I’ve been thinking about beer much more than usual the last few months.  One reason, I started making some in my living room in April.  For another, my coworker Stacey gave up imported beers (not a small ask for a Guinness lover) as a means of reducing her carbon footprint.  Then just recently, New Belgium Brewery started shipping the much beloved Fat Tire and a couple of other brews to Minnesota from their shop in Ft. Collins, Colorado.  Not only is Fat Tire a beer that I have a long history with from trips back to the Motherland (not to mention its growing national reputation), but New Belgium - an employee owned brewery - has a notable commitment to the environment.  They’ve been buying wind power for almost a decade, they did a lot of smart things in building their new facilities, and they’re active in protecting their local watershed.  Lovely work really, and they’ve grown to be the third largest “craft” brewer in the country (behind Boston brewing and Sierra Nevada).  But they are also almost a 1,000 miles away and shipping water out of an arid land.

So, I am finding myself in a modified version of the stereotypical food ”local versus organic” debate.  Here are some pro and cons of some of the options, as I see it: (more…)

Word on the street is that Nancy Gibson, a board member of the International Wolf Center, and Mark Martell, executive director of Audubon Minnesota, will be on MPR’s Midday program today at 11 a.m. to talk about wolves, eagles, and more. 

The news has been unsettling me lately.  Mining-related cancers hidden by the Department of Health for a year, the seemingly growing presence of 3M chemicals in drinking water and area fish, and another whistleblower lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) – the first occurring a couple of years ago regarding the aforementioned 3M chemicals and the second regarding high levels of the pesticide Atrazine in the waters of Southeastern MN (though it is all throughout corn country) – create a troubling appearance of reoccurring patterns that our state must address.  Not only to remedy the mistakes that have happened, but for our state to evaluate mines currently being proposed, to begin rebuilding lost public confidence, and to ensure that we have systems in place that protect the health of Minnesotans. 
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The Healing Our Waters coalition has a photo and story contest underway for Great Lakes pictures and tales.  Over $7,500 in prizes, including a tent and a kayak.  Submissions will be taken through August 20, though prizes are be awarded each month.

A few items to note recently from the blogosphere:

Dave Dempsey pointed out an EPA report giving the health of the Great Lakes “mixed reviews”.  Reportedly on the plus side, Lake Trout in Superior are naturally reproducing more and there are less toxins than 30 years ago (is the ’70s really the appropriate benchmark?).  On the negative side, brominated flame retardants are more prevalent, less toxins and more fish still doesn’t eliminate consumption warnings, non-natives are still invading, and development remains a threat. 

Polinaut links to a Hotline post on the changing voting patters of the Hook and Bullet crowd between 2004 and 2006.  They too voted more democratic last Fall, but only for candidates who were strong on conservation.  Hope the politicians are listening there.

And Minnesota Monitor has a quick look at the environmental outcomes from the 2007 legislative session. 

The annual Bell Museum Bioblitz starts Friday night.  This year they’ll be exploring around the Warner Nature Center along the St. Croix.  If you’re into owls, frogs, birds, wetlands, butterflies, prairies, bogs, fungi - or whatever - there’s a way you can help survey Minnesota’s plants and animals.  Details are on the Bell website and City Pages asked three questions to help build the excitement. 

For those looking for alternative ways to help out Minnesota’s environmental community in one way or another, consider these two options:

Photo Contest - The Minnesota Environmental Fund is having a photo contest.  They are looking for local images that demonstrate the importance of our environment, so submit yours by June 21.

Online Auction - There is an online auction underway this month, with proceeds benefiting a number of state-based organizations from around the country, including MEP.  Some of the items up for bid include grass fed beef, from Cannon Falls’s 1000 Hills Cattle Company, outdoors apparel, organic dairy products for a year from Organic Valley, and even a Prius.  Check it out at http://www.selp.cmarket.com.  Bidding on some products ends soon and all bidding ends May 25. 

Two of Minnesota’s notable polar explorers have been getting some more national attention lately. 

Ann Bancroft did some Q & A with Grist.

Will Steger had a write-up in Outside Magazine’s April issue. Apparently there may be a movie of his current polar expedition.  You of course can keep track of his progress at the Global Warming 101 website.

I’ve long believed that protecting the environment is a value held by most people regardless of political leanings, particularly in Minnesota.  That hasn’t stopped the stereotypes though.  But a few things this week seems to mock those stereotypes. 

For example, the Star Tribune, long blasted by the right-wing as being too liberal, praised Governor Pawlenty’s greening (and neglected to credit Senator Scott Dibble’s long track record of working on energy efficiency).  And going the other way, a self-identified Republican from Maple Grove is quoted in the New York Times from a follow up interview of a poll on global warming.  He blasts Republicans for slashing funds for the environment, favoring business, and being “beholden to Big Oil.”  What a world.

Actually, I recommend you look over the Times’s article, as there are some interesting poll findings.  Americans are apparently more willing to pay additional money for cleaner electricity, but not more for gas (unless it reduces our use of foreign oil).  Eighty percent of us think the condition of the world’s environment is “fair or poor,” but most of us are happy with it in the area we live in (which is one reason, I believe, that protecting the environment is not a bigger issue with politicians).  However, 57 percent expect the environment to be worse for the next generation.

Many more interesting stats I’ll leave for you to discover, but I will point out my favorite.  Of the 75 percent thinking that our weather is getting weirder, almost half blame global warming while 4 percent attribute it to the end of the earth being near and another 2 percent to space junk.  Where’s my umbrella?

A few random items for your consideration:

The loss of bees has been a hot topic lately. But as Mouse and Garden and the Star Tribune both point out today, it is not the loss of all bees; it is the loss of European Honeybees.  We have over 1,500 native bees on this continent and the European Honeybee is the only one being affected by what is now being called Colony Collapse Disorder.   Of course, we have large numbers of honeybees because they are darn good at pollinating (with reportedly one-third of our food relying on such services) and because of the honey.  However, realizing that only this one type of non-native species is being affected does bring up some interesting questions (which I’ll leave to you to ponder).  Perhaps this is more about a flawed industrial system for food in our country than it is about a breakdown in nature.  The potential tragedy of this disorder being all of the lives and jobs that are dependent on this food system remaining intact.

On the energy front, while many folks were organizing to improve our energy future via the Senate Environment and Energy Omnibus Finance Bill, Xcel Energy was busy trying to undermine the use of a distributed (potentially clean, given the proper fuel source) energy system at the Rock Tenn paper recycling facility here in St. Paul.  Rock Tenn employs some 450 Steelworks and handles half of Minnesota’s recycled paper.  Fortunately, the Twin Cities Daily Planet is shedding some light on Xcel’s lobbying. 

Speaking of Steelworker jobs and the environment.  The American Iron and Steel Institute was in D.C. yesterday testifying on efforts to reduce global warming pollution produced during the manufacturing of steel.  They are making some pretty big promises about the potential to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions during the production of steel.  Of course, it is all in the research stage and in need of demonstration.  But as long as we are going to keep mining taconite from the Range, wouldn’t it be great to demonstrate once and for all that creating jobs up north and protecting the environment aren’t always in opposition?