Boys running barefoot in the mud, playing soccer with a coconut. A ramshackle village, lacking electricity and running water, is the only place they’ve ever known. Their fathers are fishermen who, almost without exception, are suffering from the effects of over fishing and marine resource scarcity. At one time they were subsistence shark fishermen who were able to bring dinner home to their families at night. Today, they spend much of their time and money in the cantinas, drinking to forget the burden of their poverty. Their boys will have the same destinies unless radical change happens their way.
I’ve been to this community several times, looking for ways to bring environmental education and the hope of economic alternatives to its residents. Two hours in a skiff braving choppy waves and relentless rain or scorching sun is the easier part of the trip. More difficult, is to witness the cultural and economic impoverishment of a community that lives on the brink of despair. But the work that we are doing brings me hope that we will be able to help these people create a brighter future for themselves and their children.
In this photo, the children’s smiles and enthusiasm were for the miracle of modern technology that could reflect their image back to them. I hope that in the next one, it will be in anticipation of a joyful life.
Before we begin, a few acknowledgements and details. Thanks to City Hippy and Triple Pundit for organizing this roving digest. If you are interested in hosting it one week, see their sites for details. Thanks also to Hippy Shopper for hosting Carnival #26 on May 8, 2006, and Website Design and Promotion, who will host Carnival #28 on May 22, 2006.
In honor of Mother’s Day, we are happy to pay tribute to Mother Earth by passing along these submissions on everything from rust to Whole Foods to infertility. Mom would be so proud. Read on.
Early Exposure to Pesticide: Revisited
Joel Fuhrman, M.D., who authors DiseaseProof.com, discusses the risks associated with pesticide residue on produce and references an article appearing on Foodconsumer.org, written by David Liu Ph.D.
Environmentally Friendly Rust Removal
Kent Swanson of The Practical Environmentalist provides a tip on eco-friendly rust removal.
Maybe Baby
The Worsted Witch (a.k.a. Jasmin Chua) offers this post on how synthetic chemicals are undermining our fertility and our children’s’ futures.
Whole Foods Talks Dollars and Sense
Enrique at commonground provides a link to this recent New York Times article (and a couple of others) on Whole Foods. Here’s a sampling, “Whole Foods perceived elitism—encouraged by the company or not—has earned it a cultlike following among well-heeled, health-obsessed professionals, who consider it a badge of honor to buy their fair-trade organic coffee, cage-free eggs and hydrogenated-oil-free cookies there.”
Update: Where to Share a Car
Thinking about signing up for a car-sharing service? Elsa from the greener side charts the car-sharing features offered by Zipcar, Flexcar, and City CarShare so you can decide what’s the best deal.
Happy Endangered Species Day!
With a list of suggestions on ways to celebrate Endangered Species Day (via the National Audubon Society), A Concerned Scientist echoes the Senate’s resolution calling for, “The people of the United States to become educated about, and aware of, the threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide.”
USDA Criticized for Helping “Industrialize” Organic Farming
The Savvy Vegetarian (a.k.a. Judy Kingsbury) offers this excerpt from The Cornucopia Institute article about the latest USDA industrial organic caper, with comments, links, and suggestions on saving organic food.
Clean Technology Going Mainstream?
In this post—part of an online dialogue between the World Bank
and IFC on the future of the carbon market—author Rachel Kyte asks whether clean
technology is going mainstream, and whether Al Gore’s latest documentary is
a sign of the new times to come for investors.
This Mother’s Day, Consider the Chemical Cocktail You’ll Pass on to the Next Generation
Laura Lynn Klein, publisher of www.OrganicAuthority.com, submits this recent study by the Environmental Working Group. The study tested the blood and urine samples of four mothers and their daughters looking for a common relationship between the “body burden,” or the chemical cocktail of industrial pollutants that’s found in the human blood stream, of mothers and their daughters. Find out what the study revealed!
Shop Local
Manchester editor Ian, over at CityHippy, discusses how lucky he is to be able to shop locally and shows how we can all support our local economies a little bit more.
Recycle and Renew
Harlan, managing editor at Greener Magazine, suggests you recycle your emergency evacuation food supply and help the Letter Carriers Food Drive.
Companies for the Little Green Portfolio
Camden Lady offers a summary of green AIM-listed companies that she’s intending to research and possibly include in her pension portfolio. There are so many innovative businesses out there creating better ways of generating power, reducing waste, and using resources better.
STOP THE DIVINE STRAKE Blogswarm
Deanna invites bloggers everywhere to blog on Tuesday, May 16th, in a “Stop the Divine Strake” Blogswarm Day. The Divine Strake Test, scheduled to be detonated at the Nevada Test Site in June, is an explosion of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil that will send a mushroom cloud two miles into the air. Analysts predict it will stir up contaminated soil from past nuclear tests at the site, sending radiation downwind and potentially affecting the environment and health of citizens in surrounding states. The test is also yet another violation of the Treaty of Ruby Valley, since the site sits on Western Shoshone Land and the U.S. Government has never gained permission to hold tests on that parcel of land. Dee of Dee’s ‘Dotes is also helping to organize a massive action at the test site on May 28th. Details can be read on her blog at http://deesings.livejournal.com/273814.html. Everyone, please register to participate in the blogswarm!
Paradise Lost…to Plastic
And, finally, EarthEcho’s own Alexandra Cousteau is reminded of the importance of recycling plastic during a recent trip to Ambergris Caye.
It’s been a pleasure hosting Carnival of the Green. Be sure to check out next week’s postings at Website Design and Promotion. Until then, remember we are all upstream from one another. Cheers.
Back in the 1980s, Madonna wrote “La Isla Bonita” about Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize. It was a hit and, having just returned from “la isla bonita” myself, I can certainly see where she got her inspiration.
Tropical the island breeze.
All of nature wild and free.
This is where I long to be.
La isla bonita.
And when the samba played.
The sun would set so high.
Ring through my ears and sting my eyes.
Your Spanish lullaby.
I prayed that the days would last- they went so fast . . .
White sand beaches, palm trees, warm breezes, crystal clear turquoise water. I could have stayed for much longer than the week I was there. But the signs of environmental degradation are undeniable. Enormous corals that must have been hundreds of years old were lost to a global warming event in the mid-1990s. Soft corals seem abundant but hard corals are struggling to make a comeback and are ever threatened by another hot summer season that would kill them all over again.
The real shock came when I stepped off the property of the remote little hotel where I was staying to wander up and down the coast along the wild beaches. Well, they are wild no longer. Plastic trash was washed up everywhere. I picked my way through the trash for more than a mile, staring in despair at red plastic crates, empty oil drums, broken flip flops, water bottles, cream bottles, deodorants, medical waste, TV parts, and all sorts of unidentifiable plastic rubbish.
The importance of recycling plastic could not have been any clearer to me than as I stood on this beach looking at how our lack of responsible waste management is plaguing remote areas that were once a pristine paradise. Could the people who chose not to recycle their plastic waste have made a positive difference? Absolutely. Recycling DOES make a difference. If you don’t believe me, go to “la isla bonita” and see for yourself.
You can read more about what is called the “plastics problem” in my brother’s September entry called “Plastic Plastic Everywhere.”
