No Impact Man

My eco-living lines in the sand

People often ask what I kept from the No Impact year, and there's a lot I still try to do. I bike most places, I buy only second-hand, we don't have air conditioners.

But there are certain things that are lines in the sand for me and bottled water is one. I just can't bring myself to use or buy it. Pretty much ever (info on bottled water here, by the way).

What about you? Do you have any eco-living lines in the sand?

And I'm curious, too: I know why having such lines in the sand is important to me. Why is it important to you?

"The biggest enemy is tap water"

That's a quote, apparently, by Robert S. Morrison, vice chairman of PepsiCo--which owns Aquafina. I heard it when I was watching  a brand new documentary--Tapped--by director Stephanie Soechtig about the perils of the bottled water industry to people and the planet. I also confirmed that Morrison called our most precious asset "the enemy" here.

Anyway, Tapped is not yet out in theaters, but you can watch the excellent trailer below:

Avoiding pharmaceuticals as a way to keep our water safe

I happened to be in front of a TV the other day and just about every single ad was for some sort of drug. The ones that always get to me are the ones for hay fever, from which I suffer.

Some years ago, I discovered the "neti pot," a method of flushing out your sinuses with salt water and removing pollen and other irritants. I use the neti pot instead of drugs and am completely satisfied.

What bothers me about the hay fever drug ads is that they convince people to take chemicals--for an entire season--that stress the kidney and liver when the neti pot does the trick without any side effects.

And of course, when we use non-pharmaceutical solutions like the neti pot, we don't end up with pharmaceuticals tainting our water supply.

So what I wondered is: What other remedies do No Impact Man readers have up their sleeves for use instead of drugs? Please share.

Meanwhile, I've added a video of how to use the neti pot below.

Let's go viral with this excellent action on bottled water

The Center for a New American Dream emailed me to ask for our help, so before I even start, let me ask you to email this post to everyone you know.

Blog about it. Give it love on Digg, Reddit, all the other sites and send it to your grandma. Because we have a chance here to make a real difference on keeping our drinking water clean and drinkable while reducing carbon emissions and plastic bottle waste.

What I mean is that, with our help, a campaign to Break the Bottled Water Habit, co-sponsored by the Center for a New American Dream and by Corporate Accountability International, could go viral on the internet and we could turn the blogosphere into the ACTIONosphere.

Here's what we can do:

• Make this post go viral, if you're willing, by emailing, Digging and blogging
• Sign the Break the Bottled Water Habit pledge here.
• Write letters--and get your friends to write letters--to your store, restaurant or coop manager asking them not to stock bottled water (see sample letter here).
• Get yourself a reusable bottle and fill it with tap (or use a jar like me).

Here's the pledge:

I pledge to Break the Bottled Water Habit by Thinking Outside the Bottle and using a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. I also pledge to support the efforts of local officials to stop spending public funds on bottled water and prioritize strong public water systems over bottled water profits.

Read the Center for a New American Dream's five tips for kicking the bottled water habit here.

Here are some facts:

• Bottled water is up to 1,000 times more expensive than tap water
• Forty percent of bottled water is tap water anyway
• Bottled water is less stringently regulated than the FDA than tap water
• The production and disposable of plastic bottles stresses the habitat we depend upon for our health, happiness and security
• The transportation of water around the world by ship and plane causes unnecessary carbon emissions
• Bottling companies are buying up water rights around the world which means free water may not be available at all in the future.

Do we want to see our children paying skyrocketing water prices the way we are paying skyrocketing gas prices?

Because here's the thing: in the United States, tap water is a wonderful, virtually free, and an entirely healthy natural resource. Watch the Nightline video below. In tests of drinking water quality, bottled water simply didn't come out on top. And in taste tests, New York City tap water beat both Poland Spring and Evian.

So what can we do? Let's reject bottled water and support the maintenance of our public drinking water supplies. To do that, let's all join the Break the Bottled Water Habit campaign and encourage everyone we know--and everyone we don't know--to do the same.

And please, please, please, leave a comment here on the blog (go to NoImpactMan.com) saying what action you've taken so we can all encourage each other. Let's show the Center for a New American Dream and Corporate Accountability International that we make a difference.

Now watch the Nightline video below if you aren't too busy already emailing all your friends:

Public water fountains as an answer to the bottled water problem

Some reasons for a fountain on every corner instead of a hundred bottles in every trashcan:

• City collection of empty bottles is expensive
• Free water is cheaper than bottled water
• If water is free, then the price differential encourages kids to avoid sugary drinks
• Fewer delivery trucks in the streets mean a lower carbon footprint and cleaner air
• Ubiquitous fountains strengthen our connection to municipal drinking water to ensure it is preserved.

Here in New York, a New York Times OpEd on water fountains by Bottlemania author Elizabeth Royte has launched a new campaign to put 1,000 drinking fountains on the streets of New York City. It's raised $500,000 so far.

Here is a little from Elizabeth's OpEd:

"Bottled water’s main virtue, it seems, is convenience, especially for people at large in the city. As the editor of Beverage Digest told The Times, “It’s not so easy, walking down Third Avenue on a hot day, to get a glass of tap water.”

"But it needn’t be so. Paris has its ornate cast-iron Wallace fountains (donated in the late 19th century by a wealthy philanthropist hoping to steer the homeless from alcohol toward a healthier beverage); Rome its ever-running street spigots; Portland, Ore., its delightful four-bowl Benson Bubblers."

So what about the rest of American cities? If Paris and Rome and Portland get to have water fountains, shouldn't the rest of us?

Illustration by John Hendrix courtesy of the New York Times.

LV GRN: How to eat seafood sustainably

I've been writing the section of my book on the sustainable eating part of No Impact Man, and I came across this post on the blog. I thought it would interest those of you who call for more posts on individual lifestyle choices.

A fish is an animal that livED in the sea… at least that’s how the song is going to go about 50 years from now if nothing changes. The oceans are going to turn into liquid deserts. Goodbye sushi for the up market and fish and chips for the down. If you follow eco-topics at all, and you read the New York Times or The Independent or the BBC’s website, you probably already know all about this. But what no one offered was what we individual fish-stick eaters can do to help. That’s going to be the main point of this post. But first a little background for those who missed the November stories.

That we have only five decades left before our fish menu shrinks to zero is the scientific conclusion of a team of ecologists and economists from a dozen research centers who have studied detailed records on fish catches going back to 1950. Their study, published in the November issue of the journal Science, found that the number of commercial fisheries that have collapsed is accelerating and that the total eradication of all fish stocks in the world is due to be completed by 2048. This comes when just about everybody nutritionally inclined is saying that fish is the best food going.

Already, 29 per cent of the world's fisheries have collapsed. In some habitats, over fishing has led to the extinction of a number of species. "This isn't predicted to happen, this is happening now. If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life, indeed it may not be able to sustain our lives at all," said Nicola Beaumont, an ecological economist who took part in the study from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, according to The Independent.

The good news is that the trend is reversible if the fisheries are managed responsibly, which means, largely, taking fewer fish out of those parts of the ocean where stocks are depleted. The study participants called for the establishment of an international approach to protecting the oceans along the lines of the coastal waters of north-west America and Canada which are one of the best-preserved fisheries in the world. But until that happens, individual action—you know, by us—is particularly important.

As for my little family, for the purposes of the No Impact experiment, we have given up eating anything that, in my wife Michelle’s words, “wiggles or has a face.” That’s one way to ensure the oceans aren’t over fished. But if you are worried about your Omega-3s, it is also possible to obtain seafood sustainably.

The Worldwatch Institute advocates:

• Eating less of the big fish such as salmon, tuna, swordfish and sharks, which are the most vulnerable populations.
• Eating lower on the marine food chain, including smaller species that are less endangered such as clams, oysters, mollusks, anchovies, and sardines.
• Choosing fish caught by line, pot, or net (or other artisanal methods) and avoiding fish caught in massive trawl nets which pull everything out of the ocean whether it is the intended catch or not (see the poor turtle courtesy of World Wildlife Fund at the top of the post?).

On top of those tips, the World Wildlife Fund recommends that you only buy sustainably-harvested fish that has been certified by the Marine Stewardship Council and bears its logo (shown here) on the packaging. You can find MSC certified fish suppliers here. If the restaurant or grocery store you frequent doesn’t carry MSC certified fish, you can download a letter to send to the manager here.

[Since I posted, early commenters have added some excellent further resources which I thought I should move into the main post:

• Monterey Bay Aquarium's guide to sustainable seafood choices (Thanks Jason)
• Ocean Alive's best and worst seafood choices (Thanks Susan)
• An issue of Mother Jones devoted entirely to over fishing (Thanks Sara)
• Dr David Suzuki's page on ocean ecology (Thanks Tony)]

Finally, let me leave you with a Worldwatch Institute video on the subject. Click the arrow.

Do you want this man in charge of your drinking water?

A while back I wrote a post called "When what's happening to gas happens to water," about how companies are buying up water rights and looking forward to the day when clean drinking water is sparse and the price goes through the roof.

I wrote, "You see, it's not just about the plastic bottles. It's not just about the food miles. It's about the fundamental right of access to drinking water. Are we willing for our children to have happen to them for water what is happening to us for gas?"

Well, pictured here is T. Boone Pickens (courtesy of BusinessWeek), who hopes that is exactly what happens. He owns more water rights than any other individual in the United States.

BusinessWeek's Susan Berfield writes:

"If water is the new oil, T. Boone Pickens is a modern-day John D. Rockefeller. Pickens owns more water than any other individual in the U.S. and is looking to control even more. He hopes to sell the water he already has, some 65 billion gallons a year, to Dallas, transporting it over 250 miles, 11 counties, and about 650 tracts of private property. The electricity generated by an enormous wind farm he is setting up in the Panhandle would also flow along that corridor. As far as Pickens is concerned, he could be selling wind, water, natural gas, or uranium; it's all a matter of supply and demand. "There are people who will buy the water when they need it. And the people who have the water want to sell it. That's the blood, guts, and feathers of the thing," he says.

"In the coming decades, as growing numbers of people live in urban areas and climate change makes some regions much more prone to drought, water—or what many are calling "blue gold"—will become an increasingly scarce resource. By 2030 nearly half of the world's population will inhabit areas with severe water stress, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. Pickens understands that. And while Texas is unusually lax in its laws about pumping groundwater, the rush to control water resources is gathering speed around the planet. In Australia, now in the sixth year of a drought, brokers in urban areas are buying up water rights from farmers. Rural residents around the U.S. are trying to sell their land (and water) to multi- national water bottlers like Nestlé (BW—Apr. 14). Companies that use large quantities of the precious resource to run their businesses are seeking to lock up water supplies. One is Royal Dutch Shell, which is buying groundwater rights in Colorado as it prepares to drill for oil in the shale deposits there."

Read more here.

 

Urban rooftop farming will save the world

I dedicate this post to the staff of Just Food, an excellent organization that works to ensure the availability of fresh food in all New York neighborhoods by supporting community gardening and forging connections between communities and local farmers. Read about Just Food here, but more importantly, throw money at them here. I am proud to say that I recently joined JF's advisory board.

Here in New York and in other big cities we have the heat island effect. The lack of vegetation and the black-top roofs mean that extra heat is absorbed so more energy is required to cool buildings.

Another problem, because of all the cement and asphalt surfaces, is that storm water ends up running off the ground and into the sewers, often causing raw sewage to overflow into the waterways out of what are called "combined sewer overflows" (read more here).

This is why I love green roofs--the use of vegetation to cover roofs in cities like New York. They both keep the buildings cooler (and warmer in winter)--substantially reducing energy use--and absorb storm water so it never reaches the sewers. Not to mention reducing outside noise, restoring bird and butterfly habitat, and increasing the life of the roof.

Synergy (or, for long term readers who know my turns of phrase, happier planet, happier people). I love synergies--solutions that solve more than one environmental or social problem.

But listen. If I dig green roofs (pun unintended but credit still deserved), imagine how much more I dig green roofs that also provide vegetables (more synergy). As you know, part of No Impact was also eating only local food (for reasons explained here and here). How much more local can you get than your roof?

But also, growing food on urban roofs may have the potential of turning local food from a hobby of the elite to a lifeline for the urban poor (even more synergy). Because the quality of available food in underprivileged neighborhoods is often appalling (KFC and MacDonalds but no fresh vegetables). Indeed, my friend Kerry Truman has a story on Huffington on urban food justice here.

I'd love to see vegetables growing on roofs all over New York (hint, hint, Jacquie, and you know who you are).

But I'm going on. What I wanted to do here is give you a glimpse of some cool photos by my eco-hero Kate Zidar of the green roof vegetable garden that she built with my other eco-hero and green roof expert Atom Cianfarani. At the bottom of the post, I include some links to do with urban rooftop farming.

And by the way, this roof that Kate and Atom built is on the top of Habana Outpost, a Brooklyn restaurant that works darn hard at sustainability (and is fun as all hell, too!). It's part of the work of the restaurant's associated non-profit, Habana Works.

Below is Atom. She's already laid down a rubber membrane that protects the conventional roof from water and infiltration by plant roots. Then she put down a polypropylene felt-like layer to cushion the membrane from footsteps and to absorb water. Now she's putting down another layer that looks like egg cartons that serves the function of both providing drainage and retaining water. All Atom's materials, with the exception of the membrane, are 100% recycled or reused.

After the drainage layer comes very lightweight "Gaia soil," produced by New York's Gaia Institute. Because it is so light, Atom covers it with burlap. The burlap will, in turn, be covered with compost. When Kate, who's in charge of the gardening, puts in the plants, she'll cut holes in the burlap.

Voila! In this case, the garden supports strawberries and herbs, in part because Kate did not want it to have to require irrigation. But she and Atom are planning another rooftop garden with a more extensive collection of vegetables that will harvest and store rainwater for irrigation.

Now for some cool links:

• A story about a vegetable garden on the roof of the Environmental Science building at Trent University featuring some pretty darn cool photos of what a roof can look like.
• An excellent study of the potential of roof top gardens to provide food.
• A really excellent guide for low-cost gardening on roofs using children's plastic wading pools as containers. This method may not retain the same amount of storm water but may be more feasible in low-income neighborhoods.
• Another guide to rooftop vegetable gardening using containers.

LV GRN: Make your own household cleaners and avoid health risks

Not to go on and on, but I'm still hoping for more emails of support for my meeting with Representative Nadler on Friday. As you know, I will be asking him to help steer the country towards meaningful climate policy. Click here for details and to see how you can help. Now, onwards...

Here's a no-brainer: One way to stay healthy is to stay away from poison.

For years environmentalists worried about the effect on aquatic wildlife and our drinking water of the toxins that go down our drains in the form of household products. The funny thing is, no one spoke much about the fact that if it was poison to the fish who swam in the tainted water, it was probably poison to the people who used them, too--another no-brainer.

Well, there was a story in the New York Times on Thursday about how Women's Voices for the Earth is both publicizing the health concerns of using conventional cleaners and promoting a way around using them. Women's Voices is organizing house parties all over the country to teach people how to homemake cleaners from products like Borax, baking soda, Dr. Brommer's and vinegar.

You can read about how certain chemicals in common cleaning products have been associated with increased prevalence of asthma, exacerbations of asthma symptoms, and respiratory ailments here. You can also read about how chemicals used in common cleaning products have been associated with reproductive harm such as alterations in sexual behavior, decreases in fertility, menstrual changes, changes in the onset of puberty, cancers of reproductive organs, miscarriage, premature birth and other effects here.

There are, of course, "green" brands on the market but Women's Voices' rationale is: Why pay $5 for a bottle of cleaner from a "green" brand that won't tell you the ingredients when you can make your own for pennies and now exactly what's in it (if you're a business person trying to be eco, you now see why transparency is important).

As you may know, we began making our own household products during the No Impact project, both to avoid the toxicity to both people and the environment but also to avoid buying the same throwaway plastic bottles over and over again. You can find my recipes here and here, but I thought it would be fun to list Women's Voices' recipes.

But first, if you want to join in their countrywide house-party promotion of homemade household products, go here. I've cut and pasted their recipes from here.

All-Purpose Cleaner
suggested uses: hard surfaces like countertops and kitchen floors, windows and mirrors

2 cups white distilled vinegar
2 cups water
20-30 or more drops of essential oil (optional)

Tip: Warming in microwave until barely hot will boost cleaning power for tough jobs. Only microwave in a glass container.

Creamy Soft Scrub
suggested uses: Use this creamy soft scrub on kitchen counters, stoves, bathroom sinks, etc.

2 cups baking soda
½ cup liquid castile soap*
4 teaspoons vegetable glycerin (acts as a preservative)
5 drops antibacterial essential oil such as lavender, tea tree, rosemary or any scent you prefer (optional)

Mix together and store in a sealed glass jar, shelf life of 2 years.

Tips: For exceptionally tough jobs spray with vinegar first—full strength or diluted, scented—let sit and follow with scrub.

Dry soft scrubs can be made with baking soda or salt (or combination of both) with 10-15 drops essential oil to scent

Furniture Polish
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
20-30 drops lemon essential oil

Shake well before using
(2 teaspoons lemon juice may be substituted for lemon oil but then must be stored in refrigerator)

Dip a clean, dry cloth into the polish and rub wood in the direction of the grain.  Use a soft brush to work the polish into corners or tight places.

Tips: To remove water spots rub well with toothpaste.  To remove scratches use 1 part lemon juice and 1 part oil, rub with soft cloth.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Option 1

Sprinkle toilet bowl with baking soda, drizzle with vinegar, let soak for at least 30 minutes and scrub with toilet brush.

Option 2

Put ¼ cup borax in toilet bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes. Swish with a toilet brush and then scrub. A few drops of pine oil can be added for increased disinfecting. (Note: some people are allergic to pine oil.)

Tip: Let ingredients soak for a while to make for easy scrubbing, especially on persistent stains like toilet bowl rings

Drain Opener

½ cup baking soda
½ cup vinegar

Pour baking soda down the drain and follow with vinegar. Cover and let sit for at least 30 minutes. Flush with boiling water.

Tip: Prevent your shower form clogging by using a drain trap to catch hairs.

Laundry Detergent

1 cup soap flakes
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax

Soap flakes can be made by grating your favorite pure vegetable soap with a cheese grater.  Mix ingredients together and store in a glass container.  Use 1 tablespoon per load (2 for heavily soiled laundry), wash in warm or cold water.

This standard recipe can be adjusted for soft water by using 1 cup soap flakes, 1/4 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax.  For hard water, use 1 cup soap flakes, 1 cup washing soda, and 1 cup borax.

Note: Borax should not be ingested.

Tips: Add 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to rinse as a fabric softener.  For a whitener, use hydrogen peroxide rather than bleach. Soak your dingy white clothes for 30 minutes in the washer with 1/2 cup 20% peroxide. Launder as usual.

For more great recipes, visit care2.com

Some great recipes (pdf) from the Association of Vermont Recyclers

Do homemade cleaners work?  Learn more about the properties of these cleaners!

Image courtesy of the New York Times.

Bottlemania

An excellent new book tells the story of our drinking water crisis by focusing, in particular, on the bitter dispute that erupted between the townspeople of Fryeburg, Maine, and Nestle's Poland Spring, which wanted to bottle their water. Bottlemania, by Garbage Land author Elizabeth Royte, will be out in bookstores in the coming weeks (you can pre-order it at Royte's website, Bottlemania.net).

Royte and I spoke on the phone, yesterday, about the most recent drinking water scare, the Associated Press report that traces of a variety of pharmaceuticals can be found in our tap water (you can find my response to that report here). Here are Royte's thoughts on what can be done about the drugs in the water:

• To put the problem into perspective, there are much higher levels of hormones and antibiotics in our meat and milk.
• None of us should put our unused drugs down the toilet and pharmaceutical companies should institute some sort of take back scheme so drugs are safely disposed.
• Municipalities, with help from the federal government, should invest in existing drinking water treatment technologies that can remove the drugs.
• To offset the costs of the use of these technologies, rain water collection and gray water reuse systems should be established so less water requires treatment.
• Drug makers should be encouraged to reformulate their products to break down quickly and harmlessly in the environment so they can't end up back in our drinking water in the first place.
• Since 90% of antibiotics are used on farm animals, new regulations must be put in place to ensure that antibiotics excreted by them don't end up in our drinking water.

Lastly, here is a paragraph from Bottlemania, which encapsulate Royte's good, balanced approach to the question of public tap water versus privatized bottled water:

"I come away from my investigations," she writes, "with at least one certainty: not all tap water is perfect. But it is the devil we know, the devil we have standing to negotiate with and improve. Bottled water companies don't answer to the public, they answer to shareholders. As Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman write in Thirst, 'If citizens no longer control their most basic resource, their water, do they really control anything at all?'"