Interested in an island vacation? How about a weekend on 100 million tons of plastic flotsam, more than five million square miles, the size of the United States, floating in an area known as the North Pacific gyre. You won't be without plastic water bottles!
1000 miles off the California coast, four major currents converge, trapping this plastic trash. Some of the trash floats on top of the water, some just below the surface, some far deeper in the ocean. Over time, the plastic trash breaks up so that you can't even see it. Fish and other marine life eat the plastic, dying after ingesting it. 100,000 marine mammals die each year from eating it. Dead albatross have been found full of colored bottle caps and disposable lighters.
Where has the junk come from? It is the product of fifty years of disposing of our plastic waste--from ships at sea, on the beach, escapees from garbage barges and landfills. 80% of the trash gets there from land, washing into rivers and streams from streets and highways.
Check out www.junkcraft.com
Make-Do.
Next time they ask you at the grocery store, "Paper or Plastic?" say "Neither."
Use cloth bags.
Or just carry it out in your hand.
Olivia
Make-Do
Friday, July 4, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Don't Go There
As long as the Green Movement is about buying things, it will not . . . move. It will not go anywhere. It will not create change.
There are so many ways to be politically-correctly Green, and they all require buying the appropriate accouterment. Solar radios, solar hat fans, solar headlamps, solar lanterns. Cell phone chargers that you crank. Eco-thermal bamboo sleeping pads, Auto Flow composters, hemp or organic cotton jackets, pants, shirts, hats, socks, dresses, underwear, sheets, blankets, pillow cases. Reclaimed wood stacking tables, coffee tables, dining tables, bedside tables, chairs, bookcases. Hemp rugs, bamboo screens, quilts, shams, shoe racks. New! Teak Bath Set. New! Preserve toothbrushes and triple-blade shavers. New! Pangea Organics Ecocentric Bodycare.
Hey! Quit crabbing! The Pangea soap packaging is made from 100% post-consumer recycled newspaper that's embedded with edible, Italian sweet basil seeds and plantable in your garden. Do the seeds come from Italy?
Stand back and think about the thing that you're going to buy. What resources are necessary to make it? Who is making it, and how much are they getting paid? How did the thing get to you, or get into the store? How many miles has it traveled?
Why are so many consumer goods sold claiming to make the world a greener place? It reminds me of the folks who have good intentions of starting an exercise program. First, they have to buy the right running shoes, the running clothes, the gym membership, the Pilates DVD's, the right racket or club or gloves, or . . .
A case in point is the Prius. I'm really going to get in trouble now.
The Prius is powered by a battery that uses nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. The plant has destroyed the surrounding environment, and spewed sulpher dioxide over northern Ontario.
Once the nickel is mined and smelted, it travels to Europe, then to China, then to Japan, then to the United States, where it's put into the Prius.
Some claim that it takes fewer resources and energy to put a Hummer on the road: The Prius averages $3.25/mile to put on the road, and a Hummer costs $1.95/mile to get on the road, both vehicles in the course of their lifetime.
The Chevy Aveo gets better gas mileage than the Prius, and the Toyota Scion xB costs only $.48/per mile to get on the road. (Think of those dollars as resources and energy to build the thing, deliver it, buy it, and drive it.) (Thanks to "Crude Awakening" for these statistics. See, a "peak oil" awareness site.)
It could be I'm just jealous when I see other people driving around in their Priuses. I bought a Prius the second year that the cars were produced, but my daughter totalled it by driving through a big puddle--a REALLY BIG puddle.
Still, the Prius is not the answer. We buy the Prius, or the ethanol-powered vehicle, or even the electric vehicle, or the vehicle that runs on used vegetable oil, or the hydrogen-powered vehicle, because we want to keep driving around in a vehicle. We don't want things to change, and we want to pretend to ourselves that we are being green. We want the same convenience and independence that a vehicle gives us, even though it really gives us no independence, making us hugely dependent on oil and a piece of steel that sucks the life out of us because of insurance, repairs and replacement, not to mention the cost of gas now, and the cost of gas a year from now, and ten years from now, assuming there will be any gas ten years from now, or any earth, for that matter, if we keep buying things, green or not, and driving our hybrid vehicles around. (Watch out for that PUDDLE!)
Make do.
Don't drive.
Ride a bike.
Walk.
Or . . . just don't go there.
Olivia
Make Do
There are so many ways to be politically-correctly Green, and they all require buying the appropriate accouterment. Solar radios, solar hat fans, solar headlamps, solar lanterns. Cell phone chargers that you crank. Eco-thermal bamboo sleeping pads, Auto Flow composters, hemp or organic cotton jackets, pants, shirts, hats, socks, dresses, underwear, sheets, blankets, pillow cases. Reclaimed wood stacking tables, coffee tables, dining tables, bedside tables, chairs, bookcases. Hemp rugs, bamboo screens, quilts, shams, shoe racks. New! Teak Bath Set. New! Preserve toothbrushes and triple-blade shavers. New! Pangea Organics Ecocentric Bodycare.
Hey! Quit crabbing! The Pangea soap packaging is made from 100% post-consumer recycled newspaper that's embedded with edible, Italian sweet basil seeds and plantable in your garden. Do the seeds come from Italy?
Stand back and think about the thing that you're going to buy. What resources are necessary to make it? Who is making it, and how much are they getting paid? How did the thing get to you, or get into the store? How many miles has it traveled?
Why are so many consumer goods sold claiming to make the world a greener place? It reminds me of the folks who have good intentions of starting an exercise program. First, they have to buy the right running shoes, the running clothes, the gym membership, the Pilates DVD's, the right racket or club or gloves, or . . .
A case in point is the Prius. I'm really going to get in trouble now.
The Prius is powered by a battery that uses nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. The plant has destroyed the surrounding environment, and spewed sulpher dioxide over northern Ontario.
Once the nickel is mined and smelted, it travels to Europe, then to China, then to Japan, then to the United States, where it's put into the Prius.
Some claim that it takes fewer resources and energy to put a Hummer on the road: The Prius averages $3.25/mile to put on the road, and a Hummer costs $1.95/mile to get on the road, both vehicles in the course of their lifetime.
The Chevy Aveo gets better gas mileage than the Prius, and the Toyota Scion xB costs only $.48/per mile to get on the road. (Think of those dollars as resources and energy to build the thing, deliver it, buy it, and drive it.) (Thanks to "Crude Awakening" for these statistics. See
It could be I'm just jealous when I see other people driving around in their Priuses. I bought a Prius the second year that the cars were produced, but my daughter totalled it by driving through a big puddle--a REALLY BIG puddle.
Still, the Prius is not the answer. We buy the Prius, or the ethanol-powered vehicle, or even the electric vehicle, or the vehicle that runs on used vegetable oil, or the hydrogen-powered vehicle, because we want to keep driving around in a vehicle. We don't want things to change, and we want to pretend to ourselves that we are being green. We want the same convenience and independence that a vehicle gives us, even though it really gives us no independence, making us hugely dependent on oil and a piece of steel that sucks the life out of us because of insurance, repairs and replacement, not to mention the cost of gas now, and the cost of gas a year from now, and ten years from now, assuming there will be any gas ten years from now, or any earth, for that matter, if we keep buying things, green or not, and driving our hybrid vehicles around. (Watch out for that PUDDLE!)
Make do.
Don't drive.
Ride a bike.
Walk.
Or . . . just don't go there.
Olivia
Make Do
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Mowing in the Rain
My neighbor Patrick was mowing his lawn in the rain at 8:00 this morning. The sound of the lawnmower roaring, the rain pounding on the roof, the thunder booming and lightning flashing was a symphony to insanity in a decade of climate change.
Why do Americans obsess about lawns? One theory is that immaculate lawns announces affluence. A pristine lawn may also say "responsible" and "hard-working." Robert Grese, an Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Minnesota, says that our lawns are modeled after the grounds of the early English manor, which was lush and green because of the wet climate, and did not require additional watering or chemicals. In other words, a well-manicured lawn says "Aristocracy."
Is it all worth it? We are killing ourselves. Worse, we are killing our children. The #2 cause of death in children ages 5-9 is cancer linked to the poisons we put on our lawns and on our farm fields. Toxic chemicals in the environment are proven to cause some neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as learning disabilities, Attention Deficit and Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder as well as autism.
Someone needs to write the death-of-children version of "Silent Spring," only it would be called "The Silent Womb."
And those little signs poked into lawns by chemical companies that say you or your pet--who can't read anyway--can walk on the treated grass after ten days, but there is no finer print under the fine print that tells you that lawn chemicals really have a half life of up to one year?
Yesterday I was walking my dog Seymour along the street. In front of us was a mother pushing her two-year-old daughter in the stroller, with her eight year old son walking by their side. We passed a house with a treated lawn, that cute little sign sticking out. The maple tree "helicopters" had been raining down all morning in the wind. The boy picked up a handful from the corner of the treated lawn and showered them down on his sister, who squealed in delight. The mother laughed. I was crying inside.
Make/Do Tip: Don't have lawns. Let the grass grow. Don't mow it. Don't pour poison on it. Turn your lawn into a Woodland or a Prairie. Stick native plants in here or there. Don't even buy plants. Dig them out of ditches or the woods, or get them from friends who are dividing their lilies or irises.
Make/Do
Olivia
Why do Americans obsess about lawns? One theory is that immaculate lawns announces affluence. A pristine lawn may also say "responsible" and "hard-working." Robert Grese, an Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Minnesota, says that our lawns are modeled after the grounds of the early English manor, which was lush and green because of the wet climate, and did not require additional watering or chemicals. In other words, a well-manicured lawn says "Aristocracy."
Is it all worth it? We are killing ourselves. Worse, we are killing our children. The #2 cause of death in children ages 5-9 is cancer linked to the poisons we put on our lawns and on our farm fields. Toxic chemicals in the environment are proven to cause some neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as learning disabilities, Attention Deficit and Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder as well as autism.
Someone needs to write the death-of-children version of "Silent Spring," only it would be called "The Silent Womb."
And those little signs poked into lawns by chemical companies that say you or your pet--who can't read anyway--can walk on the treated grass after ten days, but there is no finer print under the fine print that tells you that lawn chemicals really have a half life of up to one year?
Yesterday I was walking my dog Seymour along the street. In front of us was a mother pushing her two-year-old daughter in the stroller, with her eight year old son walking by their side. We passed a house with a treated lawn, that cute little sign sticking out. The maple tree "helicopters" had been raining down all morning in the wind. The boy picked up a handful from the corner of the treated lawn and showered them down on his sister, who squealed in delight. The mother laughed. I was crying inside.
Make/Do Tip: Don't have lawns. Let the grass grow. Don't mow it. Don't pour poison on it. Turn your lawn into a Woodland or a Prairie. Stick native plants in here or there. Don't even buy plants. Dig them out of ditches or the woods, or get them from friends who are dividing their lilies or irises.
Make/Do
Olivia
Friday, June 6, 2008
The Long Road Back
I'm a farmer on a Community Shared Farm, Valley Creek Farm, in Minnesota.
To get to the farm, I turn right on Snow Snake Road, which once was a real road, but now is more like a driveway. School bus drivers fifty years ago hated driving down the road, especially in winter. It is windy, and slippery when covered with snow and ice. Hence the name, Snow Snake.
When I turn right on Snow Snake, it is like going back in time, to a time when life was slower, when we picked our own food, when we walked most places. When we hung our clothes out on the line to dry, when we burned leaves, and canned beans and tomatoes, and milked cows by hand. We carried hankies in our pockets and blew our noses into them, folded them, put them back in our pockets, and washed them, eventually.
Paul Gruchow was always criticized for being "nostalgic," as though nostalgia, looking back fondly on what was, is a bad thing.
I want to go back to what was. I know that some things were harder. More people died of disease, I guess. The life-span was shorter. There weren't as many "advancements."
But here is what we have lost:
To get to the farm, I turn right on Snow Snake Road, which once was a real road, but now is more like a driveway. School bus drivers fifty years ago hated driving down the road, especially in winter. It is windy, and slippery when covered with snow and ice. Hence the name, Snow Snake.
When I turn right on Snow Snake, it is like going back in time, to a time when life was slower, when we picked our own food, when we walked most places. When we hung our clothes out on the line to dry, when we burned leaves, and canned beans and tomatoes, and milked cows by hand. We carried hankies in our pockets and blew our noses into them, folded them, put them back in our pockets, and washed them, eventually.
Paul Gruchow was always criticized for being "nostalgic," as though nostalgia, looking back fondly on what was, is a bad thing.
I want to go back to what was. I know that some things were harder. More people died of disease, I guess. The life-span was shorter. There weren't as many "advancements."
But here is what we have lost:
- We have lost our natural Circadian rhythms. Our lives used to be shaped by the rhythms of nature--the seasons, and the rise and set of the sun. We don't dream as much. We don't sleep as much. We charge our bodies with caffeine to stay awake, and take pills to go to sleep.
- We are out of balance. We are no longer in touch with the capacities and limits of nature, and our capacities and limits.
- We do not know the imperatives--doing what is necessary without complaint--planting and harvesting, caring for animals, and doing it because we need to in order to live.
- We have lost the deep feeling that we cannot harvest anything without planting first.
- We no longer know that it is nature that produces, not us. Whatever we do is a cooperative venture between us and the forces of earth and the cosmos.
- Working on a farm, making a life where we live, relies on what other generations have done, and our contributions will serve future generations.
- We have lost the knowledge that nature produces best out of variety.
- We have also lost the ability to find pleasure without things--without new cars, or boats, or video games, or new shoes, or movies, or T.V. or . . . .
In each post I will offer a tip to living a more balanced, simpler life. Make that right turn, one step at a time.
Don't buy kleenex any more. Buy some hankies and bandanas. Put a clean one in your pocket every morning. Blow your nose on that. It comes in handy for other things too, like drying your hands, wiping your brow, wiping dust off your shoe.
Make/Do
Olivia
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