Green = Gratitude

As 2009 draws to a close and I look back at the most recent year that will too soon become a distant memory, a feeling of reflection is sweeping over me.

2009 was a year unlike any I can remember in my life. As an environmentalist, whatever that means, it's incredible how much negativity enters my life. Polar bears facing extinction. Pollution not being mitigated. Atrocities to the land and the living creatures across the globe are rampant. An unthinkable plastic vortex in the ocean. Houses constantly re-sided with vinyl, a known toxic material. Oceans rising. Poor people on distant islands suffering at the expense of wealthy nations that for all intents and purposes seem they could care less about. Barack Obama won the presidency in convincing fashion and brought with him a renewed sense of Hope. Then Sarah Palin released a book and was suddenly in the media spotlight again. (Editor's note: Recall that she is in favor of shooting wolves from helicopters and drilling for oil in one of the world's last pristine landscapes). How? No, seriously. I thought her 15 minutes were over.

This is a lot to swallow for an optimist. "Environmentalists" tend to be optimists. We have to be because, well, we care about something other than ourselves. And that "thing" we care about leads us on a Sisyphusian struggle. Actually, I seem to be using the nomenclature—Environmentalist—hesitantly here at the end of the year. I'm not sure why but by the end of this post hope to have clarity.

People care about all kinds of things. The history of humankind has been nothing if not unimagineable. I don't practice any form of standardized religion. I'm not an atheist though. I fear death and find beauty in every single detail of my daily life. That may seem unreasonable but as an aspiring photographer, noticing details is in the fabric of who I am. I believe there is some sort of explanation out there for why the hell we exist on this intricate planet and can't even comprehend how we humans have discovered as much as we have about the universe.

That said, we live on this planet. This is our home. This is our only home.

Try to imagine what your house would look like if you burned toxic chemicals in each of your rooms all day every day. What if when you went to work, your neighbor brought over a giant bottle of bleach and dumped it on your flower beds? Or if he drilled holes in your roof? What if you decided to plant a vegetable garden and down the street, a small factory constantly dumped toxic sludge into the ground, eventually contaminating your own dirt and ruining your vegetables?

Grim. Thought I said I was an optimist...?

The trouble I am having here at the end of the year is not that President Obama hasn't fixed the economy or paid off the national debt or cured cancer or finished my upstairs bathroom. The problem I am having as an optimist is that the groundswell of support for the green movement seems to have plateaued.

My mother still has her reusable shopping bags from the 1970s. She and my dad once owned a Honda Civic that got 40+ miles to the gallon. In the 1980's.

Why do we go through these phases? Are we really so shallow that we care about the polar bears and our carbon footprints only when gas is over $3.00 per gallon? Why? Why does the price of the fuel our cars burn have ANYTHING to do with caring about living responsibly? See, this is where I have gotten lost this year. The green movement started as people really caring, I think, and then after the presidential inauguration, health care became the only thing we talked about. Michael Jackson, the king of pop, died. That's a big deal. Is it big enough for CNN to turn into E! and report on nothing other than 24/7 coverage of MJ? Until the balloon boy story captured our national attention for what seemed like an eternity. Seriously, is this what we care about?

I don't want to call myself an environmentalist anymore. We shouldn't have to. Caring about issues that matter should not require a movement. Or a label. I feel like the quality of life in our country is not getting better. Sure we txt, tweet and have Mafia Wars to get us through the day. But are we also spending time outside? Breathing fresh air?

According to the movie Food, Inc. (Editor's note: This movie should be required viewing for all Americans), 1 in 3 Americans born after the year 2000 will develop early onset diabetes. 1 in 2 for African American babies.

What are we doing? Changing our light bulbs and using fewer plastic bags is not enough. These are great things to do but in the grand scheme of things we as a people need to fundamentally change our definition of the American Dream. If we keep up with this pace of buying McMansions with toxic drywall from China and eating food that is making us sick, what are we really dreaming of?

I had the good fortune of meeting artist David Brown yesterday. He lives in a straw bale house with no electricity and no running water in Old Saybrook, CT. My wife recently helped him adopt a stray cat that needed a home. This was one of the most gentle and kind souls I had ever met. He is so grateful for the simplest things in life.

Hence, the title of this post. People call people who speak up about caring about natural things "Environmentalists" and we people supposedly are part of the Green Movement. But if you boil away capitalism and Americanism and corruption and everything else, all we people really want is for it to be mainstream to live natural lives and to be grateful and appreciative of what we were born into.

I don't mean we all should live like David. I don't think I could. As a society, there are some luxuries I don't think we could do away with and still have a functional society. But there are so many things we could live without and expectations of those things that could away, revealing a less stressful and more enjoyable way of life.

We as a country have completely lost our connection with the land on which we live. We don't farm. We don't need the sun to tell time. We heat and have air conditioning so the seasons don't really matter. Fruits and vegetables are made to look ripe through unnatural processes throughout the year.

Here at the end of the year, and decade, I want more than anything for us to stop and really think about what is real. And what we actually need in our lives in order to be happy.

Aiki Farms and Ed Begley Jr.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting one of our heroes yesterday, Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed has been friends with Robert Burns (pictured below demonstrating good composting techniques), of Aiki Farms for years. Robert is an organic farmer in Ledyard, CT and had a small event at the farm to teach some of the practices of organic farming and to get people to come out learn about the challenges small farmers face.

Begley was the star of the event and most participants had seen his show, Living With Ed. He has been an actor since the '60s and has been an environmental activist since 1970.

His show, Living With Ed, is a glance inside the life of he and his tolerant wife, Rachelle. He walks, rides his bike to make toast, she drives a Prius, he cooks in a solar oven, collects rainwater to water the garden, has solar panels, etc.

Why is he one of our heroes? Because he lives among peers who care about big houses, lavish lifestyles, ritz, glamour, and fancy cars. And he has been riding his bike around LA for almost 40 years. I respect that. He is a down to Earth guy who was comfortable chatting with us, answering our questions, and eating fresh vegetables from the farm.

All in all a very memorable, and inspiring Sunday afternoon, if I do say so myself.

eWaste

"The Computer Recycler" reached out to me to tell me about the new eWaste initiatives they are starting in Cromwell, CT. I encourage anyone interested to check them out:

We're working to setup programs with several towns and businesses in CT to help keep electronics out of CT's landfills.

We've recently expanded our operation to have the ability to service all of Connecticut, and now, with a recent partnership, we are not limited to just computer related eWaste; we can now accept all electronics, including TVs, monitors, and many other items most electronic recyclers do not accept. We can also now accept most appliances, refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwaves, even water-heaters... We're really excited about this expansion, and happy to do our part with going green for the state. You can check us out at www.thecomputerrecycler.com, and per your blog's inspiration, I've decided to start my own regarding CT's eWaste as well. :)

The Everyday Greener 11th Hour Project

"The Earth has all the time in the world. And we don't."
-Chief Oren Lyons


Nicole and I recently watched The 11th Hour and I have decided to do something fun. I need your help to carry out a project. I was so moved by the film that I went and purchased 11 copies of Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary about how human beings are pushing ourselves to the brink of extinction. I will send or hand these DVDs to the first 11 people who contact me to request one.

There's a catch (of course). But it's a good one, here's how this project will work:

You request a copy of the movie. I send or hand-deliver one of the eleven copies of the DVD to you. The DVD is not yours to keep, but I don't want it back (I have my own copy which I intend to watch several times). After you and your loved ones have watched the movie, you need to pass it on to someone who you think could benefit from watching it. Or who you think will enjoy it. I'm sure you know someone who will be affected by a powerful, inspirational film with many, MANY ideas of how we can get out of this mess.

Once the next person receives the movie, I need that person to contact me with the copy # of the DVD, their name and zip code (I will add them to this Google Map, and once they are done, they need to pass it on, etc.

This is sounding like a chain letter or one of those goofy emails that promises that you will win the lottery if you pass it on to 20 people within 10 seconds of reading it. This is nothing like that, but the payoff of spreading the word about how we can individually behave more responsibly is huge... and necessary if we want our descendants to have clean drinking water, polar bears, and breathable air. Maybe we should scale back the interest in exploring and building subdivisions on Mars, and start exploring new ways to live right here on the planet we were born on.

Solving the climate crisis is not just about governmental mandates. Although those will affect major change, so will individual local efforts by every single person who chooses to live differently. This is not about being a tree-hugging hippie.

It's about not buying the cheapest possible item every time you need to buy an item. At this point in history, that item was probably manufactured in terrible working conditions by workers with no benefits and miniscule income, and the factory is probably polluting the drinking water of its workers' villages.

It's about eating food produced locally, and it's about turning your back on the disgusting gluttony that has engulfed the American mindset. It's about using natural products to control the weeds in your lawn, if you even care to have a lawn.

Solving this crisis requires a complete overhaul in the way we think, in the way we do, and in the things we consider to be goals in life. We need to overhaul our manufacturing processes to the Bill McDonough plan of Waste Equals Food.

Back to the Project...

All you have to do is be one of the first 11 people to email me and we can get this thing started. Think of this as Netflix, except you are not sending the movie back to the place you got it from. Instead you are participating in an effort to Affect Change, by sending it on a journey to a person you know and then a person that person knows, and on and on.

I will update this map to show where each copy travels to.

Or look at this:


View Larger Map

The Project In Summary:

• You request one of the eleven copies of The 11th Hour that I have purchased for this project.
  
  • You must give me your Name and Address in order to receive your copy. How else can I deliver it to you?


• I will send or hand you the movie.


• You watch the movie with as many people as possible
  
  • Let me know how many people you watched it with and what copy of the movie you have. I will keep track of everything on a subsequent blog post.


• Send the movie on to someone you think will benefit from it, letting that person know how this works. (They can also read the instructions that will accompany the DVD).


• Working together, we can get a lot of people who may never have heard of this movie to see it, think about it, and spread the word to someone they know.
  

Green is the new black

Not to get all morbid or anything, but there was an interesting article on CNN.com a couple months ago (yes, I did forget to publish this post) about natural burials. I guess if one chooses to be buried, unless they plan on being exhumed one day and having their coffin raided for the untold riches within like an Egyptian tomb, why not go with a biodegradable coffin? Or maybe toilet paper mummification? Forget cremation, think of the garden that could grow in that cemetary!

Let's get a plastic recycling movement going

Do you live or work in or around Middletown, CT? If so, let's get a little campaign going here. I actually don't live anywhere near there but I've given up on my town (Waterford) to do anything more advanced than they are for recycling plastics. I've posted about this before and a reader of this blog (woohoo, I have one!!!) contacted me about wanting to get something going at the recycling center in her town. I have heard Middletown has been making advances and I know that Wesleyan University has great recycling and sustainability initiatives. It would be wonderful if something... ANYTHING could be done here in CT. I didn't know about the programs in New Haven and Manchester that she mentions but I am definitely going to find out more. I've dropped off a full carload at my uncle's house in Massachusetts before, but that is really far away and a hassle for him.

Anyway, here is an email that Elisabeth Holder sent to Kim O'Rourke, the Recycling Coordinator of Middletown, CT. If anyone else is interested in joining this effort, let me know and we can see what we can get going. I have another friend in Middletown that has contacted Ms. O'Rourke about this before as well, and if enough people get involved maybe we can get some changes made. The Middletown facility has lots of room for extra containers...

Dear Ms. O'Rourke,

I have been watching for the past decade or so as the Middletown recycling program has developed and I am very pleased with the diversity of options that is available. The curbside pickup is great because it recycles so many types of paper and cardboard, as well as being convenient. I have taken items to the swap shack for re-use and regularly bring quantities of cardboard and styrofoam to the landfill. However, I am concerned that there is nowhere to recycle plastics #3-7. Would it be possible to create some bins at the landfill as a pilot program and see what happens? I have heard that Manchester and New Haven recycle all these plastics. Occasionally I take plastics to my friends' bins in New Haven, but I feel a bit guilty about doing this. There must be some way for Middletown to do this more advanced recycling, too...

I would appreciate knowing what the drawbacks are and how they might be overcome. Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Elisabeth Holder
29 Long Lane
(Earth Science Teacher)

20% by 2010

Is your town participating? Shamefully, my town of Waterford is not, but I can say I have tried to do my part. After several emails to the First Selectman (Dan Steward), and after contacting Connecticut Innovations, I finally after months received the following email back from Steward:

Ryan,

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you on this idea. I have done some significant research into this program. I met with a representative of Ct Clean Energy and have their proposal for this project. The concept is excellent if we could utilize Green Energy in Waterford. The options provided in this program are for Photovoltaic, Methane Gas, Wind Power and Fuel Cell. The first three provide minimal return in our area based on location. The Fuel Cell option could provide us with approximately 5% of our usage based on where we can locate the unit initially with a major capital investment. The program provides an opportunity to buy energy certificates if we do not meet the 13% by 2010 which we would have to do. Those purchases based on today's rates would cost the town approximately $13,000 per year for no return other than to say we are trying to be green. At this time the Photovoltaic option has a very low potential of payback over the 20 year life based on the amount of electricity they produce. I also compared some of the other towns that have been doing this program for a while that are similar in size to Waterford and they are yet to hit 100 units.

I believe we are a little early in the process and we will continue to look to LEED options with our schools and possibly fuel cells for power and heat. Although they may be expensive today, the ROI is extremely important to our taxpayers as well as helping to maintain our environment.

Thanks again for your interest and we welcome your suggestions.

Dan Steward
860-444-5834

His comment about "The first three provide minimal return in our area based on location" absolutely baffle me. Our solar array that will be installed soon will provide 100% of the electricity our house needs. The sun is the friggin sun and as far as I know it's always up in the sky. Call me crazy. And our system will pay for itself within 7-8 years and will be producing electricity for at least 30 years (manufacturer's warranty). Hmmm something doesn't add up here.

See if your town is participating in this program. It doesn't hurt to ask and maybe you have someone more amenable to progress in control of your town.