Akridge Named to List of DC's Healthiest Workplaces

Washington Business Journal Recognizes Akridge for Employee Wellness Programs and Policies WASHINGTON, D.C.  Sept. 23, 2011 - Commercial real estate services firm Akridge was recognized as one of Washington's Healthiest Places to Work yesterday by the Washington Business Journal. In the publication's inaugural awards, Akridge rated second in the region among businesses with between 100 and 499 employees. More than 100 area companies, representing a total of three million employees, submitted applications for the honor. "We are committed to the wellness of Akridge employees." said company president Matthew J. Klein. "We have implemented a comprehensive program and strive to maintain an atmosphere that fosters healthy practices because these efforts benefit our people and our company. " The Business Journal contracted with Healthiest Employers, LLC to survey and evaluate companies competing for healthy workplace honors. A Healthiest Employer Index (HEI) score was determined for each entrant based on responses to 75 questions, which generated a maximum of 236 points in six categories. These scores were the sole basis for company rankings.

Melvin Wylie

SeaWorld Uses Ingenuity to Save Rescued Marine Animals

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 23, 2011 - Winter, the flippered star of the new movie "Dolphin Tale," will bring much-deserved attention this weekend to wildlife rescue efforts on behalf of marine mammal facilities around the world. The SeaWorld Rescue Team – which also helped with the initial rescue transport of Winter – is currently caring for an array of ill, injured and orphaned wild marine animals, each with its own against-all-odds story. Like those passionate individuals who helped Winter, this team uses their expertise and creativity every day to devise new ways to rescue, treat and return to nature these extraordinary animals. No rescue, no case is ever the same. Few are aware that SeaWorld operates one of the world's most respected wildlife rescue programs and has treated more than 18,000 animals over the last four decades. The goal for every rescue is to be able to successfully return the animal. The team has created nutritional formulas and custom bottles to hand-feed orphaned animals; imaginative ways to help save sea turtles with cracked shells; prosthetic beaks for injured birds; and even an "animal wetsuit" to help an injured manatee stay afloat. Examples of this ingenuity at work include:

• Currently, a team of animal experts at SeaWorld Orlando is performing hands-on physical therapy on a once-stranded pilot whale. The whale has scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, that developed approximately five weeks after her early-May rescue and has created a sharp angle in her spine that prevents her from swimming normally. The physical therapy, performed three times a day, includes stretching the whale's muscles and working her tail fluke up and down. It's hoped the therapy sessions will allow her to regain proper and more normal use of her tail.

• SeaWorld animal experts were the first to bottle raise an orphaned manatee and have also developed "baby formulas" for rescued whales, sea lions and seals.

• Sometimes the innovation comes not in the equipment, but in the training. When a severely injured loggerhead sea turtle arrived at SeaWorld Orlando missing its lower jaw and suffering from starvation, park turtle experts taught the emaciated animal a new way to eat with only its upper jaw. The process took months, and the turtle gradually progressed from hand-feedings to independent eating skills.

• The innovative care also extends to the park's animal population. SeaWorld veterinarians went to extraordinary lengths to preserve the life of Dottie, one of the park's Atlantic bottle nose dolphins. Dottie went into kidney failure due to complications from kidney stones, but by working with "human" doctors from UC San Diego Medical Center, her life was saved through medical procedures never before performed on a dolphin including dialysis.

A global leader in animal care and conservation, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment cares for more than 60,000 animals including 200 endangered or threatened species. This commitment extends to animals around the world: The company has contributed more than $50 million to conservation, wildlife rescue and environmental stewardship initiatives and has supported efforts on every continent, as well as operating its own well-respected wildlife rescue program. The SeaWorld Rescue Team is on call 24/7 to help animals in need.

Melvin Wylie

21st Episode of GreenNews4U

In this Episode I interview Janice Whitehead with ZerH20. We talk about sanitation and waste disposal, among many other things that are needed in this world. The ZerH2O Waterless Toilet is ideal for rural homes where pit latrines are traditionally used. It can be built into a current home; or a new home can be built around it. Personal and Environmental benefits include: Dignity; Safety; Hygiene; Protection of ground water supply; no chemicals required. Saving for municipalities: No need for water lines and pipes; no need for waste water plants; quick and cost-effective installation (no big excavations). Benefit for the home owner: The unit can be moved when you move; easy to install; hygienic, easy cleaning. To find out more information on this product you can go here

Melvin Wylie

In Nicaragua Women Lead The Fight Against Climate Change

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2011 - Women are leading the fight against climate change and other urgent environmental issues that confront the planet, according to Dr. Sarah Otterstrom, Executive Director of Paso Pacifico, at the Clinton Global Initiative. In Nicaragua, women are leading reforestation efforts and have planted over 100,000 native trees. Their work has offset more than 150,000 tons of greenhouse gases and help protect watersheds that are crucial to the health of their communities. Paso Pacifico provides job training in entrepreneurship and forestry which enable women to build businesses and become leaders in their communities. "They are strengthened by our program," Otterstrom says, "but ultimately they are the ones who are making Paso Pacifico projects a success." Paso Pacifico also uses this training model to help women protect their beaches from turtle egg poachers. Local campesinas learn about the endangered turtle species and are trained to patrol their local beaches. For each hatchling successfully protected they receive an incentive payment. Their monthly income equals a rural laborer's salary, but the job is flexible because women can coordinate their schedules. More than 10,000 turtles have been hatched due to the efforts of these women over the past two years. For the first time in 25 years ,endangered turtle eggs are hatching along the beaches in Southern Nicaragua. As women in Nicaragua find their traditional roles expanding, they embrace new ideas and technologies to support themselves. For example, when the Portable Light Project and Paso Pacifico brought solar lamps to the communities, the women started to use the lights to patrol beaches, help their children with homework at night and cook for their families in predawn hours. "One woman told me how excited she was the first time she got up to feed her baby and make tortillas at four a.m." Otterstrom said. "She could do so in light instead of darkness. Something so inexpensive improves their lives dramatically." Having caught the entrepreneurial bug, women are now opening their own businesses with Paso Pacifico's support. In one coastal community, women have opened a sea kayaking business, in another an eco-tourism guiding company and in a third an eco-lodge. All of these endeavors are successfully bringing tourism dollars into their local communities. "This is what happens when you invest in women," says Dr. Otterstrom. "They are smart. We teach them how to use their skills to run a business and care for their natural resources, just as they care for their families and neighbors. Only now, they are earning money, empowering themselves, improving their community and helping the environment. It is win, win, win and we want to do more of it."

Melvin Wylie

Japanese Families Call for Protection & Evacuation of Fukushima Children

Japanese Families and Activists Call for Proper Protection - and Evacuation - of Fukushima Children and a Global End to Nuclear Power

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2011 - Two organic farmers from Japan, their children and fellow Japanese anti-nuclear campaigners made a plea for the safety of Fukushima's children at a press conference in Washington, D.C. today. "Our hearts have been torn apart in the Fukushima community because of the nuclear disaster," said Sachiko Sato, a natural farmer from Fukushima Prefecture, who evacuated four of her six children two days after the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor catastrophe began. "The community is split among those who evacuated and those who stayed, creating a chasm between former neighbors. This is the first health effect of this catastrophe." Mrs. Sato described how, not trusting official figures, she herself measured radiation levels at local schools, finding that 75% of schools should be considered radiation control areas and therefore dangerous for children. Meanwhile, the government raised the allowable radiation dose rate by 20 times to 20 microsieverts per year including for children. "Do they imagine that people can suddenly withstand doses of radiation 20 times greater than were previously allowed?" she asked. Many people cannot evacuate as they would leave behind aging, frail parents, Sato said. "Or they don't want to lose their job or tear their children away from everything they know. Families have been ripped apart." She also described how the government misled communities about safety. "Some were evacuated from Fukushima to places where the radiation levels were even higher, but they were not told," she said. Yukiko Anzai, an organic farmer from Hokkaido 603km away from the Fukushima-Daiichi accident, saw her honey business destroyed and her family's livelihood wiped out by the multiple reactor meltdowns. "We stopped using the word 'safe' for our vegetables," she said. My husband said that if we find the chicken feed is radioactive, we will have to stop farming altogether." Sato's farm also shut down although many around her have continued to farm. Both women began farming traditionally without using chemicals to mirror "the old ways." But, with their land laced with radioactivity, their dreams - and farming livelihoods – are destroyed. "On March 11 our lives changed completely," Anzai said. "Yet the government continues to ignore the truth and expects us to continue farming like nothing happened." Sato's two children, Mina, 13 and Yuuki, 17, described how their lives were changed after March 11, 2011, leaving their home, their friends and everything they knew after being evacuated far from danger. "If only those nuclear power plants hadn't existed," Mina Sato said. "Things wouldn't have turned out this way." Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action, and Kaori Izumi, director of Shut Tomari (the first reactor to re-start after the Fukushima-Daiichi meltdowns), both called for a global ban on nuclear power as the only rational lesson to be learned from Fukushima. "Otherwise this will happen again, in Japan, at Indian Point or anywhere," Izumi said. "This is not Japan's problem, it's the world's problem. The radiation from Fukushima is everywhere. We cannot afford another Fukushima." Smith has submitted a petition to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights calling for the rights of children of Fukushima to evacuate. Only families living within the 12.4 mile official evacuation zone are supported financially if they evacuate. Those living beyond that range who choose to evacuate must do so at their own expense, which many cannot afford, Smith explained. "What the children of Fukushima need is safe food, a safe place to live, and somewhere where they can safely play outdoors," she said. Speaking on behalf of hosting organization Beyond Nuclear, Kevin Kamps reminded the audience that the Fermi 2 reactor in Michigan, the same GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor design as those at Fukushima-Daiichi, "is the biggest of that design in the world, and stores more than 500 tons of radioactive waste in its fuel pool – far more than all four Fukushima-Daiichi reactors put together. The consequences downwind of a fuel pool fire at Fermi 2 would be multiple times worse than at Fukushima," he said. "What I learned about nuclear power," said Sato's son Yuuko, "is that protecting nuclear power plants is seemingly more important than protecting our lives." The group will travel to New York City on September 21, 2011 for public presentations and a 5 pm demonstration on September 22, 2011 at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside the United Nations building.

Melvin Wylie

AQUAMANTRA interviews ENSO

A great interview talking about the ENSO bottle:

Melvin Wylie

Global Cleanup Day Targets Trash Headed to Ocean, Waterways

Volunteers Worldwide Mobilize for Ocean Conservancy International Coastal Cleanup

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2011 - Today, Ocean Conservancy and hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world are hitting their local beaches, lakes, rivers, and waterways for the 26th Annual International Coastal Cleanup – the largest volunteer effort of its kind. Over the past 25 years, more than eight and a half million volunteers have removed 145 million pounds of trash in over 150 countries. Participants will spend the morning removing trash from coastlines and rivers all while keeping track of every item they find. Ocean Conservancy uses that data to produce the world's only annual country-by-country, state-by-state index of ocean trash. The report is shared with the public, industry, and government officials as we work together to find solutions to this serious problem. "Trash littering our beaches and choking our ecosystems is a threat to wildlife, our coastal economies, and ultimately to the ability of the ocean to sustain us," said Vikki Spruill, Ocean Conservancy's President and CEO. "You name it, it has been found on the beach. The eight million pounds of trash collected during last year's Cleanup would cover about 170 football fields a foot deep. "Ocean Conservancy's vision is for trash free seas. This problem is entirely preventable, and keeping our ocean free from trash is one of the easiest ways we can make the ocean more resilient." said Spruill. "The Cleanup gives everyone a chance to work in their community and be part of this global movement to protect our ocean. People from Nebraska to India to South Africa and Indonesia join the Cleanup because they are passionate about our ocean and want to make a difference. Companies organize employees for service days to help their communities. The Cleanup is the gateway for people from all walks of life to exercise their commitment to conservation." Armed with knowledge about the most prevalent components of marine trash, officials can make informed policy decisions, community leaders can tailor and expand recycling and other trash-reduction programs, corporate decision makers can improve technology and reduce packaging, and individuals can recycle, reuse, or properly dispose of trash to keep these items out of the ocean in the first place.

TRASH ITEM		25 Year Total
Cigarettes/Cigarette Filters		52,907,756 - 32%
Food Wrapper/Containers		14,766,533 - 9%
Caps/Lids		13,585,425 - 8%
Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons		10,112,038 - 6%
Beverage Bottles (plastic)		9,549,156 - 6%
Bags (plastic)		7,825,319 - 5%
Beverage Bottles (glass)		7,062,199 - 4%
Beverage Cans		6,753,260 - 4%
Straw/Stirrers		6,263,453 - 4%
Rope		3,251,948 - 2%

Visit www.oceanconservancy.org/cleanup for additional information and to view our latest report on ocean trash - Tracking Trash - view our top ten list of actions everyone can take to fight ocean trash. The Coca-Cola Company has supported Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup for the past 16 years. Last year, Coca-Cola activated a global employee engagement campaign around the Cleanup called "Pick it Up, Clean it Up, Sea Change!" Nearly 26,000 Coca-Cola system associates, their friends and families in 175 locations across 40 countries participated in the Cleanup, contributing more than 200,000 hours of volunteer time. As part of its commitment to address global climate change, Bank of America has supported the Cleanup for the past several years, with thousands of employees participating in Cleanup events in the United States and around the world. Other national sponsors include National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Altria Group, Inc, The Walt Disney Company, Landshark Lager, Brunswick Public Foundation, and The Dow Chemical Company. Ocean Conservancy is the world's foremost advocate for the oceans. Through science-based advocacy, research, and public education, we inform, inspire and empower people to speak and act for the ocean. Ocean Conservancy is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has offices in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific, with support from more than half a million members and volunteers. To learn more about Ocean Conservancy visit www.oceanconservancy.org.

Melvin Wylie