The Late Blooming Environmentalist

moving over to the new site now

2009-09-11T09:57:00.003-07:00

I'll keep posing here once in a while, but my new site is

www.forestfloor.ca

Hope you'll visit!

Answering the question

2009-09-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

So a few posts back, I said that someone asked me on an environmental forum, why yet another blog was going to do anything to help the environment. So, I'd like to answer that question. I've thought a lot about it, and here's my answer.

Not much, for now. But it keeps me thinking, and it's an opportunity for me to write, which is something I've always liked to do. It also keeps me on top of current events, and learning more about our environment. I also get to share the things I've learned with other people, who might also be interested. Will this blog save the world? No. But my only aim is to keep thinking and keep talking about things, and maybe that might lead to something... You never know.

It's funny because posting on forums is a dangerous thing. The reactions to my blog were about 50/50. Some people liked it, some people just killed me about it. I was very objective about the whole thing, and it was actually a cool experience to be criticized. I took some of the criticisms with me and tried to make this better. I started forestfloor.ca, which is more news oriented and gives a better first impression. I'm just going to keep at it though, so there will be more to come!

2009-09-08T19:16:00.001-07:00

new site: www.forestfloor.ca

check it out!

NEW WEB ADDRESS

2009-09-07T20:05:00.001-07:00

Hi guys!
I've changed my web address:

www.forestfloor.ca

Visit if you can!

There are always 2 (or 3, or 4...) sides to every story

2009-09-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

There are a number of conflicting views on the environment, and what we should and should not be doing about the damage. There are also conflicting views on the amount, and severity of the damage. Here's the first group:

The nay-sayers

There are some people who completely reject the notion of climate change. There are a few very questionable conspiracy theories, a few "head-in-the-sand" approaches, but there are a few people who have scientifically backed their skepticism of humankind's effect on the planet. These are the arguments we're going to be looking at in the nay-sayers section, even though this blog's political stance is yay-sayer.

I read a 1997 interview of Dr. Malcolm Ross where he talks about "junk" or "politically correct" science, which is conducting scientific experiments in the interest of supporting political purposes. Here, he is specifically discussing global warming.

Ross says: "The idea that humans have significantly enhanced global warming is by far the most massive abuse of science that I ever have seen." When asked what he thinks the effect will be on the economy, and he says it will be "devastating". He goes on to say "To those who believe that industrial economies as we know them are at the root of all that is wrong with the world, curtailing industrial activity in the name of protecting public health and the environment makes a certain amount of sense. But the real consequence of all this will be to harm public health and the environment. Wealthier is healthier."

~~Now, what are we going to do with this? This dude is very credible. He is a scientist who is conducting the kinds of studies that we're getting our information from. I've heard this point of view before, as I'm sure you have as well. There are concerns about the economy. People are also skeptical of these apocalypse theories (in this case, global warming) because we've heard them before.

Ross says that "the prediction of disastrous global warming is used to justify a policy of centralized control of the world's energy resources"- is it? I also read an article today that was talking about government's focus on climate change, while loss of wildlife habitat and biodiversity are becoming ignored issues. There are legitimate (or at least valid on some level) criticisms, and that is why this topic is so interesting to talk about, because it's hard to know the complete story. I hear radio programs, read articles, books, and watch films, all of which may compliment, or completely contradict one another. It's hard to get a sense of it first hand, unless you spend your life traveling for research and experimentation. The only other way, and the way I am choosing, is to research... and is that research ever difficult figure out. There is so much involved! And there is so much uncertainty. We have never been in a situation like this, so there is an incredible amount of speculation, hypothesis, and insecurity involved.

I think the secret is to keep talking about it, keep it on our minds. That's how we'll make a change for the better.

If there's one thing we can always count on, it's change. All this wasn't going to last forever, so moving forward is the only logical step. I'm excited about the prospect of cleaner air and more efficiency.. and less stuff. The Sierra Club was talking about this thing called the "Electranet" which is something I've never heard of yet.-- "An energy internet that links homes to a smart grid powered by clean energy. The electranet can reduce electricity consumption through a national transmission network that supports large-scale renewable energy and local energy generation that frees homes and businesses to produce their own energy."

I mean, is this going back to Ross' feared centralized source of power? And what about biodiversity? It all matters, but at least we're thinking about it.

Tomorrow's post will be jobs/industry/economy vs. environment.. or something like that.

I've tried to make this post more news-oriented than the last ones. It might be lacking personality, but let me know what you thought of this! I advertised on a forum, and got a comment that made me think. He said, what is one more blog going to do to help the environment... I think that's a really good question, and I'll think about it tonight and have an answer to that tomorrow.

All the best to everyone!

Letter template- more recycled unbleached paper on the shelves, please!

2009-09-05T21:24:00.001-07:00

Here's a letter template I've been sending. If you like it, it's yours! Feel free to edit, change, etc.

Dear

I am interested in seeing environmentally friendly paper products at my local stores. I am aware that a growing number of companies are manufacturing eco-friendly products, but I have noticed a lack of eco-friendly paper alternatives on the shelves at grocery stores, drug stores, and stationary supply stores. As you know, people are becoming conscious consumers, meaning that they are careful about where they are spending their money. The primary concerns for conscious consumers are environment, human rights, animal rights, and health. Paper pulp depletes our earth's forests considerably. An additional environmental concern is the release of dioxins when paper pulp is bleached. Dioxins are among the chemicals that destroy our ozone layer.

I think it would be a prudent business decision to offer an alternative, unbleached brand of paper products that are made from 100% recycled paper. It is difficult to find such an environmentally friendly paper alternative at the stores I regularly shop at, which is why I think getting them on the shelves is an excellent opportunity.

I hope my feedback has been helpful. Please contact me with any further information.

Thank you,

Ad feature

2009-09-04T19:57:00.001-07:00

I decided to add an advertisement feature to my blog, so that maybe I could find some way to earn a bit of an income. I like some of the ads that are posted, but I find it really funny that they placed ads for magazines! I definitely don't want to advertise for magazines (as per my post below), so I'm working on having those blocked. Sorry for the mix up! This will be worked out very soon.

US magazine

2009-09-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

I was at the grocery store today and had a moment to look around at the gum and magazines by the checkout. I noticed that roughly 70% of these magazines were celebrity gossip magazines of some variety and contained and the words "shocking news" or "_______'s new body" or "Do/be ___________ like the stars"...

Ok.. I'm going to pause right here. Anyone who knows me well wants to say that they have seen me with an US magazine, or heard me discussing Britney Spears/Angeline Jolie, etc. They are completely right, I have definitely bought, read, and talked about these magazines. I want my readers to know that I'm not coming from a place of finger pointing or hypocrisy. I used to think that these magazines were a guilty pleasure, but I've come to realize that they are just way too guilty.

There are two obvious problems with these crazy magazines, well, three actually.

1) TREES (and power, waste, chemicals, chlorine bleaching, pollution.....)-
They use too many trees! There is a lot of paper wasted on these things, and the paper is processed in such a way that it can no longer be recycled (and causes other environmental damage as well). The glossy finish makes the pages unfit for your paper recycling bin. These magazines are made in large quantities, sold by many many stores, purchased by many many people, and most likely they're only good to the consumer for the amount of time it takes to read it... and that doesn't take long. Each article is about one or two pages long, and it's full of ads that you just skip over. I would say that there is a total of about 10 minutes of solid reading in each of these magazines, and the stories that we're reading in these magazines is wasting our time.

2) GOSSIP-
Let's be honest with ourselves, there is definitely something fundamentally wrong with putting down, lying about, and slandering other people. There just is. If we do it to celebrities, then it's that much easier and more natural to do it to everyone else (friends, coworkers, neighbors, strangers). Negative thoughts and words create a social tone that discourages personal growth, creates extreme conformity, limits creative thinking, and stops people from saying what they mean/feel. All this makes critical issues, freedom and rights just that much harder to fight for. If as a society we take away each other's comfort with being who we are, then what else can be taken from us?

**Again, no finger-pointing or hypocrisy. I haven't always understood how important it is to encourage rather than judge, but I'm making big changes in this area.

3) BODY IMAGE-
Why do we all have to look the same? Beauty could come in many forms if we rejected the media's portrayal of what is beautiful. What's considered beautiful at any time is a reflection of trends, celebrities, music, advertisements, and other measures of popular culture that are going on at that particular time. These magazines aren't helping us right now, they're making us feel inadequate and causing us to judge others.

We need trees not US magaine
We need love
We need positive thoughts, not judgement
We need to live in a diverse and equitable society

Chlorine Free

2009-09-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
I'm back from my trip, and I'm loving home more than ever. There are some amazing places down the west coast of North America, absolutely beautiful. The sights I saw and experiences I had made me want to come home and keep talking about it, hoping it's going to lead me on my path of environmental preservation.

I came across a website today about chlorine bleaching:
http://www.chlorinefreeproducts.org/about.htm

This association gave me lots of information about the hazards of chlorine bleaching, and what we should be doing about it. I found the following quote very interesting:

Companies using chlorine chemistry like
chlorine dioxide to make paper, use more water
per ton of pulp than any other product in the
world.  So this means they also release more
toxic organochlorine pollutants such as dioxin
and furans in the water than any other product
in the world.

I'm starting to think that paper products is going to be a big focus for me. It's so hard to find an unbleached environmentally friendly alternative, but they are definitely out there and are a very practical alternative. I actually applied for a sales position today with Cascades Fine Paper Group. This is completely out of my field (I'm supposed to be a teacher), but I'm starting to look into directly affecting the availability of the products we want to buy. It's hard for anyone to access alternative products if they aren't accessible....

1 week hiatus

2009-08-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

I'll be gone for a week, I'm going to Oregan and Sanfransisco.

A little update, I have sent a few e-mails but I've realized that it's better to contact the companies who are selling the paper products (london drugs, shoppers, staples, walmart, etc.) than the companies that make them. The reason is, as I found out by their "duh, check the website!" responses, they actually do made products that use recycled paper (although not necessarily unbleached). So that's what I'm going to be working on when I get home. I also might change the name of this website, and maybe the domain, but then again maybe not. I'm not 100% sure if I love the name. We'll see though.

More to come in about a week!
All the best!

That's it!

2009-08-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Kimberly-Clark uses some 1.1 million cubic meters of trees from Canada’s boreal forests each year to produce 465,000 metric tons of pulp. Only 19 percent of the pulp it uses to make home use disposable paper products comes from recycled sources.
*This isn't a slight against Kimberly-Clark, I don't know anything about the company yet. Insert any big paper or paper product company here, and it's the same general idea.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/8065/1/360/

You know how I was talking about the alternatives in your local store? You know, chemical free, less packaging, unbleached, etc? Well, I've found out that this alternative does not really exist for paper or paper products in any real way. I've been looking for recycled or unbleached paper for a while to write letters to companies and put a cute little "this letter printed on recycled paper" thing on the bottom. I've realized that looking for paper is a total excuse on my part, these companies have e-mail addresses/phone numbers and I have a computer/a phone.. It's just that simple. So today I start writing letters, and I'll post them up here for anyone else to use (replace the company name, send from your e-mail).

Oh, and p.s. I sent a letter to the editor of the Nanaimo Daily News about the snow bird oil fiasco.

Love to all, down with unrecycled bleached paper!

himalayan pink salt

2009-08-25T21:53:00.001-07:00

I'm having a bath tonight so I'm all ready for a little beauty treatment experience. I've got my candles, bath salts, face mask, whatever else. I bought these himalayan pink salt crystals because they're supposed to be detoxifying and really good for you skin. I though today about the fact that salt is mined, and that it had to be mined, put together shipped, then sold. I bought it fair trade, but it's hard to ignore the environmental questions this brings up. I try to keep it pretty real in terms of the things I do and don't buy, but do these kind of jet-set luxury items, while good for your body, do they count as a not so awesome purchase?

I don't know a lot about mining at all, but it seems like the whole spiritual, good for your body thing might have a few setbacks for the environment. Semi-prescious stones and crystals are now more widely used than ever for their healing and cleansing properties. I personally have a few stones, but I've thought about mining them and it seems like maybe it's worth looking into.

Isn't this how it's always worked, we find something that benefits us, and someone extracts/produce it, and makes money off it? It might be happening again with things like my lovely himalayan pink salt crystals. I think the same thing might be happening with organic food. I think organic food rocks for sure, but a lot of the organic stuff is in our grocery stores out of season. This means that they were grown, shipped, sold.

I'm finding it hard to see the line.. Or maybe I'm just confusing myself.. Won't be the first time, I'll have to look into it more.

caio for now!
xo

Sunday Clean

2009-08-23T11:53:00.001-07:00

So it's Sunday today, and I try and do a big clean of my appt. on Sundays. I'm at the bathroom stage, ready to empty the garbage in the bathroom. This garbage is always pretty benign. Today mine has: a wrapper from a bar of soap, an empty kleenex box, empty toothpaste, a band aid wrapper (injury from the river), dental floss, a spent tooth brush, and a toilet paper roll. I usually would just throw out this garbage without a second look. Today though, because I am an environmentalist with a blog and everything (lol), I took a harder look at this garbage and I found out that almost everything in this garbage in recyclable. All these years, it's gone right in the garbage, but today I realized that it can be sorted and recycled.

So, today I'm incorporating this into my Sunday clean.

Day 2- River

2009-08-20T00:38:00.000-07:00

I just got back from day 2 at the river.. same as yesterday, Amazing. It was beautiful, just gorgeous. Day 3 happens tomorrow, then the river kick I'm on is going to slow down.. then I'm back to real life!

The River

2009-08-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

Oh.. the Nanaimo River. I spent a day there today, and it was amazing... like, amazing. The water was clear and beautiful, it was cold and really deep. You could see the bottom as if it were 2 feet away, but if you tried to swim to it your ears pop. You can jump from high cliffs and search for gorgeous stones at the bottom. I hopped along the big white stones in the shallow water, and although I nearly broke my ankle a few times, I got better and better the further we got. I swam down rapids (hilariously I might add) and made eye contact with a crayfish (literally, we met eyes- and he was way cooler about the whole thing than I was).

Rivers Are Awesome.

Second thoughts

2009-08-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

So for the past few days, I've seriously doubted myself and this whole blog thing. I talked to a a few friends about this, and they told me that if I felt this way about my blog, then I should write about it on my blog. I think it's really good advice.

There's a book called The Artist's Way, and it's kind of a course in finding your creative self and expressing that creative self. I've never actually finished the course, but one of the first chapters talks about this little voice inside of all of us that loves to sabotage our attempts to be creative or express ourselves. My little voice tore apart this blog the other day, and I almost listened. I deleted the link off my facebook and didn't post for a day or two. It's a weird feeling to express myself publicly like this, but I'm just going to get over it and keep posting.

So, enough about special little emotional moment times, and back to the environment! Go trees!

Story of Stuff Mailing List

2009-08-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

I just signed up for this yesterday, but I thought I would include it here in case anyone wants to sign up as well. I don't really know what the updates or e-mails you get are like, but it might be a great source!

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001ZfiuR_73g8olXkW_WcGRqg%3D%3D

Once I get an e-mail from them I'll post about it.

The Conscious Consumer - What does this mean?

2009-08-14T18:26:00.001-07:00

What is a conscious consumer, and what does it mean for the environment?

Most of the worst environmental damage has come from the things we buy. A great video on this is Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff. http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Most of the consumer goods we buy have to be made. Paying attention to the way the things are made (and what they are made of) makes us conscious consumers.

Each thing we buy has an individual story, going from its beginning (materials from the earth) to its destination (our living rooms/kitchens/driveways/bedrooms, etc.). These stories can be long, sorded, and corrupt- while others are harmoneous and just. None of the things we buy have the story of how it was made written on the box, so we need to investigate and come prepared so that we don't unknowingly buy the products that caused all kinds of damage before it ended up on the shelf. Which products are which? There are a few red flags we can look out for that will help us to decide.

1. The item that makes us say "I can't believe this is so cheap!"
This is the oldest trick in the book, and people are starting to really understand just why cheap items are so cheap. There is always a cost. If that cost isn't coming out of our bank accounts, where is it coming from? The bill is generally footed by a mixture of the environment, political instability, and exploited labor in a country somewhere across either a boarder or an ocean. It's better to buy fewer things and pay the full price for each thing. When we buy something at a fair trade store, second hand store, or a small shop- the employees, the people who made it, and the environment all benefit. This because mass production was eliminated, and in most cases, we can find a product that was not mass produced (and therefore much more sustainable) in small shops, second hand stores and fair trade stores.

There are times when we might find ourselves in those big stores, it's sometimes hard to avoid. I can't seem to avoid the big Save-On-Foods that's just up the street from me. This may change -but for now I am going to be making a compromise. Whenever I find myself in these stores, I am going to try to buy the more expensive, eco-friendly alternative.

Almost every product we buy has an alternative, and it's usually sitting right beside the product we regularly buy. Laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo, food, face wash, lip balm, nail polish, toilet paper, napkins, (ladies, even tampons and pads), garbage bags, sandwich bags, coffee, tea... most of what we're looking for has an alternative sitting right beside it.

2. A paper or cotton product that is white white white.
I found out that it's really bad to bleach paper products because it releases dioxins in the bleaching process. These dioxins kill off ozone molecules, and we need our ozone layer intact! I've found that this is trickier, because the alternatives that I was talking about in #1 aren't always there for bleached paper and cotton products. I mean, they are there like, they're out there, but they're not always right there in front of our noses. Buying unbleached products takes a little planning, but we can find them. If you can't find them, you can always ask for them. You can write to the store you were in or the paper company itself and ask for an unbleached alternative.

3. Food ingredients containing words you can't pronounce.
The other day I bought a really weird container of sliced chicken. I went to the grocery store, grabbed a bunch of things, paid, got them home and didn't look at the ingredients until I took the food out for my lunch the next day. That's when I found the package of sliced chicken that I thought would literally be "cooked chicken". Oh no, when I looked at the ingredients I saw- Ingredients: chicken breast, corn syrup solids, salt, modified corn starch, flavour, sodium phosphte, carrageenan (????), sodium erythorbate, torula yeast, spices, sodium nitrate.

When chemicals (or things like "carrageenans".. which I don't know whether that is a chemical but it sounds weird and it's getting a red underline in my spell check- even my computer is red-flagging it) are created they've got to go somewhere. Food with chemicals, additives, and preservatives are created and they go through our bodies and into our water, our earth, our air.. They also come out of the factories that make them along with the nasty bi-products that they produce.

I like to think, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If it's good for us to consume and buy natural products, then it's good for everything else.

Bye for now, there will be more to come! Thanks to everyone who has read the blog, posted comments, and been supportive! Comments and elaborations welcome, people know a lot more than I do about this stuff, so please post or e-mail.

Links

2009-08-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some great videos!

Vampire Energy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgZfry82LC4
~Summary: turn off and unplug our stuff when we're not using it. This equals big energy savings.

Home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
~Summery: we're forgetting how amazing the earth/life is, and we're messing it up... big time. But we can make it better.

The Story of Stuff:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
~Summary: the stuff we're buying sucks, is ruling our lives and destroying our earth. If we choose to be conscious consumers and drive the market toward a change then we will see a better, more harmonious world, and we ourselves will be happier and more fulfilled.

A little detective work...

2009-08-13T11:36:00.001-07:00

So last night me and Sean went for a paddle just in the Nanaimo Harbor. We kayak here all the time and generally it's really fun! We see all kinds of harbour seals, birds, racoons, and, just lots of the kind of nature stuff that new environmentalists love to see. So we're getting suited up and putting our kayaks in the water, and realize that we're literally floating on an oil spill. We paddled out about 30 meters, and it was just the same, we couldn't get away from it. It covered the Nanaimo Harbor. It was so fumey and just generally the opposite of what it usually is.

As a new and very excited "environmentalist" I will be taking action. I'm going to find out why, and how it can be prevented next time.

It's a little easier not to, but I'm just going to do it.

I'll post what I did/found out later today!

Step 1: I contacted the Nanaimo Port Authority. They took my name and seemed very concerned about the spill. They didn't know where it came from, but they wonder if it was because of the Snowbird demonstration last night. If it is- I mean, it was fun to watch and everything- but did we really need it?

I contacted them again but they had no new information for me. I went to the site of the spill again today, and everything was looking better. Ofcourse, it's not gone, but at least it's not continuing (like a boat is leaking or something). I think it might have been from the snowbirds. I'm thinking of writing my first "letter to the editor" as a new environmentalist. We'll see, I've gotta ask around a little bit more.

What's the damage?

2009-08-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

Most of the information I've gotten about the damage that has been caused has come from the book Our Angry Earth by Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl (published 20 years ago.. this is where I first understood just how late I was blooming) and the video Home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
I have learned about this from other sources as well, but these are the most recent sources, and the ones that made me really ready to take action.

So here's the inventory.
Our ozone layer is being depleted. Our water supply has been severely diminished. We are pumping carbon into the air that is supposed to be kept under ground. Our fast-paced method of farming is leaving our soil infertile. We are raising so much livestock that it is taking a serious toll on our land and water. We are burning fossel fuels and consuming fossel water, both which took thousands of years to create. Our ocean water is polluted. Much of our fresh water is unsuitable to drink. Many species are becoming extinct each year. Our coral reefs are dying because of climate change. Our polar ice caps are melting. Our rivers are drying up, and our ocean levels are rising. We are experiencing "once-in-a-lifetime" severe weather patterns several times per year. We are cutting down way too many trees (way too many is an understatement). The global temperature is rising. Nature's natural system of checks and balances is much slower than our rate of consumption. This means that the water cycle, tree life cycle, the ocean, the sun, the animals, bacteria, plants... they can't keep up. They can't help us.

These are serious problems, and they need serious solutions. We can do something about this! Here's why I think we can do something about it, because some the reasons we're polluting so much are kinda, well, dumb... and easy to fix.

What can we do?

Let's look at ozone depletion. Ozone is depleted by man-made chemicals called chloroflourocarbons, or CFCs. These chemicals are not poisonous to us, but react with and destroy Ozone molecules. CFCs have an extremely long life span. Let's hear what good old Asimov and Pohl have to say about it: "It takes about fifteen years for CFC to migrate from its source in a chemical factory to the stratosphere. Then, once there, it is estimated that each molecule of CFC will last for about a century, during which time it will destroy about 100, 000 molecules of ozone." 100,000 molecules of Ozone for every one molecule of CFC!

What do we use CFCs for? They used to be in hair spray and spray-on deoderants, but that was outlawed (in North America, but their use is still prevalent elsewhere in the world). They are still used to make the bubbly styrofoam that keeps everything warm/cool and they are used in air conditioners and fridges. Other ozone-unfriendly gases, called dioxins, are produced when paper products are bleached. That's a high price to pay for white toilet paper and tampons.. What's wrong with a slightly darker color?

For ozone damage, let's work on some alternatives, and use unbleached (preferably even recycled) paper, toilet paper, napkins, etc.

Let's look into the issue of global warming and carbon emissions. Fossil fuels is simply energy from the sun that's been captured by leaves, kept inside trees, buried, compressed, and fossilized. What it comes down to is oil is fossilized energy from the sun. Why don't we use the sun directly- solar panels? Wind energy? Alternative energy in its various forms?

What about water pollution? Let's not pollute!! Let's buy less plastics, use natural cleaning products, and encourage manufacturing that doesn't product hazardous waste.

Fresh water depletion? Let's harvest rain in rain barrels and water our lawns. Let's forget about fancy sprinkler systems and pools (this one sucks for me.. my dream house definitely includes a gigantic pool with fountains and waterslides... but oh well. there is still lakes/oceans to swim in.). Let's stop wasting it!

We can fight deforestation by increasing the demand for products that use annually renewable sources such as corn or hemp, and encouraging the manufacture of products that use recycled materials.

WE can control the market. WE ARE THE MARKET! WE ARE THE CONSUMERS! YAY FOR US! ~I'll be posting on this topic soon~ I love this topic! It gives us a lot of control and the solutions will make our society thriftier, and more community oriented. We can't lose!~

Scientists say that we have about 10 years to make some big changes. Let's make them! :)

I would love comments/elaborations. Please feel free! :)

Resolutions

2009-08-11T15:50:00.001-07:00

As a late blooming environmentalist I will be undertaking the following resolutions:

1. Being a conscious consumer
2. Recycling EVERYTHING

3. Flushing no chemicals down the toilet, sink, or bath tub. In fact, using no chemicals at all.

4. Stop doing anything that I used to justify by saying "well, it's only ONE"- examples include, littering, buying things I know CAN'T be good for the environment, throwing something recyclable into the garbage, etc.

5. Using reusable grocery bags and using a travel mug for coffee (saves 10 cents!)

6. Buying decomposable garbage bags. (No more will I justify plastic grocery bags by saying "I'll re-use them as garbage bags!" -- this, I've realized, is not the most environmental example of "re-use")

7. Writing letters and sending e-mails to different companies suggesting the ways they can create a better, more environmentally friendly product that suits the conscious consumer.
8. Writing these letters on unbleached, recycled paper.
9. Buying local and/or organic as much as possible.
10. Buying a percent of my clothes, and other items, used. I don't know what this % will be yet.

Letters, updates, and more resolutions to come! I hope to make an impact, even if it is a little late.

I would love to hear from anyone who is a veteran environmentalist, a fellow late bloomer, or anyone who is looking to make a change!
My e-mail is: LBenvironmentalist@gmail.com

Good luck everyone!