Miomarmo

Simple Statement of the Day

The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.
~ Ayn Rand

Simple Statement of the Day

We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.
~ Margaret Mead

1 Billion Without Clean Drinking Water

Hard to imagine not having access to clean drinking water? 4,000 children die every year from diseases brought on by unsafe drinking water. Without access to running water, many have to turn to rivers and streams for their water, and this where the problem lays.

Proctor & Gamble's PUR Water Filtration has partnered with the Children's Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program for today's climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, called SUMMIT ON THE SUMMIT, to help raise awareness for this problem around the world. You can follow their progress (climbers include actress Jessica Biel, actor Emile Hirsch, and others) on their site here. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa at 19,340'. You can even Tweet the team during their journey!

The PUR sachet is one solution that CSDW wants to continue to deliver to those who need it around the world.

We all need to feel grateful for the safe drinking water that most of us have. Here are a couple of important tips to remember for your safe drinking water:

• Ten of the most popular brands of water were found to have 38 different contaminants. They don't have to include any labeling about this, nor tell you whether it's natural or processed water, so your safest bet is filtered tap water. And, since all tap water producers are required to publish their water quality tests, you can look up your location at the Environmental Working Group's National Tap Water Atlas.
• Stay away from #7 (recycling number) plastic bottles to carry your water around. And don't re-use plastic water bottles from the store as bacteria can form. Instead, try one of the many stainless steel bottles now available, or find a plastic bottle other than the #7s.
• When traveling abroad where you're not sure of the water's purity, consider ice to be contaminated as it's typically made from local water sources. Also, avoid brushing your teeth with tap water.
• If you have a well and are not on a town/city water system, have your water tested by a lab.

Free day at National Parks tomorrow!

Tomorrow, September 26, is National Public Lands Day when entrance to all 391 National Parks is free.

What are you waiting for? Plan your hike/picnic/getaway now!

Resetting to Zero

I recently made a purchase at Gaiam.com (like I need more yoga DVDs!) and noticed in the checkout that I had the option of offsetting the environmental impact of my order. What a great idea!

I live pretty remotely so do a lot of online shopping when I can't find what I need locally. I've often worried about the impact this has as far as the materials used for shipping, transporting the merchandise, etc. so the offer to offset my impact was answered with my resounding "YES!". The button I pushed said "goZero my Order." I love it.

Gaiam is offering this through a program called Go Zero which is part of The Conservation Fund:

"The Conservation Fund is dedicated to advancing America's land and water legacy. With our partners, we conserve land, train leaders and invest in conservation at home. From our headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and our field offices across the country, we've saved land in all 50 states—over 6 million acres of wild havens, working lands, vibrant communities and more."

The Go Zero program makes it simple and economical for individuals, corporations, or even entire communities to first measure their carbon dioxide emissions, learn helpful ways to reduce those emissions, and then offset the remainder by planting trees.

The Philadelphia Eagles worked with the fund to calculate and then "zero out" the carbon emissions associated with team travel on Delta Airlines for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. As a result, The fund has planted thousands of trees in two locations: the Eagles Forest, located at Pennsylvania’s Neshaminy State Park and Red River National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana.

The Go Zero site also has a calculator where you can determine your estimated annual carbon dioxide footprint, which is the sum of the carbon dioxide that is produced by your home energy use, auto transportation, and air travel.

My Gaiam order (one DVD plus one "gift" for me) cost me $2 to offset it. A small price to pay, I say.

Life-Cycle Assessment and How to Apply it to Your Buying Habits

Life-Cycle Assessment, or LCA, as defined by the the EPA is "a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision."

Sounds confusing, but you might be reading between the lines already. It's difficult to know, as a consumer, what impact a product you buy has on the environment, humans, and other animals. Most of the products we buy and use today were invented a long time ago, the process used to make each of these products were determined by how much it cost the manufacturer and not how much impact it had on the environment. That's because we were in the dark about the potential dangers of manufacturing, and today we need to basically reinvent pretty much everything.

New industrial ecology is using LCA to take a product and tear it down into it's various components. What it's made of, what process is used to make each of those components, how it's transported, how it's used, how we dispose of it, and how the company treats its employees and its community ... every thing we buy has a hidden price tag on our lives and environment. Making decisions on what to buy, or if to buy at all, can be daunting for those of us determined to make a difference. By remaining uneducated on what we buy, we're creating potential dangers for our futures.

So what can you do?

I've been doing my best to research what I buy. As some of you know, we're building a house and one example, recently, is our search for a sealer for our wood floors. We did some research and found some soy-based products that were looking good. We ordered samples and tried them out and were ready to purchase the product. Then, we found a newer one recently that uses a by-product of cheese making: whey. We liked this, not only were the ingredients all natural, they were using something that was being thrown away. And, it's made locally (in our state). We love supporting Vermont-made products whenever possible.  Bonus: It actually works better than anything we tried! This took a lot more time than walking into Home Depot and asking for a floor sealer ...

Another example, when we put in our plumbing, we decided to go with PVC pipes. Copper is a nonrenewable resource, and other products were less durable so using them meant having to replace them over and over rather than buying PVC once. It's a tough choice when none of the choices are perfect.

The research is time-consuming, but worth it. It's hard to know what information to trust. The manufacturers are using all kinds of phrases to get us to think they're green such as "all natural" and "wholesome" but what is really behind the product and the company that makes it?

In researching about LCA I came across an amazing resource: GoodGuide (now in beta). Rather than rating on how well something may work, they're rated based on an LCA for that product.

So, I went to GoodGuide and looked up a common product: Cheerios. Its GoodGuide rating is 8.5. They based this on:

• Health/Nutrition Performance: 10 "This product has a good nutrition score."
• Environmental Performance: 8.1 "This company has minimal or no community-related controversies."
• Social Performance: 7.4 "This company that makes this product has an above-average score in use of resources."

But it also gives a lot of deeper information and not just an overview. I looked into the Environmental Performance and found that it rated very well in Energy Management, but not as well for Compliance and Toxic Waste. For Social Performance, Cheerios rated "Best in Category" in Working Conditions & Benefits and Philanthropy, but less well (though still not part of the "Worst in Category") in Quality & Safety, Workplace Diversity, and Labor & Human Rights.

Check out GoodGuide's information on their Ratings and Methodology. And their blog.

And please check out what you're buying and maybe you'll find something better? I know I'll be spending a lot of time on this and from my initial look-through, will be replacing a lot of what I buy with something better.

Bike to Work Day

This year's Bike to Work day is Friday, May 15 - although some sources are giving it as Thursday, May 14, so you have twice as many chances to saddle up! If that weren't enough, according to the League of American Bicyclists, May is National Bike Month, and this whole week is Bike To Work Week. Get the picture? There are plenty of days to take your bike out for a spin and get a great workout besides.

The League says,

People ride bicycles for all sorts of reasons, from better health to saving money on fuel. Additionally, bicycling helps the environment, allows you to escape from the endlessly clogged freeways of America, and is a lot of fun!

Although I have the shortest commute ever, I do have a hankering to take my bike out for a ride this afternoon and run some errands. Have you ever biked to work, and would you give it a try tomorrow?

To get you in the mood:

Who Knew Saving Trees Could Be So Easy!

Unfortunately, not all municipalities recycle newspapers/magazineS that are acquired from everyday junk mail within corporate business parks.  Petitioning the township/municipality that you work in to start doing this is a great idea!  But an even easier start is to take the newspapers/magazines home and throw them in with your weekly or bi-weekly pickup.  You won't believe the difference you'll be making when you see how much junk mail offices can actually get.  By doing this, thousands upon thousands of trees are saved every year.  START NOW AND MAKE A BIG IMPACT WITH A SMALL EFFORT!

Our favorite things (to do to save the Earth)

In honor of Earth Day and the almost-one-year anniversary of Miomarmo, we’ve got a list of some of our favorite green tips and practices.

Nichole:
Grocery stores, Staples stores, Wal-mart all now have bins at the entrance to the store or just inside to recycle the plastic shopping bags.  I’ve doing it for a while now & I’m noticing more & more people.  It’s pretty cool because even though I mostly use my tote bags when I shop, we all still wind up with these plastic shopping bags that we all never wind up using (well…not all of them at least).

On your weekly, monthly, whatever trip to the grocery store…bring the bags back & recycle!

Chintan:
Go veggie! I don't know if I can be anything but a vegetarian. There are far too many reasons to list here, but some of the most important ones according to me are:

• It’s good for the animals. Stop the cruelty towards animals. What have they done to deserve this violence towards them?
• It’s good for you health. Simply doing a google search on vegetarianism and health will get you tons of information proving so.
• It’s good for the Earth. We are destroying pristine forests and converting them into farmland that can provide food for cattle.

Some links to get you started:
http://www.goveg.com/
http://www.peta.org/
http://www.vrg.org/journal/

Elena:
Check out yesterday’s post! Seriously, turning off lights and appliances you’re not using has to be one of the simplest things you can do.

Tim:
Some things we do on a regular basis are:

• using minimum amounts of detergent when doing laundry (you really don't need a full cup)
• re-using towels and work cloths
• find other uses for otherwise discarded items (I made birdhouses out of old deck lumber)
• using the fireplace more often in the winter (I use my own trees when possible and ask the neighbors if I can have the one they plan to discard)
• I no longer use bottled water; instead I use a filter pitcher
• discard batteries and other contaminates appropriately (our public library has a bin just for old batteries)

Matt:
The reusable grocery store bags – my family all uses them.

Dany:
Seek out sources for refilling containers, such as laundry and dish detergents. Our local coop has this service available for these and a few other items.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Small Steps

While everyone is hopefully inspired by Earth Day (and Arbor Day!) this week to do something good for the world, our family actually made our big list on New Year’s Day of things we wanted to do this year to help make the world a better place. In the past 4 months, we’ve been taking small steps to try to be in better touch with nature and the world around us. Our hope was to show the children that even preschoolers and kindergartners can make a difference – that no step (or person) is too small. Below is our list – most of the suggestions coming directly from our kids (“hug the birds” being my favorite, though impractical, suggestion).

We broke our list down into three sections:

Helping the World:

• Turn off lights.
• Don’t leave water running.
• Plant trees.
• Learn about other countries/cultures and who needs help -  not everyone in the world lives the way you do.
• Walk more and drive less.
• Pray for peace.

Helping Nature:

• Create a website for our favorite park.
• Feed the birds.
• Help clean up the park.
• Hug the birds.
• Plant more trees.
• Plant flowers that bees like.
• Read 50 Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth for ideas.
• Help clean up the reservation near us (they have trail cleanup days and are always looking for volunteers
• Go on walks and spend more time outside enjoying nature.

Helping Kids and People:

• Bring coats and food to Foodbank (we did this and it made a huge impression on the kids)
• Adopt a child from another country
• Rice bowls at Lent
• Visit people who are shut-in or hospitalized
• Draw pictures/share art with people who need cheering up

What are your favorite small steps?