Tag Archives: thanksgiving

Go Green on Saint Patrick’s Day

Green glass bottles with lights for party decorations. Photo: flickr/rubberdragon

According to Use-less-stuff.com, Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year.  Even if your environmental footprint is the size of a leprechaun’s, it’s likely that you donated more than usual to the landfill.  So for this St. Patrick’s Day, why not turn over a new leaf, or four-leaf-clover?

Here are some simple ways to be truly green on St. Patty’s Day:

Green your home

Decorate for the holiday by making a wreath made out of old green t-shirts, denim, tablecloths, tea towels, curtains and any other upcycled material that’s taking up space.   You’ll need a wire wreath frame, which you can recycle later, fabric shears and your collection of fabric.  Cut the fabric into small strips and tie onto the wire until it covers every inch.  Once you’ve pre-cut the fabric, this project becomes kid-friendly and parent-friendly since no glue or messy paint are required.

Consider using green beverage bottles and add lights to create fun ambiance or swap out your vases for green ones by spray-painting old bottles to add pops of green color in every room.  Don’t forget to use an eco-friendly spray paint that’s free of CFCs!

Green your food

Dedicate your meals to your city by only cooking with locally-grown produce.  By doing so you’ll donate your dollars to the local economy and enjoy fresher food that hasn’t been shipped from thousands of miles away – saving the atmosphere from more pollution.

Make it a fun project for the kids and dye your food green using natural ingredients.  By following these instructions, you can make a green dye at home using matcha powder, spirulina, powder, parsley juice, wheat grass juice, spinach juice, spinach powder or parsley powder.

Green your beer

No kids allowed for this one.  Pledge to drink locally-brewed beer while celebrating the holiday.  Again, you’ll be a hometown hero for contributing to your local economy while sipping on a cold one.  Take it a step further by drinking draught beer instead of bottles since not all bars and restaurants recycle glass.  Cheers!

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Go Green on Saint Patrick’s Day

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Chart of the Day: Obamacare Enrollment Up Sharply on Federal Exchange

Mother Jones

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The latest HHS report on Obamacare is out, and by interpolating the data on page 3 we can figure out how many people who have successfully selected a health care plan via the federal website since it opened in October. Here are the approximate numbers for signups per week:

Not bad. There was a big jump at the end of November, and continued growth in the Thanksgiving/Black Friday week after that. That said, these numbers still need to grow substantially. At this point in the game, the enrollment rate needs to start pushing 200,000 per week or so on the federal exchange in order to meet the overall enrollment goals set for March of next year. There’s still lots of work ahead.

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Chart of the Day: Obamacare Enrollment Up Sharply on Federal Exchange

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The Weirdest Pearl Harbor Tribute You’ll See All Weekend

Mother Jones

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Saturday is the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the surprise strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy, which left more than 2,400 Americans dead and forced the United States to enter World War II.

This is how the SpaghettiOs Twitter feed marked the occasion:

@SpaghettiOs/Twitter

Weird, right? For what it’s worth, @SpaghettiOs celebrated Thanksgiving in a far more tasteful manner.

The Campbell Soup Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the backlash to this bizarre canned-spaghetti-product Pearl Harbor tweet.

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The Weirdest Pearl Harbor Tribute You’ll See All Weekend

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5 Tips to Survive the In-Laws and Grandparents This Holiday Season

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5 Tips to Survive the In-Laws and Grandparents This Holiday Season

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The Obama Administration’s Meaty Gift to Big Chicken

Mother Jones

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Remember the proposal that Obama’s US Department of Agriculture has been pushing since spring 2012, the one that would speed up kill lines in poultry slaughterhouses while simultaneously slashing the number of federal inspectors who oversee them? As I’ve reported before, the plan involves a unleashing a barrage of antimicrobial sprays onto chicken carcasses as they zip down the line.

Charts: Has the World Reached Peak Chicken

The Washington Post’s Kimberly Kindy has shown that these sprays, whose use is already on the upswing, harm workers and may even mask, not decrease, salmonella contamination. As for the traces of them that remain on supermarket chicken, “government agencies have not conducted independent research into the possible side effects on consumers of using the chemicals,” Kindy reports.

Back in April, as I reported at the time, USDA chief Tom Vilsack declared that the department would roll out the plan “very soon.” The USDA claims that it would save taxpayers $30 million per year by laying off inspectors, and save the poultry industry “at least” $256 million annually. The chicken industry—dominated by Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride (now mostly owned by JBS), Purdue, and Sanderson—strongly supports the proposal.

But it caused an uproar among food safety and labor advocates—who argued that the combination of more speed and fewer inspectors would lead to dangerous conditions for both consumers and line workers, sparking hopes the USDA might back away from it. A scathing Government Accountability Office assessment (my analysis here) bolstered those hopes.

But over the past week, the Administration has sent two signals indicating that it plans to move ahead with the rules. Just before Thanksgiving, the administration released its Fall 2013 Regulatory Agenda, including on the for the USDA, which states that in 2014, the department’s meat-inspection service “plans to finalize regulations to establish new systems for poultry slaughter inspection, which would improve food safety and save money for establishments and taxpayers.”

And then, on Wednesday, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service released its action plan to reduce salmonella contamination of the meat supply. What’s number one on its ten-point list? “Modernization of poultry slaughter inspection,” the USDA’s preferred phrase for its speedup plan. What does firing inspectors and jacking up line speeds have to do with fighting salmonella?

The timeline on exactly when the administration plans to move on the plan remains cloudy—but its determination to do so seems as strong as ever.

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The Obama Administration’s Meaty Gift to Big Chicken

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An Update on Risks of Abrupt Jolts from Global Warming

The chances of abrupt jolts from climate change are mostly low in this century, but a pretty sure bet down the line. Can humans deal with that? Link:  An Update on Risks of Abrupt Jolts from Global Warming ; ;Related ArticlesReality Checks on Tumorous Rats and Methane BombsWhat if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday?Giving Musical Thanks on Thanksgiving ;

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An Update on Risks of Abrupt Jolts from Global Warming

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Urban Schools Aim for Environmental Revolution

Six big-city school systems are combining their purchasing power to persuade suppliers to sell healthier and more environment-friendly products, like compostable food trays, at low prices. Link:   Urban Schools Aim for Environmental Revolution ; ;Related ArticlesDot Earth Blog: Giving Musical Thanks on ThanksgivingNational Briefing | Health: Retirement Secured for ChimpanzeesOff the Shelf: ‘Climate Casino’: An Overview of Global Warming ;

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Urban Schools Aim for Environmental Revolution

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Dot Earth Blog: What if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday?

What if the trees had a holiday for a change? Read More –  Dot Earth Blog: What if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday? ; ;Related ArticlesDot Earth Blog: Giving Musical Thanks on ThanksgivingOff the Shelf: ‘Climate Casino’: An Overview of Global WarmingThe Troubles of Building Where Faults Collide ;

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Dot Earth Blog: What if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday?

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What if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday?

What if the trees had a holiday for a change? Read this article:   What if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday? ; ;Related ArticlesGiving Musical Thanks on ThanksgivingA Fresh Look at America’s Gas LandsWhy Climate Change Skeptics and Evolution Deniers Joined Forces ;

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What if Christmas Trees Had a Holiday?

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Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

Shutterstock

Residents of a rural northern Texas area were awoken early on Thanksgiving by not one but two earthquakes. Such quakes have become alarmingly normal during the past month, and fracking practices could be to blame.

From CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:

North Texas has been feeling a string of earthquakes — more than a dozen — over the past few weeks. Most have been centered around Azle, with the most recent [previous] one being on Tuesday morning. All of those quakes have registered between 2.0 and 3.6 in magnitude. Those who live in the small town have grown concerned.

Azle leaders have called on state officials to have geologists investigate the cause of these quakes. “The citizens are concerned,” said Azle Assistant City Manager Lawrence Bryant at a city council meeting. “They should be.”

“If it’s a man-made cause, it would be nice to know,” Bryant added.

By “man-made,” Bryant means fracking-industry-made. Frackers pump their polluted wastewater deep into the ground, a practice well known as a cause of temblors. A wastewater injection well was shut down near Youngstown, Ohio, in late 2011 after it triggered more than 100 earthquakes of growing intensity in just a year.

University of Texas earthquake researcher Cliff Frolich says the recent Texas flurry could be the result of wastewater injection. From KHOU:

“I’d say it certainly looks very possible that the earthquakes are related to injection wells,” [Frolich] said in an interview from Austin.

Frolich notes, however, that thousands of such wells have operated in Texas for decades, with no quakes anywhere near them. He adds that there are probably a thousand unknown faults beneath Texas.

Azle mayor Alan Brundrett says it’s important to determine whether this latest series of quakes are man-made.

“What could it cause, down the road?” he asked. “What if a 5.0 happens and people’s houses start falling in on them?”

Brundrett has installed an earthquake alert app on his smartphone. It shows a dozen minor quakes near his town since November 5.

The growing problem of earthquakes in America is not just limited to Ohio and Texas. The following U.S. Geological Survey graph shows how the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of at least three has spiked as fracking has become widespread. “USGS scientists have found that at some locations the increase in seismicity coincides with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells,” the agency notes.

USGS

Click to embiggen.


Source
2 More Earthquakes Rattle North Texas, CBS
Man-Made Earthquakes Update, USGS
Mayor of small North Texas town uneasy as earthquakes continue, KHOU

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

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