What Not to Buy For The Holidays

Actually, this post is not really going to be about rampant consumerism. I'm not going to suggest you pare down your list, or avoid plastic toys. I am not going to wax poetic about the joys of thrift shopping, or suggest you buy people experiences instead of things. I'm not going to plug Etsy or encourage everyone to take up knitting. After all, I've written those posts, you've written those posts, and frankly, today I'm just not feeling it. Instead, I'm going to talk about bad eco gifts.

Bad eco gifts? Is there such a thing, you may ask? Yes, as much as it pains me to admit it, there are.

Such as?

Diva cups. Don't buy your 15 year old niece one for Christmas. She won't appreciate it. Really. Please. Don't do it. And DON'T EVEN THINK about buying a used one!

CFL light bulbs. This is the gift that keeps on boring. Let's think a little more creative, shall we?

And also, no reusable grocery bags, please. Once upon a time, you could maybe get away with getting people a cool reusable bag. But at this point most people have reusable bags coming out of their ears. Stay away.

Carbon offsets. Buying offsets for yourself are a way to perhaps ease some guilt. Buying them for someone else is just reminding them of their eco-sinner ways. Stick to donating to an environmental non-profit in their name.

Baking soda. Yes, you can do a million things with it. But it also costs less than a dollar. And everyone has a box in the fridge.

Anyone else have some bad idea holiday gifts? Or alternatively, think I'm wrong about my bad idea gifts? Let me know!

This Post Is Not About Copenhagen

Although the talks began today, I don't much feel like rehashing right now. In any case, I think it's worth it to let a few days go by and see how things develop. I have moments of hope and moments of depression, but I think at this point, we just need to adopt a wait and see attitude.

So instead, let's talk more about beauty products!!

Because, let me tell you, after the whole coconut oil experiment, I am suddenly DYING to try new fun eco-nutty things. I go around trolling the internets wondering what to try next:

Apple-cider vinegar toner?
Do I dare try olive oil on my face?
Can I make my own chapstick?
Baking soda in my hair? Ew. No.

I would love to get to a place where my beauty products consisted of all natural products made from an incredibly small number of ingredients. I'm not sure how likely that is right now ... I still use Neutrogena face wash and Kiehl's toner and moisturizer. (There's no such thing as a natural SPF moisturizer, is there?) And because I had so many face issues last year, I'm not dying to futz with that. On the other hand, I do love using coconut oil as moisturizer....

In other daily deodorant news (I know, you've been watching this space breathlessly) I tried the coconut oil mixed with baking soda with good results. I'm going to keep at it for a while. If it doesn't work out, I'll move on to the crystal.

Or Maybe Not

Okay, I take it back.

The coconut oil did not hold up yesterday. I mean, it seemed to work just fine for about five hours or so. But it doesn't have staying power over the whole day. (I still think it works better than Tom's, which I don't think even worked for five hours.)

Although, I am sold on it as a body moisturizer. I put some on my legs yesterday morning, and this morning my legs still feel super soft.

So, now I may try mixing the coconut oil with baking soda. I am really hoping that this doesn't make a weird paste. I'm envisioning a situation much like Ross with the leather pants and the powder and cream.

I'll keep reporting back. But at least I can still use this whole jar as a moisturizer!

Dirty Hippie Deo

Yesterday, I officially became a dirty hippie.

I know what you're thinking.

The diva cup did not make you a dirty hippie? What about giving up toilet paper? What about washing your hair with soap? Those things didn't make you a dirty hippie?

To which I say no! But yesterday, oh man, yesterday.

I bought a jar of coconut oil and used it as a deodorant.

See, about a year ago The Thistle wrote a post about how much she loved her coconut oil deodorant. And I kept meaning to give it a try, but I already owned a Tom's of Maine deodorant. Which frankly was pretty useless, but I figured I needed to use it up.

Anyway, I finally lost? pretended to lose? my Tom's deodorant along my many, many travels, so I figured it was as good a time as any to give the coconut oil a shot.

After I got over the momentary "Oh my GOD! I'm such an eco-nut!" pangs, I found that ... I think it works!

I mean, truthfully, I'm not entirely sure. It seemed like throughout the day I seemed to smell mostly fine. But like, I had never really spent too much time sniffing my underarms when I was wearing antiperspirant. Mostly I just assumed it worked. So now I have no real basis for comparison. Plus, since coconut oil still allows you to perspire, which I think is probably a good thing, it's obviously not going to have the same effect.

So, it works. I think. But if you see me, and I ask you to smell me, don't get weirded out, okay?

Thoughts on ClimateGate

I've been following the Climategate blow out with a fair amount of interest recently. For those of you who haven't heard, basically some one hacked the emails at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and then published the emails on the internet.

And the emails released were incredibly damaging both for climate science and the climate scientists involved.

Now, I'm not a hard scientist. So when Real Climate explains this email by Phil Jones:

"I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline."

by noting that:

"The ‘trick’ is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term “trick” to refer to a “a good way to deal with a problem”, rather than something that is “secret”, and so there is nothing problematic in this at all."

I'm pretty much willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Although, scientists, if you actually use the term "trick" to mean "way to solve a problem," you ... really shouldn't. It's not jargon, it's just stupid. If it ain't a rabbit appearing from your top hat, it's not a trick.

So, I'm willing to cut the climate scientists some slack and acknowledge that "insider language" that may look damaging to an outsider could very well have been used in private emails destined for colleagues.

But there isn't really any good way to explain why Professor Jones tried to delete emails that were requested under the Freedom of Information Act. And while Real Climate tries to defend some of the less than polite emails by noting, "Gravity isn’t a useful theory because Newton was a nice person," I'm not sure that that's such a great excuse.

Indeed, a mere couple weeks before the ClimateGate blow out, another blow out took place over the internet, in which Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute contested that Joe Romm of Climate Progress had repeatedly resorted to McCarthy tactics to smear anyone who disagreed with Romm at all about climate change or the policy implications thereof.

As a frequent reader of climate blogs, I have to say, it is a little shocking how much these blogs do descend into ad hominem attacks on fellow colleagues. The unprofessional impoliteness is not limited to private emails, and in any case, as everyone knows, in the digital age, nothing is private. I get that all scientists do not get along. I understand that science is competitive, and I do not expect the world's top scientists to be singing "Kumbaya" and holding hands with each other. But the lack of professional courtesy is out of control.

If there is something to be taken away from this PR disaster it's this:

Nothing sent over the internet is ever private.
Professional discourtesy will come back to bite you in the ass.
There is a need for transparency in science.

And the biggest take away:

Science is political.

It's useless to deny it. There is no such thing as completely objective science, at least not in a highly charged and uncertain science like climate science. And the sooner we start acknowledging this, the better.

For a brilliant analysis of ClimateGate, check out Mike Hulme's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Captain Scrooge

I'm not doing Christmas this year.

No Christmas cards, no presents, probably no tree. Nothing.

I'd like to say it's because I'm being a good non-consumer, but it's really because I simply cannot afford it this year. Christmas usually costs me around $1000. I don't have $1000 to spare, hence no Christmas.

I'd like to say that having no money has woken me up to the true spirit of Christmas, but the truth is, not participating in the cards/presents orgy kind of means that actually, I'm just kind of ignoring the holiday season. Le sigh. Does that mean I have to consume in order to appreciate the holidays? That's a pretty freaking awful thought.

But what is a non-consumptive Christmas for a secular person? I guess one could say it's about friends and family, but I think every day of your life is about your friends and family.

It could be about Christmas music. I do love listening to carols.

Or about strolling the neighborhood looking at Christmas displays. Although given that the displays are an example of someone else's consumerism, I'm not sure it's fair to call them non-consumptive.

It could be about Christmas cookies ... except that eating cookies is literal consumption.

I guess the truth is, I'm not really SURE what Christmas is about without the consumption. But this month, I hope to find out.

Hello

I've been a bad blogger lately. I think I seem to have more absences than I have periods of consistent posting. And I can't really explain why it is, except that lately I have felt pulled in several directions at once.

Oh, also I've been a wandering nomad. After spending two months in New York, I spent a week in Chicago. And now I'm in the SF Bay Area for a couple weeks before I go to LA.

So let's see. I'm in California. I'm applying for full time jobs. Which is basically a full time feat. Meanwhile, I'm trying to do some writing privately on a couple things I have going. A novel that I've been mulling over for the best part of five years.

What else? I made the turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner for twenty. An impressive feat for the girl who two years ago couldn't cook a turkey burger on a Foreman, don'tchathink? I also made a vegetarian stuffing and cauliflower gratin. The stuffing was actually the biggest headache. I wanted to use store bought bread stuffing mix, because I just did not have time to sit there and toast and cut up loaves of bread. Big mistake. I had to go to four stores in search of stuffing which didn't contain high fructose corn syrup.

And this week I've been just eating left overs! How very No Waste of me. But really it's because I'm too lazy to go grocery shopping.

Anyway. Bay Area bloggers, let's meet up! The rest of you, I love you, and I'm sorry I'm such a bad blog buddy.