Want to harvest some solar energy without having to apply for government subsidies or understanding what it means to make your electric meter run backward? Try hanging your laundry.
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Tips to Adopt a Zero Waste Lifestyle
Zero-waste living is when you strive to reduce your trash output by choosing reusable over disposable products, composting organic waste, and recycling materials.
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What You Should Know About Microfiber Pollution
Scientists estimate that over 8 million plastic tons enter our oceans yearly. Many studies suggest that washing clothes is one major source.
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Thinking Upstream
“Hey, what’s that in the river?! It looks like…. It can’t be…Yes… yes, it’s a BABY! Oh my gosh, here comes another one! What on earth is happening?!? Where are those babies coming from?!” The people on the river banks jump in to rescue the babies floating downstream. They are able to reach them and save the babies from drowning. Then the next day, there are four babies struggling in the river! More folks jump in and save those babies. This process continues each consecutive day until finally, one of the people on the riverbank turns and runs upstream. “Where are you going?” shout the others. “I’m going to see…
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Enough
“Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire.”Chinese proverb. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day today, and I was out for my walk, reveling in the colors of the leaves and the crispness of the air, this being my favorite season. As I passed the neighborhood elementary school, I noticed that some classes were sitting outside, having lunch under a shelter. The kids were sitting on mats, all spread out per COVID guidelines, and appeared to be enjoying themselves. Observing this made me think once again about how adaptable and flexible we need to be to cope with the multitude of challenges, large and…
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Sustainability + Fashion = Slow Fashion
Image – Ireland’s Avoca Handweavers has been making fashionable clothing items with the care and attention to detail nowadays associated with “slow fashion” since 1723. In the U.S., millions of shoppers pack clothing stores, excited to key into the newest trends while paying low prices. On the other side of the world, low-wage workers— many of them young girls— are crushed under the hammer of “fast fashion” (the mass production of cheap, poor quality, disposable clothing), laboring without safety protections or adequate rights. Fast fashion’s impacts on both the environment and human rights are evident, and slow fashion may just be the only solution to a greener future. First off,…
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Creative Ways to Cut Your Holiday Waste
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, American household waste increases by more than 25 percent. Trash cans full of holiday food waste, shopping bags, bows and ribbons, packaging, and wrapping paper contribute an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. As we celebrate the holidays, it pays to be mindful of sustainable consumption and materials management practices. They may help you focus even more on caring and celebration during this holiday season, and could even reduce the strain on our fiscal budgets and the natural environment. Giving • Less is more. Choose items of value, purpose, and meaning – not destined for a yard sale. • Give treasure. Pass on…
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The Green Burial
Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with the minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat. The standard conventional funeral, complete with embalming and burial in a lawn cemetery, is fraught with health hazards. In addition, it requires the permanent installation of non-biodegradable vaults around non-biodegradable caskets. Embalmers have an eight times higher risk of contracting blood diseases such as leukemia, and three times higher risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), while groundskeepers are more than twice as likely to develop Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); both are…
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Light Pollution Affects Migratory Birds
When investigators in the UK recorded the calls of migratory thrushes at night, they found that call rates were up to five times higher over the brightest urban areas compared with darker villages. The findings, which are published in Ibis-International Journal of Avian Science, provide support to previous and ongoing research indicating that artificial light at night affects migratory birds. “We harnessed the respective strengths of citizen science, passive acoustic monitoring, and machine learning to gather evidence of the impact of artificial light at night on migratory birds,” said corresponding author Simon Gillings, Ph.D., of The British Trust for Ornithology. “Finding that even modest urban areas without high-rise buildings can influence migration…
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Fix it Forward
When we first moved into our home 40 years ago, the front door lock didn’t work quite right. One day I decided to fix it. Ha! I learned that it just wasn’t that simple. In order to fix it, I needed to understand how it worked. If you want to fix something, it is wise to take the time to find out how it works, how all the pieces fit together. It has become evident that many, many things are out of balance and fundamentally needs fixing: the economy, health care, the food system, partisan politics, climate change and environment, social and racial inequities, and education. This long list can…
