The Environmentalist 12 Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Twelve trees a-planted
Eleven CFL’s shining
Ten Fair-Trade chocolates
Nine PV panels lighting
Eight manatees a-swimming
Seven acres protecting
Six chimps a-swinging
Five No Conflict Diamonds Read the rest of this entry »

If you live near San Francisco or plan to visit the city, you need to know about the Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF). Why? Because on any typical Saturday, joining a free FUF excursion is the most rewarding fun you will find anywhere in the city.

FUF plants trees in San Francisco, and you can plant with them. To date, they’ve planted over 40,000 trees and counting. They’re also the only NGO of their kind in the city. That means no FUF, no trees. Generally, FUF teams meet every other Saturday to plant. Get on FUF’s mailing list to find tree planting locations and times.

You can just show up to one of the plantings with no reservation. There, you’ll meet other volunteers of all ages, some experienced arborists along with many first-time volunteers. These folks are always fun, always friendly, and share an interest in the keeping the environment healthy and beautiful. Come for the chance to plant some trees, stay for the fun potluck lunch that usually follows a planting! Read the rest of this entry »

We’re facing draughts and water shortages and many people predict that if there is ever a third world war (and let’s hope there’s not), it may well be fought over water. This is a pretty convincing reason to band together wherever we are and help to conserve water in our communities.

In talking about greens in the shower, we’re not talking about rinsing your lettuce in the bathtub Cramer style. We’re talking about great ways to conserve water, and we’re out to prove that environmentalists most certainly do do it in the shower.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, No Greens In the Tub

Our friends at the EPA tell us that baths use up to twice the amount of water as showers. (How they know this might explain those men in suits outside the house timing me while I showered.)

The average bathtub holds about 190 liters (50 gallons) of warm, bubbly H2O. By contrast, the average Sally and Joe apparently use somewhere between 80 and 190 liters in the shower. Particularly water conscious people can use even less. Read the rest of this entry »

The outlook for the environment is not all doom and gloom. Environmentalists, scientists, and lawmakers have led the way in overcoming significant, even planetary, environmental crises in the past and we will probably continue to do so in the future.

In fact, in many ways, there is more reason for optimism for the fate of our species and the planet now than at any point in the last several centuries. These are the views found in Dr. Seymour Garte’s new book, Where We Stand, a surprising look at the real state of our planet.

The book is a response to a real dilemma in the environmentalist community: pessimism and the apathy spawned from a sense that the challenges we’re facing are insurmountable. We seem to move from crises to crises (acid rain to ozone thinning to climate change to species extinction) with a mounting sense of panic and despair. But hasn’t the environmental movement accomplished anything since its birth? Isn’t anything getting better?

This book answers both questions with an emphatic “yes!” Dr. Garte makes a persuading case for optimism about the state of the environment and the quality of human health worldwide. The book finds compelling good news on the subjects of hunger, disease, toxins, biodiversity, population growth, and other issues of environmental ecology and human welfare. We should all celebrate the successful reduction of ozone thinning agents, the hard-fought protection of many endangered species, the elimination of lead from gasoline and paint, and the sanity that prevented nuclear warfare and a nuclear winter in the ‘60s and ‘80s.

Despite all the good news that Dr. Garte offers, he urges that the purpose of the book is not to lull readers into a sense of complacency or to give a false sense that environmental issues are will solve themselves. We’re reminded of ongoing threats to environmental and public health at the end of each chapter in a section simply titled, “The Bad News.” Perhaps one take-home message is that we can solve (and have solved) some very daunting man-made environmental issues, but solutions don’t just happen over night; they are the result of hard work from many different people and industries.

Environmental crises require attention and action from a number of different sectors of society, says Garte. Firstly, the scientific community more fully explains the causes of environmental issues and suggests possible courses of action to remedy the problem. Next, environmentalists and non-profits make the issues known to the public, push lawmakers to pass appropriate legislation. Then lawmakers, who have the power to pass regulations to protect the public from an unhealthy environment, pass legislation to do so. Business responds by developing the technologies to make environmental sustainability goals possible. Finally, it’s back the to environmentalists to try to keep everyone honest and the scientists to double check and continue their work.

Dr. Garte offers a refreshingly rational and level-headed approach to dealing with environmental crises. He peppers the work with personal anecdotes that illustrate practical and impractical responses to environmental issues. He argues, for example, that a complete “back to nature” approach that involves an abandonment of modern technologies is neither practical nor particularly useful. Clearing forests with stone axes and fire is no more benign than culling them with modern lumber machines. With these examples, the author makes the argument for the importance of an objective understanding of our impact on the planet and regulations that control this impact.

Some of the most captivating portions of the book are those that give in-depth analysis of specific environmental issues. For instance, Chapter 9 explores the histories of three hazardous substances that have been successfully reduced in the environment: lead, CFCs, and tobacco smoke. These were effective little vignettes that read like short stories with happy endings. After 8 chapters covering topics ranging anywhere from the AIDS epidemic to deforestation, it was a welcome change of pace to pause and focus on a few topics in this fashion.

But if there’s something for everyone to like in Dr. Garte’s book, there are also details with which various parties are sure to disagree. For instance, notion that the health of a nation can be gauged by the amount of meat it consumes per capita may raise more than a few eyebrows in the vegetarian community. There are several other small but poignant assertions that may start heads shaking. These include the claims that ground water has been mostly undrinkable for the majority of human history and that wild foods are inferior to foods from domesticated plant species.

Critics may also point to possible oversimplifications in favor of the positive. In a very brief discussion of surface water, the author sites a twofold increase in the number of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs in the U.S. as a positive development without giving much of an explanation why. “Because water is always precious to living things” doesn’t do justice to the author’s ability elsewhere to provide clear and convincing reasoning.

It must have been difficult for the author to shepherd his argument through the vast and complex fields of the environment and human health. The book offers a window on a plethora of environmental issues and their resolutions. Therefore, readers with a stronger interest in one field than another may wish to use the book as a reference tool for ways in which matters regarding that field have improved. For instance, readers interested in air quality may be fascinated to learn the severity of air quality issues in the 1950s and a brief history of the ensuing air quality acts in Europe and North America. Other readers may choose to skim or skip over these sections in preference for a discussion on how infectious diseases have been reduced.

With these criticisms in mind, Dr. Garte deserves praise for delivering a book from the perspective of an environmentalist, which offers hope for the future. It’s easy to get lost in a sense of despair or even what the author describes as “grim satisfaction” at the conclusion that there’s nothing we can do now to save the planet. With unhealthy and certainly unhelpful attitudes such as these circulating, Dr. Garte’s book acts like a sort of booster shot of optimism. It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come and a reminder of what’s possible.

Ah, what would the world be like without bucket seats, parking breaks, and safety belts to get in the way of two lovers in love?

In a car, you can’t hold hands with your loved one. The risk of driving one-handed is enough to make even the jovial Click and Clack of Car Talk tisk their tongues in disapproval. And sharing loving gazes from behind the wheel is more likely to cause a head-on than a heart-to-heart. There’s just not very much that’s very romantic about bucket seats, safety belts, and traffic.

But on public transit, you have both hands, both eyes, and your whole attention free. Trains, trolleys, ferry boats, and buses are where it’s at if you’re in love and en route. Imagine rolling through the countryside on a train with your loved one. Out the window, you see the beautiful landscape, which you’ve somehow never noticed quite as well before from the freeway. You’ve just been to the dining car, where you met a delightful couple on vacation, and now you’re relaxing together as you sip hot cocoa from the train’s kitchen. You sit next to one another, fondly gazing at one another and smiling. You’re free to hold hands, sit close, close your eyes and daydream, and look into one another’s eyes as you talk.

It’s moments like this that get lost in the hustle and hubbub of highways and freeways. Taking a trolley ride, strolling around the observation deck of a ferry boat, sitting arm in arm on the bus, watching the world roll past from the window of a train, or meeting your loved one at the station are wonderful experiences for every couple to share and enjoy.

If, by now, you’re not convinced that PT (public transit) is the best way for you and your sweetie to get around, then the following poem probably won’t do a thing to help change your mind. But what the heck, it’s fun. Enjoy.

PDA on the PT

While in the car, you must refrain
From holding hands, and do abstain
From loving gazes and flirting looks
From straying thoughts and reading books
From stealing kisses and nibbling ears
From playing games and sharing beers
From sitting close, both arm in arm
From cozying up, both safe from harm.

One hand’s just not enough, my dear
To steer the car when danger’s near.
And both your eyes must always stay
Fixed on the road and never stray.
Your bucket seats just won’t allow
For getting close, no way no how.
So don’t get stuck behind a wheel
Now that you know PT’s appeal!

Picture taken by Deepti Kalsi.

With all respect (and perhaps some thanks) to Mr. Gore, taking action on climate change is now a major political issue as well as a moral issue. This is particularly true for U.S. voters this year, who are trying to decide on their nation’s next president.

The successful presidential candidate will be responsible for leading his/her nation in reducing its carbon emissions, increasing its fuel efficiency standards, and developing its nascent clean energy industry. The president will also be charged with responding to parts of the country hit hard by climate change conditions, like droughts, fires, and storms.

Fortunately, voters won’t have to make their decision in the dark. The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a non-partisan organization that describes itself as "the independent political voice for the environment," has compiled a reference chart to show voters where candidates stand on climate change.

The following are the top five presidential candidates of 2008, based on the issue of climate change. In order to assess how serious candidates truly are about the issue of global warming, they are organized below according to how well they scored out of 100 on an overall evaluation of their environmental policies, starting with the highest scorer. (And no, Steven Colbert didn’t make the list, no matter how much natural gas he provides.)

Barack Obama (96) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 50 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard by 2025.
• 25% renewable electrical energy standard by 2025.
• 50% reduction in energy intensity by 2030.
• Investing in liquid coal if it reduces carbon pollution by 10%; will consider standards that ban new conventional coal plants.

Dennis Kucinich (92) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 40 mpg automotive standards; supported 33 mpg automotive standard in 2005.
• 20% renewable electrical energy standard by 2010.
• General energy efficiency, although he has no target specified.
• [Has no articulated position on new coal plants and liquid coal.]

Hillary Clinton (90) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 35 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard by 2017.
• 20% renewable electrical energy standard by 2020.
• 10% reduction in energy consumption by 2020.
• Investing in liquid coal if it reduces carbon pollution by 20%.

Joe Biden (84) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 40 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard by 2017.
• 20% renewable electrical energy standard by 2020.
• 10% reduction in energy consumption by 2020.
• Rejecting investment in liquid coal.

Bill Richardson (82) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 50 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard.
• 30% renewable electrical energy standard by 2020 and 50% by 2050.
• 20% increase in energy productivity.
• A ban on new coal plants unless they capture and store emissions; he opposes liquid coal.

Readers may note that all of the preceding five leaders on environmental stewardship are members of the Democratic Party. They will be competing against one another to win their party’s nomination over the course of the primary elections, which will run from January to September of 2008. Make sure to register to vote several weeks prior to your state’s primary elections in order to vote to nominate your choice of presidential candidate.

Readers who align more closely with the Republican Party may also be interested to know which Republican presidential candidates are offering solutions to climate change. Most ‘08 Republican candidates have as strong a record of opposing environmental protection legislation and/or have no stated positions about the country’s energy goals and issues related to climate change. However, some Republican candidates are looking to support legislation that would benefit the climate. John McCain and Mike Huckabee lead their party on legislative forsight to address climate change. Even still, Mr. McCain has opposed fuel efficiency legislation and neither candidate has a stated position on coal. The only other candidate from this party to offer some hint of beneficial legislative promises on climate change is Mitt Romney, although he opposes fuel efficiency standards "as a stand alone measure," has no position on renewable energy, and supports liquid coal.

For more information on the positions of the 2008 presidential candidates on the environment, the energy industry, and climate change, see the resources listed below or visit the LCV reference chart for presidential candidates on climate change.

References and Resources:

Where the Candidates Currently Stand | League of Conservation Voters, Heatison.org

’08: On The Record | League of Conservation Voters

Presidential Candidates weigh in on Energy Policy | Solarnation

The Candidates | League of Conservation Voters, Heatison.org

Mike Garofalo’s Blog on the presidential candidates | GO

Photo Source:

White House Back | US Government

Voting, it turns out, may be good for the environment. The World Resource Institute asserts that "a growing literature supports the idea that political freedoms may be as important as economic factors in improving environmental quality." So if you’re concerned about the state of the environment, make sure that you’re expressing your political freedom by voting. (Remember, without registering at least a few weeks before an election, you can’t vote — even if you beg the poll workers.)

If our goal is to encourage environmental protection legislation, it is our responsibility (indeed, our exciting privilege) to educate ourselves on the environmental impact of local and state propositions and vote accordingly. If our goal is to support elected officials who serve our interests as citizens (such as clean air and water), we have to make our interests known and hold officials accountable with our power to vote them in or out of office. Voting is possibly the single most important way to ensure strong civil liberties, government accountability, and policies that protect the health of the environment in which we live.

For one source of information on the environmental policies and view of the 2008 presidential candidates, take a look at Mike Garofalo’s blog on GO, which addresses each candidate one by one. The League of Conservation Voters also offers a quick reference database of the candidates for president, graded by their response to a series of questions on the environment.

We need no reminding that in this 2008 presidential election, there is a lot at stake. With President Bush spouting off about World War III, and with the U.S. still refusing to acknowledge its share of responsibility on climate change, it may even be an understatement to simply say that there’s a lot at stake. If you are a citizen of the United States, you can be assured that your decision to vote has the power to affect change — potentially positive change — the world over.

Here’s the good news: in the 2004 elections, voter turnout was higher than in the 2000 elections by 3.6%. With any hope, in 2008 the numbers will be even greater. The sad news, however, is that even in 2004, still less than two thirds of the country performed their civic duty of voting: 58.3%. Of people age 24-44, only 52.2% voted in 2004 and for the age group 18-24 just 41.9% voted. (U.S. Census Bureau)

So what gives? Do people not know that they have a "Get Out of Work Free" card on voting day that requires employers to let employees out of work long enough to vote? This alone should be enough to motivate us to head to the polling booths in droves whenever there’s an election. Do people cavalierly forget when voting day comes around? Or does half of our population actually think that they can’t make a difference by voting and recklessly forfeit their suffrage?

Maybe you know somebody who desperately wants positive reform in this country and a change of political agenda, but who suffers from voter apathy: the apathetic rebel. The apathetic rebel imagines that s/he’s doing something extraordinary by not voting — that s/he’s somehow taking a stance against the status quo by brushing off democracy. But how can a person change the system when s/he won’t tell the system how it should change. We do this by voting.

So wherever you are, register to vote. You can register at your local post office and your registration must be up to date with your current address. By doing so, you are sending a strong message that you care about the course of environmental, social, and political events at home and abroad. It’s easy to put off registering and the primary elections are coming up fast. Maybe you vote Republican, maybe Democratic, maybe Green. However you vote, the most important thing is simply that you do vote. As John Lennon said, "We came here to show and to say to all of you that apathy isn’t it, that we can do something!"

References and Resources:

Home | Rock The Vote!

Earth Trends: More Democracy, Better Environment? | The World Resource Institute

Mike Garofalo’s blog | GO

Presidential Profiles, 2008 | The League of Conservation Voters

Voting and Registration | U.S. Census Bureau

Photo Source:

Your Vote Is Your Voice | Flickr

Makena Brown, grade 8, has a plan to help keep the planet healthy and make money, too. Makena collects all of her family’s recyclables and stores them in the back yard. About once a month, she and her family load up the car with the many bags of bottles and cans and take them to the local recycling center. Because it’s her project, Makena gets to keep the money paid by the recycling center for the aluminum, plastic and glass. "Makena is the chief of our recycling plant," says Mr. Brown proudly. "She’s the recycling queen."

"The money is the number one thing that’s in my mind," says Makena. "I’m like, that’s great! And in the back of my mind I know that this is helping the environment, [reducing] pollution, and helping the earth to get better step by step." With her recycling money, Makena is helping to pay her mom back for her new computer.

Ask a little more about Makena’s interest in protecting the environment, and you’ll find that she’s a fountain of knowledge. For example, she explains that more water is used to make plastic water bottles than can be contained by the bottles after they’re made. She’s also especially interested in renewable energy. Her eyes light up when she talks about San Francisco’s proposal to get electricity from tidal power generators.

It’s been about a year now that the Brown family has been saving their recyclables for Makena’s recycling project. Makena’s grandparents have also started to save their recyclables to contribute to the Brown family’s recycling program. "We end up with a big pile of bottles and cans on the side of the house," everyone chuckles. "We can’t walk past until we clean it up."

In addition to supporting Makena’s recycling project, her parents and her younger sister, Ashley, all have their own ways of helping the environment. These include choosing environmentally friendly cleaning products and using cloth shopping bags.

Ashley says, "we watched a show on Oprah and it was ‘Green Day’ and she gave organic cotton bags that help the environment to everybody in the audience."

"So when you go to the grocery store," she says cheerfully in unison with her mom, "and they ask ‘paper or plastic?’ you can say neither because you have your own bags."

It was Makena’s school that gave her the interest to pursue her recycling business. "It actually started last year when I learned about global warming," recalls Makena. "In 7th grade, we did a project on global warming. Each group was assigned to do something. There were groups for food, recycling, pesticides, and all these things about global warming. It was called the Green Fair. And I learned about recycling and how much litter is on the side of the roads. And I was like, that’s a great way to get money and help the environment."

Mr. Brown adds that he has taken Makena to see a wetland preservation project in which he is involved with the hope that it would interest his daughter in environmental protection.

What’s the family’s least favorite part of delivering their recyclables to the recycling center? "The smell," everyone says together, laughing. "It’s pretty bad."

Makena and Ashley explain, "When we go, we do not want to catch the germs and the stickiness on our hands so we wear latex gloves."

With her recycling business rolling along, I wondered if Makena would like it if companies stopped producing plastic bottles, even if having fewer bottles to recycle might put a hole in her profits. "I would," she said, "because then we’d be saving the water and it would be healthier for the planet. It would be another step to stop global warming." Spoken like a conscientious and environmentally responsible businessperson.

For people Makena’s age interested in starting an at-home recycling project, Makena has some advise. "The only thing," she says, "is just to keep your mind on it and help your family know and make rules. I told my family that if they’re done with a bottle or can, they could just put it on the counter. I put it in a bag and take it out to the yard. Keep your family informed. And the other thing is just try to get other people involved because you’re going to get money for it and you’re also helping the environment."

As a species, we must look pretty silly in a number of ways. Here are fifteen weird things we do from a squirrel’s point of view, along with some daily ways that we can be a little more like the other animals.

15. We spend as much effort packaging our food as finding and eating it. So much of our food these days comes pre-packaged that we don’t think twice about it. In order to package food in plastic, we spend billions of dollars and lots of time locating and drilling oil around the world; we then extract a chemical feedstock from the oil; we refine the chemical feedstock into plastic and mould the plastic into packaging; we take the shells off of things like peanuts and then put the peanuts in plastic packaging.

Squirrel says: “How backward! I spend all day getting rid of my food’s natural packaging: the shells. Plus, the shells biodegrade before next year’s nuts ripen. Be more like the rest of the animals by eating food in its original packaging.”

14. We drink the lactation of other animals. We farm animals of other species—like cows, goats, and sheep—to harvest and drink their lactation. We even sometimes ferment this lactation (cheese and yogurt, for example) and occasionally go as far as to let mold grow on it before eating it (blue cheese, for example).

Squirrel says: “EW! Be more like the rest of the rest of the animals by drinking water and eating juice-filled fruits and veggies.”

13. We’ll eat just about anything. Don’t believe me? Look here. Most animals have a pretty good idea of what foods they like and so they stick to eating one type of food. Sharks eat fish, cows and horses eat grass, most birds eat insects, fruit, or grain, and so on. We humans will eat fruit, grain, insects, birds, vegetation, horses, cows, fish, sharks, and more. Some people even eat cars! Our stomachs must truly be one of a kind on this planet. I can just see Mother Nature’s horrified expression, “what do you have in your mouth, child?!?”

Squirrel says: “That’s nuts! Or rather it would be nuts if I were eating it. Pick a diet, you crazy species. You can be more like your ancestors and relatives by eating more vegetables, nuts, and fruit and fewer weird things like octopus, oysters, and buffaloes.”

12. We travel without actually moving. Camels walk to find water, birds fly to find grub, and fish swim to get their food too. We say “I’m going to run to the store to get food,” but what we actually mean is “I’m going to sit down in my car and hardly move a muscle while decomposed dino-gas pushes me to the store.” Weird, huh?

Squirrel says: “Wouldn’t you get out of shape this way? Plus, who would want to avoid walking and running? I love to run and jump! I even have a cousin who flies. Be more like the rest of the rest of the animals and try actually walking or jogging to get food. You can even try wildcrafting, like me.”

11. For such social animals, we’re lonely a lot. We’re social animals by nature. We need other animals of our species to love us and we need to love others as well. It’s almost as important as food, water, and sleep for our survival. Yet, many of us travel alone to work, feel isolated at our jobs, travel alone home, and take part in solitary activities like watching television or spending time on the computer. Instead, we could spend this time talking, walking, singing, traveling, working, and playing with others.

Squirrel says: "Play and socializing are important. Have you ever seen us squirrels play? It’s a big ordeal. We’ll chase each other around the whole wood, tumbling head over tail over head and jumping from branch to branch. You’re a social animal, so socialize. Say hi to people, smile, be friendly and warm, and be happy knowing that the people you see around you are your kin and you’re one of theirs."

10. We spend most of our time working for currency, not food. This currency verifies that we have contributed to our species’ wellbeing and success. We trade the currency for food. By contrast, most animals bypass this complex social system and simply go and find food when they are hungry.

Squirrel says: “You mean to tell me that if I were a hungry human, I couldn’t just go forage food to eat? I’d have to build other humans burrows (or whatever you call them) or do some other labor first and then ask for food? Hm… it seems like a hard lifestyle. I usually find food and then have lots of time to play with my family. Well, when you’re through working and asking for food, I still highly recommend playing and spending time with family. That’s my favorite part of the day. You might also want to control your species’ population so it’s not so much work to support it.”

9. We make and hoard things we don’t need. With the currency left over from buying food, we purchase things. We do this so well that people are now often referred to as “consumers.” Many of the things we buy and keep have little or no utility, like electronic singing plastic Santa Clause figurines. One of the only other species that hoards shiny things it doesn’t really need is the magpie.

Squirrel says: “Why hoard anything you wouldn’t want to eat later? I don’t see the attraction to big collections of plastic toys or closets full of clothes unless you can put the clothes in a pile and make a nest out of them. I hoard nuts and it’s all I can do to remember where I put those when I want to eat them, so I don’t think I’d be very good at hording all the things humans do. My motto is, if it’s not edible, you probably don’t need it.”

8. We all seem afraid of the dark. There’s one thing most animals know for sure: when it’s day, there’s light; when it’s night, there’s dark. Now we humans are pretty easy prey. We have no claws, no sharp teeth, no spikes or spines, we aren’t very strong or fast, and most of us have more meat on our bones than we’d care to admit. Somewhere along the line, we figured out that we’re less likely to be eaten by nocturnal predators if we keep the nighttime light enough that we can always see around us. Flaming torches turned into electric torches, and even in our predator-free homes today, we still have the lights on—just in case, you know. See an ant’s response here.

Squirrel says: “I understand. I mean, I’m a pretty easy target for predators myself. But do at least try to keep the lights down when I’m trying to sleep. If you want your lighting to come from sources that are friendlier on my habitat and yours, buy green energy.”

7. We keep animals in our homes who would normally eat us for lunch. OK, maybe wild dogs wouldn’t really eat us for lunch, but judging by our folklore and fairy tails, I’d say that the relationship between humans and wolves has not always been a favorable one. On the other hand, traditionally, members of the cat species have found us pretty tasty. We’ve managed to breed canines and felines until they depend on us for food, not as food. Other animals that some people keep around the house include boa constrictors, venomous snakes, spiders, rats, and eels.

Squirrel says: “Are you nuts!?! This is a touchy subject for me. Cats and dogs hunt my buddies and me. In some places, pet cats are even threatening endemic native species. If you have pets, make sure they are spayed or neutered. I don’t want a whole litter of whiskers and claws chasing my tail.”

6. Our young spend most of their time stationary. Most young people spend hours each day watching television and only a few minutes each day engaging in outdoor, unstructured play.

Squirrel says: “We squirrels are way too rambunctious to be still for any amount of time. It’s too much fun outside to stay in the burrow all day staring at the wall. I couldn’t even imagine it. Plus, life’s too short. Encourage your young to play outdoors and join them when you get a break from gathering nuts… or money, or whatever it is you do.”

5. We heat our food before eating it. Unless you’re a human, a domesticated animal, or an extremophile living on an undersea volcanic vent, chances are you eat your food raw. We humans will do anything to avoid eating unheated foods: we’ll bake, boil, sauté, flambé, steam, and even cook our foods by submerging them in boiling lard and oil.

Squirrel says: “Why put food over fire before eating it? I don’t play with fire; it frightens me. Plus, the food’s more nutritious raw, so I don’t have to eat as many raw nuts to get my daily nutrition as I would if they were cooked. I recommend trying to be a little more like the rest of the rest of the animals by eating a little more of your food raw. Trust me, it’s tasty!”

4. We eat poisonous and toxic things for fun. In most of the animal kingdom, “recreational drugs” would be an oxymoron. But not for us. We eat poisonous mushrooms, we drink toxic levels of fermented juice (hence the “toxic” in “intoxication”), and we refine other natural toxins like coca leaf extract that we then proceed to stick up our noses. Some of our species who aren’t content with these milder poisons combine various ultra-toxic cleaning agents to make super potent concoctions that we call crack or meth, they then proceed to sniff, snort, lick, or inject into their bodies.

Squirrel says: “You eat toxins and poisons recreationally?? That’s nuts! Be more like the rest of the rest of the animals by eating what’s good for you and avoiding what’s not.”

3. We stick flaming pieces of paper and leaves in our mouths. We spend a lot of time and effort to grow tobacco because it contains a specific kind of toxin. We harvest and dry the leaves, cut them up in tiny pieces, then add anything from ammonia to tar (see this list of additives). We roll the result in paper, put it between our lips—and this is the kicker—we light the whole thing on fire while its in our mouths! Worse yet, we do all this just to breath in the carcinogenic smoke that comes from this little roll of leaves and additives.

Squirrel says: “HA! And you’re supposed to be the smart animals? Who does this kind of thing??! Be more like the rest of the rest of the animals by not sticking flaming, toxic pieces of paper and leaves in your mouths.”

2. We blow ourselves up. Like many species, we’re territorial. However, most animals just pee on trees or beat their chest to let others know where their group’s boundaries are. We launch explosive rockets at each other and plant landmines in the ground so that nobody can live there.

Squirrel says: “*Blank stare* What can I say about this? When I get in a fight, I tumble and roll around with another squirrel. It’s a good way to get the aggression out and the worst that happens is that somebody gets an ear bitten. Some animals kill each other one on one, but it doesn’t usually upset the whole ecosystem the way human wars and landmines do. Just try and get along a little better, would ya? Smile and be friendly with everyone and tell the people in charge to stop with all the explosions already.”

1. We gave up living in trees to live in caves. Somewhere along the line, our ancestors decided to give up the comfort of trees to live in caves. Today, we fabricate multi-story caves out of brick, stone, and wood and plant a tree in the backyard so we can see it from the second floor of our cave-like home.

Squirrel says: “This is the first thing I don’t understand about people. I love curling up in a small, cozy home. But at least some of you still have a fondness for trees. Take a look at this person’s tree home. If you can’t live in a treehouse, at least plant a tree for me.”

Photo Source:

…and she said what? | Flickr

Yea, I’m fat….got a problem with that? | Flickr

Warning: the online "edutainment" game at www.freerice.com is addictive. Side effects include the ability to sound smarter, increased levels of altruism and good karma, and the possibility of warm tingly feelings in your stomach.

What’s unique about the vocabulary-building game at Freerice.com — and the reason we think you should give it a gander — is that as you play you’re donating rice to feed hungry people through international aid agencies. A sister site of Poverty.com, Freerice.com is a fun way to help humanity while you improve your language prowess.

It’s the perfect scheme: hook students and aspiring socialites on a vocabulary-building game so captivating that advertisers will pay big bucks to market on the site, then use the marketing profits to feed hungry people around the world through international aid agencies. Excellent…

The word generator used in the game matches your skill level. Thus, whether you’re a scholarly lexical wizard or a sixth-grader with some savoir faire, the game will give you words appropriate to challenge you at your current vocabulary level. This makes the game is a good tool for people of all ages — from the young student to the college grad studying for the GRE to the person simply looking to beef up her or his vocabulary.

Here’s how it works. For each word, you get four possible multiple-choice definitions. For every word you get right, Freerice.com donates ten grains of rice and raises your vocabulary level slightly. If you get a word wrong, the correct definition appears and the game offers you a slightly easier word.

And remember, helping to alleviate hunger helps the environment and other species as well. As we mentioned in 7 Unorthodox Ways to Help Save Gorillas from Extinction, the threat of hunger often forces people to adopt unsustainable methods of survival, like poaching, exhaustively depleting natural resources, encroaching on new land in search of further resources, and relying on IMF loans to buy pesticides and genetically copyright seeds.

So fire up your vocabulary and give the game at Freerice.com a shot. It’s a fun way to tickle the gray cells, build your vocabulary, and better the world while you’re at it — one grain of rice at a time.

Photo Source:

A bowl of boiled rice | Flickr

imagine… | Flickr