Green Options

When the headlines told us that the global warming debate was over, it seemed like we environmentalists could breathe a collective sigh of relief. The United States elected a cap-and-trade-sympathetic administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency says it is going to exert some of the “P” in its acronym after it formally labeled carbon dioxide a pollutant last month. So now that the debate is over, has the discussion ended?

Much of what I assumed to be climate consensus has been turned on its head since I moved to the Midwest from New York. Meaning, there a lot of people here in the Middle who care about environmental issues but are not convinced climate change is related to human activities and/or is as dire as predicted. I believe it is. . .and I also believe that in order to get buy-in from such diverse constituents, it’s imperative that we engage in dialog with those who hold differing opinions.

Welcome to the Carnival of the Green! This is the 182nd edition of Treehugger’s weekly roundup of eco links from around the blogosphere.

Welcome to Green Building Elements where home owners and LEED accredited professional alike can learn about advances in green and renewable building materials, current projects in sustainable architecture and progressive urban planning, and local guidelines for creating green structures in [...]

I’m a novice gardener. I’ve been interested in gardening for a few years now, but since my two little girls will, this summer, turn 3 and 5, you can imagine, I’m sure, what the last five summers have been like for me. This year, however, I’m dedicated, I’m committed, I have two children who are happy and independent and love the outdoors, I have a next-door-neighbor who just cut down the tree in her front yard that loomed over my front yard–in other words, I am ready to garden.

I still don’t have an infinity of free time, however, and so not only am I gardening with the lasagna garden method, but I’m also basically eschewing nearly all ornamentals. I like my garden to be pretty, sure, but I also need it to multitask for me.

Multitasking means sunflowers, and speckled cranberry beans that climb them. It means kale in the border garden, and carrots in between the lilac bushes.

It also means that I’m growing many of the natural materials that I’d like to craft with in the coming year. Here’s a list of what I’m growing, and some other ideas for what you could put in your own crafty garden:

My green crafting manifesto is clear about this: I craft primarily with recycled materials, and if I can’t make a recycled material work for my project, then I use primarily natural materials–cotton, hemp, wood, etc.

Generally, this makes the positives of green crafting quite clear. When I craft with recycled materials, then I know that I’m taking positive action for the environment even if what I’m crafting with was originally some sort of resource-heavy plastic–felting around dumpster-dived plastic Easter eggs to make shaker eggs or play food for my daughters, perhaps, or incorporating costume jewelry into a new piece.

The ethics of crafting even with natural materials, however, are trickier, because you have to consider not just the nature of your material, but also its provenance.

Take wood.

Stuck in traffic the other day and surrounded by an army of traffic cameras, I was forced to pay closer attention to the street signs at a busy intersection. It was at this intersection where I saw this sign and thought that it really defines our present situation. “Left Turn” referring to the political/social change in direction that our country has taken. And, “Yield on Green” referring to the fact that [...]

The success of organic foods was never a sure bet in South Korea. Since the Korean word for pesticides literally means “plant medicines” many Koreans have had a difficult time seeing what’s wrong with using them. But today’s ultra health conscious Korean is becoming more environmentally savvy too. Today, words like “blossom” and “bloom” are too mild to describe the exploding popularity of organic foods and environmentalism in South Korea.

My days of Strawberry Shortcake Shrinky-Dinks are long past (although my childhood Strawberry Shortcake doll is still a prized possession–our household rule is that we are allowed no commercial culture toys in the house, unless they’re “vintage”. Ahem), but wow, were they crazy fun or what?

At last year’s Strange Folk festival, some Girl Scouts taught me and my kiddos the joys of #6 plastic. The basic concept: It shrinks! Like Shriny-Dinks! Equally awesomely! And because you get to draw your own pictures, not fill in some pre-printed coloring sheet, AND you get to re-use before you recycle, it’s a great activity to do with our budding little environmentalists.

There are lots of tutorials on the web for shrinking #6 plastic, all a little different, but here’s how my family does ours:

One of my favorite web comics is xkcd’s “Duty Calls,” where the stick figure can’t tear himself away from the computer because “Someone is WRONG on the internet.” Unfortunately, too often discussions on environmental topics devolve into “You’re wrong” - “No, you’re wrong” and we lose sight of what we are trying to accomplish, namely, moving towards a healthier, sustainable, more energy efficient lifestyle.  If you’re the kind of person who has to be right all the time, you’re not going to convince anyone else of anything - you’ll just be arguing minute points like there’s a debate coach keeping score, and at the end someone’s going to hand you a little trophy.  In this type of debate, the goal is to get the other side to see the advantages of going green, even if it’s in a small way.  Keeping the conversation going is more important than proving the other side wrong.  Here are a few strategies to achieve that goal.

Avoid “Green” - The term is overused and since it means different things to different people, many are confused by it.  To me, “Green” means healthy, sustainable, and energy efficient.  To someone else, it might conjure images of hippies in communes.  Companies use “Green” to sell products that have no business being near that word.  So if you’re trying to convince someone to conserve energy and water, use “energy conservation” or tie it into “energy independence.”  If you are arguing health aspects, use “chemical free,” “carcinogen free,” “hypoallergenic,” or just plain “healthy.”

Um, you’ve probably gotten the idea by now that I like to craft with felted wool sweaters, right? The twenty-pound cardboard box on my study floor full of cut-up wool sweaters tells me that this is true. And you’ve probably also figured out that I prefer to use acrylic felt made from recycled plastic over conventional wool felt (and you don’t agree–I swear, that Wool Comes from Sheep post is the only one I have ever seen on all of Green Options in which a commentor calls a blogger a Bad Name. A Bad Name! Really? Because of crafting? I sort of left the world of academics in favor of crafting to avoid crazy politics, but anyway…).

Ahem. My point, now that I’ve gotten around to it, is that I actually do craft with new wool, but I need to know where that wool has come from so that I can assure myself that the sheep were humanely raised as the happy, frolicsome beasts they’re meant to be (I assume–never having raised sheep myself, they could be fierce and blood-thirsty predators, for all I really know).

And one of the awesomest kinds of wool to craft with, especially if you’re not a spinner or a knitter, is wool roving (just don’t use superwash!). You can felt wet-felt wool roving to make your own felt, or you can welt-felt it around a form. A good project for a newbie is this one, in which we’re going to wet-felt some roving around a river rock. It will be hefty but soft, good for anything from a paperweight to a plaything:

After years of protests and obstacles, Wal-Mart has given up on plans to build a giant SuperCenter store on the environmentally-sensitive White Slough in Vallejo, CA.

Environmental activists were joined by Vallejoans for Responsible Growth and California Healthy Communities Network in their opposition to the plans from the start. Due to their vocal opposition, Vellejo’s city council forced a $700,000 independent environmental investigation into the plans in 2007.

Carl Pope, the longest-serving Executive Director in the Sierra Club’s storied history, announced today that he will step down from his leadership position