A year in review

I took the foot print quiz again, and we've made some progress. We only ( I like the only) use 3.78 earths. From 5.17 to 3.78 is a pretty big accomplishment. My goal was to be below 3.5 by the end of the year, but that's not happening. Looking at my 10 goals list, I know we've accomplished goal 3 ( cutting water usage). The rest are getting there slowly but surely. But hey, at least I have something to do over the new year.

Happy New Year everyone! Stay Green!

Paper Record!

I'm hauling 12.5 lbs of paper to school today! I think that's a record, but I need to check. But, it brings my total up to 30.3 lbs. Pretty good for under 3 months. I'm walking home again today, weather permitting.

Part One of Progress Evaluation

I don't know what it is, but I seem to be a little lax in my efforts. I know I've been using more hot water lately because its cold in the morning and I haven't been composting as much because of the rain. I did walk home today instead of being driven, but I don't know what kind of impact that made.

My goal was to accomplish 3 of the goals by the end of the year. It doesn't look like I will do that.

Sorry

I haven't been able to post for a while. I've been really busy. I just bought a new environmentally friendly wallet made out of hemp.

I've sent my first post to acespace. I'll let you know when it has been published.

Guess what?

I'm now a field corespondent for acespace! Yeah!

Acespace?

Today we had a presentation on global warming from ACE (Alliance for Climate Education). It was really cool and very informative. I want to drill ice cores now!

Two other cool things happened. It was talking to our presenter Rebecca and she told be about being a field correspondent for acespace and gave me a little advice on the scholarship acespace offers.

I'm really excited about the field correspondent thing. I see my school trying to become greener and greener every day and I want to talk about it. This would be a great opportunity to do that.

I have to do a little more work to qualify for the scholarship, but I'll think about that later. I'm just too excited about this now.

A Note...

http://www.myfootprint.org/

Above is the address of the ecological footprint quiz that I take every once and a while to measure my progress.  Take it please and post a comment of your results. Thanks!

Helping People and Going Green

My high school is doing their annual charity blitz of a coin war, food drive, toy drive and coat drive at the same time. The toy and coat drives are good things for people and the environment because you are helping people and reusing pre-loved items for good.

My advice if you want to decrease your waste this holiday season:

1. If you have toys in excellent to good condition your kids no longer play with, seek out a toy drive and donate them. You will give some kids a huge smile, get a warm fuzzy feeling and help the earth.
2. If you have coats or other winter wear that you no longer use , try to find a donation program at your local Salvation Army or a coat drive. Helping people and helping the earth go hand in hand.
3. Donate any unwanted gifts or host a gift swap with a friend or family member. Would you believe people throw away unwanted but perfectly good gifts every year?

This way, you will make the holidays a bit brighter for some really needy people and make the earth a better place all at the same time. That is one of the greatest gifts there is.

1. Donate unwanted gifts ( if any) or swap them with a friend or family member. Would you believe people throw away thousands of unwanted but perfectly good items a year?

An Inconvenient Truth Problem

I finished watching "Inconvenient Truth" in Env. Science today.

The movie has caused controversy in my house. One of my family members accuses me of going off the deep end, stressing and worrying about global warming, the other is indifferent. I don't stress about global warming. Yes, our climate is changing and humans are playing a role. Will it get as bad as they say? I have no idea.

All I say is that we created part of this problem and because we have the ability to take action, we have the responsibility to take action.

If I want to major in Environmental Science in college, I need to stop listening to these people who think I'm stressing out or crazy just because my opinion is different then theirs.

If you have any comments, support or criticism, it would be appreciated now.

One Month Update

I thought I should use some time to reflect on the progress I've made in the last month. I took the eco-foot print quiz again twenty minutes ago. Instead of reducing, I've gone up slightly, from 3.85 earths to 3.99 earths. I'm not ultra worried about it; it's only a minor set back.

Why don't we have a little refresher on my goals:

1. Become a more conscious consumer
2. Recycle all paper
3. Cut water usage
4. Cut electricity usage
5. Adopt a 100 mile diet
6. Cut gas usage
7. Grow 20% of what we eat
8. Change dad's paper towel/ battery use habits
9. CFL's
10. Cut trash volume in half

Goals 1,2,3,9 and 10 are very close to being achieved. There are still some hiccups every once and a while, but we are getting close. Goals 4,5,6,7 and 8 will require more work, but hey, it's progress.

So far, I've recycled 17.8 lbs of paper, a little more than 1/10 of a tree.

My goal is to fully achieve 3 of the goals from my first list by the end of the year and cut our earth usage to below 3.5 by the end of the year. Sound too ambitious?

The Giving Season Doesn't Have to be the Garbage Season

Happy Thanksgiving to all my adoring fans (where ever you are). I've been up since 4:50 a.m. this morning helping my mom with all of the preparations. My dad and I have only made one trip to the store this morning, and we bought mostly organic stuff.

Did you know that over the course of November and December, the average american produces up to 4 extra lbs of garbage a week?

Also, imagine the extra CO2 from driving around.

It wasn't as cold today. At 5:30 a.m it was 32 degrees.

So, remember to compost your Thanksgiving produce leftovers and scraps, recycle your cans and bottles and put all of your black friday ads in the recycle bin.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving all!

Answer to the Toothbrush Recycling Question!

Yeah! I found a place that recycles old toothbrushes. It's called Toothbrush Express.

It has been raining epically for four days now. The snow level was supposed to drop to 1500 ft, but I didn't get snow at my house. Tomorrow, its supposed to be 26 degrees when I get up.

I'm telling you about the weather because in A.P Environmental Science, we are learning about how global warming affects weather patterns. This weather is a little unusual for this time of year where I live.

We are having an organic food party in A.P today. Yeah!

Eco Consumerism and Toothbrush Problem

I worked on my goal of being a environmentally conscious consumer today. First of all, I did some X-mas shopping for my little cousins. I got one of them a bamboo whistle and the other a set of natural pigment paints.

I also bought myself a Preserve 5 toothbrush. I've been frustrated lately that there is no way to recycle toothbrushes. So, I bought myself one that could be recycled. I think I'm going to use Preserve 5s from now on and keep the ones I get from the dentist for when I go to college or something.


Does anyone know of a place that will recycle toothbrushes that aren't Preserve 5s?

An Organic Thanksgiving

We've been doing some Thanksgiving shopping. This year, all of the food except the pumpkin pie will be organic. Still working on the paper clean up. I think I'm making a trip the to paper recycling bin on Monday. What goal should I tackle next?

Success and Batteries

The yardsale was a huge success! Now, stuff has found a good home besides the garbage. I bought some recharable batteries today to give to my dad for X-mas.

The paper bin in my room is starting to get full. I might empty it sooner than I thought.

I bought organic apples today. My mom bought 100% recycled aluminum turkey pans too. So thats what happens to old aluminum cans.

We've totally stopped using paper bags from the store now. Yeah, less garbage!

I've got a long way to go, but days like this make me think that there is hope in me becoming 100% sustainable.

Ughhh....

Wasn't able to do day without a car today because we had too many errands to run. Darn!!!!

Garage sale closer and Conservation Days

Still collecting stuff for the garage sale. I hope its going to be big.

Working on my list. I noticed that about 90% of the food I put in the cart when my dad goes shopping is organic. The 100 mile diet thing might take a while.

Paper recycling has been going well. My third trip to the paper bin will happen before Thanksgiving.

I've been looking a eco-friendly clothing. I'll wait until after X-mas to update my wardrobe.

I'm also thinking about walking home from school more often. Right now, my mom won't let me because she says my backpack is too heavy.

Tomorrow is going to be my day without a car ( except for dance, 15 miles away). That means I will walk everywhere I want to go, except for dance. It's the best way to reduce our gas consumption.

Just a note

Who ever the person or people who have been viewing my blog are, thank you some much. Comments and suggestions would be much appreciated. THANKS!!!!!

Energy Use and Reusing Stuff

It's my dad's birthday on Sunday. For a gift, I got him some CFL lightbulbs. They will save him $38 each ; there are five of them. Also, we've been cleaning out our old children's books. I took some of them to my local used book store. Now, they can be reused.

 We are going to have a garage sale soon. We've been putting this off for months and I thought we wouldn't be able to do it at all. It will be a good way to help the environment and make some cash.

I'm starting to compost more cardboard now. I haven't noticed a change in the amount of trash yet.

I'm chipping away at each of my ten goals. I don't know which one I will tackle next.

Is it worse than I thought?

I've been thinking alot about how environmentally friendly I think I am. I'm not really when you think about it. I ate some left over Halloween candy today ( lots of little, plastic wrappers) and I went out to lunch, which meant 1 styrofoam takeout box and another styrofoam cup.

So, I'm going to stop carrying cash in my wallet, because that will prevent me from going out.

The only ecofriendly thing I did today was I recycled 8.2 lbs of paper. That brings my total paper recyclage to 14 lbs.

Am I really making progress here?

Day 1 of mass paper clean up

I've emptied my paper bin in my room and took the adds from the Sunday paper too. I'm putting it all in the recycling bin at school tomarrow. I had nothing to do today, so I went through the sunday paper looking for coupons for eco friendly products. I found some for rechargable batteries and some for Seventh Generation products and one for organic eggs.

I went to the local CVS pharmacy today ( yes, I was in my Halloween costume) and I found many environmentally friendly things there.

The apple cider at our Halloween party is organic, the cinnamon sticks are organic and I recycled the bottle.

Also, I bought organic toothpaste yesterday. It works better than the other stuff.

Second Eco-Footprint Quiz

I took this quiz again two hours ago. I've made progress.

If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need 3.85 earths.

Carbon footprint 55.67

Food footprint:19.02

Housing footprint: 46.34

Goods and Services : 28.21

Total: 149.24

I'm not going to do the break down of land use but, I've made some improvments in 2 months. I want to get it to below one, if that is even possible.

My eco-foot print

On August 19th 2010, I took this eco-foot print quiz on line. Here are my results

Carbon footprint

M= 79.37

A= 91.43

Food Footprint

M=52.59

A= 65.74

Housing Footprint

M=41.5

A=31.58

Goods and Services

M=27.08

A=57.66

Total = 200.54

If everyone on earth lived my lifestyle, we would need 5.17 earths

Marine Fisheries: 39.58 ( 19.74%)
Pastureland Footprint : 54.58 (27.22%)
Cropland Footprint : (11.92%)
Forestland Footprint: 82.48 ( 41.13%)

See, there is room for improvement here. Because I took this quiz in August, I want to take it again now and see if there is any difference. The only thing that can't change much is my housing footprint because we live in a big house.

It's been a while since I started this blog. I'm working on everything. I started taking way shorter showers (4 minutes?) and I've been composting cardboard now.

I did buy a magazine though and I've been driving the same amount that I usually do so, there are some habits I need to change. And, I forgot my reuseable bags yesterday and I went out to lunch. It will be a slow process, but it will get better.

I'm trying to reuse stuff too. I used an old bread bag as a lunch bag the other day.

I'm getting there.

The First Problem...Paper

I managed to save those newspapers my mom almost threw out and put them into the recycling bin at school. I kept 5.8 lbs of paper from ending up in the trash.

Here are some paper facts (I'm getting this from the green book)

1 ton of paper equals 17 trees
1 ton of recycled paper saves 380 gallons of oil

My goal is to recycle 1 ton of paper. I don't even know if my house has one ton of paper cluttering it.

What about things like wrapping paper? I'm in the process of Christmas shopping (all local/used/ handmade gifts). I either wrap things in wrapping paper or the Sunday comics I find the the newspapers. Is wrapping paper actually recyclable?

I've seen wrapping paper with post consumer recycled content at Wholefoods before, but we already have so much wrapping paper at the house, I shouldn't buy anymore.

What about recycled paper towels? My mom and I use cloth dish towels but my dad uses massive ( and I mean massive) amounts of paper towels. Got any tips on making him use the recycled ones and eventually decreasing his consumption?

My Ten Goals

I decided what 10 things I could do to become more green...

1. Become a more conscious consumer and only purchase eco-friendly things
2. Recycle ALL ( I mean not just binder paper) of my paper
3. Cut our water usage
4. Cut our electricity usage
5. Adopt a 100 mile diet for 70% of my food
6. Cut gas usage and driving time
7. Change my Dad's paper towl and energy/battery use habits
8. Grow 20% of what we eat
9. CFL's
10. Cut trash volume in half

Mom just threw out a whole bunch of newspapers, I better save them quickly!

Creation

Hi Everyone

I'm trying to become more environmentally conscious about everything I do. I just got the idea for the blog about 3 hours ago. More will come once I figure out what I can do to help the environment. Wish me luck!