Happy Birthday Low Carbon Girl!

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Jane Lindley
Low Carbon Girl 2012

Low Carbon Girl’s first birthday.

Low Carbon Girl’s first birthday.

And, what a year its been. China’s air pollution is just FREAKING me out. And, all of their ADAPTATION to air pollution – designer air masks – really? – hey folks, let’s not be so quick to adapt. Why not fight for a little while longer, what do you say?

That freak-out is followed quickly by Fukushima’s continued issues, including dangerous rod removal from waste water tanks that could, if they got too close,  create a chain reaction and spew more nastiness into the air and water. This is not good for Pacific NW fishing as nuclear waste spreads out into the ocean. In fact, I heard a radio broadcast of our local government raising the allowable contaminants (not just radiation) for human consumption of fish – because, guess what? – if they didn’t raise the levels they’d have to tell us to stop eating certain fish, quickly followed by all fish. (I LOVE sushi by the way. But, I’m not eating it anymore. *sob*)

And, let’s not forget FRACKING. Oh, there’s a great idea. Let’s pollute ground water and streams to extract hard-to-reach natural gas. So what if a few farm animals, and under-represented people in PA and other remote towns suffer and/or die, or whatever, at least we never have to turn down our heat or alter our lifestyles whatsoever, right?

With all the other stuff going on it’s easy to forget our silent passenger, climate change. I tend to agree with scientists who say two degrees warmer is too much. Follow me on FB or Twitter to see what’s happening to trade winds, parasites lifecycles, animals, landscapes, glaciers, etc. due to climate change.

So, what have I been doing, you might ask? I haven’t built any nuclear plants for one. I’ve tried to reduce my impact on the earth (see all the lifestyle changes I’ve made over the past year, many changes have saved me money). I’ve been spending a little too much time on social media: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, and Pinterest which has had a negative impact on my blogging. My most popular posts for the year were:

After a year of reading about climate change and carbon emissions and human impact on the environment, my three picks for lifestyle changes that would go a long way to reducing carbon emissions are:

  1. Reducing our demand for meat (so, meatless Mondays like the Norwegian military would help our planet and our bodies);
  2. Reducing our one-use plastics (bottles, takeout, packaging);
  3. If you fly a lot for business, look for ways to cut back when you can (video conferencing, Skype, or travel as environmentally friendly as possible: trains, cars, buses, etc.).

And, I’ve made a lot of friends online. I truly appreciate support from my blogging buddies: Green Steve, Joy, Clare, Green Gal, Biocadence, and Rachelle Strauss, and others who have been with me every step of the way for the past year. Love you guys! Thanks for making the vastness of social media a friendlier place.

Spoiler alert: Guess who is going to be the next President of Sustainable Bainbridge? Me, Low Carbon Girl, yup that’s right! Watch out world! Taking this green thing to the local level. 🙂

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Plants Have Protein – But How Much?

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Jane Lindley

chardWhen I mention I’m trying to eat vegan, the first question I’m asked is “are you getting enough protein?” So, I was glad to stumble upon No Whey No Cow’s Why Vegan? article, as the author, Amy, gets asked the same question all the time too!

I assume I get enough protein* because I eat legumes and nuts everyday but I was still curious how a typical meal stacked up against my new vegan diet, so I did a mini test (see Random Meal Test below).

Most people seem to think (thanks in large part to dairy and meat lobbyists**) that only dairy and meat have protein and that eating a plant-based diet is suicide by malnutrition. Well, maybe if you ate only iceberg lettuce (.5 grams of protein per cup). But, even a cup of iceberg lettuce has 53% of your daily vitamin A – who would have guessed?

We often get more protein than we need eating a meat-based diet (along with all that animal fat) and can get the protein that we need from vegetables and legumes. WebMD notes that people need about 46-56 grams a day, 15.33 to 18.6 grams per meal. “Most Americans get more than enough protein each day, and may be getting too much of this nutrient from animal sources, like meat, poultry, and eggs.”

Random Meal Test – Salad vs. Sandwich
Let’s compare a random plant-based meal I’m having to a meat-based meal my husband is having. Today I made a salad for lunch while my husband threw together a ham, salami and cheese sandwich. Here’s the protein breakdown:

Salad
Cup of broccoli: 2.6 grams
Cup of kale: 2.9 grams
Cup of cabbage: .09 grams
¼ cup of currants .04
¼ cup of pumpkin seeds: 3 grams(!!)
1/8 cup of dressing (mustard (.02 grams per tsp), balsamic vinegar (.01 grams per tsp), lemon (.025 grams per tsp), olive oil (0grams))
2 TBS of peanut butter on celery for dessert: 7 grams
Total protein for my lunch: 15.685 grams

Ham, Salami and Cheese Sandwich
2 slices of Dave’s Killer Bread :12 grams
2 oz Italian Dry Salami: 6 grams
3 slices Applewood Natural Ham: 11.49 grams
2 oz Dietz & Watson Provolone 6 grams
Mustard: .02 tsp
Mayo: 0 grams
Total protein for husband’s lunch: 35.51 grams

Wow. The meat-based meal had twice the protein as my plant-based meal, almost a day’s allotment. OK, I know what you’re thinking – if I hadn’t had a little peanut butter, I would have been slightly under my protein allotment for lunch. I hear ya. If your plant-based meal needs a little protein boost, just check out the options below:

Plant-based Ways to Increase Protein in a Meal

  • BEANS, 12 to 14 g per cup cooked
  • LENTILS, 18 g per cup cooked
  • NUTS, 3 to 7 g per 1/3-cup serving, depending on the type (peanuts and pine nuts have the most)
  • SEEDS, 2 to 5 g per 1/3-cup serving, depending on type
  • QUINOA, 6 g per ½-cup serving


What’s the Carbon Emissions Deal with Meat?
Meat production is not an efficient source of food and creates more than its share of greenhouse gases. It’s not efficient because we feed cattle grain for years until they are slaughtered. Whereas plants go directly to feeding people. Fifty three percent of greenhouse gases from farms are a result of nitrous oxide (mostly cattle pee – eww!), which is 296 time more potent per pound than CO2 as a climate-change gas.

Carbon emissions for a four ounce steak are estimated at 4.4lbs.*** If we look at the census population clock (this is fun – it’s constantly updating) and see that America has roughly 317, 174, 287 people. And, if every American gave up their four ounce steak one night, we’d save 1.395567e+9 lbs of CO2 equivalent emissions in just one DAY. Wonder if we could do a world-wide meat-free day? Just thinking out loud.

I’m not saying give up meat, I’m just saying, do what the Norwegian military does and have one meatless day (or two, if you’re on a roll) a week. If you’re worried about protein throw some beans or lentils into your meal. The military is fighting climate change with meatless Mondays. Is that great or what?! Hey, if they can handle one meatless day a week…can’t the rest of us?

* When I trained for swimming Nationals I augmented my diet with gluten- and dairy-free protein powder and bars to ensure I got 60-80 grams of protein a day.
** Since 1977, under pressure from meat producers, federal dietary advice has evolved from “decrease consumption of meat” to “have two or three (daily) servings.”
*** How Bad are Bananas: The Caron Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee

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Spinach had Popeye and now Kale has Rip

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Jane Lindley

popeye

“Mmmm! What smells so good?” my husband asks as he walks in the house with his friend Kevin.
“Vegetarian chili,” I say.
“You know what I think of when you say vegetarian,” Kevin asks? “The skinny, pale guy who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach.”
“So what should I call it?”
“Meatless chili,” he says.
“Oh, so just the word MEAT would make it more manly?” I ask.
“Yes.”

Vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based meals have an image problem. I get that. Everyone at college knew who the vegetarians were: those pale, wan, people ghosting around campus.

But, times have changed. Have you heard of Rip Esselstyn, the firefighter who eats a plant-based diet? He’s so fit and muscular, he practically busts out of his clothes. There are recipes on the site, or you can buy his cookbook Engine 2 Diet, which promises to lower your cholesterol and burn away pounds. In fact, his diet worked so well for him that after his coworkers tried it for a few weeks, then they all switched to eating plant-based meals. He just finished a second book called My Beef with Meat.

And, here I thought people didn’t care about the environment* when all along it’s been a veggie image problem – who’d thunk? There is even an ad agency trying to make broccoli look cool by picking a fight with kale (Good luck with that! They’d be better off following Rip’s example.).

So, what are we having for dinner? MEATless chili.

* United Nations Environment Program details global meat production, consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (which include methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)). Scientists agree that in order to keep GHG emissions to 2000 levels the projected 9 billion inhabitants of the world (in 2050) need to each consume no more than 70-90 grams of meat per day. The USA currently leads consumption with over 322 grams of meat per person per day (120 kg per year).

Worldwatch Institute publication claims that meat creates half of all greenhouse gases – wow!

NY Times article Climate Change Seen Posing Risk to Food Supplies

 

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YES! Magazine Offices are on Bainbridge Island, WA

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Jane Lindley
YES! Magazine

YES! Magazine offices are located on 284 Madrona Way NE, Bainbridge Island, WA.

YES! Magazine would like you to know that their offices are on Bainbridge Island, just off of busy Madison Ave. at 284 Madrona Way NE. They’ve been toiling away in near obscurity for seventeen years while their worldwide presence grows, something their Development Manager, Elizabeth Copland, would like to rectify.

Here are a few other things you should know about YES! Magazine:

  • They are the 2013 UTNE Media Awards winner for General Excellence for their inspiring and essential reporting. Congrats!
  • They are a nonprofit!
  • You won’t find any ads in their publications — print or online.
  • They are growing and looking for an Executive Editor.
  • They have an entire department for teachers who are looking for ways to bring current news and ideas into their classrooms. There is an education newsletter and curriculum ideas as well as other classroom tools.
  • Their stories fall under the categories of: peace & justice, planet, new economy, people power and happiness. Their news looks for the positive aspects of each news story.
  • You can write for YES! They document how people are creating a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world. And, welcome submissions that relate directly to this focus.
  • When I asked the Friend-Raising party volunteers what they wanted most from the event they said, subscribe to and forward YES! Weekly newsletter. OK, so here you, go, sign up to get great news every week from YES!
  • If you prefer a quarterly magazine, you can subscribe here: the next issue is about food!

If you’re not familiar with YES! you’ll just have to checkout their great earth- and human-friendly news. If social media is your thing, you can find them on twitter and facebook and flickr.

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Climate Change: What Can the Average Joe or Josephine Do?

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Jane Lindley
Polar bear

Polar bears have become a symbol for climate change.

So, what can the average person do about climate change? Plenty, actually.

Even though climate change is HUGE and impacts millions of interconnected ecosystems, many of which cannot be properly modeled to anticipate all of the possible outcomes, one thing is clear, we can’t wait for companies and governments to make changes. We need to step up.

(Case in point: the EPA climate change link above has this note at the top of the page: “The federal government is currently shut down. The EPA website and social media channels will not be updated until the federal government reopens.” Sad, right?)

Thankfully, we don’t need the government, I mean, it would be nice if they decided to tax carbon emissions or weren’t basically run by corporations, but each of us can (and many of us have already) help to reduce carbon emissions and reverse the effects of climate change.

Say climate change and it brings to mind the sound of thundering ice calving off of glaciers into the ocean and polar bears clinging to a sliver for dear life.  Polar bears have become the poster children for climate change. However, so many unexpected things are starting to happen at once that it’s clear we all need to work to save our life support system (earth). I mean, who could have anticipated drunken trees in Alaska? Or, Montana’s snowshoe hare coat-color change no longer synching with the seasons?  Or, the earth’s jet stream patterns altering?

The nice thing is all we need to do is focus on reducing our impact on the plant. Period. And, as luck would have it, some of those same carbon-footprint reducing lifestyle changes will have a positive effect on our wallets as well as the environment. Here are four steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint:

  1. Fly Less. I’m not suggesting (although, actually, I’d like to) that you vow to never fly again, like the meteorologist did after reading a recent IPCC report. But, it would help if we all flew less. I’m betting most travelers are business travelers, so if there is any way to use an alternative method such as Skype, GoToMeeting, or video conferencing versus travel to meet and discuss business that would go a long way to reduce carbon emissions. Don’t think your company will go for that? Here are some tools to suggest how they might become more sustainable and even save money.
  2. Buy Less NEW Stuff. If you haven’t seen the Story of Stuff video from 2007, now’s the time. Annie Leonard and her friends did an incredible job of illustrating (literally) our linear system of stuff development and disposal on a finite planet. She really nails it when she says “the United States values people who own and buy a lot of stuff.” She calls it THE GOLDEN ARROW OF CONSUMPTION – the heart of our economy. And, it’s true today that  as humans, “our value is measured and demonstrated by how much we consume” not by our compassion, knowledge, or integrity. Just stuff. Shockingly, 99% of stuff we purchase is trashed within 6 months, but the resources we’ve consumed are gone forever.
      1. Note the emphasis on buying new stuff. There are still many great ways of buying used stuff. Here are a few: Freecycle, CraigsList, and the Buy Nothing Project.
  3. Eat Less Fish, Meat, Dairy. The good thing is that there are so many of us on this planet, so if all of us just make a little change in our diet it’ll go a long way to reduce carbon emissions and may even have the added benefit of reducing our waistlines a little, just saying. If you think about it, we do eat a lot of meat, some of us do every meal (bacon, sausage or ham for breakfast, deli meats for lunch, steak or chicken for dinner).  If you’re game to try a meat/fish/dairy-free day or two, here’s a link to a page of my current favorite plant-based meals to get you started. Still not convinced changing your diet will help the plant? Here are a few facts for ya:
      1. 70% of global fisheries are fished at or beyond capacity. Mission Blue noted that unless something changes, all global stocks of fish that are harvested for human consumption will collapse by 2048. We’re taking fish out of the water faster than they can regenerate.
      2. Forks Over Knives Blog: “Even with increased climate change and ominous weather extremes, we are producing enough grain globally to feed two times as many people as there are on Earth. In 2011, there was a record harvest of grain in the world, with over 2.5 billion tons, but half of that was fed to animals in the meat and dairy industries. 77% of all coarse grains (corn, oats, sorghum, barley) and over 90% of all soy grown in the world was fed to livestock. Add to that the 30% food waste from farm to table, and we see clearly that the difficulty is not how to produce enough food to feed the hungry but rather where all the food we produce is going.”
  4. Get Involved. Sign-carrying and petition-signing may not be your thing, but even if you get involved in a local nonprofit, or go to free lectures on living sustainably you will learn new, easy ways have a positive effect on the environment and reduce your carbon footprint.

There is resistance to change. You’re not just imagining that. You might think everyone would be on board with reducing greenhouse gases and reversing climate change, but there are quite a few industries that stand to lose serious money if that happens. I bet you can guess which industries will be impacted the most.  Not only that but the US measures its worth by our gross national product, so we have quite a bit of pressure to keep buying products, houses, cars, tech gear, etc.

Ultimately, being less grid-dependent is not only good for business but it’s good for our national security. Think about it, distributed energy versus the grid – harder to attack and destroy. Everyone knows solar energy equals environmental benefits, but did you know solar also adds up to a competitive business advantage for some of America’s largest corporations?

Evidence that Individuals Make a Difference

So, show me the change! Here are some examples of how grassroot efforts or a shift in values have made a positive difference:

Remember this is all about supply and demand, and who controls a lot of that? Us. Less demand, less supply and it’s silent cousin, natural resource exploitation.

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Bike Commuting 101

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Jane Lindley
bike commuting

Biking is a green commuting option.

For years I admired Seattle bike commuters from a distance and wondered: how do they do that? How do they bike in the cold, dark rain without arriving at the office looking like a hot mess? Then, with the help of my good friend Jennifer, who has been a lifelong bike commuter, I learned the secrets.

Before You Start Commuting
If you haven’t biked to your office before, it’s a good idea to bike your route during the day, perhaps on a weekend, and make any necessary revisions due to rough road conditions to ensure it’s as safe as possible in the dark during rush hour. Also, you’ll want to time your trip so you know how early you’ll need to leave in the morning and how much effort it’ll take (read: how sweaty you’ll get). Unless you’re training for an event, you may want to bike fairly leisurely so that you won’t need to take a shower when you get to the office.

Depending on the dress code at your office, you may want to leave some dress shoes (they take up a lot of pannier space) under your desk at work and perhaps a coat jacket or other bulky item if you have a place to store it. And, if your office is forward-thinking enough to provide showers, it’s great to leave some toiletries in your desk so you don’t need to tote them back and forth with you.

Gear You’ll Want to Consider

  • Bike Lights: Two good headlight options are Light & Motion Seca 800 and NiteRider MiNewt Pro 750.  You’ll want taillights too – there are a variety of blinking red lights on the market. Some cyclists even put them on their helmet as well as the back of their saddle to increase visibility. One year, during the holidays, I used a battery pack to power twinkling Christmas lights on my panniers (I felt I got a little extra space from motorists that year).  At night, in the rain, it’s extremely hard for motorists to see you, so, anything you can do, including wearing light-colored or reflective clothing will help to keep you safe.
  • Panniers: If you’re like most employees you tote a laptop back and forth from work. Waterproof panniers are a must. My Ortlieb panniers have not let me down. I do take an extra measure of precaution with my laptop and put it in a plastic bag.
  • Fenders:  It wasn’t until one dark, rainy morning with a rooster-tail of water spinning off my front wheel and hitting me in the face that I decided fenders were a must. There are lots of lightweight and inexpensive fenders on the market. They go a long way to keeping you and your bike free of road debris and blinding water rooster-tails.
  • Cold and Wet-Weather Bike Clothing: Gortex bike jacket with vents, neoprene gloves and shoe covers for warmth, thin fleece/polypro layer, lycra shorts and pants, insulated bike pants, neoprene cap to wear under your helmet for warmth, rain helmet cover, bike glasses, cap with brim to keep rain out of your eyes.

Extra Greenie Points

The Beauty of Bike Commuting
I know from the comfort of a car bike commuting in the rain or dark can look miserable but if you’re dressed appropriately all you’ll notice while biking are the morning stars above your head or the fresh air filling your lungs. Seriously – it’s a great way to commute.

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Good News: Solar Recharging Stations

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Jane Lindley

Sometimes the whole sustainability/climate change/we’re-plunging-into-darkness news gets me down. From movies like Chasing Ice showing glacial retreat to fracking  polluting water systems, killing plants, animals and making people sick to our honey bee colonies collapsing due to pesticides; some days I think why bother?  That is why I’m doing a series of good-news posts. To remind myself there are a lot of great and innovative things going on out there. I need some cheering up (and maybe you do too?).

I recently found some good news in my college alumni magazine. Each quarter when I receive Non Satis Scire (To Know is Not Enough), I usually give it a passing glance before tossing it into the recycle. But this time two things caught my eye: one student lived in a tiny house as part of her senior year project and another started a solar design company, Sol Design Lab after graduating from Hampshire.

While pursing an MFA, Beth Ferguson bought an electric scooter then needed a place to charge it, so she invented a solar charging station called SolarPump. Genius.

What I love about it, other than the fact it generates renewable energy, is that it’s whimsical (designed after a 1950’s gas station) and creates a sense of community while people charge their scooters and devices. Plus, it “provides a springboard for conversation about climate change,” which in my mind is its most important asset. Pop-out seating and tabletops are built from recycled road signs and create park-like seating area around the charging station. The solar panels power lights to keep the station lit and welcoming at night.

Sol Design Lab just launched a new website and soon a new app called Sunspot. The website lists information about currently installed SolarPumps and shows current Watt use and battery capacity. Solar charging stations also provide Wi-Fi. All they need is an espresso stand and people would hang out all day.

How great would SolarPump stations have been in NYC after Sandy? Remember all of the extension cords in the street as people charged their phones? Innovations like this one will help us find a way to live sustainably without having to give up modern conveniences.

If you like this idea, here are some things you can do:

  • Follow Sol Design Lab on FB, Twitter or other social media
  • Contact them to see about installing a SolarPump at your event, campus, etc.
  • Donate to keep this great idea alive
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Good News: Container-Filling Stations

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Jane Lindley

reusable water bottleI never would have thought about container-filling stations if it wasn’t for Green Gal  who left a comment on my post about giving up soda and plastic water bottles (I know, a lot to ask).

What is a container- or bottle-filling station you might ask? It’s a lot like a water fountain with a mission. A mission to make it easier for people to carry water without creating more demand for plastic bottle production or disposal. Its a water fountain with a spigot to make filling a reusable water bottle easy. Yup, that’s right, less negative impact on our friend the earth.

Green Gal goes to UC Santa Cruz where they have a campaign to install water bottle filling stations, Take Back the Tap.  “Take Back the Tap UCSC is an initiative to end the sale and distribution of bottled water on our campus by Earth Day 2014.” You can see photos of water-bottle-filling stations on their FaceBook page, if you are curious.

I know a lot of you fill your reusable containers using regular old water fountains, but it’s not always satisfying, right? Maybe you can’t fill your container to the top, or you have a fear of water-fountain germs, in either case, filling stations solve those issues.

What I like about the filling stations is that it encourages reusable bottles and makes them the norm instead of the exception. And, isn’t that what we need to do to create a more sustainable world? Allow cultural shifts that make living sustainably feel normal instead of fringe, which is how I feel sometimes when I bring reusable containers and bags to the grocery store for bulk food.

If you think this is a good idea and think that all institutions should install them then (and, maybe businesses, I know you were thinking that too!) you’ll be glad to know there is a whole Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education – woot! They have a conference and expo October 6-9th, 2013 in Nashville, TN, in case you’re an educator interested in sustainability.

There are so many good initiatives, programs, and products that are being developed in response to climate change. It’s good to remember that in the face of all the depressing environmental news and not give up on leading a sustainable lifestyle.

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Organic Fertilizer, Farming and Food

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Jane Lindley

organic food, farmingI don’t know about you, but I thought organic food was 100% goodness. Good for humans, good for the earth. So, you can imagine my surprise when I read Conservation Magazine’s Fertility Treatments article and found it’s mostly good but not 100% fabulous. I felt a little bamboozled needed to generate a couple quick lists to see where everything stood.

Certified Organic: The Plus Side

  • Produce is not treated with synthetic pesticides, only natural pesticides, if needed and available
  • Synthetic hormones, antibiotics or other medications are not used on livestock
  • Livestock eat organic feed
  • No genetically modified organisms (GMOs), so plant and animals are as nature intended
  • Fertilizers are made up of animal manure, compost, green manures
  • Farming involves crop rotations and cover crops to keep the soil fertile
  • Fertilizers don’t exhaust the soil.

Certified Organic: The Downside

Both synthetic and organic fertilizers share the problem of nutrient runoff into sensitive aquatic ecosystems. But, after looking at my lists, organic still wins. Conservation Magazine’s article suggests that the best solution might be combining synthetic (for its timed release of nitrogen) and organic fertilizers (to keep soil fertile) to get the best results.

Best Way to Reduce Food-Related Carbon Emissions

Hint: eat less meat (and dairy). You weren’t expecting that were you?

Here’s why. “Most nitrogen fertilizer in the U.S. goes directly into the production of corn. The majority of that corn goes to feed cows [steer].” And, as the article points out, only 40% of the steer is edible.  “It takes about 140 pounds of nitrogen to grow an acre of corn, but closer to 60 pounds to grow an acre of kale – a crop that people eat.”

We need to shorten the distance between fertilization and human consumption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which we can do by eating more fruit and vegetables.

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Got Solar Panel Will Kayak

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Jane Lindley
Joos solar panel.

Joos solar panel strapped to my kayak deck.

Or, should I say: Got Joos?

Just because I love nature, the great outdoors and mother earth doesn’t mean I don’t have instant withdrawals if separated from my devices. I’m a modern nature lover. You need to know this about me.

As a modern girl, I like to have it all: low impact on the earth and access to email, social media, everything my iPhone provides. Joos was the answer to stay connected on my recent five-day kayak trip. A Joos Orange solar panel and a LifeProof case for my phone (newer phones are smartly waterproof from the get-go) were a great combo. What follows is a mini review of both.

Joos Orange
I bought my first Joos a few years ago for a week-long hiking trip. It struggled to power up as I hiked through the shady forests of the Pacific NW but still outperformed my friend’s lighter-weight solar panel and everyone on the trip ended up using it instead of what they had brought. It charges devices quickly.

At 11 x 2 x 8 inches, and 2.2 pounds it’s not ideal for hiking, but it is PERFECT for kayaking. First, it’s waterproof, and second, it’s bulletproof (well, not exactly, but it’s really tough). And, sitting on the kayak deck it happily soaks up the sun all day long – even on overcast days.

It’s super easy to use, just plug the correct adapter (iPhone, iPod, micro, mini and female USB are available) into the solar panel to charge your device. There is a system of blinks that tells you how full your solar panel is, but if you’ve had it in the sun for a few hours its ready to charge.

Lifeproof

The waterproof case allowed me to keep my phone in the front pocket of my life vest for spur-of-the moment photos. So important. Example: ferry just missing us by mere meters? I got that!

I captured our entire trip, even emailing my husband before treacherous crossings then posting lovely evening shots on social media. Bliss.

There are only two drawbacks to the case:

  1. The ear bud port cover doesn’t have a tether so it’s easily lost. And, once its lost the case is no longer waterproof. It does come with a backup port cover, but that wouldn’t do much good if I lost the only one on hand.
  2. I had to take the entire case off to power up each evening with Joos. Normally, the case doesn’t need to be removed (and the reason it’s better than the Survivor case by Catalyst for iPhone 4S ) it was just that the Joos adapter didn’t work well with case.

It’s so great to be a nature-loving tech-head in the modern world. I recommend both Joos Orange and Lifeproof if you’d like to get back to nature without leaving absolutely everything behind.

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