Life is a highway

Adam Shake from Twilight Earth is back this month with another guest post. Read more about Adam at the end of the post.

When was the last time you had a song in your head that you just couldn’t get rid of? Well I’ve had one in my head all day. No, I take that back. That’s a lie. I’ve had “Life is a highway” in my head all week long.

Well, life's a road that you travel on
There's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
-Life is a highway by Tom Cochran

Now I don’t believe in coincidence, so why has this song this song been worming it’s way through my subconscious all week, and what exactly does “Life is a highway, and I’m gonna ride it all night long” mean? I want nothing to do with highways, or cars, or oil or CO2 or….. I’m about as deep green as you can get and if you knew how I “really” felt about some things, I’d probably be banned from the internet. You’ll never find me lying on a beach, and my idea of a vacation is living on the side of a mountain above tree-line and eating wild blueberries for breakfast.

But I digress. I think I’ve got it figured out. I believe that I’ve been contemplating this Environmental journey that I’ve been on, wondering not where I’m at, but how I got here and where I’m going. Life is a highway, after all.

I was recently interviewed, and as I’m sure Robin can attest to, when an environmentalist or green writer is interviewed, there are two questions that are standard. How did you get involved in the green movement and do you have some green tips for us? It’s kind of a running joke between those of us who do this kind of thing. This wasn’t my first interview, but it really got me thinking? How DID I get here? Where am I going?

How I got here isn’t as important though as how you got here. How did you get to the point in your life where you find yourself reading Robins blog, right now? You could just as easily be reading any other type of thing.

What drives us down the highway of life is not ourselves; it’s the people and things around us. After all, if we didn’t have anywhere to go, we’d never get in the car.

Some people realize that we all live in one big house that we call earth, and that by taking care of it, protecting it, we care for and protect the people we love. Turning down the heat at night, buying locally grown organic food, recycling and breathing fresh air tells our spouses and children “I love you.” The people we love have brought you here.

Some people realize that we have an intrinsic relationship with the natural world. This is a relationship that we have know for thousands of years and have only within the last couple of hundred, forgotten about. The world around you, outside your home, car and office has brought you here.

Some people realize that though the onus of responsibility for the environmental catastrophe we face can be laid at the feet of “Society,” there is something in them, which takes some of that responsibility upon themselves. Your integrity has brought you here.

Some people have people in their lives who respect them for caring for the ones they love and humanity in general. These people ask you questions. They respect your answers. They look to you as an example. They could be your friends, your co-workers or your own children. The people who count on you and look up to you brought you here.

Some people disagree with you. Some people think that you are being silly, or worse yet that you are crazy. Some people may even call you pretentious. Some of those people are vested in a consumer and energy consuming lifestyle that does not allow them to change without giving up certain things, and those things have a higher priority to them than working toward a sustainable future so that their own children will be able to live some semblance of a normal life. The people who hurt our home have brought you here.

Some people think that we have to solve a problem before we can fix a problem. We live in a world of instant access to any type of information. Want to know how to build a house? It’s on the internet. Want to know how to talk to your teenager? It’s on the internet? Do you want to know what day your wedding anniversary will fall on in 12 years or what your body fat index is or how long you have left to live based on your lifestyle? It’s on the internet. Want to know how to solve Global Warming? Uhhh, hmmm, I can’t seem to find that. What, you saying I’m the cause? Well umm, there’s no such thing! Skeptics and deniers have brought you here.

Only you know what brought you here. The question is, where do you go from here?

In Don Henley's “Boys of Summer” he says, “Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head said you can’t look back, you can never look back.”

It’s kind of like that, isn’t it? Is there any looking back now that we are here? Can we ever go back to our care free consumer lifestyles? Would we want to? The farmers market I go to is a great place. Garden raised vegetables, picked right off the vine in my own yard taste so good. Plants grow so much better when the soil comes from my own little composting bin. Putting my toilet paper rolls in my recycle bin is like thumbing my nose at the paper companies. But nothing beats being an advocate for a greener world, being an activist and being a writer, except maybe the fact that I’m going to the woods this weekend, and even if it’s wet and cold, I’ll feel more alive than I would sitting in my office a couple blocks from the White House.

There are different shades of Green just like there are different roads. Your shade is different than mine and that’s great. You don’t have to stand in front of a coal plant gate with 2,000 other people and risk arrest, but I’ve done it. Maybe you are a Vegan. I am not. Sometimes our roads intersect, like they have just now. When that happens, there is nothing sweeter.

Today is the first day of Spring. It’s a new season, a season of growth and renewal. The highway of life has brought you to this day, to this moment. This article is the Deadhead sticker on the Cadillac. Please don’t look back. Please never look back.

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Adam Shake is the founder of Twilight Earth, a blog that brings news and excellent commentary on what is going on with the environment worldwide that we need to care about. Whether he's educating about the environmental impact of things like coal or simply sharing his breathtaking photos of nature, I always learn something at his site. Visit Twilight Earth and look around (and check out my guest post on his site today).

On his blog he says "I’m about sharing with you what I know, what I’m learning, and what I’m ignorant about in reference to this huge subject that we call the environment." That's what we appreciate around here.

10 easy ways to be more sustainable with St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is in two weeks, and you don't have to be Irish to celebrate it. Fun story before I get to this week's 10 easy ways. This past summer when I was in Ireland, I looked up some family information. According to one of the sources I found, my ancestors on my mother's side kidnapped St. Patrick way back when. There's no way to know if this is true, but it's kind of cool (although I'm sure St. Patrick didn't think so).

Anyway, to make up for the alleged sins of my ancestors, I'm making it my job to green up the day that honors St. Patrick just a little bit. Here's ten easy ways.

1. Make that corned beef grass fed and that cabbage organic.
   
2. Cook that corned beef and cabbage in a slow cooker - it will save a little energy. (disclaimer: I have not tried this recipe, but I may.)
   
3. If you're going on a pub crawl, get your beer on tap instead of in a bottle (and order Smithwicks if you can - it's not greener; it's just the best Irish beer I know).
4. Skip buying a new "Kiss me I'm Irish" t-shirt, even if it's organic. No one's going to kiss you just because you're wearing it, and it's a waste to buy a shirt you'll only wear once a year.
5. You don't need the headband with the four leaf clovers bouncing on top  of it or the green plastic bowler hat. Don't buy cheap stuff you're just going to throw away the next day.
6. If you're planning a part at your house, send e-vites instead of paper invitations.
7. Read the story of St. Patrick to your kids from a book borrowed from the library.
8. Make Irish Potato Candy using all organic ingredients. I wanted to point you to a place where you could purchase some, but I couldn't find one.
9. I was able to find some organic, fair trade chocolates from Sweet Earth Chocolates, however. They have some chocolate, peppermint shamrocks if you feel the need to give someone chocolate on St. Patrick's Day.
10. Download Irish music instead of purchasing physical cd's. I highly recommend the traditional Irish folk music of Beyond the Pale.

Do you have any other tips for greening St. Patrick's Day?

Image: Statue of St. Patrick in St. Patrick's Cathedral, London

10 Easy Ways to Be More Sustainable with Valentine's Day

Only eleven days until the holiday where we celebrate love. Of course, showing our love to the people in our lives is paramount on Valentine's Day, but showing our love to people all around the world by helping to make sure they have a healthy earth is important, too. Here are ten easy ways to be a little more sustainable with your celebration this year.

1. If you're eating out, find a local restaurant that serves most of its food from local sources or small organic farms. A good place to locate one is at Localharvest.org.
   
2. If you're eating in, buy what you can locally, and make sure your ingredients are organic and all-natural.
   
3. Use soy or beeswax candles to set the mood.
   
4. Make a card from things you have around the house instead of buying one.
   
5. Buy organic, fair trade chocolates. Try Sweet Earth Chocolates if you can't find any in your local store.
6. Give locally grown flowers (if you can find them this time of year) or at least make sure the flowers you give were grown organically.
7. Don't buy new music for your in home dinner. Go to Pandora.com and create a Frank Sinatra station. All night long you'll have a swinging rotation of Frank and his Rat Pack buddies along with some of his other contemporaries and some of our contemporaries like Harry Connick, Jr. and Jamie Cullum. It may not be your normal nightly listening, but for Valentine's Day, it's perfect.
8. Buy her recycled jewelry.
9. Buy him a pre-owned box set of Die Hard movies or James Bond movies.
10. Agree to forgo gifts altogether. Your love is enough, right?

Image: aussiegall

Free Christmas Music - MP3's

It's easy to see how buying your music via mp3 download is greener than buying a physical product. What's even better than music that's greener? FREE music that's greener. A while back I did a post with the places where I find legal free music downloads. Two of those places are iTunes and Amazon.

During the holiday season, both sites offer free Christmas music. iTunes usually offers two songs each week, with the new songs being offered each Tuesday. This week's offerings are from Faith Hill and Brian McKnight.

Amazon has a much bigger selection of free Christmas music than iTunes. They are doing a 25 days of Free music. Today's free selection - Greensleeves done by Vince Guaraldi. Much cooler than Faith Hill or Brian McKnight. The selections are free all month so if you've missed days 1-10 so far, it's not too late. A new selection is introduced each day. They also have a free holiday music sampler with artists like Bing Crosby and The Beach Boys. If you poke around a bit, you can find other free music, too.

So there is my early Christmas present to all of you - free music. Get downloading.

Last minute addition: I'm adding this to the list because I just found out about it. My favorite radio station in Philly, WXPN, is doing a 12 Days of Local Christmas Music. All the downloads are from Philly Local bands. Today is day 3, but you can download past days' songs, too. And, of course, it's FREE!

Women Leaders for Entrepreneurship, the Environment & Social Equity at Philadelphia's Greenable on Nov. 16

Below is the press release for Women Leaders for Entrepreneurship, the Environment and Social Equity that will be held this Sunday, Nov. 16 from 3-6 at Greenable (the fabulous green building supply store) in Philadelphia. It's being hosted by We Are Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (We Are BOOST), and I announced their event last month, too. 

After making the announcement, the organizers of this event inquired if I'd like to speak. I promptly ignored their request because I've never formally spoken in public on a green topic before. Then when I had gotten my courage up to maybe say yes, I checked my calendar and I was going to be out of town anyway. But I have a feeling that at some point, I'm going to have some involvement with We Are BOOST. Until then, I'll keep plugging their events. Here's the press release for this weekend's event:

November 2008 - Philadelphia PA - Patricia Gaylor has practiced green design in the northeast for over 25 years. After seeing many remodeling jobs start with the demolition and hauling away of tons of materials, she began to wonder how to create beautiful new spaces without making such an environmental impact. Reducing landfill waste and specifying materials that are renewable, recyclable or sustainable has been part of her design business for many years.

On Sunday, November 16, Gaylor joins a panel of leaders from a broad range fields where she will share her vast experience and knowledge with anyone interested in greening up their living, work, worship, or recreational spaces and places.

Women Leaders for Entrepreneurship, the Environment and Social Equity is being hosted by We Are Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (We Are BOOST) at the showroom of Greenable, one of Philadelphia's premier resource for interior and exterior green building products and services for residential and commercial projects. The forum will take place from 3pm until 6pm. Greenable is located at 126 Market Street in Philadelphia PA and the donation to attend is $15 per adult and $5 for children under 12 years of age and only $5 for college and university students with a valid student I.D.

"In an economy where home building and remodeling is suffering one of the worst slumps in decades, green building and remodeling are experiencing incredible growth. Recent surveys reveal that home buyers will pay a premium to purchase a green, energy efficient house. Coloring your business GREEN is a smart move in a sluggish economy!" says Gaylor, who was recently featured on Good Morning America.

Yvonne Haughton, founder and director of For My Daughter Library and Ali Shapiro, proprietor of Integrative Nutrition Counseling will lead a panel discussion and interactive question and answer session at Greenable.

Donation is $15 per adult and $5 for children under 12 years of age and college and university students with valid student I.D. A refreshments buffet of locally grown and harvested food will be prepared by Cosmic Catering and available to all who attend. Advanced registration is required, please call (206) 202-2883 or visit the calendar of events page at http://www.weareboost.org. You may also email greenablewomen@weareboost.org.

Going Greener with Your Music Can Save You Money

Green Saves Green 

Day 14

In addition to my serious book habit that I discuss here once in a while, I have a serious music habit. I'm not the only one in the house with this habit either. My husband and nine year old son have it, too, and my six year old only wants an iPod for Christmas (oh, and bakaguns and pokemon cards, but really he only wants an  iPod). 

A good portion of our disposable income around here goes towards music, but we download a lot of our music or buy used CD's. Both of these ways of getting new music save us money and are greener than buying new CD's. 

Downloading music is greener because you never end up with a physical item. It saves resources, it saves shipping, and it's usually cheaper to download an album than buy it on CD new. Plus, if there is only one song you want, you can purchase just the one song instead of the whole CD. 

Buying used CD's is greener because no new materials are used to make them.

However, I get a lot of music free, too. How? There are several sources online that I use to download free, legal music. 

• If you use iTunes, you probably already know that each Tuesday they offer two or three free downloads. It's hit or miss if they are songs you will actually like, but I always check them out (along with any other free downloads like tv shows, videos or books) each week.
• Amazon.com offers free music each Tuesday, also, and I usually find it to be more to my taste and there are usually 5 or 6 choices. Every once in a while, they'll offer an entire album. Actually, if you follow the link, you'll find over 400 free songs there right now. You can also sign up to receive a weekly e-mail that will let you know what there free songs of the week are.
• The XPN blog. There is an amazing member supported Philadelphia radio station, WXPN. Each week day they offer My Morning Download. You have to sift through the blog for each day's entry because they are in with all of the other blog entries. Go to 10/10/08's My Morning Download for a free Bob Dylan song.
  

And while you can't download music for free from this next place, it's so cool I need to mention it. Pandora.com creates a radio station based around an artist or song that you request. It's a free service, and it plays from your computer so if you're a little tired of your current music collection, but don't want to pay for new music, go to Pandora, input a fav song or artist, and let it create a playlist that it will play for you. It's also a great way to hear songs from your youth that you would be embarrassed to actually buy (Bay City Rollers radio anyone?).

For more on greening your music, check out my post on 10 Easy Ways to be More Sustainable with Your Music 

10 Easy Ways to Be More Sustainable with Your Music Habit

Three out of four of us in our house have serious music habits, and I'm sure it won't be long before my six-year-old develops one, too. You should hear my eight-year-old hold a conversation with someone about that person's cd collection. He can get a little snooty at times.

As far as its environmental effects, music has a fairly low impact as long as you're not traveling around in a Hummer following your favorite band from city to city. But, every little bit helps and even a music habit can be greened.

Here are ten easy ways to be more sustainable, even with your music habit.

1. Buy used. Used cd's already exist (there's your no duh statement for the week). No new materials are used in the making of them. You can buy used music in used music stores, on eBay and other Internet resellers or at yard sales. It's also much less expensive.
   
2. Donate your unwanted music to charity or sell it to a used music store instead of letting it take up space in your house or worse, throw it away.
   
3. Buy a lot of your music in mp3 format. Since there are no physical cd's, mp3's are very green.
   
4. Take good care of your burned cd's. Sometimes I buy an album in mp3 format, but I end up burning it onto a disk so I can listen to it in my car. My husband often does the same. In the past, we haven't taken very good care of these burned cd's because they are inexpensive. We can burn a new one easily if need be, but that's wasteful. I'll take better care of them from now on.
   
5. Have a cd swap. Have your friends all bring their unwanted cd's and swap the with each other. You'll all get some new music without leaving an impact.
   
6. Turn off your stereo equipment completely when not in use and unplug it. When you leave stereo equipment plugged in, the parts that still light up draw energy. By unplugging it, you'll save some electricity.
7. Don't trash your old electronic equipment. Electronic waste (E-waste) is a huge problem in landfills. Donate, give to a friend, or sell your old stereo's, speakers, mp3 players and other electronics.
8. Purchase a solar mp3 charger if you charge your player every day.
9. Borrow music from the library to see if you like it before you purchase it. It's not always possible to get a feel for an entire cd from the 30 second snippets you get on iTunes. By borrowing the entire cd, you can tell if you like it, and then you can purchase it if you find it's a keeper.
10. Attend local outdoor concerts. Enjoy music in the wonderful nature you're working so hard to save. Our county freeholders sponser fantastic free concerts in the park. This summer I've seen Dar Williams and Chuck Prophet - both fabulous. Take your own trashless drinks and snacks, too, and you'll have a great green night.

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Green Term of the Week - E-waste

Swaptree.com

I often get press releases e-mailed to me from marketing companies asking me to mention their website/product/announcement on this blog. Up until now I've just kind of glossed over them, but I've decided to read them carefully and begin passing along the ones I think fit in well with what we're trying to do here.

I got this one today, and since it is about being green about your media (books, cd's, dvd's, etc), I figured I'd pass it on. I've been trying to purchase all of my media used if possible lately, and this is a way to get some it of it in a green and free way.

In honor of Earth Day this Tuesday, Swaptree.com, the website where you can trade the books, DVDs, CDs, and video games you have, for the ones you want, for free, will be donating $1 dollar for every trade made on Earth Day to The Sierra Club.

So if getting a free book, DVD, video game or CD was not enough, now by signing up and doing a trade, you will also be donating to America’s oldest and largest environmental organization on Swaptree’s dime!

One of the main reasons we started Swaptree was to promote the idea that we should all recycle more and throw away less. After all do we really need 20 million copies of each of the Harry Potter books? Can’t we just trade and share a few hundred thousand?

In recent studies, it was estimated that every book contributes 8.85 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, while every CD or DVD contributes 2.2 pounds. Furthermore, 100,000 pounds of CDs and DVDs (and their nasty chemicals) are deposited in US landfills every month, while the book industry chops down in excess of 19 million trees yearly. Pretty frightening numbers I am sure you’ll agree. Obviously reducing the consumption of these items would have a positive impact on the environment.

On Swaptree you simply list the items that you have to trade and the items that you want and Swaptree’s two and three-way trade algorithms instantly shows you all of the items you can receive in trade. Swaptree even simplifies the mailing process, by providing you with a perfect postage label that can be printed right from your computer, so you never have to go to the post office.

So there it is is. Check it out or not, but I wanted you to be informed. I think I'll check it out.

Greening Your Music Collection

Years ago when my husband and I got rid of all of our music cassettes (we donated them), we made a list of all of the ones we wanted to replace on cd. From the hundreds of cassettes we got rid of, we came up with a long list that we wanted to replace. Of course, we couldn't run out and buy them all at once. We had discovered a marvelous used cd store in the same shopping center as our favorite movie theater and started replacing them with used cd's, one or two (okay sometimes more) at a time. It became a regular part of date night. Dinner, a trip to the used cd store, then a movie.

We started replacing the music this way because it cost us a lot less. Eventually, the store started selling used dvd's also. The prices there were so great that we even gave each other permission to buy used music and movies as gifts for birthdays and Christmas. My kids don't even realize most that the dvd's and cd's we've ever bought for them are used.

What we didn't realize at the time was that we had also started restocking our collection in an environmentally friendly way. Instead of buying new, we were buying used. You know the mantra - reduce, reuse, recycle. We were resuing someone else's old cd's and dvd's. When we feel the need to thin out the cd collection, we now recycle the ones we don't want by taking them to the used store.

Buying your music online in the form of mp3's is another way to make your music collection greener, also. There is no physical product, no production waste, no packaging waste, no trash created when your 3 year old cracks the cd trying to take it out of the package.

I will confess, though, that once in a while I do buy my cd's brand new. I have no idea if it makes a real difference or not, but I have it in my mind that buying a just released cd in the store counts more than purchasing it off of someplace like iTunes. When there is an artist that I really like who is putting out a new cd, and I want to show my support for tht artist, I buy the cd new. I think the last time I actually did it was with Edie Brickell and New Bohemians' last album Stranger Things put out last year. I felt like buying the physical cd on the first day it was released was a show of support for my favorite group. Did it really make a difference? I have no idea.

But I do know that buying the majority of my music and movies either used or through an mp3 format does make a difference.