Dude, Wait, What?!

KICK OUT THE IJAMS

Former Ijams employee Todd Witcher has been named the new executive director of non-profit organization Discover Life in America (DLIA), which is coordinating the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The acronym-addicted program is seeking to identify every species that exists in the park, a demanding task since some scientists estimate more than 100,000 species might live there, and only slightly more than 12,000 have been documented. Witcher has arranged an exhibit at Ijams featuring examples of some of the insect and plants found in the park, available for viewing at the Visitor’s Center
through September.

NOW THE CARAVAN IS ON ITS WAY

The Sustainable Living Road Show is coming to town in an effort to teach us how to make life a little more green. They say they’re the world’s largest eco caravan, which when you’re traveling around in “a fleet” of  five to 10 vehicles talking about sustainable practices and environmental responsibility, seems an odd thing to brag about. OK, those vehicles use “renewable fuel” (I’m assuming ethanol), but they’re still creating pollution and causing wear on roads. I wonder how the cost of ethanol is affected by the current spike in gas prices? I could probably Google it, but it might be best to go straight to the horse’s mouth when they hold court at the University of Tennessee Sept. 27 and 28, with workshops, speakers and entertainers informing us on the ways and means of living more environmentally friendly. With most of the other 12 cities on their tour significantly larger than Knoxville, it’s kind of cool they’re taking an interest in our once-fair city, which currently has just about the worst air quality in the nation. And maybe they can even take a lesson from the forward-thinking Pilot Corp. in driving up fuel prices in the hopes of getting people to drive less.