gdp's Comments

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Is Green a White Movement? Lessons from My (Cheap) Asian Parents. ~ Jennifer Mo

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:23:30 +0000

Thanks, Jill. It also concerns me that environmentalism is sometimes marketed as a movement about buying differently, not making do with less and living more simply. I think it can be pretty daunting to embrace less voluntarily -- I know I'm still more wasteful than my parents since I didn't grow up in poverty, and everything around me makes it easy to consume more. The laundry line (and I'm grateful there's one at all) is definitely further away than the dryer! The key is to take these teachings from our immigrant parents and continue to apply them even in a culture that encourages excess.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Does Being Childfree Make You Care Any Less About the Earth? ~ Jennifer Mo

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:14:56 +0000

Hi Jill, I didn't mean to imply that parents didn't have non-child reasons for caring about the environment. I have environmentalist friends who want children eventually, and I can certainly testify to the sincerity of their love for the planet and its creatures before they have the additional motivation of wanting to have their kids grow up in a healthy world. However, as a childfree person, I find that I feel very alienated from the human health / survival aspect of the environmental movement. Especially among green bloggers, the focus is intensely child-based. It doesn't speak to me, or to many of the other childfree environmentally active people I know. This is my perspective on what environmentalism looks like from someone who has no stakes in long term human survival. -Jennifer

Brown GIrl in the Lane : Hippies

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 22:19:31 +0000

Hah. I can relate -- my university was almost entirely made up of hippies. Although I was a committed liberal before heading off to college, I found myself becoming more centrist out of sheer defensiveness toward the militant vegans, dredlocked white people desperately trying not to be white, pot heads, and yoga goddesses I was surrounded by. I don't mind Prius drivers, though. At least where I live, they tend to be decent drivers, unlike the tailgating BMWs and Lexuses. The people I know who have Priuses are tech geeks, not hippies.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Animal Love - The Musings of a Non-Vegetarian ~ Catherine Maxwell

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:40:03 +0000

It's definitely possible to love animals and still eat them, but many of the people who start thinking the way you do eventually stop eating them. I grew up with pets and have loved spending time with non-humans my whole life, yet only went vegetarian four years ago when I was faced with a choice to either start dealing with raw meat (which makes me feel sick) or to stop eating it. I didn't adopt the label vegetarian; if I had craved meat, I would have allowed myself to have some. Surprisingly, it never happened. Even as a vegetarian or vegan, there are still plenty of ethical quandaries, although my conscience is happier now than when I ate meat. There is no diet or lifestyle that does no harm. Even growing plants involves killing mice, gophers, insects, and worms, exploiting bees, exploiting human workers. I think the best we can do is make thoughtful, conscious compromises that we can live with. For some of us, that means going vegan/vegetarian, but other paths are possible, too.

Cloth Diapering Mama : Eco-inactivism at the bulk bins...#CTWW...make cloth bags!

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:36:30 +0000

Well done! I found you through this week's challenge. It sounds like you're a much more experienced plastic avoider than I am! I reuse those big 1lb lidded plastic tubs for the bulk bins and got around the milk thing by buying raw almonds in bulk and making my own almond milk. I attempted to make yogurt out of almond milk and failed. Oh well... The produce stickers seem to be unavoidable unless you shop at the farmers' market all the time. My recent post Change the World Wednesday: My Plastic Free Week

GreenBeans : Calling All GreenBeans! Help!! How do YOU Recycle?

Wed, 25 May 2011 15:34:53 +0000

I try to keep in mind that recycling comes after reusing and reducing and shop carefully to avoid ending up with a lot of packaging. I'm learning to make my own pizza (no boxes!) and cook most of my food from scratch. One thing that I'd like to be better about is bringing my own takeout boxes when I go out to eat. The actual recycling part is pretty simple -- our city just has one big collection bin for recyclables, and then we make occasional special trips to get rid of batteries, spent light bulbs, and e-waste.

GreenBeans : Baby Steps to Cleaner, Greener Living: Week 4 Drop that Drumstick!

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:58:04 +0000

I'm in! (Sort of. I went vegetarian for completely non-environmental reasons a few years ago, so every day is meatless.) I didn't learn to cook until after I stopped eating meat, which was helpful -- no favorite recipes to try to salvage. Tips...hmm. I think dishes that were meant to taste good without meat are more appealing than using a lot of substitutes -- good cuisines to venture into for vegetarian recipes are Indian, Thai, Chinese...actually, most Asian cuisines offer lots of vegetarian options without the heaviness of dairy, as western vegetarian food tends to focus on. Also, don't worry about protein. Even vegetarians and vegans in this country get way more than we need! Here's one of my favorite vegetarian sandwich fillers. It does kind of taste like tuna/chicken salad, but it's good in its own right. http://yeahthatveganshit.blogspot.com/2007/08/moc...

GreenBeans : Ahhh!! Sea Monsters Wash Ashore in the Wake of Japan's Tsunami!!!

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:06:05 +0000

We live in such a fascinating world, and we don't even know it most of the time. I 'met' some of these guys in the documentary Blue Planet -- if you haven't seen it, it is an amazing series. It and its companion series Planet Earth were actually fairly influential in waking me up to the extent of the impact humans have on the natural world.

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #21 Holiday Giveaway Week: Smith and Vandiver Bath Collections

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 15:59:13 +0000

The body oil sounds perfect. I hadn't heard of this company before, so thanks for bringing it to my attention! ailanna at hotmail dot com

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #19 Holiday Giveaway Week: Paperwork Eco Art

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 04:22:54 +0000

I love 'Where Ice Meets the Sky.' It would be awesome in my dining room! ailanna at hotmail dot com

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #18 Holiday Giveaway Week: Tilvee Eco Ethical Skincare

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 04:16:57 +0000

The cranberry balancing lotion looks just right for my skin. ailanna at hotmail dot com

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #13 Holiday Giveaway Week: She Essential Beauty Frankincense and Myrrh Gift Set

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 04:12:22 +0000

The lavender toner sounds wonderful! ailanna at hotmail dot com

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #4 - Holiday Giveaway Week 2010: Dr. Alkaitis Holistic Organic Skin Food

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:02:07 +0000

I love their motto about how you should be able to eat anything you put on your skin. The masques sound lovely. ailanna at hotmail dot com

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #7 - Holiday Giveaway Week: Stem Organics

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:57:39 +0000

I love the Stem Organics exfoliator, but all of their other products look amazing, too -- I'm especially interested in the cleansing milk. I only wish they were US-based! ailanna at hotmail dot com

http://www.mysweetgreens.com/ : #1 - Holiday Giveaway Week 2010: Flor Fez Rug

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:50:46 +0000

Wow, 80% post consumer recycled content! Love the colors, too. ailanna at hotmail dot com

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : 10 “Natural” Products I like in Packaging that hurts our Earth.

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:26:11 +0000

Processed, packaged food just isn't that earth-friendly. Convenient, yes. Profitable (for manufacturers), yes. Delicious, sometimes. This is probably where the eating whole foods (that you process and prepare yourself) thing comes in. For most people, including me, preparing everything they eat is totally impractical, but moving away from as much processed and single serving food as possible is a goal worth striving for.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : The Language of Embodiment.

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:27:48 +0000

I really like this piece. It's something I also struggle with, as another vegetarian-treehugging-car-driver who is always painfully aware that there is more -- so much more! -- I could be doing. I agree with Ben that behaving in total accordance with our environmental principles all the time is not realistic, and probably not even possible given the system we live in. To varying degrees, we're all part of the problem. But I think simply being aware of the impact of our actions beyond our immediate lives is a huge step in the right direction.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : I'm a Buddhist, but my cat is a serial killer.

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 22:14:34 +0000

If you feel that bad about the animals your cat is killing, it would be more effective (in reducing total animal death and suffering) for you to stop eating animals yourself than beg her to stop. Just because you can't see what happened to the cow that ended up on your table doesn't mean that it would have been any less disturbing, bloody, or cruel than what Buda does to birds. My cat is blind. Phew.

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : Dating a Yoga Goddess.

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 18:44:05 +0000

Yoga goddesses (as described in this article): the same people who make yoga, consciousness, and spirituality synonymous with pretentious self-absorption. I would sooner hug a cactus than date one.

SIBU Beauty : Meet The New “It Girl” in Super Fruits

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:49:22 +0000

I found your blog through Networking Witches and am really amazed by how much the sea buckthorn berry has to offer. (I noticed it as an ingredient in my lip balm a while ago, but didn't realize the significance.) I'm looking forward to trying it!