From Leo to You Tube: updated…

In lieu of motivation for my own post, I will bring this gem back to the forefront–yes, I know the 11th Hour is already off everyone’s radar…

OK totally a diff clip than I remember saving to post…hahaha…but still worthy of this blog!  Well, in terms of the clips from the movie. The idea that we vote with each purchase we make is interesting…a stretch to me in some ways, because as a perpetual consumer, I feel like I make choices based on my product options. But in truth I forget that there is the choice not to consume at all. This ties in with the earlier post about going green–that being eco-friendly means consuming less, not consuming crap branded as “green.” So I suppose I can agree that each choice we make is like a vote, but I find that a poor metaphor considering the option not to vote at all.

My other thought about the first guy, he raises a critical idea that we all seem to decide not to think about: the world can continue existing without humans. Perhaps this presupposes that the scientific theory of life is accurate, but I am ok with that. I do believe the world existed and evolved without humans and will continue to do so after we destroy it and perhaps cease to exist. When Earth advocates say we only have one world, they are right. But I raise them a we’ve only got one cenozoic era (you bet your ass I looked that up).

 

Green is hip, but misunderstood…

My friend sent me this article today to spark some inspiration for the blog, and indeed it was a success. The article goes on about what many of us consider true: that being “green” is becoming trendy. Major fashion mags and celebs tout green living and green products as hip, enticing us to join the club, as it were. In truth, there is much to be said about the author’s (and the people he quotes) assertions that living green actually means consuming less, not just buying Stella McCartney eco-friendly clothes. I get that, and I agree … but I also think that green products are an interesting solution to the perpetual consumer.

For instance, commenting on Elle magazine’s suggestion to buy eco-friendly greeting cards, the author wonders why people wouldn’t just send an e-card. Using the same example, I would say that there are people (like my grandma) who will always and forever only buy paper cards. Why shouldn’t they then choose cards that are better for the Earth? On the same note, women who are into high fashion will forever buy expensive, brand name clothing. Shouldn’t we be stoked then that they are remotely interested in clothing created in an eco-friendly way? Because I certainly don’t see high fashion turning to Rayon anytime soon (the article notes that it would be the most eco-friendly fabric because it takes less energy to clean/care for it).

I do certainly agree that if you are going to “go green,” then you have to actually look at the bigger picture and not the immediate moment (as in the energy expended for owning an item vs what was expended to make it), but I also think (again piggybacking on an example in the article) that if people are going to be fashionable lamps and replace them when they go out of style anyway, those lamps should at least use eco-friendly bulbs.

 

More ridiculous crap from MTV…

MTV’s new Real World Hollywood is about as chalk full of drama as one expects from the show, or more so given the string of boring, un-entertaining seasons (Read: Sydney, Key West, San Diego). This season is bringing back the alcoholism of Hawaii, abuse of Seattle and sex scandals of Las Vegas, making for a discomforting yet somehow addicting show. To my amusement, I found out that the cast apparently lives in a “green” house, as Think MTV thought it a great plan to use RW as a platform for encouraging youth to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyles. Except I am pretty sure I’ve seen most the episodes so far and not once has the subject been mentioned…not once! I stumbled on this post on GRIST, though, and found the clips totally entertaining. Check out Rock Band in the background of the Think MTV people and classic lines from the southern ignorant blonde chick: we live in a “green house, not the color green, but energy-efficient green.” In the subsequent clips you get to see how a toilet and a bidet come together as one, how a stove can actually protect drunk chefs, and how loser brosefs can’t even listen to a hot girl talking because she is too hot in her “summer” dress…get excited!

GristMill–Real Green World

It boggles my mind that they went to so much trouble to outfit the awesomely recycled I Love Lucy set with these amazing gadgets and crap and yet the producers don’t care to highlight it AT ALL. I get that trying to figure out the stove is not entertaining TV, but at least air the roommates saying idiotic shit to the camera about how fantastic a normal dishwasher is (it saves something like 20 gal of water compared to handwashing dishes, according to Summer). I dunno, it seems like a wasted platform to thousands of impressionable teens, but at least I know the wasteful disasters on the show are doing their part, whether they understand it or not…

 

Global Warmings, a serious issue.

This morning I started searching YouTube for relevant/entertaining videos to post. I wanted something with a celeb, something meaningful, something to make you readers come back. Here is what I found:

I love how SNL has infiltrated the way I instinctively think about politics and politicians. Darrel Hammond as Al Gore, enough said. And Will Ferrel as Dubya is basically better than the real G-Dub, not even just for obvious reasons. It’s early…the video is clearly the funniest part of this post…

 

Dude, if I had the money…

Seriously check this out: The new MicroFueler.

Some Cali company created this contraption that you can buy for like $10K that makes ethanol fuel from sugar!! Reduces the dependence on corn and cuts the cost of fueling your car to like $1 a gallon, if you use this guy’s connects with Mexico for cheap ass inedible sugar. Sugar also supposedly has less greenhouse gas emissions than corn, so there are some kind of tax savings there.

And, Reuters heard from the company that, for “a two-car family that drives about 34,500 miles a year, the MicroFueler will pay for itself in less than two years, assuming average gasoline prices of $3.60 per gallon.” Considering gas is pushing $4/gal, I am thinking that is a pretty sweet deal…Austin, start saving!

 

So many beer bottles, so much potential

As a D.C. resident for the last few years, I have come to love the political rhetoric, the heated and passionate protesters, the tree-hugging hipsters, the lazy young professionals (a group that I most certainly belong to). But recently, amid a weekend of debauchery, I came to learn some seriously heinous truths. Most of the bars in Adams Morgan do not recycle!!

For those of you unfamiliar, A-Mo is much like Garnet in PB/San Diego–basically a few blocks in a row of nothing but trashy bars and late night eats frequented by college kids and us lazy young professionals/interns. The number of beer bottles in a night? No clue. The number of people drinking beer from a bottle? Every last patron. How can Nolans NOT recycle??

According to some guy that was cleaning up there, the cost is too much. Apparently, they don’t have the money (please) to pay DC for recycling bins and pickup. The ironic part? The night we discovered this was the first night (we’ve seen) that they decided to charge dudes $5 at the door and enforce some sort of collared-shirt dress code. Nope, the money was not so they could start recycling.

This, among a slew of other reasons, is why I officially refuse to continue getting smashed on 18th street. Nolans no more! Sorry DJ Spyder. Get them to go green and maybe I will come back.

On the same note, Washington, D.C., trash rules are ridiculous. My friends of the Top-Unit have not been able to recycle for the past three years because they live above a tattoo parlor so the building is considered business, not residential. How is that helpful?? And why doesn’t the city place public recycle bins throughout the city? I am so sick of throwing my bottles and Express papers in the trash bins and pretending to myself that somehow they magically will be recycled like in Newport Beach (where they do the filtering at the plant). If I was a voter here and if I wasn’t such a lazy young professional, perhaps I would do something about this, something other than ineloquently ranting about it on this blog…