Shop Smart, Save Forests and Plant A Billion Trees

The Earth's Best Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has a nifty PDF file of a printable wallet card with info on the most "green" tissue products (hint: Kleenex is not one of them). You may have a hard time finding some of these products in Athens, but try checking out the Farmacy, Kroger's natural foods section or Whole Foods (the closest one is in Columbus) . Also check out the article The Giving Trees in NRDC's their online magazine, OnEarth. The article can be found here.


If you can't get to C-bus for some recycled tissues or toilet paper, try buying recycled computer paper to print your homework on. Use both sides of paper before recycling it!

Buying used textbooks can save you some cash and help forests. If you want to be even thriftier (in a green way) try sharing the cost of a used textbook with a classmate or checking out your books at the library. Textbooks can be requested from OU or other Ohio university libraries through OhioLINK and are eligible for renewal up to four times for three weeks each (just make sure to renew your books BEFORE they're due).

The Nature Conservancy has a new campaign: Plant A Billion Trees. Similar to the United Nations One Billion Tree Campaign headed up by founder of the Green Belt Movement and my tree-hero, Wangari Maathai; the Nature Conservancy plans to plant a billion trees in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil in the next seven years. For every dollar donated, a tree is planted. Simple enough, check out their site, make a donation and add their widget to your Facebook profile.

Trees: A Visual Guide by Tony Rodd and Jennifer Stackhouse

From Treehugger

"If a picture is worth a thousand words than Trees by Tony Rodd and Jennifer Stackhouse is the library of congress. Beautiful images embrace the reader, weaving a tapestry of trees life on earth. The eye candy images, are accompanied by well thought out and executed diagrams that explain the world of trees from the microscopic to the ecosystem.

The pictures really do steal the show, and set this book apart. But for those more text inclined, the snippets by each photo and diagram are a steady stream of factual information. The sheer magnitude of content and the glamorous pictures has me flipping through the entire book every time I sit down for a read. Not a book to read cover to cover, but one that can spark as well as satiate curiosity about the world of trees. Truly a provocative look into the life of humanities most valuable ally on earth."

Check it out at Amazon , I tried to find it through OU's Library and OhioLink, but neither of them currently have it.

Esta! and Tu b’Shevat… a perfect pairing for ReLeaf

Hey ReLeafers - you're all invited to celebrate Tu b’Shevat with us this
Wednesday at 7PM in the Baker Center Front Room.  Check out the info below and
our event page:

http://ohio.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11947445041

Co-sponsored by the Office of Sustainability, ArtsMidwest and ReLeaf for OHIO.
Coming from Israel, a crossroads of different cultures, it is only natural that
the musical group Esta embodies the variety of ethnic musical influences
including Israeli, Mediterranean, Balkan, African, Asian, Celtic and Western
flavors. Enjoy this unique opportunity to experience the Israeli music scene and
learn about the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shevat. All for free!

The holiday has become one of rededication to the ecology of the denuded land,
with the planting of trees taking center stage in the celebration. Jews outside
of Israel contribute money to plant trees there and/or plant trees in their own
communities. We’ll celebrate with music, information about the benefits of tree
plantings and tree/Tu b’Shevat related goods! Bring friends!

Meetings this quarter will rotate between Tuesdays at 6PM and Fridays at 4PM.
The first meeting will be next Friday, January 25th at Perks for coffee.  The
following meeting with be Tuesday, February 5th (I’ll send a reminder e-mail out). 

Hope to see you all Wednesday!

Peace, Love & Trees,
Courtney

NYC Passes Plastic Bag Recycling Bill

"Last week, New York City took a giant step forward in the fight against plastic. New York's City Council passed a bill requiring large stores and retail chains to collect and recycle plastic shopping bags. According to a New York Times report: "New York is by far the largest American city to enact so broad a measure to limit the environmental impact of the bags. Altogether, each year the country is estimated to use 86 billion bags, which end up blowing down city streets, or tangled in the stomachs of whales, sea turtles and birds, or buried in landfills where they enjoy free rent for 1,000 years."

Other cities like Melbourne and San Francisco have banned bags outright. San Francisco was the first city in North America to ban non-recyclable and non-biodegradable bags made from petroleum products. Africa has moved toward a continent-wide plastic bag ban, and just last week, China's cabinet issued a directive banning their production, prohibiting stores from handing out free plastic bags after June 1st and imposing fees on their usage. People in China use up to 3 billion plastic bags daily! Help keep the momentum going here in the United States and just say no to plastic bags!"

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/default.asp