EPA Visits VI

Fig. 1Not related to visit, but they ARE in the VI. :D

The EPA is celebrating their 40th birthday. Part of the celebratory festivities included a visit to the Virgin Islands. The reason for the visit? Well, they help a public conference in St. Croix to talk about air quality in the USVI and to discuss methods of waste reduction, which is an ongoing issue here. Underlying many of the things discussed was the urgent need for job creation and economical effects locally.

The conference brought up two very valid suggestions for waste management in the VI, hoever, true to VI form, instead of viewing the two suggestions as a tag-team effort to better things, it became more of a battle in "one vs. other" style. The two suggestions were a waste to energy project and a reduce-reuse initiative. They were brought to the table by Alpine Energy Group and Dr. Paul Connett, author of "Zero Waste for Sustainability," respectively. To quote the Virgin Islands Daily News article:

In the first discussion of the day, it was clear where the people stood.

Reduce, reuse vs. waste-to-energy

As the two presenters each approached the podium separately, it was clear by the audience reaction that they favored Paul Connett, the author of "Zero Waste for Sustainability" over those who represented Alpine Energy Group's waste-to-energy project.

While healthy and respectable applause was offered the Alpine representatives, Connett received a loud ovation.

Connett's position was that, through education and community buy-in, the territory can expect to divert a large percentage of waste from its landfills within 18 months.

The idea, which is similar to that being promoted by the EPA's V.I. Recycling Partnership initiative, is to reduce the amount of waste produced while increasing the amount that is reused through recycling and composting.

At the end of it all, though, it was clear that the people of the VI are very aware that something needs to be done. The EPA made is stance clear, as well, informing of the measure taken to reduce cruise ship emissions between islands. This is important for us as mroe cruise ships visit St. Thomas more than any other Caribbean port. THere will be new requirements placed on HOVENSA as well. There was a consent decree filed by the EPA agaisnt HOVENSA require upgrades to reduce emissions. WHy are these things so important to a small island territory? To quote EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck, "More cruise ships visit St. Thomas than any other place in the Caribbean. By protecting your land, your air, your water, you will ensure that tourists will come back."


To read the details of the visit, read the article at Virgin Islands Daily News and to see what the EPA has succeeded in doing the past 40 years, click here.

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Happy Birthday, POTSPOON!

Tomorrow, Potspoon! turns two! I am not even sure how to celebrate... do I have a giveaway? Last years ended with people I physically knew winning. Kinda lame. Maybe I will do better this year with that. Do I post crazy old posts? Do I give stats about Potspoon!? What should I do to celebrate? New video, perhaps? Goodness knows I have more than enough footage for a few...

Help!!!!! What do you want to see for Potspoon!'s Second Birthday?

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Happy Bloggiversary!

Today is the day. Potspoon! is officially 1! In honor of this momentous occasion, I am having a giveaway!!!!!!! Lucky for you, it isn't something too horribly science related. Unfortunately, because of things that are going wacky in real life, I have no pictures of good quality. They are cell phone picts. Sorry. I can give a good description so here goes.

One lucky winner chosen randomly will win either one of my unique hand painted canvas totes- perfect for groceries and the like- or one of my super mini paintings! The bags are about 15" square and the mini paintings are 2"x2" to 3"x3" in size and include a mini easel. Some examples follow below.

This is an example of a mini painting on a mini easel. You can find other examples here.

These are bags I have done for various things. Again, designs vary.

Ok, now for the rules. Just leave a comment describing your favorite post of the past year and why. Only one comment is eligible. Also, sorry to many of my overseas readers, but because I am in the process of moving (yes, I finally admitted it) I can only ship to the US. Territories as well. I know what it's like since I live in the USVI and people forget we count! Next Sunday (fingers crossed) I will use a random number generator (NOT random.org since I have many of my own) to select one lucky winner. I will then post Monday with the results and give the lucky winner info on how to contact me. Feel free to leave any other comments you would like as well, just know that I will number only the comments eligible. Good luck and thanks for sticking with me this past year!

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Sunday is SUN DAY

I went to Coki Beach today and wanted to share a bit of my favorite pictures from times past at this lovely beach. But first...

A story behind the locale... Coki Point (spelled Koki also) is named after cute little Coki (Coqui) frogs (Eleutherodactylus spp.) that are common to this and neighboring islands. They are tiny little frogs, called such because of their nighttime song, co-KI co-KI, that fills the night air, especially on this point. These frogs are PLASTERED all over any Puerto Rican souvenirs you may get. I love the sound they make.

They have recently been introduced to Hawai'i as an invasive species. Hawai'ians do NOT like these little frogs as much as we do. They were introduced on hibiscus plants that were shipped to Hawai'i from nurseries in Puerto Rico. Apparently, there are not enough hibiscus plants there, so they get them from this part of the world.

There are TONS of species of Coqui frogs. You can get more info here. Now, on to pictures from 3 birthdays ago when the mother figure came to visit. I love my mom!

This is my cousin in front of the beautiful sapphire water at this beach. Note: the pictures were not touched up. The water IS that blue here.


This is me and Mom (Mom's on the left) snorkeling in front of the now quite famous observatory at Coral World. I am so proud of my mother. She had never gone snorkeling before and we were in about 25 feet of water. Yay mom!

Okay. That is all you get. No more pictures! HA! That is just to make you want to come and visit... nah, really, my internet is being slow today. I'm on satellite so it happens sometimes.


Photo of Eleutherodactylus coqui courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

All the rest are by me and the hubs... some years ago.

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Vacation Time

I will be leaving on Tuesday to go to Utah to visit my dear in-laws. We (the hubs and I) are also going camping in Montana. We are going on an elk hunt! Not to kill them, to capture them on film and video. Woo Hoo! This isn't very science-y I know, but I am so excited. I'm actually doing something for my birthday instead of working. To celebrate, I leave you with pictures of my favorite places in Utah.

The first snow covered tree I EVER saw!



Me and the Hubs at Dinosaur.



Flaming Gorge. Okay this is actually Wyoming, but I seemed to have lost all my good Canyonlands picts. *sniff*

That's all for now. I really need to find those disks!

Pictures from Out West by Marizela Moya is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at scienceforfood.blogspot.com.

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What's going on?

First things first, I won a haiku challenge at Lunch Bucket Bento and part of the "prize" is being featured as the next blog to write a haiku about. I was a bit nervous because it's a food blog and, needless to say, this is not. Surprisingly enough, some of the haikus are HILARIOUS! You should go read them. Maybe you could enter too and win a cute prize!

Next up on the list, it's my cousin's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAGEE!

Finally, this Friday is a solar eclipse from Europe through Asia. Sorry to my Western Hemisphere readers! There are many really fun ways to view a solar eclipse without staring at the sun. I know it sounds like fun, but I do not recommend it. The first thing you could do is use a special pair of eclipse glasses. The next thing, what I'm doing, is watch it online. NASA is webcasting it live from China. It will be a full eclipse there. The easiest is to put a pinhole in a piece of paper or poster board and set it about a meter above something. Then you watch the shadow from the light cast through the pinhole onto the ground or whatever you have it above. Pretty easy. I did this in 2nd grade or something and it worked great. Since I am pretty sure most of us are in the Western Hemisphere, however, I suggest you just use the link above and watch it online. That is, unless of course, you have something better to do. Lol.

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