Published on April 29th, 2008
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Regardless of how “green” we consider ourselves, we’re all concerned about the quality of the food we put on our own plates and serve to our families. Tonight, the Sundance Channel’s The Green explores the world of food, from farm to plate. It’s award-winning series Big Ideas for a Small Planet profiles a large food processor, a wine-maker, and a New Mexico high school student who are all doing their part to reject industrial-scale agriculture, and the bland, homogeneous food it produces. Following that, Sundance presents the documentary All In This Tea from directors Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) and Gina Leibrecht.
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Published on April 28th, 2008
You swap out your light bulbs for energy-efficient ones, keep your house as chilled as a meat locker in winter, bicycle to work, eat little meat and drive a hybrid — yet nagging at you is this thought: Do my small actions make a difference? Author Michael Pollan says they do.
In last week’s Sunday New York Times Magazine (4.20.08), Pollan wrote a provocative essay, “Why Bother? Looking for a few good reasons to go green.” In it, he wrestles with those lurking questions about our everyday choices to stave off global warming. Some excerpts:
Let’s say I do bother, big time. I turn my life upside-down…, but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit. So what exactly would I have to show for all my trouble?
He looks at the reasons we find for not doing anything: “There are so many stories we can tell ourselves to justify doing nothing,” he writes.
And yet, he resoundingly concludes that those little things are worth the bother. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 26th, 2008
This post is by Ramon Cruz, Senior Policy Analyst for Living Cities at Environmental Defense Fund.
It’s ironic. In many parts of the world, there is no clean drinking water. Here in the U.S., pure, drinkable water flows out of every tap, and yet Americans buy a staggering amount of bottled water. We pay big bucks for it, too - over $15 billion a year.
Worst of all, the bottles are overflowing our landfills, and contribute to global warming.
Take a look at this video from Doug James, and then check out these surprising facts.
Published on February 22nd, 2008
Today’s guest blogger is Environmental Defense scientist Tim Fitzgerald.
Last month’s New York Times report on high mercury levels in tuna sushi was certainly cause for concern for serious sushi lovers. (See my previous post Plenty of Safe, Eco-Friendly Fish in the Sea.)
The report might have also made many parents uneasy about the ubiquitous tuna sandwich in their kids’ lunch boxes. Many of us rely on canned tuna for a wholesome, high-protein meal. Once considered a “nuisance food” or “pauper’s food,” today almost half of all American households serve canned tuna monthly. Only shrimp surpasses canned tuna as Americans’ favorite seafood. But does this beloved fish in a can deliver a helping of toxic mercury, too? Read the rest of this entry »
Published on January 25th, 2008
Today’s guest blogger is Environmental Defense scientist Tim Fitzgerald.
As a marine scientist who has been researching seafood sustainability and health issues for a long time, I’ve known for a while that bluefin tuna not only has high mercury levels but is severely depleted, too.
These magnificent fish are highly prized for their rich, buttery flesh. The global sushi market can’t get enough bluefin, and as a result, exorbitant prices and severe overfishing are driving bluefin tuna to the brink of extinction.
I love sushi as much as the next person, but given its dire population numbers and high mercury levels, maybe its time that we all lay off for a while.
Now making big headlines is a New York Times report that found that much of the bluefin sushi served in upscale New York City restaurants actually exceeds the Food and Drug Administration’s “action level” for mercury. (The threshold is 1 part per million.)
To reiterate: It’s no surprise that bluefin tuna has high levels of mercury – it’s one of the largest and most predatory fish species in the ocean. What is surprising is just how many New York City restaurants are serving the really high-mercury tuna. Read the rest of this entry »
