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The word “sustainable” has become practically meaningless and is used mostly as a marketing term. Most “sustainable” products are just less bad than conventional alternatives. Because of the power of what the Worldwatch Institute calls “sustainababble,” the world has largely ignored the rich spectrum of political, cultural, and technological changes that would set us on the path to a truly sustainable future. Although the science of sustainability is clearer than ever, we still face the question of whether transforming our society into one guided by sustainability is even possible – i.e. have we passed the tipping point and if not, is there the will to do what is necessary?

This year’s book features contributions from Worldwatch Institute staff as well as from environmental thought leader David Orr; freshwater expert Sandra Postel, ecological economics pioneer Herman Daly, The Story of Stuff author Annie Leonard, science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, and others. And, in doing so, it joins a growing chorus of voices suggesting that we do activism differently.

“Environmentalism, first and foremost, continues to be a game of defense – working to reduce overall carbon emissions, chemical releases, and forest loss – rather than a battle to transform the dominant growth-centric economic and cultural paradigm into an ecocentric one that respects planetary boundaries,” says Worldwatch Senior Fellow and State of the World 2013 co-director, Erik Assadourian. “The environmental movement will require a dramatic reboot if it is going to reverse Earth’s rapid transformation and help create a truly sustainable future.” This book points us in that direction.

In a study published in Environmental Science and Technology, British researchers recommended more plants at street level to improve air quality in cities. In fact, they found that the creation of “green walls” or vertical gardens in urban areas could cut pollution by up to thirty percent.

I wrote about this in Natural Life Magazine in 2006, noting that vertical gardens save space, create privacy, reduce dust, remove air pollutants, insulate against temperature extremes and noise, and enhance biodiversity. Not bad for a style of planting that’s been popular for centuries!

And the issue is gaining traction. National Geographic recently published a spread of photos of green walls around the world.

But there’s more. As I have also written, vertical farming in the urban environment is also a way to obtain an abundant local food supply without converting any more fragile ecosystems into farmland. As author and social critic James Howard Kunstler has said, “The age of the 3,000 mile Caesar salad is coming to an end.”

So whether it’s to purify the air, grow some food, or just decorate your surroundings, try planting a wall!

According to Mexico’s annual report on monarch populations, which was just released, the number of hectares occupied by the butterflies in the 2012-2013 season dropped by fifty-nine percent compared to the year before. The area occupied, and its density, is used as an indication of the size of the population. At barely 1.19 hectares (2.94 acres) occupied, this year’s was the smallest monarch population in almost two decades.

The report says that the probable causes for the decline in butterflies during the migration and hibernation are the reduction in milkweed availability in feeding and reproduction sites throughout the United States and Canada, and extreme weather events affecting the reproductive generations in the United States during spring and summer 2012.

Butterflies are not just lovely harbingers of Spring; they are important to our food supply. Along with hummingbirds and bees (which are facing their own population declines, probably due to disease and pesticide use), butterflies are part of a large group of species known as “pollinators.” Their role of pollinating flowering plants, including trees, is critical to humans because an estimated third of our food supply, as well as some of our fibers and medicines, depends on them.

One of the things that we can do to help is to populate our gardens with native plants that attract and feed these pollinators. Here’s an article from Natural Life Magazine that will provide you with assistance as you plan this year’s pollinator-friendly garden. And also check out this informative article about goldenrod; this much-maligned plant is not a weed or an allergen, and it is often the last flower visited by nectar-sipping butterflies before they migrate.

But it now appears that the carrageenan industry lobby has been suppressing research that has linked it to gastrointestinal inflammation, including cancer. In fact, scientists have been raising concerns about its safety for decades, based on research linking food-grade carrageenan in the diet of laboratory animals to gastrointestinal disease, including colon tumors.

Joanne K. Tobacman, M.D., associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, has been studying the health effects related to carrageenan for more than a decade. At the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting in May of 2012, she presented her peer-reviewed research and urged the NOSB to remove carrageenan from organic foods.

However, according to the Wisconsin-based non-profit food policy research group The Cornucopia Institute, the carrageenan trade lobby group fought back hard, and found allies in companies like Group Danone (Stonyfield), CROPP (Organic Valley), Dean Foods (Horizon and Silk), Hain Celestial (Earth’s Best, Rice Dream and Westsoy), and Smucker’s (Santa Cruz Organics and R.W. Knudsen). As a result, the request was denied.

“The FDA’s justification … was based on a sloppy and incomplete evaluation of available published research, and it was riddled with overt bias which appears to protect an industry’s profits at the expense of public health,” says Charlotte Vallaeys, Director of Farm and Food Policy at Cornucopia.

The Cornucopia Institute has just formally requested that the FDA remove carrageenan from the US food supply. Meanwhile, it has shared an analysis of the scientific data about carrageenan with many organic food and beverage companies. As a result, some companies – including Stonyfield Farm – are actively reformulating their products to remove the additive.

Its recent report Carrageenan: How a ‘Natural’ Food Additive Is Making Us Sick compiles the scientific studies pointing to harm from consuming food-grade carrageenan. It has also produced a buyer’s guide for avoiding the ingredient.

“Natural does not mean safe,” says Vallaeys. “Poison ivy is natural, but you wouldn’t put it in skin lotion. Given that carrageenan appears to do to your gut what poison ivy does to your skin, we urge all companies to remove this ingredient from the foods and beverages they sell.”

And until that happens, you might want to avoid those foods.

And now, there is evidence from Germany that my doubts are well-founded. This article – The Price of Green Energy: Is Germany Killing the Environment to Save It? – describes how the German government’s rapid expansion of renewable energies like wind, solar, and biogas to replace nuclear power is taking a toll on Nature. The issue is also causing a rift in the German environmental movement, pitting “green energy” supporters against ecologists.

Clearly, we need to find ways to use less energy rather than just shifting from producing more using a different industrial process. There are some innovators doing that, including in the green building industry. But we have a long way to go. And the job starts with us in our every day lives.

Proponents claim that GE crops benefit the environment through the reduced use of herbicides and insecticides, and increase crop yields, but researchers have found the opposite to be true. If you need further proof that the benefit of GMOs is to Monsanto and the processors using GMOs, rather than to human or environmental health, just check out how much money they are spending to convince consumers and lobby governments that they are safe and to fight labeling in the U.S.

GMOs are banned, restricted, or labeled in about sixty countries, including Australia, Japan, and all of the European Union. Polls consistently show that a significant majority of North Americans (up to ninety percent in the U.S.) would like to be able to tell if the food they’re purchasing contains GMOs. The Non-GMO Project’s verification seal is one voluntary program that provides the North American public an opportunity to make an informed choice. Many (myself included) think mandatory labeling is the best answer.

The upscale Whole Foods chain in North America has taken the lead on informing its customers. Its house brands have been labeled by the Non-GMO Project for some time. And it has recently announced that all products in its U.S. and Canadian stores containing GMOs will be labeled as such by 2018. It’s not yet clear how its suppliers will react to this new policy, or how it will be implemented. But the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the trade group that represents mainstream food companies and retailers, predictably opposes the Whole Foods move, saying, “These labels could mislead consumers into believing that these food products are somehow different or present a special risk or a potential risk.” And yet again, I wonder what, if there isn’t anything to hide, they’re trying so hard to hide!

Consumer groups and most others who have been working on the labeling initiative are pleased with Whole Foods’ announcement. And consumer demand is a strong force for change. Gary Hirshberg, chairman of the Just Label It project (supported by over six hundred companies and organizations), calls the Whole Foods decision a “game changer” in the same way that Walmart’s 2008 decision to stop selling milk from cows treated with bovine growth hormone was probably a tipping point that has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the practice in the U.S.

However, we must not lose focus on the fact that Monsanto and its ilk are still responsible for the vast majority of the world’s food supply and must be stopped from poisoning us and the planet. Nor can we let up on the push for a strong, mandatory labeling program. I’d hate to see “GMO-free” go the way of other terms like “natural,” “eco-friendly,” and even “organic” as just one more greenwashing, feel-good, but meaningless marketing label.

It’s a nasty and expensive, David versus Goliath battle. But I am more hopeful than I’ve been in a long time that we can reverse the trend towards GMO-contaminated food.

Phthalates used to soften plastics are among the endocrine-disrupting chemicals that a new report says are harming our health.

The United Nations has published a comprehensive and disturbing expert report suggesting that hundreds of hormone-disrupting toxins (known as “Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals” or EDCs) may be increasing the rate of sexual deformities, infertility, cancers, and other reproductive problems in people and wildlife around the world.

The State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals report was issued jointly last month by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

A well-functioning endocrine system regulates the release of certain hormones that are essential for functions such as metabolism, growth and development, sleep and mood. EDCs can change the functioning of this hormonal system, increasing the risk of adverse health effects. The associations between exposure to EDCs and health problems highlighted by the study include the potential for contributing to the development of non-descended testes in young males, breast cancer in women, prostate cancer in men, developmental effects on the nervous system in children, ADHD, and thyroid cancer.

Some EDCs occur naturally, but as we have often reported in Natural Life Magazine, synthetic varieties can be found in pesticides, electronics, building materials, personal care and cleaning products, and cosmetics. They can also be found as additives or contaminants in food. They enter the environment mainly through industrial and urban discharges, agricultural run-off, and the burning and release of waste. Human exposure can occur via the ingestion of food, dust and water, inhalation of gases and particles in the air, and skin contact.

The report mentions building materials as a major source of EDCs, stating, “Over the past decade it has become clear that humans, in particular small children, are… exposed to EDCs via dust and particles in indoor environments like homes, schools, childcare centres, and offices…” A large number of chemicals – including phthalates and brominated fire retardants – are used as additives in indoor materials as well as other products found in the home, and these compounds can leak from materials into food or onto dust that is ingested primarily by toddlers and infants, who spend most of their time on the floor and are prone to putting hands and objects into their mouths. The report calls for the disclosure of chemicals in products, which is not something the chemical companies and product manufacturers are eager to do. In fact, they’re currently fighting and delaying a proposed LEED credit for proper chemical disclosure in building materials.

The report also raises concerns on the impact of EDCs on wildlife. In Alaska, for instance, exposure to such chemicals may contribute to reproductive defects, infertility, and antler malformation in some deer populations. Population declines in species of otters and sea lions may also be partially due to their exposure to diverse mixtures of PCBs, the insecticide DDT, other persistent organic pollutants, and metals such as mercury.

A number of recommendations are made in the report that would improve global knowledge of these chemicals and reduce the risk of disease. These include better testing, more research on their effects, better reporting on chemicals in products, and more collaboration among scientists and countries. Meanwhile, our articles and our book Natural Life Magazine’s Green and Healthy Homes can help you avoid many of these hormone-disrupting chemicals.

To get you started, here is a list of what’s on the website:

What’s the Dirt on Household Cleaners?

Eleven Steps to a Clean, Green, and Healthy Home

Mold Misery

The Dangers of Antibacterial Soap

Air Fresheners or Air Pollutants?

What’s Wrong With Fabric Softener?

DIY Cleaning Alternatives

And if  downsizing, giving away, and simplifying is on the agenda as well, this article about Taming the Power of Possessions will help. Lastly, this article about Refusing, Reducing, and Reusing will provide plenty of ideas for ways to lessen the trash and clutter in your home.

Happy, healthy cleaning!

If you like these articles, you may also enjoy my book Natural Life Magazine’s  Green and Healthy Homes.

Eco Nomics

In my exploration of this new economy, I’ll be looking at both self-reliant and community-based solutions for covering our families’ expenses. Some of the solutions will be new and innovative, others will recycle old, tried and true ways of thinking. They will encompass both self-reliance and conviviality. They will allow us to balance – no, to integrate – work and family, and to decompartmentalize our lives. They will involve both making money and reducing the need for it.

This is a topic I’ve been passionate about since the mid-1970s, when Rolf and I launched the home-based social enterprise that still publishes this magazine. I explored it a decade later when I became an advocate for telecommuting and home-based business, and then in the ’90s when I trained low-income women in self-employment and wrote a book called Bringing it Home: A Home Business Start-Up Guide for You and Your Family. In the past few years, I have written extensively about how new strategies of education, such as unschooling/life learning, are helping young people prepare to flourish in a new, decentralized, sustainable economy. Along the way, I’ve also been involved in a number of non-hierarchal, community-based alternatives in an attempt to change the page on the way we look at sustaining ourselves and the Earth.

I have learned many things from these experiences, including that when we make the shift to understanding money as a tool that can be used however we want – for good or evil – we begin to see the almost unlimited possibilities for using it to create change in our own lives and in the world. In other words, Eco Nomics is about addressing our own material needs (and a few well-considered wants as well) while keeping our local Main Street economies green and healthy too….and enjoying ourselves in the process.

I have also learned that there are myriad ways in which we can reduce the need for money in our lives – ways that can increase our connection to each other and the Earth, ways that eliminate greed and maximize the amount of time that can be spent living our lives.

So among the topics I’ll be writing about are the concept of right livelihood, Unjobbing and dejobbing, stretching our spending power and downsizing our expenses, home business and telecommuting, co-ops, food clubs and community kitchens, ethical investing, locavore economics, lending circles and micro-loans, green business, social enterprise, community ownership, alternative economic indicators, barter, local currencies, crowd- funding, redefining our relationship with money, and much more.

I’ll not only be discussing the principles behind these ideas and initiatives, but also providing examples of people who are making them work in their own lives and communities.

Coincidental to the start of this column, I recently read about the regressive new policy at Yahoo! where CEO Marissa Mayer has ordered that all employees who work at home relocate to company facilities. “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home,” read the memo to employees from HR head Jackie Reses. Um, no. Aside from how that’s pretty weird coming from a technology company, and the fact that there are many studies indicating that quality and productivity increase when people work at home (meaning it makes good economic sense), working from home is good environmental practice and is used a lot by working parents.  That is just one topic that I’ll be covering in the magazine column! Hope you’ll join me.