Green Talk

Photo of the some of the unhappy dwarfs at CHEJ

The other day I caught a glimpse of a television ad featuring young children wishing for a Disney World vacation with the slogan that now there are affordable trips to meet everyone’s budgets. With Christmas vacation fastly approaching, how many parents will crunch the numbers to see if they can afford this type of Magical vacation? It is a paradise for children and a place where adults can re-live their youth.

Is Disney looking out for our little ones best interest when it comes to how they keep the park, restaurants, and hotels clean? According to the Center of Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), Disney’s green cleaning policies are causing the seven dwarfs to be more grumpy, sneezing, and sleepy than usual. For the last two years, CHEJ through its Disney Go Green! Campaign has been urging the Walt Disney Company, whose main clients are children, to reconsider their toxic green cleaning purchasing policies and implement staff green cleaning training to ensure proper use of the products for their parks, hotels, and restaurants. Such policy changes have however, been instituted in the Animal Kingdom to protect the animals.

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I am dreaming of a white Halloween… yeah, that should be the lyric from good old Bing Crosby. No I am not crazy.  It actually snowed in New Jersey yesterday in OCTOBER and we had flurries today.  Everyone was in shock.  Is this just another climate change scenario?  Or does it confirm that  climate change is a bunch of hooey?

Personally, I think snow in October in New Jersey is just weird. Period.  Gut feeling?  Something is amiss.  So, I decided to call Rutger’s University and talk with one of the meteorologists.

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Photo by underclassrising

This month at the Green Mom’s carnival at the Best of Mother Earth’s blog, the topic is gratitude.  It was a given that I was grateful for the small things in life, my family and friends, and just life in general.  But was this all I was grateful for? When I dug deeper, I realized that I was grateful for being born with the gift of six senses and imagination.

The Gift of Sight

If I had to pick one sense that I rely on the most, it would be the gift of sight.  I am a visual learner, and have relied on this sense my whole life.  I have used this sense to learn as well as interpret people.  Auditory learning was always hard for me. Don’t try and spell your email address to me, since I always get it wrong.  When my children were small, I hated when other mothers would spell words to me so their kids could not understand what they were saying.  I never got it.  Even accents throw me.  I can’t even go to a movie where the actors have English accents unless you want me to interrupt every five minutes with “what did they say?”

I am so thankful for the gift of sight since it allows me to interpret my world.

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I am so excited that I have finally added a forum to the site. But this forum is no ordinary forum thanks to the creators of Ning. I have my very own facebook-like network for Green Talk.  Yes, really. No kidding. I know you all are so excited you are asking someone to pinch you. Gosh, I don’t blame you. I am pretty excited myself. (I think I already said that.)

I have added some groups such as Green Mamas, Green Papas, Green Builder lovers, and Organic Gardeners.  Anyone can add a group.  For example if you want to form a group for baby boomers, alternative energy lovers, Fashionistas, Garage Sale lovers, or Good Guy afficionados, go for it.

You can post your own blogs for everyone to see, put your own personal blog in the RSS feed, and upload pictures and videos. There is even a chat function so you can talk amongst yourselves!

The best part of this site is you can start discussions so everyone can help.  Discussions are posted right on the front page.   If you want to start a discussion how to make more money on your blog, or which dog food does everyone like,  add it.  I will be watching the discussions,  and am hoping someone creates a wordpress plug-in so everyone can see the discussions right on the front page of Green Talk.  (If there is one, please tell.)

I have always said that Green Talk is a community helping each other.  My articles are merely a place to start a dialog.

So, sign in just like Facebook and create your own personal page.    Then grab a badge for your site, invite your friends, and encourage others to join.  Start Green Talking…

Just make my day, okay?

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I am a perfectionist when it comes to how my cooking pans look. It is almost like a not so gleaming pan is a reflection of me. (I know. Therapy is available for us perfectionist types.)  I especially dislike heat rings which look like rainbows in your pans. For years, I have been using Revere Stainless Steel cleaner to remove the rings.  Although, I love the product, my carbon footprint has unnecessarily increased from my obsession, not to mention the green that has gone down the drain.

Here are my carbon footprint associated with my compulsion:

• The bottle is plastic.  We all know what makes up plastic. Petroleum.
• Even though I try and wash out the empty bottle well (using a lot of water), when it gets to recycling, do they chuck it because I did not do a good job?
• In order to use the product, you have to wash and dry your pot first.  Then you have to apply the creme, and thereupon wash the pot again. More water.
• You should shake the product before use. If you don’t pretty soon you are left with just a pasty solution.  I bet most people throw it away at that point.  I stick my finger in and scoop some out for my pot.
• I can’t seem to find the product in stores anymore.  (Maybe people have lives and don’t care about gleaming pots?) Anyway, I have to order it online.  Does this increase my carbon footprint? Packaging materials, traveling miles, gasoline, carbon dioxide emissions, paper, etc.
• Who knows about the chemicals in the product, although the bottle says it is nontoxic and biodegradable.

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Please watch this video sent to me by Sommer Poquette of Green and Clean Mom.  She is taping Jess of the Green Phone Booth and Jennifer of Smart Mama.  Jess has just handed Jennifer her brass keys to test for lead and other carcinogenic materials. A lot of parents give their kids a set of keys to play with.  Many kids suck on them as well.

 Jennifer tests household decor and products for toxic chemicals especially children toys with her XFR gun.  You will be surprised when she tests the keys and Sommer’s purse.

What do you think Jennifer found? Lead.  She explains that NO lead level is safe for kids.

And how about Sommer’s purse which is made out of PVC? Lead again.  My favorite part is after Sommer learns her purse has lead in it, she questions Jennifer how she should she dispose of it.  Jennifer calmly tells Sommer to take it to her county hazardous waste center.  Now, I would like a video of that! To paraphrase Jess, that would raise an eyebrow or two!

Check out Jennifer’s website about her availability to test your home for toxic materials especially toys.  (Read my article about toxic toys.)  Thanks, Sommer for providing us with this video.

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Photo by permission of Tim O’Brien

I recently received an email from Shannon inquiring about other green furniture stores in Calgary.

“Hello, I am doing a 3rd year university business plan on opening an environmental furniture shop here in Calgary. I was wondering if you may have any useful information for me about who may be a competitor (was unable to find any major ones in this area) who you think would be interested in these types of products and any other information that you would consider when opening a shop such as this.
thank you muchly!
Shannon

Since I am not from this area, I am reaching out to my readers and asking them for some advice for Shannon.  I am not aware of any furniture competitor in Calgary, but do know about some eco-friendly Canadian furniture companies. They are as follows:

•  Pure Furniture Design by Ami McKay with offices in Vancouver and sold throughout Canada, United States, and online.
• Upholstry Arts  located in Vancouver, British Columbia. and sold directly through the company.
• Durante Furniture with offices in  New Westminster, British Columbia, and sold throughout the US and Canada.
•  Eco Furniture   with offices in Victoria, British Columbia, and sold directly through the company.

Please add to my list.

Readers, can you help out Shannon?

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Michael McDonough is an award winning architect who has been involved in the green building industry for over thirty years.  I have been following him since he started e-house, an experimental house of the future built in the Hudson Valley in NY.  Okay, I admit it. I have been a groupie of his for about 6 years.

 Many may know him for his book that he co-authored with Michael Braungart called Cradle to Cradle, “a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design.”

The video above is about 9 minutes long, but chalk full of commentary from topics such as global warming to locally grown food.  This video is produced by Sub-zero and Wolf as part of a web documentary series featuring the leaders in kitchen design.  At one point in the video, he speaks about the e-kitchen, which was voted by Wired magazine to be “the coolest room on the Planet.”   Here is a video  about that kitchen. 

After, you watch this video, let me know your thoughts about the video.  Did you like it? If so, what was your favorite parts. 

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It is that time of year when the fundraisers roll out for the schools since Christmas is right around the corner. How many of your schools offer the old wrapping paper fundraiser?

This year I received my timely Innisbrook holiday fundraiser with a new twist.  A Recycle, Reuse, and Conserve money collection Envelope (see picture above) with a nifty caption of

“Did you know this envelope is made from recycled Paper?  There are a lot of ways you can help keep our world green?”

I read the envelope and started to shake my head, with disbelief. How could a product fundraiser company give me advice to go green when they were asking me to buy more paper products?  With catchy phrases of “Don’t just Recycle-Reuse!” and “Unscramble these words to see what trees do for us,”  I became incensed.

That’s it, my militant green-self exclaimed. I am going to write about this blatant green washing with the “be green” envelope and the not so green products.  I figured the catalog would be full of beautiful wrapping paper, that is made from wood pulp, that ultimately finds its way  to the trash in the same amount of time or less than it took to wrap the gift.  Hopefully, it is being recycled (without the tape…)

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In previous articles, I have filled you on the green building elements added to Twin Maples Centennial Show House in Summit, New Jersey to make it more energy efficient as well as the green glam in the Main House. My last installment deals with the green jewel, the Carriage House pictured above. The Carriage House is decked out in green design from its head to its toes.

The bottom floor contained vintage and antiques boutiques with one of a kind finds from Bonny Kielty Neiman Antiques and Interiors (see picture above) and The Muddy Boot, among others.

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