By Mary Newsom
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And in recent days I’ve written about the new greenway along Charlotte’s Little Sugar Creek. Not a few people have told me how they hate to see the “waste” of public money on things like the greenway’s stone bridges (actually, that stone is inexpensive molded concrete), public art and the rockwork clock tower (clock donated by the Rotary Club). It’s as if people here are so unused to places that celebrate the public that they think it’s wastefully lavish for a public park to hold anything nicer than cinder-block buildings and utilitarian metal bridges.

You’re probably wondering how these things – voice mail and airline travel and parks – are related. To my eye, they all illustrate something about America today: Americans have stopped believing that value is something everyone deserves.

We’ve stopped valuing workers. The country apparently no longer believes people who work hard deserve wages that pay them enough to afford the rent or a modest mortgage, or deserve a pension to keep them from penury in retirement. We’ve stopped expecting those things from employers – or at least they’ve stopped providing them. We’ve even stopped valuing public schools, stopped expecting them to have mowed lawns and drinking fountains that work.

What we value, instead, is cheapness. Rock-bottom prices. Low taxes. So we get tomatoes that taste like crunchy sponges, but at least we don’t pay a lot for them. Instead of percale bedsheets made in the USA we buy sheets made in countries most people couldn’t find on a map, with seams that dissolve within weeks. We buy food with no taste, clothes that unravel and appliances we have to junk after five years. Our public schools have knee-high crabgrass. People get hacked off if our public parks look better than pesticide factories. But at least they don’t cost us too much.
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Here’s a shocking report for you, at least it was for us at Balance Gym. Out of almost 80,000 Americans polled about all the non-work, non-sleep activities they had done in the last 24-hours, 95 percent answered “eating or sleeping,” 80 percent had watched TV, 71 percent spent time preparing food or drink, 25 percent had done some lawn or garden work but only 5 percent reported a vigorous activity such as using cardiovascular equipment or running.
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When

Current Sites and Locations

Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library (Orleans Street Branch) 1303 Orleans Street
Ordering: Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Delivery: Thursdays, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library (Washington Village Branch) 856 Washington Boulevard
Ordering: Mondays, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Delivery: Tuesdays, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Both locations accept cash, credit, checks and food stamps for orders.

While depression and anxiety had long been linked to suicidal thoughts, a new study links asthma and air pollution with this psychological problem.

Previous studies have reported that individuals suffering from at least one chronic health condition such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or mental illness are more vulnerable to committing a suicide.

According to the study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, asthma and air pollution can increase the risk of suicide. In other words, respiratory problems may worsen an individual's mental state.

The more severe the asthma, the greater the likelihood of suicide, the study found.
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We shouldn’t be surprised. After all, the USDA’s dietary guidelines have long been backwards. ...

I guess its a milestone when The Onion makes fun of your sport but I found the ad funner then the article but the link is after the fold if you are interested.

 

With the city back from the brink of a green fiscal meltdown, its planners are quietly trying to revolutionize how Baltimore grows.

In the first rewrite of the city's zoning code since 1971, planners hope to "transform Baltimore" from a car-centric concrete desert to an oasis of walkability, with shops, eateries and even some types of industry mixed in with housing.

Laurie Feinberg, chief of comprehensive planning, says the new code aims "to make our neighborhoods feel like places you want to walk to" without having to trek across blazing-hot parking lots. The city's in the final week of holding public meetings on the new code - so this is almost your last chance to learn about it and weigh in.

My colleague Julie Scharper has previously reported in The Baltimore Sun how how the new code would make it easier to have community gardens in the city. But the changes go beyond just greening the urban landscape, Feinberg says, to broader issues of sustainability and of "smart growth."

I contacted Feinberg last week to find out how the new code would handle some hot-button "green" issues that have been controversial in the past year - residential wind turbines, solar collectors and wood-chip driveways or parking pads. She preferred to give me the big picture, but answered the thorny questions as well. 

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Five teams chosen to vie for $200,000 awarded by NSTAR and U.S. DOE

BOSTON, May 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- On May 11, five teams from some of the nation's top academic institutions will compete to win the $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Prize -- a national annual competition for the best clean energy business venture.

The five finalists -- representing Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, MIT, Harvard and University of Maryland -- were selected from two dozen semifinalists by an esteemed panel of business, academic and government leaders that converged in Boston yesterday for NSTAR's Clean Energy Forum.
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By Ann Posegate

When it comes to inspiring solutions to air pollution, we adults could learn a thing or two from kids.

Clean Air Partners, a regional nonprofit partnership that advocates and educates for cleaner air in the D.C.-Baltimore area, recently announced the winners of its annual student poster contest. According to Rebecca Davis, education program manager for the partnership, "the purpose of the poster contest was to educate students about the solution to air pollution and climate change by integrating science and art," in addition to celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Through their artwork, students displayed their understanding of the human-atmosphere interaction and highlighted individual actions that all of us can take in our daily lives to reduce air pollution in the region.

Over 300 posters were submitted, but two stood out the most...

Poster by Katie Moser.

Katie Moser, a sixth-grader in Anne Arundel County in Maryland, made the winning poster for the grades 4-6 category. Her poster, "Earth Day Every Day," features bicycle-riding as a solution to vehicle exhaust that causes smog, and planting trees and plants as a solution to acid rain. She explains that acid rain comes from chemicals that travel through the water cycle and rain down during precipitation.

Poster by Kaili Bryer.

Kaili Bryer, a seventh-grader in St. Mary's County in Maryland, created the winning poster for the grades 7-8 category. Kaili's solutions come from the "Kaili Bryer Solutions" factory. She describes how windmills and "photovoltaic technology" (aka solar panels) create power and light for buildings. She also advocates riding bikes to reduce car emissions (notice the bicycles parked in the parking lot).

Congratulations to Katie, Kaili and all the student artists for completing the On the Air curriculum and doing your share to help clean the air.