The Older We Get, The Less Eco We Get

Sad but true, as we get older, we choose economics over the environment. What can we do to change this? Share your thoughts below!

I recognize that I do not see a random sample of young people by teaching graduate students in environmental policy and sustainability management at Columbia University. I also confess that my visit last week to Portland, Oregon to meet with sustainability management students at Willamette University is influencing my mindset. Portland has been working on sustainability for a long time, and it shows. Caveats aside, I find that more and more people born since the mid 1980’s have internalized aspects of an environmental ethos, and that awareness will soon have a major impact on American politics. While Gallup continues to poll on what I consider the false tradeoff between economic growth and environmental protection, even their data reports growing environmental awareness, especially among young people.

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5 Great Reasons to Plant a Garden This Spring (Got Another One)?

In today’s world of processed foods, pollution, and pink slime, you might be wondering how to ensure that what your family is eating is healthy.

Buying organic is a great start, but growing it yourself opens doors to tremendous possibilities. Here’s why:

1.      Avoid Pesticides – Conventional agriculture uses petroleum based chemicals to combat pests in the field, which not only damages the environment, but destroys important soil microbes that help plants grow. In your own garden, you can plant a diverse range of produce, instead of growing acres of one thing. This cuts down on pest attacks and can even attract beneficial insects to the garden to handle your pest problem for you. You can choose organic means of pest control, like soap sprays, hand-picking (the best pest control tool is your hands, after all) or other methods that don’t leave harmful residues on your food.

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Yikes! 93% of pregnant women had GMO toxins in blood, 80% in umbilical cords


A team of doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada looked at the prevalence of Bt toxins in female patients, finding that the chemicals — which are often implanted into GMO crops including corn — were found in the majority of those who were surveyed. Those who were pregnant at the time of the survey, 93 percent of them had traces of Bt toxin in their blood, and 80 percent of their umbilical cords contained the chemical.

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Don’t be a waste

Food waste is no new issue for the U.S. or other developed countries throughout the world. For many years, we as a society have taken our resources—water, coal, oil, food—for granted. The amount of food that is wasted in the United States alone is staggering. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated in 2010. This number is larger than any other category of material waste recorded by the agency’s municipal waste management division.

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Women Say ‘Enough is Enough’ to Climate Changes Worldwide

Nobel Laureate Jody Williams

Over 33 million women worldwide were represented by 100 global women leaders at the first International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit held two weeks ago in Suffern, New York.  Nobel Peace Laureate, Jody Williams, announced last week that women are putting the world on notice that women will “raise our voices followed by serious actions” pointing to possible boycotts and protests of corporations that are contributing to climate change escalation.

Global grassroots women met with women world leaders “to bridge the gap between the women on the ground and the world policy makers”.   The global women addressed protecting the water, oceans, air, and forests, focusing on the need for a deep systemic change concerning carbon emissions.   High on the list of concerns was protection of food sovereignty/ stability, how oil, coal, fracking, and nuclear industries which are negatively impacting climate change, (and human rights issues surrounding these issues), protection of tribal lands and peoples, and protection of the rainforests.

Osprey Lake, Co-Director of the recent International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit, proclaimed, “Nature is not waiting while politicians debate.  We need a deep overall analysis about climate change right now. Enough is enough.”

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Men Got Us Into The Shutdown, Women Got Us Out


The government shutdown is finally over — at least until the next time the budget clock runs out. It seems that a lot of stubbornness made that mess. According to reports from Capital Hill, it seems that the women in the Senate were the ones that cleaned it up. They were willing to go across party lines to reach a solution.  An article in Huffpost Women illuminates the situation.

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Support the young ones…


Support the young ones you know.
They have to take it from here

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U.S. Cities Ranked By % of Bicycle Commuting


Way to go Portland!

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Caring, Green and the GDP: New Economics for Women

Imports. Exports. These are things we know well. We have whole retail chains dedicated to these ideas. As women, we have the buying power and our impact is measured in dollars and cents. But what if there were other ways to measure our impact? We keep the United States’ GDP up and running with our spending; we keep it wealthy. But what about other things that women contribute, such as our time taking care of those around us so, at times, others can be wage earners? What about the “services” the environment offers? Will that be counted as part of a nation’s wealth? The debate has been on for quite some time.

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Chasing Ice, the real-life eco thriller of the century

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIZTMVNBjc4

Remember the first time you saw Inconvenient Truth? It was a game changer for me. So much so that right by the popcorn machine in the lobby of the theatre I decided to do my first podcast program called America the Green to wake us all up. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, right? No other film laid out the whole climate change horror like Al’s, until Chasing Ice.

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