Is it better for silk worms to be boiled alive so that silk fabric can be made (possibly by child labor), or for synthetic fabric to be made from petroleum?
Despite the recent spate of babies among GBKs (and Norlosers, as it happens), global population is slowing down.
6,814,579,631 this morning
6,774,798,449 April 22 last year
6,663,013,026 April 22 2008
So, while one might think that adding almost 40 million people to the planet in a year* is despressing, it is truly making me giddy when I compare it to the 111.7 million that were added the year before.
*Actually 51 weeks. I am apparently doing this a week earlier. The 40 million new people are still more than 20 times the population of my state.
For the second time the knitting group participated in Earth Hour, while throwing a baby shower for Sparkling Squirrel. Well, we kept on a lamp for those knitting, but turned off all other lights. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29900742/ Here's the group at Indian Palace, and lounging in bed Sunday morning. Tucson Trekker & Rusty had some aura going on where I couldn't get a photo of both of them in 
focus.
I have plans to put in a new wood fence, and have to decide on treated vs. untreated lumber. My environmental side says go with untreated. But will it rot away in 10 yrs? Or does that not matter, wood is supposed to rot away. Untreated would be cheaper. I should research what the compounds do to dogs and wildlife.
From Home Depot: The most common types of chemical used to treat wood are Alkaline Copper Quaternary (ACQ), Copper Azole (CA), and, the newest type, Micronized Copper Quaternary (MCQ). Pressure treated lumber can last 20 years or more, and most pressure treated wood comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Yes, its test time again in my world. I had two versions of the above as a response to the difference between monotremes and placental mammals, which made me giggle, well actually guffaw.
Unaware that Sal Sis had the same inclination, I thought it was high time for a post. Someone in the marketing department here must be up to some good, because I'm really surprised that my college is being mentioned by name in the trayless dining phenom.
Does anyone know about giving dehumidifier water to pets to drink? I started putting it out in the bird bath, then because it rained last night and everything was watered or filled with water, I poured it in the water bowl inside. I suppose I should drink it too if I'm giving it to them!
Today we started the ecology unit (2 weeks) in Bio 101. I usually spend most of my time doing completely academic ecology (interactions, population growth, succession, energy flow, nutrient basics) but it occured to me recently that if I don't talk to these students about environmental issues from a scientific standpoint, nobody ever will.
So today I asked them to write the "Top 5 ecological or environmental issues facing teh planet in your lifetime" (and the "Top 5 ecological or environmental issues facing you in the next year" which were shockingly similar-- need to discuss scale). We're going to play family feud on Monday (top answers on the board) and I thought I should have a separate list of issues from ecologists or ecologically interested (yes, you too Abby). Please post your list in the comments. I'll put mine there and invite discussion (but don't look until you have a list in mind).
At the risk of spoiling your list, here are my favorite responses from my students for problems facing the planet: "deer use to humans" "change in daylight saving time" "people feeding deer" "E. coli" and "humans evading"
Doesn't it seem silly to have to catch all the leaves from a tree and move them elsewhere???? [regardless of where they go - compost or landfill (even worse)] Who thought of this and why??? The english royalty with their nice green monoculture grass yards kept by sheep? I mean - look at all the trees out there in residential neighborhoods - ALL those leaves from ALL those trees have to be caught. Well, I'm saying no to raking. Keeping my back yard in pristine grass is futile because of the dogs which made me explore breaking away from societal yard expectations. Now my yard feels and smells like a little forest with all the leaves from my 5 big trees. I love it! And the front yard - well if no one raked and no one kept unnatural grass but let it go to whatever goundcover creeps in on its own, then no one would be keeping up with each other in futile lawn care. What a waste of resources (oil for both lawnmowers and fertilizers). And it all comes back to how silly it seems to me to have to catch all those leaves from all those trees and move them to somewhere else.
I ran into my first passionate high school environmentalists in WV yesterday. I'm not sure that selling macadia nut cookies (homebaked) in front of Walmart is the best way to save the whales, but I had to buy some because, well, there were passionate teenage environmentalists dressed in whale suits at Walmart! How could I not buy their cookies and sign their petition?
Who would like to boycott consumerism for a month? This came out of the carbon-reduction post. The intent is to buy less so that we don't contribute to the production of material goods and therefore aren't using as many natural resources. Also, we might realize we don't really need much. You can either stop buying selective things, or go cold turkey.
Suggested guidelines (the most restrictive, but customize it to your own habits or life events):
Allowable items:
Food - could modify this to omit processed food, junk food, mochas, etc.
Plants - unless this is a weakness you want to curb
Medical supplies & kitty litter
Emergency home or car repair (like if your pipes leak and ruin your shoes, or it's time for an oil change)
Non-allowable:
Clothes (but being wedding season you might adapt this)
Jewelry
Kitchen items
Cosmetics (ha!) and lotions (use up what you have)
Decorations
Knick knacks
Pet paraphernalia
Books, DVDs, CDs
No cleaning/home products? (use up what you have)
THINGS
We can use this post for our support group - so post any ideas, objections, questions. I am going to try 1 month of cold turkey no buying, except for anything food-related since I don't like to cook (and coffee shops get me out of the house). But I will think twice about prepared foods (I don't buy much anyway). Sally and I are doing the Mutt 'n' Strutt, so this will allow me to donate more money to this.
I was reading an Earth Day article yesterday about a family cutting back their carbon emissions 15% and began wondering what I could do to reduce my carbon emissions (and benefit the planet in general). The family commented that they had already done what was easy (turning off lights, turning thermostat down at night, owning a relatively fuel efficient car . . .) and would have to take more difficult next steps (actually using their compost bin, cutting back driving, replacing light bulbs).
The Mister and I already do those next steps: we compost, we walk to work, I hang out clothes when it's not raining. So, instead of feeling like a smug environmentalist (a completely hypocritical state for anyone living in a warm/cool house that ever drives a car), I tried to think of what I could do to reduce my ecological footprint, as I believe we can all contribute. The only really obvious step-- reducing travel-- is not an option I'm willing to pursue.
I figure many of us are in this position; we do far more than average, and generally feel pretty good about it; but also lead generally comfortable lives. Assuming that we are not going to build a house from scratch (fairly easy to make energy efficient) or replace functioning automobiles/appliances, what should we be doing that would have the most impact? Any impact?
