Bouquets and Brickbats

BOUQUETS

To Beaches Energy and Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol. With sea turtle nesting season underway, the two organizations launched the #CleanDarkFlat campaign to ensure that our local beaches are safe for sea turtles (clean = free of litter, dark = free of artificial light, flat = free of holes or sandcastles that can trap turtles). Support the cause by purchasing a $10 mug from participating coffee shops at the Beaches. Donations can also be made at the Beaches Energy Services office at Jacksonville Beach City Hall. 

To HarperCollins and Penguin Random House for their Unbanned Book Club. The publishing giants donated more than 500 books currently banned or being challenged which will be distributed through Little Free Library’s network of book exchange boxes. To learn more, visit littlefreelibrary.org. 

 

BRICKS

To the unrelenting heat making this summer one for record books across the globe. Since global warming/climate change is partially to blame, we’re tossing a bunch of bricks to the top causes.

Burning coal and gas. Who’s to blame?  Mostly power companies. We need to keep moving forward on the path of generating power from wind and solar sources

Cutting down forests. Who’s to blame?  Three-quarters of deforestation is driven by agriculture. Infrastructure development is responsible for 9-17%.

Fertilizers containing nitrogen. Who’s to blame? Companies that produce synthetic fertilizers which contain nitrogen. When nitrogen is exposed to soil in its active form, like fertilizer, the gas is 300 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Increased livestock farming:  What’s to blame?  The methane and nitrous oxide gasses produced by the practice of rearing farmed animals.