Green Options

I met several lovely chickens yesterday when I was in Oakland, and I am now quite smitten. They are truly engrossing creatures to observe; the animal’s social behavior is very complex, their vocalizations are both soothing and fascinating, to say nothing of the delicious fresh eggs they provide. More and more urban chickens are being raised in cities, as increasing numbers of people are growing their own food and trying to create a more locally-based, sustainable and self-sufficient food supply.

As our country is mired in creative destruction, a massive grassroots effort is spreading throughout our nation that can help to positively reshape our economy. Millions of people are moving their money from huge, self-serving corporate banks into locally owned community banks and regional credit unions. The Move Your Money Project is growing faster than our country’s rapidly increasing unemployment numbers.

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki directed this Move Your Money video, utilizing the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a metaphor for how our banking system has deteriorated.

“People all over the country are choosing to move their money out of bigger banks and into smaller, community-oriented financial institutions that generally avoided the reckless investments and schemes that helped cause the financial crisis.“

Not to be confused with 350.org, the 3/50 project is all about making a conscious effort to keep the little guy afloat.

The Department of Energy’s innovative gingerbread house is fully weatherized, and includes solar panels and water recycling systems. If only it were also sugar-free, organic and locally made. Happy Kwanzaa to us all.

Lauria Hill, an Administrative Support Specialist with the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, explains their sustainable gingerbread house.

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Christmas is right around the corner! Can you believe it? The holiday totally snuck up on me this year.

It’s been a rough year for everyone, especially charitable organizations. Most charities are reporting huge drops in donations in a year when more folks need help from these organizations than they have in a long time. If you’ve still got unfulfilled gifts on your list, you might consider donating to a local charity in your recipient’s name!

Here are some great resources for charitable giving:

There is only one way to avoid the collapse of our species on the planet earth: we have to consume less. And I believe that the world renowned  Reverend Billy Talen and the Church of Life after Shopping can show us the path to sustainable righteousness.

Tracey Noelle Luz took this photograph of Reverend Billy Talen and a group of holiday elves actively promoting the liturgy of the Church of Stop Shopping.

Many of our Bayview neighbors joined us last weekend to celebrate the second anniversary of the Latona Community Garden. What used to be a smelly skanky debris-filled eyesore, is now a thriving organic community garden. The formerly blighted corner has been transformed into a warm and welcoming public space where neighbors gather, local kids play, and organic food is grown.

Several of the neighborhood kids climbing the walnut tree in the Latona Community Garden.

Walkscore rates a neighborhood’s walkability on a 1 to 100 scale based on a number of criteria such as proximity to restaurants and grocery stores. Now, they’ve added a transit rating which takes into account a neighborhood’s public transportation options!

Awesome, right? The idea is to “measure how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle,” so adding a transit component makes sense. Maybe you can’t hoof it to the grocery store, but you can walk to a train station that takes you to a farmers market. You can still do your thing car-free!

So why do they need our help?

See a battery, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck. Especially if you take the battery that you found and safely recycle it, keeping dangerous toxic poisons out of our seas and drinking water.

I found this used battery near the ocean in Pacifica, right across from our friend Rick’s Salada Beach Cafe. It has since been safely recycled, and kept from polluting our waterways.

Our oceans are already turning into acid. We have to start today to try to make things better. Keeping one more toxic battery or piece of plastic out of our oceans, collectively, will make a difference. Once you start looking, you may be really surprised just how many “disposable” batteries litter our streets and sewers. Next time you see one, pick it up; what you do matters.

Recently I have been reading very disturbing research about how Diet Coke can possibly cause cancer and kill you. The artificial sweetener that is used in most diet beverages, aspartame, once ingested, becomes a lethal poison called methyl alcohol. Small quantities of this noxious substance can lead to blindness and death; even the most miniscule amounts of this aspartame toxin are strongly linked to cancer.

This is an image of the cancerous tumor that was recently removed from my body.

CNN highlights the Billionaires for Wealthcare enthusiastically singing the praises of a public option, as they entertained unsuspecting attendees at a health insurance conference in Washington DC last week. Wolf Blitzer and Jeanne Moos discuss the increasingly popular use of guerilla musical theatre across the nation. Cleverly orchestrated performances and mini-musicals seem to have become much more popular with folks now than rabid screaming teabaggers.