J is for Junk mail

Public Service Announcement #1: Before I continue with J is for Junk mail, I just want to let you know that we no longer have Internet = no Vonage phone. (In fact I am stealing our neighbors Internet at this moment, with their permission of course!) After a very long and annoying phone call to cancel our Vonage phone service, it is cheaper for us to keep our voicemail for the next 9 months ($15 dollars) than to pay for the disconnection fee right now ($45 dollars). Stupid right? Yeah I thought so too. But the point on the rant is to inform you that you can call our same number and leave us a voice message which is then sent to my email. So, feel free to call us anytime and when we check our email via stealing Internet, we can call you back from our cell phones or a free campus phone (for longer calls)! I am really going to miss these fun experiences in Dominica... 19 days!

Now onto Junk Mail... Yippie:

Here are a few random facts about junk mail in the United States. This information is brought to you by a Maryland based non-profit organization, Center for a New American Dream (CNAD):

• 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually.
• The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees every year—more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.
• 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled.
• Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.
• On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.

So eliminating junk mail would save roughly 100 million trees annually. This is one way we can help with that nasty deforestation problem I was talking about earlier! Unfortunately in the USA, we live in a "opt-out" society. Meaning, we are automatically signed up for these junk services, sometimes even without our permission, and it becomes our responsibility to turn off the junk mail. In other countries, they use a "opt-in" service were citizens can sign up for junk mail if they want... wouldn't that be nice?!

Since it is our responsibility, here are a few things we can do:

1. Ask catalog companies to remove you from their lists, and register with a mail-preference service, such as that offered by the Direct Marketing Association Click Here . DMA will list you in the category "Do Not Mail". This service does not guarantee a junk mail free life, but it will greatly reduce the amount you receive. I just registered with DMA. My personal account allows me to stop catalogs, magazine offers, and other mail offers. To opt out of credit cards, see #2 below.

2. Are you tired of receiving credit card applications, insurance companies, and so forth? Visit this website and opt out of receiving junk mail from major companies. OptOutPreScreen.com. (Unfortunately I was unable to visit this particular site because it requires a United States Internet connection.) But it was recommended by several sites.

3. You can also take a moment to write "Please do not sell my name or address" on warranty cards or donation correspondence.

Stop that annoying Junk mail and save a few trees in the process. It is a win-win situation!!

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all have a splendid day eating your body weight in food. It is one of the only days of the year you can get away with it... so ENJOY!!

I is for Idealbite.com

At idealbite.com, you can sign up for free daily emails with simple and relevant tips on living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. So far, I have learned that discarded phonebooks accumulate 600,000 tons of waste every year and that if 10,000 people opted for an organic cotton coats this year, we'll keep the weight of 10 buses in pesticides out of the environment.

Idealbite will email you fun tips like these to help you live a greener life or you can just check it out on your own.

Click Here to Check it Out!!

Ensign Article on Global Warming

Click below for the article from lds.org:

LDS Article

H is for Hemp

H is for Hemp

Forget the hippie association; This plant produces more paper per acre than trees do (and can be recycled more times) and is being used to create everything from bedspreads to T-shirts. Hemp seed oil is biodiesel and is three times more productive than any other seed oil crop, and hemp seed oil will run any diesel engine today with no modification.

Hemp should not be confused with Cannabis or Marijuana. Hemp is the male version of Marijuana but has very different uses and has virtually no attractive qualities to the marijuana smoking world. Here are several uses for Hemp:

1. Food

2. Building Materials

3. Pet food and bedding

4. Cosmetics and lotions

5. Paper- Paper made from hemp is both economical and good for the environment. Because fewer trees are used, using hemp for paper helps protect forests and wildlife. Hemp requires less bleaching, which is a source of water pollution. In addition, hemp can be recycled several times more than traditional paper.

6. Fuel - produces more ethanol than corn per acre

7. Oil - products made of hemp are also nontoxic and can be disposed of without harm to the environment.

8. Clothing and textiles

9. Plastic

Source: Associated Press, Link.

G is for Global Warming

G is for Global Warming

Global Warming is a topic that deserves more than just a single blog entry. To stay on track with my goal of completing this series before we move, I am going to try and condense everything I have to report on Global Warming into just one blog. ( The concluding letters in the series are likely to further address some of these topics though.) To gain an appreciation for Global Warming, I think it is essential to find a specific issue you can identify with. My sister found compassion for the hundreds of stranded polar bears who are becoming homeless everyday due to the melting glaciers in the Arctic. My husband is interested in the available scientific facts, especially the clear evidence of rising earth temperatures and rising water levels. I am motivated by the desire to leave this earth better for our future generations. Find what motivates you and act on it!

The topic of Global Warming, especially Al Gore’s documentary “The Inconvenient Truth”, truly changed the way I view my life. I was too stubborn to think that my actions could effect the entire world. In my mind, I would wonder: What difference does it make if I take a 45 minute hot shower? How can running the air conditioning all day do anything more than merely drain my wallet? Can driving my 1998 car really have an impact on the entire earth? What does happen to the smoke that is pumped out of those smoke stacks? I was always aware that humans were negatively affecting the environment but I was ignorant to the science behind this global problem and how the rising temperatures of the earth were impacting almost every aspect of our life. What had an even greater impact on me is when I realized that the current condition of our environment is almost entirely due to human activity. We are responsible for the impact and we are responsible for the solution.

Causes of Global Warming and Climate Change:

Simply stated, “Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.” (climatecrisis.net)

We use coal, gas and oil in just about every part of our life. 85% - 90% of the primary energy production in the world comes from burning fossil fuels. These fossil fuels fill our cars, heat our homes, transport our foods, fill the tractors that harvest our foods, and fuel our machinery to produce virtually everything we purchase. My previous post discusses some of the elements of deforestation.

The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nation appointed organization, concludes that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal and the increased temperatures are very likely (90%) due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.” On a side note, the IPCC received the Noble Peace Prize in 2007, along side Al Gore, “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

The Impact:

If you have seen Al Gore’s documentary, then you already know about the current and potential impacts of Global Warming. The National Geographic reports their own findings on the subject:

Present Findings:
- Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
- Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
- Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
- Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
- Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
- Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
Future Predictions:
- Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
- Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
- Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
- Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
- Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
- Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
- Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct. Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier. Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.

What YOU can do:

Here is a list of way we can help stop the effects of global warming… feel free to add your own personal ideas within your comments!

- Invest in and implement alternative energy sources – wind power, solar power, hydrogen produced from renewable sources, biofuels (produced from crops), natural gas, and nuclear power.
- Energy efficient cars- hybrid cars, bring back the electric car!
- Demand American automakers to manufacture more efficient cars
- Foreign automakers already possess the technology to make our vehicles more energy efficient; demand we import only import vehicles with a high efficiency level.
- Demand the government passes higher restrictions on car emissions.
- Plant trees
- Speak out and write a letter to your Congress Representative
- Elect Representatives who care about climate change (Go Obama!)
- Carpool
- Bring your own bag
- Composting
- Any activity that reduces our demand on oil and fossil fuels
- Replace an old water heater
- Control heating and cooling temperatures
- Reduce driving speed
- Put your computer to sleep
- Unplug your cell phone when it is fully charged
- Unplug all appliances when unused.
- Energy efficient washing machines
- etc, etc, etc…

"When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon."

With your help, we can do this too…

This video was created by the National Geographic and is Global Warming 101:

F is for deForestation

Deforestation

- is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land.

Forests cover roughly 30% of the world's land. Unfortunately, the current rate of deforestation would eliminate the world's rain forests in just one hundred years. Our future generations won't have the opportunity to enjoy the rain forest for all its splendor and glory. Can you image visiting a place like Costa Rica and instead of acres and acres of rain forests, all that remains is flattened treeless land?


The National Geographic has written extensive articles on this topic. Here is some of what they have to say:

"Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes."

"Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sun-blocking tree cover they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts."

"Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere—and increased speed and severity of global warming."


The solution to deforestation; stop cutting down trees and start planting more trees. Each country needs to be held accountable for allowing illegal logging and excessive deforestation. The solution will require countries to look beyond the short sighted financial benefit of selling trees and consider the lives of our future generations. Human activity can change and it must change in order to preserve one of the greatest natural wonders of the world: Rain forests.

Deforestation is a perfect segway into the next letter: G is for Global Warming!! Stay tune :)