Eve’s top 10 ways to Curb Climate Change

The Internet is now blooming with tips on ways to help curb climate change.  This trend is reflective of an exciting change in our thought patterns!  Please read on for a snapshot of Eve's top 10:

1. Forgo Flesh Foods. According to a 2006 United Nations report, Animal Agriculture has outpaced the transportation sector as the number one climate change contributor.
2. Bypass the Byproduct. Kin of the meat industry is the dairy industry.  Consuming animal byproducts supports its evil cousin,  planet scorching animal agri-business.
3. See the Sinister Side of Seafood. The near-depletion of certain fish species, dead zones, coral bleaching, mammals such as whales and dolphins going kamikaze on our beaches... skip the seafood.  Besides, it's largely contaminated with mercury.  And now that you're a vegan,
4. Share your earth-friendly diet with others and create your own support network.  Our culture values it's traditional and familiar habits.  By sharing with others the beneficial knowledge of choosing plant based foods, you are creating a supportive atmosphere for positive change for yourself, your friends and family and for the entire planet!
5. Buy Organic, Support Organic whenever possible.  The health of our soil determines the quality of our food, which determines the quality of our heath!   In recent years we have seen the demand for organic food and goods rise dramatically. Sometimes, when I pass the organic produce section of my local Wal-mart, I silently thank the persons who supported organic goods before me, who paid the higher prices and led retailers to provide better options and drop organic prices.
6. Drive a hybrid. The transportation sector is the second largest contributor to climate change.
7. Plant trees. Trees absorb carbon.  Preserving forests is just as important, also trees help mitigate the effects of local climate related disasters by holding on to soil, absorbing the impact of waves, winds, etc.
8. Take your head out of the sand. Climate change is frightening, let's look our fears in the eye.
9. Green your thinking. Take the time to consider the impacts of every small choice.  Also, think positive!  We'll get through this, with a lot of hard work, together.
10. Have faith. Whatever your's is, now is the time to have it.

Breastfeeding is good for the environment too!

There are many important decisions to make when preparing for your new baby.  Numero uno on the eco-mamma's list of concerns is preserving the stability of our planet which will be her lifetime home.  In years past environmental issues have taken a back seat to seemingly more pressing concerns, but with climate change creating rampant chaos around our globe, the integrity of our atmosphere has found itself a seat at the head of the table.

As with most modern comforts, there are hidden environmental costs to the most accepted form of feeding your baby.  Bottle feeding is so widely practiced that it's almost expected of each new mother, that she will give her baby formula from a bottle: synthetic mother's milk from a pretend breast nipple.  It seems a little strange when you stop to ponder it, but let's really dig deep, shall we?

I was just reading that the average bottle-fed baby will go through 8-10 cans of formula per month.  Even at $25 per can, that's a couple hundred bucks a month at least...wow.  Well, that's hard on the pocket book, but let's take a look from the earth's viewpoint:

• The base of most formula begins it's journey inside a non-organically fed dairy cow's painfully enlarged udder.  After consuming 30 gallons of water and 100 lbs of grains each day, some of her milk may be reserved to make formula for human babies.  First the milk is heat pasteurized to kill any offending bacteria the antibiotics might have missed, which also kills the enzymes that would have benefited her calf (or the human baby) in digesting her milk. The milk is then dehydrated and enriched with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids (if you buy the more expensive kind) and all the other healthy things that human mother's milk naturally contains.  The powdered formula is then packed in cans (most likely) lined with BPA, a known hormone disruptor that may leach into the product.  The packed cans are shipped by carbon emiting diesel trucks to the local grocery store.  The new parents will purchase the formula on their weekly shopping trips, bring it home, mix it with sterile water and put it into sterilized (maybe plastic) bottles which will be slightly warmed by some means of energy production before being fed to the hungry baby.  Whew!
   
  
• While there are some soy formulas and some "organic" cow's milk formulas, the majority of baby formula has a conventional cow's milk base.  All cows produce methane; a greenhouse gas which is 260 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming our atmosphere.
   
  
• Another environmental concern is that of water shortage.  It takes 2,000 gallons of fresh water to produce just 1 gallon of cow's milk., when considering the amount of water she drinks as well as the amount needed to grow her food.  (Source: Natural News)
   
  

Now, barring any unforseen circumstances... baby can count of a constant supply of nutrition.  But, as we have in recent times, global warming has made it hard to pedict our Earth's behaviours.  What if there is a natural disaster in your area?  What if the water treatment plant shuts down and the stores sell out of bottled water?  What if there is a problem with the transportation that delivers the packed formula?  What if you or your family becomes stranded in a vehicle or even in your own home for an unspecified amount of time?

It's been two years since, but I'm still inspired by the story of Kati Kim, a mother who kept her baby and 4 year old daughters healthy and well for 9 days while trapped in a snowbound car in the wilderness.  When they were rescued, the trio was in excellent condition given their ordeal. (Source: abc News)

My obviously strong position on the matter of breastfeeding is this:  I feel that all women should be given unlimited educational and personal support to protect the nursing relationship between mother and baby.  I have found in my conversations about breastfeeding that most women want to nurse or try to nurse their baby at first but many don't continue due to lack of support.

I've  learned to type one-handed as my free arm frequently cradles my 15 month old nursling.  All children are creatures of habit.  Mine have an impulsive need for attention as soon as I sit down to write.  For the youngest, this means climbing into my lap for a little nurse and nap session.  He must get that snuggle-down feeling as soon as he hears the click-clack of the keyboard.  Sweet dreams, little guy.

By the way, I really regret that delivering information is such a somber mission somtimes.   Unfortunatly though, we are inheriting a system permiated with short-sightedness.  For environmentally conscious persons who are trying to live life in a more simple and sustainable way... the art of inspecton can be a dampering ordeal.  When it comes to children though, and their safety, their futures, their right to purity; I try to speak up whenever possible.  Thanks for listening!

Trim A Tree For Wildlife

Who is the one person you would never want to play in a poker game?  Martha Stewart...? Me too!  I just can't read her.  She's got a perpetual-poker face.  Or maybe it's that with her amount of croissant-capital she could clean me out of mydough in a single bluff.  However, despite her intimidating wealth and impenetrable exterior, when I open the pages "A Martha Stewart Christmas", I feel we are twin souls.  I've been called the "younger, funnier, vegan-version of Martha Stewart"... okay, only once... and by me.

For many people, the holiday meals are all about the bird.  We love birds!  Especially my young son, who, thanks to Martha's instructions on how to decorate a tree for wildlife, has made this craft a yearly tradition of providing local winter birds with their own holiday meal.

Tangent alert: My son's infatuation with birds began two Easters ago when he received a basket of plastic eggs filled with treats.  After emptying the treats out onto the floor, he nestled them back into his grass-filled basket and carried them around with him for the entire day.  This was also the grand opening week of our local IKEA store and our first visit as a family: Pregnant Mommy, Daddy, Son, and basket of "Baby Eggs".  A year and a half later, he still checks in on his baby eggs and pretends that they will someday hatch.(more on this heartwarming tale in the spring.) End tangent.

For now, it's almost winter and cold enough outside to slow the activity of our favorite feathered entertainers.  So, to show our appreciation for their delightful presence, we strung up popcorn and decorated the blue spruce outside our window.  And per Martha's advice, we also filled little orange-halve-baskets with birdseed and hung them from the tree with biodegradable (hemp) string.  Then we rolled pine cones in peanut butter and then again in more birdseed which we also hung with hemp on the tree branches.  My favorite and most colorful decorations though, were dried fruit slices (apples and oranges) that we strung up and used to garland our wildlife gift tree!  We dried our own fruit slices in the Excalibur, but if you don't have a food dehydrator, a low oven setting will work fine.

I'm sure your family will enjoy giving this gift to your local winter birds.  But, don't be disgruntled if a sticky-toed squirrel snatches your orange cup and high-tails it (oh, that's what that means!) across the yard, up the neighbors ramp fence and out of sight, because... wouldn't you?

More instructions on decorating trees for wildlife can be found here.