I listened to a very interesting and scary interview today on Fresh Air on my local NPR station. Journalist Charles Duhigg is doing several articles for the New York Times about the safety of our drinking water and how safe drinking water regulations are not being enforced. As a terrible and scary example, farmers who have excess “waste” from cows, spray the waste on the ground, which in turn, goes into the drinking water wells near the farm causing many people to get sick.

Click here to listen to the interview and read the entire New York Times series called “Toxic Waters” here!

As if we didn’t know how important chocolate is, it now has another purpose… a fuel source!!

Researchers in Britain have developed a formula 3 racecar that runs on 30% biodiesel, which is derived from Cadbury chocolate scraps!! This is the coolest! It just shows you the possibilities of alternative fuels!

This car is partially biodegradable too, so its made from potato and flax and its steering wheel is made from carrots and root vegetables.

So we may not see this car on the road anytime soon, but just knowing people are out there experimenting with the possibilities, is pretty cool. Click here to read more!!!

photo courtesy of the New York Times

June 8, 2009 has officially been named by the United Nations as World Ocean Day! Just like Earth Day, everyday should be a celebration of the ocean, but on June 8th, there will be events around the world to celebrate this special day. Its a great reminder to take a visit to the ocean for a picnic and stop and think about all the ocean does for us…. Generates oxygen, supplies us food, and regulates the earths temperature.

The ocean needs to be taken care of treated with great respect! Never leave your trash at the beach, choose sustainable and safe food choices when buying/eating seafood, and never put harmful chemicals down storm drains!

Visit The Ocean Project or Thank You Ocean for more information on how our oceans help us in our lives, whether you live near an ocean or not, and for events around the world on World Ocean Day.

Remember… With a little devotion, we CAN save the ocean!!!

Having kids in the city is fun and exciting, but also a challenge to be sure they get enough exposure to nature, not just cement! Thankfully, San Francisco is full of wonderful parks, trails, trees, and green spaces. But I see the difference between my childhood where we would camp out in the backyard in CT any summer night and my kids “camping” in our living room. So we make it a point to get out and enjoy nature all the time! Which is why I was thrilled to discover Wonderbug Adventures!

Wonderbug Adventures was started by 2 Bay Area Moms Hillary and Melissa who both have backgrounds in early childhood education and environmental science. Their mission is a great one- to encourage kids to explore nature through hands on activities and to get out there and see just how beautiful our city is!

Wonderbug Adventures offers weekly classes for little ones aged 18 months up to 4 years. Each class is an hour long and includes educational lessons on a variety of topics likes birds, ponds, ducks and bugs! There are stories, songs, pictures, and dances! The best part is a nature discovery walk, where the little ones get a nature bag with some tools to collect items that will be used for an art project at the end of class. My 3 year old has learned about ducks, bugs and birds and loves to tell me and daddy about all the new things he’s learned!

So please check out this wonderful program! I’ve learned a lot too and its a great way to connect with nature and your little one all at the same time!

For those not in San Francisco, I’m sorry! I hope there is something like this in a city near you, google it!

I recently discovered a great resource that is both solution and action oriented to solving the climate crisis.  It is called the We Campaign and it a project of   The Alliance for Climate Protection.  Their “ultimate aim is to halt global warming” by “educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.”   The site gives you many different ways to participate in the protection of our planet, offers great video clips and motivation success stories as well as helpful educational resource. Check out: http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Biofuel has been in the news a lot lately, including this week when a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Amsterdam was powered by 80% jet fuel and 20% biodiesel, which was made from renewable resources from babassu and coconut oils. While it seems like a small amount was actually biodiesel, I think its a great start in testing out flying commercial flights with renewable resources.

What is biofuel? Biofuel is a gas or liquid that is derived from plant material. Ethanol (made from grains) and biodiesel (made from things like vegetable oils) are the two most common types. There are some good and bad points to using biodiesel. The good: Less polluting, carbon neutral (meaning the carbon in the fuel comes from the plants already living on earth, it doesn’t add more carbon like regular fuel), and they come from renewable resources (unlike fossil fuels, which can’t be made again). Biofuel also reduces our need for foreign oil and helps increase the need to support agriculture from the US. The bad: Lower mileage and more costly. (I think the good out weighs the bad, if you ask me!)

I see a lot of cars in San Francisco that are powered by biodiesel, especially Volkswagens. As a VW owner myself, I’m interested in learning more about it and how you can turn your car into a biodiesel car.

There are a lot of websites out there to help inform you and tell you about the kits needed to convert your car. Here are a few

National Biodiesel Board

Biodiesel Now

Auto Blog Green

This stuff is pretty cool and I think people really are interested in finding alternative energy sources, the car makers and the airlines will have to respond to that! And since its getting more popular, I think we’ll need a biodiesel shirt soon too, not just a hybrid one!

We love Al Gore here at Little Green Star and my admiration for him goes way back to Earth in Balance days, when I first learned about climate change and how it will effect future generations.

In case you haven’t heard, former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their work to raise awareness about global warming. Thank you for bringing this information to us all and keep up the good work! If we made our Penguin shirt in your size Al, we’d send it to you!!!!!

Some great links:

Al Gore’s Official Website
An Inconvenient Truth
The Alliance For Climate Protection

The use of pesticides has shown to contribute to food production (especially soybean and corn), other agricultural products (cotton), and disease eradication.  However, there are numerous undesirable impacts associated with pesticide use.  More specifically, pesticides impact public health, loss of natural enemies, and reduces pollination. We need food and fiber to live; however obtaining these items can be done sustainably by using best management practices in our farming.   These practices include crop rotation, organic farming, use of natural predators, and most importantly an Integrated Pest Management Plans.   

Here is a short summary that  The O’Mama Report  lists ”A true organic farmer will follow natural growing practices as closely as possible. Organic foods are grown without the aid of unsafe and polluting chemicals. Instead of spraying crops with synthetic pesticides, the organic farmer can choose to plant varieties that are naturally more resistant to insects and disease, rely on beneficial insects, and use tillage practices that discourage pests. As a choice for fertilizer, the true organic farmer will use unrefined minerals obtained from natural deposits and organic sources of nitrogen found in animal manure or plant products. Organic farmers recycle waste matter into fertilizer, in keeping with another definition of the word “organic” - a whole cyclical, sustainable system.”

Check out the Organic Trade Association for great information on why to choose organic food and cotton. 

Little Green Star specializes in unique organic cotton baby clothes that inspire & educate your little star!

As the weather gets hot, hot, hot!! Try and keep your household water use down!! Here are a few tips on how to reduce your water usage during the end of summer days!

• Don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth, shaving, or  washing your face:  save 3 to 5 gallons of water each minute your faucet is turned off.
• Don’t let the kitchen faucet run when you scrub vegetables or prepare other foods.  Try using a stopper in the sink instead.
• Water your lawn and garden early in the morning, when temperatures are mild and winds are calm, so less water will be lost through evaporation.
• Use full loads of laundry: each load of laundry uses between 27 and 54 gallons of water.

These tips are from the Town of Cary Department of Public Works and Utilities, please check out there site for more tips on how to save water.

Little Green Star specializes in unique organic cotton baby clothes that inspire & educate your little star!

Curious about earthquakes and how often they really happen? Well, go to the United States Geologic Survey Earthquake Hazard Program website to see just how many earthquakes have happened just today! Its amazing (and a little alarming) at the amount of quakes, especially where I am in the California! For a while I was obsessed with this website because I kept thinking I felt earthquakes after we moved to California. Most of the time it was just a truck shaking the windows, but sometimes I was right!

Geologists say that the small earthquakes are actually a good thing, because the stress along the faults doesn’t build up too big. Here in California, the San Andreas fault “creeps” along and has adjusted to the two tectonic plates (the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate) constantly moving, which is why you see so many quakes along the coast line of California. So I guess these small quakes are good, but they still can be a little scary!

One of our new designs is a “Future Geologist” shirt, to help inspire your little ones to dream about volcanoes, rocks, minerals, and the tallest mountains. I studied geology in college, but I still want this shirt for me too! For more information about geology visit the USGS website. You can even send an email to a geologist and they really do get back to you (yes, I’ve done it)!

Little Green Star specializes in unique organic cotton baby clothes that inspire & educate your little star!