World Refugee Day

Today is World Refugee day, and we can all do something to help the 42 million people who lack basic needs such as clean water, food, and a safe place to call home.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) works to meet these needs every day. Watch this short film about their efforts, and then visit their website to find out how you can get more involved.

The Book is Here!

Well...almost. Ten Ways to Change the World in Your Twenties will be released in November, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon. I'm also in the process of reaching out to universities and high schools, so if you are interested in bringing me to your school to speak, send an email!

Battling the Bagmonster

Seattle is one referendum vote away from becoming one of the first cities in the United States to take a huge step toward reducing disposable bag consumption. The City Council has already voted to institute a 20 cent fee for disposable plastic or paper bags, and now the ordinance must be upheld by a public referendum in order to be enacted.

According to the Seattle Green Bag Campaign, which is working hard to support Referendum 1, the "optional" green fee pertains to people who don't shop with a reusable bag and is expected to reduce disposable bag use by an estimated 80-90%. Most of the 20 cent fee will go toward providing every household of Seattle with at least one reusable bag, with extra bags for those on low or fixed income, as well as waste reduction education programs.



This Tuesday, the city of Edmonds, WA took things even further when the city council passed a plastic bag ban, which will go into effect as soon as a pending environmental review has been completed.

Why all the fuss about disposable bags? Seattle uses an estimated 360 million plastic bags per year, and while at 8%, our recycling rate is slightly higher than the abysmal national rate of 3%, most of these bags are bound for the landfill. Worse still, many more will make their way out to waterways via storm drains and creeks. Once in the waterways, they can interfere with marine life, causing the death of marine mammals and sea turtles who mistake the bags for food. Others create huge plastic gyres or "garbage patches" in the middle of oceans. What's more, plastic bags don't biodegrade, they just break down into smaller and smaller toxic pieces.

Despite being universally reviled as an environmental menace, Bagmonster always has time for the ladies.

According to Heather Trim, the Urban Bays and Toxic Program Manager at the People for Puget Sound, "Even when plastic bags are recycled, they are often bailed up and sent to China where they are downcycled into lower grade products or stockpiled." Even if plastic bags are properly disposed of, the environmental price tag is already high as they are a petroleum byproduct that is shipped all over the world only to be used once and then likely thrown away.

If you live in Seattle, you can support the project by donating time or money to the Green Bag Campaign, telling your friends to be sure to vote to approve the all mail-in Referendum 1 ballot, and volunteering with the campaign.

If you live elsewhere in the country, encourage your city council members to institute a similar ordinance. The websites for The Surfrider Foundation and The Sierra Club are excellent places to start when initiating environmental action in your community. Other areas in the United States that are considering or have already taken similar actions include - San Francisco, CA, Westport CT, thirty Alaskan villages, Annapolis, MD, Austin, TX , Baltimore, MD , Berkeley, CA , Boston, MA , Chicago, IL , Los Angeles County, Madison, WI , Maine, Marshall County, IA , Maryland, Massachusetts, New Haven, CT, New York, NY, Oakland, CA, Philadelphia, PA, Plymouth, PA , San Jose, CA, Santa Cruz, CA , Santa Monica, CA , Texas, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

So join or start a bag ban movement in your hometown, and of course, always shop with reusable bags!

Rallying to Repower America

The Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing today in Seattle to discuss whether or not greenhouse gases should be treated as dangerous pollutants. Many people turned out to support efforts to reclassify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and as you can see from the photos, it was a costume-optional event.

Some Crabby protesters being Shellfish about their future

According to my twentysomething friend Anne, who attended the rally,"As individuals we can make all kinds of decisions - like changing our light bulbs and bringing tote bags when we go shopping - but we simply can't stop global warming without the full power of our federal government behind this issue. What we did at the rally today was critical in supporting the EPA's efforts to regulate greenhouse gasses and finally set the US on the path toward solving this challenge."

Also, the best costume award goes to the geoduck! :) The polar bear was a close runner up. Two salmon were also in the running..."

Even the polar bears are trading in cars for bikes

For more on what you can do to help reduce harmful emissions that contribute to global warming, support green jobs, and encourage responsible environmental legislation, visit Repower America and 350. Be sure to mark your calendars too - October 24th is 350's International Day of Climate Action, and you can start or join an action by visiting their website today.

Growing Your Own

I've written extensively on this blog about the joys of local eating, but mostly my experiences thus far have centered on food from the farmers' markets or from restaurants that use local sources.

This spring, despite the fact that the outdoor space around my apartment consists of two very small "decks", and please note that I use that term loosely - two people can fit uncomfortably on them at once - I decided to try my hand at growing some of my own food.

Another "feature" of our apartment is that it gets very little sun. No worries, though. A trip to a few plant sales and some conversations with knowledgeable farmers yielded several veggies that would do just fine with limited sunlight like lettuce, arugula, radishes, parsley, and cilantro.

My porch runneth over

I purchased some starts, which are young plants, and thus far have had a bounty (okay a few salad's worth, but it's a start!) of my own homegrown veggies.

Container gardening is a great way to make use of limited growing space and the lessons learned in my mini-plot will stand me in good stead when I have the space for a real garden.

For more on urban gardening, check out this recent post I wrote for Earth911.

Hooray for Hulu

I've been without cable television for a while now - mostly it's due to budgetary constraints, but partly it's a choice. The fact is that I don't really miss most of what I used to watch. However, there are certain shows that I am proudly addicted to such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. With the exception of these two shows, my subscription to Netflix fills in any potential pop culture holes that my lack of cable might be causing.

Recently, I also realized that Hulu, which is free for at least the foreseeable future, also has such shows as PBS's Scientific American and Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days available on their site. If you haven't seen 30 Days, I highly recommend it. The premise is simple, Spurlock, who rocketed to fame with SuperSize Me, places someone in an environment for 30 days that is either antithetical to their beliefs or one that will raise awareness about lifestyles that often go unexplored. It's like a highbrow Wife Swap - a Mormon stays with two gay dads or Spurlock spends 30 days working as a coal miner or in jail.



One of my favorite episodes places two self proclaimed fossil fuel addicts at an off the grid co-op for a month. Hardship and hilarity ensue when the two guests are faced with what to do without hair products or meat or with a composting toilet. However the most meaningful exchanges occur as guests and hosts share ideas and reach understandings that become possible under these admittedly unrealistic circumstances.

Contrary to other proud card-carrying members of the anti-cable club, I think you can learn something from television. So check out 30 Days - if nothing else, I promise it beats I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

Opening Doors in D.C.

Between the pundits, the politicians, the special interest groups, and shifting allegiances (Arlen Specter is going to be a Democrat?!), it's easy to feel like politics may be an arena that many of us are unwilling to negotiate.

However, from the economy to the environment to health care, issues directly affecting us all are being debated and decided in D.C. Of course, you can opt to just sit back and take what your lawmakers come up with, or you can take a more direct approach by sending emails or making phone calls to your representatives.

If you choose the latter, you can easily follow the progress of bills you care about, as well as the accuracy of statements made by politicians, by visiting FactCheck.org and Project Vote Smart. FactCheck is a nonpartisan website that researches statements made by politicians and then verifies or dispels them based on the results. Project Vote Smart offers access to representatives' biographical information, voting records, positions on key issues, public statements, interest group ratings, and campaign finances. Visitors can also follow key votes at the national and state level.

Tracking down this type of unbiased information on your own can be daunting. These sites make it easy to learn, and speak out, about issues that matter to us most.