Boston Flora

Tag: Environment

  • Wednesday, April 3, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – Herring Count Training Session, Online

    ATTEND THE CHARLES RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION’S HERRING COUNT TRAINING SESSION ON APRIL 3.

    Want to participate in the 2024 herring count? Join this free training session to learn about the Charles River herring and how to be a fish monitoring volunteer.

    We’ll hear from John Sheppard from the MA Division of Marine Fisheries and CRWA Senior Restoration Program Manager Lisa Kumpf on the importance of volunteer herring counting and a “Fish Monitoring 101” outline on everything you need to know about becoming a volunteer fish counter. To register, visit https://www.crwa.org/events/herring-count-training-session

  • Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – A Song of Heat, Ice, and Water: Impact of Climate Change on Alpine Glacier and Water Resources, Online

    Climate change is significantly impacting alpine glaciers around the world. Their response is similar though the water resource impacts vary. Over four decades Dr. Mauri Pelto, Ph.D. Professor at Nichols College, Science Advisory Board at NASA’s Earth Observatory. observed climate change impact on glaciers in the Pacific Northwest, and for three decades the impact on water resources in Central Massachusetts. Our focus will be on visual summaries of these observations and some commonalities to these different verses. He has been an Environmental Science professor at Nichols College since 1989 and is currently an Associate Provost. He is the Director of the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project since 1983 which measures the mass balance of three reference glaciers of the World Glacier Monitoring Service. Responsible for writing the chapter on Alpine Glaciers each year in the State of the Climate report for the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society. Member of Science Advisory Board for NASA Earth Observatory. Author of the American Geophysical Union blog “From a Glaciers Perspective”, writing one article a week on glacier response to climate change.

    Sponsored by CounterAct Climate Change and New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Free. Once registered, you will receive a Zoom link. To register, visit www.nebg.org

  • Friday, April 10, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Mass Timber: Beyond Instrumentality and Technology – Cancelled

    Wood is a material that has garnered many innovations over time including its original use to construct fire, providing two functions simultaneously, light and warmth. Similarly, wood has the agency to propel the social and political forward as seen in the deployment of controlling territories, crossing bodies of water, and the invention of the wheel. Additionally, no other material elicits such a Pavlonian or immediate response to warmth, beauty and aesthetics in the built environment. Fast forward several centuries to the latest cyclical innovation relating to wood—mass timber. From cross laminated timber blanks to glulam slabs, beams, and columns, topics on mass timber tend to center around sustainability and industry advancements. The aim of this symposium is move beyond default topics of instrumentality and technology in mass timber by collecting unique positions from a group of architects, engineers, developers, and manufacturers in contemporary design, while also underscoring the value of intellectualizing these topics from within academia.

    This free Harvard Graduate School of Design event acknowledges the recent acceleration of mass timber technology within the industry, coupled with the unprecedented challenges faced by human kind at the global scale, yet, demands new pedagogical approaches to learning and teaching design. For these reasons, we seek to combine research questions on mass timber within the context of an option studio with the format of a symposium. A public display of questions from within the studio will be combined with positions from invited professionals. Complete details may be found at https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/mass-timber-beyond-instrumentality-and-technology/

  • Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm – Environmental Studies School 2012

    The National Garden Clubs, Inc. and the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts announce the Environmental Studies School 2012, to be held October 27 – 28 at Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, in the Parkman Room.  The topic will be The Living Earth, Course I, Series IV.  The ESS mission is to teach environmental literacy, and to cherish, protect and conserve the living earth.  Environmental literacy is a learning process concerned with the interrelationship within and between the various components of the natural and human-made world producing growth in the individual and leading to responsible stewardship of the earth.  Instructors are professionals who hold a degree in environmental studies, or are actively participating in the teaching of environmental subjects.  They may hold academic rank at an accredited university, be a graduate student, or be employed by a recognized nature center, conservation organization, or state department of natural resources.

    Environmental Study Schools are open to all, garden club members and non-members alike.  To become an Environmental Consultant accredited by NGC,Inc., you must complete all four courses and pass an exam following each course.  To register, please mail a completed registration form and your check payable to GCFM, Inc. to Mary Nokes, ESS School Registrar, 35 Woodpark Circle, Lexington, MA 02421.  A brochure and study guide will follow.  For more information contact Bonnie Rosenthall at brosenthall@yahoo.com.

    REGISTRATION FORM

    ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES SCHOOL – OCTOBER 27 AND 28, 2012

    NAME:

    ADDRESS:

    TELEPHONE & EMAIL:

    GARDEN CLUB (IF APPLICABLE):

    GARDEN CLUB MEMBER FULL COURSE   ___ ($125)

    REFRESHER ___ ($100)

    ONE DAY ONLY ___ ($75)

    NON-MEMBER FULL COURSE ___ ($150)

    EXAM: ___ ($5)

    BOX LUNCH SATURDAY (CHOICES AVAILABLE) ___ ($15)

    BOX LUNCH SUNDAY (CHOICES AVAILABLE) ___ ($15)

    TOTAL ENCLOSED ___________

    NO REFUNDS OR CANCELLATIONS AFTER OCTOBER 15, 2012

     

  • The Bottle Bill

    As you may know, on July 19th the Bottle Bill passed the Senate! This is a huge victory after a long, 14 year struggle. Now, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy needs the House of Representatives to jump on board and YOU can help!

    What is the Bottle Bill?  The Bottle Bill is the state’s most successful recycling and litter prevention program. Since the Bottle Bill’s inception in 1983, over 30 billion containers have been redeemed, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy.

    An Updated Bottle Bill would expand our container deposit system to include “new age” drinks such as non-carbonated beverages, water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. Projected to save cities and towns over $4 million in reduced cost for trash removal, this update would create jobs at redemption centers and at the companies that make products with the reclaimed materials. For more information from the Sierra Club about the Bottle Bill, please click here.

    Why is this Important?  An estimated 20 billion “new-age” beverages are consumed annually in the US, and this number is only expected to increase. As consumers purchase more of these beverages, an increasing number of containers are finding their way to landfills — an estimated 69,000 tons nationwide. An updated Bottle Bill would decrease litter – and increase recycling.

    What can YOU Do? Tell your State Representative to help pass this bill by signing the letter of support. Every House member needs to be contacted and get the message! Please contact your state representative by email or phone TODAY.  To find your House Representative, please Click Here.

  • Thursday, November 19 – World Toilet Day

    World Toilet Day is a global day of action to increase awareness for toilet users’ rights and to advocate a better toilet environment. This day is marked by individuals, toilet associations, and other advocacy groups across the world to bring attention to a cause that truly affects every everyone on earth.  The World Toilet Organization is a not for profit group dedicated to improving toilets and sanitation globally.

    The task is huge, 2.5 billion/40% of the world’s population is without access to sanitation.  The WTO alone can’t fight this situation but if you join them in this movement, its possible. At WTO they have a belief that “Change is possible. Because I’ll make it possible.”

    Each of you can be a change agent by contributing your time, talent, skills and commitment to make it happen.  The WTO needs everyone and anyone ,whether a student, housewife, executive, artist, schools, universities, corporations, institutions originating from any part of the world, of various language, religion, ethnicity and ideological persuasion, to come together and join the movement towards delivering toilets to 2.5 billion toilet-less.

    More information may be found at www.worldtoilet.org.

    http://www.littlefishtravel.com/World-Travel/Images/toilet.jpg

  • Saturday, November 21, 1 – 4 pm – Roots and Shoots Day at Barefoot Books

    Celebrate Roots and Shoots, the Jane Goodall Institute’s international environmental and humanitarian program for youth of all ages. Come in to Barefoot Books at 1771 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA for an afternoon of Roots and Shoots activities, art projects, and snacks, on Saturday, November 21, from 1 – 4 pm.

    Learn about Roots and Shoots and how they are empowering youth to make positive changes happen for communities, for animals, and for the environment.

    PLUS 25% of all in-store sales will go directly to Roots and Shoots New England’s Sprouts of Hope Fund.  For more information, log on to www.rootsandshoots.org.

    Roots and Shoots LogoRoots and Shoots Logo Icon

  • Thursday, November 2, 7:00 pm – From the Farm to Your Plate

    The Museum of Science will sponsor a lecture on Thursday, November 12 beginning at 7 pm entitled From the Farm to Your Plate.  What we eat and drink has significant ecological consequences.  Where does our food come from and how does it get to us?  What are “food miles”?  Learn how the production, packaging, and transportation of food affect our environment.  Consider how food is produced and transported in other countries and what we can do to reduce the environmental impact of food packaging and consumption on the local and national level.  Free.  For more information, call 617-589-4250, or email forumrsvp@mos.org.

  • Tuesday, October 6, 6:00 pm – No Impact Men with Colin Beavan and David Owen

    Hear two authors speak at the Boston Public Library Abbey Room, 700 Boylston Street, on Tuesday, October 6, beginning at 6 pm.  Meet the two men who are concerned about the environment, and about leaving as little impact on the environment as possible.  No Impact Man (a book and a movie) is a deeply honest and riveting account of the year in which Colin Beavan and his wife attempted to do what most of us would consider impossible: buy nothing, waste nothing, and reduce their carbon footprint to zero – while living with a young child in a 9th floor Manhattan apartment. He’s known as the guy who went a year without toilet paper.

    In a persuasive and provocative challenge to established environmental thinking, David Owen’s Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability challenges much of the conventional wisdom about being green and shows how the greenest place in the United States isn’t Portland, Oregon or Snowmass, Colorado, but New York, New York.  For more information, log on to www.bpl.org.

    "No Impact Man" by Colin Beavan Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  • Sunday, September 13, 6-9 – Transforming Our Built Environment, Restoring Healthy Communities: An Ecologist’s Plan

    Join Clean Water Action for a compelling illustrated lecture by Patrick Lucey, an aquatic biologist from British Columbia, who has been an international leader in advancing new approaches to integrated water and energy management.  The presentation will focus on his work to transform barren, non-functioning landscapes into lush, lucrative enterprises.  The evening will include dessert, a celebration of victories, and a forecast of what is ahead.  Individual tickets are $30 each, and sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact  bostoncwa@cleanwater.org, or call 617-338-8131.