Wonderful Websites

I took a look at my old links and decided my favorites had changed. Also, I figured that by now everyone knew about Lolcats. So these are a selection of my favorite links that I think you're less likely to know about. Enjoy!

Environmental Working Group -This nonprofit focuses on disclosing how safe consumer products are. You've probably heard about the "Dirty Dozen," the common fruits and veggies that have the highest number of pesticides. EWG publishes this, as well as sunscreen safety guides (UBA/UVB spectrum and chemicals), cosmetic safety guides, and cell phone radiation studies, among others. They have some Iphone apps too, so you can be informed on the go.

Seafood Watch -This guide is published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, another nonprofit. It tells you what seafood and sushi choices are sustainable and which are bad, and also give some info. about mercury contamination. They also have an Iphone app and a printable seafood guide, as well as sustainable seafood recipes.

$5 Meal Challenge Slow Food USA - This challenge was based out of the idea that you don't have to spend a lot to eat well. The $5 is based on the average cost of a fast food meal, so people have now submitted thousands of recipes for homemade healthy meals that are under $5/person (many are well under that cost).

Good Guide - This website rates consumer products and brands based on their impact on health, environment and society. Note they are not rated based on consumer satisfaction or value, you will need to use a different website to find that out. They have guides for pet care, kids, toiletries, clothes, and electronics. And they have an Iphone app too:)

Center for a New American Dream - This website is probably encompasses all of my own utopian ideals! Their mission statement says it all:

"The Center seeks to cultivate a new American dream—one that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability, and a celebration of non-material values, while upholding the spirit of the traditional American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We envision a society that pursues not just “more,” but more of what matters—and less of what doesn’t."

Why I love second hand

http://savers.com/Default.aspx

In the past, I've been guilty of buying new clothes and later not liking them. I think there's something about just how good the stores are at marketing the clothes. The displays, the lighting, evening the mirrors in the dressing rooms seem to make everything look better. But then I go home, wear it a few times, and decide that what I bought really wasn't so great.

Now, completely unrelated to the above experience, I have wanted to start shopping for used clothes primarily to lessen my environmental impact. But I starting realizing there are many benefits to buying used. 

1. Less environmental impact. My consumer dollars are no longer going to buy new manufacturing in other countries, since the stores were paid by the original owner of the clothes. Literally someone's "trash" is my treasure. No new pesticides will be released into the environment and no dyes or bleach will be spilled to manufacture my clothes. No gas will be spent transporting them halfway around the world. The only impact I can think of is the utilities to keep the store open, and my driving to the store (if I have to drive). And those impacts are true of anywhere I'd be buying clothes. 

2. No slave labor. I no longer have to worry about poor worker conditions and child labor in other countries when I buy clothes, because I didn't pay a store for their new items that could go toward employing workers in bad conditions.

3. The money often goes to a good cause. This does depend on where you buy the clothes since there are for-profits like Filene's basement and Plato's closet, but a lot of second-hand stores are run by charities that use the money for workforce training, and sometimes more specialized program like afterschool programs for kids. Some stores in Austin with charitable programs-Goodwill, Savers (Easter Seals), Assistance League, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Michael's Academy.

4. It's much cheaper. For example, I bought an Ann Taylor knit shirt for $9 and a Danskin organic cotton shirt for $4. And you can go even cheaper by looking at what may seem like less desireable items (like this blog that I love!). Sometimes if you spend a lot of time looking around you can get these kind of deals on new clothes, but I'd say it's probably much harder to find deals like these on new, good quality clothes.

5. If I buy the clothes, I must love them. The fancy displays don't exist. Everything is thrown together on the racks. The lighting is bad and the dressing room mirrors are normal mirrors. If I pick it out and it looks good, then I probably will wear it. But if I end up not loving it, I don't feel as bad because it was pretty cheap in the first place.

There's a few items that so far I'm not willing to buy used. Undergarments and socks, for example. I haven't bought used shoes yet but might consider it if they were washable and I could put in new insoles (but I think this eliminates most shoes). I am also sure there will be occasions where I am looking for a very specific item that I will need to buy new. So I'm trying to find responsible sourcing for these items. My experience so far is that it's more difficult (and way more expensive) to buy new responsible items than it is to find something used.

Also, under this system not everyone can buy used. There would have to be new manufacturing coming into the system somewhere. But from what I've seen, once you find the right second-hand clothing stores, there's lots of good second-hand options available. My favorite so far is Savers. These stores probably exist because of people like me, who would buy clothes and later realize that they were not what they wanted after all. If you want to buy used clothes but don't know where, a good place to start looking is Yelp! Now if I could find something like this for good home furnishings I'd be in heaven, but so far everywhere I've looked for used furnishings is actually really expensive when they are in good condition. Maybe because they would be considered antiques, but they are more pricey than what I'd be buying new. Ideas anyone?

Be Green, Save Green

Too often, the face of current ecotrends is advertising and tv shows. Watching them, it is easy to think the way to be green is spend spend spend. There's definitely energy-efficient products that pay for themselves, and if you are in the market for a new product it's better to go with the eco-friendly product. But there's tons of ways to be green that don't cost a dime (and actually save some $$$).

Here are a few things we practice in our home:


1) Composting. You do not need a composter to compost. All you need is space. Your trash won't smell as bad, you won't have as much trash, and it makes rich fertilizer for your yard or garden.


2) Turn off the heat/ a/c. Or at least use it less. If it's summer, aren't you wearing less clothes? I hate walking into a building in summer and freezing because I'm wearing shorts. We keep our house 76 summer and 64 winter. Use fans in summer, layers in winter. Small temperature differences lead to big savings.


3) Zero waste eating. When you plan meals for next week, your first stop should be what you already have. Are the eggs expiring, will the spinach go bad? Americans throw away a huge amount of food, an estimated 40%!!!! So stop wasting and your grocery bill could be 40% less. If you know you have more food than you can eat, freeze it. The refrigerator and freezer also run more efficiently when they are full.

4) Reuse creatively. A lot of "trash" can be useful. I like to reuse food containers. Grated cheese and hummus containers are great for snacks instead of buying plastic bags or "Gladwear." Glass jars are also the best! I use large ones for leftovers and freezing soups or broth and small ones to hold herbs or dry goods. When I start seedlings sometimes, I will poke holes in the bottom of yogurt containers for a temporary pot before planting permanently.

5) Homemade cleaners. 50/50 water/vinegar solution works great for sanitizing surfaces and cleaning toilet bowls. Mix vinegar with baking soda for a stronger cleaner. Not only will you save money, you will avoid inhaling the horrible cleaning concoctions that contain who knows what...

6) Your trash may be someone else's treasure. If you don't want to go through the hassle of a garage sale or ebay, donating your unwanted items still gives you a tax deduction (and creates jobs too).

7) Drive less. Americans spend much more on transportation than other countries, an average of $9500 per household annually. Buying a car, maintenance, gas, insurance, it all adds up. Extend the life of your car and save gas by carpooling, using public transportation, or working from home if possible. Our insurance company (Amica)  asks us how frequently we drive to work and our rate is less because neither of us drives to work often.

8) Eat less meat. Yep, unless you are getting local meat (and grassfed beef, organic, etc. etc.) your meat is probably bad for the environment. About 30% of arable land is used for meat production, not to mention how much energy it takes grow the grains, transport the grain to the animals, then transport the animals to your table. Not only is eating less meat good for the planet, it's usually better for your health and your wallet.

9) Avoid traffic. I hate running errands on the weekend, it feels like waiting in traffic for hours just to spend a few minutes buying something. All the while the car is idling at 0 mpg. Run errands on a weekday evening (8 pm is prime empty time) and enjoy your freed weekend.

10) Don't impulse buy. Advertising and stores are set up with the primary purpose of getting your money. The more you buy, the more energy is put into those products, half of which you may decide you don't need after all. "Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and the quality of life I value." Read more at New American Dream.

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day is tomorrow, and I always feel like it is a day for reflection on how my own life affects everything else. I can be a pretty negative person, so I'm trying to focus on the good and bad, and realize that Rome wasn't built in a day (i.e., I can't just change the habits that I grew up instantaneously, it takes a lot of work). The naysayers say your little contributions don't amount to a hill of beans. But, if everyone did what they could to get us going in the right direction, it would amount to a lot.

So, our positive environmental impacts:

-We do not use pesticides or artificial fertilizers on our yard. 

-Indoors we only use green cleaning products (I am a big believer in the power of baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and scrubbing).

-We recycle almost everything (thanks to the great recycling program in Austin)

-We compost all of our food waste

-We drive small cars with good gas mileage

-Charlie takes the bus to work

-We use reusable bags. We even reuse the plastic bags produce comes in several times and bring them with us to the farmers market.

-We use energy conservation settings at home (cooler in winter, warmer in summer) and we have an energy efficient air conditioner.

-We only run the dishwasher and washing machine when full, we don't leave the water running needlessly.

-We recently tested the toilets for leaks, and we found a slow leak in one that we're getting fixed.

-To reduce even more water waste, we have a bucket that we fill while we're waiting for the shower to get warm, and we use the water on seedlings and houseplants (this is like 60 gallons a month).

-We bought native plants recently for our yard, and native shade tolerant grasses (that we still need to plant...)

-We buy organic food when possible. We support the local organic gardening center and belong to the wildflower center.

-We only eat sustainable seafood (the stuff recommended by Seafood Watch). Often it is expensive to be sustainable so we are usually vegetarian, which is cheap.

-Paper: we bought a duplex printer. I really don't believe you can just buy a sustainable lifestyle, but we needed a new printer anyway and I save a lot more paper with the duplexing. Also, Charlie joined the library and paperback swap.

Neutral or questionable:

-We bought carbon offsets for our trip to Hawaii (probably not as good as just not traveling, but I couldn't do that)

-I work from home. I am not sure if this is good or bad because it means I don't drive much, but it also means I keep the temperature at home more comfortable than I would if the house was empty

-We started an organic vegetable garden. I think in a lot of areas this would be positive. I counted it as positive in the wet cool winter months, but now it's hot and we are in a major drought. I find it harder to justify the garden but I can't help but look forward to summer veggies. We mulch the garden which reduces the amount we need to water. I will point out, our garden is a lot smaller than the yards that most people water...(we maybe water ours once every 3 weeks). Our water use last month was ~3500 gallons, the average in Austin is more like 8,000.

-I loove coffee. The environmental impact is not always so great, but I am sure to get shade grown, fair trade organic. The food miles on this are also big.

-I moved to Texas. The move took a lot of gas, but it means a lot fewer flights between Texas and Ohio (the carbon spent on flights is crazy!)

Room for improvement

-I am pledging to myself to take less time in the shower. I already try to reduce the number of showers i take by focusing on showering after working out when possible, but I am guilty of "spacing out" often.

-I love traveling. It uses a lot of carbon, more than if I didn't travel and didn't conserve any energy. I need to work on carbon offsetting all of my travel.

-Our house could really use double paned windows. They're expensive, we just replaced the air conditioner and are in the process of replacing the fence. It's on the list.

-Our energy use would really go down if we had a "smart" system. I think this is a dream house solution for me, not something that is going to happen anytime soon. But if I spend all day working in my office, and all night sleeping in the bedroom, the a/c doesn't need to be running in the majority of the house most of the time.

-I want to build a workable solar oven. I made one out of cardboard last fall and it worked! But it was not durable, and it was bulky. I think this would save a little energy from not using the oven, but save lots of energy by not heating the house (and thus not running the a/c as much)

-We are still using fossil fuels. None of the green energy options are ideal, or affordable. So while we have reduced lots, there are other things to be done.

-We could save more water by having rain barrels or a cistern. The problem? They are expensive, and expensive to install. The city reimburses a little of the cost, but city water is still cheaper. It's on the wish list though.

-We could replace a lot more of our grass with native plants. It's also on the list.

-Right now we donate a lot of stuff, but we don't buy a lot of used items. We tried doing this last fall, but we have not found a store with items that we are actually interested in buying, and even if it is a store that has some good items, you never know what will be there. It makes a lot of sense to buy used in terms of environmental impact, and I would like to buy used more often.
-We need to replace our charcoal grill with a gas one. That's right, gas takes about half the carbon!

Food Part #2 Solar Oven

I have been planning on building a solar oven for quite awhile and last week finally got around to doing it! It was pretty cheap to do and not too hard either. Of course I had all the same sized boxes and the outer box is larger, so I had to adjust the plan and put two boxes together (hence the hexagonal shape). 

You probably cannot see the oven thermometer I put inside, but it's reading about 200 degrees. The temperature swung between 175 and 200 for most of the day. It was not a very hot day, low 80s, so I was happy with that. At least the oven got to the slow cooker temperature range. The biggest problem I had using the oven was that I had to move it because our lawn gets a lot of shade. I also did not do a good job stabilizing the lid so the flap fell a few times and decreased the temperature.

When I was done making the solar oven, I wanted to use it but hadn't thought of any recipes so I threw in some apples and sprinkled on cinnamon and sugar.

They cooked! I have no idea how long it actually took them to cook, but they were in the oven for about 5 hours. I think I will need to perfect my solar oven skills. I envision slow cooked baked potatoes. Solar ovens are not supposed to save much energy, since cooking only accounts for 4% of energy use. But I would loooove it if I could avoid heating up the house on warm days, which just happens to be the best days for solar cooking. If I really get into solar cooking I will probably upgrade to a better model and use wood instead of cardboard, nails instead of tape and staples. But for now this model seems to be sufficient for slow cooker speeds. 


This is the design that I modified for solar cooking: http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/solarbox.htm
There are lots of  other designs out there. This design is probably the simplest but also the most limiting: http://solarcooking.org/plans/newpanel.htm . Parabolic designs are supposed to get as hot as conventional ovens but also can result in burns and eye injuries. And of course, there's lots of companies willing to sell them to you if you don't want to build the solar oven.

Texas, it's time to give up your grass

Two weeks ago, I went to a free class at the Natural Gardener on maintaining a lawn naturally. I was hoping to find out great information on what I thought was pretty difficult issue in central Texas. It turns out there is nothing natural about trying to maintain a lawn in Texas. Sure, you can put on the nifty organic all natural products that they were selling and what not, but the manpower and resources involved are crazy. Lawns do not want to exist in central Texas, nor should they given what a waste of resources it is. The recommendation that really caught my eye was the recommendation of watering your yard twice weekly, and watering a full inch each time! I also got the impression that if you were outside the city limits and did not have water restrictions, they would recommend a third watering.

Thinking this must be a crazy amount of water, I did some searching to see what this would calculate to if you had even a modest sized yard. For example, if you had a 1/5 acre plot, you might have 30' x 40' in each the front, back of the house, plus a little extra on the sides. This would amount to 3600 square feet that needs watering twice each week. So I found out that 624 gallons equals 1 inch of water for 1,000 square feet (a 31 x 32 plot), so your 3600 square foot lawn would need 2,246 gallons every time you water! This is an average of 20,214 gallons a month. This would be about  160,000 gallons annually!!! (accounting for ~4 months of not water for dormant grassand rainfall). I mean, what is grass good for? Not much! The average household in Austin uses 8500 gallons of water each month, although this is more during the hot months. But my guess is if everyone followed the guidelines above, the usage would be much higher.

I guess the big question is what exactly is sustainable water usage? Some people have yards, others live in apartment complexes and can't harvest rainwater etc.,  although there are also rivers running through Austin. My opinion is that for landscaping, sustainable usage would be what rains down. So get a good rain harvesting system. Austin gets an annual rainfall of about 33 inches, although that is hardly evenly distributed through the year. Calculating that out for 1/5 acre that could yield a potential 179,000 gallons each year, provided you were able to harvest every drop of water that fell on your land. A more reasonable estimate might be a good cistern to collect water from the roof, this might harvest for 1600 square feet, or 32,900 gallons a year.  By this estimation maintaining a yard is absolutely not sustainable, since it would require 130,000 more gallons than you could provide. But maybe a small garden is possible. Or maybe native grasses like buffalo grass. Sigh.  I wish native plants were cheaper. I don't understand why they had to tear them out and put grass in instead.

See also:
http://www.examiner.com/green-living-in-austin/new-report-says-current-water-usage-not-sustainable
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/08/17/0817water.html

What is your carbon footprint?

So, I've been thinking about my monstrous carbon footprint and decided I need to calculate it. On average, Americans emit 27 tons of carbon just for their food and energy use. That doesn't even include other extras, such as pets, energy use away from home (e.g. movies), or buying clothes/furniture/electronics. Europeans emit about half the amount we do, and the average world citizen emits 5.5 tons. The only country that emits more carbon dioxide than the U.S. is China, and our population is much lower. Our emissions account for about 20% of the world emissions, while our population is only 4.5%. If everyone in the world used as many resources as Americans, we'd need nine worlds to keep up (clearly carbon dioxide isn't the only thing going into this estimate). While the European Union may have already decreased their emissions by 11% since signing the Kyoto protocol, emissions in the U.S. have increased by 15%.

So for the American wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, the best thing to do is following the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Of course, carbon is not the only pollutant out there. For example, electricity from coal plants also emits sulfur and mercury into the air, and nuclear plants generate nuclear waste. So while it is possible to buy carbon offsets, it is better to reduce overall pollution and work down to needing just one earth for our demands.

I have found a few carbon calculators. None of them seem to have everything and some of the numbers vary, but here are a few numbers:

The minimalist: You live in a two bedroom apartment with another person, and eat vegetarian organic food. You take measures to conserve energy in the apartment. No pets, and you walk or bike everywhere. Sometimes you go out to eat or to movies. Your impact is 13 1/2 tons of carbon dioxide each year, half the American average.

If this doesn't describe you, add the following:

If you live by yourself in a 1 bedroom apartment, add 4 tons

If you live by yourself in a 2 bedroom apartment, add 9 tons

If you live in an energy efficient 2 bedroom house with someone, add 6 tons

If you live in an energy efficient 2 bedroom house by yourself, add 24 tons

If you don’t use conservation settings for heating/cooling, add 3 tons

If you don’t use energy saver bulbs, add 1 ton

If you don’t use energy efficient appliances, add 2 tons

If you don’t use a water heater blanket and don’t use a low flow shower, add 2 tons

If you are not vegetarian, add 3 tons

If you do not eat organic, add 2 tons

If you do not recycle, add ½ ton

If you drive 12000 miles, add 5 tons for a hybrid, 7 for compact, 9 for sedan, and 10 SUV

If you fly, add 1 ton for every 1200 miles

If you have a cat, add 4 tons

If you have a dog, add 5 tons for a medium dog (e.g. collie), 10 tons for a large dog (e.g. German shepherd) and increase/decrease based on the amount of food comparatively

If you enjoy having the latest in fashion, add ½ ton

If you enjoy having new furniture and electronics, add 1 ton

If you own a car, add 1 ton

If you commute by train, add 1 ton for every 10,000 miles

If you commute by bus, add 1 ton for every 6000 miles

If you commute by subway, add 1 ton for every 8000 miles

To figure out your carbon footprint, try these calculators:

http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

My carbon footprint is 39 tons this year, half of which is from flying...I estimate next years will be average (for an American that is). To offset your carbon footprint, you can go to terrapass.com and buy carbon offsets at $11/ton.

Is local food always better?

Local food has become a new trend, and probably not a bad one. But unlike all the positive press for it, I assume it isn't always better. So I started looking to see if I could find more details about when local food is better and when it isn't. I did find this article by The Sunday Times. Except for this article and a few tidbits here and there, could not find much beyond the same mantra we hear over and over again that local food benefits local economies and uses less energy in transportation. And if all else is equal, then local food should be better. Actually, supporting local businesses of all sorts, not just food, should help the local economy. But I guess I am more interested in whether local food is greener.

Reasons local food should be greener:
-Less energy transporting food from growers to people
-If you have a backyard and are using rainwater (or are watering your garden instead of grass), then most of the energy is your own sweat and there aren't transportation costs beyond the initial supplies
-Possibly less packaging when bought at the farmers market

Reasons local food may not be greener:
-Foods grown may not be adapted to local climate and take more resources to be produced locally (e.g. shorter growing seasons may require more fertilizers, greenhouses)
-Where you live may be environmentally sensitive, so growing certain foods could take away precious resources (e.g. water)
-If local growers are smaller scale, they may actually be less energy efficient at producing and transporting food (and eliminate any potential energy benefit of growing locally)
-The details of meat: if it's local, are they transporting the feed for the animals? This might be more energy than just transporting the animals (though from what I understand most meat is not produced where the feed is, so maybe free range grazing animals are best, and better than worrying about the meat being produced locally, or of course, being vegetarian)
-If you are choosing conventionally produced local foods over other organic foods, then the food uses more energy because of the energy costs from producing the fertilizer and pesticides
-You need to factor in the energy associated with getting smaller amounts of food to the farmers market, and getting yourself to the farmer's market (I am assuming it is an extra trip since I know I still have to go to the grocery store)

One reason I was interested in this topic is that local food has been catching on in Austin, and I wonder with Austin being drought-prone and already strapped for resources, what the local food movement is going to do. I would like to see the city require water harvesting systems so that they aren't taking water from the aquifers. I would like this required for everyone watering their lawns too. It's not that the area couldn't sustain any local food, there has always been local, but the population of the Austin area is probably already unsustainable for the amount of resources we consume. From what I understand (although I couldn't find a link for this) the water laws in Texas were written based on years of above average rainfall, which means municipalities use unrealistic numbers when calculating what kind of water pressures the city can sustain.

To sum up my opinion on this, I think the local food trend overall is good. I think there are a lot of other things we also have to consider, and if we want to eat locally we need to be willing to change the way we eat to fit the foods that grow in that region as opposed to trying to grow everything everywhere. I also think that choosing to support a local economy that is a local green economy will lead to a local economy that is more sustainable-both in the economic and ecologic sense.

Last June

One ago year today, I was in Pirenopolis, Brazil giving a talk at the Animal Behavior Conference. Brazil was an amazing experience, it was one of the places I had always wanted to go since I am so interested biodiversity. Since I went for the conference, the plane ticket was paid for! And bonus! The plenary speaker at the conference was Richard Dawkins. One of the ultimate experiences for a green graduate student like myself. I got to meet him and he was very nice.

After the meeting, I went with my former labmate from Texas State, Kristen, to a jungle lodge in the Amazon. Here are a few choice pictures from the jungle lodge.

 On a ferry crossing the Amazon River from Manaus.

 Canoeing through the flooded jungle.

We got to feed the river dolphins.

An "authenic" village. Interesting to see, but they definitely had some powertools there.

Traveling to Brazil was such a great experience, but it was also the most planning I ever did for a trip. Three vaccinations and a visa had to be obtained in advance, for a total of about $600 of additional expenses, as well as figuring out what exactly to do and doing it while not speaking any Portuguese! Brazil is one of the largest countries and it has tons to offer, more than you can possibly see in one trip. We decided to go to the Amazon, but there other natural places that are great to go, including the Pantanal (great for seeing wildlife), Iguacu Falls, and the Atlantic Forest. And of course for the beach bums and city goers you probably can't beat Rio de Janeiro.

Biosphere 2

 

I suddenly remembered the biosphere 2 experiment this weekend. It was an experiment in the 1990s to try and sustain suitable living conditions in a completely sealed, self-sufficient environment. There were a few reasons it was important to do this, namely, to see if we could be self-sustaining. This would be useful if we were to ever colonize another planet for example. But the more important contribution in my opinion was learning more about our own planet. They had to do a lot of research just to get to the point of living in the dome, about what they would need to live. In terms of some goals of the experiments, it was a failure. The first time, the oxygen decreased and they had to pump more into the enclosure (on another world, or our world you could not get this rescue move). It turns out the concrete was partly responsible for the decline in oxygen, and this was fixed for the second experiment. In addition, the carbon dioxide levels fluctuated a lot and all of the insects that pollinate plants died. Huh, kind of sounds like now...The second experiment was more successful but ended early due to change in management and financial disputes. Now it is under control of the University of Arizona. In spite of not being an outright success, a lot of information was gained by the project. I hope we manage the world better, we won't be able to call in for extra oxygen anytime soon.

When I first looked up the biosphere 2, I had the name wrong and googled biodome! I guess the movie by Pauly Shore may be more memorable because I got the name wrong!  If you recall the Pauly Shore movie, the experiment of being self sufficient and enclosed for a year, is a success!

Health Conscience Toiletries

I have been on a slow and steady track to change over the products in the bathroom  to more health conscious products. The first thing I realized when I did this was how many products I use! The second thing I realized was how poorly many of them rate. And my third realization was how many products there are to choose from. Getting lower hazard products isn't necessarily more expensive, but it does take research and possibly some internet shopping if you don't have local stores that carry them.

I am going for products that are listed as lower hazards on the Cosmetics Safety Database. Products are rated on a scale of 0-10, and lower scores indicate lower hazards for the ingredients. A lot of the products have high data gaps (that is, there have not been studies on many of the ingredients/chemicals in the product), so ideally you would want a product also with a low data gap so the score is more reliable and indicative of the whole product. Here is a rundown of products I've investigated:


Hair dye-this was the first thing I looked at because I was pretty sure it was horrible. I was right!

-Past product: L'oreal Couleur Expert, a hazard rating of 9/10 and a 79% data gap
-Trying: Light Mountain, rated 1/10 and 62% data gap
-Other info: the only hair dye that you'll probably find at Target that's a moderate hazard is Garnier Dimensional Lightener and Loving Care by Clairol. All the others are high hazard.


Shampoo:

-Past product: Herbal Essences Moisturizing Shampoo: 5/10 hazard and 76% data gap
-Trying: BWC Lavender Highland 3/10 and 87% data gap. I got it because it was on sale for $5 on Amazon.com, but it smells like the shampoo I've washed my cats with. Probably will not buy again.
-Other info: Burt's Bees Outdoor Shampoo Bar and Pantene Pro-V Expressions are also low hazards. Other common shampoos (including other products by Burt's Bees and Pantene) are moderate-high.


Bug Spray:

-Past and present product: Cutter and Off! unscented repellant and wipes, 2-3/10 and 65% gap
-For comparison: Off Skintastic, 7/10 and 75% gap
-Other info.: According to this it seems like DEET isn't that bad (or maybe is in the data gap) but the fragrances and other ingredients are often not so great.


Toothpaste:

-Past product: Colgate Total Advanced Fresh, 6/10 and 73% gap
-Trying: Tom's of Maine Natural Whole Care, 3/10 and 70% gap
-Other info: Jason Natural Cosmetics toothpaste is low hazard, and the basic Colgate toothpaste has lower scores than the fancy ones.


Mouthwash:

-Current product: Listerine, a 3/10 and 68% data gap, though tartar control is rated 5/10
-Happy enough to keep with it, did not do additional research

Contact Solution:

-Current product: Opti-Free, 3/10 and 77% gap
-Other info: every all-in-one contact solution is listed as a moderate hazard, CVS Saline Solution is low hazard

Deoderant/Antiperspirant:

-Current product: Crystal, 0/10 and 29% data gap (this is a cheap product and I've been happy with it, doesn't stain!)
-Past product: Degree, 4-6/10 and 83% gap
-other info: the low hazard products don't contain fragrance. Crystal and Naturally Fresh also rate better because there are just so few ingredients. Aluminum in many antiperspirants has been implicated in Alzheimer's but is not ranked as high hazard in the database.

Still working on finding alternatives:

Sunscreen:
 Banana Boat Sports Sunscreen Spray, 7/10, 84% data gap
Banana Boat Sports Faces Lotion, 7/10, 86% data gap

Conditioner:
Bath and Body Works Moisturizing Conditioner, unlisted

Shower Gel:
Bath and Body Works, unlisted

Lotion: 
Suave, 7/10 and 79% data gap
Pacifica Body Butter, 3/10 and 81% data gap
I know that many moisturizers rate poorly because of petroleum/plastics in the ingredients.

I also need to investigate these but I think this is a long enough post!
Makeup
Hand Soap
Hand Sanitizer

For products that are unlisted, it is possible to get a tentative report if you are a registered user. Basically you can create your own report by entering all of the information on the label and the database weights it based on the ingredients listed. Of course, for those products that have 20 ingredients in all chemical sounding names this would be quite the task to enter correctly!

I want to believe

The news is now calling the Gulf Coast oil spill the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. This has led me down a very negative train of thought, not only about the current disaster, but what will happen in the future, for both the U.S. and world.

I want to believe that this has been the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

However, looking at what we have done already, I think we may have done worse (at least so far). From the deforestation in the early 1900s, to current impacts of sprawl, to water mismanagement in desert areas to pesticide use to greenhouse gasses that are contributing to global warming. I guess we don't count these since they are more intentional? Or maybe because they happen over a long period of time we're used to them...


I want to believe that the oil spill will remain the worst environmental accident in U.S. history.

We will see worse accidents, probably in our lifetime. While it's not inevitable, I think it's likely. We flirt with technology before we know how to control it, the government lets industry progress while the government doesn't have the technology to clean up the mess. We want to bury nuclear waste in mountains that will remain radioactive for years. We want to increase the number of nuclear plants. We want to get oil and coal from environmentally sensitive areas. It's true that our technology prevents disasters from happening on a daily basis (in this country), but the point I'm making is we're human. To err is human, and human error will certainly be behind the next accident. It doesn't matter if it's 99.99% likely that something won't happen. The low risk is outweighed by the magnitude of the potential disaster, since disaster only needs to strike once.

I want to believe that our government change regulation to prevent future disasters.

But I think that public relations firms and lobbyists that represent industry will continue to be the louder voice, and cause the politicians and public to believe them and what they say they're capable of. Industry has billions of dollars to get us to see their side, the environment and people supporting it don't have it, even though the benefits we receive from the environment certainly outweigh those we have gotten from industry.

I want to believe that our government will support our technological future.

I mean several things by this. The government needs to invest in renewable energy progressively. Remember walking on the moon? That was a 10 year goal thought impossible by many. If we seriously invest in renewables and couple it more efficient energy usage, there will not be a need to increase the oil supplies available to us. It seems like every renewable plan I've seen is so far in the future and so small in scope that it never materializes into immediate action. A 20% goal of renewables in 20 years doesn't even compensate for increase in energy use at the current pace. The U.S. government hardly invests in renewables. Worldwide spending on renewables is 38 billion a year (by the way, China invests more in renewable energy than the U.S.). Second, government needs to invest in public transportation with the same vigor it invests in highway and road projects. Part of the reason public transportation is not popular is that in many areas it is still a pain in the butt. Transportation is a huge part of our energy use. Along these same lines, we need tougher energy standards for appliances. High efficiency products often already exist from their development for other countries. They just don't always get to the American consumer. Anyone wonder why that might be?

I want to believe that our government will change regulation to reverse global warming.

I am so skeptical about this. I believe that many politicians realize the threat of global warming but try to balance scientific reasoning with other political concerns. Unfortunately, the environment does not care about political concerns, you really can't half stop global warming. Please listen to science!

I want to believe that ordinary people can affect change.

This is a hard one. I want to affect change, badly. But with the oil spill I think, there's only two types of people that had the power to prevent this disaster: the officials at BP and politicians. Everyone else can yell and scream all they want but we still would have been at the mercy of these people. I am surrounded by people who study the environment and we were powerless without others taking action from our research. And again, we do not have the millions of dollars that lobbyists and public relations firms have to make it sound like what they do is not that bad, or to get everyone else to question whether global warming is actually happening. And, sadly the environment has become a one party issue and is not enough of a priority for most people to vote just for that issue. But we can't live apart from the environment, and so I don't see what we can do other than vote for it. Vote in referendums for tougher regulation, and vote for green politicians. We haven't been paying off our debt, the price we pay the pump is not the true price of oil. The most change I can see most people affecting is their own. That isn't something to scoff at, but we need more.