City mouse vs. country mouse

I came across this article on Facebook recently, and I thought it was a good article, and worth a blog post as well, because I have more to say on this topic than would fit in a Facebook status. In case you don't want to read the article (for shame! It's short!), it's an interview with a UVA professor of urban and environmental planning about something he calls "biophilic cities". I don't really want to get into a discussion about what those are because I'm not sure I have enough knowledge to explain it, but I do want to touch on the role of cities in a environmentally conscious society.

One thing I find among the greenies, particularly here in Alaska, is that they can really be down on cities. Cities are viewed as blemishes on the landscape -- they produce enormous amounts of pollution, require a lot of resources, and are basically voids of nature -- or at least, that's the way they're viewed in a place where there's plenty of available land. Here, everyone wants their own plot. Get back to the wilderness!

But in some ways, cities have an opportunity to be more environmentally friendly than someone on an isolated plot of land. Shared living spaces means that we can economize on transportation, heat, and energy needs. In the city, you might be able to walk to your local grocery store, or neighbors house. On a farm or a homestead, you need transportation to do those things.

All this to say, I think the idea of bringing nature to the cities is a good one. Sure, it won't be as natural as real nature! But let's face it, if you live in the country, you want the people in the city to stay there anyway. Why not help find ways to make it more desirable, and less of a burden on the surrounding country side?

Cultivating a Lifestyle

In the spring of 2012, I took an Introduction to Permaculture Class in Australia and really enjoyed it. Ever since then, I've been excited to apply the principles to my own yard and life, but a little overwhelmed on where to start and what resources I have here in Alaska. I've often thought that I would like to take the full design course, which gives you a Design Certificate (you can use the certification as a credential when designing for others), but haven't had the chance yet, partially because it's a two week course and I'd have to take leave. Then this year, a cold-climate specific course opened up in Palmer, on one weekend a month, which is perfect! My first class was this weekend.

What is permaculture, some of you may be asking? I'm glad you asked! Permaculture is the design of a living system that works together harmoniously and abundantly for its components -- plants, animals, humans, and soil. (We had to come up with an "elevator speech" for one of our activities). It's a garden, but it's also incorporating aspects of your home, organics, sustainability, community, integration, self reliance, and no waste!

I'm sorry to say that I don't have any pictures from the weekend, but that should give you a clue that I was really busy and having a good time. We learned a lot, made sheet mulch ("lasagne" mulch), planted a cover crop (a.k.a. "green" manure), did soil tests, observed our environment, and started a major project to present to the Matanuska Experimental Farm sometime in February.

Part of the reason I joined this class is to meet new people who share my interest in organic gardening -- creating a group I can rely on for advice and resources and hopefully make some new friends! I enjoyed meeting everyone, and it was so nice to talk to people about the things I'm interested in (raising chickens, buying fruit trees, composting, etc) without feeling like a weirdo.

So, this was just the first weekend. What now? Well, I need to start some google docs for our project and share them (I'm actually really excited about this!). I want to get a journal and start spending more time observing my yard and my garden. I need to do some compost work, and lay down some sheet mulch for a native plant garden I want to grow next year. And, I need to keep in touch with my classmates so I can develop the community I'm looking for! A lot of work, but I'm definitely excited for the upcoming months.

Permaculture Musings

I mentioned in my annual Beginning of the Year post that one of the things I wanted to do this year was take a permaculture course. There have been a few opportunities to get involved with some permaculture activities in the community garden, but I wasn’t able to attend any before we left the area. Regardless, I still want to get into a course, although it looks like it will probably be next year at this point.

I’ve been checking out the Milkwood Permaculture site recently; I found them via the Permaculture Research Institute, which is also interesting but preachier. Milkwood is a bit more my speed. I thought this current blog post on urban permaculture design had some really cool ideas.

There are some permaculture design courses coming up in Sydney and I’m going to try to attend one. I’m going to shoot for the introduction to permaculture class in March (the December one is full). What I would really like to do is attend the two week course for a permaculture design certificate in January. Unfortunately, it’s pretty expensive, but more importantly, I don’t really have the leave to do this and our planned Australia/Japan trips. Plus, I’m still a real newbie to these ideas – I haven’t even managed to plan a proper garden yet – so spending a lot of money on a course seems like it’s putting the cart before the horse. Gardening (and permaculture) rely on growth and development, which require time, meaning of course, that I must have patience. I’ve always been very short on that quality, so this is a good exercise in personal growth.

In the meantime, I’m trying to decide what I want to do in the garden/yard at our new house. We will only be living here a short time, so I don’t want to spend too much, and I don’t want to do too much that’s permanent at the risk of irritating the landlord and spending a lot of time and energy on things that are just going to be sprayed with herbicide in 8 months’ time. I still have some time and room to grow a few things though, so I hope to get to the garden store soon to plant a few veggies to enjoy this summer.

Nor Any Drop to Drink

Today is Blog Action Day, a day in which bloggers worldwide write about a specific topic in order to raise awareness about a particular subject.  This year’s topic is Water.   Having recently moved from a water-rich location to one that is very sensitive to drought, my perspective on water has changed a little recently.

Australia has been suffering from intense drought over the past several years.  Many locations, including Melbourne and Sydney, have recently had water storage levels as low as 35% of their full storage capacity (the full storage level does not include floods).  This has resulted in many water restrictions and high water prices, as you might imagine.  Currently, a series of unusual rain events have raised the storage capacity to above 50% across New South Wales (Ref: National Water Commission).  The key word here is unusual – these rain events are not expected to continue on an annual basis.  While NSW has water now, in the very near future, we may be back to water restrictions.

One of the areas of New South Wales that is most affected by drought is the northwestern slopes area.  This area is at the headwaters of the Darling River, and a lot of cotton and rice is grown there.  As a result, the Darling frequently suffers from low water levels, high pollution and high salt content.  While I believe in locally made products, this makes me question whether I should buy rice and cotton products that are made in Australia.  Does it make sense to buy these products, which are grown in climatologically poor water areas?  Or should I buy products that are shipped from Asia, that don’t have as much of a negative impact on water levels, but are made by underpaid and poorly treated workers, and are shipped thousands of miles across the world, thereby using our precious fossil fuels and contributing to more carbon emissions?  I don’t think there’s any easy answer to this.

On a personal level, Ethan and I struggle with water conservation.  I have no idea how much water we use.  Back in Alaska, our landlord paid one fee for the building, so we never had to pay water useage.  Ethan loves baths, and I am constantly watering my flowers.  I also suspect that my methods of washing dishes waste a lot of water.  

Unfortunately, renting restricts some of the conservation measures I would like to take.  A rain barrel is not an option, because of the way our downspouts are built (can’t exactly cut into them).  A gray water system is completely out of the question.  We do have a dual flush toilet, but unfortunately, the half-flush just doesn’t work very well.  I’m hoping to take some more sustainability courses that might give me some clues as to how to reduce our water useage.  In the meantime, we will have to be more cognizant of our usage.  I’m sure our water bills over the next few months will make us more aware.

Greening the Desert

So, one of the books Ethan got me for my birthday last September is Gaia's Garden, which is all about permaculture -- the idea of building organic gardens that are basically self-sustainable. I've been reading it in preparation for when (when!) we buy our own house, and it's pretty cool.

While surfing on the internet, I found this video about a permaculture project near the Dead Sea. This is an area which is basically void of life and considered to be very difficult to farm. This man built a farm using some of the ideas of permaculture and was able to create an organic farm that is thriving in a very harsh environment.

Check it out. Even if you aren't really into gardening, it's pretty cool.

Last Post of the Year

I thought I would do a quick review of my year, blog-style.

January: My cat died. We looked for a dog. I measured the electrical usage of all my household appliances.
February: We found said dog and adopted him. I finished one out of three of my mosaic tables.
March: We attended the Fur Rondy Reindeer Run and watched the recalcitrant reindeer return to the start. I went home for vacation and then on a business trip.
April: I stressed out about school and my parents comforted me. I also got my new fire boots and some business cards.
May: My parents sold my childhood home and moved to Florida. I talked about my CSA and eating locally. I started riding my bike to work again and made a public service announcement about rules of the road. I also started a garden.
June: We went on an awesome float trip down the Chulitna. We also went camping over Memorial Day and about froze to death. I whinged about blogging.
July: I got dispatched to my first fire, where my trainer nearly escaped death during lunch. We took Fievel hiking and he was a brat, so we stuffed him in the backpack. I complained about being weird.
August: I got dispatched to another fire, where I got rained out. I became obsessive over my lame garden.
September: We drove the Denali Highway with the dog. I had an awesome 31st birthday with great gifts from my husband.
October: I attended the Local Food Film Festival and posted way too much about it. I reviewed our 7th annual Crow Pass Hike, and harvested 3 lbs of carrots, putting an end to the garden posts.
November: I ignored the blog in favor of school.
December: I completed my Master's Degree. We had a graduation celebration and attended a Christmas party. Fievel liked his new Santa sweater but did not like the hat. I went cross-country skiing. We flew down to Toledo for Christmas, where we went on a wagon ride and visited some art museums.

So that's it for 2009. I hope 2010 is just as good and I wish all my blog readers the same!

Local Food Film Festival, Part III

Last night, I went to the Local Food Film Fest one last time to see Fresh. It was more like Food, Inc., in that it was better produced, and more formal, but it definitely was more positive. There was some stuff about the feedlots and chicken houses, but it also had lengthy portions talking to sustainable farmers and how they ran their farms. It was pretty cool. One guy would move his cows from field to field every day. After the cows were done, he pulled these "chicken tractors" into the field and let his chickens out to forage in the field. They produced tons of eggs. Then the field would rest, regrow, and the cycle would start again.

I remember learning about crop rotation as a 6th or 7th grader in one of my history classes. We learned how when European farmers started rotating their crops, famine and crop disease went down because the different crops would take different nutrients from (and return other nutrients to) the soil. It never occurred to me that due to the industrialization of our food system, that's no longer happening. We are growing one crop on a farm, whether it's corn or soybeans or hogs, year after year until the nutrients are depleted and the bugs become pesticide resistant. It's not a good way.

It seems like a lot of problems we're experiencing in American society, e.g. farmers going under and needing government subsidies, overuse of antibiotics creating "superbugs", etc. are due to the industrialization of our food system. This film was hopeful though, because it showed people doing something different, changing the system from the inside, and doing it successfully.

There was a discussion after the film again, but I didn't stay because I'm kind of done with talking about local food issues for now. As, I'm sure, are you. So, I'm going to hop off the soap box and I promise my next few posts will not be preachy. I have some ideas for things (and pictures) to post that I think you will find interesting. Til next time, dear readers (and remember to eat local)!

Local Food Film Festival, Part II

Last night I went to see Eating Alaska at the Local Food Film Festival. This movie was really different from Food, Inc. For one thing, it wasn't as formal, or as uh, glossy. I mean the editing wasn't quite as good. But also, it wasn't as depressing.

The movie wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't really about a vegetarian trying to adjust to her new husband's lifestyle, it was more like a former vegetarian takes a look at what it means to live a subsistence lifestyle, with hunting, fishing and foraging in the Great State. She talks about how dependent we are on wild food, and the benefits and drawbacks of it. It was actually pretty cool, because the movie talks about some of the issues I've mentioned here about living in AK and eating locally. I felt like someone else "got it", you know?

Another neat thing was that they actually had the director there to answer questions, along with the State Director of Agriculture. And you know, there's actually a lot of cool things happening with the local food movement up here. For one thing, the number of farmer's markets across the state has grown exponentially over the past few years. Also, the number of farms has increased, and they are trying to push forward a bill that would allow meat inspections at the state level -- which would increase the amount of locally grown meat that could be sold in restaurants and stores. Our revamped Matanuska Creamery is taking off, and in spite of the fact that some of our farms use commercial fertilizer, AK is better off in the pesticide realm because the bugs can't survive. So that's pretty cool, especially since I feel like I am in the forefront of a (green) revolution!

One more installment of the Food Film Festival tonight, and that's Fresh. It's supposed to be kind of like Food, Inc. but with a more positive spin. I thought I was going to need a positive spin after Food, Inc. and I still think it will be cool to see, even though Eating Alaska was pretty positive (and actually funny in some spots)!

P.S. Kelly asked for pictures of my orchid. I am planning to take some more and post them, probably next week some time.

Local Food Film Festival, Part I

Last night, I went to the first night of the Alaska Local Food Film Festival at the Bear's Tooth Theater. To kick off the festival, they showed Food, Inc. I have to say, it occurred to me while watching this movie that perhaps showing movies about how our food is made/grown at a place where you are supposed to be eating dinner was not the world's best idea. However, the movie was really good, albeit gross and disturbing.

I think one of the things that bothered me most is how apparent it was that when we go to the grocery stores, what we see are not choices, but is actually the illusion of choice. First of all, due to all the food conglomerates, most products are owned by the same few companies. Secondly, the food labeling system hides a lot of information -- like what our food is actually made from. Did you know that there are corn products in cheese? (Well, they showed Velveeta, which IMHO, is not cheese, but still).

Here are a few facts I learned from the movie that I found particularly interesting or enlightening:

• The average chicken farmer has to take out loans of $500,000 to build 2 chicken houses. From those chicken houses, they earn $18,000 a year.
• Feeding cattle corn actually encourages the growth of e. coli bacteria, because cattle are not meant to eat corn. Feeding a corn-fed cow grass for 4 days will clear out most of the e. coli. But instead, hamburger manufacturers make a filler (from God knows what, it was really gross) and treat it with ammonia to kill the e. coli. That's right, your fast-food hamburger was sprayed with ammonia. Yum.
• Monsanto (the same company who made DDT and Agent Orange), the maker of Roundup, has patented a genetically modified soybean that is resistant to Roundup. Farmers are no longer allowed to harvest and replant seeds due to patent infringement -- even if they do not use the genetically modified seeds.
• But, in an interesting (positive) twist, Walmart, the evil mega-corp, has started carrying organic food and bovine growth hormone-free milk...because of customer desire. That's right, enough people asked for BGH free milk that Walmart has started carrying it. So what does that tell us? Voting with your dollars works.

I would really recommend any one to see this movie. But if you decide not to, I ask one thing: learn something, anything, about where your food comes from. I think it will really change the way you eat.

Next up: Eating Alaska, the film about the vegetarian lady who marries a hunter and commercial fisherman. I plan to get to the Bear's Tooth early for this one, as it will probably be pretty popular.

Edited to add: One of my loyal blog readers requested the name of my birthday books. The one about gardening is Gaia's Garden, and the one about sustainable living is called The Sustainable Toolbox.

Birthday Revue!

So, my birthday turned out pretty good after all, even though I had to work. First of all, my fantasy football team managed to eke out a tie, even though they were 62 points down before the Colts game. Thank you Peyton Manning. Your thank you card should be arriving any day now.

Second, I got some really awesome gifts. Especially from my husband, who apparently knows me really well. Who'da thunk? He got me two books -- one on sustainable urban living, and one on sustainable/organic gardening. They are both pretty cool. I currently have an organic gardening book, but it's mostly about plants and pest remedies. The new one is about garden planning and techniques, with specific chapters on which plants grow together as "helper" plants, etc. It talks about making a wetland in your garden to process your graywater, and growing fruit trees on wires to maximize production in a small space. One of my favorite parts just shows the garden designs. I have been wondering how to have a productive garden without making it look like a farm. This shows you how to make an attractive and productive garden.

Enough about the book. Ethan also got me Season 1 of The Flight of the Conchords, which is a really funny show about a Kiwi band who comes to New York to get their start. If you want to see a weird but (in our opinion) funny movie that is very similar and stars one of the same actors, watch Eagle vs. Shark. We both have a peculiar sense of humor and this show just really hits it. So I'm excited to watch it with him.

The only bad thing about these presents is that right now, I need to be reading books for class. So I will have to wait until I get my freaking paper done to delve into them. But I am already excited for next year.

Yay for good birthdays!

Literal Bits and Bites

Well, it looks like I'm making a blog post about every 2 weeks. Better than nothing, I guess.

I found out the other day that Anchorage is having an Alaska Local Food Film Festival, and I'm pretty interested to go. It's the first week in October, and it will be showing Food Inc, The Garden, Eating Alaska, Fresh, and End of the Line (brief synopses to follow). All of the movies sound interesting to me. Of course, one thing about these kinds of festivals is that they tend to be preaching to the choir. The Dorito chomping, McDonald's frequenting crowd is not likely to go to something like that.

Food, Inc. -- documentary showing how the food industry has changed over the past 50 years. Shows where our food is coming from and what we're paying for in the supermarket
The Garden -- film about a community garden in Los Angeles. A low-income community took over an abandoned lot and turned it into a very successful community garden. Then city officials found out that this wasn't authorized and tried to take the garden away.
Eating Alaska -- a vegetarian moves to Alaska and marries a commercial fisherman and hunter. The film examines the dependency on meat in AK and subsistence hunting and fishing.
Fresh -- similar to Food, Inc. this movie talks about the negative parts of the food industry. However, I think (not having seen the movie) it also discusses how to change the food industry by voting with our dollars, etc.
End of the Line -- looks at the commercial fishing industry and the overfishing and polluting of our oceans. Talks about how to make the fishing industry more sustainable.

(I should clarify that I have not watched any of these movies, and these synopses are what I gather from watching the trailers online.)

These movies will be shown at the Bear's Tooth, our local eat-in movie theater. The theater is also going to serve specials made with locally grown produce. Yum!

I have not been as successful with local eating as I would have liked this summer. My garden was also very lame. But every little effort counts, and I'm going to keep up the effort. One thing I really want to do this year is buy a local fresh turkey for Thanksgiving. I found a farm in Palmer that sells them, but you have to order now. The problem, and this is a common problem with eating locally and eating organic, is that the turkeys are expensive: $4.30/lb (to put it in perspective, a frozen chicken from Fred Meyer would cost $1.29/lb if it were on sale). I really want to do this, and I am hoping I can convince Ethan. For one thing, I am wondering what a fresh, non-steroidal turkey, non-Butterball would taste like! But it does exemplify an important concern in the local/fresh market: how can you convince people to eat healthy foods that are better for the environment if they can't afford it? I mean, we can afford to pay $4.30/lb for turkey. But a lot of people don't have that luxury. So their choice is Hamburger Helper made with ground beef from steroid-grown, abused cows (all purchased at Walmart), or go hungry.

What's the answer? I don't know.

How walkable is your neighborhood?

My friend Holly posted a link to this website: http://www.walkscore.com. I was disappointed but not entirely surprised to find out that my neighborhood scored a whopping 37 out of 100. Although realistically, I think that my neighborhood is one of the more walkable in Anchorage, and it is definitely pretty doable on the bike.

I also found out that there is an Italian restaurant within walking distance that sounds pretty interesting. The 3 reviews I read on some random website made it sound pretty good (in other words, I got all my information from the internet, which never lies). But Ethan and I like to try new things, so I think I'm going to try to convince him to go there soon.

Post-dinner edit: We tried the Italian restaurant. It was okay. A little high priced for the quality, IMO. Oh well.

Musings and Perusings

"That so few now dare be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time." - John Stuart Mill

I read this quote on a new gardening forum I'm trying out, and it really resonated with me. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be "different" vs. "eccentric" vs. "weird". Where is the line drawn? I mean, to some degree, one man's "weird" is another man's "eccentric". But there are certain people that everybody agrees are weird, and they are frequently alienated from society (often by their own preference).

I am not sure where Ethan and I fall in the different/eccentric/weird spectrum, but over the past year or so, I have noticed that we are definitely somewhere on it. We make life choices that many people, including a lot of our friends, do not understand. For example, we choose to be very frugal in a lot of ways, although our incomes do not require it. But we have goals for financial independence, which we strive to achieve through frugality. And most of the things we choose to be frugal about are things that we just don't appreciate enough to spend money on. Cable t.v. for example, or fine wine to drink with our at home dinners (we have boxed wine for our "house" wine).

Some of our choices come from my desire to lessen our negative impact on the earth or reduce the influence of chemicals on our bodies. I think if some people knew that I wash plastic bags for re-use, have given up paper towels, and am trying to consistently bake bread at home (sans bread-maker, no less), we would move a little further toward "weird" on the weirdness line.

And yet, compared to some of the people on that gardening forum, I feel like a hedonistic mega-consumer. We don't buy organic meat (too expensive). We don't raise our own goats (but I do kind of want to try chickens). And we don't make our own clothes (oh hell no. I'll patch things, but I'm no fashion designer).

So I'm trying to figure out how to be who we are, because I really like the direction we're moving, without becoming societal castoffs. I don't want to alienate my friends and coworkers by making them feel like I'm criticizing their lifestyles. I know that most people can't or won't make the choices we do. But I figure if, by living our lifestyle, we convince one person to recycle or line dry their clothes, we've made a positive impact. And that's good enough for me.

Killing Watts Everywhere

Well, it's not official yet, so shhhh but...it appears that Ethan got the gas job! Yay! He's really excited, so I'm excited too. Plus, he'll be in town more, which is always a good thing.

In other news, I got an interesting gift for Christmas: a Kill-A-Watt. Of course, in my nerdiness, I absolutely love it, because now I can tell how much power all our appliances draw, both on and off. Here is what I've found so far: things that don't have clocks, like a toaster, or the coffeemaker (we have the basic kind) do not draw power when they're off, so you can leave them plugged in. Other stuff, like the t.v., stereo, etc. do draw power when they're off. In fact, they draw about 30 watts of power (total). So unplugging them does save energy. I have also found that power strips do not draw electricity when they're off. So if you have a bunch of things like an entertainment system, an easy way to save electricity is to plug everything into the same power strip and then turn that off when you're done with it. Same goes with computers: ours draws about 30 watts of power when it's off but the power strip is on, zero when the power strip is off.

The most "Wow!" thing I've found so far is the microwave. It draws only 1 watt of power when it's off (in spite of the fact that it does have a clock), but guess how much it draws when you use it? 1600 watts! That's 1.6 kilowatts! That's a lot of power! Of course, you only run your microwave for a few minutes a day, so it doesn't really take too much energy overall.

I'm hoping that turning off our computer and t.v. powerstrips will save us some energy. Unfortunately, we are using more energy this winter because I got a block heater for my car. The block heater draws about 400 watts when it is on. On the other hand, using a block heater helps reduce pollutants once you start your car, and it prolongs your engine's life. So I've been using an outdoor timer, and plugging in my vehicle religiously. I think the few extra bucks in electricity will be worth the price of the car in the end.

Anyway, I plan to keep using the Kill-A-Watt to check how much energy things suck. It has a feature that accumulates power, so I plan to plug my microwave in for a whole night and see how much power it draws when it's plugged in overnight. Onward and forward, in the name of saving the planet (and a few bucks in the process).

Here Comes the Sun....or maybe not

So, in the interest of green/sustainable living, I have been thinking about installing solar panels for a while. I know, you probably think I'm crazy, living in Alaska. But in the summer, we actually get an incredible amount of sunlight, so it's not as ineffective as you might think.

Last night, I did some research on solar panels and found that a 1700 W (that's 1.7 KW) system would cost about $10K. Eep! So I was interested to see how much power we use vs. how much power that would provide. Annual average solar hours per day for Anchorage is about 3.7. So a 1.7 KW system would provide 6.29 KW per day.

As for our usage...drumroll please...we use an average of 20 KW per day! According to the Energy Star website, that's about 40% less than the average American. But considering the fact that the size of our home is about 40% less than the average American, well, we're not doing so hot. So, in order for solar panels to cut our electric bill by 50%, we would have to cut our usage a lot!

I'm not sure of the economics of this either. Let's say we buy 2 1.7KW panels for $20K. That would probably cut our electric bill in half. We currently spend about $1000K a year on electricity...so down to $500 a year...I would have to do the economics, but it doesn't seem like a particularly good investment monetarily. (Contrary to popular belief, you can't just divide $20K by $500 and say it will take 40 years to pay it off. I learned that in my Enginering Economics class. There's a wonderful thing called the Time Value of Money which throws a wrench in the works).

Anyway, we can't install solar panels, because we rent. So the first thing is to try to reduce our electricity usage. I think a good goal for next year is to reduce our electricity usage by 20%. That would bring us down to 16 KWH per day (as an aside, after Ethan came home from Kuwait, our electricity usage jumped by about 20%. The obvious solution is to get rid of Ethan. But I kind of like him, so we'll let him stick around).

In all seriousness, the main way to reduce electricity usage is to upgrade your appliances. I know for a fact our fridge isn't very efficient because condensation collects between the doors. But again, we can't upgrade, so we'll have to look into other alternatives. I have some ideas for reducing our light usage when we're not home, like installing timers on our light switches so that they'll turn on right before we come home. That way our house is welcoming when we come in but we don't have to keep the lights on all night/day.

As for other things, well, I don't want to give up my grow lights, and Ethan doesn't want to give up his computer games/electronic music. So I will have to think some more. Any suggestions?

Phantom Load: A bunch of poo?

Recently, I've heard about "Smart" power strips, which eliminate use of electricity by your electronics when they're off. In case you didn't know, a lot of electronics still draw electricity when they're plugged in but off. This applies to things with clocks, such as your microwave, stereo, etc. but also to anything that has a big black box on the plug, like cell phone rechargers and printers. We have taken to turning off the computer when we're finished with it to save on power, but I thought the smart strip might help with the "phantom load" issue, as it is known. An aside: "phantom load" sounds like a phantom poo or something. I kind of feel like it should be used to refer to when my cat takes a crap outside the box and I have to find it, versus electronics drawing power when they're off.

Anyway, so I was checking into the smart power strip tonight, and I found they're cheaper than I expected: only about $45. But then I ran into this article, which had some interesting comments at the bottom. Seriously, read the comments -- it's not like the comments by the weirdos on yahoo news stories; these comments are actually useful and not rude.

Based on the comments, I have a lot of questions about how much power our appliances actually draw and how much these power strips would save me. At this point, I think it's best to keep our old power strips instead of throwing/giving them away and acquiring new ones, since the benefit is questionable. Part of my goal in becoming more environmentally responsible/living sustainably is to reduce waste by not purchasing things that I don't need. I will continue to unplug the rechargers etc that aren't being used, and unplug our power strips when we go on vacation.

Thinking Globally, Living Locally

In my ongoing quest to become even weirder*, I have lately become interested in sustainable living. The idea behind sustainable living is to only use what you need; that is, our current consumer lifestyle is leading us to destroy ourselves and our environment, and that by changing our lifestyle, we can exist without exhausting our natural resources.

One of the ideas for sustainable living is buying locally grown/made products. This encourages growth of local businesses and farmers, uses less fuel for shipping, and increases personal health through less ingestion of unknown chemicals (pre-packaged items are often made with lots of preservatives). This is part of the reason I have been shopping at the Farmer's Market. I have to say, I don't think I'll ever go back to shopping at the grocery store in the summer if I can help it. The food is so much better from the Farmer's Market, and for the most part, it's the same price or cheaper than what I might get at the grocery store.

At the same time, I'm still struggling with the sustainable living concept, because it isn't so easy in the winter. Vegetables are plentiful in the summer, but local fruit is hard to come by, and in the winter it's non-existent. I'm really not thrilled with the idea of eating nothing but root vegetables all winter long, but that's what's available here. So I give up the idea of eating locally in the winter and go for stuff that's shipped in. Therein lies another problem: I would like to eat more organic food. But organic food is so expensive! And while this idea is important to me, it's also important to me to save money. So I resort to eating pesticide laden fruits and veggies from Mexico (or wherever), and try to remember that at least in the summer, I do a little bit better.

I have lots more running around in my brain about the sustainable living concept (and other more generalized environmental concepts), but I will save them for later. Suffice to say, I haven't the balance for sustainability, convenience, and pleasure just yet.


*I feel I must explain that that's a joke; that I am not really on a quest to get weirder. I've known plenty of people who try to be weird, and I am not one of them. I work in a weird profession, come from a weird family, married a weird man with an even weirder family, and seem to have developed some additional quirks on my own along the way. I am already heading towards "neighborhood crazy lady" without even trying, thank you very much. If anything, I would like to be less weird. Unfortunately, the deck seems stacked against me.

Roadblocks

Today was Day 2 of Operation Save Money on Gas, in which I attempt to use the bus system. I decided to take the bus to the Dimond Center Mall, where they have a farmer's market on Wednesdays. I left the house at 9:10 and got back at 12:40. 3 1/2 hours to shop for 15 minutes. The #9 bus, the one that is closest to my house that goes to the Dimond Center, only runs once per hour. So after I spent 15 minutes shopping at the farmer's market (it's really not that big), I ended up having to kill 45 minutes wandering around the mall. Plus, I had to take another bus to pick up the #9, and had to wait for 15 minutes at least when switching buses.

The whole thing was annoying. I'm trying to do my part for the environment here, but I just don't think I can waste that much time messing around with our crappy bus system to run errands.

Also, I started stripping the paint off one of my end tables today. And that went crappily too. First of all, the paint stripper does not remove the paint the way I thought it would. So I end up scrubbing and scrubbing, and scrubbing, and scrubbing....only to get most of the paint off, except for some rough patches that just seem determined to remain blue. Plus, I spilled the after-wash (which does something nasty to the driveway, by the way). I think my friend CJ was right, I need to get a professional to do this. I thought I could do it myself, because all the websites said it was easy. But the internet lied! Those lying liars! Not that it's difficult intellectually. I understand what I'm supposed to do. But I just don't have the patience for this crap.

So tomorrow, I'll call around to some furniture restoration places and see if they will strip for me. (ha) I don't want to spend a fortune, so if it costs a lot, I guess I'll just keep doing it myself. It doesn't hurt to ask, though.

Going Green

Well, somehow I missed Blog Action Day. But I'm going to go ahead and post because I believe in taking care of the environment every day! I'll post a list of what we (okay, I) do, inspired by Henna:

• use cloth bags instead of getting plastic/paper ones
• turn off lights and appliances when I'm not using them
• recycle almost everything
• bike to work in the summer
• save plastic utensils to use in my lunch bag
• do not use disposable dishware
• drink water out of a reusable bottle instead of buying single use water bottles
• plan my errands for the least possible driving (use a circuitous route and hit several locations in the same area at once)
• keep my heat low
  
• trying to make the switch to eco-friendly cleaners (vinegar, H2O2)
• try not to purchase things I don't need
  
• try not to throw things away unless they're absolutely unusable
  
• use organic friendly pesticides and fertilizers in the garden
• use fluorescent bulbs where I can
• use a reusable lunch bag instead of paper or plastic sacks
  

Things I would like to do in the future:

• drive less (carpool more, look into public transportation, bike more in the summer)
• buy organic fruits and vegetables
• support farming coops
• reduce my purchasing habit even more!
• purchase more used items
  
• start a compost pile
• grow my own food
• unplug items or turn off the power strip when I'm not using them (since apparently some appliances suck power even when they're off!)
• purchase an engine block heater for my vehicle
  

I've always been a bit of an environmental nut, so this isn't just a new fad for me. I am just trying to figure out how to apply it to my daily life!

Stepping up on the Soapbox (long!)

Ethan forwarded me an e-mail from his friend about this article: http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

It was an article arguing against global warming; it started out as an article saying that the proponents of global warming (scientists/government) were alarmist, but then rapidly moved into full-on "this is why there is no global warming". Here is my response:

Hmmm, interesting article. I am thinking about posting about it on my blog. I think it does a good job of demonstrating how you can manipulate the data to support either side of the argument. However, I wouldn't really advise basing any opinions on this article. For one thing, it's obviously very biased as well. Liberal use of quotations, such as in the phrases "global cooling", "global warming" and "scientists" belie the fact that the author is trying to sway the reader toward the opposite end of the argument. I personally took issue with the use of the phrase "scientists". For the most part, the scientists who are conducting the studies or are on advisory panels are actually scientists, with advanced degrees in climatology, or atmospheric chemistry or related subjects. I found this sentence rather ironic: "Unfortunately, a lot of disinformation about where Earth's climate is heading is being propagated by 'scientists' who use improper statistical methods, short-term temperature trends, or faulty computer modesl to make analytical and anecdotal projections about the significance of man-made influences to Earth's climate." Beside the fact that the author is guilty of some of the very same "improper statistical methods", as far as I can tell, he has absolutely no background in atmospheric sciences, much less an advanced degree. In fact, he seems to have a vested interest in fossil fuels (I have found some uncorraborated statements that he actually works for the WV Office of Miner Safety)!

Now, let me address some of the statistical issues with the article. While plenty of what he has to say is indeed fact (he has not lied outright, as far as I can tell), he does not paint the whole picture. For example, he states that "U.S. Temperatures show no significant warming trend over the past 100 years". This was actually taken from another article/blog to which he does indeed give credit. Both authors neglect to examine the fact that the U.S. has not been reliably cataloguing data for the past 100 years. While there were a few reliable stations 100 years ago, data collecting methods have changed significantly since then, and the observation network has also increased. To use an example that's close to home, most Alaska stations did not report temperature 100 years ago. To compare an observation trend over a period where the number of data points varies so greatly is not a very accurate statistical analysis. He in fact, admits this about 3 sentences later, when he says "...these reports are generally founded on ground-based temperature readings, which are misleading." So in the same paragraph, he has used the data to prove his point (that U.S. temperatures are not rising) and then argued that it's not useable!

I would also argue that due to the fact that the author have an atmospheric background, he is not able to effectively argue his point. He spoke of a study by Dr. Patrick Michaels (an actual climatologist/atmospheric scienctist) that indicates that the increase in temperature at land-based stations is due to to the "urban heat island" effect. While this is a good argument, there is no mention of the possibility that increased urbanization has actually had an effect on the radiation budget. The radiation that is reflected from asphalt and concrete does not simply escape out to space, as implied. Some portion of it is in fact, reabsorbed by the atmosphere. Perhaps this had been addressed by Dr. Michaels, I don't know. However, it doesn't support Mr. Heib's argument (or more probably, he is unaware of the subtleties of microclimate) and so it isn't mentioned.

I could actually tear apart this article paragraph by paragraph, but I won't. What I will say is that he is right on one thing -- the data can be, and often is manipulated to prove a point. The ultimate say on global warming is that we simply do not have enough data to indicate whether our current warming trend is a phenomenon caused or affected by humans. Our presence on earth is a blip on the timeline, and our scientific window is even smaller than that. Regarding Scott's comment that he doesn't "need propaganda from governments supporting a cause via scare tactics", this article does nothing to prove or disprove the use of government scare tactics, and based on the scientific (not factual) inaccuracies, I would not deem this author a reliable source for knowing "the truth about global warming".

As an aside: there are theories that indicate humans have been modifying the climate since they ever set foot on the planet -- in other words, long before the industrial revolution. But again, it has not yet been proved or disproved either way.

I neglected to mention a few other issues I have with the article: 1) most scientists are not necessarily concerned with the rise in temperature, but the rate at which the temperature is rising. The rapid rate increase in global temperatures is not equivalent to anything scientists have been able to find in pre-Industrial revolution history. The article did not mention this at all. 2) The article mentioned two sources of data for indication of a rise in global temperature: surface based obs (which I addressed) and satellite data. Regardless of the fact that I'm not sure he can support his statement about satellite data, he also neglected to mention other indications of rising temperatures: rapid glacial/ice cap melting, northward progression of the boreal forest, decreasing permafrost and changes in the fat stores of certain animal populations, to name a few.

Anyway, if you've stuck with me this long I appreciate it. Suffice to say that I think Mr. Heib's article is a bunch of crap.

See, this why I should so TOTALLY get my Master's in climatology -- I love this stuff!