Earthday is coming!
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I wrote a series of posts for Earthday a while back that are still just as relevant:
Earthday Environmental E’s!
Effect – the area around you in a positive way
Extend – the use of the items you use and buy
Energize – your life in an environmentally positive way
Eat – in a more environmentally sustainable, responsible and healthy manner
One Last Earth Day E – Educate!
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April 25, 2008
One Last Earth Day E – Educate!
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Previously in my 4 part Earth Day Environmental E’s! series, I covered the following topics:
Effect the area around you in a positive way
Extend the use of the items you use and buy
Energize your life in an environmentally positive way
Eat in a more environmentally sustainable, responsible and healthy manner
Now, I want to add one more ‘E’ to that list: Educate. Educate yourself and those around you so you can learn all you can about environmental issues. Learn what really makes sense to do and what doesn’t. Ask yourself:
- is this based on reason and logic?
- it this based on real science?
- Will it make a significant difference?
You might be surprised!
Here are some more Earth Day post written by other bloggers, please visit them and say ‘Hello!':
Earth Day Checklist
by Danielle Brigida of the National Wildlife Federation
The Sunday Sidebar…Green Health. by Liz from Healthbolt
Earth Day – Mother Nature is waiting ….by Elaine of Genetics and Health
Birds in the News 127 — Earth Day Edition from GrrlScientist
What Is Green Technology? by Tracy from Demystifying Digital
Today Is Earth Day! by Laura Spencer from WorkFromHomeMomma
Happy Earth Day – Alternative & Reusable Menstrual Products by Rachel of Women’s Health News
Earth Day-Enjoy the Flowers! from Healthy Internet Users
Happy Earth Day!
by Brian Switek of Laelaps
Sustainability starts with sustainable habits. by Janet D. Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science
Green WAHMs by Kelly McCausey of WAHM 2.0
Odd Observation On Earth Day by Derek Semmler of The Man Page
Happy Earth Day! (everyday) from Ojibway Migisi Bineshii
Earth Day: Green Your Office by Brandie Kajino from The Home Office Organizer
Our Special Announcement to Honor Earth Day! from Itsabelly Baby Concierge
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Eat in a more environmentally sustainable, responsible and healthy manner
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Eating is a very personal thing. I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate to tell others what to eat. Some people just have foods they can’t stand, get sick from and some they just really like and will eat no matter what. That’s ok. The following are just suggestions and ideas that maybe many people are not aware of or gave any thought of until now.
And of course eating is not just an environmental issue – it’s a health issue. Personally, I believe that the health issues are more important, but that’s my opinion.
Overfishing
“Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans” (source).
Tuna and salmon populations are of special concern. To find salmon from a sustainable source I recommend going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium site to this page – and scroll down to the section titled: “Where can I find sustainable sources for salmon?”.
The bluefin tuna is commonly used in sushi and sashimi and due to its popularity is in danger of becoming extinct (Scientific American, March 2008, p.71). Some other tunas are also overfished, skipjack however is considered ok to eat (source) and is commonly found in canned tuna. More information about tuna can be found at the Bay Aquarium site – scroll down to the bottom of the page to: ‘Where can I find sustainable sources for tuna?’.
Additional information about good and bad seafood choices can be found at the Environmental Defense Fund site.
Eat less meat
Eating less meat is considered by many to be better for the environment because it takes more land and water use to raise animals for food than to grow plant food for people to eat.
From Wikipedia: “According to a 2006 United Nations initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a “massive scale” to air and water pollution, land degradation, climate change, and loss of biodiversity.”
For additional information see: Consequences of Increased Global Meat Consumption on the Global Environment — Trade in Virtual Water and Nutrients.
A recent study in Environmental Science & Technology and reported by National Geographic shows that eating only locally grown foods does not have that much of an environmental impact. Instead what you are eating is likely to be more significant. All the transportation of food is only 11% of foods’ climate impact “compared with the impact from producing the food itself”. Beef production contributes a larger percent to warming from greenhouse gases.
There is also some evidence to suggest that eating meat is not that healthy. For example in many groups of long lived people, they eat very little if any meat.
Support Biotechnology
That might seem surprising to many, but the use of biotechnology and genetically modified crops reduces the amount of herbicides and pesticides used and can allow no-till farming. When farm land is tilled it releases carbon from the soil and into the atmosphere, among other things.
Teosinte and Corn
For millennia people have been breeding plants to increase or introduce the desirable traits they wanted. A well known example is that of teosinte. Teosinte is a wild grass that humans started cultivating over 6000 years ago. They selected for the traits they wanted and eventually teosinte developed into what today is called ‘corn’. Corn is ‘a human invention, a plant that does not exist naturally in the wild. It can only survive if planted and protected by humans’.(source). See some cool pictures of the original teosinte and modern corn from NSF.gov and Berkeley.
Today
In more recent times, since we now have the knowledge of genes and the proteins they express, we can modify our crops in a much more systematic way. With traditional breeding methods like that used in developing teosinte to corn, it wasn’t possible to know or control exactly which genes would be passed on in each round of breeding. Today, since we have a very good understanding of different genes, their proteins, etc. we can choose exactly which genes we want to be present in a plant.
We can now grow crops with increased yields, that are more nutritious and have a reduced environmental impact. For one example:
Built-in insecticides
Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is a naturally occurring soil bacterium. It makes a protein that kills some insect larvae, in particular, the European corn borer. Before modern insecticides were available the European corn borer resulted in large reductions of corn production. Now, people have been able to take the gene for the BT protein that kills the corn borer and put it in the corn itself. Consequently, when the larvae eat the corn, they die. Very little, if any, insecticide needs to be sprayed on the corn. And it doesn’t hurt beneficial insects like honey bees, lady bugs, spiders, etc. (source)
Organic foods
Its also worth noting that organic food is not necessarily ‘pesticide-free and pathogen-free’ (source). And in fact many organic farmers also use BT – the difference being that they put in on the plants in the form of a liquid or powder. Problems with this method include rain washing it away, requiring repeated applications. The powder can also cause lung problems for farm workers who might breathe it in and in those with weakened immune systems it could lead to lung infections. See:
Bt Is Number One in Organic Survey
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) (organic gardening product)
Organic Farming
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April 24, 2008
Energize your life in an environmentally positive way
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Today’s post covers the problems we have with using fossil fuels for most of our energy needs. I also briefly review some possibilities of what we can use for energy in the future and what you can to today to help.
Global Warming
Greenhouse gases are formed by both natural and man made sources. They allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere, but they absorb the heat and trap it in the atmosphere.
Three of the major man made greenhouse gases contributors are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Carbon dioxide makes up by far the largest amount, depending upon your source and how recent the report is, it seems to make up around 75 to 85% of the total. Methane is present in much lower amounts although it is a more potent greenhouse gas (source).
The burning of the fossil fuels: oil, coal and natural gas are the primary source of the human contributed carbon dioxide as well as the burning of wood. The U.S. contributes 25% of the carbon dioxide emissions. Methane comes from landfills, coal mines, oil and gas operations, and agriculture. (source)
Before the industrial revolution the amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 280 parts per milliom (ppm). Now – the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is almost 385 ppm. In 2007, it increased by 2.4 ppm. (source) It has been estimated that the threshold of 450 ppm is where we could have really big problems. (National Geographic, Oct. 2007, p. 32) At the current rate it will take a little more than 3 decades to get there. The average global temperature has already gone up 1 degree Fahrenheit.
Already the three great ice sheets – on Greenland, East Antarctica and West Antarctica are melting and could raise the planet’s sea levels by more than 200 feet. One third of the population lives within 300 feet of sea level could end up under water if global temperatures keep rising. (Scientific American, Feb. 2008, p.60)
What can you do?
One pretty simple thing most people can do now is change your lightbulbs from incandescent to fluorescent if you have not yet done that. They are more expensive but use less energy and last much longer. If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with a fluorescent one, ‘it would prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that from nearly 800,000 cars. It would also save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for a year.’ (Source) Even better when LED light bulbs become more readily available – buy those instead.
Currently hybrid cars and solar panels are financially out of reach for most people. Hopefully, in the not so far off future will have more options for more fuel efficient cars, plug-ins, etc. Replacing all old appliances with newer more energy efficient is not something most can afford either, if the current appliance is still functioning. Weather-proofing a house is one way to reduce fuel usage, if you can afford it.
Many other suggestions I’ve seen for saving energy are also not very practical for many people. For example – hanging clothes outside to dry instead of using a dryer. This won’t work for people in apartments, neighborhoods with ordinances against it, places where it is too rainy and cold, places where the clothes could get stolen or destroyed by people, kids or animals. In many places it is also either too hot or cold most of the year and things are too far away for riding a bicycle to be very practical most of the time.
In the future
In the future other sources of fuel will have to be developed. Some of these are listed below:
- Solar
- Wind
- Geothermal
- Biofuels
- Nuclear
– seems promising. In the U.S. lots of land in the west would need to be covered with solar panels and technology to store and transport the energy would have to be developed. (Scientific America, Jan. 2008, p.64)
– wind turbines are another potential source of clean, renewable energy. Wind turbine energy is currently being used in many states in the U.S. and in 2005 generated 17.8 billion kWh of electricity (source).
– this involves the piping of hot water or steam to drive a turbine. Currently it is difficult and expensive finding the reservoirs. Better technology could bring the price down. Another option is the use of geothermal heat pumps, but there has not been a lot of investment in it. Some countries do make use of geothermal energy to heat their houses though. (Discover, April 2008, p.20)
– are made from plants such as corn and sugarcane. In Brazil they have been using ethanol derived from sugarcane to fuel nearly all their cars since the 1980’s. But growing and harvesting sugarcane is labor intensive may lead to deforestation. In the U.S. many people want to use corn to make ethanol, but corn requires lots of herbicide and fertilizer, can result in erosion problems as well as use up land set aside for conservation and its use as biofuel increases food costs among other problems. Other options are making ethanol from the plant parts people don’t use for food – those high in cellulose – but the technology isn’t quite there yet to make it very efficient. Research into using algae for fuel is also taking place but has a long way to go before it will be viable. (National Geographic, Oct. 2007, p. 38)
– some groups think that more nuclear power should be used to replace fossil fuels. Others think it has too many risks of accidents associated with it along with the problem of how and where to store the waste. (Discover, May 2008, p.29)
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- Eat in a more environmentally sustainable, responsible and healthy manner
- 5 Simple Ways Women Can Make The World Greener
- 3 Reasons Why Science is Important in This Election
April 23, 2008
Extend – the use of the items you use and buy
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Happy day-after Earth Day!
Continuing the series I started here yesterday – today’s topic is Extend the use of the items you use and buy.
The Three R’s
Much of this involves the ‘three R’s’ which we are all familiar with: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. The EPA’s web site Consumer’s Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste has a lot of ideas that may be helpful. These include:
- Buying only what you need
- Buying less things that are disposable
- Repair broken items if you can
- Donate things you might otherwise throw away to charity
- Recycle things that can be, if you can where you live
- Compost food waste if you can
Another idea is to join Freecycle – it is a web site and ‘nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns’. Its a great way to find uses for items you don’t need anymore also.
Water Conservation
Water conservation is also important, the Earthday.gov web site has a list of great ideas.
I’ll add one more to the list – if you can do it – replace your lawn with a native North American grass like Buffalo Grass (Buchloe dactyloides). We’ve been slowly replacing ours. Buffalo Grass needs very little water – only several inches of water per month during hot weather. There are different varieties that have been developed for different regions. For our region we use a variety called Legacy – it grows easily in a wide range of soil types but actually prefers heavy clay. And it needs minimal mowing, if any, as it doesn’t grow very high. If you are interested in learning more about Buffalo Grass I will periodically write more about it on my Butterfly Gardening blog also. (I don’t have any business affiliation with High Country Gardens, its just the place we bought our plugs from.)
Recycling and E-waste
Another thing you can do is to try to encourage more recycling in the U.S. Apparently much more is recycled in the European Union than in the U. S. According to an article in National Geographic (NG) the European countries Denmark, Sweden and Belgium recycle nearly 100% of their materials, while in the U.S. its a much, much, lower percent that gets recycled.
When it comes to e-waste (computers, T.V.’s, cell phones, etc.) we are doing even worse. According to NG: High-Tech Trash the U.S. doesn’t ‘require green design or take-back programs of manufacturers’. A large percent of our e-waste sent to domestic recyclers actually gets sent to other countries – China, other parts of Asia and West Africa – especially Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. There the recyclable scraps are salvaged by unsafe methods further contributing to the local contamination of the soil, water and air with toxic substances like dioxin, lead, flame retardants, etc.
Unlike in Europe, there are only a few recycling places in the U. S. that process e-waste, and the metals within it, properly and responsibly. The article highlighted one of these companies: Creative Recycling Systems, located in Florida. Their ‘system can handle 150 million pounds of end-of-life electronic equipment a year’. A few more recycling companies like this and all the the U.S. e-waste could be processed safely.
Who Should Cast the First Stone?
While we complain when China sends us jewelry with high levels of lead – it is very possible that that lead came from the discarded e-waste we dumped in China.
Michael L. Clement and Jeffrey Weidenhamer published a paper in the journal Chemosphere showing that this might be the case: “Leaded Electronic Waste is a Possible Source Material for Lead-Contaminated Jewelry” Chemosphere (2007) doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere .2007.04.023. See Chemosphere Article also at: http://personal.ashland.edu/~jweiden/
What am doing?
So – do I recycle? We have been, but only in limited amounts. We haven’t had the time to make frequent trips to a recycling place and not enough room to store very much. However – I’m quite happy to say that today – the day after Earth Day – we finally got our recycling cart delivered to our house! Our unincorporated St. Louis County home didn’t have any pickup service here but it was recently started. For some reason we were originally skipped in the distribution of carts – but now we have one – so now we can recycle everything that can be recycled!
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Related Posts:
- Effect the area around you in a positive way
- 5 Simple Ways Women Can Make The World Greener
- One last pre-election post
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