The Story of Cosmetics (trailer now online!)

Just today I received a wonderful email announcing The Story of Stuff website, linked to in my previous blog, is launching The Story of Cosmetics on 21st July!!!

View the embeded trailer below! And from July 21st you can view the complete film (for free!) at http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/ 

I'm a huge fan of all of the Story of Stuff films and I highly recommend you take a look at their new film and the others. PArticularly the original Story of Stuff.

The secret ingredient in plastic and cosmetics?

OIL!

Yes it may seem bizarre and hard to believe, but oil is not only whats being guzzled in your petrol tank it's literally all around you even in those innocent looking plastics toys.

Take a look around the room you are in now, almost every item made of plastic you can see is made of oil. Next time your in the bathroom take a look at your cosmetics, do they contain petroleum, or mineral oils? Then yes they too are essentially made from oil as petroleum is a by-product of oil, and we smear it on our faces, YUK!

Why are we never informed by oil companies that oil is used in so many products? Well, oil companies fear consumer power as it has the potential to greatly interfere with their profits, thus they go to great lengths to keep us stupid.

So what can we do about this?
You've probably heard it all before and to many people the environmental drone of "cycle instead of driving, carpool where possible, avoid plastics" etc etc seems to be getting lost in the busyness of our everyday lives, but where the key really lies is in our CONSUMER POWER!

When you stop to think about it you realize how powerful we really are as consumers, sure it may not seem like that when you are the only one on your street serving up veggie burgers on vintage styled crockery plates on your street, but it just takes a few people who say "Look we CAN do things differently" then people start, feeling inspired and often join in (ultimately becoming a "Green Revolution").

If we create a lack of demand for environmentally damaging products and a new increasing demand for locally produced, fair trade, environmentally sensitive products then we can essentially control the market (Yes thats right you and I can control the market, not the advertisers and not the profit driven multinational corporations). Afteral,  It not out of a whimsical hope that many major supermarkets are starting to included locally produced organic products in their range, it is because of consumer demand!

So no more hesitating! Go out there and CHANGE THE WORLD WITH YOUR CONSUMER POWER!!

USEFUL LINKS TO GET YOU GOING!

For a fantastic start to changing your consumer habits download the Good Stuff Guide .
Available from the World Watch Institute this is a nicely illustrated, fun, factual and inspiring guide to most of the products we use and consume in our daily lives and what the alternative are.

Another great website I highly recommend is the Story of Stuff 
This is a series of free and entertaining internet films that inform you on essentially what all the "Stuff" is we consume, where it comes from and how it it produced!

And in regards to cosmetics keep an eye out for any products containing petroleum also labeled as Mineral Oils, paraffin, petroleum and petroleum jelly (the only ingredient in Vaseline!). Your local organic health shop should be able to provide you more information on this. Plus we are trying to cut down on the worlds depend of oil, so if its as simple as switching face creams let do it!

EAZA - How zoos are contributing to wildlife conservation.

Zoos... what images or memories arise when you think about zoos?
There are thousands of different types of zoos all around the world. Personally I have been to a variety of zoos ranging from well managed, well cared for, free-range safari type zoos to a couple of dismal zoos in Asia where animals were kept in cages far too small for them and with no means of stimulation or exercise relief.

Recently I was editor for the Wildlifelines Foundation, on a short clip for EAZA, the European Association for Zoos and Aquaria.
From this experience it dawned on me what a huge positive impact zoos can have on wildlife conservation and something I never really thought about was that, besides species breeding programmes and various educational and funding campaigns, zoos are sending both zoo keepers and scientists out into wild environments to work with the experts and locals who are in direct contact with endangered species.

I was really amazed by these stories and I invite you to view the EAZA clip linked here below.

Enjoy!

Do you know what's in your sunscreen?

Sunscreen!
We're told it's "good for us" and will "protect our skin", but do we know the truths behind sunscreen? You may be surprised!

I wont go into too much detail here but I reccomend you visit Environmental Working Group's 2010 Sunscreen Guide * to absorb some interesting facts before the sunscreen absorbs into your skin.

Don't get me wrong, Im not against sunscreen, especially coming from New Zealand where you can fry in the sun within 10 minutes, but I do recommend taking a moment to get informed, before you run to the chemist to buy the lastest new big brand sunscreen you saw advertised recently.  Information is power!

* Nb. EWG's website is American based so your commonly used sunscreen may not be listed but the information and facts about the ingredients are relevant in every country. 

Square foot (or meter) gardening!

Hi Guys
Welcome back, to the GiiA blog, I hope you're enjoying it so far and are feeling informed and inspired.  I'd love to hear from you if you have any tips, comments or suggestions.

For this posting I'd like to keep it fun and lighthearted, yet still inspiring.

So... square-foot gardening... it may sound a little goat's-wool hippy socks but to be honest, it's super hip and in it own way is contributing to a positive impact on our environment, plus it's so easy!

What is square foot gardening?

Well square foot gardening is:
* Fresh fruit, vegies, herbs and edible flowers all year round!
* suitable for everyone!

* simple and easy to learn

* straight forward,

* uses far less seeds and water

* not at all time consuming,  

* far cheaper than conventional gardening methods

* quick and wonderful rewards (we are already harvesting fresh rocket everyday and I've just harvested the first few radishes, you can see the rest still growing in box #12, Yum!)

To get started

1.  Assign or build a box/area of 1 x 1 meter, and fill with a good light soil (you can find various soil "recipes" online, but I simply used a couple layers of compost underneath and then a top layer of seed-raising (which you can buy from your local garden supply shop).
2. Divide this into 16 squares.
3. Then simply sow the right amount of seeds per square (see seed spacing info below)
4. Water and watch it all grow
5. Enjoy your fresh produce!

This is pretty much the basics.For those interested I highly recommend you take a quick look at this video here which is a good summary.

Personally I find square foot  garden a fantastic system and pretty much fool proof. I love, the speed and ease of it, once you have it up and running, and the fact that if you choose the right seeds the you can plant most seed straight into the ground (just keep with a plastic container, with air holes, which I make from recycled fruit containers see photo above) and then keep them covered until the seeds have sprouted and are doing well.

Then it's pretty much a matter of watering, pulling out the occasional weed (I havent had to do this yet) and letting nature do the rest!

Seed Spacing Info

Every plant needs a certain amount of space. For example, if you look at the photo above you'll notice box 3 (from top left-right) there are lots of plants, this rocket (lettuce) box and I went a little overboard with the seeds, but officially they reccoment planting about 16 seeds. and then in box 16 you'll notice only 4 plants, these are my Calendula flowers and they can be grown 4 plants per square. (you can find guides on how many plants per square on the various website listed below, in the various square foot gardening books available or from a simple google search.

Whats in my square foot garden?

You'll see my garden in the photo above. Because I have so many different seeds I decided to plant most of my herbs and lettuce plants in separate pots instead of in the square foot garden. So what I do have in there (from left to right, top to bottom) is:

1. Empty square (still trying to decide if I want to plant my coriander and chives which are in the plastic pot ontop of the sqaure.
2.   2x Cherry tomato plants (which don't need support poles or excessive pruning) and around it (still to come up) I sprinkeled a bunch of basil seeds, which grow and taste good with tomatoes.
3. Heaps of rocket leaves (I pick these as I need them and they keep growing back)
4.   2 x cucumber plants (which are hiding under the plastic bottle) and the big plant is a nasturtium plant which has edible leaves and flowers with a peppery taste.
5.   4x Bushbeans (like the cherry toms these also stay low to the ground and don't need support)
6.   4x Summer brocoli
7.   16x Spinach greens
8.   6x Kale mix
9.   8x (Half a box)  Spring onions
10. 16x Beetroot
11. 16x Chard Mix
12. 16x Radish
13. 2x Marigolds (+2x self seeded rocket plants)
14. 8x Red Carrots & 8x Mini carrots
15. 16x Carrots (colour mix)
16. 4x Calendula
So for the moment thats about it!  If you don't have access to a meter squared you can start with a single box or two on your window sill. (I also started like this with lettuce) You got to start somewhere.

There are so many reasons why gardening is great for our our health and the health of the planet and I have come to realize that square foot is the quickest and simplest way to achieve this. For me, the most important reward I gain through gardening, which ultimately provides me with further tools and inspiration to protect the environment, is the connection formed with nature and the appreciation of life that comes with it.

* Some useful links *

* The website of Mel Bartholomew who popularized square foot gardening in the 1980's.

* My Square Foot Garden.net -  a sweet and personal website with some nice tips

* A simple Google or You Tube search will help you find many more interesting sites!

* And finally, something I'm yet to try out, but it looks rather interesting, is the square-foot garden i-phone app!!  Yes one really exists and you can find it here!

Gulf Oil Spill - Need I say more?

Are our oceans in peril?

Bottlenose dolphins, Bay of Islands,  New Zealand, 2010.

Growing up in New Zealand the ocean is an environment close to my heart. They cover over 70% of our planet yet our knowledge and understanding of them has such a long way to go.

Today, mainly because of human impacts, the sate of our oceans are in peril and so too are all the life forms, include humans, that rely on them.

About a year ago, I was confronted with some extremely significant and worrying facts about the state of oceans and the impacts of our fishing industries. I learnt a lot about our oceans during the production of a short 10 minute film, I was involved in, Caught - a breathing space for the sea. It was made in association with EMS Films, Greenpeace and a number of other organisations by the Wildlifeines foundation. (please take a look by following either the film link or on the Wildlifelines website, you may be amazed at what you see.)

What really stuck me the most was the damage caused by the seabed trawling and the amount of by-catch (unwanted fish) that is thrown back overboard, most of it killed in the porcess.

Two other issues I am currently researching is that of that toxicity levels in fish and the acidification of our oceans. Recently I was shocked to learn about the increasing level of toxicity in fish, particularly mercury. These levels increase manyfold the higher up in the food chain the fish is and this is known as bioaccumulation (which I may discuss in a future blog). For the meantime, if you enjoy eating fish, but are also concerned about your health and the health of the environment, I'd recommend doing your own research on this topic or take a quick look at Consumer Guide to Mercury in Fish.

Secondly, and sadly also linked to human caused pollution, is the increasing acidification of our oceans due to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. I strongly suggest you take a quick look a neat little video animation by Greenpeace Ocean Acidification... in a nutshell and if you feel touched by it pass it on to all your friends, family and colleges and invite them to do the same.

To conclude this posting, before I mention a few actions and tips you can take to help protect our oceans I'd like to mention two more documentary films I feel strongly about, which everyone must see, The Cove and The End of the Line.

Both films are extremely moving, at times they are shocking and they are certainly worth viewing if you are concerned about our oceans,  our wildlife and the state of our planet.

... ACTION and LINKS  ...

Besides viewing the video clips Caught and the others mentioned above there are many things you can do to act on these issues. Below are 2 actions of particular importance which you can easily apply to you daily lives.

* Be considerate and aware of the seafood you eat - There are many printable "what to eat" guides available on the internet which offer tips and info on sustainable fish sources eg. Seafood Watch has extensive information and a variety of guides including a great downloadable Sushi Pocket Guide.

* Share your thoughts and concerns about our oceans with people you know and meet. Awareness is the first first step toward creating positive change and actions.

When your ready for many more actions, visit the Marine Bio page -100 Ways to Make a Difference.