Read 'n' Seed 2: First quarter of "Trash Talk"

Chapters and pages

            I read part one of my book, pages 1-85.

 Main topics

            Bags, brushes, brooms, carpets, cereal, cloth, conta, dryer sheets, for the birds, furniture, glass, hangers, metals, nylons, oven racks, plastic rings, rods and handles, soap, styrofoam, the garden, tires, and trashy bits. My book is about reusing the things listed above after their main purpose of use. An example is for dryer sheets to be more eco-friendly you can use only half a dryer sheet at a time, and reuse it more then once. This saves on buying dryer sheets by a significant amount.

 Things learned & Terminology 

                  I learned that for all the items listed above there is more then one way to reuse it again, or indefinitely. For example benefits tires have are reusing to prevent erosion along waterways, construct dams, homes, and roofing using tires, create activity areas, swings, and sport training tools, save money by building your own miniature gardens and compost piles. I didn’t really learn any new terminology yet, but maybe in the next part of the book I will.

 Implications

    This would affect our society because we would be saving are scarce resources which means to reuse are resources until we can’t. Also items listed above are things that people use once and throw away, and waste money on. If they would take the ideas in this book reuse them, they would save on purchasing things like garbage bags, or dryer sheets. We should care because these things we are throwing away are just sitting in landfills, and we don’t have very much room left. People should be more informed on how to save and reuse these items, from maybe putting it on the labels of the items or just print more knowledge. This book and the reusing of these items reminds me of my grandma, she reuses everything until it falls apart, she learned this from the Great Depression and not having anything, and making things last as long as they could. Reusing these items will benefit our society and our environment. 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

My smart goal was to use re-usable a bags every time I went grocery shopping, and to Target. I have been very successful! I keep a bag in my car at all times, I just have to keep remembering to grab it! 

I went to Target this week as well as the grocery store and both times I used my re-usable Target bag! Keeping a bag in my car at all times helps me be successful and remember to use it. Other challenges that might come later will be trying to remember to put it in my car as well as use it.

It felt really rewarding to use my own bag for my things! I felt super eco-friendly when I pulled out my bag and said here I have a usable bag for my things! It made me think why doesn’t everyone do this? I think they should get rid of plastic and paper and make everyone use re-usable bags, Target a big corporation could do this, because I feel like it wouldn’t stop people from shopping there. It would also be very eco-friendly!

I learned if you buy a re-usable bag at Target you get .50 cents off of your entire purchase!! I know its not a lot but if was awesome! Not only can you help your environment if can save you money in the long run! It cost a dollar to purchase a re-usable bag and using it two times at Target you already made that money back! Very cool!

My plan for next week and weeks ahead is the same strategy that I have been using. Make sure to keep it in my car and every time use the re-usable bag when I go to the grocery store or Target. I really like my lifestyle change and think it’s achievable as it is.


"Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy." Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2" Amy's blog URL  "Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy" 

Eye Opener: CSPI

1. Score Your Diet
   ...http://www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen/score.html
1.  Health Score 12, Environmental Score -25, and Animal Welfare -21 My overall was -34 which on the website was uh-oh, i need help! 
2. I scored the highest on fruit and vegetables. These are higher because fruits and vegetables are grown naturally and not from an animal. They did have a negative number in the environmental area because of air and water pollution, and overuse of fertilizer also others. 
3. I scored the lowest on milk/yogurt and cheese. This is very accurate because I eat a lot of these! This is bad that I scored on these because they were negative in all areas of health, environmental and animal welfare. 
4. I need to improve in all areas. I can try to eat more things that are natural or organic. Underneath a couple of ares you could pick different things like lean beef/pork or free range poultry. Also fat free dairy, or low fat cheese you could pick from as well. I am going to try to work in those areas of eating that kind of beef, poultry, dairy and cheese. It might take time but I think I can do it. 
2. Summary
1. I think eating green is important, but I never thought about. I never thought the way I ate was hurting the environment, or animals. I could change some things, but I don't know if i will change every thing that I eat. I think that it would be hard to do that. I do have a friend who is vegan, but I don't really believe in only eating organic and non-animal products. If I looked more into it and found evidence that eating better like organic is better for our environment I would look more into it. 

Reflection Post: Week 3 & 4

Week three we met with steve for 15 minuets to go over our blog to see what we were missing. I found that my blog looked good, but needed to make a signature to end my posts. I also found out how to do a post and schedule it on time for monday, wednesday, and friday. Which is very helpful, because I can get all my posts done for the week and not have to worry!

Week four I learned more about blogging by playing a game in class! I knew most of the questions but the ones I didn't know I do now! It was very helpful. We also watch the movie by Al Gore called the Inconvenient Truth. I learned how and what global warming is. The movie was an eye-opener to what is happening to the planet and how we are all contributing to it. The biggest impact in the movie to me was when Al Gore talked about Hurricane Katrina and other huge global disasters that have happened and it is due to global warming. Scientist predicted these huge disasters and people ignored it, maybe next time they will look more into what scientist predict. I also learned that the earth is heating up and that means warmer ocean which means worse weather. I also remember hearing that one day places like San Francisco and Florida will be under water due to Greenland and Antarctica melting. Every since I saw the movie and have been talking about it to all of my friends and telling them about what is happening. I am very glad to be more informed and to inform others!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

My smart lifestyle goal is to keep 1 re-usable bag in my car and I will use that 1 re-usable bag every time I go shopping, either grocery or target runs for the next 10 weeks. 

My lifestyle change is eco-chic because I am not wasting plastic bags (resources) every time I go shopping and hurting the environment. I went grocery shopping today and I used 3 plastic shopping bags and the whole time I was thinking about how its going to hurt our earth! 

I chose to do this lifestyle change because, I see others around me using the re-usable bags helping our earth and I should be too. I am only one person but if i start to make one small change like using a re-usable bag it will make a difference. Also, for my read 'n' seed I am looking at the controversy over paper or plastic bags, which one is better for our environment, but even the re-usable bags are better. 

I am excited to start my lifestyle change tomorrow! 




Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy linky party!" Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1"  Then highlight the "Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy" URL for this blog!

Eye-Opener Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is how much resources our lifestyle uses. I never heard about the this footprint before these readings and it is an eye opener to how much of resources you use. Both reading the wikipedia search of ecological footprint and redefining progress made me think of new ways to help our environment and global warming.

I took three different quizzes two with the out come of my ecological footprint as a whole and one with my travel calculator. The first quiz was at http://www.earthday.net/footprint/flash.html it said I would use 4.4 earths, 19.4 global areas with the most in energy and forest land. Then it broke up my footprint into different categories like services, goods, mobility, shelter and food, with my services being the highest of 45%. Looking at this footprint makes me re-think that I am not being very eco-friendly. The second quiz I took was at http://myfootprint.org/en/about_the_quiz/what_it_measures this one said that I would use only 1.50 earths. Also my per capita foot print is 23.47 total of food, housing, goods and services. The last quiz I took was my travel calculator, it asked what kind of car you drive, how many passengers and the places you go like work, school, home, etc. My total carbon dioxide was 1.45 less then average and it said overall that my travel was better than average! I do try to not use my car as much and always car pool with people for long distance travel.

Taking these quizzes defiantly makes me think of how I need to change my ways to help our earth and not hurt it!

Read 'n' Seed 1: Trash Talk and Paper or Plastic

1. I chose two books because they were a little shorter, they are Trash Talk and Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Over Packaged World.

2. Trash talk is about inspiring people to help reduce the amount a waste they produce. It helps people learn new ways to be less wasteful and help our environment/earth become better. In Paper or Plastic it looks at the controversy of always using paper or plastic but also new ways of bagging groceries or whatever else we use them for. In the book the author thinks its pointless to waste are resources making them.

3. I chose these books because these are two topics that everyone is talking about now days. It’s the new way to be eco-friendly. I also would like to share the information that I learn with others, to try and help them make more eco-friendly choices.

4.  Trash Talk:

            1. http://www.amazon.com

            2. http://www.myspace.com/canadianauthor

            3. http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit/

     Paper or Plastic:

1.     http://www.amazon.com

2.    http://www.danielimhoff.com/

3.    http://www.watershedmedia.org/pop_overview.html

5. Trash Talk is about 188 pages and Paper or Plastic is 168. I am thinking of dividing them up with Trash Talk the first and second quarter and then Paper or Plastic the third and forth quarter. This way I will have enough to talk about for each Read 'n' Seed. I will do half of each book for each quarter, because I am not sure how many chapters they are yet.