At Home On Earth

SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES

It’s almost Super Bowl time, and though many of our staff don’t have a team in the game, we’ll probably still tune in. And what better to sit down with than this trio of plant-based dips? More into nuts? Try these spicy, warmed nuts. We featured these snacks in our recent Bluedot Living Kitchen digital magazine. If you haven’t seen it, and are interested in foods that are healthy for you, and healthy for the planet, sign up for a complimentary issue here.

“When progress happens it isn’t just a rising tide, it’s not a background force, it’s because someone somewhere decided that we have problems that are fixable so let’s try to fix them.”

– Stephen Pinker, from the podcast Hope is a Verb

Stephen Pinker doesn’t think we’re being naive to hang on to hope, even as so many environmental protections that we’d come to take for granted in the U.S. are under threat of being dismantled. Hope, he told the Fix the News podcast hosts, is simply a desire for something that has a reasonable chance of happening. A reasonable chance. So next time you’re tempted to throw up your hands because some days, well, some days it does seem a little hopeless, take heart from these words of one of our foremost thinkers on progress. Progress, Pinker reminds us, doesn’t just happen. We make it happen.

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• Yum! Chocolate-Tahini Sweetie Cakes

• Linda Krop is Battling Big Oil

• Iowa Farm Companion: New Year, New Plan

• Cool Tech: Building Bricks from Methane

• Field Note: ReFed’s 2025 Food Waste Forecast

FEATURED STORIES

BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

There are so many solutions to the issues of pollution, and food production and waste. Turning methane into clay bricks? Sure. A grocery-store rooftop garden? Why not! An organization that aims to dramatically reduce food waste in the U.S.? Yes, please. Check them out.

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**Empower Your Ageless Journey with Qualia Senolytic**

Reuse boxes, thanks to U-Haul, and take advantage of others’ moving supplies at U-Haul’s online exchange forum.

 Bluedot Living Kitchen

Chocolate-Tahini Sweetie Cakes

Crazy cake is a scrumptious and easy chocolate cake that likely originated during the Depression and uses oil and vinegar in place of eggs and butter. We’re thinking ahead to Valentine’s Day and planning to make these sweetie cakes by Caroline Saunders soon.

Climate Conversation: Environmental Lawyer Linda Krop Battles the Big Guys

“In Santa Barbara,” writes Bluedot founder and president Vicki Riskin, “there’s Linda Krop — the chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), who has taken on big oil many times, including the Exxon Mobil behemoth, and won. And now she’s taking on the giants again.” Vicki is referring to Linda’s current fight to stop a company named Sable from restarting oil production along the coast of Santa Barbara. 

Give the whole conversation a read. You’ll be shocked at what Krop is up against but heartened that she’s on our side.

Iowa Farm Companion: New Year, New Plan

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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER:

Canadian Companies We Love

If you purchase anything via one of our links, including from Amazon, we may earn a small commission.

As snow blankets unexpected swaths of the country, we wanted to take some time to appreciate our friends up north, in Canada, who say things like: “You think that’s cold? Try -31!” (Thanks, Shauna, in Red Deer, Alberta!) While many of us cower at the thought of such weather, our Canadian friends manage to get things done, including building the great companies we’re sharing with you today.

Etee

Toronto-based Etee offers sustainable goods for home and body, including effective, just-add-water cleaning and skincare concentrates. The brand is always testing new products; if you sign up for their newsletter, you may receive an email asking if you’d like to try something out for free to provide your feedback! Save 10% with code BLUEDOTLIVING.

Shop today or read our review.

Goodee

Goodee, a Black-owned B Corp in Montreal, specializes in hip decor, gardening tools, and other useful objets from around the world. The company’s three pillars are “good people, good design, and good impact.” We love the focus on what Goodee calls endangered and heritage crafts, which represent a third of the items sold. Shop today or read our review.

Mejuri Jewelry

Mejuri’s “everyday fine jewelry” mixes and matches well with other pieces. The Toronto brand uses over 90% recycled gold and silver and helped found Regeneration, an organization that processes waste and restores the natural habitats around legacy mining sites. Shop today or read our review.

Learn about even more Canadian brands we love.

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I don’t watch traditional news channels and haven’t in years. They don’t report the news but create it. I was tired of not being in the know and then I found 1440. Finally, an unbiased news source! All your news. None of the bias. Our daily email newsletter is edited to be as unbiased as humanly possible and is triple-checked (by hand!). You'll get news on politics, business, sports, science, and beyond.

The Keep-This Handbook

If you’re wondering where to focus your attention and efforts right now to make our world a better, healthier place, Dear Dot, and plenty of other wise, hardworking changemakers, share some ideas.

Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world,” astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in 1994’s Pale Blue Dot (you can see the video he narrated here). “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” Sagan’s humbling words inspire us to deliver stories to you that reflect his and so many others’ work to cherish this blue dot.

If you like the solutions-based stories we’re sharing, please consider supporting us with a contribution.  

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you in two weeks.

–Jamie Kageleiry and Leslie Garrett

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha’s Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She divides her time between London, Ontario, and Massachusetts. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

Sent to: _t.e.s.t_@example.com

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