An opportunity to learn may be under your feet

A recent phenomenon, called "chalking" by some, though that term can have other, less-innocent connotations, has taken hold on university campuses and may even be found in parks and on sidewalks along a street you use. Someone comes along and writes a message in chalk on a walkway or bike path where people are sure to be in the multitudes.

Some of these messages are random.







Others have positive or negative messages.













Some of them are oriented toward environmentalism.










Photos above are from Flickr.com and while they are free to use from that site, they are not for commercial use. Photos below are by Jennifer Tramm, excepting the YouTube.com video.


I occasionally find chalk messages around the University of Arizona campus. Many of them are announcements for events, like today's, which advertises a free showing Friday of "An Inconvenient Truth," in the Alumni Plaza on campus.

This method of getting the message out is cheap and easy to do and will yield results. People look at them. Some stop to read them. Others, like me, stop to take pictures and then blog about them. Flickr.com has dozens of pages of chalk messages.

One word of caution, however: If you get caught, police will likely tell you it's graffiti and if it doesn't come off, you'll be responsible for fixing it. In a recent Police Beat in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the UA's campus newspaper, a group of chalkers were made to wash the messages off by the officers who caught them. Fortunately for them, it came off without damaging anything. Unfortunately for their message, nobody got to see it.

So, it's an interesting medium for your message, but beware the consequences.

In my opinion, chalk messages are very environmental: Chalk is a substance found in nature, kills no trees (as would paper fliers) and washes off in the next rain. The only drawback might be the dyes used to give the chalk its color. Other than that, it's got some pluses.

P.S. For anyone who may be on the UA campus Friday night at 7 p.m. here's some information about the movie "An Inconvenient Truth," and/or check out the movie's trailer below.

Another Tucson school goes green!

Last month, public school Davidson Elementary achieved a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating and received the Congressional Award for Solar Excellence, presented by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Both are firsts for the Tucson Unified School District.

The LEED rating means the school conforms to nationally accepted standards maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council. According to a TUSD press release, the school uses shredded blue jeans for insulation, a hot new trend in green building.


Davidson Elementary School, 3950 E. Paradise Falls Dr., Tucson, Ariz. Photo by Jennifer Tramm.

Using old blue jeans and remnants from the clothing manufacturing process is very environmentally responsible. It reuses a biodegradable material (cotton), so it won't be around longer than we will be.


This video talks about a few insulation options. For the nitty gritty on blue jean insulation, move the slider bar to the 1:00 mark and let it play. Video courtesy Building Green TV.

The school buildings are pretty new. The old buildings, constructed in 1914, were torn down after a mold infestation proved to be their undoing. TUSD decided to build the new, environmentally-friendly school just north of its old location on the corner of North Alvernon Way and East Fort Lowell Road.

Along with using blue jeans to keep it warm or cool, Davidson Elementary also uses solar power and has a recycling club. Additionally, the school has a botanical garden, made possible by a $300,000 donation from then-Vice Mayor Carol West, according to Principal Arthur DeFilippo's page.

Way to go Davidson Elementary!

Look around: You might see planet love everywhere you turn

ELOY, Ariz. – It’s Spring Break and, like many of my fellow students, I am on vacation. In looking for things environmental, I found them in a most unlikely place: the budget motel in which I am staying. This Americas Best Value Inn belongs to a chain of hotels owned individually as franchises. So, each hotel has its own quirks. This one has a pleasant quirk: a tendency toward environmental responsibility.

Don’t get me wrong: This place is far from the greenest of the green, but with compact fluorescent light bulbs in every fixture and recycled toilet paper in the bathroom, it is more environmentally friendly than many hotels.

Rain Breeze Eco toilet paper contains at least 30 percent recycled fiber.



Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about 25 percent of the energy of a comparable incandescent bulb and last many times longer.












This unexpected planet love got me thinking as I toured the some Native American ruins in Coolidge, Ariz. Where else can I find environmental responsibility around me as I travel?

I found it at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Right outside the entrance was a little bin nailed to a post with a sign that reads, “Recycle Brochures Here.”

"Casa Grande" means "Big House" in Spanish and was first called that by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, an early Spanish explorer, in 1694.

I’m sure it is a cost saving effort, but it also saves paper, which saves trees, which helps save the planet.

There was plenty that was not environmentally responsible: dozens of cars and RVs in the parking lot, all waiting to spew engine exhaust into the air; and electricity in use without benefit of solar collectors.

The site helped me, however, reflect on how much society has changed in the 600-odd years since the Hohokam people left it.

Back then, people were practicing methods that shaped the land for their uses, but they didn’t have engines to fill the air with pollution. They lived in smaller communities than we do today. For the most part, light came from the sun, rather than coal-burned electricity generation and a light bulb. Food was grown to feed the community, rather than to make extreme profits. Even their dwellings were from the earth and so, many hundreds of years later, do they return to it.

In some ways, people of this area are starting to wake up to the dangers global climate change has in store for us. In the Casa Grande Dispatch, there was a story Sunday morning about how the city of Casa Grande, Ariz., is planning new biking and walking paths to offer the 34,000 + citizens an alternative to driving their cars. This is a great step in the right direction, especially since the city does not have in-town public transportation.

Erosion in the form of wind and rain has carved the face of the Big House since its abandonment in the late 14th century.

I hope that we can return to some of the methods the Hohokam used – not out of necessity, but because it’s better than what we’ve got going now.

All photos by Jennifer Tramm

Fun eco-Learning for the whole family...from Starbucks

Starbucks, often seen as a big corporation that squishes its smaller, local café competition, has something for those who wish to see better education on environmental issues.
Planet Green Game, a collaboration by Starbucks and Global Green USA, is for all ages and allows people to see a visual representation of what they can do to make the world a better place.
Sure, it's in a virtual world, but it contains real-world examples of what is being done now, in the real world. I played the game, so I'll tell you what I found.
At first, it asks you to enter your name, then asks you to choose an avatar and mode of transportation. I chose a hybrid car, which gave me 2 points every time I traveled around the virtual town of Evergreen for using a low-emissions vehicle. You can do better by choosing to walk, use a skateboard or ride a bike.
Then I got to choose either a direction, using the arrows on my keyboard, or by clicking on one of a set of destinations. I chose the Service Station, where I gassed up and got the opportunity to take a test drive for extra points. I don't do well when driving virtual cars, so it was a relief to get the points for even trying!
Next, I just drove around, trying to discover new things. A note of caution: Just driving around without a destination costs gas in any of the motorized vehicles. I eventually found Evergreen High school. Once there, I was given a quiz. With every correct answer, I was given points and the school got a new green feature added to it. The screen shot example to the right informs players about green improvements that the Los Angeles Unified School District is making to its schools. I got 100 extra points just for reading about how others are making a difference.
As I puttered around town, I came across these people with little bubbles with an "i" inside. Clicking on one of these gives you more information. I clicked on a little family as I was moving around and they "stopped" to tell me all about how changing just one lightbulb in my house out for one that saves energy could reduce pollution dramatically.
There are six destinations and 10 bonus opportunities for points. Along with the wealth of information you could learn from places like the building supply store and building a more environmentally responsible city park, you can go to the movie theater (by bus if you walk, skateboard or bike around town and click on a bus stop) where the Gen Art Online Film Festival shows real short movies about subjects like saving polar bears and the Vineyard Energy Project, based on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
More than just a Web site, this game is full of knowledge for anyone, of any age, who wants to know more about the environment and what can be done to help it, or to just have fun.

All images above are screenshots from Planet Green Game as I played it yesterday and today.

Zoo School Can Teach Us All

Building structures using environmentally responsible methods and materials is starting to catch on. The Lee H. Brown Family Conservation Learning Center, located at the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Ariz., was built with, well, conservation of resources in mind.

Photo by Jennifer Tramm

The center, also known as the “zoo school,” opened to the public just a few days ago, though it is not fully completed. According to Jed Dodd, an educational coordinator at the zoo, the street entrance, built with rammed earth, zoo-grown bamboo and recycled awnings from Tucson General Hospital, will not be open for perhaps another two years, though it was designed to receive young students from school buses, while the public uses the entrance inside the zoo. The exhibits for the zoo school should be ready much sooner.

The zoo hopes the center will receive a “Platinum” LEED certification – the highest rating possible under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system. Receiving a LEED rating indicates “that a building is environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to live and work,” according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED ratings Web site.

Also from the LEED site, to get these ratings, the building must send less waste to landfills, must conserve energy, must conserve water, have lower greenhouse gas emissions and also be a healthy place for people to be.

Dodd took me on a tour of the facility yesterday and showed me its features before it opened for the day. Inside the main room, he showed me the floor, covered with a recycled material. Pointing to the ceiling, which is made of rafters with small-link chicken wire strung between them. Behind the wire was a fuzzy, blue insulation. Dodd said this was made out of denim, famous for making into blue jeans, that has outlived its purpose as clothing or was cast off during the jeans manufacturing process. As I looked up, I noticed some bright lights. They were brighter than the fluorescent lights mounted right next to them. Dodd told me that those were solar tubes and required no electricity.

The Truth Window inside the zoo school. Photos by Jennifer Tramm

Dodd then brought me over to a plexi-covered hole in the wall. “This is our ‘Truth Window,’” he said. It shows the insulation over a special foam block insulation that he said goes together “like Legos.” Underneath it all was concrete for stability.

Then he brought me over to the side of the room, where the zoo had installed smooth bamboo cabinets and recycled glass countertops, which looked remarkably like those fancy countertops installed on home building shows, around a sink. Then he took me over to the partially completed macaque exhibit. Through huge panes of glass, I could see the exhibit taking shape. People visiting the zoo school will be able to look into the lives of the zoo’s macaque monkeys.
Photo by Jennifer Tramm

Behind the scenes, in the zoo school’s offices, employees live up to the building’s reputation. They use disposable forks, plates and napkins made from recycled cornhusks. Their break room also includes recycle containers for cans, plastic bottles and other recyclable items. In their meeting area, there is a bamboo-topped conference table made from the same smooth bamboo wood as the cabinets mentioned above, and office chairs made from recycled plastic bottles. These chairs look and feel like any other state-of-the-art office chairs. Even the cleaning products are made from environmentally responsible materials. The zoo school also uses “green” craft paper and crayons for kids’ crafts and the play area right outside the doors is made from a soft imitation grass.

Also outside are cisterns designed to catch and reserve rainwater. The large cistern outside the entrance helps to fill the millpond right next to the building. Several ducks and many fish live on and in the pond.
Photo by Jennifer Tramm

Later that morning, after going into the zoo with my kids, I took them to see the zoo school. My youngest got to touch a bearded lizard, which hails from Australia, according to a docent named Simon. Other kids crowded around the gentle animal to touch it lightly and learn about it. Already, kids are learning there.

Dodd said the building is getting international attention, with visitors coming from all over the world to see what the zoo has put together. He said that their site is a sort of “guinea pig” for green building.

From ensuring that materials came from within a 500 mile radius to using a special paint that does not emit the harmful chemicals that regular paint does, this building uses a great deal of innovations designed to be in greater harmony with the Earth.

You might be a tree-hugger if...

Being good to the planet doesn't always require extensive changes to your life. Sometimes, you're already doing some of your part.

You might be a tree-hugger if…

You use the library
Library is green – people re-use the books, instead of buying them, which creates more demand for them. According to the American Library Association, Americans each check out an average of a little over seven books per year. Using the most recent U.S. Census estimates on population, that would mean that more than two billion books are lent from American libraries each year. That’s two million books that weren’t purchased, so it follows that this number lowers the demand for new book printing, thus saving trees.
Photo courtesy freefoto.com.

You go to a park
Parks are green in more ways than one – kids share the same playground equipment, which reduces demand for the plastics that go into today’s equipment. Parks are multi-use environments, unlike movie theaters or office buildings. Plus - using a park doesn’t usually mean using electricity.

You use a dishwasher
Yes, you read correctly!
Washing dishes by hand is green – no or low electricity use, but a new study shows that using any dishwasher is better than by hand. Dishwashers use less soap and less water! Energy Star washers have the bonus of using less energy, which is the icing on the cake: less energy production and lower energy bills

You buy organic food
Organic food, aside from its pricey reputation and possible health benefits, is actually better for the planet. When farmers use pesticides on their crops and then it rains, the pesticides get into the soil, but it doesn’t stop there. It can end up in the water supply.

Shut off the water when you brush your teeth

Running the water while you scrub your choppers is just plain wasteful. All you have to do is wet your brush, shut off the water, put on the toothpaste and brush. When you need to rinse, fill a glass with enough water to hose ‘em down and then shut the faucet off again. This method conserves water. You could save up to 20 gallons of water per day! According to another site, shutting off the water while brushing your teeth saves four gallons per minute.
Photo courtesy freefoto.com.

You go to the farmer’s market
Locally grown food doesn’t have as far to travel, so less fuel is used to get it to your pantry. Plus, a lot of the food at farmer’s markets is organic.

Camp Cooper: Hands-on Learning

I had an opportunity to go on a hike on Thursday that really turned out great. I even got to touch a saguaro cactus.

I went out to the Cooper Environmental Science Campus, affectionately known as Camp Cooper by the teachers and students, to interview one of the environmental teachers for an upcoming story. The site is on the west side of Tucson, Ariz., just north of where Gates Pass Road takes over for West Speedway Boulevard, in the midst of burgeoning residential development. To the east and west are expensive houses surrounded by natural desert landscaping.

Inside Camp Cooper, however, is where the real desert lives.


Kathy Lloyd teaches kids about desert resources five days a week at Camp Cooper. Photo by Jennifer Tramm. All rights reserved.

Kathy Lloyd, Resource Teacher, took me on a tour of the facilities while we waited for a busload of Utterback Magnet Middle School students. The facility has cabins for overnight guests, a kitchen, learning stations and modern restrooms.
As we talked, I noticed the intense quiet of the 10-acre plot of land. When I noticed an odd sound coming from the bushes behind us, Lloyd told me it was a Gambel’s Quail – a female, to be exact. We spoke about the different animals to be found on-site before going on with the tour, which she said was not unlike the orientation that teachers get before bringing their students to the camp.

The main teaching room is in its own little building – complete with solar panels on the roof and snakes and tarantulas inside. Lloyd says she uses the animals to teach kids about desert wildlife.
While she was showing me this eco-friendly building, a dozen little birds, including more quail, doves and others, landed on nearby bushes and on the ground in between. They all looked at Lloyd expectantly.

She laughed when I mentioned them and said she often feeds them roasted peanuts, which keeps them coming back. She picked up a can of nuts and gently tossed several handfuls in the birds’ direction. They pounced. Lloyd explained that she does not give them birdseed because she is concerned that the seeds could sprout non-native plants, potentially putting the natural environment in danger. A desert bunny showed up shortly after she tossed the nuts and helped herself to a nut, undisturbed by pigeons pushing each other out of the way to get at the remaining nuts.

After the kids showed up and they’d gone through an orientation and Q&A session, we set out on the “medium” trail, which means it goes up slightly in elevation. All three of their trails are about a mile long.

Not long after we went down a set of timber and earth stairs to get to the trail proper, Lloyd spotted wildcat scat. Now, that’s not a University of Arizona basketball player running away, but the poo of the university mascot’s namesake. She gathered the kids around and told them about what they could learn from the scat, including what it ate and how long ago it may have been there.


Rough-and-tumble javelinas at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, another desert resource on the west side of Tucson, Ariz. Photo by James Tramm. All rights reserved.


A few feet from that pile lay another, this time from a javelina, that desert peccary often mistaken for a wild pig. Lloyd was able to tell the students that the animal had made his deposit about a day to a day and a half before and that it had eaten cactus spines, which could be seen throughout the sample. I heard a variety of responses to this information, but the loudest and most common was “ew!”

Lloyd led us in single file up a mild slope that was covered in different sized rocks – from pebbles to small boulders. As she stopped us every so often to discuss different features of the desert habitat for animals, the kids would alternate looking around and listening intently. The students asked insightful questions and answered more from Lloyd, which she said were designed to make them think. Even the parents got into the discussions.

At one stop, the hike got interactive. Lloyd asked the students to go up to a bush and touch it, then scratch a leaf lightly with a fingernail. Then she asked students why they thought the color of the leaf changed. At another stop, we learned that the saguaro cactus isn’t a uniform plant. For the first five feet or so, it has large, rigid spines. After that, the spines are smaller and not as dangerous. Such a design is a defense mechanism, to ward off animals that might like a snack. The kids got to touch again – in the fold between the rows of spines. This time, I joined in. It was cool to the touch.

Young hands reach out to discover the texture of a saguaro cactus at Camp Cooper Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008. Photo by Jennifer Tramm. All rights reserved.


Near the end of the looped trail we stopped to learn about nurse plants, or plants that grow with others nestled underneath their branches. One such plant is the creosote bush, one of which was “nursing” a small barrel cactus. Lloyd got the kids involved again, asking them to cup their hands around some creosote leaves and sort of huff in between their hands. I joined in again, completely captivated by the environment. Pew! Creosote is a strong odor! Lloyd said that smell is what permeates the air when it rains. I love that smell…but apparently not when it’s dry.
The hike ended with a walk along a ridge that gave a spectacular view of Tucson.

Sadly, the view included a thick layer of yellow-brown pollution hovering above this beautiful desert city.


Utterback Magnet Middle School science teacher Russ Kendricks looks over the desert landscape toward Tucson from Camp Cooper. Photo by Jennifer Tramm. All rights reserved.