Next Week and Beyond

Hi all,
Next weekend I'll be at the 2012 Youth Summit for Biodiversity and Environmental Justice! I'll tell you all about it when I get back. In the meantime, I invite you to look at Eco-Friendly Conferences and What They Have to Offer to refresh your memory of the conferences I went to last year.
By the way, I am unfortunately running out of ideas for my blog. Can anyone give me ideas, please? Thank you.

Eco-Friendly CARS?

OOPS! Cars aren't eco-friendly, now are they? I don't think that any car is actually good for the enviroment, but if you must get a car, there are ones you can get that are more environmentlly friendly than the regular ones. Here are some of the types of "eco-friendly" cars on the market.

Hybrids
According to Wikipedia, "A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. ...
"Power sources for hybrid vehicles include:

• On-board or out-board rechargeable energy storage system (RESS)
• Coal, wood or other solid combustibles
• Electricity
• Electromagnetic fields, Radio waves
• Compressed or liquefied natural gas
• Human powered e.g. pedaling or rowing
• Hydrogen
• Petrol or Diesel fuel
• Solar
• Wind"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle

My comments: Some of these sources are good ones, yet not all of them. Coal, wood, electricity, natural gas, petrol, solar, and wind all have serious problems associated with them. On the other hand, if you can get a hybrid car that runs off, say, scrap vegetable oil from local fast-food places and human power, then you've got yourself quite an eco-friendly car!
Do some research into different types of hybrids to figure out if it would work out for you.

Electric Cars
I don't really believe that these are eco-friendly at all. Depending on where you live, your electricity might come from coal, oil, or alternative energy sources, but it's usually a mix. Coal and oil, of course, are not environmentally-friendly, and alternative energy sources have their drawbacks, too (see next week's post for reasons why alternative energy isn't as great as it sounds).

Biofuels
Biofuels are bad. Sorry to be blunt, but with 1 in every 7 person in the world not getting enough to eat, we should not be burning corn to power our cars. Biofuels also require a lot of land for growing, which results in native family farms being converted into foreign-owned monoculture.

Small Cars
When you use a small car as opposed to a medium-sized or larger one, you'll be using less fuel. Therefore, whether your car runs off vegetable oil scraps or regular gasoline, it should definitely be small.

No Car
The best option, of course, is to use no car at all! Who needs a car when you can use buses, bikes, and your own two feet? Taxis will always be available in a pinch. For some awesome ideas on sustainable, car-free transportation, please see my other blog post on the subject, Sustainable Transportation: Part I.

Earth-Friendly Meal Preparation

As an environmentally-concerned vegan, I have to put a lot of thought into how I prepare my food and what goes into it. I've already posted about the latter (the food you eat), but today, I want to talk about the former (how you prepare it).
Like most people, I do enjoy a hot meal, and am not particularly fond of half-cooked or boring foods. However, eco-friendly meal prep can be so much more than that-- read on to find out how!

• Try a solar oven before winter settles in! You can find out how to make one here: http://www.ehow.com/how_2083_make-solar-oven.html. Please note that it may take twice as long for the food to cook in a solar oven, and you should not use it to cook raw meat or other foods that must be cooked in order to be safe. You can make vegan cookies, re-heat veggie lasagna, and more, and from what I've heard, it works!
• Eat a cold meal once in a while. Chickpea salad, PB&J, vegetarian sushi, bean salad... the list is endless. To see a portion of the endless creative recipes you can use, please see http://goneraw.com/.
• Instead of using an electric mixer, mix those ingredients manually by hand-- use that muscle power!
• Buy food in large containers that can be re-used.
• Avoid using plastic wrap to cover your food in the fridge. Either cover it with a plate or transfer it to a resealable container.
• When washing food, put it in a bowl filled with water instead of running each piece individually under the tap.



Raw Vegan Food can look just like typical westernized food!
Photo courtesy of www.lucidnutrition.com

Until next week!

Yet Another Filler Post

Hello everyone,
I'm unfortunately too tired to give you a post today. This is the last night of my summer trip and I am also tired due to the fact that we switched time zones yesterday, which means that my body clock is an hour later than my watch. Sorry. Keep following, anyway!

Alternatives to Video Games

Hi everyone,
I've made it to a computer on a Friday after all-- in the Maritimes! So, here is my post...
Today I am going to write about the alternatives to video games and computer games. Video games are so addictive, but it is always better to find real-world activities to engage in, partially to enrich your life, and partially to reduce your eco-footprint. However, if you are already hooked on video games, you will probably want to do things that are similar to video games-- just more real. Here is that list of things:
1) Card games. You can play with a partner, group of people, or by yourself. I used to play online card games like Scarab 21 and Pyramids on Neopets.com until one day I couldn't, so I got out a deck of real cards instead. It was so fun, and it had a sort of video-game feel anyway.
2) When I was addicted to my favourite virtual pets site, neopets.com, I made a noble attempt to "bring it off the computer", by doing things offline that I had previously been doing online. For example, I started making up my own Neopets- related brain-teaser games and writing them on paper. I also made my own Neopets fan merchandise-- out of repurposed materials, of course.
3) If you are hopelessly obsessed with your video games, here is my advice to you:go out and pretend that life is a video game. Go out into the woods and pretend you are in your video game in the haunted woods. It sounds nerdy, but really-- what is better: sitting at home with a computer screen to keep you company, or having fun in the real world?
I'll take the real world anyday!
Remember the expression: If you don't use it, you lose it. If you don't go out in nature, it won't be preserved and it will disappear!

Things To Watch Out For In The Media

I'm heading off for the Maritimes tomorrow, and I'll be packing like crazy today, but first, I've got to post. Today, I'll be talking about media traps.
Controlling your own personal intake of media is important, seeing that what you are exposed to every day influences how you view the world. It is hard to resist assimilating into a culture that is so prevalent everywhere you go-- yet it can be done, and should be done, because our Western culture is built on the basis of aquiring more material possessions.
And so, here are some things to avoid in the media:

1. Celebrity gossip and worship: Yes, I said "worship". For many people, they worship celebrities as idols (and even sometimes admit it, like American IDOL). This is the worst on television and in magazines, and on the Internet, of course. You can take all sorts of quizzes comparing yourself to celebrities-- on things like personality type, fashion style, dream date, body type, BMI... It is as though we need to match ourselves up to a celebrity to have worth! Unfortunately, most celebrities lead luxurious, and, ultimately, unsustainable lives; if we all tried to live like them, I'll bet the Earth would be depleted at least twice as fast. So please, surround yourself with the real world instead of celebrity magazines and such... You'll be happier anyway.
2. Advertisements: ARGH! They are everywhere nowadays. You can't use a search engine or check your e-mail without advertisements popping up left, right, and centre! Even my beloved virtual pets website has ads all over the screen and it makes it less fun :( Not like I play on Neopets anymore, really, but I still go on once in a while! It is best to distance yourself from hordes of advertisements, telling you to buy, buy, buy. Even if you don't rush out to the store and buy that particular product (does anyone actually do that?), you might order it online, or simply be encouraged to go shopping in general. Even if you don't notice a difference before and after you see an advertisement, look out-- your mind might be on "shopping mode" for the rest of the day!
3. Certain movies and TV shows: Especially the ones with the "product placement" woven right into the story line, in which the characters of the show talk about how wonderful a certain brand is (they're paid to do that).
4. Certain songs: Especially the disrespectful new pop songs. True, they do not actaully tell you "buy stuff NOW!" but they do originate from the same faulty and obnoxious culture that is destroying the environment.

To put a long story short, the media is poisoned with the "buy stuff and get happy" motto. It is best to look for media that does not contain this. For example, I listen to CBC Radio 1, which doesn't have any advertisements or sketchy "product placements". You can opt for watching movies that aren't the type to use product placement, and hey, maybe you can just ditch television altogether!
By now you might be wondering what to do instead of immersing yourself in a flawed culture. After all, it wouldn't really work to pull yourself out of one culture only to find that there is nothing to replace it. The key is to join groups that think like you. Try joining any one of the following types of groups:

1. Environmental Organizations and Other NGO's: You can go to the meetings, events, etc. and meet people who also don't believe that we should be consuming the amount of stuff that most people do. You can join local nature centres, vegetarian associations, etc.
2. Libraries, which are amazing for many reasons, including the fact that they hardly ever focus on business and consumeristic habits. You just go and borrow a book and take it home and bring it back... and hang out for free at one of the tables, without anyone expecting you to buy anything.

Can you think of anything else? If so, please let me know by commenting on this post. I'll try to get to a computer next Friday while I'm away, but as I stated before, don't worry if I don't post-- I haven't given up on all of you!
See you later, then... :)

Want To Be REALLY Eco-Friendly?

For some of you, I'm sure that the day-to-day ways to go green aren't enough for you. You feel like you should be focussing everything you do on sustainability-- and if that's you, kudos to you! (If it's not, read this post for inspiration.) Here is my advice on how to truly live "the green life"... at school and work!

Beating the Consumeristic High School and Elementary School System
I have to say that school SUCKS (ahem, I mean, "does not meet my expectations") when it comes to eco-friendliness. Your teachers constantly expect you to use fresh-from-the-rainforest paper, pencils, and duotangs. Of course, you can get the recycled versions of these-- see my post Looking Forward to my Summer Vacation... And Eco-Friendly Office Supplies for details-- but there are also the myriad textbooks, paper handouts (enough to fill an entire binder for each class), lab assignments, etc. etc. etc. All highly consumeristic; enough to drive any young environmentalist up the wall and back down the other side again!
Sometimes it is just best to say goodbye to the regular high school amd elementary school system once and for all.
Wait! Don't drop out quite yet! Before you make any life-changing decisions, I want you to look at the alternatives.
For one thing, there is the homeschooling option. Homeschooling is sometimes misrepresented, however, so I feel the need to re-explain it to you by quoting Grace Llellewyn, editor of Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go To School Tell Their Own Stories:

[Most Americans] probably associate homeschooling mainly with fundamentalist Christianity, and to most of us there is nothing fascinatingly wonderful or inconceivable about the idea of a miniature school-- complete with curriculum, parent-as-teacher-and-disciplinarian, rigid daily schedule, etc.--at home rather than in a school building... Anyway, if your definition of homeschooling is "school at home", you are partly right: For many people it is just that. But for thousands of others, it is nothing of the sort. Thousands of children in [America] grow up without being told what to do, without being formally taught to read and write, without being require to study biology, algebra, and Ernest Hemingway, without ever once being forced to read a particular book or complete a particular worksheet-- or any worksheet whatsoever."

And yet these children and teenagers go on to go to college (if they want to), get jobs (if they want to), and do pretty much what they want to with their lives. (Read the book if you are interested in hearing "success stories" about these people. I have the book open in front of me right now.)
If you decide to homeschool, you can make all your "classes" eco-friendly or environment-related. Wouldn't that be fun? Maybe I'm just obsessed with the environment, but it sounds downright groovy to me.
The particular strand of homeschooling in which there are no set classes and there is no rigid schedule is also known as "unschooling". Unschoolers learn the way they want to-- experiential learning at its finest. Unschooling is legal, although you may have to apply for an inquiry in order to get permission. It does not sound like a big deal, though.



Definition from www.homeschoolmosaics.com

Going to an Eco-Friendly University or College
There are plenty of environmentally-friendly universities and colleges to go to, as well as post-secondary schools which have environmentally-themed programs.

• For a list of some of the best international eco-friendly colleges and universities, click here.
• Click here for a list of some good ones in the United States, provided by the Princton Review (whatever that is).
• If the two above links do not meet your needs, please do more research into the topic.

There are also groups on campus that focus on making your university/college a greener place. Again, look around and see how you can get involved. You should also strive to find eco-friendly housing while at your school, as well as continue living eco-friendly while you are there.

Eco-Friendly Careers
What about green careers? It turns out there are a lot of those, too. Any job that you want can be greenified. Here are some examples:

• If you want to be a lawyer, work for an environmental organization to help them with their legal issues!
• If you want to be a deli store owner, open a vegan deli store that uses recycled packaging!
• If you want to be a writer, be an environmental writer (either freelance or for a magazine or for an organization)!
• If you want to be a musician, weave your eco-values into your songs and merchandise!
• Etc.! Etc.! Etc.!

There are also very environmentally-focused jobs. You can become a conservation biologist, an environmenal consultant, or an activist with an environmental organization.
I think that it is also importatnt to stress that if you are not happy with your current job, perhaps you should get out of it. Find something that you really want to do with your life-- greenified, of course. You certainly should not be wasting your life stressing about money and doing things you don't believe in!


So, if you are really serious about living a very eco-friendly life, try taking some of these ideas into consideration. You certainly won't regret it!
See you next week!