Summer Institute

Spent a week at Brandon Spring with the gang from the Center for Environmental Education. Both MSU and WKU joined forces again this summer to work with teachers and encourage us all to incorporate environmental topics into our subject areas. It was an amazing week and one that I won't soon forget.

River Sweep 2009

Come join in to help clean up the rivers of Kentucky.
You will get a free River Sweep Tshirt and also the satisfaction of knowing you helped out.
Saturday, June 20th in Smithland we will meet at the Extension Office at 8:30

Carbon Footprints

We all have one you know. Even though most give no thought to it all we leave behind an imprint each and every day of our lives by the things that we use at home and at work. There are two sources of carbon footprints, primary and secondary. Primary is the direct emission of CO2 such as cars, planes and our energy consumption. Secondary sources are indirect CO2 emissions from the whole life cycle of products we use in manufacturing. For more information check out carbonfootprint.com

New Business Opens in Paducah

The Cartridge Shop at 615 Monroe Street is helping to save the environment and the consumer to save money. Instead of tossing those empty ink cartridges in the trash which in turn is dumped in a landfill why not take them to this new business and let them recycle them. According to an article in the Paducah Business Journal May/June 2009 it takes up to 450 years for an ink cartridge to decompose in a landfill. Recycling the cartridge is a great way to do our part in living greener and to save ourselves some money. I have two empty cartridges that will be taken in very soon.

What is Sustainability

The term sustainability has roots in early movements for environmental resource preservation. It has broadened with increasing awareness that conventional means of interacting with the environment and use of natural resources have consequences that threaten our quality of life and the well-being of future generations and the ecosystem services- those natural systems which clean the air and the water, provide food sources and pollination. Sustainability describes a new way of living, learning, working, playing and doing business that embodies a spirit of environmental stewardship. Can we become a sustainable community in Livingston County? I believe we can.

Diet Sodas

I know, you're thinking what in the world does diet soda have to do with Living Green in our dear county and it actually doesn't have a whole lot to do with it at all. I have just had such a concern about sodas and especially the diet kind because seems so many people drink them and still can't lose the weight. I found an article in the magazine called First and after reading it wanted to share this with everyone.
Weight management experts are still shocked over findings presented by researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. They discovered that for each can of diet soda consumed daily, a person's risk of obesity increased 41 percent! The culprits behind this disturbing news: artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucralose. These artificial sweeteners seem to disrupt the body's natural ability to count calories and sense fullness.
How can I connect this to being greener in your life? Maybe if we give up diet soda we can lose some weight, feel better about our health and in turn want to get out there and do more to make our county a healthier place to live. Am I stretching it a bit? OK I guess I am. :o)