Are You Green Enough

• 1. Are You Green Enough?
  Why the environmental issues facing us are truly
  A Womans Issue
  

2. Effectsof Global Warming
Signs Are Everywhere
The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions and the effects of rising temperatures arent waiting for some far-flung future. Theyre happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, its also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move.
3. Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening:
Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earths poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
Rebound effect increases earthquake, tsunami and volcanic activity
4. The number of Adlie penguins on Antarctica have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
5. This Glacier was once the largest in south America, but it is now disappearing at the rate of 200 meters per year
6. Portage Glacier in Alaska

• Glacier National Park in 1950 it had 150 glaciers- 37 of them named. Today there are only 25 named glaciers and it is projected to have lost all glaciers by the end of the century.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey Office, reduction in sea ice in the Arctic can see a loss of 2/3rds of the entire words Polar Bear population over the next 50 years.
7. Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening:
Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
8. Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.
Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
9. Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
10. Ecosystems will changesome species will move farther north or become more successful; others wont be able to move and could become extinct.
11. Why should the environment be a womans issue?
Women are more directly affected by environmental changes and exposures.
12. Women are the first environment for the next generation.
Many chemicals stored in a womans body are passed onto her child during pregnancy and later through breast-feeding.
A 2005study revealed that at least 287 hazardous industrial chemicals pass through the placenta to the fetus.
Synthetic chemicals are so prevalent in a womans breast milk today that, if bottled for sale, most breast milk would not pass FDA regulations.
13. Women have greater exposure to chemicals
Many chemicals accumulate in fat and women generally have a higher percentage of fat tissue than men.
Women are generally smaller than men so the ratio of toxic absorption per body weight is greater.
Women are significantly greater users of personal care products including soaps, cosmetics, lotions etc. which contain phthalates, pesticides and lead.
Women still do more than 70% of household cleaning exposing them to more chemicals.
14. Health Risks
Breast cancer rates have risen from 1 in 20 to 1 in 8 over the last two decades.
Onset of puberty is occurring earlier, developing breasts up to one to two years earlier. (Some new studies show infants in China developing breasts after drinking formula made with milk from cows fed growth hormones - illegal in Europe but not in US.
Hormone and thyroid disruption, lead and mercury poisoning
15. Other risks to women
Respiratory diseases caused by toxic smoke from cooking fires kill 1.5 million women and children each year.
Keroseneis used for cooking and lightingin many third world areas but is heavily polluting in CO2.
In Africa, women who must forage for wood for cooking are subject to attacks, beatings, rape, kidnap and murder.
Solar panels and solar cookers can greatly reduce the environmental hazards, reduce energy consumption and emission of GHGs and provide greater security to women
16. What can you do?
How you can reduce your carbon footprint, help reduce global warming, save money and save the planet!
17. WHAT IS A CARBON FOOTPRINT?
Your Carbon Footprint is your contribution to the growing levelsof Carbon Dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.Carbon Dioxide is a "greenhouse gas".It is the major cause of global warming -a climate change that will be disastrous for all of us!The size of your Carbon Footprint is determined by your lifestyle.and is measured in kg of Carbon Dioxide (CO2).The average European creates around 10,000kg of CO2 per year.
The average American creates over 20,000kg!
We need to reduce this considerably!
18. Tips For Greener Travel
What Can You Do?
Reducing your speed to 55 mph from 65 mph may increase your fuel efficiency by as much as 15 percent; cut it to 55 from 70, and you could get a 23 percent improvement.
travel with a lighter footstep:
Stay closer to home. The less you drive, the easier your trip is on the environment.
Increase your fuel efficiency on the road. Inflate your tires, and drive at a leisurely pace.
rent a hybrid. Hertz recently started renting Toyota Prius at major metropolitan airports, and for inner city driving, check out car shares.
Get to know the country through the window of a train.
19. REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT BY USING THE OFF SWITCH.
You shouldturn your computer off when you are not using it
Every electrical appliance on the planet can add to the problem of global warming - but only if we let them!
Protecting our world from the machines is a job for all of us - not just Sarah Connor!
The best weapon we have to combat this menace - is THE OFF SWITCH!
Machines seem tame and harmless if you put them on "Standby" - but this is just a trick!Standby is not OFF. Standby is another form of ON. And machines on standby are still harming the environment.
Unplug chargers when not in use
The rule is simple - If you are not using it - OFF IT!
20. Every time you boil water for a drink, or to cook vegetables etc, you add to your carbon footprint.
You can reduce this by measuring and heating water more carefully.Why boil water for 6 cups of tea or coffee - when you're only making one!
Eco-Kettles are a great idea -They pay for themselves in less than a year!
21. Question: How long does it take to change a light bulb?Answer: Around 130 years!For over a hundred years, the incandescent light bulb has brightened our nights. And in all of that time the design has hardly altered!It has had a wonderful run - and it has changed the world.But it's time for it to step aside!
Replace just 10 old-style incandescent light bulbs with the latest low-energy bulbs -and you could reduce your Carbon Footprint by 3000 kg a year ! In Europe that's almost a third of your carbon footprint gone!
And if every household in America changed just 3 bulbs that would reduce America's carbon footprint by over TWO TRILLION kg CO2!
22.

• A single Styrofoam cup contains one billion billion molecules of CFCs thats 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 23. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year and 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour. 24. Americans throw away about 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back nearly 20 times.

Just say NO! No to Styrofoam No to paper cups Use your own reusable cup!

25. Reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals
Dodge Phthalates, triclosan, lead and bisphenolA
Hormone-disrupting phthalates have been associated with birth defects and cancer in lab animals.
What Can You Do?
Minimize the use of beauty products and antimicrobial soaps and lotionscontaining synthetic fragrances and nail polish, which contains phthalates.
26. Community
Supported
Agriculture
Join a CSA

• You get fresh, locally grown, organic produce 27. You help support local farms

• Solar Power 28.Wind Turbines 29.Geothermal 30.Hydroelectric

Support Alternative Energy Sources
31. Recycle
Use products made of recycled materials
Recycleyourwaste:
Akron Freecycle @ Yahoo.com
32. Plastic Patch in Pacific Grows to Twice Size of Texas

• Composed of two huge vortices called gyres-- one in the eastern Pacific and one in the western Pacific. 33. The plastic can accumulate in areas where currents are forcing nutrients upward - zones of high biological activity. The consequences are deadly to a wide range of species. 34. Plastic trash patches are located in all 5 major gyres around the globe including the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

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35. Plastic with your Sushi?
Cetaceans, all sea turtle species, and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies. When marine animals consume plastic trash, presumably mistaking it for food, this can lead to internal blockages, dehydration, starvation, and potentially death.

• What are the potential human health impacts of toxic chemicals entering the marine food chain through plastics. 36. Science is beginning to ask the question: do chemicals such as PCBs and DDTs that sorb onto plastic pellets get into the tissues and blood of the animals that eat plastic? 37. Do these chemicals work their way up the food chain, becoming increasingly concentrated and potentially entering our bodies when we eat seafood?

Around the world, plastic pollution...
has become a growing plague, clogging our waterways, damaging marine ecosystems, and entering the marine food web. Much of the plastic trash we generate on land flows into our oceans through storm drains and watersheds.
In the ocean, some of these plastics- Polycarbonate, Polystyrene, and PETE- sink, while LDPE, HDPE, Polypropylene, and foamed plastics float on the oceans surface. Sunlight and wave action cause these floating plastics to fragment, breaking into increasingly smaller particles, but never completely disappearing- at least on any documented time scale. This plastic pollution is becoming a hazard for marine wildlife, and ultimately for us.
38. Birds and fish tend to eat bits of plastic and marine mammals can be strangled by them.
Sea Lion Pup, California
Capuchin Monkey
Spinner Dolphin, Hawaii
Stork, Southern Spain
Green Sea Turtle, Indian Ocean
39. WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?
40. SPEAK UP

• DO NOT BE COMPLACENT 41. Simply depositing a plastic bottle in the recycle bin does not mean you have done your part. 42. Bring your passion to this issue- this affects ALL women 43. Support legislation to require changes

Just Good Zen
44. SUPPORT LEGISLATION
The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R. 5786) July 21, 2010
For the first time in 70 years, Congress is ready to close the gaping holes in the outdated federal law that allows chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities and other illnesses in the products we use on our bodies every day.
This legislation will affect every Americaneveryone who puts on moisturizer or uses shampoo or deodorant. More and more people are concerned about unsafe chemicals in our everyday lives, and getting these toxics out of the stuff we rub on our bodies every day is just common sense. It will also help the cosmetics industry by fostering the development of the safer products American consumers are demanding.
Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010July 22, 2010
Congressmen Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) today introduced a groundbreaking bill to overhaul U.S. chemicals policy in the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The "Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010" is intended to overhaul the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has failed to regulate chemicals in consumer products even those that have known links to cancer, learning disabilities, asthma, reproductive disorders, and other serious health problems.
45. SUPPORT LEGISLATION
The Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510).
And an Amendment to the food safety bill that would ban the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from sippy cups, baby bottles, baby food and infant formula containers. We need to protect our kids from BPA. Over 200 studies have linked BPA to health effects such as reproductive disorders, prostate and breast cancer, birth defects, low sperm count, early puberty and effects on brain development and behavior.
46. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
-Genesis 8:22
47. The time to act is now
The earth cant wait!
48. Are You Green Enough?
Presented by Shirley Jones
September 14, 2010