Just thought you might think this was cool: a gift registry where you can ask for non-material things. Administered by the Center for a New American Dream, AlternativeGiftRegistry.org functions like any other online gift registry except that you don’t have to encourage people to buy new stuff. Entries on sample registries at the site look […]
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Avoiding pharmaceuticals as a way to keep our water safe
I happened to be in front of a TV the other day and just about every single ad was for some sort of drug. The ones that always get to me are the ones for hay fever, from which I suffer. Some years ago, I discovered the “neti pot,” a method of flushing out your […]
LVGRN: 20 ways to keep the landfill empty
Organic material–food and paper, for example–rot and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when sent to the landfill. When the liners meant to seal landfills eventually crack, toxic substances can leach into the water table, causing hard to trace illnesses in faraway communities. But perhaps the worse thing is, when we throw something in the […]
To save the planet, we’ll have to bury the party political hatchet
I’m sick of inter-party animosity. I’m tired of progressives who won’t listen to a person who identifies as conservative. I’m tired of conservatives who won’t listen to a liberal. How unlikely is it, anyway, that either the classical liberal or conservative ideologies provides the best policy solution for every situation? Doesn’t it make sense that […]
Open Discussion–What products do you reuse to avoid waste?
In the last week or so, I posted about products that save planetary resources: toilet paper made from recycled paper so trees aren’t cut down; mentrual cups that allow women to avoid buying and throwing away thousands of tampons; and the straight razor to avoid the use of throwaway plastic razors. Today, I thought it […]
Environmentally-conscious packaging? Think ice cream cone.
It contains the ice cream. It biodegrades. It provides calories. In other words, it has value all by itself. It is not wasted resources. If we must have packaging, why can’t all of it be designed in such a way? In other words, let’s make sure the resources we use deliver value instead of just […]
Making green folks your customers–especially if, by green, you mean everyone
So I dropped and broke my cell phone which I bought pre-owned from ATT. Now that I had broken it, I didn’t want to buy a new one–not even a new used one. I wanted to get it repaired. The personal price of new was too much. So was the planetary price (which, by the […]
Five New York State Senators who oppose the well-being of the people and the planet–and how you can help
OK, those are strong words for a headline, and I’ll explain, but first, let me beg you to forward this email to every New York State resident you know. If you are a NYS resident, please URGENTLY phone your State Senator (instructions below) in support of the plan–known as the Ravitch plan–to bail out our […]