write your congress{wo}man

Hi everyone - this is actually a guest post from my DAD :). he's definitely one of the reasons why i was excited to join sew green. he has continually been interested in environmentalism. he also has roots in activism - and asked if he could write something for us. i was thrilled. thanks dad!

««««««««««««««««

I am sure that this is no surprise to the readers of this blog but recent reports have found that the estimates of changes due to global warming have been seriously understated. For example:

Science magazine reported in March that Antarctica and Greenland are both losing ice overall, about 125 billion metric tons a year between the two of them — and the amount has accelerated over the last decade. To put that in context, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (the most unstable part of the frosty cloak over the southernmost continent) and Greenland together hold enough ice to raise global sea levels by 40 feet or so, although they would take hundreds of years to melt. We hope.

In January, Science reported that actual rises in sea level in recent years followed the uppermost limit of the range predicted by computer models of climate change — meaning that past studies had understated the rise. As a result, the study found that the sea is likely to rise higher than most previous forecasts — to between 50 centimeters and 1.4 meters by the year 2100 (and then continuing from there).

Science Express , the online edition of Science, reported last month that the world’s several hundred thousand glaciers and small ice caps are thinning more quickly than people realized. “At the very least, our projections indicate that future sea-level rise maybe larger than anticipated,” the article declared.

This blog’s attempt at encouraging people to change their daily habits in various ways is an important way to try to help reduce global warming.

But so is writing one’s representatives in government. You can find these people in the United States at the following sites:
write your house representative
write your senator

{ed. note: if anyone knows of how to reach representatives in canada, the UK, austrailia, etc. leave links in the comments. also tell us if you've ever received a response or what your experience has been}

Feel free to copy and paste the three pieces of info noted above into a letter to your Representative and Senators.

While they may have done some work on improving fuel standards for vehicles, tell him/her that they need to do MUCH, MUCH more. Talk about the need to develop alternative fuels, to stop oil companies from ripping us off by not paying the royalties they owe the government, to do more about encouraging the development and the use of public transportation, to not support the development of nuclear energy because of the danger of the waste, etc.

Additionally, keep writing them. A letter once every few weeks asking them about what they are going to do about some environmentally related issue will make them notice that the voters want action. With the convenience of computers one can copy, cut and paste, and send pieces of newspaper or magazine articles with relative ease.

You’ll get a reply. Usually, it will be a canned response extolling what he/she has done about issue x, y, or z. Write him/her back thanking him/her for the reply and then asking him/her what he/she is going to do about issue a, b, or c that he/she did not address in the letter. Politely, but clearly, remind him/her that you expect him/her to keep working on these issues.

Is it worth a few minutes of your time occasionally? I think it is!

Green Like Veggies

At one of my favourite vegan restaurants, Native Foods, the manager always writes animal friendly quotes on the chalkboards that line the walls of the restaurant. The other night I sat under a sign that read, "According to a new UN report, the meat & dairy industry produce more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined." I sat under that sign pondering how powerful that statement is and finally asked the manager for more information. She had taken that quote from VegNews Magazine.
A quick search lead me to the UN report and this article relating to the report:

"Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions."
"Livestock now use 30 per cent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 per cent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 per cent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing."

Why was this so shocking? I became vegetarian in 7th grade after researching a report on rainforests and was horrified by what the meat industry did to the land. I remember crying while reading about the deforestation. Now, 15 years later, I am surprised and horrified by the fact that this continues almost unnoticed.

Global warming and pollution are huge issues right now, as they should be, but the issue is always addressed in terms of cars and "industry" [in general]. It seems to me that people could have a larger effect on global warming if they gave up meat & dairy en masse. We need to reduce & rethink transportation methods in terms of CO2 emissions; doing so could have a huge effect but according to this report if meat & dairy consumption double by 2050, no hybrid car has a chance of making a dent in global warming. Scary.

So what can you do? Give up or reduce meat & dairy consumption. There are already a million health reasons to do so and more so, a billion amazing & delicious reasons.

Here is a list of some of my favourite vegan [don't let that word scare you; vegans have a wonderfully rich and varied diet and are not all "preachy" and righteous. Plus dark chocolate and most sugars are totally vegan, OK and french fries are as well.] recipe resources:

1. Vegan Lunchbox
2. Post Punk Kitchen [I have had amazing results with her recipes]
3. Also check out her Vegan Cupcake book!
4. The Vegan Chef
5. Veg Web
6. Vegan Food
7. Becoming Vegan [first and best vegan health book I have owned]

More reason to eat your organic veggies!

Cheers!