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Entries Tagged as 'Environment'

No Impact Man

May 4th, 2009 No Comments

No Impact Man is a gold mine of information on how to make realistic adjustments toward sustainability in your lifestyle. Colin Beavan began his blog in February of 2007 to chronicle his family’s efforts to adjust their lifestyle so they would have no net impact on the environment. Since then, in addition to the blog, which continues with frequent practical articles that will help you to live more sustainably, Beavan has created a a soon-to-be-released book, a film, and an action-packed online community website.

Here’s how  Beavan described No Impact Man when he began the project:

No Impact Man is my experiment with researching, developing and adopting a way of life for me and my little family—one wife, one toddler, one dog—to live in the heart of New York City while causing no net environmental impact. To do this, we will decrease the things we do that hurt the earth—make trash, cause carbon dioxide emissions, for example—and increase the things we do that help the earth—clean up the banks of the Hudson River, give money to charity, rescue sea birds, say.

In mathematical terms, in case you are an engineer or just a geek who likes math, we are trying to achieve an equilibrium that looks something like this:

Negative Impact + Positive Impact = Zero.

No net impact. Get it?

Beavan and his family completed their one year experiment and decided to continue their no-impact lifestyle. His blog shares the whole process with a lively community of readers and includes articles like “42 Ways Not To Make Trash”, “The No Impact Sustainable Eating Plan” and “Doing Stuff Instead of Watching Stuff”. If you’re unsure about where or how to take further steps toward sustainability in your own lifestyle, No Impact Man will give you plenty of ideas to consider and lots of encouragement along the way.

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Ready To Do Your Part?

April 30th, 2009 4 Comments

With so many problems in the world today, and so much crisis in the news, doing our parts to make things better can seem overwhelming. It’s hard to know what to do, where to begin, and what matters most. Sometimes, adding one more task, like recycling or packing our own lunch, to our overfilled lives seems like one task too many. And when it comes to making our communities better, with our busy schedules and the multitude of causes requesting our time and resources, it’s hard to imagine how and where we should contribute. The choices are confusing and change is hard. Often we begin with good intentions, but find ourselves giving up.

If this is how you feel, then a neat little website I just discovered might be just right for you. It’s called I’m Doing My Part and it’s simple, helpful, encouraging and full of doable ideas and a strategy for incorporating them into your life that just might work.

I’m Doing My Part allows you to take action in four different areas: water, energy, waste, and, interestingly, happiness. Each action area is introduced with some simple and inspirational “facts”, then opens into a list of actions you can take in that area. Actions are divided into “first steps” and “moderate” actions. Click on an action and you’ll see a brief explanation of that action’s impact, details about how to do it, further reading, videos and other resources to help you succeed.

The strategy of I’m Doing My Part is to add one or two simple tasks at a time and do them until they becomes part of your routine. Once you’re doing those tasks, add them to your profile and I’m Doing My Part gives you positive feedback and an opportunity to share your actions on Facebook or Twitter. So not only does it help and encourage you to do good but it helps you spread the goodness!

I’m Doing My Part also includes a cool real-time Social Actions map that tracks volunteer social action activities and opportunities around the world and a blog aggregator that will connect you with news from sources like Change.org, InvisiblePeople.tv, and Refugees International.

Ready to do your part? Click here, and I’m Doing My Part will help you get started.

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Earth Day Goodies

April 22nd, 2009 No Comments

Here are a few goodies to help you celebrate Earth Day:

How about starting out with a little history of Earth Day?

Then, check out Top Ten Earth Day Campaigns You Can’t Miss at TakePart˚. It includes links for volunteer opportunities in your community, National Geographic’s history of Earth Day video, a powerful film exploring the connection between environmental protection and human rights, ideas for creating a locally sourced Earth Day meal, and other nice resources for making your Earth Day, and all of your days, more green.

Also at TakePart˚, 17 Prime Ways to TakePart on Earth Day is a listing of seventeen simple things you can do today (and everyday) that have serious green impact. Ideas include air drying your laundry, visiting a farmer’s market, taking shorter showers, changing your lightbulbs, planting trees and twelve other actions that require very little time or effort, but make a big difference to the planet.

Hulu has a special Earth Day portal with video clips on green related topics, including a clip of scenes from the first Earth Day and videos about ingenious new energy technologies, endangered animal restoration and other timely topics.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation’s Call2Recyle program has successfully recycled 50 million pounds of cell phone and rechargeable batteries. Visit their website to find a drop-off location near you for all of of those old batteries cluttering up your junk drawers.

Read about the Meatless Monday movement, watch a video to get inspired, and then make a commitment to cut your carbon footprint and improve your health by forgoing meat once a week.

Visit the HuffPost Earth Day page to see what’s going on in Earth Day news. Some of the good news you’ll find: a list of proposed Earth Day resolutions (start composting, stop using paper plates, use public transit, and more), ways to green your sex life (no, really!), and the best Earth Day jokes of the decade.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, and for your edification, at 9 pm tonight you can watch the cool young eco-capitalists from TerraCycle on National Geographic Channel’s new series, Garbage Moguls, while they up-cycle candy wrappers and old bill boards and other trash into cool new stuff. (Learn how to make a trendy, colorful wallet from a cookie wrapper right here.) Here’s a preview:

Happy Earth Day, and if you find other Earth Day goodies during your travels today, please share them with us here at ChangeAction by commenting below.

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Earth Day? Earth Movie.

April 15th, 2009 2 Comments

On April 22nd, Earth Day, how better to celebrate than to see Earth, the movie? Disneynature’s new film stars polar bears, elephants, and humpback whales, and with James Earl Jone’s voice for narration, how can you go wrong? Film-makers spent over five years and 2000 hours in the field to capture the story of three animal families in their struggles to survive a year on earth. From Alastair Fothergill  and Mark Linfield, producers of “Blue Planet“, “Deep Blue” and the “Planet Earth” series, the film has gotten some rave reviews. Jake Brewer, at The Huffington Post, says Earth is “breathtaking” and that Fothergill and Linfield “completely and utterly” deliver on their intent to inspire with the film. According to Brewer,

Earth is a stunning masterpiece that will leave even the most ardent coal lobbyist in awe of our planet and yearning to see more — and to preserve it.

You know what’s even better? Not only will going to see Earth inspire you to do something to care for our precious planet. If you buy a ticket to see Earth during the first week, Disneynature will plant a tree in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest in your honor. Cool, huh? See you there.

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Billion Bag Pledge

March 14th, 2009 No Comments

Last year Americans alone used over 100 billion plastic shopping bags. Blue Avacado has created a campaign to try to make a dent in that (and to save millions of pounds of global warming causing carbon gasses) by getting Americans to take the pledge to “get off the plastic”. Visit their website to learn more about the positive impact of reusable bags, to take the pledge, and even to get help remembering to bring your bags with you when you shop.

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