Eat Fish; Save the Planet

I personally don't eat much seafood at all. I like calamari and the occasional tuna salad, but in general I avoid almost all fish. This is mostly because I just don't like the taste (sorry, everyone - it's just a personal thing). However, I felt justified as I learned more and more about the terrible environmental futures most fish species are facing.

Overfishing, unsustainable yields, better technology, and a growing population in the Western world craving "exotic" foods like shrimp and chilean sea bass have caused potentially irreconcilable damage to much of the world's fish stocks.

Farmed fish are no better. They are less nutritious and have caused widespread debate about their effects on the environment. (Yes, even salmon.)

So, my fish-o-phile friends ask me, what can we eat? They aren't about to give up their hydrodynamic dinners for the sake of the environment, and why should they if there is an alternative?


This is for you (you know who you are):

Printable, wallet-sized good and bad fish lists HERE. Print it out, fold it according to the directions, and keep it in your wallet for those grocery store and fishmonger runs.

HERE is another list online. Not so printable, but easy to read and each fish is linkable.

For even more in-depth lists, check out these linkable lists of fish to EAT and fish to AVOID.

Ok, guys - here you go! More about fish than you ever wanted to know!
Enjoy!

Save the Zoo!

Unfortunately, a bit of bad news today. But of course, along with bad news comes a way you can help!

As many of you may know, the New York State government is under a lot of financial stress (who isn't?). Sadly, they have decided to cut 55% of the funding for all "living museums" in the state for this year - that includes ALL zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, etc. But that's not the end - in 2010, 100% of the funding will be cut. That means that all of the state funding will be gone next year.

Zoos are facing layoffs of staff and cuts to educational programming. We all understand that in difficult economic times, sacrifices must be made. But the value that zoos and aquariums bring to a community, as well as the educational services and tourism dollars that they bring in, make this cut particularly tough. The final decisions on these cuts will be made in early February, so we need to do all we can before then to try to prevent or ameliorate the severity of the cuts.

Below is a cute video from the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, the New York Aquarium, and several other NYC zoos. This video has been featured on the websites for Time, Newsweek, Gothamist, New York Post, and many others.

Save the Bronx Zoo Video (YouTube)

Here is an e-mail petition form to send to NY Governor David Paterson as well as other government officials. Every little bit counts!

E-mail Petition

things to click - learn something, too!

Short post today - but that's because this link speaks for itself. I just had to share it with you all:

Discover top 100 2008

Here is Discover's list of the top 100 stories of 2008. They are short, easily readable articles that get right to the point of the science story from the past year. You can look through them all in order, or just look by category, like environment, space, technology, mind and brain, or others!

Next time you're bored online, instead of checking your normal host of blogs and websites, take a look at this list. You just might learn something new... I did!

(above: giant prehistoric rat; story #79)

Eco-friendly computer font?

Everyone knows to think about how much paper you use when printing at home or the office - but what about how much INK you use? Ever think about that? Well, someone did. The Dutch company SPRANQ came up with a font that has holes in it just like "Dutch holey cheese". They call it eco-font, and they say that it can save as much as 20% of your ink, making those expensive ink cartridges last longer. It's available for free download right here. They did it by taking out small circles of ink within each letter, leaving the basic shape. Less ink filling in the letter = less ink used on the paper.

A great idea, but a few caveats: the font looks a little strange, at least on my computer. I don't even have a printer, so I downloaded it mostly out of interest and cannot report on the print quality myself. If any of you try this, please leave a comment and let us all know how it looks printed out.

The font seems to look better at smaller type sizes, but the website says that the savings in ink get smaller as the font size gets smaller, so by improving the look you may be missing the point of the font in the first place.
The savings in ink also depends on the type of paper you are using, and on the type of printer.

Here is a screen capture of the font at many different sizes:My verdict? (Again, I don't have a printer so take this with a huge grain of salt.)
This seems like a font to use for relatively unimportant things that need to be printed - basic notes or drafts or directions - and not for important documents that need to look nice. However, I'm sure a lot of ink could be saved by using this font in everday life. I'm not really sure of the environmental savings here, but at least extending the life of your ink cartridge will save you money, and that's always good.

It also serves to get us to think about the environmental impact of every aspect in our lives.
If we use this font AND recycled paper AND better printers AND don't print as much in the first place AND etc. etc....
...think of the difference we could make.

P.S. Thanks to Mo for the link!

Natural Holiday Tablescapes

Well, 2008 is almost over, but I still have some holiday decorating ideas...maybe next year. Along with my sad holly Christmas tree, we cut some small branches from the evergreens that surround our house and brought them inside to make some centerpieces for the tables. Fresh evergreen branches (these are cedar) smell great, and make the whole house seem earthy and fresh and natural. On the big table I made a fun, silly spread with garlands, round shiny candles, some ornaments, and some larger pieces I found in the depths of the dreaded "Holiday Decorations - Misc." box. What a great source for inspiration - I don't know the last time some of these things saw the light of day. You know you have a box like that - why not go rummaging and see what you can find?

Here is the fun, bright tablescape:
I also found some beautiful gold pinecones and sweetgum pods (the round spiky ones), as well as a large gold bow that used to be on a wreath. I decided to make another, smaller spray on a different table, and to make this one a little more sophisticated by sticking to a gold color theme. What do you think?

Holiday Decorating

Hello everyone, and I hope you all had/are having a wonderful holiday season! Mine was nice, though punctuated by travel mishaps and minimal time spent at home. It was also an unconventional Christmas for me, as Christmases go - because of snow and ice, we were unable to get a tree this year. (There was also fun with a tow truck on Christmas day, but we won't go into that.)

Without a tree to decorate on Christmas Eve, our first idea was to decorate a potted plant (sad, but could also be hilarious). Then my father decided to "prune" the holly tree out back, and came back with a six- to seven-foot branch - a bit aggressive for "pruning", wouldn't you say? We promptly decided to use this as our tree, spiky and scraggly though it was:

how sad is this?

We cut off the top two feet and spliced it back on so it stood up straight(er). I decorated it (carefully...those leaves are sharp!) with lights and ornaments, and I actually really like the finished look. Maybe not as elegant or full as an ideal tree, but beautiful in its own way:


I hope you like my last minute, pulled-together tree! More holiday fun coming later.

Recycled Gift Wrapping

Since we're getting closer to Christmas and Hanukkah, that means that our holiday shopping *should* be almost done, and it's time to wrap!

I decided to do my wrapping as simply and cheaply as possible, while of course staying planet-healthy. The only things I bought were two kinds of ribbon - cheap, and don't take much space in the trash after the holidays are over.

What do you think?


For the paper, I used colored comics (always fun), plain brown paper and white tissue paper that were padding in a package I received.

I used some of those plastic bag pom-poms from before and my two kinds of ribbon in different ways - I love the overall look, and it is a fun and easy way to wrap. No wrapping paper needed!

Hope you like my easy, chic, and cheap gift-wrapping!