They Multiply in the Dark

I swear that plastic grocery bags breed. I do my darndest not to get plastic shopping bags, but they keep showing up in the house. Of course, I try to use them again at least once--as trash can liners and for carrying litter I pick up on walks. In spite of that, I still have bags.

I use the plastic bag recycling container at United Marketstreet and wondered if bags placed in there were really recycled. So I called on my friend, Google, and apparently, yes, they can be. We don't have a city plastic recycling that takes plastic bags, so you need to use the grocery store bins specifically for these bags.

Less than 10% of the plastic bags in the US are recycled. Some plastic bags and other plastic film are recycled into composite lumber. Most is shipped to other countries, although much of that is burned for not-so-clean fuel. A small amount is recycled into other plastic products.

However, the best thing we can do is to try to avoid getting the bags to start with, although my own experience is that it is hard to avoid them altogether. Producing 1,500 plastic bags consumes 33 lbs. of fossil fuels and 55 gallons of fresh water, and produces 15 lbs. of solid waste and 0.04 tons of CO2.

Keep your reusable fabric bags in your car and remember to use them. If you are buying just one or two items, refuse a bag and carry your purchases out in your hands. Reuse the bags you do get at least one more time, and remember to take bags back to the grocery and place them in the recycling bin by the front door. 

I truly wish the city would ban plastic shopping bags as some other cities do, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Much of the litter I pick up on walks is discarded shopping bags. As much as I don't see an outright ban happening here in Wichita Falls, it won't hurt to bring it up now and again with your City Council representatives. I am not aware of anyone currently on the City Council who would be a champion of such as issue, but one never knows. 

What Do You Know About Eggs?

Photo by Kelly Neil on Unsplash

I eat a lot of eggs, and I am picky about which eggs I buy. And, the ones I buy are more expensive than those I do not. Why pay more? Because it makes a difference to the hen, and it does make a difference in the egg.

I'm an omnivore. I recognize that eating lower on the food pyramid is generally better for modern humans and for the environment. But I also recognize that there are tens of thousands of years of evolution in which people ate all kinds of food, and morally, I don't have a problem with eating meat. That being said, I prefer eating meat from animals that have been treated humanely before they end up on my plate.

This brings me to eggs. What do all of the various labels mean and what difference does it make?

If you see the term "natural" on the label, it means nothing. All eggs are natural. Eggs are not processed to be ready for you to eat.

If eggs do not have "cage-free", "free-range", or "pasture-raised" on the carton, you can rest assured, the eggs come from a battery cage system. The vast majority of the eggs sold in the US come from battery caged hens. They are the least expensive eggs, but birds held in these cages have a horrible life. They have about 67 square inches of space (think an 8 x 11 piece of paper of floor space). There is no ability to do things that chickens do. The chickens are very limited in their ability to move and suffer high stress and also more commonly develop osteoporosis.

The next level up is cage-free eggs. Hens in this environment have more space and can move around, flap their wings and engage in normal chicken behavior. They still don't have a lot of space and they are not outside.

Free-range eggs are from hens that do have access to being outdoors, although they don't have to have a lot of outdoor space.

Pasture-raised eggs hens have the best commercial environment with more access to the outdoors. Since they can forage, they can eat bugs and other green plants they would not have access to indoors.

What about organic eggs? This just means their feed is organic (no chemical pesticides). 

What about vegetarian eggs? I am not a fan. This means the chickens are fed only plant food. Chickens are also omnivores and love insects and grubs.

We can easily see how the method of egg production can affect a hen's quality of life, but does it make a difference in the nutritional value of the egg? Well, yes it does. Personally, I think there is a big difference in the taste of a caged egg versus a pasture-raised egg, but taste is one of those things that you can argue is subjective. Nutrition, not so much.

Studies have shown that "the average free-range egg in comparison to caged eggs show a quarter to a third less cholesterol, a quarter less saturated fat, two-thirds more vitamin A, three times more vitamin E, seven times more beta-carotene and twice the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (Gaia). Other tests performed have found that free-range eggs have nearly six times the amount of vitamin D and significantly more B vitamins in comparison to store brand eggs." Source

Given options, I prefer buying eggs from local small farms or homes that allow their chickens outside to be chickens. If I am buying them in the store, then I go with pasture-raised eggs if they have them. Cage-free is the minimum I will go.

Pasture-raised eggs are expensive. One place you can find them a little cheaper is at Natural Grocers. If you are a member of their Npower rewards, you can buy them even more cheaply. Always check the sale area of in cooler case where the dairy products are. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes you can find some eggs beyond their sale date for super cheap. They are still perfectly good to use.

Our everyday purchase choices matter. I know some people just don't have the income to be picky, but most of us can help raise the bar a little bit on eggs.

Kitchen Composting

Happy New Year!

In my last post, I mentioned a compost bin I kept under the sink. I thought I would do a little review for those who may be interested.

Why send your kitchen scraps to the landfill? Here in Wichita Falls, you do have the option to put them into your organics container for the city composting operation, but I would rather make my own compost, when possible.

You could absolutely put your scraps in any container, but you will need to take the scraps out daily to avoid the smell and inviting critters you do not want into your home. Since I have a tendency to get distracted, a bin like this is a good idea.

My son-in-law chose the one in the photo to the right one year as a gift. It is stainless steel. I have seen many similar bins for the kitchen, but have only used this one. The brand name is Natural Home, if you want to check it out. The bin is 3 pieces: the actual bin, a lid with holes so air can circulate (you do not want any anaerobic action happening, trust me), and a charcoal filter that fits in the lid. It has a 1.3 gallon capacity, which is enough for most days. The instructions say the charcoal filter should be changed every month, but I have had mine for more than a year and have changed the filter once. I haven't had an issue with smell. 

You could put your scraps into the bin directly. I did find some compostable bags made of corn on Amazon that fit and use them. Mainly because I would take the bin outside and get distracted and leave the bin out in the weather, which it seemed to deal with just fine, but isn't very convenient when you need it in the kitchen. 

Using the bag, I can take the scraps out and take them to the garden and drop bag and all into a hole. Yes, I compost the lazy way--directly into the garden. More about that another time. The bags break down fairly quickly, so don't wait too long to take your scraps out or it will not hold up when you pull it out. But as long as take it out every couple of days, you should be fine.

Would You Like an Extra $1500 a Year?

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Be honest here, who couldn't use an extra $1500 a year, other than the Bill Gates of the world? Well, in this case, I'm not talking about finding an extra $1500, but not throwing $1500 in the trash. It comes to the same thing in your budget. 

Did you know the average American family throws away 1/3 of all the food they buy? That could be the take out box from the restaurant you ate at last week or, more likely, the food that looked so yummy at the store that you didn't get around using before it spoiled or it went well past the "Use By" date. By the way, did you know you can safely use food past the  "Use By" date? Some times, well past. I do it all the time. Yes, if you pull a can from the back of your pantry with a Use By date of 2016 (which I did this week), you might be pushing it. I opened the can and the contents smelled OK, but looked disgusting, so I decided not to push my luck.

Besides being a waste of money, the food we toss took fossil fuel to transport and probably has added pesticides, which also contain fossil fuels. Wasting less food is not only good for our budgets, but for the environment.

I'm generally frugal, but I do waste more food than I should, so that is my focus for 2024--throw away no food. We probably won't hit the "no food," but I think "very little food" is doable.

This isn't intended to be a food blog, but I will probably talk about food a lot in 2024, because this is truly an excellent place to start in our quest to live more sustainable lives.

Once again today I made soup from leftovers for lunch. A few days ago I made mashed potato casserole (mashed potatoes and carrots with cheese added--kids and husbands will eat carrots this way and the carrots five the casserole a nice color). I was at the Farmer's Market and was thinking about lunch and remembered I still had some of that casserole in the frig, It was at the end of its edible life expectancy. Rather than throw it out, why not creamy potato soup? I sauteed some onions and celery, added the leftover casserole with some garlic and pepper and a little broth to heat it up, then a bit of cream at the end and voila! Soup! Not only did I have lunch today, but probably the next couple of days, unless I decide to freeze it. Altogether, I probably spent about $1 and easily have 3, maybe 4, meals.

What are some ways to spend less at the grocery or Farmer's Market?

• Don't go when you are hungry. Everything looks good when you're hungry.
• Plan ahead for your trip. I almost always buy more than what was on my list, but the list does keep me from cruising up and down the aisles, impulse buying.
• Buy less. This is difficult for me. Growing up, my Depression era grandparents and (at that time) low-income parents stocked up when things were on sale so they had food on the shelf in case there was no money at some point in the future. I still do this--thus the 2016 can mentioned above. If you are good at rotating your stock, you're ok, but sometimes, I find something I missed. If you end up throwing that sale food away, it is still waste.
• Try not to make more than you will eat. This is a biggie for me. I was raised in the Midwest, and it is almost a capital offense not to make so much food that people leave feeling like a stuffed turkey. I still have a tendency to make more than my family will eat, but I am doing better.
• Use the leftovers. Either eat them as they are or make them into something else like soup or a casserole. I had potato water in the frig from making the mashed potatoes, intending to make potato bread (mmmm!), but I didn't get to it in time, so made potato yeast instead (a different way to make sourdough starter).
• If you have nonperishable food you are not going to use, give it to another family member, a neighbor, or take it to the Wichita Falls Area Food Bank. 
• If you have food trimmings or have to throw something away because it is not longer safe to eat, compost. I have a small compost bin under my sink and carry it out to the garden every couple of days. In this case, I am feeding my garden, so I'm not just throwing it in the landfill.
• If you have chickens or other small pets like rabbits or guinea pigs, some of your food trimmings can go to them. I have two dogs. They don't get much in the way of people food, since it isn't good for them, but they get an occasional small leftover treat in their meals.

It won't necessarily lead to less food waste in your kitchen, but some foods are much cheaper if someone else doesn't process it for you. Easy examples are beans and rice. If you buy them dry, they last years (especially if you vacuum seal them when you get home). Yes, you do have to cook them, but the little $1 bag of black-eyed peas I have will make the equivalent of 4 or 5 cans of canned black-eyed peas.

I'd enjoy learning about your ideas for reducing food waste!

New Year, New Blog

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

I have not done well maintaining this blog. I have defaulted to the Facebook page, as it is easier to repost than to actually write something, and at present at least, it has more people who read it.

However, this year I've decided to get back on the blog as there are often things that need to be said that a Facebook post really doesn't do justice to. Also, believe it or not, there are a lot of people who are not on Facebook, so using that format excludes people interested in the topic. Therefore, I am going to make an effort to post here, at least for items worthy of more discussion and then share these posts to the Facebook page. We'll see how it goes.

I have a list of items I want to discuss--if you have an issue or idea for Wichita Falls, send it to me at green.wichitafalls@gmail.com and it might just show up. Or if you would like to write a guest post, get with me. I am open to it, but I do want well-written items with civil discourse. Not to say you can't have a strong opinion on something, but I don't see the value of being uncivil.

Right now, I am enjoying a quiet day, since most of the area is closed down due to weather. There are not enough days like this.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions relating to a more sustainable lifestyle this year? I have a couple of them. First is to revitalize and maintain this blog. The other concerns my garden and yard. I have been adding perennials and edible plants to my yard every year and have done some gardening, but I am going up the effort in these areas this year. I do well at making food from scratch instead of using processed foods, but this year, I am going to increase my efforts to further reduce the amount of waste I am generating--whether food or packaging. That should keep me busy enough, with the other things I have going on. And if we all did one thing, even a small thing, it could make a difference.

Feedback and comments welcome!

Living Green(er) in 2016

It's that time of year again. A new year is just around the corner. I have been thinking lately about my New Year's resolutions for 2016. Yes, I am one of those people who make New Year's resolutions, and generally, I tend to stick to them. Mostly because I frame them as goals, not aspirations.

Anyway, in thinking through 2015 and looking toward 2016, I decided that I needed to include one or two goals relating to living more sustainably. I have been doing that the last few years, so this is nothing new, but if I don't include it as one of my goals for the year, then I'll lose focus.

One event that has me really looking at this area a little more is the recent decision by Progressive Waste to stop single stream recycling in Wichita Falls. This means there really isn't a good place to recycle plastics. I have heard Wal-Mart will take most plastics. I am going to check that out and if so, that will be a help. However, wouldn't it be better to reduce at the front side? So my focus for 2016 is going to be to reduce trash. We do reasonably well at this already. We were putting out 1 curbside trash bin a month because we could put most of our waste either in our own compost bins, the city's organics recycling and the single stream recycling. The amount of waste we are putting out has jumped dramatically--mostly in plastics, although there are some metal food cans. I can see that if I don't take control, the amount of trash we put out will double. That's not acceptable. That means I need to look for non-plastic packaging options and ferret out recycling options. I am going to try to can more--I can now, but not enough to make a big dent in the metal cans going in the trash. I can reuse my canning jars.

So that is focus #1.

The next item is this blog. I post fairly regularly to the Facebook page, but have been woefully lazy about this blog. However, many people who have access to this blog do not have Facebook accounts. I can always share the link from the blog to Facebook, but it would be difficult for blog readers to check Facebook posts. I plan to still do a lot of sharing of interesting articles to the Facebook page, but will do a better job of having some more detailed information about topics of interest here.

Lastly, I plan to do more gardening. This is another carryover from previous years. I have a good-sized garden for a residential lot and I have been gradually introducing permaculture. I haven't been very disciplined about it though. So I am going to finish my permaculture course on line and raise a higher percentage of my own food this year. Good exercise, better tasting food and at the same time, removing more of the environmental toxins from our family.

So those are my 3 sustainability goals for 2016. What are yours?

Greening Your Christmas

We're heading into the season of gifting. Of buying a lot of stuff that people often don't need and sometimes don't want. Things made from resources we could be preserving using money we don't have in abundance. So let's talk about how we can still give gifts that we can feel good about giving that the receivers will feel great about getting.

I am not saying never to buy a gift. In fact, I am going to give you some ideas of things to buy, but I hope to give you some ideas of things that can still help the receiver live a more sustainable, healthier lifestyle. I am sure there are lots of great things out there I am not going to mention because of space or because I don't know about them--that's what the comment area is for. Feel free to chime in.

First of all, consider buying local first. I admit, I shop a LOT at Amazon.com and a few specialty internet stores. Mostly because I haven't found a source for many of the off-the-wall things I want in the local area. If I could find them, I would buy them here. Hint, hint!

Encourage DIY by purchasing books, magazines, equipment and supplies in areas that your person has indicated they would like to learn how to do themselves. For example, this past year I have been getting into making cheese. Last year, one of my kids bought me a book about making cheese because I was interested in learning. Throughout this past year, I have been purchasing small things for some of the simpler cheeses, but there are still some related equipment (a cheese press comes to mind) that could still be helpful. If you don't know the person is going to stick with their interest, start with something inexpensive and basic--you can always revisit next year if they discover a passion for it and you aren't out much if they decide it's not for them after all. Small tools for making/fixing things, for gardening, or for cooking would all be welcome to the person who wants to become more self-sufficient or know what is going into their food/personal care products/cleaning supplies. And consider regifting. One of the neatest kitchen gadgets I have is a ceramic mortar and pestle I found for 50 cents at a garage sale and if someone came up with a nice cast iron skillet, I wouldn't turn it down, even if it was rusty--they can be reconditioned.

Encourage better health by purchasing lessons, memberships at health facilities, workout clothing, shoes, etc. I would be careful about purchasing a gym membership, unless the person has said, "I wish I could afford a membership; I would love to be able to go to xxxx gym." But what about yoga lessons? Zumba classes? I'll bet Breathe Yoga Studio would set you up with a gift like this. Again, kitchen items that encourage a person to cook from scratch and gardening tools/seeds would also go in this area.

Encourage rest and relaxation by purchasing items to help them enjoy a hobby--books, magazines, equipment and supplies. You may not know exactly what they might need; if not, how about a gift certificate at a store that carries items related to that hobby? My husband gave me a gift certificate to Wild Birds Unlimited--whoo hoo! What about entertainment? Tickets to a concert, play, sporting event, etc.  There are all kinds of special events coming up around the holiday: The Nutcracker (both the traditional version and a modern version), The Cirque de la Symphonie concert on December 14, A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life at Backdoor Theater, and probably a half dozen other special events I haven't listed. Or, the Wichita Theatre season tickets for 2014 are on sale now for a truly excellent gift that will last for months as are season tickets to Backdoor Theater. Last  year I bought my husband (and me) a pair of season tickets to the Nighthawks games. My husband and I had a great time rooting on this local team. Know someone who likes to eat out? Gift certificates at their favorite restaurants come in handy. If you know they often bring home leftovers, help them bring those leftovers home without those horrible styrofoam containers. To-go ware (or similar) will help stop that.

Encourage lifelong learning by paying the registration for a class at Vernon College or the Parks and Recreation department. Although there are a lot of free on-line classes, you might consider purchasing a specialized course in a subject they are interested in. I purchased a course for my son from The Great Courses in an area he has an interest. My husband bought a course on bird behavior from Cornell University for my birthday last year.

Help someone do something they otherwise couldn't/wouldn't do or just something nice. Paint a room, change the oil on their car, cook them a meal, etc. Maybe do something more than once. Did you ever give or receive the little cards with promises to do something the person could redeem when they needed them?

Encourage a connection with nature by purchasing books, magazines, and videos about nature (I reviewed a few great choices in my last post.) Help them bring nature to their yard with bird feeders, bird and bat houses, trees, shrubs and flowers (yes, even with the drought). Help them get out and enjoy nature: hiking boots, walking stick, binoculars, day or back pack, etc. What about fishing gear (if we ever get any water back in the lakes), magnifying lenses, etc.? Maybe a registration at a nature-related event.

Give something you made yourself. It takes more time to make something than to give something (and often costs less also.) Mixes for cookies, dips, etc. People pay a fortune for a dip mix that costs less than a quarter to make yourself. My mom made me not one, but several tea cozies last year. I was griping that it was ridiculous to pay $25 for basically a quilt to fit over a teapot. She looked up a picture and whipped out several in an afternoon. I kept a couple and gave some to others. My husband made my son a gaming table and made us a dining room table and chairs. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Donate to a charity you know is important to them in their name. My parents send a small check to Wild Bird Rescue every once in awhile because they know the organization is one I spend a lot of time volunteering for.

Now that you have thought of some gift ideas, let's talk about some of the other rituals that go along with the holidays. Here are some ideas to make your holiday more sustainable:

  - Give less "Stuff." We talked about that above.
  - Focus on the sustainability of what we do give. Less plastic, less packaging, high quality to last longer.
  - Decorate a living tree and plant it when you are done. Wichita Valley Nursery has living Christmas trees that are hardy for this area.
  - Reduce, reuse, recycle. I have a hard time throwing things away. The kids have always enjoyed the tradition of opening Christmas gifts wrapped in old cereal boxes or other boxes that have been reused year after year. I still have ribbon and bows that have graced packages since they were small children (and they are in the vicinity of 30 now). I don't throw bows away until they cannot be used again. This year I am purchasing some fabric and making gift bags that can be reused for many, many years. If you are better at sewing or more creative than I am, you could probably make these from scratch.
  - Focus on what's important about the holiday: family and friends. It is more important to make memories that will last. How many of the gifts you've received over the years can you really remember? Probably only a handful. But you probably have many memories of playing games, watching movies or football games, eating and laughing. You probably have some traditions that are very meaningful to your family.

I wish you a happy holiday season with many fond memories.

World Overshoot Day

The Blue Marble. Photo by NASA

Although I managed to get it up on the Living Green in Wichita Falls Facebook page on the 20th, I am just now getting around to posting about World Overshoot Day here. August 20 was the approximate day in 2013 that we humans used as many natural resources as can be sustainably replaced for the year. For the rest of the year, we are using resources we don't have and driving up the level of carbon in our atmosphere.

It seems many times as if we are Don Quixote tilting windmills--the news seems to get worse all the time. Every day there is another news story of some serious environmental threat.

However,  look at all the good that has been done since the 60's: the Clean Air Act (1963), the Endangered Species Act (1973), the Clean Water Act (1972), and establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970), to name a few. Yes, there are some whack-jobs out there who want to dismantle our environmental protections (and if the House budget passes, they would manage to do much of that.) However, generally I think most Americans know these protections are absolutely essential and support them.

The key here is not to give up. We still have the power of the ballot box (if we can get environmentally aware people to run). We absolutely have the power of the wallet. Although our individual purchases may not be a lot, they add up. We have control over our own lives and the choices we make to reduce our environmental footprint. I am not advocating taking all of the joy out of our lives and live so austerely we feel guilty about everything we do, but we can make the conscious choices that matter.

Many times you hear that the American economy runs on consumption. And that is true. But who is to say that we can't turn the tide of consumption from goods to memories, to experiences, to learning, to health, to relationships, to art? Yes, we all need some stuff, but we don't need near what most of us have. We can choose to spend our money on things that matter in making us happier and healthier as individuals, families and communities.

Each of us can do something; collectively we can turn the tide on the consumption madness.

Guest Bloggers Wanted

I would like to add guest bloggers. If you would like to share a product, service, or experience with other readers, please send your idea or blog entry to green.wichitafalls@gmail.com.

This is an ad-free blog, so I don't make any money on it. Therefore, I am not in a position to pay for your posts. However, this is a good forum to share things you are doing to live more sustainably or to advertise your product or service to interested people.

I reserve the right to decide whether or not your post is appropriate and the time frame for posting.

Easy Steps to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Today's post is a guest blog by Krista Petersen. Krista is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Central Florida. As a Health and Safety Advocate, she shares a strong passion for the wellness of others in her community and for the environment. Krista uses her writings to spread awareness of such issues to help encourage others to live the healthiest and most eco-friendly lifestyle possible.

With an increased movement for sustainability and going green in Wichita Falls, there are always some new ways to go about helping the environment. One way to make some great sustainable steps is to help cut out toxins in the home, by finding suitable alternatives to some products, thus improving indoor air quality. By finding some of these alternatives, we can cut down the risk of health problems like asthma, nausea, mesothelioma, as well as other types of cancer.

Cleaners and pesticides can be major sources of toxins in the home reducing air quality. Pesticides can be used a ton both inside and outside the house, yet they can be pretty dangerous. A couple ways to go about cutting down on toxins from pesticides is to use them only on the outside of the house, along with that plan, you can start removing your shoes before coming in from outside to prevent from tracking more of these chemicals in. Many of today's common house cleaning supplies, from types of window cleaners to different floor solutions can be loaded with toxins like triclosan and formaldehyde. Thankfully, there are a number of organic options in most stores these days, as well as the option to make your own cleaners as well.

Paint is another common product that can often be high in toxins, thus not good for indoor air quality. When using paint for decorating or maybe even with a project around the house, exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) are a possibility. Most paints are very high in VOC's; luckily there are usually great alternatives available. Most popular hardware stores carry low-VOC paints that are safer and will cut down on the risk of asthma and respiratory problems that can be brought on by repeated exposure to VOC's.

Another way to cut down on a risk of toxins is to have older homes checked for asbestos insulation. Asbestos was a commonly used fiber throughout the 1900's in all sorts of buildings and homes. Workers in many factories with asbestos began to develop mesothelioma, as health officials began to take notice. With mesothelioma life expectancy being particularly low, asbestos was soon blacklisted and removed from many structures. Although not used today, the possibility of asbestos in older buildings and houses around Wichita Falls is a possibility. Using some green insulation alternatives such as cotton fiber or foam spray can also be an efficient, cost effective substitution.

As seen, there are some easy steps that can be taken to improve indoor air quality all around Wichita Falls and everywhere else. By taking some of these steps we can not only improve indoor air quality, but also cut down on potential health risks from toxins around the house.

Sustainability for Everyone?

I came across an article today that sums up some of the concerns I have been having lately. When we talk sustainability, we're talking about a life style that allows us to live in such a way that we don't "use up" vital resources that others need to live on, now and in the future. But it does seem that many of the sustainable actions that get all the fanfare are high end and create the impression that they are the exclusive recourse of the well-to-do instead of the common person.

For now, organic is more expensive. Many of the devices that save energy, water and money have a high front-end cost. True, many things we can do to have a more sustainable lifestyle are not out of reach to many, but they are not what are in many of the articles about sustainability talk about. So some food for thought today.

11th Hour

Several months ago, I bought Leonardo Dicaprio's documentary 11th Hour at Wal-Mart for $1. (Yes, I do occasionally shop at Wal-Mart.) I am sorry I waited so long to watch it. If you can find a copy, get it.

I'm a systems thinker. That was the focus on much of my early education in biology and that is the way I see and understand the world. This documentary does a pretty clear job of explaining how our actions in one area impact other areas. It clearly explains the concept of our dependence upon "ancient sunlight" (carbon fuel), especially it's impact on the ability for the earth to support the large population we have now (as well as its impact on climate, food supplies, and health.) It also focuses on the impact of chemicals on health, deforestation, soil depletion, and other environmental issues.

Next the film focuses on the forces that block change, such as our legal system, large corporations, our political system, and most importantly our consumptive culture. (One statement that caught my attention is that for every 1 truckload of valuable goods, we produce 32 truckloads of waste--isn't that insane?)

Anyway, the film is not just a catalog of problems, but discusses a way to go forward. As one of the experts says, "What a great time to be born. What a great time to be alive, because this generation gets a chance to essentially completely change the world." With my background in biology, the examples of using organisms our teachers in sustainable technologies was especially interesting. The film brings it home with a call to action for individuals.

In sum, find the DVD and watch it. Invite your friends.

Labeling

I read an interesting blog from Joel Makower this morning on what label we should apply to someone commited to sustainability. It is true that we tend to label everything and without a label, we don't seem to be able to wrap our arms around it. Of course, labels also lend themselves to extremists on both sides who use the label to avoid having to deal with complicated issues. Attack the label and you avoid having to put more than one or two brain cells to work.

But his premise is an interesting one. I don't have any great ideas; do you?

Call for News

If you know of any new stores, services, events or products in Wichita Falls promoting sustainable living, let me know at green.wichitafalls@gmail.com. I'd like to promote them here. One new company in town is 411 NRG, which does solar installations.

EcoFair 2010 Planning Has Begun

A few intrepid volunteers met last night to begin planning for EcoFair 2010. The EcoFair will be on October 9, 2010 at River Bend Nature Center. Right now, the focus will be on finding sponsors, vendors and programs for the event.

If you have suggestions for local product/service vendors or presentations, you can post your comment to this blog and I will be happy to pass on to the committee or you can call River Bend Nature Center at 940-767-0843, or attend the next EcoFair Committee meeting, January 12, 7PM at the Thai Orchid Restaurant, 1912 Elmwood Avenue North, Wichita Falls.

Get involved in bringing sustainable living to Wichita Falls!