Recently in Living green Category

Tip O'Neill once said "All politics is local," and we were all told in the 70s to "Think globally, and act locally." Nowhere are those thoughts more true than when it comes to setting aside land for conservation purposes. The Nature Conservancy's Campaign for a Sustainable Planet is designed "to achieve significant, global conservation results in each of the world's major habitat types". It's an enormously ambitious and enormously important project.

But it all started in the Mianus River Gorge on the border between Connecticut and New York in 1955 when the Conservancy provided $7500 to finance purchase of the reserve. The Connecticut Chapter's work over the last 50 years has permanently protected more than 50,000 acres. Among the Chapter's more ambitious projects is in the northwest highlands where it works with the Massachusetts based Berkshire-Taconic Landscape Program

[T]o create a model for living gently on the land -- balancing human impact with the needs of ecosystems, sustaining the ability of our lands and waters to provide for communities and supporting a wilderness in which many plants and animals can thrive.

Why do I bring all of this up?

This morning I noticed that Tim Abbott had some good news. His family sold a conservation restriction on nearly 20 acres of land in Wareham, Massachusetts. Congratulations, Tim!¹

The American Psychological Association begins its 116th annual convention today in Boston. Writing in USA Today, Sharon Jayson reports that among the findings to be discussed are these:

• Walking outside rather than inside -- even for just 15 minutes -- makes you feel happier, more energetic and more protective of the environment.
• Negative feedback can backfire. In two studies, psychologist Amara Brook of California's Santa Clara University and colleague Jennifer Crocker of the University of Michigan asked 212 undergraduates about their ecological footprint. For those not heavily invested in the environment, negative feedback about their ecological footprint actually undermines their environmental behavior.
• News stories that provided a balanced view of climate change reduced people's beliefs that humans are at fault and also reduced the number of people who thought climate change would be bad.

That third point deserves a little comment.

High gas prices are one reason to think about living someplace where you can walk to the grocery store, a park, school, or work. Reducing your carbon footprint is another. If you're looking for a place to live, you might want to stop by Walkscore.com to compare different cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Unfortunately, my home gets a walk score of 0 out of 100. That's not a surprise when you live anywhere near the University of Connecticut. A colleague of mine who lives very close to campus manages only 12 out of 100. To do any better around here, you'd have to live in Willimantic. Picking an address close to downtown would give you a walkability score of 89 out of 100.