Green Patchwork

New evidence that shows that climate change is having a direct impact on animals, plants, and humans has been outlined in a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The bleak conclusion of the report is that people living in poverty would be worst affected by the effects of climate change because they will be the least equipped to deal with the changes. Read more at BBC News’ “Billions Face Climate Change Risk”.

I recently found an article in the New York Times online titled “The Era of Green Noise”, about the topic of “green noise” - the excessive and contradictory information overload people are experiencing regarding how to live lightly on the earth. With all the information people  receive via the internet, newspapers, friends, environmental groups, the media, and many others they are bound to feel overwhelmed and confused. At the end of the article the writer suggests being patient and also points out the fast that our environmental problems are not going to be solved overnight and will take some generations to create change. I agree with the author and encourage people to remain patient and lead by example. Don’t give up and try not to give in to frustration and the myth that there is no problem- our environmental problems took decades to create and will take that many or more decades to correct.

Mind mapping is a radial rather than linear method of brainstorming and problem solving. I have done my own mind mapping in the past, but they were very rudimentary and sketchy. If you google ‘mind map’ and search through the images you will find a creative and colorful collection of various mind maps. Through my image search I found a mind map relating to global warming and the various solutions, problems, and issues surrounding this global issue. I hope this inspires you to create and explore your own mind maps.

New York City remains one of the world’s leading fashion centers which is why you will see more and more fashion shows in the future highlighting green design. One such show that happened earlier this year was Project Earth Day, a fashion show staged in NYC that is dedicated to the promotion of green design and builds a platform for leaders and future leaders in the design industry to bridge their environmentally-conscious ideas and developments together. Presented by the Emerging Green Builders, a committee of the United States Building Council, Project Earth Day advocates values of sustainability, innovation and environmental responsibility. 

For a who’s who of leading green designers and future green designers click on the “Designers” link.

I work at a small locally-owned children’s clothing and toy store called Wild Child. About 27 years ago Renee West opened the store as a result of not being able to find non-branded cotton clothing for her kids. She was also frustrated by the fact that all the toys being sold for children were made of plastic, required batteries, and broke easily. (more…)

I just found a good link about the safety concerns surrounding PVC or #3 plastic. If you go to pvcfree.com you can watch a short cartoon about PVC, where it can be found in the home, and why it is harmful.

Just recently, Jonah and I stopped using commercial toothpastes because we were reading so much negative information about them. We were using higher quality fluouride free/ sugar free natural toothpastes from the natural foods store, but even those toothpastes had unfavorable ingredients in them. The main ingredient in almost all commercial toothpastes that is harmful to teeth and gums is glycerin. (more…)

If you are conscientious about the foods you eat and are a label reader then I hope you do the same when it comes to the products you put on your skin. Anything you put on your skin is the same as putting it into your body and just like there are a lot of foods out there that are harmful there are a lot of skincare products that are harmful. Even if the label says it’s natural, organic, or herbal doesn’t mean it really is. Buying truly safe and natural skincare is harder for me than shopping for natural foods, because with bodycare products you have all these long and scientific names and you don’t know what the heck they really are. Luckily, there are people out there that write books about natural shopping and start watchdog organizations to protect the public from unsafe activities. (more…)

Last year we subscribed to Mother Earth News‘ bimonthly magazine, but for the sake of budgeting and saving natural resources we decided to not resubscribe. Instead, we go to their online site or go to the library to read the most current issues. If you have never read a Mother Earth News they offer information on organic gardening, real food, sustainable energy, native plants, and simple living. I was recently looking through their site and saw that they have tons of new information on real food and healthy food choices and thought I would pass it on to you all.

The Exxon-Valdez oil spill is one of the world’s worst environmental catastrophes and the damage it has caused is greater than was previously thought. After many studies, scientists are realizing how large the impact is of this single event on the greater ecosystems. To learn more about oil spills read the Wikipedia link. Also, I just found an interesting video about how scary an oil spill can be and how much it impacts wildlife.