This year, we had so much fun creating our Earth Day message for you and hope it will encourage others to see Earth Day as everyday! We gathered some of the most talented female artists we knew and created a Mother Nature Art Poster that is shown above. We named the campaign “It’s Time To Mother Nature” and began with the beloved long-eared owl (I have had numerous close encounters with these mystical birds so I just had to start with them). However, the whole point of our Mother Nature campaign is to increase awareness of the extremely volatile nature of all nature on our planet today. With reverence to the owl family, we created our owl out of human bodies. Two female models (I’m on the left) were body-painted and positioned to shape the owl’s head. It’s the first in a series of Women Of Green Art Posters and our plan is to create one a month for the next six months. But there is a good chance we’ll never stop! If you are an animal or nature lover like me, you can purchase our Mother Nature Owl Art Poster here. The proceeds from this collection will go toward our Women As Game Changers Entrepreneurial Training for women who are determined to change the world through their life’s work.
Continue reading... →I wasn’t born an optimist. At least I don’t think so. Not sure what the balance of nature versus nurture is, but until my mid-20’s, I was one of those annoying people that had a knack for finding the worst-case scenario in every situation. There was a tectonic shift in my world-view not long after I made it through the quarter century mark. And I began what has been another quarter century plus challenge to retrain my neuropathways to seek out the positive in all situations. Most days, the glass is half full; some days my opinion on the status of the water in the glass is neutral; and occasionally, the glass is just dry (heavy sigh) — the plight of human existence? Here are 6 ways to be an environmental optimist despite the sometimes tragic and overwhelming news.
Continue reading... →At the end of March, President Trump released his budget proposal. And what is a budget, other an expression of a statement of values. Think about it: what do you care about, and how is that translated into your daily spending? Where do you choose to spend your money? It appears that science and research in general are under attack within the Trump Administration. This applies to critical health research as well. The largest cuts in the budget proposal are to the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposal to cut 31% of the agency’s funding has troubling implications for numerous programs that ensure people’s ability to live in healthy and vibrant communities. Let’s look at how programs that address toxic chemicals will be impacted.
Continue reading... →The transportation industry has a massive impact on the environment, largely because it’s collectively responsible for burning most of the world’s petroleum and creating carbon dioxide emissions. Last fall, French manufacturer Alstom demonstrated the Coradia iLint, a zero-emissions train that is carbon-neutral, but in a way you probably wouldn’t expect. The train requires a hydrogen tank and a fuel cell, but the hydrogen it uses is a waste product created by the chemical industry. By relying on a substance that’s otherwise useless, the train doesn’t place an additional burden on the environment. The train will permanently take passengers on the German Buxtehude/Bremervörde/Bremerhaven/Cuxhaven route beginning in 2018.
Continue reading... →While in his 20s, Joshua Fields Millburn faced a trio of challenges: the death of his mother, divorce, and a deep dissatisfaction with his high-paying job. He decided to limit himself to only those things that served a purpose, hoping to find more meaning in life (“Love people, use things, because the opposite never works,” he says). His longtime friend Ryan Nicodemus joined him in an easygoing embrace of a “minimalist” philosophy, eventually resulting in the recent book tour that this film follows.
Continue reading... →The coal industry is in “freefall” worldwide according to the latest annual survey from environmental groups Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and CoalSwarm. According to the survey, new construction and coal plant permits in China and India have sharply dropped off, while aging coal plants were retired across the U.S. and Europe. (The U.S. saw its 250th coal plant retirement on Monday.) The decline of coal has been felt for decades in places like rural West Virginia, and while Trump campaigned on a promise to revive the industry, the survey shows that its decline may be inevitable—while the market share of renewable energy, and potential for sustainable jobs in that sector, continues to rise.
Continue reading... →Intelligent beauties respect the planet. So what’s a person to do when you know there’s more to being gorgeous than the latest hot lipstick hue and the perfect sweep of eye shadow? Make conscious buying choices. When you purchase Ecco Bella products you are honoring yourself and the environment. We, as a company, support regenerative agriculture. What is Regenerative Agriculture? Recognizing that our planet does not offer infinite resources, regenerative agriculture takes on the responsibility of improving the soil and the environment.
Continue reading... →While it may seem obvious that a good hike through a forest or up a mountain can cleanse your mind, body, and soul, science is now discovering that hiking can actually change your brain… for the better! Aside from the almost instant feeling of calm and contentment that accompanies time outdoors, hiking in nature can reduce rumination. Many of us often find ourselves consumed by negative thoughts, which takes us out of the enjoyment of the moment at best and leads us down a path to depression and anxiety at worst. But a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that spending time in nature decreases these obsessive, negative thoughts by a significant margin.
Continue reading... →Within progressive circles, there is much debate about the women’s strike that was part of “A Day Without a Woman,” a nationwide protest held on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2017. In this video, made on the day of the event, Lisa Blair discusses the strike through the lens of intersectionality, recognizing the multifaceted identities of women and our diverse needs and challenges stemming from other intersecting forms of oppression. Lisa Blair is a process-oriented psychotherapist, interdisciplinary artist and fine art photographer, activist and feminist focused on intersectionality.
Continue reading... →In a promising experiment in an affluent swath of Brooklyn, New York, dozens of solar-panel arrays spread across rowhouse rooftops are wired into a growing network. Called the Brooklyn Microgrid, the project is signing up residents and businesses to a virtual trading platform that will allow solar-energy producers to sell excess-electricity credits from their systems to buyers in the group, who may live as close as next door. The project is still in its early stages — it has just 50 participants thus far — but its implications could be far reaching. The idea is to create a kind of virtual, peer-to-peer energy trading system built on blockchain, the database technology that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
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