Better Late Than Never

Ok folks got some belated news for ya today!

First let me start off with an explanation of that last video I posted. It came from our local Montgomery County 4-H Fair!! A splendid little fair with plenty of elaphant ears and tractors to boot. I helped out with the Friends of Sugar Creek Booth for most of the weekend while I let my 6 yr old son run around like a little piggy.

The musical highlight of weekend was Steve Trent and Small Town. They had a great set even though it was a little short, but that was no fault of thiers. Another slpendid performance of the weekend was skits put on by Dance by Debra, which is a wonderful dance company located in downtown Crawfordsville full of many talented youths.

Now your probably wondering about the slide show... Well see the Friends of Sugar Creek were raffling off this really great canoe as a fundraiser and as an effort to draw people in to our informational booth. Well it was early Saturday morning that I discovered just how much fun kids can have in a canoe whether it is in the water or out of it. So I decided to let the kids sit in the canoe and find out how many of them have ever held a paddle before and give them their first lesson if they have never had the opportunity to hold a paddle before. I also decided that the kids looked so cute that I could not pass up the opportunity to take a photo and create a slide show.

I also have to commend our local 4-H fair for thier plentiful and enormous recycling bins. I discoverd there is a large education gap in this recycling movement. I was very surprised to see how many people do not know what the difference between paper and plastic is or what paper and plastic is recyclable. I even had a few questions myself. Straws for example... and does a piece of palstic have to have a recyclable arrow and rating number in order to be recyclable. And what about the food factor? I think a recycling education project would be in order for our local community and that this would make a great future project for me. If any one else is interested in partaking in this type of project feel free to contact me at Lotusdog@hotmail.com or post onto My Green Karnyval Group. I have some Great ideas regarding this and so little time!!

Little video from the 4_h Fair

Here are a couple really handy PDFs. One for the IT savy and another for any one intereseted in The State of Green Business. If there are any other reports that your aware of and wantto see posted, regardless of which side of the green issue it is on, as long as sources are mention I will post and be glad to review.

"It’s hard to imagine a more active year in green business than 2007. Except,
perhaps, for 2006. And likely 2008, 2009, and beyond, for that matter.
Point is, every year lately seems to be a banner year when it comes to the
greening of mainstream business — another 12 months of new and substantive
corporate commitments and initiatives, technological breakthroughs, reports
and tools, partnerships and consortia, and various other achievements and
developments.
How was 2007 different? To answer that, we revisited the more than 1,000
news and feature stories that appeared on GreenBiz.com, ClimateBiz.com,
GreenerBuildings.com, and GreenerComputing.com, in pursuit of themes,
trends, and movements. We found many. Following, in no particular order, are
the top 10."
The State of Green Business 2008 © 2008 Greener World Media, Inc. (www.greenbiz.com)



"Learn to build a Green IT Action Plan by setting realistic goals and choosing projects that IT can perform autonomously. The resulting environmental benefits and cost savings help prove that more extensive projects are both feasible and necessary. Use this knowledge to promote cross-enterprise collaboration on leading green initiatives."
The Green IT Action Plan from © 1998-2008 Info-Tech Research Group

I hope these PDFs have been found ot be useful!!

Also feel free to join the Google Group of the Green Karnyval. It's a great place to share information and exchange ideas!!

This week at the Green Karnyval

Last week was ofcourse the fourth of July, and boy what a weekend. I just have to give kudos to my 6 year old son who (not the environmentalist that I am) upon the last day of camping and riding his bike came across a camp site (Sugar Creek Campground) and noticed that they left all their pepsi cans just laying around the campsite. SO he came back to the site and asked for a bag, Walmart bags are apparently good for something, so that he could pick up those cans and throw them away. I was quite pround of him!! Now i don't know if it was the thought of the joy of crushing all those cans or if there were some higher altruistic motivation behind his actions, but regardless the example that i have set of picking up other peoples trash or making sure he just doesn't throw his trash around has put a picture in his mind about how to treat trash and how to treat the environment. And this carried over to a change in his behavior. If a 6 year old can pick up on this i have faith that others can too and that the upcoming generations will be more environmentally aware than ourselves if we continue to change our behaviors.

That being said i have a few links for you Karnies:
First off a great Indiana site A Greener Indiana and you may notice I already have a link to thier site on the side bar, however i would really urge you that if your in the Indiana area to really check out thier calendar.

For all you news junkies and organic freaks ( Isay that with affection ) out there here is a good site that has lots of information regarding organic food stuffs and news tailored to your local area if you so choose to search that way OrganicConsumers.org and here is the Indiana link OrganicConsumers.org

Well that's all for now, hopefully i will have a more personal update on some local canoeing that i have been enjoying later this week or earlier next week!!

Take care, think of others, and be good to the earth!!

Think Global, Act Local

Today's skinny is on how to think global and act local. To be an American is to be a Consumer. Sad to say, but this is pretty much what defines us. Our measurement at large is not how many people's lives we have made better today, but it is our GDP. So that being said we have to realize that every concumer purchase is a statement and an action. What we buy makes an impact on economies and environments world wide. So when we buy something we have a choice, we can choose to buy merely out of convenience or we can choose to buy products from vendors who adhere to standards. I don't really want to get into to much detail on how hard corporate america makes it to find out where are products really come from and under what conditions they are made (that's for a later post), but I did find an interesting article that can help us become a more aware consumer.

Ecospace.cc Article
"When was the last time you checked the tag of your t-shirt to look for more than just a size or price? Do you know what your clothes are made of or who made them? The answers to these questions may surprise you, as inputs of clothing production have significant effects on the physical and social environment."
Now for another easy act of goodness that makes a global impact. I must make sure that everyone that uses Hotmail and MSN IM is aware of Microsoft's "i'm Making a Difference" options in thier mail and IM interface. Proceed to the below link to find out how in 5 minutes your emails and IMs can make small donations to worth while organizations."

MSN i'm MAKING A Difference
"Every time you use Windows Live™ Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail®, our free webmail service, Microsoft shares a portion of its advertising revenue with an organization of your choice from a list of some of the world's most effective social cause organizations."

Now for the Act Local part. I stopped by a local organizations Board Meeting with out any intention to make a large commitment, but just to see what was going on every first tuesday of the month. Low and behold I discovered that I have many skill sets that they could use. Sugar Creek is a small tributary of great recreational importance for the local and statewide community. Also to my delight I discovered that they cooperate with other county non-profits to make a significant impact on the preservation of local habitats and species that are in danger and need to be preserved.

FSC Website
"The Friends of Sugar Creek are celebrating thier 20th year!"
"The Story of Sugar Creek began over 18,000 years ago. For centuries Native Americans depended on the clear waters of the "ahsenaamisi siipiiwi" for survival. Our forefathers relied on it for food, transportation, commerce and recreation. Many species of fish, birds and wildlife still populate the creek and its adjacent lands. Now the river faces growing ecological threats from teh industrial and agricultural institutions it helped to create."

So I urge you to find a recreation you enjoy, search for an organization in your community and stop in and see what they do. If nothing else I am sure that have ideas that could be useful or just be able to lend a helping hand once in a while.

For those that doubt the potential of the future...

So for those that doubt our ability to make an impact here are some videos that will highlight recent technological developments that i believe will allow for the green revolution to take place. But as with any technical revolution it still must be accompanied with a social revolution so i am urging you all to stay informed, be consious consumers, and find someway to participate no matter how small you feel your efforts are.



For those of you interested in wind power...



Now there is still hope for those who like to drive..



The scoop on solar is not as far as you think...



So here we go folks, we got plenty of energy on this planet in the form of renewable sustainable energy. But we still need to focus on the social aspect. There are habbits that need changed, bigger pictures to think about, and more importantly billions of people on this planet that don't have adaquate nutrition or survival needs. Here is an excerpt from The World Health Organization

"Nutrition is an input to and foundation for health and development. Interaction
of infection and malnutrition is well-documented. Better nutrition means stronger
immune systems, less illness and better health. Healthy children learn better.
Healthy people are stronger, are more productive and more able to create
opportunities to gradually break the cycles of both poverty and hunger in a
sustainable way. Better nutrition is a prime entry point to ending poverty and a
milestone to achieving better quality of life."


Poodwaddle.com

My Beggining

So let's see, where am I starting in my new persuit... First off at home i already recycle. This is somewhat inconvenient due to our city but it is well worth it. Most of what we recycle can be set out in a seperate container and picked up, no biggie. The rest, meaning cardboard, has to be delivered to the local recycling center. Why the city can't pick up cardboard anymore I will never know. However i am quite pleased to save about one full bag of trash every week or every other week. We do have to rinse out our plastics, cans, and jars and we do have to take the labels off of these articles, but that just helps make me more oware of the trash i create and of the items i consume. I pay attention more now that i used to at how things are packaged and will generally go for the local self filtered tap water over choosing to buy yet another plastic jug or bottle. For Recycling facts from Oberlin.edu goto--->> http://www.oberlin.edu/recycle/facts.html

The main problem with the local recycling program, and please feel free to tell me about your recycling programs, is that the city really does not push it and i feel really does not educate the public on how thier contributions to the recycling program are helpping the community and environment at large.

Another simple mission that i am on is to get all of the bulbs replaced in the house with the energy saver bulbs that are all the rage. Other than the one second pause you get after you flip the switch until the light actually comes on, i have really noticed no difference in the lighting and i am quite plesed to know that i am saving energy. To see more on changing to incandescent lightbulbs goto--->> http://www.mycarbonpledge.com

Also for quite some time i have just been trying to consume less stuff. And i have been trying to learn about where my stuff comes from and if there are any alternatives to get the stuff i want from sources/vendors that are more environmentally consious. One of the first things that i learned is that it is not so easy to find out information on the companies from who you buy stuff. And to share one more thing with you here is a sweet little video to goto--->> http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Well thanks for your time and appreciate your comments. :P

The Green Purpose

Greetings One and All,

I would like to start off by telling everyone the purpose of this blog. The purpose of this blog is to document my green adventures. What that means is that I will be posting what I learn as I strive to make my workplace and personal life greener. My desire is to get around to posting twice a week, sharing with others my current environmental footprint, my desired footprint, and everything I am doing to improve my footprint on this planet.

I have often felt like there just isn't much i can do that most of what happens on this planet I have no control over and that frankly i just don't have the money to make a difference. I have also had questions about where to get good information, because lets face it there is alot of information out there, some exagerated, some just uncertain, and some just hard to find and sort through.

So instead of being cought in an apathy trap and doing nothing while the world goes by I decided that "I can do something". So that's where I am going to start. I firmly believe that to change the world you must first change yourself. "Think global- act local" as they say. So please, i encourage you to join me in my adventures and hope that this blog provides some type of avenue for you yourself to "do something". I hope that I can provide reliable information from those that do the research and I hope that you the reader will not only read, but also share your thoughts, views, and opinions so that together we can make our communities healthier and our planet Greener.