Green Livin Do You Need Nature Therapy?

Green Livin Get back to green basics

One of the best ways to groom your inner green is to reconnect with nature. Understanding the significance of living a green life becomes a lot more important when you realize that you're part of nature yourself. I'm a firm believer that when I'm in my biggest funk simply walking outside can help me snap out of it. It's a reminder that there is just so much more to life than the minute issue currently overwhelming my thoughts. Is this therapy? What's Nature Therapy?

I believe that a holistic path of healing includes a personal and intimate connection with the natural world.

There are tons of programs that encourage reconnecting with the wilderness. The intention is to restore balance, harmony, inspiration, and imagination by attuning to the energies and seasons of nature.Nurture your greener side with afternoon medicine walks. The non-strenuous walk can be in a group or in solitude.

Go alone into nature for an allotted period of time and go back to basics. Don't worry, you learn what you will need to know about equipment and using a backpack, safety procedures, wilderness ethics, and minimal impact camping.

I believe in ecopsychology, a practice that joins psychology and ecology to assist us in remembering we are part of a very big life process and that we are embedded in nature.
Don't fret because you can practice nature therapy at home or plan your own therapeutic trip:

Pick a Saturday and go on a nature walk. I didn't say hike for a reason because the point of the walk is not the intense workout that you get from climbing a mountain; but rather, quieting your mind. Or if possible, sign up for a guided nature walk in your area.

Plan a camping trip or go national park hopping and check out all the spectacular nature out there. From Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the United States has the largest national park system in the world all waiting to be explored.

Green Livin Where the Wild Things Are

Green Livin Why Children Still Need Nature

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.

~Henry David Thoreau

Green livin The creek was child territory, A communal green space.

As a child, I had a creek in my backyard. I lived at the creek. The minute perfection of a baby crawdad held in my palm elicited one of my earliest moments of wonder. My creek was an ever-changing constant. It could dry to a mere trickle in a dry summer or burst from its bank after a heavy spring rain with a current that begged attempts at rafting. It was a refuge, my chief source of entertainment, a place to play with like-minded adventurous friends, and a great source of snakes.





The creek was what anthropologists call a “magic circle of play”. A place both real and imagined; it was a world away from adults. Adults were rarely needed or wanted—unless we made an exceptionally interesting find. The imagined danger was delicious.

With surprising wisdom, the adults of my childhood left children to their own devices. They knew that children need the space, solitude and most importantly, unrushed time in nature. I knew neighbors were nearby if true need arose. In the many years of creek play, Luckily for me, my neighbors were familiar with children and childhood. The creek was child territory. A communal green space. At twilight, children crouched and flitted along its banks like moths. The creek was one of the first places I sought comfort in.

When my own sons were small, I looked forward to sharing the creek world with them and they were also thrilled with the creek’s offerings. We soon discovered, however, that the climate had changed. The fish and animals were thriving, but the banks had been groomed and planted up to the water’s edge. New neighbors worried about damage children might cause to the plantings and to themselves. One expressed fear that an injury in the creek might result in a lawsuit. The sidewalk that had connected the creek to several subdivisions was claimed as private property and made forbidden to the public. These actions speak not only to Americans’ growing litigiousness, but also of the pervasive paranoia, creeping isolationism, and culture of fear that is killing American neighborhoods and keeping our children indoors. Rather than agrue with neighbors, we departed the creek and mourned the loss.

Children have always been drawn to wild, natural spaces. Toddlers allowed to explore will seek out mud under a bush or explore the most unkempt area of a backyard. Children come equipped with a natural curiosity toward the wild. The author Valerie Andrews says in her book, A Passion for this Earth, “As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unselfconsciously to the soughing of the trees.” In much of America, however, children have disappeared from the landscape.





Richard Louv in his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, writes that a lack of exposure to nature leads to not only a decrease in a child’s sense of wonder, but also an actual loss of senses. Nature is restorative. A recent study from the University of Illinois shows what parents have long known anecdotally: that children suffering from ADHD who are exposed to green spaces show marked improvement. Nature therapy is becoming a popular recommendation among child psychologists. Yet fewer and fewer American children are playing outdoors.




I hope that we can reawaken within ourselves and in our children the love of green places. I hope we can remember that aesthetics should not take precedence over sharing the natural world with children. We need to reclaim the creeks and other magic circles for our children. If we fail in reconnecting with nature, We will have yet another generation of children who collectively echo the fourth grader in Louv’s book who announced, “I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are”; a message truly worthy of our fear.

Green Livin Toyota Projects Gas Prices To Hit $5.00 By Middle Of Next Decade

Green Livin Toyota Projects Gas Prices To Hit $5.00 By Middle Of Next Decade, We Think They're Being Optimistic

Toyota is basing its production plans on projections that US gas prices could rise as high as $5.00 a gallon as soon as 2015. The Japanese automaker also believes the full-size truck market will experience a significant recovery in the near future. Despite demand for its fuel-efficient Prius hybrid reaching an all-time high, it is unable to increase production of the vehicle until the 2011 model year. But gas hit $4.00 a gallon earlier this year: It seems unlikely that it'll take seven years for it to rise another dollar, so is Toyota being too optimistic with its projections?

Bob Carter, general manager for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., made the projections in remarks to reporters at and industry conference yesterday. Going on to say that while he expects total full-size truck sales to drop to 1.45 million in 2008, from 2.14 million in 2007, he expects those sales to rebound.

"We are absolutely confident that the recovery will take place, it's just arguable when," Carter said. "We've reduced production. It's our intention to build to the market. But when that market comes back, the core buyer who uses the truck for employment, who uses it for work, whether it's the landscaping company or the contractor, can't substitute a Corolla or a Yaris."
But they could use a smaller, more fuel-efficient truck. Carter does expect to see a significant reduction in demand amongst recreational truck buyers — the kind of people who buy big trucks because they want them, not because they need them for work.

A new 2011 Toyota Prius is in the works, as is a new plant in Mississippi that will be capable of producing a significantly higher number of the hybrids. But until then, Carter says, "In the short term after having that kind of increase last year and a big increase the year before that we're restricted on capacity and components." But with a new Honda hybrid on the way, maybe priced as low as $18,000, and the Chevy Volt scheduled to arrive as early as 2010, that may not be enough — especially if fuel prices hit the $5-per-gallon figure earlier than Toyota is projecting.

[Automotive News, Sub. Req.]

(Photo: jalopnik )

Green Livin Coinstar Calls Cashing In Change 'Recycling'

Green Livin Is Coin Star Really Recycling?

"Coinstar wants you to 'recycle' your coins in their machines, and save the environment! Minus their 8.9% fee of course." They even have a little wizard on their website that estimates how many parts of the environment—water, energy consumption, and geological waste—you save by putting those coins back into circulation, instead of hoarding them like the polar bear murderer you are. They don't provide any source for these estimates, though, and we're not convinced you're doing anything "green" other than lining Coinstar's pockets.

From Coinstar's website:

"Think of it as a new form of recycling—when you reuse your change instead of letting it sit idle in your coin jar, fewer coins are produced. And that translates into environmental savings by reducing hte need for limited natural resources used to create new coin.
We're deeply skeptical of any one-to-one benefit statement like this, not least because it ignores the total cost of running the Coinstar company, which is a key component of any coin recycling "movement."

If you're going to cash in your spare change, look for a Commerce Bank branch nearby first. Their change machines are free and you don't have to be a Commerce customer to use them.

Green Livin Toxic Chemical in Plastic Bottles & Cans

Toxic Chemical in Plastic Bottles & Cans Damaging Children's Brains & Reproductive Organs but Government & Chemical Industry Remain Unconcerned

Green Livin A federal report finds 'some concern' that fetuses, babies and children are at risk from bisphenol A. But plastics industry officials see no serious risk.

Green Livin A controversial, estrogen-like chemical in plastic could be harming the development of children's brains and reproductive organs, a federal health agency concluded in a report released Tuesday.

The National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, concluded that there was "some concern" that fetuses, babies and children were in danger because bisphenol A, or BPA, harmed animals at low levels found in nearly all human bodies.

An ingredient of polycarbonate plastic, BPA is one of the most widely used synthetic chemicals in industry today. It can seep from hard plastic beverage containers such as baby bottles, as well as from liners in cans containing food and infant formula.

The federal institute is the first government agency in the U.S. to conclude that low levels of BPA could be harming humans. Its findings will be used to help regulators at federal and state environmental agencies to develop policies governing its use.

The draft report followed an 18-month review that was fraught with allegations of bias, heated disputes among scientists and the firing of a consulting company with financial ties to the chemical industry.

Some scientists suspect that exposure early in life disrupts hormones and alters genes, programming a fetus or child for breast or prostate cancer, premature female puberty, attention deficit disorders and other reproductive or neurological disorders.

Full Story: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/16/nation/na-plastic16

Green Livin Always Print Your Gas Pump Receipt As Proof Of Purchase

Green Livin Shoplifting Always Print Your Gas Receipt

You probably wouldn't try to leave a retail store without a receipt, but you might not think about it when you're at the gas pump—after all, it's not like you're going to bring the gas back for a refund. But a reader points out that you should always have your proof of purchase just in case you end up in an awkward situation:

I had an interesting experience on Friday and a life lesson I think is worth passing onto other readers. On Friday I stopped at a United Dairy Farmers (local Cincinnati convenience store/ice cream parlor) to fill up while gas is relatively cheap. I pulled up to the pump, swiped my card, filled up, and paused before printing the receipt. Usually those things just end up wadding up in my pocket or under the seats of the car, but what the hell, I hit yes anyway. I then went inside to get a soft drink.

"Anything else?" the cashier asked. I said no, paid in change, and went back to my car. I pulled out of the lot, turned left, and I wasn't more than 200 yards away when a cop comes up behind me, lights flashing. I knew I couldn't have been speeding so I was genuinely confused. He said the woman at the United Dairy Farmers said I drove off without paying for gas. I said that was incorrect, and he said "She said it was a silver car, and she pointed at yours." I do drive a silver car, but I had paid for gas, and wait! I told the officer I had my receipt, and he wrote down the details: Amount, pump number, last 4 of my credit card, and the time. I also pulled out the credit card I paid with and my license, just to verify everything was on the up and up. He was cool about it, apologized, and I was on my way.

Lesson here is to always print that receipt out. I rarely check it against my statements now that I don't fill up as often. But without that 3x1 strip of paper I would have had a totally different story to tell. Needless to say I won't be taking my business to United Dairy Farmers anymore - being falsely accused of theft is a dealbreaker.

Green Livin At the Pump And Past The Limit

Green Livin High Prices Cause Drivers to Hit Credit Card Cutoffs

Green livin the pump slowed and cut off Brendan Baker's gasoline purchase at $74. He returned the nozzle to the pump, swiped his credit card a second time, then put the nozzle back in his 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 and continued fueling. He finished pumping and looked at his two receipts, which totaled $95.23.

"Normally I don't keep them because they remind me how much money I wasted," said Baker, a computer technician refueling at his local Sunoco station in Centreville.

With skyrocketing gas prices, many customers are bumping up against pay-at-the-pump credit card limits -- often $75. Rules limiting these transactions are nothing new, but with gas prices exceeding $4 per gallon, it's increasingly easy to exceed the limit, leaving many customers to face the hassle of dealing with two-transaction purchases.

At the station where Baker was filling up, 30 to 50 cars out of a total of about 900 hit the limit each day, according to the station owner. On a recent Saturday afternoon, the station bustled with Toyota 4Runners, Tacomas and other fuel-thirsty vehicles.

Back in 2003, when Jeff Urban bought his Hummer, paying $75 to fill up would have been unthinkable. But now, Urban joked, his goliath SUV will soon be a three-transaction vehicle.
Getting cut off mid fill-up is "a pain," Urban said after fueling. "Especially in Northern Virginia, where it's a go-go-go lifestyle, it's an extra couple of minutes out of the day that frustrates you."
Customers who pay inside stations can still use their credit cards like anywhere else and face no limit.

But at the pump, the size of credit card purchases has been limited largely to protect gas stations, which can be charged if there's a problem with the transactions. Purchases at the pump are particularly vulnerable to trouble since no signature is required to verify the user's identity. And since the credit card is swiped before the gas is pumped, there's no way to know the size of the purchase when it's authorized.

Visa, MasterCard and Discover Card generally guarantee that merchants will be paid the first $75 of a pay-at-the-pump transaction. American Express determines its limits based on the contractual relationship with the companies. But beyond those levels, gas stations are more likely to foot the bill in what are called charge backs if a transaction is bad.

Gas station owners and managers say they are already hard-pressed to hand more money back to credit card issuers. The high price of gasoline has left many stations in a financial fix. They've squeezed their average markup to remain competitive and the interchange fees they pay to credit card issuers, which rise with the sale price, are up.

The average station makes a profit of $60 at the pump per day, says Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. "It's not uncommon to lose money selling gas. So the idea of losing $20 or $50 [in charge backs] is too much."

Visa recently amended its rules to make it less risky for stations to increase the limit on pay-at-the-pump sales. Until April 2007, merchants could be charged the entire amount of any bad purchase over $50. That month, Visa changed its rules so that merchants were liable only for the amount of the purchase that exceeded $50. In April of this year, Visa increased the limit to $75.

Discover has also increased its limit to $75 from $50. MasterCard has had a $75 limit for several years.

Stations "are faced with two bad options -- allow the pump to go beyond $75 and risk not getting paid . . . or take a customer from frustrated [with gas prices] to outright anger," Lenard said.

Even when station owners want to take on more risk, limits are generally set by the oil companies rather than by the stations themselves. Sunoco limits the transactions to $75 if customers are using Visa or MasterCard. Chevron and Exxon Mobil's limits are either $75 or $100, depending on the credit card used. East of the Rocky Mountains, BP sets a pay-at-the-pump limit of $100, although a spokesman said some stations may choose to set higher limits.
In response to complaints over the payment restrictions, a few individually owned stations have increased their limits.

Gezahegne Daba, manager of a Hess station on the corner of New York and Montana avenues in Northeast Washington, said his station recently raised the pay-at-the-pump limit to $100 after a rash of consumer complaints.

Across the street, Thomas Goode paid an additional 2 cents per gallon to fill up the Chevy Astro van he used for work at a Shell station. A few months earlier, he had been using the Hess station, but it would cut him off at $50. After stopping at Shell one day, he discovered the station had a higher limit for his corporate card. "After I pumped the gas and I found out there wasn't a $50 limit on it, I just kept" going there, he said.

A Gaithersburg Liberty station recently negotiated to increase its limits to $75 from $50, though some cards still cut off at $50. The station also offers customers a 5-cent per gallon discount if they pay cash.

Many customers are taking the deal.

"I used to fill up with a credit card, but now I fill up with cash because it's cheaper," said Kevork Araklian, who said he expected his weekly gas bill for his 1998 Chevrolet Tahoe to reach $220 this week. He doesn't mind paying inside. "It just takes two seconds," he said.

A handful of area stations are avoiding the problem of interchange fees and charge backs altogether by accepting only cash. Filling up at a cash-only Freestate station in Rockville, Ann Seltz says she used to find paying with cash irritating until the fuel bill for her Audi A4, which should take only premium gasoline, got so expensive. "Now I go wherever's cheapest," she said.

Green Livin The 7 Most Fuel Efficient Used Cars Under $10,000

Green Livin You're sick of your SUV and thinking of getting a car that's new to you, but which ones get the best gas mileage for the price? Green Livin and Consumer Reports has the answer — a list of the 7 most fuel efficient used cars for under $10,000.

Why buy used? Well, as CR says "depreciation accounts for 46 percent of the owner costs over a five-year period." Why not let someone else take the hit?

"By focusing on a nearly-new model, say 2-3 years old, you can find a vehicle that offers comparable fuel economy, performance, safety, and reliability as a new car, often with some transferable warranty coverage remaining.

Amen! Anyway, here's the list. Some of the cars are older than 2-3 years, but hey. They're all under $10k.

Here's the list:

• 2000 Honda Insight (manual) 51 mpg
• 2001-02 Toyota Prius 41 mpg
• 2000-05 Toyota Echo 38 mpg
• 1998-2002 Chevrolet Prizm 32 mpg
• 1998 Mazda Protegé LX 32 mpg
• 1998-2000 Toyota Corolla LE 32 mpg
• 1998-2001 Acura Integra LS (manual) 32 mpg
  

Consumer Reports has a list of the top cars from $10,000-$20,000, which you can view here.

Best used cars for fuel economy [Consumer Reports]

(Photo: smcgee )

Green Livin How Often Do You Really Need an Oil Change?

Green Livin How often do you really need to change your car's oil? Conventional wisdom has always put it at every 3,000 miles to prevent engine wear, but isn't changing oil that frequently wasteful and unnecessary? Whats the "greenest" and longest-lasting oil you should use?

Green Livin There is much debate in the automotive world over how often drivers of typical passenger cars or light trucks should change their oil. The quick-lube chains usually recommend it be done every three months or 3,000 miles, but many mechanics would tell you that such frequent changes are overkill.

Indeed, most car owner's manuals recommend changing out the oil less frequently, usually after 5,000 or 7,500 miles.

According to the automotive website Edmunds.com, the answer depends more on driving patterns than anything else. Those who rarely drive more than 10 miles at a time (which doesn't get the oil hot enough to boil off moisture condensation) or who start their car frequently when the oil isn't hot (when most engine wear occurs) should change their oil more often -- at least twice a year, even if that's every 1,000 miles, according to Edmunds.

But commuters who drive more than 20 miles a day on mostly flat freeway can go as far as their owner's manual recommends, if not longer, between changes. As a car ages, more frequent changes might be in order, but that's for a qualified mechanic to decide on a case-by-case basis.

"The necessity of 3,000-mile oil changes is a myth that has been handed down for decades," writes Austin Davis, proprietor of the website TrustMyMechanic.com. He says that the economics of the oil change industry demand pushing customers to get their oil changed more frequently -- purportedly as "cheap insurance" against problems cropping up -- whether they need it or not. One of the largest oil change chains, Jiffy Lube, for instance, is owned by Pennzoil-Quaker State, and as such has an incentive to sell as much of the company's traditional petroleum-based oil as possible.

One way to reduce trips to and money spent unnecessarily on quick-lube outlets is to switch to synthetic oils, which last longer and perform better than their traditional petroleum-based counterparts. Davis says that educated drivers should opt for longer lasting, better performing synthetic oils, which are "most likely good for 10,000 to 15,000 miles or six months," whether or not their manufacturers recommend more frequent changes. Some synthetic motor oils, like Amsoil, NEO and Red Line, to name a few, are created specifically to last 25,000 miles or one year before needing a change.

While neither conventional nor synthetic motor oils are good for the environment if disposed of improperly or spilled, most environmentalists would opt for the latter since it lasts three or more times longer and thus reduces waste (or energy use if recycled). Researchers have also been experimenting with producing greener motor oils. One pilot project out of Purdue University has produced high-quality, carbon-neutral motor oil from canola crops.

But consumers should not expect to see such products on store or garage shelves anytime soon, as the costs of production are high and the availability of cropland is limited. But the very existence of such alternatives -- no doubt more are in the offing -- bodes well for the future as oil becomes more scarce and expensive.

Green Livin Total Solar Eclipse Tonight: Where, How to See It

Green Livin Watch for the Solar Eclipse Tonight

Green Livin Solar eclipses have been blamed in the past for war, famine, and the deaths of kings. But the upcoming total eclipse tonight will mostly be celebrated by excited sky-watchers—even if it won't break any records.


The sun will be completely obscured for just under two and a half minutes, "a tad on the short side," according to astrophysicist Fred Espenak, an eclipse expert based at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

A typical eclipse lasts for three minutes, Espenak said, and the longest possible is seven and a half minutes.

When it starts, this year's full eclipse will be visible from a narrow arc spanning the Northern Hemisphere.

Its path will begin in Canada and continue northeast across Greenland and the Arctic, then southeast through central Russia, Mongolia, and China.

The eclipse will start around 8:30 a.m. Greenwich mean time in the eastern part of the arc, leading to totality in just under an hour.

In a much wider swath of the globe—including northeastern North America along with most of Europe and Asia—people will be able to see a partial eclipse.

"Drop Dead Gorgeous"

A multiple-exposure image shows the many phases of a total solar eclipse. During totality (the few minutes of time when the sun is totally eclipsed), daytime skies become as dark as a moonlit night and the ambient temperature drops noticeably

The moon crosses between Earth and the sun once a month during the new moon. For an eclipse to happen, the moon has to come directly between the two bodies—it can't be too high or low relative to Earth.

Sometimes the moon will be close enough that just an edge will pass in between, resulting in a partial eclipse.

About 25 percent of eclipses are total eclipses, and there are about seven of these a decade, Espenak said. But at any given geographic location, a total eclipse will be visible an average of once in 375 years.

The last total solar eclipse visible from the United States was in 1979, and it was seen mostly in the Pacific Northwest.

When a total solar eclipse takes place, about half the daytime world doesn't see any of it, Espenak said. Another 49 percent of people see it as a partial eclipse.

Less than one percent of people see totality, which Espenak describes as "drop dead gorgeous."

"On a scale of one to ten, a partial eclipse is of some interest," he said. "A total eclipse on that scale is ten million. It can't be compared to anything else. It should be on everybody's life list."

Of course, the weather can throw a monkey wrench in any observation plans.

This year, conditions in China are likely to be most favorable for getting a good look at the full eclipse, according to weather data analyzed by Espenak and Jay Anderson from the University of Manitoba in Canada.

Their calculations show that the skies above China in August are cloudy around 35 percent of the time, compared with upward of 90 percent of the time in many other parts of the eclipse's path.

"It's always a crapshoot," Espenak said. "You try to stack the odds in your favor."

Tom Burns, director of the Perkins Observatory in Delaware, Ohio, helped put together a viewing-safety Web site during the Christmas eclipse of 2001.

He was hearing too often, he recalled, of people trying to view the partial eclipse through sunglasses, compact discs, or—surprisingly—Pop Tart bags.

"The only time it's safe to observe an eclipse through a Pop Tart bag is if the Pop Tart is still in it," he said.

He and his colleagues, who frequently instruct groups of sky-gazers on safe sun-watching, instead recommend special eclipse glasses.

For the growing population of sky-gazers who would love to see an eclipse and can't make it northward this year, it might be best to make reservations to visit southern Illinois, he added.

Weather permitting, people there will get to see total solar eclipses in 2017 and 2024