Alligators

Interesting fact about me: I LOVE alligators.

Adult Florida alligators are usually 6 to 12 feet long. The largest recorded Florida alligator measured 17 feet 5 inches.

Alligators eat fish, birds, turtles, snakes, mammals, and amphibians.

The breeding season begins in the spring. 

Alligators are capable of killing humans, but are generally wary enough not to see them as a potential prey.

In 1967, the alligator was listed as an endangered species 

The lifespan of an alligator is 30-40 years in the wild

They breed at about 8-10 years

Alligators communicate by hissing and bellowing

In the Everglades they have an Alligator Farm.

It contains over 2000 alligators

Home of the famous 14 ft. "Grandpa" alligator, the farm has an awesome staff of Airboat drivers, Alligator Experts, and even Snake handlers.

Living Wisely

Sustainable farming is a method of producing crops for human needs while following ecological practices.  Those practices include:

a)      Satisfying the human’s food and fiber needs

b)      Efficiently using resources while making the lightest human footprint possible and using natural elements to protect and grow food crops rather than synthetic substances. 

c)       Keeping the farming operations viable for economic growth

d)      Enhancing the quality of life for humans

The air at some factory farm test sites in the United States is dirtier than in America’s most polluted cities and exposes workers to pollutant concentrations far above occupational safety guidelines, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities.

Sustainable agriculture is more a way of life than a law or regulation. Each step you take benefits both you and your family, and helps preserve and protect the planet for future generations.

Greener products are a great thing, and they'll become less expensive with availability. But for many, their desirability is tempered by the reality of family economics. The fact also remains that it's not what you buy that makes you green, but what you don't. Hybrid autos are a good green choice, but so is dusting off that bicycle and driving less. Eco fashion is terrific, but so is learning to repair old clothing or buying secondhand.

Sculptor turns rotting oak tree into art

Sculptor turns rotting oak tree into art

Old tree gets new life in downtown Fort Myers

Mantanzas Pass Perserve/Historic Cottage

Saturday June 11th I made up my field trip to the Ft. Myers Beach/Estero Bay Historic Cottage.


Built in 1921, this beachfront cottage served 5 generations of the Davison family. Remembered as the San Castle Kindergarten, it was relocated from Mango Street and dedicated in 1997 as the Estero Island Historic Society and Nature Center

We went into the Cottage and listened to a woman speak about the cottage and walked around and looked at all the pictures and memorabilia.

After that, we went and walked through Mantanzas Pass Perserve. This was a very nice walk and it was early in the morning so it wasn't hot when we got there.

We further went on to the trails and found a trail that was full of water so we turned around and tried another one. But before that, we sat and looked over the perserve.

We got lost and took a trail that really wasn't a trail and ended up just going into a neighborhood and walking the streets to get back to the car.

It was a great/fun experience and I will totally go back for leisure.

Organic Food Industry

Organic Food Industry

• U.S. sales of organic food and beverages have grown from $1 billion in 1990 to $26.7 billion in 2010. Sales in 2010 represented 7.7 percent growth over 2009 sales. Experiencing the highest growth in sales during 2010 were organic fruits and vegetables, up 11.8 percent over 2009 sales Source: Organic Trade Association’s 2011 Organic Industry Survey 
• Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives
• Foods claiming to be organic must be free of artificial food additives, and are often processed with fewer artificial methods, materials and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients. Pesticides are allowed so long as they are not synthetic.Organic farms do not consume or release synthetic pesticides into the environment—some of which have the potential to harm soil, water and local terrestrial and aquatic wildlife.
• Organic farms are better than conventional farms at sustaining diverse ecosystems, i.e., populations of plants and insects, as well as animals.
• When calculated either per unit area or per unit of yield, organic farms use less energy and produce less waste, e.g., waste such as packaging materials for chemicals.
• Regarding taste, a 2001 study concluded that organic apples were sweeter by blind taste test. Firmness of the apples was also rated higher than those grown conventionally.

What's on My Food?

What's On My Food?

• 6 suspected hormone disruptors were found on cranberries. These chemicals are linked to cancers, obesity, and developmental disorders.
• Atrazine, a pesticide, is found in 94% of US drinking water. Banned in Europe, atrazine disrupts hormone systems.
• An average American child gets 5+ servings of pesticide residues in their food and water each day.
• 888 million lbs of pesticides are applied each year in the US. That's nearly 3 lbs per person.
• 14 different pesticide residues were detected in one strawberry sample. 697 of 741 tested positive for residues.
• The U.S. agriculture industry uses about 800 million pounds of pesticides annually.
• Homeowners use about 70 million pounds of pesticides annually on their lawns.
• Approximately 90 percent of all households in the U.S. use pesticides.
• In the U.S., about 110,000 pesticide poisonings are reported by poison control centers each year. About 23,000 visit the emergency room for the same reason.

News Article

Drinking water for China, Israeli style

By Karin Kloosterman

May 05, 2011

Israel's IDE Technologies is building China's largest and ‘greenest' desalination plant to meet the country's expanding energy needs.

IDE’s installation in Tianjin.

Normally, "green" and "desalination" are two words that don't go together. Desalination is a process that takes brackish inland or sea water and makes it drinkable.

This can be a lifesaver in countries with limited or no access to fresh water, such as Saudi Arabia or Jordan, but the processes involved gobble massive amounts of energy and produce an unfavorable amount of salt discharge, causing environmentalists to argue that desalination is not a sustainable solution to meet the world's water needs -- especially in countries that can't afford to power the desalination plants.

Now, the Israeli desalination company IDE Technologies has introduced a greener way to pull salt from the world's water. Putting it to the test in China, the Israeli company has created a win-win solution for the environmentally conscious Chinese: using runoff steam from a power plant to help run the desalination plant. The result is water for the power plant, drinking water for the community and salt to sell.

The UK trade magazine Global Water Intelligence is so impressed by the Israeli desalination technology, that in April it named IDE as the "2010 desalination company of the year."

Making what it called “the greatest overall contribution to the desalination industry during 2010” the magazine praised IDE for its “unique competitive position in the global desalination arena during 2010, winning a significant portion of the Chinese desalination business and competing strongly for tenders in the Americas, Southern Europe and elsewhere in Asia.”

For its innovation, the magazine put IDE’s MED desalination plant China on its short list, as a testament to the company’s leadership and ability to take on new environmental challenges and specifications.

Runs on 50 percent less power

Created in Tianjin, China, the Israeli-built IDE MED desalination plant is the country's largest and greenest one yet, says IDE's CEO, Avshalom Felber. Using a process called multi-effect distillation (MED), the plant is claimed to be 50 percent more energy efficient than any other thermal desalination plant today.

In IDE MED, salt water from the sea is heated with steam and then circulated through an evaporator to create an end result of fresh water and salt.

The green element in the design is that the steam used to heat the water before the evaporation process comes from a nearby power plant, making sure that some wasted energy is put to good use.

According to Felber: "The first phase of the Tianjin project is already operating for the last year or so, at 100,000 cubic meters of water per day. Currently we are in the execution process of Phase II, for another 100,000 cubic meters. This is by far the largest desalination plant in China."

The plant consists of four 25,000-cubic-meter units, and an additional four are underway.

Meeting China's growing energy needs

China is considered one of the world's fastest-growing economies. As its population westernizes, so do its industrial and household demands for power and water. People in the Beijing region alone consume 1.5 million cubic meters of water every day.

"Water shortage is a major issue in China," Felber tells ISRAEL21c. "It has a growing population, not yet fully reaching its planned population. And the standard of living is going higher, along with water consumption. It's still less than one quarter of the developed world, but assuming China will catch up, water shortage will be a major restriction for its economic development."

In the China facility, located about 150 miles northeast of Beijing, the desalination plant was contracted by the state-owned energy company SDIC, which had to meet strict regulations now coming into effect in China. Any new power plant must provide its own water source, and also must allocate 80 percent of its wastewater for consumer use. This kind of aggressive policy is meant to ensure that its growing society will benefit from increased industrial growth.

An additional green benefit of the IDE plant, which can generate 15 tons of water from one ton of steam compared to industry standards of 10 tons of water from one ton of steam, is that it produces salt as a commercial commodity.

Dipping its toes into Asian market

IDE, which has already built about 400 desalination plants in 35 countries, has experience in custom-making solutions to fit climate and other special needs.

The new Tianjin plant is IDE's first project in China, and the company is now working with a consortium of large multinationals that plan to put together competitive new tenders, with an eye toward expansion into other parts of China and into the greater Asian market.

In April, IDE picked up a major accolade when it won a 2011 Global Water Award at the Global Water Summit in Berlin. With a keynote address by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the prestigious ceremony attracted hundreds of the top figures from the global water industry.