Books vs. Environmentalism

I went the other day for a coffee with a fellow student to borders. Borders as many might know is a wonderful place, a paradise for bookworms, a fairyland! When I walked inside that stores I already heard rumors of being able to sit there and read the books without buying them! As my dear friend Wigitco can confirmed, I was acting as a little girl who was given lots of candy. We were there for around 3 hours and I did not even realize how the time passed, I was so focused. And the prices, what prices! Cheap! For me ten dollars for a book is like giving it for free. Prices for books in my country are higher than this!

Today I thought since is the last post I will probably be doing for this class ( I don't know if I will continue) to talk about things that I do that are not that helpful to the environment. I love books. Whatever kind of books. When the school was over my fellow students either ripped or burned their books in a sign of relief. I never did that. Even if I hated the teacher or the class I never could do that.

As it is known, books are made out of paper, Paper is made out of trees. What I'm doing is encourage cutting trees for book making purposes. But what can a man do when they are so wonderful? books are not just materials they are most of the times art. But an art harmful to the environment. I would encourage students to read their classes from the computer in a word form rather than buy it from the bookstore but also I would discourage people to read general interest books from the computer. Its a completely difference sence. You feel like what you are reading from the book, your fantasy is materialized. You can read it wherever you are in the bus, in the car, in the park, everywhere. But again here comes the question. Would you rather want to help save the world by not buying books of any kind or would you rather harm even a little the environment by buying the 6th edition of Edgar Alan Poes bibliography in paper?

For me there is no answer to that. I will buy books for as long as i can. But i will still try to help the environment with any other way I'm able to.

No man is perfect. You can only do whats in your limits and does not come in conflict with your interests and life. Books for me might be a big part of life, but there are other way that do not affect someones life at all, such as recycling your garbage. These ways only take some time, thats all. So do not be bored and feel tired, go help the environment!

How something old can become useful Part 2

At the beginning of the semester I was researching for this class and was trying to find some interesting posts and sites to add to my resources.

I found an interesting post about "recycling" your furniture. He (The writer was a man) was saying that instead of an owner to throw his furniture and replace them with new ones, he could do the same thing as I mentioned on the previous post: recycle them. If a sofa is years old and the only damage is a hole, that can be easily fixed. Not really fixed, but someone can save a lot of money. Go to a shop where they sell big cloths with beautiful designs. There are some kind of carpets for sofas and other furniture and you can decorate your old furniture with it. the hole underneath will not be at all obvious, and you even make it look better. Another example could be wooden furniture and their paint is gone and they look nasty. Well, that is the easiest part, you bring them to a carpenter and he can make some beautiful designs and if someone does not have money for that just go to a shop, buy a nice color of paint and paint the furniture. It will look like new (supposedly)!

For the people who simply want to take a new living room or a new kitchen they could action their furniture away if they are still in a good position and make some money out of them.

By not really getting rid of your furniture, you can actually help the environment get itself rid of unnecessary garbage. Its not the latest fashion Trent but you will not spend a fortune buying new ones.

How something old can become useful

Have you ever thought that you clothes are ugly and you wanna get rid of them? the only remaining problem is that you don't have enough money to go in the shopping malls and buy other clothes for your self. Here is a cheap and nice solution.

Children have the tendency to want to make their barbies clothes out of simple cloths and imagining them as wonderful evening dresses. To be honest, this idea will not make this come true but at least will give some people the opportunity to have fun, enjoy themselves and even make something out of it.

Find a person who has a good talent in drawing. Ask them to draw you whatever you may like as a design. When you will have the design ready, in the market there is a kind of paper where you just press on it and the sketch on the paper get to be printed on the other side. This way you can bring a nice wonderful design on your shirt without having any trouble at all (except from the person who actually drew it)! Then you get some special paint that you can find in the market for reasonable prices and draw on your shirt. Well, its not the most fashionable thing but you get to keep the shirt and make something out of it that you like.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos to show of some examples. My best friend and I used to make those and I loved them especially one where my friend made her favorite bands sign. You could not see that it was painted at all!

And so you get: 1) to get a new cool shirt, 2) to help the environment by not throwing clothes 3) and in a long term period save money too ( the paints can keep for a long time)!

Rag collector

I had a talk today with one of my fellow students about how people tend to throw garbage on the streets.

Back in my city I always was judging the people about how they do not care where their garbage will end up. Someone could see gum which dated back in 1988 on the pavements. Little papers, bottles and so on were lying around in the corners waiting for the garbage men to pick them up. Many people are not taught how to keep a small garbage of a used paper in their pocket until they see a bin nearby. I personally when I don't see near me a garbage bin, I keep the small papers or receipts in my bag. When I go home I get rid of all the garbage in my bag.

When I went the other day for Thanksgiving to New York, it was a big shock. People littering, garbage everywhere on the streets and the poor garbage people waiting in the corners for someone to throw trash on the floor. I actually heard a conversation between two garbage people saying that new yorkers are most of them dirty, that they manage to clean one pavement and in 10 minutes its full of trash again. I do not envy them. Someone will say its a big city and a lot of people come and go, but that does not explain the fact how it is possible that its so dirty when in fact there are so many garbage bins on the streets. That does not only happen in New York, do not misunderstand me. That happens in many big cities.

Since my mother is from Switzerland I had the opportunity to go there many times and every time I'm amazed. These people are crazy about keeping their cities clean! You will not see not even in the big cities garbage on the streets. Okay, one or two its natural but not in such a big extent like New York or Athens or whatever other big city.

This is how you get to compare countries and level of awareness. For some Americans it might be natural to just throw garbage on the street but in some extent it is explained by the fact that there is no one to show to the people that this is the wrong way.

Maybe one day the whole planet will be able to understand even the smallest consequences of our actions on our planet. It might not be obvious but if we continue this way of living the future will not be as bright as science fiction might show it.

Smoking Hurts!

Every now and then you will see and advertisement about cigarettes and how they cause cancer and kill the people around the smoker, and the smoker him/herself. Well there is another way to make smokers cut smoking.

Here is the deal: smoking is not really proven to cause cancer or any other disease. It only makes your body weaker to them and a smoker has more chances of becoming sick than a normal person. So a smoker sometimes can have the perfect life without any illnesses and so on.

There is though another effect of smoking but not on people. The environment is also affected by smoking. Ok, not as much as factory fumes but its also bad.

smoke: The smoke produces by the cigarette helps the air pollution grow. One cigarette you might think is not that much, but what about the ten cigarettes a person might smoke a day? what about the the 100 cigarettes a person smokes a month?

cigarette butts: bad, bad, bad. Especially when they are smoked by an irresponsible smoker. Back in my country especially you can see so many cigarette butts on the street that makes me so angry. Especially when the garbage bin is close. In this case a smoker litters. Additionally the same happens with the ashes.

Last but not least, there are many responsible smokers, who do not smoke near people who are non smokers and watch where they throw their cigars. They only do it because they are addicted to it. I'm only talking about a specific group of smokers that do not care about the environment.


-I do not indicate anything bad for those who read the blog and smoke. I do not have any intention to make fun or embarrass anyone. This is my own personal opinion. The fact that I despise smoking so much does not mean that I also hate the people with that habit. Some of my best friends smoke.-

Environmental fast food Restaurants

Yesterday me and two of my friends went for a walk and ended up going for dinner in Burger King which is in the neighborhood of the school. I went in the bathroom to clean my hands and i noticed an interesting sign.

Instead of paper they had those air making machines where you can dry your hands. On it there was a small sticker saying that when using those machines, you save thousands of trees from being cut down for the production of paper.I never thought of this but whoever sticked this little note was right. electricity is easy to find and produce. Trees though take many years to become fully grown up and be cut down. That is also the reason why forests cannot cope with the fast need of paper.

I don't think that the owner of the shop put this machine to be more environmentally friendly though, but whatever the reason the result is better than using paper to dry our hands.

Mmmmm Donuts! Part 2

Something i would like to add to the post yesterday about the donuts.

In our society we do not feel the necessity of food since we can find it in the neighboring grocery store. There are countries however were people starve to death because their salary is not enough even to buy a piece of bread. I'm not talking about Africa or China for which the television shows daily scenes of hunger, starvation and death. I'm talking about the beggar on the street of America and in other "developed" countries of the world. In the land of opportunity and in cities where you would expect to see people with suits and stuffed mouths, there are people who do not have a job and are supported by some homeless station. They would really appreciate those donuts.

Its just the simple question since I don't want to eat them now why not take it back home for later? No food should be wasted. Earth's resources are not limitless and we should not take things for granted, such as food.

Just a little story of me: In my country mothers usually stuff their children and guests with lots of food even when its too much for just one person. When I'm at my boyfriends house that's usually the case. The size of my stomach is not that big and I usually end up not being able to finish my plate. My boyfriend then starts to tease me saying "there are people in the world who would beg to have that full plate of food or those leftover!" well, I end up forcing my self to eat it because I feel guilty. And my boyfriend ends up taking my plate by force because he is afraid that i will throw up if I force my self to eat.

That would be a bigger waste of food so I just let him take it.

Mmmmm Donuts!

On Wednesday as i walked in the classroom for my English class i went to my regular seat next to a fellow student. In front of us there was a box and i asked what it was. "take one" she said. "are they yours" i asked her and she said no they were just lying there, that probably someone left it there. In the box there were three whole donuts, big ones.

I thought that as a very big waste of food. The person should be ashamed of him/herself. Why? simple reasons. The most obvious is that the person who owed this box just left it there. the proper thing would be to take it with him/her or simply throw it in the garbage bin. The bin was right next to the table! I get really irritated when i see people do that. they hold on a paper, they want to throw it away and because they are too bored to cross the street for example and throw it in the bin they just throw it on the ground. There was a very successful advertisement back in my country. In the Ad there was a man that threw on the ground his garbage and at the end he found in front of him a big pile o garbage. the message was "don't throw your garbage anywhere. you will meet them in front of you again"meaning that one way or another your actions will have consequences on you.

So next time when you are about to leave a garbage behind or throw it on the street think. is it plastic or is it paper? paper can melt after a short time of rain and sun. plastic needs hundreds of years. is it food or a cigar? food will go back to nature. A cigar can burn nature. Were is the nearest garbage bin? If not in the area keep it for later. It will not take extra space in your pocket or your bag and it does not cost you. It costs to the environment.

Tribute to a special person

This time I will not post something related to the environment but rather something that has to do with what I am today.

Since the day my family and I moved to our own house many years ago my mother tried to make a lot of things which would contribute to our pockets and the environment. I remember that we sampled all the food in one place in the garden and leave them to decompose. As i mentioned in one of the very first posts i made in this blog is that the decomposed food is the best fertilizer for the garden. That was the best thing for our house since we have a huge garden surrounding it. My father also built a chicken house and we had the waste of the chicken as a fertile soil too. For around 4-5 years we did not need to buy any vegetables and we saved a lot of money by that. We also had the best, tasty and most healthy vegetables that we could find because of that system. After that, my mother still continued recycling the garbages, saving water from the rain and used it for watering the garden etc. Even when the house was still on paper, she thought about the future and built a natural recycling water system in the house and now we can use all the water that was consumed all over again, saving huge water bills. Additionaly, since the house is on a hillside, my parents used the gravity to collect more water in the tank when it was raining (too much detail to go in).

These are only some examples of the kind of life im used to live in and the reason why i continued thinking as an environmentalist away from home. My mother raised us in such a way that it became a standard thing to be benefitial to the environment. I owe a lot to her and not just for making me a better person.

Mom, thank you.

Picture of the week

This time i posted a picture related to our climate right now. At the area where i am it should be snowing at this time of the year but it is not. This is a clear sign of how much we affect the climate and the environment.
Anyway I really liked this picture and i hope everyone will enjoy it as much as i do.

Picture belongs to Ivan-Suta

Mom, did you clean my t-shirt?

That is a rather frequent question if someone will think about it. There are hundreds of times that i have searched for my pair of jeans and shirts and i could not find them just because they were in the bathroom where all the clothes that need cleaning are.

Back in my house, we have something like a bin where all the family throws the dirty clothes and after a while they go for cleaning in the wash machine. I suppose that every family does that.
I started this post kind of weirdly but I have a point to make. Some i assume have visited and stayed in a hotel before. Customers especially from other countries that come for vacation as for cleaning for their clothes since they are not able to clean them by themselves. And so the housekeeping of the hotel tends to put the wash machine into use for a small lode of clothes whereas it could clean the double amount.

The reason why people do not clean everyday their clothes? money. Even if some do not realize that, using the wash machine only once a week is more cost effective. Families can save money from electricity and water. Unconsciously they help the environment. And families help their own pockets.

A small information and i m done: Hotels today have the highest number of consumption in electricity and especially water. I work in hotels and trust me the amounts used every day are enormous. If someone decides to go for vacation try to be more friendly to the environment and try not to overuse your services by asking for clean towels and clean sheets every day.

How much would you give me for this?

When i came to America i had a huge luggage problem. I had to watch the weight of my luggage back home so that it would not exceed the limit. If anyone would have seen my room in the first days i was here they would think i m poor. A few days ago i discovered that the weight which my mother and I thought was the limit for the luggage, was even higher that we thought. Well everyone can imagine i went out to the mall and bought my self clothes since everything is so cheap here in contrast with my country and of course the weather is not as fierce and cold as back home. i had to prepare my self. I have ended up almost filling up my closet without worrying anymore so much about the weight.

Before i discovered the limit was much more than i thought, i was trying to discover ways to get rid of my old clothes. I found out that here it is possible to sell clothes back to the store whereas in my country no such thing exists. People can so sell their old clothes and get a small profit out of it. My point is that rather than throwing clothes to the garbage bins people can sell them and so avoid an extra burden to the environment. Another solution of course is to give them to charity. In that case you will not only help the environment but also other fellow citizens who really need clothes.

I probably will give them to the church and know that i helped someone.

Winter has finally come

Yesterday evening sitting int he living room of my apartment watching television. I saw out of the windows and i noticed it was raining. It was too slow though to be rain i later realized... It was snowing!

The fact that it has not rained or snowed until now is very worrying. a couple of years ago i remember we had rain from October and in November it felt winter. The effects of global warming start to appear. Very fast. Right now back in the Mediterranean my parents are with the t shirts. This is not normal.

So i ended up starring out the window for a long long time and was hoping that tomorrow morning i would go out and see snow everywhere. Well, my wish was not granted but at least i had a nice memory of it and soon it will be reality. Haven't seen snow for five years now.

Picture of the week

I haven't posted for a long time no pictures so here is one that i loved it. These are actually the real colors of the flower there is no account to if it is changed in Photo shop.

Picture belongs to kayleor

We are out of toilet paper!

Have ever noticed that sometimes the toilet paper is not enough? I sure have.

I m from the group of people that use a lot of paper. I surely do not think about the environment at that moment i have to admit because i m to concerned about my hygiene. Of course at the end when the toilet paper is finished i remind my self next time i will try to use it more consciously and the cycle goes on.

Its not that its misuse of natural resources but also its a waste of money. Every time i go to the super market i m surprised at the price of the toilet paper but i have to buy it.
This is a difficult subject since it might make people feel uncomfortable (it even makes me talking about it!) but, hey, its the raw truth.

Even the smallest changes can make a difference.

Halloween

Last Friday and Saturday there were a lot of posts going on about Halloween. People were so excited about this festivity which I do not have back in my country. Everyone was so excited to go to parties and dress up but mostly drink. It is obvious that my drinking habits are not even as close as the ones Americans have. what mostly makes me happy to see are all those children going around trick or treating and coming back home full of candy. I honestly would like to go out and do that even if my age just because i did not have the chance to do it when i was a child.

Of course dressing up as fascinating characters and fantastic heroes is also one of my favorite things. I really enjoyed the fairy costume the blogger, to whom i reply to, has posted. She definitely has a creative side in making costumes. The closest festival we have to Halloween is the carnival which takes place around march. we have the chance to dress up and go out to the streets and party while seeing others with their fantastic costumes. There are a lot of parades going on in the country and almost in every city and everybody is dancing to the music and having fun with their friends and family. Sometimes they can get really wild though but i guess it is normal. But it is always so much fun. I suppose it is always fun when it is a holiday no matter what the holiday is about.

Post based on super slash photography blog

Oh my god!

My roommates yesterday had a little party which i also attended. They played this game where people have to drink and flip their cups in order for the next in their team to drink until everyone has drank and flipped their cup and then the team wins. Three rounds were enough for me bu they kept going for the next three hours.

They consumed over 30 cans of beer. Do not ask me I still wonder where they put all that beer only six people. for me this is a big number. Today i decided to clean the mess we made yesterday at the kitchen and i saw the pyramid of cans on the kitchen table and i wondered. I went and talked about it with my roommates and they said they are going to bring the cans for recycling and receive a refund for the cans.

In my first post about recycling bottles and cans i did not realize the weight of my words. Since i came here i have observed most Americans consuming huge amounts of alcohol of all kinds. imagine all those amounts of cans and glass being able to be recycled. The people who bring those for recycling can actually take back a significant amount of their money when they give them back. Imagine in the Bills games for example!!!
Just think about these amounts!


NOTICE: the picture is not that good but this is the first pyramid they made. These are only half the cans they actually drank so you can think how many there were left to be consumed.

Picture of the week

A Picture from a forest. This is real Beauty.

Picture belong to Ashen-fox

Important Announcement

Today I received great news. The university will place recycling Totes all over the school's ground for recycling tin, plastic and glass. I really hope that the students will actually use them and understand their importance.
Not only will everyone be able to help the environment but also will make the school a healthier and cleaner environment.

I bet the squirrels will enjoy it too....!!!

Issues: Do I have enough money to spend for the environment?

Everyone is talking these days about the economic crisis around the world, that people do not have enough money to live and so on. Well, this is the world the human kind has created and i have to admit that some of us are really lucky to even have a job and make some money. In most big nations people live happy and have money to spare for an extra shirt or something that their heart desires. It all depends on how lucky you and how you use the opportunities that are given to you.

What does the whole matter have to do with my blogs theme? well it is simple. When doing some simple things like close the electrical devices that are not being use to conserve energy, do not throw paper away and so on, a family can actually save money even if it is not obvious. Lets get an example a simple one. A family starts to collect all the plastic and glass bottles in order to recycle them. If a glass bottle costs 15 cents to sell and the family spends one and a half glass bottles each week the income from recycling them then is 12 dollars roughly a year. This does not sound much but for poor families it can make a difference.

Other devices such as the rain barrel i mentioned in one of my previous posts can also cost cut from the families expenses. In order to buy it it might cost a lot and might cause a difficulty to a family for two months but think about it in a long term. This family will have water available to use taken from nature itself and will be able to save a lot of money from their water bill. The same can be with other devices such as home water recycling facilities which can make the water clean enough to be used again and again if needed. I know that because my family has the same problem and now we are glad to have that water recycling facility at our house and we can water our garden which porvides us with fruits and other vegetables.

Everyone is thinking is "oh, i don't have the money to buy this rain barrel so i wont take it" but what that someone should be thinking about is "I have some money to spend now and i might have future problems with paying the bill for the water". At that moment that someone will regret not having made the right choice.

So if your money aren't enough to spend and you still want to help the environment, don't think its impossible but try to think what is possible to happen in the near future with all the predictions about the economy and see for yourself.

Picture of the week

So, this week i decided to post something different. I want all of you to guess what the picture depicts and next week i will reveal what is it!

Picture belongs to Oetzy

P.S: I posted the owners site in order to show to whom it rightfully belongs to, so please do not check his profile just to give me the right answer. Thank you!

P.S: The picture is actually a mushroom as some comments were right.

Internet Menace!

Did you ever think of the internet as something harmful to the environment? I guess not. Internet by itself is not bad. but in the hands of students and offices it is a deadly weapon against the environment.

I say offices because in all kinds of offices (tour operators, financial offices,lawyer offices are some examples) print most of their conversations and information about their customers on paper. You can imagine how much paper is wasted and then thrown away since most offices do not think for the environment because someone will have to bring that paper to a recycle facility. and that costs. so its easier to just throw it away. Oh yes, if seen that. So do you wanna be like that i ask you.

What do you do with the power points slides that need reading for tomorrow? you print them. actually i do it too sometimes but i at least have my recycle bin at home and at the end of the semester i recycle them. so try to do something about it. either just store everything at your computer and read it from there or at least try to print as little as possible and only the things that you really need.

So next time you are going to print a page think if you really need it. Trees are dying to help you print! I hope you get the irony.

Picture belongs to Black42x

Irrelevant but fun

Today out teacher told us to log in a special site and answer at a Meme blog. The post that im going to answer does not have anything to do with my blog but i just found interesting enough to answer. So here is my answer to The author of Curious as cat blog week number 137:

1)What is the single most important ingredient for a spiritual life?
To have a good relationship with your self. to understand not only your good but also your bad side and try to deal with it. If you are o k with yourself then you can achieve a lot of things.

2) Who is the person you know with the freest spirit?
My mother. She takes actions which are beneficial for the family but always finds a way to make herself happy and do what she wishes to do even now that she is married and has two children!

3) How does it make you feel when you hear people argue?
It makes me sad especially if they are people that I know. And angry too. I wanna go near them yell at them and make them stop because life is not worth wasting in fights with your loved ones.

4) What one thing would you give to each of your ex-lovers?
If I could, an insight of my way of seeing life. optimistically. And make them understand that simple things do not change peoples lives but make them stronger and built healthy relationships.

5) Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.
Right now, it reminds me of my moms food. I miss her so much and i miss her cooking and especially now that im away from home. You see, as a child I did not like some of the dishes as it was normal but now i miss even the dishes that i did not like. Mom, I love you.

Picture of the week

This is a picture of hurricane Isabel. Its effects on the world were destructive as most of the hurricanes in the world. But with our help hurricanes and in general the environment is turning against us. We harm the environment and so we can see our effects on the world.

Picture belongs to Pozzi

Lets clean the dishes, shall we?

Many families do not have a dish washer either because its expensive, either because they do not have space in the kitchen or just because they don't consider it necessary. Well lately the case is that the best for a household is to have one. I will explain myself.

When cleaning the dishes n the sink we consume a lot of water. Well, water is starts to become kind of a luxury maybe not in America but surely in other places in the world. There is a general shortage. With a dish washer you do not have to worry that you are wasting water for a simple job since the machine uses a certain amount of water for each wash and so makes it a valuable item. Not just because it uses a small amount of water but also because In the long term you will be able to save a lot of money from your bills. Using less water makes your bills shrink. Another reason why a household should have a dish washer is that the family can spend more of their time in other activities since they wont have to clean up the dishes after lunch or dinner.

They might be expensive but think of it not just for its current price but its life time value and its benefits.

Its raining!

The other day when i was looking around on the internet about one of my previous posts based on water, i discovered a nice site talking about how to store water after a rain.

It was really interesting to read since there is a general problem in the world about water. Well now, someone can find it and store it by him/herself. There are big companies creating special containers and barrels out of plastic in order to store water. Well containers for harvesting water also exist. Im not aware of prices of such containers but whatever the price is even if it is expensive think about it before you say no to it.

For someone who has a garden and the monthly bill of water is quite high this could be a solution. In a long term a lot of money can be saved by using this water for your garden. The rain water might not be very suitable although for using in the house. The levels of toxicity for example might be too high in some areas and wont be healthy for the family. But, hey, its water and its not going to be a waste to be able to store it and keep it for an emergency.

Picture taken from the This old house site from the article mentioned above

Whats that smell??

When you are buying an air freshener do you know that might be harming your family? That there are toxins and other chemicals that have proven to be harmful?

My roommate has one and i noticed that there are so many warnings and directions on the bottle. That is never good. The more writing on the back of the product the worse it usually it from what i have noticed. No need to read the big passage.

There have been many researches conducted and have proven that many of the ingredients of such air fresheners are not healthy in a long term basis. An article that I discovered about this subject analyzes what exactly those fresheners include and what are some possible results after use.
Another reason why the use of such products should be reduced is because their packages are extremely dangerous. It is not possible to dispose it in a trash bin because it is concentrated gas and may cause an explosion.
Last but not least, it is harmful for the environment for the above reason.

There are many ways to give a nice scent to your house. The most simple is to open the window. usually most of the odors on the air are gone and are replaced with fresh air. Other ways are candles with special flavors or even fresh flowers ( flowers always work). There are even ways to create your own air freshener with simple ingredients. Plenty of receipts and advices can be found on the web.

It is so easy to get rid of odors with simple ways rather than spending money on a product that is harmful for you and the environment.

Picture taken from the same article mentioned above from the TIME site

Did you know that...?

Its funny how many things you can see in your house and think what could i do to change this towards better? For example are the products that i use good for the environment?

Today it was my turn to do the dishes (we are four people in an apartment) and I remembered that most cleaning products such as soaps in the industry are harmful for the environment and for the human population.
Most of the water that comes from private properties are sent to special facilities. The clean water then ends up either at the sea or at the earth. That is not necessarily good. Chemicals and other products are not possible to be entirely removed from the water. The most disturbing thing in this case is that one of most important resources of water is taken from the ground from underground tunnels the earth has created to store water. And there is where all these harmful products end up. Humans, animals and trees are using this water and of course it is not healthy. Did you know that 75 years ago cancer only appeared to 1 out of 50 Americans and now it has increased to 1 out of 3? That is because of all these chemicals ending up on the environment and later on used by the human population (chemicals are not the only reason though but they do play an important part of it).

I know that there are companies which create environmental friendly products for the housecleaning and in general for in house use. for example cleaning dishes, for the bathroom even shampoos. People who feel like making a difference should look for such products. The only issue is that usually they cost more than regular products. But if you have the choice why not use them? You are the ones who are in need for water.

Prevent future consequences. Water is important.

Photograph belongs to Eman333

Food for the Eyes

So today its picture day.

I decided to post a picture once a week related to our world, its beauty and the consequences of our actions upon it.
I will let you to interpret the concept of the picture yourselves.



Picture belongs to Hempola

Recipe: How to be an Eco-student

I was doing my assignments on math today and i realized something. First i write on a plain piece of paper a simple draft of the assignment and then i copy then on a black page more neatly. Then i throw the useless paper to the garbage bin. And then i wondered why do i do that since i can easily recycle it?

If someone thinks not only about that one piece of paper but all the amount of paper used during a school semester. huge!!!
What i do for the last 4-5 years, after the semester is finished i sum up all the papers that i have collected during the school days and i bring them to a recycling bin. And so i save many trees from being cut down.

Another thing that has to be brought up is the books. Most of the books are useless at the end of each semester. I remember that back in high school some of my fellow students used to burn them after the exams as a sign of their happiness (No it is not a hobby and we are no vandals. Its just hormones at that age). Those books could be use in a better way. Someone could either recycle the book or sell it to a bookstore or even some other student.

So next time think before you act. Even the simplest action can make a change.

Picture taken from MIT Libraries News

Happy, happy, happy!

A couple of days ago I received the news that my cousin is pregnant! That is one of the best news I could ever receive since I love her very much. I m happy that i will become an aunt. And that is Another good reason why someone would want to save the planet!

All the advices given and actions taken to protect our environment are for a specific purpose: So that our children can have a bright future on a beautiful, green planet. That only depends on our current actions because as we can see our world is changing not in a very good way. The weather has changed all around the world, the ice is melting on the poles, and our nature is polluted.

My advice for today is to do whatever you can to be more environmental friendly and help the planet in your own way. So that the future generations can experience the world we live in now and have a happy future.

Lets save the world for my little (yet to come) nephew!

Are you hungry?

Food. Americans are in love with food. They always talk about it. On television they advertise food products and restaurants. With the mail there is always a leaflet for food included. But what happens to all that food when its not eaten or consumed? Is it thrown away mindlessly? Or are there ways to use the leftover food?

Unlike plastic bags or other trash that takes time to decompose, leftover food or organic products are very easy to dispose of and are harmless to the environment, actually, when disposed of properly, they can be good for it.

Households with a garden would be able to use leftover food properly. Choose a spot in your property that is as far away as possible from the house and dispose of your leftovers there. I say as far away as possible because they will probably be smelly and you don't want your house to smell like decomposing food. After a while your pile of organics will start to decompose and become one with the soil. Your organic soil can then be used as a fertilizer for your plants. Chemical fertilizers have been proven harmful to the natural resources and it costs a lot of money too, which can be used for much better purposes.

Your garden will be the most beautiful in the whole neighborhood!! and your amount of garbage will reduce if you use the leftovers for an environmental purpose.

Picture belongs to kerridwyn

On two wheels

I was watching television today and i came across and advertisement in which people with bicycles where all over the city. Don't ask me what the initial purpose of this ad was... Anyway, after that i thought i haven't seen any bikes around here. that is a shame because having a bicycle is fun. I remember when i was little and my brother and I used to go around the area with our bikes and have fun traveling around.

Also, back in Switzerland (my mother is from Switzerland so im gonna have a couple of references to that country) every city, every town has a path for the people who walk and for the people riding bicycles next to the road. They really understand the value of riding a bike!

My point is that having a bicycle equals to: keeping yourself fit, keeping the environment around you cleaner since this method of transportation does not need any fuel just your personal work out, and last it is fun! kids love to ride around with their bikes and they can also transport themselves wherever they want (though in another country with no sidewalks for bikes might not be as safe. depends also on the size of the city and how much traffic there is in the streets).

This will clearly give some freedom to mothers :)

Environmentaly friendly shopping

Today it was shopping day. I went to the grocery shop today to buy some food and other things that I needed. When I finished shopping I arrived at the cashier to pay and go back home and enjoy a lovely meal. I noticed that the lady packing my things used a plastic bag for almost each product. What was that??? Complete wastage of plastic bags!!!

In Switzerland (I’m not aware if this happens in other European countries but I’m pretty sure of it) what people do is to buy linen bags or artificial cloth bags and put their groceries in there. Everyone can have one, they are cheap and light, can be stored in the back of the car and used whenever you go in the shops. In some countries they even charge the plastic bags so as to make the customer have a bag of their own. This way you can spare yourself from having too many plastic bags and not knowing what to do with them and also you help the environment and save some money too.

Think how much space you save in your kitchens drawers from storing the plastic bags when you use linen bags. Unless of course your groceries are that many that cannot fit in your linen bag…. Then you can make an exception.

Recycling; word with unknown meaning

It's not a long time since I got in my new university and something that I noticed is that there are no recycle bins in the near area. I tried to look for places where to put recycling items but the only thing I found is a kind of "bin" in some grocery stores where people can put glass bottles and receive some money back.

I was disappointed.

My mother was always trying one way or the other to reduce our rubbish to minimum amount. She always recycled paper, glass, aluminum even plastic and disposed them to the nearest recycling bin, which was located just outside on the main street. The entire family had to get used to this procedure since you need two bins, one for the things that can be recycled and another for the rest.

That is something that everyone can do. Go out and discover your nearest recycling facility or bin. Separate your trash (would recommend having them in two different places so as not to look in your trash for the recycled ones) and bring them to the recycle bin whenever you have time. A good example is what I mentioned above about the glass bottles. These special "bins"give a very small amount of money back in exchange for glass bottles. Even if the money are not much it might make a difference for some people. this way everyone can help in the recycling process and will earn some money from it.

I Acknowledge that this might not be very time saving or easy to do. It depends on everyone to see that this might not be much but it surely is a move towards helping the environment.

Introduction: Environment

Hello! So this is my first post on my blog and its kind of ironic because its the first day of September.
A little about my self: A few weeks ago i left my country so as to study abroad, more specifically in the USA. This was a total shock for me. Not just because it is a different way of living and a different culture, its also that some small things which i took for granted are not the same here.

One of those things is that people here do not have as many plants as they should in their gardens.There is mostly grass to be seen not just in the private but also in the public places. Trees are few in contrast to the land available for planting. We have been taught in school that trees are the "factories" responsible for creating valuable oxygen and give life to the planet. This should be enough for someone to consider planting a tree to his/her garden.

Since the general subject of my blog is to talk about getting green, this is the advice that i will give today:
Find some spots in your garden and plant some trees. If your garden is not that large, take a pot with a small flower or plant in it and keep it in your house. If you don't feel like planting trees you can even plant some flowers or other small bushes. This will not only make your house look more beautiful but also will give you happiness to raise a plant. Personally, when i water the plants and small trees back in my home, it gives me a time of peace and helps me think about things that bother me more calmly.
I hope this will be helpful to you as much as it is for me. It surely will be helpful to the environment.