Dear Omnivores who tell me Veganism is a "personal choice" Extinction Hurts ALL of Us. In fact, I'd offer up to you that since you are so self righteous about my right to swing my fist ending at the tip of your nose take a look around you... See what I see? That we are all stuck here on this tiny little planet together? So, when we successfully overfish the Mediterrainian Sea to the point of killing off six species of sharks essential to the ecosystem, will anyone else be making the connection between the "fish is not a vegetable" ? When the Condor is gone, due to lead poisoning from bullets left in dying animals by hunters you'll proudly announce that you never hunted.... you got your meat and fish served up in style on styrofoam platters wrapped in plastic. See http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/extinction/ for details.

Oh, and Dear Omnis who ask that I "spare them the lecture" yeah.... go ahead and continue your selfish squandering of the limited remaining resources while breaking your arm patting yourself on the back about what an "animal lover" you are. Yeah, go ahead, because we all know when the shitstorm ends, we'll ALL be dead and I won't be able to find you....to say "I told you so."

Vegan is Cheaper

Lately I've been posting in the Oprah boards about Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth about veganism, how important it is to the environment, and how it is the simplest, and best way to reduce one's impact on Gaia.

Surprise! Those of us talking about this enormously important subject have been met time and again with opposition. These are the reasons given:

1. I have been told by my doctor that I MUST consume meat and dairy.

(OK, I'll bite - I'm to assume you do EVERYTHING your doctor tells you to do. )

2. But what about the tomatoes? They are living things too! Who knows what kind of pain they endure!

Ummm yeah. But we are addressing sentient beings with a central nervous system here - and we know that the cows and pigs and chickens who live out their lives in fetid CAFO's are denied the most basic comforts of light, liberty, their young, and ultimately their lives.

3. "I buy all organic products! That's good enough for me!"

Well, ackshully...... the organic label simply means your cow's milk didn't come from a cow who was shotgunned antibiotics, that's all. It doesn't change the reality that she was forcibly bred via artificial insemination, and then had her baby ripped away from her breast around the three day mark. If her baby was a boy, he's destined to be kept in the dark, forcefed milk, never get to feel what it is like to run (to do so creates muscle, and we want our veal tender and milky white, right?) If the calf was a girl, she's destined to Mom's fate of being milked until her production drops and then having some vicious sicko scramble her brains at the end of her usefulness.

4. I've visited all the places my food comes from and it's all very clean, healthy, and humane.

Not unless you boycott fast food restaurants, never buy or consume processed foods, never buy nachos or cheese fries at a baseball game, and don't eat at friends or families homes. Oh, and it is nigh onto impossible to obtain any pork not produced by the Big Guns - Hormel, Smithfield Foods, which increased capacity following the purchase last year of Farmland Foods and Alliance Farms; Premium Standard Farms; Seaboard Farms; Christensen farms; Iowa Select Farms; Prestage Farms; The Pipestone System, which also owns Ellison Meat; Cargill, which has announced plans to exit the state of North Carolina; Goldsboro Hog Farm and the Hanor Company, a Wisconsin-based shareholder in Triumph Foods.

That said, my very favorite response for the "Why I can't go vegan" answer is this one -- Ready???

5. It's more expensive! I can't afford it!!!

So today I conducted an experiment. I pulled a recipe for the classic American Macaroni and Cheese from http://www.cooks.com/ and the vegan version I whipped up last night, courtesy of the http://www.fatfreevegan.com/ (which, by the way, was mind expandingly good. Now since both recipes are copyrighted, and I am all about not ripping off other writers, photogs, or any other creative talents - I will not be reproducing the recipes here. However, I printed them out and went shopping. Using the organic argument, I put together a price list for each dish. The dairy heavy heart clogging model came in at (approx - I couldn't waste time computing the amount of money for the 1/2 teaspoon of paprika....) $10.30. The vegan version came in at $6.35. You do the math.

The Green Week in Review

In the news – A pair (hopefully a breeding pair) of Giant Pandas are given to the people of Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China.

In the LOCAL (as in right here, in my home…) news, I got the oil in the car changed to some super duper turbo gas saving stuff, and had the tires inflated to the proper PSI. I’ve learned that I am not as smart as a second grader. Nine year old Savannah Walters studied the Arctic ice caps and figured out that by having tires inflated to the proper pressure, Americans could save lots of fossil fuel. Pump 'em UP! Says With properly inflated tires...

1. Americans could save 4 million gallons of gas each day.
2. Americans could save hundreds of dollars each year on gas and extend the life of their tires by 25%.
3. Americans could all breathe cleaner air because we’d be burning less gas.
4. Americans would be able to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge forever!

And that’s just for starters, kids. How simple is that? Get the pressure checked on your tires, and make a contribution to the environment. Who knew being greener was so easy.

The power bill arrived, and I giggled like Jerry "The King" Lawler . It appears that I’ve managed to reduce my carbon footprint by another 10 KWH per day from last year. So, I offset my impact on the environment by contributing to carbonfund.org and I feel better. The gas bill also reflected savings, both personally and environmentally. I attribute the reduction to my lowering the thermostat (again) on the water heater, not using the dryer at all, and baking in the solar oven.

Also in this week’s mail, my http://www.shaklee.com/ Shaklee Get Clean Deluxe kit arrived. The Oprah special cost me $55.00. The same amount of “cleaning” supplies (read – caustic chemicals that suck the life out of everything they ever touched and will continue to touch for a half life of about a billion years) is valued at about $2000.00. As an added incentive I read this-

When you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit instead of the stuff you probably buy:

• You keep 108 pounds of packaging waste out of landfills
• You eliminate 248 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions

Get Clean products offer cleaning choices that are Green, and here's why:

• Sustainably sourced natural ingredients
• Biodegradable surfactants
• Recyclable packaging
• Recyclable wipes
• Recyclable dryer sheets
• No chlorine bleach
• No volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• No phosphates
• No nitrates
• No borates
• No animal testing

I spent a good deal of Saturday cleaning house and I have to shout out how clean it smells. I can’t vouch for the dryer sheets yet, although I applaud that they are recyclable. Instead, I continue to use the hybrid dryer. See Project Laundry for details on creating your own work of art, sustainable hybrid clothes dryer. No load too large, no risk of fire, no dryer sheets to buy.

And with that, I leave you to attend the Green Thumb Festival. I’ll report back later.

Ciao Greenbaby

Solar Brownies and Bike Rides

Car mileage- ZERO

Bike mileage – Downtown to the Saturday Morning Market for organic veggies, a very cool ride indeed with the bike lanes on 1^st North and South making me feel rather safe, then to Sweetbay on 22^nd and 34^th later in the day. The concept of crossing 22^nd Avenue North is daunting, so I took to the sidewalk to get to the front of the grocery.

Between trips I experimented with solar baking by putting together (with the help of my assistant, 11 ¾ year old Tara from Fall River) No Pudge Fat Free Brownies and the warmth of the sun. I’d found instructions to make a solar oven from a pizza box, which looks mighty interesting, but we didn’t have a pizza box and I wasn’t going to ride across town to get one.

I trotted around like a mad scientist looking for the necessary components whileTara mixed the batter. We needed: dark pans, a container with some sort of glass cover, and something to reflect the sun’s rays onto the surface of the pans.

We filled the order for the pans by putting the mix in one eight inch cake pan, and flipping its’ partner over as a lid. We placed the pan inside a wok, covered the wok with a large glass inverted bowl, and placed both on a heatproof pad that anchored my kayak’s emergency blanket – a sheet of shiny silver plastic. The upper corners of the blanket were clothespinned to the ‘hybrid’ dryer…. AKA the clothesline.

Several hours later, we could smell the minty chocolatey gooey brownies. Alas, the day was so windy we hypothesized the temperature wouldn’t get high enough to finish them by sundown, so we resorted to finishing them off in the Advantium speed cooker, which combines microwaves and halogen lighting to cook up to 4 times faster than conventional ovens.

It was enough to redline my eco-meter, to have a young person concerned about the environment, and interested in thinking about what we might do to reduce our impact upon it. Tara told me of a recent science project she’d done, turning empty water bottles into water containers for small mammals, like hamsters and gerbils.

As we worked together on the solar oven, Tara and I were contemplating the possibilities for converting the gas grill to a solar grill, the possibilities of using a great big magnifying lens, and how to make a solar slow cooker.

The brownies were fantastic. The fun even better.

As we close in on Earth Day 2007

As April 22^nd, Earth Day 2007 approaches, I’m giving some thought to what changes I’ve made and things I’m thinking about changing to reduce my footprint on the landscape. I'm also giving some thought to what I'd like for my birthday. I'd like to win that nifty Reware solar power juice bag from Ideal Bite. Alternatively, someone could just buy me one.

Selling Books

Once I’ve read them, off they go to half.com. The reasons are numerous.

1. The books get recycled.
2. It opens up space in my shelves and mind for new ideas.
3. I ride my bike to the post office to ship them off.
4. It generates income which will be used to offset the purchase of a more energy efficient refrigerator.

Green Authors

Regarding books, authors, and ecorazzi’s Authors can be green too column of April 19, 2007, another author to add to the list – Sara Gruen , author of Water for Elephants, Riding Lessons, and Flying Changes lives with her husband, three children, four cats, two goats, and a horse in an environmental community north of Chicago.

Those of us who realize the fastest way to make our voices heard, the strongest vote is how we spend our money will soon be considering making choices about what books to read, what movies to watch based on the environmental stand of the artists involved. We’ll be doing business with the stores who give credits for those of us who bring our own bags, reading books written by green authors, getting our hair done by stylists who ride their bikes to work.

Speaking of hair….. any idea how much those boxes of hair color contribute to landfills? I’ve not colored my hair in over two years now. Just for the sake of round numbers, let’s call it 24 months.

I formerly colored my hair every 6 weeks. In 24 months, that’s SIXTEEN glossy boxes, each containing two plastic bottles of synthetic, oxidative and petroleum based dyes (containing lead acetate) and hydrogen peroxide, a sheet of plasticized paper with plastic gloves bonded on the back.

Do I miss having each hair the same color as its’ neighbors? Not so much. In fact, I appreciate that I can swim in chlorinated pools without fearing that my hair will be a different kind of green, and not the good kind.

Lawn Solutions – my front lawn could be mailed with a .39 cent stamp, my thighs; not going to say, at least not in writing. Solution, an old fashioned push mower

Makes me look like a convict, but a green convict.

Transportation

Yesterday’s car miles – zero. Bike miles; about 12.5 with a funky derailleur , on a ride that included trip to post office to drop off books, CD’s, and DVDS, then to Mazzaro’s for picnic fare, followed by a trip back home to drop off said groceries, followed by a trip to the best bike service in the universe, ABC Bicycles to get said funky derailleur out of its’ funk. Rick fixed it up in about three seconds and gave me some tips to prevent reoccurrence. It’s likely the cable got knocked from its’ moorings when I was loading or off-loading Carol’s bike and my bike for our recent ride of Fort DeSoto.

Electricity

Another SIX light bulbs retired to storage by replacing them with CFL’s. Only the lights in the kitchen and dining room remain…. Rarely used, but still there, a grim reminder from the department of ‘WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!’

Natural GAS It’s meter reading day! I anticipate a huge reduction in the gas bill, since I’ve turned down the thermostat on the heater, and washed in strictly cold water.

I’m doing all I can. Really.

Virtually Green Baby Showers and Life Partner/Bridal Showers

Imagine the benefits of hosting a virtual green baby shower. Those who are environmentally motivated would receive gifts they actually wanted, and the givers of the wonderful gifts would have an opportunity to learn something about products that had reduced negative impact on the environment. By hosting a virtual shower, you can include friends and family all over the globe.

Here’s how it works:

1. Have prospective adoptive – birth- foster parents, about to become life partners, or the bride and groom register online at websites that provide wishlists, like Shirts of Bamboo..
2. Send email invitations to the guests with the links to the wishlists. Let them know the time and date of the shower, and set up a room for instant messaging so they can participate in the activities.
3. Have one of the local guests bring a video camera to the actual event and put the video on the Internet for those who cannot attend. Alternatively, a camera attached to a computer could bring those from far away to the party itself.

For adoptive parents and those anticipating the arrival of babies, Shirts of Bamboo offers an adorable Onesie, baby blankets, hooded towels, socks, and beanies to keep little one's head warm.

For couples, towels, soaps, matching robes would make wonderful gifts to start a new life together.

For everyone, the benefit of reduced plastic shopping bags, wrapping paper, wasted gas to return duplicates or unwanted items.

Get Green, Get Your Money Back

In national news, Larry Hagman, of Dallas fame, has launched a fantastic campaign to support such green causes as Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF). RefundsForGood will show you how to get money back from the IRS and donate it to do some real good for the environment.

In local news Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio drives a hybrid Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, please consider moving across the bay and running for office. Mayor Iorio has signed the Conference of Mayors For Climate Protection agreement. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has not.

St. Petersburg’s Mayor Rick Baker’s approach to development, and his lack of enthusiasm toward any efforts for recycling are often criticized, and rightfully so. In fact, our esteemed Mayor, Rick Baker was instrumental in getting the Val Pak Coupon Printing Plant to be built in St. Petersburg. Expectations are that the plant will be able to produce 54-million coupons per year, up from 24-million. Imagine, billions of packages of unsolicited coupons dumped into mailboxes and then trash cans all over the country will come from my very own back yard. Way to go Mayor Baker!

What’s On My Mind

Ecology, the environment, global warming, that Al Gore (my personal hero) won an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, employment discrimination in Largo, adoption and foster child inequities in Florida, Mel Martinez’ amazing ability to send out non-hunting dogs, Savannah, book clubs, friends, and revising my novel - Tallulah and Posomotor, The Familiar, The Curse of CREGA.

I’m also concerned with the pressure on little girls to be all sexy way too soon. I watched my daughter putting fake fingernails on my ten year old the other day, and I am unconvinced this could be a good thing. Within minutes of the final nail application, the girl is complaining that she is relatively helpless. I see this in the same category as high heels, shoes that make me rely on a steadying arm on occasion. Then I read an article in the Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com titled

Goodbye to Girlhood

As Pop Culture Targets Ever Younger Girls, Psychologists Worry About a Premature Focus on Sex and Appearance

By Stacy Weiner

Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page

Since I live in Florida, specifically on the gulf coast, I am in the epicenter of the hurricane scare tactic selling methodology of everything from storm shutters to generators. The thing is, according to a recent study, hurricanes and typhoons have become much stronger in the last thirty years due to global warming. By my reckoning, had everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina purchased hurricane storm shutters, there’d be a boatload of hurricane storm shutters on those drowned homes instead of plywood. Sort of like using paper plates on the Titanic so no china would break, don’t you think?

Currently reading: The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Regarding, The Secret – DVD, book, website, et al, the naysayers and skeptics have got to have their audiences, after all. Here’s my take on it. It works for me. When I am in a place of feeling good, a positive energy attracts other positive people. I get more smiles, more hugs, more of what I want, than when I am walking around bitching about my lot in life. Yes, I’ve had some Cat 5 hurricanes in my life, who hasn’t? The difference, is when instead of saying, ‘why me?’ I say, ‘why NOT me?’

I’ve personally experienced what can happen using Creative Visualization ( Shakti Gawain’s book that I’ve had since about 1912 or so…. ) when I created a page about a relationship I wanted. Within six weeks of making the “visualization board” I met my beloved husband of blessed memory.

So, to all the critics and naysayers, I say have at it. Don’t believe, if you don’t want to. I, like millions of others realize that The Secret works – IF and only IF I do the work. No one is denying that action must follow the desire. They are simply pointing out the obvious, that in order to get what you want, you have to first determine what you want, and then send out the vibes, wishes, whatever you want to call it, and the universe will conspire to give you the tools to make it happen. And that, my friend, is all for now.