In like a lion and out like a lamb.  An unlikely green super-hero emerges to protect the fragile seas.

The Bush administration may not be remembered for it’s ground breaking conservation efforts but just before his departure from office, President Bush effectively protected a whopping 195,000 square miles of the central Pacific’s untouched ocean oasis.  With the stroke of a pen, the President set aside an area the size of his home state of Texas as the largest swath of protected ocean on the planet.

And Bush didn’t skimp on the protection either: these marine monuments are granted the highest level of conservation, prohibiting commercial fishing, mining, and drilling of this newly safeguarded underwater Yellowstone.  While the initial proposed ocean and island plot was over 700,000 square miles, Bush’s declaration went above and beyond expectations and is still a huge and important initiative.

Only recently have we come to discover the finite nature of our ocean as a natural resource and it’s efforts like this we hope will endure through our emerging administration.

For a look at the largest marine monument on earth, check out some of these images:

Photo by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Slideshow by volcanojw.

Ancient practices employed today in search of the river’s treasures.

At the recent USGBC New York Chapter Gala,  Borough President Marty Markowitz took the time to address  a few things that are on the minds Brooklyn residents, small business owners, and the environmental community.  It was clear from his direct and sometimes gregarious responses that while every politician is subject to criticism, Borough President Markowitz certainly isn’t afraid to express his personal views.

Markowitz became involved in politics in the 1970s, by organizing tenant and senior citizen organizations in Flatbush, Brooklyn.  His role as a community leader got him elected to the State Senate in 1978, and spent over two decades as a New York State Senator for Brooklyn. During his time as a state senator, he was known for creating a series of oceanfront concerts and other festivals rather than drafting legislation.

Q: What’s Green about Brooklyn?

A: Well, listen, in fact if you look in New York City, the most environmentally active community in the city is Park Slope.  We lead the way, it’s true!  There’s no question about it.

Q: Can small business get help to clean up toxic industrial sites and move in safely?

A: The answer is yes but it’s going to require a partnership with State and Federal Government and as you know right now, finances are such in the State that are most challenging and I’m sorry to say that we’re on a cutting mode right now but once our economy becomes stronger it’s my hope that the Federal and State Governments will be eager participants and provide the resources to allow the city to clean up.  First up, we need that property, we need that land and it’s environmentally a necessity.  I can tell you that, for instance, there’s a business in Brooklyn, I think you know, Whole Foods, that is not able to really get going because of the toxic level of the property that they bought and that’s a shame for all of us, the jobs potentially that we’re losing not only there but other locations.

I see the future as very bright, you know why?  America has no choice! We have no choice.  This is the future.  It’s about our economy in the future.  It’s about our health in the future.  It’s about jobs in the future.  And you know what, we in this nation better get on this curve because Japan and Korea and some of those Mid-East countries are already on the track and we can’t be left behind.  We already failed in the automobile industry and unless we grab that industry back, we’re gonna be further behind and we can’t allow the energy industry to get by us as well.  This is the future of America at stake so I’m convinced that we’ll make it happen.

Q: What are you thoughts on carbon tariffs?

A: I must tell you that I think we have to provide incentives to corporations to do what they have to do.  First you entice then and then you slap them so let’s see what more we can do to entice them before we slap them.  I always believe the first approach, the best approach, is to provide incentives and then if they don’t live up to their public responsibilities, then the hammer comes down.

Q: What’s happening with the Gowanus Canal?

A: Well, there’s some exciting things about the Gowanus Canal.  There are proposals, as you know, of Toll Brothers to build new housing there and I believe the key, by having more development around the Gowanus and having more residential units, it will really really put the pressure on Federal, State and City Govern to clean up the Gowanus Canal once and for all.

Q: Are you involved in the Newtown Creek cleanup efforts?

A: Newtown Creek is another area.  Riverkeeper and I have been very active, I’m part of the suit and there’s no question that Exxon/Mobil I believe, under Barack Obama and Congress, that we’ll have a much better opportunity to get the oil companies to clean up their garbage.  It’s the truth!  This is our shot, this is our chance.

Full BBC article here.

Green Air Filter:

One by one, the Earth’s natural resources are disappearing. And by no means is fresh water safe from elimination. And in a world where most living things only thrive on fresh water, the search for an alternative is rising to the top of the science community’s list of priorities.

98% of the water on Earth is from the ocean. So it only makes sense that scientist have been looking to the ocean as the next frontier for survival. Plants such as kale and samphire can be cultivated in salt water, as they have been for several thousand years by our ancestors. Spinach and beetroot are also options for the salt water revolution. At this rate, soylent green is no longer something we have to look forward to.

Photo by Paul Prudence.

What mutating mass lurks 1000 miles off the coast of Hawaii and is reported to be the size of Texas?

More frightening than Captain Ahab’s worst nightmare, it’s garbage island.

The floating island of garbage, or Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is a freak occurrence caused by tidal flows converging in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.  Buoys, plastic debris, and styrafoam spend years faring the high seas from as far off as the coast of Asia, tens of thousands of miles away.

The island of garbage is a highly concentrated whirlpool of plastic particles easily mistaken as food by fish and other organisms.  For every one piece of sea life in this region, there are 60 pieces of plastic.

The damage done by this mat of floating trash is even more significant as it’s disrupts the base of the ocean food chain, genetically interrupting generations upon generations of life underwater and on land.

For video footage of the floating island of garbage, click here.

Photo by Megan.

Special thanks to the newsmakers and researchers who risked life and limb filming their voyage:

Thomas Morton (VBS)

Joe Goodman (volunteer researcher)

Meredith Danluck (VBS)

Dr. Lorena M. Rios-Mendoza (Dept. of Chemistry at University of the Pacific)

Jake Burghart (VBS)

Captain Charlie Moore (Captain of the ORV Alguita)

At long last, the ORV Alguita enters the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

It’s your first date and you’re at the pricey seafood restaurant of her choice.  You want to impress and seem savvy by ordering the “right” dish.  You seem to remember reading something about tuna… yeah, tuna… it’s bad right?  Wait… or was it salmon… or grouper?  DANGIT!!!

Before you soak your shirt with anxiety and opt for the garden salad, your aquaculture-alert-on-the-go cell phone function has arrived… introducing, Fish Phone!

Our fishing-forward friends a the Blue Ocean Institute are the master mariners behind the “first sustainable seafood text messaging service.”  From geared up smart phone users to pay-as-you-gosters, anyone can tap the up-to-the-nanosecond news on species with significant environmental concerns.

The fish are ranked according to Blue Ocean’s evaluation of species’ life history, abundance, in the wild, habitat concerns, and catch method or farming system.  Health advisories are also provided indicating unsafe levels of mercury, PCBs, and dioxins.

Now take a deep breath, order the halibut, and get on with the courtship you eco STUD!

Thanks Fish Phone!

Photo by soxer123.

It’s the wave-making winds that matter more than the monk fish to the biggest names in commercial fishing.

Wind power is rushing to the forefront of America’s race for clean energy and dry land is becoming scarce for use as wind farms.  Small, densely populated coastal states like Rhode Island and New Jersey have availed the use of ocean plots which, until now, has been vehemently opposed by commercial fisherman.

Former commercial fishing tycoon turned wind power proponent, David Cohen, is President of Fisherman’s Energy, a partnership of the biggest commercial fishing outfits dedicated to developing offshore wind farms designed to power over 90,000 homes by 2013.  The plan benefits the fisherman by allowing them to share in the energy profits and convert their skills on the high seas to erect the massive turbines.

With big fish behind America’s clean energy upgrade, change is soon to follow.

Photo by CCBG.