Being green is so in these days, so in honor of Mother Earth and Earth day, I'm going to post some interesting links on a variety of environmental topics. Enjoy!
Which Candidate is Greenest? -- An article in Vanity Fair discusses which presidential candidate will be best on environmental issues. Yes, we all know it's not McCain, but check out this piece and the other articles it links to for more details.
Find Earth Day Events in Your Area -- I know it's getting a little late in the day for this, but Mother Earth News offers some resources for finding out what's happening in your area today.
10 for the Earth -- Heifer International (an all-around excellent organization) lists ten simple, everyday things you can do to lower your impact on the environment. They may sound familiar -- none of them were new to me -- but it never hurts to be reminded.
Why Bother? -- Michael Pollan addresses the seeming hopelessness of those little individual acts of environmentalism, and makes a compelling case that we should persist in our individual efforts. (Thanks for the link, Kim!)
Greener Pastures -- Speaking of individual acts of environmentalism, Bill Nye (the Science Guy) puts the rest of us to shame. Some of his ideas are simple, others are prohibitively expensive for most of us, but all of them make me wish I were eating his scones and watching hummingbirds with him.
Earth Day Tips -- Another list, this one from National Geographic's Green Guide, of things you can do to make your life more green.
Environmental Cleaning Solutions -- Lots of resources about using environmentally-friendly cleaning products, such as vinegar and baking soda and lemon juice. Keep your home clean using fewer chemicals and pollutants, and save a few bucks too.
The Rainforest Site -- Just one click of your mouse and money is donated to rainforest preservation and habitat protection. (Click to donate to the other worthy causes while you're there, too.)
Thoreau's Laundry -- Interesting post at Shakesville about the intersection of gender issues with environmentalism -- thoughts I've had from time to time, but I don't think I could ever have put it down so coherently. As usual at Shakesville, the comments section is nearly as good as the original post.
Monsanto's Harvest of Fear -- Okay, this is not exactly an Earth Day link, but it's about the evil being done to the earth, to farmers, and to agriculture in general by one of the leading bioengineering companies in the world. Monsanto is responsible for the majority of genetically modified foods out there, as well as a marketer of bovine growth hormones, and they are frighteningly aggressive in both political lobbying and bullying small farmers.
Okay, that's all from me. Go out and do something nice for the Earth today!
22 April 2008
happy earth day!
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3 comments:
From Heifer's link: My Earth day goal is to line dry a load per week, and go up from there. This is one I keep reading about, but haven't gotten around to. I want to do it for the earth, but also because I hate the pilling on my clothes and I'm sure the dryer is mostly to blame. Do you line dry clothes? Any suggestions about how to do it?
Jessica, I have started air-drying, some. It's not terribly convenient because it takes a lot (a LOT) longer than the dryer, but it is free, and worth it if you're not in a hurry for clean clothes. I have a drying rack that I hang the clothes on (some nicer things I hang on hangers in the bathroom to dry, to avoid so many wrinkles) and when I run out of room on the rack I drape clothes over chairs or other furniture. Looks a little sloppy, but I don't care much about that. So far I haven't done it outside -- there's no good place here to hang a clothesline -- but I'm planning to bring my drying rack outside one of these days. Heck, remember the people in Whipple who used to hang clothes on the fences around the maintenance stairs, or just lay them flat on the lawn?
I haven't noticed much difference in texture, though if you do there are fabric softeners you can put in the wash. Or occasionally I throw the air-dried clothes in the dryer for 10-15 minutes to lose a few wrinkles and soften them up a little.
In general you have to plan ahead a bit more to air-dry clothes, but as another stay-at-home mom I know you're not too short on time for things like that. :)
Look at you...being so informative! Thanks for all the links...gives me more ways to put off doing actual work!
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