Prop 7 is up and ready for your review.  I'm actually a bit discouraged about that one because I so wanted it to be a good initiative...but I ended up recommending a no vote.

My recommendation was partly due to the nature of the initiative...but it's also illustrative of the fact that good energy policy is difficult to craft, especially as we begin the process of transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy technologies.  It seems to me that new technology is a legitimate reason for subsidies...as long as those subsidies require clear, measurable progress and include a weaning off/sunset clause.  (We're still subsidizing helium, I believe, and our last airship sailed some time ago.)

It was not all work and no play for me today, though.  I drove down to Carlsbad for a yummy lunch at Fidel's Little Mexico with my friend from Junior and Senior High, JeanMarie Blaisdell.

JM and I haven't been in touch much in recent years, so it was good to sit and get caught up on what we've missed in each other's lives.  And it didn't hurt at all that for part of our afternoon we were gazing out over the sparkling blue Pacific ocean on a breezy Southern California day.

I've seen a number of oceans and bodies of water...but there's a unique quality to the combination of the ocean, the light and the air in San Diego that says "home" to me.

I should have Prop 9 up tomorrow.  Thanks for your patience!

Since today is Earth Day, you are likely to be bludgeoned by various media (including blogs) about environmental issues.  In my own net-prowling this morning, I've seen at least a dozen articles on the environment and just yesterday picked up Time Magazine's Green issue.

I wonder, in part, if the hoopla is helping.  We still have people like Rush Limbaugh on the air claiming that the idea of global warming is a vast left-wing, nut-job conspiracy (although he's never quite clear on the goal of said conspiracy...maybe it's to give him something to rant about?).

We still have folks merrily loading up their SUV's with plastic water bottles, bagged in plastic bags.  (Hello, woman behind me!)  Diet trends (100 calorie packs!) compete with green trends (buy in bulk!) and in either case, it appears our waistlines and the earth are both the worse for wear.

So what's the key?

I have a saying on my computer courtesy of my sister-in-law, Cindy.  "Some action is almost always better than no action."  It helps me not to get discouraged when it seems like the actions I take are too little ro too few, like I'm taking up arms against a "sea of troubles" with no hope of ending them.

I won't, by myself.  But I'm not alone.  There is a growing awareness of the actions we can take and the complexity of the issues we face.  So my Earth Day question to you is this:

What gift of changed habits will you commit to future generations this day? 

Will you change your light bulbs?

Reduce your watering schedule by one day per week?

Commit to a beef-free diet?

Buy some reusable grocery bags?

Wash your laundry in cold water?

The point isn't that we each have to do all of these things.  But that we all need to do some of these (or other) things to live reasonably, sustainably and well on the earth.  So let me hear about your change(s).  Because we're all in this fight together, aren't we?

Considering Wednesday's post on which candidate is "more green," I found today's article in the LA Times on suspension of the chinook salmon season particularly interesting.  The article reminded me that The Environment is much more than one issue--even if that "issue" is global warming.

To summarize the article, the declining population of California and Oregon's chinook salmon has reached such a low point that there are concerns about the ability of the fish to survive, especially if fished this season.  As a result, the federal government has suspended the 2008 fishing season for chinooks.  The article cites numerous reasons for the decline in chinook population; changing ocean temperatures, changes in the offshore food chain, draining of the Sacramento delta to provide water to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, the impact of bridge building on juvenile fish...to name just a few.

Add to that two nuggets of current common wisdom; 1.  That salmon is better for you than other fish (especially tuna and swordfish), 2. That it's good to eat wild salmon and bad to eat farmed salmon.  Both facts lead to an increased demand in recent years for wild salmon like California and Oregon chinook.

Definitely an environmental issue.  But also a health issue, a food issue, an infrastructure issue and (several) sustainability issues--sustainable water usage in Southern California, sustainable fishing levels, to name a few.

The complexity of just this one sub-issue of the larger climate change issue is an argument that we need more than just a nod to the "green" this election cycle.  We need a leader who is committed to making significant changes in our way of interacting with the environment.  We need a leader who grasps complexity and develops innovative answers that meet multiple needs.  We need a leader who will hold us accountable for the changes we need to make now and who will challenge the people of the world to imitate our example.

It's clear to me that McCain is not that leader.  As to Hillary and Barack?  I'll be watching them carefully and reading more speeches to parse just who might be the better leader into a sustainable future.

Oh those wacky greenies!

Turn out your lights from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm tonight.  It's okay to have the TV on, though.

http://www11.earthhourus.org/

Be green and prosper.

I've been on blog hiatus while Erik Kieser is here.  We've been having a great visit and there's been little down time for blogging.  (We chat and chat and chat when we're together.)

I do have two observations from the time period to share, though.  The first happened on Saturday.  Erik went off to the gym and I went to the grocery store to go shopping.  As an aspiring "green" woman, I took in my reusable grocery bags.  The baggers always wrestle with them a little bit but I still think it's the right choice for the environment despite it slowing down the line a bit.

The woman behind me was visibly frustrated with the slowness of the bagging process.  My order was complete and paid for--yet still being bagged--while her order came down the conveyor.  In order to assist the checker, she started bagging her own groceries.

And I mean she bagged everything.  Bottled water with a handle?  In a bag.  Liter bottles of soda?  1 bag each.  And so on. 

I stood with my mouth open and was so very tempted to say, "Oh, you don't need a bag for that." 

Thankfully, I restrained myself.

I did leave the store frustrated and thinking I was wasting my time until I realized that my choice to use greener bags is about my behavior.  Not about any one else's.  It was still a contribution to the environment.  The woman behind me would have used just as many bags whether or not I was in line with her.  The two have nothing to do with each other.

Still, if by some miracle she's reading this...<grin>

Second quick observation came at yesterday's farmer's market.  I was a regular there last summer and fall, right when I first began carrying reusable bags.  It was a sea change at the market.  People would look at me like I was a lunatic when I didn't use the plastic bags. 

This time I went and the sales folk recognized the canvas bag over my shoulder and asked if I wanted a bag rather than automatically pulling one out for my produce selections.

This type of change is granular and gradual.  And it's happening nonetheless.

 

We just finished wrapping the last of our Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers.  My eyes are pretty much crossed and I'm headed off to bed after a brief blog.  I love Christmas, but I can do without the wrapping for another 12 months!

This Christmas we're looking forward (in order of occurence) to time with the Baldridges at the annual Baldridge family party; time in North Carolina with Dan's family; and then time here in Orange County with my Mom, brother Charles and his wife, Anya.  It's going to be a bit travel intensive...so that's why I'm done wrapping on 12/6/07.

In terms of Green Pledges, check out the icon to the right.  I got started on the C3 website pledges a few months back thanks to sister-in-law Cindy.  So far I've pledged to:

-Wash most of our clothes in cold water (that was easy...already do that);

-Junk my junk mail (which entailed sending letters to folks opting out of lists;

-Break the bottled water habit (by buying and using reusable water containers...this has been quite easy)

I'd already jumped on the bandwagon with eliminating as many paper and plastic bags as possible.  I've purchased reusable bags and have them in both our cars.  Lately, I've been forgetting to take them into the store (any store...not just the grocery store) when shopping.  So it was nice to have the reminder of the pledge to encourage me to remember more often this month.

Dan's a frequent doubter about the need for some of these changes.  I ran across a great graphic today about the energy demanded for (and waste impact of) plastic and paper bags.  Check it out here and consider taking the pledge.

The trees and landfills will thank you.

 Now, my well-deserved rest awaits!

I debated this morning whether or not to blog about a certain blonde, right-wing idiot...and decided she's taking up enough space in the blogosphere.  Instead, a little update on the Greening of Laura.

Two major items this week...the arrival of my Sigg re-usable water bottles.  Dan and I used to go through a case of bottled water each week at a minimum.  By using filtered water from our faucets, we've been able to reduce that to a case of water twice a month.  With these new reusable bottles, I'll be off bottled water at the gym and we should be down to a case of water every month.  Breaking out my calculator, that translates to 864 fewer plastic bottles (minimum) per year just from lil' ol' us. 

I got the Sigg with the blue flowers for me and the modern dots one for Dan.  Now if I can just develop the habit of using the Sigg on trips, I'll be good.

Habit is a good segue to the other green topic of the week--reusable shopping bags.  I've got a plentiful stock now (7 reusable bags--five in my car and two in Dan's).  Of the six times I went shopping this week, I remembered to use the bags five times.  Of the five times I used the bags, I remembered to take them into the store exactly once.  And that was at the Farmer's Market this morning.  <sigh> 

I'm at least glad that I remembered to park the cart and get the bags sooner in the process of shopping.  Now if I can figure out a way to remind myself to take the bags into the store with me, life will be a bit easier.  In the meantime, I'm comforting myself with the thought that the extra trip to and from the car means more exercise.  That's a good thing, right?

My calculation on one use shopping bags avoided this week is that I avoided using 20 plastic bags.  In a year, at this rate, I will have saved 1,040 bags all by my lonesome.  It may be a small contribution, but it's a contribution I can easily make.  As long as I remember those darn bags.

Some facts this morning to bolster my instinct on paper towels, courtesy of Ideal Bite (a website with daily green factiods).  According to the "biters" (as they call themselves), Americans send 3,000 tons of paper towels to the landfill every day.  That's a lot of sopping up!

It's been fairly easy to switch from paper to cotton (and bamboo...more on that later).  I now keep a couple of towels out on the counter, one by the paper towel rack, and use those for wiping my hands, buffing up the counter, wiping up spills.  Then I toss them in the wash pile after a day or two's use (depending on the use).  I'm down to using paper towels for excessively dirty or unhygenic jobs.  Pretty amazing that I've had a partial roll of paper towels up for a week.  Normally it would be gone in a day or two.

One of the neat side effects of going green is that I discover cool new products.  I recently purchased some gorgeous, soft, absorbent kitchen towels made of 85% bamboo and 15% cotton.  I have a couple of light sweaters made of bamboo, but this is the first kitchen towel I've seen.  I like it at least as well as the microfiber towels I've been partial to in recent years.

On another shade of green, more of a khaki really, we head out today to visit our friend in prison.  It will be a grueling couple of days with driving, waiting in line, visiting while our hearts are breaking and our minds are shouting out that this is wrong, then coming home and collapsing.  And we're the ones that get to come home!  Imagine what it's like for him...or don't.  It's better not to.

Good thoughts appreciated.

You have to be careful about what you take, too.  I've been asked to change a couple of times in recent months.  I forgot that women's white, scoop-necked t-shirts look too much like inmate shirts.  And I was told that my light brown baggy sweater looked too much like the guards' uniforms.  (Yeah, I can see how a baggy, unbleached cotton sweater can look like a dark khaki uniform from a gun tower...sure.)

So the answer, obviously, has been to come up with a uniform of our own.  I think, after 3 years and 1 month of visiting various prisons, I've finally gotten the packing down.  A wild shirt and black pants for Dan.  An underwire-free bra for me (dangerous weapon, those underwires), black pants and a non-white, non-green shirt.  That's a lot to remember, so I'm considering getting a couple of wild shirts like Dan has and sticking with those.

23 more visits and then he's out...that's just under 23 months left.  Can't wait for that day.  First we spring him, then we celebrate...then I burn the bra.

And start buying green clothes again.  (Of both varieties.)

I continue to tiptoe into the green world.  This week my intent is to find out as much as possible about the pro's and con's between using paper towels versus washing kitchen towels...and using glass containers for storage versus baggies.

My initial thought is that there's not much "need" for a paper towel unless I'm cooking bacon.  A RARE occurrence in this household!  I think we cook bacon on Thanksgiving and Christmas or New Year's and that's it. 

Other than catching the grease, I think kitchen towels and multi-use disposable towels should be the better alternative.  I only reach for a paper towel out of habit, not out of necessity.  I'll do a post if I find out that there's some downside to a slightly bigger load of laundry due to towels and rags, but I'm dubious.

Baggies are the other kitchen convenience I'm debating about.  I know the hundreds of plastic ziplocs (and other brands) that I use each year cannot be good for the environment.  In the past, I've resisted washing and re-using the bags because it seemed like a wast of time.  And kind of nerdy, to be perfectly honest.  But now it seems like an awful waste to throw plastic bags out after one use.  So I think I'm going to migrate to using multi-use containers and give up on the baggie habit. 

And I will give in, seem like a nerd, and wash the baggies I do use.  I don't want to create a lot of new rules about when I can use a baggie and when I can't, so it will be interesting to monitor this habit change and see where the sticking points are.  I suppose I'll also check to see if there's a greener source of baggies than Ziploc.  Anyone got any hints?

Had a good session with my trainer today, talking about food plans.  Perfect timing after going to San Diego for Donna's 50th birthday buffet at the Balai Hai.  Yummy food and now time for the food plan to kick in.  <grin>

Happy birthday to one smokin' 50 year old! 

I was e-chatting with Dan's sister-in-law, Cindy, yesterday.  We ended the session by talking about how we humans have a propensity to make easy tasks into difficult, complicated ones. 

The two examples we discussed were walking (for health reasons) and flossing (also healthy).  The book she's reading (title escapes me Cindy--help?) talked about how one might build "rules" around walking.  It has to be for at least an hour.  One has to be out of breath.  It has to have uphill, or it has to be flat, or it has to be every day.  When we breach the rules, we fail.  And then we quit.

I'm the floss-avoidance queen.  My rule about flossing is that I have to do it at night before I go to bed.  (I usually fall into bed with a book and remember to floss the next morning...too late, I say, and don't floss.) 

The author's conclusion is that "easy is good."  Keep the tasks simple and they are more likely to get done.  When you repetitively do these simple tasks, they become habits.  I like that perspective. (Think I'll floss right now.) 

That's better.

But what about tasks that are overwhelming because they're not simple?  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed these days with trying to figure out how to be authentically green.  There's a lot of "stuff" out there on what one should and shouldn't do.  What car to drive (or not).  What bag to use (or not).  Whom to buy from, what to wear, what and how to eat.  Yikes!

I think the solution to this overwhelmed feeling is similar to what I blogged about the other day with golf.  I need to establish reasonable expectations and "play" to them.  It's unreasonable to expect that overnight I would be able to become some sort of environmental guru.  There are too many things to know and too many conflicting reports to "know it all."

On the other hand, it is extremely reasonable to read one green article each week and decide what, if anything, I can do as a result of the acquired knowledge.  It may be that the topic requires more research.  It may be that I think it's a hunk of hooey.  It may be that I can immediately start a green project.

By making the expectation more reasonable, I simplify the task. 

Gradually, I will accumulate knowledge and be able to become something of a minor resource on various green topics...but that's not the goal.  The goal is to live in a healthier relationship to the planet.  And I can do that one article at a time.

It's also going to be healthy to remember the Shames precept: Success and failure are companions.  That way, when I forget to take my reusable bags into the grocery store, I don't have to do a half hour of mea culpas in my kitchen.  I can say, "oops" and remember next time.

Cindy helped simplify things a bit for me on this front.  She said that she and many of her friends have struggled while trying to figure out what green action might be best.  She reminded me that, at least in this case, "some action is almost always better than no action."  So, if I forget the reusable bags, I can at least recycle the single-use bags.  Some action better than none.

So, the greening of Laura continues...one bitty step at a time.