The Trouble with Dragons - An Eco Friendly Book

The Trouble with Dragons is an excellent children’s book about the environment that was written and illustrated by the extremely talented Debi Gliori.

The dragons are very colorful and have very expressive features. The city that the Dragons live becomes more and more crowded with all of the space taken up. There are some amusing small touches to the pictures of the book. The motorway sign reads to CO2 and the factory chimney  is of cigarettes.

In the book, the Dragons do not look after their environment. The Dragons begin to experience the effects of the sea beginning to rise and the affects of their wastefulness.

The dragons agree to adapt and modify their behavior  There are many things in the way the Dragons live which have to be changed in order to live in an environmentally sustainable way. These changes are simply explained so that the Dragons do not become extinct..

The Trouble with Dragons is a children’s book that is about caring, sharing and working together to look after the environment. It is evaluated as an All Green Children’s book.

Finding the Best Eco Gift

Living an eco friendly life can be quite easy. You recycle as much as you can, you make sure your home isn't wasting any energy by getting a property condition assessment, and you buy local products at the supermarket. But buying eco gifts is much more of a challenge, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun!  So is buying green gifts even more difficult? Certainly not! Let me walk you through and you’ll soon see there are in fact astonishingly many green gifts out there.

First you can narrow you green gift choices by whom do you give those green gifts to – is it your dad, boyfriend, or good friend? Is it a teen or a thirty-year old?  Once you’ve decided on that, just get ready for the dazzling many green gifts!

Eco-friendly Gifts for men/fathers, boyfriends, husbands

Men usually have everything they need; so it seems hard to come up with any good green gift ideas. But don’t fret. There’s always a solution. In fact, there are many green gifts that men would love.

Regardless of what he does or likes, an eco-friendly charger for all mobile phones or USB interface digital products is never a bad idea.  This solar charger transfers direct sunlight to electronics, save money and energy.  Another green gift that any man will like is a men’s wallets that is made out of recycled tires.  If he likes sport, which most men do, an eco-friendly sport wear is then a suitable green gift choice.  If he loves wine, then a wine rack that is made from sustainable wood and eco-friendly wood stains is certainly another great eco-friendly gift option.

Eco-Friendly Gifts for women/mothers, girlfriends, wives

Sentiments of women’s green gifts are always the key. Some common green gifts for women include flowers, organic cosmetics, clothing, books, and edibles such as chocolate or even a home dinner by your own effort!

Undeniably, every woman loves flowers.  But do you know that only 6 percent of flowers sold in the US are certified as eco-friendly?  A good majority of those beautiful flowers are imported from Latin America.  That being said, as you are handing over the pretty bouquet to your loved ones, you are also passing potentially doused chemistries to them.  There’s probably no need for me to elaborate on the importance of buying organic and eco-friendly gift flowers.

Another green gift that women simply can’t resist is organic cosmetics.  Before you offer them the aah-ooh-inspiring personal care products or cosmetics, also make sure they don’t contain anything harmful.  Of course, the easiest and most reliable way to achieve so is to buy organic, eco-friendly cosmetic products.

Also don’t forget, if you can’t be with her right away, you can always send her an e-card, quick and easy!  But do follow up with a phone call though.  I’m sure she’d love to hear the nice blessings from your own voice.

On a side note, if you are going to buy clothes as a gift, make sure you buy organic cotton clothes and read why regular cotton “socks”.

Eco-friendly Gifts for teens/kids

What about green gifts for your 11-year-old nephew? Or your little daughter?

This is in fact a much easier task than the others.  Kids, most often, can be easily satisfied.  There are some important elements of kids’ green gifts though, such as fun, educative, appropriate and entertaining, and sometimes “cool”.  Educational and fun green gift could be an Earthoology board game that educates your kids/teens about ecological landmarks and carbon offsets; printed with soy based inks, it is certainly a very eco-friendly gift.  Of course, other regular but useful green gifts such as books and notebooks can be just as good as a fun board game.  Or… what sport does he/she play? Soccer? Basketball? Why not buy him/her a “green” soccer ball or basketball or any other kind of sport supplies to go along with all the sports news that they read?

I hope these are helpful. If you want to explore more, neerg also has a plenty of eco-friendly wedding gifts as your additional alternatives.

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Environmental Friendly Garden All Lit Up!

Your garden is your pride and joy. Through careful tendering and harvesting, you have created quite the outdoor retreat. You are almost one hundred percent satisfied with your gardening and gardening design ability. But, there is something missing. Of course, proficient gardener that you are, you already know what that is. Your garden is missing a well-chosen set of garden lights. Garden lights are delicately and intricately designed to look beautiful even in daylight when they are not lit up. At dusk, however, with the perfect set of garden lighting, your garden will become a magical place altogether.

Illuminate your growing garden with a beautiful set of garden lights. You certainly have no shortage of styles to choose from. You can choose novelty stake solar lights that look like brass roses to light up your garden path or garden string lights that stretch across your garden and are designed to look like dragonflies. When lit up in this way, your garden will take your guest’s breath away. We're not environmental consultants by any means, and if we were we would turn you here, but you know you're saving money and the environment buy using solar lighting.

Why choose to have the outdoor of your home to be lit up only during certain holidays? Your garden certainly does not have to adhere to such rules? Your garden, whether it is vast and consists of several acre plots, or just a simple garden patch outside of your patio, can literally glow with the addition of beautiful garden lights. Choose between fiber optic lighting options that are safe to have around water due to their lack of electrical current, solar powered lights that help save on electricity and electric costs, or several other lighting options available for the optimal, beautiful garden and you will find yourself in awe of your outdoor area in the night time. With the perfect lighting in your garden, you will find yourself wanting to throw garden parties in the evenings to show off your amazing garden and your gardening design abilities.

Gardens thrive in the sunlight. But who is to say that they should lie dormant at night? Your garden should come alive with beauty and wonder beginning at dusk. You can achieve this by purchasing a quality and attractive garden lighting system for your garden. Let us face the fact that you worked very hard on the beauty that is known as your garden. You should enjoy your garden all day and night long. With all the hard work you have put in, let your garden be illuminated at night and show it off!

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Recycling in the Outdoors

Many people want to learn how to reduce waste and conserve energy with what they do outside. What kind of trees are the most environmentally friendly? What are the effects of using too much fertilizer? We'll try to cover as much of that as we can and throw in a few helpful tips so you can have a great looking backyard and be eco-friendly at the same time.

Solar Energy Good or Bad?
I've heard both sides of the story, including a great deal of issues with solar panels. The issue isn't that solar panels don't bring in clean energy, it's that the process of installing them and the research we do to develop them far exceeds the benefit they give to us. Also there's a great deal of toxins involved with producing the products, and if disposed in the wrong way, the solar panels can be an environmental nightmare. If you get solar panels, just remember to keep them in a place where there will be plenty of sunlight, and always have it running, even during the winter months.

Recycle Your Materials
You don't have to just stick with recycling plastic bags, there are plenty of materials outside our home that you can recycle. Do you consume a large amount of biodegradable materials? Set up a compost pile in the back of your yard, throw a handfull of worms in there, and you have yourself the richest fertilizer for your garden you can ever imagine. Just leaving a pile of biodegradable material in a compost pile for a year results in a suitable way to fertilize your garden and lawn.

Don't over fertilize things
A bit of fertilizer to get your plants growing is just fine, but everyone wants to have the greenest lawn on the property, which can take a toll on the local environment. Nitrogen blasting your lawn leads to a lot of nitrogen runnoff, which winds up in ponds and lakes, leading to algae blooms. These nasty green blooms kills off native plant and fish species and wipes out an entire body of water for good. Good luck swimming in that muck pond.

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Bird Watching for Beginners

There's a few best practices to follow if you want to get into bird watching. I'm certainly not an expert, but I've heard these tips from a few experts that I personally know.

1. Start in the morning - Almost all birds enjoy making their appearances at dawn, and they quickly go into hiding once it gets a bit warmer out. They are active and loud in the mornings, and generally don't make quite as good of an appearance later in the day. Depending on the time of the year, 6 AM is usually a good time to start.
2. Get some binoculars - In order to pinpoint birds and tell exactly what kind of bird you're looking at is, it's best to get a nice pair of binoculars you can use for decades. I would recommend getting a pair that you can wrap around your neck to have instant access to them while walking around. If you have any bird houses set up around your property, always have your eye out for them, as it can be tough to catch birds in their nesting environments.
3. Attend a lecture or two - There are quite a few great bird blogs and forums on the web, and they all list well known birding experts who can tell you a bit more about the birds they study and how they live in your area. You will learn quite a bit about birds, but even more about where you live.

Best of luck on your birding expeditions!

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Preserve the Earth

Planet example (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Preserving our planet should be the number one item on our agenda. Our planet is in danger, we are going through a rapid rate of animal extinction, and our safety is at risk in the near future. Water shortages are already a large problem in many parts of the world, the use of unsafe and unnatural methods of farm land building and deforestation is quickening the process, and we continue to do nothing about it. This blog is dedicated to getting all of us to wake up face reality and take a stand. Hope you are interested in my cause, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks for visiting!