My father, Jack Eisenberg, circa 1971, in a land reservation near our home How do you raise environmentally aware kids? In seeking the answer, I look back to my own upbringing in the 1960s shortly before the first Earth Day. Like our neighbors, my family had recently begun using paper napkins instead of cloth and [...]
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Why Compost
The virtues are obvious if you’re a gardener. What if you’re a person eager to live more sustainably with only so much time to give to the cause? You can’t do better. Composting not only reduces the waste you send to the landfill, but converts it into a useful product without requiring additional resources. Meanwhile, [...]
Composting: Good for Garden & Climate
Composting your lawn and food waste yields triple benefits. (1)It provides fertilizer to help your garden grow. (2)It reduces the waste you send to the landfill. (3)And it sends carbon present in the waste back to the soil where it belongs, rather than allowing it to go up into the atmosphere where it would contribute [...]
Is Environmentalism a Religion?
If you come across something with this question in the title, it’s probably put out by anti-environmentalists and the answer is yes. Either yes, environmentalism is a false religion threatening the “true” religion, whatever that may be, or yes, it is “just” a religion, unfounded in science or fact. The last assertion — that environmentalism [...]
Green Gifts and Entertaining for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s
Interested in having a high-spirited, low-impact holiday celebration, but stymied by the culture around you — maybe even within your own family? You can make it happen! Just do the usual things — from gift-giving to feasting — sustainably. For instance, buy durable gifts that will last, avoid overly packaged products, use real plates and [...]
To Raise Healthy Children, Reduce Exposure to Toxins
Nowadays, raising healthy children requires more than keeping them safe from germs. It also requires protecting them from toxic chemicals pervading their everyday environment, from phthalates, BPA, organophosphates and PBDE flame retardants to lead and mercury. For tips on how to reduce your children’s risk, read, print and share my latest This Green Life column [...]
What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
The invisible chemicals present in everyday products include toxins that pose serious long-term health risks. That’s why I pulled together a new page for you on Staying Healthy. Take the time to learn about these hidden dangers and how to avoid them. Your health is worth it. Really.
Green Restaurants
If you’re interested in maintaining a low-impact lifestyle, watch where you eat. The restaurant business is extraordinarily wasteful — of food, water, packaging and most particularly energy. In fact, among commercial businesses, restaurants squander more energy per square foot than any other. Restaurants that have been certified green by the Green Restaurant Association are a [...]
Reusable Bags Gaining Ground?
This weekend, I found myself at a supermarket in foreign territory (New Jersey) with an unwonted form of transportation (a car). My husband and I were stocking up on our way back to Manhattan after a visit with my mother. “Paper or plastic?” the young woman at the check-out asked, which triggered a conversation among [...]
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This Green Blog is the companion blog to NRDC's This Green Life, a green living column written by Sheryl Eisenberg for the Natural Resources Defense Council. (Subscribe to get it for FREE each month.) Sheryl has also written Greentips for the Union of Concerned Scientists and designs websites for environmental groups and others with her firm, Mixit Productions.
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