Photo courtesy of Benito78 at Flickr.com.
Ask the average person on the street, and they’ll agree with you that food and gas prices have risen a ridiculous amount. Most of us can remember buying gas for less than $2 a gallon or buying 10 ears of corn for a dollar. That was back when the greenback had some serious buying power - now, it’s so weak that even international supermodels are turning their nose up at the US dollar.
Back in 2006, gasoline cost about 5% of the average consumers take-home pay. Since then, gas prices have risen nearly 90%. So, even though most of us are using less gas these days, the average American is now spending about 9% of their after-tax income on oil.
That money has to come from somewhere else on the balance sheet. For an increasing number of people with tight budgets, economic trends are forcing us to change our habits in ways that have unintended side effects. Restaurant sales are down as their customer opt for more home cooked meals (or even home grown meals). Movie theaters are hurting because people are choosing to save money by staying at home. State highway departments are in trouble because people who use less gas also pay fewer fuel taxes. Many people are even trading in their SUVs for smaller cars (imagine that)!
Photo courtesy of JAEbugs at Flickr.com.
The lifestyle choices we make are directly related to the choices available to others. When Americans order a double meat hamburger patty, we’re consuming a whole slew of resources. Beyond the beef itself, we’re consuming pasture land, fertilizer, fuel used to transport the beef, and more fuel to cook it. Americans consume 24% of the world’s energy, and citizens of other countries are harmed by our excesses.
On average, one American consumes as much energy as
2 Japanese 6 Mexicans 13 Chinese 31 Indians 128 Bangladeshis 307 Tanzanians 370 Ethiopians
Worldwide, the picture is grim. Starvation and malnutrition are serious dangers in Bangladesh, Haiti, Somalia, and other countries that rely on cheap food imports. People living in those countries aren’t being forced to choose between gourmet coffee and house payments - parents in many countries are faced with the decision of feeding themselves, or feeding their children.
Americans eat 815 billion calories of food each day - that’s roughly 200 billion more than needed - enough to feed 80 million people.
One of the biggest problems with the American diet is our overconsumption of protein. Protein is high in calories, and our bodies convert it to fat. There’s a relation between our rising beef consumption and the growing obesity epidemic. Also, the kidneys are responsible for converting protein into usable forms. Eating excessive protein can cause serious kidney problems (including diabetes and failure to regulate blood pressure):
Ideally, you should consume 0.36 grams of protein for every pound of body weight, according to recommended daily allowances (RDA) set by the Food and Nutrition Board. So if you weigh 170 pounds, you need about 61 grams of protein each day. Protein should also make up approximately 15% of your total daily caloric intake…
Photo courtesy of :hMd: at Flickr.com.
The average American consumes about twice that much protein. This overconsumption has devastating effects on our health, but it also has wide ranging impacts on the rest of the world. If we consumed less meat, there would be less strain on the world food supply:
The whole world has never come close to outpacing its ability to produce food. Right now, there is enough grain grown on earth to feed 10 billion vegetarians, said Joel E. Cohen, professor of populations at Rockefeller University and the author of “How Many People Can the Earth Support?” But much of it is being fed to cattle, the S.U.V.’s of the protein world, which are in turn guzzled by the world’s wealthy.
So, that’s something to think about the next time you’re out shopping. Instead of adding a second T-Bone to your cart, you might want to pick up some squash and pasta. Switching to one vegetarian meal each day can greatly reduce your footprint, while also improving the variety of nutrients in your diet and saving some money too!
Photo courtesy of striped tail at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 5% [?]
6 Jun 08 |
Photo courtesy of jen d. cox at Flickr.com.
Are you fascinated by bats? Have you ever wanted your own Batmobile, Batphone, or Batarang? If you’re counting down the days until the new Batman movie premiers (July 18th, 2008), now is a good time to learn more about the fascinating creatures that inspired the franchise.
There are several major cities with bat colonies. The largest urban colony in North America is in Austin, Texas, under the Congress Avenue Bridge. It has approximately 1.5 million Mexican Free-Tailed Bats and during the summer they eat 10,000-20,000 pounds of insects every night. Another bat colony with large numbers year-round can be found in Houston, Texas. Many other bat nesting sites are scattered throughout Texas and other US states bordering Mexico, including New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Here’s what it looks like when the bats take flight at sunset:
Bats do a wonderful job of controlling insect populations. Recent studies have shown they eat as many insects as birds do - without their insect control efforts, farmers would lose millions of dollars of crops. Bats are a natural alternative to pesticides. Instead of spraying thousands of gallons of chemicals, many cities have started building bat friendly bridges and protecting bat habitat from development.
Is your yard infested with bugs? One brown bat can eat up to 3000 mosquitoes each night. Bats also control other insects that target humans as well as bugs that like to eat landscaping plants. Even better, bats turn these pests into a highly effective fertilizer.
If you’d like to reduce your use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, why not invite some bats to roost in your yard? With a bat house, you can encourage these insect eaters to start their own small colony. If you have a serious insect problem or if you have Wayne Mansion sized yard, this Deluxe Bat House can provide a home for three times as many bats.
Don’t forget to pick up a Bat Gizmo to complete you Batman experience. This Bat Detector is an amazing gadget that makes ultrasonic bat calls audible to the human ear. With it, you can listen in on your new pet bats and hear how grateful they are for your hospitality!
Photo courtesy of mikemilton at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 7% [?]
16 Mar 08 |
Photo courtesy of fastfoodforthought at Flickr.com.
Rooftop gardens, which are also sometimes called “Green Roofs”, have been encouraged in the developed world as a way of moderating urban temperature and rain water flood surges. In India, a new program is developing rooftop gardens with different goals in mind.
Rooftop gardens offer urban farmers a chance to turn squalor into nutrition. Equally important, they offer diversity to the household income. In a country where many women and low-caste men are often shut out from job opportunities, green roofs can do more than minimize the impact of weather.
Photo courtesy of /\ltus at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 7% [?]
2 Mar 08 |
Ebird.org is the Audubon’s Society’s online birding checklist that you can use to record your observations and compare them with other people across the continent and in other parts of the world. Why would you want to do this? Here’s some info from their website:
“eBird’s goal is to maximize the utility and accessibility of the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by recreational and professional bird watchers. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence.”
And furthermore:
“The observations of each participant join those of others in an international network of eBird users. eBird then shares these observations with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists. In time these data will become the foundation for a better understanding of bird distribution across the western hemisphere and beyond.”
I learned about the program at a recent organic gardening coference. Farms and backyard habitat are some of the best remaining habitat for a variety of birds. Knowing what kinds of birds live in and visit your area is a great way to help us understand their behavior and protect them.
Plus, eBird is pretty cool to play around with! It’s got interactive maps, charts, and more. And it takes about 2 minutes to sign up and start using.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Photo courtesy of Hartaarn at Flickr.com.
One day, all of us are going to go to join the big compost pile. It’s generally not something we think about, but we’re all part of the circle of life.
So, how green is the funeral industry? With embalming, cement vaults, metal caskets, and marble headstones, death can leave a pretty big blemish on the environment. Luckily, that’s changing as funeral directors recognize the demand for green alternatives.
Many funeral homes now offer bio-degradable caskets, embalming free preparations, and even tree care services (to mark the burial site instead of a headstone). Since green burials use far fewer resources, these environmentally friendly alternatives cost far less than traditional funerals.
The $20 billion-a-year mortuary industry offers a service that remains the [average person's] third-largest personal expense, after a house and car.
Going green means leaving a healthier planet and a bigger inheritance for your loved ones too!
Popularity: 5% [?]
Flickr photo courtesy of brocktopia.
Legend has it that an Ethiopian Goat herder named Kaldi became concerned when his goats began to dance about. Upon following the goats and observing their diets, the Fred Astaire impersonations came after they consumed the cherries off of a particular kind of bush.
The Coffee Revolution had begun.
Coffee was declared a Christian beverage by the pope, and coffee spread throughout the world. Coffee Houses, called “Penny Universities” became the place for the great thinkers to gather and exchange ideas. Coffee started to replace alcoholic drink as a safe beverage which many historians believe helped to fuel the industrial revolution.
But there are problems. Initially coffee bushes were grown under the canopy of trees so that they didn’t interfere with the natural habitat of birds and other animals. As coffee spread across the world and the demand grew coffee plants were developed that would produce coffee faster with more sunlight which meant cutting down the trees. In addition, more fertilizer and pesticides were used to produce the maximum yield; especially on large corporate farms.
In response there is a movement by many to purchase only shade grown or “bird friendly” coffee. While shade grown coffee plantations may not provide the natural habitat that the forests do they are a vast improvement over full sun plantations. Some people prefer the taste of shad grown coffee as well.
The coffee world is a confusing place to the socially and environmentally conscious consumer. It would seem at first that the simple thing to do would be to buy only fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee. And there’s nothing really wrong with that in itself.
But because it’s human nature to ad piles of bureaucracy to every good idea we now have responsible coffee growers who pay their employees well and act as their own brokers who cannot get certified as fair trade because they aren’t a co-op. We have poor family run coffee farms who although they are using only organic methods of coffee productions the cost associated with getting certified is more than their yearly income. And we have farms that have are grown on land naturally devoid of trees that can’t be certified as shade grown but are still home to poor farmers who have families to feed with their coffee crop.
Rather than solely relying on certifications by companies that sometimes hurt poor family farmers with these unintended consequences, the best thing you can do is stop in and talk to your local roaster. Many roasters take great pains to only buy from responsible farms and brokers. Most of them are happy to find customers who are concerned enough to ask these questions. And you get to spend your money with a local business at the same time.
If you can’t find a roaster like that, then you can always fall back on those labels.
Popularity: 6% [?]
10 Dec 07 |
Mom is allergic to pine trees growing up, so back in the 60’s our tree was this little table top thing with sparkly foil branches. During the 70’s it was a plastic “life like” tree from Montgomery Wards. I still have that one in a closet somewhere.
A very close friend of mine is a sculptor who gave me for Christmas a 7 foot tall metal sculpture he did that is kind of pointy towards the top and one year while we were out in the garage doing guy things his girlfriend and my wife decided to decorate the sculpture and put presents under it. The look on his face was priceless when we came in. It’s been a Christmas tradition ever since.
But if I had a choice I would go with a live tree for Christmas. You can get small pine trees from most nurseries balled and burlaped and then after Christmas rather than going into a landfill you have a tree you can plant in the yard. There are just a few things you need keep in mind.
First of all, make sure that the tree you are getting will survive well in the type of soil you have in it’s new home. The folks at the nursery should be able to steer you in the right direction there.
In addition, Clemson University has these suggestions about how to care for the tree after you get it home:
Before moving the tree inside the house, help it adjust by moving it to an unheated but sheltered area such as a garage or porch for a couple of days.
Keep the tree in the house for no more than 7 to 10 days.
Locate the tree indoors in as cool a location as possible. Keep it away from heating vents, fireplaces and other heat sources. Use limited numbers of miniature tree lights.
Provide as much natural light as possible.
Place the root ball or container in a water holding tub. Fill the bottom two inches of the tub with gravel and place the ball or container on the gravel. This will keep the tree from sitting in water.
Keep the root ball constantly and evenly moist, but not flooded. A handy technique for watering trees while indoors is to place crushed ice over the top of the root ball.
A piece of pipe inserted vertically at the side of the tub provides an easy way to check water level in the tub. If there is water at the bottom of the pipe, you do not need to water the tree. You can check the water level by inserting a “dip stick” into the pipe
After the holidays it’s best to allow the tree to adjust to outside for a fewdays, maybe in a garage or patio, before planting it.
If you really need to go the traditional route, you can minimize the negative impact on the environment by properly disposing of the tree. Colorado State University has these suggestions:
Give the tree, sans the tinsel, to conservation groups, who place trees in gullies and arroyos to slow soil erosion.
Recycle it through a municipality that uses chippers to convert trees to landscape or garden mulch.
Use the cut tree as a model for a future landscape evergreen. Observe how the tree looks in relation to buildings and other plantings near the proposed site.
Create a bird station by tying the tree to a fence post or setting it in the ground. Hang suet cakes or seed balls from the tree.
Cut off branches, leaving one-inch stubs on the trunk. Use branches and needles as mulch. The trunk will make a fine tomato stake or bean pole.
Popularity: 4% [?]
14 Nov 07 |
Americans drink a lot of coffee. It’s the second largest commodity traded; right after oil. And the bulk of those coffee grounds go right into the land fill.
That’s a shame because coffee makes a great fertilizer and composting agent. It’s high in nitrogen and also contains potassium and phosphorous. You can simply sprinkle it around existing plants and water it in or add it to compost. Paper coffee filters break down quickly during composting so you can just toss them in the compost whole.
If you’re not a coffee drinker; or just need a lot more coffee grounds than you generally produce through your own consumption a visit to your local coffee shop is in order. According to Fort Worth, Texas based Panther City Coffee Co, most coffee shops are willing to hang on to their grounds (and a busy coffee shop can produce hundreds of pounds a week) as long as you are polite and considerate. Keep in mind it is a bit of a hassle for the employees to keep and package; it helps if you supply a container, and be sure you pick up the grounds regularly so they don’t sit in the way for weeks at a time.
Popularity: 6% [?]
31 Oct 07 |
Here’s an interesting way to get nature to help you with your fall gardening chores. Biotal Leafmould / Leaf Compost Maker quickly turns your leaves into quality compost, faster than through a normal decomposition process. You simply put it in a normal compost bin.
Here’s some info about the product
Leaves - converts leaves into rich leaf mould in months rather than years
* 10ml of Compost Maker, mixed with a full watering-can, treats about one-and-a-half bin bags of waste.
* Compost ready for use after ten weeks of rotting.
* Can be used to re-activate partially-composted or dead heaps.
* Suitable for use in all types of compost binsAnybody used this stuff? Does it work?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Just recently we wrote about a Wall Street Journal article and video about the Jatropha plant being cultivated in India as a source of biofuel.
Now the New York Times has picked up a similar story, writing that African farmers in Mali are also growing the weed as a biofuel crop.
Jatropha originated in Central America and is believed to have been spread around the world by Portuguese explorers. In Mali, a landlocked former French colony, it has been used for decades by farmers as a living fence that keeps grazing animals off their fields — the smell and the taste of the plant repel grazing animals — and a guard against erosion, keeping rich topsoil from being blown away by the harsh Sahel winds. The Royal Tropical Institute, a nonprofit research institution in Amsterdam that has been working to develop jatropha as a commercial biofuel, estimates that there are 22,000 linear kilometers, or more than 13,000 miles, of the bush in Mali.
Jatropha’s proponents say it avoids the major pitfalls of other biofuels, which pose significant environmental and social risks. Places that struggle to feed their populations, like Mali and the rest of the arid Sahel region, can scarcely afford to give up cultivable land for growing biofuel crops. Other potential biofuels, like palm oil, have encountered resistance by environmentalists because plantations have encroached on rain forests and other natural habitats.
But jatropha can grow on virtually barren land with relatively little rainfall, so it can be planted in places where food does not grow well. It can also be planted beside other crops farmers grow here, like millet, peanuts and beans, without substantially reducing the yield of the fields; it may even help improve output of food crops by, among other things, preventing erosion and keeping animals out.
Other biofuels like ethanol from corn and sugar cane require large amounts of water and fertilizer, and factory farming in some cases consumes substantial amounts of petroleum, making the environmental benefits limited, critics say. But jatropha requires no pesticides, Mr. Samaké said, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts.
Popularity: 7% [?]