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A Green Post from GreenLivingZone.com by Karen Ann Teeters

Natural Weed Control

One of my Favorite recycled Earth Talk Question and Answer Columns
as seen in E Environmental magazine, reprinted with Permission from E.

You could pull those dandelions out and have them in a salad or here are a few natural weed control techniques from the Earth Talk experts! – Karen

Dear EarthTalk: I pruned back an overgrown bush in my back yard last fall and now the soil around it is covered in dandelions and other weeds. Is there any way to get rid of these weeds without resorting to RoundUp and other chemical herbicides?

– Max S., Seattle, WA

Weeds are nothing if not opportunistic. While you may not have bargained for getting one form of eyesore (weeds) by clearing another (an overgrown bush), dandelions and other fast-growing, quickly spreading plants know no bounds when some new territory opens up. They will colonize and spread out given the slightest opening—after all, that‘s what defines them as weeds.

Of course, conventional herbicides such as Monsanto‘s RoundUp will take down the weeds in a jiffy, but the negative effects on people, animals and the environment may be both profound and long-lasting. Independent studies of RoundUp have implicated its primary ingredient, glyphosphate, as well as some of its “inert” ingredients, in liver damage, reproductive disorders and Non-Hodgkin‘s Lymphoma, as well as in cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nerve and respiratory damage. Read the rest of this entry »

Earth Day is in Your Heart

Passion for Earth Day, Everyday

This Earth Day Weekend, I will not be going to an Earth Day”event”. Instead I will be going to a car show with my husband Scott because that is part of our business. He is so totally passionate about cars and that is part of what I love about him. I love that he is passionate about cars, about the planet, about good health. And me, well I’ll be learning more about cars at the show but I will be beaming because we will be sharing our new car website that I created. I am passionate about websites and what they can do for people’s passions. Read the rest of this entry »

May 1st Holistic Event in Cherry Hill NJ

May 1st
Holistic Event

in Cherry Hill NJ

Depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue and stress may be
deficiencies in your body or life that can easily be addressed.

Do you have trouble controlling your emotions?

Are your mood swings affecting your relationships?

Are you a highly sensitive person?

If you feel like your mood swings are having a

negative impact on your life – we are here to

assist you with natural approaches to help you

balance your mood.

Healing Tools-Balance Mood Presenters

Did you know many psychological diagnoses

are actually derived from physical and

energetic imbalances?

In plain English, you may think your crazy,

unstable, or over-reactive because of a horrible

childhood or a current life circumstance but the

truth is you may feel that way because you have

basic unmet nutritional, physical and energetic needs.

Read the Rest of Info Here:

http://moodswingsremedy.com/5-powerful-healing-tools-to-balance-your-mood

History of  the First Earth Day in America

Earth Day

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

Courtesy of:

http://earthday.wilderness.org/

Get a List of the Local Earth Day Events in Your Area Here:

http://earthday.envirolink.org/

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Read the rest of this entry »

Green Tips for your Green World

Here are Ten Green, Simple, Healthy Ideas to remember and use  from day to day as you strive to stay on your ‘Stepping Lightly” and “Living Simply” path. So whether you are on a trip to the grocery store or writing a things to do list, keep these ideas  in mind or posted on your board. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible to have a good life without wasting so much?

No Impact Man – a green movie review by Karen A Teeters

No Impact Man on DVD

Colin Beavan, author of the book and blog of the same name had an inspired idea for a project, for a book, but he never imagined his and his family’s wild year of radical low consumption would be made into a documentary. And may I add a very entertaining, light, fun, inspirational and even educational documentary movie at that!

In the beginning of the film Colin expresses this thought,”Is it possible to have a good life without wasting so much?” And sometimes when he introduced some really austere and strict ideas that were met with a bit of resistance and maybe second guessing even on his part, you know he was wondering what the answer would actually be  at the outcome of this experiment of his.

So Colin’s idea of foregoing electricity, coffee, processed foods, paper goods, restaurant eating and buying used items, getting rid of TV and more to see how one family’s commitment would impact the rest of the inhabitants on the planet was filmed for the world to see.

His wife and his sweet toddler daughter had no idea what they were getting into when they agreed.  Michelle Conlin was a good sport even when she admitted on camera her temptation to cheat because of her admitted coffee/caffeine  addiction. So seeing  her at the corner Starbucks succumbing with  an all too recognizable cup in hand and hearing  her all too human rationalizations helped the other half of the more skeptical  and less virtuous viewers relate. What is a woman to do for the love of a good hearted husband? You could see she worked hard and deserved a cup of Starbucks caffeine from time to time! Read the rest of this entry »

Why GreenLivingZone.com?

Each person’s effort to live sustainably, peacefully, simply on this planet earth will be expressed in a unique manner. We are interdependent of each other and I believe to survive on this planet and to survive as a race that the majority of us need to make a different choice. Saving Gaia, our sumptuous green planet Earth is the biggest benefit of going green,stepping lightly and living simply. It is time to scale the consumption back. Get out of the rat race and become a human being. You can read articles about how our individual actions effect the earth. But now it’s time for each of us to take action and in our own unique ways, be kinder to ourselves, live healthier and go green. I invite you to comment on my posts as I review books, products, services and resources and  as I share a few of my own insights to help us all create a greener, simpler path.

Keeping it green and simple,

Karen Ann Teeters

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EARTHTALK

A Green Post from GreenLivingZone.com by Karen Ann Teeters

How can kids go green? Get them off the couch and into nature.

One of my favorite recycled Earth Talk Question and Answer Columns as seen in E Environmental magazine, reprinted with Permission from E.

Dear EarthTalk: What are some things that children and families can do to be greener (and to provide life lessons for the kids in the process)?

– Cynthia Mosher, via email

There are many ways to be green around the family that are sure to rub off on the littler ones in your midst—if they don’t beat you to it, that is.

With environmental awareness so widespread among younger people in our society, most kids have learned more about being green from their school teachers and camp counselors than we adults might have gleaned in a lifetime. For one, the environmental “Three R’s”—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—are followed at many schools nowadays. But just because your kids might hear about it at school doesn’t mean that it is sinking in, and that’s where you come in. By reinforcing such messages at home and on outings—and leading by example—you can be certain that today’s ‘tweens will be tomorrow’s greens. Read the rest of this entry »

written for Blog Action Day October 15th 2009

a green essay by Karen Ann Teeters

The change we need for environmental turnaround starts with you.

We have the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December 2009. There is already talk of diminished expectations and they have not even met! Trying to research the roles of corporations, governments, society, and individuals in the role of sustaining a healthy environment is like any major issue today – extremely challenging to come up with anything that is not polarizing.

There is a lot of empirical evidence to support capitalism’s favorite expression, “the bottom line and return on investments,” as more important than investing in environmental concerns. And of course there is an argument to support the eleventh hour concept from environmentalists, that it is almost too late for any human action to make a difference.

Here is an “imaginary scenario” to drive home the point. The tsunami of environmental destruction (the eleventh hour- the environmental “end” of life as we know it – no more breathing!) is arriving tomorrow at 2:00 PM eastern time and the business reaction is as usual, “No time for that, I have my list of responsibilities today to make sure my shareholders make a profit and I have to get back to work before my manager walks in.” Read the rest of this entry »

Bring an Organic Lunch to Work for 30 days & its a Healthy Habit!

Nutrients in organics

There have been plenty of scientific reports in the last few years emphasizing that organically grown food besides having the benefits of not using harmful pesticides, have more nutritional value than conventionally grown fruits and veggies. It is well known that organic farmers make sure their soil maintains nutrients by using older farming methods and one study showed that organic fruits and veggies have 40 percent more antioxidants as a result!

More Flavor!

Another recent study from the UK showed that lab animals preferred organic because the fruits and veggies were tastier! Seems the organics produce more phytochemicals to survive without pesticides and these phytochemicals produce more flavor and aroma as well as health benefits! Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Post from GreenLivingZone.com by Karen Ann Teeters

(This topic is very controversial. I invite you to read my two cents at the end of this article and I invite you to share your own opinions and links to other articles and blogs as well!)

One of my Favorite recycled Earth Talk Question and Answer Columns
as seen in E Environmental magazine, reprinted with Permission from E.

EARTHTALK

Dear EarthTalk: I keep meeting people who say that human-induced global warming is only theory, that just as many scientists doubt it as believe it. Can you settle the score?
– J. Proct or, London, UK

So-called “global warming skeptics” are indeed getting more vocal than ever, and banding together to show their solidarity against the scientific consensus that has concluded that global warming is caused by emissions from human activities.
Upwards of 800 skeptics  took part in the second annual International Conference on Climate Change—sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank—in March 2009. Keynote speaker and Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorologist Richard Lindzen told the gathering that “there is no substantive basis for predictions of sizeable global warming due to observed increases in minor greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and chlorofluorocarbons.”
Most skeptics attribute global warming—few if any doubt any longer that the warming itself is occurring, given the worldwide rise in surface temperature—to natural cycles, not emissions from power plants, automobiles and other human activity. “The observational evidence…suggests that any warming from the growth of greenhouse gases is likely to be minor, difficult to detect above the natural fluctuations of the climate, and therefore inconsequential,” says atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, an outspoken global warming skeptic and founder of the advocacy-oriented Science and Environmental Policy Project.
But green leaders maintain that even if some warming is consistent with millennial cycles, something is triggering the current change. According to the nonprofit Environmental Defense, some possible (natural) explanations include increased output from the sun, increased absorption of the sun’s heat due to a change in the Earth’s reflectivity, or a change in the internal climate system that transfers heat to the atmosphere. Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Post from GreenLivingZone.com by Karen Ann Teeters

One of my favorite recycled Earth Talk Question and Answer Columns
as seen in E Environmental magazine, reprinted with Permission from E.

EARTHTALK
Week of 3/22/2009

Dear EarthTalk: I want to start an organic vegetable garden in my yard and I would like to know how to combine crops to make better use of time and space.
– Val Thomason, Denton, TX

Most commercial farms concentrate on growing a few select crops to supply a wide variety of customers, but gardening at home is a different story entirely. Most backyard food gardeners are looking to augment their family’s diet with a variety of seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs throughout the growing season.
For those of us who face time and space constraints in our gardening endeavors, combining crops within the same planting areas makes a lot of sense. Such techniques are particularly well-suited to organic gardens where chemical fertilizers and pesticides aren’t used to artificially boost crop productivity. Read the rest of this entry »

A green book review by Karen Ann Teeters You could buy a book that lists and explains a hundred ways to go green, to conserve resources, to protect nature and people and you should buy that book. And then you’ll read it and think – Where do I start? What will my life be like if I commit to all these green tips? Can I do it and stick with it when most people I know don’t even get it? How do I get support and encouragement and deal with the ridicule? If you have all those questions, I have another book suggestion for you! Vanessa Farquharson has made the green commitment and has written a very intelligent, witty book about the experience of going green everyday for a whole year.

The clever title of her book is Sleeping Naked is Green and is one of the reasons I bought this book over Living with Ed and No Impact Man but those books are on my green book review list! The subtitle is: “How an eco-cynic unplugged her fridge, sold her car and found love in 366 days.” Sounds like more fun than most best selling fiction books these days, doesn’t it? Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Essay

By Karen Ann Teeters

Consciously do creative things

How do you create a balanced, simplified life? Consciously do creative things for the mind, take care of your body with wise eating choices and fitness activities, and connect to spirit by honoring all living things. This is what we call creating balance while being mindful of mind, body and spirit.

Changes were gradual

Now, I’m not saying that my life looks like this but this is the vision that I hold for myself and that I work towards creating. When I had my “aha” moment more than fifteen years ago, I realized I wanted a more fulfilling, simplified life but of course things did not change overnight. The books by Elaine St. James on simplifying came into my life and made a profound impact. But the changes were gradual.

Many people are awakening and are looking to the mind, body spirit balance. It is hard in our materialistic society where many things related to success are external. It is going against the norm to find happiness and life purpose by going internal. Read the rest of this entry »