Sustainability news from Michigan's research universities for the week ending July 16, 2011

What did I promise my readers?

I already have enough material for three complete linkspams, so watch for those later this week beginning with part one, sustainability news from Michigan's research universities, later tonight. I also have notes for at least four more Swim entries, not counting any new developments in Oak Park's war on Julie Bass's plants and animals.

"Tomorrow" was Monday. It's now Thursday. It's time for part one of the linkspam.

Very little commentary today, as I'm swimming against the stream of the heat, my own exhaustion, and lots of other work that I need to attend to.

General Sustainability

University of Michigan: World Population Day: Will 7 billion people create a crisis?
July 11, 2011

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—World population will reach 7 billion this year, prompting new concerns about whether the world will soon face a major population crisis.

"In spite of 50 years of the fastest population growth on record, the world has done remarkably well in producing enough food and reducing poverty," said University of Michigan economist David Lam.

Lam is a professor of economics and a research professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research. He delivered the presidential address, titled "How the World Survived the Population Bomb: Lessons from 50 Years of Exceptional Demographic History," at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America earlier this year.

In 1968, when Paul Ehrlich's book, "The Population Bomb," triggered alarm about the impact of a rapidly growing world population, growth rates were about 2 percent and world population doubled in the 39 years between 1960 and 1999.

According to Lam, that is something that never happened before and will never happen again.

University of Michigan: U-M will launch Planet Blue Ambassador program this fall
July 12, 2011

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Students won't be the only ones in the classroom this fall, as a unique pilot program involving University of Michigan students and staff kicks off as part of the university's commitment to sustainability.

Through a collaboration involving the Graham Sustainability Institute, University Housing, the Office of Campus Sustainability, the Voices of the Staff Environmental Stewardship Team and the Student Sustainability Initiative, a new seminar-based program will provide the necessary skills and training for "Planet Blue Ambassadors," while exploring similarities and differences between student and staff experiences. Planet Blue Ambassadors will model and teach sustainability practices and serve as "eco-reps" to the U-M community. The ultimate program goal is to create a culture of sustainability across all U-M units.

"This is an opportunity to connect students from diverse academic backgrounds with members of the U-M faculty and staff by providing an action-based learning experience," said Mike Shriberg, education director for the Graham Institute and a lecturer in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA). "The primary goal is to teach best practices so that students and staff can encourage environmentally responsible behaviors both in the residence halls and in organizational units throughout campus."

The beauty and peacefulness of the University of Michigan's Diag derive in large part from its trees. Many were planted as long ago as the Civil War, some just last week. Here's a glimpse at a spot we love through the generations.

Norm Lownds, curator of the Michigan 4-H Children's Garden, talks about the different types of interactivity that happen in the garden.

Michigan State University: MSU to host youth garden symposium
July 14, 2011

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University will host the 19th annual National Children and Youth Garden Symposium July 21-23.

The conference, which is sponsored by the American Horticultural Society, includes a number of keynote speakers and about 50 educational lectures, workshops and learning stations.

The educational sessions include:

"From Schoolyard to Backyard"
"Helpful Hints from Horticultural Therapy"
"Green Corps: Sustainable Youth and Urban Agriculture"
"Digging Into Worm Composting"
"Butterfly Gardening Using Native Plants"

Michigan State University: MSU’s Mott Group to host six FoodCorps members
July 14, 2011

Thanks to a recent grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University will help increase vulnerable children's knowledge of, engagement with and access to healthy food.

The C.S. Mott Group will aid six of Michigan's FoodCorps members in conducting nutrition education, building and tending school gardens and expanding farm-to-cafeteria sourcing of healthy food at the Michigan Land Use Institute, YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, Food System Economic Partnership and the Crim Fitness Foundation.

In Chile, superheroes dance against austerity

Video accompanies The Daily Telegraph's article Chile superheroes dance for education reform
Hundreds of caped avengers dance in downtown Santiago, as part of a demonstration for education changes.

After being bummed by Borders going out of business, I could use something like the above to cheer me up. Not only is it a demonstration by young people against austerity (the students want lower tuition and cheaper bus passes), something we've seen from Cairo to London, it's a creative and fun way to attract attention and get the point across. In fact, the students in Chile have been particularly creative, as the BBC video about this story shows, as they also staged a kissing protest. The BBC video, in fact, gives a lot more context than the one above, but I couldn't find an embed code for it, so The Telegraph wins.

As for how the story is being covered in the U.S., I present the lede from NBC 9 News in Colorado.

Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman demonstrated for education reform in Chile Monday night.

I saw more than just those the big three from DC Comics. I also recognized Huntress, Sailor Moon, and Mario from the Mario Brothers video games. It was a true geek riot.

I salute the Chilean students, who are swimming against the stream while flying their geek flag high!

Borders Books 1971-2011

WTNH on YouTube: On Thursday, Borders will ask a judge to begin liquidation of the company.

Reuters has even more details.

Borders Group Inc, the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain, said it has canceled an upcoming bankruptcy auction and will close its doors for good.

The company said in a statement Monday it was unable to find a buyer willing to keep it in operation and will sell itself to a group of liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources.

Borders' roughly 400 remaining stores will close, and nearly 11,000 jobs will be lost, according to the company.

"We are saddened by this development," Borders President Mike Edwards said in the statement. "We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time ... have brought us to where we are now."

As someone who lived in Ann Arbor from 1989 to 1999 and hung out in Ann Arbor regularly until earlier this year, spending much of that time in the Ann Arbor flagship store, I find this very sad for me personally, as you can see by my previous two posts on the subject at my LiveJournal.

As someone who blogs about sustainability, including sustainable business and a just society, I find it distressing, if for no other reason that it was a Michigan company. I don't like seeing any of those go under.

The worst part of this? I'll let Schuyler Carroll, a bankruptcy attorney at Perkins Coie LLP, explain.

Carroll said the most significant loss associated with Borders' closing is that of jobs.

"It's one more knife in an economy that really doesn't need that," he said. "And for people who may be living on the edge right now and may not be able to quickly find a new job, they may not do very well."

Neither 11,000 lost jobs nor 400 empty large buildings will be good for the economies of the places where Borders currently still has stores. Just the scramble to fill the retail spaces will be ugly, as Royal Oak is finding out as the city is trying to replace a vacant auto dealership with a supermarket--and that is an example where there is a replacement. What happens if there isn't one?

Finally, this is not good news for John McCain Barnes and Noble.

For all its innovations on the digital side, Borders' main retail competitor, Barnes & Noble, remains in its own difficult straits, Carroll said.

The company put itself up for sale in August amid years of declining print book sales, saying its shares were undervalued. It is examining a $1 billion takeover offer made in May by John Malone's Liberty Media Corp.

David Strasser, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets, said liquidating Borders could make Barnes & Noble more valuable.

"This is perhaps an opportunity for a higher negotiated bid via Liberty or an entrance of another bidder," Strasser said last week in a note to clients.

But Carroll isn't so sure.

"Barnes & Noble is having its own problems," Carroll said. "I don't think one less store down the street is going to solve them."

The news didn't even help Amazon.com, as the company's stock dropped more than $4.00 today before finally recovering enough to close down $-1.34 (-0.63%).

About the only silver lining is that some of Borders' stores might be picked up by Barnes and Noble.

Barnes & Noble was thought to be interested in buying a handful of Borders stores after Glenn said at a hearing last week that the company had voiced some interest in select Borders locations.

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said in February that certain Borders stores appeared attractive to the company, which operates more than 700 stores.

Borders' statement did not address whether Barnes & Noble had made an offer, and a Barnes & Noble spokeswoman declined to comment.

Sigh. I think my wife and I will go to the Birmingham Borders on Friday for a going out of business sale.

R.I.P. Borders, although I don't think that P will stand for peace, but instead for pieces.

Cyclists, subway rider, and rollerblader all beat jet during Carmageddon

Remember me popping popcorn on Saturday?

It's not all bad news for the planet. As USA Today also reported, a bicycle club decided to challenge Jet Blue to a race.

Will JetBlue's special "Carmegeddon flights" between Burbank and Long Beach really help Los Angelinos get across town faster during the city's fear 405 freeway shutdown?

That may be hard to judge, but a group of L.A.-area bicyclists plans to put the airline's crosstown flights to the test in a "bike vs. airplane" race between the airports.

I just watched the end of Rachel Maddow's show, and she bet $1 on the cyclists "For the Schwinn." I would, too.

As for JetBlue, they didn't miss a beat.

[JetBlue spokeswoman Allison] Steinberg says "we're thrilled that the Los Angeles Cyclists want to race us from Burbank to Long Beach."

And, she adds: "If they're too tired to ride back home, bikes fly free with us for the month of July in celebration of Tour de France. Enthusiasts can even kick back in our comfy leather seats and watch live coverage of the 2011 Tour de France in-flight."

Score one for JetBlue for PR, even if the planet loses.

Finally, the cyclists promise to "fight fair."

For the details, BikeCommuteNews.com says: "All riders will depart from the same location, the Burbank Airport, at the same time, and be required to follow all traffic laws."

This will be a hoot.

Slate reported that the race went even better for the planet than I expected.

Weekly Roundup for July 10th through 16th, 2011

This past week was the busiest so far at Crazy Eddie's Motie News, whether one measured it in terms of posts (14), page views (1577), or comments (13). This topped last week, where the comparable stats were eleven posts, 832 page views, and only five comments, itself a very good week. For comparison, this blog averaged 560 views/week during all of May and June, 486 views/week for April, May, and June, its first three full months, and 488 views/week the week before last. As I mentioned in Boosting the signal about Oak Park's "War on Veggies", I thank the readers of Oak Park Hates Veggies for making this possible, with 369 referrals last month, at least 216 of which came last week alone. This puts Julie Bass's blog in third place as the source of views for this blog throughout its history so far, behind only Kunstler's blog, where I have been promoting my blog every week since my first post here, and Google, which just happens to own Blogspot. Again, thank you, and keep reading!




This past week also saw another milestone--my first spam comments. I know a blog hasn't arrived until it gets enough traffic to make it a worthwhile target for spammers.That's the good news. The bad news is that I should be careful what I wish for.

Honestly, I'd like more comments. I could even deal with a couple of trolls, as I'm not above trolling my own comments sections.

Trolls I don't mind, as I can hold my own against them. Spammers are another matter. From July 13th:

This blog achieved a milestone today. It received its first spam comment. However, it's not such a milestone that it was worth saving. The spam was canned.

Now, July 16th:

This blog has arrived. I've gone from no spam comments to not one, but two spam comments in one week. I have advice for you. If you want to promote your blog or a relevant news story, fine. If you want to advertise for a commercial enterprise not germane to the topic of this blog (and education isn't really it), your comment will be hidden. Bye!

I don't make any money off this blog, so no one else gets to, either!

Enough of my swimming against the stream of spam--on to the week's posts in review.

Oak Park's "War on Veggies" is now an election issue and other news

There have been more, mostly good, developments since my last update. For starters, I was wondering when this would happen.

Candidate for Oak Park Mayor Marian Meisner McClellan's campaign website.

"Oak Park is going through a very difficult time with record numbers of foreclosures, property values sinking, and crime an all too often occurrence and threat. Devoting scarce public safety resources to prosecuting a vegetable gardener does not reflect our needs.

Sadly, when Oak Park residents hear crime, they think of theft, arson, hate crimes, and burglary - not vegetable gardens. We need city leadership to focus on jobs, fighting crime, and building strong and safe neighborhoods."

--Marian Meisner McClellan, July 12, 2011

Three days later, she met with Julie Bass and her husband. I'll let Julie describe the meeting.

my husband and i met this afternoon with a woman who will be running for mayor (against incumbent gerald naftaly) in oak park, michigan.

she is sooooooooooo sweet, but she’s also smart and down-to-earth and personable and easy to talk to.
...
even the police officers in oak park are on the side of this woman, so i decided to check her out.

we emailed her and asked her if we could sit down and talk to her and hear some of her ideas. and she emailed us back!

unlike the current oak park officials, who won’t even return phone calls, she got right back to us. now i know she is not mayor yet, and maybe if she had a city to run she would have less time for her constituents, but i don’t get that feeling from her. she seemed, via email and then in person, like a very genuine person.
...
i think more people should contact her and hear what she has to say. i’m not saying you should like her because i like her; i’m saying that if you meet her, i think you will like her all on your own

I'm really liking this development; it's good for both Julie and Marian M. McClellan and bad for the current Mayor, who is ultimately responsible for this mess.

Julie had more good news to report.

thanks to you, we currently have enough money to cover litigation costs. if things get more ugly and it looks like we will have to do more, i will post again to let you know. but for now, please don’t send any more donations. we don’t want you to be sending too much money ;)

thank you all really seriously for the tremendous outpouring of encouragement and support- you are what is getting us through this difficult time.

W00t!

Finally, Julie has her own summary of the situation so far. Please read.

That's it for this week in Oak Park's "War on Veggies."

Focus on China in this week's CoDominion post

I'm serious about this.

The CoDominion's preparations for sustainability march on, so it's time for an update. From now on, whenever I get enough stories to fill out all sections, I'll post a compilation.

Even though I have only one article and one video, I still managed to cover economy, society, and environment.

Inderscience Publishers via physorg.com: China's competitive advantage
July 5, 2011

Research from Jack McCann of Lincoln Memorial University, in Tennessee, suggests that China could become the dominant economic power within a few years if it exploits the competitive advantages it is creating politically, culturally, legally and economically.

Writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, Jack McCann suggests that China's business and political leaders have long worked to build strong relationships with developing countries. However, it is strengthening of its global political presence that is closely aligned with economic expansion, which could lead to a sustainable dominant position in the world.

The Chinese Communist Party has governed China for the past 55 years and remains secure in its position as the sole political party in China. Despite its seeming inability to respond with ease to changes in Chinese society, the Party has nevertheless witnessed an average annual growth of about 10% for nearly two decades and unique stability during the current world economic crises. Indeed, China's merchandise trade has been growing at about 14%, three times faster than world trade, making China the third largest economy as of 2008.

This isn't at all about cooperation between the U.S. and China, but it is about how China has built itself up to the position where it could actually be taken seriously as a partner to the U.S., including my conceit about it replacing the Soviet Union in a real world version of The CoDominion.

Next, the Chinese work on a biodiversity issue that is also a matter of national prestige.






NTDTV on YouTube: China Begins Panda Census

Expect both of these in a full post on The CoDominion in the future.

Silly Sustainability Saturday: Carmageddon, Tea Partiers against manatees, and Butterbeer

I've collected a handful of really goofy stories with sustainability and food angles this week that deserve their own post instead of being buried in part three of a sustainability news linkspam, so I'm introducing what might become a regular feature here. Besides, I like the alliteration of the title.

First up, Carmageddon.

Los Angeles is set for chaos this weekend as a busy stretch of Highway 405 is getting widened. The event could displace as many as 500,000 motorists.

It's such a serious event it's been dubbed Carmageddon.

Celebs with big twitter followings have been asked to help get the word out and minimize confusion. Jet blue is offering a cure for Carmageddon that is as convenient as it is planet-unfriendly: $4 tickets from Burbank to Long Beach.

Carmageddon will only last for the weekend. But even after the 405 reopens, Angelinos might still find bad traffic a fact of life.

$4 plane fares from Burbank to Long Beach and back? I'll say that's planet-unfriendly! Unfortunately, it was a very successful marketing stunt, as USA Today described yesterday.

The Los Angeles Times says that "in less than four hours, JetBlue Airways sold out all" of the special flights. The Press-Telegram of Long Beach has an even quicker estimate, writing that JetBlue's Carmageddon flights "sold out within two hours of the airline's announcement."

I lived in Los Angeles until 1989, when I moved to Michigan. It's stories like this that make me glad I don't live there anymore. As I tell my students, "there is a reason the place is called La La Land and it's not just because the initials are L.A."

It's not all bad news for the planet. As USA Today also reported, a bicycle club decided to challenge Jet Blue to a race.

Will JetBlue's special "Carmegeddon flights" between Burbank and Long Beach really help Los Angelinos get across town faster during the city's fear 405 freeway shutdown?

That may be hard to judge, but a group of L.A.-area bicyclists plans to put the airline's crosstown flights to the test in a "bike vs. airplane" race between the airports.

I just watched the end of Rachel Maddow's show, and she bet $1 on the cyclists "For the Schwinn." I would, too.

As for JetBlue, they didn't miss a beat.

[JetBlue spokeswoman Allison] Steinberg says "we're thrilled that the Los Angeles Cyclists want to race us from Burbank to Long Beach."

And, she adds: "If they're too tired to ride back home, bikes fly free with us for the month of July in celebration of Tour de France. Enthusiasts can even kick back in our comfy leather seats and watch live coverage of the 2011 Tour de France in-flight."

Score one for JetBlue for PR, even if the planet loses.

Finally, the cyclists promise to "fight fair."

For the details, BikeCommuteNews.com says: "All riders will depart from the same location, the Burbank Airport, at the same time, and be required to follow all traffic laws."

This will be a hoot.

Now for a news item that would be hilarious, albeit unintentionally, if it weren't for the fact that the political movement responsible has real power.

Boosting the signal about Oak Park's "War on Veggies"

In addition to my posts about the travails of Julie Bass here on Crazy Eddie's Motie News, I've been blogging about it elsewhere, beginning with posts to my Dreamwidth and my LiveJournal. I've also posted it to ontd_political on Dreamwidth, unfunnybusiness on JournalFen, and peakoil_prep and ontd_political twice on LiveJournal. The results have been very satisfying.

For starters, those posts have received lots of comments. The winner so far has been the first post on ontd_political on LJ, Michigan Woman could go to jail for planting vegetable garden, which prompted 126 comments. Next is the unfunnybusiness post, Woman in Oak Park, Michigan, could go to jail up to 93 days for planting a garden, with 39 comments. The followup to ontd_political, Update: Michigan woman no longer going to jail for her garden but now in trouble for her dogs, has 21 comments and counting. The mirrored posts on my LJ currently have nine comments and their counterparts on Dreamwidth have six. In contrast, I have a grand total of eight comments on the same posts so far here on Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

This mirrors the situation with the rest of the Swim posts here on Crazy Eddie's Motie News, which have a grand total of three comments on the non-Julie Bass posts, two on the five posts about Kunstler and one on the post about Elaine Meinel Supkis, two once I respond. In contrast, the LiveJournal mirror of James Howard Kunstler swims against the stream on gender role equality, too alone received 13 comments, which I pointed out in Follow up to women in Kunstler's fiction. Honestly, I'd like more comments. I could even deal with a couple of trolls, as I'm not above trolling my own comments sections.

On the other hand, I have been getting readers from the signal boosting posts, with 108 views from JournalFen and 69 from ontd_political on LJ during the past week, handily beating out what I'm getting from Facebook, just 16 referrals. Even the hits coming from my own LJ, nine so far this week, are beating out what came in from Twitter, which is not even in the top ten sources. Facebook and Twitter may be the big boys on the blog, but they aren't the traffic drivers people think they are. Google, on the other hand, is my friend, with 176 hits. The big winner turns out to be Julie's own blog, which referred 296 readers in one week. Thank you, all of you coming here from Oak Park Hates Veggies!

Just the same, I've had nine days in a row and 11 days out of the last 12 with more than 100 hits, so I have no room to complain. On that note, welcome new readers, and keep the page views coming!

Happy Bastille Day!

At the start of the month, I mentioned the following.

I began July by wishing Detroit's neighbors across the river Happy Canada Day! It's the first of three patriotic holidays I celebrate on my blogs during the month of July, so expect greetings for July 4th and 14th as well.

I followed through with Happy 4th of July from James Howard Kunstler's Tea Party! I just realized that I almost missed Bastille Day. Almost? Yes, because it's still Bastille Day in Tahiti at the time I post this. So, for an appropriate Bastille Day greeting, I give you all the following, care of Tahiti Tourism's YouTube channel.

The 14th of July, on the Champs Elysées, the Haka was performed by the Pacific battalion.