" Green Talk "

 by David Teeple

Welcome Austinites and those in the rest of the world. This is my first installment of a bi-monthly blog of interesting news concerning our environment. I hope to inspire you to be more informed of the issues and offer things you can do to make a difference. We need major policy reform on a global scale as well as to change the way we think and behave on an individual level. You've heard the phrase "think globally, act locally" and I believe that says it all.

On a pretty scary front, two decades ago, one of the nations most progressive climatologists, James E. Hansen, warned congress that humans were negatively impacting the environment by warming the atmosphere through the release of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and forests. His trumpeting initiated the Kyoto Protocol and brought to public awareness global warming. On Friday in a speech to NASA, he stated that we are going to be in serious trouble if we don't make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the next couple of years. That means we have to just do it now.

On a wonderful note, it is clear that we can make a huge difference in our relationship to the environment and act thoughtfully and responsibly. Yesterday, an article in the NY Times announced that the state of Florida is planning to buy 187,000 acres of land from United States Sugar and return it to the Everglades. This is on the scale of Yellowstone National Park folks. Still in the works, the deal will take a while to complete and the possibility of a snafu or two exists; but it is a terrific move in the right direction in taking control of the future of our environment.

I can just hear the wheels in your head (alright, I know it's really neurons firing, but I love the image of a little hamster running on a wheel inside my head - how green is that?) thinking 'what can I do to make a difference'. First, go to a mirror, smile real big and tell yourself how wonderful you are for wanting to make a difference. In fact I want to underscore my intentions here with the statement that doing things for the environment and ourselves can be fun; lots of fun. We get to buy new stuff - although I am a big proponent of consuming less - learn new things and know that our actions can make a difference.

So a big part of this blog is going to be practical and the best place to start is in your home. You spend a lot of time there and why not make yourself safer, healthier and happier. The better you feel about yourself, the more you can do for those around you and the environment. I'll go into more detail next time, but here are a few things you can do right away to clean things up.

First, eliminate as many chemicals from your environment as possible. It's so easy to do and the results are immediate. So many of the things we use are toxic, especially cleaning supplies and air fresheners. In fact, if you have any conventional air fresheners, whether in the form of spray cans, plug in devices, candles etc. just throw them out. Many studies show them to cause respiratory, skin and neurological problems, especially in our kids. Easy. Go back to that mirror and say 'good work'.

Next are the cleaning products. They use all kinds of nasty chemicals like ammonium chloride. That's ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Sounds pretty scary, huh? So it can be found in cleaning products, cough syrup, shampoo, cattle feed…'wait, did he say cough syrup'? Now if you go to the MSDS sheets (the place we find out the back story of chemicals) it is riddled with warnings, like: use a respirator, don't eat it, don't touch it, shall I go on…? Enough. Just go to your local health food store and go to the cleaning aisle. There are wonderful alternatives that work quite well and are easy on you and the environment.

Until next time, be happy and healthy and thanks for helping us all to make a difference. Have a green day.