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Vegetarian Tacos
I think it’s safe to say everyone loves a good taco. But what if you’re trying to cut back on meat and you’re craving Mexican food? This happened to me the other day, so I came up with a great recipe to satisfy that craving. Here’s what you’ll need: Morning Star Chipotle Black Bean Crumbles 1 red onion, diced Shredded lettuce Flour tortillas Cheese Sour Cream So all you need to do is prepare the Morning Star crumbles according to the directions on the back of the package. While that’s cooking, chop up your onion and add it to your crumbles once they are almost cooked through. Then, you just…
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The Love Canal Disaster
Love Canal was originally meant to be the perfect community. William T. Love felt that by digging a short canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers, power could be generated to fuel the industry and homes of this city. Despite considerable support, the idea failed due to fluctuations in the economy and Nikola Tesla’s discovery of how to economically transmit electricity over great distances by means of an alternating current. To put it simply, the story of the Love Canal tragedy is one of the most terrible environmental tragedies in American history. In the 1920s, the canal was turned into a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite. From 1942 to…
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The History of Earth Day
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Don’t Get Discouraged
As my last semester of college is quickly coming to an end, I have been more stressed with schoolwork than ever. As a result, I have kind of been slacking in the sustainability department. I’ve been eating more meat/dairy lately, letting food in my fridge go bad, driving to class instead of walking, etc. While I feel pretty guilty about this, I am not allowing myself to become discouraged in the process of living more sustainably. Sometimes, life gets pretty crazy and we are bound to make mistakes and lose track of our goals. However, it is important to remind yourself that you are still making changes and you are…
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Jars!
This is something I have only begun to do recently, but I wish I had sooner because it is so convenient. If you are trying to be conscious of limiting your spending on plastic-packaged items, you’ll probably have a lot more glass jars laying around. I have learned that saving these jars for future uses is a satisfying way to reduce your waste output! For example, I am constantly buying salsa in glass jars. Instead of throwing them all in the recycling bin, I have begun to wash them out and keep them for future food storage. Like if I’m going to the beach or the pool this summer and I…
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The History of Earth Day
Welcome to my new category of posts, Throwback Thursdays! Here I will be looking back on notable moments in the history of environmentalism. With Earth Day approaching, I thought I would discuss how this wonderful day came to be. Earth Day, April 22nd, is the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. At the time, Americans were burning through leaded gas like it was their job. Large corporations expelled smoke and sludge without any consideration of the environmental consequences. In fact, the word “environment” was hardly seen or talked about anywhere. The idea for Earth Day came to be when founder Gaylord Nelson, a senator from…
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The Love Canal Disaster
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A Tree-Free Home
As Earth day approaches, it is important to keep our tree friends in mind, for obvious reasons. It is no secret that billions of trees are chopped down per year (about 15.3 billion to be exact) for a variety of our everyday household items. Trees provide us with clean air and reduce the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere, so it is important that we greatly reduce deforestation rates before it is too late. Here are some simple changes you can make for a more tree-free home: Replace paper towels with a set of cloth towels for cleaning. Old T-shirts also make for great towels! Simply wash and re-use. Replace paper…
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The Earth’s Got Beef With Us
Ditch the Plastic Water Bottles
Don’t Get Discouraged
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Bee Kind
Spring has officially sprung, which means you can officially start gardening again! However, it is extremely important that you make sure the plants in your garden are safe to our pollinator friends. Check the labels before purchasing any flowers or plants and do NOT purchase them if it says they have been treated with Neonicotinoids. This class of pesticide is highly toxic to bees. In fact, the three main neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam) were banned in Europe for all outdoor uses. Because neonicotinoids are systemic chemicals that are absorbed into the plant, these pesticides can be present in the pollen and the nectar that the bees feed on. The long-lasting…
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How to Save More Energy!
One of the most effective ways you can reduce your carbon footprint is by conserving energy. While it may be common knowledge to people that you should always have lights turned off in rooms you aren’t currently in, it actually goes farther than that. Leaving your electrical items turned on/plugged in when you are not using them uses up energy for absolutely no reason at all. For instance, after you finish charging your phone, it is likely that you leave your charger plugged into the socket. Well, despite your phone not being plugged in, the charger is still sucking up a bunch of energy. This goes for any other kind…
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The Powerful Speech That Changed My Life
Recently, I stumbled across a video on Youtube of a man known as “Earthling Ed” giving a very convincing speech about why going Vegan is the thing to do. He provides a variety of facts, mindsets, and new perspectives that I will now hold on to for the rest of my life. One thing that stuck out to me was the portion of the speech where he talks about how he used to love animal products and always order his pizzas with extra cheese and extra meat. It gave me hope that someday, I will be able to call myself a Vegan and will be proud doing so. As much…
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Ditch the Plastic Water Bottles
Growing up, my family would purchase 24 packs of spring water. We would go through them pretty quick, a large portion of them ending up half-drank, stacked up on nightstands, or underneath my bed. It’s a shame to think of all plastic I have accumulated in my lifetime, but a couple years ago I made the switch from buying bottled water to investing in an insulated water bottle. There are an infinite number of reasons why you should make this change too, but, here are just a few of them: you are eliminating another single-use plastic from your life (if you pitched the plastic bags like I suggested in an…
