Scary movies are not my thing; never have been, and never will be. I prefer the cheesy romantic movies where you can always count on a happy ending. Which is why I used my weekend to sit through yet another terribly predictable chick flick. I can tolerate those campy scary movies dating from the early ‘90’s because they’re so ridiculous and unrealistic, but it’s the scary movies that make you think, that could happen to me, that I simply cannot watch. But, I guess that’s probably what makes people like them.

A prime example is the new box office hit, The Crazies. People flocked to theaters to endure an hour and forty minutes of chills and thrills, making it third at the box office! The unsettling images portrayed in the movie linger in the minds of viewers long after the credits roll. But why? Because, in all great fiction, lie traces of the truth. What movie-goers don’t realize is that in the case of The Crazies, there is much more than just a trace of the truth hidden beneath the blood and gore, and that’s what makes it so enthralling.

The thriller features a quaint and happy town in Iowa that transforms overnight into a bloodthirsty asylum due to the leak of the fictitious bio-warfare agent, Trixie. One by one the town’s citizens succumb to the toxin and their descent into a violent madness is enough to make you jump out of your seat. Lucky for us, the movie is simply that, a movie. Unluckily for us, the threat that the movie depicts is not just a movie.

The Department of Homeland Security has identified over 6,000 “high risk” chemical plants in the U.S. If an accident or an attack occurred at just 5% of them, 110 million Americans would be put at risk. But wait! All hope is not lost! (Phew). Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 more than 200 chemical facilities have converted to safer chemical processes, eliminating poison gas risks to more than 30 million Americans. But, there are still those stubborn chemical plants that refuse to convert til the law says they have to. But it’s inexpensive to convert to safer alternatives, creates jobs, and it…SAVES LIVES! What’s the holdup?!

Greenpeace identified 169 industry lobbyists assigned to keep Congress from passing a strong chemical security law. Do these people really have nothing better to do than make sure chemical plants remain unsafe? It’s likely that these lobbyists are actually part of the statistic put at risk from the plants they’re defending.

I wish I could pretend these risks weren’t real and I could grab a bag of popcorn, watch yet another romance blossom on screen, and remain oblivious. But, the risks are real and real people are in danger, not just those starring in The Crazies. A person can choose to remain unaware to the problems associated with chemical plants, but that does not mean that these problems will cease to exist. So, I guess if you’re going to learn about the dangers of the industry, you might as well buy yourself a ticket, and enjoy the tense, terrifying, and surprisingly informative ride of the box office hit, The Crazies.

 

The Olympics is one of the most widely broadcast events in the world. Every two years viewers (myself included) get a thrill from cheering for their country on their way to the gold medal. Gold, silver, bronze, every medal counts for the final tally. But this year, who is going for the green? Apparently, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (Vanoc).

This year, the 2010 Winter Olympics Games are being held in the warmest city to ever host: Vancouver, Canada. But, what they were not expecting was for this to also be the warmest winter ever experienced in Vancouver since 1937 with temperatures averaging around forty five degrees Fahrenheit! For weeks prior to the games’ kick off, snow was being hauled in via massive “snow-lifts” from areas where our capricious Mother Nature has not wreaked havoc. Although, Vancouver’s rise in temperatures is caused in part by it being an El Niño year, global warming is also inflicting its wrath on West Coast winters.

Western Canada’s has lost four weeks of its famous ski season over the past fifty years due to climate change. Though, global warming is not entirely to blame for the warm temperatures of the Winter Olympics this year, it lets us get a glimpse of what future winters will look like if there is no change, and the future is balmy and bleak. Scientists using satellite data have estimated that British Columbia’s glaciers are melting at a rate of 22 cubic kilometers of ice annually (about as much water as all of Canada uses in a year).

Vanoc is ensuring that their city promotes sustainability and showcases a green future for the Olympics. Hydrogen-fueled buses will be available at select vicinities, several buildings are LEED-certified, and many of the Olympic medals are produced from recycled electronics. Also, energy usage will be monitored at all times throughout the games using local power and software companies. John Furlong, CEO of Vanoc, says the objective is to manage the environmental impact to spawn “lasting benefits, locally and globally.”


Over the years, the Olympic games have made attempts to become more energy efficient, but this will be the first year that the initiatives will be measured. The city built new venues designed especially for the Olympics, and made this year’s venue the most green yet and will be utilized for fifty years into the future (many times structures built specifically for the Olympics remain empty post-games). Sixty-two sustainable stars (a sustainability award) were given to various programs and structures by Vanoc in yet another attempt to promote their green outlook.  

But, as temperatures remain above freezing, athletes find conditions more manageable, and spectators get to experience closer races. So, I guess there is always a silver lining.

Luckily for me, my favorite event is indoors, speed skating, which is unaffected by the temperature rise. But for those of you who favor snowboarding, slalom, or the biathlon, don’t just root for your Olympian to go for the gold, cheer them on for the green as well.

 

The four feet piles of snow are finally melting here in the D.C metropolitan area. I can officially declare that I survived “snowmageddon”. Hundreds of thousands of people left without power, and I was one of them. The occupants of my street had to band together to dig ourselves out because the not even the snowplows would brave our cul-de-sac. But, alas the snow is finally starting to clear as temperatures rise, but it’s making a lot of people think, “what happened to global warming”.

Global warming skeptics have jumped on this opportunity to bash Al Gore and his nonsensical global warming theories. It’s obvious that climate change is a reality, given that the past decade was the hottest on record, but shouldn’t that also mean that large-scale blizzards such as this one are a thing of the past? The Virginia state Republican Party seems to think so, launching a GOP ad that used the recent “snowpocalypse” to discredit the 2009 carbon-cap-and-trade bill and global warming itself.

 

But really, how can a snowstorm officially disprove a theory backed my thousands of scientists? It seems unlikely. People argue how could two of the top ten heaviest snowfalls to ever hit the area happen in one winter? While global warming has been proven to not increase the amount of storms occuring, it does make them more intense. Climate change has created an increase in air temperature, but warmer air is capable of holding more moisture. More moisture equals more precipitation! So in reality, all this snow should not come as a surprise.  

Though eventually, warmer air temperatures may deter snowfall, this is not likely to happen for a long time. For now, large amounts of snowfall are expected (as long the temperature remains below freezing). One or two storms do not change the frightening truth that global warming is a constant concern. Our efforts to preserve the environment should be on going, no excuses.

More snow is coming in our future, so go buy some hot chocolate in bulk and invest in a quality snow blower. Arguing that climate change is a falsity is not going to change anything.

The age-old saying “Never judge a man before you walk a mile in his shoes” is something that all of us can apply to everyday situations. In this case it’s two men, the Tokyo Two, and I could barely even begin to fill their shoes. Before starting my internship here at Greenpeace, I never imagined myself putting my own neck on the line to save the whales and now that I’ve actually started my internship, I feel the exact same way. But, sometimes it’s not putting yourself in danger that turns out to have the most consequences.

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the “Tokyo Two,” are two Greenpeace activists that are currently detained for exposing corruption involving the Japanese government-sponsored whaling industry. The two intercepted a box of the most expensive cuts of whale meat marked as “cardboard” that was in the process of being shipped to a private address. They then turned it over to the Public Prosecutor in Tokyo as evidence of the extensive corruption of the whaling operation. The Prosecutor began an investigation but halted it the same day that the two were arrested and charged with theft and trespassing. With these charges they face up to ten years in prison.

 

 

Since the arrest in 2008, a quarter million people have signed a petition protesting the injustice facing the Tokyo Two. My first thought was that the whole signing a petition idea was more up my alley rather than putting myself out there, but the thing is, aren’t their actions that what anyone would and should do? If an average citizen came across a mislabeled box that contained embezzled whale meat, wouldn’t that seem a bit (pardon the pun) fishy? And after finding it, the smart thing to do would be to turn it over to the authorities, right? Well according to the Japanese government, wrong! But, people should not have to fear persecution from authorities due to peacefully exposing a scandal. It’s not as if the men violently held the whalers hostage and demanded government exposure of the scandal if they ever wanted to see their workers again. Junichi and Toru cooperated with officials and they were simply carrying out an environmental investigation to expose criminal embezzlement within the tax-funded whaling industry for the good of the country.

People view these men as great heroes, and rightly so, but they were just doing what any law-abiding citizen should not be afraid to do. They spoke out against injustice and no person should be intimidated by the government to follow in their footsteps. Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki did what I thought I would be afraid to do, but I realize now, that their actions were not drastic or crazy, they were simple and effective. The Tokyo Two’s action of exposing the corruption is something everyone should have the bravery to do; what’s right. Anyone can be hero if they stick to what they believe in.

The two were interrogated for twenty six days without a lawyer. Click here to tell the Japanese Embassy that you stand beside the Tokyo Two as co-defendants.

 

Hey I’m Alexis, and I’m a new intern here at Greenpeace and I’m just getting into the swing of this whole blogging thing. When I was younger I was mildly fanatic about Dr. Seuss and his works, including Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat, but especially The Lorax. Those “bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees” intrigued me and I could not seem to get enough. Despite being six years old, I sympathized with the poor Lorax and wanted to help with his fight against the Once-ler. When he abandoned the place where his beloved trees once stood I wanted to call out to him and tell him to come back. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to destroy the environment for such shallow purposes. As you may have noticed, I was a rather intellectual six year old.

Recently, a startup coal-gassification company is seeking investors for what they boast as their recent development of a state-of-the-art polygeneration facility that willemploy the latest Green Coal Technology. They have named themselves LoraxAg after my popular protector of the truffula trees, the Lorax, a character fabricated by Dr. Seuss in 1971. The children’s book narrates the plight of the environment from the perspective of the Lorax, who “speaks for the trees”. The company’s president, Mike Farina gave a statement in a recent publication, Massachusetts High Tech, “The Lorax is the protector of the truffula trees,” he informed the publication. “We think this is the greenest use of coal.”

“Clean coal” is an umbrella term used to refer to the advancing technologies with an aim to dilute the harmful environmental effects of the coal energy generation. However, it is also a duplicitous oxymoron. There is no such thing as clean coal, and this term has created a blockage in the political system towards substantial energy reforms.
  

Contriving a connection between the fictional ecological protector and this large-scale mining operation is dubious at best, which is probably why LoraxAg practiced complete disregard of copyright laws established to prohibit corporations from using such an iconic figure for their own promotional purposes. Personally, if I were in elementary school again, I would probably throw my toys around in anguish and draw brightly colored pictures in protest. Karl Zobell, an influential representative from Dr. Seuss Enterprises, found what most would perceive as a more effective approach and is now suing them for copyright infringement (We all have our own ways of going about getting things accomplished). He stresses the fact that Dr. Seuss created and coined the Lorax icon and courts are considerably stricter when the case pertains to trademarks. Zobell has attempted a quiet resolution and has sent the company a cease-and-desist letter, however the LoraxAg has yet to respond. The courts probably have a whole lot more power than my magic markers.

While their technological development of creating a less toxic use for high sulfur coal can be considered laudable, comparing themselves to the Lorax’s duty to protect natural resources from unnecessary urbanization is outlandish. It hardly seems that clearing a large expanse of land to extract coal could be considered an appropriate tribute to the Lorax and Dr Seuss’; especially when mining is one of the dirtiest and most detrimental forms of creating energy. Let’s just hope the Lorax doesn’t turn over in his fictional grave due to this gross misuse of his legacy.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my indignation at this insolent accolade to one of my childhood heroes. No mining company can replace the Lorax, the original speaker for the trees. I’ll be posting weekly, so stay tuned!