From the Herald-Tribune:

LOVE YOUR ‘HOME’
10 ways to celebrate Earth Day
by Dr. Meg Lowman

“It is only a little planet

But how beautiful it is.”

–Robinson Jeffers, American poet (1887-1962)

Earth Day embodies new meaning this year, as heightened awareness of environmental changes on our planet dominates the news. Issues from polar bears to corn prices to droughts to invasive pythons signify a declining equilibrium for Mother Nature.

For the past 200 years, American parents have left a legacy that ensured quality of life for their children. Americans are waking up to the realization that this legacy is not always measured in terms of bank accounts, but also is reflected by the quality of our environment. Raising the standard of life for the next generation has been an achievable American dream for six generations, but now this trajectory is in jeopardy.

What actions can each of us undertake to ensure that our children inherit a healthy planet? Here is an Earth Day 2008 household list, invoking the mantra “love your home.” This home is defined by water, soil, air, animals and plants, and their intricate machinery of interactions.

1. Be a “locavore”
Eat local foods, support local business, buy local products, learn about your local environment, and restore and appreciate local ecosystems. Locavory reduces the expensive use of fossil fuels for shipping and business travel, and injects capital into the local economy. “Locavore” not only makes ecological sense, but also good business sense.

2. Travel gently
Think about ways your family can reduce its reliance on gasoline. Bicycles? Walking? School buses? Can you mark one “No car” day per month on your calendar? You might rediscover some special family activities such as board games, cards, baking, or a picnic in the neighborhood park.

3. Buy shade grown coffee
This relatively simple act will conserve songbirds, save rain forests, and encourage nature-friendly agricultural practices. “Shade grown” refers to coffee beans produced in the shade of tropical forest canopies, instead of beans produced by clearing large swaths of forests. Shade coffee tastes better, having grown more slowly, but costs about 10 cents more per cup. What a small price to pay for songbirds, conservation of life-giving tropical forests and encouragement of sound agricultural practices.

4. Bring back the night
Organize one hour for one evening every week to turn out the lights. Create a special family time for darkness activities, and your kids will admire you for caring about their future.

5. Stop using paper or plastic bags — today!
Put cloth bags in your car or hang them on door handles as a reminder to use them. Cloth bags cut down on fossil fuels used to manufacture plastic and deforestation for paper production, and also help turtles, shorebirds and other wildlife that are choked by runaway plastic bags. Shop only at local stores that encourage this practice.

6. Share nature with a child
Take one young person outside –picnic, walk, camp, scavenger hunt, watch birds, or play in a local park. Even better, go to a pond or woods at night and listen to the sounds of frogs, crickets, or perhaps even try to find a place to “hear” silence. Adults have a responsibility to educate kids about their “home.”

7. Education, education, education
Buy environmental books, magazines, and games that inspire and educate your household about “their home.” Bicycle on the Legacy Trail. Walk in the canopy at Myakka State Park.

8. Install a TED (or similar energy device) in your home
Home energy devices record the use of household energy, expressed in kilowatts or also programmable in dollars. The energy device has educated our family about the enormous energy expense of clothes dryers, and the extravagance of running air conditioning when no one is home. Installation of a TED changed our behavior, which led to lower household energy expenses.

9. Reduce water consumption
Halve your car wash schedule, create household competitions for shorter showers, or cut back your lawn watering schedule. Even better, plant native, low-water, high-carbon-storage vegetation.

10. Exercise car consciousness
If you rent or buy a car, demand a vehicle with both low emissions and efficient mileage. My Prius averages 55 miles per gallon, and its unique construction minimizes carbon dioxide emissions.

For Earth Day 2008, be kind to Mother Earth. She is our only home, and with careful stewardship, will continue to house our children, grandchildren and their children.

Here are photos from the January 2008 Amazon trip. Student logs are available here.

[Show as slideshow]

Meg was featured in “What It Takes ‘07: The Green Adventure,” an article in the October 2007 issue of National Geographic Adventure Magazine written to “celebrate ordinary people taking risks to make the future brighter for everyone.” It cited Meg for “saving the rain forest, by climbing one tree at a time.” You can view a PDF version of this article here

On January 23, 22 students and two faculty members from New college of Florida embarked on the “trip of a lifetime”. They voyaged to the Amazon, and explored the tropical rain forest. Of particular excitement was the special chance to work in the rain forest canopy, at the study site of “CanopyMeg” Lowman, ecologist at New College who has worked in the Amazon region of Peru for over 10 years. She continues to lead trips for students, local families, and community leaders so that they can understand why conservation of the tropical rain forests is critical to all life on Earth, including all of us in Florida.

Students were encouraged to keep a log of the trip. Writing about their favorite food, view, bird, plant, experience, canopy platform, insect, or thoughts. Here are some of those logs:

Log 1
On the morning we stayed at the Explorama Lodge, we woke up at 5:30 to go birding. Initially, I was a little hesitant about the experience-after all, I hadn’t woken up before dawn in years-but as soon as we saw our first bird, my mind was completely changed. We went in two little wooden motorboats down the creek leading to the lodge, past a small thatched roof village where the locals were already up and laundering, fishing, laughing, and talking. Along the sides of the river, we saw a plethora of birds of every type. We saw king fishers, brilliant parrots, oropendulas with their long nests dangling from the trees, vultures, and tanagers, among many others that I don’t remember the names of. I was proud to be the one to spot a white-eared jacamar. We eventually pulled out of the smaller river and into the Amazon as the sun crested over a cloud. We turned the motor on full speed and sped across the muddy river, wind in our faces. On the other side of the Amazon, I saw my first (and second) sloth, high in a cecropia tree. After we were finished ooh-ing and aah-ing and taking pictures, we turned around to come back to the lodge in time for breakfast. I’m glad I decided to go against my college student’s instinct of grabbing a few extra hours of sleep and instead went on what has been one of my favorite excursions of the trip so far!
~Rita

Log 2
This morning I didn’t go on the sunrise canopy walk, I was greatly in need of sleep and decided to sleep in till 7 rather than wake up at 5:30. The minute I woke up, I was regretting my decision to sleep in. I was thinking about and imagining all the things I would be missing, all the stories I would hear when the rest of the group got back, knowing that I had missed a wonderful experience. However, the moment I walked outside my opinion changed. I was transported into another world, where no one but the birds and the bugs were around me. It was absolutely breath-taking. I could hear the unique call of the oropendulas and the chirps of the crickets all around me, there was not another human in sight. The sun had risen a couple hours earlier and was casting a lovely light over the rainforest. I sat on a ledge of the lodge for awhile taking in the beauty of that morning. After awhile I went inside the lodge for a hot cup of tea and some journal writing in a hammock. Looking back I definitely don’t regret my decision to skip the canopy walk.
~Jess

Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine yourself overlooking the canopy of the Rainforest!

AMAZON RAINFOREST WORKSHOP
Specially Designed for Travelers Interested in Natural History, Canopy Research, and Ethnobotany
DEPARTURE DATE: JUNE 24 – JULY 2, 2008
Group Leader – DR. MEG LOWMAN

Unique, active, and fun! This expedition is an eye-opening introduction to the environmental and cultural aspects of the Amazon
Rainforest and River System. The program is a third world experience that is safe, comfortable, and accessible. The itinerary
offers travelers a window on scientific discovery. Intercultural interactions are coordinated to be engaging and meaningful.

PROGRAM FEATURES
“This is a non-stop workshop full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
You’ll be immersed in field experiences at four rainforest lodge facilities in the Amazon basin of Northern Peru:

• Ascend over 115 feet on a 1/4-mile Rainforest Canopy Walkway, one of the few of its kind in the New World.
• Visit indigenous communities and contribute to the well being of people who live on the Amazon River.
• Identify the many ecosystem partnerships of one of the most biologically diverse environments on our earth
• Engage all of your senses to observe the unique flora and fauna of the Amazon Rainforest.
• Use hand lenses, binoculars, maps, taxonomic keys for identification, and simple field equipment with the help of Dr. Lowman and our experienced Naturalist Guides to learn about:
  • Insect Camouflage & Mimicry
  • Neotropical Butterflies
  • Rainforest Canopy Research
  • Rainforest Conservation
  • Neotropical Birds & Migration
  • Ethnobotany
  • Rainforest Ecosystem Comparisons
  • Amazon River System, Geology and Soils
  • Medicinal Plants
  • Orchids & Bromeliads

The 2008 land cost for this workshop is $1898 and the international flight roundtrip Lima ~ $950- $1050.
Space is limited, so reserve your place early! Contact: Dr. Frances Gatz,
Environmental Expeditions, 9335 Fraser Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
Phone: 301-585-7027 or toll free at 1-800-669-6806 FAX 301-585-4899 Email: frances@ee-link.net
For general information see the website http://www.travel2learn.com/4students.htm

For more information view the printable PDF Flyer

Dr. Lowman will be speaking on Jan. 15th at Calvin College.
Jan. 15 - “It’s a Jungle Up There: Exploration of the Treetops,” Margaret Lowman, tropical rain forest canopy biologist and educator at New College.

Full Calvin College lecture series is here.

From the Bradenton Herald:

Manatee County residents will be able to catch her speech - and those of other notable speakers through the college’s January Series - live through broadcasts at Bradenton Christian School starting today.

The college, a Christian liberal arts school in Grand Rapids, Mich., has conducted the January Series lectures for more than 20 years.

For the first time, the series will be broadcast live to a dozen locations in the United States, including Bradenton Christian. The series won the International Platform Society’s Silver Bowl Award for best campus lecture series in the nation three times in the 1990s, and the award has since been retired.

. . .

If you go

What: Bradenton Christian School will be broadcasting Calvin College’s January Series, featuring speakers on a variety of topics

When: 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., between today and Jan. 23 (see dates and topics)

Where: Bradenton Christian School’s auditorium, 3304 43rd St. W., Bradenton

Admission: Free

Information: 792-5454

From Orlando Business Journal:

Florida’s treasury investment managers will be required to detail their abilities to assess climate risk, under a directive from Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer.

Florida is the first state treasury in the United States to require investment fund managers to make such disclosures, according to a release from Sink’s office.

Under the new directive, investment managers will be required to report on climate risk as part of their semi-annual reviews. Some managers have begun planning for the potential impacts of climate risk in their portfolios, while others have more work to do and need guidance on how to assess potential climate-related financial risks when making investment decisions, the release says.

The goal is to safeguard tax dollars from the risks posed by climate change and to encourage companies to capture opportunities related to the changing climate, says Sink, who oversees the state Department of Financial Services, the state’s $20 billion in Treasury funds and serves on the board of the Florida pension fund, which has $140 billion in assets.

Sink also said she is exploring the creation of a clean energy fund in Florida. Eighteen other states have created similar funds, which invest in renewable clean energy resources, such as solar, wind and biomass, the release said.

Additionally, Sink appointed Margaret Lowman, director of environmental initiatives at New College of Florida in Sarasota, as her science adviser on matters related to climate change.

Another article: State CFO details climate change initiatives

Quote from Dr. Lowman:

“I am honored to contribute my 30 years’ experience in professional science to serve as Science Advisor for Alex Sink, our state Chief Financial Officer. Florida – now more than ever – needs both science and economics at the table to map Florida’s future. As we face challenges such as climate change, water conservation, and obtaining clean energy, I hope that the integration of science, economics and policy will insure a healthy and prosperous Florida for our children.” [Meg Lowman, 13 Nov 2007]

Dr. Meg Lowman is one of the authors of the new book, “They Lived to Tell the Tale”. The Explorers Club is having a gala cocktail reception for the book launch on November 8. More info here.

“They Lived to Tell the Tale” is a colorful collection of adventure stories from some of the bravest and most daring people in the world – the members of The Explorers Club. These firsthand accounts, ranging from the remarkable to the captivating to the absurd, are sure to become a memorable part of exploration lore for generations to come.

Come meet the writers and celebrate the publication of these 41 exceptional tales of exploration and adventure.

Authors include the well known, the known, and the about-to-be known - and no one tells a tale like a true explorer.

The book will be available for purchase and for inscription by the attending contributors.

This event is open to members and guests, the general public and invited members of the press.

Special doors prizes too!

A conversation with Dr. Meg Lowman regarding climate change is in the Fall 2007 issue of Bay Soundings.

You can read the PDF of the article here:
Climate Change & Florida’s Future - A conversation with Dr. Meg Lowman