Cherry blossoms (and pollen) fill the air... the days have been unseasonably warm and the sunshine has supplied us with temperatures of 80 degrees and above for a week now here in Baltimore, as we wrap up a week in stories about renewable energy, sustainable living, and organic markets from Green Chip Living.
Though the week's headlines were filled with updates on the tragic explosion in an underground coal mine in West Virginia, the Environmental Protection Agency has been busy setting their sights on new guidelines to ensure environmental resources are preserved in the mining process.
The EPA has announced their new bill and outlines three main accomplishments that they hope will reduce domestically produced low-sulfur coal, forcing the country to prioritize cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.
This week also brought readers several stories about role models and setting green precedents...
The trendsetters for plaid flannels, torn jeans, and the grunge movement of the early 90s, members of Pearl Jam are teaming with a conservation group to plant trees in communities surrounding the Puget Sound in their home state of Washington. Their mission: to acknowledge that their concert and touring business has a carbon footprint — one that they'd like to lesson the impact of, as well as inspire other groups and businesses to follow suit.
So Pearl Jam and the Cascade Land Conservancy will plant 33 acres of trees. You can read more about Pearl Jam's plans to offset their impact on the environment — as well as other organizations in music that are doing the same — in this week's GCL.
April Davila has a different take on example setting. After coming across a report from the international Journal of Biological Sciences that linked genetically modified food to organ failure in lab rats, Davila decided it was time to rethink what she was eating, not to mention feeding her toddler. She embarked on a month-long journey to avoid anything produced from a Monsanto product — allowing her to live a truly organic lifestyle for 30 days.
This proved harder than she expected, but Davila was victorious. She shared her experience on her blog, "A Month Without Monsanto." Her decision to spend a period of time avoiding all things Monsanto is an important example in showing the choices we have as consumers when it comes to the food we eat, clothes we wear, and even the soap we use.
And there was an example set even in terms of political leadership. DC Mayor Adrian Fenty imposed a 5-cent tax on plastic bags in the nation's capital back in January, and the decrease in bag use is a wild success. Just three months since the tax was imposed, the number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets and other establishments dropped from the 2009 monthly average of 22.5 million to just 3 million in January.
Baltimore and Philadelphia are still wavering on a bag tax or ban, meeting much resistance from lobbyists and other agendas, but the results from DC's initiative — and that of other cities — proves that people are willing to change, whether driven by ethics or a nickel-per-bag law.
Personally, I'm for whatever works in the battle against plastic bags.
We might examine a similar example: the effect the tax hike and eventual ban on cigarettes has had on smokers...
The increase in price was followed years later by a ban on smoking in public places (including the very controversial pub and bar ban) in many countries and states. The cost of the tax and the inconvenience of the ban eventually forced many people to quit smoking — not all, but more than would have probably quit on their own will without the nudge from a tax and ban. And the pros of this fact — unless you are a tobacco company — go without saying.
The same steps can and should be applied to the plastic bag.
The optimist in me says consumers will come around, start bringing canvas and reusable sacks to stores as second nature, and remember down the road the days when we were wasteful and silly enough to fill our truck with groceries in thin plastic bags.
The realist in me says charging or banning bags is a fast and forceful way to make people do the better, smarter, more economical, and environmentally friendly thing.
The benefits for the consumer and the retailer are without number. But only time will tell whether the optimist or the realist prevails...
Enjoy your weekend,
Brigid
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