An Easy Way to Stop Junk Mail and Help the Environment

I just discovered the GreenDimes junk mail removal service. They offer a centralized way to get yourself off junk mailing lists. Reducing the number of catalogs sent out saves trees, fuel and transportation costs, etc., and therefore is a tremendous boost for the environment.

If you opt for GreenDimes’ free service (which includes either (A) getting a dollar from them or (B) having a tree planted or (C) getting a free issue of something), then you will have to do a lot of the legwork yourself, but they offer all the information you need.

They also offer two paid-for services ($20 and $36), which they somewhat misleadingly say only require one payment. What they really mean is that you pay once and they do what they can to get you off the junk mailing lists, which should reduce your junk mail for 3 to 5 years, but you may need to pay a half-price “refresh” fee if you move or your purchasing habits put you on new lists. Since many mailing lists are printed months ahead of time, they say to give the service a good three months to start showing results. You have up to a year to request a refund if you aren’t happy.

You do need to tell them what catalogs you receive that you want to stop receiving, but that is easily done. You will also need to sign and send some postcards, but they send you the postcards and even include postage. It couldn’t get much easier than this.

Oh—and they will plant five trees for you with the paid-for services as well. Since we all need to plant a lot of trees to make up for our carbon footprint in our lifetime, this is another painless way to help the environment.

I am already quite in love with this service. I signed up for their $20 service, and have already added over 20 catalogs to the list. I have been recycling all my junk mail, but it is a greater benefit to the environment to reduce it or stop it entirely.

Carbon Footprint? What is That?

Your carbon footprint is basically the quantity of carbon dioxide you cause to be created by using utilities, driving a car (or using buses, taxis, airplanes, etc.), using gas-powered lawn equipment, riding a motorcycle, and so on.

How much is your carbon footprint? Use this calculator to find out. It will also tell you how many trees you need to plant to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions you create. Since carbon dioxide is absorbed by trees, a very easy and common way to offset your carbon footprint is by planting trees, either on your own or by paying someone to do it (or, of course, both).

I am proud to say my household carbon footprint is much smaller than the national average. Having made the calculations, I find that between my gardens over the years and paying for trees to be planted, I have already planted almost enough trees (36) to make up for my carbon footprint (I need to plant a minimum of 43). Nice to know. However, I believe the national average, carbon-footprint-wise, is much higher, so if you don’t want to use the calculator, you can just go with the national average, which is that most people need to plant about 77 trees.

 

Audio Files of Channeling

I finally have posted some audio files of one night’s session of channeling from a while ago. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.thelighthouseonline.com/channel/channel.html

Not All Animal Rescue Societies Truly Rescue

I just took a look at this Web site—it has a nice, clean appearance, and reviews some really cool products for cats. Take a look, if only for the nifty cat swag.

But also, the author has written an article about Best Friends Animal Society and a recent rescue they have been working on. A case of institutionalized animal hoarding had been found, and Best Friends was brought in to help make things better

Animal hoarding is a weird aberration in which a person or institution (in this case, an institution named FLOCK), collect some type of animal, saying that they are only thinking of that animal. But instead of caring properly for them or trying to find good homes for them, the hoarder(s) maintain the animals in horrific conditions. The animals often die or end up completely frightened and confused—and that is just the tip of the iceberg. The conditions are truly, truly horrible, and the state in which the animals are when discovered requires a strong stomach.

To quote from the HARC (the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium at Tufts University), “Animal hoarding is not about animal sheltering, rescue, or sanctuary, and should not be confused with these legitimate efforts to help animals. It IS about satisfying a human need to accumulate animals and control them, and this need supercedes the needs of the animals involved.”

In this case, the conditions were as horrific as they get.

The story brought tears to my eyes. I have such a hard time understanding how people can harm cats, and I really don’t get the cat hoarding mentality. Yet it is a problem. A few months ago, I read of a case of cat hoarding that took place in Petaluma a few years back. The woman who was doing it said she was “rational.” Ha!

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A Turkey Visitor Provides Food for Thought

On March 27th, I was up early working at my computer with my balcony door open (which is pretty usual—I like lots of fresh air). I kept hearing what sounded like a turkey gobbling coming from down the street, but told myself it couldn’t be so, could it? It could have been a very weird dog.

The gobbling got closer and closer until it was coming from right in front of my house, at which point I had to get up to go check it out, because now it sounded unmistakably like a turkey. Sure enough, there in my front lawn was a young-looking turkey, strutting around. As soon as I stepped onto the balcony, though, it whisked around the corner into my side yard. I never realized that the land speed of a turkey was so fast.

I grabbed my camera and ran downstairs, then snuck quietly out the back door. It tried to come into my back yard but was foiled by the iron gate. When I came out, it turned around and headed for the northwest corner of my yard. I got a few pictures, one that isn’t very clear at all, one under the redwoods (taken through the iron gate), and a couple that I took by swinging wide and around the redwoods after it flew to the back fence. Then it spread its wings and flew away, rather gracefully and effortlessly for such a large bird.

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The Simply True Show

I recently designed and edited Ingrid Katal’s book, What is Your Honor Code? Ingrid is starting a talk show soon, called “The Simply True Show.” This show is connected with Oprah, so many people will see her and her book, I am sure.

In her book, Ingrid offers food for thought and quite practical, do-able tools for understanding and improving many areas of one’s life. The gist of Ingrid’s message is that we are each responsible for our lives and that we create our own realities. I was very much in tune with her on this, which made editing the book a pleasure.

One of the strongest points of Ingrid’s book is that it uses a question-and-answer format, with bulleted answers, to help people learn about and understand the roots of a given issue, and take positive steps toward making matters better in that area. It is the kind of book that gets used, rather than just read. You can purchase used ones from Amazon.com; I think it will also soon be in Borders and Barnes & Noble, and of course you can order it directly from Ingrid’s Web site.