Climate Change |

June 13, 2020

| by Chiwah

Environmental and Climate Change Heroes, Past and Present

Ever wondered who we should be grateful to for our country’s environmental movement, or how it came to be what it is today?

Budd Titlow (award winning nature photographer) and Mariah Tinger (sustainability consultant, author and professor) presented this wonderful review of climate change heroes, past and present, at a recent meeting of San Diego’s North County Climate Change Alliance.

From conservation to climate change, their presentation offers a plethora of exciting and informative books these heroes have authored. Not to be missed!

To your success with eco action,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

April 5, 2020

| by Chiwah

Eco Opportunity of a Lifetime—Act Immediately

As H. Jackson Brown wrote in Life’s Little Instruction Book, “Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” We have been given the eco opportunity of all time—the opportunity to save our planet. So … what are we doing about it?

Here’s a “What-If” for you: Imagine you’ve just turned the corner on your way home from work, only to meet the horrifying scene of flames shooting out the front windows of your house. You screech to a stop. The back door appears to be free of flames and smoke, and quick thinking tells you there’s a chance you can still rescue your spouse, your kids and the family dog.

What do you do? Sit dazed by the flames, munching the chips you just bought? Go chat with a neighbor? Call and invite a friend for a walk?

No! You take action. Call the fire department? No, forget that—you brave the flames, dash in the back door and drag them all out by their hair, if need be.

If this seems like a theoretical question, it is not. Your house—your planet—is on fire. And everyone you hold dear is in jeopardy.

But is that where your attention is focused? Not mine, I confess. Probably not yours, either, thanks to the huge cloud of disinformation obscuring the flames. And now, the coronavirus pandemic has taken over our normally calm brains. WTF? How to protect ourselves from the virus, not to mention financial meltdown?

Vital questions, to be sure. NOW questions. But the virus will eventually burn itself out, be a thing of the past.

The same can’t be said for the climate crisis, however. It’s is not going to burn itself out. Unless we broaden our focus to include it, NOW, it threatens to burn our house down. This is the eco opportunity of a lifetime.

Confused cartoon character, torn between Climate Change and Toilet Paper. Words say, "Tough getting our priorities straight."

Even back when climate change news was top of mind, most of us just didn’t “get it.” Sure, we applauded Greta Thunberg for her tremendous courage, but next morning our lives returned to business as usual.

Why? What is it that keeps us from picking up the fire hose? Is it because we’re not trained firemen, and the extinction fire is just too freakin’ scary to face?

Each of us is only one person, after all. What the *#@!# can we do about it?

So we go into denial.

You and I are not climate deniers. We’re alert to the flames.

We’re aware of the huge spike in greenhouse gas buildup since the industrial revolution, and particulary over the last twenty years. And given that the industrial revolution was created by humans, the logical assumption is that the buildup in greenhouse gases is due in large measure to human activity.

We’ve been told that our eco opportunity is limited, that we have a short window of time to get more eco-friendly and turn that around. And we know we’re not doing what it’s going to take to accomplish that.

We suspect we could still save the earth, but we’re not sure.

So … we’re not shouting from the rooftops, or stepping out of our comfort zone to put out the fire.

How Bad Is It, Really?
FACT: More than 13 weeks—nearly 100 days—have passed since December 31st, the day the Chinese first told the world about the virus. Take a look at climate change 2020: In January and February, “intentionally set fires have burned 15,127 acres of rainforest”—about 252 acres per day.

Agribusiness are setting most of these rainforest fires, not random arsonists.

Yikes! And the burning goes on, day after day, as we worry about masks and gloves and toilet paper.

FACT: “In 2017, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels for energy were equal to about 76% of total U.S. anthropogenic GHG emissions (based on global warming potential) and about 93% of total U.S. anthropogenic CO2 emissions.”

Yikes squared! And though we’ve scaled down on coal use, we’re still heavily reliant on oil and natural gas, two major causes of greenhouse gases. We are not moving to take advantage of this eco opportunity.

How Do We Know CO2 Is To Blame?

Scientists from the Woods Hole Research Center and IPAM-Amazonia WHRC and IPAM-Amazônia have told us that the first eight months of 2019 “produced between 104 and 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂). That is equivalent to annual tailpipe carbon pollution from 22.6 to 30.6 million cars, or the annual CO₂ emissions from the entire state of North Carolina.”

Ongoing NASA temperature analysis by scientists at Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) show “the approximate magnitude of global warming, which reached about 0.8°C (1.44ºF) in 2010, twice the magnitude reported in 1981.” Two-thirds of the warming since 1880 has occurred since 1975.”

Measurements of the influence of CO2 on both incoming solar energy and outgoing long-wave radiation provides strong evidence that CO2, methane, ozone and nitrous oxide trap heat inside our atmosphere, leading to increased global warming.

Trump’s Contribution to the Cause

The Trump administration throws gas on the fire at every turn—just as with coronavirus, telling us it’s under control and we can get back to our lives by Easter. Hah!

FACT: Trump makes no secret of his disdain for our planet. Now he has “proposed to allow major projects like pipelines and highways to bypass reviews of how they will contribute to global warming.”

And one day after the election, he will undoubtedly officially withdraw the US from the Paris Accord.

Can we stand another four years of this? Let’s hope we don’t have to.

It’s Up To Us!

Finally, no matter who is elected, the task of saving our earth home for ourselves, our children and future generations—it’s up to us. All of us. Because we and our loved ones are the ones who will—or won’t—survive.

That means YOU. And ME. It’s why I wrote this article.

Because we still have a chance to succeed—if we wake up and take bold action. Not next year, but NOW. Find out about all the many things you can do NOW to be part of the solution.

And come November? VOTE!

Biden may not be radical enough to suit you. Bernie may not be your ideal statesman. But both of them have vowed to undo Trump’s climate destruction madness.

So please, no matter who gets the Democratic nomination, regardless what you think of the Democeratic party—let it go. VOTE in 2020. (And as Huff Post says, “Vote Early, Vote Often (just not in the same election).

Want to make a bigger difference than you’re making now? It might just be worth the effort. It can even be fun, especially if you get your friends together in a friendly competition. Here’s a list of 38 things you can do immediately to help save our earth home.

This is truly the eco opportunity of a lifetime. For that matter, it’s the eco opportunity of ALL time!

To your success with eco action,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Climate Change |

March 11, 2020

| by Chiwah

Coolest Darn Climate Change Video You’ll Ever See!

We’ve all heard a lot of climate change news—but what do you really know about it? Would you like simple, easy-to-understand answers to questions like:

What causes climate change?
What are the effects of deforestation and animal agriculture?
How does climate change lead to instability and war?
How to stop using fossil fuels?
What can I do? How do I stop climate change?

This ecosystems video has got to be the best introduction to climate change ever created! It’s a really friendly overview, fun to watch and easy to grasp. A great explanation of ecosystems for kids age 2 to 102. I hope you enjoy it!

NOTE: “Friendly Guide to Climate Change – and what you can do to help” by Henrik Kniberg is licensed under CC By 2.0.

To your eco-active success,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, Eco Active 101 on Facebook
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Climate Change |

March 7, 2020

| by Chiwah

Shrewd Shopper—Avoid ThesePalm Oil Label Tricks!

Are you a label reader? You pretty much have to be, these days, in the interest of both your health and the environment.

There are lots of ingredients to watch out for, and palm oil is one of the most prevalent. But if you shop around, you can usually find an alternative.

What makes palm oil so bad? We used to think its high saturated fat content made it bad for the heart, but recent studies suggest no correlation between saturated fats and heart health.

The concern about palm oil today is on the environmental and climate change fronts.

On the environmental front, for starters, palm oil is a water pollutant. According to the World Wildlife Fund, “A palm oil mill generates 2.5 metric tons of effluent for every metric ton of palm oil it produces. Direct release of this effluent can cause freshwater pollution, which affects downstream biodiversity and people.”

The next problem not only affects the environment, it also contributes to the climate crisis. Once a palm tree grows tall enough that the fruit becomes difficult to reach, the tree is cut down and a new tree is planted in its place. This contributes to deforestation of the rainforest and loss of animal habitat.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2016 State of the Forests report revealed that we are losing 7 million hectares of forest every year. And, as we all know, deforestation is a major cause of the increasing CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere. While palm oil isn’t the only culprit, it plays a significant role.

And then there’s palm oil’s contribution to the issue of loss of peatland, which contributes to environmental degradation. Many Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests, from which 84% of the world’s palm oil is derived, lie atop peat bogs that store great quantities of carbon.

Forest removal and bog drainage to make way for plantations release this carbon, which is responsible for four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and eight percent of all global emissions caused annually by burning fossil fuels.

And now we circle back to the beginning of this article, and label reading. According to the International Palm Oil Certification Programme, these are the palm oil ingredients we should be watching for:

Glycerin
Anything with the word Tocopherols
- Mixed Tocopherols
- Tocopherol / Vitamin E
- Tocopherols to Maintain Freshness
Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil.

Glycerin, which can be derived from a number of vegetable oils, is a major constituent of packaged foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Trouble is, one of those sources is palm oil. If the label doesn’t specify otherwise, you have to suspect that may be its source.

And the same for tocopherols, a class of fat-soluble compounds with vitamin E activity, best known for its antioxidant activity. While tocopherols are found in a variety of vegetable oils, including olive oil, soybean oil and wheat germ oil, they are much more abundant (hence less expensive to extract) in palm oil.

Label reading is tricky. And now that the public is aware of the downside of palm oil, packagers are finding ways to list it on labels without mentioning the oil itself. So … beware.

As the World Wildlife Fund states, “You might not cook with it, but you almost certainly eat or use palm oil. Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet, found in many packaged products sold in the supermarket.”

At the same time, WWF encourages us not to boycott palm oil, as “boycotts will neither protect nor restore the rainforest, whereas companies undertaking actions for a more sustainable palm oil industry are contributing to a long-lasting and transparent solution.”

Indeed, WWF has undertaken to certify palm oil manufacturers that have committed to making the industry more sustainable.

So, before you next shop for groceries, check out their Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard!

To your eco-active success,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, Eco Active 101 on Facebook
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Climate Change, Eco Active Families |

| by Chiwah

Saving the Planet — It’s Up to Us!

Eco Active Families |

| by Chiwah

Why Families Must Embrace Eco Activism Immediately

Who do we love more than our kids? Who could lay claim to our hearts the way our beloved children do, even as they try our patience?

If your children’s lives were in danger, wouldn’t you leap tall buildings, run into a flaming house, brave drowning or being run over by a car to save them?

I imagine you would. Family is all about love. Love is about caring. And when we care, we take action to protect those we love. We step up and make a difference.

Right now, our world needs us to step up and make a difference. Each and every one of us, in whatever small and not-so-small ways we can imagine. As the news spotlight moves from issue to issue, from bullying to sexism to racism to human trafficking to—you name it, we’re confronted with enough issues to make our heads swim.

The Two Greatest Threats of Our Times, Other than War

Other than the threat of war, the two issues most threatening to our childrens’ lives (and our own) are Climate Change and the ongoing mismanagement of Nuclear Waste. These two mega-issues put us all in greater danger than mankind has ever known, threatening to obliterate most, if not all, life on Earth within a few generations—unless we take active steps to change that.

Climate Change News and Global Warming Facts

There are those who call global warming a hoax, among them some Southern Baptists and the most evangelical Protestant Christian sects. But the scientific evidence is clear. Others say the climate change news is real, a natural cycle, not the result of human activity, but again, the evidence makes a strong statement to the contrary.

Some conservative Christian groups claim environmentalism is the enemy of God. Still others come up with multitudes of explanations for climate change that absolve humanity of responsibility. Yet the scientific evidence against all of them is strong.

Time is short. In September of 2019, UN biodiversity experts issued a strong statement to the effect that nearly a million species risk extinction within decades, “while current efforts to conserve earth’s resources will likely fail without radical action.” Unless we step up and demand real solutions, all the other issues and challenges we face will soon be moot.

The point is not to panic, but rather to come together as a family and take constructive action.

Your kids and mine, not to mention any offspring they may produce, will suffer immensely.

Is there still time to turn things around? The Paris Accord set 2030 as the date by which we must take the necessary steps to guarantee a maximum global temperature increase of 1.5-degree Centigrade. We’re already at one degree. The odds of keeping it to 1.5 degrees are short. Having been put on notice that “current efforts to conserve earth’s resources will likely fail without radical action,” we must increase the effort.

Nuclear Waste Mismanagement

Nuclear waste is grossly mismanaged all across the United States. Unlike most of the other countries of the world, we store nearly all our radioactive waste in cooling pools until it’s cool enough to be moved into stainless steel containers. Those containers are so thin they must be welded shut, thus they cannot be opened, inspected or repaired.

Where do we store those cans? From Maine’s Yankee Nuclear Power Plant to California’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, they’re all stored next to a lake, a river, or an ocean beach.

Why? Because the cooling pools (in which the waste was stored before it was transferred into the cans) require a constant source of cold water. And once the waste is transferred into the cans and the cans are welded shut, they can’t be opened for inspection—and, for safety reasons, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires inspection prior to transporting the cans away from their point of origin. So the cans remain there, close to the water.

What’s wrong with this arrangement? Water is a powerful erosive agent.

Everyone cries out for the waste to be moved away from the water, bemoaning the fact that so far, the federal government has not found a satisfactory location for a central nuclear waste dump. Yucca Mountain in Nevada was supposed to be it, but Nevada’s citizens don’t want it in their backyard.

Yet that is a moot point, since by law the uninspectable canisters cannot be moved to Yucca Mountain or any other such location.

There is a simple solution: Replace those cans with the thick-walled casks used my most other countries, where greed isn’t always the deciding factor.

It’s not a forever solution, but it will buy us time. Holtec International, the company that makes the dry-storage canisters used at nearly all US nuclear waste stations, also makes the much-thicker-walled casks. The only reason we don’t use them, says Charles Langley, Director of PublicWatchdogs.org, is that the utility companies are pleasing their shareholders by buying the cheaper, thin-walled cans.

Follow the money!

It’s Up to Us

If we want the powers that be (the utility companies and/or our federal government) to invest in thick-walled casks, we are going to have to turn up the fire under them.

And once the casks are purchased, it will be up to us to make sure the waste gets transferred into them!

President Trump isn’t going to force the issue for us, nor is he likely to take any positive steps on the climate change front. Just the opposite, in fact. He has rejected the Paris Accord, he’s encouraging fracking and coal mining at all costs, he’s doing everything he can to destroy the solar industry, he’s calling on the Bureau of Land Management to end the moratorium on leasing public lands out for coal mining, and more.

And since corporations are constrained by law(!) to favor their shareholders over the public good, we can’t expect help from them, either.

In the absence of governmental or corporate leadership or even cooperation, and knowing that millions of Americans still consider climate change a hoax, what conclusion is a thinking person to draw?

Only one: that keeping Earth a safe habitat for living things is up to us, those who understand the threat and who care. It’s up to You and Me. And our kids, since they’re the ones who will be most affected.

Can we do it?

To quote Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

One thing we know for sure: If we fail to make the effort, our chances of success are Z-e-r–o. Throwing up our hands in despair and anticipation of defeat would be our worst possible choice. If you don’t know where to start, you’ll find lots of ideas here and here.

Why Families? Why Involve Our Kids?

Why turn to the family to make the difference? Because the family is the core of American society, the haven in which values are formed and nurtured.

The American lifestyle is putting our kids’ and our grandkids’ futures at risk. Unless we take visible and effective steps to change that, our kids will soon be blaming us for contributing to the death of their world. And they won’t be wrong.

What they may not want to consider, however, is that they too have enjoyed the fruits of this lifestyle.

To make lasting change, we must involve our children, make them aware that they share in the responsibility, prepare them to be action takers for life. Show them by example, yes, but also by getting them actively involved.

And they will want to be involved. Action is power! And kids love power. So why not raise them to be powerful contributors to a new, sustainable lifestyle? They’ve gotten a taste of it watching Greta Thunberg holding her own at the UN. What a role model for courage!

Now, let’s inspire them not only to speak out and be heard, but to take action to be more climate-conscious in their own lives, to inspire others, and to make it impossible for corporations and governments to continue with business as usual.

Vital Steps Parents Should Consider Taking

That’s why it’s vital that we include them in our activism. We have the opportunity to:

Get informed. Harken to the saying, “Follow the money.” Where there is evil, there is a payoff. We must seek out the real motives behind the messages we’re being fed. To do that, we can support and subscribe to non-advertising-funded news sources, where the news hasn’t been edited to suit the moneymen.
Invite our kids to discuss the scary issues with us. If we take a deep breath and ask them what they know, ask them how they feel about it, we may be amazed!. We can suggest topics for investigation. It won’t work to soft-pedal the issues; kids are good at recognizing blarney. They may know more than we do, so we should be prepared to learn from them, too.
Protect our kids against depression and resentment by empowering them with the only truly viable antidote, other than prayer: Action.
Strengthen our family bonds by working (and praying, if that’s your way) together to raise awareness and demand solutions. In many cases, the solutions are available—the only impediments to implementing them are habit and resistance to change.
Join with other families to have a bigger impact than one family could hope to have.
Give our children a working sense of the importance of teamwork and the results that can be achieved by working together.

Family Activism Can Be Fun!

If we try to impose activism on our children, they will resent it and we will have defeated the goal of preparing them for a lifetime of responsible citizenship. Instead, we can choose projects that let us have fun with our kids! Like:

Making signs together and then carrying them in marches. Guaranteed, the little girl in this picture had a great time making her sign. And she enjoyed the march, too!
Writing activist songs and singing them together in viral videos on the Internet.
Writing Letters to the Editor together—Write individual letters and combine the best parts. Imagine your children’s pride when they see their letters in print!
Attending City Council meetings together and standing up for the issues we’ve agreed in advance are important. This is a wonderful way to teach kids about local civic responsibility. Imagine the wonderful discussions you can have on the way home!
Buying or building bird houses or bird feeders and installing them in your yard. This can be an exciting project, made even more delightful as the birds congregate and entertain you with their antics. Many birds are endangered, and providing them proper food can help to preserve threatened species. Brits have had wonderful successes with this.

Owl box (top), wire mesh box of dryer lint for nest building (lower left) and small birdhouse with liftable wall for easy cleaning, all made by Ray Collier of Vista, CA, 760-505-0281, email visnav@sbcglobal.net.

Creating online audio or video podcasts or a blog together to show people what they can do about rainforest destruction. Educational family projects like this can have a big impact on readers and viewers as they help save valuable rainforests.
Setting your kids to work on the Internet researching plant-based alternatives to plastic wrap and paper towels. Then buy and try. Many are excellent!

These are just of few of the many available options for getting your family involved in making a meaningful difference in the climate change crisis.

It is our duty as loving parents to make sure we don’t pass the illness that has led us into this deplorable situation on to our children! Join us in taking action today, as families who care about our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

To your success with family activism,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Climate Change |

October 1, 2019

| by Chiwah

How Many Insidious Single-Use Plastics Do You Use?

Plastic can be fun—plastic Hallowe’en capes, masks, goggles and ears and tails. Plastic Christmas trees. Plastic squeaky pet toys. Squirt guns. Sunglasses.

Trouble is, it’s everywhere.

Have you noticed? Take a look around your home or office. Does your eye land on plastic water bottles? Plastic cups, plates, forks and spoons, drinking straws? Ziplock and other sandwich, freezer and trash bags? Plastic CDs and DVDs?

Worst of all is that horrid plastic shrink-wrap packaging you have to cut open. Runner-up: the plastic clamshell containers most berries are now sold in, even at many farmer’s markets.

Magazines, even! I used to read Conde Nast’s Wired magazine. I liked it fine, until the replaced the glossy paper cover with a plasticized one. Why does a magazine need a plastic cover? Not only that, they delivered it sealed in plastic so tough I had to use scissors to get the magazine out of its wrapper.

I canceled my subscription.

What’s Wrong with Plastic?
For ecological reasons, I’m doing my best to get single-use plastics out of my life. The manufacture of plastics not only contributes to pollution, it also adds to the carbon footprint and the greenhouse layer that have become the focus of the global fight for a sustainable earth.

Then there’s the source material problem: traditionally, plastics are made from petroleum, a non-renewable, primarily Middle-Eastern resource that costs us soldiers’ lives and hundreds of billions in military dollars each year and leads to millions of civilian deaths in the lands we occupy. The alternative is American oil, which means drilling more life-endangering oil wells here.

Also, plastic has a deleterious impact on our health. I recently read a Reader’s Digest article enumerating the many health problems caused by exposure to plastics. I learned that it’s not just to the BPA in plastics, that the BPA replacements we feel so safe with now appear to produce a broad range of of undesirable health effects similar to those produced by exposure to BPA, contributing to birth defects, miscarriages, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. They also cause bowel irritation and genital birth defects, affect thyroid and other endocrine functions, and more.

What about the new bioplastics? Plant-based plastics have a lower carbon footprint, in that as they degrade they simply release the carbon that was sucked up by the plants from which they’re created (as opposed to releasing carbon that was trapped in oil deposits)—a major consideration when we’re thinking climate change.

And since they require no mining, their processing is significantly less destructive than that of petroleum-based plastics. On the other hand, bioplastics are often produced from trees that would not otherwise have been cut down. Even if made from bamboo, hemp, or some other plant, there is a cost to the water and soil additives used to grow the plants from which the plastic is produced (though hemp doesn’t take much water and is probably the best choice). And depending on what chemicals were used in their production, they may or may not be toxic. Finally, even plastic from biomass ends up as trash, contributing to unecological landfill or perhaps harming or killing wildlife.

Dining Out and Grocery Shopping
When I dine out, I often ask for a doggie bag. Many restaurants are taking steps to eliminate petroleum-based plastics. What most don’t realize is that bioplastics are still plastics, still a threat to wildlife on our beaches, and they only biodegrade in industrial composting plants, which few will end up in.

So, while plant-based plastics are more ecologically sound than their petroleum-derived counterparts, they’re not an ideal solution. What to do? Three suggestions:

Make a point of speaking to the restaurant manager about replacing plastic containers with containers made from heavy paper, or
Consider taking your own reusable containers to hold your takeaway food. You can carry them in an attractive canvas bag, and if you don’t need them, no harm done.
Do both of the above—take your own containers AND talk to the manager.

When you go shopping, do you bring home plastic grocery or produce bags? I used to. Conscious shoppers learn to take their own reusable canvas bags, but it took me a while to start remembering to take them into the store with me. No matter. You can say no to the store’s paper or plastic bags, stack your purchases in the cart, wheel it out to your car and transfer them to your own canvas bags for easy carrying into the house when you get home.

When buying fresh produce, there’s no harm in skipping the bag altogether. I used to like getting those plastic produce bags so I could reuse them as liners for my countertop compost bin. No more! Who needs a liner? A quick rinse after I empty the container and I’m good to go.

Multi-Use But Still Disposable
And then, if you’re like me, there are the multi-use but still landfill- or recycle-bound product containers on your kitchen shelves—plastic oil bottles, plastic soy sauce and vinegar bottles, plastic spice jars, plastic nut butter containers, and so on. Products we used to buy in glass!

What makes glass better? First, it’s made from plentiful materialsa that are available right here. Second, glass doesn’t contain toxins that endanger your health. Third, it doesn’t threaten sea life. True, it’s not ideal—it’s heavy and has a bigger transportation footprint than plastic, making it hard to get to recycling plants. But I reuse the Ball and Mason jars I buy food in for storing leftovers in the refrigerator. I’ve found they keep food fresher than plastic.

Now it’s time to sneak a look under the sink. What do you see? In my case, a slew of plastic household cleaner containers greets my jaundiced eye.

And in the bathroom? Plastic toothpaste tubes? Plastic combs and brushes? Plastic shower cap? Shower curtain liner? Eventually, these will all hit the trash or the recycle pile, and most will end up in landfill.

Recycling Is Becoming Less Available

It used to be I didn’t feel so bad about plastics because we could recycle them. But not all plastics are recyclable, and it’s hard to know the difference between those that are and those that aren’t.

And now that China has stopped accepting imports of mixed paper and severely cut back on plastic recycling, most of our single-use plastics—even the ones you dutifully wash and put in the recycle bins—are likely destined for landfill. And some American cities, counties and states no longer support plastic recycling; in some cases, recycling is entirely a thing of the past.

It’s Up to Us—Vote with Your Dollars!
Vote with your dollars, and let manufacturers know. As the saying goes, the pen—or the computer—is mightier than the sword. I’ve started writing to let them know that plastic packaging is the reason I’m no longer buying their products. It’s not hard—I designate half an hour a week to visiting the websites of brands whose products I no longer buy or buy less of because they’re packaged in plastic.

Most either publish an email address or a contact form; I click “Contact” at the top of the site or scroll down to the footer at the bottom of the page and click “Contact” there. Then I paste in this note, brief and to-the-point:

“I’ve been a customer of yours for years, but I am no longer buying your products because of your plastic packaging. When you start making them available in more ecologically sound packaging, I will consider buying them again.”

Does changing your buying habits change your lifestyle? Somewhat. When I can find brands that use more eco-friendly packaging (glass, cardboard, celophane or waxed heavy card stock), I switch. If I can’t find one—for example, it seems all cottage cheese and sour cream is now packaged in plastic—I experiment with making a reasonable facsimile of my own.

My homemade cashew-nut vegan cream cheese, I admit, doesn’t taste like cream cheese. But it’s great mixed with fresh mango as a dessert I would never have discovered had I not decided to stop buying vegan cream cheese in plastic containers. (And since I’m not 100% vegan, I bought dairy cream cheese today, packaged in foil and paper.)

Am I saying I never buy anything packaged in plastic anymore? No, I’m not there yet, but I’m moving in that direction. I slipped today and bought blueberries in plastic, didn’t realize it until I put my groceries away. It happens.

But as more of us look for alternatives to plastic-packaged goods and let manufacturers know we’re serious about getting single-use plastics out of our lives, they will have no choice but to respond.

I had no idea how plastic-riddled my life has become until I decided to phase out single-use plastics.

Change Isn’t Easy, But It Beats Extinction
Please don’t misunderstand—I’m not saying change is easy. Change can be a real challenge. But change we must. And it does open new doors to discovery.

Sure, you’re only one person. Your actions alone are not going to save the planet. But every meaningful change starts with one person, joined by another, and another and another … and voilà, the change that seemed hard becomes a trend.

And when we all speak out to let providers know you’re voting with our dollars, they will respond. Yes, it’s the corporations that need to change. But it’s we who must force them to to do that.

The ball is in your court. Pick it up and play.

To your eco-active success,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Nuclear Waste |

September 27, 2019

| by Chiwah

Speaking Out Could Win Nuclear Waste Lawsuit

What do you do when a newspaper runs a front-page article featuring the comments of big business and regulatory entities that contradict or denigrate what you know to be true? And when the article’s subhead takes the opposition’s stand?

You write a Letter to the Editor!

So that’s what I did when three days ago the Orange County Register ran such an article.

The Newspaper Article—Fair Or Not?
That article concerned a court filing by Southern California Edison, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the manufacturer of the nuclear waste canisters now being used at nuclear plants all over the country. They are urging the court to reject a suit seeking to halt nuclear fuel transfers at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

The suit was filed by Public Watchdogs, a San Diego-based nonprofit organization.

“They ask the judge,” the article reported, “to toss the suit for — among other things — being filed in the wrong court four years too late, and for peddling fear rather than facts.”

I don’t know about the choice of court or the timing, but I do know that Public Watchdogs has the facts in their corner—I should say “in our corner,” since it’s our safety Public Watchdogs is watching out for.

The Suit Itself
The most basic fact behind the suit is that the storage containers Edison is loading with high-burnup radioactive fuel are unsafe, due at least in part to a manufacturing flaw that causes every one of them to be gouged as they are lowered into the ground.

Edison has already loaded 33 canisters and lowered them into the ground, inadvertently gouging every one of them from top to bottom, thus setting the scene for cracks to develop.

The Newspaper’s Update
In a move toward journalistic objectiity, the Register updated its article the following day, adding this: “In a response emailed after this story posted, Public Watchdogs’ attorney Chuck La Bella took on Edison and the NRC point-by-point.” And then they listed Bella’s points.

Since the print version of the article was already on the newsstands, La Bella’s response only made it into the online version. So readers of the printed paper won’t be informed of the mere 25-year “warranty” on the cans or the fact that the silos into which they are lowered are “guaranteed to perform their function for a mere 10 years.”

Nor will they read that the “60-year design life” of the cans “does not take into consideration any of the scratches, gouges, or other defects that these canisters have,” or that “there is no viable plan to ever move the buried fuel because – as everyone from the US Congress to the NRC has admitted – there is no storage facility were the waste can be moved. Thus, the undeniable fact is this fuel will be buried right where is it for years to come.”

Still, the Register has a lot of online readers who will have a chance to see the facts that only got reported because La Bella responded with a Letter to the Editor.

Why Trouble Yourself to Speak Out?
The public speaking out is the only reason this case has made it to the hearing stage. The court refused to hear a previous suit on this matter; Public Watchdogs CEO Charles Langley told me that the judge said this is the only reason she agreed to hear this case.

I don’t know yet whether my letter got published or not. If it did, it will inform readers of additional facts supporting Public Watchdogs’ suit.

The court may rule in our favor, or it may rule for Edison and the NRC. If the latter, the battle for a safer San Onofre will continue. It has to—so much is at stake here.

The point is—It is so important that we all take the time to speak out for what’s right. You never know—your Letter to the Editor might be the one that makes the difference.

To your eco-active success,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Climate Change |

September 24, 2019

| by Chiwah

UN Climate Summit: Entrepreneur’s Challenge & Greta’s Hard Hitting words—it’s up to us

Did today’s UN Climate Action Summit provide the basis for a stepped-up response to climate change around the world?

UN Secretary General António Guterres invited more than 90 heads of state to come together at UN headquarters in New York today with action plans.

Guterres opened the day with a moving statement of the problem: “Look around. Seas are rising, and oceans are acidifying. Glaciers are melting, and corals are bleaching. Droughts are spreading, and wildfires are burning. Deserts are expanding, and access to water is dwindling. Heatwaves are scorching, and natural disasters are multiplying. Storms everywhere are more intense, more frequent, more deadly.”

Speaking based on recent visits to witness the destruction in Dominica, the Sahara, the South Pacific, Tuvalu, Mozambique and the Bahamas, Guterres said, “The destruction was not simply appalling, it was apocalyptic. Make no mistake. When we see those images, we are not just seeing damage, we are seeing the future, if we do not act now.” Then he said he was hopeful, because all these heads of state had come to present concrete action plans.

But first … three young people were asked to state their points of view.

UN Climate Summit Intro - UN Secretary General Guterres, Brazil's Paloma Costa, Indian-born Anurag Saha Roy, and Sweden's Greta Thunberg seated for presentations

UN Secretary General Guterres, India-born entrepreneur Anurag Saha Roy, Brazilian Attorney Paloma Costa, and Sweden youth activist Greta Thunberg

Paloma Costa, A young and outspoken Brazilian lawyer, spoke of the need for a climate agenda in Brazil to provide safe purchase for the indigenous people there. Yes! Thanks, Paloma, for the way you keep putting him on the spot.
Next, Anurag Saha Roy, a young Indian-born entrepreneur and winner of the Summer of Solutions Pitch Competition, spoke of how young entrepreneurs who have given up job safety to find solutions to the climate problem need and expect a practical platform (incentives, tax breaks, and such) to help with startups. So true! Many a good idea has died a use less death for lack of financial support.
Then came Sweden’s Greta Thunberg’s impassioned statement, which I quote here:

“We’ll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here, I should be back in school, on the other side of the ocean. Yet You have come to us young people for hope. How dare you! … stealing my childhood with your empty words. People are suffering, people are dying, and our eco systems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away, and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the policies and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight! You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that, because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.

The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in ten years only gives us a 50 per cent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off universal chain reactions beyond human control. 50 per cent may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution, or the absence of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50 per cent risk is simply not acceptable to us, we who have to bear the consequences.

To have a 67 per cent chance of staying below a1.5 degrees of global temperature rise, the best odds given by the IPCC, the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to make back January 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons. How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual and some technical solutions! With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within the next eight and a half years.

There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are shaming us, but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you, and if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line. The world is waking up, and change is coming, whether you like it or not. Thank you.”

And the rest of the day? Leader after leader expounded on their country’s determination to solve the climate problems and about the positive results of programs they’ve implemented. I didn’t hear any astounding new plans, but then again, how could we expect that from this kind of gathering? As Guterres said in his opening speech, we already have technological solutions for more than 70 per cent of our current emissions, though implementing them will mean making “fundamental transformations in all aspects of society.” And “If we don’t urgently change our ways of life, we jeopardize life itself. … What the youth and grassroots movements are doing is absolutely essential.”

Yes. In the final analysis, it is up to us—the youth, the middle generations, the elders—to show up, keep the heat on, come up with solutions and ways to get the best solutions implemented. Of course it’s nice when our governments take the lead. But since we cannot count on that, perhaps it’s time for us to step out and be the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

To your eco-active success,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com

Nuclear Waste |

September 21, 2019

| by Chiwah

Nuclear Waste—How to Be Part of the Solution

You love your family. You’d do just about anything to make sure their lives are not at risk. Right? But … do you have any idea of the risk they’re exposed to by America’s improper and irresponsible nuclear waste storage? Most people do not.

Oh, they may know the government hasn’t yet found an acceptable central storage site. But they’ve read that it’s on the verge of finding one, and then everything will be A-OK.

When I explain that that is nowhere near true, I often see a shield come down over their faces. They do not want to hear any more.

I get it, really I do: radioactive waste—what we used to call “atomic” waste—is scary.

But the problems with nuclear waste storage are real, and they pose serious dangers all over this country. Even in states where there are no nuclear reactors! How can that be? Leaking nuclear waste is blown by the winds, and winds are no resppectors of state lines.

In this article I expose some of the hard-to-face facts about the deplorable status of our collective nuclear waste and suggest steps you can take to change things.

The Facts
FACT: Although people are clamoring to move this highly radioactive waste away from those beaches, lakes and rivers, the thin-walled cans in which the radioactive waste is stored cannot legally or safely be moved—even if we manage to agree on a place to move them to. Why? Because they cannot be inspected for internal microscopic cracks that could lead to radiation leaks. The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) senior inspector has said it is impossible for these canisters to be inspected according to ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) required code.

FACT: The utility companies that manage our radioactive waste keep telling us it’s safe, nothing to worry about.

FACT: Systems analysts and geologists tell us it is NOT safe, that the radioactive waste needs to be transferred into thick casks so that it can be legally and safely moved away from the beaches, lakes and rivers. And even if the utility companies had a way to inspect their thin-wall cans for cracks, they have no viable plans in place for replacing cracking leaking canisters.

CASE IN POINT: After a hiatus that occurred in response to a whistleblower’s revelation last August of a near-miss 18-foot canister fall at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, just south of San Clemente, California, Edison has resumed loading of spent (but still highly radioactive and very hot) fuel rods into the thin-wall canisters.

FACT: The NRC agrees that EVERY can of nuclear waste stored at San Onofre has been damaged by gouging due to a design flaw. As Donna Gilmore, the systems analyst who runs the highly informative website SanOnofreSafety.org, reently pointed out to me, a “gouge” is the beginning of a crack—a wide crack. (The NRC has repeatedly weakened their safety requirements to accommodate shortcomings in the storage and handling of nuclear waste.)

And San Onofre is storing these canisters in a trench 100 feet from a rising ocean and very near a major earthquake fault.

FACT: The NRC recently refused to cite the can manufacturer for their defective design that puts San Onofre out of compliance with their NRC license. And Edison has not indicated any intention of switching to thick-wall casks for safer waste storage. In fact, transfer of waste from the thin-wall cans to thick-wall casks would require a “hot cell,” which Edison has no plans to build.

WARNING: Don’t dismiss this as a southern California problem. The nuclear waste in plants all over the country is stored in similar thin-wall containers, set close to beaches where water levels are likely to rise as climate change progresses. And as cans begin to crack, they become susceptible to water-induced corrosion.

FACT: There are thick-wall casks available that can be legally and safely moved away from the water. So there is a solution—not a forever solution, but one that would buy us the years we so desperately need to seek a more permanent solution.

FACT: Holtec International, manufacturer of the cans in question, has recently gone from being just a container builder and supplier to purchasing decommissioned nuclear plants all around the world. Holtec just purchased the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts.

As one local activist wrote in an email, “[Holtec] will now own and operate the decommissioned Pilgrim NPP, pocket all the public trust funds and provide what? The same kind of shoddy service they are famous for?”

There’s a lot of money in the public trust funds for the company that handles the decommissioning … hmm, I just learned that “Krishna P. Singh, the founder, president and CEO of energy technology firm Holtec International, and wife Martha J. Singh bought a waterfront mansion in Jupiter for $10.5 million.”

FACT: Though SONGS is situated on federal property, Edison is responsible for protecting the public safety until they manage to turn the facility over to another responsible party, presumably the DOE. Or …

QUESTION: What other plants will Holtec be acquiring? The thought that this provider of inadequate storage canisters might be put in control of San Onofre and decisions determining the continued habitability of the southern third of our country (since wind carries our air south and east across the country) is upsetting, to say the least. Yet it could happen—with several billions in public trust funds ending up in Holtec’s pockets.

FACT: As of August 30, 2019, “Public Watchdogs, a nonprofit advocacy group, has requested an immediate court-ordered halt to the transfer of deadly radioactive nuclear waste at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) into “thin-walled” dry storage canisters. In the temporary restraining order (TRO) filed with the United States District Court, Public Watchdogs is petitioning the courts to step in and protect the environment and the lives of more than 8 million people who live within the radiation plume zone identified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).”

Will their suit succeed? Let’s hope so. If not, they’ll file another one. But filing suits is expensive, so they’ll need all the help we can give. Charles Langley, Public Watchdogs CEO and Executive Director, says (personal communication) that public outcry is the only reason the court has agreed to hear their case. (OUR case.)

FACT: Speaking up makes a difference!

What Can You Do?
You can and should speak up at every opportunity.

If you live in California or anywhere in the wind path, write to California Governor Gavin Newsom and ask that he protect you and your community by calling a halt to the release of ratepayer funds to Edison until they agree to store all SONGS radioactive nuclear waste in thick-wall casks that have ASME N3 nuclear pressure vessel certificates.
Write letters to the editor of your local paper.
Attend community and local government meetings and take a stand.
Call your elected federal, state and local officials and demand they require replacement of the thin-wall cans being used at our nuclear plants with safer, thick-wall cans.

In short, do the annoying things you’d rather ignore as you go about your daily routine. We cannot afford to leave this to chance.

FACT: By failing to assert yourself publicly on this issue, you make yourself part of the problem.

CONCLUSION: Be part of the solution. If you live near or in the wind path of a nuclear plant, even if it’s closed down, you have a serious nuclear waste safety problem. Seek out opportunities to publicly demand replacing thin-walled canisters with thick-walled casks.

Once that’s done, we can afford to focus on the next step: finding a permanent storage location for the radioactive nuclear waste.

For a more in-depth analysis of what is happeing across the country with nuclear waste, see https://columbusfreepress.com/article/dark-dawning-age-nuclear-waste-begins.

To your eco-active success,
Chiwah Slater
Founder, ecoactive101.com
Founder, https://AWriteToKnow.com
Founder, https://PetWrites.com