I didn't participate in this event but got an email about it afterwards (Thanks Lauren) .
On Mother's Day 2008: Moms and Kids Made Calls for the Climate - Greenpeace organized Mommy meetups in parks across the country. People gathered, took photos and left voice mail messages asking Congress to take action on global warming. See the photo and audio collage here.
I've mentioned a few times that we bought our house last year. We are middle income bacon earners so our home is "charming" in real estate speak. It is a 3 bedroom bungalow, built in 1956. It was owned by the same man, Humphrey, and his two wives (consecutive marriages, not at the same time) until he died and we bought it from his heirs. Our home has the beauty and pitfalls of not being messed with too much. E.g. Humphrey did a great job of maintaining the roof, we have original natural wood trim throughout the house, but we also still have formica counters and no dishwasher in the kitchen. 
We have a fresh palette so to speak. We love the basic house lay out and have more ideas than money for renovations. Our first major renovation/change was tearing up carpet in the living and dining rooms to reveal the hardwood floor underneath. We did that the day we moved in. We are slowly doing more home improvements. We would like renovation green as much as possible and are beginning with low tech ways to make our home more energy efficient.
Our attic had almost no insulation - only a thin feather-like layer of torn up fiberglass. 
Apparently insulation wasn't a big concern back in the fifties. It is a little more concerning when you hear your gas furnace coming on every 15 minutes in the winter of 2008.
We shopped around for "green" insulation and settled on UltraTouch cotton insulation - (insulation composed of denim scraps) for a few reasons, but mainly because it was available locally. It cost more than traditional fiberglass. R-21 UltraTouch cost us $1.20 /sq ft vs. fiberglass R-21 priced at 70 - 80 cents/sq ft., so that was a down-side to this green choice. 
The upside, we don't have to worry about our daughter touching the insulation that is stored in the basement and our neighbor who is installing the insulation finds it much easier to work with because it doesn't require the precautions fiberglass does, although he is wearing a respirator mask and protective clothing to remove the old stuff.
It is not completely installed, the weather has been warmer but we have had a few chilly nights since it has been partially installed. It seems to make a difference. It almost has to, because we had so little insulation before. We are putting in two layers of R-21 (total R value of 42). We used this calculator to find out what R value we needed.
We are open to any green material ideas or tips. Next major green project - new windows. We may start with just one or two rooms at a time. Onward and greenward...
Save the Children is on the ground in Myanmar. They are accepting donations to help with their efforts.
This from their site - "Save the Children is mobilizing its staff of 500 employees in 35 offices across the affected region to assist vulnerable children and families who have lost their homes in this most recent disaster," said Ned Olney, Save the Children's Vice President for International Humanitarian Response. "We have started emergency distributions and are hopeful to increase our coverage in the days ahead."
Mother's Day is around the corner, so I thought I would throw out a few It Takes a Planet to Raise a Child themed ideas:
A double lazy link week including my earth day post.
Just one link today because it is enough.
I saw this post linking to a video about e-waste on the blog, dine-o-meter this week. A special off-topic post for Earth day. I try not to spend a lot time watching videos online, but once I clicked the start arrow on this one, I had to see the whole thing. It made me feel like my earth day links were Pollyanna-ish in comparison.
One interesting similarity between dine-o-meter's and my earth day posts - my post mentioned the Kyoto protocol and the e-waste video mentions the Basel Convention (an international treaty designed to restrict the transport of toxic waste between countries in the hopes of preventing exactly the situation seen in the video). Both the Kyoto Protocol and the Basel Convention have been signed but not ratified by the US. Surely other countries have done the same and not ratified these treaties you say? That's right, Kazakhstan has not ratified Kyoto, although 173 other countries have. And 170 countries have ratified the Basel Convention. The US, Afghanistan and Haiti are the only signatory countries who have not ratified Basel. I could see how Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Haiti may have more urgent things to deal with right now, but the US?
I think we really do need to start thinking in terms of the whole planet, even though it can be hard to do sometimes because the global economy makes it difficult to see the consequences of our actions and inactions. (Contrast me worrying about Porcupine watching too much tv with the Chinese children living amidst hazardous waste in the video).
I felt pretty good last time I brought in an old computer for our county's hazardous waste recycling day. Now, not so much. I am going to ask where the waste goes next time.
Three green sites for those wishing to celebrate without getting up from the computer.
WeCanSolveIt.org - I know you have heard about it, now it's time to for a visit - you can sign up just to be counted and have the option of signing a petition to urge world leaders to sign a global treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help solve climate change. Deja vous? Was Kyoto too soon to start doing something? Well, spring and mornings are for hope. Let's hope the US ratifies the treaty this time.
Browse in green with the Flock Browser - Eco-edition. Available as of today. This from their site - "Flock believes in providing users who download the Flock Eco-Edition a means to give back by donating 10% of search proceeds to the environmental charity of choice, as deemed by the voting of the community of Flock’s Eco-Edition users at the end of this year. Flock makes money when people search through the browser. So the more you search via Flock Eco-Edition, the more we're committing to give back."
Swaptree - Would you like a book or two for your summer vacation but you don't want more stuff? If you haven't been to this site already, check it out. Swap your books, cds, dvds or video games for someone else's = no net accumulation of stuff. Swaptree.com, will be donating $1 dollar for every trade made on Earth Day to The Sierra Club. Now, that's great stuff!
Happy Earth Day!
Porcupine watches some tv. TV watching and kids can be a hot button issue with parents - no violence, only certain channels, only certain shows, no tv at all, only 1 hour a day...
I don't remember exactly what my views were before I became a parent, but I know I aspired to have my child watch as little tv as possible. I still feel guilty at times when I need to get something done (like make dinner) or when we are tired and we throw that aspiration out the window. We, as a family do not watch a lot of tv - but it does come on during tired evening hours and occasionally in the morning.
I take heart and mostly agree with the views in Lisa Guernsey's book Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age Five. Guernsey reviews research on television watching and child development and concludes that tv in itself may not be bad, may even be educational, as long as you keep in mind the three Cs - content, context and child. If Porcupine watches a little tv before or after a long day of non-tv activities, I try not to worry about it. We are not substituting tv for books, we are including it when appropriate and/or convenient, in addition.
And if you are looking for a content rich green show for your preschooler, you may want to check out PBS's Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies - an animated mama elephant named Mirabelle (voice of Vanessa Williams) introduces her three kids (Max, her preschooler elephant and his two buds - Bo, a young male cheetah and Karla, a young female zebra) to interesting creatures and facts about the natural world by showing them real footage "home movies" of animals and plants with explanations and sometimes music in the background. As Guernsey recommends, Mama Mirabelle discusses what the kids are watching as they view her home movies.
Unlike some other animal shows for older kids, Mama Mirabelle is targeted to the preschool audience. Porcupine (2.5 yrs old) loves watching animals and bugs in real life, but when it comes to tv, she is usually only interested in watching cartoons or Sesame St. Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies is the one of the real footage shows she has sat through without asking to watch a cartoon movie instead. Probably because Mama Mirabelle cleverly mixes animated scenes with the real footage and clips are kept snappy and exciting. As an adult, it is fun to watch the wildlife footage captured in Mama's home movies. As a parent, it is great to see basic biology and ecology concepts presented to your preschooler using real examples. You may, as an adult, have a little trouble believing a cheetah, zebra and elephant would hang out together, and wonder why a polar bear is walking on the savanna while watching the animated segments, but that part seems to work for the preschool mind.
Porcupine and I watched a preview dvd of this week's Earth day Mama Mirabelle episode - Kings and Queens of the Savanna (mama's kids learn about the circle of life with the take away lesson that everyone is an important king and queen in their own way - highlight shot- dung beetle rolling dung ball) and Gourmet Grazing (animals have different food requirements and food is energy- highlight shot - two real giraffes doing the slide). Accompanying info and activities are available on Mama's site.
Check your local PBS station for air times - usually Mama Mirabelle hits the air early on Sat or Sun am - perfect if you want to catch your breath before heading out to Earth day activities.
"Green is mainstream" may be the word on the street, but that doesn't mean your neighbors won't think you are a little kooky when you pull out the push reel mower.
I mowed our front lawn yesterday with our reel mower. As far as I know we are the house in the neighborhood that doesn't mow with a power mower. I would describe neighbors' reactions to our method of mowing as bemused curiosity. "Your mower works pretty well," our next door neighbor remarked from her driveway yesterday as she watched me mow down the final stretch. As in "wow, that thing actually works."
I have to admit I was a bit of a skepitic before my husband purchased our reel mowers. (Aside- our first Task Force reel mower was fun to push, but did literally "not cut it" because it was too "light-weight". We now have a slightly more expensive Sunlawn model with a rear roller that works better because it doesn't bounce over the tough spots like our previous model). Here are at least three good reasons for having a reel mower:
Here are a few tips if you think you are ready to join the ranks of neighborhood green kooks with the reel mower.
Being this is our first spring with a yard, we still view s
pring yard work as a lot of fun. This week features fresh cut daffodils on our table. And, yesterday Porcupine and I started some seeds in an old egg carton. We planted black-eyed Susans and butternut squash seeds before I decided that given the mess, it might be better to plant the seeds directly in the ground. We have about 8 vegetables (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers etc) we would like to grow in our modest garden and some herbs. Our veggie garden plot is beside a wall in our yard so our garden plan also includes some towering sunflowers at the back.
I read this article on victory gardens recently from this copy of Sage magazine. No one is asking the American people to plant vegetable gardens to support the current war effort, but if we could grow some food in our yards, that should help conserve energy. No fossil fuels are required to pick up fresh produce in your own yard.
I'll keep you posted on our home-grown attempts and feel free to share any stories or advice based on yours:)
If you are a sucker (like me) for wasting time on sweepstakes entries that you have little chance of winning, under the guise of supporting a contest for a "good" prize, check out GE's Energy Smart Sweepstakes for a small chance (there are not that many GE consumers are there?) at winning 10K to improve energy efficiency in your life. The "game" is cute for about 5 seconds but not that challenging. Might be good for kids 9 and under though.
I found out about the above sweepstakes as an ad on lowimpactliving.com
Just got back from a trip home to Canada. We were surprised by the high snow banks in TO. Snowbanks in April? Does this mean we don't have to worry about global warming? Not a chance. And if you don't believe me, read this sharp piece by Canadian environmental journalist Stephen Leahy - 1st in a series of 4 articles about climate change.
