May312008
Giveaways Coming
Just a heads up that I’m going to do a couple giveaways soon. Is there interest out there for free stuff? Free green stuff?
Leave your comments and come back!
May292008
Adapt Nature or Adapt To Nature?
Please excuse my diarrhea of the brain while I ponder and pander.
Who is smarter – the human or nature? I’m talking about the modern, civilized cultures. You may remember the movie from the 80’s called “The God’s Must Be Crazy.” There is a particular part of that movie where then introduce the western culture and compare it to the aboriginal culture. The aborigine adapts to his environment. The aborigine protects nature and lives in harmony with nature. The modern human adapts his environment to suit his needs. What is the measure of wealth here?
We are habit forming creatures who are seeking comfort and something bigger and better all the time. I think that might be the problem. Rarely are we satisfied with life. If you’re not always striving for what society deems as a better life (mostly material goods and thoughts), you are then somehow a bad person. There is no way you could really be happy. The book, The Paradox of Choice talks about this phenomenon. Sometimes enough should be enough. There comes a time when there is too much choice because we chasing pipe dreams of what life should be. I think this is why chain restaurants like Chipotle and Potbelly’s thrive, actually. They have 10 menu items. This is what you get. It’s quick (which ties into our culture). It tastes good. Finally, there is very little choice. There is little room to always second guess your choice (I’m sure many still do, however).
This brings me back to my first question. Are we as modern civilized humans smarter than nature because we change the environment to suit our needs? Or is the aborigine (with little carbon footprint, mind you) the smarter human? Can we out-think nature? We obviously try all the time. Personally, I feel that we have a lot to learn from nature. For instance – did you ever notice that leaves aren’t dusty and dirty? Most leaves have microscopic bumps on them and the dirt teaters on the top – rain comes and washes away the dirt easily. The lotus leaf is the main one that is usually referenced - a paint company makes exterior paint that mimics this.
Think about a bird. A bird finds a mate. The bird then builds a nest and lays eggs. Can the bird survive in a nest made out of toxic materials? Will the eggs hatch and produce healthy “children” in this nest filled with chemicals and “un-natural” materials? Will the offspring of the offspring survive or will nature lose in this toxic world? I’m betting on the latter. Is this the same world we’re bringing our children into? Is it the world we were brought into?
I am not even clear in my own head what I am trying to communicate here. I’m obviously a bit frustrated. We can’t change the past, but we can make positive strides towards improving the future. I hate this euphemism, but, yes – changing a light bulb can make a difference. Using healthy, clean, safe products can make a difference. Buying local and organic food can make a difference. Drying your clothes outside can make a difference. Raising our children with these values passes this on to other generations. These kids need to learn that life shouldn’t be about materialism. That’s all they’re taught from birth, though.
Someone I heard speak recently put it into a context that many of us can relate to. In the 70’s and even early 80’s, it wasn’t uncommon to see someone chuck a bag of fast-food trash (with the Styrofoam Big Mac container) out the window of a moving care. Littering was almost accepted. Since then, there have been a ton PSA’s and people generally look at litterers as something that is bad (give a hoot, don’t pollute). We have the power to start that chain reaction now./ Green doesn’t have to be a fad. I hope when my children are my age, they won’t have to teach anyone to “go green.” Green will be normal – it will be unthinkable to do it another way. Of course, this assumption provides that there are resources available and not 10billion industrialized people in this world.
There is no way we can look out for and take care of our future generations. We can only take care of the container they will be born into.
The Gods Must Be Crazy : The civilized man part starts at 5:35
May282008
More Michael Pollan Than You Could Ever Want
Here is a lengthy four part interview with Michael Pollan, author of In Defense Of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Enjoy.
May272008
Ecoist: Don Cheadle
Love the Cheadle ever since he was in Boogie Nights. He’s a smart man and I love his Ecoist segment. He starts by talking about our supermarkets in the States and how it’s loaded with all kinds of food no matter what season it is. It’s something that is also addressed in the book, The Paradox of Choice. Enjoy.
May272008
Ecoist: Ron Livingston
Ron Livingston, probably most famous for his role in Office Space and on Sex and the City…I liked him in Band of Brothers. Anyway – Sundance Channel has a series called Ecoist that they run during “The Green” on Tuesday nights. “A legacy that this generation could leave behind is a system that provides free clean energy forever – uh – that’s pretty cool – I think we should do that.”
May272008
Science Fair: 16 Year Old Degrades Plastic
A 16 year old kid named Daniel Burd in Ontario set out to create a science project for the Canada-wide Science Fair. He wondered – if plastic bags eventually do degrade after 1,000 years – what makes them eventually degrade? If we can figure that out, we can probably make them degrade faster – short of using plasma gassification.
Turns out that Daniel is wise beyond his years and is $30,000 richer for it. He tried to isolate which microbes actually degrade the plastic. After a lot of experimentation and weighing, etc, he figures that he can degrade a bag in as little as 90 days.
See – the children ARE our future 
I encourage you to read the entire article at the link below.
Source: The Blue Marble, The Record
PS – Special thanks to Mr Doyle for the reference
May222008
Brita & Nalgene: Filter Water Yourself
Brita and Nalgene have teamed up on a campaign to reduce bottled water waste. I’m not sure what to think of the ads above. I feel that many will just dismiss them as being extremist. Not quite as bad as red paint being thrown on a mink coat. Although, with so many plastic water bottles going to landfill, that is a shitload of oil. According to the site, FilterForGood.com and FastCompany – 38 million water bottles are sent to landfill annually. If you’ve never read Message In A Bottle from Fast Company last year – then go do it now. It’s quite the eye-opener.
Anyhoo – I thought ads were interesting and would share them with everyone. Click on them to enlarge. Josh Dorfman of The Lazy Environmentalist and LimeTV offers tips for “green-overs.” Not surprisingly, you can also buy custom Nalgene water bottles from the site, too.
I could write a long time on the topic of bottled water. For instance, the City of Chicago is saving over $400,000/year by cutting bottled water from its budget. I’m stopping before I rant…another time.
Enjoy.
UPDATE:
Our friend, Katie, brings up a great point about Brita. In the US, they don’t take the filter back for recycling. Boo, Clorox – clean up your mess and take them back!
HEY BRITA – TAKE BACK THE FILTERS!!
May202008
Chicago Green Fest: Planet Green Panel
Here is part of a panel discussion in the Q&A section from Graham Hill, Founder of Treehugger.com (who Discovery Networks purchased). Also are some questions on greenwashing. Sara Snow answers some questions and Jodi Murphy of Wrecklamation is also on the panel. Jodi is owner/founder of Murco Recycling here in Chicago. We’ve been going to her demolition sales for years.
The video is pretty bad, but the audio is clear enough. Sorry – I was testing out this FlipVideo device.
May172008
Chicago Green Festival (part one)
Today and tomorrow is/was the Chicago Green Festival. This will be a quick recap because I have a lot of photos that I want to get up here, too. I was able to connect with a lot of people I met over the two days at the Co-op America Green Business Conference. I was also able to connect with a lot of new friends, too. I was amazed at the amount of Chicago business represented. Some I knew about, others, I didn’t. Here are a few of my favorites: EcoScene (Aimee, it was great to finally meet you after emailing each other for the past 4 months), Recycle Me Organic Tees (these guys were so nice and seems like a great new business – very cool shirts – simple and clean), Natural Fitness (they make great Yoga products – my wife bought one of their natural rubber yoga mats a few months ago), Chillster (they make these glasses that have a gardening substance in the bottom that freezes really well – keeping drinks nice and cold for a long time – reusable and practical) and ReusableBags.com (I’ve raved about them in the past – check ‘em out, yo).
I also saw Jill at WeAddUp.com - her company makes these very cool tees (and a few other products) that help fight global warming. They have a ton of different choices for “green things” that you do that all add up in the fight. I like “Shower Together” – that sounds like fun. Each t-shirt is printed with a custom number – what will your number be?
I have a lot more to write, but I’ll stop here for now. If you read this tonight or tomorrow and are local – go to Green Fest! Go now!
