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I was sweating and sore and ready to collapse on Saturday morning, when this sweatband-clad old guy jogged up to me and asked, "Having fun yet?" It was all I could do to grunt: "No!"
So why the heck was I there? Out on Almaden Expressway with about 3000 other runners and walkers slogging round a 4.2 mile route when I should have been tucked up in bed enjoying a well deserved lie in. Fact is: family peer pressure and a good cause are powerful motivators...
Bravo Mayor Chuck Reed! I'm really enjoying your efforts to green Silicon Valley. I recently received the informative packet from sjrecycles.org full of handy recycling tips. Since I'm the one in our home who routinely plucks perfectly good recyclables out of the trash (sigh!), this kind of encouragement goes a long way. Did you know recycling one newspaper every day for a year will save 4 to 5 trees? Now that's inspiring! I just wish we were as far along with our green ENERGY as some of our European brothers and sisters!
How can it be that Germany is the 3rd biggest producer of solar panels? Solar panels are selling like hotcakes over there but its weather is typically DREARY. They don't bask in the sunshine we're used to in our glorious golden state. What gives?
I've been hearing for a long time about Germany leading the way in renewable energy, but it wasn't until I got to my April 5th copy of Economist that I realized how they've managed it. Seems the Germans were way more forward thinking than all the clever people in Silicon Valley. Way back in 1991 they adopted a renewable energy law that provided huge subsidies for wind, biomas and solar energy, encouraging investment in clean technology. But here's the rub: the country and families have paid a price: the price of electricity has grown 5% for typical homes and the cost for the whole country jumped 38% in just one year!!!
The article says enthusiasts consider this "a small price to pay" but the figures make me anxious: with our economy in recession, and belts tightening from DC to HQs to HSHS (home sweet home), what are the chances that we can ever afford to pay the price (politically and economically) to decarbonize OUR power supply and catch up with the Europeans?
Continue reading "I'm Green: keeping up with the Europeans " »
My weekend is never complete without reading Chrystia Freeland's excellent column in the Financial Times Weekend section www.ft.com/freeland however, a recent one really made my blood boil. Titled, "Save us from the eco-mom," my hackles were up before I'd even scanned the first paragraph. She reports to "feeling the first stirrings of eco-resistance" as she's forced to hand wash her daughter's glass milk bottles...and then extrapolates into a whole peeve-fest about "eco-moms' tendencies to complicate and belabor domestic life." Oh my!
I agree that we shouldn't forget the emancipatory power of the dishwasher and washing machine, but I think we should also be prepared for a little inconvenience. Saving the planet is worth a little hassle, is it not?
I aspire to be an eco-mom www.ecomom.com; I aspire to recycle, buy local, drive a hybrid, reduce my carbon footprint etc., but I certainly don't aspire to the fundamentalist eco-mom definition she describes...moms who're completely consumed by the eco movement to the point of turning the clock back, abandoning science and technology. Brings to mind an image of women down by the river, scrubbing their underwear with carbolic soap for hours...Oh, please!
And another thing...
Had my first encounter with doctor extraordinaire Andrew Weil this week as part of Dick Henning's Celebrity Forum at the Flint Center. What a guy! He looks more jolly santa than health guru but the guy sure knows his stuff about staying healthy.
He peppered his talk with some excellent tips about diet (yes: it's official, dark chocolate IS GOOD for you!) and lifestyle (make exercise fun not pain -OK then!); and told us about some surprising studies. Did you know that when people were asked how long they'd like to live IF they stayed healthy, the results for men and women were at wild extremes? On average, men wanted to live 1000 years! Made me think of Freddie Mercury's immortal "Who wants to live forever?" whereas women..opted for 120 years. Why the difference? the reasons are enlightening and speak volumes ...
My husband is on a business trip to Europe this week, so that means I get exclusive use of the family Prius. Yeeees! No cajoling, no negotiation. Zip. Since we bought it last summer, we both like it so much there's almost a daily battle over breakfast: how far are you driving today? Whoever is going further -or says they are (!)- gets to sit behind the wheel and enjoy the heady sensation of watching the miles per gallon counter hover around 45.
Now before you accuse us of being smug environmentalists with a tree hugger's adoration for all things green; I have to confess we bought the car because it would save us oodles of commute time by driving solo in the carpool lane (Oh CA lawmakers, I kiss your feet on this one!) They say: Time is money, but time is also sanity when you're waiting for your road warrior to arrive home so you can get dinner going for a pair of rambunctious kids! But owning a Prius has also had some unexpected consequences, some good, some bad...
Is talking politics taboo? Well-brought up girls are taught never to talk politics at dinner parties, at work, heaven forbid with strangers. Maybe I wasn't brought up right, or maybe that particular lesson didn't sink in, I don't know, but I find it hard to respect that particular rule...especially when we have HISTORY MAKING CHOICES available. I'm certainly NOT teaching my kids that political debate is taboo, quite the opposite. We're often talking politics at the dinner table and have even made predictions of who'll get each nomination.
I recently went online, ordered a lawn sign and ten pins of my favorite candidate to share with any friends and family who'd wear them. How do you like my pin? I'll ask friends whom I know are from across the aisle, just to get the conversation going, cos I firmly believe taboo or no, we aught to be talking about the issues, getting people fired up about this historic election year and hopefully getting those slothful "my vote doesn't count" folks out to the polls... and you know how they react?
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