Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Voting Green
I just pledged to make clean, just energy a top priority in my vote this election. Help me tell our leaders to make solving the climate crisis a priority and move quickly to enact policies that will Repower America.
Add your voice: http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/s/powervotepledge
Thank you!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Parents
My parents are appallingly NOT GREEN!
Living with my parents for the summer is like watching an environmental horror movie. They are running the quintessential American household, here, a scaled-down version of the country as a whole. They aren't doing anything in particular - it's not like they're dumping mercury into the lake - but they are living ordinary American lives that wreck havoc on the planet in 1000 different ways. Everything from throwing leaf litter away in plastic bags, to putting batteries in the trash, and pouring paint down the drain. And the whole time, they are rationalizing how they live by saying things like "It's just a few bags of trash," or "One gallon of paint is not going to cause a problem," or even "Everybody does it!" It's like 1981, over here. It's utterly appalling. If you made a movie about my parents' lifestyle it would demonstrate exactly why the environment is being devastated.
Part of the problem is the town facilities. This town is so little it doesn't even recycle plastic! (As much as anyone recycles plastic, anyway.) They don't recycle paper, either. There is no dumpster collection and no company that will do recycling. It's just the town dump, and they just separate cans and bottles. There is no 'green energy' option from our power company, and with a $100,000 annual bill I'm not sure we could afford the extra 5% in green-energy fees. If you want to properly recycle a gallon of paint you have to call the facility in a different town, 20 miles away, prove you are a resident of that town (wtf?) pay a fee, wait for the one day every two months they are accepting paint, and drive over there between 9am - 12noon. And then when you get there, they say "Oh we don't accept stain, just paint."
Part of the problem is that we are running a business - a 100 acre campground, including a maintenance crew, construction sites, and a golf course. Things like the Father's Day Pancake Breakfast (serving 100 on paper plates), and building a deck and screen-room with pressure-treated wood, and Tyvek wrap, generate a lot of trash, and a lot of the trash is non-sustainable / toxic / difficult or impossible to recycle.
The biggest part of the problem is that we are in the middle of nowhere AND my parents are working so hard it's taking a psychological toll. So they don't have the time, energy, or organization to do things like save up the haz-mats and take them to the next town over on the one day this summer the place is open. We are so far away from everything and my parents are so tired, stressed out, and stretched to the max, that any time I suggest saving something for proper recycling, or setting up a box for re-using scrap paper, I am met with outright hostility. They need to throw it away NOW. Given that, I guess it's actually a good thing they haven't switched to CFL bulbs.
The house stalled halfway through a remodeling project and my mom is trying to run a business (everything from payroll taxes to bank loans to advertising) out of one corner of the kitchen table. The kitchen isn't really built yet, and we don't have drawers or cabinets so everything is piled on top of everything else and we have about 3 square feet of counter-space for everything from the cutting board and the coffee maker, to the blueprints Dad is working on this week. There is no basement or garage. The "office" is just a table - all the paperwork is spread around the house in boxes on the floor. We don't even have room for a shoebox, over here.
My parents also have a very old-world attitude about Green that prevents them from making efforts when it's not easy. My dad says "We got along just fine for a long time without all this environmentalist crap" and accuses the feds of enacting Green protections just to take away a property owner's right to use his land. Rice farmers who went out of business over wetland protection, etc. He has never explained to me why the feds would go to the trouble of protecting something if it weren't important, but whatever. He won't listen. And my Mom, who likes nature but lacks a Green education, is in a constant state of low-grade panic about the office, my Dad, etc., and simply can't handle one more piece of information. For instance, nobody ever impressed upon her how bad it is to pour toxic chemicals down the drain. So now when she does it I object, and she says: "You don't know what you're talking about," or "That's not true," or "It'll just break down," or "If it were that dangerous they wouldn't be selling it to normal people," or sometimes, just: "Go away!! I'm busy!!"
The end result is a gigantic carbon footprint. We entertain a lot, and this 100 year old house doesn't have a dishwasher, and my mom has carpel tunnel and it hurts to wash dishes, so all the plates and cups are disposable. Also because this house is 100 years old there are 1/2-inch gaps around the doors and windows letting out all the heat. We recently installed some insulation in the walls, but it wasn't much. My Dad won't let us buy office furniture until he finishes building the office, so for ten years we've been carrying everything around in cardboard boxes that need replacing every year. Dad is so disorganized and angry that he needs 10 copies of every single piece of paper he uses. We work 12 - 16 hours a day so about 2x a week we give up and microwave frozen meals in black plastic trays which are poisonous when heated and never ever get recycled - though in this town I guess that doesn't make a difference. We have four computers, four printers, a photocopier and a fax machine that are always turned on and plugged in. Half of them are in a different building and nobody has the time or energy to run over there every morning and evening.
My Dad has planted all these high-maintenance non-native shrubs everywhere that need water every two days. We plant about 100 annuals every year that come in black plastic pots. We have huge tracks of sand or gravel that everybody says have to be plant-free and look pristine all summer. I run around with chemical fertilizer in one hand, and chemical herbicide in the other! (And of course they're all sold in plastic bottles, some of which should probably go to the haz-mat facility afterwards but, we just throw away in the trash.) We throw away and replace 10 plastic oscillating sprinklers every year because they wear out. We have lighting all over the campground that runs all day and all night because the photocells go bad after one winter and we don't have the time or money to replace them, so we just turn them on and leave them on for six months. We have 55 gallons of old paint and stain sitting around the shop fuming in rusty cans. Half of them are ruined and Mom wants to pour them out behind the garage but I bodily prevented her from doing so. I'm not allowed to start a compost pile because it would look sloppy and be bad for business. Nobody has time to build a little shed for it, or to maintain it once I'm gone. And doan even get me started on the golf course.
I stagger around here in a horrified daze. I felt so guilty the first week I was here that I secretly saved a bag of plastic containers, thinking I would mail them to Brian for proper recycling. I abandoned that idea after reflecting on the carbon footprint of shipping, and the likelihood that Yellow Plastic #5 probably wouldn't get recycled anyway, because there's no market for it. I'm doing what I can to stop the madness, but it's so huge, and hostile, and everything's working against me!
Efforts:
I make dinner every night, set the table with ceramics, and wash everything when I'm done. I re-use the Zip-lock bags we use for produce. Since I'm in charge of grocery shopping the only seafood I buy is MSC-certified wild-caught Alaskan salmon. I pulled all the plastic flowerpots off the dump truck and found a nursery that will re-use them for next-year's plants. I used our own woodchips, not commercial mulch that had been artificially dyed and then trucked in, to mulch all the landscaping plants to retain moisture. I bought composted cow manure to use with the plants instead of Miracle-Gro. I am pushing the perennial plants whenever possible, so we don't have to buy as many annuals in plastic pots next year. Instead of low-growing flowers, I am planting fancy lettuces as a border. I did commit the weed-killer sin, but only after weeding the driveway gravel by hand for six hours last year, and seeing everything grow back in two weeks. I'm folding up and re-using the black landscaper's cloth that we use under the mulch. I bought a natural deer repellent. I am collecting all the broken electronic gadgets and mailing them back to CA so Brian and I can get them taken apart and recycled properly, and then I am planting trees to offset the carbon footprint of the shipping. This week I will start painting so I am going to straighten out the paint locker, use up whatever leftovers I can, and take a day off to drive the ruined stuff to the right town on the right day for recycling. Alice has suggested I look into native gardening to reduce the water/fertilizer problem.
Living with my parents for the summer is like watching an environmental horror movie. They are running the quintessential American household, here, a scaled-down version of the country as a whole. They aren't doing anything in particular - it's not like they're dumping mercury into the lake - but they are living ordinary American lives that wreck havoc on the planet in 1000 different ways. Everything from throwing leaf litter away in plastic bags, to putting batteries in the trash, and pouring paint down the drain. And the whole time, they are rationalizing how they live by saying things like "It's just a few bags of trash," or "One gallon of paint is not going to cause a problem," or even "Everybody does it!" It's like 1981, over here. It's utterly appalling. If you made a movie about my parents' lifestyle it would demonstrate exactly why the environment is being devastated.
Part of the problem is the town facilities. This town is so little it doesn't even recycle plastic! (As much as anyone recycles plastic, anyway.) They don't recycle paper, either. There is no dumpster collection and no company that will do recycling. It's just the town dump, and they just separate cans and bottles. There is no 'green energy' option from our power company, and with a $100,000 annual bill I'm not sure we could afford the extra 5% in green-energy fees. If you want to properly recycle a gallon of paint you have to call the facility in a different town, 20 miles away, prove you are a resident of that town (wtf?) pay a fee, wait for the one day every two months they are accepting paint, and drive over there between 9am - 12noon. And then when you get there, they say "Oh we don't accept stain, just paint."
Part of the problem is that we are running a business - a 100 acre campground, including a maintenance crew, construction sites, and a golf course. Things like the Father's Day Pancake Breakfast (serving 100 on paper plates), and building a deck and screen-room with pressure-treated wood, and Tyvek wrap, generate a lot of trash, and a lot of the trash is non-sustainable / toxic / difficult or impossible to recycle.
The biggest part of the problem is that we are in the middle of nowhere AND my parents are working so hard it's taking a psychological toll. So they don't have the time, energy, or organization to do things like save up the haz-mats and take them to the next town over on the one day this summer the place is open. We are so far away from everything and my parents are so tired, stressed out, and stretched to the max, that any time I suggest saving something for proper recycling, or setting up a box for re-using scrap paper, I am met with outright hostility. They need to throw it away NOW. Given that, I guess it's actually a good thing they haven't switched to CFL bulbs.
The house stalled halfway through a remodeling project and my mom is trying to run a business (everything from payroll taxes to bank loans to advertising) out of one corner of the kitchen table. The kitchen isn't really built yet, and we don't have drawers or cabinets so everything is piled on top of everything else and we have about 3 square feet of counter-space for everything from the cutting board and the coffee maker, to the blueprints Dad is working on this week. There is no basement or garage. The "office" is just a table - all the paperwork is spread around the house in boxes on the floor. We don't even have room for a shoebox, over here.
My parents also have a very old-world attitude about Green that prevents them from making efforts when it's not easy. My dad says "We got along just fine for a long time without all this environmentalist crap" and accuses the feds of enacting Green protections just to take away a property owner's right to use his land. Rice farmers who went out of business over wetland protection, etc. He has never explained to me why the feds would go to the trouble of protecting something if it weren't important, but whatever. He won't listen. And my Mom, who likes nature but lacks a Green education, is in a constant state of low-grade panic about the office, my Dad, etc., and simply can't handle one more piece of information. For instance, nobody ever impressed upon her how bad it is to pour toxic chemicals down the drain. So now when she does it I object, and she says: "You don't know what you're talking about," or "That's not true," or "It'll just break down," or "If it were that dangerous they wouldn't be selling it to normal people," or sometimes, just: "Go away!! I'm busy!!"
The end result is a gigantic carbon footprint. We entertain a lot, and this 100 year old house doesn't have a dishwasher, and my mom has carpel tunnel and it hurts to wash dishes, so all the plates and cups are disposable. Also because this house is 100 years old there are 1/2-inch gaps around the doors and windows letting out all the heat. We recently installed some insulation in the walls, but it wasn't much. My Dad won't let us buy office furniture until he finishes building the office, so for ten years we've been carrying everything around in cardboard boxes that need replacing every year. Dad is so disorganized and angry that he needs 10 copies of every single piece of paper he uses. We work 12 - 16 hours a day so about 2x a week we give up and microwave frozen meals in black plastic trays which are poisonous when heated and never ever get recycled - though in this town I guess that doesn't make a difference. We have four computers, four printers, a photocopier and a fax machine that are always turned on and plugged in. Half of them are in a different building and nobody has the time or energy to run over there every morning and evening.
My Dad has planted all these high-maintenance non-native shrubs everywhere that need water every two days. We plant about 100 annuals every year that come in black plastic pots. We have huge tracks of sand or gravel that everybody says have to be plant-free and look pristine all summer. I run around with chemical fertilizer in one hand, and chemical herbicide in the other! (And of course they're all sold in plastic bottles, some of which should probably go to the haz-mat facility afterwards but, we just throw away in the trash.) We throw away and replace 10 plastic oscillating sprinklers every year because they wear out. We have lighting all over the campground that runs all day and all night because the photocells go bad after one winter and we don't have the time or money to replace them, so we just turn them on and leave them on for six months. We have 55 gallons of old paint and stain sitting around the shop fuming in rusty cans. Half of them are ruined and Mom wants to pour them out behind the garage but I bodily prevented her from doing so. I'm not allowed to start a compost pile because it would look sloppy and be bad for business. Nobody has time to build a little shed for it, or to maintain it once I'm gone. And doan even get me started on the golf course.
I stagger around here in a horrified daze. I felt so guilty the first week I was here that I secretly saved a bag of plastic containers, thinking I would mail them to Brian for proper recycling. I abandoned that idea after reflecting on the carbon footprint of shipping, and the likelihood that Yellow Plastic #5 probably wouldn't get recycled anyway, because there's no market for it. I'm doing what I can to stop the madness, but it's so huge, and hostile, and everything's working against me!
Efforts:
I make dinner every night, set the table with ceramics, and wash everything when I'm done. I re-use the Zip-lock bags we use for produce. Since I'm in charge of grocery shopping the only seafood I buy is MSC-certified wild-caught Alaskan salmon. I pulled all the plastic flowerpots off the dump truck and found a nursery that will re-use them for next-year's plants. I used our own woodchips, not commercial mulch that had been artificially dyed and then trucked in, to mulch all the landscaping plants to retain moisture. I bought composted cow manure to use with the plants instead of Miracle-Gro. I am pushing the perennial plants whenever possible, so we don't have to buy as many annuals in plastic pots next year. Instead of low-growing flowers, I am planting fancy lettuces as a border. I did commit the weed-killer sin, but only after weeding the driveway gravel by hand for six hours last year, and seeing everything grow back in two weeks. I'm folding up and re-using the black landscaper's cloth that we use under the mulch. I bought a natural deer repellent. I am collecting all the broken electronic gadgets and mailing them back to CA so Brian and I can get them taken apart and recycled properly, and then I am planting trees to offset the carbon footprint of the shipping. This week I will start painting so I am going to straighten out the paint locker, use up whatever leftovers I can, and take a day off to drive the ruined stuff to the right town on the right day for recycling. Alice has suggested I look into native gardening to reduce the water/fertilizer problem.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Green Showers
Manky's showers are green.
I should save water. Showers waste a lot of water, right? (Actually showers use less water than baths, because the average bathtub takes like 70 gallons to fill, so unless your shower is over 28 min long (with a modern showerhead) or 14min long (with an old-fashioned shower head, uses more water) it's better to use the shower.)
I am not in control of my showerhead because I live in a dorm. So what I can do is keep my showers short. Save the planet! I timed my showers. I take an 8 minute shower when I just wash my hair, and a 12 minute shower when I condition my hair and shave my legs. Then I timed my Green Showers. For a green shower I turned off the water when I didn't really need it running. Like while the conditioner sits in my hair, I scrub with a loofah, and I shave my legs - I usually leave the water running for that 'cause hey, I'm in the shower, and it took me five minutes to get the water temperature mixed nicely. Why mess with that? Well for my Green Showers I turned it off. I brought a plastic pitcher in with me and filled it with warm water for my loofah and razor and just scrubbed away with the water turned off.
Turning off the water saved four minutes of water running, but since half the time I just wash my hair and call it a day, it averages out to 2 minutes per day. With an old showerhead that would be 10 gallons of water and with a new showerhead that would be 5 gallons of water. That is a lot of trouble to save 5 gallons of water per day. Kindof depressing.
My showering every day uses about 180 gallons of water per week. Turning off the water on the days when I was going to condition my hair etc. would save 40 gallons. So green showers would use 140 gallons a week.
I looked for another way to save water in my showers. If I'm not going to the gym or otherwise working out, I wouldn't really have to shower every day. Let's face it, I'm not an Olympic Athlete. I'm not like those guys in the Gatorade commercials that are raining perspiration all the time. If I'm just sitting in class all day, deodorant and a clean shirt would pretty much cover it. At least from September to April. If I showered every other day, like only on gym days, I would use 105 gallons of water a week, and turning it off while I scrubbed would save 35 gallons a week. Using 70 gallons (green) vs. 180 gallons (normal) is a big difference. I could reduce by more than half!
To Do List
I should save water. Showers waste a lot of water, right? (Actually showers use less water than baths, because the average bathtub takes like 70 gallons to fill, so unless your shower is over 28 min long (with a modern showerhead) or 14min long (with an old-fashioned shower head, uses more water) it's better to use the shower.)
I am not in control of my showerhead because I live in a dorm. So what I can do is keep my showers short. Save the planet! I timed my showers. I take an 8 minute shower when I just wash my hair, and a 12 minute shower when I condition my hair and shave my legs. Then I timed my Green Showers. For a green shower I turned off the water when I didn't really need it running. Like while the conditioner sits in my hair, I scrub with a loofah, and I shave my legs - I usually leave the water running for that 'cause hey, I'm in the shower, and it took me five minutes to get the water temperature mixed nicely. Why mess with that? Well for my Green Showers I turned it off. I brought a plastic pitcher in with me and filled it with warm water for my loofah and razor and just scrubbed away with the water turned off.
Turning off the water saved four minutes of water running, but since half the time I just wash my hair and call it a day, it averages out to 2 minutes per day. With an old showerhead that would be 10 gallons of water and with a new showerhead that would be 5 gallons of water. That is a lot of trouble to save 5 gallons of water per day. Kindof depressing.
My showering every day uses about 180 gallons of water per week. Turning off the water on the days when I was going to condition my hair etc. would save 40 gallons. So green showers would use 140 gallons a week.
I looked for another way to save water in my showers. If I'm not going to the gym or otherwise working out, I wouldn't really have to shower every day. Let's face it, I'm not an Olympic Athlete. I'm not like those guys in the Gatorade commercials that are raining perspiration all the time. If I'm just sitting in class all day, deodorant and a clean shirt would pretty much cover it. At least from September to April. If I showered every other day, like only on gym days, I would use 105 gallons of water a week, and turning it off while I scrubbed would save 35 gallons a week. Using 70 gallons (green) vs. 180 gallons (normal) is a big difference. I could reduce by more than half!
To Do List
- Shower every other day / Go to the gym every other day and only shower on gym days.
- Put a plastic water pitcher on the shower floor, so it can fill with warm water when the shower is turned on, so I can use it to wet loofah / rinse razor when the water is turned off.
- Shampoo hair, rinse hair, apply conditioner, then turn the water off, scrub with loofah, apply shaving gel, shave legs, turn water on, rinse.
- Save 110 gallons of water every week.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Green Seafood
Manky's Seafood is Green.
Education as to Crisis:
Things you learn in WTO class.... There is a huge, dangerous, gawd-awful crisis brewing in our fisheries. We're burning through our seafood with a combination of overfishing and destructive fishing practices. I had no idea it was so bad. I findof figured that the government had guidelines in place and some fishing permit scheme worked out and it probably wasn't that bad. I had no idea that some fishing nets were 31 miles long and left out overnight. I'd heard there were dolphins in the tuna nets, but I thought that 'dolphin safe' was, you know, safe. (It's not 'safe' it's just 'safer than the old way' - American fishermen kill 2,000 instead of 15,000). I figured that when we pulled up a netful of fish there were a few 'Ooops' in there, but I thought those just got thrown back into the water. I had no idea that the 'Ooops,' which are called bycatch, made up 25% of what we catch, and that by the time we reel them in, sort them out, and throw them back, most of them are already dead. I never pictured seals and puffins tangled up in nets, drowning. Bycatch became the topic of my paper for WTO class and my first Green Project.
I turns out that we are seriously misbehaving. And if we don't stop, we're going to be in serious trouble. We over-fish a lot. And when we fish, we use destructive fishing methods, like trawling, that wipe out ALL the organisms - both the ones we want and the ones that support the ones we want. We clear-cut the ocean floor, kill all the plants and sponges and coral. Then the little tiny fish that used to live in them are starving and homeless, and probably take to alcohol to drown their sorrows. Then the fish we want can't grow up in that neighborhood. We ensnare tons of bycatch (27 million tons, according to the UN). Bycatch includes cute stuff like dolphins, endangered stuff like sea turtles, and stuff that even Republicans would admit we need in the ocean - like the juveniles of the species we like to eat. We kill 100 million sharks every year. That is throwing the ecosystem out of whack. For example, there are scallop fisheries on the east coast that had to CLOSE because there were no sharks to keep the scallop-eating skates and rays at bay. No sharks = no scallops. Nobody's checked on the oysters yet but I bet they are getting nervous.
Education as to Politics:
And every time NGO's try to do something about it, every country says that it is every other country's fault, and then they say NGO's don't have standing to sue in any of the international forums. Every time somebody says 'Those should be protected under the Endangered Species Act' somebody who fishes them for a living says 'You don't know how many there are, you need more data, do another study. Oh, you do know how many there are? Well, uh, you don't know how many there used to be. How do you know it wasn't always like this? Do a long term study. Oh, you have that too? Well, um... ok prove it was OUR fault that the population has decreased by 90% in the past 20 years. You don't know WHY all the fish are missing. Maybe it's not our fault. We're not convinced it was us. Now if you'll excuse us, we have some fishing to do.'
And THEN, when somebody DOES pass a law (like the US saying you have to put trap doors in your shrimp nets to let the sea turtles out) all the developing countries kick up a fuss about sovereignty and state's rights and whitey's secret agenda. And THEN the WTO says "That measure is protectionist. You can't do that."
It is really, really hard to regulate international fisheries. And it takes forever to reach an agreement. And to get countries to agree, you have to make compromises that are based on things like a cultural fetish for shark-fin soup, rather than enacting measures based on sound husbandry principles or an evaluation of what's necessary for the health of the fisheries.
Prognosis:
One third of the world's fisheries have already collapsed and the rest will go out in the next 50 years if we don't change something.
Solution: Educate the Consumer
I had no idea it was like that. I thought that, with the government controlling fishing permits and so forth, it was ok for me to eat whatever was on the legal market. I was an uneducated consumer, and for that I am ashamed.
This is a little chart of what seafoods are being harvested responsibly and what seafoods aren't. Some fish are not being overfished, and some fishing methods don't kill that many other animals, and some farms are safe (some farms aren't), so there are some seafoods that won't contribute to this huge problem. I have a credit-card sized one in my wallet because I can never remember.
Guide to Seafood HERE
That webpage also has a more extended library of fish-files as well. I think I'll peruse the salmon and tuna entries at a later date (like, after finals) and educate myself - before my next sushi date. I'm also reading the webpage for the organization that evaluates fisheries, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). http://eng.msc.org/
I'm all educated now - I even watched videos of shrimp trawling, and of turtles escaping through trapdoors in shrimp nets. I have to say, shrimp trawling is totally evil and I have no idea why we let it continue. Isn't there a shortage of teachers in this country? Shrimp fishermen need to find new jobs.
To Do List:
Education as to Crisis:
Things you learn in WTO class.... There is a huge, dangerous, gawd-awful crisis brewing in our fisheries. We're burning through our seafood with a combination of overfishing and destructive fishing practices. I had no idea it was so bad. I findof figured that the government had guidelines in place and some fishing permit scheme worked out and it probably wasn't that bad. I had no idea that some fishing nets were 31 miles long and left out overnight. I'd heard there were dolphins in the tuna nets, but I thought that 'dolphin safe' was, you know, safe. (It's not 'safe' it's just 'safer than the old way' - American fishermen kill 2,000 instead of 15,000). I figured that when we pulled up a netful of fish there were a few 'Ooops' in there, but I thought those just got thrown back into the water. I had no idea that the 'Ooops,' which are called bycatch, made up 25% of what we catch, and that by the time we reel them in, sort them out, and throw them back, most of them are already dead. I never pictured seals and puffins tangled up in nets, drowning. Bycatch became the topic of my paper for WTO class and my first Green Project.
I turns out that we are seriously misbehaving. And if we don't stop, we're going to be in serious trouble. We over-fish a lot. And when we fish, we use destructive fishing methods, like trawling, that wipe out ALL the organisms - both the ones we want and the ones that support the ones we want. We clear-cut the ocean floor, kill all the plants and sponges and coral. Then the little tiny fish that used to live in them are starving and homeless, and probably take to alcohol to drown their sorrows. Then the fish we want can't grow up in that neighborhood. We ensnare tons of bycatch (27 million tons, according to the UN). Bycatch includes cute stuff like dolphins, endangered stuff like sea turtles, and stuff that even Republicans would admit we need in the ocean - like the juveniles of the species we like to eat. We kill 100 million sharks every year. That is throwing the ecosystem out of whack. For example, there are scallop fisheries on the east coast that had to CLOSE because there were no sharks to keep the scallop-eating skates and rays at bay. No sharks = no scallops. Nobody's checked on the oysters yet but I bet they are getting nervous.
Education as to Politics:
And every time NGO's try to do something about it, every country says that it is every other country's fault, and then they say NGO's don't have standing to sue in any of the international forums. Every time somebody says 'Those should be protected under the Endangered Species Act' somebody who fishes them for a living says 'You don't know how many there are, you need more data, do another study. Oh, you do know how many there are? Well, uh, you don't know how many there used to be. How do you know it wasn't always like this? Do a long term study. Oh, you have that too? Well, um... ok prove it was OUR fault that the population has decreased by 90% in the past 20 years. You don't know WHY all the fish are missing. Maybe it's not our fault. We're not convinced it was us. Now if you'll excuse us, we have some fishing to do.'
And THEN, when somebody DOES pass a law (like the US saying you have to put trap doors in your shrimp nets to let the sea turtles out) all the developing countries kick up a fuss about sovereignty and state's rights and whitey's secret agenda. And THEN the WTO says "That measure is protectionist. You can't do that."
It is really, really hard to regulate international fisheries. And it takes forever to reach an agreement. And to get countries to agree, you have to make compromises that are based on things like a cultural fetish for shark-fin soup, rather than enacting measures based on sound husbandry principles or an evaluation of what's necessary for the health of the fisheries.
Prognosis:
One third of the world's fisheries have already collapsed and the rest will go out in the next 50 years if we don't change something.
Solution: Educate the Consumer
I had no idea it was like that. I thought that, with the government controlling fishing permits and so forth, it was ok for me to eat whatever was on the legal market. I was an uneducated consumer, and for that I am ashamed.
This is a little chart of what seafoods are being harvested responsibly and what seafoods aren't. Some fish are not being overfished, and some fishing methods don't kill that many other animals, and some farms are safe (some farms aren't), so there are some seafoods that won't contribute to this huge problem. I have a credit-card sized one in my wallet because I can never remember.
Guide to Seafood HERE
That webpage also has a more extended library of fish-files as well. I think I'll peruse the salmon and tuna entries at a later date (like, after finals) and educate myself - before my next sushi date. I'm also reading the webpage for the organization that evaluates fisheries, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). http://eng.msc.org/
I'm all educated now - I even watched videos of shrimp trawling, and of turtles escaping through trapdoors in shrimp nets. I have to say, shrimp trawling is totally evil and I have no idea why we let it continue. Isn't there a shortage of teachers in this country? Shrimp fishermen need to find new jobs.
To Do List:
- When grocery shopping, only buy seafood that has the Marine Stewardship Council's logo (MSC) for sustainable fisheries. Apply market pressure to change destructive fishing practices!
- When eating out, ask where the seafood came from.
- If the restaurant is offering red-coded seafood on the menu, show pictures of dead dolphins to the waitstaff.
- Don't eat seafood that is listed on the red-code (bad) list or the yellow-code (warning) list from the Seafood Watch guide HERE.
- Don't let Mom and Dad eat seafood from the red-code list.
- Start a scholarship fund / family assistance program to re-educate shrimp fishermen to be teachers.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Manky's Recycling is Under Investigation
I thought I was good with the recycling because I take everything out to the recycle bin that they will let me put in there (they won't let me put paper in there - I should do something about paper). But then I heard some ugly rumors about how plastic recycling isn't actually recycling plastic. And it depends on what number plastic it is. Like the manufacturers tell you it works, so that you will buy their plastic things, and the truth is it only works 10% of the time, the rest doesn't get recycled. Uh oh. I'm doing research, both on my individual recycling company and on plastic recycling in general. Manky's recycling is: under investigation. Greenliness to be determined.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Green Electricity
Manky's electricity is green.
Lights: As the old lightbulbs burnt out we've phased in those stupid CFL bulbs that save so much electricity by training you not to turn on the lights - every time you do: AGGHH!!! negative reinforcement. After a few weeks you're totally trained to work in dim light. No really, since I've put one in my office I only use the light half as often. They contain mercury so if I ever drop one (and you know I'm a klutz) we'll have to call Poison Control and evacuate the neighbors before they go into convulsions and die. We drive out to IKEA to recycle them properly, burning gas all the way. Is this really green?
Renewable Energy: We've always paid extra to have 100% of our electricity come from renewable sources (or pay to build renewable sources in the future, or whatever). They tell us that 76% of our electricity comes from wind turbines and the rest comes from Biomass - burning garbage (is that really safe?)
Fewer kWh: We've cut our consumption of electricity. Saves wear and tear on the wind turbines. I did that last month because I was broke. But it's green, anyway! We're down to 11kWh/day for the whole apartment. Our bill is only $21.25 per person. Our March usage in a 4 room apartment with two people, is the same or lower than my March usage in a two room apartment by myself. Having a roommate saves electricity! (Especially when that roommate insists on using CFL's.)
The changes we made used 6kWh less per day, and saved us $20 this month. The thermostat used to be set at 65*F - last month we turned it off. Even when it was 48* outside at night. We studied sitting in our beds with quilts over us, or brought laprobes to our desks. My feet are always cold and cold air sinks so I wore two pairs of socks. When it got hot we refused to turn on the AC. (Our best estimate is that AC uses about 20kWh per day - more than double our current consumption.) We opened the windows at night to cool down the apartment and closed them during the day, drew the shades against the sun, and pointed box fans at ourselves - we even shut off my little oven-room for two days when it got really hot. So we haven't run the climate control all month. Strangely, it wasn't that bad. It sounds bad - but it's totally comfortable to snuggle with a quilt while doing my homework. And if you've got the fan pointed at you while you're sitting at your desk, you doan really care that the kitchen is approaching 100*F. It's going to cool off tonight when you open all the windows, anyway.
A long time ago I had, in a fit of romantic folly, bought tons of candles and, since I live in the real world, never used them. When we were both here studying I would light a candle in the bathroom and we wouldn't turn on those lights at all. That wasn't really burdensome - showering by candlelight actually feels nicer than showering by cheap white florescent light.
Phantom Power: I've totally protected my office from Phantom Power draws. My computers / lamps / speakers / printer are on a power strip on the desk that I turn off at night, and when I'm in class. All my gizmo chargers and the bread machine are on a table with a power strip and don't get plugged in at all, unless they're working.
To Do List:
Lights: As the old lightbulbs burnt out we've phased in those stupid CFL bulbs that save so much electricity by training you not to turn on the lights - every time you do: AGGHH!!! negative reinforcement. After a few weeks you're totally trained to work in dim light. No really, since I've put one in my office I only use the light half as often. They contain mercury so if I ever drop one (and you know I'm a klutz) we'll have to call Poison Control and evacuate the neighbors before they go into convulsions and die. We drive out to IKEA to recycle them properly, burning gas all the way. Is this really green?
Renewable Energy: We've always paid extra to have 100% of our electricity come from renewable sources (or pay to build renewable sources in the future, or whatever). They tell us that 76% of our electricity comes from wind turbines and the rest comes from Biomass - burning garbage (is that really safe?)
Fewer kWh: We've cut our consumption of electricity. Saves wear and tear on the wind turbines. I did that last month because I was broke. But it's green, anyway! We're down to 11kWh/day for the whole apartment. Our bill is only $21.25 per person. Our March usage in a 4 room apartment with two people, is the same or lower than my March usage in a two room apartment by myself. Having a roommate saves electricity! (Especially when that roommate insists on using CFL's.)
The changes we made used 6kWh less per day, and saved us $20 this month. The thermostat used to be set at 65*F - last month we turned it off. Even when it was 48* outside at night. We studied sitting in our beds with quilts over us, or brought laprobes to our desks. My feet are always cold and cold air sinks so I wore two pairs of socks. When it got hot we refused to turn on the AC. (Our best estimate is that AC uses about 20kWh per day - more than double our current consumption.) We opened the windows at night to cool down the apartment and closed them during the day, drew the shades against the sun, and pointed box fans at ourselves - we even shut off my little oven-room for two days when it got really hot. So we haven't run the climate control all month. Strangely, it wasn't that bad. It sounds bad - but it's totally comfortable to snuggle with a quilt while doing my homework. And if you've got the fan pointed at you while you're sitting at your desk, you doan really care that the kitchen is approaching 100*F. It's going to cool off tonight when you open all the windows, anyway.
A long time ago I had, in a fit of romantic folly, bought tons of candles and, since I live in the real world, never used them. When we were both here studying I would light a candle in the bathroom and we wouldn't turn on those lights at all. That wasn't really burdensome - showering by candlelight actually feels nicer than showering by cheap white florescent light.
Phantom Power: I've totally protected my office from Phantom Power draws. My computers / lamps / speakers / printer are on a power strip on the desk that I turn off at night, and when I'm in class. All my gizmo chargers and the bread machine are on a table with a power strip and don't get plugged in at all, unless they're working.
To Do List:
- Brian is going to do the power-strip thing to stop phantom power from his huge desktop, speakers, television, and four gaming systems. Right Brian?
- Manky is going to stop taking the elevator just because because she's tired.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Day One
The problem with Going Green is deciding WHAT you want to Go Green WITH. What am I really worried about? My Carbon Footprint? Plastics consumption? Sustainable harvesting? Organic food? Locally grown food? Chemical / hormone / carcinogenic-free food? Cruelty-free products? Fair-trade products? Environmental preservation? Endangered animals? Biodiversity? Air pollution? Water pollution? Water conservation? Unfair labour practices, sweatshops, and child labour? Do I care if it took 2/3 pound of toxic pesticides to produce this t-shirt I'm wearing? Do I care that the subsidies that allowed its American production are seriously and intentionally damaging huge swaths of the Developing World? Do I care that a six year old chained to a loom made it for me? What about politics? Should I avoid goods that send money to people who have bad human rights records or fund terrorism? (No more diamonds and heroin for me! - And nothing made in China!) Should I be a weekend eco-warrior? Should I pick up trash on the highway? Should I firebomb mink farms? Do I want to be a vegetarian? What if the fair-trade cruelty-free tofu comes in a plastic container? What if the byproducts of tofu production are bad for the local watershed? Is technology the enemy, or our savior? Should I move to a farm and slaughter my own hamburgers? How do I balance this with my other developing lifestyle - taking better care of my body? Do I have to give up the gym? No more Luna bars? How will I find sugar-free cookies? Do I want to buy carbon offsets and call it a day? Do I want to join the Compact and go a year without buying anything? Do I want to be No Impact Manky?
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