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 […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Eco-friendly gift buying
Most of us have too much stuff and it doesn’t make us particularly happy. As the holidays come round we struggle to think of things to buy friends and relatives and often don’t know what we ‘need’ ourselves. On Black Friday, and during seasonal sales, grabbing something at the mall or clicking ‘buy now’ on […]
How I went from Climate Despair to Climate Action
Three years ago, climate change worries were consuming me.I felt like I was drowning in my inability to do anything meaningful to save the planet. The problem seemed so huge and complicated. What hope was there for my children’s generation?I started searching on the internet for something productive I could do. That’s when I found […]
How to help bees
It’s World Bee Day! Let’s take a moment to appreciate the vital role of bees and other pollinator insects for our eco-systems.Caring for bees is part of the fight against world hunger. Bees allow many plants, including food crops, to reproduce. This contributes directly to food security and preserves biodiversity. Bees are actually very gentle […]
Climate Action in Greenville!
Taking immediate action to lower carbon emissions is crucial. Recently, 13 federal agencies warned that climate change will likely have a devastating impact on our lives, including shrinking the economy by hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century. South Carolina, in particular, is threatened with worsening heatwaves, flooding, and reduced air […]