Yes, that is me with Kerry Washington, Rosario Dawson and Nicole Richie at a recent EcoMom event kicking off our Sowing Hope: EcoMom Congo Project. I have moved my blog to the new EcoMom Community Site so . . .
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Spent a lovely day with the good folks at Marin Organic. Actually, they are more sophisticated, eclectic and well cultured than what one would think of with use of the word “folks”, but somehow, despite Executive Director Helge Hellberg’s charming accent, Adrienne Bauman’s elegant grace and Anna Smith Clark’s exquisite cooking and warmth, they are still good folks. Could have been the amazing Stubbs Vineyard organic, estate grown Chardonnay and Pinot Noir flowing bountifully, or the Cowgirl Creamery cheese, which I had way too much of. But oh it is hard to say no when the rolling hills and breeze seduce you under blue skies, and friendly faces keep pouring and serving.
It was also quite touching, and inspiring, to meet Don Gilardi, whose family farm is now going on three generations of on-the-land living. Under Don’s tutelage, Red Hill Farm’s pastures have been certified organic and the lamb and eggs are earning Michelin stars. Pretty impressive, even for Corbin, who started the day running on less sleep than necessary, producing his own organic whine of “Do we have to go there?”, ended the day with a new variety, “Do we have to go home?”
On a recent visit with my friends Cindi and Jamie Lee, who moved up to Philo last year to start their own organic farm, we were discussing what qualiities our global citizenry must further develop and utilize in order to live in a more humane and sustainable way. We decided that among many others, Courage, Creativity and Responsibility are integral. These characteristics were in no short supply at the 200 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony on Monday night, which I was privileged to attend with Kristine and Steve Jaeger.
This year’s prize winners include: Marc Ona Essangui for his work with Brainforest, protecting the forest and people of Gabon; Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Director of BELA, reducing the impact of Bangladesh’s exploitative and environmentally devastating ship breaking industry; Olga Speranskaya, who has mobilized the NGO community in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia working together to eliminate toxic chemicals in the environment; Yuyn Ismawati, founder of Bali Focus, whose innovative waste management and sanitation work is inspiring global replication; Captain Wanzee Eduards and S. Hugo Jabini for their success in speaking out against logging in Suriname’s Amazonian forests which led to a landmark ruling for indigenous and tribal peoples throughout the Americas, and last but by no means least, (and in this case that oft used phrase is SO appropriate), Maria Gunnoe, who succesfully led a campaign with OVEC against mountain top removal coal mining in the heart of Appalachia.
It is a testament to the late Rhoda Goldman, who together with her husband Richard, created the Goldman Prize. Now in its 20th year of promoting sustainability and honoring the yeomen who carry on largely heretofor unrecognized, the award ceremony is a tear filled gathering and I could only imagine how the prize winners must feel to have this support - which will help them carry on. Gunnoe lives in a home surrounded by a chain link fence protecting her from coal industry threats. Essaangui goes home to stand trial for his work. Their struggles are huge; their courage, creativity and responsibility undaunted.
Ok, at the risk of outrage on the part of citizens of Nevada, I am going to share my experience of crossing the pass from scenic Lake Tahoe, California, over into the beautiful hot spring-sodden, high desert country of Nevada. It is a short tale of recycling and reuse of resources, and the fact that doing so is a voluntary effort, not a mandatory one, that towns, cities, counties and states undertake. Bless their hearts, and their budgets, for pursuing this effort.
Recently, we were guests at a lovely home, featuring the Carson Mountain range at the back window, still capped with snow, and the expanse of a lovely valleyscape at the front door, spread out for miles. After our family troop piled inside mid-evening, sunburned and exhausted from one of spring’s last skiing days, I set about pulling together a quick dinner. An Amy’s Organic Pizza - vegetarian, for my son - had been hastily purchased, along with a bottle of champagne for our host. As I bustled around, pulling cheese, olives, wine and bread from the cooler, I pre-heated the oven and pulled the frozen pizza out of the box.
As any good Bay Area-n would do, I looked around for a recycle bin/bag/box for my cardboard box, a commodity still worth a fair amount in the secondary paper market, which produces post-consumer waste paper products. I didn’t find one, and didn’t fare well locating a bottle bin either, as the cooler was full of dead soldiers that I had also yet to dispose of. The host’s cousin graciously and patiently explained (as if she had done it many times as a kind of ritualistic welcome to California guests) that there were no bins. No recycling. No collection. The area did not have curbside service, but in fact, if someone was so inclined, they could drive it to the redemption center about 20 miles away. Given that most people are not naturally inclined to do glorified garbage sorting, then drive it about, it all went in the trash compactor, which was then hauled out to the curb on a weekly basis, as there was curbside garbage pickup - the mark of a civilized society.
I thought it may just be a residential issue, but after I rode in a bicycle caravan to the oldest town in Nevada (though that fact is hotly debated by another contender), about six miles away, I saw no bins in the park, near the store, nothing, nowhere. This is a state national monument, on the Pony Express trail, and has quite a few visitors and locals, but is bin-less. The bottle of water that my son purchased - ok, he was beet red and sweating and I had NO IDEA that we were riding over six miles away, so I’d be cruel to not let the poor boy hydrate - was quickly emptied.With nowhere to go, it came back tucked in the front of my t-shirt, adding extra shapliness to my already sagging upper areas. I know, it’s just one bottle, but it felt like throwing a dollar away or something. It had not only a California Redemption Value, but also, it could be something else in its next life. Remember, single-use is what is killing us. So even getting a few uses - refilling it a couple of times (keeping it out of sunlight though) and then recycling - already helps put a nail in the coffin of our disposer consumer culture, and can have the power to move us from single- to double- to triple-use, and then even towards products that have long lifespans.
It was a beautiful ride though. Nevada offers scenic countryside, history, and nice people. But one other thing - and I scratch my head on this too - why were all the water fountains in the public park turned off? I shrugged that one off, steeled myself, and head hanging a little low, walked to the store and bought yet another plastic bottle…
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Last night I found myself at an event celebrating the opening of the new Paul Smith store in San Francisco. This, a sad attempt to be social and cheer myself up after losing a dear friend last week. Now mind you, I spent much of the last few days with a small group of the tightly knit Tahoe-Truckee community come together to help support my newly widowed friend Sherry (also our EcoMom Community Leadership Coordinator by the way), and her 3 1/2 year old daughter Ayla, so perhaps it was just my mood, or maybe a moment of clarity, but the evening made me want to gag.
The PR team did an incredible job because the shining, skinny store was tightly packed with all manner of SF’s who’s who. But when this lady, and I use that word most facetiously because she was anything but, seemed about to pop one on my sister because she got accidentally “pushed”, it was all I could do to hold back from yelling. “Do you realize how pathetic it is that you are being a bitch because someone bumped into you? Do you realize how lucky you are to be standing here, alive, healthy and wealthy enough to potentially shop here?”
I mean I’m as happy as the next girl to get all dolled up, don some nice (eco) clothes, and go out for a special occasion - though somehow I always feel prettier when I’m out backpacking or working in the garden, and I get the coolness of Smith’s objets trouves, his design influence on men the world over and so on and so forth - but I just think we’re looking at the wrong things in life to find our fun, meaning, purpose and joy. Certainly, the environmental, social and economic issues we face today would tell us so. As I am sure, too, would my friend Shane McConkey. What after all, is really of value, I want us to collectively ask. Always the first to laugh at social pretensions, Shane knew, and he was a shining light of truth that will be sorely missed in this world.
Does it make rain? Upon hearing of The Gort Cloud, that may have been the question you would have asked last week, but today it has been raining non-stop for several days, the parched earth is getting quenched and I am happy to report that The Gort Cloud is actually the name of my friend Richard Seireeni’s new book, recently published by Chelsea Green Publishing. Inspired by a belief that “sustainable companies benefit from a community built on truth, transparency and the free exchange of information”, The Gort Cloud is Richard’s navigation of a vast network of NGO’s, trendsetters, advocacy groups, social networks, business alliances, certifying organizations, and other members of the green community that has the power to make or break new green brands.
The founder of The Brand Architect Group, Seireeni interviewed more than thirty eco-entrepreneurs in his research for this thorough yet easy and engaging read. In reading The Gort Cloud, it was fun for me to get a new perspective on many of my EcoMomâ„¢ colleagues and partners including Seventh Generation, Be EcoChic, and Tom’s Shoes (whose founder Blake Mycoskie, I swear Richard was trying to fix me up with!). I highly reccommend this book for anyone looking to start a “green” company or trying to understand “the invisible force powering today’s most visible green brands.” Seireeni is definitely on to something!
There is so much magic that can happen with a combination of good teachers, innovative leaders and eager students. Such is the case with the S.T.R.A.W. Project, with which I am lucky to have just worked with for the second time through Corbin’s school. STRAW stands for Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed, and the project coordinates and sustains a network of teachers, students, restoration specialists and other community members as they plan and implement watershed studies and restoration projects around in Marin and Sonoma counties. STRAW provides teachers and students with the scientific, educational and technical resources (i.e. gloves shovels, watering systems, plants etc.) to create a hands-on, day out in the field learning and experiencing watershed studies, including ecological restoration of riparian corridors. Since 1993, more than 14,000 students have participated in over 240 STRAW restorations on rural and urban creeks, planting over 25,000 native plants and restoring approximately 87,000 linear feet of creek banks on almost 85 acres. In addition to educating and empowering students, they create an opportunity for parents and kids to work together and share time in nature. I’m already looking forward to next year and despite his grumpy expression in Kathy Baker’s photo above, Corbin says he is too! (And yes that’s me with closed eyes, together with EcoMoms Liz Capron and Michelle Cox!)
Spurred on tonight by Chrise de Tournay Birkhahn and Robin Wright Penn, a longtime supporter of EcoMom Alliance, I went to the screening of film maker Lisa Jackson’s award winning documentary, The Greatest Silence: Rape In the Congo. A story about the widely unreported war in the Congo and the tens of thousands of women and girls who have been raped and horribly sexually mutilated by young soldiers in the Congolese Army and foreign militias, I had been forewarned and was prepared for tears. I assumed I would leave the theatre with a sense of hopeless despair and disbelief in the capacity of my fellow human beings to inflict such atrocities, much as I’d felt back in 1987 after watching Sir Richard Attenborough’s depiction of the brutal murder of South African activist Steve Biko.
Instead, I left the Smith-Rafael Film Center, with Robin, Chrise and “Not On Our Watch” author John Prendergast, feeling inspired, optimistic and even, dare I say, at the risk of being labeled Pollyannaish, excited. It wasn’t that my stomach didn’t turn, that tears hadn’t filled my eyes, and that my heart had not ached for all of the victims of this war, but that for once, the general message was not just one of doomsday prophesy and isn’t it awful bearing witness, but rather one of “and here is what you can do.” (To learn more about what you can do, starting with calling your cell phone manufacturer and requesting that your dollars not help support what has been called Africa’s World War, a war largely driven, as most wars are, by economics and in this case, the mining of coltan, a mineral used in all manner of technology production, visit Raise Hope for the Congo.)
Moreover, Jackson’s film, and Prendergast’s commentary, hinted at the complex interplay of social justice (or lack thereof), environmental degradation and economic inequity. For too long we - that global community of do-gooders - have focused on spotted owls, particular injustices, or whatever-Hollywood-driven cause of the week is on our radar. Tonight, though, I felt a true sense of optimism, that finally, we have begun to consider - even within the context of a very particular population within a very particular country - the web of life that leaves all of us so interdependent; the reason that it is just not ok, to sit back and let our fellow sisters, our fellow human beings, suffer in silence. Particularly given the motive many of the rapists use to rationalize their acts: “Because we believe what we’ve been told, that the woman has the power of the earth, she’s mother earth, and if we rape her, we get that power.” We can work together, men and women, to use this power to effect positive change. Please join me, Chrise, Robin, Emile Hirsch, Mia Farrow, and the many others who are beginning to help spread the word about this horrific war, host a screening of the film, support Enough, and RAISE Hope for Congo: Protect and Empower Congo’s Women.
Despite the continuing concern regarding our environment and the economy, many people I’ve met this last week seem to be in a very optimistic and positive mood. Perhaps it is the sense that, with a new year, anything is possible. Perhaps it is the upcoming inauguration of President elect Obama and the hope that he promises. Perhaps it is that one’s calendars are not quite as full as they were back in December. Whatever the reason, I hope it continues. Speaking of calendars, one of my vows for this year is to include a little more balance and I am loving my Mothers Acting Up calendar. Made of 100% post-consumer recycled paper, with soy-ink, I am honored to be included in this year’s calendar. MAU inspires, educates and engages mothers to prioritize children in our corporate and public policies so if you’re not of the online-calendar type, and have not yet purchased your daybook for 2009, please consider purchasing one from MAU. It is a good cause to support and you’ll find inspiration in every day. As well, order from here, and 15% of your purchase will be donated back to EcoMom Alliance. Happy New Year!
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