Monthly Archives: May 2007

Using “More” to Go Green

Seth Godin has an interesting post on his blog about getting people to care about the environment. He points out that througout history, people have always wanted more. It’s a sign of achievement, of status.

In other words, getting people to care about the environment by telling them to cut back is a really hard sell. No wonder it doesn’t work too well.

He really had some good points, such as:

One reason that the litter campaign of the 1960s worked so well is that ‘not littering’ didn’t require doing less, it just required enough self control to hold on to your garbage for an hour or two. The achilles heel of the movement to limit carbon is the word ‘limit.’

When you start thinking about it in those terms it makes a lot of sense. How many people go green just because they want to create less carbon or cut back in their lives? Those may be some of the stated reasons, but how much of it is really a desire to do more for the environment. It’s a semantic difference, but a very important one.

Take a look at some of the things that are environmentally friendly but can be seen as status too. In my area, low emissions vehicles can use the carpool lanes.See Vehicle Code (VC) §§ 5205.5 and 21655.9. That’s something that makes less into a bit of more.

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Narrowing Down the Bee Problem

I read over on EcoGeek that they’re making some progress on the disappearance of the bees. It now appears to be possible that the problem is caused by a fungus. But that’s not certain yet. It could still prove to be a variety of factors.

While these results are highly preliminary, I find them encouraging. It’s a relief to see a cause other than cell phones, which would be very hard to change, and find a fungus related to one they know how to handle.

The trouble is that this may not be the sole cause. The odds are still good that a number of factors are involved, and that the problem relates to the cumulative effect. So we can’t relax just yet and say that it’s not something that will involve big changes. If this fungus is only doing so much damage because the bees are weakened by a different factor, obviously there’s more to work on.

Just the fact that about a quarter of the commercial bee colonies have been lost in the United States is astounding. If this isn’t the solution, more work is going to need to be done fast to figure out what is wrong. A disruption like this to the food chain is no minor problem.

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How Safe is Your Child’s Car Seat?

I saw this over on TreeHugger, and just had to go to HealthyCar.org to see for myself what the big deal is. I’m not talking about which car seats are safest in an accident. I’m talking about which have the least toxic chemicals in them. The report is quite disturbing.

A 2006 model similar to my daughter’s car seat is on their list as being one of the most toxic. They only tested the 2006 models, so I have no idea how safe my daughter’s car seat is really in terms of chemicals it may offgas. But obviously it concerns me greatly.

It may well be that I have nothing to worry about. Some of the similar models were in the mid range in terms of chemicals. Rather disappointing to so consistently see the seats by Graco (the manufacturer of my daughter’s car seat) so consistently in the mid to high range, though.

Realistically speaking, about all I can do is contact Graco to see. My daughter has about a year and a half, on a guess, before she meets California standards for not using any car seat. That’s currently 6 years and 60 pounds. She’ll be six in just under a year, but unless she has an amazing growth spurt, there’s no way she will be 60 pounds by then.

For my son, they did better, with much lower outgassing on the convertible car seats. He’s only 2, so we have a lot longer to go before he gets out of car seats.

So what do you think? Would this kind of chemical exposure concern you as a parent?

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I Love My Bread Machine!

There’s just nothing like making fresh bread at home. There’s something about knowing exactly what the ingredients are, not to mention the sheer freshness, that even the best of loaves from a grocery store can’t beat.

My current favorite wheat bread recipe I make only partially in the breadmaker. I love using the machine to mix it up, but truth be told, I hate the height of the resultant loaf. Just too tall to be easily cut. So I take the dough out and cook it as a loaf, rolls, etc., depending on what I need.

I love using the machine because I don’t often want to take the time to mix bread dough by hand. It’s hard work! And with two children, I do have better things to do with my time. I’d probably never make bread on my own without it.

One of the fun things is how much my kids love being involved in it. They love seeing the bread dough get mixed, and the love seeing it change as it rises. And of course they can eventually wash their hands and help to shape rolls. Continue reading →