-
1. It's true: Free is good
-
2. Go hug an elevator
-
3. The World Is Just Awesome
-
4. New guide to green parenting
It's true: Free is good
I moved recently, a relatively painless experience that was made all the smoother by the magic of Freecycle. Yahoo! is presently plugging Freecycle with some free giveaways as part of an Earth Day promotion, so if you haven’t yet been introduced to this scrappy online community, now might be a good time to sign up.
Freecycle is not much more than a mailing list in which people either offer up items they no longer want, or request items they’d like to get their hands on. The only rule, really, is that no money changes hands. As with so many things on the web, simplicity has bred success. There are now almost 5 million people signed up for Freecycle mailing lists in over 4,000 communities worldwide.
Squeezing additional life out of goods that would otherwise end up in a landfill offers some clear environmental and economic benefits. The list also has a nice communitarian feel. I used it to give away a bunch of items — furniture, sporting equipment, kitchenware, a perfectly functional digital camera, etc. — and in the process met a lot of obviously delighted people from my neighborhood. I also simplified my move and cut a lot of clutter.
Freecycle happens to operate via Yahoo! Groups mailing lists, and Yahoo! is making an effort to boost the community as part of its Yahoo! Green Free Is Good promotion by “hiding” eco-friendly (and locally relevant) prizes among the group’s daily postings between now and May 4. Find a local group and sign up — it’s free!
Go hug an elevator
The New Yorker turns in a fun, New Yorker-ish look at elevators, the unsung heroes of the environmentally-friendly urban lifestyle:
Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment. The population of the earth would ooze out over its surface, like an oil slick, and we would spend even more time stuck in traffic or on trains, traversing a vast carapace of concrete. And the elevator is energy-efficient — the counterweight does a great deal of the work, and the new systems these days regenerate electricity. The elevator is a hybrid, by design.
That’s about the only item in the article to address environmental issues, but it’s chock full of interesting tidbits, including this: if you’ve ever suspected that the close-door button doesn’t do anything, you’re right. It doesn’t. Knowing this makes it much more fun to watch other people press it.
The World Is Just Awesome
So, yeah, this is an ad for cable television network. I still find it really fun to watch.
Question: who's the guy singing, "I love arachnids"? It looks like Liev Schreiber, but I'm thinking that's not right. Any Discovery Channel fans out there? (For that matter, the guy with the rocket launcher looks like Howie Mandel, but I'm thinking that's also probably not right.)
New guide to green parenting
It's a powerful image. A child asks a parent, "What did you do to try to stop it?"
I am not a parent, but I am at an age where many of my friends are starting families. No matter what shade of green they were before becoming parents, I've noticed a consistent and considerable change in behavior. They are researching BPA-free baby bottles, environmentally friendly diapers, vaccinations, and toxics in toys.
A new book lays out a comprehensive set of eco-friendly guidelines for parents. Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home is written by Christopher Gavigan, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit Healthy Child Healthy World, with special contributions from experts in parenting (Dr. Harvey Karp), sustainability (William McDonough), and a cast of celebrities that would make any producer in Hollywood green with envy.
I know what I'll be giving as baby gifts this year!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment