Jason Chatraw
Blog
How Green Do You Cook? Jul 7, 2008
... And we aren't necessarily talking about just veggies
The day I decided to propose to my wife was the day I also realized one of my guilty pleasures was going to die a painful death--and a swift one, at that. Marrying a woman in pursuit of her PhD... more
Rethinking Laundry Jul 4, 2008
Book shows eco-friendly tips with your laundry
When you're poor and live in the country, summers are filled with the endless chore of hanging clothes with clothespins on the line outside and retrieving them hours later. The monotony of such a task was broken only by the... more
How to Save Water ... and Money Jun 30, 2008
Tips to Keep Your Money fom Going Down the Drain
In our house when I was growing up, The Cosby Show was must-see TV on Thursday nights before NBC's marketing execs ever dreamed up that tag line. It's where I learned such great life-long lessons like how to hold a... more
Go Green ... and Get Rich Trying Jun 24, 2008
Bach's New Book Offers Tips for Saving the Earth ... and Your Wallet
One morning as I opened a kitchen cabinet door, four water bottles came tumbling out onto the floor. If I was on the TV show Heroes, my talent would be collecting water bottles, ensuring that no one on our superhero... more
Natural Pet Remedies Jun 20, 2008
How to help your pet get healthy ... naturally and organically
OK, I know it's not apropos to talk about such things as diarrheal pet problems over lunch, but it's something every pet owner has dealt with on more than one occassion. Not only are you suddenly on your hands and... more
Cooking for Your Furry Friends Jun 18, 2008
How to keep your pets healthy through a natural, organic diet
While I enjoy feasting on a gourmet meal as much as anyone, my days aren't just brimming with the extra minutes necessary to prepare such a dinner. For many of us with our fast-paced lifestyle, having time to microwave a... more
Green for Life Jun 13, 2008
Book examines healthy benefits of eating raw food
I knew marrying a woman who was pursuing her PhD in the nutrition field spelled trouble for my late-night Waffle House runs. Nevertheless, I wisely overruled that notion emerging from my stomach and married her anyway. While I have learned... more
How to Recycle and Reuse Your Stuff ... and Save Money Jun 10, 2008
Don't Throw It Out!
I was at the park with my daughter along with my neighbor and her two kids. While the kids were sliding and swinging on the playground, my neighbor was telling me about how she's saving time cooking by making dishes... more
Natural Pet Care: Cleansing Your Pet Jun 6, 2008
Can Fasting Cure Canine Ailments?
I remember watching a cat hack up a fur ball for the first time. I was over at a friend's house who had cats (we were a dog family) and he said if we watched his cat long enough we... more
How to Raise Green Babies Jun 3, 2008
Ways to Launch Your Child on the Green Path from Birth
My wife left a frantic voicemail on my cell phone this week. "Where are you?" she droned, turning a three-syllable sentence into a six-syllable sentence. It was a pertinent question considering the circumstances. My wife's belly is burgeoning with our... more
A Canadian company, Naturally Nova Scotia, makes supplements from foods instead of synthetics. The have vitamin C from fruit, herbal tinctures, green drinks, vitamin D3, and others.
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shehanaaz
Supplements from Foods
Click on the link below to get more on cooking Green food and other health stories, tips & tricks and Recipies.
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vikbaba
Cooking-Cooking
Great post on Van and 'Green Collar Economy.' I wanted to pass along a link that allows you to read an excerpt of the book online for free! It is a great resource. You can just copy and paste the URL below:
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspxisbn13=9780061650758&wt....
Thanks,
Laura Ortberg
Asst. Publicist, HarperOne
We had a home energy audit on our home last fall and are very glad we did. It took around 2 hours and the report we received contained easy to understand charts, graphs, our house's EnerGuide rating, a comparative EnerGuide rating for similar homes, numerous home energy conservation tips and several recommendations specific to our home. Nice to know we have sufficient attic insulation, for example.
We have written about the report we received if others are interested on the ECOENERGY page of our home web site, including all of the above.
Dan
DailyHomeRenoTips.com
Last Child in the Woods ––
Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,
by Richard Louv
Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D.
November 16, 2006
In this eloquent and comprehensive work, Louv makes a convincing case for ensuring that children (and adults) maintain access to pristine natural areas, and even, when those are not available, any bit of nature that we can preserve, such as vacant lots. I agree with him 100%. Just as we never really outgrow our need for our parents (and grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.), humanity has never outgrown, and can never outgrow, our need for the companionship and mutual benefits of other species.
But what strikes me most about this book is how Louv is able, in spite of 310 pages of text, to completely ignore the two most obvious problems with his thesis: (1) We want and need to have contact with other species, but neither we nor Louv bother to ask whether they want to have contact with us! In fact, most species of wildlife obviously do not like having humans around, and can thrive only if we leave them alone! Or they are able tolerate our presence, but only within certain limits. (2) We and Louv never ask what type of contact is appropriate! He includes fishing, hunting, building "forts", farming, ranching, and all other manner of recreation. Clearly, not all contact with nature leads to someone becoming an advocate and protector of wildlife. While one kid may see a beautiful area and decide to protect it, what's to stop another from seeing it and thinking of it as a great place to build a house or create a ski resort? Developers and industrialists must come from somewhere, and they no doubt played in the woods with the future environmentalists!
It is obvious, and not a particularly new idea, that we must experience wilderness in order to appreciate it. But it is equally true, though ("conveniently") never mentioned, that we need to stay out of nature, if the wildlife that live there are to survive. I discuss this issue thoroughly in the essay, "Wildlife Need Habitat Off-Limits to Humans!", at http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/india3.
It should also be obvious (but apparently isn't) that how we interact with nature determines how we think about it and how we learn to treat it. Remember, children don't learn so much what we tell them, but they learn very well what they see us do. Fishing, building "forts", mountain biking, and even berry-picking teach us that nature exists for us to exploit. Luckily, my fort-building career was cut short by a bee-sting! As I was about to cut down a tree to lay a third layer of logs on my little log cabin in the woods, I took one swing at the trunk with my axe, and immediately got a painful sting (there must have been a bee-hive in the tree) and ran away as fast as I could.
On page 144 Louv quotes Rasheed Salahuddin: "Nature has been taken over by thugs who care absolutely nothing about it. We need to take nature back." Then he titles his next chapter "Where Will Future Stewards of Nature Come From?" Where indeed? While fishing may bring one into contact with natural beauty, that message can be eclipsed by the more salient one that the fish exist to pleasure and feed humans (even if we release them after we catch them). (My fishing career was also short-lived, perhaps because I spent most of the time either waiting for fish that never came, or untangling fishing line.) Mountain bikers claim that they are "nature-lovers" and are "just hikers on wheels". But if you watch one of their helmet-camera videos, it is easy to see that 99.44% of their attention must be devoted to controlling their bike, or they will crash. Children initiated into mountain biking may learn to identify a plant or two, but by far the strongest message they will receive is that the rough treatment of nature is acceptable. It's not!
On page 184 Louv recommends that kids carry cell phones. First of all, cell phones transmit on essentially the same frequency as a microwave oven, and are therefore hazardous to one's health –- especially for children, whose skulls are still relatively thin. Second, there is nothing that will spoil one's experience of nature faster than something that reminds one of the city and the "civilized" world. The last thing one wants while enjoying nature is to be reminded of the world outside. Nothing will ruin a hike or a picnic faster than hearing a radio or the ring of a cell phone, or seeing a headset, cell phone, or mountain bike. I've been enjoying nature for over 60 years, and can't remember a single time when I felt a need for any of these items.
It's clear that we humans need to reduce our impacts on wildlife, if they, and hence we, are to survive. But it is repugnant and arguably inhumane to restrict human access to nature. Therefore, we need to practice minimal-impact recreation (i.e., hiking only), and leave our technology (if we need it at all!) at home. In other words, we need to decrease the quantity of contact with nature, and increase the quality.
References:
Ehrlich, Paul R. and Ehrlich, Anne H., Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearances of Species. New York: Random House, 1981.
Errington, Paul L., A Question of Values. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1987.
Flannery, Tim, The Eternal Frontier -- An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples. New York: Grove Press, 2001.
Foreman, Dave, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.
Knight, Richard L. and Kevin J. Gutzwiller, eds. Wildlife and Recreationists. Covelo, California: Island Press, 1995.
Louv, Richard, Last Child in the Woods -- Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005.
Noss, Reed F. and Allen Y. Cooperrider, Saving Nature's Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity. Island Press, Covelo, California, 1994.
Stone, Christopher D., Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1973.
Vandeman, Michael J., http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande, especially http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/ecocity3, http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/india3, http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/sc8, and http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/goodall.
Ward, Peter Douglas, The End of Evolution: On Mass Extinctions and the Preservation of Biodiversity. New York: Bantam Books, 1994.
"The Wildlands Project", Wild Earth. Richmond, Vermont: The Cenozoic Society, 1994.
Wilson, Edward O., The Future of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.