what did the pink panther say when he stepped on an ant?

dead ant, dead ant... dead ant dead ant dead ant, dead ant dead aaaant...

ah, greenness. some things to share with you...but first, a story.

we have ants. not in our pants, sillies. in our house. on the first AND second floor. I have tried cayenne pepper and salt. I felt like using borax in sugar water to dehydrate them was as cruel as using salt on slugs. we've been fighting them for two days! we broke down and bought some stuff that was safe for pets and was for indoor and outdoor use. I feel bad for using chemicals, but we couldn't even find the trail, and the other remedies didn't work. :( this story is true, but telling it was mostly an excuse to tell the old pink panther joke!

so back to the greenness...
exhibit a: the green guide.

this magazine is AWESOME. it comes out six times a year and it is FABULOUS. of course they buy offsets for all of their waste/carbon/etc, and for this I love them. it talks about all sorts of green stuff--eco friendly school supplies, how to save water, greening your home one step at a time, why doing this or that is really important, what impact it will have, etc.

I have read all three of the issues they've put out so far, and I have been SUPER impressed, so I have subscribed. I am excited. And it's a deal--$5 a pop or $15 for the year? The year, please! I think you should try it too!

things I learned in the first twenty-ish pages of this issue--you can blame climate change for your allergies. Did you know that ragweed used to only grow east of the mississippi? Did you know that Tuscon, AZ used to be a haven for people with allergy issues, but no longer is because its residents have insisted upon importing non-native trees to the area? And, did you know that with this overall climate change, plants are changing their growth cycles, so what used to be two months of allergy problems are now three? wow.

exhibit b: e-cover.
I'm trying their non-chlorine laundry bleach and their dishwashing powder. I must admit, I'm a huge fan of the effects of bleach on my whites. I don't wash without it. Well, until recently, when I've been looking for substitutes! these will probably be my first green reviews!

exhibit c: the ocean.
(there's a pun in there, did you catch it? oh, and now two!)
we're ruining it, but I'm sure you already knew that. bleaching corals, changing the pH, etc etc. did you know that unmitigated the ocean might raise 7 meters in height? SEVEN METERS, people! that's from that thermal expansion I told you about and from the melting of the icecaps. which, it seems that of all of our great fifty states? alaska has the most to lose from them melting (and as far as people of the world go will be the most affected as well). I'd like to say something political now. I'm not going to.

do you realize how tall that is? nearly 23 feet. roughly four people tall. more than two stories of your average building completely underwater. wow.

exhibit d: light emitting diodes. aka leds.
as many other brilliant people have stated before me, I betcha these little guys are going to be the light bulbs of the future. matt got a rechargable flashlight with these lovely leds in it. they last six times as long and use less energy. it'll be a little while before they develop, but when they do... It's kind of like how we might have to drill in alaska (shudder!) in the interim while we develop cleaner energy and end our reliance on oil, foreign or otherwise.

exhibit e: speaking of which, oil.
did you know that ~30% of our oil comes from foreign countries? it's less than I thought, because of all the fuss we've been making about it. It blows my mind that we can't just cut back by 30%. Drive less. Carpool. Use solar power or wind power or hydro power or hell, burn a friggin beeswax candle already! I've been reading a lot about emissions for my class, and that's a whole other post. I firmly believe that anyone who isn't for pollution mitigation and prevention should have to take an air pollution class. If they still stand beside their non-recycling, gas guzzling ways (and I don't just mean SUVs, more than just cars use gas, and with gas prices lots of SUV drivers are being more mileage-conscious anyway!) then so be it.

exhibit f: and that brings us to recycling.
this is simply me complaining.
a) dude, recycle already. even my eighty year old granny is doing it. she was so impressed with how matt and I collected our recyclables in oklahoma that she's decided to do it too. one hundred years later they are finding perfectly intact newspapers, milk jugs and the like in landfills. it saves energy, reduces pollution, and it will make you less selfish. seriously. even if it costs you ten bucks a month to have them pick it up at the curb, it is worth it. for your grandchildren's sake, k?
b) I have become a bit of an eco snob, I admit it. Now, there are some perfectly good reasons for drinking bottled water--I have a friend who does so at the recommendation of a doctor, for instance, and if I am parched and reusable-bottle-less, let me tell you, I will pick up a bottle at the store. I don't like doing it, but in a pinch, I will (and I'll recycle). But I was kind of annoyed to see that in my class of 20 people on monday there were FIVE people with bottled water. I'm pretty sure they could've just as easily brought their own bottle. Maybe they were reusing that bottle (which is not a good thing to do either but anyway), but really? We're in an air pollution class, people. You take it to be an air pollution engineer! And by the way, it's odd that our prof won't let us write on the back of the homework papers--um, isn't that making us use twice as much paper? riiiiight.

one more to go...

exhibit g: takin' out the trash.
as I've mentioned before, I use biobags when I scoop my kitty litter. (yes, kitty litter is bad. I've been looking into alternative) and the nice cheese people at the farmers market use biobags, too! they are great, they are. but...apparently even these corn polymers are problematic. some photodegrade just like plastic bags, and there are no tests showing they'll decompose in sealed off landfills. they are DEFINITELY still a better choice than your regular old glad bags, they are. but apparently the best choice is a trash bag made from recycled plastic! seventh generation has some that I'll be trying, but I have yet to find doggy poo bags to use for my cats. we shall see.

and now, exhibits are over for the time being. :)

oooh ooh AND. I played a little game called stump the professor in class on tuesday. he asked the following question:

is recycling pollution prevention?
(vote then read on)

poll by twiigs.com

okay, well, so the class was COMPLETELY silent. for like a full minute. and finally I said "I don't think so." Of course he asked why, and I explained "well, you're still creating the pollution. you just happen to be reusing it. but you certainly aren't preventing it." someone else disagreed, saying that since you weren't releasing the pollution, and therefore were preventing it. end of pipe v. literal pollution.

there was more debate and then I said "well, okay, so, let's say that stream that you're recycling in the plant and calling it 'pollution prevention'--let's say that instead you take that very same stream and send it to another facility, one that doesn't fit in the big box that is your plant--would you argue that was pollution prevention?"

my professor said "um, wow. that's a really good question, a really good question--and I'm not really sure I have an answer." he proceeded to talk about park benches made from recycled plastic bottles and whatnot, but said, yeah, he'd never heard that point brought up in a discussion about pollution prevention before.

it kind of made my day. :)