Though many are unaware of its existence, there is another sort of holiday coming up (though, depending on when you have picked up this issue, it may also just have passed): Buy Nothing Day. Though its origins lie in Canada and the day is most heavily promoted through Adbusters magazine, a Canadian social-activist and anti-consumerist publication, it has developed into an international movement, with participants in more than 50 countries. In the US, Buy Nothing Day is slated for the day after Thanksgiving, which in recent times has been labeled "Black Friday," the day when hordes of consumers rush out to malls to purchase goods at steep discounts. For the rest of the world, which generally lacks such a day, it is the Saturday afterwards...

It is almost time for the beginning of what Americans tend to call the "holiday season", when traditional holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrated. Thanksgiving, that Thursday in November when we all celebrate the harvest season, or, more likely nowadays, whatever it is we feel thankful for, is nigh. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving meals of today are a great deal more stressful for our environment than the celebration upon which they are based...

The US consumes 20% of the coffee produced worldwide. With many drinking it daily, and the majority drinking it at least occasionally, it has become a $50 billion industry. Millions of people depend upon coffee for their livelihoods, but many rainforest ecosystems also depend upon us to purchase coffee that has been grown in a sustainable way...

If you've only just started composting your leaves or don't have leaf mold or leaf humus to get your garden winter-ready, fear not - the Keep Lakewood Beautiful Leaf Humus & Hardy Winter Pansy Sale has come to your rescue...

Dedicated to promoting the general improvement of the environment in Lakewood since 1982, Keep Lakewood Beautiful announced the winners of its Annual Beautiful Home & Business Awards at a breakfast held on Wednesday, September 19th. The Beautiful Home & Business awards began in 1984 as a way to spotlight residents and businesses who beautify and maintain their property and encourage others to do the same...

Halloween, though still far from the most expensive holiday, leads Americans to spend approximately $5 billion a year, a third of which goes to candy. The environmental impacts of this range from simple packaging waste (some of which ends up discarded as litter) to the costs of shipping goods from around the world, from pesticide use and harmful growing practices (as are often found in commercial cacao operations) to the use of non-renewable resources, like the oil used to make plastics...

Though many of us probably wish it were otherwise, summer has ended and it is now officially autumn. Though the warmth may yet linger awhile, before we know it, the leaves will be falling, and, if you expend a tiny amount of effort, those leaves will provide a useful addition to your garden: leaf mold. Despite the unpleasant name, leaf mold is just the name for the fibrous organic soil conditioner created as leaves break down. Since trees have roots that extend deep into the soil, they are able to absorb useful minerals that other plants cannot. Some of these minerals end up in the tree's leaves and allow those leaves to break down into a useful product...

For many of us, life without electronic devices is hard to imagine, whether it be computers, MP3 players, cell phones, digital cameras, printers or fax machines. Technology improves very quickly, leading many to throw out old models in favor of new ones, usually after less than 2 years of use. And, if you're anywhere close to as clumsy as I am, your cell phone gets dropped and damaged even before that 2 year contract is up...

Though the earth's surface is mostly covered by water, not even 1% of it is fresh and accessible. Hundreds of millions of people already lack sufficient access to fresh water, and, if current consumption rates continue, this could soon increase by 25% according to the UN. The lack of sanitation facilities and fresh water contributes greatly to the incidence and spread of disease, from cholera to hepatitis to dysentery to simple infections...

Though computers undoubtedly help us in our green endeavors, from finding ways of reusing our old stuff to telecommuting to reading up on green issues online, they are also a big culprit in both our excesses in energy use and toxic landfill pollution. The manufacturing of computers involves a number of dangerous chemicals, including mercury, lead, cadmium, and chromium, which have been linked to brain, kidney, and liver damage and cancers...

Though the heat is still in full swing, summer is quickly segueing into Back to School season for parents and kids everywhere. Unfortunately for the planet, schools are a big source of waste, from disposable lunches to last year's school clothes to half-used notebooks. The average college student, for example, creates over 600 pounds of waste per year, including more than 300 pounds of paper and hundreds of disposable cups. Luckily, though, there are ways to reduce this waste, from elementary school up through college and the work world...

Regardless of your views on global warming/global climate change, there is no denying that the last few summers have been among the hottest of the last 150 years. The heat waves of 2003 claimed thousands of lives in Europe and heat waves in 1995, 1999, and 2006 each killed several hundred here in the US. Unfortunately, for the energy conscious, one major response to the heat consumes great quantities of energy in the process...

As sun doesn't often make an appearance in the Cleveland area, many of us may be tempted to spend as much time in it as possible when it's here. However, it is increasingly important to take precautions when out of doors to prevent skin damage from UV rays, and hopefully, not harm the environment in the process. Skin cancer is now the most common cancer in the US, with more than one million cases each year, some of them fatal. Though UVB rays are the cause of both sun burn and skin cancer, UVA rays are believed to exacerbate UVBs effects. Thus, it is important to use sunscreens that are effective against both, termed "broad spectrum" coverage...

If you're planning on hosting a BBQ or other outdoor gathering, consider the impact it will have on the planet. While it may seem a small matter to light the grill on the 4th of July, the impact of the entire country doing so adds up to enough energy to power 20,000 households for an entire year, while releasing 225,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Luckily, there are a number of ways to reduce this impact, from how you cook to what you eat to what you use to serve it...

The price of oil continues to be discussed incessantly, with most talk centering on how high it will go or who plans to do what about it. Perhaps instead, we should consider how to use less of it. Since barrel upon barrel of it is turned into gasoline to fuel our personal vehicles, all of us have something to gain from doing a few simple things while driving that can make that gallon of gas go a little farther:..

The average meal travels anywhere from 1,500 to over 10,000 miles from the farms (or, more likely nowadays, factories) to your plate; these miles are often referred to as food miles. Each component of a meal, from fruits and vegetables to meats and grains to spices, has flown or been driven from where it was grown (or raised) to where it was processed to where it was packaged, THEN to a store where you travelled to buy it...

Whether in the garden, in the home, or during picnics and BBQs, spring and summer may bring unwanted pests in addition to the warm weather. Americans spend millions of dollars to use millions of pounds of pesticides each year to try to rid themselves of pests, killing innocent birds and other animals and affecting human health in the process. Meanwhile, only around 5-15% of bugs in the yard are pests. Some, like ladybugs and praying mantises, help control other, less desirable, bugs, and others (honeybees, for example) pollinate plants to grow the food we eat...

Grass lawns have their benefits: the soil provides a home for worms and insects, which then provide delicious meals to birds; they can prevent soil erosion, filter contaminants, and absorb airborne pollutants; they clean the air as they convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. But, before you get out the hose to start watering your lawn for the warmer months, consider the fact that many households use more water outside in the summer than they do for everything else during the rest of the year...

April is National Gardening Month, a time when people across the country celebrate the benefits of gardening. Here in Lakewood, a great way to celebrate is by taking advantage of community gardening with the Lakewood Earth & Food (LEAF) Community. The LEAF Community, whose initiatives also include Community Supported Agriculture, Earth Building, and Bulk Buying, plans to have several new gardening sites for the upcoming growing season, in addition to the already established Plover Patch in Bird Town...

Celebrated for more than 35 years, each April 22nd, Earth Day has been important in promoting environmental awareness around the world. Its growing significance has made it the largest secular holiday in the world, involving more than one billion people, according to the Earth Day Network. The Earth Day Network, founded by the original creators of Earth Day, has seen it as a way to promote civic engagement, broaden the meaning of "environment," mobilize communities, support groundbreaking educational programs, and assist with worldwide events...

Whether it's time for an annual Spring Cleaning or just the regular kind of cleanup, it is important to consider what your cleaning products are made of. According to the EPA, the air inside our homes is typically 2-5 times more polluted than the air outside, largely due to household cleaners and pesticides...

Though paper is more recycled than glass, aluminum, or plastic, it is still also the largest portion of the waste stream, at about 35% and 85 million tons. Each year, 67 million tons of paper are used in the U.S.--700 pounds per person per year and twice as much as in 1960--and paper production has been projected to increase by more than 75% by 2020. Recycling is very beneficial in terms of saving resources and space in landfills (recycling 1 ton of office paper saves almost 6 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, 2 tons of wood, and 3 cubic meters of landfill space). In general, recycling paper creates 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution than disposing of it as waste...

According to the World Wildlife Fund, 1.5 million tons of plastic are used each year to make bottles of water for the US. The energy put into this effort is enough to power 190,000 homes or 500,000 cars. These bottles are then used to carry water that is, in general, no better than the average tap water, but may have a few chemicals added for "taste" that add nothing to the nutritional value. Of the 50 billion bottles used by Americans last year, around 38 billion (more than 75% and over $1 billion worth of plastic) ended up in the waste stream...

Since their introduction in the eighties, plastic grocery bags have become ubiquitous, not only in grocery stores and your homes, but also strewn across the landscapes of cities and floating in the world's oceans. Because of their widespread presence as litter in trees and on streets, they are often referred to as "white pollution" in China, the "national flower" in South Africa, and the "national flag" in Ireland...

For many, the Lenten season is now in full swing, prompting a whole host of Friday Fish Fries as faithful Christians forego eating meat on Fridays. With this in mind, it seemed appropriate to consider the state of the world's fisheries and provide a little insight into how to choose the fish that have been harvested with the least negative impact to the planet...