Why to choose Organic

August 10, 2010 · Filed under Green, Organic

For years, people have been arguing over the benefits of organic food versus conventionally grown food.  Organic foods are grown without the use of added pesticides, fertilizers, or chemicals. 

A study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry reported that organic foods are healthier because they contain more vitamins and minerals than conventionally farmed foods.  Organics taste better because they don’t have unnatural additives, preservatives, or flavors.  Also, organics are not genetically modified as 30% of conventionally farmed foods can be. 

Another good reason to go organic is to protect your children.  Children are more vulnerable to toxins than adults and eating organic can reduce the amount of pesticides and hormones ingested. 

Organics are continually dismissed because they are more expensive.  The reasons they appear higher priced on the shelf are because non-organic foods are subsidized, and organic foods are more laborious due to the use of smaller farms and lack of pesticides. 

A couple tips to buying organic cheaper include: buying locally and seasonally.  Buying locally is a good way to get organic food cheaper and to support your local community.  Buying seasonally is cheaper because the food doesn’t have to travel as far.  Also, it results in fresher and better tasting food. 

Try your local farmer’s market for great prices and a wonderful selection.

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker

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3 Easy Steps to Start Composting at Home

August 9, 2010 · Filed under Composting, Green

Composting is a wonderful way to recycle your leftover food scraps, paper waste, and yard trimmings into a hearty fertilizer for plants.  There are many reasons for composting including rich fertilizer for use in house plants and gardening, and lessening the amount of waste fed into landfills.

In order for a good compost to decompose, it needs good air flow, water, partial shade in the summer, and sun in the winter.  Once you’ve picked a good area to meet all your composting needs, follow these 3 steps to get started:

Compost Bin

1.  Choose a container. There are many container options: bins, boxes, tumblers, and many other composters.  You may also prefer not to use a bin at all, but this option takes more work, can be or buy one.  While building your own is cheaper, there are a couple inexpensive ones available online from retailers such as Planet Natural and Amazon.

2.  Add ingredients. Yard: leaves, nettles, grass clippings.  Food: fruits (limit citrus), vegetables, coffee, tea, egg shells, flour. Paper: cardboard, newspaper, shredded paper, sawdust.  Do not compost meat or meat bi-products.  For a more detailed list, please see Compost this.

3.  Watch and tend. Temperature: the compost pile should be warm in the middle indicating bacteria growth.  Aeration: the contents need to breathe, so make sure to mix your compost pile often with a pitch fork.  Moisture: keep your pile moist, but not too wet.  Similar to a wrung out sponge. Carbon to Nitrogen ratio: the trickiest part of composting is balancing the amount of Carbon to Nitrogen in your mix.  Try to maintain a ratio of about 30 parts Carbon to 1 part Nitrogen.  As a quick gauge, paper and brown plants tend to be higher in Carbon, whereas green plant clippings and vegetables tend to be higher in Nitrogen.

Try to add items in larger chunks at lengthier intervals versus smaller parts more often.  This allows the mixture time to start the decomposing process without constantly being interrupted.  When your pile has turned into a rich, dark, crumbly substance where the original ingredients can’t be deciphered, your compost is ready to be used to fertilize your plants.

Finished Product

Compost is great for plants because it builds good soil structure, helps hold moisture, and protects plants from many diseases.

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker

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“Trash” has a different meaning in San Francisco

August 8, 2010 · Filed under Green, Recycling

Golden Gate bridge

I went to San Francisco this weekend and learned more about how one city can come together to decrease their environmental impact.  My trip to San Francisco really opened my eyes to the term “trash”.  It seemed like every place I went there were 3 separate garbage bins clearly labeled: Compost, Recycle, and Landfill.  Here are a couple pictures I took:   

Garbage cans inside Ghirardelli Square

  At Ghirardelli Square, and at many other public places in the city, grabage cans came in threes, each labeled accordingly and showing example pictures. 

The COMPOST label included pictures of food scraps and paper products.  According to vegweb.com, composting is the, “decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials into an earty, dark, crumbly substance.”  It is often used similar to fertilizer to enrich soil.  The RECYCLE label showed items that can be recycled such as plastic bottles, cans, and glass. 

The LANDFILL label showed pictures of other items like potato chip bags and disposable

Labels above garbage cans

silverware.  Basically, all items that don’t fit into composting or recycling go into this bin.  The pictures are there to reiterate the items that people are unsure about.

I loved it!

San Francisco is rated on many top 10/25 green city lists across the country and even the world.  Garbage separation, including city-wide composting, is only one of the reasons SF ranks high on these lists.  The city is also known for a high percentage of renewable energy use, very high public transport use, and green design.  This is evident in the large number of cable cars and buses on the roads and the vast number of people riding bicycles.  The criteria to make these “green” lists can be tricky and extremely subjective; however, San Francisco seems to rank pretty high on lists including one at gogreentravelgreen.com and one at nationalgeographic.com , so they must be doing something right. 

I wish more cities were as proactive as San Francisco!

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker 

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Practicing the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

August 5, 2010 · Filed under Green, Recycling

Every day I realize another piece of knowledge I have that I learned from my mother while growing up.  One thing I remember quite fondly is, “reduce, reuse, recycle.”  As a kid, my mother recited this saying over and over as a way of teaching us children about preserving the environment.  She would quiz us, “what are the 3 Rs?” and we would respond accordingly.  We saved all our plastic food containers and reused them like Tupperware.  My mom saved all the polystyrene foam trays from meat packaging because she wanted to reuse them as house insulation.  (Unfortunately, this idea never came to fruition, but it was a good thought.)

As an adult, this saying continues to resonate in my thoughts.  I practice “reduce, reuse, recycle” on a daily basis by thinking of it in these terms:

Reduce my consumption.  How can I reduce the amount of waste I am responsible for?  How can I reduce the amount of packing I will have to throw away?  How can I reduce the amount of energy I use in a  day?

Reuse what I can.  What else can I do with this item?  Whom do I know that could use this item?  Can I turn this into something else?  How can I use what is already here?

Recycle what’s leftover.  When an item is beyond reuse, I try to find a way to recycle it.  Plastics, aluminum, and glass can be recycled at most local waste management facilities.  Composting is a great way to recycle food and scraps into fertilizer. 

I try to practice “reduce, reuse, recycle” in that order because it saves the most energy.  Reducing consumption in the first place means saving all the energy that went into creating an item, reusing items means being able to save money on another purchase, and for items that can’t be reused recycling an item can keep it out of a landfill.  Reducing my consumption, reusing what I can, then recycling what’s leftover brings down the impact I have on the environment.

I thank my mom all the time for the valuable life lessons she taught me, and I am proud to say that I continue with this lesson on a daily basis.

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker

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Is Styrofoam really that bad?

August 3, 2010 · Filed under Recycling, Styrofoam

For years, we’ve heard of the detrimental effect that Styrofoam has on our environment, lasting forever filling up landfills without a way to be recycled. While researching information for this blog, I found out that the word Styrofoam is actually a brand name for extruded polystyrene, used mostly in construction for insulation.  People commonly use Styrofoam as a generic term to describe foam cups, coolers, takeout boxes, and other foam packaging materials; however, this is not really correct.  These foam products are actually expanded polystyrene, commonly abbreviated EPS.  For a more thorough definition see Universal Foam Products.

According to the American Chemistry Council at americanchemistry.com, EPS is actually better for the environment than the alternatives.  The following 3 reasons were stated in support of polystyrene:

  1. It leaves a lighter footprint.  EPS weighs significantly less than alternative products, which makes it extremely cheaper to transport, and also creates less of a carbon imprint.
  2. It saves energy.  EPS takes less energy to create than alternative products, therefore conserving energy in the long run.
  3. It can be recycled.  #6 EPS can be recycled, with some exceptions: cups, plates, takeout containers, meat trays, egg cartons, and packaging peanuts. 

While I was surprised to hear about the smaller carbon footprint and the energy savings, the fact that food containers made from polystyrene aren’t recyclable is discouraging.  For me, and I assume most general consumers, I go through a larger number of food containers made of polystyrene than packaging polystyrene because of the frequency of eating (both in and out) versus purchases of large items like electronics.  Also, the EPS that is recyclable has to be taken to a special facility and is not available for curbside pickup.  To find the closest drop off location for ESP check the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (AFPR) list.

Given all this information, I am feeling better about polystyrene in general; however, I’m still not convinced that food containers made of polystyrene are more eco-friendly than the alternatives.

Thanks for reading! Christmas Parker

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Can Nevada’s Economy survive by “going green”?

August 2, 2010 · Filed under GeothermalEnergy, Green, SolarEnergy, UNR, WindEnergy

I read an intriguing article in the Reno News & Review titled, “Can Alt Energy Save Nevada?”  It discussed how Nevada casinos may never earn like they have in the past, and how Nevada should begin to look elsewhere to make up the difference.  The article cited efforts by Nevada legislature in the last year to move toward power generation in the form of alternative energies as a possibility of replacing lost revenues from casinos.  Bills passed in the last year include: requirements for NV Energy to run transmission lines to the new facilities, the creation of a renewable energy fund, and the creation a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Authority and a post of Nevada energy commissioner.  

Power generation takes extreme knowledge and expertise, and according to the Reno News & Review article, “Nevada has spent the last couple of years dismantling its higher education system,” referring to budget cuts at the University level.  This de-emphasis of higher education could be a real hindrance to getting started in the green energies field.  Without an exceptional higher education system, where will these educated, driven people come from?  Outside the state?  How will this improve the economy and benefit those who already live here?

As an alumna and current Master’s student of the University of Nevada, Reno, I have witnessed this account personally.  There has definitely been a decline in majors and classes offered and an increase in class size and tuition costs.  There are rumors that UNR could lose its accreditation in certain areas.  I’m sure there is far more to it than I am aware, but from a student’s perspective, those are key issues, and need to be addressed.

Between the recession and the easy access to gambling in other states, Nevada can no longer depend solely on revenues from casinos.  However, I’m not sure green energy can survive without educated engineers and scientists with Nevada’s best interest at heart to facilitate the efforts.  If Nevada is serious about green power generation, they should start first by educating those at home.

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker

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Las Vegas hits 114 degrees

July 30, 2010 · Filed under Green, SolarEnergy

I visited Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, and it was 114 degrees outside. Wow!  That’s hot!  It’s amazing how much free energy shines down upon us every day, and we treat it as a burden, seeking refuge in the closest air conditioned building.  When will we learn to harness that free energy and quit paying ridiculous amounts of money for oil?  Hopefully sooner than later.

According to the article, “U.S. moves into ‘solar fuels’ development with $122 million”, on ECOSEED, a new competition to develop solar fuels is being held in California where up to $22 million will be awarded this year and up to $25 every consecutive year for the next 4 years.  This venture is meant to draw scientists to the next level passed research and into real development.

While it is great news to hear that we are pursuing solar energy, it’s going to be a while before the sun cools us.  For now, here are three simple ways to beat the heat while staying green:

1. Stay shaded.  Shading your house from direct sunlight can decrease the need for air-conditioning.  This is more effective when done with trees or awnings outside the house versus just blinds on a window because there is more to buffer the heat.

2. Utilize the cool night air.  Open doors and windows at night to let in cooler air.  Use a fan to help circulate the cool air through your house.

3. Stay wet.  Run through the sprinklers or visit your community swimming pool.  The cool water can help lower your body temperature, and since your lawn needs water anyway, it’s win-win.

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker

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Global Warming, does it exist? …is that really the issue?

July 27, 2010 · Filed under Global Warming, Green

Born and raised in Soldotna, Alaska, I grew up in the heart of nature.  Fishing, hiking, camping, and exploring the wilderness of the last frontier.  When I moved to the desert at the age of 17, I began to appreciate how fortunate I was to have lived in such an amazingly beautiful and green climate.  However, I didn’t fully realize the true power and importance of nature until I reached adulthood and returned to Alaska one winter for a visit.  Glaciers I had been able to touch as a small child receded so far back that I needed binoculars to see them, rooftops that in years passed needed shoveling to prevent collapse, now showed bare spots, and frozen lakes I had skated on now only fit half as many kids.  Some people would argue that these are blatant signs of Global Warming, while others would say there is no evidence of the world getting hotter and that in fact recent change has showed a decrease in temperatures. 

Some scientists continue to report that the earth’s temperatures are rising in some part due to human action: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagid=54136

While others claim no Global Warming at all: http://allpainnogain.cfact.org/default.asp

Something is happening in our climate to cause the glaciers and ice caps melt, and if it isn’t Global Warming, then what is it?  I do not believe we will ever conclude irrevocably whether or not human activity contributed to glaciers melting, or even if we contributed to temperature change.  However, there are still many benefits to be had by “going green”.  Many people do not believe in Global Warming is caused by humans for one reason or another, and therefore they reject any discussion of working toward a greener way of life.  My objective is not to prove or disprove Global Warming but to shed light on the benefits of being greener in everyday life.  I am determined to learn all I can about reducing my environmental impact, being more energy efficient, and giving back to the earth, and I will share my new knowledge with my readers.  I will show people that being green is better and more profitable for all parties involved. 

Thanks for reading!  Christmas Parker

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