Alexandra's Articles
Alexandra is excited to be joining the writing team at Pays to Live Green! With a law degree from Fordham University, she has had the opportunity to work on environmental issues with student groups and at a government organization charged with protecting the environment and public health. As an avid follower of environmental news, she is constantly looking for ways to green her personal routine and is excited to be able to share her discoveries with the Pays to Live Green community!
How to Use Newspaper to Prevent Weeds
If you’re up to your elbows in autumn planting time, then you’re probably looking for an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to prevent weeds from taking over your garden. And you’re in luck. That newspaper that you read and then deposit in a recycling bin every day? The key to free weed prevention.
Photo by {link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/35110249@N05/3274093725/}Martien Uiterweerd{/link}.
Recently, Anne Rave of The New York Times reported on her somewhat unconventional use of newspaper in her garden.
Simply spread newspaper four sheets thick across the ground that you plan to plant. Wet it. Cut a hole large enough to accommodate the roots of the plant that you are planting and spread a layer of soil or compost over the paper once you are finished.
Of course, no anti-weed method is foolproof. But Rave has a solution: “When weeds do grow — as they inevitably will, blowing in on the wind, or sprouting from less-than-perfect compost — [Lee Reich, a soil scientist in upstate New York,] suggests spritzing them, while they are still sprouts, with a homemade solution: a gallon of vinegar mixed with 2 tablespoons canola oil (other oils will gum up) and 1 tablespoon liquid Ivory dish detergent.”
Take a Hike!
The first day of autumn – last Wednesday, September 22, 2010 – slipped by me unnoticed, because, well, it quite simply didn’t start to feel like fall until today. Now that the air is getting crisper, I’ve started taking blankets out of the closet each night. I’ve started thinking about wearing shoes that require socks. And I’ve been thinking that I can’t wait to go on my first autumn hike of the year to see the trees before, during, and after the leaves change.
If you’re thinking of taking a hike while you travel this fall, be sure to check out Trails.com’s trail finder. Simply enter the zip code of the area you are planning to visit, and hopefully you’ll find that there’s a hiking trail or two that you can check out during your trip. Or, if you live in or near a major metropolitan area, then visit LocalHikes.com for suggestions of where to hike near your city.
As with any physical pursuit, exercise caution before you exercise. Bring enough food and water, follow your trail map, and stay safe!
Green Patriot Posters
This weekend, I had the opportunity to check out the fourth installation of the National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (a Smithsonian Institution) in New York City.
The exhibition, called Why Design Now? (on exhibit through January 9, 2011), features contemporary concepts or objects designed to alleviate a particular social or environmental concern. Items on display include a compact public bike rack, plans for a hotel powered by water (and appropriately called a H2Otel), solar panels shaped to blend into a barrel-tile roof, and many other successful and prototypical design objects.
Some of the items seemed a bit too outlandish to ever be successful in a mass market while others seemed, well, too expensive. But one item on display, a Green Patriot Poster, caught my eye both for its creativity and its price – It’s free.
The Cooper-Hewitt website explains that part of what makes Green Patriot Posters so innovative is that the “project invites any designer or concerned citizen to upload posters to its Web site.”
Green Patriot Posters, produced by Canary Project 2010, presents “Posters for Energy Independence and the Fight Against Climate Change.” Designed to evoke the feel of WWII-era government propaganda, Green Patriot Posters are educational and clever. And, best of all, they’re free to download. My favorite is the “EnvironMEANT TO Do List” (“Do it. Don’t just meant to do it.”). But so many of the posters are fun and would be perfect for classroom use (or, at the very least, as computer desktop wallpaper).
New Fall Comedy “Running Wilde” Features Green Main Character
It is a sad truth, but unless you’re watching the Planet Green network, then you’re probably not seeing much environmentally-focused programming. But perhaps the news that one of FOX’s new comedy series will feature an environmentally conscious main character is an indication that eco-friendliness is cool enough for primetime.
The new series, Running Wilde, premieres on September 21st at 9:30 p.m. and stars Will Arnett as the selfish and wealthy childhood friend of Keri Russell, an eco-friendly humanitarian who hopes to make him a better man. If it succeeds, the show might very well be a lock for an Environmental Media Award nomination next year. This year’s nominees include Parks & Recreation, Avatar, and Spongebob Squarepants.
Free and Legal Music Downloads
I shared my recent article about free podcasts with a friend of mine whose response was, “Free news and free language classes are great, Alexandra. But what about the free music?”
Photo by {link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/piece-of-my-heart/3606696486/}Neha{/link}.
I almost cannot believe that I neglected to mention any of my favorite music podcasts! Three of my favorites (KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune, Minnesota Public Radio: The Current Song of the Day, and KEXP Song of the Day) offer a daily free full-song .mp3 download of up-and-coming and independent acts. I have been downloading these podcasts for the last four years or so. During that time, downloadable artists have included favorite artists such as David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame), KT Tunstall, Regina Spektor, Colin Hay (from the band Men at Work), Baaba Maal, Arcade Fire, Bob Marley, Nirvana, and Vampire Weekend, as well as several others that have become favorites after hearing their free podcast offering.
These podcasts and others are available for free download via iTunes.
The U.S. Open’s Green Initiatives
The U.S. Open, one of the largest annual sporting events in the United States which ends this Sunday with the men’s singles final, has been “greener than ever this year,” according to the tournament website. The Slice reports that the Open’s Green Initiatives include using napkins, draw sheets, and programs made of post-consumer materials and recycling the approximately 20,000 tennis ball cans used during the two-week tournament.
But even better than the Initiatives are the humorous videos starring Alec Baldwin that were shot for the Open’s Green Initiative campaign. My personal favorite is the one in which he encourages people to conserve energy by having ball kids run down stray tennis balls for them. (I have a standing tennis date with a friend tomorrow morning and only wish I had that option!)
If the BP Oil Spill Happened Where I Live …
One of the scariest things about the BP oil spill in the Gulf is that, with deep-water drilling happening virtually all over the world, it is no longer inconceivable that a disaster of this magnitude could happen just about anywhere.
And if you have a difficult time imagining what the BP oil spill would look like in your neck of the woods, the creators of the website If It Was My Home have created a clever means of illustration. Simply enter your zip code into the search box and click “Move the Spill,” and you will immediately see what the BP oil spill would look like if it happened in your hometown.
I am not sure that I remotely understand the impact of the disaster in the Gulf – even after seeing that the spill appears to be over 100 times the size of New York City – but If It Was My Home also provides a list of things that we can do to help.
