Category: climate change
Iranian People, “We are friends!”
Two years ago I was lucky to be one of the few Americans allowed to visit Iran. We were there for 8 days visiting cultural and historical places as well as meeting many Iranian people. After 40 years of hearing what an awful country Iran is, we were thrilled to find a friendly engaging people. They are interested in, and like the American people. Everywhere we went we were approached by the charming people. The wanted to talk to us and find out how we liked their country and how we liked their food. Many times a day they would approach us offering us candy, asking to take pictures of us, wanting to engage with us. They seemed to find pleasure that we also had unpleasant leaders, and we often heard, “We both have bad governments, but we the people, we are friends!” Our guide said the Iranian people never chose this government, the Ayatollah was able to take over during the Iranian Revolution.
These friendly beautiful people do not deserve harmful sanctions or a war between silly reckless men! Read more at, The Iranian people are not the enemy
https://health4earth.com/2018/01/31/iranian-women-and-the-hijab/
Consumer Power
A consumer is powerful. The choices we make, and what we purchase changes marketing and products, and as consumers we can make a big difference by the choices we make. The choices we make can make a positive change on the environment creating a more sustainable world.
The Arctic is melting, and much of the earth is experiencing record hot temperatures, our children are demanding change. What choice do we have?
As a wise consumer you can help to reduce your harmful impact on our earth by increasing your shopping awareness and taking your consumer power seriously. If everyone does a little it can add up to a lot!
Being sustainable consumers are priorities for our household. These are our suggestions for ways to use your consumer power:
- Heighten your awareness of packaging and waste, choosing products with minimal or no wasteful plastic packaging.
- Always shop with reusable bags.
- Never purchase products with glitter or Styrofoam. They can’t be recycled.
- Shop reuse stores. Some of my favorite clothes and items come from consignment stores.
- Shop bulk items.
Buying in bulk is a good way to manage food waste, and plastic waste. Bring your own bags or containers. - Shop retailers that pay living wages, and are local over big box stores.
- Buy nothing and reuse what you have!
- Purchase items that will last instead of cheap junk.
- Avoid all single-use plastic
- Make your own choices, don’t be owned by corporations like Apple, Target, Amazon etc.
An Amazing Young Woman
Hope For Our Future! Start now to reduce your carbon footprint.
24 inches of snow!
December 1, is the beginning of meterological winter, and it showed its true winter colors by stiking the south shore of Lake Suprerior with a massive snowfall. Yikes, have you tried to shovel 24 inches of snow? Never have we seen so much snow. It’s beautiful, but some people haven’t managed to get shoveled out 4 days later. Snow plows, trucks and snow blowers have broken down. A strong back/legs and a good snow shovel needed, and many help their neighbors. I am so thankful for our snow plower who faithfully cleared our 600 foot driveway. Read about the snow here.
With such heavy snow I worry about the survival of wildlife. For a few days I only saw crows, but today the chickadees are back singing. They are at the feeder with their friends the nuthatches, and blue jays and wood peckers are now out looking for food. The deer had to contend with deer hunting last week, and now they have to forge for food in almost impossible conditions. Deer tracks can be spotted in driveways so some have survived hunting and a major snowstorm, but the winter food find will be tough for them. See tracking animals
Save 100%
How can we be sustainable consumers? We have another die warning from the UN on the climate crisis we are experiencing. Buying more stuff does not help the earth. If you need to purchase items, do it in a more sustainable manner. See below.
We don’t need to purchase to be happy. I went to see the new Fred Rogers movie. The messages are subtle, but say a lot. Rogers was a master at helping children to feel important. and to feel good about themselves. He thought television was an excellent educational tool, but had been ruined because it tried to turn children into consumers demanding things they didn’t need. As we enter the holiday season and a time of extreme consumerism read more about Fred and his philosophy here
Consumerism and saving money is on our minds. Unfortunately, we have become a throwaway society. Do you use an item for a short time then throw it away, and even worse we raise our children to get bored quickly from that item they just had to have. Again, we don’t need to purchase to be happy. This holiday, how can we be more sustainable and honor the season at the same time?
- Join or create your own Friday climate march #FridayforFuture
- Always shop with a reusable bag and avoid all plastic.
- Shop reuse stores. Some of my favorite clothes come from consignment stores.
- Give gifts of help, time and outside events.
- Shop retailers that pay living wages, and are local over big box stores.
- Buy nothing and save 100%. Reuse what you have!
- Purchase items that will last instead of cheap junk.
- Plan a day outside instead of shopping, REI.
Happy Holidays! Pause, Enjoy, Reuse
Does Black Friday promote “resource waste and overconsumption?” Read at France.
Reduce the waste you generate!
“I only feel angry when I see waste, when I see people throwing away things we could use.” Mother Teresa Only 9% of recyclables are recycled in the United States compared with Germany and Norway that recycle in the 60% range. Plastic manufacturers continue to create more plastic and push recycling. Unfortunately, recycling is not a sustainable option. I hope you will work hard to recycle your bottles, containers and paper waste because making things from recycled material is awesome and saves lots of energy and natural resources, but as consumers we need to also purchase items made from recycled materials.
A new paradigm is needed, we all need to reduce the waste and recycling we generate. Wasteful packaging needs to stop! Make it a priority in your life to reduce the waste you generate. Here are some simple ideas to get you started:
First, cook at home instead of take-out. Yes, it is some work, but organizing to have a few meals made ahead or in crock pots can reduce lots of waste and be fun at the same time.
Always carry your reusable water bottle and reusable bags.
Be a smart shopper, always think how you can purchase less waste, especially plastic waste. Don’t purchase plastic or Styrofoam trayed produce. Many stores have cloth bags you can purchase for produce.
Shop in bulk and refill any bottles your grocery store makes possible. Food coops have lots of refill options.
Choose products out of recycled material if you can find them.
Never put plastic bags in your recycling cart, recycle them at your local stores.
What are you doing Today for the Future?
PROTECT RESTORE FUND!
Greta is an awesome spokesperson for the world, and she has a global audience. I focus locally. What can each of us do to make a difference? So instead of getting depressed, make an effort everyday to help the Earth: Take public transport, buy less, reduce plastic use and food waste, plant native plants and native trees, and reduce the amount of meat you eat. Each one of us can make a big difference!
And the letter from scientists to the world. “Mankind is still facing the existential threat of runaway consumption of limited resources by a rapidly growing population,” they warned. And “scientists, media influencers and lay citizens” aren’t doing enough to fight against it, If the world doesn’t act soon, there will be catastrophic biodiversity loss and untold amounts of human misery,” they wrote. Read the full report by thousands of scientists here.
More on amazing trees: https://www.treepeople.org/tree-benefits
Waste Not!
We have a serious problem. 40% of the food in the United States is wasted, and 30% of food worldwide is wasted. What a ridiculous waste of energy, money and water. Read more here.
At the same time over 800 million people don’t have enough to eat, and more land is being cleared everyday for more agriculture. Rotting food waste in landfills creates methane gas that causes pollution. Each one of us needs to reduce our food waste. I have said many times this is one of the hardest things for me to deal with in trying to help our climate crisis. Reducing food waste takes constant vigilance. This week I came home from the farmers market with rotten apples and cucumbers. Being a more thoughtful shopper and buying just what I needed could have helped.
These are important facts we should be aware of, from the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Food production causes 30 % of greenhouse emissions, 80% of global deforestation, and uses 70% of the world’s fresh water!
My advice for managing food waste and working for zero waste in my home:
1. First, be mindful of your perishables, use your freezer, buy in bulk to get just what you need, and become aware that gluttony is a form of food waste
2. I save celery tops, onions and raw produce waste to put in a stir fry or soup. One of my favorite things about cooking is how I can use leftovers creatively. I love making wraps, rice or quinoa bowls with food leftovers.
3. Expiration dates are not something I obsess over. Most of the time food is good long past the date.
What things do you do to reduce food waste?
It’s Optimistic October
Everyday get outside for a walk, and everyday do something good for our earth. You will be happier and the world will be happier too!
Health4earth 
