Archive for December, 2008
Overview: Washington’s New Green Team
President Elect Barack Obama – who seems to have already done more work to improve our country in 6 weeks than Bush has in 8 years – has announced the names of the folks who will comprise his administration’s environmental team. And they rock. Here’s a brief overview:
Running the energy department will be Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist with real knowledge about climate and energy. Now, I know it’s hard to imagine a real scientist at work in the White House – just be brave and we’ll all get through this together. (more…)
Second-Hand Reads
I just wanted to take a second to make a shout-out to a long beloved but oft overlooked entity: the used book. In a time of economic and environmental woe, the used book is a cheap and green way to entertain yourself and reward others throughout the holiday season and beyond.
Yesterday I picked up my mail and was pleased to discover that my expected delivery from Amazon.com had arrived. Just a week earlier, I went online and paid $3.50 for the book ($7.50 with shipping), which happens to be a 1977 paperback edition of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath“. This is a classic piece of American fiction that I’ve never read before, but have recently been compelled to pick up after reading another book, “Stuffed and Starved” by Raj Patel.
“Stuffed and Starved” gives an informative and well-researched overview of our ailing global food system, and although it’s not as artfully written as some other works in its genre, particularly those authored by Pollans, Schlossers and Lappes, it is a must-read for anyone who cares about food, nutrition, environment and social justice. But more to the point, Patel’s book regularly quotes Steinbeck, and inspired me to read “The Grapes of Wrath” (which I will, starting today).
A new copy of “The Grapes of Wrath” will run you at least ten bucks, so I really scored with my $3.50 copy. Plus, my copy has a nice yellow coloration and some lovely coffee (or maybe chocolate?) stains on the cover, which give it character and a light fragrance. I am a strong believer in judging books by their covers, and I can tell that this is going to be a good read. And new books are tainted with carbon footprints and the blood of happy young forests, which is simply awful.
So if you’re planning to buy a book (or anything else, for that matter), try and get it used. I promise it will be better for your wallet, better for the planet, and it will look cuter on your coffee table.
Food Democracy Now – Sign the Petition!
There’s a nice petition online, put forth by Food Democracy Now, a “grassroots movement initiated by farmers, writers, chefs, eaters and policy advocates,” and it’s all about encouraging the Obama transition team to nominate a good, green secretary of agriculture. Sign it!
Recyclers Going Broke (just like everybody else)
The NY Times reported this morning that the recycling industry throughout the US is being negatively affected by the economic meltdown. It seems that the prices for recyclable materials have dropped, thereby making it unaffordable for many recycling companies to keep collecting materials. In big cities like New York, it’s not causing to much of a problem, because the cost of sending trash to the landfill is still higher than the cost of getting it recycled, but small-town Americans are seeing their recycling programs suspended or cut back, as the companies who collect their reycling are running out of space, an the companies who turn the recyclables into new stuff will only buy the materials at exceptionally low prices.
Contrary to my post the other day, this scenario is an example of how the economic crisis is, in fact, bad for the environment. Even if the crisis is causing Americans to cut back on their consumption of consumer goods, more of their garbage is now going to the landfill instead of the recycling plant, which balances out any possible positive results of our new found stinginess.
If the current government an the incoming administration support a bailout for the Auto Industry in the name of saving jobs and promoting greener cars for Americans, I think it’s only fair that they also institute some sort of recycling sector bailout that would give incentives to companies to buy USA-made recycled products. Many of our recyclable materials have traditionally been sent to China to get processed and sold back to us as paper, car parts and other small consumer goods, so promoting local processors and giving American companies a reason (tax breaks) to buy our own trash and make it into new things here would have the dual effect of keeping money and jobs here at home, and keeping trash out of our landfills. The new administration may also want to consider simply outlawing the use of newly mined or logged materials in times when recyclables are in surplus (like now).
Aside from just reducing landfill tonnage, recycling saves massive amounts of energy and other resources – there’s a great Economist article that outlined all of this a couple years ago – give it a read for more info.
Clean Coal Reality Check
Al Gore’s Reality Coalition just put out this new ad campaign – it’s funny, because it’s true.
Does a Bad Economy Spell Good News for the Environment?
Now that our economic crisis has officially been declared a “recession,” I think it’s time to look for the silver lining (green lining?). Americans are losing jobs by the hundreds of thousands, major businesses and banks are going under, and economic indicators haven’t been this gloomy since the 1930′s, but let’s be positive – this could be really great for the environment.
Take your stereotypical Great Depression hobo, for example. Let’s call him, “Joe Hobo”. He’s really a green guy. He doesn’t waste a thing, and even helps to recycle other people’s trash. He takes public transit (cattle trains!), and doesn’t use plastic shopping bags, preferring to carry his purchases in an eco-friendly bindle. My depression-era grandparents were the first to remind me to turn off the lights, save water, and scrape the mold off that bread and eat it – it’s still good! To be honest, I think the American consumer could use a lesson or two from Joe Hobo, and whether they like it or not, they’re getting one now.
Earlier this month the Chicago Sun Times conducted a survey to see how people were trying to save money these days. Some common responses included a shift towards eating leftovers and buying fewer “non essential” grocery items, (more…)
Bush’s EPA Scrambles to Pass Degradation Measures
With less than two months left to finish up all their dirty work, the Bush Administration’s environmental team is as busy as a group of Mongolian Beavers tying up loose ends and signing environmentally devastating rules into action. Unlike its name suggests, the Bush EPA has been less of an “Environmental” Protection Agency, and more like a “Corporate” Protection Agency, as is illustrated by the institution’s most recent move to loosen burdensome regulations on coal companies who have previously just ignored the regulations and polluted anyway. Now that EPA director Stephen Johnson has signed a new rule, Coal Companies that practice Mountaintop Removal are legally allowed to dump rocks and other debris into streams and valleys, a practice that is well known to endanger the health and safety of people and wildlife living downstream.
The new rule is just one of many coal regulation “reforms” expected to come soon from the outgoing administration, including orders that will allow coal-fired power plants to increase their emissions and open up lands near national parks for new coal plants. Sigh, I’m really gonna miss these guys come January 20th. I hope the door doesn’t smack them on their greedy, irresponsible asses on the way out.
For more info on all this, read the NY Times Article, and the NRDC’s press release. Also, I just happened to be in West Virginia last spring, where I made this video about Mountaintop Removal. Lots of thanks to Chuck and the good people at Coal River Mountain Watch.
Guilt-Free Sneakers
It’s been over a year since I wrote this post about my old sneakers. They were good shoes that held up for a long time, and my only regret was that they weren’t even the slightest bit green. So when the time came to get a new pair of shoes a few weeks ago, I remembered the stabbing guilt that tortured me after last year’s shoe purchase and made a point of getting something green to sink my feet into.
I settled on these:
These sneakers are made by Simple, a shoe company that makes a great product and is working to attain “100% sustainability”. The company does make leather and suede shoes (from environmentally-friendly tanneries), but most of their products are vegan, made of green materials like recycled paper, hemp, organic cotton, recycled rubber and plastic, and even coconut shells (for buttons).
My sneakers are comfortable, attractive (although they’re getting dirty – I should have known better and gotten a darker color!), and they were affordable, to boot. I highly recommend visiting the Simple website if you have feet and care about the environment.
