Travel · Eco-Chick

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Green Gossip: What Good Is It?

At US Weekly, there’s coverage of John Mayer’s involvement with the green group Reverb:

Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization started by Guster frontman Adam Gardner and his eco-conscious wife, is teaming up with both tours, and will actually travel with Mayer. Their goal is to help reduce the “footprint” of the bands themselves, as well as educate concertgoers with interactive “Eco-Villages” set up at each tour stop.

At MSN, there are reports that Trippin’ host Cameron Diaz and super-hottie enviro-hunk (and author of the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook) are hooking up.

And at Yahoo News, Factory Girl star Sienna Miller’s involvement with Global Cool is getting the group some more (well-deserved) attention.

Aside from David de Rothschild, who is a billionaire-heir, the rest of these folks are stars using their celebrity to get attention for what they care about (or what’s trendy?). Either way, people are hearing about issues like global warming who otherwise might not pay attention. I know plenty of people say that stars using their popularity in this way is disingenuous or maybe even opportunistic behavior. But Diaz has been involved with environmental causes for years. I think as long as the person knows what they are talking about (like Leo DiCaprio always proves) they should be able to use their power for good, not evil.

{democracy:8}

book, car, Entertainment, farm, Global Warming, India, magazine, movies, News, reduce, Tea, travel

The Car-free Life in Paris

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by Courtney Tenz · 07/16/07

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the trend toward building entire subdivisions as car-free communities here in Germany; though these neighborhoods eschew cars and roads for bikes and courtyards, they also offer a bit of storage space to house the bikes (either as covered garages or, in the single-family homes, on porches).

In larger, more compact cities, though, there often isn’t enough room for residents to keep their bikes inside and the threat of theft is too great to store bikes outside (nearly every person I’ve spoken to in Cologne has had a bike stolen – hence the preference for buying cheap, unexciting, used bikes instead of mountain or racing bikes). To keep people riding, then, cities like Copenhagen offer cycles free of charge to riders (the cost of the bike is supported by advertisements). All you need is a Euro coin as a deposit to unlock the bike; you get the coin back when the bike’s returned to a station in the city and locked anew.

copenhagen bikes photo (c) aisipos, via flickr creative commons

Lyon has a similar program, though you pay a small amount for each ride; it’s a popular way home for students after late-night dinners with too much wine. Now Paris is trying it out, too. From The New York Times:

The program, Vélib (for “vélo,” bicycle, and “liberté,” freedom), is the latest in a string of European efforts to reduce the number of cars in city centers and give people incentives to choose more eco-friendly modes of transport.
“This is about revolutionizing urban culture,” said Pierre Aidenbaum, mayor of Paris’s trendy third district, which opened 15 docking stations on Sunday. “For a long time cars were associated with freedom of movement and flexibility. What we want to show people is that in many ways bicycles fulfill this role much more today.”
Users can rent a bike online or at any of the stations, using a credit or debit card and leave them at any other station.
A one-day pass costs 1 euro ($1.38), a weekly pass 5 euros ($6.90) and a yearly subscription 29 euros ($40), with no additional charges as long as each bike ride does not exceed 30 minutes. (Beyond that, there is an incremental surcharge, to make sure that as many bikes as possible stay in the rotation.)

I’m really excited that this idea is catching on; wherever my husband and I travel, we rent bikes to get around the city and these ad-sponsored cycles take some of the worry out of having the bike stolen. And as tourists, we see more of the people, the architecture, and everyday life by bike than by subway, so it’s a treat I wouldn’t want to give up. I just hope someone brings this idea to the US soon … because while it’s easy enough to make the car-free lifestyle choice in your hometown, getting around as a tourist is a bit more difficult to do and a program like this takes some of the worries away. So you can spend more time indulging in the arts and wine and not worry about hitting the wrong Metro home or trying to navigate a hatchback down one-way streets cobbled together with tiny stones.

architecture, bicycles, bikes, car, cars, cities, Eco-Chick, Europe, farm, Germany, Home, New York Times, NYTimes, reduce, reference, spa, sport, style, Tea, travel, urban, Wine

Apple, Schmapple

8 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 07/04/07

I’ve heard rumblings about the paucity of places where you can recycled electronics and computer components, but thus far, I haven’t had to deal with any myself, so honestly, I’ve been a bit ignorant about the totally retarded state of they system. The other day I finally bought a new battery for my iBook (my 35-minute battery life made my laptop virtually useless when I travelled unless I had something to plug it into) and tonight I went online to Apple’s support site to find out where to send my old battery.

Yes, I was stupid enough to believe they had a take-back program of some sort SINCE THEY MADE THE BATTERY IN THE FIRST PLACE. But no. Their advice was: “As with all batteries, proper disposal is essential. Check with your local waste or recycling company to determine the disposal method for your area. Putting any battery directly in the trash harms the environment.” No kidding! I know the batteries are toxic. That’s why I’m trying to send it back to you, so you can recycle it properly. LAME, LAME, LAME!

Seriously! How many of these things end up in the trash if that is all Apple is going to do? I am just extremely disappointed because I know how popular Apple’s products are and their service in other areas has always been excellent. I thought Apple was pretty cool, but I don’t think so anymore. I’m going to call them up and write them an email and just generally give them a hard time about it. Maybe next time I’ll buy a Dell (according to Greenpeace’s electronics ratings system, updated just this month and pictured below, they have the best environmental rep.)

batteries, book, electronics, farm, local, recycle, recycled, Recycling, rum, trash, travel, waste

Green Living in Minnesota

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by Starre Vartan · 06/05/07

Guest-Blogger Tami Molitor sent this report from Minnesota’s Living Green Expo. I think it’s fantastic to hear about all the green stuff happening in places other than the East and West Coasts, and there’s plenty of it. All Americans need to be involved in building a sustainable world, because pretty much all of us have been involved in getting us to this ecologically precarious and dangerous place that we are now. -Ed.

By Guest-Blogger Tami Molitor

My husband and I headed to the Minnesota state fairgrounds in St. Paul the first weekend of May to attend the Living Green Expo. Our first greeting was that of electric cars and a variety of bikes to promote travel without gasoline. Organic Valley family of farms (from Wisconsin)was giving samples of milk and coupons. College “kids” from Macalester were sharing a slideshow from their travels to ice-covered parts of the world to learn more about global warming with world reknowned Minnesotan explorers.

Organic Bob gardening and a variety of organic and natural lawncare, landscapers and gardening cmpanies were exibiting along with green roof promoters, natural skincare companies and small home-based soap makers.

We missed the eco-fashoin show….check the site for more on that. The Waldorf School promoted their Earth-friendly curriculum and trendy South Minneapolis was also well represented with Linden Hills area natural foods coop and home store.

The City of Minneapolis officials participated in presentation of ” An Inconvenient Truth”
via slide show. Clean energy was well represented with local and national energy companies and wind energy groups.

A kid’s area included creative arts, a compassionate kids presentation, recycling games,
visits form the raptor center and healthy toys and snacks. Lots more to see, do and learn for kids and family.

This event is getting bigger every year. We only had time for a three-hour stay, and I feel like we barely sratched the surface. Our goal is to review the handouts and start adding more green living options to our lifestyle. It is great to live in an area that offers this type of event. Be sure to check out the main Living Green expo site for all the details!

bikes, cape, car, cars, electric, electric car, electric cars, Energy, farm, farms, Food, garden, Gardening, gas, giving, Global Warming, Green Living, health, Home, kids, local, Milk, Organic, Recycling, skin, skincare, soap, style, sustainable, travel

Eco-Chick Does Mountain Jam

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by Brianne Goodspeed · 05/31/07

With festival season upon us, my friend, Amy, called a few weeks ago to tell me that I was going to meet her and her friends at Radio Woodstock’s Mountain Jam in Hunter, New York on the first weekend in June.

I’d already seen the lineup (with Gov’t Mule and Phil Lesh & Friends headlining) and would have gone for Michael Franti and Ozomatli alone, except that I now spend my Friday and Saturday nights squinting over IPCC reports, wondering if apocalypse is upon us or merely looming. At some point during George Bush’s tenure, I got incalculably old.

Ozomatli

Amy told me that if I didn’t meet her in New York, she was going to come to my home and kidnap me. I knew she wasn’t kidding. I met Amy ten years ago when we were both Americorps volunteers working and traveling through the Deep South for ten months. We spent the first nine months in mutual antipathy, as we worked side by side in Little Rock, Charleston, and the mountains of eastern Tennessee. I wondered why this Philly girl was so obnoxious—she never stopped singing—and she wondered (out loud) why New Englanders were so uptight. Then, I think it was on a balmy evening in July when we both went to pay our respects at Duane Allman’s grave in Macon’s Rose Hill Cemetery that Amy and I finally discovered we had more in common than we realized.

I was 19. She was 20. And during our final month in Dixie, we raised hell.

So, when she called a few weeks ago, I didn’t actually take much convincing. It seemed fitting that a show produced by guitar legend Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule), would reunite a pair of (now old) friends. I hustled up a Prius, hosed down the cooler, and told Amy that I would meet her there, adding that I had to do some work by reporting back for Eco-Chick on the environmental vendors and the festival’s green initiatives. Now in its third year, Mountain Jam is partnering with Community Energy, which will donate wind energy credits to offset 100% of the electricity used at the show, and Rock the Earth will be on hand to educate show-goers about environmental issues.

Amy just laughed. “Uh-huh. Well, if you get to meet Michael Franti, you’re taking me with you. I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll take all my clothes off. I’ll get naked right there.”

spearhead01_sm

So Mountain Jam is this weekend and tickets, as of right now, are still available. Stay tuned for Eco-Chick dispatches, and if you see me there, give me a holler. I’ll be the blue-eyed girl with the notebook and the naked friend.