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!
08 February 2008
friday photos: junior scientists edition
We've had a sudden boom in the popularity of science around here. We went to the (highly interactive) science museum last weekend, and since then, James has been declaring his intention to be a scientist when he grows up (this is the first thing he's wanted to be that wasn't a stay-at-home dad), and he's suddenly very interested in the science experiment books he got for his birthday. (Okay, he was always interested in them, but this week we've done our first experiments because he has been so insistent.) James dripping soap into the water/pepper mixture (you can sort of see how the pepper spread away from the center where he added the soap): Evan was not keen on touching the slimy shell-less egg: James, hoever, was happy to both hold his egg, and pose for photos: A close-up of the egg, because that's pretty cool:
Of course, since James wants to be a scientist and perform science experiments, so does Evan. This necessitates performing two experiments at once, every time. So far we've done three experiments, and learned the science behind them (I use the word "learned" loosely, since I'm not really sure how much James is really understanding or retaining): adding soap to water and pepper (like this), adding bleach to colored water, and, the best one, soaking an egg in vinegar to remove its shell (leaving the membrane intact, though).
Photos below the fold.
Here is Evan whole-heartedly getting into the pepper-shaking part of the first experiment:
Happy Friday, everyone!
14 July 2006
friday photos, atkins for babies, and cool science news
First, the photos. We went to the new, improved Strong Museum yesterday and it was fabulous. As you'll see, the boys had a lot of fun there (well, James did anyway; Evan spent a lot of time wanting to be carried, since it was nearing naptime):
Brave Sir James
Sherlock James searching for clues
James the frightening dragon
James playing a giant electronic harp
Evan on a giant chessboardSpeaking of Evan, we are having issues lately. Who knew a thirteen-month-old had so much potential to drive his parents crazy? We're getting a lot of temper tantrums lately; now that he knows how to say "no", he uses it -- or should I say, screams it -- at almost every opportunity. Also, he has apparently decided to go on the Atkins diet without consulting us, because he has mostly stopped eating carbs. He'd be quite happy on a diet of meat and fruit, with some peas (far and away his favorite vegetable) thrown in. The only carbs he eats willingly are croutons and potatoes, sometimes a bagel. Oh, the kid would probably live on potatoes if I let him, but that's not exactly practical. So we are struggling a bit.
And now for something completely different. Yesterday I came across this article about one of the coolest archaeological finds I've ever read about: Fanged kangaroos? Tree-climbing crocodiles? Marsupial lions? A "demon duck of doom"?! I always knew Australia was cool, but this goes beyond my wildest imaginings, vaulting Austrlia from cool to totally bad-ass and amazing.
03 February 2006
human-animal hybrids and the culture of life
Okay, so after posting yesterday, thanks to a discussion with Greg and a link from Kim, I've learned that there is some truth to Bush's "human-animal hybrids" remark -- but that he or his speechwriter chose a pretty vague and misleading term to describe it. To say "human-animal hybrid" brings to mind The Island of Dr Moreau, or hybrid creatures such as satyrs, centaurs, minotaurs, or chimeras -- which is actually what the scientific community is calling the results of their research and experimentation. The images brought to mind by Bush's terminology are probably helpful in creating the opposition he desires, though: in mythology, these hybrid creatures were often dangerous or immoral, and in the case of Dr Moreau, those who create such creatures are totally insane.
But what Bush is probably referring to is actually legitimate scientific research, and potentially very useful, as this National Geographic article describes. As Greg reminded me last night, some animal parts are currently transplanted into humans, such as heart valves. The link Kim left in my comments describes how scientists are putting human genes into mice to study Down's syndrome. Scientists all over the world are combining human parts (for lack of a better, all-encompassing term) with animal parts to create these new chimeras. This research is being done to study human conditions to better understand how to treat them.
Now, I understand that there are ethical concerns in playing around with DNA and creating things that God or nature never thought of. But the more I know about Bush and science, the more I am convinced that his "culture of life" does not extend to actual, living human beings with actual debilitating medical conditions (unless, perhaps, they're practically braindead), or to those who've committed crimes, or to civilians who become casualties of war, or to women who find themselves pregnant and unable to continue the pregnancy for whatever reason, or to poor people in general, but is limited only to cells that have the potential of becoming human life. His inconsistency in being concerned for life continually astounds me, as his policies so often neglect those living people who are truly in need of help.
If medical research will allow us to save the lives of those who are already living, to improve the health of living people, then I think we're obligated to do whatever we can to help these people. Is it ethical to let them continue to suffer when we might have the technology to help them? It reminds me of the Plan B article I linked to yesterday, in the sense that some people in authority are so concerned about what some people might do (teenagers might have sex, scientists might get carried away), that they're denying lots of people the benefits of science and medicine that could change or even save their lives. And to me, that's not a culture of life.
