Making Your Backyard A Bird-Friendly Place
February 21, 2008
Hang bird feeders with a variety of types of bird food.
Plant native plants that flower and fruit.
They provide the best food sources for wildlife, while generally requiring less fertilizer, less water, and less effort in controlling pest. Native plants may support 10 to 50 times as many species of native wildlife as non-native plants.
40 Things you can do for CLEANER AIR!
February 21, 2008
1. Carpool
2. Walk or ride a bike.
3. Shop by phone or mail.
4.Ride public transit or telecommute
5. Accelerate your car gradually.
6. Obey the speed limit.
7. Combine your errands into one trip.
8. Keep your car tuned.
9. Don’t top off at the gas pump.
10. Replace your car’s air filter.
11. Keep your tires properly inflated.
12. Look for the most efficient, lowest polluting model or even a zero-polluting electric car.
13. Use water-based paints. Look for paints labeled zero-VOC.
14. Paint with a brush, not a sprayer.
15. Store solvents in air-tight containers.
16. Use a push or electric lawn mower.
17. Start your barbecue briquettes with an electric probe. Or use a propane or natural gas barbecue.
18. Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
19. Replace energy-hungry incandescent lights with fluorescent lighting.
20. Check with your utility company for energy conservation tips.
21. Use a programmable thermostat that automatically turns off the air conditioner or heater when you don’t need them.
22. Don’t exercise on unhealthy air days.
23. Add insulation to your home.
24. Use an EPA-approved wood burning stove or fireplace insert.
25. Insulate your water heater.
26. Install low-flow showerheads.
27. Choose recycled products.
28. Choose products with recyclable packaging.
29. Reuse paper bags.
30. Recycle paper, plastics, and metals.
31. Print and photocopy on both sides of paper. INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.arb.ca.gov/images/white.gif” \* MERGEFORMATINET
32. Avoid using leaf blowers and other types of equipment that raise a lot of dust. Try using a rake or broom.
33. Drive slowly on unpaved roads.
34. Drive less, particularly on days with unhealthy air.
35. Some products such as cleaning agents, paints, and glues contain dangerous chemicals. Use them outdoors or with plenty of ventilation indoors.
36. Use safer products, such as baking soda instead of harsher cleaners.
37. Have your gas appliances and heater regularly inspected and maintained.
38. Clean frequently to remove dust and molds.
39. Write to your local paper. Support action for healthy air.
40. Let your elected representatives know you support action for cleaner air.
This fact sheet prepared by Alice Miller-Keyes and Tim Keyes from information provided by the Evangelical Environmental Network and the Georgia Conservancy.
Book Review: Blessed Unrest
February 15, 2008
Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken
Every now and then I come across a book that is better than the stereotype of what it should be. With most of the books I’ve read on environmental issues, the authors tend to talk in circles or rehash someone else’s thoughts and theories. The end result is that they all sort of blend together and come off as cliché.
Not with Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest. Hawken writes a book heavy on stories and comprehensive in histories. His basic premise is that the environmental movement is not something that is new to the 21st century, despite what Oprah and her cloth shopping bags may make you believe. But rather that the environmental movement has been operating just under the surface for a while and it is only just now beginning to bubble to the surface at the level of popular culture.
Blessed Unrest is the story of the environmental movement’s multiple streams that have moved throughout history that are now beginning to merge into one river of environmental consciousness.
This is a book about the growing number of organizations and people who are restless with the current options in regards to the environment, human rights, justice, sustainability, etc.
Blessed Unrest tells of how these organizations and groups have been moving under the radar for the last couple of decades, moving independently of each other, with no “mission statement” or organizing agenda, culminating in the growing changing tide for change in how view and operate in the world. Hawken argues that no one owns this movement and no on can control it. Rather, that it is the world’s for the world.
Hawken then spends time discussing the “blessed” roots of much of the groups and organizations and how their unrest is deeply rooted in their spirituality, faith, and vision for the world. Far from saying their spirituality is an effort to colonize the world for “environmental justice”, the point is that many of these individuals and groups are beginning from a starting point that wants to integrate their faith with their “blessed” responsibility to be good caretakers of the world. To prove this point, the author leans heavily on the thoughts of Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, and King and provides insights into how their faith and values shaped their perspective to become agents of change. He then brings it back full circle and reminds us that our responsibility as agents of change, is to live fully and integrated with ourselves (faith), others, and our environment. This is no small task, but one that is built of the “still small voice of God” that stirs in each of our spirits, that remind us that things are not as they could or should be.
What makes this book so rich is that Hawken doesn’t deal with pie-in-the-sky ideals or theories. Rather he shares the raw, honest, successful, and even failed attempts at sustainability. Instead of providing black and white concrete models for us to follow, he instead simply shares the stores of hope and optimism and lets them do what they have the power to do, inspires us to follow in their foot steps one small step at a time to affect change in a world desperate for it.
