☆ 5 (Cute!) Reasons to Stop Global Warming! ☆

If our own survival on Earth isn't important enough for you to want to make more earth-conscious lifestyle choices, here are 5 more reasons…

Polar Bears:

Estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild. Polar Bears International says two-thirds of these numbers could disappear by the middle of this century if carbon dioxide emissions are not cut. Polar Bears depend on sea ice to survive, and the rapid loss of sea ice is their major threat; meaning they are losing land habitat, drowning, and even resulting to cannibalism and eating their young as they can no longer make the swim to reach prey. Other threats include pollution, poaching, and industrial impact. Hunting will become a threat if not well regulated.

Pandas:

Less than 1,600 left in the wild (2004 statistic)! Threats: China's growing economy. Forest habitat fragmented by roads and railroads. Habitat loss, poaching. Access to the giant panda’s primary source of food, bamboo, may become restricted as the basin of China’s Yangtze River is increasingly affected by climate change. 

Tigers:

As few as 3,200 left in the wild, and one of the most threatened species on Earth. Threatened by growing human populations, loss of habitat, illegal hunting, and expanding trade in tiger parts. A huge threat is the loss of their habitat due to deforestation; for products like palm oil, pulpwood for paper products, and coffee. Which is why buying recycled paper products (including toilet paper!), and knowing where your coffee and palm oil products are sourced, is so important. Be careful of the products you buy and the corporations you support that may be contributing to their habitat loss. 

Cheetahs:

Approx. 12, 000 left in the wild. Global Warming has been affecting the Cheetah's ability to reproduce, resulting in defects in their sperm and low testosterone. Another concern is the decline in population of the Thomson's gazelle, their main prey. Cheetah's are also being killed by poachers (yet another reason to never purchase fur!).

Orangutans:

Estimated 40, 000 left in the wild with rapidly decreasing numbers; they could be gone within a few decades. Threatened by the growing Palm Oil plantations taking over their habitat. Because orangutans live in only a few places, and because they are so dependent upon trees, they are particularly susceptible to logging. Aside from deforestation, logging roads also make them more vulnerable to hunting and poaching for illegal pet trade in Asia, placing the orangutan in danger of extinction.

What you can do: 

Buy sustainable forest products (choose recycled first!), sustainable palm oil, and other sustainable products. 

Reduce your carbon footprint in any way possible to reduce the effects of climate change. 

Get involved and sign petitions! There are lots you can find at change.org and thepetitionsite.com (I post them all the time on my twitter).

Support efforts by organizations making a difference (my favourite? World Wildlife Fund).

A little conscious thinking goes a long way. Making lifestyle changes and decisions that support a greener planet are not only good for the planet, but they are vital to the diminishing habitats and welfare of animals. Their climates are changing at alarming rates and we can all play a part in making it a brighter future, for Earth, for ourselves, and for the amazing (and cute!) animals of the world. 

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

♥ New Cutie Characters Screenprint Line ♥

Today, I want to share the fun new Characters that have made their debut appearance at Alter-Eco Clothing and the story behind their creation. 

Combining my love for drawing and my urge to find new creative endeavours within sewing, this was the perfect outcome. I've wanted to learn how to silkscreen for a long time now and am very happy that I finally did, and grateful for the friend who got me started and helped to teach me. These fun characters were really quite by accident, as I explained in this Podcast. With so many ideas bubbling in my head and the excitement of getting to put whatever I wanted on my shirts, I was quickly overwhelmed with all the noise in my mind and simply didn't know which ones I truly wanted to go with and what direction to go with. I have a terrible habit of wanting to do Everything (hence why I have so many various lines at Alter-Eco, a Jewelry line, a blog, and now silkscreening), and so now I wanted to silkscreen everything. After indecisively choosing a few prints (to start with of course), and getting ready to head up to get the images printed onto acetate paper (which is needed to burn the silkscreen), my friend and I realized there was still some room left on one of the screens. In a spur of the moment decision to find something to fill the spot, I doodled out a bunny. It was a very simply bunny but for some reason we all loved it (we being myself, Cory, and my friend, Talia, who was teaching me how to silkscreen). Cory came up with the witty slogan, and so I added the axe in the bunny's hand and his cute little vampire tooth. The evil bunny became the next design, a perfect combination of cute and evil. And it was the one we loved the most and got the most attention. Even though it was a five-minute drawing, I loved that the little character was from my own mind. The other designs were my own creations as well, but they were photoshop creations that I didn't have to draw out, so this simple little bunny filled something inside me that I long forgot.

I miss drawing, I used to draw almost every day when I was a child. My mom always encouraged me, loving the characters I created. But for whatever reason, drawing became a hobby that pretty much died after my life became busier, more social, and I got out of high school and out into "the real world." Drawing out that bunny gave me some sense of satisfaction and excitement. I decided to doodle more. And I did, and I loved it. And so came to be this fun line of twisted little animal characters with a purpose and a meaning, a perfect combination of my various beliefs and talents. 

Each Character represents something I believe in and something my activist self wants to express and share with the world--and I know there are so many others like me that wish to express the same messages. Cuddly Activist Critters with an added twist of attitude and devious behaviours. What's not to love? 

I have so many more ideas bubbling in my head and pouring out onto paper all the time. I intend to redraw my evil bunny and add a few other characters to the collection. For now, three are available; Vegan Zombie, Pro-Forest Evil Panda, and Sad Eyemmms Kitty. 

All of these characters can be printed on any of the shirt designs you see them on in the shop (Hoodie, Racerback Tank, Long Tee, Long Tunic Tank, Slouch Top, Slouch Sweater, or Racerback Dress), and available in any of the colours on the current Colour Chart. If you order directly through my email (alter_eco@hotmail.com) then they are also $5 cheaper per shirt. Yayy savings! And if you order two or more then you get some extra goodies, three or more and you get an additional discount as well.

I am also planning on selling cute art prints, making some tote bags, and whatever else my busy self comes up with--remember, I'm the girl that wants to do Everything. ;)

Hope you enjoy them! And if you have any ideas or activist themes you'd love to see as part of the collection let me know and I'll see what I can do. ;)  

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

☆ What's Going On: Smoking; Ugly for You, Ugly for the Planet ☆

They're gross. They're smelly. They cause cancer. They cause pollution. They're bad for you and they're bad for the Planet. Yes, I'm talking about cigarettes. 

There are admittedly fewer things that irk me more than Cigarettes. No offense to Smokers, but most of you are horribly inconsiderate. You smoke everywhere and anywhere, subjecting those around you to your filthy habit. And it is especially sad when those subjected are babies and children. Obviously, not all Smokers are this way. I have seen many that purposely smoke out of people's way in more secluded areas. So to those people, I am appreciative.

Smoke being involuntarily inhaled is one thing, but it's not just this that I find inconsiderate. Cigarette buts are littered carelessly all over the sidewalks, streets, grass fields, parks, highways, and wildlife. And they don't just disappear, they take 18 months to 12 full years to decompose!

Most people know the health hazards (unless you live under a rock) so I don't really need to go too much into that. Tobacco kills one person every 10 seconds. Lung cancer is the ninth most common cause of death in the World and the most common form of cancer, taking someone's life every 30 seconds. It is estimated that smoking a single cigarette lowers one's life expectancy by 10.7 minutes--which may not seem like much, but that's for EVERY cigarette! Add them up and on average that's an estimated 23 years of your life. 

More than 53,000 people die each year from secondhand smoke.  

This is just brushing the surface. 

Now, I'm sorry if I seem a bit frank here, offending people isn't ever the purpose that I write. I'm just trying to just give you a little dose of reality, or at least a little eye-opener. 

Sadly, most people forget the severe environmental impacts of this bad habit. When you light up, you're sending up to 4000 chemicals up into the atmosphere. Amongst that toxic cloud are air-polluting, smog-inducing VOCs such as formaldehyde, benzene, and hydrogen cyanide, as well as ammonia, arsenic, tar and carbon monoxide, just to name a few. Now, put into perspective that there are about 1.2 billion smokers in the world (that's one-fifth of the world's population!) and you've got quite a scary reality to face. 

To make matters worse, the production alone uses over 11.6 million kilograms of pesticides on these crops every year in the US alone. Then consider that most of the production takes place in developing countries where the safety of workers and the protection of rivers and wildlife are disregarded. 

Drying out the leaves has led to serious deforestation in some parts of the world. Tobacco curing and production is responsible for about 200, 000 hectares of chopped trees a year in Southern Africa, and fingered for nearly half of South Korea's deforestation in the 90's. 

Back to that damn littering... Filters have been found in the stomachs of sick or deceased fish, birds, and other creatures who have mistaken them for food. And regardless of where they end up, they all inevitably leach out those thousands of chemicals from your cigarette. As if this wasn't bad enough, all that damn butting was responsible for 14,030 fires between 1995 and 1999 in Canada alone, as well as killing 356 people and searing thousands of acres of beautiful Canadian forest. 

Don't feel guilty enough yet? "One tree is axed to fire-cure every 300 cigarettes rolled in paper. That's one tree every two weeks if you smoke a pack a day, and 26 trees for every year you've been hooked."

Are you really comfortable with that weighing on your shoulders?

I don't know who decided that smoking was sexy, but it is not. I will see a beautiful person but as soon as I see a cigarette laced between their fingers, the hot factor dissipates. It's not cool. You don't look "bad-ass." You don't look sexy. You like a moron, especially when you're standing out it the middle of winter in freezing temperatures just to get your fix. It is just simple not attractive. Teenagers need to wake up (cuz we all know that's almost Always when smokers start and then get hooked for the rest of their lives). Teens needs to realize that there is nothing cool about it and realize that it does not make them look "grown-up"--it's immature, there is nothing "grown-up" about it.  

Sorry people, but there's no upside to the ugliness of smoking. 

Quit the bad habit, for yourself and for the planet.   

Peace & Love,

xo

~Bianca   

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.