Freedom Day 2014 in South Africa

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the first democratic elections in South Africa following the dissolution of the National Party's Apartheid regime. On May 10 Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president and the representational Government of National Unity was established.

Read about today's celebrations and some sober reflection by Desmond Tutu on what's left to be done:

http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-celebrates-20-years-end-apartheid-033029697.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/freedom-day-2014-desmond-tutu-says-he-is-glad-nelson-mandela-is-dead-20-years-after-south-africas-first-free-elections-9293196.html

Earth Day, April 22

A tradition that started as a US grass-roots movement in 1970 and now, since 1990, has become an official worldwide celebration of environmentalism on April 22 each year: http://www.earthday.org/

Historians trace that public consciousness to Rachel Carson's bestseller Silent Spring (1962), which raised awareness about the planet as a living organism. One more example (our discussion yesterday!) of how a few small voices can gather up into a roar for change.

Happy Earth Day!

War Child

War Child offers precious insight into the world of refugee life, cultural survival, and art as a powerful response to crisis. The Beijing artist project and the play To Me similarly addressed issues of cultural sustainability through art. This is a space to log your own thoughts after watching the film about the challenges faced by people (very literally "global citizens") seeking refuge in another land.

World Refugee Day 2014

In anticipation on our time thinking about refugees and interculturalism as a local SLC concern, here's a website to discover and a date to mark on your calendars: June 7th is World Refugee Day!

http://utahrefugee.org/world-refugee-day-2014.html

Refugee Law Project

The Refugee Law Project is based at Makerere University in Uganda. The group's mission is to promote human rights in Uganda. They work particularly with refugees and asylum-seekers who have come there to make a new life and face barriers such as ethnic and linguistic discrimination. Like North America--and Salt Lake City, in particular--Uganda is a major refugee and advocacy center on the African continent. You can learn more about this group and their impact through one of their many YouTube videos. I particularly recommend "The New Me" and "Hidden Bruises."

Global Community Summit

The English Skills Language Center is sponsoring the Global Community Summit this week!


An exciting series of events celebrating the amazing diversity that come to our city--sometimes painfully through the gates of exile--and recognizing their struggles to integrate and feel at home.


http://www.eslcenter.org/

http://www.janejacobswalk.org
This is a website to a community/environmental walk that we could host or participate in. Check it out!

Wondering how long the international community has had the language and the will to talk about sustainability (both environmental and human cultural)? A lot longer than you might think!

List of World Conferences convened by the UN on environment and development:  http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/intro.html 

Key conferences:

1) Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 1972: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?documentid=97&articleid=1503 

• Resulted in declaration

2) Earth Summit, Conference on Environment and Development, Rio, 1992:  http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?documentid=78&articleid=1163 

• Resulted in declaration

3) World Summit for Social Development,  Copenhagen, 1995:  http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/wssd/text-version/index.html

• Resulted in  consensus on the need to put people at the centre of development (largest to date)

4) Special Session to assess the achievements since Copenhagen, 2000:   http://undesadspd.org/Home/Geneva2000.aspx

• Resulted in agreement on a range of new initiatives for social development

5) Conference on Sustainability (Rio +20), 2012:  http://www.uncsd2012.org/about.html

• Resulted in adoption of "The Future We Want": http://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/ 

Environment and Business Strategy

The International Environmental Product Declaration: The vision of a future in which all manufacturers will be shamed by the marketplace (us, its consumers) into striving for sustainable practices and smaller footprints.

http://www.environdec.com/

Beijing-SLC Connect News

The article mentioned in class about the Beijing artists:

http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/air-art-living-gallery-explores-pollution/

Don't miss the closing reception tonight at the Gittins Gallery in the Art building 373 S. 1530 E, from 6-8PM.

Inequality for All

In the spirit of interconnectedness, an award-winning film about equality (or lack thereof):
http://www.utahfilmcenter.org/event/inequality/

February 18, 7PM, City Library, FREE!

HEAL on the Hill

Lots of activity on the Hill today to address pollution in SLC. Since we can't be there (they occur during our class session), we can at least send good vibes for change!

Here's are Wednesday's actions, with the verdict of the Utah Physicians for a Healthier Environment:

• House Government Operations Standing Committee, 2:00 PM, 20 House Building
  HB0038S01, Resource Stewardship Amendments  (P. Arent)
  HEAL supports this bill, which would create a new state job to push state agencies to do more to clean the air.
  
  
• House Revenue and Taxation Standing Committee, 2:00 PM, 445 State Capitol
  HB0074, Energy Efficient Vehicle Tax Credits   (V. Snow)
  HEAL supports this bill, which would boost the tax credit for Electric Vehicles to $2,500.
  
  
• House Education Standing Committee, 4:00 PM, 30 House Building
  HB0041, Clean Fuel School Buses and Infrastructure   (S. Handy)
  HEAL supports this bill, which would spend $18 million to replace aging polluting school buses with newer, cleaner ones.
  
  
• Senate Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Standing Committee, 4:00 pm, 215 Senate Building
  SB0139, Transportation Funding Revisions   (W. Harper)
  HEAL opposes this bill, which would charge owners of compressed natural gas (CNG), electric or hybrid cars an extra $90 to $120 in annual registration fees.

The Sustainable Campus Initiative was one of the sponsors of the Beijing-SLC Connect project that brought the wonderful artists to our campus. As a matter of fact, they have a fund one can apply for to promote a project on campus. We're very close to the deadline, but interesting food for thought for the future:

http://sustainability.utah.edu/get-involved/students/sustainable-campus-fund.php

KUED film: The Air We Breathe

An interesting debate has grown up around this film:

http://www.kued.org/whatson/the-air-we-breathe/videos/the-air-we-breathe-full-video

KUED apparently does not take the industrial polluters to task, or at least not to the liking of Utah Clean Air (the group/FB site that initiated the publicity about the rally).

Perhaps an interesting film to watch in anticipation of the talks with the Beijing artists?

Environmental Mediation, lecture 2/6, 12:15

Here's a lecture happening at the U that could offer all kinds of interesting language and ways of thinking about sustaining our human environment. Lucy Moore is an "environmental mediator." I'm pretty sure no one is born knowing she wants to grow up to be that, but good for us that the last quarter century inspired some to forge this new field. It seeks to mend some of the fractures in the social fabric that keep us from solving the toughest issues we face. And it all comes down to people. Not governments, or cultures, but individuals from vastly different perspectives working hard to find common ground.
https://today.law.utah.edu/?events=common-ground-on-hostile-turf-stories-from-an-environmental-mediator
Hope to see some of you there!

Clean Air... Poison Water

     So many Utah citizens are excited for the prospect of rain or snow to clear out the smog in the air. Unfortunately, this does not mean it's really gone and not a problem anymore, it just means that the problem has taken on a new form; the rain or the snow. The well known term for this is "Acid Rain". It is a relief to have cleaner air and clearer landscapes but we still need to be on guard for the harmful chemicals that are now in our water supply and have seeped into our ground. For example, those who are excited for spring to come so they can garden and grow their own food are especially in danger of this acid rain watering their plants and becoming part of their food. No matter what form this pollution takes it is a great hazard.

These are two photos that I took when I was coming down the mountain from Little Cottonwood Canyon after a day of skiing just to get out of the inversion. The top one is the one that grosses me out the most, the fact that you can't see the valley because of the blanket of smog makes me start coughing every time I see it.
I've been skiing basically all of my life and every time I come down from skiing this is the view that I see of the valley. But not until I was about 15 years old did I understand what that funny "fog" was. I think that it's really important for every one to know what this is. But until people get up into the mountains they won't realize how much the smog has really settled in on the valley and how all areas of the valley are affected. Next time a storm comes around I want to be sure to take a picture of the valley to show that although Salt Lake Valley is cleared out there is still smog in the surrounding Tooele/Grantsville area near the Oquirrh mountains, because although our valley is clear other people are still affected. It's not just our problem anymore, we are making it a problem for other people. And it needs to stop.

Wow, Kiersten. These are just terrifying when you juxtapose them. I think this pic should go viral. Maybe someone will pick it up off the blog. Maybe you should also post it to the "Clean Air, No Excuses" site.

Salt Lake City vs. Park City

Whenever I emerge from the canyon heading to Salt Lake City, I can't help but notice how awful the air looks.  At least when we are in the valley and level with the smog, we often don't notice a physical difference in the air around us.  But when we can compare the air blanketing the city to the peaks of the mountains, it makes the inversion problem seem all the more disgusting.
Though I know it probably wasn't the smartest move, I took a picture of Salt Lake (top) near the mouth of the canyon when I was driving on the highway.  You can't see "the line" of smog as well as you can in other pictures, but the fact that you can only see the very tops of the mountains is worrisome.  Then, I took the bottom picture when I was skiing in Park City.  I promise, neither of these photos are edited.
I know that Park City and Salt Lake are different in that Salt Lake's location in a valley sets a significant precedent for bad inversion, but I know that we as a city can come up with some solutions to at least diminish this smog.

The organizers of the rally are onto a t-shirt idea. Maybe would should propose our design--the one Kiersten and Emily came up with. How cool would it be to see everyone walking around with that on? Is anyone game?


https://www.facebook.com/events/1428912344008930/permalink/1438233373076827/

Ugh!

Webcam Picture of Our City at 3:54 pm... (From DEQ website)

Somewhere inside this smog, we are all inhaling this yellowish gunk...

OK... This picture is obviously changing constantly as I directly inserted the image URL.  So what you see now is no longer the one I posted at 3:54 pm.  It is now a live Web cam image of the city that is updated by the hour. Very cool to see! 

"Dirty Laundry"

You may be interested in this report on the connection between major clothing brands and toxic water pollution in China, similar to many stories you've read in "When a Billion Chinese Jump."

http://chinasmog.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/fashion-designers-make-us-pretty-but-get-children-sick-3/

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/Dirty-Laundry/

"A new air quality rating system?"

From "Beijing-SLC Connected" Twitter-- A new air quality rating system?

Smog in China

A few interesting pictures from some Chinese websites

"Utah forecast: A bit of a smog break, but inversions strengthening ahead" (on today's Salt Lake Tribune)

Discouraging to see news like this --

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57436894-78/utah-weather-forecast-http.html.csp

A petition worthy of our consideration:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/utah-clean-air-no-excuses?source=c.em.cp&r_by=1872730

This just in with a great, if terrifying photo of the density of the soup today:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57395042-90/quality-pollution-utah-lake.html.csp

Athletes for Clean Air

More people getting involved: Athletes for Clean Air.  And a survey.

Maybe it will spark some ideas!

Rallying for cleaner air

On January 25th our team will do its first public action by joining Clean Air, No Excuses, which promises to be the largest rally for the quality of our air in SLC's history: https://www.facebook.com/events/1428912344008930/?ref_dashboard_filter=calendar

What will we say? What will we sing? How will we make our mark?