And we're off....

We have had our house assessment and our first all group meeting.

What we learned from our assessment:
We are 61% better than the Madison average in our gas useage. yea!
-Goal: maintain or see if we can go lower

Water: 65% below Madison average. Sounds good so far.
Goal: maintain or reduce

Electric: This was our big ouch. We doubled our use from last year. You should have seen our faces when we saw the graph. So although we were 18% below the Madison average last year...we know we can do better ( because we already did)

We are also tracking our mileage, weighing our trash and recycling and tracking how much local/organic food we purchase.

First impression: this is a lot of data to collect. I have already lost the forms once. We are writing on scraps of paper and losing them. I feel like we are off to a limping start.

Our goals for this month:
1. We have to address our electric use and strategies to get it lower.
2. This is the ideal time to focus on eating local...so we are setting the bar high.
3. Get some systems in place for collecting and keeping track of our data.

What have we gottten ourselves into?

We are one of five Madison families selected to participated in year long Greener, Faster Challenge.

We have made a commitment to reduce our energy use to 40% below the Madison average. ( the good news...we are already 20% below, the bad news: we have done all the easy stuff already)

The challenge officially begins in August.

We will be working on goals related to
-energy use
-water conservation
-travel
-eating local and organic
-reducing our trash and increasing recycling

We took some steps to get better in each of these areas when we started this blog. But this challenge is more public and puts us in friendly competition with 4 other families. And there are prizes involved!

More details to follow.

How good is your sun screen?

Right after I bought sunscreen to take up to the cabin I found out about the Environmental Work Groups' (EWG) 4th annual sunscreen guide. (Thank you Willy St Coop!)

The two sunscreens I bought didn't rank very well.
Banana Boat is rated "Caution" because of poor UVA protection, unbalanced sunscreen,and it contains vitamin A (what's wrong with vitamin A you ask? According to EWG it may hasten the growth of tumors on sun exposed skin. That's comforting.)

Our second choice, No Ad, ranks worse at "Avoid" because it contains oxybenzone (a synthetic estrogen which is absorbed through the skin...so a hormone disrupter), as well as vitamin A.

I'm not feeling great about slathering this stuff on my kids...

The good news is there is a long list of recommended sunscreens. The bad news is I don't recognize most of them..which means they are probably not available at Walgreens. But I have to stop by tomorrow..so I'm going to check out what they have.

Want to find out how good (or bad) your sunscreen is? Go to Find your Sunscreen.

Photo credit: flickr gotreadgo

Why I haven't been blogging

Every time I ask myself "Blog or Garden?" Garden wins!

It's about time

The President's Cancer Panel recently released a 'ground breaking" report stating

"The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated."

Here's a New York times oped

Currently the toxic chemicals actually in use in this country are not monitored and only about 200 out of 82,000 chemicals entering the market since 1976 have been tested for safety (Isn't that comforting) Source: Green America

A bill was recently introduced to protect Americans from harmful chemicals. It's called the Safe Chemicals Act. Here's a New York Times article

You can support this law by signing this petition

I did!

Photo Credit: Flickr the_justified_sinner

What can I do?

It has been hard for me to follow what is happening with the oil spill off the Gulf coast. Since I can't be there to help in a hands on way..I needed to find some other way to help. Here are the three things I did.

1. I donated money to Audubon. They'll be organizing volunteers for wildlife rescue and beach clean-up, as well as researching the effects of the spill on habitats in the weeks and months following its landfall. I chose Audubon because I have been a member for years and they are a well established non-profit with a long history of environmental work.

2. I filled out the National Wildlife Federation’s form letter to President Obama asking that the Gulf Coast be restored so that the world and our children know that we ( as a country) take responsibility for our mistakes.

3. I also filled in the Sierra Club’s form letter to let the President know that I don’t want to be responsible for anything like this happening ever again….so I support ending off shore drilling and looking for long term, sustainable solutions to meet our energy needs.

I got my ideas from Ten Things You Can Do

Photo:
Fort Jackson, Louisiana International Bird Rescue Research Center

Why 350?

Since Mark sold his car, he has been biking to work most days. He estimated how much carbon he was keeping out of the environment. His goal was 350 pounds...which he achieved on Friday, April 30, 2010. Here we are celebrating his success!!

Why 350?

"350 is the most important number in the world—it's what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." For more information on why 350 and what we can do to get there..check out www.350.org