Roses are Red, Valentines are GREEN

Send a little eco-love to your valentine!

Share some love with the earth by checking out these great green
postcards to send to all your loved ones!

You can also check them out and send them to your loved ones here.

crabbtown at itsyournature.org

hello all,

my new blog area at NRDC's itsyournature.org is up and running. you can find it at:

http://www.itsyournature.org/crabbtown

NRDC is awesome because of what they do:

1. Taking on corporate polluters and government indifference in court;
They sued the U.S. Navy and stopped them from blasting the world's marine mammals with deadly hi-frequency sonar.

2. Helping companies and institutions see the 'green' light;
They've partnered with Warner Music Group to revolutionize their music label into the greenest on earth. They've also "greened" this year's Grammy and Oscar ceremonies.

3. Making smart sustainable policies the law of the land;
We ensured that a half million kids in California are getting tested for lead poisoning every year.
If you're into environmentalism, check it out. If not... then check it out.

-peace

OK Polluters: Radiohead

This is an article by Ben Jervey from www.itsyournature.org. They've got a great blog at their myspace page. Ben's a great writer and I just haven't quite gotten my fix of heaping compliments on the world's best band. Enjoy.

OK Polluters: Radiohead, a band that gets global warming
by Ben Jervey

Radiohead's an easy band to love. Not just because their the best rock band on the planet (IM-not so-HO), but because they take serious issues seriously, and talk about them with candor, intelligence, and thought. Like global warming.

Consider these tidbits:

--For their upcoming US/European tour, they're partnering with the Oxford-based company Best Foot Forward to reduce the ecological footprint of the band's tour--right down to the collective impact of fan's travel. From a Treehugger post:

After gathering lots of information about their own environmental impact, Radiohead wanted to include their fans' footprint too. Best Foot Forward has analysed the two different types of tours Radiohead recently did in Amercia; the big gigs held out of town versus the smaller ones in city centres. This way they could find out which type of touring has the lowest impact 'per person entertained' as bassist Colin explains on their web site, based on transportation, food consumption and waste left behind by the fans.

Because the transport mode of the fans makes a big difference when it comes to carbon emissions and environmental impact, Radiohead encourages people to use public transport to get to their shows. They therefore have decided to play as many gigs as they can in cities because those provide better transport possibilities and don't require private cars to get to the event.

--Or Thom Yorke's conversation in Wired with David Byrne, during which they touch upon these same touring concerns:

Yorke: ... [At] the moment we make money principally from touring. Which is hard for me to reconcile because I don't like all the energy consumption, the travel. It's an ecological disaster, traveling, touring.

Byrne: Well, there are the biodiesel buses and all that.

Yorke: Yeah, it depends where you get your biodiesel from. There are ways to minimize it. We did one of those carbon footprint things recently where they assessed the last period of touring we did and tried to work out where the biggest problems were. And it was obviously everybody traveling to the shows.

Byrne: Oh, you mean the audience.

Yorke: Yeah. Especially in the U.S. Everybody drives. So how the hell are we going to address that? The idea is that we play in municipal places with some transport system alternative to cars. And minimize flying equipment, shipping everything. We can't be shipped though.

--Or, more metaphorically, Yorke's comments about "sustainable urban planning" through the lens of record contracts:

Signing a new major-label contract "would have killed us straight off," he added. "Money makes you numb, as M.I.A. wrote. I mean, it's tempting to have someone say to you, 'You will never have to worry about money ever again,' but no matter how much money someone gives you -- what, you're not going to spend it? You're not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It's like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.

--And let's not forget Yorke's 2006 solo effort, The Eraser, which was entirely inspired by global warming. Or, actually, on the lack of political action to address it. As he told the LA Times:

In the paper one day, [Friends of the Earth activist] Jonathan Porritt was basically dismissing any commitment that the working government has toward addressing global warming, saying that their gestures were like King Canute trying to stop the tide. And that just went "kaching" in my head. It's not political, but that's what I feel is happening. We're all King Canutes, holding our hands out, saying, "It'll go away. I can make it stop." No, you can't.

IYN is no stranger to bands that back up their beliefs with action, and we're pretty fired up to see that one of the most influential and (to be blunt) awesome bands of our era is so hip to the real issues of our times. Maybe we'll catch them at All Points West. It is, after all, just a short train ride from IYN's NYC HQ.

canvas bags... the rock opera

i found this video on youtube and discovered a really awesome musician/comedian. the guy's name is Tim Minchin and you should check out some of his other performances on the net. they're not to be missed.
i love this video because it's such a great way to talk about an important but really boring issue- using canvas bags instead of plastic. at itsyournature.org, we're always trying to make people aware, but it's hard to get folks to remember the basics and make being green a part of their day to day lives. maybe we just need to write more pop songs. this track is so damn catchy that anyone who hears it will find themselves humming "take your canvas bags to the supermarket" over and over again.
and that's gotta count for something. watch and laugh. (give it a good minute... wait for it.)

taking heads

There was an odd exchange on CNN the other day.
CNN "Open House" host Gerri Willis was discussing the economy and joked with anchor Kyra Phillips that if she could predict the stock market, she and Phillips could run off to an island, prompting Phillips' co-anchor, Don Lemon, to ask not to be left out of the girls' getaway. This resulted in the following exchange:

Gerri: Alright Don, you come too.
Kyra: We could bring him along with the girls.
Gerri: Come on!
Kyra: He's paying! Thanks, Gerri.
Don: A little sandwich!
Kyra: Ooh!
Gerri: Whoa, I have to go now!
Kyra: Yeah, good time. You don't want to talk about the reverse oreo!

Willis was obviously embarrassed by Phillips' joke, though Lemon seemed to enjoy it, laughing out loud and announcing, "Oh, she said it! I'm glad she said it."



No one seemed particularly angered by the joke. Actually, everyone involved quite enjoyed it. Now, I hate to come off like some kind of Puritan, but my question is: Was it appropriate? This is the news (yeah... "news") and I can't help but feel like the people delivering it should have some sense of decorum when it comes to interacting with each other.

I remember in the early nineties watching CNN and feeling like I was really watching journalists at work. Even the anchors seemed somewhat invested in what they were saying, occasionally reviewing their notes and spontaneously changing up the way they imparted information (This could be seen most obviously by anchors on Headline News who had to recite the same loop every ten minutes.) Now, they just stare at that damn TelePrompTer and say the exact same thing over and over again. Watching Headline News for too long is like a bad acid trip. It's just impossible that these people aren't robots. I think "How can they be reading this text and saying these words yet again with such precision blandness?"

Watch CNN midmorning and you'll experience the saccharine coma of Christi Paul- a bobbing blonde head styled to within an inch of her life. Whether it's a fatal car crash or a feel-good story about found puppies, her tone never really changes. If you watch her for long enough, you begin to go numb. And just when you start to take her seriously, she'll say something like "Welcome back friends. I am so happy y'all are spending the morning with me." AAAAHHHHH. Shut up and tell me about Obama and Britney already. She does to me Mary Hart did to Kramer on that hilarious episode of Seinfeld.
Here she is in a silk blouse that has apparently been glued to the undersides of her breasts.



Watch CNN in the evening and prepare yourself for the fresh hell of Glenn Beck. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a man who's own opinion of his sense of humor is at such odds with the reality of how genuinely boring he is. The only compelling thing about him is shady sense of humor. He occasionally makes jokes that get you thinking he might have a naked girl trapped in a well beneath his basement. This guy is like your best friend from high school's creepy new stepdad who just can't stop trying so hard to be accepted.



What has happened to the televised news industry? Is it just me or does every anchor seem like a failed actress or male model from a J.C. Penney catalog? Who are these castrated automatons? How can so many bloated egos lack any distinguishing character definition? Where do these people come from? Do they have broadcasting backgrounds? And...
Why do any of them think it's okay to refer a fellow black coanchor as part of an Oreo?

Oh wow.

I could go on about this article and racism, but I'll let Alec Baldwin do it instead. The original story scans below aren't that great, so please click on the pic to enlarge the image and read the story.
Reprinted from the huffington post

The Ascendancy of Barack Obama in Small Town America
by Alec Baldwin

For those of you wondering how the Obama ascendancy is playing out in Small Town America, I offer you this column from the Independent, a weekly newspaper published on the East End of Long Island by Jerry Della Femina, the former advertising executive turned restaurateur and columnist. This particular piece was written by Rick Murphy under his weekly "Low Tidings" column. Murphy is also credited as a publisher of the Independent.

This article has caused quite a stir in East Hampton and beyond. So much so that the paper has pulled it from their website and Murphy, a regular antagonist of the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally, and the Clintons in particular, has replaced it with a brief apology. The Independent is considered the more right-leaning and Republican-endorsing paper of the East End community. Della Femina himself is regarded as one of the great Hillary-Haters in all of the world.

On the heels of Barack Obama being endorsed for the presidency by the normally close-to-the-vest Caroline Kennedy, whose invocation of her father's enduring legacy carries, in some people's hearts and minds, more weight than any ten such endorsements by others, please read what the local Republicans in my home town are thinking, and publishing, about Senator Obama. This is, quite clearly, not to be believed.

crabbtown blog 1-25-08

Whole Foods/Plastic Bags

crabbtown blog 1-20-08

Bush Administration Rejects California’s Global Warming Clean Cars Rules

At what point did our politicians STOP supporting state's rights? And who is employed by the EPA these days? I'm reposting this from www.itsyournature.org

Here's the NRDC Press Release:

EPA Sticks Thumb in Eyes of Governors Representing Half of All Americans, Says NRDC

WASHINGTON (Dec. 19, 2007) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today denied California's request for routine permission to implement its clean cars law (AB 1493). This rejection represents bald-faced political interference with California's decades-long authority to enforce its own clean air rules, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Following is a statement by David Doniger, NRDC Climate Center Policy Director:
"The California standards are the single most effective step yet taken in the United States to curb global warming. By blocking the California standards, the administration has stuck a thumb in the eye of 18 governors from both red and blue states who have led the way on global warming by adopting these landmark rules.
"California and the 17 other states have led the way to cut global warming pollution from new automobiles. Their right to do so has been affirmed by three federal court decisions this year, including the Supreme Court's landmark ruling that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant, just like any other. The new energy law signed by the president today explicitly preserves this Clean Air Act authority.
"The EPA administrator claimed the new energy law sets a standard of 35 miles per gallon and thereby precludes California's more effective standards. That is just plain wrong. The energy law only sets a fuel economy floor. It requires the administration to set standards of 'at least 35 miles per gallon,' expressly giving the administration the power to go farther. And the law expressly preserves California's authority under the Clean Air Act to set independent, stronger standards to meet the challenge of global warming. Let's be clear: the California standard is stronger and more effective than the 35-mile-per-gallon floor established in the new energy law.
"EPA Administrator Steven Johnson's claim that California lacks 'compelling and extraordinary conditions' is completely indefensible. California is suffering severe impacts from global warming. Mr. Johnson's 'policy preference' for a different approach is exactly the kind of illegal free-lancing the Supreme Court rejected in its landmark April decision on global warming."

Green in the New Year

Kate Finklea, my awesome cohort at ITSYOURNATURE.ORG, reposted this great blog entry from http://www.simplesteps.org about going green in the new year. If you haven't yet checked out our page and blog, find us here:

http://www.itsyournature.org

and here on myspace:

http://myspace.com/itsyournature

It's Resolution time again, and as we all struggle to reform and renew our personal pledges, take a moment to think about how your individual improvements can create a greater worldwide impact. Thanks to our friends at simplesteps.org we have some help for those looking to act a little greener in the new year.

"Resolutions for a Greener New Year"

This year make a few resolutions that are easy to keep. Pledge to take a couple simple steps, one at a time, to live healthier, reduce waste and tread a little more lightly. Do one or do them all but each is a beginning, a small step to a more balanced life. Start by eating well, then take a couple steps to simplify your life and cut down on clutter.

Eat well!

Buy organic <http://www.simplesteps.org/content/view/1/103/37/> when you can particularly peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines and strawberries, which commonly contain the most pesticides.

Eat more locally grown food <http://www.simplesteps.org/content/view/1/192/37/> . In season produce that hasn't flown half-way around the world will be fresher, tastier and cuts down on pollution.

Stop buying tomato-based canned food and drink less soda. The linings of the cans leach BPA into your food and drink.

Avoid fish high in mercury and choose fish that are sustainably caught to ensure a steady supply for years to come.

Simplify!

Grab that stack of holiday catalogs and log onto Catalog Choice <http://www.catalogchoice.org/> to put a stop to unwanted catalogs <http://www.simplesteps.org/content/view/1/195/37/> .

Don't spray pesticides to control pest in your home. Safer alternatives are more effective and longer lasting.

Carry a reusable bag and refuse plastic bags -- no more breaking, tearing or blowing in the wind.

Save!

If you're leaving a trail of 12 oz. plastic water bottles in your wake, buy an aluminum reusable bottle instead.

Take a couple simple steps to save a lot of energy. Start by disabling your computer's screensaver and setting it to 'sleep' after 5 minutes of activity. Shut it off when you're done.

Don't buy clothes that need to be dry cleaned. Many fabrics can be safely washed or spot cleaned at home, even if the label says 'dry clean only'. Almost all dry cleaning uses toxic chemicals that linger on your clothes and in the air <http://www.simplesteps.org/content/view/1/198/41/> .

Clean your home with natural products, just about anything can be cleaned with vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda or Borax.

Reuse and Recycle!

Every piece of paper, bottle and jar counts. Every TV, answering machine and old computer really counts by keeping toxic chemicals out of our air and water.

Before tossing something, donate it or offer it to others.

office of the living dead

here are some of the new environmental spots i've finished with NRDC's itsyournature.org. they star jack perry, margo passalaqua, josh matthews, and yours truly. i wrote them with lucas longacre, who also directed them. kelly cox was at the helm of the project and we couldn't have done it all without her trusty bro jacob cox.







Make sure you check out www.itsyournature.org for more great videos.

What's That Smell?

"...when you smell a smell it's not really a smell, it's a part of the object that has come off of it -- molecules. So when you smell something bad, it's like in a way you're eating it. This is why you should not really smell things, in the same way that you don't eat everything in the world around you - because as a smell, it gets inside of you. So the next time you go into the bathroom after someone else has been there, remember what kinds of molecules you are in fact eating."

That's from my favorite scene in Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm," in which a very young and thoughtful Elijah Wood stands in front of his class to deliver a report about olfactory senses. As funny as the monologue is, the kid's really on to something.

NRDC has found that more than a dozen common household air fresheners contain chemicals that may affect hormones and reproductive development, particularly in babies. It seems the federal government doesn't test air fresheners for safety and the manufacturers aren't required to meet any specific safety standards.
Say what?

“More than anything, our research highlights cracks in our safety system,” said Dr. Gina Solomon, NRDC senior scientist. “There are too many products on the shelves that we assume are safe, but have never even been tested.”

Only two of the fourteen odor-ific brands tested, Febreze Air Effects and Renuzit Subtle Effects, contained no detectable levels of a hormone-disrupting chemical called phthalate. (Try saying it aloud without sounding like Daffy Duck.) None of the products listed phthalates as ingredients and several are actually marketed as “all-natural” and “unscented.” (You know- Natural, as in "Come into my kitchen. It smells like Cranberry-mango-winter-breeze"-natural.)

The three with the highest level of phthalates were Walgreens Air Freshener, Walgreens Scented Bouquet, and Ozium Glycolized Air Sanitizer. These phthalates (say it three times fast) pose the greatest risk over long term repeated exposure. This exposure can can affect testosterone levels and lead to reproductive abnormalities, including abnormal genitalia and reduced sperm production. So if your kids spend too much time in the den, which stinks to high heaven of "Vanilla-cinnamon-fresh linen-new car," it could mess up their unmentionables.

"Manufacturers are getting away with marketing products as ‘natural’ when they’re not, and that’s because no one is stopping them,” said Mae Wu, an attorney in NRDC’s health program. “Our research suggests this could be a widespread problem in a booming industry that – so far – has been allowed to do what it wants.”

NRDC recommends that consumers who purchase air fresheners be selective and try to reduce home odors by improving home ventilation. That air freshener might make the bathroom smell sweet and cover the smell of your dirty sneakers, but why not open a window? Remember, when you smell a phthalate, part of that phthalate is inside you.

The scene in question is at 5:40. Funny stuff.

What Would Jesus Watch?

You should really check out the new "What Would Jesus Buy?" It's a documentary by Morgan Spurlock, who made the great "Supersize Me" and the even greater TV series "30 Days." It's part exploration on the holidays and consumerism/part documentary about Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. The film dabbles its feet in some heavy issues and never really beats you over the head with statistics and disturbing sweatshop footage. It's quite entertaining and has some really engaging parts. At one point, the crew motivates a group of 3 thirteen year-old girls to contact the companies who manufacture their favorite clothes to inquire about their policies and production. Its an amazing thing seeing these giddy teenagers get excited about finding out the answers to questions they never realized they wanted answered. I hope the film makes some people think that way.



The release is very limited, but you can check the website to see if it's playing in your area code.

http://wwjbmovie.com/

Part of the promotion for the film, in conjunction with www.itsyournature.org, was to get people to make their own videos discussing how they would attempt to celebrate a less materialistic holiday. People made some wonderful videos about handmade gifts, holiday memories, and their favorite charities.
I am a smart ass though...

all i want for christmas

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