dirthippy’s Recent Comments

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  Be cautious of using the garlic-oil trick to keep away pests. Spraying any type of oil on foliage in the summer can cause serious damage. It's kind of like rubbing baby oil on your skin and then laying out in the sun between the hours of 10 and 3. Maybe a water-based garlic spray would be better.

   

  Your Friendly Neighborhood Arborist

  On A guide to non-toxic pest control posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago 6 Responses

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  Inherently sustainable

  Bamboo, while very invasive out of its native habitat, is inherently sustainable. It is essentially a tall grass that grows from a substantial root system. Bamboo will regenerate even when the stems are cut flush to the ground. Bamboo also is very strong. In fact, it is used as scaffolding in some southeast Asian countries and in some cases as a replacement for steel beams in building construction. Bamboo is a poster child for sustainability.

  I am a treehugger through and through, but I find the constant scrutiny of every product that comes on the market both disheartening and trite. Every product we use, no matter how hard we try, will have an impact on the environment. Every animal and plant impacts its environment. It's nature.

  I believe a bigger concern with bamboo and every other "sustainable" product we mass produce (coffee, tea, chocolate, cork, etc.) is worker fairness, as several have already stated.

  Give bamboo a try. Find something good about it. And find something good about other sustainable products too. Or better yet, make a superior product! Others will scrutinize your ideas and likely find some problems with them too. It's okay to find negative points, but try to focus on the positives or you'll give yourself an ulcer.   On Umbra on bamboo origins posted 9 months ago 15 Responses

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  famine

  I would argue that famine is not always caused by lack of purchasing power, but sometimes by the lack of infrastructure and political will. When we send food relief to some countries, the food never makes it to the people who need it because there is no way to get it there. On A food/climate manifesto presents new visions for responding to climate change posted 1 year ago 30 Responses

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  Dominion Wind Power

  I live in Frederick, Md. While I am usually not on the side of the power companies because I am a dirty hippy at heart, I have to disagree with Mike on this one. Yes, the mid-Atlantic area is polluted, you shouldn't eat the fish from the rivers, and we are quite overcrowded. However, Dominion has been making efforts to add more wind power to its quiver. They have built bunches of wind turbines on Mount Storm, W.Va., adjacent to their power plant. They are also partnering with BP to build more wind turbines in Virginia. You can read more about their new agreement at http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS163478+21 ...

  You can read more about their plans for the power from Mt. Storm on the Dominion website at http://www.poweringvirginia.com/wind.jsp.

  I know that most of our power still comes from dirty coal, but at least they are working toward wind power, even if it is for their own bottom line.On The dirty secret behind D.C.'s high-tech Virginia suburbs posted 1 year ago 7 Responses