kbutler's blog

Top 10 Green Excuses

kbutler — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

If you’re reading this article, odds are that you’re probably at least a light pale green in your commitment to Mother Earth. (That or you’re a friend or relative I’ve harassed to read my blog – you guys rock!) So in honor of the many shades of green out there, I present a list of top ten green excuses for your every day use.

TOP TEN GREEN EXCUSES

10. “I know I smell, but you couldn’t possibly expect me to shower longer than 1.3 minutes and waste an extra 3.6 gallons of water.”

9. You can’t eat dinner at your mother-in-law’s because you can't be subjected to another helping of her non-organic food/soul-crushing criticism.

8. “Of course I’m tired. I was up all night trying to figure out exactly why Madonna is on the cover of Vanity Fair’s 2008 Green Issue.”

7. “I’m sorry, but attending your son’s Bar Mitzvah/daughter’s confirmation/sister’s wedding will offset my carbon footprint.”

6. When you’re pulled over for speeding, you say, “How about I give you 25 useful facts on solar power to make this whole thing go away? Okay, make it 50.”

5. You walked into that adult sex shop because you thought that sign read “We’re totally organic!”

4. “What do you mean, I can’t set up an industrial wind turbine farm in my front yard? What is this, Communist Russia?”

3. You tackled that distinguished gentleman on the street because you thought he shared Al Gore’s dreamy profile.

2. When you’re mistaken for a homeless woman, you explain you’re just taking “reduce, recycle, and reuse” to the next level.

1. “Oh, like you’ve never tried to run a Hummer off the road!”

Athletes Go Green

kbutler — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

So it is summer Olympics time and athletes are converging on Beijing. And with China shutting down factories and limiting cars in an effort for clean air, the environment has never been more at the forefront. So in honor of the earth-friendly efforts the world is putting forth, check out these athletes who are doing their part to make the world a little greener.

According to our friends at Grist.org, there are several athletes who deserve a hand in the air “woot woot!” And I’m going to lead with my hometown team, the Philadelphia Eagles, who basically kick Redskin/Cowboy/Any other random team that the Eagles play in the Superbowl which is the only time I really watch football anway. (And thanks to RiverWired reader Derek Mast for pointing out that the Eagles don't play the Redskins or Cowboys in the Superbowl because of some league sameness....am I still writing?)

First off, the Eagles launched a Go Green initiative in 2003. They’re planting trees all over Philly and recently started a recycling education program for their fans, They have also added their cleats to the Stop Global Warming Virtual March. Even the Eagles cheerleaders have gotten into the game, releasing an “eco-sexy” calendar printed on recyclable paper. The calendar has the cheerleaders in organic cotton bikinis and jewelry made from natural materials and recycled products. See girls, you can totally go green and still be hot.

Next we have Yao Ming, who has spoken out against the hunting of sharks for their apparently-delicious fins in his native China. He also did a PSA for WildAid about the illegal poaching of animals. Who knew the big bad b-ball player had such a sensitive side? Then there’s Kelly Slater, the eight time world surfing champion. He sponsors the Kelly Slater Competition to raise money for Reef Check, an organization that aids the ocean’s coral reefs. Tammy Van Wisse is a world-record-breaking marathon who spent more than three months in 2000 free styling the full length of the Murray River in Australia to generate funds and support for clean-up efforts. And finally, tennis legend Billie Jean King has put her name behind a green housing and fitness community to open in Palm Springs, California.

So props to these good, green atheletes!

The Goods on Eco-Friendly Sunscreen

kbutler — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

So unless you are currently wintering on the moon, you’re probably slathering on sunscreen every time you leave the house. You follow the trends, you listen to celebrity dermatologists who mantra “sun block....sun block.....sunblock." (Shout out to my UCLA dermatologist Dr. Joan Wu!) And if you’re anything like me, you have an assortment of sunscreens – sunscreen for your hands, sunscreen for your face, sunscreen for riding in the car, sunscreen for serious hikes, sunscreen for serious hikes when you’re wearing a hat, sunscreens for sitting in a darkened room with the shades drawn while you rock back and forth, traumatized by so much sunscreen.

…Anyhoo, if you go buy what’s readily available, that’s a lot of chemicals to be pouring on your skin. Not to mention, if you’re into water sports, you’re transferring those chemicals into into whatever body of water you’re splashing around. For example, the Great Barrier Reef is negatively impacted by suntan oils, lotions and products. They affect the coral ecosystem because sunscreens cause the rapid and complete bleaching of hard corals, even at extremely low concentrations.

So what’s an eco-warrior to do in the sun? Check out below a great list of sunscreen brands that won’t kill you or the environment you swim around in.

There’s the Rare Natural Care product line. 100% vegan, natural with certified organic and eco-certified ingredients, their products are free of potentially harmful ingredients, synthetic chemicals, parabens, alcohol, and more bad stuff.

Aubrey Organics offers a great line of sun blocks that are environmentally safe and packaged in recyclable material. They are all natural, safe, and effective.

There is the Kiss My Face line, which is based completely on essential oils and eco-friendly ingredients. It also smells great aka you won’t walk around smelling like intense herbal remedies.

Finally, there’s the UV Natural line, which was has just been ranked #1 by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). UV Natural claims to be the safest and most effective sunscreen sold in the world. The entire range of UV Natural sunscreens protect against the full spectrum of UV light - UV A1, A2, B and C.

Green Alternatives to Pesticides

kbutler — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

You know how it starts. You walking into your bathroom or kitchen, and you see one. Then you see another. And then you realize you’ve been invaded by a swarm of marauding intruders intent on taking down life as you know it. No, I’m not talking about telemarketers or, in my case, local kids at your door promoting Xenu. I’m talking about ants! So what do you do when you realize you’re sharing your space with enough ants to torment every citizen in China? Well, if you’re like me, you run for the Raid, spray it all over your apartment, and spend the rest of the day breathing in enough toxins to kill the ants and your most useful brain cells. (And this coming from a girl who grew up surrounded by New Jersey corn fields. This means I was regularly sprayed by crop dusters who didn’t bother to turn off the pesticides while riding over our house. Seriously, it’s shocking I don’t glow at night.) And so, all this has left me thinking “There has got to be a better way.”

Well, according to our friend Google, there is! Instead of hiring an exterminator, consider hiring someone to use a cyronite system. Cyronite kills insects by freezing, using a carbon dioxide snow sprayed from the specially designed and patented nozzle. Also, make the extra effort to keep indoor bugs away by making sure trash is tightly enclosed and put away. Sure, this won’t help you with ants looking for water, but it might help with other pests. And don’t forget, if you live anywhere outside of greater Los Angeles, you’re probably going to have a need for some kind of bug repellent. Avon’s Skin So Soft is about as good as it gets.

As for your garden, think about using native plants used to local conditions that will thrive without a ton of water or pesticides. This could also help with the propagation of invasive exotic species. Other entrepreneurial bloggers suggest composting your nutrient-filled vegetable food waste and mixing it into existing soil.

So the next time you’re invaded by bugs, put the Raid away and think about these green alternatives.

(And as a footnote - props to Riverwired reader Kelly for passing on her own ant management tip. Kelly says to sprinkle vinegar or baby powder on ant infested areas -- apparently, ants will not cross a line of baby powder. She surrounded her dog's water bowl and it remained ant free. Dogs and glowing friends across America thank you, Kelly Sullivan!)

T. Boone Pickens: Building Wind Power in America

kbutler — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

When T. Boone Pickens founded Mesa Petroleum in the 1950s, he took $2500 and turned it into a three billion dollar oil empire. This guy is about as old-school oil man as you can get. But Pickens is a business man above all else – and considering the state of the world’s oil, he’s planning accordingly. According to Pickens, “At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.”

So what’s Pickens doing about it? This guy is going from Big Oil to Big Wind, investing in a tremendous wind turbine project, starting in the Texas Panhandle. In fact, he’s recently announced plans to expand into Oklahoma. This is all part of the Pickens Plan, an extensive blueprint to promote oil alternatives. The plan is to replace natural gas resources with wind energy, which would then free up to 38% more natural gas resources to replace the current need for transportation -- and therefore our dependece on oil. Yep, Pickens also owns an extensive natural gas monopoly -- but hey, it's clean energy. And people aren't being killed in the Middle East over. All sounds good in my book.

Pickens is promising more than just pulling back on our foreign oil dependence. His wind turbine investments are also turning around the local economies, transforming declining Midwestern Dustbowl towns into revitalized communities. Until recently, the small Texas town of Sweetwater was landsliding towards a depression. Now, with Pickens bringing in the wind industry, it is called “a 21st-century equivalent of the Wild West. German wind technicians who have poured into the area have coined a name for it - the Wind West.”

And for a Texas oil man who has been one of the biggest backers of both President Bushes and the mastermind of the Swift Boat incident of the last election – this ain’t bad politics.

5 Quick Tips to Green Your Home

kbutler — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:53:21 -0400

Yep, it’s trying times out there. Gas prices, food prices, housing prices – you have to wonder if we’re going to be able to entertain our kids with rousing stories of hard 00’s like our grandparents did with the Depression. (Though in our version, we’ve got Paris Hilton instead of Little Orphan Annie and reality TV stars in place of Hobos.) In an attempt to save money, people may be inclined to go with the cheaper option, whether it is green or not. But we’ve got your back! Check out our quick, useful reminders on how to keep your wallet green.

1. Ditch the bottle water. Install a water filter or invest in some Britas. You can skip the extra landfill that comes with all the plastic packaging and save a few dollars in the meantime.

2. Make your home energy efficient. The typical American family spends around $1,600 a year on energy bills and much of that is phantom energy. The U.S. government actually provides a detailed list on different ways you can green up your home, such as choosing an Energy Star air conditioning unit or turning off your power strips to save up to 20% on your energy bills.

3. If you’re feeling a little hippie-dippy, considering tie-dying your stained sheets and even towels for a second life. At the least, there’s a three year old out there who will dig it, even if your yuppie friends wonder what kind of organic weeds you might have gotten into.

4. There are little things you can do in the kitchen to save energy and therefore cash. Remember that is you cover a pot of water; it will boil faster and save energy. Use a toaster oven for smaller meals – it uses much less energy than the stove.

5. Think about giving up things like paper towels. That can seem like a hard one, but paper towels add up – and your old gym socks and ripped towels can do the job just as well. And they’re better off cleaning your home than living in a landfill.

So remember our tips next time you’re feeling a little blue about the lack of green in your life.

How to Green Your Date

kbutler — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:12:51 -0400

So you’re a good-looking guy or girl. And you care about things like carbon footprints and global warming and slapping “Gas prices are my fault!” stickers on the back of a Yukon. Okay, maybe you don’t care THAT much, but you get the picture. But then you get asked out on a date. And the guy arrives to pick you up in a Yukon – sporting one of your bumper stickers. So do you send him right off to the Island of Bad Dates? (Located somewhere off the Continent of Awesome Carbs.) Or do you try to change him? Do you try to take a full-grown man (or woman…..just take everything I’m saying and add Manolos) and go to work on all the self-identity traits he has come to identify as his very soul and being?

Of course you do! Here are some tips to make your next date not only red-hot, but nicely green all over.

First of all, kick aside that car, go local, and walk. If you live in a city, this is easy. But some of you live in places where you can list cow-tipping as a high school pursuit. (I did and I have. Or observed it done, usually after a few cans of Schlitz.) So it is not so easy to leave the car behind since you have to drive 45 minutes to the nearest mall and/or TGI Friday’s. In that case, offer your date this helpful tip. Every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like charging yourself an extra 54 cents per gallon of gas. Regardless of what kind of car you drive. Who knew?

Next, pick a green destination. Central Park, Runyon Canyon, Botanical Gardens of your city – all of these will put a little foliage into your excursion. Or you could find a local garden that takes volunteers and spend the afternoon working together. If you have a dog and are going to a park, bring the pooch and spend the time showcasing your awesomely paternal qualities. (Or if you’re not at all interested in impressing a girl, treat the dog with icy disdain. You might just get the same results.) And guys – trust me, if you take a girl to a flower garden on your first date, you will score major points. We like flowers. Growing them (locally and organically), seeing them, and most importantly, getting them. Gloria Steinem would agree. Trust me, I just called and asked her.

Now say you get a second date and you want to provide a romantic scene. Unplug and go candlelight over dinner. Turn off the music and instead entertain with conversation. If you play an instrument well (I cannot stress the “well” enough), sing away. Bring out the local, organic wine and enjoy!

So next time you’re in a quandary as to what to do on a date, try adding a little green.

How to Green Your Gifts

kbutler — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

We’ve all been there – three bridal and two baby showers in a month, a graduation or two, and that thank you gift you somehow feel responsible sending your landlord’s cousin’s wife who once brought up your mail. Oftentimes, people are at a loss on how to keep giving without stepping on their green conscience. (Or at least for the purpose of this blog, they are.) After all, between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, the United States alone produces up to 5 million extra tons of trash. So the next time you’re trying to figure out how to give a gift without contributing to blatant consumerism, turn to these tips.

First, you can avoid the trap of trappings altogether. Offer your sister-in-law a night of babysitting; get those cute newlyweds a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant; give your best friend a month’s worth of free gardening, especially during the summer heat. If you do decide to go material, think about picking up a gift at a thrift shop or flea market. You’ll find a lot of well-constructed, high-quality merchandise – and it’s easy to add your new personal touch to any old-school item. Then there’s always the option to buy local and to avoid adding shipping emissions to your carbon footprint. And finally, there’s always hand-made gifts that can become friend or family heirlooms, like a knitted scarf or painted picture frame. (Or if you’re hopelessly uncrafty like me, you can try anyway and pass off your glue and glitter monstrosity as “It’s the thought that counts.”)

So now that you have the gift, how can you wrap it up without adding to the week’s recyclables? In high school, I was big on taking pictures and art from magazines and cobbling them together into a homemade wrapping paper. (Okay, so I was once a little crafty….once.) You can also wrap something in a scarf or, my personal favorite; use the ultimate reusable wrapping – the gift bag. Someone should stick a GPS device on one of those bags and see how far it travels from household to household.

So next time you’re in a gift quandary, just remember these simple tips and give green!

What Americans Misunderstand About Environmental Shopping

kbutler — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Americans tend to go green in primarily one way – they shop green. This is a recent trend – and I for one am not complaining. It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been green since I was a teen….ager. (Sorry, just couldn’t be cute. I just couldn’t.) I grew up in South Jersey which means two things – the first, yes, I have heard that joke about New Jersey. In fact, the entire state has heard that joke. The second is that I grew up in farm country. My childhood home had a dairy barn with a cool calf skeleton in the back and huge rat skull I would poke with a stick. I’ve grown up with flocks of Canadian geese landing in our yard, and I’ve been chased across pastures by annoyed bulls. But since childhood, I’ve also watched South Jersey's beautiful farmlands get built up and built up and built up…. So at an early age, I went eco-warrior.

In any case, I’ve been watching green trends for most of my life. In the 90s, this meant buying (and working for) Ben & Jerry’s. Now with cars to cleaners to organic meatballs, Madison Avenue is pushing the environment on everyone. But a recent poll shows that many Americans don’t really understand what it means to buy green. According to a recent survey, 39% of Americans buy product that they think are “environmentally friendly.” But 48% believe that these products have a positive impact on the environment, while only 22% get that these words actually mean that the impact is “less negative.” (And yes, it took me some hard thinking to absorb that too.)

So how can you be sure that you’re actually shopping green and not, as they call it, falling victim to “greenwashing?” (When companies spin it to look like they are green, when in fact they still make a huge carbon footprint. Yes, there is a term for this.) The EPA actually has an identifying system. If something is labeled DfE, it’s “designed for the environment.” If something has the Energy Star label, it’s good on energy. Also, hit the web – there are several green shopping guides out there, like this one. And this one. Keep buying green, America! We’ve got options to keeping up the good, green fight.

Lenny Kravitz Hearts The Brazilian Jungle

kbutler — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:00:00 -0400

In yet another reason to stop the de-forestation of the Brazilian jungle – Lenny Kravitz has been living in it! Recent reports revealed that Kravitz apparently wanted to “get away” after his last album failed to do as well as he hoped. So, after performing in Rio, he stayed for four months on a remote farm and was tempted to stay for good.

But, luckily, the beauty and allure of the Brazilian jungle proved to be just what Lenny needed, and he returned to his old life “with a fresh outlook.” The Brazilian jungle, however, remains heartbroken and prays for a quick reconciliation with the ultra-dreamy rocker.