Category: clean water

World Water Day

We need to work harder to protect our nation’s water!

Water is life It is so important for healthy living. Every day each of us must do what we can to protect our planet’s precious water.

It is shameful the poor job we do to take care of our fresh water. Our fresh waterways are teaming with microplastics, nitrates and forever chemicals. None of these are safe for human exposure.

Today I am focusing on two crucial pollutatnts to our water. PFAS chemicals and nitrates. In 2023 the Minnesota legislature passed a strict law restricting PFAS (fovever chemicals) Unfortunately, many companies with PFAS in their products are trying to weaken Minnesota’s PFAS legislation. Read more about it below:

First, here is information on efforts to weaken Minnesota’s new PFAS(forever chemical law)

At least 70 million Americans get their water from a system where toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” were found at levels that require reporting to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s according to new data the EPA released in its ongoing 5-year review of water systems across the nation. The number will almost certainly grow as new reports are released every three months. USA Today, March 21.2024

I’m 22, with a new job focused on clean water. Here’s why I’m doing it.

Amara’s Law is being implemented well, and Minnesota is better for it. We are incredibly grateful for our allies, whose hard work and determination helped pass such monumental legislation. But now, Amara’s Law is at risk once again. Bills HF 1627 and HF 81, authored by Rep. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, plan to irresponsibly gut the law, continuing to put polluters before people.

Finding safer PFAS alternatives has the potential to be profitable for businesses of all sizes. Capitalism is meant to push society forward, driving change and fostering new ideas. It was not built to just accept the first product that completes a goal, especially when it poisons people and the environment. We have met innovators and entrepreneurs who are creating effective alternatives to PFAS — they just need support. But they don’t get a chance because large corporations come and try to pick apart critical legislation. Minnesota continues to be poisoned, people continue to get sick, children like Amara continue to die.

Second, we have been unable to control farm run off. This pollutes our ground water our streams and people’s wells. It is dangerous for people, fish and animals. There is no excuse for letting this go unchecked! Nitrate pollution in water is caused by excess nitrogen from agricultural sources. Nitrates and organic nitrogen compounds from fertilizer and manure enter groundwater through leaching and reach surface water through runoff from agricultural fields. Nitrate contamination occurs in surface water and groundwater, leaching into the soil and from there into the water supply from various sources. A high level of nitrate makes water unsuitable as drinking water. 

73 percent of Minnesota nitrate pollution comes from cropland, primarily through agricultural drainage systems below cropped fields and by nitrate pollution leaching into groundwater, and then moving underground until it reaches streams. 78% of nitrate pollution to the Mississippi River in our state is fr…See more on fmr.org

Way: Something smells with the feedlot trend, and it’s more than just the manure

Clean water is important to our survival.

Do Something Positive

Everyday people throw away single-use plastic “stuff” without thinking twice — plastic bottles, bags, utensils, cups, containers and more.

But this “stuff” never truly goes away. Instead, it clogs our landfills, threatens our health, trashes our parks, litters our streets and even washes into our rivers and oceans. Nothing we use for a few minutes should threaten our health and pollute our future for hundreds of years.

Join the February Plastic Challenge!

The Plastic-Free Challenge is a month-long effort starting February 1 to reduce how many plastics you use in ways that fit best in your lifestyle and have the most impact on reducing your plastic footprint.

Do something positive for yourself, your family and for the planet in February. With so many plastic items in our lives avoiding them may feel impossible, but there is a lot we can do to reduce our plastic footprint. Please Join with us to learn ways we can reduce our exposure to plastic. There are many activities to choose from, but you can also create your own challenge. Keep it simple, and even choosing one activity will make a difference.  You will learn a lot, and have fun during this February challenge. Sign up here:

https://tcplasticfree.ecochallenge.org/dashboards/teams/lynnhurst-plasticfree

The Plastic-Free Challenge is a month-long effort starting February 1 to reduce plastic consumption, in ways that fit best in your needs. You only need to choose one activity that works for you like bringing your reusable shopping bags, or asking not to be given a straw with your drink, or bringing your reusable cup with you for February. Many other ideas will be suggested when you register. Keep it simple. Do a good job on one thing!

Join My Plastic Free Team

Learn ways to reduce single-use plastic. Join my team here.

Do something positive for yourself, your family and for the planet in February. With so many plastic items in our lives avoiding them may feel impossible, but there is a lot we can do to reduce our plastic footprint. Be part of our Lynnhurst community team, Lynnhurst plasticfree. Please Join with us to learn ways we can reduce our exposure to plastic. There are many activities to choose from, but you can also create your own challenge. Keep it simple, and even choosing one activity will make a difference.  You will learn a lot, and have fun during this February challenge. Sign up here:

https://tcplasticfree.ecochallenge.org/dashboards/teams/lynnhurst-plasticfree

The Plastic-Free Challenge is a month-long effort starting February 1 to reduce plastic consumption, in ways that fit best for your needs. You only need to choose one activity that works for you, like bringing your reusable shopping bags, or asking not to be given a straw with your drink, or bringing your reusable cup with you for February. Many other ideas will be suggested when you register. Keep it simple. Do a good job on one thing to reduce plastic!

Plastic is made of fossil fuels; it contributes to climate change and is composed of harmful chemicals. Plastic sheds microfibers into our bodies, into our air, and into our water. Studies are showing plastic is unhealthy for us and for the planet. It is important we limit our plastic exposure.

Take care of our bodies, our families and our planet. Reduce your plastic footprint!

The Plastic Crisis

Reduce your plastic exposure in 2025

THE PLASTIC POLLUTION CRISIS BY THE NUMBERS 

  • America’s rank in global plastic production: 1
  • The percentage of plastics that gets recycled in the United States each year: 5-6%
  • The percentage of plastic produced annually that’s used for single-use plastics: 42%
  • The number of chemicals used to make plastics: 16,000
  • The number of microplastics particles found in a 1-liter plastic bottle of water: 240,000

Source: Beyond Plastic

The Plastic Crisis

Buy LESS Stuff!

The world is facing a trash crisis a climate crisis and a plastic crisis and they are all related to our overconsumption.

So few people connect the climate crisis to the purchases they make. Overconsumption is harmful to our air, to our water and to our health. Landfills and incinerators harm our health. We need to stop competing to be just like everyone else. When we shop purchase items that are of high quality and items that will last a long time. None of us need more junk!

Instead of a season of overconsumption and waste, make it a season of friendship, love and community. That doesn’t mean buy me a gift!

Whether it’s choosing to shop secondhand rather than buy new or simply pausing before you hit the checkout button, we can all rethink the way we consume.

This is from the Story of Stuff:

Here’s how you can take action with us:

  1. Commit to creative reuse: Opt to gift thrifted or refurbished items instead of new. We have the power to slow down the take-make-waste cycle by adding some creativity to holiday shopping. Share your story for a chance to get featured on our social channels.
  2. Support reuse legislation: Our culture of overconsumption fuels a wasteful, disposable system that corporations like McDonald’s claim to tackle—but their actions tell a different story. Let’s mobilize to pass policies that shift us from single-use waste to a future centered on reusables.
  3. Unsubscribe from sales communication and unfollow brands on social media: We all get those pesky marketing emails, physical mail, and texts, not to mention an onslaught of social media sales messaging, around the holidays. We encourage you to ditch the noise – join over 2 million people who did here. Catalog Choice is a free, online service that will help you save trees, prevent fraud, and fight junk mail. What’s not to love?

The holiday season doesn’t have to be about more Stuff. Together, we can turn the tide against corporate-driven overconsumption and reclaim the real joy of the holiday season.

Will you join us in reimagining the future?

Less Waste for the Holidays

Ghana becomes dumping ground for the world’s unwanted used clothes | PBS News

https://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Ghana becomes dumping ground for the world’s unwanted used clothes | PBS News

An estimated 20 million people are thought to earn their livelihoods in the global waste industry by collecting, disposing, repairing or repurposing a wide range of materials and products. However, the cost and consequences of handling waste are borne far more heavily in developing nations. In partnership with the Pulitzer Center, Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the impact of waste from textiles.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/daily-news-lessons/2024/11/ghana-becomes-dumping-ground-for-the-worlds-unwanted-used-clothes

Ghana becomes dumping ground for the world’s unwanted used clothes | PBS News

Holding Exxon Accountable

“ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health” Attorney General Rob Bonta

peace on earth

Plastic is harmful to our earth and to our bodies. The producers of plastic should be held accountable.

“For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible. ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health,” Rob Bonta, Attorney General, California

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/california-sues-exxonmobil-saying-company-deceived-public-about-plastics-recycling

A coalition of environmental groups have joined together to take ExxonMobile to court. Surfrider Foundation, the Sierra Club, Heal the Bay, and San Francisco Baykeeper are taking on the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic polymers for their claims about plastic.

The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco, California and states that ExxonMobile knowingly hid the truth about the harm caused by plastic and misled the public about its recyclability.

Niall McCarthy, partner at the law firm that is representing the coalition, said:

“Some of the greatest progress in American history was caused by civil lawsuits holding the powerful accountable for their actions. This is another such case brought by the most prominent environmental nonprofits in California who are willing, for the public good, to take on a company worth billions. The case will expose the devastation caused by single-use plastics and the deceptive recycling myth pushed by plastic producers such as ExxonMobil. The case, at its core, is about accountability.  ExxonMobil’s promises of being a good corporate citizen are divorced from the reality of its conduct. As detailed in the complaint, ExxonMobil’s single use plastics are smothering California’s environment.”

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-09-23/california-ag-files-suit-against-companies

Plastic People

The ground-breaking feature documentary Plastic People investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made breaks down into “microplastics.” It was first shown at SXSW and this is one of the first community showings in the country. 

  • Date: Wednesday, September 25th
  • The doors open at 6:00 for tabling and the film starts at 6:30.
  • There will be a short discussion following the screening lead by Lucy Mullany with Eureka Recycling and Mary Kosuth, who is finishing a PhD in microplastics at the University of Minnesota and is a featured scientist in the film.
  • The film is free.
  • The location is Hamline University, Drew Science 118, 1536 Hewitt Ave, St Paul, MN 55104. 
  • RSVP: bit.ly/3zaX2U3

I hope it works for you to join us. 

August Joy

“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.”
— Lady Bird Johnson

The Monarch butterflies charm me as they play tag, the hummingbirds zip from one flower to the next, and the goldfinch quietly sit on the monarda and eat the seeds. Enormous bees gorge themselves with a bounty of pollinator plants they love. The consistent rains of this summer have created a healthy blooming habitat. All this pollinator activity creates joy!

A Monarch on liatris Hummingbirds love cardinal flowers, and Joe Pye Weed.

Native deep-rooted plants fix many things that are wrong with our world. They do not need fertilizers or chemicals, they don’t need to be watered, and their deep roots absorb water run-off. They help to keep our waterways clean, keep our air clean, and they are beautiful,

Native plants are healthy for wildlife. Birds, bees and butterflies love them and they create vital habitat which has gone missing in recent years.

Pollinator Passion