Elisa's Green Scene

Tips for a greener Thanksgiving

Numerous sites are out there advising you on how to be greener this Thanksgiving. The advice is sorely needed, since Thanksgiving is among those holidays that most seems to be about over-consumption, not actually giving thanks.

Hey i love the holidays, but pushing away from the table feeling so full you feel sick isn't all it has to be about, right?

So, let's do a quick run-down of some helpful sites:

Of course I need to start with the helpful advice on how to be a vegetarian at Thanksgiving (yes, it can be done!)

My own Veggie Goes Vegan site is helpful, since I posted about Personally Pardoning a Turkey This Thanksgiving, and then provided an excellent Thanksgiving-time recipe to boot.

Trehugger offers 8 Tips on Being a Vegetarian at Thanksgiving. This isn't just about the practical eating-side of it, but how to deal with family who might not be entirely supportive. Ht tip: Earth First

But for those of you who aren't quite ready to go green this Thanskgiving simply with the act of going veg, there are a couple of sites out there helping you go green in other ways:

Earth First: Ten Tips for a Green Thanksgiving

A variety of helpful tips that everyone can do without killing themselves...and that's actually one of their tips: Keep it simple. Too often we all want to impress our friends and family so much at the holidays that we overdo it, spend too much...and stress ourselves out. The holidays really are about love and friendship, right?

ecofabulous: Entertain greenly this holiday season

The ecofabulous tip list is more a resource post of stores, brands and sites to look for so oyu can go organiz and natural when entertaining. Less philosophical, more practical.

All helpful!

Happy Thanksgiving :)

I think this is where I draw the line

No, you know I loves me some recycled gear. You know I loves me some recycled aluminum can pop tab gear. I've got the purses, the cell phone bags. I've waxed rhapsodic about the earrings.

I think they're clever, attractive, functional, affordable. I think they're little mini-word of mouth machines, because every time I wear this purse I get asked many questions about it.

But I think I just met a recycled aluminum can pop tab creation that goes too far. I found it via a little "Recommended for you" email from ThisNext, and while I can see why they recommended it, given my recycled aluminum can pop tab fetish, I can assure them I won't be trying this one out:

A pop-tab bra. See, I am not really sold by this piece of copy: "Can it be worn? Probably not and if it could be it probably would not be comfortable. Still it is quite attractive and colorful underwear. "

Um, for what? Color me confused.

President Bush has some parting "gifts" for the environment and green movement

Much as I may have been hoping that President Bush would go gentle into that good night, he is instead trying to do some real damage before he leaves office.

Some recent examples:

From Vegan.com: Bush Gives Factory Farms a Goodbye Kiss referencing a New Yorker article that outlines some last minute and last-ditch efforts to further deregulate. Because deregulation has such a good reputation right now.

The New Yorker's description:

...the Administration has proposed are rules that would: make it harder for the government to limit workers’ exposure to toxins, eliminate environmental review from decisions affecting fisheries, and ease restrictions on companies that blow up mountains to get at the coal underneath them. Other midnight regulations in the works include rules to allow “factory farms” to ignore the Clean Water Act, rules making it tougher for employees to take family or medical leave, and rules that would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act.

There's more coverage of the scramble to deregulate, weaken regulation, and just plain mess with the environment in:

The Washington Post: A Last Push to Deregulate

"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration's penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom. He called the coming deluge "a last-minute assault on the public . . . happening on multiple fronts."

The Daily Green: White House Works to Rewrite Rules

The Environmental Protection Agency is offering some opposition to one rule, according to the article, that would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by the plant. This would overturn a rule that limits such emissions increases. The EPA estimates this rule change would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

Seriously, doesn't this guy realize the country is over him and everything he did and the methods he used to do those things? Hello, can you say worst approval ratings...ever?

But sure, see if you can make it worse before you go. Why settle for the record when you can make sure to protect the record forever?!

Sigh.

Whales vs. the Navy: The Whales Lose This One

As yo may have heard, last week the Supreme Court lifted the ban on the use of sonar in Navy exercises, even while acknowledging reports from both independents and the Navy itself that such sonar use did indeed result in harm to whales.

The majority opinion was that "harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals" was not justification for potentially inhibiting the Navy's ability to run realistic training exercises.

The New York Times expresses a healthy skepticism about just taking the military's word for it, which the military's lack of doing any actual in depth environmental impact studies requires. (Question: Would we let a corporate organization get away with conjectures about potential impact without requiring them to actually do an environmental impact study?)

Mary Martin from Animal Person takes comfort in the Times' editorial, but I'm not sure I agree with her that the Times editorial counts as good news all on its own. I'll take beneficial action over supportive words any day.

Sigh.

Is Recycling BS?

That is the bold statement Lloyd Alter from Treehugger makes in his post entitled, well, Recycling is Bullshit.

He tracks the history of the concept which, it turns out, was driven by beverage companies who wanted to push the responsibility on consumers instead of on their own production materials and processes. Much of his back-up comes from an article written by Heather Rogers as part of an anthology entitled "Trash" and discussed, also on Treehugger, here.

I wish there was some disturbing trend that was NOT attributable to a corporate conspiracy, don't you?

Sigh.

Go create ideas for the Obama administration (and vote for them) on Change.org...including mine!

Change.org is asking members to come up with and vote for ideas to present to the Obama administration on Inauguration Day.

My idea: Launch an Education Program on How Going Veg=Going Green & Healthy

If you agree that most people don't make the connection between how they eat and the environment, and if you agree that folks who think of themselves as environmentally-conscious should be considering going veg, then vote for my idea!

And don't forget to check out the other ideas in the Animal Rights section.

And while you're at it? Why not post some ideas of your own?

Could we go to Obama's own transition site, Change.gov, and post our ideas too? Yes we can!

I'm going to be delving into that site later this week. I'll let you know what I think.

So, what ideas are you going to post, support, vote for, propose?

Payless Shoe Source goes eco-friendly?

Back in the day Payless Shoe Source used to be my only source for vegan shoes. Since my early veg days e-commerce has evolved so that it's much easier to find hip, cute vegans shoes, and I haven't been to a Payless in quite some time.

Well, according to The Daily Green, Payless is now introducing a new, eco-friendly shoe line. I can't seem to find it on their web site yet, so I guess it's still in pre-launch. But I guess they wanna get in on that hip, cute vegan shoe action.

I just may have to cross the Payless threshold again, because after all: I still can't afford these or these or these!