Dr. Ravi Gupta thinks hospitals need to become a lot more environmentally friendly. Hospitals and outpatient practices use a lot of energy and waste a lot of materials. Doctors tend to be focused on patient care rather than caring for the environment. Hopefully, that is starting to change. Dr. Gupta, a physician practicing hospital medicine […]
Greening Hospitals: One Doctor's Efforts Read More 👉
Will Allen, former pro basketball player, founded Growing Power to help low-income people in Milwaukee and Chicago grow their own food locally. He will now have an extra $500,000 to help his efforts. The MacArthur Foundation announced yesterday that they will honor his work with one of their 25 annual ‘genius’ grants–a five-year grant
Urban Farmer Wins MacArthur Genius Grant Read More 👉
Hurricane Ike battered Texas, causing untold damage for millions of home-owners in Houston and Galveston. But some people in Chicago had a pretty bad weekend, too. After raining all day on September 13 and 14, the Windy City became the flooded city. The far-reaching tendrils of the hurricane dumped 9 inches of rain in less
Hurricane Ike Soaks Chicago Read More 👉
If you are an American reading this post, you probably emit 10,000 pounds of carbon ever year into the environment. Would you like to improve that statistic? Then join the power of 10. This grass-roots organization is based on a simple idea: it encourages individuals to reduce carbon emissions by 2,000 pounds each year and
Tell Ten People To Cut Their Emissions Read More 👉
It’s a bang-up baseball season here in the Windy City. With both the Cubs and the Sox in first place (hopefully my writing this won’t jinx my home teams), everyone is talking about baseball almost as much as we are talking about our favorite son (Obama) and attendance at the ballparks is at capacity. Adding
Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie, and Recycling? Read More 👉
After leaving Ontario last month, we drove to Lake Placid, NY, to spend several days enjoying the lakes and mountains of upstate New York. We looked forward to a little hiking, maybe a few lake swims, but nothing really prepared us for the excitement of totally compostable toilets.
The Adirondacks: Rest, Relaxation, and Compostable Toilets Read More 👉
I did not drive at all on Monday. If you live in New York City, London, Paris, or on Mackinac Island, and you either have access to a great subway system or cars are banned from your small island, going for 24 hours without driving is not a big deal. But here in Chicagoland, despite a
My Day Without Driving: A Reader Challenge Read More 👉
Why is it so easy to be green in Canada? I spent the first night of my summer vacation in a bed-and-breakfast in Toronto with my family. (Yes, I blogged while on vacation. That’s what happens when free wireless is available everywhere and you have obsessive-compulsive disorder.) We drove from Chicago in our Toyota Camry.
Oh, Canada: We Are Green With Envy Read More 👉
My husband and I are quite pleased with our brand-new king size mattress. It’s firm, yet comfy, and because we also indulged in some new down pillows, we are sleeping much better these days. But what should we do with the old mattress? I know the mattress delivery company removes it, but I am sure
We Have a New Mattress–How Do I Recycle The Old Mattress? Read More 👉
Henry’s Farm, a local organic farm that brings a wide range of produce every week to my local farmer’s market, stirred the pot a bit lately when they asked shoppers to byob, or pay $0.25 for a biodegradable bag to tote their produce home. BYOB? It stands for Bring Your Own Bag.
BYOB Stirs Controversy Read More 👉
It’s summer, and you are sitting outside on the Great Lawn of Central Park, listening to a concert in New York City. You are surrounded by friends, you are enjoying a delicious picnic, and the music is great. The only way to improve this event would be to devise a smarter way for you and the thousands of
Recycling at Outdoor Concerts: Wecycle Has a Better Idea Read More 👉
I admit, I am not an extreme recycler. But I am trying to recycle more and encourage others to do the same. It just takes a little creativity. A few weeks ago, I helped my 9-year-old daughter host a lemonade stand to raise money for her teen-age baby sitter’s annual service trip to Costa Rica. We
Mini Extreme Recycling: What Are You Doing? Read More 👉
If you drive an SUV, the easiest way to cut your carbon footprint drastically is pretty clear: ditch the gas-guzzling monster. But what do you do with a large car you no longer want? Tune in to onefewer.com starting today, to find out. Ryan Mickle spent $60,000 on his Range Rover Sport in 2006. He
An SUV Vanishes: OneFewer.com Makes it Happen With Your Input Read More 👉
As I mentioned in a previous post, more and more urban dwellers are growing their own produce. As fuel prices rise, inflation sets in, and corn becomes scarce, starting and expanding a home garden becomes more than just a fun past-time; it offers an opportunity for food security. Here’s how Pamela Price of Texas describes
Growing Your Own: Another Victory Garden Read More 👉
A few months ago, I watched some members of my community prepare a garden in the alley behind their house. As of mid-July, they have created a veritable produce stand as raspberries, Swiss chard, peppers, and cucumbers are flourishing. Dinner, anyone?
Hidden Victory Garden #1 Read More 👉
We do. In the Great Lakes region that includes the upper Midwest and parts of southern Canada, we have the largest fresh water system on earth. Did you want to start siphoning off our water and selling it to China? Not so fast…
I am still waiting to hear back from a spokeswoman at the USDA to find out the answer to the question I posed last week: who is in charge of protecting us from crops affected by flood water? In the meantime, I got an alert from the Centers for Disease Control about contaminated water in
Iowa Flood Waters Contaminated Read More 👉
Farming near a river bed is a great idea until it floods. Soil near riverbeds tends to be more fertile, producing more abundant crops. But when the river beds flood and drench contiguous farm land, the water can drag unwanted contaminants to the farmland, exposing health risks to anyone eating the crops from the flooded
Contaminants in Flood Waters Threaten Food Part I: Who is Watching? Read More 👉
It’s not even summer on the calendar yet, and the temperature has already topped 100 degrees on several occasions in New York City. According to the Centers for Disease Control, global warming leads to more heat emergency days. In addition to the discomfort, increased need for air conditioning that strains the electrical grid in any
Hot Fun in the City? Read More 👉