best i can do today is pass on for your edification & perusal some things i am totally embroiled in & consumed by at the moment... too much so to really comment right now. so much to learn, so little time!
the first time i voted for al gore was when he was running against clinton for the democratic presidential nomination. i was devastated when he dropped out. and i read & actually admit to owning a copy of "earth in the balance." but that's old history.
Emotional Return to Congress for Al Gore
Here's another spin on same:
The Goracle
Go get 'em, Al.
Jim Kunstler has condescended to go round & round with me on some things (notably his yankee ethnocentrism on inhabitants of the southern united states), but when writing on the end of oil, he's right on target. His recent Orion article demonstrates:
Making Other Arrangements
Project Laundry List - National Hanging Out Day is April 19th!
No Impact Man - "A guilty liberal finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nazi, turns off his power, composts his poop and, while living in NYC, generally turns into a tree-hugging lunatic who tries to save the polar bears and the rest of the planet from environmental catastrophe while dragging his baby daughter and Prada-wearing, four seasons-loving wife along for the ride..." You gotta love a guy who jumps in with both feet. Experiential (also called experimental) archaeology at its best.
and alongside that:
The Compact - just click thru and read... and read... and read...
The Forest Stewardship Council's FSC Certified Paper program: or, how to use paper and save the forest at the same time. still trying to figure out how this works.
and last but certainly not least:
carbon offsets - only the latest in the "if i pay enough i can make my conscience cleaner" anti-logic that brought us PDR's, TDR's, and Wetland Mitigation Banks:
Another Inconvenient Truth
2 comments:
Got to comment of the paper thing... I can't remember who sent it, but some environmental group sent me a link to a page that lists all the companies who use recycled paper in their products, as well as companies that use or produce tree-less paper... I wish I could find the link again, but I'm not. I've switched all my notebook paper over to "Banana Paper," which (though produced in Costa Rica - but to be fair, through fair trade business practices) is pretty and made out of only banana fiber and recycled newspaper. Absolutely no trees are cut down to produce it. I've also switched to chlorine-free 100% recycled toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and tissues. It's nice! Now if only I can get my mom to give up on paper plates! Although, now she *is* going as plastic free as she can bare to be.
Oh, and we're also looking into solar panels (and at the very least a solar water heater) for the new house. I still haven't sold dad on the wind-mill, but I'm getting there. Also, apparently, now you can opt in to a program with the power company that serves Bassett to get green power from them, fueled by their own wind-farms and/or the Philpott Dam. The power company will also buy excess solar-generated power from its customers - a good thing, since we won't be using ours all the time... Quite excited about that.
i found an excellent resource for folks who want to shop "green" companies, for all sorts of things, including office supplies & paper. it's a "green-business-only" search engine called Green Maven.
go here:
http://www.greenmaven.com
i'll include this as well in a future blog post.
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