Marine Conservation Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing lasting protection for the ocean’s most important places. Founded in 1996, Marine Conservation  brings together experts to diagnose threats to the oceans and works with scientists, conservationists, fishermen, business people, government officials, legislators and the media to fashion sustainable solutions compatible with healthy, living oceans. Marine Conservation Institute has been instrumental in making the protection of places in the sea one of the leading issues on the world’s marine conservation agenda.

Following is an article about one of their achievements, an agreement signed on Earth Day:

Holland America Line and Seabourn Celebrate Earth Day with Renewal of Marine Conservation Institute Partnership

Seattle, Wash., April 22, 2013 — In recognition of Earth Day, Holland America Line and Seabourn today are announcing the renewal of their partnership with Marine Conservation Institute. The partnership with the Washington State–based organization began in 2010 with the “Our Marvelous Oceans” program, and will continue with the signing of a new three-year agreement that runs through 2016.

The goal of “Our Marvelous Oceans” is to foster greater understanding of the marine environment through guest and staff education and commitment to sustainably sourced seafood on shipboard menus. The partnership also includes a new “Saving the Ocean’s Gems” program to be rolled out in fall 2013 that promotes Marine Protected Areas — parts of the ocean set aside to protect endangered species, special habitats and/or cultural heritage sites — especially along the ships’ itineraries.

A spokesman indicates:  “The educational element of the “Our Marvelous Oceans” program is rich in content. A video series broadcast on all Holland America Line ships and on the line’s websites introduces ocean issues and highlights important marine conservation topics that relate to the ships’ itineraries.”

More good news from Elliott A. Norse , President of Marine Conservation Institute:

No, the oceans haven’t yet recovered from overfishing, bottom trawling, acidification or pollution.  Not yet.  But we’re seeing heartening progress in saving marine ecosystems worldwide.

For the first time, scientists showed unquestionable evidence that planktonic larvae from marine protected areas add to fish populations in places far from them.  Opponents of protecting our oceans can no longer rationally deny that marine protected areas work.

Pew Environment Group got Great Britain to create the world’s largest highly protected area around the Indian Ocean’s Chagos Archipelago.

Oceana persuaded Chile to establish the huge Moto Motiro Hiva Marine Park around Sala y Gómez island in the eastern Pacific.

Marine Conservation Biology Institute and others persuaded the United Nations to make Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii a World Heritage Site.  More protection for one of the best ocean places on Earth.

And President Barack Obama instituted the biggest ocean policy upgrade in US history.  He ordered federal agencies to cooperate in planning future coastal and marine conservation and uses.  Government working to recover our environment and economy!  If his opponents in Congress don’t undo this, it will change everything.

We haven’t saved our oceans yet.  But these vital steps toward recovering oceans of diversity and abundance, benefitting us and future generations, are reason to celebrate.

To outline a few of their recent programs, Fodada designed a blue tee to support Autism Speaks, then they donated 2,400 Red Beanies to newborn babies in support of The American Heart Association. Now they have launched a New Eco Line made up of Eco Blended fabrics.  A fabulous array of Men’s T-shirts, Polos, and Sweatshirts which we are proud to present on Clean Spirited, just in time for Father’s Day!  The Baba X Hoodie, so cute and cozy–Ladies, you may be accused of theft!

The latest Fodada campaign which launched April 2013, is Adopt-A-Dad. The goal of this campaign is to align 100 dads with 100 corporations, organization, and businesses, by Father’s Day 2013.  They aim to allow a meeting that otherwise would not occur. A chance to connect with individuals within an organization that can show those in need that it is possible and it can be been done. A positive reinforcement. A confirmation that trials and tribulations are a part of life and shared by us all. And most importantly that people and organizations do care and want to help.  We are so impressed with Fodada’s efforts in celebrating fatherhood, that for every order of Fodada Menswear purchased now until Father’s Day 2013, Clean Spirited will donate $1 to The Adopt A Dad Campaign.  Happy Father’s Day!

Living Lands and Waters, our Charity of the Month, tackles ecology at the local level and invites participation. They feel that environmental stewardship is everyone’s responsibility – whether it’s something as simple as shutting off the water when you brush your teeth, or rolling up your sleeves to join them on a river cleanup – and they have  workshops to help you get you started.  Rediscover your avocation… or reawaken it… volunteering offers the opportunity.

Founded in 1998, by Chad Pregracke, Living Lands and Waters works to aid in the protection, preservation and restoration of the natural environment of major rivers in and their watersheds in the United States.  Living Lands and Waters expands awareness of environmental issues and responsibility encompassing the river and creates a desire and an opportunity for stewardship and responsibility for a cleaner river environment.

Since the organization was founded, Living Lands and Water has grown to be the only “industrial strength” river cleanup organization like it in the world.  Spending up to 9 months a year and traveling on a barge, the crew hosts river cleanups, watershed conservation initiatives, workshops, tree plantings and other key conservation efforts. They have a fleet of barges, towboats, workboats, skid steers, work trucks, and more. The House Barge, created in 2011, is their home away from home. It was built by Union Laborers, with an emphasis on the use of recycled materials and is powered by solar and wind with a generator backup. Their Baggie barge is surrounded on three sides with 10’ high fencing to pack in all garbage that cannot be recycled.

One of their projects, The Million Trees Project, was initiated in 2007 to help further preserve and restore the natural environment of  major rivers and their watersheds. Their mission is not only to clean up the river ways, but to also enhance the watershed by planting native trees and removing invasive plants.  They started planting acorns with a goal of growing one million trees within the next 5-10 years.  After two to three growing seasons, the trees are harvested and replanted within towns and cities that have joined in their efforts.  This year marks the handout of the 500,000th tree – they are half-way there!

From its inception in 1985 ITDP has sought to reverse the twentieth century trend in the United States and around the world toward sprawl and increased driving that ultimately took a toll on community livability, energy security and the environment, working for better public transportation, walking and cycling. In the United States, after 50 years of rising car ownership, 2009 saw the first major drop in car ownership and a rise in public transportation use.

What you can do: Take the bus, walk, ride a bike… to work, to school and everywhere! Have you noticed any bike lanes in your city? Use them, support them and vote for them. Check out our yoga pants for a comfortable ride on that bicycle, along with the Laugh Daily tee shirt.

On February 5, 2013–The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) organized a briefing about the important and growing role that renewable energy plays in the American energy mix. Renewable energy resources – including water, wind, biomass, geothermal, and solar – are abundant and geographically diverse across the United States, and are used to generate electricity, provide thermal energy, fuel industrial processes, and produce transportation fuels. The deployment of renewable energy technologies has grown rapidly in recent years as their costs have decreased substantially and as the nation looks to meet growing demand, diversify its energy supply, promote energy security, and reduce carbon emissions.

Renewable electricity generation has grown 62 percent since 2001, and in 2011 represented 12.7 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. Furthermore, 12,956 megawatts of renewable energy capacity was installed in 2012, accounting for 49.1 percent of all new electrical generating capacity in the United States. The briefing provided an overview of renewable energy technologies, domestic and international deployment trends, and exciting market and economic conditions.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 by a bipartisan Congressional caucus dedicated to finding innovative environmental and energy solutions. EESI’s work. They publish free newsletters that are available through their website.
What You Can Do: Tap into the Transition Network, and learn how local groups have organized to embrace the challenge of adapting to a low-oil economy – and rediscovered community. The Transition movement is a high concept and hands-on combination of home-spun common sense and camaraderie (bread-baking workshops, ‘seed-sharing Sundays’) and sophisticated 21st-century organizing (Skype audio conferencing, online wikis, open space technology).

Butter, fats, fried food, canned food, rich sauces and dressings had very little place in our Mediterranean diet. Eating bountifully of fresh fruit and vegetables in season was our mainstay. This was not only an automatically varied diet, but also is now considered the diet of choice for nutrient-rich fare and eco-friendliness. It is also easier on the budget — and the planet — when we don’t center our meals around large servings of meat. And, of course, there was always a glass of red wine at dinner for the adults.

Hot and delicious, soup stretches that broccoli, or Swiss chard, or kale or collard or spinach way beyond itself. Turn any vegetable into soup and it feeds a lot of people. Here’s how it’s done Mangia- Mediterraneo style:

Concetta’s Brodo (Hint: the sauted onion makes the broth)

Use any vegetable: broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, spinach, collards, mustard, cauliflower, etc. even dandelion (one of our most nutritious vegetables).

In medium to large pot: Saute 1 med. onion, diced, in 2T olive oil to a nice golden brown –( smells good, already, huh). Fill the pan ½ full of water, add 1/4t salt and bring to a boil. Add washed, cut up vegetable. Simmer from 5 to 15 or 20 minutes, depending on vegetable used, and how soft or crunchy you like it. Salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, Cook some noodles in a separate pan – any size noodles you like. Add as much noodles as you wish to each bowl before serving.

Note: Refrigerate soup and noodles separately or noodles will become soggy.

Variations: Add cooked lentils or beans or split peas, or barley (very nutritious).

As my cousin Donata in Trieste would say: -”buono da leccarsi i baffi” (it tastes so good that you will lick your mustaches)

A Pithy Pondering:

You’ve heard the adage: ‘Shared sorrow is half sorrow, and shared joy is double joy;’ just so, a family meal is twice nutritious

From White Roof Project’s Mission Page – If we were to coat 5 percent of rooftops per year worldwide, we would be finished by 2030. This would save us 24 billion metric tons in CO2. That happens to be exactly how much the world emitted in 2010. So, in essence, this solution would be like turning the world off for an entire year — while also saving some money on the energy bills.”

Clean Spirited charity of the month, White Roof Project, aims to change all that. Their mission is to help us to go green by painting white, and it’s do-it-yourself simple. The White Roof Project website has free downloadable DIY Packets that show you how to coat your roof with white reflective paint without hiring a painter or roofer. All it takes is a few painting supplies, a couple of cans of highly reflective elastomeric white paint, and a plan for how to cover all relevant surfaces properly and safely. Excellent videos illustrate the process as well.

A white roof saves you energy dollars, reduces the stress on the environment, and reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions generated in the production of electricity. While dark-colored roofs exposed to full sun can increase in temperature by as much as 90 degrees, a white, or reflective roof, typically increases in temperatures only 10 to 25 degrees. (if you have ever walked barefoot down an asphalt road in summer, you will remember how you hopped on over to the white line in a hurry) White roofs also help mitigate the ‘urban heat island effect’ whereby a city can be six to eight degrees warmer than its surrounding areas on warm summer days.

The statistics are as simple as they are staggering: a roof covered with solar-reflective white paint reflects up to 90% of sunlight as opposed to the 20% reflected by a traditional black roof. On a 90-degree-F day, a black roof can be up to 180 degrees-F, while a white roof stays a much cooler l00-degrees-F, reducing cooling costs up to 40 percent.

White Roof Project has a three-pronged approach to executing its mission:

1) Educate and activate, 2) Contribute to white roof science and policy, 3) Catalyze volunteers to complete painting projects in cities. To educate they: 1) Share information on the benefits of white roofing, 2) Cultivate a global network of WRP supporters (chapters) in cities outside their home base in New York City, and 3) Catalyze independent Do-It-Yourself (DIY) roof projects globally. To contribute to policy they: 1) Collect new data for white roofing studies and 2) Work with elected officials to strengthen building codes and roofing requirements. To engage volunteers and paint buildings they: 1) Continue to successfully expand the square footage of painted white roofs within New York City, 2) Expand their successful nonprofit building sponsorship program 3) Use social media to recruit hundreds of new volunteers each year.

Day 1: Start with yourself. Smile at yourself in the mirror, look into your own eyes and forgive yourself, for all the mistakes you’ve made in your life, all the things you neglected to do: you were doing your best after all. A New Confident, Effective, Joyous You faces the world today. And to nurture this freshness, every hour, today, you will close your eyes for 5 minutes, take a deep breath and clear your mind. You will let in only good thoughts; ban all negative or bad thoughts. (Take a timer to work with you and set it for your 5 minute breaks so you surely get the full benefit of those soothing, healing 5 minute periods).

Day 2 to 14: Say ‘ Hello’ to as many people as possible, and smile at them, every day… even strangers, especially on Valentine’s Day.

Day 3: Look up some riddles or jokes in the library or on the internet and share them with your family or co-workers.

Day 4: Call your mom and say “I was just thinking about you and thought I’d call’ and listen to her with your heart, or talk about a happy memory … share one of the jokes you found yesterday.

Day 5: Compliment as many people today as possible…or at least one person.

Day 6: Call your dad and repeat #4.

Day 7: Valentine Sabbath –take a rest. – or – Be a Valentine to yourself: close your eyes for those soothing 5-minute breaks today; eat fresh vegetables and drink lots of water; smile at yourself in the mirror; take a walk at lunch.

Day 8: Call a grandparent and repeat #4.

Day 9: Saturday: Buy a pack of chewing gum and buy (or make or write on pretty paper) Valentine cards to 1 to 14 people; tell each of them one thing you admire about them- or- enjoy(ed) doing with them- or- something you love about them. Include a stick of gum in each card (my Mom always did that… a charming touch in a birthday card). Be sure you write one to your spouse/partner and each of your children.

Day 10: Hug someone today… or lots of someones.

Day 11: Choose a pot-luck recipe for your impromptu Valentine Party/card game on the 14^th.

Day 12: Invite 1 to 8 people to a Valentine pot luck dinner at your place, 7 p.m. dinner; 8:30 p.m. play the card game Hearts (see the Internet for directions.)

Day 13: Be a Secret Valentine: Bring a piece of fruit or a candy bar, or a cookie, or a single rose or some other small thing and put it on someone’s desk with a little note: ‘ I thought you would enjoy this’.…. But don’t sign it.

Day 14: Valentine’s Day! Wear a favorite outfit. Buy a single rose for your own desk. Distribute your Valentine cards. Enjoy your potluck party tonight – or, if no party happened – stop at the grocery store and buy yourself a special dinner or a fancy dessert, and pick up a good movie (Love, Actually is one of my favorites or Miss Pedigrew Lives For a Day or Under the Tuscan Sun or Waitress or a classis like Sound of Music or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) Happy Valentine’s Day!

You see, Love is like a magic penny: if you give it away, you really do end up having more,– just as it says in the song Love Is Something by Malvina Reynolds.

Happy New Year!

Resolutions that are eco-friendly and fun -

Easy: Turn off the lights when you leave a room; turn off the water while you brush your teeth; make 2013 your  year of “ electrical and water waste awareness.”

Harder: Actually remember to take your own shopping bags into grocery stores… and clothing and other stores too!  Recycle Everything:  the usual, plus rinse out those dirty plastic bags even and take them back  to the grocery store;  put  food scraps into compost;  recycle or old clothes, appliances, batteries.

Hardest: Unplug all those appliances/games/devices when not in use; turn OFF the shower while you soap up…. Maybe even showering every other day instead of every day….( We really do need to allow our body’s natural oils to do their good work instead of constantly washing it all away)

Big and Bold: Replace your water-hungry lawn with a drought-tolerant landscape; maybe even create a dry stream bed; if you have a swimming pool, use a cover to eliminate evaporation and minimize chemical use; find an interesting  and effective way to  volunteer your time; commit to a Saturday family night where you cook together, eat together, play games together.

New Year’s Resolutions that are just plain fun: Rediscover the child in you that thought of  biking, running, walking, skipping, jumping rope, etc. as  fun… not as exercise.

Become laughter independent,  lighten up, look for things to smile at, glory in the day, raise your face to sunshine and just revel in it.

Instead of going out to lunch, take a walk in the park or around the block and feel the uplift of just being outside.

Do you know that more than two thirds of Americans don’t partake of the tradition of making a New Year’s resolution?   Consumer Report on Health, December 2012 notes:   “That leaves them (two thirds of us) with no urgency to make changes for the better.”  New Year’s Resolutions are Possibility! Promise! Power! Adventures large and small.  They that take us into a better, more satisfying life, one little step at a time.   What delightful step would you like to take?

Pithy Ponderings:

True life is lived when tiny changes occur. ― Leo  Tolstoy

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished.  If you’re alive, it isn’t. –Richard Bach

I finally had a day off from work with no guests, no husband at home, and an opportunity to do what makes me relax – cook. Well, that’s not the answer for everyone, I’m sure.  I can assure you that 2 years ago it was far from a “go to” cathartic exercise for me also. But I work pretty long hours and when I have a day to myself, I now often spend it chopping like crazy, getting creative, and engineering random explorations of new recipes. I like to keep a good movie or some music on in the background. I cooked about 8 hours today — all pumpkin — and it was awesome.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Thus, taking from the ever-important idea of not wasting, I grabbed a decorative pumpkin that our neighbors gave us when they no longer wanted it!

So here’s what I made — it was a little out of control.

Mimi’s Spooky Pumpkin Soup – Delicious, best of the day.
Get the recipe here.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds — Good. The oven was too hot. I’ve modified for next time, but I still enjoyed them.
Rinse 1.5 cups of pumpkin seeds, bring to a boil. Drain and dry. Season with salt, chili powder, and paprika. Roast in 2 tb of olive oil in a shallow pan at 325 degrees (not 400).

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cheesecake (no crust)  — A little mealy because of the whole wheat, but really good and way better for you.

Blend in a mixer: 12 oz cream cheese, 2 cups pumpkin innards, 3/4 C sugar. Add: 2 TB Flour, 1/4 Tsp Salt, 3 Lrg Eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, & touches of Pumpkin Spice, Cinnamon, Nutmeg as you like. Grease a 9″ pan, pour in mixture and bake for 45 mins. Toothpick test should come out clean. Let cool and then transfer to fridge. Enjoy in 20-30 mins.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Parmigiana – Second most favorite of the night. Leave some meat close to these skins for the best flavor.
Using already roasted 4″ x 4″ sections of the pumpkin skin, dip in mix of 1 Egg, a dash of Italian Seasonings, 1/2 tsp Salt & Pepper. Coat both sides and lay skin down in a Baking Pan, lay a thick slice of Parmesan cheese on top of each. Grate lemon zest on top of the cheese. Bake 350 degrees for 15 mins. Spoon Marinara over each piece when done.

Pumpkin Facial Masque Treatment – Pumpkin for the face is also supposed to be great for you. I haven’t tried the one I made yet so maybe you should wait till I follow up before jumping on this bandwagon.

I used pumpkin, olive oil, sugar, and a splash of milk. I’m going to freeze whatever I don’t use tonight and see if it works over time. Pumpkin is supposed to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Milk is a natural anti-oxidant and sugar is there to exfoliate. I’ll let you know.

Pumpkin Skins

There’s just one problem…

There’s still so much left!! And what do I do with the rest of these rinds? Seems a shame to waste them! My husband votes for a repeat of the Parmesan. For several days, I guess. It wasn’t even that big for a pumpkin. For now, it’s frozen.

And still so much remains...