Permaculture 101: Feed The People: What Everyone Can Learn From The Cuban Oil Crisis
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under The Big Picture | 7 Comments
Another day passes and the buzz about fuel prices and dwindling oil reserves hangs (along with the rush-hour traffic exhaust) in the evening air. The future of our global petroleum-based economy is a picture that not many of us want to paint, yet it is unavoidable not to ask what our lives may look like when the last drop of oil has burned.
In the US, the average person currently requires 7 barrels of oil to operate their home (heating, cooling and electricity), 9 barrels to power their vehicle and 10 to grow and transport the food they eat. Does ten barrels of oil for food sound surprising? The food industry is an extremely energy intensive process that has been expanded and commercialized to a point where industrial-sized machinery and mass production methods such as monopolized corporate farms and indiscriminate pesticide use are necessary to keep up with demand.
Fortunately, there is a country who can provide us with an image of what that the not-so-distant future without oil may look like. Cuba faced a crisis due to oil shortage with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Oil exports abruptly dropped 50% and the country lost 80% of it’s international trade economy.
Food production quickly became Cuba’s number one issue after their oil supply dwindled. Buses stopped running, factories became silent, tractors sat on the side of the road and people began to realize that food was not making the long journey from the farm to the city. People began to starve. Within a few months the average person lost 25 pounds and malnutrition in pregnant women and small children became the dominant issues for the medical community. Continue reading Permaculture 101: Feed The People: What Everyone Can Learn From The Cuban Oil Crisis…
Posted on August 29, 2008 |
Water World
By Pippa Sorley
Filed Under Green Living | Leave a Comment
Health experts suggest that drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day will keep the doctor away. What they don’t tell you is what kind of water we should be chugging down. The choices can be a little overwhelming. Bottled or tap? Spring or mineral? Filtered? Plus, what’s in the water you cook with or bathe in? Do you need a fancy filtration system in your home to combat chlorine and other chemicals?
You don’t have to be a hydro engineer to find out what’s best for you. We have outlined some simple steps that will help you assess the quality of your drinking water, identify the most common contaminants in your area, and minimize your exposure to those contaminants that enter your home through the kitchen sink or showerhead.| Continue reading Water World…
Posted on August 27, 2008 |
How Are You Going To Carry All Those books? An Eco Backpack Review
By Jillian Polaski
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, News & Reviews | 2 Comments
It’s that time of year again. Days are shortening, shadows are lengthening, and the air is cooling. As fall once again creeps silently onto the scene, people of all ages are getting preped to head back to school. Companies still give us little opportunity to be environmentally responsible with our choices in pens, highlighters or binders, and the debate over using post-consumer recycled paper or taking notes on your laptop remains heated. One thing that we can choose to be responsible with this year is what we stash and transport all of our heavy books in: our backpack. Continue reading How Are You Going To Carry All Those books? An Eco Backpack Review…
Posted on August 25, 2008 |
Permaculture 101: Go With The Flow: Harvest The Rain
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under Green Living, The Big Picture | 5 Comments
While most humans can live without food for 3 weeks, we will only survive for 3 days without water. Clean drinking water is a natural resource that has the potential to become more scarce than oil and therefore another cause of heated international conflict.
Last week, Permaculture 101 introduced the whole system design approach to living as a method for designing human habitats so that all elements integrate to form a simple, non-wasteful, harmless, self sustaining, productive, efficient system that is essential to having an environmentally responsible lifestyle. A major permacultural design principle is starting simple, so this article delves into the first of many basic components of a healthy system: water.
Collecting the water that falls on a piece of land is not a new idea. Archaeologists believe that inhabitants of Jawa (now North-Eastern Jordan) practiced “rainwater harvesting” in clay-built cisterns as early as 3,000 BC to ensure that their food continued to thrive in times of drought. Continue reading Permaculture 101: Go With The Flow: Harvest The Rain…
Posted on August 21, 2008 |
Behind The Label: Fair Trade At The Olympics
By Anne O'Loughlin
Filed Under The Big Picture | 2 Comments
Unlike past Olympics, this year’s games saw a worldwide protest that swept in to challenge the frequent abuse of human rights, aggression against Tibet, and environmental hazards that China is notorious for. There’s nothing like a billion-dollar, media-happy, corporate-sponsored international event like the Olympics to shed some light on matters of social justice and environmental responsibility and to inspire opportunities for the export behemoth to make positive changes.
That’s where the Play Fair 2008 Campaign comes in. Organized by the Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Trade Union Confederation, and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers Federation, Play Fair 2008 is an international campaign pushing for respect for worker’s rights in the global sporting goods industry.
Even as the fair trade and green movements grow larger and stronger, we still cannot seem to resist the temptation to inexpensively produce goods in China and place them on our shelves in Europe and North America. There are responsible, local businesses in most countries who make it their policy to fairly compensate the manufacturers of their products such as Washington state-based Fair Trade Sports, but this remains a rarity. Continue reading Behind The Label: Fair Trade At The Olympics…
Posted on August 20, 2008 |
New York City: Dancing In The (Summer) Streets
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Arts & Culture | 2 Comments
For three consecutive Saturdays this summer (August 9th, 16th, and 23rd), New York City is closing down one of its most iconic thoroughfares to automobiles and opening it up wholeheartedly to its citizens. Cyclists, skaters, joggers, pedestrians, and playing children are joyously taking over Park Avenue from 72nd Street all the way downtown, as part of an innovative initiative called Summer Streets. Continue reading New York City: Dancing In The (Summer) Streets…
Posted on August 18, 2008 |
Permaculture 101: Designing A Life Beyond Sustainability
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under The Big Picture | 6 Comments
According to the Hirsch Report issued by the US Department of Energy, global oil production peaked in 2005 with the last major discoveries of light crude oil occurring in the 1960s. Regardless, global consumption rates continue to climb 1.5% each year and the UN estimates the world population will hit 9.1 Billion in the next 40 years. It should be glaringly apparent that our world is off balance; what remains unclear is where we should start to stabilize ourselves.
A revolutionary concept developed in the 1970s, dubbed “permaculture,” is rapidly gaining attention as a transformative vehicle for creating holistic, healthy systems from the microcosm of our immediate surroundings to the macrocosm of the planet.
per. ma. cul. ture \ˈpər-mə-ˌkəl-chər\ Etymology: permanent + agriculture
A method for designing human habitats so that all elements integrate to form a simple, non-wasteful, harmless, self sustaining, productive, highly functional system.
The idea of permaculture was developed at the University of Tasmania by environmental psychology professor Bill Mollison and his environmental design student, David Holmgren. In response to the extreme drought conditions of Australia and global dependence on fossil fuels, the two men developed a model that created much needed balance. Inputs equaled outputs and the only “waste” the model created, easily broke down into simple elements that added to the health of their environment. Though the basis of their design has existed in many aboriginal and native cultures for centuries, Mollison and Holmgren devised a way to communicate it to a much broader audience. Continue reading Permaculture 101: Designing A Life Beyond Sustainability…
Posted on August 14, 2008 |
Exposing: The People’s Grocery
By Erin Gallagher
Filed Under eCo TV | 1 Comment
Q: What is the second largest cause of death in America?
A: Eating unhealthy food and sitting around
The People’s Grocery is a revolutionary, community oriented, citizen-driven project that began by identifying an opportunity to supply organically produced food to those who could not afford it due to the poorly designed US food system. It has succeeded in creating a thriving urban agricultural landscape in West Oakland, California by educating local citizens on urban farming techniques and thereby increasing the health of the entire community. Inspiring and insightful, this short film by the Global Oneness Project models what can and should be done in most urban settings to offset the effects of exponentially rising transportation costs and live a healthier life.
Click here to check out what else the Global Oneness Project is up to.
Statistical Source: The Center for Disease Control
Posted on August 13, 2008 |
Green Your Screen: The Top 6 Eco-Friendly PCs
By Jenna Kirkman
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, News & Reviews | 2 Comments
Right now you are most likely staring at lead, mercury, cadmium, barium, beryllium, polyvinyl chloride, and brominated flame retardants. No, the toxic waste disposal company did not just dump a barrel of chemicals on your desk – these dangerous toxins can be found right inside your precious personal computer.
- Computer screens commonly contain lead, which can cause brain, nervous system, blood, and reproductive problems
- LCD screens and wiring boards, are often made with mercury, with prolonged exposure leading to brain and kidney damage
- Circuit boards usually contain brominated flame retardants (BFR) which have been linked to learning and memory impairment
- Inexpensive plastics like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are manufactured using a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), a known carcinogen
Initiatives such as “one laptop per child” and the attraction of saving on gas by working from home has encouraged the increased production of computers. Coupled with the fact that the average PC has a life cycle so short that most are outdated within a few years, means an exponential increase in electronic waste (e-waste) in landfills, and toxins seeping into our ecosystems. Though some companies have recycling programs to reduce e-waste, millions of PCs are still disposed of irresponsibly. Sadly, an estimated 50-80 percent of e-waste from the United States is shipped overseas to China and India, where low income communities are paid to take these toxic chemicals off American hands.
Continue reading Green Your Screen: The Top 6 Eco-Friendly PCs…
Posted on August 11, 2008 |
On The Flip Side: An Eco Review Of A Hot Summer Shoe
By Jillian Polaski
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | 1 Comment
Let’s focus for a moment on our feet. It’s summer; a time when our toes can finally be set free without fear of frost-bite, yet since humans are not evolved enough to bear-it-all without protecting our precious peds, we seem to have devised a solution: the ultimate foot wear for the bohemian, the hazardous when running too fast, fun for the sprinkler but not mowing the lawn, sole that embodies the definition of laid-back style: flip flop sandal.
Like everything else in my life, lately I’ve been wondering how eco-friendly my favorite style of shoe actually is. We have evidence that the Ancient Egyptians were sporting flip flops way back in 4,000 BC, and you can bet that the woven papyrus and palm leaves they were made of were not doing any damage to the natural environment. On an equally sustainable parallel, the Masai in Africa traditionally made sandals out of rawhide, rice straw was used in China and Japan, the leaves of the sisal plant in South America, and the indigenous peoples of Mexico sourced fibers from the yucca plant. So, understandably, when I see a pair in the store, I can’t help but think of how ethically sourced the rubber is, or what young hands may have applied the toxic glue responsible for holding the plastic thong to the plastic platform.
I was on a mission: choose three eco-conscious brands and put them to the ultimate test: can a flip-flop be comfortable, responsibly made and environmentally conscious? Let’s see…
Continue reading On The Flip Side: An Eco Review Of A Hot Summer Shoe…
Posted on August 8, 2008 |
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