After Finding Out Recently That Most Gift Wrap Isn’t Recyclable I Decided To Wrap My Holiday Gifts

Self-watering capillary planters

This water-saving ‘ready-made garden’ design is popular among urban gardeners here in Denmark: it’s comprised of a simple styrofoam planter, and a 40L soil bag.

Holes are cut in the top and bottom of the soil bag, and soil is pushed into three pillars that reach down into a water reservoir. The reservoir is filled with water and fertiliser through a channel on the side of the planter; capillary action (and eventually, plant roots) draw the water up.

The rate of evaporation is much lower with bottom-watered plants, and the styrofoam also keeps the water cool. The reservoir can hold a week or more of water.

A popular DIY version involves using plastic tubs, creating a reservoir underneath with bottles, or a permeable barrier.

Self Irrigating Planters Made Easy

How big is solarpunk?

If you consider yourself a follower of the solarpunk movement, or even just have a casual interest in the subgenre, please reblog this post! I’m trying to gauge the size of the current solarpunk ‘fandom’ on tumblr. If there’s sufficient interest, I might even look into creating a network or group of some kind so that like-minded solarphiles can share ideas, headcanons and projects. Oh, and I’ll be following back predominately solarpunk blogs, so there’s something tangible in it for you too. Thanks in advance!

Hey y’all! I wanted your opinion on something. My laptop for the past five years has died, it’s dead and gone. And I was wondering would it be best for me to just get some cheapo $200 computer and hope for the best or save up for like a $400 $500 computer that’ll last me for longer and treat me better? By the way I am like a first year college student who has access to computers on campus. And I already went to a computer technician who is backing it for like $50, so my files are not lost.

This is one of the oldest conundrums of personal finance: to spend a small amount of money on a bandaid solution NOW, or save up for a long-term solution later. We wrote about the dilemma here:

It’s More Expensive to Be Poor Than to Be Rich

Personally, if you can get by using the computers at school, then I would save up another few hundred dollars to buy the higher quality computer that will last longer. It’ll be cheaper in the long term, and you’ll rest easy knowing that you won’t have to deal with another computer combustion any time soon. Good luck!

How to Turn Shoe Pockets into a Vertical Vegetable Garden

DANDELION JELLY! !! It tastes like honey! 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 been a busy bee last few days harvesting flowers, plucking petals, extracting nectar, straining and canning this delicious jelly! Very Tideaous work but it’s worth it!

3 cups dandelion tea (made from 4 cups of petals in boiled water overnight ) 4 cups of sugar 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice 6 tbsp of regular ball fruit pectin Water bath can for 10 minutes Makes 6 - ½ pints

4/20/16

The plastic backlash: what's behind our sudden rage – and will it make a difference? – podcast

Decades after it became part of the fabric of our lives, a worldwide revolt against plastic is under way

A history of plastic and the lobbying that surrounded it.

XKCD’s excellent presentation on historical global temperature and anthropogenic global warming. 

[After setting your car on fire] “Listen, your car’s temperature has changed before.”

low impact places around the world

belgium, europe

bhutan, asia

“bhutan mantains this by making the country a carbon sick and has set world records for planting the most trees per hour. they’re also aiming for zero net greenhouse gas emissions and zero-waste by 2030 as well as 100% organic food production. the bhutanese government has also formed a partnership with nissan to provide thousands of electric cars to the country” - @greenmatters on instagram 

it also probably helps that tourists are very limited and it is intentionally not as easy to travel there.

chile, south america

china, asia

“china recently announced they would spend more than $360 billion on renewable energy through 2020″ - @greenmatters on instagram, june 29, 2017

colombia, south america

“colombia is the first country in latin america, and the third country in the world, to pledge to produce deforestation-free coca. the pledge is part of the cocoa and forest initiative, which ghan and cote d’ivoire have also signed.” - @greenmatters on instagram

costa rica, central america

“costa rica’s renewable energy comes from hydropower, geothermal, wind, and solar” - @greenmatters on instagram

egypt, africa

england, europe

ethiopia, africa

“energy produced by the new geothermal power plants will be used locally and exported to surrounding countries in africa” - @greenmatters on instagram 

france, europe

“instead of throwing away or destroying unsold clothing, france may pass legislation to make clothing companies donate or repurpose items in an eco-friendly way.” - @greenmatters on instagram

INSTEAD, they should make efforts to not overproduce. donating clothes should be thoughtful. many times, when clothes are donated abroad to “developing” countries, it destroys their local economy and opportunities for local clothing stores to sell their clothes cheaply enough. it is good to think of ways to responsibly get rid of “waste” and excess we do create, but the first step should be to stop the excess from being produced in the first place. #preventative measures.

india, asia

ireland, europe

“the irish state investment fund holds more than 300 euros in fossil fuel investments in 150 companies. the bill defines a fossil fuel company as a compnay that derives 20% or more of its revenue from exploration, extraction, or refinement of fossil fuels. the bill also allows investment in irish fossil fuel companies if this funds their move away from fossil fuels” - @greenmatters on instagram

germany, europe

new zealand

“new zealand hopes to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2035″ - @greenmatters on instagram 

palau

“the pledge is tamped on every visitor’s passport and must be signed before entry into the 13th smallest country in the world. palau’s hoping the pledge will help guests understand the vital role they play in protecting palau for future generations” - @greenmatters on instagram 

peru, south america

scotland, europe

“scotland has hit its 2020 emission target five years early and has gone from 10% to 60% of its electricity consumption from clean sources over the past 15 years” - @greenmatters on instagram 

sweden, europe

“so far, sweden is on track to meet their 2030 goals nine years early, thanks to a surge in wind power installations” - @greenmatters on instagram

united states of america, north america

maui, hawaii, usa, north america

san francisco, california, usa, north america

nebraska, usa (winnebago tribe), north america

“the tribe started to transition towards renewable energy over a decade ago and now has 400 kW of installed solar panels. by switching to solar power, their saving roughly $46,000 annually on electricity” - @greenmatters on instagram

minneapolis, michigan, usa, north america

“minneapolis, minnesota is the next city in the united states to commit to a goal of running on 100% renewable energy. they plan to have all their city facilities running on clean power by 2022 and the entire city by 2030. the [sierra club] notes that minneapolis is now the 65th city in the country placing folly renewable goals” - @greenmatters on instagram 

new york, usa, north america

“[governor cuomo] says the offshore wind farm will be critical to help new york state reach their goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050. in total, the wind development will generate 2.4 gigawatts of clean power.” - @greenmatters on instagram 

“the money will fund 26 large-scale projects that will help new york reach its goal of using 50% renewable energy by 2030″ - @greenmatters on instagram 

denton, texas, usa, north america

“the city of denton (pop. 130k) will install enough solar and wind to power everything by 2020. currently, georgetown, tx (30 miles north of austin) has the title of the largest community (60k) that relies on renewable energy in the u.s.” - @greenmatters on instagram 

taiwan, republic of china

“to prepare their citizens for the plastic ban, the taiwanese government will be adding additional charges to plastic straws, utensils, cups and containers over the next several years. additionally, the taiwanese government will be launching a number of marine clean-up programs. currently, the average taiwan citizen uses 700 plastic bags per year” - @greenmatters on instagram 

wales, europe

“the welsh government has spent roughly $10.4M to improve recycling services through their collaborative change programme, which gives local authorities money to improve recycling programs in the way they think best. by working closely with citizens, who are thrilled by the zero-waste goal, wales could show the world that a country can accomplish extraordinary things when the will of the people is supported by the government” - @greenmatters on instagram 

copyright infringement is not intended, simply trying to share credited work that will help make the world a better place to live a quality life