Children's Association for Nature » World-Changing Actions

Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

Mina — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:19:11 +0000

Says Michael Pollan, journalist and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as his newest book, In Defense of food. These seven words are his guidelines for a healthy diet, but, as he said, his publisher was looking for 60,000 words not a post card.

Fortunately, it is a lot more complicated than that. At the talk I went to which took place on UBC Farm, Pollan pointed out how people who eat for health and are obsessed with their health are less healthy than people who eat for community or identity or pleasure. He also pointed out the connection between healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals and healthy people. The same things that make our environment healthy also are beneficial to our own health. Industry tries to make us eat more so they can sell more food, but in almost any culture you can find some ancient saying warning against this; eat until you are 80% full, eat until you are 75% full, etc. Even the prophet Muhammad said that a full belly is one that is one third food, one third drink, and one third air.

Things you can do to make a difference with food are:

Buy from farmers markets.

Eat food for the food not for the nutrients.

Show corporations that you care by voting with your fork. (making good choices as a consumer when you buy food)

Show your political leaders that you care by voting with your vote too.

Read the book to find out more!

Bike to School Week

Mina — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:15:31 +0000

Or you can walk, run, jog, scooter, skateboard, take transit, unicycle, or skip to school (as opposed to skip school). Encourage your friends and family to do the same, substituting ‘work’ for ’school’ where necessary. The official Bike to Work Week is from May 11 to the 17th, but if you start now you’ll make a bigger difference.

The CAN club at Tyee is starting a poster campaign to try and get as many people in our school as possible to get to school without using cars for a week, and maybe longer. We are coming up with all kinds of neat scoring systems that will add extra motivation. I’ll be back soon with pictures and more details.

Write to a Politician

Mina — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:10:57 +0000

Especially one who is not making people happy, not contributing to world peace, and not truly trying to protect the environment. If they are doing a good job, encourage it. In Elizabeth May’s “How To Be An Activist ” pamphlet, here are four of the ten getting started points, the ones which apply to this sort of activism.

Refuse to be intimidated. If you are told that a subject is too technical or scientific for you to understand, don’t believe it. Elected politicians make these decisions all the time based on general knowledge and their sense of public opinion. The claim of “expert” versus average concerned citizen is inherently anti- democratic and elitist. You may not be an expert. But you can read and understand what experts have to say. Make a note of good quotes (including the source) of expert views concerned with the environment.

Don’t take no for an answer. Be persistent. The squeaky wheel.

Ask lots of questions. Get to the bottom of issues. Do your homework.

Be unfailingly polite. Being persistent is not the same thing as being rude. You may be in this for the long haul, so don’t burn any bridges.

And here are a few things I would like to add:

Use detail. Do not just say “Don’t log the forest. Bye” for example, list all the reasons why the forest should not be logged, and information about species, especially endangered ones, that live there. Use interesting words, lots of description, accurate stats, etc.
Don’t be fooled by greenwashed responses. See my blog post on greenwashing to tell between ‘green’ as in government/corporation propaganda and green as in sustainable.
Don’t always show which ’side’ of the issue you’re on. Usually you’ll get more information if you are not obviously opposing it.
Get more people to write letters. The more letters a politician recieves on a specific issue, the more attention that issue gets.

Good luck !

Spread the Word: Go Green!

Mina — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:28:47 +0000

Email your friends, talk with your family, if people know what’s going on they at lest have an opportunity to do something about it. Just like it says in the first action on the Get Involved page, Inspire Others: “If you inspire one person, you have doubled your positive impact on the planet. If you inspire four people, you have quintupled it. If you inspire 100 people, you are awesome.”

If you CAN, be awesome!

Use Biodegradable Soaps/Cleaners

Mina — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:10:05 +0000

Your dish-and-clothes-washing water goes somewhere! In fact, it sometimes goes into a drinking water source for for both humans and wildlife which is often also a whole wildlife habitat. Sometimes it is filtered and directly re-circulated into the tapwater system. So watch what you put in it.

Also, any soaps/cleaners you use in your home will have an effect on the people living in it. Toxic and synthetic chemicals in cleaners can emit fumes that are health hazards and often smell bad on top of that.

If you feel like you’re too lazy to make your own biodegradable, natural, and environmentally/human friendly soaps and cleaners, Ecover sells them. Otherwise, I will provide you with some recipes I found for household cleaners (no body soaps, though, you’ll have to do your own research on that)

You can make your own dish soaps and household cleaners with a few simple ingredients and recipies that I found in my co-op newsletter, specifically an article about natural cleaning products for a green home by Tanya Petterson. The following ingedients and recipies are in her words with a few very minor changes because I think Tanya put it the best way:

Distilled white vinegar is a deodorizer, disinfectant, preservative and mild acid. It breaks up dirt, grease, mineral deposits, mold, and soap scum.
Baking soda is a deodorizer and gentle scrub. It softens hard water, removes acidic stains, and polishes shiny surfaces like stainless steel without scratching them.
Salt is a great basic scrub that will give you extra cleaning power.
Lemon is a deodorizer, stain remover, and grease cutter. It acts as a mild bleach when exposed to sunlight except it smells way better than normal bleach.
Olive oil helps polish and nourish wood.
Borax is a mild natural alkali used as a water softener, and preservative, aiding in cleansing in cleansers and detergents.
Essential oils such as eucalyptus, lavender, and tea tree are natural disinfectants and antifungals.

RECIPIES:
Lemon-Scented All-Purpose Cleaner
1 tbsp borax
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup hot water
Mix ingredients in a spray bottle (the lemon scent lingers). Use for cleaning bathroom and kitchen surfaces, as well as other water-safe surfaces. Discard any remaining cleaner and make a fresh batch next time.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner
1 cup vinegar
1/2 cup baking soda
Pour the vinegar directly into the toilet bowl and let stand for 30 mins. Sprinkle baking soda onto toilet brush and scour. To keep bowl fresh, pour 1 cup of vinegar into the toilet bowl once a month and let stand overnight.

Furniture Polish
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice
Mix in spray bottle. Spray liberally on wood surfaces and wipe dry.

Drain Cleaner
For slow drains, use this drain cleaner once a week to keep drains fresh and clog free.

1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup white vinegar
1 gallon boiling water
Pour baking soda down the drain, followed by vinegar, and allow mixture to foam for several minutes before flushing the drain with boiling water.

All-Purpose Scrub
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 of a lemon
Coat the lemon with baking soda and scrub with the lemon itself. Use a damp rag to wipe away any residue.

Mold + Mildew
2 cups distilled white vinegar
Pour vinegar into spray bottle and spray on infected area. The smell will dissipate in a few hours (open a window to speed up the process). For areas with persisent mold problems, use tea tree oil instead of vinegar, combining 2 drops of tea tree oil with 1 cup of water in a spray bottle. A natural antiseptic and fungicide will kill most types of mold and help prevent new growth.

All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup baking soda
2 liters water
Mix vinegar and baking soda with the 2 liters of water. Store and keep. Use for removal of water deposit stains on shower stall panels, bathroom chrome fixtures, bathroom mirrors, etc.

Enjoy!

Learn How to Save an Animal

Mina — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:39:46 +0000

Have you ever wondered what to do if you find a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal? You can learn now at:

http://www.wildliferescue.ca/todo.shtml

It’s great to be able to help wild animals. And I’m sure the animals think it’s great too!

We Are What We Do

Mina — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:32:43 +0000

We Are What We do is a “New movement inspiring people to use their everyday actions to change the world.” I bought their book, Change the World for Ten Bucks, and it is really great. I am going to start a series of posts for their actions and for ones I come up with. You can visit their website at:
wearewhatwedo.ca

or suggest an action at:

suggestions@wearewhatwedo.ca

Inspired by this, I decided to start a series of posts for these actions. You can come up with your own actions and post them, too! (but try to make sure there are no number repeats, and please put them in the ‘World-Changing Actions’ category.

Tyee Branch Newsletter #2

Mina — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:30:13 +0000

Click the link to download:

newsletter#2: special edition