Two of the most fun and important things you can do to green your little section of our blue planet are save energy and take a sustainable vacation. Saving energy is the single most important thing you can do which will have an immediate impact on climate change. And taking a sustainable vacation to someplace beautiful and refreshing helps you appreciate why you’re saving the energy in the first place, and refreshes you.
So on the next Blue Planet Almanac we’ll have the pleasure of showing you the fun resources to do both things. We’ll talk with Mike Kane, co-founder and treasurer of the unique nonprofit advocacy group, Plug In America, which understands everything about electric cars. And from the renowned nonprofit Rainforest Alliance, we’ll talk with Ronald Sanabria, their vice president of sustainable tourism about some of the amazing places you can visit and Rainforest Alliance’s striking programs for sustainable destinations.
Electric Cars Reborn
Chevrolet’s Volt
After a long dry spell, electric consumer vehicles are returning to the U.S. this December. This is thus an exciting time for everyone interested in sustainability, because plug-in cars represent viable options to hybrids, biodiesel and infernal combustion. Two brand, spanking-new models, the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf are being released, and they’re real contenders to replace almost every function many people need in their cars.
Plug In America’s Website would tell you much of what you’ll need to know to begin chosing what type of transportation you’d like from models available. You can start with, “Where Can I Buy a Plug-In?,” and when you’re considering your choices remember to look at the astonishing tax rebates and incentives available on these.
Nissan’s Leaf
Among the attendees at their October 23rd fund raising event was Alexandra Paul, a comely regular on the popular Baywatch TV series who IMDB says has starred in 70 feature films and television programs. Plug In America is fortunate to have the friendship of documentarian Chris Paine from Who Killed the Electric Car? and the upcoming Revenge of the Electric Car, and Plug In America’s party was held at his beautiful Culver City hilltop home.
Mike Kane
Mike Kane will talk about these cars as examples of what Plug In America has brought us across its five years, and they just this past weekend celebrated their fifth anniversary. Plug In America was first born as a loose association of plug-in owners, and later incorporated as a nonprofit. Plug In America’s Website tell us this about the very knowledgeable Mike, who:
“…spent over 20 years as a marketing and business development professional in the high-tech industry, including stints at Emulex, the semiconductor division of Rockwell International and Motorola. Since leaving the industry in 2004 to pursue personal interests including environmental and alternative fuels advocacy, he has been involved with several non-profit organizations and campaigns in these areas. Mike is one of the founders of Plug In America, a non-profit advocacy group that promotes the use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.”
Beautiful Vacation Escapes – Sustainably
It’s absolutely true a picture’s worth a thousand words. So before you read what’s below, you might enjoy seeing the short vid below about Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable tourism in Nicaragua from the Green Living Project. And, Rainforest Alliances services via SustainableTrip.org offer a huge selection of destinations and tour operators. At SustainableTrip.org I noted destinations which included Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Europe, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and United States, with every sort of vacation imaginable from eco-adventures to quiet hotel stays to hangs at a dude ranch.
Rainforest Alliance is one of the more experienced organizations in showing you sustainable destinations, and they’ve been developing their programs for at least 10 years. Because they were founded based on their concern for rainforest biomes, they’ve worked in over 12 Latin American countries to do this.
About these wonderful things we’ll be talking with Rainforest Alliance’s Ronald Sanabria, their gracious vice president of sustainable tourism. Ronald recently attended The International Ecotourism Society’s (TIES) 20th anniversary convention and accepted an award for Rainforest Alliance’s innovative, productive programs.
Ronald has: “… worked with the tourism industry on certification, productivity, quality assurance and sustainability since 1992. He joined the Rainforest Alliance’s Sustainable Agriculture program in 1998, and two years later began developing the organization’s tourism program.
… With support from the Multilateral Investment Fund, Sanabria led the creation of the Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas, which today has more than a hundred members representing 25 countries in the Americas. Internationally, he represents the Rainforest Alliance in the Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC) and the World Heritage Alliance.
Sanabria was the recipient of the 2008 EXPOTUR Friend of Nature Award in recognition of his efforts to promote sustainable tourism in Costa Rica.
Since 1992, he has taught at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Costa Rica. A Fulbright scholar from Costa Rica, Sanabria holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Costa Rica and an M.A. in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University.”
Blue Planet Almanac radio airs live with host Mike Austin on HealthyLife.net on the 4th Monday of each month at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived three days after airtime at that same site, with some available through the links below. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.
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