Edward Norton Speaks Out About Plastic Bags
Edward Norton has the right solution for the environmental problem of the over-use of plastic bags, which are detrimental to wildlife populations: ban the bags and BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) to the store.
Stop the Single Use Madness!
In case you hadn't guessed already, I'm really cheap. I like to think of it as "frugal" or "thrifty." That sounds nicer, doesn't it? "Frugal"?
At any rate, I'm not sure "frugal" covers the fact that I have been using the same gigantic container of ground black pepper for about ten years. I bought it at Costco, which was SUCH a mistake. No one needs to buy a pound of ground pepper at a time.
I finally used the last of it last weekend. Its plastic container wasn't recyclable in my county, so I washed and repurposed it for holding various bulk foods. Then, with much excitement in my heart, I went to the grocery store to buy a new pepper.
After all this time using the same sad pepper, I decided to get a pepper grinder. Fresh ground pepper! What could be better? I purchased a fairly inexpensive grinder with peppercorns included, produced by McCormick, nestled in the spice aisle.
Unfortunately it wasn't until after I had taken my grinder home and used it that I discovered it is not refillable. A single use pepper grinder! Which cannot be refilled with peppercorns! Seriously, it never occurred to me that this would be the case. I thought I was being cheap frugal by finding a pepper grinder for only a few dollars. Not like those fancy ones that cost $15-$20!
I looked around online and found that many people have been asking if there is a way to refill this little grinder. There are two problems: the bottle is glass (perhaps to foil those of us who could easily drill into it and refill it). And the grinder is not very sturdy.
Some people have been able to use a glass drill, and drill a hole into the bottom of the bottle. This can then be plugged with either a cork (shaved to fit) or with a bit of tape or a round sticker. However, the grinder mechanism is all plastic, and one account I read online said that it would only last for 3-4 refills before crapping out.
By all accounts, it is almost impossible to get the plastic top off the McCormick peppercorn grinder without ruining it. And doubly impossible to get it back on after you refill the bottle!
The only good news here is that the bottle itself is recyclable, although the plastic lid and grinder mechanism are not. And that if you buy anything in a single-use form, glass is a good choice. Glass can be recycled an infinite number of times, it is cheap and relatively environmentally friendly to do so. (As compared to recycling, say, paper.)
Better still, let's warn people not to buy it. Who wants a non-refillable peppercorn grinder, anyway? It's idiotic, like a single-use coffee machine. On the frugal front, anything single-use benefits the company far more than it benefits the consumer. And from an environmental perspective, all it does is waste valuable resources, as well as creating a lot of stupid plastic waste.
For shame, McCormick!
Check out the Microsoft Hohm Web-site for Personalized Energy-Saving Tips
I recently came across an unusual online community that enables individuals to get specific cost-cutting, energy-saving advice for their homes and businesses, which I am hopeful will save me money on my next electricity bill. The Microsoft Hohm community is an online resource that allows users to compare relative energy costs in their communities and find ways to save on their electricity bill.
The Hohm website asks for your zip code and information about your home including the date it was built and the size. The site will then give you advice about electricity-saving ideas for your home and the estimated savings in terms of energy and dollars for each step you take.
After filling out their simple form, I was given the following advice from Microsoft Hohm's Energy Saving Tips Library:
1. Put computers and monitors on idle when they are not in use.
2. Lower the temperature settings on the water heater.
3. Replace incandescent light bulbs with LEDs.
4. Clean your dryer's lint trap in order to improve efficiency.
In addition to the above-listed advice, there are pages of recommendations which can be used to both save money and electricity. While it is nice to envision everyone saving energy because of environmental reasons, those who are motivated by financial incentives to do so will also find value in this web site.
The site also provides information about the average energy use and electricity costs in your area, so you know how you compare to your neighbors. For more specific recommendations tailored to your energy needs, you can enter your account number with your electric company once you join the site which you can easily do with an MSN or hotmail account.
The Hohm website also contains a blog containing both news about the environment and more energy-saving resources and tips. The site's forum lets users discuss more green topics. I like the blog because a majority of the energy-saving tips are of the D-I-Y variety and the writers are passionate about the projects and are able to explain the most effective methods in clear ways.
Hohm also has graphs which show how much electricity is used for which purposes, which is extremely helpful when you are trying to pinch pennies. The analytics that are used on the Microsoft Hohm web site come from Lawrence Berkely Labs.
Louisiana Oil Spill Creeps Onward
This week's environmental news has been all about the oil spill in the Gulf. An offshore oil rig exploded and sank on… well, on Earth Day, actually. Never let it be said that the universe can't be really trite sometimes. The fire was put out fairly quickly, but not before the plume of smoke was visible from satellite imagery.
And then came the oil slick. Vast and horrible, the slick has been produced from days of the oil rig being un-capped, spewing its oil into the ocean. (And the Gulf is already in pretty bad shape - one of the world's most significant dead zones exists where the Mississippi dumps its fertilizer runoff into the Gulf.)
And this was just an "exploration" rig, not a production rig! BP has asked us to count our lucky stars it wasn't a production rig, or the oil spill would have been ridiculously worse. Hard to believe, but true: all this mess is from a little test rig, poking around out there to see what it can find. Apparently.
So now we have this giant slick floating around, and no useful way to contain it. Boats puttered around its edges trying to lay out pontoon lines to keep it contained. This hasn't been particularly useful, because the slick is so vast.
Next someone floated the idea of burning the slick. Oh great! But sadly, it's a valid option. The slick is floating directly towards two incredibly valuable wildlife refuges. And causing a huge disruption in shipping traffic and the commercial fisheries that work the Gulf for a living. And destroying wildlife in the Gulf, from hapless birds that land in it, to important sea life that requires surface area to live (like the plankton that form the basis of the ocean's food chain).
Meanwhile, the well just keeps pumping. BP has sent submersibles down to turn the crank to stop the flow, but it didn't work. There are various plans to cap the well, which will take between three to five weeks to implement. So I guess we just have to hunker down and get used to the new, oil-enhanced Gulf of Mexico.
It seems hard to believe that something like this could happen. It seems like there should have been safeguards to prevent it, or at least action plans ready to handle it. Obama is calling for safeguards and action plans, but sadly it's too little too late in this case.
Many people are comparing the likely economic impact of this oil spill to Hurricane Katrina. In fact it could end up being far worse, depending on how much oil pours out before they can cap it. The Coast Guard has bumped up its estimate to 210,000 gallons a day, which means that in 52 days (give or take) this spill will equal the Exxon Valdez spill's 11 million gallons. Will the well be capped in 52 days? Will we be able to burn that much oil off the surface of the ocean before then? Where will the smoke go? And how bad is this all going to stink? (Hint: it already smells pretty bad.)
And finally, I just want to drop a reminder that all of this was brought to you by our appetite for plastic and fuel.
And then came the oil slick. Vast and horrible, the slick has been produced from days of the oil rig being un-capped, spewing its oil into the ocean. (And the Gulf is already in pretty bad shape - one of the world's most significant dead zones exists where the Mississippi dumps its fertilizer runoff into the Gulf.)
And this was just an "exploration" rig, not a production rig! BP has asked us to count our lucky stars it wasn't a production rig, or the oil spill would have been ridiculously worse. Hard to believe, but true: all this mess is from a little test rig, poking around out there to see what it can find. Apparently.
So now we have this giant slick floating around, and no useful way to contain it. Boats puttered around its edges trying to lay out pontoon lines to keep it contained. This hasn't been particularly useful, because the slick is so vast.
Next someone floated the idea of burning the slick. Oh great! But sadly, it's a valid option. The slick is floating directly towards two incredibly valuable wildlife refuges. And causing a huge disruption in shipping traffic and the commercial fisheries that work the Gulf for a living. And destroying wildlife in the Gulf, from hapless birds that land in it, to important sea life that requires surface area to live (like the plankton that form the basis of the ocean's food chain).
Meanwhile, the well just keeps pumping. BP has sent submersibles down to turn the crank to stop the flow, but it didn't work. There are various plans to cap the well, which will take between three to five weeks to implement. So I guess we just have to hunker down and get used to the new, oil-enhanced Gulf of Mexico.
It seems hard to believe that something like this could happen. It seems like there should have been safeguards to prevent it, or at least action plans ready to handle it. Obama is calling for safeguards and action plans, but sadly it's too little too late in this case.
Many people are comparing the likely economic impact of this oil spill to Hurricane Katrina. In fact it could end up being far worse, depending on how much oil pours out before they can cap it. The Coast Guard has bumped up its estimate to 210,000 gallons a day, which means that in 52 days (give or take) this spill will equal the Exxon Valdez spill's 11 million gallons. Will the well be capped in 52 days? Will we be able to burn that much oil off the surface of the ocean before then? Where will the smoke go? And how bad is this all going to stink? (Hint: it already smells pretty bad.)
And finally, I just want to drop a reminder that all of this was brought to you by our appetite for plastic and fuel.
Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user U.S. Coast Guard.
Teens Turning Green
One of the worst things we can say about young people today is that they are apathetic—that they just don’t give a damn about their world, or often themselves. I find that this is quite untrue. Not only do young people bring such innovation and freshness to the table—they also usually have a huge sense of hope that simply can’t be undone by anything but age. There are literally thousands of examples for how much young people care about the world and work to change it daily; Teens Turning Green is just one of them.
Teens Turning Green is “a student led movement devoted to education and advocacy around environmentally and socially responsible choices for individuals, schools, and communities.” This organization started out as a local group in the Bay Area in 2005 and has since skyrocketed to a national movement in schools and communities all across the nation. Elementary, middle, and high schools use their programs. Colleges and universities take part, as well as student organizations. In short, this is like the big green movement of young people—and it’s not only big, it’s powerful.
Teens Turning Green specifically works for real change we can see and feel. Some of its goals are media attention and raising awareness, virtually connecting youth across the country to environmental and social issues, helping people learn about the issues and how to change, and to even lobby in the political realm for sustainable policies and business practices. Wow!
And it’s not your typical student council group where everyone meets and discusses what color of crepe paper should be used for homecoming. This movement has real conferences—from New York to California—and maintains lifestyle, school, and community programs. Each of these programs helps youth make a scalable impact in their own communities or schools.
For example, the school program is a curriculum-based concept that helps youth find out about the dangerous chemicals and environmental hazards on their campuses. From the program, you can get a toolkit to take action, sign up to become involved, and find out how to assess your school’s environmental dangers—as well as how to change the situation.
This organization is truly making a difference and is worthy of our attention and admiration. If you have a teen at home, please encourage him or her to get on board—or, better yet, ask your local school district about it. If you have them to give, I’m sure a donation of funds or time would also be appreciated by Teens Turning Green. For more information, be sure to visit their website.
Every Day is Earth Day
I hate to sound preachy or cliché here, but it’s absolutely true, and I’m pretty tired of this once-a-year lip service to the planet.
You have to start somewhere, sure, but after more than two decades of a single day used for this cause and not nearly as many folks concerned about the home they live on as there should be, it’s high past time to take action.
Every Earth Day, I see the same trendy “Ways to Save the Earth in Five Minutes or Less!” articles, speeches, and other pieces of media that don’t mean jack. Hell, I’ve written some myself, I’m sure. As important as recycling, not using plastic shopping bags, and even composting are, they’re things we all should have been doing for a long time now. As guilty as I feel when I forget my reusable shopping bags when we go grocery shopping, I feel worse seeing the plastic bags still available when they’ve in fact been discontinued in other countries.
What is wrong with us that makes us so blind to the crisis we face as humans on this planet we’ve been so carelessly destroying? I once had a geology professor tell me not to worry about the planet; it was here long before we were and it will be here long after we are gone. It is us we need to worry about.
I agree with her. But I also think we’re wiping out other species at an alarming rate and calling it “natural selection” to feel better about it. (I don’t think natural selection has much to do with the combustion engine, drilling for oil, or any other human activities.) I think we’re rapidly bringing forth our own extinction, and in the process making the future that much more difficult to bear for our children and theirs. Why continue producing children at such an alarming rate—many families opting for four or more, even—when you destroy the home that they will be left with even faster?
All I mean to say is that we need to stop with the quick fixes and start really bucking down. I read that the MPG quota for new cars is going up soon—that’s nice, but that’s decades past due. We don’t need vehicles that run on oil anymore; we need clean energy yesterday. The same goes with everything from tires to trash bags—it’s past time to kick the habit. It’s also time to make growing our own food, buying locally, using solar power, and so many more important choices simply a part of our daily lives. Until they’re de-labeled as “hippie culture” or “activism lifestyles” and made simply a part of the human experience, we’re not really going anywhere with this whole Earth Day thing.
Take Seafood Off Your Plate
I recently ran across a constellation of articles online about something I've been thinking about for a while now. Seafood is the only commercial food which is primarily wild caught. Can you imagine if the beef industry's attention were turned to wild buffalo, or to herds of elk or white tailed deer? They wouldn't last long out there, would they? And it would be completely unreasonable to expect the wilderness to sustain our appetite.
And yet, that's pretty much what we're doing with seafood. Commercial fisheries are collapsing left and right, and each time a domino falls, the effect is felt throughout the entire food chain. How long before the food chain in the oceans collapses completely?
As species like the Atlantic cod are overfished and the fisheries close, it focuses the commercial fishing industry's attention on fewer and fewer species. For example, McDonalds fish fillets used to be sourced from a number of different species, depending on the region and the time of year. Now they are made strictly with the meat of the hoki fish, a deep water fish off the coast of New Zealand. And surprise, the hoki fishery is being swiftly depleted.
Where will McDonald's turn next? What wild species will find its way into the fish fillet? Out of everything else on the menu, the Fishwich is the only thing which comes from the wild. As a sometimes-fish-eating vegetarian who relies on the Fishwich when I end up at McDonald's, I feel really bad about this personally. It's my demand for the Fishwich, along with everyone else's, which is wiping the seas clean of hoki fish.
The same can be said for every other species which is currently being fished. Only a few species are being farm raised. And farming fish causes ecological disasters of its own. Terrestrial fisheries like catfish and tilapia aren't too bad, as long as the fish waste is properly processed. But farmed shrimp ant Atlantic salmon create a huge problem for the ocean ecology.
Imagine if a cattle feed lot emptied its lagoon of manure into Yellowstone National Park. That's pretty much the situation here.
To make things worse, only 1% of the world's oceans are set aside as marine preserves. These act as safety zones, where species can quietly gather their strength and work towards strengthening their numbers. Only 1%! Greenpeace is calling for 20% of the world's oceans to be set aside, which I think is a sensible goal.
Even when a fish species itself isn't threatened directly, the actions taken to catch it can wreak havoc. Long lines can snag turtles and sharks, and trawlers scrape up everything living on the bottom and drag it to the surface. Net fishing kills everything it scoops up, and when the nets accidentally get free (as they often do) they result in "ghost nets" which drift loose through the ocean, bringing death wherever they go.
According to Greenpeace, if we don't back off our current pace of fish consumption, the world's oceans will be un-fish-able within 50 years. Food for thought, perhaps?
And yet, that's pretty much what we're doing with seafood. Commercial fisheries are collapsing left and right, and each time a domino falls, the effect is felt throughout the entire food chain. How long before the food chain in the oceans collapses completely?
As species like the Atlantic cod are overfished and the fisheries close, it focuses the commercial fishing industry's attention on fewer and fewer species. For example, McDonalds fish fillets used to be sourced from a number of different species, depending on the region and the time of year. Now they are made strictly with the meat of the hoki fish, a deep water fish off the coast of New Zealand. And surprise, the hoki fishery is being swiftly depleted.
Where will McDonald's turn next? What wild species will find its way into the fish fillet? Out of everything else on the menu, the Fishwich is the only thing which comes from the wild. As a sometimes-fish-eating vegetarian who relies on the Fishwich when I end up at McDonald's, I feel really bad about this personally. It's my demand for the Fishwich, along with everyone else's, which is wiping the seas clean of hoki fish.
The same can be said for every other species which is currently being fished. Only a few species are being farm raised. And farming fish causes ecological disasters of its own. Terrestrial fisheries like catfish and tilapia aren't too bad, as long as the fish waste is properly processed. But farmed shrimp ant Atlantic salmon create a huge problem for the ocean ecology.
Imagine if a cattle feed lot emptied its lagoon of manure into Yellowstone National Park. That's pretty much the situation here.
To make things worse, only 1% of the world's oceans are set aside as marine preserves. These act as safety zones, where species can quietly gather their strength and work towards strengthening their numbers. Only 1%! Greenpeace is calling for 20% of the world's oceans to be set aside, which I think is a sensible goal.
Even when a fish species itself isn't threatened directly, the actions taken to catch it can wreak havoc. Long lines can snag turtles and sharks, and trawlers scrape up everything living on the bottom and drag it to the surface. Net fishing kills everything it scoops up, and when the nets accidentally get free (as they often do) they result in "ghost nets" which drift loose through the ocean, bringing death wherever they go.
According to Greenpeace, if we don't back off our current pace of fish consumption, the world's oceans will be un-fish-able within 50 years. Food for thought, perhaps?
Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user winkyintheuk
Let The Dandelions Grow!
I couldn't help but cheer when I read an Op-Ed piece on the New York Times website by a suburban lawn-owner who has thrown in the towel on the fight against weeds. Robert Wright, who styles himself "The Dandelion King," has decided to campaign in favor of weeds, because if everyone's doing it, then it suddenly becomes a non-problem.
What I like most about Wright's article is that he manages to side step the finger-wagging, chiding tone that usually accompanies any kind of ecologically minded discussion of lawn care. Although he is open about the risks involved in the chemicals being dumped on lawns to make them "pretty," he takes a more laconic attitude towards pesticides: that they're just too much trouble and expense.
I always hated lawns, until I had one myself. When I lived in urban apartments, I thought of lawns as a colossal waste of space. An urban desert, a vast nothing which serves no purpose. And the chemicals! The sheer volume of chemicals required to "properly" keep a lawn is truly shocking. I suspect even most spouses don't realize how much chemical warfare is being waged out in the yard by the spouse who's in charge of the lawn care.
(And even if you think you know what's going on out there, a caution: I know someone who believes that her husband is practicing proper organic lawn care. The truth is, he just waits until she leaves the house to dump the weed 'n feed out there. He also decants Round-Up into a plain squirt bottle labeled "vinegar" and uses it to spot treat weed outbreaks. Not to make you paranoid or anything.)
Then I moved out to The Country ™. Weeds grow insane out here, and I have learned to appreciate a clear swath which can be cared for simply by virtue of running a riding lawnmower over it once a week. (Gas powered, and yes I know that's awful. But it's five acres of lawn. It takes me an hour even with the riding lawnmower. A push mower is pretty much out of the question.)
Whenever I'm tempted to dose the yard (which is at least 50% dandelions by volume), all I have to do is look over to the left, where the well pump is camouflaged by a nicely placed rhododendron. It's safe to assume that anything I dump on the lawn will get washed into the well water, which I drink directly. There's no treatment plant at my house, just a Brita Stage 3 Filter. Which does a good job, don't get me wrong, but not THAT good!
And now that I have chickens, I see my lawn in a new light. It's pasture for grazing animals. My chickens live in a mobile pen which I move to a new patch of lawn every day. Eating the grass puts omega 3 fatty acids in their eggs, and makes the yolks a vivid orange. And there is no way I'm going to dump poison on their grazing grounds!
I think Robert Wright should make up some "Organic Lawn" signs and start offering them for sale. Simply place the sign on the edge of your lawn, and magically you've captured the moral high ground!
What I like most about Wright's article is that he manages to side step the finger-wagging, chiding tone that usually accompanies any kind of ecologically minded discussion of lawn care. Although he is open about the risks involved in the chemicals being dumped on lawns to make them "pretty," he takes a more laconic attitude towards pesticides: that they're just too much trouble and expense.
I always hated lawns, until I had one myself. When I lived in urban apartments, I thought of lawns as a colossal waste of space. An urban desert, a vast nothing which serves no purpose. And the chemicals! The sheer volume of chemicals required to "properly" keep a lawn is truly shocking. I suspect even most spouses don't realize how much chemical warfare is being waged out in the yard by the spouse who's in charge of the lawn care.
(And even if you think you know what's going on out there, a caution: I know someone who believes that her husband is practicing proper organic lawn care. The truth is, he just waits until she leaves the house to dump the weed 'n feed out there. He also decants Round-Up into a plain squirt bottle labeled "vinegar" and uses it to spot treat weed outbreaks. Not to make you paranoid or anything.)
Then I moved out to The Country ™. Weeds grow insane out here, and I have learned to appreciate a clear swath which can be cared for simply by virtue of running a riding lawnmower over it once a week. (Gas powered, and yes I know that's awful. But it's five acres of lawn. It takes me an hour even with the riding lawnmower. A push mower is pretty much out of the question.)
Whenever I'm tempted to dose the yard (which is at least 50% dandelions by volume), all I have to do is look over to the left, where the well pump is camouflaged by a nicely placed rhododendron. It's safe to assume that anything I dump on the lawn will get washed into the well water, which I drink directly. There's no treatment plant at my house, just a Brita Stage 3 Filter. Which does a good job, don't get me wrong, but not THAT good!
And now that I have chickens, I see my lawn in a new light. It's pasture for grazing animals. My chickens live in a mobile pen which I move to a new patch of lawn every day. Eating the grass puts omega 3 fatty acids in their eggs, and makes the yolks a vivid orange. And there is no way I'm going to dump poison on their grazing grounds!
I think Robert Wright should make up some "Organic Lawn" signs and start offering them for sale. Simply place the sign on the edge of your lawn, and magically you've captured the moral high ground!
Creative Commons-licensed photo courtesy of Flickr user Mike Deal aka ZoneDancer
Celebrate Earth Day By Doing The Opposite of Shopping
I don't know if you've noticed, but pretty much every retailer in the world is asking you to buy stuff for Earth Day. There are sales popping up all over the place, with only the most tenuous links to ecological niceties. A lot of what I've seen so far has basically been greenwashing - faking the eco cred to make a company look good.
The sad truth is that it's our consumption itself, and not what we specifically consume, which is largely to blame for the fix we're in. Have you watched "The Story of Stuff" yet? Because you really should!
Everything we buy comes from somewhere, it represents natural resources that were pulled out or off of the planet somehow, and carted away to be used in that plastic salad bar clamshell, the disposable Bic pen you nibble at work, the zip tie that held your mittens together - everything came from somewhere. This stuff doesn't just drop into the stores from outer space.
This is just as true of "eco friendly" products as it is of the nasty stuff. If you bought nothing but green products all year long, without stepping down your consumption, you would basically not really be helping things at all.
It's sad but true, that as of a few years ago the #1 activity people reported doing on their vacations (planning, looking forward to, and actively pursuing) is "Shopping." Most people don't go places to see new sights or revel in a new climate - they go places to buy stuff. More and more stuff!
How much stuff do you need to make your life complete? How many trips to Target will it take to properly appoint your home? Or is your home pretty full already? Your junk drawers overflowing? Your bookshelves teetering precariously under the weight of all that stuff?
If you're like most American (like me too, I will confess it) your problem isn't that you need that one little thing from Target. Your problem is that you have way too much stuff already.
If you have too much stuff, then the only cure for that is to get rid of it. Hint: buying new organizational tubs and shelves and racks only exacerbates the problem. The problem isn't that you need more storage tubs: it's that you need less stuff to be crammed into them!
So I'm planting my flag. This Earth Day I'm going to celebrate by doing some serious decluttering. Instead of buying that cool new gadget, how about finding a new home for an unloved one that's been taking up space (and gathering dust) in your desk drawer?
A lot of stores recycle used electronics, including cell phones - working or not. Just remove the SIM card (you can find instructions online) and drop it off. Working cell phones are invaluable to domestic violence shelters, just to name one common destination.
Instead of browsing the cookware section to sigh wistfully over the next-step-better Calphalon collection, how about donating your unused cookware to a thrift store?
I think you can see where I'm going with this. Don't shop for Earth Day. The Earth doesn't need you to shop! It needs you to stop shopping. Retrench, and take back your tabletops and junk drawers!
The sad truth is that it's our consumption itself, and not what we specifically consume, which is largely to blame for the fix we're in. Have you watched "The Story of Stuff" yet? Because you really should!
Everything we buy comes from somewhere, it represents natural resources that were pulled out or off of the planet somehow, and carted away to be used in that plastic salad bar clamshell, the disposable Bic pen you nibble at work, the zip tie that held your mittens together - everything came from somewhere. This stuff doesn't just drop into the stores from outer space.
This is just as true of "eco friendly" products as it is of the nasty stuff. If you bought nothing but green products all year long, without stepping down your consumption, you would basically not really be helping things at all.
It's sad but true, that as of a few years ago the #1 activity people reported doing on their vacations (planning, looking forward to, and actively pursuing) is "Shopping." Most people don't go places to see new sights or revel in a new climate - they go places to buy stuff. More and more stuff!
How much stuff do you need to make your life complete? How many trips to Target will it take to properly appoint your home? Or is your home pretty full already? Your junk drawers overflowing? Your bookshelves teetering precariously under the weight of all that stuff?
If you're like most American (like me too, I will confess it) your problem isn't that you need that one little thing from Target. Your problem is that you have way too much stuff already.
If you have too much stuff, then the only cure for that is to get rid of it. Hint: buying new organizational tubs and shelves and racks only exacerbates the problem. The problem isn't that you need more storage tubs: it's that you need less stuff to be crammed into them!
So I'm planting my flag. This Earth Day I'm going to celebrate by doing some serious decluttering. Instead of buying that cool new gadget, how about finding a new home for an unloved one that's been taking up space (and gathering dust) in your desk drawer?
A lot of stores recycle used electronics, including cell phones - working or not. Just remove the SIM card (you can find instructions online) and drop it off. Working cell phones are invaluable to domestic violence shelters, just to name one common destination.
Instead of browsing the cookware section to sigh wistfully over the next-step-better Calphalon collection, how about donating your unused cookware to a thrift store?
I think you can see where I'm going with this. Don't shop for Earth Day. The Earth doesn't need you to shop! It needs you to stop shopping. Retrench, and take back your tabletops and junk drawers!
Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user formalfallacy
Ten Reasons to Purchase a Water Purifier
Every time I go to the grocery store, I just can’t get over all of the people who continue to purchase cases and cases of bottled water. After all we’ve been told about it, all we know, how can people still fork over money for bottled water? (This is, of course, aside from places where the water is shipped due to lack of clean drinking water, period.) Here are ten reasons to kick the bottled water habit today.
10. Bottled water wastes money. You’ve got to know by now that all of that money you’re spending could be saved exponentially with a simple water purifier. Ours cost less than thirty bucks, and filters are even cheaper. They last for months in our home (a household of four) as well. How much do you spend on bottled water every month? Add it up and calculate the difference.
9. It makes your cooking water clean. How many of you buy bottled water to drink—but not to cook with? If you’re that worried about impurities in your water, you should do so during cooking as well. You can easily get it out of your tap with a filter.
8. Water bottles can leech yucky stuff into your body. Why else would it have that plastic-y taste? Many contain BPA and other potentially harmful substances.
7. Bottled water is no purer than regular water. In fact, many tests have shown that it’s simply packaged tap water. When present, bottled water has, in fact, been found to only have about a 1% difference from tap; nearly half of it is just filtered tap water, which you can make at home. U.S. water is among the safest drinking water on earth.
6. Using tap is better for the environment. Millions of water bottles end up in the ocean, landfills, and pretty much everywhere you look from this waste. In the United States, nearly 9 out of 10 bottles of water are not recycled.
5. It’s easier to use tap water. Changing a filter every few months is much easier than lugging around cases of bottles or re-filling jugs at the store every week.
4. Bottled water itself can be harmful. Some brands have been found to contain pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, pesticides, and other harmful chemicals.
3. Production of water bottles wastes oil. This is a resource that’s already dwindling so low that we are likely to see shortages within our lifetime; yet making water bottles uses enough oil to fuel more than a million cars annually (not including transpiration costs).
2. Using bottled water wastes water itself. It can take up to 7 times the amount of the water in the actual bottle to create that very bottle!
1. The EPA regulates tap water more harshly than the FDA does bottled water. We know it’s generally safer—and it tastes the same once you filter it—so why not start using a purifier at home today?