Blog Action Day: Simple Actions to Reduce the Effects of Climate Change

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Today is Blog Action Day. This year’s topic is climate change. This is my contribution.

When I think about the problem of climate change, it seems so huge that any action I can take can’t possibly put much of a dent in the problem. But the truth is that we humans brought about climate change, and if we want to reduce its effects, we are all going to have to make some changes. For too long we have put blinders on to the effects our personal buying choices have on our environment.

Probably nowhere can we have more of an effect individually than on our personal food-buying choices. The food industry consumes a lot of energy and is a major source of carbon emissions. By making some small changes, and being more conscious when we purchase food for our families, we can reduce the impact.

Here are some things I’m doing:

Buy local whenever possible. The energy costs of shipping food across the world are staggering. Buying local reduces the distance traveled and the energy consumed in the trip. Both of my grocery stores now clearly label the local produce. If yours doesn’t, ask if they will start. Shopping at farmers markets is also a good option during the growing seasons.

Reduce the amount of meat you eat. You don’t have to cut meat out altogether, but try to incorporate more vegetarian meals into your weekly routine. Particularly focus on reducing beef and pork consumption, where factory farming contributes most highly to environmental degradation and carbon emissions. When you do eat meat, source humanely raised, grass-fed beef. Since you are buying it less often, the extra cost isn’t as noticeable, and it really does taste better too.

Cut out processed foods as much as possible. In addition to shipping costs, processed foods use more than their fair share of energy and natural resources in processing, packaging and storage. Most convenience foods, such as soups and frozen dinners, can be replicated easily with whole foods and a good recipe, and they really don’t take that much more time to prepare. You’ll probably enjoy your dinners more, as a bonus.

Compost first; recycle or reuse second; throw away last. It is very easy to start composting your food scraps, and you can reduce the amount of garbage you throw in the landfill by up to half once you do. Also try to recycle or reuse as much food packaging as possible. Bring your own bags to the grocery store and buy in bulk when possible to reduce packaging as well.

Stop buying bottled water. Bottled water is the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the American consumer. Most often the water is municipal tap water, which you can get out of your own tap for pennies. The fossil fuels used to manufacture the plastic bottles and ship them all over the country cannot be justified. Invest in a good reusable water bottle and fill it with perfectly safe tap water instead.

These are just a few ideas. In addition to the earth’s resources you save by implementing these small changes, they all have the added benefit of saving you money and creating a more healthful diet.

My Catalog Project

Image by kernelslacker via Flickr

One of my resolutions this year is to reduce the amount of junk coming into my house. This includes junk mail, specifically catalogs, which I am particularly fed up with right now. I suspect that some companies were sending me one or two catalogs a week since October. Enough is enough!

So I have devised this semi-scientific experiment. For the next six months or so, or until I get a big enough pile, I am going to keep every catalog that comes in here rather than tossing them straight into the recycling bin, as I am wont to do. Once I have a massive pile of catalogs, I will tally up the worst offenders and post the results here. I will do my best to get off their mailing lists by using stop junk mail services and writing directly to the companies, and I will also let you know the results of that. I will probably stop shopping with these companies as well.

I will do my utmost to let you know about the good guys too. We should support those companies that work with us to reduce junk and waste. I can identify one right now, just in time for winter gardening planning: Gardener’s Supply Company. They sent me a postcard to let me know that they would no longer be sending me catalogs periodically. Rather, I can use the website or request a catalog if I wanted one. With that small act alone, they ensured that they would be one of the first places I’d check for my gardening needs.

The experiment will begin January 1, after I dump the accumulated recycling thus far and can start with a clean slate. This is semi-scientific, after all.

Related articles by Zemanta

• CatalogChoice.org: get OFF those catalog mailing lists!

Green products, I’m not happy with you

Image via Wikipedia

I think of myself as an environmentally aware person. I really believe that we all need to do as much as we can to preserve our environment’s health. So I try to buy green products whenever I can, especially since I think they are probably healthier for my family and me as well.

But if these products don’t do the job they’re supposed to, I’m just throwing my money away. And I don’t like to feel like I’m getting ripped off, even if it is better for the environment.

For instance, lately our dishes haven’t been getting very clean. I thought it was the dishwasher; my husband wanted to try a different soap. We switched back to Cascade, and sure enough, all the dishes were sparkling again. (Did I mention how much I hate it when my husband is right?) I guess that environmentally friendly soap wasn’t very environmentally friendly when you consider how many times I had to rewash the dishes. I’m looking at you, Seventh Generation. (I still like your diapers and wipes, though.)

And no, I don’t think my butt’s too good for toilet paper made from recycled paper. I’m even willing to spend a little more, if it’s good for the environment. But when I take out a new roll and see how little paper is on it, I feel like I’m getting ripped off. How does that advance a green cause?

Toiletries are another area where I can’t seem to find good green products. The mouthwash I bought leaks all over the bathroom counter. The face moisturizer isn’t as effective as my old non-green brand from Target. The very expensive new brands of lotion and shampoo I’ve been trying just aren’t worth the money.

I am a loyal shopper, and when I do find a good brand, I will stick with it. Here are some green brands that I really love:

• Dr. Bronner’s bar soap, liquid soap and lotion (when I can find it)
• Alba shaving lotion and body lotion
• Blue Canoe organic clothing — stylish and high-quality
• Patagonia clothing — more than just outdoors wear, and their clothing lasts
• Larry’s Beans — great coffee in biodegradable packaging

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Make Your Own Toiletries

More Uses for Vinegar

Besides salad dressing, vinegar has many uses around the house. I have taken to buying huge jugs of white and apple cider vinegar. It doesn’t go bad (it already has!) and I always find more ways to use it. Also, I know it’s non-toxic, and it’s cheap!

Here are some more uses for vinegar:

• Hair rinse: Mix apple cider vinegar with warm water and pour over your head for a natural conditioner.
• Shower spray: Mix 1 part white vinegar with 2 parts water and a few drops tea tree oil and spray in your shower to discourage mildew.
• Kitchen counter cleaner: Mix ½ cup white vinegar, ¼ cup baking soda and a few drops of orange essential oil with water in a spray bottle.
• Vegetable spray: Mix half and half white vinegar and water to spray produce before washing; this kills most of the bacteria.
• Dishwasher rinse: Run the dishwasher empty with 1 cup of white vinegar.
• Microwave cleaner: Heat a bowl of vinegar and water in the microwave, then sponge it out. This loosens any cooked-on messes.
• Hardwood floor cleaner: Mix 1 part white vinegar with 1 part warm water and spray on the mop head until it’s lightly damp to safely clean hardwood floors.
• Toilet bowl cleaner: I sprinkle in some baking soda, then splash in some vinegar; let it sit about 30 minutes, then scrub.

Even more:

• 62 Little Known Uses for Vinegar
• Vinegar Remedies for Common Ailments
• Uses and Tips from the Vinegar Institute

Related articles by Zemanta

• Really? You can do that with baking soda

How to Make Your Own Toiletries

Image via Wikipedia

As the costs of everything go up, I have been looking for some ways to save money. Toiletries are a big expense. I won’t buy the cheap drugstore stuff because I am concerned about the chemicals they contain, as well as their impact on the environment. But the all-natural organic products are often three or four times’ as expensive. The definition of sticker shock is paying $20 for a bottle of shampoo.

It occurred to me that I might be able to save some money by making some of my own toiletries. I have been having a lot of success with making my own cleaning products. A little Internet research led me to the conclusion that some of the same ingredients I use for cleaning my house could be used on myself with good results.

I’ve been trying out these recipes for a few weeks now, with good results. The ingredients list is short and economical. Here’s what you’ll need to make your own shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and facial toner:

• castile soap — I recommend Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild formula in the large bottle, which you can now get at Target. Castile soap has dozens of uses around the house. Besides shampoo and soap, I also use it to clean my baby, my dishes, my floors and my tubs.
• vinegar — I use apple cider vinegar, but white vinegar will also work.
• essential oils — I use tea tree oil for the antibacterial properties and lavender oil for the scent. Although they are expensive, a small vial will last you a long time.
• Vitamin E liquid capsules — For moisturizing, as well as to help heal damaged skin.
• witch hazel — Astringent for the face; a big bottle will cost you $3, about one-third of the cost of Burt’s Bees or similar facial toner.

Here are the recipes.

Shampoo

Combine in a squeeze bottle:

• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup castile soap
• 10 drops essential oil for scent (use tea tree oil as well if you have dandruff)

With this shampoo, you don’t need to wash your hair as often. I only wash my hair 2-3 times a week now.

Conditioner

You don’t need a conditioner if you’re washing your hair with castile soap, because it doesn’t strip out your hair’s natural oils like shampoo does, but the soap can leave your hair feeling a little greasy. The antidote is an acid, such as vinegar. Just mix ¼ cup vinegar with warm water in the shower and pour it slowly over your head. I do this pretty much every day, and it leaves my hair smooth, sleek and without tangles.

I use apple cider vinegar, which also has dandruff-fighting properties, but any vinegar or even lemon juice would work. Lemon juice will probably lighten your hair as well. However, it’s easier and more economical to keep a large bottle of vinegar in the bathroom rather than freshly squeezing lemons every morning.

Hand Soap

Combine in a pump bottle:

• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup castile soap
• 10 drops tea tree oil for the antibacterial properties
• the liquid from 4 vitamin E capsules for moisturizing and healing properties
• 10 drops another essential oil for scent, if desired

Facial Toner

Combine:

• 2/3 cup witch hazel
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 10 drops tea tree oil, if needed, to treat acne
• 10 drops other essential oil for the scent, if desired

Here are some more recipes from Green Daily for other beauty products that I haven’t tried yet, including foot deodorizer, lip balm and facial scrub.

Managing Leftovers: Use It or Lose It

Leftover pasta salad with steamed green beans, tomatoes and grilled chicken

With the costs of food rocketing up and more awareness about how food production and distribution impacts climate change, I’ve been seeing a lot of news lately about food waste. Apparently, we Americans (and the British too) waste a lot of food. Well, it’s no wonder with food being so cheap and plentiful here, but that may change. It’s good to have some strategies for dealing with leftovers so you waste as little as possible.

Chefs are notoriously thrifty and try to waste as little as possible, such as by making homemade stock and devising recipes to use up day-old bread. Why not put a few of these practices into place at home? Here are some strategies I’ve devised to reduce food waste in my house.

Making up a menu and shopping list for the week is the number-one way to reduce food waste. Get in the habit of checking the pantry and freezer to see what can be used before buying new items. Buy only what you need when you go to the store.

Even the best-planned menus can get thwarted by the events of the week. Have an unexpected dinner out or a night when you don’t feel like cooking anything more strenuous than scrambled eggs, and you might have some produce hanging out in the crisper that was intended for a recipe you never got around to making. This is where the freezer comes in handy.

Most fresh produce lasts about a week in the fridge (more or less–it’s a good idea to get acquainted with storage times for produce and the best places to store them so you have less spoilage). Just before I go shopping, I go through the refrigerator and take out all the bits of produce that are about to go bad. Most produce can be frozen with just a little prep. Invest in a book like The Busy Person’s Guide to Preserving Food, so that you know the best strategies for freezing food. If you have a garden or belong to a CSA, you might want to invest in a small freezer, which is more efficient for freezing food for long periods.

Besides produce, bits of cooked meat, vegetables, rice and pasta are the leftovers I most frequently have on hand. Some dishes are very freezeable, such as soups, chilis and casseroles. I always make extra and freeze them in single- or double-serving sizes.

But what about when you have just a bit of grilled chicken, cooked pasta or steamed green beans left over? I like to store these in the fridge on the same shelf in glass dishes. Whenever I open the fridge, all of my leftovers are staring me in the face. Usually, this starts the wheels turning on how they can go together, such as in the pasta salad pictured above. Salads, soups, frittatas, tacos — many dishes are designed to use up leftovers.

When I’m meal-planning, I always designate one night (usually Thursdays) as “leftover night” to use up those bits and pieces. If I don’t have any or I end up eating them for lunch, I can always pull something out of the freezer instead.

With just a little planning and thought, you can really reduce the amount of food waste in your home. And if you still have some food that goes to waste, try composting it instead of throwing it away. Then you can reuse it in the garden.

But I don’t want plastic bags! Really, I don’t

So the plastic bag saga at my local grocery store continues.

This time, I brought plenty of bags with me to contain all my groceries. I put them all in the bagging area and was busily bagging my own groceries when the bagger strolled over. I let him finish up the bagging while I went to pay, and then I noticed that he was ignoring all of my bags spread out everywhere and was bagging my groceries in plastic!

Of course, I made him re-bag everything. But I have to say that I’m getting really tired of the passive-aggressive tactics these baggers are using. I’d rather bag the groceries myself and put the kid out of a job if that is the only way I’m going to get to use my own bags.

I’m ecstatic that a branch of our local food co-op has opened only 5 minutes from my house. They actually want you to bring your own bags, and now that food costs have shot up, the co-op is no more expensive than the chain grocery store. And they have a better produce selection. And wine. And cheese. And fresh-baked bread.

So why do I even bother to go to that other grocery store anymore? Well, I have to furnish my husband’s coke habit (that’s Coca-Cola, not the other kind). And the co-op charges ridiculously high prices for some normally very cheap staples like baking soda and white vinegar.

But I don’t like having to yell at some teenager just to get him to put my groceries in my reusable bag!

More Encouragement to Get Gardening

The ever-eloquent Michael Pollan strikes again. Check out the interview with him on Yale Environment 360: “Michael Pollan on What’s Wrong With Environmentalism.” There are a lot of good take-home messages here, including more encouragement to get out in the garden:

I don’t know exactly what percentage of greenhouse gas we would reduce if everybody planted a garden, but it would be a percentage and it would be a help. If you go back to the victory garden moment in American history during World War II when the government strongly encouraged us all to plant gardens because we were reserving the output of our agricultural system for the troops and for starving Europeans — within a year or two, we actually got up to producing forty percent of our produce from home gardens. No food is more local, no food requires less fossil fuel, and no food is more tasty or nutritious than food you grow yourself. So it’s not a trivial contribution.

The process of growing your own food also teaches you things that are very, very important to combating this problem. One source of our sense of powerlessness and frustration around climate change is that we are so accustomed to outsourcing so much of our lives to specialists of one kind or another, that the idea that we could reinvent the way we live, change our lifestyles, is absolutely daunting to people. We don’t know how to do it. We’ve lost the skills to do it. One of the things gardening teaches is that you can actually feed yourself. How amazing, you’re not dependent on a huge, global system to feed yourself. I think where climate change is taking us is to a point where many of us will need to take care of ourselves a little better than we do now. We will be less able to depend on distant experts and distant markets. We will need to re-localize economies all over the world because we won’t be able to waste fossil fuel, like having our salmon filleted in China before we bring it to the United States from Alaska. These long supply chains are going to have to get shorter.

The writer Wendell Berry was right a long time ago when he said the environmental crisis is a crisis of character. It’s really about how we live. The thought that we can swap out the fuel we’re putting in our cars to ethanol, and swap out the electricity to nuclear and everything else can stay the same, I think, is really a pipe dream. We’re going to have to change, and the beginning of knowing how to change is learning how to provide for yourself a little bit more.

Before I quote the whole thing, go read it yourself. It’s definitely worth it.

Our garden is bursting. I have been harvesting and eating fresh herbs all week: basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavender and sage. There are green tomatoes on most of our bushes, and teeny-tiny eggplants and cucumbers. There are also a couple of volunteers, either squash or melon, from the compost. Watching your garden grow and produce over the summer really is a lot of fun.

If you want some help getting your garden started, check out Food Not Lawns. They provide lots of resources for turning “your yard into a garden and your neighborhood into a community.”

Finally, you should really go check out the Presto Pasta Nights roundup over at Chew on That. I took part, submitting a pasta recipe featuring fresh herbs and greens for more garden goodness.

Fight Indoor Air Pollution! Air Out Your House

Here’s another thing to add to our list of things to worry about: indoor air pollution. Apparently, all sorts of things emit dangerous fumes called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including paint, cleaners, vinyl shower curtains and materials used in building wood furniture. You can recognize VOCs by their smell — that chemically “new car” smell. Breathing these fumes in is not good for you, as they have been linked to asthma and even cancer. Because our houses and offices are sealed so tight for energy efficiency, these fumes build up, leading to indoor air pollution levels as much as 5 times greater than air pollution outside.

I know that when we first moved into our new office building, which had been upgraded with new paint and carpets and was hermetically sealed to allow in no outdoor air, I developed allergies for the first time in my life. This spring, I haven’t been working in the office and what do you know? No allergies! Not a scientific study, but that’s convincing evidence for me that we are besieged by indoor air pollution.

I have decided to do something about it. The first thing I am doing is never going to the office again, if I can help it. (Just kidding. Not really.) But I am also going to build airing out my house into my daily routine. Even opening the windows for as little as 10 minutes a day can really help circulate the air in the house and reduce the levels of the indoor pollutants. I find the best time to do it is in the morning just before I take my shower, because it’s cooler then, and I usually go through the house in the morning picking up and straightening up. Also, my son gets some fresh air while he naps. I leave the windows open for a little while, until it starts to get too hot (we live in the South).

The other important thing we can do is to eliminate as much as possible VOC-emitting substances from our homes. That means bypassing vinyl shower curtains and wood furniture that emit VOCs. Use low- or no-VOC paint. And most importantly, eliminate cleaners with chemicals, as cleaners constantly re-pollute the air; homemade cleaners can do the job just as effectively, and don’t poison you at the same time.

It’s the simple changes that can make a big difference.

Everything You Do Is Bad for You, Your Kids & the Planet

As I read around the Interwebs, it seems I discover more and more aspects of everyday modern American life that we think is necessary and good for us but actually is unhealthy for us and hurting our environment. It all seems to tie into the disconnect we have created from the simplest and most natural ways of doing things, which often, coincidentally, are the best ways.

We all know about the food issues, thanks to the efforts of writers like Michael Pollan and the Slow Food movement. We don’t know where our food comes from, and this removal leads to practices like inhumane treatment of domestic animals, genetically modified crops and shipping food great distances even if it’s available locally. We accept chemicals in our food like artificial colors and flavors, as well as non-ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, which are making our kids fat and hyperactive.

Thanks to a resurgence of interest in food, this tide at least seems to be turning. More people are sourcing food locally through farmers markets and CSAs, and are buying organic produce and humanely raised meats.

But that’s just the beginning. Here are some other problem areas I’ve discovered:

• Cleaning — We have been duped into believing that we need a separate cleaner for every cleaning job and that to be clean, the house must smell. So we buy tons of cleaners with lots of dangerous chemicals that build up inside our air-conditioned homes and pollute our water supply. All those anti-bacterial products are creating super-resistant bugs. Little did we know that we can do the job just as well and at a much lower cost using just a few common household items.
• Diapering – Billions of diapers go into the landfills each year, and we accept that children aren’t capable of using the toilet until they’re 2 or 3 years old. Cloth diapers are definitely better, but require a lot of energy and water to keep clean. But some cultures don’t use diapers at all, and their children are pretty much toilet-trained by the age of one. How do they do it? They watch for baby’s cues, similar to feeding or sleep cues, and respond. Here, the resurgence of interest in this technique is called “elimination communication,” because we must have a cutesy name for everything.
• Even shampooing – I’ve just discovered the “no ‘poo” movement (cutesy name alert) that advocates not shampooing at all. Apparently, shampooing strips the natural oils out of your hair, which must be added back in via conditioner. It forms a vicious cycle that puts chemicals on your scalp and in the water. And guess what? Lather doesn’t mean your hair is getting cleaner, just that there are more chemicals in your shampoo.
• Working — The 9-to-5 routine is inefficient, treats adults like children and prevents us from living full and satisfying lives. The ways we work have not significantly changed in over 50 years, even though we have made huge technological advances, so we continue to sit in traffic on long commutes, polluting the air, making ourselves sick in hermetically sealed office buildings and neglecting our children just to make a buck (or get health insurance).
• Just plain living – We’re disconnected from nature. We’re afraid to even let our children go outside, and the mass media gives us new things to be frightened of every day. No wonder so many of us are so depressed.

What do all of these things have in common? It all comes down to money, of course. Every moment we are bombarded with messages to buy, buy, buy and consume, consume, consume. If you are living a simple, contented life, you probably don’t have need to buy a lot of things. And that just won’t do. Our economy depends on us buying a lot of stuff we don’t need or that we use up quickly and then throw away. When you look at it closely, it seems more and more like a house of cards.

I’m not eschewing all aspects of modern life. I’m grateful for medical advances, vaccines and antibiotics that keep us much healthier and living much longer. And modern dentistry is definitely an improvement. Although you have to wonder if statistically, every child actually needs expensive orthodontics. I know that all it did for me was make me dislike and distrust dentists.

I have two knee-jerk reactions to all this. One is to put my hands over my ears and sing tra-la-la because I feel so helpless to change everything and so overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems we are creating for ourselves. And the other is to go to the other extreme, quit my job and go live in a commune where I can grow my own food and make my own soap. But I’m not quite ready to give up my front-loading washing machine yet (another example of a modern-day improvement).

So I guess I have to just keep on doing what I am doing. Try to educate myself, read widely and sort out all of the conflicting messages to figure out what is true for me. Do my part to keep my impact low without driving myself or my family members nuts. Try to connect with other like-minded individuals. And keep the faith that when it comes down to it, our species will pull together and find solutions that work.