Should we be boycotting BP?
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010With this big oil mess in the Gulf, I’ve been debating, should I be boycotting British Petroleum? I typically buy my gas at AM/PM-Arco stations, since they are cash only and are cheaper than most other stations. But now I’m wondering if I should switch.
In the past I have always stayed away from Exxon Mobil, I don’t think I need to explain why no one should like them. (Except their shareholders … remember their billion dollar profits while people couldn’t afford to buy gas??) Even though it’s been a silent protest of mine for years now, I’ve always thought that it was sort of silly. I mean, sure, you can single out an oil company for having a bad track record, but really, aren’t they all bad? Is there a such thing as a “good” oil company?
Exxon Mobil was responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in history, […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
Clean water should be taken more seriously
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Photo credit: makelessnoise
The other day I saw an article about big city water ratings in the United States, and it really got me thinking how sad it is that clean, fresh water is so hard to find. The article was brought to my attention at a good time, as just the other day I watched a program on the History Channel (I think) that spoke of the deterioration of the public infrastructure here in this country. This show was more broad in its content than just public water, but in addition to describing how the public water infrastructure is badly in need of repair, it also described roads, bridges and highway systems that are also in need of repair and in some cases close to failing.
In the article, San Diego -my current city of residence- was ranked 91 out of 100 […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
How to Keep 10,000 Plastic Bags out of Landfills by doing Nothing
Monday, October 12th, 2009I consider myself to be a pretty eco minded person, I wouldn’t go so far as too say I’m extreme when it comes to conservation and minimizing waste, but I do exert a fair amount of effort to try to minimize my impact, especially when it comes to over consumption and blatant waste. And I certainly would consider our (Americans) use of plastic a blatant waste.
For my part, I always bring my reusable bags when I go shopping, and I even go so far as to use an empty bread loaf bag to pick up dog poop rather than throw it out unused. These days when I make my lunch I reuse one ziplock bag for several weeks, rather than dispose of it daily, and I also use a tupperware to pack my sandwich and vegetables. Right there, assuming that I make lunch 3 days […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
The birds ate my jalapenos … I think
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009I’ve had strawberries growing in my garden for a few months, but unfortunately have only been able to eat a few because they seem to disappear from the plant the day they reach optimal ripeness. I’ve just chalked it up to the birds or the ants, though I did catch my cat lurking in the garden too. The Landscape Design of my garden is such that it allows easy access to pretty much every rodent. And I’d be surprised if a colony of ants could make a strawberry disappear, but who knows?
But the other morning I had quite a surprise. Every single jalapeno on my jalapeno plant had disappeared. There were probably 10 or more that were an inch or two long last time I looked. This was definitely not the work of ants, nor was it due to the cat or dogs. Is it […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
I have a flea plea – No more fleas please
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Pets, pests, and pesticides, or my flea plea.
In our house, there is one cat and two dogs. We are in San Diego where the weather is usually great year round. Unfortunately this means that all of our favorite pests also can live year round, and they are especially persistent in the summer. So I send this plea out to my reader(s), if you have pets have you been able to control fleas in your houses without using all the usual nasty chemicals?
As much as I hate to do it, I do use Advantage or Frontline on my cat, and my girlfriend uses it on her dogs. But to be honest, I’ve never seen much change in the fleas on the animals after administering it. The last two times we gave Advantage to one of our dogs, within a few days time I spotted large fleas […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
Seals ordered to leave La Jolla
Thursday, May 28th, 2009Most everyone has heard of La Jolla, the community of San Diego, also known as the Jewel By the Sea. Well there is a place along the coast in La Jolla called the Children’s Pool, and what brings a lot of people to see this area (besides of the beauty of the coast itself) is the 50 or so seals that can be seen laying on the beach here. As most people know, there is not very much of the Southern California coast that has not been taken over by people, so for many this sort of place to see wildlife is quite a novelty.
The reason this area has attracted the seals is that a big sea wall was built many years ago to shelter this part of the beach, which is what makes it desirable for the seals. Well, the problem is that this sea wall […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
Water Conservation – A letter to the city
Friday, January 2nd, 2009A few weeks ago, while driving into work in the rain, I noticed that the sprinklers on the side of the freeway were on. Not only is this ridiculous, but it is especially ridiculous being that San Diego is basically a desert with very little of its own water supplies, and the city has recently said that unless water usage is decreased soon we will have mandatory water rationing. So I decided to write a little letter to the mayor’s office. Here is is:
Hello Mayor Sanders,
I have read in the past months of your efforts at promoting water conservation in the city. Also, I had seen that you declared a water shortage emergency this past summer which called for residents to voluntarily cut back there usage or face mandatory cutbacks later on.
I am writing because I would like to see the city take further initiative […]
Read More…
[links and styling have been removed in the excerpt, read more to see complete content]
