One Size Fits All

I spent some time in the library today and read this interesting article in the New Yorker. The main topic was greenhouse  emissions. The article starts out by mentioning Tesco’s (Britain’s largest retailer) committment to reducing greenhouse emissions:

Tesco sells nearly a quarter of the groceries bought in the United Kingdom, it possesses a growing share of the markets in Asia and Europe, and late last year the chain opened its first stores in America. Few corporations could have a more visible—or forceful—impact on the lives of their customers. In his speech, Leahy, who is fifty-two, laid out a series of measures that he hoped would ignite "a revolution in green consumption." He announced that Tesco would cut its energy use in half by 2010, drastically limit the number of products it transports by air, and place airplane symbols on the packaging of those which it does. More important, in an effort to help consumers understand the environmental impact of the choices they make every day, he told the forum that Tesco would develop a system of carbon labels and put them on each of its seventy thousand products. "Customers want us to develop ways to take complicated carbon calculations and present them simply," he said. "We will therefore begin the search for a universally accepted and commonly understood measure of the carbon footprint of every product we sell—looking at its complete life cycle, from production through distribution to consumption. It will enable us to label all our products so that customers can compare their carbon footprint as easily as they can currently compare their price or their nutritional profile."

One of the things the article mentions is an exchange called the "Chicago Climate Exchange".

In most respects, the exchange operates like any other market. Instead of pork-belly futures or gold, however, CCX members buy and sell the right to pollute. Each makes a voluntary (but legally binding) commitment to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—and hydrofluorocarbons. Four hundred corporations now belong to the exchange, including a growing percentage of America’s largest manufacturers. The members agree to reduce their emissions by a certain amount every year, a system commonly known as cap and trade. A baseline target, or cap, is established, and companies whose emissions fall below that cap receive allowances, which they can sell (or save to use later). Companies whose emissions exceed the limit are essentially fined and forced to buy credits to compensate for their excess.

The article details the exchange’s activities in more detail and it would give anyone a headache. Why creative financing needs more areas to infiltrate is beyond me. Has it ever done anyone any good? Why not try a simplistic approach? Anyway…moving on…

The following para annoyed me…specifically Adrian Williams:

Yet the relationship between food miles and their carbon footprint is not nearly as clear as it might seem. That is often true even when the environmental impact of shipping goods by air is taken into consideration. "People should stop talking about food miles," Adrian Williams told me. "It’s a foolish concept: provincial, damaging, and simplistic." Williams is an agricultural researcher in the Natural Resources Department of Cranfield University, in England. He has been commissioned by the British government to analyze the relative environmental impacts of a number of foods. "The idea that a product travels a certain distance and is therefore worse than one you raised nearby—well, it’s just idiotic," he said. "It doesn’t take into consideration the land use, the type of transportation, the weather, or even the season. Potatoes you buy in winter, of course, have a far higher environmental ticket than if you were to buy them in August." Williams pointed out that when people talk about global warming they usually speak only about carbon dioxide. Making milk or meat contributes less CO₂ to the atmosphere than building a house or making a washing machine. But the animals produce methane and nitrous oxide, and those are greenhouse gases, too. "This is not an equation like the number of calories or even the cost of a product," he said. "There is no one number that works."

One reason I try to eat local food is for environmental reasons. However, its not the whole picture. I also eat locally to support the local economy, to do my part toward the trade deficit and other reasons. I also tend to have a doomsday view of thinking. What if New Zealand dissapeared tomorrow and I was addicted to kiwi eggs. I like to have contingency plans for everything (its how I keep myself entertained).  

The article is a good read. Check it out. 

So I am still freezing my buns. But a look at my latest gas bill will indicate that I haven’t been freezing my buns too much. For the month of January we used 66 ccf and in December we used 53 ccf. This translates into 54.33 and 67.65 therms respectively. Since I am also rioting, these numbers are very close to what the average American consumes at 83 therms. The riot goal is 1 therm (base being per month). Why are our numbers so high? I have some ideas.

1. We live in a house with two floors. This is alot of space to be heating up even if we turn on the heat once or twice a week for a few hours. This is not by design. We needed to move quick last year when the pipes in our old apartment froze for more than 1 week. We took over a lease that someone else was breaking. And we just stayed here as the place is fairly inexpensive. But we will be moving in a few months to a small space with a short term lease.

2. We live in a drafty house. While we’ve plugged every leak, there may a few we missed. And we have single paned windows.  

3. We have friends over and we like them to be comfortable when at our place. So during these occasions we turn on the heat for more than a few hours.

4. We have long showers in hot water and do dishes in hot water. Hot water is heated with gas.  

I don’t know if we can reduce this consumption any further. I’ll try to be a bit more conscious. But I am a bit sick of this winter.

Another long term goal (in addition to moving across the country and perhaps to another country and perhaps also to another hemisphere and, retiring early), is to become a musician. I’ve wanted to do it since I was…I suppose 10, but again money or the lack of it got in the way. I want to be the next Frank Zappa (guitarist, composer, pianist, and even drummer). And to afford all the stuff that I need to be a musician I need to save the money to devote myself to it. I might be the oldest rockstar if and when I do make it (projected age: 98), but at least I would have reached my goal. I can’t get started on that goal just yet because of the move that will happen at the end of the year.

This is yet one of those other interests I’ve never pursued, despite an apparent talent because of a lack of money and the lack of confidence. I have friends in the art world who have wealthy parents that support their artistic endeavours. I have no such financial generosity…so I have to work my way to afford the lifestyle some people are born into.

A somewhat minor concern I have about this particular goal involves all the "sky is falling" end of oil predictions. Will it be impossible to have rock concerts and rock tours when civilization ends? The Ditty Bops did have a biking tour, so rocks tours on a bike isn’t that impossible.

I had an old blog at vox that I didn’t really use. I had a total of 3 posts before I gave up on it and started this one. One post was as follows:

P = c *[(1-(1/ (1+R)^t))/R]+(F/(1+R)^t)

When c reaches an amount I can live on per year, I will be able to officially retire. This should be in 9 year: 2016.

One of my big goals is retiring early…or at least being able to choose on whether I want to work.

I originally wanted to retire at 30. This was before life happened (read my updated about me page for my life story…I apparently feel like sharing these days). So I pushed the date forward by 5 years. In some ways the goal isn’t that crazy. I could live in a country where the cost of living is very low or I could live in a tent and spend the remainder of my life on bike tours. But anyway…just wanted to put it out there. For my own reference.

I went on a cooking frenzy today. I made tofu, soy milk, roasted butternut squash soup (recipe from vegan with a vengence), mashed potatoes and punk rock chickpea gravy (also from VWAV), and peanut butter oatmeal cookies. Potatoes, some of the soy beans, butter nut squash, chickpeas and some of the spices like thyme and oregano were local.

Half the cookies were for our neighbors who for some nice reason decided to clear the snow from our steps and the sidewalk in front of our place. I was  touched so I baked them cookies.

I purchased the soya joy soy milk maker and 20 lbs of GMO free soy beans toward the end of November 2007. The soy milk maker cost $89.95 and the 20 lbs of soy beans including shipping cost  $17.22 (there was some sort of special the company had running). Total cost: $107.17

Prior to purchasing the soy milk maker and soy beans, we used to get a gallon of silk soy milk for about $7.98 every week. We also purchased tofu about once or twice per month. The cost varied. At the local asian grocery store, each cake was about $1.00. If it came in fancy pants packaging from whole food, it cost more (can’t remember how much). 

Using the 1 gallon/week as a base of consumption we’ve broken even on the soy milk maker + soy beans once we passed 14 weeks.

We also finished the 20 lbs of soy beans this week. So I purchased 30 lbs at $36.86 (including shipping). The shipping costs have gone up.  

While writing this post I found Worsted Witch’s post on silk soy milk where I found this little interesting titbit:

You may even have heard murmurs that Silk started importing organic soybeans from China, Brazil, and Argentina to supplement local beans because of shortages in 2003. What you may not know (and I was until recently blissfully unaware of) is that the practice continues today, likely because imported soybeans cost as much as $4 less per bushel than those obtained domestically. (We have no idea if these beans are traded fairly, either, so don’t look for consolation there.)

I decided that for the rest of the winter season I will not be purchasing from the winter buying club.

The money I pay to the winter buying club is a deposit that has to be paid a few weeks before the food is actually delivered. I was using my credit card for the deposit because I get 1% cash back and I like any sort of free money I can get my hands on. However, the past few months have resulted in missing food. I do get credited back for the stuff not delivered, but the credit isn’t posted for another month after the delivery date. The food hasn’t been delivered for any number of reasons including bad weather, delivery sent to the wrong site, etc. This is annoying because I planned menus based on what I ordered. And if a key ingredient doesn’t arrive, it messes my plans up. And now I have a cash flow problem because I have to use money budgeted for something else to get the food I wanted.

I have been using the fair food stand and a natural food store to supplement our food purchases so I will continue to buy locally…just not from the winter buying club.

I saw these palm trees inside the World Financial Center #4. They are real. I touched it to make sure. Unless I don’t know what barks feel like. And since the building was ruined during the 9/11 attacks, these trees were very recently uprooted and then brought over and replanted. Or maybe the palm trees grow really quickly.

I cannot describe how wasteful I think this is. 

My husband purchased Hooked! as a birthday gift for me and I am glad he did. This is one of those books that can be read repeatedly. Each reading gives me new insight that I did not previously have.

The book is a collection of 17 essays about consumerism from a Buddhist perspective. But its a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning about consumerism and how to deal with it and stop mindless consumption - not just Buddhists. Personally, I don’t identify as a Buddhist but find the teachings of The Buddha to be valuable guide to living a life that is ethically sound.

Buddhism address consumerism and mindless consumption with the idea of the hungry ghost, "depicted as a craven figure with a protuberant stomach and a long pencil neck [with a small mouth], a maundering wraith unable to satisfy its insatiable desires. In this realm, attempts to avoid pain by seeking satisfaction cause more pain for oneself and others". 

Lately, I have identified my specific type of consumption. I call it "forced kindness". Thus, I will refuse to purchase something that is made in China (for example) because I am aware that many of the Chinese citizens working on American products work very long hours, live in cramped quarters and generally deal with very sucky conditions. However, the counter argument is that this new Chinese economy is beneficial for these workers who would otherwise have worse job prospects and that the money they currently earn is beneficial enough that after a few years they can go back to their villages and jump start their lives there.  However, I don’t want to be responsible for someone working 90-100 hours per week. I demand that they work 40 hours or less and get benefits, health care, proper living quarters, access to clean, non-poisonous water! I refuse to buy bananas from South America because the banana pickers are paid shitty wages and are otherwise thoroughly exploited. I would like them to not be beaten for asking for higher wages. Since I can’t do anything about their beatings or the Chinese workers’ high work hours, I choose to just not consume their products.

This idea of "forced kindness" is reflected in Hooked! The title of the book itself is illuminating. The Tibetan word "shenpa" is often translated into English as "attachment", but a more accurate translation would be "hook" or "that sticky feeling". "Shenpa thrives on the underlying insecurity of living in a world that is always changing. We experience this insecurity as a background of slight unease or restlessness. We all want some kind of relief from that unease, so we turn to what we enjoy–food, alcohol, drugs, sex, work or shopping. In moderation what we enjoy might be very delightful. We can appreciate its taste and its presence in our life. But when we empower it with the idea that it will bring us comfort, that it will remove our unease, we get hooked."

What sort of guidelines should one follow while consuming? Joseph Goldstein writes in his essay, "the first and most fundamental principle to apply is nonharming." That is, if a product we buy causes harm to someone or something we should not consume/buy it.

The essays in the book are written by practioners of various Buddhist sects…thus each of their suggestions in dealing with consumerism reflects their particular sect in some manner. For example under Soto Zen there is a five line verse that is used by their monasteries before a meal:

Five Verses to Living the Green Plan in Everyday Life

1. Let’s Protect the Green Earth. The Great Earth Is the Home of All Life.

2. Let’s Use Water Sparingly. Water Is the Source of All Life.

3. Let’s Limit Our Use of Heat. Heat is What Propels All Life.

4. Let’s Maintain Clean Air. Clean Air Is the Open Space for All Life.

5. Let’s Live in Harmony with Nature. Nature Is the Buddha in Form. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book and have read the essays many times over. I’ve had the book for over a year and decided to re-read it before giving it away. So….

M: I know you wanted me to do the review…if the book sounds interesting and would like my copy of it, let me know. If M doesn’t want it, I can mail it out to anyone else that is interested. Just leave me a comment. 

Like many loners, I hate being the center of attention. Prior to being married I dreaded the idea of a wedding day because to me, it meant I would have to wear uncomfortable shoes, uncomfortable clothes, too much make up, be on my best behaviour for hours on end dealing with a bunch of people I probably didn’t want to be around (which would include both our families). However my husband is about as thrifty as me and suggested eloping. Which we did. I even got to wear my favorite clothing to my own wedding. Needless to say, it was a perfect day.

I don’t have financial records of that day, but here is a rough estimate.

We got a marriage license from City Hall. Currently it costs $80. We then asked if there was someone who could marry us. City Hall outsources marriage services to some non-denominational pastor who performs the service for about $120. We made an appointment with the pastor.

On our wedding day we took public transit to the venue by ourselves. We didn’t bother with rings and stuff because neither of us like wearing them. And they cost money. At the wedding venue, the pastor had an assistant who served as our witness. We scraped a majority of the vows (such as the wife being obedient to the husband) and basically swore to be faithful to each other for the rest of our lives. The assistant took a polaroid picture of us (the only picture of our wedding day) and gave us each a small piece of chocolate. After the ceremony (which lasted about 15 mins) we walked over to a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant and had a cheap, delicious lunch for under $10. Then we took public transit home. The last memory I have of that day is that we came home and listened to a Pixies album, Doolittle.

What did we wear? Husband wore an old suit. I wore my favorite jeans and a white turtleneck top. It was the most perfect wedding for us and it makes for a good story at dinner parties.

My water bill did go down. By almost 50%!!

The average bill hovered around $60. The most current one is $29. The only change we made was to turn off the water to the water tank in the toilet and use grey water to flush the toilet.

I also didn’t shower as much. Not showering is also part of an experiment to see how long I can stand to be around my stinky self (ans: about 4 days in the winter - not counting my special days of the month because that would just be really gross. Note: I am also using "green" deodorants which usually don’t work. I am going to try baking soda once I finish up my deodorants). We will be doing many camping trips toward the end of the year and running water will be scarce, so I am preparing myself mentally and olfactorily for that little adventure.

We’ve been using grey water to flush the toilet, but I didn’t want our guests to bother with our flushing system which was broken. The toilet flapper, pictured below was missing a flapper seat. Note: I don’t know why the flapper has that yellowish tinge. Wonder if its because of the water quality being hard. And the flapper itself had a leak so that water was always leaking from the tank and wasting water and increasing our water bill. I went to Home Depot and purchased the Korky EasyFix Flush Valve Repair Kit. Using the easy directions at the back of the kit. I fixed our leaky toilet. Now we have a working toilet and I am happy. The Kit was under $10. I feel very proud

Below is the mess I made in fixing the toilet. The thing in the red package is a flush valve seal which I didn’t really need but I wasn’t sure what sort of valve to buy when at the store. But everything works now.

Whoops! Forgot that today was VD (thanks to crazyauntpurl for the new acronym). I have a draft post about VD and it has my usual grouchiness about anything calendar related. I’ll finish it some other time as I’m in a good mood today.

Inspired by M, I’d like to list some mush songs that I like.

One of the first songs husband played/dedicated was: I’ll be your mirror by Velvet Underground.  

I think Cactus by the Pixies is one of the most intense love songs I’ve ever heard. I completely understand the sentiments. The husband decided I was "the one" when I professed my love for this song.

Everytime I listen to Ramble On by Led Zeppelin (pls. ignore the LOTR references), I remember our first year together. We met at the end of one summer so most of our initial dates were during the Fall. Since it was initially a long distance relationship, our dates were 14 hour long days where we rambled all day. My husband is a fan of The Replacements, and he is reminded of our first year together when listening to Kiss me on the Bus. We rode the bus to see each other. 

So Happy VD everyone! 

I have not completely forgotten about my dark days challenge. Last month I was bad. I bought tomatoes at $4.99/lb. They were organic and look pretty sad, but they are edible. I bought fish. The flour I used was grown in the midwest. I bought a small container of soy creamer to use at work with my coffee. I bought lemons and cilantro that were organic, not local. I bought several bottles of Enrico’s tomato sauce that were also organic. I couldn’t figure out who actually owns the company. They seem to not be controlled by anyone terrible.

I believe that is all the sins I committed in Jan.

Now that my husband is unemployed, he has made himself useful by making all our meals - from scratch. So yes, I now have my own personal Jeeves. We’ve mostly been eating the same set of meals. Beans in a variety of ways (purchased through the winter buying club). So there have been many enchilladas and quesadillas. We’ve been eating pizza (using the pesto as one of the toppings which I made several months ago with the last batch of fresh basil). Husband has been eating lots of local meat and sausage - I seem to have lost interest in eating meat. We have also been eating rice (not local) stir fried with a variety of veggies (local). So not a complete sinner, but comfortable enough that I don’t have to only rely on root vegetables.

Last semester was my most horrid semester in college. Because of that experience, I’ve decided not to pursue any more degrees. I was sick and tired of not doing things I liked. So I promised myself that as soon I was done with those damn classes, I would do the things I had been putting off for several years. Here is what I’ve done so far.

My accounting degree is for the most part useless. Yes, it allows me to get my foot in the door. But every single skill I use in my job has been self taught. I learned *nothing* in college. Except that I hated the experience and maybe…how to read accounting standards. I wanted to get some proper knowledge that will be useful so I enrolled in a construction class. I am learning how to use power tools of all sorts such as a circular saw, how to put roofing shingles on, what a joist is, and so on. It is for this class I purchased my expensive pair of sneakers because my old pair of sneakers had too many holes and would have given me frost bite seeing as many of our activites are taking place in unheated conditions. I figured with my current salary trends I will be able to afford a shell of a house in the ghetto. So I may as well learn how to make this future home a home.

I enrolled in an art class. I have not done any drawing or painting in many, many years. I love drawing and think I am pretty good at it. I didn’t pursue it because I didn’t have the confidence that I could make a living from it. Now I am working on it because..I like it and it makes me happy.

I began writing fiction again. Specifically science fiction. I am going to try to sell some of my work and see what comes of it. For any sf fans…my favorite author is Alfred Bester. My current story is the weirdest I’ve ever written and I happen to think its pretty original. Its been very challenging because the world I’ve created is very alien..basically an extrapolation of all the bad peak oil theories. For some reason I can never write cheery stories.

I’ve been attending meditation classes. I couldn’t attend classes the last few years because I often had classes at night. Meditation classes that are led by a spiritual leader are alot like reading personal finance articles/blogs - its the same content repeated over and over. But its that repetition that reenforces the material. My temper doesn’t flare up so much. Yesterday I shocked myself when my reaction to someone cutting in front of me was laughter.

*an aside: last week we were told to imagine the Buddha and to not force any image into our head. I closed my eyes and saw….a scruffy looking brown shoe and a clothes hanger - the cheap kind that comes from the dry cleaner. Is the Buddha now a well worn shoe who symbolizes an abortion? I don’t know. I thought the image was quite funny. I didn’t share the image with the spiritual leader.