Save Eco Destinations

Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL

Love your beaches

On Monday, June 10, we celebrated World Ocean Day 2010.

On June 26, you can head to your local beach and join hands to oppose offshore drilling and endorse renewable energy. Look up Hands Across the Sand events near you or email everyone in your area and start one up in your community! And don’t worry if you’re not in the U.S. — the event is taking place across the globe!

Read more about the event here.

Be sure to travel green

Remember to do your part and be eco-friendly, whether at the beach or anywhere you travel.

Going on a road trip? Read this.

And if you’re planning to get married, remember that coastal weddings are a no-no!

Further, if you’re looking for lodging, make sure you choose an eco hotel. Learn about eco hotel certifications here.

And finally –

The top 10 U.S. beaches

For the past 20 years, a coastal scholar known as Dr. Beach has compiled a list of the best beaches in the country. Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman is the director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University.

He uses 50 criteria to evaluate the nation’s beaches, including water and sand quality, beach width and environmental management, according to CNN.

Cape Florida Lighthouse at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Florida.

Here’s the list:

1. Coopers Beach in Southampton, New York

2. Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Florida

3. Coronado Beach in San Diego, California

4. Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks of North Carolina

5. Main Beach in East Hampton, New York

6. Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

7. Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

8. Beachwalker Park in Kiawah Island, South Carolina

9. Hamoa Beach in Maui, Hawaii

10. Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, Florida

By the way, I have been to Siesta Beach (#2) and I can attest that it is amazing! It’s got sand like flour and warm, luscious waters. Hopefully it will remain unscathed by the oil spill currently taking over the Gulf of Mexico…

If spring is coming up for you (and you’re not near the Gulf) enjoy the beach!

An eco lodge in the Peruvian Amazon

Many companies tout their hotels as eco, but – as one might, unfortunately, expect – many companies also lie.

So how do you know if the place you’re thinking of staying at during your next vacation is really an eco hotel?

A great resource is EcoHotelology, a blog written by Holly Worton, who has 11 years of experience in the eco hotel industry. Although her blog’s main purpose is to help hoteliers learn how they can green their business (and home and office), Worton’s posts are helpful for anyone interested in expanding her or his knowledge about eco hotels and greening one’s lifestyle.

13 tell-tale signs that you’re dealing with an eco hotel:

• The rooms have a door-key-card-controlled electricity system that allows guests to turn off the electricity to their room by removing their card when they exit it
• Having green options offered to you, such as foregoing daily housekeeping
• Recycling services
• Low flow or dual flush toilets and low flow showerheads in the bathrooms
• Vegetarian meal options (and I don’t just mean spaghetti and salad. Give me something I can use!)
• The food is grown or produced locally, perhaps grown in an organic garden located on the premises
• Mindful ecotours/safaris – this means hummers are not used to drive guests around, nor ATVs; people are not allowed to speak or photograph in the presence of wildlife, and so on. Otherwise, it’s just a regular, nature-unfriendly tour/safari, and nature has enough hostility to deal with from us as it is.
• Only pasture-raised animal products are offered in its restaurants
• Only native plants are used in the landscaping
• Organic massage oils and all-natural products are used in the spa
• Wall dispensers provide shampoo, etc., instead of individual bottles and individually wrapped soaps
• The eco hotel uses renewable energy (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, etc.)
• Hybrid cars are used to transport guests and you can rent bicycles to get around the area

If you can rent bikes to get around, you may be in good hands.

5 signs that your eco hotel isn’t:

• The hotel contains a golf course
• The hotel endorses fishing, dolphin swims, visits to zoos, the use of jet skis and other personal water crafts, bonfires, hunting, etc.
• You see foie gras on the menu
• Food or drinks are brought to you in disposable containers and/or you get aluminum foil, plastic wrap, Styrofoam coffee cups or plastic utensils with your order
• You get mineral water in plastic bottles

Make sure to speak up and let the manager, etc., know you aren’t happy with their false advertising or any unsustainable aspects of the so-called eco hotel. And if the place is truly an eco hotel, feel free to inform them how glad you are about their eco-friendly services!

And always remember to do your part to travel green. We are all responsible for taking care of our planet!

Dolphins in the Pacific Ocean

The United Nations (UN) is celebrating World Ocean Day on Tuesday, June 8^th with the theme ‘Our oceans: opportunities and challenges.’

The celebration was instituted just last year and since then has been commemorated annually by conservation groups, schools, businesses and governments everywhere.

Check out this year’s events here and find more info on World Ocean Day at The Ocean Project.

Reasons to celebrate World Ocean Day

Given the recent and very-much-ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s an especially wonderful time to raise awareness about the oceans’ plights and learn how we can “make a difference” (or a phrase that doesn’t make you gag).

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moo said the ocean’s main three challenges right now are overfishing, climate change and pollution.

World Ocean Day allows us to:

• Change perspective: encourage others to consider what the ocean represents to them and our planet, which hopefully will get more people interested in respecting and working to preserve it for generations to come.
• Learn: read about and watch documentaries on marine life and the richness of life in our oceans, visit the beach, etc., – whatever you feel will allow you to bond with our planet’s natural bodies of water.
• Make adjustments: educate yourself about endangered marine species (e.g., bluefin and other types of tuna, swordfish, skates and rays, marlin, Atlantic cod and orange roughy) so you can cross that seafood off your shopping list – and remember to tell others why you’re switching! (Check out Greenpeace’s Seafood Red List here.) You can also read up on which supermarkets shun unsustainable seafood (so you can shop there), biodegradable pesticides and fertilizers for your backyard, wear biodegradable sunscreen, etc.
• Celebrate: take part in the day’s festivities! For instance, write a letter to BP about the catastrophe it’s caused in the Gulf of Mexico and take part in demonstrations and sign petitions against oil drilling.

Atlantic cod is an endangered species

The UN resolution

The UN resolution calls on user States and States bordering straits utilized for international navigation to keep working together to resolve issues regarding navigation safety, e.g., aids to navigation safety and the prevention, reduction and control of pollution generated by ships and other vessels.

Countries are being urged to consider becoming members of the International Hydrographic Organization, and to cooperate with that organization to boost the coverage of hydrographic information across the planet.

These orders are meant to strengthen technical assistance and promote navigation safety, particularly in areas of international navigation, ports and vulnerable or protected marine zones.

“The oceans play a fundamental role in our daily lives. They are an integral part of sustainable development and an important frontier for research. As scientists explore the oceans to increasing depths, they continue to discover new forms of marine life,” said Ki-moo.

“These investigations have great potential with regards to the improvement of human welfare. But if we are to benefit fully from what the oceans have to offer, we must address the harmful effects of human activities. The diversity of life in the oceans is under increasing pressure,” he added.

Ki-moo said marine ecosystems are being threatened by three major phenomena:

• The overexploitation of living marine resources;
• Climate change;
• Pollution from activities involving materials and hazards.

“The same applies to the increase in criminal activities, including piracy, which have serious implications for safety of navigation and the protection of seafarers,” he noted.

Even if the vampire is sexy, you need to kill her or him to save money.

Going green is cheap and it can even save you money. (So even if you don’t care about the environment, you have some robust motivation to get you going!)

One way to go green is to kill all your electricity vampires. Just wear necklaces made from raw garlic. All day.

All right, I’m only kidding — there are certainly more efficient ways to fend off vampires!

Vampire power, and how to pound a stake through its heart

You see those little red lights flashing after you turn your TV, cell phone, computer, etc., off? That’s electricity being used up! This is called “standby power” or “vampire power” and it sucks up a yearly 5% of household electricity use in the U.S. (read: $10 billion) and 10-15% in Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands, according to the EPA. A real – and fully preventable! – shame.

Turn off and unplug all electronics when not in use. To simplify this task, you can plug all cords into a switchable power strip and turn it off to get all appliances in one go.

Track your energy vampires:

• Power supplies and transformers
• VCR/DVD players and certain audio systems
• Some home video game consoles
• TVs and set-top boxes
• Microwaves
• Computers, digital monitors, fax machines, and printers
• Remote-operated AC systems
• Devices featuring “instant on” functions
• Devices with a stand-by light or clock, e.g., alarms you have to plug into the wall (you might only want to unplug these when you’re going away for a few days)
• Power adapters/battery chargers, regardless of whether they are powering a device (used for digital cameras, cell phones, etc. – always unplug them when you’re finished charging your device!)

Read more about which appliances suck up power here.

When available, always do your best to replace energy suckers such as dishwashers, electric ovens, AC, and water heaters with energy efficient alternatives.

And don’t be fooled by computer screen savers – they aren’t saving you any power!

The vegan food pyramid

A lot of people think going vegetarian – and vegan, especially – and being ecologically conscious would put a strain on their wallets.

But are these people right?

Tofu scramble

Let’s take a look at veganism (a diet and lifestyle that eschews all animal and animal-derived food and products, such as honey, gelatin, milk, fish, and leather).

Many believe being vegan is expensive – after all, Whole Foods will rip your head off, and so will living off pricey meat substitutes like Tofurky and coconut milk frozen desserts (which is a true shame considering how delicious they are!).

But do you really need to incorporate such costly products into your vegan diet?

The answer is a hearty no, you don’t!

A varied diet rich in whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, herbs, and so on is all you need. Granted, seeds and nuts have never been cheap, but you need only consume them sparingly, and economical all-natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt, with no hydrogenated vegetable oils, sugar, or any other pernicious ingredients) counts big time.

Vegan patties with potatoes and salad

Buy in bulk

A key tip: the more [non-perishable] products you buy in bulk, the more money you will save. This goes for all types of rice, beans, grains, seeds, nuts, dried fruits, pasta, and so on.

Also, don’t even think about buying organic.

Educate yourself

The trick is to educate yourself to make sure you’re giving your body all the necessary nutrients to substitute an omnivorous diet. And, no, pasta and salad alone will not do — it’s these kinds of vegans that give the rest a bad rep and make omnivores think veganism is the unhealthiest diet they’ve ever heard of!

Sticky vegan cinnamon rolls

Educating yourself need not be expensive. You can take out library books, read copious information online (this is a favorite source of mine), and watch online documentaries (try conducting a search on Google video) — all for free. This is also how you can find myriad recipes (try going here, here, and here).

Cosmetics, toiletries, cleaning agents, etc.

Being vegan also entails shunning products tested on animals and those including animal by-products like casein and gelatin. But there are cheap alternatives to the luxurious green products (e.g., those made by Burt’s Bees and The Body Shop) advertised everywhere you look. For example, Revlon, Avon, Bonne Bell, Jane and CVS Brand products are all cheaper as well as animal-friendly.

Here is a guide to companies that test and don’t test their products on animals to get you started (yes, it’s by PETA, but trust me: even though they do asinine things sometimes, they also do a lot of good and provide plenty of useful educational literature, such as this guide). You can order a free pocket guide to take with you to the store here.

A note on B-12

Because modern agriculture has made it so difficult for us to get vitamin B-12 from produce, it is highly recommended that vegans take B-12 supplements (or just get a multivitamin – good for you anyway! – that includes this nutrient).

Remember

The widespread misconception that greening your habits is expensive keeps many people – too many! – from making the switch to a vegan diet. The largely white and upper-middle class crowd and Whole Foods culture doesn’t help, of course. Just remember: you don’t have to go that route!