Green Options

This quick and painless 15 question quiz will shine an LED light on your environmental personality. Do you think you are a Planetsaver? Find out below.

1. Cycle:
a.motor b.bi c.water

2. Take:
a.more b.a seat c.action

3. Vehicle:
a.SUV b.C-A-R c.B-U-S

4. Media:
a.TV b.radio c.book/mags

5. Bikes:
a.for kids b.for exercise c.for most trips

I got an e-mail today from an unknown author that is worth passing on.  Parts of it are copied here, alongside my own personal thoughts.

I don’t know how much you know about the Law of Attraction or if you’ve ever heard of it. But surely you’ve heard of the phrase, ‘What you resist, persists.’ The more we don’t want something, the more it finds us. For example - the more we resist forming relationships with a certain type of person in our lives, the more we attract that same kind of relationship over and over again.  The more we resisted President Bush, the more he stayed in office.  I truly believe that the reason he won two terms as President is because everyone from all sides was so intently focused on him– Democrats with negative energy and Republicans with positive energy.

Dr. Ravi Gupta thinks hospitals need to become a lot more environmentally friendly.

Hospitals and outpatient practices use a lot of energy and waste a lot of materials.  Doctors tend to be focused on patient care rather than caring for the environment.  Hopefully, that is starting to change.

Dr. Gupta, a physician practicing hospital medicine in Virginia, had been so bothered by the lack of an environmental policy at the his job that he did something: he developed and a plan to make the hospital system where he works greener and he helped implement it.

One in six people on the planet do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.

Your tap water is fine.

Worried it isn’t? Get it tested.
If it turns out that it isn’t get a tap water filter, and join a “stream team” (google it to find one in your state).
Need to take it with you? Get a re-usable bottle that will last long and not leach harmful chemicals into the water you are drinking.

There. Your water problems are solved, and I never once suggested purchasing bottled water.

Water is free (kind of) it falls from the sky. If it were Coke that came out of your taps and fell from the sky—I can’t imagine ANYONE purchasing it in a bottle for an incredible mark up. Afterall, it’s free (sort of)! So why buy water of a similar quality to that which flows from your tap, in bottles made from some of the most environmentally damaging chemicals on the planet? And why pay one, two, or three dollars?

…Why not pay twenty?

Seriously.

The only good bottle of water available for purchase is being sold by Scott Harrison and it costs $20!

“Why would ANYONE pay $20 for a normal-sized bottle of water?”, you ask.

Because this special bottle of water has the unique ability to drill wells!

If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you consider yourself “green,” or, at least, you are trying to do your part to be more environmentally minded, environmentally sensitive and environmentally responsible. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are a part of the green movement. And each part makes the green movement what it is — the entity it is — (on the global scale, the national scale, the regional scale, the local scale, and the personal scale).

Throughout the course of our life and our efforts, we have to step back and look at how effective we are at achieving our goals, how far our good intentions are actually taking us, how “green” our lifestyles are. We have to look at how much our green actions are doing to really protect and conserve the environment. At the same time, if we are trying to be a part of this green movement (which is growing in name, in respect, and, to some degree, in overall influence), we have to step back and evaluate the trajectory of the green movement, how effective the overall movement is in making our dreams of a safe, secure, sustainable, lively, and vibrant environment a true reality.

To be honest, I have been involved in the green movement since childhood and am fairly “extreme,” sincere, or devoted in my efforts to be green and to do my part. Nonetheless, I just moved to Poland from the U.S. and I have found that I have habits and ways of thinking that are greatly less sustainable, less environmentally sensitive, than the normal, average Pole who does not have any special care or concern for the environment and may just have the vaguest sense of what the “green movement” or “green living” is.

Why the great disparity in our actions and ways of life, despite the fact that I am the “green”?

CLEAR CLUTTER FOR CLEAN WATER (say that 5 times fast!)

Water is on the tip of everybody’s tongue these days. America is facing major crises with floods in some regions, hundreds of wild fires in others, and droughts throughout. As horrible as all of that may sound, the majority of us can all still go to our faucet and access safe and clean drinking water without a whole lot of effort. Not the case for many people worldwide.

Fact: 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.

Fact: Countless women and children walk on average 4 miles just to fetch a jug of water that is not guaranteed to be safe to drink.

Fact: $30 provides one person with a lifetime of safe drinking water.

Some days I fall victim to the green noise syndrome; I’m so overloaded by the green options all around me I don’t know where to go. Bath and cleaning products are one place I always thought I had it right. If I buy the organic, I’m good to go. Or am I?

I just learned last week that in March, Seventh Generation, Method, and other companies that produced green cleaning products were under scrutiny by the Organic Consumers Association. When testing around a hundred “cosmetic, personal care and household cleaning formulas, [the Association] found that nearly 50% of them contained detectable levels of 1,4-dioxane, which is known to cause cancer in lab animals.” Method, Planet Ultra and Seventh Generation’s “natural” dish cleaning products were among those products that tested positive. All manufacturer’s who tested for 1,4 were asked to remove their “organic” and “natural” labels or they’d face a lawsuit. Just when I thought I was cleaning consciously, I have to go through another round of making change in my lifestyle.

Just every now and then you get a story that really makes you smile. This is one of them, and though it is short, it is full of hope. I know that sounds sappy and a little corny, but you’ll understand what I mean in a moment.

Alaska seems to be a bit under the pump these days, what with ANWR being sold off piece by

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Let’s not try and talk about this as breaking news, for many people have already seen the horrific pictures. But the fact is that this is huge news, and I’m going to take a quick look at just what it is, what it means, and why.

However if you haven’t turned on a TV or computer over the past little while, I’ll run it down for you. Photos released by the Australian Customs [...]

“We must restore confidence to the economy, to consumers and to the markets,” declared The House Democratic Leadership on Friday.

Their solution? Tax rebates and relief, echoing George Bush and probably every other economic analyst. The Federal Reserve has been cutting interest rates for the past six months to achieve the same goal; to entice people to Buy! Buy! Buy!

Not only will this take money away from important public services, but increasing consumption has dire negative impacts. The process of extracting resources, manufacturing products, consuming them, and disposing of them is the very culprit of environmental degradation. And guess what? This consumption will ultimately take us down as well.

In an article entitled 10 Ways Recession Can Help the Environment the author writes:

Carbon sequestration will be used in this new coal-fired power plant to reduce the carbon footprint of electricity.

The town of Mattoon, Illinois rejoiced when the developers of a $1.8 billion low-pollution power plant announced the selected location. This rust-belt town will no longer be primarily known as the bagel capital of the world. The 275-megawatt prototype plant will generate both electricity and hydrogen. Carbon dioxide emissions will be captured and pumped deep into [...]