I can't seem to focus on this blog, so here's the obligatory "I might not be blogging for awhile" post. Look out, here it comes:
Yep, folks, whoever is reading this thing, it's not because I don't care about the planet. I just don't have the time to blog. Time management continues to be one of those skills that needs refinement. So while I always keep my love for creation close, here's the skinny: I work, I run a choir, I host a bible study, I give guitar (and banjo) lessons, I try to snag the occasional gig or two, I'm looking to record, I practice, and... I have to do all the normal people things, too, like shop for groceries and yell at Comcast about how I don't think I should have to pay sixty bucks for internet.
Right now I just want to focus on my job, my music, and drawing close to things that give me life. Unfortunately, the eco-blog doesn't currently rank on that list, but I'm hopeful that it will, someday. Possibly there will be a music blog, but I'm not keen on crossing the two different types of blogs. I dunno. I'll think about it. If you have an idea, I'm all ears.
Thanks for understanding. Catch ya on the flip side.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Go Veg, one day a week!
Ghent, Belgium was the first city in the world to go vegetarian one day a week. According to the article on Vegetarianism on Wikipedia:
It's just one city in a world of cities. But the decision is huge.
First things first -- your meat was once an animal. It ate a lot of food and drank a lot of water. The food it ate (probably some sort of grain) was grown somewhere. The food needed lots of water to grow.
From Time.com:
So, going vegetarian reduces water consumption. And note -- that's not "all hamburgers for the rest of your life." Just ONE hamburger = 40 showers (provided you're using a low-flow nozzle, probably about 5 gal/min).
Now, your pre-meat animal also contributed a lot of greenhouse gases. (Air pollution.) In 2006, the UN released these facts and info; meat production was found to have contributed 9% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions; 35-40% of the world's methane; 65% of the world's nitrous oxide; and 64% of the world's ammonia.
(And just FYI: In terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP): methane is about 21 times worse than carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide is 296 times worse than carbon dioxide.)
So, Going vegetarian reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And even if you don't believe in global warming, you should know that the World Health Organization estimates about 2 million premature deaths can be blamed on air pollution.
Finally, your pre-meat animal, as we said, ate a lot of grain. Did you know that people can eat grain just like animals can? Did you know that in the US, in 1999, 70% of all corn and grain produced went into the bellies of our pre-meat animals? Did you know that, according to Cornell ecology professor David Pimentel, "If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million"?
So: Going vegetarian increases the amount of total food in the world. Seriously... 800 million people?
I'm sorry if writing all this down makes meat-eating seem a bit... selfish. (But on the other hand, maybe it is and maybe a little guilt won't hurt you any.)
I should note that I, myself, am not completely vegetarian. I limit my consumption, but unfortunately I sort of forgot what I set as my limit. Originally it was supposed to be that I could eat meat two days a week, keep them lower on the food chain (poultry or fish). Red meat could be consumed about once a month. Honestly, I've slipped a little -- but reading facts like this is a wake-up call to myself about the reality of what I'm eating.
Anyway, take a note from Ghent, Belgium. Are you eating meat all week? Think you could go veg just one day? I believe that you can. Are you eating just a bit? Think you can cut back more? I believe that you can. Try it and see.
In May 2009, Ghent was reported to be "the first [city] in the world to go vegetarian at least once a week" for environmental reasons, when local authorities decided to implement a "weekly meatless day". Civil servants would eat vegetarian meals one day per week, in recognition of the United Nations' report. Posters were put up by local authorities to encourage the population to take part on vegetarian days, and "veggie street maps" were printed to highlight vegetarian restaurants. In September 2009, schools in Ghent are due to have a weekly veggiedag ("vegetarian day") too.
It's just one city in a world of cities. But the decision is huge.
First things first -- your meat was once an animal. It ate a lot of food and drank a lot of water. The food it ate (probably some sort of grain) was grown somewhere. The food needed lots of water to grow.
From Time.com:
To produce 1 lb. of feedlot beef requires 7 lbs. of feed grain, which takes 7,000 lbs. of water to grow. Pass up one hamburger, and you'll save as much water as you save by taking 40 showers with a low-flow nozzle.
So, going vegetarian reduces water consumption. And note -- that's not "all hamburgers for the rest of your life." Just ONE hamburger = 40 showers (provided you're using a low-flow nozzle, probably about 5 gal/min).
Now, your pre-meat animal also contributed a lot of greenhouse gases. (Air pollution.) In 2006, the UN released these facts and info; meat production was found to have contributed 9% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions; 35-40% of the world's methane; 65% of the world's nitrous oxide; and 64% of the world's ammonia.
(And just FYI: In terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP): methane is about 21 times worse than carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide is 296 times worse than carbon dioxide.)
So, Going vegetarian reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And even if you don't believe in global warming, you should know that the World Health Organization estimates about 2 million premature deaths can be blamed on air pollution.
Finally, your pre-meat animal, as we said, ate a lot of grain. Did you know that people can eat grain just like animals can? Did you know that in the US, in 1999, 70% of all corn and grain produced went into the bellies of our pre-meat animals? Did you know that, according to Cornell ecology professor David Pimentel, "If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million"?
So: Going vegetarian increases the amount of total food in the world. Seriously... 800 million people?
I'm sorry if writing all this down makes meat-eating seem a bit... selfish. (But on the other hand, maybe it is and maybe a little guilt won't hurt you any.)
I should note that I, myself, am not completely vegetarian. I limit my consumption, but unfortunately I sort of forgot what I set as my limit. Originally it was supposed to be that I could eat meat two days a week, keep them lower on the food chain (poultry or fish). Red meat could be consumed about once a month. Honestly, I've slipped a little -- but reading facts like this is a wake-up call to myself about the reality of what I'm eating.
Anyway, take a note from Ghent, Belgium. Are you eating meat all week? Think you could go veg just one day? I believe that you can. Are you eating just a bit? Think you can cut back more? I believe that you can. Try it and see.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
I'm an addict. An e-addict.
I need to confess something.
I’m addicted to the internet.
Checking e-mail becomes a 3-hour episode of “let’s look at everyone’s pictures on facebook.” Looking up a song to add to my repertoire becomes five hours of watching cats jump in boxes.
It sounds funny. It is kind of funny, but I find myself completely exhausted and kind of disillusioned about my ability to do anything.
I lose time, and time is precious when you’re a guitar teacher naturalist singer-songwriter choir director. So there’s that.
There’s also the notion that I don’t actually like being on the internet. I’m a tree-hugger, for cryin’ out loud. I don’t actually like sitting in front of a glowing screen all day. So it’s kind of bizarre that glowing screens can so easily ensnare me.
And then there’s the environmental side that I’m thinking of. Not so much my own computer – most personal computers these days are getting pretty energy-efficient. What I’m thinking of is the internet in general. How much electricity does it take to keep all these servers going, all the time, 24/7, and to air-condition the buildings they’re kept in? (They have to be air-conditioned, otherwise they could run too hot.)
I’ve got a general idea that each site or service has its own set of servers, and I vaguely understand that the more activity a site or service has, the more servers it needs. But I don’t get much beyond that, if there is anything about that.
The most electronics-deficient I’ve ever been was in Alaska. We had 20 minutes of satellite phone time a week. We also had a laptop that we’d use to input our data. We had electricity and all – just most of it we used to power the freezer, and some for the lightbulbs at night. I love situations where I’m working outside and I’m too busy for the internet. I always come home thinking, “YEAH, I’ll just stay off forever!”
I’m on again in less than a day.
Wendell Berry railed against "hypertext." But now people use it without even knowing that they use it. How simply can I be living if I have facebook, myspace, flickr, and a blog? Not to mention, some old website stuff on comcast. It's just such a huge part of our culture and our relationships now. I tried deleting facebook -- I think I lasted like a week, maybe. Best week ever, but... I have scads of friends in North Carolina who I enjoy spying on.
Anyway, I’ve tried setting boundaries for myself and they’re just so easily ignored. I don’t really know where to go from here.
I’m addicted to the internet.
Checking e-mail becomes a 3-hour episode of “let’s look at everyone’s pictures on facebook.” Looking up a song to add to my repertoire becomes five hours of watching cats jump in boxes.
It sounds funny. It is kind of funny, but I find myself completely exhausted and kind of disillusioned about my ability to do anything.
I lose time, and time is precious when you’re a guitar teacher naturalist singer-songwriter choir director. So there’s that.
There’s also the notion that I don’t actually like being on the internet. I’m a tree-hugger, for cryin’ out loud. I don’t actually like sitting in front of a glowing screen all day. So it’s kind of bizarre that glowing screens can so easily ensnare me.
And then there’s the environmental side that I’m thinking of. Not so much my own computer – most personal computers these days are getting pretty energy-efficient. What I’m thinking of is the internet in general. How much electricity does it take to keep all these servers going, all the time, 24/7, and to air-condition the buildings they’re kept in? (They have to be air-conditioned, otherwise they could run too hot.)
I’ve got a general idea that each site or service has its own set of servers, and I vaguely understand that the more activity a site or service has, the more servers it needs. But I don’t get much beyond that, if there is anything about that.
The most electronics-deficient I’ve ever been was in Alaska. We had 20 minutes of satellite phone time a week. We also had a laptop that we’d use to input our data. We had electricity and all – just most of it we used to power the freezer, and some for the lightbulbs at night. I love situations where I’m working outside and I’m too busy for the internet. I always come home thinking, “YEAH, I’ll just stay off forever!”
I’m on again in less than a day.
Wendell Berry railed against "hypertext." But now people use it without even knowing that they use it. How simply can I be living if I have facebook, myspace, flickr, and a blog? Not to mention, some old website stuff on comcast. It's just such a huge part of our culture and our relationships now. I tried deleting facebook -- I think I lasted like a week, maybe. Best week ever, but... I have scads of friends in North Carolina who I enjoy spying on.
Anyway, I’ve tried setting boundaries for myself and they’re just so easily ignored. I don’t really know where to go from here.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Hold off on that ark.
Yesterday, I was trying to get to work at the White Clay Creek State Park nature center, and I ran into a minor obstacle.
Much of the east coast got slammed Thursday by remnants of a tropical storm... or was it a hurricane? Anyway, it rained more than Hurricane Floyd. The flooding uprooted this bridge (which normally allows for car access to the nature center).
It turns out that the schools were all canceled anyway, which put a nix on the geology program we were supposed to run. That's probably a good thing, since the gravel bar that we normally go to was very much underwater.
According to the staff, the flooding will "recharge" the gravel bar, though, which basically means that the old rocks will move out and we'll get some new and exciting rocks.
This year, the White Clay Creek celebrated its tenth year as a National Wild and Scenic River. It's not a national park, but the designation is a partnership between locals and the National Park Service. In light of this flooding, it's a good thing that this land is all preserved.
In the first place, trees and other plants are HUGE help when it comes to preventing floods. Instead of going into the stream, water gets absorbed by trees. Their roots also aerate the soil, helping the water to go into the ground.
In the second place, most development that happens today actually increases flooding. This is basically because we like to create impermeable surfaces like parking lots, driveways, and rooftops, where water just slides right off where it used to be absorbed. So preserving land and protecting it from development helps decrease flooding.
Given these facts, it seems like it would be nice if we could develop responsibly -- making efforts to put back what we take from the earth, put those natural flood barriers in place when we remove them as a part of development -- but I'd argue that it's not only "nice." It's our responsibility.
Plus, everyone likes a parking lot with some trees in it anyhow.
Much of the east coast got slammed Thursday by remnants of a tropical storm... or was it a hurricane? Anyway, it rained more than Hurricane Floyd. The flooding uprooted this bridge (which normally allows for car access to the nature center).
It turns out that the schools were all canceled anyway, which put a nix on the geology program we were supposed to run. That's probably a good thing, since the gravel bar that we normally go to was very much underwater.
According to the staff, the flooding will "recharge" the gravel bar, though, which basically means that the old rocks will move out and we'll get some new and exciting rocks.
This year, the White Clay Creek celebrated its tenth year as a National Wild and Scenic River. It's not a national park, but the designation is a partnership between locals and the National Park Service. In light of this flooding, it's a good thing that this land is all preserved.
In the first place, trees and other plants are HUGE help when it comes to preventing floods. Instead of going into the stream, water gets absorbed by trees. Their roots also aerate the soil, helping the water to go into the ground.
In the second place, most development that happens today actually increases flooding. This is basically because we like to create impermeable surfaces like parking lots, driveways, and rooftops, where water just slides right off where it used to be absorbed. So preserving land and protecting it from development helps decrease flooding.
Given these facts, it seems like it would be nice if we could develop responsibly -- making efforts to put back what we take from the earth, put those natural flood barriers in place when we remove them as a part of development -- but I'd argue that it's not only "nice." It's our responsibility.
Plus, everyone likes a parking lot with some trees in it anyhow.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Onion's water bottle article
This is sort of a cop-out as a blog post, but I really think that the Onion captures the destructive force of nonchalance and false justification.
Click here to read the Jan 19, 2010 article: 'How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?' 30 Million People Wonder
It's funny because nearly every single one of us is guilty of at least one of those thoughts -- and we know it. It's not the behavior that really needs attention, it's the attitude behind it. Once you turn nonchalance into a sincere care for the Earth, you won't need to force behaviors down throats in order to get people to choose what's best for themselves. Recycling and reducing consumption will be an absolute must, and it will be by popular demand.
That's what the Earth really needs. It really just needs its people to care about it. A lot. Maybe just as much as - or more than - they care about themselves.
Click here to read the Jan 19, 2010 article: 'How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?' 30 Million People Wonder
It's funny because nearly every single one of us is guilty of at least one of those thoughts -- and we know it. It's not the behavior that really needs attention, it's the attitude behind it. Once you turn nonchalance into a sincere care for the Earth, you won't need to force behaviors down throats in order to get people to choose what's best for themselves. Recycling and reducing consumption will be an absolute must, and it will be by popular demand.
That's what the Earth really needs. It really just needs its people to care about it. A lot. Maybe just as much as - or more than - they care about themselves.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
A happy little joyful thing
A monarch caterpillar!
Which I found at work. (I'm a part-time naturalist.) (Which is not the same as being a nudist, which one or two of the pastors at church may erroneously believe.)
I get real wrapped up in how terrible everything is going for the environment, and I'm pretty sure that's not really healthy. So it's good when I just get a little moment to just feel some joy without any guilt or anger attached to it.
And look! There it is. A little bit of joy, just crawling along a leaf of milkweed. He gets to eat, and eat, and eat, and then he melts down and re-forms and BAM, butterfly wings. And let's face it, no one else could pull off that fashion statement. Just sayin'.
Which I found at work. (I'm a part-time naturalist.) (Which is not the same as being a nudist, which one or two of the pastors at church may erroneously believe.)
I get real wrapped up in how terrible everything is going for the environment, and I'm pretty sure that's not really healthy. So it's good when I just get a little moment to just feel some joy without any guilt or anger attached to it.
And look! There it is. A little bit of joy, just crawling along a leaf of milkweed. He gets to eat, and eat, and eat, and then he melts down and re-forms and BAM, butterfly wings. And let's face it, no one else could pull off that fashion statement. Just sayin'.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Corporate Lies
Today, I took an hour to enjoy the weather. Hurricane Earl swooped by last week, and ever since, it's been windy, dry, and decidedly NOT boiling hot. So it actually feels like autumn. I really love autumn. Mostly what I love is going hiking along streams or creeks in autumn. It's something about the wind and the water moving, and the leaves blowing in the wind and falling in the creek, and everything pretty and jolly but kind of melancholy all at once.
So I came home, feeling like planet Earth is pretty cool, and I decided to go tend my gosh-darn compost for once. I started composting about a year ago. I live in a row of townhouses with about ten square feet of backyard, so a for-real compost heap is more or less out of the question. But I do have a little space out there, and that's all I need. I got two five-gallon buckets from Home Depot, drilled drainage holes in the bottom and aeration holes in the sides along the top, and set 'em on some bricks (for aeration) under the deck. They're hardly noticeable (not even smellable, either) and it cost all of $10. As a result of composting, too, my garbage never smells -- I mostly only throw away the occasional sheet of plastic packaging. I feel pretty smug when I think about them composters.
Not only did I have to make them, I had to learn how to compost. Because having a composter and learning how to compost are actually two different things. There are rules to things going in the composter. Like, more "dries" than "wets," more "browns" than "greens," no dairy and no meat, only raw things. Oh, and ya gotta stir it up every day, for those little containers.
Now, do I stir it every day? No. Maybe like every week. I'm not a compost saint, unfortunately. But whatever. Basically, it goes like this: put wet stuff in the repurposed yogurt container 'till it's full, then take that out to the compost bucket. Stir it up when I get around to it. Dump dry leaves in there every once in awhile.
Oh, the dry leaves are what makes it great, though. I was thinking about how autumn is going to help me out with my dry leaf stash. You can evidently use straw, or even newspaper, for "dry" things, to keep the moisture level. (I've heard it's supposed to be "like a damp sponge.") But I just use dry leaves that I keep in some garbage bags in the garage. And man, those leaves smell really great. I'm not kidding. It's like potpurri. So I'm excited about having more dry leaves to keep in my garage.
Anyway, I was in there composting today, and I noticed something. The stupid Sun Chips bag STILL has not composted.
I think I put it in there before Shane left in July. If you've bought Sun Chips in the last year, you know what I mean. They did something to make their bags SUPER CRINKLY LOUD. BUT, they say, IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPOSTABLE!!
Apparently the statement only applies under very specific conditions. I want you to know that my composting repertoire is expansive... an entire spaghetti squash, pumpkin skin, cobs from corn, eggshells... so baby, it's you, not me. Darn you, Sun Chips. Darn you and your stupid loud bags that don't even compost under conditions you can recreate on planet Earth.
Well, anyway. That was corporate lie #1.
Corporate lie #2 isn't so much a lie as... the Money Mailer people trying to be misleading. I've entered another phase of trying to minimize my junk mail, and I've done pretty good. I called the number you can call to have credit card companies quit sending you stuff (1-888-567-8688, read about that here if you didn't know), and I even got those junk newspapers to quit arriving at my door (the solution was a 2'x3' sign taped to my garage door: DO NOT DELIVER NEWSPAPERS HERE).
Then I got the Money Mailer. Oh, man. It irks me because it's all just designed to entice you into spending money, not really saving you anything. I'm a freakishly conservative spender, so I hate the Money Mailer as a matter of that principle as well as the environmental front.
It says (in size 4 font on the very bottom) that you can go to their website to remove your address from the mailing list. Yay, says I! I'll go do that! So I go do it. And right on the site is this little plea from the poor, poor corporation that says: "Before submitting your information, please take a moment to review the impact of direct mail and myths and realities about advertising mail and the environment."
I think of myself as open-minded, so I decided to try to read what they had to say as objectively as I could. And it was really hard and I didn't actually read it with any objectivity 'till about the third time around. But I think I did it. I decided, just for fun, to see what exactly they were saying.
Here is one of their claims:
"Discarded direct mail represents just 2.4% of municipal solid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the recycling recovery rate has grown nearly 700% since 1990."
1) The EPA reported in 2008 that Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash (municipal solid waste). 54% of that (135 million tons) actually went to the landfill; the rest of it was recycled and composted. I'm not sure as to whether they meant MSW that went to the landfill, or total MSW. But let's be generous and assume it was MSW that made it to the landfill (because we're nice people, really). 2.4% of 135 million is 3.24 million. (Did I do that math right?) So, 3 and a quarter million tons of trash is like, no big deal, apparently.
[If you're wondering -- using the other figure, it's 6 million tons.]
2) Any avid environmentalist will tell you that the saying is "Reduce, reuse, recycle," in that order, because the terms decrease in effectiveness in that order. The best thing you can do is reduce your waste. The second-best is to reuse. The third-best thing is recycling, and some people (me included) will gently remind you that recycling is really not doing as much as you believe it's doing.
Even though I was completely convinced by this fabulously clever information that I should definitely continue to receive the Money Mailers that I never even open, I decided to take myself off the list anyway.
So I came home, feeling like planet Earth is pretty cool, and I decided to go tend my gosh-darn compost for once. I started composting about a year ago. I live in a row of townhouses with about ten square feet of backyard, so a for-real compost heap is more or less out of the question. But I do have a little space out there, and that's all I need. I got two five-gallon buckets from Home Depot, drilled drainage holes in the bottom and aeration holes in the sides along the top, and set 'em on some bricks (for aeration) under the deck. They're hardly noticeable (not even smellable, either) and it cost all of $10. As a result of composting, too, my garbage never smells -- I mostly only throw away the occasional sheet of plastic packaging. I feel pretty smug when I think about them composters.
Not only did I have to make them, I had to learn how to compost. Because having a composter and learning how to compost are actually two different things. There are rules to things going in the composter. Like, more "dries" than "wets," more "browns" than "greens," no dairy and no meat, only raw things. Oh, and ya gotta stir it up every day, for those little containers.
Now, do I stir it every day? No. Maybe like every week. I'm not a compost saint, unfortunately. But whatever. Basically, it goes like this: put wet stuff in the repurposed yogurt container 'till it's full, then take that out to the compost bucket. Stir it up when I get around to it. Dump dry leaves in there every once in awhile.
Oh, the dry leaves are what makes it great, though. I was thinking about how autumn is going to help me out with my dry leaf stash. You can evidently use straw, or even newspaper, for "dry" things, to keep the moisture level. (I've heard it's supposed to be "like a damp sponge.") But I just use dry leaves that I keep in some garbage bags in the garage. And man, those leaves smell really great. I'm not kidding. It's like potpurri. So I'm excited about having more dry leaves to keep in my garage.
Anyway, I was in there composting today, and I noticed something. The stupid Sun Chips bag STILL has not composted.
I think I put it in there before Shane left in July. If you've bought Sun Chips in the last year, you know what I mean. They did something to make their bags SUPER CRINKLY LOUD. BUT, they say, IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPOSTABLE!!
Apparently the statement only applies under very specific conditions. I want you to know that my composting repertoire is expansive... an entire spaghetti squash, pumpkin skin, cobs from corn, eggshells... so baby, it's you, not me. Darn you, Sun Chips. Darn you and your stupid loud bags that don't even compost under conditions you can recreate on planet Earth.
Well, anyway. That was corporate lie #1.
Corporate lie #2 isn't so much a lie as... the Money Mailer people trying to be misleading. I've entered another phase of trying to minimize my junk mail, and I've done pretty good. I called the number you can call to have credit card companies quit sending you stuff (1-888-567-8688, read about that here if you didn't know), and I even got those junk newspapers to quit arriving at my door (the solution was a 2'x3' sign taped to my garage door: DO NOT DELIVER NEWSPAPERS HERE).
Then I got the Money Mailer. Oh, man. It irks me because it's all just designed to entice you into spending money, not really saving you anything. I'm a freakishly conservative spender, so I hate the Money Mailer as a matter of that principle as well as the environmental front.
It says (in size 4 font on the very bottom) that you can go to their website to remove your address from the mailing list. Yay, says I! I'll go do that! So I go do it. And right on the site is this little plea from the poor, poor corporation that says: "Before submitting your information, please take a moment to review the impact of direct mail and myths and realities about advertising mail and the environment."
I think of myself as open-minded, so I decided to try to read what they had to say as objectively as I could. And it was really hard and I didn't actually read it with any objectivity 'till about the third time around. But I think I did it. I decided, just for fun, to see what exactly they were saying.
Here is one of their claims:
"Discarded direct mail represents just 2.4% of municipal solid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the recycling recovery rate has grown nearly 700% since 1990."
1) The EPA reported in 2008 that Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash (municipal solid waste). 54% of that (135 million tons) actually went to the landfill; the rest of it was recycled and composted. I'm not sure as to whether they meant MSW that went to the landfill, or total MSW. But let's be generous and assume it was MSW that made it to the landfill (because we're nice people, really). 2.4% of 135 million is 3.24 million. (Did I do that math right?) So, 3 and a quarter million tons of trash is like, no big deal, apparently.
[If you're wondering -- using the other figure, it's 6 million tons.]
2) Any avid environmentalist will tell you that the saying is "Reduce, reuse, recycle," in that order, because the terms decrease in effectiveness in that order. The best thing you can do is reduce your waste. The second-best is to reuse. The third-best thing is recycling, and some people (me included) will gently remind you that recycling is really not doing as much as you believe it's doing.
Even though I was completely convinced by this fabulously clever information that I should definitely continue to receive the Money Mailers that I never even open, I decided to take myself off the list anyway.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Promises, promises.
So, that whole "hey I'll update this once a week" thing. Yeah. I know.
Whatever.
Anyway, the pumpkins are all dead. My bust. It's been an insane week. It was the last week of my job, plus I housesat/dogsat/catsat/normalsat for the entire week. It really made me rethink the whole "ever having a pet" thing. Don't get me wrong. I love dogs. Cats are okay, but dogs. Yes.
However, dogs require work. Cats require work (but less than dogs). Fish require work. And even stupid baby pumpkin seedlings require work. Time, energy, money. And right now, I'm just this insane woman. Energy I've got, but expendable income, not so much, and time, well, time's a funny thing. Time is one of my most precious and most squandered resources, by far.
It sort of depresses me that I can't do everything I want, but it's the truth. I have to make lists of everything I want to do and prioritize the top three. I eliminate about ten things every time I do this.
My basic realization, at this point, is that I was so busy that I couldn't even spare five minutes to come to my own house once or twice during the week to water my baby pumpkin seedlings. I really cared about them, but I failed to prioritize. Either that, or I did prioritize in a sort of crude fashion.
It's sometimes difficult to remember that caring for Earth belongs on the priority list, and is worthy of my time. Worthy of the extra minutes spent going to the farmer's market instead of the grocery store. Worthy of making the effort to learn a new recipe that includes local produce.
It's quite hard, though. Life bears down on you sometimes.
At this point, I'm rambling... smell ya later.
Whatever.
Anyway, the pumpkins are all dead. My bust. It's been an insane week. It was the last week of my job, plus I housesat/dogsat/catsat/normalsat for the entire week. It really made me rethink the whole "ever having a pet" thing. Don't get me wrong. I love dogs. Cats are okay, but dogs. Yes.
However, dogs require work. Cats require work (but less than dogs). Fish require work. And even stupid baby pumpkin seedlings require work. Time, energy, money. And right now, I'm just this insane woman. Energy I've got, but expendable income, not so much, and time, well, time's a funny thing. Time is one of my most precious and most squandered resources, by far.
It sort of depresses me that I can't do everything I want, but it's the truth. I have to make lists of everything I want to do and prioritize the top three. I eliminate about ten things every time I do this.
My basic realization, at this point, is that I was so busy that I couldn't even spare five minutes to come to my own house once or twice during the week to water my baby pumpkin seedlings. I really cared about them, but I failed to prioritize. Either that, or I did prioritize in a sort of crude fashion.
It's sometimes difficult to remember that caring for Earth belongs on the priority list, and is worthy of my time. Worthy of the extra minutes spent going to the farmer's market instead of the grocery store. Worthy of making the effort to learn a new recipe that includes local produce.
It's quite hard, though. Life bears down on you sometimes.
At this point, I'm rambling... smell ya later.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Not that I'll get any pumpkins, but hey
I had these apple seedlings. I loved them. I really did. I tried to nourish them as best I could, but I was a novice and they were high-maintenance and, well, none of them is still with me today. I had one seedling that was a few months old, and I felt pretty good in spite of the other fifty that I lost. Unfortunately, it decided that it was going to ditch all its leaves for no reason. I was wondering if maybe the poor thing thought that it was fall or something. In any case, it never came back.
The whole affair left me sort of disheartened. I have some mint, which is near impossible to destroy; I have some coneflower and black-eyed susans in the front garden, which are native to this area; I have some lavender that didn't bloom, a parsley plant, and a random strawberry plant.
But I've still never started anything from seed, which is what I want to do. Next year, I hope to actually have a garden with real vegetables in it. Or maybe do some container gardening. Anyway, you get the picture: I'm a little self-conscious about my inability to raise anything from seed.
So, I decided to try and sprout these pumpkin seeds. I know I'm late by at least a month. I know that in all likelihood, I won't get any pumpkins. But I took some heart from the fact that these might be easier to grow, being a native North American vegetable and all. I just want them to go as far as they can 'till the frost sets back in. I just want to be a good plant mommy.
I guess I need to plant them somewhere... soon...
The whole affair left me sort of disheartened. I have some mint, which is near impossible to destroy; I have some coneflower and black-eyed susans in the front garden, which are native to this area; I have some lavender that didn't bloom, a parsley plant, and a random strawberry plant.
But I've still never started anything from seed, which is what I want to do. Next year, I hope to actually have a garden with real vegetables in it. Or maybe do some container gardening. Anyway, you get the picture: I'm a little self-conscious about my inability to raise anything from seed.
So, I decided to try and sprout these pumpkin seeds. I know I'm late by at least a month. I know that in all likelihood, I won't get any pumpkins. But I took some heart from the fact that these might be easier to grow, being a native North American vegetable and all. I just want them to go as far as they can 'till the frost sets back in. I just want to be a good plant mommy.
I guess I need to plant them somewhere... soon...
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Come on back now, ya'll, y'hear?
I was visited by one Dan White the other day week who said to me, "hey, why haven't you updated your blog?"
I said, I don't know, I guess I wrote in it mostly so I wouldn't go completely insane at work.
He said, well, I was reading that. (Which strikes me a bit funny, 'cause seriously, who reads this thing?) So go update it.
Life is crazy-crazy for just about everyone I know, including me, so that's not really an excuse. I guess, if anything, here's my excuse:
I messed up.
I started not really caring, or backsliding, or rationalizing. And I think this happens every once in awhile to anyone who cares about planet Earth. "Well, it's all going to pot anyway, I'll just go out to Chinese and get the leftovers in that stupid little wax paper container that you can't recycle or reuse. There's no way I can change the millions of minds who are set on the inadvertent destruction of the planet -- plus, it's not like I'm polluting or something terrible like that."
But you know, God has a funny way of bringing me back. I was actually reading Romans the other day. 'Till now, I haven't done much Bible study on my own, 'cause the Bible I was using was like, I don't know, like two gears with mismatched teeth. But this one, I got at Camp Josiah last month, and it's much easier on my poor little brain.
Anyway, in there (around Romans 14) it says things like, "If you think some foods are unfit to eat, then for you they are not fit." and "Don't let your appetite destroy what God has done. All foods are fit to eat, but it is wrong to cause problems for others by what you eat."
Now, I know (think?) Paul is really just talking about unity between the different cultures who became followers of Jesus (i.e. "hey guys, quit picking on each other, Jesus said it's okay to eat whatever, but just because Sammy eats only kosher stuff doesn't mean that you get to pick on him"). But to me, it was a pretty stern reminder about how I really feel about the environment. It's pretty clear to me. Don't let your consumerism destroy creation. Don't choose products that dishonor or steal dignity from the lives of other people. Remember how you don't actually think it's okay to eat processed things? D'you know how much that's tearing you up inside under the thin sheet of numbness you've laid down in there? Gosh, Em, seriously.
So. I had to chuckle a bit to myself. Yep, I've gone astray a little here. Yep, I need to come back. Yep, I should take the extra half-hour and the ten extra bucks to shop at the co-op or the farmer's market instead of going to Safeway or Acme.
Still haven't done it yet, but at least I'm getting back to on track.
Anyway, my new goal is to update this puppy at least once a week... let's see how it turns out.
I said, I don't know, I guess I wrote in it mostly so I wouldn't go completely insane at work.
He said, well, I was reading that. (Which strikes me a bit funny, 'cause seriously, who reads this thing?) So go update it.
Life is crazy-crazy for just about everyone I know, including me, so that's not really an excuse. I guess, if anything, here's my excuse:
I messed up.
I started not really caring, or backsliding, or rationalizing. And I think this happens every once in awhile to anyone who cares about planet Earth. "Well, it's all going to pot anyway, I'll just go out to Chinese and get the leftovers in that stupid little wax paper container that you can't recycle or reuse. There's no way I can change the millions of minds who are set on the inadvertent destruction of the planet -- plus, it's not like I'm polluting or something terrible like that."
But you know, God has a funny way of bringing me back. I was actually reading Romans the other day. 'Till now, I haven't done much Bible study on my own, 'cause the Bible I was using was like, I don't know, like two gears with mismatched teeth. But this one, I got at Camp Josiah last month, and it's much easier on my poor little brain.
Anyway, in there (around Romans 14) it says things like, "If you think some foods are unfit to eat, then for you they are not fit." and "Don't let your appetite destroy what God has done. All foods are fit to eat, but it is wrong to cause problems for others by what you eat."
Now, I know (think?) Paul is really just talking about unity between the different cultures who became followers of Jesus (i.e. "hey guys, quit picking on each other, Jesus said it's okay to eat whatever, but just because Sammy eats only kosher stuff doesn't mean that you get to pick on him"). But to me, it was a pretty stern reminder about how I really feel about the environment. It's pretty clear to me. Don't let your consumerism destroy creation. Don't choose products that dishonor or steal dignity from the lives of other people. Remember how you don't actually think it's okay to eat processed things? D'you know how much that's tearing you up inside under the thin sheet of numbness you've laid down in there? Gosh, Em, seriously.
So. I had to chuckle a bit to myself. Yep, I've gone astray a little here. Yep, I need to come back. Yep, I should take the extra half-hour and the ten extra bucks to shop at the co-op or the farmer's market instead of going to Safeway or Acme.
Still haven't done it yet, but at least I'm getting back to on track.
Anyway, my new goal is to update this puppy at least once a week... let's see how it turns out.
Friday, February 5, 2010
My battle with junk mail
I've been fighting a battle ever since I moved to Newark.
It's against the junk mail. And the junk newspapers.
Due to the nature of my residence, the battle has been fought on multiple fronts. One: I now live relatively close to a real city, after growing up in rural PA. For some reason, being in a city means that it's permissible for local businesses to give massive amounts of brochures and coupon books to the "postmaster" (who I imagine must be a shadowy figure who lurches around darkened rooms in post offices across the nation) to distribute to everyone in the city. You can imagine that this doesn't sit well with me.
I can remember having this issue at college, too. When you have an on-campus mailbox, you get flyers from on-campus groups who are trying to drum up an interest in an event or in their own membership.
Point being, I don't care about your event and I don't want to buy wings from Pizza Place #71 on some special Superbowl deal. I consider myself a fairly conservative spender. Heck, I turned off my heat because of the last electric bill... ("hmm... do I really need heat?" ...more on that later). So I don't care about Clipper Magazine or Redplum, and I get sort of annoyed with them for sending me shredded trees in the mail.
I actually did get Redplum to stop via their website. Everything else, I'm sort of at a loss. There must be a way to simply notify this... "Postmaster" character... that I don't want this stuff. Or maybe there's not. Maybe you just have to unsubscribe from every single annoying thing, like with e-mail. UGH. The battle continues on this front.
Front number 2: I live in a place that has been inhabited by people other than me in the last few years. This situation applies to almost anyone who rents. You get junk mail from people who don't live there anymore. Pep Boys has been sending these great coupons for a man whose name I could barely pronounce.
I called them up, and told them that they'd been sending coupons to my address for a man who didn't live there. They said, thanks for reporting it! It's no biggie. The coupons are still on his account, so he can access them in places other than the mail.
No, I said. I want you to stop sending them. Confusion ensued. I tried to explain that I was an "environmentally conscious" individual. Confusion ensued. Basically, they told me I'd have to get in touch with the post office. This is really bizarre to me, but evidently they can't change someone's account unless that someone calls and specifically changes the address. So, basically, if there's someone in the world you really don't like, go to Pep Boys, make up a fake name, register as a member and give them your adversary's address. And then do it a bunch of times in other Pep Boys.
I've also been trying to get Yes! and Crossroads, of The News Journal here in Delaware, to stop showing up at my house. I can tell you the exact dialogue I've had three times over the phone with these guys:
"Hello, this is the News Journal, can I please have your phone number to better assist you?"
"Yeah, you can have it, but I don't have an account with you guys."
"All right, how can I help you?"
"I'd like to stop receiving Yes! and Crossroads at my house. I've already called (X times), and I am continuing to receive them."
"Okay, let me get your address..."
So far, (X) = 3. I dearly hope it won't have to be 4.
There are some good resources online to help reduce your junk mail package, and the statistics they use are staggering. According to ecocycle.org (and some other sites), junk mail in 2005 used up about 100 million trees. That's too many. Even if they're using recycled paper, there are hazards in the ink. I doubt they're all using soy-based, and even if they are, it's an appalling use of something that is generally food.
(I honestly can't get behind too many processes that make food into non-food. Disposable containers made of potatoes are great, but I can't help but think of the hungry people in the world who would have loved to eat those potatoes. It's the kind of affluence that seems so inconsequential, but still sort of disturbs me.)
Anywho, there are some tips online that you can find with a minimal amount of searching, and you can even hire services to proactively reduce junk mail being sent to your house... but really, should we have to pay to defend the planet? I think that generally, when a thing defends our planet, it also tends to put my penny-pinching mind at ease. Most solutions for our environmental troubles do end up cutting us a deal in the long run -- and often, even in the short run!
It's against the junk mail. And the junk newspapers.
Due to the nature of my residence, the battle has been fought on multiple fronts. One: I now live relatively close to a real city, after growing up in rural PA. For some reason, being in a city means that it's permissible for local businesses to give massive amounts of brochures and coupon books to the "postmaster" (who I imagine must be a shadowy figure who lurches around darkened rooms in post offices across the nation) to distribute to everyone in the city. You can imagine that this doesn't sit well with me.
I can remember having this issue at college, too. When you have an on-campus mailbox, you get flyers from on-campus groups who are trying to drum up an interest in an event or in their own membership.
Point being, I don't care about your event and I don't want to buy wings from Pizza Place #71 on some special Superbowl deal. I consider myself a fairly conservative spender. Heck, I turned off my heat because of the last electric bill... ("hmm... do I really need heat?" ...more on that later). So I don't care about Clipper Magazine or Redplum, and I get sort of annoyed with them for sending me shredded trees in the mail.
I actually did get Redplum to stop via their website. Everything else, I'm sort of at a loss. There must be a way to simply notify this... "Postmaster" character... that I don't want this stuff. Or maybe there's not. Maybe you just have to unsubscribe from every single annoying thing, like with e-mail. UGH. The battle continues on this front.
Front number 2: I live in a place that has been inhabited by people other than me in the last few years. This situation applies to almost anyone who rents. You get junk mail from people who don't live there anymore. Pep Boys has been sending these great coupons for a man whose name I could barely pronounce.
I called them up, and told them that they'd been sending coupons to my address for a man who didn't live there. They said, thanks for reporting it! It's no biggie. The coupons are still on his account, so he can access them in places other than the mail.
No, I said. I want you to stop sending them. Confusion ensued. I tried to explain that I was an "environmentally conscious" individual. Confusion ensued. Basically, they told me I'd have to get in touch with the post office. This is really bizarre to me, but evidently they can't change someone's account unless that someone calls and specifically changes the address. So, basically, if there's someone in the world you really don't like, go to Pep Boys, make up a fake name, register as a member and give them your adversary's address. And then do it a bunch of times in other Pep Boys.
I've also been trying to get Yes! and Crossroads, of The News Journal here in Delaware, to stop showing up at my house. I can tell you the exact dialogue I've had three times over the phone with these guys:
"Hello, this is the News Journal, can I please have your phone number to better assist you?"
"Yeah, you can have it, but I don't have an account with you guys."
"All right, how can I help you?"
"I'd like to stop receiving Yes! and Crossroads at my house. I've already called (X times), and I am continuing to receive them."
"Okay, let me get your address..."
So far, (X) = 3. I dearly hope it won't have to be 4.
There are some good resources online to help reduce your junk mail package, and the statistics they use are staggering. According to ecocycle.org (and some other sites), junk mail in 2005 used up about 100 million trees. That's too many. Even if they're using recycled paper, there are hazards in the ink. I doubt they're all using soy-based, and even if they are, it's an appalling use of something that is generally food.
(I honestly can't get behind too many processes that make food into non-food. Disposable containers made of potatoes are great, but I can't help but think of the hungry people in the world who would have loved to eat those potatoes. It's the kind of affluence that seems so inconsequential, but still sort of disturbs me.)
Anywho, there are some tips online that you can find with a minimal amount of searching, and you can even hire services to proactively reduce junk mail being sent to your house... but really, should we have to pay to defend the planet? I think that generally, when a thing defends our planet, it also tends to put my penny-pinching mind at ease. Most solutions for our environmental troubles do end up cutting us a deal in the long run -- and often, even in the short run!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I went to the grocery store... con fotos
This might seem like it's going to be boring, and maybe it will be boring, but do you ever think about how you think?
Maybe that's a bit narcissistic.
Anyway, caring about the earth changes the way you think.
Let's use the example of some stuff I bought at the grocery store today.
Toothpaste. What I originally went to the store to buy. As in, if I didn't buy toothpaste this afternoon, I was gonna brush with water this evening.
Old mindset: this is not the cheapest. why am I even looking at this thing?
Current mindset: this is not the cheapest. but it's the only toothpaste I know of that comes in a recyclable aluminum tube. The rest of these toothpaste tubes are going to the landfill. If there's an option that doesn't go to the landfill, and doesn't break the bank, I'm voting for that one.
But next time, I'm makin' my own. More ingredients = more processed = more energy. Plus the energy used to ship it here.
Toilet Paper (sorry the pic is sideways... dumb blogger)
Old mindset: find the cheapest one and get outta here.
Current mindset: this is cheap enough, at $4 for 6 rolls. Better price than the 7th Generation stuff that costs $1.80 for one roll. It's made of recycled paper, which is good, 'cause I don't need to be wiping my butt with virgin rainforest trees, buuuuuuuuuuuut 7th Gen comes in a recyclable paper wrapper, and this is wrapped in plastic...
This went on for about three minutes as I paced around the aisle, looking like a maniac, until I finally went with the cheaper plastic-wrapped TP. Decisions, decisions. I long for the days where they used pages of the Sears magazine for this purpose... but they were probably made out of real paper, and not this weird magazine stuff.
Vitamins
Old mindset: WOOHOO BUY ONE GET ONE!
Current mindset: WOOHOO BUY ONE GET ONE! Even though theoretically, my diet should include all the vitamins and minerals I need. But it doesn't. I'm working on it. Am I? Well, I will work on it. Anyway, just buy the darn things already.
Throat Coat Tea
Old mindset: Old mindset unavailable because I didn't know what this was.
Current mindset: Eh, well, I mean, tea, I mean, it's probably individually wrapped, and that stinks, 'cause it's more trash for the landfill, but, I mean, it's organic, but, I mean, I've finally got myself down to no teabags at all, and... oh, come on. It's got echinacea and it'll make your throat feel better.
Sure enough, I got home and they're INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED. CURSES. I have finally gotten away from teabags by brewing mint leaves in a mesh tea ball, and now I've blasphemed and bought these individually wrapped ones.
Oh well.
Baking Soda!!
Old mindset: don't need that.
Current mindset: I use this for everything. FOUR POUNDS for THREE DOLLARS??? fhdskafhlfg (yes there is a keyboard in my mind) Though I do have to remember that baking soda comes from mines, so it's not an awesome, sustainable thing... but it's great for cleaning and it's nontoxic. And the package is fully recyclable.
Check it out. "THE STANDARD OF PURITY"? Really? Like cleanliness is next to Arm & Hammer?...
Bananas
Old mindset: ew... gross... bananas.
Current mindset: POTASSIUM. FRUIT. Get in mah belleh. No, they are not organic. No, they are not local. Am I a bad hippie? Yes. Do I have bananas? Yes. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
So... am I a snooty, organic-buying, looking-down hippie? No. Maybe? No, not really. There are choices to everything. Generally, I'd go ahead and say if you want to live in a city at this particular moment in history, it's going to be darn-near impossible to be 100% sustainable in your lifestyle. I'm not judging anyone when I can't do it myself. I'd rather help you than judge you. Is that weird? Sorry.
I used to think 100% sustainable meant that you were dead. There is no way you can be alive and not take things from the planet. But really, "sustainable" means that when you take something from the planet, you give something back, so that the overall health of the planet is always at 100%. It means that the way you live today, you could live for a million years. We cannot, for example, live on oil for a million years. There is not a million years of oil in the earth for people who use it as much as we do.
Changing the way we think is the first step in learning how to give back. Asking ourselves how our money translates into the ecosystem's health (or lack thereof). Asking ourselves if it's morally OK to buy plastic packaging when it ends up in the bellies of baby seabirds, destroying whole generations.
When you buy a product, you vote for the means by which it was created, you approve the method of packaging, you applaud the purpose for which it exists. I'm not perfect at it. I'm not going to pretend I'm perfect at it. But think about it for me, wouldja?
Maybe that's a bit narcissistic.
Anyway, caring about the earth changes the way you think.
Let's use the example of some stuff I bought at the grocery store today.
Toothpaste. What I originally went to the store to buy. As in, if I didn't buy toothpaste this afternoon, I was gonna brush with water this evening.
Old mindset: this is not the cheapest. why am I even looking at this thing?
Current mindset: this is not the cheapest. but it's the only toothpaste I know of that comes in a recyclable aluminum tube. The rest of these toothpaste tubes are going to the landfill. If there's an option that doesn't go to the landfill, and doesn't break the bank, I'm voting for that one.
But next time, I'm makin' my own. More ingredients = more processed = more energy. Plus the energy used to ship it here.
Toilet Paper (sorry the pic is sideways... dumb blogger)
Old mindset: find the cheapest one and get outta here.
Current mindset: this is cheap enough, at $4 for 6 rolls. Better price than the 7th Generation stuff that costs $1.80 for one roll. It's made of recycled paper, which is good, 'cause I don't need to be wiping my butt with virgin rainforest trees, buuuuuuuuuuuut 7th Gen comes in a recyclable paper wrapper, and this is wrapped in plastic...
This went on for about three minutes as I paced around the aisle, looking like a maniac, until I finally went with the cheaper plastic-wrapped TP. Decisions, decisions. I long for the days where they used pages of the Sears magazine for this purpose... but they were probably made out of real paper, and not this weird magazine stuff.
Vitamins
Old mindset: WOOHOO BUY ONE GET ONE!
Current mindset: WOOHOO BUY ONE GET ONE! Even though theoretically, my diet should include all the vitamins and minerals I need. But it doesn't. I'm working on it. Am I? Well, I will work on it. Anyway, just buy the darn things already.
Throat Coat Tea
Old mindset: Old mindset unavailable because I didn't know what this was.
Current mindset: Eh, well, I mean, tea, I mean, it's probably individually wrapped, and that stinks, 'cause it's more trash for the landfill, but, I mean, it's organic, but, I mean, I've finally got myself down to no teabags at all, and... oh, come on. It's got echinacea and it'll make your throat feel better.
Sure enough, I got home and they're INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED. CURSES. I have finally gotten away from teabags by brewing mint leaves in a mesh tea ball, and now I've blasphemed and bought these individually wrapped ones.
Oh well.
Baking Soda!!
Old mindset: don't need that.
Current mindset: I use this for everything. FOUR POUNDS for THREE DOLLARS??? fhdskafhlfg (yes there is a keyboard in my mind) Though I do have to remember that baking soda comes from mines, so it's not an awesome, sustainable thing... but it's great for cleaning and it's nontoxic. And the package is fully recyclable.
Check it out. "THE STANDARD OF PURITY"? Really? Like cleanliness is next to Arm & Hammer?...
Bananas
Old mindset: ew... gross... bananas.
Current mindset: POTASSIUM. FRUIT. Get in mah belleh. No, they are not organic. No, they are not local. Am I a bad hippie? Yes. Do I have bananas? Yes. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
So... am I a snooty, organic-buying, looking-down hippie? No. Maybe? No, not really. There are choices to everything. Generally, I'd go ahead and say if you want to live in a city at this particular moment in history, it's going to be darn-near impossible to be 100% sustainable in your lifestyle. I'm not judging anyone when I can't do it myself. I'd rather help you than judge you. Is that weird? Sorry.
I used to think 100% sustainable meant that you were dead. There is no way you can be alive and not take things from the planet. But really, "sustainable" means that when you take something from the planet, you give something back, so that the overall health of the planet is always at 100%. It means that the way you live today, you could live for a million years. We cannot, for example, live on oil for a million years. There is not a million years of oil in the earth for people who use it as much as we do.
Changing the way we think is the first step in learning how to give back. Asking ourselves how our money translates into the ecosystem's health (or lack thereof). Asking ourselves if it's morally OK to buy plastic packaging when it ends up in the bellies of baby seabirds, destroying whole generations.
When you buy a product, you vote for the means by which it was created, you approve the method of packaging, you applaud the purpose for which it exists. I'm not perfect at it. I'm not going to pretend I'm perfect at it. But think about it for me, wouldja?
Sunday, January 17, 2010
My mom says I stink.
Let's talk about smells. Personally, I think it's better to smell like a human being than a month-old bouquet that someone sprayed with starch, but this is A) my opinion and B) usually not socially acceptable. I will attempt to explain my preference. And you may be grossed out. There. You were warned.
I am a female person whose skin dries to bleeding in the winter, so B.O. is not something I've felt compelled to be extremely vigilant about. I take 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda, wet it into a paste, and use that for deodorant. Every day. Unless I forget. I've even been showering every day for weeks now. It's weird, but I'm getting used to it.
My inspiration is my mother. Mom is very sensitive to smells. She has smelled me from the opposite side of the couch, whereas my sister could not smell me while standing beside me. The problem now is not me being clean; it's my clothes. I'm not convinced that an article of clothing is dirty just because I've worn it before. It saves water and it means I don't have to do as much laundry. Unfortunately, I think Mom can smell me even if I've worn a T-shirt for just a few hours. She's that good.
So now I have to be all vigilant about that. Because by now, my parents think I can't smell. I had these pumpkins outside my garage for all of November, and by the time my dad found them in mid-December, they were very soggy. He bagged them up and put them in the garage for me. Sweet man. But they left a bit of a stain behind. I was instructed to scrub the garage, because apparently, it smells. I definitely was aware of the smell, but it smelled nice to me. It smells like butter to me, which is actually what pumpkin tastes like to me (with the right amount of salt).
Anyway, now they think I can't smell. Dad finally found out that I'm composting (in small contained buckets) and he ordered me to go home and smell them to make sure they didn't stink. Compost, when it's done right, doesn't stink and doesn't attract critters. The instruction came out of exasperation, I'm pretty sure.
Compost is a good thing. Compost means that my garbage never stinks. Compost means that I don't send useful gardening material to the landfill. Compost is the Earth's natural reclamation of its waste. (Humans, take note. Cradle to Cradle, anyone?)
Heck, San Fransisco decided to take some initiative and start up a citywide composting program. That's just plain awesome. So I guess even if my little home composting program were nixed, there are ways to get creative with this... I could go on Craigslist or Freecycle and see if there are any like-minded folks with a yard who already compost who might take my organic waste. That's how I do the recycling right now; why not with compost?
And my stance on B.O.? Well, I just gotta say two words: breast cancer. According to cancer.gov, there is no "conclusive evidence linking the use of underarm antiperspirants or deodorants and the subsequent development of breast cancer." Let's cut to the chase here. This is legalese for "we can't say anything because the deodorant industry will sue our butts if we do."
Here, read this paragraph from that cancer.gov link:
For example... do we know what aluminum does?
So, yes, I am going to embrace my B.O. a little, and excuse me for doing so.
But I still hope I don't stink too bad.
Sorry.
I'll try to do my laundry more often.
I am a female person whose skin dries to bleeding in the winter, so B.O. is not something I've felt compelled to be extremely vigilant about. I take 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda, wet it into a paste, and use that for deodorant. Every day. Unless I forget. I've even been showering every day for weeks now. It's weird, but I'm getting used to it.
My inspiration is my mother. Mom is very sensitive to smells. She has smelled me from the opposite side of the couch, whereas my sister could not smell me while standing beside me. The problem now is not me being clean; it's my clothes. I'm not convinced that an article of clothing is dirty just because I've worn it before. It saves water and it means I don't have to do as much laundry. Unfortunately, I think Mom can smell me even if I've worn a T-shirt for just a few hours. She's that good.
So now I have to be all vigilant about that. Because by now, my parents think I can't smell. I had these pumpkins outside my garage for all of November, and by the time my dad found them in mid-December, they were very soggy. He bagged them up and put them in the garage for me. Sweet man. But they left a bit of a stain behind. I was instructed to scrub the garage, because apparently, it smells. I definitely was aware of the smell, but it smelled nice to me. It smells like butter to me, which is actually what pumpkin tastes like to me (with the right amount of salt).
Anyway, now they think I can't smell. Dad finally found out that I'm composting (in small contained buckets) and he ordered me to go home and smell them to make sure they didn't stink. Compost, when it's done right, doesn't stink and doesn't attract critters. The instruction came out of exasperation, I'm pretty sure.
Compost is a good thing. Compost means that my garbage never stinks. Compost means that I don't send useful gardening material to the landfill. Compost is the Earth's natural reclamation of its waste. (Humans, take note. Cradle to Cradle, anyone?)
Heck, San Fransisco decided to take some initiative and start up a citywide composting program. That's just plain awesome. So I guess even if my little home composting program were nixed, there are ways to get creative with this... I could go on Craigslist or Freecycle and see if there are any like-minded folks with a yard who already compost who might take my organic waste. That's how I do the recycling right now; why not with compost?
And my stance on B.O.? Well, I just gotta say two words: breast cancer. According to cancer.gov, there is no "conclusive evidence linking the use of underarm antiperspirants or deodorants and the subsequent development of breast cancer." Let's cut to the chase here. This is legalese for "we can't say anything because the deodorant industry will sue our butts if we do."
Here, read this paragraph from that cancer.gov link:
Sure, there were some later studies that said, well, maybe not. But you know what? I don't think I want to mess around with breast cancer. I don't need conclusive evidence to tell me that messing around with random chemicals is bad for my body. I don't want to get cancer and think that there was something I could have done. To think that I did not do everything I could have done. To know that something inside me said "hey, quit putting random chemicals in/around your body," and I didn't listen.
Findings from a different study examining the frequency of underarm shaving and antiperspirant/deodorant use among 437 breast cancer survivors were released in 2003 (7). This study found that the age of breast cancer diagnosis was significantly earlier in women who used these products and shaved their underarms more frequently. Furthermore, women who began both of these underarm hygiene habits before 16 years of age were diagnosed with breast cancer at an earlier age than those who began these habits later. While these results suggest that underarm shaving with the use of antiperspirants/deodorants may be related to breast cancer, it does not demonstrate a conclusive link between these underarm hygiene habits and breast cancer.
For example... do we know what aluminum does?
Aluminum-based compounds are used as the active ingredient in antiperspirants. These compounds form a temporary plug within the sweat duct that stops the flow of sweat to the skin's surface. Some research suggests that aluminum-based compounds, which are applied frequently and left on the skin near the breast, may be absorbed by the skin and cause estrogen-like (hormonal) effects (3). Because estrogen has the ability to promote the growth of breast cancer cells, some scientists have suggested that the aluminum-based compounds in antiperspirants may contribute to the development of breast cancer (3).Did you get that? It says that aluminum plugs your sweat ducts. WHY in the world do you want to plug your sweat ducts? God put them there for a reason. If we know that much, how much is left that we still don't know, that we might never know?
So, yes, I am going to embrace my B.O. a little, and excuse me for doing so.
But I still hope I don't stink too bad.
Sorry.
I'll try to do my laundry more often.
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