Calendar
Join us for the Parks and Natural Areas (PNA) Roundtable on Monday, July 8, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at H-GAC Conference Room A, Second Floor.
The PNA Roundtable serves as a forum for discussion of issues related to parks and natural areas, promotes the PNA Award Program, and maintains a regional inventory of parks. The PNA roundtable facilitates information exchange and planning efforts between various stakeholders and collaborators to protect and preserve parks and natural areas across the region. To register visit events.r20.constantcontact.com/register.
The films presented by the Houston Green Film Series are free to public and funded by volunteer efforts, in-kind contributi
In general, the series is screened on the third Wednesday of each month.
For current films, visit the Houston Green Films website or Facebook page.
The films presented by the Houston Green Film Series are free to public and funded by volunteer efforts, in-kind contributi
“There has to be a fuel revolution.”
-Donnie Tipton of Going Green Grease Recycling
Set in Houston, Texas in the shadow of the nation’s oil industry, Hot Grease tells the surprising story of how the biodiesel industry is turning an ostensibly worthless raw material, spent kitchen grease, into a renewable energy source capable of fueling cars, buses and fleets of trucks throughout the country.
The millions of gallons of cooking oil that our country’s restaurants use to fry up chicken, fries, and donuts used to end up as waste in landfills and pollutants in our waterways. But today, thanks to innovators, entrepreneurs, and politicians, it’s being turned into a functional fuel: biodiesel. Biodiesel reduces carbon emissions up to 85% compared to petroleum fuel, the equivalent of removing over 19 million cars from our highways. This film dives into the untapped market of biodiesel as it rapidly becomes a commodity and individuals dedicate their livelihood to making it an accessible fuel choice in Houston.
This month’s panelists & exhibitors:
Chris Powers, Houston Biodiesel
Jody Gibson, Energy Institute High School
Michael McClere, Dependable Cooking Oil
Alona Hernandez, Houston Public Works
Ted Driscoll, Galveston Bay Foundation
Free to the public, though donations are kindly appreciated. Rice Cinema is located at 2030 University Blvd, near Stockton and University.
- 6:30 PM Reception & Refreshments
- 7:00 PM Film Screening
- 8:00 PM Panel Discussion
- 9:00 PM The conversation continues at Valhalla, Rice University’s Graduate Student Pub
For questions about transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event go to https://park-trans.rice.edu/
What’s new with solar? Time for an update. A solar farm is in development for Houston, and Tesla will tell us what their solar offering is these days. In addition, we’ll have a bit of permit data about solar installations in Houston.
Dori Wolfe, founder of Wolfe Energy, will discuss her C-40 proposal to the City of Houston to convert a brownfield landfill to a solar farm including systems thinking and recent progress in the community solar movement. Mark Mason, market manager of Houston Metro/Mexico of TESLA, will fill you in on the various solar products offered by Tesla, such as those solar roof tiles you’ve heard about, and how those are different from the other products on the market.
The City of Houston—Public Works & Engineering Code Enforcement Green Building Resource Center presents this Education Seminar in partnership with the Texas Chapter of the US Green Building Council. This 2019 series is generously underwritten by Rockwool.
CEUs available. Please RSVP to steve.stelzer@houstontx.gov. Free parking. Bus stop: Preston@Elder.
The Texas Environmental Excellence Awards is an annual awards program that honors achievements in environmental preservation and protection. There are ten diverse award categories that provide citizens, communities, businesses, and organizations an opportunity to obtain the state’s highest environmental honor and be recognized for their environmental projects. The deadline for submission is September 27th.
Since 1993, they have honored more than 250 successful environmental projects and efforts. By honoring these winners, the TCEQ hopes to encourage others to initiate like-minded projects and reinforce a spirit of environmental stewardship. These are the categories:
- Agriculture
- Civic/Community
- Education
- Environmental Educator of the Year
- Individual
- Innovative Operations/Management
- Pollution Prevention
- Technical/Technology
- Water Conservation
- Youth
The 2019 annual symposium will focus on conserving native plants in the upper Texas coastal prairies, also known as the Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies in the EPA Level IV ecoregion map.
Quaternary-age deltaic sands, silts, and clays underlie much of this gently sloping coastal plain. The original vegetation was mostly grasslands with a few clusters of oaks, known as oak mottes or maritime woodlands. Little bluestem, yellow Indiangrass, brownseed paspalum, gulf muhly, and switchgrass were the dominant grassland species, with some similarities to the grasslands of the Blackland Prairies. Almost all of the coastal prairies have been converted to cropland, rangeland, pasture, or urban land uses. The exotic Chinese tallow tree and Chinese privet have invaded large areas in this region. Some loblolly pine occurs in the northern part of the region in the transition to the South Central Plains. Soils are mostly fine-textured: clay, clay loam, or sandy clay loam. Within the region, there are some differences from the higher Lissie Formation to the lower Beaumont Formation, both of Pleistocene age. The Lissie Formation has lighter colored soils, mostly Alfisols with sandy clay loam surface texture, while darker, clayey soils associated with Vertisols are more typical of the Beaumont Formation. Annual precipitation varies from 37 inches in the southwest portion to 58 inches in the northeast, with a summer maximum.
The symposium headquarters will be in League City, between Houston and Galveston. at the South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center, which is on the south side of Clear Lake across the lake from the Johnson Space Center. The event begins with a reception on Thursday evening for those arriving early, speakers on Friday morning with a choice of field trips in the afternoon, more speakers and breakout sessions on Saturday, and an awards banquet on Saturday night. A social event is planned for Friday night on the Kemah Boardwalk. In addition they have prepared a list of suggested side stops and field trips for those traveling on Thursday and Sunday.
Registration prices vary depending on your level of participation.
Shell Educators’ Preview: Start your evening at 4 p.m. and earn one hour of CPE credit while viewing our newly renovated George W. Strake Hall of Malacology.
HMNS’ Educator Members will have an opportunity to speak to Tina Petway, the
Museum’s Associate Curator of Malacology, during the Shell Educators’ Preview.
As a special treat, all guests will also be able to visit our newest special exhibition,
Art of the Brick until 6:00 p.m.!
The Educator Event @HMNS: Continue your evening with us starting at 5 p.m.
and earn up to three additional hours of CPE credit depending on which
programming you attend. HMNS is featuring several ways to earn CPE credit from
attending workshops to taking a guided tour to seeing a show in our Planetarium.
Educators are able to earn a total of up to 4 hours of CPE credit while attending
HMNS’, An Evening for Educators!
Registration Information
Educators: Free
Non-Educators: $10.00
(Pricing includes entry to the George W. Strake Hall of Malacology and Art of the Brick)
Registration begins Tuesday, July 30th and ends Wednesday, October 2nd.
Please complete the online form at hmns.org/eveningforeducators to reserve your spot. For questions, contact educatorevent@hmns.org.
The films presented by the Houston Green Film Series are free to public and funded by volunteer efforts, in-kind contributi
In general, the series is screened on the third Wednesday of each month.
For current films, visit the Houston Green Films website or Facebook page.
The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N. is sponsoring a FREE Going Green Sustainability lecture: “Mycophile or Mycophobe–we all need mushrooms†with guest speaker, Teri MacArthur, Certified Texas Master Naturalist. This event is free and open to the public.
Rain is as important as carbon dioxide in cooling our planet. People must restore trees and soil to restore the water cycle.
The image above shows how trees pump huge amounts of water back into the air and create more rain further inland. It is a river in the sky.
When folks started climate modeling, to simplify, they ignored water vapor and focused on carbon dioxide. But the water cycle is 95% of planetary cooling while carbon dioxide is only 5%, according to Dr. Walter Jehne. We need to keep on reducing emissions, but it’s time to also work on restoring ecosystems and their soils. Besides this may be an easier and faster way to make a difference.
To learn more and register to this event visit Coolingourplanet