greenPRIDE "Celebrating being Green"

Words from the Wise

From Earth Day founder, the late Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson:

"Our goal is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all human beings and all other creatures-an environment without ugliness, without poverty, without discrimination, without hunger and without war. Our goal is a decent environment in its deepest and broadest sense."

Treehugger reports that only 34% of US voters believe global warming is caused by human activity. The effects of global warming are real. What will you do to limit your effects upon our changing environment? How can you become the words of Earth Day's founder?

Being a Green Bad Ass!

I came across this article about 6 things you can do to be a real green bad ass! Of course, I had to read it and make sure I’m a green bad ass, too. Because that is where it is at, right? It's a little bit more than just turning off your power strips. Enjoy the read and I hope you are a bad ass, too!

1. Have a "zero-sum" home. (Check!)
   The concept behind a "zero-sum" life is simple: For every new thing that comes in to your house, something old goes out (and not in the trash, please). New sweater? Pass an old one on to Goodwill or Freecycle. New laptop? Be sure that old one gets properly recycled. New piece of furniture? Sell or donate your old furniture—get tips on how in our How to Go Green: Furniture guide. By keeping the zero-sum game in mind, you won't pile up as much stuff; if you do end up accruing more, you know you'll have to really, really need it first.


2. Have an almost zero waste home. (Check- almost!)
   This tip applies to every room in your house, with the kitchen and bathroom getting a partial pass for now. Think about the stuff that typically goes in trash in your bedroom, or home office, or other living space. In your bedroom, is it tissues, paper, and (gasp!) clothing? Use a handkerchief, put paper in your recycling bin, and donate your old clothes or host a clothing swap party—see, that wasn't so bad, was it? Same routine for your home office—paperless, please—and other rooms in the house. If it can't be reused, repurposed or recycled, it doesn't really belong in your green life, mmkay?
   
   The kitchen and bathroom are slightly different animals. Even if you compost your organic waste (more on that in a sec), there are a handful of things that even the most careful green cook ends up chucking in the garbage—even if you keep plastic out of your kitchen as a rule, and don't eat much meat, as you can't compost meat scraps in most home composting systems. So just try to take it easy on chucking stuff that can't be composted by cutting back on packaging by buying in bulk and mindfully recycling as much as possible. And, in the bathroom, well, some of the stuff that goes on in there just has to go away, so take it easy on the garbage and ponder the selective flush every now and then.


3. Compost your organic waste. (Check!!)
   Organic waste—food scraps and other plant-based materials—makes up around 30 percent of our solid waste, so composting can really cut back on the volume of garbage you produce. And, as we've noted in the past, composting is not just for those with huge backyards (or those who don't wear shoes). You don't really need any backyard to start; aside from a variety of indoor and small-space models, there are a handful of methods you can employ to handle your organic waste without a compost pile. Learn more of the basics of composting and, if you're a renter, get cracking with these tips for composting in an apartment. Remember, if it doesn't quite go as planned, we've already got some troubleshooting tips to help.


4. Grow (some of) your own food. (Check!- sprouting is easy)
   It'd be great if we all had a couple hundred square feet of outdoor space for a garden so we could grow our own food, but that isn't in the cards for us all. For many apartment dwellers and urbanites alike, a sunny outdoor plot in the backyard is a nice thought, but just not feasible. Fear not! You can still grow your own food by shrewdly using space and being smart about what gets planted in your containers and window boxes. With just a bit of space, you can grow your very own veggies, including summer delights like sugar snap peas and fall and winter favorites like swiss chard.
   
   If you're without even the smallest of plots, and can only manage a handful of containers for a garden, herbs like basil (delicious in everything from mojitos to salad), mint (for margaritas, anyone?), rosemary (perfect for rosemary biscuits, sage, thyme and oregano are all low-maintenance plants that can grow in pots or a windowbox—just don't forget to talk to them.
   
   And, for a bonus don't-be-lazy tip, start your own community garden. You'll have room for your own garden, and can share the space with other aspiring gardeners in your community. Grow more plants, meet more people, have more fun; everybody wins!


5. Add insulation to your attic. (Oops!!- call the landlord!) If you have reasonable access to your attic—like through a ladder or other means that doesn't require you to cut a hole in the ceiling—then adding proper insulation can have huge return on investment, and isn't that hard. The Rocky Mountain Institute estimates it will save you 2,142 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions—through the heat your home retains in winter and doesn't gain in the summer—and hundreds of dollars in lower energy bills. If you've got less than about 16 inches up there, it's totally worth an afternoon crawling around up there to make your home more efficient; if you don't know how much you've got, it's time to get off the couch and learn. Lloyd has a great step-by-step tutorial to getting it done.


6. Drink raw milk. (No, thanks- I'm a vegan)
   While raw milk laws can make it tough to find unpasteurized moo juice at your corner grocery, the health benefits of the raw white stuff are myriad: 20 amino acids (the building blocks of protein); 60 plus (known) fully intact and functional enzymes; and, thanks to the intact lactose-digesting Lactobacilli bacteria, it's even tolerable to some lactose-intolerant folks. In short: It does a body good.
   
   Because of the lack of pasteurization, drinking raw milk isn't without risks, of course, so it pays to do a little homework and get to know your raw milk source; many farmers and co-ops are happy to give you a tour of their milking and storage facilities, to help you insure the quality of the milk. But with the legwork comes reward: Not only can you enjoy the benefits of the milk, but it offers the opportunity for making cheese, butter, and other dairy products in the comfort of your own kitchen (and that's another post). So, mind the laws in your neck of the woods, and check Local Harvest or The Campaign for Real Milk to find a local farmer, co-op, or other enlightened organization who believes in the power of raw milk near you.

DeChristopher puts down payment on BLM Land!!

I am so happy to report that Tim DeChristopher, a courageous enviornmentalist who made fake bids to purchase public lands at a recent oil and gas lease auction, has raised $45,000 to place the first down payment on 22,500 acres of land saving it from the Bush Administration's plan to sell out our environment! This is the best news!!

"I'm thankful to announce we have reached our initial goal of raising $45,000 for the first payment on the 22,500 acres I "won" at the BLM auction on December 19th. Most of our donations came in $10 or $20 increments from thousands who gave whatever they could during this hard economic time. It is very encouraging for me to see how many others value the land, the climate and a participatory democracy as much as I do. This has been a reminder for me that when you stand for what is right, you never stand alone.

My legal team and I are now prepared to make the first payment. We are waiting for confirmation from the BLM and US Attorney's office that they will accept the payment. As I have said before, it is unclear to me how the BLM or the new administration will proceed in my case. In the event that my payment is refused and 
the parcels are going to be put up for auction again, the money 
given to my Lease Fund will be used to acquire these parcels in the new auction. I think that together we value this land and the climate more than oil companies value the oil in those rocks, so we should be able to demonstrate that in any future auction," stated DeChristopher.

Ruckus at BLM's public land lease auction!

Thanks to environmental activist, Tim DeChristopher, valuable land leases have been saved from oil and drilling companies on public lands in Utah. Have you heard of Arches National Park, Rainbow Bridge and other stunning, pristine natural environments that we are so privileged to live near? Well, they have recently, thanks to the Bush Administration, been put up for sale to begin drilling for oil because we have passed our peak with oil supplies. Yada, yada. It's called radically changing to alternative energy sources and begin life anew with algae, wind, solar, geothermal, driving less or none at all.

So what Tim did, was behave as one interested in placing bids at this public land auction. His pseudo-bidding, raised prices on leases making them unaffordable to companies looking to drill. "The process was thrown into chaos and the bidding halted for a time before the auction was closed, with 116 parcels totaling 148,598 acres having sold for $7.2 million plus fees. 'He's tainted the entire auction,' said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.

Tim, a 27-year old University of Utah economics student, bought 13 parcels and drove up prices on several other parcels. His plan was to disrupt the auction and he did. This couldn't have been better timed, due to concern that the parcels might not go up for auction again under President-elect Barack Obama's administration.

BLM expects to charge DeChristopher but he was released and the case was referred to federal prosecutors for possible fraud charges. When asked how he feels about the charges, DeChristopher said "I'm willing to deal with that."

I tip my hat to Tim DeChristopher is fearlessly acted upon his environmental consciousness and who just saved valuable and ecologically sacred ecosystems from being destroyed for short-term profit for all of us. Check out one of my favorite organizations and learn how to create a ruckus with your eco-consciousness! Thank you,Tim thank you!!

Coolest Lo-Carbon Hot Mama

Have you ever just accidently stumbled upon a really cool person who you wish to be like? Well, I just did! Let me introduce you to Joan Pick, a U.K. woman who is raw, almost 0 carbon footprint, and totally alive with the right attitude. In my mind, she is a living master of what one can do with the choices they make to live lightly upon the planet and have a healthy, good life.

Joan eats only raw, vegetarian foods, has not driven a car since 1973, runs everywhere she needs to go and does her laundry by hand. The energy she uses is one light bulb and electricity to heat her tea kettle. She gets her heating from clothes and exercise, running 2 hours a day, using her old cast iron skillets as weights and hula-hooping in her living room.

Joan is a retired scientist and member of Mensa. She decided 35 years ago that the Earth was similar to a business in need of solid, sound management. "We are all members of the board, a shareholder, a trustee, a consumer and an employee. We believed that fossil fuels were infinite, but they are finite." It was from this place that she began to minimalize her energy consumption and really take an active role in safeguarding the planet. She has adopted a lifestyle that can coexist with a sustainable management of the Earth's resources.

May we all live as happy and well as Joan. I want to look that good at her age, too with that much energy, beauty and vitality. And of course, with a low carbon footprint. Thank you, Joan for setting the bar and being a leader in which the rest may follow!

Chickens, Ammonia Warming Up the Planet

As many of you are already aware,the animal industry adds to the aggregation of global warming emissions. But for some reasons, I didn't expect that factory farmed chickens emit more ammonia than steel and oil refineries combined! 8 times more! And get this! Lobbyists for the chicken industry are already encouraging the EPA to allow them not to regulate or report the toxic levels of ammonia that escape into Our atmosphere!

Treehugger reports that the weird part of this breaking news, is that the Bush administration is quickly allowing this deregulation of toxic ammonia emissions and other animal industry emission to be pushed through by January. The lobbyists are there whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the EPA but do not fret yet. Sierra Club, Environmental Integrity Project and the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment are there, too, demanding that justice be served.

So now we have ammonia as an emission leader in the pollution race of our planet. Can the animal product eaters of the world just eat less meat, use less animal products? Or better yet, switch to veganism all together? Whatever we do, we all add to the acculumulative effect of what is happening on our planet. Make a shift into cleaner living today. It's as close as one less chicken, one less egg away!

Tell the EPA to regulate CO2 emissions today!

According to the WE campaign, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking public comment to request that this agency regulate carbon dioxide emissions as part of the Clean Air Act. We as citizens need to act fast because the public comment period ends Friday, November 28, 2008.

This is of extraordinary importance because big business, i.e. coal and oil industries are working hard to funnel large amounts of money to ensure their right to continue polluting the environment and adding carbon dioxide emissions increasing the threats of global warming. All to continue in the same fashion as always—decision making for profits.

http://www.repoweramerica.org/page/s/epa

Take time today to fill out the public comment section and tell the EPA to do its job. It’s so interesting how this agency is so aptly named ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION and it is only seems to be protecting big money. What then is the real purpose of the EPA? To protect the environment for a sustainable future or allow big business to continue making environmental rules based on profits and not public and environmental welfare?

Birth of Blue?

In the wake of realizing that the holidays are fast approaching, consumerism is about to take off again. Birth of Blue – Adam Werbach’s new movement of combining consumerism and greening America. I feel that his basic premise of still wanting to have it all and be sustainable is an oxymoron. Why does the need to have more outweigh the lesson that less is better? Maybe better yet than look at the death of environmentalism, one should be looking at the phenomenon of shopping and why we do it. If Werbach did this, he would be out of a job at Walmart.

Sustainability is not about maintaining desires or fulfilling the “American dream”. Sustainability is about sustaining a quality of life for every living being whether it be through use of resources, shared habitat or conservation and protection of diversity. How can you have a weekly shopping trip to Walmart or Target and still maintain the philosophy that we need to protect the oceans and support diversification of species for the next seven generations?

The birth of blue is a good attempt to meld what seems to be such an overwhelming change in one’s behavior to live more sustainably but does not even come close to achieving a goal of lessening one’s personal impact on the planet. The birth of blue should be teaching consumers about the dangers of consumerism and that making good choices is good for the environment. I believe that the birth of blue can go much further in educating the populous that less is more, make conscious choices, demand stores comply with best practices and reuse, repair more! It’s a nice try to protect shareholders’ investments but I’m still green.

Dear President Obama, We want clean energy now!

Dear President-elect Obama,
America and many countries around the world are ecstatic that you will be the next president of the United States. Please see the world into the future with clean, renewable energy!

It's Time for Grassroots Power!

May this historic night bring empowerment, knowledge, wisdom and grace to the table. The beauty of the Barack Obama campaign is that he, himself has his roots in community organizing. Returning home from work this evening, I noticed so many of us average Americans out on the streets, holding up signs, encouraging people to vote and vote smart. I loved seeing all this community activism! I love witnessing so much passion and willingness to act!

Tomorrow begins a new era of grassroots power. We cannot stay idle any longer expecting the government to suspend loyalty to high paid lobbyists and corporate ties. We as citizens can act upon our own behalf and for the welfare of others in our communities. This is where CHANGE will come. This is where real results will be seen and felt.

It's not about a war on terror or a war on drugs. It's about a movement of community-inspired grassroots organization at the local level. Our next president, Barack Obama, is a real-life symbol that community organizing does work! We can bring on a green economy, green jobs, environmental justice by solving problems in our communities. It is going to happen from the bottom up.

In our enlightenment that this is our Call to Action locally, let us support Barack Obama as he seeks to change from the top down. It cannot happen overnight. But it can happen. We have got to stand together, persevere and unite, keeping the faith that our lives are changing for the better.

Truly put "country first" and get active in your community, your local neighborhood today. Believe me, you will find a myriad of ways to get involved. In this way, you will pick yourself, your community, up by its boot straps and make the changes that need to happen! Power to the Peaceful!