Category: Responsibility

Start From Where you Are!

Yes, we all can make a difference. Small changes can lead to big changes.

A great thought for the day. How can we have more control? The world can be a discouraging place. Especially when we have elected officials that are taking us in the wrong direction and wasting taxpayer dollars. The only thing we have control of is our own behavior, and instead of being angry we can use that energy to make a positive difference. Below are some ways you can make a positive impact without much effort. Good Luck. Below is from the Carbon Almanac:

When countries and companies lessen their commitment to targets and activities for climate change, it can be disheartening as systemic change is critical for big impact. If you feel powerless to influence systemic change, you can start where you are.

Some ideas of how to start:

  • Start by having a conversation with friends
  • Start by taking one less trip in a combustion engine vehicle
  • Start by shopping at a thrift store
  • Start by buying produce that is not wrapped in plastic
  • Start by bringing a reusable mug to your favourite cafe
  • Start by finding a local environmental group

And my list to get you started:

*Always carry reusable shopping bags

*Never idle the engine of your car

*Write letters to elected officials and newspapers expressing your opinion (positive and negative)

*Plant a native plant or a native tree

*Listen, smile and be kind

The key is to start (or keep) taking action. One action can lead to another and then another. And by sharing what you are doing, you can inspire others to join.

No Lake Is Safe From Microplastics

We all need to examine the amount of plastic we purchase, and figure how we can reduce the plastic we are exposed to and disperse into our environment.

Plastic is harming our health and our environment.

By Mary Koseth and Katelynn Rolfes

From the Minnesota Reformer

Microplastics have become a significant environmental concern across the world due to their widespread presence in various ecosystems, potential harm to wildlife and marine life, and the uncertainty surrounding their long-term effects on human health. 

This summer, concerned citizens across Minnesota worked with staff from Environment Minnesota Research & Policy Center to test 40 Minnesota lakes for microplastics. 

When we analyzed the water samples the results were clear: No Minnesota lake is safe from microplastics. 

Last week, Environment Minnesota Research & Policy Center released a report, Microplastic in Minnesota: A Survey of our “10,000 Lakes.

The report presents the test results, from the northern coast of Lake Superior to the wouthwest corner Minnesota, and includes recommendations to tackle the problem. In our citizen-science research project, the 40 samples were filtered using a funnel, flask and filters which had a pore size of 0.45 microns. The goal was to capture any tiny bits of plastic that were tough to spot with only our eyes. The types of plastic we searched for were microfibers, films, fragments and microbeads. We found all of these types save for microbeads, commonly found in beauty products prior to their banning in 2015. 

The results of this survey should set off alarm bells for Minnesotans who love our lakes. Minnesota’s waterways are a source of peace for people, a critical habitat for wildlife, and part of our state’s identity. 

Our report underscores that microplastic pollution is not an “over there” problem. It’s a “right here” problem that none of us can afford to ignore. But fortunately for us, this isn’t a hopeless situation, and there are many ways we can take action. As individuals, as community members, as whole nations, we can uphold human and environmental health and justice with our creative ideas and bold visions. Everyone has something to offer. When it comes to microplastic pollution, it’s all hands on deck. 

The report outlines a broad range of various ways to tackle the problem. These include fighting fast fashion and excess textile waste, and changing Minnesota law to allow local governments to restrict single-use plastics like plastic bags. 

We need to take a lot of steps to protect our lakes and health from microplastic pollution, but to start, we need to move away from single use plastics. Nothing we use for a few minutes should be able to pollute our environment for hundreds of years.

https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/10/22/our-survey-found-microplastics-in-all-40-minnesota-waterways-we-tested/?emci=90c47a06-5daf-f011-8e61-6045bded8ba4&emdi=51ed253d-5eaf-f011-8e61-6045bded8ba4&ceid=579931

Halloween Fun

Halloween is a day that is looked forward and cherished by many.

It is also a day that brings lots of extra waste- extra plastic and waste through costumes and decorations. What if we try to reduce so much waste and use what we have?

Instead of buying so much plastic waste maybe make ghosts out of old sheets or make a scarecrow out of old clothes and save money, too

Embrace Halloween as a day to be creative.

Halloween can be a creative time to decorate and create a costume. I look forward to the creative thinking that come to my door. Being creative is more fun!

The hardest part of a plastic-free holiday is finding plastic-free candy, How about apples or tangerines?

Here are some good candy tips tips from Beyond Plastic: Pick plastic-free packages. If you need to stick to packaged candies, there are some options that come wrapped in foil or small thin cardboard boxes. Candies like Dots, Milk Duds, and Junior Mints come in small cardboard boxes, Tootsie Rolls and other fruit chews and Dubble Bubble come wrapped in paper, and there are many small Halloween-themed chocolates that come wrapped in foil that, at least in theory, could be collected and recycled.

Instead of buying a new costume, consider setting up a costume swap party with friends (see some tips here) or creating a homemade costume where face paint replaces a plastic mask. Perhaps there is even the option to rent a costume for the night.

For decorations, look around your home and in nature to see what can be upcycled to help set the scene for Halloween. Cardboard boxes could easily be made into tombstone decorations. String or rope can create thick spider webs. If you are wanting to purchase decor, consider looking for items that will last for several Halloweens.

What about choosing real pumpkins over plastic versions? Not only can you carve how you want, you can roast the seeds. And when done, the pumpkin can be turned into soup or cut into pieces to decompose in a garden or composted.

This year let’s make the Halloween treat a reduction in waste. Here are some good ideas from Beyond Plastic

What are your ideas to reduce waste?

Zero Waste Fest

I wanted to share an invite to Zero Waste Fest on Saturday, October 11 at Burroughs Community School in Minneapolis. It’s a free, all-day community event with panels, food, music, kid’s activities, and lots of hands-on ways to get involved in building a future without waste. Zero Waste Fest — MN Zero Waste Coalition

The day runs from 10am to 4pm and includes:

  • Inspiring panels on:
    • Building a Zero Waste Future in Minnesota
    • Plastic is a Justice Issue: Fighting Pollution from Production to Disposal
    • From Throwaway to Reuse: Reclaiming Culture, Creating Systems
  • Tabling from organizations around MN supporting zero waste 
  • Clothing swaps and mending
  • Food, art, and music!

It’s free and open to everyone. I’d love for you to join us and help spread the word!

You can RSVP here

Sun Day/Peace

Peace

A Tribute to The International Day of Peace. Please Live Peace, Be Peace, Push Peace, Vote for Peace and Meditate or pray for Peace. These wars in Ukraine and Gaza just can’t continue!

Last night I had the Strangest Dreem by Ed McCurdy

Last night I had the strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
The room was filled with men
And the paper they were signing said
They’d never fight again

And when the papers all were signed
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads
And grateful prayers were prayed

And the people in the streets below
Were dancing round and round
And guns and swords and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground

Last night I had the strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

Sun Day

Sun Day is a day of action on September 21, 2025, celebrating solar and wind power, and the movement to leave fossil fuels behind. Solar energy is now the cheapest source of power on the planet – and gives us a chance to actually do something about the climate crisis. But fossil fuel billionaires are doing everything they can to shut it down. We will build, rally, sing, and come together in the communities that we need to get laws changed and work done.

Earth Overshoot

On July 24, we had used all the resources that the Earth can generate in a year. We are using more resources than we can replace, or living on borrowed time.
The day we want to reach is December 31.

How can we use ;ess resources

From the Carbon Almanac. On July 24 we hit Earth Overshoot Day for 2025. Earth Overshoot Day is noted every year and the date is announced on World Environment Day. It marks the day when “humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services … exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year”. Global Footprint Network, a research organization focused on the operation of the human economy within the Earth’s ecological limits, hosts and calculates when Earth Overshoot Day will occur, with this year showing that humanity is using the planet’s resources 80% faster than ecosystems can regenerate. July 24 is the earliest in the year that Earth Overshoot Day has fallen, with past dates going back to 1971. In those 54 years, humanity reached its overshoot day on December 31 once, in 1972. 

Calculations for overshoot day are based on the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, and this year’s calculations revealed that due to the ocean’s reduced capacity to store carbon, an increase in per capita Footprint and a reduced per capita biocapacity, Earth Overshoot Day fell eight days earlier than it did in 2024. In addition to Earth Overshoot Day, Country Overshoot Days are also calculated each year, seen here. These dates represent when the planet’s ecological resource budget would be used up if every place on Earth consumed at the same level as residents in that particular country. 

Credit: Global Footprint Network 2025, www.overshootday.org and www.footprintnetwork.org.

A campaign working to reduce the strain on the Earth’s resources and bring humanity’s consumption into better balance is #MoveTheDate. The goal is to move the date of Earth Overshoot Day to December 31 or later every year, ensuring that the resources taken from the planet can be sustainability regenerated by the ecosystems. Solutions range across five major areas: planet, cities, energy, food and population. This solutions map tracks solutions being implemented across the world. Check it out to see if there are any near you. 

Visit the Earth Overshoot Day website to learn more about how it is calculated, as well as the economic and ecological implications of humanity’s continued overuse of resources. 

My Five things you can do:

Strive for zero waste–Reuse, Reuse, Reuse and Refuse!

Drive Less

Reduce your plastic footprint–No single use plastic!

Plant native plants and raingardens without chemicals!

Don’t waste food.

https://www.ecowatch.com/earth-overshoot-day-2025.html

No Buy

“You never save money when you spend”

I was surprised to hear about No Buy July. Surprised, but also pleased. As a zero-waste person, I worry about the harm consumerism does to our planet. Our air and water suffer from production, transportation and the disposal of so many purchases that are not necessary. We are passing a way of life of consumerism on to our children when we already have a planet that can’t support our American lifestyles.

kindness

We all need clean air and water. Less consumerism and less trash make a difference in protecting our planet.

Michelle Singletary has good suggestions to participate in No Buy July

  1. Shopping shouldn’t be thought of as entertainment.
  2. Don’t define yourself as a consumer.
  3. Stop spemding to save
  4. Start saving by having a plan and a purpose for how you spend your money. Read her column here:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/no-buy-sparks-a-rebellion-against-spending-here-s-how-you-can-join/ar-AA1GDVx9

I have more sugestions:

  1. Avoid fads! We live in a strange world where we have to be just like everyone else. There is strength in being youself.
  2. Put yourself on a plastic-free diet.
  3. If you really need something, go to a secondhand store to find it.
  4. Spend time outside instead of running around shopping.
  5. Enjoy your extra time!
  6. Good luck
Overshoot Day

We Lost A Good One

Minnesota lost an incredible leader by horrific violence on June 14. She cared deeply for the people of Minnesota and was always respectful and thoughtful.

Sign made by my niece.

Here’s an excerpt from a statement from Sophie and Colin Hortman, the children of Melissa and Mark Hortman:

“If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, please consider the following:

Plant a tree.

Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail.

Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.

Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it. 

Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone.

Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something.

Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.

…The best way to honor our parents’ memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else.”

Below is from Patrick Coolican, Minnesota Reformer, https://minnesotareformer.com/

y J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chiefSATURDAY, June 14, 2025
  The American nightmare has arrived in Minnesota. Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman was shot and killed .
 I knew Melissa Hortman well. Michelle and I sat down with her Thursday for a 30-minute off-the-record conversation. I respect a lot of elected officials, but I admire few. I admired Melissa Hortman. Despite her achievements, she was never self-important. She knew that average Minnesotans had no clue who she was, but that didn’t stop her from doing everything she could to make their lives better. She could be wonderfully blunt. Among my first interactions with her when she became minority leader in 2017, she commented on a profile I’d written of a Republican political operative, calling it, “the journalistic equivalent of a,” well, I can’t publish it, but you can imagine. After I wrote a column in 2019 that proclaimed it was time to stop underestimating Melissa Hortman, she told me, “Whew, I needed a cigarette after reading that one.” She had a wonderfully salty mouth and sense of humor. In the political and legislative sphere, she cared about the work and only the work. And when the work was done, she cared about her family and golden retrievers. 
We lost a good one.
J. Partick Coolican

World Environment Day

Below is from the Carbon Almanac:

How can you use less plastic? #BeatPlasticPollution

June 5th is World Environment Day
Today is World Environment Day, an international observance that began in 1973 and held annually ever since.This year’s theme continues to focus on plastic and the goal is to #BeatPlasticPollution.
Did you know that:Less than 10% of plastic is recycled? The rest end up in landfills or waterways.There are more microplastics (plastic less than 5mm in diameter) in our waterways than there are stars in our galaxy?We ingest microplastics from the food we eat and the air we breathe?A global treaty to end plastic pollution is currently being negotiated, with the second round of discussions happening in August. 
Consider taking a count of the number of single use plastic items you use in a day or a week. And then consider what alternatives exist to help reduce that number or eliminate your single plastic use altogether.
We can all take action. Together. 
Happy World Environment Day!