Gaia Earth Day rant I

from Monday, April 23, 2007

Earth Day may have been yesterday, but we need EARTH DAY EVERY DAY! So, for my first blog entry (drum roll……)

GAIA. Earth Day Rant part I

I will leave aside the basics like conserve energy, carpool, and insulate your homes. This is my little manifesto. It may seem judgmental and I certainly have room for improvement in my own life. But things are getting desperate! I have not cited all my sources as this is not an academic paper. However, I welcome fact-checking or lively debate.

OK, many of you may know I'm vegetarian, and have been for 13+ years. I will preface this by saying I do eat dairy and seafood, which makes me a MAJOR hypocrite. That being said, I avoid wearing leather, I strictly avoid chicken stock (which sadly is in everything), I campaign for animal rights. Ethical implications aside, TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT YOU MUST STOP EATING MEAT. Stop it right now, put that chicken wing, sausage or spare rib down. It's cruel and you don't need it.

First, you may know the rainforests (Brazil, SE Asia) are being mowed down at a frightening pace. One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second. And why are they being clear cut (this cut and burn technology dumps a MASSIVE amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, by the way. You know, that global warming thing)? For cattle grazing! Cattle, who fart immense amounts of greenhouse-gas methane into the air. The cattle in your hamburger. Now, greenhouse gases emitted in the burning of trees (trees which could scrub the air of CO2!) and the farts of cows are only the beginning. I won't bore you with the amount of gas – no pun intended – it takes to transport the slaughtered cattle from Argentina to Your Town. For each 1 pound of meat, it takes 15 pounds of grain (and a commensurate amount of water). Do the math backwards; for the exact same amount of resources, I can get 15 lbs. of grain, or 1 lb. of meat. I don't know about you, but to me it's SHAMEFUL to waste that much in food when 2 billion people don't have enough food or water.

Which brings me to WATER. Shut the damn faucet off when you brush your teeth. Take a shorter shower, or take one less often. Showers waste less water than baths. Share a shower with your honey. Only about one percent of the earth's water is fresh water available for our use.

In so many damn ways, environmental consciousness supports social justice. For example, Fair trade products such as coffee are often grown in more environmentally sustainable ways. Drink only "shade grown coffee." Organic is also better for farm workers who are not doused in poisonous chemicals all day.

Over-fishing has grossly depleted certain species of sea-food (or sea-life, as Linda McCartney used to say). You can find out which species of fish and seafood are more sustainable at www.eartheasy.com/eat_sustainable_seafoods.htm That being said, it's really best to halt seafood consumption across the board as the entire global fishery is on the brink of collapse!

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. This is my personal mantra. I say it all the time, just ask my husband who calls me "the Recycle Nazi" (No trash for you!) Yes, that's me riffling through your garbage and picking shit off the ground to recycle. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I do it because people are small, selfish and mind-numbingly thoughtless.

I bring cloth bags to the market for shopping; when I do use plastic or paper, I ask the clerks not to double-bag and to pack everything in tightly. When you do this, they will stare dumbly at you with bewilderment on their faces. Just insist. In Europe, you are charged money for every single plastic bag with which the store provides you. You can recycle plastic bags at Wegman's, you can re-use them when you shop.

Don't buy Tupperware, but recycle plastic take-out containers.

Trees – Plant 'em. A buttload. Arbor Day is coming… give someone the gift of a tree for an Honorarium or Memorial, a birthday, wedding, or graduation.

Flowers – many of the cut flowers we buy in our markets are not sustainable. Organic, locally grown and seasonable are always better. For one, it takes less energy to transport the flowers.

Cell Phones I – They pose their own environmental challenges. Their toxic chemical content requires us to use care in disposing of old ones. And there is a material, columbite-tantalite, used in mobile phone manufacturing that only comes from Zaire (DRC). This can only be hand-mined from the gorilla's habitat and causes wars in the area. Sadly, there is little we can do about this now. We can properly recycle our old cell phones – in fact, you should donate them: wirelessrecycling.com/home/index.html
www.grcrecycling.com/ www.charitablerecycling.com/CR/home.asp (you can also find ways to recycle things like printer cartridges at these sites).

Cell Phones II – You may have heard lately in the news that the global BEE population is plummeting. This is due in large part to the proliferation of cellular phones. Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees. Guess who pollinates our plants? The bees. Guess who cannot figure how to hand-pollinate on a mass scale? Humans. Guess who dies when the bees die? ANYTHING THAT EATS PLANTS.


Here's the part where I out myself as a kook:

- Reuse gift wrapping supplies – paper, ribbons, bows, gift bags, etc. I send ecards instead of paper cards. No, it ain't classy, but neither is mass environmental destruction, coastal flooding, refugees in the 100's of millions, global wars, and animal extinction.

- I wear almost exclusively vintage clothing and jewelry. Better to recycle older resources.

- I buy enviro-friendly stocks. Find out which businesses are enviro-friendly and patronize them. Punish those fascists who contribute to, rather than try to solve, the problem. Hint – it ain't Starbucks (Whorefucks).

- if you drive an SUV, YOU ARE A SELFISH FUCK. I don't care if it makes you and your family feel safer, because it makes my family much less safe. See the SELFISH FUCK comment above. I am not impressed that your SUV gets 30 miles to the gallon – you should be getting over 60 miles a gallon! They're called small hybrid cards.

Thanks for tuning in… more to come…