Progressive Wednesday

I See Trees of Green: Join

Join:

We've talked about it before. Let's talk about it again. I'm betting, if you're anything like me, you've resigned yourself to junk mail and at the same time despise it: Pizza Hut coupons and gigantic JC Penny catalogues, flyers about flyers and a plethora of offers for magazines you'd never read (Ferrets USA, Wooden Boat Magazine, Goat Magazine, American Baby, American Cowboy, and, of course, The New Yorker.) Stacked up, you're convinced all this postal white-noise would reach the hole in the damned ozone.

Well, here's your answer: Green Dimes. Green Dimes is a cheap-o service that gets your name and address off junk-mail lists. You read that right: no more freaking, good-for-nothing, fills-up-my-trash, and clogs-my-shredder junk mail. By stopping the annoyance that is a mailbox full of useless crap, you in turn save, quite literally, forests full of trees. There is a hitch, though: it costs you one dime each day. That’s it: 365 FDR heads. (Sorry, I made it sound a hell of a lot more morbid than it is.) That’s 36 smackers a year. That's about four trips to movies you regret seeing in the first place (see our TGIF Movie Reviews for some friendly advice).

But Green Dimes (you can read more about Green Dimes and similar services in this Newsweek article) is more than a junk-mail prevention service: they’re true conservationists. In association with Trees for the Future, Green Dimes “[sponsors] tree planting on behalf of [its] members.”

So let’s break this down old school:

1. Save some trees.
2. Plant some trees.
3. Spend next to nothing.
4. Stop getting the bane that is junk mail.

Another fantastic service is 41 Pounds, which does almost the same thing as Green Dimes, except half of their profits go to nonprofit organizations. An additional benefit of 41 Pounds is that they promise to keep 80% to 95% of your bulk mail away for 5 years.

Whichever one you go with, go with one: your mailbox will thank you. (Please note: your mailbox is an inanimate object and will not in fact thank you; we’re not all-out looney, okay?)

Renewing our effort to “re-tree”

A few months ago I wrote about the devastating effects that the early Buffalo snowstorm last October had on the western New York area, and especially the region's tree population. The number of dead or damaged trees was astounding, and now that number is projected to be even higher. According to the Buffalo News:

Early damage assessments revealed 300 trees needed to be replaced in Olmsted parks and parkways, with another 2,300 at risk for the next five years. In the City of Buffalo, 7,400 trees along rights of way would have to be taken away. And outside the city, where numbers are sketchier, initial estimates were that about 22,000 trees would have to be removed in Erie and Niagara counties. Some say the estimate could be higher.

These estimates do not take into account the number of trees that were destroyed on personal property or in wild areas. We asked you before to help out one of the groups with plans to “re-tree– the area. Now we're begging.

Here is a list of groups dedicated to planting restoring the tree population:

• Re-tree WNY – “ They hope to plant 30,000 trees over the next five years and secure $10 million in donations and public funds for the project.
• Buffalo Green Fund – “ The Reforest Buffalo Committee has been planting trees for years and is upping its efforts within the city.
• The Olmsted Conservancy ReLeaf – “ They are focusing on the Olmstead Park with a goal to plant 500 new trees.

There are other collegiate and private organizations involved replanting in the area as well as educating the public on how they can help. This is a very important aspect of the effort as so much of the damage has occurred on private property and will need to be addressed by the homeowners. You can learn about educational seminars here and here.

Whether you live in the Buffalo area or not, please help out one of these organizations. And do your part by planting a sapling yourself. After all, the whole world could stand to have a few more trees. I leave you (no pun intended) with a poem from Louise Bogan:

I’ll lie here and learn
How, over their ground,
Trees make a long shadow,
And a light sound.

We hope today’s photographer remembers to plant a tree

Saving the Planet (from the Comfort of Our Homes)

Problem:

The first time I heard about global warming was in the mid 1990's, walking through my college's Student Union, table after table offering me great rates on student credit cards and buy-one-get-one-free deals at the campus pizzeria. At a table on my left was a student handing out literature encouraging us to help “Save the Planet.– I walked over with a credit card brochure in one hand and a piece of pepperoni pizza in the other, took a quick look, refused the pamphlet that she offered, and walked out with a smirk and a roll of the eyes.

Not a day goes by now without my regretting what I did that day. And not because of the enormous credit card debt that I have been fruitlessly trying to chip away at ever since, nor the extra couple of gallons of “water weight– that has been with me like a loyal dog rescued during my college days. No, I'm embarrassed by my apathy and ignorance. I point this out not to pretend that I'm now a white-wigged, gavel-wielding, high-horse-riding model citizen, but instead to point out that I'm not, never have been, and never will be. We can all do more to protect our environment.

It's more than a decade later now and global warming has become an increasingly hot topic (no pun intended). Much has been written/said/filmed/read about it and one thing is clear; the solution isn't easy. We all need to drive our cars to get to work and the factories aren't going to shut down overnight. But today we're not going to talk about that.

Instead we're going to talk about one of the greatest and yet least talked about contributors to the problem, home energy use. As a nation we spend more than $160 billion a year to power our homes, representing about 21 percent of the total energy consumed. Fortunately, it's also the easiest area for the average person to “get a little greener,– while saving a little green at the same time.

Make Progress:

There are so many things that can be done to improve home energy use that we can't possibly touch on all of them in a single Wednesday. But we can get the eco-ball rolling with a list of the easiest steps that can make the greatest impact.

• Watch
• Replace
• Turn (off, up, or down) and unplug
• Install
• Switch

Oh, Canada!

There’s been a lot of tree-talk here lately (check it here and here), but that’s because, well, we like trees and trees like us. So, in that spirit, we’re gonna toss one more your way.

Now, I’m not one to dole out “mad props” loosely, so believe me when I heap those two words of praise on Canada for doing this:

Canada announced…it will spend $25 million to protect one of the largest intact temperate rainforests left in the world.

The Great Bear Rainforest, a 16-million-acre preserve that stretches 250 miles along British Columbia’s rugged Pacific coastline, is teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon and is the ancestral home of many native tribes.

Last February, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said the province would protect close to one-third of the region from all logging and would require sustainable logging practices in the rest.

This seems particularly important and helpful since, according to Global Forest Watch, “less than 8% of Canada’s forests are fully protected.” And since 81% of the lumber exported from Canada goes to the U.S. of A. (that means us).

This article’s got me thinking about ways I could start recycling paper products more, so I think I’m going to make the switch for my printer paper and envelopes. You can even pick these things up at the major office supply stores. Office Max sells 100% recycled paper (here, too), and Staples has their recycled paper products organized almost painfully well (just enter your good ole zip code).

I’m out: I’m gonna get $hopping.

Photo snapped by this cool customer.

Re-treeing a Devastated Region

You've heard me say before: snow is not unusual for the folks in the Western New York area. We get plenty every year (though not as much as out-of-towners think), and at the time of this post there is about two feet of snow on the ground, and more of the fluffy swirling around outside my window. We're usually well-prepared come winter, and the snow is being removed before it even hits the ground. But October? Mid October? That's a little odd even for the Queen City, and it caused a great deal of devastation.

The “Friday the 13th– October storm was an unprecedented event. For days after, the entire region was a disaster area. Coming so early in the season the trees, usually barren by the first snowfall, were still thick with leaves, allowing the snow to pile up and destroying an astonishing number of them. Conservative estimates by several different groups put the total number of trees lost somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000. While most of them were salvagable it took and will continue to take a Noah-like effort to do so, and those that can't be saved will need replacing. How will this be done?

There have been several ideas put forth by area citizens, from commemorative posters to the auctioning of wood sculptures carved from tree stumps created by the storm, which started this January. Local businesses have donated parts of their proceeds and Re-Tree WNY, a group dedicated to this cause has big plans for arbor day this April. On top of all this, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that:

$200,000 is being made available to local governments so they can implement long-term tree-cover restoration efforts in areas that suffered significant tree damage from the freak October snowstorm in Western New York.

There are also great tips on how to save trees that have been damaged in storms at the DEC website.

It is truly inspiring to see what a huge effect small actions by individuals and organizations can have on our environment and out communities. So give a hand to this effort by planting a tree. Or you can donate to Re-Tree WNY. Either way, please help us make progress.

To learn more about Progressive Wednesday, just click here, here, or here.

Drop a dime, save a maple

I’m willing to wager, dollars to donuts, that you’ve heard of the Do Not Call Registry. And if you’ve heard of it, I’m also betting you’ve signed up. If you haven’t, do it, baby. You want telemarketers to leave you alone? This free government service is for you.

So that’ll take care of that thing that rings, waking the cat sleeping on your lap, who, as he or she leaps away suddenly terrified, only scratches the hell out of your leg if you’re lucky.

What about junk mail, those Wal-Mart fliers and grocery coupons, a googolplex of new credit card offers and one too many Publisher’s Clearinghouse promises of riches? Well, we may have stumbled on an answer.

Green Dimes is a service that gets your name and address off junk mail lists. You read that right: no more junk mail. By stopping the annoyance that is a mailbox full of useless crap, you in turn save, quite literally, forests full of trees. There is a hitch, though: it costs you one dime each day. That’s it: 365 FDR heads. (Sorry, I made it sounds a hell of a lot more morbid than it is.) That’s 36 smackers a year. That’s six trips to fast-food joints (and, c’mon, we all know we should at least cut back our McMeals by at least six each year).

But Green Dimes (you can read more about Green Dimes and similar services in this Newsweek article) is more than a junk-mail prevention service: they’re true conservationists. In association with Trees for the Future, Green Dimes “[sponsors] tree planting on behalf of [its] members.”

So let’s break this down old school:

1. Save some trees.
2. Plant some trees.
3. Spend next to nothing.
4. Stop getting junkmail.

Another fantastic service is 41 Pounds, which does almost the same thing as Green Dimes, except half of their profits go to nonprofit organizations. An additional benefit of 41 Pounds is that they promise to keep 80% to 95% of your bulk mail away for 5 years.

Whichever one you go with, go with one: your mailbox will thank you. (Please note: your mailbox is an inanimate object and will not in fact thank you; we’re not all-out looney, okay?)

To learn more about Progressive Wednesday, just click here, here, or here.