Like you needed an excuse.

Sometimes doing some good for the environment is especially sweet. Haagen Dazs is providing sweet incentive for you to help this cute little girl to the left. Being quite partial to vanilla I can see a pint of Vanilla Honey Bee in my future!
Bee sure to check out the cute site!

300 days left. Will we make it?!

Bush intervention led EPA to scale back ozone limits.

I can't believe that I find it appalling any more. Haven't the limits of my disbelief been trampled and demolished time and time again already? How could more ass-clownery from the numero uno A-clown even get my notice these days?

I remember years ago when I found a list of the environmental atrocities that W oversaw in Texas and how unbelievable it seemed to be. Unbelievable, yet verifiable and unfortunately accurate. Number one on the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory during his governorship is just the beginning, as Texas also ranked 49th in budget for environmental protection and conservation. I wish it were that he changed his ways when he took office, but sigh, you and I both know he is the same short-sighted industry whore he has always been. If you would like to make your skin crawl you can take a quick scan at Bush's environmental record and enjoy such headings as "White house weakens EPA cancer safeguards".

Anyway, good morning.

More reasons to toss that plastic water bottle for good! (in every sense of the word).

Way to go San Francisco! I love the new program to encourage more of us to eliminate our dependency on plastic water bottles.

Once again there is an elegant way to protect your health, stop the unnecessary use of fuel to haul around water, and save money doing it! Mother Nature is always quite clever.

So I say forget about the temporary convenience of retail bottled water. Get a durable non-plastic bottle you like (don't forget my ode to Sigg from earlier) and fill it with Hetch Hetchy's best.

Stop Junk Mail!

Remember when you might even be a little excited to check your mail? Maybe there would be a note or a card from someone, just maybe. Seems that never happens any more. All I feel going to check my mail is irritated that my next action will be to have to recycle or shred THEN recycle numerous "resident", "current occupant", or my fave, any of the 20 or so computer-generated versions of my name.

No more. I registered with Catalog Choice a month or so ago to assist me in refusing the mass mailings that flood my mailbox. It's a great free web tool that can simplify some of the work required to get your point across to marketers. What I found very interesting is the immediate refusal of both Nordstrom and Macy's to acknowledge my request. Catalog Choice provided me with the contact information though, so even if they couldn't stop the mail they greatly simplified my follow-up. In 4 weeks the site has managed to get me confirmation of removal from 3 catalogs and it is helping me track some of the others that are unconfirmed.

There is also some good information about how to stop unwanted mail at stopwaste.org that will give you templates for requesting to be removed from mailing lists. It's been about a month since I started mailing requests to the companies that spam me out here in meatspace. One of the first things I noticed was that a large number of BS mailings come from the very same PO Box in Wilmington, DE. Some jerk company is sending me numerous "offers" each week from various other companies - Southwest Airlines, Citibank, Marriott, etc. What a gross way to make a living!

Since embarking on my private little war against unsolicited mail I have mailed out 31 requests for removal to companies ranging from Pottery Barn to USC Continuing Dental Education. I've gotten into quite the efficient little groove and for once the junk mail gives me a tiny retaliatory thrill when I see it. I open up a template from the last request I sent (Oh! Maybe it's from PO Box 17198 too!) put in the new address and print it to my printer in my office. Next time I am at the printer I use the tools menu to print the envelope (I stocked up on plain envelopes at the same time I hit the post office). The entire task of responding to week's worth of junk is less than 5 minutes. It is too soon to see a difference yet, but at least my reaction to the stuff is more positive already!

If you are interested in your own assault on mail waste there are several other tools you may want to check out. Here's to more cards from Grandma and fewer "You could already be a winner" cards!

Say it isn't so!

NO! Really, how far can I take this?! I am a self-admitted Splenda® addict. As a dental hygienist, the fear of caries (tooth decay to the less geekified) has been drilled into me (sorry about the pun, unavoidable), and now my means of enjoying liquid sweetness while feeling smug about the safety of my tooth enamel has just been outed as an environmental hazard. ACK!

Funny, there have been those who have questioned the safety of artificial sweeteners for humans before, and that had no effect on my consumption. Now that I fear it could contribute to global warming I have found that my latte is slowly becoming Splenda®-free. Do I really care more about algae than myself? Seems so.

Plastic bottles pile up as mountains of waste

Plastic bottles pile up as mountains of waste
This MSNBC article is quite sobering. Enough to make you think that dehydration may not be so bad after all.

However, recognizing that humans need water, including yours truly, I have embarked on a new method of maintaining my humidity while protecting Mother Earth from mountains of plastic water bottles. Enter Sigg! The cutest ever solution to the problem on crowding landfills with "convenience" items not expected to live beyond a day, or an hour, in the case of a water bottle. Not only does an aluminum Sigg bottle solve the problem of tossing an empty, useless plastic bottle, but it also protects you from the latest health fear - the leaching of plastic components into drinking water. There are numerous reports from various sources on this issue.

The important thing to recognize, in my opinion, is that the bottles so many of us carry for the health of the planet (sorry Nalgene, but your name has to come out) may be compromising personal health. Here is a little information about the popular polycarbonate bottles. "#7 Polycarbonate contains the hormone disruptor bisphenol-A, which can leach out as bottles age, are heated or exposed to acidic solutions. Unfortunately, #7 is used in most baby bottles and five-gallon water jugs and in many reusable sports bottles."

So, what is a poor person to do? Take heart, you can protect yourself and planet and look darn cute doing it, too. Just grab a durable non-plastic container and feel good about doing something that will make a difference.

And away we go!

Without really meaning to I accidentally made a New Year's Resolution that seems to have stuck. Sad about the legions of "resolutions" that never see mid-January, I started out eschewing them entirely. Instead I threatened "reasonable changes for positive growth"(RCfPG). Perhaps that is the difference, for this year the pattern changed. It is mid-March and the RCfPG are not only still in place, they have GROWN.

What am I blathering about? I've decided to stop letting the hugeness of it all weight me down and have instead decided to save my planet on my own with my own little changes. I know, sounds a bit megalomaniacal, doesn't it? Well, perhaps, but I figure I have saved over 200 paper coffee cups from the landfill already and it's only the first quarter of the year!

Not only have I managed to stay the course, I have also apparently been talking about my little mission excessively, for the suggestion to blog on this topic has been heard numerous times. Of course, it could be that those making the suggestion are hoping they can simply ignore the RSS and be done with my eco-chatter, but I can deal with that. So here I am. Mom? Are you reading? ; )