I had the flu so badly last week I drank something I haven’t drank in over 20 years: ginger ale. And no, it wasn’t ginger beer, the stuff in the bottle at the natural grocery that actually has ginger in it. This was the the drink-with-saltines stuff ’cause it makes you feel better somehow.
As I was about to toss the empty bottle in the recycle bin, I decided to brave the label - I’m a devoted label reader, but when I know it’ll be awful, I sometimes just pass. So here’s what I found: water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate (preservative), and caramel color. Ugh.
I’ve seen the movie King Corn, so am well versed in this country’s corn syrup problem. Normally, it doesn’t cross our threshold. But now that it had, I was grimly reminded about the recent report finding mercury in high fructose corn syrup. So I got all wound up, because as both my husband and now 6-year-old would tell you, that’s just what I do.
So the first thing I…
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photo credit: NiCk AnDeRsEn
I thought eco friendly toilet paper was simple, just buy recycled toilet paper. An article in the NY Times indicates that the US is causing deforestation because of sales of fluffy toilet paper like Charmin Ultra.
“Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber [...]
The eco-internet is all a-buzz with this month’s upcoming Earth Hour 2009 occurring in major cities across the globe. The “event”, scheduled for 8:30pm on March 28th, calls for people and business everywhere to “turn out the lights” in a show of global solidarity in support of the battle against climate change. However, for those who do not live within the “participating cities”, what then?
But first a little history: Earth Hour began in 2007, when approximately 2.2 million homes and businesses throughout Sydney, Australia, switched off their lights for exactly one hour. The event was hailed as a global success, sparking the initiative to grow for 2008 with 50 million across the world people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness for one hour while the world was forced to recognize the reality that the people of the…
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“inside/out“, developers of innovative “humanitourism” trips that combine humanitarian project work with guided adventure travel, announced today an assistance adventure trip to Greece June 12-22, 2009 to aid in the shockingly inhumane conditions that exist for dogs and cats in Greece.
inside/out offers travelers the opportunity to provide hands-on help to a project which desperately needs outside assistance. In this largely unknown crisis, dogs and cats are struggling to survive in an environment of overwhelming overpopulation, neglect, abuse, cruelty, abandonment, poisoning, starvation and apathy all over Greece. The purpose of the trip is to assist a small contingent of animal welfare workers in Greece to provide contributions in education, care and feeding programs and to gain further insight into the culture by actively touring in the local region.
The trip will be centered in Ioannina, located in the mountains of northern Greece, the Zagoria region. Following the…
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The southeast Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, home to some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, has created its first national conservation area to preserve forever a swath of pristine tropical forest larger than Singapore.
The decision by the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government, in concert with local communities neighboring the newly established YUS Conservation Area, results from more than a decade of work with conservation biologists from Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and Arlington, Va.-based Conservation International (CI).
Named for its three main rivers – the Yopno, Uruwa and Som of the Huon Peninsula – the YUS Conservation Area covers 187,800 acres (76,000 hectares or 760 square kilometers) of tropical forest stretching from PNG’s northern coast to interior mountains.
A hallmark of modern conservation, the new protected area offers multiple benefits for both wildlife and people. The tropical forest stores huge amounts of carbon, so protecting it…
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As COO of fair trade certifier Transfair USA, Dave Rochlin saw first hand how selling coffee as a commodity sets a “low bar” for sustainability, hurts small farmers, and denies consumers the right to choose for themselves what their purchases support. In researching how to fight climate change, he and his ClimatePath cofounder Katy Foreman discovered that the voluntary carbon markets suffer from the same issues. The two decided to use their social venture experience, business savvy, and web skills to create a new consumer model for offsetting that brings choice, transparency, and trust to consumers, and empowers carbon projects to compete based on their unique missions rather than on commodity carbon markets.
Explains Dave, “ClimatePath.org is designed around a marketplace model. Rather than blending project credits, selling untraceable tons, and putting pricing decisions into the hands of resellers, we let the projects determine a fair price, and give them a chance to promote…
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RockResorts, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vail Resorts, is showing meeting planners that it really IS easy being green. With nine resorts in iconic locations from Vail, Colo., to St. Lucia in the West Indies, the company is a natural choice for meeting planners who want to access premier meeting facilities while engaging their groups in the beauty of their surrounding environment offering the full complement for a green meeting or event. With the roll-out of a more formal green meetings program, groups at RockResorts can better appreciate and preserve the environment inside the conference room and out.
From e-brochures and paperless check-in procedures to organic cuisine, RockResorts has made it easier than ever for planners to support or host environmentally-friendly meetings. To assist meeting planners and attendees in reducing the environmental footprint of their meetings, RockResorts launched a carbon calculator on their Web site (www.rockresorts.com) that allows planners to…
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I have always been a fan of permeable driveways (except in my younger skateboarding days). They allow for absorption of runoff, recharging aquifers, and naturally filters the water before it reaches ocean, lake and river outfalls, improving water quality. It reduces the dangers from flooding and the need for huge storm drains and channels. Additionally, [...]
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I had the flu so badly last week I drank something I haven’t drank in over 20 years: ginger ale. And no, it wasn’t ginger beer, the stuff in the bottle at the natural grocery that actually has ginger in it. This was the the drink-with-saltines stuff ’cause it makes you feel better somehow. 
