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Caught on Tape: The Environment

A great time out with the girls or with a guy who is into the environment. Movies! Movies! and more Movies! Reuters reports on the Environmental Film Circuit, particularly highlighting The Environmental Film Festival held in Washington, D.C. founded by Flo Stone. Stone states: “If you interpret the environment as we are … it’s about perception of your surroundings, of the world, of your own community, learning the incredible excitement of natural history and of life itself.” Given the state of energy, global warming, homeland security, and the like, the festivals have seem to be getting more attention this year. Other notables include:

community, Eco-Chick, Energy, Global Warming, Home, Lighting, movies

As Green As Green Can Be?

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by Starre Vartan · 03/18/06

There has been debate here lately about whether we, as “Greenies” should buy anything at all. This is a long-standing issue in the environmental community: Should we shun all consumer products and grow our own food, make our own clothes and educate our own kids (the time that takes tends to limit your ability to do much else, I’ve found)?

Or should we engage in society as “regular” folks and try to change the system by supporting environmentally-friendly companies, products and services? I would guess that most Greenies do both, to varying degrees (since I live in the Northeast, I can only garden for part of the year anyway, for example).

I’ve always had trouble with the ‘back to the land’ approach as I see many (certainly not all!) communities that are set up that way as having traditional gender roles. I have little interest in cooking and even less in having babies, sewing my own clothes or spending all day canning food. I love the fact that I get paid for using my brain all day, writing, thinking, researching, asking questions, and interacting with all the other nerds that like that kind of work. At the same time, I realize my existence is predicated on people much poorer than myself doing all that hard (boring!) labor I don’t want to do. OR that some fossil-fueled machine has to do the work. So I try to buy Fair Trade and organic, and I clean my house myself, and I go to farmer’s markets and I grow my own summer veggies and I compost and I adopt rescued animals, and I try not to drive too much, and I recycle and reuse like crazy. How are we supposed to come up with solutions if we are laboring all day? I need time to think, dammit!

What about you? What do you do? What tradeoffs do you make, and why?

Animals, babies, clothes, community, Eco-Chick, Fair Trade, farm, Food, garden, kids, labor, Organic, recycle, reuse, skin, solutions, spa, style, summer

Interactivist Love

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by Starre Vartan · 02/07/06

My favorite feature on Grist is their interviews with up-and-coming, intelligent ecopreneurs, community leaders, and activists. Dubbed Interactivist, the latest column features the comely Native American Evan Peters, who knows that ANWR isn’t just an acronym, it’s a huge, gorgeous ecosystem. He knows because the lands in the refuge are the homelands of his people, who have lived there for generations. (So much for the idea that the area is a ‘barren wasteland’ as Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ak) once said.)

After dropping out of school, talking his way into college, graduating, and becoming a chief in his 20′s, Evan went on to found Native Movement. When asked why he became an environmental activist, Evan says, “There was something inside of me that just couldn’t accept the situation I found my people, the earth, and myself facing.”

Evan describes his organization:

Native Movement is a collective of around 15 organizers who work on a myriad of projects focusing on youth leadership development, sustainability, protection of sacred sites, and social, political, economic, and environmental justice. We work mostly with Indigenous peoples in the Southwest and Alaska, although we consciously outreach to the non-Indigenous community as well.

Photo and Quote Credit: Grist

community, Eco-Chick, Home, interview, News, sustainability, waste