Green Parent Chicago

Swiss Adventurer to Make "Solartaxi" Stop in Chicago On World Tour

Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer and his solar powered car, the "Solartaxi"  will stop at the country’s tallest building Monday, as part of a world tour to bring attention to solutions to climate change.

Palmer will give a presentation from noon to 2 p.m. at the southwest corner near the Sears Tower Skydeck entrance on the vehicle's technology and green features.

The Chicago visit is part of a world tour of the vehicle that began July 3, 2007. Palmer, his vehicle and his team plan to travel 32,000 miles and visit 40 countries on five continents without spending a single penny on gas or releasing a single emission into the air.

The Solartaxi team says the car, which travels at a maximum of about 50 mph is the first of its kind to drive around the world on the energy of the sun alone. The car is electric with a trailer covered in solar cells. Solar energy generated is stored in the battery, allowing the car to drive at night without sunlight.

Monday's visit is hosted by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago and the Chicago-Lucerne Sister Cities Committee.

New Accessible Playground for All Opens In Evanston

Lawson Park in Evanston is now the sight of the new Noah's Playground for Everyone. The playground which opened Sunday was the project of Evanston residents Julie and David Cutter and the City of Evanston and honors the memory of the Cutter's 2-1/2-year old son Noah, who died in December 2005.

Noah's parents, family, friends, and service providers held several fundraisers to raise the $400,000 needed toward the construction of the accessible playground. The City of Evanston funded the remainder of this project. Lawson suffered from multiple neurological disorders throughout his life.

According to a recent Tribune report on the playground's opening ceremony, the equipment and toys are designed so kids with special needs can play alongside able-bodied kids, and get close to the action with ramps and larger spaces that are wheelchair-accessible. Paths are covered with rubber—instead of bark chips or sand—so wheels can roll easily. Toys are painted in bright colors so children with limited eyesight can navigate them. Nooks and crannies help give kids with sensory overload a place to calm down.

Chicago scores 4th in Rank of Most Walkable Cities

Walk Score, the site that helps people find walkable neighborhoods, recently announced the most walkable cities in the U.S.

On a scale of 0 (car dependent, drive only) to 100 (a walkers paradise), Chicago scored an overall ranking of 76, with 66% of Chicago residents having a Walk Score in their neighborhood of 70 or above.

2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities were ranked according to the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks and other amenities.

According to the site, Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a "car-lite" lifestyle—not how attractive and scenic the area is for walking,

The top most walkable city, according to the site's rankings: San Francisco, followed by New York, with Boston coming in third.

Progressive Politics and Parenting

Are you a news junkie, do you watch C-Span while serving your kids lunch? Can you define "pundit", a "smoke-filled room", have you ever "misspoke"? Perhaps, like me, you've been following the presidential race since it began in late 2006...(you don't think it all started at the Iowa Caucuses now do you?)

Well, the MOMocrats, Activistas, League of Maternal Justice, Moms Speak Up, Moms Rising, and PunditMom have a little something to share with you.

All you mamas and papas of the world who know that parenting is a political act, there's no shortage of political opinion from the playground set.

The MOMocrats: moms, bloggers, writers, lawyers and more from across the nation deftly skilled at the art of political smackdown are dedicated to putting a Democrat in the White House.

Activistas' out of Portland describes it's goal: "to inform, inspire & connect busy parents who want to create change on the issues that matter to your family." Their site offers relevant news, alerts, and opinion on local and national issues. 

The League of Maternal Justice uses the power of the mom internet community to "expose the injustices perpetrated against mothers everywhere and to exact vengeance through aggressive finger-wagging and online shaming."

Moms Speak Up is a collaborative blog of writers who "are women, parents, consumers, voters and much, much more" and are "fed up with the "business as usual" attitude of politicians & greedy corporations." They believe "It's time for us to speak up and be heard!"

Moms Rising is an organization working toward a more family-friendly America, with over 140,000 citizen members. Several very prominent women bloggers on their site voice their opinions on the issues and work to advance the efforts of the organization.

PunditMom: has been called a "one woman media empire" and writes regularly on her own site, as well as for The Huffington Post, BlogHer, Moms Rising and a whole slew other notable online and print publications.

Catherine Morgan, a single mom and contributing editor for BlogHer, not long ago began chronicling the Political Voices of Women on her blog. To date she has over 400 women listed from various political persuasions, many of whom are also moms.

This list just scratches the surface and of course I've forgotten many, so if you're out there (dads!) or know of any other great political parenting writers online, let us know!

-Full disclosure: editor Christine writes on politics for a couple of the above sites over here and here and more often on her own column here at the Huffington Post and her political blog, Modern English.

Politics With a Generous Helping of Greens: Green Convention 2008

The 2008 Green Party National Convention begins today at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago. The convention, which is a mix of workshops and a nominating convention for the Green Party's presidential nominee for the 2008 general election will run until Sunday July 13.

The bulk of the event will be held at the Palmer House Hilton with the presidential candidate nomination to be held Saturday at the Chicago Symphony Center. On-site registration is available and includes meals. Low income and Saturday-only registration are also offered for non-delegates.

Some of the workshops offered during the convention include: local democracy, sustainable activism, organizing online, working with the media, grass roots fundraising, making green food choices and LGBT activism.

Increased C-Sections Factor in Local and Nationwide Pre-term births

A rise in preterm births nationwide has led area hospitals to build new neonatal care departments, such as Rush-Copley Medical Center's new 18 bed intermediate-level neonatal intensive care unit.

According to to a recent story in the Aurora Beacon News, this new space will help Rush-Copley Medical Center care for the increasing number of local premature babies born at the hospital or transported there.

Nationwide, preterm births are on the rise. An analysis by The March of Dimes from May 28 pinpoints unnecessary c-sections as "a critical factor" in the rise:

"Between 1996 and 2004 there was an increase of nearly 60,000 singleton preterm births and 92 percent of those infants were delivered by a cesarean section, (c-section), according to research by investigators from the March of Dimes and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that will be published in the June issue of Clinics in Perinatology. While singleton preterm births increased by about 10 percent during this time, the c-section rate for this group increased by 36 percent."

Some preterm births are due to complications of labor like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. Doctors are now better aware of such complications and able to recommend early c-section to mothers. In addition, the rising age of mothers at birth and increased in-vitro fertilization resulting in multiple births are also speculated to be factors in the growing c-section rate.

However, the largest increase in preterm births occurred in the number of late preterm births, those occuring between 34 to 37 weeks, causing concern among researchers that many c-sections are being performed at the request of mothers or after inappropriate recommendations from their doctor.

Co-founder of International Breastfeeding Organization Passes Away

Edwina Froehlich, co-founder of the breastfeeding organization La Leche League International died Sunday at the age of 93.

Froehlich, who resided in suburban Inverness, died at Northwest Suburban Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, after suffering a stroke on May 25. In addition to her involvement in LLLI, based in Schaumburg, she also co-authored the book, "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding", which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide since its first publication "in loose-leaf" format in 1958.

In 1956, Froehlich and six other women met at a picnic in Elmhurst's Wilder Park, to discuss how to successfully breastfeed their babies. Their meeting led to the formation of La Leche League. At the time, breastfeeding rates for new mothers had dropped nationwide to only about 20%.

As of 2006, which marked the 50th anniversary of LLLI, the organization said it assists over 300,000 women each month with breastfeeding support and education.

-photo credit La Leche League International

Green Schools Bill Moves to the Senate But Faces Veto Threat

The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act aimed at making schools greener passed the House on June 4 and will move to the Senate for a vote, but could be facing a veto threat from the White House.

According to Democrats from the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, if signed into law the bill "provides funding to states and school districts to help ensure that school facilities and learning environments are safe, healthy, energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and technologically up-to-date."

In addition, the bill would provide funds for Gulf Coast schools still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

GOP opposition calls the plan "a massive, bureaucratic school construction program" with Bush threatening a veto.

The Great Sunflower Project

Kids and families can be citizen scientists and collect information on bees by participating in The Great Sunflower Project, an agricultural project created by researchers at San Francisco State University.

According to project organizers, participation requires no special knowledge of bees. The project now includes over 30,000 participants in every state and every province in Canada who will record their findings and share their observations with the researchers.

Free seeds for the easy to grow wild sunflowers will be sent to participants who sign up by June 15. After that date, names will be added to a list for next year's batch of seeds. However, wild sunflower seeds may also be obtained through wildflower seed and garden stores such as American Meadows online and an online account to share your research with the project can be set up at anytime.

By watching and recording the activity of bees at sunflowers, participants can help researchers understand the challenges bees are facing and how urban habitats effect bees. Researchers will then use the data to compile a map of where bees are located and thriving in and around the continent.

Conservatory staff respond to Green Parent Chicago breastfeeding article

By Christine Escobar

In addition to the email Green Parent Chicago reader Lori received from the Garfield Park Conservatory (posted in the comments of the original article below), I received a call from Zvezdana Kubat, press office spokeperson, for the Chicago Park District this afternoon.

Kubat told me Mary Eysenbach, Director of Conservatories for the Chicago Park District and Eunita Rushing, President of Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, have spoken to the security guard and the conservatory staff about the "innappropriate" way the guard responded to the mother nursing her baby.

According to Kubat, Eysenbach and Rushing "had a conversation with everyone and sat them down and let them know." Kubat elaborated further saying the talk between Rushing, Eysenbach  and the employees specified that "a mother is allowed to breastfeed (at the conservatory) wherever she chooses."