Goodbye... I'm so happy and sad all at the same time!

Well, everyone, this is it: the last post. I have exhausted my resources for this blog, and so it's time to move on to other things in my life. I feel so happy that I have completed this blog, yet so sad that I have to let go. I will definitely think about this more before I post this for real.
To those of you who are seeing my blog for the first time, feel free to look around! I have spent many hours working on this blog. But for the rest of you...

On the weekend, I attended the 2012 Youth Summit for Biodiversity and Environmental Justice, as an Ontario Nature Youth Council member. It was one of the best weekends of my life. I didn't have time to post anything that Friday, because the moment I got home from school, I had to have lunch and then pack my bags.
One of the workshops I attended was about Global Governance and Environmental Justice (or something like that). A particularly memorable moment was when the presenter, who worked as a critic of global governments, took a look at the colourful masses of acronyms that she had written on a paper on an easel and joked, "So this is my life. I'm trying to figure it out." The moral of the story: don't get bogged down by a bunch of terminology and super-long acronyms unless you have to.
I'm trying to figure out my life, too. Has Hug A Tree Today, Seriously helped me with that? Perhaps. It has definitely given me a chance to make a difference in my own way, in my own time.

Sign from the YMCA camp where the summit was held.

The guest speaker was Simon Jackson, a Canadian from British Colombia who founded the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition. His story was an inspiring one. It made me realize just how easy it is to get public attention for your organization. Apparently, when the royal British princes came to visit Canada, Simon maneuvered himself right up to the front-- amidst hordes of screaming girls-- and asked the princes to help him save the Spirit Bear (which is a white variety of  black bear). And they did! Although the Spirit Bear is still in need of protection, he has come a long way towards saving this unique species.
 I am incredibly hopeful that we can make a difference in the world. I'm not giving up on my environmental activism by ending this blog. I still am on the ON Youth Council, I have a print 'zine on environmentally-friendly living, and I do other cool things on and off that I can't remember right now. Remember to continue to do your own things to help save the environment during your lifetime!

Oh, and I have a few more eco-tips for you all:

• If you want clean, smooth, glowing skin, use sea salt! Simply wet your face (or hands, or whatever) with warm water and then rub sea salt onto your skin. Rub it in well and then rinse it off. Do a final rinse with cool water to close off your pores. It works really well.
• Have you been considering alternative energy? Well, I want you to know that you shouldn't be too quick to jump on the bandwagon. Solar panels can disrupt bird migration patterns and take up large quantities of land. Wind turbines chop up tens of thousands of birds in the U.S. alone every year, and they also take incredibly large amounts of energy and land to operate. The best way to go is simply to conserve energy!
• I suggest that you find another blog to follow now that mine is done. Find ways to be in nature. Keep up your eco-friendliness-- you will not regret it.

Now, a few parting words:

1. To all the followers (official and unofficial) of this blog, you rock! You rock because you care about the environment and you are willing to do something about it. You rock because you've helped me reach and surpass my goal of 1000 pageviews by the end of the year. (Keep reading to find out how many pageviews I've achieved at the time of this writing.)
2. Around New Year's Eve in 2011, I set the goal of reaching 1000 pageviews by the end of 2012. At the time of this writing, I have reached 3701 pageviews! And it's only October!
3. If you have enjoyed following this blog or reading my posts, please go to The Animal Rights Action Site, which is now my official primary blog. I may start another blog at some point, but it most likely will be under a different name, for privacy reasons!
4. Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a good life, everyone.

Cat, signing out, ready to take on the world...

Inspirational Filler Post, Or, Inspiration for Environmentalists

Last night I couldn't sleep very well. So I'm going to write a filler post.

Inspiration:
1) Never give up on what you believe in. Environmentalists are too smart to give up.
2) If you ever feel like nobody cares about the environment, tell yourself that they'll snap out of it eventually. Then they'll all adore you for being a trend-setter.
3) You can live according to your beliefs.
4) Don't procrastinate anymore. I mean it. I have to wait until I'm 18 to do a lot of the things I want to do it my life. So, I get a little annoyed when people do have the power to act now, but they don't act.
5) Start a blog. Or not. Maybe you could go leafleting. Or not. Go invite over all your friends to an eco-friendly party, just to show them how fun it is. Or not. Get a bumper sticker for your moped about eco-friendliness. Or not! I don't know! Just do something, please!
6) Keep reading my blog. I'm not being a very good writer today, but if you have read my other posts, I think you'll want to stay. Then I can reach more people with my message.

Ta-ta! See y'all next week.

The Ontario Nature Youth Council. Guess which one is me!

Getting Politically Involved

Wow, I almost forgot to post today! Oh well; I'm glad that I remembered to do so this evening. Now, about getting politically involved...
Getting politically active is a vital way to start to make change. Everything else that I've talked about here is important, obviously, but sometimes it's necessary to contact the government or campaign for a party, too!
I know that a lot of people (myself included) groan at the mention of politics. It's so controversial that it leads to many pointless heated debates. I mean, do we have to talk about this???
Well, if we really are concerned about the environment and not just pretending, it turns out that we do!
Get involved in something to do with political change. Isn't that what democracy is all about?
Here are some things you can do to help in your community and nation:

1) If you're 18 or over, you can vote. Therefore, when reviewing potential candidates to vote for, take into account what they have to say about the environment. This doesn't mean you have to vote for the Green Party of Canada if you don't want to. But you really should choose a candidate who wants to help save the environment.
2) Petitions! Here's a good rule of thumb: every year, start two petitions and sign ten others. You probably don't want to spend all day signing endless Internet petitions (I know you have better things to do), but signing a few and starting a few is good.
3) Write letters to government officials. I sent a letter to Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, regarding to cruel seal hunt. I got a letter back from someone who works with Harper, and it was actually personalised and responded to the things I said in my letter! I had been so sure that my letter would be opened, read, and tossed aside among what I imagined to be thousands of others. I figured I might have gotten a pre-written response (some other people sent their own, too, so they might have sent us all the same thing), but I didn't. My letter was given to someone in charge of Fisheries and Oceans. See-- this sort of thing can make a difference, after all!

Don't be intimidated by official-looking documents and coats of arms. It's all there for us, the citizens (theoretically, anyway). We had might as well use our individual power to help the environment! Believe me, it can be as easy as writing a quick e-mail.

4) Join a group that deals with environmental issues.
5) Attend a city council meeting.
6) If you really like a party that helps the environment, like the Green Party or NDP of Canada, for instance, then you can join the party or donate money, or volunteer for them.
7) If you have some really good ideas for what you think needs to be done in your municipality or city, ask to meet with the official (for Canada, MP and mayor) in person.
8) Politics isn't just in your country, province, state, or municipality. Everywhere you go that has a specific governance system-- schools, workplaces, recreation centers, environmental organizations, clubs, etc.-- has its own politics. If your boss, for example, makes you and your co-workers use uncertified and unrecycled paper for documents and things, ask him to change it. Depending on the situation, you could even start a petition for forest-friendly paper.

There is no reason why everyday civilians can't get involved! We are the ones who influence the government, after all!

Sustainable Transportation: Part I

Did you know that transportation is responsible for 22% of all CO2 emmissions? Carbon dioxide may be just one of many gases, but it should give you an idea of the percentage of other gases emmited by transportation-- including the dangerous nitrogen oxides and ozone.
Because transportation has such a heavy impact on our environment, we need to adjust this practice drastically. Here are some of my suggestions:

• Don't commute by car! I know, some of you (feel that you) must commute, because you live such a long way away from the place that you work. But that is no excuse, really. Find a job close to home, or find a home close to your job. If neither of these appeal to you, take the bus or find someone who is driving along the same route so that you can carpool.
• Make it a rule: whenever you are going somewhere "for fun", like the movies or to a friend's house, rule out the car and bike, walk, or take public transit.
• If you have a car, give it to someone going car-shopping. Or use it as a carpool car.
• Long distance trips should be made by train and charter bus. That includes summer vacation-- imagine the rustic calmness of the train, instead of the high-tech stress of a car or plane!
• If you are completely stubborn about having a car, at least make sure that your next one is an energy-efficient hybrid or one run by restaurants' leftover vegetable oil (yes, some of them can run off used oil scraps!).

Electric Scooter: Courtesy of http://theitsaboutelectricscootersblog.blogspot.ca/

You know, I was thinking about what a future might be like if we all took action now. If we stopped buying cars and saved them for the sick, impaired, and threatened. If we all bicycled, walked, skateboarded, scootered, and roller-skated. If we used mopeds, electric bikes, and electric scooters when we couldn't get places with our own power. If long-distance travel entailed trains and buses...
And you know what gets me angry? That future-- that wonderful, attainable future-- is being stolen from me a little bit more every day. We have already hit peak oil, which means that from now on, we will keep finding less and less oil in the ground. The prices will steadily increase until eventually, only the billionaires can afford it. And one day it will be all gone. Sooner or later, industry will collapse, and we won't even be prepared! Life may get very hard from that point forward. We will be forced to be self-reliant. I am fine with growing my own vegetables, but some things, like heating my house and going to school, will suddenly become so complicated! A sustainable yet still comfortable future is not only being stolen from me, but also from you, your neighbours, your current/future children, and all other life forms on the planet. The thieves are the people who carelessly suck away all the energy they want; of course, they often do it unknowingly, so you can't hate them for it, but that doesn't make what they are doing any more ethical.
I figured I would have to rant a bit about the reasons why this matters so much in order to convince you to make wise transportation choices. After all, changing the way you commute is a big deal. But it is oh-so-important. It can be used to measure what kind of person you are choosing to be in your life. It also dictates how the Earth will exist in the future-- whether many species, including our own, will even survive!

Get Set for Earth Day... How Will You be the Change?

Earth Day is on Sunday, April the 22nd. Personally, I feel like it is an extremely important day of the year. On Earth Day, all of your environmentally-friendly actions seem to really count. Of course, they count on all the other days of the year, too-- but there is so much more motivation to be green on Earth Day. It might surprise you that I, as an eco-blogger, sometimes run low on motivation to help save the planet, but believe me, I do. It happens to everyone. What really matters is overcoming that and doing great things anyway!

Anyway, here are some of my ideas for going even greener this Earth Day:

1. Start a new habit. Sometimes it only takes a little bit of time and energy to start up something that can last year round. For example...
1. Set up a clothes rack in your basement or clothesline in your backyard. This way, you can get into the habit of drying your clothes without the clothes dryer. By doing this, you will save $85 (US) per year and untold amounts of electricity!
2. If you aren't already a vegetarian, go out to a vegetarian restaurant to discover some delicious vegetarian foods (many of which will also be organic and vegan). You may be able to pick up a cookbook with great recipes. What would be a better time to start a new vegetarian lifestyle than on Earth Day?
3. Make some candles or start using rechargeable flashlights for use in the evening. Walking around your house at night can be an amazing experience with a candle in your hands!
4. Another good idea I found on the Internet is to get into the habit of reflecting. Reflect on your way of life and how it affects those around you (and those who are far away from you!). The more you think about it, the easier it will be to make necessary changes to your lifestyle.
2. Attend an Earth Day event in your community. For those of you who live in Ontario, you can participate in Ontario Nature's Our Special Spaces events that include tree-plantings etc. (I'll be going to the one at Lemoine Point in Kingston.) Otherwise, simply type in "[your city name] Earth Day events" on a search engine to find some. If you happen to be reading this on or after Earth Day, you might still be able to find "Earth Month" activities that last through April to take part in.
3. Sit down and plan out your eco-friendly goals for the next year. You can get started by reading my New Year's blog post, "Make Your New Year's Resolutions Sustainable", at http://hugatreetodayseriously.blogspot.ca/2011/12/make-your-new-years-resolutions.html.
4. Educate yourself! Simply read a book on environmental issues or eco-friendly tips. You can get one at the library. Many people have said that one of the best things you can do for the planet is to educate yourself. This is probably because knowledge inspires wisdom, and wisdom inspires good choices...





As Zachary Shahan said on planetsave.com, "Today should still be Earth Day, perhaps, but it should also be the beginning of Earth Week, Earth Month and Earth Year. And Earth Year should be an annual thing." (See http://planetsave.com/2010/04/22/what-to-do-on-earth-day/ for the rest of the article.)

Earth Day is all about really making a difference... So how will you be the change this year?

Yours Truly on the Everyday Heroes Festival Website :)

Hello everyone,
Today is the first day of the Everyday Heroes Festival! The Everyday Heroes Festival is a film festival/contest which young people can enter to have their videos shown in malls and bus stops across Canada.
And great news: My video, "Think Before You Drink", was selected as one of the finalists! So, from April 13-22, you can vote for my video online. Go on-- please give me a 5 star vote now: http://www.everydayheroesfestival.com/films/think-you-drink.
Although submissions are no longer being accepted for this year, you can always get filming for next year's contest. The entries will probably be due at the beginning of March 2013 (if the world doesn't end this December!). It took me quite a while to film mine with my aunt. I think we started filming in December 2011, actually. Anyway, it is a great way to make a statement for environmental awareness.
So that my post isn't completely consumed by personal celebration, I'll also give you a list of other environment-related contests that you can enter:

• Teen Ink Environment Contest: http://www.teenink.com/Contests/EnvironC.php
• Earth Day Canada Hometown Heroes Contest: http://www.earthday.ca/hometown/
• Earth Day Canada Community Environment Fund: http://www.earthday.ca/envirofund/
• Fair World Project Fair Trade Adventure for Two: http://www.fairworldproject.org/sweepstakes

Other contests that aren't strictly environment-related but that you can enter to help raise awareness for the environment:

• Photos Win Prizes: http://www.photoswinprizes.com/

I'll put more here if I learn of any!

The Three Kinds of Activism

I think that there are three kinds of activism: public awareness, pushing for legislation, and direct action. Today I'm going to give an overview of each, so that you'll be able to decide which one you might be most interested in doing.

1. Public Awareness: By far the easiest form of activism, public awareness strives to teach people about the issue-- and persuade them to act differently-- in order to make the world a kinder, more sustainable place.
• Popular examples: Earth Hour, King Corn (documentary)
• Ways you can get involved: Start a blog, write an article, submit a letter to the editor, film a video, organize a litter clean-up, place posters on telephone poles, e-mail people and tell them about being eco-friendly
• My example (warning-- prepare to get a little motion sickness! I filmed too quickly. Also, if you plan to do this, don't use colour ink; the rain washed it away after only about a week!):
2. Legislation: This is all about pushing for the government to act differently. It is more difficult than public awareness, obviously!
• Example: Any group that gets you to sign petitions to the government.
• Ways you can get involved: Sign petitions, start petitions, write letters, sign letters. Don't spend all your time doing this, though. Public awareness is important, too.
• My example:
3. Direct Action: Direct action is all about physically getting up and changing things to be the way you want them to happen. This category includes mostly doing things without permission. If you take this route, make sure that all your actions are non-violent; that is, you don't hurt any human or animal by doing it. And direct action needs to be well-planned. Some people will go around blowing up (empty) cars, but that won't really help the environment, will it? I don't know where to draw the line, exactly, but I think that it can probably be useful at times.
• Example: Operation Bite Back
• If you want to learn more, go to http://www.ruckus.com/.

So, what do you want to do to help the environment? Remember as they say, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
If you need help with any of your activism efforts, don't hesitate to e-mail me at
rabbit-catATvegemailDOTcom
Until next week...!

Go beyond Earth Hour this 2012

My goodness-- I almost forgot to post today! I'm lucky that I remembered just a few minutes ago.
This year, Earth Hour is on March 31 at 8:30 pm; please join Earth Hour this year by turning off your lights, computers, television, and cell phones! See the website http://www.earthhour.org/ for more information.

Earth Hour is all about conserving energy. But how do you take it beyond the hour and start a small-scale energy revolution in your life?

1. Make it an everyday habit to conserve electricity wherever you see possible-- turn off the lights when leaving the room, unplug your computer every evening, turn off the television and get outside, et cetera.
2. Get a free energy audit of your home. This way you'll know whether your house is energy-efficient. They'll also give you tips on how to conserve energy in your house-- sometimes it can be as simple as filling in a few empty spaces with insulation. At other times, it can be complex. But either way, it's good to know.
3. When you must buy an appliance, buy the ones labelled "Energy Star", which means that they are energy-efficient.
4. Throw on a sweater and turn the thermostat down one degree. This can have a big impact on your energy bill-- if you always had it one degree less, you could reduce your energy bill by ten percent!
5. Install solar water-heaters on the roof-- very convenient for heating your water naturally.
6. During the winter, open your curtains in the day to let sunlight in and close them at night to keep in the heat. In the summer, close the curtains in the day and open them at night, allowing heat to escape.
7. Go without air-conditioning-- you can always spend those hot days underneath a shady tree (if you haven't got any trees on your property, plant one!) or in the basement.
8. Follow my other tips on this blog to reduce your energy consumption further!

Are you Buying Tap Water For $4 a Litre?

Today I'll be talking about bottled water and recycling. "The Story of Bottled Water" is a quick illustrated video (by the same woman who narrated "The Story of Stuff") informing you about the realities behind bottled water. I apologize for the bad formatting of my blog (there was nothing I could do about it), but please sit back and watch it right now:

Recycling, although not 100% effective, is very important. DoSomething.org has partnered with Nestle (which is weird, because Nestle is known as one of the most socially and environmentally irresponsible companies on the planet) to encourage recycling. Please go to http://www.dosomething.org/trashy/gallery for the rest of these funny pictures and statistics:

People often think that buying some bottled water and then throwing it away afterwards doesn't really hurt the planet. But it does. Here is a rather ironic article, "'How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?' 30 Million People Wonder", that sums up my point nicely: http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-bad-for-the-environment-can-throwing-away-one,2892/.

I understand how you might already have a bunch of water bottles stored away in your cupboard or ready to be recycled. There's nothing you can do about all those water bottles you consumed in the past, but you can become part of the movement by not buying any more and by reusing those which you already have!

I took this picture of a water bottle bird feeder while out walking with my aunt and cousin:

You can also use old water bottles to store change, nuts/bolts/nails, collections, and as pencil holders and cookie jars (once you cut the top off). Don't store anything wet or moist in water bottles, though; that could make you sick. For the birdfeeder above, I recommend only using it in dry weather, and if it rains, you should change it.

On the whole, bottled water should be avoided! If you haven't watched "The Story of Bottled Water" yet, please scroll back up and watch it or go to http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/ to see it at it's original website. If you are really interested in this sort of thing, you should go on a movie marathon and watch all of "The Story of..." videos. I've only seen three, but that was three really good videos I spent my time watching!

Online Activism: A Catalyst for Change?

Are you searching for a way to help save the planet and incorporate it into your daily routine? Look no further! Today I am going to be writing about two of my favourite activism websites, The Rainforest Site and Care2.
Deforestation is a serious problem in the modern world. Ancient species are disappearing off the face of the Earth-- literally-- and the natural processes of our planet are being disturbed. Just thinking about it can be overwhelming, and you may not even believe that it is possible to stop deforestation right in it's tracks.
Take heart! Have you heard of The Rainforest Site (http://www.therainforestsite.com/)? It's a website devoted to saving the rainforest in many ways:

• First, it has a "daily click" opportunity, in which Internet users can click on a button once daily to help protect 11.4 square feet of rainforest. You see, for every click, their sponsers pay a certain amount of money to buy that land. Spiffy, isn't it?
• This website also has many petitions that you can sign, all of which are to be presented to important decision-makers. (You may have heard about Hug a Tree Today, Seriously on The Rainforest Site. I always post the urls to my blogs beside my name when I sign those petitions!) Just click on "Take Action!" at the right-hand sidebar to get to the lengthy list of petitions.
• Another way you can help is by shopping at The Rainforest Site for gifts and clothing (only if you need it, of course!). All sales contribute to helping the rainforests. For more information, see the store yourself at https://www.therainforestsite.com/store/trs/site?0 or see the left-hand sidebar on The Rainforest Site.

Care2, on the other hand, encompasses many different topics, including green living. Head on down to http://www.care2.org/ to set up an account, where you can set up a profile telling the world about your beliefs and initiatives. Then go and sign petitions, join groups, read articles, and more-- online! By participating on the website, you earn points which, over time, accumulate to let you "buy" things that help others and the environemnt. You don't have to pay with money; instead, you use your points to buy these things. You can look up my profile, by the way-- my username is "rabbit-cat".
Of course, The Rainforest Site and Care2 are only two of numerous organizations devoted to making a difference. And there are ways to make a difference in your own life, too. So keep an open mind always, and have a nice week!