The documentary, “Fuel,” is opening in Philadelphia on Friday, and just in time to focus the discussion, a vehicle powered by algae-based gasoline, will arrive at Penn. The “Algaeus,” said to be the world’s first plug-in hybrid vehicle to cross the country on fuel containing an algae blend, recently completed a ten-day cross-country tour from San Francisco to New York. It will be at 40th and Locust at 5 p.m.

The car is sponsored by the Veggie Van Organization, whose creator, Josh Tickell, also directed “Fuel.” The film opens Friday at the Ritz at the Bourse. Both the vehicle and the film have been getting a great ride. The film won the audience award for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Sorry that I haven’t seen it yet. But it’s described as “a stirring, radical documentary which is a comprehensive and yet oddly entertaining look at energy in America. … an amazing, in-depth, personal journey of oil use and abuse as [Tickell] examines wide-ranging energy solutions other than oil, the faltering US auto and petroleum industries, and the latest stirrings of the American mindset toward alternative energy (versus the advanced European commitment to ending its oil dependence altogether).”

There’s scientific data, history and personal narrative. “And like any good narrative, it has intrigue, conspiracy, greed – and murder,” the PR honchos say.

The car’s website is www.veggievan.org

The film’s website is www.thefuelfilm.com
 

Swallow-tailed kite (Photo courtest of Militia Hill Hawk Watch)

The hawk-watchers at Militia Hill in Fort Washington State Park have been keeping tabs on the skies for 22 years now.  When I visited a while back, probably a dozen people -- volunteers, all -- were stationed on a wooden overlook, scanning a broad, open sky for hawks.

Recently, they spotted this swallow-tail kite, the first recording of this bird by the Militia Hill group.

This is the season they migrate south, riding the thermals of the region’s many ridges, so it makes for great birdwatching. Plus, the data collected over the years is beneficial. It’s passed along to the Hawk Migration Association of North America, which also collects data from similar programs across the region, the state and the country.

Here’s an update from Militia Hill volunteer coordinator Jamie Stewart: “Most of the 17 species of raptors occurring in the eastern US are recorded each year including over 65 Bald Eagles in 2008. By far the most numerous species recorded is the Broad-winged Hawk with over 8,500 recorded last year. On Sept. 19 of this year, 7,525 were recorded in just one day.

“Broad-winged Hawks breed in eastern half of North America from the southern US up through southern Canada. The birds recorded at MHHW are on their way to their wintering grounds from southern Mexico all the way down through Central and South America as far as Brazil and Bolivia. Raptors, commonly referred to as birds of prey, are excellent indicators of environmental health as they feed at the top of the food chain.”

The Militia Hill watch is active in the months of September and October, every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, weather permitting.

Meanwhile, to give you the gist, here’s a story I wrote in the Inquirer about the hawk-watchers in 2001:
 

The sky was a vivid, velvety blue. The leaves were a sun-drenched gold. The air was crisp and invigorating.

In short: a vastly crummy day, at least for hawk-watching.

"It's a lousy sky. We want northwest winds and clouds," grumped Marylea Klauder, although grumped is probably the wrong word. Birders find it difficult to feel worse than ecstatic when they're on a watch, rubbernecking for raptors.

But on Thursday, a fluctuating group of 10 to 12 people spotted only two hawks all morning. Even those were so high that they were invisible to the naked eye, just silhouettes in binoculars.

It was a far cry from Sept. 17, 1995, when watchers could do little more than count frantically - and gape in amazement - as 13,079 broad-winged hawks soared overhead in a single eight-hour stretch.

It's those days that keep people coming to Militia Hill, a tiny bump of Montgomery County in Fort Washington State Park, where hundreds of hawk-watchers gather each fall - as many as 50 at a time - to glimpse one of nature's spectacles, the southbound raptor migration.

Sure, there's Hawk Mountain in Kempton, Pa., renowned for the river of raptors winging by, following the Appalachian ridges.

But that's only part of the picture. Raptors migrate all along the East Coast, and broad-wing hawks in particular seek the updrafts from warm fields and, as it happens, office-building roofs and highways near Militia Hill.

"We watch the birds come in and turn," Klauder said. "It seems they're following the turnpike sometimes."

Raptor watches have taken off. Pennsylvania has 16, the newest at Rose Tree Park in Media, Delaware County. New Jersey has nine, including the well-known Cape May watch.

The Hawk Migration Association of North America, a volunteer conservation and educational group, tracks the totals.

Militia Hill has nothing in particular to recommend it, Klauder said. The elevation is just 330 feet. The view to the northwest is blocked by trees.

But from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, more than 10,000 raptors fly through. It reflects national trends. In 1988, watchers saw just five bald eagles. This year, it's 38 so far.

Klauder, 64, of Oreland, was the watch's instigator. A former waitress who retired when the cigarette smoke became too much for her asthma, she began volunteering at the park. One day, while working on the bluebird trail, she spotted a big bird soaring overhead. It was a hawk.

One thing led to another, and 14 years ago, the watch began. She's been in charge ever since, coordinating volunteers - now 200 - and designating official counters for two shifts a day.

To find her during migration, go to the deck built in 1995 or call on the pay phone nearby; you may get lucky. "Let it ring," she advised last week.

The watchers make up a mini-society of all ages and professions. Many stop by daily - some for hours, others just on lunch breaks. A few race over after work for a quick sky scan.

School and scout groups visit. Not along ago, a tour bus of senior citizens came. The watch is credited with making the park one of the most heavily used in the region.

On days like this, when birds are scarce, the gathering turns social. The watchers munch on doughnuts and chat about whatever.

Often, it evolves into an impromptu nature forum. They check the action in a butterfly garden they planted. Eva Abraham, 71, a retired nurse from Abington, knows mushrooms. Dale Twining of Wyncote, an 80-year-old insurance retiree, is the tree expert.

Klauder even added an aircraft identification book to the on-site library. The location is bracketed by Willow Grove Naval Air Station and a private airstrip, so the watchers have seen blimps, biplanes, the Blue Angels, police helicopters, transport helicopters and - a shocker in the binoculars for unsuspecting birders - a low-flying stealth bomber. Members are convinced they saw Air Force One not long ago.

And of course, there's always another bird story to tell.

"The whole activity of migrating is fascinating," Twining said. "With their limited mentality, how do they know where they're going? How do they find their way back?"

Harvey Bass, 47, a law enforcement officer from Mount Airy, comes to the deck "to get away from all that." A birder since childhood, he's one of the "young eyes" the retirees envy.

Birding is "an addiction," said Jack Fanelli of Oreland. "I can see 500 birds in one day. But then I want 501. When you see 501, you want 502."

Fanelli, 38, doesn't start his maintenance shift at Wissahickon High School until 3 p.m. Mornings, he's on the deck.

Bill Murphy, 62, of Springfield, Montgomery County, said raptors had "a certain mystique," roughly akin to the fascination for lions, tigers and other big cats. "It's a prey animal," he said. "It gets everybody interested."

A retired computer systems analyst, Murphy has been to every continent except Antarctica and Australia in search of birds. His personal count has topped 4,000 species. Still, Militia Hill has him in its grasp, and he is there just about every day, scanning the sky hopefully.

"Bird up!" Fanelli suddenly hollered, following with directions. "Top of the tulip poplar. Half a field above. A sharpie!"

Twelve pairs of binoculars swiveled to the spot.

"Got it," Frank Welsh, the official compiler, confirmed. "You earned another doughnut."

(Brita Climate Ride 2009 photo)

If you’re awake at 8 a.m. this Saturday, make a wish  or say a prayer or sing a chant for good weather. Above all, give a cheer for two Philadelphia greenies, Kristin Sullivan and Dan Garofalo, who will be joining about 178 other cyclists and pedaling out of Central Park as part of a climate change conference on wheels.

Bound for the Capitol in Washington, D.C., by Sept. 20, they hope to bring attention to climate change and raise money for three nonprofits. And meet with legislators. “It makes an impression to pedal 300 miles to meet your senator,” the ride sponsors note.

Sullivan is is Mayor Nutter’s point person on solar energy development in Philadelphia. This ride will be small potatoes for her. She’s a regular of triathlons. Plus, from June 2004 to June 2005 — a year minus ten days — she biked just over 14,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, as a personal environmental campaign to get people to lessen their impact on the environment. She called it the Earth Cycle Campaign. She gave speeches along the way and, incredibly, saw only a few days of rain.

Garofalo, an architect, is Penn’s sustainability coordinator. Part of the reason he’s doing this trip, he said, is that he just spent about two years coming up with the university’s climate action plan, which was released last week. “I knew I really wanted to get away from the office and my cell phone,” he said. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to clear my head and raise money.”

The three nonprofits are Focus the Nation, an Oregon group that encourages young people to engage with lawmakers and business leaders to encourage a clean energy future; the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a group that supports the growth of a national network of trails and paths; and Clean Air-Cool Planet, which brings practical climate change solutions to  companies, campuses and communities.

Both Sullivan and Garofalo bike to work every day — he on a 1987 Schwinn that is evidently showing its age. (Unlike Dan, himself, we presume.) For this, he bought a newer, snazzier bike.

Both were in the Peace Corps — he in Malawi, she in Honduras, although hardly at the same time, they joke. Later, Garofalo took a leave to work on post-tsunami construction in Sri Lanka in 2005.

Sullivan’s and Garofalo’s team fund-raising goal was $6,000. So far, they’ve exceeded it by $250, and the gig’s not up yet.

The riders will have a support crew carrying all their camping equipment. (So, yes, good weather is even more of a plus.) They’re headed for Princeton the first night, Valley Forge the second. Each evening, while they tend no doubt their aching muscles, they’ll get to listen to and hobnob with expert speakers, such as NASA’s chief climatologist, James Hansen.

In case three days of cycling is getting to the riders, on the third night, at Holtwood, Pa., they’ll hear from Roz Savage, the first woman to ROW across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. (If I ever cross the pond, I’ll sail, thanks.) And Colin Beavan, the author and documentary star now better-known by his superhero moniker, No Impact Man.

Visit Sullivan's and Garofalo's team page here. And the website for the ride is here.

(National Trust for Historic Preservation photo)

The Philadelphia region has more than its share of historic buildings.  Beautiful, sure, but also notoriously drafty, leaky and difficult to heat or cool. Not good for the planet.

If you’re looking for help making an older home more energy efficient, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has launched an online guide chock full of information about what to do and how to do it without ruining the character of your home. Or, in many cases, spending an attic-load of money to do it.

The guide includes discussion — and tons of photos — about what to do with older windows, from replacing them to adding things like interior storm windows to retain the home’s character. It also gives tips on general weatherization, roofing and insulation.

Mechanical systems — heating and cooling, for instance — are another big challenge. Among other tips, the guide suggests using closets and nonworking fireplaces to hide duct work and electrical boards. Unlike new homes, older ones also have cavity walls and false floors to hide all those modern wires.

The guide includes nearly 200 links to Web sites, articles, reports, case studies, and do-it-yourself checklists. IT can be found at www.PreservationNation.org/weatherization
 

(FreshFarm Markets photo)

This afternoon, the White House is going to get a farmers market. 

Actually, it’s going to be in an area next to the White House, but there’s much being made of the connection between Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden and her focus on nutrition.     More than a dozen farmers and other vendors will set up their stalls just outside the White House, on Vermont Avenue between H and I streets. They'll be selling produce, preserves, meat from pasture-raised animals, milk and yogurt, artisan cheeses and baked goods.  

It’s being run by the nonprofit FreshFarm Markets, and will operate from 3 to 7 p.m. every Thursday through Oct. 29.

About an hour ago, Penn president Amy Gutmann announced the university's new climate action plan, which calls for all sorts of green upgrades.

Penn is one of several in the region that signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment pledge, which required the schools to assess their emissions and submit long-range plans for reducing their carbon footprints. By now, more than 600 college and universities have signed the pledge.

“Penn is proud to be an environmental leader among American colleges and universities,” Gutmann said, according to publicity information provided by the university. “Our new Climate Action Plan outlines the next bold steps we will take to further reduce our carbon footprint, including strategies to promote recycling, increase energy efficiency and apply innovative design and construction methods. The health of our planet depends on our actions and Penn is committed to leading higher education’s green revolution into the future.”

Penn has created a sustainability coordinator position. Its greenhouse gas inventory was conducted by the School of Design’s TC Chan Center for Energy Simulation. A committee of faculty members, students and staffers developed the goals of the plan. Penn describes them this way:

 · Conserve energy: Achieve a 5 percent reduction of energy across campus by 2010 and a 17 percent reduction by 2014.

· Minimize waste: Achieve a 100 percent increase in recycling across campus by 2014 -- from the current 20 percent diversion rate to 40 percent.

· Reduce auto emissions: Motivate more than half of the University population to walk, bike, and carpool or use public transit for their commute.

· Design green: Build new LEED-certified buildings and landscapes as part of the 30-year Penn Connects campus master plan, and retrofit and re-commission existing buildings in a more sustainable way.

· Learn sustainability: Ensure that the whole Penn community has the opportunity to learn about the issues of sustainability as an integral part of the curriculum and as part of the Penn experience.

Penn has begun implementing some of the goals, and here are some of the steps it is highlighting:

· PennGreen, the University’s four-day pre-orientation program introduced 40 new students to Philadelphia’s leading environmental initiatives.

· The university has hired a new dining services vendor Bon Appetit, known for its sustainable food sourcing.

· Resident halls now have “eco-reps” - student volunteers providing information on energy use, recycling and other environmental concerns.

· University purchasing agents are now being directed to sustainable choices.

· A new “Green Fund” will make available up to $50,000 to any group in the Penn community that aims to change behavior, educate or implement technical solutions that reduce campus emissions and improve sustainability.

Incidentally — and counted as part of the goals — Penn recently purchased commencement caps and gowns made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.

The full Climate Action Plan is available at www.upenn.edu/sustainability.
 

I’ve just returned from vacation in Nova Scotia, and in addition to marveling over the friendly people, the succulent Digby scallops, the breathtaking view of Cape Breton and lovely little Lunenburg, I’m seized with envy over their trash bins. In some of the remotest places — as in down a dirt road — you’re still likely to see a four-bin container like the one in this photograph.

Here are the four categories:

Refundables: Any sort of plastic, glass or metal drink containers, including those little juice containers.

Recyclables: Milk cartons, glass and metal food containers, plastic containers.

Garbage: Basically, anything headed for the landfill. It includes dirty disposable diapers, plastic and foam cups and trays, plastic utensils and snack wrappers.

Organics: I love this one. It includes all food waste (including vegetable scraps, meats, fish and oily stuff), food wrappers and other soiled paper products.

By the way, I could never figure out where to put newspapers, magazine and other paper recyclables, but the friendly — of course! — Wayne at our Lunenburg bed & breakfast told us those are simply bundled and put by the curb.

I’m all for Philadelphia’s single-stream recycling, which is simple enough for even the most recalcitrant to use. But the success of high-tech sorters like the ones Blue Mountain and Allied Waste have in this region notwithstanding, it also seems to make sense to sort stuff at the source, when possible.

Especially considering that Canada has enacted a bottle bill that requires a deposit on each bottle of juice or soda or whatever purchased, and a refund when you bring it back. For most containers, the amounts are a 10-cent deposit and a five-cent refund. In 2008, consumers returned 78 percent of all beverage containers sold.

You can learn more about Nova Scotia’s efforts at the website of the nonprofit Resource Recovery Fund Board.