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WORLD OF WASTE: America’s Mass Consumption in Images

WORLD OF WASTE: America’s Mass Consumption in Images

Look at this image.

Photo by Chris Jordan.

Pan out . . .

Photo by Chris Jordan.

Pan out a little more . . .

Chris Jordan. Plastic Bottles, 2007. 60×120″

That right there, is 2,000,000 plastic bottles. The amount of plastic bottles Americans throw out every five minutes.

Welcome to the work of Chris Jordan, a Seattle-based photographer and environmental advocate. Jordan takes beautiful photographs of waste. His hope: to disgust us to change.

Look at this one, a 7 foot long image of 60,000 plastic bags. That’s the amount of plastic bags we use in the U.S. . . . every five seconds. Are you disgusted yet?

Chris Jordan. Plastic Bags, 2007. 60” x 72”

Disappointingly, the jpegs on your computer screen can barely do justice to Jordan’s massive, high resolution photographs, most of which take up entire walls in galleries. Each image illustrates a grouping of America’s waste. But, as Jordan so often prefaces, capturing dissipation in a single photograph is impossible. The true scale of our mass consumption’s accumulation is invisible. Its magnitude is undetectable as it is spread throughout garbage dumps, storage units and landfills from Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island to a fermenting heap in Kenya.

Given the disconnect, Jordan uses “computer shenanigans” or photo shop to illustrate the true scale of our nation’s waste. He starts out with a single image, multiplying it over and over and over again to reach the statistic of our consumption. This image, for example, represents the number of cell phones America discards every few minutes.

Photo by Chris Jordan.

A few hours go by. We discard more cell phones. The heap grows larger.

Photo by Chris Jordan.

A day goes by. 426,000 cell phones discarded in total.

Chris Jordan. Cell Phones, 2007. 60×100″

To explain the shocking magnitude of our waste, Jordan has also released a video installation, Intolerable Beauty and Running the Numbers. The video premiered via the Ingeo NatureWorks Creative Gallery in New York City on Earth Day (Aprill 22nd) and will travel around the world in conjunction with Ingeo Earth Month ending on World Environment Day (June 5th). You can catch Jordan’s video as it travels with Ingeo’s Earth Month exhibit (popular stop off points include Paris and Tokyo) or you can find the film on Jordan’s website (chrisjordan.com).

I encourage you to watch this film. It is mind-blowing and depressing, but also inspiring. As Jordan says in his own words, “ it may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.”

For larger images visit Olivia Zaleski’s blog on the Huffington Post.

Green Your Easter

Giant. Chocolate. Bunny.

In case you haven’t noticed, the retail world has gone full force “Easter-Spectacular.” With Christmas over, it’s “out with the mince pies, in with the marshmallow hatchlings.” Every supermarket, drug store and big-box retailer is a psychedelic zoo of neon stuffed animals, disposable baskets and giant Styrofoam eggs.

So much of Easter has become commercialized, mass-produced, crapola–a far cry from Easter’s original ode to nature and rebirth. Yet, as most of us recognize the irony, few of us are willing to give up the childhood traditions of bunnies, candy and brightly colored cutesy things.

This Easter, consider a compromise. Trade in the dollar-store trinkets for “greener,” yet equally festive, alternatives. From re-purposed baskets to organic and fair-trade chocolates to natural egg dyes, there’s plenty of colorful flair that won’t harm the planet. Here are some tips:

The Basket:
Instead of wasting money and precious natural resources on Kmart’s taffeta “Lamb Candy Holder Basket”, hit up the local secondhand store or crafts fair for a “real” basket. Feeling particularly ambitious? Then make your own basket. You can learn the “art of basketry” here, or follow this simple pattern for newspaper, magazine cut-outs and wallpaper-swatch baskets. For true eco-ingenuity, or if you’re just really broke, get crafty with colorful tissue boxes, paper bags and your supermarket’s berry containers.

The Grass:
Now that you’ve got such a great basket, don’t ruin it with plastic grass. Just snip some from the top of your lawn. If you prefer foliage that won’t wilt or wither, flip through the pages of a magazine and cut out anything green. Shred it up and you’ve got grass-like filler.

The Eggs:
Most supermarket eggs come from notoriously filthy and inhumane commercial outfits, not old MacDonald’s farm. As the conditions of factory farms come to roost, many conscious consumers are demanding eggs that meet environmentally sound standards. You can demand the same by purchasing USDA organic eggs. For extra eco-brownie points, support your local farm. Find yours at localharvest.org.

The Homemade Eggs:
If you’re super eco-conscious and vegan, then you’re probably skipping the laid eggs altogether. Good for you, but don’t get tempted to the dollar-store’s jumbo plastic selection. Make your own “fake ones” with homemade paper-mache or cornstarch clay.

The Egg Dyes:
Skip the unholy mess of pellets and artificial food dyes. Fruits, vegetables and spices offer a wide range of color possibilities: from bright red to lavender, orange and blue. Just boil eggs (local and organic please) in water and a teaspoon of vinegar. Add ingredients below for desired color. Let simmer for at least 15 minutes. For a darker shade place the brew in the fridge for some overnight saturation.

Pink: beets, cranberries, frozen raspberries.
Red: red onionskins.
Orange: yellow onionskins.
Lavender: grape juice.
Light Yellow: orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin.
Yellow: Ground turmeric, saffron.
Pale Green: spinach leaves.
Blue: canned blueberries, red cabbage leaves.
Beige/Brown: strong brewed coffee.
Eggs dyed with onionskins, from Instructables.com

The Candy:
Peeps, lollipops, pecan nougat, jellybeans, and even Smucker’s Puckers are just a few Easter favorites. Aside from creating hyperactive chaos on Easter morning, Easter candies are grossly over-packaged. Yes, it is nice to get your egg in perfect condition, but does it really need to come swaddled in corrugated body armor? Look for the candies that come in the least amount of packaging. Cadbury Schweppes has the idea and is now offering eggs wrapped only in foil and without a cardboard box, cutting the company’s Easter packaging by 798,073 pounds.

The Chocolate:
As most of us know, chocolate comes from the cocoa bean, a crop harvested in some of the most economically and environmentally disadvantaged parts of the third world. According to reports from the BBC and New York Times, cocoa producing regions are rife with environmental and humanitarian iniquity.

This Easter, why give your children chocolate made from the sweat and sometimes even blood of less fortunate children? Swap the waxy dollar-store chocolate for organic and fair trade alternatives. Fair trade certification ensures chocolate is made under both environmental and humanitarian standards. According to the Fair Trade Organization (FTO), these standards are quite stringent, ensuring the minimum use and safe handling of agrochemicals, conservation of water, controls on gathering from the wild and deforestation, a ban on GMO (Genetically Modified Organism). For a list of delicious organic and fair trade chocolate options click here.

The Bunnies: Live or Stuffed?
According to the House Rabbit Society, a national, nonprofit bunny welfare organization, each spring, unwanted “former Easter rabbits” fill local rescues, humane societies and worse dumpsters. Unless you’re in it for the long haul and know how to take care of one, please, don’t put a live bunny in your Easter basket! Leave little Peter Cottontail be . . . to hop down the old bunny trail . . . hippity hoppity, Easter’s on its way.

Happy Easter! Please leave your greener Easter suggestions in the comments section.

For more posts like this from Olivia Zaleski check out her weekly column on the Huffington Post

Infanticide and Vera's Cub: Why Some Mothers Eat Their Young

Post copied from Living Now section of the Huffington Post.

I want this baby polar bear! Well, on second thought, I want this baby polar bear for just a few weeks–before it gets teeth. In a year, that cub will look at me and say, “Hmmm, I bet you’d make a good meal!”

Carnivorous predator or not, I think I speak for the masses when I say “awwwwwwww . . . ” Not convinced? Just watch this video and make sure you turn the volume up, to hear the little tyke snoring. Aside from the ear-wrenching temper tantrum, this is a truly delightful little creature. Smitten, I fear I may break into Marc Anthony’s song, “I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You.”

In case you don’t know the story of this little cub, zookeepers at the Nuremberg City Zoo have been busy suckling it–wait, that sounds funny. Rather, zookeepers are feeding the cub by bottle after deciding to remove it from its mother, Vera. Like many postnatal females, Vera was showing intense signs of great distress and confusion.

Earlier in the week, the Nuremberg City Zoo’s other female polar bear, Vilma, had eaten her two offspring. The zoo feared Vera would do the same. According to a profile report from National Geographic, it is not uncommon for polar bears, among the most violent of predators, to eat or maul their young.

LiveScience.com writer Andrew Thompson, says “zoologists have observed filial cannibalism, the act of eating one’s offspring, in many different types of animals.” Lions hippos, bears, wolves, hyenas, herring gulls and more than 15 types of primates, other than man, have been known to engage in infanticide.

Yet, the question remains, “Why would any mother want to eat its child?” Parents of teenagers might have an idea, but scientists haven’t settled on a single explanation for infanticide. It is a curious topic, as it seems difficult for such an opposing behavior to evolve–let alone coexist. Could there be some evolutionary benefit to the practice?

A report published by Oxford University Zoologist Dr. Michael Bonsall and Hope Klug from the University of Florida says females may commit infanticide to gain increased access to physical resources (food or space), bias the sex ratio of the litter, or eradicate further problems if the baby is sick or refuses to feed. By killing ill pups, the mother may then allocate her precious resources to those pups more likely to survive.

Animal behaviorist Dr. Anne Hanson says “mothers may also kill entire litters when they are stressed.” According to Hanson’s study, History of the Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus): Rat Behavior and Biology, “the mother may perceive the environment as too hostile for the pup’s survival, or she perceives herself as unable to rear the litter successfully, so she recuperates some of her energetic investment by consuming the young. Malnourished mothers, and mothers who have an abnormal birth experience, may also become infanticidal.”

I would assume that these two mother polar bears had abnormal birth experiences–they did give birth in a zoo, not their native glacier. Or perhaps, the little polar bears were so cute that their mothers just wanted to “eat them up.” Whatever the reason, one of the pups is safe and sound in zoological intensive care. As you can see from the video above, the cub is healthy, happy and very, very cute. Despite the occasional ear-wrenching tantrum, the cub is reported to spend most of it’s time sleeping–thank God for our ears!

For more from Olivia Zaleski visit her weekly column on the Huffington Post.

7 Sexiest Green Stars of 2007

The results are in!
Well, not really. This list is based on my humble blogger opinion. Use the comment section to claim which celebs float your green boat. With enough feedback, I hope to compile a list based on “popular,” not personal, opinion.

Sheryl Crow
2007 was a great year for Sheryl Crow. In addition to advocating “one square per restroom visit,” the singer raised mainstream green awareness by touring the country in a biodiesel-powered bus. With Laurie David at her side, Crow threw the smack down on Karl Rove. After the former senior White House advisor scoffed at global warming evidence, Sheryl got feisty. “You work for us,” the singer said famously. Now, flip me a burger . . . b*tch!

Brad Pitt
Obviously! No “sexy list” is complete without this corn-fed, Oklahoma-born, man-boy from Missouri. Rugged good looks and a hard body (PEOPLE named him Sexiest Man Alive . . . twice) are fascinating, but thanks to the stalkerazzi, we’re also privy to this benevolent gentleman’s every good deed. Following a laundry list, Pitt finished off 2007 with a massive green building project in Katrina-devastated New Orleans. Pitting (ahem, excuse me) a team of world-renowned green architects for projects, Brad is determined to start an unprecedented green building trend. Adopt a green house (not one of his children) at MakeitRight9.org.

Sienna Miller
It’s hard to keep track of this British beauty’s breakups, make-ups . . . and then again breakups; yet, Sienna’s eco-record is as clear as the see-through bra she sports in Hippie Hippie Shake. An ambassador for UK-based climate-change campaign, Global Cool, Miller recently launched the carbon-neutral clothing line Twenty8Twelve. In October 2007, Sienna received an EMA Futures Award—an honor given to those who use their talent and celebrity to draw attention to the problem of global warming. Yay! Now we can raise our beers to eco-activism and sexy starlets . . . it’s Miller time!

Adrian Grenier
Unlike the character he plays on TV, Entourage star Adrian Grenier cares about the environment—no he doesn’t drive a bright yellow Hummer in “real life!” Grenier prefers driving a Prius, living in a fully “green” house (solar roof, reclaimed floors, recycled blue-jean insulation, blah, blah, blah), and offsetting. In 2007, Grenier drew massive attention to Charity Water, a non-profit initiative that sets up drinking water and sanitation infrastructures in the world’s most impoverished communities.

Word in the ‘Hood says Grenier is “fully committed to educating any lady who dares walk into his green life.” According to environmental gossip site Ecorazzi.com, Grenier said, “if a woman isn’t environmentally conscious, she will be after going out with me.”

Too bad, I’m already environmentally conscious . . .

Al Gore
I had to! This greenie may lack chiseled abs and cheekbones. Nonetheless, in 2007 Gore turned us on with unbridled activism and inspirational gusto. You go Gore!

Hayden Panettiere
Emerging from the cesspool of Disney celebs comes Hayden Panettiere. Though best known for her kiddy-porn appeal and role on NBC’s Heroes, Panettiere is raising praise and eyebrows as a young advocate.

This past October, Panettiere thoroughly pissed off Japanese fishermen during their annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama. The young star paddled a surfboard out to a cull of captured dolphins. Though blocked from freeing the enmeshed porpoises, Panettiere’s kafuffle drew great attention to animal conservation and her bubble-butt.

Dolphin saving aside, Panettiere reportedly continues to drive a pimped out Porsche SUV . . . ugh, teenagers!

Leonardo Dicaprio
Hardly jaded by my accolades, international stardom, Oscar-nominations and embarrassingly attractive girlfriends, Leonardo DiCaprio has become one of today’s most prominent environmental voices—many say he is following in Al’s footsteps. In 2007 he produced and narrated the 11th Hour, said to be an unofficial sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. Leo’s film stars my favorite environmentalist of all—and someone who should be on this list: David Suzuki.

For more from Olivia Zaleski check in with her on The Huffington Post.

Green Gifts: The Top 5 Regifting Don'ts

It’s the day after Christmas. Aside from feeling fat and hungover, you’re probably wondering how you’ll get rid of all the terrible gifts you’ve collected–the gizmo you’ll never use, the book you’ll never read, the sweater you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. Rather than toss that hideous scarf or Ricky Martin album in the trash, take a moment to think . . .there’s got to be someone with an upcoming birthday and terrible taste.

Yes, I’m talking about regifting, the act of taking a gift you received, but don’t want and giving it to someone else. Although the practice pre-dates the green trend, regifting is one of the most environmentally responsible things you can do over the holidays.

By regifting you’ll eliminate the need for new gifts, whose production requires the unnecessary dissipation of energy and extraction of natural resources. Regifting will also prevent items from ending up in the landfill or incinerator. According to the EPA, each American throws away an average of four pounds a day. That’s a total of 210 million tons a year. Garbage cans everywhere should now read, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle . . . Regift!”

Even Emily Post–Madame Manners herself–was a regifter. According to Post, good etiquette doesn’t require you to keep anything. Good etiquette simply requires you pretend you like the gift upon reception.

So there you have it! Regifting is neither tacky, nor cheap. Best of all, it’s good for the environment. But first, a few cardinal rules to keep in mind. Follow these tips and you’ll be sure to regift with finesse and tact.

1. Avoid Perishables.
Next Christmas, that food basket will be a collection of moldy crackers, rancid cheese, and outdated muffin-mix. Unless you’re going to claim it’s vinegar, best to avoid beverages with a funny smell and inch of sediment on their bottle’s bottom.

2. Avoid Out-of-Date/Extinct Products.
Unless your giftee is an avid collector, avoid articles of clothing, music and electronic gear of decades past. Chances are your recipient will know you originally received that home BETA video recorder in 1988.

3. Avoid Dead Giveaways.
Certain regifts are a plain and clear message that a) you’re regifting and b) you’re an idiot. For example, never regift monogrammed items . . . unless you have a plan to explain why your initials should be emblazoned on their bathrobe. Promotional items from your company’s “fun day” are also poor choices.

4. When in Doubt, ReWrap (with recycled or “green” wrapping paper, of course).
Gifts should always be in their original condition (i.e. unused and in box). If you’re not fortunate enough to have “an original-condition situation,” then make sure your gift is covered in non-tattered or faded paper. Nothing says this has been sitting in the bottom of my closet like disheveled wrapping paper.

5. Take Notes.
If you are going to regift, be sure you know who gave you what. Keep track in a notebook or computer file. Yes, it’s nerdy, but you’ll be happy you did. Nothing is quite as awkward as regifting to the person who gave you the gift in the first place, especially if that original giver is a grim-faced and resentful relative. You know, the one with a sense of humor akin to a dead fish?

Check back for more tips on living the green life from Olivia Zaleski every Wednesday on the Huffington Post’s Living Now Page.