Posts (page 2)

Composting

Hiw_lidTrayOpen

Chaco and I want to purchase an indoor composter from Nature Mill.  Why?  It's estimated that at least 1/3 of all residential waste is organic material and compostable.  This material does not biodegrade (like I previously thought) because landfill trash is so compressed that not enough oxygen can get to the organic stuff.  The following info is from .
    •    Organics in landfills break down anaerobically (aka, without oxygen), producing methane gas„a substance 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a contributor to climate change.
    •    Buried organics can react with metals in landfills to produce toxic leachate. This has to be removed and treated to eliminate a potential source of groundwater pollution.
    •    Residues from chemical fertilizers leach nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium into sewer systems, lakes and streams. Alternatively, compost is a pollution-free soil enhancer

We already recycle and now we're ready for the next step of composting our kitchen scraps and other organic stuff.  It was daunting before because I thought we had to buy earthworms and that it was this difficult process, but Chaco found an indoor composter here:  NatureMill: Compost Made Easy!  Check out the video.

So here's where you come in!  We get a 15% discount per composter if we get at least 3 people to order - so if you're interested, please let me know! (I have to know you though, no offense to the rest of the blogosphere.)
      

That's the title of a thought provoking article by Frank Schaeffer (click the quote for the full article):

Mondays are our family days.  In between starting up a church in the Deep Ellum/ downtown area, Chaco finishing up school, and his part-time position at the Apple store - Mondays are a time for us to reconnect and just enjoy our time with each other.  So, if we don't answer the phone when you call or return e-mails, you now know why.

While we were driving to lunch yesterday, we passed by this local farm just a couple of miles away from our house:

Logotop2

I love the concept of buying locally, so we were excited to find this small farm.  Click to logo to go to their website.  Our next family day will probably consist of finding some more local farms.

(The map on their site shows that it's in Garland - but there's a farm in East Plano.)

is this:

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We visited North Oak Cliff this past weekend.  I wanted to check out From the Ends of the Earth, one of the very few fair trade world import stores in Dallas.

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While there, the shop owner's son told us a bit about growing up in eclectic Oak Cliff.  After chatting for about 20 minutes or so, he told us that we should check out a new shop that opened up in the Bishop Arts District and invited us to a private party at the store later that evening.  This is what Oak Cliff is all about, he said, neighbors being neighborly.

So, we headed over to The Soda Gallery, where they have bottled sodas from all around the world.  The atmosphere was relaxed with local artwork covering the walls (they're looking for more artwork, by the way - so check out the website all you up-and-coming artists!).  Lala didn't want to leave, but we decided to brave the cold to check out all the other shops. 

Store-shot

South Oak Cliff is well known in Dallas for its poverty, high crime rate, and it has the highest percentage of HIV/AIDS and STD infections in the metroplex.   North Oak Cliff is a hop, skip and jump away - and from my research - a community that is actively looking and engaged in ways to help its neighbor. 

Lala has composed her first song, it consists of two notes and the lyrics go like this:

"A go-o-o go, a go-o-o go"

She sings this song when she's running around in circles, or wants us to go somewhere, or stirring her food.  For example, she had a hard boiled egg as a snack before bedtime last night.  She broke it up into pieces and started singing, "A go-o-o go, a go-o-o go".  When I went to sit next to her she said, "Mommy!  egg a go-go circle, " as she stirred up the pieces so that her favorite egg whites were well separated from the yolk.

I had this conversation yesterday with my barely turned 2 year old.  We were on our way out to run some errands.

Me:  Lala, it's time to put your shoes on.  We're going to get in the car.
Lala:  Car?  Bubble car?
Me:  (confused)  Bubble car?  What's a bubble car?  (Using exaggerated hand motions to indicate that I didn't know what that was) Mommy doesn't know what a bubble car is?
Lala:  Bubble car.  Daddy car.
Me:  (laughing hysterically)  Oh - you call Daddy's car a bubble car?

After Chaco heard our conversation, he said, "Oh, now my daughter's making fun of me!"

Later on that evening, we double checked to make sure it wasn't just a fluke.  Chaco showed her a picture of the yaris and she exclaimed with glee, "Bubble car!"

I love it!

She hardly gets to ride in the Yaris, but I guess she likes it.  We'll hand it down to her when she's 16 :).

2007_Toyota_Yaris_exfrdrvr342

EarthAS17

I watched Blood Diamond the other day.  Chaco spent an evening talking with a family who were victims of the Sierra Leone Civil War.  The couple met in a refugee camp, the wife fled from Sierra Leone, the husband from Liberia.  It was the husband who told us about the movie - he said he saw both versions, and that it was pretty accurate. 

I don't even know how to frame the thoughts that run through my head as I sit in a comfortable home in suburban America.  Like most American suburbanite married women, I have a diamond ring on my finger.  It's not so much that I think my diamond could be a conflict diamond - it's much bigger than that.  It's easy to be so focused on myself and immediate surroundings, that my biggest worries and struggles have to do with...well, me.  And, so it's easy to consume without thinking.  What does my consumption cost someone else half a world away?  How does my lifestyle, my country's wealth take away from someone else?  It's insanely difficult to think this way, because, the reality is, I don't know how to change things.  What power do we have - I'm so uneducated on global matters.  Or perhaps, honestly, I've chosen blindness.  May God open my eyes to what He sees.

Anup Shah, Causes of Poverty, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Sunday, September 23, 2007

Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen.

51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.

The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.

The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.

20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods.

The top fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%.

In 1960, 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.

An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:
3 to 1 in 1820
11 to 1 in 1913
35 to 1 in 1950
44 to 1 in 1973
72 to 1 in 1992

The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels”

The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.

A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people.

“The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports.”

“The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.”

“Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world’s nations and large numbers of people.”

“Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”

According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”  That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year.

For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:
    Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
    Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the              exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
    Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of      globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
    Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.

Water problems affect half of humanity:
    Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic
     sanitation.
    Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on
     less than $1 a day.
    More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than
     $1 a day.
    Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared
     with 25% for the poorest 20%.
    1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume
     around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day
     flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the  
     world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
    Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
    The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
    Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by
     water and sanitation deficits.
    Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
    To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation
     deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in
     some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a
     figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.

The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. “The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.”

The world’s 497 billionaires in 2001 registered a combined wealth of $1.54 trillion, well over the combined gross national products of all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa ($929.3 billion) or those of the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa ($1.34 trillion). It is also greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity.

A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.

Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998
Global Priority    $U.S. Billions
Cosmetics in the United States    8
Ice cream in Europe    11
Perfumes in Europe and the United States    12
Pet foods in Europe and the United States    17
Business entertainment in Japan    35
Cigarettes in Europe    50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe    105
Narcotics drugs in the world    400
Military spending in the world    780

And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:
Global Priority    $U.S. Billions
Basic education for all    6
Water and sanitation for all    9
Reproductive health for all women    12
Basic health and nutrition    13

Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)

Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

Children out of education worldwide
121 million

Survival for children Worldwide,
10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

Health of children Worldwide,
2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
source 26
The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”

In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s assets in 2004.