Global warming and the worldwide results of carbon pollution are like the national debt. It’s an overwhelming problem that lots of people would love to fix, but since most of us don’t know anything we can do it seems incurable. While no one individually feels like they can make a difference, all of us will start experiencing the negative difference it increasingly has on our lives. Carbon pollution won’t stop, or even decrease, unless each of us individually learns how to reduce our carbon footprint.

The good news is that there are lots of things you and I can do. Most of them are simple creative changes we can make in our daily routines that cost little or nothing with minimal effort. Here are 10 creative things you can do to decrease your carbon footprint:

1. Shop Online When Possible – Online shopping is a much greener way to buy, as fuel emissions are among the greatest contributors to environmental degradation. In this digital era you can find almost anything you can think of online. Also consider purchasing green friendly items online around the holidays like solar powered race cars for the kids, rechargeable batteries for your home, and other natural products.

2. Hang Up Your Laundry – Driers may get your laundry done faster, but once again, you can save yourself money and help the environment by hanging your clothes instead. They’ll also last longer and have that clean, fresh, summer-day smell.

3. Regularly Replace Your Air Filters – You might do this once per year, if you remember, but it’s time to keep this on a regular 3 month schedule. As simple as this step is, it can reduce energy bills, saving you money and reducing carbon waste.

4. Reuse Grocery Bags or  Bring Your Own Bags – Those plastic bags at the checkout line add up to thousands of tons every year. Instead of tossing them out after putting your groceries away, set them aside for the next time you go shopping, or find other practical uses for them. Better yet, get a couple reusable canvas bags instead!

5. Use Energy Efficient Light Bulbs and AppliancesIt’s very hard to find old-style incandescent bulbs in most stores, but they might still be wasting electricity in your sockets. Compact fluorescent light bulbs are a great alternative, and we should all be using them by now!. They require roughly 70% less energy, for almost the same light output, and often last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Make the investment, and you might be surprised by how much energy you save.

6. Recycle Used Ink and Toner Cartridges Instead of Tossing Them Out – Many printer cartridges contain rare earth metals and other electrical components that the suppliers are happy for you to throw out without batting an eye. Instead of carelessly contributing to e-waste, send your empties to one of the numerous recycling programs, and purchase your toner cartridges from companies that sell recycled or remanufactured versions. Again, not only will you help the environment, but you will also save a lot of money on over priced printing supplies.

7. Buy Recycled Paper and Recycle Your Own Garbage – Paper is a huge annual waste of energy. From cutting trees, to processing in paper mills, transporting, and finally disposing waste paper; paper waste adds a huge strain on the environment. For only a slightly higher cost, which you can justify by saving money with other eco-friendly practices, you can protect a huge number of trees and teach your children the importance of being eco-conscious. Recycling your own garbage is a daily reminder to the kids that each person places a burden on the environment, and we should do all we can to minimize that.

8. Pay Your Bills Online – Another way to reduce waste from paper is to sign up for paperless bill pay, and manage your costs online. You can have a similar saving by reading the news online and cutting subscription to your local paper.

9. Grow Your Own Fruits and Vegetables or Buy Locally – Organic foods help reduce harm from pesticides and preservatives, but the ultimate is to grow your own food. This hobby will eliminate transportation costs, and all the pollution it involves. True, maintaining a garden is mentally rewarding, but we all know that fresh ingredients always taste much better!

10. Track Your Carbon Footprint – Everybody knows that counting calories is one of the best ways to lose weight. Some smartphone apps and websites now offer a similar opportunity where you can track your progress with a carbon footprint calculator. Over time you can see if you’re truly making progress or not, and make the necessary adjustments to your lifestyle. Of course, the more people that work on reducing our collective carbon footprint the better, so spread the knowledge to friends and family!

This book was a very important read for me though because it made the issue of climate change very personal and easy to understand. I love to travel and I would love for my kids and I to see all our wondrous National Parks and yet some of them are in very real danger of becoming impassable to hikers and travelers. Climate change is melting the glaciers that make an appearance in some, which not only affects the beauty of these areas it also means less water is making its way down to lower areas. Plants and animal life that rely on this water start to become endangered or extinct. Water sources that hikers need to survive start to dry up, making the area inhospitable. Scenic waterfalls dry up earlier and earlier and may eventually be gone for good. Can you even imagine Yosemite without its grand waterfalls???

The melting glaciers create mud slides and rock slides which make the area too dangerous for hikers and campers. The warmer weather also creates wicked storms the likes of which have rarely been seen before and they happen more and more often. This destroys some of the most scenic areas of the parks and also makes it too dangerous for people to go exploring. Hiking trails that once saw many thousands of hikers each and every year steadily become less grand and less hospitable to all manners of life from humans, to animals, to native plants and trees. The trees are also being devastated by insects that are not being killed off in annual frosts anymore. The pest population is permitted to go crazy and the overwhelmed trees are dying off by the thousands. The are some very real problems facing our parks that get worse and worse each year. Many of the park officials and scientists who have worked in these parks for decades feel that they may be shadows of themselves before long.

This is why Michael Lanza decided that his kids needed to see the most endangered parks NOW and they embarked on the year long adventure contained within the pages of Before They’re Gone. Lanza is a veteran freelance outdoors writer and photographer. He is the northwest editor of Backpacker magazine, where his articles about the impacts of climate change on Montana’s Glacier National Park and other wild lands helped Backpacker win a National Magazine Award. He also runs the website TheBigOutside.

I was invited to participate in the blog tour for his wonderful book and I decided to ask him a few questions about it. His answers are amazing and insightful…a must read for nature lovers! Below is the interview. Enjoy!

1. How did your work as an outdoors writer position you uniquely to see the effects of climate change on our National Parks?

For years, I’ve observed how much natural landscapes are changing. The evidence is recorded on maps, many of which are based on decades-old USGS data. I’ve seen dried, cracked earth in places where my map showed an alpine lake, and new lakes or barren talus in places where my map showed a glacier. I was making an off-trail traverse of the Bailey Range in Olympic National Park one September several years ago and ran into a family (parents with their grown kids in their late teens and early 20s) going in the other direction—the only people we saw out there. As it happened, the father was one of the authors of the Olympic Mountains climbers guide; he knew the mountains very well from decades of hiking and climbing. He pointed to a north-facing mountainside above the lake where we were camped, a slope that had just a few small patches of snow and mostly bare ground, and told me with a tone of disbelief, “I’ve never seen that slope not entirely covered with snow in summer.”

It’s disorienting on a couple of levels when a place does not look like what is shown on your map. I’ve puzzled over my exact location more than once. But then, realizing that I was actually standing where I thought I was standing, I’ve felt sadness and awe, and felt deeply disturbed over the idea that our lifestyles are actually altering the face of the planet. I can’t help but fear where this is leading us.

In April 2007, while researching stories for Backpacker about the impacts of climate change on national parks and wilderness, I skied into the Northern Rockies in Glacier National Park with a leading federal scientist there, Dan Fagre, who was predicting that the glaciers in the park would disappear by 2030. On a return visit to backpack for six days in Glacier in September 2009, I met up with Dan again. He told me they had revised that previous forecast because warming and glacial recession had speeded up faster than anticipated: the projected year for no more glaciers in Glacier National Park was now 2020. I thought, Wow, my kids will be just 19 and 17 then. This is not far off in the future—it’s right around the corner. Changes have been underway for years and are happening quickly, within the lifespans of people.

2. What was your biggest motivator for planning this trip and do you hope to do it again in the future?

Dan Fagre’s revised forecast about Glacier National Park’s glaciers and other research I was doing made me realize that many parks could be very different places by the time Nate and Alex are my age. But we also cleared a big hurdle in 2009 in terms of our ability as a family to make these trips. Our son, Nate, who turned nine that September, had been backpacking with me for a few years. But our daughter, Alex, who was six that summer, showed for the first time that she could handle adult-scale backpacking trips. That summer and early fall, we took a rugged, three-day hike in Grand Teton National Park, and a four-day hike in Zion National Park.

Now that we could take trips like this all together, I started thinking more and more in the fall of 2009 about just cramming in as many trips as we could in a year without the kids missing too much school. As I write in my book’s prologue, it’s easy to get caught up in life and not achieve the goals you set or see the places you want to see. I’ve long believed that you just have to get out and do things, because you never know what’s in store for the future. You can’t wait for opportunity to shake you awake—it’s not going to.

Do I hope to do it again? I’m constantly thinking about the next adventure we can take as a family; in fact, I’m usually planning at least three or four simultaneously, thinking about trips appropriate for their ages and abilities. This summer, as a family we’ll go rock climbing and backpacking or rafting in Idaho, hiking in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and take a nine-day, hut-to-hut trek in Norway. On my tick list for a summer soon: a multi-week Western road trip, a big international trek, and a multi-week backpacking trip on a long trail.

3. After speaking with so many park experts and seeing the effects of climate change yourself, are you pessimistic for the future of our parks or are you optimistic that we can change our current direction?

As I wrote in my book, I choose optimism in part because I think it offers the only hope for the world our kids will inherit. But also, one consistent thread that ran through many of the interviews I did with scientists was the optimism they shared that the parks will always inspire us as much as they did our forefathers who decided to preserve these places. As Dan Fagre told me about Glacier, “It’s still going to be a beautiful park. The notion that it’s being changed ultimately by human activities is something people have to take responsibility for. These are really good things for people to be thinking about.”

I am optimistic that we can change. While there is great resistance to change, there is also great momentum in the right direction. My hope is that increased understanding of what we’re doing to the world our children will inherit, and how our cherished national parks are being affected, will help motivate society to summon the honesty required to do what is necessary and right.

4. What important lesson(s) do you hope that readers of this book will glean from it and what action if any do you hope they will take?

I wrote this book on two levels. On the surface, it’s about my family and the wonderful experiences we shared, which I know have already benefited all of us in many ways—and especially Nate and Alex, because they’re so young. I hope other families will be inspired to take similar adventures that are within their abilities and comfort zones. We too often think our kids can’t do something that’s physically challenging, or we worry that it’s unsafe. Kids are resilient and endlessly curious. Nate and Alex constantly surprise and impress me with how much they can do and how enthusiastic they are about our adventures.

I also hope the deeper message in my book, about climate change, helps motivate people to take action. We aren’t complacent about making sure our kids get a good education or teaching them to make smart, safe decisions. If we’re concerned for their future, we have to be equally engaged in this critical issue of climate. On a personal level, there are many choices we can make to reduce our energy consumption, from walking and biking local errands instead of driving whenever possible, to turning off lights in empty rooms, driving more efficient vehicles, insulating our homes better—there is a wealth of information out there on that subject.

Beyond that, we have to insist that our elected leaders take aggressive action to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels at a societal level. We have to write letters and vote for people who understand how important this is. That’s the kind of change that is really needed to bring emissions down to a level that avoids catastrophic climate change.

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The book: Before They’re Gone: A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks

Photo Credit: Michael Lanza

One aspect of green living we may “forget” to consider is what will become of us after we die. And no I am not talking about an afterlife, I mean what will become of our physical body. Yeah, kind of a morbid topic but this post is part of the Green Moms Carnival being hosted by Deanna at Crunchy Chicken. Visit to her blog to see what others are writing about this topic.

I decided after my grandmother passed that I liked the idea of a place where you can go and visit your loved ones after they pass. Although I think it can be a source of guilt for some if they want to move away from that location later. I did not like the idea of the “decomposition” that occurs after burial. I found I could barely get those thoughts out of my mind whenever I entered the cemetery where she was buried. I also did not like the idea of body preservation or wakes with open caskets. Later, when I was diagnosed with cancer, it was hard to NOT think about what I wanted my “end” to look like. I decided that I wanted no funeral or service. I also thought it would be lovely to be cremated and then have my ashes buried in a wooden box with a tombstone above. Ultimately though I wondered about how much rural land is lost to create huge cemeteries, how eco friendly it is to burn your body, and what method was best.

What is Not So Green About Funerals, Burials, and Cremation:

* Land being cleared to use for cemeteries

* Embalming fluid and other chemicals used to sanitize and preserve bodies that can end up in our ground water

* Chemicals used to preserve your body when you donate it to science

* Urns, urn vaults, and coffins made of plastic or metal which will not biodegrade or do so very slowly

* Fossil fuels being used for grave excavation and for making tombstones

* Fossil fuels being used for funeral processions and body transportation

* Fossil fuels used to cremate bodies

Some Greener Choices:

* A wood, cardboard, wicker, or bamboo coffin or urn/box

* Donating organs

* Refusing embalming fluid or other chemical preservatives (may not be allowed if you plan on a burial/funeral)

* Having a small private service or memorial gathering

* Scattering ashes instead of burying them (legal in ALL states)

* Refusing a vault for internment of ashes or coffins and reporting cemeteries to the FTC if they claim it is the law

* Burial at sea

So… with all the pros and cons weighed I think I would prefer to be cremated since the energy usage to do so must surely be offset by the transportation and excavation costs of a burial. I want my organs to be harvested and then I want all preservation chemicals to be refused and my body immediately cremated and put into a cardboard box. At that point I would prefer my ashes be scattered somewhere of my choosing. BUT I will allow for my family to pull rank and have my ashes interred somewhere, if it is important to them. In lieu of a funeral/memorial I would prefer trees be planted. Money spent on funeral flowers would be better spent on donations to environmental causes. Low impact last rites for a low impact life…

So what do you think? Have you made plans of your own?

For awhile now I have had a no gum rule for my kids. Thankfully it isn’t a real big issue since none of us were ever big gum chewers but when Halloween rolls around I need to be vigilant about gum. It has nothing to do with cavities or sugar though. It is instead about choosing that they NOT chew on plastic. Plastic has all kinds of chemical and toxic nasties and in true bone-head fashion we decided to take a relatively normal and natural product (gum) and plasticize it. Well, no thanks.

Native Americans chewed the sap from spruce trees and thus introduced us to “gun chewing” many, many years ago. During the first days of gum mass production, gum was made from chicle, which is a natural latex sourced from the sap of the Sapodilla tree. But after WWII, innovators decided to make a synthetic rubber for gum instead. A typical gum base will generally have ingredients like polyvinyl acetate (plastic) among many others. The problem is that we are essentially chewing big gummy balls of chemical laden rubber, dipped in sugars and sweeteners, when we chew conventional gums. Sounds delicious right?

Canada took steps at one point to get polyvinyl acetate listed as toxic after studies showed it was a likely carcinogen but the gum manufacturers played hardball and won out. A preservative called hydroxyanisol (BHA) is also often found in gum and it IS listed as a “reasonably anticipated’ carcinogen but that does not stop minute amounts of it from being allowed in chewing gum. Apparently this is just another industry where the ideals of capitalism are proven false and apparently money is all that is required to make selling poisonous products, perfectly legal. I should mention that the company behind Glee still uses chicle in their gum and they deserve big props for that. However I still won’t let my kids chew it because they do use some of these chemicals in their formulation.

And of course there is the environmental aspect. The gum the natives chewed and the gum made from Chicle was natural and eventually decomposed. Modern chewing gum is non-biodegradeable!

Think about how much gum you have chewed in your lifetime. You probably never gave it much thought when you wrapped it up in a piece of paper or a tissue and then tossed it in the garbage. That gum is still around though… somewhere, and probably looks pretty much the same as when you tossed it. Some countries, like Singapore, have even banned it. Others have established programs (cool link BTW) to collect and reuse (recycle) chewing gum to make new products.

If your own kids have gotten into the habit of chewing gum you may be able to convert them over to something else, like taffy or ginger chews. Or when they ask for gum in the store you can just get creative and offer them something else instead. When they go Trick or Treating perhaps you could make a deal and trade the gum for other candy or for a small bit of money. My kids now automatically know that the gum should be declined, traded, or tossed if given to them.

One clever way you might educate your kids about gum is to give them a Make Your Own Gum Kit that uses natural chicle. You could show them how gum used to be made, tell them how it is NOW made, and then discuss the health and environmental impact of gum while they have fun making some of their own flavored gum.

Have you and/or your kids made a habit of chewing gum? What have you done to avoid it?

5 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Plastic in the Home

This week I came across two different articles – one in my local newspaper and the other in magazine – that focus on the problems that are facing our bees. Hives are dying off and the bees are disappearing and this has many people VERY concerned. Why? Well, ecosystems in general are a complex series of interconnected life forms that depend upon each other. It very much is a circle of life and when part of the circle breaks… this means trouble for all other parts of it. Ecosystems exist in a state of balance and when one component is affected, the whole system is thrown off.

Bees are an integral part of a healthy ecosystem. They aren’t just helpful to have around… we NEED bees! No bees means no pollination, which means the disappearance of certain plant species, which in turn means the disappearance of certain animal species. I read somewhere that a 1/3 of US crops are pollinated by bees so even mighty humans will be heavily impacted if bees disappear.

Here are some things to think about the next time you get annoyed by a bee.

1. Pollination

Bees’ pollination efforts are responsible for a wide diversity of wild flowers and many crops depend on them. In fact, without bees’ pollination of flowering crops and flowers, there would be far less food in general and diversity in particular. In fact, if bees did not pollinate in the wild, some vegetation would become extinct, leaving space for invasive, problematic species to take over. Animals that eat the extinct vegetation would then die off, followed by the carnivorous animals that eat the herbivores. As noted above, it’s all connected. You cannot take one link out of the chain and expect it to function.

Human food is dependent on bees too. Apples, pears, cucumbers, cherries and other flowering/fruiting crops depend on bees to fertilize the flowers so that fruit will develop. When a bee gets nectar from a flower, it gets coated in pollen. The bee then carries this pollen to another flower, fertilizing it and causing the flower to develop into a fruit. Without pollination, many flowering crops would not yield fruit, or would yield very little.

2. Bee products

Human health is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of bee products. Here are some important items that bees provide that can benefit humans.

* Honey – Honey is not just another sweetener. Raw, unfiltered honey that has had minimal processing from hive to jar has many healthful benefits. It contains all sorts of vitamins, including phosphorous, iron, vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E and K. According to herbalist Stephen Buhner, honey has at least 75 different compounds.

A spoonful of raw honey makes an excellent cough syrup, and it can serve as a base for home-made medicinal syrups. Raw honey is a remarkable dressing for severe burns, and the antibiotic properties of honey have excelled conventional antibiotics in the treatment of ulcers and surgical infections. Honey has even been touted as an excellent treatment for allergies.

* Beeswax – This natural, beautiful product has been used to make candles, lip balm, cosmetics, crayons, moisturizers, and other items.

Many vegans argue that we should not utilize bee products and to some extent they are right on. I would, however, say that we need to support bee keepers who take care of their hives well and who extract honey sustainably. If there is no support for them, then people will get honey from major agribusiness who will be far less ethical in their handling. Patronizing ethical beekeepers gives them a reason to keep up the good work they do. Without changing the external factors that are harming our bees they will still be in danger of disappearing so we need to keep the good guy on the case.

The bee is an important component of the ecosystem, and we humans, as part of the ecosystem, benefit greatly from what bees do. It would be wise for us to talk to local beekeepers, find out what we can do, patronize those are helping repopulate bee populations, to stop using chemicals in our yards that can harm the bees, and to contact bee removal experts if we feel a hive is too dangerous to remain on our property. We all need to think a little bit more about those little guys and what we can do or stop doing to make sure they stick around.

What do you think? How can we bee more proactive about protecting bees?

With the massive oil spill that just occurred along the Gulf Coast, energy sources and solutions have been thrust into the limelight. Environmentalists are sharing a little “I told you so” in reference to oil drilling and political right wingers try to downplay the significance of this spill in the hopes that oil drilling will continue unhindered. As one local man said to me recently… “it is shame what happened but I would rather have oil spills if the alternative is that I pay more than $3.00 a gallon for gas.” Never mind the devastation to people’s property and businesses that live along the Gulf Coast and who cares about the loss of marine life right?

For many people this oil spill is just confirmation of what they have been saying all along… oil is soooo 5 minutes ago! If anything, these events should tell us we need to bite the bullet and invest in alternative energy NOW.. even it means we pay a little more at the pump and even if it means we have to look at wind turbines in our “back yard”.

A wind spill might mess up your hair, a solar spill might give you a tan, but an oil spill… yeah there is no upside to that is there? We need to find another alternative and the “Drill Baby Drill” people need to go away and shut up… AFTER they volunteer at the front lines for oil spill clean-up of course!

Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are probably terms your are familiar with. You have likely read about them in several places.  But you may not know about the pros and cons, the costs both fiscally and environmentally, the potential savings, and other details. Here are some of the basics about these types of alternative energy.

1. Wind Energy

Wind is a renewable energy source. Even though it comes and goes, it can’t be used up.This makes it an attractive choice for homeowners, and is considered a viable means by which entire communities can be supplied with electricity. The wind’s energy is harnessed by rotating blades of various shapes and sizes (wind turbines). Wind power is not without its downside, though. Here is a brief description of the basics of wind power and its pros and cons.

Cons:
* You have to have flat, windy terrain for wind turbines to work
* Equipment and set-up can be very expensive (this is especially true for the construction of large wind farms)
* Turbines must be maintained by professionals or a well-educated homeowner
* Large turbines can be noisy and harmful to flying creatures

Pros:
* Wind is a renewable, clean energy source
* Your utility costs will go down significantly as you supplement your home’s power with wind-generated energy
* You can have a small wind turbine on your own property if there are no restrictions. Home wind turbine kits are not very expensive and are widely available
* Homeowners with property in “wind fertile” areas can make a lot of money allowing wind turbine companies to place equipment on their property. I heard of one Texas man that gets $300,000 annually, simply for allowing wind turbines to operate on his land!

2. Solar Energy

The invention of solar panels makes this renewable energy source very flexible. Solar energy can power small items like iPods or cell phone chargers, or they can meet the energy needs of entire households and even communities.

Cons:
* Solar energy can only be collected when the sun is shining
* Solar panels can be tricky to install on your home
* The materials used to create some solar panels and cells can be harmful to the environment.

Pros:
* Solar energy is clean and renewable
* Batteries can be used to store extra power for use when the sun is not shining
* New companies are emerging that allow you to “rent” the solar equipment in exchange for letting them sell excess energy produced… a win, win for all.

3. Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy makes use of the earth’s cooler (in summer) and warmer (in winter) temperatures. Geothermal heat pumps circulate liquid under the earth’s surface to be cooled or warmed depending on the season.

Cons:
* A great deal of digging and construction is necessary to install a geothermal heating and cooling system

Pros:
* Once again, this is a renewable source of energy that is clean
* You will be “off the grid” and not subject to power company rate-hikes
* Government financial aid and tax rebates may be available to help finance your upgrade

Generally speaking, all of the above have certain pros and cons associated with them. The trick will be to find the right balance and to to divert more funding to advancing the technology in each of these areas. Installation of alternative energy systems needs to be done by professionals, which can get pricey. The upside is that our children can get in on the ground floor by becoming engineers and installation experts and make a great, green future for themselves and for humanity. Your property and location can make or break your own energy plans. Depending on where you live, you may have no choice but to remain on the grid but even you can push your township to use clean energy instead of fossil fuels. The more pressure we put on them, the faster it will happen. You won’t need to worry as much about power company rate-hikes breaking your budget because wind and solar supplies are renewable. This is no doubt why energy companies don’t want green energy to take over our power grids.

These three represent the major players in alternative energy and the more we educate ourselves about them and pursue them, the easier it will be to realize the dream of getting rid of dirty energy sources that only provide short term solutions with a side helping of long term devastation.

Check out my article: 5 Easy Steps to Reduce Plastic in Our Lives

Another evening, another great movie. Two nights ago I was flipping through channels and saw that the movie Addicted to Plastic was airing on the Sundance Channel so hubby and I sat down to watch it together. We both loved it.

It is basically a documentary style film that exposes how the average American is "addicted" to plastic. It also spans 12 countries and 5 continents to find out where plastic comes from, what is made with it, where it goes after its useful life, why it may be poisoning us and our oceans, and what we can do about it. I have to give BullFrog Films big props because it was a VERY interesting film.

Everyone should watch this film to get an idea of how much plastic is in our oceans… it was mind boggling. There were so many scenes that made me so angry about how people are trashing something so beautiful and let me tell you.. this movie might make you reconsider ever eating fish again.

My husband loved the industrial aspects of the show and the innovations in plant based plastics and ways to upcycle plastics. I liked how he got see other people (besides me) talk about the toxic effects of plastic and the leaching of chemicals. It was nice that they specifically mentioned two of the ones I am always telling him about… BPA and Phthalates. There was a really annoying scientist on there talking about how the risks were so tiny that people are blowing things about of proportion and I started arguing with the TV screen, which my husband thought was hilarious of course.

At one point in the movie the narrator wakes up on the floor with only a sheet for a bed, he gets up and walks through an empty house and brushes his teeth with baking soda and a stick. It was quite funny and meant to demonstrate that getting rid of our favorite products is not a good option but I actually liked the house with next to nothing in it… I kept thinking how lovely and easy it would be to maintain. I would want a bed though, LOL.

It was a great movie and impressed upon me even more that we need to do more to reduce the plastic in our life. It also motivated me to buy some of the aluminum garbage grabbers and pair them with resusable bags so that we can collect garbage whenever we visit our local waterways, lakes, rivers, and creeks. If everyone had some clean up gear when they went out for a day at the lake we could do a lot to clean things up. My kids will think it is great fun to spend a portion of the day looking for garbage… heck they already walk around picking up garbage in the gutters of our neighborhood streets. Its hard to tell how much garbage we generate when we have everyone else's garbage in there too!

When you have the time check out Addicted to Plastic. It is airing again on March 7 on Sundance. Hubby has already set it to record because he wants to watch again.

Am I the last green blogger to see this? Probably. But thanks to Netflix… yeah I must be the last person to try Netflix too… I am catching up on all those green documentaries I have been wanting to see and for dirt cheap I might add. Netflix rocks!

Anyway, Food Inc is a documentary about our food, where it comes from, the true cost, why junk foods seems to cost less than the good stuff, and why looking at our food chain can be a terrifying experience. Factory farms and Monsanto are the stuff of nightmares I tell you.. I was agitated for days after watching it. Here were some of the main things I got out of it:

Monsanto is dark side of the force all the way. In the documentary we follow an elderly gentleman who runs a seed cleaning business that is being sued by Monsanto. He has to PROVE his innocence rather than them prove his guilt. Whereas he used to be one of 3 cleaners that existed in every county in his state, Monsanto has now sued and run every single one out if business in the entire state, save 3. Monsanto also regularly sues other companies that sell seeds, even though they have no basis for a lawsuit.. they bankrupt the companies with legal fees before a verdict can even be reached. At this rate Monsanto will be the one and only company you will ever be able to get seeds from in the future and since they have been allowed to patent seeds you will be sued for millions if you save any of their seeds. It was seriously scary enough for me to immediately start Googling places to get heirloom seeds and this year I WILL be saving seeds. My grandkids might need them!!

A mother whose child died from ecoli from a hamburger meat at a factory farm cannot tell the name of the company who sold the tainted meat or she will be convicted of a felony. The story of her son’s death had me bawling… bring the tissues. He died a painful, horrific death as a result of an irresponsible industry and yet every year the the government makes it harder for us to to grow/raise our own food.

Veggie Libel laws exist in several states.. aka if you speak badly about food products you can be sued. In Colorado it is a felony even. If your apples made you sick or you were sold tainted beef you are not allowed to talk about it because that can cause “harm” to the producer. Remember Oprah was sued in a 6 year court battle because she said on TV that she could not stomach eating hamburgers due to mad cow disease. Talking bad about hamburgers is a “crime”. How can the free market be free if you can’t speak out (good or bad) about the products you buy?

Instead of changing their products to meet consumer demands when certain ingredients fall out of favor… these corporations opt to use their politician friends to pass laws so that the companies are not required to label those ingredients anymore.

Junk foods are subsidized by our government so that the costs can stay cheap. This is why you see a family buy two hamburgers at McDonalds for their kids instead of buying some veggies. If you add health and environmental impact though, those foods are not so cheap.

If you decide to boycott an unethical company you may be out of luck because that one company likely owns 10 other companies that make the same product under a different brand name so that you never know it is the exact same company. Those same companies are also buying up organic food and natural products companies left and right. Tom’s of Maine is now owned by Colgate and Burt’s Bess is owned by Clorox. The company you love to hate may now be the owner of some of your favorite products and if you continue to buy you are funding their bad behavior.

Food Inc. movie gets a big A+ for me for being interesting, thought provoking, and incredibly important. I highly recommend it!

I am super excited about a new movie being released on Earth Day. The kids and I have been seeing in-theatre trailers for months and we plan on spending a portion of Earth Day in theatres this year.

This movie is the first release from the new Disneynature label. Earth is narrated by James Earl Jones, and tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we all share.  Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning “Planet Earth” series combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen, beginning Earth Day 2009.  

I am a big fan of Disney films already so I love that they are combining some of my favorite things into one awesome package…movies, family fun, and the environment. And is it just me or does everyone get crazy goosebumps whenever they hear James Earl Jones??? Plus, Disneynature recently announced that it will plant a tree in the highly endangered Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest in honor of every person who sees the film its first week.

We will let you know our thoughts of the movie on Earth Day but until then
you can enjoy a piece of it at home. Check out the official trailer before you go. It rocks!

If you have bats nearby then this is a sign that the area is in good environmental health without too much pollution. Bats are very sensitive to pollution and pesticides. When the bats go you have a big warning sign at hand.

Bats also love to eat mosquitoes and with all the concern about mosquito born illness like the West Nile Virus this is more important than ever. Spraying areas to kill mosquitoes will also likely drive away or kill their natural predators…bats. Not a smart thing to do. I wonder why cities aren’t looking into bat release programs and cultivating bat houses  instead of spraying noxious gas on our neighborhoods. Bats can eat up to 1000 of those blood sucking buggers an hour. They may not do it because of all the fear about rabies but only a teeny 0.5% of bats ever get rabies. In MOST cases (sans an epidemic) bats are considered completely harmless. You are more likely to get rabies from a raccoon than from a bat. Bats are also very mild animals…they don’t like to be around people anyway.

Bats also eat tons of other bugs and I know my local farmers should be grateful because they canvas those crop fields all spring and summer looking for bugs. If you DO get one in the house or where it is in close proximity to people you will want to remove them and keep kids away (just in case). A bat box would be a great relocation place.

So what do you think? Why is it so hard to break away from the evil blooding suck, rabid bat stereotype? :)

Just look at some of these scary statistics:

The US imports 200 million pounds of beef from Central America every year and much of the land used is rain forest land. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rain forest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed. Ouch! Rain forests are like the lungs of this planet and they house many different species of animals and could contain life saving medicinal plants. As a society though we have decided that meat is more important than our rain forests. As one man who lives in my small town said, “We don’t have a rain forests in the US so who cares.” We should all care that American dietary “needs” are destroying another part of the planet.

One pound of beef requires an input of approximately 2500 gallons of water, whereas a pound of soy requires 250 gallons of water and a pound of wheat only 25 gallons. With more than one billion people worldwide who “lack enough safe water to meet minimum levels of health”  our meat eating/water guzzling ways should bother us. Source 

Waste run-off and pesticide run-off from livestock crops create dead zones in our oceans where fish and marine plant life can’t live anymore.

Certain fishing practices endanger many fish species and result in overfishing that results in an imbalance of marine ecosystems.

To produce one pound of meat, an animal needs to consume as much a 10 pounds of grains that could be consumed directly by humans. Imagine how many people around the world we could feed if we stopped giving the bulk of it to livestock that will in turn feed just a few. We are literally living high off the hog while other countries are starving.

1.4 billion tons of solid fecal matter is produced by US farm animals per year and it is often left outside in open pits or pools that seep into groundwater, lakes and rivers. Because the animals are often diseased, and injected with hormones and antibiotics this renders their waste toxic and not suitable for fertilizing crops.

Livestock are responsible for over half of the country’s erosion and sediment issues. They are destroying the land they graze upon and rendering it useless for growing.

The global livestock industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the planes, trains and automobiles in the world combined. Yes we should feel good about our decision to bike instead of drive or use LED light bulbs but when we eat meat with every meal we are cancelling out the good we did in other areas.

This doesn’t even begin to cover the health issues we experience as a result of eating meat..for that side of the debate read my post over at Goddess of the Garden, Why Meat Consumption Is Bad for Your Health.

So should we all go vegan or vegetarian? Well, you certainly could…I know I lean more in that direction every day but in actuality you don’t need to go quite that far.  I love this post from Green Living Tips that shares a plan to only eat 3 meat meals a week. Many of us were raised in homes where meat was the centerpiece of every meal but it doesn’t have to be. Meatless meals are making a comeback. Try to make it  goal to only eat meat 3-4 times a week and go veggie the other nights. Slowly work toward that goal if you have to.

Cutting down or cutting out meat is a win-win-win situation. It helps in the fight against global warming, and environmental destruction and it’s good for you. Not to mention all of the animal cruelty issues it brings up. Watch a couple videos along those lines and you just might find the inspiration you need. If you do eat meat, it is soooo important that it be organic and raised by small scale ethical farmers. Same for other animal products like cheese and milk. But that kind of meat is expensive so factory farmed “cheap” meat is what most people buy. The video below illustrates what you are supporting when you buy that meat. It is graphic but if if you eat meat…you need to watch it.

Other sources

This Bible also has some other unique features like essays from key leaders and thinkers on various aspects of scripture and its mandate for creation care as well as quotes from Christian teachings throughout the ages from St. Augustine to C.S. Lewis.

The book itself is also green . It is printed on environmentally sustainable FSC paper, has a cotton and linen cover, and uses soy-based inks.

So what do you think? Is this just a shameful way to make money off of green or a needed product? Personally I think it is a little of both. The Bible is the number one bestseller right? And green is HOT right now. Of course publishers would love to tie the two together and make some money. BUT in my experience the most hardened global warming skeptics and environmental deniers are religious. No of course this doesn’t apply to all but in my community at least the religious folk are the first to scream scam when it comes to anything environmental. I have heard of preachers who give lectures about denying global warming and staying away from the “religion” of environmentalism. No Impact Man recently posted an email he got from one such person who claimed that God would never allow global warming to occur. I commented on that post if you care to read the comments. Franky it boggles my mind. I have read the Bible several times in my life and got no such message. Maybe this Bible has some possibilities then?

Well regardless I do have a collection of Bibles at home. I started collecting them when I found the version I grew up with had some erroneous translations that completely changed the meaning. I love all the different kinds of Bibles there are and wouldn’t mind having this one either. The cover is lovely. You can preorder them on Amazon.

So what do you think? Shameful or cool? Would you buy it?

Think about it…a hybrid cuts down on fossil fuel usage and dangerous emissions. It is also a cost efficient choice. Solar and wind power might cost more initially but eventually you will save money on those too and stick it to big oil. Reusing and repurposing is frugal and self sufficient. Green is SMART! It seems as logical to me as one plus one equals two.

Frankly I get sick of hearing how green is a new religion. To me it sounds like someone saying that cancer research is a religion. If someone is really passionate about curing cancer would we call them a fanatic or a crazy anti-cancer person? No…we wouldn’t. So why is it that someone who is trying to save or preserve our planet gets a weirdo label? If someone is really passionate about green issues why do they deserve to be called a fanatic? It boggles the mind really because as a species, the earth is one thing EVERYONE has in common. It is our one home. Everyone should be on board with protecting it.

My younger brother is one who is constantly digging at me about my green enthusiasm. He is just one of those people who doesn’t think humans can do any REAL damage. I ask him to define damage…I mean how many animal species are extinct already? Yesterday in my hometown I heard a gentleman say this “If you don’t like gas prices thank those lousy environmentalists!” Yes, us lousy folk want to preserve our planet and make living on it enjoyable for everyone. Lousy would not be the word I would use to describe such a goal.

Of course our goals are impeded by pseudo greenies too. The companies and people who greenwash to make a buck or just make themselves feel better about their not-so green choices. It irritates me when I read articles written by “green” people who say things like well, I know I should do this or that but hey “I am not that person, or that just isn’t my choice”…aka I am not the person who sacrifices for something I am supposed to care about. It sends the movement a step back IMO. And I have been guilty of it myself plenty of times. I often think back to old habits and remember how opposed I was to making changes. At the time I could justify them until the cows came home…things change…you learn, you grow, you change.

Which brings me to green guilt. Lately I have been changing my opinion on that matter. Unlike mommy guilt I am not so sure green guilt is a bad thing. It can be good in SOME cases.

Guilt is subjective. Are we really being guilted by our peers or are their courageous words and actions simply acting as a mirror for us… a mirror that shows us something we aren’t proud of? Some cases of green guilt are just that and thus productive. That said don’t let anyone give you crap if your not further along than they are…it is a journey. As long as you keep moving and trying you are doing more than most.

The green movement is about reaching out for social and environmental responsibility, voluntary simplicity, bringing awareness to everyone, concern for others, and courage to do the right thing.

It is about deciding to reduce our footprint for future generations so they aren’t footing our bill later on…to make sure we aren’t writing checks our grandchildren won’t be able to cash. But they are not fanatics…they are passionate about something that technically EVERY human should be passionate about. That’s not green…that’s just smart.

What do you think?

Woot! This week I was named as one of TreeHugger.com’s favorite greens of the week! They are a huge blog (the big daddy of green) with a huge readership so I am honored. You can see their banner with my blog in it at the bottom of this post.

I received a very useful link from a new Twitter friend this week which I think nicely sums up the ways you can reduce waste. I especially like #8.

Vanity Fair has done it again. Another awesome green issue! Last year I wrote all about their feature article which took on anti-global warming liars lobbyists. This year they took on my all time most despised company on this planet…Monsanto. The article was prettyscathing too. Monsanto, for those that don’ t know is a chemical company. They make Round-Up weed killer and they genetically modify (GM) seeds and patent them. The article talks much about how they have a huge network of spies that haunt farmlands to see if anyone is using their seeds without paying for them. They bring lawsuits willy nilly even if there is no proof and seek to bankrupt the farmers guilty or no. They even sue farmers who have had the misfortune of having GM seeds blow onto their land from nearby crops. Let’s not even get into how WRONG it is to be able to patent a seed…a living biological organism that they did not invent and could not replicate even if they tried.

Monsanto is also the company that makes rBST, the growth hormone given to cows to make them produce milk at hyper speed. It is dangerous and unhealthy for the cows and many think it is dangerous for us. In fact these products are banned in Europe. Well, Monsanto is suing companies that advertise that they do NOT use rBST…they don’t think it is fair. They are also going state by state lobbying to get laws passed that ban milk companies from labeling their milk hormone free. This company is EVIL and they control much our country’s food supply. Scary stuff!

I also enjoyed an article from Rachels’ Democracy and Health News about how the attitude that economic growth outweighs environmental harm is biting us in the backside as we have exceeded many of Earth’s ecological limits as of now. This was VERY interesting:

 About six months ago, the United Nations Environment Programme’s fourth Global Environmental Outlook Report (GEO-4) concluded that we humans presently require 22 acres per person to support our global average lifestyle — but, the report said, Earth has only 15 acres per person available.

In other words, we have already exceeded the Earth’s “carrying capacity” — it’s capacity to “carry” (or support) 6 billion humans. And the human enterprise is poised for a massive spurt of economic and population growth — expected to raise our numbers to 9 billion by roughly mid-century and to double the size of the human economy every 23 years.

Where I live in rural Ohio I would be rich if I had a nickel for every time I have had someone tell me that my environmental concerns need to take a back seat to economic growth. Talk about short-sighted.

And in unrelated news I am a big fan of Homemaker’s Mentor and just wanted to shout out about their April homemaking lessons. The one on sewing simple curtains for your home is awesome.

Lastly, I wanted to say thanks to all the readers that have been emailing with requests about specific topics. I LOVE that so keep it up. I have many posts coming up that were specifically requested and don’t forget if you ever want to give me a day off and write for me…just contact me.

Have a great weekend everyone! Mine will be spent spring cleaning my 2.5 acres in central Ohio and planting in the garden.

Woot! Finally my turn to host The Carnival of the Green. :) As I was reading submissions this week I was thinking about how much “green” blogging goes on that I am not even aware of. I guess I concern myself mainly with green as it relates to family but boy I am not even scratching the surface. I LOVE blog surfing to see what the latest and greatest green news and opinion is. If you missed last week’s carnival it was at Agroblogger.

So without further ado…let’s dive in.

First up EcoJoe shares with us how he used old items, perhaps bound for the trash…old wood, old and sometimes bent nails, and an old and rather ugly counter-top to make a lovely kitchen island for his townhome. He documents the whole project with complete instructions and pictures. Pretty inventive and green!

Beth Bader from Eat Drink Better shares an interview with Bryant Terry who co-wrote on of my all time favorite books called Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen. In addition to being an author he is a food activist he has made appearances on the Sundance Channel’s original series “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.” Bryant is also a host on “The Endless Feast,” a 13-episode PBS series. I have admired him for a long while so I enjoyed the interview.

Alison at Green Me writes about What it Really Means to Eat Local. This is in response to recent media articles that claim that local eating is no better for the environment than eating globally transported foods. Alison isn’t buying it. I am not either.

Agroblogger writes a follow up post to one that appeared last week called My Life Without Water. Wow…what a challenge.

Adam from LifeGoggles reviews a book I have been wanting to read, Organic Places to Stay (in the UK) by Linda Moss. It outlines four different types of places to spend a night or week around the United Kingdom – bed and breakfast, hotels, self-catering and camping….all eco friendly. I want to take my kids on a tour of the UK next year so I am researching now.

The Tao of Change gives a shout to the Eco Moms Alliance which promotes mom making strides to protect their offspring AND the planet.

My Plastic Free Life writes about a subject close to my own heart… environmental children’s books.

Vanessa is one of my readers and she recently shared with me a post she wrote outlining 7 Ways To Help Your Kids Be More Green. She has some good tips.

Shannon via SavingAdvice writes her local grocery stores attempt to convert patrons to reusable bags and why she thinks they should be giving the bags away for free. While I understand wanting to save money I think green takes precedence and stores can’t give away reusable bags willy nilly like they do plastic bags…that is impractical and not cost efficient. In the post she threatens to bring her own collection of mismatched canvas bags in various sizes. My advice: Do that! Reusable is reusable. You don’t have to use their $1.00 bags…use your own. I do.

Lisa at writes Sparks Fly Between White and EPA Over Recent Smog Standard Reduction. It relate show GWB interfered with smog reduction standards. Well, this isn’t surprising… Bush has never cared about that little place we live called Earth.

Well, that concludes this week’s carnival. Next week the host will be Lighter Footstep.

Enjoy!

William is Going Green by James Martin II - This story is about a garbage truck named William who lives in a big city collecting garbage. He is largely unappreciated by the people who live in his city and he gets laid off when the city folk complain about how badly he pollutes the air. So William sets of to find another job and he ends up in Jamestown, a tranquil city that has “gone green”. The garbage service company there is happy to hire him but they tell him he must get a clean hybrid engine though. William can’t afford to get a new engine so he is just about to leave and try another city when circumstances give him the opportunity to be come to the aid of one of Jamestown’s smallest residents and he finds a way to get that engine and begin his own mission to go green and fight global warming. My kids really liked the story…especially my 7 year old son who LOVES garbage trucks. It is wonderfully illustrated too….the colors just pop off the page.

Interestingly the author was inspired to write this book not long after his own journey to greener living began when he made a big environmental boo-boo and was fined by the city.

My Bag and Me by Karen Farmer – This one was adorable and perfect for kids in the 4-6 years old range. It follows the activities of a little boy who has his own shopping bag. He talks about how he and his bag are helping to save the environment and he and his mom takes their very own reusable bags to the supermarket and say NO to paper and plastic. Once again the illustrations are top notch. My 4 year old daughter was completely absorbed in this book and she was just beside herself when a hidden compartment in the back of the book revealed a small shopping bag just like the one the little boy in the story had. She has been carrying it everywhere and calls it her “earth bag”.  :)  The book is 100% recyclable.

Knut – How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World by Juliana, Isabella, and Craig Hatkoff   – Is there anyone not familiar with the adorable polar bear from the Berlin Zoo named Knut? Well, this lengthy story follows his life from birth and it is documented with amazing full color photos. This book was a bit too long and wordy for my 4 year old but perfect for my 7 year old boy. Both got a few good chuckles out of the pictures, especially the one where Knut is playing in the mud or chewing a shoe. The last part of the book talks about the habits and lives of polar bears in the wild and how they are being threatened by climate crisis and of course it gives a few ideas for how kids can get involved in changing things for the better.

Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel – This story is about the town of Aberdoo-Rimey where garbage was left to grow rotten and slimy. :) The town has a serious problem with garbage build-up and littering so the green caped crusader Michael Recycle must come to their aid and teach them how to clean up their act. They get inventive with recycling, water conservation, gardening, and composting so that once their town looks and smells fresh and inviting. The illustrations were killer….absolutely fantastic. Both of my older kids loved this book.

Happy Reading!