Chesapeake Climate Action Network’s Polar Bear Plunge, plus Bay Nature Magazine. Orbital Systems–making grey water cool, and Seabin joins with the Yamaha Rightwaters Initiatitve.
Chesapeake Climate Action Network’s Polar Bear Plunge, Bay Nature Magazine, Orbital Systems–Making Grey Water Cool, More Seabin Stuff
CHESAPEAKE CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK’S POLAR BEAR PLUNGE
Hey, everybody. Chesapeake Climate Action Network has some neat counter-programming to the lead up to Superbowl 56. It’s called the CCAN Polar Bear Plunge to “Keep Winter Cold.”
It’s taking place on February 12th. Hundreds of climate activists from across the country will come together to take the plunge for our climate. It’s an annual fundraiser, and the largest fundraising event of its kind of the year. According to the website, CCAN also uses the Plunge as an opportunity to bring the climate community together, raise awareness on climate change, and send a clear message to our leaders that climate change must be a priority.
This year, because of the unpredictability of the COVID pandemic, CCAN plans to host a hybrid Plunge.
So how do we take the plunge? There are many ways to take the Plunge. You can plunge with a team or as an individual, remotely from anywhere on the planet, or in-person at the National Harbor in Maryland on February 12th. Or, you can Plunge virtually from anywhere by soaking in an icy cold bath or kiddie pool, dumping a bucket of ice water over yourself, or even going to a nearby body of water. View our Plunge Program for more details.
Find more details on the hybrid Plunge on our About the Plunge page.
Why does the CCAN Polar Bear Plunge to Keep Winter Cold matter to us? The mission is to organize to pass climate policies in the Chesapeake Bay region—the world’s largest estuary. That’s why. And of course, one can use the Plunge as an opportunity to network with other positive action climate change soldiers about climate change — and — it’s FUN!
Surf on over to chesapeakclimate.org and click on the Polar Bear link there, or hit us up at theclimate.org/episodes in the Deeper Dive section of this episode.
DEEPER DIVE: CCAN, Polar Bear Plunge
CLIMATE CULTURE, BAY NATURE MAGAZINE
Speaking of the other famous, American bay, Bay Nature connects the people of the San Francisco Bay Area to our natural world and motivates people to solve problems with nature in mind. It’s an independent nonprofit publication and website with a vision that all people have a close relationship with nature, founded by Malcolm Margolin and David Loeb in January 2001 as Bay Nature magazine.
Topics include Science & Nature, Conservation and Exploration. In addition to publishing the magazine and website, every year the Bay Nature Institute honors the contributions of a conservation activist, an environmental educator, a community hero, and an up-and-coming young conservationist at its annual Local Hero Awards.
After a two-year virtual hiatus, the treasured, 12th annual Bay Nature Local Hero Awards will take place in person at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California on March 27th from 2-5 pm. (The Brower Center’s strict safety protocols will be followed.)
This year’s awardee’s include Community Hero, Richard Tejeda of Saved by Nature; Environmental Educator, Megan Isadore, co-founder River Otter Ecology Project; Young Leader, Solwazi Allah, the Watershed Restoration Field Crew Manager of Urban Tilth; and Conservation Action awardee, Nonette Hanko, founding member of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
Sounds like it’s going to be an fantastic night honoring four outstanding people. If you don’t live in the SF Bay area, but are keen on supporting this event, virtual tickets may also be purchased.
When it’s not COVID, Bay Nature Institute also organizes naturalist-led hikes to places featured in the magazine, produces a free community event calendar and trail-finding web app, and hosts live educational events.
DEEPER DIVE: Bay Nature
GREEN TECH: ORBITAL SYSTEMS–MAKING GREY WATER COOL
During a stint at Nasa’s space center in Houston, Mehrdad Mahdjoubi worked on the space agency’s Mars mission project. Travelling to the red planet takes between 150-300 days, and since Mars doesn’t have water, a small amount of water has to be reused over and over. That was the genesis for forming the company Orbital Systems of which he is the chief executive and co-founder. “We’ve transferred the technology from space to Earth.”
Why? Increasing human population in the face of diminishing fresh water supply. Says Mahdjoubi, “it’s ridiculous that in the 21st century, we waste clean water on flushing our toilets.”
Think about this: Even if your daily shower just lasts for five minutes, a poorly designed power shower can use up to about 20 gallons of water. Americans use about 100 gallons of water daily. Europeans aren’t far behind at about 80 gallons of water on average. And all that water could be re-used to flush our toilets. That’s what Orbital’s system does.
Esben Alslund-Lanthén, a research analyst at the sustainability think tank Sustainia. says , “To our knowledge, Orbital Systems is leading in the market for water-saving showers,” “That’s not to say there aren’t other innovations out there, but the genius of this solution is that it reuses the water instead of just reducing water use like other similar products.”
Half of the energy consumed in an average household is used to heat water used in the shower. In traditional solutions the water is heated and used once, just to be sent down the drain. According to its website, The Orbital shower is the world’s first circular shower, that purifies and recirculates the water in real-time, enabling an exact temperature control and water pressure. This can save up to 90% of water use and up to 80% of energy use without compromising comfort.
And for those two reasons alone is why Orbital Systems matters to us.
DEEPER DIVE: Orbital Systems, The Guardian
SEABIN JOINS WITH THE YAMAHA RIGHTWATERS INITIATITVE
Back in June, we told you about the Seabin project. The project involves the removal and data cataloguing of plastics and other marine debris from waterways. The critical data sets are analyzed by global authorities such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), to facilitate, support and implement positive policy making and behavioral change.
As part of Seabin™’s “100 Smarter Cities for Cleaner Oceans” campaign, Seabin partnered up with Yamaha Rightwaters Australia –yes, as in Yamaha Motors. The campaign which launched in Sydney provided a structured and supported way for the Seabin Project to go truly global, offering a 5-in-1 package of data monitoring, impact reporting, identifying causes of pollution, community awareness programs and marine debris removal to cities all around the world.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency, estimates around 1560kg of plastic (more than 3400 pounds) enters Sydney waterways each hour, with most of it funneling into the harbor. During the pilot launch, More than 16 tonnes of marine debris were collected. For a size comparison, 16 tonnes is about 54 adult male tigers.
The partnership with Yamaha paves the way for Seabin to add 16 additional Seabins in strategic locations within Sydney Harbor. Why does this partnership matter to us, and to Sydney, Australia? Sydney has high levels of microplastic pollution and Seabins™are getting the work done: removing pollution, especially microplastics. .