GREEN LIVING
OUR GREEN HOUSE
It is 2008 now and after spending the last 22 years raising my 3 great kids, I have been through the gamut of fears and hope when it comes to how I feel about the way we humans are inhabiting our earth. How we can live our lives in a way that does not make the earth, ourselves and our children sick. Fear is not my master any more and it is pure hope that makes me choose non toxic consumer products for myself and my family, our home and land. Buying organic clothes, organic bedding, toxin free diapers, organic food and health care products, toxin free biodegradable kitchen & bath cleaners seemed like a huge challenge 20 years ago. Not a problem in 2009!
I was raised in Toronto Canada in the mid fifties. At that time the world we were presented with was very flawed indeed and yet, from inside our cultural bubble, all appeared excitingly perfect. Mom told us not to ever touch any of the waterways around the city, including the Great Lake Ontario. POISON! she would call out if we stepped near the waters edge at the beach. I grew up accepting the fact that we dump toxin chemicals into our beautiful waters and that the little dead fish bodies along the shore were just a casual casualty of the Better Living Through Chemicals Philosophy we were all benefiting from. If we wanted to enjoy water activities, we would have to drive awhile to get out of the city, to Cottage Country as it was called then. The Better Living slogan sure turned out to be a joke, with toxin related health problems now skyrocketing worldwide.
It was big industry that was causing all the pollution. That's what we thought and also that we were powerless on a large scale to stop them from our tiny hovels. The big wigs down at corporate called the bodies of water near them
"Waste Disposal Sites."
I kid you not! I have seen it written on their site maps and heard them utter the words with regard to the Straight of Georgia on the West Coast of Canada. Those were paper/pulp mill execs, on that occasion, but it is the same sorry attitude in many industries worldwide.
I spent years fighting & protesting over these issues, but sometime around the birth of my third child, I just could no longer bear the lost battles & lost forests, lakes rivers and oceans. It seemed like even as we got big industry to pretend to care, all of us home owners were obviously a huge part of the problem with millions of tons of toxic household products going down our drains every day. Everybody, it turns out, is the enemy when it comes to producing earth & human harming chemical compounds that get spewed all over our land and water.
By then, our family was living on Vancouver Island, West Coast of BC. The clear cut logging was and still is devastating enormous areas of the forests, rivers and sea, with salmon stocks, air quality, water quality all being affected negatively. The pulp mills were and still are spewing sulpher dioxide into our air in giant plumes 24/7 and approx 200,000 TONS of the Cancer causing chemical DIOXIN into the ocean EVERY DAY.
It was making me crazy and filling my days with tearful, empathetic compassion for our planet. I decided the best thing for me as an individual to do was to close ranks and try to be one with the earth and all that lived here, even as the end seemed near. I would do what I could in my small part of the old growth rain forest here on our paradise island. We would love and appreciate it all before it was gone, live our own lives with the smallest amount of polluting possible. We would stop wasting our energy being angry about the rest of the world not paying any attention to the cruel onslaught of environmental disasters. We would teach our children about the earth and our connection to everything on it.
We gave up writing letters, talking publicly and joining protests. It was inappropriate for us to be getting arrested at logging road blockages, what with the 3 little kids looking to us for their security.
Eventually, we ended up doing our part anyway just by choosing to purchase organic clothes & bedding, (we used to have to make our own) and toxin free cleaning products, safe, non toxic personal care products and naturally, organic food. It used to be difficult to find these things back in the late 80s. These days, there are thousands of companies producing non toxic household cleaning products and bath care products. Everything from vitamins to deodorant, shampoo and even makeup can now be found easily in stores or online. Organic diapers, natural baby bath products and organic baby food are readily available. There is no reason to keep on buying harsh chemical products anymore; it is just a matter of everyone breaking their old shopping habits and patterns, and starting a fresh approach.
It is so easy to live in harmony with the earth, nature and your own natural human body now. The importance of each of us CHOOSING TO NOT DUMP or PURCHASE TOXIC PRODUCTS can not be underestimated. All of us have to stop dumping poison all over our lawns and gardens, down our sinks, toilets and straight into our own bodies. This change in how we shop will influence the executive decision making process, at the big industry end of the equation, to change their products to eco freindly and non toxic ones. That dollar of ours really does speak loudest.
So please, consider doing some shopping around for new choices when purchasing food, laundry soap, car wash detergents, dish soap, dishwasher soap, toilet cleaners, kitchen cleaners, shampoo, hair dye, makeup, lotions, deodorant, baby care products FOR SURE and tooth paste. All of these products are now readily available in a toxin free version. Even big box grocery stores like Loblaws, Presidents Choice and Safeway have stocked their shelves with green alternatives. LOOK FOR THEM. CHOOSE THEM. USE THEM AT HOME. You will be at less risk for allergies, cancer, neurological disease and chronic fatigue illness and so will your children. Remember, any toxins we are exposed to will be carried in our bodies for life and added to every time we are exposed again. So, it is very important to reduce exposure wherever possible.
SHOPPING FOR GREEN CHOICES:
ORGANIC LAUNDRY PRODUCTS
ORGANIC CLEANING PRODUCTS
ORGANIC BABY CLOTHES
BABY CARE PRODUCTS
ORGANIC GARDENING PRODUCTS
NATURAL PET SUPPLIES
ORGANIC FOOD
ORGANIC GIFTS
I was raised in Toronto Canada in the mid fifties. At that time the world we were presented with was very flawed indeed and yet, from inside our cultural bubble, all appeared excitingly perfect. Mom told us not to ever touch any of the waterways around the city, including the Great Lake Ontario. POISON! she would call out if we stepped near the waters edge at the beach. I grew up accepting the fact that we dump toxin chemicals into our beautiful waters and that the little dead fish bodies along the shore were just a casual casualty of the Better Living Through Chemicals Philosophy we were all benefiting from. If we wanted to enjoy water activities, we would have to drive awhile to get out of the city, to Cottage Country as it was called then. The Better Living slogan sure turned out to be a joke, with toxin related health problems now skyrocketing worldwide.
It was big industry that was causing all the pollution. That's what we thought and also that we were powerless on a large scale to stop them from our tiny hovels. The big wigs down at corporate called the bodies of water near them
"Waste Disposal Sites."
I kid you not! I have seen it written on their site maps and heard them utter the words with regard to the Straight of Georgia on the West Coast of Canada. Those were paper/pulp mill execs, on that occasion, but it is the same sorry attitude in many industries worldwide.
I spent years fighting & protesting over these issues, but sometime around the birth of my third child, I just could no longer bear the lost battles & lost forests, lakes rivers and oceans. It seemed like even as we got big industry to pretend to care, all of us home owners were obviously a huge part of the problem with millions of tons of toxic household products going down our drains every day. Everybody, it turns out, is the enemy when it comes to producing earth & human harming chemical compounds that get spewed all over our land and water.
By then, our family was living on Vancouver Island, West Coast of BC. The clear cut logging was and still is devastating enormous areas of the forests, rivers and sea, with salmon stocks, air quality, water quality all being affected negatively. The pulp mills were and still are spewing sulpher dioxide into our air in giant plumes 24/7 and approx 200,000 TONS of the Cancer causing chemical DIOXIN into the ocean EVERY DAY.
It was making me crazy and filling my days with tearful, empathetic compassion for our planet. I decided the best thing for me as an individual to do was to close ranks and try to be one with the earth and all that lived here, even as the end seemed near. I would do what I could in my small part of the old growth rain forest here on our paradise island. We would love and appreciate it all before it was gone, live our own lives with the smallest amount of polluting possible. We would stop wasting our energy being angry about the rest of the world not paying any attention to the cruel onslaught of environmental disasters. We would teach our children about the earth and our connection to everything on it.
We gave up writing letters, talking publicly and joining protests. It was inappropriate for us to be getting arrested at logging road blockages, what with the 3 little kids looking to us for their security.
Eventually, we ended up doing our part anyway just by choosing to purchase organic clothes & bedding, (we used to have to make our own) and toxin free cleaning products, safe, non toxic personal care products and naturally, organic food. It used to be difficult to find these things back in the late 80s. These days, there are thousands of companies producing non toxic household cleaning products and bath care products. Everything from vitamins to deodorant, shampoo and even makeup can now be found easily in stores or online. Organic diapers, natural baby bath products and organic baby food are readily available. There is no reason to keep on buying harsh chemical products anymore; it is just a matter of everyone breaking their old shopping habits and patterns, and starting a fresh approach.
It is so easy to live in harmony with the earth, nature and your own natural human body now. The importance of each of us CHOOSING TO NOT DUMP or PURCHASE TOXIC PRODUCTS can not be underestimated. All of us have to stop dumping poison all over our lawns and gardens, down our sinks, toilets and straight into our own bodies. This change in how we shop will influence the executive decision making process, at the big industry end of the equation, to change their products to eco freindly and non toxic ones. That dollar of ours really does speak loudest.
So please, consider doing some shopping around for new choices when purchasing food, laundry soap, car wash detergents, dish soap, dishwasher soap, toilet cleaners, kitchen cleaners, shampoo, hair dye, makeup, lotions, deodorant, baby care products FOR SURE and tooth paste. All of these products are now readily available in a toxin free version. Even big box grocery stores like Loblaws, Presidents Choice and Safeway have stocked their shelves with green alternatives. LOOK FOR THEM. CHOOSE THEM. USE THEM AT HOME. You will be at less risk for allergies, cancer, neurological disease and chronic fatigue illness and so will your children. Remember, any toxins we are exposed to will be carried in our bodies for life and added to every time we are exposed again. So, it is very important to reduce exposure wherever possible.
'Why Isn't Everyone Living Green?' READ'
'SHOPPING FOR GREEN CHOICES:
ORGANIC LAUNDRY PRODUCTS
ORGANIC CLEANING PRODUCTS
ORGANIC BABY CLOTHES
BABY CARE PRODUCTS
ORGANIC GARDENING PRODUCTS
NATURAL PET SUPPLIES
ORGANIC FOOD
ORGANIC GIFTS