Who should receive the 2007 Green Caravan Tour Fund?

[Vienna]

First of all, thanks to Dreaming Pepper for coming up with the name for this spring's travels & activities: The Green Caravan Tour.

So here's the deal: Part of the profits from eco-friendly merch sales, plus contributions made online, will go to one or more environmental groups at the end of the tour.

In the spirit of active participation, recognizing diverse viewpoints and learning from them, I'm asking all of you to choose the beneficiaries of the Green Caravan Tour fund.

Do a little websurfing and think about groups you've seen or heard in the news. Pick a few that are working on issues you care about. What should our most urgent priorities be? What are the pressing questions? Who's got some promising ideas for solutions?

When you find an organization doing great work, nominate it here. Near the end of the tour, I'll create a poll of the candidates and take a vote.

Remember to be respectful of your fellow forum members. It's a wonderfully civil place here, but I'm dragging us into political territory and I know we don't all agree on those kinds of topics. Environmentalism tends to be perceived as just a "liberal" issue, but these are problems that everyone faces collectively, and we need as many thoughtful, informed perspectives as we can get.

Check out http://viennateng.com/greencaravan for more details on what we're doing on the tour, and how you can help.

Thanks everyone!

[Erik]

http://www.earthpledge.org/

Mostly based out of New York City (hometown of several members of the touring Vienna Teng band), Earth Pledge is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using an anaerobic digestion process to convert organic waste into a biofuel. Your trash could become someone else's fuel source for heating or transportation.

They also have a "Green Roofs" initiative, creating vegetated rooftops in urban areas to reduce the greenhouse effect with plants and gardens. The other upside to these green roofs are that it reduces stormwater runoff pollution. And overall it looks like it may cool the internal temperature of the building that has the garden on top as well.

They have other programs as well, all earth eco-system related.

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/

The Environmental Defense Fund has been looking at ways to combat global warming since 1967. They have lots of consumer programs, a major initiative right now to switch people from regular light bulbs to energy saving flourescent bulbs, help protect endangered species, fight ocean pollution and natural water supplies.

I swore I wasn't going to recommend them, but another obvious nominee would be:
http://www.greenpeace.org/

I'm more of a fan of Sea Shepherd and their ways of saving whales than the efforts of Greenpeace, but they have many environmental programs to promote reduction of global warming and energy saving.

[maisie]

What a wonderful idea. I just read the tour plan page and it sounds so well thought out, from the merchandise, to volunteering, to the water bottles. I continue to be impressed by Vienna, beyond her music. (I also really admired her response to the Q&A question about the five things she most values in life.) I actually learned a lot about biodiesel by googling after Vienna mentioned trying to get a biodiesel vehicle. A great way to raise awareness. Maybe each of the CDs sold on the tour could contain a "green tip" inside, like a fortune cookie.

Here's a couple organizations I recently learned about:
World Safety Inc.
"World Safety Inc. is committed to bring turnkey municipal and biological solid waste resource recovery power plants to Central America"
http://www.worldsafetyinc.org/Proposed% ... 0sites.htm

Animals Asia Foundation, on animal cruelty in Asia
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?mo ... os=1&lg=en

The rest of this is only going to be half on track..."green" stuff but not really charitable organizations.

Interesting technology:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02 ... plasma.php

Daily "green tips" via email:
http://www.idealbite.com/

For folks in San Francisco, a coupon and guide book focused on living more sustainably in SF.
http://www.thegreenzebra.org/index.html

Looking forward to learning from the other suggestions here.

[rahau]

My suggestion would be Plug In America, a group that is doing a great job of promoting plug-in hybrid and fully electric cars.

They started out as "Don't Crush," a group of electric vehicle owners and enthusiasts opposed to the recall and destruction of electric cars such as the GM EV-1, Toyota Electric Rav, and Ford Electric Ranger pickup. Since then, they've become a leading advocate for electric vehicles. Their web site is an excellent source of information (and de-bunker of MIS- information) about electric cars.

The group is headed by Chelsea Sexton, who formerly worked with GM's EV-1 program. She was prominently featured in the documentary film Who Killed The Electric Car.

[Ang Mo]

My Nominations are:

The Nature Conservancy
http://www.nature.org/

Helpful Tips on climate change. How to save the enviroment.
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/activities/art19630.html

There is a photograpy contest that Mr. Cheng should enter on that website.

and

The Peregrine Fund
http://www.peregrinefund.org/mission.asp

Very successful in keeping the Peregrine Falcon from becoming extinct and now leading the way to keep the California Condor from becoming extinct. Since Condor babies imprint on who feeds them, they have to be fed by puppets that look like Condors. A strange process to get these nearly extinct birds back into the wild. They have now been transplanted back in the Grand Canyon area where people can see them in the wild again. They are working on restoring many different birds all over the world to their natural habitat.

[rtu]

so the other day in class we were talking about carbon dioxide and i mentioned that there was a contest for developing technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. we threw around a couple of ideas and they were like "how feasible is that on a large scale?" their solution: plant more trees.

well, i think wwf international would be a great organization. conservation. education. activism. and all across the planet.
http://www.panda.org/index.cfm

okay, not environment related per se but education is the key to the future and i absolutely adore and admire audrey hepburn for how she lived her life for the sake of the children:
http://www.audreyhepburn.com/html/childrensfund/childreninschool.html

[annieteng]

I am so thrilled to learn about your Green Caravan tour concept! I'd like to nominate Carnegie Mellon Solar Decathlon as a potential recipient of the tour fund.

Solar Decathlon is a US Department of Energy sponsored competition that brings US and international collegiate teams and their energy efficient solar-powered homes together onto one lawn. Third time entrant into this competition, the 2007 Carnegie Mellon Solar Decathlon team is dedicated to expanding from the past experiences in order to push the solar housing boundary and create innovative solutions for sustainable home design.

Our multi-disciplinary team includes over 70 students from Architecture, Art, Business, Design, Drama, and Engineering; and represents three Pittsburgh colleges: Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, and Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

This year, the team will offer a new way of looking at sustainable solar design by creating a modular "plug and play" housing product that answers the questions: How does a maximum energy efficient home react and grow with the occupants living inside? Plug and play achieves flexibility by clustering utilities into one central space while additional pre-fabricated living units attach to it through a grid of connection points.

New units can be added or exchanged to allow the house to expand or modify with the home owner's needs. In addition to adaptability, this design provides a comfortable living environment which allows for close interactions between the occupant, the house, and nature.

The 2007 Carnegie Mellon Solar House will become a permanent addition to the facilities in Powder Mill Nature Reserve. Located 40 minutes outside of Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County, Powder Mill Nature Reserve is an outdoor educational center and natural field station affiliated with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which hosts more than 40,000 people annually with a series of public programs and workships for educational institutions.

I am working with the Design team in implementing the exhibition aspect of the solar house. Unfortunately we are severly underfunded, and all except two of us will be working over the course of this year on a voluntary basis. We are all college students with a limited monetary budget and would be greatly appreciative your support.

For more information, please visit http://www.cmusolardecathlon.com and http://www.solardecathlon.com.

Many thanks,
Annie

[Ang Mo]

hmmmmm......Annie Teng.......Vienna Teng...........

I would reveal Annie Teng's real name but I know I would be attacked and threatened just like if I revealed her sister's name......

Welcome to the forums Annie and I hope you do well in the decathalon.

[CandaceC]

Okay okay, I finally thought of one, and I feel really all special and stuff that I did. I actually participated (was forced to participate) in this youth program when I was younger, never mind my lack of religious affiliation whatsoever, so the Tzu Chi Foundation (http://www.tzuchi.org/global/index.html)would be my nomination.

Tzu Chi has always been one of the very first people to hop out and help when crisis hits, every member that goes being a volunteer. I remember one year while visiting Taiwan, there was the South Asia Tsunami, and the day of, Tzu Chi members were out in the streets. Currently, their projects not only include Hurricane Katrina relief, but Malaysian floods and Taiwan's own earthquakes. They also run a bone marrow donation also. Although they're more based in Asia, seriously, these guys are all over the place, and it's a pretty big organization here in the US too.

And just so no one gets the wrong idea, they have a very strict policy about the "three no's -- no politics, propaganda or religion". So...yeah, there's my two cents.

[wolding]

So, I'm listening to Vienna's interview on MVY radio, from SXSW. And V mentions that yesterday she was pulling nails out of planks and using a saw. And it occurrs to me that she had better be careful while she's working on building houses. One slip or a bad aim and she could hurt a hand too badly to play the concert that night.....
Be brave, be green, be careful!

[tanthalas]

Yeah, I recently went to a Habitat orientation and they showed us this safety video, which basically showed you the 180927489 different ways to get hurt while volunteering.

But with that said, I think they really do have well-trained site leaders, and as long as everyone keeps their common sense with them, it should be alright.

[Ang Mo]

Don't worry Wolding. I have seen pictures of Vienna kneading dough and turning it into bread so I know she will have no problem with wielding a hammer because she has great hand/eye coordination, she is a singing hobbit, and has obvious magical powers.........

[rahau]

Yeah, I recently went to a Habitat orientation and they showed us this safety video, which basically showed you the 180927489 different ways to get hurt while volunteering.

But with that said, I think they really do have well-trained site leaders, and as long as everyone keeps their common sense with them, it should be alright.

I'm sure she and the site leaders will be careful and safety-conscious. Still, I'd feel better if she'd leave the hammering and sawing to us knucklehead trombonists. No big deal if we mangle our fingers ...