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Party Pooper

firework

Biking to work on the morning of July 5^th I noticed scattered remnants of brightly colored paper. In some places boxes were piled and charred remains of something were close by. Fireworks. There was litter from exploded fireworks everywhere. The night before, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, it sounded like a warzone…not unfitting for this present moment! And it was not easy to catch some rest through that noise which raged into the night.

In Chinatown in NYC one year I attended a day of the Chinese New Year celebration and it began to rain. The water that snaked along the edges of the streets to the gutters was a kaleidoscope of color from the confetti filled explosive sticks you can buy at any small Chinese store. The confetti, once exploded (really impressive site), littered the street.

So then I thought, things that blow up for our entertainment, are they super damaging one or two or three days in a year? I looked up news reports and found that indeed, fireworks are bad for the environment. But the articles I found suggested rather than the actual visual litter or noise levels being a problem, fireworks caused other concerns for the environment: they increase ambient temperatures (where ignited), deposit perchlorate in water resources (perchlorate, yes the carcinogen, but, not to worry, the amount reduces back to background levels within 3 to 12 weeks), and compound air pollution levels (there were actual warnings for people with allergies and respiratory problems about going outside during the firework display period).

No kidding. Even fireworks, such beautiful and awe-inspiring displays, have a negative environmental impact. Good to keep in mind on our next firework-filled holiday…

Here are some news reports from around the country:

water

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/science/03obse1.html?ref=science

air

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6310145

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/jul/06/guess-what-fireworks-pollute/

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=5447560

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070704/NEWS01/707040332

heat

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_6296507

allergies, car, Entertainment, holiday, local, mom, New Year, News, NYC, NYTimes, paper, party, Pollution, reduce, resources, water

World Views on Climate Change

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by Courtney Tenz · 06/18/07

Rain desert Bombay

In response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that occurred in March, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a newspaper out of Zurich, Switzerland, asked several writers to contribute articles about their experiences with climate change. Now, Signandsight.com has posted English translations of essays by Swiss author Leo Tuor, who writes of disappearing glaciers in the Alps; Sri Lankan writer Romesh Gunesereka, who tells a story of a farmer’s issues with rain); and Indian Kiran Nagarkar, whose description of Bombay’s growth is telling.

Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who recently won the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for fiction, also contributed a short piece about Christmas in Lagos:

Christmas falls into harmattan, the short season of heat during the day and cold in the evenings when winds whip through and cover everything with a thin film of yellow-brown, when we rub globs of Vaseline into our skin and lips to prevent cracking. But the harmattan feels different this Christmas. It is much hotter. And in the evenings, the weather seems undecided; one night it is incredibly hot so that I lie on my bed with my skin and bedsheets clammy with sweat. On another night, the temperature dips and I wear a sweater, tie a scarf around my neck. Something is happening to the weather and to the world that baffles me. I feel helpless thinking about it. I see, in my mind, a picture of Abba getting so hot that it is unbearable for anybody. Or perhaps I am imagining this change, perhaps it is because I have film images of melting ice in my mind.

car, Christmas, climate change, fall, farm, India, News, paper, skin, spa, Tea, weather

Andrew Revkin and the NY Times

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by Brianne Goodspeed · 04/05/07

With all the recent global warming coverage in the mainstream media, I find it reassuring that some journalists, though certainly not enough, are writing about the implications for people who live in poverty. Environmentalism—whether we’re talking about climate change, organic food, or access to green space— is a class issue.

In last Monday’s International Herald Tribune, Andrew Revkin reported, “Over the last few decades, as scientists have intensified their studies of the human effects on climate and of the effects of climate change on humans, a common theme has emerged: in both respects, the world is a very unequal place.”

Covering a similar story for last Sunday’s New York Times, Revkin wrote, “Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments.”

I guess before I buy a Prius and cross “stop global warming” off my To Do list, there is some additional work on the horizon.

As an aside (and since I’m feeling snarky), despite Revkin’s commendable reporting, I’m still not ready to renew my subscription to the Times. If the corporate owners of America’s major newspaper chains wonder why they’re in financial crisis, I would suggest to them that it’s not all about the “changing business model.” In their complete failure to cover the early days of Bush’s War with any kind of journalistic acumen, the Times, among others, rendered itself largely irrelevant. Until the newspaper business quits acting like a personal public relations firm for the rich and powerful, it’s probably more reliable to get information from your friendly neighborhood blogger. At least here at eco-chick, Starre and her girls are not so easily owned.

(Special thanks to Miami-based contrarian Shaun Wimberly for, among other things, sending me the Tribune article.)

Africa, Bush, business, car, carbon, climate change, Eco-Chick, emissions, Food, Global Warming, mainstream, media, model, New York Times, News, NYTimes, Organic, organic food, paper, poverty, prius, reference, spa, stop global warming, water

TP Does Matter, or: Don't Forget to Think Little While Thinking Big

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by Starre Vartan · 04/02/07

As I’m cruising around the Internets reading away, I sometimes come across statistics like this one on toilet paper:

”If every household in the U.S. bought just one four-pack of 260-sheet recycled bath tissue, it would eliminate 60,600 pounds of chlorine pollution, preserve 356 million gallons of fresh water, and save 988,000 trees,” says Jeffrey Hollender, 52, whose company, Seventh Generation, offers a range of environmentally conscious consumer goods.

Think about that. Almost a MILLION trees. Try picturing it….how many acres of greenness is that? And that’s only one four pack of TP; how many do you go through in a year? That means that many, many more trees than that are killed so we can wipe our asses (and blow our noses, and wipe up the bathroom sink when you don’t have time to really clean it….). That many trees being ripped down every year just seems totally ridiculous, not to mention the energy and chemicals needed to make those trees into TP, and ship it to your house, so your cat can unravel the whole roll in some kind of demented kitty playtime routine.

According to Conservatree, almost all ‘premium’ toilet tissue is made from virgin trees, so put that fluffy stuff down! OK, if you MUST have it, try ShitBeGone (seriously). Not only does it look cool in your bathroom, it’s a small company that is all about recycling AND humor. Does it get any better than that? In the words of the company website:

Who but a true asshole, would sell something that was made of 100% fresh ground up forests— more expensive than necessary— and engineered to encourage overuse? That’s corporate America for you…
Here’s the key: instead of puffing ourselves up with air, ShitBegone is content to be soft where it counts— against your ass.
We reject the idea, which other companies have advertised for years, that toilet paper is only soft if the roll feels squishy in your hand. The truth is it doesn’t matter a bit how soft the roll feels, since it’s not the roll you will be wiping with!
Instead, you wipe with just a few sheets. Some people crumple them, but the better way is to fold them.
When you crumple toilet paper, just like if you crumpled a piece of writing paper, it gets sharp edges and corners. Why would you want sharp corners on your toilet paper? Like all paper, toilet paper feels smoothest when it is flat.
Folding, instead of crumpling, also helps you use far less paper— saving energy, resources and money.

And I know, Seventh Generation, my fave recycled TP, is more expensive (but buy the 1000 sheet rolls, they don’t need to be changed as much and they’re cheaper if you do the calculations). And recycled can be hard to find if you’re buying from your local supermarket or urban bodega. In those cases, look for Marcal. They are a widely distributed brand, and from what I can tell, still family-owned by the Marcalus’; looks like Father and Son are the Pres. and VP of the company, how cute!

You can check out all Marcal’s brands and their recycled content here. They even have a new line of recycled paper products called Sunrise, which has more recycled content than their regular brands.

If you work in an office, suggest they use recycled paper products…now that larger suppliers are offering them, it’s easier for office managers to buy.

bath, corn, Energy, farm, humor, local, oil, paper, Pollution, recycle, recycled, Recycling, resources, rum, Tea, trees, urban, water

Paper or Paper

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by Ann Benoit · 03/24/07

recycledpaperbaglrg

San Francisco might be the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags! The ban (if passed) would require the use of compostable or recyclable bags by grocery store and large pharmacy chains in the city. It is estimated that 180 million plastic bags are distributed annually in the city by markets, pharmacies and other businesses. I’m crossing my fingers that this will get passed and other cities will follow suit…