It’s the Cheesiest

This week an “expose” was written by the New York Times in which it was revealed that the government was taking both sides of the dairy industry debate; on the one hand asking people to cut their cheese/dairy consumption for better health while on the other hand subsidizing restaurants to add more cheese and dairy to their menu items. (The biggest example being Domino’s pizza in which 40% more cheese was added to each pizza, resulting in one slice far exceeding the RDA requirements of saturated fat.)

The reason I put “expose” in quotes is because it surprised me to find that people were surprised about this revelation. It seems to me that the government has showed a concrete and substantial history of toggling between health and illness, such that this seems to be par for the course.

In the case of the New Your Times article, the author describes how a surplus of whole milk and extracted milk fat required the government to step in and create subsidies for the industry so that those products don’t go to waste. This is the exact same scenario and what happened in the 1970’s with the corn industry, resulting in the creation and excess use of High Fructose Corn Syrup in American food products.

In both cases, multiple studies have been performed to show that both sugar and cheese are two of the top reasons Americans have increased obesity and heart disease compared to other countries, yet, we keep subsidizing them, perpetuating industries that are making us sick and fat.

There is a third industry at play, here, however. The medical industry. They are just as much to blame for our health problems as the food industry. Having worked for a biotech/pharmaceutical company for a very long time, I feel confident that I can say most of these businesses are not in the business of curing anything. They are only in the business of creating a quality of life. To put it bluntly, there is no revenue when something is cured. They need to create a lifetime of patients, so they have a lifetime of money.

So here we have Big Agriculture Industry (corn, dairy, meat) and the medical industry with the government dancing between the two partners… like a woman accepting two dates to prom and not wanting either partner to know of the other. Add to that the fact that we live in a capitalistic society where everyone wants more and more money for themselves and the shareholders. In our current climate the government has no choice but to tout good health on the one hand while putting money into the pockets of the dairy farmer and the doctor in the other.

And why do I feel so confident this is true and will stay in existence? It comes down to this simple logical argument: if the government cared so much about our health, instead of creating a universal health plan, they would have stopped the subsidies. In doing so, they also would have saved close to $200 Billion dollars. But they didn’t. Every industry at play in this game is getting our money. The only people not getting our money is us. What we are getting is a lifetime of disease and shorter life span.. and being miserable and fat in the process.

The government pays close to $100 Billion in Big Ag subsidies. The nationwide Health Care plan is expected to cost $60 Billion dollars. The Big Ag subsidies are making us sick so we need the healthcare. Get rid of the one (subsidies) and you don’t need the other (healthcare). The citizenry has a surplus of income on the magnitude of $160 Billion dollars nationwide, which we can then put back into the system by supporting small farmers, agriculture and healthful food. Since we are healthier we will also be spending our money on activities outside of the home, stimulating growth of the economy and consumer confidence.

I will leave it up to you to decide what the government, Big Ag, and the Medical Industry have at stake to keep us dependent on our current way of life. I have my opinions, but that is irrelevant to the overall conversation and ultimate solution. Regardless of your beliefs of why they are doing it, why don’t we let that go, and start doing something to change it.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Very recently, someone in my life got a new used car.  An older car.  It doesn’t have any bells and whistles; there is no A/C, it has hand-cranked windows, it is loud, it bounces around in every bump in the road and I love it.  You should know that he got the car because his personal belief is that too many people get into their cars and they forget that it is a machine.  They stop connecting to the fact that they are doing something unnatural.  They get into these boxes, drive 80mph, with heated seats, DVD’s playing, listening to their choice of radio station pumped in via satellite.  They have lost sense of reality.

He got the car so that he could remember that he is in a machine.  A machine that could kill him or another person, so it forces you to obey the speed limit.  A machine where you are present to the weather, either because you are cold or hot, so you understand what is happening on this planet.  A machine that, by the nature of the type of machine it is, is not always the convenient choice, so it often times is not used and instead walking or biking is.  Every time we talked about it, even if I have no inclination of changing my car for something more.. rustic… I completely understand his position and agree with it.

The reason why is because I participate in my version of the same discussion.

I live in a townhouse.  My building contains six units and each of us has two stories.  The neighbors on one side also have six two story units and the other side is also a two story building with 12 units.  There are houses behind me.  There is a 24 unit apartment complex directly across the street.  I live on a very busy street which I just learned is zoned as a “secondary highway”.

I live with the windows and doors open as often as possible.

This is my version on the new used car.  Although, to be fair, I didn’t set out to live this way as a test.  I grew up in a house built in 1926.  We did not have air conditioning my entire childhood (my family did install it within the last year).  Whether it was where or when I grew up, the house was wide open all the time.  In the summer, we had nights where we were hiding from dive bombing june bugs while trying to sleep.  If a skunk sprayed it was swelter in the house without any draft or suck it up and learn to live with the smell.  This also allows you to wake up to the sound of birds greeting the day and hear the crickets sing you a lullaby to sleep.

So when it came to living on my own, before I would turn on the AC, I open every window and door in my house.

What this has done is similar to my friend with the car.  I hear everything.  I hear my neighbors incessant dog barking the night away.  I hear the kids behind me having tantrums.  Not to mention, the house that I suspect is occupied by drug dealers.  One neighbor does not turn his morning alarm off for no less than 45 minutes.  Beep, beep, beep for 45 minutes at 630am!  Another neighbor BBQ’s no matter what time of year.. and I am vegan so this presents its own problems.

But if I am really honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Why?

Because each and everyday, I am reminded that I am part of a community.  This is a neighborhood.  There are people who live around me.  Neighbors that I have to make compromises with and ask them to do the same.

This is what it takes to be a human being living in a metropolis.

This is very different than most of the others who live around me.  Those who hermetically seal themselves in their homes behind locked doors and windows for all intents and purposes, preserving themselves in unnatural frigid temperatures.

These are the people that end up being extremely entitled at the Starbucks yelling at the barrista for not giving them the right amount of cinnamon on their latte.  These are the people that speed down a street that is posted at 25mph but they can’t be late so they go 70mph.  To put it simply these are the people that forgot how to negotiate with the others around them thereby creating a harmonious place to live instead of one where we are all out for ourselves.

I know this may seem ridiculous to some of you.  How could keeping your window do all this?  But, I truly think that it does.  I think that when you shut yourself off from your community by the physical act of shutting a window, you are that much more willing to do it psychologically.

So thank you to the man who got a used car so you could remember what it is like to be in a machine.  That simple act helped me remember that I live in a neighborhood.. with a lot of people…and I like it!

One Possible Answer

Why is there a disconnect to the meat people eat?

For the last two years, I have gradually given up meat, fish, and dairy and for the last few months have transitioned to a full vegan diet.  I had chosen this path initially because as an environmentalist, I felt it was the best thing to do for the planet.  The fact is that animal agriculture is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gases, primarily methane, and therefore environmental destabilization and planet warming.

I had initially given up red meat, but that was easy, as I never really had a craving for it.  As I read more and more about animal welfare and the treatment in the facilities, it became very simple for me to give up other animal products.  Additionally, learning that there is an allowable level of pus in my dairy products does not make me feel that great about putting it into my body.

Fish was the last thing I gave up.  I had an excuse and it went something like this:  “I have sensitivity to gluten and there are times that the only vegetarian meal on a restaurant menu is the pasta, which I can’t have.  So, on those occasions, I allow myself to eat fish.”  Before you judge, because trust me I do enough of it to myself for the both of us, everyone has their process of getting to where they need or should be.  This was mine.  I was informed enough to know at the time that over-fishing and farm fishing were a reality and a conflict with all the other ethical lines I drew for myself.

I don’t think it truly sank in until I read Foer’s “Eating Animals”.  Like for many people, this book changed my life.  He discussed the reality of the fishing industry in terms that truly affected me and I knew from that point on, fish was gone, too.  I told myself I might give myself one last sushi night.  That night never arrived and I don’t regret it one bit.

But, as most vegans do, I always wonder why do others not change after learning about factory farming?  Why does Meatless Monday seem to be a rational end for most people, instead of a small beginning?  Why do some people not give up meat?

I don’t have all the answers and I hope that I will never pretend to, but I think I have an idea about one of the answers.

I think it is as simple as this.  People don’t equate millions of animals being killed when they have simply ordered a hamburger, grilled chicken breast or wild salmon.  They see it as a one to one ratio.  I ordered a hamburger, therefore, one cow has died.  I simply think that people don’t make the connection that in order to have hamburger on the menu, hundreds, if not thousands, of animals have had to die.  And if they had to kill that many animals, what could the system be like that had to raise those animals…?  I think our brains simply don’t make that connection.  Similarly, when I knew that over fishing was a serious issue, I don’t think I made the connection to the fish that was on my plate was one of many that were caught that day.

But today I saw this photo:

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn15018-pick-of-the-pictures

With this photo, what I have learned and what had gotten me to quit my last vestige to the animal eating world, was put into a perspective and confirmed what all the scientists have been telling us.

This photo is 75 tons of sharks that are being killed only for their fins.  Just one simple body part and this is what it takes.  But what is more shocking is last year they killed 35,000 tons… that is 470 times more than what you see in this photo.

Yes.  I know that we Americans don’t eat shark fin soup.  And, I am sure some of you will use that reason to negate my point of writing this essay.  But I want you to really look for a moment at how many fucking animals are dead in this picture.  That many animals used to be in the ocean and there are 470 times more that will be killed and pulled out of their home for us to eat ONE BODY PART.  If you have an ounce of compassion, the magnitude of this will hit you.

It is simple math.  There are six billion people on this planet.  That means we have to raise/catch/slaughter almost equal amounts of animals to feed those who still eat meat. For those that we raise, their living conditions are horrendous and their treatment is akin to the treatment of people killed in genocides of the past.  For those that we catch, we are forcing species to go extinct at rates that are not normal per typical evolutionary response.

This planet is not ours.  The animals are not ours.  We have no right to do what we are doing.  It is up to you to make it stop.

Belated Happy New Year!!

Hello all…

I know I haven’t written anything here in a very long time.  I am sorry for my absence.

At some point in the last few months, I got uninspired.  Everyday I would search for articles that were worth re-printing, linking to, and discussing.  At some point, all the stories became the same and I wasn’t finding anything original.

Journalists and scientist weren’t reporting on anything positive.  Not to say, that there isn’t a necessity in saying what is truth about climate change.  And the truth about climate change is it takes a keen eye to find the glimmer of hope. We have a serious problem on this planet.

The powers that be have relegated that to CO2 levels.  But what I have learned since starting the site is that it is so much more than that.  “CO2” is not just something that you address by changing your car, or a lightbulb, or solar paneling.  Changing this planet has to be a complete shift in lifestyle.  This planet needs a reset button.  But, people don’t want to hear that because they are comfortable in being able to get a hamburger and fries.  They want to go to the mall and get the latest fashion.  They want the privacy of their cars, instead of the invasion of actually interacting with another human being.

In other words, when it comes to climate change, global warming, global destabilization or any other phrase you associate with what is going on, I have become negative, as well.  And, it isn’t fun to live in a space and energy that is negative.

So, I had a lot of thinking to do.  I had to look into figuring out what made me excited, passionate about something again, the thing that had the hope of the positive, and if I were lucky… that could also maybe help people start caring, or doing something, to help the planet.

I have found it.  But, I’m not going to share with you what it is until, hopefully, this weekend.

This site still gets a lot of activity and comments.  I will always maintain it.  If I feel so inspired an article or two or three may be posted.  We’ll see.  I will for sure be maintaining my twitter account, so please keep following me (or start, hee hee).  When there are interesting things out there, I will be sure to let you all know!

Thank you for your support over the last year.  I look forward to your readership in the future… either in the new endeavor or with Golden Spiral.

No Animal Too Small

Everyday, I go for a morning walk. I always cross over this one particular bridge. Actually, I cross over this bridge a lot, independent of my walk. This bridge is the connection from my neighborhood over to Ventura Blvd.

The story, however, starts on my morning walk. Monday Oct 5th, to be exact.

Just to give you a little peak into my brain… I enjoy walking over this bridge. It crosses the LA “River”. This particular section has a lot of birds; ducks, egrets, small birds (the type unidentifiable to me), and the occasional hawk. I think it is because this section has a patch of “land” (the cement on one side is exposed). I sometimes stop to look at the birds. I always look down to see what’s around. It makes me happy.

This particular Monday morning, I looked down and I spotted something that wasn’t supposed to be there. A squirrel.

After walking over the bridge a few times that day, doing normal errands, and noticing he was still there… I realized he was trapped. I watched him to try get out by climbing the wall, to no avail.

Hesitantly, I called animal services. For one, because I am sensitive to that fact that our public services are crunched due to budget constraints and secondly, because it seemed a bit ridiculous to call over a squirrel. An animal, I was reminded, was no different than a rat… just a bushier tail.

Everyone I talked to at animal services was amazing and assured me that it was good that I had called. Monday was a “closed because of budget issues day”, except for large animals. The officer asked me to “see if he is still there in the morning and if so, call us back. We’ll go get him.”

Lo and behold, he was there. I called.

After an exchange of calls, I was informed that this happens all the time and an officer will go out to inspect. If they felt that the squirrel could safely get out, they would leave it be, otherwise, they would send out SmART… the Small Animal Rescue Team.

I never heard back from Animal Services. Fretted for a while. But then I decided, the officers knew their job and could assess the situation and determine what needed to be done.

Then on Thursday, I was on my walk again. I looked over the bridge. And, yep…. there he was. Again, I didn’t want to think about it, because I knew the officers knew what was best for how to handle it. But, that afternoon I got a call.

A different officer was calling to see if I had noticed if the squirrel were still there, to which I said “yes”. He informed me that he was with the SmART and that they would go by the next morning and get him out.

So, now we are at Friday. The squirrel is still trapped in the river. I am on my morning walk and as I approach the bridge, I see the team is setting up the “rescue”.

After introducing myself, I learn that they are going to repel into the river from the bridge, trap the squirrel, determine if he is healthy to be released and if not rehabilitate and treat before releasing.

I also learned the most important thing: they do all of this on their own dime. They pay for all of their equipment, supplies and training out of their pocket. Because of the river and the ocean, they have all taken swift water rescue training, which came in handy when they had to rescue a deer from the ocean! Can you imagine!

These are a great group of men and women who kept assuring me that THERE IS NO ANIMAL TOO SMALL.

The whole thing gathered a crowd. I have to say, I was so disappointed in talking to the people that came by. Each and every one of them lived in our neighborhood and had seen him since Monday. Not one person called. One woman threw him granola. But that was it. It left me sad. It’s funny to think about how ridiculous I felt having called animal services, but in my book it was the only option. I couldn’t walk by everyday looking at him, doing nothing, and essentially waiting for him to die. Maybe it is an overreaction, but it seems if you chose to do nothing and let him die, that is animal cruelty. Even if it is just a squirrel.

Unfortunately, on this Friday, the squirrel got away.

They don’t know how he got down, but he indeed did not have a way out. All of the storm drains were clogged. However, one was clogged in such place that he could hide up there, out of reach of the rescuers. After a while, they had to give up.

I had left before all of this had happened. In fact, I was going to call on Monday to find out how the story ended. But, I didn’t need to… I walked by the bridge on my way to the Farmer’s Market on Sunday… almost a week later… and the team was there, getting ready to repel and save him again.

I really wish I had thought of taking pictures sooner…. using a rope, they sent down what looked like a trap to block the storm drain that he hid in the last time. We could all see him in another storm drain, poking his head out looking at us. They went into the river and blocked that storm drain he was in with a net. Through the net, they poked at him with a rod of sorts and that got him to run out, into the net, and they GOT HIM!

He was healthy! According to the law he had to be released within a mile of where he was rescued because of territory and displacement of other squirrels. (I will admit, I offered my yard.)

One reason I am sharing this with you is because it was a week long experience that made an impact on me. Most notably because of the three volunteers who go out and rescue these animals, of all sizes: cats, dogs, deer, raccoons, and even squirrels… paying for all of their equipment and training by themselves. This group needs to continue.

I would like to ask of all you to help me in sending a donation to this group. For one thing, they have a hard time getting donations.. when someone makes a donation to Animal Services, who gets the money is determined by the administration. The team doesn’t need cash… they need gift cards to Home Depot, Sports Chalet, OSH.. those kinds of places.

I was thinking if I could get people to contribute a little, we could get a gift card for a nice large amount and help them out.

I will collect the donations through my paypal account… log onto paypal just send to my email address listed which is cshells@sbcglobal.net. If you want to contribute, but don’t want to use paypal, please contact me and we can arrange something.

Thanks for reading this story. Thank you even more if you choose to contribute a donation!

Freedom to be Wrong

by Matt DeNoto

How do we change people’s behaviors?

In Seattle, a ballot measure was recently defeated to impose a 20-cent fee on paper and plastic bags from grocery stores. People from Seattle are generally considered to be fairly progressive, environmentally-minded folk. More people already use reusable shopping bags in Seattle than most other places in the country (though it’s still only 20-30%). It’s easy to imagine that they know exactly why this fee is being proposed, and the good that it could accomplish.

Originally, the City Council simply voted to impose the fee. But the American Chemistry Council decided to put up a fight (and more than $1 million) to get the measure first put on the ballot for a public vote, and then to make sure that vote was “No.”

Given the choice between doing the right thing and the easy thing, the people of Seattle chose the easy thing. They chose to make it easier for themselves to forget their reusable bags in the car or at home, because who cares? The bags at the grocery store are free. Maybe next time.

If the people are unwilling to give themselves the incentives to change, how will anything get done? It’s clear that people aren’t simply making the right choices on their own. If that were the case, Seattle wouldn’t have needed a fee in the first place.

But perhaps that’s a bit too hopeless (and drastic) of a viewpoint. Despite the outcome, perhaps some good was done simply by getting the information out there and making people at least consider the consequences of their actions. Perhaps this vote won’t mandate change, but a few more citizens will voluntarily take up the reusable bags now than would have otherwise.

Even if the fee had been enacted, it’s not as though that would make the kind of change we need. Plastic bags are, on the whole, a tiny piece of the pollution problem.

On the other hand, it’s a tiny piece that is easily accessible. Everybody knows about grocery store bags, and it’s easy to see that they are wasteful. If we could get everybody to make just one change, then the next would be easier.

But that’s not how this country works. We were founded on principles of freedom, including the freedom to be wrong.

So how do we change people’s behaviors?

Not one behavior at a time, but one person at a time.

Prism of Patriotism

by Matt DeNoto

It’s good that people love the country in which they live. In America, nationalism has always been fundamental. And for good reason. This country was founded on strong democratic principles, revolutionary for their time. Even in its infancy, there was something unquestionable about people in America believing that they lived in the greatest country in the world. It was an idea only reinforced by America’s massive influence in WWII. And then the Space Race. We are a Superpower.

America has a long history of seeing itself as the best. So it’s only natural that its citizens make that claim somewhat without thought. But accepting something without examination is dangerous. So let me take a second to ask…

Is America the greatest nation in the world? How do we judge?

Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence that suggests that we, the people of America, are not the best. We are not the smartest (That’s South Korea). We are not the healthiest (Iceland). We do not live the longest (Canada). For all our boasting, we’re not even the happiest (Denmark). Heck, we don’t even crack the top ten in the list of most democratic countries (Sweden’s #1). We pay more for most things (except those that are government-subsidized). We’re not the greenest either.

If you have questions about where I got this information from, that’s good. Do some research to satisfy yourself about the statistics. Don’t accept it without examination.

I often hear that America is the ‘richest’ country. But I’m not rich. Are you rich? I would imagine that citizens of the richest country in the world never have to worry about money. But we’re all in debt. And can we really consider ourselves to be rich when everything we buy and all the money our government spends both come from China?

There are people going to well-reported ‘town hall’ meetings and screaming at their representatives about the terrible danger posed by the government trying to give its people health care reform. They cower in terror from the slightest whiff of socialism (even though the police, fire and public school systems have been socialized for years).

Is this how civilized debate works in the world’s greatest country? What are we really trying to protect?

Claims that America is the best without any evidence to back it up isn’t nationalism, it’s delusion. What if America wasn’t the best? Would that let us be more objective about our problems? Would that give us more freedom to accept that when we try to fix things, there’s always a chance it might not work?

I grew up in New York, watching the Knicks with my dad. The Knicks haven’t won an NBA Championship since 1972. Sometimes, the team is great, sometimes (the last decade or so) the team isn’t so great. But that’s just how it goes. At the end of the day, I root for them not because they’re the best (they’re not), but because the Knicks are my team.

America’s pretty great. But it’s not the best, and that’s okay. Not being the best gives us not only something to strive for, it also means there are other countries that we can learn from. It takes strength to be humble.

Green When You’ve Gone

by Matt DeNoto

In my first article on this site, I wrote about the confusion landfills have always caused in me. Today I’d like to write about another source of confusion – graveyards.

Graveyards have always seemed to me like an incredible waste of space. Acres of land kept practically barren in an eternal tribute to death. Bodies preserved unnaturally using chemicals, buried in expensive, pointlessly comfortable boxes. We are ‘returned to the Earth’ in the most contradictory way imaginable.

The only other option seemed to be cremation. Have your body burned to ashes, to be stored forever in an urn or spread somewhere.

It is an interesting indication of this mentality humanity seems to hold about everything having a finite period of usefulness, and of our not really knowing what to do with anything once that use has been fulfilled. When we’ve eaten our fast food, we throw away the wrapper. When our TV stops working, we toss it and get a new one. We always need new clothes or shoes, because we’ve been taught that these things are less a practical means of keeping ourselves warm or protected, and more about expressing how we feel at any given moment.

Getting rid of these objects is easy. We set them out at the curb and someone comes to take them away to t he landfill. We need never consider them again.

We seem to be following the same impulse when we die. Get rid of the ‘trash.’ But because this waste used to be a person, it’s not so simple. We must be honored. So we each get our own mini-landfill.

But just like with regular landfills, this tradition is ultimately unsustainable. This practice of coddling our dead is, in more ways than one, hurting us.

Besides the space issue, there is another practical concern. A large number of people die every year because of a lack of donated organs. Our strange obsession with preserving ourselves after we die is now literally costing people their lives.

But as it is with many of the facets of the Green Revolution, we are starting to reexamine death. We are starting to come around. Already, many of us have marked on our driver’s licenses that we wish for our organs to be donated after we’ve died, so that our passing may give life to someone else who needs it.

Others are going even further. The Centre for Natural Burial is an organization promoting a way of reintroducing our lifeless bodies back into the Earth’s cycle, wherein the body is prepared for burial without using chemicals and buried in a way that encourages decomposition. A grave may be marked with a tree or a shrub that does not intrude on the natural landscape.

Or, for the green extreme, you can have yourself composted. It’s not quite legal yet, but in some parts of the world it may be catching on. Think of it. Your body will be used to fertilize and grow the food for the next generation.

Doesn’t that sound more interesting that spending eternity in a box?

Closed System

by Matt DeNoto

Up until about a week ago, my kitchen was infested with fruit flies. They pop up every summer, seemingly from out of nowhere, makes annoyances of themselves and, eventually, go away. Usually I try not to pay them any mind. I let them go about their business and they let me go about mine. But my kitchen was apparently a bit too fruitful for the flies, and their numbers started to grow beyond annoying into simply gross.

So I took a day, rolled up my sleeves and cleaned the kitchen thoroughly. Then I used the hose attachment on my vacuum to commit a little fruit fly genocide.

And silly though it may sound, I felt a little bad. I understand that they’re not intelligent creatures and that they don’t live long lives anyway, but I still try to hold as much as I can to the principle that living things generally have the right to go on living.

In my mind I began musing on the subject of niches. When we as humans started to become ‘civilized,’ living in houses with walls and roofs, we didn’t really reserve a place for the rest of nature’s creatures. Our homes are for us, and nothing else. And we have accepted this as natural, despite the fact that our dwellings take up significantly more space than we do as individuals.

Obviously we do not wish for the whole world to be standardized in this way. Even in our own neighborhoods we value parks and green spaces. National wildlife reserves protect species that might otherwise be endangered. But we have become addicted to control, drawing very thick lines between what parts of nature we are prepared to allow and which ones we are not. Hence pesticides and weed killers and immaculate lawns, to say nothing of the spaces inside our homes. Hard, flat surfaces and straight lines everywhere, so very unlike nature. They are designed for the comfort of humans, to the detriment of everything else. To those creatures that would dare to try and make themselves at home in our space we have given the name pests.

Of course, recently we have begun to see the benefits of the natural system. Over the centuries, the world has developed processes that keep things balanced. We are not yet so mature.

But we are starting to learn. We can now replace sewage systems with living, breathing mini-ecosystems that use our waste as food. We can build natural pools that utilize the inherent balances in nature, instead of harsh chemicals, to keep them clean and beautiful.

By slowly learning to reintegrate nature with our cold, selfish society, we not only benefit ourselves by cutting out those dangerous materials we used to keep the rest of the world at bay, we allow the rest of nature to do what it does best – allow every creature to perform its function to everyone’s benefit.

Earth Gay

by Matt DeNoto

That what Gerod Rody’s gay/green organization, OUT for Sustainability, named its Earth Day events, when it built a garden and did some habitat restoration in Seattle, where the organization is located.

Gerod Rody was looking for a way to combine what he sees as the two defining facets of his life; trying to maintain an environmentally-aware, sustainable existence, and being gay. He did some research trying to find a group that filled that niche and when he couldn’t find one, he started one.

Judging by the website, the group’s focus tends more towards being green. It simply advertises itself to the LGBTQ community as a way of getting people to pay attention and giving them a reason to come out and join the group. It’s great if you can change the world, but if you can change the world while finding a date, even better!

Similarly, there’s been press over the past few months about different churches beginning to preach the benefits of a green lifestyle. They argue that God gave the Earth to humans so we could watch over it, not so we could exploit it into oblivion. There’s a Bill Moyer’s PBS Special called ‘Is God Green?’ that examines the subject.

In a previous article, I wrote about another PBS show, Building Green, which chronicled one man’s journey to build the most environmentally-friendly house he can. The website for that show, buildinggreentv.com, has grown into a community of members sharing information about sustainable building practices.

The point is that there are a number of ways to approach bringing the Green Revolution to your community. Part one is, naturally, finding out what ‘your’ community is. Outside of work, where do you spend the majority of your time?

If we each do our part to raise the consciousness of those around us, pretty soon all of us will be thinking a little more about these issues. Then they might not seem so intimidating to those unfamiliar with what the Green Revolution means. It might also help us convince those in power that we, their constituents, are ready to see them make the laws that lead to real change.

And if you can do all that while finding a date, even better.

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