I was surfing around the net and listening to some podcasts that had backed up in my queue. I don’t remember how I came across them, but I found More Him Than Hippie back in mid to late July. It’s a couple of ladies that like to drink beer and eat chocolate, and then give their ratings on the different micro-brews and tasty sweets they try during the podcast. During the rest of the podcast, they talk about some of the stuff that is in the environmental news and then they usually discuss some way to be green without going totally granola crunchy. I was definitely buying into this idea; beer, chocolate, and green (but not over-the-top green). Here’s their spiel on their show:
Hi, we’re Dori and Val. If you’re craving a granola chewing, off-grid podcast – you’re probably in the wrong place. Instead, we’ll show you how to be more sustainable and earth-friendly without sacrificing convenience, style, and affordability.
Hey! Nobody’s perfect. (Hell, we’re certainly not) But we’re here to show you how small steps in the right direction can make a big impact. We like our podcasts to be fun, upbeat, and around 30 minutes. Give us a listen – it beats a kick in the head.
Since they sounded like something I was going to want to stay in touch with, I found them on Facebook and Myspace and we became friends. Since my birthday was earlier this month (and Myspace doesn’t let you completely drop your birth date) I got a nice Happy Birthday! from More Hip Than Hippie. They really are nice ladies.
When I got a chance, I wrote the ladies back and said thanks for the birthday wishes and mentioned that they could look into Pickens Plan for one of their shows.
Guess who was really surprised when he was mentioned on the show! Yep, it was me. They didn’t do the whole show on Pickens Plan, but they mentioned me (as Joe from Kansas) and pretty much read my email word for word on the podcast. How cool is that? (As a side note, I’m glad I usually proof messages before I send them, especially to people that I don’t actually know.) Pretty neat.
Other stuff…
While I was cruising around the More Hip Than Hippie website, they also mentioned a couple of things that got me looking around today. They mentioned a “green” alternative to YouTube: Go Green Tube.com. While I was checking that site out, I saw a video about a house that uses a different type of central heat and air. It was cool. The specfic video I watched was a guy that lives in the mountains in California. He’d gone through a full year and had an ‘unusually hot summer’ (for him, over 100 for about a week). The house didn’t get any warmer than about 74 degrees and no colder than about 68. That’s pretty much where Sandy and I keep our thermostat now during the respective seasons, or we’ve got our windows open when it’s just right outside. That would be pretty freaking sweet to be able to do that without using central heat and air. I’ll post some of the other cool stuff I found later, but here’s the video and the builder’s website:
I sent the link to The Story of Stuff to many of my friends, but I wanted to post it here too. It goes right along with the Mr. Pickens post, sort of, but not really. The Story of Stuff is by Annie Leonard. She did some research and figured out where things come from, including where the raw materials are mined, stuff is assembled, etc. The video is done very well and is plenty easy to understand. It is only about 20 minutes and it is set up so that if you have to stop, you will be able to come back to where you left, give or take a couple minutes. Ms. Leonard is obviously very passionate about the work she has done and who would blame her.
As a side note, I don’t completely agree with her statistics. Having taken a number of statistics classes, one thing I’ve learned is that you can pretty much make stats say just about anything that you want them to say. Just depends on how you word your “findings.” I like to joke that 87 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot, but then again, I just made that up so who knows what the real percentage. Even if her stats are padded to help make her point, there is enough truth there to make it scary.
Here’s a teaser on the Story of Stuff, but you can see the full video on the Story of Stuff website.
Bottom line is, don’t buy stuff so that it will make you happy for now. If you are going to make a purchase, try to get your items from someplace local. Not only are you keeping the locals employed and helping the local economy, you are reducing emissions since the stuff doesn’t have to travel as far. There’s a farmer’s market her in Manhattan that the wife and I are trying to go to more often. We won’t find everything we need there, but we find some of the items on our grocery list and it is nice and fresh. Plus I think it’s pretty freaking cool.
Second bottom line, do stuff to help reduce this cycle of buy, use for a little bit, and throw it away. If you’re tired of something and it still has value, don’t just toss it. Old clothes, furniture, appliances, etc. can find a new home and be perfectly happy. Just because you are done with something doesn’t mean it needs to go to the landfill. Try taking things to a consignment shop or thrift store or your local Salvation Army. The wife and I have started composting now and between that and recycling, our weekly trash is only a bag or two. Pretty amazing considering that previously we’ve filled the dumpster in a week. This week it was literally one bag from the kitchen and a couple other items. We’ve reduced our waste and after we compost some, we’ll have healthier plants to help us reduce the amount we buy from the grocery store. It isn’t much, but I’m sure that it has helped reduce our footprint on this earth. If nothing else, it is a step in the right direction.
I tried to embed the player so that you could watch the non-YouTube video straight from here, but it didn’t work and I didn’t want to futz with it until I got it figured out. So I just snagged it from YouTube and put it here.
Here’s the link http://www.pickensplan.com/ to the Pickens Plan website for more information. The video is a whopping 4:49, so if you can’t spend five minutes watching this then maybe you shouldn’t be reading my blog in the first place and go take care of your more important things.
Mr. Pickens lays out quickly how much oil that the U.S. is going through and how much we’ve increased consumption in that last 38 years. Then he lays out some ways for us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and start pursuing alternative energy ideas; namely wind and natural gas. This also just reinforces the fact that we should have wind farms as far as the eye can see in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, and the Dokatas. Why some communities are fighting the idea of wind farms still baffles me.
Do everything that you can to help wind energy and natural gas energy out. Invest with them if you can, do whatever. See if they have a volunteer program. Stuff envelopes or something. Do something that matters.
