Posted on August 6th, 2008
By now we've all heard about the health benefits of a diet rich in certain types of fish. You may have also heard about some of the negative health risks associated with certain other types of fish. To add to the confusion, there are a lot of fish in the sea that aren't doing so well, environmentally speaking. Overfishing, pollution, changing sea temperatures and habitat depletion are making it tough for some species of fish to survive and to reproduce. According to the Marine Stewardship Council, 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited, which means that they are being fished at their maximum biological capacity. 24% are over exploited, depleted or recovering ...
Posted on August 5th, 2008
Remember the days when we made fun of bottled water? People used to joke that Evian was “naïve” spelled backwards. Today, bottled water is both the norm and a major ecological problem. It’s estimated that more than 8 billion gallons of bottled water are consumed annually in the US alone. It takes more than 1.5 million barrels of oil (enough to power 100,000 cars for a year) to produce the bottles of which 90% are not recycled. Our landfills are choking on plastic bottles, yet water sales continue to grow. Do your part by drinking tap water, either fresh from the faucet or by purchasing a water filtration system for your sink or ...
Posted on August 4th, 2008
Sometimes the smallest culprit can cause the biggest damage: a tiny termite can ravage your home, a small mole could indicate skin cancer and a leaky faucet could be wasting up to 2,700 gallons of water each year. A fast drip from a faucet wastes about 265 gallons a day (that’s about 37 toilet flushes or 5 loads of laundry), and could cost you an extra $50 a month! Not sure if you have a leak? The EPA suggests reading your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, you probably have a leak. Call a plumber to ...
Posted on August 3rd, 2008
Not only is dumping food oils down the drain hard on your plumbing and water treatment plants, it also has a harmful impact on the environment. Oils form a film on water that interferes with the functioning of water treatment plants by suffocating the bacteria that remove pollution.
Simple DOs and DON'Ts:
DO NOT dump cooking oil, poultry fat and grease into the kitchen sink or the toilet bowl.
DO NOT use hot water and soap to wash grease down the drain, because it will cool and harden in your pipes or in the sewer down the line.
Posted on August 2nd, 2008
According to research, a load of dishes cleaned in a dishwasher requires 37 percent less water than washing dishes by hand. However, if you fill the wash and rinse basins instead of letting the water run, you'll use half as much water as a dishwasher.
If you opt to use the dishwasher, wash full loads only. Scrape don't rinse dishes before loading the dishwasher. Pre-rinsing can use up to 20 gallons of water. If you must rinse your dishes before loading them, use only cold water so you're not running up your energy bill by heating water unnecessarily.
Use the energy-saving cycles whenever possible. Dishwashers that feature air power or overnight dry settings can save up to 10 percent ...
Posted on August 1st, 2008
Summer is a wonderful time to buy locally and eat seasonally. While we’ve never met any produce we didn’t like, all that washing and rinsing is an annoying, yet necessary, evil. Did you know that 7-12 litres of water is used for every minute you run your tap? The next time you schlep home some of nature’s finest, try minimizing your water consumption during the rinse cycle. Fill a large bowl with cold water and use that, not a running faucet, to scrub your spuds.
Posted on July 29th, 2008
What’s that? Carbon offsets can be tax-deductible? Really??? Yes, really! Check out
Carbonfund, a registered 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization. For every contribution you make to offset your carbon footprint, you’ll receive a tax receipt, so what’s good for the environment is also very good for your pocketbook at the end of the year.
For individuals, Carbonfund offers offsets for flights, your car, your home, and even your wedding! Carbonfund also offers offsets for businesses and organizations, allowing your work’s shipping, events, and operations to all be offset as well.
And they also let you select how you’d like your offset to help the planet: you can choose from ...
Posted on July 27th, 2008
Cooking too much for dinner is a great way to have lunch for work the next day. Before putting leftover food in the fridge, make sure its had time to cool down. While you never want to leave perishable food unrefridgerated for more than an hour, letting your dinner chill out for a sec will prevent the hot food from raising the internal temperature of your fridge. A warmer temperature means more energy used to cool back down, and can also affect the integrity of other foods in the fridge. Bringing your lunch to school or work will save you money, and keeping your refrigerator functioning properly will too.
Posted on July 26th, 2008
Is your home hotter than you-know-where? Keeping your AC off will help the environment and your energy bill, but sweating buckets isn't any fun. So... Eat something spicy! Have you ever noticed that the spiciest foods come from some of the warmest places? Spicy food may make you feel hot, but it can actually help keep you cool. Chiles contain a sweat-inducing chemical compound called capsaicin. When you sweat, your body is cooling itself down and when that sweat evaporates, you get a natural feeling of relief. As if you needed another excuse to order Thai food for dinner tonight…
Posted on July 25th, 2008
It's easy to want to grab the packet of Splenda in a pinch, but the sweet substitutions that are common to your coffee are typically made up of pure chemicals (some that have been debated-but-linked with cancer in laboratory animals!). And these chemicals are also typically packed in paper pouches, we might add.
One greener sugar option is raw "turbinado sugar" which is made from evaporated cane juice. This sugar stays brown in color as it skips the bleaching process, and therefore doesn't require the use of bone char, used to whiten types of refined sugars. Ready to green your sweetening, but counting calories? The guilt of the 15-calories-per-teaspoon that real raw sugar has shouldn't ...
