Give plants or seeds as gifts this newyear/newspaper gift wraps

small saplings or good seeds would make very long lasting gifts.. And such gifts would sprout a new found nurturing hobby in your loved ones too.

Meanwhile for those of you , who have friends who dont have land to plant the trees, you can always gift something else..but make sure you use colorful sunday magazine newspapers as gift wrapping paper instead of the usual glossy gift wraps..

ya know, a lil bit of recycling definitely goes a long way

The concept of a recyclable christmas tree

EAch year so many trees are just cut for no reason ,, all due the whim and fancy for a chirstmas tree..
True..I myself love the sight of a decorated tree with lights and decorations..But then..there is absolutely no need to cut pine trees to achieve this result.
Here is a solution
I have used the same tree for the past five years.
How?
I use a plastic tree..This plastic tree is a recyled product to begin with.. As in..it is manufactured from recycled material. and yes.. I can take it down.. put it in the attic and reuse it the next year... just like we keep decorations and use them year after year..
A great idea , dontcha think?

What is light pollution?

what is light pollution?
Well, if you are one of those insomniacs or if you work late.. and are driving back home late late in the night.. You might notice that the sky appears orange much akin to the dawn orange rather than look dark and this is because of all the manmade artificial lighting in such a massive scale that it makes the sky reflect all that light at a particular level .
How does this affect ?
nocturnal animals get affected a lot.
Either ways... making the sky look orange when it is suppossed to be starlit and dark is a big no no..
What is the solution?
I think we need to figure out light sources on streets or otherwise that wont go so far as causing light pollution..we do need lights on the streets to prevent accidents but we don't need to go make the skies orange in the middle of the night in an attempt to keep the streets lit..
I need to go read up more on this , on the solutions.

Not wasting food can save the environment

you see conservation is preservation...so each time you conserve water, you help the environment stay that much more balanced..

You might be surprised to know that not wasting food does the same.

You see, eat only that much that makes you feel just full..slightly satisfied and yes,, cook only small enough portion that will get eaten up fully at each meal..that way you don't waste good to eat food in the garbage..

Like they say.. each penny saved is equal to each penny earned

Each plant uses up some nutrients of the soil to grow grains.. and it uses to energy to do so .. so at the end of the day..if you waste that grain .. essentially.. as in cook more grain that you will eat that day and then wait for it to rot and then throw it back in the soil.. well.. the nutrients in the grain do get recyled but then the energy that the plant used to process those nutrients into grains and fruts is still nevertheless lost.

So yes,, cook only as much as you can eat and don't overeat just coz you don't want to waste either..coz afterall being obese is a burden on your heart which then starts wasting energy carrying around your heavy body around..yeah?

get the point?

don't waste food and save the environment.

there are also other meanings of not wasting food..I always say.. don't peel anything unless absolutely necessary.. we are perfectly equipped to digest peels.. so yes.. unless it is a pineapple or jackfruit..please dont peel them

eat the potatoes with peels, eat the tomatoes with peels , eat the aubergines with peels, eat the apples and pears with peels..Only make sure you throughly wash them before eating..

yes, the onions you might want to peel..but make sure ..you put the onions peels back into your compost pit or the kitchen garden soil..that is effective organic recycling too.

love you all..dont waste food.

A compost pit in your backyard

A compost pit works so well for effective recycling of soil nutrients..
When you eat fruit, there are going to be peels that you might not eat.
yet again, i do insist that you not waste food..eat the peels as much as possible..
 dont peel your apples or pears and other fruits that have very thin edible peels..The peels are where the vitamins, minerals and the fiber is at and we really need all those nutrients.

But ofcourse there are going to be peels which we absolutely cannot chew with comfort..for example the peel of a pineapple or a banana peel or a durian fruit peel(not that durian fruit is widely eaten in the US--but if any reader in thailand is reading this...this one is for you).. These peels nevertheless still contain nutrients. that are better returned to the soil of your own kitchen garden(btw if you have a backyard and dont have a kitchen garden yet, it is time to have one.Gardening is so healing an exercise that one must surely try it .)

A compost pit effectively breaks down all these peels into smaller bits that can then become soil over time and this happens so organically .
A compost pit needs to be sufficiently deep enough , around 3 feet deep ..
Keep disposing all your vegetable peels, egg shells and other food waste into the pit and each time cover your veggie garbage with a thin layer of soil.
DON'T discard processed food into this pit--processed foods contains artificial chemicals that are no good
Just so that there are no flies buzzing over this compost pit.. have a large leaf or palm front or reed woven lid to cover this compost pit.The cover of the compost pit must have air escapes available.Don't use a tight fitting lid,use something that allows for gas escape
Once the compost pit is 3/4ths full..you can cover this pit up and seal it.Leave it sealed for months.
This sealing time allows for earthworms and microbes to consume the garbage and break them down.
Mark this sealed pit with a date of closing,so that you you know where to dig up later.
Meanwhile,open up another compost pit in another area of your garden.
This compost pit that you just buried?wait for a good month or two or more,then you can dig the soil from this pit and use it as a manure for your plants...

I hope you will look up more information about how to make a compost pit on the internet and try and have a compost pit in your home.
The earthworms are the ones that convert the peels into pure manure.. the soil naturally has earthworms , so not to worry to include earthworms before closing the pit..
If your soil is too full of artificial insecticides.. then your soil might be dead (as in , it has no natural earthworms or friendly insects.In such a case, do procure some live earthworms and include them in the pit before closing it up)
Happy composting.

Also,for people who don't have backyards and those who live in apartments,NOT TO WORRY.
Another method of composting is possible,but more about that method in another blog entry.

Geothermal Energy

I was watching Travel channel and well, there is this active valcano there in Hawaaii and ofcourse there are associated Hot springs.
yeah , i was also watching this other program on Japan where they have naturally warmed pools due to all that Hot spring abundance there.
Suddenly it struck me that Geothermal energy is so energy friendly and so abundant too..
Atleast Hawaii and Japan can benefit from production of energy from the already naturally existing warm springs aka Geothermal energy--that is , the heat that geo as in earth produces naturally.
Great idea and I am sure Japan already makes use of Geothermal energy ...It is time, Hawaaii thought about it.

Dogs were not born on the surface of this earth to do silly tricks

Firstly, Most people have pets with a selfish motive..

The pet persay really doesn't benefit at all.

People have pets coz they want to feel validated.

People have pets coz they want to constantly have beings around them that have to beg them for food..People want to feel better and feel important..That the reason they have pets.

They want unconditional love. as in what they percieve as unconditional love..And somehow they think that all the tail wagging that the dogs does is love.. and well,, that love is not unconditional after all , is it?

People do feed the dog and it is only after the dog gets used to the fact that this the person that feeds them that all the tail wagging and face licking happens..So, well, People essentially are bribing the dog with food for the pretend unconditional love..

Come on ! People have to find other non cruel methods to boost their own self esteem instead of holding another living being hostage at their home.. an environment which prolly might be great for humans to live in , but for animals genetically designed to run really fast and hunt, these small houses work as prison..

I mean, you forcibly breed a dog,, then sell the puppies at stores and then someone else buys these puppies from there.. then you get this dog home and then toilet train it .I mean, why are you punishing animals of the wild with toilet training?huh?Just so that they can fit in your home environment? Isn't that a selfish motive?Dogs do not belong at home...Wild dogs belong in the wild and domestic dogs do not exist in nature at all .

Either ways.. some people go a step further and teach their dogs tricks like fetchign a ball..

Now, My question is,,"Why exactly must a dog repeatedly fetch a ball that you throw at them?" For your entertainment , which you cleverly state as "OH my dog enjoys fetching the ball, I do it for the dog"

yeah right,, really?

I mean..did not you use food treats as bribe for the dog in the first place to make it learn this stupid ball fetching?

No really..ARe you telling lies to yourself ?Did the dog tell you that it likes to be toilet trained? Did the dog tell you that it likes a belt around its neck? Did the dog tell you that it likes being locked up inside small confined spaces of human dwelling?

It didn't..You just invent reason and lies, to satisfy your conscience , so that you can get away with doing things, that ultimately benefit in you as a human being ending up feeling important and loved by the dog...

So, yeah, there is absolutely no need to teach the dog silly tricks..There is absolutely no need for pets...absolutely not.

Dogs are designed to run fast in the open free world...let them be children of the wild..Dont domesticate them, don't force breed them, Don't sell them in pet shops(they are not things..they are not anybody's property) Don't teach them tricks...

Try other methods to raise your own self esteem....

Dogs are not here for your security...get an alarm system .

Dogs are not here for your entertainment,,go play some video games or play some sport yourself..I mean..why don't you go fetch some balls yourself..huh?After you seem to think that doing silly tricks is amusing..

BTw, Dogs are far more instintive and talented that you think they are ...They are smarter than just being that stupid thing that gets happy with repeatedly fetching a ball..hmmm

categorized garbage disposal and recycling

well, for one,, I saw seperate waste baskets for biological wastes and plastics at the frankfurt airport in Germany and i was really glad that some countries actually are taking smart decisions..
I think we at home can employ this categorized garbage disposal at home too.
Why not have three seperate waste bins..One for paper and other biological degradable wastes and another one for plastics and glass, and another one for toxic wastes like batteries etc.It would be so easy to save the environment..That way the landfills won't fill up so fast either and ofcourse we will be able to reuse plastics as much and as long as possible..Glass is recyclable too.Paper is recyclable too. So yeah.. we can also purchase recycled paper products and recyclable glass products and yeah , all those soft drink tins and such.. why not segregate them as well and return them back to the store and such.Why wait for a poor homeless person undergo the indignity of having to sift through garbage to get those cans out...Ya know... speakign of homeless people..each time i see them , i am scared and worried at the same time..scared coz you never know how and why people end up homeless and worried coz many of them are dependant on drugs ..very sad...Anways... segregate your garbage right at the time of disposal and try to recycle the garbage as much as possible..and yeah, don't waste food..
will write another blog on how not waste food.

Soft drinks,fizzed sodas and Alcohol do not quench the thirst.Tap water versus bottled drinking water

I drank coke or was it pepsi today after almost four years..I just wanted to remind myself how bad it tastes..LOL ....I mean seriously, i was shocked when some bloggers actually confessed that they never drink water..All they drink is soda or fizzed drinks..And I was like...whoa...Total liver and kidney torture..SeriouslyI have noticed that people think that alchohol or soft fizzed drinks are drinks appropriate to quench thirst..The body is thirsty coz it needs water..It needs water coz it needs the water to dilute the toxins and remove them from the body ...So, water essentially is the medium to remove these toxins from the body..When the body is thirsty, it obviously doesn't have enough excess water to dissolve all the toxins waiting to be sent out from the body..Now, soft drinks have water with added toxins..so , all you are doing when you drink a fizzed soda when you are thirsty is increase the toxin levels further ..It is like using really dirty water to clean a dirty surface...YOu need to use clean water to clean a dirty surface, right?Also, infact, alchohol is a diuretic,, so it actually makes you lose the very little water that the body is hanging on to while it is on a toxin overload...So the next time you are thirsty, please drink either warm or cold pure clean water..There is no place for fizz or alchohol when the body is drying for some real water.
Well, coming back to what happenned when i drank coke after a good four years?I could feel a grating sensation when i gritted my teeth.That is because the Soda contains high amounts of acids that leach the enamel and erode it.No wonder there is a increasing incidence of dental cavities with increasing usage of soft drinks.
I also felt a very burning feeling as the drink flowed down my gullet ...Big sign that the drink is doing no good to the inner lining of my food pipe
I do have to reiterate here...The next time you are thirsty, please drink some soothing pure water..And yeah, please stop using bottled water...A large amount of plastic is used to store a very small amount of water which will be drunk withing ten seconds....WE need to figure out a way to make tap water safe enough for people not to resort to buying bottled drinking water

Rain harvesting

Well, Rain harvesting ,
what is it?
It is a method by which , all the rain that fall on a given land surface could be smartly collected before it falls on the earth surface .
What happens to rain water normally?
Usually most of the rain water that falls on the earth just flows off to areas on the surface that are already polluted and in the process,gets contaminated.This contaminated rain water  is  not potable or usable as drinking water anymore.
Also,most of the rain water gets washed off to the sea and immediately stops  being FRESH WATER once it enters the sea.
Rain water that falls on the rivers is ofcourse usable but given that so many regions actually let out insdustrial waste and raw sewage into rivers without treatment,this is a lost cause as well.

Some rain water gets soaked up by the earth surface and trickles down to ground water.This is the only place where rain water actually directly helps REPLENISH water sources underground.

What is rainwater harvesting?

Rainwater harvesting is the process of COLLECTING AND SAVING water when it rains and use it for later .
This rain water collection must happen from a clean surface , for eg, a clean terrace.
This collected water can then either used directly or stored for later.
If the collected rain water is to be stored,it must first be filtered and slightly treated prior to storeage.

Sometimes,the excess rain water can be safely let into a safe groud water hole that would then make sure that the underground water table is replenished  as well.However when trying to re let collected rain water back into an underground well, please FILTER AND CLEAN THE COLLECTED water prior to letting it into underground sources.
UNTREATED RAIN WATER when let into underground wells can CONTAMINATE wells.

so,yeah,this is what Rain water harvesting is all about.

How does this help us?
Water is necessary for sustainance of life, just like air.humans cannot do without water or air.
With growing booming populations,water demand is on the rise  and water has become a scarce precious commodity.

Rain water harvesting helps us cut each of our water foot print.
I did write a very precise blog entry about water foot print weeks ago.
It helps save water and prevents wastage .

Rainwater if not harnessed might first fall on muddy earth ,get contaminated and then with all its contaminants  flow out into surface water bodies and finally to the sea .

Rains do feed rivers and the soil that gets washed off  into the rivers does get settled off along the water in agricultural fields and deltas and nourish them,
but,most of rain water gets wasted .

rain water harvesting helps us make GOOD USE of water that might otherwise get wasted .

Rain water is the purest form of water much akin to distilled water.Therefore, rain water could actually be consumed as is, if collected directly from the sky without any treatment .

Also, rain water can be collected at a much higher point and then,just like a water stored in a dam is used to produce hydel powered electricity, this water can then be run down from that height and thus can be used to produce electricity too.
So, thus, we can have an energy source from a renewable source.

This blog entry of mine was prompted by all the unseasonal and untimely heavy rainfalls  we had recently.
Why not make hay when the sun shines!
Why not produce hydel electricity if at all it is going to rain like cats and dogs this way all the time..LOL.
I think , Seattle, should go ahead and think of rain water harvesting
and chicago like i mentioned in one of my past blog entries, can go for , wind powered energy.
yeah, Las vegas can go for solar energy too..LOL
there we go, our energy problems all solved.

Rain and rain and some more rain

There have been rains and rains and rains everywhere.
Ofcourse there have been odd earthquakes here and there..But, mostly it has been rain and rain and rain.
It gets difficult when the seasons don't adhere to their expected charecterisitics...whatcha say?
btw,earthquakes in china right before the olympics..gosh..that is one scary thought..All of the world's best atheletes will be there risking earthquakes? and the smog too.hmmmm

Grow your own food, Make your own lil home veggie garden

Well, You can pitch in to deal with the food shortage by growing your own veggies...in your own lil garden.To all your lucky folks who actually have homes with earth around that you could grow plants on ..Please please,, plant atleast a few herbs and some tomatoes, okra , aubergines and such.
I remember the small veggie garden i planted when i was a kid growing up and my parents had a large garden area around the house....They grew all sorts of fruits too..there was lot of land around.I planted some chilli seeds..they grew..the seeds...we had a large chilli plant and it bore chillies too..I planted potato eyes too..but then,, well by the time they got a lil big..some rodent from the garden ate them all up..LOL
The local food is more about growing your own food and helping food shortage .It is not as much about paying more to someone else who will then grow food on the same piece of land over and over again... well..anyways..for all us not so lucky folks who now live in high rise apartments(yours truly included).. we can try growing herbs in the kitchen window sill and if there is a balcony , can try growing some plants in a pot too..Only thing is..make sure there is enought enrichment of the potted soil with kitchen waste..hmmmmm
Yeah , btw, eating only what is necessary and steering clear of things we can avoid eating aka other animals, is a good way to combat food shortage too.Gluttony is very unnecessary.Eating meat is too.

Solar powered cars for the sunny southern states

Atleast the desert state-nevada and the other states that burn during summer months must consider using solar powered cars as an attempt to deaddict from the gasoline dependancy..we don't want to go back to horse drawn carts(poor horses), we can do the bicycles, but for long distance summer road trips, solar powered cars are definitely a good idea.

Moderate Earthquake shakes LA

This just happenned a good 20-25 min ago.Moderate i.e 5.8 Richter scale magnitude earthquake with the epicenter 47 km from LA civic center has been reported.
suddenly, we all become so small, we are all at the mercy of earth and the environment.Hmmmm.
The thing is, our buildings per say , not to be in a positiion to withstand anything but perfect weather.Seriously, we need to stop building homes and offices with stucco based stuff.
where did all that rock based building technology go?
they just booard up some timber and then call it a home..This sucks
No wonder the buildings were swaying this way.
Seriously, we need to go back to building real homes with concrete or cement and rock and granite.Not some fragile boards.

A solar powered farm tractor..Now that is organic

No,Seriously, I was doing some chores in the kitchen and musing over how chopped up fish as organic manure doesn't appeal to me at all, as a vegetarian.
on the other hand, a solar powered tractor in my view would the way of the future in natural farming methods while still having the benefit of modern technology.Solar powered farm tractors..good idea dontcha think?

What is with the Local grown food craze?Does it work or matter at all?

well, sometimes, people continue doing things that actually damage the ecology in a bigger way and then pretend that they are saving the ecology by trying and doing less useful things like this recent , Locally grown food , craze.
I call it craze, because first off,,it would not make much of a difference to the ecology if you eat locally grown food and yet burn gasoline like hell in your cars and eat animals.
Let me tell you why the Locally grown food craze is a fad.
The very reason why importing of foods started was to meet food shortages and to make nutritious vegetables available in regions which wont be able to grow vegetables year round.esp in snow wridden areas..So, yeah,, did a great job of making sure, we can sustain ourselves and have access to fruits and vegetables even in the winters in snowy regions..So, i don't see the point when people suddenly want to eat only locally grown food..Seriously, the very fact that for fifty years or so, we have already imported and used green revolution practices and this has already introduced newer plants to our region which were not native to our region anyways.Including potatoes and tomatoes which were not native to any of the regions where it is being extensively used in the cuisine in this century.I mean, will you stop eating potatoes and tomatoes, and aubergines and peppers to go back the ecology that was there in north america a good 300yrs ago?OH, no,,right?
So, i would really appreciate if people concentrate on real methods to deal with not altering the ecology rather than pretend to do something by eating locally grown food..For all you know, we will have to starve if we eat only locally grown food in the 6inches of snow..So, please, start doing the basics first and then think about the locally grown food.Would you stop using the car as much?no..oh , no..that would be inconvenient ..so you won't do that , will ya? well,,, first try doing that,,try using the bicycle more...do real things that will make an impact..then you can allow yourself to go crazy over the organic food and locally grown foods..k?

Alcohol

Alcohol.It is a depressant that also affects the cerebellum .Yeah.It is addictive.It damages the liver.It is a diuretic and actually makes the body lose heat though it makes one feel warm .So, the body ends up dehydrated and the core temperature goes down too.Tobacco..should i start talking about tobacco?Naaaaah...I am pretty sure everyone is making informed choices in life.whatever.Who cares.I just hope i find a nice non drinking man to date.
July 18, 2008 4:07 PM

How preserved/processed foods can be potentially carcinogenic(cancer causing)

Copyright 2008 Le Cinq Blog Dr.A.R All rights reserved
There has been an escalation of cancer incidence in the past couple of decades.

This is sometimes attributed to the increase in expected lifespan which inturn increases the chances of cell signals to get misfired as they get older.

While this is definitely a valid argument,I somehow think that this increased incidence of cancer occurance even in younger age groups as is the increased incidence of allergies and other disorders irrespective of age groups is primarily due to the increased consumption of processed foods and/or consumption of foods with preservatives.

What do preservatives essentially do?

Preservatives essentially make sure that the cells in foods do not continue undergoing physiological changes so that the state in which they have been packed at is retained.This can essentially be achieved only if all cell processes are arrested .This causes the cells to be either killed or frozen in steady state.,Which is why freezing is a very effective method of preservation and less harmful when compared to preservation of foods using chemical preservatives.

chemical preservatives prevent any cellular ripening progression or biological degradation by essentially stopping all cellular processes .Many of them also act in a way to prevent microbial growth in already prepared and packed food.The microbial cellular processes though different from our cells, sometimes there are processes that are very similar, and therefore, these preservatives are very well capable of acting on human cellular processes as well, which include not just acting on the human digestive tract cells that come in contact with food but also those organs in general that take part in removing unwanted substances from the body in the form of detoxification or excretion.
Essentially, any non nutritious substance get removed straight away and this includes drugs or prservatives , chemicals, dyes,and even alcohol.These preservatives thus put a lot of stress on the liver and kidney to work extra harder.
It would be therefore a great idea to eat foods that are fresh rather than those that have been sitting in neat lil packets on supermarket shelves containing food that would go rotten by the time the pack is picked up had there not been any added preservatives.If at all you need to pick up food that is not fresh, it is alway better to choose frozen foods aka frozen vegetables etc rather than canned vegetables that have added calcium gluconate to maintain color.If at all you need to pick up canned foods, choose ones that have been canned in pure brine instead of ones that have added calcium gluconate etc.Take time to read food labels and look at ingredients when you pick up canned foods.One that says, 'water and salt' is better than one that says 'water, salt, calcium gluconate' etc.
Also, while using fresh veggies, it is always a good idea to run flowing water over veggies to run off any pesticides sticking to them or any microbes sticking to the surface.There is absolutely no necessity to wash veggies with detergents and such.Plain forcefully running water is abrasive enough to remove most contaminants.
Happy healthy eating to all readers !
Please note that all material is originally composed and written by me.Nothing has been lifted from anywhere else.I hold a medical degree prior to which i also did two years of food and nutrition in college.
All content is copyrighted and any form of reproduction is strictly prohibited

Copyright 2008 Le Cinq Blog aka Dr.A.R All rights reserved.No part of my blog is to be copypasted or reproduced in any form original or plagiarized on any other site or outside of the internet with my prior written permission.You can link to my blog only after permission.Under no condition are you allowed to post any part of my work including a sampling .You can only post a link and that too only after my permission and that is as much as you get .If you still lack integrity or self respect and post slightly modified forms of my blog entries, I shall come after you and haunt you -cough cough -hunt you down !

What is wrong with Wild animals on Talk shows !

Okay, i see more and more talk shows where they invite this "expert" who comes there and brings along all kinds of wild animals and then proceeds to bring them out there and demonstrate things.
What is wrong with this scenario?
First off, WILD ANIMALS, are supposed to be wild.
This attempt tobring them out to talk shows is posed as an attempt to educate about these animals.
But what this act is actually eventually ending up doing is indirectly indicating that it is alright to chain and domesticate and cage wild animals.
Wild animals are supposed to be wild.They are not suppossed to be caged that way or belted that way or be brought to shooting studios full of audience.
Even if one such animal is being used as their ''alleged" attempt at educating people about more such similar animals out there in the wild, It is still wrong, coz one animal eventually is getting domesticated and trained to understand that it will be fed for every act of listening to the human that will feed it .
This is much akin to teaching animals tricks.These tricks essentially are only for the amusement of the human viewers.Teaching animals tricks is essentially a self affirmation attempt of humans where they as humans are amused and feel better and feel a sense of achievement that they taught an animal a trick.The animal doesn't get amused by itself except for the fact that it gets a treat of food for each action that it performs, an action that it naturally is not inclined to perform. It doesn't really care about the trick at all.It just thinks of it as a food gaining attempt.It is like training lab rats to do tricks to be fed.This is just wrong.
So, yeah, coming back to bringing wild animals to television studios, there are far better and correct ways of educating the public.For eg videos of animals in their natural environment where we as intruders hide and video tape them while they go around behaving normally in their normal environment, rather than capture that animal, cage it and train it to behave in lure of a food treat and bring them to telvised studios to "EDUCATE" people.
Come on!Hyprocritical excuses to do wrong things is not acceptable.

Have you heard of the WATER FOOTPRINT?How vegetarianism can help in dealing with foodshortage

A lot of people have started using the word CARBON FOOTPRINT more and more in their conversations, just like , using the word , 'Going Green', or the word, ORGANIC, has become another fad.
The part of this whole repeated misuse or overuse of the word without actually ever really understanding the concept of it or without actually truly doing something about it, is what irritates me very much and each time some ill informed person just goes yada yada yada about green or organic or most recently carbon footprint, All i want to do is make them sit down and then proceed to ask them to explain the concept to me.
Anyways, let us come back to CARBON FOOTPRINT.This is a broad indicater of how much of the non renewable resources have each one of us as single entity used up .The larger the footprint , the larger the wastage that has been done by us.
Now, A waterfootprint is much the same, the amount of water that one wastes and the amount that one doesnt need to waste or the water that they could have prevented from getting wasted had they been careful .
For eg. you know we spend so much of water feeding a cow,, approximately 40L of water, just so that we could drink a Litre of milk.So, we have had to invest 40L of good to drink water for just a mere 1L of milk
I mean, really, it is absolutely wastage.Soymilk prepared from beans uses water to grow the plants but ofcourse that is all it needs besides soil minerals.
One pound of soybeans , Yield a lot of soymilk besides the byproducts thereof after the milk has been extracted which are absolutely edible and rich in minerals.
We could very well, skip the step of feeding the cow the soybeans and then drinking the meagre yield of cow's milk
The cow needs to be fed as well, besides being given water, to produce a Litre of cow's milk.
Get my point?
we could have saved that much of food and that much of water, had we decided to just go ahead and drink soymilk .While excluding a step in the foodchain we save a lot of resources.
We feed the cow, corn and soybeans ,peanuts and what not, which for a fact , could actually be useful as food to us ourselves.Thus, by eating that very corn and by eating soybeans and peanuts and not breeding more cows just to be slaugthered, we are actually countering the food shortage.A 40L of water would be enough for twenty people for a day.The amount of feed that a cow feeds per day would be enough as filling meals for five or six people.
Simply said, if we can eat wheat and carrots and soybeans and corn ourselves, why go ahead and feed pounds and pounds of that to a cow and finally kill the cow after having fed the cow for months this way?
Had we been a tiger or a lion or an alligator which cannot survive on carrots or soybeans , i would never have suggested this idea.
Afterall, our ancestoral primates were herbivores.We sure can go back to that and save the environment.

Do you know of the water foot print?

NO , we are not the top of the food chain

No , we are not carnivores.
We are descendants of herbivores.
We dont have any natural body mechanism that would help us hunt and eat just like a REAL CARNIVORE like a lion or tiger has.
We don't have heavy paws or claws or powerful heavy jaws or a heavy body.
We are small and tiny with no natural claws and paws and we have long intestines like that of herbivores.
btw, the word omnivore is a very convenient term to include groups of animals that would eat anything and everything just coz it is hungry and that would perhaps include cows being fed ground offals of other slaughtered cows at the farm.
hmmmm.
So, yeah, we are not on top of the food chain.
Either ways, the food chain has no top or bottom.As the word says, a food chain is a chain.It has no top or bottom.It is a cycle.
Plant makes food from the sun.we eat plants.we shit .plants use that and grow again.WE die, we disintegrate into the soil, plant uses that. thus the cycle goes on.
Anways,we need to go back to our very original food patterns and save ourselves from a lot of ailments including obesity and colon cancer.

Misinterpretation of the term 'BIOFUEL' and problems thereof

I am NOT really for BIOFUEL that is manufactured from edible foods..converting good to eat food into fuel when there is so much of population explosion and the ensuing increase in food needs.
The term BIOFUEL has in the recent day and time come to include various varieties of fuel.Some of them make sense and stay true to the concept of them being environmentally friendly while some others are totally defying the basic principle.
The word Biofuel was initially coined to denote any fuel that is organically derived from organic sources.
To be very technical, Petroleum by itself is also derived from Plant matter or organic material.The only difference is that it has taken that organic matter thousands of years to convert into crude oil..So, technically, Most fuel is biofuel including coal and crudeoil.
But then, the term by itself was coined to denote alternative organic sources of fuel that don't take as long to be formed and are renewable in a certain way.
I had to write this blog entry coz a lot of people wanting to be environmentally conscious are mistaking Biofuel to be a fool- proof green option.Well..it has its own pitfalls.
Let me broadly classify the various Biofuel options available to use
1/ COMPOST OR WASTE DERIVED BIOFUEL-By far the best and ideal source to create biofuel would be waste---that can be composted to produce cooking fuel-- Everyone who has a garden or backyard can try doing this. .All the kitchen waste/farm animal waste/human fecal waste and other biodegradable matter could be buried in a deep trench like enclosure to produce compost.This then can be further degraded in specially constructed tanks(which are fairly easy to construct) to produce very very efficient cooking fuel or gas based heating for the home.
This option is a WIN-WIN SITUATION, All you are using is waste-You are recyling the stuff-the compost can be as such used as organic garden manure..The cooking gas takes care of kitchen cooking energy needs.The same gas can work for heating needs too.Very good , dontcha think?

2/Using already used cooking oil to produce biofuel for vehicles--I am very skeptical about this option.
I hear that MC donald's uses the already used oil-(the oil that was used to fry the various things they make and sell ) to make biofuel and then run their transportation trucks...
Well..for one, the oil they are using has already been used and if it is not used to make biofuel would perhaps just be discarded by then..Keeping that in mind..the option that such oil instead of being dumped in garbage dumps is actually being put to use..That is AN ATTEMPT AT SENSIBLE RECYCLING.
But having said that, all i am wondering is "HOW MUCH OF OIL DOES MC DONALD'S OTHER FAST FOOD CHAINS USE IN A DAY TO BE ABLE TO PRODUCE THAT MUCH OF WASTE OIL" cough cough..that much of oil fried stuffs are being consumed by people each day and that pretty much explains the obesity and diabetes and coronary artery diseases amongst the fast food chain patrons..But that is going be a whole other blog entry on unhealthy food patterns.

3/MAKING BIOFUEL OUT OF FOOD THAT HAS BEEN SPECIFICALLY GROWN FOR the PURPOSE of producing biodiesel-
One must remember that such crops are grown on farmland and that crop of food is actually edible and i consider this kind of biofuel absolutely defeating the purpose of environmentally sensible...Food is precious..
The human population is ever exploding and so are food needs which grow each year..If one is going to go ahead and use good farm land to produce food that is not going to be eaten and is used instead to power vehicles..that is absolutely undesirable....
There is already not enough land to produce enough food to feed everyone..By using more farm land to produce fuel to run the vehicles of some elitist pseudo environmentally conscious group while a whole other group are going to bear the brunt of this act by going without food is NOT ACCEPTABLE.It doesn't make sense.
Using good to eat food to make fuel defeats the purpose of minimizing vehicle usage and saving the environment .unless you are using already used vegetable oil to make your fuel...you are not doing justice to the purpose of environmental conservation .
4/FIREWOOD etc-wood is by itself biofuel too(technically speaking since it doesnt take thousand years to grow a tree-but mind you it does take years and years to grow a big enough tree to yield firewood)..but firewood produces more smoke than energy..not really a great trait for an ideal fuel..there ya go...worst possible option .If you are using wood chips to burn your barbeque..think twice..you are doing no good .

Now for the summation :
An energy source is considered to be efficient only if it can produce large amounts of energy with minimum wastage....and In lieu of recent developments where the production of biofuel from edible foods has been more or less banned , i would like to explain more about why they had to do it...
BIOFUEL PRODUCED FROM VEGETABLE OILS IS NOT ENERGY EFFICIENT.It doesn't provide enough energy that qualifies it to be deemed efficient.We are all attempting to find fuels that produce a lot of energy with complete combustion ...and gasoline definitely is highly energy efficient which is why we use it to run vehicles..Our attempt all along has been to find enviromentally efficient fuels that are comparable to gasoline and yet somehow are more enviromentally friendly .Also..I am sure all of you are aware of the food shortage situation too...it is senseless to let some people starve while some others get to use that food as biofuel..ya know..get my point?

CONCLUSION:
Compost derived methane gas is a great biofuel while vegetable oil derived Biodiesel is not such a good idea. Solar powered vehicles are definitely better than biodiesel.Ofcourse , Solar power has its own pitfalls..but that is a whole other blog entry.
Take care everyone..ride a bike for short distance solo commutes.hugs !

Wind Energy -Renewable source of Electricity

I mean.Wind is everywhere.If by a simple mechanism we could harness and make electricity.Why not , right?
And this method doesn't pollute and is everywhere waiting to be tapped and is never going to get exhausted.Ya know
When i chose an electricity plan, i went for a WIND ENERGY PLAN.
People keep asking me why my electricity bill is so low.
Firstly, The wind energy plan costs less than the usual plan.Saves bucks.Secondly, I try to not waste energy at home.One really doesn't need to compromise and live in heat and darkness to save energy at home.Just make sure , things are switched off when you are not using them.That is all it takes.Easy ! AND YEAH, Ask you energy provider if they have a wind energy plan.when more people get asking, they will prolly think about having one.

An orange is better than orange juice

An orange is better than orange juice.Eating an orange is a far healthier option than drinking orange juice from a carton at breakfast time or even otherwise at other times.Why?Firstly, an orange is far more mass for far lesser calories (not that calories are bad ),An orange has a lot of fiber in addition to that valuable vit c and carotene and all the other water soluble vitamins too.Orange juice perhaps might be a great option for people with no teeth(babies or edentate oldies) or for people who are at the hospital post operatively and can't eat solid food .Orange juice might also be a great option if one is looking for a very very instant pep in one's potassium and sodium and sugar levels in blood and this situation arises when one is involved in sports involving a lot of sweating.When i say orange juice that has all the aforementioned benefits, i mean freshly squeezed orange juice, not that orange juice from a carton that has a lot of added preservatives, a lot of added citric acid and added color and that juice that is reconstituted from concentrate and such.There ya go , My piece of food gyan for today.

Animals do not belong in the Zoo !

The idea of confining animals in limited spaces is very inconsiderate indeed.
Taking your children to the zoo to help them learn about animals is hypocritical indeed.
It is almost like you are trying to teach them that confining animals in cages is a normal and right thing to do.
These children growing up thinking that a living being in a cage is NORMAL ! Well, it is NOT.

If at all you want your children to learn about animals , let them learn about animals by watching animal planet or by going on a jungle safari where we the humans are in confined spaces like a jeep or a van and watching the free animals which are free and moving around in their natural habitat , just like they were meant to be , in the wild.Just like nature intended for all us.

We have no right to confine animals in cages like we do in the zoos.

Not long ago, a tiger attacked a guy at the san francisco zoo ,coz the guy kept making faces at the animal.
I am sure this coward of a human would not even attempt at doing such a thing had the animal been out in the wild,free and front of him instead of being in a cage.It is SO EASY to make faces at caged animals,no?

I mean, it is so easy to sit and make faces at a caged animal..

Also Recently, a 300 pound orangutan, escaped the zoo--His name ,according to the zoo authorities was BRUNO
Funny habit of NAMING wild animals and then put them in zoo
All cutely romantically comical
I am not even sure if the orangutan himself likes that name or understands the concept of names ..but then we humans like committing cruel acts and then doing something superficial and "disney like" ,Like given them cute names, to make the whole affair look like a fairy tale

I mean , are you telling me that the orangutan is happy in a caged confined space as opposed to moving in the wild, all free and at it's  own will?

Let us look at it this way .
A human is going about his/her business each day, going wherever they want to go , eating whatever they want to eat and mating whomever they want to mate(provided the opposite person is equally willing) and doing whatever whenever.
Then, all of a sudden, someone comes and captures this human and takes them and keeps them in a room, The room is very limiting, this human cannot go out of the room ever.
And then someone comes and feeds them twice a day, And then millions of animals come and watch this human each day and perhaps throw trash at them and taunt them sometimes too...
would that be okay?

Now, I can almost immediately  hear some of your respond with , "Awwwwww, but we are humans and they are animals "
And, my answer to that would be,,"Well ,yeah,Humans are animals too. The fact that they are animals and are far more equipped to survive in the wild without clothing or tents,unlike humans, makes it even more cruel for us to confine them that way."
They are FREER children of nature than us humans.So ,cages are going to feel even more confining for them than us.
I am very glad that circuses have almost become very rare and I hope zooos are scrapped too ,very soon.

There are far better ways of teaching children about animals.Let them watch animal planet or discovery channel or national geographic channel for one.That way they really know and understand that animals are far more capable of surviving in the wild without any help than us humans.
If you can afford it, take them on a safari where you watch animals in their natural habitat.
Teach them to respect animals.Teach them to understand the concept of FREE WILL and FREEDOM.

The bicycle.A very environmentally friendly mode of transport

Firstly,It amazes me how we all are able to balance ourselves on just two wheels.
Coming back to the topic on hand as to the bicycle is such a lovely choice.
When it comes to choosing a mode of transport, The bicyle is a great choice for a variety of reasons
1/Firstly,It won't use any gasoline.Saves money.Saves non renewable energy source.
2/Also, just coz it won't use any gasoline..there are no exhausts either..Very enviromentally friendly.No air pollution whatsoever.
3/A bicycle needs very little maitanence.Yet again, saves more money.
4/It is a great workout too.Makes one thinner and stronger.Great cardio and a work out all in one go.
5/Now that it is such a work out, You can save on your Gym membership too.
6/For all those people who don't have time to go to the gym , riding a bicycle to work is a great way to intersperse a work out in your travel time to work.
7/A bike helps you unwind in more ways that one
8/Yeah, btw, riding a bike is a great way to not get stuck up in traffic jams..Afterall,,a bike needs very little space on the road unlike a car.One could easily snake their way forward, while all the car owners are honking and complaining about how much of a time they spend being stuck in traffic jams
There ya go..so many reasons...
Go for it !
Ride a bicycle for all your short distance commutes..
It works out great in more ways than one

Please don't Peel and core those tomatoes !

I know ! I start off an ecology blog with what oddly seems like a Blog header suggestive of cooking tips. Not really !
Read on.
I see that most people resort to peeling their tomatoes and even coring them while using them in cooking and all this only to make sure that what one eats is super smooth sans the fibrous bits.
Super smooth baby food? Is that what we want to eat? We could do with a little bit of a rustic, chunky pasta sauce .Come on , be brave !
Why do i insist that we use uncored and unpeeled tomatoes in cooking?
Coz most of the vitamins and a whole lot of fiber is located in these parts of the tomatoes.
Naturally occuring vitamins are better absorbed than sythetic vitamins from a bottle.
Natural fiber is indigestible and thus forms a large part of our ummmmmm stools(for lack of a less offensive and 'in the face' term !) .It is only when the stools are bulky that the bowels find it easy to send them out .
Fibrous stools also prevent colon cancer.
Fibrous stools also prevent Constipation too.
There has been a rise in colon cancer in recent times and this could be attributed to the altered food habits of people where they have taken to binge drinking and eating highly processed foods with very less natural fiber.
What i am trying to get at with all this banter is:
HMMMM....People essentially are trying to get rid of the natural foods off of their natural fiber and natural vitamins too all in an attempt to attain a smooth sauce.Come on.
The naturally occuring fiber in our diet is actually meant to be eaten.
We need bulk so that the undigested wastes move through our long intestines quite easily.. Morever, Blanching and peeling and coring the tomatoes also makes us lose a lot of valuable vitamins which lie right underneath the skin of the tomatoes.
Now that we have blenders and puree makers, making those seeds into mush is no big deal.
So, why give up on the fiber and the vitamins ? We can still have a very smooth sauce even while using the peel and the seeds.Don't blanch the tomatoes , just puree the whole lot without blanching and voila---smooth sauce.

About this blog

Everything that i want to talk about our ecology, the environment, health, healthier lifetstyles in sync with the environment, animals and what not .Enjoy !
Feel free to leave comments .Your two cents are always welcome.