Riots are breaking out because of rising food prices and shortages on common staples such as rice, wheat, soy and corn. Millions are left vulnerable to be plunged further into poverty.
Countries that are dependent on imported food are in a worse position and likely to be hit harder.
“Haiti is the latest country to experience unrest related to soaring food and fuel prices (others include: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal).” (WFP calls for funds to curb more unrest in Haiti)
Experts researched and released a report for the UN calling for major changes in agriculture.
Unesco recommendations included using more organic, local and sustainable farming methods worldwide. See UN Calls for Farming Revolution, BBC News for more information and to see an executive summary of the report.
Although some land has already been stripped, if combinations of plants are grown or more crops are rotated, it will help prevent further environmental damage.
The food crisis has understandably panicked many people but it has also led to restrictions on exporting and hoarding which is making the situation worse.
Other Causes of increased prices and food shortages
The world’s population growth has led to more people eating meat, which also requires growing more crops to feed these animals.
There has been a bigger demand for ethanol as well so more corn is being diverted for that purpose. Unfortunately, this has contributed to the food shortage as many predicted it would.
Climate change and water shortages affect crops as well. When the rain doesn’t come or starts late and ends early, there is less food and/or ruined crops. Too much rain and melting snow leads to flooding which is just as devastating as drought for farmers.
All of this can leave many of us feeling helpless. If you’re looking for a way to help hungry people and haven’t tried the free rice vocabulary game, check it out and learn some new words at the same time. For each word that you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Program.
The video featured today is Live Let Live performed by Brian Wilson with gorgeous clips of Arctic animals from the movie Arctic Tale. Narrated by Queen Latifah, it includes the characters Nanu the polar bear, Seela the walrus and the struggle to survive in their melting world.
The walrus is an endangered mammal that can live up to 40 years old and weigh up to 1.5 tons (1.4 metric tons). They’re built to live in the cold and their blubber helps insulate them, while their tusks help them either latch onto or break the ice. (National Geographic’s Walrus Profile)
Polar bears are mammals that are insulated with a layer of fat that helps them withstand extremely cold weather.
Their webbed feet help make them strong swimmers. They can live up to 30 years old and weigh up to 1,600 lbs (720 kg). See National Geographic’s polar bear profile for more.
Ice disappearing is a definite problem for both of these animals. Polar bears can’t hunt seals or rest if there’s no ice. The walrus and seal have nowhere to rest or eat so their survival is at stake. Whether the polar bear would be able to adapt on land is not clear but they have already clashed with humans when in close proximity so coming to land more will only increase conflicts.
Live Let Live Lyrics
Are the we enemy living the memory
Grandly gambling
With our hand on the lifeline
Ghost of coastlines
You are hanging on time
Every last breath that you have left
Touched by the hand of the man
Brave riding the wave
Those we can save
Live let live
Not die
You think our tears are the only ones here
And its plain you see through
All my self expectation
Most like Moses when he parted the sea
There is a roar coming from shore
Cracking a glacier no more
When there was life
They would implore
Live let live
Not die
My heart beats so fast
(Heart beat, heart beat, heart beat)
My heart beats so fast
(Heart beat, heart beat, heart beat)
Makes one wonder all right
Breaking of ice at such a price
Time for some kindly advice
Polarization the talk of the nation
Explain to me why
Hearts are turning to warming
Painful games with thunder raining a warning
There is a roar coming from shore
Fussing and fighting and war
We have so much peace we should explore
Live let live let
Love is what living is for
Your heart beats with mine
(Heart beat, heart beat, heart beat)
Our hearts beat in time
(Heart beat, heart beat, heart beat)
Be true creatures of grace
Need over ice their paradise
Let them survive our embrace
(Brian Wilson Tracks)
I have been on a craft kick and made some raspberry votive soy candles today. Soy wax is better for the environment, much easier to clean and is virtually soot free. Another bonus is that you don’t get a sink hole so don’t have to bother with a second pour of wax.
In celebration of Earth Day Michelle Kaufman offers us these instructional earth friendly DIY projects. This one shows how to make eco-candles with beeswax or soy wax with great ideas on reusing containers for them.
Here’s another DIY project on how to make a bird house or feeder out of disposable chopsticks with this instructional video. Great idea and very attractive too. You seem to need a lot of chopsticks but I guess if you use them you would have them around. I would have better luck doing the same sort of thing with Popsicle sticks collected during the summer. I want to reuse what I have when I can and not consume more but I still think it’s a great project that can be adapted.
Thanks to Peggy from Junk Creation I came across a post about making art from recycled items such as this colorful gecko from old magazines. We have been celebrating Earth day since the weekend and our yard is going to be very clean but if we put all the stuff in the trash, it’s not helping the environment much.
At Bead For Life women in Uganda make beautiful beads from recycled paper. This not only helps the earth but also enables people to get out of poverty by giving them a fair wage for their work. I bought a few bracelets at Xmas and they’re only five dollars so you could collect all the colors for a very pretty effect. I would like to learn how to make the beads myself because we have pile ups of magazines around here.
At Ten Thousand Villages there are many creations made out of recycled paper and magazines. These coasters are made by women in a co-op from the Philippines and this coiled bowl is made from recycled paper by Vietnamese artisans.
DIY magazine project instructions and ideas
Henrietta’s Handbags offers free instructions on how to make a purse out of recycled magazines.
At Craftzine, learn how to make theserecycled magazine boxes. They’re very cheerful looking and could be used to store pictures, buttons, crafts, crayons and more.
At A Little Hut, Patricia shows us step by step how she made her bowl from old magazines and glue.
At PattyWack.com there’s a craft project called fun magazine roll ups that shows us how to decorate containers with rolled up magazines.
Happy Earth day all! We kept busy puttering around cleaning our neighborhood in the afternoon.
In the morning a friend and I hit a used bookstore and got a whole box of books for five dollars! I grabbed a bit of everything including an Indian cookbook, climate change, crafts, personal development, organic gardening and gardening in small spaces. A few fiction novels for fun too of course.
My mom was telling me today about this hardy grass seed she bought called Eco-Lawn and she is really excited about it. It’s low maintenance and does not require frequent watering or pesticides. It’s comprised of seven different grasses but the percentage formula is a secret. You can only buy it in 5 or 50lb bags, which seems a bit of a jump. It sounds like it will be much easier on my mother anyway so hope it works out.
Saturday’s earth song video is Imagine by John Lennon with photos from National Geographic, thanks to Stone9kung from Youtube.
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
How about making a pledge on Earth Day? Here are some ideas to start with so we can take better care of the earth long term.
Turn the water off when not needed such as in between brushing your teeth or shaving. Take shorter showers.
Turn your lights and computers off when not in use to conserve energy.
Recycle your cans, plastic and paper and teach your family how to do the same.
Walk, bike, ride the bus or carpool when possible.
Here are some Earth Day events from around the world.
In Thailand, an earth day celebration called 100,000 Monks is taking place. It will include mass meditation, ceremonies and fireworks.
In Houston Texas, celebrate Earth day at the Houston Zoo on Saturday April 19th . Their party for the planet will include plenty of fun conservation activities. Jamba Juice is offering discounts to the zoo for Earth day.
In Fort LauderdaleFlorida, learn how to go green with educational activities at Earth Day in the Park.
In Toronto, Ontario Earth Day celebrations are on at DowsviewParkwhere they will be planting 2,000 trees and demonstrating how to reuse and recycle, making birdhouses, creating crafts and more. Admission is free.
At KW Now you can find out what’s going on in the Kitchener Waterloo area on Earth Day.
If you’re looking for fun activities to do with your children, check out Kaboose and their fun Earth Day Crafts. Kaboose also has free fun online Earth Day games the whole family can play. Want some more help or ideas for Earth day?
Here are some beautiful pictures of wild animals I found to share with you. I hope you’re all enjoying your Sunday and getting some down time. Music is by Steppenwolf and the tune is “Born to be Wild“. The video was made by candlelitdreamz on YouTube.
Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Good I gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin’ with the wind
And the feelin’ that I’m under
Yeah God I gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
Like a true nature’s child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die
Green roofs are beneficial to the environment in several ways.
They save on energy because they provide insulation keeping it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. You can save up to 75% from cooling costs and 25% from heating.
Some think that green roofs would leak but they are less likely to because they filter rainwater. Because of the added insulation, they also protect the roof much longer and can last over 50 years as opposed to traditional roofs that need replaced much more frequently. Other benefits of green roofs are that they help filter pollution and reduce noise.
Supplying a green space on your roof also creates more oxygen for people and supplies an urban oasis for birds, bees and butterflies.
I liked the idea of recycling old aluminum lawn chairs by reweaving them with seatbelts. You can find seatbelts in various colors, make several, and have some colorful practical lawn chairs. See Wastelands of Suburbia for more on the seatbelt lawn chair.
At Trendhunter there’s aneco-friendly lawn couchthat requires you to fill the frame with soil and grow grass on it to shape it out. This would be a lot of fun for the family because they could help maintain it with ongoing watering. It would require some trimming though if you wanted it to maintain it’s shape.
Eco Street has a post with several DIY lawn chair projects. There’s a video showing you how to make a chair out of an old shopping cart, a tractor seat chair and an octopus chair made from some stuffed old jeans. Although stealing shopping carts is not advised, it’s is a wonderful way to recycle old ones that were heading to the landfill anyway.
How about a hammock? Here’s the Ultimate Hammock from the lifestyle company Gaiam. It’s made out of recycled plastic bottles.
Gaiam also sells these fun wine barrel chairs made out of recycled wine barrels. I love the rustic simple design.
If you want something a little more comfortable, there’s a recycled wrought iron chair with a cushion.
It would go great along with a recycled iron bistro table. These chairs would be easy to fold and store as well. That’s a bonus, especially if you need a bunch of chairs only occasionally.
I watched a few videos with wolves today but this “Dance With Wolves” was my favorite. The clips are beautiful and the wolves look happy and free.
Wolves have become a symbol of wildlife, nature and the health of an eco-system. Although seen as a threat, wolves are often in fact threatened. To read more see my article Wolves Sign of Healthy Eco-System.
The video featured today was made by PicolloVegeta on YouTube and features the song Mummers Dance by Loreena McKennitt.
When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair
When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light
We’ve been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay
Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year
The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days
We’ve been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay
And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone
A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord’s hand
We’ve been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay
After a ban the bulb campaign, Argentina has joined ten other countries in their commitment to increase the use of efficient lighting.
All these little lightbulbs can make a large difference and switching to CFLs helps the environment and saves money.
There are dimmable CFLs out now too, which I was happy to hear since you don’t always want bright light shining in your face and they save even more energy.
While CFLs seem more expensive, they actually end up saving you money because they usually last for several years.
Here is a list of countries that are banning incandescent light bulbs or are working towards that goal.
Consider energy efficient appliances and unplugging things that are not in use. See Vampire Power – Wasted Standby Power in Home Electronics and Appliances at Grinning Planet.
Watch the video from Money Talks reporter Stacy Johnson who fills us in on energy efficiency and simple energy saving tips.
Explore eco-friendly ways we can be kinder to the environment globally. Protecting our ecosystems on a global scale is becoming more important as many of our natural resources are becoming damaged or disappearing. By living more simply, we can conserve energy and decrease our carbon footprints on the world. Join us in learning how we can help contribute to saving the earth.
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Riots are breaking out because of rising food prices and shortages on common staples such as rice, wheat, soy and corn. Millions are left vulnerable to be plunged further into poverty.
