Ideas for Environmentally Sustainable Living
January 8, 2009 10:20 PM Subscribe
Eartheasy is about sustainable living. It offers information, activities and ideas which help us live more simply, efficiently and with less impact on the environment.
Enhance your backyard, create a fun project for the family and contribute to local wildlife conservation - develop your own Backyard Wildlife Habitat. Young children especially can learn the basics of nature appreciation through their own window into the natural world.
"This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change." -- Barack Obama, Nov. 4, 2008. Here are six ways we can start building a sustainable future for ourselves and the world.
Compost is the single most important supplement you can give your garden soil. Composting is a simple way to add nutrient-rich humus which fuels plant growth and restores vitality to depleted soil.
One-pot cooking used to be the exclusive domain of bachelors, campers and college students just moved away from home. Here are a few variations on the "one-pot" theme, which broaden the possibilities for creative cuisine, while maintaining the simplicity and energy savings of one-pot cooking.
The cost of clothing goes way beyond the price tag. The environment is impacted by the growing of fibers for textiles, the manufacture and distribution of clothing, and even the care and maintenance of garments. Here are some tips to help reduce the environmental costs of clothing.
The World War II home front was the most important and broadly participatory green experiment in U.S. history. Is it a model we should use today?
You can also visit the Eartheasy Shop to find products suitable for energy efficiency, water conservation, composting, gardening, food security, natural lawn care and pest control, and lighting.
Enhance your backyard, create a fun project for the family and contribute to local wildlife conservation - develop your own Backyard Wildlife Habitat. Young children especially can learn the basics of nature appreciation through their own window into the natural world.
"This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change." -- Barack Obama, Nov. 4, 2008. Here are six ways we can start building a sustainable future for ourselves and the world.
Compost is the single most important supplement you can give your garden soil. Composting is a simple way to add nutrient-rich humus which fuels plant growth and restores vitality to depleted soil.
One-pot cooking used to be the exclusive domain of bachelors, campers and college students just moved away from home. Here are a few variations on the "one-pot" theme, which broaden the possibilities for creative cuisine, while maintaining the simplicity and energy savings of one-pot cooking.
The cost of clothing goes way beyond the price tag. The environment is impacted by the growing of fibers for textiles, the manufacture and distribution of clothing, and even the care and maintenance of garments. Here are some tips to help reduce the environmental costs of clothing.
The World War II home front was the most important and broadly participatory green experiment in U.S. history. Is it a model we should use today?
You can also visit the Eartheasy Shop to find products suitable for energy efficiency, water conservation, composting, gardening, food security, natural lawn care and pest control, and lighting.
Clicking around on their site, my first impression is some pretty thin content wrapped around their online store. The articles I read were really short and fluffy, not much meat on those bones.
It's sort of like the hippy-capitalist version of the earnest magazines my parents subscribed to back in the 1970s, without any of the discomfiting political pieces that the post-Watergate era loved so much. This is feel-good ecologicalism, which has its place I guess, but isn't really my thing.
posted by Forktine at 11:24 PM on January 8, 2009 [1 favorite]
It's sort of like the hippy-capitalist version of the earnest magazines my parents subscribed to back in the 1970s, without any of the discomfiting political pieces that the post-Watergate era loved so much. This is feel-good ecologicalism, which has its place I guess, but isn't really my thing.
posted by Forktine at 11:24 PM on January 8, 2009 [1 favorite]
Hey, thanks for the book recommendation Pants!, I just ordered it, looks ace.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:42 AM on January 9, 2009
posted by Happy Dave at 3:42 AM on January 9, 2009
Pants! - do they talk about container gardening any or is it primarily using land?
posted by collocation at 6:20 AM on January 9, 2009
posted by collocation at 6:20 AM on January 9, 2009
"One-pot cooking used to be the exclusive domain of bachelors, campers and college students just moved away from home."
...."Exclusive"? Since when?
Have these people never heard of bigos? cassoulet? bouillabaisse? chili? ratatouille? jambalaya? Coq au vin? What are those if not "one pot cooking"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 AM on January 9, 2009
...."Exclusive"? Since when?
Have these people never heard of bigos? cassoulet? bouillabaisse? chili? ratatouille? jambalaya? Coq au vin? What are those if not "one pot cooking"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 AM on January 9, 2009
Container gardening is discussed to some degree, but mostly around barrels cut in half. I don't have the book in front of me (loaned it out) but I remember that it encourages using plants that grow back on their own every year or using aquaculture.
posted by Pants! at 7:19 AM on January 9, 2009
posted by Pants! at 7:19 AM on January 9, 2009
The book that Pants mentions is done by the folks at Rhizome Collective, based out of Austin, TX. Check em out if you're ever in town.
posted by symbollocks at 7:54 AM on January 9, 2009
posted by symbollocks at 7:54 AM on January 9, 2009
It sounds all very nice for yuppies living out in the suburbs with their own house...not so practical for those of us who live in apartments. That said, here's my suggestions for all these baby boomers to really reduce their carbon footprint.
Disconnect your electricity completely. When it gets dark enough, just go to bed. Likewise, when it gets too cold. And for extra heat, bundle the entire family into a single bed.
Disconnect your water heater. If cold water was good enough for 90% of human history, it's good enough for us.
Stop cooking your food, and stop eating meat. Raw vegetables and raw tofu are good enough, if you eat quickly.
Stop washing your clothes. That's a HUGE waste of water.
Stop washing yourself more than once a week. I have it on authority from a hippy that our obsession with things like soap and deodorants are a corporate conspiracy, designed to keep us from revelling in the natural scent of our body.
Walk to work. Sure it may take five or six hours one way in the beginning, but once you build up your endurance, you'll be able to cut your time in half.
There, that's a start. For the advanced lesson, we'll work on making your own adobe house.
posted by happyroach at 10:00 AM on January 9, 2009
Disconnect your electricity completely. When it gets dark enough, just go to bed. Likewise, when it gets too cold. And for extra heat, bundle the entire family into a single bed.
Disconnect your water heater. If cold water was good enough for 90% of human history, it's good enough for us.
Stop cooking your food, and stop eating meat. Raw vegetables and raw tofu are good enough, if you eat quickly.
Stop washing your clothes. That's a HUGE waste of water.
Stop washing yourself more than once a week. I have it on authority from a hippy that our obsession with things like soap and deodorants are a corporate conspiracy, designed to keep us from revelling in the natural scent of our body.
Walk to work. Sure it may take five or six hours one way in the beginning, but once you build up your endurance, you'll be able to cut your time in half.
There, that's a start. For the advanced lesson, we'll work on making your own adobe house.
posted by happyroach at 10:00 AM on January 9, 2009
Seconding forktine, it's a one-man (hippie) magazine around a webshop. Pity about a good idea. Now here's an article from the Guardian to fit the bill of the 'discomfiting political piece' the lack of which ft bemoaned. It's by Monbiot, have fun.
posted by yoHighness at 5:33 PM on January 9, 2009
posted by yoHighness at 5:33 PM on January 9, 2009
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posted by Pants! at 11:20 PM on January 8, 2009