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Gay Pride that’s what…but what happens first??? The Veggie Pride Parade, but even before that is the Veggie Prom of 2010!!!! Say what??? :] Here is a little promo for both events, as I think being a vegetarian or vegan is super fresh.
Veggie Prom is 8 p.m. Friday, May 14, 2010. It will be at Littlefield in Park Slope: 622 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Click on the prom flyer above for more info. A raffle will benefit Mercy for Animals. They say creative prom attire is encouraged, couple themes welcomed and like as in life, no date required.
Then post prom is the big parade.
NEXT VEGGIE PRIDE PARADE:
SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010 info@vivavegie.org….•….212-242-0011
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Go veggies (and fruits)! ;]
-Cara
Marine is doing some research for our organic t-shirt business, be nice and sent me this web site, http://actionnetwork.org/. They are a part of Environmental Defense. One of their featured action alerts has to do with humans increasing resistance to antibiotics. Go here to send a message to your Congressperson and Senators.
I, myself have never been a big fan of Western medicine, especially that flu shot. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that flu shot is just the government doing some crazy testing on us or something to that affect. I am sure of it! It is the same way with goldenseal root and penicillin, if you take them for too long or just take too much you become immune to their positive/healing effects. I also think that Western medicine mostly covers up the aches and pains of sickness till you heal, unlike natural vitamins and herbs that act as a preventative measure and heals you rather than covering up the sickness.
Heal naturally when possible.
-Cara
Reason 101 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
When you fork over that $1.89 for those 7 ounces of Brown ’N Serve Sausage Links, it’s really quite a bargain, or so you might think. But such purchases–collectively trillions of them across the globe–accumulate a steep ecological deficit. In time, the debt will come due. Future generations will be the ones remitting its payments, in installments, with global warming, aquifer depletion, topsoil erosion, desertification, collapsed fisheries, wildlife extinction, deforestation and lost ecosystem services. Isn’t it time to start eating lower on the food chain? Get Hip. Go Veg!
It has been 101 days since I started the 101 Reasons Why I Am A Vegetarian journey. I commend Pamela Rice for her commitment to wanting to protect the wild animals, human animals (sometimes wild as well) and the planet we live on. I might not have agreed with every thing she said or maybe more of how she said it, but always with her mission. There are not many people out there who believe in a humane cause and then follow it up by actually doing something, something big. It is a sign of great character and I respect that.
Thank you.
-Cara
My Sust House is a fresh flash game that teaches us about issues of sustainability in design and planning. There are two games dedicated to exploring what sustainability means and how it relates to our homes. What I love is the two characters that lead you on this ecological journey posses charming Scottish accents, which makes the game more pleasurable…at least for me!
Here is information on the two games from the creators of My Sust House.
Game 1
Environment explores ways to create a more sustainable environment. Subjects covered are: location of a house, saving energy, water, and waste. Player receives a printable certificate with their score. Suitable for pupils from 9 years.
Game 2
Building challenges the children to build a sustainable house. Subjects covered are: building materials, insulating materials, power for a house, heating a house. Player receives a printable certificate with their score. Suitable for pupils from 12 years.
In choosing their materials, students must take both cost and environmental sustainability into account. They have £100,000 to spend and the budget is displayed on screen. If you exceed the budget you must repeat the game The sustainability meter is displayed at all times and varies according to the player’s choices. In addition there is an animated globe in the top left corner, which changes appearance according to the current score.
I hope you enjoy it.
-Cara
Reason 100 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Eating vegetables keeps the brain young, a chorus of research shows. One recent 6-year study in Chicago tested 2,000 seniors, their mental acumen paired off with vegetable intake. Subjects who ate more than two servings of vegetables per day appeared about five years younger by certain indicators than those who ate few or no vegetables. Green leafies (spinach, kale, and collards) appeared most beneficial.
The big Memorial Day weekend is finally here. That means summer is just around the corner (June 20th). Nothing goes better in the summer than guacamole, some chips and a fantastical margarita. Enjoying it on the beach would be nice as well.
This guacamole is no everyday type of guacamole, it is an awesome guacamole. The flavor combination is super fresh. I have yet to make any since last year and am drooling just thinking about it.
What You Need
2 tablespoons julienned organic sun-dried tomatoes
1 ripe organic avocado
1/4 cup finely diced organic ripe papaya
2 tablespoons organic lemon juice (from an actual lemon, not a plastic one!)
1 teaspoon organic honey (to make this a vegan recipe you can replace honey with organic rice syrup)
1 clove minced organic garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced organic fresh cilantro
1/8 teaspoon organic sea salt
What You Need To Do
Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in warm water for at least 15 minutes and no more than 20 minutes, then drain and put them off to the side. Peal the avocado, remove the pit, then mash it into a paste. You want to have about 1/2 cup of avocado. Then in a mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, avocado, papaya, lemon juice, honey, garlic, cilantro and salt and mix well. Cover and refrigerate. You can leave it at the least in the refrigerator for an hour, but I leave it overnight so the flavors really develop. Serve cold and with some plain corn chips and be ready for the best guac ever!
¡Buen provecho!
-Cara
Reason 99 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Agriculture science inexhaustibly works to eke out every last bit of commodity wealth from farmed animals via genetic selection. Wild jungle fowl lay 2 dozen eggs per year; today’s maligned descendants lay an egg nearly every day. Sows in nature give birth to 5 piglets; today’s factory-raised litters yield 12 young. A hundred years ago a steer took 4 to 5 years to grow to market weight; today the process takes only 14 months. Just 50 years ago cows gave 645 gallons of milk per year; on dairies today, cows give over three times this amount.
Since we learned so much about what makes bamboo eco or not in yesterday’s entry I decided to list three “Certified by Cara” super ecological bamboo products.
OK, finding eco bamboo clothes I have decided is like the search for the Holy Grail. I mean no one is mechanically pounding bamboo into yarn, thread, or t-shirts for that matter. If they are their marketing/PR team is lacking the skills necessary to promote said bamboo products. Everyone who makes bamboo clothes is close, but no cigar. The best company I found so far is, Bamboo Body.
They state, “The bamboo in our fabric is grown in the Yunnan Province in China without the use of any chemicals or pesticides. The plantation is managed in strict accordance with the international organic OCIA/NOP standard.
Bamboo yarn is produced by pulverizing the bamboo stalks and then regenerating the fiber. This process does not use harmful chemicals. Our fabric is dyed using azo-free dyestuffs. Our factory operates in conformity with ISO9001:2000 quality standard and is committed to the environment by reducing emissions and recycling waste. The factory pays all workers appropriately and does not employ staff under the age of 18.
While bamboo is grown organically, without the use of pesticides or chemicals, bamboo fabric is not certified organic. The process of converting bamboo to yarn does not meet the strict criteria for organic certification.
Our bamboo fabric is certified by oeko-tex 100 standard which confirms that it is environmentally sound and does not include any harmful chemicals.”
Everyone else either states that oeko-tex 100 is not all it is cracked up to be or “that it is impossible to be 100% ecological, but as technology advances they hope to be”….technology…for all the companies waiting for the future to arrive, here is the past, what I like to call the anti-technological way, also known as the “mechanical way”. The mechanical way is done by crushing the woody parts of the bamboo plant and then use natural enzymes to break the bamboo walls into a mushy mass so that the natural fibers can be mechanically combed out and spun into yarn. This is essentially the same eco-friendly manufacturing process used to produce linen fabric from flax or hemp. Bamboo fabric made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen. Very little bamboo linen is manufactured for clothing because it is more labor intensive and costly.” What that means is it messes with these “green” companies bottom line.
The next company that makes the “Certified by Cara” seal is Totally Bamboo. I really like the twist chopstick set they sell. According to Totally Bamboo they had a chemist develop a high grade, non-toxic formaldehyde free food grade glue which they use exclusively on their cutting boards. Also. they do not use artificial dyes or stains. Their factory is ISO 9000 compliant which is a rating system covering non-polluting environmental issues and employee welfare, safety and minimum age. There are 2 colors, light and dark. The light is the natural color of bamboo. The dark is “cooked” to perfection, literally, a result of the heating process. The natural sugar in the wood is caramelized, producing the beautiful honey color. This is permanent and will not wash off. This allows the boards to be sanded if needed. They have other cool stuff on their site as well, like bamboo director chairs, for those eco Hollywood directors…lol.
Next to finding truly eco fabrics, eco flooring was the runner up as far as hard to locate. One company that receives the “Certified by Cara” seal, is Eco Timber.
This is what they have to say about how they are super awesome bamboo flooring rock stars, “EcoTimber bamboo flooring is made from bamboo plantations — not from wild habitats. Bamboo is a highly renewable resource, harvestable only four to six years after being planted. Its low moisture absorption properties make it ideal for humid climates and applications where moisture might pose a challenge for other types of flooring.
EcoTimber Bamboo flooring is made with a Low-VOC adhesive that easily meets the strict European E1 standard for indoor air quality.
There are currently dozens of bamboo flooring manufacturers, some of which have flooded the market with poorly-made products. Click here to see what sets them apart from others. ”
The business of greenwashing is becoming an art form these days as the big players are joining the “green” game. I expect it from them, but am sad to see some small business jumping on the greenwashing train to nowhere.
I thought this blog entry was going to be easy, but I was wrong.
Keep it real.
-Cara
Reason 98 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Every year, 24,000 fishers die on the job, making fishing the most dangerous occupation in the world, according to the FAO/UN. Meatpacking has the highest serious injury rate by far of any occupation. Repetitive stress disorders and knife cuts are rampant in meat plants. Poultry processing workers earn wages that are, for a family of four, below the poverty level. Full-time contract poultry growers clear incomes of only $21,000 annually.
I am on the “buy bamboo bandwagon”. I have been for awhile. I was thinking about it today, I have an idea why bamboo is considered a sustainable, environmentally-friendly substance, but just an idea. I decided on this lovely day to become informed and discover the truth behind bamboo.
Let’s start out with some interesting bamboo facts, one, bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on Earth. It has been clocked surging skyward as fast as 121 cm (47.6 inches) in a 24-hour period. It can also reach maximal growth rate which exceed one meter (40 inches) per hour for short periods of time. After harvesting, bamboo does not require replanting, it has an extensive root system that continually sends up new shoots, naturally replenishing itself, making it one of the most renewable resources known. It has also been around since the prehistoric era, which I just think is cool.
Next, there are 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo, found in a number of diverse climates and you don’t need to spray them down with gallons of pesticides or fertilize them for them to thrive as they do so naturally. These variables make this plant more like a super weed, than a member of the true grass family, Poaceae and this is also what makes bamboo a renewable resource.
Fabrics made from bamboo have an extraordinary water absorbency quality. This characteristic makes bamboo fabric three times more absorbent than cotton. Bamboo fibers also keep moisture away from the skin, speeding up the evaporation process, keeping the wearer naturally drier and more comfortable. The fabrics made from bamboo are known to be extremely soft, breathable, hard to wrinkle and possess antibacterial properties! I also heard something about bamboo blocking out a large percentage of the Sun’s UV activity, but I could not find any solid facts on that, so wear your sun block, not your bamboo shirt, because skin cancer is a horrible thing to have!
There is one major man made issue which makes bamboo clothing either an eco product or not. It is the process it goes through before becoming the final product. There are two ways to process bamboo to make the plant into a fabric: mechanically or chemically.
To quote Organic Clothing’s blog, “The mechanical way is by crushing the woody parts of the bamboo plant and then use natural enzymes to break the bamboo walls into a mushy mass so that the natural fibers can be mechanically combed out and spun into yarn. This is essentially the same eco-friendly manufacturing process used to produce linen fabric from flax or hemp. Bamboo fabric made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen. Very little bamboo linen is manufactured for clothing because it is more labor intensive and costly.
Chemically manufactured bamboo fiber is a regenerated cellulose fiber similar to rayon or modal. Chemically manufactured bamboo is sometimes called bamboo rayon because of the many similarities in the way it is chemically manufactured and similarities in its feel and hand.
Most bamboo fabric that is the current eco-fashion rage is chemically manufactured by “cooking” the bamboo leaves and woody shoots in strong chemical solvents such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH – also known as caustic soda or lye) and carbon disulfide in a process also known as hydrolysis alkalization combined with multi-phase bleaching. Both sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide have been linked to serious health problems. Breathing low levels of carbon disulfide can cause tiredness, headache and nerve damage. Carbon disulfide has been shown to cause neural disorders in workers at rayon manufacturers. Low levels of exposure to sodium hydroxide can cause irritation of the skin and eyes. Sodium hydroxide is a strong alkaline base also known as caustic soda or lye. In its dry crystalline form, caustic soda is one of the major ingredients of Drano. This is basically the same process used to make rayon from wood or cotton waste byproducts. Because of the potential health risks and damage to the environment surrounding the manufacturing facilities, textile manufacturing processes for bamboo or other regenerated fibers using hydrolysis alkalization with multi-phase bleaching are not considered sustainable or environmentally supportable.”
What I learned today is bamboo alone is a renewable, sustainable, and abundant resource that grows organically in its natural habitat, but before you go and brag or even buy your bamboo clothes you need to ask the company what is their manufacturing process to make said bamboo fabric. Look for the Oeko-Tek certification. Oeko-Tek certification identifies textiles that are free of processing chemicals, although it does not ensure the environmental soundness of the entire manufacturing process. The same thing goes for your bamboo floors, bamboo cutting boards, your bamboo everything.
You’ve been schooled.
-Cara
Reason 97 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
To produce foie gras, male ducks are force-fed a stomach-gorging cup of corn pellets three times a day with a 15-inch feeder tube. This torturous process goes on for 28 days until the ducks’ livers, from which the pâté is made, miasmatically bloat to 10 times normal size. Mortalities are high due to the disease, intense stress, and burst stomachs. For days prior to slaughter, each bird will pant for air. So cruel are these practices that foie gras production is now outlawed in at least a dozen countries.
Federal Contracts Ban
President Bush must act immediately to implement the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007. The Act bans federal contracts with companies that help fund genocide in Darfur and can add much-needed economic pressure on the Sudanese regime to end the violence in Darfur.
The legislation is in place – we’re waiting for the President to act. The April 29 deadline to implement the legislation has passed, but we have still not seen any movement from the White House.
Fill out these forms to urge President Bush to implement the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act and make sure U.S. tax dollars do not reward foreign companies that help fund genocide.
We are are one people, we must stop hurting each other for something that will never give us happiness.
-Cara
Reason 96 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
A 25-percent decline in heart disease in Poland in the early 1990s coincided with the country’s transformation to a market economy, which ended government subsidies to meat. A switch primarily to vegetable fats and the increased importation of fruit were also seen as factors in the decline, according to a report made by a team of multinational researchers. The authors of the report noted that the decline was “apparently without precedent in peacetime.”
Ever since I was a kid I’ve had people I looked up too, had crushes on, believed in, and thought were super cool, but I evolved and grew out of them. There has only been one person throughout my life I have always looked up too; one woman that my belief in the beauty of her soul, strength of her spirit, and greatness of her mind has never faltered. This woman is Alice Walker
I believe peace is possible.
-Cara
Reason 95 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Except for a single decade from time to time, the climate above America’s Ogalalla aquifer is bone-dry. Thanks to titanic amounts of water tapped from this ancient underground lake, however, for the last fifty years the land has been blanketed with thirsty feed grains. Farmers in some years have irrigated their land with more water than the annual flow of the Colorado River. Since this aquifer was originally the gift of a glacier in another age, today’s rainfall has essentially no recharging effect. Consequently, the experts give only fifty years before this phenomenal creation of the natural world is gone forever.
Today I feel stuck. I am not really inspired by anything and have no idea what to write about. I think I am just in a funky mood. I hate it when I don’t already have an idea of what I want to write. I guess maybe I’ll do a search online and put in ecology or green or I don’t know what…I’ll be back.
OK, I think I figured out what my problem is. I spend a lot of time writing blog entries on what we as humans are doing wrong and what we can and need to do to make the world a better place. I write everyday about it and I just need to lighten it up a bit now and again. I mean even the game this last Sunday was depressing. Today I am just going to go over some interesting and nerdy facts about this amazing planet we live on. I hope you enjoy.
Ten Earth Facts
- The Earth is about 4.54 Billion years old.
- Earth’s location in the Solar System is on the outer edge of the Milky Way, about 28,000 light years from the galactic center (Source: European Space Agency). It takes the solar system 225 million years to make one full trip around the Milky Way.
- Earth’s Sun is a medium sized, yellow star. Scientists call it a G2 star. It is the largest object in the solar system and contains 99.8 percent of the solar system’s mass. It is located in the center of the solar system (and it is super hot!).
- It takes Earth 365.2422 days to orbit the sun. This is the basis for the year.
- Rotational Speed is about 1,070 miles per hour at the equator (That is super fast!).
- It takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes and four (4) seconds to make one complete 360° rotation (so what happens to those 3 minutes and 56 seconds everyday? How old am I really?).
- Earth’s Weight (Mass) is 5.972 sextillion (1,000 trillion) metric tons. That’s 5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons! Actually, scientists prefer to refer to this measurement as the Earth’s mass instead of weight since weight is the result of Earth’s gravitational pull on another object. And the Earth cannot pull on itself! As the Earth orbits the Sun, it is weightless. If the Earth were placed on the Sun, it would weigh more than if it were placed on Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system but much smaller than the sun. Yet, Earth (or any other object for that matter) would have the same mass regardless of where it is located. (Earth is a fatty.) :]
- 70.8% of Earth is covered by water, and 29.2 % is covered by land. (The ocean really is Earth’s final frontier. There is miles of unexplored world underwater, including miles of caves and the like.)
- The highest point on Earth is 29,028 feet above sea level, Mount Everest, formed 60 million years ago, located on the border of Tibet and Nepal in the Central Himalayas in southeast Asia.
- The lowest point (on Land) 1,320 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea, located on the border between Israel and the West Bank to the west and Jordan to the east. It is so salty — the saltiest on Earth — that it is unable to support any type of life.
I feel better now. It is information that even if you already know it, maybe you haven’t thought about it lately and how amazing this super fresh planet really is, so let’s take care of her.
Earth is awesome.
-Cara
(Source:ecology.com)
Reason 94 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
To a great extent, it’s the highenergy starch of corn feed that makes beef cattle grow to slaughter weight so quickly—14 to 16 months today, versus the traditional 4 to 5 years on grass (see #46). In terms of energy concentration, today’s feed has been compared to Snickers bars. As a consequence, feedlot manure is too nitrogen rich to be used as fertilizer. And it is so laced with hormones and other pharmaceuticals that fish downstream downstream can be found with strange sexual characteristics.
This recipe my friend Lexi gave to me like a hundred years ago when we were just kids working at Whole Foods. This was before Whole Foods became a publicly traded company [I am a Whole Foods stockholder as when we worked there we were given stock and/or allowed to buy it cheaply. I just want to be honest and above board. ] and sold out. John Mackey, what a joke. I can say this as I experienced it firsthand. I never had such a great job before they went public. It was the best work environment and best people to work with. We all loved our jobs so much that it positively affected how we treated Whole Foods customers. It wasn’t a hassle or annoying, as we were respected and treated so well that we want to excel at our jobs and do what was right for the company. We were paid really well and had amazing benefits. It is the simple theory of treating your employees well and not only will they work hard, but you will make more money and a have a better life yourself. We were a true community and since that time I have never experienced that type of job.
The issue was to get the real big money they decided they needed to go public and it became no longer about us, it was about the stockholders and their happiness. Everyday, things changed more into a factory environment with dress codes, piercing policies, green aprons, whatever the stockholders wanted Mackey gave them. It became a place where if you did not agree with them they would fire you based on untruths. The place is not a good place to work anymore. I guess caring about what you do and how you do it doesn’t pay for a 720-acre ranch in Texas. Sorry, to get all up in it that way. January 1992 was just a sad time in history for all of us that worked there. If you don’t believe me here are some links I found from others like me who worked for this company and saw Whole foods devolve into what it is today.
Unconscionable Capitalism: How Whole Foods Values Policy Over Employees Well-Being
Good company to work for? (applying, business, change, part-time) [scroll down on this one to see some ex-employees of Whole Foods opinion.]
The Whole Foods Cure For Herpes
That’s enough for now, but if your not convinced do a search and you will find thousands of articles on what it is to work for a company with a nice exterior, but not so clean an interior.
To quote an ex-Whole Foods employee south2nd:
Ugh, stay away from Whole Foods. Before they became a publicly traded company, they were pretty great to work for. It has completely changed. They have eliminated most of the programs that made them different. The associates are not treated well, the pay is low, and the the atmosphere is very clique-ish and cutthroat. I would not recommend it unless you hate yourself.
OK, I really got sidetracked from my recipe…sorry…bringing it back now. This recipe was originally Lexi’s but since then I have changed it a bit, it is now Lexi and Cara’s Special Organic Yam Yams or Sweet Potatoes recipe.
What You Need
as many organic sweet potatoes or yams you want to eat
as much organic unsalted butter you want per potato (I usually put like two tablespoons cut into squares and put along the potato)
as much organic brown sugar as you want per potato (I usually do about two tablespoons or less depending on the size of the potato)
as much organic honey as you like (I usually use a tablespoon)
a tablespoon of organic beer
What To Do
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
Wash your yams/sweet potatoes
Cut them into quarters
Place them on a sheet big enough to wrap up said yams or potatoes
Add butter, brown sugar, honey, and a bit o’ beer.
Wrap them in their original shape with foil.
Put on a baking pan or may I suggest a dish with some depth as the juices will leak out of the aluminum sometimes and you don’t want to waste any of the good stuff.
Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until they are nice and soft.
Put them and all the juices in a serving pan and enjoy.
I want some now!
-Cara
Reason 92 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
It is estimated that 30 percent of the world’s fish catch is non-target species, or “bycatch.” Fishers–typically in the cruelest most expedient ways–separate out the discards, only to dump them overboard, dead and mutilated. Bycatch from driftnetting is estimated at 85 percent of catch; despite a U.N. moratorium, Italy, France, and Morocco continue the hugely destructive practice. Shrimp fishing alone is responsible for over 27 percent of the world’s bycatch, despite producing less than 2 percent of global seafood.
Lindsay Smith CEO and President Dan Joyce VP Sales and Marketing
The first thing we will talk about is not something you would necessarily buy for yourself, but more for a public space. It is rubber sidewalks.
Rubbersidewalks are high-density paving tiles made with recycled California tire crumbed rubber combined with polyurethane binder and colorant, then molded with heat under compression. This produces a strong and durable part that meets all requirements of sidewalk-worthiness, including stable grade, non-vibration in compliance with ADA requirements, and high coefficient of friction for non-skid both dry and wet. Rubbersidewalks are available in various sizes and colors, and are reversible. Known life per face is minimum eight years. Actual life per face is not known but is expected to exceed 12 years.
Here are some reasons to use then,
- Diverted over 1 million tires from landfills
- Saved over 2,000 trees in cities’ urban forests
- Removed 78,000 pounds of CO2 each year
- Captured over 4 million gallons of water each year
What a cool idea…
Next, yes it is another bag, but these two ladies have a slightly different spin. Here is what they have to say about themselve,
We are proud to say that BaggyShirts is a sustainable enterprise, in that we:
- Purchase recycled men’s shirts obtained from warehouses of surplus goods collected from charitable organizations – no petroleum-based materials.
- Use the entire shirt – absolutely no waste.
- Prevent clothing and tens of thousands of paper and plastic bags from going to the landfill each year.
- Employ local artisans to fabricate bags at home, slashing carbon emissions by 80% to 90%. No overseas manufacturing.
- Pay our fabricators a livable wage that is above average for the industry.
- Operate with the least possible amount of negative environmental impact – we ship Internet orders in recycled and recyclable materials.
- Donate a portion of our proceeds to organizations that work to stop global warming.
The cool thing is they were inspired to start this business after watching, An Inconvenient Truth! Sounds familar.
Last but not least, this is a shout out to Marine, as these recycled glasses are made from the bottom halves of Bordeaux bottles that were “rescued” on the way to the landfill. A beautifully etched branch design is accompanied by the phrase ‘Protect Our Earth’ in four languages: English, Spanish (Proteja Nuestra Tierra), Afrikaans/South African (Bewaar Ons A Arde) and French (Proteqez Notre Terre). They look beautiful.
Well, these were good ones. I hope you liked them as well.
Enjoy.
-Cara
Reason 91 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
When food-safety inspectors in New York City make the rounds, they often come upon merchants selling just about anything: the meat of armadillos, iquanas, primates, turtles, frogs, and even rats. Some of the meat comes from endangered animals. Other cuts, if not intrinsically illegal, fail to derive from licensed inspected facilities and so put consumers at risk. The sellers of such contraband (most is imported) tend to be ignorant of U.S. laws, sometimes conveniently so. They don’t seem to comprehend the dangers to which they expose their customers and even the city as they raise the risk of outbreak. Over one recent 21-month period, a single inspector shuttered 138 city stores.
Last Saturday I went to ABC Carpet and Home on Broadway to watch the Pangea Day films. I think it is crazy in such a huge city we did not have a large public event like in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro, but was appreciative that ABC Carpet and Home hosted it, as they got nothing from it really. It may have been to their detriment, as people would come towards the showroom we were in and some left thinking they were interrupting something. Well maybe the people watching the film never came there before and now love it!!! Who knows? One thing they did gain was a fan, so if anyone from ABC Carpet and Home is reading this, thank you! Oh yeah, and we also ate in their restaurant, Pipa [nice place], so they did get some monetary value out of it!
For those that don’t know what Pangea Day is here is a link to an entry I did on it called, “What is Pangea Day?“. There were amazing films. It was a really great line-up. The only negative I will say was the three of the four hosts of Pangea Day were a bit annoying. I only really thought June Arunga cared about the event, the two men Max Lugavere and Jason Silva seemed very insecure and fake, so that kept distracting me and Lisa Ling was just on script. I could have also lived without all the actors reading their teleprompter, but I must admit when I told my mom Meg Ryan, Goldie Hawn and Cameron Diaz were a part of it, she got interested. Until then she was like, that sounds interesting dear…you know in THAT way…but later that same day she did email me and said she watched a whole hour. I guess it was a good idea to use popular Hollywood actors to pull in people like my mom, who are a little skeptical of us crazy do gooders, but trust that if Hollywood actors can support Pangea Day, it must not be too radical.
If you want to see some of these films go here. There was four hours of films [some ads, and songs, and such in between], I arrived about 45 minutes late, so only saw 3 hours and 15 minutes, but still they were so good time flew by. I think this was a great event, and in the words of the creator of Pangea Day, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, “Movies can’t change the world. But the people who watch them can.”, so please take some time to watch these films and see where they take you.
One last thing, I just want to say I think Jehane Noujaim is an amazing woman and a beautiful soul and am thankful she exists in this world.
-Cara
Reason 90 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Even if meat eaters are spared the big killers that their lifestyle is associated with (heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer), their diet may still be robbing them of everyday good health. A meat diet is sure to lead to nagging conditions and ailments. A whole-foods, high-fiber vegan diet, full of grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, is just the ticket to reduce arthritis pain, ease irritable-bowel disorders, mitigate common back pain, relieve cold and allergy symptoms, and lower risk for gallstones, kidney stones, and heartburn. But perhaps best of all, the vegan life is one free of constipation!
Wednesday is hump day, the day that separates where your work week starts from when you work week ends. I thought what a perfect day to take a break and do something quick and easy that will make a positive difference. This day will be reserved for petitions and causes.
Our first lucky “Hump Day” winner is ONE. I first heard of these guys reading Ben and Jerry’s email newsletter. They have partnered with the organization to gain more exposer for their cause. What ONE does is raise public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight such problems in the world’s poorest countries.
In their own words, “ONE believes that allocating more of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries.
ONE is nonpartisan; there’s only one side in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. Working on the ground in communities, colleges and churches across the United States, ONE members both educate and ask America’s leaders to increase efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty, from the U.S. budget and presidential elections to specific legislation on debt cancellation, increasing effective international assistance, making trade fair, and fighting corruption.”
They have a lot on their plate and much work to do, so what you can do to help is click on this link and sign the ONE Declaration and have you voice heard. It is super easy. If you want to do more you can visit ONE’s “Take Action” page and spread the word, volunteer, shop to support the cause, etc.
One person can make a difference, so do.
-Cara
Reason 89 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Handling livestock these days is risky business, not the least because humans are increasingly contracting diseases from the animals: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Nipah virus, bird flu, and SARS are a few examples. “Exotic,” and often endangered, animal cuisine provides the conduit for a global pandemic. In China, wet markets display caged and invariably sickly creatures, such as cobras, civet cats, and anteaters, for consumers who want that “taste of the wild.” In Africa, the bushmeat trade is blamed for the spread of Ebola and AIDS.
For no particular reason, I always liked the actress/comedian Janeane Garofalo. There is just something about her that interests me, maybe it’s her anger, or her glasses, or her general dislike of idiots and the fact she is not quiet about it. Anyway, it was no big deal, just a general liking that if asked, “Hey, do you like that actress Janeane Garofalo?”, I’d say, “Yeah, she is great in Wet Hot American Summer. I love that flick.”
Then the other day I watched this documentary narrated by Janeane Garofalo entitled, “Dangerous Living: Coming Out In The Developing World“. It is about the lives of gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South in the present time and the homophobia and injustice they face. I found it interesting that a heterosexual comedian/actress was narrating this indie documentary about homosexuals. I remembered someone telling me awhile back that she was a part of this liberal internet radio station Air America and was crazy political, so it made some sense I guess. I was interested and decided to do some Garofalo investigating. What I found out is she is no longer with the station and is acting on some TV shows [not sure which and it doesn’t matter as I don’t have a television]. The station itself was sold to some corporation that recently suspended this host Randi Rhodes for calling Hillary Clinton, a whore over and over again at some Air America, San Francisco event she was doing some shtick at. Here is my opinion on this; I feel whore is a negative term created by men to degrade women. I personally am not into women degrading women in an unproductive way, but I am into people having the right to say whatever they want, I just prefer it to be intelligent. Anyway, after the station suspended her, she resigned. I would have staid and fought, but not knowing the whole story I shouldn’t really say that…but I will anyway!
OK, sorry back to Janeane. During my Garofalo investigating/stalking I found this video on YouTube of Janeane in an interview on Fox News with Brian Kilmeade and two other reporters I don’t care enough to find out the names of, from February 2003.
This is why she is today’s heroine, not only is she well read and intelligent, she did not jump up and sucker punch Brian Kilmeade, who was trying desperately to silence her voice and make her out to be an anti-American, Saddam supporter. Fox news is disgusting. The reason they were number one at the time is they are an entertainment, fluff network. Their news is a joke, and yes all network news is a joke, but Fox News is the champion of crap.
Do not support America’s televised news! It only exists to sell you crap and distract you from the truth.
-Cara
Reason 88 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Just as smokestack emissions result in acid rain, toxic fumes from decomposing livestock waste in open-air lagoons on factory farms become poisonous to fish when returned to waterways via rainfall. The errant ammonia also ravages terrestrial ecosystems. Since Earth’s plant species evolved to efficiently use scarce amounts of nutrients, today’s gluts will generally kill them. Fallout can degrade environments as far away as 300 miles.
…Queens, at the first installment of Stop ‘N Swap, which was put together by the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education and Build It Green! NYC. It was cool. People brought things they wanted to get rid of and you could take anything you wanted for free!
The coolest thing was it was mostly people from the neighborhood, at least when I was there. When one guy asked me how much the stuff was, I told him everything was free, he smiled, but he wasn’t quite sure I was telling the truth (I would have thought the same thing.). He proceeded to take kids’ roller blades, a DVD trivia game, a pinball toy, etc., looking around every once and awhile to see if I was setting him up. All the stuff he took was pretty new and I kept thinking how cool is that, this dad is going to be the world’s greatest dad for bringing all this loot home, not only that but when he woke up this morning he had no idea his day would turn out this way. Things like that make me smile and think the world isn’t such a pain all the time.
I myself brought a box of toys I had around the house, and some clothes to donate.
Some stuff I brought
People loving the stuff in the box I brought.
Less than 2 minutes later. :]
I also was able to bring my tech trash like empty printer cartridges and cds to be recycled as Build It Green! NYC offers that service year round.
Then I found a never used, super fresh full power 40 channel 2-way emergency information CB radio from the 70’s for FREE!!! :) I love this thing.
All and all it was productive, fun, and the people there working and hanging out were fresh! I’ll let people know when the next one is, if there is a next one!
Recycle! Reuse!
-Cara
Reason 87 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian: U.N. Environment Programme executive director Klaus Toepfer said in 2003: “The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes, animals that share more than 96 percent of their DNA with humans. If we lose any great ape species we will be destroying a bridge to our own origins, and with it part of our own humanity.” Humans stand behind all reasons for the die-off, including one of the most important: poaching for meat.
It’s Funday Sunday Game Day. Today’s game is a game and quiz. The best of both worlds.
Good times.
-Cara
Reason 86 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
More than half of the nation’s seafood companies do not follow federal food-safety guidelines. Government inspectors visit processors only once a year to oversee essentially voluntary measures and to view company paperwork. Three-quarters of all fish consumed in the U.S. is imported, representing 4 billion pounds, but less than two percent of it is government inspected.
It is recipe day and today’s recipe is a dessert, a first here at The Day After An Inconvenient Truth. It is a chocolate, rice crispy ice cream pie, because summer is just around the corner.
What You Need
1/2 cup organic chocolate syrup
1/3 cup organic semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups organic crispy rice cereal
1 quart {4 cups) of your favorite organic ice cream
(F.Y.I. – The links to organic products are just suggestions of products I have used and recommend, but you can use any organic brand.)
What to Do
Butter a 9 inch pie pan
Mix the chocolate syrup semi-sweet chocolate chips in a pan over medium heat and stir until smooth. Remove and set aside 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture and put it in a small bowl. Add cereal to remaining chocolate mixture, stirring until well coated. Let it cool slightly.
Then using the back of spoon, press mixture evenly on bottom and up sides of prepared pie plate to form crust. Place the pan in freezer 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is firm. Spread one-half of ice cream into crust; spoon chocolate sauce over the first layer. Then top with scoops of the remaining ice cream. Cover and return to freezer until serving time. Drizzle with additional chocolate syrup just before serving.
You have no idea how good this is on a hot day.
Enjoy.
-Cara
Reason 85 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Clog up your arteries on a diet loaded with saturated animal fat and cholesterol year after year and you risk having a heart attack or stroke. You can opt to avert these afflictions with an expensive, though now-routine, operation known as angioplasty. Performed with a balloon-tipped catheter, it works to flatten plaque against artery walls, thus opening up passageways for blood to flow. A whole-foods vegan diet, along with regular exercise, can have the same effect.
People might be getting annoyed with my solar power obsession, but I could not pass this one up when I found it earlier this week. It is the LightCap 200!!!
This small, lightweight (just 2.6oz) cap fits on any ‘standard’ water bottle (2” wide mouth) such as Nalgene®, Camelbak®, GSI® and most others, turning your bottle into a solar-powered lantern. With clean, green solar energy powering your lantern there are no more burned out batteries to worry about or replace (adding to our already toxic landfills).
I love it! You can put colored water in them as well….super fresh!
Next we have Wola Nani Papier Mache Bowls, which are made by women living with HIV/AIDS. In Xhosa, Wola Nani means ” we embrace and develop each other.” These eye-catching bowls are made of papier mache using over-prints from canning factories in Cape Town. You can use them to put your keys in, mail, etc and it supports a great cause. You will also have a story to tell people when they comment to you how beautiful and interesting it is. It is not meant for food storage or eating purposes, so don’t eat out of it.
Last but not least is the Aptera a high-efficiency vehicle currently in development by Aptera Motors, Inc. They claim fuel efficiency of 230 mpg at 55 mph, which would make it one of the most fuel-efficient cars in the world. Because the Type-1 has only three wheels two in front and a single drive wheel in the rear, most states in the United States would classify the vehicle as a motorcycle. Design elements such as recessed windshield wipers and rear-view cameras instead of mirrors contribute to the low aerodynamic drag. According to the pre-order page, Aptera Motors has set the price at $26,900 for a an electric version with a 120-mile range, and $29,900 for the diesel-electrical series hybrid. If you want to learn more check out their site.
Charge it!
-Cara
Reason 84 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
In America, essentially all farmed animals will be trucked around at least once in their lives. Filthy, crowded, cramped, noisy, and terrifying conditions over extended periods are the norm. Truckers may legally deny the animals food and water for up to 36 hours. And such “protections” do not apply to poultry. Many animals are traded internationally. About 4 million live sheep are transported from Australia to the Middle East every year where Islamic law dictates throats be slit without stunning. In one recent year, a ship full of 58,000 sheep was rejected because of widespread infection. Before finding an import destination, nearly a tenth died.
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.
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
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.
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 (or a store bought box)
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
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…but that is just me and how I roll.
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.
- People in the U.S. consume more packaged drinks per capita than in any other country—about 350 aluminum cans per person per year, compared to 103 in Sweden, 88 in the United Kingdom, and 14 in France. [Go France!]
- Making 1 million tons of aluminum cans from virgin materials requires 5 million tons of bauxite ore and the energy equivalent of 32 million barrels of crude oil. Recycling the cans, in comparison, saves all of the bauxite and more than 75 percent of the energy, and avoids about 75 percent of the pollutants.
- Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough electricity to run a laptop computer for 4 hours.
- Making 1 million tons of plastic bottles from virgin materials (petroleum and other fossil fuels) generates an estimated 732,000 tons of climate-altering greenhouse gases.
Again I say, that’s crazy!
Eco-Cycle Media did a piece called, Zero Waste Systems that gives you an idea of how messed up our production/consumption/recycling system is right now. Then they wrap it up with some simple solutions you can do to reverse this doomed process.
Zero Waste!
-Cara
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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.
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.
This is the only dedicated blog entry that will be solely on Pamela Rice and her book, 101 Reasons Why I Am A Vegetarian. What I am going to do for the next 101 days is, at the end of the next 101 blog entries, I will quote one reason from Pamela Rice’s book for anyone who wants to read it. I am going to be reading each reason for the first time as well, so lets hope it’s good! :P :D :)
Who is Pamela Rice you may ask, according to her web site, VivaVegie Society,
“Pamela Rice is the author of the popular 16-page pamphlet “101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian,” which boasts some 180,000 copies in circulation, 10 printings, and 6 updated editions. Many have dubbed this veggie manifesto “the mighty convincer.” A good read-through and you’ll find yourself at least considering reducing the amount of meat in your diet.
Ms. Rice has dedicated her life to ferreting out every argument under the sun that lends credence to the personal choice of vegetarianism — the environmental argument, the health argument, and the ethical argument.
Ms. Rice is currently the director of the Vegetarian Center of New York City — a referral center, a reading room, a research library, and a cultural hub for vegetarians to meet and form groups.
She is the publisher of the incisive magazine The VivaVine: The Vegetarian-Issues Magazine.
She is also known to engage the public through “vegetarian street outreach,” distributing pro-vegetarian literature, including her “101 Reasons,” using eye-catching costumes and arresting images. ”
Reason #1:
- Nearly all of the some 10 billion animals slaughtered for food in the U.S. every year are the end result of a behemothic-sized swift-moving assembly line system, incorporating dangerous, unprecedented, and unsustainable methods of production. If America’s farmers were required by law to give their animals humane living conditions, including spacious quarters, clean surroundings, fresh air, sunlight, and opportunities for social interaction–and if it were illegal simply to drug the animals who would otherwise die from the conditions in which they live–cheap meat could never exist. Time and again the industry balks at even low-cost measures designed to improve the animals’ plight. Prices have been driven to levels unnaturally low, and, alas, a luxury good has been transformed into a staple.
That’s sad. :'( I think Marine is going to do a blog entry on organic, hormone free, free range meat and fish for all you carnivores sometime soon..
-Cara
The Day After An Inconvenient Truth 
What Did You Say?