This Moment in Sun Valley

Did you know that this nation uses 18 billion disposable diapers each year?

Did you know that those 18 billion diapers add up to 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or about 250,000 trees?

Did you have any idea that it takes about five hundred years to biodegrade that handy little cover on your baby’s bottom?

Disposable diapers are only one of the many environmental problems Senator John Kerry and his wife, philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry highlight in their latest book, This Moment on Earth.

And while it’s easy to point fingers or simply resign ourselves to an inevitable environmental doomsday, this power couple (and longtime Sun Valley visitors) remain hopeful.

Speaking to a packed room at the Community Library in Ketchum, Mrs. Kerry quoted her husband, Senator Kerry (who was stuck in the Senate in Washington) saying, “Tell them it’s possible, it’s really possible, we just have to do it”.

Their message: Yes the environment is in trouble. Our air is toxic. Our water is toxic. Our food is toxic. But we don’t have to be radical environmentalists or die-hard tree huggers to be active - - it truly is the little things that count (biking to work instead of driving, supporting local and organic farmers, and of course using reusable diapers).