Earth Day, April 22, 2008

Americans produce enough trash every year to fill a line of garbage trucks that would stretch from the Earth half-way to the moon. That’s 4.6 pounds of trash per person, per day. All of that waste doesn’t have to go to waste, though. With Earth Day approaching Carbonfund.org is asking for your help to turn rubbish into a local, renewable fuel source.

Methane landfill biodigesters like the ones that Carbonfund.org supports in New Bedford, Massachusetts typically produce enough electricity to power 850 households and remove 162,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year – the equivalent of planting 49,000 acres of trees. So instead of just wasting trash, we’re urging you to use this Earth Day to put our trash to work for the environment.

Parks Printing takes our commitment to the environment seriously. That is why we are reducing our carbon footprint with Carbonfund.org and why we asking you to do the same. An alternative energy future awaits us - all it needs is you. With your help we can make renewable energy the norm instead of the alternative, while helping kick our dirty, fossil fuel habit. Reach for the green and support Carbonfund.org’s Earth Day Challenge today!

Erosion Takes a Toxic Toll in Alaska

January 30, 2008

It has been widely reported that global warming threatens to sweep scores of coastal Alaskan towns into the sea.

Now, the Anchorage Daily News reports that severe erosion is also threatening the ocean by dumping toxins from landfills and garbage dumps into the water.

"A (dump) is kind of like a Pandora's box of surprises," said Tamar Stephens of the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, the Daily News reported.

Among the materials of concern are heavy metals and biological contaminants.

The U.S. military has spent millions of dollars to try to halt the erosion at Cold War-era landfills, but funding is in short supply for many small town dumps and some former military bases.

At least five military bases threated by tidal erosion have no cleanup scheduled, the paper reported.

The Baltimore Sun reported on the quest of Stanley Tom, a resident of Newtok, Alaska, to try to raise funds to relocate his entire village.

The mostly Native American town is in such a precarious situation that the next big storm could wipe it out, activist Deborah L. Williams told the Sun.

"The situation is very urgent," she told the newspaper. The area's permafrost is "melting like chocolate ice cream in the sun."

Newtok is just one of 180 Alaskan towns that are threatened with extinction as increasingly rapid erosion sweeps them into the ocean.

Historically, sea ice has protected the land from the brunt of winter storms, but scientists say that global warming has reduced the amount of sea ice, causing erosion to accelerate.

--Will Crain/Newsdesk.org

Sources:

"Fierce erosion sweeps wastes into Alaska waters"
Anchorage Daily News, Jan. 18, 2008

"Warming menaces Alaska villages"
Baltimore Sun, Jan 13, 2008