The Effects of Pollution On Our Environment

A new film entitled Flow the Film may be coming soon to a theater near you and it looks to do for water what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming - basically terrify, disturb you, and, ultimately, motivate you. Flow has won awards at the Sundance Film Festival, the Mumbai Film Festival and the Vail International Film Festival, to name a few. It explores how water is essentially owned, sold and controlled. And we thought it was just a free God-given product that fell from the sky to hydrate people and water crops… Check out the trailer here. I’ll probably have to wait for Flow to come out on DVD if it isn’t showing nearby, but I’m optimistic the film will provide some inspiration and helpful ideas we can use to ensure fresh, clean water for us all. If you see it first, let us know what you think!

Almost every time I go to any store, I bring cloth shopping bags with me. I happen to own really stylish bags and it’s fun to carry these beautiful parcels out of the stores. But sometimes at grocery stores while I am unloading my cart, the grocery bagger will have already begun putting my purchases into plastic bags. If he has only begun and I have noticed, I’ll speak up, “I don’t need that. I brought my own bags.” But sometimes with small purchases or my own distractions, the items are bagged in plastic before I have a chance to say anything. I would never ask the clerk to undo a lot of bagging, after all I was the one not paying attention. It would also be inconsiderate to the people in line behind me. For a small purchase, though, I don’t hesitate to tell the clerk that she can keep the bag, thank you.

I would like to see it become store policy that all clerks would ask, “Do you need a bag?” “Do you need a bag for that box of organic pasta?” “Do you need a bag for this bottle of shampoo?” Simply asking the question would help jar a lot of us from our reveries and remind us to say, “Oh! No thanks, I brought my own bags,” or “No thanks, I can carry that out.” It would save the store some money and save the Earth some pollution.

My family just returned from a long trip to Kauai. Six of us flew on an airplane and, no, I did not buy carbon offset credits. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that business. I haven’t made up my mind about whether I think it is a legitimate and significant global warming reduction service, or if it is just a racket - some snake oil to make people feel less guilty.

I do try to live a very conscientious lifestyle when I am at home. With the exception of this year, I almost never travel. When I am on vacation, though, I do try to maintain my organic ways. Some of the things I packed for my trips this year were three beautiful cloth shopping bags. They didn’t take up much room in my suitcase, and as I shopped only a little every day, three bags were more than enough to carry some groceries, souvenirs and beach gear.

Another item I brought along was a bag of soap nuts. I think these are the greatest things. They are little nuts that grow on trees and contain a natural soap. Three nuts can wash about five loads of laundry in a washing machine and then they can be tossed into a garden. I only had to bring a dozen little nuts which weighed barely an ounce. This saved a purchase of a plastic bottle of soap at our destination which we probably would not have finished up anyway.

Try these ideas on your next trip and you can have a green vacation, too. If you have any green travel tips, please share them with us!

Last week I was house-sitting for some friends who do not have a recycling bin in their home.  This is unusual to me because my kitchen has a false cabinet that is actually a pull out drawer for garbage.  When we moved in we chose to use it as the recycling drawer and the kids use it religiously.  But my friends do not have one.  This leaves them with the option of stacking their recyclables on the counter until the next trip out to the garbage, if they remember to grab them.  Or they throw the recyclables away.  Bad.  So I looked in their garage and found a large pretty basket and brought it into the kitchen and lined it with a plastic bag.  ( I know I shouldn’t be promoting plastic bags but unlined recycling bins can be messy with leaking food and liquids.  Like most people they have an ample plastic bag supply already.)  The basket looks rustic and charming and it makes me happy to see it filled with cans and bottles.  On trash day it is very easy to grab the bag by the handles and carry it out to the curb.  If you don’t own a fancy indoor recycling bin, look around your home to find a container you’d like to have in your kitchen and make it easier on yourself to recycle!

By “stuff” we’re referring to possessions and consumer goods. The website you need to visit has an engaging 20-minute video on consumerism and its effects on us and the world. A charming woman named Annie narrates in front of a stick-figure animated white screen. She talks about where the things we buy come from, why we buy them, and what we have to do to fix our world, and, really, our deep and disturbing fixation with material possessions. This latter problem is somewhat overwhelmingly depressing because how can we ever stop buying things?

My daughter and I started to watch it, not expecting to finish it but we never looked away. This educational piece is done so casually and cheerfully, you’ll be surprised by how much you will have learned. For instance, we learned that for every one can of garbage we throw out, another 70 cans were the byproduct of its creation.

I highly recommend the “Story of Stuff.” It’s perfect for kids, new green students, and long-time environmentalists. Please click here to watch and let your friends know about it.

Apparently there is a draft of a new bill from the FDA to regulate all food, drug, and cosmetic companies under its jurisdiction by requiring them to register themselves with the FDA.  Thankfully, it is the job of the FDA to protect us from unsafe consumer goods and drugs.  As with all government registration programs, however, this is not free.  Fees would range from $2000-$12,000.  While this might be inconsequential to the big cosmetic companies, it would be devastating to the smaller businesses who create chemical-free and healthy, organic soaps and makeup.  It would also create a financial burden to the importers of such products.  This, in particular, concerns me because I am a big fan of Sensatia, a brand which I proudly carry on my website and use in my home.  The legislation is not perfectly clear to me but it sounds like retailers would also have to register and pay the FDA to continue selling Sensatia and other imported soaps.  Ultimately, everyone’s choices in cosmetics would be reduced by this bill as small businesses close their doors.

This is an outrageous bill which seems designed to keep big cosmetic companies strong while killing small businesses. The FDA Globalization Act of 2008 clearly states that it is a moneymaker for the FDA.  Under the pretenses of protecting citizens from harmful products, it is ironically putting people in harm’s way by assuring that the majority of cosmetics available to the public are, in fact, only those made with cheaper, toxic ingredients.

If you want to learn more about the FDA Globalization Act of 2008 please visit the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, or the Indie Business Blog to add your voice to the petition.

I was at Macy’s Department Store recently to buy a suit jacket for my 10-year old son.  His school goes to the opera every year and the children like to dress up for this special field trip.  Because he has two younger brothers and they will ultimately go to the opera as well, it seemed like a reasonable purchase.  As is often the case, I had all four of my children with me at the store.  It was a school night and we were pressed for time so in my distraction I forgot to bring a bag with me.  I always bring them to the grocery store and other shops but I simply forgot this time.  It now kills me to accept a plastic bag from a store.  So when I paid for the jacket I asked the saleswoman if I could carry the jacket out of the store without a bag.  She hesitated and said she thought it was store policy; someone might think I was stealing.  I explained that I really didn’t want a plastic bag (cloth bags were hanging right next to the register but she didn’t mention that option).  I told her I would carry the receipt prominently on top and be prepared to be questioned.  This took her a few minutes to think about it but she finally agreed I could carry the jacket home without a bag.  I felt victorious!   No one stopped us; we made it to the car; I was very grateful to have won that small battle.

My mom, Chris Shea, told me she was at Petco on Saturday and the salesclerk simply wrapped the receipt around my Mom’s purchase and handed it to her with a smile.  No bag was even offered - this is a first to my knowledge.

Given that most plastic bags mysteriously disappear to other countries after they are put in recycling bins - no one is really sure what happens to them - it’s great to hear about merchants and customers that are helping to reduce the number of bags out there.  If you have any similar bag stories from stores you want to publicly praise, please share them with us!

I read an interesting article yesterday about a concept called “Virtual Water” in the online Discover Magazine. Virtual water is the estimated amount of water it takes to produce any food or product from start to finish. For example, a cup of coffee is much more than 12 ounces of water. To grow, process, deliver and make one cup of coffee actually requires 37 gallons of water. For one cup! It takes 155 pounds of water to grow one pound of wheat. That’s almost 20 gallons. An apple uses 19 gallons of water. A sheet of paper needs 3 gallons. And a pair of leather shoes use a whopping 4400 gallons of water. Surprisingly, the production of meat takes five to ten times more water than the production of vegetables. So the manufacturing of animal-related goods is quite demanding of water.

What does all of this mean? Well, there is a limited amount of usable fresh water in the world. Farming, irrigation and manufacturing water usually ends up in the ocean, which means used and wasted fresh water is not easily returned to our reservoirs where we need it. Technology is not yet in place to handle the water needs of the world through desalination of sea water. Therefore, wasting food, is wasting water. Wasting anything is wasting water, more than you can ever conserve around your house through shorter showers or shutting off the faucet while brushing your teeth.

Five million, that’s 5,000,000 people, die every year from lack of water or clean water. One third of those people are children under the age of five. In time these numbers will increase. The amount of water needed to feed the world’s growing population is potentially unavailable unless water is properly shared; unless companies and countries can allocate fresh water for agriculture only where it is ample. Companies like Nestle and Coca Cola are very interested in “virtual water” and looking for solutions. We all can help. We can all start right now by not being wasteful. Eat less meat; don’t waste food or goods. It’s that simple.

News of the devastating 7.8 earthquake in China on May 12 was troubling for all of us. The death of so many school children, the numbers rising as the hours and days passed was particularly sad. If you have ever had school-aged children you have probably experienced the pangs of separation anxiety that occur after events like these. I, too, couldn’t help but wonder how my children would feel during such terrifying events and how I would feel rushing to reconnect with them.

One of the other ideas that struck me was the horrible toll the one-child rule would now take on thousands of forlorn parents. Population control was something that has always seemed necessary to me in countries like China and India where the population has grown so large. When I was in college a mere 20 years ago, the world census was estimated to be 5 billion. Now we’re up to nearly 7 billion people on this planet. How could child-bearing restrictions not make sense? The Earth can only produce so much food and so many resources. The atmosphere can only handle so much CO2 emission from product-demanding humans.

Yet, on May 12, population control stopped being just about numbers to me. An earthquake and a law enacted to save a country’s resources tore away the reason for living from thousands of parents in a number of seconds. Suddenly, Nature’s population control stole the very reason these people woke up every day and lived.

I have four children aged two to 13. If the same type of earthquake struck Southern California, chances are that some of my children would survive (if not all – such a horrible thing to think about!) I would still have children; I would still be a mother. How can I be in favor of a law I wouldn’t want imposed upon myself – not even to save the Earth?

Rationally, I know that government-ordered population control may be the only solution to allow a sustainable number of bodies to successfully coexist on this planet, but the effects on our fellow parents, our fellow humans, need to be considered when crafting public policy. Saving the planet is absolutely and necessarily vital to our survival, but it should not come at the expense of broken hearts.

In early 2007, I decided it was time to make a real difference in global warming. I had just watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and felt deeply motivated by it. Around that same time I had purchased a book called World Changing: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century by Alex Steffen, a hefty tome loaded with ideas anyone could use to make a better Earth, and to be inspired by creative genius.

One of my favorite articles was about a large, hollow, plastic doughnut with a rope through the middle. It was designed to simplify the process of gathering water in remote areas. Even children could fill the container with water and easily pull the rolling vessel to their villages. Its simplicity was ingenious yet life changing.

Because of the movie and the book I was thoroughly inspired and thrilled by a desire to contribute to solutions to save the environment from the real and imminent catastrophe of global warming. Years ago I had been introduced to the subject because my favorite professor in college was none other than Dr. Roger Revelle, the man who coined the concept of “the greenhouse effect.”* He was a wonderful, brilliant, kind man, and in his early eighties when I met him. He was my mentor on many subjects – teaching about global warming and environmental issues; examining problems from all sides with detached emotions and practicality; leaving a legacy that could revolutionize the world. In 2007 my old interests were rekindled with a passion.

Because I had so much respect for Roger Revelle, I knew global warming was real. So, recently I decided to start an online store to introduce people to the many beautiful products that could make the world a better place – simple things that could add to the health of the planet and the health of its children without compromise. More importantly, my own site would offer a chance to teach people about environmental issues and the very real power each individual has to make a difference. This blog is a natural extension of my goals and dreams. With your input and mine, together we can change the world. Believe it.

*The “greenhouse effect” refers to the idea that the changing atmosphere due to increasing CO2 emissions will not allow heat to escape from the earth’s atmosphere, thus trapping excessive heat much like a greenhouse captures the sun’s rays inside its glass walls and causes the temperature to rise higher than outside the glass.