Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Get The To a (Green?) Nunnery! And Lots More.

Yay Episcopalian nuns, they’ve gone green! (I was raised Episcopalian but am a damn pagan these days, but still, I’m proud of them). Also, watch for the scary ‘ghost nets’ and OMG!!! Schnozzberries! Another fine ep of Zaproot for your green amusement (and horror).

Did You See the Snowman Last Night at the Debates?

I thought the Dems debates last night were the best I’ve ever seen (I watched them streaming on Cnn.com since I don’t have cable). That the questions came from real people via YouTube was THE BEST IDEA EVER! (and the videos submitted by us crazy citizens were funny, sad, poignant, and most importantly, touched on really tough issues!)

So first off, CONGRATS to all those questioners that I share the great USA with…YOU made me proud to be an American (the politicians, well, they were being politicians, you know?. Of course the highlight was the snowman/global warming question! Check it out!

(Answers taken from the NYTimes transcript of the debates.)

COOPER: It’s a funny video. It’s a serious question. Congressman Kucinich?

KUCINICH: Well, we have to understand the connection between global warring and global warming. Because when we start talking about wars for oil, we’re essentially keeping the same approach to energy.

(APPLAUSE)

So I’m saying we need to move away from reliance on oil and coal and toward reliance on wind and solar.

KUCINICH: Anderson, that’s the basis of my WGA, Works Green Administration, where we take an entirely new approach to organize the entire country around sustainability, around conservation. We don’t have to have our snowmen melting, and the planet shouldn’t be melting either.

COOPER: Are the people on this stage, are your fellow candidates, are they green enough?

KUCINICH: No. And I think that the reason is that if you support, for example, in Iraq, if you say that Iraq should privatize its oil for the U.S. oil companies, then what you’re doing is you’re continuing a commitment to use more oil. If you believe that all options should be put on the table with respect to Iran, that’s about oil.

So we need to move away from reliance on oil…

COOPER: Time.

KUCINICH: … and that’s really connected to our defense policy, and I’m the one who gets the connection.

COOPER: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

WHY didn’t other candidates answer such an important question???? Too hard???

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Another Eco-Chick in New York

I’m in New York City, for the first time ever this week. I think my new favorite thing to do is to just go around taking random photos, landing at my friends house and photo shopping the hell out of them.

Anyway, I have to say I’m impressed with how ecologically aware the city is. There is one talk I really want to draw some attention to:

Sustainable Development – Can It Save the Creation?

Date:
Thursday, November 16, 2006 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm EST

Location:
Columbia University, Morningside Campus, Miller Theatre, 116th and Broadway

Contact:
For further information regarding this event, please contact CSSR by sending email to cssr@columbia.edu .

The Earth Institute’s Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) 2006 Seminar Series presents, “Sustainable Development – Can It Save the Creation?” with Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino Research Professor in Entomology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University; Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University; Robert E. Pollack, Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR), Columbia University. Open to the public.

Please RSVP to cssr@columbia.edu.

Edward O. Wilson’s latest work, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, will be available for purchase. A book signing will also follow the event.

For more information on CSSR visit www.columbia.edu/cu/cssr/index.html

For more information on the Earth Institute visit www.earth.columbia.edu

Yes, the Edward O. Wilson. I’m sure going to try to be there. (I’m supposed to leave Thursday morning, but I’m looking into a ticket switch, just for this event.) E. O. Wilson is one of the most influential eco-writers. Off the top of my head, he’s won the Pulitzer Prize twice, the U.S National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Crafoord Prize. The Cradfoord Prize is the highest award that is given for the feild of ecology.

His scientific theories include Island biogeography, in regards to sociobiology. (I’m no biology major so this might turn out a bit rusty.) Wilson was studying the basic behaviors of social biological communities. By combining this sociobiology to the theory of evolution he established sociobiology as a completely fresh feild of science. Wilson coined the term “genetic leach” (as well as scientific humanism, actually where he says: “the only worldview compatible with science’s growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature”.) with the understanding that all animal and human behaviour is essentially influenced by genes and nevery entirely of free will.

Another big scientific theory of his is the unity of knowledge. In this theory he defines human nautre as a collection of epigenetic rules. Things such as cultural phenomena, rituals, music etc. are thus products of human nature, not naturally occuring phenomena. These can be studied, he argues, by methods of reductionism.

Anyway, I highly recommend going to see him talk. I think it’ll be really great. E-mail me! We can go together and get coffee! …As long as the coffee place is off the 1 subway line. Its the only one I know how to use, the others scare me.

Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism

When I was in grade 12 I wrote a paper that I thought was fantastic. I hate that I can say I still have it – and got to read over it again today, it’s pretty horrible. Actually, for it being the first a) philosophy paper and b) environmental paper I ever wrote, it didn’t turn out THAT horrific, just by my standards now, it was pretty bad. I ended up getting an A on it, but I see now that my teacher was being generous. He must have really liked me.

The only reason I bring it up is because the paper was combining two very different subjects that can either have really great outcomes, or really disasterous ones. I’m talking about ecology and philosophy and for this particular post I’ll be looking at two especially horrible outcomes of these two subjects merging. The first being deep ecology and the second being ecofeminism.

I’ll start with deep ecology. In my naïve year of being a very hardcore and new environmentalist who actually cried at the thought of a tree being cut down, I could probably be pinned as a deep ecologist. However, now I see the stupidity in this, and how deep ecology is really… almost like the cult of environmentalism. Deep ecology speaks to take the boundaries down between humans and nature making everything whole.

Basically there are two core values that guide the deep ecology praxis. The first is self-realization. The environmentally conscious person in this case extends their self to include the environment and the world as a whole. It’s basically releasing ones self from a narrow, individual view to a larger view as ones self as the environment. Once a person has placed their own self to include the environment, the purpose is that it is then harder to destroy, take advantage of, or reduce the productivity of the environment.

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