A Deeper Green

So those of you who spend any time with me are aware that I try to limit my meat intake. There are a number of reasons that people choose to do this, some of my good friends are vegetarian for ethical reasons and health reasons, but that’s not why I do it.

Yes less meat often means that you intake less fat and cholesterol,  and it is also nice to think about the good karma you are amassing by not eating other sentient life forms. BUT! The coolest reasons to go veg are the green ones.

Here are a couple:

~ It takes 25 gallons of water to produce 1lb of wheat & 2,500 gallons to produce 1lb of meat

~ 70% of all grain is fed to livestock
~ If everyone in America became vegetarian, we would save the use of enough grain to feed 600,000,000 people, and that is a LOT of people.

~ From one acre of land you can get 165 lbs of beef OR 20,000 lbs of potatoes.

~In the USA, in 1979, 145 million tons of crops were fed to cattle resulting in only 21 million tons of animal bodies - the cost of the wasted crops was $20,000,000,000!!!

~ The cattle industry produces more greenhouse gases annually worldwide than all of the cars worldwide.

Now I do understand that it is very hard to make a major lifestyle change and become a vegetarian, and I wouldn’t expect everyone to want to do it. But I do challenge you to think about your meal choices. Likely you eat meat 2 times a day, 14 times a week. Is it possible that you could cut from 14 times a week to 12 times a week? Or better yet, try to make a vegetarian dinner for yourself every night?

I personally have had a lot of success with limiting the amount of meat that I eat. There are some really good meat alternatives out there! I will plan to post some good recipe sites later in the week.

Right now I am having trouble with the link business

Also, look for my update on the presidential candidates and their level of green-ness later this week.

Later Kids!!

** The statistics shown in this entry are pulled from a variety of sources. Some recommended reading on the subject of how what we eat effects our world includes Diet for a Small Planet and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.**

I thought this was a nifty little animation. Luckily not all of us are quite this bad.

A Case of the Humans 

So, as some of you know I have been struggling in my attempts to pick a presidential candidate to support. In an effort to aid me in my decision I did some extensive research on each of the candidates environmental positions. I found this article (and the accompanying interviews and charts) on Grist to be very helpful.

As you can see (or may already know) the candidates are fairly split along party lines on the issue of nuclear power (although many of the democrats provide only limited information on their position, which makes me wonder how much wiggle room they would allow on the issue if really faced with it), with the notable exceptions of Clinton and Obama. All of the Republican candidates support nuclear power to some point. Many of the supporting the expansion of nuclear power. This, of course, perplexes me as I have always thought of nuclear power as this sort of twin to the coal industry, a twin that is just as dirty/evil/vile as coal, but who is packaged much more attractively.

I was having a little bit of trouble really explaining myself and my opinions on nuclear power in a phone conversation with a republican friend the other day, which prompted me to do more research. In the process I found this article from the Union of Concerned Scientists which really shows my thoughts (as well as many in the scientific communities thoughts) on nuclear power and its ability to impact our energy future.

Read the article here!

I would also encourage you to really think about your options for all elected offices as the primary elections begin to really roll on through. While it may not seem like much of a chance to make a change, your vote does say something about the person you are and the policies you support. I encourage you to do your own research on all the candidates for all offices, and to use your vote as a way to declare your thoughts on helping our environment and any other issue that you hold dear.

This is a hopeful book. Although, there is lots of bad news about the current American lifestyle (and, of course, there is the usual gloom and doom about the plight of the environment) but it is not presented nearly as dismally in this book as t has been in others.

Most of the book outlines a different vision for American society. A society that focuses on wealth in community and health and love instead of monetary wealth. David Wann co-wrote the book Affluenza, focusing on how consumerism is a growing pandemic in western culture. Simple Prosperity is a natural extension of that. It gives thought on HOW to take a step back from the massive amounts consuming and advertising and find your own brand of happiness.

I really enjoyed reading this book and enjoyed Wann’s examples from his life and lives of other people in his life. Showing how they are living within their communities while not making any major life sacrifices or turning their back on broader American culture, but rather working within it.

The book particularly spoke to me as I am a girl who is floundering in the very American life she is living. A girl who feels trapped in the suburbs. A girl who knows that she should be doing more.

For many of us everything that is presented in this book is not feasible. I know that right now I am not in the position to make the type of changes shown in this book. But the philosophy behind this book is something that I can begin to apply to my life. And I think I will make an attempt to do some streamlining, to cut down on my consumption.

When talking to a good friend of my about this book, a friend who has perfected the art of non-consumerism simply by being a man who is happy with little, he told me, “seriously, just don’t buy anything, grocery shop, buy used if possible.” And I think that is some pretty great advice that will likely not be so hard to follow.

Recycle your christmas tree... or any other recycling you may have and receive a free gift… ooooooooooh!

I found this article pretty interesting. When I went to Europe a few years ago, I was thrown by having to buy my sturdy, reusable plastic bag when I went shopping. But then I realized what a great idea it was: sturdier plastic bags that can be reused many times! Here, in America, most of our grocery stores provide us with free paper or plastic bags, but think of how much plastic we wouldn’t use if we had to pay for those bags. I know my mom recently invested in canvas bags that were being sold at the local Jewel. She bought 10 bags for 10 dollars, and you know those bags will last for years! Think how many more people would be on board with the reusable bags if they had to pay every time at the store. It’s an interesting thought.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-10-03.asp

Why not swap it? It may be just as simple as asking your friends if they want to swap some similarly valued cards! Make a green decision to not accumulate junk, and get rid of that unwanted giftcard!

If you don’t have any obliging friends to swap with, here are a couple of potentially helpful websites. I personally haven’t tried them, so I can’t vouch for their effectiveness. Also if you do use them I would love to hear any comments you may have.

www.certificateswap.com - This site lets you sell gift cards and buy new ones at a discount or just get the cash from your cards. It seems to good to be true, so I’m sure there is some sort of catch. But I couldn’t find a “how this works” on the site to explain it to me.

www.swapagift.com - This site will charge you $1.99 to post your card and swap it. Also it seems that there is a way that you can apply some of the money on the giftcard to pay bills for you at this site? I don’t think they apply the whole value of the card, but who knows, it could be helpful. Depending on how much the card is worth, this could be a worthwhile site for you.

giftcardbuyback.com - This site will pay you cash for your cards, but only up to 80% of what they’re worth. I’m not sure how this business works or if it’s worth it. Let me know what you decide.

Hopefully these sites prove to be helpful for you, but if not, you can always use that giftcard to buy a gift for someone else who will really enjoy it, instead of buying yourself something you may or may not use, and certainly didn’t ever think you’d buy.

(also, be looking forward to more book reviews in the coming weeks, I have been a busy little girl, looking for good books to bring to you!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02diamond.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=cbc4ee25b6432563&ex=1199422800

This article was brought to my attention by my friend Rachel. Her discussion on it gave me lots of food for thought.

Now, I can’t effectively make a case for less consumption positively effecting global politics, but I can make a case for less consumption without sacrificing standard of living.  Hopefully that is something that I have been doing here on this blog!

Mostly, I just wanted to share this interesting article with you, and then, get your thoughts on what small changes you hope to make, or have made, in your life that have helped you become more sustainable.

As this blog really is for you guys, I really would like to know what you have been up to on the green front. Also, this will help me get some ideas for future articles (I admit it sometimes my motives can be a little selfish). And if you have incorporated anything that I’ve brought up here into your life I would love to hear about that too.

This entry is an interactive one, so I except some reader participation!

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy holiday. Sorry I have been MIA for such a long time. My December was quite hectic.

But, my new years resolution is to update this more often and to continue making healthy choices for myself and the earth!

So, lets look at a neat way to spend that Holiday money you got from Aunt Rita… Sustainable Shoes!

Now I know that it can be hard to find fashionable and socially responsible shoes. I actually gave up quite a while ago, but after doing a bit more on-line research I came up with a couple of new places to try out, they are of course, a bit on the expensive side, but hopefully worth it! I will let you know how that works out for me.

Simple Shoes –All sorts of casual shoes, also bags and other accessories.

Keen –Socially conscious shoes for you active kids out there.

There are lots of other sustainable shoe and socially conscious shoe companies out there, but most of them ship from the UK. I haven’t decided if flying your green shoes over an ocean negates the buying of the green shoes or not, but I think it likely that it does, so I’ve left them off the list.

Also, an interesting article on the shoe industry.