Strollerderby : green

What They're Babbling About: Bring It On Home

JeanneSager — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:29:00 GMT

Want another helping of our trip around the 'net? As always, we offer up our Friday look at What They're Babbling About:

Tired of tripping over Legos? It doesn't take much convincing that a toy-free room in your house is good for mom and dad. . . if you can convince your kids. - ParentDish

Need a little something to get the girls going (and yes, that's a euphemism guys). Get the breastmilk a flowin' with this list. - LilSugar

Earth Day is every day, so get green with this global craft project - they'll have the whole world in their hands. - Momformation

We have ALL been there - we're finally parents and our parents want to step in and tell us how it's done. Back of Mom! - CafeMom

We've all been here too - moms are addicted to the Internet (er, guilty). So what is it doing to our kids? - Parenting

Get off the computer and get out to the sandbox - and fill it with what? They're building a list, they're making it bigger... - Apartment Ohdeedoh

Image: Momformation

Do Your Kids Walk To School?

Brett Singer — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:10:00 GMT

You know the old joke about how your parents walked to school. Up hill. Both ways. In a snowstorm. (Even in summer.) While being chased by a tiger. A really hungry tiger. (I added the part about the tiger.)

Well, with child obesity rates on the rise, maybe it's time to pull that old chestnut out of mothballs.

What prompted all this? Well, April 8 is National Start! Walking Day, sponsored by the American Heart Association. (Oh, don't pretend like you didn't already know.)

Over at SuperEco, Frank Paynter says that while many of us old folks used to walk to school, our children are catching a ride. Frank points to an article on Yahoo! Green by Jeff Yeager that says only 30 percent of today's rug rats stroll their way to the hallowed halls of learning.

Frank wonders when the move from bikes to the minivan began: "Some people cite safety concerns, but the chance that a child will be injured in a car accident are astronomically higher than that he will encounter evil doers out to sell him into child slavery on a chocolate plantation or something." He's probably right, at least statistically. But parental fear is a very real thing, whether reasonable or not. There are plenty of things I did as a young'un that I have trouble letting my kid do, like go to corner store. Part of that is where we live (New York City), but part of it is simply that societal attitudes have changed.

As for walking to school, sometimes it simply isn't realistic. For example, I lived in the Bronx and went to school in Manhattan. Taking the subway (2 of them) took about an hour. Walking was not going to happen. My son is too young to walk, and we also live a little bit too far away from his school. So it’s a good idea, and I like talking about it, but he's going to have to get his exercise some other way.

Since The American Heart Association was kind enough to set the Start! Walking Day start date in the spring, I may join in. Not my son -- he takes the bus. But I'll start walking when I go to pick him up. Frankly, I need the exercise more than he does. At least he gets recess.

So let me ask you folks -- do your children walk to school? Did you?

Image/Source: SuperEco

Family Dog Survives Four Months on Desert Island

Gloria Allred Sits On A Booster Seat

Five Ways to Go Green for Less

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Wolverine Blow Up Toy

Breaking Bad on Plastics

JeanneSager — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:53:00 GMT

If only Benjamin Braddock knew then what we know now - plastics are a bummer for parents. Not to mention the environment.

But you don't have to be a graduate of anything to understand this helpful chart I picked up from the folks at Zo-Li, the baby product company that's managed to incorporate toxic-free plastics into all its goodies for kids.

Breaking down the different types of plastics, where you'll find them and what affect they'll have on your kids, the chart is a print and tack to the fridge if I've ever seen one. Because who wants to take a chance with their kids?

Their biggies to avoid:

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - also known as Plastic #3 - Usually found in cling wrap, squeeze bottles, bigs, mattress covers, diaper changing mats, bottles for cooking oil, window cleaner, and detergents PVC poses risks to both human health and the environment. PVC needs additives and stabilizers such as lead for strength and phthalates for ﬂexibility. The manufacturing and disposal of PVC emits dioxins into the air which settles on grasslands and water impacting the meat and dairy products consumed by humans. Dioxin is a known carcinogen and hormone disruptor associated with learning and behavioral problems in children, decreased birth rate, and reduced immune functionality.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - also known as Plastic #6 - Used in opaque plastic cutlery and Styrofoam disposable cups, carry-out containers and meat trays. Styrene can leach from Styrofoam containers and is a known carcinogen that is toxic to the brain and nervous system through prolonged exposure.

Polycarbonate - This is a catch-all of all plastics that don’t fall into any of the other six groups. Some of the new bio-plastics that are corn / rice / potato / tapioca-based plastics as well as the newer plastics labeled BPA-free are included in this group, but the type of plastic to avoid in this group is polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is commonly used in plastic baby bottles, reusable water
bottles, and some clear plastic cutlery. Bisphenol-A (BPA), found in polycarbonate is a hormone disruptor, which can leach into the foods and liquids in polycarbonate containers. BPA has been linked to several health issues including prostate and breast cancer, early onset of puberty, miscarriages, birth defects, behavioral issues such as hyperactivity, obesity, diabetes, and impaired immune function.

Want the whole chart to keep your kids safe? Click on the image below to print and save.

Images: BarSupply/Zo-Li Baby

Where Have All the Trees Gone?

JeanneSager — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:36:00 GMT

Arbor Day is coming up fast, and nothing gets kids in the mood for fun better than a big mystery. Babble took a look at Oliver Jeffers' new nature-inspired novel for little bears.

There's something funny in the forest, and it's up to the critters in Jeffers' The Great Paper Caper to put an end to the great tree disappearing act. But first they need to stop finger (paw?) pointing and figure out who's to blame for lopped-off branches and stand-alone stumps.

Peopled with goofy looking animals with sticks for legs, Jeffers' books are always a hit with the three to five set, and The Great Paper Caper gives them a look at their favorites from the forest. The tale of missing trees - being stolen by a bear with a good heart but very little brain (sound like someone else we know?) - doubles as a warning that deforestation can happen quickly. And it's up to little critters - and little kids - to protect our woods. They can start, Jeffers' animals learn, by reducing their paper waste.

After reading, parents can head over to the Arbor Foundation Website to find out when their state will celebrate Arbor Day (the national day is the last Friday in April, the 24th this year, but some states vary based on the best time for planting) and download a nature explorers kit for their own adventure in the woods.

Image: Amazon

They Say: Pool Water's Toxic for Baby

JeanneSager — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:21:00 GMT

Nobody wants to think of their kids taking in sips full of toxic water. But a new study says all the disinfectants we've been using to keep our drinking and swimming water clean may be doing just the opposite.

The ten-year study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency found that disinfectants mixing with organic matter in our water to create "disinfectant by-products" (DBP) with some pretty risky consequences.

"Some of these are toxic, some can cause birth defects, some are genotoxic, which damage DNA, and some we know are also carcinogenic," geneticist Michael Plewa said in HSDailyWire.com.

The scary part, as we head into summer, is the significant amount of DBPs found in swimming pools, where Plewa says body hair, urine (we all know kids pee in the pool) and other bits of human mix with the disinfectants in the pool. Because poolwater is generally recycled, Plewa says the concentration of DBPs in a swimming pool is tenfold what it is in drinking water. And babies, whose parents love to take them into the pool to escape the summer heat, are more susceptible than any of us to the damaging affects of DBPs.

So what can you do? Stay out of public pools - where people are doing all kinds of nasty. Stick your kids in fresh disinfectant-free water in a baby wading pool (and keep a VERY close eye on them), and wait until scientists come up with some new wonder product. . . which they'll find out twenty years down the line also causes cancer, but hey, what we don't know won't kills us. Right?

Image: ScienceDaily

Uh Oh - Elmo's Gone Green - Literally

JeanneSager — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:48:00 GMT

It was bound to happen some day. Cute, loveable and very red Elmo was going to lose his red fur.

Who knew it would come at the hands of equally cute and kind of ditzy fairy Abby Cadabby? Elmo's gone green - literally - in his new DVD, and Babble got a sneak-peek at the all new Elmo and how to throw together a tele-thon Sesame Street style.

Just in time for Earth Day, Paul Rudd (they're continuing the cute theme) suits up in a giant globe costume to host the Sesame Street Earth-a-thon.With Rosita, Telly and Cookie Monster manning the phones, pledges from kids to help the earth start rolling in (and pleas for cookies start rolling out).

In true Sesame Street style, the pledges shoot the show out to spots around the globe where kids are going green in their own way, from kids who watch their glass bottles be melted down and reformed into glass knick-knacks in South Africa to Turkish tots who have an eye for reusing plastic bags.

Bringing it back to Sesame Street, Elmo and Abby make the rounds of the recycling bins and the furry red monster makes a promise to Rudd, aka. Mr. Earth to go green. Which is all fine and dandy until Abby lends her wand to the cause, leaving Elmo looking like he's switched suits with a fellow muppet with a fondness for Miss Piggy. It may not be easy being green, but Elmo fans know he'd never let a little mixed up magic get in the way.

The Sesame Street character love aside, Being Green is a movie that helps break down the big green questions for little green minds. We talk a lot about helping the Earth, but what IS it? Not a guy in a globe suit, but Rudd shows his inner goofball (can you tell this guy's a dad?) walking the muppets on a tour around himself. Songs about saving water when they brush their teeth and saving energy when they shut off the lights send home messages that little kids can make a big difference.

Out on DVD on April 7, you can put in your pre-orders now on Amazon, but if you click on the picture below, your kids have a coloring sheet to get them ready. Will they color Elmo green?

Images: Genius Products

Worksheets Die a Green Death, Kids Celebrate

JeanneSager — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:34:00 GMT

Oh what I wouldn't have given to skip worksheets in grade school. The totally useless (in a kid's mind anyway) busy work handed out by bored teachers to get us to sit down and shut up.

I guess I was just born a few decades too early. Sigh.

Teachers are saying bye bye to the worksheet in an effort to both cut costs and cut their carbon footprint, and today's kids are loving it.

They write their papers on a computer, read books on the computer, even do their homework on scanned PDFs available via the Internet. The teachers are finding themselves spending less time at the copy machine (or less time sending their assistants to the copy machine) and more time for classroom instruction or preparation for instruction. And the kids, they say, are more engaged. Used to cell phones, Wiis and constant electronic connections, being plugged in inside the classroom has meant better student engagement.

And, of course, there's that cost issue - even in better economic times, schools across the country could always used more money. Now, the financial issues are dire in some districts - where teachers have sold ad space on testpapers, administrators have called for kids to bring their own toilet paper and all classroom appliances have been yanked.

With kids learning about Twitter and Wikipedia in England and these efforts, are you worried our kids will never be able to unplug? Or are you just happy to see a greener planet that costs you less green?

Image/Source: Boston Herald

Ready for Easter? Peter Rabbit's Gone Green

JeanneSager — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:24:00 GMT

Part of getting ready for Easter in my house means stocking up on books for the basket to take up as much room as possible (leaving space for a few jellybeans, but just a few).

This year, you can go green for Easter with a new edition of the beloved bunny books from Beatrix Potter, reissued in a "naturally better" format.

Using Potter's original drawings and text, the new line of Peter Rabbit . . . Naturally Better books are as much an ode to Potter herself as they are the earth. A staunch environmentalist and conservationist, Beatrix Potter's love of the outdoors inspired her bunny books as well as her work with the National Trust in her native England during her life. She bred sheep and kept rabbits so child visitors would not be disappointed.

When Potter died, she left some four thousand acres and several fams to the Trust to keep the land pristine and undeveloped. To this day, the area remains one of the most rural in all of England.

Now her books are going to help her cause, along with new environmentally-friendly food, toiletries and toys.The licensor of theThe World of Beatrix Potter has drawn up a comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility calling for all products to be made by suppliers who adhere to ethical working practices and who support healthy formulation of products. "Everyday food products will contain organic ingredients, be GM free, and will contain no added salt or sugar. Toiletries are free from harmful and unnecessary chemicals such as artificial musks, parabens and phthalates, are not tested on animals and will be hypoallergenic."

Publishers of the twenty-three original Peter Rabbit books plus a few new titles (including the Peter Rabbit Peekaboo with interactive flaps) have earned certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, an international non-profit which focuses on the sustainability of forests. According to FSC, "products bearing the FSC logo, which guarantees that the wood from a certified well-managed forest, are available across the world from a variety of mills, manufacturers, and distributors."

Want to turn your kids' Easter baskets green? Fill up on bunny books from Beatrix Potter that are "naturally better" at Amazon.

Image: PeterRabbit.com

Ban BPA? Manufacturers Cry Poverty

JeanneSager — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:26:00 GMT

You've got to love the recession - all of a sudden big manufacturers are worried about the poor. Worried their poor customers won't have the money to buy their products anyway.

As Suffolk County, New York tries to become the first county in the country to enforce a ban on Bisphenol-A (BPA) in children's products, manufacturers are crying poverty.

Force them to remove the reported carcinogen, and makers say they'll have to jack up their prices so high it will be bad for low-income parents and create problems for hospitals. Snort.

They do realize six of the largest baby bottle makers JUST announced they're going BPA free, right? It's obviously working for some companies . . . or at least six of them. Lobbying against the county, representatives of the plastic bottle and sippy cup makers asked lawmakers to point the bill toward EMPTY containers, freeing them up to fill bottles of formula sent to hospitals for newborn babies with lots of icky chemicals.

But, hey, they're helping poor people. They can sleep at night!

The Suffolk County Legislature voted unanimously in support of the ban on BPA earlier this month, and a set of state legislators are now working together to make a similar ban effective across New York.

Image: OhMyGov

Playdate: Would You Go "No Poo"?

JeanneSager — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Here's one way to answer the carcinogens in your kids' bath products - Amy Graff at The Poop is going "no poo."

As in no shampoo. Not a drop of Johnson & Johnson. Not a palm of Head and Shoulders. Graff, who is one of my favorite columnists over at San Fran's main parenting blog, is making a leap that I have to admire. Or hold my nose about.

The "no poo" method has had its proponents for years, folks who say it's better to let the body's natural oils keep the scalp healthy and the hair "clean." As Graff explains in her "no poo" mission statement, the idea is that a few weeks of greasy hair must be endured. But when the body takes over, word has it luscious locks take over.

The sort of fringe movement is jumping from granola crunchy greenies to parenting mainstream as reports on parabens, phthalates and 1,4-dioxane make more of us realize there's a lot more to fear than a dirty kid. Take Graff - she's always thought the whole thing sounds kind of "icky" . . . but her kids' shampoo is on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics' list of products loaded with carcinogens. For the sake of her kids, she's willing to give "no poo" a try.

I checked out the CSC list, and took heart that my daughter's shampoo isn't on there (although a bubble bath we once used an entire bottle of was - eek). If it was, I'd obviously change - to another shampoo. Although it's hard to trust the big companies, it's even harder to fathom not using something relatively heavy duty to rid my daughter's head of play-doh and play sand on a daily basis.

I'm going to follow Graff's experiment, but I'm not that brave. What about you?

Image: Boon

UPDATE: Bye Bye BPA: WHICH Bottles Will Go Bisphenol Free

JeanneSager — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:57:00 GMT

Checking for the BPA-free label when shopping for baby bottles may soon be a thing of the past. The six largest manufacturers of bottles in the United States have voluntarily agreed to go Bisphenol-A free.

We reported on this story over the weekend (see below), but thanks to our friends at SuperEco, we now have a list of who's involved in the manufacturer cave in.

Going toxin free are Gerber, Avent America (which stopped production back in December), Evenflo, Disney's First Years, Dr. Brown and Playtex.

Attorneys general in Connecticut and New Jersey put forward a request to the bottle makers, asking for the hormone-disrupting chemical to be removed from the manufacturing process. The request came on the heels of newer research that shows the affects of BPA are large even at low doses, doses lower than the FDA's current standards. Studies have linked BPA to everything from cancer and obesity to problems with brain function and mood disorders. They've also shown BPA is building up in the bloodstream. In a study of people age six and older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found detectable levels of BPA in ninety-three percent of two thousand five hundred seventeen urine samples.

Of course, the big companies aren't exactly doing this all out of the goodness of their hearts. Babies R Us and a number of other retailers announced last year that they would phase out all sales of bottles with BPA in them. Canada has outright banned the substance.

But sometimes even the big companies make decisions that are good for parents.

Image: OhMyGov

School Yanks Teachers' Coffee Pots to Save Money

JeanneSager — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:31:00 GMT

As a mom who has pondered the feasilibity of a caffeine drip to keep going all day, I feel for the teachers of the Glendale School District.

Administrators of the California school system have told teachers they're taking their coffee pots to save the district money. Gone too are microwaves and refrigerators, a move that could save the district as much as $60,000.

Meanwhile, sleepy teachers across the district are wondering how they can keep up with children with boundless energy. As I sit yawning at my own desk, with a cold bottle of soda beside me, I can't help but agree.

Glendale isn't the first district to make this change. Some have banned appliances while others have set up a fee structure, charging teachers as much as $40 a year to keep a fridge in the classroom. There's still a communal refrigerator, coffee pot and microwave in the teacher's lounge at Glendale. But as many teachers have pointed out, that requires hoofing it across campus at lunchtime, a time when they often find themselves allowing a student to come into their classroom for extra help. Not to mention the lack of breaks during the day to shoot down to the lounge for a cup of coffee to keep them going.

Caffeine addiction may not be the healthiest thing, but it keeps plenty of Americans going - including teachers who stay up late grading papers. Be it the cup of coffee or the cold soda, most of workers in a white collar setting have immediate access. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find any old break room fridge with an Energy Star label.

As a taxpayer in a state where education costs laid on the taxpayers' shoulders long ago spiraled out of control, I'm all for districts saving a buck or two. I'm also not a big fan of the teachers unions or of coddling teachers. Educators need to educate - and if they're not doing so, we've got a problem.

But numerous studies have shown the comfort of the workers is linked directly to the workforce productivity. In the case of teaching, that productivity means a better education for our kids. This seems to be a place where administrators are cutting costs along with their nose to spite their faces. Leave appliances in the classroom and let teachers stay in the room to tutor a kid at lunchtime or during their free period. Let them suck down coffee all day so they can stay alert and on top of the curriculum.

Find someplace else to cut . . . like, I don't know. . . administrators' salaries?

Image: LA Times

Family Mounds Up 250 Pounds of Plastic in a Year

JeanneSager — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:06:00 GMT

All these "I did it for a year" people are starting to get to me.

They live the Bible for a year. They live on $1,500 for a year. They cook from the Julia Child cookbook for a year. Get ready to hear about one family, one year, two hundred fifty pounds of plastic (yes, this is where we start being REAL!).

The Garcias of Phoenix, Ariz. did everything they could to eliminate plastic from their lives. Jesse and Kim and their young kids skipped plastic bags at the supermarket and opted out on plastic water bottles.

Every piece of plastic that made their way into their house, they saved (where, I don't know - I get irate just dealing with a month's worth of yogurt cups and empty milk cartons waiting for the recycling truck to make its rounds). In the end, they had two hundred fifty pounds.

That's my three-year-old times eight! That's the more meat than you get from your average side of beef. It's disgusting. But not all that surprising (we fill an average of five milk crates with plastic recyclables each month. What's actually worst about all of this is that the Garcias were only able to recycle twenty five percent of the entire pile - the rest went into the landfill. And remember, this is a family trying to CUT BACK on plastics.

The problem is, not every "numbered" plastic is recycled in ever area. The "chasing arrows" at the bottom of a plastic container don't necessarily mean they're recyclable. And as the economy slumps, so does demand for recyclables - which means haulers don't want to take them off your hands.

Which means the only option is to do what the Garcias have done from the beginning - attempt to reduce consumption. But is it feasible? What percentage does plastic represent in your garbage can or your recycling bin?

Image: WasteRec

Oregon School Cuts Back to Four-Day Week

JeanneSager — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:25:00 GMT

It's greener and better for student achievement, but how are parents taking a shift to four-day school weeks?

The Oakridge School District in Oregon is about to find out - they're making the switch for all thirteen grades in an effort not to help cut costs (although it certainly could help) as enrollment continues to decline but to improve improve academic achievement

Donald Kordosky, the superintendent of the Oakridge School, told NPR that the studies his district looked at showed the four-day school week increases student and teacher attendance, including a reduction in staff turnover. Staff morale is upped, and kids' academic progress is improved.

So how will they do it? They'll extend the school day for one - although not massively. Kids are currently attending from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., and they'll soon spend from 8 a.m. to 3:36 p.m. in a classroom. They'll also rework the current holidays - taking days when the kids might have three days off because of superintendent's conference days or a holiday and enforcing a strict four-days-a-week policy.

The big question - what are parents supposed to do with their kids on Friday? Especially in this economy?

Surprisingly, Kordosky says parents are more supportive of this plan because it will make it EASIER to find daycare. The regularity of the four-day-a-week system will mean parents have just one day every week to find a sitter. Otherwise, there are weeks where they face two days with no school and no sitter or three days or . . . Out of thirty-eight weeks, there are only twenty-one weeks in which there is school on all five days.

The school is also putting its junior and senior high students through childcare training and CPR courses to step in as babysitters either to younger siblings or to neighborhood kids - the training will make them more employable.

Beyond the benefits for kids, four-day weeks are potentially better for the environment. One day less of buses running and emitting diesel fumes, one day less of lights being turned on (running classes slightly later in the day takes advantage of daylight to reduce energy consumption) are supposedly greener - or at least more energy efficient for a school district. Some argue that the green benefits of a four-day work week, for example, are a wash when you consider workers use that extra day to drive around on errands or to turn on lights in their own homes. At the very least, it's saving money for the taxing entities - like school districts - who are, in turn, putting less of a burden on taxpayers (parents).

How would you feel if your school district made this kind of switch?

Image: Oakridge Elementary

Green Expert Says: Limit Kids to Two

JeanneSager — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:27:00 GMT

Have at least two kids? Planning on having more?

A UK sustainable development expert says you should think twice about making any more babies – lest you want to see the world a blacker place.

The way Jonathon Porritt sees it, anyone with more than two kids is "irresponsible" about the way they're affecting the environment.

"I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don't really hear anyone say the "p" word." Porritt told the London Times.

By "P" word, of course, he means procreation.

The way he sees it, we should be shifting our monies away from curing illnesses (which, of course, keep the population on this earth) and push them toward increasing contraception and abortion.

It's true that each person has his or her own personal carbon footprint. A British study late last year put the figure around eleven tons of CO2 per year by a Brit, nearly double that per year by us in the states.

But if Porritt's adovacating for a shift in funding, how about focusing on ways to reduce people's carbon footprint rather than cutting people's family planning dreams off at the knees? Carbon emissions are indeed an important issue, and one that won't go away anytime soon.

I'm also deeply disturbed by the suggestion that abortion is one of the best ways he can come up with for keeping families down to just two kids. I'm pro-choice, but that's for women who want or need an out from a pregnancy, not for women who are happily pregnant and being told they need to suddenly reduce their carbon footprints.

Does this sound something coming a bit too close to the Chinese? You know, the country accused of human rights violations for its extreme methods of population control that borders on eugenics?

It's true Porritt isn't calling for selective breeding to create a master race but for an overall reduction in peoples populating the earth. But even as a mom who has just one kid, and one who would call for more parents to take a look at their capabilities (financial, first and emotional, next) before getting pregnant again and again, I think Porritt is cutting off the nose to spite the face.

The world is in trouble because people have been stupid. So let's smarten up, and create a "master race" of kids who are wise about the ways of green living - no matter how many there are. Our kids don't have to be a burden on the world's resources if we don't let them be.

At least this guy practices what he preaches. Porritt has just two kids. Wonder if that has anything to do with his magic number?

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Are Pick-Up and Drop-Off Moms Killing the Environment?

Pulling the Plug on Plural Pregnancies

No Great Outpouring of Support for Struggling New Mom of Quintuplets

Are Pick-Up and Drop-Off Moms Killing the Environment?

JeanneSager — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:26:00 GMT

New York City is getting tough on going green. Their latest targets? Parents.

Moms and dads who leave their cars idling for more than one minute near New York City's public AND prive schools will be slapped with a $100 fine.

Mark this on the calendar, because I don't say this much. Bravo Mayor Bloomberg. Now can we spread this around the country?

I admit I've been a little guilty of this one myself of late. When it's ten below, I pull up as close to the nursery school door as possible, pop out with my daughter and run her inside - leaving the keys in the ignition the entire time What can I say, I'm a cold wuss! Although I live upstate, and the city's new law won't hit me, it's still made me give myself a slap on the wrist and vow not to do it anymore.

Every two minutes a car idles equals just about the amount of gasoline necessary to drive one mile. Gas prices might be down from the highs of last year, but in this economy, most of us could realy use the money saved on an extra mile of gas. Then throw in the environmental affects. Every gallon of gasoline produces about twenty pounds of carbon dioxide. Left to idle for ten minutes, and a car can use as much as half a gallon of gas - producing ten pounds of CO2.

Schools across the nation have started turning the buses off to cut down on pollution and fuel consumption. Studies have estimated that if every school bus in the country reduced by two minute the amount of time the engine is operating between the trips to and from school, annual emissions would drop by three hundred nineteen tons of carbon monoxide, one hundred eighty-five tons of nitrogen dioxide and just over eight tons of small particulate matter.

But while the buses themselves might produce more than a passenger vehicle, there are generally a lot more cars and trucks in the pick-up and drop-off lines than there are school buses. So how about we moms and dads get their acts together?

Image: Carbon Offset Solutions

Source: The Daily News

New Family Green Mag Tracks Greening of Obama, Country

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:55:00 GMT

Sure, he talks a good game, but how's he going to live up to all those "green" promises? A new online environmental magazine pledges to keep an eye on how the Obama Administration makes good on its vows to help turn this country green-- starting with a stellar article on the "greening" of the White House by our very own Madeline Holler.

I was pretty excited to see this magazine, Super Eco, take shape, because frankly, a lot of environmental, greeny stories make me feel slightly shamed for not jumping off the grid and growing baby new potatoes on my roof. SuperEco mixes humor perfectly with environmental conciousness but still gives a load of wonderful information about every day things you can do to make life a little better for us all.

Look at me -- I'm gushing.

Still, want to know what to do with pesky batteries? Bottled water? The list of essays and tips is endless.

Check out Super Eco here.

Five Easiest - and Cheesiest - Christmas Gifts to Make With the Kids

JeanneSager — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:36:00 GMT

Let's face it, even when the economic picture is rosy, Christmas with the kids is expensive. There's that darn Toys R Us lookbook that always seems to make it into their hands. Most of us won't scrimp on their gifts, so it's the rest of the family that gets the shaft.

What if there was a compromise? No need to beat around the bush here - I'm talking good old-fashioned child labor here. Yeah, it's a little cheesy in that holiday commercial where a kid hands mom a big handmade card kind of way, but what the heck. At least you can afford it.

Tempted to throw caution to the wind and make presents with the kids? Here are my five favorites:

Cookies - seriously a no-brainer here. Most people who celebrate Christmas are making them anyway (or buying them and plunking a doily on a paper plate to make it look like they are anyway). So throw together an extra batch and take them with you - anywhere. The thing about cookies is that people who say, "Oh no, I couldn't," inevitably end up digging in. And they'll appreciate not having another tchotchke that ends up taking up space on their bookshelves. Speaking of which . . .
Whatsit jars - Forget the muffin mix in a jar. Have you ever actually seen someone bake one of these things? I usually end up pouring mine in the compost pile just in time to get another shelf full. Save the jars, the gingham squares and the raffia ties, and let your kids loose in the junk drawers or their toy room. Short of the knowledge that everything MUST fit inside the drawer, all they need to know is this is a gift for so-and-so. In other words, they can't get this stuff back, but they can make somebody's day and clean up your house. See what they come up with; you might be surprised - and your best friend will have a kitshy found art piece to show off instead of the same old macaroni necklace. Speaking of which . .
There aren't many people who really like to wear kid-made jewelry (their mothers accepted, of course - and maybe some grandmothers). But a button that can be stuck in a corkboard? Not too shabby. Flattened bottle caps, with pictures glued to the front and plenty of glitter are a bit more work, but the fact that they're kid-made is a bonus for these, not a detraction. (Click here for directions).
Who says the presents have to be people-specific? The same people who will stop in awe to watch a bluebird alight on their windowsill don't necessarily have the time (or the ambition) to go out and buy a feeder. You can do the old pine cone and peanut butter trick (or Crisco, if your kids are young and you're still wary of allergies). Smear the pine cone in goo, swirl in a pile of cheap birdfeed, tie on a piece of twine and voila. Or . . .
Popcorn strings will keep the animals who don't hibernate busy this winter, and provided your kids are old enough to trust with a needle and long piece of thread, they're something a trained monkey could make. And did I mention won't require dusting or take up space for time eternal?

Call them cheesy, but they're easy on the pocketbook - and your kids will remain out of your hair for a good thirty minutes.

Image: Family Fun

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Crafty: Shrinky Dink Your Christmas Tree

JeanneSager — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:36:00 GMT

If you're not one of those "everything has to match" holiday tree people, you're my kind of parent. The more nursery school Santas and one-eyed reindeer the better in my book.

With the economy, well. . . you know what the economy is like . . . this year we'll be decorating the tree in a way that's both nostalgic AND futuristic. Think shrinky dinks (remember those?) from recycled plastic.

Instead of picking up the sheets of shrinkable plastic from a retro toy store online, rescue clear #6 plastic from your recycling bin (it's usually in the form of those single-serve take-out boxes from restaurants, salad bar containers or those the grocery stores use to store strawberries and blueberries).

Cut off the excess plastic so you have a flat sheet to work on, pour out a pile of markers and let them have at. Have your cookie cutters out to make holiday cookies? Trace around them, and let them add their embellishments. Let them write out a holiday message . . . whatever. Then cut around the picture. Make sure you cut a small hole near the topto later slip a string through to hang the ornament on your tree.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and drop the rack to the lowest spot it can go in the oven. Create a "tray" out of aluminum foil, and place the kids' plastic pictures across it - just make sure you keep the pieces spaced an inch apart.

The plastic will start to get wavy in the oven, but it will flatten out, shrinking to about one third of the original size and nine times the original thickness. For a piece that's about six inches across, cooking time is about three and a half minutes - a little less for smaller pictures. You can keep an eye on the plastic through the oven door and take it out after it's finished the shrinking process and flattened out. Remove carefully (using tongs) - when the plastic is still hot, it is still relatively pliable.

Stick your string through after the "ornament" is cool, and commence decorating.

Image: Playlibrary

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Kid's Balloon Travels Nine Hundred Miles

JeanneSager — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:58:00 GMT

When a Swedish couple hiking in the woods near Lapland found a balloon, they could hae just snagged it as trash and chucked it away. Instead, they read the message attached and decided to post a letter to the children's center in Britian from whence it came.

The children's center just happens to be more than one thousand five hundred kilometers (about nine hundred thirty miles) away. And since children released one hundred balloons in November 2007, this is the first letter sent back to let the kids know how their little floating friends fared.

The balloons were released in honor of opening day at the Old Clee Children's Centre in Grimsby, Lincolnshire on Nov. 17, 2007. It wasn't until Oct. 26 of this year that the Swedish couple were out in the mountains and found it. They sent a letter back to Old Clee with a little story about the sunny day when they discovered the balloon and included pictures of its whereabouts. In exchange, a Swedish-speaking employee of Old Clee has drafted a letter back, including pictures of Grimsby.

It's a sweet little story, but I always wonder what happens to the rest of the balloons in these circumstances. Do they snag on trees and litter the landscape? Or do people pick them up, notice the notes and trash them anyway? Neither one is really palatable if you think about it. I'd hate to think that the environment suffers, but disappointed kids don't make me any happier. What would you do? Do you think most people would send a letter back?

Image/Source: The Local

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Reduce Your Carbon Footprint—Don’t Have A Baby

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Allow me to be crassly scientific for a moment.

Think of all the times you make decisions about to be as “green" as possible: saving fuel by driving to vacation instead of flying, buying soymilk instead of cow’s milk, using cloth diapers instead of disposable. Now think of all the greenhouse gasses you could keep out of the atmosphere if you didn’t have one more child—all of the miles not driven, plastic not used, waste not washed out to sea.

This, in a rather bleak nutshell, is the reasoning behind the British Medical Journal’s recent recommendation that families have no more than two children. According to the authors of the editorial, families in rich countries have a particular responsibility to reduce family size, since any child born into the U.S. and Britain, for instance, will most likely emit 160 times more carbon than a child in Ethiopia.

According to a recent Census Bureau report, this family downsizing appears to be happening naturally in the United States, which makes sense given the precarious health of the planet. When global resources are stretched thin, the cost of living is higher, so women naturally choose to have fewer children. But in order for all women to have the ability to make this decision if they want to, every woman needs access to high-quality reproductive health care.

Of course, such a scientific approach to family planning doesn’t take into consideration that raising children who care about their environment—natural, political, and societal—is one of the best ways to contribute to the world. Maybe we just don’t need to raise seven of them.

Image: Mother Jones

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Green products that don't work

Brett Singer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

It would be great if all of the au natural products flooding the market were actually effective. Unfortunately, that's not the case in my experience. After showing you three that we use and like, here are three that we don’t like, but in one case we use it anyway:

1. Dishwashing liquid: I have never seen a cleaner of any kind less effective than this. I think it would actually be better to run the dishwasher without any soap at all. The dishes come out with a film that seems chemically, despite the fact that this stuff is supposed to just the opposite. I would mention the brand but we threw out the bottle in disgust.

2. Recycled paper towels: I'm all for the lack of dyes and scents, but these things just don't work. They absorb such a tiny amount of liquid that you need to use three or four of them, which sort of defeats the purpose. We do, however, use them anyway.

3. Recycled toilet paper: Again, all for the no-dyes/no perfumes/recycled paper thing. But scratchy paper on my tush? No way.

Are there any green products you tried using but stopped because they just didn't work?

image: foodonthebrain

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Green products I use and like

Brett Singer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Being 'green' is easier than ever. Part of greening is about what's good for the planet, part is about what's good for you, and some of it is just about making yourself feel better. The best is when the product in question actually works, so you don't feel like you're making a sacrifice to satisfy an agenda, however noble. Here are three things we use in my house.

1. Seventh generation baby wipes: I don't really understand why people like heavily perfumed baby wipes. When my first son was born, it wasn't as easy as it is now to find unscented chemical-free wipes. For a while, we got some dry wipes from a nurse that we knew, and then wet them. That was a huge pain in the butt (figuratively, not literally) so I'm glad that there are now a number of options, including the Seventh Generation brand, which we use.

2. Method cleaning wipes: I like the grapefruit ones, which have a slight scent and actually seem to cut through child-created counter grime pretty well. It's not quite as good as Fantastik, but it doesn't stink of chemicals either.

3. Organic snacks: Look. It's crap. But, as I said before, it's organic crap. The kids are going to eat a certain amount of crap, whether I give it to them or not. One those occasions that I give them crap, I generally choose organic crap. I admit that it mostly makes me feel better, but in theory it is actually better for them… right?

What 'green' and/or au natural products do you use that get the job done?

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Is Soy Milk or Cow’s Milk More Eco-Conscious?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:24:00 GMT

Knowing that soybeans are genetically modified and often have to travel vast distances before ending up in milk cartons in my supermarket, I sometimes wonder whether it would be better for the environment to buy local organic cow’s milk.

It’s always a relief when an environmental question such as this has a definite answer. And in this case, Slate’s Green Lantern clearly comes down on the side of soy milk over cow’s milk as the more eco-friendly option.

The Lantern points out the it takes 14 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce one calorie of milk protein on a conventional farm, with that ratio being about 10 to 1 on an organic farm. One calorie of soybeans, on the other hand, only requires .26 calories of fossil fuels, and their production emits significantly less greenhouse gasses than producing cow’s milk.

Since I find cow's milk mildly nauseating, as far as I'm concerned this is one convenient truth.

Photo: Food Blogga

Five things my son taught me about living green

Brett Singer — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

We all want to be greener, partly because it's good for the environment, but also because it saves money. (It's not because we want to look more like the Hulk.) As it turns out, my son seems to know more than I thought about this hot-button issue.

1.   Turning off lights: My son turns off lights when he leaves a room. It seems obvious but not everyone does it. He's actually even passed this trait onto his younger brother, which is pretty impressive considering that said younger brother is still in diapers.
2.   Turning off electronics that don't need to be on: Even in standby mode, devices such as computers and video game systems use a little bit of juice, and it adds up. Turn 'em off, says Thing 1. This includes the Wii, Playstation, and even surge protectors that don't power "necessary" devices (like, you know, the Tivo. That never gets shut off.)
3.   Reduce: my son is remarkably willing to get rid of toys that he doesn't play with, books that he doesn't read, and is not a child who walks past a toy store and says, "I WANT THAT!" Even at DisneyWorld, he never asked for a single souvenir. Using less stuff is more green.
4.   Reuse: When we are getting rid of books, he offers to give them to "people who don't have money for books."
5.   Recycle: I have, on more than one occasion, been caught tossing something in the garbage that should go into the recycling bin. "Dad!"

How much do your kids know about being green?

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