The idea of an eco-calendar first came to us more than fifteen years ago, in 2005. Our plan was to provide information on everyday environmental protection beyond the mere function of a calendar.
The Eco-Calendar is part of a new generation of calendars that are half calendar-half book publications. Every two to four calendar weeks, two to four pages of environmental information: ideas, facts, recipes, addresses.
We can do a lot for our environment without governments, without intergovernmental agreements, without any outside help. Everyday environmental protection, which children in many Western European countries learn in kindergarten, does not require any major lifestyle changes, extra work or investment - it can be done simply and painlessly. If we know what to do. That's what the calendar helps you do.
We published the calendar two years in a row, in 2005 and 2006, but at the time it fell on deaf ears: we couldn't find a bookshop or a stationery store willing to distribute it.
In the foreword to the calendar I write the following:
"Environmental protection has come increasingly to the fore in recent years - at least verbally. In recent years, environmental protection has almost always been on the agenda, at least in the public eye. Despite this, the state of our environment is deteriorating alarmingly. Road traffic, industrial production, the use of synthetic sprays and fertilisers in intensive agriculture, ubiquitous mobile phone taxes, the use of nuclear energy, electrosmog, the poisons in our homes and, not least, the poisons in our food are reaching ever more alarming proportions. As early as the 1950s, the German Professor Eichholz warned of the pollution of the Earth and introduced the term 'toxische Gesamtsituation' (toxic overall situation). Since then, environmental movements have grown stronger and states have held international conferences to try to reach agreements to curb the damage. But while these efforts are moving forward at a snail's pace, the destruction of our natural assets is moving at the speed of a fast train."
If I were writing this today, I would only change the text like this: the destruction of our natural assets is moving at the speed of a supersonic airplane...
The calendar talks about architectural biology, which sees our houses and buildings as our third skin, the aspects of architectural biology, the possibilities of treating wood, the versatility of wood ash, nettle as a biofertiliser and liquid fertiliser, washing and environmentally friendly versions of detergents, and tricks for spot cleaning, ethical banks that don't charge interest to those who lend them money, eco-banking where investors can decide on the projects in which their capital is used, the calendar also covers the fashion disease candida and the real causes of the phenomenon, the downsides of intensive animal husbandry and many other topics, both well-known and less well-known.
The text of the calendar was collected, selected, compiled and partly written by Dr. Judit Benda
Réka Könczey, Andrea S. Nagy's Greenhouse guidebook was used for the texts of the calendars.
Other authors are Györgyi Barta and Ágnes Győrffy.