186 million, or 60% of Americans, live in areas that are subject to bad air pollution. Los Angeles continues to be the worst ozone offender, a spot it has held for the last nine out of ten years. The numbers for this year were much higher than last year’s report, put out annually by the American Lung Association. Last year’s had the number of Americans living in at-risk air pollutions areas at 125 million. More at Reuters.
Most of us are emerging from our winter cocoons with pale skin, just aching for a little bit of sun. Along with outside time comes the need to put on sunscreen in order to avoid the ravages of the sun. Did you know that there are actually natural products available to shield you against the more harmful rays of the sun?
Great Article on Natural Sunscreens
This article from Pure & Simple couldn’t be improved on by us, so have a look. They also make their own natural sunscreen, Pure & Simple.
UV Natural
We found out about natural sunscreen from this company. In Canada, they are distributed by www.organicevolution.ca. The product is manufactured in Australia, and their main site is www.uvnatural.com. You can buy it online here.
Weleda Children’s Natural Sunscreen
This stuff is made especially for your kids.
That’s the finding in a study conducted by Ohio State University. From the study:
“Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.”
We couldn’t make this up. Check out this piece for a thank you note from an anti-gay group to Colbert actually thanking him for a satire piece that he did on them, proving the point of the study.
As with everything, there are stages of green. When you are considering hardwood flooring, those stages generally go like this and cost increases accordingly:
Stage 1 – FSC Certified Wood
Forest Services Council certified wood is certified to be harvested in a sustainable fashion.
Stage 2 – Reclaimed Wood Flooring
These wood floors are generally reclaimed from older houses and tend to be of a higher quality wood than you can buy new.
Stage 3 – Bamboo Plywood and Veneer
This hybrid product allows you to take advantage of the renewable nature of bamboo without the price tag. Watch that the veneers are low to zero VOC’s – some cheaper products just use regular veneers for this class of flooring.
Stage 4 – Bamboo Floors
Probably the highest you could go on the scale. Expensive, but everyone who has installed a bamboo floor says it is worth it. Bamboo is an entirely renewable resource.
Companies to consider:
Nadurra Wood Corporation
Greenhome Guide
Numerous Sustainable wood manufacturers and products.
The former Vice President Al Gore and the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich both came down on opposite ends of the global warming debate on Friday afternoon. The bill calls for a reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 carbon levels by 2020, and 83 percent by 2050. Utilities would also be required to produce a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
Gingrich predictably praised the “clean coal” portion of the bill, while denouncing what he called the “micromanagement” that it would invite. Gore called the bill one of the most important pieces of legislation ever put forward in America. More over at msnbc.com.
Most greenie types know about geothermal heat, but associate it with large corporations and mega-malls who are installing geothermal to either earn LEED points or save money. It sounds expensive – drilling large holes into the ground in order to install units that can heat and cool your home. The people over at waterfurnace.com have managed to do it in a way that isn’t cheap, but doesn’t cost the same as a commercial unit either. That, and the fact that you cut down significantly on hydro use, can justify installing such a system.
Learn more over at waterfurnace.com, the manufacturer’s site.
Thanks to Comfort Wave Geothermal for the information. If you are in the GTA and are interested in geothermal energy for the home, check them out.
The environmental groups jointly filed a lawsuit last year against the petrochemical giant. Under the settlement agreement, Shell must cut their carbon emissions from their Deer Park plant by 750,000 pounds per year for the next three years. They also must pay a $5.8 million settlement which will be used to fund health projects in Texas. Shell maintains that the settlement is consistent with plans to cut emissions at the plant.
The lawsuit charged Shell with being in violation of the Clean Air Act. More over at the New York Times.
We thought we should recommend some Vegetarian cookbooks and magazines. Even if you are an omnivore, check out a couple of these sites and cookbooks for recipes that can supplement your meat-eating diet for one or two nights a week.
Veg.CA
Recommended cookbooks from a great Canadian veggie site.
Vegetarian Times
This magazine has been around since way before vegetarianism was considered cool. Eco-friendly businesses may consider advertising here, especially if you have a food-related business.
The Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook
Whether you are a student or not, the prospect of fast, easy and cheap veggie recipes is very appetizing.
First off, Happy Earth Day! We won’t get into the Earth Day rehashing that you will find on all of the mainstream news sites today – instead we’ll give you a few solid reasons why you should cut back on meat to help the environment. Gordon Ramsay has his family eat one dinner a week without meat so that they can experiment with vegetarian dishes and give meat a bit of a holiday. Here are a few good reasons for cutting back on or eliminating meat for the environment:
1. Waste Products from Farm Animals
Right now the waste from farm animals adds up to 16.6 billion tons per year. This leads to pollution of waterways through agricultural runoff.
2. Carbon Cost of Production
It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie of animal protein as it does to make one calorie of plant protein.
3. Soil Erosion
40 billion tons of fertile soil are lost due to farming crops for livestock feed.
The reasons continue over at Alternet.org.
On the heels of yesterdays post, we bring you water filters and which ones do and don’t get rid of drugs. By water filters, we mean the kind you put in your fridge or attach to your kitchen sink, not whole house filtration systems – those are an entirely different ball of wax that we’ll deal with in a couple of days.
Pur Water Systems
Their tap system has been tested to be 99% effective against pharmaceuticals and their fridge pitcher 96%.
Tap Water Filter
This is another, less well known filter that deionizes the water.
Brita
Here is Brita’s statement on the efficacy of their filters. There is no actual certification on removal of pharmaceuticals from tap water yet, but they say that their tests show a reduction of pharmaceuticals when their filter equipment is used.