michelle's blog

Several months back I challenged all of you to “spare a square:” to reduce the amount of toilet paper you use by 50% at each sitting and to use recycled T.P. whenever possible.  This challenge was met with great response.

 Now I pose a new challenge: Dust off your clothespins and reduce the use of your clothes dryer!  I will share some (shocking!) facts about dryer use and the environment and my personal challenge commitment.  I encourage you all to post your challenge commitments and follow-up to let us know how your doing!

Clothesline

... read more

Healthcare reform is at the forefront of the political sphere in the U.S. right now.  While most of the discussion focuses on reform of the insurance industry, greening the healthcare industry is equally important.  Also called sustainable medicine, green practices reduce environmental toxins, lead to overall healthy living, and can decrease total healthcare costs.

... read more

Is it more important to have a never-rotting tomato (kind of like Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers), or a tomato rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants? Do we want plump, salty chickens, or those which are rich, flavorful and nutritious? Food, Inc., a documentary now in theaters, examines the highly processed and mechanized food industry in America.

This film, directed by Rob Kenner, follows the path of food in America as it has become increasingly less nutritious over the past 50 years through the use of genetic modification, pesticides and artificial additives, and factory farming. The film asserts that the USDA and FDA are ineffectively regulating the industries they govern, and that this is contributing to the increase in food born illness, such as E.coli, as well as obesity, malnutrition, and diabetes. The food we eat is manufactured (according to the film's synopsis and website, it is more a manufacturing industry than an agricultural industry in current times), by a small handful of corporations who are more interested in profit than public health. While food is becoming cheaper, and cheaper for the consumer, health care costs are at an all time high (a coincidence?). ... read more

If your looking for an environmental role model, Irish rockstar, Bono (born Paul David Hewson, May 10, 1960), of the band U2 is a good place to start.  Bono is well known for his humanitarianism, and has been called, "the face of fusion philanthropy" for his efforts to draw attention to issues such as global poverty, AIDS, and the environment. "I was taught that if my opinion was informed, then I had the right to express it and not be afraid who else was in the room," Bono said in a 2002 60 Minutes interview.

Bono's environmental work includes creating clothing line in 2005, EDUN, which works in developing countries to create sustainable business models, provide fair wages, practice good business ethics, without burdening the local environment.  He also participated in a tree planting ceremony in Tokyo Bay, Japan, in 2008, where efforts are being taken to turn a landfill into an 88 hectare forest.    Bono has also been active in the Greenpeace community  since 1993 when his entire band participated in a protest against a nuclear power plant, Sellafield, in England.   And of course, Bono is self-reported avid recycler and drives a car which runs on ethanol instead of gasoline.... read more

Continuing today with bathroom greening tips, we take a look at our etiquette when brushing our teeth.  Many of us simply leave on the faucet when we clean those pearly whites in the morning and evening.  And I know what most people think; what is the harm?  Well according to the EPA a faucet in an American home uses on average two gallons of water per minute.  If you add up both times you wash your teeth then the you are wasting an estimated 1,460 gallons per year!!  So let's keep this tip simple and say...

TURN OFF THE FAUCET!

See other the daily greening posts here.