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Bush Misses the Boat

By Guest-Blogger Brian Howard

In his 2007 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush told Congress and the country that “nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East, to succeed in Iraq and to spare the American people from this danger.” He missed the mark. The most serious threat to the American people, let alone millions of others around the world, is the looming specter of global warming.

The President at least mentioned this colossal threat, demarcating a significant improvement from past speeches. But global warming demands far more than a name drop and simplistic hope for new corrective technology. We need decisive leadership and aggressive solutions on a scale akin to the gear-up to win World War II. The stakes are the rights of the next generation to a safe, fertile world.

As well-known Australian scientist Tim Flannery makes clear in his recent book The Weather Makers, global warming, in combination with the profound way human beings have already altered the planet, threatens the existence of as many as half of living species. Because ecosystems are so interdependent, this means the very living fabric of the Earth is in peril. At the same time, devastating storms will be more frequent and severe, and droughts and floods will breed famine.

Australia, book, Burma, Bush, dress, Energy, fabric, farm, Global Warming, Home, India, media, mom, New York City, solutions, spa, Technology, weather

New Year's GreenSolutions

8 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 12/29/06

Right after Christmas I always start thinking about how I need a serious cleanse from all the holiday eating and drinking, not to mention all the junk clogging up my brain from seeing people I haven’t seen in so long, travelling all over the East Coast and generally ignoring healthy routines and work. Unlike many Hipper Than Thou writers and other media folks, I love me some good New Year’s resolutions. The cold bare branches of January offer a clean slate- one that I’m in dire need of! Every year I try to lower my impact on the environment, so here is the section of the resolutions to do with the beautiful Earth I so love:

90% of my clothing purchases must be reduced, reused, and/or recycled.
-I love clothes, and before 2006, (and before Jill Danyelle’s amazing blog fiftyRX3, which enlightened me tremendously) I figured that I would just ignore the environmental impact of my clothes, since so much of my life was eco-friendly. Now I have no excuse, with whole brick-and-mortar and online stores dedicated to ecofashion, crafting, and vintage clothes.

Offset CO2 from travelling; make carbon credit purchases part of travel budget.
-Last year I barely travelled at all (for me); this year I will be spending around 2 months on the road, and I will be taking some long flights. I want to visit my Dad in Australia, for example. I can’t NOT fly, but I can buy some credits for my journeys. Credits can be bought from sites like Uniglobe or Carbon Planet, which support alternative energy sources like wind power. Or you could pay to have a tree planted for every flight at Treeflights.

Line dry my washing as often as humanly possible.
-A few months ago I wrote this article for E Magazine about line drying clothes instead of using the dryer. In it, I wrote:

“Six to 10 percent of residential energy use goes towards the electric dryer. If Americans, or even just New Englanders, would use the clothesline or wooden drying racks, the savings would be enough to close several power plants.”

Put ALL my electronic devices on a power strip so I can shut them off and stop energy vampires from wasting electricity.
-OK, the last time I wrote about this, I put power strips in about half the places in my house where it is applicable. This month I’m going to finish the job!

Volunteer somewhere on a regular basis.
-I’ve mostly worked for non-profits, so I figured I didn’t need to also do volunteer work. Now that I’m a full-time student again, I need to do something to give back concretely. I’m not sure what I’ll do yet, but I’ll report back on what I find. I’ll probably start with Volunteer Match, which Ann wrote about back in June.

A HAPPY (AND GREEN) NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Australia, budget, car, carbon, Christmas, clothes, clothing, eating, Eco-Chick, ecofashion, electric, electricity, Energy, farm, Fashion, Greensolutions, health, holiday, Home, junk, magazine, media, New Year, New Year's, Plants, recycle, recycled, reduce, reuse, solutions, Tea, travel, vintage, wind power, wood

Hug Your Local Eco Blogger

4 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 12/22/06

Recently I’ve been noticing a lot of great new environmentally-oriented blogs popping up that are local in focus, a trend that I think is really important for creating change. It’s all fine and good to know what’s going on in the world, but just as we’ve all learned about supporting your farmer-neighbors, your home turf is the place where you can make choices that directly affect you and those crazy people next door. Community-building around environmental issues is also a great way to get folks who aren’t on the green wavelength thinking about these issues. Word-of-mouth people….

Here are some of my favorites I’ve found- I’m sure there are more out there, so please leave links in the comment box about those I’ve missed. Kudos to the hardworking bloggers behind these sites!

NYC-Based

The Flatbush Gardener
Xris covers all that is arboreal and growing in Queens, NY, as well as other great green garden news from all over the world.

Upper Green Side The Upper East Side of Manhattan is known for being a haven of moneyed businesspeople and Republicans. Here’s showing that stereotypes exist to be flouted!

Miami

Greener Miami
I have to say, when I think Miami, I think Nip/Tuck, not Green, but Rebecca Carter has reformed my ignorance since I’ve checked out her site (she also co-founded Ecorazzi, one of my fave places to go when I need my green gossip fix.) Carter is a one-woman blogging phenom, which I love to see!

Los Angeles

Green LA Girl
Widely-read and loved, LA Green Girl is LA-focused, but also covers lots of other topics, especially coffee!

London

The Times
The Times’ has a great blog run by Anna Shepherd, who also writes for Body&Soul. She tackles eco-issues from a light-hearted point of view, covering clever eco-arguements between couples, how greenies are actually happier than regular folks, and comments on whacking President Bush (with a report, not a hit man). Funny AND enlightening!

Australia (OK, I know Australia is a whole country and continent, but it’s population is the same as the NYC-metro area, so I think this blog counts as ‘local’. As a half-Aussie, I would attest, it’s a pretty small country, socially!)

Oikos
Blogger and environmental lawyer David Jeffrey writes Oikos, which means:

“Both the words ecology and economics come from the Greek word oikos, meaning “home” or “a place to live”. This blog is about environmental and economic issues.”

Last, but not least, check out Worldchanging, now with local editions. They have a host of new city-specific blogs, including Austin, Chicago, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, the Twin Cities, Portland, San Francisco, DC, and Canada. (disclaimer: I’m writing for the NYC blog)

Australia, Bush, business, car, cities, coffee, community, eating, epa, farm, garden, Home, local, London, Los Angeles, Manhattan, News, NYC, soul

The real cost of Christmas

9 Comments

by Katie Kish · 12/20/06

What does christmas really cost us? I ask my family not to buy me Christmas gifts. In the beginning it was to make a stance against Christmas saying “I’m not Christian, so it’s not my holiday and these traditions are silly.” But as I grow older and care less and less about putting effort into making rebellious statements against my family, my request for no gifts has not changed. Except now it’s becoming more and more an environmental/social issue. I don’t like supporting consumerism and our dog-eat-dog economy. I like hurting the environment even less, so you can imagine my dismay after coming across this pdf report on the real cost of Christmas in Australia.

Let me sum it up:
Cost of Christmas Spending:..(numbers from 2004)

Household Appliances

$1 500 million on household electrical goods
Before ever being plugged in, 780 000 tonnes of pollution
1 155 000 megatonnes of material used to produce them
10 000 megaliters of water used
Taking up a grand total of 52 000 hectares of land

Clothes

Every dollar that an australian spends on clothes is on average 0.4 kilograms of material, 1/2 a kilo of greenhouse pollution, 20 liters of water and 3.4 square metres of land disturbed
$1 565 million spent on clothes
600 000 tonnes of material flow
720 000 tones of greenhouse pollutions
38 000 megalitres of water
Coming to a total of 500 000 hectares of disturbed land…

Alcohol!

$900 million spent on alcohol
600 000 tonnes of material flow
290 000 tonnes of greehouse pollution
42 000 magalitres of water, or 42 gigalitres, enought to fill 42 000 Olympic pools
With a land impact of 88 000 hectares

Confectionary

Every dollar spent on junk food is apx 0.5 kg of pollution, 30 litres of water, 1.0 square metre of land distruption and 0.7kg of material
$123 million spent on confectionaries
90 000 tonnes of material flow
65 000 tonnes of greehouse pollutions
4 000 megalitres of water
10 000 hectars of disturbed land
Spending $30 on confectionary is consuming 20 kg of materials, 940 litres of water, 26 squared metres of land and creates 16kg of greenhouse gasses!

Books and Magazines

$612 spent on books and mags
430 000 tonnes of greenhouse pollutions – equivalent of a year’s pollution from 85 000 cars
416 000 tonnes of materials
40 000 hectares of land is disturbed for this conusumtion
6 000 megalitres of water

What counts as those environmental impacts? Water usage is based on the water extracted from rivers, lakes and aquifers – mostly for irrigation purposes. Land disturbance is the degree and amount that is altered from its natural state. Greenhouse pollutions measure the C02 and other GHGs that are emitted into the atmosphere and material flow is the measures of all masses extracted from the earth including timber and livestock.

Reading this makes me feel even less guilty about not getting anyone anything for christmas. I was planning on going shopping today and buying a shirt for myself from H&M because I’m pretty much addicted, but I’ll be rethinking that game. Clothes and alcohol are my two weaknesses on this list – but I can certainly stop with the alcohol… Clothes will be a bit tougher, but I’m sure I can manage.

I’ll continue to urge people to try not to give into the consumerist based patterns of the season. …If celebrating christmas is a must for you and your family – do it wisely. Kids don’t need iPods when they’re 10. They don’t need them when they’re 19 either (guilty as charged, I have one)… what they need is some family time and love. I also urge everyone to check out all the posts that the other girls have made on organic shopping and the links at the side. Also, Grist Magazine has a really great eco-shoppers guide.