by Sarah Lane

It is ironic, or perhaps more accurately just plain wrong, that the movements to green up our workplaces and schools are so far ahead of the efforts to make day cares eco-friendly. Not to say that no one is doing anything about it. But the large-scale successful national eco-school programs such as the Green Schools Initiative, the Earth Day Network’s Green Schools Project, and the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools program and international efforts like Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots and the Green Schools Alliance focus on elementary and high schools, and their work far surpasses the reach of the burgeoning work of eco-friendly day care advocates. Yet it is the youngest among us who are most susceptible to toxins, poor air quality, and inappropriate messages about the planet and how to care for it.

What Is a Green Day Care?

• A green or eco-day care reduces or eliminates exposure to toxins such as those found in cleaning products, certain toys, art supplies, and food and drink containers.
• It eliminates pesticides.
• It ensures air quality by restricting car idling at pickup and dropoff and by eliminating airborne toxins from furniture, carpeting, and heating and cooling systems. Usually it enforces a no shoes inside policy to help with air quality.
• It models good earth citizen behaviors for young impressionable tots by composting leftover food, reusing and recycling whenever possible, and involving children in gardening projects.
• It ensures the absence of mercury, lead, and radon from facilities.

Why Green Day Care?

In a green day care, the youngest and most susceptible among us are protected from health dangers. Just as important, they are provided with a solid foundation for growing into responsible citizens who will face and tackle the environmental problems confronting our problem. Furthermore, when they see the adults around them modeling this behavior, children are reassured that the adults around them are responding appropriately.

Where to Turn?

The most comprehensive and wide reaching organization for certifying green day cares is the Oregon Environmental Council’s Eco-Healthy Child Care project. The EHCC provides applicants with a checklist and guidance for achieving an eco status. Once the provisions on the guidelines have been met, a day care earns its certification and is added to the database maintained by the OEC to help parents find green day cares in their areas.

So far, the OEC has certified nearly 1500 day cares across the country. But this is just a tiny fraction (0.4 percent) of the 280,000 regulated home day cares and likely more than 70,000 licensed child care centers (according to the 2000 House Ways and means Green Book Child Care). You can help by approaching your day care provider and urging them to contact the OEC about obtaining certification.

© 2010 ProgressiveKid

Image by edenpictures, 2009. Creative Commons license.

—Mahatma Gandhi

by Sarah Lane

Now that school’s out and we’re heading down the front steps of summer, our children will rekindle their complicated relationships with insects and arachnids, frequently picking up and trapping, occasionally screaming at and running away from, and too often stomping and squishing them. But there are many good reasons to model a different way of interacting, helping our kids observe closely, admire and appreciate, and tread lightly when in the company of our buggy friends.

Reasons

Got Empathy? If you want an empathetic kid, model empathy. Empathy is not selective. It is being able to see the life connection in all living things, not just the ones you think are cute.

There’s No Need to Defend Ourselves. Most insects are not harmful to us. If something is not harming you, then there is no reason to defend yourself against it. And for those insects that can harm you, such as mosquitoes and a small number of spiders, the best way to defend yourself is to stay away. That often means wearing long sleeves in the evening and trying not to stick your hand or head into places where they don’t belong.

Insects and Arachnids Have Important Work to Do.

1. Spiders are our friends. They catch many insects, including disease-carrying ones. An average spider will kill 2,000 insects per year. In fact, spiders are being used for pest control in some agriculture, such as organic cotton farming. David Richman, of the Department of Entomology at New Mexico State University, writes, “Spiders are numerous enough in agricultural fields (sometimes literally thousands or millions to the acre) that they serve to dampen insect numbers, often including pest species, because these are often the most common insects.” He estimates the global benefits of spiders and predatory insects at more than $100 billion per year. Most spiders—there are 50,000 species—are not poisonous or venomous to humans, and yet they get a bad rap and get blamed for bites they had nothing to do with, such as flea and bedbug bites. (Click this link to identify venomous and poisonous spiders.)
2. We need bees. They are the primary pollinators in one-third of the world’s crops. The recent colony collapse disorder affecting European honeybees has raised human awareness of the need to protect bees, especially from pesticides. They don’t want to be in our homes any more than we want them to.

The Alternative

There are many ways to handle the human need to keep bugs at arm’s length without hurting the little creatures:

1. Install window and door screens.
2. Plug up home access points.
3. Repel. Mosquitoes don’t like certain scents. Badger Balm smells good to us, but the little stingers don’t like it. Fresh mint also works.
4. Disrupt the scent trail for ants. Simply rub away the trail they’re following over about a yard’s length. Make sure to remove the source of their interest or they’ll be back.
5. If you have moths in your closet, once a year take all your clothes out and hang them in the sun for a day.
6. Remove sources of moisture in your walls that can attract termites. Without the moisture, they’re not interested.
7. Use a Bug Relocator (bug wand) to vacuum up and move trapped bees, flies, and the spiders you’d rather not have in your home to the outside. Make sure not to buy the kind that purposefully electrocute the bugs upon trapping them.

Most important, remember that you can help your kids avoid crippling phobias by modeling interest in and respect for insects and arachnids. If you’ve got some work to do in this area, it’s not too late to get started.

Whatever you do, don’t use chemical pesticides. Chemical pesticides cause widespread health problems. Many agrochemicals devastate human and animal populations, causing birth defects, cancer, brain and organ damage, and reproductive and immune disorders. They are perhaps at least partly responsible for the recent decline of bee populations.

Besides, catching and releasing bugs is fun. When using the Bug Relocator properly, kids learn gentleness and empathy. They can look at the bugs up close in the tube before releasing them.

©ProgressiveKid 2010

Image by John Douglas, November 2007, Creative Commons license.

by Sarah Lane

Living in an island community I am somewhat accustomed to the completely unnecessary exhaust-spew from idling cars in line to board the ferry. Even though drivers are told to keep their engines off until the ferry directors signal for them to start, some people simply ignore the rules and keep their engines rumbling ridiculously, chewing up expensive fuel and polluting the air. But this human tendency toward idling is never more annoying as it is when done during school pickup and drop off, when children with their young lungs are standing nearby.

Little Lungs

As explained by the Earth Day Network, children, being as they are closer to the ground, suck up more of the idle exhaust than do adults. This is especially worrisome given that, not only are their lungs still developing, but they also tend to take in 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than do the lungs of adults. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency adds that car exhaust triggers asthma symptoms, with asthma being the number-one chronic illness faced by children and the number-three cause of hospitalization of children under 15. PSCAA explains that one car picking up and dropping off kids for one month adds three pounds of pollution to the air we breathe, and breathing in exhaust can contribute to heart and lung disease, including lung cancer.

Precious Cars

So, how hard is it to turn off your car? All it takes is the flick of a wrist. And what should make it even easier is knowing that

1. You don’t save gas by idling versus stopping and restarting. If you idle for more than 30 seconds, you’re burning more fuel than if you had stopped your car and restarted it. In fact, idling uses 0.5 to 1 gallon of gas per hour.

2. Your car doesn’t need it. The Car Talk guys have confirmed that all you need to do to warm up your engine is drive a little more slowly for the first few blocks and then your car is set to go (”Unless it’s below freezing, cars don’t need to be warmed up at all. Driving them gently is the best warm up there is.”). No idling necessary. In fact, too much idling can hurt your engine since when idling it is not operating at its best temperature.

Click and Clack offer this additional information about car idling:

1. Your engine warms up quickest with some load on it; i.e., driving it.
2. An idling engine runs very inefficiently and pollutes more than a loaded one. In addition, you are not moving while you’re idling, causing even more waste.
3. The fuel/air mixture during idling is not the best for maximum engine life; raw gas washes the oil off the cylinder walls.
4. If you warm up the engine first and then take off fast, you are putting incredible strain on the other components of the car that are still cold. Taking off shortly after starting warms up the whole power train and suspension together.

They add that “you need to idle the car long enough to get the engine oil to circulate to the valve gear on top of the engine. In most of the US, with 5W30 oil this takes no more than 20 seconds or so.” To that end, they recommend starting the car and then taking care of mirror adjustment and seat belts. That’s enough time for the oil to circulate in most temperatures.

Tune In and Turn Off

So how do you get yourself and the other parents at carpool to pull the key? Both PSCAA and The Earth Day Network offer good support, materials, and even curriculum.

PSCAA’s program is called No-Idle Zone. They will send you brochures to hand out to parents and even a No-Idle Zone sign to post at pickup and drop off points to jog frazzled parent brains. Their website also offers parent letter templates, fact sheets, pledge forms, a media kit, and outreach materials for bus drivers and vendors.

The Earth Day Network has launched a No Idling Campaign. The campaign includes lesson plans for Grades 1–8, a data collection spreadsheet, and newsletter or e-mail content to educate parents about the effects of idling. Their site also keeps a running tab of news related to idling.

Tuning in and turning off your car is an easy thing that can help safeguard your kid’s health. These campaigns can get your No-Idle engine running smoothly and easily at your school.

©2010 ProgressiveKid

Image by Elizabeth McClay, April 2010, Creative Commons license.

by Sarah Lane

Gush. The other day we at PK Reader received a box of samples from O’Bon, a maker of eco-friendly school and stationery supplies. I am often unimpressed by new green products and see many examples of either (1) green products that aren’t that great or (2) decent products that aren’t that green. But O’Bon is the real deal and has both areas covered. Plus, O’Bon understands good design, and its products have sacrificed nothing in terms of attractiveness, which is exciting to someone who, having been in the eco-shirt and -onesie business, long lamented the lag time between the introduction of organic cotton and the development of well-designed organic cotton T-shirts. (I could never understand why being eco-friendly meant that your aesthetic had to be of the tan-colored balloon-fit T-shirt variety.)

O'Bon sugarcane notebook

O’Bon’s sugarcane paper notepad is conveniently lined and includes a date and page entry area, and it is printed with “vegan approved” vegetable ink. The company explains the advantages of sugarcane paper: “Sugarcane grows very quickly and uses up minimal resources. It is then transported to sugar producing factories where it is crushed to collect juices used in the process of producing sugar.  The remaining pulp is usually discarded as a waste product and is sometimes even burned. In our case however, we collect this remaining fiber, called ‘bagasse,’ and roll it into sheets of paper.”

Their journals come in a nice size—big enough to write long thoughts in but small enough to fit in your bag. And all their notebooks are double loop wire bound to avoid unraveling and snagging and to facilitate laying flat. The covers are made from recycled cardboard.

Wildlife pencil set

O’Bon pencils made from recycled newspaper make a nice, soft, rich line. They come in a variety of formats. I love the wildlife series, with each of 10 2B pencils in the colorful triangular-shaped box sporting a different animal print. They also offer a box of 12 color pencils in rich fruit colors. And, much to my happiness, O’Bon has created a professional art pencil set including a 2H, 1H, and 1B through 8B pencil. The set, again attractively presented, this time in a slick black recycled cardboard box featuring a die-cut tree image and silver writing, is also made from recycled newspapers. And the quality is excellent; I will happily use these pencils in my own drawing and feel good that they’re eco made.

But, wait. There’s more!

• O’Bon plants a tree for every purchase. In the future they plan to give customers a choice of issues for O’Bon to support with a percentage of every sale.
• O’Bon has launched the the O’Bon Educational Program, which includes
  • a Smart Swap for used wood pencils. O’Bon  gives a newspaper pencil in exchange for each wood one and then donates the wood pencils to children in need around the world.
  • A Show & Tell program that features an educational presentation on environmental problems and solutions.
  • A “Fun-Raising‘ project to support school fundraising efforts with O’Bon eco products.

Watch this company. Their heart is in the right place, they have a good eye, and their feet are firmly planted on the ground. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve got for back to school. We’ll check in again with them in July.

©2010 ProgressiveKid

by Julie Hall and Sarah Lane

Here are activity ideas for five different types of birthday parties for kids.

Ocean Steward Party

Visit the Aquarium. Arrange to take your partygoers to your local aquarium. Have the kids bring along dive log fish stickers (such as those made by Stickerfish.com) and a piece of sturdy paper. Challenge them to find live examples of the fish on the stickers. Invite them to place on the paper each sticker of the fish they see and record other observations. (1.5-2 hours; all ages)

Bring the Aquarium Home. Line the walls of one of your rooms at home with cardboard. Remember to keep open an exit or two. Give kids colored markers, construction paper, colorful strips of paper, string, tape, and scissors and have them decorate the room as an underwater sea world. Use dive log fish stickers (such as those made by Stickerfish.com) as models. (0.5-1 hour; all ages)

Clean the Beach. Make arrangements to have a beach cleaning party at a nearby beach. Provide partygoers with plastic bags and gloves. Give prizes to the kids who collect the most garbage. You can arrange a scavenger hunt at the same time. While kids are cleaning, they can look for items (moon clam shell, geoduck, otter print, etc.) listed on a card and check them off when they see them. Information is available from Coastsavers. (1-2 hours; older kids)

S.O.S.: Save Our Seas. Compile an action list of things to do to help the oceans. Get partygoers to work in small groups. Each group can choose one of the ideas on the list to illustrate in a poster. Provide large poster board, colored markers, colored paper, scissors, and glue. Have kids share their posters and talk about what steps they can take to help ocean life. You might arrange to exhibit the posters at a local business. (1 hour; older kids)

Pin the Fish on the Ocean. On large poster paper, draw a map of the Pacific, Indo-Pacific, and Indian Oceans. On cardboard, draw and cut out an Achilles Tang (found in the Pacific near Hawaii) and a Clown Triggerfish (between the Indian and Pacific). With a blindfold, play pin the fish. Each kid gets a turn to pin the fish on the correct ocean. (0.5 hour; younger kids)

Artist Party

Visit an Art Museum. Arrange to take your group of partygoers to a local art museum. Find out in advance about kid-friendly exhibits to see and interactive art projects. (1-2 hours; all ages)

Make a Mood Mural. A mood mural is a large piece of art showing different kinds of feelings or moods. Ask partygoers to help you make a list of different moods (silly, happy, angry, excited, etc.), and then have them work individually or in pairs, each chosing a mood to draw together on large mural paper. Provide markers, paints and brushes, or collage materials like construction paper, old magazines, and stickers. Take digital photos of the finished mural for each kid to take home. (1 hour; all ages)

Still Life of the Party. Set up a still life party scene, like cake and snack food, for kids to look at and draw using colored markers. Provide cardboard frames for the finished pieces and have kids decorate the frames with stickers and glitter glue. In advance print out stickers with the date of the party, the partygiver’s name, and a thank you message. Stick one on the back of each still life for kids to take home as souvenirs. (0.5 hour; older kids)

Brave New World. Set up a work area covered with newspaper and provide clay and simple cutting and shaping tools, such as plastic knives. Challenge your group to create a world on another planet with new life forms and landscapes. Make a short digital film of the landscape and e-mail a copy to each partygoer after the party. (1-2 hours; all ages)

The Perfect Birthday. Ask partygoers each to select a medium (painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, photography, etc.) and provide them with the appropriate materials. Then challenge the kids each to create a piece of art called The Perfect Birthday. Encourage experimentation, free-thinking, and wide interpretation of the theme. When everyone is done, put on an art exhibit of the finished works. (1 hour; all ages)

Music Party

Listen to the Music. Arrange to take your partygoers to a musical performance appropriate for kids, or have performers come to your home to play. You might organize a musical scavenger hunt for the performance. Give kids a card with things to listen for (such as a a soprano voice, a string plucking, a bell ringing, high hat, etc.) and have them check off the items as they hear them. (1-2 hours; all ages)

Move to the Music. Different kinds of music make us feel like moving in different ways. Play a range of music (fast and slow, soft and loud, dramatic and playful, sad and happy, etc.) and ask kids to use their bodies to match the mood of the music. Encourage experimentation and innovation. (0.5 hour; younger kids)

Name That Music. Arrange chairs in a circle, facing out. Make sure there is one fewer chair than there are kids. Play a selection of music from different genres (jazz, flamenco, opera, gospel, chant, etc.) while kids circle the chairs (download the tunes from iTunes or a similar Internet search and download service). Hold up a large card showing the name of a musical genre. When the music matches the card you are holding, everyone tries to grab a chair and sit. One kid will be left standing. Have him or her hold up the next genre card for the next round. (0.5 hour; all ages)

Shake It Up. Provide a range of containers such as yogurt cups, film canisters, toilet paper tubes, soda cans, and glass jars as well as different fillings such as dry beans, rice, sand, pebbles, marbes, and paper clips. Have each partygoer choose a container, partly fill it with one of the fillings, and then seal it closed. Kids can decorate their shakers with markers, crayons, glitter glue, and stickers. When they’re done, play or perform some music that is mostly melody and have the kids provide the rhythm. (0.5 hour; younger kids)

Forest Steward Party

Plant a Tree. At a nursery, purchase a tree native to your area that will provide habitat for a range of animals. Ask for planting instructions. Plant the tree in your yard or arrange with the park district to plant the tree in a local park. Have partygoers help you dig the hole and place and water the tree. Kids can also plant tree seeds at home or as part of a large-scale tree-planting effort during the party.  Visit www.americanforests.org for more information. (0.75-1 hour; all ages)

Take a Hike. Tahe your group for a hike in the woods at a forest preserve or park. Find out in advance about trails and choose one appropriate for kids. Provide kids with a park service list of flora and fauna to look for and have them check off species as they go. Explain that good hikers walk quietly, never distrub wildlife, and leave nothing behind. (1 hour; all ages)

Make Like a Tree. Together create a forest ecosystem skit. Each kid can play a different member of the forest (tree, bird, bear, fern, and so on). Have kids act out what happens when a tree is cut down, when there is a fire or drought, and when new trees are planted. (0.5 hour; younger kids)

Follow the Track. Provide partygoers with animal track images as models for making tracks out of construction paper and also pens and scissors. Each kid should then use his or her paper tracks to make an animal trail aand leave written clues about the type of animal that made the tracks. Kids can take turns following each other’s trails and trying to identify each type of animal. Look here from some information on tracking. (1 hour; older kids)

Trail Party. Organize a trail upkeep party with your local park service or park district. Alternatively, host an ivy pull. Provide partygoers with tools and together work on a section of forest. Make sure partygoers understand what effects their work will have. When they’re done have a picnic in one of the park’s picnic areas. (1-2 hours; older kids)

Bird Brain Party

Go Bird Watching. Contact a local Audubon chapter or other birding organization to arrange for a guided bird watching outing. Ask for a checklist of the birds you are likely to see and give each partygoer a copy. Have kids check off the birds they see. (1-2 hours; older kids)

Be a Bird Sleuth. Take a walk in your neighborhood or local park. Tell the kids to be bird sleuths and use their bird brains to look for evidence of birdlife (sightings, calls, sounds of movement, nests, etc.). Have them walk quietly in small groups and take notes to share later. (0.5 hour; all ages)

Fly Like a Bird. Bird wings are specially shaped for flying. A wing’s arched top and flat bottom make the air pressure higher on the bottom, lifting it up. Using this wing lift, birds push forward with their bodies to fly. Together make bird gliders from a kit. They will need glue for the eyes. Test the gliders outside and observe how they are like and unlike real birds. (0.5 hour; younger kids)

Make a Raptor. Many birds die from flying into windows. Kids can help birds by making paper cutouts shaped like raptors and taping them to windows at home. Many kinds of birds are afraid of raptors and will fly away from paper cutouts. Provide black or brown construction paper and scissors and have kids trace a raptor shape onto the paper and cut out the shape. (0.25 hour; all ages)

Bird Sanctuary. Have partygoers help you build a bird sanctuary in your yard on a balcony or porch, or at school. Provide a large pot drainage saucer and a large pot. Put the saucer on top of the overturned pot and you have a birdbath for kids to paint and decorate with mosaic tiles. Some partygoers can make suet out of fat and black oil sunflower seeds and fill up plastic cups with the mixture when it is still warm. The cups can be hung from tree branches. Others can make a ground feeder for black oil sunflower seeds out of a pre-cut wood frame and screen netting from a local hardware store. Take the Audubon healthy yard pledge and encourage kids to do the same at home. You might make a poster showing the six points of the pledge. (1 hour; older kids)

©2010 ProgressiveKid

Image by Woodley Wonderworks, 2007, Creative Commons license.

By Julie Hall and Sarah Lane

Making your child’s party green is easy on the planet and easy to do. It’s also good modeling for kids and other parents. Here are some Earth-smart ideas to help you get started. Visit our Planet-Friendly Party Activities post for creative party ideas on environmentally friendly themes.

Tableware

• Napkins. Use washable colorful fabric scraps from a fabric store to make fun, reusable napkins. Or use recycled paper towels.
• Tablecloth. Use an old sheet for a tablecloth that kids can decorate with markers. Reuse the sheet for other parties, making forts, or as a drop cloth.
• Utensils, Plates, and Cups. Avoid the problem of tablewear by serving finger food that can be placed on a napkin. If you need tablewear, use washable metal utensils, plates, and cups. Or provide recycled paper plates and cups and disposable utensils made from corn starch that compost in about half a year and biodegrade in a year and a half.

Food and Beverages

• Healthy and Organic. Serve as much organic, local, and in-season food as you can. It’s better for the planet and your guests.
• Finger Food. Serve food that doesn’t require plates or utensils but can be placed on a napkin:
  • cheese and crackers
  • carrot sticks
  • raisins
  • peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
  • hummus and corn chips
  • yogurt tubes
  • grapes and apple slices
  • cupcakes or cookies

Decorations

• Homemade. Kids love to make things. Enlist your child’s help in creating decorations out of cardboard, construction paper, and mural paper, for example, instead of investing in plastic-wrapped party streamers, banners, and balloons.
• Theme-Based. A themed party will dictate how it should be decorated. For example, an ocean party could have an undersea mural with green yarn seaweed tendrils hanging from the ceiling. A bird party could have painted cardboard trees cut from old refrigerator boxes. See our Planet-Friendly Party Activities post for theme-based activity ideas.
• Activity-Focused. You can even make decorating the party an activity at the party. See our Planet-Friendly Party Activities post for more ideas on how to do that.
• Balloon-Free. Don’t use balloons, which are fun but often end up in the ocean where they are frequently consumed by sea life. Animals such as sea turtles often die from balloons blocking their digestive systems. Flags made from fabric scraps make a good alternative, and decorating them is a fun party activity.

Activities

• Themed. Create your party around a planet-friendly theme such as a particular ecosystem or animal species. Visit our Planet-Friendly Party Activities post for many good ideas built around  themes.
• Educational. Teach the kids something about animals or trees or ecosystems through your party activities.
• Activist. Involve the kids in a party activity that does something worthwhile for the planet or teaches them something. For example, take kids to help at an animal shelter. Or plant trees together. Or take a nature walk.

Gifts

One of the problems with birthday party gift giving is that kids end up with a bunch of things that they don’t really need, don’t really want, or already have. The reason for a party is not to amass gifts but to celebrate a life. Consider these life-affirming alternative approaches to gift giving:

• Gifts with Social Merit. Instead of asking guests for gifts, ask them to make a donation to a worthwhile organization, such as a local animal shelter or environmental organization. Look at the links on our PK Friends page for some ideas. Your child probably has particular interests that lend themselves to such donations. For a kid who loves horses, a donation to a mustang rescue organization, for example, is perfect.
• Personalized Gifts. A homemade gift can be the most meaningful and therefore most valued. Ask guests to make instead of buy something.
• Carefully Selected Gifts. If there is something your child truly needs or has been wanting, or if you know people are going to bring gifts even if you ask them not to, help direct the gift giving to make sure it doesn’t result in more waste. Ask people to make contributions toward the purchase of a particular item or set up a registry.

Invitations and Thank You Cards

• Electronic. Send out electronic invitations to save paper.
• Recycled. Alternatively, use recycled paper invitations and thank you cards. Even better, make them with your child out of throwaway items, like junk mail.

Party Favors

Reinforce the learning and fun at your party by giving guests related party favors that leave them with something to think about.

©2010 ProgressiveKid

Image by Jessica Diamond, 2008, Creative Commons license.

In response to our local power company’s proposed construction of a new electrical substation and installation of high voltage power lines in the downtown core area, I decided to investigate possible health and safety concerns related to electromagnetic fields (EMFs), those electrical and magnetic emissions created by all the electrical devices in our lives, from appliances to giant electric towers. I knew the conventional wisdom that there is no definitive link shown through research between EMFs and cancers, including childhood leukemia. But I’ve also walked underneath high voltage towers and felt my hair rise on my head from the charge, and I’ve heard the cracking and snapping and popping of the wires. So I unplugged conventional wisdom and decided to turn on some of the real variety.

From the Horse’s Mouth

The power company in question, Puget Sound Energy, offers on its website a page dedicated to electric and magnetic fields (http://www.pse.com/safetyReliability/electricsafety/pages/electricSafety.aspx?tab=1&chapter=10). There is some good basic information here and in the links provided. One key bit of information is the measurement units. We can’t talk about what we can’t see, like electric and magnetic fields, without a way to measure it:

• Electric field strength is measured in volts per meter (V/m).
• Magnetic field is measured in microstesla (µT).

How High Can You Get?

Both PSE and the World Health Organization (follow the link from the PSE page) present in terms of these units the human exposure guidelines recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). (Keep in mind that these units are based on the European standard of alternating currents at 50 Hz, which means that the reversal of current direction and thus the reversal of the electromagnetic field direction occurs in 50 cycles per second. In the United States we use 60 Hz.) The ICNIRP says that humans should be exposed to no more than 5,000 V/m and 100 µT. These limits are based on behavioral changes observed in studies with animals.

It is important to remember that we are exposed to electric fields all the time, so our exposure is already higher than 0 V/m. For example, the electric field strength of a refrigerator (at 50 Hz) is 120 V/m, and of a hair dryer (again, at 50 Hz) it is 80 V/m. The guideline of 5,000 V/m includes the exposure we already have. Underneath high voltage power lines we can be exposed to as much as 10,000 V/m all at once, more than double the ICNIRP recommended maximum exposure.

The same holds true for magnetic field. For example, we are continuously exposed to the Earth’s magnetic field, measured at up to 70 µT—still below the guideline of 100 µT. Beneath power lines, magnetic field can reach densities of up to 20 µT, which although by itself below the ICNIRP limit, greatly exceeds the density of 0.2 µT found in homes away from power lines.

Breaking Down

Low-frequency electric fields affect us all the time just as the electrical processes within our own bodies do. High frequency fields can cause more serious consequences.

Qanta are particles that carry electromagnetic waves. At higher frequencies, wavelengths are shorter and carry more energy. At very high frequencies qanta can carry so much energy that the bonds among molecules begin to break. High frequencies like this are found in radio frequency fields, which are created by microwave ovens, radio and cell towers, high voltage power lines, and radar, for example. In radio frequencies because electric and magnetic fields are so closely related, they are often measured in terms of power density, expressed in watts per square meter (W/m²).

Those Pesky Variables

As both PSE and WHO are quick to remind (and thorough about it), there are many variables involved in the potential effects of EMFs:

• the strength of exposure
• the length and frequency of exposure
• the size and body composition of the person
• the orientation of the body toward the field
• the health of the person
• the distance of the person from the source of exposure
• in the case of electric fields, the presence of barriers, such as metal or trees or walls, that can shield a person from the electric waves

These variables make it difficult for scientists to determine what EMF exposure is safe. The WHO explains one way that ICNIRP handles these variables: “According to ICNIRP, radiofrequency and microwave exposures should be averaged over time to address cumulative effects. The guidelines specify a time-averaging period of six minutes and short-term exposures above the limits are acceptable.”

Reading Between the Power Lines

The PSE page quotes the World Health Organization as saying that “Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.” Indeed, WHO very, very carefully emphasizes the low risk of low-level exposure to EMFs. But they also remind readers, and PSE does not quote them on this, that “It is not disputed that electromagnetic fields above certain levels can trigger biological effects.” And they emphasize that no studies have been conducted to assess long-term exposure to low levels.

WHO also carefully explains why so much research into this matter continues even though many studies have failed to show a definitive link between cancer (and other health effects) and exposure to EMFs:

Human health studies are very good at identifying large effects, such as a connection between smoking and cancer. Unfortunately, they are less able to distinguish a small effect from no effect at all. If electromagnetic fields at typical environmental levels were strong carcinogens, then it would have been easy to have shown that by now. By contrast, if low level electromagnetic fields are a weak carcinogen, or even a strong carcinogen to a small group of people in the larger population, that would be far more difficult to demonstrate. In fact, even if a large study shows no association we can never be entirely sure that there is no relationship. The absence of an effect could mean that there really is none. But just as well it could mean that the effect is simply undetectable with our method of measurement. Therefore, negative results are generally less convincing than strong positive ones. [emphasis all mine]

The Issue That Towers Before Us

In our community, we already have high voltage power lines running by one of the community middle schools. The proposed new lines would run by either the high school, a middle school, and a daycare or down a busy a street with a high residence density, including apartments, townhomes, and community cohousing.

The reason offered by PSE for their proposal to build is to address a slight increase in energy needs. In our relatively progressive community, the increase in energy that the proposed station and power lines is intended to address could be managed easily through a community-wide effort at reducing energy consumption. Already more than 700 families have volunteered to have their electric heat cut off by the power company during times of peak usage that overtax the grid. It seems that given the long list of unknowns and knowns cited by both PSE and the World Health Organization, the only reasonable course of action is to change our energy behavior before we willingly risk the potential for changes to our molecular structures.

© 2010 ProgressiveKid

by Sarah Lane

So the City Council of Asheville, North Carolina, wants to keep a man elected to the council, Cecil Bothwell, from being sworn in because he is a nontheist, and the North Carolina Constitution, in direct conflict with the U.S. Constitution, disqualifies for office “First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.” At the same time the Rotary Club of Leesburg, Virginia, has been blocked from doing what it has done for 50 years: set up a Christmas tree on the grounds of the Loudon County Courthouse.

These two seemingly opposite responses to the mixing of religion and government (or the separation of church and state) are actually alike in that they both espouse a policy of exclusion. What we teach our children through such exclusion is that there is only one way to think: Either God is the One Way or god cannot have a thing to do with public funds. But universal exclusion is an unusual case of less being in fact less.

Why do we fear the ability of our Constitution to protect the beliefs of all peoples, as long as those beliefs don’t actively promote assault on the beliefs of others? The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom of expression. How is a Christmas tree threatening? What do people have to fear from a councilmember who doesn’t believe in  a god?

I want the schools our children go to to teach about Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Bahaullah, Asa Phillip Randolph, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry Cadbury, Ernestine Louise Rose, George S. Schuyler, and all the other courageous people across the ages who whether you agree with them or not you will agree have stood up and declared their beliefs without urging assault on those who opposed them.

I want the schools our children attend to introduce them to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Atheism, Druidism, and Hindusim among many other beliefs in an open way that teaches them the beliefs without giving them the message that one is better than the others or, just as bad, that having none is better than having any of them. I want schools to put up Christmas trees, Hanukkah menoras, Kwanzaa kinaras, and Winter Solstice Yule logs or candles and promote the celebration of light and hope regardless of the form it takes, whether the hope comes from a winged angel or a government employee with a school lunch program.

Rav Kook, the Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (who died in 1935 and was the first Chief Rabbi of Israel before it became a state), eloquently explains why in this case more is in fact more:

True peace . . . comes precisely through the proliferation of divergent views. When all of the various angles and sides of an issue are exposed, and we are able to clarify how each one has its place—that is true peace. The Hebrew word shalom means both “peace”‘ and “completeness.” We will only attain complete knowledge when we are able to accommodate all views—even those that appear contradictory—as partial perceptions of the whole truth. Like an interlocking puzzle, together they present a complete picture. (Psalm 122: The Peace of Torah Scholars)

Certainly our trust in our democracy can support inclusiveness of belief with no fear that our freedoms will be hurt in the process. In fact, it is exclusion that is the danger: Closing the door on all ideologies in the interest of “fairness” leaves our democracy weakened through being unchallenged and untested. And it leaves our nation and its institutions colorless, uninspiring, and uninteresting. Finally, it erodes our loyalty to that democracy: When there’s nothing there, there’s nothing worth defending.

It would be better, like our very own Statue of Liberty, to open our arms to all and give all a chance to be heard, modeling for our children the ideas that (1) our own beliefs are not threatened by divergence of opinion and that (2) the experience of all is enriched by a range of celebrations, customs, and ideologies. For my own kid I would want nothing less.

©2009 ProgressiveKid

Image by Chris Phan, 2005, Creative Commons license.

by Sarah Lane

During these two weeks of the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, I think it is time to reach across the great divide between those who believe in climate change and those who don’t and link arms. So whether or not you think climate change is happening, whether you believe it is human made or caused by an angry God, little elves, or bad luck, whether you work for a coal plant or a bicycle messenger service, shed your need to be right and join in the broad movement to change the way we humans do things. All climate change hoax adherents, hemp and green tea advocates, everyone incensed or merely annoyed by scientists at the University of East Anglia, all Bill McKibben fans and, on the other side, cheerleaders for Joseph Olson, Sarah Palin, Jack Kelly, and Rush Limbaugh, listen up and sign on to making changes for the myriad sensible and excellent reasons that abound:

1. Carbon dioxide is bad for human health. Even if you think it’s not hurting our planet irreversibly, you can agree that breathing in carbon, whether dioxide or monoxide, is unhealthy. Even the EPA thinks so!

2. A culture of rampant consumerism is undesirable and unsustainable. Maybe you think more consumerism will get us out of the current economic crisis, but you have to agree that that mindset also contributed to the current economic crisis. People wanting more and more things and upgrading their things frequently and discarding mountains of their old things is not something that we can sustain, literally. At some point the space needed for things will exceed the space occupied by humans.

3. We need trees. Trees make oxygen. If we have no trees then we will either need to create some sort of synthetic oxygen for all of us to breathe (not yet possible, but keep your fingers crossed!) or we will suffocate.

4. We need water and food. Drought is increasing around the world. Drought reduces human access to water and food. Maybe you don’t believe that increased drought has anything to do with climate change. Fine. But there are things we humans can do to hold it in check.

5. Healthy oceans are nice to have. Maybe you don’t accept that climate change is damaging the oceans, but you might enjoy a tuna fish sandwich every now and then. And you’re not going to have too many more of them in your life if we don’t do something to improve the conditions of our oceans by reducing overfishing, reducing pollution, and reducing carbon dioxide’s impact on oxygen levels in bodies of water.

6. It is better to live in a world with other species. You might be someone who hates squirrels and pigeons or shoots raccoons from your back deck or wolves from your helicopter. But picture a world with no bees, no birds, no bears, nothing else but dogs, cats, and chickens and cows in pens. Is that some place you’d want your children to live?

7. Cows contaminate groundwater. So what if thousands of people could expire in a giant burp of methane gas? Maybe you don’t care or you don’t believe it could happen. Well, okay. But you certainly will agree that the contamination of groundwater that happens around massive feedlots is undesirable, especially if you’re one of the feedlot neighbors.

8. We can have too many cars. Maybe you don’t think we do have too many yet, but if population increases and large countries such as India and China continue to adopt the car lifestyle, then the number of cars in the world will rise. And at some point none of us will be able to get anywhere because of the gridlock. Not just a massive carbon dioxide source but a colossal waste of time too!

9. Changes in climate can generate droves of refugees. So you don’t think that increased flooding has anything to do with humans. You need to think that it’s just part of our planet’s natural cycles (hey, Noah had to deal with it, right?). But, regardless, flooding (and other catastrophic changes resulting from warmer temperatures) creates refugees. And refugees have an annoying habit of looking for somewhere to live. Eventually they will come looking in your backyard as well. The refugee problem will soon become everyone’s problem. And refugees need food, water, and shelter, but with some measurable climate changes currently happening we will have less of those things, and the problem will increase exponentially.

10. There are things humans can do to make the world better to live in. This is perhaps the best reason of all. If there were something you could do to ameliorate some of the effects of warmer temperatures or, better yet, to reduce or at least hold temperatures steady, wouldn’t you want to? If there are things we can do to enhance our health, to make the planet healthier and better to live in, to increase our enjoyment and appreciation of life, and to reduce human sickness and suffering, why wouldn’t we do them? Can’t we all agree to these obvious steps?

• Reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide: A world with cleaner air and water is better to live in.
• Protect forests: Trees help clean the air and water. They provide shelter and habitat.
• Reduce our reliance on cars: A world with fewer cars would create smaller, closer communities, which would feed small businesses, create stronger ties among people, and build a stronger sense of personal responsibility.
• Protect other species and their habitats: A world with other species is less lonely and more spiritually satisfying.
• Develop new sustainable energy sources: A planet that uses less energy and whose energy comes from nonpolluting sources (like solar and wind) is healthier and better to live in. And communities that engage in developing healthier, more efficient technologies will thrive economically and create jobs.
• Work to protect food and water sources across the globe: A world where most people have enough to eat, have water, and have shelter is more stable and secure. Also, healthy oceans provide jobs and food and habitat.
• Change the way we think and act: People who are motivated more by their role in a community, by art, by healthy lifestyles, and spiritual pursuits, for example, are happier and healthier than people who are driven by the desire to acquire things.

© 2009 ProgressiveKid

Image by Michael Pinsky, 2006, Creative Commons license.

by Sarah Lane

The Natural Defenses Resource Council, in its article “Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype,” reports that more than half of all Americans drink bottled water and about one-third of the population drinks it regularly. So Americans are thirsty. Why is this a problem?

1. What’s in the Bottles

One problem has to do with what’s in the bottles themselves. The Earth Policy Institute reports that 1.5 million barrels of oil per year, which is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for that same year, are required to satisfy Americans’ demand for bottled water. That’s because PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, the plastic used in water bottles, is derived from crude oil. And, according to the Earth Policy Institute article “Bottled Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain,” by Emily Arnold and Janet Larsen, this oil is being used to make some 2.7 million tons of plastic each year for bottling water around the globe.

2. What the Bottles Are in

Unfortunately, most of these bottles, four of every five, end up in landfills, according to Pat Franklin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, a Washington group that promotes recycling. Jared Blumenfeld and Susan Leal in their essay “The real cost of bottled water” published in the San Francisco Chronicle report that more than 1 billion plastic water bottles end up in California’s trash alone each year.

The National Association for PET Container Resources in Sonoma, California, puts the national figure at 3.62 billion plastic bottles for 2004. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.

Why is the presence of so many bottles in landfills a problem?

• Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals.
• Water bottles buried in landfills can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
• The bottles leak toxic additives, such as phthalates, into the groundwater.

3. Where the Bottles Are

Arnold and Larsen also point out two major problems with the location of water bottling plants. First, bottled water must be transported long distances, which involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels. They explain that almost one-fourth of all bottled water must cross national borders to reach consumers.

Second, the communities where water is extracted suffer a disproportionate loss to their own water supplies. The writers point to water shortages in Texas and the Great Lakes region near bottling plants.

4. What’s in the Water

The Natural Resources Defense Council conducted a four-year study of the bottled water industry, including its bacterial and chemical contamination problems. They reviewed available information on bottled water and its sources, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations of bottled water, and government and academic bottled water testing results. The NRDC also commissioned independent lab testing of more than 1,000 bottles of 103 types of bottled water from many parts of the country.

In its report, the NRDC reveals that the FDA’s rules exempt 60 to 70 percent of the bottled water sold in the United States from the agency’s bottled water standards “because FDA says its rules do not apply to water packaged and sold within the same state.” Because almost 40 states say they do regulate such waters even though they have few resources or policies to do so, this is a significant omission. And “Even when bottled waters are covered by FDA’s specific bottled water standards, those rules are weaker in many ways than EPA rules that apply to big city tap water.”

The NRDC study generated alarming results: “approximately one third of the tested waters (34 of 103 waters, or 33 percent) violated an enforceable state standard or exceeded microbiological-purity guidelines, or both, in at least one sample.”

5. What the Bottled Water Costs

Arnold and Larsen report that “The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from the 98 billion liters consumed five years earlier.” But increased demand is only driving up the price. According to the NRDC, consumers spend from 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they typically do for tap water.

And, clearly, the price of bottled water is much greater than what can be reflected in dollars and cents.

©2009 ProgressiveKid

Image by Shea Hazarian, 2008, Creative Commons license.