Mother's going GREEN Day 61 - Signs of Change?

Sometime ago I watched the movie "An Inconvenient
Truth" with Al Gore, I did enjoy it but both my husband and I preferred the one called "The 11th Hour". narratted by Leonardo DiCaprio. One scene in the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" stands out for me and in my daily life I often recall it. It is at the end of the movie and Al Gore is walking through an airport terminal and the voice over is of him speaking: "I keep looking for signs of change..."

I too keep looking for signs of environmental change.... I live in a small community and as I go about my daily life I feel good about the choices I am making and can visualize the impact - but then I go into the larger city and I see sooo many people and I watch them with all their plastic shopping bags and I wonder.... is change happening.... it seems difficult to see amongst those plastic shopping bags - the too much plastic packaged merchandise - the rows and rows of toxic products in the big box stores - the many many cars on the road - and how people toss out their garbage without a care in the world.

I have - when I go out and need to grab a quick something to eat - bring my garbage home with me as I feel there are not enough option for me to properly dispose of my garbage. Sure there is a box for glass bottles and perhaps cans next to the garbage bin - but what about the plastics and the paper. Today I brought home the banana peel from my banana (food for my worms) The empty juice bottle and a paper napkin - just so I could dispose of it properly.

Then I return home to my smaller community, were life seems simpler and I feel I can make a difference. Do I see the signs in my own community - to be honest very little - but it is a smaller scale and I at least feel more hopeful....

Mother's going GREEN Day 48 - What we can do to combat Light Pollution

Yesterday, I spoke of the environmental and human health concerns that light pollution poses. Today, I will suggest ways in which we can help combat light pollution.

First off I joined the International Dark-Sky Association for $30.00. by doing this the money generated through membership and donations will help reduce light pollution; conserve energy
and enhance human health & the environment.

Other options I can personally implement are: Using light sources of with a minimum intensity required to accomplish the light's purpose; Turning lights off using a timer to turn off light when they are not needed and Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with less side effects.

As opportunity presents itself I will also attempt to be an activist in lessening light pollution in my community, hopefully as time goes on I can attend community planning meetings where I can raise the issue of light pollution and suggest alternatives.

Mother's going GREEN Day 41 - A Day at the Movies

Taking a page out of Mom Goes Green blog, our family too decided to head for the theatres and watch the Disney Pixar movie WALL-E.

I seldom get out to the theatre what with an infant and all, but today the whole family went out. My son who is 5 loved the show and understands a little more on how our actions can impact the planet - the garbage and such. Since "going green" he has often asked me what the world may look like if we do not take care of it - I think this movie gave him a visual but also hope.

It definitely opens the door for discussions with children about the environment, which I think is very important considering the environmental crisis that the world is in. I too hope it can open the minds of the parents too and we can all live a little more environmentally conscious.

If you have children and even if you do not - this is a great movie to see and a movie with an environmental message.

Mother's going GREEN Day 40 - Recycled Toilet Paper

I remember back to my teenage years when we would joke about "recycled toilet paper" in the future. Well, that future is here and it is no joke.

But the day has come when we switched to recycled toilet paper. As I have mentioned before, my husband always buys in bulk, especially when things are on sale like toilet paper, Kleenex and paper towels. He often comes home from grocery shopping with large volumes of these products - it used to drive me crazy as we would then have to store all of this stuff.

But I am happy to say we have now used our last roll of the "virgin" toilet paper. And now it is okay for my husband to go out and buy in bulk as long as it is the 'good' stuff - like the stuff he recently purchased. Cascades 100% recycled. The label reads:

-- Recycled content(majority post consumer fibres): 100%

-- Virgin Fibre: 0%

-- Chlorine Bleaching: 0%

-- Water saved vs. paper industry manufacturing average: 80%

-- Added fragrances and colours: 0%

-- Environmental certifications: 2

-- Quality: 100%

A study shows that if every household in the United States just replaced 1 roll of the regular toilet paper with a roll of recycled toilet paper we could save 423 900 trees. Now that is a lot of trees.

For some fun facts on toilet paper and what has been used prior to 'toilet paper' visit: Toilet Paper World.

And in case you are wondering - Recycled toilet paper is not made from toilet paper but other recycled paper.

Make the change to recycled toilet paper.

Mother's going GREEN Day 33 - Cloth Napkins

I picked up a package from the Post Office today. Yippee, my cloth napkins had arrived and just in time too.

Having small children can be messy at meal times and we have always given them a 'paper' napkin to wipe their hands and their face. My husband as you may recall does all of our grocery shopping and likes to buy in bulk so we had a ton of paper napkins - we just this morning used the last one, so my package arriving today was great timing. No more paper napkins, that get used once and then tossed out. We are now going with cloth.

I bought my napkins off E-Bay - vintage was the description which means 'used' - So we are not only going to save throwing away the paper but we are also reusing. Ones mans junk is anothers treasure. I purchased 45 napkins for approximately $1.00 each. Enough napkins to last us through several meal periods without having to wash them. It would be a shame to waste additional energy to ensure we had clean napkins - sort of counter environmentally productive.

I think now I am going to invest in some 'napkin rings' just to add some flare to our meals. Having the cloth napkins too reminds me of meals with my grandparents who always used cloth napkins. A mix of differnent patterned cloth napkins - just like mine.

Mother's going GREEN Day 31 - Computers and Such

I have been having some computer problems for the last several weeks. Finally, today a technician was out to have a look at the problems..... After a few hours we got it fixed but he did mention to me that it was probably time I got a new computer. "What a new one, this is only 5 years old" was my response. "Yes, but a computers life is only about 5 years" he said.

That got me thinking - if everyone has a computer which pretty much everyone does have that's an awful lot of computers being replaced every 5 years give or take a few years, and an awful amount of computers being made each year. I made a decision to hang onto this computer for much longer. Okay so it gives me problems, sometimes it can be slow, but it does the job I need it to do. When the time comes I will get rid of it the environmentally friendly way. My friends at Our Green Year speak to this (http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/search?q=e-waste). However, I also found a website that suggests much of the E-Waste is then just simply sent off to China, Nigeria, India and Pakistan (usually illegally) where it remains in toxic piles waiting to be recycled, poisoning the residents. http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HomeGarden/stop-e-waste-by-recycling/

So when it comes time to reinvest in another computer (I will try and make this one last another 5 years - by fixing it) I will ensure that the company I buy it from will also offer a good recycling program for it, when it's time comes. Here is another interesting site on all the hazardous chemicals in ones computer: http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=e8def77a-3a8f-420b-ad29-a9e08d03fca0.

Moral of this story: Don't throw out your computer or any electronics for that matter and be sure to recycle it ethically. With an E-Waste company that has ethical practises.

A side note on plastics: One of the comments I received recently was that their organic produce was packaged in an 'unsafe' plastic. This prompted me to check mine. What I had, all seemed to be in the 'safe' plastic. But what I did note though was my milk and juice are packaged in 'unsafe' plastic; whereas my old cleaning detergents (I had to blow of the dust and search the back of the kitchen cupboard for them) are mostly packaged in the 'safe' plastic. How ironic - I guess the cleaning companies just don't want any more poisons to leach into their already toxic product.

Mother's going GREEN Day 23 - Books and Litter

Well you may be asking what books and litter have in common - not much really except for today.

My son is to start kindergarten in the fall and they had sort of an open house this afternoon. The school is fairly close so we walked as when he does start school we will be walking. It is a route we seldom walk now and the sidewalk is unfortunately strewn with litter. I made a mental note to take along a bag to collect the litter in the future (my son always wants to pick it up to examine it anyway - so we might as well pick it up and get rid of it properly.)

At the school they were giving away some older library books so of course we grabbed a few. My kids love to read stories and hey why not pick up some books and reuse them. There was one book in particular that was just left behind after the other parents collected the books and I figure I would grab it since no-one else seemed to want it. It is titled "The Wartville Wizard" by Don Madden.

When we got home it was the first book that my children wanted to read, strangely enough the book is all about litter and how one man (the wizard) tries to clean it all up and eventually discovers he has magical powers over the trash and can send the trash back to the person who discarded it - it then sticks to the person. Some of the characters have shower curtains, bed linen, cigarette butts all stuck to them. The story ends when the people of the town decide not to litter anymore and throw their garbage in garbage cans where it belongs. If only 'real life' could be like that.

It does send children a message about not littering, also about one mans struggle to care for the environment and how in the end he won. I enjoyed the book and I am glad we picked it up. Great for kids and great to reinforce our family's ideal of going green.

Moral of the story: Pick up litter. It is what you can do to live greener.

Mother's going GREEN Day 21 - Shopping the eco-friendly way

Yes, there can be an environmentally way to shop.

• Shop less (do we really need everything that we buy - lets think how quick the excitement of the product you buy will wear off - especially when it comes to children's toys)
• Shop locally - support your local businesses in your community, often the business in our community in turn support the community we live in. Also, it will help foster relationships which is also a good thing.
• Locally made - Shop for locally made products. Support your country's economy.
• Shop online (my personal favourite) - when you shop on eBay or Craig's list you can choose to buy second hand items (recycling) "one mans junk is another's treasure" and many of the warehouses use much less energy than your conventional store.
• Packaging - try to purchase items with minimal packaging. Today, I was so excited to buy my infant a baby rattle (made no less with the environment in mind) it is made with wood and natural fibres packaged with recycled paper and none of those plastic ties which you land up having to pry from the toys with some sort of sharp object. This toy had natural string holding it on the board - a simple knot to untie and toy was ready for enjoyment. (pictured on right)
• Bring your own bag - always bring your own bag or try to anyway.

References for this post was from a book I have on hand "Green for Life (200 simple Eco-Ideas for Every day)" by Gillian Deacon

Mother's going GREEN Day 20 - Those darn plastic bags

Even though we long ago said "NO PLASTIC BAGS" one or two always make their way back into our home via my husband. As soon as he walks in the door he apologises - but he did not have any fabric bags with him and they just gave him a bag anyway is his excuse. It is a challenge to teach an old dog new tricks. First off I have suggested to him to just say no - no to plastic bags the cashier does not take any offense to it; and also at all times to have a bag ready. But I guess for some men remembering to take a bag with them everywhere they go can be quite a feat.

These plastic bags are like cockroaches - always around and no matter what lengths you take to get rid of them they always seem to be there and like cockroaches they will probably be around long after too - give or take a few hundred years.

Today, I told my husband that I am not getting rid of anymore plastic bags he accidentally brings home. I will be reusing them in several ways. I have found a website that gives you detailed instructions on how to make "fabric" out of them (he might be wearing a rain jacket soon from the bags he brings home). There is also many websites that offer crochet patterns for plastic bags. I love to crochet so I might be doing a bit of that with the bags. I already have 2 crafts that I will be utilizing the plastic bags in my children's Eco-craft Friday's. So my dear hubby better watch out - he might soon find himself among a ton of creative re-incarnations of the "plastic bag".

Some serious facts about the plastic bag:

• Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out for free each day.
• Each year billions of bags end up as ugly litter.
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
• Production requires vast amounts of oil.
• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
• Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

The above facts and more plus possible solutions can be found on the following website: http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php

Treehugger provides some pictures of 'plastic' fabric clothing and some links to places on how you too can make your own fabric or perhaps your next crochet project - just visit the following link: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/diy_plastic_bag.php

Mother's going GREEN Day 16 - The 3 Minute Shower

Yes, it is possible. A 3 minute shower. After all I have read on water consumption I figured I could aim for a 3 minute shower. Now you may ask how is this possible? Well, I enjoy the warm water for a minute and a half, I also wash my face during this time. I then turn the shower off and soap up and wash my hair, then I turn the shower back on and rinse off for another minute and a half. Technically a little longer than 3 minutes but I only use 3 minutes worth of water.

Since I had children I have never had the luxury of anything more than 5 minutes in the shower always a baby crying or a child interrupting so a 5 minute shower for me has always been sort of the norm. That is why I challenged myself to use even less water by turning off the water while I washed. It seems to work great and now I am in the habit of doing it everyday. Not sure how I will feel about the cutback in the winter when you will get a little chilly - but perhaps I will appreciate the water even more when I get to turn it back on. In case you are wondering we have a clock in the shower which I use to time my showers.

When it comes to bathing the children, I bath the infant first in her little bathtub. I then dump her water into the big bath tub where I bath my other 2 children together. I fill there tub up with 3 inches of water. I measure this by putting my hand in the tub and when the water reaches my palm it is 3 inches deep (the length of my fingers). When I first did this my son exclaimed: "Mom, how are we supposed to bath in such a little bit of water?" It has since become the norm.

Based on some figures from my green friends at "Our Green Year" http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-26-of-our-green-year-limiting-our.html ,

I am only using 45 liters of water per day on my shower, 315 liters per week or 16380 litres per year rather than the average North American who showers for 15 minutes using 81900 litres per year.

An interesting sites to visit regarding Canadian water consumption: http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/indicators/6wate.htm

The average water consumed in a household in Canada is 125 000 litres per person per day to see how your household compares to this average visit: http://goblue.zerofootprint.net/

Mother's going GREEN Day 13 - Lawn Care the Organic Way

Lawn care, while it is better for the environment to have little or no lawn (should be plants and trees instead) there is very little chance in the near future of my husband giving up our lawn. It is also nice for the kids to play on. Since we do have lawn, not much of it, but lawn anyway we have decided to take care of it the environmentally friendly way.

• Using a push mower for starters, no carbon emissions, no use of a natural resource - gas. Just plain old man power.


• The grass clippings are then just left on the lawn, acting a a natural mulch - no need to rake them up and throw them away, besides your manpower is all spent mowing the lawn.


• The mulch will also help retain water which your grass needs, but not too much. It only requires 1 inch of water a week that includes rainwater.


• Don't cut your grass too short, this causes it too look yellow and will also dry out quicker requiring more water.


• If you need to water your grass it is best to water it in the early morning or early evening, that way it will not evaporate too quickly.


• It is best not to use a sprinkler to water your grass but to stand there and water it with the hose and a nozzle. Remember it does not need a lot of water.


• If a fertilizer is required it is best to use an organic one or better yet the compost fertilizer that your worms are busy creating or the fertilizer from a traditional compost.

Mother's going GREEN Day 12 - Not so sweet facts on Chocolate

Chocolate - oh how I love chocolate. Ever since I can remember I have always had a chocolate bar or two a day but since discovering some not so sweet facts I can no longer just stop by the corner store a pick up a chocolate bar or two.

Not so sweet facts:

- Is farmed in unsafe conditions were large amounts of pesticides are used in order to yield a greater crop. These pesticides cause great environment damage seeping into local ground water, soil erosion and not to mentioned being in hailed by the farmers.

- Farmers are often children under 14, approximately 284 000 children are working on cocoa farms. These children are often beaten with whips and switches.

- Farmers are living in total poverty earning between $30.00 and $100.00 US dollars a year. That's way less than I spend in chocolate in a year.

For more information on the above see the following websites: http://www.sustainabletimes.ca/articles/chocolate.htm; http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/02/14/chocolate/; http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/the_bitter_trut.php.

Our family picked up a bar of Fair Trade chocolate the other day and after explaining to my children why this bar of chocolate was so much different to all others we sat and savoured its goodness and yes it did taste good we devoured the whole bar, even my son who is not that crazy about chocolate had his fair share of the bar. At over $4.00 for the bar, I think it may need to become a weekly treat, rather than a daily treat. We found a store selling our delicious chocolate through http://www.cocoacamino.com/

Picture on this blog is from http://www.sustainabletimes.ca/

Mother's going GREEN Day 10 - Spreading the "Eco" Word

Today in South West British Columbia it is a cold and miserable "winter" day. 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 degrees Fahrenheit). I thought it was supposed to be summer. I almost wanted to turn on the heat - but grabbed some extra sweaters instead. This is what climate change is all about!!

Gandhi once said: "Be the change you want to see in the world." hence my decision for my family to start living a greener life. I urge you to spread the green word, if my blog does not appeal to you there are others that also offer great green tips in a different format - one of my favourites is http://www.ourgreenyear.blogspot.com or visit http://www.bestgreenblogs.com to view a green blogs worldwide.

The point is: Share this blog with your family, friends, neighbours, strangers or just about anybody perhaps it will inspire them, if not you to be more environmentally proactive.

When I first announced to my family that we were "going green", my husband was a little reluctant - but he recently suggested that to his work place that they should encourage a group order on an organic food delivery thus cutting back on the amount of delivery stops the organic company would need to make, reducing carbon emissions and promoting organic eating among the staff members. My 5 year old son also today made an announcement to his preschool class that his family was going green and trying not to make so much garbage and save the earth. Baby steps, but steps in the right direction.

Please feel free at anytime to post your comments and your green ideas.

Thank you.

Mother's going GREEN Day 9 - Green Birthday Gifts

Yesterday my 5 year old son received and invitation to a birthday party for tomorrow (not allowing me much time to shop). Trying to think of a 'green' gift in our small town provided to be a challenge. It certainly did get my creative juices going though. The first idea that came to mind was a seedling that could be planted by the recipient. However I am not sure how that would go over at a 5 year old birthday party and yes, I did want my son to get invited to other parties, says a lot for what the world is coming to... Lets face it kids birthdays are all about the toys.

I took this opportunity to start to talk to my children that, toys are not what makes a birthday, it is a celebration of life, a milestone, another year gone by. So with this in mind we headed to the store to try and find a 'green' gift. My son headed straight for the action heroes and said we had to get one of these for his friend. I, on the other hand opted instead for a bug container with magnifying glass and a book titled "Monster Bugs". If I could not get a totally green gift it had to be at least educational and allow for some outdoor fun and getting closer to nature. Books have no packaging and the bug container had very little so on that part it was environmentally good.

Purchasing children's gift can be a challenge when you want to keep the environment in mind. Had, I had some more time I would have explored my options on the Internet there are some great sites that offer 'green' toys. I still do like my tree sapling idea - but I think I need to work on the "packaging" so to speak, so that it would appeal to a 5 year old. (I will keep you posted on how that progresses.)

Things to consider when purchasing a 'green' gift:

• Organic (such as cotton or hemp)


• Fair Trade


• Local


• Educational


• Minimal packaging, preferably none.


• Perhaps even a donation to the persons favorite charity (for children this could be receiving an adoption kit for endangered species through the World Wildlife Fund.)

Some sites to look at for further green gift ideas:

• http://www.planetfriendly.net/gifts.html


• http://www.tenthousandvillages.org/


• http://www.greenfeet.com/

Be sure wrap your gifts in either recycled paper ( perhaps a gift bag you have received can be re-given). Someone once mentioned the Sunday Comics ( if you receive a paper) now wouldn't that be fun.

Mother's going GREEN Day 7 - My take on Cloth Diapers

On Sunday (yesterday) was our first official day of cloth diapers. I thought I would leave my comments on them for today as now I can comment based on experience.

I LOVE THEM !!!! Truly and honestly they are great. I have had two kids in disposables for a 21/2 years each and would have never ever thought of making the switch to cloth. They are easy and slim fitting (and really now that is all I can say about them). I want to say they are disposable, but when you think of how long it takes for a single diaper to compose (they say up to 500 years), is it really disposable.

Cloth diapers are great - no more complicated than a disposable to put on to a baby. There are no pins like in the days way back when. If you plan to wash your diapers every second day then you do not need to put them in a pail to soak and deal with that yucky mess. What about the poop you say - well with disposables and especially in young breastfed babies as my youngest is. Their bowel movement are so runny that I was always having to rinse my child's clothes as the disposables always leaked no matter what. My baby has had 4 bowel movements and not once did the cloth leak onto her clothes. Okay so now I am dealing with a poopy diaper instead of poopy clothes.

I have only one con for the cloth diapers - well it makes my baby's bum look so much bigger - yes they are quite bulky compared to disposables.

I realize that there is still some debate out there as to weather cloth is more environmentally friendly compared to disposables.... This is how I see it:

• Cloth have no dangerous chemicals in them (both good for my baby and the environment). Disposables have bleaching agents, and chemicals that are linked to toxic shock syndrome. Those chemicals are not good for the environment or my baby. It also these chemicals that lead to diaper rash (skin irritation) Cloth diapers are less likely to cause a rash.


• Cloth diapers will last as long as your baby is in diapers and for future babies you may have, saving the environment and your bank account. Disposables well they are expensive and take forever to decompose. Since I plan not to have any more children, I am already thinking that these cloth diapers will make the best cleaning rags ever.


• Washing cloth diapers is said to use up as much energy as flushing the toilet 5 times in a day. If this little baby was going to the toilet then we would be flushing it 5 times a day.


• Furthermore Treehuggers.com They say that cloth diapers has a 53% ecological footprint of that of disposables. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/how-to-green-your-baby.php and since my goal is to reduce our family's footprint I am sticking with cloth.

For more websites debating cloth or disposable (although it seems cloth wins) visit:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/12/ecotip_nappies.php

http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/english/issues/45/any_questions_e.cfm

AS FOR ME I GIVE CLOTH DIAPERS THE FULL GO AHEAD AND GLAD I MADE THE SWITCH FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND MY BABY !!!!!

Mother's going GREEN Day 5 - Ignorance is Bliss

Today was a challenging day in the life of this Mother's going Green. After doing some research on cloth diapers and the detergent I would need to wash them, I realised that all too many of the products we use on a daily basis are full of harmful toxins.

It was just over two weeks ago, when I would not have given this a second thought. I used what I used because well it is for sale, its marketed, it's on the shelves at the store and well pretty much everybody uses it. How "blissful" it was to be "ignorant". But gone are those days - I am more aware now. Although, today I wished I was not.

Take for instance laundry detergent: the sweet smell of clean is not really sweet at all. It is synthetic fragrances which are known to trigger common skin irritants and possible asthma. Then there is what they call "optical brighteners" this is what makes your whites whiter. Well it doesn't really - It a creates a blue hue on your cloths that reflect back white light giving the appearance that your whites are whiter and of course it is toxic.

What gets me is; we wash our cloths to get them clean yet we cover them in chemicals, wear them, which in turn covers our body in these chemicals - Who knew the dangers of washing your clothes and were are the warning lables on these products. Also, as I noted at the store as I tried to obtain the most environmentally friendly detergent that none of them list all the ingredients, which made it so frustrating. I finally did find a detergent that was recommended buy the cloth diaper company and in the book"Green for Life - 200 Simple Eco-Ideas for every day by Gillian Deacon" called Nature Clean so a happy ending to a frustrating search for a simple item: Washing Detergent.

Below a list of sites which talk about the toxins in laundry detergent and everyday household products.

http://www.naturalnews.com/001061.html; http://www.groundwork.org.za/Resources/laundry.htm

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/07/06/the_toxic_dangers_of_typical_laundry_detergent.htm

Here is the site were you can purchase Nature Clean laundry detergent or other household cleaners.

http://www.naturecleanliving.com/index.htm

Mother's going GREEN Day 1 - Our Family's Ecological Footprint

Going Green for the modern mother is an additional challenge added to her already hectic day, but after being inspired by others going green and reading a terrific book "The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating" by ALISA SMITH and J.B. MACKINNON, I could no longer turn a blind eye to the environmental crisis that our world is in.

Today, I sat down and calculated our family's ecological footprint and we came to a whooping 6.48 earths. That is, if everyone on the planet lived our lifestyle we would need 6.48 earths to sustain it. I am sorry but that is just pathetic. The average worlds ecological footprint is 1.5 earths, clearly our family is way beyond that and drastic steps need to be taken in order to reduce this footprint.

Now our family already recycles as much as we can, we also have done away with the plastic shopping bags, although one or two may find their way back into our household, yet it is not enough; there is so much more that we NEED to be doing....

And so our journey begins: Reducing our footprint!!!

To learn more about Ecological Footprints and to calculate your own Footprint you can visit

http://www.rprogress.org/index.htm - They offer great tips on reducing your footprint and some frequently asked questions. Also for a small donation you can have a poster of your Ecological Footprint done up. This is what I did and have posted it on our refrigerator as a reminder of our challenge.

For a children orientated quiz to determine their footprints you can visit http://www.kidsfootprint.org/ - this proved to be a fun and interactive activity for my 5 year old son.

For more information on "100 Mile Diet" book you can visit: http://100milediet.org/book/