Category: Musings

Disagreeing on Green Values: Why Michael Thinks I’m Ned Flanders

A few weeks ago, my husband Michael forwarded me the NY Times article, “Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes“:
As awareness of environmental concerns has grown, therapists say they are seeing a rise in bickering between couples and family members over the extent to which they should change their lives to save the planet.
In households across [...]

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8 Reasons Why Personal Changes Matter

The following is a transcript of my talk at Green Sangha’s Rethinking Plastics Conference on Saturday. I wish all of you could have been there.  We had speakers on ocean plastic pollution, the chemistry of plastics, the truth about bio-plastics, sustainable activism, extended producer responsibility, cradle to cradle design, and finally my segment on personal [...]

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What’s Clogging Up Your Life? A Story of Unwatched Videos & Other Stuff

The Hours is one of my favorite movies of all time. My first time seeing it in the theater created such a profound reaction in me that I wept uncontrollably through the entire film. I was still so emotional afterwards, I had to hide in the bathroom stall before facing the world. [...]

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No Impact Man Book Discussion: Chapters 2 & 3

As I mentioned before when discussing the first chapter of No Impact Man, the discussion questions are open to anyone, whether you have read the book or not. So please feel free to join in!
DAY 1: A Stuffed Up Nose
Chapter 2 begins with Colin, having decided to embark on the No Impact Project, waking up [...]

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Year 3, Month 3 Results: 8.6 oz of plastic waste

It’s been another month already. Life is just flying by. And I haven’t had a drink in two days. Now, before getting into this month’s tally, I just want to clarify something I wrote on Monday. Many readers took exception to this statement:
Alcohol helps to quell the fear of unpunctuated silence, [...]

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Where’s That Money I Left Lying Around?

I know it was there the last time I checked. Where’d it go?
When I heard the topic of this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival was “Conserving Resources,” I was stumped. I mean, I write about the topic every single time I post, right? Using less plastic = conserving resources. Plastic comes from [...]

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Reusable Bags & Stainless Steel Bottles: Do our personal changes matter at all?

Note: A version of this post also appears at BlogHer.com.

I’m depressed. Down in the dumps. Anxious and overwhelmed. For over two years I’ve focused on personal change: eliminating disposable plastic from my life, reducing my energy consumption, and living as simply as possible. But when I step out my front [...]

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Let’s Talk Diets & Why Guilt Doesn’t Work.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Diets don’t work.” When it comes to lasting lifestyle changes, radical crash diets certainly don’t work. And I’m not just talking about food. Writers who decide to give up all plastic in one week (as this ReadyMade.com writer did last week) are not likely to succeed in [...]

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Captain Moore has one word for you on World Oceans Day: Refuse!

Captain Charles Moore is one of my personal heroes and the man whose work discovering, studying, and bringing the world’s attention to plastics in the oceans changed my own life completely two years ago. So you can bet that when I was invited to attend his presentation at Google in Mountain View last week, [...]

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Is it True?

Got back from Santa Cruz and have been going non-stop ever since. Have some really cool plans for Fake Plastic Fish and no time to execute any of them this week. Don’t even have time to post any of your guest posts! Gotta run. In the mean time, how about taking [...]

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