A record of my efforts to live a more sustainable life.

3 Websites Where You Should Click Each Day

There are a lot of sites out there now where you can generate donations to various charities just by clicking a button. I think this is a really neat concept. Basically, this is how it works: You click a button. You are shown advertisements on the thank you page. The advertisers pay for this advertising by giving money to a charity. Yay!

Here are 3 sites that I visit every day to contribute my clicks:
  • A Click For the Forest
    • A Swedish organisation that raises money to buy old growth forests, to protect them from logging.
    • You can usually get there through the easier-to-remember link http://www.aclickfortheforest.com, but every now and then the redirect is broken so it's good to have the actual url.
  • The Rainforest Site
    • Click to protect rainforests. Through the tabs at the top of the page, you can get to the other free click pages to fight hunger, fund breast cancer research, promote child health, support literacy programs, and rescue animals.
  • Care2 Click To Donate
    • Care2 is an online community of people who care about various causes. It includes a news network, petitions, groups, and even webmail.
    • You can click here for 11 causes and counting, including big cats, oceans, rainforests, and more. There is also a daily action, which might be a petition, or just an article for you to read.
These are my three favourites, but there are many more sites out there where you can give a few seconds of your time to raise money for charities. All you have to do is look for them. So, go on, and get clicking! And I hope to see you around on Care2.

    Show Us Your Plastic Challenge - June 20 - June 26, 2010


    Recyclable Items (1):
    • 1 sushi container (PS 6)

    Non-Recyclable Items (8):
    • 1 toothpaste tube
    • 3 CD wrappers
    • 1 popcorn wrapper
    • 1 peanut M&Ms bag (normally I would buy these in bulk, but I won them at the theatre)
    • 1 bread bag
    • 1 granola bar wrapper

    Total Items: 9

    Show Us Your Plastic Challenge - June 13 - June 19, 2010


    Recyclable Items (1):
    • 1 orange juice carton (plastic spout and lid)

    Non-Recyclable Items (9):
    • 1 cereal bag
    • 2 bread bags
    • 1 margarine seal
    • 1 ice cream treat wrapper
    • 1 pill package
    • 2 tetra pack carton seals
    • 1 price tag attacher

    Total Items: 10

    Show Us Your Plastic Challenge - Week 26 - June 6 - June 12, 2010


    Recyclable Items (1):
    • 1 paper bread bag with window

    Non-Recyclable Items (5):
    • 1 bread bag
    • 1 magazine bag
    • 2 cookie wrappers
    • 1 freezie wrapper

    Total Items: 6 (another new record! I'm on a roll!)

    Our Oceans Are In Trouble



    I'm worried about the oceans. I'm very worried about the hugely diverse ecosystems in the oceans, which are becoming steadily less diverse as a result of human activity.

    Change.org posted an article today called Early End to Bluefin Tuna Season Illustrates Fish's Precarious Survival.To summarise, basically we're eating an endangered species. Why are we not freaking out about this? Are tuna sandwiches really more important to us than the survival of the tuna themselves?

    The usual suggestions in response to this problem are to eat more sustainable seafood. In other words, eat fish that aren't endangered, and that are lower on the food chain so they don't contain a lot of mercury.

    I'm going to suggest a rather more enthusiastic approach. Let's not eat fish!

    Now, before anyone becomes enraged by that suggestion and starts talking about people in northern Canada and whatnot, let me finish. I don't know what it's like to live in northern Canada. Therefore I don't feel I have enough knowledge to say that they should stop eating fish. However, most of us definitely don't need to eat fish.

    Love sushi? Me too! And I'm a vegetarian! Vegetarian sushi is very very delicious. Seaweed and sticky rice wrapped around mushrooms, asparagus, green peppers, and any number of other vegetables (even some fruit!) is one of my favourite foods. And it doesn't result in any overfishing!

    When I went vegetarian, I never thought I'd be able to stay away from shrimp. As it turns out, it's a small price to pay to know that I'm not playing a part in the extinction of marine species.

    Show Us Your Plastic Challenge - Week 25 - May 30 - June 5, 2010


    Recyclable Items (4):
    • 1 grapes container (PETE 1)
    • 1 soy milk carton (plastic spout and lid)
    • 2 raspberries containers

    Non-Recyclable Items (7):
    • 1 cotton candy bag from the Hi Neighbour Festival
    • 1 cereal bag
    • 1 comic book wrap
    • 1 toilet paper wrapper
    • 1 ice pop wrapper (also from the festival)
    • 1 apple turnover filling package
    • 1 icing package

    Total Items: 11

    Show Us Your Plastic Challenge - Week 24 - May 23 - May 29, 2010


    Recyclable Items (1):
    • 1 soy milk carton (plastic spout and lid)

    Non-Recyclable Items (9):
    • 1 coir package (coir is stuff made from the outside of coconuts and it's good for the garden)
    • 1 soil bag
    • 1 cereal bag
    • 1 bread bag
    • 2 Popsicle wrappers
    • 1 microwave popcorn wrapper
    • 1 toilet paper wrapper
    • 1 Big Foot candy bag
    • 1 Eat-More wrapper
    • 1 soy milk seal

    Total Items: 11


    Recyclable Items (1):
    • 1 gelati spoon (it had a very tiny recyclable symbol on it... I think it said 6)

    Non-Recyclable Items (12):
    • 1 ravioli bag
    • 1 toilet paper wrapper
    • 1 toothpaste tube
    • 2 Popsicle wrappers
    • 1 Sweet Tarts wrapper
    • 1 microwave popcorn wrapper
    • 1 seal from hummus container
    • 1 orange juice seal
    • 1 Charleston Chew wrapper
    • 1 pill package
    • 1 soil bag (and here comes gardening season!)

    Total Items: 13


    Recyclable Items (5):
    • 1 soy milk carton (plastic spout and lid)
    • 1 strawberries container (PETE 1)
    • 1 sushi package (PS 6)
    • 1 paper bread bag with window
    • 1 conditioner bottle (HDPE 2)

    Non-Recyclable Items (3):
    • 1 bread bag
    • 1 toilet paper wrapper
    • 1 piece of plastic wrap

    Total Items: 8 (New record, woohoo!)


    Recyclable Items (2):
    • 1 raspberries container (PETE 1)
    • 1 strawberries container (PETE 1)

    Non-Recyclable Items (9):
    • 1 Yan Yan container
    • 1 bread bag
    • 2 toilet paper wrappers
    • 1 microwave popcorn wrapper
    • 2 DVD wrappers
    • 1 shopping bag from Bulk Barn (I got it a long time ago, and then it was a swimming bag for a long time. Then it got soup on it so I had to throw it out.)
    • 1 Sweet Tarts candy wrapper

    Total Items: 11