Jason Chatraw
Blog
Five Tips for Greening Your Pets Jun 2, 2008
Natural Ideas to Keep your Pet Healthy and Safe
I recently read a story about a Boulder woman who sought to bring awareness to breast cancer by "staining" her poodle pink. While many Colorodans are enviro-savvy, especially in Boulder, this story seemed out of character for a state that... more
Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does All that Trash Go? May 27, 2008
How You Can Keep Garbage from Going to the Wrong Place
My dad and I talk about recycling more than two people probably should. There's the "Hey, dad. How are you?" part of the conversation. Then at least once a week, we talk about recycling. I'm quite certain my dad thinks... more
Save Your Child from Nature Deficit Disorder May 23, 2008
Let Children Find Wonder in the Woods
Each spring growing up in the south, my brother and I raced to build another insurmountable fort to keep the girls out. While many kids I knew built forts, ours was not a treehouse built by dad; it was a... more
What's in a Name? May 20, 2008
Book revisiting Love Canal eco-disaster sheds light on historical impact
I don't remember the Love Canal fiasco that occurred in Niagara Falls, N.Y., in 1978, but the horror of this eco-disaster is just as gripping 30 years later to me as it surely was for the people who lived through... more
50 Simple Things You Can to Save the Earth-- Updated May 16, 2008
Saving the World is Easy as Long as It's Simple
It's the hard part of being green that makes you really feel like you're making a difference. For example, my wife and I recently decided disposable diapers really weren't that disposable and made the transition to cloth diapers from Bum... more
Farewell My Subaru -- Living off the Land May 13, 2008
One Man Leaves the City -- and Leaves a Smaller Footprint
At 23, Cleveland Cavaliers' superstar LeBron James can't even escape his mother's shadow, as he endured the embarrassment of having dear ole mom defend her son's honor courtside after a hard foul against the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. But... more
Top 5 Green Books for Your Mother on Mother's Day May 7, 2008
Plus 5 Green Yo Momma Jokes -- Free -- Exactly What They're Worth!
"Yo momma" jokes were always a sure-fire way to get you amped up and defending your mother. They would compel you to defend her honor even if you had decided you were never speaking to her again after the big... more
Wide-Eyed Wonder May 6, 2008
Kingsolver harvests rich insights in latest book
Barbara Kingsolver's works of fiction do much to inspire the reader's imagination and provoke contemplative thought regarding heady subject matters. She makes you feel deeply and seeks to help you understand the protagonist's plight in each story. In her book... more
New Book Explores the Key to Sustainable Living May 2, 2008
There Is Hope Among the Dire Warnings
Chicken Little and his cohorts in mass hysteria earned the attention of other animals because they were the only ones predicting the sky was falling. There used to just be Al Gore and a couple of scientists telling anyone who... more
Always Have a Backup Plan Apr 30, 2008
Brown draws up a winner on environmental issues
While the No Impact Man knows how to shrink your green ego in a hurry, his ideas regarding refrigeration of food intrigued me. Using some primitive "technology" from Nigeria, he cools his food with giant pots, sand, and water. I... 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.