Vitamin Green

Still confused about whether CFLs (because of mercury) are safer or better than incandescent lightbulbs for our environment?

Here’s a primer (PDF) that makes a lot of sense of the issue.

via NDRC

Mining has been an integral part of Goa for decades…and the results are showing. For those of us that are still in denial about the consequences of continuing at this rate, here’s a look into the future…

Read about the The Razing of Appalachia
(via  Yale Environment 360)

See the Video?

We think recycling plastic waste usefully is an impressive achievement, because thats the one kind we’re often at a loss to reuse. Which is why we find a couple of companies based in Delhi really interesting…

Conserve and Thunk seem to have figured how to convert plastic bags, waste cloth and other waste into really attractive ‘upcycled’ products like bags, wallets, footwear, stationery and home decor items. They make great alternatives for leather (and other materials) we are using today and as gifts too…

I read about cloches on the You Grow Girl website. A cloche can be thought of as a bell-shaped mini-greenhouse that gardners use to protect plants from frost, insect or rodent attacks, provide additional humidity or general protection for plants until they are able to look after themselves.

I’ve been having trouble with field rats that seem to enjoy feasting on the roots of my baby plants. I thought this was an innovative solution to keeping the rats out till the plants are able to look after themselves. Of-course, these are made from recycled soft drink bottles and have all the positives mentioned in our previous post.

These are really easy to make. Take a pointy-tipped  serrated knife and poke a hole in the bottle about an inch or so above the base. Slide the knife in and cut the bottle all around so that the bottom comes away. Using scissors you can neaten the cut edge to remove all traces of clumsiness. And that’s it! Your cloche’s ready to use. Use larger 5 or 10 litre bottles for bigger plants.

We’re always on the lookout for ways in which everyday things can be reused instead of being discarded after a single use.

While walking through the riverine island of Chorao, I came across a house where someone had very cleverly re-purposed used soft-drink bottles as plant containers in an elegant composition on a low wall. One was designed like a hanging basket and was used to grow mint! A third design (not in the photos) was a simple one where the top had been cut-off to make a 6″-8″ deep, tall container and it had the shorter variety of sanseviera (mother-in-law’s tongue) growing in it.

I like this idea because one can create a colourful array (some soft-drink bottles have attractive stickers that can be kept on) of containers at no extra cost, and more importantly, by not bringing new goods into your consumption basket. While I’m not a big fan of bottled soft-drinks, I could just as easily run to my local bhangarwala (recycler) and buy these from Re.1 to Rs. 10 a piece, depending on the size.

Put in a friend’s favourite plant and this makes a great little gift. These containers can also be used to germinate seeds before you put them out in the open.

I have to admit that brinjals (or aubergines or egg plant) have never been my favourite food – so I’m a little biased . But a recent development has given me even more reason to distrust them. The clearance of these genetically modified brinjal (Bt Brinjal) for consumption (supposedly no health risks) seems premature and ambiguous.

Why should we care?

Because this is the first GM ‘food crop’ that has been allowed in India, and there’s much more where it came from. GM is being pushed by ‘agro companies’ aggressively, but there is enough evidence that its not the best choice for farmers.

Specifically 3 MAJOR concerns that we need to be very wary about:

Is it healthy? The jury is out on that, with various views on the subject. But Europe seems to have done the smart thing and has a wait and watch policy. We need to study them longer to judge the health impact well.

Can we choose? Will sellers of these vegetables and food processing companies that use them be required to label them clearly, so we as consumers can make a choice? That’s critical. Also, will these ‘infect’ other indigenous varieties and reduce the diversity available to us?

What about liability? Will GM producers be legally liable if their produce or processed food using it, is found to have an adverse health impact? This is critical too.

We’ve been advocates of using more eco-friendly and healthy alternatives in our homes. But how healthy are our homes themselves?

A recent scientific study conducted by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) found that over 72% of paints in the Indian market to have dangerous levels of lead in them. Why’s this a problem? Because they are slowly releasing the lead into our home environments and this is known to have a negative impact on growing children.

Unfortunately, there are no standards that the industry is obliged to comply with except the voluntary limits prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The study (published in August 2009) says that different colours and brands have different levels of lead. The highest lead content was in the deep orange paint of the Shalimar’s Superlac brand – 185 times the BIS limit and 308 times the US paints limit of 600 ppm. Berger brand Luxol’s golden yellow color had a staggering 162,559 ppm lead – 163 times the BIS limit and 271 times the US paints limit.

So which brand is healthiest? All samples of ICI-Dulux had lead much below the specified limit. In fact, of the five paints manufacturers, only ICI didn’t use lead in its paint formulations. The white shades of Asian Paints and Nerolac also conformed to the standards.

For the Down to Earth article read here:
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20090831&filename=news&sid=14&page=1&sec_id=9

For a summary of the Study read here :
http://www.cseindia.org/aboutus/press_releases/press-index.htm

For the full Laboratory Study read here:
http://cseindia.org/lead_paints.pdf

Indian’s have traditionally had a pretty healthy diet (in most parts of the country). But rapid urbanisations, expansion of organised retail and a new hyper-convenience culture are changing this very fast.

Since many of us – especially those of us that are younger – are adopting big international convenience food brands very rapidly – its good to be aware of what their food is doing to us.

See this for a detailed analysis.

Via NGF

What we eat is very important to us — or should be. Which is why there is such a raging debate about Genetically Modified (GM) foods in India and across the world. The key issues of concern for us are broadly…

• Should GM foods be allowed at all? Are they safe for us to consume?
• Have the foods been tested, and what were the ‘objective’ findings?
• Should food products legally specify that they are using GM? So that we can choose to avoid them?
• What should the legal liability of GM food growers/users be, in case of adverse effects?

If you’ve decided to avoid GM food, Greenpeace is making the task much simpler with what they call India’s first safe food guide on Genetically Modified ingredients.

The guide is available as a printable PDF that is downloadable from here.

via Greenpeace

Garden leaves are usually burnt in Goa. But that isn’t the healthiest option since the smoke disperses ash and adds CO2 and other toxic elements in our vicinity.

As this blog post says, its much better is to compost the garden leaves and use them to ‘fertilise’ your plants.

But, don’t just do it yourself – remember to educate your neighbour and maid too.

Via The Casual Gardener