Sustainable Living
For the first half of August, my son Ted and I have been exploring the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands located in western Brazil. It is home to hundreds of species of birds, exotic animals including jaguars, capybaras, and caimans. My father Bob Mumford was supposed to accompany us, but he injured himself on a nature photography trip earlier this year to Mongolia. We held out hope, but my dad’s injury hadn’t healed enough to allow him to travel again. We miss you, Dad! You can see his work on his website.
We had been planning this three generation trip to the Pantanal for nearly two years.… Read More
Save San Diego’s Trees and Save Our Future
If you know anything about me, you know I believe in the power of trees. One of the most powerful things you can do for the wellbeing of our planet is to plant a tree.
Trees are nature’s conservation heroes. Studies show that trees clean the air by filtering pollutants and producing oxygen. Trees reduce soil erosion. Trees reduce energy costs by providing shade and cooling the air, which produces a natural way to offset the scorching heat coming from streets, concrete and buildings. We call this the “urban heat island effect.” California street trees alone save the amount of electricity it would take to air condition 530,000 households every year.… Read More
18 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day 2018 – Sunday and All Year Long
Forty-eight years ago today, the first Earth Day took place in 1970. It is now an annual event celebrated on April 22, coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. It reaches more than 192 countries each year including hundreds of communities in the United States.
Not to brag, but we celebrate Earth Day every single day at Good Earth Plant Company! We are a green-run company and we believe in sustainable practices. They are now just a normal part of our everyday routines.
We love it when the rest of the world takes a day to focus on environment issues and finding good solutions we can easily adopt.… Read More
Green Roofs Could Save San Diego Enough Tax Money To Fix our Streets
Sometimes I wonder why I read the news, because it can be depressing. I guess because it’s a relief none of my own problems ever make it into the San Diego Union-Tribune or on local TV. If they did, I’d know I’m having a REALLY bad day.
A few recent stories in the news were a serious downer for this Eco-Warrior.
In the first one, a report by the City of San Diego ran down our infrastructure funding gap. This is the money we don’t have to fix our streets, sidewalks, lights, traffic signals, and such. The one that got my attention was the $243 million we need to fund local parks.… Read More
Cool Things Made From Plants, Not Plastic
Forget being addicted to drugs, or sugar, or the internet. America is addicted most of all to plastic.
Last week, the Ocean Cleanup Foundation published a report on the Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge mass of trash swirled together by the ocean’s currents. It sits between the California coast and Hawaii. It is hundreds of miles from land, from any major city.
So much trash is getting into the Pacific Ocean that doesn’t biodegrade, it has now grown to 87,000 tons, four to 16 times bigger than anyone previously thought. It is four times the size of the state of California.… Read More
Trees Are a Teen’s BFF
It wasn’t all that long ago that my son and daughter, Ted and Allie, were typical high school students, in a typical 21st century high school. But you don’t have to be a parent or a high school student to feel the impact of the recent events in Parkland, Florida and worry about our teenagers.
No, this blog isn’t going to turn into a discussion about events in the news. There are plenty of other places to talk about those issues. But what I do want to talk about is what seems like an epidemic of troubled, depressed teenagers. As a parent it upsets me to see so many kids hurting.… Read More
Good Earth Plants Thinks Big: World’s Largest Plants
Regular readers of my blog know how much I love trees. The simple act of planting a tree is one of the most valuable things you can do for the planet. One of my first blog posts ever (in 2013) was about treehouses. In 2015, it upset me to learn Caltrans was cutting down mature trees to make way for freeway expansion.
So I was happy to hear about plans to protect the health of Balboa Park’s huge Moreton Bay Fig tree next to the Natural History Museum. This tree and I go back a long way. One of my only real jobs before opening Good Earth Plants was working for the Natural History Museum, where I took admission tickets.… Read More
Amazon Goes Big With Biophilia: The Spheres Are Open
Seven years, 600 people, 40,000 plants from 300 species, and one really big Ficus tree later, the Amazon Spheres opened this week in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Seattle. Public officials made speeches, people got their thank yous, and ribbons were cut. Because it’s Amazon, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos did the final honors with the help of Alexa, by saying “Alexa, open The Spheres.”
For an Eco-Warrior and biophilic design advocate like me, something like this gets me as geeked out excited as the most hardcore costume wearing fans at Comic-Con. We wrote about the project under construction in 2016.… Read More
Glow In The Dark Trees Could Replace Streetlights
Human civilization took a giant leap when we learned how to make and control fire. Along with fire came the glow of firelight, and the history of man-made lighting is nearly as important to us as fire. Historians believe the first ancient lamp was probably made out of a hollowed-out rock, shell, or some other object that could hold a miniature fire safely about 70,000 years ago.
Fast forward to 2018. Now scientists are trying to learn how to manipulate light the same way nature does to create new light sources. One of those methods involves using plants.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working on ways to make plants glow by using different methods of bioluminescence (“the production and emission of light by a living organism”).… Read More
Color Good Earth Plants Happy About the 2018 Color of the Year Choice
The Pantone Company decided to go big or go home with its 2018 “Color of the Year” choice. It’s now headline news when this American company best known for creating a universal color matching system names one color every December it thinks will be the hottest color trend for the year ahead.
Last year’s choice was “Greenery.” Pantone describes it as a “cheery green shade” that evokes the first days of spring when nature and plants revive, restore, and renew. It’s the Good Earth Plant Company color of the year every year, so you know we loved it.
This year’s choice could not be more different.… Read More