the future of energy determines our fate

At times, I can be rather impressionable. My outlook on the state of the world can dramatically shift depending on what information I'm exposed to. Right now I'm on an optimistic upswing. I've been reading the Economist's special energy report (June 21-27, 2008) and it's stirring hope in me that all isn't lost. Let me explain.

The biggest of big business is jumping on the renewable energy band wagon. GE, historically one of the biggest polluters of our time,[1] is in the wind energy business (the corporate spiel here). GM, makers of the most gas-guzzlingest of SUVs (Hummer, Escalade, Suburban), is putting out a plug-in car (the Volt) for 2010. And they just closed 4 SUV plants and may be selling their Hummer division. (More about the closing plants and future of GM's small cars here.)

The world is finally waking up to the fact that fossil fuels are a finite, and destructive, resource.[2] And if it weren't for the steadily climbing price of oil, the world wouldn't be scrambling to discover the next energy breakthrough. We'd all be continuing at breakneck speed to destroy the planet, sucking up the oil and burning up the coal and forgetting all about climate change.

The future of renewable energy is glaringly bright (grab your shades). And it's not just solar that's shining the way. There's wind, of course, which may have the potential to power 15% of America by 2020.[3] Cellulosic and algael biofuels (a hell of a lot more efficient and sustainable than corn ethanol), improved nuclear, geothermal, wave energy, fuel cell and plug-in cars. There are so many opportunities to develop a mix of sources to feed our addiction to power.

The shift to renewables will create a market explosion to surpass the dotcom boom (and bust), the rise of silicon valley, or any other tech sector boom because our life as we know it depends on it. The expansion of this industry in response to rising oil demand and prices leaves me feeling optimistic.

But tomorrow I could read about how the polar ice caps are all melting faster than we thought and we're all going to hell in a handbasket. Or get bummed out about the administration's plans for offshore drilling in protected waters (which by the way is a big waste of time and natural resources). But today, I'll bask in the sunny optimism of a renewable energy future.

[1] A little support on this claim, from:

• NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• New York Times [January 21, 1983]
• Clean Up GE

[2] I'm burying the ugliness of fossil fuels here: wars, human rights issues, oil spills, cancer and poor air quality from coal-fired power plants (coal miners and everyone else), greenhouse gases, coal soot polluting arctic snow speeding its melt, mountaintop mining, peak oil.

[3] Source: Economist. The Future of Energy: Trade Winds. June 19, 2008.

clothing retailers waking up to their impact?

In line with today's theme of responsible apparel comes news that some of the big retailers are planning to meet to discuss their role in the environment. Over 3 days in Shanghai, China, representatives from the companies -- JC Penney, Levi Strauss, Marks and Spencer (UK), and Polo Ralph Lauren -- are pow-wowing in regards to the impact of dyeing in textile manufacturing.

More about the meeting here.

Read about how China is holding manufacturers accountable for their polluting ways here.

[Image: Manufacturing #7: Textile Mill. Edward Burtynsky, The China Series]

eco happy feet

And what about shoes? Here's a roundup of some cute shoes that won't hurt your purse or the earth.

Shore Thing by Patagonia
$59 at PlanetShoes.com
(other colors available)


Ikebana by El Naturalista
$130 at PlanetShoes.com
(other colors available)



Dobamo by Terra Plana
$110 at Kaight
(also in red, more views here)










Gizeh by Birkenstock
$69 at PlanetShoes.com
(other colors available)



Penny Wedge by Form & Fauna
Was $285/Now $213.75 at Kaight













Aphrodite by Earth
Now $54 at PlanetShoes.com



Doll by Terra Plana
Now $77.50 at Shoes.com
(also in black)


Toepaz by Simple
$74.99 at Shoes.com
(other colors available)


Elara by Earth
$88 at PlanetShoes.com



Grass by Terra Plana
$140 at Terra Plana
(other colors available)

on sale: eco-fashion

I'm usually willing to pay a little more for fashion that claims to be sustainable. But for those of us on a budget, buying fashionable eco-friendly clothes is not always an option. So ladies, here's your chance to get some good deals on quality eco-duds. I've done a round-up of some of the sales going on at eco-fashion web shops.

Tops ($70 and under)
Piped tunic by Sustainable Collective
(bamboo/organic cotton/spandex)
Was $94/Now $50
[Fashion Ethic]








Cassidy Camisole by Edun
Was $125/Now $65
[The Green Loop]









Crisp blouse by Kelly B
(organic cotton/spandex)
Sale price $70
[BTC Elements]









Half-sleeve hoodie by Stewart+Brown
(organic cotton)
Sale price $42
[BTC Elements]








Bottoms ($95 and under)

Hemp trouser pant by Ryann
Was $128/Now $95
[Fashion Ethic]









Beach shorts by Loomstate
(organic cotton)
Was $129/Now $64
[The Green Loop]








Tutor skirt by Loomstate
(organic cotton denim)
Was $129/Now $65
[The Green Loop]









Wide leg pant by Habitude
(organic cotton twill)
Was $176/Now $90
[The Green Loop]








Dresses (under $170)
Sexy soy halter dress by Anna Cohen
Originally $281/Now $168.60
[Green with Glamour]









"Alison" pleated dress by Sublet
(30% organic cotton, 67% bamboo, 3% spandex)
Originally $242/Now $130
[Fashion Ethic]








Tularosa dress by Loyale
(bamboo/cotton jersey blend)
Originally $160/Now $145
[Bohmo]








Pinstripe jumper by Bahar Shapar
(organic cotton)
Was $270/Now $135
[Kaight]









Aurora dress by Perfectly Imperfect
(organic cotton)
Not on sale, but reasonably priced at $130
[Green with Glamour]







Leigh dress by Kelly B
(bamboo)
Not on sale, but reasonably priced at $113
[Green with Glamour]

what's going down your shower drain?

Petrochemicals, parabens, chemical surfactants, these are just a few of the things that are washed out of our hair and down the drain when we use conventional shampoo. Most of us don't think twice about it, bye-bye chemicals! I can't see you!

I started thinking more about these things a few years ago. What am I washing down the drain? Where is it going? Well it's not really going away. These toxins end up in our waterways and cycle back to us in our tap water.

Not to mention the direct effects of some of these ingredients when you're actually using them on a daily basis.

In light of all this, I'm so happy to have found Max Green Alchemy. They make hair care and other beauty products with good stuff in them -- no petrochemicals, no sodium laureth/laurel sulfate (skin irritants), and no parabens. I swear by Max's shampoo and conditioner. I won't use anything else. They have a nice herbal scent and leave my hair shiny and bouncy. I introduced Max to a friend of mine who does beauty product advertising, and her industry colleagues immediately took notice of her lovely locks. So Max isn't just eco-conscious, he makes you feel beautiful, too.

why smoking stinks

[First I'd like to say to my auntie, if this post upsets you, sorry! I'm only thinking of your health and well being -- that's all.]

(Image: Chris Jordan. Cigarette butts, 2005. 5 x 10 feet)

Ok, now let's get down to it.
Aside from the obvious: cancer, emphysema, COPD, brittle bones, yellow teeth, yellow nails, stinky breath, smelly hair, and stinky everything-one-owns, there's the health of the world to consider.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. What? That shocked even me. (More alarming facts about tobacco from WHO here.) What other evil do cigarettes impose on the planet?

Tobacco poisons land and waterways.
Large amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are used in the farming of tobacco. In the US, one estimate puts yearly use of pesticide on tobacco in the US at over 25 million pounds. Some of these toxic pesticides are linked to birth defects, cancer, and/or nerve damage.[1] Naturally, what's put into the soil soon runs off into waterways, poisoning lakes, streams, and eventually the ocean.

Today, like many other industries, tobacco production is moving out of the US to developing nations. These countries don't have the same environmental regulations as the US, so the ecological toll could be greater.

Tobacco production contributes to deforestation.
Trees are cut down to build tobacco curing barns and to fuel the curing process.[2] There's also the paper the tobacco is rolled in to consider. It's estimated that one tree is sacrificed for every 300 cigarettes (~10.5 packs) produced. [3] We all know by now that deforestation is a major contributor to climate change.

Tobacco crops also eat into land that would be viable for farming food.

Unextinguished cigarettes cause forest fires.

And the butt...
The most littered trash in America (and some say the planet) are cigarette butts. While estimates vary on how long it takes for them to break down (from 10 months to 12 years), the plastic toxins in the butts never go away. They find there way into waterways and can adversely affect (read: kill) aquatic micro-organisms at the bottom of the food chain. And if we remember anything from grade school science class, what happens to the creatures at the bottom of the food chain affects us all.

So how can you or someone you care about quit smoking?
I know people who've quit cold turkey, using the patch, taking Chantix, or reading a book (like this one by Allen Carr, which gets a ton of good reviews). There are several online resources to help kick the habit. Here are a few:

• QuitNet
• SmokeFree
• CDC
• About.com

In New York City, dial 311 to get free nicotine patches.

Sources:

1. US Geological Survey, Pesticide National Synthesis Project. National Totals by Crop and Compound. March 1998. In: Pesticide Action Network.
2. Geist, HJ. Global assessment of deforestation related to tobacco farming. Tobacco Control. 1999;8:18-28.
3. Muller, M. Tobacco in the Third World: Tommorrow's Epidemic? London: War on Want, 1976.

Additional sources:

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• Science Daily
  
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN)
• Keep America Beautiful
• Clean Virginia Waterways Department of Natural Sciences
• Kidport Reference Library
• Pesticide Action Network North America

afternoon eco news

• Bloomie making NYC eco-friendlier to the tune of $2.3billion
• Oregon governor to boost green-tech jobs
• Price driving organic purchases down?
• Bush craps up the place with oil policies (surprise, surprise)
• Maker of plastic food packaging moving toward sustainable packaging
• Concerned Barbadoan cries out for environmental help

plastic pile

I have a confession. I have a large collection of plastic that can't be recycled in NYC. Mostly #6 (PS or polystyrene) and some #5 (polypropylene) objects are piling up in our "office" (aka, second bedroom; aka, junk room). Coffee cup lids, containers that held mushrooms, yogurt containers -- I can't get myself to throw them away. I have a big project in mind for them, but yesterday I was thinking, maybe there's a place I can send this stuff to be recycled.

And I found out today, there is! Thanks to Ideal Bite, I found out that Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn will be happy to take my #5s and some of my number #4s (although these aren't as common) to send to Recycline. As I've mentioned before, they have a partnership with this maker of Preserve products. So the plastics that were destined to go to the dump (or the ocean) are now the stuff of toothbrushes, razors, and other household goods.

Now what to do with those #6s?

made in my backyard

It's nice to see when things are made close to home. While I can't be sure of the origins of their components, at least I know these finished products don't have far to ship. Check out some quality Made-in-Brooklyn goods courtesy of, funnily enough, Manhattan User's Guide.


And a few more Brooklyn-made goods:

• Copper pots
• Handbags and Manbags
• Dresses from AngelRox

robot love

Robots aren't always so cute. Think RoboCop, Terminator, HAL (well, I guess he's technically a computer). But what about Number 5 (Short Circuit), V.I.C.I (Small Wonder, okay, she was annoying), Twiki, or Artoo-Detoo?

In the cuteness department, WALL-E's got 'em all beat. He's freaking adorable. And not only is this fictional, computer-generated animation cute, the story surrounding him is an allegory about what we're doing to the environment. Could it get any better?

I don't want to give anything away, so go out and see it!

the dr is in

Dr. Hauschka makes some really great stuff. One of the key ingredients that makes their products so great is not really an ingredient at all: quality packaging. According to Dr. Hauschka,

Our Eco-conscious packaging and natural botanical preservatives help keeps products fresh without the use of chemical additives. In this way, we're able to maintain the vitality of our Biodynamic and organic plant ingredients, delivering their nurturing, supportive qualities directly to you.

Plus much of their ingredients are organic or biodynamic, the products don't contain parabens, and there's no animal testing. These features have been part of the principles of the grower of their ingredients, WALA Heilmittel, for over 60 years.

I've used the Rose Day Cream (on the heavier side, making it better for winter) and Cleansing Milk (well worth the price, it lasts a long time). They now make a Rose Day Cream Light for warmer months. And Sunscreen Cream SPF 20 to protect yourself from the summer sun.

They also make a Deodorant which I'd like to try (see my other post about natural deodorant here).

Not ready to commit to any specific products? Try the Daily Face Care Kit, a sampler of products small enough to pack away in carry-on luggage.

the sound of sleep

For years, my boyfriend used an air conditioner to drown out the noises of the city, just to get (and stay) asleep. It wasn't something I was accustomed to, but I learned to get used to it. But then I started thinking about how much energy sucking that air conditioner did, 365 days a year. We tried one of those noise machines with the varying sounds: rainforest, jungle, waterfall, plain old white noise. The problem with those things is that they're a recorded loop of sound. Whoooosh Whoooosh (hic) Whooosh. You can hear the slight skip where the loop starts again. Focusing on that hiccup is not conducive to a sound night's sleep.

Finally we found a sound machine that works. The Marpac SleepMate 980A Electro-Mechanical Sound Conditioner (quite a mouthful, but if you want to experience one, just click the link). It uses a small internal fan to make a whooshing sound. So now we're using a lot less energy and sleeping like babies. Whoooosh Whoooosh zzzzzzZZZZZZZZ

vast expanses of america

Nothing but peaks and valleys, green fields, vast plains for as far as the eye could see. Nothing but cows and their calves, destined for a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation). Nothing but horses and ranches, for hundreds of miles -- from park to park, nation to nation.

On the US side, little in the way of renewable energy resources. With the abundance of land and sunshine, I expected to see solar panels gracing the pastures. None that I could see. On the Canadian side, adjacent the cattle were wind farms.

On both sides of the border, much talk about the consequences of receding glaciers. Drought. Fires. The lengthening summers and conversely shortening winters. The related changes in animal behavior.

Passing Butte, MT, my jaw dropped. As if someone had a giant chisel, the entire landscape was sliced out.

This is the America I experienced on my recent trip out West. Both amazing and alarming, at least from a passerby's perspective. It was beautiful, but I can't help but eco-scan everything I see.