Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts

Kansas Environmentalism

Category: By Christian
Forbes just released their list of America's Greenest States. It is with mixed emotions that I weigh the results of their research.

On a positive note, Oregon got second place. While you always shoot for first, there is no shame in meddling. Technically, Oregon tied for first with Vermont. Nice. And while I might not physically reside in Oregon, I will always retain my dual citizenship. You can't pull the west coast vibe from someones blood or get it out of their swagger. So I'll glory in the high finish.

It takes me back to 7th grade, when I was a pioneer on the green frontier. For one of my science projects I took on the moniker of "Mr. Recycle" and wrote/starred in/produced a film about recycling. This was before the curbside variety, though when PDX adopted that a couple of years later I took on the duties for my family. Though Mr. Recycle's efforts weren't mentioned in the Forbes article, I'm happy to take some of the credit.

As for my current state of residence, we have a little work to do. 31st place just isn't going to cut it, man. I need to see a top 1/3 finish, and I think we have it in us. Just this week our environmental department gave a proposed coal plant the bureaucratic finger. Granted, the Western Kansas congress persons are trying to get the decision overturned, but we'll just have to pray that they find Jesus and recognize how messy coal power is.

On one level I feel for the people of Western Kansas. They need the money that the power plant would provide. However, I contend they need to suck it up and throw some wind turbines in the ground. All of this crying about killing the aesthetic beauty of Central and Western Kansas? Please. I've lived there and I can promise that your tourist traffic isn't going to crash. People will still cruise up and down 1-70 on their way from Denver to KC.

The one bright spot in the rankings for Kansas? At least we ranked above Nebraska and Missouri. If those cats beat us, I'd be really depressed.

Renew. Reuse. Recycle.

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Encore

Category: , By Christian





Elli was so thrilled that I blogged about her last week that she aksed me to share with you are weekend fieldtrip. We just finished up a classic Kansas "Second Winter" last week, which is where you have to suffer through two weeks of brutal cold, following a period of warmth that could have been misconstrued as the beginning of spring. I think we are finally to actual spring now, so we celebrated by hanging out at a local petting zoo. Nothing says "Spring" like going to visit your favorite over-fed domesticated barnyard animals.




Judging by her reactions and attention span, Elli was a huge fan of the various poultries and the baby goats. I was not as thrilled with the goats as she was, because I caught one of them nibbling on my shorts. I was just glad I caught the little bugger in the act, because had he been able to take a huge chunk out of my shorts I would have been mightily embarrassed to have had a huge hole exposing my bum. You never can trust those goats. Trixy goats.




I was a little disappointed that Elli wasn't more enamoured with the cows. I, for one, am a large proponent of the cow. One of my favorite campy songs of all time happens to be the cult classic "Cows With Guns" by Dana Lyons. There is just something about the lumbering bovine that melts my heart. Even thinking back to my honeymoon, one of the highlights was when we visitied the Tillimok County Fair. Have you ever seen the size of the udders on a blue ribbon dairy cow? Unbelieveable. Stacy and I still reminisce about it today with a tinge of amazement in our voices.




More trips to the petting zoo are definately on the horizon for our family. It's a great way to help Elli fall in love with God's creation, and thus develop good habits of Earth stewardship. That whole respecting and loving the Earth thing is almost like a spiritual discipline in our house. I read an article once in Newsweek that made a good point concerning strategies in raising green kiddos. The lady who wrote it talked about how the best course of action is to help your kids fall in love with creation, and not to overburden them with the doomsday scenarios of global warming. As they grow to enjoy the outdoors and connect with animals and (my addition) see the Earth as a wonderfully creative gift from God, then they will be more likely to get joy out of taking care of the Earth.




Apparently, helping your child fall in love with creation is a far more productive solution than too scream "DO YOU WANT ALL OF THE PINGUINS IN ANTARTICA TO DIE!?!?!?!?!" when your child forgets to turn off her bedroom light. Who knew?




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Outsource Ethics

Category: , , By Christian
I'm usually not a huge fan of Charles Krauthammer. He has a syndicated column that appears on Op-Ed pages all over the country, so he obviously has a lot of people out there who are huge fans of his. It's not that I dislike his writing per se, it's just that he tends to spend most of his columns talking about one specific topic and I prefer writers who are more balanced in both subject and content.

Mad props to Krauthammer this week though for this article that showed up in Time. It essentially calls the wealthy to task for using their vast wealth to outsource environmental responsibility. I didn't even realize you could do stuff like this, but apparently it's common practice.

I'm all for environmentalism. It's a big part of my faith as a person who views the Earth and all that is within it as gifts from God. I'm also a big fan personal responsibility, however. Really internalizing the ideals you are convicted of, and then going out and living out those ideals. If we are doing this thing right, then we are going to be convicted of things that align our thoughts and actions with the heart of God, thus living out the Gospel in ways that are real and tangible to the people around us.

So as I was reading this article last night, it brought up some questions concerning how Christians and Churches possibly outsource certain things that we claim to be important to us. For instance, this whole idea of helping the poor. It's a pretty en vogue subject these days, especially since it is a subject that people in their 20's seem to be passionate about. As churches reach to become for edgy or emerging or whatever they want to call themselves, the rhetoric about helping the poor has escalated.

Here's the problem...how many people are actually living amongst the poor? Is it enough to preach sermons and support ministries that do work amongst the poor? Is it enough to occasionally volunteer for ministries who help the poor? Or should be be radically reconfiguring our lives so that we are really living out this ethic in a real way? Tough saying. I will say this, however. If you find a church that talks a lot about justice and helping the poor AND has a pastor that live amongst the poor, you should let me know. That would really excite me. What I tend to see however, are pastors who live comfortable to extravagant lives while preaching about justice. That pretty much does nothing for me, but maybe that's just me.

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The Earth, Jesus, Myself and The Church

Category: , By Christian
Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed
for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one:
Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and
obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit,
that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your
Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
From the Book of Common Prayer


There seems to be a little tiff going on right now in the Christian community. There are some brothers and sisters who love Jesus who also believe that there are other political issues aside from abortion and gay marriage. They have preached sermons, written books and blogged about poverty, social equality, being friendly to the earth, etc. This has rankled those who have been pushing abortion and gay marriage issues pretty hard and a lively discussion has ensued about what Christians should focus on.

Ok. Two things. First, all of this talk about what we should "focus" on and what the "important" issues are is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure we can multitask. For instance, my wife and I have an adopted baby (a demonstration of a pro-life ethic) and at the same time we manage to be avid recyclers. Yeah, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We're not even that special.

So I guess my credo starts, "I believe in the ability of Christ-followers to multitask". I also believe that all our work to spread the gospel is for naught if we can't be civil with each other because then we aren't promoting heaven on earth. To borrow Rob Bell's terminology, we're inviting Hell to earth. It's our job to show people how to live harmoniously. It's our job to show people that the love of Christ is so revolutionary that it keeps us from engaging in shallow power plays for political influence and instead shows that world that our lives have been revolutionized in to those of servants who give of ourselves (even if nobody notices, not even Washington) because Christ is calling us to a more robust and full life. Life abundantly, if you will.

I think you can be green and be a Christian. I don't see how you can't. It's not worshiping the earth, it's being the best steward possible toward the earth that God has blessed us with. And I'm pretty sure that we'll still have time to live out other Christ-like ethics as well.

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Coffee News

Category: , , By Christian

I've never had a favorite coffee before. I have enjoyed coffee for a number of years, and have come to appreciate good coffee. There has not been a particular blend that has caused me pause to have a particular affinity for it above all others, however.

Thus, you must understand that today's proclamation of a first ever favorite coffee should not be overlooked as a flippant award of little merit. What might this first ever favorite be? I'm glad you asked.

I would like to present the honor of favorite coffee to the Whole Bean Tango Blend, roasted by Cafe Mam. The "equal mix of French and Italian offers a robust body with a rich, smoky flavor". I couldn't agree more with the tagline from the can.

I came across this particular brew thanks to my dear mother. She gave me a can for Christmas, knowing that I enjoy receiving Fair Trade and Organic coffees as gifts because it allows me to be socially conscious in my love of coffee without going financially bankrupt. I was glad to find out that this company also supports pesticide reform and grows their beans in the shade to help sustain migratory bird habitats.

What really blows the mind is that the company has very reasonable prices, at only around $7 per pound. Compare that to Starbucks ($10-$13 per pound) and it's great deal on better coffee. Granted, if you live in the middle of the country like I do then you can't just go to the store and pick up a bag. No stores in KS or MO. Stink. Oh well. At least they have a cool online store, and I can always pick some up on my pilgrimages to the PDX.

In an tragic turn of events, just as I discovered my favorite coffee my coffee maker broke. Two years ago my mother hooked me up with a beautiful stainless steel Starbucks Aroma Solo machine. It brewed a hot cup directly into my Aroma Solo travel mug. I loved that machine. My first one actually broke about a year ago, but Starbucks has a two-year warranty and a great return policy. They let me bring it back (without the box or receipt), and gave me a new one. Well, when my second machine broke 11-months later I had a tough decision to make. Exchanging for a third machine would be fine. After all, if it lasted just one more year then I would have gotten 3 total months of daily use from a birthday present, which is pretty stinkin good. Or, I could exchange it for a gift card, sell it on Ebay and then use the money to get another brand.

In the end, I decided to go with the other brand. It was not easy to do because sans its fragility the Aroma Solo was fantastic. And yet, I have been putting some distance between myself and Starbucks for a while and this was another opportunity to take a step away.

Not that Starbucks is the Great Satan, or anything. I appreciate that they provide health insurance for employees who work at least 20-hours per week. That's fantastic. Also, growing up in the PDX I grew up on Starbucks. It's part of my social DNA and heritage. Shoot, when I started frequenting the joint, I don't think there was one store in all of Kansas. And let's not forget the generous return policy that Starbucks has.

And yet, I'm just not fully convinced that Starbucks is doing enough to encourage economically fair and environmentally equitable coffee harvesting practices. When you go through as much coffee as they do, you have a certain responsibility to do so (especially when you charge as much as they do). And coffee is as important to me as it currently is, I have to put my money where my mouth is and make sure that I am supporting companies that have similar values to me.

Starbucks has improved in these areas over the past few years (link). And yet, they could do a lot more (link). I'm not going all militant on the company. I'm just trying to make my life a little more consistent each day. I really think that's what God wants from us. Transformation that makes us a little more consistent each day with the Kingdom of God taking place here on Earth just as it does in Heaven.

Next week my Zojirushi Fresh Brew should arrive in the mail. I'm pumped. I got it on sale, and it's had some good reviews from coffee enthusiasts. Many call it the best machine under a Benjamin (aka hundred dolla bill, yo). Until then, I'll be rocking the french press that I usually keep in my office. Expect a review on the Zojirushi sometime in the coming weeks.

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Messy Ethics: Revisited

Category: , , By Christian
The government actually went and hooked a brotha up in regards to my environmental quandary. It's probably because most of congress reads my blog and takes it to heart.

Last week, the House passed HR-6. It essentially rolls back tax breaks to oil companies and will instead use those billions of dollars ($14B I believe) to explore alternative energy sources. Apparently, Congress didn't think that individual companies that are making $10 billion profits each quarter don't need help paying their taxes. That's probably a good call.

It's pretty hard to believe that congress passed a bill that is such a double-whammy. Not only do the oil companies have to pay their fair debt to society, but the money they are now paying goes into figuring out how to get out from under said companies. I read through the bill and I didn't really see any loopholes that would give the companies an easy out. Granted, bills are full of a lot of political and legal jargon, but I think I limped through it ok.

I am honestly so pumped about this bill that I emailed my Representative a thank you note today. I hope he reads it, because I doubt Reps get all that much positive affirmation without a check attached.

For this to work out it still has to get through the Senate and escape the President's veto pen which could very well be a daunting task. But at least there is a strong voice that is standing up against big oil and letting them know that we're not just going to sit around and do nothing about our oil addiction and the ever-growing energy footprint that our nation leaves behind.

This whole thing is still a process. In all likelihood, the energy crisis will not be solved in one year. But at least there is a chance there could be some serious financial backing to working for a solution

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Messy Ethics

Category: , By Christian
Man, I wish it was easier to do the right thing.

I often rail on the oil industry. It's a mafia. No joke. Not only that, but oil consumption is killing the US economy as well as the environment. Because of this, I've been a big proponent of alternate fuel sources. The most plausable has seemed to be ethanol because it would be good for farming communities and would also be something that we could deal with in-house.

However, I just read the other day that increased interest in ethanol has increased corn prices, and now poor families in Mexico are having a harder time affording one of their most depended upon food sources.

Now, one of two things is happening here. Either it was propaganda put out by the oil companies, or I have a new ethical quandry. Both of those are viable options in my mind.

And that is an example of why it is difficult to be the good guy. Because it turns into a contest to see who we can hurt the least, which still results in hurting people.

We just need to try harder and be more creative, I guess.

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