Mom Goes Green

First of all, this has absolutely nothing to do with “Purple Rain”(!), but everything to do with saving cherished tropical rainforests!

The Prince’s Rainforests Project (as in Charles, Prince of Wales) was started in 2007, but is being given a big push by the release of this new PSA. If it takes royalty and celebrities to get a cause noticed, I don’t care… I’m all for it, as long as the cause DOES get noticed and positive steps are made.  I think this will appeal to kids too… take a look.

The mission of this project is to create public awareness, work with governments, businesses and non-profit organizations to find a solution for deforestation, and find sources for funding.  This global effort is aimed at getting top level support from nations around the world.

Saving these tropical rainforests is so critical because they absorb about a fifth of all man-made CO2 emissions, and we all know how CO2 affects climate change.  In fact, these forests are often burned down, which releases all of the CO2 they have stored back into the atmosphere, as if they had never existed.  And this doesn’t even consider the fate of the animals that call these forests home.

So check out The Prince’s Rainforests Project, sign-up to have your voice heard, find new ways to help and spread the word.  Stand up and say you want this preventable disaster to stop.

And when you take a look at The Prince’s Rainforests Project site, be sure to watch the counter at the top of the page.  In the time I spent reading one page on the site… 445,129 square meters of rainforest were destroyed.  How horribly sad.

The other night while I was looking at my Twitter account, our daughter snuggled up next to me on the couch.  Within 10 seconds she said “Aww, Mommy.  Thank you!”

I couldn’t imagine what prompted that little show of love, but I sure did enjoy it! I said “you’re welcome, but thank you for what, honey?”  She said “That, Mommy!” and pointed to the quote on my Twitter page that read: “I’m just trying to do my part to help make the world a better place for my children.”  At that moment, I realized that what I’m doing (and what we’re ALL doing) really does make a difference.

Ironically, this comment came on the heels of reading a recent study on kids’ fears about the environment.  While they should be worrying more about playing with their friends, homework, watching their favorite TV shows or earning a sweet treat after dinner, these fears about our world are very real to them.

This study, commissioned by Habitat Heroes, uncovered some interesting facts, including:

• 1 in 3 children (ages 6-11) fear that the planet won’t exist when they grown up
• More than half (56%) believe the Earth will not be as good a place to live
• Girls worry more than boys, but overall, kids in metro areas worry more than those in rural settings
• 28% say they fear the extinction of animals more than anything else
• Nearly 25% worry about enough safe drinking water

The results don’t surprise me, because this is a part of their reality, and it’s also a reminder that they are “listening” and know that concerns truly exist in today’s world.  Had you asked any of us these questions when we were 8, I don’t imagine the worry would have been as great (if there at all).

(Habitat Heroes has also developed a great site for kids to learn, play and find ideas to help the environment.  If they are afraid, maybe this will help them to learn and discover ways to help.)

But my favorite result was this:  An amazing 95% of the children believe that their parents are trying to save the environment by recycling, using reusable batteries and conserving electricity and water.

Whether that is true or not, I believe the message is this… they believe in us, so we have to do our best not to let them down.

Yes, that’s right.  Genetically engineered and modified food. Ever considered that one?  I hadn’t, until I read this article.

In a nutshell, genetic modification is a process of recombining DNA in animals (for food sources) to introduce new characteristics or desirable traits. Ummm… I don’t know about you, but I am a heartbeat away from wanting to become vegetarian, and the idea of the meats and animal products we consume coming from an animal that has been “altered” is just frightening to me.

The ideology is centered around things like creating animals that grow faster, contain more nutrients or produce a “more mild” manure (among other “excuses”), but truly, this doesn’t make me feel ANY better… and the FDA has actually given this new practice its seal of approval.  But there isn’t even enough research to assure us that it is safe, and there are now some concerns that this is already happening with produce and grains.

And just as bothersome, these products will NOT be labeled and identified, so you won’t even know if you are buying it!  This is NOT the kind of food I want to serve to my kids, ever.

(Granted, my husband and son came home with leftover “fluorescent green nite crawlers” the other day after they went fishing {and who KNOWS what was needed to create that phenomenon!} but at least I wasn’t planning on eating them!)

So what do we do?  This is again another situation where I have no solution or recommendation.  I just want you to know that it’s happening… and the fact that we may not even know that we’re bringing it home and serving it to our family.  I can only hope that this doesn’t affect organic food… but I can’t seem to find out if it does.

What I do know is that this leaves me feeling very uneasy.  Whatever happened to the simple goodness Mother Nature provided?  I truly prefer my food without all the “science experiments”.

The other day I talked about my frustration over seeing an excessive amount of ‘plastic bag trash’ littering one of our favorite Cleveland lakeside parks.

I feel I would be remiss without mentioning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  I was honestly surprised by how many of my friends had not heard of it before, but it’s something I cannot stop thinking about.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is essentially seven million tons of floating plastic waste, roughly twice the size of Texas (and some say, twice the size of the entire US).  It swirls through the ocean between the continental US and Japan, and contains everything from plastic bags to Legos to footballs.  One fifth is believed to come from trash dumped from ships and oil rigs, and the rest comes from land and all of the plastics we discard on a daily basis.

Take a look, and see if you can keep from feeling just a little bit unsettled.

And if you want to know more detail…

The problem is this… the plastics break down into small pieces of debris, pollute the ocean and beaches, disturb the eco-system and literally become food for marine life, because they can’t distinguish between what is “real” food and what is our trash.  In fact, the amount of plastic trash in this area is six times greater than the amount of plankton (this area’s most abundant food source).  This “mistake” costs them their life.  And think about what happens if you consume a fish whose diet consisted primarily of plastics… it makes me shudder.

The next time you think of tossing away some plastics… stop… and “really think”.

(Additional post:  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: words from its “founder”)

(Additional post:  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch… worse than expected?)

This post was also re-published, with permission, at The Reef Tank.