The Oregon Trail Part III: Sea otters and Sustainable Fisheries

Day two, we wake up in Cambria tired from sleep deprivation and a long day of driving. We are also excited about the day ahead of us, and glowing about the day behind. The main attraction today is the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which we have been told is The Aquarium by which all others are measured. It is an impressive measuring stick.

As we drove up the coast, through foot hills along cliffs and over bridges, I was listening to back episodes of Good Food, a favorite radio show of Courtney and I. In one episode, Mark Bittman (author of "How to Cook Everything" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian") came on to discuss sustainable seafood, and mentioned the Monterey Bay Aquarium, specifically the fact that they offer a simple pocket guide to sustainable seafood. So of course, we picked a few up.

Of course, the 'simple guide,' as Bittman points out, glosses over some issues and provides some information that seems useful, but is impossible to apply at the market. So, I thought I would recap a little and provide some links.

Here is the issue in a nutshell: for most of human history the ocean has provided much more fish than we can possibly catch and consume. But recently, and I mean very recently, we have started catching and consuming much more fish than the ocean can provide. And really, that is impressive. Fish farming is sometimes a good alternative, but in some cases it is much, much worse. Farmed salmon, for example, requires feeding tons and tons of wild caught fish, and their waste flows directly into coastal waters (the 'farms' are pins in the ocean) contaminating the areas where they are grown. Meanwhile, wild salmon fishing in the pacific is sustainable (even if the way the fish gets to market is not), so farmed salmon is essentially a useless practice.

Clams, oysters and mussels, on the other hand, are best when farmed. And just to highlight the confusion, sustainability of fisheries is only one small part of the seafood minefield. The next biggest mine is mercury. If you haven't heard, it's in almost everything that we take out of the sea. And the crazy part is we put it (the mercury) there.

Our experience at the aquarium was awesome, especially the otter exhibit (did you know that otters eat floating on their backs, and use their chest as a table? neither did I). Sea horses and jelly fish are also amazing, but I don't have enough room to talk about them here. In short, the Monterey Bay Aquarium was a great experience, and very educational. I highly recommend it to anyone who is going through the area, and also highly recommend making one of the scheduled otter feedings.

The Oregon Trail, Part II: A new beginning

It is Monday, August 31st, 2009. Courtney and I planned to leave at 6am, but after breakfast, some last minute packing, and about 20 minutes of me rigging the bikes onto the 'Hollywood' trunk mounting rack, we end up leaving about an hour and a half behind schedule. As locals know, there was a huge fire in the valley, and as we crested the hills on the 405, headed for the 101 north, we saw an orange and gray wasteland. As we took the interchange onto the 101, with the huge plumes of smoke behind us, I thought it was strangely fitting. Driving away from a wildfire and leaving Los Angeles were literally one and the same.

The first stop was Santa Barbara, a quick coffee pit stop, a visit to the courthouse, and back on the road. The courthouse is a historic site, and it is beautiful. From the observation deck of the tower, the tallest building in town, we looked out across the entire region, and for the first time it really sank in that this was going to be an amazing trip.

The main attraction that day: the Hearst Castle. Basically, if you haven't been there, it's Xanadu. Hearst had two pools, one indoor and one outdoor, several guest houses that were ornately decorated and furnished, and a main house that was designed to look like a church.



As we were guided around the grounds, I was blown away by the opulence. But much more than that, I felt a kinship with the owner. I understood, or at least sympathized with the desire to create a perfect place, a paradise on earth.


The place was absurdly large for just a single family and (albeit many) guests. And yet, from the point of view of sustainability, it was more efficient when working than many middle class single family dwellings today. The owners and designers had no care, not one thought about sustainability, but the technology of the day demanded that things be done a certain way. No central air meant that everything had to be naturally ventilated, no running water meant that pressure was provided by gravity, and supply to the house was balanced against irrigation to the operating ranch run by the Hearst family.

Not to say that it was a beacon of sustainability, it was absolutely not, it is just amazing how unsustainable our lives have become in such a short period. Today the average working class house hold consumes more energy and probably wastes more water per person than the Hearst Castle, which was the symbol of opulence at its prime, when Charlie Chaplan played tennis there with Bill Tilden.

We finished the day in Cambria, an exquisitely charming little town with three shops offering local wine tastings and not one fast food chain. The hotel had a barbecue available for guests, and we bought fixings for dinner at the local grocery store, the Cookie Crock Market, where they made their own sausage (delicious), and potato salad (possibly more delicious). Like a movie script, when we asked about the 'Cambria sausage' that they were selling, and if it was any good, the man the behind the counter said "Yeah it's good, I should know, I made it."

We took our bikes off the rack (only 15 minutes this time) and rode along a semi well kept trail to the coast. It was the first of many times on this trip that we walked out to the edge of the ocean and were greeted with a beautiful view.

The Oregon Trail: Part I

So what's green about driving two cars, packed to the roof with random stuff, one with two bikes strapped to the trunk, from Los Angeles to Eugene OR? Nothing! But sometimes you get stuck.

As much as I would like to pretend that I live a perfectly sustainable life, the reality is that we were not about to abandon our cars. We tried to sell my wife's Honda Prelude, but in Los Angeles the car you drive is a statement about your self worth, and no one wants an old car with some body damage (even though the engine has another 100k in it).

So, upshot: we took a 5 days to drive up the California coast, through the redwoods, and through southern Oregon, and it was a beautiful experience. Watching the climate change from the chaparral of southern California to the forests of the pacific north west was a unique experience, and the vistas along the coast were unbelievable.


The long hours of driving also gave me a lot time to meditate on some things that have been kicking around in my head recently, and I have decided to try and distill them into a few blog posts, one for each day, loosely paralleling our journey up the coast. Also, it will be the first five posts of a new plan: post at least one entry to the blog every day for the rest of September.

I realize that this is a new blog, and most new blogs fail very quickly, so now that most of my excuses are in the past (the move, a weird schedule, etc), I am going do dive into the deep end and get this ball rolling. If those metaphors mix.

So, a post a day, every day this month, starting with a new post today: The Oregon Trail Part II.

Used = Green

My wife and I stumbled upon an amazing fact up in Oregon: It is saturated with beautiful antique quality furniture. When we moved up at the beginning of the summer, we didn't want to bring all of our old baggage with us. We got rid of as much as we possibly could, including most of our furniture.

In looking for new furniture, we found that what worked in LA did not necessarily work in Eugene. Craigslist had some decent stuff, but it was pretty bleak compared to SoCal. Then we wandered into a St. Vincent de Paul, which I didn't know was a thing before we moved. We were both amazed, the thrift stores in Eugene are all packed with beautiful furniture. Stuff that would go for thousands of dollars in vintage shops on Melrose Blvd. was more like $100 bucks there.

Then, because Craigslist had to redeem itself, we came across a promising post. I believe all it said was "modern sofa," or something to that effect, and when my wife called, he said he had "s0me more modern stuff." When we arrived, there was a garage full of mid century modern furniture which this guy had culled from all over the Pacific North West. He also knew everything about modern design, and knew the designer of most of the pieces that he was offering. We furnished most of our living room out of his garage. Here are a few of the pieces that we got:

Dining set by Paul McCobb

Sofa by Umanoff, end table by Keal

Don't know designer, if you have any ideas please post in comments

I would be lying if I said that I was thinking about this at the time, but in retrospect this is the most sustainable way we could have furnished our new place, and it is also an excellent example of how you can save money being green. In the past, I have furnished apartments with a bunch of nice looking but really low quality cookie cutter furniture from Ikea and Target, and most of it eventually ended up in the trash.

Cheap furniture is really disposable furniture. When particle board warps, chips, cracks or breaks, it cannot really be repaired, and once it starts down that path it is not long before it ends its life in the landfill. It is usually designed to be put together only once, as well. Pre-drilled holes in the particle board and cam locks made of weak metal ensure that if you disassemble your Ikea desk, it will lose most of its structural integrity when you put it back together.

In the long run, cheap furniture ends up costing you more money, because you have to replace it more frequently. But unless you are paying more in taxes than I make in a year, antique quality furniture is way too expensive, and there isn't really much of an in between.

One great way to get around this dilemma is to buy used furniture. You can tell if it is well made pretty easily: if it is still solid after years of use it will probably be good for many more. Also, solid wood is really easy to repair. With a very small investment in wood glue, a few clamps, and maybe a power drill, you can keep solid wood pieces alive for decades.

Buying used stuff is more sustainable in two ways: first it reduces demand for more new stuff, which means that there is less energy being consumed to produce that new stuff, and second it keeps old stuff out of the waste stream. But more than being green, when you buy used you can afford to get better quality stuff; beautiful, well designed stuff that you will love. And if you love it, you will take care of it: fix it when it breaks and find a good h0me for it when it no longer fits in your life.

Different cities have different channels for finding good used stuff. The thrift stores in Eugene, for example, are a great resource, where in LA they have been completely picked over by people who buy the good stuff, fix it up, and sell it for 10 times as much out of little boutique shops. But, in Los Angeles, the stuff available on Craigslist and at yard sales can be amazing. One way or another, people are always changing their surroundings, and high quality used furniture is available for those who seek it.

Vinegar, Salt & Baking Soda: green cleaning

A big part of the green movement is about keeping the spaces in which we live and work healthy. One way to do this is to avoid buying products with toxic chemicals.

Most people these days have forgotten what our grandparents or great grandparents knew: most things can be cleaned and disinfected using distilled white vinegar, ordinary table salt, baking soda, or some combination of those things.

Vinegar kills bacteria and breaks up some stains and messes due to its acidity. Lemon juice works the same way. Either of these can be used to disinfect countertops or (with a little oil) to polish wood. Vinegar may smell a little harsh at first, but when it evaporates, there is no odor left. More here. Way more than you can possibly use in one lifetime here.

Salt kills bacteria by drawing all its water out, and this is why food has been preserved in salt for thousands of years. Also, the course grains can be used to scrub tough stains (such as pots and pans), especially with a little vinegar or other slightly acidic substance. More here.

Baking soda draws grease stains out of anything, and many commercial cleaning products have baking soda at their base. It can also be used (with vinegar) to break up simple clogs in kitchen and bathroom sinks. But, it is not very effective on really bad clogs. More here.

You can buy these items in bulk for practically nothing, and reduce your waste stream by replacing all of those small bottles of specialty cleaners. Imagine replacing all that junk under your sink with just a bag of salt, a box of Soda and a 5 gallon jug of vinegar. And instead of being toxic, all of these are things you can put in your food. You can literally eat a teaspoon of it with no negative impact to your health (I wouldn't do it though, it would probably be unpleasant).

I will be posting stories of successes and failures cleaning with these things in the future. Though probably not many failures: I have found very few messes that could not be cleaned using these three products.

Food: greens and beans, part 1

I intend to post a lot about cooking on this blog, because I love to cook. It is extremely pertinent to a discussion about going green too, because large scale food production is responsible for more green house gas emissions than all of the cars on the road. By a lot. So for anyone who has never heard the link between going green and food, here is a brief overview.

What does food have to do with being green? Well, a lot. For one thing, cows produce methane, which is a green house gas. All animals produce methane actually (including us), but cows produce more than most. Also, because we eat so very much beef in this country, we have developed a lot of unsustainable practices to get that much beef to market. For an intro, see Farmer in Chief by Michael Pollan, an open letter to the new president about food production in this country.

Now I am not one of those conspiracy theorists who think that big business and big brother are evil, I recognize that today's problems all stem from the solutions to yesterday's problems. We have intensive, unsustainable agriculture right now because previous generations were trying to solve the problems of food shortages and hunger. But the fact is that now, we face new problems and need new solutions.

So what can we do? Well, lets start from the easiest and work our way up to the hardest adjustments that we can make to do our part.

For one, we can eat chicken instead of beef every so often. Without getting too technical on you, chicken is the most environmentally friendly meat. Next, in the same vein, we can eat vegetarian once in a while. If you like Indian food, this should be a snap. In India, they have been working on their vegetarian recipes for about two thousand years, and they've gotten pretty good at it.

Third, we can try eating vegan a few times. This is harder, because for people who are used to eating animal products with every meal (even most veggie meals have butter, cheese or milk), most vegan food tastes like cardboard. But try different places, different recipes, and well really just keep trying! And also, don't try so hard. Pasta with olive oil and spices, tossed with some grilled or fried vegetables and a little sea salt is a quick, easy, and delicious vegan dish, for example (I love sea salt, maybe it deserves its own post...).

You've probably heard this a thousand times in some form, but if everybody would do these three basic things on a regular basis, it would have a huge impact. There are a few more difficult/ intensive things that we can do as well, but I will post that stuff later, in part 2.

MPG = N/A

I am sure you have heard people talk about biking and how great it is for the environment before, and most of you have likely thought, for some reason or another, that it would never work for you. I went through a similar process, living in Los Angeles, and I have to say, I was surprised at how easy it was.

When I started biking, I had a 7 mile commute, and I had my doubts that it would be possible. I was out of shape, having worked a desk job for about a year and half prior, and I had no idea how long it would take to bike seven miles, how fast I could expect to go, and whether or not I would be able to breath when I got to work. In short, I had drastically underestimated how easy it is to ride a bike.

Pretty much the first day I got on the bike I was averaging 10 miles per hour, and that is including traffic lights. The first week, after no working out for almost two years, I was a little winded after 7 miles, but the slight adrenaline rush and extra energy of a morning work out made up for it. It wasn't until a month of biking to work every day that I realized, driving in the city had slowly and quietly been ruining my life.

Everyone complains about driving in Los Angeles, and they are all right. It is stressful, and as most doctors will tell you, stress can lead to all sorts of health problems. Also, when you drive everywhere in Los Angeles, everywhere you go you arrive in a really bad mood. Biking, on the other hand, is really fun! Every time I get on a bike, for the first few minutes I feel like I am 15 again (only without all the social awkwardness, insecurity and acne).

On the green front, the only way to be more green than riding a bike is walking, and that is truly not a viable option for most people. More people biking, even part of the time, is a trifecta for LA: reduce emissions and improve air quality, reduce congestion on the roads, and improve your health both mentally and physically.

Los Angeles, despite what you may have heard, is a great city for biking, especially if you commute during rush hour. You might be surprised how easy a 10, or even 15 mile commute can be, and at the peak of rush hour, you might get to your destination faster on a bike than you ever could in a car. If you live in LA, I would get down to Orange 20 Bikes right away, and find out what it would take to commute by bike. While you're there, get lunch at Pure Luck (who knew vegan food could so, so, so, SO delicious), and then check out Scoops (not really green, but mmmmm).

DISCLAIMER: My wife and I used to live around the corner from Orange 20, and I just need to pay back that awesome little community for the many good meals and deals they have given us over the years we lived there.

Ironically, since deciding to become a green consultant, I have found it increasing difficult to avoid driving. My schedule is totally up in the air, and sometimes I need to get across town on short notice in the middle of the day. In that situation, riding is not really an option. For that reason, I have come up with the crazy plan of building an electric motorcycle (or more realistically converting an old motorcycle to electric), but that is the subject of another post.

The Maker Movement - why it is green and why I love it

I don't know if the people who started the Maker Movement intended it to be a green movement, but whether intended or not, it has the potential to do all kinds of green good.

The fact of the matter is that we Americans buy too much junk. And I am not preaching at you here, I am not telling you that you personally are responsible for the over consumption problem, I am saying that too much of the stuff we buy ends up being junk.

So many of the products that we buy are poorly designed, or worse, designed to break. Whats more, when they break, you find that they are impossible to open up and repair. In fact, if you do open one up, your warranty instantly expires, and FBI agents break down your door and cart you off to be prosecuted for theft of intellectual property. Sort of.

Manufacturers have gotten used to the idea that they are selling you a closed system, and if anything ever goes wrong your only options are taking it back to the manufacturer or throwing it out to buy a new one. Planned obsolescence and designing for short product life span ensure that you will need to purchase a replacement widget soon, and the old widget will be useless for any purpose other than filling land.

So what can we possibly do in the face of such an entrenched system? Is there no way out? Well the people at Make Magazine may not have all the answers, but they have a great philosophy for getting more out of your junk, and evaluating whether or not your next purchase is going to be junk.

Make is a Magazine about how to be a modern day tinkerer, how to get more out of those widgets we buy with our hard earned money, and how to turn our landfill fodder into a fun Sunday project. With the purchase of a few basic tools (that should last you the rest of your life), we can conquer our waste stream, open up those busted products to repair them, re purpose them, or possibly even improve them.

Endowing garbage with new value, reusing and re purposing things instead of buying new junk, that is as green as it gets. Also, it's FUN! What former boyscout, amateur engineer, or generally interested person doesn't LOVE the idea of cracking stuff open and messing with the functional parts?

On the purchasing new stuff side, Mr. Jalopy (yes, like an old car) has penned the Maker's Bill of Rights, a simple list of how a product should be presented. In a forum at the UCLA book fair this past spring, he asked the audience: if you can't open something up and tinker with it, do you really own it? Or are you just renting it from the manufacturer? With that in mind, the Maker's bill of rights provides a simple list of rules for products that a Maker will approve of. Some of them are neat little memorable sayings that hold an entire philosophy in a few words, such as the most quotable: "screws are better than glues."

I think that embracing the Maker's philosophy can improve the relationship that people have with their stuff and at the same time reduce unnecessary waste and consumption. I dare say, if more people took the initiative to understand how things work and how to work with them, the positive repercussions could be limitless.

Here we go...

Well, here we go. I have been planning on starting a blog for quite some time now, basically since I decided to start studying for the LEED exam and made the decision to become a green consultant.

My purpose here is to document all of the ways in my life that I am trying to go green. Sure, there are plenty of sources online to find similar information (treehugger.com, the Green Guide, etc.), but I figured that since I spend pretty much all of my time thinking about this stuff, it couldn't hurt to have one more person's spin on the situation.

With that in mind, I set out to create a space for a discussion about going green, why it is important, how we can do it in our day to day lives, and provide many (I hope) colorful anecdotes about how I am trying to go green, and when I fail, why.

I hope some folks out there finds this humble little blog useful and informative, and I thank you for spending your valuable time with me.

P.S. - Since this is my first blog, I would greatly appreciate any feedback. I am a novice in this world, and need all the help I can get.