Archive for the 'Sustainability' Category

Cloned Animals Safe To Eat

Published
by
Cover Judge
on December 28, 2006
in Comestibles and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

The FDA has given to go ahead for cloned animals to be sold for food.  They also are requiring no labels.  You can bet the un-cloned animal meat will be labeled because they can only gain by advertising that fact.

But your McDonalds burger just got even worse.

There is a whole mix of problems with this. This isn’t just your snickers bar getting smaller or your favorite mexican restaurant discontinuing free chips and salsa.  Environmental, health, and social concerns seem to outweigh any benefit to the consumer.  Actually this is only good for the manufacturer (which in this case, is what farmers become).  They can copy their best animals, to get more beef and more milk.  It won’t cost us any less.  It won’t make us any healthier.  It won’t reduce waste or carbon emissions.

The beautiful part of this system is what you think does have some weight.  After the FDA makes a ruling they do accept public comments before they change any standards. Go here to comment.  Don’t be too lazy to care because it will be too late to complain later.

EDIT: The docket for this ruling is not up yet, but continue to check back, it should be up soon.

100 Ways to Live More Sustainably

Published
by
Cover Judge
on December 21, 2006
in Sustainability
. 0 Comments

Go here to read the list.

Most of us get overwhelmed when thinking about any type of personal improvement. Whether it’s being a better husband or finishing that project you started 2 years ago, we can get so weighted down with guilt that we never do anything about it. The best thing we can do is just take small measures, like taking out the trash without being asked this week or ordering the part your missing for that VW bus (thats not too specific right?) in your garage.

It isn’t easy and it definitely isn’t comfortable, but it’s good and it will actually feel good…once we get past the guilt. But thats the whole battle isn’t it?

Many items on this list are very easy to do. Just pick one or two to start with and go from there. I am gonna unplug my cell phone chargers and shave with the water off.

On a sidenote: I am the biggest procrastinator, so by no means is this post meant to be chastising. I know sometimes I need some inspiration to get going, so I thought maybe others might be the same.

Seventh Generation and More…

Published
by
Cover Judge
on December 6, 2006
in Film, Material Goods and Sustainability
. 1 Comment

A while back I talked to you about using Seventh Generation products to reduce waste and take a step towards living sustainably. Well Kendra from Seventh Generation left a comment on an older post letting me know they now have a blog. They are also sponsoring a film contest with the theme being “Reducing Your Carbon Footprint.” Translated: Waste Less.

I’m thinking about entering, but I’m sure I wont get to it. But we get back to that later.

There is now another easy to buy product that will reduce your waste. Recycline offers toothbrushes, shavers and tableware. All their products are recycleable and created using recycled waste.

They can be found at Mothers, Trader Joes, and some select Targets.

Back to the film contest…

My concept goes like this:

A guy walks in the bathroom unzips and states urinating. The camera is at his back. We then cut to a shot of a glacier or other important ecological landmark and we see a giant stream of urine (simulated obviously) fall onto the the glacier. Cut to black. Then add some messaging that says something like

Global warming is real, We promise we’re not takin a piss.*

I could have come up with something really thoughtful and touching about saving smiling little whale babies, but I thought I would take a shortcut and using foul language and bathroom humor.

What do you think?

*British slang for lying

A Convenient Truth

Published
by
Cover Judge
on December 1, 2006
in Film, Sustainability and Video
. 1 Comment

Al Gore’s end times movie movie about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth can be watched for free on google video.

Yosemite and Water Baloons

Published
by
Cover Judge
on November 20, 2006
in Guest, Sustainability and Writing
. 1 Comment

Last time our guest blogger taught you that your music is bad, this week he ponders the compromise between convenience and conscience.

A while back I was sitting on my couch with a few friends. Some how or another the conversation led us to a point where this nice young lady said something along the lines of:

“Who is that guy on the California quarter and why doesn’t it have Hollywood or the Golden Gate bridge on it?”

Thats what California is all about right? This statement made me somewhat upset. California does have Hollywood, beaches, San Francisco. But it also has rednecks, blue grass music, the tallest largest trees (which are the oldest objects on our planet), the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states Mt. Whitney (thats right Colorado), the lowest point in the US (Bad Water, CA) and the majestic, magnificent Yosemite valley.

Shame on you if you are a Californian, or even if you have been to this great state and have not taken the time to go and experience one of the most beautiful places on this planet. The Europeans know this. If you ever go there you will see thousands of them with their capri pants and “euro” shoes and fanny packs. The way that us Americans dream of going to Europe to see the castles and drink their beer and be a part of their historic culture is mirrored by Europeans who wish to come to California to rent motorcycles and be like the old cowboys of the west, no joke. I learned this by talking to a group of skinny Germans who rented Harley’s to cruise the golden state.

I was talking to a friend Carlo from Italy who was visiting the US. I told him as I tell everyone from out of state that while he was here he must go see Yosemite (pronounced Yo Sem It TEE). He looked at me with a puzzled face. “This place I have never heard of” he said. Then I showed him a picture and his face lit up,”Yosemite (pronounced Yo Sem Ite; as he pronounced it) of course, this place I must see”.

Well the man on that California quarter is none other than John Muir. He brought president Roosevelt to Yosemite and stopped the evil William Mullholland from daming Yosemite for water and profit. But there was another valley 10 miles to the north called Hetch Hetchy Valley, commonly reffereed to as a second Yosemite, and its fate was not as lucky. John Muir is quoted as saying;

“Dam Hetch Hetchy! You might as well dam the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.”

John Muir died a few months after Hetch Hetchy was dammed. It literally broke his heart. If you have ever been to Yosemite you would know how unbelieveably beautiful this section of the state is and what a loss Hetchy Hetchy was.

When I learned this I became upset that those civic leaders in San Francisco would do that and destroy such a beautiful place. I mentioned this to my father and his response shook me. “Son, you’ve been drinking Hetch Hetchy water since you were born”, unbeknownst to me the pipes run less then a mile from my house in Northern California and I have been swimming, bathing and drinking this water that I hated so much.

It is great to be an advocate for the enviornment and beauty however we are all stuck in an inescapeable use of our planets resources wether we like it or not. Well me might as well enjoy what we have, get to Yosemite.

Check out the before and after pics of Hetch Hetchy here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetch…

The Pollution Solution

Published
by
Cover Judge
on November 16, 2006
in Sustainability
. 3 Comments

Pollution Can Stop Global Warming

Sounds like a great idea.  It’s at least as good as abortion, in fact lets call it environmental abortion.

We have a problem: Global Warming

We have a solution: Reduce Carbon Emissions (greenhouse gasses)

Then we have the easy route that would release high amounts of pollution into the air to block the rays of the sun for a short time, to bide time until we have a better solution.

Except that once we start, we’ll never stop.  Then our grandkids will start having new diseases that never existed and 100 years later, we’ll say lets sue whoever did this to us, but it will be too late because thousands of species of animals will die and we will have severely affected the natural world.

This has to be the most idiotic idea I have ever heard.  Shows you how intelligence quota has no affect on wisdom or if that term is too spiritual for some, then common sense, which the older I get the more I realize that wisdom is more uncommon than common.

You can’t fix a mistake with another mistake.

Save The Whales

Published
by
Cover Judge
on November 11, 2006
in Sustainability
. 2 Comments

17,000 Grey Whales Go Missing

A couple years ago I would have not thought twice about this. I probably wouldn’t have even read the story. Whales going missing has no impact on our life. We already have enough on our plate as it is. I need to find a cool zip up sweatshirt that says “your married and kinda fat, but still cool”. I need to eat a great dinner and have a relaxing weekend. I can’t stop whales from disappearing and I don’t know where to find them.

Well that’s changed.

There is a lot you can do. You can pollute less (turn lights off, ride a bike, make less waste including poopoo). The other thing you can do is start using environmentally friendly cleaning products. These are not only better for you but better for the environment. You have to remember that anything you put down a sink, toilet, or drain will eventually make its way back into the water system. Seventh Generation products are a good start and they are easily found in any supermarket. I think the biggest hurdle people have to living greener and cleaner, healthier lives is the difficulty/cost of using environmentally-friendly, organic, and/or sustainable products and food.

Saving the environment isn’t about hippies who don’t shower. WE are part of the environment, saving it, means saving us. Especially if you subscribe to the beliefs of the bible and/or the Christian faith. Then you believe God made man the steward of his creation. If you have ever read book of Genesis you know that on each day God creates something and then says “and it was good.” Then something strange happens, he creates and man and a woman and gives them “dominion”. No, “and it was good”. The story just goes down hill from there.

Joking aside, our oceans are the source of our life. The ocean feeds off of our carbon dioxide and creates the oxygen we breathe. But we are inundating the ocean with chemicals and polluting the air with excess carbon dioxide that is causing changes in the ocean (sea levels, population, etc).

Find out how much C02 you produce then…

Go here to learn about ways you can reduce your personal pollution levels.

Oranges- Good Source of Vitamin C…and Toxins

Published
by
Cover Judge
on November 8, 2006
in Comestibles and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

Read this and then read this.

Pesticides are convenient, but the easiest route isn’t the best. You best bet is to buy local grown organic fruits and vegetables. Organics that have to cross state and country lines may be sprayed to prevent spread of localized pests or diseases, which then destroys the whole reason for buying them.

Schwinn Electric Bike

Published
by
Cover Judge
on October 20, 2006
in Material Goods and Sustainability
. 0 Comments
bike

I love bikes, but I dont have a garage, so at the moment I have my bike in the back of my car.  I would love one of these, good way to get around downtown Bozeman.

Except I dont live there and this thing costs more than the scirroco.

The End of the World

Published
by
Cover Judge
on October 16, 2006
in Sustainability
. 0 Comments

Don’t know how factual this is, but a world without humans is an interesting thought, or even a world where we were a correctly functioning member of the ecological environment.

Source