I’m always intrigued at what Google is doing on the energy front – and “green” front as a whole. I really don’t care if there is a future ulterior motive – it all seems to be for the good. Like working on PV technology to try to being renewable energy below the cost of coal. Here’s a video from CNN – I hate the way their stuff embeds, but enjoy it none-the-less.
Living amongst the peeps of the midwest, we often forget that drought is prevalent in the United States. I believe that I recently heard a statistic where 38 states will experience drought in 2009. If you don’t live in a drought zone, water is still a precious resource. Conserve it. It’s spring. It’s supposed to be wet – and it definitely is where I live. Check out this US Drought Map for the past 12 weeks.
The Sunday paper came and my wife made a comment that you could tell it’s almost Earth Day because all the stores have their “green” sales. To be honest – I’ve noticed this too. She even pointed out the new Ziploc Evolve bags that use 25% less plastic (oooh, ahhhhh..ughhhh). Sure – there is a less plastic and a 100% recycled cardboard container, but it’s still oil-based plastic and not PLA or something.) Everyone is having a eco-friendly sale. Target is selling Loomstate organic cotton products – but only for a month. Even Amazon.com is having an Earth Day sale. Macy’s is turning over a new leaf. Walmart is even having “Earth Month.” Of course the Disney Store is cashing in, too 8:-)
Where should my heart lie? Is the recyclable glass half empty or half full? Should I be happy that there are some sustainable products being marketed heavily right now or should I be a pessimist because they’re trying to capitalize off of Earth Day? The ones that piss me off are ads like Target – where they boast “in honor of earth week, our ad is made from 50% recycled fiber.” Why aren’t they printed on 100% recycled paper all the time (or even their boastful 50%)? So they’re saving some virgin trees…for this week at least.
If you really want to honor Earth Day – try not participating in consumerism – or buy something used (novel concept). The fact remains that we’re all consumers – so pick wisely, do a little research, and do your best not to be green washed. If you have to buy something new, I’d rather you buy something remotely sustainable. That’s the best advice I can give you. Consume wisely.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Reject.
Ben Folds – All You Can Eat
Do you drink bottled water? Do you know people who drink bottled water? Watch this trailer to the new doc called “TAPPED.” I hate that there is a generation of children being raised right now that only knows bottled water. WTF people – it’s called an immune system. You’ll be okay if you drink tap water. Really – you’ll live. Your kids won’t be mutants. Well – maybe they will from ingesting so much plastic from the bottled water.
Yeah – I know – there are cons to municipal treated water as well, but I think the pros definitely out weigh the cons. Let’s look at bottled water. Most of it comes in plastic bottles. Plastic is made from oil. Plastic leaches into the water. A lot of bottled water is just repackaged tap water (i.e. Dasani and Aquafina). Water is heavy to ship, thus using more oil. If you’re a fancy pants, you’re not drinking this “tap water.” You opt instead for Fiji water because it comes in a fancy square bottle and is shipped from Fiji (where a large percentage of islanders don’t have access to safe drinking water). Perhaps you are even more fancy pants than that and you drink San Pelligrino. Oooh…but glass recycles better than plastic and doesn’t leach. Correct – but it’s heavy – damn heavy! Oh…and it’s a Nestle brand…like they need another water brand. Nestle is like the Phillip Morris of water. San Pelligrino, Perrier, Vittel, Ice Mountain, Deer Park, Poland Spring, Deer Park, Zephyrhills, and of course, plain old Nestle.
When I was growing up, no one drank bottled water. Some might have taken old milk jugs to the grocery store to fill up for $0.25 from their filtered water. Perrier and Evian were the only bottled waters you could buy. Then sometime in the late 80′s it started catching on more and more. At some point there was a mindset projected on the population that you were a bad person if you didn’t drink bottled water. I just don’t understand it.
Water is a precious commodity – protect it – drink it – from the tap. I know it’s hard to believe here in the good old U.S. of A. that there will be wars fought for water, but there will be. It’s the next oil, you know (which we need to package the water for you).
Here’s your moment of Zen:
It’s giveaway time again! This time we’re giving away a copy of Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, One Fast Food Fueled Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future by Greg Melville. Special thank to Algonquin Books for graciously sending us a copy of this very interesting read.
Synopsis:
Is it possible to drive coast-to-coast without stopping at a single gas
pump? Journalist Greg Melville is determined to try. With his college buddy Iggy riding shotgun, he sets out on an enlightening road trip. The quest: to be the first people to drive cross-country in a french-fry car. Will they make it from Vermont to California in a beat-up 1985 Mercedes diesel station wagon powered on vegetable oil collected from restaurant grease Dumpsters along the way? Their trip takes them to the solar-powered Google headquarters; the wind turbines of southwestern Minnesota; one of the first houses to receive platinum certification for leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); and a so-called “eco-friendly” Wal-Mart.
Part adventure and part investigation of what we’re doing (or not doing) to preserve the planet, Greasy Rider is upbeat, funny, and full of surprising information about the many sustainable measures that are within our reach.
My Review:
I really enjoyed this book. I read all 250+ pages in one weekend. I wanted to follow the journey from Vermont to California and the tales along the way. If you’re looking for a sequel to On The Road, this isn’t it, but it’s still a funny read. Two grown men, cramped into a small car, travelling across the country in a 1985 diesel Mercedes. Iggy and Greg arguing, giving each other the silent treatment, staying in random hotels and with long lost friends or friends of friends – all made the trek fun to read and keep you wanting to hear more.
Somewhere early in the trip, Iggy and Greg made a bet. Iggy would give Greg errands to do after the trip – one per day – and if Greg completed them, he’d get $50 from Iggy. Melville does a great job of interjecting the errands into the sections of their journey in the book. The errands are so interesting in themselves that you want to read every word, but you also want to get back to the journey to see where they end up next (looking in barrels behind restaurants for WVO along the way). The first errand was to find the greenest house. Greg thought that would be easy – let’s just go visit Al Gore in Nashville. This was before Gore was allowed to retrofit his huge 10,000 sq ft house with solar panels, etc. The thing was lit up like a Christmas tree in Times Square. Errand fail 
Greg came back home with his tail b/t his legs only to find that not far from his house in Vermont there was a newly built ultra-green 2,500 sq ft abode. Complete with a solar array and turbine.
So do Iggy and Greg make it to the Bio-Oasis in San Fran? You’ll have to read the book to find out. If you don’t win, I still recommend this book. Go get it at the library or buy it on Amazon.
Leave a comment by 11:59PM CST, April 30, 2009 and one random lucky winner will be picked to receive a the Greasy Rider by Greg Melville from Algonquin Books. We will not share your email with anyone.
Lately I’ve been watching a lot of TED Conference videos – hoping more 2009 videos will come out. As I keep checking back, I keep finding more that I like. They’re quite addictive. The best part is that you can add them like a podcast right to iTunes and voila, they’re on your iPod/iPhone/iTouch, etc…or you can download them and put them on any other device. They even have a section called “A Greener Future?” that contains a lot of eco-videos. Keep checking back because they’re putting new videos from this years TED Conference up all the time. I’m waiting for Ray Anderson of Interface Carpet’s talk. He’s a visionary and a great speaker.
So what are my favorites? Here ya go
Charles Moore discussing the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”
Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he’s drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.
Al Gore discussing new findings since The Inconvenient Truth
Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists recently predicted. He challenges us to act.
Al Gore’s 15 Things You Can Do To Avert The Climate Crisis
This TED talk was before Inconvenient Truth hit the theaters. It’s pretty funny and a quick watch. Enjoy.
Michael Pollan on the Omnivore’s Next Dilemma
What if human consciousness isn’t the end-all and be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn’s clever strategy game to rule the Earth? Author Michael Pollan asks us to see the world from a plant’s-eye view.
Mark Bittman on what’s wrong with what we eat
In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.
Andy Hobsbawm on how to Do The Green Thing
I’ve met Andy on a few occasions – whether he remembers or not. His main gig is being European Chairman of Agency.com where I spent 8 years in the Chicago office. Of couse I found out about his green passion just as I was leaving the company. He lanched a site called Do The Green Thing in late 2007.
A few non-green TED Talks to check out:
Evan Williams founder of Twitter
Keep hearing about Twitter and don’t know what it is or what the point is? Watch this 7min video and get addicted…then follow us @screamtobegreen
Mike Rowe of Dirty Job’s
Mike Rowe, the host of “Dirty Jobs,” tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it’s been unjustifiably degraded in society today.
I was reading the Trib this morning and my wife told me to checkout page 4 of this particular section. Much to my disbelief, there was an article on vermicomposting – or worm composting for the layman. So not only was the article talking about worm composting – which my wife and I are happy to know we’re not the only “weird” ones around the area – but it was talking about a house party – like a Tupperware party – for getting started. Who knew there was an Urban Worm Girl in Chicagoland? Stephanie Davies is her true identity and she hosts worm composting parties.
Whatcha do is gather up a bunch of friends for a little party – just like these crazy ladies do with Lia Sophia jewelry, candles, or “Surprise” toy parties – but this time they will be buying vermicomposting supplies. Stephanie will show up and push the wares and more importantly educating all in attendance. It’s a pretty phat idea if you can get the people there to suck it up and enjoy the worms. They’re not going to hurt anyone. Host Stephanie at your house, buy a starter kit complete with a three tray worm bin and all the red wigglers you need. Then pick yourself up a kitchen compost pail to hold your scraps – you can get them at Target, Amazon, Crate and Barrel, and World Market (among numerous other places).
We’ve had worms in our basement for about two years or so now. They are hearty little suckers. We feed them and feed them and get a crapload (pun intended) of castings and worm tea. Why don’t we just throw away the food scraps? Food scraps just break down in a landfill and go away, right? Well – yes and no. The food scraps do start to degrade in the landfill – but what happens is that they decompose and create a leachate. The leachate is the liquid that mixes with who-knows-what that is in the landfill and then it seeps into the groundwater and soil. It starts to flow away from the landfill. Another huge benefit is the brilliant compost and tea you get from these guys. It’s like organic Miracle Grow. It’s thick and rich and buttery (maybe not buttery).
Check out Urban Worm Girl - and maybe even buy a t-shirt – they’re pretty pimp!
PS – Hey Stephanie – you should check out Chicago Green Drinks if you haven’t.
Grist.org has a brazilliant video up for Valentine’s Day.
Before you get down and dirty, there’s something you oughta know: Sex toys can contain nasty toxic surprises. In today’s Umbra video, two lovebirds sing the praises of alternative playthings, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Ditch your pthalate sex toy or your blow up doll and make some eco-friendly love this year! Go with glass, go organic (think Veggietales), go natural…
About a year ago, we wrote about the Organic Banana Project from Dole. More importantly that the project, we wrote about the consequences to the workers and the true costs involved. I stumbled upon this video from Current.com and thought it was very worthwhile for everyone to watch and learn.
The energy challenges our country faces are severe and have gone unaddressed for far too long. Our addiction to foreign oil doesn’t just undermine our national security and wreak havoc on our environment — it cripples our economy and strains the budgets of working families all across America. President Obama and Vice President Biden have a comprehensive plan to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end our addiction to foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create millions of new jobs.
The Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will:
Provide Short-term Relief to American Families
Eliminate Our Current Imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 Years
Create Millions of New Green Jobs
Reduce our Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80 Percent by 2050
