Overconsumption Uprooted

A quote shared by the Women's Earth Alliance:

“Feeling uprooted and disconnected can cause a desire to conquer or dominate others to establish self-worth and a sense of belonging. This includes attempting to dominate the physical world by over-consuming material goods when we lose a meaningful and fulfilling kinship with Earth and each other.”

– Osprey Oreille Lake, Uprisings for the Earth

Green Tweets

Since I have joined Twitter (follow me @kjbead), I have seen so many cool sustainable happenings that I am on overload. I am going to try to be good about posting them to this blog.

While Twitter has been wonderful, within 5 minutes a sweet tweet can fly out into cyberspace off my home page and then it becomes somewhat lost to me. When I have the opportunity to be on Twitter and if I see one of these tweets, uploading them to my blog will be a good way for me to remember them and provide you with some of the latest green happenings.

To get started here are some fun ones that I have run into recently:

ReMakes: Old Billboards Reborn: Check out this article with information on what they are doing with old billboards now--making placemats! Maybe not the most useful, but it's better than nothing. To be linked with more cool ideas like this one, follow @GOOD on Twitter.

Urban Gardening Meets Wall Art: Watch this video about Urbio. If you are on Twitter, follow J. McIntire-Strasburg @sustainablog for more great posts like this one.

That's all for now.

Green Movement Resources

Earth day is comin' round the corner. How will you celebrate?

Obviously every day is Earth day and there are cool events always happening in honor of Mother Earth. Here are some good resources if you live in Minnesota and want to become more involved in the sustainability movement.

1) The Alliance for Sustainability is putting on their Sustainable Communities event April 8-9. I went last year and am planning to attend this year. Really cool event to network with other people who have similar interests and learn about ways you can act and participate in local, green movements in your neighborhood.

For more information and to register visit their website.

2) The Sustainability Film Series II is taking place right now. It began late February and goes through May. To check out the list of films that have played and that will be showing check out this website.

3) The Do It Green! Minnesota calendar is a great resource to check out sustainable happenings/workshops year round! Check it out!

4) May 7-8, 2011: The Living Green expo takes place at the State fairgrounds. I went last year and it was a fine introduction to green ideas, but was more for the homeowner who wanted to do green home improvements. This year there is an art exhibit and green wedding piece to the expo that I think will add some flare, so I may have to check it out again.

5) Transition towns. I recently had the opportunity to learn about the Transition towns movement. This organization has chapters all over the place. People come together to work on helping their communities transition to towns that no longer rely on oil for survival. Both St. Paul and Minneapolis have a chapter that meets weekly. To find out if your area has a group, check out their website.

There are obviously more events happening that I did not list and if you have one that you know about that I missed please feel free to comment and share!

If you are not a Minnesota resident, look up events happening in your area. I think you will be surprised to see there are many cool happenings going on in your area. I guarantee it. If not, make your town cooler by setting something up!

Plastics Recycling Opportunities in Minnesota

Ever wonder about whether or not you can recycle a plastic container?

Typically if there is a #1 or #2 on the bottom of the plastic container it is acceptable to be recycled by the local trash and recycling company.

But what about the #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7 plastic containers?

Unfortunately they are usually tossed into the regular garbage. However, right now the Eastside Food co-op of NE Minneapolis is doing a pilot-study program that is collecting #3, #4, #5, #6, #7 plastic containers.

On Thursdays from 3 – 7 pm and Saturdays from 10 am – 2 pm people can rinse, sort and bring these plastics to the parking lot located at 2551 Central Ave NE, Mpls., MN. If you have questions about this opportunity, please call 612-788-0950.

To find more specific information about what you can bring and the program, please visit the Eastside Food Co-op's website.

Want to do more? Want to involve your community? Set up your own collection of #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7 on your block or at your workplace and every week or two when in the Northeast area drop off your community's recycling at the Eastside Food Co-op. This way of participating and getting people involved is really easy. For example, a friendly church member has offered to collect our congregation's plastic recyclables and volunteered to bring them to Eastside weekly.

If you are a friend who sees me on occassion, feel free to bring me your unwanted plastics and I will make sure they arrive to Eastside Food co-op. I will also be grateful to help the cause.

If a resident of the Twin cities, for more details about plastics recycling check out the following resources.
* Plastics recycling information for St. Paul, Minnesota
* Separating recyclables city of Minneapolis webpage

If not a resident of the Twin cities, please look to your own city or town's rules and regulations on their city website or call your local trash/recycling provider.

Stop Frankenfish! Say no to GMO!

Normal fish vs. Frankenfish; more fish, but what is the price?


Do your part and sign a letter to tell President Obama that you say "No!" to genetically modified salmon.

Click here to do your civic duty and make a difference in the world.

After you sign the letter you can even send to 10 of your most politically active friends. It's easy and you are supporting a cause that can truly impact the health of our nation.

As you may already know, genetically modified food is unnatural and has not been adequately tested for its safety. Unfortunately many foods have made this leap, and most people don't even know it. Soybeans and corn are big ones (and not the only ones at that).

There is also cloning happening, where animals are being cloned for production. Humans are now consuming these animals, even though there have not been enough studies done. (Yes, that's right, and they do not label the meat as "cloned," that just wouldn't sell the same, would it?)

Unfortunately some studies show that these cloned animals are quite unhealthy.

They suffer from a mountain of ailments from physical abnormalities, cancer, immune system defects and not to mention early deaths. In one study 83% of clones died after their 800th day on earth.

When you think of fish, you think of the word "fresh," maybe you imagine the fish swimming happily about a stream; frankenfish, on the other hand, are so sick that most of them would die soon whether or not you filleted it. (Sound familiar? Hint: think meat industry).

And after all of this, we ask, is it weird that humans are suffering from compromised immune systems and a slew of health problems, when the "food" we put in our bodies also have the same issues?

Not enough to get you to sign the (cuss) letter? Here's more info:
10 freakiest things about Frankenfish
What are the risks of genetically modified salmon?
Article that explores more genetically modified salmon issues

A quote worth thinking about

“In the end we will conserve only what we love; We will love only what we understand; And we will understand only what we are taught.”

-Baba Dioum, 1968

Recycle your gift cards

Did you know gift cards can be recycled?

I am currently on a HUGE de-cluttering kick in my house and its weird the little things that can accumulate over time. Every Christmas my dad loves to give out gift cards and over the past 10 years you can imagine the piles that are generated. Besides the idea of re-loading a gift card which is a good way to re-use, I found a place you can send your cards to and they recycle them. Its called Earthworks.

Go to their website and subscribe and they will give you the address.

Recycle your gift cards today!