I want to bring to our readers’ attention that I have written a post for the Huffington Post about Chicago’s City Council passing a “Green Food Resolution”. As a writer and someone who cares about the environment, this is big milestone for me.

My first column on HuffPo focuses on not only Chicago’s resolution regarding a healthier, more sustainable food system, but also the impact they can have on other cities and the momentum of the food movement:

Competition among large cities to be the first in a given green technology, green roofs or greenest overall city raises the bar for others to improve their relative sustainability. This resolution is a great example of thinking globally and acting locally: as Chicagoans make healthier, more sustainable food choices, the impact can be huge as other cities follow suit and the movement toward sustainable eating grows.

What does Chicago’s Green Food Resolution say? Both its text and its very presence say a lot. The growth of the food movement is exemplified by the fact that local officials are not only discussing, but also have gone so far as to acknowledge in a resolution that the manner in which our food is produced affects both our health and the sustainability of the planet.

Of course, I’ll continue writing on Earthascope regularly, but the opportunity to write for The Huffington Post is a great one that will allow me to reach a greater audience.  I plan to continue writing there about environmentally-related stories in Chicago. 

Check out my piece on The Huffington Post!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in order to gradually green their lives.

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Check out these finds! Vollrath pot: $3.90, Revere Ware Pot and Steamer basket: $3.90, sifter: $0.45

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to begin shopping at secondhand stores.

I know, you may have a bias against buying something secondhand.  The fact that someone else was using it can make some of us squeamish, but pretty much anything you buy from a thrift store can be washed, whether clothing or homewares, and how many of us have bougth items at yardsales?  Or tried on a pair of jeans at a store which potentially many other people had tried on?  

The point is, squeamishness can be put aside.  I love to cook and many of us are rediscovering the value of knowing how to cook and cook well, both as a societal/cultural change, and one made to help us to eat locally grown, fresh foods.  I will focus on the cooking/serving items I have bought secondhand.

We can help close the loop on materials through reusing items before sending them off for recycling of their raw materials.  By closing that gap, you can find some deals and improve your envirohuman impact!

What items in my kitchen are secondhand?  Actually, the shorter list for me would be that which is not secondhand.  Most of my lot, my preparation and eating utensils, my mixing bowls, pots, pans, and measuring cups, were bought at different secondhand stores.  And most of it was in great condition — usually with something cooked on that had to be scrubbed away.  But you sometimes will find almost new, some stuff still with the tags left on them!  You would not know my stuff is secondhand items were not bought new — most of them are glass or stainless steel and have been scrubbed back to a like-new shine.

Ever notice the warning labels on paints contains such statements as, “known to the State of California to cause cancer in humans,” and the extra “California” section on your water filter instructions?  It seems California does a pretty good job of researching chemicals and putting regulations into place to protect their citizens.  

Manufacturers, not wanting to miss out on the huge California population, will usually bend to these rules, even if it means listing something as carcinogenic on the label, if they get to continue selling their products in California.  The rest of us reap the rewards!

According to The Daily Green, 30 more chemicals were just listed by the State of California to be toxic in one or more ways.  Check ‘em out – In the words of The Daily Green

Male Reproductive Toxicants

1. n-Butyl glycidyl ether, a chemical used to make epoxy resins with a number of uses in common products
2. Carbaryl, a household pesticide used to kill a range of insects, and sold as Sevin by GardenTech and Bayer (also a developmental toxicant)
3. 2-Chloropropionic acid, a chemical used to make herbicides
4. Dichloroacetic acid, which forms in drinking water as a byproduct of disinfection using chlorine
5. Diglycidyl ether, a chemical used to make epoxy resins
6. Ethylene oxide, a chemical mainly used in the manufacturing of chemicals like antifreeze and polyester (also a developmental toxicant)
7. Ethyl-tert-butyl ether, a common gasoline additive
8. Methyl chloride, a chemical used primarily to make silicone polymers, but also used in other processes, including the oil refining
9. Methyl n-butyl ketone, an industrial solvent
10. Phenyl glycidyl ether, an industrial chemical

Do you think that colleges and universities will be more or less inclined to green their facilities in the wake of the recession?  

I was reading about different ways colleges are trying to reduce their costs of operations and turned up some greener options being taken on, mostly as a way to save money.  According to this New York Times story by Tamar Lewin, the savings are in some ways favoring the environment as well.

Here are a few highlights:

Most widespread, most proudly announced — and, it seems, most likely to have nicknames — are cost-cutting programs that help sustainability. Hundreds of colleges and universities are turning down their thermostats to save on heating, in programs like “Chill-Out” at Davidson College in North Carolina.

And:

Cafeterias, too, are saving money, cutting food waste and reducing hot-water and detergent costs by eliminating trays. When Whittier began “Trayless Tuesdays” last fall, lunchtime food waste dropped to 4.6 ounces per student from 7.4 ounces — and the college saved almost $30,000 a semester after going fully trayless in the spring.

Last week, the New York Times published Neighbor, Can You Spare a Plum? by Kim Severson that detailed the growth of foraging for fruit.  

In Royal Oak, Mich., a woman investigated how to start a fruit exchange modeled after Fallen Fruit (fallenfruit.org), an arts group that designs maps of accessible fruit growing in Los Angeles neighborhoods.

In Alaska, cooks used Facebook to find willing donors of backyard rhubarb, the first dessert crop that grows after the long winter. In Columbia, S.C., university students pulled spare peaches from orchards and donated them to a local food bank.

Supporters of this movement hold two basic principles. One, it’s a shame to let fruit go to waste. And two, neighborhood fruit tastes best when it’s free.

Wow, so people taking advantage of the wealth of fruit trees and bushes in people’s yards.  Sounds great, but pickers should be aware that asking first is the best policy:

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in order to gradually green their lives.

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to get and use a library card (or use the one you already have). Get in this habit rather than first buying and then seeing if you like the book. If you like it enough that you really want to own it, after checking it out of the library, then go purchase it!

How is a library card making my life greener? You may have already picked up on it! I want to read a book and instead of buying it, essentially spending money and creating demand for the production of a book made from paper and shipped to a store. Most of my books, once I’ve read them (provided that I actually read them entirely), end up sitting on the shelf, maybe not being picked up again until the bookshelves or I need to move.  I have occasionally sold them on Amazon, passing them on to someone else, but there’s a cheaper, greener way to do this process.

I’ll probably be adding more posts like yesterday’s and today’s which include video highlights of lectures and speeches from fora.tv.

Here’s Bill McKibben talking about the urgency, the emergency status of global warming. He discusses feedback loops and the point at which we may not be able to do anything about global warming.

I was checking out fora.tv today and found this video.  Check it out!  He talks about living in Colorado using a very efficient, well-insulated home, recycling the heat from water, etc.

Eco Kettle

The kitchen is a pretty important part of the home when it comes to using energy, since you’re using electricity for appliances as well as gas or electricity for your cooker and oven. You’re also using water for cleaning your dishes, as well as generating lots of food waste from vegetable peelings, etc. Well here are a selection of eco-friendly kitchen gadgets to make your home that little bit greener!

Do you love your cups of tea or coffee? Well the eco kettle is designed to make it as easy as possible for you to only boil the water you need. Using a special chamber of water, you release the water you need into the main kettle compartment to boil it. On average, people boils twice as much water compared to what they actually need, so this simple kettle should save energy pretty quickly!

Indoor Composter

If you live in a city apartment but you still want to compost your food waste, then an indoor composter could be for you! Using heat, airflow and moisture, food waste is broken down quickly and without nasty odours. Sure the composter does use electricity, but it only uses around 5kWh a month, which will cost you around a dollar or two each month. A great bonus is that the composter reduces methane emissions, due to the aerobic decomposition of the food waste. That means you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions too.

Think again!  Check out this video!  Found here.

It seems that in the upcoming Wiwa v. Shell trial, the judge had Wiwa remove the video from its website. Don’t let this short documentary about murder and human rights abuses be silenced. Please share it on blogs, Facebook, and other places!

Here on Earthascope, when we talk about dirty sources of fuel, we’re usually talking about the environmental impact, which in turn, is having, and increasingly will, impact humans.

In this case, Shell’s drilling of oil directly and dramatically impacted a people, environmental impact aside.