Punxsutawney Phil came out of his ground hog burrow and did not see his shadow, so up North spring will come early this year. Meanwhile, down South in the Gulf of Mexico, the advent of spring is not predicted by a famous ground hog, but announced by the great bird migrations. Each spring over 250 bird species (some travelling from as far south as Patagonia to as far north as the Arctic circle) travel across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi Flyway.

Because last year’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill wreaked havoc on avian stopover sites in the Gulf, February 2011 was established as the target date for Gulf clean-up completion (just before migratory check-in). Sadly, a clean Gulf Coast is nowhere in sight; oil rings still linger around marshland plants and tar balls still wash up on beaches. (more…)

Recently, I received one of those gifts many people do not buy for themselves, an electronic book. Having well learned the art of bending book spines to open up a paperback and creasing paper pages to make bookmarks, the idea of an electronic book seemed too “plasticiky”, too “unintimate” for entering the world of a novel. Like many others, I kept telling myself, “I just like the feel of a real book”. After all, isn’t the tactile splendor of paper beneath your fingers an essential part of pleasurable reading? (more…)

Americans dispose of billions upon billions of paper, plastic, and foam cups. This year over 58 billion paper cups and 25 billion polystyrene foam cups will pass through our hands and end up in landfills. While the United States is still the world’s largest culprit of disposable cup waste, growing nations like China and India are fast catching up. It’s a cup carrying, cup dumping world! (more…)

Just Zip It. Zipper-type plastic storage bags have hundreds of uses and are fast becoming the quintessential storage solution for households and businesses. Foods, electronic parts, garden soils, and even crime scene evidence end up packaged in these convenient, storage bags. Although millions of these bags are used daily, recycling used zipper-type plastic bags is not so easy. (more…)