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One of the most exciting (or depressing, I’m not sure which) aspects of my environmental journey is learning things I had no idea about.  Sometimes I know a little (enough to be dangerous?), sometimes nothing at all. The topic of today’s blog falls into that “nothing at all” category.   Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP)? Well, neither had I until recently. Being a lifelong Midwesterner my initial reaction was “Nothing to do with me.” Turns out, it has a LOT to do with me, with all of us. We helped cause it, and we can help cure it. So what is this exactly? Actually it’s two areas in the Pacific – one between California...

  I won my junior high school poster contest celebrating the first Earth Day. I've recycled for over 20 years. I follow family members around the house turning off lights and adjusting the thermostat. Those are just some of my bona fides as a suburban mom concerned about the environment who preaches (and practices) “Reduce, Reuse, And Recycle”. Therefore it was quite disconcerting to learn that my disgust for disposable plastic bags and support for banning them may be misplaced. Not that those annoying, flimsy plastic receptacles are good for much other than lining the pockets of those who make them. Au contraire. For one thing there are far too many of them – between 200 and 300 million bags...