Summer is upon us, and with it comes the need to slather on the sunscreen when heading outside. Did you know that many sunscreens are made with UV-blocking ingredients that protect our skin but can damage coral reefs? One such ingredient, Oxybenzone,
Did you know that if you install a solar system, your cost of electricity from solar will be about one-half of the cost from your power company? And if you have a larger house with higher usage, solar cost can be one-third of what you are currently p
Read more…Irrigation is the artificial application of water to plants in areas where there is insufficient rainfall, which definitely applies to our area of the country! There are various long-term systems that will supply water to your landscaping throughout
Read more…Cool Fact: did you know that one mere teaspoon of healthy alive soil contains around a billion bacteria, several yards of fungal tubes, several thousand protozoa and a few dozen nematodes? This soil microbiome works in harmony with plants and trees a
Read more…From SCOCO volunteer Jimmy Weir:
Recently, my wife and I determined it was time to buy a new car. Our research confirmed an
electric vehicle (EV) would serve our transportation needs. We found the website plugincars.com
useful, with general informati
Did you know that in California, we use an average of 30-60% of our water outdoors? Cutting water use in the yard or garden has the potential to make a big impact on your overall water use. For this year’s Community Resilience Challenge, consider mak
Read more…Photo by Inma Ibáñez on Unsplash
Growing your own food is a Resilience Challenge category, and who doesn't love fruit? If you’d rather not eat fruit that was grown with toxic chemicals, picked before it was ripe, shipped hundreds or even thousands of
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After the heavy flooding and storms in 2017, Governor Jerry Brown declared California’s five-year drought officially over last April. As a result, coverage of water conservation in the media waned, water districts cut back on rules and restrictions,
Read more…With trees in blossom and the longer daylight hours, you may find yourself reaching for the lighter layers and shorts to welcome spring at your door. Although the weather may still be a bit chilly for that, you can certainly start to celebrate this s
Read more…One of the most rewarding sights to see in one’s garden is pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds fluttering from plant to plant. Pollinators play an important role in ecosystems, and are responsible for the growth of most flowers an
Backyard chickens are more popular than ever. And chicken aficionados have discovered a wide range of tools, structures, and methods of care that make the job easier and more rewarding. Perhaps one of the least known, and oddest sounding of these is
Read more…Photo by Philip Brown on Unsplash
You may have heard of neonicotinoids, or “neonics” for short, but what are they? The name literally means “new nicotine-like insecticides,” and yes, they are chemically related to nicotine. They are a class of insecti
Read more…Feeling good about all that recycling you're doing? Think again - the US exports about one-third of its recycling, and nearly half goes to China for processing. That's 13.2 million tons of scrap paper and 1.42 million tons of scrap plastics!
Single-use plastics like straws, utensils, and cups are everywhere, but do they have to be? Nope! Each of us can take individual actions to start a collective movement to reduce disposable plastics by simply saying no to disposables. There’s a reason
Read more…It’s been four years since Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up hit the bestseller’s list, but the de-cluttering movement isn’t going away anytime soon. Converts of Kondo’s KonMari method say taking inventory of each and every ob
Read more…More and more people are buying clothes at secondhand stores -- not just cool college students trying to save a buck. Not only can you find trendy and one-of-a-kind items at a fraction of their original cost, you can be environmental while doing so.
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