It’s been over a month since I last wrote here, and I don’t really have an excuse. I think it’s because I keep coming up with blog topics that are kind of hard to research and/or comply with. Someone recently told me that it actually slows down your boiling water if you add salt to it first – I always have added salt in the beginning because I thought it sped up the process. Does anyone know what the truth is? I’m too lazy to look it up, but I would really like to know whether I’m wasting a ton of energy trying to heat up salty water all the time.

I’ve also been thinking about greening up my cat’s litter situation, but I’m totally hooked on Fresh Step (which is clay-based and not at all green, plus it costs about $10 a box). I’m not at all interested in potty-training my cats, and I’ve tried and rejected natural litters in the past. My only compromise thus far has been to minimize the number of plastic grocery bags that I use to throw the litter away in – we have a little trash can that all the litter is scooped into and then we throw out the whole thing once a week or so.

I shouldn’t even have plastic grocery bags in my home anyways, though! This really bothers me. I have been RELIGIOUS about using cloth grocery bags for the past couple of years. I always keep an extra bag in my purse, and if I don’t have a bag on me I just carry everything by hand. But somehow my kitchen cabinets are still overflowing with plastic bags. I blame this partially on Boyfriend, who is less diligent than I when it comes to shopping bags, but most of the blame should go to our friends, who are generous and bring gifts like beer and whiskey to our house, generally swathed in plastic.

Some brainy sciency-types say that my grocery bag obsession isn’t even helping the planet. It’s like cutting up plastic bear rings or turning off the faucet when I’m brushing my teeth. A drop in the bucket, they say. I’m doing my best to block them out, because I think we can use any environmentally-friendly act that Americans are willing to undertake.

Anyways, the month-long blog hiatus is partially due to all of the frustrations listed above, but mainly resulting from a highly distracting garden, some community food projects that I’ve been undertaking, and a new job tossing pizzas in Prospect Heights. But now I’m back, and I promise to stop being lazy – at least for a little while.

Last night the Associated Press released a breaking story about the shooting and capture of Larkin Baggett, a Utah-based chemical company owner who was wanted by the EPA for illegally disposing of hazardous waste. The EPA was tipped off about Baggett’s whereabouts after listing him as a wanted fugitive on the Criminal Enforcement section of their website, and found him in the Florida Keys yesteday where the manhunt ended in a hail of bullets. Baggett reportedly pulled out a gun when confronted by officials, who in turn shot him twice, arrested him, and brought him to a Miami hospital where he remains in critical condition.

It’s not easy enforcing environmental protection law, so back in December of last year Bush Administration EPA officials set up a webpage on the  that features a saloon-style bulletin board of EPA Fugitive wanted posters. The fugitives include hazardous waste dumpers and importers of emissions-spewing vehicles and ozone-depleting chemicles, and grainy photographs of their two dozen sad faces are posted on the page along with short descriptions of their wrongdoings and last known whereabouts.

Baggett was the first EPA fugitive to be identified and captured using the Agency’s online list. When the list was first published back in December, environmentalists doubted that the digital wanted posters would help bring eco-violators to justice. Under the current administration, however, the EPA has been newly empowered and seems genuinely interested in enforcing environmental law. The story of Larkin Baggett may only be the first of its kind as the EPA enters into a new era of environmental protection by all means necessary (including the use of deadly force).

The whole thing makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but I guess it’s all well-intentioned. The campaign aims to reduce the incidence of wild fires, the large majority of which are caused by humans, and it’s definitely a worthwhile cause, considering much of southern California has been on fire for years now and several other regions of the US have experienced record droughts within the past decade. Smokey’s website offers all sorts of info on preventing fires, plus it has a nifty feature on its home page that tracks how many acres of land have burned so far in the US this year (about a half million last time I checked), and a map that shows everywhere there’s a wildfire burning today. Kind of scary, but really quite cool.

The best part of the campaign, of course, are the TV ads featuring our new and improved sexy CGI Smokey. You can see them on the home page of SmokeyBear.com. And just in case you miss the old Smokey, there’s a section on his new website called Smokey’s Vault that offers lots of history and classic images from the 60-year Smokey the Bear campaign.

Don’t forget your golf clubs – I hear the new guy plays a different sport so he won’t be needing them. And be sure to take your golf buddies, too, and all the other miserly schemers that you surround yourself with. Make room in the trunk for all those new coal plants that have gone up under your watch, and the inefficient cars and trucks that have been built. Take your framed, unsigned copy of the Kyoto agreement, and those two scientists that still don’t believe in global warming. Pack up those drilling rights that you’ve issued, and please return the ice and polar bears that have gone missing. Hold on to all your other paperwork, too – you never know what you’ll need when you get indicted.

Bring your bad speech, your ignorant world outlook, your apathy toward those of us who don’t happen to be older, white, wealthy and male. Try and make room for all the regression and missed opportunities that you’ve created – I know it’s a lot, but you really deserve them more than anyone else. And take your corporate bedfellows, your disregard for environmental and human consequences, and your wars. I don’t care what you do with Cheney, but make sure he’s emptied all the dirt from his desk and leaves his keys.

Pack it all up, and get it out of here. It’s really not fair to leave your mess for the next tennant, and we, the people, have no need for your crappy legacy.

Christmas is about gifts, and this year I bought a lot of them, made a couple (too few), and received even more. There might be a recession on, and Americans might have experienced a leaner holiday this year, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the mountain of loot that I brought home on December 26th. It’s worth noting that a few of the consumer goods I received were fairly green – I got a compost bin, some gardening tools, and a gift certificate to buy vegetable seeds from Seeds of Change. I also wrapped the presents that I gave in the paper that I saved last year. But for the most part, this Christmas was a nauseating display of consumption and waste.

And there was also food. Too much of it. And lots of alcohol to wash it down. I ate until my stomach hurt on more than one occasion, and threw a New Years party which resulted in a morning-after recycling bag full of bottles and cans whose girth rivaled that of my 1995 volvo sedan. Even a couple of days ago I caught myself eating and drinking to the point of gluttony, excusing my behavior with the pathetic phrase, “it’s the holidays, right?” No, it wasn’t the holidays. It was January.

And it still is January, which means that I’ve still got an opportunity to repent for my holiday season sins and start 2009 with a clean slate. I’m not sure if I want to make an actual resolution, although I did have success with last year’s resolution (there’s a snot-filled hanky on the table next to me as I write this now). The changes that I want to make are too many and too big to be grouped into a single resolution, but if I were to have to make one big umbrella resolution, it would be to cut back. It’s time to trim the fat off my lifestyle, to get rid of wasteful habits and to embrace an attitude of asceticism. Less is more in 2009. Clear is the new black. My new years shopping tip: don’t go shopping.

We’ll see how well this goes. I’m easing into it – for starters, no more paper towels (I’ve got lots of dish cloths, anyway). Maybe then I’ll work my way up to something bigger (no clothes shopping for a year?). Let me know if you’ve got ideas.

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.

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, which means less wasted food and less trash in general (this is revolutionary for a population known for wasting up to 40% of the food we produce). People were also cutting back on the amount of personal care and cleaning products they use, meaning fewer cleaning chemicals are going down the drain and into our water supply, and many were giving up on bottled water and switching to filters, which we all know is the greener way to stay hydrated.

Now, the economic crisis is also causing some trends that aren’t so good for the environment, including a drop in organic food sales. Even my meat guy at the Union Square Greenmarket is feeling the pinch, claiming that he’s not selling as much this fall as he was last year, and that shoppers are turning to discount food suppliers like Costco for their hams and sausages. Their loss.

And the transportation sector is complicated, with gas prices dropping and SUV sales rebounding recently after a summer of less vacationing and less driving in general. But the near-failure of the auto industry and its expected federal bailout brings expectation that reform of our car culture is imminent, and smaller, more efficient cars and hybrids are soon to become the norm.

Overall, I think (and I’m not an expert, nor an economist, so who really cares what I think anyway) that the whole recession thing is going to have a positive overall result for the environment. Already Americans have been conserving more, shopping less and bringing back some of those depression-era practices that their parents and grandparents taught them. Nobody likes a recession, and I really, really, hope it ends soon, because I need a job, but if this economic downturn puts even a little dent in our consumer addiction, it could have enormously positive consequences for our long-term environmental health.

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.

The election of Barack Obama was good news for environmentalists, as he is likely to diverge from the Bush Administration’s policy of rape, pillage, dump and drill. Ever since November 4th, many of us have been drooling on our shirts and letting our eyes roll off into space as we daydream about the green curtains, solar panels and organic garden that the President Elect is no doubt planning to install in the White House. We shiver with anticipation at the thought of his newly empowered EPA, and giggle with glee as we count off possible USDA and EPA heads as if we’re reciting our Christmas list.

It’s an exciting time for the greenies (and for Americans, in general), but I’m writing to warn everybody that we aren’t there yet. He’s not really our president until January 20th, and there’s a lot of havoc that the Bush administration can wreak between now and then.

For example, on November 4th – our big win day when everybody was too exicted and distracted by the election to notice – good old W was busily signing his name to documents that would in essence lease out 360,000 acres of pristine federal land in Utah for oil drilling. It’s likely that Barack Obama will be able to reverse the damage when he gets into office, but who knows what kind of damage the oil companies can cause in the meantime.

And I’m sure there’s a lot more where that came from. Presidents are capable of doing all sorts of crazy things on their way out of office, especially if they’re not up for re-election.

So it’s up to all of us to keep an eye on things (always – even after January 20th), and to exercise our democratic rights by speaking up and making a fuss.

For starters, call Utah’s Senators and let them know that this whole “drilling on pristine public lands” thing is a non-starter. There’s a public comment (protest) period that ends December 4th, so give them a call (now!), and tell their staff that you are calling to protest the lease of Utah’s public lands to oil companies. And don’t write an email or letter – it’s much more effective to call. Here are their DC office numbers:

Senator Orrin Hatch: (202) 224-5251

Senator Bob Bennett: (202) 224-5444

Ah, New York. I’ve been away for nigh on a year, now, and it’s good to be back. Despite the cold, wet November day, despite being unemployed during an economic crisis, and despite the sad reality that I still haven’t found my own place yet (I’m crashing at my sisters’ place), I really am happy to have returned to this massive, colorful city of opportunity.

Over the past eight months I’ve visited about 40 US states and a couple of Mexican and Canadian provinces, and as much as I enjoyed the beauty and diversity of this great continent, no place I saw could compare to New York City. Including the Grand Canyon.

What is it I love about New York? There are several answers to this question:

1. It’s my home. Although I was raised in Massachusetts, I’ve been living here (on and off) since I was 19, much of my family and many of my closest friends are here, and I consider this city my “home base”.

2. It’s wicked diverse. There are people from everywhere here, and everyone lives side-by-side in peace and harmony with respect for one another. And there are about a million hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants with the best food you’ve ever had.

3. It’s easy to be green here. A lot of people think of New York as a big, dirty city with trash everywhere and millions of tons of carbon pumping into the air each day. This is basically true, however, living in the city is really a lot greener than living in the suburbs or the country. In the city I ride the subway, along with 54% of New Yorkers. When I’m not riding the subway, I’m walking, or riding my bike. Recycling is easy and mandatory here – they even recycle the trash collected on subway platforms. I shop for food at one of the City’s 50 Greenmarkets, and when I can’t find something I need, I’m always within about a mile of a natural foods store. Like most people, I live in an apartment building, which means I share heat with my neighbors and therefore conserve energy that is lost in detached houses.

New York isn’t the greenest city in the country – that title goes to Portland, Oregon. But we were ranked the 20th greenest city by Popular Science back in February. And 20th ain’t bad, but the City’s going to get even greener. There are numerous environmental initiatives underway in New York, including non-profits and government institutions. I know this, because I’ve recently applied for jobs at most of them (please hire me, someone!). What’s more, the Mayor is serious about greening up this place, and fast. He’s set on making NYC number 1 (watch out, Portland!), and has launched dozens of initiatives to make the City cleaner, greener and healthier than any other.

So that’s why, even on a crappy day like this, sitting in my sisters’ kitchen, in the middle of a weekday, I can smile about being back in the City. I love New York.

Here are some awesome NYC Environmental Projects to check out:

Council on the Environment of New York City (the Mayor’s environmental initiative)

East New York Farms

Freecycle New York City

Lower East Side Ecology Center

New York Restoration Project

Transportation Alternatives