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A Bluedot Living Newsletter
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Welcome to The Hub, a Bluedot Living newsletter that gathers good news, good food, and good tips for living every day more
sustainably.
If your friend sent you this, sign up here — you can also sign up for any Bluedot newsletters here.
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If this newsletter is cut short by your email program. View it in full here.
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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In honor of St. Patrick, who drove snakes out of Ireland (well, see below), we bring you this very cute (we think), very lethal Blue Viper (Australian Geographic says these aggressive predators have a ‘tendency toward fight over flight’). They do not live in Ireland, but on Indonesia’s Komodo Island. See our story about San Diego nature photographer Rick Barr for more beautiful (and less lethal) creatures, and some photo tips.
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DISPATCHES FROM ALL OVER · SUSTAINABLE LIVING ADVICE · ECO-FRIENDLY RECIPES
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DISPATCHES FROM ALL OVER SUSTAINABLE LIVING ADVICE ECO-FRIENDLY RECIPES
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“I actually like snakes! When I was young, I was a Boy Scout nature camp counselor, and one of our projects was collecting snakes and creating an environment for them, so I’m quite familiar with snakes and think they’re fantastic creatures.”
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–Harrison Ford, speaking to a reporter about a scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where he’s surrounded by snakes. You can likely picture the iconic scene — Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood trapped in the Well of Souls and surrounded by, quite literally, thousands of snakes. But while Ford considers himself a serpent fan, many of us feel a greater kinship with St. Patrick for his role driving snakes out of Ireland (ignoring for the moment that this is myth not history and that snakes likely didn’t exist there.) Snakes are … [shudder]. But perhaps Ford knows something we overlook: Snakes play an important role in our ecosystem. Both predator and prey, they are key to balancing biodiversity. And their role in controlling mice (and therefore often ticks) goes a long way to battling zoonotic diseases. Like snakes or hate them,
let’s value and protect them.
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QUICK LINKS
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Skip scrolling! Here's what you'll find in this edition of the Bluedot Newsletter:
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This weekend you may find yourself sipping on green beer, but what about … green whiskey? The word “whiskey” comes from the Irish uisce
beatha, meaning “water of life.” Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Good Libations takes us on a journey to Ireland to celebrate the huge strides the Irish Whiskey Association is making in the pursuit of
conservation and sustainability. Sláinte!
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Dear Dot: Have Finches Made a Comeback?
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Dear Dot,
I thought the House Finches were wiped out a number of years ago by a disease that made them blind. Have they made a comeback?
—Marie, Brooklyn, NY
Dear Marie,
You write to me from Brooklyn, having seen, no doubt, Bluedot’s Brooklyn Bird Watch featuring those red-headed charmers, House Finches.
These perky peepers are indeed prone to Mycoplasmal
conjunctivitis, or House Finch Eye Disease, confirms Pat Leonard, who works in media relations at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Finches with the disease show red, swollen, runny, or crusty eyes. And, as you suspected, Marie, in extreme
cases, the bird’s eyes swell shut and they become blind.
The bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum has long afflicted chickens and turkeys, though for those fowl, it manifests as a respiratory issue. But in 1994, Pat Leonard tells us, backyard bird watchers around Baltimore began sending the volunteers at Cornell’s Project Feederwatch handwritten reports of house finches with crusty, red eyes almost bulging from their heads …
Have House Finches survived this scourge? Read the rest of Dot’s answer.
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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER
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Thrilling news, dear readers! This coming Monday, we launch BuyBetter, a biweekly newsletter that will help you find Earth-friendly products that have been vetted by our editors. Sign up here. In this Hub newsletter, we’re highlighting a couple of the sites that we like to visit when we are looking for an item and want the most eco-friendly option feel like. These are the marketplaces your Marketplace Editor likes to shop. The links below will take you directly to shopping. See more eco-friendly items in
our Buy Better Marketplace.
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Thrive Market Thrive is an online grocery store with great products at great prices. The membership fee quickly pays for itself (and funds a membership for a family in need).
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READ MORE
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Credo Beauty
There’s no one definition of “clean beauty” (more on that in weeks to come), but Credo makes it really easy to find cosmetics free from potentially icky ingredients.
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READ MORE
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EarthHero
From plastic-free hair ties to food storage to underpants, EarthHero has a little bit of everything. The company is a B Corp, Climate Neutral, and 1% for the Planet member.
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READ MORE
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The Bluedot Marketplace Monday newsletter features items that we believe in. When you make a purchase through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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The Social Hour
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Living in a city has its challenges but #livinggreen doesn't have to be one of them. Chicago celebrates St. Patrick's Day EXTRA green; Brooklyn builds a community compost program; and, in Los Angeles, celebrities ride public transit to the Oscars to be more #environmentallyfriendly.
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What’s Behind the Name “Bluedot”?
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“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. “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. Please consider forwarding this newsletter to your friends and family to share and inspire real-world eco-actions we can take at home and in our Martha’s
Vineyard community.
Thanks for being part of our Bluedot community!
–Jamie Kageleiry and Leslie Garrett
Editors, Bluedot Martha’s Vineyard
Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Oak Bluffs, says her favorite spot on earth is on the trails around Farm Pond, and out in a kayak there, looking at birds.
Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades. A newcomer part-time to the Vineyard, she’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.
Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com with comments or ideas.
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SIMPLE / SMART /
SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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Read past issues of The Hub here.
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Bluedot Living® magazine and bluedotliving.com are published by Bluedot, Inc.
Find more simple, smart, sustainable stories at bluedotliving.com or our Martha's Vineyard location, marthasvineyard.bluedotliving.com. Subscribe to this newsletter here.
Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com if you’d like to see a Bluedot newsletter or magazine in your community.
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