Video Essay: Green everyday

I know that I haven't been blogging as much about my art...which I am getting back to, BTW. But as spring comes, I am moved to think more and more about the environment, which is something that we think about all the time here. So I put together this little video essay with a few of the little things (beyond what I have already written about in this blog) that we do around here to be green)




Enjoy! (Comments are always appreciated)

Ranting till my face is Green

primordial, originally uploaded by Marysusan.

It is Earth Day...which is sweet and all...but I find the whole "one day a year" of it mildly insulting.

I was reading my newspaper this weekend (Yes, I still get a newspaper. And yes, I either compost or recycle it) and there were tons of ads for "Green" products and businesses.

Come on people. Get real. What percentage of the public actually falls for this wholesale greenwashing that is being trotted out more and more and passed off to general consumers like it is environmentalism. Piss off.

If you care about the environment, you care all year....that is 365 days in my book (366 this year...you get an extra day of care-y goodness) not one day where you proclaim all your evils to be for naught.

I'm sick of it and I'm not going to take it anymore. If you pretend to be "green" then I am not going to be spending my dollars with you. Hey big company, know how we can tell you are an impostor? You use the word "GREEN" on your products of advertising and have done so either:
a: just around earth day
b: within the last year but are not a new company
c: and you are a petroleum company. There are no green petroleum companies...so that horse has flown the barn so to speak.

Also....don't insult me by coloring all your advertising green. It doesn't mean the stuff you make or sell is. You really should be ashamed of yourself. You know who you are.

If you are going to talk the talk, big businesses, walk the f-ing walk.

I'm done ranting for now. I think that I will go make some stuff that I don't have to label "green"...because handmade is just that by it's nature.

Drink Green Beer

Yeah, I know that St. Patricks is past. And I pity any of you out there who actually drink green beer on this most co-opted of holidays. What I am talking about is beer that is another shade of green...

In my house, we try our darndest to live pretty damn green. Our electricity is generated by the solar panels on our roof, we don't drive when we can walk, only one of us drives to work ( the other bikes), and we recycle/upcycle like crazy. We also extend this idea to what we eat. We have a pretty large garden that gets more productive every year. We try to grow the majority of what we eat in season, and when we can't grow it, we strive to shop local. And that is what brings me to our topic for today: Greening your beer...

I will admit, I am kind of a beer snob. But when ecology was a factor, it always tended to win over taste. In grad school, my roommates and I drank case after case of Old Milwaukee, because in Kentucky, it was the only beer that would take back the bottles for re-fill instead of recycling. It wasn't bad beer...but I knew that there had to be something better out there.

Now we have great options in the form of micro-brewers. Do a Google search. Go ahead, I'll wait. I bet you can find at least one brewery within 100 miles of you. And if you do...buy your beer from them. It is so much greener than that fancy import from Germany or Holland or Bavaria that you have been drinking, and it probably tastes better too.

Think about the reduced carbon footprint simply by reducing the shipping distances that are involved in getting the brew to you when you purchase local. This is a huge environmental benefit. You also get the added charge of pumping dollars into your own local economy, which can never be bad.

Our local brewhouse is the Blue Point Brewery. We are lucky in that they are only a few miles away. They also are super green, because they give you the option to buy the beer in growlers which are essentially gallon jugs. If you have a couple brewmeisters in your house, this could be a good option for you. The awesome greenness of the growler is that you wash it when it is empty and you can take it back to the brewery (or a couple of other convienent beer sellers with Blue Point taps) for a fill up. You get a little discount on the price of the brew going in the jug, and you get to know that you are keeping a big old chunk of glass out of the recycling stream, by re-using - which should always come before recycling anyway.

(If you go to the BPB, try the Old Howling Bastard...you will never be the same)

So eat, drink, and be merry my friends....but keep it local if you can. You will feel good about it in more ways than one.

The two mile rule....

Ok, I'm gonna get up on my soap box and get all preachy on you for a few minutes here.

Ahem..... Ahem.... Testing...one ....two....three....

Folks, we have to do something. We have screwed up the planet and now we have to fix it.

Now, yes I know everyone is telling us to get off our collective lazy hineys and get with it. Al Gore is telling us, silly celebrities that I don't listen to are telling us, and now yes, now I am telling us...well, you.


Here is a little thing we can do. It is called:

THE TWO MILE RULE

Here it is, plain and simple:

If where you want to go is within two miles, you walk, or bike.

Wow. That is complex. But what if you have groceries to carry? Or paint cans to haul? Or the kitty to take to the vet? Well, then you do all those things in a combo trip in the car. Don't feel guilty, it is ok. That is what your car is for. But your feet are made for everything else.


The hubby and I live by THE TWO MILE RULE. For the last two summers we have managed to get by on one tank of gas. ONE TANK OF GAS PEOPLE! That is the power of THE TWO MILE RULE. We feel great, we spend time together, we don't shop all the time, we don't spend money we don't have to, we see people in our neighborhood, we don't put wear and tear on the car, we don't make carbon, and we get to be good to the planet.

I tell my students about THE TWO MILE RULE and they make fun of me for about a minute, then they think about it. It makes sense. Think about it.

Try it for a week. Just a week. Let me know how it goes.