environment

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Happy Earth Day!

April 22, 2010 in cookbook, environment by Claire | 6 comments

It IS Earth Day, right? Kind of snuck up on me.

I totally forgot to pose the family for our Earth Day cards.  Guess we won’t be sending them this year.

Actually, in all seriousness, one of the reasons I don’t send holiday cards is the wastefulness of the paper involved.  A lot of people I know are going paperless with their cards and the online options are getting fancier and classier.  There’s an Earth Day tip right there!

Kim thinks I’m relatively conscientious about this stuff because I compost.  It’s so easy to impress her.  (I will say that there’s a disgusting aspect to composting that does test your commitment).  I’m happy to report that our recycling waste now far outpaces our regular waste, and between that and the composting, we’ve definitely cut down on icky bags of goo going out to the trash can.

And of course I made a vow to be a vegetarian this year (and maybe on into the future) for strictly environmental reasons.  If you’re a faithful reader of this blog, you’ll remember that I “went” vegetarian on New Year’s Day, which makes it roughly four months now since I’ve eaten meat or fowl.

(Okay, confession time: I had a few mouthfuls of chicken at a literary festival where I had JUST spoken and was sitting back down, still shaking from having been up in front of hundreds of people, and found lunch waiting on the table in front of me.  Without thinking, I had devoured a bite or two of chicken salad before realizing what I was doing.  I cried out, “Oh, no!  I just ate chicken and I’m a vegetarian!” which raised some skeptical eyebrows among my tablemates, since most vegetarians know not to eat chicken. Also: once I nibbled on my daughter’s leftover pizza and she pointed out to me it was barbecue chicken pizza.)

Overall, though, I’ve found it surprisingly easy to stay the course, even when we were traveling all over the place for spring break.  Of course, I made it easy on myself: I’m not a vegan, so I eat eggs and dairy–can’t imagine doing this without cheese–and I also eat fish which pretty much solves the “what do I get at a nice restaurant” problem.  I try to focus on types of fish that are environmentally sound, like anchovies, sardines, and tilapia, but when I branch out from those, I can’t always remember which ones are best, so I may have made some mistakes in that area.  (I should carry one of those lists around–I know you can get them online–that tell you which fish you shouldn’t order because they’re being overfished or are toxic or are caught in ways that harm other species.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Hey Kermit – It Is Easy to be Green

February 13, 2010 in environment, gifts, giveaway by Kim | No comments

Claire and I work at being green.  We both buy our veggies from the same organic service (ParadiseO, tell them we sent you!) and strive to reduce, re-use and recycle.  Truthfully though, Claire is in a different league.  When she re-landscaped, she chose succulents and water tolerant plants; when you see my garden, you’ll think “English.”  When they stripped out the grass to replace it with a more environmentally-friendly type, she watered the dirt and waited for the weeds to grow and be pulled rather than use a herbicide.  Let’s just say that never would have occurred to me.  She composts; when I mentioned composting to our landscaper she laughed, patted me on the shoulder, and said “let’s work on watering the pots regularly.”  Claire gave up meat for a year for environmental reasons; I try not to have any meat until dinner, but mostly for caloric purposes.

We’ve talked about the used book quandary – they’re better for the environment because a book is being reused, but not so good for the author who doesn’t get a cut of that transaction.  Claire is an author.  Eco-Libris provides the answer, buy a tree for every book you read to balance out the paper used to manufacture the book.  Eco-Libris also works with publishers to promote the sustainable production of books.  Now, they are combing the two and adding an extra incentive for readers to participate:

  • Customers who balance out 25 books at Eco-Libris will receive a $10 gift card for Strand Bookstore in New York City (one of the world’s best independent bookstores). These cards are good for any in-store or online purchases and they never expire.
  • For customers who will balance out 50 books, Eco-Libris will send a gift - a choice of “green” book, printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. Customers will be offered to choose from a list of 5-6 books that will be changing occasionally.  The books are from last November’s green campaign; we loved our copy of From Green to Gold by Harold Enrico.
  • Customers who will balance 100 books will receive a$25 gift card for BookSwim, a Netflix-style book rental library service, lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and college textbooks.

Help the environment and get rewarded for it, what could be better?

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Newsweek’s 50 Books for our Times – City: Rediscovering the Center by William H. Whyte

December 28, 2009 in Challenge, book review, community service, environment, science by Kim | 2 comments

Last summer Newsweek published a list of 50 recommended books to help understand our times.  The list is fascinating to look through and consider why some of the books were chosen.  To encourage a conversation about the books, Amy at My Friend Amy, started a reading project asking people to read one book, write about it, and then share the link on her website to spark conversation.  I chose City:  Rediscovering the Center by William H. Whyte for two reasons:  It was one of the last books available on the list and I knew my husband, Keith, the real estate attorney, would find it fascinating.  This is his review of the book:

Why are some cities vibrant, visually dynamic, and filled with people on the move and engaged with each other, while other cities lack many of these characteristics? What makes one section of New York a fantastic place to walk around, but other areas of the City appear unfriendly or menacing? Is it a matter of location and infrastructure or is it the result of city planning?

I always thought that city planners went to school and learned their craft attending lectures, and then on the job by sitting at their desks and analyzing plans. Maybe some do. William H. Whyte’s book argues that in order to make good planning decisions, the types of decisions that will positively impact the way in which people live in their cities, planners must go out onto the streets and understand the raw data of how people interact in public spaces. City describes how Whyte’s team studied interactions on city streets and translated this information into discernible patterns. They set up a number of cameras in different locations on a street and recorded the day-to-day interactions. Whyte dissected how people traveled the streets, where they visited, how they interacted with each other and in conjunction with the street’s infrastructure (bus stops, buildings, window ledges, etc.). Whyte drew conclusions about what makes a street work and how cities can improve the population’s experience.  One of my clients, who worked on the development of retail stores for the Walt Disney Company, told me that Disney studied many of these elements when deciding where to locate their stores. He recalled being quizzed by Michael Eisner, the then-CEO of Disney, on very specific details regarding pedestrian patterns and Read the rest of this entry »

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Recommended Reading During the Climate Talks in Copenhagen

December 19, 2009 in Uncategorized, environment, recommended reading by Claire | No comments

Or, alternately, a list of books for the environmentalist on your holiday list!

Kim asked me if I knew any good books to read about the environment and what we can do to help stall global warming, so I instantly went into research mode . . . which means I sent an email to my brother who’s a biology teacher.  He recommended a couple of books and then suggested I get in touch with an old friend of ours, Dan Perlman, who is now a professor of biology and environmental studies at Brandeis.   Maybe that should be capitalized?  Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies?  Either way, you have to admit: the guy’s qualified to recommend books.  Hell, he’s qualified to lead the talks in Copenhagen.

Before I list the books he and my brother both recommended, I have to mention that I asked Dan if he had a bookstore to recommend in his neck of the woods.  His pick?  The New England Mobile Book Fair which, truly faithful readers will remember, was one of the very first Indies I wrote about on this blog.  Not as huge a coincidence as you might think, since Dan and I grew up a couple of miles away from each other.   Anyway, it’s reassuring: New England Mobile Book Fair is as good as I remember.

Now on to books about the environment.  Dan’s recommendations include:

Our Choice by Al Gore. You’ve heard of this guy, right?  Just try to get through his book without asking yourself how different the world would be today if he had been president. Read the rest of this entry »

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Green Books Campaign – 100 Bloggers for 100 Books PLUS a Giveaway!!

November 10, 2009 in book review, environment, giveaway, poetry, publishing by Kim | 8 comments

100bloggers

Designed by Susan Newman

GIVEAWAY OF AL GORE’S NEW BOOK AND FROM GREEN TO GOLD DESCRIBED IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH!

We’re joining Eco-Libris and 99 other book bloggers in reviewing 100 books that were published in an eco-friendly manner.  Eco-Libris organized this event (see our post about Eco-Libris and Kim’s interview on their blog) to highlight both the need for and availability of books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper.  “Although there’s so much hype around e-books, books printed on paper dominate the book market, and we want them to be as environmentally sound as possible ,” explains Raz Godelnik, co-founder and CEO of Eco-Libris. “Very few books are currently printed responsibly and we hope this initiative will bring more exposure to “green” books. Through this campaign we want to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.”

FC9781553800675We are so happy to join today’s blogging event.  Since I am trying to read more poetry, I decided to chose From Green to Gold by Harold Enrico as our review book.  This poetry collection is not only printed in a green manner, the poems themselves evoke an awareness of the beauty of nature and life.   I experienced a sense of melancholy and an awareness of the beauty of every moment as I read the poems.  

The theme of the time passing repeatedly occurs:  in the appropriately named “Time,” time is ”the mongrel bitch, limping along on three legs . . . She holds a bleeding forepaw tightly against her chest and whimpers from time to time.”   Even more poignant for me was “Marston-Bigot, Somerset” which describes the antics of WWII soldiers on New Years Eve at a temporary encampment juxtaposed with the animals (badger, mole) that will continually be present in an ongoing cycle of life.  

Several poems refer to aging, another aspect of time.  My favorite is ”Kontrapunkt” with the repeating lines “I crave another body.  This one will never do.”  References to autumn and winter as stand ins for aging Read the rest of this entry »

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