Daily Granola

New community

2008-10-10T00:32:53Z

Hi folks,

Sorry if you get this message more than once, I'm cross-posting to a few communities. I am looking for members for a new community, csa_chat, for talking about Community Supported Agriculture.

If you are a member of a CSA, or are interested in what happens when you are a member, please join the community! I hope to discuss regional foods, recipes, and to have a forum where people can answer questions about what the heck to do with that big bunch of mustard greens that came with this week's share.

clothing?

2008-09-21T23:14:46Z

Hey all!
Daily earth-friendly action you can take: help a friend make eco-friendly choices!
so.... if you want to help *me*... here's the puzzle.

95% of my closet was not purchased new. I make, re-make, buy secondhand, or elsewise accumulate cool stuff.
so the 5% that remains is socks and underwear. I don't want to spend tons on them, I don't care how high the thread count is or where the cotton came from, I just want some good, solid, useable, organic stuff from a company that isn't powered by the sweat of small children. Where can I look?

leave a comment -- recommend a website -- give me sewing patterns -- whatever you can do! Thanks!
Talitha

connect2earth

2008-08-06T08:35:59Z

Not sure if anyone has seen this site yet - but it's a joint project with WWF, the IUCN and Nokia callled connect2earth.

You can upload content expressing your ideas on how to improve our world - each month the winner gets a phone and then the super winner gets to share their ideas at the World Conservation Congress in October.

Just thought I'd post it in case you want to sign up and upload some ideas . . .

Sustainable goals for housing complex?

2008-07-11T22:07:03Z

Inspired by the last post, I thought I might be able to get some more ideas from you all.

I live in a 400-some apartment housing co-op, with 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units. We have a sustainability committee and have been trying to come up with doable ideas for projects.

Things we have managed to get accomplished this year:
- when apartments are cleaned out (after someone moves), low-flow shower heads are being installed
- recycling bins have been painted green and have a list of items allowed in them
- compost bins have been implemented
- monthly news item in e-newsletter
- increased awareness of proper hazardous and electronic waste disposal (still needs work though)

Things we are thinking about:
- more trees planted in order to have more shade to protect the grass from drying out so quickly
- better garden care (plots aren't allowed to rest after a year)
- rain barrels for garden use
- biking seminar to teach people about bike maintenance and pathway system

We have been encouraged by management working with us on our previous projects that we want to dream. Any ideas??

a little more green

2008-07-11T03:17:37Z

Each year for the last three years, I have tried to take on one new green habit. I am getting increasingly frustrated with the warming of the climate and have tried to do things that decrease my impact overall.

Three years ago, I switched to compact florescent bulbs for household use. My house already uses standard florescent for bulbs for the bedroom. Now, I replace all bulbs with compact florescent.

Two years ago, I decided to get off catalog lists. This was not very effective until I found CatalogChoice.org but the website works very well. If you order a lot of stuff on-line, like me, you probably get a lot of paper catalogs. I still get a few, but no where near as many as I used to.

This year, I took on the plastic bag problem. I collected all my tote bags, and got a few for free or very cheap at garage sales. They don't match and they aren't pretty (except the Target ones I got at a fundraiser) but I don't get plastic bags anymore. And being all different sizes, I can really be efficient about packing them. It only took me a couple of shopping trips to remember to take them with me every time. Now I am working on remembering to take them with me when shopping with the boyfriend in his car.

As happy as I am with the changes I have made, believe me, this does not strike me as doing nearly enough. I try to remind myself of the other things about my life that are low impact on the environment. The biggest one is, I never had kids, that is a huge savings of household consumption and waste. My job does require me to drive locally, but never to fly. I don't drink bottled water. I subscribe to a local organic farm all summer, so my fresh produce from June to October is organic and not shipped from overseas. Plus I freeze the excess, so I have frozen produce in the winter as well. I recycle everything that my village takes. My boyfriend and I are very creative about second hand shopping for home improvement and decor items, so that I rarely buy anything new for the house. We either reuse something I already have, or find what we want at house and garage sales. The boyfriend is also a volunteer at a second hand store, so he gets lots of great bargains there.

Lately, I have been experimenting with tips from the hypermilers. I have taken to coasting with my foot off the gas when possible, especially coming up to a stop or red light. Just making this one little change has definitely stretched how long a tank of gas lasts. I am working on gas mileage numbers to track this, but so far, I am pleased with the results. With my regular driving habits (too fast) I was using a tank every seven to eight days. My last full tank lasted 12 days of regular use (work, shopping). I realized with this experiment that I am also very efficient in my shopping habits. My regular stops are mostly right on the way to and from work, so I rarely drive specifically to shop. My boyfriend does our grocery shopping when he does his elderly father's, so he saves a trip there, too. He still gets plastic bags, but I need some for cat litter and for kitchen garbage, so I let that go.

So what changes have you made to make your life a little more green? I am prepared to feel totally inadequate at your great ideas..... ;-)

Resturants and composting

2008-06-30T23:51:33Z

I was curious what do restaurants do with leftover food scraps? Are restaurants in the habit of composting?

Backyard and frontyard CSA

2008-06-28T14:30:35Z

I thought this would be interesting to the community:

Boulder, Colorado's community farming project is the brain child of founder Kipp Nash, who has devoted his attention to the ways in which we can connect our communities to bring traditionally rural ways of living into an urban context. Kipp utilizes the available land in urban settings (particularly front yards) to produce organically-grown produce, which is then sold at the Boulder Farmer's Market or via a CSA membership program (or given to those who have donated their land).

http://www.communityrootsboulder.com/

sweatshop free stores/brands?

2008-06-24T20:12:12Z

I'm wondering if there is a list available (I did a search with no luck) of stores or brands that ares sweatshop free?

I'm not looking for anything in particular just some kind of idea to what is available out there.

thank you in advance.

Mothballs: a question

2008-06-03T17:10:52Z

How do you get the smell of mothballs out of something plastic?
Thanks.

Health effects

Exposure to large amounts of naphthalene may damage or destroy red blood cells. Humans, particularly children, have developed this condition, known as hemolytic anemia, after ingesting mothballs or deodorant blocks containing naphthalene. Symptoms include fatigue, lack of appetite, restlessness, and pale skin. Exposure to large amounts of naphthalene may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the urine, and jaundice (yellow coloration of the skin).

When the U.S. National Toxicology Program exposed male and female rats and mice to naphthalene vapors on weekdays for two years,[4] male and female rats exhibited: evidence of carcinogenic activity, based on increased incidences of adenoma and neuroblastoma of the nose, female mice exhibited some evidence of carcinogenic activity, based on increased incidences of alveolar and bronchiolar adenomas of the lung, and male mice exhibited no evidence of carcinogenic activity.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)[5] classifies naphthalene as possibly carcinogenic to humans [Group 2B]. The IARC also points out that acute exposure causes cataracts in humans, rats, rabbits, and mice, and that hemolytic anemia, described above, can occur in children and infants after oral or inhalation exposure or after maternal exposure during pregnancy.

Over 400 million people have an inherited condition called glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Exposure to naphthalene is more harmful for these people and may cause hemolytic anemia at lower doses.

watch free now!

2008-05-08T01:02:41Z

Tv Show: 30 Days
Episode: Off the Grid
Time: 44:21

Two 30-year-old professionals go "back to the future" and learn to live without the natural resources that will be depleted from our earth in the not-too-distant future.

click here to watch on hulu.com

and here is the place featured on the show: http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

Solar Projects for Under $1000

2008-04-29T21:25:24Z

http://www.sierraclub.org/wecandoit/home/solar.asp

Some utilities offer incentives and rebates for installing solar panels on your home. Contact your local utility to find out if they offer such incentives. (Here's an example of an incentive program in California.) Lastly, the government will pay you back 30 percent of the cost of your solar installations, up to a maximum of $2000.

Here are a few examples of what you can do for about $1000 or less:

- Complete solar hot water heater kit: $825. Minus a 30% tax credit = $577. U.S. Department of Energy's complete guide to solar hot water heaters.

- Outdoor solar lighting for decks, walkways, gardens, porches, and garages: $75 per lamp. These are probably the easiest and cheapest solar additions to your home.

- Complete solar cabin kits to power an outdoor shed, or remote cabin: Starts at $975 for 80 watt output, $1610 for 165 watt output. After government tax breaks, that's $683 and $1127 respectively.

- Even a solar iPod charger! Works with other MP3 players and PDAs also. Only $44.

Changing businesses by... shopping there! in mass!

2008-04-23T21:20:23Z

Carrotmob leveraged the power of several hundred San Francisco consumers to get a local liquor store to make environmentally friendly choices. How did they do it? Organizer Brent Schulkin went to all the liquor stores and asked if he got a ton of people down there to buy on one day, how great of a percentage of their spending would the store be willing to dedicate to making environmentally friendly improvments? The store with the greatest percentage won and the Carrotmob got several hundred people to show up on one day. The line stretched around the block and bouncers had to be used to regulate the inflow. The consumers spent about five times what the store pulls in on a normal day, generating enough money for the store to redo its lighting system and its refrigeration gaskets. "We can harness the buying power of the casual consumer, get businesses to make environmental choices, and we can do it with the carrot," says Brent in the event video after the jump. Pretty freakin' awesome, a total win-win, imagine what could this look like if it were scaled out on a national level...

copied from consumerist.com

apartment composting?

2008-04-22T19:26:54Z

My roommate and I produce a fair amount of produce scraps, and I'd love to have a compost bin. We do have a little bit of space outside in the shade where I could put a small container, but it would have to be closer to 5 gal bucket than garbage can size, and not smell or attract too many bugs because people would be walking right by it on a regular basis. Has anyone tried this on a small scale? How practical is it? Any suggestions for containers? I'm in California so we have a mild climate and I'm sure I could find someone to occasionally take the completed compost for use in a garden.

Stating The Obvious

2008-04-15T10:10:33Z

We stumbled across the term “bokashi” and wondered what it was. Turns out that there are loads of websites about it. It’s a Japanese composting method used in cities for 20-odd years. You put all your food and paper/cardboard scraps into a small bin (this one’s 18 litres, but you can get them much smaller) with a tap on the bottom for draining off liquid to feed your plants with. So far, so ordinary. But you can put anything in - meat, dairy, cooked foods - which makes it rather different than ordinary composting. The secret is the bokashi bran, a mixture of bran, sawdust, and microbes (yeast and fungi) that cause the material to ferment. The resulting mixture can be used by digging it into soil (including potted plants) or adding it to the compost heap. The bokashi mixture doesn’t look particularly decomposed, but once it’s in soil or compost, it rots very quickly indeed; when you add it to your compost, it raises the temperature of the heap, forcing all the compost to rot down far more rapidly than normal. For an initial outlay of about £30 (£25 for two bins + £5 for 3 month’s supply of bokashi bran), or for the much cheaper price of a beer fermenting bucket or a bucket with a tight lid, drilling a hole, and adding a tap to it, it looks like a good long-term investment, allowing us to compost even cooked scraps. For those who eat animal products, it’s even more valuable, allowing you to compost them instead of chucking them into landfill. There are YouTube videos explaining how bokashi works, which are pretty interesting. We may well treat ourselves, and by extension, the rest of the world.

Watch Video Animations of U.S. Carbon Dioxide Pollution

2008-04-08T18:31:30Z

Just where is all that global warming pollution coming from?

The Northeast pumps out an awful lot of carbon dioxide, but the Southeast, Midwest and Southern California are also responsible for voluminous pollution that billows out each day.

The precise sources of carbon dioxide have now been mapped, with 100-times more detail than was previously available, by Vulcan project researchers at Purdue University.

see video and more info

how green is your PC?

2008-04-01T20:57:13Z

quiz: http://www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/PC/

some interesting facts:

- The average laptop consumes five times less energy than a desktop PC. So, if you're going to own only one computer, seriously consider a laptop instead of desktop model. If a laptop won't work for you, think about whether you really need the biggest desktop you can afford or whether you might be able to get by with what's known as a "small form-factor" PC. These smaller machines are designed to take up less space on your desktop, but they have the advantage of drawing less power, too.

- Although each generation of microprocessors is speedier than the previous one, smart engineering means that they often also use less energy at the same time. For example, Intel's Core 2 Duo desktop processor is up to 40 percent faster and more than 40 percent more energy-efficient than its single-core predecessor.

-More than 80 percent of the lifetime energy consumption of a PC occurs before you buy it.

source

Earth Hour

2008-03-29T07:19:31Z

Thought I'd update quickly to remind folks that tonight is Earth Hour.

So if you can, lights out from 8pm - 9pm from wherever you are.

If you live in Ottawa Ontario Canada, Bridgehead Coffee is having coffee by candlelight with acoustic musicians and other fun stuff.

The one on Dalhousie is also celebrating its birthday so I do believe party hats will also be present.

So yah, turn out your lights from 8pm - 9pm around the world!

Earth Hour

2008-03-29T02:13:05Z

Have you heard of it? For the second year, this Saturday (March 29th) between 8 and 9 pm the World Wildlife Foundation is asking people to voluntarily turn off all non-essential lights for the hour. Check out the website: www.earthhour.org This has become a world-wide event! Closer to home here, Chicago (one of the flagship cities for the U.S.) will have signature skyscrapers and shops on Michigan Ave. black for the hour. What a great way to send a message about how we can slow climate change.
Hope you'll check it out.

Ripped Jeans

2008-03-04T15:30:21Z

Hey everyone! I looked in the memories for some info on this, and I couldn't find anything (although I very well could have been looking in the wrong place...), so I'm hoping someone can lend an idea. I have some old ripped jeans that I'd love to hold on to, but they are truly past their prime. They're really not fit for clothing donation, so I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of some sort of denim recycling program. I know I've heard of it, but I'm not sure where to find it...I'm in the North East (Maine, actually), if that matters at all...

Thanks in advance to anyone who can give me a pointer.

A simple way to reduce air conditioning

2008-03-04T05:51:03Z

Rachel Maddow Fan Community

2008-02-17T22:51:31Z

Note: Rachel Maddow is a political journalist who reports from a liberal perspective.

shelf-stable packaging

2008-01-25T14:17:06Z

pros: no refrigeration and no preservatives
cons: doesn't recycle

I'm looking for information, thoughts, opinions...

I try not to buy refrigerated food because I feel guilty about all the fossil fuels and pollution involved in keeping it on those refrigerated trucks, and then all the stuff that spoils.

And another question: Is there a way to recycle the small scraps of cotton fabric created by my sewing machine? I've been sewing a lot and they're adding up.

TIA!

Let people know what you think

2008-01-12T16:25:18Z

Lately I've started putting signatures on my emails with environmental messages. This is a good non-confrontational way to remind people of the actions they can take. Lots of people want to so the right thing but they don't know what to do or they need 20 reminders before finally getting around to it. Below are a couple I've used recently.

"I will vote for a government that takes REAL ACTION on climate change NOW. No more vague 'aspirational goals' or 'intensity targets' far in the future when it is too late."

"Don't be a dim bulb, switch to compact fluorescent lightbulbs to reduce energy consumption."

love thine neighbor

2007-12-28T01:56:56Z

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Pooling your resources with your neighbors for purchases like camping equipment and lawnmowers helps save those other, natural kind of resources. (Where's the glory in owning your own snowblower anyway?)

The Benefits

* Neighborly love. Adopting this tip might keep them from totally losing it when they find out you're mooching their wireless.

* Saving resources. Calculus not required: Producing one lawnmower instead of two requires half the energy and materials.

* Saving cash. By going in on purchases with the Biters next door, you can shave 50% off the high price of that new solar tent you'll use only two weeks a year.

* Better equipment. Pooling resources means you can sport a swankier snowblower.

* Never learned to share as a kid? Now's your chance.

Check out :
Neighborrow - online directory that helps you and others in your 'hood borrow and lend stuff.