By Charlotte Ward For generations, flutters of orange wings in the spring and fall have delighted people of all ages in South Carolina as they marvel at the migratory monarch butterfly. But populations are dwindling. According to the Xerces Society, monarch butterfly populations, found east of the Rocky Mountains, used to number in the hundreds […]
Author: Charlotte
Eco Guilt v Mom Guilt
Someone asked me recently how disciplined I am when it comes to living sustainably. She asked me if I’d rethink a children’s activity because of plastic and waste. The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. For example, we don’t do balloons for birthday parties anymore but we do buy those little fruit snack packets […]
The Eco Answer To Those Old Batteries In The Drawer
Anyone else have a big bag of guilt (aka alkaline batteries) that they need to discard in a sustainable fashion in order not to hate themselves? I do try to use rechargeable batteries but when the smoke detector is beeping or the kids are distraught because their toy dinosaur/ minions toothbrush/ bubble machine has stopped […]
A New Upstate Service Will Refill Any Plastic Container On Your Doorstep!
We all need to cut back on the wasteful and environment-harming single-use plastic we buy but making products from scratch can take time and resources. In recent months, I have been using Amend Market, a new Upstate service that parks up outside my house and refills hand soap, multipurpose cleaner, and laundry powder in the […]
Mom life is busy, but climate action can’t wait
I led my first climate change action meeting with my baby on my lap. That morning, the babysitter had canceled, and I had no choice but to bring my infant daughter and three-year-old son to the local library while I hosted the meeting.It was hardly convenient, but neither was a new, alarming UN report from […]
The Night Climate Change Roared In And Confronted Me
On Father’s Day, my Greenville city neighborhood, Marshall Forest, was decimated by a microburst storm.The phone emergency warning came as the punishing winds were already upon us. As the house groaned, and the lights flickered and died, my husband and I saw the dark shadows of trees falling into our garden and sprinted to scoop […]
Vote like your kids live here
Lots of people care about protecting the planet but yet they don’t use one of their most powerful assets – their right to vote.According to the Environmental Voter Project, the most prolific voters consistently rank environmental issues among their lowest concerns in elections. “Polls show that tens of millions of Americans strongly prioritize progressive environmental […]
8 Easy Eco Ideas for Parents this Earth Day
Find the fun in natureAs we entertain and teach our children at home there are many fun, nature activities and experiments we can do. Encourage your kids to plant something or race around the garden looking for items for a nature scavenger hunt. Check out this cool transpiration experiment and a second one that involves […]
Caring for yourself as you care for the earth
Years ago, I went to a career talk that focused less on work goals and more on self-care.One of the exercises we did that day stuck with me. We were told to illustrate each aspect of our lives (family, fun, work, health etc) as a bucket and draw a line to show how full each […]
33 easy ways to go green in Greenville
As 2020 begins it’s impossible to ignore the impact our lifestyles and consumption as humans are having on the planet we call home. We are on track to have more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050 and global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels were on course to hit a record high […]