Green Options » consumption http://greenoptions.com/tag/consumption Posts tagged 'consumption' Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:18:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en America’s Mecca: the Mall of America http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/11/19/america%e2%80%99s-mecca-the-mall-of-america/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/11/19/america%e2%80%99s-mecca-the-mall-of-america/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:18:41 +0000 John Ivanko http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/11/19/america%e2%80%99s-mecca-the-mall-of-america/ The only thing I could easily find in the whole place — with a “Made in the USA” label — was underwear. What I didn’t expect to find, was a mall heated by the sun (and body heat).

Forget the “conservative right” or “liberal left.” If America has a religion, it’s that of the consumption culture that has become the centerpiece for our economy. Now 70 percent of our GNP is based on its citizens purchasing stuff, on credit cards or otherwise.

This religion of consumption has its Mecca, too, called the Mall of America. A concept designed and constructed by the Triple Five Group — a privately held corporation owned by the Ghermezian brothers of Canada — Mall of America attracts more than 42 million visitors a year with their retail stores, restaurants, Nickelodeon Universe amusement park and Underwater Adventures Aquarium. While Mall of America is the most visited mall in the world, Triple Five Group also owns the biggest shopping mall in North America, the West Edmonton Mall.

Just for fun, I set out to find something that was made in America (and, ideally, without negatively impacting the environment). No, I didn’t think this was an insane goose chase. After all, more and more ecopreneurs I write about in ECOpreneuring are seeking to sell their “green products” through more conventional retail outlets – even big box stores and chains. That’s why Seventh Generation toilet paper can be now found at your local supermarket and nearly everyone, it seems, sells compact fluorescent bulbs these days. Perhaps one or two products might be here, in America’s megamall composed of 520 stores and 50 restaurants – housed under 4.2 million square feet of enclosed roof space. My odds should be good.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/11/19/america%e2%80%99s-mecca-the-mall-of-america/feed/ Book Review: Life, Money and Illusion http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:10:11 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/ Life, Money and Illuision is not about the magical arts or wizardry, though it does demystify money and Wall Street’s greedy aspirations abetted by the global push for more growth and consumption (and jobs).

Life, Money and Illuision: Living on Earth as if we want to stay (New Society, 2009) by Mike Nickerson is a driving tome that reconciles how our economy operates in relationship to the ecological and social systems on which we all depend.

In this second revised edition of Life, Money and Illusion, Nickerson explains that “Life” refers to the biological processes by which living things maintain themselves over time. “Money” represents our economic ideology that claims that as long as the volume of money changing hands increases, all will be well. “Illusion” refers to the fact that these two perspectives are directly opposed in terms of how they would solve current problems.

As one might imagine, a book of this stature and ambition — if providing meaningful analysis and argumentation (which it does superbly) — is not a cursory or a casual read. Running 448 pages, Life, Money and Illusion is meticulously fashioned in easy-to-understand language that makes Nickerson’s arguments and ideas both compelling and provocative. It draws from numerous fields, including ecology, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and, of course, economics.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/feed/ Brands and Culture, Symbiotic? http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/09/30/brands-and-culture-symbiotic/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/09/30/brands-and-culture-symbiotic/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:19:31 +0000 Ryan Jones http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/09/30/brands-and-culture-symbiotic/ \

When you need to urgently need to blow your nose in Germany and don’t have a tissue on hand, you might ask a friend “Hast du ein Tempo?” (Do you have a Tempo?)

Tempo, it turns out, is a brand of tissue, not the German word for tissue.

Substituting a brand name for a general product description is relatively common across a number of languages. How many times have you heard someone say “Just Google that” or “Can I have a COKE please”? Over the years, powerful brands have impacted our culture and slipped into our language. For a brand, this is the ultimate compliment and a big awareness driver. In fact, Coke and Google (the 2 examples above) are now the #1 and #2 brands respectively on Interbrands latest list of powerful brands. Tempo continues to be a very powerful brand in Germany.

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/09/30/brands-and-culture-symbiotic/feed/ Mass Customization’s Role in a Sustainable Economy http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/09/27/mass-customizations-role-in-a-sustainable-economy/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/09/27/mass-customizations-role-in-a-sustainable-economy/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:23:09 +0000 Fred Etcheverry http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/09/27/mass-customizations-role-in-a-sustainable-economy/

Mass production has been used since the industrial revolution as a means of creating large quantities of standardized products. It has many advantages over one-at-a-time production. It reduces coast and provide interchangeable parts.  Its disadvantages are that it can over produce and it dehumanizes labor.

Mass production will often continue to build inventory in spite of an economic slump. Large inventories can lead to massive layoffs. Unemployment reduces consumption and a viscous circle ensues.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/09/27/mass-customizations-role-in-a-sustainable-economy/feed/ Hummer Owners Take The High Ground, Defend Overconsumption With Patriotism http://gas2.org/2009/09/22/hummer-owners-take-the-high-ground-defend-overconsumption-with-patriotism/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/22/hummer-owners-take-the-high-ground-defend-overconsumption-with-patriotism/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:30:26 +0000 Christopher DeMorro http://gas2.org/2009/09/22/hummer-owners-take-the-high-ground-defend-overconsumption-with-patriotism/

This debate has already taken so many faces, and been argued so many times, that I cannot hope to add much more to it.

But I’ll try anyway.

A new study published by the Journal of Consumer Research has found that many Hummer owners excuse their large, oft-unnecessary H1 and H2s by crying patriotism and quoting American ideals like individualism. So are Hummer owners the morally righteous in the debate of anti-consumerism versus over-consumption?

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/09/22/hummer-owners-take-the-high-ground-defend-overconsumption-with-patriotism/feed/ Financial Sustainability: The Best Things in Life are Free http://sustainablog.org/2009/09/16/financial-sustainability-the-best-things-in-life-are-free/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/09/16/financial-sustainability-the-best-things-in-life-are-free/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:44:19 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/09/16/financial-sustainability-the-best-things-in-life-are-free/

Millions of Americans are declaring financial sustainability, even if they don’t exactly call it that. After all, we can’t borrow our way out of debt.

We’re paying down or paying off credit cards. We’re getting rid of our mortgage or putting an extra payment toward the principal balance (which has huge cost savings advantages). Or we’re practicing other frugality rules. According to data from the Federal Reserve, the amount Americans owe on consumer loans and credit cards plummeted $21.6 billion in July of 2009 – the largest monthly drop in consumer debt since the Federal Reserve started to track it in 1943. The “cash for clunkers” will, no doubt, alter the outcomes for August and September, but the trend continues to be less appetite for debt, not more.

People are working to get the bankers out of our lives, demanding that we become someone other than a “consumer.” So while the Federal government continues to re-affirm their “wise” decisions to bailout bankers and big finance, Americans are choosing to fire their credit card companies and break their “death pledge” (aka mortgage) by paying it off early. Of course, there are also many Americans who are in so far over their heads that unfortunately, personal bankruptcy and home foreclosure are the only remedy.

I am, however, focusing on those who thrive in abundance, simplicity and sustainability when it comes to community, lifestyle and, yes, financial intelligence. As my wife and I write about in ECOpreneuring, you cannot have ecological sustainability without a large degree of social and economic equity. The ECOnomy is not about “free trade” but fair trade; it’s about commerce that restores the planet, not destroys it or exploits people.

You can join these financial freedom-seekers too, by practicing financial sustainability. As most of us intuitively recognize, the best things in life are free (or close to it).

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/09/16/financial-sustainability-the-best-things-in-life-are-free/feed/ The Story of Sustainability http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/05/the-story-of-sustainability/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/05/the-story-of-sustainability/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:22:54 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/05/the-story-of-sustainability/ We’ve all heard of The Story of Stuff. But The Story of Sustainability?

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting Dennis Paige, founder of Swiftdeer-Paige, at Inn Serendipity to share a program on storytelling with our community of friends and family. Awarded the 2008 Grassroots Conservation Leadership Award from the Audubon-Chicago Region and the Chicago Wilderness Habitat Project, Paige has been entertaining and teaching thousands of people about the most pressing ecological issues of our times while inspiring a more balanced relationship with the web of life through the craft of storytelling. He’s been at it since 1989.

Paige’s hour-long program was a reminder of how far we still need to go on our journey of creating a “Story of Sustainability” that most American’s can embrace, not just a few. Obviously, the present American story of never-ending growth, executive bonuses, consumer-based economy, and more jobs is not compatible with the long term sustainability of a finite planet – especially if you recognize that despite our technological know-how, two thirds of the planet’s human inhabitants still cannot drink a glass of safe water, for example.

Elements of a Great Story

According to Paige, the elements of a great story are imagination, believability and content. Our group of local friends, bed & breakfast guests and family members circled around Paige as he orchestrated various activities to help our group, who ranged in ages from 4 to 80, become better storytellers and understand this ancient art and craft of storytelling. In terms of the content, it’s all about the problem, resolution and moral of the story.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/05/the-story-of-sustainability/feed/ The Honeywell Home Wind Turbine http://gas2.org/2009/07/22/the-honeywell-home-wind-turbine/ http://gas2.org/2009/07/22/the-honeywell-home-wind-turbine/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:33:44 +0000 Christopher DeMorro http://gas2.org/2009/07/22/the-honeywell-home-wind-turbine/

I thought this was a neat idea and if the manufacturer’s claims are true, it could be the first step towards individual energy independance for a lot of people. Honeywell, the same people who made my safe, teamed up with Earthtronics to produce a home wind turbine that lacks many of the drawbacks of larger wind turbines. Namely, all it takes is a gentle breeze to turn the blades, providing up to 2,000 kWh of energy annually.

It is a compact and neat idea. My only question is, does it actually work?

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/07/22/the-honeywell-home-wind-turbine/feed/ Personal Happiness and the Environment: A Sustainability Connection http://sustainablog.org/2009/07/08/personal-happiness-and-the-environment-a-sustainability-connection/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/07/08/personal-happiness-and-the-environment-a-sustainability-connection/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:40:10 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://sustainablog.org/2009/07/08/personal-happiness-and-the-environment-a-sustainability-connection/
In previous posts, I discussed the “Sustainability Prism”, the link between personal happiness and the economy, and the link between personal happiness and equity. In this post, I am exploring one more connection in this prism — the connection between personal happiness and the environment.

A common awareness all over the world now is that a major problem causing worldwide pollution, loss of natural lands, and extinction of species is overconsumption in the United States, and the developed world, in general. What is at the root of this overconsumption? Is it cheap production, and technology ‘improvements’ allowing for mass-production? Is it television and superb advertising of products? Is it the greed of rich and comfortable people?

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/07/08/personal-happiness-and-the-environment-a-sustainability-connection/feed/ Wheatless Wednesday: 6 Alternatives to 87,000 Slices of Bread http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/05/20/wheatless-wednesday-6-alternatives-to-87000-slices-of-bread/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/05/20/wheatless-wednesday-6-alternatives-to-87000-slices-of-bread/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 20:40:20 +0000 Gina Munsey http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/05/20/wheatless-wednesday-6-alternatives-to-87000-slices-of-bread/ Bread Footprint

Over the course of a lifetime, the average American consumes over 87,000 slices of bread.  Yes, you read that correctly — eighty seven thousand. That’s more than a loaf per week per person, not counting the additional 5,000 hot dog buns and 12,000 hamburger buns each American devours in his or her life.

All that wheat calculates out to a lifetime grand total of 21,947 loaves and buns.  The National Geographic Society’s Human Footprint project has illustrated this shocking bread obsession in a stunning visual (see the video clip below).   In the words of my little brother, who is no stranger to wheatless ways,  “That is a totally nasty amount of bread.”

There’s no argument that bread is an American staple.  Amber waves of grain are, after all, an American icon.  But we can’t live by bread alone.  So what are some wheatless alternatives?

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]]> http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/05/20/wheatless-wednesday-6-alternatives-to-87000-slices-of-bread/feed/ 30% Ocean Mercury Rise Linked to Asian Coal Plants http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/16/mercury-rising-%e2%80%93-scientists-discover-new-methylmercury-cycle-source/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/16/mercury-rising-%e2%80%93-scientists-discover-new-methylmercury-cycle-source/#comments Sat, 16 May 2009 07:19:56 +0000 Michael Ricciardi http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/16/mercury-rising-%e2%80%93-scientists-discover-new-methylmercury-cycle-source/ Sampling Mercury in the Eastern Pacific OceanWorld wide, 75 percent of human exposure to mercury is  from the consumption of marine fish and shell fish. In the U.S., about 40 percent of all human exposure to mercury is from tuna harvested in the Pacific Ocean, according to Elsie Sunderland, a coauthor of the recent US Geologic Survey study.

Data used in this study comes from one of 15 (so far) research cruises that are part of a much larger, international project called CLIVAR; the Climate Variability (CLIVAR) Repeat Hydrography/CO2 research   program.

Data analysis of the water samples indicated that total mercury levels in the North Pacific Ocean water have risen about 30 percent over the last 20 years.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/16/mercury-rising-%e2%80%93-scientists-discover-new-methylmercury-cycle-source/feed/ SUNfiltered: Story of Stuff Deemed “Anti-Capitalist” and “Biased” http://sustainablog.org/2009/05/12/sunfiltered-story-of-stuff-deemed-anti-capitalist-and-biased/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/05/12/sunfiltered-story-of-stuff-deemed-anti-capitalist-and-biased/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 18:52:31 +0000 Jeff McIntire-Strasburg http://sustainablog.org/2009/05/12/sunfiltered-story-of-stuff-deemed-anti-capitalist-and-biased/ Click here to view the full post.

In internet time, Annie Leonard’s The Story Of Stuff is relatively old. But the 2007 web video, produced by Free Range Studios and funded by the Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption (among others) has attained cult status in American classrooms. According to the New York Times, teachers around the country use the video to supplement environmental education textbooks that often lack information on recent scientific discoveries.

Creative teaching, right?

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/05/12/sunfiltered-story-of-stuff-deemed-anti-capitalist-and-biased/feed/ Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs Poison Hundreds of Chinese Workers http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/04/energy-efficient-lightbulbs-poison-hundreds-of-chinese-workers/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/04/energy-efficient-lightbulbs-poison-hundreds-of-chinese-workers/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 23:31:14 +0000 Bryan Nelson http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/04/energy-efficient-lightbulbs-poison-hundreds-of-chinese-workers/ Fluorescent Lightbulb

Chinese workers making energy-saving fluorescent lightbulbs for Western consumers have been sickened by the hundreds due to mercury poisoning.

While poor factory conditions in China shoulder most of the blame, the news does raise serious questions about just how “green” the mercury-rich fluorescent lightbulbs actually are.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/04/energy-efficient-lightbulbs-poison-hundreds-of-chinese-workers/feed/ Cutting out Credit Cards: Living Within (or Beneath) our Means http://sustainablog.org/2009/04/08/cutting-out-credit-cards-living-within-or-beneath-our-means/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/04/08/cutting-out-credit-cards-living-within-or-beneath-our-means/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:21:03 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/04/08/cutting-out-credit-cards-living-within-or-beneath-our-means/ Cutting up Credit Cards

There’s more to buying that high-tech gizmo or fancy new clothes, especially if you put it on plastic.   If you’re anything like the so-called average American with combined balances on your credit cards pushing upwards of $10,000 per household, then you’re paying a lot more than the purchase price after factoring in an exorbitant interest rate on the unpaid balance.  Just one credit card with a balance of $15,000 and a monthly minimum payment of $300 based on an interest rate of 13 percent would take nearly twenty years to pay off, amounting to nearly $9,000 in interest, according to the website Cardweb.com.

To save or spend?

This raging debate among economic recovery pundits mask the reality that based on our current “free trade” global economic system, what we really mean by spending is consuming.  And in this global free trade system, ecological costs are “externalized” if we use the correct economist’s jargon.  As a result, we pollute, destroy and exploit where ever we can.  If you can’t do this in the United States very easy thanks to national laws and regulations, well then, export your manufacturing and service operations to places that don’t have many, or any, regulations.  Then import these products back into the U.S. to sell at a big box store, plopped down where there used to be viable farmland.  For example, these BIG companies move operations to places where poor people can sort through toxic junk computers for scrap or to places where throwing something away can’t possibly ruin our own clean air or water in our communities.

According to Emily Kaiser’s analysis for Reuters:  “U.S. President Barack Obama needs to convince Americans to spend now and save later in order to get the U.S. economy back on solid footing.”  It doesn’t have to be this way.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/04/08/cutting-out-credit-cards-living-within-or-beneath-our-means/feed/ Electric Innovation http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/15/electric-innovation/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/15/electric-innovation/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:10:13 +0000 Kelli Peterson http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/15/electric-innovation/ Better Place logoChanging consumer behavior can be a slow painful process.  Not only does it require educational efforts but often widespread systemic conformity is required. However innovation has radically altered some of our most fundamental behaviors.

Globally, we now access cash from a machine and we carry and use mobile phones for a significant percentage of our calling.  Its this type of basic change that will be required to have significant impact on socially and environmentally responsible consumption habits.

Shai Agassi has just such aspirations.  The electric car has been the talk of the town at the Detroit auto show this year but Shai’s concept is the most intriguing and well thought out.  In this week’s Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria talks to Shai about his idea for a Better Place in “Switched-On Highways”.    Shai does exactly what is necessary for radical innovation – he flips the approach.  Instead of framing the problem as “how to build a better car”, he frames it as “how to run a country without oil”.  He takes an ambitious approach that looks at both the infrastructure, the model of ownership and of course, the power source.

Return to electricity

Even with oil returning to under $50 a barrel, Shai’s new model is betting on the electric car to remove our dependency and make the switch to clean electricity.  With the required infrastructure in place, the cost ends up somewhere between six and eight cents per mile which is motivation in and of itself, even if oil got down to $25 a barrel.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/15/electric-innovation/feed/ WWF and World’s Second Largest Brewer Replenish Water in South Africa http://ecoworldly.com/2009/01/14/wwf-and-worlds-second-largest-brewer-replensih-water-in-south-africa/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/01/14/wwf-and-worlds-second-largest-brewer-replensih-water-in-south-africa/#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:21:12 +0000 Dave Harcourt http://ecoworldly.com/2009/01/14/wwf-and-worlds-second-largest-brewer-replensih-water-in-south-africa/ SAB Ltd, is funding water saving projects to compensate for its potential water consumption of 14 billion litres a year in South Africa. WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is facilitating the “water neutrality” process with a South African Government Project to ensure that this is not just a multinational greenwashing.

Beer

SAB Ltd is the South African subsidiary of SABMiller which is the second largest brewery in the world .

Water Neutrality

In October 2008, Dr Deon Nel, Head of the WWF Sanlam Living Waters Partnership explained

“The concept of water neutrality, based on its carbon equivalent, has been used loosely over the past years; however, until now no-one has been able to quantitatively justify these claims. We believe that our scheme is the first in the world that allows participants to truly claim to be water neutral.”

Participants will replenish water supplies, by investing in projects that quantitatively supplement water supplies equal to their water usage.

Note: Water neutrality has taken on a form in certain areas that is significantly different to the process introduced here by WWF.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/01/14/wwf-and-worlds-second-largest-brewer-replensih-water-in-south-africa/feed/ Book Review: Pat Murphy’s Plan C means Community and Curtailment http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-pat-murphys-plan-c-means-community-and-curtailment/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-pat-murphys-plan-c-means-community-and-curtailment/#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:31:02 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-pat-murphys-plan-c-means-community-and-curtailment/

If The Long Emergency and An Inconvenient Truth sounded the alarm for us to wake up and change course, Pat Murphy’s hard-hitting Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change (New Society, 2008) presents a compelling case for joining together to implement plan C: revitalizing community and curtailing our consumption culture.

For the record, Plan A is our present course: more oil drilling, more growth, more carbon dioxide emissions, more consumption, more of a gap between the haves and have-nots. Plan B suggests that we can shop our way out of climate change and peak oil, if only we consume “green” products and services. But Plan C advocates a drastic reduction in consumption as the necessary ingredient for a sustainable, equitable world. Replacing competition with cooperation and materialism with meaningful human relationships, Plan C makes an appealing case for unique places where neighbors care for each other and communities work cohesively to achieve a common wealth that has little to do with money.

Plan C provides a vivid analysis of our present predicament of peak oil (and rising energy prices), climate change and the growing social and economic inequity both in the US and globally. It’s paired with timely solutions addressing food, transportation, and the built environment within the context of revitalizing our communities (read: turn off the TV and invite your neighbors over for lemonade) and curtailment that might even involve some personal sacrifices. Is a plasma TV, using about as much electricity as a refrigerator, really necessary in order to watch the evening news? Why not ditch the clothes dryer and line-dry laundry instead?

Could this be what President-Elect Barack Obama alluded to during his acceptance speech in Chicago? President-Elect Obama called it a “new spirit of sacrifice” and asked Americans to summon “a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility” and called on us to look after ourselves and each other. This definitely doesn’t sound like an appeal for us to go vacationing at Disney World, or hit the malls.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-pat-murphys-plan-c-means-community-and-curtailment/feed/ Fox News: Kids Should Be Punished For Caring About the Environment http://ecochildsplay.com/2008/12/23/fox-news-kids-should-be-punished-for-caring-about-the-environment/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2008/12/23/fox-news-kids-should-be-punished-for-caring-about-the-environment/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:26:03 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://ecochildsplay.com/2008/12/23/fox-news-kids-should-be-punished-for-caring-about-the-environment/ Kids should be punished for caring about our earthI don’t normally watch Fox News as it is too upsetting and degrading; however, I couldn’t help but share my indignation over a video fellow Green Options Editor Alex Felsinger of Planetsave shared with me.  This Fox News video titled “Cold Chicken” begins by bashing PETA’s protest over KFC (while the reporters eat fried chicken), then moves on to targeting green kids.

Children who are generally concerned about our planet’s health and climate change do not deserve to be denigrated by Fox’s idiot Greg Gutfeld, who would actually punish his kids for being green!

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2008/12/23/fox-news-kids-should-be-punished-for-caring-about-the-environment/feed/ Interview: Santa Admits Causing Global Warming http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/17/santa-admits-causing-global-warming/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/17/santa-admits-causing-global-warming/#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:06:02 +0000 Ramsay Mameesh http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/17/santa-admits-causing-global-warming/ World Santa Claus Congress 2008 by Maltesen

In a report due to be released this Thursday in San Francisco, NASA scientists will reveal satellite imagery indicating that over 2 trillion tons of polar land ice has melted since 2003, we contacted the most famous polar resident to get his reaction.

In the following exclusive pre-Christmas interview, Inspired Economist investigative reporter Ramsay Mameesh, asks Santa Claus about his role in causing global warming and the dangers it poses for his business.  As well as China’s effect on North Pole Industries’ toy market share.  And how the economic downturn is impacting toy production.

Ramsay Mameesh:  Santa Claus, thank you so much for agreeing to do an interview with the Inspired Economist, I know you’re a busy man so close to Christmas.  I think everyone is familiar with who you are, so to save time I’ll skip the usual introduction, and get straight to questions.   Do you feel any sense of responsibility for our current climate crisis?

Santa Claus: Ho, Ho, Ho.  I see you’re still upset about not getting the Tonka Truck Fire Engine that one Christmas!

RM: Yeah, something like that.  But seriously, don’t you think the culture of consumption that you personally promote, is directly responsible for melting polar ice-caps?  I mean, you may be driving yourself out of business, doesn’t that concern you?

Santa Claus: Yes, we are very concerned about climate change, and that’s why I have appointed a special committee of Elves to explore solutions.  One of the Elf’s suggestions is that we begin using Reindeer poop, to power our facilities, instead of coal.   It’s sort of a nasty Catch-22, North Pole Industries is a toy manufacturer, and if we don’t produce  toys we’re out of business.  On the other hand, over consumption is causing climate change, and endangering our manufacturing facilities.  I want to assure you, and all the good boys and girls, that as CEO of North Pole Industries we will find creative solutions.  Christmas will continue.

RM:  That’s good to know, I’m sure children around the world, will be relieved to hear that Christmas will continue.  However, you did not answer my question, are you willing to admit for the record that you played a key role in causing global warming?

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/17/santa-admits-causing-global-warming/feed/ South Africa’s Thanksgiving Table - Mielie Pap http://ecoworldly.com/2008/11/14/south-africas-thanksgiving-table-melie-pap/ http://ecoworldly.com/2008/11/14/south-africas-thanksgiving-table-melie-pap/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:01:42 +0000 Dave Harcourt http://ecoworldly.com/2008/11/14/south-africas-thanksgiving-table-melie-pap/ Note: This article is part of EcoWorldly’s series on food and agriculture around the world. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this week EcoWorldly writers are exploring environmental issues related to bringing food from the farm to your dinner plate and looking at food and farming in other cultures and countries around the world. Subscribe to our RSS feed by email to get all of these, plus our regular stories about the environment from writers living on six continents.

The majority of Thanksgiving dinners in South Africa would be based on a very large serving of Mielie Pap, accompanied by a vegetable stew and possibly a small portion of meat. That is if it were celebrated here!

Mealie Pap

Mielie Pap is a thick white porridge produced from maize meal and is the main staple of the majority of the people of South Africa. This is especially true of poorer rural people who might aspire to bread and rice but need to rely on maize because of its low price and the fact that they are able to produce and process maize in the household. The dominance of maize in the diet of South Africans is reflected by the fact that on average one third of South African’s calorie intake is supplied by maize.

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