Green Options

Readers may remember my first Adventures in Homebrew, of several weeks ago. Then, in a somewhat bumbling and hapless fashion, a friend and I cooked up some homebrewed beer, and set it to ferment in a large glass jug. Now it's time to bottle the fermented concoction, and set it on its final path to being real beer.

Hinkley residents protest new sludge facility (source: HelpHinkley.org)The small California Desert community of Hinkley, made famous by true story portrayed in the movie Erin Brockovich, is under the gun again. However this time, it's not a hidden threat like hexavalent chromium-6, secretly poisoning their water supply and sickening the town. This time the threat is out in the open, [...]

As much as I may try to simplify my life, I am fully aware that I will never be able to avoid deadlines, rushed meals, and the plain old mischigas of modern life. But so often it is these hectic evenings running from work to dinner to a Town Council meeting or crazed mornings trying to get in a run before the dentist appointment that cause me to slip up and eat something that [...]

Last week, in an effort to simplify my alcohol supply chain, a friend and I decided to try our hands at homebrewing beer. Given that there are very few (read: one) microbreweries out here in the California desert, most of my beer has to travel quite a long ways to reach me. Cutting down on carbon output from transportation is one of my motivating factors in homebrewing. In addition, it allows me [...]

Plastic shopping bags have become the bane of my existence. They are ubiquitous, everywhere you look. My work takes me far out into the desert, away from towns and people, and plastic shopping bags are far and away the most common source of trash. I've even seen cactus wren and packrats incorporating them into their nests! This madness must end!

Every morning over half of America wakes up to a cup of coffee. And most of us who drink coffee every day, we play it off like it’s no big deal. “I’m not addicted, I swear!” we claim very indignantly, offended at the thought of someone accusing us of such a thing. And yet every morning, without fail, we will stop at nothing until we get a cup of coffee into us. [...]

For years the idea of a traditionally dressed American has been in jeans and a t-shirt, all decked out in traditionally produced cotton. Cotton is the ubiquitous American (really, world-wide) clothing fiber, and like most things that we consume with reckless abandon, there are many quite serious problems associated with it. In particular, pesticides. The stats that are thrown around are that 10% of the world’s herbicides and 25% of [...]

Amongst the many issues I’m hoping to tackle in the gradual greening of my life, food is going to be the largest and most important. It’s the item (other than rent) that I spend the most money on, the most time with, and furthermore—it’s going into my body! So what better place to draw a line in the sand, and say, “No more crap!”

Every Saturday morning, hundreds of thousands of people around the country get up before dawn and jump into their cars for a several hour drive to their nearest wild place. Once there they recreate, rejuvenate, enjoy the wonders of the wild before returning to their homes in time for dinner. The collective carbon output of those enjoying the outdoors is well documented (see: Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone, and [...]

Editor's note: Green Options' newest blogger, Patrick Donnelly, will be sharing his experiences as he and his partner attempt to "green" and simplify their lives. We're very happy that Patrick has joined us! If one is to judge by the collective “buzz” of our society—newsmedia, blogs, at the coffee shop, over our wiretapped telephones—it’s a pretty bleak world out there. Iraq and Iran, big oil and climate change, E. coli [...]