I don’t know about you, but where I live in Colorado it’s already gotten cold enough at night to warrant turning on the furnace. At least some people in this house think so. ;)

Every year I try to resist turning on the heat for as long as possible. You can often hear me staying things like, “Put on a sweater!” or “Wear your wool socks,” but between trying to motivate my kids to get dressed in the morning when it’s freezing in the house and the fact that we had a super-wowee uber energy efficient furnace installed this summer (not to mention listening to my husband complain that I won’t win any award for refusing to turn on the heat), I caved and turned it on about two weeks ago.

It’s funny because one thing I liked to complain about as a kid was how cold my Dad kept our house. I was always trying to nudge the thermostat up a degree or two and hoping he wouldn’t notice. You’d think now that I’m an adult, I’d keep my house as warm as a sauna, but nope. Although my Dad was likely keeping the temperature down to save money, I’m doing it both to save money AND because it’s more energy efficient.

Every year Deanna, AKA the Crunchy Chicken, challenges her readers to a Freeze Yer Buns Challenge. This year is no different. A lot of people are pledging to turn down their thermostat — from a degree or two to 10 or more! A few years ago, I wrote about how we inadvertently took part in the challenge and now I challenge myself and my family every year.

One of the many Acts of Green on One Million Acts of Green is Set Your Thermostat to 18C (65F) or Less in the Winter. I haven’t been able to go that low in my house (at least not during the day) yet, but every degree you can drop truly makes a difference. Per Crunchy Chicken‘s blog, “for each degree set below 68 degrees, energy consumption decreases by about 6 to 8 percent.”

Can you pledge to lower your thermostat by a degree or two or even pledge to go down to 65 degrees (or less!)?

Head over to the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge or get signed up on One Million Acts of Green and pledge to make a difference. It all adds up!

Disclosure: Rockfish Interactive, in partnership with Cisco, is compensating me for my considerable time on this project. However, my ideas, words, and opinions are my own and are not influenced by this compensation.

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Just a quickie to let you know I’m co-hosting a Boo Nestle (#noNestle) Twitter Party tonight at 9 p.m. EST. (That’s in less than an hour!) There will be a lot of information shared about the Nestle boycott as well as great prizes — many are fair trade, organic and/or green!

The Twitter Party kicks off the week-long International Nestle-Free Week, set up to coincide with Halloween.

Please join @phdinparenting, @that_danielle, @bestforbabes, @blacktating, @doudoubebe and me! Find more information and RSVP here: Boo Nestle

Hope to see you tonight on Twitter!

Follow #noNestle tonight and throughout the week.

More information:

• What brands does Nestle own? Check out the Updated Nestle Product Boycott List
• Why I Protest Nestle’s Unethical Business Practices by PhD in Parenting
• What the Nestle Boycott Is (and Isn’t) About by Birthing Beautiful Ideas
• Boo Nestle: Make Your Halloween Nestle-Free

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Whitney Houston said it best. :)
“I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.”

I try to do what I can to set a good example for my kids — whether it means making healthy meals, picking up trash on our hikes, or taking care of my mental health. I believe that despite what they may learn from their friends or in school (although we are home schooling this year — more on that soon, I promise), my husband and I are still their primary teachers.

Although my kids are still young, I think it’s important for them to learn that we need to take care of the earth and that like anything or anyone else, the earth deserves our respect.

As I was digging deeper into the One Million Acts of Green web site the other day, I discovered they have a page dedicated to Education Resources for Teaching about Climate Change.

“When it comes to educating children about the environment, the entire world is a classroom.”

That’s a philosophy I’ve become rather fond of in regard to home schooling too, but like I said, I’ll write more about that another time soon. ;)

They go on to say: “The One Million Acts of Green Program works closely with the National Wildlife Federation, The Climate Project, and its website partner GreenNexxus to provide high-quality, age-appropriate resources for K-12, and beyond.”

There are links to all kind of resources that can be used to teach kids about the environment and climate change. While some of it may be geared moreso to a classroom setting, there’s a lot of information that could be used by parents as well.

This link to the National Wildlife Federation has a bunch of answers to kids’ questions about global warming, including a Parent’s Guide to Talking To Kids About Global Warming.

Another link is to Cool The Earth which is a program similar to One Million Acts of Green, but for kids.

Cool The Earth is a free, ready-to-run program that educates K-8 students and their families about climate change and inspires them to take simple actions to reduce their carbon emissions. The program is successful because it’s fun and empowering for the kids, and their enthusiasm is contagious!

Cool The Earth can be run at any elementary or middle school in the country. If you are interested in learning more, check out how to bring the program to your child’s school.

In addition to the education resources, there’s a lot of other good info available at One Million Acts of Green. If you haven’t yet checked out One Million Acts of Green, I encourage you to read my intro post and learn more about how you can start logging and sharing your Acts of Green. Check out the Facebook app too!

Disclosure: Rockfish Interactive, in partnership with Cisco, is compensating me for my considerable time on this project. However, my ideas, words, and opinions are my own and are not influenced by this compensation.

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt via Flickr

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I’ve written before about my mom’s habit of picking up trash and how it has rubbed off on me. I’m not as agro as she is (yet?), but I try to do my part. I find it’s especially hard to ignore garbage when it’s in the street or on the sidewalk in front of my house or when I’m out somewhere in nature surrounded by beauty and wildlife. I feel compelled to pick up trash in nature. I can’t stand it marring the scenery or the thought of it ending up in an animal’s stomach.

This weekend, the fam and I took a hike to St. Mary’s Glacier outside of Idaho Springs. It was so picturesque, but I ran into a stray piece of garbage here and there (mostly wrappers from “convenient” individually-wrapped foods), which I pocketed and threw into the trash when we returned to the parking lot.

It’s hard to ignore garbage when the view looks like this:

Or this:

Or this:

And especially when I look at these two and then see a piece of trash. It’s really hard to look the other way.

Over at One Million Acts of Green, one of the Acts (under Everyday Habits) is Pick Up Garbage. The carbon dioxide reduction of this particular Act is low, but it’s important for many other reasons.

The Cost of Litter

Garbage littering our neighborhoods, waterways, nature areas and more:

• Creates an eyesore.
• Creates potential environmental damage.
• It can be a health hazard to humans and animals.
• It’s killing marine life.
• It’s killing animals in the wild and even in a zoo.
• And it’s costly to humans in the dollars and cents sense of the word too.
• In the United States, state governments spends millions of dollars (yes, millions) each year picking up garbage.
• They also drive millions of miles each year to collect that trash. Think of all of the gas that is used to fuel their trucks!

If we all did our part and picked up after ourselves and others — including our DOGS — (and for the love of God, try to stay away from those “convenient” individually-wrapped foods in the first place) we could make a big impact.

If you complete the Pick Up Garbage Act, you’ll be well on your way to completing 3 Acts of Green which will earn you an entry into the 3 to Green Contest where one very lucky winner will receive a $5,000 spending spree at BuyGreen.com. To enter for your chance to win, just register and complete three acts of green! It’s that easy! And for every additional three acts of green you register, you’ll earn another entry. Not only will you get a chance to win some cool green stuff, you will be doing your part to clean up the Earth. Our children and our children’s children will thank you for it someday.

As we were on our hike, I paused by the lake to gaze out at the water where I saw ripples — first tiny, then bigger, and bigger, and bigger — which made me think of the ripple effect.

Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. — Scott Adams

Let’s start our own little ripples and see how big they become. :)

Disclosure: Rockfish Interactive, in partnership with Cisco, is compensating me for my considerable time on this project. However, my ideas, words, and opinions are my own and are not influenced by this compensation.

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Bisphenol-A or BPA — a chemical used primarily to make plastics — has been under scrutiny in the United States since 2008 when its safety was called into question. Most recently, a study published Sept. 20 in the online NIH journal Environmental Health Perspectives “suggests exposure to BPA is actually much greater than previously thought and its authors urge the federal government to act quickly to regulate the chemical that is found in baby bottles, food-storage containers and many household products.”

One of the researchers, Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri, said in a news release that the study “provides convincing evidence” that BPA is dangerous and that “further evidence of human harm should not be required for regulatory action to reduce human exposure to BPA.”

According to a New York Times article, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says “it is OK for humans to take in up to 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight each day. The new study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggests that we are exposed to at least eight times that amount every day.”

In August, Canada placed BPA on a toxic-substance list under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The country first banned BPA-containing plastic baby bottles in 2008, “but the new move will see BPA removed from all products on store shelves. As a result, Canada will become the first country in the world to declare BPA as a toxic substance.”

Five states in the USA – Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, New York and Oregon - have limits on BPA, particularly in children’s products, but California state legislature recently failed to pass a bill that would have eliminated BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula cans.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) believes BPA should be legislated on a national level and wants to amend the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act currently under consideration in the Senate to ban BPA from children’s food and beverage containers. However, Republicans and industry representatives are pushing back, saying that research hasn’t conclusively proven that the chemical is harmful. Sen. Feinstein said, “In America today, millions of infants and children are needlessly exposed to BPA. This is unacceptable. If this isn’t a good enough reason to offer an amendment, I don’t know what is.”

What is BPA and Why Should You Care?

Bisphenol-A is “a synthetic estrogen used to harden polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin.” It is found in many plastic containers as well as in the lining of canned goods. According to the Environmental Working Group:

Over 200 studies have linked BPA to health effects such as reproductive disorders, prostate and breast cancer, birth defects, low sperm count, early puberty and effects on brain development and behavior. BPA leaches from containers like sippy cups, baby bottles, baby food and infant formula canisters into the food and drink inside where it is then ingested by babies and children. The CDC found BPA in 93 percent of all Americans. Just last year EWG research revealed BPA in umbilical cord blood of newborns, which demonstrates that babies are exposed to this toxic chemical before they are born.

The Environmental Working Group has some tips to avoid exposure to BPA. Raise Healthy Eaters also has a post about How to Become a BPA-Free Family. Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, a registered dietician, recommends things such as:

• Switching from plastic food storage containers to glass
• Reducing your canned goods use
• Using stainless steel water bottles and more.

Take Action:

If you’d like to urge your Senators to support the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act and Senator Feinstein’s amendment to ban BPA in baby bottles and other children’s products, you may send them an email.

Related Posts:

• Siel, Green LA Girl, recently wrote Why You Should Care About the Food Safety Modernization Act.
• The ZRecs Guide to Safer Children’s Products: The ZRecs Guide collects information about potentially harmful chemicals in a wide range of baby products based on company reporting.
• From TreeHugger: Before you can anymore produce at home you might want to check into BPA-Free Canning Lids which are now available from Tattler.
• From Mommy Footprint: Tupperware & BPA – Two Years Later
• The Soft Landing: Your Guide to Avoiding Endocrine Disruptors

Photo via nerissa’s ring on Flickr

Cross-posted on BlogHer

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Last week I introduced you to a cool project I’m participating in called One Million Acts of Green (OMAOG). If you haven’t yet read my intro post, I invite you to check it out.

Today I want to talk briefly about one of the ways we’ve chosen to “Go Green” in my house and that is by rarely, if ever, eating beef. Here’s a weird but true fact from OMAOG about cows:

Cows are a major contributor to greenhouse gases. As the old adage says, what goes in must come out, and for cattle, a lot of what comes out is methane gas. And just like carbon, methane gas gets trapped in our atmosphere. Since the 1960s, the amount of methane in the air has increased by 1% per year—twice as fast as the build up of carbon dioxide. As worldwide demand for beef increases, so do the number of cows and the methane they produce. Also, in many countries around the world, forests are being clear cut to make room for growing beef. Cutting down trees reduces the planet’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

GO MEATLESS ONE MEAL PER WEEK

• You can decrease the demand for beef by pledging to complete this Act of Green: Eat a Vegetarian Meal This Week.

Also, if you haven’t yet heard of Meatless Monday, you might want to schedule your vegetarian meal of the week for Mondays to coincide with it (and maybe even plan on going meatless for the entire day). Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative (totally unrelated to OMAOG) that provides recipes and info to start each week with healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives. The goal of Meatless Monday is “to help you reduce your meat consumption by 15% in order to improve your personal health and the health of the planet.”

At our house for dinner tonight we had eggs with spinach, salsa and cheese. We tend to eat about 50% of our meals without meat and although I don’t always schedule them to coincide with Meatless Monday, today it just worked out. (In other words, I was feeling lazy and eggs were a quick and easy dinner. *wink*)

If you eat meat, do you take a meal or day (Meatless Monday) off from it each week? If not, would you try it?

• Register at One Million Acts of Green and log your first Act of Green: Eat a Vegetarian Meal This Week. Remember, you can see the impact of each of your Acts of Green. They all add up and will help the United States reach its goal of completing one million acts of green (and beyond!). :)
• For more simple ways to go green, check out Green U: Simple Ways to Be Green (for beginners and experts).

Photo via CALM Action on Flickr.

Disclosure: Rockfish Interactive, in partnership with Cisco, is compensating me for my considerable time on this project. However, my ideas, words, and opinions are my own and are not influenced by this compensation.

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