Share and Voice: Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees

Photo Courtesy of http://www.halfvalue.com/christmas%20tree.jpg

I know I’ve done a lot of holiday-related posts lately but I guess I’m just really excited for break! Anyway, it occurred to me that it could be interesting to look into the eco-friendliness of Christmas trees (real vs. fake). I found this cool blog on the Chicago Tribune website called Julie's Health Club where she posted about Christmas Trees: Real vs. Artificial vs. Eco-Friendly. This post discusses different types of Christmas trees and the pros and cons of each. As it turns out, artificial Christmas trees leave a pretty big carbon footprint, as I’m sure many of us assumed. This article offers tips for making an environmentally friendly christmas tree purchase or choosing environmentally friendly alternatives. Check it out, see what you think!

Share and Voice: Duluth Restaurants

Hey guys, for this Share and Voice I just thought I'd compile a list of restaurants in Duluth that serve vegetarian, vegan, locally grown or organic foods. This idea came to me when I was eating out the other day at a restaurant (not on this list...) and I started to wonder where the food I just ordered came from. Here's for future reference:

Pizza Luce:
11 East Superior Street
218-727-7400
Vegan and vegetarian friendly food options (includes pizza toppings like soy cheese, etc)

Duluth Grill:
118 South 27th Avenue West
218-726-1150
Lots of vegetarian, gluten-free and organic food options. Recently featured on Food Network!

Amazing Grace Bakery and Cafe:
394 South Lake Avenue
218-723-0075
Vegetarian food options. Serves mostly breakfast food. Awesome bakery where baked goods are made fresh daily.

I would personally recommend these 3 dining establishments for those in search of more eco-friendly food options. Enjoy!

Share and Voice: Holiday Lights

The holiday season is upon us! Winter break is just around the corner and with all the free time we'll soon have, what better way to celebrate the season than by checking out some of the way awesome holiday lights around town.

I'm sure most of us have seen the sprawling Bentleyville light display in Bayfront. I went last year and I highly recommend going with friends or family to enjoy this display. There's free hot chocolate, cookies, popcorn, and other treats and it's a fun and inexpensive activity for just about everyone. It's also an official collection site for the Salvation Army and you can bring non-perishable food items or new un-wrapped toys to make a donation that will be distributed locally to those in need.

Still, there's another awesome site for holiday lights that's been overshadowed by Bentleyville in recent years. Located on Park Point (3739 S. Lake Avenue), a local Duluthian Marcia Hales has decorated her house with thousands of lights for years now, and it is definitely worth checking out. This light display is truly spectacular and I highly recommend going for a quick walk around.

Just thought I'd let you all know about these awesome light displays!

But on a more environmentally friendly note: If you have old holiday lights that don't work anymore, or if you're upgrading to LED lights instead, the Recycling Association of Minnesota has provided a place for everyone to recycle their old lights.

You can take your holiday lights to be recycled at:
Denny's Ace hardware: 7 Calvary Road
Materials Recovery Center: 4857 Ridgeview Road
DRCC: 728 Garfield Ave

Happy holidays and happy recycling!

Share and voice: Peace Coffee

For this share and voice, I thought share a bit about Peace Coffee which I mentioned in class during the presentation of my photo essay.

Like I mentioned in class, peace coffee is pretty cool AND environmentally friendly. They have a variety of coffee and all of it is certified fair trade and organic. They are also a local company based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I think it's pretty cool that we serve this coffee here at the UMD coffee shop. It's an easy way to reduce your environmental impact, just by buying Peace Coffee!

Share and Voice: Urban Bike Rentals

Earlier today while I was thinking of putting my bike away for the year (It's too chilly for me, I'm a wimp) I remembered this cool program I read about a while ago and thought I'd share with all of you.

Photo Courtesy of http://www.niceridemn.org/explore_by_bike/

In Minneapolis this past June an organization called Nice Ride Minnesota opened 65 bike rental locations throughout the metro area. I think this is such a great idea because it provides people with healthier more eco-friendly (yet easily accessible) transportation options.


This bike rental system requires a subscription ($60/year or $50/year for students) and once you have subscribed you can rent a bike any time day or night. If you return the bike to another bike station within 30 minutes, you incur no additional charge. For trips longer than that (or if you somehow forget to return your bike) additional charges apply.

With a variety of bike rental locations all over the place, this system would be a great cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to get around town (especially for students).

I'm not sure how well this would go over in Duluth (even though I know everyone loves biking uphill) but I just thought I'd share this really cool idea with you all.

Share and Voice: The Cove

(Image Courtesy of TakePart.com)

I decided for this Share & Voice to let you all know about this documentary I watched recently. The Cove is a documentary released last year (2009) that exposes the exploitation and brutal killing of dolphins and porpoises in Taiji ,Japan. The meat from these animals, which contains high amounts of mercury is then sold as food (often disguised as another food product) throughout Asia.

This film has raised a great deal of awareness since it was released in 2009. There was a temporary ban of dolphin hunting off the coast of Taiji and residents of Taiji have been tested for mercury. This film was also shown in Japan where this hunting takes place. I don't want to give away too much of the movie here, but I highly recommend it if you're interested in learning about these issues. 

Feel free to check out The Cove Movie website before you see the movie. Also, if you do decide to watch the movie and want to learn more about how you can help, this site provides a page that gives you more details about what you can do. 

Share and Voice: Shower Timers!

So, I just had an idea and it might not be news to you all but I just thought it would be worth sharing since I know many of us are searching for ways we can minimize our impact on the environment. I just sort of stumbled upon the idea of using a shower timer to help minimize water loss and heating etc.
According to the EPA website, even a 5 minute shower can use up 15-25 gallons of water! That seems like it's pretty wasteful to me, and I know many of us are probably in the shower a little bit longer than 5 minutes. So, although this is a pretty simple idea, I think it has the potential to make a big impact and would be worth trying out.

Luckily, you don't need to buy a specific product in order to time your showers. Here's a few ideas:

• Set an alarm on your cell phone
• Listen to music and be prepared to leave the shower after 1 or 2 songs
• Ask a roommate to knock on the bathroom door to remind you
• Hang up a small sign that says something to remind you

Otherwise, if you want to be more official about it and actually buy one, you can check out some of these cool shower timers here .

Share and Voice: Pumpkin Recipe

It's October, and some of you are probably planning on carving pumpkins to decorate for Halloween. You'll cut off the top, carve a face and scoop out the insides and the seeds. Instead of letting them go to waste, I'd like to share with you how to make a tasty snack out of those leftover pumpkin seeds. The recipe I follow goes like this:

HOME MADE PUMPKIN SEEDS: 
-After removing the seeds from the pumpkin, pull them out of the orange pumpkin pulp and place them in a separate bowl.
-Rinse the seeds with cold water.
-Set the seeds on a paper towel to dry
-Preheat the oven to 350
-Coat a cookie sheet with a light coat of vegetable oil (or cooking spray)
-Place the seeds in a flat layer on the cookie sheet, shaking it so many of the seeds are coated on both sides with the oil.
-Season the seeds with salt, cayenne pepper or other spices to your taste.
-Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for about 12-16 minutes or until the seeds are turning brown.
-Remove the seeds from the oven, let them cool down (otherwise you will burn yourself!) and enjoy!

This recipe is a great way to use pumpkin seeds that would otherwise go to waste after pumpkin carving. I hope you try it and enjoy!

Share and Voice: Smart Textbook Buys

I know it's a  little late for most of us to be buying textbooks, but for all your future endeavors I'd like to recommend the website www.chegg.com. I'm sure some of you have heard of this website already, but for those of you who haven't I think it can be a great resource.

This website allows you to rent textbooks for a very reasonable price (often less than half of what you would pay in school stores) and delivers within 1-2 business days, which is great for last-minute textbook buys. The rental system is also great because it allows textbooks to be re-used instead of sitting unused on a bookshelf for years. The books are easy to return and they're usually in great condition when they arrive. The other great thing about  Chegg is that they plant a tree each time you rent from them!


    (Picture courtesy of www.chegg.com)

I've used Chegg several times with great success. I encourage you all to use this site to buy your textbooks in the future, both for the sake of your wallet and for the sake of  the environment.

Share and Voice: The Colors of Duluth

For my first share and voice, I thought I would post a few pictures I've taken of the fall colors around Duluth. Fall is by far my favorite season, and I think the beauty of Duluth is at it's best this time of year. These pictures were taken all over, from up the shore to West Duluth. I hope these pictures might inspire you to get out and enjoy the beauty of the season while you still can!

Thanks for looking at my fall pictures!

Welcome to Eco-Quest with Emily

Hey there! Welcome to my blog. My name is Emily and  I'm a senior at The University of Minnesota-Duluth pursuing a degree in Health Education (Community) with a minor in Spanish. I've created this blog for my Environmental Health course and I will be updating it periodically as I explore and learn more about the environment.

There will be 6 possible types of  posts in my blog:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Read 'n' Seed
6. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the catergories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the catergories above.

The members of my group are: 

1. Samantha B.http://samanthagreenwithenvi.blogspot.com/
2. Adam http://adamsoutdoorconnection.blogspot.com/
3. Alyssa http://treeifictimewithalyssa@blogspot.com/
4. Kristen G. http://kristenscoralreef.blogspot.com/
5. Katie http://throughgreeneyeswithkatie.blogspot.com/
6. Carly http://gobluetoowithcarly.blogspot.com/

You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."

I'll be blogging here throughout the semester about a variety of environmental issues and topics, I hope you'll join me on my quest!