Sprout

Monday, November 8, 2010

Warning: Pesticides May Harm You Before those Scary Insects

Maybe it IS worth having a pet spider to get rid of those unwanted insects!
- In the year 2000, poison centers in the US responded to 86,880 poisoning incidents related to pesticides and half of those incidents involved children under six years old.
- Pesticides and chemicals used on a lawn can be absorbed by your bare feet or carried into your home on your shoes.
- Most pesticides can’t tell a bad bug from a useful one. They are toxic to birds, bees, and other insects which help pollinate flowers.
- Approximately 90 percent of all households in the U.S. use pesticides.
- Improperly disposed pesticides can move through the soil and reach drinking water supplies.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

DIY - The Oil Spill Stops Here – Car Free Friday

During a debate about offshore drilling right after the oil spill began, the proponent for offshore drilling made a good point: better that we drill here where we have regulations. The problem isn’t drilling per se; it is the American people’s demand for oil. If we don’t drill here, the demand will be met by drilling off the coast of Africa where there are no regulations. He said that there are major oil spills off the Coast of Africa EVERY year.
OK so it’s not BP it’s not Exxon, it’s us. We have to change. We must make it less profitable for the companies to go out and cause large scale environmental calamities. Thus Car Free Friday is born as an effort to both get cars off of the road and to get people to be aware of how and when they use their cars. Think about this – there are 1,000 seniors at Jupiter High School, the majority of them drive. If a little over a third of them didn’t drive on Fridays that would be like taking a car off the road for a whole year! And that’s just one Friday at one high school. Multiply that across Palm Beach County, the state of Florida, the United States. Spread it to government offices, power companies, hospitals. And the beauty of it is, once you start doing it, you become much more conscious of how to be efficient in your car use and you talk about it, it’s contagious.
The sole purpose of this blog is to encourage, support and celebrate participation in a positive action to stop oil disasters. We will give tips to help you participate; we hope you will share your experiences and tips to help others participate.