Buy Green

Of course many of my posts have already offered green purchase options, but I'll go a little broader with this one. Really, I just want to provide you with knowlegde and options for how or where to buy green.
CNN has a special report called Buying Green. There will can find a fair amount of information including sales figures through 2005 on food, consumer products, and construction. There is a survey and a forum, and also some help decoding the labels (which can be very misleading).
TreeHugger has a great series called How to Green Your Life, with topics including work, water, lighting, wardrobe, and many more.
I also really dig The Green Guide, which claims to be The Green Living Source for Today's Conscious Consumer. The feature today is The Eco-nomical Bedroom, and at a quick glance it looks very well done. It offers you different options from different manufacturers and includes pricing.
Those are a few of the better sites that I've encountered. I'm sure there are many more that I've missed.

The Evolution of Eco Books

Call this an addendum to the last post. While reading over those reviewed by BookPage, I couldn't help but think of a few on my shelf. As I pulled the dust bunnies off of them just now, I realized that the three books I'm about to mention pretty well cover the entire evolution of the environmental movement, and I think aptly demonstrate the knowledge level of the time they were written.

Few will deny that Silent Spring by Rachel Carson all but formally began the mass environmental movement. Writing in 1962, Carson noted that she could no longer hear the birds chirping as she once did, or how her parents or grandparents often described. She writes mainly about pesticides and their reckless use, but also about other social and political factors and the parts they play in the destruction of our ecosystems. This was, and remains to be, an accurate and well written "state of the environment." Even though it was published 45 years ago, I still recommend it.

Before An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore wrote Earth in the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit. I read this back in college, and even then thought "Whoa, easy there killer!" Gore didn't have very good data and often spewed diarrhea-like from his typewriter in 1992. I remember many people referring to this book and asking, "Do you want THAT guy to be our President??" when he ran against Bush. My answer was no. I don't recommend reading Earth in the Balance unless you like science fiction, but I think it nicely captured the knowledge level of 1992: we knew there were problems, but we were all over the board about what we should do about it.

And lastly, a super intriguing book called Cradle to Cradle; Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart (1992). Even after 4 years (or 5 today - Happy New Year), this book is still rattling heads. You may have heard the phrase Cradle to Grave, but this book challenges even the old mantra of the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They consider traditional recycling "downcycling" and offer the alternative of "upcycling" - where a product actually becomes higher quality with use, or at least not lower quality. It is quite obvious that most of the things we recycle are only recycled once, and are no longer recycleable: the free pencils made out of recycled pop bottles that one can find anywhere, for example. The first chapter is named "This book is not a tree". Let me quote one paragraph for your thought-provocation. "This book is not a tree. It is printed on synthetic "paper" and bound into a book format developed by innovative book packager Charles Melcher of Melcher Media. Unlike the paper with which we are familiar, it does not use any wood pulp or cotton fiber but is made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers. This material is not only waterproof, extremely durable, and recycleable by conventional means; it is also a prototype for the book as a 'technical nutrient,' that is, as a product that can be broken down and circulated infinitely in industrial cycles - made and remade as "paper" or other products." I just got this one for Christmas so can't give my full review yet, but all the other treehuggers around are huge fans.

Save the Planet One Book Report at a Time

While checking out at the library a while ago, a high school girl next to me laid her books on the counter and the clerk immediately said, "Someones doing a paper for school." After smirking about the clerk's nosiness, I looked at the girl's collection and they were all about climate change. She didn't appear pleased about the assignment, but maybe she was just smirking at the clerk's nosiness too.

I remember doing my first environmental reports and it was really hard to find any good resources at most libraries. Now, of course, every ex-vice president and his brother have written books on the subject. Many of these books are specialized so you can get decent info on everything from ice caps to the deep see or the boreal forest.

Then last week I picked up the latest BookPage, which can be found at most libraries, and the cover story is about environmental books.

I've not read the five books they feature, but I'll list them here with a quick summary and you can check them out.

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century is one I've heard a lot about. This is a true treehugger book and will present a new way to do everything you do. If you want to change and need ideas, read this.

Hell and High Water: Global Warming-The Solution and the Politics-and What we Should Do has too long a title, but sounds like it might hit the spot on how environmental protection is not about environmental protection - it's more about politics. The review says that the book offers many problems and not many solutions.

The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience sounds very cool to me, as one who wishes to put his money where his mouth is. The review points out that this book is very credible and current, hence useful.

365 Ways to Change the World: How to Make a Difference One Day at a Time is one of those books that offers you some idea every day, from donating money to simply meditating about some topic.

The Business of Changing the World sounds like it has more to do with philanthropy than granola. It's written by the head of Timberland (shoes) and focuses on how companies can make a difference through volunteering and giving. While this isn't directly environmental, it's easy to choose an environmental project or program when considering philanthropy.

Hemp is Good

Hemp has been a staple fabric for a certain group of friends since, oh, middle school I guess. Little did I know how green they were! Widely misunderstood and linked to the marijuana culture, hemp is actually an excellent material with many uses, and can't be smoked. Well, it won't get you high anyway!

Hemp (Cannabis Sativa) is one of the most intriguing plants humans have come into continued contact since and before the advent of agriculture. For thousands of years, right up until the 1900s, hemp was of critical value because it is a rapidly renewable resource that is capable of being grown all over the earth in varying climates and soil conditions. It is grown for textiles & fabrics, fuel, fiber, food, paper, medicine and more, making hemp one of the most valuable and beneficial crops humanity has been wise enough to take full advantage of...until now. -The Hempest

The Hempest has the largest variety I've found of reasonably-priced hemp products. I got a (Hempy's Beanie) hat from there for an early Christmas present and like it a lot. It's my first experience with hemp so I'll let ya'll know how it lasts.

My other fav hemp online store is Rawganique, which carries many other organic fabric items too.

To shop in real life, go to this mapmuse map of hemp clothing stores nationwide. I also keep this link over in my link list for future reference.

A few hemp species are even native wild forbs in this part of the world, so I've got some on order for delivery in the spring. Hopefully by next fall I'll have some dead stalks that I can try to harvest and weave. We'll see how that experiment goes....

In the days and weeks to come: organic cotton, bamboo, flax, coconut(?), who knows.

Organic Everywhere

Whether you're just curious about "Organic" products or you buy nothing but, you can't deny the explosion of the availability of organic products in the last few months. Remember, I'm talking Fort Wayne, Indiana here. If this were San Fran or New York, well ... you know.

Probably 6 months ago Wal-Mart announced the organic children's clothing line called George (not all George products are organic though). Now I'm learning that one can find more and more organic products every day at Meijer. That includes ice cream and even frozen fruit - perfect for my smoothie fix.

You have probably noticed that many grocery stores now have a small organic food section too.

No matter how organic you are or want to be, it's getting easy for even the most midwestern of us!

Fuel Cell Powers CA Christmas Tree

I just read that the California State Christmas Tree at the Capital is powered by a fuel cell. I think that's great - if nothing more than a demonstration of the technology and a means of promoting its further development.

Fuel cells have been used for decades to power space missions and other small or R&D uses. GM even produced a fuel cell van in the 60's that actually worked! That link to General Hydrogen (not part of GM) also gives a decent history of fuel cells.

There continues to be much debate on which is more environmentally friendly: real or artificial trees. Here's an article that discusses it a bit. That article claims that 85% of artificial trees are manufactured in China, which I don't doubt. Plus, artificial trees are mostly made from petrochemicals, which China has a shortage of (oil - they have plenty of coal). Then it must be shipped all the way here. Live trees (we like to cut our own down - so there is no transportation emissions) provide local jobs and absorb CO2 and other pollutants during the growing cycle. Then I mulch or compost mine each year. I could go on, but read that article and you'll hear many of the arguments.

Lastly, let me offer you a couple of sites for finding environmentally friendly Christmas ideas, from party ideas to gifts. Their subjects are pretty apparent in the URLs.

http://www.newdream.org/holiday/index.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/green_gift_guid_1.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/how_to_green_your_gifts.php

Happy Holidays