Puddle Jumping in DC

Green Your Cycle in 2012 with Reusable Feminine Hygiene Products

For this month's Green Moms Carnival, "Resolutions to Fight Climate Change" hosted by Strocel.com, I'm getting personal, really personal. 

But let's start with the big picture:

• E-Magazine reports that, in 1998, 6.5 billion tampons were thrown in the garbage or flushed into our already overburdened sewer systems and 13 billion disposable menstrual pads were thrown away. 
• The Center for Marine Conservation reported that more than 170,000 plastic tampon applicators polluting our oceans were collected during beach cleanups in 1998 and 1999. 
• Most disposable menstrual products are virgin paper products and deforestation in the tropics accounts for nearly 20 percent of human-generated, climate-changing carbon emissions.

Add the global warming and trash concerns to worries about dioxin, a cancer-causing bi-product of bleaching paper and cotton, and many women are choosing reusable menstrual cups instead of disposable tampons (brands and resources outlined below the jump).

While feminine hygiene products may not be the biggest environmental threat or the most effective way to personally address global climate change, if you've already tackled things like your home energy efficiency, shifted to renewable energy, and reduced the carbon footprint of your personal transportation, then you might shift your attention to some of the other ways you can make a difference. Shifting away from disposable feminine hygiene products is an easy lifestyle change to that still makes a difference.

Feminine Care Products Are A Big Industry
We've all seen the ridiculous commercials of women wearing clingy white outfits and dancing on the beach because of the freedom delivered by whatever disposable product they've chosen. In fact, several brands of hygiene product go right to the root word for freedom in naming their products: Libra and Libresse are brands of tampons.

There's money in menstrual products, a lot of it. One market analysis predicts that the industry will gross $14.5 billion dollars a year by 2015. (That's a lot of freedom!) But that same analysis warns that "Reduced acceptance of throwaway convenience and increased emphasis on resource optimization, environmental benefits . . ." are among the challenges facing the industry.

Among the other challenges for the industry, an aging market share as baby boomer no longer need them. Kotex, a brand I definitely grew up thinking was for old people, is trying to capture the teens and tween audience by mocking the marketing  previously used by Kotex and other brands.

Their "Get Real" campaign offers tampons and pads in bright colors and encourages girls to "take a stand against bland" by ordering custom designs on their pads. No, seriously.

Are Reusable Menstrual Products Going Too Far?

The decision between cloth and disposable diapers, something a baby will wear for about 3 years, gets a lot of press and is an expected eco-decision facing a new parent. Yet the decision between reusable and disposable menstrual products, something a woman will use nearly three months a year for most of their lives, is not even one many women consciously made.

I'm not really that nostalgic for the technology of my grandmother's era, it wasn't that long ago that reusable products were the norm. Today though, shifting from disposable tampons and maxis to a menstrual cup or reusable pads requires you to reject the notion that manufacturers are trying to sell you that your entire life can be neat, tidy, convenient, and, if you want, sweet smelling.

But if you're found this Green Moms Carnival blog because you are a mom, you've already been disabused of that notion and know that life is messy. By the time you've lived through the exploding diapers phase of infancy and survived potty training and the recurring stomach viruses of the preschool years, your entire perception of what's messy and gross may have shifted.

Where Is Your Old Cell Phone? U.S. E-Waste Across the Globe

Originally published on Care2.

Were you one of the millions of Americans to get an upgrade to one of your electronic devices this holiday season?

You know you are not alone, of course. According to the Electronics Take Back Coalition, consumers in the United States will replace approximately 400 million consumer gadgets this year.

Tiny Fraction of Obsolete Electronics Are Recycled
Do you have any idea what happens to all the old cell phones, laptops, vcr players and other obsolete electronics we discard every year? Approximately 14 percent of those devices will be “recycled,” but e-waste recycling in the United States usually means exporting electronics to developing countries and what actually happens to the materials and the workers at recycling facilities is poorly regulated and sometimes completely unknown.

Some electronics will be broken down to recover valuable metals from its components and some will get a second life in the importing country’s consumer market. David Biello of Scientific American discovered this when he covered the climate talks in South Africa this fall. The cell phone he rented during his visit was clearly used, still bearing a photo of a woman of European descent and the contact information of the previous user’s friends.

Earlier this year, a team of MIT researchers set out to find out what happens to all our old electronics by turning them into little investigative reporters that send data and images back to the team from all over the world. They outfitted the devices with GPS units and programed them to send coordinates and video images back every 15 minutes. The video below provides a snapshot of the data collected so far.

  

Poorly Regulated E-Waste Recycling Is Really Toxin Exporting
While only the working electronics sent back video images, the team also tracked broken and useless e-waste destined for resource recovery. According to Backtalk:

“One reason why obsolete electronics are transported over large distances is the sparse geographical distribution of dedicated recycling facilities. For example, only thirteen facilities in the world are certified to smelt and recycle the cathode ray tubes of old television sets – and all are in Asia. For these components, environmentally sound recycling is critical, since the glass of these TVs and monitors can contain up to 20% lead by weight.”

E-waste recycling internationally is a crude and dangerous industry. Workers often break apart electronics with hammers or even by heating components to melt out valuable material, releasing toxins with little regard to their own health or the environment. And it’s not just the recycling workers whose health is harmed.

“A study published last year in Environmental Health Perspectives found that children in Guiyu [a town in China were e-waste is recycled] had lead levels 50 percent higher than those in surrounding villages and 50 percent higher than safety limits set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lead is known to cause brain damage.” (Scientific American)

Take Action: Stop global toxic dumping! Make it illegal to send toxic e-waste to developing nations.

What You Can Do to Stop Toxic E-Waste Exporting

1) Definitely recycle your old electronics, but choose a responsible recycler. Approximately 85 percent of e-waste ends up in U.S. landfills where toxins leach into the local environment and valuable minerals are lost. e-Stewards certified recyclers are committed to responsible recycling that doesn’t export toxins to developing countries.

See the Electronics Take Back Coalition’s guide to e-recycling for more suggestions. (And yes, delete your data first.)

2) Support electronics take-back programs and laws to require manufactures to implement them. The consumer electronics industry is extremely profitable, in part by hoisting the cost of disposal of their products onto the general public. In response to popular demand, companies like Apple and HP will take back your old electronics, sometimes for discounts on new purchases.

3) Support federal and state legislation to prevent e-waste exporting. Several states have passed laws to regulate the disposal of e-waste and bills have been introduced in both chambers of the U.S. Congress. Find out about state legislation and support the bi-partisan Responsible Electronics Recycling Act of 2011 (H.R.2284 and S.1270).

 

Photo credit: Old phones by flickr user CannedTuna, used by Creative Commons license.

Gas in the water, toxins in the baby shampoo, coal ash in Lake Michigan!

Found myself writing about chemicals out of place. Recently on Care2:

My Water’s On Fire Tonight [Video]

Recent reports reveal that hydraulic fracturing, a form of natural gas drilling that involves injecting toxin-laden water deep underground, may have been responsible for earthquakes in England and Oklahoma and the Environmental Protection agency announced that it will investigate the drilling method’s impact on drinking water. . . Read more.

Toxic Chemicals in U.S. Baby Shampoo, Why?

It’s pretty clear that formaldehyde, used to embalm corpses, is not a health elixir. What’s less clear is why Johnson & Johnson thinks it’s a good idea to put this carcinogen in baby shampoo. . . Read more.

Powerplant Mudslide Dumps Coal Ash into Lake Michigan

Just weeks after the U.S. Senate voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate the disposal of coal ash, what’s left after coal is burned in a power plant, a mudslide on the banks of Lake Michigan sends tons of the stuff into a drinking water source for 10 million people. . . Read more.

The one where I discuss football, sort of

Well, it does take a major solar array on a stadium to get me to blog about football, but that's what the Redskins recently installed here in the DC metro area. So I wrote not one, but two articles about it:

Washington DC’s Football Team Goes Solar – VIDEO

... starting this fall, Washington Redskins' FedEx Field will draw 20% of game day power from their newly installed parking lot solar array. On off days, solar will provide 100% of the stadium's power.

read more on Care2

And then I discuss possible motives on the part of Redskins owner Dan Snyder:

Redskins Go Solar at FedEx Field with NFL's Largest Installation

Love him or hate him, you know Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder makes shrewd business decisions. That's among the reasons the new solar panels at FedEx Field are turning heads. Snyder entered a contract this summer with...

read more on Examiner.com

Now back to our regularly scheduled programing . . .

Easy Homemade (Refridgerator) Kefir

When I embarked on making Kefir at home, I expected it to be an extension of our long-established habit of making our own yogurt. However, incorporating this fermented food into my diet took a little trial and error. In honor of Farmer's Daughter's Green Moms Carnival this month on preserving food, I'll describe lessons I learned making kefir, so that you might find your ideal routine more quickly than I did.

While kefir and yogurt both ferment milk, the process and our resulting routine are very different:

• Unlike yogurt, making kefir with live cultures does not involve heating and cooling the milk.
• Kefir ferments at room temperature (or lower, as I discovered) and does not require being kept warm over night.
• Kefir continues to culture until it is consumed, even if the grains are removed, so must be eaten quickly. (The same is true of yogurt, but the process is much slower.)

There are many websites with instructions for making kefir, and some of them make the process seem very complicated and involved. It doesn't have to be. My kefir routine involves just a tiny bit of planning and adds only a few minutes to my smoothie routine every couple of days.

Standard Homemade Kefir Instructions

1. Put your grains into a clean glass jar.
2. Add milk.
3. Cover jar with a clean towel, not a lid (it carbonates), and store at room temperature.
4. 24 hours later, or when the kefir reaches the desired sourness, strain kefir grains.
5. Drink kefir.
6. Go back to step 1.

That system didn't work for me in the warm climate of Washington, DC, mostly because I found I was making a quart of kefir every 12 hours. Even when I reduced the amount of grains in the jar, I simply couldn't keep up. I had to figure out a way to slow production, and since I had been storing extra grains in the refrigerator, where they still fermented the milk in which they were stored, I decided to try putting the whole process in there.

Catfish, Global Warming, and Barbie vs. the Rainforest - Recently on Care2

Virginia Anglers Catch 143-pound Monster Catfish

News outlets are calling the 143-pound blue catfish hooked by sport fishermen in Virginia a monster of our own making. The fish caught by Richard Nicholas “Nick” Anderson and his father and brother in John H. Kerr Reservoir, known locally as Buggs Island Lake, broke the state record just set in March by a 109 pound catfish, and may break the world record for largest fish caught. Biologists for the most part are not cheering the opportunity for more fisherman to catch a “big one” in Virginia waters. (more)

All Eyes to EPA on Global Warming

The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants under the Clean Air Act last month when it denied a petition by several states to force power plants to reduce pollution. (more)

Showdown in New Jersey Over Climate Pollution Pact

In response to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s announcement that he would pull out of a multi-state agreement, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, to reduce global warming pollution from power plants, the state legislature has passed three separate bills to prevent RGGI withdrawal. While no one expects Governor Christie to sign the bills that reach his desk, environmentalists such as Jeff Tittel, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club, say the votes indicate that the legislature would support legislation blocking the regulatory changes Christie will need to pull out of the agreement. (more)

U.S. Regulators Help Nuclear Power Plants Meet Safety Standards…

A very cozy relationship exists between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and thenuclear power industry in the United States according to an Associated Press investigative report that found “proof that aging reactors have been allowed to run less safely to prolong operation.” ( more)

To Win Back Ken, Barbie Pledges to Stop Destroying Rainforests

After last week’s banner-dropping stunt at Mattel headquarters by Greenpeace, deforestation concerns began dominating the discussion over at Barbie’s Facebook page. It got so bad that Mattel temporarily shut down the page to comments. Greenpeace launched its social media campaign and PR stunt on Tuesday morning, calling on Mattel to stop purchasing paper pulp harvested from the last habitat of Indonesia’s orangutans and tigers; by late Wednesday, Mattel’s response was posted front and center on the company website. more

 

Tornados, Fish Farms, and Barbie vs Orangutans - Recently on Care2

Don't Make Connections Between Extreme Weather Events (VIDEO)

. . . because that might might lead you to conclude that global warming is already happening, warns Bill McKibben in a Washington Post oped.

In the wake of the devastating tornado's in Joplin, MO, and a record year for tornados, floods, and wildfires worldwide, author and environmentalist Bill McKibben makes the case that the extreme weather patterns predicted by climate science models look awfully like what we've been experiencing . . . (more)

June 12, 137 comments

NOAA OKs Factory Fish Farming for the Gulf of Mexico

That the U.S. government agency responsible for managing the nations fisheries falls within the agency responsible for international trade is painfully clear with Thursday's announcement that NOAA will finalize regulations for open ocean aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico. The press material accompanying the announcement leads with the Commerce Department objective of closing the seafood trade gap, not with the importance of managing a stressed natural resource, fisheries, or ensuring the health of an ecological and biological wonder, the world's oceans . . . (more)

Jun 10, 62 comments

Ken Dumps Barbie to Save the Rainforest, Protect Orangutans and Tigers

Would you ditch your girlfriend of 50 years if you discovered she was complicit in the deaths of endangered orangutans and tigers? That's the call Ken made when he discovered the boxes in which Barbie dolls are packaged contain mixed tropical hardwood from Indonesia's rainforests. At least that's back story to a campaign stunt by Greenpeace on Tuesday calling on Mattel to set corporate policy eliminating rainforest sourcing of paper for packaging . . . (more)

Jun 7, 70 comments

 

 

Make a Difference Monday: News in Sustainable Shopping and Hydrating

If you missed any of my recent Care2 posts, you can catch up here.  Follow me on twitter @studiojmm and I'll let you know when a new causes blog is posted.

Probable Cancer-causing Chemical Found in Drinking Water of 31 of 35 U.S. Cities Tested

Hexavalent chromium, the chemical made famous by the 2000 movie Erin Brockovich, is in the news again because a U.S. environmental organization detected the probable carcinogen in 31 of the 35 cities where it tested the drinking water. Environmental Working Group found concentrations of chromium in public drinking water supplies that ranged from 1/2 to 200 times what would be allowable by the state of California if a proposed chromium safety limit goes into effect . . . (more)

Is Your Holiday Shopping Exposing You to Dangerous BPA?

Every time you handle a store receipt that was printed on thermal paper using bisphenol-a (BPA), a little bit of this estrogen-mimicking chemical rubs off onto your fingers. When you put it in your wallet, it rubs off onto other receipts and onto your money. Some scientists theorize that exposure from powdery residue off store receipts may be a more important pathway of exposure than the much more high-profile presence of BPA in plastic drinking bottles . . . (more)

Misleading Eco-labels on Seafood Muddy the Waters on Sustainable Fishing

Looking to buy a filet of fish for your evening meal but forgot your wallet guide to sustainable seafood? Well, don't depend on the labels at the seafood counter or on the package to tell you if your dinner is environmentally-friendly or not, says Food & Water Watch in a new report on seafood labeling . . . (more)

Make a Difference Monday: Factory Farms and the 40th Anniversary of EPA

That's what I was blogging on at Care2 this past week.

Data Shows 20 Percent Growth in Factory Farming In Past 5 Years

A new interactive web tool from Food & Water Watch provides a dramatic illustration of the increasingly consolidated animal agriculture industry in the United States. The advocacy group mapped USDA livestock census data from 2002 and 2007, providing a new way for concerned consumers to explore the origin of meat and dairy foods in the United States. (more)

10 Ways EPA Has Improved Our Lives, An Anniversary Retrospective

To mark the 40th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Aspen Institute convened environmental thought leaders to develop a report on 10 ways EPA has strengthened America. (more)

 

The Holidays Without the Hoopla

photo © 2009 Simon 'Kelp' Keeping | more info (via: Wylio)

My husband and I don't give each other presents: not birthday presents, not anniversary presents, not Christmas presents. <Gasp!>

The appropriate cultural response: How do you show the other how much you love them without buying them gifts?

Um, wow. Did you hear what you just said? (Ok, i typed it, but whatever.)

Why We Don't Buy Gifts

My husband and I don't buy each other stuff. We do stuff for each other and with each other. And we do it all year long.

It's a pattern we sort of naturally fell into over a decade of marriage. With limited time and money, we found we'd much rather spend both on building or doing something the other wanted than shopping.

The conscious decision not to buy presents adds even more meaning to the everyday gifts we give each other –– preparing meals, looking after household tasks, listening to the others hopes and dreams, or covering childcare so the other can pursue an interest -- and to the occasional gifts like building something around the house. For example, the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that line nearly every free wall we've got are more than essential storage in a tiny urban row-house; the memories of afternoons we spent building them have been incorporated into the glue that holds our marriage together.

Make a Difference Monday: From Tigers to Triclosan

If you missed any of my Care2 posts from last week, you can catch up here.  Follow me on twitter @studiojmm and I'll let you know when a new causes blog is posted.

Hope for Tigers and Tree Frogs

When the International Council for Science listed observing and innovation among their top 5 challenges to sustainability, they may not have been thinking specifically about tigers and tree frogs. It's hopeful, however, that scientists this week announced innovative tracking and captive breeding breakthroughs for those two species respectively that offer hope for their survival. (67 comments)

Chesapeake Bay Polluted by 568 Million Chickens

According to a report by Environment America, the 568 million chickens raised on the Delmarva Peninsula — many of them owned by Perdue — generate an estimated 1.1 billion pounds of chicken litter every year. That manure in rainwater runoff was cited as a major contributor to the Chesapeake Bay's pollution problems in a report that explored how giant corporate factory-farms pollute waterways in the United States. (140 comments)

Natural Gas Fracking Threatens Drinking Water (Video)

This weekend 60 Minutes aired an investigative story about the dangers of a largely-unregulated method of extracting natural gas from shale miles below the Earth's surface – known as "fracking" – and the dangers it poses to drinking water, our health, and the environment. (36 comments)

Georgia-Pacific Commits to Protecting 11 Endangered Forests in the U.S. Southeast

Several environmental groups are cheering today over paper giant Georgia-Pacific's commitment not to purchase timber from environmentally sensitive areas and to discourage landowners from clearing hardwood forests to plant pine plantations. The commitment comes after a multi-year campaign by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Dogwood Alliance, and Rainforest Action Network. (47 comments)

Science Shows Antibacterial Chemicals are Dangerous to People and Environment

Triclosan and Triclocarbon are killers. That's their job. The antimicrobial chemicals are added to thousands of consumer products – from soap to toothpaste, public changing tables and even shoes – specifically to kill bacteria and viruses. Unfortunately, when the soap and other products wash down our drains, Triclosan and Triclocarbon end up in the aquatic environment and even on farms around the country where they keep doing their job, killing things. (140 comments)

Make a Difference Monday: Polar Bears and Indian Owls

That's what I was writing about this weekend at Care2.

Court Orders Obama to Reconsider Polar Bear's Endangered Status

A federal court ruled on Thursday that the Obama administration has until December 23 to explain why the polar bear should not be listed as an "endangered" species and should instead be protected under the less-stringent "threatened" status... (more)

Harry Potter Blamed for India's Illegal Owl Trade

Is the world's most famous boy-wizard responsible for a major wildlife trafficking crisis in India?  That's the story running in the news media this weekend after Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh commented on a new report... (more)

Should We Put a Price on Services Rendered by Nature?

Started a new conversation over at Care2 this week. Check it out.

Valuing Green in Greenbacks: Should We Put a Price on Services Rendered by Nature?

"According to the United Nations Environment Programme report "Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature," failing to value the Earth's natural services, such as bees pollinating the world's food supply or forests filtering clean drinking water, is a problem. Their solution: put a dollar figure on it. . . " (more)

Cleaning up Industrial Boilers and Preventing Oil Drilling in the Rainforest

For your Make-A-Difference Monday action pleasure: 

Tell EPA to Clean Up Polluting Commercial and Industrial Boilers, Deadline Monday

In the basements of office and apartment buildings, and in pulp and paper plants, chemical refineries, and other factories across the United States, tens of thousands of commercial and industrial boilers burn natural gas, wood, or coal to produce steam for heating or to pressurize machinery. In the process, they emit mercury, lead, cadmium, hydrogen chloride, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, dioxin and furans, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a regulation this spring to reduce those pollutants by 50 percent. You have until Monday, August 23 to weigh in.

Read more at Care2 . . .

Ecuador's Yasuni National Park Preserved from Oil Drilling in Historic UN Agreement

In a first-of-its kind agreement, Ecuador has pledged to not to develop the 850 million barrels of crude oil under Yasuni National Park for the next 10 years in return for $3.6 billion from the United Nations. The park is one of the most biodiverse expanses of rainforest in the world, a single hectare of which boasts more species of trees than in all of North America.

Read more, including a petition calling on Chevron to clean up decades old pollution in Ecuador, at Care2 . . .

Here Comes the Sun

Details once we get up on the roof to check it out ourselves.

And if you are a DC resident, there are still grants! But hurry, the fiscal year is almost over. Check out the Capitol Hill Energy Coop for information and/or call our installer, Solar Solution, LLC, for an estimate.

Video montage of the Beatles song for general inspiration: here.

Saving money through green means: Enjoy the ride

According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2.3 percent of commuter trips in Washington DC are by bicycle.  This whoops a truly pathetic national average of 0.55 percent, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

According to Bay Area Bikes bike to work calculator, I

• saved $8.28 by not driving and
  
• saved the earth 19.4 lbs of toxic emissions

over the course of my 20 mile round trip ride from the home to work and back.

Now, I wouldn't have driven if I hadn't biked because both my home and office are very Metro-accessible, but I definitely saved $5.70 in Metro fare.

One of the nice things about my new job is that it is very bike friendly with a secure bicycle room and a locker room with showers. I love that I get a good workout on the way to work and it's a very pretty commute, actually.

There are tons of resources full of ideas and tips on becoming a bike commuter: books, blogs, bulletin boards, and more blogs. Here are a few more tips:

Get your gear in working order. Riding a hand-me-down beater is fine (and smart if you park in unsecured places) but no it's good if the brake pads are worn, the chain is rusted, and the fit is going to leave you sore and uncomfortable.  A functional bike that fits you properly is key. 

Be comfortable.  Figure out a way to get as much stuff off your back as possible: buy bike racks, leave your shower gear at work, heck leave your dress shoes at work. If your shower solution is a gym near the office, see if they can rent you a locker. If you aren't commuting by bike every day, you could even leave spare clothes at work.

Dress for the weather. I've blogged many times about how I enjoy being out in the weather ... if I'm don't get cold and wet.  In the winter, that means a windproof layer over every bit of exposed skin and, if you are going to ride in the rain, a waterproof one as well.

Be visible. Light colored or reflective clothing is good. Lights are required. Lights are first and foremost about making you visible to others. If you are riding on trails or through dark neighborhoods, you will also want to be sure your headlight effectively lights up the pavement in front of you.

Plan ahead. Trying out your commute route on a weekend is an excellent idea.  If the weather turns ugly mid-day or you don't feel up to the return trip for any reason, know your backup plan. Is there a bus or subway route? Can you carpool with a co-worker? 

Enjoy the ride.  

This post is part of the November Green Moms Carnival on saving money through green means.

When the bubble has holes: kids and toxic chemicals

In the tube, originally uploaded by Studiojmm.

It's hard to protect kids from all the dangers out there in the world.  A few years ago, I remember a radio interview exchange from the mom who wrote the book Free Range Kids about how she was told, in the uproar about her letting her pre-teen take the subway alone, that a parent's most important job was to protect their child.  She thought, 'No, my most important job is to raise a caring, competent person and teaching them to face the world and it's dangers is going to be part of that.'

While we can work with kids to teach common-sense strategies for managing public transportation on their own, how do we deal with the toxic chemicals their little bodies come across every single day? 

The following blog post came out of a playground exchange the day I took the above photo:

Originally posted on Care2 in Environment & Wildlife as

Keeping Toxic Chemicals Out of Our Bodies

"Do your kids have allergies? . . . Oh, you're so lucky. So many kids have allergies these days. . . Their little souls agree to come here but their bodies can't take it. This world is so messed up."

That's pretty much how a recent playground conversation with a neighborhood grandmother went. We struck up a conversation after my toddler daughter began to imitate her granddaughter's cough (good time for a pre-flu season lesson about coughing into your sleeve). We ended up discussing the causes of the marked increase in childhood environmental and food allergies.

Waste not, want not: conserving resources across time in time to save the planet

"Wow, and I thought my life was complicated," lamented Mac as we followed Maya off to see the rabbit hutches at Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm one afternoon this past August. We had just sat through a little presentation by one of the farm staff on conserving resources in a late colonial kitchen. While the word recycle was not part of the lexicon, the colonial era farmer put today's environmentalist to shame; nothing was wasted. Whether making cutlery out of a ram's horn, a footstool from deer antlers, or kitchen lamps from the boiled down fat of a possum or other farm pest, the colonial farmer maximized every last bit of resources at her disposal.

SUV love - a symbol of our
ease and waste? by Studiojmm.

Comparatively, we live a life of ease and convenience. We also create a great deal more waste.

This month's Green Moms Carnival on conserving resources will be full of great ideas for reducing our waste stream and its drain on our pocketbooks. Hopefully, we'll also raise some questions and inspire some activism on systemic ways to reduce waste. We certainly could be wasting a lot less energy.

One of our biggest sources of pollution is energy. The New York Times this week covered the water polluting implications of our energy use — pollution from coal mines and coal plants threatens drinking water in hundreds of Appalachian towns. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, coal is responsible for nearly half of electricity generation in the United States. Because electricity demand is expected to grow, even if more renewable energy comes online in the next few years, so will more coal.

The elimination communication photo I didn't use on examiner.com

Earlier this evening I happened to notice the following keywords on Google trends, meaning that were among the top 100 searched terms on Google:

* elimination communication (#1)
* baby wearing
* attachment parenting
* elimination communication potty training

Sahara eliminating
Originally uploaded by sigkyrre.

Huh? This is not the stuff of mainstream web searching on the average day.

Processing ... processing ... Ok, what celebrity just made the news about this stuff?

Answer: Mayim Bialik, former child TV star a.k.a. Blossom, now doctor of neuroscience and mom. Bialik was just named celebrity spokes mom for the Holistic Moms Network and has done a couple recent interviews on attachment parenting with celebrity baby blog.

Anyway, since I know a bit about the #1 search term, I wrote a little article on my DC Green Living Examiner page. I did not, however, use the great image I found of Sahara eliminating because I'm pretty sure it would get me flagged for inappropriate content. I prefer it, however, to the shot of Maya that I did use (What were we doing that we have so few good potty photos?).

DC Green Living Examiner post:
Elimination communication can lead to fewer diapers in landfills

Friday, August 28th, 2009
Elimination communication is popping up all over the internet since Mayim Bialik was named celebrity spokes mom for the Holistic Moms Network. Also...

Keep Reading »

Green Moms Carnival assembles impressive eco-schools resource

My Green Moms Carnival: Back to School Edition post on energy and water saving school buildings in the area was one of thirty-one (31!) posts by moms on the interwebs about how to have a more environmentally friendly back to school season. 

Whether you want to negotiate with your daycare provider to use cloth diapers, work with your school board to put solar panels on the school roof, or find truly non-toxic school supplies, you will find resources in this month's Green Moms Carnival.

About the Green Moms Carnival - We are a group of green women bloggers, united by our desire to protect and preserve Mother Earth. Once a month or so, we share our thoughts on a common theme, so that together our environmental messages are heard by more people than we could possibly ever reach on our own. You can read more about us here and you can subscribe to all our blog posts automatically through Twitter at @GreenMoms.

Green Moms Carnival: Back to School Edition

Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population spends 6 hours of every day in a school building.  As the summer rapidly comes to a close, millions of students are preparing to go back to school.  Some of those students will attend schools with environmentally-friendly features that reduce energy costs to the school district, reduce the pollution and carbon footprint of the schools, and improve learning environments for the kids.

Greg Edmundson, the principle at Maryland’s first certified green school in Germantown, wrote that there is a “powerful culture and social climate that can be built in such a school. Human beings thrive on enthusiasm, motivation and a naturally stimulating physical space in which to work.”

In this video, Lily, a 5th grader at that school, Great Seneca Creek Elementary, talks about what it’s like to learn in a green school.

How to find a safe and effective sunscreen

Beach Boy by Flickr User chimothy27,
CC BY 2.0.

“We need more sunscreen,” calls my husband as I’m leaving for work the other morning.  “What should I buy?”

Oh, dear, thought this DC Green Living Examiner. I don’t have time to figure out which sunscreen brands are safe, effective, and don’t contain unnecessary ingredients in the two minutes I have left before I must be out the door.

... three out of five sun blocks don’t work or contain hazardous ingredients according to a recent study by the Environmental Working Group.

Read the rest of my latest Green Living 101 post at the Examiner.com.

Green living 101: How can I make the most of DC's farmers markets?

Market baby (Takoma MD, 2004)
by Jen Mueller

Excerpt: "Shopping at your local farmers market is quite simple. Just go sample the wonderful produce, baked goods, cheeses, and more available from farmers in the region.

If you want to make the most of your trip though, this guide will help.

Know where to go

The Washington DC metro area has dozens of great farmers markets to choose from.  If you’re not sure of your options, there are several good websites to get you started..." 

Read the rest on the my DC Green Living Examiner page.

News Round-up for 2009-05-19 aka Things Keeping Me Too Busy to Blog

• House Committee Begins Debate on Historic Energy Bill
  “Now is the time for bold and meaningful action on clean energy and global warming. We look forward to working with Congress to strengthen and pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act," says Federal Global Warming Program Director Emily Figdor.
  (tags: green news energy globalwarming pollution congress environment)
  
• GOP looks to expand renewables mix, stress economy during climate bill fight
  In case you are wondering, "expand renewables mix" means coal and nuclear. "'Bring a sleeping bag,' [Representative] Barton [R-TX] said yesterday after a relatively brief, three-hour session for opening statements."
  (tags: green politics globalwarming congress environment pollution)
• Cleaner Cars to Hit the Fast Lane, Obama and States Lead
  "President Obama is proving himself behind the wheel in the race to a clean energy economy. This historic action will reduce our nation’s dependence on oil, save consumers money at the pump, and cut global warming pollution. This is what leadership looks like,” said Environment America Federal Global Warming Program Director Emily Figdor.
  (tags: environment green cars global warming)
• Obama regulates tailpipe greenhouse gas | MNN - Mother Nature Network
  The Obama Administration announced May 19 tough new standards for carmakers to meet by 2016: 30 mpg for trucks and 39 mpg for cars. Why go after fuel economy when the target is climate emissions? There is virtually no other way to reduce tailpipe greenhouse gas.
  (tags: environment cars globalwarming)

"What? You took me seriously?"

"One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally." - Knight Ridder Newspapers

"Senior administration officials acknowledged Wednesday that even if the president's push for substitutes for gasoline and diesel were successful, the reliance on Persian Gulf oil by world markets - including the U.S. market - is unlikely to change.

Bush's main message, however, was about priming the budgets of federal laboratories and agencies to foster basic science research and strengthening math and science education." - Associated Press

Oh. Unfortunately, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere very seriously have increased by at least 30%, methane has doubled, and nitrous oxides have increaased by 15-20% in the last two centuries and we are seriously expecting an increase in global surface temperatures by 2 to 10 degrees by the end of this next century. (Rabe again)

Energy Policy

The president spoke last night and Mac, Tom and I hid in the basement. Ok, that's more dramatic than it sounds. We were installing moulding and trying to get the kitchen drain hooked up (still need one more part).

From the recap news stories, I've found out that George W. proposed the U.S. reduce it's dependence on foreign oil by 75% by 2025. Now, the U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day and about 12.3 million of that is imported (1). If those numbers stayed the same (which they won't), to reduce our oil imports by 75%, we need to conserve or find domestic sources for 9.2 million barrels per day or 3.4 billion barrels per year (the Arctic Refuge is estimated to contain a total of somewhere between 9 and 16 billion barrels but only ~3 billion that would be profitable to pump out, by the way (2))

Since the president doesn't seem to want to increase auto fuel efficiency (cars being our #1 use of oil by far; about 2/3 of everything we use (3)), that's a pretty tall order. Ya see, U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 and we have approximately 22 billion barrels of proven reserves to tap into (4). The only way to reduce the amount of foreign oil that we use is to reduce the total amount of oil that we use.

Exxon Mobil, which made a record breaking $25 billion in profits last year, isn't going to like that very much. To put that in perspective, let's compare ExxonMobil's profits to the gross domestic products (GDP, the sum of all the goods and services sold) of a few countries:

Cote d'Ivoire $ 24.8 billion in 2005, making it the 106th largest country by GDP
Zimbabwe $ 24.0 b.
Bolivia $ 23.6 b.
Qatar $ 22.5 b.
Panama $ 22.2 b.
Estonia $ 21.8 b. . . . and that's just profits. (5)

Should we talk about sales volume? Exxon moved $263.99 billion in product last year. (6) That's more than

Switzerland $ 262.1 billion, making it the 37th largest country by GDP,
Hong Kong $ 254.2 b. (yes, world financial markets calculate this separately from China),
Vietnam $ 251.8 b.,
Malaysia $ 248.0 b., and
Greece $ 242.8 b.. (5)

What's amazing is that, somehow, ExxonMobil can't find the money to just pay the $3 billion in punitive damages they were supposed to from the ExxonValdez oil spill 16 years ago (7). Perhaps the Exxon CEO should hear how you think he should cough it up and clean up his act.

Don't want to watch think about the math? Watch the flash file then:

(1) Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico
(2) SavetheArctic.com
(3) & (4) U.S. Department of Energy: Demand, Reserves
(5) CIA World Factbook
(6) Forbes Magazine
(7) Houston Chronicle

Editors note: This evening, someone informed me that the president was only talking about oil imports from the middle east or, maybe, unstable nations. That would give him some more leway. Apparently this many-million-barrel nuance was lost on the news outlets I examined today.

Shocking Figures

Did you know that at 1,526.1 metric tons of carbon equivalent, the U.S. emitted nearly twice what the second largest emitter of green house gasses did in 1999?

Additionally, only 6 countries emitted more than the state of Texas! In fact, if you compare emissions from the 50 states to world countries, 17 of them rank in the top 50 global emitters!

I'm reading Statehouse and Greenhouse by Barry Rabe, whom I considered studying under at the University of Michigan. I'm on page 5.

Parking Crunch DC

On the topic of livable communities . . . We absolutely adore the fact that we don't have to drive everywhere. We are 5-min walking distance from the grocery store and hardware store, a little farther from the video store, pet store and pharmacy (but a bicycle reduces that back to 5-min including parking). Parking the car, though, is a bit crazy. We'd never drive to the natural food store 8 blocks away because it would take longer to park then walk/bike there. Our neighborhood is actually rather mild on the parking crunch. I understand that Adam's Morgan has three times as many parking permits issued as curbside spaces (wow). Managing parking is part of an overall transportation plan that should serve drivers, public transportation commuters, cyclists, and (remember them) pedestrians. DC is considering various policy options but, unfortunately, some very short-sighted folks are making noise in favor of all the wrong non-solutions and capturing the ears of their city council members.

There's a bill before the City Council to make parking permit fees separate from car registration and to make permits for a 2nd and 3rd car per household more expensive (but actually quite modestly). Seems reasonable to me. But instead of embracing this reasonable solution, some folks are attacking parking spaces granted to Zipcar & Flexcar, car sharing programs that allow dozens of people in a given neighborhood not to own their own (or 2nd) car and share one car/one space - how short-sighted is that?

The City Council is taking comments on parking between now and Friday, January 27th. Weigh in! Environment and Public Works Committee Members Carol Schwartz (Chair, 202-724-8105), Kwame R. Brown (202-724-8174), Jim Graham (202-724-8181), Adrian Fenty (202-724-8052), and Marion Barry (202-724-8045) especially need to hear from residents who support increases in permit fees and car-sharing.

Two years to Mid-terms . . . Elections, that is.

Remember how I said that I'm not really a political junky? Well, I'm not. And here's the thing: neither is most of America, be they red, blue, or some shade of purple. Snarky political commentary doesn't move them.

I've been reading a lot about how a 21st century public is concerned with postmodernist values- quality of life issues like balancing economic growth with protecting the environment and consumers.  Unfortunately for Kerry supporters, to the casual observer, Bush and Kerry sounded awfully similar on many of those issues.  Both candidates used buzzwords like “freedom,” “fiscal responsibility,” “environmental stewardship,” and “the American way” liberally as they described their policy proposals. The Democratic Party did not do a good enough job defining the differences between the candidates on compelling issues that favor democrats.  And, postmodernist values did not feature prominently in this election dominated by an Iraq war and economic policy.

Now, granted, no sitting president, uncontested in the the party primaries, has lost re-election in more than 50 years . . . Still, my husband once said to me, “I don’t know what it means to be a Democrat; I just know that I’m not a Republican.”  Voters without a party affiliation to fall back on are forced to make decisions on nebulous attributes like leadership.  Bill Clinton initiated a strategy of trying to beat Republicans on traditionally Republican issues.  While it worked for the terribly charismatic Clinton, Kerry couldn’t pull that off.  Until the democrats agree on what it means to be a Democrat and figure out how to communicate that to the public, it will be tough to win national office on the issues.

A few organizations seem to understand that the Democratic Party can't be defined during a presidential election at the same time as the party defines the candidate. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they can do it without the Democratic Party which appears to still be running against Bush.

I agree with the president (and he is the president) - the past is over.

Now, can the democrats move on? In the mean time, can environmentalists break out of the partisan trap? For a brief moment in the early 1970's (I missed it), environmentalism was truly a bi-partisan issue. How do we prevent the GOP from ramming through the president's "mandate for reform" (see resolution #3) and dismantling cornerstone environmental and social insurance laws along the way? And if the Dem's can't do this, how long until we ditch'em?

 

Okay, now you probably need a laugh so: watch "This Land" from JibJab (big, big file).

Five resolutions for 2005

5. Make the Bug Blog more socially relevant.

Considering how much time I spend thinking about social issues, it's striking how little I've put in the blog. There are a couple of reasons for that . . . . I'm not a political junky like some people I know. I don't follow the personalities and the pundits so I don't have a witty retort for all their foibles. And, nothing becomes irrelevant as fast as politics. Guess I'll have to work around that. So let's get started.

Should chemicals really be innocent until proven guilty?

We've know for years that fumes released from overheating polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE or Teflon®) coated cookware are toxic to birds (See Dupont's rebuttal citing anecdotal evidence about how other household hazards are more dangerous to birds and featuring a pretty little parrotlet hen - not mine). Now "EPA is seeking as much as $300 million in fines from chemical giant DuPont Co. . . . for failing to report its studies of the possible dangers linked to"(1) the Teflon® manufacturing process. Apparently, Dupont has contaminated drinking water in West Virginia and Ohio with a chemical used to make teflon that has potentially significant but as yet unclear effects on human health. The Environmental Working Group is accusing EPA of being too wimpy on the issue - likely.

Most people refer to all non-stick cookware as Teflon®, but Teflon® is a trademark name and PTFE is found on lots of products made by companies that don't use the name. It's on household appliances, upholstery, and carpeting to make it easier to clean. It's used in industrial processes, it's released into the environment, and it's not regulated at all. It's not alone.

Want to scare yourself s**tless? Checkout EWG's Body Burden report on the chemicals found in people. Teflon and other chemicals that suddenly make headlines when a new study highlights how little we know about their effect on human health indicate a bigger problem - the ridiculous way that the U.S. regulates chemicals. By the time we're concerned about a chemical it's ubiquitous - PCBs, DDT, etc. The government needs to revoke the innocent until proven guilty policy and require extensive pre market testing.

Now what? Man, I wish I had the answer.

• There are alternatives to non-stick cookware: cast iron, stainless steel, copper, and aluminum all make great options. I found a set of these at a good price and love them.
• Educate yourself
• Limit your exposure to unnecessary chemicals where practical
• Speak Out! write the company, write your congressperson, join an email activist list, support an organization that advocates for saner chemical policies, vote for candidates that advocate saner chemical policies. . . There are lots of options and you can start here if you like.
• Try not to become too neurotic over this because the stress isn't good for your health either.

(1) Eilperin, J. "Teflon Chemical's Potential Risk Cited." Washington Post. Thursday, January 13, 2005, Final: A04.