Take Action

Now that my final exams are over I can finally get back to writing more stuff.

Since I’m just out of exams I think it would be a great time to write about how students that usually are eco-conscious are  giving less or even no attention at all to the way they consume during this period of time.

You have to admit that when your in an exam period you just don’t have the time to cook yourself diner or even make yourself a proper lunch to bring along to your study group. So what is the easy thing to do?

What most of us do is go to the closest subway or fast food restaurant and grab something that’s cheap to be able to go back to studying as quickly as possible. I would even say that eating at the University’s cafeteria is not even an option for me since you pay more for the same fast food you can find just outside of campus. If your a guy like me who’s in the gym at least 4 days a week you have to have something big to fill you stomach. That’s one more reason why the University’s cafeteria is simply not an option. If you think of all the paper wraps and plastic bags and plastic utensils that are used in fast food restaurants, it’s truly not the best way to ease off on the environment.

So that’s the round up on food. Now let’s talk about paper. If you take a look at the picture at the top of this article, you’ll see the amount of wasted paper that is created during a two week study period. It’s completely unbelievable. In normal times I try to never use paper. Every chance I get I use my laptop to do my school work and I give my final product to my teachers via email. But when you have 2 different math courses in the same semester, you just can’t do that. If you’re asking yourself why, you should know that the only way to do good in math is to practise. If anyone can tell me what could be a better way to do this I would be glad to put my paper aside and go with it. I would be the fist to spread the word on a more eco friendly way to study math. If you take the 200 plus sheets of paper used in my 2 weeks of studying multiplied by all the students in all the University’s, that’s a whole bunch of trees that c0uld be spared.

So if you have any suggestion on a more eco-friendly way to study, please feel free to share with all of us.

Hitchsters is an easy-to-use website that conveniently connects travelers going to and from airports so that they can share a ride (and thus split the fare). The Hitchsters.com matching system makes riding in a car to the airport more affordable, more convenient, safer, and more environmentally-friendly.

This idea is especially great because of the fact that traveling by airplane is nothing close to eco-friendly. Hitchsters.com launched this week in the San Francisco Bay Area and they plan to expand to other cities in the near future.

Hitchsters.com helps match people looking to ride-share on the way to or from the airport (SFO, OAK & SJC) and hooks them up with a high-quality, yet inexpensive car service. By doing so a person saves on average $21/ride and reduces their carbon footprint by 30 lbs compared to taking a cab alone.

Hitchsters.com are trying to get the word out to help people save some money and save the environment a bit too. They’ve already launched in NYC and were honored last year by Time Magazine when they were named one of the “50 Best Websites of 2007″.

How it works (form Hitchsters.com website):

Log in to your MyHitchsters account, enter your trip itinerary, and select your saved location. (Not there? Add a new one to your MyHitchsters profile).

When matched, you will be notified with a text message and e-mail containing the first name and cell phone of your co-rider (nothing else is shared). As an additional safety feature, we preserve the phone numbers of all of the successful matches.

A partnering car service calls each party to arrange the ride.

If you are sharing a ride to the airport, then you will only be matched with someone else who is leaving from your area to go to the same airport. If you are sharing a ride from the airport, you will only be matched with someone who is on the same flight (no worries about late flights) and going to the same area you are.

After your trip, you will have an opportunity to evaluate your co-rider, and the limo company, with a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” rating.

This has to be one of the best approach Greenpeace has taken to take action against Coal power. A funny James Bond like cartoon video featuring Graverson Green going against Cue Coalfinger a coal super villain trying to irreversibly change the Earths Climate by mass polluting with coal power. But the sad thing is Graverson Green can’t take Coalfinger alone. He needs our help.

In fact, coal lobbyist have been trying to say that we can produce power with Clean Coal. I don’t know where they got that because there is no such thing as Clean Coal. I would even say that clean and coal should never coexist in the same sentence.

The US is literally blowing the tops off of mountains to get at thin seams of coal which has damaged or destroyed about 1200 miles of streams. There are plans on the drawing board to build over 150 new coal plants in the US in the next few years, but 63 of these have already been stopped by environmental groups and people like you.

To learn more about the fight against coal power you can visit coalfinger.com. You will also be able to sign up and make a difference in this quest for a more sustainable future

This video from Greenpeace features JFK speaking about the energy revolution. It’s sad to say that the people of this world have done short of nothing about the climate crisis and the worst part is that we have been aware of this for quite a long time now.

I was having diner with my folks the other day and I started a conversation on this subject. The more I talked about it the more I got frustrated to the point where I couldn’t talk anymore.

All that to say that we must take action, get off our asses and make it happen. I can’t say it enough, 100% renewable energy in 10 years is possible.

P.S. Nuclear Power ISN’T renewable

Thousands of tons of e-waste – such as discarded PCs, mobile phones and TVs – are dumped in Africa and Asia every year. Research shows that some of this waste is exported to Pakistan..In the Karachi district of Lyari, hundreds of workers, including teenage children, earn their livelihoods by dismantling the electronic scrap and extracting valuable components such as copper to sell. This is a insight into the personal cost of e-waste.

Manufactures can help ensure the problem of toxic e-waste is solved. Find out which companies are doing the most to tackle the problem.

©Greenpeace/Robert Knoth

This article was originally published on Eco Child’s Play.

Editor’s Note: This article was reposted here in hopes that today’s CNN video (see bottom of article) will spark more interest in this issue. The video states that “sweet tooth Britain” will have no honey of its own to sell after Christmas. Can we change that this Halloween?

The honey bees are dying off around the world, and yet still many people have never heard of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). [Last month] the Italian government banned several pesticides that are thought to be linked to the honey bee decline. More research (funding) is required to find out exactly what is causing the disappearance.

 During Honey Week, Meridith Melnick wrote:

“One-third of the food we consume comes from pollinators. Bees are responsible for pollinating almonds, apples, soft fruit, and berries among other crops. Without them, we will lose more than honey (a tragedy in its own right!), we will lose a large portion of the biodiversity we now enjoy on our plates.”

I shared my own honey bee concerns with my preschooler a few months back, and I was amazed how quickly and easily she accepted the need to protect this species. Sunflowers have taken off all over our yard, and while I’m no bee expert there are definitely some pollinators in our presence. My children do their own waggle dance whenever they see a flower visitor. (Planting bee friendly flowers is one of the easiest things you can do as a family to support honey bees.)

Since our governments aren’t acting fast enough, perhaps we need to send our children off buzzing with this CCD news. Have you thought of a Halloween costume idea for your youngest tot? If not consider turning your little honey into a bee. You know your friends and family are going to ask what your precious bundle is going to be on his first Halloween. With your baby on board, spreading the word about CCD will be easy. (And people will be less likely to judge you as a greenie in front of little buzz.)

You don’t need to run out and buy your baby a new costume.  You don’t even need to be  all that creative. Yellow pajamas (or snow suit) and some black tape may be all you need to get your neighbours going goo goo for your little stinger. Parents who like to join in on the dress up fun might consider pairing a yellow shirt with black pants to form a bee colony.

Here’s another idea for young families who rarely make it down a whole street on Halloween night before little ones tire and are ready to buzz home. Instead of accepting candy that your baby won’t eat, offer pouches of sunflower seeds to your neighbours, with a link to the Hagen Daaz website (www.helpthehoneybee.com).

Eco Challenge: Please use the comment section to send your ideas for crafting homemade (earth friendly) bee antennae that don’t fall off. (My own kids are old enough to decide what they want to bee for Halloween. The Hungry Caterpillar and Monarch Butterfly are going to need antennae too!)

Related Posts on Bees

• Honey Bee Rescue. What you can do to help.
• What’s the Buzz with Honey Bees?
• None of Your Beeswax

Image: flickr user Tommie and Georgie under a Creative Commons License

Don’t net what you don’t need! from WWF on Vimeo.

Modern fishing gear is very efficient at catching fish. As well as many other unwanted / untargeted creatures in its path. These other animals are called bycatch. They are often thrown back into the ocean. Dying. Or dead. Find out more at panda.org/bycatch

Don’t net what you don’t need! from WWF on Vimeo.

Modern fishing gear is very efficient at catching fish. As well as many other unwanted / untargeted creatures in its path. These other animals are called bycatch. They are often thrown back into the ocean. Dying. Or dead. Find out more at panda.org/bycatch