Category Archives: organic
Broke Is the New Green
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Planet-friendly products are getting easier to find, but they’re still too expensive for most people to buy.
If you can’t afford fair trade coffee, organic cotton towels, and reclaimed wood tables, environmentalism can seem like a cause you can’t join. It’s good to shop your values, but the truth is, you can’t shop your way to sustainability. If you’re too broke to shop green, there’s a pretty good chance that you are already living that way.
Housing
Housing ties with transportation as Americans’ biggest direct carbon impacts, making fantasies of off-grid homesteading or net-zero efficiency hard to resist. At least, they would be if they weren’t so expensive.
As inspiring as these sorts of homes are, it takes 15 to 20 years for a net-zero house to offset the carbon emissions from its own construction. Which means that energy retrofits to an old house are not only much cheaper than moving to a new one, they are just as green.
Density, meaning both the size of your home or the number of people you squeeze into it, lowers per capita emissions more than almost any other housing change. Besides reduced per capita energy consumption, the benefits cascade into reduced transportation emissions and consumer waste.
In fact, the U.S. could achieve half of its climate targets if everyone got a roommate.
Transportation
Feel guilty because you can’t afford a Prius? Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s true that about 80 percent of a vehicle’s emissions result from driving it rather than manufacturing it. But the exact math on whether it’s greener to buy an efficient new car is not clear cut.
Replacing your 1970s Buick that gets 8 mpg with a 1990s Honda might be greener than buying a new electric vehicle (unless it’s a recycled EV). Next time your old car is in the shop, you can feel extra virtuous.
Walking, biking, and taking public transportation are all greener than driving, no matter what kind of car you own.
Shopping Less
Four-fifths of the impacts that can be attributed to consumers are not direct impacts, but are secondary impacts, the environmental effects of producing the stuff we buy.
If your tight budget has you thinking twice before you head to the register, you are eliminating waste before it’s produced. That’s called precycling, and it’s the greenest consumer choice you can make.
When you really do need to buy stuff, a new organic cotton T-shirt is undoubtedly better than a new one made from conventional cotton. But life cycle analysis shows that by far the most important factor is the number of times consumers wear a garment before throwing it out. Buying second-hand is almost as good as not buying at all, because it extends the life of the product.
Cooking More
Forget fancy dinners at the latest organic, locavore restaurant. Even fast food is more expensive than cooking at home.
What you might not know is that cooking at home produces fewer greenhouse gases than eating the same meal at a restaurant. Plus, you have more influence over your own ingredient choices and food waste at home. Suddenly, making beans and rice starts to look like environmental activism.
Feature image courtesy of 1820796 from Pixabay
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The Dreamt Land – Mark Arax
READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS
Chasing Water and Dust Across California
Genre: Nature
Price: $15.99
Publish Date: May 21, 2019
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC
"You can't understand California without understanding water, and no one is better at doing that than Mark Arax, whose depth of knowledge about the Central Valley is organic and unparalleled. Plus, he writes like a dream." –Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil–the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. This is a heartfelt, beautifully written book about the land and the people who have worked it–from gold miners to wheat ranchers to small fruit farmers and today's Big Ag. Since the beginning, Californians have redirected rivers, drilled ever-deeper wells and built higher dams, pushing the water supply past its limit. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers–the nut king, grape king and citrus queen–tell their story here for the first time. This is a tale of politics and hubris in the arid West, of imported workers left behind in the sun and the fatigued earth that is made to give more even while it keeps sinking. But when drought turns to flood once again, all is forgotten as the farmers plant more nuts and the developers build more houses. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.
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8 Weird Items You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle
Recycling is an important part of reducing how much garbage we send to landfills. According to the EPA, Americans generate more than 262 million tons of waste every single year.
Seventy-five percent of this is recyclable material, but only 25 percent of this actually makes it to recycling facilities, a horrifying figure given that 73 percent of Americans have access to curbside recycling services.
Amusingly,?a sizable portion of?these forgotten recyclables are off-the-wall items?like shoes, furniture and – no joke – dentures. Never in a million years would I have known dentures are recyclable! Here are ten of these such items not to send to the landfill!
1. Dentures
The average set of dentures contains approximately $25?of recyclable metals, including silver, gold and palladium. The Japan Denture Recycling Association (yes, that exists) collects false teeth, removing valuable materials and discarding the rest. Once the process is complete, the program donates 100 percent of its earnings to UNICEF. Cool idea, right?
2. Mattresses
Equipped with special saws that aren’t found?in traditional recycling facilities, mattress recycling?factories can separate foam, metal, wood and cloth and?recycle these materials independently. Wood is chipped, foam and cloth are shredded, springs are melted down. Who knows, maybe that wallpaper in your dining room was made from an old mattress!
3. Expired prescriptions
Expired prescriptions should never get into the wrong hands. To help prevent this, some states allow you to donate unused drugs back to pharmacies, while a few charities accept leftover medicines from people who have changed prescriptions, stopped using the mediations or passed away.
4.?Trophies
Got a collection of plastic trophies from your school days sitting in the back of your mom’s attic? It’s time to move on. Lamb Awards, a specialty recycling center, can break down retired awards, melting them down to reuse in new trophies or other post-consumer recycled items.
5. Crayons
Even the stubbiest little crayons can find renewed purpose through the National Crayon Recycle Program. This organization collects broken, worn down crayons and melts them down into new wax so they can be remade and resold. The program says they’ve saved more than 120,000 pounds of crayons from the landfill so far!
6.?Dirty diapers
In the time leading up to potty training, the average baby soils 6,000 diapers. 6,000!?Fortunately, the company Knowaste collects and recycles dirty diapers from hospitals, public restrooms and nursing facilities. Knowaste sanitizes the diapers before separating plastic from organic matter. Plastics are then compressed into pellets and recycled into roof shingles, while paper pulp becomes wallpaper or shoe soles. Genius!
7.?Pantyhose
Got torn pantyhose still taking up space in your drawers? Textile recycler No Nonsense is here to save the day! The organization recycles old stockings by grinding them down (didn’t think it was that hardcore…) and transforming them into things like playground toys and carpet.
8.?Aluminum foil
Aluminum products are among the easiest metals to recycle thanks to their ability to be melted down and turned into new products essentially forever. Luckily, most recycling facilities can handle foil, no problem, as long as it is donated in ball form, instead of loose sheets.
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9 Commitments to Make This World Oceans Day & How to Keep Them
Imagine getting out of bed in the morning, and instead of hitting the floor, your feet land in a pile of garbage. As you make your way to the kitchen, you become more and more entangled in the debris.
You?eventually get to your destination, but you’ve lost all feeling in your lower limbs. The harder you tug, the tighter the grip becomes. You spot some granola on the counter. If you can’t move, you may as well have a snack, right?
One mouthful and you’re gagging. It looks like granola but it’s actually more trash. Now what? You can’t move, and you’re probably going to die because you ate something you shouldn’t have.
Welcome to the life of our ocean’s many inhabitants.
According to figures published in Science in 2015, between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year. To the untrained eye, a lot of that garbage looks like food.?Sea turtles, for example, favor a diet of jellyfish and can quite easily mistake plastic bags floating for jellyfish. Scientists recently?discovered that animals also “eat ocean plastic because?it smells like food.”
Our Oceans are in Trouble
Along with serving as the planet’s largest habitat ? an estimated 50-80 percent of all life on earth?lives beneath the ocean surface ? the ocean also helps to regulate the global climate.
[Watch] Oceans 101 | National Geographic
Climate change is changing that. These are a few of the ways that’s happening:
As ocean temperatures rise, storms increase, delicate ocean life comes under threat and food chains are disrupted.
Rising sea levels cause flooding in coastal regions.
Ocean acidification results in lower levels of carbonate ions, making it difficult for calcifying organisms such as deep sea corals, oysters, clams, etc. to build and maintain shells.
Ocean dead zones (the name given to areas with low oxygen levels) are also increasing, thanks to pollution and climate change.
Humans Are at the Heart of the Problem
Our oceans face a multitude of threats, and human activities are at the heart of the problem. According to National Geographic, “More than 80 percent of marine pollution comes from land-based activities.”
Global warming is causing sea levels to rise. Plastic pollution is choking the ocean and its inhabitants. Agricultural pesticides contaminate our water. Factories and industrial plants dump their sewage in the ocean. Out at sea, oil spills, poaching, overfishing, bycatch, illegal whaling and offshore drilling unleash a whole other set of manmade problems.
On the bright side, if humans are the problem, then we can also be the solution.
At a global level, UNESCO has instituted the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Taking place between 2021-2030, the decade is being hailed as “a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to strengthen the management of our oceans and coasts for the benefit of humanity.”
[Watch] Explaining the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
How to Fight Ocean Plastic
World Oceans Day is an opportunity for all of us to step up and make a difference. Change begins in our homes, at the grocery store and in the way we live our lives. These are some ways you can “be the change” in your day-to-day life.
1.?Stop Eating Fish and Seafood
Many argue that eating fish and seafood is fine, so long as it’s sustainably sourced. I’d argue (and I’m not alone) that sustainable fishing is a myth. How can we call any type of fishing sustainable when most of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from fishing gear?
Bycatch is another real issue, resulting in the deaths of thousands of marine turtles, dolphins, porpoises and young whales (to name a few) each year.
2. Support Organizations Working to Save Our Oceans
A super easy way to make a difference is simply by supporting the organizations that work to save our oceans.
3.?Avoid Beauty Products that Contain Microplastics
Microplastics have a devastating effect on the environment, and you can find them in a host of beauty products, from scrubs and eyeliner to lipstick and sunscreen.
Make a point of supporting ethical, eco-conscious businesses that use only natural and organic ingredients. Alternatively, whip up your own DIY beauty products.
4.?Take Care of Your Beaches
Go on regular beach cleanups. You can join a group, create your own or go solo, it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is to get out there and pick up some trash.
If you don’t live near the beach then support an organization that’s cleaning up the ocean.
5.?Be a Responsible Pet Owner
Don’t flush your kitty litter down the toilet. Keep seafood sustainability front of mind when buying food for Fido or Trixie.
If you have an aquarium, wild-caught saltwater fish are a big no-no. And while we’re on the subject, never release aquarium fish into the ocean or river.
6.?Avoid Products From the Ocean
Coastal towns are known for their sea-inspired souvenirs. Some of these keepsakes are harmless, but a lot of times they’re made from endangered marine life.
Never buy tortoiseshell hair accessories, coral jewelry, shark products (teeth, fins, etc.) or cosmetics containing traces of whales or sharks.
7.?Use Environmentally-Friendly Products
When you clean your home, the products you use go down the drain and into our water sources before finally making their way to the sea. Whether you’re doing the dishes or scrubbing the bath, make sure you use something that isn’t harmful to the environment.
You can either buy eco-friendly products or create your own DIY green cleaning kit.
8.?Recycle With Care
Most people nowadays recycle. The problem comes in when we’re lazy about it. Tossing a greasy pizza box or dirty aluminum can into your blue bin?can?contaminate an entire batch of recycling. Something that could have been recycled will end up on the landfill as a result.
Take the time to “up your recycling game” so the right things end up in recycling.
9.?Say Sayonara to Single Use Plastic
With an estimated eight million tons of plastic waste entering the world’s oceans each year, bidding farewell to single-use plastic should be something every human commits to. Living zero-waste?is easier than you think, it just takes a little planning and forethought.
There are plenty of common items that you can replace with zero-waste alternatives. There are also a number of products you can carry with you at all times to help you avoid unnecessary packaging, such as a water bottle, coffee cup and on-the-go cutlery set.
I get that avoiding single-use plastic completely is a huge challenge. Companies package in accordance with their bottom line, and that invariably has nothing to do with the environment. The solution? Create an eco brick. You’d be amazed by how much trash can be squished into one bottle. Take a look at this recent Facebook post of our own ecobrick in progress:
There you have it. A whole lot of reasons to save of our oceans and a bunch of ways to do just that. Happy World Oceans Day.
Take Action
Want to go a step further? Join over 55,000 Care2 members, and?sign and share the petition?to?support efforts to?save marine mammals from being strangled to death by manmade trash.
If?you want to make a difference on an issue you find deeply troubling, you too can?create a Care2 petition, and use this?handy guide?to get started. You‘ll find Care2‘s vibrant community of activists ready to step up and help you.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Excerpt from:
9 Commitments to Make This World Oceans Day & How to Keep Them
How to Find Balance as an Eco-Conscious Urbanite
Our planet is a mess.?Fish are?disappearing from our oceans. Global warming is on the rise. A million species are on the brink of extinction. Plastic pollution is out of control. Predictions for the future are even more alarming.
In the face of such overwhelming challenges, it can sometimes feel like the only answer is to build an off-the-grid cob house and grow your own food. But while that?might sound like an idyllic lifestyle, it’s not a feasible solution for most people.
The majority of us?have lives in the city that we either can’t leave behind or simply don’t want to. It’s where we earn a living, raise our families and caffeinate ourselves.
We might not want to live elsewhere, but at the same time we’re also acutely aware that our urbanite carbon footprint dwarfs that of our yurt-dwelling counterparts.
Humans tend to be an all or nothing lot. We either deny the evidence in front of us or we try to do everything in our power to make a difference. As a Care2 reader, you obviously fall into the second category. Me too.
Unfortunately, doing everything isn’t an option. Finding balance as an eco-conscious urbanite?is key. It’s about doing your best, rather than striving for perfection. How do you do that?
Choose Your #1 Cause
My wife and I have been eating a vegan diet for almost eight years now. Not harming animals is our number one priority. We might compromise in other areas, but not this one.
What’s most important for you? It could be living a zero-waste lifestyle, eating locally grown, organic food or whatever.
Identify something you can do unfailingly. Knowing you’re doing one thing perfectly (or close to) will help you feel better about the fact that you can’t do everything.
Take a Hard Line When It Matters
With some things, you have to take a hard line no matter what. They’re the kinds of issues that you can’t compromise on.
You might eat meat, eggs and dairy, but that doesn’t mean you have to support factory farming.
You might enjoy pampering yourself, but that doesn’t mean you have to use products that have been tested on animals.
You might like wearing nice clothes, but that doesn’t mean you have to contribute to?the fast fashion industry.
There’s always a sustainable alternative. It might not be as readily available, and it could cost more, but it’s better than indulging your desires at the expense of another living being.
Compromise When It?Counts
Living plastic-free is an ongoing mission in our house. We’re nowhere near where we’d like to be, but we’re doing our best.
Recently, we discovered that a local plant-based food brand?supports Sea Shepherd, a?non-profit, marine conservation organization fighting to protect our oceans.
We’ve always loved Fry’s Foods but stopped buying it because of the packaging. When we heard about their efforts to make a difference, we decided a compromise was in order. Rather than just toss the packaging in the trash, we’ll be making eco-bricks with our non-recyclables.
I’ve always believed it’s important to support businesses that are making an effort to be eco-conscious. It’s not always easy, as they have investors to placate and staff to pay. In spite of this, they still try.
A powerful way to?protest the things we don’t like (factory farming, manufacturing of single-use plastic, etc.) is with our pockets. We need to support the businesses that are?making a difference?and ignore the ones that are contributing to the problem.
Find a Balance that Works for You
As eco-conscious urbanites, our approaches will differ from person to person. What holds true for all of us, however, is our belief that we can leave the world a better place.
Focus on the things you can do and don’t worry so much about the rest. That may be easier said than done when you’re?constantly being bombarded with bad news, but it’s important to try. Instead of getting down about the way things are, go out there and make a difference in whatever way you can. It’s also helpful to go on a news fast every now and then.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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Can small-scale farmers grow a healthier Central Valley?
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