Pay homage to the atom and denounce nuclear power.

This woman has a lot of good things to say.

Mark took me to see Ani last night at the Capitol Center in Concord. We were supposed to see her on January 21, but a bout of laryngitis was all it took to cancel the show and a good chunk of her tour. This was the make up show.

I'm not bringing all this up to pine over Ms. Difranco- I'm bringing this up because she had one song in particular that had me choking back a tear or two. She mentioned it was new and I had yet to hear it myself. The basis was the reverence of the most basic element of human life, the atom. The song went through this great poetry about the simplicity of this divine science and how we all depend on it. The latter half of the song touched on nuclear power and nuclear weapons- how both are blasphemous in the name of the holy atom. I nearly wept where I sat.

I know, I know ... it must seem a bit silly for some girl to be brought to tears by an alt-folk rock song about the trees and atoms and people killing each other for no good reason. But, if any of you readers really know me and my passion for the natural world- this isn't that surprising.

So, before this wonderful song, Ani mentioned a bit of her political standing with the current race. Keep in mind, I'm paraphrasing here.

"I don't care which Democrat is in office ... They both say they want to listen to us ... So they might help us get some things done. This is a song that I would sing to both of them in a fireside setting ... They both approve nuclear power as a sufficient form of energy." She went on to say more, but that last part is what really sparked the idea for this blog post.

I'll explain.

I make mention of the web site Grist.Org fairly often. They're a fantastic, Slate-like, electronic news magazine based around environmental news and humor- right up my ally.

So, the fine folks at Grist have this wonderful resource describing where each political candidate stands on global warming and renewable energy. Let's examine the top three, shall we?

Here's a link to the Grist Political Chart which outlines the candidate's positions on the environment, based on their conversations with Grist reporters and the information that can be found on their own web sites.

I've used this information in previous posts, but I really think this is important to stress. John Edwards had the best environmental policy by far, but he's out- so it's time to move on.



Let's start with Senator Obama.

And by starting with Senator Obama, we also have to bring in Senator Clinton.



Why, you ask? Because their positions on the environment are practically identical. This is a good AND a bad thing. At least some apposing viewpoints would point the Democratic party in the right direction. Debate could create an open playing field for environmental policy to develop. Here's what we know about their campaigns that is similar:

1) They both support a cap-and-trade agreement. It's a good start, but it's common sense.

2) They want to raise emissions standards. Clinton wants to get us up to 55 mpg by 2050 (a bit slow on the upkeep if you ask me) and Obama wants to get us to 40 mpg by 2020. This is really nice, guys, but how about investments in clean technologies? Ones that don't depend on a fuel source that comes from oil or ethanol. They're all bad, no matter how "little" of them we use.

3) They want 25% of US energy to come from renewable sources by 2025. Fair enough, but do you think we could shoot higher?

4) They both support "Clean Coal." Did someone forget to tell them that coal isn't clean, whether it's in a liquid form or not? Me'thinks this position is fueled by the coal companies themselves. Candidates, are those other people's hands in your pockets, or are you just happy to see me?

5) They "demand" 60 billion gallons of home grown (that's in the US) biofuels EACH YEAR, by the year 2030. Wh a a a a? And ruin the produce we eat to survive? Ethanol corn isn't as great as everyone thinks it is, but I'll talk about that later.

6) Now, on to nuclear power. When I first glanced at this chart months ago, they were both overwhelmingly in favor of nuclear power. Since then, Clinton and Obama have become "agnostic" and skeptical respectively. I'll be sure to keep you up to date on their positions as time goes on.

So, that's the Democrats. Now, on to the G.O.P.



Senator John McCain has done great things for environmental legislation in the past few years. He's a believer in conservation and preserving our environment for the generations to come, or so he says. If you look at his stand on renewables, well- he has no stand. He claims that the environment is part of his platform, but the only clear points he's made is refusing subsidies for ethanol producers and he's a firm believer that nuclear power will help us gain energy independence.

Did he not see the film The Hills Have Eyes? Granted, that slasher movie is a far cry from the actual effects of nuclear waste (as far as we know) but still, the radiation and mutations that can result from nuclear waste are no solution to global warming.

Why can't we invest more in these beautiful structures?


Gosh, they just take my breath away.

I've been long winded enough for now. I'll be sure to update over the course of this weekend, since I plan on having some down time with a computer in my lap.

Wishing you all the best, guys.
Thanks for reading.
Hug your leafy neighbors.
Love,
Say

It's all about the details when it comes to selling your home.

My job just keeps getting better these days! Amy, my editor, has been noticing my enthusiasm for environmental topics and just assigned me a portion of a cover story regarding green home decor. I'm exploring wall paints and plasters, cork and mud flooring and organic/recycled textiles and upholstry. I'm having so much fun researching- I'm so enamoured with a lot of this stuff. Here are my favorite finds:

Mud (or Adobe) Floors can look as nice as this and last just as long as traditional hardwood, with correct care:





Cork flooring is some amazing stuff; fully sustainable and more functional than it's other wooden counterparts. This is definitely worth the research.







And last, but not least: American Clay Earth Plasters. I can't wait to own my own property and put this stuff to work!







I'll be sure to update when this cover story hits shelves. For my next great environmental endeavor with the Hippo, I'm writing a cover story about local conservation efforts! So far, I'm speaking with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the Russell Piscataquog River Watershed Foundation. I'll keep you all posted!

Love,
Say

The spray of the sea is tainted with the musk of our garbage.

In the midst of studying all the wonderful things you can do for your home to make it greener, I've stumbled upon some amazing updates in my "bookmarked" arsonal. I'm always guilty of needing a quick distraction when I'm working on a really long story. I'll stare at it glaringly for an hour, then I need a break- or my eyes will swell in my head and force my brain out my ears.

In my random searching I've found many amazing things, primarily websites that help make the green transition seem effortless, however expensive sometimes. One of these days I'll make a list of some sweet places you can go to browse neat ideas, learn something new and maybe aid in changing some behavior patterns. For now, we need to discuss this:



Pacific coast, we have a problem. I found this photo in conjunction with an article that explains, well ... there's the first paragraph of the damn thing:

"The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a stewy body of plastic and marine debris that floats an estimated 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, is a shape-shifting mass far too large, delicate and remote to ever be cleaned up, according to a researcher who recently returned from the area."

Disturbing, disheartening, not surprising. I mean, Casey showed me a link to an article on the Alberta Oil Sands yesterday- if disgraceful things like that are still going on, why wouldn't there be a massive, floating, mobile garbage dump trapped 1000 miles off the coast of San Francisco? It's only logical that something like this would happen. Now, the government is considering trying to clean this mess up. At least they said they're considering it. Saying and doing are two different things.

So, all you west-coasters out there reading this bit of information: WTF? I know you feel the same way I do- it's gross to think that's what humans automatically do to their surroundings and it's sad that something like this is happening just miles off your shoreline. Perhaps some lobbying is in order? Writing to your senators? Congressmen?

Every bit of outrage helps.

You can read the full story here: Plastic Trash in the Ocean as Far as the Eye Can See.

Love,
Say

How my industry is killing your environment.

I stumbled into this article while browsing Slate.com today ... low and behold, the employment that is my bread and butter is also one of the worst offenders of my heart's passion.

Here's the link, please read and then I'll feel free to ramble.

It was this quote that made my heart jump into my stomach:

" ... overall, the Department of Energy estimates that the paper manufacturing industry is the nation's fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, trailing only the chemical, petroleum and coal, and primary metals industries."

Oh GOD. What have we done? What are we continuing to do? Does the fact that I'm a journalist whose work is continually printed in a weekly and monthly format also make me a hypocrite?

So, I asked. My editor wasn't sure on our recycled content, so I asked our distribution manager.

We use the same printing source as the Concord Monitor. The Monitor gathers paper stock from various companies at any given time to supply their very large need for tabloid sized newsprint. Because the sources change so often, so does their recycled content. Our paper [The Hippo, not OXX Cycle] is printed on anywhere from 10 to 99% recycled content.

The bad thing about recycled newsprint is, the higher the recycled content, the worse ink does on it. Plus, you can't keep recycled paper sitting around in some warehouse awaiting its final destination. The sooner you can use that paper, the better- otherwise it starts to break down.

Regardless of this development, I wanted to run the equation used in the Slate article to apply to the Hippo. My numbers are rough, so just work with me on this one.

The Hippo is a tabloid, not a broadsheet newspaper. As a result, we use less paper than, say, the Union Leader based solely on page size alone. We're about half the size of that, so based on broadsheet terms, we have to cut the equation in half.

The Hippo has an average of 56 pages per issue. That means 28 full tabloid pages. We have a distribution of 200,000 readers. So, once a week, we print 5,600,000 tabloid pages. Times that by 52 weeks in a year and we print on a total of 291,200,000 tabloid pages a year.

Wow.

Okay, so, if one ton of newsprint is equal to 280,000 broadsheet pages, than that's equal to 560,000 tabloid pages (roughly). One ton of newsprint requires the content of 12 mature trees. Take our 291,200,000, divide that by 560,000, and you have 520 tons of newsprint used by us every year. That's equal to 6,240 trees per year to supply our paper- the second most read news publication in New Hampshire. This is not including the recycled content of our pages, nor does it take into account the two other publications we produce. If, on average, we use 50% recycled materials, that drops our tree usage to 3,120 trees per year. Better, but still not good.

You can see why my brow furrows at all of this. We recycle our returns and we use recycled sources, but is that really enough of an effort? Shouldn't we invest in our website a bit more? Sure, that takes electricity to run, but we can always get that from a renewable source [I'll-be-it in the distant future at the rate we catch up].

So, yeah ... that's the the deal for now. More coming soon!

Be green, hug trees!
Love,
Say

Transfer from previous web-server for convenience.

Hello everyone! Welcome to the new home of my environmental blog, which- until recently- was housed on my private Myspace page. For overall convenience I've decided to restart my blogger account and bring my writing to a wider audience. To keep everyone caught up, I'll be posting my previous two weeks worth of postings, pictures included.

Please feel free to contact me regarding the posts here at: sayitmorethanonce@gmail.com.

I hope to hear from you!

Please, read, discuss, comment, enjoy!

Best,
Say