Hydration Nation
What do we get out of the ‘Great Recession’?
We know that outdoor participation has been on the rise during the last few years which, in my opinion, is one the many terrific side effects of the ‘great recession.’ Coupled with the harmonious timing of environmental initiatives moving to the forefront, we see that people are redefining their priorities. We are, en masse, steering our lives into a more healthy, organic and sustainable direction. Families are spending more time together outdoors, enjoying parks and camping while buying fewer frivolities for their children. Organic dining is becoming common fare on restaurant menus and we see an increase in organic food stores and private gardens creeping up. The distinctive ‘geo-traveler’ has upped the ante in sustainable vacation destinations investing their hard earned dollars in quality merchandise created by like-minded sustainable and community outreach companies.
And with the pursuit for life’s organic balance comes new statistics that show people who earn less money are happier. For those of you working 70 hours per week to earn that $80-100K + paycheck, here’s a tidbit for you. Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says millions of dollars won’t buy you happiness, but a job that pays $60,000 a year might help. Happiness levels increase up to the $60K mark, but “above that it’s a flat line,” he said.
Spending time with people we like and doing the things that bring us joy was often forgotten or a secondary requisite in place of our need to make money. We were pushed to mindlessly consume with an ease to do it and a social acceptability of living beyond our means.
I hope you too are enjoying the mass shift in thought and attention to what is right for us as individuals and families- through conservation, smarter consumption and increased outdoor participation. We can delight as we unite in the observation that the ‘great recession’ has helped to steer us to organic roots, literally.
Outdoor Participation Trends:
| Outdoor Activity | 2007 Participants | 2008 Participants | 1 Year Change |
| Downhill Telemarking | 1,173,000 | 1,435,000 | 22% |
| Snowshoeing | 2,400,000 | 2,922,000 | 22% |
| Backpacking | 6,637,000 | 7,867,000 | 19% |
Most Popular Outdoor Activities Nationwide:
- Fishing - Freshwater, Saltwater and Fly Fishing
- Camping-Car, Backyard, RV
- Running-Running, Trail Running, Jogging
- Biking-Road, Mountain, BMX
- Hiking
Quote of the day.
Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.
It’s our one and only post about Haiti relief.
We all know how saturated our communities are with initiatives to raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti. It’s been a wonderful experience to be part of communities banding together for the sake of a united goal. And while attentions may be dwindling and wallets closing as we turn inward towards our own socioeconomic wellbeing, we need your help in the final two weeks of our campaign for Haiti. We’re not asking for a hand out…
Here’s what we’re doing.
We have allocated 5000 bottles of which 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Haiti via UNICEF. We, Hydro Flask, will match every bottle sold and hand-deliver them to the UNICEF Haiti relief center on the Dominican border in early March. If you already have a Hydro Flask, make it a set and get your limited edition Haiti Relief Hydro Flask right now. They’re $25 and $30 bucks, they last a hundred years and each bottle you buy will put a reusable Hydro Flask bottle containing clean drinking water in the hands of a displaced or orphaned Haitian child.
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BPA affects male rat fertility for generations.
BPA affects male rat fertility for generations.
New research suggests that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) during gestation and lactation lowers male fertility in adulthood and that the effect may persist for at least three generations. The rat study tested relatively low levels of BPA chosen to fall within the range of human exposures. This study is the first to indicate that BPA might have transgenerational effects on male reproductive health. Numerous prior studies using laboratory animals have found that exposure to BPA during development can compromise female fertility.Click HERE for Synopsis by Wendy Hessler and Heather Patisaul, Ph.D.
What’s in your body?
What’s in your body? A number of chemicals are becoming more worrisome.
Even as the chemical industry and manufacturers tell us we are safe, the evidence against several widely used chemicals keeps mounting.
In December, Environmental Protection Agency adminstrator Lisa P. Jackson gave chilling testimony before the Senate committee on environment and public works. She said that while it’s the EPA’s job to ensure that chemicals used in products are safe, “under existing law, we cannot give that assurance.”
Of the 80,000 chemicals used in the United States, the agency has been able to require testing on only about 200 and limited use of only five. “We’ve only been able to regulate a handful of chemicals, and we know very little about the rest,” Jackson said.
Later that month, the agency announced a new “chemicals of concern” list and immediately added two – phthalates, used to make plastics flexible, and PBDEs, which are fire retardants.
Other high-profile targets include perfluorinated compounds, used to make nonstick cookware, and bisphenol A (BPA), found in hard plastics, baby bottles, sip cups, and the linings of some food cans.
Click HERE for Sandy Bauers’ story
Global Ocean Protection Measures Have Failed
Global Ocean Protection Measures Have Failed 
Thousands of tons of trash are thrown into the sea each year, endangering humans and wildlife. A classified German government report obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE indicates that efforts by the United Nations and the European Union to clean up our oceans have failed entirely.
Since the world’s oceans are so massive, few people seem to have a problem with dumping waste into them. But plastics degrade at very a slow rate, and huge amounts of them are sloshing around in our oceans. Wildlife consumes small pieces causing many of them to die, since the plastics are full of poisons. And, as experts warn, we’ve reached a point where it’s even getting dangerous for humans to consume seafood.
Given these conditions, the international community has been pushing for four decades for massive bureaucratic efforts aimed at clearing the oceans of waste. In 1973, the United Nations sponsored a pact for protecting the oceans from dumping. Additional provisions have been added to the so-called Marpol Convention — short for “marine pollution” — on six different occasions. And nine years ago, the European Union put directives on the books that forbid any dumping of maritime waste into the ocean while in ports.HERE is the rest of Axel Bojanowski’s story
The chemical revolt
BPA in baby bottles. Phthalates in children’s books. Lead in toys. As parents’ awareness of potential toxins in the home has grown in recent years, so has their anxiety. Minnesota has helped lead the way to regulate worrisome chemicals, and federal reform.
Phthalates. Dioxin. Deca. Bisphenol A.
A half-dozen years ago, only scientists knew these words. Now, they’re bandied about in early-childhood education classes and online parenting message boards.
Parents have been told that potentially harmful chemicals are lurking in everything from the plastic of their infants’ baby bottles to paint on toys, dust bunnies behind the television and the fragrance in toddler shampoo.
Within the next few weeks, a bill to reform the nation’s laws regulating chemicals is expected to be introduced in Congress. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says tightening chemical regulation is one of the Obama administration’s environmental priorities.
How did concern over chemicals move from obscurity onto center stage? Certainly, the change is due to recent advances in understanding how chemicals enter and affect the human body, and to the shift to a Democratic Congress and administration. But it also has to do with parents’ rising worries and efforts to mobilize their concerns into a movement for reform.
“People really started to pay attention when there were concerns about lead in Thomas the (Tank Engine toys). That was three holiday seasons ago, and it was all over the news,” said Lindsay Dahl of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition. “That was the beginning of a wave of consumers starting to realize that there are chemicals in toys and personal products that can sometimes have negative health outcomes.
Click HERE for Maja Beckstrom’s full story.
Exercise Bulimia-Bring your Hydro Flask!
“What do you mean I can’t run the stairs anymore?” I asked, confused. The girl with the clipboard shrugged: “I guess the neighbors complained and—” Before she could finish, I set out to find someone superior—someone with a headset or a walkie-talkie, preferably male. They can’t do this to me, I thought to myself. They just can’t. 
It was only the second day of filming on the then yet-to-be-named reality show Stylista, and even though I knew it wasn’t in my best interest to let my high-maintenance flag fly so soon, given the circumstances, I had no choice. Before I’d arrived in New York City, even before I’d signed the confidentiality agreement, I’d inquired twice—once each of Casting and of Production—whether I’d be able to exercise during the shoot, scheduled to last more than four weeks. Both informed me, in writing, that it wouldn’t be a problem. But on day one, not only had gym access “fallen through,” but it was also too late to rent machines for the cast apartment, and, because cameras had to be on us at all times, running outside couldn’t be accommodated. And now, apparently, no stairwell climbing, either. Later that night, I slipped away from the common room where the other 10 contestants were snacking and socializing and locked myself in the upstairs bathroom. There, for the next few hours, I sat on the floor having an emotional breakdown as quietly (so as not to rouse cameraman attention) as I could manage.
By Johanna Cox
Strongest Man in the World’ no longer with us
NEW YORK – A famed strongman who once lifted 3,200 pounds at Coney Island during its heyday and was still bending quarters with his fingers at age 104 died Monday after he was hit by a minivan. 
Joe Rollino
was struck as he crossed a major street in Brooklyn, and suffered a broken pelvis, head trauma and broken ribs. He died a few hours later at an area hospital.
Police said the driver was going the speed limit and had not been drinking. No criminality is suspected, but the driver was issued a summons for a defective horn.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
The Future of Shipping Containers
Aside from the Internet, no single invention might be as important to globalization as the shipping container. No joke.
Before that advent of standardized containers in the 1950’s, trans-oceanic shipping was hugely labor intensive and slow, because every ship and air shipment presented a brand new challenge. By contrast, standard shipping containers they allow cargo to be moved in massive quantities, quickly with huge cranes and a small staff; 90% of all international shipping traffic uses them. Two hundred million shipments each year use them. So if you love cheap goods from China, you have shipping containers to thank.
Which makes the Cargoshell, a collapsible shipping container, perhaps one of the biggest innovations since sliced bread. Think about the benefits of efficient packaging design andflat-pack, writ on a massive scale. 
As Gizmag reports, the innovations are many. By collapsing by 75%, they radically reduce the volume of empty containers being shipped. At 25% less weight, they cut down on fuel costs. And with a roll-up front, rather than doors that swing out, they can be packed in more tightly, since they don’t require as much open space to unload.
The only catch is money: At a cost of three times a standard shipping container, the payback window for all those fuel savings is very, very long.
But you’ve gotta think that this is really a feature of scale: The project is currently a pipe-dream being flogged by a tiny Dutch company. If manufacturing could ramp up and drop the price, these might just be appearing everywhere one day.
BY CLIFF KUANG
