When the topic comes around – more often than you might think – I often joke that when I die, I want to be composted. Seems that others have the same idea in store for me, or someone.

The 93-acre Greensprings Natural Cemetery is the first of its kind in New York and one of just a handful in the United States, where interest in “green” burial is just taking root.
…
At Greensprings, where a plot costs $500 plus a $350 fee to dig the grave, bodies cannot be embalmed or otherwise chemically preserved. They must be buried in biodegradable caskets without linings or metal ornamentation.

The cemetery suggests locally harvested woods, wicker or cloth shrouds. Concrete or steel burial vaults are not allowed. Nor are standing monuments, upright tombstones or statues.

Only flat, natural fieldstones are permitted as grave markers (they can be engraved). Shrubs or trees are preferred.
…
– CNN.com – ‘Green’ burial offers a plot with a view – Jul 2, 2006

I like the “shrubs or trees are preferred” part. Reminds me of the Native American technique of burying a fish beneath the “three sisters”: corn, beans and squash.

Surprising to me, this is not something new. Greenspring’s links page lists several other “natural” cemeteries across the United States, including South Carolina, Florida (watch that high water table), and California. No markers? No problem, just load up the coordinates into your GPS device.

I joke about being composted, but only half so. My ideal would be cremation with my ashes scattered in the Atlantic Ocean. No reason to take up valuable real estate. Okay, maybe use some of the ashes for a top dressing on the flower beds.

But then the cremation itself would be consuming fossil fuels, or at least releasing sequestered carbon, and contributing to greenhouse warming. Maybe a “natural” burial would be lower impact after all. And if I could help give a good start to a young oak, I could die knowing that my life had been good for something.

Links

• Greensprings Natural Cemetery Association

Summary: Not worth the download.

Digital Nature Guide is free software that allows you to make and to view natural history guides.

You can make a field guide for any type of animal or plant. When viewing a guide you can select species on the basis of characters or geographical distribution. A guide can include species texts and other illustrations.

It’s a nice idea: I would like to be able to collect the photographs I’ve taken over the decades and assemble them into a nice field guide, with my own notes on the dates and locations of the photographs, descriptions of the plants (or animals), linsk to other sources, and so on. The software notes that it has a “flash card” feature, which would be nice for me to be able to print off and study with.

However, the software is completely standalone. You can only run it on your own computer. There’s no ability that I can find to even print the photographs or text. The “flash card” feature can only run within the program, one species at a time. There’s no way to publish or export the information to any other format or make it available to any other program.

You can view a list of species alongside the photographs. But you can sort the list only once. Once you take any other action, the program reverts to its default sorting, which is random as far as I can tell.

The non-standard, non-resizeable windows and frames, inability to zoom in on images, buttons rendered as text boxes … all of this adds up to a poor and non-intuitive interface, one which does not encourage the sort of exploration and experimentation which a field guide should.

Far better results are available from mashing up combinations of existing public services, such as flickr, technorati, del.icio.us, and so on. It would be more accessible, it would be more shareable, the data at least would be open to further search and transformation, and the interfaces would be ones with which folks are already familiar.

IUCN, the World Conservation Union, reported today:

The turning point will be some time this year: for the first time in human history, more people will live in cities than in rural areas. By 2050, an estimated 80% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. This has far reaching consequences on biodiversity, as city dwellers use natural resources of surrounding and remote regions, and people get further alienated from nature. In this context, urban conservation is an important tool for environmental awareness raising and education.

Countdown 2010, an initiative launched by the IUCN Regional Office for Europe, is presently supporting the development of a pilot project on urban conservation. The cooperation is coordinated by ICLEI, the International Council for Local Environment Initiatives.

At a workshop from 26-28 June 2006 in Rome, hosted by RomaNatura, representatives from five cities met to finalise the development of the pilot project called “Local Action for Biodiversity”. The pilot group, which will eventually include 15 cities, includes Cape Town, Durban, Rome, Tilburg, São Paulo, Los Angeles and Havana. These cities plan to pioneer a global programme on urban biodiversity, as a contribution to the 2010 biodiversity target.

– IUCN, July 3, 2006, Countdown 2010 supports urban conservation

The corresponding ICLEI report is dated June 28, 2006 on their Web site:

ICLEI’s Local Action for Biodiversity Initiative gained momentum this week when biodiversity managers of ICLEI Members met with ICLEI, IUCN, and Countdown 2010 to develop the structure and workplan for the three-year pilot project.

The two day meeting, held from 26-28 June in Rome (Italy), was generously hosted and supported by RomaNatura, the municipal park management organization of the City of Rome.

ICLEI Members that were represented were: Cape Town and Durban (South Africa), Rome (Italy), São Paulo (Brazil) and Tilburg (Netherlands). Short reports were also presented by Los Angeles (USA) and Zagreb (Croatia).

– ICLEI, June 28, 2006, Planning underway on ICLEI’s Biodiversity Initiative

However, I could find nothing regarding “urban conservation” on the IUCN, ICLEI, nor the Countdown 2010 web sites, other than these announcements. There may be more information available from the identified pilot cities themselves. New York City, unfortunately, is not among them.

Urban biodiversity is linked to wider concerns about biodiversity and general conservation efforts:

• As more and more people live in urban areas, their connections to nature, and the values they ascribe to it, are determined by the species they encounter locally in urban settings rather than those “in the wild.”
• Biodiversity is linked to general environmental justice issues. Urban neighborhoods of lower socio-economic status are associated with lower biodiversity.
• Urban areas, as major ports of entry for international trade, are the “patient zero” for new infestations of invasive species.

Urban gardeners can have a huge collective impact on biodiversity. The more I garden “as if” I live in a natural area rather than an artificial one, the more my choices reduce my gardening “footprint,” support and develop local diversity, and amplify that local diversity through my neighborhood and beyond.

Links:

• Countdown 2010
• International Council for Local Environment Initiatives (ICLEI), Local Governments for Sustainability
• Urban Habitats
• World Conservation Union (IUCN)

Carnival of the Green #33 is up on Jen’s Green Journal, and yours truly is in it:

Flatbush Gardener (Xris) reviews for us the book Eco-friendly Living in New York City and focuses on some of the book’s gardening tips for city dwellers.

Some minor quibbles:

• I didn’t (yet) review the book. It was reviewed in Science & the City from the New York Academy of Sciences.
• The gardening tips are all things which I do, or would like to do, in my garden with respect to two of the five general tips offered in the book review: reducing water use, and reduce, reuse, recycle. I didn’t get them from the book.

That aside, I’m proud to be listed. This is my first carnival. I’m no longer a “virgin.”

Links:

• Carnival of the Green is coordinated by City Hippy and Triple Pundit
• Jen’s Green Journal
• New York Academy of Sciences, Science & the City
• Green Apple Guide

People who have been exposed to pesticides are 70 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those who haven’t, according to a new study. The results suggest that any pesticide exposure, whether occupationally related or not, will increase a person’s risk of the disease. This means that using pesticides in the home or garden may have similarly harmful effects as working with the chemicals on a farm or as a pest controller.
… Previous small-scale human studies had suggested a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s, but this new study is the first to establish a clear correlation in a large patient population.
– Study Bolsters Link between Pesticides and Parkinson’s, Scientific American

Links:

• Annals of Neurology

Peter Smithers Dies at 92; Spy With a Green Thumb – New York Times:

Sir Peter Smithers, who saw his work as a lawyer, politician, diplomat, scholar, photographer and spy as distractions from his passion for growing glorious gardens, died on June 8 in Vico Morcote, Switzerland. He was 92.
…
As a spy in World War II, he worked for Ian Fleming, who went on to create the fictional spy James Bond …
Arguably, though, Sir Peter was to gardening what Bond was to martinis. The Royal Horticulture Society gave him one of its highest awards, the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal. His garden in Switzerland — with 10,000 plants, none a duplicate — won a prize for being the best in that country in 2001. The Financial Times said it was named one of the 500 greatest gardens since Roman times.
…
Peter Henry Berry Otway Smithers was born in Yorkshire on Dec. 9, 1913. He grew up hanging around potting sheds, spending spare change on plants. His nanny was a fervent naturalist who fed him fried blackbird eggs and hedge trimmings.

At 13, he persuaded the Royal Horticultural Society to let him attend the Chelsea Flower Show, the first child to do so, The Guardian said. At his public school, Harrow, he began an index of every plant and seed packet he acquired; it grew to 32,000 entries by his death.
…

– Peter Smithers Dies at 92; Spy With a Green Thumb, New York Times, June 25, 2006 (subscription required)

Links:

• American Clivia Society
• Council of Europe
• New York Times
• Royal Horticultural Society

Technorati tags: Sir Peter Henry Berry Otway Smithers, Gardening, Ian Fleming, James Bond

The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects
Authors: Losey, John E.; Vaughan, Mace
Source: BioScience, Volume 56, Number 4, April 2006, pp. 311-323(13)
Publisher: American Institute of Biological Sciences

Abstract:

In this article we focus on the vital ecological services provided by insects. We restrict our focus to services provided by “wild” insects; we do not include services from domesticated or mass-reared insect species. The four insect services for which we provide value estimates—dung burial, pest control, pollination, and wildlife nutrition—were chosen not because of their importance but because of the availability of data and an algorithm for their estimation. We base our estimations of the value of each service on projections of losses that would accrue if insects were not functioning at their current level.We estimate the annual value of these ecological services provided in the United States to be at least $57 billion, an amount that justifies greater investment in the conservation of these services.

And from the authors’ conclusion:

… our findings lead us to espouse three qualitative guidelines. First, cost-free or relatively inexpensive measures are almost certainly justified to maintain and increase current service levels. Examples include volunteer construction of nest boxes for wild pollinators [butterfly houses?] and the inclusion of a diverse variety of native plant species in plantings for bank or soil stabilization and site restoration (Shepherd et al. 2003,Vaughan et al. 2004). Second, actions or investments that are estimated to have an economic return at or slightly below the break-even point, such as the use of less toxic pesticides, are probably justified because of their nontarget benefits. Third, actions that lead to substantial decreases in biodiversity should be avoided because of the high probability of a major disruption in essential services.
…
Once the benefits of insect-provided services are realized, there may be some call for increased funding to conserve rare insects through the Endangered Species Act. Insects are certainly underrepresented and underfunded through this legislation, and increased funding could save many rare insect species from extinction. However, while increasing funds targeted for the conservation of endangered species would help those beneficial insect species that share habitat with listed species, it would not in itself be sufficient to ensure the continuation of the services provided by beneficial insects.

The full text of the article is available in PDF format for free from the BioScience Web site.

Science & the City announced that another Brooklynite, Ben Jervey, has just published a book, “The Big Green Apple: Your Guide to Eco-Friendly Living in New York City.” He’s also launched a Web site, Green Apple Guide, in association with the book.

The opening to the book’s preface:

Right now, right here in New York City, somebody is cultivating a garden. [And how!] Around the corner, somebody is pocketing their car keys and hopping onto a bicycle. In some nearby kitchen, locally grown, organic produce is being kept cool in a refrigerator plugged into wind power energy. Somewhere in New York City, a street tree is being cared for by a concerned local resident, while a sanitation worker on the street adjacent is dutifully keeping the recyclable paper and plastics separate.

Although difficult for many to believe, all over the city of New York, acts of sustainable, low-impact living are being performed by a hearty bunch of citizens who recognize the inflexible connection between the quality of life in a place and the attitudes and lifestyle decisions made by those who live there.

The article presents five tips:

1. Change your light bulbs
2. Order a home water conservation kit from the
   DEP
3. Join a community-sponsored agriculture group
4. Choose your own energy source
5. Reduce, reuse, recycle – in that order!

– Eco-Friendly Living in New York City, Science & the City, June 19, 2006

Tips 2 and 5 are of particular relevance to gardening. Item 3 is also of interest.

Tip #2: Reduce water use. Now that we own our own home instead of renting an apartment, we see the water bill, which means we have some idea of how much water we’re using. I conserve water in the garden in several ways:

• Choose plants appropriate for the site, conditions, and climate. Native plants (appropriately sited) and drought-tolerant plants will need less water than others. Plants in sunny areas, containers, or exposed to extra heat from pavement, walls and other structures, will need more water. A rooftop garden, for example, is essentially a desert; choose and plant appropriately.
• Increase the amount of organic material, such as compost, in the soil. Organic material provides several water-related benefits, including absorbing and retaining water, reducing runoff by allowing water to penetrate the surface of the soil, and improving the soil structure to allow roots to run more deeply and widely, increasing the ability of plants to reach the moisture they need.
• When gardening in containers, use non-porous containers (I don’t always do this, but I’m mindful of it) and amend the soil with water-retentive materials such as compost or hydrogel.
• Mulch to reduce surface runoff and evaporation.
• Water only when needed. If the soil is moist below the surface, it doesn’t need water (yet). Group plants with similar moisture requirements together, so you can water them at the same time.
• When extra water is needed, water in the morning (ideally) before the sun is fully up, or in late afternoon or early evening, as the sun is going down.
• Water at or below the mulch or surface of the soil. A sprinkler loses more water to evaporation, in the air and from leaves, than hand watering at the surface. Soaker hoses reduce evaporation even more, since they can be placed on or below the mulch or soil surface. For containers, drip irrigation systems can achieve the same result. I haven’t used either of these, but my neighbor uses soaker hoses, and I hardly ever see any water runoff. The only way I know they’re watering is from the sound of the water passing through their faucet! I’m hoping to invest in a soaker system, possibly next year, when I have a better idea of how the beds will be arranged.
• Collect rainwater for garden watering. Again, I haven’t had the opportunity to try this before. Now that we have a house, it’s a possibility.

Tip #5: Reduce, reuse, recycle. There are numerous opportunitiess to reduce consumption in the garden:

• Apply organic growing techniques to reduce the use of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals in the garden.
• Reduce or eliminate areas devoted to lawn and turf.
• Grow some of our own vegetables and fruits to reduce the need to transport them long distances to supermarkets and our homes (the “Victory garden“).
• Select native and heirloom plants and vegetables which we can propagate from year to year instead of having to purchase new seed, plants and bulbs each year.
• Replace gas-powered tools with electric ones, and powered tools with hand tools.

We can reuse materials throughout the garden:

• Broken pots can be used as decorations, and pot shards can be used in the bottoms of pots to control drainage.
• Other artifacts can be reused in the garden as containers and decorations. One of our neighbors has an old radiator spread out as a fan and used as a decoration in their front yard!
• Old, misshapen or imperfect brick and other building materials which can’t be used for construction can be used as pavers, stepping stones, edging and so on in the garden.
• Propagating plants, and giving them away to others, is the ultimate reuse.

Finally, in the garden, composting is the ideal recycling technique. Yard waste such as shrub trimmings and tree prunings can be chipped and shredded. Grass clippings which are not left on the lawn are prized ingredients in compost. Fall leaves, spring cleanup trimmings and summer weeds (which have not gone to seed) go into the compost heap. Kitchen scraps (excluding meat, fat and bones) can be added to the compost as well.

Links:

• Green Apple Guide
• New York Academy of Sciences, Science & the City

A web log from another Brooklynite, Rob J: “Red-tailed Hawks and other wildlife observations from around Brooklyn and NYC.” Beautiful photographs of nesting hawks and other birds all around New York City, and photo-journals of field trips to upstate New York and other areas. An avid, nay fanatical, birder.

Rob also authors Prospect Park Advocate on blogspot. On NYC Bloggers, he locates himself at my old subway stop in Park Slope, 7th Avenue on the F Train, which has the most blogs of any subway stop in Brooklyn.

I’m a space baby. During the 60s, I watched rocket launches from my bedroom window. Aside from my fascination with the technology, satellite imagery and data has transformed our recognition and understanding of earth systems. Think “ozone hole” for just one example.

I’m encouraged by news such as this. There is a strident minority in this country who would replace science and inquiry with fundamentalism and eisegesis. May they be left behind.

… The first-ever spaceborne millimeter wavelength radar, CloudSat’s Cloud-Profiling Radar is more than 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar. It can observe clouds and precipitation in a way never before possible, distinguishing between cloud particles and precipitation. Its measurements are expected to offer new insights into how fresh water is created from water vapor and how much of this water falls to the surface as rain and snow. …
First Images From NASA’S Cloudsat Have Scientists Sky High

CloudSat is one of an internationally coordinated suite of satellites, the “A-Train” (“A” for “Atmosphere”?), which are orbiting over the same areas within 15 minutes of each other. CloudSat and CALIPSO, another U.S. satellite, will orbit within 15 seconds of each other:

CloudSat and CALIPSO will collect information about the vertical structure of clouds and aerosols unavailable from other Earth observing satellites. Their data will improve our models and provide a better understanding of the human impact on the atmosphere. Policy makers and business leaders will make more informed long-term environmental decisions about public health, the economy and better day-to-day weather predictions as a result of these missions.
Cloudsat Mission Overview

Links:

• Cloudsat Home Page