Green Dreamer Podcast with Kaméa Chayne

Green Dreamer Podcast with Kaméa Chayne

Elevating Sustainability, Bringing Eco Ideas to Life

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Green Dreamer Podcast with Kaméa Chayne is a show for eco creatives, visionaries, and entrepreneurs exploring how we can cultivate sustainability in all areas of our lives and in our passion projects helping our planet thrive. If you’re dreaming of a biodiverse, harmonious, and healthy world to call home, this podcast is here to inspire and activate the change maker in you, and to support you and all that you do.

 

 

Eco pioneers, revolutionary thinkers, and leading creatives you can look forward to hearing from as guests include Adrian Grenier – UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador, actor-entrepreneur, and Co-Founder of Lonely Whale Foundation; Bea Johnson, who launched the global zero waste movement; Orsola de Castro – Co-Founder of Fashion Revolution; Xiuhtezcatl Martinez – indigenous environmental activist, hip hop artist, and Youth Director of Earth Guardians; Nikki Silvestri – Founder of Soil and Shadow named one of The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans; and more.

 

 

Together, we dive into what it takes to elevate sustainability as a top priority in this time of need; how we can inspire more harmony and connection in our world; and what we need to cut through the noise to bring our eco ideas and purpose-driven ventures to life.

 

 

Subscribe now in iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and sign up below to receive exclusive weekly highlights from the show.

Weekly Highlights

  • You know what we take for granted? Rain!🌧 . Let’s picture a massive continent with nothing on it. Just land.🌎✨ . Initially, rain would just come from ocean water evaporating, and then those clouds blown a bit inland to rain at the coasts. There’s a limit to that, though. Those clouds can only be blown in to rain a few hundred miles inland.🌊🌧 . Technically, at this stage, the land further inland would all be desert. So how did we first get rain away from the coasts? COASTAL FORESTS!🌲🌧 . Coastal forests first were able to thrive off the coastal rain water, so those forests could grow inland a few hundred miles. But the amazing thing “function” of forests we take for granted is their ability to hold water.🌲💙 . Every time it rains at the coasts, coastal forests drink and retain a lot of that moisture. But then they keep that area moist as they release water back into the atmosphere. To be exact, “each summer, trees use up to 8,500 cubic yard of water per square mile, which they release into the air through transpiration.”🌲🌈 . From those trees, water vapor creates new clouds that can then get blown further inland to make rain possible there to grow more trees. Those forests then hold moisture, release water which creates clouds to get blown even further inland, eventually able to reach the very interiors of the continent despite being so far away from the ocean.😱🌊 . The vitally key takeaway is - in order for this massive water “pumping” system to work, coastal forests must remain as much as possible intact. If we allow forests on the coasts to be cut down, it could literally change the climate for the continent, and this system for bringing water inland could be broken.🙈☀️ . Yet another eye-opening finding I learned from The Hidden Life of Trees to show how messing with the ways our ecosystems function can have hugely devastating, perhaps lesser widely understood impacts.💦💦 . So beyond protecting forests just b/c we love nature, here’s a top-of-agenda reason for policy makers to protect and put an invaluable price tag on forests. We need them to bring us fresh water for public health, our crops and food, and our survival.🌎🙏🏼
  • Oops I caved in. As you might know, August is #NoNewClothes month to raise awareness for how disposable (& unsustainable) fashion has become.🙅🏻‍♀️🌎 . Fast fashion (e.g., Zara, H&M) churn out new clothes with cheap materials (often micro-plastics like polyester) and often underpaid labor in ~5 weeks (compared to the 6-9+ month cycle for traditional fashion brands).🙈🙈 . And ULTRA fast fashion is even a thing now to compete with fast fashion - these brands churn out clothes from concept to retail in as little as 2 weeks. Again, made possible at this insane speed, at such low costs, because of cheap labor, exploitation of natural resources, and the use of cheap materials and chemicals.🙊🙊 . One of my env studies professors @ Uni said - “there ain’t no free lunch in this world.” Fast fashion has cheap price tags only because it’s just costly elsewhere - for the wellbeing of makers, the environment, animals involved, and us as wearers via toxic chemical residues.🙉🙉 . On top of this, cheap clothes usually only last weeks, worn a few times before they’re shoved into the back of the closet, forgotten, or just thrown out. Our mindless rates of buying and throwing clothes out, coupled with most of fast fashion being made with cheap plastic (nonbiodegrdadable), is clogging up our landfills and creating an environmental crisis, while also highlighting our modern society’s ongoing emotional hunger and insatiable appetite.🤔🤔 . I’m human with desires, though learning to slowww down. More and more, I’m taking pleasure in shopping secondhand or vintage. And at the same time, I’m letting “wants” sit for weeks / months before deciding to buy something from a conscious fashion brand.🌸 . I made it through half of August suppressing urges to buy anything at all, but @Reformation is having a sale right now so I caved in to get something I’d been eyeing a while.💃🏻 . Well, totally failed this challenge, but I hope to keep letting impulse desires fade and to the best of my ability, purchase with intention from brands on a mission to make our planet a fairer and greener place to call home.💚 . Are you taking on the #NoNewClothes challenge or have done something like it?🌎
  • “We rise by lifting others.” This was @verenaerin ’s favorite quote she shared on EP23 of @GreenDreamerPodcast that stuck with me.🙏🏼🌎💛 . Another mind-blowing thing I learned from The Hidden Life of Trees is that when there are sick and weak trees in an ancient forest, neighboring trees of the same species will feed them nutrients to help them heal and get better. Because as cheesy as it sounds, trees know they’re stronger when every other tree in the forest is strong.🌲🌎✨ . When there are gaps in a forest, for example, harsh weather is more likely to devastate trees exposed to that opening. So it’s in every tree’s best interest to have its surrounding trees be thriving.🌲🌲🌲 . Beyond ensuring they get enough nutrients, water, and sunlight themselves, they develop supportive relationships (apparently trees couple up, they have families, and younglings too) with their neighbors and the fungal network underneath that connect them to the larger “wood wide web,” as author Peter Wohlleben calls it.😱🌲🌱 . Tune in to episode 42 @GreenDreamerPodcast (iTunes, Spotify, any podcast app) to hear more about this and better yet, read the book with me!🤓🤓🤓 . For now, I’m learning from the wisdom of trees that we’ll collectively be stronger when we work together. Especially in the name of a healthier planet to explore and call home for us all, collaboration, celebration of all the good, and support for one another may be key. Thank you for all you did this week for your loved ones, all of your acts of kindness, and steps to strengthen your wellbeing and the health of our planet.🙏🏼🌎✨
  • x @natashatonic // I told you about this pioneering eco brand making its swimsuits out of hemp/organic cotton blends (instead of the conventional virgin microplastics like polyester and nylon) last week.🌎🧘🏻‍♀️ . What I didn’t tell you yet is... . These pieces, because they’re made with natural, breathable fabric, they can also be worn as underwear, yoga wear, sports bra, loungewear... etc.💃🏻✨ . Yo... for a quite lazy person like me this is dream come true. I can now wake up, get dressed in @natashatonic, get work done, hit the gym, then jump right into the pool or ocean after. On the road, this also means packing a few less pieces. Timelessness in style, versatility in function, breathability for my sensitive skin, earth conscious fibers.🙏🏼💙 . Let’s just say... for the next place I’ll be traveling to and exploring... (will share with you soon where I’m nomading to) I’ll be wearing my NT pieces a ton.🌺🌊 . For now, follow @natashatonic to keep up with her stunning new designs!🌎💙 . [#ConsciousFashion proud partner]
  • Let them grow! Fun finding: International researchers pulled together data after looking at 700,000 trees around the world, and found that perhaps contrary to common belief, the older trees get, the more quickly they grow.🌎🌲✨ . This means older trees can sequester more carbon more quickly, and are more productive and livelier in forests than their younger pals.🌲🌱 . And this also puts into question previous thoughts that cutting down trees after they reach some (young) age is good for “refreshing” and rejuvenating forests.🧐🧐 . Other than mindfully managed forests intended for logging, where wood from younger trees is more valuable, “if we want to use forests as a weapon in the fight against climate change [and restore our planet’s wellbeing and ours], then we must allow [trees] to grow old, which is exactly what large conservation groups are asking us to do.”🌲🌲🌲 . I’m currently reading “The Secret Life of Trees: what they feel, how they communicate” - have you read it or heard of it? It’s completely transformed my experience walking in parks, down side walks, and in the woods, getting to understand their complexity, intelligence beyond current scientific understanding, ability to learn, and even the ability to communicate through scent and their “brain-like” root systems that give off chemical messages through measurable electrical impulses.😱🌲 . Will share more of what I learn with you soon, but I’m half way in and already know this is a (NYT bestseller) book I’d HIGHLY recommend to every human on this planet. Maybe it’ll inspire you to see the world with new eyes like it’s done for me.💙✨
  • Right now, known carcinogens such as Formaldehyde are often used to treat and finish fabrics used for our clothes, and chemicals banned in certain countries for their toxicity are often still used when these clothes are manufactured overseas (then imported and sold) where they’re not regulated strictly.🙈 . I focus so much on looking out for OEKOTEX certified (no toxic chemical residues) clothes or clothes finished only with natural dyes because of our health - skin is our largest organ. To say (what’s often tossed around) “our skin absorbs 60% of everything we put on it” is a falsified, oversimplified over exaggeration - our skin definitely doesn’t drink up over half of whatever we put on it - it is a very functional protective barrier that is great at keeping toxins out or just at the skin’s surface layers.🙏🏼 . But there are chemicals like Formaldehyde that we can inhale (which can then easily go into our bloodstreams via our lungs), and also ones that can penetrate skin’s barrier into our bodies. When we sweat and our pores open up, we might more easily allow these chemicals into our pores as well (I used to frequently get rashes when sweating wearing cheap fast fashion synthetic clothing).🌵 . Research has also shown synthetic fabrics, which require dispersive chemical dyes (since micro plastics can’t “absorb” dyes but rather just have chemical dyes sit on top of the plastic), are more likely to cause / aggravate skin allergies.🧐 . With all fo this in mind, my take is - the next step is to push for clothing labels to be required to have an “ingredients list” showing what chemicals, dyes, and fibers from where were used. How? I’m not sure - I’ll dig deeper into this and share what I learn but if you have any thoughts on this, or experience with skin sensitivities to clothing, or weird rashes from unknown sources, let me know in the comments!💙🌎✨ . #ConsciousFashion details: 5+ y/o top, @Reformation linen pants, @byfar_official Conscious Collection (made from leather trims leftover in factories from larger brands that would otherwise be trashed).

With @kameachayne