Not like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz…but as in lowering your face’s carbon footprint. Confused? Don’t be.
It’s as simple as giving up your facial wash for a bar of soap. The old-fashioned bar of soap is oft overlooked or unfairly branded as drying to skin or, perhaps, just not “scientific” enough to tend to our face’s foes – aging, sun damage, blemishes.
Truth is, it’s just as easy to offer up science’s latest marvels in a bar than in a bottle.
What’s more, soap comes a lot less packaging and is lighter…so less GHGs released in shipping.
My fave? Kama soap, which comes in lots of good smells, including Ylang Ylang with Vitamin E. It’s cheap, lasts a long time and my skin feels awesome.

Keep Kitty Out of Houseplants

Our new kitten, Bill, has taken to using my houseplants as his litter box. I’ve taken various bits of advice: cover them with aluminum foil (waste of foil…and none too effective), add in some hot sauce around the edge where he stands (nope, has just decided he’s a spicy kinda kitty).
But…eureka! The answer was lying in a nearby woods.
Pinecones are the perfect deterrent. Uncomfortable to walk on, eco-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
Thanks again Mother Nature!

As owner of a new puppy, along with two new rescue cats…and someone whose elderly dog developed problems following a rabies vaccine, it’s certainly top of mind these days. You can read my original post here.

I asked my friend Helen, who is involved with border collie rescue, natural rearing and is a dedicated researcher of all things dog, to respond further. Here’s what she says:
Veterinary medicine was indeed developed for the protection of humans, not animals, and as rabies is the only deadly disease that both animals and humans can contract, rabies vaccination is mandatory by law. However, studies have shown that a single rabies vaccine provides immunity for life and repeated vaccinations do not increase immunity. Furthermore, animals who receive multiple rabies vaccines are at risk of developing not only potentially serious or even fatal health issues, they can develop dangerous behaviour problems as well. In other words, if animals (particularly dogs) receive multiple rabies shots they can in fact become more dangerous to humans, making the process of repeated vaccinations counterproductive.

Vets are noticing health and behaviour problems arising after the administration rabies vaccines at such an alarming rate that there is now a major research study going on at the University of Wisconsin veterinary school working toward proving that a single rabies vaccine will last at least 7 years (www.therabieschallengefund.org). The hope is to change the law and reduce the risk to our pets, and to ourselves, from over-vaccination. The study is just entering its third year, which is the limit of current laws. Fortunately many regions (including London) are accepting titers (blood tests that demonstrate the presence of anti-bodies) in lieu of vaccines while we wait for the law to be updated.

Raj Patel spoke today on CBC Radio’s The Current about his new book, The Value of Nothing,in which he proposes – and finds ample evidence to support – that our culture of cheap stuff is costing us plenty. Just not at the cash register. He asserts that we are, in fact, paying for the cheap burger at the drive-thru or the great deal on the t-shirt. In some cases, it’s developing countries who are stuck with the cost, in the form of environmental degradation, poverty from low wages and health costs. But in many way, we’re also paying the price. Through our own subsidized health-care costs (from eating crappy food and breathing crappy air) and social assistance from helping support minimum wage workers (think Wal-Mart. Think McDonald’s).

It can’t get much clearer that our present way of doing things – buying up mass quantities of cheap food and cheap stuff – isn’t making us happier or healthier. As Michael Pollan reported on Oprah, it used to be that health care costs were low and food costs were, relatively speaking, high. Now it’s the opposite. So while we don’t pay a lot upfront for food, we certainly pay down the road, in terms of treating illnesses like heart disease and diabetes, which have skyrocketed since the advent of cheap food.

I offer up an easy suggestion in The Virtuous Consumer. When you consider buying something, I proposed, ask yourself a few questions:
•what is the item made from?
•how was it made?
•who made it?
•how far was it transported to me?
•how long – and how often – will I use it?
•and what will I do with it when I’m done?

The answers aren’t readily apparent, but simply asking the questions will alter the way you shop…for the better.

I fell in love with Suki Skincare when I tried their Lemongrass cleanser/exfoliant (I don’t even really use an exfoliant regularly, but the smell was so heavenly and my skin was so baby-like, I was smitten). What’s more, Suki products are void of all those scary ingredients (parabens, phthaltes, SLS, petrolatum, and so on), packaged in easily recycled glass containers, and with care given to the environment through all aspects of production, manufacture and distribution. In other words, a company with a conscience. A clean conscience.

So when I learned recently that Suki Kramer is equally smitten with The Virtuous Consumer…well…it made me giddy. According to Kramer, featured in the August 2009 issue of Body+Soul (incidentally one of my favorite reads), my book is on her bedside table, along with the Eco-Chick Guide to Life and The Green Beauty Guide, two equally awesome books.

I’m thrilled to be in such great company and sharing a vision of a greener future (in which my skin glows, courtesy of Suki’s lemongrass cleanser). Nirvana!

Little girls love jewellery. At least my two girls do. And, well-meaning friends and relatives have kept them well-supplied with bling. But just when we thought the costume jewellery aisles were getting cleaned up – thanks to U.S. legislation restricting lead in jewellery – there’s a new metal showing up in Made In China kids’ products that poses potentially a greater threat to children’s health. Cadmium is a naturally occurring element, appearing in tiny amounts in soil. It’s the amount of cadmium that an investigation by Associated Press found in children’s costume jewellery that has health advocates so alarmed. Indeed, some pieces tested contained 91% cadmium by weight, according to this MSNBC article.

Cadmium builds up for decades in the kidneys, making even small amounts potentially dangerous for growing bodies. It’s also a  known carcinogen. And certainly deserves no place in children’s products.

The products were sold at (surprise, surprise!) Wal-Mart, Claire’s and some dollar stores.

by Fraser Los

I can say with the utmost confidence that some in the media sphere are being hoodwinked by a well organized and well funded attempt to deny what amounts to basic science. If you look to the scientists, and their major associations, they ALL recognize the reality of climate change.

The greenhouse effect (and global warming) is caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and since the industrial revolution, that CO2 concentration has gone from about 260 parts per million to about 387 ppm today. To put that in perspective, scientists have cited 350 ppm as the safe limit of atmospheric CO2 to avoid major warming and possible runaway greenhouse effect – i.e. the planet Venus. This is scary stuff, I’m not going to lie.

Yes, there is plenty of uncertainty in all this – but that is generally about the results of climate change, not the causes. Yes, it is unclear how it will play out on a planetary scale, mainly because it’s complex and unprecedented. But it is not some well-orchestrated fiction created by international scientists, as many in the blogosphere are suggesting.

It’s important to recognize that no major world science organization denies anthropogenic global warming – they ALL recognize it fully – from world meteorological associations to Scientific American to NASA to the Royal Society.

But don’t take my word for it. If you want to decide for yourself, here are two important links:

This is for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is by definition an organization created to determine if there is scientific consensus (they don’t do primary science – they only assess all the science out there being done independently by scientists).

And this is just a really good synopsis of the science of climate change by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is a non-profit put together by many prominent scientists around the world. They offer a good primer on their site, called Global Warming 101, which basically lays all the science behind the issue.

Fraser Los is the editor-in-chief of thegreenpages.ca

I’m often incredulous at the gall shown by corporations attempting to green their image. (And yes, I do sometimes answer to the name “Pollyanna”.)
And, in The Virtuous Consumer, I included a feature dubbed “What they hell were they thinking?” to highlight the stupidity shown by some companies in an effort to dupe consumers. And have a giggle or two at their expense.
But the examples here take greenwashing to the max. Read them…and weep.

My uniform is jeans and t-shirts. Dressed thusly (how often does one get to string those two words together. I think I’m channeling Jane Austen), I feel most like…me. I particularly love t-shirts that say something, whether funny, provocative, clever, pithy. Ideally something that gives people pause to stop and think.
Which is why I love my WWF “Hotter Than I Should Be” collector T. And Revenge Is tees. And greenisblack tees.

Other fave?

When I Grow Up I Will…

Keeping up with the “Greens” is infinitely more exhausting than keeping up with the Jones. Every time I embrace a new eco-principle – buy local! buy fresh! don’t buy at all! – some study comes along to reveal the flaws.
Not too long ago, it was the bamboo bamboozle, in which eco-friendly bamboo was revealed to not be bamboo at all…really it was rayon. My own bamboo clothes weren’t among those cited for violations, but nonetheless they seemed a little less green.

Now it’s local food.

The local food movement seemed beyond reproach. It focussed on the eco-benefits of buying food that was grown closer to home. Surely that’s green.

Not so fast, says The Globe & Mail. However, despite the provocative headline, the article fails to convince me that eating locally isn’t a better (read “greener”) thing to do.

It focuses almost exclusively on fish, a muddy issue in any case. We have debate around farmed versus wild, high on the food chain versus low, mercury contamination, overfishing, methods of fishing… In short, fish can be problematic whether you’re catching Lake Huron trout or ordering halibut at your favorite restaurant.

In other words, the benefits of eating locally don’t necessarily carry over into seafood, which, forgive the pun, is a whole other kettle of fish.

So keep eating locally. Eating anything is going to impact the planet…but eating food grown close to home certainly reduces that impact. And creates a positive economic impact in your community.

Bon appetit.