A reader named Chrissy wrote to me and asked how we entertain Isabella without TV or video games: We build towers from a set of wooden blocks and laugh our heads off when the towers fall down. Towards bedtime, we sit on the couch and listen to classical music on the crank-up radio and try to hum along. […]
Gadgets and my slice of the pie
The planet has limited resources. A lot of people need and want those resources. So, what’s my fair share? How big a slice of the pie can I take without it meaning that someone else has to suffer? I want happiness for myself and my family, but the big question underlying the No Impact Man project […]
Too bad our planet isn’t disposable
Back in the 1920s, a group of executives migrated to General Motors from Dupont, the chemical and dye-making giant. At Dupont, they had learned from their customers in fashion and textiles—America’s third largest and fastest growing industry—the strategy of making customers want this year’s products by making last year’s products look outdated, even though they […]
My ultra cool reusable water bottle
Wait. Déja vu, right? You saw that picture of the jar yesterday in my post entitled “my ultra cool reusable cup?” Guess what? My cup and my water bottle? They are the same thing! Two for the price of one. Double economy! I dip with my jar into the nearest deli and ask them to […]
My ultra cool reusable cup
We’ve all read or heard of these studies that say that when you account for the much higher energy of manufacture and of washing a reusable cup, you might as well as use a disposable cup. You would have to use a hell of a lot of disposable cups, such studies say, before you equal […]
“Without terror, you can’t have terrorism”
Today’s blog title is a quote from a recent post called Marketing Fear by the astute social thinker Seth Godin. The picture to the right comes from his blog as an illustration of how a convenience store used the fear of terrorism to market duct tape. Godin says: “Marketing with fear is a powerful tool. […]
Speaking of poo
On Thursday, I went with one of my heroes from the Lower East Side Ecology Center, Kate Zidar, to look at a “combined sewer overflow” (CSO). Now what I’m about to tell you is gross, so if you have a strong gag reflex… The CSO that Kate showed me, down on the East River, is […]
What’s green and what’s not?
From the New York Times article on Home Depot’s Eco Options Marketing campaign: …Plastic-handled paint brushes were touted as nature-friendly because they were not made of wood. Wood-handled paint brushes were promoted as better for the planet because they were not made of plastic. An electric chainsaw? Green, because it was not gas-powered. A bug […]