Activism

Christmas Is Not Your Birthday, Green Edition
Christmas is Not Your Birthday is an initiative started by the brains behind CoolPeopleCare.org, in an attempt to redirect the typical holiday hub-bub and excessive consumerism surrounding the holiday season with local outreach, outward thinking, and overall giving. (…)

The Undertow of Materialism
Trust me, I know how it is. You feel like you can just dip your toe into that ocean of consumerism this holiday season and walk away unscathed. Keeping it simple this year, you say? (…)

Seeing Green In November: The Energy Crisis On All Ballots This Year
It's the middle of October and election day is fast approaching. (…)

What You Can Do About Sweatshops
toothpastefordinner.com
It’s hard to believe that sweatshops could possibly exist today. But they do. (…)
I Bet You Can't Do This!
Remember when someone would dare you? Taunt you. Tell you, you can't do something. You wanted to prove them wrong. Well, that's sort of my theory behind this post. (…)

Is Walking Becoming Obsolete?
While I walked 20 miles each day for the Michigan Breast Cancer 3 day this weekend, I had a lot of time to look around and just think. One of my big realizations over the weekend was that we were the only ones walking around in the downtown, neighborhood and nature areas along our path. (…)

Becoming Part of Your Child's Classroom
It's a month into school, and the opportunities to become involved in my daughter's classrooms are plentiful. (…)

When Fresh Water Becomes the New Oil
I was shocked last week to learn about the Great Lakes Compact legislation that was sent to Congress two weeks ago. (…)

Go Green and Get Happy!
What is the key to happiness? Does happiness correlate with wealth, demographics, reputation, attitude, etc.? (…)

Walking the Talk
When I realized I was ready to take the next step in my journey going green, I signed up for the Chicago Conservation Corps (C3) Leadership Program. Their mission is to recruit, train and support a network of volunteers who improve their surrounding communities and schools through environmental service projects protecting our water, cleaning the air, restoring the land and saving energy. (…)

Winter Gardening in My Favorite City
Earlier this week, some friends and I were talking about how to continue our weekly gardening play dates into winter. (…)

No Idling!
I can vividly recall riding the school bus when I was a kid. I remember the ride as being very long, very boring, and very stinky. And while I was probably exaggerating the long and boring parts (my ride lasted about 15 minutes) I now know that I wasn't imagining the stink…
A recent Yale University study found that children who ride a school bus are exposed to up to 15 times more particulate pollution than average. (…)

We Are All Connected: The PlayStation War
While I certainly know that we are all connected, sometimes I forget. Not today. I was shaken out of my complacency today. I usually think I'm doing my best to go green and save the world, making solid choices, trying to consume less, and teaching my children to do the same. But, sometimes some story or event comes along and smacks you in the face, jolting you so much that you have to go out and do something. And thus, an advocate is born. Or hatched. Or created. (…)