This post was written by Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) Senior Fellow Nathaniel Corum, an architect and Head of Education Outreach at Architecture for Humanity. Part of his work connects university design programs to humanitarian design projects in order to create design teams that will produce exemplary and culturally-appropriate designs and feature resilient land use.

I’m passionate about creating landscapes and buildings that honor the earth, our shared home. The best architectural projects produce game-changing sites and facilities. And the best designs strengthen communities, human relations, and our connection to the land. As a leader of several Architecture for Humanity educational outreach teams, my goal is to connect design students with community members and professionals. With universities and other partners, these teams design and build projects featuring earth, straw, wood and stone that help indigenous people, inspire future projects and celebrate the earth.

Community members and students helping mix, dry and stack earth bricks for adobe homes.

Earth | Shirt sleeves and pant legs rolled up, we jump into the mud. Barefoot and laughing, we learn the adobe-making ‘dance’ with new friends in Oaxaca, Mexico. With our feet we stir earth, water and straw into what will soon become adobes: natural earthen building blocks. Here workshop students from Universitat Internacional de Catalunya join an Adobe for Women team to assist local women, re-vitalize the traditional practice of adobe home building, and address rural housing needs.

Tribal members, students and volunteers prepare and stack straw bales to form straw-bale buildings.

Straw | Stacking straw bales like adult Legos, tribal college students, community members and volunteers come together to raise straw bale walls, creating super-insulated structures made with local agricultural material. Once they’ve stacked the walls, they will add stucco covering, efficient fixtures, and roofing that will collect rainwater. Working together with American Indian tribal members and groups such as Indigenous Communities Enterprises and Red Feather, we are creating cozy homes and classrooms in the Southwest and in the Northern Plains where there is a dire need for high-quality, healthy and affordable housing.

Students work with ocean farmers and wood responding to post-tsunami needs.

Wood | While attaching brown seaweed starts to ropes that will be suspended in the sea, design students discuss future needs with a group of 15 seaweed farmers who lost just about everything when the recent tsunami flattened Shizagawa, Japan. The fishermen are working with Architecture for Humanity to rebuild an aqua-farming ‘Banya’ or workplace.  Working alongside community members to clarify needs and refine designs, workshop students from the Kyoto University of Art and Design help by building tables, chairs, platforms, and furnishings for work, cooking, eating, and resting, all made from local wood in an area known for its agro-forestry.

Stone | Looking forward, we’re responding to a request for technical assistance in the Galápagos Islands involving stone. On several sites poised between small island communities and the Galapagos National Park, we’re focusing on Galápagos Indoor/Outdoor Classrooms. We’ll build environmental stewardship and education centers to help communities ensure the future of one of earth’s special places. The design brief stresses a preference for lava rock that is locally available. Among other materials, local stone will be in play as we build together celebrating the earth.

This entry reflects the author’s personal judgments and does not represent the views of the United States Government or the Department of State.

This post was written by Senator Bob Hartwell, Vermont State Senator. Read his biography below the post!

Vermont: Mecca for Recreation and Healthy Exercise

The State of Vermont with a small population of 620,000 people is one of the world’s major areas for outdoor recreation and healthy lives. Thousands of “Vermonters’ ride their bicycles every day for recreation and to and from work. The Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition helps to make for easier and more interesting experiences for bikers and walkers and collaborates with the Vermont Agency of Transportation to promote this goal.

This September there will be a Tour De Farms for bicyclists to ride from farm to farm to experience healthy foods grown in Vermont. Like many other bike tours held in Vermont hundreds of bicyclists will descend upon the small towns, valleys and mountains Vermont is so famous for. This is an example of Vermont’s commitment to good health because overcoming obesity (being overweight is one of America’s big challenges, and exercise and nutritious food are important to correcting this problem) is of major importance in America.

The State of Vermont has government programs requiring state investment in safer roads for bicyclists and walkers including the development of wider roads and bicycle parking at transportation centers that serve trains and buses. We believe non motor traffic will increase faster than motor traffic and we are working in state and local government in partnership with pedestrian and bicycle groups to provide for a healthier and safer experience for this increasing part of our population. These policies also support the State’s commitment to climate change.

Vermont has nearly sixty

state parks, as large a concentration of public parks in terms of its population of any American state. The parks place an emphasis on hiking and offer hundreds of miles of trails for this

activity and special programs such as Moonlight Hikes! for walkers at night and Night Walk, a program for people to walk and see creatures in the forest who only appear during the day’s dark hours. These activities occur all throughout the year and include popular winter sports such as snowshoeing and cross-country skiing on the network of trails. The State Parks work with private organizations to create programs for outdoor activities for people of all ages including persons with disabilities.

A healthy and safe lifestyle based on activities people enjoy will lead to an improved condition of health and happiness for thousands of people and will contribute to a strengthening of democratic government influenced and strengthened by people who are creating these activities and policies. Participation in government processes and communication between the public and state are critical in developing a relationship that benefits all.

My State of Vermont is committed to policies which embrace these values and to hearing from our citizens with their ideas as to how we can make better decisions to accomplish these goals.

People visit Vermont all year round. They come here not only for the outdoor recreational activities and cultural events but they visit Vermont for its people. The people of this state are what are best about all of America. The caring for their neighbors, visitors and the natural environment shines through in the ways in which they grow their communities. Vermont’s towns and villages are a way to connect everyone to the heart of the American spirit. The spirit of welcome, opportunity and eagerness to improve one’s life and that of one’s neighbor abounds all across America.

This entry reflects the author’s personal judgments and does not represent the views of the United States Government or the Department of State.

Vermont State Senator Bob Hartwell (Courtesy Photo)

Senator Hartwell is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Institutions, which has jurisdiction over capital needs for the State’s building infrastructure including state office buildings, state parks, investments in state historic preservation and strategic planning for the future of state assets. He is also a member of the Senate Committee on Transportation, which is responsible for repairing the state’s roads and bridges after Hurricane Irene. The committee is also focused on alternative transportation systems including bicycles and pedestrians that conserve fuel, promote healthy lifestyles and combat climate change.

Did you know that oceans are the least-explored places on Earth, with 95% yet to be explored? We need to protect ocean life and ecosystems that have been and still need to be explored.. As a follow up to Monday’s post about ocean conservation organizations around the world, today’s post offers you even more resources to check out.

A lagoon at the Palmyra Atoll about 1,000 miles south of Hawai, purchased by The Nature Conservancy is now managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Photo credit: © Robert Shallenberger

The Marine Conservation Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the world’s oceans, and their goal is “maintaining and recovering bountiful, diverse and healthy oceans now and for generations to come.” They also bring human beings into the equation, saying “Because the oceans are the Earth’s biggest life support system, everyone has a big stake in maintaining their integrity.” Their site is split up into three main sections: Identify Vulnerable Ecosystems, Advocate, and Protect. Explore each of these three sections to learn more and get related links, like to their Conservation Programs focused on ocean acidification and coral conservation, among others.

The Nature Conservancy has an Oceans and Coasts site about “Healthy Oceans for People and Nature,” saying “Our lives require healthy oceans for oxygen, food, jobs, medicines and more.” They have information about how they restore coastal habitats and how they are helping people and marine life adapt to climate change. Their projects are in 30 countries and U.S. territories and they operate with the goal of “Creating lasting conservation results that benefit marine life, local communities and economies.” Learn more about coral reefs, the pervasive threat of invasive species, and international efforts to conserve sea turtles, among other things.

For even more links and resources, check out Marine Bio, which has a list of marine conservation resources.  You can search by Species (coral reefs, manatees, polar bears, etc.) or by Issue (climate change, pollution, sustainable tourism, etc.) Or you can simply scroll down the alphabetical list of marine conservation organizations, starting with the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) all the way down to the World Wildlife Fund. To search by country, scroll down to the list of Regional Initiatives, which includes multiple organizations in Australia, New Zealand, the Sub-Antarctic Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Coral reefs, like this on in the Red Sea, are just one part of oceans that are being threatened.

Oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface and contain 97 percent of its water. They are vital to our existence and yet they are being severely threatened by a variety of factors: from warming due to climate change, to pollution, to overfishing. Thankfully there are organizations working to conserve, protect and restore our planet’s oceans.

The Ocean Conservancy is one such organization. Operating under the slogan, “Start a Sea Change,” they “believe it’s time to look beneath the surface to see where the health of our planet really begins. It’s time to recognize the source that sustains us day today with the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe…to discover that all living things are connected to the ocean.” There are a variety of topics related to our oceans: including climate change, beaches, sustainable fishing, etc. on the site.

Check out this short video to learn more about the Ocean Conservancy:

Another international organization is Oceana, which has campaigns on a wide variety of ocean-related topics, from climate and energy to promoting sustainable fishing.  They have a Living Blue section with useful posts like “10 Things You Can Do to Save the Oceans,” a Sustainable Seafood Guide and even Sustainable Seafood Recipes.  There is a list of Green Heroes and other helpful information.

Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau, the grandchildren of the famous ocean explorer and conservationist Jacques-Eve Cousteau, has an organization called Earth Echo International, whose primary mission is “empower youth to take action that restores and protects our water planet.” They go on to explain, “It is the next 50 years in which we can embrace the new promise of a just, healthy, ad abundant water planet. In order to achieve this, a whole new generation must take action to protect and restore our water planet.” http://www.earthecho.org/ Interested in joining in their programs and challenges? How about the Water Planet Challenge, Students Reporting Environmental Action through Media, or Protect Wild Dolphins? For information on all of these, click here.

The Ocean Conservancy says, “It’s time to understand that going green starts with living blue,” meaning environmentalism is integrally tied to the protection of our oceans and waterways. Do you agree? And do you participate in any water conservation programs in your area?

Global Conversations Graphic

Welcome to the Global Conversations: Climate blog!  This blog is a resource hub for youth, activists, environmentalists and concerned citizens. Here you can voice the climate change issues that most concern you, and how you and your community are being affected.  This blog is an educational resource, but will also connect you to experts ranging from scientists to political leaders to authors to students.  We want this blog to be the place you turn for answers to your questions, links to more material related to the topic, and insights from people around the world at the forefront of the climate change efforts. Each month, we’ll feature a different theme related to climate change.  Check back tomorrow to find out what this month’s theme is, how it is related to climate change, and get links to wonderful resources!

Not sure exactly what climate change is or how you can use this blog to find out more and get great ideas?  Check out the About Us section for definitions, links, and an explanation of how we think you can use this blog to take your own steps towards mitigating and adapting to climate change today!