Potty Training

I'm in the process of potty training right now. No, I don't have any kids. I do, however, have a cat. For the record, I'm not one of those people who thinks of my pets as a substitute for children, and I don't dress him up in little outfits. Although he is pretty cute.

But yes, we are potty training the cat. Why, you ask? Well, many reasons, but basically, in the long run, if this works out, it will save me time and money, reduce waste, and is healthier for the cat. How? Well, let's take a look at cat litter. It requires that I clean a litter box every day or two. That takes time that I'd rather spend doing...um, anything else, really. Cat litter also costs money. It's not crazy expensive, but money is money, and I like to save it where I can. Of course, when I clean out the box, the used litter has to be disposed of (read: sent to the landfill), so cutting out the litter box will cut out this waste, and the waste of the packaging for the litter. Not to mention that cat litter is really heavy, so I'm cutting out all the energy of transporting it from wherever it is made to my home. Plus, another big consideration is that the method for extracting the clay used to make cat litter is strip mining. Not cool. Finally, there are reasons to think that the fine dust particles in cat litter is harmful to your cat, and possibly even you.

So yep, I'm potty training the cat. Well, I'm trying anyway. I'll save you the long drawn out details of how it all works, but somebody got me this wonderful little system as a gift...it's actually a pretty simple solution, wouldn't you agree?

If nothing else, I figure this is good practice for if we ever have kids.

Edit: One reader was right to point out that there is some concern that cat feces (specifically, the germ named Toxoplasma gondii, the same thing they warn pregnant women about when dealing with cat litter boxes) may be responsible for killing sea otters here in California. She is absolutely right, this is a concern, although at least one source mentions that things like a colony of 40 - 50 feral cats in Monterey and storm drain runoff contaminated by cats who do their business outdoors, are at least of equal concern at this point as household sewage. That's not really a good answer though - as long as we don't really know where the problem is stemming from, we can't just cross our fingers and hope it's not something we're doing. I checked the American Veterinary Medical Association website, and I'm no scientist, but I think this system will be safe for my cat, since he never goes outside, and he eats only packaged food. Here is what the AVMA has to say:

The most common way that cats become infected with T. gondii is from eating infected mice, birds, and other small animals.
For indoor cats, the most likely source is uncooked meat scraps. When a cat eats meat or other tissues from infected animals, it becomes infected with T. gondii and can excrete millions of oocysts in its feces each day. This release of oocysts can continue for more than two weeks. After the initial infection and shedding period, most cats will not pass oocysts in their feces again, even if re-infected.

Basically, I can't be 100% positive that my cat is not still excreting these cysts (this really sounds so gross; there's a good reason I'm not a doctor), but I can be fairly certain that he's "clean". If I had an outdoor cat, or lived in an old house where my cat was constantly killing mice, I would not find the risk acceptable. I think in this case, however, the small risk is outweighed by the benefits of another 8 - 15 years worth of environmental impact that would be caused by keeping him on the litter. What are your thoughts on this issue?

What would you choose?

There was an interesting post the other day by Sharon Astyk entitled "Is Electricity Really the Lifeblood of Civilization?" She, like me, ultimately concludes that it isn't as essential as many of us might believe. Of course, right now, it's all theoretical, but there was much discussion about what our world might be like if we don't find a solid alternative energy source. In the course of this discussion, one commenter suggested giving up one appliance in each room.

I probably won't actually do this - mainly because I don't live by myself, and I think it'd be hard work to convince the other occupant of the house to give up any of his toys. I thought it would be a good self-reflection exercise, however, to come up with a list. Below, I go through each room and list what I'd be willing to give up, and which I couldn't bear to part with.

Living room: I could give up the tv and dvd. I'd have a pretty hard time giving up the "stereo" - which for me is my ipod attached to a portable speaker.

Kitchen: I actually think I could give up the refrigerator. A lot of what I keep in there is leftovers, which I only make because I know I can store them. Milk and cheeses would be tough, but I could put these in a cooler along with veggies that need cooling. Most of the condiments I have in there I have only because, again, the refrigerator is there, so why not store them? The freezer would be very tough for me to give up. I store a lot of veggies in there, as well as an assortment of beans and frozen soups and breads.

Bathroom: I've already given up all my electrical appliances in the bathroom. I freecycled my curling iron, and the hairdryer is on a top shelf in the closet for emergencies, but hasn't been used in over a year. That leaves nothing that I couldn't live without.

Laundry room: I'm already using the dryer an average of about once every six months. The washing machine, I'd have a pretty hard time parting with.

Bedroom: the only electric appliance is our alarm clock, which as Sharon's commenter mentioned, could easily be replaced by a wind up version.

Office: I could easily give up most of the stuff in this room, but most of it isn't mine. It's a lot of various games and other small electronics. The one thing that I use that I could maybe part with is the printer. I don't use it much as is, but if I had to bike the three and a half miles to Kinkos every time I wanted to print something, I'd probably make sure only to print really essential things. The one I couldn't part with? That's a no-brainer...the laptop!

What are your must-haves? What could you do without? What are you already doing without?

Tin cans are made of plastic????

Since my decision to become a flexitarian a while back, I've been cooking slightly differently. We're still eating fish and seafood, but no more meat purchased for cooking at home. I’m so grossed out by what I read in Fast Food Nation that I frankly have no desire to buy, touch, cook, or eat meat anytime soon anyway.

The result, for the most part, has been great. I’ve made delicious eggplant parmesan, a spicy vegetarian chili, and this week, some wonderful tacos.

Part of the challenge for me has not been simply not eating meat, but what to eat in its place. I really don’t like tofu, or any of those other soy fake meat products. They hurt my stomach, for one thing. I never feel good after eating that stuff. Ever. Maybe I have some sort of intolerance, who knows? I also don’t care for the textures, or for the most part, the tastes. Beyond that, they just don’t seem like real food to me. I know lots of people really enjoy them, but for me, it’s just not a good option.

So I wanted tacos this week. Obviously ground meat was out. I considered fish, but didn’t really want the battery stuff with all the oil and fat involved. There’s fake taco meat out there (I think it’s called Smart Round or something), but that’s one of the worst on my stomach, so no way. That basically left beans – which is totally fine, except for now I’ve been reading about how cans may actually pose a danger to us because of the plastic (?!) lining, which contains potentially hazardous levels of BPA. BPA is the chemical you’ve probably heard of that can leach into your drinking water if you use plastic bottles. Bad news folks…it can also apparently leach into your food from tin cans! What’s really scary is that according to one site, one of the food items that is almost always guaranteed to contain BPA in the can linings? Baby formula. Scary isn’t it? See this article for more on BPA. It sort of makes me think that any health benefits of eating organic canned foods are probably cancelled out.

So anyway, I didn’t have any canned refried beans for making tacos, and I didn’t really want to go out and buy any after all I’ve been reading. I’ve also been trying to buy less canned food and more bulk items for environmental reasons - less packaging, less energy to transport, less waste. Cooked beans actually freeze pretty well, and although they take a while to cook, it’s easy to do large batches all at the same time.

Assorted varieties of beans account for probably 2/3 of the canned items I use. I’m a bit of a food snob, so I refuse to eat canned mushrooms, peas, carrots, etc. I do occasionally buy canned beets to throw in salads. I’ve been trying to get away from that, but this one is more of a pain. It takes what seems like forever to cook them, and it really heats up the house. The end result is a fair bit better, but I’m concerned about the energy costs of doing it this way. More research would be needed.

The other items that I eat canned are artichoke hearts, corn, and tomatoes. I’m not sure that there are any easy solutions other than a radical change in what I cook. I go through a fair amount of artichoke hearts in a year. I froze some from my CSA this spring, but it won’t be enough to get me through the year. Tomatoes will be the same issue. I use probably a can a week in sauces, soups, curries, etc. Unfortunately, according to Organic Grace, there is virtually no brand guaranteed to be BPA free. I’ll keep looking – does anybody know of any guaranteed BPA free brands out there? I know glass is a reasonable alternative for items that aren't sold in bulk. Although the lid may contain BPA as well, if the jars are stored upright, the lid shouldn't actually be touching the food, and it's a much smaller area than the entire container.

In the meantime, I’ll be avoiding canned items as much as possible. For my tacos (which were Delicious!) I made the following, super easy refried bean substitute:

1 C. (approx.) cooked chick peas
½ onion, chopped
1 T. (approx.) chopped fresh cilantro
½ t. red chili powder
½ t. cumin powder
½ t. coriander powder
½ t. salt
Olive oil for sautéing

Saute onions until just starting to get soft. Add beans, heat until warm. Add spices except fresh cilantro. Mix, and mash the peas a bit using a fork. Add water about 1 T at a time until desired consistency is reached. Add fresh cilantro just before serving.

This was barely enough for the two of us, they were that good! Next time I’m going to try making a double batch and freezing some for an even easier meal when I’m pressed for time.

I had previously tried making my own tortillas as well, but that was less of a success, so this time I just stuck with a pack of the pre-made from Whole Foods. One cooking adventure at a time!

...and that's the way it is

I've never been a huge fan of mainstream media. I was curious what new state of chaos the election was in today, however, and since I'd decided to spend less time surfing the web, I switched on CNN while working on a relatively mindless project.

I won't make that mistake again anytime soon.

The election coverage was fine. Uninspiring and predictably dumbed down, but nothing I didn't expect. It was what came next that had me really irritated.

The segment had some stupid name like, "OH MY GOD GAS IS $4/GALLON!!!! AAAAAH! SOMEBODY, PLEASE BRING US BACK OUR CHEAP GAS.... PLEEEEEEEASE???? WE'RE REALLY ANGRY AT HOW MUCH WE'RE BEING FORCED TO PAY FOR GAS!"

My summary, (not verbatim), of the show, is as follows:

Rick Sanchez informs us that the government body that is in charge of stuff like commodities is investigating to see whether anything fishy is going on that could be causing oil prices to get so high. He is barely able to conceal the despairing tone in his voice as he asks expert after expert if some vast conspiracy could be responsible for the price of gas being so high. He points out that supply and demand seems like just such a "simplistic" explanation for why gas prices have reached the point they have. I nearly choke on my sandwich. Rick points out that since people are so angry about the price of gas, those guys better watch out when the government finds out who is responsible for all these high prices because boy oh boy, they are not going to be popular at all.

This is followed by a segment in which a field reporter goes for a drive with a guy who gets awesome gas mileage - almost double the miles per gallon than what the manufacturer of his Accord promised. All he has to do is certain "advanced techniques" like TURNING OFF HIS CAR ON THE FREEWAY when he is behind a large tractor trailer, and using the draft to coast a while. He cheerily honks his horn back at everyone beeping at him as they whiz past, as if he thinks he's being applauded for his efficiency. The field reporter admits that he's probably beyond help as he doesn't think there is much he can do to increase the efficiency of his YUKON that he drives in MANHATTAN. I am very close to choking again.

I'm sorry about all the yelling here, but these people have got to be kidding. Are they showing Candid Camera or something on CNN? Nope, there's more! They're actually serious about this crap.

They spend a short while making fun of an (unemployed) guy who drives a scooter, then make fun of a guy who has a pedal powered enclosed bicycle-type thing that he commutes in (who'd want to get around a city in a scooter when you can have a Yukon, hellooooo).

Hey guys, guess what, Rick Sanchez has some news that will probably solve all our fuel problems - there's oil off the coast of Latin America!!! Brazil, to be exact. Well, it is below like ten million miles of water, and a 40 mile thick salt crust below that, and it's under about 500 billion tons of pressure, and it's crappy quality, but there's definitely some oil there. At this point, one of the expert guests is actually asked if this will be "enough". I am so close to choking on the sandwich for the umpteenth time, I decide it is safer if I finish eating once this show is over.

They have a short bit on the dilemma faced by all those poor people who payed over $50,000 for trucks last year and now can afford neither to sell them (because they owe more than they're worth, and with gas prices being what they are, values on SUVs and trucks have dropped) nor can they afford to continue driving these trucks. Cry me a river.

I hear Rick mention to some woman on his show that we've all heard talk about red states and blue states, but this is clearly one issue about which Americans are united in anger.

Rick, I need to correct you here. I cannot let this go on any longer. I resent being lumped with everyone who is angry because they feel that cheap gas is their entitlement, some sort of basic human right along with food, shelter, and freedom of speech. Rick, I am angry because there are so many people out there who bought trucks and SUVs in the first place, for no reason other than that they thought they were cool looking. I'm not talking about people who need four wheel drive because they live on top of a mountain, or people who need trucks because they use them on their farm, or people who have a truck or SUV for any other number of legitimate reasons.
I'm talking about the people who like having an Escalade or a Navigator, and feel like it's the government's responsibility to make sure they can afford to drive those obnoxious things as much as they see fit. Rick, I'm angry because none of these people seemed to give a crap about how their driving choices might affect anybody else, but now we're supposed to be all concerned because they might have to actually give something up to continue being able to afford their choice. Don't look to me for sympathy. I'm all tapped out.

I think these high fuel prices are the wake up call we sorely need. I regret that these prices are causing healthy food choices to become unaffordable for many working class families in this country, and feel sad that it is the unemployed, underemployed, and lower middle class who will probably be affected the most. But I don't feel angry about gas prices. Anger is an illogical response to something like a market force such as supply and demand (simplistic as some may believe those forces to be).

Furthermore, it has become exceedingly clear that if something doesn't happen soon to force us to re-evaluate our lifestyles and habits in this country, we'll never do it. We've been steadily increasing our consumption of oil in this country for decades. If it takes us getting to the point of not being able to afford to drive to make us figure out another way to do things, fine. So be it.

Rick, you stand corrected. I am proud to count myself as one American who is not angry that my fuel costs more. Please excuse me if I don't tune in again any time soon.

EDIT: Apparently a Sunday Post Secret reader has the same sentiments.

Eating local on a global scale

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot lately about buying locally grown food, and making a conscious effort to eat more of it. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it’s been to adapt some of my “tried and true” recipes to the ingredients coming into the house via our CSA box rather than going to the store to purchase the produce Betty Crocker deems necessary.

The quality of the food arriving each week is unparalleled in my culinary experience. The potatoes we ate for dinner yesterday were unbelievable. Picked about twenty-four hours earlier, they were so creamy and delicious that it actually led to a bit of inter-plate thievery when I got up for a glass of water.

This is not to say that I haven’t supplemented our farm share with non-local produce as I get used to this new way of feeding my household, but I’ve noticed how vastly inferior these items are in comparison, and they really are supplemental items more than the staple of my meals these days.

The quality of the food notwithstanding, I originally began making this switch for mainly environmental reasons. I wanted to support local small businesses that operated using sustainable methods. I wanted to decrease my carbon footprint by eating foods that had traveled fewer miles, therefore requiring less fossil fuel to reach my table.

These reasons are why I was totally irritated, but unfortunately not at all surprised, to read this editorial in the Washington Post. What was most upsetting to me were the following facts:

U.S. donations of food must be purchased from U.S. suppliers
U.S. donations of food must be shipped in U.S. ships
The U.S. spends 65% of its food donation budget on transportation & overhead

This is probably old news to everybody else, as the editorial is about two months old, but I’m really irritated. What this means, as far as I can tell, is that our already scant foreign aid is further eroded by these policies designed as much to continue the growth of our own economy as they are to feed the truly hungry around the world.

I visited a Habitat for Humanity project in Zimbabwe about ten years ago. They were building homes that resembled other homes in the area. They weren’t putting up pre-fab homes shipped in from the U.S., because that would make no sense. It would be a waste of valuable limited resources, and the aid would be ill-suited to the target population. In the same way, shipping food halfway across the world is a terribly wasteful way to use the embarrassingly small number of food donation dollars we have allocated.

I believe in the value of a strong domestic economy. I believe just as strongly in the right of every person on this planet to be well nourished – and I believe that we currently have the resources to accomplish this. What we lack is the willingness, as a nation, to “sacrifice” a bit of our current lifestyle or standard of living.

If we claim to give aid, we should give aid. There should be no questions of “what am I going to get out of this?” when we are supposedly being charitable. As an episode of Friends once pointed out, there is perhaps no truly selfless act, but we could aim for a bit of selflessness – even if that means giving our dollars to a farmer a little closer to the destination of the aid. My guess is that it’s not the small family owned farms in this country that benefit from our current protectionist policies anyhow.

It also seems that if we did purchase our food donations abroad, we could be doubling the power of our donating dollars. We’d be providing more much needed nutrition, but we’d also be supporting potentially struggling economies in these regions by supporting their farms.

Maybe I’m missing something…maybe there’s a good reason for doing things this way. The growing cynic in me seriously doubts it though. I think it’s just another way for us to continue doing business as usual, letting the rich get richer, with no substantial effort at changing the status quo, while patting ourselves on the back for a job well done.

more thoughts about groceries...

Rum & Raisin with a flake...
Originally uploaded by Tom Coates

Aside from the fact that it’s very alarming how much decent food costs these days, it’s one of the few line items on my monthly budget that I have any control over. Our mortgage payment is not going down anytime soon, car insurance costs what it costs, and although I’m cutting my electricity and water usage as much as I can, the monetary savings are a nice side effect – but those changes were primarily motivated by environmental concerns, not by any expectation that they’d fund my retirement account any time soon.

I mentioned yesterday how I bring a list to the store with me, with alternate meals ready in case any of the ingredients needed for my “first choice” meals are ridiculously expensive.

I’ve also taken the idea of mix and match out of the closet and into the kitchen. I don’t waste much food, but I would be lying if I said I never pull out a container of something and find it all covered with fuzzy green mold. So I’ve started doing mix and match meals. All this means is that I try to make sure that I can use ingredients that I’m purchasing (or making) for more than one meal. For example, if I have quesadillas one night, and serve sour cream with them, I’ll make potato torte or potato pancakes later in the week to use up the sour cream before it turns into a penicillin factory.

I’ve also started putting more thought into cooking. I’m not a super instinctive cook, but I do have a tendency to be lazy about it – I follow the recipe exactly rather than thinking about why it’s calling for each ingredient. I’ve been trying to break this habit. For example, a lot of soups call for veggies that are not all mandatory, when I think about it. Ok, for potato leek soup, you don’t want to skip the potatoes, but if you’re making a veggie soup featuring kale and chard, why not throw in the beet greens that you haven’t figured out how to use? Leave the carrots out if you don't have them. If I have all the ingredients on hand except one or two that are non-vital, I can skip a trip to the store…because too often, even with a list in hand, a trip to the store means I grab more than what I really need.

I’ve also been trying to find ways to use the bits I would have previously discarded as “scraps.” Those beet greens I mentioned above? I didn’t even know they were edible until recently. Hey, I paid for them, so why not use them? Heather suggests saving water from steaming veggies to freeze and use as soup stock…where I live, we pay for water, and I paid for the vitamins and minerals that leeched into the water…and more importantly, it saves me from having to buy a soup base next time I need one. When making butter, instead of pouring that milky stuff down the drain, I set it aside. I can use it in bread or pastry crusts.

Speaking of crusts, I made one today for a pot pie…I also threw an extra one in the freezer. It was just as easy to make a second one while I had the stuff out, and it’ll save me time on a busy day in the future. It’ll also save me from caving to the temptation of take out if I know I have an alternative that’s just as easy, and free.

Ironically, my effort to save on my food budget has necessitated a few purchases recently. I got a used canning and regular funnel on ebay. I’ve made the ginger ale a few times more, but I’m embarrassed to admit I was using a funnel I made myself from a yogurt lid and a stapler. That part would be fine, if it worked, but it doesn’t really. I’m not that handy. It kind of just makes a mess. Since I get bored drinking just water, and I think making the ginger ale myself is a good compromise versus buying sodas and juices, I figured a small investment was worthwhile in the long term rather than risking getting fed up with the messes I was making and giving up on the whole project altogether.

Finally, in line with Blue Collar Crunch’s challenge this month, I’ve realized one area that I need to be more present when I’m shopping…I get super irritated when somebody drives while talking on the phone because they’re usually swerving or sitting at a green light until it turns red. I realized today that the same effects happen whatever you’re doing while talking on the phone - including shopping. While on one level I appreciate the fact that my sub-conscious grabbed a pint of Rum Raisin Haagen Das and put it in my grocery cart while I was engrossed in my phone call, that’s not really being mindful.

And now I feel hungry…

Please hold...

1000 mobiles
Originally uploaded by Gaetan Lee

Hold off on buying a new cell phone, that is. A clever marketing ploy that my cell phone company uses is to “allow” customers to upgrade their phones every two years, at a discount over the full retail price. Since I’m a loyal customer, they let me purchase a new phone even sooner. In exchange for me paying them some cash, I get a new phone and the right to continue making monthly payments to them for another twenty-four months.

What I realized though, is that just because my company lets me purchase a new phone, doesn’t mean that I actually need one. I’m going to keep the one that I have until it stops working. The features on the phone that I currently own are more than what I need. I don’t need video or email on my phone, so as long as it keeps making calls, it’s doing what I need it to.

When it does finally die, I’ll recycle it. Aside from keeping waste out of the landfills, recycling a cell phone is an environmentally important decision to make because the materials used to make a cell phone include metals which can be destructive to the environment to mine. According to the EPA, less than 20% of cell phones are actually recycled. There are many ways to recycle a cell phone – Recycle My Cell Phone is a site I’ll consider. They only recycle phones from within the US (due to restrictions on import/export of hazardous waste), but they reuse as many phones and parts as possible, and only dispose of what is really “dead”. They dispose of what hazardous waste remains responsibly, and do not export it to developing countries. The other thing that is great about this site is that they accept any make or model of phone, pda, beeper, or charger. They even make it easy for you to save money by taking a tax deduction for the value of the phone you donate, including the postage you use to send it to them!

Until I’m ready to recycle my phone, however, there are things I can do to make it last as long as possible. The National Geographic Green Guide offers some great tips on how to save energy and extend your phone’s life, including:

1. Only charge as long as necessary – if you leave the charger plugged in after the battery is fully charged, the charger will continue drawing energy and will heat the battery, which shortens its life span.
2. Turn down the brightness – the more light your phone puts out, the more battery it uses, meaning it’ll have to be charged more often.
3. Unless you plan on answering the phone if it rings in the middle of the night, turn it off until you wake up.

Another thing that I'll investigate when my plan is up is switching to a company such as Credo Mobile, whose prices seem a tiny bit higher than my current provider, but allows you to donate a portion of your monthly bill to charity.

As a follow-up to things that should be recycled responsibly, I found out last week that Ace Hardware, at least in my neighborhood, also accepts used CFL bulbs for recycling. For many of us, we probably have an Ace closer than an Ikea…and I for one am a lot less likely to make an impulse purchase at Ace than Ikea!

India

Charminar Hyderabad
Originally uploaded by JustABoy

Before I say anything, let me forewarn you that this is likely to be my lengthiest post yet…but it’s the weekend so you’ll have lots of time to digest, if you’re not too bored.

The time I spent recently in India delivered all the contradictions and ironies I had been promised. It’s a wonderful place to visit, and I truly enjoyed my stay there. It was the first time in ten years I’d been outside of North America or Europe, and it reminded me of just how different life can be in different corners of the globe. The number of trees I need to plant to offset my travel notwithstanding, I do think it’s important from time to time, if possible, to interact in a deeply meaningful way with another culture.

I was there for the first of my two weddings (we’re doing it again in the US this fall for all our friends and family here), and spent five weeks, mainly in Hyderabad. I don’t mean to claim that I speak about all of India, and want to just put out the disclaimer that this is just my experience and observations that I’m sharing.

I think my relationship with material things is what I’ve reflected upon most since my return. This really surprised me. I thought before I left that the poverty and unequal distribution of wealth would be most difficult for me to stomach. There certainly were days that I had tears in my eyes, when the poverty was just overwhelming. I felt like throwing up more than once (separate from the times I felt like throwing up from the three or four stomach bugs I contracted).

For some reason, however, I was really slapped in the face by how much STUFF we have in North America…and how much of it is absurdly unnecessary. I don’t know why I didn’t notice this on my past travels. I suspect it’s due to my lack of maturity at the time. For whatever reason, it’s been a very heavy weight I’ve been carrying with me ever since my return.

I believe that simple is best, so I’ll try to summarize as briefly as possible, the ironies, from a simplicity/frugality/environmental standpoint, that I witnessed.

Here’s what was not cool:

1. There is trash everywhere. Public trashcans were difficult to find or non-existent. I asked the driver of our car one day what I should do with a gum wrapper and water bottle I had, and he told me he’d take care of them. I found them later on the street in front of the house. Not quite what I meant. So I started saving my trash and throwing it out in the house. Then I realized that the man who took care of the house was burning it all every morning. Not sure that’s super healthy. There was a super smelly impromptu landfill that had sprung up about 2 miles from where we were staying. The trash that was officially collected from that side of town was being dumped here because the official landfill was too far away, and well, nobody had complained.

2. I didn’t see a single way to recycle anything the entire time I was there.

3. Air pollution is a major problem. It was often hard to breath, and I could never get my face to feel clean for more than half an hour at a time.

Here’s what was awesome:

1. Everybody eats local. There’s not really much choice. Most people still buy their produce from vendors on the side of the road, and those guys only sell what they’ve harvested recently. I’m worried that as the middle class grows, this may begin to change. Grocery stores are just starting to spring up everywhere, and the huge conglomerate is not something that only exists in North America (check out Tata or Birla). I was glad to hear my MIL say that she still goes out of her way to buy things from the local shop owner when she can because she knows it’s getting more difficult for them to make it with big corporate competition. I hope more people feel the same way.

2. Everybody eats a lot of vegetarian food. I know we’ve been hearing lots in the media about how the increased demand for meat from India and China are driving up food prices and causing grain shortages. I do not dispute the accuracy of this argument. I would stress, however, that “increased demand” doesn’t mean that Chinese and Indian folks are now eating meat three times a day. I don’t know what the case is in China, but I imagine it’s similar – increased demand means that a lot of people now eat meat once or twice a week rather than once a twice a month. A lot of people are still totally vegetarian for religious reasons. I think that if the US demand per capita for meat was equal to that of an average Indian person, we’d be patting ourselves on the back for a job well done.

3. Lots of people have electricity, but very few of them expect it to function all the time. There are frequent power outages of varying lengths, some announced, and some not. The funniest part to me, is that the conversation never skips a beat, even when the lights go out, it’s totally dark, and everybody is fumbling to find candles and matches.

4. Water is trucked in and stored in tanks. Everybody is cognizant that there is a very finite supply, and uses it much more carefully than we do in the US. Showers, for example, are taken by filling a bucket (maybe four gallons or so) and using a smaller bucket to dump the water on yourself to wash and rinse with.

5. Nobody uses toilet paper. Actually I’m not sure if this is actually awesome or not, because they use water instead, so I guess it’s a matter of “dueling resources” at this point. Either way, I wasn’t brave enough to try this method - although I probably should have, because good luck finding anything other than single ply. What is awesome is that paper towels and facial tissue are also virtually non-existent.

6. Each power outlet has an on/off switch. I’ve heard this is also the case in Australia, and probably other places as well, but it makes it really easy to ensure that appliances are really off and not sucking energy. This is important because electricity is super expensive - so much so that despite the fact that it’s hotter and muggier (at least for parts of the year) than anywhere here in North America, almost nobody has air conditioning. There are fans, and “coolers” that work by somehow circulating water through this big thing that has some hay (I’m not a real technical person, if you can’t tell) but these both use much less energy than an air conditioner. Life without AC is possible!

7. Everybody squeezes in – everywhere. Fuel is expensive, so a van for ten people will somehow manage to accommodate twelve to fifteen people for a six hour trip. There are small little vehicles called autos – sort of like giant motorized tricycles with roofs – that look like they’d comfortably seat three passengers and a driver. I’ve seen them packed with seven and more passengers. Safety concerns, I know…I’m just saying that I’ll think next time before taking a second car somewhere just so somebody doesn’t have to sit in the middle seat. Buses are another story altogether. If you’re claustrophobic, you just wouldn’t make it. People literally ride the bus with one foot on the step, holding on to the door frame, because the buses are so crowded.

8. Along with the squeezing in theme, growing up and getting married is not automatically a reason to get your own house. Again, I’m not sure I’d like to do this, but lots of people live with parents and/or in-laws.

9. Because electricity is so expensive, people make do with smaller refrigerators. Humans originally started using spices for a reason, and lots of spices in the foods help them to stay edible without refrigeration.

10. Clothes are always dried on a line. I don’t think dryers are even readily available for purchase.

11. Packaging is much more minimal. Bulk purchase of many items is the only option – you can’t buy a box of rice; it comes in a large sack or you scoop it from a bin. Leftover food in restaurants is packed in folded newsprint rather than Styrofoam containers. Nearly everything you will find for sale has little to no packaging – and almost always, there is less packaging than you’d find for the same item in North America.

12. Stuff gets reused…even when it’s not in pristine condition. I sent my laundry out one day in a bag whose handle was about to break. I figured I’d get it back in a new bag, but I got it back in that same bag – with the handle taped back on. There’s a value placed on things that seems to be lacking in North American culture.

What worries me is that the reason why we don’t do some of these things here in the US seems to be simply a matter of financially not being forced to. For example, we have clothes dryers because we have inexpensive electricity. When I stopped looking at things in terms of dollars is when I started being able to appreciate the true value of how things are done elsewhere in the world, and when I started wanting to live less like a “typical” consumer.

All aboard!

Train entering the new Don Bosco trainstation
Originally uploaded by theowl84

Hey…good news for the stupid drunk chick who hit my house with her gigantic SUV over the weekend (yep, that really happened). Ok, well, actually, the bad news first: hit and run is against the law, and you might have to go to jail.

I try really hard not to judge other people’s choices, but honestly, I have been thinking for four straight days now, and I cannot for the life of me imagine why somebody would need to drive a vehicle that large to go out and get wasted beyond belief. I guess the punishment does fit the crime; she should definitely lose her license. Forever.

As you can tell, I’m a little bitter about this whole thing. I'm too angry to even write very well. I mean, who hits a house hard enough to take a piece out of it, and then drives away?!?!?! She clearly should not have been driving, period...we're actually lucky that it was our house she hit and not another car or pedestrian.

I feel that somebody as blatantly selfish and irresponsible as this person has proven herself to be has lost some of her rights to make choices...maybe we should have a law that if you can't keep your giant SUV under control, you can't have one. If she’d been driving a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle, it wouldn’t have been able to climb the six inch curb in front of the house, it wouldn’t have been able to run over the three foot hedge between the house and the sidewalk, and it wouldn’t have been tall enough to take out the window sill in my office.

Even if she was running that thing on alternative fuels (somehow I doubt it), one source points out that the corn needed to produce one tank of biofuel is enough to feed a person for an entire year. That makes me feel sick to think about.

Anyway, I digress. The good news for stupid drunk chick who hit my house with her gigantic SUV is that we actually have public transportation in this area…so smile lady, because when you get out of jail, you’ll have a way to get around town.

I decided that to get to the Earth Day event today, I’d finally take the plunge and get on the train instead of driving. It’s only about four or five miles, and according to google maps (which now allows you to plan your trip using public transportation) it was going to take about forty-five minutes.

Well, to make a long story short, I walked for forty minutes, went to the first train station, found it was closed, walked to a second train station, which was also closed, and found out I had to take a bus before I finally was able to board a train. It took just under two hours total - I was exhausted! It was an ordeal, but in the end I was glad I did it. The trains were immaculate, it saves money over driving, and the Earth Day event was full of farmers, vendors, music, snacks, and booths with lots of info about how to help the planet. Getting home was an adventure too…but I made it.

I'd like to end by giving a tip of the hat, as Mr. Colbert would say, to Mom. She heard her local radio host talking about how his wife and kid picked up some trash off the street for Earth Day. The co-host commented something to the effect of "yeah, since it's still too cold to plant anything, I guess that's about all we can do." Instead of just thinking about how totally not true that is, Mom called up the radio station and, using her best teacher voice, I'm sure, educated them on various other things they could do to celebrate Earth Day, cold weather and all, such as bringing reusable bags to the store, and not drinking bottled water. Good job!

Bits and pieces

I don’t know enough about any of this to justify a full posting, but this is all stuff I’ve found while poking around and wanted to share, because I think it’s useful information.

Plastic Loose Fill Council: If somebody sends you a package filled with those nasty Styrofoam peanuts, this website can help you to find a place that will take them and reuse them.

Eat Well Guide: Have you been thinking you’d like to eat more local, sustainable, organic food, but don’t think there’s anything available? This website lists farmer’s markets, stores, restaurants, and more, based on your zipcode. You might be surprised what’s right around the corner!

US Department of Energy: Is renewable power available for purchase in my area? Sadly, no, but maybe it is in yours. Check out this website to find out.

Environmental Protection Agency: If you don’t have a well to obtain your drinking water, this website can help you determine what the quality of your municipal water is like.

A few updates…

I am still on the bottled water wagon. The stuff from the tap hasn’t killed me yet. Even though it often smells funny.

Still in the process of decluttering, but I’d just like to throw something out there for any freecyclers in the crowd: if you say you’re going to go pick something up, make sure it’s because you really want the item, not just because it’s free and you can’t beat the price. I’ve been stood up a few times by people who claimed to want my items. Most were apologetic and contacted me to let me know they couldn’t collect, but a few just never showed up. It made me start thinking that maybe it was too much work to give stuff away. Which seems ridiculous, but I’m taking a break for a while.

I’ve continued making my yogurt. Sometimes it’s more watery than others, but it’s always been edible.

For trash day after two weeks, we still didn’t have a full bag of garbage! I put it out anyway though because it was really starting to smell bad.

Buy Nothing Challenge is going pretty well…all of my “slip ups” I actually think are justifiable: batteries for the smoke detector, and stay tuned for more on my biking adventures and the worms in my garage!

I posted a while ago about the Riot 4 Austerity. I think this is such a cool concept. I also think it’s really overwhelming. But inspired by the small scale of Buy Nothing Month modeled after the Compact, I’m going to give the Riot a trial run. I’m going to pick only one of their seven categories to start with and see if, instead of reducing my consumption TO 10% of the average, I am going to see if I can reduce my current consumption BY 10%.

Anybody care to join me?

For those not familiar, the seven categories are:
Gasoline
Electricity
Heating & Cooking Energy
Garbage
Water
Consumer Goods
Food

I am going to start with water. Based on my last water bill, I am actually at 31% of average US consumption. Therefore, I will attempt to reduce my consumption to 21% by the time I receive my next bill.

Let me know if you pick a category to tackle. I like structure, so I appreciate the idea of having actual numbers to measure my progress, rather than the vague idea of just trying to do better. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Bueller...? Bueller...?

IMG_0092
Originally uploaded by aymlis

So this article sounds very intriguing and interesting...but I just don't quite understand it. How about you? Care to explain this to me? Thoughts about its feasibility? Pros? Cons?

farm fresh

morning water
Originally uploaded by stg_gr1

So last weekend, I picked up my first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box. A CSA is basically the community purchasing/investing directly from/in the farms that produce their food, rather than involving a middle man like a distributor and grocery store chain.

I found a great farm that does a drop-off near me. My best calculation is that between the trip from the farm to the drop-off and the drop-off to me is about 150 miles. Not super local, but a whole lot better (90% better) than the average 1500 miles a meal travels in this country.

But why does it matter where the food comes from? The main thing is that driving a truck, or a train, or a plane to transport our food takes fuel. Fuel pollutes. The less transporting happens, the less pollution that’s created.

Of secondary concern, but still very worthy of consideration, is the freshness of the food we receive. Much of what we eat, regardless of where it is grown, is shipped to distribution centers somewhere in the middle of the country, only to be shipped back to the same state or region where it was originally grown, making what should have been a journey of a few hundred miles one of over a thousand.

Because of the lag time involved with transporting food long distances, it is often picked before it is ripe, then artificially ripened a rapid pace using ethylene gas. Setting aside for a moment what this could potentially do as far as the nutrients of the food are concerned, the production of ethylene itself is “energy intensive”.

Last but not least, I like the fact that I can go visit the farm where my veggies are grown. It’s cool that I’m supporting local people and families who work really hard to keep their small business profitable and responsible. It’s really neat that I can call them up to say, “hey, I’ll be out of town next week, don’t bother packing up my veggies and transporting them.” Finally, I love that the produce they don’t use is donated to a local clinic for low-income women fighting cancer. (The grocery store buys the same amount whether I’m there to shop or not. If they buy too much, it’s trash, or, at best, animal food). For a more complete discussion of why local food is considered a better option from an environmental, societal, and health perspective, see here.

So I’m convinced I’m doing a good thing buying locally, how about my wallet? I’m pretty positive I’m saving money by purchasing a CSA box each week. The produce box costs $17 per week. Last week my box contained a large bag of spinach, two heads of lettuce, cilantro, radishes, carrots, broccoli rabe, green garlic, and asparagus. Considering these items are all organic, I am sure that I would have spent more than $17 if I had purchased all these items at my local market.

Living where I do, I’m lucky that we have some fresh produce available almost year round (the farm takes a break for only three weeks, from mid-December to early January). Not everybody will have this luxury. Pretty much everywhere in the continental US, however, will have some portion of the year where fresh fruits and veggies are available.

Best of all in this whole experience, is that the vegetables actually tasted like…well, vegetables. They are really, really good. I’ve had some each day since I brought them home. And it’s been fun trying new things. I’d never tried green garlic or broccoli rabe before. I can’t wait to see what’s in the box this week!

Chill out!

7.jpg
Originally uploaded by Andrew Butts

Just a few thoughts about how I’ve been trying to be more efficient with another one of my appliances: the refrigerator. I kept reading all these things telling me to clean my refrigerator coils. The EPA, among others, recommends this. Oddly, I couldn’t find any reliable stats telling me exactly how much money / energy it would save me to do this, but I figure that in the worst case scenario, my house is a little bit cleaner, so what’s the harm?

There are great instructions at e-how on how to actually clean them. I had no idea what I was doing, but following these instructions, it took me about ten minutes. I even put it on my calendar for six months from now so I’ll be sure to remember to do it again.

I don’t even know why I was surprised, but I did find that there are special gadgets out there specifically designed for cleaning the refrigerator coils. I did just fine with a vacuum cleaner and a damp sponge. I can’t see why I would need a special brush to handle this job. Plus, with my new attempt to focus on how much I’m buying and consuming, it seems a silly purchase when I know I’ll use it no more than twice a year.

The EPA also recommends double checking to make sure that the gasket seals properly – it’s the rubber part around the door that actually seals it shut when you close it. It’s kind of a no-brainer, but if the door’s not shut tight, cool air will leak out and it will have to work harder (ie use more energy).

Obviously opening the door let’s warm air in, so I’m trying to be cognizant of how often I do that (and then do it less when I can!)

Again, it may seem obvious, but if I put food away while it’s still really hot, it takes more energy to cool it down than if I just let it cool at room temperature for a while. The FDA says the maximum time to safely leave food out when it’s over 90 F is one hour, or two hours when it’s cooler.

I also looked up on the FDA website to see what temperature they recommend as safe for food storage. No sense in keeping it colder than needed, right? Apparently I can safely turn the temperature up to 40 degrees (F) in the refrigerator and 0 degrees in my freezer. Done!

As I keep being reminded, these small steps don’t even begin to match those taken by some. A perusal of some of the green blogs out there reveals several who have ditched the refrigerator altogether. Good for them. Clearly, they’ll be saving a lot more energy than I will. What I need to keep reminding myself, however, is that this process is not about making the most drastic, impressive changes possible, but making small changes that I can maintain for a long while to come.

Extreme Green

I’ve been writing about all the little things I’ve been doing to lead a slightly greener life. There are some who are taking some rather extreme measures, however. They've all recognized that to make lasting changes, we need to start by reducing: what we buy, what we throw away, and what we use. So next time I think that it’s too tough to take a really quick shower or make my own yogurt, I’m going to think about one of these people:

1. No impact man: Colin Beavan lives in NYC and is seeing if he, along with his wife and daughter, can live an entire year without making any net impact on the environment.

2. 365 Days of Trash: Dave has decided that in order to really be accountable for our impact on the planet, we have to first acknowledge how much waste we really do create. So he's saving all of his trash throughout the year.

3. Fake Plastic Fish: One woman in Oakland, CA documents her attempts to rid plastic from her life (this is a lot tougher than it might sound!)

4. Riot 4 Austerity: Based on the premise that for long-term sustainability, those of us in the rich world must cut our emissions by 90%. They have a group of participants who are actively working to do this in seven different categories and track their monthly progress towards this goal.

5. The Compact: The participants in The Compact have all pledged to buy nothing new for one year. They can beg, borrow, or buy it used.

6. Waste Wear Daily: This woman has pledged to wear only clothing she finds in dumpsters for a whole year.

Most (OK, all) of these efforts are far more than I am willing to undertake right now, especially since there are two of us in my home, but I think what I find valuable in all these sites is the example of people REALLY practicing what they preach. That is what I find inspiring.

CFLs

newlite
Originally uploaded by Bludgeoner86

We’ve probably all heard of CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) by now, and are at least vaguely aware that we should be using these things. What are they though? I think to make good choices, I need to understand what I am doing and not just do it because it’s the latest new thing. So I did some research, and here is some of the information that I found about what CFLs are, and why I made the switch in my home.

The bulbs we all grew up using are known as incandescent; this is what you are probably using if you aren’t using CFLs. This is my very non-technical explanation of how the two types of bulbs work. The traditional incandescent bulb has that squiggly looking wire thing running between two prongs. When you flip the light switch, electricity runs through the wires from the fuse box or circuit breaker, through the walls, and into the bulb, where it finally passes through the filament (the squiggly looking thing) which is then heated until it starts glowing – in the same way that the coils on an electric stove start glowing when they get heated up.

CFLs on the other hand, are a bit more complicated. The wires carry the electricity through the walls, to the bulb, but instead of creating light by heating a filament, the electricity is used to heat the inside of the bulb, which causes the mercury inside to turn from a liquid to a gas, just like liquid water evaporates when heated to a certain temperature. The mercury gas then bumps into other gas already inside the bulb, which causes a reaction between the different gas atoms that lets off ultra-violet light. The only problem is that we can’t see ultra-violet light, so that’s why the bulbs are coated with what are known as phosphors. The phosphors are compounds that emit light when exposed to light. They pick up the ultra-violet light, and then emit a kind of light that people can see.

The reason the CFLs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs is that the incandescent bulbs also emit ultraviolet light. It takes energy to generate this light, but nobody ever sees it. The CFL is making use of all of this which would otherwise be wasted. For a more technical, but very readable explanation of this see here.

So by using CFLs, you use less energy to make the same amount of light. This means you use less of whatever is used to make your energy (coal, sunlight, nuclear reactions, wind, or whatever). Because you pay for all of your energy, you save money when you use less of it.

The CFLs do cost more to purchase initially. However, according to Wikipedia’s well-sourced entry on this subject, the CFL’s will last 8 – 15 times as long as a typical incandescent bulb. The cost, they estimate ranges from 3 – 10 times the cost of an incandescent. If you factor in the longer life span and the energy savings, it seems clear to me that I’ll definitely save money in the long run, even if I purchase the bulb that lasts “only” 8 times as long as the incandescent, AND it happens to be the one that costs 10 times as much. There’s a cool little tool I found that will help you calculate your savings based on your location and usage on the bottom of this page.

The thing that I finally realized though, is that it’s not like we’re talking about buying a hybrid car versus buying a used car that gets relatively good mileage and whether this economically makes sense. We’re talking about an item that costs less than my drink of choice at Starbucks (the white chocolate mocha). What we’ve done is replace the bulbs in our home as they burn out. We avoided making a heavy investment all at once (and we took them with us when we moved!) and we’ve made the change at a pace that works for us. We’ve lived in our current location for a year now, and I have yet to replace a single light bulb – not because I’m lazy either. It’s because none have burned out.

I’d like to throw one other benefit out there. It’s a small one, but every little bit does count! If I am buying bulbs 8 – 15 times less often than I was before, I am introducing 8 – 15 times less packaging into the waste stream.

Please remember that these bulbs do contain mercury so SHOULD NEVER be thrown in the regular household trash can. There are other much better options for disposal and recycling of CFLs. If you break a bulb, you need to handle the cleanup carefully. Here’s what the EPA suggests.

All of this not-withstanding, we may not have to make the decision for much longer, as many governments are considering making the incandescent bulb as obsolete as San Francisco and China are making the plastic bag.