In a Sustainabilty Task Force Meeting on campus the other day, I was alerted to the fact that there is a mysterious brook near some NYU property called Minetta Brook which has disapeared! That's nuts! It is the source of many a blog speculation, but I am blown away!
Mostly I am tripped out by the fact that New York City used to have natural features like that. They tell me it used to be a forest. A forest! I am stoked nowadays when I see plants on fire escapes.Brooks mean that little animals used to poke around foliage and drink from it (I am imagining Bambi obviously)
What do you guys think about this phenomenon? There is some speculation that the stream is likely redirected directly to storm drains, meaning it turns into polluted, unsueable sludge instead of sinking back into groud water reserves. Which is a strike against. But look at that picture of Bambi, and tell me we don't need some more of that around the city.
Hey, GOOD loves water too!
Check out this little infographic.
In this day and age, it is all about information synthesis. This is
why I want to inquire from the general DROPPER public (except James)
about the idea of teaming up with this NY-based non-profit called
StoryCorps to record some of the upcoming events, especially the Water
Challenge. Basically they are awesome. StoryCorps is dedicated to
recording and archiving the personal histories of as many people as
possible, of listening as an act of love.
Check 'em out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wufu80pmJE
Also, on an unrelated note
http://www.good.is/?p=15220
Today, I tried to imagine wheeling a Hippo Roller through the snowy streets of New York. The thought of ramming unsuspecting slow-walkers in the back of the calves did have its appeal, however I determined that it would be difficult to say the least. Hippo Rollers are designed to make 24 gallons of water wheelable (think lawn mower style), for the greater ease of the thousands of people in rural Africa who have to spend around seven hours of their day just getting water, and returning with the load. To all who refuse to buy a reusable water bottle because you would rather just buy a plastic one, consider this concept.
The Hippo Roller Challenge will be asking 10 New Yorkers to do just that this summer, to consider how their lives would be different by living off of 5 gallons of water per day. For those of us who assume that water really comes out of a tap (the way that meat originates at the grocery store and electricity from the walls), imagining a world without the infrastructure to transport water from a source to us is almost unfathomable. Every little thing that we use water for would be spending a drop of water that we had labored to procure. From dish washing to toilet flushing, we use water almost involuntarily.
So consider your commute. If you live in a crowded urban area, like me, the idea of adding a 24 gallon jug onto your cargo may seem insurmountable. Then again, thousands of people spend the bulk of their waking hours making the trek towards fresh water everyday just to survive. So when you think of it like that, really it is not so outlandish after all.
Check it out
http://www.hipporoller.org/
