Easy Tips for a Better Environment project

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I tend to walk slowly while not looking at much in particular. So my eyes are often cast downward. Perhaps for this reason, I am skilled at spotting nails, small pieces of broken glass, etc. on the ground. It gives me great pleasure to pick these up and dispose of them properly.

Have you heard about carrotmob?

I hadn't either. It was mentioned on a science podcast I frequent and I decided to check it out. I would encourage you to check it out too! :)

Their welcome page is a quick read. Then, to see the carrotmob model in action, here is a video regarding their first campaign.


Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

I think this is a great way to encourage businesses and organizations to make environmentally responsible choices. I'm very interested to see how this evolves.

Cheers Avanoo!

You don't have to play golf on a manicured, water-sucking course in the desert. You can play disc golf, with the natural landscape as a course!

My friend has a disc golf course in Vermont: South Branch Disc Golf

Here is a write-up on it in a local paper.

And here's an excerpt in case you have never heard of the sport.

Disc golf is played much like traditional golf. Instead of a ball and clubs, players use a flying disc, or Frisbee®. The sport was formalized in the 1970s, and, like regular golf, the object is to complete each hole in the fewest number of strokes (or throws) possible. The sport is growing fast...

I do a fair amount of walking. Feeling the sun on my shoulders is sublime and hearing the breeze in the leaves is divine. It makes for a great break in the middle of the day and serves well to get the blood moving.

There are a number of small lonely roads in the area where I work that are darn good for walking. They also collect a lot of trash. And it seems they must host a lot of drinking parties.

Realizing I can't clean up all of the trash (where to start, where does it end), I decided to start picking up all of the aluminum cans I find on my daily excursions.

Some factoids I found here:

- Aluminum cans can stay in our environment up to 500 years.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt light bulb burning for almost 20 hours or power a television for three hours.
- 20 cans can be made from recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one new can.
- In this decade, Americans will throw away more than one million tons of aluminum cans and foil.
- Enough aluminum is thrown away every three months to rebuild every commercial airplane in America.

Today, in about an hour, I filled 2 plastic grocery bags with trashed cans. I will save and donate them to my grandparents (and then recycle the bags). They already recycle aluminum cans to supplement their modest fixed income. It isn't huge, but at $.65/pound I figure every grocery bag full should make a small difference in helping them make ends meet.

Exercise and reduced tailpipe emissions. Less trash in the environment. A little extra in the pocket of those who need it.

I love a good win win situation.

We grow a good portion of our own food.
We grow organically and practice low intensive efforts in our landscape gardening, native plants and grasses.
We cook almost all meals from scratch and we compost.
We have a small flock of chickens to help with the bad bugs.
And a duck to keep our pond in balance.
We rejuvenated our pond back from the brink to a bio-diverse environment again.
We reuse as many as possible plastic bags and recycle those store grocery bags back to the store as well as use canvas shopping bags.
We use cloth napkins and NO paper Plates!
We use a dish cloth and kitchen towels and rags. Rarely use paper towels, and when we do use paper products they are from recycled paper.
All natural cleaning products.....
and the effort goes on

We have a local radio personality that has been on the carbon diet. He reports his efforts and pitfalls, so we have a constant reminder to turn off the electronics from the power strip and such... The radio station calls it "the green team" http://wrsi.com/page.php?catego...

www.carbondiet.org/

I'm not sure if this qualifies as easy or a tip but I just learned of this and thought I would share it here. From Earth Hour's website:

"Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming."

Go to their website to learn how to participate in this global awareness-raising effort.

http://www.earthhour.org

When I met Dan, he talked a lot about taking action for causes that people care about, and especially about sustainable living, which is a cause that many Australians care a lot about. Here is a website that has a lot of good information about how sustainable living can be good for the environment and save you a lot of money: http://www.naturalstrategies.co...

Banks will store your records digitally anyway. They have to keep them safe practically forever. They spend billions to keep your records safer than you do. You don't need the paper statements.

For a long time, I haven't received canceled checks from my bank, so there's no point in a monthly piece of paper telling me redundant information. Today I finally got around to going paperless with my bank and also with AMEX.

1. Keep your house clean without the neon blue stuff. http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
2. Say no to synthetic air-fresheners.
http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
3. Remove garden weeds naturally. Personally, I spend many hours on my lawn with a pointy object.
http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
4. Water plants with rain from rain barrels. I wish I had these, my family wastes too much water for a green lawn.
http://www.care2.com/greenlivin...
http://www.ne-design.net/