If you are concerned about global warming - climate change - climate crisis - Saturday is a day you can make your voice heard. Check out the Seattle-area website for Step It Up! Seattle". For those of you not in the Emerald City area, you can find a rally or event in your area by clicking here Step It Up!
I've been reading about what different groups are planning, and my favorite event so far is in NYC, where people dressed in blue (for water) are going to stand in a line marking where the water level will be if the ice caps continue to melt... There's a map. It's not a pretty sight.
Show up!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Meet No Impact Man!
Here I've been feeling so smug about how we're driving a biodiesel car and have a tankless hot water tank... And then a friend told me to check out this blog: No Impact Man and I did and I love it.
Here's how he describes himself on the blog:
"No Impact Man: a guilty liberal finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nut, turns off his power, composts his poop, and while living in NYC, generally turns into a tree-hugging lunatic who tires to save the polar bears and the rest of the planet from environmental catastrophe while dragging his baby daughter and Prada-wearing, Four Seasons-loving wife along for the ride."
I'm not sure about composting your own poop... but today I read a post from a few days back about how he and his family carry cloth napkins with them everywhere - so they don't use paper towels in restrooms, and they don't use paper napkins in restaurants. I'm still trying to get my family to use cloth napkins and swear off paper towels in the kitchen! (I've been trying to figure out why, in a city that frenetically recycles practically everything, and even provides a yard waste/food scraps container, our household is still making so much garbage... and a lot of what I see is crumpled paper towels... hmmm....)
Go visit No Impact Man. You may just find one more small thing you can do to become GREENER.
Here's how he describes himself on the blog:
"No Impact Man: a guilty liberal finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nut, turns off his power, composts his poop, and while living in NYC, generally turns into a tree-hugging lunatic who tires to save the polar bears and the rest of the planet from environmental catastrophe while dragging his baby daughter and Prada-wearing, Four Seasons-loving wife along for the ride."
I'm not sure about composting your own poop... but today I read a post from a few days back about how he and his family carry cloth napkins with them everywhere - so they don't use paper towels in restrooms, and they don't use paper napkins in restaurants. I'm still trying to get my family to use cloth napkins and swear off paper towels in the kitchen! (I've been trying to figure out why, in a city that frenetically recycles practically everything, and even provides a yard waste/food scraps container, our household is still making so much garbage... and a lot of what I see is crumpled paper towels... hmmm....)
Go visit No Impact Man. You may just find one more small thing you can do to become GREENER.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Almost tax day. Do you know where your dollars are?
Our friends at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) have a new flier called "Where do our income tax dollars go?" The answer is clear: not where I want my dollars to be going.
Here are some numbers from the flier:
41 cents of every dollar I pay goes to pay for the war, obligations from past wars, (including veterans programs) and interest on the military portions of the national debt.
19 cents goes for health programs, including Medicaid and parts of Medicare
12 cents goes to help the poor in the US, through food programs, housing assistance, income supports and energy assistance
10 cents goes for interest on the non-military portion of the national debt
5 cents goes to promote community and economic development
5 cents goes for education, job training, employment and social service
4 cents goes to run the government, including law enforcement, homeland security and benefits for government employees
3 cents goes for science, energy and environmental programs
1 cent goes for humanitarian aid and international cooperation.
Is this how you want your dollar to be divided up? Personally, I'm concerned about that big, fat 41 cents at the top of the list. (It would be semi-palatable if most of it were spent on veterans' medical care -- but judging from recent news stories about the treatment the Iraq War vets are receiving, I'd say it's not.)
Perhaps you feel the same way. If you do, you can download a pdf of the flier here
Make copies. Pass them out at school. Give them to your friends. Send one to your congressman or woman -- and tell them this is not how you'd like them to be spending your money.
(Source: Friends Committee on National Legislation, 245 Second Street, Washington DC 20002)
Here are some numbers from the flier:
41 cents of every dollar I pay goes to pay for the war, obligations from past wars, (including veterans programs) and interest on the military portions of the national debt.
19 cents goes for health programs, including Medicaid and parts of Medicare
12 cents goes to help the poor in the US, through food programs, housing assistance, income supports and energy assistance
10 cents goes for interest on the non-military portion of the national debt
5 cents goes to promote community and economic development
5 cents goes for education, job training, employment and social service
4 cents goes to run the government, including law enforcement, homeland security and benefits for government employees
3 cents goes for science, energy and environmental programs
1 cent goes for humanitarian aid and international cooperation.
Is this how you want your dollar to be divided up? Personally, I'm concerned about that big, fat 41 cents at the top of the list. (It would be semi-palatable if most of it were spent on veterans' medical care -- but judging from recent news stories about the treatment the Iraq War vets are receiving, I'd say it's not.)
Perhaps you feel the same way. If you do, you can download a pdf of the flier here
Make copies. Pass them out at school. Give them to your friends. Send one to your congressman or woman -- and tell them this is not how you'd like them to be spending your money.
(Source: Friends Committee on National Legislation, 245 Second Street, Washington DC 20002)
We're Greener!
Here at Chez Byrd, we got tired of weeping and gnashing our teeth and wailing, "Oh, what can we do? The ice caps are melting! What can we do?" So bit by bit, we're trying to make a difference in our little corner. The latest New Thing is that we have chosen to pay a little bit extra to our electric company to join the "Green Up!" program.
For a mere 12 bucks a month, we are now purchasing 100% of our household electrical power from renewable energy sources, one of which is the Stateline Wind Project. We think there's enough wind to go around, if we can just harness it, and you can probably do that without fighting any wars. I even think those stately silver wind turbines are beautiful in their own way.
Click and visit the Stateline Wind Project to learn about their other renewable energy projects and see some cool photos of the windmills.
For the cynical among us, it's good to note that part of our monthly $12 goes to the renewable energy (which includes construction of programs that are in the development stages), and part of it goes to local demonstration projects. Which is fine with me. The more people learn about the alternatives that already exist, the more people will be willing to chip in — which is so much more productive (and less painful) than all the teeth-gnashing that's going on.
For a mere 12 bucks a month, we are now purchasing 100% of our household electrical power from renewable energy sources, one of which is the Stateline Wind Project. We think there's enough wind to go around, if we can just harness it, and you can probably do that without fighting any wars. I even think those stately silver wind turbines are beautiful in their own way.
Click and visit the Stateline Wind Project to learn about their other renewable energy projects and see some cool photos of the windmills.
For the cynical among us, it's good to note that part of our monthly $12 goes to the renewable energy (which includes construction of programs that are in the development stages), and part of it goes to local demonstration projects. Which is fine with me. The more people learn about the alternatives that already exist, the more people will be willing to chip in — which is so much more productive (and less painful) than all the teeth-gnashing that's going on.
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