Earth Hour reminder

Just a reminder (although you may be sick of me talking about it at this point), today is Earth Hour.  8:30 p.m. tonight is the beginning -- turn off all non-essential lights for one hour.  That should be pretty easy to do.  

Read a book by candlelight for an hour!

Eco-friendly clothing

As I've written about before, it can be difficult to find eco-friendly clothing for men--but I haven't given up yet. As always, I'm on the lookout for organic cotton/bamboo products, or other types of clothing lines with an eco-friendly focus. I recently discovered two new sites that I'd like to pass on:

Tees For Change [Sustainable Tees on a Misson] boasts, "you buy a tee, we plant a tree." They sell 100% organic cotton and 70% bamboo/30% organic cotton t-shirts, and just as their slogan says, for every shirt you buy, Tees for Change plants a tree! They've partnered with a company called Trees for the Future that plants trees in different areas around the world. I wish they had more styles for men, but there are some great choices for women, babies, and toddlers.

I also got a kick out of the Revenge Is line of clothing. Now this is a cool concept: t-shirts made out of recycled plastic bottles. They offer several different shirts that play off the theme, "the best revenge is living well." No plastic packaging, soy-based inks, 10& of profits given to charity... oh, and did I mention shirts made of plastic bottles yet? It's a unique idea, and I wish them the best of luck.

I haven't tried either brand of shirt yet, so I cannot attest to their quality, but if I can get my hands on any of the clothing, I'll report back.

Happy Friday!

You have to wonder sometimes, don't you?

Check out this piece of genuis that a friend sent me from the Huffington Post. Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele turned in a rather entertaining spot as the guest host of William Bennett's talk radio program a couple of weeks ago.

I'd like to say he made a lot of gaffes, but that's not exactly true. He was in fact just plain stupid. Steele criticized Republicans, compared Obama to Nixon, and referenced everyone's favorite Italian dictator, "Roberto" Mussolini. Oh, if only that were the bottom of the barrel! Enjoy this little rant, which simply has to be quoted in its entirety to be appreciated properly:

And when a listener scoffed at the notion of global warming, Steele eagerly ran with the baton.

"Thank you, thank you," he said. "We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process. Greenland, which is now covered in ice, it was once called Greenland for a reason, right? Iceland, which is now green. Oh I love this. Like we know what this planet is all about. How long have we been here? How long? No very long."

Greenland, for the record, likely had forestation some 450,000 to 800,000 years ago. But its name was derived, as is most commonly believed, from Erik the Red, who wanted to trick people into going to that island as opposed to the more hospitable Iceland.

Was I the only one who learned about Erik the Red's clever Greenland/Iceland trick in 6th grade? Again, this person is the chairman of the RNC. How about "warming is part of the cooling process"? How do you even argue that line of reasoning?

This isn't even anti-intellectualism--that's giving Steele too much credit. It's just good old-fashioned stupid.

Vegetable Garden... no, really...

Yesterday I found an article on the NY Times website that had been reprinted from 1991. I was excited to read the editorial, written by a favorite author of mine, Michael Pollan. It's about planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to post it on the blog with no delay. I wanted to share what I thought was an interesting piece, and did so without any further research. Because of I was so anxious to write about it, I ended up with a post that laughed at the idea of an actual garden appearing on the White House lawn.

Woops.

The reason the article was unearthed from the NY Times archives should have been clear to me without too much research or active thought. Maybe it was the early Sunday morning air, or perhaps I have a gas leak in my living room -- whatever the reason, I completely missed the story that this past Friday, work began on the brand new White House vegetable garden.

Aided by students from a local elementary school, "first lady Michelle Obama [hosted] a groundbreaking for a White House kitchen garden on the South Lawn... The 1,100-square-foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach and, yes, arugula. (The selection is a wish list put together by White House chefs.) There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper. The chefs will use the produce to feed the first family, as well as for state dinners and other official events."

I probably should have realized that the Times doesn't just pull up random articles from its archives without a purpose. Now the Pollan article is even more interesting -- it may have taken close to 20 years, but the garden is now becoming a reality.

So is this a symbolic moment? Will a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House bring attention to the organic and locally-grown food movements? Let's hope so.

How far have we come?

Does it seem as though we are more environmentally conscious than ever? There is more information and public consciousness of environmental issues now than ever before. But is this just a trend? Have we really turned a corner?

Take a look at this 1991 NY Times editorial from Michael Pollan (If you haven't heard of Pollan, I also highly recommend his book In Defense of Food, which I've written about before).  This article was written in the third year of the presidency of Bush I, who had at one point actually expressed the hope that he'd be one day remembered as the "environmental President."

Pollan's suggestion is quite simple: rip up the White House lawn and plant a vegetable garden.  Yes, it was a call for a symbolic gesture, but a powerful one nonetheless.  Of course, tearing up the White House lawn in 1991 was certainly not going to happen.  

Have we made any progress in 2009?  I still don't think the White House lawn is in any danger--President Obama has too many other battles to fight.  But I enjoyed reading this Pollan article and thinking about how little things have changed in the last 20 years.  Sure, we're far more aware of environmental issues, but are we ready for something like tomato plants instead of manicured grass in the front yard of America's most recognizable home?

More Earth Hour buzz...

I debated whether or not it made sense to write a third post on Earth Hour, but the last two resulted in a fair number of comments and emails. So let's keep the discussion going...

The new Earth Hour website has launched. It has ways you can contribute to the movement, a Friend Connect to spread the word, and other information about the "election."

This short video will give you the briefest of overviews:



Remember, it's next Saturday night at 8:30pm (for those of you on the East Coast).

Our Agriculture

I wanted to share this story, which caught my attention today: Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health

Stories like this one, which appeared on Wednesday in the NY Times, should scare the bejesus out of all of us. While evidence is still being gathered, the article is suggesting that our agricultural practices (in this case, pig farming) may be extremely harmful to human health. There are growing murmurs that pigs may be responsible for spreading antibiotic-resistant staph infections.

The large amount of antibiotics used on our livestock is frightening. Are we unwittingly helping to incubate and spread a disease which has been called "the flesh-eating bacteria"?

The larger question is whether we as a nation have moved to a model of agriculture that produces cheap bacon but risks the health of all of us. And the evidence, while far from conclusive, is growing that the answer is yes.

It should be enough to scare anyone into reducing his/her meat consumption, or at least making sure the meat on his/her plate comes from an organic farm.

Earth Hour, cont.

I wanted to direct your attention to a comment that was made in yesterday's post re: Earth Hour. The Commit21 website lets you take the concept of Earth Hour one step further. Rather than simply switching off some lights, you can commit to doing something for the environment during Earth Hour. Some of the groups include a group committed to changing lightbulbs over to energy efficient bulbs and a group committed to making a more concerted recycling effort. And once you've joined a group, you can pester all your friends/family/people-in-your-Outlook-contacts by emailing them to do the same!

It's a great way to do something extra during Earth Hour.

Thanks for promoting Earth Hour! Another way you can recruit people to the cause is by creating a Earth Hour group on Commit21.com. Simply create a group about one action that you will commit to do for Earth Hour and recruit your friends, family, and co-workers to get involved in that action as well. When it comes to climate change, simple actions can make huge differences and Commit21 leverages social media to influence networks of friends, family, and co-workers. Check it out at http://www.commit21.com/

Turn your lights down low

In fact, turn your lights off completely. Mayor Menino announced that Boston will be taking part in Earth Hour on March 28th, from 8:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Basically, Earth Hour is an hour when everyone turns off their lights. For an hour. This is the third year of Earth hour, and here is the description of this year's campaign:

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming.

Raising awareness is great. I'm all for it -- I'm happy to vote for Earth over global warming. My fear, as always, is that people feel a sense of accomplishement with this completely symbolic action. I want people to be aware, of course, but I don't want this to be a way for people to feel good about themselves without having to actually do anything. Politicians and companies can jump on the bandwagon and tout their green credentials, while at the same time they're putting up massive, energy-sucking billboards that throb and pulsate with electricity throughout the night.

Ok, I feel a little bit whiny, like Grandpa Simpson. But now that my cynicism is out of the way, let me say I'll be happy to vote for Earth.

Global warming sucks.

Go Earth.

Rideshare program

When my favorite band, Phish, announced their reunion tour, the first thing I did (after jumping up and down a few times) was start making plans to see some shows. Going to concerts in the summer has always been one of my favorite things to do. As I charted out a course that would take my from Boston to Long Island and back and then later out to Wisconsin, I began to wonder what the impact of all my travels would be.

Radiohead has been the highest profile band (that I'm aware of) to really publicize their commitment to environmental issues and to ensuring that their own tours are as low-impact as possible. I wanted to find out if Phish was doing anything similar. I emailed the band's management, but I still have yet to receive a direct response.

I did notice, however, that they posted a story on their website about the Phish Rideshare Program. Quite simply, it's a carpool program that I hope a lot of people will take advantage of both this weekend at the reunion shows, and throughout the summer concert season. I'll keep my eyes peeled for any other bands/festivals/concerts that offer similar programs.

New badges

Check out the new badges I've added on the left of the blog.  The alternative to printing pages is certainly useful.  If you have your own blog or website, there are plenty of badges out there (such as these) that are good for those of us with less than All-Star design skills.  I think they spice up the blog, and add some interesting content as well.

The electric car is now a concept album

Neil Young loves the electric car so much he's decided to write and record a concept album about it. File this under S for "Strange but true."

Last year, old Neil decided to transform "his 1959 Lincoln from a nine-miles-per-gallon gas guzzler into an electric vehicle that can get 100 miles to the gallon."

"People can say I'm crazy — that's fine, I expect that. I'm a rock & roller trying to do something that may not even be possible. But, frankly, I have nothing else to do... With the energy crisis, I thought, 'This represents an era that's over,' " Young says. "I decided that I wanted to do something with one of my cars to make a statement about technology. Anyone can do it. You don't have to have billions of dollars and be Ford."

All right, that's crazy, but definitely a good kind of crazy. You really don't have to be a major corporation to affect change. Good on ya, Neil.

But did he stop there? Of course not. Neil Young doesn't do things halfway, so he decided to write a concept album about the electric car. No joke--the nine song album is titled Fork in the Road. Check out the crazed video for the Fork in the Road song as well.

Hey, I love the idea here. Neil's writing about his passion. Sometimes I wonder if maybe he could work on the delivery method--you know, is it necessary to try to insult anyone who isn't spending their own time and money turning their car into an electric machine? But then again, this is Neil Young, and he isn't exactly known for his subtelty!