Sustainable Living from Creators Syndicate

Investing Locally for 07/14/2009

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Many of us watch the stock market with dismay as our investments take a nose dive. Most Americans rather would invest in Main Street than Wall Street, but the current economic system tends toward globalization instead of localization. Local economist and author Michael Shuman points out that "outdated federal securities laws have left Main Street dangerously dependant on Wall Street, and o ...

Updated: Tue Jul 14, 2009

Corny People for 07/21/2009

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Imagine if beings from outer space knocked on your door looking mighty hungry. You would show them the refrigerator, pantry and cupboards, and they would throw up their handlike appendages in dismay and mutter, "All you have to eat is corn?!"

If that sounds far-fetched, go take a peek at the ingredients labels on your packaged foods and drinks. I bet you'll find corn, in one of ...

Updated: Tue Jul 21, 2009

Eating Local Stops Salmonella for 07/28/2009

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Commercially grown produce passes through many hands on its 1,500-mile journey from the grower to your grocer. How many of those hands were washed? How was that food grown? When you start asking questions, you begin to see the beauty of eating local.

The main problem with our food system is that once a food has left the grower, there is not much hope of tracing it. Most of the produce is ...

Updated: Tue Jul 28, 2009

Disposing of the Disposable Mentality for 08/04/2009

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"Reduce, reuse and recycle" is the new mantra, but we also must add "rethink" and examine our disposable mentality.

The "disposable mentality" of cheap goods and lots of them has dictated American consumerism for the past 20 years. Consumer goods are produced so cheaply that it is often less expensive to buy new things than have broken things fixed. A prime ...

Updated: Tue Aug 04, 2009

Flushing Our Drinking Water for 08/11/2009

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Our toilets and sewer systems are the perfect "pathogen-dispersal systems," according to Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment, in India. "We take a small amount of contaminated material and use it to create vast quantities of water unfit for human consumption," says Narain. And we do it several times a day, in every American household, suspending a yearly ...

Updated: Tue Aug 11, 2009

A Living Building for 08/18/2009

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Building in this age requires addressing multiple environmental concerns. For the Omega Institute — which is a center in Rhinebeck, N.Y., specializing in holistic living — those concerns mean designing beyond conventional codes and practices. Omega Institute recently unveiled a "living building," which filters 5 million gallons of wastewater each year through an indoor mar ...

Updated: Tue Aug 18, 2009

Evils of Bottled Water for 08/25/2009

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Americans are the world's leading consumer of bottled water, downing about 4 billion gallons per year in little plastic bottles. This is roughly equal to one 8-ounce bottle per person per day.

There is much more to the ubiquitous water bottle than meets the lips. It actually takes three to five times more water to make and fill one plastic water bottle than the bottle contains. If you ad ...

Updated: Tue Aug 25, 2009

Recycling in School for 09/01/2009

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In our culture, it often seems that our children are much more progressive than many of us stodgy old-schoolers. Most kids can text, download MP3 files, and tell you what their carbon footprint is without missing a beat. The rest of us probably have a hard time doing even one of those things.

Michele Daly, a senior at Washingtonville High School, in Washingtonville, N.Y., has been trying ...

Updated: Tue Sep 01, 2009

Take the 10 Percent Challenge for 09/08/2009

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

If everyone in America spent just 10 percent of their disposable incomes on locally produced goods and services, it would generate millions of dollars for local economies, in spite of the recession. Lowcountry Local First, a South Carolina business association, tried the 10 percent shift as a local stimulus plan. The organization asked all citizens, local businesses, government agencies and non ...

Updated: Tue Sep 08, 2009

Revamping the School Lunch Program for 09/15/2009

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

As our children go back to school, many parents grow increasingly concerned about the school lunch program. Most school lunches cost between $2.50 and $3. With government subsidies through the United States Department of Agriculture, public schools receive $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. That adds up to about $9 billion to feed 30 billion c ...

Updated: Tue Sep 15, 2009

Weatherize for Winter for 09/22/2009

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The chill of fall is upon us and creeping into our homes. But before you turn up the thermostat, consider winterizing your home to use the heat more efficiently.

"Efficiency is our largest untapped natural resource," according to efficiency guru Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute. It's much cheaper to buy efficiency than energy.

Most homes have tiny cracks and ...

Updated: Tue Sep 22, 2009

Freecycling for 09/29/2009

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Yard sales are great for bargains, but they also are great for the fact that we are keeping usable things out of our landfills. Each of us produces 1.2 tons of garbage per year, but that figure doesn't include the usable goods — such as old furniture, clothes and books — that also wind up in the waste stream.

Tighter belts mean people are more reluctant to throw usable goods ...

Updated: Tue Sep 29, 2009

Cutting Carbon Emissions in Half by 2030 for 10/06/2009

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Buildings are responsible for approximately half of U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions annually and are growing faster than any other sector, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. Forty-three percent of U.S. carbon emissions and 76 percent of U.S. electricity consumption happen in buildings, through heating, cooling, lighting, hot water and appliances.

Twenty-four of th ...

Updated: Tue Oct 06, 2009

Green Heat for 10/13/2009

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Recent hikes in the costs of fuel oil and natural gas have many of us looking to alternative sources for home heating. But what is the "greenest" alternative? That is a tough question because it depends on where you live and what fuel is abundant locally. If you live in the Midwest, corn is more abundant than wood and may have less of an environmental impact because it doesn't have to ...

Updated: Tue Oct 13, 2009

350 Actions This Saturday for 10/20/2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The number 350 seems so innocent, so small, so prime and human-scaled that you can picture it in your mind. It's not like those inconceivable numbers: the trillions that measure the national debt, billions that measure world population and millions that measure the carbon in the atmosphere.

Three hundred fifty parts per million is the "safe" level of carbon emissions in the atm ...

Updated: Tue Oct 20, 2009

No Such Thing as Clean Coal for 10/27/2009

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

We are enduring a $45 million advertising campaign touting "clean coal" as the solution to America's energy crisis. This is an attempt by "Big Coal" lobbyists (the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, in this case) to "greenwash" Americans into believing a lie that coal can be clean. Don't believe the hype!

Most of our coal is extracted through mou ...

Updated: Tue Oct 27, 2009

Greening Our Schools for 11/03/2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Our children are growing up in a vastly different world from the one in which we grew up. By the time they graduate, much of what we taught them will be obsolete. Our country is in a period of transition, moving away from dependence on fossil fuels to a greener future. Let's prepare our children by transitioning them and their school environment.

The Eco-Schools USA program is part of an ...

Updated: Tue Nov 03, 2009

Deciphering Labels for 11/10/2009

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Surfing the supermarket shelves will yield a mind-boggling array of new labels on our food. But what do these labels mean, and how truthful are their claims? For example, the "organic" label carries the promise that food is grown according to organic farming practices, in which soil is enriched and tested yearly. But what you don't see on that label are the carbon costs to the environ ...

Updated: Tue Nov 10, 2009

Local Thanksgiving for 11/17/2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800