Elisa's Green Scene

The Green Shows at NYC Fashion Week

Quick liink time: You have to check out this lengthy, jam-packed post about the recent "Green Shows" during NYC Fashion Week, by Beth Terry on BlogHer.

The Green Shows (which need a better web site!) are a series of individual shows that are going to happen twice a year during NYC Fashion Week, and featuring green designers. Green can mean different things, so there are vegan designers and designers using "ethically produced" wool.

Either way, sounds like a very cool concept, and I particularly like this quote from the organizer the The Green Shows promote "fashion that happens to be green". That aligns exactly with my oft-repeated contention that outliers like me will pay more and settle for less function (which in the case of fashion is beauty and style) in order to satisfy our ethics, but most people don't want to pay more and get less.

Anyway, something to keep an eye on (and some designers to keep an eye on if I ever get the kind of moolah to buy designer!)

Quick Link: PCRM's 21-day Vegan Kickstart

If you've ever considered becoming vegan because of the environmental impact of a meat-based diet, then you might get the little boost you need by signing up for the PCRM's 21-day vegan kickstart. I signed up, even though I'm already a vegan, because after all: Who wouldn't want daily healthy tips and recipes?

And just in case you'd like some links on vegan being the greenest way to eat:

New York Times: A vegetarian diet reduces the diner's carbon footprint

eHow.com: How to go green - vegetarian-style

EarthSave International: How environmentalists are overlooking vegetarianism as the most effective tool against climate change in our lifetimes

Van Jones, green jobs, and public service

The resignation last night of President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar" (not the official title, of course) made me think again that which I've often thought before: Nope, never going to go into politics.

Van Jones was an activist, not a politician. That means sometimes he used impolitic language. I've been known to do that a time or two myself. He also signed a petition once that sounds pretty crazy. I don't go in for signing petitions too often, but just the very fact of my veganism and animal rights stance is enough that plenty of folks would think I'm a wild-eyed radical ready to blow up a federal building. Oh, wait. That was a right-winger who did that. It's so confusing keeping track of who has the most crazies.

Jones also co-founded a group that was part of the (successful) effort to get advertisers to boycott Glenn Beck.

Because, again, he was an activist and organizer, not a politician.

I'm fairly certain that I would not agree with every political view Jones ever held. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have signed that petition. Although I certainly did think the Bush Administration (and the Clinton Administration) probably could have done more along the way to prevent 9/11 from happening.

But, I'm also certain that his using an expletive to describe Republicans and his signing a crazy petition are not what made him qualified to work on green jobs. I'm pretty sure that had more to do with him being an expert in that field and a long-time (and often honored) activist and organizer.

And we have lost that skill set from the White House.

And we have lost countless other people from public service because they think they simply could not withstand the scrutiny and picking apart of every word every uttered, ever donation ever sent.

BlogHer contributing editor Britt Bravo interviewed Van Jones back in 2007, and it's a good read and a good listen if you have a bit of time. I think it's worth a bit of time to understand what we lose with our ever more unrealistic standards and our ever more vicious, destructive political arena.

And in case you think race couldn't have had a thing to do with it, check out another BlogHer editor's personal post. Or, to be more accurate: Check out the comments. That's some scary shit.

And I guess with the use of that expletive, I've put the final nail in the coffin of my never-considered political career!