What Are Your Five Favorite Green Reads?

I've got some gift cards to burn, so I wanna know: what are your five favorite green reads and why?

Here are some of my favorites:

The End of Food by Paul Roberts offers an incisive look into the food industry. Read my review here.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Recently, I feel a little over Michael Pollan ... In Defense of Food wasn't nearly as good, and then there was that embarrassing incident where he and Alice Waters apparently demanded to put together a list of locavore approved chefs for the White House (turns out the old chef was a quiet locavore himself and the Obamas kept him.) I think I'm not the only one who thinks Pollan is sooooo last year's slow foodie, but, Omnivore's Dilemma is good stuff. And besides, you never forget your first love. Here's a post about the book.

Break Through by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. Back when I first read Break Through it was like my eyes had been opened for the first time. How is it, I thought, that no one else was saying what Michael and Ted are saying? Then I went back to university and realized plenty of people are saying what Michael and Ted are saying, but many of them are doing so in academic journals that your average enviro doesn't read. I keep hoping that will change, and when my former professor publishes his next book, I'm so making all y'all read it. But for now, here's a post about Break Through.

Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte, which reminds me that I really have to read Royte's latest book. If it's anything like Garbage Land, it'll be worth a read as Royte somehow managed to make something as mundane as trash seem downright exciting. Here's a review by Green Bean.

Reducing Poverty and Sustaining The Environment edited by Stephen Bass, Hannah Reid, David Satterthwaite and Paul Steele. Technically this is more of an academic book, but it's really not. It's extremely readable and there are super cool and inspiring case studies from all over the world about how communities managed to develop sustainable solutions that bettered human livelihoods. Plus each case study is pretty short which is good for the people with short attention spans. Check it out.

Anyway, those are some of the books I've read and enjoyed. I eagerly await your lists.

Because The Rough Draft of My Dissertation is Due Monday

What better way to procrastinate than a meme that I stole from Beany?

A - Age: 30

B - Bed size: Double

C - Chore you hate: Doing dishes

D - Dog's name: I'm apathetic about pets. Like, they're fine, I guess, but I really just don't know how to relate to them.

E - Essential start your day item: 7 cups of tea. Okay, that might be a SLIGHT exaggeration.

F - Favorite color: Blue? I guess?

G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: Depends on my mood.

H - Height: 5'3"

I - Instruments you play: Piano, badly. And eventually I will learn guitar.

J - Job title: Penniless Student

K - Kid(s): None

L - Living arrangements: Dorm room the size of a postage stamp.

M - Mom's name: Mummy (Well that's what I call her anyway)

N - Nicknames: Ruchi is actually a nickname itself. Sort of. Sometimes people shorten it further to Roo or Ruch.

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: I think once maybe for asthma?

P - Pet Peeve: When office mates don't shut file cabinets or desk drawers.

Q - Quote from a movie: "Toe pick."

R - Right handed or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: One

T - Time you wake up: I'm a student. So anytime between 8 am and noon.

U- Underwear: Pants. Knickers. Briefs. What am I supposed to put here?

V - Vegetable you dislike: Erm, I can't really think of one right now though I am sure there are some I dislike.

W - Ways you run late: I have a bad sense of how long it will take to get somewhere so I am frequently late.

X - X-rays you've had: I don't know... several on my teeth. On my foot ... I can't remember where else.

Y - Yummy food you make: I make a really good chicken murgh masala. I also make a nice rajma, and aloo sabzi and other Indian food. I also make a very nice vegetarian lasagna. Basically, I'm a reasonable cook when I can be bothered to cook which is rare these days.

Z - Zoo favorite: San Diego.

A Delicate Balance

July's Green Mom's Carnival (yes kids, apparently we are already in July, I am as shocked as you are) is about food and how it matters and stuff.

I am sure you will see plenty of really beautiful posts about food and how it should be local and organic and slow and it's more delicious that way, and people will wax poetic about the cherry cobbler and homemade ice-cream they all had last night and there will be plenty of splashy pictures of food porn.

For the record, I really enjoy said posts. I have, in fact, been known to whine when my favorite bloggers neglect to put up pictures of delicious food porn.

But, I am also on a diet.

See, I gained about five or six pounds while studying for exams (I call it my revision gut) and while I think I still look okay, I think I'm happier and healthier when I am five or six pounds lighter. It's not a big deal, and I've actually already lost a couple pounds since exams ended, but the last few pounds are proving a little stubborn so I think a diet might be called for.

Since I've started the diet, I've started becoming more aware of the levels of food porn on the internet and the health merits of some of this food. A lot of environmentalists are also foodies and they love producing home-made slow cooked meals of delicious goodness. A lot of people talk about how organic goods are healthier for you and the environment. These things are all true. But the thing is, even a homemade chocolate chip cookie made with local, organic, fair trade ingredients? At the end of the day, it's still a chocolate chip cookie.

I'm not trying to be holier than thou. I'm not anti-cookie. I'm not Captain Health... last night I had a pizza for dinner. And in fact, I think that the majority of eco-bloggers, including the foodies, probably eat very healthy meals most of the time. It's just that the healthy meals are boring to blog about. Who wants to read your blog post about your boiled eggs and a side salad? Who wants to see your recipe for homemade lavendar ice-cream? Everyone.

Which means that while peoples LIVES are probably balanced, our blogs are perhaps less so. And again, it's not a big deal, but we environmental bloggers are mostly well aware of maldistribution of food throughout the world. We're aware of the twin problems of obesity and uner-nutrition that, ironically, go hand in hand. So it's a little odd that our blogs, mine included, don't seem to reflect this awareness that much.

I guess what I'm trying to say is ... perhaps we all should sit back a little and assess our food posts a little more. Are they balanced? Do they really reflect the meals we eat? Are they overly tilted towards dessert posts?

Because if they aren't reflective of our general eating habits, we can create a false impression. I remember reading not too long ago someone commenting on one of Crunchy's posts (though I can't remember which post or who the commenter was.) The commenter essentially mentioned that she felt increasingly alienated from eco-bloggers because a lot of the posts were about organic and local food, and then the food produced was an apple pie. She said that she felt that though she didn't use organic ingredients all the time, the food she cooked using store-bought frozen vegetables was healthier for her than the organic desserts eco-bloggers seemed to be eating all the time. Now again, I personally don't believe most food bloggers actually eat apple pie every day, but if all you blog about is dessert, it's kind of a fair point.

So to this end, I am going to go all meta-carnival on you. If you would like, write a blog post of a healthy diet-friendly meal on your blog by next Wednesday. It can be super complex, or it could be as simple as a fresh salad. I'll compile the posts and put them up on my blog next Friday. That way we can all enjoy some nice, healthy recipes for the rest of the summer.

And um, if I haven't made this super-duper clear, I am not at all against posts about cookies, pies, cakes, or what have you. I am just pro-balance-in-food-blogging. Also, you will have noticed I did not link to anyone's food posts. This is because I'm not singling anyone out. I think the food post culture is somewhat systemic in the eco-blogosphere. I too, have been extremely guilty of writing long posts about gingerbread cookies, and very few posts about healthy food. If you disagree with my assessment that food posts are somewhat unbalanced, I encourage and welcome your comments.

Look for the rest of the Green Moms' Carnival on July 13th hosted by Alline of Milkweed Mercantile. By the way, congrats to Alline on the opening of her eco-inn!!

Sleeping Naked Is Green

You always remember your first. Blog crush that is. My first was probably No Impact Man. I remember reading his blog, and thinking that was incredible to read about someone so committed to the environment. As I took up blogging, I also took up more blog reading. After No Impact Man came Crunchy Chicken. And soon thereafter came Green As a Thistle, a blog by Vanessa Farquharson about her challengicious adventures in living greenly.

Those were heady days ... can it be almost two years ago? I was in my blog honeymoon phase where I read blogs day in and day out, almost amazed at this brand new eco-world that had opened up in front of me. In other ways, the life I had carefully constructed was slowly falling apart. Striking writers picketed outside my office building. The boy in my life was wandering around the Asian subcontinent. I had just become an instant environmentalist due to a bit on the Colbert Report about cashmere goats.

It is possible, in retrospect, that I was cracking up.

These blogs were my lifeline at the time. As I attempted to replot my journey, I consistently turned, every day to the bloggy universe for inspiration. And few blogs resonated more than Vanessa's.

Vanessa, I felt, was like me. And not just because we were the same age. Or because we both lived alone. Or that neither of us had kids in an eco-universe filled with green moms. It was more than that. We both had the same sense of self-deprecating humor. The same, "Oh my God, am I really turning into that dirty hippie?!" flashes of self-awareness. Yes, Vanessa, was a lot like me. Except with better hair.

I adored her blog, shamefully stealing her often ingenious green ideas (see her makeshift bidet.) But most of all, I loved the sense of humor she brought to living greenly. You got the sense, reading her blog, that Vanessa knew she was an eco-nut and revelled in her nuttiness. When her challenge ended, and her daily posting stopped, I mourned along with many of her blog fans.

So when Vanessa published a book, I knew it was a must-read. Of course, it had to wait until after I finished exams, but I finally got around to reading the book last week. Before I started, I briefly wondered whether I'd find the book boring. After all, I've read the entire contents of Vanessa's blog. Would it simply be a rehashing of the blog? A greatest hits collection of posts?

I am happy to report, that in fact, Sleeping Naked is Green is a fun, enjoyable read with very little overlap between book and blog. The blog is a collection of Vanessa's 366 eco-changes. It's more technical and the better read if you need an eco-tip. The book, by contrast, is about Vanessa's personal journey as she embarks on her eco-year. In many ways, Sleeping Naked is Green can be seen as Vanessa's love letter to the environment. It's the story of the lengths a girl with an addiction to Veuve Clicquot is willing to go to in the name of Mother Earth.

Much of Vanessa's journey will be familiar to any eco-blogger. The competitive desire to be the "greenest of them all." The guilt complex associated with screwing up and buying a bottle of water. The "OMFG, my diva cup is stuck and I'm going to have to go to the E.R" freak out. The admonishments from your mom that you're never going to get married if you continue to look like a dirty hippie. As well as the gradual realization that you are having a positive impact on your friends and family. That in your own small way, you are playing your part.

Here's what I recommend. First, if you haven't already, read Vanessa's blog. The whole challenge-filled year from start to finish. Take notes, steal eco-tips, and enjoy. Then, read the book and get the scoop on the personal journey behind the challengicious year. But do it in this order. It's much better that way. Reading the blog and then the book is akin to listening to an album and then watching the VH1 special "Behind the Music." You don't fully appreciate the musician's personal struggles if you don't know the album. Luckily, Vanessa's journey is a lot more pleasant than that of Amy Winehouse's.

As I finished the book, I couldn't help but reflect upon how both of our eco-journeys changed our lives. I think both Vanessa and I were at crossroads in our lives when we began our environmental challenges. Two years later, I think we would both agree that our lives have substantially changed for the better. By engaging in some crazy shenanigans to save the planet, we somehow wound up saving ourselves.

Yes, I'm Back

Will have a post on my vacation tomorrow most likely.

But first, I have a question for you. Those of you with four eyes, do you have a good solution for homemade glasses cleaner?

No I Haven't Abandoned You Yet Again....

Okay, I kind of have. But only for a couple days while I go on a much needed post-exam vacation.

Back Wednesday.

Spotlight on Sustainable Cities: Amsterdam

A while back I was talking about how I thought a truly sustainable country was one in which both human welfare and environmental concerns were taken into account. Thus, it isn't enough to have one or the other, we need both. And EJ asked if there had ever been a welfare state that had been sustainable for several generations.

Well, the answer to EJ's question is no, mostly because the modern welfare state came into existence after World War II. So while there has been state welfare for a long, long time, our current concept of a welfare state is only about 60-odd years old.

However, if ever there was a contender for a sustainable welfare state it would be the Netherlands. Given the Netherlands' affluence, its greenhouse gas emissions are quite low and they have ambitious plans to further reduce reductions. It's also got the full complement of government programs: health care, public housing, etc.

So how do they do it? Well, a look at Amsterdam provides a clear indication of one important means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions:

Everyone bikes. Everywhere.

In fact, there are now, on average, more trips taken via bike in Amsterdam than via car. But a bike culture doesn't occur in a vacuum and the city is designed for bikers with bike lanes and bike parking in abundance, and car parking is seriously restricted. Moreover, speed limits are relatively low in order to increase safety.

And it works. Even though no one I saw biking around in Amsterdam was wearing a helmet, their bike fatality rate is extremely low ... lower than in the U.S. where everyone seems to wear a helmet, knee pads, and reflectors among other things. (Side note: do you think people would bike more if it weren't such a freaking production every time you needed to get on your bike? Why can't people bike in jeans anymore? Why must we wear lycra and spandex every time we hop on our bikes? Why am I saying we as if I've been anywhere NEAR a bike in the past ten years?)

But it's not just the bikes. Amsterdam's approach to the environment is integrated into all their policies. In housing, Amsterdam has been working with housing associations, who supply over half of the housing in Amsterdam, to make the housing more efficient. And one of their recent programs trained unemployed young people to become efficiency advisers to housing associations. People got jobs, other people got more efficient houses, and less carbon was emitted. Win, win, win.

The point here is that Amsterdam isn't just green because the people there are just better. Amsterdam is more sustainable because the city has been designed to make it easier to live sustainably. Because care has been put into making institutions sustainable. Because it is an incredibly dense city that has done an effective job of developing mixed-use neighborhoods. Because the environment is integrated into all types of policy. Because Amsterdam aims to link livelihoods with the environment.

The point is you can have a high population of relatively affluent people living fairly sustainably if you do it properly. Amsterdam seems to be doing a pretty job of getting things right, and they are also getting better.

We can learn a lot from their example.