A Greener Road Ahead

Beach Road (Via Adirondack Almanak)

There's a number of environmental advocacy groups who do a great job protecting Lake George and it's watershed, the Lake George Association (LGA) being the most prominent. It - along with the Department of Public Works and NYS Department of Transportation - deserves major cred for an innovative, $6 million project to install porous asphalt on Beach Road, which is host to motorcycle rallies, restaurants and businesses, and is one of the most travelled roads in the lake's southern rim.

The LGA identified storm water as the No. 1 cause of pollutants entering Lake George. The porous asphalt acts as a filter for storm water before it enters the lake.











Kudos to the LGA and New York State for their environmental foresight and for keeping Lake George "George-ous."

The Earth Day ambassador

I want to give props to my buddy Nick, who was so incensed by the litter on a hiking trail in Scheelite Canyon (Southern Arizona), he decided to take it upon himself to do something about it.

All said and done, Nick filled three backpacks with trash he found strewn about and skewered on cactuses.

Check out his trash booty:


He said the trash could be attributable to illegal immigrants crossing the nearby border.

Nick reminded all who received the e-mail that April 22 is Earth Day, and encourages all to pick up a piece of trash, or, better yet, do as Nick did, and devote some time to cleaning a hiking trail or park.

World Water Day, Earth Hour

Photo courtesy of National Geographic

A friend tipped me off that today (March 22) is World Water Day.

Check out this Nat Geo photo album (one is above) dedicated to water preservation and awareness.

Also, this Saturday (March 27) at 8:30 p.m., support "Earth Hour" by turning your lights off and not using other energy (unless wind power or some other kind of alternative energy). People are designing lanterns out of different stuff to promote.

Here's a site dedicated to Earth Hour.

Survey: Would you use rail transportation?

My friend Mark is working on his thesis as a grad student at U Albany and needs your help!
Take five minutes to fill out his survey, linked below.

Here is his e-mail he sent:

"I need your help. I'm a University at Albany Graduate student working on my thesis in which I need to develop a business plan for a new venture. I decided to do something out of the box and have begun working on a business plan that can be used to develop a light rail system in the Capital Region. I've always believed that a light rail system, one like the TriMet system of Portland, Oregon, would provide a big boost to the Capital Region economy as residents could easily commute to and from work, shopping centers, schools, and other places of interest. The potential light rail system would be costly, logistically difficult to plan and implement, but well worth it in the long run for the area's growth.

A banner promoting Portland, Oregon's, new TriMet: MAX Green Line.
Why doesn't upstate New York have a light rail system again??

Before I jump headlong into writing my thesis, I need to determine the actual demand for a light rail system in the Capital Region. For that reason I've developed a short, 10 question survey that will take you no more than 5 minutes to complete: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X283QNG. If you have additional questions or comments you'd like to pass along, please do. The survey software limited the amount of questions for this survey.

Please take the time to complete the survey and if you'd like, feel free to forward to other colleagues, friends, and family members in the Capital Region. I'm hoping to receive enough responses to make this survey statistically significant.

I thank you for your time. Your participation is appreciated and is essential in my development of a convincing thesis.

Best Regards,

Mark "

Right on Mark. I hope you get good participation.

Take Action, Get Tunes

Hey y'all,

Head Count, the environmental advocacy group that uses music as its springboard, e-mailed me and tipped me off to a pretty cool deal: E-mail your state senators urging them to vote in favor of climate change legislation and get a 17-track compilation CD, "Best of Bonnarroo."

Included is music from Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Gov't Mule, Phish, moe., Phil Lesh & Friends and many more bands, all of which pledged their allegiance to Head Count and do their part to promote climate action while on the road each year.

Here's the catch: Head Count provides a canned letter you can send without any thought and you'll be done if five minutes. However, they urge you to express your own thoughts about climate change. Include specifics like the town where you live and businesses around you that do their part to be green. Include these in the first few lines to maybe get the attention of the senators if they actually peer over the e-mails.

In my e-mail, I noted where I lived and that I look around me every day and see people who really care about the environment and would be devastated if they couldn't share the wilderness with their children and grandchildren.

That said, click the link below to do your part and download the MP3's:

http://action.headcount.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1766