Urban Dieter

Japanese sweet potatoes -- a great farmers market find

2011-01-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I like shopping at the farmers market is that I don't need a list. I just see what's in season and what I end up getting drawn to. Then when I get home I look for a recipe that matches my in-season bounty. Today I was drawn to Japanese sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes but I'd never heard of this purple variety. The seller said they were dryer than regular sweet potatoes, which I noticed when I chopped them but they cooked up nice and soft. Then another stand was selling different vegetables for $2.50 a pound so I filled up a bag of small carrots, parsnip, onions and these cute little ozette potatoes (more varieties I've never heard of!).

When I got home I found this roasted root veggies recipe on another blog. I mixed olive oil, maple syrup and soy sauce in a baking dish. I didn't have ginger so I used garlic instead. After all the chopping, I cooked the veggies for 25 minutes and then added some Trader Joe's chicken sausage I had in the fridge, cooked it for 10 more minutes and that was it. It was really simple and wow, it turned out good if I do say so myself. The veggies are soft and the sweet potatoes are really sweet and full of flavor. I'll have to buy them again while they're in season. As long as I go back to the farmers market, because I won't find this kind of variety at the grocery store.

Who needs phone books these days?

2011-01-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

I didn't make it my New Year's resolution to start blogging again, but here I am on Jan. 2 in my first post since August. Not because it's a new year and new start, but I've had the past 11 days off and I have time to blog.

I got new phone books on Saturday. Great, I thought, just as I'm purging old stuff to make room for my new clothes, I've got more crap I don't need. I wasn't totally sure that I could put my old ones in the recycling bin. Then today I got an "Eco Guide" from the city about its recycling programs. And there was my answer. Under the heading "Are you recycling all that you can?" was a photo of a telephone book (and a dirty pizza box with the description "clean pizza boxes." I hope people read the fine print because that could lead to some confusion).

And then there was the really helpful info -- a website for opting out of getting phone books. I went to the link and was able to opt out of the little Yellow Book, but the brick from Verizon wasn't listed as a choice. But at least it's a start. And I'm currently looking through the Verizon book to find a number to call to opt out (hey, there are local maps in here? I remember when I used to like looking through the phone book for information about where I lived. Sigh, another casualty of the Internet).

The kindness of strangers

2010-08-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a little act of kindness does go a long way. My neighbor gave me fresh veggies from her garden today just to be nice. Little did she realize they were totally what I needed. It also made me feel just a tad guilty for being annoyed that she parked in my spot!

I got home from rugby practice tonight tired, sore and hungry. While driving home I was putting together my very late dinner in my mind. It was slim pickings because I'm going out of town and didn't bother going grocery shopping this week. I knew I'd have warm brown rice from the rice cooker I'd put on timer this morning and I had hummus, which could be my protein. But all I had in the vegetable department was a week-old farmers market green pepper. It wasn't terribly exciting but it would work. So I was really happy when I got home and looked inside the paper bag she left for me on top of our mailbox: two tomatoes and one giant zucchini, all fresh from her plot at the community garden, I assumed. Perfect! Fresh veggies!

So I ran upstairs (OK not literally, I was still sore) and sauteed the zucchini, adding fresh basil my coworker Robyn had given us last week from her backyard garden. I ate one of the tomatoes while the zucchini was cooking and then when it was done, mixed together the rice, tomato-basil flavored hummus and sauteed zucchini. There you have it, a well-rounded dinner that tasted like it was meant to go together.

This totally hit the spot because I had been feeling overwhelmed. It was late, I wasted five minutes looking for parking and still had to pack for my trip. But now I feel much happier. Thanks Silvana!

It's never too late to recycle your shoes

2010-07-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

Yes I'm alive. It's been a long time since I've blogged, so long that I'm too ashamed to look at the date of my last post to know just how long it's been. Let's just say it's been "a while" and leave it at that.

I'm writing tonight partly to get back in the habit, and partly to share that I dropped some old running shoes off at the Nike store to be recycled. I wrote about Nike's shoe recycling program when I first learned about it (so for all my "regular readers," this may be old news). But I figured it was worth mentioning again because it's such a cool thing. It's hard to know what to do with old running shoes because they're too worn down to be donated. I always felt bad throwing them in the trash. Nike's program is the biggest one I know of, and they take any brand, not just Nike. Their website says the rubber, fabric and foam is used to make running tracks, basketball courts and tennis courts. If you want to recycle your shoes, go to Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe website to find a recycling location.

When I dropped off my shoes the first time I told my rugby team about it since I figured they might have some old running shoes lying around. One of my teammates gave me two pairs of shoes, and then a few months ago I bought a new pair of my favorite Adidas Supernovas so I now had three pairs of shoes to recycle. Except that even though the Nike store is about a half mile from my office, I never got around to going. It's kind of a pain to go because it's at the Grove, a busy outdoor shopping mall near my office with parking you have to pay for. So I was only going to go if I could walk there and I always seemed to be too busy running after work (ah, the irony) or too tired and just wanted to go home. So the shoes have been languishing in my trunk for months. But tonight I decided to do some sprints after work at the park across from the Grove, so I brought the shoes with me and went to the Grove afterward. Finally, they were out of my car.

I'd been feeling bad lately about my lack of environmentalism (hence, the lack of blogging). I've been driving to work even though it's summer and the longer days make it easier to take the train. So this felt good. And tomorrow I'll be taking the train to work since I'm meeting my dad after work to go to the Hollywood Bowl. Maybe that will kick-start my public transportation habit again.

But taking the train means waking up early so now I've gotta go to bed. At least I can fall asleep feeling satisfied that I've crossed something off my to-do list!

Electric vehicles coming to a street near you

2010-06-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

A state legislative committee is meeting in Long Beach tomorrow. I know, sounds like a bore. But the topic actually sounds interesting. They'll be talking about whether California's infrastructure is ready for plug-in electric cars. Will the state have enough charging stations for the Chevy Volts and Nissan Leafs soon to be hitting the pavement?

When I read about the meeting, it reminded me of a video I recently watched on latimes.com and now have a reason to share. Times reporter Susan Carpenter experimented with driving an electric vehicle, using energy generated by solar panels installed on her roof, to be truly emissions free. It made me want an electric car even more, although first I'd need the house and roof on which to install the solar panels.

I'm curious about how driving an electric cars works. Would owners charge their cars at home, like Carpenter? Or at public charging stations like they do at gas pumps? And, more importantly, is it really better to be fueling your commute with electricity instead of gas? That's why Carpenter's experiment is so intriguing, she's using just the sun to power her car. Along with the video, she wrote this fascinating column about the intricacies of installing solar panels on her roof to charge an electric car, which answered some of my questions (you can charge them using a standard 120-volt outlet that you'd find in any home, although it's much faster when you use a 240-volt charger that charging stations would have).

I'm hoping I'll learn even more after tomorrow's meeting. Not that I'll be there because I've gotta work, but there should be news coverage of it. I know I'm not the only one who's clueless and curious.

Blue line blues

2010-06-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

This Column One story in the Los Angeles Times, Blue Line cuts across L.A. County's invisible boundaries, takes a spectator's view of the Blue Line. As the reporter says, "Five bucks gets you a day pass to one of the most unpredictable shows in town." Wow, how offensive to the people who take the train every day. The reporter describes confrontations, pirated DVDs, people hawking water and gamblers -- "poverty porn" as one commenter aptly called it. It's an unfortunate example of reporting that skims the surface instead of immersing itself in the community it's allegedly covering. I think it's too bad because the paper missed an opportunity to respectfully show its readers, most of whom are probably unfamiliar with the light rail system and have never taken a train in LA, how important it is to many of the people who ride it.

That's what struck me when I first started taking the Blue Line a few years ago to save on gas. I sadly hardly ever take public transportation now since it's faster to drive, but I had never realized how heavily used the rail line, which connects Long Beach to downtown LA and is intersected by the Green Line, is. I saw young people taking the train to classes at Trade Tech. There were workers who presumably didn't have cars and those with cars who chose it's convenience, many like myself with packed lunches. Some of what the reporter describes is true -- people begging or selling candy was an almost daily occurrence. I also occasionally saw people talking to themselves or acting aggressively. But many were probably mentally ill and not a freak show to be made fun of. He may not have intended to make fun of them but that is what his tone implies. The first anecdote is of someone urinating on the train, something I've never seen. And I wonder if his descriptions were from several days of taking the train or one long day, rather than one commute, since he saw more than what I experienced in weeks of taking the Blue Line. On most rides, people mind their own business, are polite and things go smoothly. To the rider, it's not constant theater, as he puts it:

In a place dominated by freeways and the automobile's numbing isolation, the 22-mile light-rail line — the oldest in L.A. County, marking 20 years of service this summer — is a rolling improvisational theater where a cast of thousands acts out a daily drama that is by turns poignant, sad, hysterical and inexplicable.

I'm not sure what the point of the article was. Because of the anniversary? But I'm sure there are better stories to tell, stories of people who are often overlooked in society and by the mainstream media.

A step toward banning plastic grocery bags

2010-06-03T23:04:00.000-07:00

Good news on the environmental front. The day after I blogged about a bag ban, the state took a step in that direction. The Assembly on Wednesday approved a bill that would ban plastic grocery bags. The part that makes me a little hopeful that this attempt will become law, unlike ones in the past, is that the governor has said he would sign it.

Click here for the Los Angeles Times story about the bill, AB 1998. It says that if shoppers didn't bring their own reusable bags, they'd have to pay at least 5 cents each for recycled paper bags.

Heal the Bay sponsored the bill. The environmental group says plastic bags harm marine life and pollute the city's rivers and beaches. Los Angeles County uses more than 6 billion (yes, billion with a 'b') plastic bags a year, with a measly 5 percent being recycled. It's not the first time Heal the Bay has supported a bill to reduce the number of plastic bags. Back in 2008, the group supported a bill that would have charged customers 25 cents for plastic bags. (I found this 2007 op-ed from Heal the Bay that is still relevant and echoes the same arguments against plastic bags being made today).

I like this bill because it's an outright ban on plastic bags while still giving shoppers the option to buy paper bags, so they won't feel like the government is intruding into their lives as much. But I think the cost for each paper bag should be 25 cents so shoppers feel it in their pocketbooks a little bit. Just 5 cents a bag doesn't seem to be enough to change behavior. Because really, people should be bringing their own reusable bags because paper bags aren't that earth friendly either. They use a lot of energy and water to produce and distribute, so they're not necessarily a better option.

Heal the Bay has information about the bill on their website. I also learned a lot from Warren Olney's interview yesterday with Heal the Bay's Kirsten James.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping up with what happens with this bill in the Senate. My fingers are crossed.

(No) paper or plastic please

2010-06-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

I made the mistake of going to Trader Joe's after work today and it was packed. Everyone who'd put off their grocery shopping over the holiday weekend was there, many with kids with no spatial awareness in tow. It was a madhouse. The lines were long so I spent several minutes with nowhere else to look but at the person in front of me. She was an older, fit woman dressed in workout clothes with an oversized green purse hanging off her shoulder. Maybe she'd just come from a yoga class because all she was buying was a Greek yogurt and an organic banana. When the cashier was done ringing her up, he asked if she wanted paper or plastic, a ridiculous question for several reasons. If you're only buying two things you don't need a giant paper bag. In fact, you don't need a bag at all. Yet she said "plastic please." I would have given her the benefit of the doubt and assumed she was walking, but she still wouldn't need a bag because she had a giant purse!

This is why we need to stop giving away bags for free. The state should pass a law requiring stores to charge for bags or ban them altogether. I haven't decided which one I think is better, but I'm leaning toward charging a fee or tax because that still gives people a choice so they can't complain about government controlling their lives. And it works, as proved by Washington, D.C. They started charging a five-cent tax for bags and drastically reduced the number used.

This article in the Los Angeles Times looks at why California of all places has yet to pass a statewide bag ban. Only San Francisco and Malibu have bans on plastic grocery bags, even though many other cities, counties and even the state have considered them. One reason is the powerful plastic bag industry, which has been waging war against these types of laws. Among their arsenal: They claim that making paper bags releases three times as much greenhouse gases as plastic bags.

OK fine, lets assume that's true. That argument is a red herring anyway because that's not the issue. We shouldn't be using single-use bags at all, whether paper or plastic. Their life span is so short. Seriously, how much do those bags get used? A one-minute walk from the grocery store to the car, then a short drive home, followed by a brief journey into the house where the items are unloaded. And that's it, that's the life of your bag. Then off it goes, most likely into the trash. The L.A. Times article says 19 billion plastic bags are dispensed each year at supermarkets, drugstores and retailers, and that just 5 percent are recycled.

The government and individuals need to be thinking about the way we use disposable items and asking if there's a better way, instead of automatically answering "plastic please" in the checkout line. Paper or plastic? Don't forget the third option: "No thanks, I brought my own."

An easy way to recycle wine corks

2010-05-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

Back in my energy bar-eating days, I was trying to find out if I could recycle the wrappers. The answer is no, although Clif Bar has an upcycle program that turns the wrappers into other items. The rub is that you have to sign up and at the time, it's 500 slots were full. But while I was doing my research I came across suggestions for how to recycle other items that you can't put in your recycling bin. One of them was wine corks. You can send your corks to a building company that turns them into cork floor and wall tiles (www.yemmhart.com). Cool, I thought, and started saving my corks. I'm not a big wine drinker so I have a handful stored away in my kitchen (a few others I had were plastic and said they could be recycled). You have to pay to ship them so it wasn't the most convenient.

That's why I was excited the other day when I saw a box in Whole Foods where you can drop off your corks for recycling. I wondered if it was new since I'd never seen it before. Then a few days later, I got a comment on my old post about energy bar wrappers that said to try to find out what groups near you are part of the Clif Bar upcycling program and send yours to them (hey, good advice. Maybe the subject of a future post). The commenter sends theirs to a group that recycles wrappers and corks. The poster said Whole Foods collects corks too (natural and synthetic). Hey, I actually know that, I thought. So I went to the Whole Foods website and found out it was a new program (you can read about it here). In the West, the corks will be sent to Western Pulp, where they'll be used to make wine shippers. In the Midwest, they'll go to Yemm & Hart. And in the East they'll be send to another company that makes products from old cork. So now you can bring your corks to Whole Foods. It's a lot easier than mailing them.

How to have a truly happy earth day

2010-04-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day! I say that with more than a hint of sarcasm since most of the Earth Day messages I've gotten these past few days have come from companies. Did you know that L.A. is the 8th least wasteful city? I saw that mentioned on latimes.com today and clicked through to the original story in Good Magazine. But on closer inspection, this is not news. It's results from a poll by Nalgene of a few thousand people in the 25 largest cities. If you take the environmental quiz yourself, you get 25% off a new Nalgene product.

Then there was this even more egregious story in my Everything Long Beach e-mail today: 10 tips for using technology to go green!! From Verizon!! Tip #8: Use Verizon's VZ Navigator so you don't get lost and waste gas. I know companies are spitting out these press releases but that it ended up as a "story" in my inbox is insulting.

But I didn't spend too much time dwelling on the inevitable of companies trying to make money off Earth Day because I spent my evening watching Food, Inc. on PBS. The documentary investigates food production practices and their impact on health and the environment. A lot of it was familiar since I've read one of Michael Pollan's books (he's featured in the doc). But the sight of thousands of chickens crammed into a chicken house, sitting in their own feces and too weak to stand up because they'd been injected with hormones to make them grow faster ... well, it was disturbing. So was the sight of pigs being killed and cows being processed but I don't eat meat or pork so I got to feel self-righteous during those parts.

It was crazy to see just how much meat these companies are processing. At the largest pig processing plant in the country, they slaughter 23,000 pigs a day. Obviously when companies are raising, killing and processing that amount of meat, bad things are going to happen (e-coli outbreaks, for example).

So what to do? After reading Pollan's book I tried to buy free range chicken from Whole Foods but after a while it got expensive so I stopped. I think the component I was missing was trying to eat less meat. Americans consume way more meat today than in the past because modern practices (and corn subsidies) have made the meat cheaper. I do it too. Last week I bought 2 1/2 pounds of chicken because it was on sale. What does one girl living alone need with that much meat? But if I eat less of it, my hope is that the cost of buying the quality stuff will even out. It was like the one farmer in Food, Inc. said. People would come to his farm and complain about how much his chickens cost while holding a soda in their hands. We've gotta think more about how we want to spend our money and what we're spending it on instead of being sucked in by the marketing of these giant food companies.

That's the point of Earth Day, right? Raising awareness. Not buying a Nalgene bottle or GPS system.

Can I recycle that?

2010-04-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

We've all asked ourselves that question a million times. Yesterday I finished a bottle of mustard and normally would be wondering if I could recycle the plastic cap. But now I know I can. I learned this from a reputable source -- Lisa Harris, Long Beach's recycling specialist (pretty cool title).

Lisa recently started answering recycling questions for Rene Lynch, the Los Angeles Times blogger who goes by the moniker The Recyclist. The post announcing this generated a robust discussion in the comments section with lots of great questions and tips. But that's not the way I contacted her. I e-mailed the city's Environmental Services Bureau when I noticed that they hadn't updated their website to say that they were now accepting Styrofoam for recycling. They'd mailed a flier announcing the change several months ago so I figured it was an oversight (and was being gleefully anal in contacting them). She was the one who replied back to say thanks, so realizing she was the same person who was answering questions for The Recyclist, I asked her my most burning recycling questions. I have many, many more questions but I started small, with just two questions. Didn't want her to think I was a freak or anything.

Me: I know plastic bottles can be recycled, but what about the caps? And I believe I can recycle soy milk cartons but wanted to make sure. I have a stack waiting to be recycled.

Lisa: In our curbside program we try and keep it as easy for the resident as possible. ...you may leave the caps on ... but if it's convenient and there is nothing smelly inside take them off. Yes, you can put soy milk cartons or even regular milk cartons in the purple bins.

Score! Best part is, she said I can always ask her directly. I haven't abused her kindness yet, but I'll be e-mailing her again with some of my other pressing recycling questions, particularly about whether it's worth it to use biodegradable bags.

In the meantime, I enjoyed reading this post from The Recyclist about small things you can do. I couldn't resist and left a comment about what we do at work to reduce waste.

Environmentalism v. our disposable culture

2010-04-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

My new toaster arrived today. It's the same brand and style as my decade-old one but bigger, such is the way kitchen gadgets are these days. Pots and fridges are growing while cell phones and computers are shrinking. And it's not even one of those convection oven monstrosities. But it's so shiny and new I'll forgive it's wasteful girth.

In this blog I've been writing about trying to use less stuff to reduce my impact on the environment. My views are reinforced every time I turn on the radio, go online or pick up the newspaper (that may be bad for the environment but I've cut back to just Sunday). The latest reminder? Today while driving home I heard an interview on NPR by yes, another person who wrote a book about how we're ruining our planet. This guy was saying Earth is not the same as what we inherited. The air has 5% more moisture and the oceans have more acid. Yikes.

But life, and the little moments that make it up, sometimes get in the way of our best intentions. I blogged last month about my new ceramic mug with a lid that makes it look like a paper cup. But there I was on Sunday night after dinner with a friend, buying a chamomile tea in the Coffee Bean with no reusable mug. She's working the overnight shift and wanted a coffee to keep her awake. Me, I was cold. We'd sat outside for dinner sans heat lamps and I wanted to be warm on our walk home. So should I have just gone without and stayed cold a little longer? It's not the end of the world, for sure. Comfort v. discipline. Being conscientious v. just relaxing already.

I've also blogged about how I eat way fewer energy bars since the wrappers aren't recyclable. But I bought one today after work because I was hungry and was going to be running the hill. I could have gone without but I would have been cranky and had less energy.

And well, then there's my daily culprit: my 60-mile roundtrip commute.

I think I'm partly sharing this so I don't have to feel like a hypocrite, waxing poetic about all the great things I do for the environment in my blog, when in reality it's a constant battle. Our disposable culture is all around us so when someone like myself wants to live more responsibly, I'm constantly tempted to run into a store or go online and in just a few seconds, I've got my quick fix. But what toll do all these indulgences take on our environment?

I don't mean to sound depressing. We can't put the genie back in the bottle but we can make the changes that are easy and permanent. Use reusable bags when you go to the grocery store. Store food in plastic or glass containers instead of plastic bags. Clean mirrors using a rag instead of paper towels. I know the list of "easy ways to go green" is endless, but it's worth a listen. I don't think all these authors and experts are blabbing on the radio and doing interviews for nothing.

Sometimes it's OK to buy stuff

2010-04-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

I need a new toaster oven. I usually feel guilty when I want to replace items that still work, just because I'm tired of them or they're out of date. The first R -- reduce -- is in the lead spot for a reason. I thought about replacing my toaster more than a year ago when I moved into my apartment. Moving brings out that "spring cleaning" feeling of wanting to throw everything away and buy stuff that's as clean and new as your new place feels. But I held off because it worked just fine and after I gave it a good cleaning, looked pretty good too (except for some rust on the top).

Fast forward to now. A few months ago a piece of the knob chipped off, making it harder to rotate to broil, my most-used setting. But I still resisted. Then the other day I accidentally left the bag my tortillas came in on top of the toaster. It made a disgusting mess of melted plastic that then hardened. I had no idea how I would get it off. But I didn't spend any time thinking about it (and by that I mean Googling it) because I decided I'd had enough. I wanted, and was going to buy, a new toaster.

My bubble was briefly popped when I was driving to Macy's. I caught the end of an interview Patt Morrison was doing with Annie Leonard, the author of "The Story of Stuff." She was talking about our desire for stuff and the toll our disposable culture takes on the environment. "Our stuff is trashing the planet ..." Talk about a sign. But when I thought about it, I realized that I think this was the toaster my best friend bought me when I moved to Florida in 2000 for my first real job after college. I was poor and possession-less and it was a sweet gesture. It was also practical, since that Black & Decker toaster lasted 10 years and four moves. So I decided that Patt and Annie weren't talking about me. I wasn't being wasteful, just the opposite. I mean, does anyone keep a toaster that long?

Turns out that Macy's was sold out of the toaster I wanted. I didn't take that as a sign either. As soon as I got home I ordered the same toaster from Amazon. It'll be delivered any day now. And when it does, I'm not going to feel guilty. Only problem is that with the hardened plastic adorning the top of my old toaster, I'm not sure I can donate it to Goodwill. And that brings up a whole other issue. What do I do with a toaster that no one wants?

I listened to the whole interview while writing this post. Annie had some good suggestions, many which I follow.

-- Use rechargeable batteries. And if you do have regular batteries, don't throw them in the trash. Take them to an electronics store or a hazardous waste disposal site for recycling.

-- Stop using single-use disposable items like coffee cups and plastic bags.

-- Resist the urge to upgrade your electronics, which are loaded with lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxins. E-waste is the most hazardous part of our garbage. When you do get rid of something, make sure you recycle it with an e-Stewards certified recycler so it doesn't get shipped to a third-world country, where electronics are smashed open for the gold and copper, and all those toxins gets spilled out.

So for now, I'll continue using my cell phone even if I get made fun of for not having a new fancy one. It works just fine. With that one, Annie's got my back. But I'm going to enjoy the hell out of my new toaster too.

Cities should charge for bags

2010-04-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

I love this story. In January, Washington, D.C. started charging a five-cent tax on bags and it has made a huge difference. The number of bags used by shoppers dropped dramatically -- from 22.5 million to 3 million.

I've always felt that cities should do what D.C. is doing because I think they're going to have to in order to get people to make the switch. We'd like to think that everyone is going to be environmentally conscious but the reality is that old habits die hard, that is until money is involved. All the folks at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods carry their reusable bags into the store with pride but the regular ol' grocery store is a different matter. Some people bring their own bags but it still seems to be a minority, even in California where the major chains are required to sell reusable bags.

I hear people saying they always forget their bags but if they were suddenly charged, I can guarantee they wouldn't leave home without them. It is an easy habit to get into. I hardly ever forget my bags because I have a half dozen at home, plus three in the car that roll up and fit in my glove compartment. All right, to be honest I did forget a bag today when I went to Home Depot. I almost was going to run to my car to get my bag before I got in line but I decided not to because I was being lazy. But I bet if I'd been charged for that bag, I would have gone back to my car. Not because five cents is a lot of money but because of the principal of it -- why pay for something you already have.

The tax is one of the first of it's kind in the nation, according to the Washington Post article. Even better, the money raised from the tax is paying for a river cleanup. I hope that other cities follow in D.C.'s lead, and soon.

More fresh eggs

2010-03-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

I think I need to take a food photography class because I take a lot of photos of food for this blog, but it's hard making it look as good in the photos as it does in person. I need to learn the secrets of drool-worthy "food porn."

The picture above is of the eggs I bought at the farmers market yesterday. I made one for breakfast today and it did not disappoint. The woman working at the stand told me the eggs came from a farm in Bakersfield. I bought a half dozen for $2. That's more than a dollar cheaper than cage-free eggs at Whole Foods. It's more expensive than the grocery store (yesterday's Ralphs circular had a dozen eggs for a mere 99 cents) but I think it's worth it because they taste sooo much better. I like that they're big -- it seemed like the yolk was bigger than even the extra large eggs they sell at the grocery store. And maybe it's psychological because I know where the eggs came from, but it tasted really fresh.

I was inspired to buy the eggs after one of my students brought us eggs from her happy backyard chicken. Her eggs were smaller than the ones I bought at the farmers market but both were full of flavor and fresh. I hope I can make it to the farmers market on a more regular basis because now that I've been spoiled, it's going to be hard to go back to eggs at Ralphs.

A paper cup that isn't

2010-03-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

If it looks like a paper cup, look again

I don't usually like to buy new things and claim to be doing something good for the environment, but I had to have this mug. It's called Non-Paper Cup and it's a travel mug made of ceramic with a silicone lid and sleeve that's made to look like a disposable cup. I bought it at Cost Plus yesterday. This morning I made green tea in the mug and then was able to bring it in the car without worrying about spills. And it kept my tea warm (for a while at least). It saves the extra step of making tea in a cup and then having to transfer it to a travel mug. Plus my travel mug has a residual coffee smell that doesn't go so well with the gentle taste of tea.

I first saw one of these mugs at Christmas in the gift shop at the Dallas Museum of Art. It looked more like a real paper cup since it was all white, and it was nicer since it was made of porcelain. I was tempted to buy it but didn't want to add another item to my already bulging, post-Christmas suitcase. So I was excited when Laura told me she'd seen them in a Cost Plus flier. Doing a quick search, it looks like they sell them everywhere now, including Target. At $7.99, this one is a pretty good price. It's big at 14 ounces and the built-in sleeve is a nice add because the ceramic part of the cup does get hot. And it's fun to use because it feels like you've indulged in a hot drink from Starbucks.

Back to the farmers market

2010-02-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

These Pink Lady apples were so crisp I had to buy them.

I know I know, I've been so bad about updating my blog lately. I'm particularly disappointed in myself because I'd planned to blog more often. I usually play rugby at this time of year but I took the spring season off because I wanted more time for other things, like blogging (and after 11 seasons, my body was telling me it was time for a break). OK, I know I have a small readership so who cares, right? But the point was committing myself to writing regularly (and I figured that if I did want to be read by more people than my dad and my sister, I needed to write more). So here it is the end of February and I've blogged only four times since the beginning of the year. I have one guess as to why. I've been training for a half marathon and so even though I'm not at rugby practice, I'm still spending time exercising, which leaves less time for blogging. And if that isn't the reason, I have no excuse except laziness, which is a definite possibility. But today, even with my training run, I have something to blog about.

My running partner and I ran past the farmers market on our 11-mile run this morning. She said she could smell fresh fruit. But with a stuffy nose, all I could smell was the overpowering sweet scent of kettle corn. I haven't been to the farmers market in months but seeing the row of white canopies (and smelling kettle corn in a weak moment!) made me want to go. So after our run, I stretched, showered and ate, then returned to the scene of the crime, this time driving since my legs were spent.

I stopped at the crafts fair first and bought two pairs of cheap sunglasses to replace the pair I lost last Sunday. Then, in the 10 minutes before the farmers market closed at 2, I filled one reusable bag full of $15 worth of fruit and veggies. Lettuce, spinach, broccoli, onions, potatoes, grape tomatoes ... avocados, organic apples and an orange (extra vitamin C to help me get over my cold).

Rushing through the farmers market isn't the best way to shop. It's better to take one walk through to see what's being sold and then decide what to buy. I bought broccoli and then farther down saw bright green organic broccoli I would have preferred. I also bought organic apples after sampling crisp Pink Ladies. But at $2.50 a pound, they were more expensive than organic apples on sale at Whole Foods. But overall, the trip was worth it. You can't beat not having to roll a wobbly cart through massive aisles and waiting in line at the grocery store. And the vendors are much friendlier than grocery store clerks. A woman who was already packing away her produce went into the back of her truck to find an orange for me, even though I was only buying one for a whoppin' 50 cents.

Another benefit is that you have to stick to your budget, since the vendors only take cash. I didn't have enough money left over for a bag of kettle corn. But that was probably for the best!

Truly fresh eggs

2010-02-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

Eggs from a very happy chicken, Gracie. They're so yellow.

I haven't blogged in what feels like ages. I haven't even updated the last two weeks of my mileage challenge, which ended two weeks ago. But since right now I don't feel like finding the notebook I was keeping track of my daily mileage in, I'm writing about something else much more fun than my commute: food. I don't write about the teens I work with very often because it seems like an invasion of their privacy since they interact with us without expecting anecdotes about their lives to be shared in a blog. But I just had to mention the tasty, fresh eggs the other editors and I got from one of our students. She's writing a story about her pet chickens and brought each of us two eggs from Gracie. Each pair were wrapped in a paper towel tucked into a paper bag. We unwrapped them to take a look and it felt like Christmas Day. The delicate eggs were different colors and sizes. I had one medium brown one and a small white egg. The words "happy chicken" came to mind, instead of "chicken factory."

I didn't know how long they'd stay fresh but didn't have a chance to make them over the weekend. So on Tuesday morning I whipped up the two eggs for breakfast before work. The yolks were bright yellow and my eggs were glowing on my plate. And they tasted sooo good and fresh. Because, well, they were. It felt even better than eating free-range eggs that still have to be packaged and shipped. These eggs just traveled down the 60 freeway from Walnut.

That morning at work we all raved about our eggs. Laura said it made her want her own chicken. I don't think I'm ready for that responsibility but she also said she wanted to try buying eggs at a farmers market. I think that's a much better idea!

Mileage count: Week 2

2010-01-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

For week two of sharing my mileage in my blog I'm proud to say I have an improvement to report: 281 miles instead of 363. What made the difference was one day of taking the train, which I hadn't done in months. I also jumped on my bike a few times to cut out short trips.

Here's the daily breakdown:

Monday: On my day off, I drove 15 miles to a doctor's appointment and to my softball game.

Tuesday: Drove to work. 64 miles.

Wednesday: Drove to work. 64 miles.

Thursday: I took the train to work so I drove only nine miles. Hooray! And made good headway in the book that I had been neglecting.

Friday: Back to driving to work. But I did bike to the gym at 5:45 am. 64 miles.

Saturday: Drove to work, blah blah. 65 miles. Biked a mile to my friend's house (in boots, thank you very much) and then we walked down to 2nd Street for dinner.

Sunday: Another no-driving Sunday. I'll call it a biking Sunday. I biked to the same friend's house so we could go running, then biked home, changed and biked to a park 1.5 miles away for softball practice. Coming home I was pretty exhausted and hungry. Yes driving would have been easier but biking isn't too bad, as long as I stay in a two-mile radius of my apartment.

Mileage count: Week 1

2010-01-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the first week of my experiment to publicly share my mileage. All added up, I drove a grand total of 363 miles. Now that you're done gasping and can read again, here's how it breaks down:

Monday (my day off): I rode my bike to the gym instead of driving. This is something I should do on a regular basis since it's a whoppin' 1.5 miles away. I drove 16 miles to drop some stuff off at Goodwill and go to the nearby Target. I ended the day getting a ride to my softball game.

Tuesday: Drove to and from work for a total of 64 miles.

Wednesday: Another 64-mile commute.

Thursday: At the end of a 13-hour work day, the 110 ramp is closed so I take a detour, adding an extra two miles and a lot of internal cursing at L.A. (My co-worker's guess the next day was that it was closed for filming, which made me even more annoyed.) Total=66 miles.

Friday: I add an extra 20 miles to my commute to drive to a school to work with a student. Total=82 miles.

Saturday: 66 miles driving to work (I discover that my all-freeway route on Saturdays is slightly longer), then five miles round-trip to meet friends for dinner. I considered biking but I was already running late. Total=71 miles.

To end the week, I had a no-car Sunday. Since I've taken public transportation to work and liked it, I decided to take the bus to Home Depot. When I'm in my car doing errands I don't think twice about adding another destination or driving to the nice mall over the one that's closest (as I did on New Year's Day, Christmas gift cards in hand). But when you're leaving your car behind, running errands becomes simpler and more streamlined, but not faster so you have to have extra time on your hands. But it did help in my environmental goal of not over-consuming since I couldn't impulse buy and throw whatever I bought in the car.

The Home Depot is three miles away but easy to get to by bus since it's just a straight shot up Cherry. So I walked 15 minutes from my apartment to Cherry, waited about eight minutes for the bus, then rode on the bus for 10 minutes. I got my paint samples and headed out. On the way back the bus came as soon as I arrived at the bus stop. And getting off at 4th Street, I browsed in some antique stores on Retro Row on my walk home with the sun shining (hint, I was enjoying myself). The extra time it took wasn't a big deal but I think that's partly because of the novelty of it all. I'm not sure how often I could do this, or if I could extend it to a whole weekend.

For the rest of the day, I went running with two friends, walked to the grocery store just around the corner from my house and resisted the urge to drive to Target to return some things I'd bought earlier in the week.

A mile here, a mile there starts to add up

2010-01-03T02:02:00.000-08:00

After visiting my sister and her family in Dallas for Christmas, I've realized that I can be an impatient, slightly pushy and self-centered Angeleno. So my new year's resolution is to be more considerate. I'll try to thank store clerks and waiters, ask politely for directions and not interrupt a salesperson helping someone else to ask where the bathroom is (I did really have to go). After several years of big city living and always being in a hurry, I found that in a city full of Southern manners where the pace was slower, I liked that people took the time to be gracious to one another. And I started being nicer in return (maybe it helped that I was on vacation and more relaxed). That felt good so I want to extend that positive energy throughout the year.

Despite the theme of my blog, I didn't make a new year's resolution related to the environment. I already do what I can and the big change I could make -- reducing the miles I drive -- is a resolution destined to be broken faster than you can say "diet." But in the spirit of the new year and new beginnings, and inspired by a suggestion from my co-worker Mike, for the next month I'm going to share my mileage in my blog. The goal of my public shaming is to become more aware of how much I drive.

I worked today but didn't remember my plan until I was midway through my morning commute so I'll start on Monday, Jan. 4. Mike recorded his purchases in his blog every day. In a similar vein, I'll be recording my exact mileage. The big culprit will be my commute but I'll also keep track of my weekend driving. This isn't the best timing because lately I've had the urge to redecorate and want to go furniture shopping, which of course involves a lot of driving. But I'm hoping it will force me to cut back, from getting back in the habit of taking public transportation to work to biking more on the weekend. I'll record my mileage every day and update my blog once a week with the total. Mike said his experiment made him more aware of the obvious: small purchases add up. I'm curious to see what I learn. It may be that saying thank you is easier than leaving my car at home.

The green Christmas theme continues

2009-12-21T23:36:00.000-08:00

When I worked as a reporter, when it got near the holidays everyone was required to write an "evergreen" story that could run between Christmas and New Year's when staffing was light and news was hard to come by, so pages could still be filled with content. The evergreen was so named because it was a story that could run at any time. This year, there's a new family of green features: stories about how to have a green Christmas. I liked this article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, probably because it's my local paper. I now want to check out Bella Cosa Boutique, a Long Beach store mentioned in the article that sells items made from recycled materials, like cups made from discarded wine bottles and bowls made from melting down discarded glass. I like that it's not a store claiming to be environmentally friendly but still selling new items because even if something is made of bamboo or organic cotton, it's still using resources.

The article also talked about not using wrapping paper, which seems to be gaining popularity as our society becomes more conscious of the resources we're using. I've blogged about using used paper bags as wrapping paper. At my office Secret Santa gift exchange, we all used newspaper instead of wrapping paper. Laura even decorated her newspaper with holiday images cut out from a Trader Joe's paper bag (a girl after my own heart). She wrapped Mike's gift for him, taking tissue paper that had been in a gift we got from a student and twisting it so it served as ribbon. It was beautiful and rustic.

You can never have too many reusable bags

2009-12-17T23:15:00.000-08:00

It was down to the wire, but I got my free bag. The frugal environmentalist in me is happy because today I got a reusable grocery bag thanks to the Brag About Your Bag campaign. The deal was: bring five plastic grocery bags to participating Ralphs, Albertsons and Top Valu stores and get a free reusable bag.

Last week my co-worker Mike gave me a few plastic bags because I didn't even have enough since I always have reusable bags with me when I shop. I forgot about it over the weekend but I stopped at the grocery store tonight, the last day of the campaign, to buy ingredients for the bread I'm making for back-to-back holiday parties on Saturday. I thought the cashier knew what I was talking about when I gave him the plastic bags. But all he was doing was scanning a barcode giving me "green points" for bringing me own bags. After he handed me my groceries, I didn't get my bag. So I asked again and he was about to give me one of the green reusable bags for sale at the register when another employee went behind a nearby counter and handed me a bright red bag. There were no signs that I saw of the campaign and I wonder how many free bags were handed out. I hope lots.

A quickfire-inspired sardines meal

2009-12-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

I'm bummed that I'm not watching the Top Chef reunion on TV right now. The show, one of my favorites, usually comes on at 10 p.m. so after getting home from the gym at 9, I cooked dinner. When I finished eating I was all ready to watch my favorite chefs rehash the superb Season 6. But it came on at 9 instead of 10 tonight. So while the Top Chefers were reminiscing about surviving quickfire challenges and cooking with unfamiliar ingredients, I was doing the same in my kitchen. On a much more amateur scale.

And what was the secret ingredient in my quickfire challenge? Canned sardines.

Tonight I finally cooked the canned sardines that have been sitting in my cupboard for more than a month. I bought them after reading about the health benefits since sardines are full of omega 3s. I also had recently read about sardines being a good environmental choice because they aren't overfished or high in mercury. So I bought a can but was too afraid of what was inside to actually eat them.

Canned sardines, like canned tuna or salmon, are great in a pinch. Well, that's exactly how I used them tonight. I didn't have much to eat and wanted something quick. My first surprise was that they weren't slimy. They looked like canned tuna and smelled slightly like tuna too. When I first bought them I typed "how to cook canned sardines" into Google and there was no consensus. They could be eaten right out of the can (um, no thank you) or warmed up on the stove; remove the bones or leave them in because the bones are small and soft and therefore edible; eat them on a cracker with mustard or mix them up with mayonnaise like tuna fish. With that in mind, I threw them in a pan with some oil and their own juices. Then I put the warmed sardines on a toasted tortilla with mustard, topped with grape tomatoes and fresh basil (from my herb garden!). I pulled all the vegetables out of the crisper to see what I had and quickly cut up a carrot, zucchini, red pepper and celery to be steamed. Everything was done in 10 minutes. If this were a quickfire challenge I would have plated before the buzzer but talk about an uninspiring meal.

The sardines weren't bad. They just weren't good either. They didn't have much taste. I felt like I was eating a dry white fish -- like tuna but with a less distinctive smell and taste. Thank god for the spicy mustard or else the whole meal would have tasted really bland. I'd buy them again because they're cheap and convenient. But I don't see any Top Chef wins in my future.

My finished meal. Think Padma would want to try it?

Green v. Consumerism at Christmastime

2009-12-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

"In a world where people want to continue to aspire to middle-class consumption patterns, but they are also wanting to feel like they are responsible citizens who care about social and environment issues, how do they reconcile that? They go shopping for something that declares itself to be ecologically friendly."

Sadly, that quote from a UC Santa Cruz professor is true. It's from a Los Angeles Times article about retailers offering eco-friendly gifts for the holidays as a way to make money. The story says that according to a recent poll, nearly nine in 10 consumers identified themselves as "conscious consumers." Wow, that's a lot. More than I would have expected considering how few people I see using resusable bags at the grocery store (with the exception of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods shoppers, who have been on that bandwagon for a while now).

What's better for the environment? Buying gift wrap made from recycled materials or wrapping small presents in used sandwich bags you have lying around your house, cutting out the energy-using step of recycling the bags into other paper products? (I'm doing the latter.)

Buying presents I understand. It is Christmas after all and who doesn't want to do that? But I've been turned off by the Sunday circulars and TV ads that are pushing their great bargains on wrapping paper, gift bows and all that other crap. Sure, it made sense in the pre-global warming era to decorate our presents to the nines, but aren't we living in a more conscious time now (according to that poll, yes we are)?

Sure, use the wrapping paper you already have from years past, but let's not buy new bows and ribbon. And if you run out of wrapping paper, look around your house for something to use instead, like the Sunday comics, old paper bags and glossy pages from magazines. Have fun with it. If it's a clothing item, wrap it in the LA Times Image section. Heck, you could even use old pillow cases if it's a larger present (and then the recipient can cut up the linen into smaller cleaning rags for a gift that keeps on giving).

I've had fun wrapping my office Secret Santa present. I blogged earlier about how I planned to use paper bags to wrap my gifts this year, but would have to think of ways to make the presents look good despite my lack of artistic skills. So what I did was cut up a brown paper bag I already had, wrapped it in ribbon left over from a past Christmas and attached an old Christmas ball I bought this year at a thrift store. Then I wrote "Joy" in pen and, in a flash of brilliance, found a way to make use of those pesky circulars that inundate our mailboxes at this time of year. I cut out a cute bear from the Trader Joe's flier and glued it to the brown paper to make it look more festive. I knew any attempt at drawing something would look as bad as those terrible ornaments we made for our parents in elementary school (because my art skills haven't improved since then) so this was a way around that.

Let's think outside the proverbial Macys sweater box this holiday season to not just say we want to live green, but actually do it.

My Secret Santa gift, wrapped in a paper bag.

No second life for my energy bar wrappers

2009-12-04T23:23:00.000-08:00

Talk about timing. While driving into work today I was listening to KPCC's Larry Mantle talk to the esteemed Dan Neil about the LA Auto Show. They were waxing poetic about the new generation of alternative fuel vehicles that are on display at the convention center. Then I caught a white van out of the corner of my eye with the Clif Bar logo. It said it was a biodiesel vehicle. I've got Dan Neil's voice coming out of my radio telling me about the technology of the future and I've got an example of that future two lanes over. Except I'm not ready to applaud Clif Bar yet. Why should Clif Bar get credit for being good to the environment when their wrappers are filling up landfills?

Energy bar wrappers aren't recyclable because of the inner foil lining that keeps the bars fresh. So Clif Bar has its Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade, an "upcycle" program in which used energy bar wrappers are used to make new stuff. I once tried to sign up but the trial program was full. Still, I was slightly hopeful because the website said they'd be expanding. I figured the best way to help the environment was to not eat energy bars at all so I drastically cut back. But when I did eat one, I kept the wrapper, hoping to one day be able to send them in so they could be used to make backpacks and purses. Well, here we are more than a year later and still no luck. I just checked the website again and there still are no open slots. I'm glad the company is committed to doing something, but the number of wrappers collected (about 650,000 so far, according to the website) is a drop in the bucket compared to how many are sent to landfills (millions every year). I understand that they have to cap the program because if everyone sent their wrappers in they'd have more than they could use. But it would be nice if they could pour the same enthusiasm they have for reducing their CO2 emissions into finding other uses for their wrappers. For a company that touts its environmental record all over its website, it seems disingenuous. The only other solution is for everyone to stop eating so many energy bars but I don't think Clif Bar will embrace that suggestion anytime soon. In the meantime, I'm having a funeral for all the wrappers that came with me when I moved but I've finally had to accept are destined for a landfill.

I collected these wrappers for more than a year but now they're in the trash.

My own little apartment herb garden

2009-12-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago a friend asked if I wanted to get a place with her. I was open to the idea because apartment living had me wanting -- dreaming of really -- outdoor space and all the things I could do with it. But as fun as it was to look at a house with a huge backyard with a garden already started, after thinking about it for a few days I had to accept that I preferred living by myself -- the whole "I can do what I want when I want" thing. But it was a wake-up call that instead of always looking for something better, I should work with what I have. A full garden brimming with tomato and squash plants was out of the question but apartment be damned, I could grow my own herbs.

I did research online and then headed off to a nearby Armstrong Garden Center, where I bought four baby plants: basil, thyme, oregano and rosemary. I planned to put them indoors on a windowsill but an employee said the 3-inch pots I was going to buy wouldn't be big enough as the plants grew. So I ended up planting the herbs in two pots I already owned that are about 8 and 10 inches in diameter. I put them downstairs just inside the entrance to my apartment building. It's not as convenient as having the herbs right in my kitchen, but hopefully they'll fare better outside. I don't consider myself to have a green thumb so the test will be if I can keep them alive long enough to actually use them.

I was told that rosemary grows big so it should have its own pot.

How to have a green Christmas

2009-11-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, Americans produce 25 percent more trash than normal (according to the EPA). I couldn't let the holidays pass without trying to reduce my consumption. My goal this holiday season is to reduce and reuse (and of course recycle), which means I'm not buying wrapping paper, bows or Christmas cards.

In lieu of wrapping paper I'm going to use brown paper bags I already had in my cupboard by decorating them as best as my minimal artistic ability allows. I have a few ideas for tags, one is that I might cut up colorful and sturdy retail bags -- like the pink striped ones you get from Victoria's Secret (maybe even incorporating the word 'Secret' into the tag). For an extra flourish, this week I bought a bag of old, small Christmas tree balls for $2 at the Assistance League thrift store on Long Beach's Retro Row. The snowflake design made them look especially decorative and they'll be a fun alternative to bows.

At the Goodwill I bought pine cone potpourri for $1. It didn't have any scent left but that was OK because I used it to fill up a bowl of four huge pine cones I brought back from a trip to Reno this summer. The bowl is always on display but adding the potpourri made it Christmas-y.

At first I figured I wouldn't send Christmas cards this year, but when I brought up my container of holiday decorations from storage, I found enough cards from years past to be able to send cards without having to buy new ones. Hopefully I won't send someone a card they got before. But if I do and you're reading this, it was for a good cause!

Granted, I'll still be buying gifts (with four nephews I can't avoid that) and I'm flying to Dallas to visit my sister and her family, but doing these little things make me feel better because I feel more aware of my consumption. It's easy to get sucked in and mindlessly buy, buy, buy at Christmas. But I feel more in the spirit reusing balls that decorated a family's tree decades ago and brought little kids joy than rushing off to Target and filling my cart with cheaply-made decorations, paper products and stuff shipped from China. Reusing connects us with the past and isn't that what Christmas should really be about -- sharing memories, spending time with loved ones and and appreciating what we have instead of always wanting more.

Free reusable bags for LA County residents

2009-11-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

I thought this was cool. Los Angeles County is trying to do its part to reduce the 6 billion plastic bags used by residents every year. Through Dec. 17, you can turn in five plastic bags and get a free (FREE!) reusable bag in return. The Brag About Your Bag campaign runs on weekends at participating Albertsons, Ralphs and Top Valus in cities throughout the county. I heard about it because my city, Long Beach, is participating and there was a brief story and column about it in our free weekly Grunion Gazette. Usually I blog about things I've done or plan to do (still haven't eaten those sardines, oops!) but I don't actually have five plastic grocery bags lying around my house because I'm really good about remembering my reusable bags when I go grocery shopping. But if I end up with five before Dec. 17, I'll be turning them in for a free bag. I already have eight reusable bags. Having so many guarantees there are always a few in my apartment and my car for my next shopping trip, but you can't have too many, especially since the two I have from Trader Joe's are a little worse for the wear.

The link for more information is www.bragaboutyourbag.com. To find out if your city is participating, click the Brag About Your Bag Campaign 2009 link on the left banner. Then click Partners and Sponsors along the top to see a list of cities.

Should I feel bad for eating meat?

2009-11-09T23:32:00.001-08:00

Oh man, I should be a vegetarian.

That's what I thought yesterday after listening to Patt Morrison interview Jonathan Safran Foer about his new book, Eating Animals, and why the way meat is processed in this country led him to become a vegetarian.

The interview (listen to it here) grabbed my attention because of who Foer is. He's the author of one of the most original and brilliant books I've read in a while, Everything Is Illuminated. Since he writes fiction, I was surprised he was taking a stab at (no pun intended) nonfiction. And nothing in his previous novels hints at his environmental activism. But as he explained in the interview, after he became a parent he started thinking about the food he was feeding his son and where it came from. And that journey, which included spending time on factory farms, led him to become a vegetarian. (When asked by Morrison about the term "factory farm," he said it's accurate because the food industry views animals as widgets rather than living things -- well said, Jonathan!). He isn't an extreme health nut or an avowed environmentalist. As he said, he's just a regular, moral American and if everyone was aware of the suffering endured by the animals that become our food, more would chose this lifestyle, too. Which is why I thought, "I should be a vegetarian." If I thought about it as much as he did, I think I would reach the same conclusion.

He did say that he supports farmers who raise animals humanely but that it's hard to know exactly what you're buying because of misleading packaging. So for him, it was easier to become a vegetarian than to spend tons of time determining which meat is morally OK to eat. I've wondered about that when I've bought chicken at Whole Foods. The organic chicken is a whoppin' $9.99 a pound, so I've skipped that and bought "natural" chicken that is $4.99 a pound. The package says it's free of hormones (but all meat is by law, so that's meaningless), antibiotics-free and fed a vegetarian diet. That sounds good but in a squishy, what-do-those-terms-really-mean way. But still, I figure it's healthier than whatever I usually buy at Ralphs and ignorance is bliss. At least, for now.

A second life for my running shoes

2009-11-09T21:47:00.000-08:00

Tonight I dropped off my old running shoes at a Nike store in L.A. to have them recycled. This is something I've been meaning to do since I found out about Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program and blogged about it (that post is here). Nike recycles the rubber, foam and fabric in running shoes to make new athletic surfaces like tracks, basketball courts and playgrounds. And they take any brand, not just Nikes.

For months my dirty Adidas running shoes have been in my trunk, waiting to be put to better use. Even though I work down the street from the Nike store at The Grove, walking there after a long day at work was basically the last thing I wanted to do. But today, my day off, I had to go to work for a few hours so when I got done at 6 I decided to finally drop them off to avoid traffic (Getting stuck in rush hour traffic on my day off? No way.).

It was super easy. They have a bin in the back of the store where you drop off your shoes. I was happy to see it was about two-thirds full.

This is the only shoe recycling program I know of, which is surprising since it's such a cool idea. So next time you're feeling the ground beneath your feet when you run and you know it's time to get rid of your shoes, instead of sending them to a landfill, you can donate them to a good cause. And if you don't live or work near a Nike store like I do, you can give your shoes to me and I'll drop them off when it's time to recycle my current running shoes. Just as long as they don't stink up my car because they might be there for a few months!

Canned sardines are on the menu

2009-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, those are canned sardines in my cupboard. Most people's reactions would be "eww" and that's my reaction, too. But I keep reading about the benefits of eating small fish. Sardines are healthy (full of omega 3s), low in mercury (since they're at the bottom of the food chain) and sustainable (they aren't overfished). So this week after hearing an interview with a fisheries professor on Fresh Air, I blogged that I would try them.

Today at my local farmers market, I was heading out with a bag overflowing with produce when I saw the fish guy. I usually walk by his stand because the fish he sells is local and fresh ... ie: expensive. But today I stopped to see how much he was selling salmon for ($18/ lb). As I read the board listing the fish he had for sale, near the bottom I saw sardines. At $3 a pound they were a bargain. But thankfully "OUT" was written in red letters next to the name. I took that as a sign that I shouldn't try sardines this week.

But my next stop was the Whole Foods across the street to get the rest of my groceries. As I walked along the back aisle I came face-to-face with a display of sardines. I couldn't ignore the message: I had no excuse to not buy sardines.

But as with all shopping, there were choices and I didn't know what to buy. I tried calling my sister because she had told me she likes canned sardines, but she didn't answer. So I went with skinless and boneless over smoked and packed in water instead of oil. Then when I got home I noticed that they're from Morocco so they might not be as environmental as I thought. According to Seafood Watch, the "greenest" sardines are from the Pacific.

I found this article from The Atlantic about sardines becoming more popular for basically all the reasons I'm considering (I mean, going to) eat them. The author is a fan, so although he prefers fresh over canned, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. The box says "ready to eat" but even though I came home hungry, I didn't rip open the can and dig in. Besides the ick factor I'm trying to overcome, I don't know what to do with them. Should I eat them with a meal or as a snack? I'm waiting to hear back from my sister to get her advice. For now, they'll stay in my pantry.

Two takes on sardines

2009-11-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

One of the things I really enjoy about blogging is the conversations it starts with my family on topics that don't normally come up. Like, I don't usually ask them about their fish preferences. But after my post yesterday about wanting to try eating smaller fish because they are healthier for you, my sister and dad both shared personal stories about eating sardines.

When my sister was in college she lived for two years in Portugal. The interview I heard on Fresh Air mentioned that grilled sardines are popular in Portugal, and sure enough she said she ate them all the time. In the seaside Vila do Conde, "The women used to walk through the town early in the morning with baskets of sardines on their heads. I can still hear them yelling, 'Sardinas, pecininas' (small sardines). They are quite delicious when grilled and I've even eaten them canned here because they are a great source of minerals, especially calcium."

All right, I'm sold. I'm so trying some sardines. Maybe I'll start with canned sardines since that would be easier. But wait, then I got an e-mail from my dad with a different take on sardines. I like the way he tells stories (maybe I got the writing bug from him), so I'm going to quote his whole e-mail.

"OK so here's a little story from when I was a yute, er, youtthh. I used to hang out over at David Sanford's house because they were a cool family and of course mine was not. Mr. Sandford ate canned sardines, so there were times when I was at the Sanford house and I would eat canned sardines too. Ugh. I can't believe now that I actually ate them. No to sardines. Double no to anchovies (they stink). And herring? - forgetaboutit."

Delicious versus ugh. Hmm, well I guess to each his own. I'll have to try for myself to see who I agree with.

Grilled sardines anyone?

2009-11-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Driving home from work today, I caught a segment on Fresh Air on a topic that is close to my heart -- or rather, stomach. Terry Gross was talking to Daniel Pauly, a professor at the University of British Columbia, about the best fish to eat both for your health and the environment. I wanted to embed the video but apparently I'm so computer illiterate that I couldn't make it work (or I need a new computer). But here's the link to her interview on the NPR site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120049590

I've blogged about this before so some of what he said was familiar: wild Atlantic salmon is best; eat fish low on the food chain like sardines and mackerel, etc. But I learned a few new tidbits, like the reason wild salmon is better for the environment than farmed salmon. He said salmon farms don't produce fish, they consume fish since salmon are carnivores and eat fish lower on the food chain. So in salmon farms they grind up fish to make food for the salmon, for a net loss of fish. The good news is that catfish and tilapia (which I like to eat) are herbivores so those are good farmed options, along with shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams).

He's concerned about overfishing and made the point that sushi and sashimi used to be only for special occasions but now some people eat it every day. He made the dramatic comparison that eating a tuna roll is as bad for the environment as driving a Hummer.

But the line that got me was: "I think we should act as citizens, not just as consumers." Now I kinda want to take a stab at eating those low-mercury, small fish that Europeans eat, but that have a stigma associated with them in this country like anchovies, sardines and herring. Anchovies make me think of greasy pizza and my only association with herring is the phrase "red herring" (which I learned from one of the best movies ever, Clue). And sardines, well ... canned sardines, need I say more? I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even know what these fish look like, even though I'm sure my eyes have passed over them in the fish counter. But I'm making a promise to myself that I'm going to try one of them. If Europeans like them, they can't be that bad. I'll let you know how it tastes.

The one-year Ziploc challenge

2009-11-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

I moved into my apartment a little over a year ago, in mid-September 2008. My move has been a convenient way for me to keep track of how much stuff I use. I've realized what a good deal Mrs. Meyer's concentrated all-purpose cleaner is because I still have the same 32-ounce bottle I bought a year ago for $8 (it's about two-thirds gone, although I probably would have gone through it by now if I was better about washing my floors). But I'm most proud of my Ziploc bag habit. I've had the same two boxes of sandwich and freezer bags since I moved in and they are nowhere near being empty. I've used 18 out of the 54 freezer bags. Of the 125-count sandwich bag box, I've gone through probably 30 or so (don't feel like counting all of those).

How have I cut back? Well, about a year ago I wrote a post about an article I read that mentioned a family that used the same sandwich bag for a year by washing it every time. I knew that was too drastic for me but I did start washing and reusing bags more than I had before. My co-worker, who had told me about the article, said that as my New Year's resolution I should try to limit myself to one box (not one bag for god's sake) for one year. Instead of waiting until New Year's, I decided to keep track of how many bags I went through in my first year of living in my apartment.

I don't use plastic produce bags that often -- only when I'm buying loose items like green beans but never for things like apples or broccoli (I don't understand people who put their bananas in a plastic bag. Is that supposed to keep them fresher or something? Seems like such an obvious waste to me). But I usually have a few on hand so I use those instead of sandwich bags and I reuse them as much as I can. I also re-use bread bags several times before they eventually get a little too worn and then I recycle them. I've also been using more plastic containers to hold things like nuts I take to work or half an avocado that I stick in the fridge. Now my most common use of Ziplocs is for raw chicken that I store in the freezer. It icks me out to think of reusing a bag that held raw chicken so those are one-time-only bags.

I feel good that I've cut back because I remember how often we'd run out of sandwich bags when I lived with roommates. Even though we were recycling most of them, it felt like such a waste. And it's really not that hard. The only annoyance is the cluster of wet bags littering my counter as they dry. I now see the reason for the bare-tree looking bag drying rack that I saw in a Gaiam catalog. At the time I thought it was a ridiculous and unnecessary invention. Now I admit, I kinda want one. Convenient that Christmas is coming up. I think it would make an excellent stocking stuffer. Anyone, anyone?

Which plastic containers are best?

2009-10-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

I talk to my mom every Monday morning because it's my day off and since she's in sales I can usually catch her at home while she's getting ready and answering calls. Like many mother-daughter relationships, our conversations can meander in numerous directions, often ending on a path I didn't expect. Today after we'd gotten the usual dating, work and rugby updates out of the way, we got talking about her weekend purge of old clothes and shoes, which led to our unanimous approval of discount stores like Marshalls, to her saying she bought glass food containers on sale the last time she was there. She finally got rid of her old Tupperware containers, some she's had for 25 years. Yikes, that's bad, but at least she knew they needed to be thrown away and were so old they could be leaching chemicals into her food. She doesn't microwave her plastic containers but she does pour hot soup into them so after many years of use, I'm sure they were not safe anymore.

She said she also wanted to buy new plastic containers since she didn't want to have only glass ones, but planned to do some research into which ones were safest and didn't contain the chemical BPA (bisphenol A). I remembered a useful article I read a year ago in National Geographic's Green Guide magazine. I bought the magazine when I moved into my apartment so I could find out which kitchen gadgets and items were the greenest. I still had the magazine so I just looked over the article again.

It recommended glass, ceramic and stainless steel, plus for lighter options that are easier to carry to work, it suggested "stainless steel or reusable storage containers made from #5 polypropylene plastic, but avoid exposing plastic to heat." The items they recommended included GladWare round #5 plastic bowls with blue lids and Ziploc "Twist 'n Loc" #5 plastic containers. I must have studies this article carefully because I have the Ziploc containers. I like them because they're the perfect size for storing leftovers and snacks for work, although a little small to pack a full meal into. But I also forgot the cautionary advice about using single-use yogurt and butter containers. They can get scratches that are hard to see, and you should store only cold food in them, not hot food (heat speeds deterioration). I've been collecting and using old yogurt, cottage cheese, butter and hummus containers since I moved in and since I've been here a year, it's probably time to rotate out the old ones with new ones.

I couldn't find that article on the Green Guide website, but I did find a handy plastic containers buying guide. So Mom, I've saved you some research time. Check it out before you hit Target (or Marshalls again) to update your kitchen.

Fishy business part 2

2009-10-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

Two months ago I posted a blog entry that began: "Today I ate a tasty meal of catfish, corn on the cob and sauteed new potatoes." I am nothing if not consistent because today's blog entry could have began almost the same way: "I just finished a delicious dinner of pan-fried catfish coated in soy flour with broccoli and roasted potatoes on the side." My blog entry from August was about a Washington Post article on the "greenest" fish, based on fishing or farming practices, the energy used in transport and overfishing. But I commented at the end that while helpful, the article didn't take into account health factors like mercury levels. So today is the follow up.

I came across a great website by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. Their "Fish List" tells you which fish pregnant women (and as an extension everyone in general) should avoid because of high mercury levels. I searched for "catfish" and was disappointed that it fell under the "eat no more than one serving per month" category. Good thing I haven't eaten it since that August entry!

These fish have low mercury levels:
Blue crab (mid-Atlantic)
Croaker
Fish Sticks
Flounder (summer)
Haddock
Trout (farmed)
Salmon (wild Pacific)
Shrimp

In cross-referencing the EWG list with the Seafood Watch list of ocean-friendly seafood, I'd say the big winner is ... (ding, ding, ding) ... wild Pacific salmon. It gets high marks for being an excellent choice in several categories. It's good for the environment, has low mercury levels and is recommended by doctors because it's high in healthy omega-3 fats.

I was sad to see canned tuna on the EWG "avoid" list because that's been a staple in my diet my whole life. I remember many Sundays when my mom would make classic tuna sandwiches with mayonnaise, onion and celery. For some reason they always tasted better when she made them. Then when I became an insolent teenager I'd make her set aside some of the tuna in a bowl so I could make it less fattening with mustard and just a little mayonnaise. As a college student and later as an adult I experimented with new ingredients like curry, raisins and nuts. I can't imagine how many tuna sandwiches and tuna salads I've eaten over the years, thinking I was being healthy.

But how much canned tuna is safe to eat? I plugged my weight into the EWG's handy tuna calculator and the result said that women of child-bearing age should eat no albacore tuna. Chunk light tuna is lower in mercury.

But as an alternative, the fish besides wild salmon that both lists consider the best choice are blue crab, farmed trout, flounder and shrimp (as long as they are not imports). I haven't cooked with crab, trout or flounder before so I have some new types of fish to experiment with. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. There may be more blog posts in the future that begin with a scrumptious menu.

Tasteless avocados have me pining for the farmers market

2009-09-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad blogger. It's been over two weeks since my last post because it's harder to find the time now that rugby season is in full swing. I'm also not doing as many good things for the environment that would be worthy of a post. I'm in my daily driving routine to work and on the weekends I've had rugby games so I haven't made it to the Sunday farmers market in a few weeks. My routine is pretty much wake up, get ready for work, drive to work, drive to rugby practice (or go running), come home, cook something that resembles a meal in under five minutes because it's late and I'm hungry, maybe take a second shower of the day, go to bed. Then wake up, repeat. Sorry, Earth.

I wish I had made it to the farmers market this week because I accidentally bought avocados from Chile at the grocery store and am now feeling the guilt. To make it worse, the one I cut into tonight was TERRIBLE. I was too excited by the 65 cent price to notice the country of origin. I also didn't realize that the two bright green avocados I picked out weren't ripe yet so it was like trying to cut plastic. And it might as well have been plastic since there was no taste either. I'm hoping that the other one will taste better if given a few days to ripen but I'm not holding out much hope. How fresh and flavorful can a vegetable be that came all the way from South America? I've gotten pretty good about reading country of origin signs when I'm buying seafood, so this is a reminder that I need to pay closer attention in the produce department too, and not get sucked in by the sales price.

In a related topic, I liked this story in the Sunday LA Times about a woman who planted a vegetable garden in her front yard a year ago. It reminded me of my sister, whose husband planted a garden along the side of her house in Temecula. They moved last year and I hear (via her blog!) that he's planted another one at their home in Dallas. I'm jealous of her abundance (or what I presume is an abundance based on the success of her garden in California) of tomatoes, squash and basil. It's sad that it's not easy to get reasonably priced fresh produce without having a garden of your own. No wonder eating healthy is so hard. Who wants to eat an avocado that tastes like plastic? Not I, not I.

30 years of farm food in LA

2009-09-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

A few days after I railed against a Times op-ed criticizing foodies who encourage people to eat at so-called pricey farmers markets, it was nice to see a positive farmers market story in today's paper. The story, about Los Angeles County celebrating 30 years of farmers markets, was written by Mary MacVean. It said that L.A. is soliciting ideas for how to make farm food more available, with the winning idea being a central hub where farmers could bring their produce to be distributed by electric trucks to neighborhoods. I know what my suggestion would be: longer hours. OK, that may be unrealistic (how long do tomatoes stay fresh sitting under a tent in the bright sun?) but with Long Beach's Sunday farmers market closing at 2 p.m., I can't always get there in time, or forget about it until 1:30 p.m. when it's too late to go. So even though I didn't make it to the market this week, it was nice reading this article and dreaming about the meals I'll make in the future with farm fresh food.

In defense of farmers markets

2009-08-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

The problem I have with this snarky editorial in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, besides the insinuation that liberals and environmentalists hate poor people, is that the writer claims that farmers markets are more expensive than the grocery store. That hasn't been my experience, so I'm betting that the writer has never actually shopped at a farmers market. The editorial attacks my hero Michael Pollan and Alice Waters (who I don't know much about) for encouraging people to eat locally grown and raised foods, particularly those that are organic. She also goes after people who believe cheap, mass-produced furniture and clothing hurts the environment and fills up our landfills. Her point is that with times being so tough, these people are snobby and unrealistic, that cheap products are good for families that can't afford to shop at farmers markets, where "organic tomatoes go for $4 a pound. "

It seems to me that she's always been against these people and is using the economy and the recent release of a book called "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture,"to make her views newsy. OK, I concede that organic is expensive. But when I go to the farmers market, I can buy non-organic produce (that's still fresh and from family farms) cheaper than at the grocery store. Like a 50 cent cucumber and 25 cent red pepper. Last week I bought mixed salad greens for the same price I bought them at the grocery store today (I'd wanted to shop at the farmers market but I was being lazy and it closed before I could get there. Now there's a valid drawback to farmers markets ... limited hours.). I'm bringing this up because I think there is a perception that the farmers market is expensive. Some things are, but you don't have to buy organic peaches at the farmers market, just as you don't have to buy them at the grocery store. There is plenty of non-organic, reasonably priced produce. And it's also cheaper in that you're not tempted to buy all the crap they sell in the grocery store. Granted, you can't do all your shopping there. I still have to go to the grocery store to buy meat, milk, etc., but with less items to buy, I'm in and out quickly and don't get as distracted by the end-of-aisle crap that's cheap but has no health value. So yes, I will take Michael Pollan's advice and try to eat healthier, and leave the Häagen-Dazs to narrow-minded people like this writer.

Freshness: the key ingredient in a farmers market salad

2009-08-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to update Sunday's post with a pic of the beautiful salad I made today with my farmers market bounty. I really liked the spinach and mixed greens. Buying lettuce is a pain at the grocery store because the bagged mixed greens are limp and go bad quickly and the loose kind gets wet from being constantly misted so it doesn't last long either. And sometimes, I admit, I'm lazy about having to wash and cut the good ol' romaine or green leaf. But my farmers market mixed greens were dry and fresh. My non-waxy cucumber was crispy and the red pepper that cost 25 cents was sweet. All around, a good salad day. I added black beans, rice I'd made earlier and a Trader Joe's chicken sausage pulled from the freezer. And there you have it ... a filling lunch. What can I say, it doesn't take a lot to make me happy!

A sprint through the farmers market

2009-08-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've discovered another reason why I love shopping at the farmers market. Speed.

As I was driving down Ocean to Trader Joe's today after meeting someone for a late morning/early afternoon coffee, I saw signs for the farmers market. I glanced at my car clock: 1:58 p.m. The market closes at 2 but the row of white tents were still up, so I quickly turned around and cut through the Whole Foods parking lot.

I parked, grabbed the cotton bag from my trunk and rushed over as sellers were packing up their stands. They didn't mind me being there as they loaded boxes onto their trucks, although I didn't get any great last-minute bargains (except a free lemon). In 10 minutes for just under $10, I bought:

-- a cucumber: 50 cents (sans slick wax coating. The woman working the stand told me the wax helps them last longer, so those cucs in the grocery store could be a few weeks old.)
-- bag of four red peppers: $1 (perhaps the best deal of the day)
-- bag of fingerling potatoes: $3
-- loose mixed salad greens at $3.50 for 1/2 lb: $2
-- two tomatoes at $1/lb: 75 cents (also a good deal)
-- green beans: $2 (the organic ones were $3)
-- a small lemon from the 3 for $1 pile: free!

You'll notice I didn't buy any fruit. I knew I could get cheaper in-season fruit at the grocery store by buying what's on sale (for example, grapes for 77 cents a pound at Ralphs compared to $2 a pound at the farmers market).

But I love how quickly I bought the produce, putting together meals in my mind as I saw what was available. I'll be able to make a few salads this week with the wonderful mixed greens, plus the green beans and potatoes will go with the chicken I bought afterwards at Trader Joe's. In just a half hour, I got most of my shopping done for the week. Check and check. Now I just have to cook it!

Fishy business at the grocery store

2009-08-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight I ate a tasty meal of catfish, corn on the cob and sauteed new potatoes. I haven't cooked with catfish before, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was flaky with no fishy taste at all. I bought it because it was a good price.

But the week before at the grocery store, I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out what fish purchase would be best for the environment and my wallet. I couldn't believe how many choices I faced: salmon from China, Chile, Canada and the US. Shrimp from Indonesia. Chilean sea bass. US snapper. I must have looked a little odd staring at the fine print on signs and scribbling notes on my shopping list, to eventually settle upon farm-raised salmon from Canada that was $4.50 for a six-ounce piece.

That was a compromise. Decent price, neighboring country. The best deal was farm-raised salmon from China (on sale for $3.99 a pound). Or I could have splurged on the deep red Sockeye salmon from Alaska's Cooper River for $24.99 a pound.

That variety of price and origination demonstrates the complexity of something as simple as buying fish in the grocery store. A while back, my coworker forwarded a Washington Post article to me about the "greenest" fish to buy but I only glanced at it because the answer made my eyes glaze over (avoid species that are overfished, but also consider the carbon footprint from feed production and fishing methods, avoid fish that has been flown in from far away). Reading it over again, according to the article, the pricey Alaskan salmon would have been the best choice. The article noted that the Seafood Watch program gave high marks to wild-caught Alaskan salmon, canned albacore tuna (I do buy that!) and farmed rainbow trout.

But that's not realistic for most people, especially families on a budget, even though I'm sure that Cooper River salmon tasted great (I was almost a bit of an Alaskan salmon expert since I worked one summer in a fishing cannery, but at the time I didn't like salmon and never ate the fresh King salmon cooked for us on Fridays. Oh youthful ignorance.).

Beyond salmon, this paragraph was insightful, although following it would require changing my fish-eating habits (Sardines? Uh, do I have to?): "For an easy way to cut your seafood-related emissions, try to shift your diet toward farmed oysters, mussels and clams, shellfish that don't require processed feed. (They eat plankton instead.) Many experts also recommend that you make like a European and learn to love smaller, schooling fish such as sardines, anchovies and mackerel. They're easier to catch than big bottom-dwelling carnivores such as cod and haddock, meaning less fuel is expended to harvest them. (Plus, since they're lower on the food chain, they're naturally more energy-efficient.) Generally speaking, fish with abundant populations are easier to harvest, meaning that choosing fish from well-managed stocks is likely to cut your emissions as well."

So for now, I'll try to do more research into this confusing subject (the article didn't take into account mercury levels, for example) but in the meantime I think US or Canadian farm-raised salmon might be the best compromise.

The art of consumerism

2009-08-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

The toothpicks in this piece by Chris Jordan represent the number of trees used in one month for mail-order catalogs

Tonight I caught the last minute of a news story about artist Chris Jordan, who uses Photoshopped images to depict American consumerism. He turned to Photoshop when he realized that his real images weren't shocking enough to get across his message. A snarl of cell phone chargers didn't scream out mass consumption, it just looked beautifully futuristic. But an image of 8 million toothpicks to represent the number of trees used in one month of mail-order catalogs, well, it makes you pause and think while also being beautiful. This statistic reminded me of my earlier post about calling Gaiam and asking to be taken off their mailing list. Not two days later another catalog arrived in my mailbox from some company called Viva Terra. I hadn't gotten their catalog before and didn't ask for it. I suspect Gaiam sold my name to the company since they both sell eco-friendly products. So many trees wasted on junk mail we don't want.

Another of Jordan's images was a bluish sea with hints of color dotted throughout. The statistic he shared was that the U.S. consumes 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes, which is enough to fill eight football fields ... every five minutes. These wall-sized images are meant to create an impact. From far away it's a pretty picture but as you walk closer you see that it's made up of thousands upon thousands of items (his focus is not just environmental. As you walk closer to a row of orange vertical panels, it turns into folded prison uniforms representing every person in jail in the United States). His point is that the collective is made up of individuals. "It's each one of us," he said in the interview.

His images are beautiful, while also making the statistics that accompany them feel more real. The reaction is "Wow, that's a lot of (fill in the blank)." I thought that was pretty cool. See images from his project, Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.

Will too much carbon consumption make me fat?

2009-08-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday I listened to a personal trainer talk about how to train properly for the new rugby season, which started tonight. He said that if you're working out hard, you need to eat enough calories to give you energy and quicken your recovery. Then he wrote a shockingly large number on the white board: 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day.

With rugby season underway, my calories are not the only number going up. My carbon consumption is also on the rise. No longer will I be taking public transportation to work once or twice a week. No, from now until November when the season ends, it'll be zero times a week. I need to drive to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I can drive to practice afterwards. And on Wednesdays, I need to drive so I can get to the gym in time to meet my workout partner and have enough energy for a good workout. No more jogging three miles from work to the train station and calling that my exercise for the day. Now I've gotta kick it up a notch and spend my evenings at practice or the gym or at the stairs or doing sprints.

Oh well, c'est la vie. My summer public transportation habit was nearing an end anyway. In about three weeks we'll start getting busy at work and I probably would've stopped taking the train then. It just came sooner than expected. So starting now, let the carbon counting begin!

Reducing junk mail one call at a time

2009-08-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

What's a good definition of waste? Catalogs that go directly from your mailbox to your recycling bin, perhaps with a brief stay on a side table, ignored amid the other catalogs full of things you don't need.

That's why I called Gaiam today and asked to be taken off their mailing list. A year ago I ordered curtains off their website and have been getting their catalog since. Initially I'd look through it and saw things I considered ordering, like composting trash bags. But every catalog has the same items so after a while I stopped looking at it. I'd meant to call them when I got their Summer 2009 catalog. Then they sent me another Summer 2009 catalog merely a month later. I guess I was supposed to get excited by 20 percent off their already-overpriced organic cotton sheets and bedspreads. No, it just bugged me that it came while the first one was still being ignored (on my side table). The catalogs say they are made with 30 percent recycled material but still, for a company promoting green living, the word hypocrite comes to mind. The slogan on the cover says "Simple Choices Make a Difference." Yes they do. I called the 800-number on the back and it took just minutes to be taken off their mailing list. And now both catalogs are in my recycling bin.

But on a good note, I brought my car to the Toyota dealership today for an oil change and they told me they were no longer mailing their coupon flier. It came up when they asked for my e-mail address. I always hesitate before giving companies my e-mail because I don't want my inbox to be inundated with "special deals" every week that really just involve them getting you to spend more money. They probably are trying to save money during the recession but I liked that they were reducing their paper waste ... and that I didn't have to do anything to get one less thing I don't care about mailed to me (and no, I didn't give them my e-mail address).

Sunday is a pro-Earth day

2009-08-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Bunches of basil come big at the farmers market

I had a good environmentally friendly day today.

First off was a 25-mile bike ride along the San Gabriel River trail. The path starts three miles from my house so I biked to the start and didn't have to use my car. To get to it, I went past the Sunday farmers market at PCH and 2nd Street so on the way back, wanting a break, I stopped and figured I'd pick up some fresh produce. I had only a small backpack with me so I couldn't fit a whole lot. I picked up a $1 bunch of basil (which at the farmers market is huge ... I had to squish it to fit it in my bag) and a tomato. My favorite stand was one selling juicy and flavorful organic strawberries, blackberries, nectarines and peaches. I knew I couldn't bike home with a pint of strawberries -- at least if I didn't want them to turn into mush at the bottom of my bag by the time I got home -- so I bought a nectarine and ate it as a snack before I got back on the bike. Organic isn't cheap, not even at a farmers market, so it cost 90 cents, but it was a good fresh treat to refuel me before the last three miles home. I hadn't been to the farmers market in forever, probably since last fall, and it was busier than I remembered it. I overhead someone say that it was the busiest she'd seen. It was probably the combination of all the fresh summer produce (lots of bright red strawberries and tomatoes) and the great weather. Luckily it had been cool during my ride but by 11:30 the clouds had burned off and it was a sunny day in the high 70s, low 80s.

Then this evening I carpooled to a meeting, picking up two of my teammates. It was at a park, which added to the happy-being-outside theme of the day. We went out to dinner afterwards, which I'm not sure is good or bad for the environment. We'll call it green neutral except that I put the rest of my salmon Caesar salad in a styrofoam to-go container. But all in all, a good Earth friendly (and healthy friendly) day.

Not every day is a good day to take the bus

2009-07-30T22:05:00.001-07:00

I thought about taking public transportation to work three days this week but decided against it on Wednesday because I planned to go to the gym after work and didn't want to get home too late (it's a bit slower than driving). So Tuesday and today I took the train to work, but Wednesday I drove and got a flat tire. Hmm, maybe there's a message in that.

Jokes aside, I'm proud that I took the train twice this week. When summer rolled around, I started sporadically taking it again, as I'd done last summer, and this week is my first double. If I'd gone for the triple maybe that mysterious nail or whatever it was wouldn't have lodged itself in my front passenger tire. But luckily the tire just needed to be patched and not replaced. It took a half hour after work and I got to the gym late (irony noted), but all in all it wasn't so bad.

What I really learned this week is that I need to plan out my public transportation days better. I forgot about my book club meeting when I decided to take the train on Tuesday, so by the time I got home I was going to be late so I decided not to go. Then today I planned to run from my office to the train station after work, which saves time because I get my exercise as I'm commuting home. But I'd forgotten that I'm starting tomorrow at a school and needed to bring some stuff home with me. So instead of heading out for a three-mile run at 6 p.m., I sprinted to the bus stop (carrying my bag with my unused running clothes in it). I got stuck in the no-bus dead zone and caught a 16 bus 10 minutes later. I swear that was the slowest bus ever so by the time I got home I was hungry but still had to run. I definitely got that message. I'm not going to take the 16 bus in the evening because it's so unpredictable. It saves time to run to the train station and take the Red Line to the Blue line. So next week, I'll try to plan better.

Do my actions really make a difference?

2009-07-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

That's a common question in the debate over protecting the environment and stopping global warming. The refrain we hear is yes, everyone's actions make a difference. Drive less. Take shorter showers. Use reusable bags. Recycle. These are the actions I've discussed in my blog as I've chronicled my attempts to "do my part." They're the changes that while small and fairly easy, make me feel good that I'm making things better. Today after taking a quick shower, I took the train to work. I ate lunch, pulling a cooked chicken sausage out of a reused Ziploc bag. I bought a can of Sprite and meant to recycle it (oops, I left it behind but I have faith that someone else recycled it instead of throwing it away), and then I took the train home at the end of the day.

Then tonight I read an interesting article on alternet.org, a website featuring stories with alternative and progressive viewpoints that don't get covered in the mainstream press. The article, "Taking Shorter Showers Doesn't Cut It: Why Personal Change Does Not Equal Political Change," written by Derrick Jensen, an environmental activist, and originally published in Orion Magazine, had some sobering statistics about how our individual actions make little difference in the grand scheme of things. As the headline suggests, taking shorter showers won't save our water supply because 90 percent of water use is by agriculture. I thought a valid criticism was that An Inconvenient Truth focuses only on the solutions individuals can take to stop global warming. This statistic summed up Jensen's argument well: "Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide."

The writer didn't intend to leave us feeling hopeless, he wants to wake us to the reality that we need to change our society and not just our individual habits. So tonight will I leave my computer turned on because it doesn't make a difference? No. But at the same time I can feel less guilty about the bath I want to take.

I'm not sure what to take away from this. I feel good about the changes I've made to my lifestyle because it's better than doing nothing but I'm not working toward larger, community-wide changes. I think cities (or even better, the state and country) should require businesses to charge customers for plastic bags, which would get more people using reusable bags, but I'm not writing letters or attending city council meetings or joining activist groups to fight for it. It's easier to be responsible for just myself and blog once a week about my latest small victory or stumble. In the short term, it's refreshing to know I don't have to carry the burden of the world on my shoulders. But in the long term, am I going to make a bigger commitment? It's something for all of us to think about.

McDonald's McCafes: a gamble with the environment

2009-07-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

On my two-mile drive down Long Beach Boulevard from the train station today, I passed four reminders from McDonald's that I should be drinking its coffee. That would be three McDonald's restaurants telling me "Now serving McCafe" and enticing me with giant posters of mocha lattes topped with whipped cream, plus a billboard in case I missed the ads plastered across the stores. I think McDonald's really wants us to buy its "specialty" espresso drinks.

Even I am not immune to the powers of good marketing (the commercials are funny). Last week I decided to try a McCafe because if it tasted good but was cheaper than Starbucks or another coffee chain, then it would be a good option. I went through the drive-thru and ordered a small iced latte. I shouldn't have been surprised that in McDonald's super-sized world, a small would be 16 ounces of seriously strong coffee. It was so potent I saved half for the next day, which did make the $3 price a good deal, although it wasn't as cheap as I expected (iced drinks are more expensive; their hot lattes are cheaper).

Then the very next day, after I'd enjoyed my day-old latte, I read an article in the Los Angeles Times about McDonald's coffee investment and I felt bad about supporting what will likely lead to an increase in milk consumption, if McDonald's gamble pays off. The article quoted a dairy expert saying, "When per capita milk consumption rose in 2006 for the first time in 20 years, McDonald's was a prime reason." Why? McDonald's had started offering milk in plastic containers, which became so popular that other fast-food chains followed its lead. "The dairy industry is counting on the same sort of effect from McDonald's espresso coffee drinks," the article said, and then had this shocking statistic, "which can contain up to 80 percent milk." If (let's be real ... when) McCafes become popular, that's a lot of milk -- 1 1/2 cups for a 16-ounce drink. That means a lot of milk production, which is not good for the environment (cows are a source of methane pollution, plus concerns over the amount of water used on dairy farms).

But when I made this argument to my coworker, she played devil's advocate and said "So are poor people not allowed to buy coffee but rich people who can afford Starbucks can?" No, of course not. I know that Starbucks and other coffee chains have led to more people drinking coffee and thus consuming more milk, but my concern with McDonald's is that it's even more pervasive in our culture and its coffee is cheaper, which could lead to people buying coffee more often, no matter their income.

I think the solution is that everyone should buy less coffee and try to make it at home more often. I'm not saying I'm a saint. I buy coffee about once a week, the last time being on Sunday after a run. I felt like I deserved to indulge and since I'd gotten up too early to make coffee, I decided to splurge on an iced latte at Seattle's Best. But was my impulse buy worth $2.80 for a measly 12-ounce drink that also wasted a plastic cup? In the time it took me to wait in line, I could have gone home and made my own coffee. And I would have been happier with it. They were out of vanilla so I flavored my latte with cinnamon, which doesn't taste so great. And when I make coffee at home, I use a half cup of milk, probably less than what was in my McCafe or Seattle's Best drink.

And let's face it, making your own coffee saves money too. McDonald's may be promoting their drinks as a cheaper alternative to Starbucks but MyCafe beats out McCafe any day.

Saving water in the shower

2009-07-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

One of the sacrifices I'm making for the environment is publicly sharing my personal life in this blog. So here's my second post about showering. Yes it's about hygiene, but water -- and will we have enough of it in the future -- is a big issue so I feel it's justified.

In my first post I timed my showers for a few days and found that when I tried, I could get them around five minutes long. Not under five, which was my goal, but not too shabby either. One other trick to saving water would be to turn off the water when shaving. But call me a spoiled American, but that just didn't sound pleasant. Today I thought of this halfway through shaving so at that point I sucked it up and reluctantly turned off the water. I expected immediate goose bumps and my core body temperature to take a nose dive. No water diva here, it wasn't that bad. It may help that it's summer, but I didn't get cold. And I shaved faster, theoretically saving time but here I am blogging about it before I leave for work so the time saving is a wash (oh that was bad I know).

I once had a roommate who was from France and I could hear him turn off the water mid-shower, presumably to shave, so my guess is that this is common in Europe but hasn't taken hold in wasteful America. I'm not going to make any grand promises, but I'll try to turn off the water again. If I can get it to become habit, it may become second nature, liking turning off the water when I brush my teeth or wash my face. Now I'd better go because the clock is ticking and my drive to work isn't getting any shorter.

Oh, and coming up, a post about McDonald's. ...

Recycling my running shoes

2009-07-01T22:13:00.001-07:00

I run, therefore I am ... constantly going through running shoes. Before my environmental awareness was kicked into full gear, I would throw away my old (dirty, smelly) running shoes. But a few months ago when I bought a new pair of my favorite Adidas Supernovas, I held onto my old pair because I vaguely remembered hearing about shoe recycling and donation programs. For weeks and weeks now, they have been sitting in a pile of "things to blog about" as a way of reminding myself to look into that. So today when my co-worker asked the "Urban Dieter" if I knew what to do with old shoes, I didn't have an answer. My other co-worker quickly found information online about shoe recycling offered by Nike (making me feel a little embarrassed for dragging my feet on this). The Reuse-A-Shoe website says the rubber, foam and fabric in your old shoes is shredded and then used in the manufacturing of sports and playground surfaces.

I admit I've never been a Nike fan, especially since my college days when the company was accused of operating sweatshops (although in retrospect I'm sure Nike wasn't the only culprit). I've never worn anything Nike but they take any brand, not just Nikes, and they have a drop-off location down the street from my office at The Grove.

A quick search of "shoe recycling" found some other programs, although Nike's seems to be the biggest. There are a few donation programs that collect newish shoes to give to people in the US and other countries, like Soles4Souls and One World Running, which is based in Boulder, Colorado but my local running store Runners High is a drop-off location. However, I'm not sure if my shoes are too old to be reused.

Either way, this seems easy enough. I can now check blogging about recycling my shoes off my list. The next step is to get around to dropping them off.

Bus blues

2009-06-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

I have failed yet again in my quest to find the "magic" public transportation route to work that takes no longer than driving. Today I scratched the 720 Rapid bus off my list of options, at least in the way I took it today.

Let me start by saying that the MTA uses the term "rapid" loosely. It was only 10 or so minutes faster than the plodding 16 bus. But with the extra walking I had to do, it ended up taking longer.

I've got the first leg of my journey down because there's only one option. I take the Blue Line lightrail train from Long Beach to downtown LA. But once I get off the train, I've got options galore. Too bad none of them involve a car waiting to whisk me to my office six miles away. My regular route is to walk three blocks to 5th Street and grab the 16 or 316 bus, which runs along 3rd Street and drops me off in front of my office. It takes about 30 minutes and on a good day I get to work right at 9 a.m.

Today was what I call a "bus fail day" and on the way home it turned into a "train fail day," but that I'll get to later. I decided to experiment because I'd always wondered if taking the 720 would be faster. The problem is that the 720 runs along Wilshire, although the downtown stop is on 5th Street. So I walked my usual few blocks to a different part of 5th Street where I caught the 720, but then 20 minutes later it dropped me off at Wilshire and La Brea and I still had to walk another 15 minutes to my office on 3rd (if you're familiar with LA, yes I basically walked several blocks north of Wilshire twice). The good part is that I got to walk more, the bad part is that walking is unfortunately the slowest mode of transportation possible. It didn't help that I had been a little late arriving at the Blue Line station and was running 10 minutes late to begin with, but I got to work close to 9:30 this morning. Oops.

But I don't give up that easy. The 16 bus may be the slow and steady option for me, but a girl's gotta play the field before she settles down! So I have one more route to try, which is taking the Blue Line to the Red Line, then briefly taking the 720 from Western and Wilshire to La Brea and Wilshire, then walking. OK, that may sound crazy, especially to people who live close to their office or don't live in L.A., but when you live 30 miles from work in a city with a pathetic public transporation system, you're willing to work with things as best you can for the sheer joy of not having to drive, not putting miles on your car and not paying $3.15 a gallon for gas.

So I promised to explain why I failed on the way home too. This was all my fault. Things started out fine. I ran from work to the Red Line station at Western and Wilshire again, which I'm liking, but then feeling tired after the run, I spaced out on the train and missed my stop at the 7th Street Metro Center. I ended up taking the Red Line all the way to Union Station. I jumped out of the train and jumped into a waiting train heading in the other direction, barely getting in before the doors closed. I'll have to remember to pay more attention next time.

We had a former student stop into our office today who grew up in LA but didn't know anything about the rail system. She had just returned from a semster studying in Paris and loved taking the Metro because she felt more connected to the city and the people. I don't get that same satisfaction using L.A.'s system because it fights you all the way. And so few people use public transportation that I don't feel like part of something greater. The Red Line train was empty today (in both directions, oops) from around 6:45-7:15 p.m. I would expect it to be popular since it's in the heart of LA but apparently not, although maybe it's busy earlier. It's too bad more people don't try out the train and bus, although I can't say I blame them either.

Taking the bus out of the equation

2009-06-16T22:13:00.001-07:00

I had a great experience taking public transportation today. And no, I'm not referring to the verbally abusive woman asking for money on the Blue Line train this morning (raise your hand if you think calling someone -- no it wasn't me -- a b**** will get you a free handout). No, it's because I saved time and killed two birds with one stone by running part of my commute home.

At 6 p.m. I changed into my running clothes, put my bus pass, ID, credit card and some emergency cash in my back zippered pocket, grabbed my cell phone, iPod and keys and headed out the door, feeling light and unencumbered. The distance from my office to the Red Line station is three miles so I ran through the neighborhood streets of the mid-Wilshire district, into the tree-lined streets with million-dollar homes in Hancock Park, then into Koreatown, turning down Western for the last quarter mile to the Red Line station at Wilshire. It took about 30 minutes but I saved time because I'd gotten my exercising out of the way. And it put me in control of my commute because I didn't have to wait for the bus and be at its mercy. I know the Red Line train comes at 6:41 and by changing up my pace, I can make sure to get there in time.

I took the Red Line to downtown, where I switched to the Blue Line and pretty much slept until my stop. But it didn't matter that I was tired or that it was late (7:45) because I didn't need to find motivation to run or go to the gym. I parked my car at my apartment at 8:01 p.m. and felt so good. I had plenty of time to cook dinner (not reheat a meal or nuke a veggie burger, but actually cook) and even treated myself to a beer.

This is a good option for me in the summertime, when it's still light out when I'm running and it feels safe being on the train a little later than I normally would be. Sure, I would have preferred the city planners to have some foresight and extend the Red Line farther west when it was originally built, but this isn't a bad backup plan.

Back to the bus

2009-06-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

I took public transportation to work today for the first time in, well, so long I can't remember. It was like riding a bike. It all came back to me ... what time I had to leave my place, what time the Blue Line train arrived to take me to downtown LA, and where to walk to catch the bus to my office.

The trip to work was pretty uneventful and the train and bus were surprisingly uncrowded. On the way home it was a little hairier but that's always the case. I never know when the bus will arrive so I sometimes rush out of the office only to sit at the corner and wait 10 minutes, like today. But I got home at my usual "bus" time and got some exercise in the form of speed walking from the bus to the train (only to sit another 10 minutes) so I can't complain.

It takes longer to take public transportation to work so sometimes I grudgingly do it, but one great benefit is that I have time to read the newspaper cover to cover ... I even inspect the ads. Bumping along Third Street on the bus this morning, I read on A9 about a digital camera class at Samy's that I decided to take on Sunday. However, tomorrow it's back to my car because I have to drive somewhere for work. I'm definitely not complaining.

City limits

2009-06-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

The type of TV I watch all depends on the company. With others or my old roommates, I gravitate to shows that spark conversation like reality TV (Biggest Loser, Top Chef, and Project Runway and Top Model for a while until I got bored of them ... and of course the big cheese Jon Stewart). But I've noticed that when I watch TV by myself I can really nerd out. The lowest moment was when I didn't have cable and during the presidential election I got into -- I mean, really got into -- CSPAN. These days my 100-plus channels mean my choices are broader (Jon and Kate anyone?) but I still have a soft spot in my heart for those oft-ignored channels I used to frequent, such as PBS. This is all to explain why I found myself watching an episode of American Experience on KLCS about the history of test tube babies. I was enthralled as soon as they started talking about the first test tube baby born in England in the not-so-distant year of 1978, when the procedure was highly controversial. So I stuck around to the end of the show, and thank god. Because the next show was even more interesting. It was about Portland, a city I'm not that familiar with but am intrigued by because of its green reputation. And since Facebook tells me it's where I should be living, I had to watch. Maybe it was the nerdy TV watcher in me, but it was fascinating.

If you know a lot about Portland, this probably won't be new to you. All I knew was that it's a bike-friendly city with progressive residents in a beautiful location (I marveled at the pine trees -- real trees, not palms or god forbid, giant billboards! -- that ran alongside a freeway on my last and only second visit there. It was for a rugby tournament so I didn't get to see much of the city. My only other visit was very brief a decade ago). But what I learned is that Portland's bike culture and it's embracing of public transportation is tied to a 30-year-old decision to limit growth (and good land-use policy). Wise Portlandians (is that what they're called?) stopped urban sprawl in its tracks (er, tires?) with its "urban growth boundary," which put a border around the city and restricted development on the other side. The boundary has grown by only 12 percent in the last 30 years. This means the city is surrounded by farms, wineries and nature. This has had all sorts of positive effects, including dense neighborhoods with good public transportation, a downtown resurgence, farms just 20 miles away and lots of farmers markets with local produce. They have a network of streetcars and lightrail, making it possible to travel from north Portland to downtown in 20 minutes. For someone living in sprawling, freeway-filled, car-congested LA, this was heaven. Those Portlandites (is that what they're called?) are a proud people. This quote was a dagger to my heart: "“We’re not driving 34 miles a day.” Try 60 a day, roundtrip.

The city boundary is not without its critics. Landowners say the city is taking away their rights to sell their land to developers and make money. Some also say it's hard to find the American dream of a suburban house with a yard. The most valid concern is the lack of affordable housing. The city works best for professional singles like yours truly, who want to be near a lively urban core.

It was surreal watching little girls filling up the same red Trader Joe’s bags I own with organic, freshly picked produce like summer squash from a farm 25 miles from their house. I carry my Trader Joe’s bags to the grocery store and fill them with pathetic, wilting produce, passing over the organic produce because it’s so expensive in the grocery store ($3 for a cucumber, really Ralph's?).

And if that wasn't making me salivate, then I learned they actually tore up a freeway that was built alongside the river in the 60s and replaced it with a downtown riverfront park.

I know that even though the show covered concerns over the boundary and a recent ballot measure that would have allowed more development outside it, this was a rosy view of the city. But it made me want to visit to see for myself what it's like and if it truly is a dream city for someone wanting to decrease their carbon footprint, eat fresh foods, use public transportation to get to work, walk to restaurants and shops, and live in a place that's exciting and easy. Long Beach has a lot of those attributes but it's part of a greater metropolis. I don't work in Long Beach so I do that 60-mile commute every day. And as much as I love my city, it's still trying to create a vibrant, culture-rich downtown, the kind that Portlanders (that's what they're called) can take advantage of every day.

BYO Bag

2009-05-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

I just came back from shopping and it's so nice that bringing your own bag is so accepted now. Before I left my house, I grabbed an old Express shopping bag and used it at the Gap and the bookstore. Both times the salespeople didn't think anything of it. I don't see a reason for taking home a new bag again, as long as I plan my shopping trips in advance. It's the spur-of-the-moment trips that get you. I keep a few bags in my car for the grocery store, but sometimes they're still in my apartment from my last trip so I am caught bagless. But still, it's a vast improvement over how many bags I used to use (er, waste). I'd collect them in my pantry for those occasions when you need a bag, but that didn't occur very often so the pile kept growing and growing. Now I think it's been months since I brought home a new shopping bag. Not only is that better for the environment, but it means less clutter. And that always makes me happy!

Biodegradable trash bags seemed like a good idea

2009-05-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it feels like Americans create so much waste. I found statistics online that showed that while we're recycling more, we're still sending more to our landfills because our waste has almost tripled in the last half-century as our population has grown and society has gotten wealthier, resulting in buying more packaged goods. I think about this a lot. We recycle at work and it's hard to keep up with the bags of plastic containers that topple over in the kitchen and our personal bags of paper next to our desks. It's good that we're recycling but it's still just a lot of stuff. If I'm producing this much as just one person, how do we even have room in our landfills anymore? Then I think about all those plastic bags holding our trash that are sent to landfills. What happens to them? So I decided to do my part to reduce waste, both my recycling more but also cutting back on trash bags. Let me explain ...

When I moved into my apartment, I had to buy trash cans, one of many silly decisions to be made during my grand shopping spree to Target. I wanted a smaller can for trash because when you're conscious about recycling, your recycling container actually fills up faster, with all the plastic containers, beer bottles, newspapers, circulars, etc. My trash is mainly food scraps and those odd items that can't be recycled, like energy bar wrappers (and bottle caps? I've never been able to figure that one out). So after much internal debate and staring at cans trying to imagine the right size I needed, I ended up buying a 13-gallon can for recyclables that sits next to my fridge.

For my trash, I couldn't find one that would fit under my sink so I ended up using a wicker basket I already had. I knew the plan was flawed because wicker and liquid don't mix (I bet you never learned that in driver's ed). I wasn't happy about the occasional leaky trash bag, but it worked well enough. The bigger pain was my determination to not buy trash bags. I used a Trader Joe's reusable shopping bag in my recycling can and it would fill up quickly, but there was still room in the can so the bag would overflow and be a pain to take out. For trash I had no choice so for a while I used the occasional plastic bag I ended up with or the bags holding my newspapers on days when there was a chance of rain (they definitely erred on the safe side because I got those bags a lot, way more than it rained).

But I had planted the seeds of a better plan, one that involved no plastic sent to a landfill, when I saw biodegradable bags for sale in a catalog for Gaiam, which sells eco-friendly items like overpriced organic cotton yoga pants. I was like a child at Christmas pouring through the Sears catalog. I want, I want! I waited for a while and finally last month I decided to order them. They're for composting -- small ones for kitchen compost containers and larger ones for yard waste. But I figured I could use the small ones for my trash, so the bag I sent to the landfill would eventually biodegrade. They're pricier than regular trash bags (about $6 for 25 3-gallon bags) but I wouldn't go through them that quickly. When I did some research online, I found out they sold the same brand, BioBag, at Whole Foods. That made things easier, since I didn't have to pay for shipping.

One person had left a comment saying that the only drawback was they started to decompose a little if left too long before being taken out. The box says "BioBags are shelf stable yet biodegrade quickly when exposed to nature's elements and micro-organisms." They weren't kidding. The first week was fine but the second week there was some liquid in the bag so after five or so days the thin green plastic started to melt right into my wicker basket. Ewwee. The minute I discovered this I rushed the bag off to my apartment's trash bins.

This is where fate comes in, or perhaps the earth sending me a sign to chill out a little. I had just reluctantly bought trash bags for a weekend beach party. I couldn't have opened the box any faster. I put a bag in my larger trash can, converted it to holding my trash, and moved my recycling in the TJ's bag to next to the trash can. No wicker basket. This is a much better plan. No fear of melting bags, plus it's been easier not having to open the cabinet door and lean down to throw away cucumber peels.

I tried making an everyday part of living more environmental, but it's easier and more convenient the old-fashioned, more wasteful way. I'm not sure what to do now with my biodegradable trash bags. The box recommends using them to store produce in your fridge because your veggies will stay fresher longer. But maybe I'll keep them for when I decide to make my life less convenient again and attempt to compost!

A travel mug in the hand is worth ... nothing if you don't use it

2009-05-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

Saving the earth is hard work.

My original inspiration for starting this blog was my desire to share the funny things that happened as I attempted to help the environment. In that vein, I present to you my latest gaffe.

I've been trying to not use paper cups when I buy coffee since they aren't recyclable. And in the last year I've made good progress. I used to take my own cup when I bought coffee from the Coffee Bean downstairs from work. And recently I came up with a better system and brought a travel mug to work, so I can order my to-go coffee in a container with a lid. But mainly I try to not buy coffee too often and instead make it at home. I've cut back on my Saturday morning ritual and now just buy coffee whenever I feel like I need it. This morning was one of those days. I had to leave extra time this morning for voting in California's special election (which is another gripe entirely) so I figured I'd buy coffee at the local coffee shop around the corner from my polling place. And I actually remembered to grab a travel mug from my cupboard. Aww, so proud of myself!

What happened next is mostly a blur. I entered an empty polling place, took 10 seconds to vote, was told afterward that I could get free coffee with my "I voted" sticker, grabbed my travel mug from my car and was on my way. Free coffee and no waste. Score! OK, not so much.

In line I got distracted eavesdropping on the kids in front of me talking about an funnily inappropriate song on YouTube using the word f** (but impressed that the kid ordering hot chocolate -- a middle school boy at that -- said "I can understand why gay people don't like that song"), then I completely forgot ... where I was going with this sentence. Just joking, but seriously, that's what happened to my memory. During the two minutes I stood in line, I forgot I was holding my travel mug and ordered my coffee without handing over my mug. I walked away from the counter happy that I didn't have to pull out my wallet. But when I had to put my travel mug down to put milk and sugar in my *** nonrecyclable *** paper cup, well, that's when it hit me. I sheepishly walked out doublefisted -- hot coffee in one hand, empty container in the other. This is where good intentions go to die. I had good intentions by voting, I had good intentions by bringing my mug, I just couldn't quite make it happen. No one said saving the earth was easy, so I'll leave it to the Prius-driving, bus takers of the world. In the meantime, I put my coffee in my cup holder and drove 30 miles to work. I'm blaming Schwarzenegger for the whole thing.

Out of sight, out of mind

2009-05-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

During my trash experiment in February, in which I collected my trash for a week to get a better idea of what I throw away and where I could minimize waste, one change I made was to switch to paperless statements. Well, my good intentions almost got me in trouble.

For the past six months I've been paying off some furniture I bought on a Cost Plus credit card (interest free!). It's a fairly new credit card so I'm not that used to paying it. When the statement stopped coming in the mail, it was out of sight, out of mind until today, when, looking over last month's bank statement, seeing April's payment triggered my memory. I had an "Oh god" moment -- had the due date already passed? "Whew." I just looked it up online and it's not due until next week.

The e-mailed bill must have gone to my junk mail. I just went through my junk mail and didn't see it, so I'm guessing I erased it weeks ago without noticing it. Thankfully, this memory game is almost over. I'm one month away from paying the credit card off, which means I just have to remember to pay in June.

For now, I'm off to pay this month's bill online before I forget.

----
And in other news, I can cross one more catalog off my list. I called Lego today and had them take me off their mailing list. At Christmas I had ordered a Lego toy online for my nephew, so they sent me their Spring 2009 catalog -- something an adult with no children really has no use for, although it did make me a little nostalgic. It took a few minutes (and one wrong phone call to the Taj Majal resort in Atlantic City) but it was worth it.

Feeling like a hypocrite

2009-04-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Just days after I blogged about Wal-Mart's new green commercial urging people to use a travel mug when they buy coffee, I threw all caution aside and had a latte in a non-recyclable paper cup. I woke up late and rushed out the door this morning, with no time to make coffee or eat breakfast (at least I knew I didn't have to time my shower because I didn't even have time to wash my hair). So what urks me is that I knew I'd be buying coffee at the Bean next to my office and I could have grabbed my travel mug from home, but I didn't. I had a second chance to redeem myself when I got to work, but I didn't take a coffee mug before I went downstairs to get my latte. I'm blaming my forgetfulness on, well, lack of coffee. Hmm, seems like a catch-22. But the cause is not lost, I hope.

When I was telling my sordid tale to my co-worker, an easy solution occurred to me. I could bring another travel mug to my office and leave it there for the days when I buy coffee. It's better than using a coffee mug, which is prone to spilling on the walk back. I have one at home I never use anymore because it doesn't have a spillproof lid, and if you hadn't picked up on that theme yet, that leads to coffee spurting out the drink hole or leaking from the bottom of the lid, usually unnoticed by me until I arrive at my car after the short walk down my apartment stairs, coffee stains already setting into my work pants before I even turn on the ignition. Bad travel mug. But it'll be fine for the short walks from the Bean to my office, when I won't have a million things in my hand and can control the spill factor. There, problem solved with a simple solution. I just need to remember to take the travel mug to work. Let's see how many days it takes me to remember to do that.

The elusive 5-minute shower

2009-04-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

When it comes to showering, I've always subscribed to the mantra "ignorance is bliss." I know I take showers that are too long and use too much hot water. But standing under a stream of hot water doing absolutely nothing productive feels so indulgent! My morning shower is like rushing through a boring meal to get to the chocolate dessert -- it makes me more motivated to get up. So I haven't been in a rush to find out how long I actually take in the shower because -- to continue the chocolate metaphor -- like avoiding the scale after pigging out, I didn't really want to know how bad it was. But ever since I started this blog, I've been meaning to time myself.

The idea got into my head again about six months ago, when I saw a TV news report on ways for families to "go green." There was a kit you could send away for that included a balloon-like contraption that reduces water flow in your toilet (what, we're too good for bricks these days?). But what got my attention was an hourglass that times your showers. That almost motivated me to send away for the kit. But I didn't.

So here I am six months later, still reveling in my wasteful morning routine (it's a time waster too, partly to blame for my finding it nearly impossible to arrive at work by 9 a.m.). So for whatever reason, this week I grabbed my iPod with its stopwatch feature and started timing myself. And it turns out, it's not as bad as I thought.

Monday -- 7 minutes, 20 seconds
Tuesday -- 5 minutes, 20 seconds. I stick to the basics, my loofah exfoliating scrub ignored.
Wednesday-- 5 minutes, 20 seconds. Drat, still not under 5.

If anyone knows where I can get one of those handy hourglass shower timers, I'd love to know. I may come to regret it when the sand runs out and tells me to get out of the shower while I still have conditioner in my hair, but I think it would help me take shorter showers more consistently. Because once you have a little bit of knowledge, ignorance isn't so bliss after all.

Last stop, San Diego

2009-04-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

I took Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner train last weekend from Orange County to San Diego and was surprised by how full the train was on my way down to San Diego on Sunday. I even had someone sitting next to me, which wasn't so bad because the seats are roomier than on a plane. And it's rare in these days of earbuds and driving solo to talk to a stranger so it was kind of fun to get into a random conversation. After sitting for an hour or so in silence, at the end of the ride we got talking about sailing (he was competing in the Newport to Ensenada yatch race), marathons and biking. Sitting on the upper level, there are nice views of the ocean and the quaint beach cities (at least they look quaint out the window of a train) of San Clemente and Oceanside.

It took 2 1/2 hours and cost $21 one way. It's supposed to take two hours but we got delayed because of track work. I think that's unusual and I wouldn't hold it against Amtrak because the train was on time on the way back. The train takes a little longer than driving and since I have a fuel efficient car, costs a little more too. But as someone pointed out to me, it saves time because you can get things done on the train. I did a little bit of work and read some of the newspaper, although I wasn't as productive as I'd imagined. At some point it was more enjoyable to just look out the window at a different view of the trip to San Diego, which I've done countless times on the freeway. This is even though I sat on the wrong side of the train and was staring inland instead of at the ocean. But I caught a glimpse of the ocean when I walked around and out the other window, so I'm not complaining.

I figured I'd sit oceanside on the way back the next day, but got all turned around because the seats were facing backwards and ended up on the inland side again! This time I didn't even try to be productive. The train was less crowded so I had the row to myself. I put on my iPod and drifted off to NPR's Planet Money podcast, the gentle voice of Adam Davidson attempting to explain mark-to-market assets. I woke up in time, a little groggy, but I didn't miss my stop!

Even Wal-Mart wants you to stop using paper cups

2009-04-21T21:27:00.001-07:00

I just watched a commercial for Wal-Mart that told viewers to use a travel mug when they buy coffee instead of a non-recyclable paper cup. I know that Wal-Mart's real goal is to get you into their stores but that doesn't bother me because the commercial was right, and educational. It pointed out that paper coffee cups aren't recyclable because the material lining the inside makes them waterproof. It also said that some coffee shops give discounts if you bring your own container ('tis true, although at the Coffee Bean it's a mere 10 cents). I hope people take the lesson and buy their travel mug wherever they damn well please.

In other random green observations, I saw proof today that anyone and everyone can embrace using reusable shopping bags. A burly older man with a backwards baseball cap and graying mustache and beard walked into my neighborhood Ralph's today with a reusable green bag decorated with a recycling symbol. He threw a log into his bag (with record high temps? OK, maybe his judgment isn't always good) and went on his merry way. That's one more for the green team!

Buy a reusable bag, PLEASE!

2009-04-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

I live right around the corner from a Ralph's. It's convenient because I can walk to the grocery store, which is not only good for the environment but good for my pocketbook because I buy only what I can carry. Since I live in a dense urban neighborhood in Long Beach, I often see other people walking along the street, grocery bags in hand. Ya walkers, is my first thought. But then I immediately assess what they're carrying. I'm disappointed to say that only about one in five have reusable bags. Why, people, why? I don't understand why everyone doesn't use reusable bags. They sell them everywhere now, including Ralph's (I have two sturdy bags myself) so they're not just for people shopping at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods anymore. I feel a little hopeful that at least I see some people with reusable bags (for example, the woman in front of me in line on Monday, who I remember because she had a big Ralph's bag that was like the ones they sell at Trader Joe's with bright, colorful prints so even Ralph's is branching out into different styles and materials).

I recently read about a Long Beach City Council meeting where they were going to discuss banning plastic bags. And not just because it's a problem in Long Beach. It was to send a message to the greater LA area because bags from other cities litter beaches in Long Beach, the end of the line of the LA river. I don't know whatever happened with that. But I support it. I think that people would be willing to bring their own bags, they just need an incentive to make the switch. And money is always a great incentive. If the city charged people, say 25 cents, per plastic bag, I think we'd suddenly see a lot more people spending a few bucks on reusable ones. It's especially frustrating when I see people walking home from Ralph's with a plastic bag in each hand. Those two bags have a life of just 10 minutes or so, and that's it. What a waste.

This carbon counting is complicated

2009-03-24T22:20:00.001-07:00

This story in the Boston Globe, "For a route to green living, you'll need a map," is really fascinating on many levels. First, it introduced me to fun new environmental terms:

-- carbon conscious. As in people are taking into consideration how much energy was used to make the products they're buying. (For example, buying bottled water from France, which uses nuclear energy, may have less of a carbon footprint than buying water from the US, where we use plants powered by fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.)
-- carbon calories. One experts imagines the day when people will be counting the carbon footprint of their food like they count calories.

Then it brought on the guilt. This is what it said about the most energy-efficient way of cooking:

"The microwave uses the least energy, followed by frying and boiling and, finally, the conventional oven. (Think how wasteful it is to heat up an entire oven just to cook a baked potato or two.)"

You talkin' to me? I just made one lonely sweet potato in the oven yesterday. But I grew up when microwaves were the hip new thing and remember the concerns over standing too close and getting cancer, so microwaving is ingrained in my mind as a less healthy way of cooking, even if that's not true anymore. Grrr, this is complicated.

But I felt vindicated when it pointed out that hanging onto an older computer is better than ditching it for a new energy-efficient model because of the energy used in manufacturing. Buying green has becoming a marketing ploy so it's helpful to remember that sometimes the most green thing you can do is not buy anything at all (I'm still using my old-school 19-inch TV that my dad bought me when I graduated from college, although I won't deny sometimes pining for those flat-screen high-def thingys).

The point of the article is that as consumers try to make better decisions, the reality is that we don't really fully know the carbon impact of the stuff we're buying. Great. Now I'm really overwhelmed. Well, then again, the flip side is that as I sit here nibbling on mini squares of Lindt truffles, I don't feel so bad eating chocolate imported from Europe. I'm just gonna have to hope Lindt's carbon footprint is smaller than that of an American candy bar, because Swiss chocolate is far superior and sorry Earth, I'm just not going to give it up for a Snickers bar.

A power strip that saves electricity

2009-03-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

I need a power strip, which gave me the opportunity to look into buying one I'd read about a while ago. There are power strip surge protectors that automatically turn off the devices plugged into them, which cuts down on something called "vampire power." That's the smalllow leaking of power that happens when your electronics are plugged in, even when they're turned off. But after looking into it, I think one wouldn't fit my needs.

An article by New York Times technology writer David Pogue from last year sings the praises of the APC Power-Saving SurgeArrest power strip surge protector. But it's only for desktop computers and all the gadgets we have connected to them. I need a power strip for a wall with three things plugged into it -- a small stereo, cable modem and wireless router. And I have a laptop, not a desktop computer, and I don't have peripherals like a printer or scanner. So I guess there's no point.

Pogue's article says that "25 percent of the power used by home electronics is consumed while they are turned off." For those who might be interested in buying one, the website EFI (Energy Federation Inc.) has the APC and other types of energy-saving surge protectors for sale.

In the meantime, I'll buy an ordinary power strip. And it's a small inconvenience but I'll try to remember to unplug my laptop at night.

It's not a grind to recycle your coffee cup sleeve

2009-03-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in a local coffee shop, It's a Grind, and saw something cool. They had put out a wicker basket with a sign that read "Recycle your coffee sleeve here." And sure enough, inside were a few cardboard coffee sleeves and a few plastic lids. Those are the two things that are recyclable when you buy coffee to go. You'd think the paper cup would be recyclable but it's not (I think something about the material lining the inside). So at least It's a Grind was trying to make a difference where it could. I'm not sure who is recycling their sleeves and lids, maybe regulars bring theirs back the next day. Or some customers who get their coffee in a paper cup end up staying (there were some people at the tables with to-go cups, others had their coffee in big white mugs). Although really, those regular customers should be using travel mugs and the sit-down customers should be getting mugs instead of paper cups, but of course the world isn't that perfect. For when it's not, it's nice to see a business making it easy to recycle (note to the coffee giants Starbucks and Coffee Bean).

Eating local, how hard can it be?

2009-03-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

This article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Farm Fresh Family: Eating local is no piece of cake," is about a Seattle family that took on the challenge of eating locally grown and raised food, and discovered that one of their greatest joys was seeing their 3-year-old son embrace fresh food like whole fish (over frozen fish nuggets). This is my favorite excerpt from the mom's blog:

Overheard in the bath tonight

"I have three kinds of fish for you: king, coho and sockeye. Which one do you like best?"

"You can put them into the freezer and cut them into stripes."

"I like the sockeye best, the other ones aren't the best."

-- Colin, age 3 1/2, playing with his fish toys in the bath, apparently running a fish stand.

Before you think that only hippies can do this, the writer explains that they're an ordinary gas-guzzling, Costco-loving family. It was hard but there were awards, like chicken without added salt and lettuce so fresh and tasty they actually wanted to eat salad.

I could relate to the inconvenience of shopping at farmers markets, which are open just once a week for a few hours. I haven't been to my local Sunday farmers market in months. I was much better about shopping there last summer. There are definitely benefits -- cheaper produce, more variety and the knowledge that you're eating healthy, in-season, pesticide-free food. But nothing beats the convenience of the grocery store around the corner from my apartment that's so close I can walk to it (which slightly alleviates my guilt of not shopping at the farmers market, especially when I'm carrying my reusable grocery bags). The mother pointed out that when she lived in Paris, there were three neighborhood farmers markets a week so it was easy to run out midweek and refresh her fridge with fresh, local produce. I saw the same when I visited my sister in Geneva. She shopped every week at two farmers markets, one she could walk to while pushing a stroller and another she took the tram to (which points out other things Europe does well, like a great public transportation system).

As this article points out, eating local can be cheaper (farmers markets) or more expensive (a whole chicken from a local farm), depending on what you're buying. Unfortunately, it's almost always less convenient until we train ourselves to shop in a different way (because really, who likes spending hours at Costco, fighting traffic in the parking lot and running over small children inside the store, only to leave with way more stuff than you intended and a lot less cash).

Killing the earth softly

2009-03-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

I have a bad Coffee Bean habit. It's not that I go way too often, but when I do go I know it's wasteful. Today I bought a tea but because it was so hot they doubled up the cups. Oh joy, two non-recyclable, straight-to-the-dump paper cups for the price of one! Knowing that I can recycle the lid is giving me little consolation. I also bought a scone and of course they put it in a paper bag, which I think is OK to recycle even though there's some residual oil stains on it (hey, I thought that was supposed to be a low-fat scone?). I sometimes remember to take a coffee mug from my office or happen to have my travel mug, but it seems like I only remember half the time. Today I went to the Coffee Bean to buy a box of herbal tea bags but I changed my mind so I bought a cup of tea instead, meaning I didn't have a mug with me.

Sure, two cups and a paper bag aren't exactly mass waste but it adds up. I feel bad and I only go to the Bean about once a week. What about the people who go every day? Or the thousands of coffees, lattes, iced blended concoctions and pastries they sell, adding up to thousands of cups and brown paper bags that I'm guessing only a small percentage of end up recycled. It bothers me because the easiest and best solution would be DIY -- make my own tea and coffee, bring my own snacks -- and pretend like the Bean isn't there, even though in reality it's 30 steps from my office door. But I don't think I have that willpower because it's just too darn convenient. So instead of resolving to cut back on the Bean, I'll just feel guilty and write about it, which feels like an ablution because I see how obsessive I've being and I'm washed of my guilt. There, I feel better already.

More than you wanted to know about toilets

2009-03-04T07:52:00.001-08:00

I'm way behind in updating my blog but here's a quick read, a fascinating opinion piece from the New York Times on sanitation and how to make it more environmental. Not sure how to do that? Think a "urine diversion" toilet. I can't believe I read this article over breakfast. So far my oatmeal has stayed down but my coffee isn't looking too appetizing!

The link is: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27george.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

After I read that article, I remembered seeing a picture of a composting toilet in the Los Angeles Times last week. I guess talk of these toilets is all the rage. The picture of the beefy composting toilet caught my attention but at first I ignored the story. I figured it would be one of those "look what a few crazy people in San Francisco are doing" stories (nope, the writer is in LA but she did hesitate to replace her toilet " with something so. . . .Berkeley"). But I went back and looked at it. It gives all the info you want (and more) about composting toilets. Fascinating, oddly fascinating.

The link to "Taking the plunge with a composting toilet": http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-realist28-2009feb28,0,6198376.story

Trash experiment Day 3

2009-02-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

My box of trash is sure filling up after just three days

All right, it's confession time. I sold out the environment for a buck. Well actually, it's worse. I sold out the environment for a bottle of hairspray.

You see, I needed shampoo and conditioner so I stopped by a beauty supply store today. I picked up a bottle of shampoo and conditioner that each cost $21.99 so I'd be spending around $44. But then at the counter they told me I could get a boxed set of the same brand that came along with a bottle of hairspray, all for the slightly cheaper price of $40. It was a good deal so I said OK but then I realized what that meant. Packaging. Yet I bought it anyway even though I already own hairspray and don't actually need any. When I got home I had to add the plastic and paper packaging to my box of trash that I'm collecting this week (see my previous post to explain why), knowing that while the packaging material is recyclable, it really wasn't necessary. Darn it. To atone for my sin I'll have to make sure I use lots of hairspray tomorrow. 80s look, here I come.

And in a side note, I heard on the radio today that Metro's Blue Line, the light rail line that runs from downtown Long Beach to downtown LA, is the most successful light rail line in the country. This fun fact came from Michael Dukakis of all people, who it turns out is a bit of a transportation expert (he was pushing high-speed rail in his interview on NPR's Day to Day). I'm not sure what exactly he meant by "successful," whether he means the Blue Line has the most riders or it makes the most money. Either way that was cool to hear. I felt some LB pride, I admit.

My trash experiment begins

2009-02-02T12:32:00.001-08:00

My box of trash is pretty empty so far

Today I began my "week's worth of trash" experiment and already a few hours in I've made one change. First, let me explain. Inspired by one man's efforts to keep all his trash and recyclables for one year, for one week I'm collecting all my trash and recycling in a box. The idea is to recognize how much waste I'm responsible for and find ways to cut back.

I decided to start today (Monday, Feb. 2). This morning I was paying my bills and one of my credit cards had an extra paper inside about signing up for online statements. How could I ignore that sign? I went to the website and signed up to get my bill sent to my e-mail so I can pay online. My house-related bills, like cable and electricity, are already automatically deducted from my checking account every month but I did that more to make sure I didn't forget to pay them. And in fact, the electric company still sends me a paper statement. But my credit card statements still get sent in the mail and I either mail in a payment or pay online. I had hesitated to sign up for online statements because I worried I would forget to pay the bill if I didn't have the bill lying on my table to remind me (not that that strategy is foolproof either. It's easy to ignore clutter for weeks on end). I decided I'd give this a shot though.

So for this month, I wrote a check and put the bill in the mail. Then I took the flier about signing up for eBill and ePay and sadly put it in my box of trash, which for right now is still pretty empty. But then again, I'm only a few hours in.

Red Line patience

2009-01-23T23:18:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Times' intrepid transportation reporter Steve Hymon had an update on the Red Line "subway to the sea" extension in today's paper. According to the brief, the good news is that they've approved an environmental study. The bad news is that, like all government projects, that's just the very first step and construction on the extension won't begin before 2013. It's just another reminder that as much as I like the idea of taking the subway to work, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Seeing this reminded me of a story my co-worker forwarded to me a few weeks ago about the expected openings of various subway lines and bus routes in Los Angeles. Among the listing was: Green Line to LAX -- 2016 to 2018. It never made sense why the Green Line subway stopped just short of LAX in the first place, but why it would take so long to add a few miles of track seems ludicrous. I know these things are more complicated than one could imagine, but still, eight to 10 years? Kinda makes you glad that gas prices are low because even though higher gas prices discourage driving, there aren't great alternatives in LA, and there won't be anytime soon. Sigh.

Time to TAP

2009-01-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

Metro's TAP card, an easier way to pay for your ride

I got home from work today at 10:30 p.m., tired from a long day, but got a boost of energy from a surprise in my mailbox. Inside a fat envelope with a mysterious return address I found my free five-day Metro pass. Yes, I was excited, seeing as how I love anything that's free. (A discount gives me a jolt of happiness too, like the $1 off coupon I used at the Coffee Bean this morning on the latte I paid for with a gift card I got for Christmas. That in a way relates to my blog because I also got 10 cents off because I brought my own travel mug. Savings galore!)

After moving into my new apartment in the fall, I received an offer in the mail from Metro for a free five-day pass. The offer said "welcome to the neighborhood" and asked about my previous experiences using Metro buses and rail lines, as I presume a way for Metro to do some market research.

It has been weeks since I mailed off my offer so I'd actually forgotten all about it. It's a pretty smart campaign on Metro's part. They sent me a TAP card, which you put money on and then reuse over and over again (like a college meal card). When it runs out of money, you just load it up again at a rail station, customer service center or online at taptogo.net. The only drawback for someone like me who doesn't take the train every day is that you can only use it for a weekly or monthly pass, not a day pass. So while I'd seen ads for the TAP since I started taking the Blue Line last spring, I figured I'd never get one. It also seemed like a hassle because I didn't know where to initially get a card. If it involved going to a customer service center or spending extra time at the train station when I'd rather just get home, it probably wasn't going to happen. But now that I have a TAP card, I'll have to see if it motivates me to buy weekly passes and take the train more often.

As for my week of free travel, I think I'll wait to start until next week when I'm no longer on deadline at work and getting home much, much after sundown. It's good timing because I've been terrible about taking public transportation since the fall (hmm, funny how that coincides with the falling cost of gas). I'd been thinking I needed to recommit myself to taking public transporation at least one or two days a week after our deadlines passed. Now that I have my TAP card, I really, really have no excuse not to.

A sharper focus

2009-01-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

"What you think is mere coincidence in life is usually just a matter of a different focus."

Those insightful words came from my dad in an e-mail after he read my blog about my green Christmas gifts (reusable bags and for my mom, a SIGG aluminum water bottle). My dad said that after reading my blog, he noticed that one of the secretaries in his office had a reusable plastic water bottle on her desk, and they got into a conversation about it. "I never noticed this before. Coincidence? I think not. I was more focused."

I sometimes wonder why I'm blogging about my environmental efforts, but if reading one of my posts is the extra inspiration someone needs to make a change, then that's reason enough. I started a blog because as a former reporter and now editor, I saw blogging as a way to keep up with my writing. As for a topic, I decided to write about environmentalism because it was the most recurring issue on my mind. I was talking about it to my co-workers, trying to make changes to my lifestyle, seeing stories about it in the news and wanted to be part of it all. I see its purpose as informing others through my personal experiences. I don't know everything and I'm not perfect, but what I do know and what I have done, I'll tell you about. Since my family members are probably my only regular readers, it makes sense that they might be most influenced, or at least more focused on the issue. My sister also wrote to me that she saw a woman in the gym with a SIGG bottle.

I got another e-mail a few days later from my dad. After balking at my description of him as an old dog (commenting on the nylon grocery bag I got him, I wondered if you can "teach an old dog new tricks"), he said he wanted to buy a reusable water bottle but that he was confused between plastic and aluminum. He asked for my suggestion on what kind to buy. Since I want my blog to be informative (along with hopefully slightly entertaining), I'm reprinting what I told him. Like I said, I'm not an expert but whatever I've learned I'm happy to share.

"To be on the safe side, everyone is buying aluminum (SIGG) or stainless steel (Kleen Kanteen) bottles, which are proven to not leach anything bad into your water. Whole Foods sells SIGG water bottles in all sorts of colors and designs. Or you can buy one online at http://www.mysigg.com/ or http://www.kleankanteen.com/. But you may want to buy it from the store so you can see what size you want. And they have different tops. Some SIGGs come with a screw on cap, which to me seems like kind of a pain. Others have a rounded sports bottle-style top so you don't have to screw off the cap to drink out of it. Even if you don't buy a lot of bottled water, it's handy to have a water bottle because if you fill it up in the morning before leaving for work, you're more likely to drink water throughout the day. And you can bring it with you when you go golfing or out for a walk, etc."

So dad, if you're reading this, I'm sorry for calling you an old dog. And if you get an aluminum water bottle before I do, then I'll really have to grovel.

A year's worth of trash

2009-01-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

The other day, I heard NPR's show Day to Day tease an upcoming story about a Los Angeles man named Dave Chameides who saved all his trash for one whole year. Yes, that's right, 365 days worth of trash and recycling. He did it to become more informed about how much he consumes and to learn how to minimize his waste (ya, figures he's from LA, land of the Prius). I remembered hearing something about him before. It turns out NPR did a story on him at the beginning of 2008 when he started the challenge, and then checked back in with him periodically. The story that I heard, which aired on Dec. 30, looked at the final tally of all the trash and recycling he'd collected in his basement.

My ears pricked up when he challenged others to try this for a week. I'm a sucker for challenges so I thought I should try it, especially considering I'm blogging about my environmental efforts. I've already cut back on my use of grocery bags, plastic baggies and disposable coffee cups. In fact, a few days before listening to the story, I was taking stock of how far I've come. That day I put the bread for my lunch in a plastic container instead of using a plastic bag, brought a mug when I got coffee at Coffee Bean, and then that night after I cooked I put leftovers in a plastic yogurt container I'd saved to reuse. Reduce, check. Reuse, check. But before I feel too high and mighty, I thought it would be interesting to do the challenge as a way of recognizing other ways I create waste without realizing it.

Day to Day had a blog about Dave's efforts. The coolest thing on it was a video of Dave explaining what he puts in a backpack he carries with him everywhere he goes. I liked his tone. It was friendly and informative without being holier than thou. He carries a SIGG bottle (eliminating the need to buy bottles of water) and a coffee mug. Before I could think, "OK Dave, tell me something I don't know," he started pulling out crazier stuff like utensils, a camping bowl that unfolds so it's flat when stored and a kitchen towel. I liked the towel idea. I don't use a lot of plastic utensils and bowls since I usually eat my lunch at work so that didn't seem as necessary. But I like the idea of cutting back on paper towels and napkins. I'm not sure if I'll start carrying a towel in my purse (seeing as how I don't carry around a backpack), but I have tried to use the kitchen towels at our office more instead of automatically reaching for a paper towel.

I've been too busy with other stuff to start my weeklong trash challenge, but I'll do it soon. And when I do, I'll let you know how it goes.

To read more about Dave's experiment, his blog is 365 Days Of Trash.
His current blog is Sustainable Dave.

SIGG alert

2009-01-08T22:27:00.001-08:00

My mom's new water bottle. Isn't it cute?

I can't believe I forgot to write about the other green gift I got for my mom for Christmas. Besides reusable grocery bags, I got her a SIGG water bottle.

When I went home for Christmas I couldn't believe the woman was still buying cases of bottled water. They litter her spotless kitchen like red cups the day after a frat party. Hello, didn't we all stop buying water bottles like a year ago because all those plastic bottles are such a waste, even if you are recycling them? (I found this shocking stat online: Americans use 2.5 million bottles every hour. Hopefully that's now a little out of date).

For my birthday last March my sister got me a reusable plastic bottle from Henry's and I've been using it almost every day since (it probably could use a good washing). That's what I wanted to get my mom but they didn't have any at Whole Foods. All they had was aluminum water bottles, which have become the de rigeur way to transport your water. (It's supposed to be safer than plastic because there's no concern over leaching chemicals). I wasn't sure if my mom was an aluminum bottle type but I was swayed by the fact that SIGG is a Swiss company, and since my mom fell in love with Switzerland when she visited my sister when she lived there, I knew she'd like carrying around something Swiss.

I've gotta give it to the aluminum bottles, they're a lot more fun than my plain blue plastic bottle. My sister and I picked out a cute white bottle with a field and ladybug design. My mom was definitely surprised and up for ditching her disposable plastic water bottles. I felt better that she'd actually use it when it passed the test of fitting under the water dispenser on the fridge so she can fill it easily. She said she'd have to buy a new water filter, which I guess is partly why she was still buying bottled water (that and habit).

The only drawback to aluminum over reusable plastic bottles is the cost. Instead of being just a couple bucks, the SIGG bottle cost $25. I might have been able to find it cheaper online but since it was Christmas Eve I didn't have time for that. My co-worker bought his online from the SIGG website a while ago, but he was one of the first to get on the aluminum bottle bandwagon before they sold them in stores. With being green so hip these days, it only takes months for a trend to take hold. Now this stuff is everywhere. I think it's kind of funny that my mom, carting around her SIGG bottle, is now cooler than I am. I might have to break down and get one of my own.

At treehugger.com, I read that the results of independent tests conducted by SIGG show that the bottles don't leach BPA. The study found:

• Polycarbonate #7 plastic bottles – 71 ppb (parts per billion) were leached into the water.
• Chinese-made aluminum water bottles – 19 ppb
• New SIGG bottles – no detectable BPA
• Used SIGG bottles (2 years old) – no detectable BPA

No more catalogs

2009-01-05T21:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in the mail I got just what I've been really wanting ... a catalog of window coverings. True, that might have come in handy in my old house where we didn't cover any of the large windows (yes our neighbors had a full view of what we were watching on TV). But it was unfortunate timing on smith+noble's part because I've kinda got that whole naked window thing taken care of in my new apartment. So I really, really don't need a catalog full of fancy woven shades and wooden blinds.

A while ago on the radio I heard about Catalog Choice, a website where you can opt out of receiving those annoying catalogs you somehow got signed up for (Pottery Barn and all its related companies is the worst). Smith+noble begrudgingly in hand, I finally got to use it. And I'm definitely a fan. It's free and took only a few minutes. After you sign up, you can search for a catalog by name and then change your mail preference to opt out of receiving the catalog. After I hit submit I got this message: "We'll take it from here. Please allow at least twelve weeks for your request to be processed." They contact the catalog for you and that's it. That's good because if I flip through a catalog long enough, I start wanting the pretty things inside. I admit that the vintage patterns in their fabric collection did catch my eye. Good thing I won't be tempted by another catalog from them. Because really, who needs shades that cost $39 a yard.

The link for Catalog Choice is: https://www.catalogchoice.org/dashboard

Green Christmas, Part II

2009-01-05T10:06:00.001-08:00

This is the 99 cent bag I got my sister.

I said that I'd write about my other environmental gifts after Christmas, and now that it's ahem, quite a few days after Christmas, I'd better get to it.

In my last post I wrote about the travel mug I gave my co-worker for when he buys coffee (thus saving a paper cup). For my family, I decided to buy them the most common green habit change of the last year or so. Reusable grocery bags for my mom, dad and younger sister. I wondered if any of them already had some. I would have guessed that maybe my younger sister did since she shops at Trader Joe's and they heavily promote theirs, but I kinda doubted my parents had jumped on that train. Kudos to Mom because I was wrong about her.

I bought a cute bag with elephants on it (and the slogan "Don't forget: reuse") from Whole Foods for $4. That one I decided to give to my dad. Since my sister shops at TJ's, I bought her two white bags made from recycled plastic bottles. The design was simple and not as obnoxious as other TJ bags. And only $1 each. When I got to Vegas for Christmas I still hadn't found bags I liked for my mom. So I stopped by her local grocery store, a placed called Sunflower that's a lower-cost Whole Foods, and bought two bags for only $1 each. Then later that day I found myself back in Sunflower with my mom and sister so we could get food for our Christmas Eve dinner. As we waited in line, my mom ruined everything when she said in the checkout line, "I have bags in my car. I'll go get them." She returned with two bags the same as the ones I bought her, except in a different color. She even turned to me and asked if I was proud of her for having reusable bags. I don't know if she noticed my lackluster approval. In retrospect, I am proud of her but at that moment I was selfishly disappointed that my present was redundant.

On Christmas Day I gave Mom the bags anyway, figuring that the more she had, the better chance she'd remember to use them. Even if she went grocery shopping and left a pair at home, the next time she went to the store she'd still have another pair in her car. My sister liked her bags -- I just hope she remembers to use them. I know from experience that when you first buy your own bags they get forgotten in the back seat or trunk when you go into a store. But after a while it becomes a habit. I hardly forget mine anymore. My dad was surprised by his bag. I explained why I gave it to him but did wonder if you can teach an old dog new tricks (the man likes his habits).

That was pretty much the extent of my environmental Christmas. I did use wrapping paper because I'd bought some on sale after Christmas last year and figured I might as well use it. And of course buying new stuff contributes to creating more waste, but I don't feel too bad because I really needed new work pants (and those skinny jeans, really I did).

Spreading good cheer and environmentalism

2008-12-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

This mug not only saves a paper coffee cup, it's also biodegradable!

I had to wait to write this post because it's about giving environmentally- friendly Christmas gifts. Now that I've given the gift, I can write about it.

The good thing about environmentalism having become so hip is that the things you do to create less waste don't get a strange look anymore. The checkout people at the grocery store just grab my reusable bags and start filling them up without as much as a second glance, then swipe the bar code that gives me a whopping 5 cent discount for bringing my own bags. I remember just two years ago how I felt embarrassed to bring my cotton West Palm Beach Farmer's Market bag to Trader Joe's, not wanting the cashiers to think I was, god forbid, uncool. Another coworker, who didn't care about things like that, had been taking a bag when she walked down to Trader Joe's, so now that I look back on it she was ahead of the trends.

But I digress. For my Secret Santa gift at work, I got my co-worker (hi Mike!) a coffee travel mug. He doesn't need one for his car since he doesn't make coffee at home. But he does occassionally (like all of us) get coffee from the Coffee Bean conventiently (or dangerously) located next door to our office. I figured he could bring the travel mug and have his caramel lattes put in that instead of wasting a cup that can't be recycled. I've sometimes had them put my drink in a big coffee cup I grabbed from the office but it's not ideal for walking back to the office. I haven't spilled coffee all down the front of me yet but I have dripped a cocoa-colored trail up three flights of stairs. I've since realized that it's easier to bring a travel mug so that is what inspired his gift. And I knew he wouldn't get weird looks because, as with bringing your own bag, bringing your own container is cool now.

(PS-After Christmas I can write about more of my eco-friendly gift giving -- hi family!)

Do you have a sandwich container?

2008-11-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

I've been remiss in posting because I knew I wanted to mention my new way of cutting back on using plastic sandwich bags, but it's a fairly minor thing so I kept putting it off. So finally, here it is. A few weeks ago I was at Ralph's and they had plastic sandwich containers made by Wonder Bread hanging in one of the aisles. OK, I haven't eaten Wonder Bread since I was still losing baby teeth, but this was kinda cute. I bought one for about $4. So now when I bring a sandwich to work, or just some bread to eat with a salad, etc., I'm not wasting a plastic bag. Woo-hoo!

I thought these were pretty common but when my coworker saw it he was jealous. He subsequently bought ones from Target made by Rubbermaid (he humored me and modeled it for me). He reported later that he had seen the Wonder Bread sandwich containers in the chips aisle at Albertson's. So now two out of three editors in my office own one of these handy containers. That's two-thirds of the editorial staff in one office. Wow! They're taking over the world!

Cruising along at 65 mph

2008-11-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

My younger sister noted recently that I’m a slow driver. Me? No. Slow drivers are boring follow-the-rules, over-the-hill types. Yet it was true. I hadn’t felt like I was driving slow because I was used to driving 65 mph but to her it felt like she was driving with our mother, who I would silently will to drive faster when I was late for soccer practice as a teen (sorry mom, I see your wisdom now).

I had picked up my sister from the Ontario airport and we were driving 50 miles to my older sister’s house. I had set the cruise control to 65 to get better fuel efficiency, which I’ve been doing since the spring when gas prices shot through the roof and I was trying to save on gas and do something good for the environment. She hadn’t heard that the slower you go, the better gas mileage you get so realizing I had an engaged (or trapped, depending on how you look at it) audience, I told her about my efforts to drive 65 mph and how it had increased my fuel efficiency. Instead of filling up after four 60-mile round-trip work days, I could get through the five-day work week without filling up. And if I didn’t drive a lot on the weekend I could go a whole week on one tank of gas.

I wrote about this when I first made the discovery but hadn’t returned to it since. Then I read an article from Saturday’s LA Times Business section, "Memories of a road trip, driven by the price of gas," about how the writer saved on gas during a cross-country trip in his minivan. He got 26 mpg instead of the 19 mpg it should get according to the EPA. He and his wife swore by the "under 65" strategy and only used AC when it was completely necessary. His main point: "... on my road trip I discovered there’s more to fuel economy than the numbers on a window sticker might imply, that even with gas prices creeping steadily downward, saving gas is a good idea, and that there are more rational ways to deal with volatile fuel costs than borrowing from your 401(k) to buy a Prius."

For those of us (myself included) who can’t justify the extra costs of a Prius, we can still do good for the environment by changing our habits, which doesn’t cost a dime (and even saves money), and is a simple and effective way to decrease our impact on the environment. Instead of saying "Well I’m not installing solar panels or buying a hybrid so oh well," it’s a reminder that small changes add up.

I liked the statistics the writer, Ken Bensinger, included in his article:
–Driving at 65 mph burns up 10% more gas than at 55. That jumps to 25% at 75 mph. Also, reaching 65 mph from a standstill requires 40% more energy than getting to 5 mph, so driving at a constant speed is much more efficient than starting and stopping.
– We’ve all heard of rolling down windows on surface streets and using the AC on the highway but the AC isn’t as much of a gas guzzler as you’d think. With the AC on, their fuel economy dropped by only slightly more than 1 mpg. "On particularly aerodynamic cars, opening windows can result in as much as a 20% drop in fuel efficiency, compared with only a 5% to 10% penalty for using the AC."
–Most interestingly, gas containing ethanol gets worse fuel economy than regular unleaded, another drawback to ethanol. Gas with 10% ethanol decreased his fuel efficiency by 9%.

Sure, it’s not possible to drive a slow 65 mph or less all the time but I’ve found that I can use cruise control for at least half my commute to work, after a get on the freeway and before traffic tightens near downtown. It may feel like you’re driving slowly at first, but once you start noticing that it does save gas, maybe more people will do it.

2008-10-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is what my co-worker suggested in response to my last post about families taking living green to the extreme, including a family that has allegedly reused the same Ziploc plastic bag for a year (she's the one who forwarded the article to me):

"I think it would be an awesome New Year's resolution to use one box of plastic bags for the year. That way, you're not committed to using just one bag for the year, instead you'd have an entire box to wash out and reuse. What do you think?"

What do I think? I'm in. Anyone else with me? You can pick the size of your box, as long as it isn't one of those jumbo zillion-count boxes from Costco.

Taking green dieting to the "energy anorexic" extreme

2008-10-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

A day after I replaced a whopping two lightbulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, I read an article in the New York Times that basically scoffed at my feeble attempts at reducing my carbon footprint. My co-worker forwarded it to me. It starts with a family in New York determined to reduce their energy use to 10% of the national average. They've unplugged their fridge and use frozen water to cool food in the summer and store food outside in the winter. I'm not sure what their homemade composting toilet is, but I don't think I want to know. At least the mother acknowledges that her neighbors think she's cooky.

It's a fun article that briefly made me want to have chickens running around my apartment so I could harvest my own eggs but once I got over that fantasy it didn't make me feel guilty. There have gotta be better and easier changes than following the lead of the guy in Culver City who sometimes relieves himself on his lawn to save a flush.

According to the article, Al Gore is on my side. His We Campaign encourages simpler steps like washing clothes in cold water (which I'm doing as I type). But I did take away one tip from the article. Green extreme, the Seattle version, has been washing and reusing the same plastic Ziploc bag for a year. That reassured me that I can reuse my plastic bags longer than the week I give them before I figure they're unsanitary or gross. The trick is giving the bag a good washing. All right, I'll try that. Not for a year, I'm not that crazy. At least not yet.

Giving carbon offsets a try

2008-10-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

On the checkout page at gaiam.com, where I was buying insulated curtains for my bedroom (they're supposed to reduce energy costs by keeping your room cool in the summer and warm in the winter), I had the choice to contribute $2 to plant trees that will offset the carbon impact from shipping the curtains. Now I have to say that I'm skeptical of carbon offsets. I wonder if trees would be planted anyway, so is it really a ruse to alleviate consumer guilt? And could we possibly plant enough trees to make a difference? The program is run through The Conservation Fund, which the website said keeps its administrative costs low so more of your donation goes toward actually planting trees.

So I went ahead and added a $2 Go Zero donation, swayed by a short video showing the Fund planting trees in an area of Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Katrina. It was just $2 and since I was buying the curtains to make my apartment more "eco-friendly," it felt hypocritical to not donate. Regardless of whether it really reduces my carbon impact, it's never a bad idea to plant trees.

Good LA Times editorial on the candidates and energy

2008-10-15T07:28:00.001-07:00

First, a disclaimer: I had hoped to take the train to work today but when my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. I didn't have the will to get up. So I accept my own hypocrisy when I point out today's Los Angeles Times editorial, which calls on the next president to have the will to enact an energy policy that is good for the environment. I like the facts in this editorial about things I knew loosely but not concretely (like that it will take 20 years for offshore drilling to lower the cost of gas significantly).

The editorial points out that "clean coal" is just a disguise for more of the same in coal-producing states, and that McCain's zealousness to build 45 new nuclear plants is ludicrous (being from Las Vegas, which for as long as I can remember has been fighting the government's proposal to store nuclear waste at nearby Yucca Mountain, I'm obviously 100% against nuclear power).

But the editorial ends with some hope. Perhaps, it says, once elected Candidate X will stop pandering and become President X, demanding real change and even sacrifice. I read between the lines on that one and assume they think there's only one candidate who can and will do that. It's the only one who mentioned sacrifice in the last presidential debate, as I pointed out in my previous post.

Here's the text of the editorial:

Editorial
A president with an energy plan: Neither nuclear nor 'clean coal' will solve the crisis.
October 15, 2008

Before most people had ever heard of commercial paper, they knew that high oil prices were squeezing both their wallets and the nation's economy, and the presidential candidates spent more time talking about gas tanks than banks. The financial meltdown of recent weeks hasn't just overshadowed the energy crisis, it has eased it in the short term -- gasoline prices have fallen because oil traders fear that demand will shrink in a global recession. Yet meeting our energy challenges will remain among the most important concerns of the next president.

That's why it's doubly disappointing that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has a responsible energy plan. In pandering to voters in swing states, both have backed dangerous, dirty energy sources in contradiction of their own principles.

The United States gets nearly half of its electricity from coal-fired plants. These plants account for about a third of the nation's emissions of carbon dioxide, the prime contributor to global warming. They are also a top source of other air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, and worldwide they are the No. 1 source of deadly mercury pollution. You can't pretend to be a crusader against climate change and pollution, as both candidates do, while favoring expanded coal use -- yet Obama and McCain waste few opportunities to declare their support for “clean coal.” If by this they mean they want more research into pumping coal emissions underground, good for them. But the voters in coal-producing states such as West Virginia interpret the candidates' rhetoric as an endorsement of increased mining and burning of coal using existing processes that are anything but clean, and Obama and McCain have done nothing to disabuse them of that notion.

"Drill, baby, drill" has become one of the McCain campaign's catchphrases, yet the pursuit of increased offshore drilling is a purely political maneuver that government energy officials say won't lower prices significantly within 20 years. To his credit, Obama frequently points out that the United States sits on 3% of the world's oil supplies but uses 25% of the world's oil, so ending our reliance on foreign sources can be achieved only by cutting consumption and developing environmentally responsible biofuels -- yet he too agreed to end a federal ban on new offshore drilling projects.

And then there's "safe nuclear," a phrase as oxymoronic as "clean coal" that both candidates like to toss around. Nuclear waste remains toxic for millenniums, and no one has figured out a sufficiently permanent way of storing it. McCain's plan to build 45 nuclear plants by 2030 is either disingenuous or naive. Because the nation's existing plants are crumbling, they will have to be decommissioned as fast as new ones can be built, making it unlikely that there would be a net increase in nuclear power even if McCain's goal could be met. Moreover, private investors have no interest in building nuclear plants unless they receive generous subsidies and taxpayer-backed loans, yet the Congressional Budget Office considers such loans so risky that "well above 50%" of them would default. Nuclear power isn't just environmentally irresponsible, it's fiscally irresponsible.

Conservatives argue that it would be impossible to get all of our power from renewable sources such as the sun and wind, so we might as well get used to fossil fuels. This is a cynical excuse for continuing our reliance on dirty and climate-altering, but cheap, energy sources. Our power supply might never be completely clean, but we've barely scratched the surface of what could be done to improve energy efficiency and raise the share of renewable power. Clean power would create jobs for American workers and innovations that could be sold around the world, while greater efficiency would lower consumers' energy bills by cutting demand.

Early in the campaign, Obama and McCain were both unafraid to make such precepts the centerpiece of their energy plans. We can only hope that when one of these men finds himself in the White House, his brighter angels will win out, but the candidates' quick embrace of wrongheaded policies in reaction to an uptick in oil prices isn't encouraging.

Environmental policy is closely connected to energy policy, because energy generation is a source of many of the world's most pressing environmental woes. Obama and McCain both understand that global warming is a serious problem, and both have proposed capping carbon emissions to solve it, though Obama would impose stricter controls. On other environmental issues, there is a similar dynamic: McCain is greener than the GOP mainstream, but still not as green as Obama and the Democratic mainstream. A good example is the "roadless rule," a Clinton administration ban on road building in national forests that was overturned by President Bush. Obama co-sponsored a bill that would codify the ban in federal law; during his time in the Senate, McCain has voted for and against giving subsidies to timber companies for building forest roads. Advantage: Obama.

The roadless rule is only one of dozens of environmental protections that have been undermined or simply eliminated under Bush -- a big part of the next president's job will be trying to reseed the scorched earth left behind by the current one. Near the top of his list should be granting the Clean Air Act waiver allowing California to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles, which was denied in December by the Environmental Protection Agency. The ruling was so blatantly political that it would be surprising if either McCain or Obama allowed it to stand, though Obama is likely to make overturning it a higher priority.

Obama and McCain are both well informed about environmental matters, and either would be a vast improvement over Bush. But the next president needs to be more than knowledgeable. He needs to have the political courage to demand change -- and possibly even sacrifice. Obama has shown little of this kind of courage so far, but McCain has shown still less.

Finally, a call for sacrifice

2008-10-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

"What sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream?"

That was my favorite question in Tuesday's presidential debate. How can a country that's at war, trillions of dollars in debt and partly responsible for problems like global warming NOT be asking more of its citizens? It also gets to the philosophy of the candidates and how they would inspire the country if they became president. That's what I want. With all the bad news in the newspaper every day, I want to be inspired to act. And I want to feel like America is helping to make the world better, not worse. We need to be focusing on global warming and renewable energy, not spewing rhetoric like "drill baby drill" and "reduce our dependence on foreign oil," which miss the big picture.

That's why not only was that my favorite question, but also my favorite answer. The question seemed to be about sacrifices Americans can make to get the economy back on track. And sure enough, McCain talked about economic stuff -- cutting government programs and earmarks. That was a slick answer because it doesn't require you and I, the "Americans" in the question, to take action. And it surely didn't inspire.

When Obama spoke, I sat up and listened (literally, because I had been flopped on the ground tiredly watching the reairing of the debate at 11 p.m.). He said Bush missed an opportunity after 9/11 when he called on Americans to go out and shop. "That wasn't the kind of call to service that I think the American people were looking for." I agreed and thought it was noteworthy because you rarely hear politicians talk about that anymore. Then he used energy as an example of how Americans can make sacrifices for the greater good. "There is going to be the need for each and every one of us to start thinking about how we use energy." YES, that's it!!! Going green has become part of our culture but is action really happening? How many people have replaced their traditional lights bults with compact fluorescent light bulbs, shop with reusable grocery bags and drive hybrids or take the bus? And even if everyone did that, would it still be enough? I think people would do more and demand more from the auto and energy industries if they had a leader on the issue. Someone who says, "Each and every one of us can start thinking about, how can we save energy in our homes and our buildings?"

In all, I felt Obama's response was muddled. He threw out the same old call for increased oil production, clean coal and nuclear energy. OK, fine, he had to say that to win votes in key states and not seem too quote -- liberal. And he got specific only when it came to government action, like incentives for buying fuel-efficient cars. But I'm not completely cynical. I feel hopeful that if he's elected, he will bring attention to the real energy issue: global warming and what America, the world's biggest polluter, is going to do about it. I hope he will get more specific about the sacrifices Americans need to make and frame global warming as the most important issue of our generation. We need a call to action like Kennedy's resolve to get us to the moon.

After eight years of Bush, it's rare that I hear a politician echoing my thoughts and view of the world. Maybe that's what excited me the most. I feel like Obama gets it and isn't afraid to say so.

You can watch that part of the debate on the CNN website, by typing in "sacrifice" in the search field at http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/video.transcript/index.html

Who needs bleach?

2008-09-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

Are you sitting down? You're about to read the most exciting blog post EVER!! Yes, really. It's about ... my dishwasher.

Actually, you might (stress 'might') be interested in this. I know one person who is, so in his honor I'm writing about the joy that clean dishes bring.

So one of the small being-green changes I made when I moved into my apartment was not rinsing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, which is a waste of water if they come out clean anyway. And they did! These are dishes that sat in the dishwasher for a week, some with chocolate cake crumbs, others with ring-around-the-coffee-mug stains. And they came out spotless. I'll give partial credit to the new dishwasher in my apartment, which doesn't seem expensive but is clearly not the same caliber as the cheapo dishwasher my old landlord bought that left our glasses foggy.

Now on to credit #2: Trader Joe's dishwashing powder. I told my coworker Mike that I'd bought that instead of conventional powder because it has no bleach and phosphates (which I guess are bad for the environment and "toxic" for our bodies. I haven't bothered to look into what exactly phosphates are and why they're bad, but for now I'll take TJ's word for it). My coworker wanted to know if the environmentally friendly brand would actually work, and I'm happy to report it's solid. In fact, better than solid. I inspected my glasses and there was no grimy film or residual fingerprints. Just sparkling goodness!

If happiness is appreciating the small things in life, then I'm a happy camper (and only partially embarrassed I've taken the time to share this with the world)!

Moving time ... the follow up

2008-09-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

I've been in my new apartment for almost a week. Before I moved in, I envisioned myself treading so lightly on the environment that it would hardly know I was there ... using less water in general and especially less hot water, not keeping lights on. But ya, I'm no Green Superwoman. I'm still enjoying my hot showers and keep several lights on at once because otherwise I'd be straining to read or feeling like I was trespassing in my own place. What can I say, bright lights make a home feel cheery. But I have made small adjustments. I've been scraping the food off my plates instead of rinsing them under the sink before I put them in the dishwasher so I don't waste water. I haven't run a load yet so I'm waiting to see if they come out clean. I read that tip in National Geographic's Green Guide magazine and it kind of hit me over the head with how obvious it was. Another tip I got from that mag is using a French press instead of a plug-in coffee maker, which I like doing because the coffee from my French press tastes better and keeps the coffee hotter (one of my major peeves with my crappy coffee maker). But then I got thinking, does it use more energy to boil the water on the stove for the French press, or to use the coffee maker? This is what buying "here are a million and one ways to go green" magazines does to a person. I bought the magazine at the grocery store before my move. I almost jumped I was so giddy with excitement. Ooh, the possibilities and things to learn.

I've read it cover to cover, even the article on how to make schools more green (no I don't have children but I also don't have cable or Internet yet so I've reading everything in sight. In my defense I did skip the article on carpets). The most interesting article was on kitchen storage. It recommended using glass and stainless steel containers and said to throw away old plastic containers because they leech chemicals and bacteria can form in small scratches. It also said if you are going to use plastic containers, #5 is safe but don't heat them or put hot food in them because they will start to deteriorate (#5 includes yogurt containers but also the Ziploc and Glad storage containers you can buy at Target). I didn't have anything too egregious in my kitchen, although it did make me wish I'd read it before I bought my cutting boards since it featured cool cutting boards made from recycled material.

The other big "green" effort I want to make is to buy used furniture. I need a few items but haven't bought anything yet, besides a small table I put by the door to hold my keys ($10 from a nameless store on 4th Street, Long Beach's thrift store row). Once I get Internet I'll be checking out Craigslist a lot I'm sure. Keeping my promise to buy used furniture has been helpful because otherwise I'd be flipping wistfully through every catalog that comes in the mail and feeling the need to hit the malls. Instead, I'm flipping wistfully through the Green Guide!

Moving time

2008-09-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

Oh man, it's been two weeks since my last post. But I have an excuse. Really, it's a good one. I've been busy looking for a new place to live. Now that I've found a place, it's time for the move, which offers up an interesting eco-challenge. How can I reduce my impact on the environment during one of life’s big changes? My coworker said he’d heard that moving is one of the most traumatic events in a person’s life. Which means it’s probably not so great on little ol’ Mother Earth either. Think moving boxes, moving vans traveling across the country and all the stuff you send to the landfill and new stuff imported from China that you buy.

I’ve got a few things going in my favor. First off, I’m moving a whoppin’ half mile away. (And I’ll try to find a local moving company so they don’t have to waste gas getting to my place.) I’ve got boxes from my last move and my office so I don’t need to buy new boxes. And I’m frugal, so I’m down with buying quality used furniture once I move in and figure out what I need.

But there are challenges.

1) I can’t buy everything used. I’m moving from a house with roommates into a one-bedroom apartment so I need basic things like trash cans, bathroom mats, cleaners, oh my!
My solution: I’ll try to buy eco-friendly, local and organic products when I can and when the green alternative isn't ridiculously expensive. I've had one success so far. This weekend I bought the all-natural Mrs. Meyer’s All Purpose Cleaner after reading a list of earth friendly cleaning products on the website for Real Simple magazine (my OCD cleaning bible). At $8 it's more expensive than a cleaner from Target but it’s concentrated so it’ll last a long time and I can use it in all my rooms, which means no need to buy a bunch of different cleaners.

2) I’m renting, which means I don’t have as much control as I would if I was buying a home. There’s a laundry room that I haven’t checked out yet, but I’m guessing the washer isn’t Energy Star. There’s a new dishwasher but I don’t think it’s Energy Star either (not that I’m complaining about new appliances).
My solution: Change what I can, like installing a low-pressure shower head. And I'll try to be energy efficient on my own, like not running the dishwasher until it’s full. That one will be easy since I have a crap load of dishes for one person. Another article on the Real Simple website (which has so much info, I was out of control clicking here, there and everywhere) said that dryers are horribly inefficient. I guess I could try air drying my clothes with a drying rack. OK, I agree to try that but I’ll have to see. If I end up a wet soggy mess at work because my clothes aren't dry, that may be a problem.

So far as I pack, I’ve been taking stuff I don’t want anymore to Goodwill so I haven’t had to throw much away. I even added an old eyeglass cleaning cloth to my donation bag. Hey, why not. Someone could use it. But going green can sometimes be expensive so I have to balance it with staying within my budget. Once I've moved I'll update my blog with how my green move is going. Now, I've gotta go do some more packing!

Train dreams and bus wishes

2008-08-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

My mass transit life is on a downward spiral.

In May I started taking public transporation to work when I could. And back then I could fairly often -- two to three days a week. It was our "quiet" time when it's possible to leave right on time, or even a few minutes early, to catch the bus. I was leaving traffic and congestion behind and living the life.

But lately my public transporation commitment has been tested. We've gotten busier at work and I've started twice-weekly rugby practices, which I need to drive to. So now I'm down to taking public transportation just one day a week.

It would be more convenient to drive every day but I'm trying to stick to one day a week. For one, I want to save on gas. Even with prices back to what I was paying in May, it still ain't cheap. But my real motivation is to do more than just talk the talk of an environmentalist. It'll get harder again as summer fades and it gets darker sooner. I think it should still be safe but I have a feeling I won't be quite as carefree (and by that I mean zoned out reading the paper or listening to the shows I've podcasted) going through Watts and Compton on my way home.

The other day at the bar after rugby practice, one of my teammates mentioned that she carpools to work in Glendale. She lives in Long Beach too and I know she's been carpooling for years, way before it became cool because of global warming/high gas prices. She said she could take the train but it would take way too long. How long, I asked. Two hours. Man I felt like the uncool kid -- why was I putting up with these long trips? And this was a day after I'd worked late with a student and then ended up taking the train with her and giving her a ride home to San Pedro from where my car was parked at a Blue Line station. That meant I wasn't home to Long Beach until 9 p.m. My teammate is probably right that carpooling is better, but I don't think I can carpool since I wouldn't have as much flexibiltiy. But maybe I should keep an open mind. I used to say that taking public transporation wasn't an option because my office isn't near a rail line stop, but I've proven myself wrong. Well, kind of.

I wish LA had a better public transportation system so it was faster and easier to get around. Having to transfer from a fairly fast rail line to a bus really slows things down. And even with my office moving later this year to a slightly closer location, it'll still take just as long (and require two stinkin' transfers). I was asked today by someone why I lived so far from where I work. I told him I loved living in Long Beach. I've said that for four years and it's still true, but I'm definitely tired of driving to work and, at the moment, of my alternative.

One less paper cup on the way to the landfill ... almost

2008-08-08T23:01:00.001-07:00

What inspired me to start this blog was coming back from Coffee Bean with a funny story about environmentalism gone awry.

At Christmas one of the former students at my work gave the editors Thomas Kinkade gift baskets with a mug, tea and sugar swizzle stick. Say what you will about whether mass produced art is really art, these mugs were great. Tall and thin, they were the perfect size for an experiment I'd been wanting to try.

One day I took my mug and walked next door to The Coffee Bean, where I treat myself to a latte about once a week. At the counter I told the girl, "Small mocha latte, half powder. And can you put it in my mug?" The young girl behind the counter looked a little confused, but said OK. My chest was bursting with pride. "I'm doing good for the environment," I thought. Then I watched in horror as they made my latte in a paper cup and then proceeded to pour the drink into my mug and THROW THE CUP AWAY. When I explained to them that I had wanted to save them from having to use a paper cup (which isn't recyclable), they claimed that the mug was too big to fit under their machine (hogwash! It's shorter than the commuter mugs they sell). I couldn't wait to run back upstairs to my office and tell my coworkers about my failed attempt and laugh at the idiocy of these alleged baristas. (And on top of it all, the commuter cup discount is only 10 cents. I'd been all ready for my green plan to be a bargain to boot.)

I'm happy to report that things are better now. The second time I tried, I held up my mug and said in a slow and clear voice, "I'd like you to make it IN my mug." And then the barista, one of the competent ones, made it in my mug just fine. Since then I've had no mix-ups. And last time I was there I discovered BYOM had gone from "secret" menu to mainstream. There on the drink blackboard was a note saying drinks made in commuter mugs get .10 cents off.

Half the time I forget to grab the mug when I go on my coffee run, but when I do remember I feel good about not killing a tree for a cup with a life span of a few hours. I just have to walk slowly so I don't spill coffee all over myself on the way back to my office.

The 720

2008-08-06T23:02:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when I'm on the bus and the minutes are ticking ever more quickly toward 9 a.m., I wonder if there's a faster way to get to work using mass transit than my current route of the Blue Line and 16 bus. I chose the route because of it's simplicity (hey, just one transfer!). The rail portion isn't so bad but the mere seven-mile bus ride that takes 35 minutes slows things down. I also wouldn't mind incorporating more walking since that's one of the benefits to using public transportation, but with 30 miles to go morning and evening, that has the potential to really slow things down.

One alternative route is taking the 720, the Rapid bus that runs along Wilshire. On a bit of a lark, I decided to try it yesterday after work. I left the office and didn't feel a bit of remorse as I headed off to Wilshire and La Brea, even when two 16 buses passed me. I was enjoying my .8-mile walk through the neighborhood just south of my office.

Google maps, with it's awesome new feature of showing walking routes, said it would take me 17 minutes. I got to the Rapid stop in 15 -- take that Google maps! There were about a dozen people waiting in the hot sun. A fancy schmancy electronic sign told me a bus was coming in three minutes. The bus came but then, in classic bus horror-story fashion, it passed right on by. I looked at the sign again and saw I had five more minutes to kill until the next bus. It was about this time that my walking high wore off. I stared across the street at a building with a pilates studio, thinking I could be there instead of wasting time on this street corner, one more missed bus away from becoming one of those sweaty bus people.

The next bus stopped and we all piled on. Some people jumped on through the rear doors. I used the front door since it was my first time on a Rapid bus and didn't know if that was against the rules.

That worked out because I had the best view on the bus. I stood next to the bus driver and got to watch the street ahead through the giant windshield. I felt like a passenger in a car since we barely made stops (just one at Crenshaw). It was the closest feeling to driving I've had on a bus, even with standing, my foot touching someone else's foot and my back lightly caressing the person behind me (but he was cute so that was OK).

I got off at Western and Wilshire, bolted for the Red Line station and waited just a few minutes before the train pulled away. Eight minutes later I was back on familiar ground, the downtown 7th Street Metro Station. I got off the train and looked at my watch. I had missed the 6:46 p.m. Blue Line train by a minute. One damn minute! If only that first 720 had stopped.

I got back to Long Beach at 7:33, pretty much the same arrival time as my old route. So in theory this walk-bus-train-train route would be faster if I could catch the 720 right away and didn't have to wait much for the trains, but lets get real folks.

I might take this route again on a day I feel like walking. Maybe I'll take the 720 all the way downtown. That's one less transfer. Ooh, maybe that's my "miracle" route. I can keep dreaming, can't I?

Bus woes

2008-07-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was not a good day for the bus.

I planned to see a movie (yes of course Batman) after work with a friend. I drove to work since I didn't want to take the train home late at night. But impressively, my friend took the train, knowing he'd be taking it back late at night after the movies. He's taken the train to work before but this time he was boasting of his "zero carbon emissions" since he biked instead of driving to the Red Line station near his house. Yet when he asked how to get to my office, which is near the Grove where we'd be seeing the movie, this is what I ran up against (recreated as best I remember):

"Is there a train station near your office?"

"No, it's three miles away. The easiest way is to take the bus."

"No way."

"No it's not bad, really. I take the bus. You can get on the 16 downtown. It'll drop you off right in front of my office or the Grove."

I wasn't able to sway him so the discussion ended with me agreeing to pick him up from the Red Line station three miles from my office and then drive us three miles back to the movie theater. For anyone counting, yes that's a total of six miles that I hadn't planned on driving.

"These are your six miles," I told him. He was a good sport and accepted them.

So he didn't have a zero carbon footprint day but he could have if riding the bus was more accepted.

Which brings me to problem #2. As I was driving to pick up my friend, blocks away my coworker was stuck waiting 30 minutes for her bus to come. She arrived five minutes early but the 6:12 p.m. bus just didn't come. And this was a busy bus stop on a major street during a peak commuting time. She said she could have been home in 20 minutes, so she was making a sacrifice by taking the bus since she after her bus finally arrived she still needed to transfer to another one. Since she doesn't live too far away from work she's not saving money by taking the bus, she's doing it for the environment. But I'm sure stuff like this will make her think twice next Friday morning when she's thinking of taking the bus again.

So, if I had someone from the MTA in front of me, this is what I'd say. You need a new marketing campaign to attract professionals to want to get out of their cars and take the bus. You need a better website. Mta.net is a mess, especially for first-time visitors. It's enough to put you back in your car. And finally (and perhaps firstly), you need to make a bigger commitment to having your buses run on time. I know, you can't add more buses overnight but there must be something you can do now (more supervisors and oversight?). Taking the bus won't become more popular if it takes twice as long to get home.

Speaking of which, I'm planning on taking the train and bus to work tomorrow. Pray for me!

My 15 seconds of fame?

2008-07-22T23:22:00.001-07:00

I have a confession. I want my blog to get noticed by Steve Hymon, the Los Angeles Times transportation writer. I'm not sure why, besides the obvious narcissism. He wrote a weekly column in the California section that was near and dear to my heart, Rode Sage (always liked that name). Then the Times kicked him to the blogosphere where he writes the Bottleneck Blog, which I can relate to more often than I care to admit. He's blogging about traffic, mass transit, gas prices ... I'm blogging about traffic, mass transit, gas prices. OK, so he's a veteran Times reporter and I'm, well, new to this whole blogging thing (but hey Steve, I am a former reporter). I feel a synergy in our missions so I just want him to know I'm out there, like I know he's out there, writing posts with the word "dude" in them. Maybe it's that casual tone that he gets to use on his blog that makes me feel like I know him and, by extension, makes me think he'd like to read my blog.

But don't you worry, I'm not sitting on my laurels waiting for him to find me at urbandieter.blogspot.com (need that repeated Steve? That was ur-ban-diet-er-dot-blog-spot-dot-com). Yesterday I commented on his post, which was about the most random and trivial of things: the loud gum chewer behind him on the train (the "dude"). "This happened to me too" I began. He had no comments yet, so being one of the first ones to comment will surely help me get his attention, right? When I filled out the form it asked for my name, e-mail address and URL. URL? Uh, not sure what that means since most people don't have URLs but what the heck, I'll just type in my little ol' blog address. And voilà, one step closer to being discovered.

I wish I were this cool

2008-07-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

So as noted in my previous posts, I spend a lot of time in my car. And my favorite in-car activity is listening to NPR talk shows. Coming home from the gym last week I caught Talk of the Nation and the topic was about two things I care about: the green movement and the youth voice. Halfway through the show, which had as a guest Robert Redford, a teenager performed a slam poem she wrote about global warming. It was amazing! I couldn't believe she wrote that as a teen, and this coming from someone who has a lot of faith in teenagers' abilities since I work with teens in my job. She didn't rattle off boring statistics but told a story about this little girl she babysits (and being scared by the "global warming" game the girl played). I don't want to give any more away, I just highly recommend you listen. It's an example of great storytelling and of how the younger generation is growing up with the fear of global warming as part of their everyday life. But unlike the hole in the ozone layer that was the crisis of my teenage years, this problem doesn't have a simple and manageable fix. Scary stuff indeed.

To listen, go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92584973 and click on Listen Now. It starts at 12:30 into the broadcast.

Dear Bus Driver: Thank you

2008-07-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm a sucker, but if a stranger says good evening to me, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Good evening." That's what my bus driver said today when I got off the bus. That was a first. Most bus drivers don't speak to you at all, and then there are the ones who aren't very nice or drive so aggressive it's scary. She was the nicest bus driver I've come across, by far. She was even nice to the people causing her trouble.

This was the 316 fast bus, which skips some stops that the 16 makes. We stopped at a red light and some people tried to get off the bus at a 16 stop. "This isn't a stop," she said. "You can't get off here. You need to read the signs when you get on." Then she let them off or they pushed the door open anyway, and she still ended her lecture with "thank you."

She elicited thank yous from almost everyone who got off the bus. Some had a specific reason to be courteous, like the guy who has asked what stop was closest to the 16 stop he usually gets off at, but others hadn't said a word to her but still said thank you when they got off the bus. All I can figure is that it was an unspoken acknowledgment for making their bus ride a pleasant experience, for infusing the bus with a "lets all get along" vibe. Well, she had me at hello (actually she said good afternoon when I got on the bus). So when I got off downtown with only a few passengers remaining on the bus, I felt bold and yelled "thank you" from the rear exit.

I e-mailed MTA customer service tonight to let them know how pleasant and respectful she was. I didn't get her name but I told them the route and time so hopefully they can look up who was driving. She deserves some recognition because Metro needs more drivers like that. It would be great to have that kind of experience all the time because it really did put me in a better mood.

Who's in charge of this nut house?

2008-07-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

The danger (or benefit, depending on how you look at it) of people knowing I have an environmental blog is that whenever I tell a story I get asked, "Are you going to blog about it?", which just reminds me that I should and if I don't, it's because I'm being lazy. So, to clear my conscious, here's a story about today's commute, with the theme: who's in charge of this nut house?

Things started off great. I left work early with a four-day holiday weekend ahead of me. After waiting seven minutes or so, the bus approaches, and it's the fast 316. I pull out my day pass, stand near the curb and "hail" the bus in the way I've seen others do it -- not raising my arm like I'm hailing a taxi, but subtly pointing my arm out toward the ground. Well, apparently I should have been more obvious. The bus zoomed right on by. I understand when buses don't stop because they literally don't have room for one more passenger, but I saw standing room. There was room for me. I text a friend in anger. Then after five minutes or so, the slow 16 comes by and picks me up. This bus is full too and it's the usual rush hour dance -- I hold the strap and sway to the rhythm of the road, then more space opens up farther back and I move, only to be in the way of a woman exiting the bus. Then I'm in the way again and keep moving back. It lightens up after Western and I finally sit.

But the first half of my commute was just the appetizer. Things got more fun when I got downtown. At the 7th Street Metro Station, I turned the corner to go down the stairs to the Blue Line platform and saw a mass of people on my platform. What are they all doing here? Now that's a photo for people who think no one takes the train. Before I felt the need to ask a stranger what was going on, they announce that a train is coming. Oh god, I thought, there's going to be a riot. They made another announcement, this time saying that three trains were coming within minutes of each other and not everyone was going to fit on the first train. I don't have much faith in people (individual people yes, but in a group they turn tribal), and sure enough, tons of people squeezed onto the first train like sardines, leaving those of us still on the platform to haughtily laugh at their shortsightedness.

The next train came a few minutes later and I got on. I spent most of the ride standing in the corner behind a guy with a bike with nowhere to grip. Inevitably, at a big lurch he fell back into me and I put my hand on his back to stop him (thankfully he wasn't sweaty or smelly, which is quite common on the train). He apologized but I said it was OK because I saw it as me helping him not fall over. We all have to work together here, people. Which leads me to the most interesting part of the ride. At the Florence stop a guy jumped on as soon as the doors opened and blocked the people who wanted to get off. Bike Guy yelled at him but he acted like nothing was wrong. So there I was squished against the wall, with Bike Guy in front of me and now Rude Guy pushing up against us as a dozen people squeezed past to get off the train. Oh hey, did I mention taking public transportation is just swell. Everyone should do it!

I can laugh about this because I was in a good mood. But if this had been a normal Thursday, I might have given Rude Guy a piece of my mind. OK, I'm totally not that person. I probably would have been crying on the inside by the time I got home, then washed away the pain with some chocolate. What I did do was tell my friend, to which she replied, "Are you going to blog about it?"

David Lazarus takes the bus

2008-06-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

First it was reusable grocery bags that went from eccentric hippie status to cool. Now it's taking the bus. I keep reading stories by reporters about their experience with taking public transportation. The latest is today's column by Los Angeles Times business columnist David Lazarus (who does great work), about his week of taking public transporation to work, experimenting each day with different bus lines and the subway to find out which is quickest and easiest. (As a sidenote: Sadly, each article I read has a higher gas price. His begins, "With the price of gas creeping toward $5 a gallon ...")

I agree with most of his observations, except when he says he arrived home exhausted on the first day. Sure, it's tricky at first when you don't know the routes, but I think he should have mentioned that after you get the hang of it, it's actually more relaxing than driving. Maybe that wasn't his experience, but it's been mine. But I'm glad he wrote it as a way to get more Angelenos thinking about taking public transportation, at least one day a week as he suggests. To quote: "Baby steps."