More than 200 people attended Imago’s Earth Spirit Rising conference at Xavier University this weekend, where they were challenged to rethink their actions and their effect on the planet.

Speaker Paula Gonzalez, a Dominican nun and futurist, cast the challenges ahead in stark terms: “We must realize the scale of our times, which is on the scale of transitions like going from hunter-gathering to agriculture, or industrialization. You must take the messages of this conference home in your heart, in your soul, in your gut, and get off your butt and act.”

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich yesterday delivered his second “State of the State” speech, a reportedly hilarious mockery of political tradition that ranged from harmlessly wacky to straight-up sexist, while making a pit stop in the “Parkinson’s disease is funny” category.

Kasich’s apparent intention was to announce a new broadband plan, introduce an award honoring courageous Ohioans and try to say that his plans for shale drilling in the Northeastern part of the state are totally going to respect the environment.

But the 90-minute speech in a Steubenville elementary school auditorium included far more Kasich bloopers than usual. The Enquirer included in the first paragraph of its recap Kasich’s references to “non-bluetongue cows going to Turkey” and “a dream about Jerry Seinfeld in the back seat of a car.” The AP described the speech as “peppered with Kasich's usual array of off-the-cuff, sometimes puzzling remarks.”

Those familiar with Kasich’s governing style will find these descriptions to be only slightly surprising. Remember last January when he called a police officer an “idiot” in a speech for giving him a speeding ticket? Or when he mocked Ohio’s drivers license for being pink (PINK IS SO GAY!)? Or that time he told a group of business owners that he wanted to make Ohio cool because the executives at LexisNexis said all their employees would rather live on the coasts instead of sucky-ass Ohio?

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The National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) is urging the Obama administration to use a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln against BP, as a method to circumvent any limits on damages it can seek from the company.

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Going paperless – using e-mail, reading documents on line and other such electronic alternatives – is supposed to help save trees and reduce garbage going to landfills. But what happens when the computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, modem and all of the other electronic stuff becomes obsolete?

To keep that stuff out of your local landfill, Tri-County Mall (11700 Princeton Pike, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45246) will play host to an earth-day related event that gives anyone a free method of environmentally responsible equipment disposal. On April 18 (Saturday) 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? will collect enough “computer electronics only” to fill two trucks.

No word on how big the trucks are, but one would guess they’ll be large enough to display the company logo.

The final ratification of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact came Oct. 3 when President Bush signed the joint resolution of Congress. The law is now on the books, even though some in Ohio who support Issue 3 – the constitutional amendment to guarantee property owners the right to reasonable use of their land (see my news article "No One Owns Water") – claim passage is needed to enact the law.

“The compact provides a comprehensive management framework for achieving sustainable water use and resource protection,” according to a pres release from the Council of Great Lakes Governors. “The eight Great Lakes states reached a similar good faith, agreement with Ontario and Québec in 2005, which the provinces are using to amend their existing water programs for greater regional consistency.”

The compact includes the following points:

• Economic development will be fostered through sustainable use and responsible management of basin waters.

• In general, there will be a ban on new diversions of water from the basin but limited exceptions could be allowed in communities near the basin when rigorous standards are met.

• Communities that apply for an exception will have a clear, predictable decision making process, standards to be met and, opportunities to appeal decisions. These processes and standards do not exist under current law.

• The states will use a consistent standard to review proposed uses of basin water. The states will have flexibility regarding their water management programs and how to apply this standard.

• Regional goals and objectives for water conservation and efficiency will be developed, and they will be reviewed every five years. Each state will develop and implement a water conservation and efficiency program that may be voluntary or mandatory.

• There is a strong commitment to continued public involvement in the implementation of the compact.

For more information, visit www.cglg.org.

— Margo Pierce

Cincinnati officials will hold a press conference Thursday to announce that the city will receive a $3 million federal grant to address lead paint problems in apartments and houses.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the grant to the city’s Community Development Department. City staffers will work with some local nonprofit agencies in allocating the funds.

At least 240 residential units will be able to have lead abatement completed, officials said.

Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. will formally accept the money, which is the fourth lead-related HUD grant given to Cincinnati, in council chambers at 10 a.m. Thursday. The chambers are located on the third floor of City Hall, 801 Plum St., downtown.

Representatives from the agencies that will help the city use the money also are expected to attend. They include Price Hill Will, Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, Cincinnati Housing Partners, People Working Cooperatively, Working In Neighborhoods and the Northside Community Urban Redevelopment Corp.

Lead poisoning is the leading environmentally induced illness in children, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. At greatest risk are children under the age of six because they are undergoing rapid neurological and physical development.

The United States banned the use of lead in household paint in 1978, but it often can be found on the walls of dwellings in cities with older housing stock like Cincinnati.

An estimated 19,000 children under age six in Ohio have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group. The number includes an estimated 1,400 children in Hamilton County.

Monsanto, a large corporation with a self-described focus of “producing more, conserving more and improving lives," focuses on innovation in agricultural production and claims to have “an eye on the future.” Included in their Sustainable Yield Initiative of 2008 are the benefits of biotechnology, or the genetic modification of farmed products. The March Against Monsanto will be held to combat this process, as well as other practices like Monsanto’s efforts to overturn European Union regulation on obligatory labeling. The march’s primary organizer, Tami Monroe Canal, says she started the movement because she was concerned for her daughters’ lives.

“I feel Monsanto threatens their generation’s health, fertility and longevity,” she explains. “I couldn’t sit by idly, waiting for someone else to do something.”

A precursor meeting announcement for the Cincinnati march emphasizes that this movement is not a “fist waving” event. Says the Cincinnati organizer Dana Haan, “It is a peaceful yet assertive demonstration in which we evoke public awareness of what is happening with Monsanto and our food and the future of it.”

Organizers throughout the United States are calling on participants to bring handouts that explain GMO processes in fact form, with “no slandering, no opinions or paper — just facts.” March participants are striving to prove that the genetic modification of foods is more detrimental than beneficial to individual health, citing studies conducted on GMOs that suggest the presence of pesticides in some modified products, as well as evidence that consumption of GMOs leads to cancer, infertility and birth defects.

With more than 100,000 likes on Facebook and an event list ranging from Boulder, Colo., to Cairo, Egypt, support for the March Against Monsanto has skyrocketed since its inception in February of this year. Advocating not only an end to GMOs but also various solutions for achieving this goal, March leaders assert that they will continue to expose Monsanto’s secrets, “taking to the streets to show the world and Monsanto that we won’t take these injustices quietly.”

The Cincinnati march will take place at Piatt Park at 1 p.m. For more information, visit the MAM Facebook page or the MAM website.

Correction: This story originally gave the wrong location and time in the sub-headline.

A healthy environment for learning makes sense, but a school as a green school as “learning tool” – what does that mean?

Find out on April 23, 5 - 7:30 p.m. at the Pleasant Ridge Montessori School (5945 Montgomery Rd. - rear entrance) when the Green and Healthy Schools network explains the concept.

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Traffic can be awful — not just for drivers, but economies and the environment as well. A study released Tuesday by the Texas A&M Institute of Transportation found Cincinnati lost about $947 million in 2011 to delays on the road, coming in at No. 27 nationwide.

The Annual Urban Mobility Report also ranked Cincinnati No. 37 nationwide for extra time stuck in traffic, with the average Cincinnati commuter spending an extra 37 hours on the road in 2011. In comparison, the average Columbus commuter spent 40 extra hours in traffic in 2011, and the typical Cleveland commuter spent 31 extra hours. For all three cities, estimates were unchanged from 2010.

Traffic jams also have a major impact on climate change. According to the report, congestion caused cars to produce an extra 56 billion pounds of carbon dioxide nationwide, with Cincinnati commuters producing 421 million pounds.

The report shows why it’s important for governments to reduce traffic congestion with transit projects like the Cincinnati streetcar. In general, public transportation leads to less congestion by taking cars off the road as people use buses, streetcars and trains instead. But some cities have taken it even further. By adopting exclusive lanes for buses and streetcars, cities like San Francisco have made public transportation more attractive, which makes people more likely to forsake their own cars in favor of public alternatives.

Do something other than veg out in front of the boob tube tomorrow night. Join a conversation about a topic on everyone’s mind: energy.

Tonight at 6 p.m. the Imago Earth Center (700 Enright Ave., Price Hill) kicks off its First Friday Conversations with a 20-minute video of Al Gore’s New Thinking on the Climate Crisis. Imago’s 2008-09 season features the year-long theme “Enhancing Earth by Getting ‘Off the Grid.’ ”

“Drawing on a broad understanding of ‘the grid,’ we’ll look at many aspects of unplugging from the current models of growth and consumption,” says an event announcement.

For more info, visit www.imagoearth.org  or call 513-921-5124.

— Margo Pierce