Natural Nutmeg

Quick before the Vancouver Winter Olympics are over, I wanted to write this blog…

In 2008, Beijing tried very hard to make the Summer Olympics as environmentally-friendly as possible. Now the Vancouver Winter Olympics are being compared to those efforts. And in terms of sustainability and  greenness, Vancouver is pretty impressive. For a good overview of all the Vancouver green initiatives, click here for all the details on the Olympics web site.

The Vancouver Olympics are the first to incorporate sustainability into their mission statement and fully embed sustainability into their operations, everything from green transortation, to buildings and green sponsors. The Vancouver Olympics organizers have used energy-efficient technology, clean energy and carbon offsets. And it all started very green on day one when  Wayne Gretsky clutched a recyclable torch as he rode in a hybrid pickup en route to ignite the natural gas Olympic flame.

The Olympic Village buildings were all LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified projects adhere to a strict set of building standards to improve energy efficiency and sustainability) and will be turned into mixed-use mixed-income housing. The buildings were also fitted with solar panels and “green-roofs” that will use a rainwater collection system to become self-sustaining. Many buildings used local wood from trees that were destroyed by storms. The Richmond Oval, where the speed skating took take place, was constructed using wood from trees that had been destroyed by a beetle infestation. 

The hydrogen-powered Chevy Equinox was the official automobile of Vancouver 2010. The Zamponi ice-cleaning machines were electric. Public transit improvements were key. A new Sky Train was built that runs from the airport to the downtown city center. Once downtown, all subways, streetcars, sea bus and buses were free to Olympic ticket holders. That included buses up to the mountain events. In fact, car usage declined 30% during the Games.

The Vancouver Olympic organizing committee pressured corporate sponsors, to reduce their environmental footprints. Many did, but the stand-out was the official beverage sponsor, Coca-Cola, which went completely green at this Olympics and was one of the first major marketers to embark on a zero-waste, carbon-neutral sponsorship of an event as complex as the Olympic Games. Coke’s cafe furniture was made from pine-beetle-salvaged wood. Their beverages were delivered via hybrid vehicles and electric carts. All of the uniforms worn by Coca-Cola’s staff were made  of recycled bottles. Compostable cups and lids were used for coffee. Coke introduced bottles called PlantBottles made from 30 percent plant-based materials that were used for all their beverages and water.

Another Olympic sponsor was the Canadian mining company Teck Resources who provided the metal for the Olympic medals. These medals were the first to be made out of recycled metals and circuit boards. Teck Resources was able to harvest gold, silver, and bronze from the circuit boards of old computers and have it melted down and cast back into the Olympic medals. They included 1.52 per cent junk gold, 0.122 per cent recycled silver and 1.11 per cent recovered copper. It’s a pretty small percentage, but the real point was to create awareness that metals can be reused and recycled. And these beautiful medals look nothing like any other Olympic medals! Did you know the design is an orca, no two medals have the same design and the artist is from a First Nations’ tribe? Click here for a fascinating video about the artists and the process. 

I understand that London is already planning for a very green Olympics two years from now incorporating many of the same plans as in Vancouver and with more creative environmental ideas.

If you have a question or comment, or a nature topic you would like to hear about on my blog, please feel free to comment below here on this blog, or email me at madelinedennis@optonline.net. (more…)

Windmills are a wonderful clean safe source of green energy… right? Not everyone thinks so, especially some environmentalists and biologists. The spinning blades of wind mills can be fatal to flying birds and also can act as giant scarecrows discouraging birds from nesting in an area.

Birds, of course, collide with all sorts of human structures. Cars kill millions of birds each year in the US. Almost a billion collide with tall building and windows. Birds are killed by utility lines and lighted towers. Then of course there are the bird deaths due to non-collision causes such as pesticides. habitat loss, toxic emissions from power plants and being killed by domestic cats. So the bottom line is nothing is totally safe for birds,

However, according to various studies bird collision mortality associated with wind turbines is much lower than other sources of collision mortality. Even if wind plants were quite numerous, they would likely cause no more than a few percent of all collision deaths related to human structures.

Public attention has focused on the large Altamont Pass wind farm in California, where unusually high numbers of raptors die, in part due to the large size of the wind plant, old turbine design and unfavorable siting of the turbines in an area of large raptor population. According to some estimates, as many as three dozen golden eagles die there annually. Here is one of the few videos of an actual bird strike and the touching rescue attempt at Altamont.

In addition to killing birds, a new study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology has found that the wind farms are acting as giant scarecrows, frightening birds away. The study found that seven species of birds tended to stop nesting within one half mile of any turbine. Bird nesting was reduced in three quarters of a square mile around each structure.

Siting wind plants in areas with low bird and raptor use is currently the best way to minimize collision mortality. Also environmentalists still need to determine all the various factors that contribute. Here is a good video with an overview of the problem.

The engineer who designs a bird-friendly windmill and the company that markets it will carve a huge place in the energy marketplace. The diversity of wind turbine designs now being developed is remarkable. Here is a video of bird-wind turbine controversy (with some graphic images), but it also shows a unique solution provided by a  Spanish wind turbine company.  It shows vertical wind turbines, one example of these many new technologies.

While there are few sites in Connecticut suitable for large wind installations, the state offers many opportunities for small wind projects. In fact did you know that in 1854 Daniel Halladay invented and sold the first commercially successful windmill in the New World right here in Ellington CT.  Many towns in Connectuct have been vying for funding from the recently passed federal stimulus bill for clean energy projects like wind turbines. 

Here below are a few of the wind energy projects being constructed or considered throughout the state:

• Shelton:  a 37-foot structure by Poulson Hybrid
• Torrington: Sewer District plant and a 199-foot wind turbine on a private farm
• Old Lyme: Clean & Green Energy’s pair of 300 ft. wind turbines to power homes
• Middletown/Middlefield:  possibility of installing a wind farm on Mount Higby
• CT Clean Energy Fund’s Small Wind Turbine Project: Coventry High School, Lebanon High School, Mountain Day Mist Camp Meriden YMCA, New Haven Visitor Center
• New Haven: Phoenix Press constructing a 150-foot wind turbine on the banks of the Quinnipiac River
• Avon: the first private home wind turbine in Connecticut
• Hamden: the first US university wind farm at Quinnipiac University installing 25 vertical wind turbines
• State of Connecticut:  may install and operate wind turbines at a correctional facility

While there have been studies done on bird mortality caused by large commercial wind installations, I doubt there have been any done on the impact of smaller and home-sized wind systems on birds. I suppose the small problem is not considered biologically insignificant. Perhaps the smaller blades and short tower heights of residential windmills do not represent a threat to birds. But I truly hope that when towns consider environmental impact statements for their projects they.

Due to declines in many species of birds, and as wind farms become more prevalent any additional mortality should be a cause for concern. Hopefully monitoring programs at many of the newer wind plants will provide information to better understand avian mortality levels and to continue to determine factors important for siting wind plants. Because birds populations continue to decline due to so many environmental factors, efforts by every industry are important to reverse avian mortality trends and to minimize bird deaths.

If you have a question or comment, or a nature topic you would like to hear about on my blog, please feel free to comment below here on this blog, or email me at madelinedennis@optonline.net. (more…)