After the cyclone hit Burma earlier this week, it is estimated at at least 100,000 people have died. Remember Katrina? Remember 9-11? The entire world came to our aid, and now it’s our turn to do something for these poor impoverished people who are getting no help from their own oppressive government. If you have a few bucks, consider donating them to the International Burmese Monks Organization, which is opening the doors of all their monasteries to house and feed the homeless, sick and injured. I sent them some money, and I am sure they could use a lot more. Thanks so much.

We can learn a lot about ourselves simply by looking honestly at how we act. For instance, if you want to see what you value, then look at where you are spending your money. It doesn’t matter what you say is important, it is the results in your life that count.

Following the Organic Consumers Association’s revelations that so-called “organic” or “natural” product brands were actually made with toxic chemicals such as 1,4-dioxane, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps has sued numerous companies in the industry that it accuses of using misleading labeling to deceive consumers.

Lots of people feel let down by natural deodorants, but the health risks associated with antiperspirants make it hard to feel okay about using them. Since our discussion, I’ve been trying something new, and it’s been working wonderfully. Yup, it’s me and my baking soda again.

Here are 10 Simple Behavioral Changes That Save Gas. I particularly like coasting whenever possible, but I admit that I find it difficult to stay at 60MPH on the freeway.

The US and Canada came in first and second respectively in a survey which measured the environmental unfriendliness of consumers around the world. The study, conducted for the National Geographic Society, asked people in 14 countries about their lifestyles, including questions on housing, food, and transport, and then gave them a green score on a scale of one to a hundred. Ouch, that hurts.

Climate Counts released its second annual Climate Counts Company Scorecard. They launched the first Scorecard last year with the hope that creating a simple, easy-to-understand ranking of companies would motivate both companies and consumers to step-up their efforts on climate change. And thanks to No Impact Man for assembling a synopsis of the best and worst companies on the list:

The worst of the companies (scoring 5 or less): Amazon, 5; Burger King, 0; Darden (owner of Red Lobster, Olive Garden and other chains), 0; eBay, 5; Jones Apparel Group (Anna Klein, Nine West and many other brands), 0; VF Corporation (Lee and Wrangler jeans and others), 4; Viacom (4), Wendy’s (0), Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and many more), 1.

The best of the companies (scoring 65 or more): Canon, 74; General Electric, 71; Hewlett-Packard, 68; IBM, 77; Motorola, 66; Nike, 82; Proctor & Gamble, 69; Sony, 68; Stonyfield Farm, 78; Toshiba, 70.

Be sure to check out the rest of the rankings at Climate Counts, and try to keep them in mind when out shopping!

Comments on this post: 2

As I promised on Tuesday, I wanted to write more about the earthship that we rented for a few days while we were in Taos. I received a few comments and even more emails about them, so it seems that people are interested in hearing about our experience. I cleared it with the homeowner, Jill, so that I could post pictures and talk about her exact home, so let’s take a look at our stay in the HelioHouse earthship, about 15 minutes from Taos Plaza, past the gorge bridge out on the mesa:

The home is in a subdivision of earthships west of town, where every home is off the grid and catches their own rainwater. There are no utilities out here - no power lines, no wells, no gas lines - the homes have propane tanks for cooking with, they use solar or wind energy to power the entire house, from the water filtration system to the television set, and every drop of water in the house is from the cisterns that are part of the home’s design. There is internet access from a WAN network from the earthship offices, and my laptop and iPhone worked perfectly fine with it. The HelioHouse, that we stayed in, had 6 solar panels and 3,000 gallons of water storage - and we used electricity and took showers just like we do here at home. It was strange to think that we were not hooked into any city utilities, but it didn’t feel any different than here at home. What a great feeling that must be to have no bills!

This model is what is called the “packaged” earthship, in that it is a standard design from Michael Reynolds that just plain works - the systems are all in place and have been designed to work in harmony. This rental is the one bedroom version, but they come up to 3 bedrooms in size. There is a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a single bedroom here. Here are some shots of the living room, kitchen and bedroom:

The reason that they can be off grid without worrying about things like heat in the winter is because earthships use thermal mass to store and retain heat from the sun all day. This heat comes back into the house at night, keeping the temperature inside the home at around 65 even in the dead of winter - without heat. The HelioHouse had a woodstove that we lit for the ambience, not for the heat - although it was about 20-something degrees outside that night, it was very comfortable in the house. So how does it retain all that heat? First off, the windows are situated to take full advantage of the winter sun, which is low in the sky and can penetrate all the way to the back of the home, hitting the thermal wall. In the summer, the sun is higher in the sky and only comes in the windows a few feet - enough to hit the interior planters. This keeps it cool in the summer, without AC, as the cool earth temp stays constant even if it is hot outside. Wait, what? Planters inside? Yep, the planting bed inside the house that allows you to grow herbs, flowers, bananas - anything you want. Check it out:

You might be wondering at this point what makes the home so energy efficient, and here is the part that turns some people off to the homes - the back and side walls are made from old tires packed full of dirt and covered with adobe plaster, and are buried about 4 feet into the earth, where the earth’s core temp stays the same day and night in all seasons. However, you would never know it unless you built the house yourself. As for how you can make 3,000 gallon cisterns last as long as they need to out there in the desert, the water in earthships is actually used 4 times. First off, the water is caught in the cisterns coming off the roof, and the fresh water is filtered heavily and used conventionally for showering and drinking water. That really is the only time that “new” water is ever used in the house, which makes total sense. Once you use it for drinking or showering, the water gets filtered again naturally inside the interior planters (called botanical cells) and sent back to be used in the toilet - after all, why use fresh clean “virgin” water just to flush a toilet? Once the toilet is flushed, the water is sent outside the home, where the liquid is used to fertilize the outdoor planting area and the solids are put into a conventional septic tank. And no, the house doesn’t stink, the water doesn’t taste funny, and everything works just like a normal house - you wouldn’t even know the difference unless someone told you. It is quite amazing.

These homes make so much sense today, with water and energy shortages, groundwater and river pollution, and wasteful McMansions being built all over the world. Using tires and dirt to make exterior walls, bottles and cans and mud to make interior walls, and a small amount of wood to frame out the windows and doors, the houses have not only a minimal impact on housing supplies, but also has a tiny footprint on the earth itself - water from the sky, energy from the wind or sun, and a self-enclosed and maintained sewage treatment plant. Plus, no utility bills at all! How can you go wrong? If you want to learn more about earthships, check out Earthship Biotecture or see if you can find the documentary Garbage Warrior, about Michael Reynolds the designer of these homes.

Me, outside the HelioHouse

So now that you have learned a lot about the house, you might be interested in staying in one. Well, lucky for all of us, Jill and Michael, owners of the HelioHouse, rent the house out year round for the same price you would pay for a hotel room in town. (Believe me, we wish we had stayed there all week instead of in a hotel room) They live right next door in their own earthship, and were so nice to take the time to talk with us about their home and their rental. HelioHouse was so well-decorated and well-appointed that we felt like we were right at home! The bed was very comfortable, there was fresh organic coffee for us to make in the morning, wood for the fireplace, and chocolates on the bedside table - how much more could one want? Oh, and if you do stay there, wait until about 11pm and then walk outside - you have never seen stars like what you see out there on the mesa!

So if you happen to be coming to Taos for vacation, or just to see us, you should definitely check out HelioHouse for your stay, I cannot recommend the experience enough. And be sure to tell Jill and Michael that I said hello!

Comments on this post: 4

Congratulations to the winners of the 2 Envirosax kids reusable bags!

The winner of the pink pig bag, Christina, had this to say - “My kids would be thrilled with either one! The Envirosax I use for shopping are a bit too big for my little ones to carry so these would be perfect. They love to help, and why not encourage eco-friendliness from the start?! My kids and I never leave the house without something we need to haul around and having their own special bag that they can carry would be a great help to me too.”

The winner of the dinosaur patterned bag had this to say - “I know my son would love the dinosaur envirosax. His mom and I are always teaching him the importance of the 3 Rs and about doing all he can to lessen his negative impact on the environment. When we go shopping, he almost always reminds us to grab the “greenie” bags from the trunk. I think having a specialized one of his own would make him super happy.”

You will be receiving an email from me regarding this, so please reply with your mailing address so I can get these bags out to you. And thanks to Envirosax for letting me give these away!

Comments on this post: 0

I used to be a big supporter of The Sierra Club - we gave them money every year, we received their magazines, we signed their petitions. But that all stopped not too long ago when I heard that they were endorsing Clorox’s new line of “non-toxic” cleaners…supposedly in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money. Clorox has a long history of making incredibly toxic chemicals, damaging the environment, and continuing to test their products on animals while the rest of the world moves away from the practice. This is what The Sierra Club has come to stand for and endorse? Seems I am not the only one fed up with this blatant hypocrisy by a supposedly “green” organization. From PR Watch:

In an unprecedented move by one of the Big Green environmental groups, the “Sierra Club’s national board voted March 25 to remove the leaders of the Club’s 35,000-member Florida chapter, and to suspend the Chapter for four years.” What did the chapter do? According to Peter Montague, it was “highly critical of the national board’s decision in mid-December 2007 to allow The Clorox Company to use the Sierra’s Club’s name and logo to market a new line of non-chlorinated cleaning products called ‘Green Works.’ In return, Clorox Company will pay Sierra Club an undisclosed fee, based partly on product sales.” When grass-roots members pointed out that Clorox was fined $95,000 for violating U.S. pesticide laws just as the deal with the Club was being brokered, staffer Johanna O’Kelley dismissed Clorox’s culpability, saying their violation was “a technicality.”

There are plenty of real natural cleaners made by independent, smaller companies that A. actually care about the environment and B. do not test on animals. How about Seventh Generation, Method, Ecover, Ed Begley, etc? Oh how nice it would have been if they could have endorsed one of these companies…but that probably wouldn’t have gotten them such a big influx of cash for their coffers.

This is from a blog post I came across that I found very telling - “What we are watching is perhaps the final chapter of the conversion of the Sierra Club ‑ on a national level ‑ from an activists driven organization to a corporate driven organization where the interest of the Sierra Club as a corporation invariably trumps the interest of the Sierra Club as an activists’ organization.”

The Sierra Club obviously no longer cares about the environment - it’s all about greenwashing the consumer in exchange for corporate money, so I can no longer support any of their efforts. I know one person doesn’t make that big a difference to their bottom line, but I would love to somehow find out how many people stopped being members once this news came out. I stopped using Burt’s Bees products when Clorox bought them, so it is only right I stop supporting The Sierra Club now. How can anyone trust anything they endorse from here on out?

John Muir is rolling in his grave as I write this.

Comments on this post: 9

No more hiding it from our family and friends or you guys - my wife Amy and I are moving to Taos, New Mexico on July 1. I am sure this will come as a surprise to some people in the family that read this website, but I figure as long as our moms and bosses know we are leaving, we are safe to spill the beans to everyone else. We just spent almost a week there looking at homes to rent, and we got very lucky in finding the perfect house for us - it is right in town (so I can still walk everywhere I will need to go while working from home), has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and ready for this? A washing machine. Hallelujah!

Taos Plaza

Gorge Bridge - about 15 minutes west of the plaza

Nothing will change around here, except for the fact that I will probably have a lot more “outdoorsy” posts than I have had while living in Los Angeles. Taos is a pretty small town with tons of hiking and other nature-filled activities, and we cannot wait to move in and dig into the area!

Oh, and I am putting together a post about the house we rented for a few days while we were looking for our future home - we stayed in an earthship, which I have written about before. Earthships are off the grid and catch their own water - there are no utility bills at all. It was amazing. As a teaser, here is a picture of the interior:

Stay tuned!

Comments on this post: 9

If there was ever a time to feel like you are being pandered too, this here is the time. Both McCain and Clinton are touting a “gas tax holiday” in their stump speeches, which would supposedly remove the gas tax for the summer driving season, saving you some money at the pump. Obama thinks it is quite silly and just a political ploy, and he is absolutely correct - the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline is $.184, so if you are using 10 gallons of gas a week, you would save about $1.80 a week. Is that really going to make or break anyone? I don’t think so. And what happens when that $.184 tax gets put back in place at the end of the summer? What a fun day that will be, when the price of gas shoots up almost $.20 a gallon in one day! But before talking about what they should be doing, let’s keep one thing in mind - these are people running for President…they are not actually the President. All the speeches in the world will not make anything they say happen until they are actually President. So when you hear any of them saying “I will remove the gas tax for the summer driving season”…they can only be talking about the summer of 2009, when and if they are President. It reminds me a lot of being in high school, when the student running for student body president proclaims something like “I will put a soda machine in every classroom”…when everyone knows that will never happen.

Instead of political moves like this put into play in order to garner votes, the candidates should be touting real energy reform bills and subsidies for research into alternative energy instead of subsidies for oil companies making record profits…not tax cuts that will only save us a few pennies while taking money away from road repair and maintenance that the states desperately need. I am not saying that Obama has the best plan for the future of energy use and generation in this country (I don’t think any of them do enough in their proposals, quite honestly), but at least he does seem to understand that this proposal by Clinton and McCain is just political pandering. I would like to hear about real energy reform from these candidates, not idle talk about removing a few cents on each gallon of gas in order to try to secure a vote.

They really do think we are that stupid, don’t they…

Comments on this post: 7