Foundations Supporting Sustainability (Featured: The Colcom Foundation and YOU)

Let's face it, money plays a role in environmental issues.  Notice how poorer areas have more pollution?  Don't you think that residents in those areas also deserve clean air and water?  You want clean air and water, don't you?

You see what happened to Dukakis, politically, when he spent money to clean up the Boston Harbor?  The Waterfront went from smelling like an open sewer to smelling like clean, salty, ocean breezes.  People's water bills went up and Dukakis was voted out of office.

"In 1919 the Metropolitan District Commission was created to oversee and regulate the quality of harbor water... In 1972 the Clean Water Act was passed in order to help promote increased national water quality.

Signage on the streets of Boston says:     Don't Dump!

" ... Boston [had] little incentive to increase water quality of the harbor. Since the mid-1970s organizations within the Boston community have battled for a cleaner Boston Harbor. More recently, the harbor was the site of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Project. Failures at...[a]... sewage treatment plant in Quincy and ... Deer Island plant adjacent to Winthrop had far-reaching environmental and political effects. Fecal coliform bacteria levels forced frequent swimming prohibitions along the harbor beaches and the Charles River for many years.^[3]... finally[action] by the United States government, [resulted] in the landmark court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor.^[4]

Drains to

"Before the cleanup projects, the water was so polluted thatThe Standells released a song in 1966 called Dirty Water about the sorry state of the Charles River.

[Thank you Standells...  All musicians note your role in creating a sustainable Earth!]

Boston

Harbor

"...Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to propose separating the water and sewer treatment divisions from the MDC, resulting in the creation of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in 1985 . 

"[Dukakis'] environmental record, ... was better ...^[5]The court ordered cleanup continued throughout the next two decades and is still ongoing.^[4] 

"... water quality in both the Harbor and the Charles River has significantly improved, and the projects have dramatically transformed Boston Harbor from one of the filthiest in the nation to one of the cleanest. Today Boston Harbor is safe for fishing and for swimming nearly every day, though there are still beach closings after even small rainstorms, caused by bacteria-laden storm water and the occasional combined sewer overflow.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Harbor;  Accessed 20 March 2014. 

Meanwhile, some people took advantage of the revived waterfront area and built assets there to make them even more money.  These should have brought in enough tax revenue to compensate for the cleaning of the water.  Did they?  As a global citizen, you need to reflect on these kinds of issues that affect clean air and water.  What do you think?  What happens to the sewer in your town city or rural area?

Public health depends on your active participation in global sustainability.  And money is always involved.  Reflect on issues in your community.  I will post foundations supporting sustainability here and in other posts as I come across them.  Perhaps you will think about establishing a foundation in your community to support clean air, water, and other sustainability issues.  (Do you know how to do that?)

Here is a link to Colcom foundation (I read about the Colcom Foundation when following up on  a mention in an aarticle on Mister Rogers.  Read about Mister Rogers if you are not familiar with him.)  The mission of the Colcom Foundation is stated as:

... to foster a sustainable environment to ensure quality of life for all Americans by addressing major causes and consequences of overpopulation and its adverse effects on natural resources.

Regionally, the Foundation supports conservation, environmental projects and cultural assets.  

(Source:  http://www.colcomfdn.org/mission.html, accessed 20 March 2014.)

The Colcom Foundation has local, regional and national areas of interest that they support.  At the regional level, for example, they are committed to ensuring quality of life and environmental sustainability.

The Colcom Foundation aggressively addresses:

• watershed remediation,
• natural resource preservation,
• clean air,
• improved water quality, and
• farmland and wildlife habitat conservation.

I am interested in those same points in Orange and Rockland Counties in New York state, which have had tremendous population influxes following the 911 events.  Farm and woodlands, and, thus clean air and water, are rapidly disappearing.  Can you help?  Can you contribute?  Can we build a foundation to support the Orange and Rockland area?

I am interested in these points for other areas around the globe.  What can each area do to raise the needed funds to create sustainability globally?

If you are starting a foundation, post a comment here.  If you are a foundation, post a comment here.  If you have a good idea about raising money to build a sustainable Earth, let us know of your success.  

We can create a sustainable Earth together.  All it takes is our effort, and, money...so, let's set about finding ways to get the job done.  We can build a sustainable Earth.

Thank you Colcom Foundation for your inspiration and support, and, thank each and every one of us who is doing our part to build a sustainable Earth.

Photos (c)2004-present J S Shipman

Virtual Herbaria...A New Year with Plant Specimens On-line

Over the holiday, Dr. J inquired about a project that has a goal of bringing all the US Herbaria on line, both with images and a searchable database, in a, "virtual herbarium." Mary Barkworth, the chair of the virtual herbarium initiative in the United States got back with information right away. It is summarized and shared with Read-about-it readers here.

02 Jan 2010 13:06:35

• The term [virtual herbarium], in general, has been used in many different ways, however, [botanists] tend to, "use it only for web sites that provide information about herbarium specimens online, preferably via images and a searchable database."

• Utah Valley University has a good one for a small herbarium - but it is not much use if you are not in that part of the world.

• Missouri Botanical Garden has a searchable database - tied the data base on names I think.

• The Pacific Northwest Herbaria collaborate in making their specimen information available - as are the California herbaria.

• Mary Barkworth chairs an initiative that has as its goals bringing all the US Herbaria on line - images and searchable database. (Mary.Barkworth--at--usu.edu)

Here are some related links:

1. http://herbarium.uvu.edu/Virtual/
   
   
2. http://www.tropicos.org/ (great for names, incidentally for specimen information)
   
   
3. http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/
   
   
4. http://www.pnwherbaria.org/
   
   
5. http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php

A special thank you to Chair Barkworth for the links and above information on virtual herbaria.

I (Dr. J) remind readers that the Botanical Society of America also has a plant image collection:
http://www.botany.org/PlantImages/

You can find images of plants here, too:

www.plantbiology.siu.edu/Faculty/nickrent/BotImages.html (Lists many virtual image collections from all around the globe)

http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/plant_systematics/plant_systematics.shtml

www.uvm.edu/~plantbio/pringle/

For information on digitization of herbarium specimens in Kenya:
www.e-biosphere09.org/posters/H21.pdf


Other herbaria with African plant collections and a link to an article on an African initiative (an initiative for a virtual herbarium, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation):
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4135568

www.sanbi.org/research/comptonherbarium.htm

apps.kew.org/herbcat/gotoApi.do

www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2007/december/herbarium.htm

From Brussels:
herbarium.ulb.ac.be/

Latin American Plant Initiative (initiative is sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation):

Mireya Correa, herbarium director at STRI and the University of Panama, shared with SciDev.Net, that, "scanners today can take high-resolution images of both sides of a specimen....[which]... is much better than seeing the plants in a microscope [...] And you don't have to travel http://post-create.g?blogID=4227554902061100641to herbaria in other countries and spend a lot of money to see a type specimen. All the information will be in the digital database." Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/news/latin-american-botanists-to-get-plant-database.html. Accessed: 02 Jan 2010. More information at: ppbio.inpa.gov.br/Port/colecoes/workshop/palestras/LAPI.pdf

http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/news/latin-american-botanists-to-get-plant-database.html

References to Asian plant image collections:
dps.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/BRAHMS/Home/Advisory/

www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/pakistan/project.shtml

I hope that you have found this list helpful and that you will take a virtual tour of the herbaria around the globe. I have tried to include herbaria from all parts of the world. I am certain there are many other plant image collections. Please add any you feel were left out in the comments below. Thank you.

A special thank you to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation which has made the formation of several components of the virtual herbarium possible.

A reminder that philanthropy for the sciences, like botany, are especially important when the economy is down. Since plants provide food and oxygen, shelter, fiber, shade, and help prevent desertification, among other benefits, it is important that all aspects of botany are supported. Please contact the director or chair of your local herbarium if you would like to help support the plant images initiative near you. Thank you for support of and interest in the sciences, science literacy and science education.

Dr. J

Find scientists in your location, or, around the globe, and support them. Support research in areas you feel it is needed. Support science literacy and science education. Thank you. http://read-about-it.blogspot.com/2009/12/science-in-economic-downturn.html

Science in an economic downturn...

Here's a quote from the USGS concerning funding of a long term project of data collection on NYS waterways:

NOTICE (Revised 10/01/2009) --Data collection at the following streamgages may be discontinued due to funding reductions from partner agencies. Although historic data will remain accessible, no new data will be collected unless one or more new funding partners are found. Users who can contribute funding for the non-Federal share of costs to continue operation of these streamgages should contact Ward Freeman, Acting Director of the USGS New York Water Science Center (518-285-5658 or wfreeman@usgs.gov). Source: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ny/nwis/rt. Accessed 12-30-09.

Add notices of short funding in your area in the comments below.

Remember, too, that scientists need money to travel.

I would like to present my research in Australia in 2011.

It would be great if scientists from other continents could get money to come to the conferences here. For example, I would like to bring one of the researchers associated with Plants Cafe to the botany meetings this year.

Find scientists in your location, or, around the globe, and support them. Support research in areas you feel it is needed. Support science literacy and science education. Thank you.

Sometimes it is fun to start science with a story.

The Tortoise and the Hares run from Sydney to Melbourne
ia a story you will treasure.

Now, let's link it to science and use it as an example of how you could develop a science fair project.

The story has a literature side and a sports side. You might be a literary or sports fan, but, you have to do science. How can you use your interests to your benefit? Can you think of some possible ways?

Does the story help you think up a "do-able" experiment?

Here are some hints:
control vs experimental
rules for animal experiments
physiology
turtles
tortoises
speed of different animals
data
repeatability
aerobic exercise and blood oxygen content
blood oxygen in people of all ages
sports medicine
exercise and health
when being slow wins, health=wise
results
drawings, photos, charts
...
Add your own brainstorm and then write an experimental design. Post any questions.

(c)2008 J. S. Shipman. All rights reserved

One potato, two potato...

U.S. Potato Board Announces Grant Program to Promote Healthy School Nutrition Environments...

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/rfp_item.jhtml?id=184000035

Apply for a grant for your school's nutrition program...

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