
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Electric Bikes = Happy Environment

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
16 Ways to Heal Your Home
From Co-Op America:
"Did you know that here in the US, about 80,000 industrial chemicals are registered for use in all of the products we eat, touch‚ wear‚ and use to furnish our homes… but that fewer than 20 percent have been tested for their impact on human health and the environment?
These include ingredients in our food, household cleaners‚ and body care products. They include chemicals used on and in toys and furniture and clothing and bed linens.
Wouldn't it make more sense to prove a chemical is safe before running the risk of harming people who use the product‚ workers who make it, and the communities where the manufacturing facilities are located?
That’s the idea behind the Precautionary Principle. It turns right-side-up the upside-down way our society makes decisions about risk. The Precautionary Principle requires proof that products are safe‚ and errs on the side of caution."
Co-Op America added a Healthy Home Center to their website, pulling together the best "healthy home" articles from our green-living newsletter‚ Real Money‚ along with new tips and strategies from the spring issue of our Co-op America Quarterly magazine.
Check out their great 16 Ways to Heal Your Home link...
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Contact Your Senator Today to Vote YES on Toy Safety Amendment

I never think about toys being toxic, but they can be and you can help. From a recent BCF email:
"What started with lead in children's toys has become much more—and forced us all to look more critically at the toys and teethers we buy for our kids.
Yesterday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced an amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act that would ban six toxic chemicals called phthalates from children's toys and child care articles. A vote on the amendment is expected this week.
Phthalates, a family of industrial chemicals used to make plastic soft, have been linked to birth defects in baby boys, testicular cancer, liver problems and early onset of puberty in girls—a risk factor for later-life breast cancer.
The European Union and 14 other countries, including Japan, Argentina and Mexico, have already banned these toxic chemicals from children's toys. In October 2007, California became the first state in the nation to enact a statewide ban on phthalates in children's toys, and now about a dozen states are following suit.
Urge your senator to vote yes on the Feinstein amendment, and to oppose any weakening amendments.
Contact your senator TODAY »
USA Today: "Everywhere chemicals" in plastics alarm parents »
Ask friends and family to take action »
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A GreenSage Guide to Indoor Air Quality
Did you know that one of the WORST places we can be for toxins is inside and worse, in our homes (eeek!) We have to think about this stuff...environmental issues are not just political, they are emotional because they impact our health!
Per Elaine's post:
"Thousand of pollutants are found indoors. Chemicals, particulates and biological contaminants can wreak havoc on occupants. Indoor exposure concentrations are one to five times, and sometimes as much as 100 times, more polluted than outdoors. Here's the Guide to what these pollutants are and what you can do."
Check out the GreenSage Guide to Indoor Air Quality
Consciousness starts with awareness - pay attention to your environment (and I'm not just talking about outside!!!)
Friday, February 15, 2008
'Mood lighting' can still save energy

"Dimmable lights in your home or office can have their bulbs replaced by highly efficent CFLs. Learn where to buy them on www.GetEnergized.org"
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Organic Style Magazine - PaperLESS Edition!

Read the free edition of Organic Style and make a conscious choice to recycle any magazines you do not read anymore.
Good recycling magazine tip - to get more life out of the printed magazines, take mags you have read already to your gym so your guy buddies can share!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Conscious Spending Tip - Online Bank Statements!
Set all your financial statements to be online only!
I received several tax statements in my email inbox today and went and changed all my banks statements to be web only...no more papers to file, no extra mail, one step towards saving trees.
What are you waiting for? Go make the change! :)
Friday, January 4, 2008
eco-friendly acne treatment - tea tree oil

It's a shiny new year (YAY!) but my shiny new blemish is not rocking my new year world. I am a HUGE advocate for tea tree oil, an extraction from the Melaleuca tree.
It is a natural antiseptic and antifungal and it kills my blemishes! You can get
tea tree oil at any health food store and it lasts forever.
Tea tree oil is one of those great must-have items to use on cuts, when you make all natural cleaning products for the household, to kill zits and more!
Monday, December 31, 2007
A great message to start the new year on
"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares? "
--Dr Bob Morehead