New York City is a city of islands, surrounded by water.  Staten Island, that's definitely an island.  Manhattan, most people know about that one too.  Even Brooklyn and Queens are on an island which they share with Nassau and Suffolk Counties (together referred to as Long Island). 

So it's a real shame that the waterways around our city have been filthy for decades, and that children growing up in the city often to do so without enjoying waterfront activities like boating or even simply swimming.  That's where the Gowanus Dredgers come in.

The Gowanus Dredgers are a canoe club that advocates for cleanup of New York City's waterways.  They put on free public events to help New Yorkers develop an affinity for the coastline, in an effort to make more New Yorkers into cleanup advocates.  I got to catch up with the club's founder Owen Foote last night for an interview, so make sure to check out the video!

For more information, check out the Dredgers' website, where you can find a calendar of events and information about the big end-of-the-season party they're throwing next month.  I hear that there is going to be a Comedian Pirate in attendance, so be sure to scope it out. 

We wrapped up our chat around dusk, and not a moment too soon-- Legend has it that you can sometimes hear musket shots going off around the canal at night because of the battles that were raged on its shore during the American Revolution!

Someone tell Asia that the West isn't best, please.

As you may know, traditional Asian diets included very small amounts of meat- especially for the commoners, who generally couldn't afford such luxuries. The people, instead, ate rice and noodles and things of that sort, which was not only good for them but generally didn't put too much of a strain on the environment.

However, times are changing. Asia's middle class- long non-existent, really- is growing, and growing rapidly. With that growth, comes the demand for meat: which, as I've said for the hundredth time, is NOT green (see this previous post of mine) and will put an enormous pressure on the water-strapped Asian region.

Image courtesy of Julien Harneis' Flickr photostream

It is estimated that the demand for food and livestock fodder in Asia will double in 40 years, which will require East Asia to somehow scrounge up 47% more irrigated farmland and 70% more WATER. South Asia will need 30% more irrigated crop land and 57% more H2O. However, the whole of Asia is having difficulty acquiring sufficient water and South Asia is already farming 94% of land suitable for farming there.

Scientists say that the situation can be improved a bit if out-dated techniques used for irrigation are replaced, but I wish such measures weren't necessary in the first place and that meat would be neither a common thing nor a luxury but simply not eaten.

For more information, see:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090827-asian-water-crisis.html

You have probably heard about Rudy van Prooyen, the guy biking across the country to raise money for safe drinking water around the world?  (DebbieD Had a chance to interview him, and I recently had a chance to mingle with the people behind him at Blue Planet Run.)  

Rudy just came through LA on his bicycling route and checked in to the socially-conscious and posh Viceroy in Santa Monica.  Only, after biking all the way from San Francisco over a period of a few weeks, Rudy was so grody they thought he was some kind of derelict homeless man!  Ha.  We think he's awesome, of course.  You should check out his national route, he might be coming to your city.  (Do a double take at that 'homeless' man you see in the park, 'cause if he's got a bike, it might be Rudy!) Kidding.

Anyways, last Friday I went to check out the Viceroy myself - and partake in the "Drink for Water" Blue Planet Run event.  Afterall, drinking martinis was the sporting event for the evening, and I intended to be smooth like James Bond.  Also, the Blue Planet Run Martini has blueberries in it, yummmy.  Check out the event, the lovely Sabrina Walasek, and the Viceroy:  

 I didn't realize just how many people were affected globally by lack of safe drinking water - and how easy it is to change.  Whether you like martinis or not, if you can run, swim, bike, dribble, pitch, whatever, you can get on board with Blue Planet Run.  Seriously, almost any kind of sport you know how to play can be used to help people across the world transform their lives.  Completely.  

I went to Asbury Park, New Jersey yesterday for the 34th annual Clearwater Festival.  The Clearwater Project is an organization started by musician Pete Seeger in 1966 to protect New York City's Hudson River.  Now the organization has chapters in other areas on the east coast and they hold events where environmental activists, musicians, and regular people come together to have a good time and raise awareness about water pollution.

Events like this are really important in New York and New Jersey, two states not known for their well-preserved natural environments.  The thing is, we still have great beaches and it's important that we protect them from further harm.  The friends of Clearwater know this, and they put on the Clearwater festival to get the word out to everyone from music fans to school kids, running informative booths about local wildlife and providing great entertainment.

It's good to see Asbury Park playing host to these sorts of events because just a few years ago, the beachfront resort town was almost completely devoid of tourism, or any other kind of business for that matter.  There were few businesses, fewer jobs, and almost no visitors.  Asbury Park was a popular resort with bathers from New York City who would arrive by train in the 1900's, but the arrival of automobile highways resulted in wealthy tourists taking their business to more secluded beaches.  The old resorts at Asbury Park, unfortunately, were left to rot.

Asbury Park's main drag, Ocean Avenue in 2006 (before the recent 'renewal').  Courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Now Asbury Park is playing host to events, new businesses and believe it or not, people are actually coming around!  Here's hoping that the renewal efforts in Asbury Park and the conservation projects being undertaken by the Clearwater Foundation find great success!

Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Peter Vanderkaay (a.k.a. PVK) thinks water is cool. Very cool. So cool, in fact, that he teamed up with Blue Planet Run to raise awareness about our global water crisis.

Now Peter is swimming several days per week, and he estimates that he will swim 560 miles in training over the next couple of months! But in the midst of his very busy training schedule, Peter found the time to make a video about water sustainability with a few tips on how to ensure safe water access.

So how much do you think you know about clean water? Take the quiz.