Do not underestimate the footprint from your purchases.
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My body vs. My planet
As we welcome 2014 I got to thinking, new year, new resolutions, same you, same life, so what can we do to make it better? Years ago I stopped giving things up at new year, because the sense of depravity it caused overwhelmed the benefits of why I was giving it up. Instead and from then on, I chose to add more to my life.
The most common resolutions include quitting smoking, drinking less alcohol, giving up a food, and usually revolve around our bodies. If you have something to give up on your list this year, try adding something to help that vice disappear. It is hard, but it is also mind over matter. I just witnessed a man who has survived throat cancer (from smoking of course), after two years of chemo and beating the cancer he continued to smoke, he then lost his voice box and with a hole in his throat to breathe I saw him make a plan to take a puff through it. Some people make very random choices. On the other hand some live a healthy lifestyle, buying organic, supporting local farms, and from the outside look like they really care about the planet. On the contrary, they couldn’t give up a straw for the simple need to satisfy themselves above all else.
These people put their body first, and condemn the things that are harming their food, ignoring the things that only destroy the planet. These people need to realize that they are one and the same. If you care solely about your body, and not at all about the world, don’t worry, you are the majority, but when you put the planet first, you ultimately help yourself.
There will be no farms or healthy choices left if we continue to disregard our part in supporting the mass production of plastics, straws, bottles, and the mass destruction of rainforests and oceans. Our body does come first, we need to be healthy and strong to make a difference and we need to keep our planet healthy and strong otherwise we won’t have that choice.
Cheers to making sustainable choices this year, for the planet and ultimately ourselves. Happy 2014!
The most expensive oil spill
Bottled water!
If you live in a first world country (or South Africa) you can drink the tap water (period). Is that not argument enough?
How about bottled water is exorbitantly expensive? When you drink bottled water you spend more per liter/gallon than you would on petrol/gas. Bottled water costs between 1 and 3,000 times more than tap water.
Not about the money, you care about your health? What makes you think bottled water is better regulated or safer than tap water? The Natural Resources Defense Council conducted a four-year review of the bottled water industry and the safety standards that govern it. The conclusion is that there is no assurance that bottled water is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. And in fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is just bottled tap water from a municipal supply, and bottlers aren’t required to list the source on the label.
Then consider that scientists confirm that when stored in hot or warm temperatures, plastic leaches toxic chemicals into the water. BPA, phthalates, carcinogens, which are all capable of causing neurological problems, cancer, reproductive issues and a disruption to testosterone and other hormones.
Quite a price to pay to indulge in such health risks right? Above all else the number one reason to stop buying bottled water and stick to the good old tap, is of course that little place called earth.
17 million barrels of oil are used in producing bottled water each year. It takes about two liters of water to make every liter you see on store shelves. Some brands of water come from islands and countries thousands of kilometers/miles away.
So ask yourself why would you quench your thirst with a single serving of bottled water that you could drink in one sip, in a bottle that is not biodegradable? The harm of that sip will be felt for thousands of years.
You recycle? Is that enough? Out of the 50 billion bottles of water being bought each year, 86% end up in a landfill.
Next time you opt to buy bottled water, think about this.
Mineral water is drawn from an underground source and contains at least 250ppm of dissolved salts.
Still water is ordinary tap water.
Sparkling water is water which is carbonated tap water.
Seltzer water is tap water that has been filtered and carbonated.
Club soda is seltzer water with added mineral salts.
Sterilized water must be processed to meet FDA requirements for commercial sterility.
Distilled or de-mineralized water is usually tap water that has been treated to remove nearly all minerals and sodium that occur naturally in water.
Spring Water bottled at source (insert beautiful mountain picture here).
Technically all water is connected, and where there is water, there are people who need to bathe and wash clothes in it. If only there was some ubiquitous source of fresh clean water that we could access in our homes.
Either enjoy the beautiful tap water supplied right to you, or contribute to this:
Paper or Plastic?
In my quest to illuminate the superfluity of single use plastics I was asked this question. Paper immediately came to mind, but when I gave it some thought, they are both just as ruinous when wasted on redundant single uses.
Paper is made from trees; the process to make paper destroys forests, and the wildlife in those forests. It then uses (wastes) thousands of liters of water, adding chemicals and bleaches which inevitably end up in our oceans. It is estimated that 85% of paper worldwide is recycled, a process that again uses tons of water and chemicals.
Plastic is made from oil. In comparison to paper the process is efficient and low energy to produce, also considerably efficient to recycle. The problem comes from not recycling, and the profusion of plastics that are devastating the planets ecosystem. Billions, if not trillions, of plastic bags are consumed per year, and only 0.6 percent is recycled worldwide. According to Simply Straws, about 500 million plastic straws are used in the U.S. every day. Those probably all end up in landfills, and eventually the sea. The number worldwide is likely treble that, and at the end of the day none of those straws were essential, but will leave an indelible mark on the planet.
I came to the conclusion that neither is the better answer, we need to stop wasting efforts on single use items altogether. We can all have a shopping bag for life, a straw for life, a bottle for life, a knife/spoon/fork for life, and do away with the plethora of plastics that surround our every day lives. We can make those plastics a surplus that society rejects entirely.
Leave Tilikum, what about his family?
Did watching Blackfish make you fume and want to boycott (or something a little more dramatic) sea world? It’s a long overdue exposé on the reality of life for the Orcas in captivity. Outrage has been sparked and millions have taken to Facebook and Twitter in a tizzy, posting comments and pictures for the freedom of Tili and all captive whales.
Consider this: for every plastic packet, straw, or bottle you purchase, you’re doing the equivalent damage, except it’s to the lives of every single species in the entire world.
If you think sea world should be shut down, how can you support the mass production of the very thing that is drowning and slowly killing, dolphins, seals, birds, fish, turtles, whales, and entire species of ocean life?
One bag at a time
This blog is still a seed, and already it’s making a difference. My cousins here in New England, have presented me with this strawberry reusable bag. They think it will be prettier than the grenade I have been carrying on the outside of my purse (It’s a conversation starter ok)(Although not ideal conversations at airports). They have also both bought themselves one, and pledged to stop accepting plastics. #SavingThePlanetOneBagAtATime
Ban the bag
“Globally we use more than a MILLION plastic bags every MINUTE of every day, every year”
Do you want to be a part of that problem, or a solution? On Facebook a friend started this page: https://www.facebook.com/BANtheBAGSA and it has much to make you aware of how vital it is that we stop contributing, and accepting the superfluous plastic given to us daily. There are lots of ways to do that. This is from his page:
Ignorance is annoying
At an American super store last night I was given a plastic packet for my single-item purchase. Having not been asked if I wanted a packet (how rude), or seen her put it in a packet, I said, “oh no thank you I won’t be needing that,” and handed her the packet. She promptly crumpled it up and said, “well I am just going to throw it away.” (are you fricken kidding me?) Peeved, I politely asked why, and said, “that is wasteful and unnecessary.” While throwing it in the bin (seriously), she said, “because that is what I would do, take it and then throw it away.”
Irate, I decided I needed a place to bug more than just individual people with my badgering about using plastic for silly single uses (annoying everyone I shop with and anyone who opens a straw). I have been in the United States for a month now, and while here in Connecticut it does seem like there is enough water, food and forest for the world, everything is squandered so irresponsibly, I want to share ways to prevent that squandering.
At home in South Africa, when offered a plastic packet to carry my items for a such a short while, I take out my bag for life (I have a collection) and say no thank you, “I am saving the planet, one packet at a time.”
otherwise 