A round-up of this week’s environmental, green and ecofriendly news and updates.
Yes, you can win an organic farm! In an amazing giveaway, a $450,000 farm (land, house, gardens and more) can be won just by writing an essay – you can find all the details here.
Four years ago, an overweight, severely asthmatic 10-year-old girl called Alaijah was in New York’s Harlem Hospital Center – she was in the emergency room almost every month. Instead of the usual lecture about diet and exercise, her doctor gave her a prescription – for fresh produce. The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program makes locally grown produce available to people in low-income neighborhoods. After four years in the program, Alaijah’s health has drastically improved. “By the end of the second year, we didn’t have to go to the emergency room. By the end of the third year, she didn’t have to take steroids all year” her mom says. “Eating more fruits and vegetables has helped me when it comes to concentrating with my classes. I can keep up with my friends now,” Alaijah says.
Isn’t it wonderful, what a difference fresh fruit and vegetables can make? (and they’re much more green and ecofriendly than fast food!). I love news like this!
Have you heard of hygge? It’s a Danish word – but it’s a wonderful new trend in both the US and the UK.
It’s all about comfort – see my favourite ways of bringing hygge into your life today.
Some fascinating new studies are showing that babies (less than 1 year old) already have a sense of justice and morality.
What? Isn’t that what parents are supposed to teach them?
Studies have been carried out on human babies, as well as on monkeys and dogs – and guess what? Animals and babies prefer people who are nice, helpful and just!
How do we know this? New Scientist reported that monkeys watched as a person struggled to open a container with a toy inside. The person offered it to a second person who either helped to open the container or refused to help. Then the monkey was offered a treat from both people.
If the second person helped, the monkey accepted the treat from either person. But if help was refused, the monkey chose to take the treat from the person who struggled, not the person who refused to help.
Wow!
Similar tests were carried out on babies. If that sense of fairness and morality is “built-in”, wouldn’t that be good? Because then we humans would protect the planet and the environment. I wonder what we do to children to change that? Or do we?
I think repair cafes are a really cool idea – and they’re now springing up all over the US.
They’re green, they’re free – and they’re strengthening their local communities – now that’s a win-win!
Find out more about repair cafes here.
Global Green News:
For the first time, researchers have developed a mathematical equation to describe the impact of human activity on the earth, says an article from The Guardian. Horrifyingly, it shows that humans are causing the climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces.
Scientists have discovered “extraordinary” levels of toxic pollution in the most remote and inaccessible place on the planet – the 6 mile / 10km deep Mariana trench in the Pacific Ocean. Small crustaceans that live in the trench were contaminated with 50 times more toxic chemicals than crabs that survive in heavily polluted rivers in China. I like to think of the deep ocean as being pristine – like you see it on TV documentaries. Sadly, it’s not.
US Green News:
Here is a great round-up of environmental quotes from past US Presidents:
“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”— Theodore Roosevelt
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”— Franklin D. Roosevelt
“If we’ve learned any lessons during the past few decades, perhaps the most important is that preservation of our environment is not a partisan challenge; it’s common sense. Our physical health, our social happiness, and our economic well-being will be sustained only by all of us working in partnership as thoughtful, effective stewards of our natural resources.”— Ronald Reagan
“‘Environment’ is not an abstract concern, or simply a matter of aesthetics, or of personal taste — although it can and should involve these as well. Man is shaped to a great extent by his surroundings. Our physical nature, our mental health, our culture and institutions, our opportunities for challenge and fulfillment, our very survival — all of these are directly related to and affected by the environment in which we live. They depend upon the continued healthy functioning of the natural systems of the Earth.”— Richard M. Nixon
“We must not only protect the countryside and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities … Once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature, his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.”— Lyndon B. Johnson
“The old rules may say we can’t protect our environment and promote economic growth at the same time, but in America, we’ve always used new technologies — we’ve used science; we’ve used research and development and discovery to make the old rules obsolete.”— Barack Obama
Aren’t these wonderful?
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
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