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Federal Hill resident seeks approval for wind turbine


Looking to lower her carbon footprint, and offset the rising cost of her BGE bill, Marsha Vitow is endeavoring to become the first Baltimore City resident to install a wind turbine on her roof.

It may seem like a logical next step in a city whose mayor has pushed a "cleaner, greener" agenda. But as eco-friendly as Baltimore is striving to become with extra tree plantings and recycling pickups, Vitow has run into some old-fashioned problems: decades old zoning laws don't account for a wind turbine and some of her Federal Hill neighbors don't want to look at it.

The matter will be decided Tuesday, when Vitow goes before the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals for a variance to build above the 35-foot residential height limit. Officials, who routinely approve roof decks, and additions, can't say how it will go.

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The big, fat truth about Americans


... raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.
...
This week, researchers published a study in the journal Health Affairs that found that as obesity rose 37 percent over the last decade, the cost of obesity to the nation has nearly doubled from $78.5 billion a year to $147 billion a year. Obesity now accounts for nearly 10 percent of all healthcare spending. The per capita cost of medical care for someone who is obese is $1,429 a year, 42 percent more than for the care of someone of normal weight.
...
The money we now lose in just one year to obesity is five times the budget of Massachusetts. It is nearly 16 times what the federal government has made available to states from 1992 to 2008 for transportation enhancements such as bicycle and pedestrian paths.
...
But just as Americans need him [Obama] to bluntly tell us we’re fat, Capitol Hill has to ... support cities and suburbs in redesigning streets and parks to support people who want to cycle or go out for a run and children who want to play outside. In a crusade against fat, flabby politics will not do.

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Tree Baltimore News


[Baltimore Spokes: Street trees really help make biking city streets more enjoyable in the summer time.]

 

Trees do more than we think and they do their job quietly. Trees can improve our urban environment, and consequently our well-being and our economy. Trees multi-task. While removing air pollutants and reducing our air temperature, they absorb and filter water, cool our homes and business, increase our property values and the livability of our neighborhoods.  A bird flying over Baltimore can look down and see that 25% of our city is covered by leaves and branches. The healthiest cities have 40% of their land covered by trees.

Through TreeBaltimore’s program, trees will be planted in parks, on school grounds and on large industrial and institutional property. But, the most available planting areas in Baltimore are located in the front and back yards of row house neighborhoods. Take a look on your street and around your neighborhood. Are there trees shading homes? Are there trees beautifying yards? Is there room for either a flowering tree or a larger shade tree on your lawn?

 

TreeBaltimore offers incentives to plant trees on private property.

 

! FREE Tree Giveaways – Each spring and fall TreeBaltimore gives away 1,000 young trees to residents.

! TreeBaltimore TreeNeighborhood – Residents receive free or reduced priced trees. Neighborhood Associations coordinate deliveries for residents. A minimum of 10 trees per neighborhood must be ordered.

! Growing Home Campaign - $10 coupons at local nurseries for trees worth $25 or more.  Download coupon on the TreeBaltimore website.

! Marylanders Plant Trees - $25 coupons at local nurseries for trees worth $50 or more. Download coupon on the TreeBaltimore website.

 

Go to the TreeBaltimore website to find out about the benefits of the trees near your home.

http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/recnparks/treeBaltimore.php

 

For information or to volunteer, contact:

Anne Draddy

TreeBaltimore Coordinator

443.984.4058

anne.draddy@baltimorecity.gov

 

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Paving an Environmentally Friendly Path


[From Delegate Al Carr's Facebook news feed:]
...
In a few weeks, workers will start ripping up Edmonston's main road and replacing it with an environmentally friendly street of rain gardens, porous brick and a drought-resistant tree canopy designed to shade the concrete, filter rainwater before it flows into the river and put people to work.

When the work is done, Decatur Street will naturally treat more than 90 percent of the pollution from the 40 inches of rainwater that sweeps into the Anacostia each year. "We're a town that's been beaten up by floods," said Adam C. Ortiz, Edmonston's mayor and the firepower behind the project. "We have to make things happen for us instead of making things happen to us."
...

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Smart Growth lecture series coming to Living on Earth radio


For a few years now, EPA and the Smart Growth Network have been sponsoring a regular series of terrific lectures on smart growth and related issues here in Washington, D.C. at the National Building Museum. They’ve had well-known authors, innovators and special guests from all over the country come to talk about different aspects of the built environment and how we grow. They’ve been recording the lectures and making audio available after the lecture, but it’s about to get much more accessible.

From an email we got this week:

NEW FEATURE: Smart Growth Speaker Series Goes National

Through a partnership between US EPA, National Building Museum, and Public Radio International’s “Living on Earth”, many of our Smart Growth Speakers can now be heard on your favorite local public radio station. Beginning on July 10, 2009, Living on Earth will feature an interview and program with our most recent Smart Growth Speaker, Sophie Lambert, Director of LEED-ND for the US Green Building Council. Check your local radio schedule for program times, or listen online at <a href="http://www.loe.org">www.loe.org</a>;.

If you do happen to be here in DC, don’t miss the next Smart Growth Speaker Series in DC tomorrow (Friday), July 17. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk will be discusssing retrofitting the suburbs. More information at <a href="http://www.smartgrowth.org/audio">www.smartgrowth.org/audio</a>;

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Betraying the Planet


New York Times Op-Ed Columnist PAUL KRUGMAN
...
But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.

Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.

Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause.

Given this contempt for hard science, I’m almost reluctant to mention the deniers’ dishonesty on matters economic. But in addition to rejecting climate science, the opponents of the climate bill made a point of misrepresenting the results of studies of the bill’s economic impact, which all suggest that the cost will be relatively low.

Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual?

Yes, it is — and that’s why it’s unforgivable.

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Baltimore has the first all electric fleet of car sharing vehicles in the United States.


Exxon unveils electric, car-sharing fleet at Maryland Science Center

Visitors to Baltimore's Inner Harbor Tuesday take a look at the electric car outside the Maryland Science Center.

ExxonMobil Corp. launched an all-electric car-sharing fleet at the Maryland Science Center on Tuesday.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and Maryland Energy Administration Executive Director Malcolm Woolf helped unveil the program, called AltCar, at an afternoon press event.

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State unleash goats to keep grass trimmed


Forget lawn mowers. Maryland officials have found a natural way to combat brush while protecting a threatened species.
Maryland officials wanted an eco-friendly solution that wouldn't hurt the area's bog turtles.

Forty bearded goats have been dispatched by the State Highway Administration to control plant growth in the area. They have been munching in an enclosed area for a week; they will stay until September, but will be put back to work next spring.

The project is part of Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's &quot;Smart, Green and Growing&quot; legislative package, aimed at reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020

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Community Greening


monthly forums: baltimore green forum

Sunday, May 31, 4:30-6:30 PM

&quot;Community Greening: Exploring new ideas for greening, food growing, and restorative spaces in our neighborhoods&quot;

Parks &amp; People Foundation's Keri Smith and Mary Hardcastle will share information about the Community Greening Network, Urban Ag Task Force, and Environmental Education through Natural Play Spaces.

Residents of Baltimore and surrounding communities are welcome.

Where: MD Presbyterian Church, 1105 Providence Road, Towson, 21286.

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