A Green Fire

I have spoken about the plastic problem before, but I don’t think I have address the problem with plastic in the oceans.  I want to point you to some great sites where you can learn all about the growing plastic contamination of our oceans.

JUNK is a raft made of thousands and thousand of plastic bottles.  The bottles are bound together into pontoons that form the flotation for the raft.  It is being sailed from California to Hawaii by two men.  The blog tells of their progress so far.  The reason they are doing it is to bring attention to the plastic trash floating everywhere.

Algalita Marine Research is where you can learn about the Algalita and the North Pacific Gyre.  This summer, the boat went out to document the ‘Texas sized garbage patch’ present in the gyre.  It is actually bigger than Texas.  Check out their site.

A film crew went out this past summer on the Algalita to film what is in the ocean, what the Algalita found, and if the garbage patch was real.  If you want to see what they found, look at Garbage Island. This is their 12 part documentary about the gyre and all the trash there.

What it comes down to is that all our garbage blows out to sea or gets washed there by our rivers.  Anything that can float or be carried by the water eventually ends up in the ocean.  Once there, it just hangs around forever, being broken into smaller and smaller pieces, but never really decomposing because plastic does not decompose.  It breaks down into smaller pieces, but it is still plastic.

What can one individual do?  Until there is an alternative to plastic, the best thing a person can do is dramatically reduce the amount of plastic they use.  Every time you make a choice other than plastic, you are helping reduce how much will eventually be in the environment, hanging out forever.

Everyone who knows me knows I don’t watch TV.  I would like to say I don’t have a TV, but I do.  What I don’t have is cable service, a satellite service, or rabbit ears.  My TV picks up no channels, and I don’t watch television shows.

I gave up watching television when I went to college.  I knew that I had a bad TV habit, and if I took one with me, I knew I would watch TV instead of studying, writing papers, or sleeping.  When I graduated and moved into my first house, I resisted getting a TV.  I have never regretted it.

I decided I wanted to have real experiences, I wanted real memories. So much of my childhood is memories of the shows I watched, not the things I did.  I remember some characters and storylines better than friends I had in elementary school.

Televisions are pervasive, and what they teach is threaded throughout every aspect of our lives.  TV teaches you that your house is dirty, and to small, and just not good enough.  TV says your clothes are out of date, your milk is the wrong kind, and for sure, you are too fat and ugly.  TV teaches all the time, directly and indirectly.  When you watch TV, your brain goes into a passive absorbing state.  Mostly, TV teaches you that your entire life is just not good enough and there is something you have to buy to make your life better.  Well, I reject that message.  I think the best way to appreciate the life you have is to live the life you have, and stop giving your attention to a flickering box.

TV Free America has some great information if you want all the statistics.  The one that stood out the most to me is that on average, a TV is on six hours and forty seven minutes a day.  That’s just the average which means in a lot of homes, it is on seven, eight, nine hours a day.  What could a person do with that time?  One of the biggest complaints of most people is that they don’t have enough time to get everything done that they want or need to do.  What if they just turned off the TV?  How many hours could they reclaim if they eradicated this addiction?

How long can you go without watching TV?

Composting is big these days.  Or well, it seems so to me because I do it and I read a lot of blogs from other ‘greenies” who are doing it.

Anyway, there are loads of ways to compost.  There are many composting bins you can purchase, or if you are handy, make yourself.  These work by completely enclosing the organic material you wish to turn into rich dirt. Some, are tumblers that you, well, tumble to mix the decomposing matter.

Others are upright systems.  These you put fresh grass or vegetable food waste or scraps into the top and as the layers break down, they move down the system and at the bottom, you end up with rich, dark compost.

There is another way, which is the way I do it.  I built a frame from leftover ‘dog pen wire’ (that’s my technical term for it). It stands in a mostly circular manner, upright behind the storage shed at my house.  I just dump all my vegetable, fruit, grass clippings, and leftover pine straw onto the pile.  I turn it when I think about it.  It is heated by the sun and watered by the rain.  Currently, it is aerated by ants, not fire ants, instead I have little harmless black ants. This method is not going to give me great compost in a matter of weeks.  However, it will eventually, which is good enough for me.

The best part of my compost is how little I send to the landfill.  Since I burn all my paper garbage, and now I compost all my green kitchen garbage, there is very little I send to the landfill.  In fact, I usually only take my can out to the road for pick up every other week.

What’s your favorite part of composting?

There is a LOT of information in the news these days about how harmful and dangerous plastic is to human health.  Check out, Polymers Are Forever and Plastic Ocean.

The problem can seem overwhelming, the more you learn.  I am working towards improving my health on all levels, and part of that is trying to reduce the amount of plastic I use, as well as, the amount of new plastic I purchase.  These are small steps, but I think it is important that I am making them, rather than just ignoring the issue.  I am no where near the level of Beth Terry, aka Fake Plastic Fish, but I am thankful she gives such good information on how to reduce consumption.  She also offers loads of alternatives to plastic.

One step I have taken is my work water bottle.  I have a glass bottle with a metal screw top lid.  It started life as a bottle of apple juice that I bought.  When the juice was gone, I kept the bottle and now I refill it with tap water from the water fountain at my work.  I have saved about three dollars a day doing this, because that’s how often I fill it.  That’s at least three disposable bottles a day that I am not consuming.

At home, I have a filtered pitcher to filter out the chlorine from my water. I drink that water out of my glasses, and I use it in my coffee maker.  I don’t buy bottled water for home use.  My tap water is well water, not city water.  I live too far out in the county to be on a city system.

I will be going back on the road with my job in September.  One option I am looking into is a Kleen Kanteen.  Ms. Terry recommends this product.  The advantage is it almost plastic free, it is easily refillable, and I will ALWAYS know which water container is mine.  Also, if I drop it, it will not shatter.  Potential shattering is why I do not want to take a glass bottle with me.

What’s one change you have made to reduce plastic use in your life?

I just read this article at NPR.org.  The point is that if we cannot repair what we own, do we truly own it?

I have been thinking for a while about our throw-away society.  I try to make what I have last as long as possible, but there are many items I have, that I know I cannot repair.  For example, if my DVD/VCR player croaks, I do not know how to fix that.  Also, it has gotten to the point that it is cheaper to buy a new one than for me to pay someone to fix it.  How crazy is that?

I remember a pair of socks I had in high school.  I LOVED those socks.  I took them with me to college where I finally wore out the heels.  Instead of buying new ones, I used thread and repaired the holes. Everyone I showed them too was not impressed.  “Why don’t you just buy new socks?” was the question I was asked again and again.  New socks were not the point.  The point was I fixed an item that I loved, and wanted to keep.  This is the same point Mr. Jalopy makes in the NPR article.  We as a nation need to get back to learning how to fix what we own.

What do you know how to repair, or wish you knew how to repair?

Yesterday, I found a site with plans for all kinds of solar ovens. Actually, the site has all kinds of information about solar cooking. Solar cooking is something I first encountered years ago on 3-2-1 contact, a PBS science show.  I am interested in it now, because I really like camping, and another way to cook food without having to find wood and build a fire, or to bring charcoal sounds wonderful to me.

Also, memories of hurricane Katrina are still fresh with me, and seeing all the flooding going on in Iowa reinforces that disaster can happen at any time, anywhere. I was lucky after Katrina, my power came on pretty soon. What if it happens again, and what if the disaster is more widespread? Having another way to cook will be pretty darn handy.

So, a solar oven is basically concentrating the sun’s rays onto a pot or cooking vessel by using several reflective panels. These can be incredibly simple or fancy. I was so excited to find that you can make a solar oven using the silver sun shade that usually sits on your car’s dashboard. Another example was made from a large umbrella. Basically, almost anything can be made to work.

Looking at videos on youtube, a man showed how he turned an old satellite dish and some mylar into the reflector for an oven.  I also have an old satellite dish and some Mylar, and glue.  I sense a weekend project coming up.   Once it’s finished, what should I cook first?

Most everyone knows the basics of saving gas, or improving gas mileage. One of the fist tips always mentioned is to carpool, or share rides. I am happy to report I have started doing this. My commute is 66 miles. I found someone in my building who is will to split the driving. This week, he found out about another employee who is interested in sharing rides as well. If we add a third person, I will only have to drive every third time. Some weeks, that will work out that I only have to drive one time. I am so excited about that possibility.

When I bought my car, I got a silver Pontiac Vibe because it combined many of the features I was looking for. I wanted a high MPG rating, and storage options. As a hatchback, I am not fighting with a trunk. I just load the items in the back, and if I need more room, I fold the seats down. It is silver, which in the hot climate I live in, means it reflects more heat, and it is easier to cool. Less A/C use means less gas wasted.

If you are unsure of the best way to conserve gas, check out The Drive Smarter Challenge. This site lets you input your car and tells you how much money you could save annually by following their tips. It’s pretty fun. I already took all extra weight out of my car, keep the tires properly inflated, and combine errands. They have a tip to “drive sensibly” in town, but they don’t define what that means. I’m pondering that one.

Another tip I put into practice when gas hit $3.50 a gallon is to drive the speed limit all the time. I used to speed around 10mph over, no matter the road. Now, I set my cruise on 65 or 55, depending on the highway. I get where I’m going on time, and as a bonus, I’ve noticed I’m calmer now when I drive. Before, when I sped, I was always looking for the cop. Now, I don’t ever stress. It has really made the commute more pleasant.

Another tip they suggest is to telecommute or to stagger work hours. This second option has worked great. I normally work 8-5, but my commuter buddy works 7:30-4:30. I asked if I could shift my hours and it was not a problem. This has worked great for the commute. Just that half hour difference makes a HUGE positive difference in the traffic. I sit a shorter time at stop lights, and I brake/accelerate/brake much less when we get into town.

There are also more extreme measures a person can take, and those I have yet to implement. Some people coast to stop signs instead of braking, turn off their A/C when going up hills, turn off their car at stop lights, and I have heard of turning your car off when going downhill. That last one is too dangerous for me.

What’s your favorite gas saving tip?

I heard a very interesting report on public radio this morning.  Juneau Alaska is very short on power because an avalanche cut them off from a hydroelectric dam.  Everyone is working together to save.

“Turn off, turn down, unplug,” said Sarah Lewis, chairwoman of the Juneau Commission on Sustainability. “That’s what everyone is doing and being vigilant about and commenting when others are not.

Everyone is working to conserve as much energy as possible b/c they are relying on generators to get by.  The thought is that perhaps they will continue their energy saving ways when their connection to the dam is restored.  I think what they are doing could be a model for other towns and cities in the lower 48.

Hurricane season starts soon and my state could get smacked.  When the power is out, what will I absolutely want to run on generator power?  What can I live without?  I have thought off and on about that question ever since August of ‘05.   I know I want to keep my fridge and freezer going.  I can live without A/C or lights.  I can rig a solar shower (yeah for camp skills!) and I can cook on the grill or over a fire.

That’s an emergency situation though.  As for right now, could I reduce my energy usage even more than I do now?  I plan to see what appliances I use and when I use them to see if I could cut back more.

What are you doing, or have you done to reduce your energy usage?

Sunday was another laundry day. Today temps were in the high 70’s and windy. It was a perfect line drying kind of day. I washed three loads, and hung them all out to dry. The wind blew so hard, I could hear the sheets flapping in the wind from in the house.

It got to be long enough that the sheets should be dry, so I went out to check. One of my sheets had flown off the line. That’s unusual but as windy as it was today, not completely unexpected. I did use six pins. I figured the pins snapped off the sheet just before it went flying and I looked in the yard to pick them up. Hmm, no pins.

I picked the sheet up and ALL the pins were still attached! I could not believe it. Crazy.

After I rehung the sheet, I came in to plan supper. Sunday is a great time to cook a BIG something so I can eat it tonight, and lunch all week. Hmm.

I decided on gumbo, from scratch. Now, I have made gumbo many, many times from a box. You know those gumbo boxes at the store and you just add the meat and maybe some okra and tomatoes?

Today I made the roux first and then added all the other stuff that goes in. I peeled and deveined the shrimp. This gumbo also has sausage in it. I debated about chicken, but that seemed a bit much. I mean, this is just for me. Maybe, if it turns out ok and I later make it for a crowd, I’ll put more in next time. One thing about making gumbo from scratch—it is TIME CONSUMING. The roux took over 20 minutes of low low heat and stirring. There are other steps before too. After the combo of other stuff and the roux, it has to cook for 2 HOURS. I’m not even counting the time it took me to devein the shrimp. This is such a weekend meal. No way would I want to do all this one night after work.

I’m excited about learning to cook from scratch though. I hope to learn to make more dishes this way, and less from a box.

Crunchy Chicken is having an Extreme Eco-Challenge for the month of may.  This are several choices, and basically she is asking you to do without some damaging item for the month.

I read through the options and knew most of them were items I could not commit too.  However, number six in her list, no excessive water usage, is one I do already.  It didn’t seem like a challenge if I’m doing this every day anyway.

I drink tap water, not bottled.  At work, I have an plastic bottle but I wash it at home and I refill it from the water fountain at work, or my tap at home.  I know a Klean Kanteen is a better choice, but that’s a new purchase, that would have to be shipped to me and I already have the bottles.

At home, I was all my clothes in cold water, and only full loads.  I hand wash my dishes and rinse them in cold water.  I have a low flush toilet already.  I turn off the water when I brush my teeth.   I take short showers.  I don’t water my yard.  Either it gets rain, or it dies.  Frankly, if the grass dies, that’s less to mow.

I wash my car rarely.

Now that I have a little bitty garden, I will think about how to water it.  Probably, I will use my gray water from rinsing my dishes.  I usually have a little coffee left over that I can pour on the plants too.

So overall, I try to pay attention to my water usage and make sure I’m not being wasteful.