Christmas time is upon us, only 10 days left to C-Day, so why not start giving early this season and starting with giving a present to our planet. Challenge yourself to reduce your footprint on the next 10 days. Christmas is usually a time of giving and sharing, an occasion to spend time with your loved ones, but also a time of excess and waste. Christmas shouldn’t be a burden on the environment, so how can you make a sustainable Christmas this year? Here are a couple of ideas:

-          Use LED lights for your Christmas lighting, LED lights use 95% less energy than the traditional Christmas light bulbs;

-          Turn off all of your Christmas Lights when you go to sleep (don’t worry Santa can see in the dark);

-          Send your friends homemade cards this year, besides being fun and more personal it’s a great way of using eco-friendly or recycled materials (show your friends you care about the environment);

-          Upgrade your present wrapping, instead of using the usual wrapping paper adhere to the Japanese tradition of furoshiki and wrap your gifts with a beautiful scarf (watch the video for the techniques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0lleTXeQI).

Follow Thread Lightly Portugal on Facebook for more daily tips and advices, or on Hi5.

So why not start today reducing your impact with something as easy as a LOW Carbon Lunch. Out of ideas, then let me inspire you with a small tasty recipe that I’ll be making myself too: Cauliflower and Potato Curry with Rice. It’s easy to make, quick and tasty. It’s Local since I bought all of the fresh produce at the farmers market close to my house, which also made it waste free, and it’s organic too since my usual seller is a very pleasant and chatty old lady that grows them with her husband on the terrains behind their house. Here’s the recipe:

In a skillet melt two tablespoons of butter.  Sauté 1 diced onion, 5 cloves of finely diced garlic and 1 and a half tablespoons of fresh sliced ginger. Cook until the onions are translucent.  Add 1 tablespoon of curry powder and 1 tablespoon of turmeric.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Continue sautéing for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  

 In a large pot add a cup of water, 1 large head of cauliflower divided into florets, 2 cubed and peeled potatoes and 2 peeled and diced carrots. Add masala mixture and stir to coat the veggies in masala.  Add water as necessary and cook on a medium heat until the veggies are just tender.  Add 2 diced tomatoes and 1 cup of green peas and let it cook for 5 minutes.  If your curry is too tart add sugar to taste. Serve with rice.

Now you have no excuses. So step up to the challenge and have yourself a Merry Green Christmas.

400 Bad request

Your browser sent an invalid request.
Automatically translated into German thanks to WorldLingo

400 Bad request

Your browser sent an invalid request.

O Natal está à porta, só faltam 10 dias para o grande dia, então porque não começar as dádivas mais cedo e dar um presente ao nosso planeta. Desafie-se a reduzir a sua pegada ecológica nos próximos 10 dias. O Natal é uma época de dádiva e de partilha, uma época para passar mais tempo com os seus familiares, mas é também uma época de excessos e desperdícios. O Natal não deveria ser um fardo para o ambiente, como podemos então ter um Natal sustentável este ano? Aqui estão algumas ideias:

            - Use luzes LED na iluminação de Natal, as luzes LED utilizam 95% menos energia do que as lâmpadas natalícias habituais;

            - Desligue a iluminação de Natal quando for dormir (não se preocupe o Pai Natal consegue ver no escuro);

            - Envie aos seus amigos este ano postais feitos por si, para além de ser divertido e personalizado, é também uma excelente forma de usar materiais reciclados (mostre aos seus amigos que se importa com o ambiente);

            - Re-invente a forma como embrulha os seus presentes, em vez de utilizar o tradicional papel de embrulho adira à tradição japonesa do furoshiki e embrulhe os seus presentes num bonito lenço (veja o vídeo para aprender as várias técnicas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0lleTXeQI).

Siga no Facebook ou no Hi5 o Tread Lightly Portugal para saber mais dicas e truques diários.

Então porque não começar já hoje a reduzir o seu impacto fazendo algo tão simples como um Almoço BAIXO em Carbono. Está sem ideias então deixe-me inspira-lo com uma saborosa receita que eu própria também vou fazer: Caril de Couve Flor e Batata. É fácil de fazer, rápida e saborosa. É uma refeição Local já que comprei os legumes no mercado perto de minha casa, o que fez também que não gastasse resíduos com a embalagem e o transporte dos mesmos, e é também orgânica já que a simpática senhora que mos vendeu os cultivou no pequeno terreno que tem. Aqui está a receita:

Numa sertã derreter 2 colheres de sopa de manteiga. Salteie uma cebola cortada, 5 alhos cortados finamente, e uma colher e meia de chá de gengibre fresco cortado em pedacinhos. Cozinhe até as cebolas estarem transparentes. Junte uma colher de sopa de pó de caril e uma colher de sopa de turmeric. Adicione sal e pimenta a gosto. Continue a saltear por mais 3 minutos, mexendo sempre.

Num tacho grande adicione uma chávena de água, uma cabeça grande de couve flor cortada em pedaços, 2 batatas descascadas e cortadas em cubos, e 2 cenouras descascadas e cortadas em pedaços pequenos. Junte mistura de masala e mexa bem de forma a que os legumes fiquem cobertos por ela. Junte a água necessária e cozinhe em lume médio até os legumes ficarem suaves. Junte 2 tomates cortados em cubos e 1 chávena de ervilhas, e deixe cozinhar por 5 minutos. Prove o caril e adicione açúcar ao seu  gosto. Sirva com arroz.  

Agora já não tem desculpas. Aceite o desafio e tenha um Natal Verde.

The food system is responsible for one third of the greenhouse gases emissions of the world, one can reduce global warming through the food choices that are made. I decided that the first measure towards becoming a greener me would be to start a Low Carbon Diet.

But what is exactly a Low Carbon Diet? A quick search on Google directed me to Low Carbs Diets or recipes, the search engine immediately assumed I made a mistake and disregarded the Carbon in the sentence.

After some time I finally managed to find some links that helped me to understand this type of eating better (http://www.1010global.org/101010/lunch ; http://co2lunch.tigweb.org/ ). A low carbon lunch should have 3 main features:
- It should be local (the products used should be bought in local farmers markets so you have the guarantee that they were grown in your region)
- It should be organic (eating food that was produced without the use of pesticides or chemical products is good for you and the environment)
- and it should be waste free (packed and transported in reusable containers)

Seems easy, no? After two weeks of trying to eat with such simple changes it has proven to be harder than it seemed. I found out that the only way to fill in all of the three requirements would be to buy food from the only local market around where I live, that is held on Friday mornings every week. This requires a lot of pre-planning from my part, as well as time management, to make sure I can drop by at lunch time for some quick shopping, and that I purchase most of the food I’ll be using during the week. I have noticed however an increase in the quality and taste of the food produces I use, as well as a drastic reduction in the waste that is produced. This is also good for my wallet, as these produces are usually cheaper than the ones bought in the supermarket.

However I still haven’t managed to cut down the dependence I have with buying products (that I have forgotten to get in the farmers market) from supermarkets. To reduce the impact I buy in small local grocery stores, and I make sure that the food has been grown nationally and that it is from the season.

I have also given up beef, milk and yogurts from my dietary habits (I’m still hanging on to a bit of cheese every now and then :-/ ). The meat and dairy production is responsible for a large number of the greenhouse gases emissions, however there are healthier and more carbon friendly alternatives. The consumption of free range chicken get’s me my “meat fix”, and largely reduces the carbon values of my meals.

I must admit that leading a busy lifestyle I struggled in the beginning with coming up with recipes that were low in carbon, since the online resources are somehow limited. But after getting the hang of it, and fully understanding the basic principles and the reasons behind them, the implementation process of the rules for a low carbon meal have now become automatic. Soon I’ll be sharing with you some of my low carbon recipes.

O meu nome é Diana vivo em Portugal e calço o 36. Gosto de comer gelados no verão e de longos passeios pela praia onde deixo as minhas pequenas pegadas. Mas quão grande será a minha pegada ecológica?
Decidi descobrir, por isso decidi usar o calculador da pegada ecológica disponibilizado pela Tread Lightly
( http://treadlightly.tigweb.org/challenges/ ). Aqui estão os resultado:

"Se todos no mundo vivessem como você precisaríamos de 3 planetas para vivermos. Você está perto da média do Reino unido de 3 planetas. " :(

E eu que pensava estar no bom caminho e que tinha um estilo de vida bastante sustentável. A minha pegada ecológica é de 5.5 e produzo 12.8 toneladas de emissões de carbono.

Decidi então aderir ao Desafio Tread Lightly ( http://treadlightly.tigweb.org/challenges/ ) e começar tomando medidas para reduzir a minha pegada ecológica nos próximos 8 meses.

Neste blog espero partilhar convosco os meus planos e progressos para ter pegadas mais verdes. :)