Blog Action Day 2009 ~ Queen Elizabeth Fights Climate Change . . .

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip at Balmoral. Her Royal Highness has instructed her police bodyguards to trade their gas-guzzling Range Rovers for black mountain bikes whenever possible.

The switch to bicycles is designed to reduce fuel consumption and establish a greener way of guarding the Royal Family during their summer break. The officers are pleased to be getting good workouts and saving fuel at the same time.
This is nothing new for Queen Elizabeth; she started going green more than two decades ago. The main castle's boilers have been converted to burn wood chips instead of oil and she is said to go around Buckingham Palace switching off the lights. Good for her!

The Queen's company, The Crown Estate, has purchased the world's largest offshore wind turbine known as the Britannia project. The company is also involved in the development of offshore windfarms in Scottish waters.

I think it is wonderful that she is so proactive instead of just sitting back and leaving the problem of global warming for Charles to take care of on his watch.

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

Keep working hard to reduce your carbon footprint. We all share the same planet and it's in pretty bad shape right now. Thanks for stopping by the cottage. ♥Rosemary

The Story of Stuff [Video] . . .

I hope you will find the time to watch this fascinating 20-minute animated film by Annie Leonard. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. You can also download the PDF version of The Story of Stuff with footnotes.

The New York Times had a feature article about the film and its creator recently that you will also find interesting.

I've had a link on my blog for The Story of Stuff for quite a long time and it makes me happy whenever someone clicks on it. I was especially distressed to learn how much stuff ends up in the land fills due to planned obsolescence. The kitchen industry is now trying to make us all dislike our stainless appliances in favor of colored ones. I will not fall for this. Mine are only 7 years old and they are just fine, thank you very much!

Thanks for stopping by the cottage today for an eye-opening film. I hope you will share it with your friends. ♥Rosemary

Make your own flower and garden seed starting pots from recycled newspaper . . .

Pot Maker

Use yesterday’s news to start tomorrow’s flower and vegetable seeds. Tear or cut newspaper into 3½" x 10" strips and wrap around the wooden form. No glue needed. Fold the ends under and press the form into the base to make a biodegradable paper pot for seedlings—put the pot right in the ground when it’s time for planting. Makes an unlimited number of starter pots. A fabulous way to demonstrate the regenerative powers of recycling! Use gift wrap to make special snack cups.

I wonder if you could also make cupcake and muffin pan liners using parchment paper?

Every year I say I am going to order one of these wonderful gardening tools and this year I did.

This is sold as a children's toy but it has a place in every household. It is a wonderful thing to teach gardening to children at a young age. The site has many more items too. Click on the photo or link below it to enter.

These would be great for your school and garden club projects. Give one to your mom for Mother's Day and order one for yourself while you're at at.

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Willa Cather quote about land ownership . . .

Willa Cather, American Novelist 1873-1947

Vote Earth! Switch Off Your Lights For Earth Hour . . .

Earth Hour: everyone has a vote. Tonight for one hour 8:30PM - 9:30PM turn off your lights to protest global warming.

Image by Shepard Fairey

This YouTube video is only 31 seconds long. Please watch!



I will be taking part and hope you will too!

Susan Sarandon Video Encourages Civil Disobedience For Capitol Climate Action in Washington, DC on March 2nd

In a new video, actress/activist Susan Sarandon is asking the American public to help stop global warming by participating in Capitol Climate Action — the country’s largest show of civil disobedience about global warming in history.

In the video, Sarandon says: “Civil disobedience can overcome great challenges and global warming is the greatest challenge of our time. On March 2nd, thousands will come together in Washington D.C for a historic protest on the climate crisis. Many will continue our tradition of peaceful, civil disobedience.”

Background: The Capitol Power Plant, which is owned by Congress and sits just blocks from the American seat of power, burns coal to heat and cool numerous buildings on Capitol Hill. The facility no longer generates electricity but its reliance on coal has made it the focus of political controversy and a powerful symbol of coal's impact on the environment and public health.

Please watch the one-minute video below! I predict that this will be BIG.

--> ecorazzi -->The Huffington Post

Boy Designs 'Home Domb Shelter' from Trash . . .

You will love this heartwarming story! Max is my hero.

Twelve-year-old Max Wallack was recently named the winner of Design Squad's Trash to Treasure competition — a contest that inspired kids to repurpose trash into practical inventions.

So just what was the brilliant idea Max came up with? Wallack invented a “Home Dome,” a structure made of plastic bags filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts, designed to serve as a temporary shelter for homeless people and disaster victims. It also would help relieve landfill growth. Max was awarded a $10,000 prize provided by the Intel Foundation, but said: “I don’t really care about the money. I care about helping people.”

This isn’t the first big win for Wallack either! “When I was six,” Max said, “I won an invention contest that included a trip to Chicago. While there, I saw homeless people living on streets, and beneath highways and underpasses. I felt very sorry for these people, and ever since then, felt that my goal and obligation was to find a way to help them. My invention improves the living conditions for homeless people, refugees, or disaster victims by giving them easy-to-assemble shelter.”

Source: ecorazzi via treehugger

Environmental Art | Colored Tree Pencils . . .

Color Pencils, 2006
Artist: Jonna Pohjalainen, Helsinki
Location: Pedvale, Latvia

I used local aspen in my work because of its lively forms and beautiful, grey colour. While you sharpen your pencils you can see time passing by. Colours bring joy and happiness in our everyday life. I chose a place of of my work because of the sunsets. You can sit and meditate near my work and look at the sunsets. Without sun there are no colours and life!

Ansel Adams Environmental Quote (illustrated) . . .

Alice Waters of Chez Panisse ~ Obama Supporter . . .

Heroes of the Environment by Joel Stein ~ It has been a slow 30 years of progress for all environmentalists, but Alice Waters has more right than most to be frustrated. She wasn't asking anyone to install solar panels or convert their engines to run on biofuels — she just wanted people to eat stuff that tastes better. And it wasn't like she was simply making claims that local, organic food tastes great. She was proving it every day at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant she opened in 1971 — a restaurant so good (the James Beard Foundation named Waters America's best chef in 1992 and Gourmet named Chez Panisse America's best restaurant in 2001) that it doesn't even have a menu. You eat what Waters found at the markets that day, and you like it. You really like it.

Waters says she's thrilled that her cooking theories — fresh, local ingredients, simply prepared — have gone mainstream, thanks to health studies and the farmers' market movement. It's much easier to grasp this philosophy of food when you're at the farmers' market, she says. "When people become real and you learn about your compost and how easy it is to make, you feel like you're empowered to do an everyday act that's good for your family and friends and the environment."

While Waters' restaurant and cook-books are credited with launching the locavore movement in the U.S., her Edible Schoolyard project goes one step further. Started in 1994, it encourages students in Berkeley to help grow and shop for their lunches, and it has shown results not just in environmental awareness, but in tackling obesity. Now it's being tried in other cities. "Remember when Kennedy put physical fitness in schools?" Waters asks. "We had to exercise four times a week, and we all went for it. We need that kind of passion. Going into public schools and teaching [children] about the consequences of the food that they eat can have remarkable results."

Waters, 64, is generally hopeful, especially about Barack Obama. "We need a President to speak about the issues of food, nourishment and stewardship," she says, "and I have great hope that will happen." She is also optimistic about the Slow Food movement, which she says is banding nations together to find the best heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables to plant for sustainability and nutrition — and, of course, taste. Because that's how Waters wins any debate about the environment.
Source: Time Magazine (article and photograph)