Go Green

Just a quick tidbit today about one of the most unusual green efforts I’ve ever heard of.

Harrison Ford - who, of course, is coming out with the new Indiana Jones movie very soon - wanted to show the world how terrible the deforestation is and bring it back to the public’s attention. To do so, he decided to do something so very odd to encourage people to think about the pain and effects of the millions of trees cut down yearly.

He got his chest waxed.

Supposedly, this brings home the point of the deep pain and nakedness left by removing trees from their habitats.

Waxing is painful, no doubt, but he’s a real manly man so handled it quite well, apparently!

I’m not sure if this was very misguided or very genius - knowing it would set the blogging world on fire with comments about it.

Well, it got our attention, so it must have worked somewhat!

- Linds

Ever wondered, where would get earth friendly furniture polish, vegan shoes or fair trade chocolate? Well wonder no more. The Find Green Web site is a search engine for the environmental consumer. It links users to all the products they want to find, compares prices and gives you other valuable information about all kinds of products. Search bath tissue and you’ll be provided a whole list of options. Click your favorite and you can buy it from that outlet. If you like Seventh Generation bath tissue to be specific search here, and it will give you the opportunity to see what all the various purveorys of Seventh Generation bath tissue are charging. Maybe this week amazon.com has a sale or you can buy bulk from gaiam.com for cheaper. See for yourself at www.thefindgreen.com

- Lindsey

USA Today has a great interactive map showing how gardening conditions are changing across the country as the planet warms.

You’ll notice that southern Oklahoma is now seeing conditions similar to those in mid-Texas in 1990.

A story with the graphic says the standard growing zone map that gardeners often use is 18 years old.

Typically, Oklahoma gardeners are told to plant after April 15.

John David Sutter
Environment Reporter

jsutter@oklahoman.com 

Time magazine puts together a good list of environment-related news sites. There are only 10, so your bookmarks tab won’t overflow. Some, like Grist, give great context to environmental issues of the day.

Check them out.

Also know that you can bookmark this site and subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed.

John David Sutter
Environment Reporter

jsutter@oklahoman.com

Want to know what it’s like to live or work in the arctic — but you don’t have the budget or you’re worried the ice will melt before you get there?

Get a feel for it just by going to Norman tonight.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hosting “Stories from a Changing Planet,” a multi-media presentation about the thousand-year-old ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. There, you’ll hear from ice researchers, geologists, oceanographers, climate scientists, biologists and Arctic residents.

The program starts at 7 p.m. today (April 22).

The experts are on a national tour with stops at science centers and museums around the country.

For more information, visit the museum’s Web site. There are also opportunities for teachers.

John David Sutter
Environment Reporter

jsutter@oklahoman.com

Today is Earth Day!

And what a gloomy day it is!  Completely overcast, raining, humid. It’s the kind of day that makes you change your desktop background to one of those gorgeous beach scenes with palm trees, soft, sandy beaches and blue skies. Sometimes I just sit at my desk and watch the screen saver change from one utopian scene to the next. Productive, I know.

But, if you’re lucky, you’ll be taking a summer vacation soon! And before you head off to paradise, be sure to pack your green sunscreen! I’m not referring to the green-colored zinc sunscreen that graces the noses of so many tourists in the tropics. I’m talking about eco-friendly sunscreens.

 Traditional sunscreens contain chemical UV filters, preservatives and sometimes coloring or scents that can wash off in the water and contaminate pools, oceans, lakes and streams. Some of those chemicals can even survive sewage treatment processes and are released back into the environment.

Researchers at the Polytechnic University in Marche, Italy conducted a study on how sunscreen affects coral reefs in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. The researchers estimate that 4 to 6,000 metric tons of sunscreen washes off swimmers annually worldwide. The study concludes that even low levels of sunscreen chemicals could promote viral infections that can completely bleach coral in just four days.

Certain eco-parks in Mexico have already banned the use of sun-tan lotions and sunscreens with oils and chemical ingredients because they “damage marine flora and kill fish.”

Eco-friendly sunscreens like MelanSol, an all-natural, antioxidant-rich sunscreen, care chemical free and still provide great protection from UV rays.  Check out http://www.PureSunscreen.com for a complete list of ingredients. Other green sunscreen products can be found at www.pristineplanet.com.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to hit the beach. Until then, maybe I’ll put on some of this green sunscreen, just in case. I mean, the fluorescent lights in here are pretty strong, and this screen saver seems to really be doing the trick.

 Lisa

A cool book recently crossed my desk, “True Green @ Work: 100 way you can make the environment your business.” (National Geographic Books, $19.95). It outlines in quick tidbits of information simple steps you can take as an employee or employer to help the environment. Here are a few:

1. Turn off your computer. That box of information sucks up nearly 1,000 kilowatts of electricity, which results in more than two tons of carbon emissions each year if left to hum in the dark all night. If you shut down every night before you head for home, you can cut that down to less than 250 kilowatts each year.

2. Get a plant. An indoor plant works like a natural air filter. They absorb pollutants and computer radiation and turn all that carbon dioxide you breath out in the form of hot air back into sweet oxygen. They also cool the air through a process called transpiration and can possibly protect you from germs. Research suggests that a plant can reduce incidences of fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses. And if that was not enough, plants are noted as having a stress-reducing effect. So buy a fern and relax.

3. Bring your own cup. Stop using the company’s Styrofoam cups and bring your own coffee mug. It is not only environment, but gives you the opportunity to show off your personality a little. Using your own mug can reduce your coffee-related waste 30 times over what you’d toss using paper products, which translates to 60 times less air pollution.
- Lindsey

One of the commendable efforts consumers have made in the name of living green has been to switch to natural or organic cleaning products. With Earth Day today, perhaps even more consumers will make the switch. And it’s a good move. If we can avoid washing nasty chemicals down the drain, why not? But here’s a heads-up: All those cleaning products that claim to be “organic” or “natural” might not be all they’re cracked up to be.

A recent study by the Organic Consumers Association (a news report on the study can be found here shows that as many as 50 percent of products tested contained a detectable level of the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane. Some of the more well-known offending brands include Method and Seventh Generation. Officials with Method said they never claimed to have organic or natural products, just that their products are “naturally derived.” Fantastic bit of spin there. If you’re wondering, some of the worst products tested were body washes and dish soaps.

Many brands, including Clorox’s new Green Works line, had no detectable amount of 1,4-dioxane, which has been known to cause cancer in lab animals. A listing of all the products tested is available here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/DioxaneResults08.cfm.

- Nick

There’s big bisphenol A news coming out of Canada this week.

What is bisphenol A, you might ask, and why should we care what Canada has to say about it? Would you be more interested if I told you that bisphenol A is a harmful chemical that is almost assuredly in the systems of babies all over this country?

Bisphenol A, also referred to as BPA, is a chemical commonly found in food and drink packaging, including in cans of baby formula and even in baby bottles. At higher temperatures (read: those used when heating a baby bottle) the chemical is leached into a bottle’s contents (read: milk or formula). The chemical has been linked to early puberty in girls and prostate and breast cancer.

So where does Canada come in? According to newspaper reports from our northern neighbors, the Canadian health ministry is ready to declare BPA a dangerous substance. It would be the first example of a country making such a declaration.

Pressure is mounting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take similar action. A recent study by the National Toxicology Program, a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, asks that the FDA “reconsider its view that the chemical bisphenol A is safe in products for use by infants and children,” according to news reports.

The National Toxicology Program’s study said: “There is some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures.”

The American Chemistry Council has weighed in with its spin, saying the NTP study confirms human exposure to BPA is extremely low and that there is no direct evidence that exposure adversely affects development in humans.

Doesn’t sound like a convincing argument that BPA is indeed not dangerous in any way. Really people, try any dangerous chemical you want, just make sure your exposure is extremely low and you’ll be all right. No thanks.

See the news report on the National Toxicology Program study here.

If you’re interested in safe baby bottles, you can go with glass or look for plastic bottles that specifically say they are BPA-free.

Also, see this NewsOK.com article: Nalgene to nix BPA bottles due to consumer concern

- Nick.

That is not a new challenge or bit of advice. Bringing your own lunch can save money and calories. Or it is supposed to anyway. But only if you compare that to eating out.

If you are buying prepackaged microwaveable or sandwich-kit lunches you may be doing neither and moreover you’re not making a healthy choice for Mother Nature.

Now this isn’t a scientific research study, just my guestimation. So you’re going to have to give me a bit of a break. But let’s think this over. I can make a sandwich with slices of lunch meat, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onion or whatever floats my boat tucked between two pieces of whole wheat bread. Toss it in a reusable container and I’ve got a nice healthy meal containing servings of fresh vegetables, dairy, fiber, etc. It’s filling and full of flavor. Call me Joey Tribbiani, but I love a good sandwich.

Now if you go this route, you’ve created no extra waste and you can even get bonus points if you’ve bought any of the ingredients from local food producers. It is possible to find bread, ham, cheese and veggies locally. You can pronounce and recognize the ingredients in your lunch. You have done something good for your body and the Earth. All this at a very low price.

Or you can buy a prepackaged microwaveable or sandwich-kit-type lunch, which are good and convenient and possibly good for you, too. I’m not a nutritionist so I have no idea about the specific nutritional benefits of any of these meals. But I do know that I like to eat, and lean and healthy cuisine choices leave a lot to be desired. I’ve never been one to fill my body with calories just because I need to. And have a strict rule that a meal should be enjoyed, not endured. But that is beside the point. Let’s examine the environmental implications of these.

Most microwaveable meals come in a plastic tray covered with cellophane wrap packaged inside of a cardboard box. That’s the simple kind. There are those new steamer entrees with all of the above plus an additional plastic strainer.

My favorite though is the sandwich kit. Inside of a cardboard box, there are three or four items individually wrapped in plastic, a cup of Jell-O sometimes, a plastic fork and napkin again wrapped in plastic and a condiment pouch.

These convenience lunches are trucked to your local megamarket from Northfield, Ill., and get additional checkmarks by their name for not supporting local food producers.

Now that being said, I’m a total fan of South Beach’s grilled chicken Caesar wrap and I dig the Southwestern-style chicken wrap. And being a wife and mother of two little ones with a full time job and a laundry list of extracurriculars, there have been days that I might not have eaten at all if it weren’t for meals wrapped in cardboard, because sometimes there isn’t even enough time to whip up a sandwich.

But sandwich fixings can be had for about $10 and that will get you through a week or maybe longer, with minimal addition to our local landfills and possibly helping out a local family and economy through the support of local foods. Now, for that same price you get only two to four days of cardboard lunches.

So I challenge you to a sandwich. Let’s encourage frozen lunch- and sandwich-kit outfits to incorporate less-is-more into their packaging philosophies. Write notes to your favorite lunch company and tell them how you feel. Another suggestion while we’re at it: change out that Jell-O for some chocolate pudding. That couldn’t hurt either.

— Lindsey