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Archive for the ‘Earth Talk Recycled’ Category

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 »

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 »

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 »