Joshua Herzig-Marx » environment

The Voltage Gate : Questioning the Sincerity of Envangelical Environmentalists

herzigma — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:37:11 +0000

A recent post on ScienceBlogs reviewed a book by Matthew Sleeth, an evangelical Christian and former doctor who has dedicated his life to environmental change. He came to speak at our little synagogue a few months ago – it’s interesting to read the perspective of a scientist and atheist: The Voltage Gate : Questioning the Sincerity of Evangelical Environmentalists.

Managing packing material

herzigma — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:14:39 +0000

I love ordering from Newegg, but I hate the peanuts they use for packing material. If you’re not careful (and lucky) they escape from the box, make a mess, and the cats start eating them. They’re also a pain to dispose. Garbage bags are never large enough and they don’t open wide enough to prevent spillage. We end up re-taping the box and placing it out at the curb.

Here’s my brilliant idea: a large plastic bag–with a huge mouth and a drawstring closure–should be folded and affixed to the top of every shipping box. Inside, outside, doesn’t matter where. Bonus points if both the peanuts and the bag are made from some kind of biodegradable plant-based plastic.

Cape of Good Hope national park

herzigma — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 15:47:14 +0000

A highlight of my trip to Cape Town was getting to visit the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park. The nephew of an expat friend, my guide was deeply knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna and his deep love for South Africa’s natural areas was evident. In addition to a drive along and throughout the entire Cape of Good Hope area, we also two short hikes and a few opportunities for wildlife and scenic viewing.

We saw lots of cool animals: large Eland and diminutive Bontebok, rock dassies (tiny relative of the African elephant), baboons, and penguins. Boulders penguin colony is crawling with the things and they’re used to humans. You’ll see in the shots below that they were comfortable with us barely two feet away.

High efficiency solid fuel stoves

herzigma — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:03:51 +0000

Today, Treehugger highlighted the Philips Smokeless Stove, a forced air, high efficiency wood fueled cooking stove. In their press release, Phillips cites the stove’s ability to reduce both fuel use (and subsequent deforestation and time spent gathering firewood) and pollution. No price was given. A similar product, the Sierra Zip stove, has been available for years and is sold for about $60 through Campmor. Only requiring an AA battery for hours of use, an inexpensive solar charger could make this a readily available alternative to Phillips’ design.