Blog Changes & Relocation

THE SEED IS MOVING!

For those of you who have been brave enough to hang in there with me and are reading the seed, I want to thank you! The blog has evolved and been divided into two blogs. For the topical news and opinion from the green sector, the seed is now located at the seed . For the natural living portion of the blog, the seed is now located at Harmony Green . Both sections of the seed have expanded and are cleaner and easier to read. So you can hit these links and go there now to bookmark it for future reference or you can wait until the end of the month and just follow the redirects. All of the posts have been updated so that the "read more" links take you to the new location. Thank you again to those of you who have hung in there with me this far... I promise it will just get better.

Once again, for topics, news and opinion from the green sector, go here.

For the natural living and herbalist sections of the seed, go here.

Love to all of you.

Europe Works on New Climate Agreement

Both France and Germany have called for a deal on a new EU climate agreement to be reached at a Brussels summit coming up shortly. This raises the heat on eastern European countries to come to the table. Frances' President, Nicolas Sarkozy, spoke with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel by phone within a day of his meeting with the leaders of nine eastern European countries. The meeting had been called to address their objections to the plan to to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The French President issued a statement to the effect, "They confirmed their shared desire to see that an agreement is reached at the European Council on the energy and climate package." This statement voices a new hope that these smaller and still developing countries will be able to come to terms with an agreement soon. EU leaders will be holding a summit this Thursday and Friday, December 10th and 11th, in Gdansk, Poland, with the hopes of agreeing on a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions a whopping 20% by the year 2020. They hope to set new targets for developing forms of renewable energy and switching to more efficient uses of energy.

Read More.. at the seed's new site. This link will redirect you. Don't forget to bookmark it. Happy Holidays.

Rich Spanish Dude Builds Alternative Energy Network

Amancio Ortega, the billionaire who runs Spain's Intidex textile empire and founded the Zara fashion chain, is suddenly moving into alternative energy. He is creating a global network of renewable energy sources. The name of this new company is Capital Energy and Mr. Ortega is the Chairman and chief shareholder. He appears to have been motivated by an offer made by Galicia's regional ministry for innovation and industry. In response, Capital Energy will provide up to 2,323 megawatts of energy from various alternative sources and independently set up some 20 energy "parks".

Mr. Ortega is the richest man in Spain, having founded Zara fashion years ago from a kitchen table in his sister's home in La Coruna. He is launching this new venture from the same modest area, Galicia, which is in northwest Spain. So far he has produced a handful of projects and established energy bridgeheads in three continents. The beginnings may be modest but his worldwide ambitions are obvious. I am sincerely hoping he is as successful with this new project as he has been with pantsuits in the past. As a measure of earnestness, he has said that he intends to invest more than 2.54 billion in Capital Energy over the next 18 months, which is more money than many struggling countries could provide for their own initiatives. Think of the lives that can be changed with this. Mr. Ortega obviously believes that renewable energy production on a world scale as the next big thing.

Read More.. at the seed's new site. The link will redirect you. Don't forget to bookmark it. Happy Holidays.

Rich Spanish Dude Builds Alternative Energy Network

Amancio Ortega, the billionaire who runs Spain's Intidex textile empire and founded the Zara fashion chain, is suddenly moving into alternative energy. He is creating a global network of renewable energy sources. The name of this new company is Capital Energy and Mr. Ortega is the Chairman and chief shareholder. He appears to have been motivated by an offer made by Galicia's regional ministry for innovation and industry. In response, Capital Energy will provide up to 2,323 megawatts of energy from various alternative sources and independently set up some 20 energy "parks".

Mr. Ortega is the richest man in Spain, having founded Zara fashion years ago from a kitchen table in his sister's home in La Coruna. He is launching this new venture from the same modest area, Galicia, which is in northwest Spain. So far he has produced a handful of projects and established energy bridgeheads in three continents. The beginnings may be modest but his worldwide ambitions are obvious. I am sincerely hoping he is as successful with this new project as he has been with pantsuits in the past. As a measure of earnestness, he has said that he intends to invest more than 2.54 billion in Capital Energy over the next 18 months, which is more money than many struggling countries could provide for their own intiatives. Think of the lives that can be changed with this. Mr. Ortega obviously believes that renewable energy production on a world scale as the next big thing.

Read More.. at the seed's new site. The link will redirect you. Don't forget to bookmark it. Happy Holidays.

New Website: Ask Nature

I thought my readers might like to know about this neat new site that helps people go green. How does it do that? Well, it actually occurs on the idea level, where things are engineered and developed. If you can imagine it, it can be designed with nature in mind. In fact, nature provides the best model for all developing ideas and has been the design that most architects and engineers have copied over time.

This is referred to as "biomimicry" and it works very well. The site is designed with biomimicry in mind, presenting solutions to problems and generating concepts from basic ideas. Innovators throughout the world will find this site extremely useful, putting brilliance at their fingertips when they had to read a million books and study as many models before. Basically designed for Biologists, Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Designers, the site aggregates the entire history of the natural world in one usable design model. Sound incredible? I guess it does. But here it is from their website:

Read More.. at the seed's new site. This link will redirect you. Don't forget to bookmark it. Happy Holidays.

The Environment Gets Bushwhacked!

I know this man is still in that office another month or two but I can hardly stand it. How much more damage can he do? Everyone says he's a "lame duck" which usually means he's ineffective.. but, somehow, this awful person is still managing to get horrible stuff done. I mean, I should not be surprised... but somehow I am... that he is making a huge personal effort to just tear apart our environment, as if it were some cause of his or a personal mission. Seriously. I know he doesn't believe in global warming. I mean, really, he thinks he knows everything, so how on earth could he be wrong? I am sorry but this crap amazes me. Stupidity, it seems, knows no bounds and is exceedingly dangerous.

In his waning days, he is making sure that oil shale mining in the Rocky Mountains gets a go-ahead and he is recreating regulations to dismantle environmental safeguards. Everyone is calling this "midnight regulations" because he's doing it in secret, under the cover of the night I guess. Again, I'm sorry, but what a creep. America just voted a new President into office in what could be called a landslide and this new President has professed environmental initiatives a priority to our overall approval and this person in the White House is still acting on his own! I mean, the American people be damned!

Read More at the seed's new site! This will redirect you to the new location. Don't forget to bookmark it! Happy Holidays.

Are Your Cosmetics Toxic?

We are all using a lot of beauty products. Women spend thousands on these items, from hair care to nail polish to cellulite creams. It's true that beauty is a huge factor in the lives of women, we are expected to present a certain image in our society. If we don't, we are written off as ugly and unappealing. So we all strive to be clean, shaven, shiny and smooth with a white smile, nice hair and a shapely body. But we aren't naturally this way so it takes a lot of cosmetic stuff to make it so, or at least close to so.

But it would be really good idea if women starting paying more attention to the crap they rub on themselves. Most of it is exactly that: crap. Toxic, dangerous and unhealthy. You can end up trading off your longevity for a night with a fake tan and bleached blond hair. Seriously. Modern research has found that the skin absorbs up to 60% of the chemicals in products that it comes into contact with directly into the bloodstream. A lot of the female troubles that have been reported over time have to do with chemical exposure and hormone absorption through these sorts of products. Do yourself a favor. You can get pretty and stay safe at the same time. Think about detoxing your cosmetics.

Read More..

The natural living portion of the seed has moved to a new site. When you read more you will automatically go to the new blog. Don't forget to bookmark it. It will be finished in the new year. Happy holidays!

Arsenics Appearing in Forests

For years the use of monosodium methanearsenate, or MSMA, was prevalent in British Columbia as a means to control Pine Beetles. Sold for a long time under the trade name, Glowon, it was considered safe and useful, posing no threat to the environment or to human health. This sounds like a song I've heard before, how about you? Even though this product was no longer in use as late as 2005, mainly because the manufacturer did not renew the permit, the residue of this product remains all throughout the region. IN fact, they are now issuing maps of areas that they are urging loggers to avoid because the residue is that bad. And what is the residue? Arsenic.

Now, my first question, as an intelligent, alert individual with common sense, is to ask how on earth anyone could think that arsenic, a known volatile and dangerous poison, could be environmentally safe and non toxic to humans? Seriously. To it's credit, the US EPA decided in 2006 not to re-register MSMA as a pesticide because it "posed a cancer risk". This is because of it's potential to "transform to a more toxic inorganic form of arsenic in the soil with subsequent transport to drinking water." Yep. You heard right. Drinking water is likely contaminated with this poison through natural run off.

Read More...

The news portion of the seed has moved to a new home. When you read more you will go to the new site. Don't forget to bookmark it. It will be finished in the new year. Happy Holidays!

How to Detox your Kitchen

I have written posts in the past on how to green the kitchen but not everybody is ready to take every step in that direction. So even if you're not going to go all the way green, you should at least consider detoxing. That means getting the dangerous stuff out of your kitchen and making it safe as well as clean and accessible.

Many of the products that are used in the kitchen, from cooking to cleaning, can affect your central nervous system and cause symptoms that make you think you're going mad. When you get on edge or feel irritable, it's not always menopause or that you lack sleep. Sometimes it's the toxic chemicals you are spraying all over the place in pursuit of bacteria. Consider lightening the chemical load through a simple detox. Here are the steps:

Read More...

NOTE: The natural living portion of the seed is now a new blog. When you read more you will go the new site. Don't forget to bookmark it. It will be finished in the new year. Happy Holidays!

Climate Change Threatens Penguin Populations

In a report from Barcelona, Spain, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released the results of it's study of Penguin colonies in the Antarctic. According to the study, 1/2 to 3/4 of major colonies could be damaged or wiped out if global temperatures are allowed to climb by more than 2C (3.6F). This hike in temperature would also threaten as much as 50% of breeding grounds of Emperor Penguins and as much as 75% of Adelie Penguin colonies. These results from their study were released at the World Conservation Congress, held this year in Spain.

Since the UN's panel of climate change Scientists has already warned that the average temperature on Earth could increase even more than 2C by the end of the century, this threat to the Penguin population is serious and real. The UN claims this change will occur regardless of major efforts that may be made to curb greenhouse gases and would occur even faster if no changes were made. In other words, it's way to late for the Penguins.

Read More....

The Seed is relocating. This link will send you to the new site. Bookmark it.

The World Discusses Carbon Limits

Talks have led to some agreements among industry sectors aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. Although this seems to be generally accepted among civilized countries, many developing countries do not trust it. So, as talks between the 160 nations who are party to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change came to a halt in October, many heavy industries are keeping a close watch on what emission reduction schemes and agreements will emerge from the discussion.

Cooperation from steel and aluminum producers is always touch and go. Ditto for the cement sector. These industries are energy and emissions intensive and fear too zealous regulations that could put them out of business. In Europe these industries have called for exemptions to the EU's strict emissions trading schemes. They wish to get that done before the new schemes are launched in 2013. Any large rise in the cost of emissions permits will drive factories and the jobs that go with them right out of Europe and force them to head off to areas with less stringent rules.

Read More...

The Seed is moving to a new site. The link will redirect you. Bookmark it.

Making Herbal Hair Dyes

I know most of you are aware of herbal hair dyes, mainly because you have heard of henna rinses which have become sort of the commercial standard. Henna is a herbal rinse and has all the qualities of herbs except when it's manufactured with added chemicals and fragrances that make it toxic and harsh. You can make your own henna rinse at home that costs a lot less and is a lot more safe. In fact, any color of herbal dye you make yourself not only saves you money but puts you in control of your hair in a way you cannot imagine. When you use a commercial product you are stuck with full throttle color all at once that leaves your hair in shock. Frizzy, burned out hair is often the result. Too much color, too little color, spotty color, are all possible problems that can't be resolved easily. Who wants to color over color over color until they get the right color, when the cumulative effects of all these treatments spells disaster for your hair.

But how about using herb based dyes you can mix up yourself for very little money and rinsing as often and as deeply as you like, gaining hair color as you rinse and only going as far as you want to? The more you rinse, the darker the rinse becomes so that over time you can control your level of hair color as you work with the various dyes. And over time this does not damage, dry out or shock your hair. No more blue frizzies or orange frays. No more streaky hair with gray that didn't take mixed with hair that took too much. You can just rinse and rinse every night, twice a day, as often as you like, gaining more color as you do so and then stopping when it's good enough. Washing over time will take it back out. Imagine this kind of control. It's actually a real pleasure once you try it. So I thought I'd share some of my favorite herbal dye recipes that you can mix up and try. Remember, with herbal dyes, if you make a mistake you won't need color remover. Just wash and wait. It will lessen in color over a short period of time or you can rinse over rinse until you find what it is you really want. So are you ready to try it?

Read More...

del.icio.us -- ma.gnolia -- Netscape -- RawSugar -- StumbleUpon

Technorati Tags: herbs, hair, treatment, coloring, dyes, homemade, non toxic, safe, recipes, diy

Osteoarthritis Fix: Pine Bark Extract

It has been long known by herbalists that Pine Bark Extract can be used as a home remedy for arthritis. Clinical trials have recently confirmed this, finding that Pine Bark Extract can reduce overall knee osteoarthritis symptoms by 20%, and lower pain by 40%. This is the third clinical trial on Osteoarthritis treatments by Pycnogenol, the manufacturers of Pine Bark Extract. They achieved their results using the French Maritime Pine tree extract. You can check out their product online at Pycnogenol.

Are you one of the many sufferers of this condition? I am. I have had severe Osteoarthritis for over 10 years, mainly a result of other conditions I suffer from that contribute to the destruction of cartilage. In fact, the CDC has estimated that 34% of all adults over the age of 65 are affected by osteoarthritis, and that 26.9 million adults in the U.S. had osteoarthritis in 2005.

The treatment of Osteoarthritis has been a bane to the Pharmaceutical industry, most recently outline by the Vioxx disaster. Many NSAIDs are also dangerous to the heart. But Pycnogenol acts as an anti-inflammatory and the study also suggests that Pycnogenol may assist the joints in recovery. The study lasted 3 months and involved 100 patients with stage I or stage II Osteoarthritis. Each patient was treated with either 150mg Pycnogenol or a comparable dose of a placebo every day.

The study resulted in overall improvements of Osteoarthritic knee symptoms averaging 20% in the Pycnogenol group. This improvement persisted for 4 weeks after quitting use of Pycnogenol. Quite impressive if you ask me. As well, there was a 40% reduction in joint pain after the 3 month trial ended. Two weeks after the study ended the reduction of pain was still 39% lower overall. In addition, those patients treated with Pycnogenol required much less analgesic medication compared to the group that was treated with a placebo. I don't know about you but I'm about to buy some of this stuff. You can get it really cheap at Vitamin USA . But please check out the side effects, drug interactions, dosage levels and safety of this product by going to Medline Plus .

del.icio.us -- ma.gnolia -- Netscape -- RawSugar -- StumbleUpon

Technorati Tags: herbal, remedies, arthritis, essential oil, non toxic, safe, clinical trials, extract, bones, cartilage

More Ways to Green the Kitchen

The prime object of greening the kitchen is a plan to reduce waste. This will make a significant contribution to saving this planet and reducing the carbon footprint of our industrial society. However, going green does take a commitment, it isn't something that can be done will watching TV or taking a bath, although you can make those activities greener, too. But going green may take some research and planning. At the very least, it will take thought. And your thinking should be about changing up the kitchen first because it is the most waste producing room in your home.

The best way get started is to just do it slowly, making changes when they're painless and making easy, budget friendly choices. The whole idea centers around sustainability which means you should only make changes you can sustain over a long period. If it's too expensive or difficult to repeat, then don't even go there. If you want to get started today, I have some easy, simple steps you can take to get the ball rolling.

Read More...

del.icio.us -- ma.gnolia -- Netscape -- RawSugar -- StumbleUpon

Technorati Tags: green, waste, recycle, reuse, kitchen, food, compost, garbage, save, energy star, energy, shopping, cooking, eating, packaging

Eco Freindly Readers

There is no excuse in this day and age to be buying magazines, newspapers or even books! Admittedly, there are already an awful lot of books in circulation on this planet and it's better to keep passing them along than throw them out. Magazines and newspapers have a place in big events, such as the 2008 Presidential election. They make great keepsakes of big events, photos and all.

But in day to day life there are better ideas than buying more paper and throwing it away. Enter four eco friendly readers. Amazon's Kindle, Sony's e-Reader, Rex Technologies iLiad and the Plastic Logic Reader. You may have heard of these before and not given it much thought. But they are a greenie readers dream! Now you can read books, magazines and newspapers on readers that you carry in your hand. The Kindle and eReader are available now while the new Plastic Logic will be hitting the shelves in 2009.

Read More....

del.icio.us -- ma.gnolia -- Netscape -- RawSugar -- StumbleUpon

Technorati Tags: ereaders, newspapers, books, electronic, ebooks, paper free, eco, green, digital, electronics