Economist Article Highlights the Ocean's Troubles

An online story in the Dec. 30th economist highlights the latest damages to our oceans, which have serious ramifications for now and the immediate future. They include:

• an increase in carbon dioxide on the ocean's surface, which harms marine life and can destabilize the entire marine system
• increased carbon dioxide also causing global warming, and with it melting glaciers and rising water levels that can threaten entire countries
• masses of discarded plastic that swirl in 2 distinct areas in the Pacific
• red tides and the deterioration of marine life

This is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The articles states:

"Each of these changes is a catastrophe. Together they make for something much worse. Moreover, they are happening alarmingly fast—in decades, rather than the eons needed for fish and plants to adapt. Many are irreversible. It will take tens of thousands of years for ocean chemistry to return to a condition similar to its pre-industrial state of 200 years ago, says Britain’s most eminent body of scientists, the Royal Society. Many also fear that some changes are reaching thresholds after which further changes may accelerate uncontrollably. No one fully understands why the cod have not returned to the Grand Banks off Canada, even after 16 years of no fishing. No one quite knows why glaciers and ice shelves are melting so fast, or how a meltwater lake on the Greenland ice sheet covering six square kilometres could drain away in 24 hours, as it did in 2006. Such unexpected events make scientists nervous."

What about solutions? The article is weak on this, suggesting only abolishing fishing subsidies, for example, and establishing international fishing agreements. Little is addressed regarding the pollution issue, only highlighting the seriousness of the situation, and the fact that it will take another Hurricane Katrina and other events to shake politicians up.

So the question remains: what are we going to do about our oceans?

Eco-Organizing Your Office/Workspace

January is a great time to reorganize and refresh your workspace, whether it is a home office, or your office away from home. Sometimes, being away from the space and then coming back to it gives you fresh ideas for organizing. You might not have even realized how much clutter you had accumulated during the year, or how much trouble you have finding even the most basic items...where is that stapler again?

I'm a firm believe in clutter removal, and that we are all much more productive when we have our supplies, in-box, resource materials, and to do lists organized. So I recently reorganized to make sure that:
1. my supplies were close at hand
2. all my TO DO projects were in one folder, and that I had another folder for more long-term or future tasks
3. I posted items I needed to refer to often, like phone numbers and other reference info, on a small bulletin board I keep by my desk

I have also enjoyed reusing common household items that would otherwise be disgarded. For example:
1. Hold onto egg cartons! As pictured in the photo above, 2-3 cartons can be assembled and strung together to make a handy bulletin board. (Thank you to Thriftyfun.com for this cool idea.) I find them handy for storing and separating coins, and also for small office supplies like paper clips and rubber bands. This also works well with plastic egg cartons, but try to buy the paper ones.
2. I noticed that my replacement printer cartridges kept disappearing. Well, not really, but I kept them in a supply drawer and they got lost with other items. So I held onto an Oregon Chai tea box I had gotten over the holidays and found the cartridges fit perfectly, and now I always have them handy on my shelf.
3. I always enjoy fresh flowers for decoration, but of course they only last a few weeks and have to be tended to. So I found some great paper flower arrangements at a consignment shop recently, that were only a few dollars each, and I arranged them on my shelves to break up the space nicely and add color.
4. Who has extra books and not much room? Me! Instead of buying extra shelves for the books, I used the books themselves to hold other items for display, such as photos, notebooks, cd's, and other items.
5. One last tip- hold onto any pill containers you might have on hand from past medications you are done with. Just take the label off, clean and rinse, and they make great containers for smaller items like staples and stamps. You can also use them in the kitchen for spices, or sugar and salt refills.

Have any great re-use ideas? Let me know and I'll publish them here!