Babies are smart

I've always known it all along. This fascinating interview of Alison Gopnik for her book "The Philosophical Baby" seems to affirm that.

Though all of us experience life as a baby firsthand, we’ve long held misconceptions about what babies are capable of thinking, feeling, and understanding. Only recently have we overturned dominant theories of development in which very young children were thought to be barely conscious at all.

The article is short but well worth reading. Here is what she has to say about two year olds:

They already seem to appreciate the difference between the kinds of morality that comes from empathy and the kind that comes from our conventional rules. From the time they are two, they recognize both are important but in different ways. That’s pretty amazing.

Read the rest online here.

Government is set to make schools greener

The House recently passed a $6.4 billion dollar package to make ecological friendly schools. That's wonderful news! Hopefully the Senate will follow suit and this gets put into law.

"The typical green school saves $100,000 a year on direct operating expenses. In school terms, that's enough to hire two new teachers, purchase 200 new computers or 5,000 textbooks," Gutter said.

Sure, it's a little expensive, but if they do it right and do it efficiently, it may even pay for itself in the long run. By updating the infrastructure it will give our schools a better safer environment for learning. Read more here.

Earth Hour

This is something interesting to show your support and help make a global statement:

World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for just one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

For one hour on March 28 at 8:30pm just turn off all your essential lighting. Find out more here!

Growing numbers find global warming not serious

A recent Gallup poll has found that 2/5ths of Americans believe that global warming is exaggerated.

Although a majority of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is either correctly portrayed in the news or underestimated, a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.

Whatever your feeling on global warming, it is still good policy to do our best in conservation and working with the environment instead of against it. This Earth still has a ways to go in providing for generations of babies yet to come. The more organics that we consume over non-organic, and the more we learn to practice conservation, the better we are at preserving a safe habitabal place for babies yet to come. In the Philippines, there are rice fields carved into terraces carved into the mountains in Banau. This has been a way of life for 2,000 years. This doesn't happen by accident, it happens by conservation passed down through generations.

U.N. promotes sustainable forest management

It looks like the U.N. is taking a step to help preserving this green Earth. There are plans in motion that would not only help preserve the world for our babies but it would also setup a program that would help create and maintain jobs. Here is an excerpt from the article by CNN:

While all countries could benefit from investing in these green jobs, Nair said, Asia and Africa -- and to some extent Latin America -- could benefit the most. India, China and almost all countries in Africa stand to benefit, he added.

The United Nations said it already is seeing indications that some countries -- such as the United States, India and South Korea -- are interested and taking action to invest in sustainable forest management by making it part of their economic stimulus plans.

As many as 10 million new jobs could be created worldwide!

Boat made of recycled soda bottles will sail to Australia

Today's story on CNN makes an powerful statement on recycling. Recycling of course is an important part of everyday lives with the amount of waste that occurs constantly. Conservation should be on everybody's mind. Hopefully this stunt will raise awareness on the things that we can do to preserve the materials given to us by this Earth for our future generation of babies:

Imagine collecting thousands of empty plastic bottles, lashing them together to make a boat and sailing the thing from California to Australia, a journey of 11,000 miles through treacherous seas.

...

De Rothschild hopes his one-of-a-kind vessel, now being built on a San Francisco pier, will boost recycling of plastic bottles, which he says are a symbol of global waste. Except for the masts, which are metal, everything on the 60-foot catamaran is made from recycled plastic.

The boat will be powered on wind sails. Solar cells will be used to power electronic devices such as phones and laptops. All the material going into building the boat will be made of recycled materials.

The name of the ship is the Plastiki. It is set to sail on April out of San Francisco where it is being built and make it all the way to Australia. Bon voyage and God speed Plastiki!

TV is not so good for your babies

In a recent article I picked up on CNN reports on a study conducted by researchers from Children's Hospital in Boston claiming that television will not help your baby's get any smarter:

This echoes a similar finding published in the August issue of Pediatrics. Researchers from the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute found no evidence of benefit from baby DVDs and videos and suggested that it may be harmful. Infants who watched the videos understood fewer words than those who did not watch them.

So its a call on all you mothers out there to spend more time with your baby instead of placing them in front of the television. The way to make your baby smarter is interacting with them:

"The best thing for our kids is to provide them with stimulus that we know is positive for their brain development," Rich said. He suggesting activities like reading, singing, interacting and stacking blocks to help children

Don't squeeze the Charmin

Here is something to think about as you buy your next set of toilet paper:

...fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them.
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In the United States, which is the largest market worldwide for toilet paper, tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands.
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But people who buy toilet tissue for their homes — even those who identify themselves as concerned about the environment — are resistant to toilet tissue made from recycled paper.

Lent drives down CO2 footprint

This is a humorous piece with the conclusion that millions of Catholics abstaining from meat on Fridays during lent bring down the carbon footprint on the globe. Every little bit helps in conserving the Earth for the future of our babies:

If 354 million pounds of meat are not eaten, and there are 8.25 pounds of CO2 saved per pound not eaten, that means 2.921 billion pounds of CO2 are saved.
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To put that abstract figure into perspective, that's the equivalent of to 1.5 million round trip flights from New York to Los Angeles not being taken.

Definitely an interesting article and gives you some food for thought!

Green vehicles just got greener

Toyota Motor Corp has made headway into making a vehicle composed of kelp and seaweed. What a wonderful effort in helping save the planet. Hopefully other automative manufacturers will take the hint and we can all be driving in a vehicle made from safe renewable resources:

The kelp car would build upon the already hypergreen 1/X plug-in hybrid concept, which weighs 926 pounds, by replacing its carbon-fiber body with plastic derived from seaweed. As wild as it might sound, bioplastics are becoming increasingly common and Toyota thinks it's only a matter of time before automakers use them to build cars.

Unfortunately, this "ultralight, superefficient plug-in hybrid with a bioplastic body made of seaweed" may end up in showrooms in some fifteen years. However this is a win for technology and innovation to help support a more green, a more organic Earth.

Safe, organic industrial cleaner

The LA Times recently published a great article on a safe alternative to chemical laden degreasers and cleaners. The secret formula: water!

It's a kitchen degreaser. It's a window cleaner. It kills athlete's foot. Oh, and you can drink it.
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The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water.

And aside from helping save the planet, it is also cost effective!

Parabens and SLS

Recently, I was asked a question regarding SLS and parabens. Both of course are a common concern among parents researching safe organic products for the care of their babies.

SLS is a cosmetic surfactant that is used in the industry for years. However, they are known scientifically as more irritating than other surfactants. That is the reason why there are continuing studies to find a cleansing agent that will not have irritation action or are at least negligible.

The ingredients you find in the Earth Baby are called APG surfactants (Sodium Lauryl glucose Carboxylate and Lauryl Glucoside). They are mild products from renewable sources (coconut, palm oil, glucose) containing no solvents or hydrotropes.

Instead of parabens our products are preserved by controlling the surface tension properties with Caprylyl Glycol and Hexandediol system which are materials that also contribute to the moisturizing properties of the products.

All Earth Baby products have been clinically tested. They are hypoallergenic, non-irritating, and non-sensitizing.