OneHealthyGirl.com - Carla Golden's Get Healthier! Blog

THE IMPOSSIBLE TASK OF CUTTING PLASTIC OUT OF YOUR LIFE

Below are several excerpts from the Earthfirst.com article which can be found in full here:

• Plastic is a cancer on the environment and yet we just can't get enough of it. Just try to get through one day without plastic -- it's impossible. Your shampoo is in a plastic bottle. Your car has plastic all over the interior. Open your fridge door -- plastic. Turn on a light -- plastic. Brush your teeth, have safe sex, wear a Hawaiian shirt -- plastic, plastic and more plastic.
• The production of plastic is yet another way in which we're dependent on foreign oil, and oil drilling is hard on the environment. Plastic also clogs our landfills. It can take 200 to 400 years to degrade, and only 3% of plastic waste is currently recycled, partially due to the fact that facilities to recycle most types of plastic simply don't exist in most cities. Consumers have little choice but to throw their plastic waste in the trash.
• Plastic is believed to account for 90% of the trash in oceans, and it's been known to kill marine life. The UN Environment Program estimates that plastic debris causes the death of more than 1 million seabirds each year, along with 100,000 marine mammals. Entanglement or ingestion of plastics have been known to cause death or suffering to at least 267 different species including turtles, seabirds, seals, sea lions, whales and fish.
• One woman in the UK is attempting to go without plastic for the entire month of August, and will be documenting her journey on the BBC News website. Christine Jeavans has resolved not to purchase anything that contains plastic or is packaged in plastic, and in preparation for this, she has kept all of the plastic she used in the previous month -- totaling 603 items. Included in that total were 67 food packaging bags and films, 13 yogurt cups, 10 milk bottles and 120 disposable diapers. Once faced with all of this plastic, Chris was more resolved than ever to change her lifestyle. She'll be updating her blog with her progress throughout the month.

New American Dream's Break the Bottle Water Habit Pledge

It may be impossible, but let's all try to reduce our use of plastic for our health and the health of our environment. Live Light, xo-C.

AN ISLAND OF HOPE

Remember the story of Easter Island (Part 1 and Part 2) and their self-induced demise by method of overshoot? Well, here's the story of another island who realized that PREVENTION was the key to longevity.

This article is excerpted from the latest edition of Vibrance magazine and was written by Jim Sloman in his book A Global Vision.

"Another interesting example of sustainability is the island of Tikopia in the South Pacific. It's almost as isolated as Easter Island and quite a bit smaller. Yes, unlike the grim fate of Easter Island, Tikopia has managed to exist sustainably for almost 3,000 years.

According to archaeologists, Tikopia was first settled around 900 BC by ancestors of modern-day Polynesians. The island was so isolated that there was no question of importing food or essential material; this isolated island, like Easter Island, would have to live or die on its own.

At first the inhabitants partook of the fruits and nuts offered by the trees. And the islanders gorged themselves on plentiful seafood found all around - fish, shellfish, turtles, and all sorts of birds to be had for the taking. Of course, forests were cleared for farming, firewood and lumber. And of course, too, in this abundant situation the population kept growing.

Around 100 BC Tikopia entered into its ecological crisis. By then its rainforests were almost gone, its major bird species extinguished, its fruit bats gone, its fish down by two-thirds and shellfish by 90%. Meanwhile, the human population had grown much larger. Tikopia had entered into a severe overshoot. Now what? Would it suffer the same fate as Easter Island?

No, it wouldn't. Wise measure were undertaken in time to deal with the crisis. The, experientially over the next thousand years, the Tikopians gradually discovered what would work best and evolved into a fully sustainable society, a form of medieval permaculture.

If we had visited Tikopia around 1000 AD we'd have found it to be very similar to what it is today. Essentially, the island has been turned into one giant orchard with various fruit, nut and palm trees including breadfruit, coconuts and almonds. Interspersed among the trees - the lower level of the orchard, so to speak - are farms and gardens where bananas, yams, taro and other foods are grown.

The last major change occurred around 1600 AD. The Tikopians were raising pigs as a food staple in their diet; however, since the pigs were also competing with humans for food, the island had, bit by bit, slipped into another ecological crisis.

Eventually it was realized that livestock could not really be part of a stable situation because of a simple equation: It took about 10 pounds of fruits and vegetables to produce 1 pound of pork, so once again a food shortage was occurring. The Tikopians took the drastic step, around 1600 AD, of killing all the livestock on the island so that they could reach sustainability.

To replace the pigs in the diet, the Tikopians turned once again to fish, shellfish and turtles, whose numbers over the centuries had gradually rebuilt somewhat. But this time the islanders did it differently. Their chiefs issued permits, in effect, which limited how much seafood could be caught at any one time. Through this permit system the Tikopians addressed the challenge of maintaining a sustainable seafood source.

The Tikopians over time were also wise enough to realize that they would have to limit their population if they were to reach sustainability. A number of methods were used, such as celibacy, contraception and abortion, to limit the number of births. But these were just the outward means; the real transformation took place inwardly, in how the islander thought about the sustainability of their island.

Each year on Tikopia the chiefs hold a ritual in which they once again preach about the merits of zero population growth for Tikopia. Because of this and other educational efforts, all residents of the island share a keen awareness that population must be held within limits if the island is to survive. And they act accordingly, through practicing birth control and limiting the number of children in each family to replacement level.

In effect, the Tikopians succeeded in creating their form of a permaculture, mentioned earlier. In doing so, they designed their agriculture and culture to be part of the biodiversity of nature.

On Tikopia, fruit trees and fruit bushes and crop lands were intermingled, creating biodiverse areas where humans could live sustainably and with minimal energy input. In other words, their permaculture did not require the massive injections of fossil fuels that our monoculture agriculture currently requires.

We could learn from the Tikopians about this. By adding modern permaculture designs, which consciously incorporate the interlocking patterns of nature, we could create a 21st-century version of their achievement. But the real insight to their long-term sustainability resides even deeper than that. It resides in their sense of who they are. Tikopians commonly refer to themselves as "we, the Tikopia." That is, they conceive of themselves as one people, and all of their actions are considered in that light. How will each of our actions affect our island as a whole? Hmm. Not so bad a metaphor for us humans on planet earth."

When will we see - as a culture, as a country and as a world - that just because we can have more ("it's available and I have the money for it") doesn't mean that we should be having more...and more and more...food, cars, houses, clothes, vacations, gadgets, STUFF. When will we learn to limit ourselves, curb our gluttonous tendencies and create a more authentic exchange with our environment and its peoples? Really, what empty spaces are we trying to fill? Where and how will we find the self-control to do what is right for the sustainability of our planet, culture, community, health and family? All the answers are available to us RIGHT NOW. We just have to make up our minds to choose those better choices. They are not necessarily the coolest, fastest, shiniest, trendiest, sexiest, sweetest, easiest, tastiest or most immediately satisfying choices out there. But they are still our choices. Each and every one of them.

Don't shoot the messenger! I'm all about prevention and doing the hard work up front to better insure a harmonious future. Destruction takes just as much energy as creation. Together we can do one or the other...it's as simple as learning to make more conscious choices.

Say it with me" We, the Earth." Love and Live Light, xo-C.

OVERSHOOT SUMMARY

My apologies for the skip in day with the Easter Island sequence.

Those of you who have been following along understand now the concept of overshoot - the rate by which resources are used more quickly than they can be replenished. When it comes to the way we regard the resources on Earth, we are setting ourselves up for the same fate as Easter Island. In order to preserve ourselves and our beautiful planetary home, we as a people must shift from a mindset of consumption to one of preservation. No Impact Man writes about the challenges of living with a preservation mindset in a culture of consumption, but as more people make this shift it eventually becomes "normal" and the pendulum that was swinging towards overshoot and demise starts to change directions.

And how does this exactly relate to our individual bodies and our health? If a person continues to use up bodily reserves and resources (sleep, nutrition, hydration, etc.) quicker than can be rebuilt and replenished, that individual will fall into an overshoot situation causing rapid aging (disease) and premature death...just like an island or a planet. As with a cell, as with an organism, as with a society, as will a planet. These are all mirrors and reflections of each other...simultaneous micro- and macrocosms. This is why world peace begins at home. In your every day decisions for yourself and your family - from the toothpaste you use and the clothes you wear, to the car you drive, the house you keep and the job/work you maintain -  to the global decisions you face - politics, investment, travel, etc.- you are making a consumption choice or a preservation choice every time, consciously or unconsciously. A peaceful planet is one on which all people have all basic needs met, can live in harmony without fighting for each other's resources and are respectful of each other and our common home. The key to this peaceful planet is becoming aware of how our basic everyday choices impact others and the environment days, weeks and years later. Education, as always, is the magic key.

Conscious living can sound tedious and comes with a reputation of being hippy-dippy, but really is the only salvation for your body and our planet. Understanding the ramifications of your choices (to the extent that one can) is the key to making more sound and more wise choices for everyone involved. Learn more about the stuff you buy (all natural products are better for the Earth and You), the businesses where you shop (their ethics and practices), the impact of the resources you consume (paper, gasoline, water, food, etc.). Resolve to purchase only what you need, consolidate errands to conserve gas, get into the habit of using reusable items (water bottles, shopping and zip-loc bags, diapers, etc.) and talk with others to share and learn more. These are just a few of many possible conscious choices which can range from simple, easy changes to radical off-the-grid lifestyle altering choices. Read books, find websites, join clubs, and attend meetings. Watch slowly as each piece of garbage falls from your hand to the garbage can and think of how you can do this less often. Realize that the diapers you wore as a baby are still in a landfill somewhere. Shift your mindset to preservation and the education will naturally follow.

Please take six minutes and 42 seconds to listen to 12 year old Severn Suzuki explain why all the adults of this world need to shift their mindset to preserve the future for our children, the ambassadors of tomorrow's Earth.

Take conscious care of yourself, become a role model for change, preserve your personal world - body and home -  and together we can cumulatively stop destroying the planet and begin to restore it.  Live Light, xo-C.

THE FATE OF EASTER ISLAND

This is the second installment of the article taken from the latest edition of Vibrance magazine and written by Jim Sloman in his book A Global Vision.

The person who cut the last tree on Easter Island probably thought nothing of it. After all, the clearing of the trees had proceeded gradually over generations, so that only real old-timers could remember when there were forests on the island. Now land for farming was everywhere to support the high population.

As the Easter Islanders lost their trees, they also lost the wild fruits and nuts that the trees had provided. With the loss of the trees the islanders also lost the ability to build harpoons and sea-going canoes, so they lost most of the seafood in their diet. The land birds, from unsustainable rates of hunting, went extinct. Seabirds were reduced to a remnant population. Thus the islanders lost most of their sources of wild food.

Meanwhile, their domestic food supply was also being affected by the deforestation. As the forests disappeared, the soil of the island began to erode. Unprotected by trees, the soil blew away as dust and washed away in rain gullies. Further, the soil lost nutrients and the farmers no longer had a rich compost - decomposed fruit, leave, twigs - to spread on the soil. And rain declined because there were no longer trees to attract it.

As the soil suffered nutrient loss and then increasingly blew or washed away, the food supply per capita begin to decline. Near-simultaneous with this development, the economy of the island also began to decline. As fewer and fewer trees remained, the rate of harvested trees began to decline - and along with it, the economy, because the economy was still dependent upon exploiting the ecology at an unsustainable rate.

As economic activity lessened, the Easter Islanders became poor. Activity of all kinds decreased. As their soils declined in quality and washed away and blew away, the islanders began to starve. As they began to starve, their population also began to decrease.

This was a gradual process at first, like a train leaving a station. Then the decline in population gathered momentum. And finally, as food became more scarce and economic activity was collapsing, the islanders slipped from a highly organized society into chaos and civil war.

When the islanders started to realize that they were in an ecological catastrophe, at first they built larger statues with which to make more urgent appeals to ancestors. But then, as the island slipped in war and then anarchy, the statues were systematically destroyed by rival groups.

Later on, the islander began making a different manner of stone statue - moai kavakava - small statues depicting a hollow cheeked, starving people.

Finally, in desperation, the islander turned to the last source of food available to them - cannibalism. Their records of that time indicate an obsession with it. Finally, even that didn't work (because it's self-limiting) and the population collapsed to a small remnant of people, who turned to living in caves for protection. This was the state of affairs when the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered the island on Easter day of 1722.

Then, in 1774, the English explorer Captain Cook visited Easter Island and saw its remaining inhabitants, whom he described as "small, lean, timid and miserable." And that was the end of the once-thriving Easter Island civilization. In technical terms, Easter Island had gone into what scientists call overshoot followed by collapse.

That state of overshoot is what Meadows, Randers and Meadows describe as the state of the earth today.

OUCH!

More tomorrow on body analogies and solutions, Live Light, xo-C.

THE STORY OF EASTER ISLAND

The following article is taken from the latest edition of Vibrance magazine and was written by Jim Sloman in his book A Global Vision. I found it to fascinating for what it reveals about our planet and our bodies. I'll make the connection for you after installment two of this article tomorrow. Here's the first part....

According to archaeologists, Easter Island was settled around 900 AD by eastern Polynesians. From the very beginning the island was so remote that there was no connection with another island - no trade, no emigration, no colonization, nothing. The island was alone in space, like our earth.

Easter Island is famous for the great stone statues on it, called moai. (Carla says: those of you who've seen the movie "Night at the Museum"...think "gum, gum, dumb, dumb.")

The islanders built several hundred of them, weighing 10 to 90 tons each, and erected them all over the island without cranes, metal tools or draft animals. These moai represented high-level ancestors, to which the islanders prayed.

When these Easter Island settlers arrived on the scene, the island was covered by dense forests, including 22 different kinds of trees. One of these 22 kinds was a variation of the wine palm, the largest palm tree - now extinct - ever to exist in the world.

The trees provided many services. First of all, they provided lumber for houses and general construction. They provided palm fronds to make thatched walls and roofs and baskets. The trunks of another kind of tree could be made into large seagoing canoes, powered by sails constructed of palm fronds.

With these seagoing canoes, and harpoons made from yet another kind of tree, the islander were able to hunt a rich assortment of seafood, including porpoises, tuna and other kinds of fish. They also feasted on an abundance of land birds, seabirds and shellfish.

The trees also provided and assortment of wild fruits along with the kernel of the palm nut, considered a delicacy. The trunks of the wine palms, true to their name, emitted a sap that could be fermented to make wine or boiled down to make sugar.

Further, by clearing forest in certain areas, the settlers were able to grow crops in gardens, farms and plantations. Now the Easter Islanders also had an assortment of starches and vegetables as staples in their diet. They had an abundance of food.

Through the hydrologic cycle the trees "attracted" rain onto the island to provide water for the crops. Since the crops were originally planted like a checkerboard among the trees, the trees were also able to protect the soil from erosion by rain or winds.

Not least, the trees also provided firewood for fires - for cooking their food, providing heat and lighting up the dark night. Yes, the settlers of Easter Island found their forests extremely useful. The great forests of Easter Island provided all manner of ecological services which allowed the islanders to live a rich existence.

In this fashion, after six hundred year of existence, the Eater Islanders reached a peak of population, abundance and ecological impact around 1500 AD, with a total population of roughly 15,000 and an expanding, but unsustainable, economy.

By 1500 AD deforestation was proceeding rapidly on the island. The booming economy was being powered by cutting trees at a rate higher than the trees could regenerate. In modern terms we would say that the islanders, to support the high level of their economy, were exploiting the ecology of their island at a rate above its carrying capacity.

In the terms of Meadows, Randers and Meadows, the Easter Islanders had entered into a phase of overshoot.

More tomorrow, Live Light, xo-C. 

Plastic Bottles

I had a conversation with a friend this morning who saw this video about plastic water bottles and the cascading disaster they have wrecked on the environment and human health in the spirit of providing for our bodies supposedly cleaner water. Plastic is bad for you and bad for Earth. Choosing a re-useable glass or coated aluminum bottle over plastic for drinking your water is the safest choice because it creates less trash for the planet and fewer chemical by-products for your body. Filter your water with a home system or a Brita filter pitcher. It preserves health and saves some money. It's just sightly less convenient until you get into the habit.

As I was typing, I realized that Brita filter pitchers are indeed made of plastic and I was wondering what type of plastic. So, of course, I went to the Brita site and couldn't find the information. I emailed Customer Support and I'll let you know what I find out. The plastic is obviously a harder type (less porous, less leaching theoretically) than typical water bottles. It sure would be nice if Brita made a filter pitcher out of glass. If anyone knows of a comparable glass brand, please let me know.

Conventional plastics can pollute the environment and leach harmful chemicals. Here's what you need to know to stay safe.

Live Light, xo-C.