Environmentalism Works

One of the biggest problems our planet has is that our economies are built on the need to consume and replace.  There are very few business models that allow a company to thrive on reusing wherever possible.  However it is possible to break out of this trap in little aspects of our lives if you think about it. 

I help out occasionally with a local community paper in my area, it’s nothing fancy just news, views and gossip really from our home town.  However last week I was asked if I could do some of the printing to help with costs of production and because their cheap laser printer had broken down.  Now I don’t use my printers much so I didn’t really mind.  However after I had completed the run I totted up the costs of this printing and it was extremely high.  The problem was both my printers had extremely high costs to print each page, mainly due to the very expensive costs of each toner cartridge.  For a small paper like ours it really was pushing up prices beyond what was feasible.  

So I started investigating and realised many people actually regularly reuse the toner cartridges and just refill them with ink.  Most cartridges apparently can be refilled several times – which reduces costs by about 80% and also removes the impact on the environment.  Did you know that the average replacement cartridge costs 4 litres of oil to produce, you can save that each time you refill.   There’s actually a step by step guide on here about refilling your cartridges - http://www.compatibletoner.org/refill-toner/refill-toner-review/.

Whether you can do this really depends on a number of factors – one of the most important is which printer you have.  The manufacturers don’t like you refilling because it seriously reduces their profit margin so they put in various ways to stop you. The latest is  called a ’killer chip’ which stops the cartridge working after it’s done one print run.  Fortunately copies of these are available for a few pence in most cases and are very simple to replace so far.

Walk through a forest with a mind emptied of clutter and it can be a profoundly spiritual experience.  The feeling that I get most strongly whenever I am lucky enough to be in a forest is one of connectedness.  Not only a connection between me and the trees (and nature more broadly) but the complex relationship between a single tree and all the life forms that live on it, with it and around it.

Its this holistic, interconnected understanding of life that I think is so crucial to our overall health and well-being (both spiritual and physical).  And it’s precisely that connection that we are in danger of loosing.  I wholly support the mission of organizations in the alternative health sector like Whole Life Pages that are trying to return us to a more holistic way of living and managing our health.

I also support the environmental and forest protection movements.  Organisations such as the FSC are doing much to preserve our forests and increase awareness of the negate impacts of un-managed logging.  But perhaps we need to step back further still and ask outs eves a deeper question:  Is efficient forest management enough or do we also need to renew ourselves at a deeper more spiritual level?

My apologies if this is getting a little esoteric.  But it’s impossible not to follow this line of thought if you’ve ever experienced a spiritual awakening in a forest.  For me a forest is a sanctuary.  We need to preserve these sanctuaries for our physical and physical health and well-being.  Put in stark terms.  If our forests die, so shall we.

We are all connected.

Canada is not exactly a Mediterrean climate is it?  Yes, we have some nice springs and falls, but overall the climate is a challenge for certain types of plants and especially fruits.

While most people aren’t aware that olive trees are actually fruit trees, they definitely are aware that frost kills them pretty quicklly in the same way it does oranges etc.

I bring it up because there are ways we can organize and work together to save things we love, even if protecting them here at home isn’t possible.  Given all the health benefits of olive oil, why wouldn’t we want to try and save some of the old growth forests in the Mediterrean basin?

Maybe I’m not exactly impartial because I love Olive Oil, but can you really blame me for trying?

Every year, 1000′s of square miles of natural forest and woodland is cleared from the earths surface by illegal logging operations.  These forests once covered half of the globe but are being lost in every continent and this is causing irreplaceable damage to the environment as well as impacting socially and economically. Not only are the trees lost but habitats for fauna and flora, as well as indigenous peoples, are decimated due to this illegal logging trade so the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was set up in 1993 to combat it.  The FSC provides a scheme that clearly identifies if the timber used has been provided from properly managed forests as long as it displays their logo.

In order to help with this global problem you should always look for the FSC logo when buying timber products whether that is construction materials such as timber for shuttering or construction, or even for domestic use such as litter box furniture for cats or garden fence panels.  Make sure you do your bit to save the ancient forests of the world – for the sake of your childrens children.

Tobacco farming was originally focused in areas around North America but soon began to shift to developing nations in the tropics and subtropics both of which have a fragile ecosystem.

A big problem in the production process of tobacco to the environment is its wood use which is the main cause of deforestation. Studies taken in Africa have shown that the countries that produce the largest amount of tobacco is loosing 51% of all the forest coverage in Africa and South Africa has lost 12% of forests due to tobacco farming.

Smokers can not only look to improve their own health but also that of the ecosystem by either quitting the habit or searching for an alternative. One such alternative is electronic cigarettes, many people have made the switch from tobacco by using brands such as E-Lites. The good news is that e-cigs can also be a lot more cost effective in the long run and to save in the short term an E-Lites discount code can be used to save a little more.

So for those that smoke, take on board not only the health impact cigarettes are having on you personally but also the problems they are causing ecologically.

In 1970 I went on a bike ride through some of the last untouched Canadian forests and it was an experience that will live with me forever. I saw trees that dwarfed the landscape and could well imagine them teeming with wildlife; I could envision the native Indians roaming in this wilderness and the shock at finding out that there were other peoples vying for their land.
So I decided to once again don the leathers and set off to see just how much this landscape had changed since the white settlers arrived. I knew that the logging companies had devastated large tracts of forest and farming and other activities had destroyed huge acreages of once virgin land.

So I sorted out my stuff, set to servicing my motorcycle and when I needed a new chain and sprockets  I looked online  and sorted it all out. I had been acquainting myself with the latest news and blogs from the web site www.canadiansilviculture.com
And armed with all of this information went forth to see for myself the land that we had created.

I rode for about three days until I hit he high forested country around the Moose River and I was appalled at the state of a forest that had been decimated by logging and land clearance. I remember seeing it back then as this enormous, almost impenetrable wall of wood. Now I could move into it by miles before I saw anything that even came close to the 1970 forest.
I could go no further and turned back, resolved to dedicate my time to the recovery and preservation of the forests in Canada. I am no hippy, but this is the future of our children and if we waste the wilderness, what will be left for them to explore and learn from after it is gone?

You can help…sign up and join the group that are fighting to maintain our forests…

Think about all the of the automobiles connecting back and forth on a day to day basis simply to get us to a place we detest being at for 8 to 12 hours per day. Then take into account if you have to depart the office for luncheon all the additional transmissions we as a world are placing in tho the air that we breath on a daily basis. Living in Southern California one can easily notice the layer of pollution that spreads all over the horizon and it’s upseting the think that we literally breathe that in all day long. You may not recognize it, but we do.

I would encourage all to think about operating from home. Even if you must swap your job path, build an e-business website and locate the best SEO company you can find to promote your product or service. I did and I have not glanced back from day one. Other than the environmental benefits I have the ability to set my personal schedule, dress as I wish for work and I always have a workstation window, save a ton of hard earned cash on fuel and I never get in debates with co-workers. HA! Operating from my residense is a choice I ‘ll never be sorry for making.