The Unlikely Superhero: Dr. Jane Goodall

One of my heroes, Jane Goodall, changed the world when she was the first human to study chimpanzees in Tanzania. She was a young woman who had no college degree or field experience. However, she learned from doing and made many discoveries about chimpanzees; primarily that they use tools just like we do.

I attended a talk by Dr. Goodall at UT Arlington a couple of years ago where she talked about her life; from a child in England to her current work of running the Jane Goodall Institute. I was in awe of her and her legacy. 

She is one of my heroes because is a trailblazer, a woman who broke barriers, and still works to this day (at age 83) to teach children about the environment and is a global conservation leader. She continue to work for conservation of chimp habitat in Tanzania and for habitat conservation all over the world. 

Several months ago, I was excited to discover that a new documentary was coming to theaters. This documentary is simply called JANE. I screened it in late December with a few friends. It's a wonderful look into Dr. Goodall's time in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania and her impact on the world and the study of primates. Check out the trailer for JANE below:

Dr. Goodall is a legacy and will be remembered well after her death. I continue to learn from her work and be in awe of her education and conservation efforts.

Civil Disobedience

Did you know that the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline is being constructed as we speak in East Texas? The Gulf Coast Pipeline will be carrying Canadian tar sands from Alberta to Port Arthur, TX if the northern portion is approved the U.S. State Department and President Obama.  If you don't know what tar sands are, well, here's a short description.

TAR SANDS
A type of unconventional petroleum deposit. The oil sands are loose sand or partially consolidated sandstone containing naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, and water, saturated with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen.

The heavy crude oil or crude bitumen extracted from oil sands is a viscous solid or semisolid form that does not easily flow at normal oil pipeline temperatures, making it difficult to transport to market and expensive to process into gasoline, diesel fuel, and other products.
In other words, its difficult to extract, its difficult to transport and its difficult to refine. Its carbon footprint is huge, larger than regular oil and gas extraction.  And, due to its nature, if it spills out of the pipeline, its very difficult to clean up.

Extraction areas within the pristine Canadian boreal forests

The Keystone XL pipeline has caused the largest environmental protest of the last 20 years. People from all over North America (from landowners in east Texas to indigenous peoples in Canada to Native Americans in the US) and beyond realize the massive environmental effects of this entire process and are doing something about it. An organization called The Tar Sands Blockade was created to combat pipeline construction.

The process of extraction,which eliminates millions of acres of boreal forests, to the intensive refining process in Port Arthur, will create a huge carbon footprint. Greenhouse gas emissions could be up to 240 billion metric tons of carbon. 

Its so bad that even the Sierra Club has lifted its long-standing prohibition on civil disobedience.

So, what can you do? Click on these links to make a difference.

http://www.dirtyoilsands.org/action

http://www.nrdc.org/action/

http://www.tarsandsaction.org

Environmental Causes Get Boost from Race Car Driver

Leilani Munter is a race car driver and environmental activist known as Carbon Free Girl.  She is currently racing in the ARCA Racing Series. She promotes several environmental causes such as the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan and Code REDD.  The Taiji dolphin slaughter was documented in the film The Cove. 

When your promoting important environmental causes, it doesn't hurt if your good lookin' and can handle a race car.

A Circuitous Route: From a Work Project to a Discovery

I was assigned a new project at work. It's a project administered by the Corps of Engineers in southern Louisiana called Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico Levee Project. The proposed levee would protect approximately 160,000 people from flood surge. However, right outside of the proposed levee is an island named Isle de Jean Charles.  The controversy is that the levee would cut off Isle de Jean Charles and subject them to flood surge and the levee would block the flow of water north and allow it to sit there, inundating the small island. The Corps plans to buy everyone out and relocate them.  Our Environmental Justice office stated that there may be some issues related to the fair treatment of the people of the island and the Indian tribe that is located on the island, the Biloxi-Chitimacha. Environmental Justice has to do with the fair treatment of minority and low-income populations.  

I had just seen the Oscar nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild and this project sounded eerily similar. The island in the film is appropriately named "The Bathtub". So, I begin searching the inter- webs for Isle de Jean Charles and discover that 2 documentary films are being made about the island's plight; Last Stand on the Island and Can't Stop the Water. Both films mention the Corps project and how it will cut them off from flood protection.  Also, both films interview island residents and the tribal leader.

Isle de Jean Charles

Oil and Gas Pipelines

Water on the only road to and from Isle de Jean Charles

So, you can help save Louisiana's coastal wetlands by clicking here and click here to learn more about wetlands!


The story of Isle de Jean Charles is very interesting as it has dwindled in size first due to the many hundreds of miles of oil and gas pipelines cut into the marsh in the 1950's and then the subsequent erosion and subsidence. The coastal wetlands of Louisiana are in peril and will be lost due to saltwater intrusion, erosion, subsidence and storm surge. At one time, those thousands, maybe millions, of acres of wetlands protected the coast and inland areas of Louisiana from storm surge due to hurricanes, but with wetland destruction, they can no longer do their job. Thus, an historic island full of history and culture may unfortunately be lost.