Environment

Water Series: Buying a Home Water Filtering System

by Almira May 20, 2011

Upon waking each morning, the first thing I reach for is a tall glass of clean, delectable water. That luxury has become more apparent as of late. Within the past month, the husband and I purchased some poor-quality “reverse osmosis” water from 2 different water suppliers. The brands: Culligan and Cuzn. We’re not sure if [...]

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Biodegradable Shoes

by Almira March 15, 2011

OAT Shoes. I’m almost certain that these would make a terrible meal…even if doused in brown sugar and milk, but biodegradable shoes are a cool idea.

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Water Series: The Luxury of Clean H2O

by Almira March 14, 2011

After learning the effects of fluoride, I followed up on my curiosities about water with the following delicious documentaries (see trailers below).

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Cradle To Cradle

by Almira February 11, 2011

Architect and designer, William McDonough shares his views on the importance of green design, specifically from his book, Cradle To Cradle, for a TED Conference:

“Design is the first signal of human intentions. So what are our intentions?

How do we love all the children of all species for all time? …we start our designs with that question.”

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The Monsanto Wars

by Almira February 4, 2011

Upon watching Food, Inc. and David Versus Monsanto (see full version here), I was introduced to the farming world in the U.S and got a sneak peak of some of the struggles farmers face daily. The likes of Monsanto and their industry of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are wreaking some terrible havoc, “If you are contaminated, against your wishes, by Monsanto’s GMOs, you no longer own your seeds or plants. They become the ownership of a corporation, in this case, Monsanto,” says Percy Schmeiser, a canola farmer from Saskatchewan, Canada. He claims his fields were contaminated with the Roundup Ready Canola genes, ruining 50 years of work on his 1400 acre farm in breeding saved seeds. The lawsuit lasted 3 years, and ended in favor of Percy and his wife, Louise.

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Chicken Tractors

by Almira February 3, 2011

Though your fowl darlings won’t actually be pulling a plow down each row as the chicken tractor might suggest (I can’t imagine them keeping to straight lines anyway), they will do something even better. Here’s how a chicken tractor works:

Move the chicken tractor along your garden rows or yard every so often for excellent fertilizer, while giving your chickens premium worms and bugs to munch on, and allowing them to do some weeding for you. No clean-up required, just refill their water and food, shut their “bedroom” door at night, and collect the eggs!

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No Money Man

by Almira February 2, 2011

A Year Without Spending Money… For those of you who haven’t yet heard of Mark Boyle, aka No Money Man, feast upon the crazy experiment of a British man who refused to spend any money for an entire year. His daily regime includes dumpster diving, solar showers, and teeth brushing with bone meal and fennel [...]

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All Natural Laundry Detergent – Soap Nuts

by Almira October 26, 2010

Laundry Tree – Soap Nuts

One of the more shockingly cool things I’ve come across recently is Soap Nuts by Laundry Tree. They are an alternative to laundry detergents and are actually organically grown dried fruit that are biodegradable, antimicrobial and work in HE washers! You just pop a few of these Soap Nuts inside the little white pouch shown above and throw it into your wash cycle and voila! Clean clothes…

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Make Your Own Oil

by Almira October 22, 2010

The Blest Machine is an at-home solution to excess trash, specifically plastic waste. Now, instead of throwing your plastic rubbish in a landfill, you can place it in your Blest Machine and have it converted with an electric heater into usable oil for your car, motorbike, or generator/broiler/stove. Cool! Another great feature: it doesn’t produce any CO2 or toxins!

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King Corn

by Almira August 10, 2010

This Month’s Film Review: King Corn, Directed by Aaron Woolf, with co-producers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis {Available on Netflix and Amazon On-Demand} On a scale of 1 (gouge my eyes out) to 5 (enjoyed every moment), I rate it: FIVE STARS Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis, from Boston, MA, became best friends at Yale, [...]

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EcoTourism and EcoVolunteering in EcoDestinations!

by Almira July 15, 2010

Whew! Quite the tongue-twister of a title… Vacation + Conservation = Ecotourism. Ecotourism: “Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” (TIES, 1990) My husband and I volunteered at an Ecotourism and Conservation Center in Costa Rica two years ago and loved it. Ever since I’ve been [...]

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Big Ideas For A Small Planet (Season 3)

by Almira July 14, 2010

On a scale of 1 (gouge my eyes out) to 5 (enjoyed every moment), I rate it: FIVE STARS 13 episodes (Games doesn’t work on Netflix, so no-go on that one, but each episode is 25 minutes—so many nuggets of great information rolled into such a small amount of time! I realize this list is [...]

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Freecycle: Don’t Throw It Away, Give It Away!

by Almira July 12, 2010

Have something that’s in good condition that you’s like to sell or get rid of? Immediately, I think to give it to Goodwill or Craigslist it. Both great choices, but I didn’t know about option #3 until recently. Freecycle is a nonprofit movement to “keep good stuff out of landfills.” This network of people throughout [...]

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Why Choose Organic Baby Care Products?

by Almira July 9, 2010

Although the Johnson & Johnson brand has been supposedly synonymous with safety for years, a month after the recall, we find two class-action lawsuits aimed at Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and Wal-Mart’s Equate Tearless Baby Wash because it contained the FDA banned methylene chloride.

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Introducing: The Media Club

by Almira July 7, 2010

Though it’s quite mid-summer, I thought I’d start start a little Media Club for those breezy hot days under a tree cuddled up with a nice read, as well as for those lovely nights watching an informative and inspiring documentaries.
SUMMER 2010 READING & VIEWING LIST:

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Introducing: The Healthy Republic Little Shop

by Almira July 7, 2010

From the gardening and homesteading to holistic healing, nutrition and fitness, you can find many of the Healthy Republic recommended reads at the Healthy Republic A-Store. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Since Amazon doesn’t carry everything—try The Little Green Book.
BOOK CATEGORIES:

Media Club: Summer Reading

Nutrition & Healing

Gardening

Fitness

Documentaries

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Green Design Library: A Visual Guide To Sustainable Products

by Almira July 1, 2010

A designer’s guide to over 150 green solutions (eye candy for non-designers), the Green Design Library was created to be a lookbook of sorts to avoid duplication of design research for green products. Brilliant.

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