to keep you up to date. And, the best part about all the information you can get at a library is that it is all free to borrow.

The next time you want to purchase a popular book or CD, go to your local library and chances are they will have it and will lend it out to you for no cost. Borrowing books, CDs, movies and papers is a great way to save money. Borrowing these items could also help protect the environment in a big way. You can save a lot of resources by reusing items instead of purchasing them. By reusing books and CDs at a library, you can save energy, water, trees and metals, etc. thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Libraries are one place we can all go to borrow items for no cost. Can you think of any other places? Please let us know so we can all help reduce the amount of resources we use!

Michelle Gugger graduated from Rutgers University in 2008. She is currently spending a year of service at EPA’s Region 3 Office in Philadelphia, PA as an AmeriCorps VISTA.

When I was growing up in Puerto Rico, I remember the stories my great grandmother and great aunt used to tell me about hurricanes past– San Ciriaco, San Ciprián, San Felipe–are just some of the names I remember. I wondered why hurricanes in Spanish always had the names of saints. I found out that hurricanes used to acquire their names according to the day they hit in accordance to the Catholic calendar. Each day commemorates the birth day of one or more saints according to the calendar. Not a very scientific system, I must add. As of 1960, the naming process in the US was standardized. In times past, these storms were so newsworthy that many other events, such as births, were described as “having happened before or after a given hurricane”. For example, I was born on the year of the Santa Clara hurricane (AKA Betsy on the US Mainland), which was a relatively mild hurricane by Puerto Rican standards at the time.

When the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning, I recall that the entire preparation process usually revolved around buying batteries, flashlights, collecting water, and cooking plenty of food and perhaps boarding windows. That was it. Since we were pretty luck from 1960 to about 1989, the hurricane preparations basically were associated with party time. These were opportunities for great family gatherings with a lot of food where everyone sat around the TV or radio depending upon whether you had electricity or not—not well thought out emergency preparedness techniques.

It’s wise to prepare a kit of supplies in preparation for potential disasters. Hurricane season is a good time to start. It’s best to stock up on food that is not easily perishable or that does not require refrigeration in the event you are without electricity for extended periods of time. Stock up on water and drinking water. Keep a three day supply of drinking water for the family if possible. Stocking up on your prescription medications is also a good idea. In terms of your property, you should also check around your home to minimize debris as much as possible. It’s also a good idea to clear rain gutters and down spouts in advance. Keep a full tank of gas in your car in the event that you might be ordered to evacuate.

For additional tips, before and after the storm, visit our web pages for information in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

And if the whole naming process caught your interest, visit the National Hurricane Center for the lists of hurricanes names planned years in advance for both Atlantic and Pacific storms.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Durante mi niñez en Puerto Rico, me acuerdo de las historias de mi bisabuela y tía abuela sobre los huracanes de antaño—San Ciriaco, San Ciprián, San Felipe—eran algunos nombres que recuerdo. Siempre me preguntaba el por qué los huracanes tenían nombres de santos. Encontré que bautizaban los huracanes con los nombres conforme al día del santo cuando tocaba tierra. No es una metodología muy científica que digamos. Desde el 1960, el proceso de nombrar los huracanes se formalizó. Cabe señalar que en el pasado muchas de estas tormentas eran acontecimientos de tal envergadura que otros eventos como nacimientos se describían por haber sucedido antes o después de tal huracán. Por ejemplo, yo nací el año del huracán Santa Clara (también conocido como Betsy en el continente EE.UU.), que fue un huracán de poco impacto en comparación con otros huracanes que pasaron por la Isla en aquella época.

Cuando el Centro Nacional de Huracanes emitía un aviso de tormenta, me acuerdo que los preparativos normalmente giraban alrededor de la compra de baterías, linternas, la colección de agua, el cocinar grandes cantidades de comida y clavar planchas de madera sobre las ventanas. Eso era todo. Como tuvimos bastante suerte entre los años 1960 al 1989, los preparativos de huracanes casi estaban asociados con un espíritu festivo. Eran oportunidades para grandes reuniones familiares donde había mucha comida y la gente se arremolinaba alrededor del televisor o la radio dependiendo si había electricidad o no. Estas no eran necesariamente técnicas de preparación para emergencias bien planificadas.

Es prudente preparar un conjunto de provisiones en preparación para posibles desastres naturales. La temporada de huracanes es un buen momento para empezar. Es buena idea almacenar alimentos que no se deterioren con facilidad o que no requieran refrigeración en el evento de que se quede sin electricidad por largos periodos de tiempo. También hay que almacenar agua para el aseo personal y agua potable. El mantener un suministro de tres días de agua potable para toda la familia, si es posible, es ventajoso. También mantenga los medicamentos con receta necesarios a mano. En términos de su propiedad, trate de minimizar en la manera posible todo lo que se podría convertir en escombros tras una tormenta. También es buena idea verificar que los desagües de la casa no estén tapados con anticipación al paso del huracán. También llene el tanque de gasolina de su auto para estar listo en caso de que venga una orden de evacuar el lugar.

Para consejos adicionales sobre las medidas a tomar antes y después de la tormenta, visite nuestras páginas Web para información en inglés, español, chino, y vietnamita.

Y si está interesado en conocer cuáles son los nombres que el Centro Nacional de Huracanes ha designado para las tormentas en el Atlántico y el Pacífico, puede consultar la lista de huracanes.

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

In 2007, 245.1 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in the United States. Of that waste, organic materials—yard trimmings, food scraps, and paper products—made up more than two-thirds of our solid waste stream. Even though organic waste makes up most of our waste stream, it is something that we can reduce. Composting can turn our organic wastes into valuable compost which can be used for landscaping and gardening purposes. By composting we can also reduce methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heating potential of carbon dioxide which is largely produced from the organic wastes in our landfills.

There are many types of composting options to choose from. At the end of the composting process you will end up with a great, free product for greening lawns and producing strong, healthy garden plants.

So here’s how you can start. Look at your options. Some include vermicomposting, compost bins, or installing a composter in the sink like a garbage disposal. Discuss with your caregiver or principal which option works easiest and best for your home or school. Then work on making successful compost by watching what you put into the composter. EPA’s web site has great information for creating a compost pile right in your own backyard.

So take action against producing so much waste and reduce green house gas emissions. By composting you can eliminate the threats to climate change, water quality and pollution by transforming your waste into a product that will benefit your lawn and garden. Talk to your friends and family about how they can start a composting project at home. You can also become a climate ambassador by starting a composting program at your school. You will find that it can be fun, especially if you like to garden! Be sure to tell us your composting plans. Let us know which option works best for you, how much waste you will be reducing and what you plan to do with your compost.

About the Author: Michelle Gugger graduated from Rutgers University in 2008. She is currently spending a year of service at EPA’s Region 3 Office in Philadelphia, PA as an AmeriCorps VISTA

A year ago we got hundreds of comments when we asked you about biking to work. Now a year later, tell us how you’ve changed your biking habits and why.

How have your “bike to work” habits changed?

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.