s

SmellyBlog

💚🌎💚Happy Earth Day! 🌍💚🌏

💚🌎💚Happy Earth Day! 🌍💚🌏

Celebrating & Appreciating Earth - Commitment to Sustainability, Diversity & Social Justice

Hello and Happy Earth Day!
 
Ayala Moriel Parfums Celebrates 20 Years of Perfumery & Incense Making this year - and nothing means more to me than making this business as sustainable as possible!

Last month we officially kicked off the celebrations by inviting you to join our fundraiser for the Mediterranean oil spill cleanup. And I'm thrilled to be the bearer of good news: 
The first one is that the beaches are almost clean! 
The second is that in March alone, you helped me fundraise almost $1400 that are donated to two organizations that deliver solutions to the tragedy of bitumen cleanup: Zalul/Mediterreanean Sea People and EcoOcean.

Thanks to an unprecedented volunteer drive that relentlessly cleaned the beaches all along Israel, in what was the largest ecological disaster yet - I'm happy to report that now the beaches are clean enough to enjoy this summer, both to sunbathe on the almost tar-free sand, as well as swim without having an oily film cling to one's skin and choke on toxic fumes. However, the reefs and underwater rocks still need professional and volunteer divers to clear away some bitumen that sank and stuck to rocks. So our work here is not done yet. 

These two organizations we're donating to, have not only actively and effectively mobilized volunteers to clean the beaches, and continue to lead the underwater cleanup - they are also demanding to develop legislation to protect from future oil spills, which is of utmost importance. Therefore, I will continue to donate to  Zalul/Mediterreanean Sea People and EcoOcean this year and beyond, as much as possible. And of course, by choosing my products you are also a partner in these efforts to make the oceans cleaner. 
 
Additionally, I encourage you to donate directly to similar organizations you believe in that protest land, sea and freshwater where you live. And take steps, both big and small, to make life on earth better for all the coming generations.

Here are just some of the things we do at Ayala Moriel Parfums to make the planet more sustainable and diverse, keeping in mind alway social justice, which is an inseparable issue of climate change: 

- Our studio is powered by renewable resource: The Sun.
- We use the best quality, natural and toxin free materials for our products.
- We source as much as possible and available from fair-trade suppliers, organic growers and sustainable crops. 
- We reduce our waste as much possible, in both the manufacturing process and packaging. For instance: bottles are reusable (which is why we haven't used crimped bottles); outer packaging for the bottles is also reusable or made from sustainable resources (i.e.: burlap pouches, and handmade paper made from local paper mulberry by a local paper artisan). We continuously strive to better our packaging to fit our philosophy of taking care of the Earth and reducing waste and unnecessary consumption as much as possible. 
- We use shipping materials take as little space as possible (which ultimately cuts on fuel in shipping), and for orders that require boxes, we are reusing carton boxes and packing paper (in fact, we're still reusing wrapping paper from our big move from Canada to Israel). 
- We go through great lengths to provide you with products that are of high quality, and that can be cherished for a long time.  
- We never pressure anyone to buy more than they need. 
- We grow some of our own plants and ethically forage some plants to make our own extracts. 
- We work and live within walking distance to avoid unnecessary fossil burning.
- Reduce plastic to a minimum in all of our packaging. 

Wherever you are - find your way to make a positive imprint on earth, making your community more sustainable, cleaner, more lively and diverse. Be it eating and shopping local, planting trees each year, or making a commitment to protecting a certain habitat. And wherever you go, leave it in a better shape than you've found it. 

Splitting of the Sea


Today is the 7th day of Passover, which commemorates the Splitting of the Sea. The Red Sea, that is. A sea that has probably already lost so much of its wildlife thanks to human greed (too much fishing, too much boat traffic, too much garbage in the oceans, and too many tourists stepping on the coral reefs and taking souvenirs that don't belong to them). 
This is supposed to be a happy day; but instead, I've gotten the news about the oil tanker spill in English Bay.

There is no way to sugar-coat it. There is no silver lining. My heart goes to all the seals (whom I consider my swimming buddies), the whales, the fish, cormorants, seagulls, geese, mallards and other migrating marine birds; the starfish, jellyfish, crabs, seaweed, muscles and even the scratchy barnacles. 

Not to mention - I feel more than a little sorry for myself for needing to abstain from outdoors swimming this summer just because we have an irresponsible government that cares more about money and sucking up to the rich rather than truly investing in sustainable and harmless energy resources (which Canada is blessed with an abundance of).
This post is not intended to make you feel sad, but to make you so angry that me and my fellow Canadians will take to the streets and protest, send Harper and the other criminals in his government massive numbers of emails and letters; and do everything in our power to change the leadership of this country to one that cares about the future of the land, sea, air, wildlife and wellbeing of its citizens. 

"1) The federal government took more than 12 hours to notify the city of Vancouver about the spill. 
2) A special pollution response boat formerly stationed at the now closed Kitsilano Coast Guard base is sitting empty with no crew at Sea Island base in Richmond. It is designed to deal with this type of spill and could have been at the site in 6 minutes had they not closed the station last year.
3) They have recovered close to one tonne of oil, which is likely less than 10% of the total spill.
4) In the best of circumstances, a successful clean up recovers 10-15% of the oil. So, when the government talks about "world class oil spill response" that's what they're aiming for.
5) Bunker fuel is a viscous liquid that is considered toxic and both an acute and chronic health hazard.
6) Bunker fuel is similar in nature to diluted bitumen, which would be transported by the proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline and into more than 400 oil super tankers a year through English Bay.
(quote from Jodi Stark)"

Sorry, this is not related to perfume. Oh, I wish I was able to sell a lot more of my products to have the buying power to save the seas and oceans and keep our blue planet's water clean...  


Update on Sunday, April 12th: It's "only" 2.7 tonne of toxic fuel. And there is now only 6 litres that are not recovered. But nevertheless, very discouraging to see the inefficiency of response and lack of coordination from the authorities. Not to mention - without the forced closure of Kitsilano Coast Guard Station (by the Federal Government, lead by Steven Harper) - this could have been avoided if not dealt with much quicker (AKA within 6 minutes rather than 6 hours!). 
Back to the top