Tag Archives: living

Coming of Age at the End of Nature – Julie Dunlap & Susan A. Cohen

by Myrna Posted on August 26, 2018

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Coming of Age at the End of Nature

A Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet

Julie Dunlap & Susan A. Cohen

Genre: Nature

Price: $12.99

Publish Date: September 19, 2016

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Seller: Perseus Books, LLC


Coming of Age at the End of Nature explores a new kind of environmental writing. This powerful anthology gathers the passionate voices of young writers who have grown up in an environmentally damaged and compromised world. Each contributor has come of age since Bill McKibben foretold the doom of humanity’s ancient relationship with a pristine earth in his prescient 1988 warning of climate change, The End of Nature . What happens to individuals and societies when their most fundamental cultural, historical, and ecological bonds weaken—or snap? In Coming of Age at the End of Nature , insightful millennials express their anger and love, dreams and fears, and sources of resilience for living and thriving on our shifting planet. Twenty-two essays explore wide-ranging themes that are paramount to young generations but that resonate with everyone, including redefining materialism and environmental justice, assessing the risk and promise of technology, and celebrating place anywhere from a wild Atlantic island to the Arizona desert, to Baltimore and Bangkok. The contributors speak with authority on problems facing us all, whether railing against the errors of past generations, reveling in their own adaptability, or insisting on a collective responsibility to do better.

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Coming of Age at the End of Nature – Julie Dunlap & Susan A. Cohen

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50 Easy Ways to Conserve Water

by DaleneLake Posted on August 5, 2018

Whether your city is facing a drought or not, you can always think a little greener in the choices you make at home?and at work, especially when it comes to conserving water. It’s not an infinite resource, and those who have it in abundance tend to use it recklessly.

There are lots of creative ways to reduce your water usage and get it closer to the World Health Organization recommended 5 gallons per day, rather than the American average: 100 gallons. Here are 50 ideas to get you started.

  1. Only order water in a restaurant if you plan to drink it.
  2. Collect unused?shower water in a bucket.
  3. Use dirty?bathwater to water plants or flush the toilet.
  4. Use a broom, not a hose, to clean your sidewalk.
  5. If your shower fills a 1-gallon bucket in less than 20 seconds,?upgrade the head.
  6. Upgrade from water-cooled to air-cooled appliances.
  7. Compost vegetable scraps, rather than using the disposal.
  8. Decline automatic refills of water in restaurants.
  9. Pot plants in the fall when conditions are cooler and rainfall is plentiful.
  10. Like your water cold? Keep a pitcher in the fridge, rather than running the tap.
  11. Monitor your water bill. Spikes will alert you to leaks in the house.
  12. Unless your dishwasher requires it, don’t pre-rinse dishes.
  13. Cover your pool so water doesn’t evaporate needlessly.
  14. Soak pots and pans, rather than letting the water run.
  15. Reuse the water your dehumidifier collects.
  16. Don’t water your lawn on windy days.
  17. Locate your house’s master water shutoff valve in the case of flooding.
  18. Water your lawn when temperatures are cooler. Morning or evening is best!
  19. Wash fruit and veggies in a bowl of water, rather than in running water.
  20. Use this dirty water?to nurture?your houseplants!
  21. Check outdoor faucets, sprinklers and hoses for leaks.
  22. Purchase new appliances that offer cycle and load size adjustments.
  23. Shorten your shower by a minute.
  24. Shorten your shower by two minutes.
  25. Install a rain sensor on your irrigation controller.
  26. Know the water footprint of your food.
  27. Insulate hot water pipes.
  28. Decline unnecessary laundering in hotels.
  29. Cut your grass a little higher. A taller lawn shades roots and holds soil moisture.
  30. Cleaning out your fish tank? Give the?extra, nutrient-rich water to your plants.
  31. Apply organic mulch to plants. It retains moisture and saves water.
  32. Don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth.
  33. Fix leaks as soon as you discover them.
  34. Plug the tub the moment you start running water for a bath, then adjust.
  35. Only run full loads of laundry. This can save?up to 1,000 gallons per month!
  36. Load your dishwasher the right way.
  37. Save your drinking glass and use it throughout the day.
  38. Water small patches of greenery by hand, not with a hose.
  39. Check for soil moisture two inches below the surface before watering.
  40. Encourage your office to promote water conservation.
  41. Don’t flush the toilet unnecessarily.
  42. Wash dark clothes in cold water.
  43. Aerate your lawn at least once per year.
  44. Collect water from your roof in a rain barrel, then apply to the lawn.
  45. Wash your pets outdoors in areas of the lawn that need to be watered.
  46. Reuse your towels and washcloths when you stay in hotels.
  47. Turn the faucet off while you lather your hands with soap.
  48. Don’t flush things (like tissues) that can simply be thrown away.
  49. Post notes with reminders to save water around the house.
  50. Share these tips with your friends and neighbors!

You may have heard some of these tips before, but they certainly bear repeating. Others are a fresh take on applying dirty water to new uses, or taking the stingy route when it’s easier to take the convenient one. Remember: every little bit helps!

Related Stories:

11 Things You Should Never Flush Down the Toilet
10 Uses for Rainwater
10 Ways to Start Living Zero Waste

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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50 Easy Ways to Conserve Water

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The planet wants you to stop eating so much meat and dairy

by DanOakley3448797 Posted on June 1, 2018

A new, comprehensive analysis came to a regrettable conclusion for all you cheeseburger lovers out there: The earth has a beef with your meat and dairy consumption.

A vegan diet is “probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth,” the University of Oxford’s Joseph Poore, the lead researcher, told the Guardian. He says that giving up meat and dairy makes a “far bigger” difference than cutting down on flying or getting an electric vehicle.

The researchers found that meat and dairy production is responsible for 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. The study, published in the journal Science, represents the most comprehensive analysis of farming’s environmental impact to date. It assessed the production of 40 different foods (representing 90 percent of all that we eat) at 40,000 farms across the world, analyzing their impact on land use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and air and water pollution.

If we gave up meat and dairy, we could reduce farmland by more than 75 percent worldwide and have enough food for everyone to eat, the analysis shows.

The results support what the science had already been telling us, even though the researchers took a new approach of gathering data farm by farm. Previous work had used national data to quantify farming’s impact. “It is very reassuring to see they yield essentially the same results,” Gidon Eshel, a Bard College food researcher who wasn’t involved in the Science analysis, told the Guardian.

While this is a confirmation of what we’ve been hearing for years, we also know that getting the entire world to switch to veganism is a hard sell. And in fact, after a few years of decline, meat eating is on the rise again: Americans are predicted to eat a record-shattering amount of red meat and poultry this year. It’s never too late to join the reducetarian movement, meat lovers.

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The planet wants you to stop eating so much meat and dairy

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The Feather Thief – Kirk Wallace Johnson

by Myrna Posted on May 1, 2018

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The Feather Thief
Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Kirk Wallace Johnson

Genre: Nature

Price: $13.99

Publish Date: April 24, 2018

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Seller: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.


“Fascinating from the first page to the last—you won’t be able to put it down.” — Southern Living A rollicking true-crime adventure and a thought-provoking exploration of the human drive to possess natural beauty for readers of The Stranger in the Woods , The Lost City of Z , and The Orchid Thief . On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin’s, Alfred Russel Wallace, who’d risked everything to gather them—and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man’s relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man’s destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.

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The Feather Thief – Kirk Wallace Johnson

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5 Easiest Ways to Get Started With a Zero-Waste Lifestyle

by MadeleiDahl Posted on April 23, 2018

Living completely zero-waste may sound extremely daunting. Even if you don?t consider yourself a huge waste of resources, it?s hard to avoid that looming trash bag that stares at you every few days. And recycling, while a better option, isn?t always the best alternative: According to some reporters? analyses, a lot of what we ?recycle? actually ends up going into landfills.

A lot of this may actually be out of your control; while San Francisco is able to recycle or compost about 80 percent of its trash, only 10 percent of Chicago trash gets recycled. Many buildings either don?t offer recycling services, or find that recycling bins are too contaminated with non-recyclable materials to salvage.

The best way to reduce your impact is to not waste in the first place. If you?re ready to get started with a zero-waste lifestyle, here are five beginner-friendly tips to help you do it.

Basic Composting

The first step to getting started with your zero-waste lifestyle is to practice basic composting. Composting really isn?t as difficult as it sounds. All you need to do is set up a bin in your backyard filled with soil. Sprinkle some grass, weeds, tree bark, leaves and branches in it, and mix it well. Add a little water to make it moist.

Now, as the week goes on, place items such as food scraps, paper towels (check to make sure your brand is compostable), egg cartons and other organic materials into the bin. Mix the soil regularly and keep it moist, continuing to add additional green and brown plants (again, grass and branches) into the mixture. At the end of a week or two, either have a composting service pick it up or use it to fertilize your garden. Or, just scatter it around the yard ? it?s just soil!

Shopping in Bulk

Next, commit to shopping in bulk. No, we?re not talking about Costco here. We?re talking about buying items that are often packaged in plastic, such as nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and candies, from bulk containers at your local Whole Foods or health foods store.

Things like popcorn, lentils, rice, flour, almonds, chocolates and quinoa are often staples items you can buy in bulk. Fill up a glass container in the store rather than using a plastic bag to transport your goods to your home.

Eliminate Packaging

It may seem harmless, but shopping online creates a huge uptick in wasted resources. Even ?sustainably packaged? products require using cardboard and plastic for recycling ? and as we?ve discussed, that?s not always a great option. Unless you can?t find the item you need in a local store, pick things up in person.

Eat In Rather than Taking Away

To-go containers are a huge drain on resources. Going out to eat regularly isn?t necessarily a bad thing (you?re unlikely to buy food you won?t eat that ends up going to waste!) but eat in the restaurant rather than taking away. And bring your own containers for leftovers!

Reusable Shopping and Home Goods Bags

Finally, use a reusable shopping bag every time you go to the store. But take it a step further: Ditch the produce bags in favor or reusable alternatives, or forget about them altogether. Your apple has traveled many miles and interacted with countless hands along the way; it?s unlikely that putting it in a plastic bag now is going to make it any ?cleaner!?

Related Articles:

3 Ways a Zero Waste Lifestyle Improves Your Health
How Going Zero Waste Made Me a Better Person
3 Ways Minimalism Will Improve Your Life

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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5 Easiest Ways to Get Started With a Zero-Waste Lifestyle

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These 5 artists are sketching out the future of climate action.

by RoslynOHea Posted on April 13, 2018

In a statement about the decision, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said that the city’s water has tested below the federal action level for lead and copper for the last two years. But Mayor Karen Weaver doesn’t agree that the free bottled water should stop, and many Flint residents aren’t so sure their tap water is OK to use.

“My water stinks. It still burns to take a shower,” Melissa Mays, a Flint activist and plaintiff in a lawsuit that forced the replacement of water lines, told the Associated Press. “There’s no way they can say it’s safe.”

Resident Ariana Hawk doesn’t trust the water, either. “Everything that me and my kids do from cooking to boiling their water for a bath, we’re using bottled water,” she told the local ABC-affiliate news station.

The New York Times reports that about 6,000 of Flint’s lead or galvanized steel pipes have been replaced, but there could be 12,000 more lines to go. According to the World Health Organization, there is no known safe level of lead exposure.

“This is wrong,” tweeted Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint doctor whose research exposed lead poisoning in the city. “Until all lead pipes are replaced, [the] state should make available bottled water and filters to Flint residents.”

But after the remaining free bottles are collected, only water filters and replacement cartridges will be provided.

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These 5 artists are sketching out the future of climate action.

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The EPA is rolling back gas mileage rules for cars.

by BBWWilbert Posted on April 2, 2018

In 11th grade, I had an inane habit of staying up very late IMing my stoner boyfriend and/or stalking boys who were cuter than him on Myspace. As a result, I essentially never woke up on time for school — which, in my defense, started at 7:45 a.m. — but I REFUSED to acknowledge my role in that in any way.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING,” I would moan at every tardiness slip. I understood extremely well why this kept happening.

According to a Huffington Post report by Alexander Kaufman, the EPA is taking a very similar approach to its communications on climate change. On Tuesday evening, the agency’s Office of Public Affairs sent around an internal set of talking points.

To sum up: The EPA is dealin’ with climate change! But it sure doesn’t know why it’s happenin’!

Consider some of the OPA-provided points:

Human activity impacts our changing climate in some manner. The ability to measure with precision the degree and extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are subject to continuing debate and dialogue.
While there has been extensive research and a host of published reports on climate change, clear gaps remain including our understanding of the role of human activity and what we can do about it.

Replace “human activity” with “staying up until 1 a.m. on the internet” and “changing climate” or “climate change” with “always being late to school,” and my point stands.

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The EPA is rolling back gas mileage rules for cars.

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How to Live Sustainably When You’re an Eco-Conscious Nomad (Or Travel a Lot)

by KristanGorman Posted on March 25, 2018

We became eco-conscious greenies a little while after transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle. With retail therapy out the window, recycling, composting and shopping more mindfully (i.e. not for fun) were the next obvious step.

Even without a car, our new way of living wasn?t that much of a challenge. We did have our own apartment though, which made things a whole lot easier. Things got tricky when we made the move to full-time house-sitting.

Suddenly we had to figure out what to do with our kitchen waste, where to drop off our recycling, how to avoid additional packaging, etc. It hasn?t always been easy, but it?s shown us that living lightly is always an option.

Whether you live a nomadic lifestyle like we do, or simply want to travel more sustainably, there are plenty of ways you can go about reducing your carbon footprint while on the road.

CARRY YOUR OWN EATING UTENSILS

Carrying your own eating utensils sounds pretty lame, right? Surely there must be a more epic way to earn your eco-warrior cape. Say, making a movie about global warming or starting your own environmental foundation.

Those things are awesome, but when you consider how long it takes trash to decompose you?ll realize that the simple act of carrying your own water bottle or coffee cup is heroic. Stop using plastic straws and you?re looking at Chuck Norris superpowers.

When you add up the number of meals and drinks you enjoy out, using your own travel utensils can have a huge impact on the environment. At a minimum, you should carry your own water bottle, reusable coffee cup and eco-friendly cutlery set.

A couple of snack and food containers?won’t go amiss either, as you can use them when you order take-out or to store leftovers in when you dine out. Finally, having a couple of reusable straws on hand is always a good idea.

RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING ON THE MOVE

If you have a vehicle it isn?t nearly as difficult as you might think to save your kitchen waste and recycling. Let?s start with recycling, because that?s the easiest. We simply store all our recycling in a reusable shopping bag and empty it out whenever it gets full.

Nowadays, a lot of shopping malls have recycling bins where you can offload glass, paper and plastic. Sometimes you?ll get lucky and find a depot that accepts bags of unsorted recycling. Winning. A quick search in Google will help you pinpoint your nearest available drop-off point.

For kitchen waste all you need is a small bucket and some food waste recycling bran to speed up decomposition and more importantly, eliminate unpleasant odors. When the bucket is full you just need to find somewhere to offload it.

A lot of places have community gardens that will be all too happy to take your kitchen waste. You could also check with city services to see if they have something in place. The city of Nanaimo, Canada, for example, collects residents? kitchen waste once a week.

If you can?t find anything, another option is to look on community notice boards, ask at the local farmer?s market or do a search on Gumtree or Craigslist. There?s almost always an eco-conscious hippie out there who?d be happy to help.

ECO-FRIENDLY GROUND TRAVEL

We recently decided to hire a car for a few months so that we?d be able to take advantage of house-sitting opportunities further afield, where public transport isn?t as user-friendly (or safe).

It?s definitely not something we plan to do long-term (gas and parking are way too expensive), but for now it serves us to have our own transport. We?re offsetting the increase in carbon emissions by donating trees to Greenpop.

If your plan is to actually live on the road, then there are some things you need to consider before embarking on your nomadic lifestyle. For example, will you opt for a travel trailer, RV or van?

They each come with their own set of eco-conscious pros and cons, so you’ll need to give that some thought. And once you?ve acquired your new home, there?s also the business of ?greening? it to make it more sustainable.

ECO-FRIENDLY AIR TRAVEL

But what if your travels take you abroad? Is it even possible to fly sustainably? According to Lauren Singer from Trash is for Tossers, there are plenty of steps you can take to travel lightly.

She says opting to fly direct as far as possible, choosing a?fuel-efficient?airline and taking advantage of carbon offset programs are some of the things you can do to minimize the impact of your wanderlust.

At the end of the day, it doesn?t really matter whether you?re at home, on the road or in the tent in the middle of nowhere. If you strive to live as lightly as possible, you?ll make a difference.

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Live Sustainably When You’re an Eco-Conscious Nomad (Or Travel a Lot)

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There’s new evidence that facts really do make a difference.

by FrancesRosas Posted on January 5, 2018

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke held a press conference to discuss the Department of the Interior’s intentions for drilling rights in American-controlled waters. In brief: The Arctic, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and possibly parts of the Pacific are pretty much all fair game now. The new policy would encompass “the largest number of lease sales ever proposed,” Zinke said.

It’s a direct take-back of the plan that the Obama administration finalized in November 2016. Those rules, which protected the Arctic and Atlantic seas from new drilling, were supposed to hold until 2022. But President Trump has long claimed the legal authority, and intention, to reverse it.

Conservation groups will almost certainly challenge this new draft plan in court. And a bipartisan group of local and state officials also oppose new drilling in some of these areas. In June, 14 House Republicans issued a joint letter opposing drilling off the Atlantic. Florida Governor Rick Scott joined the opposition Thursday, saying that his “top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected.”

Overall, more than 100 lawmakers — along with plenty of governors, attorneys general, and the U.S. Defense Department — oppose the plan.

Just last week, the Interior Department’s rollback of drilling safety regulations after the 2009 Deepwater Horizon spill cited their “unnecessary … burden” on industry.

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There’s new evidence that facts really do make a difference.

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Trump’s election pushed young people to run for office — and a bunch of them won.

by dominiqueiman1964 Posted on November 8, 2017

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Trump’s election pushed young people to run for office — and a bunch of them won.

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