Articles Written by Julie Hancher

I'm taking a brief intermission from our normal "Friday Quick Tip" column to urge you to donate anything, (even a $5 or $10 spot) to the Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy Victims. Donate to the Red Cross Disaster Efforts Give Blood to the Red Cross (They had to cancel blood drives because of the hurricane.) After all, who hasn't enjoyed the outdoors of the Jersey Shore, NYC skylines or PA nature?

Are you an Instagram all-star? Or can you put your creative iPhone hat on for a minute to say why you SEPTA Philly? SEPTA is trying to get younger, hipper public transit riders by launching a SEPTA Instagram Contest starting today. SEPTA commuters are encouraged to (Find out about the contest, how to enter and what SWEET prizes you can win, after the jump!)

Although I have the beloved nicknames of “hippie”, “recycle nazi” and a few others, I tend to be proud with my green choices. But I still keep a few of my green habits on the DL. Why? Mostly because I try to maintain a low profile and not be the 'angry green' girl. Or the weird girl with the green habits. Ready for my reveal of bizarre habits?

Many critics (including us) questioned why climate change wasn't mentioned during the Presidential Debates. Mitt Romney even used climate change as a punchline. But could we be seeing Climate Change forced in front of our eyes right before a monumental election? Hurricane Sandy isn't just half as big as Texas - She's set to be an unprecedented storm of our lifetime. Scientists predicted that global warming would intensify North Atlantic hurricanes, but Frankenstorm (Find out more about Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change, after the jump!)

It's an exciting week for petaling! The 2012 Philly Bike Expo is this weekend on October 27-28 at the 23rd Street Armory (22 S. 23rd St). A range of (Find out about the Bike Expo this weekend AND the latest bike commuting stat, after the jump!)

The air's crisp and the leaves are turning color... which means that we'll be filled with an abundance of leaves on our streets, houses and curbs soon enough. Which leads to... Philadelphia's Bagged Leaf Drive 2012 (by the Streets Department) is approaching! What do you need to know for this year?

With 2 shares to go, I've endured 20 weeks of overflowing, fresh, local veggies in my fridge. Sharing a Red Earth Farm CSA share with two of my BFF's was one of the best decisions I made! Unsure about the experience or new to CSAs? Here are 8 things I learned from my experience:

Tired of flimsy plastic bags of beans, rice & quinoa in your cupboard? But how can you make your trip even greener?

You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but you don't have to worry about that here in Philly. Right? Nonprofit 5 Gyres rolled into town Monday to share their findings of sailing around the world on a plastic pollution studies mission. And the results were shocking. The 5 Gyres Last Straw Plastic Pollution Solutions Bike Tour kicked off