The Experiment Begins

After my long hiatus away from the blog, I'm back again to type in a final entry for the year 2007. Many of my readers out there (all 4 of you) are probably wondering what happened to me recently. Did I get eaten by an escaped San Francisco Zoo tiger? Did I fall off my bike into the mouth of a volcano? Did I run away to a hippie commune and change my name to Moonbeam? All good theories, I must say. However, the real reason for my absence has been that I've been rethinking how I write this blog.

After posting about 25 entries, I've realized that I'm not providing much value to the entire blogosphere. Most of what I've said is not earth-shattering or new... it's been done before. During my month-long absence, I've continued to adopt better, greener practices with my life. But how exciting is it really to hear me talk about switching over to organic milk? Or buying non-toxic deodorant? Or reading another depressing environmental book? Not exactly the kinds of topics that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Blogs should serve one of two purposes: 1) to provide information, or 2) to entertain. Although my blog somewhat honored those two principles, it wasn't enough to grow an audience. There was no incentive for new readers to keep returning to this blog, because it provided no new information, and it only mildly entertained. Even though my blog might have been better than most of the garbage you find out there in the blogosphere, I don't want to add to the growing pile of useless content on the web.

So, after some thought, I've decided to try something different out with this blog. Instead of lightly touching upon random topics in the overwhelming world of environmentalism, I decided to devote the next month to one topic only and see what happens. I've always been curious about veganism, and know absolutely nothing about it, so for January, I'm making it a challenge for myself to go completely vegan. I really don't know what to expect from this. Everyone I've talked to says I'm crazy to even think this, but I beg to differ. Shoot... if Les Stroud from "Survivorman" can last for days without eating anything, I should be fine on fruits, vegetables, grains and beans for the next month. It's not like you're eating absolutely nothing with veganism. You just have to be more creative with what you CAN eat, and really think about WHAT you're eating.

Here's to a new year filled with healthier living. I hope you enjoy reading this blog over the next month. It should be rather interesting. I'm looking forward to February 1st when I can eat a hamburger again.

Brian

The Wearing of the Green

When you live a greener lifestyle, it starts affecting areas of your life that you never really put much thought into. For me, clothing was one of those areas. If I needed a new shirt or pair of jeans, I'd just swing by Old Navy or The Gap like everyone else and just buy something new, never really considering how my clothing was made or how it came to reach me.

But ever since the Green Festival, I'm now on a mission to end my dependence upon buying new clothes made cheaply in third world countries. It almost seems like an impossible task since most everything these days is made in either China, Malaysia, or India. The most obvious solution to this clothing crisis is to give up clothing completely and to just become a nudist. However, with winter fast approaching and the likelihood of me moving back to Chicago becoming ever greater, I don't think nudism is a viable option.

Another solution is to buy clothing that is made locally. You have to look harder to find clothing brands like this, but they are around. Quite a few businesses in California make clothing out of hemp, which is a much more environmentally friendly option than using cotton or synthetic materials. At $50 a pop for a hemp shirt, though, the thought of going buck naked suddenly seems a lot more reasonable.

So what's a poor environmentalist supposed to do to get some greener threads? The answer: hit the thrift stores. Many thrift stores run by organizations such as The Salvation Army or Goodwill get a bad rap, because people automatically assume that only bums would shop there. Yes, there are lots of nasty clothes found in thrift stores that even I wouldn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. But every now and then if you're lucky, you'll find some great stuff that will make even your most bourgeois friends jealous.

For example, today I stopped by the Salvation Army in Clemson, South Carolina to see if I could find any needles-in-a-haystack. At first, it looked like it was going to be a bust. But then my eyes fell upon a thing of pure beauty: a Red Sox T-shirt in perfect condition... for only $2! I couldn't believe my luck! But don't you worry, Cubbie fans. I also found a Cubs shirt for $2 that I nabbed. So not only did I manage to reuse "old" clothing and donate money to a good cause, but I also found a way to support my teams during next year's baseball season! Greener living never felt so good!

Thoughts from a Concerned Environmentalist

(Note to readers: The writer of this blog is temporarily incapacitated due to jet lag and a long red-eye flight without any sleep. So for today's post, he's sharing some of his thoughts made during the 5 hour trip down to San Francicso yesterday.)

As I type this, I’m heading south on an Amtrak train to San Francisco, where I’ll be catching a flight out east to visit family for Thanksgiving. I can see the San Francisco Bay passing by me on the right. The train tracks are so close to the bay, that it literally feels like you’re skimming across the surface of the water. You can see skinny white cranes lurking around along the banks, looking for food. Curious rock formations poke out from hidden beaches, and occasionally you’ll pass over a jetty of water, meandering all twisted like a snake into the bay. I feel quite privileged to be getting this unobstructed view of nature. I think if more people realized the type of scenery you can get from riding Amtrak, a hell of a lot less people would be driving.

The San Francisco Bay is such an amazing thing to behold. Yet, it bothers me to think that in 20 to 30 years time, a lot of what I’m seeing may be totally wiped out by rising waters. After going to all these conferences lately on sustainability, I can’t help but feel frustrated with the current state of environmental affairs. I find it hard to understand how people in politics aren’t grasping the severity of the situation we’re all in and doing more to solve it. After reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s book Field Notes from a Catastrophe, which shows undeniable proof that climate change is actually occurring... and occurring at a much faster rate than we realize, I think that it’s going to take a whole lot more than just upping the MPG on cars to change things. We’ve got to be doing more than that... we’ve got to be changing our lifestyles.

I think the big frustration that any environmentalist faces is how to go about bringing mass change to this world when the people who can bring about change—the politicians—don’t seem to care. The scientists have been presenting their data to Congress for decades now, only to fall upon deaf ears. Protesting doesn’t seem to accomplish anything anymore like it used to. And you can pretty much expect any letter you send to your Congressperson to end up in the shredder. So what do we do? If our nation’s leaders aren’t passing the legislation necessary to mandate change, then what’s left for us to do to fix our situation?

At both the conferences I attended, this question kept coming up. And the response given by all the experts was this: you can’t wait for Congress to fix things. You’ve got to take it into your own hands and do it yourself. Or, as David Orr suggested, "Suck it up." I personally didn’t care for this answer, and I don’t think many other people at the conferences cared for it, either. If you don’t have your own government backing you, then what hope do you have of changing things on a mass scale?

But then I started looking back to my state of California, who’s running into the same opposition from our government, and they’re still plowing ahead anyway. On both the state and local levels, people ARE doing things to change our situation. Look at San Francisco: they banned plastic bags from all stores, and just months ago banned all styrofoam containers. And now the city is providing free compost containers and compost pickup service for all residents. The people of San Francisco didn’t wait around for Congress to mandate changes to their lifestyle —they did it themselves.

One of the speakers I saw at the Green Festival, Paul Hawken, has stated that there are now over 2 million organizations around the world that are fighting for social change. Over 2 million! And most of these are grass roots efforts that no one ever hears about. They work to make our world a better place, and they do it by being role models for others to follow. It’s a silent revolution going on, where people are using their actions, not their words, to affect change. And it’s working.

So even though we would like our political leaders to hurry up and pass necessary legislation, we can do a lot locally within our communities to help make that change happen. It might seem like an uphill battle at times, but our work locally with others does make a difference. It is like what Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Your Green Cubicle Awaits

For those of you who are considering changing careers and getting involved with environmentalism (like I am), there's PLENTY of resources and job search sites online to push you in that direction. Here's a few recent ones I just found that you may consider trying:

• North American Association for Environmental Education: It contains the whole friggin' motherlode of environmental job sites. Start with this one first.


• USAJobs: This is the federal job site. You can find environmental opportunities listed through the Dept. of the Interior.


• EcoEmploy: This site allows you to find federal, state, and local environmental opportunities.

Over time, I will continue adding to this list and revising it as I learn about more resources. If you are aware of any that you have found useful, please feel free to leave a comment and I will add it to the list.

Returning to a "Make It Yourself" Lifestyle

There's a trend going on now across our nation that many of you may not be aware of. I first caught whiff of it last Christmas when Amy Sedaris released her book I Like You! showing people how to make their own food and decorations for parties. It was a satirical throwback to the types of arts and crafts that people were making back in the 50s and 60s. Back then, it was more of the norm for people to make their own stuff. Anybody with some felt and a few pipe cleaners lying around would use them to make some gaudy centerpiece for their table, and despite how ugly it may have looked, nobody really seemed to care because everyone was doing it.

Then came the 70s... and with it a nuclear family that didn't have the time for making silly homemade creations anymore. Our nation suddenly entered into a disposable culture, where it was much easier for people to spend their money on premade items. And when something broke, they just threw it away, and it's been that way ever since.

But recently, a sea change has been happening where people are starting to return to their roots and are making their own stuff again. Part of this trend is due to the growing sense of individualism that today's generation is experiencing through modern technology. With easy access to audio and video editing software, and through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, people can now express themselves in any way they desire and not feel forced to go along with the crowd. And when you combine that with what is going on in the environmental movement, where the mantra is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," what you get is a sudden renewed interest among people to save every scrap they own (like your grandmother used to do with her hundreds of empty butter containers) and then use them for something else.

Take this clock, for example:

It was made out of chopsticks that someone had lying around the house. I saw this clock at the Green Festival in San Francisco this weekend, where I noticed several businesses were starting to tap into this "make it yourself" niche market. The business displaying the clock, ReadyMade, has a magazine that it puts out bimonthly that shows you how to make all sorts of interesting things using recycled items. Some of them are pretty tacky, but some are really creative. It looked like such a fun magazine that I bought a subscription! Another publication that has also jumped upon the "make it yourself" bandwagon is the appropriately titled Make. This is aimed more towards the science geeks out there who want to create homemade rockets and radios, but it's still worth checking out.

And let's not forget the internet, which is just filled with videos of people demonstrating how to make all kinds of stuff. One podcast that's worth checking out is I Make Things, in which host Bre Pettis demonstrates how to make weird stuff out of everyday items. I caught the episode where he and his spunky cute female cohost, Actiongirl, make a Rubik's Cube out of dice and magnets. And if video podcasts aren't enough for you, then there's always festivals going on around the country that you can check out. One of them is called Maker Faire, which is put on by the people at Make and Craft magazines. Check out the following video to get a glimpse at some of the wacky creations that people are making for it.

Just looking at all these fun recycled creations got me motivated to jump on the "make it yourself" bandwagon as well. So I tried my hand at the chopstick clock to see what I could come up with:

Not too shabby for just using a chopped-up chopstick and a picture frame. And the clock works two times a day, too! Now, if only I could figure out a way to add a chopstick snooze alarm...

It's Tofurky Time!

Although Thanksgiving is still a week away, Chico State celebrated early today with its annual Tofurky Day Feast. The meal was put on by the students from the Environmental Action and Resource Center (EARC) and was made entirely from organic and vegan foods. I have never had Tofurky before in my life, and I was really curious to see how the wizards of soy could create something as bizarre as phony fowl. So as EARC had requested, I showed up to the feast with my own plate, glass and eating utensils to avoid throwing away unnecessary garbage. But I guess I broke off the short end of the soy wishbone, because they had just run out of Tofurky minutes before I arrived. So all I received were sides of organic mashed potatoes, organic stuffing, organic cranberry sauce, a persimmon, and a glass of organic, fair trade, shade-grown coffee. But hey, I wasn't complaining. It's not often that someone gives you free food that's actually good for you.

Speaking of free food that's good for you (if this ain't a segue, I don't know what is), I got quite a bit of that at the Green Festival. Since I could go on and on about what I ate, I'll limit my discussions to only the items that I found interesting. The first was Justin's Honey Almond Butter. Yes, I know... there's nothing too crazy about almond butter. I've seen it before at the stores and farmers markets, but I don't think I ever really tried it until this weekend. A woman was passing out little ketchup-sized packets of the stuff, and after discovering pure nirvana with the first one, I kept swinging by to swipe more. I'm quite convinced that honey almond butter is the healthier version of crack. I highly suggest you endorse Justin's Honey Almond Butter or make some illegally in your garage. Something that tastes that good has to be illegal.

It seemed like hemp was the big food item of choice at this festival. Like its neighbor soy, hemp can be used in almost anything. Some things hemp tastes really good in, like granola. It makes a crunchy snack that's just as good as dried rolled oats. But then there are some things that people should never, ever, EVER use hemp to make... like milk. Yes, you heard me right. MILK! My question is this: how the hell are you supposed to milk hemp? Does it have tiny little udders that you have to squeeze with tweezers? And what type of hemp was someone smoking to come up with with the very notion of hemp milk? I tried two varieties: plain hemp milk, and chocolate hemp milk. The chocolate hemp was OK, but that plain hemp... hoo boy. Tasted like someone took some grass shavings and pulped it in a blender. I think I'll save my hemp for just granola and clothing, thank you very much.

Soy made its appearance all over the place... in milks, juices, crackers, teas, coffees, and who knows what else. I've already mentioned how Organic Valley here in California had a great soy milk/orange juice hybrid drink. It tasted like liquid orange cream candy. One of the soy products I DIDN'T care for, however, was Soy Jerky. There are some products—like hamburger, sausage, and possibly turkey—in which soy can take the place of meat, but soy jerky was not one of them. After trying some, I felt like I was chewing on the sides of my leather boots. In addition to soy, wheat grass also made appearances in several booths, but I didn't dare drink the nasty green gag water they made from that stuff. When it comes to grass water, that's where I draw the line.

As far as crackers went, a surprise favorite of mine was Doctor Kracker. They were extremely tasty for crackers only made from wheat, oats and spelt (which I just learned is a type of hulled wheat). Check out their web site to learn more about these lip-smacking crackers (and be sure to listen to their nifty cracker jingle!). And for tasty fruit drinks, Sambazon (not to be confused with Zombo.com) turned out to be my clear favorite. They use the açai berry in their beverages, which has a little bit of a pomegranate taste to it. Sambazon is also great because it turns your mouth all purple so you can gross out your friends. Get your kids hooked on this stuff and they'll love you for life.

Now that I've tried out some of these products at the Green Festival, I'm much more inclined to buy them (or similar varieties) at the natural food stores and not get all freaked out like I did last week. It's taking me baby steps to switch over to healthier eating, but I'm slowly getting there. And who knows... maybe tomorrow I'll cook me up some Tofurky and see if it's really as tofuriffic as they say.

Green Gone Wild

In Sunday's blog entry, I promised that I would share with you some of the other interesting things that I saw at the Green Festival in San Francisco. There's quite a lot to mention, so I'll divide it all out into separate postings. For today's topic, I want to describe some of the more notable products that you can now buy to live a greener lifestyle. So here goes:

Do your friends and family give you crap for not staying in touch? Well, now you can give them crap back with Mr. Ellie Pooh's Elephant Dung Paper! Yes, folks, Mr. Pooh will supply you with exotic stationery and gifts that are "100% recycled, 75% elephant pooh, and 100% fun!" So say goodbye to toxic paper mills—Mr. Ellie Pooh's pachyderm pulping machines are here to stay!

Is kitty really pooping on your sustainable lifestyle? Is it "paws"-itively driving you catty? Well, don't get mad... get Swheat Scoop! Swheat Scoop is the environmentally-friendly kitty litter, made with naturally processed wheat! It contains no chemicals, no clay, and no gluten... which means no more worries! Swheet!!!

And no child should be left with his or her behind in plastic diapers... especially when they just pile up in our landfills. Instead, you need to be using gDiapers, the world's only flushable, compostable diaper! When you flush a gDiaper, valuable nutrients can be recovered at the wastewater treatment plant and turned into biosolids, which are used as fertilizer. And when you compost a gDiaper, it will add nutrients to the soil in your garden. With gDiapers, you'll be living the real "cradle-to-cradle" lifestyle!

(All right... I just realized that all the "interesting" products I saw at the Green Festival revolve around poop of some sort. This wasn't intentional. I guess poop is a big concern in leading a sustainable lifestyle. Let me throw out a non-poop item for you.)

Do your batteries ever go out in your flashlight, leaving you literally "in the dark"? Well, now there's a solution! It's the Hybrid Light, the first battery and solar-powered flashlight of its kind! Like your Prius, you can now switch back and forth between power sources! Just click the button, and you will always be beaming with pride! And you thought solar powered flashlights were just a joke!

That's all for now. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about some of the foods that I found interesting at the Green Festival. Don't spoil your appetite.

Clothesline 2.0

With a growing mound of dirty clothes in my hamper, I was faced once again with the drudgery of doing laundry today. After the partial success I had with my makeshift clothesline a few weeks ago, I decided to make a second go at airing out my laundry. But this time around, I decided to create the next generation in clothesline technology. Instead of having just one very long rope extend all the way across the backyard, I decided to use several ropes of much shorter lengths so I didn't have the "sag" factor occurring in the middles of them. All I needed now was a cross beam to attach the ropes to, and I'd be set.

And I found what I was looking for in an old rotting broom sitting outside. I thought the broomstick would make an excellent cross beam, so I sawed off the head of the broom and used my Boy Scout ingenuity to lash the broomstick to the pole. The lashings weren't tight enough, though, and I soon had a flaccid broomstick on my hands. So I scrapped that idea and turned to Plan B: shove the broomstick into the loop at the top of the pole and hold it in place with a small wedge. I found a small triangular piece of wood to serve as my wedge, and after spending a few seconds shoving it into the loop, my broomstick was levitating parallel to the ground. Clothesline version 2.0 was looking promising.

I took the long length of rope and ran it back and forth between the broomstick and the old kiddie fort railing. Pretty soon, I had four clotheslines perfectly stretched out in the backyard. I then took my clothes, washed them using the Cold rinse cycle (which supposedly saves more energy), and then hung them out to dry on my new clotheslines. They worked perfectly. One factor I didn't stop to consider, however, was that it was going to be overcast all day with occasional showers. So after 6 hours out on the line, only half of my stuff actually dried. And then my broomstick... my wonderful parallel broomstick... started slumping as the weight of the clothes pulled it towards them. When I removed all the clothes from the line, they were all about to hit the bottom of the ground.

So, it looks like it's back to the drawing board for the clothesline. I think I better hire a structural engineer to help me when Clothesline 3.0 is released in a few weeks. But I'm getting closer. I can just smell it.

Hippie is Hip Again

Greetings from Amtrakland! I’m on the train again, heading back north to Chico after spending the past three days at the Green Festival. I must say, I’ve been rather impressed with what I’ve seen this weekend. In the previous posting, I addressed some concerns about businesses jumping on the “green bandwagon” mainly to make a quick buck. There’s quite a few business out there in the market doing this—just turn on your television or look at magazine ads and you’ll start spotting “greenwashing” occurring all over the place. But luckily at the Green Festival, the two non-profits that sponsored it—Global Exchange and Co-op America—were very selective about who they allowed to exhibit. One requirement was that a business had to be directly involved in helping social causes in the community or the global market. The festival only picked businesses that were more concerned about helping with the greater good, and less concerned about making a profit. It was quite refreshing to hear this in a world that seems constantly driven by the almighty (yet shrinking) dollar.

Another positive thing to see at this festival was that it attracted a wide variety of people. On Friday, I had a bad knee-jerk reaction to what I observed, because the crowd was mainly composed of young urban professionals. But on Saturday and Sunday, the place was teeming with a lot of students and neo-hippies, almost as if a Dead concert just let out. Looking out over the crowd of attendees all dressed in browns, greens and earthy tones, it seemed rather soothing. I rather enjoyed being surrounded by all these woodsy, happy individuals, because it made me feel as if I was on a large camping trip with all of them. Everyone had their own unique style of dress, and you could tell they didn’t care what other people thought. But by dressing in their own “unique” style, they all appeared to look alike, like they had all been given the same memo to wear loose pants, T-shirts with messages, and no flashy jewelry or makeup. Welcome to the era of the non-conforming comformists.

One of the wonderful things about attending this exhibition was that I didn’t have to worry about buying any meals. Sure, they had an entire section filled with vendors selling foodstuffs like vegetarian corn dogs, organic salads, and tofu everything. But if you played your cards right, you could totally live off all of the samples that they handed out for free all weekend long. About 20 vendors were handing out samples of their special coffees, teas and soft drinks in tiny little cups, and most were located along the same central aisle. So, by the time you finished one sample, you’d already be at the next booth picking up another one, and by the time you were finished, you had consumed a 16 oz. drink of everything. The same went for food samples. From crackers to cookies to organic cheese and yogurts to raisins and apples and bananas, it was enough to keep your stomach satisfied.

My biggest vice, however, was the Clif Bar booth. Strategically located at the front of the exhibition, it always had about 10 different samples of energy bars just sitting there, ready to nab. And each one tasted so good (especially the Chocolate Mint Chip). Like a NASCAR driver, I probably swung by that booth about 8 times this weekend, gorging myself of Clif Bar samples. I’ve probably got enough fiber stored up in my system now to keep me regular until after Christmas. A close second on the vice list was the Organic Valley booth with its combination milk-and-orange-juice drinks and its organic cheeses. It was like eating candy that came straight from a cow. If I had a year's supply of Clif Bars and Organic Valley beverages, I’d be in green heaven.

The dark, evil part about eating all these samples, however, was the amount of trash generated at the festival. Just to give you an idea of what was going on, here’s a picture of just one day’s worth of trash (not including banana peels and apple cores) that I generated at this event:

Yes, this isn’t good, especially considering that this is a “green” festival. However, the planners for this event were already thinking way ahead on this and had volunteers every hundred feet or so manning recycling containers for people's trash. Most of the sample cups were made from recyclable plastic or paper. At last year’s festival, they had a diversion rate of 96% on all their trash, which is pretty commendable considering the amount of garbage that most conventions produce. However, in regards to all the trash produced from take-away items (pamphlets, magazines, promotional items)... well, that’s another story.

Looks like the Amtrak bus I'm now riding on is about to pull into Chico, so I better wrap this up. Over the next few days, I’ll mention some of the other notable things I saw or learned about at the Green Festival so you, too, can start "awakening the hippie within." But please remember to take a bath... I beg of you.

Gathering of the Granolas

And here I am at the San Francisco 2007 Green Festival. It took me about 5 hours yesterday to get here by Amtrak bus, then train, and then bus again. If I had driven, it would have been much quicker to get here... less than 3 hours to be exact. But I'm more than happy to take public transportation. The benefits are many... I don't have to get stressed by driving, I don't add to the entire carbon emission mess, and I can read the entire way. And at the price of $34 one-way, it's more than worth it. Any chance I can get to kill off my car is just icing on the cake for me.

The first day of the Green Festival was eye-opening to say the least. Not many presentations were going on, but their "marketplace" filled with all their green vendors was going full blast. You walk down the aisle, and it's "green this" and "green that." It's literally green overkill. Personally, this reminded me in a lot of ways of what was going on 10 years ago during the entire Internet bubble, where everyone was going gangbusters to put businesses and services online. And as you know the story, a lot of these ventures failed, and the Internet bubble burst.

So, as a pragmatist, I'm looking at this "green movement" and wondering if history will repeat itself. And it may not, given that our situation now is like having a gun pointed straight at us, requiring us to make a change and become greener. A lot of the businesses I've seen are legitimately green and have been living this lifestyle for years. But then you have the newcomers who you can tell are just jumping on this green bandwagon to make a profit. What I'm sensing is a little bit of "greenwashing" going on, where businesses are painting themselves as being a lot more environmentally friendly than they really are. This is where you really have to know your stuff and sniff out who's really walking the walk, and who's just jabbering at the mouth. Here's my prediction: I think we are experiencing a "green bubble" right now that will become oversaturated with greenness in a few years, and a lot of these ventures won't make it. But, like the Internet craze, the green movement won't go away... it'll just become smarter and understand how this environmental movement really works, and not just throw money at anything to call itself green.

Deepak Chopra's presentation yesterday was also interesting on many levels. I had first heard about Deepak 10 years ago while doing a pledge drive for PBS in Dallas, TX (yes, I was one of those people you see on TV answering phones. It's a moment in my life I'm not too proud of). PBS would give you a video of Deepak if you pledged a certain amount, and I personally thought this guy was one of these "deep thinkers" just spouting existential mumbo-jumbo to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Now, 10 years later, I'm watching this guy live in a five-story atrium that is just packed to the hilt with people. Obviously, he's come a long way since his days trying to push videos on PBS.

Deepak came out on the stage wearing these glittery glasses, and I couldn't help to think that—like Elton John—he thought of himself as a rock star of the spiritual healing world. I listened to what Deepak had to say about human consciousness and uncertainty and how they are supposedly all part of the bigger plan that nature has put into place, and how every living thing is interconnected and how we must evolve to the next level to use our consciousness for good. So I'm listening to all this, 10 years later, and I realize that I don't think this is all mumbo-jumbo now. This is something that I've slowly come to understand over time on my own. And Deepak really isn't telling me anything new here. So the stuff I once thought was a bunch of hooey... is now stuff that I personally believe. It's funny how much of a difference 10 years can make.

After Deepak's lecture was over, I wandered down the streets of San Francisco to find the hostel I was staying at. I happened to pass by a lot of vagrants and homeless folks out at night in the Tenderloin District, and it suddenly occurred to me the irony of the situation I was just in. I just attended an exhibition where all the well-to-do urban professionals were there being trendy and buying expensive unnecessary products to make their lives greener. And here's the homeless population, right in front of me, already living the sustainable lifestyle one day at a time without anyone even noticing or caring. It really threw me for a loop and made me realize how environmentalism can smack of hypocrisy if you're not careful. It made me realize that there's a lot more to being greener than just watching what you buy. It also involves working within your communities to help the people who need it the most. It's important that people don't lose sight of that fact, or else this green movement is nothing more than just another bubble ready to burst.

Green Weekend

This weekend, I'll be checking out the Green Festival that's taking place in downtown San Francisco. There's supposed to be tons of speakers and vendors promoting all things green, so I'm all ready to embrace my inner hippie and go roll around in the dirt. I have to head out in a few minutes to make it down there in time to see Deepak Chopra, who I hear is nothing like his brother Tupac and probably won't be dropping dope rhymes about busting caps in unhappy people's asses. Oh well...he'll just have to do, I guess.

I'll keep you posted on happenings at the festival over the next few days.

Better head out...my Amtrak is about to leave the station.

Crate Expectations

Lately, I've been getting pretty good at not driving my car. Most of the errands I have to run can be accomplished by taking my bike into town, which is no sweat off my back. However, there's one activity I haven't been able to ween myself off of using my Honda Accord, and that is buying groceries. Biking to the supermarket isn't a problem...it's literally only a few miles away. The issue is how to go about carrying my groceries back home on a bike, without them spilling all over the road. This has been an enigma that has eluded me for weeks...until now.

Say hello to the future in bicycle delivery technology: the milk crate!

After finding the dusty crate tucked away in the garage, I dusted it off and used three bungee cords to tie it onto the back rack of my bike. Surprisingly, the cords held the crate on tight. I was quite pleased with my sudden innovation. However, after taking a few steps back and looking at my handiwork, I realized that the crate had suddenly dropped the coolness factor of my bike by a factor of 100. No girl in her right mind would want to talk to a guy whose idea of "pimpin' his ride" involved adding something that you'd normally find sitting in a back alley beside a dumpster. Despite what Arnold Schwarzenegger has said about green being "sexy," there was nothing at all sexy about this milk crate. Nothing.

I debated taking the crate off my bike and just starving to preserve my dignity, but the scientist in me wanted to see if it was possible to haul groceries back home on a bike. So, for the sake of science, I swallowed my pride and took off down the road. "Operation Fooder Scooter" had begun.

Instead of going to my typical supermarket—WinCo—I decided to up the sustainability factor and check out one of the organic food stores in town—Chico Natural Foods. These types of stores have always scared me in the past, because I always feel like there's some sort of cult going on, where everyone's rubbing crystals over their bodies to try to get in touch with their inner beings. So I entered the store rather cautiously, looking around every food aisle to make sure some Hare Krishna didn't attack me. I made it safely to the back of the store and found the items I was looking for: a six-pack of beer and some raisins. While inside the store, it didn't seem as scary as I had imagined. They had a wide selection of fruits and vegetables, and lots of grains and nuts you could scoop out from bins. I even found some beer from a brewery in Milwaukee that I used to visit back in the day. Any place that sold beer from Lakefront Brewery is OK in my books.

After paying for my beer and raisins, I went outside to load up my precious cargo into the milk crate. And then suddenly, all my fears of these natural food stores started returning. Out on the sidewalk, there was some strange man giving an even stranger woman a back massage. The woman was wearing a yellow robe-like garment and had a crown of laurels on her head, like she had just gotten back from prancing around in the trees, celebrating Bacchanalia with all the woodland creatures. I didn't want to get sucked into whatever weird vibe was occurring in front of me, so I hightailed it home, being extra careful not to jostle the bottled beer too much.

Overall, "Operation Fooder Scooter" was a resounding success. Both the beer and the raisins made it home unharmed. This experiment proved that it is possible to carry food back home using a bicycle. However, the one issue still remains: how to make food transport by bicycle sexy enough so it doesn't scare off the ladies. Once I find an answer, I'll let you know.

Turning a New Leaf

On Saturday afternoon when I got back home from the sustainability conference, my roommate was all excited about the new toy he had just purchased. I looked outside on the porch, and just about had a heart attack.

It was a leaf blower.

My gut reaction was instant shock. I had just attended a seminar earlier that day where we talked about weening ourselves off of these gas-guzzling noisemakers, and my roommate was now the proud owner of one. I felt like someone had just slapped me in the face. I started protesting, but then my roommate pointed out that it was an ELECTRIC leaf blower, so it was fine. But I continued to protest, because quite frankly, I don't understand why people buy these things to chase one leaf off of their driveway, when then can just bend down and pick it up. And whatever happened to rakes? Really, people, it's not that hard pushing leaves into a pile using a giant fork.

So as I continued my rant on leaf blowers, my roommate stopped me and said, "Oh, I think you'll like THIS ONE, Brian!" So I went outside to check out this horrible impulse buy, and then suddenly I got all excited. For this was no ordinary leaf blower. No sir. Part of it was a leaf blower...but the other part was a MULCHER! By adding a long cannon-like piece to the bottom of the leaf blower, it would suck up the leaves, chop them up, and place them in a bag so you could add them to anything you wanted. Like my compost pile! Boy, was I really stoked now!

So I took the Mulchinator 3000 into my hands and started sucking up everything in sight—leaves, sticks, grass, rocks...you name it, and it got shredded. An entire mound of leaves was reduced to nothing within minutes, leaving me with nothing but a large sack full of mulch and a huge grin on my face. It made me feel like an environmental version of Santa Claus. Good thing there were no kids around, or they would've received stockings filled with dead shredded leaves.

I took my bounty of mulch and added some to my compost pile, and then like a squirrel saving up for the winter, I stored the remainder in another large trash can. Never in my life would I have ever thought that I'd be excited about shredded leaves. It must be a sign that I'm getting old. Or possibly just losing it.

Uphill Battle

I took my bike yesterday on a northern journey up into the pine forests of Cohasset, California. Once you leave the flat valleys of Chico, the road leading to Cohasset (called...Cohasset Road! Go figure.) gradually grows steeper and steeper, until you are forced to shift down to your "Holy Crap!" gear on your bike in order to keep going up. My "Holy Crap!" gear is the next to the last one on my bike. I save the last gear, my "Worst Case Scenario" gear, for those rare moments when the road in front of you suddenly switches into a vertical off-ramp towards the sky. I've had a few of those moments creep up before, and like marathon runners trying to get up Heartbreak Hill in Boston, it is enough to bring you to tears.

There's only one real Heartbreak Hill in Cohasset, and it occurs right before you reach the infamous Fire Station #22. I guess it makes perfect sense to place a fire station at one of the highestest points in Cohasset. Too bad they can't have one of their volunteer firefighters stand on the corner with a large hose and blast me with water every time I pass. With the warm temperatures yesterday, I would have paid dearly for that. But upward I climbed, past the fire station, past the school house and past the church, until I finally reached the nexus where the pavement ends and the gravel begins. I sat down on a nearby stump to take a rest, eat a banana and take in my local surroundings.

The area above Cohasset is just covered in pine forests. You can watch falcons flying about overhead, and in the woods around you, you can hear critters thrashing about. I'm always on guard for something to come out and attack me, like a renegade squirrel or an inebriated hillbilly. There's a sign that you'll pass along the way, saying "Beware of mountain lions!", but I don't know how true that statement really is. Most mountain lions don't hang out where there's traffic and loud noises, and there's enough trucks whizzing by to scare them off for good. And this isn't really mountain lion territory, anyway—I think the locals here just want to be left alone and are trying to scare off people. But I'm still on my guard for mountain lions. Ever since I heard that story years ago of the people that got attacked by a mountain lion/cougar/puma/panther/catamount/big-angry-cat-with-sharp-teeth while riding their mountain bikes in California, I'm ready to take off in a moment's notice.

While sitting on my stump, contemplating life in Cohasset, I noticed a foggy haze in the air about me. I thought at first that it was coming from some illegal trash fires I noticed along the way (which caused the local fire truck to show up), but after a few trucks carrying ATVs and motocross bikes whizzed by me, kicking up dust into the air, I had my answer. Suddenly, Cohasset was not the natural paradise that I had experienced in earlier visits. Even all around me, I could hear chainsaws blazing away, making me feel that deforestation was happening all about me. After the third caravan of moped riders whizzed past me, I had had enough of sucking in dust clouds. So I hopped back on my bike and rode the 20 miles and 3000 vertical feet back down into Chico.

Nothing beats the feeling of coasting downhill a road bike, seeing the world go by within minutes and feeling the air rush though you. As I tell people, when you're on your bike going downhill, it feels like you're dancing in heaven. It's an amazing feeling that makes the uphill climb in the beginning all the more worthwhile.

My Head is Full. May I Be Excused?

These past two days at the "This Way to Sustainability III" conference have opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas. I didn't realize there was so much information to learn about sustainability. Literally, you could spend your entire life educating yourself in this area and you'd still only graze the surface. It's almost overwhelming, because you start realizing that sustainability forces you to evaluate every decision that you make...no matter how big or how small...and understand how it impacts the world around you. Coming out of a conference like this, you start yearning for a time in your life when ignorance was bliss...which would have been last Wednesday for me. Oh, if I could only go back to Wednesday...

But, as many of the people at this conference have alluded to, it's important not to get overwhelmed by sustainability. None of us are perfect, and we can't expect ourselves to change our entire lives overnight and become environmental superheroes. Sustainability is a goal to keep striving towards, and as long as we keep working towards that goal a little bit at a time, we are doing our part.

At some of the seminars I sat in upon, I gained some more knowledge on how to conduct environmental audits in both the workplace and at home. Many utility companies have instructions on their websites on how you can perform your own energy audit, and many will offer you rebates if you go through the process. It's crazy how easy it is to save on your energy costs around the home. The students from Humboldt State University created a fun little video called The Phantom Hunter that shows you some simple ways that you can save energy now. It's worth checking out when you have some time (and energy) to kill.

I also heard from a program at Santa Monica College called Sustainable Works that is using a "service learning" approach to promote environmentalism among the students and local residents. Their program uses accountability groups (similar to what you'd find in church discipleship groups or AA meetings) to keep students and residents motivated to become better stewards. Their program is extremely successful at teaching people about sustainability. It was quite possibly the most encouraging thing that I saw at this entire conference, and I will definitely use their program as a model for my future work in developing curriculum and training.

Along with the happy, feel-good presentations, I also had my share of the Armageddon lectures. One professor from the University of Oregon named John Bellamy Foster gave an interesting lecture on how capitalism works against the entire notion of sustainability. Since capitalism is based upon the foundation of continuous growth to make a profit, it's impossible for businesses to slow down their use of natural resources. Foster believes that only a socialist state as originally envisioned by Marx can achieve sustainable harmony with nature, and if our nation doesn't begin a move towards that direction, then we are doomed.

I also heard from Werner Fornos, president of Global Population Education, Inc., who discussed world population problems and what must be done to solve them. In a nutshell, the human population should have peaked at 2 billion in order to be sustainable. Currently, the population stands at 6.6 billion. Once the population exceeds 8 billion, our world is in for some serious problems. Fornos states that if every woman in the world achieved at least the level of an 8th grade education, then women would be more knowledgeable about birth control and family planning, and it would be possible for our population to plateau at 8 billion.

Despite some of the gloomy predictions for our planet that I heard about this week, I'm glad I was able to attend this conference. I felt like it woke me up from "The Matrix" that we surround ourselves with every day in our superficial society, and made me understand what's really important. From this conference alone, I've got enough topics to write an entire year's worth of blog entries. As I stated earlier, it's impossible to know everything there is to know about sustainability. But if we work towards it a little bit each day, it makes a difference, and that's something to be proud of.

Point Me in the Right Direction

Since yesterday, I've been attending a four-day conference at California State University–Chico called "This Way To Sustainability III." Unfortunately, I didn't see Parts I and II, so hopefully I won't be lost watching Part III. I've been told that in this conference, Rocky Balboa takes on both Clubber Lang AND climate change! Should be a real nail-biter.

I started the day off on the right path by riding my bike to the university. Then, like a good environmentalist, I managed to find a way to recycle my old student ID and get into the conference for only $10. It feels so good to recycle. The staff at the check-in table handed me a goodie bag filled with environmentally-friendly items, such as a note pad made from surplus Sierra Nevada beer labels, a packet of organic California poppy seeds, and ANOTHER compact fluorescent lightbulb from PG&E. Even the goodie bag itself was a goodie—it was a ChicoBag, which is a special nylon bag sold locally here to replace the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. The good thing about a ChicoBag is that it's very compact and can be scrunched into its own tiny bag and stored in a purse or a pocket. Right off the bat, this conference was looking promising.

I sat in on five seminars yesterday tackling a wide range of sustainable topics. I first heard from a goat farmer who talked about how he monitored his finances to make sure his business remained both sustainable and profitable. I then heard from a consultant who was speaking on "Sustainability 101: Sustainability for Dummies." Ah, finally something on my level. One of the important lessons I learned from the presenter was that there always seems to be a system of pluses and minuses with anything you do in environmentalism. For example, remember the wonderful, reusable ChicoBag that I just mentioned in the previous paragraph? Turns out, the bag is made in China and not locally like I had thought, and the outside of the bag has lead paint on it. Not exactly the green bag I had originally envisioned. And the spiffy energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulb I just received? Turns out that with all the mercury it contains, it's more environmentally hazardous than its incandescent predecessor. Talk about major blows to my environmental psyche.

I also heard from an accountant who discussed the process he goes through in performing an environmental audit. He mentioned how most businesses think adding solar panels will help them save money, when there's many less glamorous options—like upgrading a company's cooling system—that can actually create bigger savings for a company. A woman at NASA then taught us some of the methods that she uses to implement sustainability in businesses (and as an aside, she showed us a cool 3D model of the Earth's land surfaces that puts Google Maps to shame. You can download the viewer at the NASA World Wind site). I then attended a presentation by an architecture firm that discussed green architecture practices being used on buildings at Chico State.

The day ended with a keynote address from the rock star of sustainability, David Orr. He is the leading authority figure on all things sustainable (you can see him appear in the film The 11th Hour), and all his groupies came out by the masses to hear him speak. He gave a very depressing "gloom and doom" presentation on the state of climate change and how the polarization of the two political parties is partly to blame for our current situation. He ended it with a message of hope that we can still fix things, but I was already looking for a razor blade to put me out of my misery. The environmental issues that we'll be facing in the near future are going to be difficult. Like David Orr stated, we've got to look down the barrel of the gun and finally do something about it, or it'll be too late.

Green Halloween

Halloween's always been one of my favorite holidays. Little did I know that you can also go green with this holiday by doing some simple things, such as:

• Buying fair-trade candy that uses little packaging
• Using a pillow case or cloth bag to collect candy
• Creating a costume from clothing found at thrift stores
• Using beeswax or soy candles instead of petroleum-based paraffin
• Composting your old jack-o-lanterns

You can find these tips and more by going to both The Sierra Club and The Green Guide websites.

I thought about going green this year and giving out healthy vegan bran muffins to all the kids coming to my door. But I don't think kids are ready for that, and I'm really not ready to have my car egged by hundreds of pissed-off Trick-or-Treaters. So I just kept the compact fluorescent porch bulb turned off this year, thus saving on energy consumption. I guess it was a green Halloween after all.

Adventures in Composting

For the past month, I've been getting frustrated about the amount of food scraps that I've been throwing away in the garbage. I've been cooking at home a lot lately, and the amount of fruit and vegetable scraps I've been contributing to the trash has been significant. So this week, I finally decided to get off my hams and do something about it—I built my very own compost pile in the backyard.

When I first thought about making my own compost weeks ago, I figured it couldn't be that difficult. You just throw your food scraps in a container out back and let it decompose. How hard can that be? But after doing research online at several sites, such as Compostguide.com, I started realizing that making dirt was a much more daunting task than I had originally imagined. All of a sudden, I had to be an expert at chemistry and know all about carbon and nitrogen. And I had to put the right combination of "browns" (carbon-rich materials) and "greens" (nitrogen-rich materials) into compost, or else bad things would happen...like having a compost pile that reeks like garbage. Or having a compost pile that doesn't decompose. And then I'm supposed to do all these additional things to the compost—like stirring it up regularly with a hoe, and adding special compost-eating worms to it (now where the heck am I supposed to get worms?)—so it will decompose properly. For just creating a bunch of dirt, this seemed like a lot more effort than I was willing to commit.

So I spent many a sleepless night thinking about this, until I finally gave in this past Monday and found myself digging a hole in the backyard to make way for my compost's new high-rise apartment building. For the high-rise, I took an old plastic garbage can we had sitting in the back and cut out the bottom. You want your compost container to be open on the bottom so bugs and bacteria can come up through the soil and into your compost to help it decompose. I dug the hole way in the back of the yard, so if there was a smell, my roommates wouldn't kill me in the middle of the night. Digging the hole was the most complicted part. I spent 2 hours digging up all these strange egg-like rocks, which makes me wonder if I just desecrated an ancient Indian burial mound in my backyard and have now released evil spirits upon the entire block. There goes the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, I inserted the garbage can into the ground, filled in the dirt around it, and then started populating the compost compound with shredded dry leaves. The website advises you to use a lawnmower to shred the leaves, but since ours is a gas-powered mower and I'm trying to cut down on unnecessary emissions, I just tore up all the leaves by hand like it was confetti. After adding my "browns," I then went inside to gather my "greens"...from the kitchen garbage can. Let me assure you, I did not find much pleasure in this. Technically, you're supposed to place your kitchen scraps in a "compost pail" and cover it with a lid, and every few days, add it to the compost pile. But I hadn't planned that far in advance, so I had to resort to dumpster diving in my own kitchen. Digging through your personal garbage really brings to light what you're consuming. I didn't realize how many bananas I had been eating, or how much coffee my roommates had been drinking.

So, after tearing up banana peels, egg shells, lettuce leaves, coffee filters, and other scraps into tiny bits (which helps the compost decompose faster), I added them to Hotel Compost, threw another layer of shredded leaves on top, and then sealed the trash can with a lid. I suddenly noticed that there was a swarm of little gnats hovering all around the compost container. I don't know where in the world they all came from and how they managed to get there so fast, but it was pretty freaky. Back inside the kitchen, I found an empty ice cream tub to use as a makeshift compost pail until something better arises. These first couple of weeks might be a challenge in getting my roommates switched over to using the compost pail, so I might have to play the role of "Garbage Police" for a while. I'm sure my roommates will just love me as I go around, snooping through the garbage and blowing my Barney Fife whistle on them. I'll keep you updated in future postings about the Compost Saga and let you know whether or not I still have roommates.

Green Cleaning

While doing laundry a few days ago, I took a page out of my travel playbook from this summer and decided to air-dry my clothes. In Europe, it wasn't much of a big deal. I only had about four shirts and a few pairs of boxers to dry out, and I could easily get that accomplished by just wearing the damp clothes into town and letting the sun do its magic. This time, however, I had two full loads of laundry to dry. Trying to wear all those clothes at once would turn me into a pretty pathetic-looking Michelin Man. So I resorted to the old-school technique of using a clothesline.

In my backyard, there was already a clothesline set up, but after putting a few towels and shirts on it, it was already filled to maximum capacity. So I jerryrigged a nylon rope stretching from one end of the existing clothes line to a nearby telephone pole. It stretched about 50 feet in length and seemed pretty taut, but after putting on bed sheets and more shirts, the rope sagged down to the ground. I had to tighten the rope several times to prevent my clothes from smelling like wet grass. Each load of laundry filled both clotheslines, so I had to dry my clothes in shifts. The first shift worked like a charm and within hours, all my clothes were dry. But I didn't time my Laundry Day appropriately, for when I started the second shift, the sun was already beginning to set. Let's just say that it was a pretty damp night sleeping in those sheets.

Drying your clothes outside is a great alternative to using a clothes dryer. It saves electricity and will cost you less in the long run. On the downside, though, it does take a lot more time and effort to hang your clothes to dry, and I also noticed that you don't get that warm, Snuggle-soft feeling you're accustomed to when you pull a towel right out of the dryer and rub your face in it. It feels more along the lines of taking a piece of sandpaper to your face and turning it into a pile of raw meat. Air-drying your clothes is definitely something that takes getting used to. If you choose to do it, I highly recommend starting early in the morning, so if you decide to wear your clothes later on that day, people won't think you just got back from riding on Splash Mountain.

Ducks Unlimited

It's amazing how my opinion of Chico has changed over the years. When I moved here for graduate school in 2005, I just loved the quaintness and the beauty of the land surrounding this town. I spent my first few weeks jumping on my bike and exploring the canyons, the creeks and the swimming holes up and along Bidwell Park. It was a magical place to be. But then the students started returning...and graduate school started kicking in...and my joy for all things Chico disappeared in a heartbeat.

Besides grad school, one of the main factors that drew me to Chico was the fact that it was considered a "bicycle city." Back in 1997, it won the designation of "Most Bicycle Friendly City" from Bicycling magazine, and a lot of Chicoans took pride in this fact. From 2005 to 2007, however, I really couldn't figure out how it had ever received that honor. With all the biking I did back and forth between home and campus...on streets with no shoulders or bicycle paths to ride on...and a lack of bicycle racks around town to lock up your bike...this was not the "bicycle city" that had been promised to me. I was not a happy biker.

But now that my studies have finally ended, I've had the time to take a second look at Chico and its surrounding communities. Every week for the past two months, I've been taking my road bike on long excursions around Chico and surrounding Butte County, and I must say, I can see now why Chico is considered a "bicycle city." Hands down, Chico has some of the best places to go biking that you'll find anywhere. There's terrains that will fit all levels of bikers: from the great river valleys of the west, to the flatlands of the south, to the rocky canyons of the east, all the way to the climbing forests of the north. And the scenery that greets you along the way makes you really appreciate what Mother Nature has to offer. If that doesn't turn you into a tree-hugging, Earth-loving environmentalist, then nothing will.

Today I rode my bike along a new route that I hadn't done before. Southwest of Chico, there's a system of roads that takes you through almond and citrus orchards, along the Sacramento River, and then beside cow pastures until you finally intersect with an east-west road heading toward Dayton (California, not Ohio). After a few more miles down farming roads, you'll finally arrive at the Llano Seco Unit of the Sacramento Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Created back in 1991 by a joint partnership between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy and the California Department of Fish & Game, Llano Seco is but one of series of protected areas up and down the Sacramento River that provides areas for fish and waterfowl to live. The ponds and grasslands around me were just filled with squawking ducks, as far as the eye could see.

As I walked the 1/3 mile path along irrigation canals to finally arrive at the wooden viewing platform, the clomping noise from my biking shoes sent a flock of ducks flying away in a panic. So much for bird watching. But I did manage to watch the sun setting in the west, casting a warm orange glow across the valley. I would have stayed longer if it weren't for the mosquitoes turning me into a bedtime snack, so I hightailed it back to my bike and bid Llano Seco adieu. The areas along the Sacramento River, as well as all around Butte County, are definitely worth checking out if you have the time. I'll continue to share with you more of these hidden treasures in future postings.

My Love Affair with Farmers Markets

One of the best parts about living in a community like Chico is the easy access that you have to locally-grown produce. Every Saturday morning, farmers will gather in the parking lot beside City Hall to sell their fruits, vegetables and honey, while local vendors will sell anything from handmade clothing to fresh bread. It attracts a wide variety of folks: from the young professionals pushing their children around in strollers...to students still waking up from a late night of partying...to aging hippies still fighting for peace and justice. It's one of the best places to reconnect with people you haven't seen in a while, and it's always a fun place to do some people watching.

I rode my bike over to the Farmers Market this afternoon and caught it right as they were starting to shut down. As usual, I bought some fresh green beans and tomatoes, but this time I brought my own plastic grocery bags for the vendors to fill. Over the past few months, I noticed that I was accumulating quite a few plastic bags from my previous trips to the Farmers Market, so today I finally decided to break that habit. There's no better feeling than knowing that I placed absolutely no harmful impact on the environment today, and at the same time I helped support local farmers. And nothing in this world beats the taste of a homegrown tomato! Mmmm boy! Now that's a good tomato!

Critical Mass Hysteria in Chico

Always eager to check out what's happening in town, I rode my bike over to the city plaza today to be a part of Chico's very own Critical Mass. For those of you not familiar with this group, Critical Mass is a gathering of bikers to protest the unnecessary daily use of cars. The demonstration is held in cities all across America, usually on the last Friday of the month. By riding together as one massive group through the city streets, Critical Mass creates a scene that is impossible to ignore.

Having lived in Chicago, IL for 7 years before moving to Chico, I've known about Critical Mass for some time. Every last Friday of the month, I would find a long parade of bicycles riding past my apartment complex, with bells ringing and riders cheering. It was an impressive sight to see, but at the same time, I always had mixed opinions about the group. Even though I'm an avid biker and have participated in similar group rides before, the Critical Mass in Chicago always angered me for the fact that they always disobeyed traffic laws. They'd constantly run red lights and breeze through stop signs to try to keep the group together as one massive unit, and it would literally piss off all the people in their cars. I've heard stories before where some drivers have been so angered by the bikers' recklessness that they've jumped out of their cars and threatened bikers with violence, sometimes going as far as pulling out guns on them. It's not exactly the type of reaction that bikers are looking for.

So today as I was biking downtown to meet Chico's Critical Mass, I had some reservations about doing this ride. At the city plaza, there were about 80 bikers gathered, most of them college students. As we waited a half hour for stragglers to show up, one student started passing out pieces of cloth emblazoned with the group's logo: an angry fist coming out of a bicycle. My fears about drivers with guns suddenly started to return.

Finally at about 5:30 pm, our procession of activist bikers began the ride. Like a miniature version of the final stage of Le Tour de France, we circled the water fountain about 20 times, confusing the hell out of the homeless men in the plaza, and then took off up Main Street, filling all 3 lanes of traffic. We slowly proceeded up the Esplanade as passing cars started honking wildly as us. But these weren't angry honks...these were celebratory ones. It felt like we were all in a bicycle parade, with some riders dressed in crazy Halloween costumes (or maybe this was how they regularly dressed themselves. Always hard to tell with these students here in Chico). As we rode past the student houses off campus, half drunk frat guys with their shirts ripped off were lifting up their beers to us, while plastered sorority girls were stumbling out of their 2nd story windows onto roofs to get a better glimpse of us. Even though our group of bikers was highly chaotic with minimal leadership, it somehow managed to stay together as a single group, and to my surprise, everyone obeyed the traffic lights and signs.

Once we hit campus—a "No Biking Zone"—we figured that our "strength in numbers" would allow us to bike through it without the police stopping us. We didn't stop to consider, however, that the police would show up in a car, suddenly block our path, and then warn us to get off of campus. I wonder if this was what Tiananmen Square felt like. So instead, we rode the extra block or two over to the parking garage, and then like crazed idiots, went up and up the ramps to the top of the garage, hooted and hollered, and then went right back down. The ride ended back at city plaza, circling the water fountain once again and confusing the homeless even more.

Overall, Chico's Critical Mass was a huge success. There were no confrontations with motorists, no dead bikers, and no guns. Plus, we even had bystanders on bikes join in our procession around town, which is always a positive sign. Critical Mass is a fun, relaxing way to spend your last Friday of the month. Check to see if there's one in your area, or start one yourself. Just remember not to piss off any police officers. I hear they carry guns.

Green Beer (And It's Not Even St. Patty's Day)

I had the real honor today of attending the Sacramento Valley Forum, an annual conference put on by the Great Valley Center. This year's forum was titled "50 People in a Room...The Power of Collaboration" and addressed how concerned citizens like you and me can work within our communities to help make them more sustainable. I learned that although change begins with us as individuals, we must find ways to engage others within the community...and gain their support...before change can finally occur. And with environmental issues such as urban growth, farmland protection and energy consumption, change towards more sustainable practices can take years, if not decades before the fruits of our labors are finally realized. Patience is definitely a key virtue in any grassroots movement.

After the forum was concluded, I got the added bonus of taking a sustainability tour of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, where the forum was held. Sierra Nevada is one of the leading breweries in America to incorporate sustainable practices into their manufacturing process. Our guide began the tour at the power source running the entire brewery: 4 hydrogen fuel cell generators that were installed back in 2005. Both natural gas and methane (a biproduct created from the bacteria cleaning their recycled wastewater) are pumped into the fuel cells, which extract hydrogen from the gases. The hydrogen is then combined with oxygen to produce electricity, heat and water. The electricity supplies power throughout the plant while the generated heat is used to heat the water for brewing. By converting over to fuel cell technology, Sierra Nevada is saving money on electricity, but on the downside, it is now spending money on natural gas. It will take about 7 years before the brewery can recover the costs of investing in fuel cell technology.

Inside the bottling facility, Sierra Nevada has added natural sky lights to reduce the amount of energy used. And about 3 weeks ago, the brewery added solar panel arrays above the adjacent parking lot to supply additional electricity. Sierra Nevada also collects CO2 gases that are generated during the fermentation process to power the plant's bottling machinery. It also takes the spent trub (grain, hops and yeast) and recycles it into the feed for the dairy and beef cows at the California State University–Chico farm. The manure from the cows is then used to fertilize the 3 acre experimental hops garden (soon to be expanded to 9 acres in 2008) located beside the brewery. Overall, Sierra Nevada has about a 97% diversion rate, which is the percentage of total waste that the brewery recycles.

Sierra Nevada is also helping to reduce carbon emissions by focusing on how it distributes its beer and supplies. It uses freight trains to transport its wheat and barley down from Canada and its hops from Washington state. Then trailer trucks will pick up the supplies and drive the 20 miles to Chico to deliver them. Sierra Nevada is currently looking into cheaper, cleaner biofuels to help power its local fleet of semi-trailer trucks.

Slow Food Nation

Today was Campus Sustainability Day at Chico State. Keeping in the spirit of sustainability, I rode my bike the the three or so miles to campus to check out the festivities. It was a low-key event, with campus groups such as Net Impact, Adventure Outings, and Associated Students Recycling Program handing out information at tables on sustainability. Several tables held displays from various universities across the United States that showcased what they were doing to make their campuses greener. There was also a tall pile of garbage bags stuffed with empty water bottles to give students an example of how much trash per person can be generated over a year's time. Thank goodness I've been drinking my water straight from the tap (filtered through a Brita filter, of course).

After picking up my complimentary compact fluorescent lightbulb from the Pacific Gas and Electric table, I happened to talk to a student who was starting up a group on campus I had never heard of: Slow Food. Their logo is a snail, so I naturally assumed that this must be a group that enjoyed eating escargot. As I was about to creep away in disgust, the student explained to me what his group was all about. His chapter of Slow Food is part of Slow Food USA movement, which, according to their brochure, seeks to "catalyze a broad cultural shift away from the destructive effects of an industrial food system and fast life; toward the regenerative cultural, social, social, ecological and economic benefits of a sustainable food system, regional food traditions, the pleasures of the table, and a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life." Or put simply, Slow Food encourages people to buy food locally at farmers markets and get together with others to enjoy it.

The Slow Food movement started in Italy in 1986 in response to the opening of a McDonald's in Piazza Spagna in Rome. Since then, it has spread to over 50 countries and includes more than 83,000 members. In the United States, there are 14,000 members organized into 160 chapters, also known as conviva. To learn more about Slow Food, visit their website at www.slowfoodusa.org.

California Up in Flames

Southern California is going up in flames right now. At first, I didn't think much of this, considering that Southern California always seems to be going up in flames due to the harsh Santa Ana winds. However, after watching the "60 Minutes" episode from this past Sunday in regards to the recent fires ravaging our country, I've come to realize that these insane fires, which they are now calling "megafires," are a direct result of climate change occurring.

It's hard to see the connection at first. It doesn't seem likely that these massive fires could be result of the rising temperatures, especially since it's only risen about 1 degree over here in the Western United States over the past few decades. And since our forest service now practices controlled burning and removes a lot of the dead fuel in forest undergrowth, you would think we wouldn't be having problems with out-of-control fires. What is happening, though, is that the fire season has been extended by 78 days over the past 15 to 20 years due to the slight increase in temperature. The snowpacks on mountains are melting earlier in the year, giving trees a longer window of exposure to the elements. The extra two months without snow are causing trees to dry up towards the end of the season, making them more susceptible to fire. That is why you're now seeing fires traveling all the way up mountain sides, something that wasn't common in the past.

As I type this, about 1 million Californians have been displaced from their homes and are evacuating to San Diego and the surrounding areas. The UN predicts that this is something we'll be seeing more of by mid-century, where 45 million or so people will be displaced due to rising temperatures. As these fires occur, our ecosystems are starting to change. The Southwest has lost over 2 million acres of forests due to recent fires, and many of these forests will never return. This is the unfortunate reality of what awaits us in the future, and it only stresses the importance of taking action now to help lessen our impact on the environment.

Time to Walk the Walk

Let me be the first to admit it:

I've been an environmental wallflower.

For years, I've been claiming that I'm a true environmentalist who cares passionately about the natural world. Just being here in Northern California within easy access of mountains, redwoods and beaches makes me feel as if I'm, by default, a tree-hugging, Earth-loving, granola-crunching hippie. My occasional weekend trips to the outdoors to do some hiking or camping would further justify in my mind that I really cared about the environment. If I was spending the time to enjoy the beauty of our national parks and forests, then surely I was being a good steward for our planet.

At least I thought I was.

Lately, with a lot of the recent media attention being placed on climate change and the slowly deteriorating state of our planet, I started realizing that, despite my love for romping through the outdoors, I wasn't really doing anything to help fix the problem.

I was a part of it.

The tipping point came yesterday with a letter I received from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. regarding his work with Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization that is fighting to protect our nation's freshwater resources. I had seen RFK, Jr. speak in Chico last year, and was quite impressed with his passion for saving our environment. I was so impressed, that the very next day, I sent in money to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) which he serves on. But that was pretty much it. Occasionally, I'd get their newsletter sent to me regarding the plight of the polar bear or their fight against the government, and I'd throw it away in the trash without giving it an afterthought, thinking I had done my part for the environment. Heck...I gave one of the biggest environmental activist groups money. What more could you expect from me?

But now, a year has passed and after reading RFK, Jr.'s recent Waterkeeper Alliance letter, I realize that there's a lot more that I could be doing to help our environment. RFK, Jr.'s letter is just filled with one horrible statistic after another on the current state of our freshwater resources, with the government doing little to help solve the problem. I realize that this letter was written with a persuasive, angry tone that presented the facts in a manipulative way to get me to donate money to their cause (and it obviously worked, because I gave them $20 in a heartbeat). But even though I gave money to help, this time around I felt like I personally needed to do more to fix the problem. I needed to fix myself.

If the folks from Waterkeeper Alliance can take matters into their own hands and make our world a better place, then I should be able to do so, too. So that's why I decided to finally get off the fence and do something about it. This blog (and possibly a future website) will serve as a way to keep me accountable for my actions and help me continue on a path towards sustainable living. Yes, what I'm doing here isn't a new concept...there are a lot of people who are also blogging about their experiences in going green and reducing their impact on the environment. I don't claim this to be an original undertaking, and I'm not claiming to be an expert on green living, either. But this is my personal journey where I'll share with you along the way how I'm learning to be a better steward for our planet. And feel free to share your thoughts and feelings, too, as we continue on this journey together.

Welcome to A Greener Path!