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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES

With impending budget cuts to the U.S. Forest Service in the news, we wanted to take a minute to celebrate some of the things they do. Our friends at the 89 Percent Project, which underscores that 89% of people surveyed worldwide agree that we should address climate change, recently published this story about the agency’s efforts to help trees survive climate disruption. “A Douglas fir seedling stretches its spindly green bristles into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Lewis County, Washington, its roots winding into soil nearly 200 miles north of its origin in the Willamette and Siuslaw National Forests of Oregon,” writes Meryl Phair. “Despite a long journey to the slightly cooler canopy of Washington’s towering western hemlocks and Engelmann spruce, researchers predict the transplant will adapt to its new surroundings sometime in the middle of the century while its family of firs back in Oregon stay rooted, sweltering in a warming climate.”

Trash Without the Plastic

Traditional trash bags can sit in landfills for up to 500 years. These 13-gallon compostable bags are plastic-free, BPA-free, and certified compostable — so your kitchen waste doesn’t last for centuries. Shop this and other products for a more sustainable home in the Bluedot Living Collection.

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”

– Dolores Huerta, labor leader, feminist activist, and co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association (which merged to become the United Farm Workers)

• Chatting for Change Outside of the Classroom

• Biking Across America

• Check Out These Exquisite Wooden Utensils

• Climate Conversations Are in the Cards

• The U.S. Forest Service Relocates Trees

• Podcast: Fresh Flowers Are Pretty; Unwilted Is Better

• Find a Community Cleanup

• Climate Quick Tip: Wise Up to Greenwashing

• Recipe: Blue Spirulina Mermaid Bowl

• Rooftop Revolution: The Rise of Greenroofs and Urban Plants in the Big Apple

FEATURED STORIES

BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

Companies often exaggerate their sustainability practices — and especially during Earth Month. Learn about third-party certifications and what they mean, check out Bluedot’s Guide to Clean Beauty for more tips, and visit our vetted online marketplace.

Bluedot Kitchen

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Green roofs, stoops, and gardens do more than just beautify homes. They can also be a holistic solution for cities’ most pressing environmental issues — heat, water pollution, habitat loss — while building urban environments that are integrated with the natural world. They’re sprouting up all over the Big Apple, reconnecting city-dwellers to nature and improving their overall well-being.

For just $5/month, you can become a Bluedot Living member — investing in a healthier planet while unlocking real, everyday benefits for yourself. You'll enjoy 10% off every purchase from Bluedot Living Collection, our editor-curated marketplace of planet-friendly brands and products and you'll receive additional member-only store discounts each month. Many members recoup the cost of membership in just a handful of purchases from our store. From there, the savings continue — making sustainable living more accessible, affordable, and impactful.

Dear Dot: How Can I Get My Family on the Eco-Bandwagon?

Illustration by Elissa Turnbull

Dear Dot, 

I am feeling hopeful. I’ve dispensed with plastic baggies to preserve food and upped my game on recycling. I buy organic and try to get out of the market without too much plastic, and certainly no bags for the fruits and vegetables. All this has been manageable. But the other people in my house don’t share my determination to make changes. I don’t want to be a nag. Any tips? 

– Ann

Dear Ann,

Let’s toast to hopeful. Hope can sometimes feel like a scarce resource itself, so anything we can do to help it proliferate is a good thing. But, yes, it can feel disheartening when those we love don’t share either our hope or the shifts we’ve made in response to the climate crisis.

Many years ago, I hosted an Earth Day potluck, to which I invited about a dozen friends and neighbors. I served a meal focused on local meat and veggies, and invited each guest to bring a contribution. One baked bread. Another brought me early spring flowers from her garden. Another picked up a dozen cupcakes from a local bakery. One shared his homemade wine. But over the meal, as the wine flowed, the bread baker confessed how stressed she’d felt to get her contribution “right.” Others nodded in agreement. My heart sank. I had wanted this to be fun, I told my guests, a joy-filled celebration of our planet’s bounty. Stressed and shamed was the opposite of how I wanted my guests to feel. 

Demanding that others green up their acts and hew to our idea of “right” doesn’t inspire change so much as resentment. But that doesn’t mean you throw up your hands. Let Dot outline some simple and, yes, joyful steps you can take to invite others to join you on your bandwagon!

BUY LESS/BUY BETTER: 
Exquisite Wooden Utensils

If you make a purchase through our links, including from Amazon, we may earn a small commission.

One of the best parts of joining an Earth Day cleanup is getting to meet your neighbors who care about the environment. Check out the Earth Day site to find one near you, or check at your local library or community center.

The Keep-This Handbook

When warm weather hits, a lot of us feel the urge to purge — to lighten our closets and our homes. Bluedot’s Guide to Getting Rid of (Almost) Anything can help you find organizations that will help you responsibly pass along your stuff.

Why We Started Bluedot

When our founder Victoria Riskin lost her home in the Montecito mudslides in 2018, she didn’t lose her conviction that each of us has the power to create a better world around us. Victoria got busy organizing in her community to restore the ecosystem where her house used to sit and reduce the likelihood of another mudslide. And then she got busy building a media company to share climate solutions and celebrate the people around the U.S., Canada, and the world who are working in their communities to build climate resilience, champion world-changing technology, and create powerful communities of care. This Earth Day, we’re celebrating the stories that bring us together. 

We at Bluedot believe that stories not only reflect our world but can also change it for the better. Please share this newsletter with your friends and family to inspire real-world eco-actions we can take at home and in our communities. (And if you want to see Victoria at work, check out our podcast Imagine If, where she and her co-hosts talk to innovators and changemakers.)

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you next week.

– Jamie Kageleiry, Leslie Garrett, Emily Cain, and Robin Jones

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She makes her home in Canada, west of Toronto. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

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.

Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long Beach.

Emily Cain is a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where she wrote and edited for the university’s award-winning magazine, DIG.

Our audience is informed, intentional, and tuned in to sustainable living. Reach our 300,000 readers by advertising here, or contact adsales@bluedotliving.com to reserve your space.

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