Illustration by Wendy Gardner for Target

Target’s labor practices may be far from up to snuff, you still have to admit it has impeccable taste. In preparation for Easter, Target commissioned the work of Wendy Gardner of Naughty, Naughty Pets fame. The cute overload has completely caramelized my brainmeats (and I mean that in the most complimentary way).

This, of course, isn’t Target’s first flirtation with luminaries of the digital illustration world. It has previously used the likes of J. Otto Siebold (the Ready, Sit, Read! Book Club) and Kirsten Ulve (for its Dottie Loves line for girls), both heroes of mine. (I lament the fact I can’t shove their display signage down my pants and get past security.)

It’s almost enough to make an illustration fangirl forget Target’s sweatshop violations. Almost.

Reader Leslie asked me where I got the bags I use for grocery shopping. I have a couple of super-sturdy Earth Totes from ReusableBags.com (which, just to be clear, I have no affiliation with; nor has the company bribed me with cupcakes, although that would have been nice). They fold up to the size of a brown paper bag and are strong and spacious enough for jumbo cartons of milk and juice, so you don’t have to worry about overloading or tearing.

I also use these reusable cotton produce bags for bagging loose veggies because I really hate those skimpy plastic bags that are 1. a damn waste of resources, and 2. almost always end up in the landfill after a single use (unless you’re the hub’s grandmother, who reuses them to give away her homemade tortillas). You might want to use Evert Fresh green bags instead, however, if you’re El Stupido like me and frequently forget to shake the water off veggies before bagging them, leaving a ghoulish, watery trail dripping behind you. The green bags are reusable so all you have to do is wash them (or at least dry them) before your next supermarket excursion.

Original model’s photo from American Apparel.

Have you ever faced an ecological or social-responsibility quandary and wondered, “Man, I wonder what Chekhov would do.” Or wished for a more visible cue to remind yourself to make better choices for yourself and your planet? You need a “What Would Chekhov Do?” T-shirt! But I’m not making or printing these shirts, YOU are, because both Chekhov and I believe in the power of the consumer. (We’re all about open-source love, baby, except when you use our work for commercial gain, in which case we will HUNT YOU DOWN.)

You can download a printable PDF of the WWCD logo here and have it printed up as a transfer you can iron onto a blank T-shirt. (If you’re extra super crafty, you could also use it to create a screen for screen-printing.)

So the next time you’re getting ready to go to the grocery store, and you’re wondering if you’ve forgotten anything, maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of yourself wearing this shirt in your hallway mirror. What would Chekhov do, you might end up asking yourself. A metaphorical lightbulb may suddenly pop up and inspire you to grab a couple of canvas shopping bags to take with you. Yeah, you won’t need no steenking plastic bags.

If you don’t already have a shirt all ready to go, His Fuzziness favors eco-friendly and sweatshop-free options like American Apparel’s Sustainable Edition and Good Hemp’s hemp/organic cotton tees.

If you do end up making a T-shirt (or a onesie or a little cape for your favorite feline … the options are endless), PLEASE send us a picture. Chekhov and I would both be tickled pink. And if you include a note about how one of Chekhov’s Eco Tips has helped you lead a more sustainable lifestyle, we’re just sayin’ there might be prizes¹!

¹Hub just read over my shoulder and went, “What kind of prizes?” “Err … organic, fair-trade hot chocolate?” He paused. “That’s a good prize,” he said.

I’m getting MUCH better at managing my anger these days, but two, three … um, maybe four … days out of the week you’ll still find me shaking my fists at the heavens, as I mentally berate the general populace for its apathy toward global warming, our dwindling biodiversity, and famine and drought in much of the developing world. (I mean, nothing depresses me more than watching my husband down a bottle of Diet Coke. Okay, maybe baby seals getting clubbed to death depresses me more. Let it be known that the day my Paxil and Effexor quit on me will be a very dark day for humanity.) Times like these, I tend to forget that there is a sizeable population that can’t afford to be environmental, or have it in their power to make greener, socially conscious choices.

These are the people we’ve been conditioned to view as invisible, whether by guilt or by unrepentant self-centeredness.

Bear with me as I get a little technical: For the have-nots of the world, a sustainable lifestyle is near the apex of Maslow’s hierachy of needs, which means that lower-order, basic needs such as food, warmth, and shelter take overwhelming precedence. In other words, you couldn’t care less about high-falutin’ ideas like mass extinction or global warming if you’re struggling to survive. Organic milk? You’re going to buy whatever is cheapest, factory farming and rBGH be damned.

This is why my younger sister, starving grad student and social activist extraordinaire, believes that the environmental and fair-trade movement is classist. And even though the hub and I are by no means rich—we’re just anti-consumerists who are crackerjacks at keeping our overheads low—I can’t say I disagree with her entirely.

Grist kicked off its mucho-excellente series on “Poverty and the Environment” by admitting the paradox of the American environmental movement. “In much of popular and political culture,” the magazine says, “the movement is dismissed as the pet cause of white, well-off Americans—people who can afford to buy organic arugula, vacation in Lake Tahoe, and worry about the fate of the Pacific pocket mouse.”

Meghan Chapple-Brown, of strategy consultancy SustainAbility, spent years working with low-income minority communities in Chicago. She tells Grist that “some environmentalists think the poor are simply waiting for a green angel to descend with organic fare and free bus tickets.”

One of the central themes of Blue Vinyl really resonated with me. (And seriously, people, I can’t tout this movie any more if the producers threatened to stab my own mother in the face.) Most of the country’s low-income, predominantly minority communities live in some of the worst polluted regions on the map. Where does environmentalism end and social justice begin?

Next: Yeah, that was a rhetorical question, but I’m going to answer it anyway.

(Read Part 2 here.)

Sharp-eyed readers may notice a new page near the top of the sidebar: “Fair Trade & Organic in NYC.” Inspired by Green LA Girl’s attempt to catalog all the fair-trade coffee shops in the country, I’m putting together a directory of New York City tearooms and cafes where you can pull up a chair and get a fair-trade and organic cuppa. This is obviously a work-in-progress, and the list will get updated as I sip and slide my way through the Big Apple.

Like Siel, I’ll only be listing establishments that show a significant commitment to fair trade/organic.

(I’ve also written summaries of “Why Fair Trade” and “Why Organic” for folks who are just passing through and aren’t familiar with the concepts yet¹.)

And here’s something for Chekhov’s fans:

¹You will be. You. Will. Be.

More here. I wonder if I can find a Woodsy T-shirt in a thrift store. (Woodsy would NEVER approve of cotton/polyester, though.)

While researching organic cotton online, I stumbled upon these “Cotton Characters” that MTV’s animators created for Cotton Incorporated’s print advertising campaign. (You’ll only find them in fashion/textile trade rags like Women’s Wear Daily, however, which is somewhat of a bummer.)

I love their delicate, sculpted features and the obvious forethought and care that has been taken in styling these mini tableaus. I mean, you can totally tell girlfriend is thinking of running away from her parents’ palatial McMansion in the Hamptons, shaving off all her hair, joining an S&M motorcycle chain gang, and changing her name to Bubba.

And all because she unstuck the door of her heart and received the gift of salvation from the loving bosom of COTTON.

(Meet the full cast of dolls here.)

I asked my husband last night what he recalled from his past few birthdays. He said he remembered us renting a car and escaping to our favorite used bookstore in Cranbury, NJ, and the year before that, doubling over with laughter at Goonies: The Musical on Off-Off-Broadway. “Didn’t you get me some T-shirt that year, too?” he asked, genuinely perplexed.

I don’t want stuff for my birthday or Christmas this year, I told him. This October I want to finally dance along the cranberry bogs of the Pine Barrens, wearing a misshapen tin-foil crown with paper stars and dubbing myself the “Cranberry Queen.” I want to take in, breathe in scenes I’ve only pictured in my head, second-hand, and maybe, if my courage doesn’t flag, sniff out the trail of the Jersey Devil. If anyone asks you what I want, I said, tell them I want them to watch Blue Vinyl or read Cradle to Cradle or The Ecology of Commerce.

He looked at me expectantly.

“I guess if they really want to,” I said. “They could also get me yarn.”

Browse online, shop offline. Unless you live somewhere like the Appalachians or are completely housebound, do some legwork for your purchases. Not only will you be saving the fossil fuel it takes to ship you your goods, you’re also dispensing with the unnecessary packaging and waste that 1. take energy to manufacture 2. usually end up in the landfill.

In the “OMG MY BIOLOGICAL CLOCK JUST EXPLODED” category, these adorable booties from Pur Bebe. They’re not listed as being handknit out of 100 percent organic cotton, which is odd for a retailer that is promoting itself as an “eco-friendly baby boutique.” Still, the squee (and inspirational) factor of these cutie-patooties is undeniable and the craftsmanship is gorgeous.

Charity scams, embezzlement, and misappropriation of funds, as disheartening as they often are, are nothing new. Just to put matters into perspective, more than 2,300 Web sites are currently soliciting donations for Hurricane Katrina victims, most of which the FBI suspects to be bogus.

I recently came across an investigation by Tampa, Florida’s Channel 8 news into a possible case of questionable fund allocation on the part of the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. As a former animal biologist and a longtime supporter of wildlife-conservation efforts, I can’t even describe how upset this kind of news makes me—on the Richter Scale of emotion it’d probably rate a sizzling “HULK, SMASH!”—after all, when you make a donation to a cause, you expect your money to be used in the best possible way to directly benefit that cause, instead of, say, funding the director’s nocturnal excursions to the local tittie bar. This kind of breach of trust is nothing short of reprehensible, and often results in other legitimate organizations being tarred with the same brush.

So before you plonk down your pennies, do a little research on the organization championing your cause. It also couldn’t hurt to look up your organization on non-profit watchdog site Charity Navigator, which pores over the public financial records of over 5,000 charities and rates their efficiency. (Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary only scored two stars, which is, in itself, a red flag.) I was thinking of adopting a hippo for the hub’s birthday, but the Smithsonian Institute’s National Zoo earned a pithy two-star rating on Charity Navigator. Until the National Zoo steps up its operating efficiency, I’d rather see my dollars go somewhere I feel they can make a difference.

So give, generously if you can afford it. But for the love of Nicole Richie’s hipbones, give cautiously.

“If we are saying that the loss of species in and of itself is inherently bad—I don’t think we know enough about how the world works to say that.”

-Interior Department Assistant Secretary Craig Manson, appointed by President Bush to position overseeing the Endangered Species Act, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 12, 2003

[via Bush Greenwatch]

It’s just come to my attention that Bloglines thinks my World Water Day post is such a thing of beauty and pathos that will MOVE PEOPLE TO REDISCOVER RELIGION that it hasn’t been listing any new posts since. Either that or it’s insanely jealous and covetous of my corporeal form and is retaliating in the most passive-aggressive way possible before it finally SNAPS and pops my cat and my mini plastic dinosaurs into the microwave.

So in an equally passive-aggressive move to thwart that bitch Bloglines, I’ve created a new feed which you can switch over to here. You can also access the Feedburner page directly here. You know, we didn’t have to deal with issues like this back when these were called “homepages,” people typed in full URLs into their browsers’ address bars, and we had to lasso woolly mammoths for dinner back at the cave.

Meanwhile, will someone thrust the Jaws of Life down my throat and rescue the horse that’s been pounding against my esophageal lining for the past two days?

P.S. Bloglines, please don’t hurt my cat or my mini plastic dinosaurs. Don’t be hatin’. Peace out.

P.P.S. If anyone can help this RSS luddite figure out how I can fix the problems I seem to be having, I will send you cookies. Seriously. The cookies will make your tastebuds weep with joy.

I’m a sucker for good design so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I instantly gravitated toward Castor & Pollux Petworks’ range of certified organic cat and dog products. The company even has organic catnip for the persnickety puss, “paw-made in the USA.”

The jury is still out on whether organic pet food is better, and while we’ve bought the odd can for Chekhov, we haven’t completely sold him on the idea¹. Considering that the organic versions are twice the price of conventional pet food, I think our wallets need some convincing, too.

But man are Castor and Pollux the cutest fictional spokepets ever.

¹If he did reviews, expect a lot of “I hate this. And I hate you for making me eat this.”

From the Environmental News Service: “All EPA national headquarters’ electricity to be renewable.”

(Read Part 1 here.)

These days, you can find paints on sale that are low in those nasty volatile organic compounds (VOCs) I just warned you about. But why settle for reduced VOCs when you have several natural or zero-VOC paints on the market? While healthier options can end up being a great deal more expensive, the good news is that growing public awareness and demand is pushing non-toxic materials into the mainstream, with the result that prices can only go down.

The husband of a woman with multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome was recently quoted as saying, “People can build cheap, but it’s very expensive in the long run because of increased doctor bills.” So even though some of the prices I’ve seen send my immigrant gene diving for cover, I have to admit that his statement makes a lot of sense, especially when I’m taking my family’s short- and long-term wellbeing into account. Call me insane (you won’t be the only one), but I just don’t think that’s something that should be at all compromised just so I can afford to buy the latest iPod. (I have a 7-year-old Discman that skips when you jostle it and I’m DAMN PROUD OF IT, OKAY?)

These are just some of the options I’ve discovered (prices may vary with retailer.)

The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. has been making “historic paints” using buttermilk, crushed limestone, and mineral pigments since 1979. Based on methods that can be traced back thousands of years to cave-wall paintings, the Milk Paint formula has been used in the restoration of original Colonial or Shaker furniture, for making antique reproductions, and in historically inspired interior design. Sold in powder form, all you have to do to prime your paint is add water and stir—no toxic ingredients or fumes whatsoever. ($30 per gallon, The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co.)

So good you can eat it on its own? While definitely not for anorexic bank accounts, Anna Sova’s luscious line of paints are 99 percent composed of food-grade ingredients and contain no VOCs. (The company wants you to think of a gallon of its paint as 12 pounds of vanilla truffles—”a bargain!”) A small premium allows you to mix in aromatherapy scents that can have your walls smelling of fresh lemons, creamy vanilla milkshakes, or sandlewood for six months to a year. ($59 per gallon, Anna Sova Luxury Organics)

Aglaia Natural Paints, produced by German manufacturer Beeck’sche Farbwerke, are 100 percent natural and are derived from plants and minerals. Free of any chemical solvents, the paints are made from ingredients such as beeswax, carnuba wax, chalk, citrus peel oil, clove oil, mica and talcum. In the interest of full disclosure, Aglia also provides a detailed list of its ingredients on its Web site. ($51.95-$87.55 per gallon/white, Aglaia Natural Paints)

Eco-friendly paints, stains, finishes, and cleaners contribute to what BioShield considers a healthy home. Its low-environmental-impact paints are 98 percent made from renewable and naturally-derived raw materials such as citrus peel extracts, essential oils, seed oils, tree resins, inert mineral fillers, tree and bee waxes, lead-free dryers, and natural pigments. ($40 per gallon, BioShield)

YOLO Colorhouse’s palette of designer, zero-VOC paints recalls the hues of nature with collection names such as “Air” and “Leaf.” Founded by artists and self-proclaimed “color nerds” Virginia Young and Janie Lowe only a year ago, YOLO is Green Seal-certified, which automatically qualifies their paints for LEED-certified projects. (Update: In late 2006, YOLO released a line of baby-friendly colors, created with young families in mind. Called Little YOLO, you get the same zero-VOC, Green Seal-certified paint, with soft, dreamy palettes for the nursery crowd.) ($37 per gallon, YOLO Colorhouse)

Manufactured by a company on a mission to eliminate toxic chemicals and reduce offgassing to a minimum, AFM Safecoat products have a history of use even by the chemically sensitive. Its paint formula also acts as a sealer to thwart any off-gassing beneath the surface from previous coats of paint or building materials. (From $32.90 per gallon, AFM Safecoat)

Inspired by ancient Mayan techniques, Green Planet Paints uses renewable, non-toxic clay and mineral pigments, along with a soy-based resin, to create a zero-VOC paint that is as sustainable as it is socially responsible. ($38.50 per gallon, Green Planet Paints)

Special bonus material:
1. Live in Chicago? You have your own green building-supply company.

2. For natural, soy-based stain removers, paint strippers, wood sealers, stain removers, and cleaners, look to SoyClean’s range of non-toxic products.

3. So you don’t feel left out, New Zealanders and Australians should check out Bio Paints.

I have to admit some measure of alarm now that I’m at an age where my contemporaries are getting knocked up and ballooning like German airships. They include my best friend from high school, who is a kajillion miles away and doesn’t e-mail me all that much any more because, really, how do you compete with a miracle of life that has taken root in someone’s womb, even if said someone should be petitioning the Vatican to get you canonized after making you endure the atrocity known as Batman & Robin because she thought Chris O’ Connell was CUTE ? You win, fetus. For now.

Anyway, even though I wasn’t able to throw my friend a baby shower, it amuses me to think I could have subliminally transmitted my hippy liberal ways to her unborn child with an eco-friendly hoedown.

From The Oregnonian:

The roasted organic root vegetables were the first clue. Then came the table settings—not a disposable item in sight.

But perhaps the most vivid evidence that this was no ordinary baby shower was the pile of wrapped parcels, presented in brown paper, grocery sacks and reusable bags. One gift was bundled in a towel.

Mother-to-be Dr. Jenny Pompilio celebrated son Brady Bennett’s impending arrival with a Tiny Footprints baby shower. Created in the fall by the Oregon Environmental Council, the program emphasizes sustainable, nontoxic and recycled gifts, and environmental education in the home. It is thought to be the first program of its kind in the nation.

Tiny Footprints offers a “sustainable baby shower toolkit” online for free. (You can also get one mailed to you for a suggested donation of $10.) While the kit is skewed toward residents of Oregon with its mostly local recommendations, almost all its tips are universal in reach, such as the use of recycled or electronic invitations. Your non-Treehugger friends even get a page that explains just what in tarnation is going on with all the Birkenstocks and patchouli, along with suggestions for appropriate, eco-friendly gifts to ensure that the unborn tyke’s little environmental footprint stays that way.

I was going to wait on announcing this, but I’m totally doing the PEE-PEE DANCE and I can’t contain my excitement any longer. As an environmentalist, fair-trade advocate, and knitter, I’ve been interested in exploring the less-traveled realm where knitting and sustainability intersect. I hope you’ll join me as I explore sustainable fibers such as organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, and even soysilk, and perhaps contribute to the online compendium of resources I plan to assemble.

Please give a holler my way if you have any thoughts on sustainable knitting, crocheting, spinning, dyeing (I’m looking at you, Felicia!), and the needle arts. I hope to also run companion posts that gather the ideas/rants/musings of crafters who are also seeking to create sustainably. (I won’t judge your stash if you won’t judge mine.) A “tink¹ tank,” if you will.

¹ “Tink” is “knit” backwards, and refers to the motion of slowly undoing your stitches one at a time. I know, I’m an incorrigibly bad punster. Another sign I’m marked for eternal damnation.

Composited from photos by Getty Images (watch out, kid!)

The state of New York has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not revealing the levels of toxins that paint manufacturers are able to release into the air.

From Reuters: “New York sues agency, seeks air quality files.”

The dispute stems from an EPA law regulating the amount of volatile organic compounds that can be used in certain paints, stains and varnishes that contribute to smog, which in turn may harm human and plant life, [State Attorney General Eliot] Spitzer’s statement said.

The law allows paint manufacturers to exceed limits if they pay a fee to the EPA. The “pay to spray” fees range from hundreds of dollars a year to more than $5 million paid by Sherwin-Williams Co., the statement said.

What that means is that corporations are able to pay EPA a “sin” tax for exceeding limits that are considered safe, and then continue along their merry, polluting way to circumvent those preset boundaries.

Many commercial paints release organic compounds that evaporate readily into the air. These volatile organic compounds (VOC), which include benzene, toluene, naphthalene, methyl chloroform, and formaldehyde, have been fingered for contributing to Sick Building Syndrome and assorted short- and long-term adverse health effects. (Formaldehyde has been classified by the EPA as a probable carcinogen. Not possible, mind you. Probable. As in, “Playing chemical Russian Roulette will probably kill you. Why don’t you just run headlong into traffic instead?”)

If that’s not nasty enough, VOCs also emit smog-producing pollutants into the air as the organic solvents in the paint evaporate. Nitrous oxides produced from fuel combustion mixes with these organic compounds to form ozone, which may sound great in light of global warming, except that our friend O3, when it’s not minding its own business in the stratosphere, has been linked to higher death rates, according to an EPA-funded study:

“This research shows that ozone may indeed kill people,” [American Lung Association] president John Kirkwood said in a statement. “Early death would join the long litany of harmful effects of ozone exposure: shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing and greatly increased risk of respiratory infections, asthma episodes, pulmonary inflammation, and the need for medical treatment and hospitalization for asthma. More may come as new studies are raising the possibility that ozone may cause asthma to develop in children.”

Ozone pollution is also damaging to tree and plant foliage, wrecking havoc with their ability to photosynthesize and store food, while leaving them vulnerable to disease, insects, and inclement weather. Plant casualties cost the U.S. crop-production industry 500 million dollars each year.

All that from a few cans of Avocado Green or Pebble Beach. Well, times a couple of billion.

Are you holding on to the last crumbling shreds of your sanity yet? Pour yourself a few drinks, pop a Xanax, and hold that thought. More tomorrow.

Next: Low-VOC solutions that won’t paint you into a corner (hur, hur).

Further resources:
1. ‘Smog: Who Does It Hurt? What You Need to Know About Ozone and Your Health,” AIRNow/EPA
2. “Ozone: Good Up High, Bad Nearby,” AIRNow/EPA

Today is World Water Day, and we’re facing a global water crisis.

Over 1 billion people lack access to a safe supply of drinking water. The leading causes of deaths in the world, water-related diseases are responsible for the loss of 14,000 lives a day and 80 percent of illnesses around the globe.

Increasing pollution is making existing water sources undrinkable, and our demand for water is rapidly outstripping its availability. Water is being privatized and commoditized as bottled-water and soft-drink giants are draining the groundwater of drought-stricken indigenous communities, even as they publicly laud their own water-advocacy efforts, dem scurvy scallawags!

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Starbucks has even branded its image of water responsibility, selling its Ethos Water with the promise that 5 cents from the $1.80 sale of each plastic designer bottle goes to “Helping children get clean water.” The normal profit margin on bottled water is an astounding 50 to 200 percent, which leaves Starbucks with a per-bottle profit more than 20 times its much-publicized largesse.

Pious Starbucks isn’t alone. On World Water Day, multinational water companies have their public relations departments working overtime selling their clean, pure, healthy water “product,” while the companies make billions, deplete aquifers and pollute the environment with, among other things, 30 million plastic water bottles a day in the United States alone.

While a lack of political will is partly responsible for the mismanagement of water resources and the worsening crisis, surely our first-world fixation on bottled water, in countries where tap water is safe to drink, is preventing available water from reaching populations that need it more.

Drink from the faucet today. And tomorrow.

Rinse, repeat.

A number of organic stores I’ve visited carry Cherrybrook Kitchen’s range of peanut-free, egg-free, dairy-free, and sometimes wheat/gluten-free all-natural confectionary mixes and frostings. I can’t vouch for the taste since I’ve never tried any of their products, but the allergy-ridden bambinos on their Web site appear to be quivering with sugar-substitute-intoxicated glee (at least, I hope that’s what it is).

Anyway, not being of the nut-allergic variety (haha, SUCKAS), I looked up Cherrybrook Kitchen online because I’m completely taken with their packaging. Don’t those illos just make you want to pinch their cheeks until they’re pink?

The hub, after watching the TV commerical for the Ford Escape Hybrid:

“Somehow I feel dirty.”

In other news, fancy a biodegradable afterlife?

Photo by Tom Morrison/Getty Images

According to an e-mail from my CSA program, our farmer is busy planting in the greenhouse. What we have to look forward to in May/June: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, celery, celery root, early varieties of tomatoes, kohlrabi, kale, escarole, endive, scallions, parsley, bok choy, and tatsoi. Oh, yum! (Speaking of yum, the hub and I had some delicious organic baby bok choy, which we bought in Hoboken on Sunday, stir-fried with dried shitake mushrooms and garlic last night.)

From New American Dream, on the importance of buying and eating local, which is what Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is all about:

Buying local food not only helps local farmers thrive, it reduces energy consumption. Estimates on how long the average food travels from pasture to plate range from 1200 to 2500 miles. A lot of energy is expended freezing, refrigerating, and trucking that food around. Eating locally grown food means less fossil fuel burned in preparation and transport.

Local food is often safer, too. Even when it’s not organic, small farms tend to be less aggressive than large factory farms about dousing their wares with chemicals. And while fruits and vegetables from overseas may seem more exotic, they may also have been produced in countries with weaker environmental standards. Finally, small family farms are more likely to grow more interesting varieties (think lettuce that isn’t iceberg and apples that aren’t red delicious), making food more flavorful, protecting biodiversity and preserving a wider agricultural gene pool, an important factor in long-term food security.

More about CSA here.

Bring a mug to work for all your hydration and caffeination needs. It sounds really simple, but you’ll be surprised at how many people use disposable cups to fill up at the water cooler/coffee maker each day. Imagine the resources and landfill space we’d save if more people just brought their own. Trust me, you won’t even break a sweat!

Sometimes the best part of a post is buried within the comments. Be sure to check out the well-articulated debate on Starbucks’ fair-trade practices at Green LA Girl over here, and, once more with feeling, here.

Particularly thoughtful was Christina Arena’s statement:

[In] order to behave responsibly, multinationals need to develop mechanisms through which their responsible endeavors enable them to perform better. They need to build incentive systems.

As the TAs in my conservation biology class drilled into me, it all boils down to the MOOLAH, folks. Principles? HAH!

(Is it too early for cynicism? I was up late watching “Ghost Ships” and “UFO Files: Texas’ Roswell” on the History Channel.)

Illustration by Charles Douglas/Nature.ca

From Reuters: “Humans spur worst extinctions since dinosaurs.”

Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on Monday.

Habitats ranging from coral reefs to tropical rainforests face mounting threats, the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity said in the report, issued at the start of a March 20-31 U.N. meeting in Curitiba, Brazil.

“In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth, and the greatest since the dinosaurs disappeared, 65 million years ago,” said the 92-page Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 report.

Some of you reading this might be going “so what?” (Hey, we can’t all have majored in animal biology and broken our mother’s heart because she really wanted a doctor in the family.) Well here’s the kicker and it’s a real doozy.

From Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce:

The human endocrine system is remarkably similar to that of fish, birds, and wildlife; it is, from an evolutionary point of view, an ancient system. If endocrine and immune systems are failing and breaking down at lower levels of the animal kingdom, we may be similarly vulnerable. The reason we may not yet be experiencing the same types of breakdown seen in other species is because we gestate and breed comparatively rather slowly. On complex biological levels such as ours, bad news travels unhurriedly, but it eventually arrives. In other words, something unusual and inauspicious may be occuring globally at all levels of biological development: a fundamental decline that we are only beginning to comprehend and that our efforts at “environmentalism” have failed to address.

(Emphasis is mine.)

Also, I want to secede from the human race.

Psst, the Chinese characters read “Love, Peace, Unity, and Compassion.” (You can thank 12 years of Chinese classes for that translation.)

In last week’s post on bags made from recycled materials, reader Aleta wondered why recycled (or, more accurately, “repurposed”) apparel and accessories cost so much if their materials were all reused.

The founder of Hip & Zen, Karen Clothier, wrote a thoughtful response, which she elaborated further via e-mail (edited for formatting and readability).

We sell a variety of recycled bags varying from recycled candy-wrapper cosmetic cases for $18, to laptop bags made of recycled plastic bags for $37.50, right on up to recycled soda can poptop messenger bags for $160. So you can see we do not have a policy of marking products up excessively, as I think you’ll agree a laptop bag for $37.50 is tough to beat.

There are a few factors involved. Most the bags I mentioned are made according to fair-trade principles by cooperatives, where artisans are paid a market price for their bags. The bags made from recycled plastic are cheaper because the process of making is not so labor intensive. The woven and crocheted bags are handmade and take days for each one to be completed. Sometimes sourcing the materials also takes a long time, because recycled materials are not available in the right colors on demand.

Probably the biggest factor, however, is that there are many parties involved in bringing a product from a cooperative where they do not have telephones in a third world country to the U.S. Each person in the chain has to cover their expenses, which include large freight costs, duties, marketing, sourcing products, etc. Most products that are imported have to sell for about eight times the cost of making the product for each person in the chain to make a standard profit of around 10 to 15 percent. Imported products that are cheap are typically machine-made in huge quantities to bring down costs. Unfortunately, cooperatives by their nature are small operations that are very unsophisticated and probably somewhat inefficient. For instance the recycled sodacan poptops, even though they are recycled, are not free. Because so many poptops are needed, there is an industry of people who collect and sell them. Then, the linings and zippers have to be bought in small quantities at not very good prices. I honestly don’t know anyone who is getting rich in this space—everyone I’ve met in this business does it for the love of it.

The product development time is usually very long and arduous. Typically, the products we sell are designed by Western designers to Western styles and standards. There is a lot of back and forth to get the products right. Most vendors I deal with have said its taken a year or two to get the first saleable products out. And there are many costly mistakes in between that someone has to pay for—a common one being that the artists work with available materials/colors, and feel free to substitute when the desired colors are not available. Mostly, the substitutions are in their own traditional colors as they do not understand current trends in terms of the colors. Or we had another instance when a huge shipment of bags arrived with substandard zippers. Mistakes happen during any product development process, but these ones are magnified due to the cultural differences, communication difficulties (most cooperatives do not have phones), and shipping times.

Thanks, Karen, for taking the time to respond, and providing us with another point of view. Designers, purveyors, retailers, and consumers of sustainable goods are invited to weigh in on the subject.

Japanese non-profit Japan for Sustainability has an adorable English-language Web site that aims to teach kids about environmental and sustainability issues.

Unlike many environmental sites for children, which generally focus on important but general issues such as recycling and energy conservation, Kids Create Your Future doesn’t flinch from tackling more-sophisticated concepts like sustainable business (“A Win-Win Solution for All: Businesses can make money while making people and the earth happy”) and consumerism (“How to Get What We Want without Buying Things: There are some things that we don’t need to buy.”) An entertaining serial manga, “The Story of a Mysterious Land” imagines a utopian future if environmentally sound practices today manage to turn things around.

If you don’t have kids but are expecting one, or even if you just happen to know a mother-to-be, Urban Eco recommends an article in Mothering about chemical-free baby gifts.

(Part of my Green This House program.)

Over the years, I’ve generally stuck by Maybelline’s PureStay Powder & Foundation (with SPF 15) because 1. it made me feel pretty, and 2. keeping my skin melanoma-free was the one thing that made sense in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours. (But mostly because it made me feel pretty.) Of course, this was before I discovered it had a hazard score of 2.9, and had likely been tested on animals. So when I was at the organic deli by work the other day, I picked up Burt’s Bees Vanishing Facial Powder, because, hey, it’s 100 percent natural, right? The packaging was made from recycled paper, and the aluminum tin containing the powder was supposedly easy to recycle, as well. Everything seemed on the up and up, no bunnies were drop-kicked on their shaven, cold-cream-smeared butt-cheeks, and so forth. Surely someone with an earthy, regular Joe Shmoe name like Burt, who KEPT BEES, by golly, would have the best interest of my facial pores at heart? Because if I’m wrong, then GODAMMNIT I don’t know what to believe in anymore.

I later found out the Vanishing Facial Powder had a hazard score of 1.1, which is better than Maybelline’s, but is still a flag of moderate concern.

The round tin itself is, give or take a few, about four inches across, making it less wieldy than your standard-issue compact. Also, the lid makes a metallic sucking sound as you pop it off the rest of the tin to get to the powder—severely impeding any stealth touch-up attempts while away from a bathroom counter (for those of you who aren’t coupled and haven’t experienced the joy of watching the light get snuffed from your designated life partner’s eyes as you let yourself go). You don’t get a mirror either, but carrying a pocket-size one would save the extra resource depletion and waste most cosmetics containers are guilty of anyway. The powder at the base of the tin sifts itself through a perforated plastic divide, across which you are instructed to “lightly dip your puff.” The copywriter forgot to add that the puff will DEVOUR YOUR FACE in a dust storm of mica, calcium carbonate, and kaolin.

Granted, I have the grace and poise of a sack of moldy potatoes (which is why my prescient mother hurriedly took me out of kindergarten ballet class before the public stonings began), but I doubt that even the most adroit among us would be able to twist the lid off and pry off the Puff That Ate Manhattan without dispersing flurries of powder about their immediate person and going into sneezing convulsions.

Once I repressed the psychic scarring and used a smaller sponge, however, the powder glided on smoothly on my skin and blended in quite nicely. Coverage was only so-so, though, making me feel less pretty than I did with Maybelline’s foundation. So, not to sound like a total skankoid or anything, but if it’s alright with you and your bees, Burt, I think I’ll keep looking. (Well, after I’m done with using this, which won’t be for a good long while since Burt has packed A LOT of powder that does make it worth the $15.99.)

A thimble, strawberry pin cushion, spool of darning cotton, and restringing nylon with “fashionable clasp,” from a flea market in Chelsea.