You Are Here: A review

Submitted by M. P. Crawford

Tom Kostigen's 2008 provacative read, You Are Here - Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What that Does to Our Earth, will alternately provide his readers with chills of fear and glimmers of hope. One thing is guaranteed: you will change your thinking on at least one aspect of how you are dealing with the climate crisis.
I thought it would be beneficial to share a few simple everyday tips from Kostigen, who prior to researching for this current expose, was the co-author of the New York Times best-seller The Green Book. These ideas (and many more which await your discovery in these 256 pages) will help you help the Earth (aka 'Here'). Believe me, many of these are eye-openers!
Do you want to save on your water bill AND save the planet 35,000gallons of water yearly? Sure you do. Just install inexpensive low-flow toilet(s) and showerhead(s). The water saved is worth three months' use.
Listen to your mother...turn the water off while brushing your teeth! Save 1,400 gallons of the wet stuff per year.
In to experimenting? One night after all flushing is completed (forgo that last soda and save a can as well!) add a few drops of food coloring to the toilet tank. Do not flush. If the bowl has changed color in the morning, you have a toilet leak. Fixing the leak will save a whopping 500 gallons daily!
This one may surprise you (and save your hands as well). Use that dishwasher. Run full loads. Believe it or not, dishwashers use less water than the old-fashioned manual way. If you do four full loads a week, you are saving 2,300 gallons a week.
Switching from those bubble baths (I'm guilty here) to daily ten minute showers can save 12,000 gallons yearly. And here's a really simple one: cutting out just ONE toilet flush daily will save 5,000 gallons each year.
Amazing, isn't it? Taking the car to the car wash instead of doing it yourself nets a water savings of 100 gallons.
These are your choices/my choices. The eye in the sky isn't hovering over our homes to account for that one less flush or monitor dishwasher usage. We posses the free will to make that conscious decision to alter our rote behaviors, just a single habit change will effect a positive outcome on our neighbors in India, China, Minnesota or the Amazon. What an empowering feeling this can be to know the effect for the good we create while dancing within OUR planet's web of life.

Check out the book's website here.

City life driving you nuts? Yeah, it does that.

So, we've all heard about the toll urban development takes on forests and the critters dwelling therein, but have we stopped to think about the concrete horizon's ramifications for the human psyche?
The Boston Globe recently reported on the mind-numbing effects of surrounding ourselves with blaring horns, neon signs, cross walks, distracted pedestrians, and the overall bleak gray vista of the average city. Check it out here, and you'll be ready to book your next nature walk or weekend in the hills.

Ice caps? So what?

Have you ever wondered what people are talking about when they refer to the polar ice caps? Are you unsure of the reason for all the fuss over the melting of these frigid-sounding locales? International Polar Year is a study focused on the nuances of the Arctic and Antarctic regions from March 2007 to March 2009. IPY will allow scientists from 60 countries to research physical, biological, and social aspects tied to the poles.
Check out the website (http://www.ipy.org/) for breath-taking photographs, information on the different studies, and ways to get involved. You can even take an interactive spin around the poles (and track cold-dwelling creatures) using IPY's Google Earth presentation.