Posts from — April 2008

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Those bright, cheerful bottles of cleaners promising to strip our homes of evil dirt and bacteria and make them sparkle are not so innocent. Did you know that the government protects cleaner manufacturers from needing to reveal their ‘proprietary’ ingredients? Here’s a rundown on ten chemicals found in most cleaning and scented products at your grocery store:

Ammonia

Cuts through grease but can also cut your breath: it’s known to cause asthma. Use vinegar instead.

Chlorine

Common and effective disinfectant but irritates the lungs and skin. It’s a killer if ingested.  Use borax, lemon juice, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, tea tree or eucalyptus oil instead.

What about pools? Chlorine byproducts found in swimming pools are linked to higher incidences of asthma, lung damage, stillbirths, miscarriages and bladder cancer - alternatives include ozone and ultraviolet treatments.

Glycol ethers

These dissolve soil - remove stains, but also cause nerve damage when absorbed by the skin, irritate your eyes, nose , throat and lungs, as well as lowering fertility. Try old fashioned water or eucalyptus oil instead.

Monoethanolamine

This is a chemical agent that helps cut through grime but also causes asthma and respiratory ailments. Look for plant-based agents made from coconut, corn or soy.

Perchlorethylene

Used in carpet cleaners and drycleaners to overpower stains, but is a carcinogen that causes liver, kidney and nervous system damage. Alternatives include liquid CO2 and a silicone-based solvent by a company called Green Earth.

Phenol

Used in air fresheners, which coat your nasal passages with an oil film, or by releasing a nerve deadening agent to “freshen up the air.” Phenol touching your skin can cause it swelling, burning and hives plus cold sweats, convulsions, circulatory damage, coma and even death. Make your own air freshener with lemons cut up and covered with cold water or fresh mint sprigs in cold water. And with the way mint grows, you’ll have plenty to go around.

Phthalates 

Commonly used in plastics to increase flexibility, but also in nail polish and synthetic fragrances. You’ll find them in iPods and iPhones, computers and shower curtains. They disrupt hormones linked to causing obesity. Use essential oils, baking soda or borax instead. 

Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)

Oven cleaners use this to cut through that tough baked-on food that resists a hammer and chisel. It works because it’s a caustic, strong irritant, causing burns to both skin and eyes. Inhibits reflexes, will cause severe tissue damage if swallowed. Magnesium Hydroxide is a safe alternative or elbow grease, saving you a trip to the gym.

Sodium Tripolyphosphate

Used in laundry detergentsIrritates skin and mucous membranes, causes vomiting. Easily absorbed through the skin from clothes. Look for natural laundry detergents and for really tough stains, try Fels Naptha soap - it’s been around for over 100 years and it works!

Triclosan

This is a disinfectant used in antibacterial cleaners promoted constantly for ridding your home and children of nasty germs. What they don’t say is how it remains on cleaned surfaces helping stronger, resistant bacteria to grow. It’s also been found in soil used to grow food. Use hydrogen peroxide, vinegar or that old standby: hot soapy water. Also keep in mind that a little bacteria in your life goes a long way to building a healthy immune system. 

We’ve listed only ten here, but there are certainly many more chemicals in products most of us use everyday. The key is to look at the products we buy and find the most basic natural alternatives. And while you’re making your home a greener place, join the Million Faces project to fight global warming by protecting the rainforests!

 

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April 22, 2008 - Earth Day.

There are many, many activities happening in honor of this place we all live on and focused on making a difference. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, take a moment and reflect. Write down three changes you can make in your daily life, no matter how small, to change your impact on it. Then get three people around you to do the same. Maybe it’s as simple as using cloth napkins instead of paper. Or maybe it’s installing a rainwater collection system in your home. What matters is that you’re taking positive action. Earth will thank you for it. Happy Earth Day. Make it everyday.

Join the Million Faces Project at Thinkfrog today - it’s easy!

“Hey there orange, I’m from California. Where are you from?”

“Washington,” replied carrot.

So this evening I was making chicken soup from scratch. It’s an easy recipe, but as I shopped for the ingredients, I noted where each item came from to get a sense on how far food really travels. It’s something I never used to think about. Want a mango? Go to the grocery store. Want fresh tomatoes in winter? Go to the grocery store. Oranges? Same answer. I took for granted that we can have pretty much any kind of food fresh year round. 

So where did the ingredients in this simple chicken soup recipe - and it was simple (it came out ‘Chic Simple’ Cooking) come from? While I tried to get them from as close to home as possible (Portland, Oregon), they’re from Oregon, Washington, California and New York. What traveled 3,000 miles for this simple soup? The chicken stock! Most ingredients came from California. In light of rising oil costs and global warming - it’s a sobering thought!

Looking around the grocery store - you quickly realize it takes work to choose food close to home. You can read about a couple who spent a year trying to get all of their food within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver, British Columbia - click here. Or check out their book, “Plenty”

Imagine how much fuel we would collectively save if we all made a little effort to buy most of our food as close to home as possible. You could say it’s food for thought!

Interested in helping fight global warming? Join the Million Faces Project at Thinkfrog.org here - it’s easy!

Few would suspect there would or could ever be a shortage of beer to go around, but Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research states that barley production, at least in Australia, will decline with global warming and beer would taste different. Breweries may have to look at new varieties of barley with the increasingly dry conditions forecast for New Zealand and Australia with doubling of greenhouse gases there.

By Suburban Bloke, Flickr

This could be the tip of the proverbial iceberg . . . 

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Pangea day is coming May 10, 2008. The mission, “to help people see themselves in others - through the power of film.” On this day, a live program from locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro will be broadcast in seven languages via the internet, television and mobile phones. In addition to the films, there will be live music and a variety of speakers including Queen Noor of Jordan and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. It’s a way to connect locally as well as globally. 

We all have much in common - desire for family, friends and home as well as shared emotions. It’s easy to lose sight of that. Earth is absolutely the one thing we have in common - and what happens on the other side of the world affects us here. The Million Faces Project is also about community - bringing people together for a common cause - saving the trees that help the earth breathe. 

To learn more about Pangea Day - and find out about local events or organize your own, click here. To join The Million Faces project, just click the link below. We also invite your comments about the project and ideas for fostering community.

 

 Grand Canyon Sunrise, Frederic Barbier, Flickr

Is what people will ask in the future when they view the Grand Canyon? The Colorado river, supplying much of Nevada, Arizona and Southern California (about 28 million people) with water, is drying up. In fact it no longer runs to the ocean and is a mere trickle through a Mexican Village that used to rely on it’s fish. And the demand continues: Arizona added over 1 million people between 2000 and 2006

I just saw Grand Canyon Adventure: River At Risk, an Omnimax film that follows an expedition down the Colorado River, showing the excitement of white water rapids while showing why it’s in trouble. The film points out:

Lake Powell has lost 50% of it’s water in the last eight years.
Lake Mead has lost nearly 50% of it’s water during the same time.

Lake Powell, Airzona - Wolfgang Staudt, Flickr

Will these lakes be gone in another 8 years? Imagine what would happen to these areas should they run out of water - 28 million people displaced. While we have a surplus of water in the Northwest, the Southwest has very little.

In the 12th century, the Anasazi were displaced from the Southwest due likely to drought, overpopulation and depleted resources. Let’s not let that happen again.

Check out the movie - and join the Million Faces Project: our effort to help fight global warming.

 

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1.3. That’s right - we’re using nearly a third more of earth’s resources than it can replace. It’s like using your credit card every month to support your lifestyle. We all know that it’s not sustainable for long. Eventually you’ll have a big bill to repay - and one that may take a really long time to pay off. That’s what is happening with our little earth. Until now, the earth’s resources have been plentiful enough to support us, but now we’re liquidating them at an increasing rate.

Food

Travel

And a few other things…

Also join Thinkfrog’s Million Faces Project to preserve rainforests - our most important tool for absorbing all the carbon we produce. It’s just $10 plus your favorite self portrait! The problem is real. It’s now. And we can do something about it and perhaps have a little fun in the process - this will be one of the largest photo albums in the country.