1000 Flowers for the Planet - #535 Buy Fewer Jeans

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #535 Buy Fewer Jeans

In the U.S.A. over 450 million pairs of jeans are sold annually and the average woman has 6-8 pairs in her wardrobe. Two thirds of the worlds jeans are manufactured in China, where the environment is not given any consideration and pollution is so extreme that in some areas where denim jeans are manufactured they cannot even give their houses away, because nobody wants to live there. Nearly a billion jeans are produced annually. This figure may sound like a dream number for number crunchers wanting to make a profit from the sale of jeans, but their profits come at our huge losses.

·       About 1500 litres of water is used to make one pair of jeans

·       Cotton is one of the thirstiest crops to grow

·       25% of pesticides used worldwide is used in the growth of cotton, making it the most environmentally damaging crop produced

·       indigo dye, used to make jeans ‘blue’, is usually made from coal or oil

·       The chemicals used to give jeans that distressed look are released into waterways where they eat up oxygen, leading to the death of all marine life

·       Pollution is so serious in areas where jean manufacturing occurs that people are suffering dire health concerns, including infertility, rashes and death

In light of these few pieces of information, next time you go to buy a pair of jeans and look at the price tag, add a few people’s lives to the cost, then reconsider whether or not you really need another pair of jeans.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #534 Observe World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #534 Observe World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Desertification is a serious problem across the globe, affecting billions of people. It is caused when trees and plants are removed from the soil when land is cleared for timber or cultivation. Without the trees the soil has nothing to bind it together. Grazing animals can deplete grass and their hooves erode away the topsoil. Persistent farming also depletes nutrients in the soil. Wind and water erosion aggravate the damage, carrying away topsoil and leaving behind a highly infertile mix of dust and sand. It is the combination of these factors that transforms degraded land into desert, which in turn affects people’s ability to grow food. Drought and desertification are causing the loss of 12 million hectares of arable land every year, where, for example, 20 million tons of grain could have been grown. So the United Nations has declared 17 June World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought in order to promote awareness of this problem all around the world and to prompt a combined effort by people everywhere to take action to avoid and prevent the problem. Check out more information at: http://www.un.org/en/events/desertificationday/

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #533 Participate in Multiple Solutions

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #533 Participate in Multiple Solutions

Recently a debate raged on social media about a young man who had invented a way to clean up our oceans of plastic waste. The invention is absolutely amazing [as at 16 June 2015 you can read a good article about it here: https://www.minds.com/blog/view/450715060952633344/the-world039s-first-ocean-cleaning-system-will-be-deployed-in-2016] and it deserves our support, because cleaning up the ocean is an extremely important matter. Sadly, there were people posting on social media that this ‘wasn’t’ the solution to our problems, that we needed to stop the plastic from getting into the ocean in the first place, so education was the key to rectifying everything. I think this is very narrow-minded because both actions are part of the solution. Instead of knocking what people are doing to make a difference and banging on about ‘better’ options, we should be applauding and supporting every effort to put things right and using all the ideas and actions available to us to make this a better planet on which to live. Why do you think I’m bothering to come up with 1000 ideas for improving our world? It’s because if we all took on just 1% of my ideas (that’s only 10 new actions), imagine the positive shift in our condition. There is never going to be only one solution to the issues we face as a human race. We need to participate in multiple solutions and encourage all kinds of different action in order to clean up and create a better place for future generations.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #532 Make Your Own Sunscreen

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #532 Make Your Own Sunscreen

There are plenty of recipes available on the Internet for making your own sunscreen at home. Do the research for yourself and find one that suits, rather than having me dictate one to you here. But if you need a nudge as to why you should do this, then take some time to read the ingredients listed on your current sunscreen lotion. Many contain toxins, and there have even been claims that commercial sunscreens may increase your risk of skin cancer, but as I’m no scientist and maybe you aren’t either, do your own research on this matter too. I’m here to make suggestions for how we can improve the planet, and it makes sense to me that when you make your own sunscreen you can be sure of the ingredients that go into it and be fully aware of what you’re putting on your skin. Whatever the human health benefits, the benefits for the planet are the you also have the power to use metal containers, thereby keeping plastic out of your life and out of landfill. You’ll be using less resources because you’ll only make what you need. Perhaps you’ll find it a cheaper option too.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #531 Take Away in Your Own Bag

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #531 Take Away in Your Own Bag

Usually you know when you’re going to buy takeaway (take out) food. You’ve rushed home from taking the kids to their fifty different after-school extra-curricular venues and have no time or energy left to cook a meal, so you pop out to buy some fast food to save yourself from the grief of cooking (you may need to re-read Flowers 276 and 483). You know where you’re going, so take a reusable bag with you (or even a basket) and have the food put straight into that instead of receiving a new plastic bag. Plastic bags have been a big topic of conversation for many years. They’re not just at the supermarkets, they are received from many different venues and takeaway is one of them. When you carry reusable bags in the boot (trunk) of your car you are always prepared. All it takes is a little bit of thought on your part and the difference you make to the planet is huge. Don’t ever think that small actions don’t have massive consequences. Small ideas – big rewards.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #530 Decline Plastic Cutlery

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #530 Decline Plastic Cutlery

When you buy takeaway (take out) food and they pop the plastic cutlery into the plastic bag, say “no thank you” and let them keep their cutlery. It’s as simple as that. Single use plastic is an environmental killer. When you take your food home to eat, you have your stainless steel cutlery at hand. There’s no need to use plastic cutlery and chuck it in the bin, and there’s very little effort in remembering to tell the person at the food venue that you don’t need the cutlery. These very simple actions make a huge difference to the planet. Remember to decline plastic cutlery whenever possible.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #529 Drink Leaf Tea

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #529 Drink Leaf Tea

Reducing waste in your household is a good way to help the planet. It cuts down on landfill and saves a lot of resources, as well as money. A simple way to do this is by drinking leaf tea in preference to using tea bags. Teapots can be purchased in an amazing variety of styles and sizes, suited to one or half a dozen tea drinkers. They can even make a good talking point, but the best talking point is the fact that you are reducing your impact on the planet. Teabags are usually put into the bin where they end up in landfill. The spent leaves from leaf tea can be put into your compost or your biofermenter where they will return to nourish the soil. No bags means your tea will taste better too, without the added flavour of the paper ‘bag’. But wait! There’s more. Some tea ‘bags’ are made of plastic. How does the idea of drinking something that has had heated plastic in it sound to you? More information is available in this interesting article at:  http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/are-tea-bags-turning-us-into-plastic/274482/

Turns out grandma was right again – leaf tea is definitely better. So dust off your teapot and get pouring.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #528 Give Pure Attention

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #528 Give Pure Attention

Recently I was sitting in a local café watching the people. Across from me sat two women and a small girl about 1 or 2 years old (not speaking using proper words yet, so young). The mother went off to the ladies while her friend sat with the child. She spent the whole time scrolling through her phone while the little girl repeatedly showed her something in her hand, stretching it out for the woman to see and making a googoo sound. The woman repeated the googoo sound followed by ‘yes’, but never once looked up from her phone. The child was persistent but pleasant and never got upset or screeched. The woman was just as persistent with her scrolling. What the child learned from that adult was that people don’t engage with eye contact and she was not worth connecting with. How sad.

When anyone politely seeks your attention, give it to them, but give it to them with your whole mind and body. Engage with people fully. Look them in the eyes and listen with both your ears. Hear what they are saying and see what they are showing. So much is expressed through body movement, but this language will be as forgotten as Latin if we continue to fail to engage properly. Give pure attention to everyone around you, learn how to disconnect from the phone and the virtual world and connect with the real world. It has a lot more to give. Give back to it.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #527 Reject Double-Standard Producers

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #527 Reject Double-Standard Producers

Hopefully by now you are getting the hang of all these Flower suggestions and thinking about what you do, how you do it and how it affects the planet. Ideas that have been presented include buying fair trade (Flower #22) and thinking about how your purchases affect those people who provide the raw materials such as gold, tea, chocolate etc, where slave labour is sometimes used and people are trapped in harsh conditions with no hope of a better life. The same goes for animals, and hopefully you are thinking about them when you buy your food: pigs in cages, chickens in battery farms, animals slaughtered in cruel ways.

Now I want to suggest a way of taking all that good work and pushing it further, by rejecting the companies that have double standards. There are egg producers who sell free range eggs, and that’s a good thing, but if those same producers also sell battery or barn laid eggs, are they simply marketing their product to make you feel better but not really doing the right thing by the chickens? How can you be sure the eggs actually come from hens in different living conditions, or are they all actually from the one place? What about those corporations who market their ‘healthy’ products and tell you how wonderful they are for you and the environment, whilst also selling unhealthy products that cause obesity and health problems? Take bottled water as an example (research it!). Why give your hard earned money to a corporation who really doesn’t care about you or the environment? Take that extra step to show producers and corporations that we won’t put up with their double standards, that they need to do the right thing all the way, or we won’t support them. In this way you can really do something good for the planet.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #526 Dig Out Your Lipstick

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #526 Dig Out Your Lipstick

Don’t you just hate it when your favourite lipstick runs out? Well, when you do finally reach the bottom of the stick, it doesn’t have to be the end. There is still quite a lot of lipstick remaining, you simply need to dig it out of the container. You can use a cotton bud (Q-tip) or a firm lipstick brush/applicator to dig out that gorgeous colour you love and apply it to your lips. There are many applications still left in that bottom part of the container, so extend the life of your product and help the planet by reducing the resources you use, not throwing things into landfill so often, getting your money’s worth and keeping plastic out of the environment as long as possible.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #525 Observe World Oceans Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #525 Observe World Oceans Day

June 8 is World Oceans Day, a day to reflect on the health of our oceans, how we contribute to that health and what we can do to make things better. This year’s theme (2015) is Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet and the idea is to focus on reducing plastic waste that finds its way into the oceans where it kills marine life. Imagine a beautiful leatherback turtle choking on a plastic bag just because you couldn’t be bothered keeping reusable bags in the boot (trunk) of your car.  Ponder on the Great Pacific Garbage, Patch which is now the size of a small country! It’s made up of plastic waste – waste that you might think you put in the bin. You threw it ‘away – now you know where ‘away’ is – it’s in the ocean. It’s time to rethink our behaviour and consider the consequences. It’s time to act. Take a look at www.worldoceansday.org for events in your area and start taking action today.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - art installation May 2015

I recently displayed all 1000 Flowers at a local exhibition, using two square columns which sat at the entrance to the show. Many people were amazed at all the flowers, but few stopped and read about the project or understood what all the suggestions were about. It made me feel despondent about the state of the planet and how people are incredibly difficult to engage even in conversation, let alone in action. People told me it was all too hard and they couldn't do more than they were already doing. Sad.
But some people were happy to steal a few flowers from the art installation - check out the blank spots.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #5 Recycle Glass, Margaret A. Rowe, 2015

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #5 Recycle Glass, Margaret A. Rowe, 2015

1000 Flowers for the Planet - hiatus

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #1 Care For Bees, Margaret A. Rowe, 2013

I am taking a brief hiatus for 3 or 4 weeks to work on an installation of the '1000 Flowers' for an exhibition at the end of May. Since 4 October 2013 I have blogged a flower suggestion nearly every day and whilst I am past the half-way mark, I have to admit it is getting harder to come up with suggestions. But I know they're out there, so if you have any ideas you'd like to share, please let me know via 'comment'. 

Meanwhile, I'll fill the gap with some images of my individual art pieces. Care for Bees was my first Flower suggestion, and remains a serious issue around the world.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #524 Travel With a Steripen

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #524 Travel With a Steripen

Travelling is one of the most rewarding things one can do. Unfortunately, these days there is a dire side-effect to travelling – plastic water bottles. Most people are aware that when they travel they should not drink the local water, because it is likely to cause stomach upset and can cause vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Consequently, people take advantage of the convenience of buying water in plastic bottles. They are a convenient size, fit easily in bags and have a screw top lid enabling the user to sip at leisure but still be able to seal the bottle properly. Sadly, all of this leads to a huge amount of waste. Travellers are less able to put their empty water bottles into a recycling program, so they end up in landfill. This is a huge problem for the environment, but there is a good solution: Travel with a SteriPEN®.

A SteriPEN is a portable devise able to be used by individuals to sterilise water [http://www.steripen.com/]. It destroys viruses, bacteria and protozoa, making the water safe to drink while you’re busy investigating the corners of the globe. Using this device will save the planet from thousands (dare I suggest millions) of unnecessary plastic bottles – you can travel with one bottle that you refill each time you stop for the night (and if you really want to look after the environment, that single bottle will be an aluminium one). In this way the planet will be able to breathe a little easier, when we reduce the amount of resources being used in the manufacture of plastic bottles, reduce carbon emissions, reduce reliance on fossil fuel, reduce landfill, and better protect our environment.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #523 Observe International Midwives Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #523 Observe International Midwives Day

Today is International Midwives Day. The people that take up this profession make a valuable contribution to the support of women and babies, their health and well-being, as well as to the community by supporting families and providing care at an important stage in life. Bringing babies into the world sounds like a happy, joyful occupation, and in the main it must be so, but it can also be a very dangerous time for mother and child, so the value of an experienced midwife is high indeed.

There’s a huge knock-on effect from the services of a midwife. When they help a mother bring a baby into this world safely, they also ensure that mother is there to provide care and nurturing for that child, and any other children she may already have. Childbirth can be risky. Having well-trained midwives available in all corners of the world will help communities flourish with healthy mums and bubs and reduce the number of orphans. So today is a good day for thinking about how midwives support the community as a whole and offering support to them in return.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #522 Observe World Laughter Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #522 Observe World Laughter Day

Yesterday was also World Laughter Day, but I think it’s a particularly good concept for every day of the week. World Laughter Day was “created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The celebration of World Laughter Day is a positive manifestation for world peace and is intended to build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter.” [source: http://www.laughteryoga.org/english/events].

Anything that works towards global peace, mutual understanding and friendship is a gift to be treasured. Laughter not only brings us together, it’s good for our health, and healthy people are less of a burden on the environment. Have you noticed how you smile when you see someone laughing and often burst into laughter yourself? It makes you feel good. So laugh, enjoy life, share the bliss and let’s be happy.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #521 Observe World Press Freedom Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #521 Observe World Press Freedom Day

Today, 3 May, is World Press Freedom Day, a day during which the world celebrates and reflects on the freedom of the press. It is also a day to evaluate how freedom of the press is upheld around the world and to reflect on the lives of journalists that have been lost whilst exercising that right. Events are held all around the world. Check out http://www.unesco.org/new/en/world-press-freedom-day to find an event near you and learn more about this special day of observation. Having freedom of the press enables people to learn what really is happening in our world, both at home and abroad. It enables us to know where people are in need of help, to learn what wonderful advances in technology are being made, to discover what threats might be lurking, and how to become proactive in making this planet a better place for all living creatures.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #520 Value Vinegar

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #520 Value Vinegar

Vinegar is made from fermented wine (said with caution as some vinegars are derived from petroleum), but can come from many bases such as fruits, coconut water, rice, beer, wheat and many other sources. As such, it is a natural product with many uses: cooking, cleaning, hair tonic, burnishing scissor blades, remove carpet stains, revitalise wood, remove candle wax, clean drains, polish brass and copper, clean stainless steel, clean windshield wipers, clean mould and mildew, disinfect the toilet, treat various garden pests, clean bird droppings, get rid of rust – the list goes on and on. Spend some time on the Internet looking for ideas and you’ll soon have a multitude of tasks around the home where vinegar can help. Check the source of your vinegar to ensure it’s not a petroleum product and give the natural vinegar a prominent spot in your pantry where it’s easy to grab and use for a multitude of jobs around your home. You’ll be doing the environment a favour by keeping chemicals out of our water systems, you’ll save money by not buying those dreadful chemicals, and you’ll always have a solution on hand.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #519 Try 'The Keeper'

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #519 Try 'The Keeper'

Warning for all men: this Flower suggestion is purely for the ladies so continue reading at your own risk. On average, women menstruate for 40 years and in that time they will throw away about 10,000 sanitary products (tampons or pads). These sanitary products, depending on the brand, can possibly be made from plastics (petrochemical products), and potentially contain the equivalent of four plastic bags. They can also contain other chemicals used for odour neutralizing and fragrance. As the skin touched by these products is highly sensitive, it is possible that these chemicals are being absorbed into the body and have the potential to cause health problems. You need to do your own research to check out how your body might be affected and become better informed.

However, there is a solution that is a win/win. The Keeper is a menstrual cup [see it at http://thekeeper.com.au/menstrualcup/] made of natural gum rubber, therefore it is better for your health. The cup is reusable and lasts for years, making it an environmentally friendly device, saving landfill and the environment from thousands of human waste products. The amount of resources saved will be enormous, saving fossil fuels, carbon emissions, transportation and a big winner – saving you money: a huge amount of money over the years. Check it out and be an environmental warrior.