Comments Dawn Pillsbury has made

  • Carbon and the wedding-industrial complex

    Thank you, caniscandida. Folks don't generally go about naming their connubial connections on this forum, so I have no idea if we're the only wedded ones here, but somehow I doubt it. Mixed relationships are so difficult, expecially green/non-green.

    I hope you will be able to garden. We're permies and thus hooked on food gardening (lots of pictures here).

    Our best friends are getting hitched this weekend, with a moderately big (~100 people) shindig that they're trying to keep low-footprint, so this has been greatly in my mind. The bride is keeping her sanity, despite being caught in the cogs of the wedding-industrial complex.

    They're being sensible and renting real plates and cups, etc. No dyed bridesmaids shoes (thank goodness - I'm too old for that kind of nonsense). I wonder how the energy consumption numbers pencil out for transporting and washing real v. producing and disposing of disposable (including the inevietable dry cleaning that disposables incur).

    Another pair of friends got invited to an upcoming wedding-stravaganza. The registry, which mostly consisted of sponsoring honeymoon activities, also included buying offsets for the newlywed's plane trip.

    headdeskOn Green weddings are no better than white ones posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

  • Marital madness

    That's a tough row to hoe (particularly if you don't sharpen your hoe first). American women can't even seem to refrain from whining for diamonds steeped in blood. Even after seeing Leonardo di Caprio get killed for them.

    I can't imagine asking a bridezilla to refrain from purchasing specialty tissues for Her Special Day (TM). Maybe Seventh Generation should come out with some and just not mention the post-consumer recycled content on the packaging.

    It's been almost a year since Green_Engineer and I tied the knot. The Contra Costa County Deputy Registrar of Civil Marraige said we were the most earnest couple she had wed. Then we spent the afternoon getting straw to sheet mulch our back yard.

    sigh

    A perfect day.On Green weddings are no better than white ones posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

  • Skytrain rocks

    Well, it's actually a very smooth ride.

    We rode Skytrain during a trip to Vancouver and, despite it being a day containing a freak snowstorm, the service was quicker, smoother and more reliable than BART. The conducters were very friendly and knowledgable.

    Being able to ride Skytrain regularly would be nearly enough motivation for me to move to Vancouver if I was prepared to grow gills.On Making public transit work posted 2 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses

  • 21st century Mennonites

    The Advocate says they're using the power for light. Makes sense. That's gotta be nicer than living with than kerosene, or even nat gas, lamps.

    I hope Raber is selling CFLs, too.On The Amish dig it posted 2 years, 6 months ago 7 Responses

  • Diacetyl evil

    I knew that anything with so persisent a stink couldn't be good news. Ever try to get that smell out of a microwave?

    Flavor engineering - another field to pull your investments from.On Orville Redenbacher must be stopped posted 2 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses

  • Straus biodigester

    Most of the Straus cow's manure goes onto their fields, and thus onto the grass, completing the biological cycle. It's their barn washings that go into the biodigester.

    If you have a chance to try Straus raspberry ice cream, do yourself that favor. That comes from happy cows.On A bill to subsidize making biogas from cow manure posted 2 years, 6 months ago 26 Responses

  • Peak corn

    I'm greatly hoping that peak corn will be soon. Do we really need to keep turning fossil fuels and topsoil into childhood (and adulthood) obesity, diabetes and heart disease? Not to mention the impending biofuels debacle.

    No, friends, yellow is not the new green. It may be the new black, but not the new green.

    Anyway, there are better things to do with all that acreage.On Trends on an ever-shrinking planet posted 2 years, 6 months ago 8 Responses

  • Reclaiming the asphalt

    I helped out with a vigilante effort to take back some streetage in San Francisco last year.

    OK, so it was in front of City Hall. In a supervisor's parking space. With his blessing. But it was still lots of fun.

    Bring on the personal mass transit, jackhammer the streets and let's start planting fruit trees. Cars are highly overrated (she says while working from home, across from a BART station).

    http://garden2table.blogspot.com/On Cities find that people like not being killed by cars! posted 2 years, 7 months ago 4 Responses

  • Grow some of your own food

    Looking at the energy inputs of food, an amazing amount of it is refrigeration and wastage. If everyone grew just a few herbs and other food plants they use regularly, it could have a huge impact.

    Particularly, I'm thinking of celery. When you buy a head of celery, how often do you use the whole thing? I have a few celery plants just outside my back door. When I need a stalk, I go pull one off. I never have to throw wilted stalks away (or scrape them off the bottom of the crisper).

    The same goes for green onions (how often do you use the whole bunch?). A few herbs growing as near to your kitchen as possible will taste better, save you trips to the store and always be fresh when you need them.

    Gardening is especially important if you have kids, as kids eat more fruits and vegetables if they're homegrown.

    And if you have more room, homegrown salad greens are far better than anything you can buy in a store.

    It's exciting to grow tomatoes and corn, but you can grow herbs and salad year-round (well, at least in California). And it gives you someplace to use your compost (you are composting your food scraps, right?). And it's easy to get overwhelmed by too-ambitious gardening projects. If you keep a few plants right outside your door where you'll see and use them every day, it will add a little verdure to your routine without a lot of effort.

    Grow what you eat. Eat what you grow.
    http://garden2table.blogspot.com/On How to reduce your household energy consumption, easy-like posted 2 years, 7 months ago 30 Responses

  • Calculating impact

    I think we're running into a lack of information. While we have multiple ways of calculating one's ecological footprint, we have no set way of calculating the ecological good one can do.

    If one of Gore's speeches motivates 50 people to replace incandescent bulbs with CFLs, five people to start carpooling and two people to quit their cube farm jobs and go to work installing solar panels, what is the net impact of his trip?

    People's lives have unavoidable, if shrinkable, footprints. These are the ecological costs of living. But, since we are sapient creatures, we also have impacts from our work, from our volunteering, which are a different calculation, and one much harder to make.

    UNICEF calculates the good that people do for their programs as their handprint. Perhaps the green community could use some such calculation as a counterpart to the ecological footprint.On Is the starfish story really just bunk? posted 2 years, 7 months ago 19 Responses

  • Picking light bulbs

    When we replaced the bulbs in our house, my husband bought an enormous assortment of light bulbs and we tried different arrangements in different places in the house. CFLs vary greatly in color and brightness, so what works in the bedroom is not so great in the kitchen. We found great combinations that work all over the house (except in those sillly incandescent-only fixtures in the bathroom).

    I also note the great improvement in flicker and delay in the new generation of CFLs. JMG, are you cheaping out with old bulbs? Think of your marriage and get her input next time.

    In the interest of statistics: I bake pies, but don't gossip much.
    _______________
    Grow what you eatOn Not tonight ... your CFLs give me a headache posted 2 years, 7 months ago 27 Responses

  • Alternative keyboard cleaning strategies

    There's always this approach.On Why we should ban compressed chemical dusters posted 2 years, 7 months ago 31 Responses

  • Cleaning green

    Borax is potent stuff, particularly useful if you have a problem with black mold (and if you don't think you have a problem with black mold, but have inexplicable and long-term cold-like symptoms, check behind large furniture and around windows). I don't like to use borax much because it must be similarly hard on the biota in our local sewage treatment plant, but it is useful against feral fungi.

    One warning: none of the green toilet bowl cleaners work. That's one of our few chemical indulgances these days.

    Also, vinegar doesn't work as well on glass as we'd like.

    We've given up on Simple Green after learning about the tenacity of its surfactants (from the helpful lady at the Sonoma County EcoDesk). We clean the kitchen surfaces with Begley's Best, which is working very well for us. Worth its price, even.

    The Seventh Gen dishwashing powder is the best of many we've tried. And Eco laundry soap for our front-loading washer.

    For most dirt, I prefer the universal solvent and rags.On Can a mother survive without antibacterial wipes? posted 2 years, 7 months ago 13 Responses

  • Suburban farms and Rohner Park homeowners

    There was actually a proposal to start a small, organic farm not far from that site about four years ago. The neighbors opposed it because they were concerned about impacts from operations and the potential for migrant laborers (there weren't any current plans to hire them, but you never know, especially if you're a Rohner Park homeowner).

    The previous plan for this site was a biodiesel plant. The neighbors opposed that because they were concerned about the inevietable horrid smell (and refused to attend a demonstration that, of course, would have showed that it smells less than a typical Chinese restaurant). I bet they'll be wishing they had allowed it when they can't fuel up their FUVs without selling the kids.On Green urban development, in just 12 years! posted 2 years, 8 months ago 8 Responses

  • Re: Anthropomorphic climate change

    No, the textmeme troll has it right. There is no anthropomorphic climate change. Remember, it's because climate change has no face that people fail to find it threatening.

    If only Flamy McGassy was real.On FOX News on Gore's testimony posted 2 years, 8 months ago 10 Responses

  • Jones knows

    Excellent. I heard Mr. Jones speak at the Craigslist Foundation boot camp last year and continue to be impressed by him and the Ella Baker center. He points to some of the fundamental weaknesses of the environmental movement and its blindnesses where impacts close to home are borne.On An interview with Van Jones, advocate for social justice and shared green prosperity posted 2 years, 8 months ago 9 Responses

  • Sriracha

    Because of the picture on Sriracha bottles, I've heard it called both Magic Chicken Sauce and Hot Cock Sauce.

    Whatever you call it, I find that, unlike salt, it's best to add the Sriracha toward the end of the cooking process. Adding it earlier makes the flavors muddy, IME. Of course adding it right before eating makes the vinegar flavor stand out more, but one probably won't add enough to taste that much.On Seriously, isn't it just gross? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 44 Responses

  • Eating veggie

    While you're working on your new menus, you might also want to look into your local humane meat options. Remember: not everyone can be healty on a vegeterian diet.

    If you're going to restrict yourself to the realm of eating things without faces, may I suggest you add mushrooms to your shopping list? Portabellos/brown button mushrooms (same species) have 30 percent protein and absorb marinades magnificently. I also highly recommend king oyster mushrooms, as well as all other oyster mushrooms.

    But be careful in your shopping - most grocery stores sell mushrooms that have been stored improperly. If the mushroom is at all slimey or dried-out, don't eat it.

    I do hope you're also buying local and organic veggies. Fresh and non-chemical-laden produce is the foundation of good cooking. It doesn't matter how many fancy cookbooks you buy if you're shopping at a big chain grocery store.

    I'll also nth the tamari option. I buy organic, low-salt tamari. Delicious and excellent for cooking.

    And do remember that most cuisines have veggie possibilities - very few are totally meat-centric (and you hardly see Inuit restaurants anymore and Filipino cooking is proably too spicy for you anyway). Mmm... Ethiopian...On Seriously, isn't it just gross? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 44 Responses