Ohio corn and wheat acres to increase to meet world demand

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that farmers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2011, up 5 percent from last year and 7 percent higher than in 2009.

If realized, this will be the second highest planted acreage in the United States since 1944, behind only the 93.5 million acres planted in 2007. Acreage increases of 250,000 or more are expected in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Dakota. The largest decrease is expected in Texas, down 150,000 acres.

The USDA figures show farmers in Ohio plan to plant 3.7 million acres of corn in 2011, up from 3.4 million acres that were planted last year.

“Farmers have responded to market indicators and will plant more corn acres this year. We anticipated these planting numbers because farmers have invested in building demand and take a great interest in meeting the needs of their customers,” said Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association (OCWGA) CEO Dwayne Siekman.

The USDA report also shows wheat acres at 890,000 acres, up from 780,000 acres planted last year in Ohio.

“Of course, weather plays the biggest role in what will happen as we progress through the growing season,” said Siekman. “Modern planting technology, though, has made it easier for farmers to plant earlier in the season and faster than they ever have before.”

With corn at 92.2 million planted acres, a near-record number, the harvest promise is within reach, especially given significant improvements and efficiencies that have tempered challenges to grain crops in recent years.

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Pro Energy Consultants, a national energy auditing firm specializing in solving comfort, energy efficiency and indoor air quality issues in residential and light commercial buildings, announces its energy audit special for Earth Day 2011. During the week of April 18, 2011, for every energy audit purchased, Pro Energy will donate an energy audit of equal or lesser value to a friend or family member of the homeowner. On average, this is approximately a $350-450 value.

“Many people have no idea how much energy and money they waste each month due to insufficient insulation, leaks in the ‘building envelope,’ and other issues that may not be recognized without a whole-house, diagnostic energy assessment,” said Pro Energy Consultants of Columbus Owner Harold Slocum. “We provide information customers need to begin planning energy-efficient solutions that not only reduce their utility costs and increase comfort, but also reduce waste and build toward a greener future.”

According to Slocum, an energy audit should always be the first step in making a home more energy-efficient. The company’s energy auditors assess the energy efficiency of homes and buildings using advanced equipment and tools, including a blower door and thermographic images from an infrared camera. The thermographic images included in the energy audit reports typically pinpoint missing or insufficient insulation, water and air leaks, and other common issues that contribute to wasted energy and higher bills.

Customers also receive a list of prioritized, recommended improvements necessary to make their home more energy-efficient.

“Every little bit counts,” said Slocum. “Even simple improvements – from sealing ductwork to adding insulation to switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs – can have a hugely positive effect on the environment and can cut energy costs significantly.”

For more information on energy audits, call 614-390-2004 or 888-9PROENERGY (1-888-977-6363), or visit http://www.proenergyconsultants.com.

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Environmental Advocacy Grows Stronger for LGBT Americans

As all Americans consider their environmental attitudes, a national survey released by Harris Interactive shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender adults, especially, are accelerating their personal commitment to pro-environmental issues.

A majority (55%) of all LGBT adults, when asked if they “personally care a great deal about the current state and future of the environment,” say this statement describes themselves completely or very well – a description that characterizes just one-third (33%) of heterosexual American adults. When all are asked if they “encourage others to be more environmentally friendly,” four out of ten (40%) LGBT adults say that statement also describes them completely or very well, while only twenty-four percent (24%) of heterosexual adults concur.

The new nationwide survey of 2,352 U.S. adults (ages 18 and over), of whom 347 self-identified as LGBT, was conducted online between November 8 and November 15, 2010, by Harris Interactive, a global market research and consulting firm, in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., a strategic public relations and marketing communications firm with special expertise in the LGBT market.

In a year-over-year contrast, nearly half (47%) of LGBT adults, when asked about their environmental attitudes today, say that being “environmentally conscious” either describes themselves completely or very well. That new benchmark shows a marked increase from a 2009 poll that found just 38% of LGBT adults felt this described them completely or very well. In contrast, in this year’s survey, 28% of heterosexual adults say that being “environmentally conscious” describes themselves completely or very well (while a similar 30% of heterosexuals applied that self-label in 2009).

As more Americans take steps to understand and protect the environment, there now appear to be widening gaps in attitudes between LGBT Americans and their heterosexual counterparts. For instance, one in three (35%) LGBT adults state that the self-label of “environmentalist” describes their identities completely or very well, when contrasted with just 15% of heterosexuals who believe this self-label fits themselves that same way.

When asked specifically about voting, purchase decisions, and workplace attitudes, these gaps become more evident. 45% of LGBT adults say it is “very to extremely important” to consider environmental issues when voting for a candidate, compared to 27% of non-LGBT adults. Nearly one in two (48%) LGBT adults also say it is “very to extremely important” to consider environmental issues when buying and using products or services, compared to 25% of heterosexuals. One in four (25%) LGBT adults report that it is also “very to extremely important” to consider environmental issues in choosing the company you work for or apply for a job, compared with just 17% of heterosexual adults who agree.

Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications, noted that environmentalism seems to be growing more deeply ingrained among LGBT adults: “Trends we’ve witnessed over the past few years consistently highlight the awareness and commitment that LGBT people tend to show environmental practices. Across-the-board, the community gravitates towards the concept of stewardship and commitment to a “green” future for all Americans.”

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Eight years after the September 11th attacks, the House of Representatives on November 6^th 2009 approved the “Chemical and Water Security Act of 2009,” (H.R. 2868) by a vote of 230-193. The legislation was led by Representatives Thompson (D-MS), Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Waxman (D-CA), Markey (D-MA), Oberstar (D-MN) and Johnson (D-TX). This is the first time either house of Congress has approved permanent and comprehensive chemical security legislation.

“Although it’s a compromise, this bill represents a historic first step toward protecting the 100 million Americans living in the shadow of high-risk chemical plants,” said Rick Hind, legislative director of Greenpeace. Attempts by House Republicans to weaken the legislation were voted down. “The day after a terrorist attack at a chemical plant kills thousands of Americans, any suggestion that we should not require the use of safer chemicals at these plants will be considered totally crazy. Republicans should have been offering amendments to strengthen this modest legislation instead of trying to cripple it,” said Hind.

“Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) first proposed this legislation in 1999. It’s time for the Senate to recognize the urgency of this issue and embrace common sense solutions that eliminate these risks once and for all,” said Hind.

Earlier this in November 2009, the Clorox Company announced plans to convert all of their U.S. facilities from ultra-hazardous chlorine gas to liquid bleach to “strengthen our operations and add another layer of security,” according to their CEO Don Knauss. Clorox also indicated that these changes “won’t affect the size of the company’s workforce.” Hind added, “by leading the way in eliminating the potential consequences of a catastrophic terrorist attack or accident, Clorox provided Congress with compelling new evidence to enact chemical plant security legislation.”

Since 9/11 more than 200 chemical facilities have converted to safer chemical processes, eliminating poison gas risks to more than 30 million Americans. Yet 300 other chemical plants together put 110 million Americans at risk.

On October 1st, the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time testified in favor of this legislation. “For the first time since the September 11th attacks Congressional leaders and the administration are in agreement on legislation that will actually protect the millions of Americans that remain at risk from chemical plants that can be turned into weapons of mass destruction,” said Hind.

In addition, water utility groups, environmental organizations and labor unions created a coalition of more than 50 organizations that are urging Congress to enact this legislation. They include: Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the United Auto Workers, Steelworkers, Teamsters, Fire Fighters, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace.

The House passed bill (H.R. 2868) will:

• Conditionally require the highest risk plants to use safer chemical processes where feasible and cost-effective, and requires the remaining high risk plants to “assess” safer chemical processes;

• Eliminate the current law’s exemption of thousands of chemical facilities, such as wastewater and drinking water plants and port facilities;

• Involve plant employees in the development of security plans and provides protections for whistleblowers and limit background check abuses;

• Preserve state’s authority to establish stronger security standards;

• Provide funding for conversion of plants, including drinking water facilities and wastewater facilities, and

• Allow citizen suits to enforce government implementation of the law.

This legislation will have huge effects on Ohioans. Our state has numerous industrial sites that use these dangerous chemicals, putting untold numbers of nearby residents at risk instead of using safer alternatives that are less harmful to the environment, workers, and citizens if an accident were to occur. This issue will be taken up in the Senate and it is important we continue to work to insure this bill becomes law ensuring a safer tomorrow.

Deborah Steele is Field Organizer in Columbus for Greenpeace USA. For more info call 614.323.1703.

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Power industry lobbyist Jim Roewer: “Wasn’t a problem.”

Leslie Stahl: “Well, it was a problem, but we just didn’t know it.”

This excerpt from a recent 60 Minutes story on toxic coal waste sums up the current trouble with the millions of tons of toxic ash left over each year from burning coal for energy.

While scientists and experts know, and have known for years that coal ash is full of harmful pollution that can cause cancer and other serious illnesses, the issue flew largely under the radar until the massive TVA disaster. Even now nobody, including the EPA, has a full picture of how much of this toxic waste is out there, where it is, or if it is staying put. The coal industry has dumped millions of tons of its toxic leftovers at thousands of sites across the country with no federal oversight, and utterly inadequate state policies.

The result? Toxic ash dumpsites lacking even basic safety protections, drinking water sources poisoned and people unknowingly put at risk.

A new investigative report reveals more than three-dozen new sites in 21 states, including 4 sites in Ohio, where toxic coal waste has made water supplies unsafe. These sites are the latest in a steadily growing number of waters known to be contaminated by poor management of coal ash. So far more than 130 cases of coal ash contamination have been found in 34 states, and even EPA admits this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Many state agencies (like those in Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and Tennessee to name a few) require no monitoring of waters near toxic coal ash sites. Other states, like West Virginia, do such a poor job of monitoring as to be useless. About 70 percent of the toxic coal ash generated nationwide is dumped in states that don’t require monitoring to see if toxic contamination is leaking from coal ash sites.

The report shows that states responsible for only four of the coal ash sites have required an investigation to determine the scale of the pollution. Not one state has required the toxic pollution to be stopped, let alone cleaned up. There is a clear need for the EPA to step in where the states have failed to protect our communities.

Lisa Jackson and the EPA have recognized this and the agency is currently considering whether and how to regulate toxic coal ash. In September the EPA held a series of hearings across the country to gather public comment on the new protections. Whether you attended a hearing in person or submit comments online I urge you to send a strong message to EPA that federally enforceable protections are absolutely necessary in the face of the growing risk from coal’s toxic waste.

Due to high demand, the EPA has extended the public comment period until November 19th. The EPA is specifically seeking input on a mandatory vs. voluntary approach and the “beneficial use” of coal ash waste in consumer products. Speak up today at SierraClub.org/CoalAsh and follow the latest news at SierraClub.org/Coal/OH.

Bruce Nilles is the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, the largest component of Sierra Club’s new Climate Recovery Partnerships. The Beyond Coal Campaign is working to reduce America’s over reliance on coal, slash coal’s contribution to global warming and other pollution woes, end destructive mining, and secure massive investments in clean energy alternatives.

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President Obama; It Is Still Climate Time

Last month in Copenhagen Denmark world leaders come together to negotiate a new international treaty to replace the Kyoto Treaty (the protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change aimed at combating global warming). As this is being written the outcome of these negotiations remains unknown. Overall our history on climate change is nothing to be proud of; we all recall hearing about how the United States never signed the Kyoto Protocol. Now we have a President who is quoted as saying “the issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril” yet the writing on the wall is not so clear if we are finally going to join the world in working together to help solve this crisis.

When Obama took office the goal was to work on passing strong science-based legislation here at home before the climate summit in Copenhagen, (what became known as cap and trade) in order to come to the table with substantial emission reduction targets already in place. This would have allowed the United States to show up in better standing with the global community rather than being the ridiculous largest historic emitter of greenhouse gasses who has yet to own up to our responsibility. To no surprise corporate polluters are extremely intimidated by the notion of ending our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels and are actively pressuring our elected officials and citizens not to kick our bad habit. The climate legislation introduced in Congress this past spring became so weakened by these culprits that it falls far short of what science says we must do in order to avoid runaway climate change.

There are deep well-lined pockets behind this deplorable mission to undermining climate legislation. Since Obama has taken office, on a low estimate, polluters are spending over $300,000 every day to put off ending our addiction to dirty energy sources. While the summit has ended, their funding to impede action that works to solve our climate problems will not cease anytime soon. Their tactics include creating confusion around the science of climate change and if the conversation shifts to the necessity of addressing climate change, they play the blame game and say China will only continue to pollute. While it is true all countries need to be working towards solutions, to date we continue to not admit our responsibility in this, nor have we instated any legislation that will significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. These characters hope we do not pay attention to the fact that China has already surpassed the United States in solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing. Overall these thugs don’t really care where the conversation or argument goes as long as we don’t take action, resulting in them continuing to roll in record profits while destroying our planet.

Tackling global warming, this is the issue of our generation and will define the Obama presidency. While this is a big problem, people uniting to take on oppressors is a story that has played out before. As long as there have been groups profiting off of others they will do anything to maintain their stronghold. While at the moment we may be holding the world back in solving climate change, the United States has a strong history of overcoming huge obstacles once we become significantly appalled by an atrocity. The excellent news is the majority of citizens want our government to take strong action to address climate change. Today what is needed is a social movement on the same scale as the civil rights era that demands our elected officials take science-based action. More and more people understand not only the necessity but the opportunity to solve this problem. Already, Toledo, Ohio produces the most solar panels in the country. We have the manufacturing base to build the new technologies right here in our state. Building green energy sources will provide two to three times more energy than fossil fuels can and at the same time provide a safer climate.

Even though the summit has ended, there is no better time to be sure the President hears your voice on this matter. No matter what happens in Copenhagen, it will be the people power that gets our country back on track. Right now you can log on to greenpeace.org to see our take on the outcome of Copenhagen and learn how you can get more involved. This is the time to remain steadfast and urge Obama to carry out his campaign promises of tackling climate change. Mr. President, we still need a leader, not a politician.

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There is no doubt about it, being green is in fashion. Unfortunately climate change is such a serious issue it should rise above that of being fashionable, but people are busy and it is worth catching some people where they are. As I’ve said before, the term ‘green’ implies such a range of technologies and personal habits that the term should hardly be used, and some companies are eager to hijack the term to promote what is truly a dirty dangerous energy scam, such as the dirty lie of “clean coal.” But this problem is not going away in my lifetime, so it is best to get informed and participate in the solutions. And I, for one, am not going to feel bad about looking good while doing so.

When designers were developing the second generation of the Toyota Prius, they wanted to create a car that people knew was a hybrid car. In the first generation designers were afraid consumers did not want to stand out or look strange but they soon realized something very basic about human behavior; we want credit from each other for doing good things. This newer, obvious hybrid design was so popular and perhaps functional that competitor Honda’s Insight bears a striking resemblance. In Toyota’s third generation of the Prius, they stuck with the overall concept.

Luckily we do not have to spend an extra 10 thousand or so dollars on a car to be seen as an environmentalist. For those who want to help or at least be less damaging to the environment, I propose you get a water bottle. Reusable beverage containers offer an outlet of creativity and individual expression while showing off your environmental awareness. I think baristas enjoy knowing customers are less likely to walk away with the wrong mocha, too. I carry one for water or cold beverages and one for coffee; the best of materials tend to break down if they go through extreme temperature changes. In this same vein are reusable grocery bags, and almost every store sells bags with their logo on it. I‘ll admit it is hard to remember to keep them with you when going shopping, but these bags are more functional than plastic. I can’t speak to who has the best logo on a bag; I prefer to turn them inside out most of the time.

While I am happy and often amused by green fashion statements, I have to be real here. Unfortunately, I’ve had to check my activist assumptions about strangers wearing environmentally minded T-shirts. In the past when I have sought signatures for various environmental issues, I’ve learned that not everyone who wears a recycle symbol cares about clean air, for example. I am speaking from experience; this is about more than someone who really does not have time at that moment. This is probably more a statement about our disconnected society than an individual’s mindset. We are better consumers than citizens much of the time. And while I do not doubt there are definitely huge ways we can help the environment by recycling or buying locally grown food, it is just sad when people assume being green is only done in the consumer realm.

Our elected officials are bought and sold by dirty energy companies, and here in Ohio there are numerous culprits from both parties who take enormous campaign contributions from companies like First Energy or American Electric Power. Until we as voters hold them more accountable and we ourselves do not fall into the false dichotomy of the environment vs. jobs, this cycle will continue. So I do wear lots of T-shirts with environmental messages, but more importantly I often take action, even if I do not always look cool doing so.

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Regulation Is The New Green

Keeping up with environmental issues can feel like information overload at times. A main underlying theme used by the fossil fuel industry in various ways is that of regulation being a bad thing. While anti-regulation has always been a keystone of polluters’ political platforms, recent announcements by the EPA has spurred their lobbyists into action again with that old message. Within a matter of days the U.S. Senate will vote if the EPA should have the power to regulate greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act. Also on the EPA’s to-do list is figuring out if coal ash should be labeled as a toxic substance. As our government toils over how to deal with these long overdue environmental issues we better be sure they are hearing from citizens. If you want a cleaner safer climate you should be not only for regulation, but a politically active person as well.

It has been more than a year from when over a billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry spewed from a broken containment area near the coal fired Kingston Fossil Plant in Eastern Tennessee overcoming a nearby river. The amount of coal ash released was 50 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. With a new head of the EPA last year, Lisa Jackson announced action from her agency around the issue of coal ash by the end of 2009. A decision from the EPA has yet to be announced despite the fact that OSHA already considers coal fly ash a hazardous chemical. There are abundant levels of mercury, cadmium, and other heavy metals present in coal ash.

It does not take a horrible accident like the spill or living near containment areas of coal waste, to be vulnerable to serious health risks of coal ash. This material unregulated is already all around us in various forms. In 2000 the Clinton Administration missed an opportunity to correctly label coal ash as toxic, as a result it is considered a product fit for industrial recycling into products such as concrete. In the U.S. about 30 million tons of fly ash material was “recycled” for other uses during 2008 alone.

Review meetings of EPA’s proposed coal ash regulation have received an historic amount of industry attention, even more so than the regulation of greenhouse gasses at the White House. Industry stakeholders have attended 22 meetings while environmental stakeholders have been present at just four. Who is to insure the government is representing the interests of the people with a ratio of five to one? It could be argued more progress can be made in talking to culprits, but unfortunately there is a long running history of those most responsible for creating the mess influencing what does or does not happen in D.C.

That influence is bad for all of us. If we learned anything for the mortgage crisis, we learned how important oversight is. Whereas we could allow our elected officials to continue business as usual, and as a result avoid changing the underlining problems in the system; we could keep burning coal that destroys mountains in the process of obtaining it and everyone’s health in the process of burning it; and we could just continue to simply assume if we get the right person elected to office our work is done as citizens in a democracy; but at a certain point we cannot afford to fail our environment. As a society these issues demand our attention from the top down and the bottom up simultaneously and with conviction. As we stand on the eve of the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, we should remind ourselves what a social movement looks like. We must demand our government protects our health and the environment from the interests from corporate polluters. We each must be personally involved.

steele.deb@gmail.com

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The Silent Killers in Social Media Never Die

The current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is, of course, a first-degree public relations nightmare for beleaguered British multinational BP. Many pundits and financial analysts have debated whether or not the company will be able to survive this environmental disaster. Whether BP can and does survive this ordeal financially remains to be seen. Certainly their financial survival will depend on how many claims are filed, the aggregate value of those claims, the legitimacy of the claims, and how long the claim filing goes on. All of which remains uncertain.

But what seems to me to be more certain is that BP will have an extremely difficult time surviving the corporate image nightmare. That is a problem that will not go away shortly after the last claim is paid and is one that likely will continue in perpetuity. Why do I think that? Two words.

Social media.

These two words, and the peer-to-peer communications explosion they represent, did not exist in 1979 when the Ixtoc oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, nor did those two words and the social web technology that they describe exist when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989. Both Ixtoc and Valdez are two environmental accidents that are on a similar scale as the current BP spill. But the corporate image pitfalls of those pre-social media accidents will not live on to the same extent, as will those of the BP spill.

Those corporate image perils will not be as threatening because social media did not exist during the times of Ixtoc and Valdez. And because there was no social media then, there would simply not be as much deposited about the Ixtoc or Valdez incidents within blogs, social networks, mini-blogs, photo sharing sites, etc. as there would be about the BP incident which is now playing out under the watchful eye of the pervasive social media world that grows daily. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and blogs galore are alight with news, opinions, and lies about the BP disaster. The extent of the social media coverage, much of it launched by “citizen journalists,” is so voluminous, too voluminous in fact, that it cannot be chronicled here. For your own customized look, you may simply enjoy the miracle of Google and type “BP” into their search box. But here I can, at least, take a quick look at one social media view of the BP accident. This one is particularly unique among all the social media haranguing of the hapless British multinational.

Prompted by the BP rig explosion and the ensuing spill, Greenpeace, the global environmental non-governmental organization (NGO), initiated a “Rebrand the BP Logo” contest. Via the Internet, Greenpeace asked its supporters to submit their own versions of the BP logo, telling them:

“ . . . create a logo for BP which shows that the company is not ‘beyond petroleum’ – they’re up to their necks in tar sands and deepwater drilling.”

And what did the NGO say they would do with the winning redesign, which is known in other parlance as a “culture jam”?

“The winning logo will be used by us in innovative and exciting ways as part of our international campaign against the oil company.” (Both quotes per Greenpeace Web site - http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/gulf-oil-spill/bp-logo.)

Now, when viewed by the casual observer such an action might seem clever, cute, and even perhaps tongue-in-cheek. Certainly because of these characteristics, the Greenpeace campaign would attract a lot of attention. But, when viewed from the perspective of a businessperson, it’s plain to see that this campaign will also add further contemporary damage to the BP corporate image. Be that as it may, let’s not be shortsighted and forget the BP of the future. That damage will be of an extended nature, one of a “silent killer” which will continue to injure the corporate image long after the last gallon of oil is scooped up, long after the last pelican is cleaned and released, and long after all compensation is awarded, no matter how much more “green” that energy company attempts to become. That injury to the future BP corporate image will endure because of the way Greenpeace collected the contest entries.

Greenpeace asked the contest entrants to submit their entries to a photo group on Flickr.com, the social photo and image-sharing site. (Such sites in social media are sometimes known as “plogs,” short for “photo blog.”) When the contest ended on June 28, 2010, there were approximately 2,500 entries in the two Flickr.com photo groups, “Behind the Logo 1 & 2,” that Greenpeace had set up for their purpose. Also at that time, there had been about 600,000 views of the logo rebrands entered, views racked up in only a matter of a few weeks. In terms of numbers of future views, what do you think that number implies if these images remain on Flickr.com?

It doesn’t seem likely that Greenpeace would remove all these rebrand entries once the contest is complete. Why would they? And in that case, for as long as Greenpeace keeps its Flickr.com account active, these images will live “forever” on Flickr.com, and they will be available for people to digitally share and pass around as they like, ad infinitum, and ad nauseum for BP. Even if, at some point, Greenpeace did remove these logo rebrand entries from Flickr.com, in all probability, because these images would have been exchanged online, digitally migrating away from Flickr.com, moving from one site to the next, they will continue to live indefinitely on the larger social web.

So, given this one silent social media killer example, and because of all the other countless social media “pastings” of the BP brand that exist out there on the social web, I believe it will be very difficult for BP to survive the perpetual corporate image impact. This is an impact borne of an easy to use tool, accessible to almost everyone in the developed world, that didn’t exist half dozen years ago and a tool that will likely become more pervasive as time marches on.

What does that signal for BP? And what does that indicate for any other company, such as yours, which is either rightly or wrongly accused within social media?

Richard Telofski is the founder and president of The Kahuna Content Company, Inc. a competitive strategy consultancy. He was also the founder and head of The Becker Research Company, Inc., one of the world’s first competitive intelligence consultancies, where he worked with Fortune 100 clients. Telofski is the author of four books including Insidious Competition and Dangerous Competition. For more information please visit: www.InsidiousCompetition.com.

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40 years ago, pioneering activists fought for clean air and water. Their actions led to Congress passing tough regulations forcing industry to reduce emissions. We owe a lot to these foremothers and forefathers of the environmental movement, but now it is time for The Update. Environmentalism today is about sustainability and working together to improve the health of our families, communities and planet. It’s about making every day Earth Day – by recycling, bicycling, up-cycling and more. Everyone has a role to play.

Green Columbus, the organization behind the last three central Ohio Earth Day celebrations, is planning a two-part, three-day event to recognize the 40th anniversary this April. Part one consists of a coordinated campaign to encourage central Ohioans to volunteer at worksites on Saturday, April 17, and Sunday, April 18. Part two is a celebration at Franklin Park on Thursday, April 22, to recognize accomplishments from the previous weekend and raise awareness about environmental issues.

Earth Day 2010: The Update is a follow-up to Earth Day 2009: Picture This. In 2009, Columbus had the largest volunteer turnout for Earth Day of any city in the U.S.; over 2,600 central Ohioans donated their time and labor at 70 area worksites. The goal for 2010 is to get 10,000 volunteers engaged in environmentally related activities, which will make Columbus and central Ohio the largest celebration of its kind.

A key element of Earth Day 2010: The Update is a tree-planting initiative that is being coordinated by the Buckeye Forest Council, Rainforest Action Network and Green Columbus. The three organizations are facilitating the planting of 10,000 trees at worksites across central Ohio on April 17 and 18. As of January 2010, almost half of the goal has been reached.

The tree initiative aims to supply volunteer labor to perform the planting and, where necessary, supply trees to organizations hosting Earth Day 2010: The Update worksites. The recently disbanded central Ohio chapter of Rainforest Action Network has provided the seed funds for the initiative. The remaining funding is expected to come from a variety of sources including the Name-a-Tree program, a new opportunity to have a tree planted in honor or memory of someone special.

Green Columbus is also partnering with Keep Columbus Beautiful, which will work with its network of community organizations to host volunteer worksites, provide basic supplies for litter pick up and space for worksite host training.

Any organization may host an Earth Day worksite, including environmental groups, community organizations, businesses, places of worship, schools and others. In addition to planting trees, common worksite activities involve community gardening, removing invasive species, cleaning up riverbanks and neighborhood beautification. Approximately 150 worksites will be needed to supply meaningful opportunities for 10,000 volunteers. Worksite registration is open now at www.update2010.org.

This year, the culminating celebration falls on the calendar Earth Day – April 22 – and will be held at Franklin Park, a change from Goodale Park, the site of the celebration for the previous three years. Tentatively scheduled from 3p-10p, the celebration will feature speakers including Mayor Michael B. Coleman, live music, local and organic food, informational booths, kids’ activities and much more.

Plans for the celebration incorporate the new Scotts-Miracle Gro Community Garden campus at Franklin Park Conservatory. This seven-acre, state-of-the-art “living classroom,” which opened in September of 2009, provides a platform for environmental education as well as community gardening best practices.

Visit www.update2010.org for more information about the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in central Ohio and sign up for an email reminder to register to volunteer. Volunteer registration opens in early March and worksites will be categorized by general location and type of activity. Additional elements of Earth Day 2010: The Update include a people’s history of Earth Day, video and photo contest, and an up-cycled fashion show.

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