Heal Earth Now

Some happy news for Toyota; the Prius was named the Top Green Car by Comsumer Reports. 

Toyota Prius. The Prius ($26,950) received a redesign for 2010 and leads this category for the seventh straight year. It’s still the most fuel-efficient car in Consumer Reports’ ratings, with 44 mpg overall. The Prius is a pleasant car to drive, with a roomy interior, a steady ride, hatchback versatility, and excellent reliability and crash-test results. The 2010 redesign also gave it a more solid feel and a dedicated EV mode that allows it to run longer on electric power at low speeds, an advantage in slow, congested traffic.

After all the news of recalls this is one positive thing that can provide a point of pride for Toyota.  After years of being one of the car manufacturers that people can rely on for durability in their vehicles, consumer confidence has dropped considerably.

This week a killer whale at Sea World in Orlando killed his trainer in front of a live audience.  Hearing about this horrifying incident had many people talking and thinking.  Even though they are large animals and have the word “killer”  as part of their name ,  animals shows like the ones at Sea World had many people in the general public thinking they are pretty safe.  Now it just makes you wonder how much danger the public have been exposed to.  Although they are trained animal, they are still animals with animal instincts. 

This killer whale, Tilikum, that killed his trainer is also linked to two other human killings.    And it has many in the general public wondering when enough is enough.  At this point it seems that the animal should not be a part of the Sea World exhibit and animal shows.

Bob Barker and PETA are asking Sea World to shut down their mammal aquariums and release the animals to sanctuaries.   It is doubtful that will happen.  These animal shows and aquariums are what draw the public to Sea World.

Obviously one human death is one too many.  What should be done is beyond my level of expertise, but  what Sea World has going on now needs to change.

Bota Box, a company that sells wine in boxes, is giving a $2 donation to the Arbor Day Foundation for every new fan that they receive in April on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/botabox.

Bota Box is a environmentally friendly wine supplier. The packaging in printed on recycled paper containing 100% post-consumer fiber and the box itself is 100% recyclable. Soy-based inks and coatings are printed directly on non-bleached Kraft paper, which is bonded together with cornstarch instead of glue. The bag does not contain phthalate plasticizers or Bisphenol-A (BPA).

According to recent studies, bag-in-box wines, like Bota Box, have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional glass bottles. Bag-in-box wines create 85% less landfill waste than glass wine bottles. The transport of Bota Box reduces greenhouse gas emissions because the packaging is 35% lighter on average than glass as well as 44% smaller in size.

Composting has not been on the top of my list.  I have considered it and it seems simple, but I just want to get it right.  Before I would start and then just abandon the whole thing.    We usually put fallen leaves around the trees in our yard, but we don’t use the scraps of vegetable matter-those end up going in the garbage.  Last night the Super Bowl commercial with Audi and the green police made me think about composting again.   One guy was getting a ticket for throwing a banana peels into the garbage and I thought that is the same thing that I do with my peelings.  

Here are some YouTube videos on composting that I am using as a resource for composting.     It really answered a lot of my questions.  One thing I was doing was putting food scraps on top of the compost and that was attracting a lot of pest.  A video gave the common sense solution of covering the food scraps with dry material.  As I try to compost once more, I hope to get everything right this time around.