Past Earth Days:

AUGUST – Rest, Relax, Reflect

JULY – Clean Air & Water

That’s right, July Green Drinks is a two-for-one dealio. We will be grappling with the two biggest environmental issues since the dawn of the environmental movement – clean air and clean water. Way back when, in the mid 20th century, industry was free to pollute as it saw fit. This resulting in deadly smog alerts, burning rivers , and other icky stuff. Fortunately, the good people of Earth joined forces to put an end to this nonsense, and US Congress passed sweeping regulations forever to be known as The Clean Air Act and The Clean Water Act. These landmark laws (and their amendments) have resulted in cleaner, healthier environs in the cities and countryside alike, but are now under assault for being bad for business. How can this be? Well, get off your duffs, come to Green Drinks and find out.
This month, champions for clean air and water from MORPC and Sierra Club will be talking about what is and can be done to protect these vital resources. David Rutter, watershed coordinator at MORPC, will fill us in on the status of the Central Ohio waterway, and Laticia Purmort, mother of Macy, an asthmatic child, will share her perspective as a mother who worries for the health of her child due to poor air quality.

All this will go down at Woodlands Tavern (1200 West 3rd Ave.) on Thursday, July 21. The event runs from 6-8 and coincides with happy hour ($2 drafts). We hope to see you all there.

JUNE – Great Green Cobs (and Drinks)

MAY – Bike Hop

You Can, You Should, You Must Hop

May is Bike Month and as far as we’re concerned, the more we know about bikes, the more we love them. A few fun facts about the most energy efficient vehicle ever created:

• Anywhere from 6 to 20 bikes can park in a single car parking space
• Bike trips replacing car trips displace over 238 million gallons of gasoline per year (nearly $1 billion worth at current prices)
• Bicycles use 2% as much energy as cars per passenger-kilometer, and cost less than 3% as much to purchase
• Ohio Fun Fact: Unicycling is a mandatory subject at St. Helen’s School in Newbury, Ohio.

Celebrate two-wheeled freedom in one of the flattest cities and join us for our annual Bike Hop on Thursday, May 19th. We will kick it off at 6pm at the Village Idiot (1439 N High St) with $3 Green Olive Vodka drink specials (Mountain Dew Flavor anyone?) For a little fuel for the ride, grab a sandwich next door at the newly opened Common Wealth Sandwich Bar, a local food treat. Around 7, we’ll head to Wild Goose Creative (2491 Summit St) for a look into the Past & Future of Bicycle Propaganda . Note, Wild Goose is BYOB, but there are stores with beer close. We’ll top off the evening, around 9, with a short ride to India Oak Grill (590 Oak Park Ave) for a cold drink and a late night nosh.

March – Get Green Columbus

Since St. Patrick’s Day falls on our usual day of the month for Green Drinks and two parties are better than one…(especially with tax season upon us)…we’ll be hosting Columbus Green Drinks on Thursday, March 24 instead. See details below.

Columbus is rising in the ranks of green cities, and it is in a large part due to Mayor Coleman’s Get Green Initiative, which includes the popular GreenSpot program. Here’s the scoop: We are greening up our fleets, putting up solar photovoltaic systems and getting more, fresher food from our community gardens. And…drum roll please…. curbside recycling going live in 2012! Join Erin Miller, Environmental Steward for Columbus as she updates us on all of things green in our fair city, Thursday, March 24th, 6-8pm at Via Vecchia (485 S. Front St., rear of 477 S. Front St.)  BONUS: On site music provided by Listening Lamp.

February – We Heart Art

Three cheers for the man who gave us the first motion picture camera and motion picture studio: Thomas Edison. It’s his birthday this month and we invite you to join us for Green Drinks at Studio 35 as we raise a toast to very late and very great Edison. Born in 1847 in our fair state, Edison’s seemingly limitless ingenuity gave us such cool things as mass communications, batteries for electric cars, and the motion picture camera. It’s that kind of creativity that can help pull us through to other side of our current economic and environmental challenges.

Last November, Bjørn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, released a documentary feature film titled COOL IT. His film explores some of the best ideas that might just lead to a rising tide that raises all ships (as opposed to countless typhoons that swamp them). The Atlantic review of the film described it as “An urgent, intelligent, and entertaining account of the climate policy debate.” Judge for yourself on Thursday, February 17. Admission is $5. Event starts at 6pm. Movie begins at 7pm.

January – Up in Smoke?

On chilly winter nights, it is tempting to throw another log on the fire. And burning wood beats consuming fossil fuels, right?  Not so fast. Trees are a renewable resource but forests can’t grow nearly as fast as they can be chopped down by modern harvesting equipment and consumed in industrial boilers. Unfortunately, this is just what electric utilities in Ohio want to do to meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard, aka RPS.

But worry not, our courageous forest defenders – Buckeye Forest Council – are on the job. Their fearless leader, Cheryl Johncox, will be our featured speaker at January Green Drinks.

This month’s event will be Thursday, January 20 from 6-8pm, and venue is appropriately enough, Woodlands Tavern (1200 West 3rd Ave.), where it is happy hour ($2 for all drafts). We hope to see you there.