Miomarmo

NJ - Going, going, going...Gone Green!

In a recent article in the US 1 paper by Karen Hodges Miller, I read an article that I found astounding.  NJ has become #2 in the nation (only to California) as the leader in the production of solar energy! 

Be it recognition of climate change or the increased activity by government to open up doors to businesses via benefits being given to companies who embrace green energy, the actions are clear; NJ is on the move.  Not only has NJ become 2nd in the nation for solar energy production, it is now also entering into the development of wind energy.  Twenty miles offshore, facilities are in development from data obtained for areas from Seaside Park to Sea Isle City.

Perhaps this will bring the cost of living down in NJ?  This remains to be seen.  But the most important thing to recognize is that we finally seem to be a nation that is taking notice not only in the potential economic growth that can be sustained from solar/wind/water energy, jobs that can be created, but also the positive effects it will have on future generations to come.  

Kudos to NJ for stepping up to the plate and advancing in the pro-active and positive change that we all need!  Here's to hoping that many other states take notice and vamp up their own efforts to make a change for the well-being of this planet and all its inhabitants.

April Brings Earth Day Into Focus

With the upcoming month of April approaching quickly, so does Earth Day and the HSUS's promotion of Animal Cruelty Prevention Month.  These two concepts heavily coincided for me as I was reading the most current issue (March/April) of the HSUS magazine, 'All Animals'.  As I flipped through the pages, it became inherently apparent to me the connection with us, the world we live, and the delicate balance by which our environment survives every day.

Via a multitude of articles based upon that same delicate balance, it was shown time and time again how we have not and if we do not preserve this wonderful world of ours, the landscape will forever change never to return.  For anyone who believes that extinction is not a form of animal cruelty (i.e. - starvation due to climate changes, senseless hunting to brink of extinction, and oceanic changes diminishing food supply) think again.  Going to the grocery store is a simple task but foraging for food has become dire for many creatures.  The HSUS issue touched upon the extinction of dozens of creatures, ocean habitats, and climate changes threatening our very existence.  We may not worry now with the adage, "I'll be dead before I seen things like that" but guess what...your children won't...and their children won't.    What would it be like to grow up in a world without natural ocean habitats abundant? 

Two decades ago, people bristled at the audacious thought of living in a world without polar bears, with melting icecaps, and coral reefs becoming extinct.  And surprisingly enough, in this day and era of people living longer, you may just get to see these horrific events occur.  The face of climate change threatens to diminish such animals as polar bear, walruses, monk seals, and certain shark species just to name a few ocean creatures.  With respect to land lovers, koala's, the arctic fox, wolverines, and bison all stand to perish or diminish into such drastically small numbers that any effort to save them would be difficult at best.  Just one look at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is the size of Texas one realizes that it is definitely not one of the 7 great wonders of the world to behold.  The site of it would make almost any human being blanch at its imposing expansiveness. 

Yet with all this real information at our fingertips, we continue to support factory farming, the purchase of plastic bottles for water, dismiss massive food recalls as an inconvenience, and not once do we scream at the top of our lungs to the government to "Take a Stand" and "Make It Stop".  People think the government won't do anything.  Perhaps not yet they won't.  But when millions upon millions of people stop buying plastic water bottles, spend an extra $1.00 a week on non-factory/organic farm raised meat, and buy more local fruits and vegetables, industries would come to a crashing halt and suddenly say, "What is happening here?”

It may sound crazy, but one small change every 6 months has an enormous impact locally, globally, and spherically. 

Simple Statement of the Day

It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life. Towards this end, experiments on living animals in classrooms should be stopped. To encourage cruelty in the name of science can only destroy the finer emotions of affection and sympathy, and breed an unfeeling callousness in the young towards suffering in all living creatures.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

It's Time to Get Up

Recent news over the past few months has been talking about the hazards of sitting for too long at one time. I work at a computer and sit for most of my eight-plus-hours workdays. Though I knew I wasn't getting fitter as I sat, I didn't realize I was actually getting less healthy, even if I was also adding exercise to my daily routine.

It turns out that "After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals," Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences said in a study published earlier this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down. This all means we can be fatter, and have a higher chance for heart disease and diabetes. Working out for eight hours will not eliminate the harmful effects of sitting down for eight hours (though don't stop working out!).

So, since I want to be healthy, I decided to try the stand up desk. I looked around at some places that make stand up desks online just to get ideas and from that research determined I wanted the desk height at just around elbow height. This ended up working well, it turns out, for both work on my computer, and other types of work I do at a desk. I immediately noticed the difference and just felt more alert and focused, but I did start feeling it in my legs and a little in my back. Though, already in a standing position, I found I was doing a lot of stretches and bends that I didn't normally do because I'd have to get up to do them (sounds lazy, I know, but you know what I mean!). So not only am I standing up more, I'm moving more in terms of pacing (thinking) and stretching (while waiting for a file to upload).

I had my desk built with 2x4s (I used an existing desk top), but there other ways to make a stand up desk. Be creative!

Some more background:

• One study found that the chance of developing metabolic syndrome, a condition that can lead to diabetes, rose by 26% for every extra hour a woman spent sitting, no matter how much exercise she did.
• Doctors from the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm say the only way to lessen the effects of sitting is to cut the amount of time we're inactive/sitting.
• The chemical reactions triggered in the body from inactivity cannot be canceled out with more exercise.
• Sitting up straight, it turns out, isn't the best way to sit.
• In a study published last year that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about 12 years, researchers found people who sat more had a higher death risk, independent of whether or not they exercised.
• Figures from a U.S. survey in 2003-2004 found that we Americans spend more than half our time sitting.

It's only been a little over a week, and I'd read that it takes a week or two to get used to it but I knew right away I was going to stick with it. Here are a few tips if you're considering this change:

• Don't lock your knees. Stand up straight and then dial it back just a bit to give your knees the cushion and flexibility they need.
• Keep moving. Even though you're already standing, go ahead and move around, shift your weight, bend one leg and stand on the other (try the lotus yoga stand). Even if you're not doing the stand up desk, moving around regularly is a must.
• Don't give up. From all the research I did I found that almost unanimously, stand up desk people had a hard time their first week or two. You might even be sore, but hang in there, it will pay off.

Here's an article with tips on getting your boss to sign on! The ideal situation would be able to go from standing to sitting, but that either means two desks or one that adjusts to different heights. For me, I have a stool nearby :-)

Saving the world with your wallet and your fork

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Hopefully, you already know that the little things you do each day can help make the world a better place. Today I'm asking you to extend that to your wallet and the choices you make at the supermarket. If you haven't already seen Food, Inc., I strongly urge you to watch it for free online and see how scary our food has become, and how overpowering are the handful of giant corporations who control almost the entire food industry.

The trailer:



PBS is streaming the entire movie for free here.

Have you already seen it? What changes have you made for you and your family since you've watched it?

Life-Cycle Assessment and How to Apply it to Your Buying Habits

Life-Cycle Assessment, or LCA, as defined by the the EPA is "a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision."

Sounds confusing, but you might be reading between the lines already. It's difficult to know, as a consumer, what impact a product you buy has on the environment, humans, and other animals. Most of the products we buy and use today were invented a long time ago, the process used to make each of these products were determined by how much it cost the manufacturer and not how much impact it had on the environment. That's because we were in the dark about the potential dangers of manufacturing, and today we need to basically reinvent pretty much everything.

New industrial ecology is using LCA to take a product and tear it down into it's various components. What it's made of, what process is used to make each of those components, how it's transported, how it's used, how we dispose of it, and how the company treats its employees and its community ... every thing we buy has a hidden price tag on our lives and environment. Making decisions on what to buy, or if to buy at all, can be daunting for those of us determined to make a difference. By remaining uneducated on what we buy, we're creating potential dangers for our futures.

So what can you do?

I've been doing my best to research what I buy. As some of you know, we're building a house and one example, recently, is our search for a sealer for our wood floors. We did some research and found some soy-based products that were looking good. We ordered samples and tried them out and were ready to purchase the product. Then, we found a newer one recently that uses a by-product of cheese making: whey. We liked this, not only were the ingredients all natural, they were using something that was being thrown away. And, it's made locally (in our state). We love supporting Vermont-made products whenever possible.  Bonus: It actually works better than anything we tried! This took a lot more time than walking into Home Depot and asking for a floor sealer ...

Another example, when we put in our plumbing, we decided to go with PVC pipes. Copper is a nonrenewable resource, and other products were less durable so using them meant having to replace them over and over rather than buying PVC once. It's a tough choice when none of the choices are perfect.

The research is time-consuming, but worth it. It's hard to know what information to trust. The manufacturers are using all kinds of phrases to get us to think they're green such as "all natural" and "wholesome" but what is really behind the product and the company that makes it?

In researching about LCA I came across an amazing resource: GoodGuide (now in beta). Rather than rating on how well something may work, they're rated based on an LCA for that product.

So, I went to GoodGuide and looked up a common product: Cheerios. Its GoodGuide rating is 8.5. They based this on:

• Health/Nutrition Performance: 10 "This product has a good nutrition score."
• Environmental Performance: 8.1 "This company has minimal or no community-related controversies."
• Social Performance: 7.4 "This company that makes this product has an above-average score in use of resources."

But it also gives a lot of deeper information and not just an overview. I looked into the Environmental Performance and found that it rated very well in Energy Management, but not as well for Compliance and Toxic Waste. For Social Performance, Cheerios rated "Best in Category" in Working Conditions & Benefits and Philanthropy, but less well (though still not part of the "Worst in Category") in Quality & Safety, Workplace Diversity, and Labor & Human Rights.

Check out GoodGuide's information on their Ratings and Methodology. And their blog.

And please check out what you're buying and maybe you'll find something better? I know I'll be spending a lot of time on this and from my initial look-through, will be replacing a lot of what I buy with something better.