Day 147 of our Green Year: Planting Trees In Developing Countries

Several times in this blog, we have mentioned the importance of trees for not only providing habitat to various eco-systems, but also for their ability to take CO2 out of our air and replace it with nice, healthy oxygen. Way back at the beginning of Our Green Year, we planted trees that we had received, and we save paper by using recycled paper (and recycling the paper that we use). However, we wondered if there would be more than we could do regarding trees and that is how we came across Trees for the Future.

Trees for the Future helps communities in developing countries plant trees. They provide seed and agro-forestry training, and all it costs us is $40, which will sponsor the propagation of 400 trees. This also makes a great gift for someone who cares about the environment.

Trees for the Future has been around since 1989 and has been helping communities around the world plant trees. They have empowered rural groups to restore tree cover on land that has been clear-cut, as well as by teaching them how trees protect the environment and preserve the traditional livelihoods and cultures of the communities for generations. For more information, you can visit their website here.

As a result, we have committed $40 to Trees for the Future to help plant 400 trees. They send a certificate to those who donate (we know that sending a certificate is not as green as we like, but it is how they do it) and we will be putting up a picture of us with it on the blog when it arrives.

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Usually, when we go for a walk, we pick up the garbage that we see around us and put it in a reusable cloth bag. Then we bring it home to recycle what can be recycled and throw away what must be thrown away. Last night I noticed one of our readers runs a blog called Clean Canada. On the blog, there were pictures of her son and her with the garbage they picked up to show what a problem this is. So, we decided that we should show what we find to illustrate the issue of littering. Today, I picked up a squashed disposable pop container, a plastic pop bottle, several chocolate bar wrappers, two cigarette packages and a plastic vegetable bag.

On another note, today Layla and I sold our patio furniture, gave away a spare printer and it looks like a table and bed set are being picked up later this week.

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Sadly, the United States appears to be lagging behind other countries in the protection of the environment. In this case, they lag behind Brazil, which recently decided to take down thousands upon thousands of billboards because they constituted light pollution. In Osceola, Florida, however, they have passed a law to chop down trees that block the views of billboards. As one billboard legislator said, "Those billboards are important, they feed lots of families. This is a tourism corridor. Tourism depends on billboards, not on trees." In all, 16 trees were cut down as can be seen in this picture below. For more information, read the article on Treehugger.com

Day 86 of our Green Year: The Plain Truth About Paper

Every single day, we all use paper. It may be reading the newspaper, reading a book, writing something down or cleaning up after Fido. That paper, unless recycled or manufactured in a way that is sustainable, can cause large problems for the environment.

Living in Canada, Layla and I are lucky. We are able to work out on our deck, surrounded by tall trees and the environment. Trees are everywhere I look, and the air smells sweet thanks to them. However, recently I read a story on Treehugger.com that stated the two biggest offenders in the world for the destruction of forests and pollution from pulp mills, are the two countries with 50 percent of the world's forests; Canada and Russia.

This really bothered us because we always take pride in the fact that we are Canadian. We feel that as Canadians, we see the environment all around us. However to find out that we are the worst in the world for protecting our forests, well that hurts our Canadian pride deeply. On the news we hear a lot about China's environmental record, but in many ways they are starting to outstrip Canada in terms of protecting the environment and its forests. In fact, China is the best in terms of preserving forests. Studies have shown that 90 percent, yes 90 percent, of the logging in Canada is done in old growth forests. These are forests that are literally hundreds, if not thousands of years old. On top of that, some of the worst cases for paper mill pollution are found in Canada.

It is not all bad of course, Canada did publish all of its Harry Potter books on recycled paper. While that is a lot of books, it does not make what Canada is doing right. As well, one thing we try to do here at Our Green Year is educate people, so here is some 'fun' facts about paper and how it is used, or misused, on Earth.

• Half of the forests on the earth have been burned or cleared, and 80 percent of what is left is seriously degraded.
• 42 percent of the wood harvest is used to make paper.
• The paper industry is the fourth largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions
• One-quarter of the waste in the landfills of North America is paper.
• If the United States cut its paper use by only 10 percent, it would prevent 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases from going into the atmosphere. That is like taking 280,000 cars off the road.
• Recycled paper uses 44 percent less energy, produces 38 percent less emissions, 50 percent less waste water, 49 percent less solid waste and 100 percent less wood. Sadly, only 48.3 percent of all paper is recycled

Obviously there is a problem.

So, for our 86th day of Our Green Year, Layla and I are being paper-conscious.

• When we receive an e-mail, or have something on the computer (other than stories that need to be sent by snail mail), we will not be printing anything off.
• All the paper we will be buying, from toilet paper to writing pads will be recycled.
• We already recycle all the paper we can, and we will continue to do that.
• We will make our own birthday and Christmas cards, while reusing envelopes as well.
• We will read magazines and news online, not buying them, unless they are from recycled paper.
• We will write small on our paper pads and we will use both sides.

Also, Layla and I plan on writing a book about our experience with Our Green Year following this (any agents or publishers reading this?...) and we plan to publish with recycled paper as well.
I encourage everyone to check out one of the best sites I have found on the internet, and one of our Green Friends; Eco-Libris. They plant a tree for every book that you read and they should be commended for what they are doing. We need more companies like them.

Yesterday, when we did our TV interview, we were asked if we felt we were making a difference. I have thought about this and I hope we are. I hope that the people who read this are learning about the environment and learning that going green can be a small step (changing lightbulbs) or a big step (recycling everything and being zero-impact). I hope everyone who reads our blogs enjoys them and becomes educated from them about the world around us. We are on day 86 and still have about 250 days left, which is about nine months. There is still a long way to go, and Layla and I appreciate everyone who comes to our site to read our journey.

Day 33 of our Green Year: Going Second-Hand With Books

Layla and I love books. They are amazing. They can take you into so many different worlds, you can learn so many things and all it takes is the time to go and find the books you want. However, books are not always good for the environment. In fact for every 116 books that are made, one tree is cut down. That may not seem like much, but when you think about how many books have been sold in just more popular book titles and series, the quantity of trees lost is astonishing.

If we add together the number of books printed for A Tale of Two Cities (200 million), The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (150 million), The Da Vinci Code (57 million), Harry Potter (400 million) and To Kill A Mockingbird (30 million), we have 837 million books, which comes to 7.2 million trees lost JUST to print those books. Now keep in mind that millions of books are sold each year and we begin to see a problem. Granted, there are books sold through green book publishers, and some are printed on recycled paper, but that is not always the norm.

As a result, Layla and I have decided to only buy second-hand books or go to the library for what we want. Today there was a big book sale in our hometown and we bought over a dozen books for only $7.50. We will be going back tomorrow. This saves them from being thrown out, gives them new life and keeps us from buying new books in the store. For those books we want to read that just come out, then we will either get them from the library, or we will order them through a green book publisher like our friends at Eco-Libris (http://www.ecolibris.net/) who plant a tree when you buy a book.

If you go to a second hand book sale of your own, make sure to take a picture and send it to us so we can add you to our bandwagon! Send pictures of all your green activities to crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 32 of our Green Year: Reusable Takeout

When you go out for something to eat and you bring home what is left in a Styrofoam container, what do you do with it? When you go to McDonald's or Subway, what do you do with the paper wrapping, plastic bags and more?
If you are like most people, you simply throw it away and before all of this, Layla and I were the same way. However, Our Green Year is all about changing the way we deal with our day-to-day lives and understanding how everything we do affects the environment.

So, as part of our Green Year, Layla and I have decided to do away with these containers. From now on when we go out for supper and there is food left over, it goes in a Tupperware container. When we go out to Subway, as we sometimes like to do, we will be putting the subs, without the paper, in the containers. Doing this can eliminate large amounts of waste in your home because you only use the paper, bags and Styrofoam for a few hours at most. By spending only $10 to $20, you can get the containers you need to never worry about how your food wrapping is affecting the environment.

You should probably get used to not having take-out containers, the Styrofoam ones at least. San Francisco has banned them out right, as has China, and I am sure the rest of the United States and Canada won't be far behind.

Thank you again to the Trail Daily Times for their wonderful story on us today. It is nice to see we can get the word out on what we are doing.

Remember, we will be posting pictures of our readers doing green things, so if you have any, send them to us at crwbaird@gmail.com and if you have any suggestions, let us know.

Day 30 of our Green Year: Teaching Green

Yay! We hit our first month marker and the Our Green Year initiative it pushing forward as more and more people visit our site.
Thank you to everyone who came to our site yesterday, and whom offered suggestions about things we can do in the future for Our Green Year. Layla and I both really appreciate it.

For our month-anniversary of Our Green Year, Layla and I took a road trip (yes we carpooled) to a nearby provincial park where we helped in teaching children about the forest and how much it does for us. The day lasted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and it saw six Grade Five classes come out to the event to learn about how firefighters fight forest fires, how the watersheds are so important, what the forest has in it and even some orienteering.

Layla and I took part to help out our good friend Darcee O'Hearn, who works with the West Kootenay Forest Education Fund (http://www.learnforestry.com/), who helped put on the event with the Ministry of Forestry.

Now, we do not have any pictures today because our digital camera ran out of battery juice and we had to borrow Darcee's film camera. However, we will be getting the pictures printed tomorrow and uploaded to our Photo Gallery, where we will be putting photos of ourselves at various stages through our Green Year, as well as photos of you when you implement the changes we have. Send us your own photos!

All in all, a very long day but one full of education that we hope will help a lot of children appreciate what the forest does for them.

Day 27 of our Green Year: Drinking Coffee The Green Way

With coffee, I am an addict. I will drink one to two pots per day and I simply love everything about coffee. However, despite this I am going green with it, as Layla is with her tea. How do you go green with coffee? Well, it is actually quite easy.

First of all, you want to buy local brews. These are brews that are roasted and made in your area. Talk to your local coffee shop to find out if they brew it locally and roast it locally. If they don't, try and find one that does.
Second, instead of going into Starbucks, with their oddly named cup sizes, to get a coffee, why don't you go in with a reusable mug. When you think about the waste that is generated by those mugs, it is quite amazing. You have the lid, container and safety wrap (keeps your hands from burning), which all contribute to waste.
Third, try and get organically grown and fair-trade grown coffee. We have decided to do that here by buying coffee from Kicking Horse Coffee Company, which is located in B.C., so we can kill three birds with one stone on that one.
Lastly, you want to compost your coffee grounds, as well as get a reusable coffee filter. There is no need to constantly buy coffee filters when you do not need to, and coffee grounds make a great compost material for the garden.

Also, in terms of coffee grounds, here are some great uses for it:

1. You can use it as plant food for rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreens and camellias that like acidic soil.
   
2. If you are having a problem with ants in the yard or house, then sprinkle some of the grounds in the areas you do not want them and they will not go anywhere near the grounds.
3. If you would like to make your own paper (an upcoming blog ;) ), then you can use coffee grounds as brown dye for paper, as well as fabric and Easter eggs.
4. Cats hate coffee grounds, so mix it with some orange peels and put it around your plants.
5. Mix some of the coffee grounds with some shampoo when you are giving your dog a bath, it will not only get rid of fleas, but it will make the dog's hair feel softer.

I would also like to give a shout out to a new affiliate of our blog, Eco-Libris. The people here are an environmental leader in that they will plant a tree for every book that you buy through them. As a book lover and a writer, this provides a wonderful solution to me as the books I buy end up costing a tree its life. Check out their website at: http://www.ecolibris.net/

Here is a list of coffee companies that practice the principles of fair trade and organically grown, courtesy of Treehugger.com:

Birds and Beans
Blue Smoke Coffee
Bodum
Cafe Bis
Cameron's Coffee
Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
The Groovy Mind
Grounds For Change
Kicking Horse Coffee
Merchants of Green Coffee
Newman's Own Organics
Simple Coffee
Solar Roast Coffee
Sweetwater Organic Coffee Roasters
Today Was Fun
Oso Negro

Day 12 of our Green Year: Planting Trees

Well, the day finally came when we could go out and plant some trees, so we took the time to go off into the mountains around our town and plant some pine trees in the forest.
We wanted to make sure they survived, so we picked areas that were away from trails, but were also open so that the pine trees would not be choked out by the larger trees.

These pine trees will help to take CO2 out of the atmosphere, put more oxygen into it and assist the environment by providing a habitat for everything from insects and squirrels to chipmunks and birds.
In all there was seven trees planted, over a wide area.

Planting trees is one of the best things you can do for the environment because every day, too many trees to count are cut down to be used for everything from houses to toilet paper in our society.
You may want to plant a tree yourself. It can be done to signify a marriage, birthday, birth or death, and it helps the environment immensely. Think of how cool it will be to come see the tree you planted on the 1st birthday of your son, when your son is 31 years old!

Do the world a favour, plant a tree. We did seven times and that is seven more trees helping to fight global warming.

Day 7 of our Green Year: Volunteering The Green Way

The Green Party of British Columbia is a quickly rising provincial party that may get a seat or two in the next election, coming in the fall. In our second day of our Green Year, we joined the Green Party because they fit the green ideals that we hold dear. Well, Day 7 began with Layla taking on a position as the official Secretary of the BC Green Party. It is a pretty prominent position to hit only a few days after joining the party, and now she will be busy organizing meetings, the AGM, as well as taking notes during conference calls. We hope to inspire a few people within the party to start their own goal of going green every day.

It is a big step for both Layla and I to get so involved in a provincial party, but we both feel that the BC Green Party is a provincial party on the right track who are poised for a breakthrough in our area of British Columbia. Now, with Layla helping out in her position, I feel they just got a pretty significant boost on their road to provincial election success.

Here are some quick facts about the Green Party:
In 2005, the Green Party of BC ran in all 79 ridings and finished with nine percent of the total vote, down slightly from the 12 percent they had in the 2001 election. So far, across the world, Green Party members have been elected in over 60 nations around the world, including Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and New Zealand.
These countries use a proportional voting system, which BC and Canada does not, if they did, the Green Party would have had several members in both provincial and federal levels of government.

Day 6 of our Green Year: Improving the Air with Saplings

For Day 6 of our Green Year, we decided to make things a bit greener in our area. As a result, we have acquired seven saplings that we are going to be planting later this week to help improve the air, take some CO2 out of the atmosphere and make things a bit easier on the planet.
These trees will be planted later this week near some of the trails that hikers use around our town. However, we may put one or two in our yard.

You may be asking the question of how planting trees can help the environment, so here are some bits of information about trees and all they do for the environment, and us.

1. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, remove the carbon and release oxygen back into the air. This means, no trees, no oxygen, we all die. In fact, one acre of mature trees absorb the same amount of CO2 in one year, that a car being driven for 26,000 miles produces.
2. Trees placed around a home in a strategic manner keep it cool and cut summer air conditioning needs by up to 50 percent.
3. Trees reduce runoff by breaking rainfall, which allows the water to flow down the trunk and into the earth below the tree. This prevents stormwater from carrying pollutants into the ocean.
4. Trees shield people from UV rays. The most common form of cancer in North America is skin cancer, and trees reduce UV-B exposure by 50 percent.
5. Studies have found that patients in hospitals with views of trees at their window heal faster. Children with ADHD have fewer symptoms when able to see trees, and mental fatigue is reduced on individuals who have trees outside their windows.
6. Homes and neighborhoods with trees in front of them have been shown to lower the violence of an area near the home.
7. Trees increase property values by up to 15 percent when planted in strategic locations around the yard.

Carbon Removed Each Year By Seven Full-Grown Trees: 182 Pounds
Amount of Oxygen Provided by Seven Full-Grown Trees: Enough for 21 People