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Celebrating with the earth: making a sustainable & joyful season by Albert Lewis
Not ready to hit the malls?
How about planning a saner, more peaceful holiday season, instead?
Download the Simplify the Holidays brochure (free!) (PDF)
If you cannot currently read PDF files, Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for free by clicking here http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.
Fun and interesting facts about Christmas trees from the University of Illinois.
The Intelligent Consumer Considers....
Living sustainably requires thoughtful decision-making. This feature can help you make consumption choices that are right for you and your family. We'll provide a few selected websites with diverging viewpoints about a particular consumer topic. Read the articles, talk about them, and then decide what you and your family -- as intelligent consumers -- choose to be the most environmentally-responsible, socially just, and economically viable choice.
The Bottled Water Web is "the portal for the bottled water industry. ...the purpose of the BottledWaterWeb is to provide the consumer and researcher with the most current and accurate information about bottled water." The Consumers section has articles, statistics and a glossary. http://www.bottledwaterweb.com/
Bottled Water: Understanding a Social Phenomenon by Catherine Ferrier, is a research paper commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund. It provides background information on the growth, trends and impacts of bottled water and the bottled water market. http://www.panda.org/downloads/freshwater/bottled_water.pdf
Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype? This article is based on a 1999 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council to the US Food and Drug Administration. http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp
Bottled Water: Better Than the Tap? from FDA Consumer magazine http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2002/402_h2o.html
The Battle To Bottle, an interview with Maude Barlow, author of Blue Gold http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5880
The Real Cost of Bottled Water, from Science in Africa magazine, offers a non-western viewpoint. http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2001/may/water.htm
Rethinking the American Dream
On Time!
Selected Time and Family Research
It Keeps Getting Faster: Changing Patterns of Time in Families
Dr Kerry Daly from the University of Guelph in Canada, is the author of Families & Time: Keeping Pace in a Hurried Culture (1996). This article, written in 2000, addresses the forces that have shaped our accelerated pace, talks about a broadened concept of time, identifies trends in time use, and discusses the implications of these time trends.
Stress and Time Use
From Institut de la Statistique Quebec, this 1996 article provides a demographic analysis of Canadians' perceptions of time.
A Week in the Life of a Child
Feeling Overworked: When Work is Too Much from the Families and Work Institute(PDF)
Games
Time Wasters Game
Time Savers Game
Where Does the Time Go? An exercise from Oregon State University's Rethinking the American Dream. Go to pages 10 and 11.(PDF)
Strategies
Tips on Effective Time Management from Ohio State University Extension Service
Juggling Work and Family and accompanying viewer guide (PDF)
Time Savers at home
Spring Clean-Up
Oh my, where did all this JUNK come from?
How do you know if you have JUNK?
Junk Sorting Guidelines
Is it -- or isn't it -- junk?
Needs and Wants
There are a lot of things we want in life but don't really need. This activity will help you distinguish between the two.
Clutter Control
Thirteen lighthearted rules for re-claiming your space
Books
Tips
What to do with old eyeglasses, cell phones, plastic peanuts, junk mail and credit card solicitations.
Kids & Commercialism
“Just The Facts...about Advertising and Marketing to Children”
“Tips for Parenting in a Commercial Culture” (PDF)
This brochure contains information and statistics about the effects of commercialism on kids and families, and positive tips and actions to help parents raise healthy children in our highly commercial culture.
Links to other good kids websites
Excerpted environmental education curriculum from Living in a Material World: Lessons on Commercialism, Consumption, and Environment.
“Kids & Media at the New Millennium,” (PDF) a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, Nov 1999
Articles
The Green Triangle
Ernest Callenbach explains how benefiting one of these -- the environment, personal health, saving money -- benefits all three.
The Question Of Lifestyle - The Editors of IN CONTEXT
What''s really important to you? What do you value? Fun questions to ask at dinner parties.
Four Not-So-Easy Things You Can Do To Save The Planet
Donella H. Meadows
When is 4 bigger than 50? When we''re challenged to do more than 50 simple things to save the planet.
The Sustainable Living Project at OSU: An Overview
Viviane Simon-Brown, Oregon State University Extension Forestry Specialist