Wednesday, August 17, 2011
On Hiatus...
I love what I've learned while writing this blog and so appreciate each and every one of you that followed Our Kids Earth and shared your questions and thoughts. It's been a great discussion and has challenged me to grow in my thinking and my actions. I am trying to focus more on my freelance writing and work on finishing a young adult novel I've been writing. Maybe I'll be back here again one day, but for now, I'll just say - go out and enjoy our great planet!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Open Your Eyes. Open Your Heart. Open Your Mind.
If you haven't checked out TED talks or heard of the conference, you should check it out. TED originally stood for Technology, Entertainment, and Design and was about bringing these different people together. Today it has evolved into something much bigger, but with a simple mission: to spread ideas.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
My Summer Leaf!
Everyone keeps asking about the car so here are the basics. I can drive up to 100 miles on a single charge, but so far it seems more like 80. It depends on conditions including the outside temperature, elevation, air-conditioning, speed, etc. I have a charging station in my garage which will do a full charge in 8 hours. The Leaf can also be charged in a regular 110 outlet for 16 hours, and one day soon there will be Level III chargers on the I-5 and Highway 2 corridors that will allow for 26 minute complete charges.
I was initially excited to hear that Stevens Pass had a charging station, but now that I have driven the car, I don't think the car can actually make it that far (~70 miles) with that much elevation (~4000 feet). We'll hold out for some interim charging stations before we venture over the mountains.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Packing an Earth-Friendly Summer Lunch
Summer’s coming, but packing lunches may still be part of your routine, as camps, picnics and family outings begin to fill the calendar. When the Seattle sun finally makes its appearance, the kids will be romping around the outdoors, and you can help protect that environment by packing an Earth-friendly lunchbox.
One of the biggest challenges — especially in parks, on beaches and at campsites — is feasting without leaving a trail of waste. Corporate America entices children with assortments of meat, cheese and crackers served in compartmentalized plasticware, but daily doses of these snacks will leave a pile of garbage taller than your child.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Moving to Glass
I bought mine at Sur La Table in Seattle where you can get a set of 3 for around $25 right now.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Stemming the Tide at the Gas Pump
And, given that I'm only getting 18mpg (on a really good day), that $66 tab will only carry me 300 miles. You can't help but think about using less gas with prices like these. Here are some of what I am doing or contemplating to conserve gas:
- Carpool (I think I've mastered this one. There was actually a point last year when I was in 3 carpools in one day - one for my kids' school, one for my kids' sports, and one for my own school. Crazy!)
- Take a bus or train (For some reason, I only seem to do this in foreign cities. Definitely something to work on...)
- Ride my bike or walk (another area ripe for improvement opportunities!)
- Change cars! (My electric Nissan Leaf is scheduled for delivery in 2 weeks!! Here's a picture of my newly installed charging station.)
What about you? What are you doing? Do you think you'll revert back to old habits when the cost of gas goes down again? Feel free to share in the Comments section!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Trashing Our Earth's Beaches
A friend of mine recently told me of her recent trip to Mexico and how appalled she was at the litter on the beach. She asked the locals where it came from and their response was: "cruise ships." I followed up on the issue for her because I was fairly certain it was illegal for cruise ships to dump their garbage in open water. I took an Alaskan cruise a while back and blogged about Norwegian Cruise Line's environmental policies. While I don't think these massive floating cities can claim to be green, I was surprised with how hard they worked to properly dispose of garbage.
It turns out that Caribbean dumping is illegal, but the law won't take effect until all the countries agree to report their garbage handling capacity. Unfortunately, many countries don't have sufficient ability to process the garbage created by thousands of tourists docking for a few hours each day, so to protect the tourism industry, they haven't reported. If they don't report, the law can't go into effect, and the cruise ships are free to dump away.
The plastics can strangle or choke sea creatures, work their way into our food supply, and litter the beaches. If you happen to be on a cruise in the near future, ask the tough questions. Where is the litter going? And keep asking the questions in your own neighborhood too. What about your own local beach? How clean is it? Where does that garbage come from?