environment

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotis) and others are both a delicious edible mushroom and a great medicinal as well.  The wild ones are the tastiest, if you’re lucky enough to find them, though you can often find them at the grocery store or even grow your own with one of the many commercial growing kits available.  I found a small cluster this summer during what was an otherwise dismal mushroom season here in the Southern Rockies.  They smelled like aniseed…something

Halloween should be a fright fest for the kids, not the environment. Unfortunately, all the waste produced from single-use costumes, candy wrappers, and face paint takes its toll on our earth. Try greening your Halloween with some of these eco-friendly tips.  

Imagine a world where weekly garbage pickup didn't happen. Would you still make as much trash every day, knowing it would eventually consume your entire sidewalk, possibly even your home? We often forget how privileged we are to have garbage pickup services—not everyone is so lucky. We give very little thought to what happens to our garbage when it's sent away. The truth is, it doesn't go away. It goes to landfills, likely located in poor communities, where it emits toxic gasses bad for people's health and the earth.

I recently returned from a writing residency in Slovenia, the small country that sits east of Italy and lays wedged between Austria to the north and Croatia in the south. Few people are aware of its existence, and prior to spending several weeks there, I considered myself to be fairly unaware of it, too. Unfortunately, Slovenia deserves a lot more credit than it gets, specifically for its greenness—think low pollution levels, preservation of natural resources, encouragement of biodiversity, and more.

About an hour drive down the Mediterranean coast from Genoa Italy, and 100 meters (330 feet) out to sea, you will find yourself floating above an array of growing produce: this is Nemo’s Garden. Six to 10 meters (20-33 feet) below the ocean’s surface there is an array of fruits, vegetables, and herbs growing in garden beds that look remarkably like jellyfish. Here we find something that could mean a new chapter in agriculture.

Every year more than 15 million tons of cloth, fabric, and textiles are wasted, which is a big burden on the Earth’s resources as well as the grounds on which they are dumped. That said, most of us have plenty of clothes in the closest, some that we use to their full extent and others that we don’t. Inevitably some of these clothes will end up being discarded, but the way in which they’re discarded can have an impact.

Glitter is made from microplastics which contribute to pollution of waterways. Unfortunately, it's used in everything from art projects to cosmetics. Should we consider banning glitter in order to reduce the pollution we create? 

We’ve heard the term bandied about in ecological circles—but what are microplastics and how can we avoid polluting our planet with them?

With the Internet flooded with images of seahorses hanging on to pieces of straw, and penguins living on floating plastic islands, and whole swathes of plastic mini-seas floating in the high seas, it’s high time we educated ourselves about microplastics. What harm can they do—to our seas and ultimately our blue planet?

The reduce-reuse-recycle philosophy of my youth evoked images of bottles, cans, and paper. My friends and I lamented the poor animals with necks caught in plastic rings from six-packs of cans. To this day, I diligently seek out recycling bins everywhere I go, from restaurants to house parties.

But what to do with my old clothes?

Spring is the season to clear out the cobwebs and nurture growth. It’s also the perfect time to check in with your environmental wellness—that is, your health as it relates to your relationship with nature and your environment. Environmental wellness is a holistic approach to maintaining your health, the health of those around you, and the health of our natural world.