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A Thank You to Today’s Bloggers

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 02:00:00 -0400

We would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our dedicated guest bloggers who shared their thoughts and opinions today as part of our first annual blogathon event!

We’re very proud to have assembled such an eclectic and educated group. We had industry analysts discussing obstacles to environmental conservation like ‘green fatigue,’ sustainability advocates wondering where all the rooftop solar panels are, and cleantech reporters explaining why feed-in tariffs give cleaner forms of energy the best chance to scale.

Our contributors were able to provide but a brief glimpse at the myriad of worthy environmental causes out there. But there was one common theme to today’s posts—get involved! Be active, immerse yourself in whatever pursuit you find the most compelling, and take action toward making our world a better and cleaner place.

Thank you again to our bloggers for sharing their thoughts with us, and to our readers for giving them an audience. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Happy Earth Day,

The Enviance team
Twitter:@Enviance

Recap of Earth Day events around the world

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:59:57 -0400

A Billion Acts of Green – that’s the theme for Earth Day 2011, and the goal this year is to do just that – register one billion environmentally-geared actions around the world to show how people from all different geographies and cultures can come together for a similar cause.

We hope you agree that Enviance’s act of green – uniting industry pundits and thought leaders to blog about their environmental passions every hour on the hour – was a success. Let’s look at some of the other actions people have taken to show their dedication to the environment:

In our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., The National Zoo hosted a zoo “cleanup party,” collecting litter, aluminum cans, candy wrappers and other trash to be recycled and disposed.

In the hustle and bustle of New York City, outdoor fairs dotted all around the city are hosting kids’ environmental activities, green businesses and environmental organizations to spread the word on how they’re helping green mother earth.

Here in our hometown, San Diego, we got started early with EarthFair 2011, “the world's largest free annual environmental fair and Earth Day Celebration,” on April 17, which featured eco exhibitors, a special kids’ activity area, entertainment, the Children’s Earth Parade, the eARTh Gallery art show, and the Cleaner Car Concourse.

Now that Earth Day has gone global, let’s take a look at acts of green around the world:

Our neighbors to the north in Vancouver, B.C. hosted a Earth Day Parade today, where locals come dressed in costumes on bikes and skates, all culminating in a festival featuring live music, a green student art competition, crafty activities, and special guest speakers.

In Beijing, China, INBAR is hosting a bamboo planting event to raise awareness of the vital connection between forests and people.

In Malaga, Spain, activists who love the water gather to "Dive for Earth Day" as a part of the Project AWARE Foundation, which involves underwater cleanups and marine debris prevention, environmental training for divers and education programs for kids and more.

The possibilities are endless for giving back to the world. What was YOUR act of green today?

Water, Water Everywhere?

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:00:10 -0400

By Angela Fuller, writer

I was asked to be a guest blogger as part of the Enviance Earth Day Blog-a-thon, with a post that responded to one of five topics that I think is the most important environmental issue. How do I pick just one? I contemplated that question so long I almost missed the deadline!

With that said, I decided clean water was the most serious environmental issue I could address. We tend to take clean water for granted, especially those of us who live in the United States. While I steer clear of plastic bottled water, I’m generally confident that I can find access to clean drinkable water at any time of the day, unlike so many around the globe.

But having lived in a beach city in Southern California for several years, I can honestly say that if you take the time to volunteer to clean a beach or a wetlands park, you’ll soon realize just how endangered our water truly is, not to mention the impact it has on marine wildlife. None of us can survive without clean water. None of us... not human, not animal.

Bodies of water that are used as toxic chemical dumping grounds and floating ocean garbage patches larger than the state of Texas are just two of the issues that we must continue to address – not just to debate, but to find workable ways to clean up the damage done as well as protect the water for our future.

In my opinion, the key is in education. I’ve posted links to videos on The Great Pacific Garbage Patch on my own blog, as well as uploaded pictures of trash collected on a beach cleanup day to my Facebook page. I do this because I want my friends and family to be as concerned about clean water as I am. I do this because I believe, as Maya Angelou once said, “When we know better, we do better.” Showing a dying bird suffocating from remnants of an oil spill off the Gulf Coast, or a dissection of the contents a fish’s stomach that has ingested bits of plastic bottle caps isn’t “fun” for me, but if it makes one person stop and think before tossing a water bottle or it inspires someone to start a grassroots campaign to make chemical companies more accountable for their toxic waste, then it’s worthwhile. If each of us educated just one other person, imagine the possibilities.

Better yet, imagine the possibilities sitting on the shore of a sparkling blue ocean, whose tide brings nothing to land’s end but frothy waves, sand and a few seashells.

Angela Fuller is a freelance writer and virtual assistant who has written more than 100 eco-related articles online for eHow, Associated Content from Yahoo! and other similar sites. She also maintains her own eco-friendly blog at FreeandGreenStuff.blogspot.com. Twitter: @GreenVerbs