Dark chocolate

Public radio program This American Life rebroadcast Episode 307 yesterday (2/24/07), “In the Shadow of the City,” originally aired a scoche over a year ago on 2/3/06.  The third segment, “Yes, In My Backyard,” caught my ear partly because it dealt with chocolate (my readers know that’s one of my faves to write about) and partly because it infuriated me that the EPA would crack down on a chocolate factory (Blommer, which has been in business since 1939) but not on coal burners that emit oh-so-much-more carbon.  Go figure.

Here’s TAL’s summary of the story:

Act Three. Yes, In My Backyard. The story of the government cracking down on smokestack emissions at a city factory … even though the residents LIKE the emissions. We hear from Jorge Just, who explains the one, magical, special secret about Chicago no one outside Chicago ever believes is true, from Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs for the American Lung Association in Chicago, and the Manager of Compliance and Enforcement for the Bureau of Air at the Illinois State EPA, Julie Armitage. (9 minutes)

Song: “The Land of Chocolate,” by Death by Chocolate

Meantime, Bloomberg reports today that Texas power giant TXU is on the verge of doing an about-face.  Its prospective buyers, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, have seen the light and are putting the kibosh on eight out of 11 coal-fired generators TXU was going to build. That’s a good start for the company that brazenly had planned to add to the CO2 problem while other energy leaders were chastising it for looking backward with regard to sources of energy capacity. Under pressure from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, among others, the company also “will devote $400 million to cutting power demand in Texas, pleasing environmental groups that favor conservation,” according to the Bloomberg story.

EPA, are you listening? This is where your regulatory and enforcement efforts should be trained — on reducing use of coal. Not on a chocolate factory.

Inconvenient truth or consequences

Wouldn’tcha know it, first on the list of recommended actions consumers can take to do their part to reduce carbon emissions, according to the website for An Inconvenient Truth, is to replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. OK, I’m in favor of that and have written to that effect elsewhere on this blog.

But even when we’ve been selling the bulbs at our congregation, through our Green Shalom committee, some people have asked questions about the mercury content in CFLs. Comes now a pair of stories on NPR that shed more light (pun intentional) on the problem: “CFL Bulbs Have One Hitch: Toxic Mercury,” 2/15/07 on All Things Considered, and “Fluorescent Bulbs: A Better Idea?,” 2/22/07 on Morning Edition.

For the moment, the best advice is to go ahead and use them — they really are efficient and energy-saving, and the mercury in them won’t hurt you while the bulbs are in use. But there are two important caveats:

1. Be very careful handling them during installation and disposal, as the glass tubes are fragile, and the potential harm is the effect if the bulbs break and the mercury, which is highly toxic, is spilled.

2. Find out what provisions your community has made for safe disposal. Consult the Energy Star fact sheet on proper disposal of CFLs.

And I’d add a third:

Write to Al Gore and ask him his ideas on improving the recycling options for CFLs — and then updating the “what you can do” part of the movie’s website! Sorry, I couldn’t find an email address for Al. How inconvenient!

Don’t get me wrong — I like Al. Voted for him before and am keeping an open mind about the possibility of supporting him again if a Draft Al movement is sucessful. Just want to see some consistency between the message in the movie/book/slide show/web, and more oomph behind the actions people can take.

P.S. Go ahead and change those bulbs…but realize there are many steps each of us needs to take just to begin to make a dent toward solving the problem. The cumulative effect of millions of individuals each doing even a couple of small actions can build the kind of momentum we urgently need to assure a future for our kids and grandkids, and later generations.  (There it is again — the Margaret Mead effect…)

Sweet tooth

I was supposed to have an appointment with a new dentist today, but thanks to the DC area’s ice storm (and freezing rain and sleet and snow and whatever else goes into a “wintry mix”), it’s going to be rescheduled. Sweet.

Meanwhile, an update on my exploration of Fair Trade Chocolate:

Mindy Pennybacker, aka Worrywart, writes about Divine Chocolate on the Green Guide. Parent company is in London, and a Washington office has recently opened. Wish I’d known about them sooner — they completed several tasting events in and around DC just this past week, and of course I missed them all for lack of knowledge!

Oh well. The company is founded by the Kuapa Kokoo farmers’ coop in Ghana, with farmer reps on the board and part owners of the company. Transfair USA gives Divine the Fair Trade certification, with some of the proceeds being invested back in the community, for things like education and health programs.

Sometime during the past couple of weeks I stumbled across a church class that’s selling another brand of Fair Trade products on eBay to raise money for Heifer International. This is nothing short of a brilliant win-win concept: Faith community + Fair Trade products for sale + one of the world’s most meaningful charitable organizations. Everyone’s a winner!

Here’s the Who-What-Where-When-Why and sometimes How: The 7th grade class at St. Anthony’s of Padua School in Perma, OH, decided to do a project to help small farmers and to make the project national to help let more people learn about the equal exchange concept. The product line they are supporting is actually named Equal Exchange, in particular, coffee, tea and chocolate. It’s a year-long project. The class is also learning about marketing and other business procedures including advertising, brochures and purchasing.

I ordered some of the organic Very Dark Chocolate (71% cocoa) and also the organic Mint Chocolate bars (67% cocoa), which arrived just in time for me to mail a couple on to a friend. Have tried the mint, which strike a refreshing balance between just a hint of sweet and the satisfaction of dark. Mmmmm…

Be aware, if you’re ordering from overseas sources, some places that are currently in their summer season (like Australia) won’t ship to the U.S. because the chocolate could melt in transit depending on their choice of shipping method.

Now that my awareness of Fair Trade Organic Chocolate has been jostled, I’m finding more producers every week. The Green Guide offers a convenient round-up in its Chocolate Product Report. Read up on and compare Oxfam, the Sierra Club, Endangered Species, Equal Exchange and several others.

Wonder if having a sweet tooth for dark chocolate makes any difference at the dentist’s. Guess there’s no escape from brushing and flossing.

Snow coming; I’m thinking pesticide-free lawn

Just as we’re prepping for what may be the first “significant” snow of the season, I happened to be looking up info about public communication campaigns on the Chesapeake Bay Program website, in conjunction with a course I’m teaching this semester. Couple of years or so ago, to reach sophisticated urban types who don’t necessarily think automatically in terms of their actions having a direct impact on the Bay, CBP started a fun kind of marketing effort called the Chesapeake Club. It mixes home, food, day trip and other lifestyle activities as a tool to drive home the message in ways this audience can relate to easily.

CC is hip, urbane, suave — just what savvy denizens of the DC area can groove on. And if you’re a homeowner, it all begins with your yard. Yes, your yard. So you like that perfectly manicured, shiny green look for your turf and shrubs? Like what Chem-Lawn or Tru-Green can do for you?

Well, STOP! You may think you’re doing something beautiful, but the pesticides you’re having applied can — and do — have harmful impacts on both the plant and insect life on your property, as well as on the air you and I breathe. Have a pet? Your companions can pick up harmful residues on their paws, not nice if the animal takes to licking it off.

Cause for concern? Can you do something about it? You bet. Support the Chesapeake Club Standard for lawn treatments, if you absolutely must have them. Consider not fertilizing your lawn this spring, but doing so only in the fall, when any run-off to the Bay will have a significantly less detrimental effect. Find out about changing the acid content of your soil by using lime, or adding iron to enhance the green. Let compost do some natural fertilizing work for you instead of chemicals. Or take the lazy gardener’s way out and do nothing; leave the whole job to Mother Nature.

A neighborhood in DC gives residents small signs to display in their yards, similar to those that indicate the date a lawn was treated. These signs say something like “Pesticide-free lawn — safe for children and pets.” Sounds terrific to me. I’m making up my own.

Next step: Educate my neighbors on either side who use the commercial treatment services that probably spill over a little into our yard. Grrrr!

In memory — and honor — of good horses

I recently saw the Shakespeare Theatre’s excellent production of Richard III. Without going into a review here, I’ll just say this is the play in which Richard loses his horse at the height of battle and realizes his quest for power is doomed. “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” goes the famous line from this play.

Ah, but my kingdom was a horse, I imagine those close to Barbaro must feel. My heart goes out to all who surrounded him with affection and only the best of care.

Coincidentally, a friend e-mailed me about the loss of his own horse only two weeks ago, a beloved companion of 10 years who, due to health difficulties of his own, was destined to live out his life as a “lawn ornament,” but still one who will be sorely missed.

May the memory of these majestic animals’ lives be an inspiration for future generations.

Faith and environmental action

Sometimes it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission.

In some organizations, churches and synagogues among them, that’s the problem with trying to get the board to agree even to small steps toward greening the building, or adopting other earth-friendly action steps.

So rather than haggling for six months to switch to programmable thermostats, for example, go directly to Home Depot, buy a unit for about $40, and just do it.

That’s what one participant at today’s DC’s Green Tikkun meeting reported as a successful strategy in an idea exchange among some 23 institutions including 17 metro area synagogues.

The dialogue was co-sponsored by Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, a regional non-profit coalition of religious groups that aims for a healthier, more just society by taking concrete steps to reduce the threat of global warming, and the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center, which focuses on ecological dangers that threaten the earth.

“We have to radiate out these new values,” said Rabbi Binyamin Biber of Machar, the Washington DC Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism. “We may be small in number, but combined with the experience of the Diaspora, we’ve been everywhere and we have a few good ideas. We can change the agenda and public discourse of our society.”

While the emphasis was on a Jewish perspective, the principles are applicable to any faith-centered organization. De Herman, a founder and co-chair of Temple Emanuel’s Green Shalom Committee, explained: “Temple Emanuel is modeling what we would like to teach in the Jewish world and the bigger interfaith world as well.” The Temple’s Green Action guide links, for example, to the DC Energy Office’s Green Faith Guide, which has an extensive list of area resources and organizations, extending beyond the faith community.

Taking action is only part of the story. Making that advocacy effective is key. Mark Katz, a legislative assistant with the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (RAC), outlined four points activists should spell out to their elected officials to accomplish legislative goals:

• Why is this piece of legislation important to me as an individual? — Personalize this statement, for example, “I want my kids to have the same opportunity to enjoy this natural resource as I’ve had.”
• Why is it important to me as a Jew (or, as a member of another faith community)? — Use quotes, text, or teachings to make this point.
• Why is this good public policy? — From a Jewish perspective, the RAC, Shalom Center, and Council for the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) are among several organizations with informative web sites.  (From other faith perspectives, please refer to other relevant sites.)
• What do you want the legislator to do? — This is the “legislative ask” in which you spell out what you’d like to see, for example, raising the CAFE standards for fuel economy.

A few additional actions participants are taking already include dropping hard copies of newsletters in favor of e-mail newsletters with content “of such great value that (congregants) want to read it,” rotating responsibility for recycling and composting among all congregants after catered events, and working with an environmentally alert architect for renovations or new construction. Some of these steps do, naturally, require committee involvement with the board, but others can be implemented directly. Using real plates instead of throwaways is one such example.

No one mentioned Margaret Mead’s well-known insight, but it’s certainly applicable as faith activists carry their example into other sectors of civil society.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”