Humorous Eco-Inspired Quotes – Part IV: By Some Famous American Television Celebs

I’ll let you be the judge of what’s funny but sometimes when you least expect it – a certain quip from a celebrity catches your breath with its nuanced eco-twist. Here then below is a list of my favorite eco-inspired quotes taken from a lighthearted comedic perspective:

1-“There’s so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.” – Lily Tomlin

2-“A two pound turkey and a fifty-pound cranberry-that’s Thanksgiving dinner at Three Mile Island.” – Johnny Carson

3- “That’s the thing about Mother Nature, she really doesn’t care what economic bracket you’re in.” – Whoopi Goldberg

4-“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.” – George Carlin

5-“According to a survey in this week’s Time magazine, 85% of Americans think global warming is happening. The other 15% work for the White House.” – Jay Leno

6-“It’s hard for the modern generation to understand Thoreau, who lived beside a pond but didn’t own water skis or a snorkel.” – Loudon Wainwright III

7-“Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.” – David Letterman

8-“ Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’” – Robin Williams

9-“You know what happens when windmills collapse into the sea? A splash.” – Bill Maher

10- “Yesterday, a group of scientists warned that because of global warming, sea levels will rise so much that parts of New Jersey will be under water. The bad news? Parts of New Jersey won’t be under water.” – Conan O’Brien

11-“Do you really think they have chemical weapons stronger than living next to New Jersey?” – Jon Stewart

12-“Now I know why I haven’t paid any attention to this global warming fad. It makes horrible television.” – Stephen Colbert

13-“Researches at Yale found a connection between brain cancer and work environment. The No. 1 most dangerous job for developing brain cancer? Plutonium hat model.” – Jimmy Fallon

14-“We don’t hate giraffes here, we just put them in their place.” –Craig Ferguson

15- “Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough, but it’s worse when they are wearing dark glasses and have streamers in their antlers because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot.” – Ellen DeGeneres

16-“It’s absolutely stupid that we live without an ozone layer. We have men, we’ve got rockets, we’ve got saran wrap – FIX IT!!!” – Lewis Black

On the 12th Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me….Counting Down the Eco-Wellness ABC’S of Medicinal Rainforest Plants!

BACKGROUND FACTS:

-Rainforests make up less than 2% of the earth’s surface and 6% of its land mass yet contain 50% of the total world’s animals and plant species
-Rainforests exist on every continent except Antarctica – some are temperate – some are tropical
-Rainforests help to regulate both global temperatures and weather patterns as well as the water levels of rivers whilst maintaining the supply of fresh drinking water around the world
-Rainforests supply 20% of the Earth’s oxygen
-Rainforests are also a major source of new medicines. The total number of medicines derived from rainforest plants is over 7000 which is about 25% of the total usage of medicines used by people worldwide
-At present less than 1 % of rainforest plants have been tested for their medicinal properties
-Of these, over 2000 tropical rainforest plants have potential anti-cancer fighting properties
-Currently, 40% of all pharmaceuticals used in the USA are derived from rainforest resources

Now let us test your eco-wellness knowledge of today’s medicinal Rainforest Plants – Here are but a few examples:

ANNATTO TREE – OIL EXTRACT USED EXTERNALLY TO PREVENT UV RAY BURNS AND REPEL INSECTS AND USED INTERNALLY TO TREAT HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

ARAROBA TREE – POWDER EXTRACT USED EXTERNALLY TO TREAT PSORIASIS AND CHRONIC ECZEMA

CINCHONA/QUINA TREE – BARK EXTRACT IS USED AS A POTENT ANTI-MALARIAL AGENT KNOWN AS QUININE

CLAVILLIA HERB – USED TO TREAT INFECTIONS CAUSED BY VIRUSES, BACTERIA, FUNGI AND PARASITES

COCOA TREE – ALL PARTS OF THE TREE ARE USED TO TREAT ANXIETY, FATIGUE, FEVER, COUGHS, KIDNEY STONES, AND EXTERNAL CUTS AND BRUISES

CURARE LIANAS VINE – USED AS AN ANESTHETIC AGENT AND TO TREAT BRUISES, FEVER, EDEMA AND KIDNEY STONES

LEMONGRASS – ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIFUNGAL AGENT USED TO TREAT FEVERS, COLDS, AND COUGHS

MADAGASCAR PERIWINKLE – ANTI-CANCER PROPERTIES USED TO TREAT LEUKEMIA AND HODGKIN’S DISEASE

MAMMOSA – USED TO TREAT SINUS INFECTIONS AND LESIONS CAUSED BY VARIOUS SKIN CANCERS

PACIFIC BLEEDING HEART – ROOT EXTRACTS KNOWN AS TINCTURE IS USED TO TREAT EXTERNAL BRUISES AND SPRAINS AND INTERNALLY TO SOOTH DAMAGED NERVES

SAW PALMETTO BERRIES – USED TO TREAT CERTAIN URINARY PROBLEMS

SOROSI VINE – USED EXTERNALLY TO TREAT TICKS OR LICE ON THE SKIN AND INTERNALLY TO TREAT PAIFUL MENSTRUATION AND DYSENTERY

TRUMPET TREE – ALL PARTS OF THE TREE ARE USED TO TREAT RESPIRATORY ILLNESSES AND RHEUMATISM

WILD YAMS – TUBER EXTRACTS USED IN BIRTH CONTROL PILLS

In conclusion, as we celebrate this holiday season with tasty chocolate treats – remember its source and its medicinal properties. HAPPY ECO-WELLNESS HOLIDAYS!

The ‘Greening’ of Today’s American Restaurant Chains: Green Is Not Just the Bottom Line Anymore!

America’s restaurant chains are beginning to see in the second decade of the 2000’s, a new kind of genesis in practically all of their operational approaches and customer relationships.  This environmentally friendly genesis or ‘Green Movement’ is being adopted as an integral part of their current business practices – not just as some slick hype or marketing ploy –  but as a multi-disciplinary shift in corporate policy with which to meet accelerating operating costs and complex supply chain challenges. No longer are the old paradigms of ” business as usual”, the norm.  Instead, from coast to coast corporate teams are now embracing green energy technologies, expanding ‘organic’ food menus and recycling their waste products.  “Good Eats” now includes “Good Stewardship”.  Herein is a brief overview of how America’s restaurant chains are reshaping themselves.

One of the most closely watched trends is in their switch from standard type incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs to ultra modern energy efficient light-emitting diodes.  The Rose Group, the 34th largest restaurant franchise company in the USA and managerial owners of the restaurant chain, “Applebee’s”, is amongst the real pioneers in adopting LED lighting systems.   These LED systems last 2-3 times longer than fluorescents and are mercury free.  And they are not alone. Kentucky-based Yum! Brands, Inc., parent company of “Taco Bell”, “Pizza Hut”, “Kentucky Fried Chicken”, and “Long John Silver’s” has opened its first green restaurant in Northampton, Massachusetts to include not only a LED lighting system but energy-efficient kitchen equipment, a low-flow water system, solar energy, and new rainwater-based irrigation technology. In addition, this same restaurant also cleverly recycles its waste to eco-friendly fertilizer and converts its frying oil into biofuel!

And then there is Georgia-based fast food chain, “Chick-fil-A”, which is now in the process of replacing all of its lighting and water fixtures at hundreds of restaurants and planning new green building techniques for all of its future restaurants. Not far behind is South Carolina-based “Denny’s”, a family-friendly restaurant chain which is currently installing ‘Cree LED lights’ in all the dining areas and restrooms of its newest restaurants.  Meanwhile, ‘Subway’, the largest franchise chain in the USA, has just opened FIVE new “eco–restaurants” – two in North Carolina, one in Indiana, and two in Connecticut with many soon-to-open including one at the newly renovated “Green” Student Center on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles campus which will feature “a walkable rooftop terrace and garden”.  Some of the more interesting ‘eco-elements’ incorporated into these new “eco-restaurants” are a  “light harvesting system through solar panels”, a “large monitor that display real time energy usage of the restaurant”, automatic shut-off faucets in the restrooms, and sensors that flip on the lights when people use the facilities.

Another environmentally responsible franchise is Ohio-based “White Castle”, a fast food hamburger restaurant chain founded in 1921.  In addition to using LED lighting at 55 of its restaurant locations, it owns and operates three of its own bakeries, and employs its own fleet of refrigerated trucks to distribute frozen buns to restaurants in 12 states. In addition to using new energy efficient roofing construction, all of its brown corrugated packaging and paper are made of 100 percent recycled material.   Water stewardship is another big trend in the ‘Green Movement’ sweeping across America’s restaurant chain landscape and in the forefront is Tennessee-based “Ruby Tuesday”, a casual dining restaurant chain that uses water-efficient dishwashers exclusively and an innovative stackable glassware rack that consumes less water and soap than standard ones.  And at both its Pensacola, Florida restaurant and its Westland, Michigan’s restaurant, “McDonald’s” has tapped into underground geothermal sources of energy whereby water is used to transfer heat from the earth to their buildings when it’s cold, and to move heat from the buildings to the earth when it’s hot. Their geothermal systems have been shown to cut energy costs by half already and are projected to work well for more than 50 years. (Note: McDonald’s is the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants.

Finally there is a growing trend for ethically sourced food products. “Starbucks Corporation”, the Seattle-based coffeehouse chain, the largest in the world, is perhaps the best representative of “ethical purchasing” – securing organically grown tea, coffee beans, and cocoa beans by supporting farmer’s rights and living conditions within their eco-sensitive communities whilst reducing their use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers.  On the other hand, Starbucks is criticized by many environmentalists for using disposable cups that require enormous amounts of natural resources and energy.  But this is a conundrum that all of America’s restaurant chains face – ground-breaking efforts in one area – are usually offset by environmental costs in another area.  The good news is that two-thirds of America’s restaurant chains are actively pursuing sustainability solutions – and they are now being helped by new sustainability software in today’s ever expanding sustainability marketplace.

25 Years Since Chernobyl: Europe’s Radioactive Wild Boars, Reindeer, Mushrooms, Lichen, & Truffles to Name Just a Few

On the evening of April 26,1989 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant located in the Republic of the Ukraine, a devastating accident occurred – the equivalent in toxicity of 400 Hiroshima bombs. Radioactive isotopes, plutonium, strontium-90, iodine-131 and caesium-137, were suddenly released into the air from the melt down of Reactor Number Four. Carried by the winds and deposited by spring rains, much of the caesium-137 travelled westward over southern Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and onto southern Germany and northward to the upper reaches of Scandinavia and across to the north-western sheep farming regions of the United Kingdom.

And today, 25 years later – radioactive levels are still at a high in these particular regions of Europe’s wild plant and game reserves. Today thousands of wild boars shot by Bavarian hunters are still excessively radioactive – unfit for human consumption – only to be thrown by the wayside and set fire to in the hopes of reducing radioactive contamination elsewhere in the forests for wild boars feed on mushroom and truffles which concentrate radioactivity.

And in the Lapland regions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, the indigenous Sami people have had to cope with contaminated reindeer meat as well – for reindeer eat lichen which is very sensitive to radioactivity – storing it like a sponge – much the way truffles and mushrooms do. And in parts of Wales, hundreds of Welsh farmers are still living with rigorous safety test restrictions on their sheep herds who graze on radioactive soil. Indeed, there are estimates that it will take a 100 years before the total radioactive levels in the whole of Europe go down to pre-catastrophic levels.

In the meantime, there are certain natural foods and flavorings that do help detoxify radioactive build-up in the human body – in addition to iodine and spirulina supplements – the best foods are seaweed, kelp, miso, brown rice, garlic, ginger, onions, broccoli, beets, olive oil, green and black tea, rosemary, leafy greens, apples, citrus fruits, pumpkins, alfalfa sprouts and bee pollen.

As for our favorite pets, studies have shown that aloe vera reduces radiation sickness in animals and is an effective topical treatment for animal radiation burns.

But for now, the verdict is still out regarding the long-term effects of radiation exposure on humans and animals – indeed the focus for the next few years will be developing new types of technology that will be able to quickly assess the amount of radiation thousands of sufferers will have contracted after a radiological disaster. For no two radiation victims are exactly alike.

Finding America’s Best Organic Apples – Washington State?

You may have heard that there are over 7,500 varieties of apples grown in the world but did you know that Washington State is the finest place on earth to grow organic apples? The ideal temperatures, the nutrient-rich lava-ash soil, the bountiful crystal clear water of the Cascade mountains, and the stringent processing practices and grading standards all help to reduce the number of fruit diseases and potentially harmful insects and pests.

But it wasn’t always that way. The first apple seeds were carried over from England to Washington State in 1826 not by John Chapman, aka the legendary itinerant pioneer, Johnny Appleseed, who planted apple nurseries all over the states of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana during the early 1800’s – but by Lieutenant Emilius Simpson, first cousin of Hudson Bay’s Governor, Sir George Simpson, a British officer stationed at Fort Vancouver, a major fur-trapping trade center.

Over the next century and a half, these first few apple seeds would evolve into the nine most popular varieties of organic apples grown in Washington state: Gala, Fuji, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Cripps Pink, Braeburn, Honeycrisp, and Cameo. Since then, numerous medical studies have shown that organic apples are not only a delicious, nutritional snack but they are a good source of dietary fiber and Vitamin C and other nutrients such as Vitamin K & B6, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Potassium – potent antioxidants with the ability to lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease, and prevent the reproduction of prostate, colon, and lung cancer cells.

Finding America’s Best Natural Mineral Water – Hot Springs, Arkansas?

Known by Native Americans for centuries as the ‘Valley of the Vapors’, the best mineral water in the continental USA originates from the western slope of the Hot Spring Mountain, (part of the Ouachita Mountain Range) in Hot Springs National Park located in the north end of the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. There are two types of this natural mineral water. The first is from the Hottest well head and the second is from the Warm well head. The hottest water has the most mineral content. (This fact is verified from scientific analysis done by USDA scientists.) The great thing about these minerals is that they can be easily absorbed by the body for it is easier for the body to absorb the minerals from water than from most foods. Best of all the water is Free to the Public.