Sometimes It Hurts to Think

It's kinda funny how everyone says that large scale programs like universal healthcare and education improvements just won't ever happen. That may be true, but not for the reasons you think. 

For $100 Billion you can have Universal Health Care for all people without it in the U.S.

For $35 Billion, you can have preschool for all children in the U.S.

For $10 Billion you can implement all the security recommendations by the 9/11 commission that still have gone undone. 

For $700 Billion, you can try to fix the mistakes of the Bush administration and the greedy.

Cow Replaces Dog as Man's Best Friend

Renewable energy isn't just about solar and wind. Several dairy farms throughout the state of Vermont, are capturing the methane that comes from cow manure to produce electricity for the surrounding homes and businesses. "We saw this as an economic and environmental management too; It's helped to diversify our farm," one farmer said.

According to the New York Times article, "cow waste produces 250 to 300 kilowatts of electricity daily, enough to power 300 to 350 homes, according to the utility," earning around $200,000 of profit for the farmer. In addition to the profit and the added electricity on the grid, the farms are also recycling all of the cow waste, instead of just adding it to the waste stream.

Once the methane is separated from the waste using a large digester set at 101 degrees, it is further separated into solids and liquids; the liquids becoming fertilizer for the farm, the solids returned to the barn floor where they act as bedding. This has saved the farms thousands of dollars on cow bedding alone. They also take in leftover food from local businesses, most notably ice cream from local Ben and Jerry stores to add to their bio-gas digesting efforts. You can read more about this fascinating method in the article. As this innovative idea spreads across the mid-west, now used in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, Missouri will hopefully catch on and make use of our own farm waste.

Some Chemicals Are Just Bad. Get Over It.

Michael Pollan recently said you shouldn't "eat any food that's incapable of rotting." In a similar vein, my Grandma, in response to my diet Coke-addicted, pregnant aunt said, "If you're not supposed to have it while you're pregnant, you aren't ever supposed to have it." These two words of wisdom follow me throughout my day as I sometimes struggle to ignore the beacon of fatty, delightful neon pink light shining down on my hunger as I drive past the closest Taco Bell. But high fructose corn syrup or aspartame in our food isn't the only issue.

The BBC online posted yet another article about how much synthetic chemicals in cosmetics are changing our lives, and the prognosis is grim. Yet another reason, to trust Grandma and her anti-diet Coke agenda. Although many European countries have banned nearly 500 dangerous chemicals, the United States has turned a blind eye to the issue as usual.

This new article comes right after the FDA announced that BPA, the hormone disrupting chemical notoriously found in baby bottles and Nalgene bottles is considered safe, despite the fact that they admit that some danger still exists with it's use. Why are we so wedded to keeping these products on the market instead of pressing for safer alternatives?

Several organizations have sprung up to help spread the word and convince the government that this is a valid issue. You can visit the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Database to see how dangerous your cosmetics are and seek out safer alternatives. They include not only make-up, but also everything from toothpaste to contact solution, and help sort out the real non-toxic stuff from the falsely labeled "organic" or "natural" ones.

Although you could easily argue that any number of things in this life are toxic and probably already killing you, I figure, it doesn't hurt to try to avoid certain things. You never know, maybe one day we'll wake up and most of these bad things will have disappeared, simply because we requested them too: with both our voices and our pocketbooks.