Bag It

Envirosaxs

Something you can do to help the environment is to stop using plastic and paper bags at the grocery store. These are really cute bags and are a great way to shop! http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php

Deforestation

OK, so we are always hearing about how we need to save the trees, save the reforest etc..
What are we saving them from? Well we are saving them from ourselves and deforestation.
Simply put- deforestation is the removal of trees without replanting. And even replanting the trees isn’t a cure- because they could be of a totally different species and not provide the same benefits as the ones that were torn down,
Today, I am going to focus on the Tropical Rainforest. Almost half of our earths tropical rainforest have been destroyed- research shows that in less than 50 years if we continue on the same path- we will have destroyed 80% of the tropical rainforest.

Why should you care about the rainforest?
I’m not a complete idiot- I realize that deforestation meets some human needs but it also has devastating consequences. Deforestation limits our ability to find cures for certain diseases – For instance, I read somewhere that 25% of the worlds pharmaceutical products came from tropical forests. Can you imagine that if we already have found 25% of new medicines from the forest what else could be there?

Even more pressing is the effect deforestation has on our environment. There is research to suggest that Deforestation may account for as much as 10% of current greenhouse gas emissions.

There really isn’t a cure for deforestation- bc lets face it- we need paper products and we need lumber. But if everyone was more aware of the amount of paper they used and could drastically cut down that amount or even better RECYCLE- then we can certainly slow down the effect deforestation is having on our planet. Try to think of it this way- Yes, we need paper and lumber but we also need to cure cancer. Lets come to happy medium.

Here is an easy read article to learn more about the effects of deforestation
http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/17Fall96/inneske/kenpage.htm

Is it enough?

In an unprecedented decision - the polar bear has been made a protected species. The debate on this has been going on a while.

Controversy over the status of the polar bear is tied to the fact that this is the first time a species has been considered for listing specifically because its habitat is threatened by global warming
I think its great, even after great delay- that our government has acknowledged that the polar bear is being affected by climate change- although they made sure to let it be known that this does not mean that the endangered species act should be used to fight global warming- what they really mean by this- is even though – yes, they agree that climate change is affecting the polar bears survival- there is no proof what is causing that change- so gentleman you can still drill for you oil- so its not a 100 % victory for environmentalist but it is a huge step in the right direction. Long Live the Polar Bear!!!
Here are a few highlight from the New York Times article announcing the decision….
"Few natural resource decisions have been as closely watched or been the subject of such vehement disagreement within the Bush administration as this one, according to officials in the Interior Department and others familiar with the process. After the department missed a series of deadlines, a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the decision had to be made by Thursday."

"Barton H. Thompson Jr., a law professor and director of the Woods Institute of the Environment at Stanford University, said Wednesday that while the Interior Department gave itself “sufficient room” to list the polar bear, it did not provide “environmental organizations with a mechanism for trying to address climate change.”
He said that lawsuits challenging the connection between a factory’s greenhouse-gas emissions and the threat to individual polar bears might provide difficult to win"

Make the "Switch" Already

If you are not using energy efficient light bulbs already- what in the hell are you waiting for. People they are not that much more expensive and they will pay for themselves. Your electric bill will be less and you can feel good about the fact that you just might be saving a polar bear. Look for the ENERGY STAR label it is a government-backed, labeling program that helps people save money and protect the environment by identifying products that offer superior energy efficiency and performance. Click on this link to find plenty of suggestions on more energy efficient light bulbs

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=633&fixture=0&shape=0&brightness=0&color=0&matchingBulbCount=37

Sweet Little Bears

For my first post- I want to discuss climate change just a little bit- of course climate change will be a topic that will be discussed quite frequently here. So, there are all of these reports out there that tell us that Climate Change is taking place. But to be honest they are all so hard to understand- I mean, i get the basics as I am sure most of you do but the majority is hard to understand- I was a liberal arts major- i just took the basic biology classes (looking back now i sure wish i paid more attention). The purpose of this blog will be to try and find articles that might peak the interest of us regular people and hopefully get people to wake up and realize that this is real- its not a political issue. And Hopefully i will find ways to open your eyes. So for my first post- Look at it this way- if we don't do something(i'll get to what you can do soon) about the environment ASAP we will hurt the precious little bears to the left.

The folowing are some important and easy to understand facts from a recent report by the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change full articel can be found on the WWF's website (www.panda.org).

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that human-induced climate change is a reality. It can no longer be dismissed as a theoretical, academic concept nor a politically motivated doomsday prophecy. In the Arctic, climate change impacts will be seen earlier are more dramatically than elsewhere in the world."

"Air temperatures in the Arctic have on average increased by about 5°C over the last 100 years"
"Arctic sea ice extent has decreased by 14% since the 1970s. "

What does this all mean for the polar bear? Well- the Sea Ice is melting earlier- The polar bear needs time on the ice to store up for summer and autum because food is less available to them at these times. If something isnt done about climate change soon- the period that these bears will have without food will become increasingly longer. And well, it doesnt take a genious to figure our what will happen then. They will DIE. So here comes the part of "what can i do to help" . After each post that i try to appeal to your compasionate side i will post something that you can do on your own. Sure there are about a billon things that the big time politicians can do- but these will be simple suggestions that if you and everyone you know will try to accomplish it will truly make a difference.