The Day After An Inconvenient Truth

We must realize that it is our voice that will change things. That one voice united with others, for the greater good, is more powerful than the few telling us we can’t make a difference.

Don’t believe the hype, believe your heart.

-Cara

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Reason 83 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Forests cleanse the environment, regulate climate, and provide habitat for wildlife and pollinators of crops. Modern medicines derive from forests. Our very survival on planet Earth depends upon them. According to a 390-page U.N. report in 2006, the expansion of livestock production is a key factor in deforestation. Today, nearly all is taking place in the Amazon, thanks to grazing and the production of feedcrops. Worldwide, livestock production uses 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.

Let’s start this entry off with the basics, May 17th is International Day Against Homophobia. Why May 17th, because on May 17th, 1990, homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO). Who is WHO, they are the “directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends”.

Some people might be wondering what is the difference between Gay Pride Day and the International Day Against Homophobia. Pride is about people’s pride in their sexuality and celebrating it. The International Day Against Homophobia is about letting society, governments, countries and the world know that homophobia is unacceptable and it will no longer be tolerated.

Here are some things to help bring the point home that homophobia still exists, not only on an individual level, but on a global level as well.

This is a photo of the public hanging of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, two Iranian teenage gay lovers, legally murdered on July 19, 2005, because they were gay. This is real.

Next, I will review the anti-homosexual laws globally.

Let’s start with Africa

Algeria - Fine and up to 3 years in prison
Angola - Labor camps
Benin - Up to 3 years
Botswana - Fine and up to 7 years
Cameroon - Fine and up to 5 years
Comoros - Fine and up to 5 years
Djibouti- 10 to 12 years
Eritrea - 3 to 10 years
Ethiopia - 10 days to 3 years
Gambia - Fine and up to 14 years
Ghana - Fine
Guinea - 6 months to 3 years
Guinea Bissau - Labor camps
Kenya [Male only] - Fine and up to 14 years
Lesotho - Up to 7 years
Liberia - Fine
Libya - Fine up to 5 years
Malawi - Up to 14 years[can be expelled as undesirable aliens as well]
Mauritania - Up to three years and a fine of one million francs for sexual acts with a person of the same sex under the age of 21. [Some sources say that the death penalty applies if sodomy is committed. I could not confirm.]
Morocco - 6 months up to 3 years
Mozambique - Labor camps
Nigeria - 5 to 14 years [in northern states under Muslim law the punishment can be death]
São Tomé and Príncipe - Labor camps
Senegal - 1 to 5 years and a fine of 100,000 to 1,500,000 francs
Seychelles - Fine and up to 2 years
Sierra Leone - Life
Somalia - For sexual intercourse 3 months up to 3 years, an act of lust different from sexual intercourse from 2 months to 2 years, areas under Sharia have instituted death for men and women.
Sudan - 5 years to 100 lashes/Death for sodomy [Between September 1983 and April 1985 hundreds of men and women were lashed for "intended" unlawful heterosexual intercourse, but none, as far as is known, for sodomy.]
Swaziland [Male only] - Fine US $90 - Prison
Tanzania - Fine and up to 25 years [In Zanzibar male homosexual acts are punished with up to 25 years imprisonment or fine. Lesbian acts are punished with up 7 years imprisonment or fine.]
Togo - Fine and up to 3 years
Tunisia - Fine and up to 3 years
Uganda [Male only] Fine and up to Life [The first country in the world to have a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (since 2004)]
Zambia [Male only] Fine and up to 14 years
Zimbabwe [Male only] - Fine and up to 1 year

Next Let’s hit up Asia:

Bahrain [Male only] Fine and up to 10 years
Bangladesh - Life in prison/death
Bhutan - 1 month up to 1 year
Brunei - Fine and up to 10 years
India - Fine and up to 10 years
Iran [Male only] Prison/Lashings/Death [Sex change operations have been given official government support as means to cure a gender identity disease.]
Malaysia - Fine and up to 20 years
Maldives [Male only] - Fine and up to 10 years
Myanmar/Burma - 10 years up to Life
Oman - Fine and up to 3 years
Pakistan - 2 years to Life
Palestinian Authority (Gaza) [Male only] - Up to 10 years
Qatar - Fine and up to 5 years
Saudi Arabia - Death [Jail time, fines or whipping may be used in lieu of the death penalty.]
Singapore - 2 years
Sri Lanka - Fine and up to 10 years
Syria - Fine
Turkmenistan [Male only] Fine and up to 2 years
United Arab Emirates - Death
Uzbekistan [Male only] Fine and up to 3 years
Yemen - Flogging up to Death

Europe is Next on the List

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus [Male only and not recognized internationally] - Fine and 10 to 14 years

Next North America

Antigua and Barbuda - Up to 15 years
Barbados - Life
Belize - Up to 10 years
Dominica - Up to 10 years
Grenada [Male only] - Up to 10 years
Saint Kitts and Nevis [Male only] - Up to 10 years
Saint Lucia [Male only] - Fine and up to 10 years
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - Fine and up to 10 years
Trinidad and Tobago - Up to 25 years

Oceania is Next on the List

Cook Islands [Male only] - Fine and up to 14 years
Kiribati [Male only] - Fine and up to 14 years
Nauru [Male only] - Up to 14 years hard labor
Niue [Male only] - Fine and up to 10 years
Palau [Male only] - Fine and up to 10 years
Papua New Guinea [Male only] - Fine and up to14 years
Samoa - Fine and up to 7 years
Solomon Islands - Fine and up to 14 years
Tokelau [Male only] - Fine and up to 10 years
Tonga [Male only] - I could not find the sentence
Tuvalu [Male only] - Fine and up to 14 years

And Last but of Course not Least is South America

Guyana [Male only] - Life

[Sources: Wikipedia, Behind the Mask, and On Lesotho]

While I was doing all this research I noticed a lot of, “but these laws are rarely enforced in some cases” going around, like that makes it alright somehow. That is a flawed way to think, the point is they can be implemented at any time and it gives the impression to the citizens of these countries that homosexuals are less than and that is unequivocally unacceptable and untrue.

As Carl Schurz once said, “From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor’s rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own.”

We must evolve together not individually.

-Cara

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Reason 82 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

When meat, fish, or poultry is barbecued, dripped fat over the open flame sends up plumes of carcinogenic smoke, coating the food. Other unhealthful chemicals are created just by extended cooking times. Chemists are telling meat eaters today to keep those grill times down. Even environmentalists are saying that restaurant grilling is an important source of soot and smog. But you still need to cook your meat thoroughly: How else are you going to kill all of those nasty bacteria?

Hey, you know what I was thinking? We need another theme day and why not Tuesday. We will leave Monday alone for hot topics after our Friday-Sunday themes and Tuesday will be a day to write about one person doing someone that makes a great difference in the world.

Our first honoree is Morgan Hoesterey. Who is she? She is a woman, a zoologist, a surfer, a free diver, an underwater photographer, who lives in Hawaii and is in a documentary film called, “Message in the Waves“. What does she do? She cares about the world and the animals we harm, when we as a society don’t understand that for every action there is a reaction.

Here is a clip from the documentary film she was in called, “Message in the Waves“. It is crazy!

Morgan is the reaction to our action. We need to be aware of what we do and how it effects our world.

Disposable is deadly.

-Cara

life. During her college years she further developed her free diving and surfing skills.

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Reason 81 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Every minute of every day, across the globe, 100,000 animals are slaughtered to feed the human lust for meat. This adds up to 50 billion sentient beings a year, not counting fish. Anywhere you go, creatures destined for the dinner plate endure cruel living conditions. “We’re eating them anyway,” goes the strange logic.

The history of solar power is of interest to me, because again for some reason I have an innate interest in all things solar. In this entry I wrote about some of the forefathers of the solar power movement and in future entries I will bring us up to the present time.

Humans and the earth have used the sun as some sort of energy source since the beginning of time, but it was not until 1838 that Edmund Becquerel observed and published findings about the nature of certain materials to turn light into energy. This in itself did not really create much commotion, but it did bring the thought of harnessing the sun’s energy source to people’s mind.

Thirty years later between 1860 and 1881, Auguste Mouchout, a mathematics instructor at the Lyce de Tours, became the first man to patent a design for a motor running on solar energy. This invention was born out of his his concerns over his country’s dependence on coal. “It would be prudent and wise not to fall asleep regarding this quasi-security,” he wrote. “Eventually industry will no longer find in Europe the resources to satisfy its prodigious expansion. Coal will undoubtedly be used up. What will industry do then?” Well we know what they do, they discover other nonrenewable sources of energy like oil and natural gas to use up, and once that is gone then will we turn to sun and wind for our main source of energy? The issue “they” see with that is they have not figured out a way to turn an obscenely grandiose profit off the sun and air, but I would not worry too much as I am sure General Electric is working on buying the sun as we speak.

Anyway, Mouchout received funds from the French Emperor Napoleon III and with those funds he designed a device that turned solar energy into mechanical steam power and soon operated the first steam engine. He later connected the steam engine to a refrigeration device, illustrating that the sun’s rays can be utilized to make ice, for which he was awarded an awesome French Medal of Super Freshness [I tried to discover, briefly, what medal it was he won, but to no avail, so yes I did invent the French medal of Super Freshness incase you weren’t sure.]!

Unfortunately, his groundbreaking research was cut short. The French renegotiated a cheaper deal with England for the supply of coal and improved their transportation system for the delivery thereof. Mouchout’s work towards finding an alternative source of energy was not considered a priority anymore and he no longer received any funding from the Napoleon V3 [ah, isn’t that the way things go?].

I will end our solar history lesson there for today and hope you have enjoyed it so far, more to follow!

Let the sun shine in.

-Cara

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Reason 80 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
In the early twentieth century man learned how to extract nitrogen (fertilizer) from the air, cheaply and in large quantities. The discovery ultimately allowed 2 billion more people to inhabit the Earth and has given humans the luxury of feeding crops to livestock. Yet what gives the world abundance has, by way of nutrient runoff and acid rain, poisoned waterways from the Chinese countryside to the Ohio Valley. (Excess nitrogen promotes algae growth, robbing the water of oxygen.) In North America and Europe, lakes and rivers contain 20 times the nitrogen they did before the Industrial Revolution.

Tumbling Trash Game by The Environment Agency

There’s trouble brewing at the Puddlestown recycling plant! The recycling sorting machine is broken and it’s your job to make sure things work out ok!

Enjoy.

-Cara

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Reason 79 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Veggies can lower the risk for teenagers developing high blood pressure later in life, regardless of body weight and salt intake, according to a recent university study. Researchers cite potassium, calcium, magnesium, folate, and other nutrients contained in fruits and vegetables as the reason. Hypertension increases the risk for heart attack and stroke and afflicts 25 percent of U.S. adults.

This recipe is scrumptious. You can make the organic seitan using another recipe of mine posted here.

What You Need

an organic onion

some organic olive oil

2 to 3 cutlets of organic seitan

3 tablespoons of organic seitan stock

2 tablespoons organic flour

2-6 organic milk [or organic soy milk for a vegan version]

a handful of organic parsley

What You Need To Do

Chop the onion and brown it in oil.

Cut seitan into bite-sized pieces.

Add to the onions and fry till brown.

While the onion browns, mix 2-3 tablespoons of the seitan stock with 2 tablespoons flour.

Next, stir it in the seitan-onion mixture.

Season it well with organic salt, white pepper, paprika or whatever moves you. Salt and pepper alone is also fine.

Then bring to the boil.

You can change the consistency by adding 2-6 tablespoons of organic milk or soy milk.

Garnish with chopped parsley.

It is great with potatoes, salad and biscuits.

I realize this is more of a Fall/Winter meal, but while there still is a slight chill in the air I thought why not one more time.

Enjoy,

-Cara

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Reason 78 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
It is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of U.S. dairy cows are infected with mastitis at any one time. The painful udder infection is considered a man-made affliction. Cows get it by improper care, poor milking procedures, overmilking, and malfunctioning milking machines. The genetically engineered growth hormone Bovine Somatotropin (bST), which is widely used to boost milk yields, is plainly linked to mastitis.

Two eco-green-super fresh shopping entries in one week, stop it. It’s your lucky week. Well not really. I didn’t think it would be responsible of me to promote more consumption, so instead I will put together some tips on how to be more environmentally conscious when you do shop. Even better. :)

According to Earth 911,

A family of four [I wonder if this is a family of four people or two people and two cats or one person and three dogs...] can save $2,000 a year in the supermarket by choosing large sizes instead of individual serving sizes. Small sizes use more packaging for each ounce of product than larger sizes. So, if you buy large sizes, you save money, reduce waste, and help the environment.

Here’s some Earth 911 tips:

• Buy cereal in a large box instead of in individual serving sizes.
• Buy large packages of sugar and flour.

I think the best thing would be to buy local products, like at your Farmer’s Market. That way you may avoid any packaging and you’ll be supporting your local region and a small business. That’s a lot of good.

Another thing you can do to help out is make sure whatever it is you are buying, that the packaging is recyclable through your local recycling program. If you go to this link on Earth 911 you can find that information.

Do not buy disposable products. We do not live in a world that can survive all this junk filling landfills and polluting the earth. In fact take all the disposable products you have and invent something new. There’s a cool project. Then if you want you can sell it on Etsy, make tons of money, quit your job and work for yourself, protect the world, and enjoy your life…easy.

Here are some ways to do your part,

• Use rechargeable batteries in everything that needs batteries [May I suggest purchasing solar powered products, or water powered or kinetic instead...]
• Do not use disposable cameras [Unless you are at someone's wedding and they give you one. I mean at that point it's too late.].
• Use cloth napkins, sponges, and cloth towels or wipes to clean up. [I'm working on that one right now.]
• Use washable plates, cups, and silverware for parties and picnics instead of disposable products [Come on really who is still buying paper or plastic plates???].
• Use an electric razor or hand razor with replaceable blades instead of disposable razors. [Whoops.]
• Use a washable commuter mug for your morning coffee and eliminate a Styrofoam or plastic cup every day [Funny, I was walking around just the other day with my Starbucks' disposable coffee cup in my hand, thinking just that. I'm embarrassed....tell no one.].

I hope you have enjoyed this Friday’s shopping tips.

Enjoy your weekend.

-Cara

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Reason 77 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
The population explosion should not be thought of exclusively in terms of people–not when one considers the ecological footprint represented by the world’s 3.2 billion cattle, sheep, goats, and domesticated bison across the globe. About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly through overgrazing, compaction, and erosion caused by livestock.

It has been a few weeks since my first review of Eco Lips lip balm, so time for another. This review is on the Radius Intelligent manual toothbrush. The one I received is red, which according to the Chinese is a color that brings good luck and wards off evil spirits, so already I was pleased. The toothbrush has soft bristles, which are recommended by everyone to use according to me. :)

Here are some stats about said toothbrush from the Official Radius Site:

• 2 minute timer — toothbrush beeps once and green light flashes once every 30 sec. to 2 minutes.
• 90 Day wear meter - after 180 uses the light changes to red to indicate time to check bristle wear.
• Depressing the button for 5 seconds resets the meter to zero.
• Replaceable heads - reduces environmental impact.
• Radial bristling - first toothbrush in the world to have it. Makes brushing easier and more effective.
• 3,080 Tynex® bristles - available in soft or medium. Right or left hand option - reversible handle
• Batteries will last over 6 heads worth of regular use - return the handle to us for recycling.

Things I like about this toothbrush:

• The color is a sweet cherry red.
• The handle is a great design. It fits really well into my hand. What is that awesome word that blew up in the 90’s…ergonomic…yeah, it is very ergonomic.
• The heads are replaceable and they give you two with the brush. Nice…
• The actual bristle head shape is narrow at the top and becomes wider towards the handle. I don’t know why, but it feels like the brush covers more tooth area and my teeth feel cleaner.

One thing is the timer. I rarely use it. Two minutes seems like an eternity while I wait for the brush to flash in thirty second increments. What then happens is I begin to resent the brush like it is nagging me. It is ridiculous, but true. This is why I never use the timer [well, once and awhile just to see if I still resent it.]. Here is how the two-minute brush still works for me, because now I know I should brush for two minutes I brush much longer than before, most likely for more than two minutes, because I am never sure of the time, so in the end it is still does its trick.

Good stuff.

-Cara

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Reason 76 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

As markets for animal-based foods become more global, “carnivore conflicts” increasingly threaten international peace. Live cattle from Canada are still banned from the U.S., ever since a “mad cow” of Canadian origin was discovered in Washington state. In 2001, hoof-and-mouth disease instantly resulted in countries all over the world severing trade with the entire EU, although the disease was mostly confined to England. Meanwhile, trade wars simmer between the U.S. and the EU over hormones in beef. Worldwide, varying sanitary standards in meat production also leave nations at odds. No two “true democracies” have ever gone to war, some academics argue, that is, if you don’t count violence over fisheries.

I collected some stats on drink consumption from, The Good Stuff guide, produced in 2004 by the Worldwatch Institute that I thought might be of interest to people.

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Reason 75 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Okinawa has the healthiest and longest-lived people in the world, boasting the highest percentage of people who live to be a hundred years old. The super-seniors who inhabit the island tend to retain their mental keenness, and few need to live in nursing homes. Not surprisingly, they eat very little food of animal origin, according to a 25-year study on the island. Genes could take some of the credit, although today’s old folks are projected to outlive their children who have adopted Western eating habits.

OK, so this is shameless promotion of another blog of mine that Marine and I started last week called, “Those Movies We Watched Out Of The Box [after we turned off the satellite TV]“. This is an “green” entry because we are watching “recycled” DVDs. :)

What is it all about you ask? I’ll tell you…

On April 9th, 2008 in the House of Marine and Cara the Direct TV was turned off (If you would like to learn more about why this event occurred you may go here.). Anyway, with no TV now, we watch movies on DVD, but quickly went through our selection of personal DVDs. Things began to look dark, when suddenly I remembered our friend Tony had given us a box containing millions of his old movies and so began this journey to review every film we watch from out of the box.

Our reviews will be short and to some point I am sure. We rate the films from 1 to a 6. 1 being, “we only watched it to review it” and 6 being “one of the most super fresh films out there”.

As you will see so far the selection has not been the greatest, but ALL films will be watched. I am not sure we can watch all in this lifetime, but we will try!

Pop the popcorn and let’s go.

-Cara
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Reason 74 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation and its Department of Health have posted an Internet factsheet called “Eating Sport Fish.” The advice speaks for itself: No one should eat more than one meal of fish per week from any of the state’s fresh waters; chemical contaminants may be a problem; trim all fat; don’t consume cooking liquids. On the other hand, if you still want to enjoy the “fun” of sport fishing but don’t want to poison yourself, the factsheet recommends catch and release. But don’t tear out the hook–cut its leader, goes the advice. Also, avoid playing fish to exhaustion. Other states could post similar Web pages: nearly every state in the union has a mercury-in-rivers advisory.

On Fridays I usually do a shopping or a recycled object making entry, then Saturdays a recipe entry and Sundays are a game or quiz entry, but two Fridays ago it was my 100th post, so I didn’t do the shopping/recycled entry until Monday. This Friday I was into tips, so I guess and forgot to do my regular entry. Today I will make up for missing said entry.

Here are three cool products I found. I mention places to buy the things I talk about, but I suggest trying to find products locally whenever possible.

On siliconsolar.com I found for $24.95 the Solar Battery Charger AA AAA C and D. It has the ability to charge AAA, AA, C and D batteries using solar cells. The company has one complaint in 36 months at the Better Business Bureau, which they resolved. I worked for the BBB here in New York City for about six years and that is a fine record for an online company…in my opinion. I think this charger is a great idea.

Alright, I am not sure how many people grill, but my dad does and smokes food. He makes me a mean, marinated, smoked portobello sandwich like you wouldn’t believe. Anyway, his grill light uses batteries I think, so I found the Maverick SOLAR LED Grill Light, Stainless Steel GL-04 for $48.99. Happy Father’s Day!!!

Last but not least, we were talking about brining your own water bottle to work instead of using disposable cups. I like the Switzerland company Sigg’s water bottles. They aren’t too big, and have a clean fresh look and feel to them. They are fashionable and sustainable.

I will update this entry with any reviews once I’ve tried any of these products. Please leave a comment if you’ve tried any of these contraptions, as I would love to know what you thought of them

Enjoy.

-Cara

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Reason 73 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Grass-fed beef is more eco-friendly than corn-fed, but supplies of it could never sustainably meet current consumer demand. Several guides are available to help seafood consumers “eat with a conscience.” But the species that are recommended would quickly run out if everyone ate them. Legally, “free-range” and “cage-free” designations are dubious to outright meaningless. At least one humane certification program was officially debunked. “Organic” has gone strangely industrial and is rightly tagged “ethically challenged.” Ultimately, to “eat green” and to “be kind,” one needs to go vegan. [Opinion of Pamela Rice only. I feel that to not validate free-range and grass-fed animals/farming is to tell meat eaters, that their choice does not matter between industrial farming and free-range, when of course it does make a difference. -Cara]

Principles of Ecology where you review the basic principles of ecology. There’s 10 questions and the only thing you win is the fact that you won because you know something!!!

Good wholesome fun!

-Cara

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Reason 72 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
In most large commercial chicken slaughter plants the inverted heads of doomed birds are first plunged into an electrified brine bath. The current is set at a voltage just high enough to immobilize the birds and to promote bleedout without hemorrhage. It serves to minimize inconvenient flailing that would otherwise interfere with the slaughter process. The birds are not only sentient during slaughter but must also suffer the excruciating shock, sometimes twice.

These rice cakes are like no other rice cakes. They are like a healthier, tastier, and all around better rice crispy treat. Not only that but they take no real time to make.

What You Need

3/4 cups organic blanched or just thinly sliced, raw almonds work just as well

3/4 cup organic wildflower honey [I prefer organic wildflower honey, but any organic honey will do]

2 tablespoons of organic crunchy almond butter [I prefer crunchy organic almond butter to smooth, but either is fine.]

1 teaspoon pure, organic vanilla extract

Pinch or two of organic sea salt [I understand that salt cannot be "organically grown", as it is a mineral, not a plant, but it can be “Certified Organic”. To learn more about that you can go here.]

2 cups organic puffed brown rice [I use Nature's Path Organic Rice Puffs which I think work perfect for this recipe]

What You Need To Do

In a blender, grind the almonds to a medium-coarse texture. In a 2 quart saucepan, bring the honey to a simmer over medium heat, then simmer on low heat for 5 minutes. Add ground almonds, almond butter, vanilla extract, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, add the puffed rice, then pour the syrup mixture on top and mix well. Press mixture in a lightly oiled 8-inch square baking dish. Allow it to set for 2 hours. Cut them into whatever size you want and enjoy!

I already have everything on the counter to make some tonight. Don’t be jealous.

:)

-Cara

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Reason 71 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Today’s turkeys are unable to copulate on their own, thanks to selectively bred, freakishly huge breasts in the “toms.” The industry must use artificial insemination. The job is nearly as dehumanizing for the workers–who must work rapidly for long hours and low wages–as it is deplorable for the tortured breeder birds, who are essentially raped every week for 12 to 16 months until they are sent to slaughter.

Here are tips that are so simple that I can’t believe people don’t do them.

1. Bring your own drinking cup or coffee cup to work and stop using the plastic/paper ones provided. I don’t have official statistics, but let’s just say according to a recent Cara Poll, you can save 68585.73 acres of land a year if you do it and your carbon foot print will be a size 3. [If people listen to you at work, tell them to do it to and tell your office organizer to stop the insanity and no more paper/plastic cups. It so you will save a fafillion acres and no longer have a carbon foot. Nice...]

2. Do e-bills and e-bank statements and e-whatever…no more paper! Let’s say for this one, you will not lose the cure for cancer and aids located in the Rainforest, where they are cutting down the trees to print your bills on. If you are worried about all your personal information being on-line, where someone may hack into and steal your identity, don’t worry, it’s already there. If you think your bank and credit card company have all your information on papers hidden in a vault, you are incorrect. I believe the World Wide Web is probably a bit more secure than your mailbox, so stop with all that.

3. Last, but not least, it is one I struggle with because I am impatient and hate waiting for a computer to boot up, but turn off your computer when you aren’t using it. Standby is not good enough. It uses almost the same amount of energy, and I hear all of you out there saying, but doesn’t she know it uses more energy to start up a computer than to leave it on??? Lies, that is not true, an urban myth, ancient history, etc. It is not true, so turn it off.

I think these three tips are easy.

-Cara

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Reason 70 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
The number of foodborne outbreaks involving produce more than doubled between 1999 and 2004. But before you blame the veggies, it’s important to know that the contaminating pathogens are invariably those that hitch a ride on fecal matter. And we know plants don’t defecate. So what’s the story? It all gets down to one simple fact: Feedlot operators cannot afford to properly treat all the waste that their mammoth-size facilities generate, so they often divert the muck to the nearest waterway. Down stream, produce processors use the water as a rinse.

I usually try to stay away from animal cruelty newsletters or web sites as they really upset me and as a vegetarian I feel like I don’t need to be exposed to these horrors. I don’t eat or wear animals because of said suffering, so I don’t want to read or see things that are so sad. That said a few months ago I signed up for PETA’s newsletter for the second time to remind myself that I should do more, even if I don’t want to see it, it does motivate me.

In the latest newsletter I got today, PETA talks about leather. I being a lover of super fresh shoes, always had leather and suede shoes, until a few years ago where I read about the horrors of leather and decided to give up buying any leather products. Recently, I started to see a few shoes made from animals that I thought were cute and I couldn’t quite remember why I gave up leather…

Then along came PETA, with their Shopping Guide To Compassionate Clothing and Cows Are Cool, with their page on, What’s Wrong With Leather. This information reminded me why I gave up leather and suede. I’d like to share some information from Cows Are Cool with you.

Leather may be made from cows, pigs, goats, and sheep; exotic animals like alligators, ostriches, and kangaroos; and even dogs and cats, who are slaughtered for their meat and skins in China, which exports their skins around the world. Since leather is normally not labeled, you never really know where (or whom) it came from.

Most leather comes from developing countries like India and China, where animal welfare laws are either non-existent or not enforced. Many of the millions of cows and other animals who are killed for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming—extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning, all without any painkillers. In India, a PETA investigation found that cows have their tails broken and chili peppers and tobacco rubbed into their eyes in order to force them to get up and walk after they collapse from exhaustion on the way to the slaughterhouse. At slaughterhouses, animals routinely have their throats slit and are skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious after improper stunning.

Most of the millions of animals slaughtered for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming before being shipped to slaughter, where many are skinned alive. Buying leather directly contributes to factory farms and slaughterhouses since skin is the most economically important byproduct of the meat-packing industry. Leather is also no friend of the environment since it shares all the environmental destruction of the meat industry, in addition to the toxins used in tanning.

With every pair of leather shoes that you buy, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering. Instead, you can choose from hundreds of styles of nonleather shoes, clothing, belts, bags, and wallets. Fashion should be fun, not fatal! Read more about the cruelty of the leather industry.

…so nevertheless I have cured myself of my desire for leather, thanks to PETA and Cows Are Cool and my conscious.

Also, PETA has given shopping alternatives to leather, wool, silk, fur, down on their site. Here are the links and one link for companies who offer cruelty-free products to be listed in PETA’s guide:

Vegan Companies

Leather and Fur Alternatives

Search by Product Type

Animal-Friendly Companies Wanted

Remember all animals feel pain and nothing is done to alleviate these animals suffering in their processing and slaughtering. I don’t want to ever be a part of that.

Knowledge is enlightenment.

-Cara
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Reason 69 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
In 2005, a $7.1 billion plan to prepare the U.S. for a bird-flu pandemic was instituted by the Bush administration. It included very little to help poor countries slow the spread of the H5N1 strain already on the march. Pharmaceutical companies would get most of the largesse in order to stockpile and develop speedier methods to develop appropriate vaccines for American citizens. In addition, President Bush proposed that he be given the power to impose essentially martial law on the land in the event that a pandemic actually came about. The number of countries with bird flu increased from 14 to 55 in 2006.

That’s right…negative! I don’t know why but I am super not into Earth Day. It puts me in a bad mood. I get that rhetoric that people say…it is a time where non-”green” people get into it, but I feel like it is a way for people to make up for sucking all year long. Like confession, but only annually.

For example, places like GE/NBC having a “star-studded” tree planting party on Earth Day. A tree planting day will not make up for the tons and tons of paper they print a day in visitor passes or the zillions of tons of paper the use on new hire brainwashing propaganda.

If people related to how they are a part of the problem when they did these types of things, that would be awesome, but most don’t. They pat themselves on the back, which then gets them through another year of printing pages of documents they don’t really need to print.

I was negative today, but now I’m done.

-Cara
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Reason 68 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
To choose industrial meat is to support a system that has long ago put family farmers out of business. Essentially, it is only the big players–those who bought into factory systems–who are feeding America. We do have lower prices at the retail level. But ultimately, what is the real cost of cheap meat? You need to factor in the $20 billion per year in government subsidies to commodity farmers, higher medical costs attributable to excessive diets, antibiotic resistance in common bacterial strains, a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the inordinate need for oil for petrochemical fertilizers, and dwindling aquifers–the list goes on.

Beauty you see in art is as important as beauty you see in nature. A connection to either beauty inspires. These paintings are by Romaine Brook a painter who moves me. I think she did her most amazing work from 1920 through 1924, painting portraits of women in blacks and grays. Brook’s story reminds me that you may not know it at the time, but amazing things are just around the corner, you just need to get there.

Who inspires you?

-Cara

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Reason 67 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Most of America’s cows are not “Happy Cows,” in spite of what the California Milk Advisory Board might say in its nationally televised commercials. Many cows in the Western state spend their lives negotiating bogs of their own feces and urine. Elsewhere, they may be tethered at stanchions. All are inseminated annually to keep them lactating, and many regularly suffer painful udder infections. Thanks to calcium depletion and foot infections, slaughter occurs after only three or four lactation periods. The CMAB is a government agency and so is not subject to false-advertising laws.

Since Friday was my 100th post, we missed the weekly shopping entry, so thank you Monday, for picking up Friday’s slack.

Sometimes I commit sins against green. It is true I still sin. One example of said sinning is my desire to dry the counters with clean, pristine, white, recycled [:)] paper towels. I have a sponge for the counters, but it always seems to get dirty so fast, that I can’t bear to “clean” anything with it. Thus, the paper towel dilemma.

I decided to research this issue of mine and find a solution. Here is what I will try, the European Sponge Cloth. I think it might be a winner. I will let you know, and if anyone reading this has tried it, please review as I am curious.

Second sin…composting. I’ve done tons of research on composting…for whatever reasons, I will not get into now. Nevertheless, with all I know of what makes what type of compost, and what to do to keep out the bugs, how to make it not smell, plenty of room on my fire escape, food byproducts everyday, plants that need to be re-potted and fed…I still don’t compost. What I will do is buy these BioBags [100% biodegradable and 100% compostable bags and films made from the material, Mater-Bi. All of our products contain GMO free starch, biodegradable polymer and other renewable resources. No polyethylene is used in the production process. BioBag products meet ASTM D6400 specifications and California SB 1749 requirements.] and line this old wooden wine box

and compost away. Again, I’ll let you know…

And last but not least, to begin to make up for all the paper and whatever else I have done, I will give to The Arbor Day Foundation’s, Rain Forest Rescue Program.

I like having “to-do” lists.

-Cara

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Reason 66 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
The meat industry doesn’t treat the causes of its problems, only the symptoms. When it imprisons massive numbers of animals in cramped stress-inducing cages, it provides the perfect breeding ground for deadly bacteria, which later infect the meat. Technologies to kill meat pathogens are now very big business. We have acidic-solution carcass misting, alkaline-solution sprays, steam/vacuum technology, high-temperature carcass washes, steam pasteurization, and chlorine applications, etc., ad nauseam. Some bug-fighting methods, such as food irradiation and sprays of antidotal viruses and probiotic bacteria, pose risks in themselves. And in the end, the meat still isn’t safe

Sunday’s Fun game, Michael, Michael, Go Recycle!

Clean fun.

-Cara

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Reason 65 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
The state of Oregon has taken warnings about bird flu to heart, devising elaborate plans to deal with a “most likely scenario” pandemic. The state, which represents less than 1.3 percent of the U.S. population, has anticipated how tanker trucks hauling 38,000 pounds of liquid carbon dioxide can be obtained to kill as many as a million infected chickens and where an estimated 2,000 tons of chicken carcasses can be buried. The state is also ready for as many as 800,000 human illnesses, 9,700 hospitalizations, and 2,300 deaths.

I remember when I was a kid growing up in Miami my Nana and Papa had the best backyard. In it, to name a few of the million plants were, mango trees, guava trees, avocados, papayas, banana and sea grapes trees, etc. I remember helping them make guava and sea grape jellies. We always made less of the sea grape jelly, so it always seemed more special.

Here is my Nana’s Sea Grape Recipe given to my mom, then given to me.

2 to 3 quarts of sea grapes

8 cups fruit juice from sea grapes

8 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup lime juice

Select ripe and partly ripe sea grapes. Wash and place in large pot, add water to not quite cover the fruit. Bring to a boil and soak until tender. Squeeze juice out by hand or strain through jelly bag, then measure juice.

To each 8 cups of juice obtained, add 8 1/2 cups sugar and 1/3 cup lime juice.

Cook to 225 degrees, which will take about 27 minutes. When it reaches the jelly stage, skim and pour into sterile jars and seal. Makes eight 1/2 pound jars.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had this. I need to find some wild sea grapes again.

-Cara

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Reason 64 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Want the omega-3s in fish but would rather skip the mercury, PCBs, and dioxins? Well, push aside that fish altogether, and rediscover flax. Two tablespoons of ground flax daily give you all of the essential fatty acid you need with several bonuses: Flax seeds contain iron, zinc, and high-quality protein, plus almost all of the vitamins. They’re loaded with soluble fiber and are the best source anywhere of phytonutrient lignans. They ease symptoms of diabetes and even promote healthy brain growth in utero and in infancy.

Today is the 100 post and day of The Day After An Inconvenient Truth. I would like to take a moment to list 10 things I have learned in these 100 days.

One - Writing every day makes you smarter.

Two - Because you say you are green, doesn’t mean you are.

Three - Every time I think there is nothing to write about, there is.

Four - Corporations have more rights than people. They are allowed to kill without repercussions in more cases then you may think.

Five - The truth is out there, you just must search through everything to find it.

Six - More people care about the world out there than you think. Mass media does not want you to realize this, and revolt against the obscenely rich who control the mass media. The people who use the world to become richer at the expense of the world.

Seven - I don’t need or miss TV.

Eight - Globally, human rights are being violated every day and it is not discussed in America on a level that will change things that can be changed. We must question why.

Nine - A majority of people do not think beyond what they are told. In many cases when you point this out to them through love, they begin to deprogram themselves.

Ten - One person can make a difference.

Much love.

-Cara

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Reason 63 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Fifty-two billion pounds of inedible byproduct (bones, fats, unusable hides, and cartilage) from America’s meat and poultry slaughterhouses is each year transmogrified by “renderers” into saleable adhesives, lubricants, chemicals, cosmetics, and processed food ingredients–a grisly but profitable side business of the flesh trade. This amount, however, does not include the 6 billion pounds of dead stock that accumulate on U.S. feedlots. It must also be dealt with. Unfortunately, only half of it is rendered and therefore processed safely. If buried, dead stock attracts vermin, leaches nitrogen and methane into the environment, and poisons the groundwater. If burned–usually the case when mortalities are catastrophic due to weather events or disease outbreaks–pyres will poison the air with dioxin. If composted, the process is often poorly managed, failing to adequately promote full decomposition and allowing vermin to carry disease off site.

Growing up in North America the US was always the bad sibling and Canada the good one. You hear about how beautiful the land still is, how they are more open minded, a place where draft dodgers found their refuge from the evil American government, that Canada is not all about the insane capitalism worshiped in America, and how still in this day and age people don’t lock their front doors, so imagine my surprise when cruising the Rainforest Action Network I came upon this action alert, Help Free Political Prisoners in Canada!

Political Prisoners in…Canada? I don’t believe it! I decided to do some investigating, here’s what I found…

On March 17th, 2008, Chief Donny Morris and five other band council members (five men and one woman, KI councilor Cecilia Begg, who sits alone in the Thunder Bay District Jail. A jail which has had three aboriginal deaths in the last four years.) of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation were sentenced to six months in prison by Justice Patrick Smith of the Ontario Superior Court in Thunder Bay, for contempt of a court injunction which prohibits them from interfering with a mineral exploration program by Platinex Inc., where they have lived in the Boreal forest for over 5,000 years.

The KI6 and tribe believe that according to the Adhesions made in 1929 of Treaty 9 it is their right by law to defend their land from Platinex Inc. In 2005, Platinex, prepared to drill on land it had staked a claim pursuant to Ontario’s mining laws, land covered by Treaty 9. KI First Nation members protested on the site, preventing the drilling. Plantinex sued for damages and sought an injunctionto prevent further protests.

KI First Nation, then received an interim injunction. The injunction was granted on the condition that the parties negotiate toward an agreement that would allow Platinex to drill. Ontario joined as the “intermediary”, between the two parties, but no agreement was reached.

Justice Patrick Smith lifted the injunction last May and imposed an agreement, proposed by Platinex and Ontario. This proposal pretty much ordered KI First Nation members to allow Platinex onto their land to drill. When they did not submit, they were found in contempt of court and have been jailed ever since.

What they KI First Nation did was defend an agreement enforced by the Treaty No. 9 to share the land as equals and to protect their land in accordance to their spiritual beliefs. The results was they were inprisoned. Watch out Canada you’re sounding more and more like America here. I enjoy thinking right above me is a place, that if need be, I can run to escape the evils of the U.S.A….don’t ruin it for me now.

Below I listed the KI demands, which I discovered in an article on Canadian Dimension’s website, by Matthew Brett, an anti-war activist and freelance journalist based in Montreal.

THE KI DEMANDS:

With consultation between the exiled Council members and the Council in Kitchenuhmaykoosib, we take a strong stand on the following:

1. No Parliamentarian, be it federal or provincial member, is allowed in the Homelands of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug;
2. No more free entry to Kitchenuhamaykoosib lands by Platinex or any other mining entity including First Nations mining companies;
3. Ongoing blockade will be more protected and secured in order to protect our KI Homelands;
4. Assembly of First Nations must abandon the partnership agreements with the mining industry in Canada;
5. All First Nation political territorial organizations in Ontario do not speak directly for or on behalf of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, but their support on the issue is welcome;
6. Ontario must respond to our proposal made with our brothers and sisters of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, to establish a joint panel on mining on First Nations lands.

These demands don’t seem so bad when you look at the history between Native Americans and North Americans, but I will not get into all of this here.

If you feel that injustice is being done, there are ways to get involved. First, the Rainforest Action Network has set up a letter to the Ontario government, where you just enter your information and click! Second, send this entry to everyone you know to educate people on what rights violation are occurring towards the KI First Nation. You can also email Premier McGuinty here.

I will leave you with a photo (and thought) I saw on the Free the KI6 site.

Amen.

-Cara

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Reason 62 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
In what is still the most comprehensive study of diet and life-style ever made, the China Study found that the consumption of relatively small amounts of animal protein is linked to chronic disease. The findings from this grand epidemiological study are especially compelling because they allowed meaningful comparisons between populations with similar genetic backgrounds, yet with nonhomogeneous diets. All together, the China Study provides the ultimate vegetarian vindication.

No, this is not becoming an arts and entertainment blog, but I watched a documentary tonight called, Dangerous Living: Coming Out In The Developing World, and now I feel like talking about it.

It is a crazy world we live in where people feel like it is OK to torture, rape, belittle, and murder each other in the name of God, Country and what is “morally” right. Dangerous Living: Coming Out In The Developing World follows the lives of gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South, during this time. The film centers around the 52 men in Cairo who were arrested, tortured and imprisoned for gathering at a discothèque on the river Nile on May 11th, 2001. There is no law against homosexuality in Egypt so the Egyptian Government officially accused the men of committing crimes of debauchery. The 52 were later tried, convicted, and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Sentenced to three years in prison for being on a boat dancing with other men, can you imagine…Chelsea would be empty! No, but seriously…what? This is absurd. I am glad I found this flick, because it reminds me of all the work we still must do to undo all the ignorance that is alive and well all over the world and not just in my beautiful America. This film is not only about the 52 men in Egypt, but about homosexuals in Honduras, the Philippines, Kenya, Uganda, Brazil, Pakistan, Vietnam, Namibia, India, Fiji Islands, Iran, El Salvador, China, Malaysia, and Jamaica to name a few, that are being treated inhumanely by their fellow countrymen and being encourage to do so by their own government.

We as people need to stop hurting each other, because of our ignorance and insecurities. We need to open are eyes and hearts and then minds to create a better place to exist. It is important not only for others, but are own wellbeing. First step, watch the movie. I got it from Netflix today and will return it tomorrow so you can watch it. ;) Second, visit The the International Lesbian and Gay Association, they are a world-wide network of national and local groups dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people everywhere and do something!!!

Take back the night!

-Cara

p.s.- I almost forgot in all my outrage that another reason to watch it is Janeane Garofalo is the narrator of the film! That’s a sweet deal.

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Reason 61 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
From the animal-feed breadbasket and feedlots of the nation’s Midwest, massive amounts of fertilizer, pesticides, and manure-runoff travel down the Mississippi River. This high-nutrient mix causes an eco-chain reaction that ends with microscopic organisms robbing oxygen from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Marine life must relocate or suffocate. The phenomenon is known as hypoxia. Scientists have dubbed affected areas “dead zones.” Each summer the Gulf’s dead zone grows to an area the size of New Jersey. A recent U.N. report showed a 34 percent jump over 2 years in the number of dead zones–now 200 worldwide. Today, red tides (harmful algae blooms) line some coastlines of entire nations nearly without break. Soon, the hot real-estate properties around the world will be away from the waterfronts.

Another great passion of mine is music. Music is important, like art, like living instead of surviving, like love, we all need it. Music inspires, makes us believe maybe we aren’t alone, that we are connected, that others feel like us, breath like us, hurt like us…

OK, before I keep going on and on, why I bring this up now is the other day my friend Jorge sent me a mix tape through Muxtape.com and thus I found a site I really like. It is like the good old days of making your best friend, lover/potential lover that mix, to tell them how you feel or who you are without telling them how you feel or who you are…so here you go…this is me at this moment in time and if you want to be super fres