Tag Archives: environmental

Top 5 Environmentally Influential Places in the US

Teddy Roosevelt said, “I have always said I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.” I would not have my environmental perspective had it not been for these 5 places. As an environmental professional, I work to create a balance between a clean beautiful natural environment, human health, useable land, and productive facilities. Therefore, my Top 5 environmentally influential places are the following.

1. Southwestern and Central Pennsylvania, for its geology and geography. The old rocks, rolling hills and valleys, the landslides, the coal. It’s where I developed an appreciation for earth sciences. First, on my own spending time in those hills and valleys and second. Second, it’s where I studied geology at Penn State University.

Continue reading →

Taking the Proper Environmental, Health, and Safety Training

The proper training could have avoided this garbage can of used oil.

Warning: this article might test your knowledge of environmental, health and safety training abbreviations and acronyms!

As professionals in the environmental field, we may be exposed to hazardous work conditions, possibly radiological, chemical and/or physical. For some of us it’s a routine part of our jobs. If you are working around hazardous conditions, there is most likely a required environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) training course you’ll need to complete. Unfortunately, people often get inadequate information or misinterpret the course(s) they need. Depending on your job, the required course could be from a federal regulation, state regulation, a requirement of a client, and even individual job locations may require a specific course or more. Continue reading →

Environmental Impacts of a Government Shutdown

You’ll miss a beautiful fall in Rocky Mountain National Park.

As of publishing, there is a threat of a government shutdown beginning on Oct 1, 2015. Some have put the odds at 75%. The impacts of a shutdown will be widely felt as progress, facilities, and operations across nearly all fields will impacted. This will provide you an overview of the environmental impacts of a government shutdown. This is not inclusive, but should give you a good indication of the overall impact. Continue reading →

Environmental Interview I Wish I Had Done

Freakonomics Radio episode, How Efficient is Energy Efficiency?, is great. It’s an interview with Dr. Arik Levinson about his work on energy efficiency as an “environmental economist”. Dr. Levinson is a professor at Georgetown University and spent time as a senior economist for environmental issues with the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) under President Obama. The episode is so good, it’s an environmental interview I wish I had conducted. This blog’s primary goal is talking with interesting environmental professionals about their important, relevant, and/or cool work. That’s this interview. Continue reading →

Podcasts of an Environmental Professional

This blog is about the lifestyle of Environmental Professionals. I’ve written about what I’m watching and what I’m eating and drinking. Now here’s a look at what I’m listening to. I listen to several podcasts, often while I’m on the road traveling to and from job sites. None of them are specifically environmental podcasts. Although most of them touch on it with specific guests and topics. I have listened to a few environmental podcasts, but they weren’t entertaining enough to hold my attention. Continue reading →

“Tribes” Applied to Environmental Professionals

Tribes, Seth Godin Tribes, by Seth Godin, describes how significant change can be implemented by groups of people connected to each other by an idea, goal, or conviction. A tribe. The tribe doesn’t have to be co-located. It only needs something to believe in, a leader, and a place to connect. While reading, I was struck at how much Tribes applies to environmental professionals and this blog. Continue reading →

Environmental Professionals are Jedi

Obi Wan would have made a good environmental professional. Photo courtesy of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones special in Vanity Fair magazine.

Lately I’ve been thinking about ways to describe the work of environmental professionals. I’ve also been enjoying a renewed interest in Star Wars. This comes from my son’s growing interest in Star Wars, the hype of Episode VII and watching Star Wars Rebels. This combination has made me realize that environmental professionals and Jedi have a lot in common. A bit of a stretch? Maybe. But it’s fun. Continue reading →

Exploring Environmental Art: Sand Trails

Sand Trails photography by Susan Alexander.

Sand Trails, photograph by Susan Alexander.

This is part of a series where I explore interesting pieces of environmental art.

This is a great example of eARTh or earth as art. As an earth scientist, I appreciate art that capture the beauty of a natural process. In this photo, award-winning photographer, Susan Alexander, captured the beauty of the eroding sand. You can stand on a beach all day and continually watch the waves and tides erode and deposit sand. Susan captures this continual process in a unique way and turned it into art. Very cool.

What makes this photograph special is that you’ll never see this exact image again…ever. That’s the beauty of water processes; it’s never the same twice. Waterfalls, rivers, waves, erosion, they may look repetitive from a distance, but moving water is never the same.

It takes more than just a good artist’s eye to see this, but also a good photographer to understand the lighting, composure, and technical skills to capture it. I’ve tried to take enough photographs of landscapes and earth processes to know that I’m impressed with this photograph.

The photographer may not have realized she was making environmental art when she took the photograph, but that’s how I perceive it. I immediately saw the eroding sand and made a connection. I guess that’s part of the process of art; everyone may take something different from it. I see environmental art.

This was photographed by Susan Alexander in Cape May, NJ in 2013.

Exploring Environmental Art

I have a growing interest in environmental art and I’m going to pursue it. Not making environmental art, but looking for it, appreciating and understanding it.

I don’t have an art education background or experience, but I’ve been seeing and thinking about the power of environmental art. Art is designed to grab your attention, inspire, or make you think. That’s what it does for me. When I see an interesting piece, I want to know more about it. What do I see? Does it have a deeper meaning? What was the artist’s intent? Is it the same as the artist? Does it matter?

I first need to come to an understanding of what fits in to the category of environmental art. Is it art that makes an environmental message, art that is made from natural or other environmental-related materials, both, or those and more? To me, it’s all of that as long as it creates a relationship, connection, understanding or appreciation of a natural process or environmental issue.

An example I enjoy, which is typically a photograph, is eARTh or Earth Art. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s the earth’s natural processes or landscapes captured with a beauty or perspective to create art.

Here’s what I plan to do about this new interest. As I see environmental art or artists, I’ll write about it here and do my best to highlight and explain it from my perspective. I may even get the artist’s perspective. I’m not going to be an art critic. I just want to understand the art. So stay tuned for my take on the environmental art that comes across my path.

The National Environmental Professional

The people, places, and thoughts that make up the environmental professional lifestyle